\Americat Teacher : Democracy in Education; Education for Democracy. * Vow. IV No.1 NEW YORK, JANUARY, 1915 50 Cents A YEAR | ar 9 errno | &’s JAN whe “Set Begin Again, ) , Cu LD Coe, U OF ED: ~ : Sudo | .¥ | have done what I should not have done; but now | ~ can begin again. I have left undone what I should have done; but now I can begin again. I have been teaching Names and Numbers; but now I can teach Ideas. I have been teaching Rules and Precepts; but now | can teach Pninciples. | have been teaching Conventions and Policies; but now I can begin to teach Ideals. I have been teaching Subjects and Classes; but now I can begin to teach Children. tle. or I have missed many a Chance; but now I can begin again. VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE AND THE CURRICULUM * IrA S Witz, M D Member, Board of Education, New York IT HAS BEEN claimed, and not without some justification, that the present school curricula are virtually designed for the development of children preparing them- selves for the professions of medicine, law, or the ministry. This criticism is not wholly accurate, because whatever pre- liminary education is bound up in the ele- mentary school curriculum, it is impos- sible to enter a liberal profession without many years of additional general and special training. It is, however, un- doubtedly true that the fundamentals of the elementary school curricula were called forth by the educational needs of those whose careers are not really begun until numerous studies have been com- pleted at a high school or a college. Inas- much as only 4.4 per cent of our popula- . tion is engaged in professional life, it is manifest that the curriculum should not be based upon the needs of this small pro- portion of the population. Recent studies in the character of occupations entered by college graduates indicate that a larger proportion are entering into business and teaching. This reflects a new spirit in colleges, and makes it patent that educa- tion is being regarded as a valuable gen- eral asset in more walks of life than those leading to the liberal professions. Wherefore, a new interpretation of the elementary school curriculum is required. Inasmuch as only a small proportion of our elementary school graduates enter high schools, and a still smaller propor- tion go on to college, the elementary school should not be regarded merely as a college preparatory school, but as a unit more or less complete in itself. In a higher educational sense, the function of elementary schools is not really to pre- pare children for their life work, but to give them the training and instruction *Read at the Fourth National Confer- ence on Vocational Guidance, Richmond, December 8, 1914. preliminary to the selection of their life work. Furthermore, the function of the elementary school is to educate children for living for twenty-four hours a day. The curriculum must prepare for avoca- tion as well as vocation. In a consideration of the methods of curriculum preparation, it must be borne in mind that two things are involved: First, education for work, and second, education by work. These two phases are not completely isolated, but are thoro- ly interrelated, and by and thru them comes freedom from the old enslaving theory of knowledge for the sake of knowledge. If we grant, as I am sure we do, that there must be a more definite adaptation of education to the life of the community, it is imperative that more life and vital experience be placed in the curriculum in a form comprehensive to children. Edu- cation can no longer be regarded as cul- tural abstraction, but should be made cul- turally concrete so far as may be possible. By vocationalizing the outlook on edu- cation, by considering its practical appli- cations, one is brot face to face with the problems of vocational guidance. Funda- mentally, one must reach a safe point of view from which to look upon the entire situation. Is vocational guidance to be regarded principally as an educational scheme, or as an economic movement? Is it to present the problems of education merely in terms of dollars and cents, or in terms of human development and human adaptation ? I am willing to admit that if education means anything, it does mean adequate economic return, or at least will when the question of efficiency in education is ap- preciated by the industrial world, which today criticizes education because of its shortcomings, but fails to appreciate its own lack of understanding of the value of trained workingmen. In so far as voca- tional guidance is direction into proper 2 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 3 educational channels it is essentially un- educational. The general curriculum provides what Dean has termed the “way in” education, and should present numerous signposts to the “way out” education. It requires in essence the broad general knowledge essential to efficiency in every phase of human endeavor, together with a diversi- fied industrial experience to permit of specific adaptation leading to further edu- cation in accord with personal aptitudes and predilections. The effect of compulsory education laws upon curriculum making as related to vocational guidance is readily appreci- ated. The longer the period of time of compulsory educational attendance, the greater the responsibility in organizing a curriculum so as to supply the extensive and intensive subject matter requisite to assist in vocational guidance. The longer the period of time a child is in school, the more efficient may vocational guidance become, and the.greater become the possi- bilities of the scientific development of the educational and psychological tests which are necessary for wise and vocational counsel. Personally, I am of the opinion that it is largely necessary to reorganize the cur- riculum of our elementary schools on the basis of a six years’ general course fol- lowed by two or three years of differen- iated courses along commercial, industrial and academic lines. Such differentiated courses should be balanced and of equal educational value in so far as their cul- tural aspects are concerned and each should possess a vitalizing and stimulating vocational tendency. Such differentia- tions in subject matter should unfold the general principles of vocations and reveal many previously unnoted aspirations, vocational needs and aptitudes. The cur- riculum itself should be elastic and adjust- able, particularly in so far as it relates to the education of over-age children. Fur- thermore, in order to lessen the problems of retardation and elimination, there should be a greater adaptability of the curriculum to the potential educability of the students whose minds are not all fash- ioned in the same mould. The school cur- riculum in itself necessarily must play a tremendously important part in the voca- tional guidance work of the future. In my estimation, the educational as- pects of vocational guidance are more or less opposed to placement work, as ordi- narily considered. The aim of vocational guidance should be guidance to further vocational education. It is true that some of this may be accomplished possibly thru placement, but as a general rule placement depends upon available jobs, and the edu- cational element is all too frequently sub- ordinated to the immediate pecuniary re- sults. I grant that placement tends to eliminate the random job and seeks to substitute a selected and _ theoretically adapted job plus encouragement to secure