American n Geacher - Democracy tn Education; Education for Democracy. ve II No. 2 NEW YORK, FEBRUARY, 1913 50 Cents A YEAR L Aen — ~O , 1 @ The Quick and the Dead While we are in the midst of the old order of things educational, matters of machinery seem of vast importance. We live for punctuality, official approval and the percentage conception of results. Our lives are filled with little guesses at what are the proper ways to teach, the proper plan of working toward promotion and the proper people to see to get it. In the coming time of educational rebirth we shall keep our machinery out of sight. We shall live for the purpose of education, and know what that purpose is. A life inspired and vitalized by the ideal of serving mankind will find its greatest satisfaction in the promotion of the common good. WHY DON’T YOU DO ITP* Wa. McANDREW Principal, Washington Irving High School, New York Gop sAveE us from a_ white-livered chicken-hearted schoolman who is al- ways telling why he doesn’t make im- provements, always putting the blame upon a tyrannical or unsympathetic superintendent, principal or board of education. What do you want—mother dear to lift you on the bicycie and hold you on while she pushes you around the yard? Why shouldn’t you have to make your progress in the face of official in- difference, criticism or worse? It has been the lot of every progressive in every cause, since the morning of the world. Disapproval is good for you. It’s like a cold bath or a smart slap—starts the circulation. If you had no obstacles to push against, you’d fall over. You want Cpposition, you want criticism, you want abuse—it educates you, makes you care- ful to examine a project before you launch it, reduces the number of fail- ures because you take pains to fortify your advance before you begin it. When you cease to care what people say about you, the psychopathic ward wants you. No one I ever heard of who accom- plished anything worth while was obliv- ious of criticism. It chastens one for better efforts. It’s the man who quits the minute he hears a sneer that falls down and never gets anywhere. Your real philosopher knows how utterly im- possible it is to satisfy everyone. There are certain sputterings he wants to hear *(From addres to the Massachusetts Teachers’ Association.) tc be sure that his machine is making the proper speed thru the water. “I fear I’m losin’ me husband’s af- fections,” whimpers Mrs. Moriarity. “Why so?” “He hasn’t bate me these two weeks.” Whenever you undertake any reform worth while, listen for the clatter under- neath, alongside, overhead. If you don't hear it, speed up until you do. Nothing is worth while unless it brings opposition. But in Conscience’s name don’t whine about it. Criticism, opposition, is what you want, not what you want to com- plain about. It is the music of advance, the tonic of exercise, the music of prog- ress. What does the Good Book say, “Be sad and sorrowful when high and mighty ones revile you?” Not in ten thousand years; it says, “Rejoice and be exceed- ing glad,” for you are getting the raps and pass words for admission to the glorious company of the men who did, the up-standers, the pioneers, the worth- whilers, the red-blood boys, the Johnnies- on-the-spot, the succeeders, the winners, the makers and the doers. Go out and look for trouble; it is as necessary for your future as sand in the crop of a chanticleer. Don’t side-step when you see it coming. Greet it lov- ingly as a bride, and all the time keep on your smile. Never let them hear you whine or see you wince. Enjoy your enemies. Be big enough to keep so cheerful under fire that when the battle’s over you will have no trouble making friends with all your foes. AN EXPERIMENT IN ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION * GEORGE M. ForBES President Board of Education, Rochester, N. Y. (Continued from January) The experience with girls was pre- cisely the same as with boys, and shows that industrial schools cannot be used, except in rare cases, to transform the dull and persistently backward boy or girl into skilled industrial workers. Sus- cess presupposes the securing of an all- round mentality fully up to the normal average, and selection of pupils is now made according to this standard. But when this is achieved a more seri- ous problem remains. For example, when a certain number of boys, gradu- ates in good standing of the elementary school have been selected, what assur- ance have we that they are fitted for in- dustrial life? The decision to enter the school may be based upon the most ir- relevant motives on the part of both par- ents and pupils. Even if these pupils are studied carefully from their earliest school. years with a view to discovering their inborn dispositions, instincts and aptitudes, they may still be too immature in most cases to reveal their deepest and most permanent interests, those which are of real value for vocational guidance ; and even when we become satisfied that industry is the field in which they can serve the most happily and efficiently, experience shows that the problem of the particular industry is a most important and a most difficult one. The experience of F. Albert Marshall, a pupil in the State Trades School at Bridgeport, Conn., illustrates the latter problem. *Read before the National Society for the Promc tion of Industrial Education, Philadel- phia, December 6th, 1912. When he entered the School he was very sure he wanted to be a machinist. That department being crowded, he was per- suaded to spend two months in the Printing Department, and then was transferred to the Machine Department. This accidental circumstance determined his future. A tryout of two months in the Machine Department convinced him that he liked printing better, and he was allowed to return to that department. Recently a contest in the designing of title pages, open to printers’ apprentices, was held by the Jnland Printer, a maga- zine of the very highest standards. There were 75 contestants and 107 de- signs were submitted; twenty-two states and several foreign countries were rep- resented in the contest, and yet Marshall won first place over all. Now, without the tryout that Marshall accidentally se- cured, is there any good reason to sup- pose that his deepest interest would have been tapped or his extraordinary talent developed? This is an extreme case of instances so constantly occurring in the school that it has crystallized into a defin- ite plan of administrative action so as to insure a tryout for each boy in each of the industries now offered in the school, with a view to a selection which will ensure the most permanent interest and efficiency. The trying out of the more general question whether the boys admitted are or are not misfits in the industrial field as a whole, involves a still larger and more difficult problem, indeed one of the most imperative and difficult problems of modern education. We may put it THE AMERICAN TEACHER this way: First, heredity fixes absolutely beyond alteration the individual apti- tudes, instincts, dispositions and capa- cities upon which the greatest success and efficiency of any individual depends. Second, these hereditary powers will not develop except as they are