The American 
‘TEACHER 


idee OF PRINCIPLES 





SELECTION OF A 
SUPERINTENDENT 


WHY SCHOOL LUNCHES? 





ON BEING SUPERIOR 























Vol. VII, No. 3 


Have Ye Given Them Meat and Drink? 


his characters say,“ .... What 
does it matter to me if they ad- 
mire my books, since they always 
put into them what they admire? Every 
reader substitutes his ideas for ours. All 
we do is to tickle his imagination. It is 
horrible to have to furnish material for 
such a proceeding. Ours is an infamous 
profession.” 
Sometimes that seems to be the sole 
function of the 


(ee FRANCE makes one of 


- personal WE, read all of them. 


ter-end-spurlos -versenkt-make-the-eagle- 
scream-super-patriot feeds his hate with 
The Tribune. The proletarian class war 
Marxian has his Evening Call (when the 
post office lets him get it). The quiet lib- 
eral thinking intellectual reads The Eve- 
ning Post. Some of us, and let us be mod- 
est in saying that we, the editorial and 
We like 
a balance diet. Perhaps being so closely 
touched by the situation, we wish to make 

the profession of 








journalist and 
the magazine 
writer. He be- 
comes a purveyor 
of intellectual 
food in the same 
manner as the 
butcher, the 
baker and the 
candle stick mak- 
er provide for 
bodily want s— 
except that the 
candle-stick mak- 
er, or his modern 
equivalent, shed 
light upon the 
physical world, 
and the writer 
must be extreme- 
ly careful of cast- 


On Being Superior 


Salary Schedules 
What They Say 
Readings .... 

A Thing or Two 
No Separate Peace 





CONTENTS 


ED & dole adess 


A Statement of Principles 


eee eee ewe wee eens 


The Selection of a Superintendent of 
Schools, Henry R. Linville 


Why School Lunches? Ella Gross.... 60 


The School of the Future, L. A 


the writer a little 
less infamous by 
wearing the hair 
shirt ourselves 
and refusing to 
have our imagi- 
nations tickled. 
THE AMERI- 
CAN TEACHER 
has tickled some 
imaginations and 
confounded ot h- 
ers. It claims no 
exception to the 
individual and so- 
cial psychology 
just set forth. 
However, there 
are differences. 
Far from being 
an infamous pro- 

















ing too much 
brilliance upon 
the subtleties of the mind. The intellect 
turns away from that which is unpalata- 
ble with the same disgust that the con- 
noisseur rejects the meat which is not 
tender or the butter that lacks the proper 
savor. With little thought of health or 
sustenance we choose the dealer who can 
give us the most pleasing food for the 
financial resources at our command. 

And so we ration our minds, securing 
the most pleasing quality of information 
suitable to our particular mental equip- 
ment. So the large-cap-double-leaded- 
sensation-loving commoner revels in The 
American. The comfortable bourgeois or 
capitalist turns instinctively to The Times 
and finds more comfort therein. The bit- 


fession .it is no 
S. P profession at all; 
it is an indulgence, and as some can tes- 
tify, a costly indulgence. And like all in- 
dulgences, it is born of an overpowering 
instinct which can be satisfied only thru ex- 
pression. But if the result is merely to tickle 
and confound imaginations, cui bono? Be- 
cause of the hope that it will kindle im- 
aginations. Because of the belief that there 
are abroad in the world souls hungering and 
thirsting, perhaps unknowingly, for the meat 
and drink of democracy, not lip-service democ- 
racy, but democracy of the spirit, of all that 
means life and hope to human beings. When 
we have nothing more to give and when there 
is no one who would care to receive it if we had 
it, then we shall cease to write; but in the mean- 
while, you who read this, are you sure that there 
are no more imaginations to be kindled or hun- 
gering and thirsting souls to be satisfied? And 
are you helping to satisfy them? 





The American Teacher 








— 





Vol. VII., No. 3 


MARCH, 1918 


One Dollar a Year 








Notice to Teachers 


Any teacher who has ideas which he 
would like to present for the considera- 
tion of other teachers, is hereby urged to 
write for The American Teacher. 

The Editors 


The Statement of Principles 
HE most important communication 
T that we have printed in many a day is 
the one embodied in the “Statement” 
issued by the Executive Council of the Ameri- 
can Federation of Teachers, and appearing as 
the leading article in this number. Teachers 
who are not yet in the union movement and 
other citizens who are curious to know how 
constructive radical teachers stand on the is- 
sues brought out by the war should read this 
article with especial care. If they have had 
any doubt in their minds as to the loyalty of 
these same radical teachers, let them be as- 
sured that this statement of principles is truly 
representative of the conviction ‘of the rank 
and file of forward-looking teachers asso- 
ciated with the movement toward democracy 
in the field of education and of their attitude 
toward world democracy. If the critics of 
radicalism in general are still doubtful, it may 
be because they recognize in the teachers’ 
movement as portrayed in the statement an 
unexpected and ominous challenge. If the 
critics are wise, they will begin to examine 
their own relations to the world movement, 
and prepare for the inevitable. 


The Carpenters of Scranton 


T HE teachers of Scranton, Pa, for a 
long time have been dissatisfied with 
their pittance of $55 to $75 a month 

for a ten-month year. They have made nu- 

merous appeals for an increase without re- 


sult. Recently the Lackawanna County 
(Pa) suffrage association petitioned the 
Board of Education of Scranton to increase 
the salaries of the teachers. The Scranton 
Times of February 12 recorded the fact that 
the petition of the suffrage association was 
received by the Board of Education, and after 
discussion a vote was taken and the petition 
placed on file. 

In January the carpenters who work for 
the Scranton Board of Education came to the 
conclusion that a demand for increase of 
wages should be made. They wrote no letters, 
made no appeals, and no organizations of cit- 
izens presented petitions in their behalf. 
They merely ordered their business agent to 
go to the Board and tell the members what 
they wanted. 

It is reported that when an explanation 
was asked of the President of the Board of 
the action of the Board in granting the car- 
penters an increase while denying it to the 


teachers, he replied, “Why, they sent their 
man down from the Union, and he said the 
men had to have it.” 
The Scranton teachers are beginning to 
see the point, and so should others. 
The Price of Coal and the 
Longer Day 
ORE than once have we suspected a 
M concurrence of thought waves from 
two apparently disconnected sources, 
—the manipulators of business and the ad- 
ministrators of education. Many of us will 
recall that in the Autumn of 1916 anthracite 
coal could be purchased by the consumer at 
the Atlantic seaboard for about $6.50 a ton. 
Three or four months later a terrific shortage 
of something or other was upon us, and the 
price of coal jumped to about $13.00 a ton. 
But we paid the price without any more than 
the usual objection. After a little while the 


51 











52 


price began to return toward the normal, but 
it stopped somewhere between $9 and $8. 
We were so glad that it was no longer $13 
that we failed to realize clearly that the price 
was still about $2 a ton more than it was be- 
fore the big jump. 

Several years ago in the educational system 
of New York City the high school day closed 
at 2:30 P. M. Later when the high schools 
became overcrowded, the plan of double ses- 
sions was adopted in some of the high schools. 
Somewhat later still, the Gary system loomed 
menacingly, and seemed to foredoom a per- 
manent arrangement of overlapping double 
sessions. The administrators were successful 
in persuading the high school principals that 
a day ending at three o’clock, with seven 
periods instead of six, was preferable to the 
Gary plan. After that increase there were 
other reasons at hand. One was the demand 
for more time to do the work of the school 
properly. For these reasons the day was 
increased to seven hours or eight periods 
ending at 3:45 or 4:00. 

This was just a little more than we could 
stand ; even the worms turned. Now we have 
gone back to the seven period day, ending at 
three o’clock, and incidentally the Gary sys- 
tem no longer menaces. But we are so 
thankful that we are free from the seven 
hour or eight period day that the six period 
day has all but passed from our minds. Thus 
coal barons and educational administrators 
think some of their thoughts in common. 


Patriotism 

HE teachers of New York and Chicago 

have just heard a series of talks by 

exchange speakers. In order to 

bring the teachers and speakers together the 

New York Board of Education sanctioned the 

closing of the schools for a large part of each 

day during the whole week beginning March 

18. During the free time the teachers as- 

sembled in school auditoriums in appointed 
localities. 

The New York end of this arrangement be- 
gan in anything but an auspicious manner. 
The only member of the Board of Superin- 
tendents who seems to have been consulted is 


The American Teacher 


Vol. VII, No. 3 


the Acting Superintendent of Schools. The 
Board of Education decided the matter, and 
apparently approved the somewhat injudi- 
cious statements of the Acting Superintend- 
ent as to the lack on the part of teachers of 
“patriotic emotion” and “national feeling.” 
Too late not to leave a bad taste it was denied 
that there was any intention to assert any 
deficiency in patriotism in the teaching staff. 
In view of the fact that thousands of these 
same teachers have given an immense amount 
of service in furthering bond sales, in aiding 
Red Cross work, in assisting draft boards, 
and in promoting the movement for summer 
service, the statement of the Acting Superin- 
tendent comes with particular ungracious- 
ness. 

Naturally, we expect that the war will 
make encroachments on the regular work of 
the schools, as well as upon many minor mat- 
ters of personal preference. But we should 
still be permitted thru our professional 
representatives, the Board of Superintend- 
ents, to discuss the issue of giving up a con- 
siderable part of a week after the loss of 
many days on account of the fuel shortage, 
not to mention the issue of inviting demorali- 
zation in the schools for the whole week. 

When Professor McLaughlin of Chicago 
University asked the teachers in one of the 
lectures whether they wanted all the think- 
ing done by the select few, we take it that it 
was just this kind of imposition of wisdom 
from on high that he was condemning. In 
the phrase, “Democracy as suggestive of re- 
sponsibility”, he summed up the idea which 
we believe in so fervently but have so little 
opportunity to work out in practise. 

Now that the series of lectures is over we 
can afford to forget the manner of their in- 
troduction in the appreciation of the oppor- 
tunity of being inspired by Professors Mc- 
Laughlin, Soares and Rall. While conserving 
the day for our children, we should have been 
happy to have spent all of our after-school 
time in meeting these men. The keen ana- 
lysis, the deep insight, the humanitarian out- 
look were a tremendous stimulation. We re- 
joice that it was from teachers that a great 
message came. 





