my ave = 


mericaii Teacher 


Democracy in Education; Education for Democracy. 


ou. Ill No. I NEW YORK, JANUARY, 1914 50 CenTs A YEAR 




















IN VENI ‘NTORY... 





| lot Traditions concerning the superiority 
of schooling to living; shop-wom but 
still passable in mixt assemblies. 

1 lot Assumptions in regard to mental 
training; badly battered but usable in 
a pinch. 

1 lot Miscellaneous Information; rapidly 
becoming obsolete, but convenient for 
stop-gaps in thinking. 

1 dark gray Perplexity as to the validity 
of prevailing aims; a nuisance, but 
inalienable. 

| gnawing Doubt as to the efficiency of 
my own methods; value not obvious, 
but said to be a hopeful sign. 

1 vigorous Resolution to do better this 
year; worth as much as all the rest of 
the outfit. 








CIVICS, AND TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP* }: 


James SULLIVAN 


Principal Boys High School, Brooklyn 


In THE high schools the study of civics 
has suffered and still suffers from the 
same faulty conception of the term “civ- 
ics” as it has in the elementary schools. 
There has been the skeleton, but the life 
has been absent. The machinery of gov- 
ernment has been described, but few 
teachers have taken the trouble to show 
how the machinery works in actual 
practise. 

Another cause militating against good 
civics teaching is the theory advanced 
and upheld that civics may be taught as 
a part of history. The teacher who tries 
to teach civics as a part of history is 
teaching not the government as it is ac- 
tually carried on today, but government 
in the form of constitutional history. 
Civics thus becomes, as Greek and Ro- 
man history used to be, the poor rela- 
tion of another subject. 

The teacher of civics, who may well 
be a teacher of history, should so divide 
his work that instruction in civics stands 
out as a distinct course, being given a 
specified number of hours, and having 
devoted to it an examination of its own. 
The teacher should have always before 
his mind the actual conditions in the 
world of government today, and should 
frequently say to his class, “In theory 
the government should work this way, 
but in actual practise it works thus.” 
Where opportunity offers he should 
bring in illustrative material and con- 
trasts from other countries, for a course 
in civics should be broader than a mere 
treatment of American government and 
conditions. By way of example, nothing 
is more effective in leading students to 
understand the Senate of the United 
States than a comparison of it with the 
House of Lords, the Bundesrath, and the 





*From an address delivered before The 
Association of Colleges and Preparatory 
Schools of the Middle States and Maryland, 
at Albany, N. Y., November 28, 1913. 


upper houses of other European coun- 
tries. The effectiveness of Bryce’s 
“American Commonwealth” is largely 
produced by making the contrasts which 
he employs. He is, so to speak, con- 
stantly saying, “In America you do it 
this way; in England we do it that way.” 
Such a method leaves an indelible im- 
pression on the mind of the student. 


The teacher of civics especially should 
be an active participant in the affairs of 
the every-day world. He should be a 
keen student of governmental and social 
conditions everywhere, and a faithful 
reader of our best newspapers. It may 
seem harsh to say it, but it is none the 
less true that the average woman, be- 
cause of her lack of interest in the prac- 
tical affairs of government, is disqualified 
as a teacher of civics. Much as some 
few may take an active interest in the 
political issues of the day, it must be 
said that the large mass of women are 
indifferent. It seems to be impossible to 
get the women teachers to take up the 
study of civics, to prepare themselves 
to teach it in the same way that they 
approach the subject of nature-study, for 
example, It is all very well to say that 
they ought to do it, but the fact remains 
that they do not. Without any wish to 
appear as the protagonist of woman suf- 
frage, but merely in the expression of 
a desire to see carried out the best civics 
teaching possible, I must say that the 
only way that seems practicable to get 
women interested both as teachers and 
as students in governmental and civic 
affairs is to give them the ballot. With- 
out it the average woman teacher must 
ever remain ineffective, but this must not 
be construed as implying that every man 
teacher of civics is as conscientious as 
he should be in the fulfillment of his 
obligations as a participant in the politics 
Of the day. 










































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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 3 


So far I have left untouched the most 
important part of the subject before us— 
training for citizenship. I approach this 
matter with extreme misgiving, and per- 
haps with undue pessimism. My con- 
clusion will be worse than my approach, 
in that when I am done I shall have no 
remedies to offer. 

Mere knowledge of the machinery of 
rovernment, of government in its actual 
working, of its good and its evil, will 
not make good citizens. Even ethical les- 
sons put in appropriate places only too 
frequently fail when our young people 
go out into the world. It is with a sense 
of shame that we must realize that some 
of our worst political leaders are college 
graduates, that former members of our 
Federal Cabinet, filled with the erudition 
of our universities, knowing our govern- 
ment in all its intricacies, have utilized 
their knowledge to most corrupt ends in 
street railway and insurance manipula- 
tions. A former student of mine, who 
ubsequently became the virtual head of 
a great life insurance company, said in 
a club in Boston, “I left college with the 
highest ideals. I went to New York and 
got into the maelstrom of actual life. 
There I was amazed to see that every- 
body I could call my friends—men of 
the highest education—were engaged in 
‘shady’ practises. To my secret scruples 
came the oft-repeated statement, “Those 
sentiments are all very well for college, 
but they don’t go in real life. Every- 
body’s doing it, my boy.’” 

What chance have our ethical lessons, 
even if we could find some practical way 
of giving them, against a world like that ? 
fruly religion, the fear of God and the 


devil have left us, and we have nothing 
to take their places. We have to fall 
back on glittering generalities, and say we 
must train the boy's character so that he 
may have strength to resist temptation. 
Such training, however, is no more the 
function of civics than of every other 
subject in the curriculum. Training for 
character must be the sum total of all 
our training, but I must confess that I 
am at a loss how to train for character 
in our schools today. Preaching does 
not, for if it did our students would all 
be saints. The examples of some teach- 
ers might, but these are negatived by the 
examples of other teachers. The home 
and the world would upset any good in- 
fluence, even if all our teachers were per- 
fect. Texts on “Training for Character” 
ought to afford us some help, but they 
are mainly devoted to telling us what 
character is, rather than to giving us 
some practical means for getting results. 