aroused and enlisted by the appropriate stimulus in each case. If not so stimulated, they will atrophy and perish from disuse. Third, they can only be appropriately stimulated as they are known either by the individual himself or by those who undertake to guide him. Fourth, those interests and instincts which are deepest, and most permanent, and so most sig- nificant, are not reached in most cases by the superficial stimuli of casual youthful experience. They come to light and to life only thru a certain intimate and vital contact with the activities which are capable of making the decisive appeal and the decisive revelation of the soul to itself and to those who are directing its development. The fifth and final link in this chain of dependent factors is the necessity of bringing the plastic indivi- dual into this more intimate and vital contact with varied stimuli at that adoles- cent period when the deepest interests are ripening and may be most effectually reached and aroused. The links of this chain then are: Fixed hereditary apti- tude, appropriate stimulus, knowledge of stimulus by trial, and finally variety of stimuli essential to securing this knowl- edge. is means that for the adolescent period there should be no fixed and changeless course of study, but rather the greatest mobility; it means that change of course for many pupils during this period is not necessarily waste, but may be the only path to success, and that the education of the whole period is properly tentative, and experimental, with a view to finding the most effective powers thru the most fitting activity. It means also that two or more acti- vities may go on simultaneously and thus shorten the period of tryout and hasten the final decision with its corre- sponding concentration of activity to the essentials of a permanent vocation. All secondary schools, including in- dustrial schools, must provide in their organization for trying out their pupils and helping them to find themselves and their true vocation. This problem is complicated with an- other which recent inquiry has presented in a startling way. It refers to the dis. posal of the human product and bids fair to give much greater difficulty than the disposal of the material product referred to above. About the end of the first year and a half an inquiry was made as to what became of *the boys who left the school and the result was gratifying, and seemed to conform to the expected re- sults. The few boys who had gone out were mostly in positions where their training increased their efficiency, their wages were higher than those of un- trained boys of the same age and the em- ployers wrote strong letters endorsing the work of the school, and assuring us that boys so trained would regularly com- mand better wages from the start and advance much faster. Now, however, after four years of experience and after having sent out a considerable number of full-course and partial-course students, inquiry shows very disturbing results. The whole num- ber of boys who have left the school and whose present employment has been in- vestigated is 83. Of these but 14 are actually engaged in the industries for which they were trained in the school. Of the 83 twenty-four are graduates of the full two-year course. Of these 24 but 10 are now engaged in the industries for which they were trained, and yet 14 of the 24 were 15 years old or more when they entered the school, making their age at graduation at least 17. What has become of the boys who are appar- ently making no use of their training? Eleven of them have entered other schools, mot industrial. Eight of these entered other schools after what might be regarded as a tryout period of from two to six months. Of the remaining three who entered other schools two were full graduates and one had been in the shop school one and a half years. All three did good work in the shop school. The remainder are in varied po- THE AMERICAN TEACHER 21 sitions. Twelve were found to be with- out work or had dropped into the trivial employments from which the school was to deliver them. One after graduation with credit from the full two-years’ course in cabinet making went into the navy as a gunner. Another after nearly two years in cabinet making went into a chemical company. From a year and a half in plumbing one went into carpentry. Another from a year in carpentry went irto a position in a clothing factory. A year and a half of good work in elec- tricity prepared another: for tinsmithing, and so on with all sorts of combinations. It is significant that six, after training in one of the branches of industry of- fered in the school, secured positions in some other branch also given in the school, but without having received training in that branch. This record shows how far the actual disposal of the human output is from the theory with which the school was F started; how serious is our failure thus far to secure a proper correlation of the training of the school with the indus- tries of the city. What now is the ex- planation of this failure? A certain per- centage is due, no doubt, to the happy- go-lucky attitude of the American parent and the American boy toward a vocation. In a multitude of cases the whole mat- ter is left to the hazard of chance. This, however, would not account for many cases where the course of training had been deliberately chosen and faithfully pursued for a considerable time, for it means the apparent throwing away of the advantage of the skill and experience acquired with so much time and labor. Another portion of the failure is due to the lack of an adequate tryout in various directions as indicated above; but allow- ing for these, inquiry discloses the fact that probably the largest portion is due to the reluctance of employers to re- ceive even trained boys into responsible positions until they are at least eighteen years of age. Their skilled employes, they say, must be responsible for the use of costly machines and costly material, and they must have the seriousness of the man to meet this responsibility in a way to be profitable. Here again the original theory does not work out satis- factorily. It had been assumed that boys of 16 with preliminary training would readily be received into industry. Ex- perience throws grave doubt upon this, and suggests that we may be compelled to revise our estimate of the time during which industrial education must be car- ried on wholly under public auspices and at public expense. In view of these facts a greatly re- vised plan of organization and adminis- tration of the industrial schools is now in preparation, which it is hoped will meet the problems outlined above, which experience itself has forced into con- sideration. It is obvious that such a plan must provide for a tryout of the pupil’s permanent aptitude and interest in the industrial field as a whole, as against the other great vocational divisions of com- merce and the professions, and it must also provide for a tryout of his aptitude for special branches of industry within the industrial field. It must also pro- vide continuous training until the boy can be admitted to industry even if that admission is postponed to the eighteenth ear. Indeed, the longer period would