Dmerican Geacher 


Democracy in Education ; Education for 




















=, - w- 
LURE AY oF EDUES 


The City 


‘My Security lies in Honor and Justice, 


Not in Dungeons or in Bludgeons ; 


My Wealth is in Men, Women and Children, 


Not in Bonds or in Bank-Balances; 


My Health is in the Joy and Good Cheer of 
the People, 


Not in Sullen Silence or Stupor; 


My Prosperity rests upon Intelligence and Skill, 
Not Upon Cunning and Exploitation; 


My Progress comes from Life ever more 
Abundant, 


Not from War’s Devastation or Death. 





























COLLEGE YOUTH AND OPPORTUNITY 


SiwNEy E. MEzeEs 
President, College of the City of New York 


TIMES OF RAPID and deep-going 
change are most congenial to youth, as 
they are least congenial to age. Most of 
the young are forward-looking, while 
most of those who have reached or 
passed middle age are backward-looking. 
The young have not yet settled them- 
selves comfortably, or adjusted them- 
selves, with more or less satisfaction, to 
things as they are, as those who have 
lived their way into life have done. It 
is therefore to the young that the oncom- 
ing days of readjustment will call. 

There are many thoughts as to what 
will happen when the war is over; so 
many, that sober minded observers can 
have but little faith in detailed prophe- 
cies. But in face of the stupendous con- 


flict across the Atlantic, the gigantic 
clash of rival interests and ideals, the un- 
precedented effort put forth, the appal- 
ling suffering and dislocation of life thru- 


out the war-ridden nations, it is plain to 
see that men will begin to ask themselves 
for a revaluation of the ideals, the meth- 
ods and the organizations that have 
brought about the terrible clash. The 
years that follow the war will witness a 
careful and thorogoing resurvey and re- 
appraisement of our customary conduct, 
of the organizations of various kinds to 
which we have become habituated, and 
of the modes of thoughts and standards 
of value that have guided our lives. And, 
of course, this inevitably means many 
changes, at once rapid and even, in 
places, fundamental. And this apprais- 
ing and planning will give opportunities 
for the youthful and forward-looking, 
greater and more responsible opportun- 
ties than any which have preceded them 
except, it may be, those that arose with 
the beginnings of Christianity and with 
the days of the Reformation, 

To us in America, the dawn of a new 
era will have an added significance pe- 
culiarly its own. For whether we will 
it or not, our traditional policy of isola- 


tion will, perforce, be abandoned. Our 
country will take its place as an active 
member, probably a leading member, of 
the family of nations, that will be forced, 
apparently, to achieve, somehow, a unity 
and harmony that has not, so far, char- 
acterized the intercourse of its members. 
It is not easy to exaggerate the changes 
that our full participation in world af- 
fairs will bring to us. The situation may 
become clearer, in general, if we picture 
in our imaginations the early years of 
the country boy come to town. For in J 
our national isolation and lack of inter- § 
course, or very incidental intercourse 
with other countries, our national life has 
been similar to the life of the country 
boy on the farm. And it may also be 
suggested, in the spirit of sympathetic 
interpretation, that our dealings with § 
other nations, both our official and our § 
unofficial dealings, have a likeness, by 
no means strained, to the dealings of f 
countrymen with the dwellers in cities, 
who at times and for brief periods visit 
them. But what I especially wish to call 
to attention, by this simple figure, is the ff 
active brain, the changing habits, the ff 
heightened speed, and the difficult char- J 
acter adjustments of the country boy 
come to town. Similar changes will in- 
evitably come to an isolated and provin- 
cial nation that comes to take its full 
part in the affairs of the greater world. 
Nor need we deny ourselves: a satisfy- 
ing faith in the sturdy and wholesome 
contributions that our country will bring 
to others, more sophisticated it may be, 
but probably, for that very reason, for- 
getful of many of the simpler and more 
wholesome habits and faiths, 

Let us review some of the larger fields 
in which reorganization and change will 
come, and in deciding what fields these 
will be, let us remember that the new 
era will begin with a reappraisement of 
social values; that it will be chiefly con- 
cerned with raising the great question, 


50 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 51 


How well and how far do these and 
those great human institutions, as modi- 
fied by the wonderful nineteenth cen- 
tury, contribute to the deeper welfare of 
men and women? For surely, institu- 
tions are made for men, not men for the 
greater glory or perfection of institu- 
tions. 

Every newspaper reader knows that 
we are quickly changing from a debtor 
to a creditor nation, and every informed 
business man knows that credit is the 
precursor of trade. Let us also remem- 
ber that ordinary business thruout 
Europe is disorganized, warped from its 
peaceful aims and configuration, adjust- 
ed to the stern needs of war. Our busi- 
nesses, whether we will it and whether 
they will it or not, must do much in the 
future to supply the needs of Europe, 
and to feed the markets Europe fed be- 
fore the war. And from this coming into 
contact of our business men from high- 
est to lowest with the business men of 
other nations, we shall, of necessity, 
learn many things and unlearn many 
others. 

Among the causes of the war and of 
the spirit and methods in accordance with 
which it has been conducted, prominent 
mention is made of education. And it 
is undoubtedly true that, in these days of 
all but universal education, the type of 
training given in the schools, from the 
kindergarten thru the university, has 
more to do than any other factor, save 
only racial bent, in moulding the meth- 
ods and ideals of peoples. This great 
fact is sure to be increasingly appreci- 
ated during the period of revaluation to 
which I have referred. And as we come 
into more intimate intercourse with the 
other nations of the world, we shall 
learn, far better than we now know, that 
their educational systems are in many 
instances and respects different from 
ours. And learning this, we, being an 
alert-minded and practical people, shall 
take from them of their best, as our 
judgment assesses it, and work that best 
into our own educational scheme. The 
young men and women of to-morrow, 
those in school to-day, who will have an 


opportunity to take part in improving our 
educational system, may well even now 
thrill with anticipation, and grow proud 
with the hope that they may render some 
really valuable services in this most sig- 
nificant cause. 

