OCTOBER, 1917 


TWO WAYS 


The demands upon the schools will be greater now than ever 


There is more to be done 
More kinds of work need to be done 
More effective work is necessary 


THEREFORE, 
Let us get cheaper teachers 


Let us get specialists who do noth- 
ing but keep school 


Let us increase the number of 
hours per day 


Let us cut down on rest and study 


time 


Let us increase the size of classes 





THEREFORE, 
Let us get higher types of workers 
into the schools 


Let us get men and women in touch 
with life and civilization 


Let us give teachers opportunities 
to study and to think 


Let us protect the health and-en- 
ergies of the teachers 


Let us plan our work more care-_ 
fully 


There always are two ways 





The American Teacher 


SSSSSNNNSNNNSUL AACS UTE SSSSESSESSEESSESESSSSSSESSSESSESSESEESESEE ESE EEE ES 


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98 








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The American Teacher 











Vol. VI., No. 7 





OCTOBER, 1917 








Democratize the Schools 


HE institutions of a Democracy must 
T be democratically managed. Autoc- 

racy in our political institutions has 
received its death blow during this World 
War. Autocracy in our industrial institu- 
tions is being tempered in some degree by 
allowing some form of representation of the 
workers in the management. 


The public schools, to a greater extent 
than any other institution, foster and instill 
the democratic spirit. And yet our educa- 
tional machinery is patterned upon approved 
Prussian lines. The time has come for the 
passing of Autocracy. Shall it continue to 
be tolerated in our public schools? 


Good Teachers; Better 
Teaching 


GOOD teacher may be one who ever 
A bears a submissive spirit, and attends 
strictly to the business for which he 
was hired. He may be rated a good teacher 
because he follows out the personal ideals of 
his “superior,” and still, he may be doing 
poor teaching. But what is good teaching, 
anyway? 

Here are some things that good teaching 
means, according to us. It implies thoro 
knowledge of subject matter, and a clear 
comprehension of the relative importance 
and the connections of this and other subject 
matter. It implies the easy mastery and flex- 
ibility of method in presentation. It is de- 
sire and ability to interpret. It is capacity 
to stir minds unaccustomed to think. It is 
courage to break down all pedagogical regu- 
lations and reach for and grip the soul with- 
in. It is the spirit that sets on fire. 


99 


Infantile and Other Forms 


of Paralysis 

N September, 1916, the opening of the 

schools of New York City was delayed 

two weeks on account of the prevalence 

of infantile paralysis. During that time the 

teachers were organized into various kinds 

of conferences for the consideration of pro- 

fessional problems. Some of these confer- 

ences were quite interesting and valuable; 
others were not. 

There was no infantile paralysis to speak 
of in September, 1917, but there was as al- 
ways a great deal of adult, professional pa- 
ralysis among the teachers of the great city. 
Indeed, this disease of adults has afflicted us 
so long that we have almost come to accept 
its occurrence as normal and unavoidable. 

As in the case of the infantile variety no 
cure has yet been found for teacher paralysis, 
but hope should never be given up. After- 
care is well worth experimenting with. In 
one we can always massage the body; in the 
other, the mind. 


Thinking 

HINGS will never be the same again. 
T That’s what they all say. The war 
marks the greatest epoch in the his- 
tory of the world. Everybody believes that. 
Do you know just how things will be differ- 
ent the day after tomorrow, when the war is 
over? Does any one know? Have you 
thought it out to your own satisfaction? 
Some of us cannot think because of the ex- 
citement and noise. Some of us cannot think 
because of the high pressure under which 
we are compelled to grind and to work. Some 
of us cannot think. But none of us will 
think effectively unless we are all given a 

chance to think honestly and fearlessly. 


One Dollar a Year . 






paoaes 




































100 The American Teacher 


Things will never be the same again. 
Things are different already. Neither you 
nor I can tell what will come; the most that 
we may hope is to think out clearly what 
ought to come. But to do this we must be 
prepared to take thought of what others are 
thinking. We must be able to take counsel 
with those who think differently. We must 
be tolerant without being indifferent. We 
must grant the opportunity to think as we 
assert the duty to think. 


* * *” 


Things will never be the same again. 
Whatever happens, the right to think must 
be protected. It is upon thought that the 
future depends. Your thought, perhaps, but 
free thought in any case. Your thought can 
not be free and effective unless you do your 
share to preserve like freedom for others. 


Americanize 


LARGE population of men and women 
A who are alien in thought and spirit 
to the ideals and sentiments of the 
nation constitutes a source of perennial 
weakness. The movement to “Americanize” 
the aliens in our midst is therefore in the in- 
terests of a sounder and a more coherent 
national life. But here as elsewhere there is 
danger of substituting a slogan for a reality: 
the offer of instruction in the English lan- 
guage and in the elements of “‘civics” is hard- 
ly an adequate measure of Americanization. 
The language is necessary as a first step, no 
doubt ; but it is not to be acquired either eco- 
nomically or satisfactorily by formal in- 
struction. “Civics” is also essential; but it 
is not to be transmitted thru graded lessons 
on the machinery of our government. If we 
sincerely wish to “Americanize” these aliens, 
it may be well to begin with their children 
in our. schools, and with the teachers of those 
children—that is, with ourselves. Quite as 
important as the language is the spirit of 
tolerance and fraternity. Quite as important 
as the “civics” is the experience of democracy 
and cooperation. 
There has been too much of patronage: we 
have quite as much to learn from the for- 









Vol. VI., No. 4 


eigners as we have to teach them. Democ- 
racy and Americanism cannot be imposed on 
people; sharing means to give and to take. 
We shall Americanize the aliens about as rap- 
idly as we manage to put into practise what- 
ever it is that means America to us; that is, 
as rapidly as we Americanize ourselves. 
Democracy is a joint enterprise that involves 
a pooling of purposes and of resources—and 
of benefits. 


The Longer School Day 


HE recent decision of the New York 
Board of Education to lengthen the 
school day has raised a storm of pro- 
test not only among the teachers but also 
among the pupils and their parents. The 
reasons for this are many. The teacher, 
already loaded down with five hours of daily 
grind, naturally opposes additional burdens 
without corresponding benefits. The pupil 
finds the promise of “no homework and more 
play” suddenly turning into a threat of irk- 
some drill, drill, drill, and more homework. 
The amazed parent, whose wishes are seldom, 
if ever, respected, is awaking to the reali- 
zation that after all he should have some- 
thing to say in the education of his child, 
and he is threatening to make himself heard. 
And yet the longer school day is not a bad 
thing at all. All thinking men and women 
discovered long ago that the school is assum- 
ing, and under modern conditions must as- 
sume, more and more of the functions of the 
home. If the school is to do more for the 
child, it must of necessity have more time 
wherein to do it. Hence the lengthening of 
the school day becomes a social necessity. 
But how are we to reconcile the overworked 
teacher, the distraught pupil, and the plain- 
tive parent to the longer school day? Can it 
be possible that those in authority have over- 
looked the tremendous help that might be 
obtained from the collective intelligence and 
cooperation of the teachers? May it not be 
that the teachers themselves might turn the 
necessity of complying with an onerous state 
law into a virtue that would redound to the 
everlasting good of the children, and there- 
fore the public? 





October, 1917 


The traditional school day is five hours in 
length. No one will be foolish enough to 
believe that any teacher uses up these five 
precious hours in actual teaching. Even the 
taxpayer knows that teaching is more ex- 
hausting and nerve racking than many other 
professions or trades. The law of self-pres- 
ervation demands occasional rest periods. 
And the teacher is forced to take them 
whether she wants to or not. However 
strong and robust she may be, the most she 
can teach, and teach effectively, is three full 
hours a day. Neither can the child be taxed 
with more than three hours of serious work 
with impunity. Both teacher and child, con- 
sciously or unconsciously, make or find the 
necessary rest periods. Of course, that does 
not appear on the program, or in the lesson 
plan. But it is there just the same. Any one 
who denies it, is uninformed in the teaching 
business. Then, why not face the issue hon- 
estly and squarely? Let us admit that inten- 
sive teaching cannot be carried on with profit 
for more than three hours a day. 

If the new school day is to consist of six 
hours, let it be divided as follows: 

For the teacher: 3 hours, class room teaching 

1 hour, supervision of study 
period 

1 hour, individual attention 
to pupils 

1 hour, preparation for the 
next day. 

3 hours, instruction 

2hours, study (including 
homework and individ- 
ual attention, 

lhour, play and formal 
gymnastics. 

This is a suggestive outline of the time dis- 
tribution and the proporticnal evaluation of 
the activities. Variation to suit individual 
schools or conditions will of course be adopt- 
ed whenever occasion arises. It is presup- 
posed that in the detailed planning the 
psycho-physical factors involved will com- 
mand respect and their dictates will be fol- 
lowed. 

This work-study-play program involves 
many changes in educational ideal and peda- 
gogical practise which cannot be elaborated 
here. But one change should not be lost sight 
of. That is, that it calls for an increase of 


For the pupil: 


The American Teacher 


101 


twenty per cent in the teacher’s time. With 
the cost of living soaring as it does, is it 
unfair to ask for a corresponding increase in 
her meager pay? 

Thus the increased school day becomes a 
blessing in disguise. The child is not over- — 
worked. He learns to study in a scientific 
manner, and becomes independent and self- 
reliant. His play and recreation no longer 
cut in on his homework, for all of it will be 
done in school under expert supervision and 
guidance. His school now becomes more in- 
teresting to him, and he is proud of it. The 
parent no longer beholds a despondent child 
laboring at his assigned tasks which he does 
not know how to tackle, and over which he 
wastes many precious hours. The child now 
has more free time to use to very good advan- 
tage either to himself or to his family. 

