OCTOBER, 1926 wt : | VOL. XI—No. f 


Democracy in Edacation _ Edacation for bese 


The AMERICAN 
TEACHER 


aS MENON PEESEATION OF TE 


——S——_— a 





Education 
Tomorrow _ 


oe —— 


“We should have a body of self-respecting toncheed™ 
and educators who will see to it that their ideas and , 
their experiences in educational matters shall really 
count in the community; and who, in order that these 
may count, will identify themselves with the interests 
of the community; who will conceive of themselves as 
citizens and as servants of the public, and not merel 
as hired employees of a certain body of men; It is: 
because. I hope to see the teaching body occupy. that 
position of social leadership which hit ought to occupy, 
and which to our shame it must be said we have not 
occupied in the past that I. welcome every movement 
of this sort.”—-Opinion of Prof. John Dewey, member 
N. Y. Local No. 5 of the American Federation of 
Teachers, of the work and the standing of the Amer- 
ican Federation’ of Teachers. 


va : ; B27 Se, LaSalle St, Chien 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








Our Contributors 


Joseph K. furnishes us» “Our 
American Rede P¥oblem”’ in this » cissue. 
of The Amerigan Teacher, is educational 
director of the- Survey. ‘and leeturer: for=ther 
New-School for: ‘Résearch; Aiterstak+- 
ing his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago he 
was professor of and psych at 
Baker University, 

rofessor™ of education: at the: ersity ‘of 

ash _ apes $s of education: at 
Reed He has: been 
director of the Poom neylvania 5 School for Sdcial 
Research and spec organizer of training 


courses for volunteer workers, in_ con- 
nection with National War: Camp Community 


Dr. Hart is the author of Critical Study of 
Current Theories of Moral Edycation, Democ- 
racy in Education, and Adult Education which 
is now in the publisher’s hand. He is also 
editor -_" author of Educational Re- 
sources of Village and Rural Communiti 
Communi ay Te and the Outlines of 
Socie is a menther_ of thé. Aimer» 
ican ederation of Teachers. He will be the 
genet of Chicago bd Ns and 3 at 

cheon on October 23rd pe ethepe. 
on The Community and the Shee 

. 


re igwmot a 
pe so His work covers years of tone 
tion» to. teacher. biems in: 
4) 


v7 First: 
and 8 né@ent” 


a teacher; thensa princi 
of schools, it follows hee he | is no a 
for.the position.he now holds in this 


Hé. has beenvsecretary of 
Teachers ee beer of the Illinois 
Téacher and°législative»representative for the 
teashers:of{IMineis férreleven years. He has 
appeared before the Governor and the Commit- 
tee of the House -— Senate many Shen to 
or progressive and helpful 
dilis that seemed 
gerous to and the welfare 
of children and teachers. As a res 
good legislation + i been enacted in 
eleven years, and a large increase in school 
revenues has been obtained. 


In the..course.of work he has spoken hun- 
dreds eee Oh sects FE ong and 


Robert. C. . 


> onganizatio fiom kindergartens to 
> lenod 


* clubs to 


of . 
ia sor spoken before that body sev- 





oe 














CONTENTS. 
Our American Educational Program 


Joseph K. Hart 


Equalization—What? Why? How? 


Robert: C. Moore 


Convention: Notes ........ 


Democracy i in Education. . 


*oeereeeneeenrpreeaeeeeereteeeee 


Platform of Principles he the: Slenvaine Teacher. . 


As Others See Us 
Book Reviews .. 




















oreese Seger P 


, d 
— 


mer nw OD hy 


i. ee ee ee 


Li 















Entry as second-class matter applied for 
827 S. La Salle St., Chicago, 


The American- sb eacher 


we ane ae te ane 1879. Published at 
Ti, monthly, except July and August. 






+ 











Volume XI, No. 2 


OCT OBER, 1926 


One Dollar a Year 











Our American Educational Problem 


By JOSEPH K. HART 


Educational Director, The Survey 


Naturally enough, we have thought that our 
American educational problem was that of 
educating our children. 
historical experience on this continent, we 
have assumed that the American adult’ was 
competent, and therefore, well educated. The 
assumption grows out of the indubitable fact 
that the American pioneer, the,.settler, the 
farmer and the villager of our-early periods 
did, on the whole, know his business: he con- 
quered the continent; he made himself “free,” 
in many ways; he improved the technics of 
agriculture; he- got ahead. Education existed 
for the purpose of making sure that the chil- 
dren would carry on as ably, as successfully, 
at least. 

So, we have struggled with the task of 
building adequate school houses, furnishing 
adequate, up-to-date equipment, making those 
material provisions which constitute “a good 
school;” we have passed compulsory attend- 
ance laws, and tried to see that they were 
really enforced; we have spent much energy 
on the training of teachers — to be “good in- 
structors and disciplinarians”—-who would be 
able to turn out graduates of the schools to 
“be a credit to the community.” The story of 
school-building, compulsory attendance, and 
teacher training in America is a sort of heroic 
epic, which is not clearly enough Rnown by 
the people in general. 

None the less, in spite of all these heroic 
and expensive developments; and even in 
spite of our pride in our fine school-houses and 
our enormous attendance at schools, and our 
army of teachers, things do not always seem 
to be going quite right. Something remains 
to be desited: either the world has changed, 
or else education isn’t as good as it used to 
be! We have been adding new enterprises to 


On the basis of our , 


of men for ages. 


our schools: manual training, domestic arts and 
sciences, industrial opportunities, vocational 
courses and schools—a long array of expensive 


| developments, which attract many of the chil- 


dren as the older scholastic courses cannot do. 
What is the meaning of all these demands and 
changes and readjustments ?-. 

Well, the world has changed, as we well 
know. The older technics of industry, and the 
older relationships of men in work, have 
largely passed away. We are compelled to 
live and work in this new world and, for the 
most part, we don’t understand it,‘and we do 
not, therefcre, know how fo live and work in 
it. We adults stumble about in it endlessly, 
with labor wars and national wars as proof 
that we do not fully understand what we are 
doing, and what is happening to us. 

But, if we do not understand what we are 
doing and what is happening to us, how can 
we educate our children? Science has turned 
most of our old time techmics upside down, 
and made many of our former attitudes ridic- 
ulous. Science promises a world of more ra- 
tional physical and social relationships—with 
less of old magic, old superstitions, old prej- 
udices, and old miseries._.The promise is not 
self-enacting, or self-fulfilling. The realiza- 
tion of the implications of that promise will 
require the employment of the intelligences 
We arg.not fully convinced 
that we want to see this sort of thing go on: 
in relationship to industry and - business, to 
politics and government, to morality and social 
relationships, to our fine old religious concepts 
and aspirations. We are not sure we want too 


much “science” invading these realms; and we 
-are not sure we want our children to have too 
much of these disturbing “sciences.” 


Other- 








4 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


wise, we are quite broad-minded about “sci- 
ence.” 

At any rate, we have not yet fully admitted 
these broader implications of science and the 
modern mind into our dealings with educa- 


tion: our curriculum does not fully face the 


problems and issues of the modern world; our 
teachers are not trained in the full, free spirit 
' of modern social science; our technics of edu- 
cation are not organized in the spirit of demo- 
cratic freedom and the cooperative relation- 
ships of human beings. The reasons for our 
hesitancies in these directions are not hard 
to find, and they are, on the whole, quite in- 
telligible—from the standpoint of history. I 
am not quarreling with the facts: I am merely 
stating them. ‘fn spite of all the enormous 
scientific, engineering and industrial develop- 
ments of modern times, we adults still linger 
in the shadows of the old forms of living, and, 
though our “minds” may be quite well aware 
of the fact that science is here, our habits still 
remain uneasily.rgoted in old customs and 
traditions. So we build school-houses, train 
teachers and pass compulsory attendance 
laws all for the purpose of schooling our chil- 
dren in the modes and mental fashions of a 
day that is dead, almost everywhere else but 
in school-houses. 

