American Geacher 


Democracy in Education; Education for Democracy 





OFFICIAL ORGAN, THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 








Vor. VI. No. 3 NEW YORK, MARCH, 1917, > Own Doutan a Year 


| 


 f ty 


NATIONAL HONOR. 

















Let us then so conduct our affairs that those of tomorrow 
may say: 


We have used our powers to protect rights and liberties; 
we have used our forces to promote justice among 
men 


We have shielded the helpless from aggression; we 
have dealt fairly with all 


We have insured opportunity to every child, and have 
guarded from hunger and disease 


We have grown and prospered without infringing on 
our neighbors; we have conquered ignorance and 


greed 
We have omitted no word or deed demanded by the 


welfare of our fellow men; we have shared our 
abundance for the enrichment of life 
































TENURE OF POSITION OF SUPERINTENDENTS AND 
TEACHERS 


CHARLES B. STILLMAN 
President of the American Federation of Teachers 


Ir seems rather startling, but altogeth- attacks, so that those who would indirectly 
er fitting, that the teachers be given a beat him down in his efforts to protect the 
hearing before this congress of women. educational interests of the children under 
You have but recently secured partial his care may be made to fight him in the 
suffrage, but you may not realize that the open and face to face. 
enfranchisement of the teachers in any The two flank movements usually made 
adequate sense of the term is as recent, by boards of education, in the process of 
and on a less secure basis. reducing a superintendent to submission, 


I do not know how superintendents as are to attack his tenure of office and his 
a class might feel at the strange spectacle salary. To prevent this, a superintendent 
of the discussion of their tenure by a of schools, after possibly a trial period of 
mere teacher ; they have long enjoyed the one year, should be elected for certain defi- 
privilege of speaking for themselves. nite periods and covering a reasonably long 
But, regardless of whether you have se- time, four or five years are perhaps the 
lected the right individual or not, the ap- most desirable terms, and during such term 
pearance on this morning’s program not of office the board of education should not 
only of a superintendent and a principal, be permitted to dismiss him except for seri- 
but of a teacher in the ranks, seems en- ous cause, and then only by a practically 
couraging for the conception of democ- unanimous vote (four-fifths or five-sev- 
racy in our schools—and Chicago teach- enths, for example). Neither should the 
‘ers now welcome all evidence of vitality board be permitted to reduce his salary at 
in the idea of democracy. all during his term of office. This gives 


1 @ fF ef oO OFF lee 


rn Oo Ww 


On second thought the teacher is best, the superintendent freedom from attack 
fitted to discuss superintendents’ tenure, along these lines for a certain definite pe- 
because the teacher is the first to feel the riod of time, during which he can plan and 
effects of such tenure or of the lack of it. carry out a definite educational policy. 

To get this before you broadly and au- No better method for reducing a super- 
thoritatively, let me quote the foremost intendent to subjection could be devised 


American authority on public school ad- _— than an annual re-election. * * * 


ministration, E. P. Cubberley: ILLINOIS BACKWARD 
It is primarily his [the superintendent’s] Illinois, in this regard, as in that of 
business to plan and to lead. At times he teachers’ tenure, must be classed among 
must direct, at times he must show back- the backward states. Our law recognizes 
bone in resisting improper plans and people, no such official as city superintendent of 
and occasionally he must put his back schools. Any Illinois board of education 
against the wall and fight. He ought not can follow its own caprice in the creation 
to be a pugnacious individual, but he will or abolition of the office. Can you expect 
not be true to the interests he serves if he aman who faces the annual necessity of 
is not willing to stand firmly for right prin- lining up a majority of lay board mem- 
ciples of action in school affairs. A super- bers to ignore that necessity and decide 
intendent in a modern city must belong to policies on educational grounds alone, 
the vertebrate, and not to the jelly fish when the whip is held over him by power- 
class. To enable him to stand by his guns ful interests? A superintendent’s re- 
when submission or retreat would be sponsibility is so great, and his job so 
shameful, he needs protection from flank difficult at best, that a community has no 
moral right to subject him to that ordeal. 
* An Address to the Illinois Woman’s Leg- A board of education of a western city 
islative Congress, Chicago, December 29, 1916. dropped 200 efficient teachers in response 


34 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 35 


to a wave of religious prejudice, one of 
those blind, un-American, shameful or- 
gies of hysteria, like a lynching spree, 
usually engineered by a crafty clique 
composed of all religions, for their 
private profit. The superintendent in- 
vited the board of education to a dinner 
—not twenty-one, it was a smal] board— 
and locked them in until they had talked 
out their hysteria, and in the resulting 
sanity of the small hours the 200 were 
reinstated. Would the ‘superintendent 
have done that if his election had been 
but a few months off? Perhaps, but it 
would be asking a great deal of human 
nature, more than any community can 
successfully demand. 

There is the opposite danger, of 
course, of buttressing an incompetent in 
office. A good example is the case of 


Superintendent Fredericks of Cleveland, 
who not only dropped six competent 
teachers, but at a time when the reve- 
lations of the Cleveland Survey were 
driving the war from the front page, 
said contemptuously that he had not 


bothered to follow it. The board of edu- 
cation asked his resignation, the public 
clamored for it, but he stood by his con- 
tract. 

The council recommendation,’ meets 
both issues, providing that the superin- 
tendent may be elected for a term not to 
exceed four years, and may be dismissed 
for inefficiency or neglect of duty, but 
only after ninety days’ notice, and pub- 
lication of charges and answer if the su- 
perintendent desires. 

I have given a full half of my time to 
the superintendents, and cannot be ac- 
cused of favoritism if I turn to my own 
group, the teachers. Here Illinois is 
particularly backward. Massachusetts, 
Montana, California, Maryland, and in 
particular, New Jersey and Oregon, pro- 
vide for teachers’ tenure. Last summer 
1 corresponded with the secretaries of 
the boards of education of twenty-four 


“Recommendations of a committee of the 
City Council appointed to investigate the or- 
ganization and administration of the depart- 
ment of education. 


of our largest cities, and even where they 
had no tenure provisions, they insisted 
they followed the recommendations of 
the superintendent. Even outside the 
numerous large cities in states just 
named, tenure obtains in Buffalo, New 
Haven, New Orleans, New York City, 
Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Providence, and 
others. 
THE UNCERTAIN TENURE OF TEACHERS 
Of course, I am a party at interest 
here. Let me quote Cubberley again: 

Compared with employees in other lines 
of work, the school teacher, under the an- 
nual election plan, is not accorded the 
tenure of position given to street or steam 
railway employees, general business em- 
ployees, policemen, firemen, or government 
clerks. None of these have to apply over 
and over for positions which they have been 
filling acceptably, nor run the chance of 
annual election with its attendant accidents 
and surprises. So long as these persons 
render efficient service they retain their 
places, and when they cease to do so they 
are first warned, and then perhaps trans- 
ferred to a less important position, and 
finally dropped. As a legal fact, every 
teacher, principal and superintendent is 
automatically out of a position at the close 
of every school year, and the burden rests 
upon them to see that the school board re- 
employs them, instead of the burden resting 
upon the school board, as it ought, to dis- 
miss those it does not want to retain, and 
explain their reasons for doing so. 