Governmental systems differ in struc- 
ture and in spirit among the nations. 
With more intimate intercourse we shall 
come to note this, not vaguely and in 
general, but with definite particularity. 
And we shall know better the peculiari- 
ties of our own governmental system, for 
instance, that we rely on checks and bal- 
ances and on the complication of official 
machinery, far beyond the thoughts or 
practices of any other civilized people, 
and shall begin in a more open-minded 
way than we have in the past, to ask our- 
selves whether we cannot learn some- 
thing from the experience of others, dif- 
ficult as it is for man or nation to do 
this. And it may even be that some rudi- 
ments of international government will 
come into being, as one of the good 
fruits, one of the great profits, to bal- 
ance against the unsurpassed disaster of 
body and of spirit that the war has 
brought. We cannot but think that our 
country will play a great role in any in- 
ternational governmental arrangement 
that may be set up, for our people is a 
powerful people, in numbers, in terri- 
tory and in brains. Our country is the 
greatest nation that remains neutral, 
thanks to the wisdom, the vision and the 
firmness of our President. And if any 
nation is to play, in some measure, the 
role of umpire among those whose views 
have, perforce, grown increasingly one- 
sided during the conflict, it would seem 
that this role must fall to the United 
States. 

Nor can we forget the heroic and help- 
ful part that women have played during 
the days of distress in Europe, showing 
themselves capable as neither they nor 
their brothers had ever thought them to 
be, in work of many kinds, and meas- 
uring up in sacrifice to the best traditions 
of their mothers. Remembering these 
facts and all that they import, we can- 
not doubt that the confused and at times 





52 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


unreasonable, but very real demand on 
the part of women that they should have 
a more significant part in the affairs of 
the world, will come up for the most seri- 
ous consideration, and that the answer 
found will bring about changes in the 
status of women and of the family, and 
therefore changes in the social structure 
of the race, of the deepest meaning and, 
we must hope, of the highest augury. 


Finally, for these thoughts must be 
brought to a close, the great body of re- 
ligious minded people are sure to inquire 
into the role the church has played in 
the preparations for and the conduct of 
the war. Have the churches done all 
that they could? Could they, with more 
earnestness, intelligence and consecration, 
have prevented the war? Or, in default 
of that, could they have instilled prin- 
ciples which would have made its con- 
duct more creditable to men guided by 
a spark of the divine? Should not the 
church of the future be a stronger, a 
more unified, a more intelligent and a 
more unselfish factor in the affairs of 
men? If the religious leaders of to-mor- 
row help in solving these problems, if 
they solve them wisely, they will serve 
their fellows greatly. 


And so, in all the larger fields of hu- 
man interest, we see that a period of op- 
portunity is about dawning; of oppor- 
tunity so vast and so humanly appealing, 
that it may well stir the hearts, the minds 
and the imaginations of the young. For 
it addresses itself to them rather than to 
those who, before many years, will pass 


from the scene. And the opportunities 


that offer themselves so richly to the | 


young, offer themselves with especial per- 
tinence to the youth who will have the 
great advantage of a complete education, 
insofar as the schools can give education. 
They will offer themselves especially to 
college youth. For to say that there are 
opportunities is to say that there are 


problems to be solved; and to say that | 


these problems are unprecedented in | 
magnitude and in human significance, is 
to say that they specially challenge those 
who have been taught to see the world | 
broadly, deeply and in its complications, | 
have learned to preserve their intellectual 
poise in the face of such complexities, 
have been taught to discriminate between 
the essential and the unessential, to make 
evaluations on a large scale, and to con- 
struct sane and thorogoing plans for 
dealing wisely with affairs of size and 
moment. In short, whatever else a col- 
lege sets out to do, its central duty is to 
train problem-solvers on a large scale. 
And while it fails in this more often than 


we like to admit, it is yet true that it f 


fails in fewer instances and in smaller 
measure than any other human agency 
that has so far been devised to supply ff 
this great human need. And so I should § 
say, in conclusion, to able, energetic and fj 
ambitious youth, who would serve their f 
day and time and help their fellows gen- 
erously and well, Your best chance of 
fulfilling your ambition will be found if 
you take a college course, and bring tof 
its work and its life the best that is in 
you. 


PHILOSOPHY AND THE PLAY-A-DAY WORLD 


H. A. OVERSTREET 
College of the City of New York 


THE EDITOR asks me to write about 
philosophy and the work-a-day world. 1 
have just been to see one of Broadway’s 
“triangular” plays ; and I confess I would 
much rather write about philosophy and 
the play-a-day world. For if ever a man 


needed philosophy to sustain him in dark 
moments, it was while I sat thru the 
two hours and a half of maudlin pathos 
that has the impertinence to call itself a 
drama of American life. Ah, but I for- 
get: the audience, between intervals of § 





“— FM O65 65 wee a eee oe nian a be 


7 -—- fF SFO FO 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


rapt attention, clapped enthusiastically ; 
and at the end (when the perfect noodle- 
head of a hero and the equally silly hero- 
ine worked themselves up to the sacchar- 
ine embrace that must properly close 
every “satisfactory” play), gulping down 
happy tears, the audience almost cheered. 

What is it, I ask myself. As cheap 
a performance as ever an honest soul 
could wish to avoid, and yet drawing 
crowded houses week after week! When 
I saw “The Weavers,” the house was 
half empty! 

I am coming to believe that we teach 
too little the philosophy of the play-a-day 
world. Or is there a philosophy of the 
play-a-day world? Or, better, what is 
philosophy anyhow that it can concern 
itself either with the work-a-day or the 
play-a-day world? 

What distresses me is the absence of 
fundamental discernment in such an 
audience as sat at this play; the absence, 
apparently, of any sense of true and es- 
sential values. I am not an intellectual 
snob, I hope. Yet when I see people 


laughing at things that to me are simply 
gross and unmannerly; when I see them 
gulping sentimental tears at situations 
that are artificial and cheap, I wonder at 


the difference between us. Is the dif- 
ference, I ask myself, simply one of 
taste? Some people love plush sofas with 
sunflower patterns. I detest them. Is it 
not the same perhaps with plays? If the 
difference is, in fact, simply one of taste, 
then de gustibus non disputandum. I 
throw up my hands and say nothing. 
But if it is more; if there are really 
standards, authentic values, truths of 
situation and action; if there is such a 
thing as genuine emotion and genuine 
human relationship, then as a philosopher 
I ask myself how these true standards, 
this essential genuineness are to be found. 
Has philoosphy anything to do with put- 
ting people in the way of getting true 
standards in their play-a-day world? 

