American Geacher 


Democracy in Education; Education for Democracy. 


Vou. IV No.4 NEW YORK, APRIL, 1915 59 CeNTs A YEAR 

















The Blessings of 
PRET AR 4 


— se , aes 





gc. 


Blessed are the Poor, for they s all be discipli 


by the Misery of Poverty; 


Blessed are the Meek, for they shall be disciplined 
by the Arrogance of their Neighbors; 


Blessed are the Sick, for they shall be disciplined 
by the Whips of Suffering; 


Blessed are the Stubborn, for they shall be broken 


as on a Wheel. 


* cs +. 


Let the Gods discipline with Whips and Scom and 


Remorse ; 


Let Teachers find Something Better to do. 














THE MORAL ASPECTS OF ADDING TO THE 
WORK OF TEACHERS* 


SarA H FaHEy 
P S 147, Brooklyn 


THE MEMBERS of the teaching profes- 
sion of the City of New York have 
gtave reason to protest vigorously 
against the proposed plan to impress 
teachers into service in the vacation 
schools with or without pay. Such a 
measure should be opposed on moral, if 
on no other grounds, because, as I shall 
try to show, such an arrangement would 
militate most seriously against the moral 
welfare of teachers and pupils, not only 
in the regular day schools, but in the 
special or vacation schools as well. 

Because of their belief that teaching 
is a profession with ever-developing 
standards, thousands of our colleagues 
are enrolled in colleges. They attend 
lectures at these places at the close of 
the afternoon session, on Saturdays, and 
during the summer vacation. They have 
been taking advantage of every oppor- 
tunity open to them in these respects, to 
the end that they may make themselves 
more efficient workers. 

Now they are asked to take an op- 
posite view of the requirements for their 
profession. It is to be no longer a ques- 
tion of equipment for service, of power 
to inspire. It is to be reduced to a 
question of mere hours spent in the 
classroom, however unfitted is the per- 
son who spends them there. 

Moreover, the teachers are called upon 
to give the time they need for revitaliz- 
ing themselves to the richest city in the 
country to enable that city to do only 
its plain duty, namely, to educate its 
children. I say, its plain duty, for the 
education of the children is a work for 
which the city, the state, and the nation 
must be responsible if a democratic gov- 
ernment is to be perpetuated. 

All thinking people realize that the 
hope and strength of a country like ours, 
rests in its intelligent citizenship; they 
realize that the uncared-for boys and 
girls are the ones who are more than 


likely to become a menace to the com- 
munity; that proper education will do 
more than any other thing to abolish 
crime, and to lessen the dangerous army 
of the unemployed. If the work of edu- 
cation is thus all important, how can it 
be deemed a wise policy that would put 
a system of schools on such a shifting 
basis as that furnished by the involun- 
tary service of teachers; or that would 
underrate, to such a degree, the work of 
the teacher and of the school during the 
school year. Furthermore, a democracy 
cannot afford to permit its public schooi 
business to be maintained by the invol- 
untary contributions of its teachers 
whether those contributions take the 
form of labor or of money. The public 
schools must be given adequate support 
if their dignity is to be maintained. 

But going back to this ill-advised sug- 
gestion, in its effect on the teacher. We 
know that the present demands upon the 
strength of the painstaking, conscientious 
teacher of our city are already far too 
great. Not that teaching in itself, that 
is, the relations of teachers to children, 
need ever be a complex problem; but, 
with overcrowded classrooms, often in 
poverty-stricken tenement sections, with 
no home background for the children’s 
activities, with new problems of adjust- 
ment constantly coming up, in the high 
pressure under which our schools are 
being administered, the maximum en- 
durance of even the strongest teachers 
is tested. 

Then, too, is it morally wholesome for 
the teacher to feel that, however much 
they do for the welfare of the school, 
no real value is set upon it—that the 
hours given to delinquent pupils before 
and after the regular sessions; to the 


* Part of Report of the Committee on 
School Organization and Management at a 
meeting of the Teachers’ League of New 
York City, December 19, 1914. 


50 





nf = hemes ren eM 


YTmoentoanos ates aw 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 51 


calls made upon parents; to the confer- 
ences of teachers ; the time spent at home 
examining the work of the children, and 
in preparation for the lessons of the com- 
ing day—is it morally wholesome for her 
to feel that this time is, in no sense, esti- 
mated or valued by the Board of Edu- 
cation, the parents, or any other class of 
citizens ? 

Should we be obliged to reiterate again 
and again to an intelligent community, 
that one hundred ninety-five days from 
nine to three o’clock does not constitute 
the teacher’s hours of labor? Even 
though we know how impossible it is to 
measure the influence of a good teacher 
by the hour standard, still, if we grant 
for the sake of argument, that we can 
do it, it will be found that the number 
of hours given to duty is already greater 
than that given by any other class of city 
employees. The nervous, worn-out state 
of many of our teachers at the close of 
the school year amply testifies to the 
truth of this statement. 

Dr. Ternan of Leland Stanford Uni- 
versity says, “Not even our superinten- 
dents and boards of education realize the 
terrible strain under which many teach- 
ers work.” 

As a result of tests on kinds of work 
in relation to mental strain, Wagner says, 
“From the standpoint of fatigue, one 
hour of teaching is equivalent to two 
hours of ordinary study. Four hours of 
teaching thus represent eight hours of 
ordinary mental work.” 

Dr. William Oldwright, Professor of 
Hygiene at the University of Toronto, 
points out that teaching is, in certain re- 
spects, one of the most hazardous of 
occupations. The percentage of persons 
who become tubercular is immensely 
higher than the percentage for the popu- 
lation as a whole. He says, also, what 
most of us in New York City know, that 
teachers are especially subject to patho- 
logical mental fatigue due to the great 
wear and tear resulting from the con- 
stant necessity for solving new situations. 
He says further that probably more than 
a inillion children in the United States 
are taught by persons who are neuras- 


thenic, or otherwise nervously unstrung. 

In connection with this last statement, 
the recent report of the United States 
Census Bureau at Washington is of im- 
mediate interest. In that report it is 
stated that, in hospitals for the insane, 
the number of inmates who come from 
cities is twice as great as is the number 
of those who come from rural districts. 
This fact has signification for us. It is 
fair to conclude that we in New York 
have already our full quota of the neur- 
asthenic teachers mentioned by Dr. Old- 
wright without adding to the number by 
additional work. 