So, our real educational problem, today, is 
not that of educating our children; at least, it 
is not that of educating them after the present 
modes. Our real problem is concerned with 
ourselves and our contemporaries—the adults. 
Our real problem is that of educating ourselves 
to the acceptance of education in a broader 
sense, of bringing our minds up to date, not 
alone as to the materials of the modern world 
but also with respect to the informing spirit of 
modern science. These remarks apply not 
merely to so-called “belated” men and women 
in the back woods; they apply, often with 
more nicety of bearing, to residents of cities, 
to teachers in schools, and even to professors 
of science in our universities. 

They apply with peculiar fitness to almost 
all who are engaged in the training of teach- 
ers, whether in “training schools,” in normal 
schools, in teachers’ colleges, or in the depart- 
ments of education of our universities. No- 


where has the fallacy that “science is identical 
with modern knowledge” held more effective 
sway than in some departments of education 
in universities; and nowhere has its sway 
been more devastating. 

We have the problem of educating teachers 
for our schools, But we have tackled that job 
narrowly, prejudicially, emphasizing the good 
old ways, or some modern camouflage of these 
good old ways under parade under the name of 
science — such as “administrative efficiency,” 
or “intelligence testing as the basis of instruc- 


, tion.” We have trained—and we are training 
_—teachers to work in class rooms, with their 
leyes on the children. 


We have not faced, 
hitherto, and even now we scarcely dare face 
the thought of training teachers who will have 
their eyes turned to the living world—to the 
changing, evolving community that is round 
about the children, with all its varied interests, 
its calls, and appeals, its tasks and its prob- 
lems, its rewards and its punishments, its 
beauties and its joys. We have not been as 
realistic, or as intelligent, in our dealing with 
our children, as a production foreman ordi- 
narily is in dealing with his materials in a 
modern factory. He knows materials: he 
knows where his materials have come from; 
he knows what their characteristics are—what 
they will do and what they will not do; and 
he knows what is to be made out of them. 
He sees beginnings, processes, and objectives 
—all as parts of the same movement. Few 
teachers are trained, these days, to see children 
in as wide or sane a perspective. 

Now, the real reason for this. narrowness of 
perspective and consequent narrowness of 
technic is to be found, not in the schools, pri- 
marily, but in the surrounding community— 
in the adult “mind” that sums up and controls 
the world. This is our American educational 
problem: we have kept education to the school 
room and to the children; we have kept 


teacher-training largely in the grooves of old - 


technics, or equally undesirable new ones, be- 
cause, though new worlds might be emerging 
into existence all about us, we cling instinc- 
tively to the routines and the sanctuaries and 
the securities of the older type of mind. We 
adults have done and still do these things. 





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4 —_ 


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4 a | at at ~ ar -*« ~ ma * — 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER m7 5 


Hence, our real American educational prob. 
lem is that of getting a new mird operative 
in the adult community: a mind that will not 
be so hostile to the implications of science; a 
mind that will welcome rational changes on 
the basis of facts and honest interpretation of 
facts; a mind that will permit intelligence to 
play through industry, and politics, and moral- 
ity, and religion, and through the processes 
by which education either develops real mind 
in childhood and youth, or makes it largely 
improbable that such mind will ever come to 
fruition in the children it instructs. 

To be sure, such educating of adults will | 
not go on in a vacuum. Teachers need to be )\ 
educated, too: the modern teacher must be a| 
student of the moving order of life continu- ) 
ously, or else fail to represent that moving or- 
der adequately to inquiring minds. So there 
are three groups that must be educated, if 
our American schools are to do their real job 
well: the adult community must evolve a mind 
that can accept progressive educational de- 
velopments without too much protest; teach- 
ers must develop a mind that can move on- 
ward with the moving current of events; and 
children must come up into, and through, all 
these things on their way to understanding 
and mastery of the world. The basic one of 
these groups is the adult community. The 
children will largely take care of themselves 
if the community finds the methods of its 
own continuous education, for, as the world 
runs, children cannot escape being educated. 

But, probably, the real brunt of the task of 
educating the world—adults and children 
alike—must fall, still, upon the teacher group 
and upon the schools, since education is the 
acknowledged responsibility of teachers and 
schools. But present technics of instruction; 
present drifts toward mechanization and “ad- 
ministrative efficiency;” and present com- 
placencies with results do not seem to be 
the proper perspective within which to envis- 
age the future tasks of teachers and schools. 
We néed to think all these things through, 
again, with our eyes not on children in class 
rooms, but with our eyes on the community— 
its past of custom, its present of habit and 
complacent drift, and its uncertain future; 


and we need to see, in the jight of the facts, 
what we want to make of our communities, 
intellectually and morally; and we need to ask 
what share educating—that is, releasing and 
developing the intelligences of the people— 
should play in the making of that community 
of our desires. Then we shall begin to un- 
derstand what the real task of the school is. 
But the task of the school is but one factor 
in the sum total of education: the community 
lies round about the school, and children 
come to school out of the community, and 
they go from school into the community. The 
community makes the school—in all too many 
cases. If we want. better schools and better 
education we must get a more intelligent com- 
munity, which will not be scared by the de- 
velopment of better schools. However big 
the task may be, we cannot escape it. Al- 
ways we come back to it: The American 
problem of education is that of enlarging the 
mental life of the community, adults, teach- 
ers, and finally children, alike and inclusively. 


Workers’ Education 

Will not someone challenge Hendrick Willem Van 
Loon’s position in the September Forum in the ar- 
ticle entitled “Do Workmen Want: Culture?” Mr. 
Van Loon claims they do not. Is he right, or is he 
wrong?- A representative of the Railway Clerks and 
one of the Electrical Workers, in the same issue of 
the Forum, upheld his view more or less warmly. 
But both it seems to us missed the point of the work- 
man’s prophecy that some day he and his fellows 
would build their own schools and their own col- 
leges. It was not, Mr. Van Loon, that they did not 
want culture, but that they did not fancy the brand 
their patrons, the liberals, were handing out. 

That the workers themselves are forming groups 
(not as Mr. Van Loon thinks, markedly Jewish) for 
class instruction; that they are discussing in their 
conventions adult education and the best use of 
leisure, these are facts that cannot be ignored. 


TEACHER 

At Ahmedabad, India, pupils of the National Col- 
lege noted on their faculty roster, a name new to 
the roster, old in fame—Mahatma Mohandas Karam- 
chand Gandhi. The Mahatma, well-informed, asked 
students what they would have him teach. Eagerly 
they sought seclusion, consulted and delivered their 
choice, Forthwith last week Mahatma Gandhi, aus- 
tere ascetic, Tolstoy disciple, famed Indian politico- 
spiritual leader, began to teach of Jésus, of the 
Apostles, of the mysterious Holy Trinity, of twenty 
centuries of ecclesiastical superstructure. —Time. 











2 


Equalization— What? Why? How? 
By ROBERT C. MOORE 
Secretary, Illinois State Teachers’ Association 


“Equalization of educational opportunity” 
is a plank that appears in every platform 
adopted by American educators. Therefore, 
it is necessary that we understand clearly just 
what this means, why it is a proper slogan 
for educators, and how to make it a concrete 
reality. 

The ideal from which this principle springs 
is the same that prompted the statement of the 
foundation principle of the Declaration of In- 
dependence: “We hold these truths to be self- 
evident; that all men are created equal; that 
they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
inalienable rights; that among these are life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That 
to secure these rights, governments were in- 
stituted among men,... etc.” Now, the 
separate states are governments instituted 
among men for the purpose of securing cer- 
tain rights, and one right now recognized in 
all states is the right to an education. There- 
fore, all children have equal rights to educa- 
tion. 

Of course the signers of the Declaration 
knew that men are not all equal in all ways, 
and that they differ in such things as color, ap- 
pearance, weight, height, and ability or power 
of mind and body, But they did mean, and I 
believe it is still sound Americanism, that all 
men have equal rights before the law, that our 
government and its laws must not grant spe- 
cial privileges or benefits to any man, or group 
or class of men, and that whatever benefit the 
State yields to any individual it must yield on 
the same terms to. every other individual ac- 
cording to his needs or his ability to receive 
it. 