I shall answer my question summarily. 
The trouble with that audience, I believe, 
was that they had no decent philosophy 
of life. They were an audience with 
simply a hodge-podge of experience and 


53 


emotion. They were not thinking, not 
judging, not valuing. They were simply 
allowing themselves to be slathered with 
conventional witticisms and brainless 
naughtinesses. 

To have a philosophy is to have a point 
of view that goes to the bottom of 
things, that questions, evaluates, that re- 
fuses to be put off with mere sound and 
fury. I have sometimes wondered what 
all the teaching of philosophy is for any- 
how. I have come pretty much to the 
conclusion that it is just for that—to 
make people rebels; to make them re- 
fuse to accept without question what is 
handed out to them; to make them hold 
the pistol of inquiry at everything that 
comes along and cry, “Hands up!” 

The pity of American life is that so 
few of us are willing to cast our lot for 
the high adventure of criticism. We plod 
along quietly and comfortably, growing 
fat as we put on years, and, at intervals, 
shaking our sides with grateful cachina- 
tion at the inane foolery that is doled out 
to us. We have no zest for ideas; no 
grip on big truths; we are too lazy or too 
tired to dig into the authentic under- 
ground of life. 

Philosophy—why philosophy is for the 
adventurer, for the soul unafraid; for 
the spirit ever on the search for the big- 
ger and yet bigger truth. I wonder how 
many in that audience had ever had even 
the first thrill of that great adventuring. 

I write with some warmth of feeling, 
because I believe most fervently that the 
reason why our American life is dull and 
undramatic and all too utterly drab is 
that there is little in it of the spirit of 
philosophy, little of the spirit of venture- 
some search, little of the willingness to 
go forth and find the greater and the 
more commanding truths. 

To see an ordinary New York audi- 
ence should be an inspiration to a teacher. 
It should fill him with a sense of what 
life ought not to be. It should give him 
new stimulus to get into the play-a-day 
and the work-a-day lives of his students 
something of the more genuine, the more 
truly human. I am not one who believes 
that all philosophy emanates from the 





54 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


professor’s chair. Very often the title 
of the chair he occupies is about all the 
philosophy there is in him. Philosophy 
is simply a grip on life-values; and it 
exists wherever there are minds a bit 
more serious, a bit more courageous, a 


bit more dead honest with themselves and 
the world than is true of the ordinary 
run of minds. Were there more of that 
type of mind in our schools and in our 
homes there would be smaller audiences 
at many a “Broadway success.” 





SOCIOLOGY AND THE SOCIAL CONSCIENCE 


Howarp B. WooLsTon 
College of the City of New York 


EVER SINCE the European War began 
we have heard much of “culture.” The 
term apparently signifies the achievement 
of a nation as reflected in the thought of 
its people. Borrowed elements may be 
included, but a distinctive tone is given 
by the social institutions that mould na- 
tional life, just as the expression of 
thought is refracted by the forms of 
language. At least the Germans oppose 
the “Slavic peril” and attack “English 
commercialism” as vigorously as the Al- 
lies protest against “Teuton aggressive- 
ness” and assail “Prussian autocracy.” 

The old idea of a cultivated man as 
one who memorizes classic poetry and 
appreciates ancient sculpture, seems to 
have given place to that of the useful 
citizen who is in touch with the vital 
movements of his day. Culture means 
broad enlightenment rather than polite 
learning; human sympathy rather than 
fastidiousness; codperation rather than 
exclusiveness. Our notion of the scholar 
and gentleman is realized by one who un- 
derstands the life about him and who 
plays his part in its upbuilding. 

But how shall an individual or a people 
come to this understanding of life’s privi- 
leges and responsibilities? Surely not by 
pure speculation, nor even by reading 
biography and history! The only way to 
understand a situation is to study the 
conditions that exist therein. The only 
method of finding what is to be done is 
to analyze the forces at play. 

Now the study of social conditions and 
the analysis of social forces is commonly 
called sociology. Other social sciences 


consider certain interests and limit their | 
observations to one kind of institution, as, 
economics specializes in the field of busi- 
ness enterprize or as politics focuses its 
attention upon the state and its govern- 
ment. But men are creatures affected by 
other than economic motives or political 
ambitions. They are also members of 
families, clubs, schools, churches and a 
host of other organizations. It is the 
function of sociology to show how all 
these associations interplay and what is 
their normal relation. Only by consid- 
ering his function in all of these does an 
individual arrive at an intelligent notion 
of the part he has to play in his com- 
munity. 

So in the case of nations, their place 
in history is to be determined not by ff 
any limited or insular conception of 
prowess, wealth or learning; but by the 
scale upon which all these elements are 
fostered by its institutions and combined 
in the lives of its people. Is it to be as- 
sumed, then, that a whole people can 
gain a clear conception of collective des- 
tiny unless the social conscience is en- 
lightened by some worthy ideal held up 
for successive generations to strive 
toward and complete? Only by teaching 
the people in school and out the essen- 
tial elements of sound social economy 
will their collective efforts be directed 
toward attaining in home and shop and 
commonwealth a just and equitable gov- 
ernment. Then we may hope to see at- 
tained the realization of a true democra- 
cy, enlightened, united, aspiring. Such 
evidently was the thought of Confucius 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 55 


in the following passage : 

“The ancients who wished to illustrate 
illustrious virtue thruout the empire, first 
ordered well their own states. Wishing 
to order well their own states, they first 
regulated their families. Wishing to 
regulate their families, they first culti- 
vated their persons. Wishing to culti- 
vate their persons, they first rectified 
their hearts. Wishing to rectify their 
hearts, they first sought to be sincere in 
their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in 
their thoughts, they first extended to the 
utmost their knowledge. Such exten- 


sion of knowledge lay in the investigation 
of things."—The Great Learning, V. 4. 