March, 1918 


Union vs. Servility 


URING the income tax year 1916 
D 7,925 millionaires were made, mak- 
ing a total of 22,696 millionaires for 
the United States. If the war continues for 
another year and with it the profiteering, the 
United States will have about 40,000 million- 
aires at the close of 1918. Last year the war 
profiteers made hundreds of millions of dol- 
lars. When George Baldwin, chairman of 
the American International Corporation, 
which is building the Hog Island shipyards, 
was questioned by Senator Johnson, he said 
that his corporation had made $6,000,000 
profits and admitted that you cannot keep a 
corporation alive on patriotism: you must 
have dividends. Yet when the carpenters 
asked for $6.60 a day, they were called trait- 
ors and pro-Germans. 

When teachers, in their vain endeavor to 
keep pace with the rising cost of living and 
the added drain on their resources by patri- 
otic demands of all kinds, asked for a salary 
increase, it was intimated that their demands 
were unpatriotic. It is patriotic for the poul- 
try trust to rob the citizens of New York of 
millions, but it is unpatriotic for a teacher to 
ask for more than $14.75 per week as an 
initial salary. It is patriotic for Swift & Co. 
to make an annual net profit of $34,650,000, 
of which $10,000,000 was paid out in divi- 
dends, or of Morris & Co. to double their 
profits at the citizens’ expense, but it is un- 
patriotic for teachers to ask a living wage. 
It is patriotic for the food manipulators to 
tax the residents of New York untold mil- 
lions, but it is improper for teachers to have 
the tax rate raised one-tenth of one per cent 
in order to restore a part of the purchasing 
power of their dollar. 

Food prices soar, clothing mounts in price, 
rents steadily advance, shoes become prohibi- 
tive in price, and yet teachers’ salaries in 
New York and some other cities remain sta- 
tionary. What is the remedy for this start- 
ling situation? The same as that employed 
by other workers who succeeded in getting 
salary increases. Join the Teachers Union 
to the tune of 10,000, vote as a unit and your 
demands will be looked upon as just and nec- 


The Americau 


Teacher 53 


essary and not as unpatriotic. What’s in a 
name? In the name Union is embodied de- 
cent working conditions. In the name Union 
is embodied self-respect and opportunity. In 
the name Union is embodied your intellectual, 
moral and economic salvation! Union or 
Poverty? Union or Stagnation? Union or 
Servility? Which shall it be? 


Suspect 


ILAIRE BELLOC has an interesting 

H theory of the reason for the con- 
tinued and not yet ended antago- 

nism between the French democracy and the 
Catholic Church. Instead of finding its 
origin in an inherent conflict between two 
ideals which cannot coexist among the same 
people, he discovers it in a fortuitous cir- 
cumstance which placed the religious organ- 
ization, for no reason having the slightest 
relation to the theory of democracy itself, in 
opposition to the political spirit of the people. 

Religion was suffering a temporary eclipse. 
The church organization was wealthy and 
constituted the only source from which tax- 
ation could draw the money of which the 
country was badly in need. On the supposi- 
tion that the whole religious body was mori- 
bund, the National Assembly passed an act 
in 1790 bringing it under civil control and re- 
quiring each of the priests to swear allegi- 
ance to the state. “This Civic Oath, which is — 
sometimes used as a bugbear in the matter, 
was no more than an engagement under the 
sanction of an oath that the bishop or priest 
taking it would maintain the new regime— 
tho that regime included the constitution of 
the clergy ; the oath involved no direct breach 
with Catholic doctrine or practice. 
Nevertheless, no Catholic priest or bishop or 
layman could take that oath without landing 
himself in disloyalty to his religion.” 

The result was that many priests, thoroly 
loyal to the new regime, did not take the oath. 
The National Assembly first discontinued 
their stipends and then declared them “sus- 
pect.” “The word ‘suspect’ is significant. 
‘ This word which carried no material 
consequences with it, was one that might 
cover a threat of things worse than regular 





54 The American Teacher 


and legal punishment.” And thus there has 
been dissociated for more than a century the 
ideal of democracy from the religious fervor 
which might have carried it to heights un- 
known. 


Whether Belloc’s interpretation of this par- 
ticular phase of the Revolution is correct or 
not need not detain us. The principle is 
clear and the probability significant. In fact, 
so clear is the principle that we do not lack 
for an illustration. In 1917 the Educational 
Assembly in control of a school system deems 
it necessary in order to assure itself of sup- 
port of the government to demand of its sub- 
ordinates a pledge. The pledge involves no 
direct breach with patriotic or pedagogical 
doctrine or practise. Nevertheless no teacher 
can, because of the manner of presentation, 
sign the pledge without landing himself in 
disloyalty to his ideals of democracy. In or- 
der to avoid misconstruction being placed 
upon his act he signs the pledge and then 
signs a protest against having been compelled 
to sign. He is thereupon called before a com- 
mittee of the Educational Assembly to justify 
himself, and is thereby rendered “suspect.” 
Some of the teachers are singled out and are 
dismissed from the service because they have 
not been noisily engaged in furthering the 
new regime. More than that, because they 
have not sanctioned the reactionary acts of 
the autocratic Educational Assembly—the 
Committee of Safety of the Reign of Terror. 


Martyrs there must be and sacrifices will 
come. Let them pass. God is in His heaven. 
But what of the future? Is the New Regime, 
Democracy for the World, international peace 
and brotherly love, to be linked up for cen- 
turies with the bitter opposition of those 
whose individual ideals are democratic, 
peaceful, and lovable? Is a Board of Educa- 
tion, in its lust for power and its love of adu- 
lation from those above, to antagonize the 
spirits of those whose enthusiasms are more 
potent and pure than those of the Board it- 
self? In his love of power and his monopoly 
of righteousness, is a Superintendent to ren- 
der his professional heirs “suspect,” and 
thereby dam up those sources from which 
alone can spring the very Democracy the 


Vol. VII, No. 3 


whole world is fighting for? We pause for a 
reply. Is he? 


Confessions 


VERY month I try to give each teacher 

1% some helpful criticisms. I try to sug- 

gest something to do that will be 

worth while, that will contribute to the im- 

provement of the work. And I have accu- 
mulated a number of standard formulas. 


I used to call attention to the appearance 
of the blackboards and of the floors. These 
seem to be going pretty well now. I used to 
say to them, Be careful to modulate your 
voice. Perhaps teachers have better voices 
now; perhaps I am becoming accustomed to 
them. At any rate, I seldom mention the 
voice. I used to remind them that the recita- 
tion should begin promptly ; I forget to refer 
to this. I have come lately to speak of other 
matters. 


I tell the teachers they ought to read more; 
they do not seem to realize that altho the 
chief mountains and rivers of the various 
countries remain about the same as they were 
years ago, the populations and governments 
and industries are constantly changing. Of 
course they have to depend upon their geog- 
raphy books; but the newspapers, and even 
the almanacs, manage to keep ahead of the 
geography books. Much of the “science” the 
teachers foist upon the children would be re- 
pudiated by college freshmen today. 


I tell the teachers they ought to get out 
more and become acquainted with other 
kinds of people. They ought to get acquaint- 
ed with the problems that are troubling the 
poets and dramatists and novelists. They do 
not seem to realize that the classic novels 
which most of them read, like the extremely 
popular novels, are either behind the times 
or evasive of the problems of the times. 


I tell the teachers that they ought to think 
more. After all, you are not going to make 
the children think unless you do a little think- 
ing yourself. There are so many problems 





i ee oe oe ae ae ok oe 


March, 1918 


to think about, so many problems that inter- 
est the children and their parents. But the 
teachers do not seem to realize that they have 
any responsibility in helping with their 
thought. 


But I am afraid I am asking too much. I 
know very well that it is impossible to keep 
abreast of the several specialties. I know 
that it takes much energy to keep merely in 
sight of the newest thought in psychology and 
scientific pedagogy. I know that the teachers 
have concerns outside the class room, that 
they have their own aspirations and their 
own destinies. I know that the work of the 
school is not joyous and stimulating; it is ir- 
ritating and depressing, and exhausting. 
There is no incentive to think; there is every 
temptation to become mechanical and per- 
functory. 


I don’t know what to do. Every part of 
the system depends upon every other part. 
We cannot lift ourselves out of the system 
and still remain part of it; it is a vicious cir- 
cle. There is needed a common purpose to 
arouse a common enthusiasm. Instead we 
have petty and dividing jealousies and sus- 
picions. Will better salaries help? Will 
smaller classes help? Will lighter programs 
help? Will inspiring leadership help? Will 
democracy, cooperation, mutual confidence 
and mutual respect help? I don’t know. I 
know only that as a supervisor I see my best 
efforts neutralized in a hundred crude and 
insidious ways. I have not succeeded in 
breaking up the vicious circle. 


Master-Servant Relation 


The most dangerous aspect of the tyranny 
of the employer is the power which it gives 
him of interfering with men’s activities outside 
their working hours. A man may be dismissed 
because the employer dislikes hisreligion or his 
politics, or chooses to think his private life im- 
moral. He may be dismissed because he tries 
to produce a spirit of independence among his 
fellow employees. He may fail completely to 
find employment merely on the ground that he 
is better educated than most and therefore 
more dangerous. Such cases actually occur at 
present, : 


The American Teacher 


55 


THE RUT 
Nothing is harder than to abandon the com- 
fortable home (whether one’s own or of some 
conventional design), built of prejudices, as- 
sumptions, fixed beliefs, habits of thought 
standards of value, rules of life, in which one 
had looked forward to living in peace for the 
rest of one’s days. Yet the sacrifice must be 
made, or the comfortable home will become a 
prison, and may at last become a tomb.— 
Edmond Holmes, In Defence of What Might 


Be. 
The Rainbow 


The science, or pseudoscience of pedagogy 
stands today where medical science stood be- 
fore the germ-theory of disease had estab- 
lished itself as sound doctrine. Ignorant as 
we are of what human nature really is, and 
reluctant as we are (partly from indolence, 
partly from the blindness of our ignorance) 
to undertake the Herculean task of determin- 
ing the equation to its curve, we comfort our- 
selves with the assumption that there is no 
such thing as authentic human nature, or 
“true manhood”; and instead of helping the 
child to realize the true ends of his being, to 
become what he has it in him to be, we assign 
to education the task of directing his educa- 
tion towards ends which we, his seniors, are 
pleased to regard as desirable for him (and 
perhaps also convenient for ourselves).— 
Edmond Holmes, In Defence of What Might 
Be. 








