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|The American. 
| TEAC HER 


FEBRUARY, 1918 





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Thrift 





Toward Democracy 


Wanted—Teachers 





Dobroye Notche! 





Democracy in Education 
Education for Democracy 





‘The American Teacher 


PESSSSSULLVLULLLLLLSESASBAEERSESESSSEESSRUTERSA ESTAS U SRR RAR SRR RARE EEE! 


The Teachers Conciliation Board 


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York educational system is ready 

to take up with an idea which has 

been in operation for many years 
in France, in New Zealand, in Australia, 
and applied to the management of their 
great industrial undertakings, under 
governmental control, and also in opera- 
tion in isolated spots in America itself — 
namely, the idea of grievances and other 
evidences of mal- 


I T begins to look now as if the New 








administration = 
being submitted 
for settlement to 
the workers 
themselves. To 
be sure, no board 
of control ever 
gives up its hold 
on the business it 
has to deal with, 
and never should, 
provided it truly 
represents the 
people. But 
sometimes, and 
indeed often, 
these boards 
grow autocratic 
—and dangerous, 
even to the people 
themselves; and 


Editorials 


fkowitz 
Wanted—Teachers 


What They Say 


Readings 
Dobroye Notche 
Soviets 








CONTENTS 


Toward Democracy, Benjamin Glass- 


Supervisors and the Schools, Abraham 


A Cooperative School 
Teachers Coming of Age 


Religious Education, Review by H H 


is significant that the teachers are asked 
to formulate this plan and to approve 
and adopt it after thoro discussion. Let 
us not waste time asking why we are 
asked! It is enough to realize that the 
first concession to an aggrieved profes- 
sional proletariat has actually been 
made. 

The first important step in this ad- 
vance has now been completed. The 

plan is ready for 
| submission to the 
Acting Super- 
intendent of 
Schools, the pro- 
poser of this un- 
dertaking. It is 
altogether likely 
that he will ex- 
amine it, and 
shortly submit it 
for discussion 
and approval or 
rejection to the 
22,000 teachers 
of the city. 

We may well 
expect that the 
age-long habit of 
workers who un- 
der oppression 
become cynical 
and suspicious 











destructive of the 





spirit of loyalty 

and coéperation of the workers. Then 
the work begins to get bad. Certainly 
it never has a chance to become good, 
with workers sullen and suspicious, and 
the board of control narrow and inef- 
ficient. 

And now comes a high official of the 
supervising staff of the Department of 
Education of New York City, anxious 
to repair the errors of autocracy, will- 
ing to fall into line with the advancing 
spirit of the age. He proposes that the 
teachers themselves suggest a plan by 
which the teachers, the supervisors and 
the Board of Education may codperate 
to solve the problems of group discipline 
land of codperative administration. It 


CSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSASASS ERARAAAAAAAAAABAARAABAA WWMM www MM HOA 


will not be 
thrown off in a moment. There 
will be opposition even to the concession 
that may have been demanded. There 
will be charges of trickery against of- 
ficials who acknowledge the failure of 
the old system of official compulsion. 
There will be accusations against fellow 
teachers who have striven to bring this 
concession into practical form. Thus 
will the heritage of arrogance and au- 
tocracy extend its pernicious influence 
beyond the time of decay. 

For those who understand, and see 
the vision of the future, there is pa- 
tience—and sure knowledge of the ulti- 
mate triumph of all democratic en- 
deavor. 


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The American Teacher 








Vol. VII., No. 2 


FEBRUARY, 1918 


One Dollar a Year 








Misplaced Sermons 
HY is it necessary to preach to teach- 
W ers so often on the elemental decen- 
cies, on being human and sympa- 
thetic? Why must they be so frequently 
reminded to consider the individual child and 
to take thought of persons? 

A body of men and women with the native 
interests that make for high class teaching, 
with professional training for high class 
teaching, would not need such frequent ad- 
monitions. A body of professional workers, 
awareof their responsibilities, and masters of 
their craft, would resent these preachments 
as impertinent. 

The fact that we need these appeals to 
sound social and pedagogical principles, and 
the fact that we tolerate them so compla- 
cently ought to suggest that there is some- 
thing fundamentally wrong with our. busi- 
ness. Are there too many people in the teach- 
ing business who should not be in it? Are the 
conditions in the teaching business such that 
sound practise is too difficult of attainment? 

It may be that boards of education and 
training school principals and supervising 
officials are at fault in their methods of selec- 
tion and training. But we shall never have a 
profession until the workers take hold of 
both the responsibilities and the authorities 
of the business. Then we can do our own 
preaching to some purpose. 


Educational Epoch 
GP AXWELL is ret WILLIAM H 

MAXWELL is retired from active ser- 

vice after a long and useful career. 
Those who could not love him will still be 
able to admire him for his intelligent and vig- 
orous struggles with the older obstacles to 
educational progress. He will be long re- 
membered for his energetic assaults upon the 
ancient abuses connected with the appoint- 


27 


ment and promotion of teachers. It was his 
purpose to eliminate from the school business 
all taint of personal, partizan or sectarian 
influence. He was especially successful in 
establishing the principle of tested eligibility 
for appointment and promotion. 

* * * 

The schools of New York City have for 
many years enjoyed the advantages of a 
Board of Examiners for the determination 
of professional fitness on the part of candi- 
dates for teaching positions. It has had the 
advantage of using graded lists along the 
lines of approved civil service administra- 
tion. For these Dr Maxwell has been very 
largely responsible. 

- a * 

The school administration of the city has 
not been altogether committed to the prin- 
ciple of appointment and promotion on a 
merit basis. Perhaps the temptation to hold 
in reserve particularly desirable positions 
was too great. Perhaps it was too difficult 
to formulate standards and tests for the vari- 
ous grades of supervisory positions that were 
kept exempt from the merit principle. Even 
Dr Maxwell himself was not always able to 
draw,a sharp line between personal approval 
of a candidate and ev'‘dence of fitness. But 
he has rendered education a great service in 
bringing us to the point where we accept ap- 
pointment,and promotion on merit “in prin- 
ciple,” even tho we do not always apply the 
principle in practise. 

* +. * 

The week after Dr Maxwell’s retirement 
was decided upon by the new Board of Edu- 
cation, one of the newspapers, reporting a 
meeting of the Board, printed this para- 
graph: 

There was an unusual number of candidates for vacant 


positions and for anticipated vacancies greeting the 
members of the board before and after the meeting. 


We are not informed whether the principle 
of promotion on merit is to be repudiated, 





The American Teacher 


Thrift 


ERHAPS no single factor has done so 
P much toward the success of the Gov- 
ernment’s thrift campaign as the or- 
ganized and intelligent cooperation of the 
nation’s teachers. Ignorant as are most peo- 
ple in the country, including teachers and 
business men, of fundamental economic prin- 
ciples, we were quick to sense the significance 
of saving as an element in national need. 
And we saved; and we got the children to 
save. Where a year earlier we accepted the 
merchant’s doctrine that free spending up to 
the limits of our earning and borrowing ca- 
pacity was a patriotic duty in that it “put 
money in circulation” or in that it “helped to 
give employment,” we readily learned to re- 
verse our attitude. And we have learned that 
the significance of saving lies not in the piles 
of dollars. accumulated in \jthe banks and 
loaned to the Government, but in the quan- 
tities of usable goods set aside for the use of 
our soldiers and sailors. We have learned 
also that the iniquity of waste is not to be 
measured by what the individual can afford 
but by what the country can spare. And this 
too is a reversal of the economics we have ab- 
sorbed thru the newspapers and the adver- 
tisements. 

The time will soon come to learn another 
lesson in thrift, and to transmit it to those 
who have the greatest need for it. This les- 
son also deals with the iniquity of waste. We 
must learn—and teach—that the waste of 
human resources is sinful ; that it is unpatri- 
otic to set boys and girls to work in jobs that 
are not worth the devotion of human beings; 
that the measure of waste is not the pittance 
the employer can afford to pay, but the 
amount a person needs for life. If any job 
does not pay a living, it is not worth doing. 
This is revolutionary doctrine, but we shall 
learn it along with the other lessons of the 
war. We must learn that whether or not the 
business man can afford to employ footmen 
and door openers and other ostentatious 
manifestations of superfluous wealth, the 
nation can neither afford to let people waste 
their time in this fashion, whatever they 
may be paid for it, nor can it afford to let 


Vol. VII, No. 2 


people go to waste; humans should be con- 
sidered too precious. 

We must learn that in the management of 
the schools, as in the management of business 
or of government, people must be put to doing 
the best work they are capable of doing; that 
it is iniquitous waste of human life to let peo- 
ple become perfunctory time servers, me- 
chanical routineers, tired business men. The 
true wealth of the nation is its human beings. 
The true thrift of the nation means the most 
efficient distribution of our talents and our 
limitations, the most effective utilization of 
our capacities and enthusiasms and interests 
and devotions—not the accumulation of the 
largest bank surpluses, not the making of the 
largest profits, not the saving of taxes. 

Let there be thrift. 


The Parent’s Point of View 


AS NEGLECTFUL AS teachers frequently are 
of the point of view of the children, they are 
still more neglectful of the point of view of 
the parent. The parent whose letter to a 
teacher is printed in another column has a 
point of view which brings once more to the 
light the cruelty and inhumanity of educa- 
tional systems that persist in holding their 
machine-like conceptions of duty. 

It is no credit to the machine-like men- 
tality in the schools that it happens at a par- 
ticular moment of the nation’s crisis to be 
striving to destroy Kaiserism in the world. 
At another time and under different auspices 
the same mentality would be on the side of 
autocracy in government just as it is all the 
time on the side of autocracy in education. 
It is not going too far to say that the support 
given to the cause of democracy in govern- 
ment by types of mind like that of the teacher 
and the assistant to principal described in the 
mother’s letter is of no value. True democ- 
racy has no terrors for the innocent. That 
terrifying demonstration of false democracy 
so common now in the schools and in self-ap- 
pointed groups like the now discredited 
American Defense Society does an immense 
amount of harm by disgracing one of the 
few countries where democracy has the 
chance to exist, 





February, 1918 


Along with the many other items of cor- 
rected vision which all lovers of liberties have 
listed to be taken up “‘after the war,” we shall 
have to attend to this serious case of strabis- 
mus in seeing autocracy when the search is 
supposedly for democracy. Nay, we must at- 
tend to the matter now before it is altogether 
too late. 