Perhaps the least that we ought to be 
able to say of our instruction in civics 
as an aid to good citizenship is that it 
will do away with corrupt bosses. Surely 
the intelligent products of our efforts will 
not be the followers of a boss, but will 
be actively engaged in bringing about his 
downfall at the polls. Here again we 
are bad teachers or bad prophets, for 
every election finds our civically educated 
and supposedly virtuous citizen on the 
band-wagon of one or another boss. If 
he is not there, he is absent from the 
polls altogether with his cynical excuse, 
“What’s the use?” We pity his taste, 
but the problem is still there. I present 
it to you for practical suggestions toward 
its solution. I cannot solve it. 





What will a school principal accomplish 
who regards himself as bound to regulate 
his teachers by a rigid set of rules which he 
thinks best? In the best event the teacher 
will submit to his regulations and work as 
he commands. But they will beware of 





dcing more, for they would run the risk of 
verything being disapproved of by the su- 
srior, that they did on their own initiative. 
hy should they expose themselves to 
— when they can satisfy their principal 
man easier way? They then enjoy, be- 
Sides, the comfort of hiding, in critical 


cases, behind the authority of the principal. 

The over-zealous administrator accom- 
plishes the opposite of that for which he is 
striving. He wishes to further the con- 
sciertious work of his teachers; in fact, he 
smothers in them the sense of responsibility 
to their own conscience. The work of his 
colleagues will become, instead of more in- 
tense, more superficial and perfunctory. The 
question of the principal’s approval will be 
the most important for the teacher, and not 
the question of his personal relations with 
kis pvpils—HERMANN WEIMER, in 
“The Wey to the Heart of the Pupil.” 











DEMOCRACY IN BUSINESS AND IN SCHOOL 


Joseru B. LEE 


New York City seems to be grasping 
the thot that its present semi-military and 
almost wholly autocratic system of school 
administration is not producing the re- 
sults the citizens might expect from the 
vast expenditure of time and money. 
The hitherto seemingly undreamt of need 
of obtaining the active advice and co- 
operation of its thousands of teachers, 
in planning the courses of study, in se- 
lecting text-books, in participating in 
school administration, and in taking an 
independent part in settling its school 
problems, is beginning to be felt. 


The chief obstacle in the way of this 
democratization of the New York public 
school system, in the eyes of those who 
are not wholly blinded by self-interest, 
has been the fear that such a step might 
lead to a condition of anarchy in which 
the interests of the pupils would be sac- 
rificed to the selfish scrambling of groups 
of teachers for various material advan- 
tages. We believe that the experiences 
of cities in which democracy has been 
tried has shown the groundlessness of 
such fear. Indeed, even in the indus- 
trial world, under far less advantageous 
conditions, with workers less highly 
trained, and certainly not more devoted 
to their labors, self-government has 
proven successful. 


In a bulletin of the United States De- 
partment of Labor (Miscellaneous Se- 
ries, No. 4) is described the administra- 
tion of one of Boston’s largest and most 
prosperous department stores, Wm. Fi- 
lene’s Sons Co. Every employee and 
member of the management belongs to 
“The Filene Co-operative Association.” 
The aid of the association, as the con- 
stitution reads, is 


To give the members a voice in their 
government, to create and sustain a just 
and equitable relation between employer 
and employee, to increase efficiency, and 
to add to social opportunities. 





Every employee has a voting power. 
The administrative officers of the asso- 
ciation consist of a council, composed of 
the president, vice-president, secretary, 
treasurer, and nineteen others — seven 
elected at large and twelve elected from 
each of twelve sections of the store. 
These are elected by the association to 
hold office for one year. 


A nominating committee elected by the 
members posts the nominations, which 
are then voted on by secret ballot by 
the employees. The council directs all the 
work of the association and makes the 
necessary rules and regulations. Should 
any regulation of the council not be 
agreeable to the members, 4 per cent. of 
them can petition the council to present 
the regulation to all the members to vote 
on. A majority vote of the membership 
against a rule nullifies it. The associa- 
tion, through its council, has still larger 
powers. The council can initiate, or 
amend, or cancel a rule of the store. If 
five-sixths of the council are in favor of 
the rule, and it is not vetoed by the gen- 
eral manager, it goes into effect within a 
week. In case of a veto by the store au- 
thorities, however, a two-thirds vote of 
the members in a mass meeting can pass 
the rule over the veto. This right was 
recently exercised with regard to the 
store apparel of employees. The council 
made a rule that employees wear white 
and black in winter. The board of man- 
agers of the store objected to this and 
wanted them to wear all black instead, 
but the members upheld their council and 
voted over the heads of the store man- 
agement to wear white and black. 


“The members of the association have 
also the power of initiation, or cancella- 
tion of any rule, either of the association 
or store management, by a two-thirds 
vote.” The management has withdrawn 
its right to veto a two-thirds vote of The 
Filene Co-operative Association. The 


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Filene Company has also given the F. 
C. A. the right to nominate four of the 
eleven directors of the corporation itself. 


One of the most important features of 
the association is the arbitration board. 
This board consists of one member from 
each section of the store, elected by se- 
cret ballot, and of one member from the 
record office and one from the general 
offices of the store. The function of the 
board is to adjust any difference between 
an employee and the firm, and between 
two employees in store matters. In case 
of dismissal, when the board is appealed 
to and votes for reinstatement by a two- 
thirds majority, the employee is forthwith 
reinstated. In any other case, such as 
deduction of salary, the majority vote of 
the board is sufficient to make the firm 
execute its orders. Over five hundred 
cases have come up before the arbitration 
board, showing that this privilege is used 
very freely. 


The Filene Co-operative Association 
also operates a loan and deposit bureau, 
an insurance society, a lunch-room, a 
health department, a store paper, a cho- 


THE AMERICAN 





- 


TEACHER 5 





ral club, a bureau of summer vacations 
and many minor activities. ‘To interest 
employees in the workings of the store 
and to encourage them to think for them- 
selves, suggestion boxes have been placed 
about the building. A suggestion com- 
mittee with a representative from the 
firm’s office goes over the suggestions 
each week and makes awards for the 
good ones.” 

After reading what a commercial en- 
terprise with its untrained help, in the 
face of the bitterest competition, has suc- 
cessfully done, does the notion that the 
sixteen thousand teachers of New York 
City might be allowed occasionally to act 
and think for themselves seem wholly 
absurd? 

If unskilled clerks, after two weeks in 
the atmosphere of Filene’s department 
store, are considered fit for such a wide 
measure of self-government, should not 
a limited degree of self-expression be 
allowed to the highly selected men and 
women that New York City chooses to 
instruct its young in those qualities of 
initiative, independence of thot, and self- 
control, so essential to good citizenship? 