Indeed, facts similar to the foregoing 
ought to teach us that the summer vaca- 
tion is absolutely essential to the well- 
being of teachers. We should not will- 
fully sow the wind in the form of com- 
pulsory vacation teaching unless we wish 
to reap the whirlwind in the number of 
absent sick teachers during the year that 
follows. Then, again, is it not retrogres- 
sive to attempt to increase months or 
hours, or days of labor for the teaching 
profession when the tendency everywhere 
in the working world today is towards 
shorter periods and more leisure? 

Furthermore, is it morally wholesome 
for us to be forced so often to parallel 
our work with that of other departments 
of city employees? We are not working 
upon inert material. We are dealing with 
young life in all its promise. Whenever 
an inspiring address is made to teachers, 
emphasis is placed by the speaker on the 
professional spirit, on the high ideals 
that should control, on the preparation 
that is never complete, on the necessity 
for constant study in order that the 
teacher may keep pace with changes in 
method and in practise, and last, but not 
by any means least, on the joy that 
should be ours because of the opportuni- 
ties for service in this great field of hu- 
man endeavor. 

Such are our ideals, yet it is sad to 
note that many seemingly devoted teach- 
ers now retired, manifest no interest, and 
retain no enthusiasm for the work of 
teaching. Instead, too frequently, ut- 
terance is given to cynical remarks about 








52 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


the work, which indicate an inner tem- 
per that has been probably developed by 
irritating reflections on just such forms 
of injustice as we are discussing here 
this evening. 

Is there not danger that a feeling of 
disgust very destructive of high profes- 
sional ideals may be engendered when we 
reflect on the various attempts to depre- 
ciate, or belittle the work of education by 
the very persons who ought to be most 
cognizant of its value? Fine ideals may 
be made so impossible through stress of 
work that the city may not get the best 
service of even its ablest teachers. To- 
day, many excellent teachers put their 
energies into social movements outside of 
the school, because so much of the work 
of the school they believe to be under- 
valued. This is not true of other pro- 
fessions. A  superannuated doctor or 


clergyman still retains his enthusiasm for 
the success of the ideals of his calling. 

But let us consider the effect of this 
proposed measure on the success of the 


vacation school itself. The explanation 
most frequently offered for the present 
efficiency of vacation schools is that the 
work has been done by carefully selected 
teachers who are endowed with the mis- 
sionary spirit, and who, therefore, are 
capable of inspiring backward and de- 
linquent pupils. It has been said that 
the indifferent or irresponsible boy who 
has possibly developed a dislike for a 
given teacher through the school year, 
because of her nagging ways and adverse 
criticism, in the vacation schools, with 
these superior, great-hearted teachers, 
has been known to blossom out, reveal- 
ing mental power never before suspected. 
How is it possible to maintain this high 
standard in the teaching force of those 
schools if we are now to have only the 
compulsory, unpaid service of already 
exhausted teachers? Work carried on in 
such a way must, of necessity, defeat 
its own ends. 

And now a word not for delinquents, 
but for normal children. Should they 
never have any free days in their lives? 
Is education merely a question of extend- 
ing indefinitely the hours and days spent 


in the classroom, regardless of the stimu- 
lus at work upon pupils while there? Is 
there never to be any time when young 
people are to be allowed simply to grow; 
to have opportunity to be themselves, and 
to follow some of their own personal 
inclinations. 

Perhaps, if we had less tendency in 
all schools to adhere to standards that 
we have outgrown socially and spiritually 
—standards that have been sent long 
since to the scrap heap by the world of 
industry and commerce—if we could get 
rid faster of obsolete matter and forms 
of instruction, possibly we would not 
find the children so woefully in need of 
vacation work. 

Possibly the greatest evil of the whole 
situation, however, is a permanent loss 
of ethical ideals that must result from 
these attempts to foist upon the teachers 
a burden so far beyond the limits of their 
strength. Teachers are led to think that 
their interests, instead of being one with 
those of the city, are diametrically op- 

sed to anything that sordid commercial 
interests, representing themselves as tax- 
payers, venture to suggest. Will teachers 
not also come to realize that their only 
hope of correcting injustice lies, not in 
discussion and in reasoning, but rather 
in such strength of organization that a 
united front will be maintained against 
even the most reasonable propositions 
submitted by a suspected, unfriendly 
class. 

Whether or not the Corporation Coun- 
sel succeeds in interpreting the law so 
as to make it permissive to exact vaca- 
tion teaching; whether or not we ignore 
the provision in the Constitution of the 
United States which prohibits involun- 
tary servitude, we are fully cognizant of 
the moral grounds on which we make 
our plea. We know that jurisprudence 
rests on justice, however much a par- 
ticular law may be misinterpreted or mis- 
applied. We believe that it savors some- 
what of a breach of faith to force us to 
render twelve months’ service when cus- 
tom and the present by-laws of the Board 
of Education have established a school 
year of ten months. There is no jug- 





eon 8 of mem ~« 


S2ovwe 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 53 


gling with the idea that salary is low- 
ered, whether it be by actually lessening 
a given amount, or by exacting more 
work for the same money. 

Then, again, can the city afford to 
have its teachers worried and harassed 
by such propositions? Do such discus- 
sions tend to promote peace and con- 
tent in the schools? During the past 
four months, the bare possibility of such 
an injustice being perpetrated, has kept 
teachers in a state of unrest. Their at- 
tention has been dissipated, their energy 
sapped, and they have been unable to do 
efficiently the work which the city has 
employed them to do—namely, to teach 
the children. 

Perhaps, in this connection, it may not 
be amiss to call attention to a report just 
made by the Commission on Industrial 
Relations at Washington. The commis- 
sion states that one of the cardinal causes 
of industrial unrest is 

“The rapidly growing feeling that 
redress for injuries and oppression 
cannot be secured through existing in- 
stitutions.” After a year’s investiga- 
tion covering all phases of the rela- 
tions between capital and labor, the 

Commision puts this question: Is 

there need for changes, improvements, 

and adaptations, or must entirely new 
legal machinery be devised for the con- 
trol of industry? 

Is there not a probability that the 
teachers in their search for justice may 
begin to ask themselves, “Is it going to 
be necessary to devise entirely new legal 
machinery for the settlement of our 
problems, and for the accomplishment 
of our ideals, and if so, are we not strong 
enough to bring such changes about? 


Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, with her usual 
insight, says, “Real education is perpet- 
ual adjustment to the social movement.” 
If this be true, how unfitted to train 
others are the teachers who, for lack of 
time, have no knowledge of the social 
movement. If every particle of strength 
they possess is exacted of them in the 
year’s work, how can they keep them- 
selves adjusted to the social movement? 
To keep ourselves in line with the edu- 
cational thot of the twentieth century, 
we must have the leisure to come into 
close touch with other people’s lives, and 
forms of work, so that we may correctly 
interpret the world in which we live. We 
shall thus come to realize the greatness 
of our opportunity as teachers, and be 
able to get the joy that we should out of 
our work. If we are to put our souls 
into the work of teaching, if we are to 
put the enthusiasm needed into the daily 
life of the school, we must resist all at- 
tempts to belittle in this fashion the im- 
portance of the work of education. 

In our opposition to this measure, we 
feel sure that we have the sympathy of 
our Board of Education. We believe 
that the Board will give this proposition 
no support. We do not believe that our 
Board of Education which has declared 
its policy to be to invite the confidence 
of its teachers, to encourage a high pro- 
fessional spirit among them, and to 
capitalize in every way possible the teach- 
ers experience, is at all likely to give 
sanction to a measure so pernicious, in 
its moral and professional aspects, as is 
this plan for compulsory, unpaid service 
in the vacation schools of the great, 
wealthy, and otherwise progressive City 
of New York. 





THE SIX-HOUR DAY* 


N ABRAHAM 
Bryant High School, Long Island City, N Y 


AMONG THE QUESTIONS offered for 
consideration in the annual report of 
President Churchill of 1913 was that 
of lengthening the official high school day 
to six hours. This would mean a daily 


session from 8.40 or 9 a. m. to 3 p. m. 


*Part of Report of the Committee on 
School Organization and Management at 
meeting of Teachers’ League of New York 
City, December 19, 1914. 









instead of to 2.30 p. m., an addition of 
half an hour a day. For this additional 
half-hour, no additional compensation is 
suggested. 

Upon the principle that an increase in 
the working time without any additional 
compensation is in reality a lowering of 
wages, the proposal should be opposed. 
In the course of a year, this extra half- 
hour per day, amounts to one hundred 
hours or the equivalent of four school 
weeks. We can realize the meaning of 
this without comparing the proposed year 
to a school year extending from August 
15 to July 1, instead of from September 
15 to July r. 

Then, again, we have to consider the 
viewpoint of teaching efficiency. Expe- 
rience shows that the maximum number 
of hours for efficient teaching is four. 
The present official day is one of five 
hours, allowing for four hours of actual 
teaching and one hour of administrative 
work. As a matter of necessity, many 
teachers have to do more than four hours 
actual teaching a day, and efficiency is 
impaired in such cases. The proper 
course is not to demand of all the teach- 
ing force this extra work, but to relieve 
those already burdened by increasing the 
accommodations of the schools in ques- 
tion. The increase in time was suggested 
as a method of raising the efficiency of 
the high schools. We see that it may 
prove a means of making the schools 
less efficient. 

Furthermore, there is a difference be- 
tween the official school day and the 
actual working day of the teacher. The 
ringing of the gong at 2.30 o’clock does 
not mean that the teacher’s school work 
has ceased. The time book and the time 
clock cards will show that the large ma- 
jority of teachers continue work in school 
for hours after the official day has closed. 
A study of the facts will show that the 
actual teachers’ working day is now 
nearer to ten hours than to six. Prepara- 
tion for the day’s teaching, checking up 
the work, improving oneself profession- 
ally, taking care of the school’s and the 
student’s outside and extra activities and 
welfare—these and more are work re- 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





quired or asked of every teacher in the 
system. The time for this work is not 
provided in the official school day. But 
the time is voluntarily given by the 
teacher. And in the course of each year 
enough extra time is given to make the 
average day of the high school teacher 
equal to at least nine hours. The pro- 
posed lengthening of the official school 
day does not provide for relieving the 
teacher of any part of the work he is 
doing at present, but merely adds an- 
other half hour to the burden. 

That the high schools dismiss classes 
at 2.30 instead of at 3 as in the case of 
the elementary schools is chiefly due to 
the high schools having a shorter lunch 
period. The official teaching hours in 
the two kinds of schools are equal. The 
increase would make the high schools’ 
day longer than the present elementary 
school day. Any favor shown to the sug- 
gestion on the ground that there is a dif- 
ference between the official school time 
of the two kinds of schools is based on 
error. 

From the standpoint of the pupil, the 
increase is also undesirable. Four hours 
of concentration is the maximum for ef- 
ficient work. The same matters men- 
tioned above from the standpoint of the 
teacher have equal force from the view- 
point of the pupils. More provision for 
recreation and study should be made for 
the pupils, but provision should not be 
made at the expense of the class teacher. 
The proper method to adopt is that of 
supplying special teachers with appro 
priate hours for special work. 

The suggestion of lengthening the 
school day was made as one of the pos- 
sible ways of increasing the efficiency of 
the high schools. It would have been 
better to have suggested that better use 
be made of the time already devoted to 
the official day. Better accommodations, 
less crowding of the curriculum, proper 
sized classes, better grading and classifi- 
cation of pupils, co-operative methods of 
administration—these are among the mat- 
ters looked to for getting the greatest 
return out of the time spent in the off 
cial school day. Not more time but bet- 
























































ee re Oe a ie Be ee 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 55 


ter use of the time should be our answer 
to the President’s suggestion. 

On these grounds, then, namely, that 
it would be equivalent to a decrease in 
pay for the teacher; that it would tend 
to impair the efficiency of both teacher 
and pupil; that the remedy for school 


troubles lies along other lines; and that 
the teacher’s actual working day is al 
ready longer than it should be, this com- 
mittee should express itself as opposed 
to the lengthening of the official school 
day in high schools. 





ECONOMICS OF ADDITIONAL SCHOOL WORK* 


Miss A L Parrort 
P S 115, Manhattan, New York 


TEACHING FOR twelve months for the 
same salary that we are now receiving 
for ten results in a reduction of the sal- 
ary per month of 1/6, or 16 2/3%. 

The salaries and conditions as at pres- 
ent fixed in New York City are failing 
to attract outsiders to such an extent 
that the board appointed a committee to 
discover why there were so few appli- 
cants from outside sources. It was 
recommended to the board of superinten- 
dents that they advertise for teachers in 
other cities and forward communications 
to the boards of education in other cities 
citing the inducements for coming to 
New York. All this has been done. 