But what shall be said of the teacher? Her 
decent livelihood having been assured, she 
goes to her task with vigor and vim. She 
now accomplishes more in less time. She 
understands each individual child. No lon- 
ger does she teach the non-existant average 
boy or girl. Each child is known to her, and 
she adjusts her methods and plans in accord- 
ance with his peculiar makeup. Another vir- 
tue is the enforced daily preparation for the 
next day’s work. Is there a better means of 
improving the poor teacher and stimulating 
the good one than by providing definite and 
suitable time and place for such preparation? 
Teaching and learning under the new condi- 
tions become an unalloyed pleasure, and 
what is more, it is effective. 


No Tenderness for Traitors 


HE nation has heretofore existed pri- 
marily to facilitate and to protect 
business enterprises. The war has 
suddenly thrust upon us the question 
whether human beings also exist primarily 
for the benefit of business institutions and 
operations or whether human beings have 
any claim to precedence in the conflicts be- 
tween property rights and human welfare. 
We have realized at least that it takes men 
and women to conduct a war, as well as gold 








102 


and credit. The nation at war has need of 
its human resources for purposes not con- 
templated by the masters of industry and 
commerce. To the latter, human beings are 
wage workers who produce for profit; and 
they are consumers who provide markets for 
profit. But to the nation at war these ordi- 
nary obscure human beings are all at once in- 
vested with a new importance. They have 
been assured that the war in which they are 
asked to fight and suffer is for their benefit 
and salvation, and they have accepted the as- 
surance in good faith. 

We must be on guard now against those 
traitors to the common purpose who seek by 
means of archaic catchwords to divert 
our resources so as to thwart the nation- 
al purpose. There are the men who, with 
a fine show of fervor, ask that the mus- 
cle and brain of the nation be starved that 
profits may mount unimpeded. On the 
pretext that “patriotism” requires unin- 
terrupted production, they demand abso- 
lute discretion and control over the lives 
of the workers—that is, the people. They 
demand that all the forces of legislation and 
the power of the law be used to restrain 
workers from helping themselves to incomes 
commensurate with the cost of living and 
the demands of life. They demand that reg- 
ulations built up through years of struggle, 
for the protection of the health and safety 
of the nation’s flesh and blood, be swept 
aside on the specious plea that these regula- 
tions impede operations essential to the na- 
tional purpose. In these demands they com- 
mit a serious assault on the nation; and they 
are thereby guilty of the blackest treason. 


* * * 


On the first of September the Federal 
Child-labor law went into effect. The pur- 
poses of this law, long debated, and signed by 
the President a year ago, are obviously re- 
lated to the welfare of the people of this 
country—that is, to the life of the nation. 
Within a week after its passage groups of 
manufacturers took steps to have the law 
short of its force; and they are prepared, in 
many instances, to ignore it. The law no 
donbt interferes with profits ; these men have 





The American Teacher 








Vol. VI., No. 7 


the brazen effrontery to tell us that profits 
must take precedence over children. The 
people of this country must be under a 
strange and a vicious spell to tolerate such 
treacherous assaults upon their very exist- 
ence, on the part of those who have been 
entrusted with power and leadership. 


* * * 


To make the world safe for democracy re- 
quires the expenditure of vast accumulations 
of treasure, as well as the spilling of many 
barrels of blood, as well as the extinguishing 
of many precious lives. Some give their lives 
and their blood; some give their service to 
the utmost; some have nothing to give but 
accumulated treasure. On the proposal to 
finance the war as far as possible through 
taxation upon excess profits and upon luxu- 
ries, the traitors put forth their blandish- 
ments to assure us that if business is taxed 
more than it likes to be taxed, it will perish, 
and the nation will then be a wreck. This at- 
titude is the height of selfishness and greed, 
as well as an outrage upon the men and 
women of the nation—as distinct from the 
dollars and cents in the nation. If the profit 
mongers should go on strike, you and I will 
still remain to work and to exchange our 
services with the rest of the people; it is by 
this work and this exchange of services that 
the nation will live, not by the speculation 
and market-manipulations and long chances 
of the traitors. 


* * * 


Regardless of what men and women say 
about the kaiser and about autocracies; re- 
gardless of what they say about law-and-or- 
der and about the constitution, you will rec- 
ognize the traitors by their attitude on the 
issues between profits and people. The 
stakes of this war are the health and happi- 
ness of unborn generations—not the profits 
and privileges of usurers and extortioners. 
The purpose of the nation is to advance the 
welfare of its people, to make life more abun- 
dant, not to protect the advantages of schem- 
ers and exploiters. Those who now place 
Mammon before man are the traitors, and 
should be shown no mercy. 






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October, 1917 


Professional Sabotage 


ABOTAGE is a word that has ac- 
S quired evil repute because the molders 
of public opinion have pretended that 
it stands for a very reprehensive practise— 
namely the conspiratory restriction of output, 
or reduction of economic efficiency, on the 
part of the workers. We wish we had a bet- 
ter name for the general principle or for the 
practise, a name that was not derogatory. 
For, as every one knows, the practise is le- 
gitimate enough, even necessary so long as 
we live in an _ all-that-the-traffic-will-bear 
civilization. It is sometimes necessary, for 
example, to delay a shipment of merchandise 
or of raw materials, in order to affect prices 
“favorably”; it is sometimes necessary to 
shut down a mill, either for the purpose of 
affecting prices, or for penalizing stubborn 
workmen who refuse to accept “reasonable” 
rates of wages, or for some other good rea- 
son; it is sometimes necessary to cause the 
destruction of foods and other wares, for the 
health of the market; it is sometimes neces- 
sary to suspend the operation of a city rail- 
way system, to teach officials to mind their 
own business, and so on. 

The direct interference with production by 
means of a strike is always ungentlemanly 
and often futile. It is perhaps for this rea- 
son that teachers do not take kindly to the 
idea of unions—unions suggest strikes. But 
as civilization progresses, new techniques 
are developed. Here for example is the Na- 
tional Council of Teachers of English—a 
professional body, not a labor union—which 
calls upon the North Central Association (of 
colleges and preparatory schools) and upon 
other similar bodies, to take immediate steps 
to the end that official approval be with- 
drawn from high schools in which the num- 
ber of pupils assigned to an English teacher 
exceeds one hundred. Moreover, they re- 
quest that further action be taken at as early 
a date as seems expedient, “to reduce this 
maximum to eighty (80)”’. 


* * * 


Is any person in doubt as to whether teach- 
ers of English are being overworked? Is 


The American Teacher 


103 


any one in doubt as to whether exclusive 
teaching-periods or over-large classes affect 
the efficiency of the teaching? Evidence can 
be produced on both points. Why then do 
not the teachers of English—in New Jersey, — 
or in Baltimore, or anywhere else—go direct- 
ly to their administrative chiefs or to their 
commissioners, and ask for remedial meas- 
ures? The principal of the Girls’ Latin 
School, Boston, Mr. ERNEst G. HAPGoop, is 
reported to have said: 
“TI should say that a teacher is attempting 
to do an impossible task in carrying thirty 
periods per week with 210 pupils. I do not 
see how it is at all within the bounds of 
human capacity to read the written exer- 
cises which should be required of that num- 
ber of pupils and conduct their recitations 
with any degree of efficiency. Far be it 
from me to encourage insubordination in 
a teacher, but if I undertook to impose such 


a program on any of my teachers, I should 
expect to meet with open revolt.” 


What would Mr. Hapcoop do if the Super- 
intendent ordered him to organize his school 
on the basis of “660 pupil periods” or “720 
pupil periods” per teacher per week? ‘Would 
he say to his superiors “It can’t be done!” 


or would he say to his subordinates “It must 
be done!” 


* * ™ 


Like Mr. Hapcoop, we wish to keep en- 
couragement to insubordination as far from 
us as possible. But what are the alternatives 
from which the teachers may choose? We 
may continue to bear a growing burden and 
draw comfort from the reflection that things 
might be worse. We may organize profes- 
sionally for dealing directly with the public 
and with responsible officials. We may or- 
ganize pseudo-professionally and beg for fa- 
vors, or seek to attain our ends by the use 
of indirect influences. Or we may resign and 
go into the business of manufacturing flags. 
Most teachers adopt the first course; being 
women, many teachers have an additional 
source of consolation in the reflection that 
one may still marry and thus escape. An- 
other large portion of the teaching body re- 
sorts to the last mode of escape; although 
they do not go into the flag business in large 
numbers, many of them do resign every year. 





104 


Most organizations are as yet unprepared to 


deal directly with their work-a-day problems, - 


and seek to obtain results by indirection. We 
are just awaking to a realization that the 
most effective and the most dignified and the 
most self-respecting form of organization 
for people who work for their income is the 
“union”. 


Waiting for---? 


HE GENERAL EDUCATION 
L BOARD announced that the report 
on its investigation of the Gary 
schools would be published during the school 
year 1916-17 (see page 29, for report 1915- 
1916). Thousands of teachers and school 
commissioners are eagerly awaiting the re- 
port; many thousands of children are vitally 
concerned in the findings. In at least one 
city (New York) political capital is being 
made of the merits and defects of the “Gary 
system” in the municipal election campaign. 
We know that the price of paper has been 
high, and that in many printeries work has 
been delayed by war conditions. But these 
facts do not suggest a reasonable explanation 
for the delay in the General Education 
Board’s report. What are we really waiting 
for? 








Ge American Teacher 


Democracy in Education 


Published monthly, except July and August, by 
THE AMERICAN TEACHER COMPANY, INC., 
70 Fifth Avenue, New York City 
GABRIEL R. MASON 
Cc TTE E. LE Vice-President 





Education for Democracy 


President 


HARLO 
JAY D. LESTER Treasurer 








BENJAMIN GLASSBERG 

BENJAMIN C. GRUENBERG JESS PERLMAN 

FRANKLIN J. KELLER J. EDWARD MAYMAN 
SAM SCHMALHAUSEN 


HENRY R. LINVILLE 





At the time of expiration, a bill will be found in the copy. 
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in address 





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The American Teacher 





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FOREIGN, $1.10. 