This condition is in part a tradition from 
early times, and in part, the result of a 
board of rapidly changing laymen attempt- 
ing to exercise professional functions. They 
have not the professional insight to enable 
them to see far enough to plan and to carry 
out a consistent educational policy for the 
schools; they lack standards for profes- 
sional competency; they are too subject to 
pressure, and in their official actions they 
are usually vacillating and uncertain. 
Surely, it is not necessary to dwell on 

the necessity of freeing the mind of the 
efficient teacher from worry over her po- 
sition. She should not be compelled to 
estimate the expediency of flunking Al- 





36 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


derman ’s son, or reprimanding 
Politician ’s daughter, or recom- 
mending supplies in competition with 
those favored by a board member. She 
should feel that her job depended only 
on securing results as a teacher, and as 
a teacher of children and citizens, as well 
as of subjects and textbooks. That would 
seem almost axiomatic. 

But we need not go outside of Chicago 
to find it questioned most violently. 
Some say, “We are willing to let the 
teachers run their class rooms, if they 
will let us run the legislature without 
interference.” But the majority of the 
teachers reply that they would be false 
to their trust if they did not actively ex- 
ert their due influence at Springfield, 
not only on educational matters such as 
provisions for vocational education, but 
on humanitarian and all other matters 
concerning them as citizens. 

RESPECT FOR CONSTITUTED AUTHORITY 

Respect for constituted authority has 
been advanced as a necessary require- 
ment in any tenure scheme. The phrase 
is unfortunate, because it seems to sub- 
stitute ex-officio respect for earned re- 
spect. Respect for constituted authority 
may easily become a grave danger in a 
democracy. Judicial procedure, one 
would think, should be granted the high- 
est respect of all, but when we find, as 
in the San Francisco bomb case, that a 
man has been convicted of murder by a 
professional jury, a jury composed of 
men who have for years made their liv- 
ing out of jury service thru the kind as- 
sistance of public officials, we do not 
want to let our respect run away with 
us. Would you have had the youth of 
Philadelphia taught respect for constitut- 
ed authority in the days of the Tweed 
ring? I understand that even Chicago 
was dominated by “grey wolves” at one 
time. Would you have the habit of un- 
discriminating respect for aldermen, as 
such, inculcated in our children? Lese 
majeste is not a popular charge in Amer- 
ica yet, despite Chicago’s apparent testi- 
mony of last June to the contrary. When 
constituted authority is guilty of un- 
American acts, respect for constituted 


authority may verge dangerously close to 
treason. 
LOYALTY AND OBEDIENCE 

Loyalty and obedience have been 
urged as of co-ordinate importance with 
efficiency. A  non-Federation teacher 
told me, “the three virtues seem to be 
efficiency, loyalty and obedience, and the 
greatest of these is obedience.” But to 
what? Loyalty and obedience to indi- 
viduals, to official superiors as such, as 
opposed to loyalty and obedience to 
principle, is the curse of popular goy- 
ernment. It is the basis on which the 
ward heeler builds a political machine. 
And it is the basis of very similar and 
even more disastrous manipulation of 
our public school system. Flooding a 
ward with short term appointees is a 
time honored device for putting over an 
administration candidate. But how ama- 
teurish compared with the Board of Edu- 
cation’s thoro-going reform last June of 
putting the entire educational staff on a 
twelve-month appointee basis! The effi- 
cient development and faithful carrying 
out of educational policy all down the 
line, yes! Loyalty, yes, but to the chil- 
dren and citizens of Chicago, rather than 
to “constituted authority.” 

MEDIOCRITY ENCOURAGED 

But the chief tragedy of the present 
system is not the personal one of teachers 
dropped summarily, or even the open 
door to worse political exploitation of the 
schools. The present system fails to 
release the best brains for the service of 
the schools, and incalculable community 
waste results. It encourages mediocrity 
by a very simple method. If a teacher 
raises his head above the ruck, he is 
merely offering a likely target. A com- 
mon response to a request for support of 
something progressive is, “No. It is a 
good thing, but I had better keep out of 
it—I may want a principalship some 
time.” Under such a system it will not 
take long for the vast bulk cf the teach- 
ers to learn the folly of having, or at 
least, of expressing ideas—or, for that 
matter, long to eliminate the rest. 

I cannot close without insisting that 
too absolute security for either super- 





am - 


> ¢0Q OA 


THE 


intendent or teacher is a danger. An in- 
competent teacher should not on legal 
technicalities be able to impose himself 
on pupils and fellow teachers. Again the 
council recommendations meet both is- 
sues squarely, providing that after three 
years of satisfactory service teachers 
shall be removed only for cause, after a 
hearing, or for inefficiency or neglect of 
duty, after opportunity to improve. The 
decision of the Board on charges of in- 
efficiency or neglect of duty shall be final, 
but it must be based on the written charg- 
es of the superintendent given thirty 
days in advance, and the written defense 
of the teacher, both of which shall be 


AMERICAN TEACHER 37 


published at the teacher’s request. 

We are fortunate in having this defin- 
ite bill to get behind, covering the major 
defects in our medieval school law. Chi- 
cago needs many things from Springfield, 
but let me submit that she needs nothing 
more than these conservative tenure pro- 
visions for superintendent and teachers. 
Only then can the energies of this great 
public spirited body of teachers be freed 
from back-to-the-wall defense of democ- 
racy in our schools, and released for con- 
structive attack on the urgent problems 
of the reconstruction of our public 
schools to meet public needs. 


THE PENSION PROBLEM 


Pau. STUDENSKY 


Bureau of Municipal Research, New York City 
Copyright, 1917. 