This quotation under its strange ori- 
ental guise contains one of the most suc- 
cinct statements of a program of social 
education known to the writer. Its mes- 
sage is peculiarly significant for America 
at this time of reckoning our course. If 
we as a people are to direct intelligently 
our collective actions, then it behooves 
us, in the words of the wise old states- 
man of China, to investigate the things 
that pertain to the life and welfare of the 
nation. 





THE CRISIS 


THE FORCES of control in the City 
of New York in affairs educational have 
reached what for them is a critical stage 
in the development of their long exist- 
ing era of domination. Whether the 
control has been exerted by the Board 
of Estimate, the Board of Education, 
the superintendents, the principals, or 
even by the managers of the teachers’ or- 
ganizations themselves, the crisis in their 
supremacy is at hand. 

The union meeting held by the Teach- 
ers’ League of New York City at the 
Washington Irving High School on Fri- 
day evening, March 10, was attended by 
over One thousand teachers. Never be- 
fore have so many teachers been brought 
together in a radical educational move- 
ment in New York. For weeks before 
the meeting the public expressed its curi- 
osity as to the causes of the proposal to 
form a teachers’ union, and the news- 
papers were very active in seeking in- 
terviews with officers of the Teachers’ 
League, and almost as active in inter- 
viewing those among the teachers who 
happened to be opposed to the move- 
ment. 

Altho it is true that the fashion of 
unions formed by teachers in other cities 
had something to do with the sentiment 
in favor of a union in New York, still 
there have developed conditions in New 


York which afforded the stimulus for 
bringing to the union sentiment that vi- 
tality and “punch” which fashion could 
never give. Chief among these condi- 
tions is the attitude of the Board of Esti- 
mate of the City in the matter of its at- 
tempt to gain control of the Department 
of Education, and thereby to determine 
the salary schedule of the teachers and 
incidentally the tenure of office. This 
attempt has been so definite and specific 
that the Controller stated in a Legisla- 
tive hearing that he intended to reduce 
the salaries of the teachers if certain 
“home rule” bills passed. The bills did 
not pass, owing to a superhuman effort 
of the teachers aided by friendly mem- 
bers of the Legislature. But the Board 
of Estimate has discovered an equally 
effective way of managing the Depart- 
ment of Education by hindering the op- 
eration of its functions. This of course 
is not a socially enlightened way of con- 
trolling, but it produces results. And 
the results have been to hold up the con- 
struction and the repair of buildings, 
and the appointment and the promotion 
of teachers, until general dissatisfaction 
is prevalent thruout the educational sys- 
tem. 

Long before the Board of Estimate be- 
gan its non-social campaign of harassing 
without helping the Department of Edu- 





56 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


cation the system had had its multitud- 
inous troubles with its supervising staff. 
This staff, conceived and organized upon 
military lines, lit es up to military ideals 
of obedience and subordination. Quite 
naturally, those in commaid found 
subordinates who fitted into the existing 
ideals well enough to make them effec- 
tive agents of autocracy, no less tyran- 
mical than their own superiors. And 
also quite naturally the superiors, new 
and old, tried out their cat o’ nine tails, 
their wheels, and their racks and screws 
upon the “paid subordinates” beneath 
them. Most of the paid subordinates 
yielded softly and submissively to the 
punishment whether it was merited or 
not, or whether there was any question 
of merit at all or not, and those who did 
not yield were given a form of ceaseless 
punishment by being placed upon an in- 
tangible black list. 


In time there developed out of this in- 
quisition a considerable body of “mal- 
contents,” “soreheads,” etc., called so by 
the besses and their hangers-on who 
wished to punish still further those who 
would not or could not conform to a sys- 
tem which they believed to be ineffective 
or even dishonest. Evidently there were 
many of these malcontents present at the 
union meeting, for an influential mem- 
ber of the Board of Education who was 
present himself remarked that he saw 
everywhere thru the audience teachers 
who he knew had grievances. He ap- 
peared to be impressed unfavorably with 
the great number of them. It was in- 
deed an impressive fact, but the signifi- 
cance of it was mot revealed to the 
Board member. 


If the member could have sensed the 
importance of the fact that many mal- 
contents receive thru their individual 
grievances the effective stimulus to real 
thinking, he might have understood that 
to them the union meant a means of over- 
turning an unjust and non-social system 
of education. He might have under- 
stood that the natural support for a 
revolution in education would come from 
the working class, which has always de- 


manded better schooling for children 
and better working conditions for adults. 
He would have understood that the only 
basis upon which a body of workers can 
ever develop self-respect among its mem- 
bers, and ideals and standards of work 
and professionalism, is the basis of op- 
portunity to develop the ideals for itself. 
He couldn’t understand it all, because he 
is part of a system which hands down 
ready-made ideals to its subordinates. 

Fighting to the last, realizing that the 
crisis has arrived, the minions of the 
autocratic system have stooped to the 
childish expedient of interfering with 
the mail of teachers who have been re- 
ceiving union circulars. Also they (the 
principal-minions ) have refused to teach- 
ers the privilege of distributing union 
circulars upon the ground that they do 
not approve of unions. The privileges 
of having meetings to discuss unionism 
and of circulating petitions are refused. 
Scores of incidents of this kind have 
come to the knowledge of the officers of 
the union. Thus, the fuel out of which 
conflagrations are made is being unwit- 
tingly fetched by those who would burn 
themselves at the stake. 


RECOGNITION OF THE UNION! 


IN THE BILL for a new pension system 
for the teachers of New York City, pre- 
pared in cooperation with city officials, 
there is a provision for an actuary on the 


pension board. The actuary is to be 
“approved by, or be a member of, the 
Actuarial Society of America.” Three 
cheers for the officials who are intelligent 
enough to recognize the place of a pro- 
fessional or trade gild in modern so- 
ciety ! 


Our poet seems to think that our 
principals and superintendents do not 
inspire us sufficiently. If he is right, 
where shall we seek inspiration? 