21, 1912, at the 
e Act of March 38, 


Entered as second-class matter, Februa 
po} Office, at New York, N. Y.; under 


Vol. VI., No. 7 


DELAYED 


BECAUSE of the change in form 

the publication of this issue 
has been unduly delayed. We have 
decided to omit the September 
number; but the increased number 
of pages will more than compensate 
for the omission. 





The Vision 


Schoolmaster: 


and Reality 
C L VESTAL 


S I walked thru the wilderness of this 

A world, I lighted on a certain place 

where was a den, and laid me down 

in that place to sleep. And as I slept I 

dreamed a dream, and behold, a spirit-guide 
came to me and said, 

“Come! I would show thee a vision of 
what might be and what is!” 

And he took me up into an exceeding high 
place, and bade me look down. And I saw a 
glorious city around a wide, green public 
square. In the midst of the square was a 
white marble statue, and around the statue 
was a great throng of people, while at its 
foot one stood and spoke. And the people 
heard him gladly. Then said my guide, 

“Knowest thou what thou seest? The peo- 
ple pay heart tribute to the spirit of that 
class which first saw and grasped its oppor- 
tunity to lead thy nation out of the morass 
of petty selfishness, ignorance, and merely lo- 
cal patriotism, onto the solid ground of na- 
tional and international vision and purpose, 
faith in intelligent purpose instead of inev- 
itable destiny, substitution of wide social 
mastery for the chaos of laissez faire. Yon 
statue is to the spirit of the schoolmaster!” 

Then my heart swelled with pride, and I 
declared, 

“IT am a schoolmaster!” 


But he answered, “Come! I would now 
show thee a vision of what is!” 





October, 1917 


Then we came thru the darkness that is 
between the worlds, and he again bade me 
look down. And I saw a great sprawling, 
dirty, ugly, planless city. Here and there 
lay the sick and suffering and wounded, for 
I saw that this city was in a state of fratri- 
cidal war. Men and women swarmed in great 
buildings, and clutched each other by the 
throats. Anon there rose sharp struggles in 
the streets, and the worsted were left lying 
where they fell. And I saw that the beaten 
for the most part hid themselves in loath- 
some dens and fetid, stinking stews and al- 
leys. Hard by some of these were the pal- 
aces of Dives, with liveried flunkeys whose 
name was legion. For the first time I saw 
whole. I saw the city undraped, and could 
put together what had hitherto seemed alien. 

Then said my guide, “Perchance thou 
lookest for the statue? Or is it that thou 
seekest any of thy fellow schoolmasters?” 

And I said, “Where are they?” 


Then said he, “Seest thou the leader of 
yon forlorn hope against the powers that de- 
vour?” 

Then I answered and said, “Yea, I see 
four or five such.” 

Then said he, “They are not schoolmas- 
ters.” 

Then said I, “But where are these my fel- 
lows?” 

“Come!” said he. And he took me above 
a great and handsome building and looking 
within I saw congregated in an upper room 
many schoolmasters. They were eating and 
drinking and smoking as if to convince each 
other that they were regular fellows. But 
two or three among them cried out, and said, 


“Why stand we here idle? Those who 
struggle without are our brothers and sis- 
ters! Come! Let us go out and fight! If 
we cannot lead, we cannot justify our train- 
ing! At least we can fight. Let us go out 
and help!” 

But most of their fellows looked upon 
them in bewilderment, as if not understand- 
ing. Yet two or three cynical and hard- 
faced ones answered, and said unto the 
leader, 


The American Teacher 


105 


“Fool, fathead, Don Quixote! Wouldst 
thou put in jeopardy all that has been so 
graciously given us? Go thou out, if thou 
must, but be not so foolish as to expect that 
any of us will follow thee!” 


Then the agitators went out, and I saw 
them no more. Then did some of their fel- 
lows look shamefacedly upon each other, and 
a few made as if they would follow them, 
but quickly sat down again when the hard- 
faced ones saw them, and cried out to them, 


“What! More fools still? It seems that 
there be a party of these pig-heads, who are 
wiser in their own eyes than ten men that 
can render a reason.” 


Then did certain owlish ones among them 
shake their heads and look wise, and say, 

“It is not good to mix education and 
politics.” 

And they went on eating and drinking. 

Then said my guide, “Did I not hear thee 
announce that thou wert a schoolmaster?” 

And I answered him nothing. 

Again he spoke, and said, “Come! May- 
hap I am thy conscience. Let us talk. Art 
thou not versed in that worldly school of 
philosophy founded by Cain the First?” 


My will would not that I should speak, 
yet did I so, and said, “Am I my brother’s 
keeper?” 

“Knowest thou not,” said my guide, “the 
answer which thy Creator gave unto Cain?” 


Again I wished not to speak, yet I spake, 
and said, “The voice of thy brother’s blood 
crieth unto me from the ground.” 


Then said he again, “Thinkest thou and 
thy fellows to be held guiltless?” 


“Nay,” said I, “but eyes we have where- 
with we see not!” 

“But thou,” said he, “hast now seen. Get 
thee in haste to thy fellows, and show it 
them, that they may do their part ere it is 
too late. Great is their opportunity and re- 
sponsibility, for to whom much is given, of 
him shall much be required.” 

And behold, he was gone, for I awoke from 
my dream, 





Administrative Responsibility and Current 
Doctrines of Academic Freedom and 
Academic Tenure 


EDWARD C ELLIOT 


Chancellor University of Montana 


The present occasion does not permit of 
any thoro handling of the theme assigned by 
the program. I will attempt merely a brief, 
and more or less disconnected comment 
upon certain aspects of what appears to me 
to be a preeminent problem for every 
American school, whether it be of elemen- 
tary, secondary or higher grade. This 
problem is especially significant for higher 
institutions during this day, when the whole 
of the social organization and ideals of the 
world are undergoing revolutionary recon- 
struction. In substance, this problem is, 
how best to provide for all schools that type 
of government which constantly promotes, 
and which can not pervert, their purposes 
as educational agencies, at once free and 
responsible. This freedom and this respon- 
sibility can be guaranteed only through the 
teacher. The status of the teacher is the 
measure of our progress toward the social 
ideal of democracy, and no permanent prog- 
ress is possible with either an unfree or an 
irresponsible teaching class. 

The greatest enemy to education today 
all over the United States is the small-bore 
politician who, as a member of an educa- 
tional board, is bent on serving himself and 
his prejudices rather than the schools and 
the ideal of democracy, which these insti- 
tutions stand for. The outstanding need 
of education is for some effective machinery 
for distinguishing between the competent, 
the half-competent and the incompetent 
teacher. This machinery must be created 
and controlled by the profession of teach- 
ing itself, entirely apart from the agencies 
of political government. Until this is an 


* Read before the department of higher education 
of the National Education Asociation, Portland, 
— 11, 1917. Reprinted by permission from School 
and Society, 


accomplished fact, school and teachers will 
be constantly exposed to invasion by self- 
seeking personal and political interests. 
We can not maintain a free-school system 
training children in the fundamentals of 
freedom with teachers who are tongue-tied 
as to the vital social and economic issues of 
modern life. Real education is possible 
only in a school so organized and governed 
that the job holds the teacher, and not the 
teacher the job. 

It is wholly futile to set up the indefinite 
goal of “taking education out of politics.” 
The public school in all of its grades and 
varieties is part and parcel of our political 
system. The need of democracy is not less 
politics in education, but more education in 
politics. 

Among the social inventions of the nine- 
teenth century which we pridefully credit to 
this American democracy of ours, is that of 
the free public school. In these latter years 
a testing of the quality of this boasted school 
has revealed so many serious limitations of 
its opportunities and its accomplishments 
that thinking men have learned to become 
more and more cautious when casting up the 
account of public-school systems; more and 
more critical in their attitude toward the out- 
put of democracy’s free school, and more and 
more conscious that the inherent character 
of education is directly proportional to the 
inherent character of the forces by which it 
is administered. Indeed, it may be defended 
that there is no such institution as a “free” 
school; for all schools are regulated by ad- 
ministrative agencies outside of themselves, 
representing class or caste, section or sect, 
religious or political organization. The pro- 
motion of education seems to demand a far- 
reaching diagnosis of its controlling agen 


106 





October, 1917 


cies. In the case of all public educational 
systems, this means a rigid examination of a 
politically constituted administrative system 
in all of its relations to education; and the 
elimination of those influences that interfere 
with the fundamental processes by which an 
individual is educated. 

If we recognize as inevitable the subordi- 
nation of educational institutions to some 
form of government from without, and if we 
recognize that the constant tendency of such 
government is toward conservatism and re- 
pression, the question to be answered then is 
that of adjusting and restricting the field of 
direct influence of the political instruments 
of government so as to interfere least with 
the essential conditions making for educa- 
tion. These essential conditions are first, the 
unhindered opportunity for the action and 
reaction of the personalities of teacher and 
pupil; and, second, the fixing upon the teach- 
ing profession of the full responsibility for 
attaining this freedom of opportunity. Here, 
it may be asserted, is the crux of the whole 
problem of academic freedom and academic 
tenure as found in schools of all grades. De- 
mocracy, through its constituted agencies of 
government for education, has sought to treat 
with the teacher as an individual and not as 
a member of a profession which must sooner 
or later take the responsibility for main- 
taining standards of conduct and of achieve- 
ment for all of those who may be admitted. 

For the purposes of illustration, atten- 
tion is called to two recent happenings, the 
far-reaching significance of which entitle 
them to the serious consideration of the en- 
tire teaching profession. 

