Americat Teacher 


. Democracy in Education; Education for Democracy 
OFFICIAL ORGAN, THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 


) Vax VI. No. 4 NEW YORK, APRIL, 10917 Ons Doran a Year 









































We salute you in the name of the 


New Day 


You have arisen in your might 
You have overthrown your autocrats 
You have struck off your chains 


You have moved nearer to liberty 
and civilization 





You have taken a long step toward 
democracy 


You have taught us a lesson 


























DEMOCRACY IN EDUCATION; 


EDUCATION FOR 


DEMOCRACY 


FRANKLIN J. KELLER, Ph. D. 
De Witt Clinton High School, New York 


A Bopy politic can be no better than 
the units that compose it. But the unit 
can be no better than the body politic 
gives him opportunity to be, and the or- 
dinary individual will be no better than 
the body politic inspires him to be. This 
principle holds true whether the environ- 
ment be the schoolhouse or the prison. 
If then, the burden is laid finally upon 
the individual and no individiual is given 
opportunity to escape his share, nor de- 
prived of the possibility of sharing in the 
best in life, the result is democracy. To 
bring about these conditions is the 
problem of democracy to-day. In order 
that our children may live in a real 
democracy, we must educate them in a 
system that is democratic and for a 
society that will be democratic. 

To set up a theory of education or to 
deduce general principles is a much 
easier task than that of embodying this 
theory and these principles in a concrete 
scheme, and even when the scheme is all 
properly worked out, it is of no value 
unless those who administer it and those 
who participate in it are convinced of 
its effectiveness and breathe its spirit. 
The personal qualities of the teaching 
corps are of tremendous importance. 
Despite these difficulties, the general out- 
lines of, and education based upon, a 
philosophy of change and democracy may 
be stated. 

The system itself should be demo- 
cratic. Teachers can never imbue pupils 
with the idea that the world does move, 
that conditions do change, and that each 
individual’s opinions are of supreme 
importance especially when they differ 
from those of others, or are truly made 
one’s own and not simply taken over 
from custom, authority or precept, and 
repeated parrot-like—teachers can never 
do this unless they themselves have the 
opportunity to voice their opinions, to 
differ from superior officers in point 


5° 


of doctrine, to make known to students 
such as may not be countenanced by 
trustees. If a school or system of 
schools is to be a living organism and 
not a mechanism, the units that compose 
it must be inspired to develop and not 
to stagnate. Whether Nietzsche be right 
or not in maintaining that the supreme 
instinct is power, it is undoubtedly true 
that when most people get it, they 
promptly forget all their feelings as sub- 
ordinates, and forthwith become oppres- 
sors. Hardly fair is it to say that this 
trait is so ingrained that it precludes any 
thought of real democracy; rather may 
it be asserted that our school system and 
industrial system are so schemed that the 
individual yearns for power and uses it, 
whereas under other conditions such 
would not be the case. Let teachers 
express their personalities and then the 
teaching will be a reflection of the best 
democratic thought. 

Perhaps even more necessary than 
free speech are inspiration and oppor- 
tunity for teachers to develop themselves 
as men and women in a democratic state. 
To treat the teacher as a day laborer, to 
measure his product by the time clock, 
to estimate his success by the number of 
pupils he puts thru the grind of the 
curriculum, is to make of him a mech- 
anism to transmit, ideas that have in turn 
been transmitted to him by precept, cus- 
tom and text-book. Not only is this so 
because the teacher has no time to 
develop, but the kind of man who will 
develop is not drawn to the profession. 
Tt is well enough for superintendents to 
address teachers’ meetings and tell each 
one that he or she should have a hobby, 
but it is more to the point when the or- 
ganization inspires one with the beauty 
of culture and gives opportunity for the 
teacher to make it part of his or her 
daily life. 

The teacher must take part in the 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 5! 


shaping of policy, constructing of cur- 
ricula, and the determination of methods. 
An interesting survival of the policy of 
complete separation of the administra- 
tive and teaching function is the fact 
that the teachers are never represented 
on boards of education, at least in Amer- 
ica. Sometimes the superintendent has a 
seat on the board but does not vote. 
How strange that the whole education 
department is controlled by a group of 
men and women who do not teach, for 
the most part have never taught, and who 
never will teach! As if a business cor- 
poration should invite a board of doctors 
to control its affairs, or a hospital be 
managed by teachers. I am aware of 
the supposed advantage of separating the 
policy-forming and the administrative 
functions, and all that, but whereas busi- 
ness men will confer with their engi- 
neers and give them a decided voice in 
aftairs, boards of education do not do 
that. 

It is only lately, after much agitation 
and investigation, that New York has 
been given a teachers’ council whose 
business is to “make recommendations.” 
There can be no sense of responsibility 
or power in a merely recommending 
capacity. Teachers can not be made to 
feel the dignity and importance of their 
positions if they are limited to opinions. 
The best that is in them will never be 
developed until the opportunity for it to 
function is presented. There are no 
principles of education so general that 
they must not be adapted to varying and 
changing circumstances; and if that is 
so, the experience of the workers is 
necessary for the determination of 
policy. Nor can any group in a demo- 


‘eratic state be considered so subordinate 


or servile that it can not be depended 
upon to contribute to large policies. 

Granted such a democratic system as 
above suggested, the nature of the edu- 
cation would follow, naturally. 

In the first place it must be kept in 
mind constantly that you can not mass 
together a lot of bad people and by 





speaking of them as a social body make 
them good. Education is a slow pro- 
cess and education for democracy still 
slower. You have to get at the in- 
dividuals and work with each of them. 
Society and the individual react upon 
each other. Society must surround the 
individual with conditions which will 
foster in him a desire to do more for so- 
ciety ; the individual must make of soci- 
ety an organism such as will confer upon 
others even greater benefits than he him- 
self has received. 