The 


Ameriran Cearher 


Ed. 





ei, 


for D 


Published monthly, except July and August, by 
THE AMERICAN TEACHER COMPANY, INC., 
129 Lafayette Street, New York. 
ALEXANDER FICHANDLEBR......President 
CHARLOTTE E. LEE Vice-President 
say 5 D. LESTER Treasurer 


Democracy in Education ; 





Edited by 
HENRY R. LINVILLE 
Editor-in-Chief 
BENJAMIN C. GRUENBERG 
Managing Editor 
Julia H. Doyle Gabriel R. Mason 
Benjamin Glassberg J. Edward Mayman 
JEANETTE G. GLASSBERG 
Business Manager 
SAM SCHMALHAUSEN 
Circulation Manager 





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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. 








THE CITY AND THE COLLEGE 


THE DEVELOPMENT of municipal col- 
leges and universities in recent years is 
but an extension of the principles of the 
land-grant colleges of two generations 
ago. The establishment of these schools 


marks stages in democracy’s develop- 
ment of a social consciousness. From a 
vague feeling that education is somehow 


57 


necessary for the culture and dignity of 
the superior classes, we are moving 
toward the definite conviction that edu- 
cation is necessary for increasing the ef- 
fectiveness of all those kinds of work in 
which the people are vitally concerned. 
So long as education is for culture, we 
let those get it who can afford it; but the 
moment we begin to think of education 
in terms of what concerns all of us, the 
public must take it in hand. At the 
same time, the beginnings of public edu- 
tation, whether in the elementary grades 
or in the college and university grades, 
take on a curious resemblance to the tra- 
ditional education of the leisure classes. 


With further experience and with the 
clearing of thought the state and munici- 
pal colleges have gradually found them- 
selves. We no longer think of these in- 
stitutions as offering to all and sundry 
the “advantages” of higher education for 
the taking. We think of them more and 
more as the public agency for training 
specialized public servants. The private 
institution may continue to point to the 
brilliant successes of its graduates; and 
it need make no distinction between those 
who succeed in exploiting their fellows 
and those who succeed in rendering dis- 
tinguished service. But the college of 
the people does not point with pride as a 
means of advertisement; it looks to its 
effective alumni as the sole justification 
for its existence. 

Whatever advantage the graduate of 
the city’s college may gain from his 
higher education, he must not be permit- 
ted to carry away the notion that the 
“free” college gives him something for 
nothing; nor the notion that the institu- 
tion exists for his special benefit. These 
notions are too much like those of the 
confused and uncomfortable “taxpayer.” 
Whatever the advantages to the indi- 
vidual, the function of the college is con- 
cerned primarily with better citizens and 
better servants. If the training given 
is indeed a privilege, it must be accepted 
as a preparation for the privilege of 
serving. 

This does not mean that graduates of 
public colleges are to find their occupa- 





58 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


tions in the immediate service of the city 
or the state. It means that whatever 
trades or professions these graduates 
may follow are to be imbued with the 
spirit of public service. We prepare bet- 
ter lawyers and better machinists, better 
teachers and better farmers, better den- 
tists and better clothiers—not that se- 
lected girls and boys may be given ad- 
vantages over their fellow citizens, but 
that their fellow citizens may be better 
housed and better clothed, better fed and 
better cared for in health and in justice. 
It is very important that this view be 
made perfectly clear to the taxpayers, to 
the students, to their parents—and to 
their instructors. 


TEACHERS AND BOSSES 


THE MAN or woman working in a shop 
is responsible to the foreman, and 
eventually to the employer. Those in 
immediate authority have the power of 
discharge, and, however arbitrarily this 
power may be exercised, the victim has 
no redress. No redress, that is, unless 
he happens to be a member of a well 
organized trade or craft union. What- 
ever else the unions of workers may or 
may not have accomplished, they have 
in many cases established the principle 
that discharge shall be for cause com- 
monly recognized to be fair. 

The man or woman working for the 
public is responsible to the foreman or 
supervisor, but eventually to the public. 
This makes an important difference, since 
the right of discharge, while vested in 
officials must ultimately represent the 
public sentiment on what is fair in such 
matters, whether the workers are or- 
ganized or not. As a matter of fact there 
have grown up many regulations gov- 
erning the tenure and discharge of pub- 
lic employes, including school teachers, 
calculated to prevent unfair discrimina- 
tion or the abuse of power on the part 
of appointing officials. Yet it is well 
known that employes are frequently 
treated with injustice, and that for all 
practical purposes the machinery for se- 
curing justice often fails to perform its 
functions. 

The reason for this failure lies largely 


in two circumstances connected with the 
public service. One is that administra- 
tion is too largely in the hands of peo- 
ple trained in the commercial school of 
treating human beings as mere con- 
veniences in the process of extracting 
profit from industry. The other is that 
civil employes, including teachers, are 
conscious of the futility of individual 
protest, and lacking organization and 
being inarticulate, permit injustices to 
become customary. 

As part of our function as teachers, 
we must take up the burden of educating 
first ourselves and then the rest of the 
public on these fundamental matters. 
First, the commissioners and superinten- 
dents and principals and supervisors, and 
so on, are not our employers or bosses. 
They are, with us, the trustees of the 
public in carrying forward certain pub- 
lic enterprises. Second, as trustees of 
the public we ourselves must use every 
legitimate means to establish conditions 
favorable to carrying on the work we 
have undertaken. This includes the for- 
mation of organizations designed to 
maintain and to elevate the standards of 
service. This includes no less the for- 
mation of organizations designed to 
maintain the freedom of the service from 
the debasement and demoralization re- 
sulting from the introduction of “polli- 
tics” and other indirect methods of in- 
fluencing thought and the expression of 
thought. 

Teachers must be free to do their best 
work, quite as much for the welfare of 
the children as for their own comfort. 
They must be free to devote themselves 
to their work without need to worry 
about “prospective legislation” or 
“changes in administration” or about of- 
ficious and obstructive supervision. This 
does not mean that they must be secure 
in their positions without regard to the 
efficiency of their service. It means that 
their tenure and their advancement must 
be completely detached from all consid- 
erations of political or personal prefer- 
ences—or antagonisms; that their tenure 
and income shall be completely detached 
from all considerations of administrative 
expediency. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 59 


This necessary freedom has been in 
part attained thru the standardization of 
methods for selecting, appointing and 
promoting teachers. It cannot be at- 
tained in sufficient measure to meet the 
needs of the public for high and devoted 
service until the teachers are organized 
to assert themselves openly and frankly, 
and to take over their responsibilities 
in the management of the public 
schools. 