Circulars of the Board of Examiners 
under date of October 15, 1914, relat- 
ing to the amount of credit given for 
outside experience have been altered dur- 
ing the past year to read: “Under the 
present schedule of allowance for out- 
side experience, in the cases of gradu- 
ates from approved normal schools or 
colleges, credit is usually given, year for 
year, up to eight years. Thus, such a 
graduate who has had eight years’ suc- 
cessful experience elsewhere, would 
probably receive an initial salary of 
$1,080 per annum.” This is the salary 
at the beginning of the ninth year. Thus, 
in order to obtain a sufficient supply of 
teachers the board of superintendents 
has been obliged to allow outsiders the 
same salary, year for year, as those 
trained in the city schools, while formerly 
but five years was allowed for 9 years’ 
outside experience, six for ten, and so 
on. 


This circular also states: “The de- 
mand for grade teachers in the elemen- 
tary schools of the City of New York 
is such that the eligible lists resulting 
from each of the examinations herein 
announced will probably be exhausted 
within eight months following the ex- 
amination.” 

These lists would have been exhausted 
but for the consolidation of classes lately 
inaugurated to the great detriment of 
the schools. A comparison with Chi- 
cago will be illuminating : 

In Chicago, schedules have lately been 
adopted providing for increases in 1916 
and 1917. In 1917 they expect to pro- 
vide, for the fifth and sixth grades, in 
the twelfth year, a maximum of $1,500, 
the same maximum which we reach at 
the close of the fifteenth year, in corre- 
sponding grades. In Chicago, it is neces- 
sary to pass an examination, or obtain 
certain academic degrees, to entitle the 
teacher to pass from the first, second, 
third, or fourth grades, or so-called 
“Lower Group,” to the fifth, sixth, or 
seventh grades, or so-called “Higher 
Group” of the elementary schools. 

Having passed this additional require- 
ment a teacher in the fifth or sixth grades 
of the Chicago schools would, by 1917, 
receive the $1,500 maximum three years 
earlier than a teacher in the same grades 
in New York. Thus a New York teach- 
er would receive $360 less than a Chi- 


*Part of Report of the Committee on 
School Organization and Management at 


meeting of Teachers’ League of New York 


City, December 19, 1914. 





ete a pene nile a 


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56 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


cago teacher during the same period of 
time. The fact that the cost of living is 
higher in New York than in Chicago 
must also be taken into consideration. 

When these facts are considered—a 
reduction in the salary holds special sig- 
nificance, since the number of appli- 
cants from other sources is likely to de- 
crease still further. 

Thus, New York City, not being able 
to supply the demand entirely from its 
own resources, by adopting a course 
which would not be desirable in any 
event, would face a dearth of teachers. 

Comparison with San Francisco and 
Denver, the latter, a city of but 200,000 
inhabitants, reveals the following: 

In the elementary grades, in Denver, 
the maximum of $1,200 is reached at the 
beginning of the ninth year; in San Fran- 
cisco, at the beginning of the eighth. 
In New York City the salary at the be- 
ginning of the ninth year is $1,080. 

At the beginning of the eleventh year, 
in New York, the salary is $1,200, the 


same period of time (ten months’ actual 
teaching), teachers are receiving the same 
salary at the same year, $1,200 per year, 
or $120 per month. 

Let New York City adopt a twelve- 
month school year, requiring the regular 
teachers to teach twelve months, for the 
same money for which they taught ten 
months, and the monthly salary becomes 
$100 in New York, as compared with 
$120 in these two smaller cities; and the 
salary for ten months’ teaching in New 
York City becomes $1,000, as compared 
with $1,200, for ten months’ teaching. 
In actual fact, the ratio would be even 
less favorable to New York. 

It is needless to say that any increase 
in the hours per day, the days per week, 
or the weeks per year would result in 
the same relative reduction in the salary 
received and have the same tendency 
still further to produce a famine of de- 
sirable applicants for teachers’ positions 
in the New York City schools. 





SIGNS OF PROGRESS 


IN LOOKING over a list of bills recently 
introduced into Congress and the State 
legislature one cannot but be impressed 
with the unrest in the educational world. 
And in most cases it seems like well 
planned moves in advance. No less than 
five States have bills up for the medical 
examination of children and a number 
have bills on compulsory education and 
child labor. There is a steady movement 
toward consolidation of schools. Numer- 
ous States are attempting to induce a 
larger use of the school plant as a social 
center while some are extending the 
school term. Oregon moves for equal 
pay. New York and New Jersey are at- 
tempting to legislate the Bible into the 
schools while Connecticut would institute 
military instruction. 

Vocational training is receiving con- 
siderable attention. In the lower house 
of Congress a comprehensive plan was 
presented whereby States were to receive 


national aid for vocational training. Be- 
cause of its apparent practicability there 
is danger of legislatures going astray 
upon this subject. Most educationists 
are themselves unprepared to attack this 
problem intelligently at the present time. 
Among those who have an understanding 
of the sociological bearings of the ques- 
tion are Ella Flagg Young, John Dewey, 
and W. C. Bagley. The aid of these 
should be sought in the formulation of 
bills upon vocational training. 


The significant thing for the teaching 
profession is that there is a marked ten- 
dency to raise the standards of teaching. 
New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, 
Ohio, Connecticut, South Dakota and 
Texas wish to make their normal school 
system more efficient. Higher standards 
will make for a better professional spirit, 
for initiative on the part of the teacher, 
and hence will tend to break down our 
present servile attitude towards author- 


ity. 





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The 


American Cearher 





Democracy in Education; Education for Democracy 





Published monthly, except July and August, by 
THE AMERICAN TEACHER COMPANY, INC., 
129 Lafayette Street, New York. 








ANGELO PATE «2 .ccccccccccccccess President 
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EDITED BY 
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{mt H. Dorie = D. Lester 
K Horrman osePH Loew 


Cuargtotre E. Lee mizt R. Mason 
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VOL. IV APRIL, 1915 No. 4 








This paper is striving to do its part 
in the creation of a real profession of 
teaching, the members of which shall 
be self-respecting and respected, thru 
stimulating clear thinking on the work 
and the social position of teachers, and 
thru intelligent criticism of systems of 
educational administration. No greater 
service than this could be rendered to 
the children of the state. 