Eighteen months ago the newly formed 
American Association of University Pro- 
fessors issued through its Committee on 
Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure, a 
report which may be regarded as epochal for 
all American education. This report made a 
declaration of principles asserting absolute 
freedom of thought, of inquiry, of discussion 
and of teaching of the academic profession. 
The association sought to give reality to these 
principles by certain practical proposals; 
providing for faculty participation in actions 
relating to reappointments and refusals to 


The American Teacher 


107 


reappointment; providing for a clear defini- 
tion of the meaning of tenure as applied to 
the members of college and university fac- 
ulty, and providing for the formulation of 
charges and judicial hearings before the dis- 
missal of faculty members. 


Every university or college teacher should 
be entitled, before dismissal or demotion, to 
have the charges against him stated in wri- 
ting in specific terms and to have a fair trial 
on those charges before a special or perma- 
nent judicial committee chosen by the faculty 
senate or council, or by the faculty at large. 
At such trial the teacher accused should have 
full opportunity to present evidence, and, if 
the charge is one of professional incompe- 
tency, a formal report upon his work should 
be first made in writing by the teachers of 
his own department and of cognate depart- 
ments in the university, and, if the teacher 
concerned so desire, by a committee of his 
fellow specialists from other institutions, ap- 
pointed by some competent authority. 

Now the contrast: 

Six weeks ago the Supreme Court of IIli- 
nois rendered a final decision in a case aris- 
ing within the public-school system of Chi- 
cago. It will be recalled that the Board of 
Education of that city some time ago passed 
a rule forbidding teachers to be members of 
the Chicago Teachers’ Federation, or similar 
organizations. The case in question arose 
from the effort to invalidate this rule. The 
merits of the local controversy are of no par- 
ticular concern at this moment. However, 
the pronouncement of the Supreme Court 
upon certain principles of sound government 
of public educational institutions is of pos- 
sible consequence to the teaching profession 


in every city. In the decision’ the Court said: 


The board (of education) has the absolute 
right to decline to employ or to reemploy an 
applicant for any reason whatever or for no 
reason at all. The board is responsible for 
its action only to the people of the city, from 
whom, thru the mayor, the members have 
received their appointments. It is no in- 
fringement upon the constitutional rights of 
anyone for the board to decline to employ 
him as a teacher in the schools, and it is im- 
material whether the reason to employ him 
is because the applicant is married or un- 
married, is of fair complexion or dark, is or 
is not a member of a trades union, or whether 
no reason is given for such refusal. The 


* People vs, City of Chicago, 116 N.E. 158. 





108 


board is not bound to give any reason for its 
action. 
In other words, the court declared against 


the fundamental principle of tenure for 
teachers ; declared that a public-school teach- 
er is an employee, to be hired and fired at 
will; declared that the board is “responsible 
for its action only to the people of the city.” 

As to the professional principles determin- 
ing the status of the teacher, the principles 
of the report of the American Association of 
University Professors are directly antago- 
nistic to those enunciated in the recent deci- 
sion of the Supreme Court of Illinois. The 
court says that a body of laymen is respon- 
sible for the profession into whose hands the 
work of education has been given. The Uni- 
versity Association maintains that the pro- 
fession of teaching is primarily responsible 
for teaching. 

The question before the American teacher 
now is whether a pernicious principle of ac- 
tion, having the supporting authority of law, 
is to be preferred over a sound principle 
which, under the existing conditions can not 
be enforced. 





This is the Official Organ 
of the 
American Federation of Teachers 


(Affiliated with American Federation of Labor) 
OFFICERS OF THE A. F. OF T. 


CuHAs. B STILLMAN, President 
1620 Lake Ave., Wilmette, III. 

IpA L M FuRSMAN, Vice-President 
4465 N. Kildare Ave., Chicago 


Mary F Dwyer, Rec. Secretary 
2817 Cambridge Ave., Chicago 


MARGARET SNopGRASS, Corr. Sec. 
1061 Dakin St., Chicago 


F G Strecker, Financial Sec. 
1618 Lake Ave., Wilmette, IIl. 


JAMES A MEADE, Treasurer 
2628 Sayre Ave., Chicago 
Henry R Linville George J Jones 
Anita Sailey Nora M O’Connor 
Amelia M Prendergast 


(The November number will contain a revision of 
this list of officers.) 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VI., No. 7 


What Shall We Teach? 


FRANKLIN J KELLER, PHD 
DeWitt Clinton High School, New York 


Every infant should be born with a silver 
spoon in his mouth and the nurse ought to 
steal it. Every life should begin with a fail- 
ure and the world should rejoice. We glory 
too much in the fact that it takes twenty- 
five years to educate a baby and that John 
Fiske discovered it to be a good thing. All 
that time is spent in building up a structure 
that nobody has the heart to destroy. Yet 
educational arson and intellectual bank- 
ruptcy might well be clothed with the dig- 
nity of institutions. 

Our mental structures become cluttered 
just as do our more material homes. Any- 
one who has been forced by circumstances 
to move his effects from an eight room house 
to a three room apartment understands what 
happens. Priceless possessions of countless 
years are thrown upon the ash heap and 
consecrated with tears. All future existence 
is seen wrapped in dejection. And lo! what 
happens? Nothing. We gradually begin to 
realize that it was only the memories that 
we wished to keep, and those we have kept; 
it was only a few sensory stimuli that we 
discarded, stimuli that we never used. 
House-cleaning is heart-breaking but salu- 
tary. The trouble is that we usually tem- 
porize. We pick up that old hat, resolved 
to make an end of it once and for all. Then 
our heart throbs, something wells up in our 
throat, and we see virtues in that hat that 
no new headgear could ever attain to. That 
was the hat we wore for the first time on 
the day of our proposal, it must have added 
to our attractiveness. It was always com- 
fortable; it was never too warm or stiff. It 
was—by this time it has been tenderly laid 
in its old resting place. But it is never 
worn. If there had been no place in which 
to keep it, it would have gone the way of 
all hats, only sooner. 


Such has been the character of scholastic 
house-cleaning. Each item of the curricu- 
lum has been taken down from its hook, 
dusted, regarded in the light of its associa- 





wen SP wyw OF TREO om HS or Kl rel 


October, 1917 


tions, and put back, unless perchance it has 
been crowded out by something new that 
simply could not be dispensed with, and 
then of course the victim must be the least 
sentiment-arousing of all. Manifestly, one 
must get a new hat some time, for one has 
neighbors. We educators ought to be dis- 
possessed, and compelled to move to smaller 
quarters, and to be hynotized into emo- 
tional insensibility, and—but perhaps that 
is going far enough. Then we should be 
constrained to evaluate our furniture and 
appurtenances for what they are worth in 
use-value plus a genuine joy in living. There 
is no desire to imply that our curricular 
quarters should be cramped, for certainly 
they should be spacious and richly fur- 
nished; the moving process may, in fact, be 
only imaginary if the same discipline in 
thorogoing evaluation may be obtained 
thereby. Moreover, it is not maintained 
that the successful life necessarily embraces 
a series of failures; for failure, likewise, is 
disciplinary when life becomes cluttered 
with prejudice and dead convention. 

It may be readily argued that all progress 
is made by compromise between vision and 
convention and that nothing could be more 
unfortunate than a mental dispossess, that 
civilization builds the new upon the old, arid 
that to destroy the old would be to sacrifice 
the heritage of the ages. Just here arises 
the confusion. We cling wildly to the con- 
crete forms that the past bequeathes to us, 
but we blindly ignore the dominating princi- 
ples that have governed educational reform 
in the past. If we could only feel as keenly 
the value of these as we do that of mere 
forms, we should not lag behind the world 
in general, but should lead it. 


The problem of form versus content is 
in the scholastic curriculum just what it is 
in all the other phases of life, just what it 
is in morals, in law, in prize-fights, in din- 
ner parties, in marriage. If an unvarying 
structure can be found that will adapt itself 
to any and every kind of content, then the 
great desideratum has been attained. For, 
mark you, form is apparent to the eye, you 
can see it i+ flaunts itself, it lends itself to 


The American Teacher 109 


comparison, really you do not have to think 
in order to know whether or not it is there. 
It lends itself to common report and thus 
to easy criticism. And when a form can be 
standardized then indeed is the heart of man 
glad, for then do all the pains of readjust- 
ment vanish. But after all, the world has 
changed, the whipping-post is gone, the 
high ruff collar, the strangle hold, and the 
wife won in battle. Yet we have come down 
the ages still committed to the pedestrian 
manner of progress while the aeroplanes 
sweep the skies, leaving us far in the rear 
only to gape in wonder. If we could only 
grasp these principles which determine 
growth and development, we should our- 
selves become what our pride leads us now 
boldly to asseverate, real factors in the 
furtherance of life. 


For the believer, the mere statement of 
these principles carries with it the weight 
of argument; for the infidel and skeptic a 
tome would hardly suffice, yet we are here 
compelled to state our case in barest outline, 
to moisten the parched educational lips of 
the awakened schoolman in order that he 
may crave for still more. We must venture, 
for the application may be the justification. 

First, every maladjustment in the world 
proves upon a study of its history to have 
been a reform of some previous maladjust- 
ment. Everything that is bad was presump- 
tively good at some past time, and there- 
fore, everything that is good now may in 
the future prove bad, and by implication, 
what is good may already be bad tho we 
may not know it. That is the tragedy of 
life. But as teachers it is our business to 
know. Our role is not that of the fool in 
the tragedy. We should at least essay the 
part of the deus ex machina. 

Second, as has been said in other connec- 
tions, education places the “‘r’”’ before evolu- 
tion, with the sweep of the imagination it 
makes unnecessary the slow and minor 
changes of nature, it discovers that evolu- 
tion itself evolves. It is curious to note that 
even such an epoch-making theory as that 
of change has itself tended to become crys- 
tallized. Against thio the educator must 





110 


steel himself, for he will find in the theory 
an all too ready excuse for making progress 
slowly, for invoking the God-of-Things-as- 
They-Are that he may acquire virtue. 