further education. The moral support of the recently placed child may be a factor in securing educational results. Consid- ered in this light, placement best takes its position in an educational scheme of voca- tional guidance, under the determination of a curriculum designed to promote the continuation school plan of teaching. The traditional culture afforded by the old types of curricula, was largely con- ventional and avocational. Today, edu- cation is regarded as a tool and not as an end. Utility should be the key to un- lock the problem of curriculum making. To transmit the thot of the past as well as to present adequately the problems of our own day, a knowledge of English is essential. It is an instrument of self-rev- elation. Wherefore, the place of English in the curriculum is of exceedingly great importance. Nevertheless vocational tri- umphs may be achieved with poor pro- nunciation and worse grammatical con- struction. It is immaterial that classic English be utilized as the basis of instruc- tion. A knowledge of the classics is dis- tinctly cultural without vocational utility, save in literary pursuits. Industrial and commercial literature should be available for its awakening effect. The teaching of arithmetic, the giving of instruction in weights, measures, and calculations of all types represents the school recognition of commercialism, and 4 THE AMERICAN TEACHER is not absolutely essential to living, tho it is in a large sense fundamental to a life of active industrial or commercial occupa- tion. For guidance the content must be rich in concrete facts basic for vocational choice. The study of both English and arith- metic per se have little guiding value in its accepted sense, but are strong factors in intellectual life and self-development. They are necessary adjuncts for the de- velopment of self-revelation and self-ex- pression. They are instruments guiding the choice among transient interests and surely lead to the arousing of latent thots, interests and powers. A breadth of the course of study in English and arithmetic is necessary in order to create ambitions, to satisfy which vocational guidance offers counsel and advice as to the specific lines of study to be pursued. The aim of an elementary school cur- riculum should be to give the maximum number of contacts with life problems. It is only just to say that the mere estab- lishment of a rational curriculum is in- sufficient. The development of syllabuses, and the adequate training of teachers in the methods of imparting instruction are equally essential in order to establish the vitalizing principles necessary for voca- tional guidance. In a broad sense, in the elementary schools, there should be little vocational guidance in the sense of pre- paring children for particular jobs. A strong plea should be made for the estab- lishment of a curriculum which will pro- vide the common training requisite for all employments. It should afford a basic foundation for vocational work. A func- tion of vocational guidance is to foster good citizenship. Wherefore, there is a definite place for history and civics in the school curriculum, but the development of these two topics should be with reference to the evolution of civilization in all its social and economic relations. The course in history should spend itself upon the ac- quisition of facts and figures unrelated to the problems of the children’s day and generation. The communal value of individuals in terms of human service is of great import particularly in cities. Personal good health and its direct and indirect contri- butions to the public health in industry, and in life generally, are of manifest value. Wherefore, hygiene and physical training merit a careful consideration in curriculum making. Physical strength and defects as well as mental shortcom- ings are essential points to be considered in vocational guidance. For the understanding of the phenom- ena of life in its largest phases, for avocational purposes, for the analysis and understanding of the laws governing life in general, nature study and elementary science present an underestimated field of value. They, too, are fundamental sub- jects to be considered in point of content and force as related to the problems of vocational guidance. They serve to call forth powers of perception, dexterity, analysis, accuracy, persistence and numer- ous other attributes worthy of note by vocational counsellors. To develop habits of investigation, for the purpose of encouraging a personal philosophy, and for tapping the current thots of the nations of the present day, the study of languages must be regarded as deserving a place in the school curric- ulum for those capable of developing lin- guistic ability. In so far as such subjects call into action the latent powers, create new interests, and develop thot and as- piration they are closely related to the educational phases of vocational guidance. From the standpoint of a more com- plete development of child nature, for en- couraging muscular cerebration, for co- ordinating the activities of the hands and the mind, for augmenting the creative in- stincts, and for developing self-control for utility, manual training and domestic science must not be forgotten as most im- portant topics to be included in a rational course of study. In addition to these, viewing vocational guidance in its broad- est aspect as relating to avocation as well as vocation, such topics as ethics and esthetics, including music, drawing and dancing, must not be permitted to drop into obscurity. Such so-called frills are not merely for the purpose of encourag- ~~ awe FeV wa OS LThClCUF THE AMERICAN TEACHER 5 ing the development of all the virtues, together with a sense of rhythm, plus grace, agility, and litheness, but they also serve to induce muscular control, muscu- lar memory, alertness, attention, and gen- eral physical welfare, as well as aid in establishing the formation of a moral character. In so far as these subjects pro- mote the useful development and expres- sion of the body, mind and soul of chil- dren they are helpful in vocational guid- ance. The first phase in the organization of a course of study as related to vocational guidance demands the inclusion of those subjects which yield preparation for all vocations regardless of the abilities, in- clinations, latent powers, or expressed ambitions of school children. The second phase of curriculum making involves the widening of vocational contacts. Its pur- pose is to give opportunity for self-dis- covery, promote self-awakening, and stimulate vocational ambitions. At this point, the third phase develops which re- quires the reconstruction of the curricu- lum along general lines of vocational de- flection. It is obvious, therefore, that there are inherent advantages in a curriculum which provides a six years’ course with a content that is general in nature. At pu- berty, the creative and imaginative tenden- cies are accentuated. Aspirations develop and talents are more prone to become manifest. At this period, the testing out process should be advanced thru the pro- vision of courses in greater variety, not leading to essential trade training, but affording a knowledge of trade principles. Opportunity is thus afforded for working out to a further degree the vocational potentials of children. This refinement of the curriculum is to be developed on a tentative basis, for it will constantly re- quire revision and improvement. The function of vocational