American Ceacher Democracy in Education; Education for Democracy. Vou. II No. 10 NEW YORK, DECEMBER, 1913 50 CENTS A YEAR The Mayor of New York is astonisht that Teachers should write to him favoring this candidate for te Sak —| | School Commissioner, or disapproving that one. | e, This activity he calls “politics,” meaning thereby to y condem it. And he deplores the lack of “ disci- fi pline” in the school system. It is too late now to talk of discipline. “ The Army and the Police need it still; but Education ! | || ___ is throwing it over to its great advantage. i Rather let the Mayor and the People demand that a the Teachers lean the fundamental needs of their | c educational system. Let them demand that the e Teachers prepare themselves to give intelligent aid y when school officers are to be selected. THE MANLY ART OF TEACHING TEACHING AS OR A PROFESSION WILLIAM FAIRLEY Principal Commercial WE CONSTANTLY hear reproaches or laments, as the case may be, to the effect that teaching, in any grade below col- lege work, cannot be considered a pro- fession. Some men are ashamed to own among active business men that they are school teachers. The world outside often uses the designation pedagog slightingly. “Oh! he is only a school teacher—im- practical—spends all his time dealing with childish minds——looks on things in a narrow way—is so used to being obeyed and believed that he cannot stand up to real men in an open contest of wits.” This is what we often hear from without, and it makes us wince. And from within the fold come wails like this: “T wish my work could be rated as really professional—_I am looked down upon because I am a teacher my work is so petty and narrow— it has no great fu- ture before it in money or reputation—I feel as if I should like to contribute something worth while to the world’s progress, etc.” The whole thing is well summed up in the story of the Brooklyn teacher who went West for his health. For a long time no one asked him what he had been or done. But one day riding over the plains with a cow puncher the latter asked him, “Say, Mr. Blank, what did you use to do when you was back East?” “Oh! I was a school teacher.” Here the cow man’s horse was thrown back on its haunches and the rider said, “Gee! What a hell of a job for a grown up man!” There is an estimate. We wish to be considered practitioners of an honorable profession: We yearn to be accorded a place in the world of real men. How are we going to get it? Various remedies have been suggested. We must assert ourselves. We must stand more on our dignity. We must de- mand larger pecuniary returns for our labors. Recent suggestions before the New York Schoolmasters’. Association were that a class consciousness for teach- High School, Brooklyn ers be created here in the great city by union in a club, and by exerting our- selves in the field of civic betterment and philanthropy. Others have told us that every teacher should get away from his school work by cultivating some worthy hobby, or by working in some line of business or pleasure far removed from the trivial round of the teacher’s job. That is all one with telling the doc- tor who is lamenting his poor success that he ought to take up photography, or aeronautics, or join a league for the sup- pression of pianolas. The one way to create or to elevate the profession of school teaching is to make it a profession by going at it in a professional way. And that very few of us are doing. Listen to a few illustrative growls. One is: “There is so much petty cler- ical work, which is below the dignity of a professional man.” Some of us might hear the same wail from the army officer. Till he gets up into the field ranks he is loaded down with the pettiest kind of re- ports. A lieutenant was sent out with two men after some bad Indians. His chase led him over almost desert coun- try. Wherever he could get a meal or a shelter in dug-out or cabin, he was forced to get three vouchers for every item of service. Yet he did not kick. :It was part of his profession of chasing In- dians. Take heed, ye truant hunters, who recoil because you have to send three postcards to Mr. Smith to find out why John was absent. Wail number two is, “There is so much repetition of the same routine task of trivial instruction.” True; the pons asinorum or the first declension are rather likely to be the same tomorrow as today; but they are as new to the be- ginner as is the first remembered Christ- mas to the four-year-old. Not quite so interesting, but fully as important. A triend recently cited the case of a potter 146 THE AMERICAN TEACHER who deftly affixed wet clay handles to cups as they passed by him on a slowly moving belt. Inquiry showed that the potter had stuck handles on cups eight hours a day for thirteen years. If he were ill, he lost his pay. No Saturday off, no three days at Thanksgiving, no week at Christmas and Easter, no glori- ous ten weeks in the summer. Shame on us potters in the human clay who moan about the dullness of our repetitions! Or, are we not potters, but just the com- parative of that—potterers? Ululation number three runs, “There is no food for my spirit in my daily task.” That remark was actually made by a crazy teacher to the writer when that teacher was set to correct some spelling lists. Madame Curie might have said there was no food for her spirit in the toilsome experimenting, most of it fruitless, which at last led her to radium. But all her sampling and tabulating and adjustment of such petty balances (so petty, why could she not have a Fair- banks coal scale and do something grand?), was only a means to an end. And surely there is an end in school- teaching, if not of it. Murmur number four: poor material to work with.” just the same intellectually as if the hos- pital surgeon were to howl, “Oh dear! “T have such That is I do not have any easy cases. My frac- tures are all compound, comminuted. My appendices are all gangrened! Let me off with measles and chicken pox!” Why, these men exult in the chances to show their skill. They have beautiful cases. And save for the solemn times when they know death impends, they go to work with more enthusiasm as the case presents the more difficulties. All such talk helps to make the case harder when we try to insist that a cold, cruel world ought to consider us as pro- fessional men. There is lots of whining babyishness in our so-called profession at present. Where is the real remedy for this hurt dignity of ours? Believe it, pedagogs, it lies not in getting away from all these things, but in getting at them and into them and thru them in the worthy