Every child should have the oppor- 
tunity to learn every thing and any thing. 
This means free education thru the 
college and professional school. There 
is no reason why in a so-called civilized 
society any body or girl should be taken 
out of school because the parents can not 
afford to send him any longer. Just 
so long as a child can get anything out 
of school he should go, and if for any 
reason the parents can not send him, then 
the people must do so collectively. How- 
ever, we look forward to the time when 
no parent can be so situated. In these 
schools the curriculum must be varied so 
that as an adult the pupil will be able 
to pursue the work for which he is most 
fitted, without his having to become a 
mere specialist. Moreover, this neces- 
sarily implies a freedom of speech on 
the part of the faculty. The students 
in the Wharton School, University of 
Pennsylvania, in a petition maintained, 
and rightfully so, that they were entitled 
to learn all the doctrines and to make 
choice of the valid ones for themselves. 
The people must be fed upon particular 
theories in order that the hands of any 
one may be upheld, whether that class 
be plutocratic, religious, manufacturing, 
or laboring. 

To the question, What shall we teach? 
the answer is both easy and impossible. 
It is easy because it is easy to generalize. 
We should say, Teach that which will 
develop the individual to his highest 
capacity, which will make him happy, 
and happy in such a way that his 




































52 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 









































happiness will contribute to other peo- 
ple’s happiness. The answer is impos- 
sible because no one can completely par- 
ticularize. Of course, a host of ques- 
tions immediately arises. How is one to 
determine the pupil’s highest capacity? 
Are all his talents to be developed? If 
one talent stands out and we train that 
to the limit, how many other things are 
we to give the pupil in order to make 
him or her a rounded man or woman? 
What is it in the long run that makes 
one happy? Hard work with adequate 
compensation, or light work and much 
play? How can one best make one’s 
fellow-men happy? By forgetting one’s 
self and working entirely for others? Or 
by concentrating on self and expecting 
others to do the same? By directing all 
one’s efforts towards making this life 
happy, or by keeping one’s thoughts 
ever on a future life? But these are 
questions that have troubled all the 
great educators from Plato to Dewey, 
and their answers have been worked out 
on the bases of their fundamentai 
philosophies. 

Democracy will mean certainly that 
each individual must have every op- 
portunity to fit himself for the kind of 
work he both desires and is capable of 
doing well whether it be that ‘of ditch- 
digger or diplomat. The curriculum 
must be wide open for everybody and 
it must be made possible for everyone 
to enjoy all its advantages. It means 
that the son of a ditch-digger may be- 
come the diplomat, and just as surely 
that the son of the diplomat must become 
the ditch-digger, if he cannot with his 
talents honestly earn a living in any 
other way. Nor is this impossible or 
disgraceful, for it must be remembered 
that a society is conceived such as will 
not condemn honest manual toil to 
poverty. Education must not be con- 
fined to methods of production, of 
money-making, of work, but must teach 
one how to live, how to get the most 
out of life. 

The educational talk of the day is 





“vocational training.’”’” Very properly 
we have waked up to the fact that chil- 
dren are leaving school unable to do 
things, without the knowledge or skill 
to earn a living. Unquestionably in a 
democratic society it is of great import- 
ance that each should gain economic in- 
dependence. But dangers lurk in the 
cry. Ina society that is ever changing, 
in which trades shift and new ones 
arise, in which thought changes and the 
old gives place to the new, the individual 
must be made adaptable. He must 
be introduced to all phases of life, 
he must not be made a slave to 
one trade so that manufacturers may 
make use of him, that the state thru its 
educational system may swell the pockets 
of the profiteer, a profiteer such as the 
National Association of Manufacturers, 
which justifies child labor by quoting 
Carlyle to the effect that “all true work 
is sacred; in all true work, be it hand 
labor, there is something divine. The 
report continues—‘“in the impulse of the 
adolescent child to go to work at four- 
teen there is after all something of the 
divine. In the child’s hunger for the 
world of work is a true reflection of that 
Infinite Spirit which in seven days made 
the world.” Professor Dewey is con- 
scious of the danger, and says, “The 
kind of vocational training in which | 
am interested is not one which will 
“adapt” workers to the existing indus- 
trial regime; I am not sufficiently in 
love with the regime for that. It seems 
to me that the business of all who would 
not be educational time-servers is to 
resist every move in this direction and 
to strive for a kind of vocational educa- 
tion which will first alter the existing in- 
dustrial system, and ultimately trans- 
form it.” 

Another danger lies in the fact that 
great emphasis upon the productional 
phase of education is likely to limit the 
possibility of teaching people how to use 
their products to their own material wel- 
fare and the glory of their souls. And 
so it becomes extremely important that 

















THE AMERICAN 


the consumptional side should be 
stressed. In the first place, there must 
be implanted in the child a desire for 
better things, for change, for progress. 
There must be a divine discontent. It 
is well enough for the child to be taught 
how to prepare meals for a family of 
five on twenty-five cents a day, but it 
is of even greater importance that she 
be fired with the outrage of the neces- 
sity of doing it. There is too much 
preaching upon the necessity of economy 
among the poor and too little of the need 
of decent satisfaction. To blame the 
high cost of living upon the cost of high 
living is not only a cheap play upon 
words but it slightly condemns a large 
part of the human race to non-partici- 
pation in the comforts that have been 
won thru centuries of struggle. 

In order that these wants may be 
directed along lines of the highest moral 
and spiritual value, ideals must be pres- 
ent. “It should be the duty of the school 
to lead the community to a higher con- 
ception of life—to introduce into living 
something to save men from dull routine 
and monotony, from the deadening sense 
of fatigue; and not simply the man who 
works with machines, but particularly 
and more especially, the man who is in 
danger of making of himself a machine. 
Men who insist upon counting the steps 
in Jacob’s ladder are really undesirable 
citizens.” 

The constant reiteration of practical, 
practical, practical, may well give 
us pause. Democracy in the minds of 
many is always a leveling down to the 
masses, whereas it should be a leveling 
up to the classes. When class con- 
sciousness means a feeling of dignity 
which comes of faith in one’s self, then 
it becomes a virtue and a justified de- 
spisal of the lowbrow. The exaltation 
of a love of the mean and sordid has no 





TEACHER 53 


kinship with democracy. 