elp the solution of some pressing prob- lems. It would make it possible to take two years for the more thoro testing and sifting:process outlined above; while the last two could be given to the more con- centrated work of those who had found themselves and their more permanent in- terest. In the second place it would per- mit the recognition of a powerful social factor which experience shows must be reckoned with. This factor is the influ- ence of the ideals and ambitions of par- ents which often take no account of the real aptitude and capacity of the pupil. The curriculum of the first two years could be broadened, and the school giver the full status of an industrial high school. Nothing else will satisfy this parental ambition, and accumulating ex- perience seems decisive of the fact that nothing else will overcome the persistent prejudice which prevents many froin profiting by the industrial schools. One of the most significant evidences of this influence is the fact that notwithstanding greatly improved buildings and equip- 22 ment for the boys’ school, and notwith- standing a temporary increase on the opening of the new building, the attend- ance has now fallen back to the stand- ard of two years ago. The conclusion is this: A type of in- dustrial education has been developed which amalgamates school and shop in an effective way for pupils from 14 to 16 and the principles of such amalgama- tion, as herein outlined, seem permanent. They show how an effective instrument can be created; but these principles ob- viously do not and cannot show how this admirable instrument can be adequately THE AMERICAN TEACHER correlated either with the human need or the industrial need for which it was created, and increasing experience is showing that this correlation is now in- adequate. Hence the suggestions as t» the direction in which better correlation will be attempted. Success or failure in these directions can only be recorded after experience. On the whole we may say that we have taken some steps out- lined above of which we are sure and which constitutes sure progress toward a remedy, but to find the complete rem- edy, i.¢., the ideal, and wholly adequate organization, we have still far to go. SUPERVISION IN THE LONG-WAITED Hanus report upon school conditions in New York is begin- ning to be issued in installments, as we go to press. The second section, devoted to the organization of the supervision of the schools, was prepared by Profes- sor Edward C. Elliott, of the University of Wisconsin, and is full of suggestive observations. The facts upon which the conclusions are based are included in the appendix. Only some of the general conclusions can be here given at this time. In regard to supervision in general the summary says: 1. The number of supervisors (principals, etc.) provided for the elementary schools is entirely ade- quate for effective supervision. 2. The salary schedules are such as to attract men and women of competence. 3. The tendency is to appoint men and women whose education, training and experience have been too exclusively within the city. 4. The position of the principal is primarily administrative rather than supervisory. 5. The system of rating the ef- ficiency of principals is not such as to distinguish the competent from the incompetent. Regarding the district superintendents, the following conclusions are given: 1. While the general theory of the plan of the district superinten- NEW YORK CITY dent in the supervisory organization is a sound one, this theory is not as to its essential elements carried out in practice. 2. The supervisory districts are too large to permit the district superintendents properly to fulfill their responsibilities as supervisors. Many of these should be transferred to the principals of schools. 3. The existing method of select- ing district superintendents too nar- rowly confines choice to those whose education, training and experience has been entirely within the city. 4. The absence of a definite and high standard of qualification for selection and retention of district superintendents has limited the supervisory usefulness of these offi- cers. 5. The reiation between _ the Board of Superintendents and the District Superintendents is such as to restrict unnecessarily the free- dom, initiative and responsibility of the latter, with respect to matters of fundamental educational import- ance. Provision should be made for the larger participation of the dis- trict superintendents in the making of educational policies. Much comment has been aroused by the preliminary announcement that the report would recommend the abolition of the Board of Associate Superintendents. THE AMERICAN TEACHER 23 Upon this subject the report gives these conclusions : 1. The attitude of the City Su- perintendent and the associate su- perintendents, acting either in an individual official capacity, or col- lectively as the Board of Superin- tendents, toward the members of the teaching and supervisory staff has discouraged competent criticism of the methods and effectiveness of the school system, and has prevented the development of a necessary spirit of co-operation within the school organization. 2. The accomplishment of the administrative consolidation of the public school system since 1898 has been due to the constitution of the office of the City Superintendent and to the skill and leadership of the present City Superintendent. 3. The present machinery of control represented by the “a Su- perintendent, the Board of Super- intendents and the associate super- intendents is too complicated for effective administration and too bureaucratic for effective supervi- sion. 4. A larger concentration of au- thority over matters of routine and administrative character in the City Superintendent, and a _ reorganiza- tion of the supervisory control so as to provide for a wider, respon- sible participation of the members of the teaching and supervisory staff in the making and oversight of educational policies are necessary. The part that will no doubt be of greatest interest to teachers at large is the one referring to the teachers and to their share in the administration of a school system. A Supervisory Coun- cil is recommended, to consist of the city superintendent, district superinten- dents, principals, directors and teachers. More particulars about this will be given later. The general conclusions as to teachers are as follows: 1. The determination of the fit- ness or unfitness of teachers for continuance and promotion in the school system represents the chief task of the supervisory staff and the best test of its service to the schools. 2. The certainty with which the initial probationary license is re- newed to permanency may be largely accounted for by formality that characterizes the inspections and reports upon service. 3. The approval of service as “fit and meritorious” does not depend upon thoro and impersonal inspec- tions necessary for obtaining any true measure of a teacher’s eff- ciency. 4. The means and methods for the regular annual and semi-annual ratings of teachers and _princi- pals are not such as to produce re- sults commensurate with the labor involved or calculated to raise the level of teaching performance with- in the schools. 