way. 147 Taking our allegedly poor material, and our confessedly fine equipment for what they are worth, what can we do with them? It is in order to remark paren- thetically here, that the higher one looks in the educational system the poorer the teaching becomes. The best and most scientific work is done in the elementary schools. Professionally the grade teach- er is better trained than the average high school instructor, and the latter is far more scientific than the college professor. Frobel, Pestallozzi, Montessori were pri- mary workers. Surely there is a scien- tific field to be developed in the secondary school. We all have a magnificent area for scientific research spread before us. But grunting about poor salaries, and strained nerves and shattered dignity is not going to help us. Notice the opportunities. First of all the problems of the intel- lect. Here you have a thousand-fold di- vergence of talent, interest, adaptation, home life, congenital influence. No two boys are alike in mind more than in body. The same essential question needs to be put in a different way to one twin from what it does to another. Minds must be studied as ears are studied and skins and pulse-beats and respirations are by the physicians. One child is good at figures but poor in literature. One can draw, and another can appreciate history. One mind thinks in terms of motion, another thinks in words or in visual images. These variations call for scientific study and treatment. And the teacher who goes at such problems in the scientific way is making his work professional, and it will not be professional until he does so go at it. Another phase of our professional study leads us to a consideration of the physical problems involved. You know all these. They are such as the heating, lighting and ventilation of the class room. Deal with these professionally, and not in the spirit of the charwoman. Verily, some janitors are more scientific than some teachers. The despised setting up drill can be made sacramental—the out- ward and visible sign of an inward and 148 spiritual grace. Teachers will come in time to watch as carefully whether the pupil stands well to recite as to see that he uses good English. Pupils may be nervous, ill (even rough boys). They may be victims of anemia, adenoids, go- ing thru the purgatory of adoloescence with its alternative exits to heaven or to hell. Some knowledge of the home sur- roundings, on the physical side, of our pupils would make many of us more gen- tle, more considerate, more helpful, leading us to a larger understanding and sympathy with our young patients. Then, last but greatest, is the moral aspect of our possibly profesional work. No teacher has a right to howl about his lack of recognition by the world until THE AMERICAN TEACHER his work becomes first and foremost a moral effort. It must start in his own intrinsic worth as a man, and aim at the most profound worth in the pupil. The men who have made their mark in secon- dary education, have made it not because they were drillmasters or martinets, but because virtue went out of them into the boys who in later years learned that they had revered them, not for what they knew, but for what they were. We may well then change the spirit of the story told at the beginning, and say, “Teaching! What a heaven of a job for a grown up man!” And if any man thinks he has grown too big for the job, he had better fall back into real estate or insurance. STANDARDIZING THE COURSES IN THE UNIVERSITY OF HARD KNOCKS BENJAMIN C. GRUENBERG IT BEHOOVES THOSE engaged in the business of education to keep informed on what basis the practical man has for his complaint against our _ schools. Much of the criticism by outsiders is no doubt “ignorant” criticism; but we can- rot dismiss all criticism because some of it is ignorant. Much of the criticism is no doubt colored by selfish interests— as when the merchant demands that his office boy, fresh from school, plunge promptly and efficiently into the particu- lar work required in his office—and much of the criticism may be insincere “muck-raking.” But we cannot shut our ears to criticism because some of it is selfish and some of it is merely noise. Wherever an honest effort has been made by educators to understand the problem of the outsiders and the criti- cism of the outsiders there has develope | a strong movement toward the introduc- tion of “practical” courses into the schools. Manual Training, introduced about forty years ago, has remained a purely pedagogical, and largely futile de- vice. Drawing and dress-making have in many schools fared better, but the objectivity of class-room material has not sufficed to make up for the lack of reality in the aims and processes of the class-room. Yet we must recognize tha: the present unrest in education, or at any rate that particular phase of it whici manifests itself in the clamor for “vo- cational” education, is due as much to the fact that work has been isolated from life, as to the fact that education has been separated from life. We are told by normal college com- mencement orators that “education is life”; yet how slight is the resem- blance between the set of acquired habits of such a man as Lincoln or Edison, and those of the pedantic pro- fessor of primitive Polynesian patri- archates. It is not to disparage learn- ing and scholarship, it is not to belittle the valuable services of “unpractical” men like Spinoza and Darwin, that these extreme contrasts are offered. The point is that our school learning tends to de- generate into trivial pedantry, that our school philosophy tends to develop into disputations, that our school science, éven, tends to become formal and fruit- THE AMERICAN less mental gymnastics. And the reason lies altogether in the fact that education has been separated from life, that the school procedure has been allowed to de velop in guarded isolation from the main currents of human affairs, that the mo- nastic traditions of the impurity of hu- man life and the purity of learning and unapplied thot have too long continued to devitalize education. As the indus- trial revolution has taken industry away from the home, and thus away from the experience of the child, the school has continued to teach what the home a cen- tury ago would not furnish—the three R’s—together with whatever new ma- terial has been required of it, in the same old way. Now the old way may have been quite adequate when the school ha: only the three R’s to teach, and when the child gets most of his knowledge of the world outside of school. The child has been driven into the school, but