guidance is to secure the direction of children into the proper higher educational channels. Hence, it is important that the curriculum of elementary schools be so elastic and varied as to tie in with the courses of study in schools giving special vocational training, the trade schools, and the sec- ondary schools, and the secondary schools of academic or technical nature. Not in- frequently, in order to secure proper vocational guidance, it may be actually necessary to guide the child out of the public school system into organized schools of experience. This naturally in- volves the consideration of continuation schools or the codperation with industries wherein corporation schools exist which provide for special education within the industry. Not alone must the courses of study provide voactional contacts, but thru the methods of instruction they must serve as bureaus of vocational information for individual students. The courses of study in themselves may provide in their con- tent a wide information regarding the commercial, industrial and academic life of adults including the nature of occupa- tions, their hazards, the number of per- sons employed, the wage returns, the edu- cational possibilities and the potential re- turns to adult life in health, wealth, and happiness. Obviously, the vocational as- pects in a course of study of a guiding nature must be multiplied in number, variety, and intensiveness as the ages of the pupils increase. This is to be con- strued, not merely as chronological age, but as psychological age. In my estimation, preparation for a specific job is beyond the function of a course of study in an elementary school. The nine thousand occupations which are recognized by the United States Census cannot be included in any sane course of study, nor indeed would it even be pos- sible to enumerate the countless positions which are offered by industry. Under the present organization of industry, the ma- jority of workmen are process workers and little more. The purpose of a cur- riculum must be broader and more philo- sophic than merely to lead to the training of process workers. Job education is a responsibility of industry. Possibly, it bears a slight relation to the curricula to be formulated for continuation schools. Even in this function, in so far as con- tinuation schools are related to specific 6 THE AMERICAN TEACHER industries, the statement still holds true, the training for specific jobs is a re- sponsibility of industry. Undoubtedly, the extension of continuation school methods into our secondary schools might help in this particular field. I believe that the basic curriculum of elementary schools should be general in nature, but rich in vocational content. Vocational guidance in the educational sense virtually is bound up in the curric- ulum. The only other type of vocational guidance is job finding, and job finding is not necessarily vocational guidance. Those who place the greatest stress upon this phase of economic assistance largely pos- sess the idea of guidance from without, but I believe the essentials of vocational guidance must come from within, from the school system and the child itself. Vocational guidance virtually means the direction of a child towards his life work. Hence, the function of the school curric- ulum is not for the purpose of develop- ing jobsters, much less the turning out of children trained for occupation along only a few lines of employment. It is better for the school curriculum to inculcate the principles underlying voca- tions, to give a wide training in the funda- mental processes common to various large industrial groups rather than to specify training in a few trades. In order to establish school curricula scientifically upon this basis, it is important that fur- ther study be given and investigations be made of the fundamental processes ex- isting in various broad lines of industry. Far greater educational value for the pur- pose of vocational guidance is secured thru the understanding of the principles of the lever and the pulley than the ability to know how to operate a punch press or a power machine. The demonstration of industrial prin- ciples thru an adapted curriculum will tend to arouse the latent interests of school children and call forth their indi- vidualities in terms of interests, desires, and abilities. They will call forth and demonstrate in varying degrees the par- ticular aptitudes involved and necessary in numerous industrial groups, and thus lead to a more rational understanding of the principles underlying vocational guid- ance. One aim of a curriculum consti- stuted, in the words of Mr Lovejoy, so as to be “shot thru with vocational inter- pretation,” is to widen the opportunities for careful and intelligent vocational guidance. The purpose of a course of study is to be a medium of education. It is not de- signed to yield a certain mass of informa- tion to be crammed into the brain, but to supply the instruments with which to draw out of the brain the immense social possibilities it contains. The child itself is the object of education, and the curric- ulum should be an ever evolving nucleus to determine an increasing opportunity for self-development. The proper balance of topics in the school curriculum varies so in cities, and indeed in different sections of the same city ,that the flexible curriculum should be largely influenced by the suggestions and advice of the particular groups of educa- tors most familiar with their local prob- lems. This, however, does not militate against the establishment of a minimum course of study with a maximum expres- sion of the theories of instruction. This will enable teachers, now unprepared, properly to interpret the school curricu- lum so as to afford to the pupils the voca- tional information necessary for their further self-development and self-revela- tion. To this extent the school curricu- lum is a most important factor in voca- tional guidance. The result of a differentiated elemen- tary school curriculum as thus outlined should be to prepare a child more ade- quately to enter upon the next stage in his life’s work. It should not result in fitting the child to take up just one job, regardless of his future. The true rela- tion of the curriculum to vocational guid- ance is to call forth from the child a re- sponse which will represent, in part at least, his normal reaction to his environ- ment. It should afford an opportunity for the child, the teachers, and the parents to have a greater appreciation of the in- nate abilities of the child, together with orks §-hR Ww 65 65 — we THE AMERICAN TEACHER 7 an appreciation of his possibilities for future service to the community. The school curriculum, the child and industry are three important factors in vocational guidance. Regarding industry as a variable, the child certainly as a vari- able, it is obvious that the curriculum it- self must be deemed a variable in order to fit these constantly changing factors into more or less harmonious adjustment. Perfection in curriculum making has not been achieved, nor is it ever likely to be. It is patent, however, that a conscientious consideration of the needs of communities will lead to a better understanding of the obligations resting upon the school system for the closer adjustment of the school curriculum to the needs of the commun- ity. This end involves the application of more vocational content and interpreta- tion to school curricula. Herein is to be found an