AN ACTIVE SCHOOL COUNCIL 


ALEXANDER FICHANDLER 
"y Principal, P. S. 165, Brooklyn 


A MEETING of teachers was held on 
November 24, 1913. The question of or- 
ganizing a teachers’ council was taken up. 
The teachers were asked to express their 
opinions. Many declared that such coun- 
cil would be advisable and desirable. 
Several objected, saying that there was 
no need of it in this school—teachers 
were permitted and invited to express 
their views on all possible subjects, their 
suggestions were considered and fre- 
quently adopted, and each teacher was 
given the greatest freedom in all school 
matters. This was met by the rejoinder 
that the establishment of a council would 
mean the advancement of a principle, 
and might lead to similar councils in 
other schools. Finally it was decided to 
try the experiment. A committee was 
elected to draft a tentative constitution. 


The next meeting was held on Decem- 
ber 8. A tentative constitution was sub- 
mitted by the committee. Several changes 
were made, and it was finally adopted as 
amended. The constitution provides for 
a council consisting of one delegate from 
each year, and one each from the pri- 
mary, intermediate and grammar grades 
(eleven in all) ; they are subject to recall. 
The council may consider and propose 
measures dealing with all administrative 
and pedagogic matters—all matters here- 
tofore regulated by the principal. Since 
the principal is the responsible head of 
the school, such measures must be ap- 
proved by him before becoming opera- 
tive. Provision is made for initiative and 
referendum. Meetings of the council are 
held bi-weekly. The constitution may be 
amended with comparative ease. 












































The first meeting of the council was 
held December 15. The following meas- 
ures were passed and approved by the 
principal : 

Committee appointed to consider the mat- 
ter of assembly programs. 

Committee appointed to arrange rooms 
and time of meeting of all after-school 
organizations. 

Hall and stairway guards to remain on 
duty till 3:05, so that pupils detained 
for a few minutes after 3 need not be 
accompanied by teachers when dis- 
missed. 

Committee appointed to standardize the 
work in penmanship thruout the school. 

All notices except emergency notices to 
be circulated among the teachers before 
9:15, between 12 and 1:10 and after 3. 
This is to be done to minimize inter- 
ruption of class work. All notices to 
be countersigned by the principal. 
This to prevent some teachers from 
circulating unnecessary notices, 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


A sketch club to be organized. 

A committee appointed to consider the 
question cf assigning substitute teach- 
ers to assist in regular classes. 

A committee appointed to find ways and 
means of decorating the auditorium 
and halls of the schools. 

A committee appointed to co-operate with 
the graduating classes, with a view to 
securing a moving picture machi.\e for 
the schocl. 

All of these measures came from the 
teachers themselves, and seem to cover 
most of the departments of school man- 
agement and administration. It is my 
purpose to approve all measures, unless 
they are contrary to the by-laws of the 
Board of Education or to the directions 
of my superiors, and unless they are ob- 
viously inexpedient. 

The beginning is very promising. The 
spirit is just what I have teen trying to 
develop—a spirit of freedom, initiative 
and responsibility. 





DEMOCRACY IN SCHOOL PRACTICE 
Jacos M. RosENBERG 
Teacher P. S. 46, The Bronx, New York 


Tue voice of THE AMERICAN 
TEACHER has not been heard in vain at 
P. S. 40, The Bronx, the largest ele- 
mentary school in the City of New York. 

The school, under Principal William 
O’Flaherty, was built in 1906, to accom- 
modate about 2,500 children in 60 rooms. 
To-day it houses 121 teachers, with a 
register of 5,700 children. The school 
has two sessions daily, from the kinder- 
garten thru the 8-B grade. 


The teachers, at the suggestion of Mr. 
O'Flaherty, have elected a council of ten 
members—one from each year and two 
delegates-at-large. The principal is al- 
lowing free scope to this council to aid 
him in solving the problems of such an 
enormous school. 

The council has already organized 
committees on arithmetic, geography, 
history and English. These committees 
are to give the value of classroom ex- 
perience and classroom observations to 
the 121 teachers. 





The teaching corps has also been al- 
lowed to organize its own extension 
course in methods. Every Friday morn- 
ing one of the faculty addresses the 
teachers for 20 minutes on one of a 
series of assigned pedagogical topics. 
The presentation is followed by 20 min- 
utes of open discussion, to bring theory 
and practise to bear on each other. 

This spirit of self-government and co- 
operation has been reflected in the or- 
ganization of a children’s school council, 
called the “Social Service League.” The 
children’s league is planning to help Mr. 
O’Flaherty and his little band of 121 
make “40, The Bronx,” a happy home 
for 6,000 of their fellow classmates. 
This Social Service League of the chil- 
dren hopes to branch out into valuable 
and needful neighborhood work. 

A visit to the building will convince 
one of the value of enlisting the help of 
teachers and pupils in the running of a 
successful school—one that is truly of 
educational value to all under its roof. 








rea rno 














THE SCHOOL AND THE CHILD 


Josep E. CoHEen 


THE EDUCATION of the child is largely 
what we make it. 

Flowers sometimes blow beautifully 
in filth, but more often disease breeds 
there and sacks the city. 

The farmer does not scatter his seed 
to the wind, with the prayer and hope 
that some may settle in fertile ground 
and bring forth a crop. He selects the 
soil which carries the best store of food 
for the seed he wishes to sow, drains 
the ground or irrigates it, as the case 
requires, and limes or fertilizes it, waits 
for the right season and day to plant, 
removes the weeds and the plant’s ene- 
mies, and lends Nature whatever other 
aid he can to bring forth a good yield 
in the harvest. 

And thus must we do for the crop of 
children that we expect to grow to man- 
hood and womanhood and become the 
nation. 

The child must not be the victim of its 
parents. Whether the parents of the 
child be thrifty or indolent, wealthy or 
poor, devoted or despicable, competent 
or ignorant, the child must have the op- 
portunities accorded every other child. 

That is to say, we as a nation must see 
to it that the children of the land shall 
be given every care and attention needed 
to have them flower to full manhood 
and womanhood. 

For the biggest part of the school is 
not inclosed within four wails. It begins 
when the child is born—if not before. 
It begins with those things which are 
necessary to give the little one a sound 
body and a clear mind. 

The child asks for proper shelter and 
healthy surroundings before even the 
kindergarten is reached. 


It requires good, wholesome food, 
whatever medical attention may be nec- 
essary, clothing and playtime. 