the life of the community has not followed the child into the school, and the two have become separated. On the other hand, the same separation is apparent between industry and life. Before the machine and the steam-engine intervened the technical processes of the household and the farm, of the shop and the mill, of the ship and the counting house, furnished the basis for all real ex- perience and for all effective thot. To learn one’s trade or occupation was to learn how to do and to think—and how to live: When the daily work is reduced to a few simple operations in front of a moving mass of brass and steel, there is not only lost the stimulus to think, but there is lost the permission to think. When the daily work gives a minimum of intercourse with human beings and a maximum of intercourse with brute mat- ter and meaningless motion, when it leaves little energy for human inter- course in the little leisure that is left, the work does not educate. The University of Hard Knocks has graduated a few men of genius, as have the “accredited” universities, but neither kind of univer- sity can claim special credit for the achievements of the genius. In both cases the graduate succeeds in spite of his schooling. TEACHER 149 Life has been emptied of content by the industrial reorganization of the last century, and especially of the last forty or fifty years, inasmuch as the nature of the work that most industrial workers have before them necessitates the trans- fer to the leisure time of those activities that really make life interesting and worth while. Work is something to be done a part of the time, in order that life may be lived at some other time. In the same way education has been emp- tied of content; we send out children to school for a few years, in the hope that when the agony is over they will be there- by enabled at least to live better than they otherwise could. But education is not living any more than working is living: each is a preparation for living. The educational revolution which lies before us comes, as has been said, from the acute need for making every stage in life as well as every phase of life, real. The world is weary of waiting for life, the children are weary of waiting for life, the workers are weary of waiting for life. We are awaking to the folly of waiting. The children demand that they have a chance to work and to play as well as to “learn.” The workers de- mand that they have a chance to live and to play as well as to “work.” Children are quite able to work, if the work is worth while, and interesting in the best sense, and suitably adjusted to their capacities and strength. Workers are entitled to something more than the means for keeping them at work. The meeting-point of these various lines of aspiration and development is not in a factory operated by child labor, nor in a factory provided with a moving-picture show for adults. The meeting-point is in the public’s only conscious institution —the public school. Here the children may be protected against exploitation, and here the work- ers may find suitable recreation. Here the public may become acquainted with the world of work, and here the worker may learn of the growth of civilization, as of the advances in his own occupation. It is here that the ideals and standards of the university can be joined to the wisdom and the reality of hard knocks. 150 Experiments in this direction are be- ing made in all parts of the country, and we would do well to keep in touch with these experiments. In Boise City, Idaho, the high school has been revolutionizing itself very vigorously for three years past. In this high school many kinds of vocational courses are offered on the basic assumption that honest, purpose- ful, effective work has educational value equal to that of perfunctory memorizing of meaningless formulas. Pupils who take the commercial course handle the supplies of the school, keep the accounts and do the needed clerical work. Next year it is planned to have these pupils do all the accounting for the whole school system. The assumption here made is that keeping books for a real business is just as “educational” as keeping books for imaginary transactions; and while these real accounts have to be checked up by the teachers for accuracy, it should be no more difficult to check up real ac- counts than make-believe accounts. The drafting department does real work. The boys have made all the draw- ings and specifications for a school build- ing that the city has built, and they have completed drawings—down to the blue- prints—for another school. The boys who study carpentry do work on wood that is to become part of a real building. Moreover, they get paid in cash for the work they do for the city, and they re- ceive credit in school for learning to do something. A boy who had made an attempt to master geometry, and who convinced the teachers that geometry was beyond him, was allowed to do practical work in a store, two hours a day for the term, under supervision, with reports, etc., and this work counted as a “point” in place of the geometry. This high schoo! has a forty-acre- plot at the state fair grounds; plans are under way for maintaining here a model farm. The boys who take agricultural courses may do parts of their work with real orchards and real hay-crops, produc- ing wealth that can be measured in dol- lars and cents, and at the same time earn- ing credits toward their diplomas. I have a suspicion that they are at the same. time laying up treasures in heaven. THE AMERICAN TEACHER The Rochester plan was described in these pages by Professor Forbes, re- cently, and showed the same element of productive work used as a means of edu- cation. Everywhere sewing classes are working on real dresses to be worn, in- stead of on model hems and pleats, to be examined and rated. The Washing. ton Irving High School, in New York, has for years graduated its girls in dresses made by them in their sewing classes. The sewing class in this same school recently sewed up yards of flan- nel into bags for protecting the micro- scopes used by the boys in another school. The saving to the city on this transaction was a mere trifle; the educa- tional benefit to the girls was no doubt very large. These experiments in public school vo- cational courses are at least as signifi- cant as those made in Fitchburg, Mass, and at the University of Cincinnati. In these so-called “co-operative” schemes, the pupils are assigned to work in pairs, alternating in school and private shop. This plan has been recommended for New York City in the report for the Hanus Committee prepared