Any system of education will be a 
failure unless it tries consciously and 
persistently to develop personality. 
There can be no specific subject in which 
personality is taught, but it must per- 
vade every subject and exude from 
every teacher, and it must be such that 
it will not attempt to mold children in 
the old forms but will make every effort 
to develop everything that is new and 
worth while in the pupil. 

The method of teaching must be such 
as will develop in each individual a habit 
of thinking for himself, an adaptability 
to changing conditions, and a freedom 
from the weight of custom and conven- 
tion such as hinder progress. The mind 
should be set free for the work of the 
world. 

Discipline must find its basis in free 
and varied action. The pupil should be 
given opportunity to do as much and 
as many different things as possible. The 
teacher must occupy the position of in- 
spirer and critic. 

One point that must be emphasized is 
that we must take ourselves and the 
world as we find them. Whatever we 
may think of Nietzsche’s conclusions we 
can hardly deny the virtue of his method. 
He reasons thus: “I do not know 
whether life is, in itself, good or bad. 
. . . I will never know whether it 
would have been better for me not to 
have existed or to have existed. But 
from the moment [I live I will that life 
shall be as exuberant, luxuriant and 
tropical as possible, within and without 
myself. I shall say ‘Yea’ to all that 
makes life more beautiful, more worthy 
of being lived, more intense.” So say 
we who believe in a thorogoing democ- 
racy, and we would reach our goal thru 
“Democracy in Education ; Education for 
Democracy.” 









































































‘SUPERIOR MERIT IN THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF NEW 
YORK CITY* 


A. Gertrupe JAcos, 
Jamaica High School, New York. 


THERE are many women teachers in 
the high schools who have not had the 
experience of being unjustly rated. They 
have been fortunate enough to secure 
“superior merit” from the start. They 
belong to the supervising staff and they 
are not enough interested in justice for 
their fellow workers to give the subject 
careful consideration. 

I do not speak for those women, for I 
believe that “superior merit” has been a 
farce; that it has done untold harm; 
that it has brought sorrow and suffering 
into many homes and that it has lowered 
respect for authority in schools all over 
the city. 

We have met today to discuss this 
question and to fight for justice and 
truth. We must not allow petty consid- 
erations or the spirit of retaliation to 
master us. Facts, not bitterness, must 
guide us. Otherwise we shall stoop to 
the level of what superior merit created 
for us. We are here in the open. What 
we have to say all may listen to. Let 
each one do his part at making this meet- 
ing a protest against the injustice of hav- 
ing salaries depend upon school ratings. 

It has been said that in business com- 
pensation depends upon the worth of the 
employe; that a physician has to prove 
his ability before he reaps the benefits of 
success, and that therefore teachers’ sal- 
aries should be graded upon the worth 
of the teacher. The theory is beautiful. 
However, there is one essential differ- 
ence. The employe who exhibits initi- 
ative is the one who is promoted most 
rapidly. The physician who has ideas of 
his own becomes the greatest success. 
The teacher on the other hand who sinks 
personality and teaches to please his 
superior officers will be rated the most 
successful. If B learns that his salary 
was withheld because he did not teach 
as A would have him teach, he would be 
very foolish not to try to teach a Ja A, 


* Address before The Teachers’ Union of 
the City of New York, February 17, 1917. 


54 


at least until his salary was assured, no 
matter how antiquated A’s ideas. Work 
ing for ratings is not an ideal standard. 
Where, however, salaries depend upon 
those ratings many of us have lowered 
our ideals and bowed to our superior of- 
ficers. Most teachers welcome construc- 
tive criticism when given in the right 
spirit. Petty carping criticisms given 
for no purpose in the world except to 
serve as a basis for judging “superior 
merit” are doubly harmful. They create 
antagonism on the part of the teacher 
toward authority, and they react unfa- 
vorably on the one who stoops to give 
them. 

Moreover, superior merit ratings are 
often sent to the Board of Education 
befure a teacher has seen them. Untrue 
statements may be registered, gross ex- 
aggerations indulged in, personal and 
even libelous remarks recorded and a 
teacher remain in ignorance of what has 
been said. At a recent meeting of prin- 
cipals and those in charge of depart- 
ments, it was suggested that written re- 
ports be handed in, signed by those mak- 
ing the reports, upon the ratings of can- 
didates for superior merit. I was forci- 
bly impressed with the opposition to the 
plan. Evidently there was a fear of 
black-and-white. 

Now is it right or democratic that 
principals and heads of departments 
should be given the opportunity to make 
statements that may militate against a 
teacher’s salary and not be compelled to 
put those statements into writing and 
over their own signatures? What re- 
spect can we have for those who have 
not enough backbone to stand jbehind 
what they say? What would any right 
minded principal think of a teacher who 
reported a student for misbehavior and 
was unwilling either to make a written 
statement or to face the accused? Sure- 
ly there would be a reasonable doubt in 
favor of the offender. 

Principals and heads of departments 















THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


appear to be the ones really responsible 
for the ratings when it comes to the last 
analysis. Visiting superintendents do 
not have enough time to pass fair judg- 
ments. The Board of Examiners un- 
acquainted with the teachers must de- 
cide upon what is placed before them, 
for or against the candidates. Hence 
gross unfairness results. 

If superior merit had been confined to 
really superior teachers, embracing only 
a very small per cent., the feeling against 
it would not have been so strong as it is. 
First assistantship judged by a definite 
standard, not on insignificant general- 
ities, has never been assailed. When in 
the same school, however, teachers 
notably weak in discipline have been 
granted superior merit, while some of 
the oldest and best have had it withheld, 
one is forced to the conclusion that it 
has been and is being used as a whip. 
Over and over teachers who have had 
the courage of their convictions and have 
spoken in opposition to what long years 
of experience have taught them to be 
wrong, have been disciplined by having 
distorted reports sent to headquarters 
and in consequence have been denied su- 
perior merit. 