Such things are demanded in order 
that the child’s period in the classroom 
may be put to the best advantage; the 
child must continue in school until it is 
fully equipped to take its place in the 
working world, with the chance of using 
its faculties and talents to the utmost. 

A great deal of learning must be done 
in the home. But when the home is 
only a repulsive hovel, with meagre fur- 
niture, insufficient food, absence of 
warmth, and with illness and disease 
peeping out from every corner, learning 
from the school book falls behind in fa- 
vor of the bitter lessons of poverty. 

There is no way out of it but that we, 
as a nation, shall give to the nation’s chil- 
dren equal opportunity to all that educa- 
tion implies. 

We know only too well from past ex- 
perience that we shall likely do that first 
which lies nearest to hand—or seems to, 
We shall go at the task piecemeal and 
arrive at the journey’s end by the long 
way around. But we shall get there. 

And for all that, the time is not far 
distant when we shall have children born 
into the world because we shall want 
them as much as we want sunshine after 
sorrow. 

We shall have the children receive the 
food and the care to mold their bodies 
and minds fairer and finer. 

We shall have the schools play the 
part of the happy journey from the home 
to the industrial world. 

And we shall have the world fit for the 
children to live in so as to become the 
greater nation. 





The socialization of our education as 
well as its realization is illustrated by the 
co-operative construction of a new 
building for the industrial department 
of the Manatee (Florida) high school. 
Concrete blocks were prepared by the 
grammar school pupils and the walls 


were built by the high school boys, who 
also put on the roof. The girls contri- 
buted the labor of applying the laths. 
The building was designed and the work 
was supervised by the principal, in whose 
honor the structure is now called the 
“Kendall Industrial Institute.” 






































THE AMERICAN TEACHER 
ARE VISITING TEACHERS WORTH WHILE? 


Complaints of Children by school or 
others— 


1. Slept in school; dull and indifferent. 


. Teacher’s verdict: worst boy in 
school; boy boasted of this. 


Poorly nourished; wrong fooc. 
Impertinent, idle, etc. 


Disorderly. 


Incorrigible at home and school ; poor 
work in class. 


Harboring truants in den in the 
child’s yard. 


Cruel treatment at home made boy 
sick at school. 


Unmanageable at home and school; 
immoral. 


Successful outcome through efforts of 
Visitor— 

Night peddling stopped by scholarship. 

Works well in school ; ambition roused 
for technical education. 


Boy watched and placed in carpentry 
class. Now boasts of his success and 
takes all he makes in shop to school 
teacher. 


Mother angered at suggestions, but fol- 
lowed them, with gain to child. 


Value of school training explained : child 
responded. 


Many weeks of persuasion and sugges- 
tion: changed diet, whole standard of 
living, and moved to better quarters. 


Sunday School, sewing class, etc.: excel- 
lent work at school; stays home, off 
streets. 


Other amusements provided for the 
group: class formed at a settlement 
for shop work. 


Father and mother treated boy differ- 
ently after visitor showed interest. 


Encouragement by visitor and teachers, 
continual supervision at home and 
school: record at school excellent, and 
girl placed in Clara de Hirsch Home 
at her own request. 





TO MAKE TEACHING A PROFESSION 


TuHeE three conditions necessary for 
making our calling a profession were 
described by Dean George F. James of 
the College of Education of the State 
University of Minnesota. At the last 
‘meeting of the State Teachers’ Associa- 
tion he summarized these conditions as 
follows: 

1. Hedging of admission requirements 
tto the profession by raising qualification 
«standards all along the line from rural to 
thigh schools. 

2. Fairer conditions of appointment 
and promotion and a fixed tenure far 


beyond that which has been established 
so far, except thru the concerted action 
and feeling of the teaching force in the 
large cities. 

3. Adequate financial reward and social 
consideration for teachers, including min- 
imum salary provisions and increase in 
salary to be reckoned on 12 months of 
service, which shall be something more, 
instead of, as now, considerably less, than 
in proportion to the increased cost of liv- 
ing, and finally pension law enactment 
that shall provide for every teacher in 
the commonwealth. 





 o & & we. Of. Seo 


The 


American Crarher 


for Democracy 





tion;  Educati 





Democracy in Ed 





Published monthly, except July and August, by 
THE AMERICAN TEACHER 
129 Lafayette Street, New York. 
Gasrizt R. Mason President 
Marx Horrman . - « « Treasurer 
J. E. Mayan Business Manager 


Editor-in-Chief 
Managing Editor 








Henry R. Linvitte .. 
Benyamin C. GRvuensere, 








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 
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received. At the time of expiration, a pink renewal 
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Remittances should be made in postal money- 
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York exchange). 

Subscription price, 50 cents for the year. 

(Foreign, 60 cents) 








Copyright, 1914, by Taz Amertcan Teacuze. 














Entered at the Post Office of New York 
as second-class matter. 








Vor. II. JANUARY, 1914. No.1 








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. 





PENSIONS 


Mucu of the disharmony that obtains 
among groups of teachers and officials 
on the subject of pensions arises from a 
confusion as to the purpose of a pension 
system. Under one name we bring to- 
gether a diversity of ideas and motives 
that are perhaps irreconcilable. It is 


well to clear our minds of the confusion 
and to decide just what it is that we 
mean when we advocate one plan in pref- 
erence to another. 


Is a pension system designed to re- 
imburse a body of underpaid public ser- 
vants in their old age for the privations 
and hardships of their working years? 


Or is it a charitable enterprise designed 
to mitigate the hardships of old servants 
when these have become helpless ? 


Or is it a scheme to enable the public 
to rid itself of worn-out servants in a 
way that will not ruffle the feelings? 

Or is it a plan for compelling commer- 
cially incompetent servants to insure 
themselves against the unproductive 
years? 

Or is it a method of giving protected 
leisure to people who would rather loaf 
than work? 

Or is it a combination of some or all 
of these? 


Or is it something entirely different 
from any of these? 

Until we do make up our minds just 
what we expect of a pension system, we 
shall not be able to decide whether the 
city or state should find any or all of the 
necessary funds for a pension system; or 
whether the teachers should themselves 
supply a little, or much, or any of the 
money. We shall not be able to decide 
whether retirements should be upon a 
flat sum basis, or upon a portion of the 
final salary; we shall not be able to de- 
cide whether retirement shall be deter- 
mined by age, or by length of service, or 
by the character of the service, or by the 
degree of disability. 