Congratulations 


ORD came that Frank had resigned 
W from his position in the school. 
Frank was an able fellow. He had 
been a good teacher. He was enthusiastic, 
he was energetic, he was studious, he went 
out and kept in touch with the world. He 
even thought. He was a good “disciplina- 
rian” and he could keep records. He had all 
the virtues demanded by superiors, and a few 
others. And he had very few of the vices to 
which superiors object. The most serious of 
these was that he thought. 

I felt confident that if Frank resigned it 
must be because he had something better in 
view. And I was right. Frank was giving 
up the school to become a button salesman. 
I could hardly believe it at first. It seemed so 
trivial. And I recalled the enthusiasm with 
which he could elaborate the possibilities of 
the school. However, he admitted the facts 
himself. And I congratulated him. He 
seemed pleased. His step was even lighter 
than it had been in the past. I recalled the 
lightness of his step on the day I met him and 
his wife of an hour, years ago. And I re- 
called the lightness of his step on that day 
when he announced himself at the head of the 
list, after some examination or other. And 
I recalled the lightness of his step on that day 
when he came back after a week’s absence 
and announced himself the proud father of 
the most adorable—either daughter or son, 
I’ve forgotten. But now his step was even 
lighter. And I congratulated him. We 
chatted a few moments and passed on. 

But that evening I could not sleep. I saw 
the substitute who would take Frank’s class. 
I recalled all the substitutes I had ever 
known. Some of them were very good men 
or women, Some of them have proved to be 


The American Teacher 29 


the makings of good teachers. But I recalled 
all the substitutes. And it suddenly came 
upon me that the good ones I had known were 
mostly of former years. I wondered whether 
I was getting old, and looking backward to 
the golden age. No, it was a fact. Too many 
Franks had been resigning to go into the 
pickle business or dentistry. Too many of 
the other kind had been drifting into the 
teaching business. 

I congratulated Frank. We both under- 
stood. It was a good system to get out of. 
But I could not sleep the next night. I was 
thinking of all the children going to schools 
from which all the Franks had resigned. I 
was thinking of a nation made up of people 
who could not afford to keep people like 
Frank in their schools. I congratulated 
Frank. But afterwards I wondered what 
sort of people Frank’s children would have 
to live with when they grew up. What kind 
of people will my children have to live with, 
when they grow up? I congratulated Frank. 
I cannot congratulate the children. 


Teachers in Administration 
HE chairman of the Salary Schedule 
Committee of the Kansas City Teach- 
ers Club, Miss Helen McMillan, in- 
forms us that the Board of Education and the 
City Superintendent have expressed interest 
in and intent to consider seriously two impor- 
tant requests submitted by the teachers. 
These requests have to do with the adjust- 
ment of salaries, and with the participation 
of teachers in the establishment of profes- 
sional standards. The text of the memorial 
is printed elsewhere in this number. 

The significant feature of the situation is 
the amount of thought given by the teachers 
to the question of standards. Miss McMillan 
writes, 

The more we have talked among our- 
selves and with our supervisors about this 
proposed cooperative test of what is meant 
by different degrees of superiority under 
each of the thirty odd specific elements of 
efficiency on our rating card, the more we 
have become convinced that to-day’s teach- 
ers ought not to be made the sca ats of 
earlier and less definite tests of perform- 
ance. 





30 The American Teacher 


Teachers everywhere should, of course, be 
interested not only in learning whether their 
supervisors approve of them or not; it is of 
vital concern to them to know just what the 
criteria are according to which they are 
being gaged. More important is it that the 
teachers are demanding a voice in the deter- 
mination of standards. Teachers everywhere 
will be interested to know the outcome of this 
experiment in education. It may be safely 
predicted that not only will the procedure 
which may grow out of this experiment be 
more satisfactory than the one now followed, 
but that the teachers taking part in this year 
of cooperative searching and inquiry will 
advance their professional growth much 
more than they could thru attendance upon 
any number of prescribed “courses.” The 
best part of education comes from vital con- 
tact with real problems; this is just as true 
for the education of the teacher as it is for 
the education of self-made men who could 
not get along in school. 

In connection with this Kansas City ex- 
periment we call attention to the work of the 
English “Teachers Registration Council,” de- 
scribed on another page. This Council is 
analogous to a bar association or a medical 
association that has legal standing in the de- 
termination of standards, both technical and 
personal, for admission to practise. Many 
types of organization are possible for the ac- 
complishment of the desired object ; probably 
no form will be the best for all situations. 
The important thing is the recognition of the 
fact that the administration of education re- 
quires something more than an office man- 
ager and business experience. 


To Dekaiserize Education 


OLITICAL democracy is making tre- 
P mendous strides abroad. Even in in- 
dustry, where the spirit of kaiserism 

and Divine-Right-Baer are so strongly in- 
trenched, the workers are asserting them- 
selves to an unusual extent, industrial democ- 
racy being their goal. This democratic trend 
is manifesting itself everywhere except 
where it should manifest itself most—that is, 


Vol. VII, No. 2 


in our educational system. Democracy can- 
not flourish in the schools if the teacher “is 
too often the serf at the bottom of the feudal 
system without power of initiation, the vic- 
tim of threats and subject at every turn to 
power that is often ignorant and sometimes 
brutal. Truly there will remain a fight 
against kaiserism when its manifestations in 
Europe are properly crushed.” 

The death struggle between kaiserism and 
democracy is on. The educational exponents 
of kaiserism are trying to crush the cham- 
pions of democracy thru the inauguration of 
a reign of terror under the guise of “inquisi- 
tions,” dismissal for “conduct unbecoming 
a teacher” and by transfers “for the good of 
the service.” These punishments are not 
meted out upon evidence that would hold in 
any court of law, but upon the mere asser- 
tions or inferences of official superiors who 
are interested in crushing their outspoken 
opponents because they fear the undermining 
of their power and “leadership.” Kaiserism 
answers its heroic critics by piling charge 
upon charge, suspension upon suspension, 
dismissal upon dismissal. Subserviency and 
sycophancy are becoming more and more 
prevalent. The tenure law is dead. Kaiser- 
ism, thru autocratic interpretation, has given 
it its death blow. Democracy is tottering. 
Will it fall? 

The Teachers Union is now fighting the 
battle of democracy against the educational 
kaisers. Its members want to respect their 
superiors not because they are ordered to, but 
because those superiors have earned and de- 
serve respect. To get the respect of their 
subordinates their acts must stand the light 
of day. The lips of every teacher in the sys- 
tem must be free to utter what his conscience 
dictates. Criticism must be encouraged and 
rewarded. Democracy is synonymous with 
truth and truth stands naked but unashamed! 
Truth and democracy flourish with publicity 
but autocracy and kaiserism with duplicity. 
School officials who cannot stand criticism of 
their acts are dangerous kaisers who fear 
democracy and hate the truth. Democracy 
means freedom of thought, freedom of action. 
The attack upon teachers for holding views 
is an attack upon criticism, upon democracy 





February, 1918 


by autocracy, and can have but one result if 
successful—intellectual subserviency! The 
Union is unalterably opposed to the auto- 
cratic ideal in education, and in industry as 
well as in government. 

The Union proposes to prevent the crown- 
ing of autocracy by bringing about the tri- 
umph of democracy. Democracy can tri- 
umph thru the efforts of the teachers 
themselves. He who cannot rule himself is 
unfit to rule or to train others. The teacher 
must assert himself; he must aid in estab- 
lishing educational democracy. He should 
oppose every attack upon freedom of expres- 
sion. He must insist upon intelligent coop- 
eration of teachers in school administration. 
Teachers, your efforts may prove abortive 
but failure is the key to success as the ills of 
democratic assertion will be cured by still 
stronger assertion. Today we are living thru 
an educational nightmare, the product of au- 
tocracy. Courageous and respectful self-as- 
sertion will usher in the new era of educa- 
tional democracy and freedom. Join the 
army of educational democracy and help de- 
throne educational autocracy. 


Punishment Before Trial 

THE NEW YORK BOARD OF EDUCATION is 
not alone in the practice of suspending an em- 
ployee before a trial is given. The custom is 
so common that it has been accepted as being 


proper. 
In the recent “disloyalty hunt” in the edu- 
cational system of New York several teachers 
have been suspended. In only one instance 
was a trial given before the order of suspen- 
sion was imposed. In the case of the three 
teachers dismissed from DeWitt Clinton High 
School after a trial, the order of suspension 
was given on the unsupported statement of 
the associate superintendent in charge of 
high schools. This man reported to the 
Board of Education his informal findings 
concerning an involved situation in the high 
school, a member of the Board of Education 
made an emotional speech in which he said 
the DeWitt Clinton High School was a “hot- 
bed of sedition,” and the Board of Education 


The American Teacher 31 


without any investigation whatever, without 
even stenographic notes verifying statements 
of events, suspended the three teachers, inci- 
dentally branding them as disloyal. 

The Teachers Union has sent a protest to 
the new Board of Education against the con- 
tinuance of the practise of suspending teach- 
ers without pay before they have had a trial 
on the ground that suspension itself is a form 
of punishment. It was also pointed out that 
in the case of the three teachers the suspen- 
sion created a condition of prejudice against 
the teachers and rendered it difficult for them 
to receive a fair trial owing to the state of 
the public mind. 

The reply of the Board of Education main- 
tains that “teachers against whom charges 
are brought are not suspended unless the cir- 
cumstances are such as to make suspension, 
in the judgment of qualified officials, neces- 
sary. The Board appreciates your position 
and your point of view, but sees no present 
reason for changing the established practise.” 

Naturally such a réply opens other ques- 
tions than the main issue itself, but these may 
be passed over. The suspension without pay 
not only punishes; it condemns as well. And 
it also removes from the hand of the accused 
an important means of defense—an income, 
and all before he has had a chance to meet 
his accusers. 

The risk of injustice being done by pre- 
liminary suspension is too great for a democ- 
racy to submit to this autocratic system of 
prejudging. The three teachers were sus- 
pended for disloyalty. They were tried for 
conduct unbecoming a teacher. Between the 
time of the suspension and the trial the initial 
charge of disloyalty was abandoned. But the 
authorities took no trouble to disabuse the 
public mind of the general conviction that the 
teachers were traitors of some kind. Under 
these conditions how valuable is the “judg- 
ment of qualified officials”? 





Until the indictment, “conduct unbecoming 
a teacher,” can be made on the authority of 
teachers themselves it will have no important 
disciplinary value. That and the counter 
indictment, “conduct unbecoming a superin- 
tendent,” are but means of calling names. 