Therefore, the purpose for which su- 
perior merit was created has been de- 
feated. Instead of increasing the effi- 
ciency of the teaching staff it has tended 
to decrease it. Anything that affects a 
teacher in a nervous way has its reac- 
tion on the student body. No one who 
is worried over financial matters can do 
his best work. 

With worry and bitterness may also 
be classed social stigma. Can a 
teacher feel the same self-respect when 
every little idiosyncracy is held up to 
the limelight? Do not students quick- 
ly learn upon whom the principal 
frowns, even without the carping criti- 
cisms which are so often administered 
before a class? Visits from superior 
officers grow to be nightmares. The 
minute one appears at the door of a 
class room spontaneity on the part of 
the teacher ceases. He is nervous and 





55 


upset. The class soon reflects his atti- 
tude. Many times the one who judges 
the teacher spends but a few minutes 
in his room. He sees the teacher at 
his worst. Is that snap shot judgment 
fair? 

The criticism of a superior officer 
may reflect his own weakness. He 
cannot be a specialist on all lines. 
High school teachers are specialists in 
their own subjects, or the Board of 
Examiners was at fault not only in ad- 
mitting them in the first place, but in 
granting them permanent licenses. A 
superior officer who proves his ignor- 
ance of what is being taught by the 
erroneous criticism which he makes, 
cannot merit the respect of the teacher. 

Nor are those who are directors of 
special branches, and supposed to be 
authorities in their line of work, al- 
ways exempt from exhibiting a lack of 
knowledge on fundamental points. 
Teachers working for superior merit 
have had their classes handicapped by 
this unfortunate condition more than 
once. Such absurd criticisms have 
been made, when the question of rat- 
ing has come up, that those criticisms 
have been handed out as jokes by the 
teachers themselves. When a superior 
officer, thru his own display of inabil- 
ity to judge of real teaching, renders 
himself an object of ridicule, it tends 
neither to elevate the schools under his 
supervision or to raise the moral tone 
of the profession. For example, a 
woman of many years’ successful ex- 
perience as a physical training teacher 
came up for her superior merit rating. 
She was visited by a supervising offi- 
cer of the department of physical 
training. The gymnasium was long 
and narrow and the class was large. 
In order to have room enough to teach 
a dance she faced her class to the side 
wall. In technical terms, which doubt- 
less led the Board of Examiners to 
believe that a serious pedagogical mis- 
take had been made, that fact was re- 
corded against her. Now what pos- 

(Continued on page 60) 










































THE FLUOROSCOPE 


IN THE early days of the employment 
of the X-ray for scientific research, 
many observers suffered on account of 
the general ignorance of the burning and 
withering effect of long continued and 
repeated stimulation of human tissues 
by the new and powerful force. Thus, 
the hands of some valuable workers 
came to be practically useless because of 
the strange malady. But happily the 
newer workers have the benefit of the 
discovery that a screen of lead inter- 
posed between the rays and the body of 
the observer would protect him against 
injurious consequences. 

THE AMERICAN TEACHER is training 
up a new body of workers. They may 
be referred to occasionally as Fluoro- 
scope Observers, as in the present obser- 
vation. Each will be supplied with a 
leaden screen through which not even 
the penetrating gaze of the observed can 
pass. We shall leave to the imagination 
of the reader the real nature of the 


screen, for along with the absorbing in- 
terest of this new endeavor, there are 
involved some elements of danger. 


V 

THE Visitor (after having expressed 
admiration for the beautiful new high 
school building)—But who is the man 
with the bald head and the gigantic red 
mustache? He is wearing a conspicuous 
plaid suit and a flamboyant necktie. Is 
he the janitor? 

THE FLuorRoscorpe OssERVER—NO, in- 
deed, that is our principal. 

THe Visttor—You don’t say so! 
Excuse my frankness, but if I had met 
him elsewhere I should have taken him 
for a bar tender. All he needs to com- 
plete the picture is an apron. What 
kind of principal does he make? 

THE F. O.—Well, if you insist, he is 
both little and mean. If he has any 
redeeming qualities the politicians who 
secured his appointment might tell you 
what they are. He may be a “good 
fellow” with them. But with us he is 


little and mean. Little things are his 
specialty. 

With pencil and note book in hand, 
he counts the pieces of chalk left over 
night at the blackboard, the pieces of 
paper dropped on the floor by pupils, 
occasionally picking up one himself. He 
observes the number of scratches on the 
desks and tables caused by use. He 
goes stealthily through the halls peeking 
through doorways slightly opened by 
himself—carefully keeping out, if assist- 
ance seems to be needed, for it is not 
his business to be helpful. 

Woe to the teacher who incurs his 
displeasure! The fall of Satan from 
Heaven to the burning lake were not 
greater than the fall of the poor victim. 


Tue Visttor—And what may cause 
this terrible wrath? 

Tue F. O.—Oh, almost anything that 
is trivial. It may be a look not flatter- 
ing enough, or an inquiry about a “B” 
rating, or an uncovered school book, or 
a case of discipline, or an omitted rec- 
ord. Any of these is enough to stir 
the royal wrath. And why not? We 
forget, “The King can do no wrong.” 

And so we work under supervision, 
without sympathy, petty and unprofes- 
sional in the extreme—a_ supervision 
mean, untruthful and given to fav- 
oritism. 

Tue Vistror—Ah, he plays favorites! 
Now that you speak of it I am not sur- 
prised, for his clothes and his manners 
make me think of the race track, 
too. But how do the favorites like 
him? 

Tue F. O.—Of course, the favorites 
may not like him, but they do fear him 
The rule of the New York educational 
game has always been to jam things 
thru and to jam down any objector 
standing in the way. “Getting in Dutch” 
is a bad business, and it pays the teacher 
to flatter. In fact, it pays at the rate of 
at least $150 a year, which is no small 
emolument. 