Another important question that has 
received very little attention in this coun- 
try is that of provision for the widows 
and orphans of teachers—or for civil 
servants in general. The military stand- 
ards have so long obsessed the mind of 
the race that we take it for granted that 
the widow of an admiral shall receive 
an annuity, but raise our eyebrows at the 
suggestion of a public subsidy for the 
orphans of a letter-carrier or a teacher. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


The extracts from the study of pen- 
sions in Great Britain, printed on an- 
other page, will be of interest to those 
who are trying to find a clew thru the 


chaos of claims and suggestions. But we 
shall not have a comprehensive program 
of pension legislation until we have de- 
fined the place of the teacher in society. 





TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP 


One of the important ends of educa- 
tion now generally agreed upon is that 
in some way or other our teaching 
should train for citizenship. What we 
mean by good citizenship may not always 
be the same set of qualities or civic ac- 
complishments, but it is probable that 
among them would be included definite 
knowledge of the largest community in- 
terests and an inclination to participate 
in deciding or shaping policies regarding 
them. Let us say that every good citizen 
would not only vote as a duty, but would 
desire to vote on every issue that might 
affect the welfare of himself, or of those 
dependent upon him. 

Dr. Sullivan, in the article, “Civics, 
and Training for Citizenship,” which we 
are glad to print in this issue, presents 
for thotful consideration a problem 
which he confesses he cannot solve. Dif- 
ficult as the solution may be, the original 
trouble is not due to an undiscovered 
microbe. Nor has the situation of bad 
citizenship developed from other con- 
cealed causes. It is evident there would 
be no bad citizenship if there were no 
bad civic ideals discrediting, threatening 
and tending to break down certain good 
ideals which we ourselves have always 
been setting up. 

Some of the manifestations of bad citi- 
zenship are indeed new and characteristic 
of our own times, but it is equally true 
that some of our political heroes of one 
hundred years ago engaged in practises 
that would mean political destruction for 
them if followed today. This is evidence 
enough that we are getting ahead. How- 
ever, a well-conceived notion of all that 
good citizenship might mean for us, in- 
cluding some idea of the causes of bad 
citizenship, would put us much farther 
forward. 

One of the conclusions now being 


drawn from history is that we get ahead 
better when we work together. We are 
doing anything but working together 
when we engage in or permit others to 
engage in the financial or political cut- 
ting of throats. It would require great 
moral courage in the typical young col- 
lege graduate, of whom Dr. Sullivan 
writes, to take a stand against his own 
friends who feed their power by cutting 
the throats of people who perchance are 
not their friends. It would be unfair to 
say that the young man ought to take 
his stand against his friends, when the 
real fight is obviously against the social 
system or custom which human beings 
have allowed to grow up, whereby the 
strong or fortunately situated have 
preyed upon the rest of us. So far- 
reaching has become this custom of man- 
kind that college and school advice, 
given by persons who in a measure 
do not feel the greatest stress of com- 
petition, is tossed aside as useless or 
visionary. 

Preaching to young people and voting 
against bad candidates and _ political 
bosses are almost as futile as not invit- 
ing an economic highbinder to dinaer. 
The highbinders forge ahead, indifferent 
alike to preaching, voting and dining out, 
for they have the power to discredit the 
preaching, and the material with which 
to make more bad bosses when the old 
ones are gone. They can almost deter- 
mine whether there shall be any dinner 
for those who would not invite them. 

Our suggestion leading toward the 
better training of the young for citizen- 
ship would be that the schools should 
point the way, and show why the peo- 
ple, whose interest is in good citizenship, 
should control even to extermination 
those economic forces, whose interest is 
in -bad citizenship, and whose power is 
advanced thru bad civic ideals. 





ad —tkaaettatm. a. 1. 


THE AMERICAN 


TEACHERS AND POLITICS 


Mrs. Etta Fiacc Younc failed of re- 
election to the superintendency of the 
Chicago public schools because she has 
not been acceptable to certain interests 
that have “influence” in the city. Mayor 
Harrison responded to the outcry of in- 
dignation that arose from the teachers 
and from groups of women and other 
organizations not formed primarily for 
profit ; he responded by accepting the res- 
ignations of certain of the members of 
the Board of Education that he had him- 
self appointed. He then named other 
commissioners, pledged to support Mrs. 
Young. The reorganized Board met and 
elected Mrs. Young superintendent. 
Now Mr. Shoop, who had been legally 
elected superintendent to succeed Mrs 
Young, is to take his claim to the posi- 
tion to the courts, on the ground that 
the new Board had no authority to undo 
the action of the old Board. That is 
politics. 

> * * * 


At the last meeting of the South Da- 


kota Educational Association, resolutions 
were adopted in favor of the enfran- 
chisement of women and endorsing the 
constitutional amendment providing for 
equal suffrage that is to be submitted to 
the voters of the state at the next general 
election. That is politics, too. 


* + ok * 


When the mayor of New York was 
about to appoint a number of commis- 
sioners to the Board of Education, he 
received communications from individual 
citizens and groups of citizens, suggest- 
ing names for the positions, and offering 
objections to certain candidates. Groups 
of teachers also made recommendations 
—some on the ground that So-and-so will 
be friendly to You-know-who, or to 
“what we stand for”; others, on the 
ground that A Certain Person was emi- 
nently qualified for the position to be 
filled. The mayor considered the recom- 
mendations of citizens with proper cour- 
tesy; the recommendations of the teach- 
ers he considered impertinent. Nor did 
he discriminate between the recommenda- 


LlEACHER II 


tions that were backed by personal or 
group interests from those that were 
prompted by a disinterested concern for 
the welfare of the schools. This, too, is 
politics. 





A special committee of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence has addressed to educational insti- 
tutions, government bureaus and other 
agencies engaged in scientific research an 
invitation to send delegates to the Con- 
vocation Week Meeting, held this year 
at Atlanta. The City of New York has 
authorized Dr. Albert Shiels, director of 
the recently establisht Division of Refer- 
ence and Research, to attend this meet- 
ing. Heretofore the Boards of Educa- 
tion of our cities have not sufficiently 
utilized the many meetings and confer- 
ences that take place thruout the year, 
for the purpose of gathering to their 
schools the benefit of outside experience. 
Every city can well afford to add to its 
budget an item that will permit the send- 
ing of suitable representatives to educa- 
tional, sociological and scientific confer- 
ences. Like every extension of the pub- 
lic’s agencies, this has its dangers; but 
we must think of the advantages and 
eliminate the grafters. 