Every State has assumed the function of 
furnishing education to its youth at public ex- 
pense. Therefore, according to our American 
ideals and principles of government, it. must 
furnish education on equal terms to all its 
youth. It may not be possible to have educa- 
tional facilities and opportunities absolutely 
equal in all parts of the State, but certainly 
the State should provide for an approximate 


equality. The principle does not mean that 
it is possible for the State through education 
to develop all young people into adults of 
equal power, efficiency and usefulness; but it 
does mean that the State must give an ap- 
proximately equal chance to all children to 
develop their powers, efficiency, usefulness 
and good citjzenship in general according to 
their ability. 

This principle of equality is generally ad- 
mitted to be true, but up to this time several 
states have failed to provide anything even 
approaching equality of educational oppor- 
tunity. The causes of the glaring inequalities 
are the shifting of the financing and adminis- 
tration of schools from the State to the local 
districts, the great inequalities in the distribu- 
tion of wealth and population among the local 
districts, and the consequent inequalities in 
the ability of local districts to finance schools. 
For instance, here in Illinois we have 12,000 
separate local school districts, each of which 
must levy about 93 per cent of its school 
finances on the property within its own nar- 
row boundaries. Some of these little districts 
have numerous children and‘very little wealth 


or taxable property; others have few children 


6 


and enormous amounts of wealth and prop- 
erty. Hence, some districts have high tax 
rates and poor schools, while other districts 
have very low tax rates and standard schools 
or better. Most of us believe this to be con- 
trary to the American principle of equality 
stated above, and, therefore, advocate equality 
of educational opportunity. : 

The method adopted by the States that are 
working toward equality is to reduce the 
number and increase the size of the local dis- 
tricts or. units of taxation, and to increase the 
financial support of schools from the state 
treasury and to apportion the state funds in 
proportion .to the needs of the schools. 

There is good authority for the equalization 
of educational opportunity by the State or 
other unit larger than the little local school 
district, sogpe of which I am glad to quote: 





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bertie 
ince | 
ecess; 
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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 7 


The essence’ of democracy is equality of opportu- 
ity. We have shown the district system not only 
hils to provide for equality, but makes the approach 
5 an equality impossible——Fletcher Harper Swift. 

2. “Of these two forms of general aid for educa- 
ion state- or county, the state form is the more 
esirable because it more easily and evenly equalizes 
he burden of maintaining what is for the good of all, 
nd thus it makes it possible for the State to demand 
igher educational standards on the part of all com- 
unities than can be done under any other form of 
pport. This can be done better, too, if the amount 
f general aid is relatively large.”.—E. P. Cubberley. 
3. “We shall not be able, however, to finance our 
hools on the basis of local taxation. It is ridiculous 
o propose that the school district or township be 
ade miainly responsible for the support of a service 
hich #§ state-wide and just as certainly national in 
s significance. In any.one state the resources avail- 
ble for the support of public education will vary 
ormously from community to community.” — 
eorge D. Strayer. ; 

“The whole problem of progress is fundamentally 
ducational in character. The problems of today and 
e future will tax the ability of our citizens even 
ough equipped with the best education which our 
hools can afford. Within our Republic every indi- 
idual should possess the rudiments of education with 
hich he can train himself to a higher education, if 
enied other opportunities and assistance. To with- 
old opportunity for education from the least among 
ur people is a crime committed against our Repub- 
c.”—Samuel Gompers. 

The fundamental principles of our American ideal 
f government, the very essence of Americanism, is 
quality,—equality of rights to life, liberty and hap- 
iness, equality of rights to make and support the 
overnment, and equality of rights to share in the 
enefits conferred by the government. A govern- 
ent “of the people, by the people, and for the 
eople” can mean only a government that applies to 
ll the people on equal terms, that is made by all the 
eople on equal terms, and that distributes its bene- 
ts equally among the people. Therefore, it is cer- 
ninly un-American, unjust, and contrary to the spirit 
f our Constitution for the State to neglect some of 
s children in distributing the benefits of education. 
Such neglect and injustice are not only harmful to 
e neglected children; they are dangerous to the 
tate itself in two ways. First, since all our states- 
nen have agreed that education and knowledge are 
ecessary to the preservation of our liberties and the 
erpetuation of our form of government, we must 
onclude that the lack of education resulting from 
oor schools in any part of the state threatens our 
berties and endangers ‘our government. Second, 
ince loyalty to and respect for the government are 
ecessary characteristics of good citizens, -it is dan- 
erous to have citizens who feel that the State has 










































been partial in the distribution of its benefits or that 
it has discriminated against some citizens in favor of 
others in the distribution of its school facilities. Any 
American, even though ignorant, has an instinctive 
feeling and belief that all people should be equal be- 
fore the law; therefore, if he feels that the laws of 
the State discriminate against him or his children, he 


-loses some of his respect for the law and becomes 


dissatisfied with the government. Therefore, no State 
can afford to continue equalities and inequities in the 
distribution of educational facilities or other benefits. 

How shocking it is to hear some dependent, de- 
fective, delinquent, or criminal explain his plight by 
declaring that he never had a fair chance, when we 
have so long boasted that this is America, the land 
of lity before the law and of the equality of 
cpebetnadey! Can we still make that boast sincerely 
when we know that there are the greatest inequalities 
in the educational- opportunities provided by the 
State? Isn't it possible that some of-our citizens are 
justified in believing that they never had a fair 
chance when our State permits such great inequalities 
in educational opportunities? 

Those of us who have had our chance should enlist 
in the defense of the truly American principle of 
equality of opportunity, at least so far as opportu- 
nities or benefits are conferred by the, State. Let us 
see that all children have a fair chance. Let us try 
to appreciate what our oportunities have meant to us, 
and what we now might be had those opportunities 
been denied us. Then when we meet some poor out- 
cast who has become a burden or a menace to society, 
we shall feel more thankful for our opportunities, feel 
less superior to the outcast, less critical of his efforts 
to succeed in life, and more determined to see that 
every child has a fair chance to succeed in the future. 
We shall see in the outcast what we possibly might 
have been had our chances been reversed. Then; ad- 
dressing the outcast, we might say with the poet: 

“If I had lived in the gutter, you say, 
Ere the dark was dawn, ere the dawn was day, 
Ere the sun arose on my infant eyes, 
In an underworld of sad surprise, 
I would be as you, ¢oarse, bitter, old, 
Cursed from birth with the lust of gold; 
I would be as you, foul and defiled, 
A menace to man and woman and child, 
“And, if you had had my chance, you claim, 
The sunnier skies and the nobler name, 
The childhood guarded and guided sure 
By a teacher sane and parent pure, 
You would be as I am, strong and young, 
Where deeds are wrought and songs sung; 
You would be as healthy and as fresh, 
In your human heart and your human flesh. 
“And you may be right. Perchance the beast, 
That roars in you, in me, at least 
. Has growled, and growling shown that we 
Are fashioned one humanity. 





10 


“criminal may all be commendable. 






Perchance my passions unexpressed, 
In you are but made manifest; 
Perchance in you I. ought to see 
The hell from which he rescued me. 

“If this be true——if desperate chance 

Of vast enequal circumstance 

Has given me much and scanted you, 

My brother, this is also true: 

Cut of my noblest I ought to give 
Your lost abundance while I live, 

And at the doors of darkness stand 

To meet you with an outstretched hand.” 

But the time to meet with outstretched hand and 
to give nobly of our abundance to the children of 
earth is before they become outcasts, burdens or 
menaces. Sympathy for the suffering, aid for the 
helpless, alms for the poor, and punishment for the 
But the patriot- 
ism and good citizenship that provides universal educ- 
cation of the right sort, freely and equally distributed 
among the children is more commendable; for proper 
education promotes the intelligence, health, efficiency, 
morality and character that prevents failure, misery, 
poverty and crime. 