32 The American Teacher 


Business and Democracy 
ERHAPS you have been invited to sign 
P a loyalty pledge in the style of the 
following: 


I, , solemnly promise: 
1 Never to disgrace the arms of the coun- 


try; 
2 Never to forsake our comrades in the 


ranks ; 

8 To fight for the common welfare, alone 
or with others; 

4 To leave our country and our city in a 
better state than I found it; 

5 To obey the magistrates and the laws and 
defend them against attack ; 

6 To hold in honor the sacred principles of 
freedom embodied in the Constitution of 
the United States. 

You may be interested to know that this 
particular pledge form was first given pub- 
licity by the Chamber of Commerce and Com- 
mercial Club of Seattle. 

It is an excellent pledge form. No im- 
provements suggest themselves. On the con- 
trary, we feel that it is too good. It is cer- 
tainly too good for its authors. For example, 
the people who promulgated this pledge with 
a glow of patriotic fervor are the same 
people who gave a complimentary dinner and 
auto ride to the crew of the Russian auxiliary 
cruiser “Shilka” last December. This ship 
had arrived in the port of Seattle loaded with 
a regular cargo and revolutionary doctrines. 
It seems that the sailors had been infected or 
intoxicated with the words of our own Presi- 
dent and of other advocates of the New Free- 
dom. The crew was a self-governing body 
that elected its officers; decided questions of 
food, wages, hours and others fhat are usu- 
ally left to the discretion of the “business” 
men; and this self-governing body was re- 
sponsible to the Sailors’ Council of its port of 
record. 

The Chamber of Commerce and the Com- 
mercial club gentlemen gave these syndical- 
istic or socialistic bolsheviki crew a compli- 
mentary dinner and auto ride, by way of in- 
ducting these poor foreigners into the ways 
of democracy. The Russians had not been a 
year without their Czar. But this was only:a 
small part of the program of introduction to 
democracy. The other part consisted of hir- 


Vol. VII, No. 2 


ing detectives to follow the strangers about 
while on shore leave; the use of the local au- 
thorities to prevent the sailors visiting the 
meeting places of radical and progressive 
labor unions, including the Union of Russian 
Workers ; the prevention of their speaking at 
a public meeting arranged especially for the 
sailors. 

_The business men of the community, thru 
their union, call upon all good citizens to obey 
the magistrates and the laws, to uphold the 
Constitution, to sacrifice for the benefit of the 
community. They reserve to themselves the 
right, as business men, or perhaps they ac- 
cept the obligation, as business men, to cor- 
rupt the magistrates, to pervert the laws and 
to exploit the community. 

Too often in the past, in Seattle and in 
other American cities, have the business men, 
whether as Chambers of Commerce, or as 
Merchants Associations, or even under the 
name of Civic Club, as business men, dis- 
graced the arms of their country by unload- 
ing upon the people worthless munitions and 
guns. Too often in the past, and the not very 
distant past, have they forsaken their com- 
rades—our comrades—in the ranks, by com- 
mitting them to the risks of war and of in- 
dustry and of transportation with inadequate 
protection. Members of Chambers of Com- 
merce have not, ordinarily, the opportunity to 
get next to our comrades in the ranks; but 
they have excellent opportunities to forsake 
those comrades by sending them paper shoes 
and shoddy clothes and sick food. Too often 
this opportunity has been embraced—not by 
the unions or by the I W W, suspected of ad- 
vocating sabotage—but by the business men, 
members of Merchants Associations. 

Too often, within the memory of children, 
have business men fought for the common 
welfare by corrupting not only elected offi- 
cials, but large sectors of the electorate; and 
the common welfare for which they fought 
was that common to the members of the club 
—the welfare arising out of the exploitation 
of the voters and the other people. 


Too often, in the past and to this very 
day, have the business men urged upon us the 
honor and the glory of cooperating with 
them to improve the city or the state; but im- 





February, 1918 


provement meant only piling up fortunes for 
these business men at the expense of the rest 
of us. These improvements did indeed serve 
to show higher “averages” of welfare; but 
they served also to conceal the misery and 
suffering of the people. 

The sacred principles of freedom embodied 
in the Constitution of the United States have 
meant to men trained for “business” chiefly 
the liberty to carry on business undisturbed. 
But the world is changing. Freedom, after 
the war, will have something to offer to men 
and women who are not in business. Free- 
dom will call for new ideals of democracy. 
The new day will not tolerate the control of 
the people’s lives by a handful of more or less 
benevolent, more or less honest, more or less 
arbitrary business men. No doubt Chambers 
of Commerce will have useful functions to 
perform. But they need not expect in the 
future to continue, as in the past, to control 
the lives of their respective communities by 
controlling the making and the administra- 
tion of the law, and by controlling the press 
and the schools. 

If we are to have democracy it will be when 
sailors and seamstresses and teachers are 
free to hold meetings and attend meetings, to 
think and to speak, without leave from the 
business men. 


In Time of War 


IR H A L FISHER, Minister of Educa- 
S tion in the British Cabinet, in the Edu- 
cational Bill recently introduced in the 
House of Commons called for an extensive 
increase in the part that education should 
play in the life of the community. Among 
other things the bill provides for further re- 
strictions upon the industrial employment of 
children during the elementary school age, 
and for the gradual introduction of a system 
of compulsory day continuation classes for 
adolescents. Local education authorities are 
empowered to give assistance to nursery 
schools, and in other ways to help the phys- 
ical and social welfare of the children corn- 
mitted to their charge. Attention to physical 
welfare is a special and distinctive note of the 
bill. The duty of providing for all forms of 


The American Teacher 


33 


education is imposed upon the councils of 
counties and county boroughs. Exemption 
from school attendance between five and four- 
teen years of age is abolished. 

England has learned from much sad ex- 
perience the wisdom and the necessity of such 
measures. The fourth year of a great and 
devastating war does not prevent her from 
setting manfully to work to improve her edu- 
cational machinery. Must we in the United 
States wait until similar experience forces 
upon us the realization of the need of bring- 
ing our educational system in line with mod- 
ern conditions, or shall we instead, for once, 
profit from the experience of others? 


Teachers and Other 


Servants 


_ ALL English Civil Service employees earn- 
ing up to £500 have been granted a war bonus 
amounting to 10 per cent of their salaries, 
with a minimum of £42 a year. Teachers 
alone have been excluded from this grant. 
The London Teacher, in calling attention to 
this, remarks, “Teachers do not grudge civil 
servants the recognition of the existing finan- 
cial strain, but they cannot help feeling that 
they apparently are the one class in the com- 
munity, engaged in useful and creative work, 
whose services are practically unrecognized.” 








GeAmerican Teacher 





Democracy in Education Education for Demecracy 
Published monthly, except July and August, ty 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER COMPANY, be 
70 Fifth Avenue, New York City —_ 


E. 
JAY D. LESTER 


= 


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CORNELIA W. CLEAVELAND 
BENJAMIN GLASSBERG 
BENJAMIN C. GRUENBERG 
FRANKLIN J. KELLER 


HENRY RB. LINVILLE 
J. EDWARD MAYMAN 
SAM SCHMALHAUSEN 

ABRAHAM LEFKOWITZ 





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Entered as second-class matter, February 91, 1912, at the 
i Office at New York, N. Y.; under the Act of March 8, 





Toward Democracy 
BENJAMIN GLASSBERG 


working its way thru our educa- 

tional ideals and practise. Educa- 

tional authorities in Boston, Minne- 
apolis, Detroit and Cleveland in the last two 
or three years have seen the light of Democ- 
racy and have enlightened thereby the ad- 
ministration of the schools. The City Coun- 
cil of Chicago after an investigation of the 
city schools urged that the educational ma- 
chine be tempered to some extent by a Teach- 
ers’ Council. Los Angeles is the latest to ac- 
knowledge the essential truth of the dictum 
that those who submit to authority should 
have a voice in the determination of laws and 
policies. 

In New York City, in spite of many well 
directed assaults upon our educational ma- 
chinery, autocracy has hitherto firmly held its 
ground, becoming, if possible, more enam- 
ored of its right to persist unchanged in the 
midst of an ever increasing democracy in our 
political affairs. 

Within the last few months a slight ten- 
dency in the opposite direction can be dis- 
cerned. This is true in spite of the attack 
upon those who have been holding the mirror 
up to the educational machine and relentless- 
ly pointing out its but too glaring faults. 

During the past four years educational 
policies in New York City were fixed by a 
group of politicians in control of the Board 
of Estimate, relying upon the investigations 
of a staff, none of whom had any standing 
whatever in the world of education. The 
judgment of the city superintendent, district 
superintendents, principals, teachers and par- 
ents were brusquely and impudently brushed 
aside as worthless, when they conflicted with 
the judgment of the Committee on Education 
of the Board of Estimate. Members of the 
Board of Education had to subscribe to the 
decision of this Board of Estimate before re- 
ceiving their appointment. A system that 
was in all essentials a fraud was foisted on 
the schools, deliberately and in spite of the 
emphatic disapproval of those who were most 
likely to know and were most concerned. 
Here, if ever, was the utter defiance of the 
democratic principle so clearly enunciated by 
President Wilson. 

The November elections witnessed the 
complete defeat of this administration. It is 
significant that one of the first acts of the 


T HE leaven of Democracy is slowly 


incoming administration was the announce-- 


ment that all educational matters were to be 
left in the hands of the Board of Education ; 
and that the Board of Education in consulta- 


tion with superintendents, principals and 
teachers would work out the solutions of 
pressing educational problems. 

Very soon after election also there ap- 
peared a pamphlet entitled “The Problem 
Confronting the New Board of Education of 
the City of New York.” It is an incisive 
analysis of the evils of the educational ma- 
chine together with a very definite program 
of reform. The author of this pamphlet is 
Arthur C Perry, Jr, who has served in the 
public school system of New York City for 
over twenty-five years as teacher, principal, 
and district superintendent. 

A new note—the note of cooperation—is 
struck immediately in this pamphlet. “It is 
to be assumed,” he says, “that it will be the 
ambition of the new Board of Education to 
give the people of the city a better public 
school organization than they have ever had 
before, and that it will seek and accept all the 
light which may be shed upon its problems. 
Every schoolman should feel the obligation to 
contribute. The opinions of no one individual 
can be rated as infallible or complete, but in 
the common interest the opinions of all ought 
to be brought forth.” 

Then follows a clear, bold portrayal of the 
causes of the widespread dissatisfaction in 
the schools, to be found both among teachers 
and the public. So frank and open a treat- 
ment of the subject by a high school official is 
indeed welcome and wholly desirable. 

“The incoming Board of Education faces 
an unrest more or less vocal,” he points out, 
“on the part of both the public and the teach- 
ing staff.” It must apprehend and analyze it. 

As to the unrest on the part of the teaching and 
supervising force, the fact must be faced that there 
is practically no city-wide esprit de corps. . . . 