The Board of Education of New York 
at its last meeting dismissed another mar- 
ried teacher from the service. Those 
who are disposed to rejoice in this fact 
must remember that she was dismissed 
for deliberately misrepresenting facts to 
the superintendents, and not for commit- 
ting matrimony. 





An unfortunate incident arising out of 
the Civic Survey of the city of New- 
burgh, N. Y., was the active opposition 
of members of the Board of Education 
to the publication of the results. It be- 
haved for all the world like a Board of 
Obscuration. There are too many 
boards of that kind in this country. Let’s 
teach the youngsters in our charge to 
get rid of such boards when they grow 


up. 





THE AMERICAN 


TEACHERS’ PENSIONS 


Apropos of the current discussion on 
pensions, THE AMERICAN TEACHER pre- 
sents the following quotations from U. S. 
Bureau of Education Bulletin No. 34, 
1913, on “Teachers’ Pension Systems in 
Great Britain,” by Professor Raymond 
W. Sies: 

“It is quite clear from the present study 
that the state has been the sole effective 
agent in making provision for superannu- 
ated and incapacitated teachers in Great 
Britain. j 

“There are those in America of individual- 
istic bent who would very much like to see 
the state pursue a laissez-faire policy with 
regard to teachers’ pensions, believing that 
the matter should be left to the teachers 
themselves. Those who are skeptical of the 
importance of teachers’ pensions are per- 
fectly consistent in this attitude; but, grant- 
ing that the pensions are desirable or need- 
ful, state action seems the only effective 
means for gaining the desired end. 

“Differences of practise in different coun- 
tries in the matter of exacting contribu- 


tions from teachers in support of public 
pension systems in their favor raises an 
important issue in the economics of teach- 


ers’ pensions. Thruout Germany, with the 
exception of Bavaria, teachers pay no con- 
tributions whatever. In France heavy re- 
tents from salaries are universal. Practise 
in Great Britain represents a compromise 
between these extremes, since the contribu- 
tions on the whole are moderate in amount. 
In the United States small contributions 
are usually required. Except often for a 
period of years following the introduction 
of a substantial pension system, the writer 
distinctly favors the German practise, in 
view of its simplicity and administrative 
economy, because contributions or retents 
are not necessary in the long run to secure 
the perfectly legitimate end sought, viz.: 
partial or complete support of the pension 
system by the beneficiaries. 

“As a permanent policy, the German is 
the correct one. The writer has no dis- 
position to criticize the requirement of con- 
tributions as an initial temporary feature. 

It is the permanent requirement of 
contributions that is deemed. inadvisable. 


TEACHER 


The writer’s suggestion is that legal 
provision be made for the gradual suppres- 
sion of these contributions in the interest 
of general economy for the future. 

“The real justification (of pensions) does 
not lie in any benefit to teachers as indi- 
viduals, but in resulting improvements in 
education making for greater efficiency and 
economy. 

“Regardless of the question concerning 
the advantage of independent pension funds 
in connection with teachers’ pension sys- 
tems, the organization and administration 
of the funds of this type in Great Britain 
on actuarial principles and advice are espe- 
cially commendable. In the United 
States at least the application of actuarial 
science and advice in the management of 
such funds has been woefully neglected, 
with undesirable and even disastrous con- 
sequences in certain quarters. 

“If pensions are not dependent upon sal- 
ary, they must ordinarily be small; other- 
wise the pensions of many persons will ex- 
ceed the salaries previously drawn—an in- 
tolerable state of affairs. Small pensions, 
however, bear no proper relation to the 
standard and expense of living of those 
drawing the better salaries and occupying 
the larger and more dignified positions. It 
is unsafe to assume that they save a greater 
proportion of their salaries than others, 
since many of them have families, and social 
pressure requires of them a standard of liv- 
ing commensurate with their position. 

“American practise may well follow more 
largely than it does that of Great Britain 
and other European countries in providing 
small pensions to facilitate the retirement 
of teachers who become incapacitated pre- 
maturely. 

“The conditions and methods controlling 
actual retirement on a pension are very 
important. The arbitrary retirement of 
teachers at a given time determined by age, 
or by age and service together, is wasteful. 
At best this time can be properly adapted 
only to the so-called average or typical 
teacher. Some teachers of impaired effi- 
ciency should be required to retire earlier 
on smaller pensions, and others who retain 
their efficiency should be permitted, and 
even expected, to continue in service longer. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 13 


“There is a distinct advantage in having 
pension systems as wide as is feasible ter- 
ritorially. A teacher passing from one place 
to another should not be obliged to forfeit 
claims he may have acquired to a pension 
in the first position. The necessity of such 
forfeiture tends to render the teaching body 
static and inert. Teachers tend to become 
local fixtures. Reasonable mobility in the 
profession is highly desirable, as well as 
reasonable stability. 

“Finally, attention may be called to the 
almost complete absence of pensions for 
the widows and orphans of public-school 
teachers in Great Britain, in harmony with 
conditions in the United States, and in con- 
trast with those in the leading countries of 
continental Europe. For over a century a 
State pension fund for pensioning the wid- 
ows and orphans of certain public-school 
teachers has been in existence in Scotland.” 


(The Bulletin from which these quota- 
tions are taken may be obtained free on ap- 
plication to the Bureau of Education, Wash- 
ington, D. C.) 





ELEMENTARY CIVICS 


A TEACHER LIVED in a community 
where sanitation seemed almost an un- 
heard of thing. She preached it contin- 
ually to her pupils but seemingly with 
small success. This was not a congested 
part of a large city, but in a little country 
town—a “tough town.” 


Not the slightest cleaning up of cans 
and debris began with spring, and the 
flies swarmed everywhere. Illustrated 
lectures on flies did not seem to attain 
the desired end. At last an inspiration 
came in a circular from the State Board 
of Health. This body was offering first 
and second cash prizes to the best Gram- 
mar grade essay on the most unsanitary 
back yard in the community of the 
writer. 


On Friday the teacher assigned the 
fifth grade language as follows: “Be- 
tween to-day and Monday I want every 
member of the class to take a pad and 
pencil, examine every back and front 
yard in this town, take notes on each one 
as to all unsanitary conditions you may 


see there and write for your lesson 
Monday, ‘The Worst Yard in Town, and 
Why.’ Perhaps to-morrow will be the 
best day for making your notes.” 

With the freedom of children they 
looked pointedly at some of the most 
offensive places, and the campaign had 
begun. 