FOR CLEANER LEADERSHIP 


ONE IS NEVER remembered as a wel- 
come guest who says, “No, thank you, 
we have celery at home, and I think it’s 
cleaner.” In the same way, we are in- 
clined to resent the remarks of those 
teachers who were brot up “in the coun- 
try,” when they say, “In Massathusetts 
the type of professional leader of your 
Mr Blinks or your Miss Swinks would 
be absolutely impessible. Their methods 


57 


and their ideals appear to me to be char- 
acteristic of political wire-pullers. When 
I came to New York, drawn by your 
more favorable tenure of position regu- 
lations, I was greatly shocked to find that 
skill in teaching, or the possession of 
educational or social ideals and ability to 
work for them, bore little if any relation 
to leadership among the teachers.” It is 
easy enough to settle the case of the per- 
sonal guest; we simply don’t invite him 
again. But the City’s guest came unin- 
vited. He is now one of us, and we can- 
not really quit even by telling him to go 
back to Massachusetts. 

But the gentlemen from Massachu- 
setts or elsewhere does not represent the 
only group that complains of the low 
character of professional leadership 
among the teachers of New York City. 
Insiders also complain. Municipal offi- 
cials complain, and blame the teacher- 
leaders for the increased taxation to meet 
the demands of legislation past despite 
the City’s protest. Members of the Board 
of Education complain, unless they can 
use the power of the leaders to further 
their own ends. Superintendents and 
principals complain, and take it out of 
the teachers. The teachers themselves 
complain—and join with one teacher- 
politician to fight another. 

Few of the protesters from the inside, 
however, have the point of view of the 
gentleman from Massachusetts. They do 
not see what they are missing. Most of 
the emphasis of the aggressive persons 
connected directly or indirectly with edu- 
cational leadership is on fight, fight, fight. 
Sometimes we do hear about cooperation, 
but codperation is useful to those who 
want to fight harder. The leaders them- 
selves do not see what they are missing. 
They only know that “if you want any- 
thing in New York, you must have the 
right sort of backing, and then you must 
hang on and fight.” 


It is more or less useless to try to make 
the teacher-politicians see what they are 
missing, altho some of them, possibly 
most of them, would have been ideal 
leaders, if better ideals than those that 
were known to lead to success had been 











58 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


presented to their minds at the beginning 
of their careers. It is also useless to try 
to put them out of the leadership by pre- 
venting their participation in proposed 
democratic administration, as was sug- 
gested by Superintendent Elliott in the 
School Inquiry Report on the New York 
school system. 

As soon as the intelligent portion of 
the general public, under the leadership 
of the idealists in the ranks of the teach- 
ing profession, comes to know that it can- 
not bring to realization the urgent social 
and economic needs in education until 
the great body of teachers are working 
under the stimulus of social ideals, then 
the necessity of a cleaner, more ideal lead- 
ership than now prevails in the profes- 
sion will also be apparent. The public 
may have its curricula of domestic sci- 
ence, vocational guidance, industrial edu- 
cation, and whatever else it wants, but so 
long as the development and the control 
of all these social forces are in the hands 
of the persons “who have the right back- 
ing,” so long will the heart of the rank 
and file not be in the work, if, indeed, 
the heart does not go out of the profes- 
sion altogether. 


HOW IT FEELS TO BE SUP- 
PRESSED 


WITHIN THE past month, an editor of 
THE AMERICAN TEACHER has been in- 
formed that a principal of an elementary 
school in New York City recently charged 
his teachers not to support this paper. 
We leave the “his” in the sentence with- 
out marks of quotation, for the pronoun 
has technical significance, and applies 
widely. That fact adds to the difficulty 
of our determining the identity of the 
principal, as our friend who gave the in- 
formation preferred not to go so far as 
to tell us the principal’s name. The 
difficulty is still further increased by the 
fact that there are several schools in the 
City where our subscriptions are char- 
acterized by extreme scantiness. We are 
unable to say whether the prevalence of 
scantiness means suppression, or subjec- 
tion, or both—whether suppression of the 


paper, or subjection of the teachers, or 
both 

For some time we have known that the 
principal of a Brooklyn high school in- 
timated to his teachers in teachers’ meet- 
ing on one occasion that he took it for 
granted that THE AMERICAN TEACHER 
would receive no support from the 
teachers of that school, since the school 
had been criticised unfavorably by the 
paper. There was no doubt expressed 
then, and at no time has there come to 
the paper any denial, of the accuracy of 
the criticism. 

We may be pardoned for betraying in- 
dications of elation, for, after suffering 
three years of indifference on the part 
of nearly all the members of the Board 
of Education, the superintendents, the 
principals, and most of the teachers of 
the Great City, it feels good to have the 
standpatters show signs of life. We are 
encouraged to double our efforts. 

Next to thankfulness for real cash sub- 
scriptions, of which we are sadly in need, 
we shall be glad to display gratitude for 
information on the attitude of educational 
officers who disapprove our policy of edu- 
cational regeneration so fiercely that they 
are willing to talk about it in their official 
capacity. ———_———_ 

IN ANOTHER column of this issue is 
given an interview with the president of 
The Teachers’ Council of The City of 
New York. The dearth of the informa- 
tion gathered by the reporter is interest- 
ing and instructive. Sometime, let us 
hope, there will be formed in this city, 
an association devoted to the “Principles 
of Democracy.” Under its sheltering 
wing will develop a hopeful, helpful, 
cheerful, truthful body of teachers whose 
influence will be a force for positive good 
to their pupils, their fellow-workers, their 
superiors, and to humanity in general. 


The existence of a private business college 
in a city is an indication of the fact that sev- 
eral young people in that community do not 
approve of the high school, and also of the 
fact that said high school is not living up to 
its opportunity—The Educator-Journal, No- 
vember, 1914. 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 59 


A PAID BOARD 


THE BEST ARGUMENT we have so far 
met for a paid board of education was 
advanced by Mr Raymond Fosdick, 
formerly Commissioner of Accounts of 
New York City, investigator of police 
administration in European cities, and 
now a member of the Board of Educa- 
tion. At a recent meeting of the board, 
in a discussion on the rights of teachers 
and other officials to take an active part 
in the business of being citizens, Mr 
Fosdick referred to the various employes 
of the Department of Education in a 
tone of voice which the newspapers did 
not reproduce, but in a phrase that car- 
ried to many people an insolent implica- 
tion of inferiority or subservience. He 
spoke of them as “our paid subordinates.” 