COMPLAINT AND REPLY 


REPETITION COMES perilously near to 
truth—for the earnest-minded, es- 
pecially when they feel aggrieved. 

The charge has been repeated that our 
Magazine is partial to high school 
teachers, indifferent to elementary 
school confreres. 

We shall not flatly deny a seemingly true 
indictment. 

However, in honor of Truth, we must 
reply that the charge is one-sided, 
half false. 

That high school teachers are the stead- 
iest supporters of our Journal is of 
course true. 

That a conspiracy to debar Elementary 
School Teacher is responsible for 
the situation is most untrue. 

The simple fact is this: for reasons per- 
fectly well known to all our readers, 
the elementary schools are less ag- 
gressive than the secondary schools. 
The latter have more courageous, 
more outspoken teachers. 

What more natural than to find the more 
outspoken teachers contributing 
most abundantly to our magazine? 

Our Editorial Staff is a co-operative 
Board. You may come to any of 
our meetings. We have enough 
work to plan and to execute for all 
interested teachers. 

Nothing would so delight us as a vigor- 
ous amalgamation of all grades of 
teachers. Distinctions are not only 
odious ; they are positively dishonest. 

“The American Teacher” renews its 
loyalty to the hard-pressed teachers. 

We never forget your interests. 


WHAT WE NEED 


More and more it becomes evident 
that the great need among teachers is 
not so much a keen sense of their own 
wrongs as it is a wider social vision, 
the discernment of the common cause 
underlying the antagonisms which 
characterize the life of today. Is it not 
time that the teachers got outside of 
themselves into the common life of 
humanity? We have opportunities for 
information and means for clearness 
of thought far in excess of those of the 
average citizen. Merely as a profes- 
sion, ours is more than usually free 
from the sordid pressure which so 
sorely besets most others. In a very 
real sense we are, if we will be, the 
keepers of the light. The public has a 
right to look to us for a disinterested- 
ness of action which can hardly be ex- 
pected of any other occupation. In a 
democracy government is not a pro- 
fession, but its executors are drawn 
from the ranks of the citizens. By 
virtue of training, education, and 
leisure the mantle of leadership log- 
ically belongs to us. Have we among 
us enough vision and personality to 
wear it? 


We must have a realization of what 
kind of leadership is needed. There is 
a superfluity of leaders who are such 
because of the force with which they 
can denounce things as they are, but 
a dearth of leaders who see, and can 
make others see, that the underlying 
evil in present conditions is the fact 
that one may legally obtain possession 
of wealth for which he does not pro- 
duce any equivalent, thereby robbing 
the man who did produce it. We 
make a great fuss over the illegal pro- 
cedures of combinations of capital, but 
we are robbed a hundredfold more ex- 
tensively by their perfectly legal pro- 
cedures. Until our leaders definitely 
recognize this underlying source of 
pollution of our economic life their ef- 
forts will be at cross purposes. Ef- 
fects are not isolated events, to be dealt 
with by repression at each point of 





60 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


eruption, but by purifying the source 
of the stream.—Bulletin of Federation 
of Men Teachers, Chicago. 


DYNAMIC TRUTH 


“Perhaps the most menacing of all 
American institutions is the perfected or- 
ganization which enables the few to live 
at the expense of the many. In three 
centuries, the United $tates, in company 
with Western civilization, has produced 
or at least tolerated a system which auto- 
matically takes from the values created 
in the industrial process, a certain pro- 
portion, and places it in the hands of 
any person or any association which at 
that particular time happens to hold the 
key which unlocks the Golden Flood— 
the key of property ownership. This in- 
come is not paid as a reward for virtue; 
people who receive it are vicious. It is 
not paid in return for meritorious, social 
service; some of those who receive it are 
notoriously anti-social in all of their 
dealings. It is not paid for abstinence; 
many of the recipients of property in- 
come never knew what it was to abstain. 
It is not paid for saving; there are people 
with vast incomes, who during their en- 
tire lives have never done anything ex- 
cept spend. It is not paid for productive 
effort; children, disabled persons, idlers 
and wastrels are among its recipients. 
There is one thing and one thing only for 
which property income is paid, and that 
is the ownership of a piece of property 
which is so scarce and so desired by an- 
other that he is willing to give a return 
for the privilege of using it. Today the 
ownership of property gives to the owner 
a royalty privilege. He may always in- 
vest it and receive five per cent on it. 
It is virtually a power to tax, exercised 
by an individual owner of property 
against the productive activities of the 
community, and exercised because of the 
title deeds which the property owner 
holds.—Scott NEARING in Income. 


Student of the College of the City of 
New York: Realize that this the “City 
College Number” lines you up with im- 
portant constructive forces in society. 


THE WORKER’S POINT OF VIEW 


AT THE ANNUAL convention of the II- 
linois Federation of Labor, the Commit- 
tee on Schools reported, in part, as fol- 
lows: 

The efforts of the great commercial in- 
terests to control the educational policy of 
the country and their vicious attacks upon 
all who interfere with their plans have be- 
come a menace to the public school system. 

The welfare of the workers and their 
children demands that a close watch be kept 
upon all legislation concerning schools, upon 
the acts of Boards of Education, and all 
educational tendencies and policies. 

Your committee recommends the appoint- 
ment of a permanent committee on schools 
to safeguard the children of the workers, to 
secure for all students the right to mental 
freedom in education, and to secure the 
expression in the educational system of the 
ideas of organized labor. 

Schools are practically useless if the 
teachers are not at liberty to teach the truth. 
And just now we have some striking ex- 
amples of the activities of those powerful 
privileged classes endeavoring to control 
the expression of the teachers, to frighten 
teachers into servile submission to their 
ideas so that these teachers will teach such 
ideas and fallacious 
privileged classes want taught. 