by Dean Henry Schneider, the originator of the plan in this country. The co-operation is between the school and the shop or the employer, and has the great advan- tages that it saves an expensive installa- tion for the city, and it keeps the work in direct touch with current commercial practise. On the other side there is need to consider the possible subversion of the school to private interests, the powe over the pupil placed in the hands of the employer, and the relative inflexibil- ity of individual adjustment to develop- ing needs or capacities: the commercial needs come first. We shall probably never be in a 0 sition to give a boy a diploma for having reached a certain age in good health and spirits; but we are going a long way it the direction of recognizing that exper'- ence with realities has its influence upon the character and some relation to “cul- ture.” And we are going to give credit for just decent, useful living of the every-day life. THE TEACHERS’ COUNCIL OF NEW YORK CITY J. Epwarp MayMAN WHETHER THE recently organized Teachers’ Council of New York City is the fruit of strenuous labor on the part of the “progressives” in the Board of Education, or whether it is one of the inevitable steps in the evolution of teach- ing from that of holding a job to that of a self-respecting profession, it is not my present purpose to discuss. Nor am I now particularly concerned as to whether the initial organization was based upon democratic or upon bureaucratic princi- ples. The Teachers’ Council of New York City is an established fact. That is and should be our main cause for rejoicing. It now devolves upon us, thru our Council, to hasten the birth and healthy growth of pure democracy in our pro- fession. It depends upon us, the rank and file, to determine whether the Coun- cil shall be a mere pretense or a potent force in the advancement of the best in- terests of the profession. We have it in our power to support the members of the Council who are doing good and effi- cient work, or to recall those whose part in the deliberations does not meet with our approval. It is true, indeed, that the Teachers’ Council, as at present organized, can only “furnish information” and “introduce recommendations affecting the welfare of the schools and the teaching staff” and that “all final decisions shall be left to the Board of Education or the Board of Superintendents.” There are those in our midst who view these limitations with fear and apprehension lest the “de- bates and deliberations” of the Council shall never receive the desired official sanction or enactment into law. But a Teachers’ Council with defects is better than no Council at all. We have a nucleus. And if we know how, we may reasonably hope to develop it into an ef- ficient agency for the betterment of con- ditions for teachers and for pupils. Those of us who believe that the Coun- 151 cil is an outgrowth of the recommenda- tions of the recent School Inquiry Com- mittee have reason to be even more san- guine. The recommendation that Pro- fessor Elliott makes is: That appropriate steps be taken to secure the creation of a Supervisory Council to be composed of the City Superintendent, all of his district superintendents, and a selected number of directors, principals of training schools, principals of high schools, princi- pals of elementary schools, and representa- tives from the teaching staff in the various types and grades of schools. To this Super- visory Council shall be given general pow- ers and directions with regard to programs of study, and all other essential matters re- lating to the methods and standards of in- struction. Until such a representative board is charged with educational responsibility, the city can not hope to get the most effi- cient service, nor will teachers be given a degree of freedom consistent with the ef- fective performance of the duties given to them. Farther on he says: A truly progressive educational policy within the school system requires that co- operation be legalized. No school system fulfills its existence under a control that is feudal in character. Professor Elliott elucidates the same point in the May 1913 number of THE AMERICAN TEACHER: My own conception of the Supervisory Council is not that of the “advisory” coun- cil, now being advocated for the New York ‘City school system. A properly constituted Supervisory Council would consist of a permanent representative body of teachers and educational directors with Jegalized powers and functions; not subject to polit- ical interference under the guise of retain- ing to the people or person vested rights and privileges; nor dependent in the scope and character of its activties upon the benevo- lent paternalism of the Board of Education. President Churchill’s aim to create an or- ganization of representatives of the teach- ing staff for advisory purposes is in the right direction. But his shot is bound to fall short, because his advisory council will have only those powers and responsibili- ties that the Board may see fit to give to it. Without permanent authority it will have no real responsiblity. Wtthout responsibility it becomes merely an ornament, and not an element of strength to the structure of the government of the schools. 152 Who shall say that a real Teachers’ Council with real legal powers is an un- realizable dream? It is not unreasonable to expect the members of the present Council to do so well that they will com- mand the respect of the teachers, the Board of Education, and the public at large. When that stage is reached it will be comparatively easy to force a reor- ganization of the Council on the lines laid down by Professor Elliott, or on lines suggested by the teachers themselves. In the meantime the Council should grasp every opportunity to show that it is honest, fearless, broadminded, demo- cratic, tactful, unselfish, and efficient. All this can be done under the present legal rights without the aid or interven- tion of the Board of Education. Manifestations of this kind will at once enlist the loyalty and support of the en- tire teaching body, and foster a feeling of wholesome respect on the part of the Board of Education and of the Board of Superintendents. Casting aside any criticism that may be leveled against the presumption of an “outsider” as unworthy of broadminded and democratic people, the following sug- gestions are offered with the fervent hope that they will engender a line of thot and action which will ultimately redound to the best interests of the teachers and the THE AMERICAN TEACHER children. 