opportunity for basic study of vocational guidance. TEACHERS AND COMPENSATION LAWS Ciara H. WHITMORE Curtis High School, New Brighton, N Y THE CONSCIENCE OF the public and its sense of justice are potent factors in the progress of state or nation. The con- science of the people had been stirred again and again by the neglect of em- ployers and the injury and often death of employees who were engaged in hazard- ous occupations. The sense of justice had been outraged by the successful plea of the employer that the occupation was subject to dangers which had been volun- tarily incurred by the workmen, or that employees had been negligent and were directly responsible for the injury or death. These cases when brought into courts depended very largely for their settlement upon the acumen of the law- yers, and the workmen without means had but slight chance of winning a suit against a rich corporation that could carry a case from court to court. The conscience of the public and its sense of justice were finally embodied in the Workmen’s Compensation Law, which went into effect in New York July Ist, 1914. While this law has many im- perfections and may work injustice in special cases, it is important as an ex- pression of public sentiment. It further- more emphatically declares that the em- ployer must not subject his employees to great risks on the grounds that if they do not like it they can seek employment else- where, and that he shall not hold his workmen responsible for ordinary over- sight or carelessness. Unless the work- man is intoxicated or voluntarily injures himself, the employer is held liable. The Workmen’s Compensation Law covers nearly every kind of employment, but expressly excludes agriculture, do- mestic service and occupations not con- ducted for pecuniary gain. Under this head it expressly excludes employees of the state, counties and municipalities. The question then arises why these employees should be exempt, or why the same public sentiment which secured the passage of this law should not recognize the dangers to health in those other occupations, and their just claim to compensation for loss of health and strength. But each one of these groups exempted from this law has its own special prob- lems, and must be taken up separately unless one runs into vague generaliza- tions. The purpose of this article is to point out the need of recognition of the dangers to health and the gradual under- mining of the system by long continued work in the schoolroom. The question at once arises: “Are not teachers well protected with their short hours, long vacations and liberal refunds 8 THE AMERICAN TEACHER for absence?” Yet we are confronted with the fact that many teachers are not physically strong, and that there are two adjectives constantly coupled with the name, “tired and nervous.” “Even admitting all of that, teachers of New York City at least are well protected. Are they not given generous refunds in case of necessary absence?” And this question can be answered with another: “Is this refund just and adequate com- pensation or is it a gratuity, given in charity ?” A well recognized group of diseases follow the teaching profession, such as colds, tonsilitis, grippe, pneumonia and nervous breakdowns, this latter including neuritis and nervous prostration. The palpable causes lie back of these: ill ven- tilated schoolrooms and overwork. That schoolrooms are poorly ventilated is proverbial, it needs no proof. With a school population increasing faster than cities can provide ideal school conditions, the poorly ventilated, poorly lighted and unhygienic school must be accepted as a seemingly necessary evil. But it must also be accepted as a fact that these buildings injure the health of teachers, and that the city is morally if not legally responsible for the ill health that ensues. To enumerate cases where teachers have been ill from teaching in these un- hygienic buildings would far exceed the space allotted to a magazine article. It re- quires but a moment’s thot, however, to realize that many schools are located in places where there is poor drainage, ill smelling factories for neighbors, and such incessant noise that the teacher’s voice is under continual strain in her endeavors to make herself heard. Some school- rooms are so dark that artificial light is constantly required. The sunlight with its healing power never enters here. While these buildings may have a good system of ventilation, a large part of the year it is not used; and somebody, at least the teacher, sits in a direct draught, while the outside air comes from the street laden with dust and germs. Com- pare the cleaning of schoolrooms with the cleaning done in large stores, places of public assembly or hospitals, and the inadequacy of the system employed in the schools is at once seen. In these con- ditions are to be found the source of teachers’ colds, tonsilitis, grippe and pneumonia. Should not the teacher, then, have a legal right to an absence long enough to recover her health without any deduction of salary? If she is willing to pay her doctor’s bill, there should be no question of a refund. It should be paid and paid promptly. In these days of efficiency not enough attention is given to finding the working capacity or the working limit of the teacher. Nearly all teachers work beyond their strength. All teachers work with great intensity. For six hours of the day her attention seldom flags. Not only does she hold her mind without flagging to her work for six consecutive hours, for the lunch period generally has its duties, but she also holds the minds of forty or fifty pupils upon the work at hand. In nearly every schoolroom the control is a purely mental one, the attention and interest of the class being due to the unconscious mental activity of the teacher. This is most exhausting. If work could be meas- ured—not in terms of time—but in terms of energy—it would be found that the teacher does more actual work in one hour than the average workman in two. Here the municipalities are shorter sighted than the great department stores, the factories and many other employers of labor. In some of the insurance com- panies and in many of the department stores and factories it has been found that the loss of efficiency of the employees due to exhaustion can be measured in dollars and cents. This has resulted in rest- rooms, recreation rooms, and a quiet rest- ful place for a nutritious luncheon, some of the corporations finding that it paid them to furnish a luncheon free of cost and free medical attendance, as it is more than paid for by the increased earn- ing capacity of the employee. If then the teacher is required to work beyond her strength each day, if she is given no place nor time for a quiet lun- (Continued on page 13) ; f f ] 5 5 5 a ' Po Orr t WF we She Amperican Cracker Democracy in Education ; Education for Democracy Published monthly, except July and August, by THE AMERICAN TEACHER COMPANY, INC., 129 Lafayette Street, New York. President Treasurer ANGELO PATRI Louise M. Ditueipce EDITED BY Henry R. Linvittre Editor-in-Chief BenyamMin C, Gruenserc...Managing Editor jan H. Doyvie Jay D. Lester x Horrman Joserx Loew Cuartotte E. Lee Gasrizt R. Mason J. Epwarp Mayman Business Manager This Magazine will be sent to subscribers until an order to discontinue, together with all arrearages, is received. At the time of expiration, a bill will be found in the copy. REMITTANCES should be made in postal money- order, oe