Third, every subject 4n the curriculum 
has been at some time vocational and has 
been placed there as the result of some vital 
need. Even Latin, the sore distressed, be- 
gan its curricular activities as a workman’s 
tool, and formal grammar, the moribund, 
was once the stock in trade. 

Fourth, progress has been slow because 
of the conservative element, which has al- 
ways to be overcome by death or persua- 
sion, more often by the former. The much 
vaunted value to society of the ‘“conserva- 
tive with progressive tendencies” is an ami- 
able fiction; the analogies of the governor 
and the flywheel have in them little that is 
appropriate. The engine would go with- 
out either of these appurtenances but it 
would have about the value of junk if there 
were no fuel. For a change to take place 
there must be somebody who wants the 
change; the conservative never does. 


Finally, we always tend to justify that 
which is, because the line of least resistance 
(that is to say, simple human laziness) is 
opposed to readjustment. 

Altho we all hate extremes and vocifer- 
ously deny them to ourselves, there is al- 
ways a great readiness to ascribe them to 


others. Thus, the foregoing paragraphs 
are certain to mean to some the utter aboli- 
tion of history as a determining factor in 
the shaping of the curriculum, and yet what 
they mean is precisely that history is all-im- 
portant. I believe in it; I am for it. But 
I wish to do what the historian inevitably 
does, to generalize upon the course of events 
and not upon isolated products, and to do 
what few historians do, to use this gener- 
alization upon the present, lead whither it 
may. 

Why teach at all? The answer is simple: 
to impart knowledge so that it can be under- 
stood, appreciated and used. Why under- 
stand, appreciate and use it? To live more 
happily. And that is all there is to it. That, 
in essence, is what is meant by those who 
decry as too “practical” and lacking in ideal- 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VI., No. 7 


ism any curriculum which attempts to deal 
with the problems of the day. 

What shall we teach? The answer is 
simple: teach the pupil how to utter the 
most significant thoughts that he can, so 
that he will be spurred on to think significant 
thoughts. That is the expressive side. On 
the interpretive side, get him to understand 
the most significant thoughts that have been 
uttered by others. The former the school- 
man calls composition; of it I shall not 
speak. In the latter days great strides have 
been made in choosing subject matter for 
expression. But of the teaching of litera- 
ture something else must be said. 

The problem hinges upon the word 
“significant.” What is vital, what helps the 
man or woman to live, and to live happily? 
Genuine literature is always a transcript 
from life and is usually an interpretation. 
Then literature is, par excellence, the 
teacher of the art of living happily. 
Psychologically speaking, that is significant 
which enters into the intellectual, emotional, 
or volitional life of the pupil, and by “en- 
ters” we mean “affects” or “changes” it, 
just as the acquirement of a bit of knowl- 
edge in a trade affects that trade life by 
enabling the mechanic to work faster or 
more profitably. If the metal worker learns 
that in 2500 B. C. there were no metal 
workers, that fact may or may not be 
significant in his trade life. In all likeli- 
hood it will not. However, if it arouses only 
an emotion—pride, humility, scorn—it may 
be worth while teaching it provided the 
time is not taken from something still more 
significant. So in English, if the acquire- 
ment of a bit of literary lore helps the pupil 
to live better—makes him more contented 
with life, or more dissatisfied with the par- 
ticular life he leads, or induces him to strike 
out into new fields, or makes him more 
acute in evaluating human nature, then 
again, provided the time consumed in ac- 
quiring that knowledge could not be spent 
in getting something even more significant, 
it is worth while to teach it. 

Again, psychologically speaking, that will 
be significant which is couched in familiar 
terms and which expresses the life of the 





co =a 


- ato hUrrlUC elCUClClUl ele lee lCUelC OlC le OelCelC OOUCUCMOUlC SC COlUlC DC COCO 


October, 1917 


day for the man of the day. Inevitably, the 
teacher who makes a subject “live” trans- 
lates its technical terms into everyday 
language and writes them into the every- 
day life of the pupil. There is no other way. 
The love of knowledge for its own sake does 
not exist except in the minds of teachers of 
Latin and Greek. The most profound 
scholar dreams of doing something with his 
knowledge; he always has in mind the 
masterpiece in which he is to spread before 
the world his store of erudition. ‘“Intellec- 
tualizing the pupil,” “arousing a love of 
knowledge per se,” means merely the dis- 
covery in an individual of a desire to make 
use of those elements of knowledge which 
are more difficult to understand, or require 
an exceptional power of memory, or do not 
readily come within the daily experience of 
the vast majority of people. 

Now, what sort of reading will be found 
significant for people when they leave 
school? Obviously, that sort of reading 


which is closely connected with the lives 
they live, that is to say, modern literature. 


Beside this, such classical literature which 
depicts lives and characters in their uni- 
versal elements. How shall it be presented 
so that it will best function in this business 
of living happily? Manifestly in such a 
manner that the individual will continue to 
call upon literature as an aid after he has 
completed his schooling and will know 
where to find it so that he will always have 
it at his command. The pedagogical device 
for the accomplishment of this end is known 
as the type study. Consider the secondary 
school curriculum in this light. Modern 
literature does not appear except in a highly 
diluted form known as supplementary read- 
ing; and here the choice of books is entirely 
within the discretion of the individual 
teacher, thus allowing the instructor with 
ultra-classical tendencies to starve the 
pupils to the point of mental marasmus. 
Each semester of work centers about a 
“classic” written anywhere from seventy- 
five to four hundred years ago, and the 
chief task of the teacher is to “make” it 
interesting. Imagine the teaching of science 


The American Teacher 


111 


beginning with Roger Bacon as a focusing 
point or a course in sociology founded upon 
the Republic of Plato! Then again, if there 
is any attempt to supply an impetus and a 
guide for the future it is done by the en- 
thusiast in spite of, rather than with the aid 
of, the curriculum. 


We schoolmasters need not shoulder the 
entire blame, for the attitude of most par- 
ents, that is to say, of you, is anomalous 
You ask us to fit a boy for the everyday 
life of the world and feel justly grieved 
when he flounders for several years after 
graduation from high school or college; yet 
when you enter him your first desire is that 
he may have culture, the unexpressed mo- 
tive undoubtedly being that you wish him 
to carry the labels which indicate that he 
has had an “education.” And what more 
glaring in its assertiveness than the knowl- 
edge of the things of long ago, the classics? 
So, in a sense, the public must be induced 
to modify its demands. Yet we can not, 
like the producer of popular drama, take 
refuge in the cry that we “give the public 
what it wants.” 


We have not been willing to clean house. 
We have temporized with tradition. Why 
not face the situation anew? The public 
really wants what we can demonstrate to 
be best. There are certain well-defined 
types of literature which we all use, or 
ought to use, or perhaps I should say, would 
use if we knew how; let us teach them. 
Suppose we distribute these over the eight 
semesters in the following manner: 1. 
Biography; 2. Reference Books; 3. Maga- 
zines; 4. Short Stories; 5. Social Science; 6. 
Poetry; 7. Novels; 8. Drama. The mere 
statement of this scheme sounds innocent 
enough and yet, thought of in connection 
with what we actually do, it is revolutionary. 
It opens up to the teacher pastures new and 
to the pupil a vision of life. The mere 
possibility of thinking of each new section 
of the work as an excursion into a new and 
extensive field instead of a tedious hunt 
among dead ruins should in itself arouse 
an interest such as the thought of a “Sketch 
Book” ter™ -* a “Milton’s Minor Poems” 





112 The American Teacher 


term could never do. The innate love of 
literature is insatiable but it must be fed 
with ample. and wholesome fare and not 
starved upon the refinements of cuisine. 


The inevitable criticism is that large types 
and generalization lead to lack of thoroness, 
but the obvious answer is that there is no rea- 
son why the teacher can not in the proposed 
course treat a small section in detail as he 
could in the old course generalize upon the 
specific classic. The difference is, and it is 
a tremendous difference, one of emphasis. 
And after all, is not the question of thoro- 
ness one of individual temperament? And 
is not thoroness favored in intensive study 
of the classic simply because it is easier to 
teach? And is it not therefore more per- 
nicious? 

From another angle it may be said that 
thoroness is precisely what is obtained, 
for concentration upon a principle with its 
supporting details means thoroness of treat- 
ment such as is never the result when a 
topic is dealt with incidentally; for it is 
upon many associations built up into gen- 
eralizations that the solid structure of 
knowledge is built. The reference book, 
the short story, the magazine, and the litera- 
ture of social reform all fall victim to the 
Juggernaut of the “masterpiece.” Here 
there is not even superficiality; there is 
nothing. 

There can be no question but that the 
novel and the drama can not be postponed 
entirely until the last year, but the obvious 
answer is that just as there is supplement- 
ary reading in the old course there may be 
such in the new, and so these types may be 
read in the early years for the pure pleas- 
ure that a judicious selection will afford. 
Of course, it is patent that the boy who 
left high school after the third term would 
have no intensive work in the novel or the 
drama, and the only answer is that he does 
not get it now. And after all, the problem 
of supplying a complete and rounded educa- 
tion for the boy who has not the time, the 
money, or the brains to finish his school 
career is not to be solved by any juggling 
of the curriculum. It is another story. 


Vol. VI., No. 7 


The present requirements allow of little 
or no adaptation to the varying abilities and 
tastes of pupils, but a concentration upon 
type would do just that. Instead of in- 
posing one particular piece of literature 
upon everyone, different examples of the 
type could well be assigned with reference 
to the individual. 

The rearrangement of topics would in no 
way interfere with the aims of the old 
course; ideals might be inculcated, habits 
formed, style developed, just as before. 