Several factors have brought this about. Teachers 
have a cynical attitude as regards the administra- 
tion of the schools. There i§ no enthusiasm for their 
immediate employers, the Board of Education. Their 
feeling is widespread that they must protect them- 
selves against unfriendly administration, that their 
employers have little interest in their welfare, and 
that to gain ordinary consideration they are obliged 
to use the pressure of legislative enactment or public 
opinion. 

He illustrates with the fact that the men 
principals of elementary schools have not 
had their salaries increased in eighfeen years, 
altho the dollar has greatly depreciated in 
value, and their duties have greatly increased. 
A more happy illustration might have been 
the salary of the elementary school teachers 
and the munificent increase lately granted 


34 





eat 


= of et pet bee oe ee oe 


—-_ ee he 


—_ ar Gb con GR Ste OD oat owt ah ah 


February, 1918 


them. He adds that such a condition would 
be difficult to parallel 

in any industrial, commercial or professional organ- 
ization in the country. Yet this is the fact, and no 
Board of Education has voluntarily recognized it or 
made any serious attempt to deal with it. This is 
but a single instance; and not all instances, by any 
means, concern salaries. 

Next to the question of salaries, that of 
promotion is regarded as of greatest import- 
ance, among the causes of unrest among 
teachers. 

Teachers have a skeptical attitude as to recogni- 
tion of professional merit. They indorse the civil- 
service idea in theory but have little confidence in 
the methods of the Board of Examiners. Eligible 
lists for higher positions so far vary from common 
knowledge as to relative merit that teachers fall 
back upon the rather uninspiring maxim that virtue 
is its own reward. The teachers see cases of faithfx! 
service and unusual ability overruled by meticulous 
tests. They note solemn official rulings by the Board 
of Examiners that a teacher is unqualified to do work 
that he has already been doing with official recogni- 
tion and approval. 

Dr Perry here expresses what undoubtedly 
a great many teachers feel to be the case, but 
realizing that in the deadening race for pro- 
motion, they will have to face this same 
omniscient Board, have prudently kept their 
opinions under guard. Occupying so stra- 
tegic a position, this Board is so placed as 
to be practically immune from criticism on 
the part of those who are most capable of 
detecting their failings. But, of course, this 
is trua of other elements in the system as 
well. The final cause of unrest is ascribed to 
the system of supervision : 

Teachers feel, too, that much of the supervision 
of their work is of a hypercritical rather than of a 
constructive nature. They feel that in many cases 
originality and initiative are less desired than con- 
formity with the particular crotchets of official su- 
periors. It is pointless to deny intention to foster 
this spirit among teachers and supervisors; the fact 
is that there is abroad an attitude of subservience on 
the part of many and of disgust on the part of others 
because sycophancy often seems to be rewarded. 
In sheer pity, one sometimes wishes that a law might 
be enacted compelling band wagons to carry destina- 
tion signs in plain sight, so that those scrambling to 
get aboard might avoid accident. 

Our readers by this time will be saying, 
“Why, we know all this; we have read it all 
before in THE AMERICAN TEACHER.” This is 
very true. But our readers should realize 
that the educational authorities have persis- 
tently and consistently refused to admit the 
essential truths of our analysis of the existing 
educational ills. Our efforts have been con- 
temptuously brushed aside. If there is one 
sentiment universally held by the teaching 


The American 


Teacher 35 


corps, it is that the one who gives expression 
to the ideas put forth in this pamphlet is to 
all intents and purposes a “marked” man, 
professionally speaking. It is, therefore, of 
the utmost importance that these ideas have 
won the public approval of a district superin- 
tendent. There are probably others among 
the supervisory officials who agree with Dr 
Perry but are not yet prepared to say so. 

Dr Perry submits a definite set of pro- 
posals that should be carried out with the 
hope of removing the causes of discontent. 

1 The Board of Education must be finan- 
cially independent of the City of New York. 

The highest supervisory officials should 
be relieved as much as possible from giving 
attention to petty details, so that they will be 
free “to determine the large issues of policy 
and government with which alone they should 
concern themselves.” ‘This is to be accom- 
plished—and here comes the revolutionary 
suggestion—by placing “‘as much authority, 
discretion, and initiative as possible in the 
hands of the teacher” and by holding him 
responsible for their proper exercise. He 
urges that the same attitude be taken toward 
principals also. 

3 The aims and ideals of the schools 
should be formulated in a clear and concise 
manner—but in a democratic manner. This 
is to be done with the advice of the profes- 
sional body. These aims and ideals should be 
carried out in every class room, but—and 
here again, the new note of cooperation is 
struck—the aims once determined, are not to 
be considered as final expression of human 
wisdom. “Every teacher and supervisor in 
the system ought to recognize it as a duty to 
offer suggestions, thru regular channels, 
as to modification of the code at any point at 
any time.” There will thus be “no danger 
pa | their powers of initiative will be weak- 
ened.” 

4 Still another suggestion in line with 
educational progress is the proposal for the 
creation of a committee on experiments 
“whose function it would be to direct and 
evaluate educational experiments in organi- 
zation, etc.” 

5 The necessity of enlisting the aid of 
public opinion is clearly recognized. There 
is a suggestion, therefore, that the Board of 
Education make known its aims and purposes 
to the public either by appeals thru the press 
or thru public meetings. 

6 That the experience of the teachers can 
be made use of to the advantage of the 
schools, is very forcibly asserted. “The 
Board must recognize the tremendous amount 
of intelligence and enthusiasm lying latent 
in the more than twenty thousand members 
of the teaching and supervising staff and now 





gins pitiably to waste. This force must be 
oped, encouraged, and commandeered 
for the general good.” 

“Every teacher with an idea should get a 
hearing without recourse to any extra-legal 
organization.” 

“There need be no fear that greater liberty 
granted the teacher will lead to laxity of dis- 
cipline.” It is this fear, however, that has 
militated so powerfully against the introduc- 
tion of some degree of cooperation among 
the various elements of our educational 
machine. 

If the Board of Education consciously en- 
couraged teachers to think, criticize and sug- 
gest, it would not matter so much what the 
machinery was whereby such criticisms and 
suggestions could be offered. It seems tho 
that by means of teachers’ councils in each 
school, or district councils and representa- 
tives of the teachers sitting on the Board of 
Education, there would be a regular definite 
channel for such suggestions and criticisms. 

To create a proper esprit de corps, Dr 
Perry urges the adoption of the following 
proposals : 

(1) The Board of Superintendents must be freed 
from routine drudgery so that every member may be- 
come a true educational leader—and the term is used 
advisedly in contradistinction to educational driver. 

(2) The Board of Education should create a Com- 
mittee of Teachers’ Interests whose function it shall 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VII, No. 2 


be to study the conditions surrounding the teacher’s 
work, and to initiate legislation and regulations that 
shall make the teacher able to render a maximum 
of service to the pupils. 

(3) The Board of Educaton should set the exam- 
ple of administering in a spirit of confidence in those 
whom it directs, and insist on this principle being 
followed all down the line. 

(4) The Board of Education should study the 
methods of promotion now in vogue and endeavor to 
make effective the policy of the office seeking the 
man. The methods of examining candidates for 
higher licenses should be studied and improved. 

(5) As to the higher supervisory positions outside 
the touch of the Board of Examiners the same spirit 
of confidence must be instilled. 

The center of the whole question of promotion 
should be shifted; the entire supervisory force should 
become actively earnest in discovering talent and 
bringing it forward to larger fields of service; teach- 
ers should feel that merit is recognized for its own 
sake and not because it has been self-exploited. The 
result would be a powerful gain in the spirit of the 
teachers which would express itself in greater and 
more intelligent devotion to the pupils for whom, 
and for whom only, the school organization exists. 

It is devoutly to be wished that the new 
Board of Education will give this program 
their serious consideration. Another step— 
and a real one—will then be taken towards 
Democracy in Education. 





Supervisors and Schools 


ABRAHAM LEFKOWITZ 
DeWitt Clinton High School, New York 


ent of New Rochelle Schools, be- 
lieves that the chief function of both 
principal and superintendent is to trans- 
form poor teachers into good teachers and 


D R ALBERT LEONARD, superintend- 


good teachers into better teachers. If this 
standard is correct, then the teachers of De 
Witt Clinton High School who were ques- 
tioned as to the indispensability of principals 
or superintendents justly reached the con- 
clusion that both were superfluous in our 
educational system. 

Whatever may be the theory of gupervieion 
this is doubtless true. The average district 


superintendent gets into the quicksands of 
routinization, strives feebly to extricate him- 
self, gradually sinks deeper and deeper, sees 
the futility of it all and eventually ceases his 
struggles and becomes a typical supervisor. 
His inspirational influence on the teacher is 
nil since his classroom visit lasts usually a 
few minutes a term, sometimes but a few 
minutes in several years. His visits result 
in such illuminating remarks as “Don’t you 
think you lack variety in drill?”, “Why is 
that boy inattentive?”, “The alignment of 
the third row can be improved.” Some of 
the superintendents have never read such 





February, 1918 


books as Boris Sidis’ “Philistine and Genius” 
or Edmond Holmes “The Tragedy of Educa- 
tion” or Bertrand Russell’s “The Principles 
of Mathematics.” What inspiration can one 
get from a superintendent who hasn’t read a 
single educational, philosophical or political 
work produced within the last ten years? 
How few, indeed, are the superintendents 
who are aware of the great economic forces 
that are revolutionizing the world! If any 
of these supervisors find a teacher who tries 
to actualize his instruction by drawing his 
inspiration from the world forces around 
him, instead of from dead books, he promptly 
issues anathema against the teacher as a 
brainless radical or dreamer. It is no wonder 
then, that to the average teacher a superin- 
tendent is as welcome as the bubonic plague. 
Why then a superintendent? 


While a sound educational system can 
achieve anything with a humane, inspired, 
liberal-minded and enlightened superintend- 
ent, still an educational system may be effi- 
cient, to a remarkable degree, if the princi- 
pals carry out their mission of inspiring their 
teachers and helping them to develop to the 
utmost whatever abilities they possess. But 
what does our average principal do? In the 
high schools and to a considerable extent in 
the elementary schools, he shuts himself up 
in his office where he sees parents, bulldozes 
pupils, reads numerous letters, prepares his 
lectures, carries out the requests of his supe- 
riors; and occasionally he visits a class room 
to inspirationalize the teacher with such il- 
luminating remarks as, “You have paper on 
the floor,” “Your window is open two inches,” 
“You do not seem to know the apperceptive 
mass of the child,” etc. His constructive in- 
fluence consists, in many cases, in handing 
the teacher a slip once every five months con- 
taining her rating. This rating is not based 
on the teacher’s excellencies but rather upon 
her minor deficiencies as ascertained in one 
of the principal’s short spasmodic visits at 
some inopportune time. Fighting and ag- 
gressive, thinking teachers suffer most from 
this carping criticism which has but one 
object, that is, to impress upon them the 
futility of fighting the System. Whatever 
inspirational advice is given is couched in 


The American Teacher 37 


Delphic phrases. You may be incidentally 
reminded that a mediocre rating does not 
damn you eternally because if you vegetate 
long enough within the benign influence of 
your principal, slavishly carry out his ideas, 
and put your brains in cold storage, you may 
become an “A-A” teacher. That is, you have 
reached perfection—you have become an in- 
tellectual nonentity shining by the reflected 
glory of your chief. 