order, draft, stamps or check (New York. exchange). Subscription price, 50 cents for the year. (Foreign, 60 cents) Entered at the Post Office of New York as second-class matter. VOL. IV JANUARY, 1915 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. THE OUTGO OF ENERGY THOSE WHO HAVE been in the habit of making comparisons between the hours of daily service given in teaching with the time employed in work by persons in other professions, or in other forms of human activity, should make careful note of a point brot out in the article on “Teachers and Compensation Laws,” by Miss Whitmore, in this number. We have not insisted as much as we should have on the factor of energy output. Un- questionably, no other workers are un¢ :-r the constant necessity of maintaining so high a pitch of nerve-adjustment. ON THE WAY To PARAPHRASE a popular song, we may not know where we are going, but we are surely on our way. All things seem to conspire to help us forward, tho our destination remain obscure. If the talk is of eugenics, you see how it fits with what you had been saying to Bilkins about the reopening of the Stock Ex- change. If the conversation drifts to the minimum wage, you observe the unity of ideas back of the commission form of government and the eurythmic system of education. You cannot get away from it. To be sure, every new idea makes the other fellow think that Ais cause is being advanced, not yours; but we know that all things conspire to further the cause of righteousness—which is our cause. There is “efficiency” for example; it looks like a system for converting human beings into machines for the reduction of costs and the enlargement of dividends. But in the end it will be turned to the service of man. There is the industrial education movement; it looks like a good scheme for getting trained workers at the expense of the public. But in the end it will take the cutting edge away from in- dustry. And here is the vgcational guid- ance movement, which looks to many like a scheme for finding jobs for the poor children who have to go to work before they are prepared to work, or a scheme for deciding which children are to go to college and get the five dollar education, and which are to go to the factories con- tent with a five cent education. Vocational guidance is neither of these things. It is not a scheme at all. It is a state of mind. It is one way of saying that education must be democratized if it is to serve all the people. It is an at- tempt to escape from the drift of the past to the purposeful mastery of social forces characteristic of the statesmanship of to- morrow. In his paper on the relation of the cur- 9 10 THE AMERICAN riculum to vocational guidance read be- fore the Richmond Conference, Dr Wile lays his finger on the fundamental element of the educational machinery. We may not agree on the relative values he ascribes to the various subjects; we may not agree as to the methods of treatment suggested ; we may not accept his inter- pretation of the meaning of the succes- sive stages in the child’s development. But sooner or later we will have to agree that the curriculum of the elementary school, like the curriculum of the second- ary school and of the college, must be an instrument of differentiation, or of indi- vidualization, if you prefer. To democratize our course of study we shall have to reverse completely the pre- vailing notions of education derived from the eighteenth century philosophers of equality. We shall have to recognize first of all that human beings are not equal, and that a uniform treatment will never make them equal. If we should wish to have all children become alike, identical education is just the one way to make sure that they will not be alike. We shail have to recognize in the second place that the object of public school education is not to make presidents of all the boys, nor even to make of all the children successful merchants ; but that the object is to make of each the utmost that the native capac- ities will permit. It is therefore the busi- ness of the curriculum, wisely adminis- tered, to discover and direct the abilities of each child, day by day and year by year, from the very first day of school. “Vocational” segregation will then be one of the many differentiations resulting from this process. It will not be neces- sary for someone to assure the parents that Johnny could not become a lawyer; it should be impossible for Johnny to as- pire to be a lawyer. Healthy children, working happily under the eyes of sym- pathetic and understanding teachers, should find themselves without losing their souls. That is our understanding of the relation of the curriculum to voca- tional guidance and to life. TEACHER THIS IS OUR QUARREL THERE IS REASON for believing that some teachers hung about the firing line in Europe so long during the past sum- mer that they forgot the difficulties of intercontinental travel, and _ returned home from one to fifteen or more days late. Like the boy who is late to school on stormy days, they didn’t think to take an earlier car until the regular one was long overdue. The attendance teacher has a lingering suspicion that the boy knew what was likely to happen to his car, and gained a little free time while apparently doing his best to meet his daily obligations. Many claims for refunds for delays in Europe have been presented to the Department of Education of New York City. Most of the claims are well founded, but enough are not so founded to give rise to the suspicion that the trav- elers didn’t try to see the “car ahead.” Indeed, in some cases they intended from the first to take a late car. One enter- prising character-former spent his vaca- tion in America, and also put in his claim for refund for absence on account of the war. Even in times of peace, a great many good people wiil sit still and try to appear unconcerned when the car-conductor fails to call on them for the fare. And after- ward they will defend their action on the ground that the car-company is a grasp- ing and unprincipled combine, and there- fore is not entitled to the price of a ride, as an honest concern would be. It is altogether likely that a similar point of view is held by teachers who feel then- selves at enmity with an educational sys- tem which in many ways has driven the bodies and cowed the spirits of its work- ers. Few codes of ethics can make head- way against the ancient privilege of get- ting even with an enemy by any means, fair or foul. There is just one reason why it is a waste of time for vengeful-minded teach- ers to try to get even with an unjust edu- cational system, or for a vengeful-minded educational system to discover and punish dishonest teachers. The reason is that THE AMERICAN TEACHER II both are neglecting the children while gunning fo, one another. Moreover, neither is contributing the while a single idea toward the establishment of an ef- fective code of professional ethics. And there never can be a code of professional ethics until one is developed by teachers themselves. In line with this idea, let us stop the waste of contending vengefully, and make a practical beginning by demanding that the cases of the teachers who, it appears, have attempted fraud be submitted to our own representative body, the Teachers’ Council. If that body exhibits lack of in- terest, and declines to deal with the cases, then let the evidence be submitted to the organizations of which the accused are members. If the organizations endeavor