We do not suppose that Mr Fosdick 
intended his remarks as an argument for 
a paid board.. And we are assured, thru 
a letter to a newspaper written by one 
of his former “paid subordinates,” that 
Mr Fosdick is thoroly democratic in his 
outlook and sympathies, and that he is 
not at all a snob. It is nevertheless a 
fact that the early-Victorian traditions 
which still linger in our midst force upon 
us a certain disdain toward those who 
are “paid” for their work; and if we 
happen to be working for pay ourselves, 
these traditions force upon us a certain 
air of apology. Now these traditions of 
the respectability of affluent idleness, and 
of the concomitant igominy of penurious 
industry, are obviously incompatible with 
the ideals of a democracy in which most 
people are both willing to work and de- 
pendent upon wages for their livelihood. 
In such a democracy we cannot depend 
for our public policy upon those who 
scorn labor. Those who have no sympa- 
thy with the worker’s wage. Those who 
consider themselves superior because they 
do not have to work—or rather, those 
who consider you and me inferior because 
we cannot afford to work without pay— 
cannot be trusted to look after the in- 
terests of common folks, except in the 
way of kind patrons; and in a democracy 
the public does not want to be the object 
of private patronage—kind or otherwise. 


In the government of England—a gov- 
ernment of landowners—it never oc- 
curred to any one to pay the members 
of Parliament. Legislating has always 
been gentlemen’s work—the work of 
people who have others to do the real 
work for them. But when ordinary 
folks managed to break into the House 
of Commons thru the votes of other 
ordinary folks, it became necessary to 
establish a scale of pay for the public’s 
representatives. And only then did it be- 
come possible for the members of Parlia- 
ment to represent the public, and not 
merely the privileged classes. In this 
country we shall have to meet the same 
problem at a hundred points. 


If a board of education is to represent 
the people, it will have to be made up 
of men and women who cannot afford to 
neglect their private business in the serv- 
ice of the public. There are many men 
in every city who would be available for 
mayor if there was no salary attached 
to the office. The honor is compensation 
enough. But that would restrict our 
choice of mayor to men of leisure and 
wealth, and we feel that that would not 
be quite satisfactory. To be sure, it may 
be that it is only among those who have 
leisure and wealth that suitable men can 
be found; but we do not like to be con- 
fined in our choice by such obviously 
irrelevant circumstances. Of course we 
recognize that the mayor’s salary is in 
no sense paid for services rendered; you 
cannot measure the value of a mayor’s 
services in dollars and cents—and you 
pay all your mayors the same amount. 
The salary is merely a provision for in- 
suring the incumbent and his family a 
decent maintainance during the period of 
service. 

The same principle should apply to the 
salaries of all public servants ; and sooner 
or later we shall have to apply it to mem- 
bers of the Board of Education. Othet- 
wise we may not escape from the intol- 
erable snobbery that the rich and idle in- 
variably throw at their “paid subordi- 
nates.” Then we shall have a chance to 
work with “paid co-ordinates,” and there 
will be no sting in the “pay.” 














60 





IMPUDENT CLAIMS ? 


RECENTLY A NUMBER of teachers ap- 
peared before the New York State 
Legislature to express their sentiments 
on the proposed bill to form a small board 
of education in New York. Several 
newspapers commented on this action. 
One paper characterized it as “an impu- 
dent teachers’ lobby,” and stated that “it 
is none of the principals’ or teachers’ 
business whether the size of the board is 
decreased or increased. Their place is in 
their offices or classrooms.” Another 
paper, less reactionary, made the answer 
that the teachers had relinquished none 
of the rights of ordinary citizens, and 
that they were quite within their rights 
as citizens in expressing their views be- 
fore the Legislature. 

From time to time, we read in the 
papers that this or that group of persons 
has sent some of their number to Albany 
to argue for or against some bill which 
affects their interests. Why do we not 
hear of an impudent merchants’ or phy- 
sicians’ lobby? 

Members of the medical profession 
serve their interests in the same way. 
On page 118 of the March number of 
the New York State Journal of Medicine, 
we read the following: 

“The Committee on Legislation, as di- 
rected by the Council, begs to inform the 
profession that it entered a vigorous pro- 
test against the enactment into law of 
the Tallett Bill, etc.” 

And again, “The profession is also 
asked by the Council and the Committee 
Legislation to oppose Senate Bills No 
733, etc, etc.” 

As a matter of fact, physicians as well 
as merchants make it a part of their 
business to watch legislation. One of the 
standing committees of the county medi- 
cal societies is the committee on legisla- 
tion. This is one of the activities which 
we expect of our medical societies. And 
the medical profession apologizes to no 
one for taking an interest in legislation 
which concerns the interests of the pro- 
fession or which may have an influence 
on public health. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 




















Members of other professions, trades 
or businesses may endorse or oppose pro- 
posed legislation. But the teacher’s 
place is in the classroom. Why? Is it 
because there is a halo over the class- 
room, or is it because of the slight re- 
spect in which the teaching profession 
is held? 

Teachers have begun to see that the 
larger matters of education do concern 
them. They are tired of being merely 
“intellectual hired help,” whose only 
function is to obey orders blindly. 
Progress never goes backward. Conse- 
quently we may expect, in the nature of 
things, that teachers will become more 
and more alive to matters of general 
public interest, and especially to those 
which concern education in all its phases. 


Now, HOWEVER, as a hundred years 
ago, the only proof of true liberalism 
is being able to liberate one’s self from 
the prejudices peculiar to one’s own time 
—not from those of another age.— 
E.ien Key, in The Younger Generation. 


CO-OPERATION 


Of all great human enterprises, that 
of education demands the highest de- 
gree of co-operation; our schools can- 
not be governed by a regime and form 
of machinery borrowed from the army; 
they cannot be governed by a form of 
government adapted from the church; 
they cannot be governed and regulated 
by a form of machinery for governing 
the great industrial corporations; they 
can only be governed as any great co- 
operative enterprise can be governed 
and that is by the recognition of the 
essential principles of democracy. 
Democracy is something more than 
mere words, and whereas, we in Amer- 
ica have preached the doctrine of 
democracy we have not yet reached 
the point where we have been will- 
ing to practice the ideal of democ- 
racy for children and for teachers.— 
Pror E C Ettiort, in Address before 
the League of Teachers’ Associations. 





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The Effect of Increasing the Amount of Teaching on 
the Efficiency of the Teachers* 


ELizABETH M ToMPpkKINS 
Erasmus Hall High School, Brooklyn 


_THE IMPORTANCE of maintaining the 
highest efficiency of the teaching force 
is a consideration that is constantly 
overlooked. One hears, “the welfare of 
the school, not of the teachers, is the 
important thing.” Such a statement is 
absurd. The teachers are the school. 
The school is a factory, the pupils are 
the raw material as they enter, the fin- 
ished product—good citizens we hope— 
as they leave, and like all material that 
passes through a factory, constantly 
changing. They, surely, are not the 
school as a permanent institution. The 
one thing that is permanent is the ma- 
chinery, that is, the teaching force. This 
is the school. The efficiency of the 
school is the efficiency of this machin- 
ery. The wise course is to get the most 
out of the machinery that is available. 
Can the school day or the school year 
be lengthened without affecting the 
condition of the teachers so as to lower 
their efficiency and therefore make the 
work of the schools of a poorer quality? 