What inspiration can be gleaned from a 
high school principal who knows nothing of 
our leading publicists, whose sole function 
in life is to ascertain how many of his 
teachers can be forced into intellectual strait- 
jackets or brutalized into acquiescence in all 
things devised by himself? What inspiration 
can be derived from one who feels that his 
teachers have nothing worth while to con- 
tribute to the solution of an administrative 
or educational problem, who feels that teach- 
ers have no right to criticize their superiors? 
What inspiration can be obtained from a 
principal who believes it is not the function 
of the teacher to question why, but to obey 
or die—that is, lose all chance of promotion? 
It is such a principal that killed “Inspira- 
tion.” It is such supervision that has made 
our teachers “growth-proof.” It is such mis- 
leadership that has so deadened and mechan- 
ized our teachers that they are not in any 
danger of catching liberal ideas, of being 
inspired by the noblest thinkers, of having 
the noblest aims, of believing in the noble- 
ness of their mission. To get an “A-A” 
rating, to have no intellectual difference of 
opinion with their superiors, to punch the 
time card daily, and above all, to complete 
their clerical work, seems to be the sole duty 
of the teacher inspired by our visionless 
autocrats. Knowledge of life, of its moving 
forces, of its leaders, are left to those foolish 
radicals who seek trouble, who fail to see any 
particular virtue in letting “well enough” 
alone. Under such leadership to vegetate is 
to succeed, “to hold views” is to fail. 

The goal of our inspired educational 
leaders should be to make our schools worth 
while, to make them real training centers for 
life, to have them inspire the pupils with a 
desire to alleviate the conditions of their 








38 The American Teacher 


brothers and sisters and not to transform 
our schools into educational factories which 
turn out mediocrities doomed to eke out a 
miserable existence. These ends can not be 
achieved unless teachers are given an oppor- 
tunity to elect supervisors because of their 
ability to lead and to inspire their fellow 
workers, because of their ability to win their 
respect and devotion and not because they 
happen to be a 42nd cousin of Boss Mulli- 
gatawny or because they belong to a cer- 
tain church, or synagog or club. What 
we want is not pull but vision; not mechan- 
ization but initiative; not uniformity but 
variety ; not pedagogs but social leaders; not 
bosses but co-workers; not autocrats but 
democrats. We need supervisors who look 
upon their teachers as their equals in intelli- 
gence, who are interested in the great politi- 
cal and economic movements of the day, who 
are eager to cooperate for the amelioration 
of the conditions of their fellowmen. We 


need men and women united by the bond of 
brotherhood, working shoulder to shoulder 
for a common end—the development of a 
truly American citizenry imbued with the 


idea that government exists by the consent 
of the governed, for the purpose of safe- 
guarding the rights of the many from the 
rapacity of the few. We need teachers and 
preachers who will instil into our future 
thinkers, poets, artists, and workers the dig- 
nity of socially necessary labor, the spirit of 
social service, rational and loyal obedience 
to the principles of American democracy as 
enunciated by Jefferson, Lincoln, and Wilson. 
We need social prophets animated by Jesuit- 
ical zeal to make this life a paradise by 
engraving on the minds of the “gods” en- 
trusted to their care “I am my brother’s 
keeper; his success is my success; his failure 
is my failure.” We can bring all this about 
if we run our educational system as a co- 
operative enterprise. 





An idle dollar is a slacker, but a misspent 
dollar is a traitor. So says Mr. Vanderlip to 
the assembled state teachers at Syracuse. He 
ought to tell that tale to the distinguished citi- 
zens who are spending (or not) the people’s 
money on education. A. M. I. 


Vol. VII, No. 2 


The Stage an Educational 


Force 


DUCATORS have long recognized the 
3 educative significance of the stage. 
It remains for the administrators of 
schools to learn a lesson from the theatrical 
manager. In his introduction to Stuart Walk- 
er’s Portmanteau Plays, Edward Hale Bier- 
stadt says of Mr Walker, “One of his chief 
personal exactions is that the actors shall be 
treated not as actors but as human beings.” 
And he relates an incident that should be part 
of the history instruction of every candidate 
for the honors and responsibilities of man- 
agement: 

A well known theatrical manager rushed 
up to Mr Walker after the first performance, 
and eagerly exclaimed: 

“Walker, where did you get that cast? I 
never heard of one of ’em before, but they are 
wonders!” 

To which Mr Walker is reported to have 
replied—sadly—“I got six of them out of 
your companies.” 

In the interests of education, the stage 
ought to be encouraged. Z 





This is the Official Organ 
of the 
American Federation of Teachers 


(Affiliated with American Federation of Labor) 


OFFICERS OF THE A. F. OF T. 

Cuas. B STILLMAN, President 

1225 Sedgwick St., Chicago, Ill. 
ETHEL E Besrs, Vice-President 

3414 S. Paulina St., Chicago 
C C WIiLuarD, Recording Secretary 

7218 Cornell Ave., Chicago 
MarGarRer SNopcrass, Corr. Sec. 

1061 Dakin St., Chicago 
F G StTecker, Financial Sec. 

1618 Lake Ave., Wilmette, III. 
JAMES A MEADE, Treasurer 

2628 Sayre Ave., Chicago 


TRUSTEES 
Henry R Linville George J Jones 
Anita Bailey Wm. T McCoy 
Lydia J Trowbridge 





Wanted, 


The Normal] schools and universities of 
Illinois are being beset by board members 
and superintendents for teachers. As a 
result of inroads are being made on this 
year’s senior class. 

HIS is from an educational magazine 
T published in Illinois. In the same 
number of the magazine is an ad- 
vertisement to the effect that teachers are 
wanted—not for teaching, but for better jobs 
in other lines. A dozen institutions in every 
state offer to train you, by mail or thru class 
work, for civil service positions paying from 
fifty to two hundred percent more than your 
present salary as teacher. 

In Washington, D C, the teachers have 
been resigning from the service at such 
alarming rates that the board of education 
has decided to waive the formality of an ex- 
amination. Anybody who is willing to take 
the job; anybody whose appearance and lan- 
guage are not altogether impossible, anybody 
that knows enough to fill out an application 
blank, will be received with open arms and 
fulsome flattery. The children must be kept 
in school; there is no other place in which 
to keep them. It does not matter much what 
happens to them in school, and one keeper 
is about as good as another, and very much 
cheaper. 

In Cincinnati two lists of eligibles have 
been exhausted, and the shortage of teachers 
has become desperate. In cities thruout the 
country, in towns and in institutions, the 
shortage of teachers has given trustees and 
commissioners serious concern. 

In New York City the number of candi- 
dates for license to teach in the elementary 
schools has been steadily decreasing for 
several years past. The number of students 
in the city’s training schools for teachers 
has been steadily decreasing until those at 
present under instruction are only half as 
many as were registered four or five years 
ago. 

Toward the end of the school year in the 
spring of 1917 Superintendent Maxwell 
issued a call to the high school teachers, 


Teachers 


urging upon them the desirability of placing 
before their brighter students the advantages 
of teaching as a career. We do not know 
how enthusiastically the teachers responded 
to this call; we do know that the number of 
high school students who are seriously con- 
sidering teaching as a career is smaller both 
relatively and absolutely than for many years 
past. 

One incident in a large high school may 
indicate current tendencies, to those who 
have an eye for such indications. An un- 
usually capable girl came very close to the 
heart of her teachers because of her qualities 
of mind and character, and because of her 
great need for assistance, economic and 
other. She intended to become a teacher. 
She was encouraged in her ambition. She 
managed to obtain a scholarship in a univer- 
sity and sufficient financial assistance to see 
her thru. She came back to her former 
teachers after graduation. They presumed 
that now she would arrange to prepare her- 
self for teaching. She had thought it all 
over. “No,” she declared simply, “I have de- 
cided to study medicine. I still love teaching, 
and think it’s the finest kind of work. But I 
have seen too much of how you and the others 
are treated. I shall never be a teacher.” 

The ablest students in the high schools and 
colleges are not the most cunning. They are 
not shirkers, they are not the ones who are 
looking for a chance to get something for 
nothing. But neither are they altogether 
simpletons. They may have their heads in 
the clouds; but they are not altogether blind 
to what is going on about them. These ablest 
students have ideals, they have devotion, they 
are prepared to make sacrifices for ideals 
and for principles. They hear the call to 
service, and they would not close their ears 
to that call. But they have a little practical 
sense. They realize that a live accountant is 
worth more to the community than a dead 
teacher ; that even teachers must have a ma- 
terial foundation for their spiritual efforts; 
and that material foundations can be ob- 
tained today only in exchange for a certain 





40 


sum of money. 

If the community is content with the kind 
of teachers that can be purchased in the open 
market for the sums offered, then nobody 
need complain. But any community that is 
content with the existing situation is com- 
mitting spiritual and economic suicide. It 
does not matter much that teachers starve, 
literally as well as figuratively. Other people 
are also starving. Teachers constitute but 
a small fraction of the community. There 
’ are many people in every town who are worse 
off than the teacher, in every way. 

It does not matter much, so far as the 
teachers are concerned. Those who do not 
like it either get out, or they grin and bear 
it. Very few, if any, are actually killed by 
their hardships. And at the worst they can 
always be replaced. It is true that over 150 
towns in Iowa happen at present to be quite 
without teachers. But that is only because 
of the socialistic state interference in local 
affairs, which restricts the towns in their 
selection of teachers. If they were not so 
particular they could get plenty of young 
women, at the prices offered, to keep school. 

It does not matter much that teachers com- 
plain and grumble. Somehow the day goes 
by, and another day. Somehow the children 
grow up and take their places in the life of 
the community. The teachers play such a 
small part in that life, that their discontent 
and unhappiness are comparatively trivial. 