5. The principle of “superior merit” for teachers in high schools introduced by the salary legislation oi 1911 is a valid one, capable of serviceable extention to the teachers in elementary schools. “JUST THOSE THINGS that are drudgery in the school-room become play on Saturday. Take the most fascinating sport in which boys in- dulge, cave-digging; how long do you think their enjoyment of it would last if it were introduced into the school curriculum? You would soon experi- ence the absurdity of listening to wearisome platitudes from method- loving pedagogues on the art of awak- ening interest in the construction of caves. It would all be reduced to rules —the method of the recitation—with prolegomena on the preparation of the children for their lesson, and an ex- tended argument to prove that it must not be expected that boys will find pleasure in the work, but some painful drudgery is necessary by way of prepa- ration for the agonies of life.”—E d- gar Jj. Swift, “Mind in the Making.” THE AMERICAN TEACHER CREDIMUS II “We believe that teachers owe it io themselves, as well as to the public, to study the relation of education to social frogress, and to understand some of the important. social and economic move- ments going on in the present-day world.”—From “Credimus,” in Decem- ber number. In December, 1912, there appeared in a magazine devoted to social and econ- omic reform a cartoon that bids fair to win fame far beyond the circula- tion of the periodical. The picture shows a bit of the shore of an American sea port. In the foreground are two little girls, children of the poor, one about ten and the other seven. Both have their arms filled with pieces of driftwood. The older child is say- ing to her younger sister, “Quit cher lerin’! Look what I gotta carry. Look what we all gotta carry!” When the good printer presented the writer with a copy of this famous car- toon, a remark that such a cartoon did an immense amount of good in arousing people to thinking about the condition of millions of our fellowmen brought from him the far-seeing reply that people do feel and understand at times, but long years of thinking and doing for one’s prevents the self or one’s class usuall j eveloping into generous impulse from action. Nevertheless, every year there are more human beings of various abilities who are giving their lives and the best thots of their brains to the problem of helping brother men. For a long time the method of helping was by giving, and the more there was given the more there was needed. Those who could give the most in time came to be accused of being the very cause of all the misery they had been trying to alleviate. The hearts of laboring men became hardened against the fortunate possessors of wealth, and class hatred developed. Great politi- cal parties of millions of men were or- ganized to advocate the abolition of wrongs believed to be caused by the un- equal distribution of wealth and by the selfish exploitation of human ‘bodies. Many are the evidences of an immense social and economic upheaval extending into all the nations of the earth, but in spite of the fact that teachers are affected by it, as a class or even as individuals, they give no clear sign of understanding the trouble in society or realizing the ex- tent of it. In fact they are scarcely in- terested at all in what te to people in some other town, except for the “news” or the sensation. This indiffer- ence gives proof to the general suppo- sition that education is frst and fore- most a source of bread and butter for the rank and file of teachers, and not a social mission at all. Since teachers are among the great number who exist but think feebly, let them listen to the words of a young woolen manufacturer who declared to his old grandfather who had built up the establishment in Lawrence, Mass., “Well, you know, grandfather, we were really to blame for all that miserable business.” Let teachers stop patting themselves on the back for their self-sacrifice until they realize in some measure how their unfortunate brothers live, and further, until they have done something to show how their own business of education can help in the solution of the problems of human misery. THE TEACHER permits herself to be exploited in the school for only one reason, unless she deliberately as- sumes the sacrifice from extra-econ- omic motives; and that is, the precari- ous situation outside the school room. Now, if we look to our schools to turn out courageous, self-reliant, aggressive personalities, we can hardly expect our children to get their inspiration from a class of beings who have even been charged with lacking back-bones. In other words, the primary task of the schools, from the point of view of our society as a whole, that of training citi- zens for self-government in a democ- racy founded on rebellion against tyr- anny and oppression, is relegated to a body of women largely selected by the method of the market-place and disci- plined by the dread of dismissal! .__Ohe American Weacher Democracy in Education ; Education for Democracy Published monthly, except July and August, by THE AMERICAN TEACHER 225 Fifth Ave., New York. GABRIEL R. MaSON,- - - - MarRK HorrMan, - - J. EB. MayMan, - - P» esident, Treasures. Business Manager. Henry R. LINVILLE, - Editor-in-Chief. BENJAMIN C. GRUENBERG, - Managing Editor. Address all manuscripts and other communica- tions to THE AMERICAN TEACHER, 225 Fifth Avenue, New York. Subscription price, 50 cents for the year. Copyright, 1913, by THE AMERICAN TEACHER. SS" Entered at the Post Office of New York as second-class matter. VoL. II. FEBRUARY, 1913. No. 2 This paper seeks to advance the status of the teacher to the dignity and the in- fluence of a profession, by advocating high standards of admission to the call- ing; by urging an extension of the op- portuntties for the participation of teach- ers in the durection of educational affairs ; and by supporting the organization of teachers for all legitimate professional purposes. VEGETATION OR AGITATION “EVERYTHING is nice and quiet down at our school. The principal is busy in the office, and doesn’t bother us, and the head of department has all he can do to look after the supplies.” “Yes, we see the principal at the afternoon teas and at teachers’ meetings, but as soon as he finishes giving orders at the meetings, he lets us out. He cer- tainly is good to us. Everything the Or says goes.” On the other hand, there is discontent and sullen and seemingly hopeless anger in some schools, because the principal is “always butting in.” “He appears to consider a teacher late if he arrives after 8 o’clock, and as slighting his plain duty, if he goes away before 3:30." “He yells at us, and tries to bully us as he bullies the big boys.” “Oh, yes, he gets away with it. What’s the use of kicking?” “Oh, I tell you, we are taking our share of pre-purgatory experience right down there in “High.” “Why don’t the parents kick, do you ask? That’s what they say, too, “‘What’s the use?’ ” The summing-up of all this educational jangling and jarring is that everybody is angry and nervous, but nobody has be- gun to do anything. The two types of school are doubtless familiar to many teachers. The teachers in the school of vegetation are glad they are there, and other teachers want to go there to work, or to mark time. And yet, the indications are abundant that the school of agitation is destined to be the scene of important constructive acts tending toward the development of a high professional spirit. If the method of evolution in civilization means any- thing in education, we may expect even the bullying principal to be the unwitting precursor of a strong movement in the school for better things. Trouble makes us think, altho sometimes at great cost. In the natural economy of human energy, there might appear to be no rea- son why the self-satisfied and the con- tented teacher should bother himself to think of all, and experience shows that he does not. He may feel sorry for the troubled teaching body of another school, but he feels no concern for his own fat or shriveling educational soul, lost tho it may be. Oh, the woe of those who sit in the sun of the benign but feudalistic smile of some educational Sir Roger! They enjoy their content, give loyalty and obedience, and vegetate. A similar situation has been met and practically past in the movement for the enfranchisement of women in America. For a long time the existence of a large number of women favorably placed so- cially and economically, appeared to be an almost insurmountably logical barrier to the attainment of the freeman’s privi- 26 THE lege for all women. The well-favored women said they didn’t need the vote and didn’t want it, but they forgot to consider the vital needs of their less for- tunate sisters. And so the issue is being decided on the basis of the need of the socially and economically oppressed, and the demonstrated educational value of the right to all women. The existence of a humane principal, or a dozen of them, in an educational system has no determining value on the ultimate outcome of a movement for establishing democratic official rela- tions between all persons engaged in education. The issue involves a great good to all people, and that is the line on which success for democracy in education will come. IN THE CONFLICTs between organized workers and their employers we have frequently heard it said by the latter that they do not intend to have their servants run their business for them. Without going into the merits of these conflicts, it may be pointed out that the demands of teachers for an opportunity to participate in the administration of school affairs rests upon a solid foundation. The pub- lic schools are strictly public business, and the public administers this business thru its own representatives, the school committee, or the board of education. This public agency employs experts to look after various details and to carry out the public policy; these experts are the superintendents, the principals, the teachers, etc. Now the public school system differs from the ordinary commercial enterprise in this, that it is operated not for a divi- dend, but for the benefit of the whole community, including the teachers as citizens. Again, the manufacturer or the merchant hires help of various kinds to assist him in carrying out his own pur- poses, in which his servants are not primarily interested; whereas the public hires its teachers and experts not to as- sist, but to do all of the work of carry- ing out its purpose, in which these ser- vants are primarily interested. Indeed, it may be said that without its educators society has no educational policy or pur- AMERICAN TEACHER pose, in any technical sense. The needs of education do, it is true, arise from the daily life of the members of the com- munity; but the best ways for meeting these needs should be found by those who come in daily contact with the children that are to be acted upon. It_is therefore absurd to detach in the school system the point of view of the public, as rep- resented by the handful of prominent business men (who are frequently enough not representative), from the point of view of the teacher, who come: into most intimate relations with the soul of the child and with the problems of the great system. Notwithstanding the great changes that our education has been compelled to undergo during the past half century, we still retain very largely the classical sub- ject matter. To a certain degree this is so because to “stand pat” is the cheapest, easiest thing to do. It costs no effort to retain the routine. But as the inadequac of our traditional education becomes dis- tressingly obvious to the most obtuse, we, turn to the “practical” subjects. And the leaders of society are frankly advo- cating commercial and industrial materiai as the most suitable for general educa- tion, because, forsooth, the mass of people must make a living thru some form of useful labor. Tue ILtrnors LEGISLATURE is to con- sider a bill framed by a committee of the State Federation of Labor, raising the compulsory school age from fourteen years to sixteen. This is intended as a preliminary to the establishment of voca- tional education. While more schooling is better than a little, it is not clear that the forcible retention of restless boys and girls at disagreeable tasks in school will produce desirable results commensv- rate with the cost in money and effort— effort of pupils and effort of teachers. The extension of the school life must he made to coincide with the adjust- ment of the school life to the nature of the children on the one hand and to the needs of the community on the other. THE AMERICAN TEACHER 27 A CALL TO ORGANIZE While THe AMERICAN TEACHER is in press the subjoined call is being prepare:| for the purpose of bringing together those teachers who think that something constructive can be done by teachers themselves. To THE TEACHERS oF New York City: Believing that the time has arrived for founding an organization of teachers on progressive lines, we, the undersigne’ teachers of the City of New York, 1ssue this call to teachers and other citizens to organize an association which shall have for its objects improved working conditions for teachers and better educa- tional results for children. On the ground that teachers do the every-day work of teaching, and under- stand the conditions necessary for bet- ter teaching, we propose the following principles for the new organization: Teachers should have a voice and a vote in the determination of edu- cational policies. Teachers may justly claim the right to seats in the Board of Edu- cation, for the reason that they only can bring first-hand information to the representatives of the people concerning the actual working of the educational system. The right to seats in the contro!