“I shall send the best paper to the 
State Board of Health and if they think 
it is worth it, they will send you a prize 
and publish the paper,” continued the 
teacher. 


Pride and fear of publicity worked 
where altruistic measures failed. By the 
time this teacher left her school house 
in the evening, she saw children busily 
raking their yards, in some cases the 
parents helping. Old cans and rags and 
papers disappeared mysteriously with 
other vermin breeding filth, and before 
the Monday afternoon language class 
was called, the town was an improved 
place. It was easy for the teacher to take 
ruege of this condition and keep it 
there. 


Her second language paper was en- 
titled “The Greatest Improvement in a 
Back Yard” and called for another in- 
spection of each place by the children. 





To promote the standard of teaching, the 
teachers of Schenectady are allowed a sab- 
batical year for study and travel, with one- 
third payment of salary. The conditions are 
as follows: The teacher must map out a 
course of study in some recognized institu- 
tion of learning and have it approved by 
the superintendent of schools in advance. 
In cases of travel, her itinerary must be 
approved in the same way. A teacher may 
have such sabbatical year once in ten years, 
and in exceptional cases, once in seven 
years. Each teacher accepting such leave 
of absence agrees to teach in the Schenec- 
tady schools for at least three years. If 
she fails to return after the leave of ab- 
sence, she refunds the amount of the salary 
advanced. If she leaves after less than three 
years’ service, she refunds a pro-rata amount 
of the salary advanced. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


CHILD LABOR DAY 


Tue National Child Labor Committee 
is asking that school principals shall 
bring the subject of child labor before 
their schools on Monday, January 26. 
The committee is glad to send facts and 
suggestions for assembly talks to all who 
wish to observe Child Labor Day, and a 
card addressed to the National Child La- 
bor Committee, 105 East 22d Street, New 
York, will bring you a Child Labor Day 
pamphlet. 

The committee is asking this special 
co-operation of schools for several rea- 
sons. Of course, educators are active 
allies in the fight against child labor, but 
they do not always remember the part 
the teacher in the schoolroom plays, in 
influencing the child to remain in school 
when various forces are drawing him 
away to go to work. Of this, Child La- 
bor Day may well be a reminder to the 
teachers. The day gives an opportunity 
to set before the children themselves 
quite definitely and concretely the future 
they will face if they yield to the desire 
for independence or the ambition to be 
up and doing which beckons them into 
industry too soon. The sober fact that 
all the girls and nine-tenths of the boys 
who leave school to go to work under 16 
years will enter low grade occupations, 
with an average wage for all employees 
of less than $10 a week, should be 
brought home to all school children above 
12 years of age. For those other chil- 
dren who are so situated that, as a mat- 
ter of course, they will remain in school 
until they are 16 years or older, it is well 
worth while to hear of the children who 
are at work. 

For the teachers of younger children 
the committee has a limited number of 
the special Child Labor Bulletin, “Child 
{.abor Stories for Children.” This is an 
illustrated volume describing half a dozen 
zhild-employing industries, and will be 
sent, postage prepaid, for 25 cents, as 
long as the edition lasts. Stereopticon 
slides have been made from the illus- 
trations, and these can be rented at a 
nominal charge. 


COLLEGES AND DEMOCRACY 


In America there are three sexes—men, 
women and professors. It is the saying of 
European scholars looking from those self- 
governing democracies, their universities, 
upon ours. They see ours ruled without 
the consent of the governed thru presi- 
dential autocrats by boards of non-scholar 
trustees—not a part of the world of learn- 
ing, but superimposed upon it. The Ameri- 
can professor has the status of an employee 
subject to dismissal without trial by men 
not his colleagues. 


The universities of Germany, the older 
universities of England and Scotland re- 
spect and trust and leave free the individual. 
Their organization gives them the right to 
regard themselves as provinces of the re- 
public of letters. The overlorded universi- 
ties of America have no such right. 


For a couple of centuries American pro- 
fessors have submitted to a system which 
gives most of them little control over their 
own lives, small power to defend any truth 
which has powerful enemies, no part in 
shaping the policies of the institutions in 
which they teach. Hence the pitiable figure 
of the American scholar to whom Emerson, 
Emersonically oblivious of such little mat- 
ters as despotic college government, held 
up a high ideal of independent manhood. 


The position of her scholars under the 
thumb of business men and capitalists who 
control the university purse is enough to 
account for the fact that America is intel- 
lectually second rate. Unless content to 
remain so, Americans have got to think 
down to bedrock about university govern- 
ment and do what thought demands. 


Feeling that something is wrong, we have 
begun to examine the life of our universi- 
ties, but no general attention has centered 
as yet upon their inherited, undemocratic 
system of control which is bearing the fruit 
of timidity and subservience among those 
twenty-three thousand men and five thou- 
sand women whose social function is to 
create. and transmit American thought.— 
George Cram in The Forum for October. 





Sect oO oO es Bone CO COB oO 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 15 


THE OPEN COURT 


BOOK NOTES 








All books can be ordered from 
THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


The report of the Committee on School 
Inquiry of the Board of Estimate and Ap- 
portionment of the City of New York has 
been the subject of several kinds of com- 
ment. But the reports of the experts were 
printed in editions ridiculously inadequate 
to meet the needs of the teaching and su- 
pervisory staff of the city; and the service 
that such a study could be to the outside 
world was apparently ignored completely. 
Summaries of the various reports have been 
publisht in the newspapers; special sum- 
maries were publisht by the Bureau of Mu- 
nicipal Research of New York, and the 
Public Education Association is issuing ab- 
stracts of the several reports. The com- 
plete reports, so far as they have to do with 
the educational aspects of the inquiry, are 
being reprinted in a series of volumes under 
the title “The School Efficiency Series,” by 
the World Book Company, Yonkers, N. Y. 
These books are under the general editor- 
ship of Professor Paul H. Hanus, and in- 
clude the “suppressed” report on the organ- 
ization and administration of the Board of 
Education, by Professor Ernest C. Moore, 
and there is some interesting material in 
each volume that does not appear in the 
official reports. The volume bearing the 
title of the series is by Professor Hanus 
himself and presents a summary of the find- 
ings of the various investigators, with many 
practical suggestions that will apply to cities 
other than New York. 