It has taken a tremendous fight by the 


combined forces of labor and the teachers [i 


to prevent these privileged interests from 


establishing a separate system of schools for 
the poor man’s children. They openly avow 


that a separate system of schools should be ff 
established by the State for the purpose of ff 


teaching trades to children of fourteen years 


of age and over. 
This is unfair to children to fix them 
permanently in some particular trade before 


they have the development or judgment or § 


taste to decide upon their life work, and 
we believe that vocational education should 
develop gradually and naturally in the pres- 
sent school system and that it will do so if 
given the proper financial encouragement 
and support. 

Therefore, we must prepare to fight for 
the rights of childhood by opposing this 
selfish plan of the factory and corporation 
interests. 





principles as these [7 


SS Pena @ ehh be oe ae 8 Oe ee ee eee ee. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 61 


The best defense of the schools in a free, 
courageous, intelligent force of teachers or- 
ganized and affiliated with the labor move- 
ment of the country and coéperating with 
the workers for the protection of democratic 
ideals in education. 

The committee’s report was unani- 
mously adopted by the convention. 

These “laborers” seem to think more 
of the schools and of the rights and re- 
sponsibilities of teachers, than do many 
of the teachers themselves. 


EFFICIENCY AND DEMOCRACY 


There is no city in the United States 
in which the majority of the citizens 
do not prefer efficiency to inefficiency 
in municipal government. In none of 
these cities does a candidate for muni- 
cipal office ever fail to promise that in 
the event of his election he will give 
—among other things—an EFFICI- 
ENT administration. His opponent 
promises the same thing and yet no 
matter who is elected, it is a notorious 
fact that thus far in American cities 
efficiency has been most frequently 
conspicuous by its absence. Critics 
from foreign lands and critics at home 
have pointed this fact out to us again 
and again. 

In marked contrast to the frequently 
observed efficiency in most large en- 
terprises and under some of the more 
autocratic governments, in our cities 
eficiency has seemed hitherto unat- 
tainable. Being so generally regarded 
as essential, this failure has given 
some pessimists an excuse for crying 
that democracy is a failure. 

Our problem as a people is to con- 
serve what we have acquired in the 
way of democracy—and extend it 
whenever we can—and at the same 
time develop the technique—the me- 
chanics of government along effective 
lines—From Citizen’s Business, 
Philadelphia Bureau of Municipal Re- 
search, 16 December, 1915. 


Get 


We need your co-operation. 
another subscriber. 


WHAT A TEACHERS’ UNION IS NOT 
FREDERICK MILLER 


EVERY MOVEMENT directed towards in- 
creasing the wellbeing of an oppressed 
group thru union, has always been sure 
to receive the open and covert attacks of 
the organs of intrenched privilege—the 
press. The attempt to form a Teachers’ 
Union is no exception to this rule. Play- 
ing upon the feeling to which teachers 
have so long clung, namely, that they are 
not workers, and therefore can have no 
interests in common with workers, some 
of the papers have already begun to hold 
up the idea of a Teachers’ Union first 
to ridicule and then to scorn. That meth- 
od they hope will bring the virus of that 
almost dormant feeling to the surface. 

To make assurance doubly sure, they 
go on to picture the horrors of a teachers’ 
strike. They point out the possibility 
of the moulders of the rising generations 
going out on strike in sympathy with 
the Moulders’ Union or the Carpenters 
Union because of a dispute with their 
bosses—and thus discredit the plan of 
affiliating with the American Federation 
of Labor. 

Needless to say there is not the slight- 
est basis for these fears. Organizations 
affiliating with the American Federation 
of Labor retain absolute independence in 
the management of their affairs. They 
are not required to join in sympathetic 
strikes. The Chicago Teachers’ Federa- 
tion in the fourteen years of its affiliation 
with the Chicago Federation of Labor 
has not only never been asked to join in 
any sympathetic strike, but also never 
even thought of going out on strike itself. 
The Chicago teachers achieved their suc- 
cess not by striking—a weapon whicn 
only the brutality of employers has 
forced upon workers—but thru the con- 
structive strength derived from the union 
of all the members of a group, supported 
by the union of their fellow workers. 

Teachers who hesitate about joining a 
Teachers’ Union for fear of being called 
out on strike or in sympathetic strikes 
should dismiss these bogies from their 
minds. By affiilating with the American 





62 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Federation of Labor we enter into no 
agreement other than to subscribe to a 
set of principles which were described in 
the February AMERICAN TEACHER—prin- 
ciples which every rightminded man or 
woman accepts without reservation. We 
gain from such affiliation the support 
and influence of organized labor in 
America. 

Another claim that the papers have set 
up is that a union would drag the schools 
into politics; it being understood that 
politics is sometimes very unclean and 
that the schools are at present wholly 
and entirely free from political control. 
Both the President of the Board of 
Education and the Mayor no doubt 
will assure us on this score. One of 
the great services the Teachers’ Union 
can render the public in the direction of 
increasing the efficiency of the schools 
is to change the role the schools are now 
playing as the football of politics. It can 
create an intelligent understanding on 
the part of the public concerning the 
needs and purposes of the schools and so 
insure proper support for city’s most im- 
portant duty—the education of the chil- 
dren. 

And if in addition the Union should 
give the teachers a practical insight into 
political affairs, it will merely train for 
more intelligent citizenship those who are 
charged with training the youth for that 
position. ——_——_— 

OBSTACLES TO EDUCATIONAL 
PROGRESS 


In his second monograph on the In- 
dividual Child versus the Lockstep sys- 
tem of schooling, Frederic Burk gives 
the following schedule of the “real diffi- 
culties in introducing the individual 
system.” These difficulties would seem 
to apply to the introduction of every edu- 
cational advance : 

I The inertia of the administrative 
departments of school systems. We 
schoolmasters have grown up in our 
system. We are part and parcel of it, 
as itis of us. “The virtue in most re- 
quest,” said Emerson, “is conformity. 
Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves 


not realities and creators, but names 
and customs.” 