(Continued on page 61) 





The 


American Teacher 


Democracy in Education: Education for Democracy 


Published monthly, except July and August, by 
THE AMERICAN TEACHER COMPANY, INC., 
70 Fifth Avenue, New York City 


President 
Vice-President 











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. S ibers are requested to give prompt 
notice of changes in address. 





Remittances should be made in postal moncy- 
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Entered as second-class matter, February 21, 1912, 
at the Post Office, at New York, N. Y.; under the 
Act of March 8, 1879. 








VOL. VI APRIL, 1917 No. 4 








Officers of the American Federation of 
Teachers 


(Affiliated with American Federation of Labor) 
Cuas B Sruiman, 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, Ill. 
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 





LABOR AND LOYALTY 
Even before this number of THE 
AMERICAN TEACHER is printed our coun- 
try may be at war with the government 
of the German people. Should war 
come, the workers of this country stand 
ready to support the government in 
very possible way, to the end that the 
democratic and humanitarian principles 
that are at the foundation of this nation 

may be preserved in the world. 


The readers and supporters of THE 
AMERICAN TEACHER are in large part 
among that great body of citizen work- 
ers who have fought, relentlessly, the 
idea of war upon any nation. They 
know who bear the burdens of war, and 
they know who profit by its fury. The 
representatives of organized labor who 
met in Washington in March, had a 
great responsibility, the President of our 
American Federation of Teachers among 
them. Even at the time of the confer- 
ence in Washington the outbreak of war 
seemed a certainty. The great question 
was what should be the course of labor? 
As we face the great crisis we can see no 
alternative. Labor must stand ready to 
give its service. 


The loyalty thus pledged in the name 
of the common people is not to be con- 
fused with the hysterical shouting and 
gesticulating that pass in many quarters 
as manifestations of “patriotism.” It is 
not that unqualified and unquestioned 
submission to the dictates and whims of 
men who happen to be in authority, un- 
der all circumstances. It is a sincere de- 
votion to the ostensible purpose of the 
government in promoting the aims and 
ideals of the American people, in the in- 
terests of wider liberties, more firm se- 
curity of human rights, and further ex- 
tension of the essentials of civilization. 

We shall make our prayers or our 
propaganda to avoid the stupidities as 
well as the brutalities of war, up to the 
very moment that may at last find us at 
war. But when war comes, if it comes, 
we shall have responsibilities to meet 
quite as incumbent upon us as the re- 
sponsibilities of loyalty to the govern- 


——> ment and its major purpose. Upon us 





57 





58 


will rest the responsibility to guard those 
fundamental attainments of such civili- 
zation as we have against the ruthless 
assaults of privilege and greed and reac- 
tion. Upon us will rest the responsibil- 
ity to resist the temptation to exploit 
children and other defenseless members 
of the community on the pretext of ne- 
cessity; the temptation to deprive the 
workers of their protection against con- 
ditions that rob of health and sanity. We 
shall be responsible for keeping alive 
those ideals of justice and liberty and 
humanity that are the most serious vic- 
tims of every war. 

We shall be loyal. We shall not, how- 
ever, permit our loyalty to the “govern- 
ment” to blind us to our loyalty to 
the heart of the nation. Nor shall we 
let it blind us to the loyalties that this 
nation still owes to mankind today and 
tomorrow. We shall be loyal, but we 
shall not be blind. — 


THE NEW ERA 
ONE of my first aims is to secure your 
coéperation—coéperation in which loyalty 
will mean loyalty to the prime object of 

education, the development of the child. I 

do not feel that I need ask codperation of 

you, for you as true teachers will gladly 
welcome all opportunities for codperating. 

I have such faith in your response that I 

believe that Minneapolis schools may give 

the world an example of efficiency secured 
by codperation never before seen. 

THE above paragraph is taken from 
the first address of Superintendent B. B. 
Jackson, of Minneapolis, Minn., deliv- 
ered recently before the teachers of that 
city. The paragraph speaks for itself, 
and what it says if of tremendous sig- 
nificance in a long and selfish history of 
school administration in which loyalty in 
school affairs has always been inter- 
preted as faithfulness to an individual 
official. The entire address of Superin- 
tendent Jackson should be in the hands 
of every superintendent and _school- 
board member in the land. 

If it were possible for the teachers 
also to read the address and the story 
of the selection of Superintendent Jack- 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


son by the vote of the teachers of Min- 
neapolis, the five-year-old dream of THE 
AMERICAN TEACHER that teachers should 
have a voice in the selection of their su- 
perior officers would cease to be ridi- 
culed. We extend to our active and in- 
telligent contemporary, The Elementary 
Teacher, of Baltimore, our hearty felici- 
tations on printing the address and the 
story of the selection of the superinten- 
dent for the educational public. 

We trust that every reader of this 
who has given a thought to a brighter 
future for teachers and pupils will 
“spunk up” and start the movement in 
his school for sharing in the administra- 
tion of the school and the school system. 
In another column we quote again from 
Superintendent Jackson’s address to in- 
dicate a practical line of endeavor, the 
revision of a course of study. Every 
school system needs its course of ‘study 
revised. In fact, the more intelligent the 
community is the oftener the course of 
study must be revised. 

Our sun is rising at last, and it is so 
bright we can scarce bear to look upon it. 


CONFUSION. OF ISSUES 

Just as an intelligent interest in the 
improvement of the educational service 
by the selection of administrators on the 
basis of merit was beginning to be man- 
ifested by the New York City Board of 
Education, we are given a rude, discour- 
aging shock. At its meeting on March 
28, the Board voted almost unanimously 
to reject the transfer and promotion of 
Dr. Alexander Fichandler, Principal of 
P. S. 165 Brooklyn, for the ostensible 
reason that he was not sufficiently “pa- 
triotic.” And the most flagrant evidence 
of his lack of patriotism was his refusal 
to sign the “pledge” promulgated by the 
Mayor’s Committee on National Defense 
—a “pledge” that several members of 
the Board themselves refused to sign, 
and that many ardent militarists sus- 
pected of being conceived and promul- 
gated for ulterior private purposes. 