to protect their members unfairly, then let the public be informed. One thing that is more important than the bread and butter of dishonest teachers is the high standing of teachers in the estimation of the public. It is no less im- portant that the profession have a high estimate of the value of its own honor. MOTHER TEACHER FORWARD Now THat “the first stage of the war” between the mother-teacher agitators and the defenders of the citadel of tradition has broken in favor of the attacking force, the question of how to follow up the impending success is an important one. If anyone maintains that not a single mother-teacher has been able to hold her position against the resistance of the New York City Board of Educa- tion, that person is entirely correct. But the strength of the community’s finest conviction has been expressed thru the voice of the Mayor. Already there are signs of evacuation. Specifically, the Mayor has said that a simple rule should be made which would permit mother-teachers to have a leave of absence durine a reasonable period. The line of development for that idea would he to forrlate an accurate ex pression of wh> rtitutes a reasonable time, T’ e committe of the Board of Edu- cation recently appointed to consider the mother-teacher situation has reported in favor of granting a leave of absence to extend over two years. Unofficially, it is admitted that within that time it is expected the mother-teachers will become so attached to their babies that they could not bear to be away from them. The supposition is that the needs of the im- personal children at school would tend to fade from the imagination. Outside the element of shrewdness in- volved in the report of the committee, the proposition to give a two-year leave of absence is a frank acknowledgment of the principle of justice that lies in the fight for the mother-teachers. Let us push the wedge in a little further. Why should there be any limit to the leave of absence for mother-teachers? Unmarried women teachers return to the service every year after absences of more than one year, and even after they have resigned from the school system. Ex- perienced teachers who have been re- stored to health are always in demand, How much more to be desired is an ex- perienced teacher who is not a vicarious mother, but a real one. The schools may still have from moth- er-teachers the ripe experience, not only pedagogical, but also social and racial, by removing the stupid restrictions, and permitting the teachers to return to the service whenever they like, even tho it be a dozen years after their leaving. How- ever, the school system should be ade- quately protected from the woman who has degenerated into a household slave. This protection could be guaranteed by an informal inquiry conducted by the 3oard of Examiners into the reading, the intellectual, social, and scholarly in- terests of the returning teacher. How many lay mothers do you know who would prefer to have their children taught by unmarried women teachers, if they could have them taught by teachers who have children of their own? Try asking, and you find out something that ‘| he helpful to the New York Board ’ Education. 12 THE AMERICAN TEACHER SIDETALKS WITH SUPERINTEN- DENTS—VI Js I HAVE LEFT you alone for a long time, and I know how much you have missed me. You need my help in your hour of trial. The sensed cry shall not be given in vain. The clamor now is for “Free Speech.” Shall you and I give it to them? Well, that depends. If they want to indulge freely in speech, as speech, we can well afford to let them talk to their hearts’ content. If you should try to stop the physical employment of the tongue (and teeth and palate) by energetic persons of any profession, you would bring on as much or more trouble than you would if you tried to keep children from playing. Only foolish managers try to keep their “help” from talking. They try to dam up the flow of speech until the rest of us have to go to the rescue, and prevent destruction from a source that would be as thin as real water, and as harmless, if allowed to spread out and lose itself naturally. To avoid misunderstanding on the part of any of you, I shall explain that much of the speech of the semi- awakened members of our profession is no more substantial than water; in fact, a great deal of it is froth. Thus, what would not flow away would blow away. The real test of the wisdom of your possible approval of the freedom of speech in the educational system will come when, thru the operation of the human mind, thot begins to give charac- ter and substance to speech. Then only, should there arise any doubt as to what course of action we ought to follow. Speech without thot is dangerous only when opposed. Speech with thot is dangerous when prevented from free expression, and sometimes, when allowed to have free expression. (You will not mind if I appear dog- matic.) We must, therefore, not make the mistake of trying to prevent freedom of speech with or without thot, for neither you nor I want to be over- whelmed with water, or with the more solid bolts of popular wrath. How to get along with free speech that carries dangerous ideas, is a problem for statesmen—and school teachers and su. perintendents are not statesmen, altho theyoughttobe. The way they do in Hyde Park, London, is not half bad. Anybody can get up on a box, without a permit, and talk about anything (but maybe not in war time), and he will not be criti. cized, except by some of his audience, The state wisely permits everyone to in. dulge himself, staring boredly over the heads of the “silly asses,” looking at the ideal established by entrenched tradition, In our own country, part of the time the state models its actions after Hyde Park, with a growing tendency, however, to take its cue from Russia. The na tional attitude toward free speech is sini- larly uncertain. We believe in free speech as an academic proposition, or when it is practised in the next county, or in the next profession. In one’s own profes sion, especially when one is likely to fed the personal impact of an unwelcome idea, the case is different. Nevertheless, there is a genuine belief among us in the idea of free speech. What to do with the demand for free speech in the school system is a problem that you must meet, prepared or unpre- pared. If you were to ask me how to do it (and if you don’t, you are making fatal mistake at the beginning), I shoulf say that some of the free speech, con taining ideas that you would call danger- ous, is insincere and dishonest. If youhave been sincere and honest in your own off cial acts, and in the public and private interpretations you have given of you rights and duties, you can invite that sort of free speech to come out into the oper, and then you can publicly riddle it easily as you could riddle a tin pan. The public will know what you are doing when they hear the rattle. For meeting dishonest free speech yot must be honest. For meeting the fret speech that is honest and sincere, backed by ideas, queer or otherwise, you mus not only be honest, but you must also bk idealists, for that is the character o many a soul whose fire you may not s¢¢, THE AMERICAN TEACHER and whose devotion you may not under- stand. Many an idealist is made queer and impracticable, probably, by mistreat- ment from smug standpatters. Or, the queerness may be in the eye of the stand- patter himself. In any event, the idea, not the speech, is the thing. If you are idealists, you should be looking for ideas that will help the school system do its finest and best work for the children. Never mind the pestering of “irre- sponsible criticism.” You are public offi- cers, and the jobs are not yours to keep anyway. We need your co-operation. Get another subscriber. THE PUBLIC SCHOOL LEAGUE OF BUFFALO BULLETIN 1 of the Public School League of Buffalo contains an elaborate statement of the organization and pro- gram of this league of citizens interested public education. There are officers, trustees, and numerous members of com- mittees, but whether any of them are eachers the Bulletin does not state. The purpose of the League is to co- operate with local and state authorities who are charged with the responsibility of providing for and promoting the high- est efficiency of the public schools of Buf- falo, and to render such constructive service as circumstances permit. The plan of work is: . To develop and organize an intelligent and active interest in public education. 