@GeAmerican Teacher 


Democracy in Education Education for Democracy 
Published monthly, except July and August, by 


THE oy TEACHER COMPANY, INO., 
70 Fifth Avenue, New York City 


GABRIEL R. MASON 
CHARLOTTE E. LEE 
JAY D. LESTER 


woe 











CORNELIA W. CLEAVELAND ABRAHAM LEFKOWITZ 
BENJAMIN GLASSBERG HENRY R. LINVILLE 
BENJAMIN C. GRUENBERG J. EDWARD MAYMAN 
FRANKLIN J. KELLER SAM SCHMALHAUSEN 





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Entered as second-class matter, February 21, 1912, at the 
i Office at New York. N. Y.; under the Act of March 8, 
1879. 











The American Teacher 


A Statement 


of Principles 


By the Executive Council of the 
American Federation of Teachers 


ELIEVING that explicit statements of 
position on national and interna- 
tional problems will make for the 

unity of national purpose which is essential 
both for winning the war, and for the re- 
construction of a new world after the war; 
and being aroused by the disquieting symp- 
toms of the threatening cross-currents of 
purpose, even among those equally deter- 
mined to win the war, the Executive Coun- 
cil of the American Federation of Teachers 
sets forth the following: 

1 Undivided support is pledged to Presi- 
dent Woodrow Wilson, not alone as the con- 
stitutional national leader during a national 
crisis, but as the proved spokesman and in- 
terpreter of American spirit and thoughtful 
opinion. 

2 Without discussing the immediate 
causes of the World War, it is clear that the 
world is being remade, and that more demo- 
cratic forms of society are to replace the old. 
Powerful constructive forces are at work 
thruout the war’s grim tragedy. Peace when 
it comes will witness a readjustment of every 
form of human activity to conform to a high- 
er standard of justice and freedom. In all 
this, Woodrow Wilson stands preeminently 
as the prophet in a high place. 

3 The campaign for Universal Military 
Service seems to us a peculiarly dangerous 
attack on the policy of the administration. 
‘ If universal military service proves neces- 
sary to win the war, that will be another 
question, but that is not the contention of its 
present advocates. 

If the power and desire of Germany for 
military aggression are not broken, then in- 
deed the world becomes an armed camp, and 
America must adopt drastic militaristic 
measures. But we are confidently and grim- 
ly determined to win, and to establish a 
league of nations which will free all peoples 


from the waste and burden of competitive 
armaments. We must even then take meas- 
ures to supply our full quota of an interna- 
tional police force, but the necessary 
strength of that force cannot be prejudged 
before the terms of peace, the temper of peo- 
ples, and the degree of responsibility of gov- 
ernments to peoples after the war are known. 
To adopt universal military service now is to 
discredit our President’s demands for dis- 
armament, anti-imperialism, and a league of 
nations, and we fear that reactionary hos- 
tility to our President’s liberal policy is the 
real motive actuating many of the powerful 
interests behind the campaign for universal 
military service. Let us utilize our canton- 
ments for universal training for civic serv- 
ice after the war so that we may permanent- 
ly achieve a sense of social solidarity. But 
let us prepare for the reconstruction of a new 
world after victory, and not deliberately of- 
fer to America a foretaste of the bitter 
fruits of defeat before she has begun to fight. 
4 Democracy is the goal. There must be 
no diversion from its pathway. All who be- 
lieve in it, every organization favoring it, 
every forward-looking person must rally in 
the campaign for its attainment. Enemies 
there are, even in our very midst, who would 
betray us—those who seek Privilege, or 
would conserve everything of the past, those 
who would derive gain in the midst of im- 
measurable sacrifice, those who oppose the 
advance of Democracy anywhere, those who 
would bring confusion by setting up class, 
racial or religious prejudices, those who in- 
ject doubt and fear into the public mind— 
all for personal advantage, not as alien ene- 
mies, but as Americans, not those desirous 
of American military defeat, but of the de- 
feat of American and world democracy. 


5 In Labor’s hands rest both the de 
cisiveness of our victory, and the kind of 


56 





March, 1918 


world we shall live in, and the kind of life 
we shall live, after the war. The line be- 
tween producer and parasite is daily being 
drawn more definitely, and those who work 
with hand and brain are in all democracies 
aligning themselves with Labor. The 
British Labor Party has met the challenge 
of leadership in the reconstruction with a 
carefully formulated program that reassures 
by its sanity as much as by its radicalism. 
For in these days of the passing and birth 
of civilizations, while all radicals are not 
sane, all sane men must perforce be radicals. 
And American Labor, even now handicapped 
as British Labor has not been for fifty years, 
is proving the most effective democratic 
force in our national life. 


6 This has been called a schoolmaster’s 
war. And certainly the super-patriotism 
and “regimented docility” of the German 
people could have been developed only by the 
German school system, carefully designed 
to make unthinking obedience implicit in the 


ninety per cent, and to train the remaining 


ten per cent in a quasi-leadership instinctive- 
ly subordinated to authority. Without this 
subversion of childhood and youth, even 
Prussian universal military training could 
not have transformed the German masses 
into brutalized automata. 


The German object lesson should force 
America to focus her attention on her 
schools. To make the world safe for democ- 
racy, our schools are secondary only to the 
winning of the war, if they are not primary 
in that. Even now many leaders of national 
influence urge the teaching of a strident na- 
tionalism as opposed to internationalism, 
rather than of a sane nationalism as the basis 
of the internationalism which is the hope of 
the world. The generations may grow up 
actuated by a sympathetic understanding of 
other peoples, or by. an embittered hatred— 
the schools will decide, and on their decision 
hangs future peace or war. 


The schools must also consciously special- 
ize in training for that most complex and 
difficult of all human activities, self-govern- 
ment. One need only to look at the spectacle 
of misgoverned American cities to realize 


The American Teacher 57 


how lamentably we have failed in the past. 
We are failing largely because we are starv- 
ing our schools financially, and almost ignor- 
ing them as communities. Surely one of the 
compensations for the sacrifices of this 
righteous war, must be a quickened sense of 
social values finding its most important out- 
let in an educational revolution which will 
establish in America’s schools, “Democracy 
in Education: Education for Democracy.” 


CHAS B STILLMAN, President 
C C WILLARD, Secretary 
Chicago, Ill, March 13, 1918 





This is the hour of a world decision; the 
greatest crisis which ever has confronted 
mankind.—Upton Sinclair. 





Bardeen Sees Thru It 


Report on an evening at the Convocation 
of the University of the State of New York. 


It was not only a great but a distinguished audi- 
ence and Dr VanDyke swayed it at his will. Per- 
sonally we did not like the address. We have heard 
Dr VanDyke before, at the University Club in Syra- 
cuse, at his own church on Fifth Avenue, at the 
Sorbonne in Paris, never with conviction, always 
with the feeling that he was thinking of Henry 
VanDyke first, of his subject second. But this eve- 
ning we particularly disliked his tone. We prefer 
to leave all the Gott strafe kind of talk to the Ger- 
mans. It is unfitting that an academic audience 
should be roused to frenzy. Autocracy must be 
crushed at any sacrifice, but it will be done by 
determination, not by denunciation. The address 
was intemperate, calling names instead of pointing 
out as the subject proposed the fundamental de- 
fects in German education. 

All this is our personal opinion, but we do not 
dare express it because we should be in a minority 
of one. Men and women applauded till their hands 
ached, and laughed and almost shouted. It was a 
phenomenon to see so great an audience so com- 
pletely subject to a speaker. Dr VanDyke in his 
red Oxford robe over his natty evening suit with 
his foreign decoration on his lapel was flushed with 
his success, and enjoyed it to the full, as well he 
might. 





The Selection of a Superintendent of Schools 


HENRY R LINVILLE 
President Teachers Union 


one yet knows who, let us hope will 

soon be elected Superintendent of 
Schools of the largest educational system in 
the world. In this City of New York there 
are 800,000 children and 22,000 teachers. 
The chief educational officer of this vast pub- 
lic organization has a correspondingly great 
responsibility, and under conditions of gen- 
eral public enlightenment it should be possi- 
ble for the school system to be under the 
leadership of the ablest educator of adminis- 
trative capacity that the country has devel- 
oped. It would indeed be a deplorable calam- 
ity if the chief commercial city of the nation 
should by the selection of a mediocre super- 
intendent of its schools mark itself before 
the other cities of the country as being in- 
different to the character and attainments of 
the person who holds so important an office. 
There is an effective way to prevent so great 
a catastrophe, and that is for organizations 
of citizens to arouse themselves to action in 
support of the Board of Education in its ex- 
pressed desire to obtain for the city the best 
educator for the position of superintendent 
that can be found. 

Great as may be the temptation to put for- 
ward one candidate or another according as 
he may appear to have the powerful sup- 
port of particular bodies of citizens, it is ob- 
vious that we need objective standards for 
superintendents in order to protect the 
schools against the subjective enthusiasms 
of those who seek to use the schools for pro- 
moting personal ambitions or group ag- 
grandizement. The desire is genuine on the 
part of all good citizens to keep the schools 
free from politics and the teaching of re- 
ligious creeds. Let us be equally zealous in 
cooperating to stay the hand of powerful 
groups that may seem to cohere thru political 
or religious affiliations, and by determining 
appointments in public education threaten 


Si well qualified person, probably no 


the stability of our democratic purpose. 

No less menacing than social groups with 
selfish or narrow ideals of civic interest is 
the existence in the field of education itself 
of a static entity composed of educational 
officials that appears to find its greatest se- 
curity in the maintenance of autocratic 
standards of administration and professional 
discipline. Custom has ordained that out of 
this group of educational officials and from 
that portion of the rank and file deriving its 
ideals and inspiration from superiors as 
such shall come all those who administer edu- 
cation. Thus, the stimulus for creating and 
applying to high educational appointments 
the new objective standards that will fit in 
with the growing importance of education in 
an age of democracy, must come from intel- 
lectually outside sources that have barely be- 
gun to contribute thought to educational 
progress. 

First of all, New York City should have 
as superintendent of schools an officer who 
is able to show from his previous adminis- 
trative record and practise as superintendent 
or principal that he comprehends the spirit 
and social purpose of democracy as we are 
beginning to understand it in political 
government today. Education cannot af- 
ford to lag behind government in teaching 
and practising the rights and duties of man. 
This qualification must now be considered 
primary. In no other way can education put 
itself in the position of leading in social prog- 
ress, for the people are in earnest about this 
war for democracy. 