1. All meetings of the Council should be open to the teachers and the public. 2. All committee meetings of the Council should be open to the teachers and the public. 3. Regularly appointed teachers of the City of New York should, upon major- ity vote of the Council (or committee), have the privilege of the floor at any of the meetings. 4. Not only should teachers be given the privilege of the floor, but they should also be invited to participate in special committee work. 5. Inasmuch as the membership of the present Council consists of class room teachers and supervisors in the propor- tion of three to one, it is but fair to ex- pect that the officers shall be class room teachers and supervisors in the same proportion as nearly as possible. The reasons for this are many and self- evident. As was said above these suggestions can be carried into effect under the pres- ent legal status of the Council. Many other suggestions such as rep- resentation by schools, improved meth- ods of. election, selection of members at large, proportionate representation, readily come to mind. These will be discussed later. POLITICS AGAIN OnLy too often has the charge of “politics” been made against school board members. But this time the charge is leveled against the teachers themselves who are supposedly free from this taint. It has come to our notice that some dele- gates chosen to elect members to the Teachers’ Council of New York City have used questionable methods of elec- tioneering. That this is possible is, of course, due to the by-law of the Board of Education under which these elections are held. In order to prevent a recur- rence of the same evil we beg to call at- tention to a resolution recently adopted by the Teachers’ League of New York: “Resolved, That the Teachers’ League of New York record itself in favor of making each school staff the unit of representation in the Conference of Dele- - gates that will elect members to the Teachers’ Council.” The present plan of representation by teachers’ organizations is undemocratic and unprofessional. In the first place private teachers’ organizations have no legal standing in these elections. Only teachers who pay membership dues to some organization may have the privi- lege of voting for Council members. Thirdly, this method leads to an abnor- mal growth of mushroom organizations and questionable methods of procedure. On the other hand, the individual school staff has a legal and professional standing. Its membership includes all the teachers, and the opportunity for questionable methods is materially de- creased. Most important of all, the school unit plan would lead to unity and solidarity, harmony and co-opera- tion in the teaching force of the entire city. The American Gearher Democracy in Education ; Educati: for Democracy Published monthly, except July and August, by THE AMERICAN TEACHER 129 Lafayette Street, New York. Gasriet R. Mason ° President Mark Horrman . - « « Treasurer J. E. Mayrman Business Manager Henry R. Linvitre Editor-in-Chief Benjamin C. Gruenserc, Managing Editor Address all manuscripts and other communi- cations to THE AMERICAN TEACHER, 129 Lafayette Street, New York. Send notice of change of address promptly giving the old as well as the new address. The Magazines will be sent to subscribers until an order to discontinue, together with all arrearages, is received. At the time of expiration, a pink renewal notice will be found in the copy. Remittances should be made in postal money- order, express order, draft, stamps or check (New York exchange). Subscription price, 50 cents for the year. (Foreign, 60 cents) Copyright, 1913, by Tae Amerrcan TEACHER. Entered at the Post Office of New York as second-class matter. No. 10 Vor. II. DECEMBER, 1913. 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- portunities for the participation of teach- ers in the direction of educational affairs ; and by supporting the organization of teachers for all legitimate professional purposes. OUR SECOND YEAR THE managers of THE AMERICAN TEACHER have given an uncommon amount of service to the movement for democracy in education, with consider- able financial loss, and, the best educa- tional politicians will tell you, without hope of reward in promotion. Educational politicians and financial agents gave the paper “six months to live.” It completes this month its sec- ond year, not with a balance on the credit side of the ledger, but with a large amount of constructive work done, and with the consciousness of increased power for still greater work. The paper has made for itself a rep- utation for keenness in analyzing educa- tional problems, for interpreting and pointing out the significance of educa- tional practises, for ability in discrim- inating between the unpopular agent in education and his wise and unwise acts, and for courage in holding to certain ideals in education and in society. This is what is called a class paper. It studies the problems and fights the bat- tles of a special class of public servants. And, like all class papers, except those that are established for the selfish ends of the members of the class, Toe AMER- ICAN TEACHER has to struggle constantly to live. The paper is small, and should remain small, for there are so many publica- tions to read in these productive days. The printing bills of the paper are not large, but they come in with startling regularity. This month, contrary to our custom, we make a special appeal to be- lievers in the democratic idea. Write and offer to help obtain financial sup- port thru more subscriptions. THE TEACHER-MOTHER Tue New York teacher who was dis- missed by the Board of Education for bearing a child without the permission of the Board of its President, appealed to the courts and won her case. This decision establishes the principle that a teacher may not be dismissed or other- wise penalized for the natural conse- quences of an act that is not itself un- lawful or forbidden. Moreover, it es- tablishes the principle that a teacher may appeal from the actions of the Board of Education, going to the courts like a real citizen. How long these prin- ciples will remain establisht, it is im- possible to say, for it is understood that the Board is to appeal to a higher court. 