The Board of Superintendents had se- 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 59 


lected Mr. Fichandler for the principal- 
ship of a consolidated school which is in- 
tended to house 6,000 children. Pre- 
sumably this professional staff knew 
what it was doing. The elementary 
schools committee of the Board of Edu- 
cation had approved the selection and 
had recommended its confirmation by the 
Board. In a sweep of passion the Board 
voted 32 to 4 to reject the nomination. 

The 32 votes represent perhaps a 
dozen different reasons and motives, in- 
cluding personal, political and racial 
prejudices as well as sincere doubts con- 
cerning the wisdom of the Superinten- 
dents’ selection. The sincere members 
of the Board, of whom there are at pres- 
ent more than ever before, may have to 
acknowledge that in an unguarded mo- 
ment of strain and passion they permit- 
ted themselves to be exploited or stam- 
peded by professional politicians. 

The next move is for the Board of Su- 
perintendents, upon whom devolves the 
duty of again making a nomination for 
the position. The professional level at- 
tained by this Board wili be indicated by 
its response to the action of the Com- 
missioners. We wonder whether the Su- 
perintendents will accept the vote as a 
rebuke of their own experiences, or 
whether they will reaffirm their profes- 
sional judgment and challenge the poli- 
ticians to emerge from the shelter of 
“the flag”—-which, as history has abun- 
dantly demonstrated, can be as vigorous- 
ly waved by rascals and charlatans as by 
sincere lovers of their country and their 
fellow humans. 

If there are good pedagogical or ad- 
ministrative reasons for the rejection of 
the technical staff’s recommendations, 
they should be openly stated. The only 
reasons that the public was permitted to 
hear in this instance were either trivial 
or ridiculously irrevelant, or based on a 
gross misconception of the function of 
4 Board of Education in an American 

ity. 


The answer to the question in the first 
letter on page 63 is, Yes! 


FULFILLMENT OF A PROPHECY 3 


The following letter from the Board 
of Education was addressed to the teach- 
ers of Minneapolis: 

Boarp oF Epucation, 
Minneapolis, Jan. 26, 1917. 

To the Principals and Teachers of Minne- 

apolis Public Schools: 

The committee appointed to recommend 
a successor to Dr. Spaulding are desirous 
of considering the question from every pos- 
sible angle, with a view of obtaining for the 
city a superintendent who will be best quali- 
fied to serve the interests of the schools, 
and, more particularly, the children. 

The committee also desire to weigh care- 
fully the question as to whether or not they 
shall recommend for the position a man 
from this city or State or one from some 
other section of the country. 

With these matters in view, it has seemed 
to the committee very desirable to have 
an expression from the teachers and prin- 
cipals, who should be most closely in touch 
with the educational situation and the needs 
of the children. 

We are, therefore, asking you to write a 
letter indicating your views of the neces- 
sary qualifications in a superintendent, and 
also particularly stating your opinion of 
the work, character and attitude, in contact 
with teachers and children, of the assistant 
superintendent in charge of your district, 
and the principal of your high school. 

It is hoped that we may obtain from you 
an opinion that will be entirely dispassion- 
ate, free from any bias or personal preju- 
dice, and a frank statement of your best 
views and judgment. 

In order that you may feel perfectly free 
in the expression of your opinion, you are at 
liberty to send in your letter unsigned, 
writing, however, on the reverse side of this 
sheet, and mailing in the enclosed addressed 
envelope. Time being a vital element, you 
are requested to prepare and mail your re- 
port immediately. 

Please do not consult with any other 
teacher or principal, or show your letter to 
anyone. 

Very cordially yours, 
Henry Devutsca, 


Chairman. 


In response to this letter ninety per 
cent. of the teachers of Minneapolis en- 
dorsed Mr. B. B. Jackson, assistant su- 
perintendent, as the possessor of the 
qualifications desirable in a superinten- 
dent. 








60 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


At the Board meeting, Mr. Bennett B. 
Jackson was chosen superintendent of 
the Minneapolis schools, being the choice 
of the Board of Education and of the 
teaching force of the city. When inter- 
viewed Mr. Jackson said: 

Present teaching and administration meth- 
ods will be continued in the public schools, 
altho changes in the methods will be made 
at necessary times to keep the schools apace 
with the general progress of things. 

The educational system as already estab- 
lished is a good one, and I will try to con- 
tinue it with as little friction as possible. 
The teachers feel that while harmony 

ig mecessary to success, co-operation is 
the vital factor, without which no super- 
intendent can bring the schools to the 
high standard desired. Mr. Jackson may 
rely upon this factor and we predict a 
most successful term of office for him. 
—The Elementary Teacher, February, 


1917. 


SUPERIOR MERIT 

(Continued from page 55) 
sible difference could it make which 
way a class faced while exercising? 
A person with no knowledge of physi- 
cal training would at once recognize 
that that supervising officer was hard 
up for something to criticize. Yet in 
black and white, a silent testimony to 
the unfairness of supericr merit rat- 
ings, that record remains filed against 
that teacher. 

Teachers who had always received 
high ratings and who had passed their 
twelfth year of service before 1912 in 
many cases suddenly found themselves 
in an anomalous position. Term of 
service was changed and_ superior 
merit ratings were withheld. Was 
that law intended to be retroactive? 

Of what value are records if super- 
vising officers are not willing to stand 
back of what they say? Moreover, ex- 
cept for ratings, how could a teacher 
be judged as to his standing when in 
his twelfth year who had passed that 
period several years prior to the date 
when the law went into effect? 





While the brunt of the injustice of 
superior merit has fallen on the 
teacher, I wish to say a word for the 
kindly, conscientious supervising offi-§ . 
cer. We know that he is our friend§ lik 
and that his position is not an enviable | 
one. If he withholds ratings because 
of manifest lack of ability on the part 
of the teacher he may bring suffering 
to that teacher’s family. Living ex- 
penses are high these days. If in order 
to meet this condition he reports fa- 
vorably upon inefficient candidates, he 
may justly be accused of showing 
partiality. Teachers judge each other. 
It does arouse feeling when a poor 
teacher is granted superior merit and 
a good one denied it in the same 
school. This kind of thing weaken: 
authority and militates against the 
school. Moreover, a principal should 
be free from as much worry as possible 
if he is to give his best services ina 
professional way. He is human and 
adverse comment does not help him 
any more than it helps the teachers. 