The human mechanism is most com- 
plex and delicate by nature, capable of 
wonderful work but easily thrown out 
of order by unfavorable conditions and 
Overstrain. It can do the best work 
only when in the best condition. Think 
of the intensity of the work of the 
teacher of boys and girls. Is it not easy 
to see why a great amount of it would 
be an unendurable strain to so delicate 
a machine? Every teacher knows the 
difference between the work he does 
when fresh and vigorous and when 
tired or ill. We can do much better 
work the first period than the sixth and 
very poor work indeed after 2:30. Try 
as hard as we may, we are not as efh- 
cient in June as we are in September. 


These machines of ours, being or- 
ganisms are capable of self-repair and 
readjustment, but they must have the 
right conditions for this. One condi- 


tion is rest. It is evident that the 
harder the work the longer must be 
the rest period. The work of the 
teacher is intensely difficult; the rest 
period must be long. If, as seems to 
be the case with the present length 
of school day and school year, the time 
for rest is scarcely long enough for re- 
storing to the normal efficiency the ma- 
jority of teachers, it is apparent that a 
lengthened day or a lengthened year 
with no way to increase the rest period 
could not fail to result in great loss of 
efficiency of the school, and therefore 
a loss in education. 

But repair alone is not sufficient. 
Besides maintaining good health there 
must be a growth of the spirit. For 
this there must be new ideas, a new 
outlook upon life, new inspiration—the 
things that reading, travel, university 
study, associations with new people, 
communion with nature, give. Where 
during the school year from September 
to July does the teacher get time for 
these things? The majority of teachers 
put all their time for six, and some- 
times seven, days a week on their work 
and the rest which it requires. 

The relation of the physical condi- 
tion of the worker to his efficiency is 
a fact that is recognized by most manu- 
facturing concerns. Large expendi- 
tures for improving the conditions un- 
der which the employees work are con- 
sidered well made since the return in 
increased efficiency is large. In edu- 
cation, that most important of all in- 
dustries, this relation seems to be 
rather overlooked, in spite of the fact 
that efficiency is the thing that most 
affects the education of the child. 

The efficiency of the school is the 





*Part of Report of the Committee on 
School Organization and Management at 
meeting of Teachers’ League of New York 
City, December 19, 1914. 


61 





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62 


efficiency of its teachers. A lengthened 
school day or a lengthened school year 
make conditions unfavorable to main- 
taining health and increasing spiritual 
vigor and would, therefore, result in 
the lessening of the efficiency of the 
teaching foree; that is, in making the 
work of the school of poorer quality. 





RIGHTS VERSUS FAVORS 


(From an interview by Henrietta RopMAN in 
The New York Tribune, February 3, 1915.) 

Mr Macnus Gross, president of the 
Teachers’ Council, says members of the 
council are free to make any suggestions 
to the Board of Education that they 
please. 

“Has the Teachers’ Council ever op- 
posed any established policy of the Board 
of Education?’ Mr Gross was asked. 

“TI do not recall any such action,” he 
replied, “but I am sure that the board 
would receive any suggestion from the 
council without prejudice. The Teach- 
ers’ Council has, however, come into con- 
flict with the Board of Superintendents. 
Superintendent Maxwell has stated pub- 
licly that he objected to seeking the ad- 
vice of teachers.” 

“Has the Teachers’ Council ever asked 
that the teachers be given more respon- 
sibility for the subjects taught and for 
the discipline of the schools?” I asked. 

“T do not know that they have.” 

“Perhaps they don’t want more re- 
sponsibility or democracy?” I suggested. 

“Perhaps they don’t,” he agreed. “But 
you must remember that the teachers are 
human and that promotion depends on the 
favor of their superiors. Very few 
teachers are willing to risk their future 
for the sake of expressing their opinions. 

“Of course, if the schools were differ- 
ently organized the teachers might speak 
more freely. Under present conditions 
we can’t expect them to say anything that 
might jeopardize their chances of promo- 
tion.” 

Teachers elect delegates to the council 
by organizations. There are forty-five ac- 
credited organizations. Ifa teacher does 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


not belong to one of these she has no 
vote. If she belongs to several organiza- 
tions she may vote several times. 

Mr Gross explained: 

“A principal is at the head of each 
school. He is responsible for it, and he 
naturally wishes to control his school as 
far as possible. He would probably wish 
to influence the election of delegates. It 
was to free the teachers from this influ- 
ence that the elections were placed in 
the hands of organizations outside of the 
schools.” 

“Aren’t the school councils (organiza- 
tions of teachers within the schools) suf- 
ficiently independent to represent the 
teachers even against the principal?” I 
asked. 

“These councils are made up of indi- 
vidual teachers, each of whom is de- 
pendent on the favor of his principal,” 
Mr Gross smiled. “The charter would 
have to be changed to give the teachers 
self-government,” he said. 

“Why doesn’t the teachers’ council ask 
for such a change?” I asked. Mr Gross 
smiled again, and the interview ended. 


GOOD OUTLOOK 


One of the far-reaching movements of the 
past year was the reorganization of the 
system for the employment and promotion 
of teachers and fixing their salaries. The 
new schedule, which classifies teachers ac- 
cording to experience, preparation and suc- 
cess, rather than experience alone, is hav- 
ing the effect of arousing teachers to the 
necessity of making professional prepara- 
tion for responsible work they have to do. 
Never before in the history of the schools 
have so many teachers attended summer 
schools, colleges and universities. More 
teachers’ periodicals are being read than 
ever before, and teachers are taking advan- 
tage of every opportunity to improve them- 
selves in the technique of their profession. 
—Superintendent James H. Risley, Owens- 
boro, Ky., in his report for 1912-13. 


ee 














THE AMERICAN TEACHER 63 


BOOK NOTES 


THE DRAMATIC INSTINCT IN EDUCA- 
TION. By Extnora Wuitman Curtis, 
PhD. With a Foreword By G. STANLEY 
Hatt. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co. $1 
net. 