153 154 SIDETALKS WITH SUPERIN- TENDENTS II. ey A LONG interval of time has intervened since I last gave you the benefit of some ideas of mine on the useful relation of your office to the teachers under your direction. That interval has been em- ployed in developing other ideas. Here is one of them: Not long ago a member of the board of trustees of an educational system said to me that many people were disposed to criticize harshly the administration of the superintendent of schools of his town. “I know the Doctor has his faults,” said he; “they are many and serious. But where can you find in the system the man that can take his place? There is not one, Sir!” Reluctantly I was forced to admit that there was not one in sight who had shown himself to be the equal of the master. I grew sad in contemplating the disaster that would certainly befall the educational system of that town in the natural order of time. Later it happened to occur to me that the school board member belonged to a large and powerful corporation which had been in existence over half a cen- tury. I knew that the corporation has lost by death and resignation several of its strongest men, even in the time of my acquaintance with it. But I could not recall that the school board member or any other of the corporation had thot of these losses as threatening the existence of the institution. On the contrary, the loss of the older strong men seemed rather a benefit, bringing in, as it did, other strong men of greater vigor and newer ideas of administration and de- velopment. Furthermore, my. friend seemed glad to acknowledge that the younger men of his company were given opportunities to show their power. As soon as they proved their ability they were given au- thority in the management, for the sake of the service they might render to the corporation. The directors knew that the strong young men would not stay in a company that gave them no opportu- THE AMERICAN TEACHER nity to prove their strength. They also knew it to be self-destructive to have but one man ready for each important post. But the school system “is different.” Why there should be a different set of ideals of business management for effi- ciency and preparedness is more than | can understand. Of course there isn’t any reason why it should be so; it only is so. When I find my mind dwelling on the case told me by the school board mem- ber I wonder how he could have let the suicidal policy of the school system es- cape his notice. If the superintendent is the only man in the system who can do the superintendent’s work, then it must be because the board has not prac- ticed the principles of its own members as they practice them in their private business, or, more likely, because the members of the board have permitted the superintendent to keep all able men away to gratify a personal vanity—his ambition to be master of everything. I believe there are legal punishments for those who stop the wheels of com- merce and prevent food from reaching the homes of starving people. Shall we stand and grin helplessly if an auto- cratic superintendent, for the sake of vanity, or for any reason whatever, starves the minds of the people, and pre- vents them from obtaining able service from the best talent the profession of teaching affords? All superintendents are not vain. If you feel that way about it, then this story may not give you cause to worry. The correct answer of the single pupil by no means guarantees the understanding of the other pupils. The wrong answers fre- quently are the better test in this respect. For this reason, a conscientious teacher dis- likes the quick retrest from the wrong an- swer and the light passing to the correct answer. On the contrary, he clings to the original answer, for that shows him what has been apprehended and how. It fur- nishes the opportunity to assist the weak, to ide the erring—HERMANN WEI- MER, in “The Way to the Heart of the Pupil.” == saa we ee O.UUUlUm THE AMERICAN TEACHER 155 CREDIMUS VI “We believe that teachers will never get the right to ‘a voice and a vote’ in the work for which they are especially trained until a considerable number of them demand it themselves.’ — From “Credimus” in December, 1912, number. When the movement for democracy in education gains the strength neces- sary to bring it as an insistent issue be- fore the educational public, we may well expect to hear the ancient doubt that “the majority do not want it.” For an- swer we need only to remember that majorities never have been the first to begin anything. Our special and immediate task is to try to bring a “considerable number” of the teachers to care for better conditions and better treatment and for knowing the social significance of their work. What a considerable number is, nobody knows in this case, or needs to care. Three men formed the committee and started and carried thru the movement that drove protected policy gambling from the City of New York. What need we to talk of numbers? Strength of conviction, force of purpose, sincerity of devotion, and only a little money are what we need. Altho the agitation for democracy in education can be kept up by a few, and the idea be made to grow, still democ- racy needs the many, for that is what the whole idea is about—the productive thinking and the intelligent rule of the many. For this reason the democratic movement must never consist in “get- ting something” for the teachers. Those who encourage teachers in that error are hindering the real and vital growth of the movement. Observations made on the work of educational organizations show that those that accomplish their work thru the activity of a few ener- getic persons do not necessarily develop in their members anything more than the desire for more help. Self-activity for growth into the spirit of democracy is just as necessary for teachers as it is in the education of children. Part of our task, then, lies in getting our fellow teachers to desire to help themselves. ANOTHER SCHOOL COUNCIL THE TEACHERS of the DeWitt Clinton High School of New York City have adopted the school council idea. Five teachers were chosen at a recent election held by the faculty. Incidentally, the heads of departments were declared in- eligible to election, on the ground that they already advise the principal on the conduct of the several departments of the school. The new council will co- operate with the principal in formulat- ing the problems and shaping the policies of the school. Next month we hope to have occasion for recording other adop- tions of the school council plan. THE SCHOOL SURVEY AND THE TEACHER A SPECIAL commission is making a comprehensive survey of conditions in the rural, high and normal schools of Ohio. The plan of the survey includes a thoro inspection of the physical and sani- tary features of each school visited, the equipment, the proficiency of the pupils and the methods of the teachers. One of the excellent features of the survey is the manifest purpose to bring out facts