2. To secure the codperation of interested citizens for the purpose of separating school administration from other mu- nicipal activities. $6. To supplement the work of the Depart- ment of Public Instruction by becom- ing a fact-gathering and fact-giving center of important phases of school life and so promote a fitter adjustment of educational theory to educational practise. How many new subscriptions have COMPENSATION LAW (Continued from page 8) cheon, but must snatch a hurried bite in the midst of other duties, if there is no rest room in the school, if she breaks down nervously, there should be no ques- tion that the municipality owes her com- pensation. But the question may be asked: “Do not teachers remain away from school when they are able to be present and at- tend to their duties?” It would be strange if some teachers did not take unfair ad- vantage, since there are about twenty thousand teachers in the city of New York alone. But these are exceptions and should be treated as such. It is the law of the land that a person is innocent until proven guilty. If there is reason to believe that any teacher is cheating the city, investigation of that particular case should be made, as the law requires in the case of every other citizen. If the teacher is proven guilty, she should be dismissed from the service. If she is not proven guilty, she should have the benefit of the law and be pronounced innocent. For one teacher who may remain away from school when able to go, twenty go to school and teach when they should be at home under the care of a physician. But it is the unproved case of the few that seems to be influencing public senti- ment at present. All teachers are placed under suspicion, and absence laws are dis- cussed, not with the idea of doing justice to the honest teacher, nor with the idea of punishing the dishonest; but as a sort of a compromise measure, so as to punish slightly all teachers, and thus hit the guilty, and reward all, and doing half- justice to the honest. This compromise in justice reminds one of a certain trial in a western mining town. A man was accused of murder in the first degree. Motives for the crime were clearly proven, but the defendant pled an alibi, and brought forward wit- nesses to show that he was a hundred miles away at the time the crime was committed. But judge and jury had their doubts. If the defendant was innocent, 14 THE AMERICAN TEACHER they did not want to hang him; if guilty, they did not want him to escape. So the jury compromised and brought in a ver- dict of manslaughter, and the judge pro- nounced sentence according to the find- ings of the jury. Probably there is no profession where the sense of honor is so high as in the teaching profession. In every law per- taining to the schools the teachers should be spoken of and thought of as honest, faithful public servants, sans reproche. Absence laws should be made upon this principle and carry with them no sugges- tion of a criminal code. Neither should they carry with them any question of a gratuity. Whether or not a teacher should be given a refund for absences due to causes for which the school is not re- sponsible, is an open question. A large number of :teachers receive only a living wage, and have no surplus to meet ex- penses due to illness or an enforced idle- ness. If it is proven that she will be a more efficient teacher when she returns to the school if her mind is free from pecuniary worry, then the best interests of the school demand that she should receive her usual salary without deductions. But if the school is responsible for her loss of health and strength, common justice de- mands that she should receive just and adequate compensation. When in doubt, pay for her subscrip- tion yourself. EXPANSION POLICY THE RESPONSE to our advertisement on the possibility of printing as a Christmas card “The Expansion Policy” given on the front page of the November number, while gratifying, was not extensive enough to warrant our venturing to incur the expense of publication. In union there is strength. Unite with other teachers to make the move- ment for democracy in education a suc- cess. Send postal orders or stamps; everything helps. BOOK NOTES The reading and thinking public is gra¢- ually becoming aware of the fact that in the complexities of life it is futile to seek a sing cause for a composite result; and we are ac. cordingly coming to hear less and less from those who would hold the school—or any other single factor —responsible for crime and drunkenness and political corruption. The interdependence of the social factors tha contribute to any particular result is recog. nized by those who are abandoning “punish. ments” as a remedy for juvenile delinquency, In the report to the National Probation As sociation, on juvenile courts and their ad. ministration (Juvenile Courts and Probation, by Bernard Flexner and Roger N Baldwin) the special committee indicates the many re lations in which the child is exposed to dan- gers, and in which it needs to be protected The child in court is so often a victim of circumstances which the ordinary observer never suspects, that a reading of this bodk is sure to awaken in teachers a certain whole some dissatisfaction with the summary dis posal of “disciplinary” cases in school. The book is intended primarily for those who have to do with probation work, and seconé¢- arily with citizens at large. Somewhere be tween these two points is to be found the interest of teachers in this study. (The Cen tury Co. $1.50.) MORE MONEY FOR SCHOOLS BEFORE ELECTION the Chicago Teachers’ Fe¢- eration asked all the candidates for the board of review and board of assessors: “If elected, will you vote to secure at the quadrennial assessment next April the asses* ment of downtown ‘loop’ real estate and cor porations in the same proportion to their valut that homes are now assessed?” Every candidate answered “Yes.” Whet women are voters, they can get answers t0 their questions. If property of this class is assessed at its just value there will be a great deal mort money for the schools—Woman’s Journal. THE AMERICAN TEACHER 15 18 What They Say ARE OUR CITY FATHERS HUMANE? To the Editors, THE AMERICAN TEACHER: Timely indeed was the article in the Sep- tember number of THe AMERICAN TEACHER entitled Are Teachers Human? And it is es- pecially appropriate now when the agitation for lengthening the school term and shorten- ing the vacation is in progress. If the article should strike