- ling educational body should carry with it the right to vote, as an aid in rendering effective the informa- tion and the point of view brought by the chosen representatives of the teachers. The granting of legislative oppor- tunity to the teachers would inevit- ably contribute to the development of a strong professional spirit, and to the intelligent use of their ex- perience in the interest of the pub- lic. We advocate the adoption of a plan that will permit all the teachers to have a share in the administra- tion of the affairs of their own schools. In no more practical way could teachers prepare themselves for training children for citizenship in a democracy. We urge the scientific study of educational experience, to the end that the lessons of past successes and failures in education may be known to all. There is evidence that the public schools are being freed from the domination of party politics. Let the public and the professional in- terest in that direction continue un- til the more insidious form of per- sonal politics is eliminated, wher- ever it may be manifested in the appomtment of officers in the school system. Those conditions that affect each individual teacher in his position may be, and often are, serious enough to make him dissatisfied and unhappy, and hence unproductive, in his work. It is, therefore, neces- sary that public notice be taken of this matter. Among the most im- portant of these unfavorable con- ditions are, the size of schools, the size of classes, the unhygienic condi- tions of many schools, the excess of clerical labor, the salaries and rat- ings of teachers, and the lack of op- portunity for professional improve- ment during tenure of office. For many years there has been general dissatisfaction with the work of educational systems, with their narrowness and their lack of relation to the real needs of human life in the present social era. The future must grant to all who can help the opportunity for free dis- cussion and the benefit of enlight- ened criticism, for the purpose of insuring harmony and the progres- sive development of educational ideals. A general meeting will be held in Mil- bank Chapel, Teachers’ College, New York City, Friday, February 28, 1913, at 8:15 P.M. The speakers of the even- ing will be Prof. John Dewey, of Co- lumbia University; Mrs. Charlotte Per- kins Gilman, Editor of The Forerunner ; Dr. Edwin E. Slosson, Editor of The independent, and possibly Mr. Thomas W. Churchill, of the Board of Educa- 28 THE AMERICAN TEACHER tion, New York City, and Dr. Albert Shiels, District uperintendent of Schools, New York City. On the same occasion the organiza- tion of the association will be completed and the p.eparation for active, construc- tive work begun. It is not strange that the young people can not understand the adults about them, their motives, their interests, their sensitive spots. It is not strange that, as a result of their failure to understand, the youngsters look upon the grown-ups as enemies, just as their savage ances- tors looked upon all strangers as ene- mies. The young boys and girls can not understand because they have not had the experience to serve as a basis for understanding. But why do not the adults understand the youth? We have forgotten our early experiences, we have acquired new ways of looking at the world, new ways of reacting to the vari- ous stimuli that are hurled at us from moment to moment. It is only the per- son with exceptional sympathy and imag- ination, the person with an abnormally prolonged youth of his own that can un- derstand instinctively what goes on in the mind of the growing child—poets and dreamers and seers. For the rest of us, we shall die without understand- ing, or be compelled to resort to the stud- ies of experts, the dreams of the poets and the visions of the seers. If the teacher could understand the adolescent with an understanding of the emotions as well as of the intellect, half of her school problems would be solved. For most children are normal children, and are amenable to certain influences that are entirely at our command. Their rre- actions are for the most part unconscious and, when once understood, almost as completely under our control as the gathering of moths of a summer evening by means of a torch and molasses. The College of the City of New York is about to establish a Psychological Clinic to co-operate with the public schools. YOUR HEALTH WE TEACHERS are so confident of our- selves that we have even approached the insurance companies for the purpose of requiring them to issue policies at re- duced rates, considering ourselves “pre- ferred risks.” We are certain'y not as likely to meet with railroad accidents as brakemen and commercial travelers, but it is possible that our claim to pre- ference rests upon the custom of many dealers who allow teachers a special dis- count. The facts, in any case, are against us. Whatever available data there are point to the fact that our calling is ex- posed to a higher incidence of certain diseases than even those of the saloon- keeper and the stone-cutter. In a little book dedicated to the public school teachers of the United States, Professor Lewis M. Terman of Leland Stanford Jr. University* analyses the statistical and descriptive material deal- ing with the health of the teacher in a most helpful way. He is not afraid to say the worst, but is confident that the conditions are remediable, and points out the measures that are most likely to be helpful. It is quite certain, as Professor Suzzallo points out in the introduc tion, “That neither the profession nor the public has been sufficiently aware of the morbidity existing among teachers as a class,” and that there has been insuffi- cient attention to the protection of the teacher’s health of mind and body. Special studies made in this country and abroad have shown that notwith- standing the relatively rigid tests that exclude many weaklings from the call- ing, the morbidity among teachers is unusually high and that the superannua- tion is unusually early. Figures and studies from European countries are cited to show that the unfavorable con- ditions are common to the work, and are not confined to any locality. Thus Sweden presents an “alarming extent of teacher morbidity” which is traced by Stéenhoff to poor physical endowment, overstrain during professional prepara- *THE TEACHER’s HEALTH, a Study in the Hygiene of an Occupation. Pp. xiv + 137. The Riverside Educational Monographs. Houghton Mifflin Co. 60 cents prepaid. —Qomrerascaodsrtin5nrenaA na © SS eo ae oO THE AMERICAN TEACHER 29 tion, bad hygienic conditions of the schools, insufficiency of salary and the indifference of teachers to the require- ments of personal hygiene. This does not differentiate the teaching profession from many of the trades. One might have supposed upon a priori grounds that the last mentioned factor would at least be absent, because teachers are sup- posed to be “educated”; but we recall now that education has hitherto meant simply a speaking acquaintance with gen- teel traditions, and had nothing whatever to do with the art of good living. It is interesting to learn that the aver- age age for retirement on pension, among teachers of various countries, is between 49 and 53 years, a time of life when a physician or a lawyer is just beginn‘ng to do things. This and simi- lar facts help to elucidate the curious ob- servation that in Germany, from which country statistics happen to be available, between 42.5% and 53% of the other professional classes follow the callings of their parents, whereas only some 11% of the teachers do so. We learn also that while tuberculosis is more prevalent among teachers than among those of sev- eral “hazardous” trades, the age at which it is most prevalent is about fifteen years later than