Therefore, it is in perfect accord with American 
principles and ideals for teachers to advocate equality 
of educational opportunity and that such equality be 


brought about by support from the State. 


The first article of a series om equalization of educational oppor- 
tunity. Other educators im other states will follow. 


Convention Notes 


Four major committees were established on 
recommendation of the Executive Council,— 
Committees on Credentials, on Resolutions, on 
Policies, on Legislation, ‘the same as formerly, 
and a new Committee on Promotion and Or- 
ganization. The new committee, that on Pro- 
motion and Organization, was established to 
handle matters dealing with the creation and 
functioning of standing committees, the un- 
dertaking of investigations and studies, the 
arrangement of the year’s program, and the 
recommendation of conditions under which 
the best interests of the American Federation 
of Teachers can be promoted, going into such 
things as recommendations concerning per- 
sonnel of staff of the organization itself. The 
purpose of this new committee was to get the 
work of the convention into operation. Dr. 
Henry R. Linville was the chairman. Dr. 
Linville reported on the third day of the Con- 
vention as follows: 

The Committee began its work having in 
mind the recommendation made by President 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER \ 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Barker in her communication to the Conven- 
tion to the effect that we should endeavor to 
provide for the more effective organization of 
our activities through the establishment. of 
standing committees. She foresaw that by 
having standing committees we would be able 
to function between conventions as well as at 
conventions. The Executive Council and the 
Convention approved these suggestions and 
provided for the creation of this new commit- 
tee which should formulate and recommend to 
the Convention a plan and a program for 
carrying the following into effect: 

1. The establishment of standing commit- 
tees in Edycation, Professional Improvement, 
Academic Freedom and Tenure, Legislation, 
Promotion and Organization. 

2. Recommending to the Convention the 
personnel, so far as possible, to carry on the 
work of the committees, giving attention to 
the matter of assembling for each committee 
the persons who have a vital interest in the 
problems assigned to them, and so far as pos- 
sible selecting members who are convenient to 
one another geographically. 

3. To consider and recommend action on 
the several resolutions referred to our Com- 
mittee. 

4. To allocate all the resolutions adopted by 
this convention to the several standing com- 
mittees when such committees shall have been 
approved by the Convention. 

5. To undertake and report to this conven- 
tion the job analysis of the positions of Presi- 
dent and Secretary-Treasurer, and incidentally 
to suggest working conditions and qualifica 
tions which in the opinion of the Committee 
would be suitable for the effective perform- 
ance of the work assigned to these officers. 

In attacking assignment No. 1 it was de- 
cided that we should present an analysis of 
the functions of the standing committees in 
order to give the Convention the opportunity 
to approve or to disapprove the views the 
Committee happened to have in this matter, 
and also possibly to offer to those who are 
being invited to participate in the work of the 
standing committees the inducement thai 
comes from an undertaking definitely planned 
and clearly organized. 
















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The Committee on Education 


.) 


f It was agreed that the Committee on Edu- 
ff cation should study and make recommenda- 
yim tions to each convention concerning educa- 
e tional experiments, practices and tendencies 
tf in the field of education, whether of a construc- 


ef tive character or otherwise. Not-only should 
dim this committee concern itself with such experi- 
fm ments as the junior high school, intelligence 
of™ tests, the work-study-play plan, creative activ- 
© ity, etc., etc., but it should also examine the 
results of current educational practices in 
whatever way they may be observable. 


t- 
t,@@ The Committee on Professional Improvement 
Nn, This committee should study and make 


recommendations regarding the training of 
i¢@™ teachers in general and their training in the 
1¢@ ~knowledge of the social sciences in particular. 
toM™ It should ascertain the extent of the adoption 
eM of sabbatical leave and secure information on 
1¢M@™ its effect beneficial or otherwise. It should 
s-— secure information on the extent of the cus- 
tom tom of boards of education paying for vaca- 

tion study. It should investigate the effect 
on of certain types of discipline -based on the 
n-@™% fear-motive in relation to the professional ef- 

ficiency of teachers, also systems of rating the 
YM service of teachers. It should report whatever 
n-@% facts may be available on the tendency to 
eil™™ lengthen hours of work, or to impose so-called 

“voluntary” extra-curricular activities. It 
n-@@ should ascertain the tendency in the alteration 
si: of health conditions. Finally, it should ascer- 
ly@™ tain whether there is evidence -in teacher- 
a-™™ participation of a tendency to develop 
ee—m™ standards as well as loyalty to those standards 
m-™™ when democratically developed. 


The Committee on Academic Freedom and 
Tenure 

This committee should deal with situations 
involving the status and the freedom of teach- 
ers both in the classroom and in their lives as 
citizens outside the classroom. It should de- 
velop as our financial resources allow machin- 
ery for obtaining; information in all cases 
where freedom of teaching and of expression 
are interfered with, and also machinery for 
handling these cases. Until our own economic 
resources “become sufficient for more aggres- 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER : 9 


sive participation in defending cases, the Com- 
mittee should work out the technic of dealing 
with such cases and help in the direction of 
local defense. The Committee should secure 
the co-operation in this field of labor groups, 
such as city central bodies and state federa- 
tions, and also civic organizations. 
The American Civil Liberties Union 

The work which we should have been doing 
for some time in handling cases in which our 
own fellows (not necessarily in the organiza- 
tion, but all teachers throughout the country) 
are\ involved has been neglected because we 
didn’t have the machinery for handling them, 
and as a member of the Executive Committee 
of the American Civil Liberties, Union, I have 
had a great deal of work to do with cases of 
teachers who have been denied their rights as 
citizens. But it so happens that the American 
Civil Liberties Union will not handle a .case 
which involves merely a matter of tenure. 
The only kind of case they can consistently 
handle on the basis of their purposes is a case 
in. which freedom of speech and freedom of 
expression have been definitely violated. So 
we have had to, here in New York, take over 
some of the cases that they had heard about 
and handled briefly but~decided finally they. 
couldn’t continue or pursue. The result has 
been that a number of the cases have fallen by 
the wayside for lack of proper attention and 
teachers have been mistreated and denied their 
rights simply because there was no machinery 
for protecting them. 


The Committee on Legislation 

This committee should keep in touch with 
legislation introduced into state and national 
legislatures on educational matters and gen- 
eral social issues of special importance to edu- 
cation, and should make reeommendations to 
the Executive Council from tinie to time. The 
Committee should develop machinery for pro- 
viding other committees with digests of legis- 
lation along the lines with which they are 
severally concerned. It should develop plans 
by which locals of the American Federation 
of Teachers may keep in touch with legisla- 
tion in their states, in order that the locals 
may have the information on which to carry 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 11 








te : THE AMERICAN TEACHER : 


on campaigns to promote beneficial legislation 
and combat unfavorable legislation. In this 
connection the committee should develop ef- 
fective co-operation between the American 
Federation of Teachers and its locals on the 
one hand, and on the other hand, with such 
labor bodies as the Executive Council of the 
American Federation of Labor, the standing 
Committee on Education of the American 
Federation of Labor, with state federations, 
city central bodies, etc. 


Co-Operation With the Research Bureau of 
A. F. of T. 

The Committee has in mind. the obvious 
need of the various standing committees here 
provided for, to keep in touch with our re- 
search bureati in Washington, D. C., and to 
develop effective co-ordination therewith. The 
“Committee likewise has in mind the possibil- 
‘ity that the federal legislation in education will 
be done in considerable measure through our 
National Legislative Representative at Wash- 
ington, and also that in matters that concern 
state legislation there should be developed ef- 
fective co-operation between the standing 
committees and the Legislative Representa- 
tive. 


.The Committee on Promotion and Organiza- 
tion . 