home, then perhaps the teacher’s life would begin to be a more tolerable one. Miss Hodgson’s advice and rules for teachers on how to be healthy, energetic and buoyant of spirit sounds very good. But if the school authorities should try to seek ways and means for making the teacher's life a bit less irk- some, I am sure that the public at large would very soon find an improvement in the physical as well as in the mental condition of its teaching staff. Does Miss Hodgson think for a moment that any teacher of normal strength can fol- low her rules for the average conscientious teacher, after having been indoors for six hours daily, during five of which she has been working steadily with from forty to fifty chil- dren? And what of the supposed sixth rest hour (luncheon period), more than half of which is usually employed for clerical work or other school duties? No, it is an utter im- possibility. Well, then, here is an idea worth consideration—the lessening of numbers on registers in our public school classrooms. A far more worthy one than that which involves the burdening of our teachers with more work, or the extraction of more money from their present scant salaries, as in the proposed changes in deduction for absence. Then what if one wishes to advance? In the above mentioned article the author in- timates that one should cease trying to do so. As a matter of fact, one barely gets the op- portunity, without voluntarily ceasing. I am sure that Miss Hodgson, as well as everybody else, knows that three-quarters of the teachers who spend their leisure moments studying, do so not with the idea of self-culture. Oh, no, their idea in pursuing studies is pecuniary ad- vancement—a very vital question with most of us in these distressing times. Hence we have one of the fundamental causes whereby teachers are forced to let their lives become narrow. Yes, the time-worn question of bet- tering salaries is a vital one in the improving of the physical and mental prowess of teachers. Since the conception of what a teacher should know—and especially should be—is constantly arising, it behooves our “city fathers” to heed more attentively Lord Brice’s advice as cited in the June issue of this paper. We are all so prone to criticise. However, in- stead of flaunting before us what we ourselves so sadly see, why not strike at the machine which yearly grinds out more and more of these so-called thin-blooded bookworms? Rose LICHTERMAN. P S 47, Bronx, New York. EXPANSION POLICY IN EDUCATION The employment of a _ nurse-attendance officer has proved a success at South Orange, N J. The enforcement of the compulsory at- tendance law has not only been more com- plete, but with far less friction, and the spirit of codperation and sympathy between home and school has been distinctly increased. During the winter months the school board of Sterling, Colo, offers a short course for farmers and farmers’ wives and for boys and girls or men and women in the community who are interested in blacksmithery, carpentry, gasoline engines, farm accounts, dressmaking, cooking, household managing, etc. These courses are taught by practical people chosen from among the most successful in the com- munity. During the term 1913-14 the registra- tion reached over 100. The people of the community are encouraged to bring their problems to the school and to go to work on them; when they reach a point where they need assistance, the person in charge of the course helps them as the case may demand, and the work goes on without the necessity of waiting for a class or wasting time upon points which are already familiar to the stu- dent. Have you renewed your subscrip- tion? If not, DO IT NOW! THE AMERICAN TEACHER THE WIDENING OF THE TEACHER’S USEFULNESS November 30, 1914. Dr David H Holmes,* 550 West 157th St, New York City My Dear Doctor Holmes: I like your idea of having teachers on the Board of Education. As a matter of fact I would like to see the teaching force entrusted with very much larger power than they now enjoy. This is what I recommended in my school re- port to the Board of Estimate and Ap. portionment. Our present system seems to me to involve terrible waste, with twenty thousand teachers who are not invited tp participate to the fullest possible exten not only in the administration of the schools, but in the big affairs of the city, Very cordially yours, FREDERIC C. HOWE. * Chairman Committee on School Organi. zation and Management, Teachers’ League SATIRE AND ITS PUNISHMENT ALL TEACHERS and all citizens with a rem- nant of pride in American institutions must feel humiliated by the action of the New York City Board of Education in suspending Miss Henrietta Rodman of the Wadleigh High School until September 1, 1915, without pay, at its meeting on December 22. The official charge preferred against Miss Rodman was for “gross misconduct and insubordination.” Before the vote of conviction was past, the charge of “insubordination” was withdrawn, presumably for defensive reasons, and the charge of “gross misconduct” allowed to stand. The occasion for the somewhat extravagant charge was a satirical letter written by Miss Rodman to the New York Tribune prior to a meeting of the Board at which the mother- teacher case of Mrs Lora Wagner, of the Curtis High School, was to come up for con- sideration. It was generally believed that the case of Mrs Wagner ,who was in the hos- pital on account of the birth of her child, would be acted upon unfavorably by the Board. And so it actually was, for the Dis- trict Superintendent in charge of high schools was ordered to bring charges against Mrs Wagner for “neglect of duty.” As one of a group of public-spirited men and women who have championed the cause of the mother-teachers, Miss Rodman has given time, energy, and deep feeling to all the cases of this kind. But her letter ridicul- ing the “mother-baiting” propensities of the Board of Education gave great offense to the Board and to the City. Superintendent of Schools. The indignity of the thing lies in penaliz ing an over-enthusiastic devotion to public service and to ideals by branding an offensive expression of this spirit as “gross miscon- duct”—when everybody knows that genuine cases of misconduct in the same system are persistently overlooked by the official guar- dians of the public’s schools and the public’ children. The brutality of the decision must be obvi- ous and humiliating to every citizen who recognizes that public servants have permitted themselves to use the power and authority entrusted to them in avenging a _ persona offense. Whatever the offense to the educa tional officials in a heated campaign—in which the firm conviction of the Mayor and the opinion of a large share of the intelligent public have been expressed against them- the offense to fair play in a contest of ideas has been immeasurably greater. It is a very serious question whether the Board, in view of the general doubt as to its social enlighter- ment, can afford to be so unsportsmanlike. The futility of the action as a means of “discipline” must be evident to every Sunday school boy who has learned that the “blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church’ Whether we approve or disapprove of h method of ridiculing the Board of Educa tion, we must definitely take a stand on the relation of cash fines and personal humilix tion to “initiative.” to “free speech” and t “professional improvement.” Finally, does the public want its childre taught by cowed subordinates?