IV. THE PARTLY CONTRIBUTORY SYSTEM (CONTINUED) * 


In the question of management, the 
partly contributory systems tend to allow 
each side equal representation in the 
managing board, when each side assumes 
equal responsibility for the continued 
solvency of the system. Frequently, 
however, one side or the other contends 
that it should have the majority. In this 
case if the fund develops a deficiency, 
the majority side would be blamed for 
it, and would receive no codperation 
from the other. 

A clear distinction between the ques- 
tion of pensions and that of wages is 
promoted by a partly-contributory sys- 
tem. But in a preliminary discussion, a 
considerable confusion of the two fre- 
quently prevails. The employees oppose 
an increase of contributions on the 
ground that it would reduce their wages, 
whereas the taxpayers protest to an in- 
crease of the government’s contribution 
on the ground that it would be equivalent 
to an increase of wages. Neither of these 


*A partly contributory system is a retire- 
ment system in which the employees and the 
government jointly contribute. The previous 


articles have appeared in the Oct., Nov., Dec., 
and Feb. issues of Toe AMERICAN TEACHER. 


arguments can stand a fair test. The 
employees’ contributions could no more 
be viewed as a reduction of their wage 
than could any saving which they add to 
their bank accounts. The analogy is 
complete, for under a fair retirement 
system they never forfeit the amount of 
contributions standing to their credit, and 
the government pays them no less in 
wages because they set aside a n-~’ 
it for their future protection 
ment is unfair because the wage u.vulves 
not only the satisfaction of immediate 
but also of future wants. It may be said 
that in some cases the wage provides a 
mere subsistence, but this would only 
prove that an adjustment is necessary in 
their case, that we have not gone far 
enough in our social reforms, and that 
we need a minimum wage which is a 
problem for another movement. Of 
course the contribution slightly limits 
one’s immediate use of the wage but it 
does so in order to insure the employer 
some satisfaction of his wants in the 
future. 

It is, therefore, not a reduction of the 
wage but a redistribution of it between 
immediate and future wants. Since under 














38 













































present economic and social conditions it 
is immensely difficult for the individuals 
themselves, to save, a collective effort 
and a compulsory measure are necessary 
to assure that a reasonable proportion 
of the wage is regularly set aside for fu- 
ture protection. Compulsory saving is 
made more attractive to the public em- 
ployee by the fact that under certain lim- 
itations his savings are doubled by the 
assistance of the public. This is one of 
the fundamental principles of modern 
social philosophy. Against selfish care- 
lessness and prejudice which are behind 
the argument, it puts forth social regu- 
lations and unity of purpose for common 
good. Neither is the taxpayer’s contri- 
bution intended as an increase of wages, 
for he realizes that by codperation with 
the employee an esprit de corps is devel- 
oped which compensates him for the ex- 
penditure. 

Furthermore, the two arguments neu- 
tralize each other in a fairly devised 
partly-contributory system, and both 
parties ultimately abandon them as un- 
fair. Satisfied that they contribute to a 
mutual proposition and knowing exactly 
what each side pays, they do not try as 
they always do under a wholly or non- 
contributory system (as previously de- 
scribed) as soon as the system is estab- 
lished to shift their contributions upon 
the other. The fact that the partly-con- 
tributory system is not drawn into the 
vicious circle which forces abandonment 
of the other systems, is, perhaps, one of 
the greatest advantages. Experience 
abroad tends to show that in all sound 
and equitable systems of the partly-con- 
tributory type, both parties are no longer 
regarding retirement benefits as a “de- 
ferred pay,” but as a joint undertaking. 
As this type of system spreads all over 
the world, the “deferred pay” principle 
becomes as obsolete as the “reward” idea. 

The cost of a retirement system estab- 
lished upon a sound actuarial basis, as 
the investigation of the foreign systems 
and of the Massachusetts teachers’ sys- 
tems shows, amounts according to the 
liberality of benefits to ten, and even 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


twelve per cent of salaries. Neither the 
government nor the employees alone are 
willing to bear this expense. The partly- 
contributory system solves the problem 
by dividing the cost and presents, there- 
fore, the great advantage of making pos- 
sible the establishment of a financially 
sound system. The shares of cost which 
the employees and the government in 
these systems bear each amount to about 
5 or 6 per cent. The employees in this 
country, accustomed to pay only 1 or 
2 per cent to the old and unsound systems 
which are now becoming exhausted be- 
lieve that they cannot afford to pay such 
high rates. The most common argument 
in any human activity is undoubtedly 
the one which begins with an assertion 
that it is impossible. We know, of 
course, that 99 per cent of these im- 
possibilities are only imaginary, as for 
instance, the belief when the subway was 
built, that it would not prove a success. 
It is also shown when a class of school- 
boys having a difficult problem assigned 
to them by.a teacher protest that they will 
be unable to do it. These contentions can 
be met by showing what others in sim- 
ilar circumstances have done and by in- 
ducing them to try it. As the teachers 
in Massachusetts pay 5 per cent, those 
in Russia and Italy 6 per cent, and in 
Liverpool, from 4 to 8 per cent, etc., and 
the teachers and other employees in Lon- 
don and other places, as high as 12 per 
cent,” our employees, who do not receive 
any smaller salaries than these others 
should be able to pay 5 or 6 per cent. 
Accusations and counter-accusations 
regarding the sufficiency or insufficiency 
of salary, the good faith of government 
or employee, the responsibility for past 
negligence, the proportion of benefit to 
each party may promote wider interest in 
the whole question; but there is rather 
too much danger that the bitterness en- 
gendered may defeat the whole propa- 


*In New Zealand the teachers, police, rail- 
way and other employees contribute from 5 
to 10 per cent., and in London the teachers 
contribute from 5 to 12 per cent. 

















THE AMERICAN 


ganda, or at the very least limit the value 
of the plan adopted. ; 

Two more arguments deserve attention. 
The first is that the employees sometimes 
claim that a system based upon the prin- 
ciple of cooperative division of cost 
should be adopted only for new entrants, 
and that the old system be continued for 
present employees in view of their 
“vested rights.” It is a common occur- 
rence when a change of an old social 
status is proposed that its present bene- 
ficiaries advance a claim that it should 
be preserved for them and that the re- 
form should be applied only to the next 
generation. In the question of pensions 
as well as in any other question of great 
importance, the public would do well to 
deny these claims. It wants to have up- 
rooted immediately a vicious system, 
which threatens its beneficiaries as well 
as the public, and it expects the benefi- 
ciaries to cooperate in the matter. Thus, 
in every country abroad, as soon as the 
dangers of the old pension systems ap- 
peared, the legislatures have refused the 
employees’ claim that it is obliged to 
maintain the old systems, but have 
changed them in accordance with new 
principles. No privileges in this respect 
are justified. 