The Convention has decided that there 
should be a standing committee bearing the 
same name as the present convention com- 
mittee which is engaged in making this re- 
port to you. It is recommended that the 
standing committee of this name shall take 
over the report of the convention Committee 
on Promotion and Organization, and co-op- 
erate with the officers throughout the year in 
seeing that the work outlined by the Conven- 
tion committee is carried out. The standing 
committee should plan for the extension of 
our organization, for effective contact between 
locals and national organization, for effective 
publicity, for counteracting hostile public 
opinion, for improving the service of the 
American Federation of Teachers to its mem- 
bers, for co-operation with the labor move- 
ment in the work of organizing teachers. 
Finally, the Committee should keep in touch 


and co-operate with other committees of the aft i 
A. F, of T. to help secure the co-ordination of ship 
the national work. Be headc 

Your committee begs leave to offer for your appoi 
consideration certain recommendations bear- j,i, 
ing on a promotion and organization campaign sical 
and for the financing of such a campaign. The lente 
Committee recommends that the American] yw J. 
Federation of Teachers take steps to secure as - jp, 
a special fund the sum of $25,000 to be used onc) 
over a period of three years for organization Moin 
work, and that those charged with raising this Hp. .i¢ 
fund depend mainly upon an appeal to trade MM os yy, 
unions for securing it. In the opinion of the Wt 
Committee-the appeal for funds should be@# . ne] 
made also to individuals and organizations y,,1 
known to be in sympathy with the ideals and@ y,.. 
purposes of organized labor. In fact, all per- ing tl 
sons should be enlisted in this enterprise who ##  ount 
appreciate the very great educational and so- 

@ RB — you a 
cial importance of organizing the teachers of @ |. ine 
América in affiliation with labor. Your com-@% ine 1 


mittee recommends that the standing Com- 
mittee on Promotion and Organization be 
charged with the task of raising this fund. 

Your Committee further recommends that 
the standing Committee develop as already 


the fa 
Califo 
of hav 
real r 
speecl 














suggested plans for organization work and@™ j.31 ( 
that in this connection use may be made of @ ¢,.4 
our own locals and individuals in these locals f,.¢ . 
who may be able to help effectively in organ-H% the in 
ization activity in their localities. Effective oppor 
use may also be made of A. F. of L. organizers, For 
central bodies and state federations of labor HR -ecom 
and their officers, the officers of the A. F. of @ with 
T. and such organizers as may from time tof apolis 
time be appointed by our own Executive jnitte, 
Council. Harre 
We urgently recommend that each delegate MH ang c 
to this Convention be regarded during theM York, 
coming year as the connecting link between#y 7 Rp. 
the national, office and the various locals, som Borch 
that through the delegates the Secretary-@ treasy 
Treasurer, for example, check up on the work wii p 
already done by the various standing commit- HH mittee 
tees provided for at this convention. tinue 
Your Committee with due and unaffected Tha 
modesty recommends for appointment on the MM sidera 
standing committees herein provided for some MM the se 
of its own members, together with a few who mittee 


oa 


o 


0 TR a a I 


@ > tute 


i one SP .. OP. <2. 6D. SO. be, fe OO te Cie eB. ee 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 11 


are not it#its membership, For the chairman- 
ship of the Committee’ on Education, with 
headquarters in Chicago, we recommend the 
appointment of Lucie W. Allen. For the 
chairmanship of the Committee on Profes- 
sional Improvement with headquarters in At- 
lanta, we recommend the, appointment of Mr. 
W. J. Scott and also the appointment of Mary 
C. Barker on the Committee. For the chair- 
manship of the Committee on Academic Free- 
dom and Tenure, with headquarters on the 
Pacific Coast, we recommend the appointment 
of Mr. R. W. Everett. 

Why, you may ask, should we recommend 
somebody in California for troubles in New 
York? Well, we are not thinking of New 
York primarily, but it is a matter of distribut- 
ing the work in the different sections of the 
country. It is also true, I may tell you, if 
you are not aware of the fact, that California 
is the most reactionary state inthe Union in 
the matter of freedom of speech. In view of 
the fact that there are more men in prison in 
California than in any other place on charges 
of having done something (but we believe the 
real reason is their exercise of the freedom of 
speech), and in view of the fact that the Amer- 
ican Civil Liberties Union is practically con- 
fined to work on the release of prisoners in 
free speech cases in California, we feel that 
the inspiration from California would be a fine 
opportunity for this Committee. 

For the Committee on Legislation we 
recommend for chairman, Miss Mabel Colter, 
with headquarters at St. Paul and Minne- 
apolis. We also recommend that on this com- 
mittee there be Miss Isabel Williams and Mr. 
Harrell. For the Committee on Promotion 
and Organization, with headquarters in New 
York, we recommend the appointment of Mr. 
H. R. Linville, Mr. A. J. Muste, Miss Selma 
Borchardt, and the president and the secretary- 
treasurer.of the organization. The Committee 
will be glad to add other names to the com- 
mittees if the Convention desires us to con- 
tinue in this direction. ; 

That leaves unfinished number 3—the con- 
sideration and recommendation of action on 
the several resolutions referred to our Com- 
mittee ; 4—the allocation of all the resolutions 


adopted by this convention to the several 
standing committees when such committees 
shall have been approved by the convention; 
and, 5, the undertaking and reporting to this 
convention the job analysis of the positions of 
president and secretary-treasurer, and inci- 
dentally suggesting working conditions and 
qualifications which in the opinion of the Com- 
mittee would be suitable for the effective per- 
formance of the work assigned to these offi- 
cers. 

John P. Coughlin, secretary of the Central 
Trades and Labor Council of Greater New 
York and vicinity, in his address to the teach- 
ers on the opening day of the convention, 
spoke especially on the need of teachers’ 
trade union organizations. He said “You have 
a most difficult problem, however, to meet. 
The opposition that the labor movement meets 
is intensified against you for the reason that 
you handle and mould the minds of the young. 
For that reason, the labor movement ought to 
be extremely interested in seeing that you get 
every teacher jn the public schools of our 
country within the folds of your organization. 

“The teachers need education, and they need 
education in the trade-union movement, not 
only from the economic standpoint but from 
the standpoint of moulding the children of the 
future to meet society and preserve our 
democratic government.” 

Frank R. Crosswaith of the Brotherhood of 
Sleeping Car Porters explained the marvelous 
growth of his organization. The keynote of 
his talk was that the Pullman Company had 
instituted a program which had submerged 
the soul of the American Negro into a life of 
tips-taking and that the Brotherhood would 
emancipate him from that state. 

The social end of the Convention was cer- 
tainly properly taken care of. If we should 
take a show of hands of the delegates on this 
there would be twice as many hands as dele- 
gates. 

On Tuesday, June 29, Local 5 entertained 
all Convention delegates with a bus ride to 
Coney Island via Manhattan Bridge and 
Prospect Park, and a dinner at Feltman’s. A 
perfect dinner at a beautiful place and two 
hours for sight-seeing. It was wonderful! 


* re ro oo a a ae ae 








Democracy in Education 


THOS. J. WILSON ‘ 
Chicago Men No. 2 


The battle cry of the American Federation 
of Teachers is “Democracy in Education; 
Education for Democracy.” It was suggested 
by the fine idealism of the men and women of 
local No. 5 of New York City. This slogan is 
not an idle dream of the crusaders of 1916. 
It is not the illusion of radicals proposing to 
overthrow a properly constituted system of 
school administration. It is not an impossible 
idealism to be attained only in the millennium. 
Neither is it a panacea for all the handicaps of 
the teaching profession. It represents a sane, 
conservative determination on the part of a 
group of teachers to resist the growing bureau- 
cratic, autocratic, and inefficient administra- 
tion of the public schools. It represents a 
program of action, simple and effective. 