Our first and most forcible reaction 
to any proposal for change is de- 
fense and argumentative objection to 
change. We are willing to work our 
fingers to the bone to make productive 
the primitive machinery we have, but 
our natural tendency is to attack any 
proposal to substitute new machinery. 
We are not willing to give new pro- 
posals a hearing, much less a trial. 
This is all natural, human, and, in the 
majority of cases, the safe thing. It 
is a condition with which all reform 


must justly wrestle and by which | 


finally be tested. 
II The teaching body, with a minor- 
ity of exceptions, is naturally, and 
more or less justly, fearful that change 
will mean personal inconvenience. 
Teachers have experienced the rav- 
ages of many new nostrums, most of 
which have come to naught. There 
is usually justice and sanity in their 
suspicion. 
III The public mind is ever ready to 
condemn an existing system, but is 
as extremely suspicious of any pro- 
posal of remedy. The public mind is 
enthusiastically destructive, but al- 
ways pessimistic as to reconstruction. 
The above are natural, and more or 
less legitimate difficulties in the way 
of school reform. But there are a 
number of illegitimate impediments. 


These are vested personal interests— | 


(1) officials who are not interested in 


schools, except for personal advantage, | 
nothing to them | 


and it matters 
whether or not schooling is efficient, 
provided they are not disturbed; (2) 
incompetents who do not grasp the 
facts of existing evils, and feel that 
such agitation “hurts business”; (3) 
commercial book publishers whose 
business would require expensive 
changes, etc. 


Every new subscription means added 
strength to the movement for democ- 


racy. 





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nT wow wT we FF 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 63 


PENNSYLVANIA’S NEW LAW 

ON THE FIRST of the year Pennsylva- 
nia’s new Child Labor and Continuation 
School law went into effect. This is 
at present the most advanced law we 
have on the subject, in that it provides 
eight hours per week of continuation 
school attendance for all children under 
sixteen who have left school to go to 
work. The special provisions of the law 
are summarized as follows: 

It limits the hours of labor of cer- 
tain minors so that their physical well- 
being may be safe-guarded. 

It prohibits the working of minors 
at occupations which would be harm- 
ful to their moral or physical being. 

It provides an effective system of 
issuing employment certificates. 

It establishes continuation schools 
for children between the ages of four- 
teen and sixteen years, so that they 
may receive a type of instruction that 
will increase their efficiency as workers 
and their intelligence as citizens. 

It prevents the employment of those 
minors who are not physically fit to 
work, and of all minors who are under 
twelve years of age. 

This law goes farther than the Wis- 
consin law in requiring eight hours per 
week of schooling, as against five; but 
it permits the same number of work 
hours in addition to the schooling— 
forty-three. This makes the Pennsylva- 
nia child’s week a longer one. The 
Wisconsin law contemplates the exten- 
sion of the continuation schooling to 
minors up to the age of seventeen. The 
issuing of certificates to employers, and 
the holding of employers responsible for 
the enforcement of the law is also a de- 
cided gain. Altho by no means perfect, 
the new law will be welcomed as a dis- 
tinct contribution to the working out of 
the present difficulties in the field of 
adolescent education. 


It is not enough to teach the “truth 


as we understand it.” We must teach 
the love of truth, we must inspire the 
children to set out upon the magnifi- 
cent adventure in search of truth. 


PERFECT PATRIOTISM 


“The American Teacher” IS growing 
in circulation. But our progress is 
feeble compared with our Possibili- 
ties. A few loyal enthusiasts, no 
matter how able, cannot perform 
Miracles. 

We must invoke the untiring aid of a 
whole host of Friends. 

If one alert teacher in each of our 
Elementary, High, and Training 
Schools volunteered to act as our 
Agent, we could conjointly accom- 
plish Great Things. 

A little courage, a little enthusiasm, a 
little good fellowship—these three 
guarantee achievement. 

We are on the eve of stirring doings. 

Every Agent enlisted in our behalf is 
rendering a service to Public Wel- 
fare. 

Every Agent who sells “The Ameri- 
can Teacher” to his more isolated 
fellows is promoting Socialization in 
Education. 

If you feel the call to Social Service, 
kindly indicate your willingness to 
help us by sending your name to 
the Circulation Manager. 

All sexes welcome. 


FOR PARASITES ONLY 


We beg to assure the misguided Elite of our 
Profession that they are violently mistaken if 
they believe THE AMERICAN TEACHER to 
be an appendage of Organized Charity. 

To be kind is human. 

To be generous is divine. 

To be too kind or too generous is neither human 
nor divine: it is only silly. Silliness is the 
he in the heart of life created by irresponsi- 

ity. 

To those numerous persons who read our Journal 
without paying for the privilege, we would 
say: 

Cease to exploit our humaneness. 
Cease to deride our magnanimity. 
Cease to outrage our generosity. 
Oh beloved Parasites, 
Art is Long 


and 
Life is Short 
and 
Cash is Scarce 


Be decent. Pay as you enter. “The Joy Ride is 
worth the price. 


Have you renewed your subscrip- 
tion? If not, DO IT NOW! 














INSPIRATION 


Inspiration is the ecstasy of sheer Sincerity. 
Sheer sincerity is the cumulative intensity of a Passionate Purpose. 
A passionate purpose is a faith chastened by Wisdom. 
Wisdom is deep experience dignified by human Service. 
Human service is the yearning for earthly Joy. 
All great inspiration is the confluence of 
Sincerity, Purpose, Wisdom, Service, and Joy. 


And we teachers? What do we know of life’s inspirations? 
Routineers we, imitators and emulators, drudges all. 
No brilliant vision illuminates our low horizons. 
No world-shaking dream haunts our songless minds. 
The revelations of philosophy, the clean ecstasy of poetry, 
The unattainable grandeur of sheer aspiring, 
The challenging beauty of thought, 
All the singing godliness of our common humanity, 
—What magic quickenings do they bring to us? 


Depressed by the weight of routine, we sink to the level of machines. 


Sapped and strained by friction’s discontent, we frivol away life’s sacred 
hours. 


We are dead; Call us dead wood, cal] us deadheads; it matters not. 

We vegetate and slowly decay and know it not! 

We are the dead that never awaken, for we lack INSPIRATION. 
GOD! And Europe is bleeding to death!