The second is the question of moral 
obligations, which is much discussed, 
denied, emphasized. Of course there 
are moral obligations between the govern- 
ment and the employees. Unfortunately 
each side is inclined to recognize only the 
peculiar local responsibilities of the other 
to the exclusion of its own responsibili- 
ties and of the greater issues. 

The employees are a part of the public. 
They must look upon the pension ques- 
tion not only from a professional but 
also from a public point of view. This 
is the tendency of the social evolution 
and the pension movement must proceed 
in harmony with it. When the very keen 
appreciation which each party has of the 
moral obligations of the other becomes 
associated in their mind with the recog- 
nition of their own moral obligations, a 
new conception of mutual responsibility 










































TEACHER 39 


will make for a greater democracy and 
a happier community. 

In the question of management, the 
partly contributory systems tend to allow 
each side equal representation in the 
managing board, when each side assumes 
equal responsibilty for the continued sol- 
vency of the system. Frequently, how- 
ever, one side or the other contends that 
it should have the majority. In this case 
if the fund develops a deficiency, the ma- 
jority side would be blamed for it and 
would receive no cooperation from the 
other. 





V. SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS 


The following are in brief the conclu- 
sions of the writer with regard to the 
three types of system discussed: 


I—THE WHOLLY CONTRIBUTORY SYSTEM 


1. It embodies no public purpose, for 
it is usually established by the employees 
as their private association for their own 
benefit. The employees manage it them- 
selves while the government and the 
public have little interest in the matter. 


2. In the course of time the measure 
proves unfair to the employees and in- 
adequate for the government and leads 
to considerable bitterness. The employ- 
ees realize that the pension is of benefit 
not only to them but also to the public 
and they consider it unfair that they 
alone should contribute. Frequently, 
too, they take an extreme viewpoint that 
it does not benefit them but benefits only 
the public and that they should be ab- 
solved, therefore, from controbuting. 
The government realizes that the system 
could more adequately benefit the public 
if it were reorganized and managed part- 
ly or entirely with that purpose in view. 
As a result of the movement either a 
subsidy is granted or employees’ contri- 
butions are altogether abolished, the 
government assuming the entire cost. At 
the same time the government takes 
either part or the entire management out 
of the hands of employees. Thus the 
(Continued on page 45) 







40 
THE FLUOROSCOPE 


Ir is only the cynic who considers the 
fluoroscope an instrument for the dis- 
covery of defects in our fellow men. It 
is true that this instrument, like many 
others used in science, is applied very 
largely in the search for morbid condi- 
tions. But like other instruments of re- 
search it may also be used to good effect 
for revealing healthy and normal condi- 
tions. The following contribution is a 
welcome relief from the enforced ex- 
amination of pathological specimens. It 
should convince skeptics and doubters 
that THr AMERICAN TEACHER, in its 
survey of school conditions, proceeds 
with scientific objectivity. 


IV 
He owes his position as principal 
neither to pull nor to the cramming pro- 
cess of a superintendent’s coaching class. 
He did not try to curry favor by slavish- 
ly worshipping the machine, nor has he 


made an awe-inspiring “contribution” to 
educational psychology that would bur- 
den the dormant shelves of a university 
library. 

He owes his position to achievement, 
the kind of achievement that will help 
make teaching a profession. His efforts 
as a teacher were not concentrated in the 
ruling of red ink lines in this year’s copy 
of last year’s plan book. His efforts 
went rather into making the work alive 
to the boys and girls, and consequently 
the pupils and the teacher were alive. In 
his classrooms there was no trace of the 
bored, tired, disinterested atmosphere 
that usually strikes the observer of the 
average classroom. He had a wholesome 
faith in the worthwhileness of what he 
was doing and a realization of how much 
more could be done with our young, if 
some life was breathed into the lifeless 
system controlling the schools. As the 
pupils responded willingly and joyously 
to the recognition that they were more 
than merely so many pupils to be man- 
aged for five hours a day, so he felt that 
the educational system would benefit im- 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


mensely thru the recognition of teachers 
as being more than cogs. 

As a teacher, he had felt the desire to 
be consulted in matters concerning the 
school instead of being told, “You are 
hereby ordered, etc.” It seemed wrong 
to him that on the annual renewal blank, 
“the ability to obey and carry out or- 
ders” should head the list of the neces- 
sary qualifications of a good teacher. 
The wastefulness of the system that re- 
fused to make use of the experience of 
the teachers impressed him deeply. He 
could not help but realize how teacher 
after teacher coming to school with zest 
and enthusiasm, in a few years was 
saying, “What’s the use?” and settling 
down to a dull, monotonous grind, en- 
livened occasionally by an extra dose of 
clerical work or the officious “snoop- 
ing” of a supervisor. But he had an 
abiding faith in his fellow teachers. He 
realized the possibilities and the ideas 
that lay dormant—dormant because that 
is how they best suited superiors. 

A few years later finds him a princi- 
pal of a small school. According to all 
rules, he should now have acquired the 
psychology of a worshipper of the sys- 
tem. He should have piled up work for 
the teachers so as to be able to boast 
of “his” school. He should have be- 
come domineering, officious, and all- 
sufficient. He should have frowned 
severely when any teacher timidly of- 
fered some suggestion. 

Strange tho it may be, none of these 
things happened. He still believed that 
every teacher should be consulted—that 
there was something he could learn from 
everyone in the school, including the 
pupil, that in the process he would ben- 
efit not only himself but what is even 
more important, the children and _ the 
teachers would benefit. 

To bridge the gap between principal 
and teachers was not an easy task, how- 
ever. “Miss Smith, what do you think 
of the advisability of changing the prac- 
tise of ?” he would ask a teacher, 
concerning something that was usually 

(Continued on page 45) 





The 


American Teacher 


Democracy in Education: Education for Democracy 


Published monthly, except July and August, by 
THE AMERICAN TEACHER COMPANY, INC., 
7@ Fifth Avenue, New York City 
GABRIEL R. MASON 
CHARLOTTE E. LEE 

JAY D. LESTER 











Edited by 
HENRY R. LINVILLE 
Editor-in-Chief 
BENJAMIN C. GRUENBERG 


Managing Editor 
Benjamin Glassberg Sam Schmalhausen 


J. EDWARD MAYMAN 
Business Manager 





At the time of expiration, a bill will be found in 
the copy. rs are requested to give prompt 
notice of changes in address. 