It does matter, however, despite the book- 
keeper’s showing in favor of underpayment, 
that the children grow up as they do. It does 
matter that so large a proportion of the 
nation’s teachers are not even first class high 
school graduates. It does matter that the 
community continues to stew in its own 
ignorance and. provincialism and darkness. 
It does matter that even the cheap teachers, 
who somehow manage to get along on their 
miserable salaries, give so much of their 
thought to the question of money. 

We are fighting for democracy. We are 
fighting for the future of the nation. We are 
doing our fighting against immense difficul- 
ties that have nothing whatever to do with 
military preparedness or leadership. We are 
fighting with the handicaps of universal 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VII, No. 2 


ignorance of the very elements of economic 
relations. We are trying to organize the 
thought and the will of the nation for better 
production, for better administration of the 
product, for better organization of our forces, 
for better coordination of our activities—all 
this and more with a people brought up by 
cheap teachers, by raw teachers, by undis- 
ciplined teachers, by undemocratic teachers, 
by visionless teachers. We are going to win 
this war, in spite of the handicaps; but let 
us face the facts. 

It would no doubt be just as true to say 
that we shall win the war because of the 
schooling we have received in the past. Un- 
questionably the teachers of the present and 
their teachers before them have contributed 
tremendously to the power and effectiveness 
of the nation at war. It is not desired to dis- 
parage the services rendered by teachers of 
all grades. It is nevertheless true that we 
are not getting progressively better teachers 
in proportion to our national resources. It is 
not sufficient that the “average” teacher of 
today is better equipped than the average 
teacher of yesterday. It is not enough that 
the average school life of the child is a year 
or two or three years longer than the average 
school life of his parents. It is not enough 
that our average per capita expenditure for 
educational purposes has doubled in a genera- 
tion. The great question is, are we providing 
teachers and facilities commensurate with 
the needs of the children—needs recognized 
today but never suspected by former genera- 
tions? Are we making provision commensu- 
rate with the resources of the nation? Are 
we actually civilizing ourselves, integrating 
ourselves, humanizing ourselves, as rapidly 
as conditions will permit? 

Almost any one can place before a group 
of impressionable youth the glories and com- 
pensations of his particular occupation. 
Teachers can do it. Our duty to the children, 
as well as our duty to the community and to 
ourselves, requires that we present the facts 
as to the teaching business without too much 
color borrowed from wishes and faded hopes. 
The facts at present are very decidedly 
against the teaching business, except for 
young men and women who have independent 





February, 1918 


incomes, or for young men and women to 
whom the wage of a domestic servant would 
mean comfort. Such people are no doubt 
good citizens and estimable individuals; but 
democracy can not endure unless something 
decidedly different is provided for the guid- 
ance and training of its youth. 


A Cooperative School 


SCHOOL of several hundred pupils 
without principal, superintendent or 
board of directors, where committees 
elected by the students from their own 
number decide everything, from the question 
of fees and salaries to the selection of a 
faculty and the determination of a program 
of courses and a schedule of classes—this 
sounds like a fragment of some Bolshevist 
Utopia but is in reality a bit of present-day 
New York. And it is not a butterfly experi- 
ment, either, but is attaining the rank of an 
established local institution, having been in 
practical operation for a year and more. ~ 

In the fall of 1916, a group of students, in 
revolt against the commercialism of the 
average privately owned preparatory school 
determined to organize a night school of their 
own to prepare them for Regents and college 
entrance examinations. Permission was se- 
cured from the Board of Education to use 
Public Schol 63 on Fourth Street near Ave- 
nue A, the only condition being that the ven- 
ture should be purely cooperative, with no 
element of profit in its management. 

In the first year of its existence, “The 
Students’ Cooperative Educational Insti- 
tute” has traversed the rocks and shoals that 
are the usual fate of newly launched ven- 
tures, but it appears now to be entering on 
clear sailing. A reorganized faculty, includ- 
ing the tried and true of the old staff, with 
such new blood as Theodore Muller, MA 
(Columbia), of the High School of Com- 
merce, for ten years teacher of science for 
the Philippines Government, and Dr Fred- 
erick A Blossom, formerly of the faculty of 
Johns Hopkins University and Bryn Mawr 
College, has been enlisted for the current 
semester, while improved methods of pub- 
licity have brought about a heavy increase in 
the student enrolment. 

As an experiment in simon-pure democ- 
racy in education, as well as a relatively new 
application! of the principle of consumer- 
cooperation, this East Side undertaking is 
in a position to make history and set a prece- 
dent full of interesting possibilities. 


The American Teacher ee 


Making School Administra- 


tion “Safe for Democracy” 


SINCE our country is in a titanic war “to 
make the world safe for democracy,” we 
should promote liberal methods of admini- 
stration in our nation’s greatest democratic 
institution—the public schools. Liberal prin- 
ciples should prevail actually, never as a com- 
placent abstraction, in schoolroom relation- 
ships and administrative councils. For sound 
democracy there should be in school con- 
ferences, large or small, systematic repre- 
sentation of the citizens of the system—the 
children. Manifestly, the direct representa- 
tives of the children are the teachers, who are 
in daily contact with them and have fresh 
and vivid impressions df their needs. 

As constituted at present, have the mem- 
bers of educational conferences, in which far- 
reaching administrative policies are deter- 
mined, actually taught children during the 
week, or month, or year, or decade? Does 
it really happen that nearly all of them are 
separated from actual teaching by several 
years of time and several degrees of station 
in the school hierarchy? Another poignant 
question, is there any resemblance between 
non-representative conferences, school hier- 
archies, and—‘“autocracy”? In the second 
place, are conclusions scientific which are 
reached without the voice of the teacher— 
which is our nearest approach to the voice 
of the child—and consequently without first- 
hand evidence, up-to-date observation, and 
authentic testing of results? The interesting 
developments of this department might well 
include conferences where board members 
could counsel directly with teachers.—From 
address delivered by Mrs O SHEPARD BarR- 
NUM, Vice-President, California State Board 
of Education, at a meeting of the Department 
of Administration. 


The Seattle Program 


THE objects of the school board of Seattle 
are stated to be as follows: 

To furnish convenient, comfortable, sani- 
tary and safe school buildings. The buildings 
erected for several years past both for ele- 
mentary and high schools have been of fire- 
proof construction. Attempt has been made 
by the board to provide them with the most 
approved heating and ventilating system. 


To provide such special features as will 
enable different needs to be more clearly 
satisfied than by ordinary means and 
methods. Among these special features are: 





The American Teacher 


1 Industrial or prevocational classes for 
both boys and girls, in which shop work and 
the operations of the household are given 
much greater time and attention. These 
classes have proved very popular, there be- 
ing now nearly 2,000 grammar-grade pupils 
enrolled in them. 

2 Auwsiliary teachers for helping forward 
those pupils who can make up lost ground or 
= additional ground by receiving special 

elp. 
3 Medical inspection and the school clinic, 
thru which the physical difficulties of 
school children are cared for, so they are 
made better physically and therefore fitter 
for study and progress in school work. 

4 Two parental schools, one for boys and 
one for girls, by means of which the delin- 
quent are brought under favorable conditions 
for better citizenship, and the regular schools 
relieved of an embarrassing charge. 

5 Special schools in which subnormal 
types of children are given instruction and 
training suited to their capabilities and needs, 
a thing that can not be done in the ordinary 
school. At the same time, the regular schools 
can do their legitimate work much better 
when not handicapped with misfit pupils. 

6 Evening schools for the assistance of 
either youths or adults who feel the need of 
schooling of which they have been deprived. 
More than 4,500 have enrolled in the evening 
schools this season. Any subject in the day- 
school course for which there is sufficient de- 
mand is taught. 

Note—Italics are ours. 


Teachers Coming of Age 

THE Salary Schedule Committee of the 
Kansas City Teachers Club presented a mem- 
orial to the Board of Education, after con- 
ference with the City Superintendent, who 
approves the requests and suggestions in 
principle. The text of the memorandum 


follows: 

1 We request that the Board of Education 
in recognition of the fact which it has on 
several previous occasions officially and un- 
reservedly stated, namely, that the purchas- 
ing power of the teachers’ salaries is very 
much lower than was intended when the pres- 
ent salary schedules were adopted shall con- 
sider the difference between what each salary 
was intended to buy and what it now can buy 
as a difference which should be made up by 
the Board of Education. 

2 We request that this difference which 
now represents a sacrifice too great for in- 
dividual teachers to continue to bear without 
injuring both themselves and their schools 


Vol. VII, No. 2 


be treated by the Board of Education as an 
emergency need which must be taken care 
of by the same kind of action as when the 
Board of Education recognizes the increased 
cost of coal, not by buying less coal but by 
paying the actual cost for coal. 

3 We request that the question of higher 
qualifications for teachers and of recognizing 
superior teaching results be taken up by the 
Board separately and independently of the 
question of making present salaries mean 
what they were intended to mean when fixed 
in 1912. 

4 We request that before deciding which 
teachers are superior and how many and 
what proportion ought to receive the money 
recognition for superiority in teaching and 
for possessing credits, the Superintendent 
and Supervising Staff be asked to test out 
thoroly by actual trial upon all teachers in 
all schools different ways of ascertaining and 
judging the quality of teaching results. 

5 We request that before any teachers are 
finally classified for salary increases and for 
recognition as superior, every teacher in the 
system be shown specifically point for point 
according to the tests employed by their prin- 
cipals and supervisors, where and why she is 
strong, where and why she is weak, and that 
she then be given a year in which to prove 
by class room service what her best work is. 

Following the above requests, the teachers’ 
petition had these two concluding para- 
graphs: 

In presenting this request to the Board of 
Education, the teachers are not unmindful of 
the difficulties which confront the Board as 
Trustee for children to be taught and for 
money to be spent. We appreciate that the 
source or sources of salary increases are a 
matter that requires further definite study. 
At this time we hope only that the Board will 
early announce to the community that what- 
ever else must wait, or whatever radical steps 
must be taken among the minimum essentials 
for successful work in the schools, is to radi- 
cally help the elementary school teachers 
meet the rising cost of the necessities of life, 
and the other equally pressing costs of the 
increased qualifications which the Board is 
demanding. 

The Salary Schedule Committee was espe- 
cially commissioned by the Teachers’ Meeting 
to assure the Board of Education and the 
public that as a body we unqualifiedly concur 
in the belief of the City Superintendent and 
the Board that superiority should be recog- 
nized and that professional growth should be 
stimulated, required and aided. Nothing will 
be withheld by us of effort and service, which 
will insure progressive improvement. 