In education there are already elemental 
movements in democracy. These are present 
in New York as in other cities. The new 
superintendent must be able to recognize 
them and to assist in their coordination and 
their social discipline. The only positive in- 
dication that he would be able to recognize 
the elements of democracy and to coordinate 


58 





March, 1918 


them as superintendent would be the fact 
that he had done so in subordinate positions. 
Such is the “practise test” of the examina- 
tion for teacher’s license adapted to the pur- 
pose of selecting a superintendent of schools. 

As proof that candidates for the position 
of superintendent of schools understand the 
spirit of democracy in education they should 
be required to submit evidence of having 
practised the method of democracy. This 
method would be involved in such acts as 
having taken steps to encourage initiative 
on the part of teachers, having pointed out 
to teachers the fact that the collective and 
organized thinking of all would tend to ren- 
der more effective the policies of the entire 
educational system, and, indeed, to determine 
those policies, and having stood for the prin- 
ciple that able men and women sincerely de- 
voted to the cause of education should be 
searched out and permitted to work in the 
places best suited to their ability, and not 
punished by banishment or transfer for 
criticizing the policies of the educational sys- 
tem—the people’s educational system. 

As additional proof of knowing the meth- 
od of democracy, the candidates for this po- 
sition should be able to point to a record 
showing how they have conducted educa- 
tional experiments involving the improve- 
ment of the preparation of children for adult 
life in a democracy. They should be able to 
show that these experiments had been con- 
ducted with scientific care, in practical co- 
operation with the teachers who did the 
work, and with the public that supplied the 
social backing for the undertaking. 

The new superintendent of the schools of 
New York City should of course have to 
his credit some work of creative scholarship, 
at least in the specialty of education, for we 
have passed the time when a superintendent 
can expect to maintain his standing among 
scholars, who may be teaching in the same 
educational system, by relying on the evi- 
dence of mediocre scholastic attainments. 
The practical value to a superintendent of a 
record of creative scholarship would lie in 
the additional hold his leadership would have 
on the minds of the teachers thru the proof 


The American Teacher 59 


of ability of that kind. Democracy requires 
this leadership in scholarship, as it does in 
administrative skill, in intellectual ability, 
and in character. 

If an able superintendent with the capaci- 
ties suggested here were to be selected by the 
Board of Education, it would be a mistake 
to suppose that a new era in educational 
practise in New York would thereby be as- 
sured. It would also be unfair to the super- 
intendent to appoint him and to demand that 
he be held responsible “for results.” His 
appointment if carried out as part of a plan 
of democratic regeneration would involve 
far-reaching changes in the administrative 
staff as it now exists, as well as a thoro- 
going change of administrative ideals. But 
this would present a difficulty of relative un- 
importance in view of the vast transforma- 
tion of autocratic Russia and the contem- 
plated regeneration of Germany itself, the 
very fountain head of autocracy. 

Every organization of public-spirited 
citizens, and especially every organization of 
teachers that prides itself on standing for 
the highest idealism of the teaching profes- 
sion, should hold together and exert its 
influence in the positive interest of the 
schools in this important matter. Let us ex- 
tend the battle for democracy into education 
itself ! 





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, Il. 
ETHEL E Besrs, Vice-President 
3414 S. Paulina St., Chicago 
C C Witiarp, Recording Secretary 
7218 Cornell Ave., Chicago 
MARGARET SNopGRASS, Corr. Sec. 
1061 Dakin St., Chicago 
F G Strecker, Financial Sec. 
1618 Lake Ave., Wilmette, Ill. 
JAMES A MEADE, Treasurer 
2628 Sayre Ave., Chicago 
TRUSTEES 
Henry R Linville George J Jones 
Anita Bailey Wm. T McCoy 
Lydia I. Trowbridge 





Why School Lunches? 


ELLA GROSS 


ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL, P. S. 43, BRONX, NEW YORK. 


HENEVER a question of public im- 
W provement, such as this of insti- 
tuting lunches in our public 
schools, arises, the community automatically 
divides itself into three groups—the passion- 
ate few who are trying to pass the measure, 
the great number who come from Missouri 
and demand to be shown “why,” and the far 
vaster many who hold up their hands in hor- 
ror and cry “paternalism.” In the case of 
school lunches, paternalism means the dan- 
ger of pauperizing the children. 


The last objection must be met first, for 
if there is any likelihood of the lunches being 
managed in such a way that the children will 
be pauperized, then away with the plan. 
There are however two simple ways in which 
this phase of the problem could be met. We 
might insist that the receipts must cover the 


expenses, Buying on a large scale combined 
with expert and efficient management would 
no doubt bring this about. Or we might re- 
gard the entire matter of lunches furnished 
in the school from the same standpoint as we 
regard the furnishing of paper, pencils and 
books without charge. There would then be 


no question of pauperization. Perhaps we 
are not yet advanced enough to insist upon 
this point of view but no doubt the future 
points that way. 


Let us therefore return to the former so- 
lution, namely that of meeting outlay with 
income. Even tho the price of the lunch be 
nominal and exceedingly small there will in- 
evitably be some children who will not be 
able to pay. These are the very children we 
are in danger of pauperizing. We must in- 
sist that each school handle this problem in 
an expert way with the assistance of the 
visiting teacher or some other trained in- 
vestigator. Under no circumstances should 
this part of the work be left to the principal 
or teacher. Each case of a child who cannot 
afford to pay for the lunch should be set- 


60 


tled without the cognizance of the school. 
Not even the teacher should know that 
so and so receives his lunch gratis. Thus 
the self-respect of the child can be main- 
tained before his classmates as well as his 
teacher and the danger of pauperizing him 
will be reduced to a minimum. 


Now for our friends from Missouri who 
ask us “Why this new and strange departure, 
school lunches?” There are three potent 
“why’s” and the first of these is our children. 
Each and every child, rich, poor or just plain 
middle class, will gain immeasurably. Sta- 
tistics are at hand to show the remarkably 
large percentage of undernourished school 
children. Physicians and nurses, men and 
women scientifically qualified to give an 
opinion tell us that the condition of our un- 
dernourished children will be greatly re- 
lieved if the school furnish a wholesome and 
appetizing lunch. They assure us that there 
will be a marked improvement in the health 
of the children and therefore a correspond- 
ing improvement in the work they do. 


For those who doubt that work and con- 
duct improve as a result of at least one good 
meal a day, the case of a family in our school 
may be cited. There were nine children, all 
boys, six of whom attended school. When 
they first came, one child after the other was 
reported to me for inattention, laziness or 
misconduct. Seldom did a day pass that one 
or another did not grace an office door. The 
penny lunch system was installed and all 
these boys received tickets. Within two 
months there was a marked improvement in 
every one of them. They began to show that 
they could control themselves and they did 
better work. Talking to them was no longer 
wasted effort, it brought results. What is 
more pitiful than the spectacle of hungry or 
ill-fed children trying to cope with tasks 
which able-bodied healthy children find diffi- 
cult and strenuous! Think of the unneces- 





March, 1918 


sary pain, unnecessary discouragement, un- 
necessary failures, and above all of the bad 
effects of these three upon the mental and 
moral makeup of the citizens of to-morrow! 
Who can question the value of the lunches 
provided they can be shown to improve the 
health and morals of our children? 


But not only the health of the child will be 
benefited. There are several distinctly edu- 
cational opportunities for them in the lunch- 
es. They will unconsciously absorb an ap- 
preciation of food values. They can be 
trained to eschew foods of doubtful value 
such as tea and coffee. They can be trained 
to demand simple, wholesome foods. In a 
nation of notoriously unwise eaters what 
phase of education is more important? Nor 
can we afford to ignore the social training 
at the table. Right there the children will 
receive a kind of education not readily given 
in a class of fifty. Child will educate child. 
The give and take of laughter, talk and jest 
are a much needed kind of education, one in- 
deed that all of us teachers are deploring our 
inability to give. All of us realize the de- 
sirability of being pleasant and agreeable 
table companions. The child, ever ready to 
recognize and to imitate, will not need guid- 
ance to make him take the step from appre- 
ciation to imitation. No thinking man or 
woman can conscientiously acquiesce in de- 
priving our children of these three educative 
features of the school lunch. 


In addition to the considerations of health, 
conduct and education there must be urged 
the numerous cases of actual need. There 
are the children whose mothers go out to 
work. Alas, they are 4 sad and sorry army! 
What can they do? They can take sand- 
wiches or they can buy something, wisely or 
unwisely, at the grocery, the bakery or the 
candy store, or they can go home to the 
empty home and get something out of the 
ice-box. All of these are highly undesirable. 
Then there are the children who live too far 
from the school to go home for lunch. They 
are in the same predicament as the unfor- 
tunates whose mothers go out to work. In- 
clement weather presents the problem to all 


The American Teacher Gl 


the children. These last mentioned groups 
are just as vitally interested in school lunch- 
es as the underfed children. In fact they are 
the very ones who soon become the under- 
nourished and ill-fed cases. No thoughtful 
and socially-minded citizen can refuse to al- 
leviate the condition of these children. 


The children come to you, who question 
“why?” with the threefold plea of health, 
education and necessity. Their mothers 
come with the second potent “why?” The 
mother who goes out to work is in an un- 
enviable position for when she has completed 
one full day’s work she goes home and does 
another day’s work. Thus her every day 
consists of two in one. We cannot here in- 
quire into the economic conditions which 
force a woman to this heroic task but we can 
endeavor to alleviate her worries. We can 
take full charge of her child during lunch 
hour as well as during school time. We ean 
give her the comfort of knowing that her 
child is eating a wholesome, hot meal in a 
comfortable room with his classmates and 
friends. 


Then there are the mothers who do not 
keep help and consequently must always be 
at home at lunch time. How often they 
would profit by a day off! They would make 
better and more joyous mothers if now and 
then they could get away from it all and go 
shopping or visiting. The mothers who suf- 
fer are the conscientious ones who insist that 
the children be properly fed. That one hour 
would make a holiday possible. At ten or 
eleven the house work would be finished and 
she would have four or five hours of free- 
dom. Or there is the mother who has an in- 
fant to take care of. Many a baby never 
gets out into the air and sunshine because 
mother must be at home to give the children 
lunch. The extra work and the late hour of 
finishing indispose her to the effort of going 
down to the street. Remember, she must be 
home again at three to receive the children 
and that then she must start with the evening 
meal. To many this plea for the mothers 
may seem trivial but nevertheless it is an 
important one, for school lunches would 
prove a tremendous boon to the great ma- 





ee a ee 


62 The American 


jority of mothers for this very reason. When 
the penny lunches were served in our school 
many mothers took advantage of the oppor- 
tunity to get out of the rut of housework by 
sending the children to school for lunch and 
they were not the only ones to be pleased. 
The children regarded it as a great treat. 