Remittances should be made in postal money- 
wen, — draft, stamps or check (New 
ork ex 





SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, ONE ose FOR THE 
YEAR—FOREIGN, $1.1 





Entered as second-class matter, February 21, 1912, 
at the Post Office, at New York, N. Y.; under the 
Act of March 3, 1879. 








VOL. VI MARCH, 1917 No. 3 








Officers of the American Federation of 
Teachers 


(Affiliated with American Federation of Labor) 
Cuas B Stiutman, President 
1620 Lake Ave., Wilmette, IIl. 
Ina L M Fursman, Vice-President 
4465 N. Kildare Ave., Chicago. 
Mary F Dwyer, Rec. Secretary 
2817 Cambridge Ave., Chicago 
Marcaret Snopcrass, Corr. Sec. 
1061 Dakin St., Chicago 
F G Srecxer, Financial Sec. 
1618 Lake Ave., Wilmette, IIl. 
James A Meape, Treasurer 
2628 Sayre Ave., Chicago 
Marcaret A Hatey, Nat'l Organizer 
1331 Unity Building, Chicago 
Trustees 
Henry R. Linville George J Jones 


Anita Bailey Nora M O'Connor 
Amelia M Prendergast 


— 
_ 








A MODERN SCHOOL 

Tue GENERAL Epucation Boarp has 
organized under the corporation of 
Teachers College, New York City, a 
school in which certain ideas of educa- 
tional values will be subjected to the test 
of experience. 

Owing to the fact that the money for 
the support of this experiment in educa- 
tion is to come from the endowment 
made by the great oil baron, there has 
developed considerable public interest in 
the project. Not so much interest has 
been shown in the educational conditions 
which seemed to the Education Board to 
make intelligent experimentation neces- 
sary. It-is an important fact that the 
Rockefeller millions may possibly be 
used to build up an institution that will 
prove to be a rival to the public school; 
but in the general estimation it is a neg- 
ligible point that the public school has 
failed in large measure to perform its 
potential social functions as an institt- 
tion. 

Along with the unintelligent interest 
in the new educational venture there has 
developed much opposition to it from 
two important sources. The first of 
these is that group of antiquarians on 
whom rests the responsibility for the 
maintenance of “culture” as such. This 
group finds a distinct menace in the pro- 
gram’s challenge to the study of the clas- 
sics. Nothing could be clearer: culture 
as portrayed by the ancients, and as 
maintained by their modern supporters, 
is threatened by this experiment. The 
classicists are against the modern school ; 
they do not want to see it tried, and 
therefore they freely predict its failure. 

The other group condemns the experi- 
ment because it is supported by Rocke- 
feller money. The inference to a certain 
extent is the old one that no good thing 
can come from the employment of funds 
that have been ground from the back of 
enslaved men, or stolen from less skilful 
thieves—in a word, “tainted money.” 
But in the main the opposition is deeper 
than that. Many good citizens firmly be- 
lieve that a conspiracy has been set on 
foot by unscrupulous wealth to obtain 
control of the ideas of the nation, as it 


41 





42 


has really obtained control of our eco- 
nomic resources. So conservative a 
statesman as Senator Chamberlain of 
Oregon, in condemning the official con- 
nection of many Rockefeller-paid edu- 
cational experts with the United States 
Bureau of Education, expressed the 
opinion that in two generations the ideal- 
ism of the entire country could be 
changed thru the agency of officials in 
these dominating positions. 

In reality, there seems to be scant 
probability that an exact inquiry into the 
motives of the money kings avocationally 
interested in education would reveal sub- 
stantial evidence of a conspiracy. They 
are simple-minded folk in the main, out- 
side their chief department of craftiness. 
In all likelihood they consider themselves 
sincere public benefactors, endeavoring 
to correct some of the sad conditions 
“that man is heir to.” They may even 
imagine that the evils of society are due 
to the inefficiency, shiftlessness, and the 
mental defectiveness of the common ruck 
of men. Their money then could serve a 
useful purpose in educating men to be 
more productive and efficient, and inci- 
dentally, might draw all men to their 
benefactors in Christian brotherhood. 

There is, however, some ground for 
concern in the control of educational ex- 
periments as well as in the endowment 
of educational institutions, by the own- 
ers of great wealth. Regardless of mo- 
tives, there is maintained by the wealthy 
a certain attitude toward social institu- 
tions which makes them regard them- 
selves as senior partners in the public’s 
business, and thus as the bearers of the 
major responsibilities. Perhaps the large 
cash payment of taxes gives wealth this 
point of view. In any event the point 
ef view constitutes a menace to the inde- 
pendence of the social institution under 
subsidy. To a person sensitive to the 
need of social independence of our semi- 
public institutions there comes a positive 
feeling that for example, the Teachers 
College of Columbia University, by ac- 
cepting the relation of sponsor to the 
new experimental school, is submitting 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


itself to an influence that stands for pro- 
prietorship, for an unconsciously selfish, 
and probably non-social point of view. 

For the very insidious nature of the 
ownership of the experimental school 
movement there is but one satisfactory 
cure. That cure is public ownership, 
The public schools themselves must do 
their own experimenting. If they will 
not, then, as we have intimated many 
times before, let the public demand a 
new deal of schoolmasters, along with a 
new deal of idealism. 


CO-OPERATION AND PATRIOTISM 

AT no time in the history of this na- 
tion has there been greater need for 
whole-hearted devotion to the common 
weal; at no time has there been greater 
need for sincere codperation. Yet the 


men of power and of loud voice are 
clamoring for blind obedience and un- 
questioning 


submiss.on to authority; 
they are stirring up jingoism and hys- 
teria and hatred. 

It is these men of power and of loud 
voice who are in large measure responsi- 
ble for the failure of our schools to de- 
velop the capacity for codperation and 
genuine devotion to the public welfare. 
They and their representatives have in 
the first place applied to the manage- 
ment of public education the same sel- 
fish and shortsighted methods that they 
have used with such disastrous results 
in the management of “private” busi- 
ness. They have hired teachers as long- 
shoremen are hired, and have treated 
them as office boys are treated. And 
they have added insult to injury by flat- 
tering the teachers with the name of 
“profession” when the latter stirred 
about uneasily in search of some relief. 