that will lead directly to improvement, and the commission is prepared to change the forms of its questions and schedules as many times as necessary to get the best. We reprint in this number the two sides of Card V, which is subject to change on the basis of good suggestions received. Every teacher should not only feel free to make criticism of these sched- ules, but should feel it his duty to make pertinent suggestions. You should also feel free to send to Dr. H. L. Brittain, the director of the survey, at the capitol, Columbus, O., for copies of the other blanks used in the survey. TEACHER Z < O a4 ea) = < THE ve) LT) _ "EO ‘snquinjo>) ‘10;pe11p ‘arena “1 °H “3 seuppe posn spre soyjo Cj 10y : UOWSIUWOD AZAINS [OOYIS 97878 C1YD 94) Aq PosN 3814 PIED UOKINAsSUl WOOISSE[D PIstAdyy SOdASP pajdepe-j) JO OS) (1) io on “-"""""KDBOs SBDIAOP BARY O} GAN|!e4 (U) ee “--""Slidnd jo Buiyje} Auessedeuus) (8) 494929} JO Bulyje} Auessedeuus) (j) ~sereeee-eGuidind JO Yoeeds JOUI}SIPUy (8) 494929} JO YOseds JOUI}SIPU| (Pp) syepeyeus Buiynquysig (2) “ssejo Burssiwsig (q) ssejo Buryjeg (e) = pue SoA Japun A y99UD) wo] eu] Gg “-suonsenb “Bul yoaosd-}yBnoy} yuesjes— ye} JO SuOISENb JusUIPed Suryse sydnd jo ‘on SJayJC JIM Buapejuy SSOUISNG UMO JI94y} Buipuiw ‘ON suojesjsnji} Bulyile1 ul you ™ woo. U} ayand "ON SOW!) 9814} UeY} eI0W SOW !} 8a14} eo1imy""""" “e0u0 Bulzi9e1 Bulzi9e1 Jou Gopece Gy eyans 79 “Sy EC ““JOMSUC 0} Bul e) (2) “sesuodses JussBYOOU! 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' secllocill oct caclisceseviasaiees Ginensébenen r e sajewssejo pue yueasjeus! (S) BAe SS es eee (S) ““I-|-"l-~1 ou, 40 ,,S04,, Aq posomsue (tp) 41/94} UO JyBZNOY} pue paze (p) ek eS Wa is JOMSUC OY} BuNSEBEns (¢) ~|-|-~1---|"SUOLNIOS UMO J18U} P2}S9} (¢) we (x es wt SOR} 405 Buyjjeo (Z) Jueljes-j]9S 210M (Z) wa 1 os he Buyyonoud-qyBnowp D Uosse| jo SAOqoeey Hoy CF uoIxy e Sesodind jo eapj seejoe pey (T{) 4q umoys qyend quran 6 susqny 2 a syewey pue souapiAg e SyseWeY pUue eoUEpIAg wis |" 4uiqy Barqovey - se 4apqy Sumpwey /—y (A 49849) (A 49049) a4 ea) a8 S) < ea) H Z < 3) ro ky) = < (ea) a fH 2 32 30N | 158 THE AMERICAN TEACHER BOOK NOTES All books can be ordered from THE AMERICAN TEACHER MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS. By Luturr Hatsey Guuicx, M. D., and Leonarp P. Ayres, Ph.D. 8vo. pp.xx-+224. (Russell Sage Foundation.) Fourth Edi- tion, completely revised. New York, Sur- vey Associates. 1913. $1.50 prepaid. HEALTH AND THE SCHOOL; A Round Table. By Frances Wituiston Burks and Jesse D. Burks, Director of Municipal Re- search, Philadelphia. With an Introduction by Frank M. McMurry. t2mo. pp. xx+393. Tilustrated. New York, D. Appleton & Co. 1913. $1.50 net. The health condition of the school is a pri- mary responsibility of the community, for two different reasons. If education is so much a concern of society that it is rightfully made compulsory, the state owes it to the children to guard them against any injury that the enforced association with others may entail. In the second place, if this education is of importance, the state owes it to itself that the conditions for its administration shall be the most favorable. Most of us do not need to be retold of the close connection between the physical condition of the child—and of the teacher—one the one hand, and the ef- féctiveness of the schooling process on the other. Indeed, we are rapidly coming to think of the schooling process very largely in terms of the physical condition within the child and of the physical conditions of his surroundings. The investigations of Doctors Gulick and Ayres, under the auspices of the Russell Sage Foundation, may be considered as epoch- making, in the sense that the publication of their results a few years ago stimulated hun- dreds of communities to increased efforts in the direction of medical inspection and health protection. Several reprints of this book were made. This year a revised edition is publisht, bringing the data closer to date. Those engaged in school administration should be acquainted with the facts and prin- ciples brot out in this book. Among books intended for teachers, none in this field is as valuable as the recently publisht “Health and the School.” The text is in the form of a “round table,” in which a city superintendent, a school board member, a complacent and conservative business man, a social worker, a physician and an “awaken- ing woman” discuss the children’s health as a community problem, from their varying points of view. The first chapter raises the question whether health and education are incompatible, and the fundamental importance of considering health is well brot out. The health condi- tions of the children, the sanitary conditions of the building, etc., the health relations of the programs, etc., are discussed in successive chapters. The second part of the book deals with the opportunity of the school in pro- moting health thru co-operation with the home, thru direct medical aid, thru instruc- tion, thru health supervision, etc. Part III is a “program of child hygiene,” and deals with the home, air, food, clothing, playgrounds, health habits, the doctor and health problems of institutions. Part IV treats of socialized health and compulsory health. The views of the conservatives and of the obstructionists are considered, as well as those of the enthu- siast. There are excellent diagrams and pic- tures from many sorrces, and critical refer- ences to further reading. There is a good table of contents and an index, and the ar- rangement of the material contributes to the usableness of the book. Altho the book is not primarily a textbook in hygiene, teachers of this subject will find it very helpful. But the book should find a place in every school library and on the desk of every progressive principal. INTEREST AND EFFORT IN EDUCA- TION. By Joun Dewey, Professor of Philosophy in Columbia University. River- side Educational Monographs. 16mo. pp. x+102. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1913. 