in the rest of the population, showing that we start out in better con- dition than the other workers, and we get the plague at the desk. It is, however, on the nervous and mental side that teachers suffer more from their work, and it is for the re- moval of the causes in this direction that we should persistently strive. The size of classes, the number of pupils with which a teacher must become familiar to do effective work and to do it com- fortably, the distraction of various ad- ditional duties, the need for supplement- ing income thru outside work, the ner- vous strain incident to the form of or- ganization or the character of the super- vision, the heterogeneity of the groups that make up the classes—including all kinds of defectives and _ incorrigibles mixed in with the normal children—the emotional strain and various physical conditions all deserve serious attention. Not only does neglect of health fac- tors react upon the health of the teacher and the efficiency of her work; there is something that reacts upon the character of the teacher in a way that may be even more serious front a social point of view. The atrophy or perversion of the social instincts, showing themselves in the in- ability to maintain intercourse with adults of other callings, in petty tyran- nies, in obsequiousness, in _ intellec- tual provincialisms, the narrowing of the social outlook, the loss of en- thusiasm, the didactic habit, and formalism, premature intellectual de- cay are all symptoms of unhealthy mental and emotional living. We may find but iittle comfort in the reflection that other classes of society can match our occupa- tional disorders with equally undesirable ones. To remedy these conditions, the indi- vidual teacher must study not only the general laws of hygiene, but his own re- quirements as to diet, rest, exercise, etc. He must insist—in league with others if possible, but alone if necessary—upon ever better hygienic conditions in the school room, and ever saner conditions of work, ever more helpful or less harass- ing supervision, ever greater relief from economic strain and worry. Supervisors and boards of education have a great responsibility in assisting the teachers to improve conditions, and they will lighten their work here if they call upon the teachers to co-operate. And finally, the normal school must select more rigidly than ever the material upon which it works, it must treat it in a manner that will not impair its efficiency, must pre- pare it to maintain its health while in service, and must distribute its graduates into the various types of teaching activity on the basis of a more thoro considera- tion of the relation between the character of the individual teacher and the require- ments and conditions of the particular kind of work. Dr. Terman’s little book is important because it not only gives us something to think about, but something to do. Get it. Would you be a teacher if you didn’t have to earn a living? FS ee dn 8 A ee i | | 80 THE AMERICAN TEACHER BOOK NOTES All books can be ordered from THE AMERICAN TEACHER THE CONSERVATION OF THE CHILD; a manual! of clinical psvchology presenting the examination and treatment of backward children. By Artraur Hotmes, Ph.D., Assistant Director of the Psychological Clinic and Assistant Professor of Psychol- ogy, University of Pennsylvania. 12mo, pp. 345. Illustrated. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippin- cott Co. 10912. $1.25. Alongside of each other run two series of intensive studies in the biology of man. In one series attention is fixed upon the congenial characteristics that determine irrevocably, it would seem, the limitations and the directions of the child’s development. In the other the attention is fixed upon the forces within our control that may make or mar the plastic creatures that fall into the hands of the teachers. In each series arise problems that shift the attention to facts and principles dis- covered and developed in the other, and grad- ually we are coming to realize that the anti- thesis between “heredity and environment” is a purely formal one and not capable of prac- tical solution. The biologists are teaching us that the instincts and capacities and poten- tialities of each individual constitute from birth an essentially unique combination; but also that the realization of the potentialities of a living being depends absolutely upon the action of certain external stimuli—certain, but not yet ascertained for the most part. As in the progress of medical science, many important discoveries about normal processes were made possible thru a study of morbid states, so in the advance of our understanding of the workings of the mind, much has been gained from a study of the abnormal. It is an obstacle to the free discharge of an instinctive action that first arouses thot; and it is an obstacle to the free discharge of the teacher’s habitual actions that first directs attention to the exceptional child. A large part of the teacher’s worry and a large part of the school’s failure may be traced to the presence in a class of “average” children of a few that are backward for any reason whatever. Since children will probably always have to be taught in classes, it is important to discover the factors that interfere seriously with group instruction and group action. Quite apart then from any consideration of the individual who needs special attention to enable him to reach his own, the mass demands special at- tention for the exceptional individual to en- able it to reach its own—demands this for its own protection. But we are coming to realize that demo- cratic education does not mean uniform edu- cation, or at any rate that equal opportunity does not mean identical opportunity, and so we are attending to the exceptional child without prejudice as entitled to his fair chance—which we can discover only thru special study and experiment. It is for these reasons that the work of the Psycho- logical Clinic is of such great importance. Un- til we shall have become familiar with what their researches can teach us, we shall be un- able to act wisely on certain pressing educa- tional and social problems. In this book there are described not only the history, structure and functions of the clinic, but also the detailed operations and methods. At every point actual cases are described, numerous illustrations from photo- graphs are given, with sets of questions and other details observed in the physical and mental examinations, including a good de- scription of the latest formulation of the Binet tests. References to further reading are scattered thru the book, and there is an excel- lent analytical table of contents. Teachers and social workers who wish to become ac- quainted with what is being done in this field, without being bothered with too much techni- cal detail, will find this an eminently usable book. In “Education, a Survey of Tendencies,” A. M. Williams, of Glasgow, attempts to bring out the connection between the changing con- ceptions of the meaning and purpose of edu- cation thru the ages with the changing phil- osophy of life. Altho written primarily from the Britisher’s point of view it will be found full of suggestions to those who are thinking about the conflicting programs and claims in the educational field on this side of the water. (Imported by Macmillan.) HAVE YOU SENT IN YOUR SUBSCRIPTION? THE AMERICAN TEACHER HELPING SCHOOL CHILDREN. Sug- gestions for efficient co-operation with the public schools. By Etsa Denison, of the New York Bureau of Municipal Research. 