The details of such a scheme as this would 
of course be determined by circumstances 
and would be modified by experience, but 
the principle is big and deserves considera- 
tion. However, it must be remembered 
that this is a spring house-cleaning accom- 
panied by all the discomforts of readjust- 
ment and is not an everyday dusting. It 
is a revolution, not an evolution. It is to 
be conducted by teachers who are molders 
of thought and not merely mongers of the 
trinkets and gew-gaws of wisdom. 


Superintendents and Self. 


Government 
BENJAMIN GLASSBERG 


and Police of the Chicago Board of 
Aldermen was appointed in June, 
1916, to investigate the causes, methods of 
adoption, purposes and results of the infa- 
mous Loeb rules. The committee, however, 
broadened the scope of its inquiry so as to 
enable it to make constructive recommenda- 
tions for the betterment of the schools. It 
received the help of such educational experts 
as the late Superintendent Blewett of St. 
Louis, Superintendents Chadsey of Detroit, 
Spaulding of Minneapolis, Professors C. H. 
Judd and Leonard P. Ayres, who testified at 
the hearings conducted by the Committee. 
Aside from the recommendations of the 
committee, what probably interests our read- 
ers most is the attitude of these educators 
towards the participation of teachers in the 
planning of courses of study and in the man- 


C Rae COMMITTEE on Schools, Fire 





acacqns ocagcewwpeeunemso = wm 


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et pete 


October, 1917 


agement of the schools. This is one of the 
important reforms that THE AMERICAN 
TEACHER has fought for since its inception 
and which the American Federation of 
Teachers also demands. 

When Superintendent Chadsey was asked 
by Commissioner Max Loeb whether he be- 
lieved that teachers should have any voice 
in the election of the principals in their own 
schools, he replied, that while he was not 
ready to go that far he was very strongly 
of the opinion “ . . . that the teaching 
body, those who are actually doing the work, 
should have far more to do with the creation 
and determination of educational policies 
than they have at the present time in most 
cities. Just how that can be worked out 
most efficiently depends again very decidedly 
upon local conditions.” He said further: 

Take the question of the course of study, 
for instance, which is a fairly good illustra- 
tion, I think, because a course of study is a 
very vital matter to the schools. It is, from 
my point of view, ridiculous to assume that 
a superintendent, or a group of superin- 
tendents, are in any position whatever to 
prepare a course of study for the teachers to 
work by. Certainly the teachers are in a po- 
sition to contribute very much more to this 
course of study than any supervisory officer, 
no matter how much of an expert he may be 
in theory, because they are every day work- 
ing with the course of study and working 
with the pupils, and can see the limitations 
in a way that the officer cannot. 

On the other hand, it is, I think, equally 
true that your expert official has a certain 
breadth of view with reference to the course 
of study, and certain conceptions concerning 
the fundamental ideas and ideals of the 
course of study, and the final effect, of cer- 
tain lines of work upon the individual, which 
the grade teacher, the individual teacher, 
may not have; and there should be a recog- 
nition of that in the formation of the course. 
But there certainly should be a free oppor- 
tunity for the whole experience of the teacher 
to come into it. 

Several years ago THE AMERICAN TEACHER 
wrote to the High School Principals of New 
York City asking what they thought, among 
other things, of principals being rated by 
teachers. Some were so staggered by this 
revolutionary suggestion that they almost 
forgot to be polite in their answers. It is 
very refreshing, therefore, to find Superin- 


The American Teacher 


113 


tendent Chadsey urging that there should be 
some method whereby the superintendent 
“should have just as good an opportunity to 
judge of the efficiency of the principal, say, 
from the standpoint of the teacher, as he 
thinks he can get of the efficiency of a teach- 
er, judged from the standpoint of the prin- 
cipal.” 

Teachers would be more encouraged and 
would work harder, said Mr. Chadsey, if 
their point of view could reach those who 
are actively concerned in the formation of a 
policy : 

I do not personally see any reason what- 
ever for any superintendent in any way feel- 
ing that groups of teachers should not ac- 
tively consider all problems, and should not 
formulate some way for having their ideas 
reach in a definite way those in authority. 
I think also that they have a right, under such 
conditions, to be convinced that their recom- 
mendations do receive the most careful and 
judicious consideration. If they are simply 
tabled and ignored, they have a right to feel 
that conditions are not as they should be, 
and a right, perhaps as individuals some- 
times, to feel discouraged as to the neces- 
sity of giving the best that is in them. 

Superintendent Spaulding is firmly con- 
vinced of the necessity and benefit of getting 
the teachers’ point of view: 

We have a teachers’ educational council, 
which is a very definite help to the adminis- 
tration. This council consists of twenty-six 
members, representing all parts of the city 
and all grades of work. . . . Thru the council 
we get the ideas of the teachers. The council 
considers courses of study or anything that 
is pertinent to the administration of schools. 
According to the council’s rules the superin- 
tendent may request the president of the 
council at any time to call a meeting for the 
consideration of any subject that he wishes 
to bring before it; also, on request of any 
three members of the council, a meeting will 
be called to consider any matter that these 
members wish to introduce. 

But interchange of views between teachers 
and the administration is by no means limited 
to the teachers’ council. Any teacher in the 
city, any one connected with the schools, is 
invited to ask any pertinent question of the 
administration over signature, or anony- 
mously ; any question that seems to be of suf- 
ficient general interest will be discussed pub- 
licly by the superintendent or his associates. 
Anyone may attend such discussion. 


Dr. Leonard P. Ayres also declared in 





114 


favor of teachers’ participation in school pol- 
icies. When asked as to what he thought of 
the wisdom of the superintendent of the 
board of education obtaining the reviews of 
the teachers, he said: 

One way to construct a course of study is 
to start in with the teachers and by a long 
and rather difficult process of study, confer- 
ence, and consultation evolve a course of 
study. It will take from three to ten times 
as long and involve about ten times as much 
work to make the new course with the co- 
operation of the teachers as it will to make 
it at headquarters without them. When the 
work is all done the course of study will be 
about the same as if it were created by the 
superintendent alone. The difference is that 
the process of making it has been enormously 
valuable to the teachers. When the work is 
done they have the personal interest in the 
course of study and feel that it is their own 
product. They respect it and believe in it. 
This is the way that team work is developed 
in a school system. The schools may be run 
efficiently by edict but that method does not 
build up a progressive and virile organiza- 
tion. 

In reply to a question as to whether it was 
all worth the expenditure of time and energy, 
Dr. Ayres said: 

Yes, and in the long run it is the only way 
in which a school system can become a self- 
sustaining organization. A dictator, like 
Diaz of Mexico, may run the organization 
very well for a long time, but he does not 
develop associates who can take his place 
when he drops out. When he drops out, the 
system goes to pieces. The “great man” the- 
ory of sociology is subject to the weakness 
that it does not provide any method by which 
the man will train up succeeding great men 
to take his place. 

In the bill presented by the Committee to 
the City Council late in January, 1917, there 
is included a recommendation for a School 
Council. In the section dealing with the du- 
ties of the Board of Education, the Board is 
empowered “to provide by ordinance for the 
organization of self-governing councils of su- 
pervisory officials, principals and teachers, 
consisting of representatives chosen by the 
members of each group. In addition to the 
duty of making recommendations concerning 
questions of policy submitted by the superin- 
tendent of schools, such councils may initiate 
recommendations of school policy to the su- 
perintendent.” 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VI., No. 7 


AAT U LOMA UIA A1ANGEUL Ati 





GREYLOCK 


URING the past summer 

seventy-five boys spent 

two full-breezed months at 
Camp Greylock, in the Heart of 
the Berkshires. There under the 
direction of Dr. Gabriel R. Mason 
the youngsters played in the 
fields, swam in the lake, hiked 
over the hills, worked on the 
farm, studied in the outdoor 
classrooms, and camped out 
under the stars. In these ways 
they found health, culture and 
the joy of living. 





BTU Ue 


Hissin 


Prospectus on Request 


Gabriel R. Mason,Ph.D. 


1107 Forest Ave., New York City 











WHAT THEY SAY 


To the Editors of THE AMERICAN TEACHER: 


Why are Teachers’ Periodicals the dreari- 
est failures in educational enterprise? Is 
there an educational magazine, exclusively 
edited by and for pedagogs, which does not 





reveal woful deficiencies? The cynic will 
account for the incorrigible dulness of peda- 
gogic journals by attributing to teachers-in- 
general an abnormal quantum of stupidity. 
The more reasonable critic will find fault 
with the “ideals” of teachers, ideals that are 
sterile, academic, minutiz-bound, feebly su- 
perior, alarmingly pretentious. Teachers’ 
magazines too often exude nothing more scin- 
tillating than the glittering scum of self- 
importance and pompousness. The 
more analytic objector, however, will dis- 
cover the cause of the decline in the miscar- 
riage of noble intention. There are some 
bright teachers in our school world. Indeed, 
though it may surprise the non-pedagogic to 
learn of it, there are teachers who are not 
devoid of a caustic, self-critical sense of 
Humor! This mordantly gay minority, quick 
to ferret our charlatanry in its manifold dis- 
guises, is well aware of the magnificent di- 
verted enthusiasms within the teacher soul 








C0 








October, 1917 


squirming to realize themselves in positive 
enlightening achievement. Why do we lack 
a brilliant journal of education? Are there 
no brilliant teachers? Are there no brilliant 
ideas in education? Are there in our midst 
no brilliant stylists? What ails our torpid 
teacherdom? 