Democracy in education is the prototype of 
democracy in industry; autocracy in education 
is just as pernicious as autocracy in industry. 
United action by classroom workers and by 
industrial workers is necessary to secure the 
former and to defeat the latter. Democracy in 
education means that teachers have full liberty 
to organize as they see fit. If they choose to 
organize outside the schools and affiliate with 
other groups of workers that is their privilege. 
Their right to form a union is exactly the 
same as that of any other group. If they 
desire to exclude members of the administra- 
tive force they have the right to do so. - It is 
difficult to understand the operation of the 
executive mind which objects to this exclu- 
sion but sees no parallel in excluding class- 
room teachers from its organization. One ob- 
jection raised in Chicago to teachers’ councils 
was that principals were excluded from teach- 
ers’ deliberations, yet the executives of the 
city have uniosis so tight that a classroom 
teacher cannot drive a wedge into one of 
them. 

In cities where locals. of the American 
Federation of Teachers have been maintained 
for several years there is little or no prejudice 
against them. In some places they have be- 
come so respectable that their usefulness to 


classroom teachers is considerably impaired. 
In other places administrative forces have 
combined with autocracy in industry to force 
union teachers out of the system or to disband 
their organizations. 

Teachers should hold this right to organize 
with a determination that is unshakable. It 
is a right to be maintained against all oppos- 
ing forces. There is not a superintendent who 
can stand out against a united group of teach- 
ers who show courage, intelligence, and com- 
mon sense in maintaining their right to or- 
ganize. 

Democracy in education means that teach- 
ers have full liberty to select in their own way, 
representatives to speak for them in any ca- 
pacity. It means also that various adminis- 
trative officers shall receive such represénta- 
tives without prejudice. This is but another 
application of the constitutional provision that 
a man may have an attorney to represent him 
in court. This right is so well grounded in 
American practice that it is difficult to under- 
stand how any school official can be so obtuse 
as to deny its justice. The Chicago Daily Journal 
on March 5, 1925, supported this right in the 
following editorial : 

“Superintendent of Schools McAndrew and _ his 
Board of Assistants challenge the right of the Chi- 
cago Teachers’ Federation to be represented before 
them by anyone not actively in the employ of the 
school board. This is old stuff, Mr. Superintendent. 
The question was threshed out long ago. It is a 
well-recognized principle that any organization of 
employees is entitled to be represented by any spokes- 
man it designates, The courts have upheld that 
principle. Common sense upholds it. To challenge 
it is to speak out of the past. It is rightly under- 
stood why an employee of the school board would 
hesitate to speak with all frankness and force against 
action of the board on matters affecting the Teachers’ 
Federation. A person outside the school system, 
speaking for the Federation, could with safety go as 
far as his courage and intelligence could carry him. 
The Federation does well to insist upon its rights.” 

Democracy in education means that teachers 
have a right to a hearing before drastic change 
is made in their wages, hours, working con- 
ditions or rules which affect them in any man- 


12 





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' THE AMERICAN TEACHER 13 


ner. School administrators too often look upon 
themselves as army officers who issue commands 
to their subordinates. A teacher is expected to 
take orders and ask no questions. If he is not 
satisfied with conditions laid down by his superiors 
he is subject to discipline. In the words of 
Kipling : 

“An’ them that do not like it they can lump it, 

An’ them that cannot stand it they can jump it.” 

And too often the teacher tamely submits. 
Teachers have a right to a hearing when a 
change is proposed in their salary schedule or 
when an addition to their teaching load is con- 
templated. 

The defense of a superintendent for his 
arbitrary use of authority is that the law holds 
him responsible for maintaining an efficient 
system of schools. But no school administrator 
can maintain an efficient system of schools 
unless he has the happy co-operation of teach- 
ers. And a happy co-operation is never se- 
cured by intimidation. The administration of 
a school system ‘does not begin in the board 
of education, nor in the superintendent's office, 
nor does it originate in the brain of the prin- 
cipal. It begins in the class room. For here 
is the real school. It is in the mental interplay 
that takes place between the mind of the 
teacher and the mind of the pupil. To the ex- 
tent that an administrator hinders this process 
he is a failure. If he aids this process his work 
is a success. 

The teacher knows more about the condi- 
tions in the class room than any administrator 
can ever know. 
sense as well as simple justice that the teacher 
have the right and opportunity to be heard 
when any action is proposed which will affect 
the educative process. 

Democracy in education does not mean that 
teachers have the sole right to determine what 
the terms and conditions of employment shall 
be. It throws the whole matter upon an ar- 
bitration basis. But arbitration assumes that 
both sides are wiliing to discuss their differ- 
ences and settle them in a conciliatory manner. 
If there is no agreement between the teachers 
and the administrative forces the rhatter is 
left open so that either side may accept or re- 
ject the proposals with the consequent result 


It is a matter of common - 


of a discharge or a walk out. There is noth- 
ing in the constitution of the American 
Federation of Teachers which forbids a strike. 
Its policy has been, however, to use persuasion 
rather than the more direct action of the in- 
dustrial worker. For the most part this at- 
titude has been met with understanding and 
appreciation by the school administrators. In 
a rough way the condition is this: If teachers 
do not use the strike as a weapon against the 
board of education, then the board of educa- 


tion will not use the threat of a discharge to 


intimidate the teachers into submission. 

| Democracy in education means the right to 
bargain collectively. The justice of collective 
bargaining rests upon the following purposes : 

1, There is no law to say how much an 
employer shall pay and how much the worker 
shall receive. The matter of wages, hours, and 
working conditions is determined by a bargain 
between the teachers and the school author- 
ities. 

2. There can be no fair and square bargain 
betwen unequal bargaining units. The law 
does not sanction a bargain betwen a child and 
an adult. Such a bargain might be unfair, for 
the strong individual could take advantage of 
the weak. Similarly there can be no fair and 
square bargain between a powerful corpora- 
tion on the one hand and the individual 
worker, either industrial or educational, on 
the other. When workers organize they 
gain strength, are more able to meet the 
employer on terms of equality, thus a fair bar- 
gain can be made. Teachers have a right to 
bargain collectively, a right that has been 
assured their brothers in the industrial field 
by state legislation, by federal legislation and 
by decisions of the supreme court. The dis- 
position of the law is to lay down the rules 
of the game and leave it to the employer and 
the employee to fight it out. The officers of 
the law are referees to see that each side plays 
according to the rules. It frequently happens, 
however, that an injunction judge forgets his 
mission as a referee and gets into the game 
on the side of the employer. Opposed to 
democracy in education is autocracy in educa- 


tion, which means : 
(Continued on Page 21) 





14 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 











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327 South La Salle Street, Chicago 


Florence Curtis HANSON 
Sec.-Treas. and Editor 








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“This movement they call organized labor is the univer- 
sal, vital problem of the world.” 
—Thomas Carlyle. 

















TEACHER TENURE 


The recent agitation in Chicago created by 
a so-called retrenchment policy calling for the 
elimination of some fifty teachers’ positions in 
the high schools makes the discussion of 
teacher tenure verypertinent. These teachers 
are not yet removed from the payroll. The 
law states: “Appointments and promotions of 
teachers, principals and other educational em- 
ployees shall be made for merit only, and after 
satisfactory service for a probationary period 
of three years, (during which period the board 
may dismiss or discharge any such probation- 
ary employee upon the recommendation, ac- 
companied by the written reasons therefor of 
the superintendent of schools) appointments 
of teachers and principals shall become per- 
manent, subject to the rules of the board con- 
cerning conduct and efficiency, and subject to 
removal for cause in the manner provided by 
. section 161 of this Act: “Section 161. No 
teacher or principat who has been or shall be 
appointed by said board of education shall 
(after serving the probationary period of three 
years specified in section 138 of this Act) be 
removed except for cause, and then only by a 
vote of not less than a majority of all members 
of the board, upon written charges presented 
by the superintendent of schools to be heard 
by the board, or a duly authorized committee 








of the same, after thirty days’ notice, with copy 
of the charges, is served upon the person 
against whom they are preferred, who shall 
have the privilege of being present, together 
with counsel, offering evidence and making de- 
fense thereto. At the request of any party 
such hearing shall be public. The action and 
decision of the board in the matter shall be 
final.” 