February, 1918 


Teachers Registration 
Council of England 


THE Teachers Registration Council was 
authorized by the Education Act of 1907, and 
established by an Order of Privy Council in 
1912. This body consists of forty-five repre- 
sentatives chosen by the various teachers as- 
sociations of England. It is charged among 
other things with the duty of forming and 
keeping a Register of such teachers as satisfy 
the Conditions of Registration established by 
the Council. 

At the first meeting of the Council in July, 
1912, the members were addressed by the 
President of the Board of Education (Mr 
J A Pease, now Lord Gainford), who said: 

Their object would be not only the for- 
mation of a Register of Teachers. There 
were many other spheres and fields of use- 
fulness for a Council representative of the 

Teaching Profession. He hoped that they 

would be able to speak with one voice as 

representing the Teaching Profession, and 
that the Board would be able to consult 
with them. So long as he was Head of the 

Board they would always be most anxious 

to cooperate with the Council, and would 

attach due weight to their views. 

It is important to realize that the Council 
represents the whole body of teachers, and 
that the Register is only a means to an end, 
namely, the establishment of a united Teach- 
ing Profession. Teachers of all types have 
many interests in common, and should have 
the power and acknowledged right to express 
their opinion as a body on all matters affect- 
ing their professional work. Unity is the 
first condition of progress towards a larger 
measure of self-government for teachers, and 
this self-government in its turn begins when 
teachers themselves have agreed to maintain 
a Register of those qualified to practise their 
calling. 

In addition the Council has been invited by 
the Board of Education to consider and re- 
port upon several matters of importance, 
such as the Draft of the Introductory Chap- 
ter of the new edition of “Suggestions to 
Teachers,” the proposals concerning Exami- 
nations in Secordary Schools, and the Regu- 
lations for Technical Institutions. The 


The American Teacher . 48 


Council has also urged upon the Board the 
necessity for abolishing the Examination for 
Acting Teachers and for removing all dis- 
ability from those who have passed this ex- 
amination during its continuance. It has 
framed proposals in regard to Reconstruction 
in Education, and has taken every opportun- 
ity of claiming for teachers the treatment 
due to members of a recognized profession. 
In particular it has asserted the principle 
that teachers should not only be consulted 
freely, but should have an effective voice in 
all matters relating to their work. The 
Council holds that free exchange of views 
between administrator and teacher is of the 
utmost benefit to education. 


WHAT THEY SAY 


A Parent’s Letter to a 
Union Member 


Dear Mr : 

Knowing you are one of the teachers who 
are fighting to uphold our cherished liberties 
in this country, I want to relate the follow- 
ing concerning my experience with some of 
the so-called patriotic teachers. 

I have a child in Public School No. —, 
Brooklyn. Since the children returned to 
school in September the teacher of my child’s 
class has been talking to them about the war, 
saying all Americans are in favor of the war, 
and she will not be happy until every German 
on the face of the earth is wiped off by this 
war, that every German in this country ought 
to be put on a ship and sent back where he 
belongs. She says they are all traitors, and 
cannot be trusted in this country, and also 
that all Russians are fools. She says Russia 
ought to have a czar, because the Russians 
don’t know how to govern themselves. She 
says America is the greatest country, and 
that all those who do not agree with Presi- 
dent Wilson are traitors, and ought to get out 
of this country because they don’t stand by 
the country and the flag. All Socialists who 
are not in favor of this war are traitors, and 
ought to get out of the country. And so she 
continued for about eight weeks. 

One day in denouncing the Germans, say- 
ing she would not trust them from here to 
the door, a boy in the class timidly said, 
“Miss ——, I’m German.” She answered, “I 
wouldn’t trust you from here to the door.” 

















44 The American Teacher 


When my child told me that, I decided to go 
to the assistant principal that afternoon. I 
told the assistant principal that I was taught 
to love the public school in a spirit that was 
to me sacred, and I didn’t think that such 
hatred should be uttered in view of the fact 
that our country and schools have people who 
happen to have been born in every part of the 
world, but have come here because this is 
supposed to be a land of democracy. I claimed 
that in such a land it is not democratic to 
talk as the teacher did, especially to children. 

I told the assistant principal that it was 
not in a spirit of condemnation I came to her, 
but that this country and the principles of 
democracy and the schools were part of me, 
and that I didn’t like to see such things done 
or said. I believe patriotism need not neces- 
sarily mean hatred. She answered that she 
was glad that I came to her, and that she 
knew I meant well, but she said every child 
must be taught to be patriotic as they under- 
stand it. She was very glad to see that the 
Board of Education is taking those strict 
means with the teachers who are not patri- 
otic. She said every teacher with socialistic 
ideas will be dismissed from the schools, and 
that before long every person who does not 
uphold our stand in this war will be put 
under lock and key. I told her it seemed use- 
less to make her see my point of view, and so 
I left. 

I then went to see the teacher of my child’s 
class, and asked her how my little girl was 
doing? She complained how some of the chil- 
dren have socialistic ideas. She said she 
would have none of those ideas in her room. 
I knew that when she threw out abuse of the 
socialist candidates the children defended 
them. However, she never suspected my little 
girl, since she is at present neutral. While 
speaking to the teacher the assistant prin- 
cipal came up and said, “We stand by our flag 
and country, don’t we Miss 2” The 
teacher answered, “Sure! and those who 
don’t ought to get out.” Then after a few 
commonplace remarks, I left wondering that 
such spirit is tolerated in our schools toward 
children and parents. 


To the Editors, THE AMERICAN TEACHER: 

What is all this talk about requiring teach- 
ers in New York to inculcate instinctive 
obedience? 

If it is already instinctive, how are you 
going to inculcate it? And if you are going 
to inculcate it, how can you make it instinc- 
tive? Apparently it is not necessary for 
superintendents to be scientific; it is neces- 
sary only that they be sufficiently vehement. 

B F TUCKER 


Vol. VII, No. 2 


Religious Education and 


Democracy 


Religious Education and American Democ- 
racy by W S ATHEARN, Professor of Reli- 
gious Education, Boston University. 394 pp. 
Boston. The Pilgrim Press. $1.50. 

HERE is a book written by a man who 
knows the facts (there are over six hundred 
classified bibliographical references), who 
has convictions, a vision, and a program, and 
whose style is simple, strong, and clear. 

Dr Athearn thinks democracy can not live 
without religion. “The safety of democracy 
demands intelligence and godliness.” This 
principle is not argued, it is asserted axiom- 
atically. The conclusion of the book presup- 
pose it. 

The state, by means of secular education, 
can not alone make good citizens. “I am 
convinced that the greatest task before the 
American people today is the building of a 
system of religious education which will as- 
sure the religious development of every citi- 
zen.” 

The author’s central constructive idea is 
that the church must build a system of 
schools parallel to the state schools from 
kindergarten to university that the demo- 
cratic citizenship may not only “think clear- 
ly” but “act righteously.” The public schools 
should not teach religion. “Great armies of 
freemen may make the world safe for democ- 
racy, but it is the task of the schools to make 
democracy safe for the world.” (p. 21) 

The problem of correlation of church and 
public schools is analyzed, existing solutions 
are reviewed, including the Gary plan, and 
the conclusion is reached that the correlation 
is to be effected strictly as a community en- 
terprise. 

At this point the book is based on experi- 
ence as well as theory. In Malden, Mass., 
the author is carrying out a community plan 
of religious education supplementary to the 
public school system. Malden has a commun- 
ity council board, superintendent, and school, 
of religious education. There are twelve 
faculty members, 445 students, and 800 chil- 
dren in training to demonstrate methods in 
use in the school. “It may be said of the 
plan that it is in successful operation and it 
seems to stand all the tests of practical appli- 
cation.” (p. 187) 

To effect this plan on a national scale 
existing educational agencies must be unified. 
Each denomination is to supervise its own 
schools. The entire program is to be democ- 
ratized: “It means taking the entire teach- 
ing body into your confidence and letting 





February, 1918 


them share in the formation of policies which 
when once adopted are rigidly enforced. The 
professional growth of teachers is best se- 
cured by this policy.” 

The work of state colleges is to be supple- 
mented by a program of instruction and 
spiritual guidance to be given by the church, 
and church colleges must improve their re- 
ligious teaching. 

The graduate school and seminaries of the 
country must organize work in religious edu- 
cation to provide the necessary scientific 
leadership. 

Even this brief outline of the author’s 
argument will show that the problem of re- 
ligious education is here conceived in a large 
administrative way as a community matter. 
It makes other plans for encouraging reli- 
gious education, such as academic credit for 
work in religion, look like pygmies. 

Big plans face big difficulties. Some of 
the practical, perhaps not insuperable, diffi- 
culties in the way of such a dual system of 
secular and religious schools are the lack of 
community Jeaders, such as Dr Athearn him- 
self is in Malden, the lack of trained teachers 
for the religious schools, the lack of time for 
the two parallel systems, the lack of sufficient 
and suitable texts for a curriculum in re- 
ligious education, the lack of parental interest 
to secure attendance at the religious schools 
and to finance the project, the lack of suitable 
buildings and equipment, and the lack of any 
other nation’s experience as a guide in fol- 
lowing this solution. The history of educa- 
tion is full, however, of just such difficulties 
which have somehow been overcome when the 
need was great and sufficiently felt. 

HERMAN H HORNE 


New York University. 


READINGS 


Democracy at Work 


Annual Report of the Education Depart- 
ment of the State of New York, 1917. Vol- 
ume 2 on Elementary Education. 

PONDEROUSLY, with heavy tread, some- 
times hesitating, sometimes even stopping or 
retreating, civilization moves forward. One 
would have to seek far for any proposition 
of general application to which it would be 
more easy to secure common assent than that 
which predicates that every human being 
should have the opportunity to develop to the 
full those faculties and aptitudes which will 





The American Teacher 


45 


make of him an efficient and useful citizen. 
Even more, that he should be equipped for 
the intensest enjoyment of all that is good 
and beautiful in life. Yet in practise there 
is nothing more patent to the educator than 
the neglect society shows for her children. 
Poverty alone cuts off millions from their 
rightful heritage. But the poor are with us, 
~ yy not for always. The coming years will 
tell. 

In the meantime New York State has 
pushed two salients into the wide front of 
ignorance. Despite much adulation of the 
little red school house (by those who got 
away from it) the sad fact is that as an edu- 
cational institution it ranks. as a failure be- 
side the large city school with its varied 
equipment and manifold facilities. There- 
fore the state department has brought pres- 
sure to bear wherever possible to force con- 
solidation and to provide transportation for 
pupils to large central buildings where they 
can enjoy not only the superior physical plant 
but can be taught by better prepared and bet- 
ter paid teachers. The report brings this fact 
home to the lay reader by presenting numer- 
ous pictures of the old and new conditions. 