Our positions make us tragic comedians. 
Our most precious hours we spend of neces- 
sity in the illiterate company of babbling 
children. By uncontrollably subtle grada- 
tions our minds deteriorate to meet the sub- 
conscious reasonings and desirings of our 
polyglot charges. Our brand of humor must 
be adapted to the horse-play intellectuality of 
our children. Verily, we even learn to enjoy 
our comedic talents. They avail so cunning- 
ly to defeat the incessant assaults of school- 
room tedium. Nothing—absolutely nothing 
—in our school life provokes into usefulness 
the submerged profundity lying sluggish and 
unperturbed at the bottom of our minds. As 
the uncompensating years slip by, we, all 
unwittingly, assume the intellectual and 
moral character of undeveloped minors. We 
remain under-developed, spiritually and 
mentally dwarfed. We become as little chil- 
dren, peevish, self-willed, humorless, submis- 
sive, hide-bound, the spoiled offspring of self- 
delusion and vanity. We measure life’s 
values childishly. We lack a sense of pro- 
portion. A minor error we magnify into a 
crime. An idiosyncracy we adjudge to be a 
vice. We become cluttered up with preju- 
dices, like child-egotists. We live, half-dead, 
below the threshold of keen consciousness, 
sleep-walkers in a shocking world of reality. 
We sleep our lives away. Our maturer men- 
tality is simply atrophied from perpetual 
disuse. 

Routine exhausts our inspirational moods. 
Repetition weeds out our more original im- 
pulses. Lowbrow (class room) felicity 
usurps the place of profound aspiring. We 
are reduced to automata. What wonder if 
after the day’s juiceless occupation, we are 
unattuned, sapless, unfit for the delights and 
inquiries of maturity. 

Because these things are drearily so, some 
of us (not yet hopelessly engulfed in the 
vapid waters of ennui) are of the opinion 
that one radiant hope, and only one, can now 
avail to reawaken the teacher intellect, to re- 
inspire the teacher soul. That one hope is a 
Magazine a-thrill with the significant adven- 
tures of our own day, a journal of radical 
Revisions, courageous, satiric, universal, 
acutely critical, a free sympathetic organ of 
judgment and prophecy, as passionately sin- 
cere as The Masses, as luminous and subtle 
as The New Republic, as inspiring and all-in- 


The American Teacher 


clusive as life, the common pulsing life of our 
modern revolutionary humanity. That’s the 
kind of Journal we teachers need. For the 
most urgent of all our lacks is Inspiration! 
Beyond information, beyond instruction, be- 
yond all else, we thirst for Inspiration. Only 
a magazine breathing the revolutionary spirit 
of modernity, can quench our thirst of soul! 
Oh, give us an Inspiring Magazine and we 
shall attain to that maturer stature so be- 
coming to the intellectual dignity of Man. 
Yours for the Educational Revolution, 


SOCRATES 
(A Constant Reader) 


* * * 


Applying Democracy to Industry 
To the Editors, THE AMERICAN TEACHER: 

The war has upset a good number of our 
pet theories. Sacred pillars of our existing 
institutions have been rather rudely shaken 
and many have not survived the shock. 
Competition, so long petted and kept from a 
natural death by legislatures and judges, has 
fallen by the wayside; private property, sanc- 
tified by law and custom, has been taken 
over by governments for natural uses. 
Statesmen have even seen fit to endorse the 
movement for woman suffrage. But more 
revolutionary, perhaps than these great 
changes, is the growing recognition of the 
right of labor to have a share in the manage- 
ment of industry. 

The movement for applying democracy to 
industry has received a great impetus. Work- 
ers in some industries have in the last quar- 
ter century forced some measure of recogni- 
tion for this principle. In the men’s garment 
industry and for several years in the ladies’ 
garment industry, the protocol gave the 
workers a decided share in the management. 
Wages and piece rates were to be determined 
by representatives of the unions and the em- 
ployers. The right to discharge was to be 
exercised in accordance with certain. definite 
limitations. A Joint Board of Sanitary Con- 
trol composed of representatives of the 
unions, the employers and the public, was 
charged with setting up decent sanitary 
standards and with the right of enforcing 
them in the industry. 

The United States Navy Department, 
spurred on by the organizations of its skilled 





116 The American Teacher 


workers, has for several years accorded its 
employees at the navy yards a voice in deter- 
mining their conditions of labor. Wages are 
fixed by a wage board consisting of naval of- 
ficers. This board holds public hearings and 
then gives its decisions. The workers have 
followed the practise of sending out repre- 
sentatives at the same time as the wage board 
to inquire what wages are paid by private 
establishments. If they are not satisfied with 
the Navy Department’s decision, the Assist- 
ant Secretary listens to their appeals and 
dates are set aside for each of the navy yard 
trades to appear and argue its appeal. There 
is also a labor board at each navy yard com- 
posed of one commissioned officer and three 
employees permanently assigned to the yard, 
and the district secretary of the Civil Serv- 
ice Commission. The labor board is charged 
with, and is responsible for, the proper and 
effective enforcement of the regulations gov- 
erning appointments to the navy yard serv- 
ice. It reports to the commanding officer any 
violation of the law or regulation. 

The first important national recognition 
of the right of labor to be consulted was 
shown in the appointment of Mr. Gompers 
as chairman of the Committee of Labor of 
the Advisory Committee of the Council of 
National Defense. When the Root Mission 
to Russia was appointed, Mr. Duncan, vice- 
president of the American Federation of 
Labor, was selected as a representative of 
American labor. Upon the formation of the 
War Industries Board to coordinate the 
manufacture and purchase of war materials, 
Mr. Frayne, an organizer of the American 
Federation of Labor, was selected to repre- 
sent the workers engaged on government con- 
tracts, along with representatives of the 
Army, Navy and “Big Business.” 

These appointments, while they indicate 
that the administration recognizes the neces- 
sity of giving labor a voice on bodies that will 
control large masses of workers, have by no 
means satisfied labor. The workers have 
considered them to be merely sops with 
which to silence their demands. The rank 
and file realized that they were only remotely 
benefited by these appointments. This was 
made apparent when the membership of nu- 


Vol. VI., No. 7 


merous sub-committees of the Council of Na- 
tional Defense was announced. They con- 
sisted exclusively of employers and some 
representatives of the public. The United 
Mine Workers were the first to protest 
against the failure to include the represen- 
tatives of the miners on the sub-committee 
on coal. They pointed out that not only were 
all the members operators, but among them 
were those notorious for their part in the 
Colorado civil war of 1914. The miners in- 
sisted that to entrust their hard fought vic- 
tories to such a committee would be exceed- 
ingly dangerous. They demanded represen- 
tation on the committee as a protection 
against any possible aggression on the part 
of the employers. The government realized 
the justice of their demand and five repre- 
sentatives of the miners were appointed on 
the Committee on Coal. The Mine Workers 
Union, as a result, has been able to cooperate 
with the government in adjusting labor dif- 
ficulties in the coal fields and in reducing the 
occasion for strikes in some cases. 

Perhaps no industry is so vital to the war 
as shipbuilding; and yet, probably no indus- 
try in the country has been the scene of so 
many strikes since the war began. Several 
thousand have been on strike in the East 
for weeks. A strike vote was cast in the 
West that was said to involve 100,000 work- 
ers. Only a “treaty” drawn up between the 
government and the workers’ unions has for 
the time being prevented the strike from 
taking place. The “labor treaty,” signed 
August 25th, called for the creation of a 
board to settle disputes that may arise in any 
shipbuilding plant concerning wages, hours, 
or conditions of labor. This board is to con- 
sist of three members, one to be appointed by 
the United States Shipping Board Emer- 
gency Fleet Corporation ; one to represent the 
public to be nominated by President Wilson; 
and one to represent labor, to be nominated 
by Samuel Gompers. It is also provided that 
two associate members shall sit on the board 
with voting power, one to represent the own- 
er or owners of any plant which is involved 
in any dispute with its men and one to rep- 
resent the workers, selected by a majority of 
the workers in the particular craft or crafts 





—=e- > he 


oD nm Ss 3 6s lhe ll OlUC HSlC Cre UC OUC KOC Oe —f == wpe © ot Ss ee oo Of. rhe 


aia 2 & me fF 


— 


October, 1917 


directly interested in the disputed matters. 

Whenever any dispute arises, the district 
representative of the Shipping Board is to 
confer with the local spokesman of the crafts 
involved or with unauthorized heads of any 
local labor organization or with the national 
heads of the organizations. If the district 
representative cannot adjust the dispute, the 
Shipping Board is to send an examiner to the 
district to bring about a settlement. This ex- 
aminer must previously have been selected 
by the employers and representatives of those 
workers who are members of the unions. If 
this examiner fails, then the Board itself will 
decide the question. The Board is required 
to give full consideration “to any circum- 
stances whatsoever arising after such wages, 
hours, or conditions were established and 
which may seem to call for changes in wages, 
hours, or conditions.” 

The Commission recently appointed by the 
Canadian Government to investigate the con- 
ditions of railway transportation in Canada, 
after a thoro survey, recommended among 
other things the operation of the railroad 
by a board of five trustees. The trustees 
are to be highly paid experts, free from politi- 
cal interference. One of the three members 
of the Commission is the president of the 
New York Central Railroad and another is 
an English railway lawyer of distinction. 
They recommended that one of the five trus- 
tees be a representative of railroad labor, who 
shall be charged to watch over the interests 
of the employees. 

There have been expressions in the last 
few months by labor and other bodies of the 
necessity of introducing democratic methods 
in the management of our industries. 


The American Alliance for Labor and De- 
mocracy, in its convention in September, 
1917, declared that wage earners must have 
a voice in determining conditions under 
which they give service; and that they must 
be represented in councils conducting the 
war and in bodies negotiating peace. 

President Johnston of the International 
Association of Machinists said (in a letter 
to the writer, August 24, 1917): 


The workers are not at all satisfied with 


The American Teacher 


117 


the representation that labor is receiving at 
the hands of our government officials. I be- 
lieve that there should be at least two or 
three representatives of labor on the War 
Industries Board, one of whom should be a 
practical machinist who is familiar with the 
production of war munitions and who is 
thoroly in touch with the labor situation. 
We contend that the labor organizations 
should have greater representation than has 
heretofore been given them on all govern- 
mental agencies, especially during this war 
period. 