“BURGLARIZING and trainwrecking on the 
part of small boys is nothing more nor less 
than the dramatic instinct gone wrong.” 
Whether we agree with this extreme dictum 
or not, is of little consequence. Of one thing 
we feel certain and that is, that there is a 
dramatic instinct in children. And it is the 
business of teachers to direct this instinct 
into proper channels. The “desiccating effect 
of our education on the emotional life of our 
children” has become almost proverbial with 
us. How can our education be made more 
dynamic, more fitted to the child’s instincts? 
This is the big problem. A secondary but no 
less important problem is, What use can we 
make of the dramatic instinct in the educa- 
tion of children? 

Miss Curtis’s book comes at the moment 
when all thotful teachers are seeking for light 
on this subject. After a foreword by G. Stan- 
ley Hall (who wishes that he had written the 
book himself) the author takes up the fol- 
lowing topics: The theater going of children; 
Psychological aspects of dramatic entertain- 
ment; Dramatic work in schools and col- 
leges; Constructive efforts to provide good 
drama; Play; Dancing; Story-telling; Mov- 
ing-pictures; Marionette or Puppet-play; 
Pageantry. 

It can be seen from this that the book is 
not a profound psychological study of the 
dramatic instinct in children. While the 
psychological basis is not neglected or mini- 
mized, the purpose of the book seems to 
be first, to call the attention of educators and 
the public to the necessity of regulating the 
active and passive dramatic manifestations in 
child life and second, to disseminate infor- 
mation on what has already been done in 
progressive school communities in the direc- 
tion of applying the dramatic idea to all 
school activities. For instance, in Charlotten- 
berg, Germany, two plays are given yearly to 
twelve hundred pupils and the cost is in- 
cluded in the annual school budget. In Berlin 





for many years past twelve thousand pupils 
have each year attended plays, the cost of 
which is met either by royal subsidy or pri- 
vate contribution. It should be noted here 
that teachers’ associations in Germany have 
been largely influential in furthering this 
work. The author also supplies us with very 
valuable data as to what has been done in our 
own country and in our own city. 

This book is not a special treatise for 
teachers of dramatics. It should be in the 
hands of every teacher who influences or 
hopes to influence children. That the moral 
and social motive dominates the purpose of 
the author can be clearly perceived in the 
closing paragraph of the book. “Have we not 
a right to expect to see its (the development 
of the dramatic instinct) effects in the next 
generation in a better sense of law and or- 
der, a finer, more disinterested type of public 
service? Surely the function of the school 
is not only to utilize the dramatic instinct in 
the curriculum, but, by means of it, to train 
the faculty of criticism and appreciation, so 
as to produce a reaction against all degenerate 
tastes, and to work toward the general up- 
lifting of public morals.” 


A helpful study in social pathology that 
should be of special interest to teachers is 
Safeguards for City Youth at Work and at 
Play, by “Louise de Koven Bowen, the Presi- 
dent of the Juvenile Protective Association of 
Chicago. The concrete illustrations of the 
many dangers to which children are exposed 
in the streets, stores, shops and recreation 
places of various kinds are drawn from 
Chicago; but the dangers described and the 
methods of preventing the demoralization and 
destruction of youth apply to all of our cities. 
The close relation that should exist between 
the various agencies that have to do with 
child welfare is vividly brot before us by the 
accounts of past achievements and present 
needs. (The Macmillan Co., $1.50 net.) 





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. 























































The City and the Worker 


A noteworthy attempt to formulate the ideals that should govern the rela- 
tions between the community and its paid employes appears in the weekly 
bulletin of the Philadelphia Bureau of Municipal Research, Citizens’ Business, 
for March 11. It takes the form of a “Contract” and is based on the postulate 
“If the city fulfils its obligations as an employer it can expect more efficient 
service from its employes.” One may not accept all the definitions and implica- 
tions in this proposed “Contract,” but we can all afford to give some thot to the 
problems it attempts to meet. 





A CONTRACT 


THIS AGREEMENT, made at the 
opening of a new era in municipal 
employment between the City of 
Philadelphia and its employes, pres- 
ent and prospective, witnesseth ; 

That the City of Philadelphia in con- 
sideration of faithful and efficient 
service to be rendered by its em- 
ployes agrees 

1. Te reward every man and woman in its 

service with just remuneration—to allow 


exercise of the highest faculties of body, 
mind and spirit; to make possible a 
career comparable in dignity and 
achievement with any that awaits the 
capable and the ambitious in fields of 
private enterprise, and to insure such 
recompense in material well-being and 
poneler esteem as the loyal service of 
a lifetime deserves. 


Each employe on his part agrees 


1. To be efficient—to apply all his thot and 
energy to the tasks before him, to be 
accurate and thoro in all his work, and 


neither favoritism nor partisan consider- 
ations to influence its dealings with its 
workers, and to be guided solely by the 
actual duties and responsibilities of each 
individual in determining his compen- 
sation. 

To insure permanency of employment to 
all persons who have joined its ranks, 
and to demand of those officials who 
hold temporarily the high places in its 
government that they respect the tenure 
of subordinates who have entéred the 
service with the hope of earning a per- 
manent livelihood and of working out 
a life career. 

To afford to each employe an o partaniy 
to rise in the service in accordance wit 
demonstrated merit and capacity to per- 
form more responsible duties, and to 
disregard all other considerations in 
advancing individuals to higher places. 

To make employment in its service a 
mark of distinction, by insisting upon 
standards of efficiency and integrity 
which not only will compare favorably 
with those of private establishments, 
but will set the pace for employments 
in the commercial world. 

To hold out a future to all who enter its 
employ—to offer opportunities for the 


4. To be socially-mind 


in addition to mastering his own duties 
to prepare himself for those of more 
responsible places which he may be 
called upon to fill. 


2. To be loyal—to work in harmony with the 


gone and purposes of his superiors, and 
submerge personal preferences to the 
interests of public welfare. 


3. To be trustworthy—to be fair and im- 


partial in all his dealings with indi- 
vidual citizens; to be true to his obli- 
gations as a custodian of bpm prop- 
erty; and to be vighent and courageous 
as a defender of the people’s rights and 
interests against all attempts to de- 
fraud, deceive, or exploit. 

© recognize in 
the city government a co-operative com- 
munity effort directed toward social 
ends, to be animated by a genuine de- 
sire to serve in the cause of com- 
munity welfare and social betterment, 
and to be imbued with a firm faith in 
the ultimate realization of civic ideals. 


IN WITNESS WHEREOF the City 


of Philadelphia and each employe in 
its service from this day forth do 
act in accordance herewith. 











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