How the courts will interpret this law in 
case the teachers are removed remains to be 
seen. 

Since its organization in 1916, the American 
Federation of Teachers has stressed the prob- 
lem of tenure as one that must be given such 
consideration as will bring about. its general 
establishment if teaching is to become a pro- 
fession. Since that date the subject of tenure 
has received inereased attention, but progress 
has been far from satisfactory. The teachers 
throughout the country have given less atten- 
tion than might naturally be expected. 

It is significant that no other educational 
measure meets with as intense opposition as 
does tenure. 

Tenure is one of the most difficult problems 
confronting teachers and administrators. At 
first glance it appears to be economic in its 
nature in that it is aimed to prevent the very 
large turnover among teachers. The result of 
this turnover is not only to keep the schools 
in an unsettled and disorganized condition (it 
is not uncommon for the smaller schools to 
have a complete new corps of teachers) but 
the parents and students: are dealing with 
teachers who are unfamiliar with local condi- 
tions, and new: policies are frequently substi- 
tuted for the old, creating lack of stability and 
permanency. The teachers in turn, because of 
the short stay in the community, have only a 
passing or superficial interest which doubt'ess 
goes far to account for the lack of civic interest 
and responsibility on.the part of teachers. 
They have little or no opportunity to function 
as citizens since they are transients. Thus 
several educational problems arise. — 

But there is a wider phase of the tenure 
question than the economic or the certainty of 
keeping a job. In the opinion.of the American 
Federation of Teachers it is imperative that 








- ‘THE AMERICAN TEACHER : 15 


teachers be free if the schools are to meet the 
responsibility which the modern conditions of 
American life impose upon the schools. 

The teachers realize as does everyone else, 
that the teacher is not free. Private opinions 
and feelings must be buried deep,—so deep in 
fact that their very life is smothered out. 
What the teachers must say and apparently 
think is more or less clearly outlined for them 
in almost every community, so that any good 
work they may do through other channels is 
practically nullified. The opinions of a teacher 
who is not supposed to have any opinions, and 
the child knows this, have as a rule little 
weight. The teachers themselves take on a 
lack of personality which is a part of their 
protective coloring. So long as the teachers 
develop this protective coloring they will play 
a small part in the Nation’s destiny. 

Tenure - therefore, in the opinion of the 
American Federation of Teachers is not merely 
an economic necessity to give a feeling of se- 
curity of livelihood to the teacher, but a 
spiritual necessity if the schools are to be a 
dependable factor in the social welfare of the 
nation. Only teachers who are free and who 
realize they are free, can do the job that 
America now demands of its schools. 

There is a perfunctory kind of tenure which 
is more or less in existence which avoids the 
frequent turnover among teachers under ordi- 
nary circumstances. But tenure is not tenure 
in the real sense of the term if it merely means 
the perennial re-election of teachers. 
knows the number of teachers’ who are dis- 
missed or who fail of re-election each year 
because they have gained the ilJ-favor of some 
important person or group. Even if this num- 
ber is so small as one per cent, it nullifies the 
spirit of tenure. The feeling of a fair degree 
of security in the job may still be left but the 
other ninety-nine per cent realize thoroughly 
that they must watch their step. 

Each year brings about some very dramatic 
cases of dismissal of teachers on some ill- 
defined charge of the good of the service or 
public welfare. Many of these cases are never 
known outside of the communities in which 
they occur, but the evil is done. 

The American Federation of Teachers has 
little interest in the mere question of the hold- 


No one_. 


ing of jobs by teachers whether fitted or not, 
knowing that the ill-trained and ineffective are 
often shielded, but it és vitally interested in the 
securing of freedom to teachers which will 
give them the right to live, to think and to 
express themselves through their personalities 
and thus to reach the lives of those with whom 
they come in contact. 

The California Tenure Law of 1921 was the 
best which any state had. adopted thus far. 
There was a drive in 1923 to destroy it. This 
leads to the very significant fact that nothing 
else in our American system of schools arouses 
the hostility of the invisible government to 
the extent that tenure does. It becomes evi- 
dent that tenure is the last line of defense for 
those who hold to the view that education 
must not function as a thing in itself. Why are 
these forces so much in fear of tenure? This 
is a question every teacher in the United States 
should consider seriously. 

How will tenure come—as a gift or as the 
result of a struggle? Will it be conferred on 
teachers or must they achieve it? Mr. Henry 
Ohl, Jr., president of the Wisconsin State 
Federation of Labor beliéves “The tenure of 
any téacher of course will always be of un- 
certain duration until teachers join the Ameri- 
can Federation of Teachers in sufficient num- 
bers to encourage them to bring forth their 
ideas openly and make their voices heard be- 
yond the confines of the school room.” 





BE AN ORGANIZER 


The unorganized teachers need to have the gospel 
of organization carried‘to them. How can this be 
done? 

The most important single influence, probably, that 
can be brought to bear upon unorganized teachers is 
the influence which EVERY union teacher can have 
upon his or her friends and acquaintances. 

Are you willing to be of maximum service to your 
union? If you are, see that you become effective 
as an organizer among your friends. See that you 
grow acquainted with the union’s past history; see 
that you understand its fundamental principles; ac- 
quaint yourself with the modern problems that con- 
front teachers; study to become as expressive as 
possible both in writing and in speaking. 

Your local, state and national officers can do much 
but union success depends very largely upon the 
RANK AND FILE. Be an EFFECTIVE ORGAN- 
IZER for your union. 





16 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


THE PROGRAM OF ACTION FOR 1926 


“The normal five-hour day in the public schools.” 
“A maximum of 1,500 pupils to a building, a maxi- 
mum of 30 pupils to a class.” 





TEACHER LOAD 


What is the relation of teacher load and mental 
fatigue to teaching efficiency? We have numerous 
studies purposing to prove that the students in large 


classes progress as well as in smaller classes, even - 


better, but we have no statement of a research study 
as to whether the teachers of large classes give as 
many years of inspired service as they might be ex- 
pected to give if their energies were not taxed to the 
maximum. Now that we have the results of these 
studies of how much can be done under pressure, 
let us have some studies of how long it can be done. 


We have also numerous statements of the number 
and causes of pupil failures. We do not see admin- 
istrators or many teachers even calling any attention 
to the relation of teacher load to pupil failure. The 
administrators doubtless never will, but will the class- 
room teachers not became intelligent enough and 
fearless enough to attack this problem and solve it? 


Throughout the industrial world thére have been 
numerous investigations of the relation between pkys- 
ical fatigue and production. That a diminution of 
hours of labor results in increased output has been 
proved conclusively. It has been shown beyond 
doubt that there is a point in physical labor where 
the productive power of the worker ceases. Isn’t 
it time we became a little concerned about the effect 
of undue fatigue upon the teacher? Of course the 
teachers Know without scientific investigation that, 
under the present system of many and large classes, 
before the end of the day, their energy and enthu- 
siasm is practically exhausted. With more work to 
do than they can possibly do well the pupil as well 
as the teacher pays the penalty. How can we make 
the public see that our interest in this situation is 
not purely selfish? How can we make Boards of 
Education, superintendents and taxpayers see that 
whatever serves the interest of the teacher and keeps 
him well and free and happy reacts upon the child, 
increases production and lessens production costs? 


The American Federation of Teachers Research 
Department reported as follows on Teacher Load 
at the Tenth Convention in New York, June 29th- 
July 2nd: 

“A large number of questions have been received 
from a number of locals on teacher load. At the 
request of the American Federation of Teachers, the 
Bureau of Education conducted.a study on the ad- 
ministrative side of.teacher load, sending a question- 
naire thereon to some ten thousand cities in the 
United States. Latest reports from the Bureau of 


Education state that the report is not yet ready, but 
that they hope in a very short time to have the mate- 
rial thereon compiled, printed, and ready for dis- 
tribution. As soon as the Bureau has completed its 
study, we shall send out our quéstionnaire on teacher 
load, which study will concern itself with extra- 
curricula activities and the teachers’ incidental cleri- 
cal work, We hope to have a study made, also, of 
the physical condition of the schools—lighting, heat- 
ing, ventilation, rest-room facilities, etc. From these 
studies we hope to gather valuable data. 