In England, the Miners Federation, the 
National Union of Railwaymen, and the 
Transport Workers’ Federation are united 
into the Triple Industrial Alliance, number- 
ing 1,286,000 members. Robert Smillie of 
the Miners, declared that there must be demo- 
catic control of industry. A. Bellamy of the 
Railwaymen has said: 


Whether nationalization or control is de- 
cided on, it ought to be made unmistakably 
clear that neither system would be accept- 
able to railwaymen unless they were given a 
share in the management. 

Graham Wallas, one of the most thoro stu- 
dents of industrial matters in England, or 
anywhere else, thus comments on the neces- 
sity of democratic control: 


In the highly organized great industries 
the rights of control should be divided—some 
of them assigned to the State, some of them 
to the persons engaged in the industry, others 
to those who contribute the capital. Con- 
centrated directive power has ceased. Dis- 
tribution of power is a fact. What is the 
percentage of control is the real question. 

The English Postal Associations, number- 
ing 74,000 workers, have since 1906 been 
recognized by the Government and consulted 
in regard to wages and conditions of labor. 
The Postal workers have frankly announced 
that they are looking forward to complete 
control of the postal industry. They have 
already caused to be introduced into Parlia- 
ment a bill regarding the right of the postal 
workers having joint control of the service. 
Their aim at present is limited to securing 
representation on all departmental commit- 
tees, especially those that deal with post-war 
problems. 


The newly organized English People’s 





118 


Party, an outgrowth of the Workmen’s and 
Soldiers’ Council, formed at Leeds and rep- 
resenting over 1,200,000 unionists, has de- 
clared unequivocally in favor of democratic 
control of industry. Their platform provides: 
Not only must we assure to all our work- 
ers an income on which a reasonable life can 
be led; we must also create conditions in 
which work ceases to be mere drudgery under 
a ruling class, whether of bureaucrats or of 
capitalists. By taking over the management 
of industry the workers will be realizing 
freedom and democracy in their daily labor. 
The nationalization of industry will not sub- 
ject the workers to the discipline of a bu- 
reaucratic machine, but will enable them 
thru the trade unions to organize production 
in the interest of all. State ownership of the 
means of production, balanced by the control 
of industry by organized labor, offers the 
best, and, indeed, the only guarantee of indi- 
vidual freedom in an industrial society.” 


On Too Much Liberty 


“The Russians have had too much liberty” 
we hear expressed everywhere. Thus is ex- 


plained the continued retreat of the Russians 
in the face of the advancing German army. 
People sorrowfully shake their heads and al- 


most long for the return of Czarism with its 
brutal autocracy. That would bring an end 
to the Soldiers’ Committees with their inso- 
lent interference with military strategy, hith- 
erto reserved exclusively for the “superior” 
officers’ decisions. Power must be lodged in a 
dictator who will not temporize was the gen- 
eral view of the metropolitan press upon the 
news of Korniloff’s revolt. They joyfully 
welcomed the coming of the man on horse- 
back. With Korniloff in power, backed by 
the conservative better element, it would not 
have been possible for the ignoramuses in 
control of the Council of Workmen and 
Soldiers’ Deputies to surrender Russia’s his- 
toric demand for Constantinople, solemnly 
declared the New York Times. 

The meagre knowledge of the real condi- 
tion of affairs in Russia resulted in a general 
acceptance of these sentiments. In view of 
these facts a dispatch to the New York Sun 
from its correspondent, Mr. WILLIAM G. 
SHEPARD, is very interesting. Mr. SHEPARD 
very clearly intimates that the exaggerated 
accounts of Russian disorder were inspired 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VI., No. 7 


by the elements backing the Korniloff revolt, 
The fall of Riga was really part of the 
scheme to discredit the Provisional Govern. 
ment of Kerenski. The utter demoraliza. 
tion of the army was prevented only by the 
Soldiers’ Committees and the agents of the 
Workmen and Soldiers’ Deputies who strived 
to keep up the morale of the soldiers, and 
prevent the deliquescence that so worried 
many in the United States. If this be true 
it sheds a wholly new sidelight on the dan. 
ger of too much liberty. 





A CRISIS FOR TRIAL BY JURY 

The press announces as this number is about to be printed 
that two teachers of Columbia University, Professor J. Mo. 
Keen Cattell and Assistant Professor H. W. L. Dana, have 
been summarily dismissed by the Board of Trustees for 
“seditious utterances.’’ 

Altho the present is a time when quick decisions on mat 
ters of national welfare are likely to be made, it is never. 
theless also the time, as always, for maintaining whatever 
professional stability we have developed thru years of 
anxious trial. No man in our country has done more to 
uphold the standards of freedom in the colleges than has 
Professor Cattell, and none other has been more highly re 
garded by college teachers on account of the courageous 
leadership he has given unselfishly. 

The war will of course go on, and the result will be in 
differently influenced by educational crises of this kind. 
But the cause of freedom in education is in a fair way to 
meet a crisis that may well shake its very foundations. 

The American Association of University Professors, as de 
scribed by Chancellor Elliott in this number, stands for the 
principle of trial by peers and the right of the accused 
to meet the charges and to present evidence. Against al 
this the Board of Trustees of Columbia slams the door with 
unseemly haste. 


VERY nl gl 





Cut this out, sign legibly, and return to 
The American Teacher, 70 Fifth Ave., Room 909 


LOYALTY PLEDGE 
I, the undersigned, a lover of ideas, do here- | 
with gladly promise to contribute to the 
American Teacher the sum of $ 
month for 1917-1918. 


My initial contribution is $ 








October, 1917 The American Teacher 


A SCHOOLMASTER OF THE GREAT CITY 


By ANGELO PATRI, Principal Public School No. 45, Bronx 


JOHN DEWEY says: 
“Angelo Patri has produced in his ‘Schoolmaster of the Great City,’ an al- 
most unheard-of thing, a book on education which is not only sound in prin- 
ciple but charming in style. If anybody wants to know what is vital and 
moving in modern education, and wants the knowledge communicated in a 
form free from pedagogical phraseology, in human terms, let him read Mr. 
Patri’s book. No parent or citizen can read this book without illumination 
and increased vision. The teacher who can read it without a gain in enthu- 
siasm oughtn’t to be teaching.” 

PRESIDENT WILLIAM G. WILLCOX says: 
“I wish very,much indeed that every principal and every teacher in our 
public schools could read it, for it would be a wonderful thing for our New 
York schools if the spirit and inspiration of this book could be impressed 
upon our teaching staff.” 

COMMISSIONER JOHN MARTIN says: 
“The most inspiring and thrilling work on education which I have read in 
many a year. I found every page more absorbing than most best sellers. 
; Were I an educational czar, I should issue an edict that every City 
teacher must read this book three times during the vacation. If its spirit 
could take possession of every school, a revolution would be effected more 
fundamental than the glorious Russian revolution.” 

NEW YORK TIMES: 
“Heart throbs and red blood beat through every page of this fascinating 
account of the evolution of a schoolmaster and a school. . . . The book 
is full of anecdotes, incidents, bits of life, that illustrate his argument and 
prove the need of just the things he has been trying to do.” 

NEW YORK WORLD: 
“A hundred charming little intimate incidents of child life. These stories 
are comic, pathetic and tragic. Each is a story with a ‘punch,’ a story well 
calculated to upset all the traditional theories.” 

BOSTON ADVERTISER: 
“The book points clearly to higher levels our schools are to reach in the 
future.” 

CHICAGO RECORD HERALD: 
“Mr. Patri’s attitude toward his work and his pupils is both loving and 
reverent, and he longs for the time when the school shall be set free from the 
restricting bounds of mere scholastic education.” 

THE SURVEY: 
“Mr. Patri makes the technique of running a school seem like the most fas- 
cinating and complex of modern enterprises.” 

THE NEW YORK CALL: 
“This is a human document, not a pedagogical treatise.” 


PATRI: A Schoolmaster of the Great City 
Special mailing price to teachers $1.10 


THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, = “xewvorx™ 


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The American Teacher Vol. VI., No. 7 


| 


AMO STOO GAA AMS 


The American Teacher's Job 


JHE work that lies ready for The American Teacher to do 

! has never been undertaken by any other organ. Possibly 
none other is in the position to undertake it, as this peri- 
odical has done. What is the Job? 


It is to strive continually to make the work of the teacher con- 
tribute toward the creation of a real profession, self-respecting and 
respected thruout the land. 


It is to point out to our fellow workers the necessity of making 
our own professional standards by our own clear, honest and inde- 
pendent thinking. 


It is to obtain from educational and civic authorities the conceded 
right to share in the real management of the schools, and in their 
ideal development. 


It is to secure the establishment of humane working conditions 
for the teachers and for the children in the schools. 


An important part of the task of The American Teacher is to lead 
the way in demonstrating to teachers the fact that. the school is a 
social institution, and as such is bound by a far-reaching responsi- 
bility to mankind. 


The specific responsibility of the school which the paper will try 
to point out as it has in the past is actually to prepare children for 
life, by using the subject matter that has direct relation to the stuff 
of life, and accurately to interpret to them the significant activities 
of human society. 


In order to prepare teachers for the high responsibility thus in- 
dicated, and to develop in them sympathetic and intelligent under- 
standing of life, The American Teacher will urge that teachers every- 
where study the social conditions of our own time, and wherever 
possible learn the reality of these social conditions by actual contact. 


Out of the movement which guards our professional progress and 
connects us with the world of life there has developed a group of 
educational and social ideals, to the formulation of which the editors 
of the paper have given these years of time and devotion. What- 
ever social vision the possession of these ideals implies will, we trust, 
give to our movement a solidity and value worthy of the social need 
of the time.