8vo, pp. xxi + 352. Illustrated. New York Harper & Bros. 1912. $1.40 net. Is there anything you would like to have for your school that your school committee or board cannot afford to get you? Look the subject up in the first index, and see how other cities or other schools got the help of outside agencies for just the sort of thing you want. Are there any organizations in your town that you think should be helping your school? Look up the name of such organizations in the second index and see what they have done for other schools or in other cities. This is perhaps the most useful compila- tion of material that the Bureau of Municipal Research or any of its workers has ever is- sued. All the characteristic methods of this bureau are here illustrated: Striking arrange- ment of facts, snappy sentences, searching questions, enumeration of items, all the good applications of the psychology of advertising. And the material is more concerned with what has been done and what can be done, than with finding fault for what has not been done. The classification is primarily upon the basis of the kinds of people and organiza- tions that can help the schools—women’s clubs, churches, business men’s clubs, physi- cians, dentists, philanthropists, etc. Then the special activities that have been organized or assisted by these outside agencies are treated in detail. Some of the problems thus at- tacked are truancy, school lunches, libraries, school gardens, medical inspection, play- grounds, vacation schools, vocational guid- ance, dental clinics, drinking water and a hundred others. There are diagrams, repro- ductions of charts, illustrations from photo- graphs, and names and addresses of real people and organizations from whom further information can be obtained. The book is well made in every way and will no doubt stimulate thot and action on the part of those who have to get help for schools, as well as of those who wish to help. It is a curious fact that it has been taken for granted that Americans have ilways been devoted to education. They have not been. They have been devoted to school systems. Atice P. Barrows, before the Academy of Political Science. WHAT NOT TO TEACH Whatever cannot be shown to have a plain relation to some real need of life, whether it be esthetic, ethical or utilitarian in the narrow sense. Whatever is not reasonably within the child’s comprehension. Whatever is unlikely to appeal to his interest ; unless it is demanded for the first very weighty reason. Whatever topics or details are so iso- lated or irrelevant that they fail to be a part of any series or chain of ideas, and therefore fail to be necessary for the appreciation of any large point. This standard, however, does not ap- ply to the three R’s and spelling. Frank McMurry. “] understand Tue AMERICAN TEACHER is ‘agin’ the system. You can hardly expect me to support a paper that is fighting those who employ me.” Our critic does not understand that this periodical is not concerned with the persons who head the system. It is, how- ever, engaged in studying the machinery of the system and in questioning the suitableness of that machinery for its supposed ends. Besides, the man never should have given up his birth-right. He was employed not by the “owner” of the system, but by the temporary representa- tives of the people. To the people he should be loyal, but he is not. If I follow out a little scheme of my own occasionally, do I feel embar- rassed when the _ superintendent catches me at it? Or do I go ahead, knowing that while I experiment I am alive, and while marking time I wither up? A superintendent in one of our large cities called into his office some two dozen high school teachers, to confer with him on an important topic of school organization and curriculum. The city still stands, and there is hope of in- creased efficiency on the part of the teachers concerned. THE AMERICAN TEACHER QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Question—When will teachers begin to study pedagogy for class room im- provement rather than for examina- tions? ANSWER—When leaders in education shall encourage it, and when examina- tions shall consist largely of an applica- tion of one’s pedagogic studies to the class room practise. _Questron—When shall we choose our high school principals on the basis of merit alone? ANSWER—When we come to appreci- ate our social obligations. Quvestion—Why do our scliools be- gin to show real signs of life after they are officially closed for the day? Answer—Decause what is done dur. ing the regular school hours arises oz of a creed, while what is done afte the school is officially closed arises oz of a real need. Question—Why is there urgent nee! of coaches for examinations of teachers’ ANnSWER—Because teachers have nc been made, or cannot be made, to see th relation between pedagogy and the art o! teaching, and because examinations hz: had in the main little or no relation t: class room practise. R Question—Why do school commis | sioners know so little about the schools’. Answer—Because they are too bus! with other things. BOOKS FOR LIVE TEACHER WOMAN IN MODERN SOCIETY By EARL CARNES Author of “ Where Knowledge Fails” “I have both as preacher and profesional a= reviewer feck a tpecial responsibility to read every book of impcrtzence on t Gounae quatiap ald tan ba sumed eum enunees Fame te €0 on record as giri .to thie fint place eunong ell books in lets Nested ‘question. ~—Rev. Lymas P, Powell, S125 wot; pestpetd $1.35. FOLK FESTIVALS Their Crowth and How te Give Them By MARY MASTER NEEDHAM Foreword by Frank A. Manay Needham presents @ complete guide and index to &» an impor. feantien of divie and educational awalening. Se¥-expres- part uf the universal ue movement in {te @ sgnibceat —y of the sewer $1.25 wet; postpaid $1.55. A new volume in The Art of Life Series! ‘EDWARD HOWARD CGRIGCS, Editor THE SUPER RACE An AMERICAN PROSLEM By SCOTT NEARING This apparently sensational title describes with keen securacy the author's propel for the improvernent of human society. The Se Supe an, writes Mr. Nearing, ia not a theory, but a living reality; }< ie wot, as the ancient Greets thoug!#, the ofsering of the gods, b+ the eon of man and woman. 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AY taining: Eurcnean Rulers: Their Modern Sie nmiicance. (Arthur KM. Bestor, A. B., Director Chautauqua Institution); A Reeces Journsy ia Paris. (Mabdell 8. Cc. Smith,) The monthly macazine also serves in meny interesting ways asa “don't read et random” teacher for the reading course Total. PF Beoks (cloth bow: 4 and th a < 24) 93.00" * Remit joc. extra for postage or prepaid express, “Collect” charges are more. watt FOR ANYEOCPY, tWWOnTHA WHILE FOR EVERYBODY If in doubt, send stamp for handbook of testimoaials Address, Chautauqua Institution, Chavtaugua,f.!. DON’T READ AT BANDOL Wheo enewering advertisers, please mention TITE AMERICAN TEACHER