35 cents. Current discussions as to “soft pedagogy,” directed against the so-called doctrine of in- terest, generally miss the heart of the doctrine by confusing the superficial attention a child may give to the novel or striking or amusing, with the continuity of interest that arises from the reaction of the developing personality of the child to the elements of his environ- ment. The doctrine of interest does not re- quire that we provide devices for amusing the vi th int ch ae act cat whe pra illus THE AMERICAN TEACHER child, or for attaching an adventitious sugar- coating to the unpalatable lessons of the cur- riculum. It requires that we direct our efforts as teachers to discovering the needs of certain little animals, and meeting those needs to the best of our ability. The assumption is that the instincts of a healthy child constitute a safer index of the capacities and needs of that child than the school program or the course of udy. On the other hand, the doctrine of in- cest does not eliminate the use of effort; but effort must mean something more than strain against difficulties. It is neither profitable nor wise to make children butt their heads against stone walls, and the “discipline” value of such exercises is something worse than question- able. Yet every child can be led to exert him- self to the utmost if a suitable internal con- nection has been established between a pur- pose that is real to him and the means upon which he is to expend his effort. The unity of the child’s activities is to be derived from his nature as an organism, not from a the- oretical or symbolical unity that exists only in the mind of the teacher. “Interest,” says Professor Dewey, “is not some one thing; it is a name for the fact that a course of action, an occupation, or pursuit absorbs the powers of an individual in a thoro- going way.” It is primarily a form of self- «xpressive activity, and as such cannot be sup- prest without harmful consequences. The demand for effort is to be met by pro- viding worthy ends and adequate means for their realization. In time a child can become interested in the means. The tasks we set children must offer sufficient obstacle to ready verformance, that thot may be stimulated; but aey must not be so hard as to discourage activity. Teachers who are convinced that true edu- cation comes only from the enforced perform- ance of disagreeable tasks, as well as those who are eager to apply sound theory to their practise, should read this little book carefully. Many a perplexing classroom problem will be illuminated thereby. Men and women who are incapable of managing their most immediate and most intimate vocational affairs are not | fit to be teachers. 159 THE OPEN COURT To the Editors, THe AMERICAN TEACHER: The “warning” on the first page of the No- vember issue of THe AMERICAN TEACHER is admirable. If the magazine could impress that bit of wisdom upon every teacher in the system, it would mean a long step forward. Fayette E. Mover. Montclair, N. J. To the Editors, THe American TEACHER: The magazine keeps up its interest finely. The article “Credimus V” analyzes with not- able discrimination a situation almost lost sight of, but, as it seems to me, of vital im- portance. The six crisp paragraphs on the front page, “There is danger,” are especially timely and strong. Wa. McAnprew. New York. To the Editors, THe American TEACHER: For the enclosed 50 cents please send me another hundred dollars’ worth of cheer and vigor for the coming school year, by way of THe AMERICAN TEACHER. My seeming slowness in renewing has been because of a long absence from home, and not because of any reluctance. I am indeed indebted to you for such a gracious and generous introduction to THE AMERICAN TEACHER. It is a splendid little publication—independent and breezy and vig- orous—and I’m wishing it well with all my heart. A year’s contact with your ideals and thoughts—and your fearless expression of them — would make any pedagog proud to put out the hand of fellowship and say, with Kim’s Red Llama, “We be craftsmen to- gether, thou and I.” So here abide thanks, good wishes and warm appreciation—but the greatest of these is appreciation. DorotHy PAuL. New Orleans. Write and tell us how you like our articles. Besides money for the printer, we need intelligent criticism of what we print. 160 THE AMERICAN TEACHER #4 HERBART HALL INSTITUTE for ATYPICAL CHILDREN FOUNDED APRIL |, 1900, sy P. E. GROSZMANN MAINTAINED BY THE National Association for the and Education of Exceptional Chil This institution is one of the activities of the N. A. S. E. E. C. and is intended solely for the “different” child, the difficult child. the handi. ca d normal child, whether boy or girl. No fi le-minded, d erate or ot low cases are considered. The object of this Institution is to train the EXCEPTIONAL CHILD Whether overbright or somewhat backward, to be able later to compete with the average nor. mal child. In addition tothe ordinary branches the course of study includes physical train. ing, nature study. manual and constructive work,etc. Methods and Equipment are based ypon the most modern pedagogic principles. edical care is a prominent feature of the work, HERBART HALL is the pioneer institution in this line of education. The Association main- taining it lays emphasis Bece the neéds of the sunderstood normal chiid in contrast to the overstimu'ated interest inthe feeble minded and abnormal. “Watchung Crest,” the home of ERBART HALL, comprises over twenty-five acres of Jand and is situated on Watchung Mountain, a spur of the Blue Ridge, five hun- dred feet ahove sea-level (four hundred feet above Plainfield) For terms, catalog and information address WALDERMAR H. GROSZMANN, Principal “Wachung Crest.” PLAINFIELD, N. J. The Public A National Journal of Fundamental Demo- cracy, and a Weekly Narrative of History in the Making. For alert and progressive men and women. Weekly, One Dollar per year. 537 South Dearborn Street - Chicago THE ELEMENTARY TEACHER Devoted to the im- provement of the economic conditions of the grade teachers of the United States. Organ of the National Grade Teachers Association Published monthly at Baltimore Fifty cents a yea. ; Copyright. $ LANTERN SLIDES anon STEREOGRAPHS KEYSTONE “600 SET” 6523—Modern Pig Iron Machine at Rest, Pittsburgh, Pa. p..¢ — MEADVILLE, PA Dr. J. Paul Goode, University of Chicago, says: ‘This makes one of the most signifi- cant advances of recent years in*,the better equipment for school work.’’ Great historical places, indus- tries of the world, smoking vol- canoes and the coid frigid gia- elers have had their surface skimmed off and actually carried into the classroom so that mini can feel its way into their very midst. The cross reference sys- tem is simple and yet so unique and complete as to harmonize the “Set” with every subject in the regular school course. Do you know that our “600 Set” has an equivalent teaching value of 6000 subjects? Our selling metb- od places them within your reach. Do you wish the free use of our colored lantern slide Lecture Sets? Literature sent upon re- quest. KEYSTONE VIEW, COMPANY (Ine. ~~ When answering Advertisers please mention THE Co) he TEACHER nua | :