In spite of underpayment and in spite 
of shabby treatment, the managers have 
managed to capture considerable num- 
bers of able and self-respecting men and 
women. And with these they have tr- 
fled. After years of devotion to their re- 





THE AMERICAN 


spective communities these men and 
women, depending upon those higher up 
to look after justice and recognition and 
rewards, find themselves exposed to the 
humiliation of begging for well-deserved 
advancement in power and emolument— 
or to the humiliation of seeing others, 
no more able, advanced over them. 
After years of such management, 
whereby advancement is assured to the 
politic selfseekers, and whereby unsel- 
fish devotion and unostentatious ability 
are systematically ignored, we affect as- 
tonishment at the absence of “codpera- 
tion”"—we cannot understand why the 
most capable men and women in the 
teaching business become insurgent in- 
stead of becoming enthusiastic about 
their “superiors” and about the “system.” 
You can have codperation only when 
men and women are given the op- 
portunity to work for a common and 
approved purpose, with fellow work- 
ers whom they can respect and un- 
der conditions that permit them to re- 
It is possible other- 


spect themselves. 
wise to get complex tasks accomplished, 
it is possible to parcel out details with 
orders to be followed—but that is not 


codperation. You can have patriotism 
and devotion when men and women feel 
themselves parts of a whole that has 
meaning to them in terms of life’s 
values. You cannot in this country ex- 
pect people with some training and some 
thinking capacity to grow enthusiastic 
about symbols that are used to confuse 
the masses and to distract them from the 
corruption and exploitation and brutal 
ny which they are obliged to suf- 
er. 

Never before has this country needed 
so much devotion to the public weal: 
whatever the teachers of America may 
contribute to the meeting of this need 
they will contribute in spite of the ex- 
amples and the principles of those under 
whose authority they have been obliged 
to work. Never before has this country 
needed so much of sincere codperation: 
whatever the teachers of America con- 
tribute to the meeting of this need they 


TEACHER 43 


will contribute in spite of the practise 
and the ideals of those under whose 
domination we have in the past built up 
our systems of management and con- 
trol. 


THE MAYOR, MILITARISM AND DEMO- 
CRACY 


The necessity of reorganizing the 
method of selecting members of the 
Board of Education so long painfully 
evident, was never more strongly dem- 
onstrated than in the recent appoint- 
ments to the Board made by Mayor 
Mitchel. To shape the educational 
policies of a system embracing some 
eight hundred thousand children, one 
might suppose that a necessary quali- 
fication for membership in the Board 
of Education would be a strong sense 
of social responsibility and a recogni- 
tion of America’s need for fully devel- 
oped, thinking boys and girls. An ex- 
amination of the facts discloses that the 
sine qua non in the Mayor’s mind, how- 
ever, is an acquiescence in his desire to 
extend the “Gary system” and to force 
military training upon the children in the 
schools. 

Only a short while ago, when the 
agitation for the adoption of the Gary 
System first began, we were assured 
that this system would not only put 
life into our dead course of study, 
but would also enable the child to 
develop his individuality to the utmost 
instead of being forced to fit into some 
uniform fashioned in the days of the 
framers of the Constitution. Our 
mayor is just as insistent as ever about 
the Gary system, this developer of in- 
dividuality and democracy. 

But in the meantime, “Prepared- 
ness” has become popular. The huge 
mass of capital accumulating in the 
United States must be invested abroad 
and protected. We must train our 
youth to do this protecting effectively 
when necessary. Our mayor has be- 
come a firm advocate of “Prepared- 
ness” but not against the arch enemies, 





44 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Ignorance, Low Wages, and Disease. 
Now no lawyer, corporation director, 
nor contractor is any longer fit to be a 
member of the honorable Board in the 
Mayor’s opinion, who does not also be- 
lieve in the efficacy and necessity of mili- 
tary training. Has it ever occurred to 
our mayor to question how the democ- 
racy that the Gary system is to de- 
velop can possibly harmonize with 
military training? Does he not re- 
member that to produce efficiently 
trained soldiers, we must in the judg- 
ment of New York’s great warrior, Gen- 
eral O’Ryan, destroy all initiative and 
produce mere automata? 

Our foremost educators, among 
them Professors Dewey, David Starr 
Jordan, Dudley F. Sargent, also the 
Department of Superintendents of the 
National Education Association, and 
the Board of Regents of the University 
of New York State and even the 
Massachusetts Military Commission, 
whose convictions concerning the wis- 
dom and value of military training are 
not determined by political factors, are 
firmly of the opinion that military 
training for school children is wrong 
in principle and theory, that it will 
work to defeat the very object for 
which it is created and will greatly 
hinder the growth of individuality, 
self-reliance and democracy, without 
which our entire educational system is 
bound to be a failure. 

In spite of this, our mayor arrogates 
to himself the right to decide that mil- 
itary training shall be immediately in- 
troduced into our schools. 

In answer to a delegation of one hun- 
dred and fifty prominent workers for so- 
cial betterment who called upon the 
Mayor to protest against forcing military 
training upon the schools, he stated, “I 
understand the point to be made that 
there is no value in military training 
from the educational point of view; that 
on the contrary, it is harmful from the 
educational point of view. Now, it is my 
conviction that military training is one 
of the most essential elements of general 


public education in the United States for 
the upbuilding of good citizenship. |: 
is my belief that the most conspicuous 
lack in American youth of today is a rec- 
ognition of authority, a respect for au- 
thority and that that is one of the things 
that ought to be instilled into American 
youth.” 

Is not the time indeed rotten ripe for 
a change, for a complete reorganization 
of the method of selecting members of 
the Board of Education? 


* * * 


At the Kansas City meeting, the De- 
partment of Superintendents of the 
N E A adopted resolutions disapproving 
military training in the public schools. 
These resolutions were based on the re- 
port of a committee appointed a year ago 
to study this problem. 