For the third time Associate Superintend- 
ent Garber of Philadelphia gives us a sum- 
mary of educational progress in a compact, 
convenient and readable form.* It is a dis- 
tinct service to the teachers of the country 
that he is rendering in extracting from the 
masses of pamphlets, the proceedings of 
societies, from books, reports and maga- 
zines, the substance of what most concerns 
us, and in presenting the concentrated es- 
sence in a topical arrangement. It is to 
be regretted that it takes so long for the 
activities of a year to be recorded, and for 
the records to be edited, and for the sum- 
maries to be printed; but when the work is 
done we have in a handy volume a good 
subs gga, ve much cumbersome printed 
matter. Garber is to be thanked for 
his mae oS, to lengthening the life of 
the teacher. 


*CURRENT ACTIVITIES AND INFLUENCES IN 
EDUCATION.—A aapeet upon educational move- 
ments throughout the world. Being the third 
volume of “The Annals of Educational Progress” 
{For 1912]. By JOHN PALMER GARBER, 
Ph.D. Philadelphia: $1.25. 





Lippincott. 


To the Editors, The American Teacher: 

I am much interested in your enterprise 
and most favorably impressed by your pe- 
riodical. I feel the greatest sympathy with 
the individual good teacher, who is never in 
a position to do his or her best when domi- 
nated by the rules of a centralized system. 
It is as fatal to teach under administrative 
coercion as to amuse one’s self under strict 
supervision. I infer that you stand for in- 
dividual freedom on the one hand, and the 
dominating influence of the teachers them- 
selves on the other. We, of course, have 
the same fight in our universities, where 
the only people who know about the pro- 
fession are just those who have very little 
influence in determining the educational pol- 
icy. I am subscribing to your magazine 
with much satisfaction. 

J. H. Robinson. 

Columbia University. 





To the Editors, The American Teacher: 

I can’t express my appreciation of what 
you are doing to raise the standard of the 
profession. Your paper should be in the 
hands of every teacher. 

Charles K. Bliss, 

Secretary Seattle Teachers’ Association. 





To the Editors, The American Teacher: 
Three cheers for your attitude concern- 

ing teacher-mothers! Long may your paper 

prosper. Mary Eaton. 
Brooklyn. 





Dogmatism is shown now and then by 
the lordly reference which a principal 
makes to “my” teachers. As a matter of 
fact, neither by law, by relationship, by in- 
feriority, nor even by sympathy are they 
“his” teachers. In an affectionate sort of 
way, he may call the children “his children,” 
but it is carrying the connotation too far 
to apply it to his relation to the teachers. 
It is usually the arbitrary and non-sympa- 
thetic principal who will insist on using this 
expression.—FELIX ARNOLD, in School 
and Class Management. 











16 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


THE TEACHERS TRAINING 


WHILE YEAR after year thou- 
sands of persons, not of a high grade of 
scholarship, and with no knowledge of 
the scientific principles, methods and 
history of education, are appointed as 
teachers in the public schools, can we 
expect to raise our schools to that 
plane which they ought to occupy, to 
make them that civilizing force which 
the necessities of our political system 
demand? The state will not allow a 
lawyer to practise on our property, nor 
physicians upon our bodies, nor even 
a dentist upon our teeth, unless he has 
successfully gone thru a course of pro- 
fessional training. Should it exercise 
less care in the case of those who are 
to practise on the intellectual faculties 
of its own citizens? Surely not. Surely 
if this subject were understood, if its 
tremendous importance were appre- 
ciated, all intelligent, conscientious 
men and women would stand shoulder 
to shoulder for this the greatest of all 
educational reforms.—William H. 
Maxwell, before Department of 
Superintendence, N. E. A., February, 
1890. 





It is as great as it is a widespread 
mistake, to regard school work as the 
criterion of the whole worth of a hu- 
man being. —HERMANN WEIMER, 
in “The Way to the Heart of the 
Pupil.” 





“ Best Editorial |fou Weck: Tra 
Weekly Pub- 
lished in Amer- 


Subscription 
ica’ says B. o. Flower, 


10c. 
PUBLIC.” wane, ¢ ph. 


One of the most valuable publications we 
have in this country,” states haf pe Jennings Bryan. 
“What a marvel The Public is,” ites William Allen 
White. “Every week it gives me a w dietnet pleasure,” 
says Norman Hap; 


Send 10c for 4 Weeks Trial Subscription. 


THE PUBLIC 


216 Ellsworth Building, Chicago, Ill. 














HERBART HALL 


INSTITUTE for ATYPICAL CHILDREN 
FOUNDED APRIL |, 1800, sy 
MAXIMILIAN P. E. GROSZMANN 


MAINTAINED BY THE 
National Association for and 
This institution is one of the iviti 
N. A. S. BE. B. C. and is sitended coleig tor the 
“different” child, the difficult child, the handi-. 
ca norma! child, whether ay Le rl. No 


f 
low cases are cons ered. The < girect of this 
Institution is to train t 


EXCEPTIONAL CHILD 


Whether overbright or concewhat backward, to 
be able later to compete with the average nor. 
mal child. In addition tothe c aceinary 

the course of study includes physical train. 
ing, mature study. manual oon constructive 
==. cee Methods and Equipment are based 


most modern pedagogi incipi 
Med Raicat care isa pavmnens iontare cof the work. 


this line of education. she. Asso institution in 
ays 





e the 
Siooionbins pony child d in contrast to the 
overstimulaeted interest inthe feeble minded 
and abnormal. “Watchung Crest,” the h ot 

com prises over twenty. 
acres of land and is situaied on atch: ang 
Rounteln. 9 sour of ime Blue Ridge. five bun. 
a ve sea-le 
above Plainfield ee ee 
For terms. cntateg and information address 


WALDERMAR H. GROSZMANN, Principal 


mes 





“Wachung Crest.” PLAINFIELD, N. J. 








THE WAIL OF THE WELL 


MAY AYRES 
In The American School Board Journal 


Johnny Jones has lost a leg, 
Fanny’s deaf and dumb, 

Marie has epileptic fits, 

Tom’s eyes are on the bum, 

Sadie stutters when she talks, 
Mabel has T. B., 

Morris is a splendid case of imbecility, 
Billy Brown’s a truant, 

And Harold is a thief, 

Teddy’s parents give him dope, 
And so he came to grief. 
Gwendolin’s a millionaire, 

Jerald is a fool, 

So every one of these darned kids 
Goes to a special school. 

They’ve specially nice teachers, 
And special things to wear, 

And special time to play in, 

And a special kind of air. 

They’ve special lunches, right in school, 
While I—it makes me wild!— 

I haven’t any specialties, 

I’m just a normal child. 





+ 
| 


Ty 


Tw) Pf