If the school lunches prove to be of all 
these advantages to the children, and physi- 
cians, nurses and teachers tell us that they 


Teacher Vol. VII, No. 3 
will, and if they will give the mothers peace 
of mind and some freedom from everlasting 
grind, then the question of benefits to the in- 
dividuals will ultimately affect the entire 
community. If we accept the “why” of the 
children and the “why” of the mothers, the 
“why” of the community necessarily follows. 
These constitute the three potent “whys” 
which no thinking man or woman can any 
longer afford to disregard. 


On Being Superior 


the counter at so much per unit, the 

question of superiority would never 
arise. The best salesman would be he who 
took im the largest amount of money. We 
may set up standards of scholastic achieve- 
ment for the pupil, but can we do it for the 
teacher? Can we measure the citizen-value of 
each pupil whom the teacher has taught, and 
if we can, is it possible to wait until he has 
made his mark before passing judgment? 
Out of the desire to measure efficiency and 
stimulate to greater efforts arises the 
Declaration of Superior Merit. Its possibili- 
ties for other purposes develop from practi- 
cal administration. 

On November 3, 1917, the High School 
Principals’ Association of New York ap- 
proved of certain standards upon which per- 
tinent comment may be made. 

1 In order that a teacher may receive the 
award of Superior Merit, his work should be 
higher in degree than merely good, that is 
B plus or A. 

2 His work must possess merit. 

Of course, it is obvious that here no stand- 
ards are set up at all. “Good” or “merely 
good” is purely subjective and what may be 
good for one supervisor may be merely good 
for another. But we proceed, the first two 
points are merely introductory. 

3 He must show amenability to author- 
ity. 

Here is something to bite on. “Amenable” 


| F educational wares could be sold over 


has two distinct meanings, first, “liable to be 
called to account; liable to answer formally; 
subject to jurisdiction or authority,” second, 
“willing and ready to submit; tractable.” 
“Yractable” means “easily led or controlled; 
manageable, docile; governable.” So it is 
easy to conceive of two principals agreeing 
thoroly upon the standard of amenability to 
authority, whereas in practice the one would 
simply hold the teacher for certain tasks to 
be performed, a kind of accounting that is 
necessary in any well organized community, 
while the other would regard as superior 
only those who are easily led or controlled. 


(3 Continued) He must exhibit sympa- 
thy with pupils and ideals of the school. 

Yes, sympathy with pupils. That is all-im- 
portant. The teacher must understand them 
for what they are; he must remember that 
they are not yet adults; he must never be 
brutal; he must never move them around as 
pawns. The question arises, What shall we do 
when those in authority do not have this sym- 
pathy, when they are brutal, when they would 
make automata of the pupils? Shall we re- 
main “amenable to authority” or shall we be 
“sympathetic with the pupils?” Suppose the 
ideal of the school is Prussian, is autocratic? 
Then whose ideal is to prevail? Suppose the 
teacher sets above the ideal of the school the 
ideal of American democracy? Suppose his 
loyalty is to goodness, beauty and truth, in- 
stead of to the Prussian principle of which 
President Wilson says, “Prussia is above all 





March, 1918 


things else, a military state, trained to the 
compact order and instinctive obedience of 
a strong monarchy?” This is not an aca- 
demic question; the situation has arisen. 
What shall we do? 

(3 Continued) He must reveal profes- 
sional interest shown by reading, intelligent 
discussion of educational topics, attendance 
at professional meetings, or participation in 
department conferences as a student of the 
methods of the subject and marked willing- 
ness to cooperate. 

We heartily agree. The only difficulty 
arises when the professional interest of the 
teacher is so great that the intelligence of 
his discussion transcends that of his super- 
visor; then the clash of ideas may seem to 
show marked unwillingness to cooperate. It 
has even come to our attention that because 
one teacher knew a great deal more about 
books than did his supervisors the misunder- 
standing became so great that the teacher 
was dismissed. That is, the teacher was dis- 
missed. Of course. Otherwise what would 
become of amenability? 

4 He must reveal powers of discipline 
exercised within the classroom and without 
and making for self-control. He must possess 
a sense of perspective. 

Self-control certainly. Sense of perspec- 
tive, yes, but it does make a difference 
whether the vanishing point is in the past or 
in the future. And it may mean all the dif- 
ference between the man who is honored by 
being made assistant to the principal or the 
superintendent and the man who is “sub- 
versive of discipline” and dismissed. 

5 His use of English must be habitually 
correct, his records correctly kept, and 
promptly submitted. 

For the proper training of the pupil and 
the efficient running of the school these are 
absolutely requisite. There is the problem 
of the teacher excellent in many respects but 
who is temperamentally lax in the matter of 
records. We think the problem not so diffi- 
cult, provided we do not forget the psycho- 
logical incentive we use for pupils. There is 
the attitude of wanting to help those whom 
we respect and love. And principals have 
been known to win the respect and love of 
their teachers. 

6 Standards of eligibility to a Declara- 
tion of Superior Merit for the 12th year 


The American Teacher 63 


should be distinctly higher than those of the 
9th year. 

Assuming the correctness of the standards 
set up for the 9th year approval, just how 
much more is to be expected in the 12th 
year? Or, putting it the other way, what 
may be overlooked in the 9th year? May 
the applicant receive approval if he is not 
amenable to authority once in a while? May 
he be ten per cent unsympathetic with his 
pupils? May he let a few ideals of the 
school go by the board? May he sometimes 
put his conscience above the will of his su- 
periors? 

7 He should maintain friendly relations 
both with the students and with his col- 
leagues. 

If a colleague is a liar and a scamp, must 
friendly relations be retained? 

8 Supervising officers whose testimony is 
taken by the Board of Examiners in the mat- 
ter of a Declaration of Superior Merit should 
be required to file written reports similar to 
those filed by the Principal. Teachers must 
be notified both by the Principal and the Su- 
pervising officers other than the Principal 
that these reports are on file. 

A most wise and commendable proposition. 


9 It should not be granted to a teacher 
unless he is reasonably skillful in presenta- 
tion and in questioning, that is, unless he has 
shown in the recitation 

a That he has a clearly defined purpose 


b That his assignments of lessons are defi- 
nite, clear and reasonably detailed 


c That his questions are direct and pur- 
poseful 

d That his pupils’ answers meet his ques- 
tions 

e That his work is distributed over a pro- 
portion of the class commensurate 
with the type of work being done 


f That his classroom organization is such 
as to engage the attention of prac- 
tically all of the pupils all of the time 

This analysis of the technique of teaching 

is incomplete. Certainly the applicant 
should be skillful in all these respects, but 
are there not other qualities that are even 
more important? 

Does the teacher inspire the pupils with 

a love of the subject? 








64 The American Teacher 


Does he help them to understand the 

world in which they live? 

Does he endow them with the vision of 

the future? 

Does he arouse thought and—criticism? 

Do the pupils become thinking, reacting 

human beings, alive to the life around 
them, ready to meet new problems 
with the freshness of youth and the 
wisdom of the ages? 

There is no doubt that standards are 
necessary, that it is extremely important for 
us to keep in mind what the good teacher is. 
The value of introspection for specific quali- 
ties is not to be overestimated. However, 
when it becomes necessary for one fallible 
human being to judge another fallible human 
being in the light of these qualities, only two 
results are possible. Either the details must 
be multiplied until life is divided and re- 
divided beyond recognition, or the principles 
laid down must be like the four of President 
Wilson which von Hertling approved. They 
are so abstract and vague that two such 
polar bodies as the leader of democracy and 
the leader of autocracy can agree. The ap- 
plication is another matter. For Wilson we 
know that it means righteousness and justice 
and for von Hertling evil domination and 
trickery. If these are the only alternatives, 
then the answer is that the machinery of 
superior merit should long ago have been 
abolished. 

If the supervisor is a leader, a constructive 
statesman, an educator, an honest man, a 
humanitarian, a man with vision, the kind of 
man whom an enlightened board of superin- 
tendents or board of education will select, 
the question of superior merit will not arise; 
it will simply be a matter of fitness or un- 
fitness. Professional pride, love of teaching 
and love of children will do the rest. 


The School of the Future 


In December, 1917, I visited the public 
schools of New York and saw of fifty 
children sitting like little statues with their 
eyes glued to an animated phonograph. 

A careful observation of the teachers led 
me to conclude that their methods were based 
on the assumption that all the children in the 
school had the same nature and were similar 
in ability, home environment and desire for 
education. Consequently, all the children had 


Vol. VII, No. 3 


the same ideas forced upon them in the same 
way and all of them dutifully tried to fit 
themselves into the mold the teachers were 
making. Those who did not succeed in doing 
sixty per cent of the things required in all 
but two major subjects, were forced to repeat 
the term’s work. What an educational and 
economic waste! Those who survived this 
factory process would at the end of eight 
years, take up life’s burden and be disillu- 
sioned while the others continued their educa- 
tional lockstep until their brains were ren- 
dered completely somnolent. After four 
more years of the dull, deadly uniformity, 
they were sent forth into the world—ostensi- 
bly to conquer, but in reality to find that they 
were fit for nothing but for marking time. 
Gone their iniative, their individuality and 
critical faculty. Asleep the brain capable of 
meeting and surmounting difficulties! Gone 
the desire of intellectual achievement and 
social service! But one idea dominates them 
—to hold their JOBS! 

What a contrast these schools and children 


- presented to those of Unionville! In Union- 


ville the children entered the observation 
class (kindergarten) where they played 
games that developed their muscular control, 
tested their mental equipment, and brought 
out the traits then predominant. Their apti- 
tudes, intellectual and physical equipment, 
and their home environment were recorded at 
the end of six months. The children were 
then sent to special schools (no sex distinc- 
tions being made) where their abilities would 
have the best possible chance to develop 
under the guidance of specially trained 
teachers and psychologists. Each class was 
under the instruction of two teachers: one 
taught while the other aided the temporarily 
backward or puzzled and noted particularly 
the peculiarities of the child so that a proper 
reclassification could be made if changing 
physical and mental conditions required it. 