The report reviews the various plans 
that have been suggested. It points out 
that none of the great military nations 
requires military training of boys and 
that both the Massachusetts and New 
Jersey Military commissions have con- 
demned such training. The committee 
concludes that it is impossible for school 
boys “to perform satisfactorily the ardu- 
ous work of training,” considering the 
important life changes they are under- 
going. “It is an educational and moral 
offense to snatch them from the natural 
life of boyhood, and place them in what 
ought to be a man’s job.” Military train- 
ing in the schools is “not only useless and 
unnecessary but seriously detrimental to 
the welfare of the pupils and to the com- 
munity.” The New York State Military 
Training Law is condemned unhesitat- 
ingly, “primarily for educational reasons 
but also because of the pretense which 
prompts it.” 

At this time when most people have 
gone war-mad, and many of our college 
presidents are attempting to turn the col- 
leges into barracks, it is refreshing indeed 
to have this group of superintendents 
take such a bold and straight-forward 
stand, and refuse to be swept away by 
military hysteria. 





a a ee, a) ee ee ee ee ee ee ee Be oe Bl e- n eit” cee Bo) 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 45 


THE FLUOROSCOPE 
(Continued from page 40) 

done. Invariably came, “Just as you 
say, Mr. X, I am sure it will suit me.” 
Long years of desuetude had produced 
a remarkable similarity in the reaction 
of so many different minds. “But what 
do you thnk?” he would repeat. Then 
came the response and usually a sensi- 
ble one for it was the expression of the 
teacher’s experience. The response to 
this new treatment—the treatment of 
teachers as fellow workers was rapid 
and wholesome. Suggestions, ideas, 
plans came without the urging that had 
been necessary at first. A teachers’ 
council was then organized to provide 
an orderly and systematic medium for 
codperation between principal and 
teachers. A little later the council 
practically took the place of the regular 
conferences—“conferences” that usually 
serve no other purpose than to provide 
suitable background and scenery for the 
principal’s performances. 


The teachers soon demonstrated that 
it was quite possible to do effective and 
efficient work without tying up each 
package of written work with red twine 
and indicating on the top sheet the life 
history of its production. Tests for the 
edification and amusement of the head 
of department (for what other purpose 
can they serve than to kill time for the 
pupil and consume the energy of the 
teachers?) were materially minimized. 
The interest in the work increased. High 
school teachers soon were saying, “Of 
course, these boys do splendid work; 
they come from Mr. X’s school.” The 
vim and enthusiasm that the teachers 
had brought with them in their youth 
was beginning to return. Teaching was 
not exactly the boring, monotonous task 
it had been. Each one felt a live, per- 
sonal interest in his work, for the in- 
stinct of workmanship was given free 
scope. It was not stifled or deadened 
with unnecessary, devitalizing routine. 
Our principal, however, feels strongly 
that a school must be efficiently managed 
not for the glory of the principal, but be- 


cause then only will the school best ren- 
der that useful service which is its only 
excuse for existing. 

Mr. X considers himself primus inter 
pares and so would hardly fit into the 
military ideal that many would like our 
schools to ape—with the principal as 
general and the teachers as privates, and 
with the pupils as the enemy. 


The Pension Problem 
(Continued from page 39) 


system changes to a partly or non-con- 
tributory basis. 

3. The abandonment of wholly con- 
tributory systems is accelerated by the 
fact that the employees always fix their 
contributions so low that the fund breaks 
down after a few years of operation. 


4. If their contributions were high 
they would lead to an increase of salar- 
ies, thereby shifting a part of the em- 
ployees’ pension burden upon the tax- 
payers in another form. 


5. It affords no basis for the estab- 
lishment of a sound actuarial system be- 
cause the cost of benefits, especially at 
higher ages, would be absolutely impos- 
sible for the employees alone to bear. 


II.—THE NON-CONTRIBUTORY SYSTEM 


1. It is autocratic, more or less dis- 
cretionary with the higher officials and 
dangerous therefore to the independence 
of employees. It is established by the 
employer for the purpose of gaining a 
greater control over the efficiency of the 
service by retiring the superannuated 
and by threatening the active members 
of the force with forfeiture of all pen- 
sion rights in case of their dismissal or 
resignation. It regards the employee 
merely as a machine and ignores his 
needs and desires. It gives him no voice 
in the management of the system. 


2. It is inequitable between the older 
and younger employees. It focuses the 
attention upon the immediate retirement 
of the aged members. Its natural ten- 
dency is to provide no benefits for 















































46 


the contingencies which threaten the 
younger employee, such as early disa- 
bility, early death, resignation and dis- 
missal, but to provide increased benefits 
to the fortunate ones who remain in the 
service until old age. 


3. As the pension disbursements in- 
crease they depress the wages of the 
younger employees, with a result that 
the pension becomes a “deferred pay” 
and the system contributory under dis- 
guise in a most inequitable form. The 
younger generation pays for the benefits 
of the older and no one knows how 
much he pays. 


4. It absolves a large group of em- 
ployees from any obligation to save. 
This is harmful to the individual em- 
ployee as well as the society at large. It 
meets the condemnation of the public 
which promotes voluntary and compul- 
sory savings and it is eventually substi- 
tuted by a contributory system. 


5. It becomes too costly for the gov- 
ernment. The latter is forced to re- 
quest the employees to contribute and 
changes it to a partly contributory basis. 
The change involves much greater com- 
plications than would have taken place 
had that basis been adopted from the 
beginning. It has been abandoned al- 
most everywhere abroad and must be 
abandoned in this country. 


6. Its basis is ill adapted to the estab- 
lishment of a sound actuarial system 
which involves the building of a reserve, 
because the cost of such a system would 
be too great from the very outset for the 
government alone to bear. 


7. Its exclusive application to a cer- 
tain group of, or to all, public employees 
affords an argument against the estab- 
lishment of contributory systems for all 
other wage earners. It blocks, therefore, 
the spreading of the social insurance 
movement. 


ItI.—THE PARTLY-CONTRIBUTORY SYSTEM. 


1. It is a compromise between the 
foregoing two extreme systems. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


2. It harmoniously combines with so- 
cial insurance and with its principle that 
every worker must participate in the cost 
of his protection. 


3. It is a joint undertaking which in- 
volves mutual benefits and a two-fold 
purpose—on the one hand, insuring the 
employees and their dependents against 
want in old age, disability, death and—to 
some extent—resignation and dismissal; 
on the other hand, facilitating the elim- 
ination of the inefficient from the service 
and promoting an esprit de corps. 


4. It tends to give both sides an equal 
voice in management. 


5. It promotes a clear distinction be- 
tween pension and wages, each side 
knowing what it pays; it is not intended 
either to reduce or increase the wages, 
does not depress the wage and does not 
become a “deferred pay.” 