PRACTICAL CO-OPERATION 


Let me now point out some very eéf- 
fective ways of co-operating. One of 
the great and pressing needs of the Mw- 
neapolis schools is the complete reviswn 
of the course of study. The plan as for- 
mulated by Doctor Spaulding and the 
Educational Council placed this in the 
hands of committees of teachers, each 
under the leadership of an assistant su 
perintendent. We of the superinter- 
dent’s office have sought to enlist the hel 
of the teachers by opinion and sugges 
tion, and it is our hope that the course 
of study will be the composite opinion of 
the teachers of Minneapolis. It entail 
much extra work on the part of those 
having each subject immediately in hand 
and I beseech you to be ready and wil 
ing to offer your suggestions and crit 
icisms.—Superintendent B. B. JACKSON 
in “Inaugural” address to the teachers oj 
Minneapolis. 








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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 61 


THE FLUOROSCOPE 
(Continued from page 56) 


Tue Vistror—Tell me, do the pupils 
like their principal? 

Tue F. O.—Their attitude toward 
him is non-committal. In the early days 
of the school, the mention of his name 
called forth derision. Now they say 
nothing. Children learn very soon that 
to tell the truth about a disagreeable per- 
son is “impudence”. The fear of punish- 
ment for mentioning ugly facts while 
we are children makes cowards of us as 
adults. We ought to listen more to the 
children, I know, but how can we? 

THe Vistror—Has no attempt been 
made to improve conditions? 

Tue F. O.—Oh, yes, we had an in- 
vestigation of the schools some years 
ago. A great deal of time was given 
to studying the methods of administra- 
tion in operation in the school system. 
An extensive report was made, and a 
large amount of discussion involving 
charges and counter-charges was in- 
dulged in. But none of the investigators 
saw anything of the ugly behavior of the 
supervising staff as it showed itself iv 
the absence of visitors. When the in- 
vestigators visited our school the prin- 
cipal followed at their heels, and talked 
out loud when they entered classrooms. 
This helped to while away the time, and 
made it unnecessary to think at all in 
deciding on a teacher’s fitness. The 
principal did that and informed the in- 
vestigators. Yet we were told that this 
was a square deal. 

Tue Vistror—Are you hopeful of a 
change? 

THe F. O—Well, so long as our 
superior waxes oily and prosperous there 
is small hope that the ultimate pulse of 
life will give him and us peace. And 
we are not mean enough to wish him 
on some other school by the official de- 
vice of transfer. 

_ It is rumored that some new elements 
in the present administration of the 


schools do not think an incompetent and 
selfish beast should sit like a czar upon 
the necks of the teachers and the pupils 
of a public institution. 

Tue Visitor—By the way, have you 
heard that the greatest of all the czars 
has been deposed by the people? 

Tue F. O.—Yes, that is just what I 
was thinking of. 


LONDON TEACHERS MURMUR 


WE learn from the London Journal of 
Education, which has always been con- 
sidered a “conservative” and dignified 
and proper journal, that a conference 
of representatives of London teachers 
has rejected a proposed war bonus on 
the ground that it was trivial in itself, 
confined to a minority of the teachers, 
and accompanied by “an objectionable 
inquisition into the private affairs of the 
recipients.” This action was then en- 
dorsed by a meeting of 2500 teachers. 
The conference described the plan of the 
County Council as an “Indignity put 
upon the teaching profession” and the 
Journal approves the characterization, 
and adds: 

The prominent feature, indeed, in the 
business, as in the matter of the infant 
teachers, is that the Council acts towards 
teachers as it would not dare to act towards 
a body of workmen, with the power of the 
strike behind them. It trades confidently 
upon the teachers’ public spirit and sense of 
duty. It is this meanness which is so ex- 
asperating, and which will, if the Council! 
are obstinate, turn an invaluable body of 
public servants into an indignant mass of 
malcontents. 


WORK 


Morality says that occupations must 
be significant, not frivolous; must be 
health-giving, not health-taking; must 
be self-chosen, not imposed; must be 
educative, not deadening; must be 
sources of happiness and delight, not 
of mortal weariness and despair.— 
C. HanFrorp HENDERSON, in Children of 
Good Fortune. 


















































62 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


THE WASHINGTON SALARY SITUATION 


Arter a hard fight, in which they had 
the support of The Government Em- 
ployees’ Federation, The District Feder- 
ation of Labor, The American Federa- 
tion of Labor and The American Fed- 
eration of Teachers, the school employ- 
ees of the District of Columbia are re- 
jOicing in a slight advance in salary pro- 
vided by the appropriation of the last 
Congress for the financial support of the 
District during the next fiscal year. Al- 
tho the increase is inadequate to meet 
the changing price levels, it will help to 
lighten the teachers’ burdens somewhat. 

The conference of labor representa- 
tives and school employees agreed to ask 
Congress for a uniform rate of increase 
for all classes of government workers, 
including teachers. A sub-committee of 
seven kept in consiant touch with appro- 
priation legislation affecting salaries, and 
with labor leaders in Congress. The 
chairman of the legislative committee of 
the High School Teachers’ Union was a 
member of this sub-committee. 

The bill as finally passed provides an 
increase of ten per cent. for teachers re- 
ceiving not over $1200; and five per cent. 
for those receiving more than $1200 up 
to $1800. As the increase is computed 
on the “basic salary,” and as most of the 
teachers are on a basic salary of $1000, 
the larger increase will be received by 
most teachers. This addition to the sal- 
aries is limited to the fiscal year 1917- 
1918. Next year the struggle will have 
to be resumed. 