Children were promoted by subject every 
three months. If certain children were un- 
able to grasp certain subjects but were espe- 
cially proficient in others, they were sent to 
specialization schools where they specialized. 
This was not difficult, from the administra- 
tive view because the state furnished the 
food and fare as well as the material. The 
most interesting of the specialization schools 
was the Inventors’ Clinic. All boys who 
were interested in working out ideas of their 
own were permitted to attend these schools 
after their regular work had been completed. 
They were aided by trained inventors. 
If they succeeded in working out their ideas, 
they became regular full time pupils in the 
Inventors’ Clinic where they worked not only 





,. See of Oe 1) ee 36 Oe 


at. ain Gi tt tte Ge tf tte ot ot Gk at, Get Ge tte oe Oe 


a> Ga aad tafe 6b 06 lee CO ot CLS CUCU 


March, 1918 


upon their own ideas or those furnished them 
by their inventor guides, but upon coopera- 
tive inventions for the benefit of the state. 

The schools of Unionville are based on the 
assumption that there are no misfit children 
but misfit schools. While the New York 
schools fit the child to go to the school the 
Unionville schools fit the child both to the 
school and the school to the child. Instruc- 
tion and method are based upon the type of 
pupil and not upon a mythical average child. 
The unit is not the system, not even the 
school, but the child. Individuality, initia- 
tive, courage and mental power are sought 
instead of uniformity, docility, and subservi- 
ence. The schools are humming beehives of 
little demi-gods striving to make the most of 
their powers and each teacher is a guide and 
experimenter and not a martinet or foreman, 
turning out his product. They graduate 
mechanics, agriculturists, poets, physicians, 
teachers, inventors, musicians, etc, imbued 
with the ideals of social service, ready to 
devote their talent to the service of the state 
in order to improve the conditions of their 
fellow workers and to enlarge their intellec- 
tual horizon. To give to society all they can, 
to take but what they need, is the sole ambi- 
tion of its graduates. 

When I told one of the New York City 
teachers about our school system she was 
amazed! Her woe-begone expression quickly 
vanished and a heavenly smile illumined her 
face. How she did hurl question after ques- 
tion at me. Was it really true that we had 
no principals, no annual ratings, no weekly 
monologs called conferences, no board of su- 
perintendents and no promotion licenses! 
Not the glorious possibilities of our system 
interested this oppressed and soul, 
but the possibilities of being relieved from 
everlasting oppression. Oh, education, what 
crimes are committed in thy name! LA 


Salary Schedules 


Prepared by the Teachers’ Union of the City of 
New York 


(as the basis for a proposed bill) 


Elementary Schools—All Teachers—Initial Sal- 
ary, $1,000. Maximum, $2,500. In ten annual in- 
crements. This includes teachers of Kindergarten 
—6B (now $800—$1,500); of Tubercuiar, Blind, 
Anemic and Crippled (now $820—$1,600); of Deaf 
(now $850—$1,850); of Cooking (now $860— 
$1,820); of Ungraded Classes (now $860—$1,920) ; 
of Promotion License (now $860—$1,800) ; of Music, 
Physical Training, Drawing, Sewing (now $880— 


The American Teacher 


65 


$1,920) ; of Truant Schools (now $900—$1,800); of 
License No. 1 (now $900—$2,160); of Shop Work 
(now $1,000—$2,100) ; Head Teacher (now $1,060— 
$2,260) ; of French, German, Spanish, Italian (now 
$1,100—$1,500); Visiting Teachers (now $1,000— 
$1,300); of Seventh and Eighth Years and Grad- 
uating Classes (now $1,500—$2,400). 

High Schools—All Teachers (except first assistant 
teachers in the high schools)—Initial Salary, $1,200. 
Maximum, $2,800. In ten annual increments. This 
includes Assistant Teachers, High Schools (now 
$900—$2,650); Critic and Model Teachers (now 
$1,050—$2,050); Assistant Teachers, Training 
School (now $1,009—$2,750). The proposed sched- 
ule for first assistant teachers in the high schools 
provides, as under existing rules requiring at least 
five years’ experience as assistant teacher, for an 
initial salary of $2,200 and a maximum of $3,300 in 
five annual increments (now $1,680—$3,150, with an- 
nual increments of $210). 

Clerks, Assistants, Etc. Initial salary, $900. 
Maximum, $1,800. In six annual increments. This 
includes Clerical Assistant, High Schools (now $900 
—$1,400); Library Assistant, High Schools (now 
$900—$1,400); Laboratory Assistant (now $900— 
$1,400) ; Clerks, Elementary School (now $3.50 and 
$4.00 a day); Trade and Vocational Teachers 
(women) (now from $2.50 to $5.00 a day). 

Substitutes— Elementary Schools, $5. High 
Schools, $6 a day. Clerks and Laboratory Assist- 
ants, $5 a day. 


For some classifications of teachers the proposed 
maximum schedules will represent a large increase 
over the present maximum. If salaries were to be 
raised suddenly from the old limits, directly up to 
the new proposed limits, the initial rise in the salary 
budget would undoubtedly be large. To obviate this, 
the proposed bill will contain a provision like the 
following: 


A—A teacher who has reached the maximum sal- 
ary under existing schedules, shall receive 
increments of $200 per year, until the max- 
imum salary under this bill is reached. 


The bill will also provide— 


B—Every teacher now in the service shall re- 
ceive such increase as shall bring salary up 
to nearest higher salary in these new sched- 
ules, and thenceforward, the new incre- 
ments. 


C—The probationary period for all positions shall 
be one year, instead of three years, as at 
present. 


D—That clerks, vocational and trade teachers who 
are now retained on a per diem basis, be 
put upon an annual salary, with tenure of 
office. 








The American Teacher 


WHAT THEY SAY 


To the Editors, THE AMERICAN TEACHER: 

I have just read in the January issue of 
THE AMERICAN TEACHER the editorial en- 
titled “Professional” with reference to my 
suggestion that teachers’ service should be 
subject to periodical approval by some “com- 
petent and independent body.” 

In making this suggestion, I had no definite 
plan in view. My object was merely to call 
attention to the fact that formal trial on 
charges is not an effective or practical meth- 
od of dealing with the evil of incompetent 
and undesirable teachers and that the interest 
of the teaching staff as well as the interest 
of the schools would be greatly promoted if 
permanent tenure was conditional upon sat- 
isfactory service. 

If this suggestion were to be adopted, how- 
ever, I should certainly advocate that the 
“competent and independent body” charged 
with approval of service should include rep- 
resentation of the teaching staff. I fully 


realize that we cannot expect to raise profes- 
sional standards and character of service in 
the schools without mutual confidence and 
effective cooperation of the supervising and 
teaching staffs. 


WILLIAM G WILLCOX 
Former President of the New York Board of 
Education. 


To the Editors, THE AMERICAN TEACHER: 

It is with diffidence that I enter upon a few 
suggestions and criticisms in regard to the 
editorial policy of THE AMERICAN TEACHER, 
but I am sure that my views are at least sin- 
cere and disinterested, as well as embodying 
thoughts suggested by actual remarks made 
by many members of the teaching force in 
my presence. In general, the policy of our 
magazine is too philosophical, too revolution- 
ary, too idealistic, to have a very wide ap- 
peal. Of what avail is it to argue for a vague 
“democracy in education” to a group of peo- 
ple who are primarily interested in their per- 
sonal problems, and who, often enough, have 
no conception of what is meant by such a 
term? The result of such a policy is to be 
seen in the pitiful handful of members who 
comprise the Teachers Union at present. It 
is my belief that we must “hit the teachers 
where they live”; first of all, get them inter- 
ested in the union idea, teach them its con- 
crete value to themselves, then aspire to ele- 
vate the standards of teaching and of educa- 
tional procedure when we have an attentive, 
numerous and sympathetic audience. 

To be precise, I would confine our 2ffort 
at present to the urging of the purely selfish 
advantages of organization—better wages, 


Vol. VII, No. 3 


more secure tenure, shorter hours, increased 
respectability in the general public’s estima- 
tion, etc. This may be ed as a mate- 
rialistic point of view, but, after all, self- 
preservation is the first law of nature. Often 
I have heard the remark, “There are many 
women teachers who will pay fifty dollars 
for a dress, but will not give five dollars a 
year to belong to the union.” The fact must 
be faced that many girls take up teaching, not 
because of an excess of idealism, but because 
they must earn a living until they marry, if 
they are fortunate enough to find the right 
man. In finding that man, the dress may be 
of much greater help than the union mem- 
bership. 


Such a point of view is not uncommon; it 
must be faced and given due consideration. 
Personally, I think there is much to be said 
for it, yet I feel that we can still present to 
such a girl a strong argument for union mem- 
bership. The man may not come; if he does 
come, it will not hurt any to be earning, and 
to have earned, a respectable salary; it will 
help to have conserved one’s youth and looks 
by having worked a reasonable number of 
hours per day, by having felt somewhat inde- 
pendent and self-respecting, by having had a 
sense of fellowship in an organization of 
power and influence. After all, the union 
membership, if the union had the position 
of real influence which numbers would give 
it, might be worth more than the dress, for it 
would ensure a better dress, and many other 
desirable things in the bargain. 


It is obvious that arguments along the same 
line could be made to all members, male 
or female, of the teaching staff. As for the 
idealists, I am sure that they will credit al- 
most every teacher in the system with a very 
real and genuine desire to do as much for the 
welfare and development of the children 
under his care as possible, but they must real- 
ize that a teacher’s personal worries are the 
greatest single source of inefficiency there is, 
and that the selfish and unselfish desires 
would be allies; to satisfy one inevitably 
tends to satisfy the other. No unhappy, wor- 
ried teacher is a good teacher; one cannot in- 
spire others unless one has confidence in one- 
self and a feeling that life is worth while. 
Later, when the great fundamentals are se- 
cured, the whole question of course of study, 
standards of fitness, methods of administra- 
tion, could unquestionably be solved better 
with the cooperation of a satisfied, self-re- 
specting, independent body of teachers, 
strong enough to demand a real hearing, than 
any attempt at solution promised by the 
present chaotic, disorganized state of the 
teaching profession. LAPIDUS 





Ce Oe eee OO ome Pe ee a ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee A hh 


— i he? 


rect A ek oe Oe eet Om 9 ht Ot OD 


March, 1918 





Training for Citizenship 


Universal Training for Citizenship and 
Public Service, by WILLIAM H ALLEN. New 
York, The Macmillan Co. $1.50. 