6. It makes possible the establishment 
of a financially sound system the cost of 
which amounts to Io or II per cent or 
even more, by dividing the cost and re- 
quiring the employees to pay 5 or 6 per 
cent, as is being done all over the world. 

7. Concurrently with its adoption for 
both present employees and new entrants, 
the old “vested rights” and privileges are 
being swept away. 


8. It is a system which progresses in 
harmony with social evolution while the 
other systems are dying, and it expresses 
the growing mutual responsibilities which 
make for a greater democracy and a hap- 
pier community. 


SNOBOCRACY IN EDUCATION 
A principal was invited to the month- 
ly conference of one of the depart- 
ments. This department holds its 


monthly conferences in a restaurant 
near the school. The principal’s reply 
to the invitation was: 

“I do not care to meet the teachers 
of this school, except in our official re- 
lations.” 











se 


31 
mi 
te: 











$0- 
lat 


in- 


Id 


i i— Oo; 








THE AMERICAN TEAUnER 47 


TEACHER, KNOW THYSELF 
In the course of an experiment in 
self-rating, conducted by the principal 
and teachers of Public School 165, 
,rooklyn, the teachers accepted unani- 
mously the following criteria of an “A” 
teacher: 
1. The teacher who is “A” in in- 
struction : 
a Has scholarship 
b Prepares his work thoroly 
c Drills thoroly 
d “Gets it over” 
e Interests the pupils 
f Gets the pupils to do as much of 
the work as possible 
qg Provides for the exceptional pupil 
2. The teacher who is “A” in disci- 
pline: 
a Has sympathy and patience 
b Has self-control and poise 
c Brings out the best in his pupils 
d Develops self-control on the part 
of the pupils 
e Develops in the pupils proper 
habits of action, both in and out 
of the classroom 
There has been much complaint 
about various systems of supervision 
and rating—many of the complaints 
quite just. But until teachers are pre- 
pared to develop a machinery that will 
eliminate the inefficient and stimulate 
the competent but uninspired laggards, 
the complaints will be of no avail. 
Here is one of many beginnings in the 
right direction. Can you add to it? It 
is not perfect; can you suggest im- 


provements? This is our problem and 
no one will solve it if we do not our- 
selves. 


WASHINGTON, D. C. 

THE elementary teachers of Washing- 
ton are asking for a salary increase be- 
cause there, too, the cost of living has 
jumped so high that their present salaries 
are inadequate for maintaining an ef- 
ficient or proper standard of living. Of 
the 1,888 teachers in Washington, 1,098 
are elementary teachers. The minimum 
salary is $600; the maximum, $1,350. 
The average salary is $798. Of the 1,098 
elementary teachers, 542 receive $750 or 
less, and it takes the average teacher from 
20 to 30 years to reach the maximum. 

And yet, a bulletin of the U. S. Bu- 
reau of Education states that teachers 
are expected to live on a much better 
scale than other workers, and shows that 
it takes at least $800 a year for normal 
expenses, excluding bills for insurance, 
illness, etc. 

According to the report of Secretary 
Redfield, the cost of living increased 34 
per cent. in 1916. More specifically, the 
purchasing power of the dollar of 1915 
was equivalent to 66 cents in 1916. In 
terms of teachers’ salaries, these figures 
show that the $800 salary of the teacher 
in 1915 has a purchasing power of only 
$547.80 in 1916. 

In view of these graphic facts, the case 
of the Washington teacher speaks for it- 








$1.20 


A YEAR 


A NEW ADVENTURE 


IN EDUCATIONAL JOURNALISM 
RADICAL—FREE—LITERAR Y—ARTISTIC—DARING 


SLATE 


A MAGAZINE FOR TEACHERS WHO ARE NOT DEAD; and FOR THEIR FRIENDS 
PUBLISHED MONTHLY 
a 
4 CHARLES STREET 
NEW YORK CITY 
WRITE FOR, DRAW FOR, SUBSCRIBE TO “SLATE” 


self very eloquently. 


15 cents 
A COPY 

































































A CODE OF ETHICS 


EVERY teacher should be adequately prepared both in scholarship and 
professional training, t he may invigorate life thru knowl- 
edge and make constant progressive adjustments to changing needs. 

EVERY teacher should affiliate himself with and give active support to the 
organized body of his profession in the community in which he 
resides. . . . . and these associations should be instruments 
for the cultivation of fellowship, for the exchange of professional 
experience, for the advancement of teaching, and the welfare of 
the public schools. 

THE collective knowledge and experience of the profession should be made 
available to all. 

TEACHERS, as an organized body of professional workers, by their united 
influence, thru organized and persistent effort, should use every 
legitimate means to secure for their members all the material con- 
ditions necessary to the highest efficiency. 

IN case of a conflict of educational ideals between teachers and school 
boards, the teachers should recognize the fact that the school com- 
mittee must direct the general policy of the schools; that it is also 
the duty of the teachers as a body to protest against any violation 
of their professional ideals, to state their reasons to the school 
board, and, if need be, to the community. 

TEACHERS should constantly familiarize themselves with the profession’s 
recognized and authoritative literature. Perpetual growth musi 
be maintained and professional stagnation elirainated. 

EVERY teacher should regard every other teacher as entitled to all the 
rights, courtesies, and emoluments that usually obtain in this and 
all other professions. Professional efficiency, morals, and person- 
ality should be the sole standard for employment, assignment, pro- 
motion, demotion, and dismissal of teachers. 

IT is unprofessional for teachers seeking employment to accept the assistance 
of book agents or publishers of school books, thereby giving 
grounds for the suspicion of obligations tending to influence the 
purchase or adoption of books or supplies in favor of any particular 
agent or firm. 

TEACHERS should not resign during the period for which they have been 
engaged, but the public good demands that a call to a larger or 
more congenial service is a public and personal right which should 
not be denied a teacher after due notice has been given. 

TEACHERS are the servants of the people, without regard to distinctions 
of political party, religious faith, or other matters upon which in- 
dividuals honestly disagree. Teachers are fully entitled to liberty 
of conscience. 

TEACHERS should so conduct themselves that no just reproach may be 
brought against them. 

TEACHERS should always maintain a progressive conservatism of thought 

and action, dignity of character, honesty of purpose, and they 

should take an unqualified stand for the best in education and in 
social life. 











































(From Report of Committee, Massachusetts Federation of Teachers Associations) 




















ns