Another feature of the report is a section 
which groups numerous reports and illustra- 
tions of institutions for defective, dependent 
and delinquent children. Incidentally legis- 
lation is recommended to insure to these un- 
fortunates who have ignorant parents or who 
have been born in unprogressive or poverty- 
stricken communities the full benefit of the 
largess of an enlightened state. 

The state is unquestionably doing noble 
work, but we must hope for better reports. 
If volumes like these are to repose upon 
library shelves and there be forgotten except 
for the researches of the special student, then 
we have no quarrel, but if they are to convey 
useful information to the layman and the 
teacher, we respectfully submit that they will 
never do it. Piling up individual reports and 
pictures into a one thousand page volume will 
never do anything toward stimulating peda- 
gogical curiosity or touching the popular im- 
agination. Nor does it even supply adequate 
material for scientific research, as we can 
well attest who have plumbed the depths. 
There must be selection, there must be em- 
phasis, there must be economy. Individual 
reports must be digested, summarized. The 
arts of the advertiser must be used—parallel 
columns, variety of type, diagrams, impelling 
questions addressed to the reader. Pictures 
must not be given in bewildering profusion, 
even to the extent of repeating some, as is 
done in this volume. The original purpose is 
only defeated thereby. 











46 


We should suggest cutting down the size 
to three hundred pages and using the money 
thus saved to secure wider distribution 
among the teachers in the field. There are 
too many fine things being done and too many 
fine men doing them to allow the results to 
remain buried in dust covered volumes among 
the whitening bones in our pedagogical 
morgues. FJK 


Oxford at Home 


The Oxford Stamp, by FRANK AYDELOTTE. 
New York: Oxford University Press. $1.20. 


IF the author of this little volume is a fair 
example of what Oxford does to our Ameri- 
can Rhodes Scholars, there is nothing to be 
feared from English conservatism in educa- 
tion. If we could be sure of such a product 
in every case, there would be nothing to do 
but ship all our students to the other side, 
unless Oxford itself were imported. In a 
sense, the latter is what is actually happen- 
ing. The spirit is being brought to us by 
some four hundred graduates. The influ- 
ences which Professor Aydelotte would espe- 
cially commend for use by our universities 
are those which first, would give the social 
life of the schools an intellectual value; sec- 
ond, would make our sports more sportsman- 
like and more nearly universal, and third, 
would enable students to study subjects in- 
stead of taking courses, the emphasis being 
placed upon thought rather than upon infor- 
mation. By more nearly approximating the 
conditions of ordinary life, by placing the 
student upon his own responsibility, and per- 
iodically setting severe tests, the English Uni- 
versity accomplishes this. That it would suf- 
fice for any but a selected type of American 
student is doubtful. 

In a series of essays on the teaching of 
English the author sets forth his theory along 
with successful practise. In brief it rests 
upon the assumption that the study of Eng- 
lish literature should be of the thought and 
not of the form, that it should be a searching 
into the opinions of the great writers upon 
social, religious and scientific questions. As 
for composition, he is at one with Stevenson, 
who in speaking of his article called “Roads,” 
says, “It is quite the best thing I have ever 
done, to my taste. There are things ex- 
pressed in it far harder to express than in 
anything else I ever had; and that, after all, 
is the great point. As for style, ca viendra, 
peut-etre.” The emphasis upon thinking is 
refreshing, subordination of form to meaning 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VII, No. 2 


almost novel and revolutionary when it is re- 
membered that this startling pedagogical idea 
was actually practised in the class room by 
Professor Aydelotte. 

The core of the problem is attacked in a 
delightful essay on “English as Humane Let- 
ters,” with the practical applications worked 
out in “An Experiment with the Freshman 
Course,” and “The Problem of English in 
Engineering Schools.” Most interesting and 
enlightening is his interpretation of the “sed- 
ulous ape” theory of Stevenson. He shows 
that R L S did not become a stylist by the 
mere imitation of words, but that his vora- 
cious reading was, above all, thoughtful. And 
it can well be said of the writer of these 
essays himself that all of which he discourses 
has been most potent in his own thinking, 
for not only does he show a keen appreciation 
of the relation of his subject to life, but that 
it has become so much a part of him that his 
own style has a freshness and beauty that 
make his volume not only a strong stimulant 
to the progressive teacher but a keen pleasure 
to the lover of literature. FJK 








GREYLOCK 


D ‘cevens 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. 


Prospectus on Request 


Gabriel R. Mason,Ph.D. 


1107 Forest Ave., New York City 








STvUerner snr anna TLE 











February, 1918 


The American Teacher 


DOBROYE NOTCHE’, or THE TRIPLE DAMNED 


A Nightmare in Three Spasms 


Scene, a dismal swamp, completely surrounded by false lights, vulgarly called 


 Will-o’-the-Wisp.” 


In the center, a black pit leading to outer darkness. 


At the edge of the pit a draped figure in the posture of a judge, having an 
Accusing Finger in one hand and a headsman’s ax in the other. 


Preceding the entrance of the Dreamer in each spasm, a blare of trumpets is heard, 
and the false lights blink in unison. 


SPASM ONE 


(Blare and blink) 

Enter, THE DREAMER: Your pleasure, Sire 
(Business of friendly but dignified greeting.) 
THE JUDGE- LIKE FIGURE: Look me in the 

eye! Draws drapery aside from one side of 
face.) 
DREAMER, looks; barefaced but unashamed. 
THE J-L F: Tell me, now. Would you permit 
the students in your class to discuss political 


issues? 
THE my (Thinking himself still in America.) 
yes, of course I would. (One of the 
false lights fades away. Dreamer is somewhat 
taken aback, but quickly recovers his compo- 
sure and continues.) You see, that is the only 
way lents can learn to think clearly and 
logically about important public matters. 

(A bat flies across the bottomless pit—seen only 
in silhouette—and extingwishes another of the 
rush-lights.) 

THE J-L F: Sir: You are not fit to be a teacher! 
Students must not express ideas; they must only 
receive ideas. Guilty! (He points the Ac 
cusing Finger, the nail of which is sharpened 
in the semblance of @ goose-quill; and with the 
butt of the ax pushes DREAMER into the pit. 
All the false lights suddenly flare up. As the 
lights gradually assume their normal intensity, 
DREAMER is heard bumping against the sides 
of the pit in his descent.) 


END OF SPASM ONE 


SPASM TWO 


(Blare and blink, as before) 

Enter, THE DREAMER: Yours to Command, 
Sire! (Business of dignified, but formal, mili- 
tary salutation.) é 

THE JUDGE-LIKE FIGURE: Look me in the 
= (Draws aside the drapery from over left 
eye. 

DREAMER, looks; steadily but modestly. 

THE J-L F: Attention! Would you permit the 
students in your class to discuss political issues? 

THE D: No, Sire, I would not. (One of the 
false lights expires suddenly. Dreamer gasps, 
but quickly recovers, and continues.) You see, 
it is not within my sphere of duties to enter- 
tain discussions of political issues. 

(A low buzzing sound is heard, like the noise 
of a tea-party about to take leave; the lights bob 
gently up and down, in perfect unison. A screech- 

‘orms music appropriate to its species; the 
fohts stop bobbing; perfect silence.) 


* That’s a way the Russians have of saying Good 


THE J-L F: (arising from tree-stump on which 
he had been sitting, and raising the Accusing 
Finger.) 

Sir! You are not fit to be a teacher. What- 
ever your subject, you must do your share in 
enlightening the students on these matters that 
are so essential to good citizenship. Guilty! 
(Smites DREAMER on side of head with 
of the ax, and sends him tumbling into the Pit. 
False lights flare up, as before. They gradually 
assume their normal dimness, to the sound of 
a trembling civikzation.) 

END OF SPASM TWO 


SPASM THREE 

(Blare and Blink, as before.) 

Enter, THE DREAMER: At your Service, Sire. 
(Business of formal, but obsequious salutation.) 

THE J-L F: Look me in the eye! (Points to a 
small hole in the drapery over his right eye.) 

THE D: looks: modestly, but without enthusiasm. 

THE J-L F: See here! Would you permit the 
students in your class to discuss political is- 
sues? 

THE D: Yes, your Honor, I would. (The lights 
shake their heads at an uncertain angle, but 
in strict unison. DREAMER hesitates for a 
moment, but only for a moment.) You see, 
I must teach them the truth about political 
issues. 

THE J-L F: You mean, that you would teach them 
the universally accepted doctrines of the plural- 
ity party? (The false lights stop twinkling, 
as in breathless suspense, still in unison.) 

THE D: No, your Honor. I mean that I would 
set them right whenever they expressed un- 
sound views. I would lead them to see the 
truth as I see it. (The lights begin twinkling 
again, and shake their heads as before, but in 
the opposite sense.) 

THE J-L_ F: You base creature! (Shricking, and 
pointing the Accusing Finger.) You have no 
right to use your position and authority and 
power as a teacher to moid the plastic mind 
of youth into conformity with your pernicious 
doctrines! Away with him! 

(Roises ax to smite DREAMER, who falls 
over into the Pit. Lights flare up, and gradu- 
ally assume their normal dimness, to the sound 
of a tottering throne of all the Russias. At tne 
conclusion of the crash the false lights sud- 
denly die out, leaving all in perfect darkness.) 

The Dreamer awakes at the other end of the Pit, 
surrounded by Russian peasants and workers, 
who greet him in the name of democracy. 
Dobroye Notche. Curtain. 


Night! 





The American Teacher Vol. VII, No. 2 


SOVIETS 


UST think of it. An organization of our affairs which 
rests on the assumption that you know more about 
your business than Ido. An organization which takes 

for granted that you and I want not only what is coming to 
us, but want also to give others what is coming to them. An 
organization that expects you to know what is good for you, 
rather than know what is good for others. 


How would it work? How would it work to have people 
in the shoe factory determine policies for working and living 
together in the shoe factory? How would it work to have 
lawyers determine standards of admission to the practise of 
law, standards of performance, of payment, of ethics? How 
would it work to have teachers establish professional stand- 
ards for themselves? 


It’s so strange. It’s so hard to imagine. It is easier to 
continue as we have been accustomed. Let the lawyers set 
up standards for teachers. Let real estate dealers set up 
standards for lawyers. Let bankers run the whele busi- 
ness. It is easier. 


But democracy is knocking at the gates. Whether we 
like it or not, the revolution is upon us. We shall have to 
assume responsibilities, we shall have to take counsel to- 
gether, we shall have to make decisions, we shall have to 
become experts. The world has looked to America for les- 
sons in democracy. If we are good teachers, we should be 
prepared to learn from Russia.