WHILE the energies of the nation are en- 
gaged in planning for war, William H Allen 
makes an appeal for planning for after-the- 
war. Not in preparation for the next war, 
for the author does not believe that wars are 
necessary for progress. This planning is to 
be for the great work of living. We have al- 
ready suffered sufficiently because of our fail- 
ure to prepare for the work of living. Eco- 
nomically, socially and educationally, we suf- 
fer because of our blind refusal to solve our 
every day problems rationally. The enor- 
mous waste that results from this unpre- 
paredness is evident in our misuse of 
our resources, our mismanagement of indus- 
try, our confusion in government. We must 
learn to think straight, to see straight, and 
build wisely, not only in time of war but for 
all time. 

Proper training for citizenship and pub- 
lic service must become the main effort of 
the nation. The training for citizenship, 
however, must be for all, unlike our elemen- 
tary school education which sixty per cent of 
our children do not complete. This training 
is not to be derived from studying books, but 
by observation, by studying at first hand the 
various activities of the community, its meth- 
ods of fire prevention, care of streets, mar- 
kets, etc. Dr Allen warns us that we must 
not stop with the children ; this training must 
extend to every adult in the community. 

Not only must we train for citizenship ; we 
must also train for public service. Society 
must discover and encourage the capacities 
latent in all its citizenship, and put them to 
effective social use. He lays great stress on 
the part the schools and the teachers should 
play in the community, for teaching is our 
great national asset. Teaching he does not 
consider to be confined to the class room. 
Every industry is a training school. The 
teaching of the physician and the dentist may 
often be more important than their “practis- 
ing.” One of the most important duties of 
the community is to improve the status of 
those who devote their entire career to the 
work of teaching, not only for the sake of 
~s teachers, but rather for our national well- 

ing. 


The American Teacher 


READINGS 


67 


There are several unusual features in this 
book. The author seriously outlines ways 
whereby elected officials without any prepa- 
ration for the work they are to perform may 
make themselves fit to render efficient ser- 
vice. He shows the extent to which officials 
are actually doing this. He holds that so- 
ciety should train the unusually gifted; but 
those possessing unusual ability should use 
their capacity to further public interests, for 
they owe their gifts in great measure to so- 
ciety. And he is old-fashioned enough to be- 
lieve that blind patriotism is not the greatest 
duty of a citizen in war time. “We must do 
our own thinking, and do it straight. We 
have no right to anemic, vicarious, depen- 
dent, crooked thinking about patriotism.” 

America after the war is to be a different 
America. “By understanding the ease with 
which we are raising billions for war pur- 
poses we can after-the-war find it easy 
enough to raise other billions for equalizing 
opportunity thru better schools, better hous- 
ing, better health, better labor conditions, and 
better control of distribution and recreation.” 

Aside from a few slight defects, such as 
undue emphasis on the teaching of “getting 
ahead,” and a style which is reminiscent of 
the press agent at times, the book is an inter- 
esting and stimulating one. BG 


Exceptional Children 


The Exceptional Child, by MAXIMILIAN P 
E GROSZMANN. New York, Scribners. 


Problems of Subnormality, by J E 
WALLIN. Yonkers, World Book Company. 


FROM the point of view of the classroom 
teacher there has been up to this time no sat- 
isfactory book dealing with children deviat- 
ing from the normal. Each has been written 
by a specialist, a doctor, a teacher, a psychol- 
ogist, or a social worker. Thus it has been 
both too technical and too narrow in scope. 
Many of the misunderstandings and disagree- 
ments among those interested in this partic- 
ular phase of education have been the prod- 
uct of too close application to one particular 
field of study. What has been needed has 
been more breadth and more vision. What- 
ever defects Dr Groszmann’s book may ex- 
hibit it certainly deserves high praise for its 
broad treatment of the question, for the real- 
ization of the fact that the study of the ex- 
ceptional child is the study of education itself, 
and that education is concerned with every 
mental, moral, physical and social force in 
the environment. It is a readable and a hu- 
man book with many enlightening quotations 








The American Teacher 


and numerous concrete illustrations. No 
teacher who is struggling along with “pupils 
who never will learn,” “incorrigibly bad 
boys,” or “queer cases,” should feel that she 
has exhausted the possibilities for herself or 
the children until she has made some excur- 
sion into the study of what science has done 
for the exceptional child. This book covers 
the whole field and gives a very helpful bib- 
liography for the further enmeon of spe- 
cial phases. 


In Part I, The Problem of the Individual 
Child, a survey is made of the various types 
to be encountered, including potentially nor- 
mal children, exceptionally bright children, 
cases of psychopathic disorders and psycho- 
pathic constitutions, the feeble-minded group, 
juvenile delinquency, and sexual perversion 
and prostitution. In Part II the whole prob- 
lem of clinical research and diagnosis is han- 
dled, along with criticism of the Binet tests 
and an exposition of the author’s complete 
tests, including physical, educational and 
psychological criteria. In Part III the prob- 
lems of prevention, adjustment and organiza- 
tion are dealt with. These include legal pro- 
visions, eugenic considerations, home life, 
school problems, the kindergarten 'period, 
schools and institutions, and the training of 
teachers. Finally, there is a medical sym- 
posium by twenty-five doctors. 


Despite the strides that have been made in 
the treatment of the exceptional child, there 
are many schools in which there is none but 
the good pupil and the bad pupil, the pupil 
who learns and the one who doesn’t. They 
are still in the dark ages of education. It is 
to principal and teachers of this type of in- 
stitution that this book is especially recom- 
mended. 


By way of contrast Dr Wallin’s volume is 
an intensive study for the special student of 
subnormal children and for those who are 
organizing constructive programs for their 
care and education. The three problems of 
Dr Groszmann are again handled in this book, 
but in a much more scientific, logical, and 
convincing way. The book opens with a his- 
tory of the whole movement, is followed by a 
resumé of many recent studies of social or 
educational deviates, then these are checked 
up by Dr Wallin’s own studies. There fol- 
low the author’s principles derived from his 
study and experience, all of which are being 
applied in the St Louis schools, where he is 
Director of the Psycho-Educational Clinic of 
the Board of Education. It is in the matter 
of providing differentiated educational treat- 
ment in accordance with the diagnosis for 
different types or classes and in that of or- 


Vol. VII, No. 3 


ganizing adequate systems of after-care, 
after-guidance, and control that the book 
masses large as a distinct contribution to the 
literature of the subject. The close relation 
of the scientist to the administration is a 
highly commendable feature and is bound to 
be productive of results. 


Too often the conception of democracy in 
education is likely to be that of a clamoring 
group of well-intentioned citizen teachers all 
eager for the betterment of mankind but hav- 
ing no more attainable goal in view than a 
utopian ideal. The desire, the hope, the urge 
are all-important but will work out in no 
more than futility and chaos if science is not 
brought to bear upon the practical accom- 
plishment. The psychologist, the doctor, the 
sociologist, the expert teacher must be the 
engineering staff that guides the administra- 
tion. It must be only thru facts, patiently 
and painstakingly wrenched from the mys- 
teries of life, that dreams and visions can be 
made to come true. 


The American Labor Year 
Book 1917-18 


The American Labor Year Book, 1917-18. 
New York, Rand School of Social Science. 
Cloth, $1.50; paper, 60 cents. 


It is difficult to imagine a book more useful 
at the present time when accurate thinking 
in social and economic matters is so essential, 
than the American Labor Year Book. First 
issued in 1916, this Year Book has won a 
permanent place in our economic literature. 
The teacher who is anxious to keep in touch 
with the many changing currents in modern 
society will find this volume of inestimable 
help. There is hardly a topic about which 
one would want up-to-date information that 
is not found treated in it, be it the Socialist 
movement in any of the nations of the world 
or the Mooney case, or the status of indus- 
trial education in the United States. The 
contributors are men and women known as 
authorities in their respective fields, such as 
W E B Du Bois, John B Andrews, Evans 
Clark, Alice Henry, Morris eo Owen R 
Lovejoy, Basil Manley, Lajpat Rai — 
Snowden, Helen L Sumner, etc. A great 
deal of the merit of the book is due to the 
careful and intelligent work of the editor, 
Alexander Trachtenberg, and his assistants. 

There are six divisions: Part 1, Labor and 
the War; Part 2, Labor Movement in the 
United States; Part 3, Labor and the Law; 





Crr Ons 


= Fe er wee Oe eee ee 


March, 1918 


Part 4, Social and Economic Conditions; Part 
5, International Socialist, Labor and Coop- 
erative Movements; Part 6, The Socialist 
Movement in the United States. 

In each section there is a full and authori- 
tative treatment of the many related topics. 

Some of the topics treated in the first sec- 
tion are the labor laws recently enacted; the 
suspension of laws for the protection of wo- 
men and children; the participation of Labor 
in the government of England; women in 
British industry; the growth of government 
ownership during the war, and because of the 
war. The last is one of the outstanding de- 
velopments of the World War. The author 
of this section, Dr Laidler, considers the 
change in the status of the employee under 
government ownership; it is not by any 
means always for the better. 

The almost complete absence of unionism 
in many of our basic industries—steel, meat, 
textiles, tobacco, paper, etc., is the most in- 
teresting feature of the section on the Labor 
Movement. This may be a surprise to most 
readers. Needless to say the conditions of 
labor in these industries are extremely bad. 
Every effort made to organize these workers 
has hitherto been stoutly and effectively op- 
posed by our industrial autocrats. There is 
also a concise account of the most recent dis- 
turbances in our industrial life, including the 
famous Bisbee deportation and the Mooney 
case. A history of the American Federation 
of Labor and the important International 
Unions affiliated with it closes the section. 

Part three, Labor and the Law, furnishes 
the reader with a summary of recent legisla- 
tion of interest to Labor; namely, the mini- 
mum wage, hours of labor, social insurance, 
safety and health laws, unemployment, work- 
men’s insurance, judicial decisions affecting 
labor, arbitration legislation, anti-strike 
laws, mothers’ pensions, etc. 

The chapter on Social and Economic con- 
ditions covers a variety of subjects, including 
studies of the cost of living, wage statistics, 
infant mortality, occupational diseases, the 
negro problem, the land question, the despoil- 
ing of our national domain, irrigation, rural 
credits, the Non-Partisan League, the appren- 
ticeship question, industrial education, voca- 
tional guidance, and the suffrage and the pro- 
hibition movements. 