Residents of*the District of Columbia 
are laboring under peculiar difficulties in 
that they can only petition Congress for 
their needs for they have not the vote, 
and yet they pay taxes to an amount of 
over eight million dollars annually. 

“Our situation before Congress,” 
writes Mr. William J. Wallis, Chairman 
of the Central Committee of School Em- 
ployees on Salary Increase, would be 
very different, if we had Representatives 
and Senators like other Americans.” 


THE SONG OF THE “SUB” 


(Indebtedness to T. Hoop.) 


With brain too tired to think, 

With body too weary to work, 

A struggling “sub” clung to her job 

Teaching day in, day out. 
Sub-sub-sub— 


Drearily dinned in her ear, 


And still with a heart that hoped and § 


prayed 
She sang the “Song of the Sub.” 


“Sub-sub-sub— 
For hunger wants his bread ; 
Sub-sub-sub— 
Till youth and hope have fled. 
It’s Oh, to be a sub 
And drudge from day to day, 
To yield the best that one can give 
And then be turned away! 


“Sub-sub-sub— 
Till the heart begins to sink; 
Sub-sub-sub— 
Till the brain no more can think. 
Cram and worry and work, 
Work and worry and cram, 
Until the very noblest aim 
Is shattered by an “exam”. 


“OQ men with sisters dear! 
O men with brothers and friends! 
’Tis not a convict’s soul you try, 
But teachers who work with brains 
and hands. 
Sub-sub-sub— 
Each day the task renew; 
Filling a teacher’s useful place 
Yet getting no teacher’s due.” 


With brain too tired to think, 

With body too weary to work, 

A struggling “sub” clung to her job 

Teaching day in, day out. 

Sub-sub-sub— 

Drearily dinned in her ear; 

And still with a heart that hoped and 
prayed 

She sang the “Song of the eal” e 





say 


U 











nd & 


ve 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


WHAT THEY SAY 








To the Editors, THe American TEACHER: 

This is just a note to tell you how much 
some of us value THe AMERICAN TEACHER. 
I am giving it a paragraph in the April issue 
of Common Ground. 

After years of deception by so-called teach- 
ers’ papers our teachers are refreshed by the 
real thing when they see it. 

Are the editors teachers actually in service? 


Rapa P. IReLanp. 
Editor, Common Ground. 





To the Editors, THe American TEACHER: 

Permit a disappointed reader of THe 
AMERICAN TEACHER to protest against the pol- 
icy of its lugubrious editors. Your columns 
have of late become infernally dry. A som- 
nolent atmosphere hangs heavily over the 
pages of your monthly. Statistics, detailed 
reports of presidents, verbatim reproductions 
of addresses and strident appeals for union- 
ization have made your leaflet as uninspiring 
as the Statistical Abstract or The World Al- 
manac. 

Why not turn the scowl into a smile? Why 
not discard the frozen mask? Humor, and 
its handmaidens, satire and irony, have done 
more to move men and women to think or act 
than a welter of dreary facts. 

The pithy comments on your covers are not 
sufficient to lure the unsuspecting reader to 
masticate all that is contained between them. 

In short, assume a human, friendly form. 
Add heat to light. Readers will then enjoy 
your sheet, and not skim its barren leaves. 

Yours for a change, 
Fev1x Sper. 

Brooklyn. 





To the Editors, Taz American TEACHER: 
Your paper is good. I am often tempted 
to write an article for it when something you 
say stirs me up. 
Avsert W. RANKIN. 
College of Education, 
University of Minnesota. 





63 


To the Editors, Taz AmericaAN TEACHER: 
Enclosed is my check for two years’ sub- 
scription to THe American TeacHer. It is a 
live little sheet, and deserves great success. 
I am delighted every time I get it, for Tue 
AMERICAN TEACHER means so much for the 
future of our profession. More than that, it 
means so much for the living material which 
we, as teachers, handle. 
Louis S. Frrepianp. 


College of the City of New York. 





PENSIONS 


The articles on sound principles of pen- 
sion legislation, by Mr. Paul Studensky, 
have been reprinted in a neat pamphlet, 
with a special introduction, a bibliography 
and a comparative table. Copies may be 
obtained from THE AMERICAN 
TEACHER, 70 Fifth avenue, New York, in 
lots of twelve or more, ten cents each, post- 
age prepaid. In lots of fifty or more, 
eight cents. 





Every Teacher 


Present, Past or Prospective 


SHOULD READ AND 
SUBSCRIBE 70 THE 
NEWEST ADVENTURE 
IN EDUCATIONAL 
JOURNALISM 


SLATE 


15c. Tue Cory 


A Macazine ror TEACHERS WHO ARE 
NOT DEAD, AND FOR THEIR FRiewps 


Published by 
JESS PERLMAN 


AT 
4 CHartes SrTreetr 
New York City 


$1.20 THe YEAR 



















































The Unions and 
the War 


E, the officers of the National and Inter- 

(J national Trade Unions of America in 

national conference assembled in the 

capital of our nation, hereby pledge ourselves in 

peace or in war, in stress or in storm, to stand 

unreservedly by the standards of liberty and the 

safety and preservation of the institutions and 
ideals of our Republic. 

In this solemn hour of our nation’s life, it is 
our earnest hope that our Republic may be safe- 
guarded in its unswerving desire for peace; that 
our people may be spared the horrors and the 
burdens of war; that they may have the oppor- 
tunity to cultivate and develop the arts of peace, 
human brotherhood and a higher civilization. 

But, despite all our endeavors and hopes, 
should our country be drawn into the maelstrom 
of the European conflict, we, with these ideals of 
liberty and justice herein declared, as the indis- 
pensable basis for national policies, offer our 
services to our country in every field of activity 
to defend, safeguard and preserve the Republic 
of the United States of America against its ene- 
mies, whosoever they may be, and we call upon 
our fellow workers and fellow citizens in the holy 
name of Labor, Justice, Freedom and Humanity 
to devotedly and patriotically give like service. 





From Declaration of the National Trade Union Executives, issued at 
Washington, March 12, 1917. 





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