In these days, when Socialism is playing so 
important | a part on the world stage, chapters 
five and six containing a history of the So- 
cialist movements in practically every nation 
of the world, will prove to be particularly 
useful to the modern teacher. sc 


The American Teacher 


Our Colleges 


The Undergraduate and His College, by 
FREDERICK P KEPPEL. Boston, Houghton 
Mifflin Company. $1.60. 


DESPITE the fact that the primary purpose 
of institutions of learning has been to trans- 
mit to the young certain sections of knowl- 
edge that contribute to the welfare of the 
race, nothing has been more patent than the 
fact that the mark of the college man is not 
the information that he has at hand, but is 
rather the obvious resultant of the environ- 
mental forces that have played upon him for 
four of his most impressionable years. It is 
these forces, as seen from his position of 
vantage, that Dean Keppel analyzes and criti- 
cizes. He sets forth the various types of in- 
stitution, their machinery of organization, 
problems of administration and—little or 
nothing of methods of teaching. He pictures 
the raw materia! from all walks of life, and 
sees the finished product after it has been 
played upon by students’ activities, athletics, 
and his religious, moral and intellectual life. 

“, . . Wemust admit a tendency toward 
the conservatism that is born of isolation.” 
Thruout the book one gets the impression that 
Dean Keppel wishes in his heart that he could 
break thru the crust of convention, that he 
would lead a scholastic revolution, but that 
his official position forbids. This is evident in 
his writing of trustees, of teachers, and of 
the intellectual life of students. “Trustees 

‘ are usually selected because they are 
successful men. Generally speaking, 
successful men are conservative. Why 
should they not be? The existing order has 
worked well for them.” “. . The real 
point is whether the college is ‘to have a fac- 
ulty free to follow the truth wherever they 
see it, or whether, in order to be sure of their 
jobs, they will look in only certain safe direc- 
tions.” “. . . An Englishman 
recently pointed out in Parliament the pro- 
found truth that an anxious and depressed 
teacher is bad; that a bitter teacher is a so- 
cial danger.” “So far as the college is con- 
cerned, I should not be worried if every boy 
were to graduate a standpatter, if only his 
views were based on study and on a personal 
contact with both sides of the question, and 
were not gained thru social imitation or intel- 
lectual isolation.” So say we all of us, but 
we should like to know what the Dean wouid 
say of recent happenings in his own univer- 
sity, whether his boys will be likely to come 
into contact with both sides of every question 
since Professors Beard, Cattell, Dana, Mus- 
sey and Stowell are gone. 





70 The American Teacher 


We wish that somebody of Dean Keppel’s 
wide college experience, but of no official 
connection with any institution, would write 
a book on the colleges. Then we should know 
to whom to recommend the volume. As it is, 
the college man knows practically all that the 
Dean tells us. If there were moré personal 
experience we should read it for pleasure. 
Those who would be highly benefited are the 
prospective student and his parents. For 
these there is little or no value because of ret- 
icence concerning specific matters. Many of 
us look back upon our educational careers 
with the feeling that if we had only been put 
in full possession of the facts we should have 
laid out different courses for ourselves. In 
more senses than one does the tragedy of edu- 
cation lie in its social imitativeness and lack 
of study of both sides of the oe. a 


Rostér of Local Unions 


AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, WITH 
NAMES OF SECRETARIES 


No. 
Chicago Federation of Men Teachers, 
Sg Willard, 7216 Cornell Ave, Chicago, 
Chicago Federation of Women High 
School Teachers, Jennie E Nelson, 6129 
N Hermitage Ave, Chicago, Ill 
Gary Teachers Federation, Mr E B Car- 
lile, 1825 Ellsworth St, Gary, Ind 
Teachers Union of the City of New York, 
J Edward Mayman, 70 Fifth Ave, New 
York, N Y 
School Teachers Association of Scran- 
ton, Pa, Margaret Padden, 210 Madison 
Ave, Scranton, Pa 
High School Teachers Union of Wash- 
ington, D C, Maude C Gunther, 1827 I 
Street, NW, Washington, D C 
Armstrong-Dunbar High School Teach- 
ers Association of Washington, D C, 
Samuel E Compton, Dunbar High School, 
Washington, D C 
Manual Training Teachers Association 
of Washington, D C, H Phillips, 16 Bry- 
ant St, NW, Washington, D C 

11 Punxsutawney Teachers Federation, O 
C Williams, Perry St, Punxsutawney, Pa 

12 Teachers Federation of Hamilton Co, 
Tenn, W J Ziegler, 307 Hanover st, North 
Chattanooga, Tenn 

13 Bi-County Federation of Teachers, Fay- 
ette and Westmorland Counties, Joseph 
Meiley, 505 E Green St, Connellsville, Pa 

14 Jasonville Teachers Union, Zella Craig, 


Vol. VII, No. 3 


221 S Washington St, Jasonville, Ind 
15 Schenectady Teachers Federation, Paul 
> 7 Park Place, Schenectady, 
16 Grade School Teachers Union of Wash- 
ington, D C, Elizabeth Hayden, The 
Olympia, Washington, D C 





WHAT IS EDUCATION? 


A man is educated only in so far as he is able to 
relate his knowledge and acquirements to the busi- 
ness of human living here and now. 

Learning is not education. A man may possess 
a vast amount of learning and yet be a fool. Mere 
information is not education. To know how to make 
the right use of information is the only education. 
The encyclopedia is packed with all the scientific and 
literary facts of the world but it cannot use one of 
them. 

There is a great deal more learning than education 
in the world. Our schools and colleges are for the 
most part well called, “Institutions of Learning.” 
That they are, but of education, I am sorry to say— 
not. 

To yoke up learning with life must be the great 
educational work of the future—Bruce Calvert, in 
The Open Road. 








GREYLOCK 


1D ‘sevens 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. 


Principal, Public Schools, New York City 
1107 Forest Ave., New York City 











ST BED 








March, 1918 


The American Teacher 


A THING OR TWO 





What is better calculated to breed irrever- 
ence and cynicism than the necessity to work 
under the direction of men for whose intelli- 
gence you can have no respect, and in whose 
sincerity you can have no confidence? 


Speaking of inculcations, would it be out of place, in a 
Democracy, to inculcate instinctive resistance to abuse of 
power? 


The world is so full of a number of things, 
I’m sure we shall soon have no more room 
for kings. 


Buy a War Savings Stamp and a Union 
Stamp. Both will help to make the world 
safe for democracy. 


Dr Mary C Bradford, in a clarion call to 
the teachers said: “Soldiers of the common 
good. Rebuilders of civilization! Moulders of 
the Destiny of the world! Your great task is 
ready. Assume it!” Great God! How can 
they? How can they assume leadership in a 
world dominated by industry and world forc- 
es—to both of which they have been obliv- 
10us f 


You white-collar professionals and intel- 
lectuals who pride yourselves upon your su- 
perior knowledge, just reflect upon the far- 
reaching report of the British Labor Party on 
reconstruction after the war. Could you, with 
all your superior knowledge, duplicate that 
report? But you see they are mere organized 
workers, mere wage slaves who would scorn 
to work for a teacher’s wage! 


It was easy for our super-patriots to ac- 
cuse our teachers of wholesale disloyalty. 
Did they ever prove it? But why ask such 
omniscient gentlemen as Messrs Hornaday, 
Moffett and Whalen for proof? Did they not 
admit it? Did not the intelligent teachers 
vigorously applaud them. Only a few cour- 
ageous souls had the courage of their con- 
victions and enough professional pride to 
stand by their calling and to resent such wild 


and unjustifiable attacks upon the nation’s 
most faithful workers. 


Sherman said that war is hell. Was he 
ever in want? Did he have to live up to a 
professional standard on a street cleaner’s 
wage? What did he know of hell? Ask 
teacher—She knows! 


While 70% of the people of this country 
are barely earning enough to keep body and 
soul together, 2% are wallowing in wealth. 
Why? Ask teacher—She doesn’t know and 
the tragedy is that she doesn’t care to know. 
She’s a Professional! 


The Carpenters’ Journal says: “The exi- 
gencies of wartime make it incumbent that 
wages should at least approximate the sharp 
rise in living expenses.” For carpenters, 
Yes; but not for teachers, who are profes- 
sionals. They can afford to live on their sur- 
plus superiority or complacency. 


Guilt? Guilt? We do not have to prove your 
guilt. To be accused is guilt enough. Have 
we not cast suspicion upon you? That con- 
demns you in the minds of all decent men. 


The Parasite 


He who takes advantage of the labor of others 
is a parasite. 

Are you helping your co-workers in the salary 
fight? If not, you’re a parasite. 

Are you aiding to establish democracy in the 
schools? If not, you’re a parasite. 

Are you permitting superintendents to inau- 
gurate great and vital educational changes 
without your being consulted? If you are, 
you're a parasite. 

Are you helping to humanize your superiors? 
If not, you’re a parasite. 

Are you aiding the cause of the children who 
are suffering from undernourishment? If 
not, you are a parasite. 

Are you interested in securing economic 
justice for the worker? If not, you are a 

ite. 

Don’t be a parasite—fight. 





The American Teacher 


* 


NO SEPARATE PEACE 


P RESIDENT WILSON is right. 


There can be no general peace by means of private ar- 

rangements between individual powers. The time is 
past when a democratic scheme of inter-relations can con- 
ceivably rest on what this one and that one agree upon in a 
corner. It is essential to the welfare of all concerned that 
the problems affecting all shall be dealt with in a spirit of 
unselfish and unbiased justice, with a view to the wishes and 
to the reasonable aspirations and security and peace of mind 
of the peoples involved. Unless our relations are openly and 
frankly dealt with in this manner no permanent, no demo- 
cratic peace will have been attained. 


Too long has it been customary for principals to make 
private arrangements with teachers concerning the distribu- 
tion of the school’s load, concerning the distribution of such 
privileges and prerogatives as still lie within their discretion. 
Too frequently have men and women been obliged to sacri- 
fice their self-respect as well as the general welfare, by ap- 


pearing hat in hand at the door of higher powers, seeking - 


to negotiate separate treaties of favoritism and advantage. 


In a democracy we can no longer continue to conduct 
the affairs of our public schools along the lines of the dis- 
credited secret diplomacy. Whatever a superintendent has 
to say to a candidate for promotion should be said equally to 
all candidates. No secret arrangements can be permitted to 
debauch the individuals or to demoralize the service. No 
bargaining can ever lead to a healthy growth of the educa- 
tional system. 


Henceforth we must have open dealings and no separate 
peace. 


ANA 





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