“First, if the teacher is required to conduct too 
many classes or to conduct recitations involving a 
too large number of pupils, attention should be called 
thereto, with the view of reducing the actual number 
of pupil hours to the end that more individual atten- 
tion from each teacher may be received by each pupil. 
If the study on extra-curricula activities shows a 
tendency to overload either the school or the teacher 
with extra-curricula activities, we should make a con- 
certed effort to have curricularized the worth while 
extra-curricula activities and to have the others elim- 
inated. If the study shows a tendency to demand a 
large amount of the teacher’s time, the activity (if 
educationally valuable enough to warrant so much 
time and attention), should be curricularized; if not, 
attention should be called thereto and we should 
seek to have the:amount of such extra-curricula work 
which is exacted of the teacher minimized to the end 
that his time may be used in teaching his- pupils. 


“If the study shows that a large amount of the 
teacher’s time is demanded for incidental and rou- 
tine clerical work, this fact should be called to the 
attention of school authorities to the end that such 
wasteful expenditure of public money be discontin- 
ued, and that the teacher be given time to do the 
work for which he was appointed. 

“After the information on teacher load from the 
point of view of size of classes, et cetera, and the 
information on teacher load from the point of view 
of extra-curricula activities and incidental clerical 
work, and the study on the physical condition of the 
schools has been completed, it is the plan of this 
office to submit these data to a consulting engineer 
with the -view of formulating a plan for a study on 
fatigue in relation to school environment. Mfrs. 
Gilbreth has, in correspondence, expressed an inter- 
est in the project and has more kindly offered to 
co-operate in this undertaking. We feel that such 
a study would be of tremendous social and economic 
value. It would perhaps help in pointing out the 
tremendous waste due to fatigue and might enable 
us to develop a real, rather than a pseudo-economy. 
by reducing the amount of fatigue which perhaps is 
produced by the school environment. Inasmuch as 
there are absolutely no data. available on this sub- 
ject, this office feels that a study of such a type 
would be decidedly worth while and therefore is 
undertaking it.” 





THE AMERICAN. TEACHER 17 


PLATFORM OF PRINCIPLES FOR THE 
CLASS ROOM TEACHERS 


Academic Freedom for Teachers and Pupils 
Chicago Women Local No. 3 


(Continued from September Issue) 
With Those in Authority 

The basis of the right relations between 
superintendents, principals, and teachers is the 
basis of good will, 

This .good will rises naturally in a situation 
in which there is mutual respect, equal sub- 
ordination to law and regulation, and evident 
willingness on the part of the superiors ia 
office to allow their subordinates opportunities 
for free professional discussion of general and 
of local educational problems. 

A. THE BOARD OF EDUCATION. 

In their relations with boards of education, 
teachers should: 

1. Have a clear understanding of the law 
of contracts since they should scrupulously 
observe all clauses of contracts signed. 

2. Refuse to accept contracts which restrict 
academic freedom or which are in any way 
unjust or humiliating. 

3. Convince boards of education of the 
value of legally established, self-governing 
school councils of teachers in which the ex- 
perience and initiative of the teaching body 
in the conduct of the schaqols may be utilized 
to point the way for improvement. Recom- 
mendations of such councils should be trans- 
mitted to superintendents and boards of educa- 


tion, and made a matter of official public record, 


4. Decline to enlist the support of any 
board member for personal gain but feel free 
to confer with members on matters of general 
school interest. 

5. Decline to apply for a position unless a 
vacancy actually exists or. is about to occur. 
Underbidding an existing salary schedule is to 
be condemned. . 

B. WITH THE SUPERINTENDENT: 

In their relations with the superintendent of 
schools, teachers should: 

1. Recognize in him the man chesen by the 
representatives of the community to direct the 
social process of education and endeavor to 
work with him intelligently and loyally. 

2. Since the teachers are in direct contact 


with the pupils, they should consider carefully 
proposed changes in course of study or method 
as to their probable effect on the pupils in their 
charge and express honestly the results of 
their consideration. | 

3. They should stand ready to work out 
co-operatively with the superintendent scien- 
tific analyses of their duties and evaluate more 
carefully the nature of the service they are 
expected to render. 

4. They should submit to the superintend- 
ent problems for experimentation and take up 


\ with him matters which concern the school as 
\a whole. 


5. They should support as a means of rat- 
ing a probationary teacher, an objective sys- 
tem based, year by year, on the best scientific 
standards available at that time. 

6. As teacher efficiency increases, they 
should support the substitution of self-meas- 
urement for grading by others, and work for 
the control of reason rather than of autocracy. 
The relation between superintendent, principal 
and teachers would then be that of an earnest 
group working experimentally to evolve better 
methods of fitting young people for life in the 
community, the superintendent and principals 
being in their positions of leadership because 
of superior professional ability. 

C. WITH THE PRINCIPAL: 

In the close relationship between principal 
and teacher in a single school, the teacher 
should: 

1. Recognize the principal as the unifying 
force in the school, and work with him in all 
good causes with enthusiasm and sincerity. 

2. Appreciate any efforts made by the pro- 
fessional principal to organize the school so 
as to furnish opportunities for the full expres- 
sion and development of the personalities 
under his leadership. 

3. Show by intelligent constructive consid- 
eration of matters proposed by the principal 
that their services can be increasingly used in 
shaping educational policies and administra-. 
tive plans. 

4. Try to see the work of the individual 
teacher in its relation to the whole round of 
the activities of the school, so as to develop a 
sense of proportion of values. 





18 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


TEACHERS PROPOSE A CODE OF ETHICS 


Suggestions for a National Standard Have Been 
Drafted by Twenty-Seven States—New York Out- 
lines “Sins”—“Professional Stagnation” Called Chief 
Fault—Other States Condemn Spite and Jealousy 


The teachers of America are attempting to formu- 
late a national code of ethics which will include a 
comprehensive set of standards for their professional 
and personal conduct. A report on the subject 
aroused widespread interest at last week’s convention 
of the National Education Association in Philadel- 
phia, and will probably lead in the near future to 
the first nation-wide teachers’ code ever written in 
the United States. 

Twenty-seven States have already prepared such 
codes, ranging from seventy-three words in the case 
of Maine to more than two thousand in Alabama; 
‘ varying from general discussions of the duties and 
obligations of the teachers, as in the New York 
State code, to explicit statements of the habits, cus- 
toms, ideals, obligations and shortcomings of. the 
members of the teachifig profession. 

While perhaps not as effective as a more definite 
set of rules, the New York State code is significant 
in that it sets forth three cardinal faults of which a 
teacher may be guilty. 

The “greatest sin,” according to the New York 
code, is that of “professional stagnation.” “It con- 
sists in the relaxation of professional interest and 
ambition,” the code declares, “and the sinking into 
the intellectual crystallization. and spiritual death 
which makes all service mechanical. This is the 
primal temptation and the unpardonable sin. 

Decries “Professional Dishonor” 

“The second is the sin of professional dishonor. 
It consists in the selfish betrayal of the ideal of 
service for the sake of personal ambition. It sinks 
the whole professional activity to the sordid level of 
a struggle for personal ends. The professional ideal 
requires that absolutely no consideration but -efficient 
service shopld determine the position and mutual re- 
lation of the members. 

“The third sin is the sin of professional disloyalty,” 
the New York code declares, a sin “which permits 
envy, jealousy, rivalry, suspicion and mutual dis- 
trust of one another to. disintegrate the very struc- 
ture of the profession.” : 

Practically all the codes have something to say 
regarding the relations that should exist between 
teachers, supervisors, administrators and Boards of 
Education, Co-operation is generally recommended, 
while criticism of one’s predecessors or associates, 
is almost universally condemned. 

Against Disrespect to Superiors 

Seven States stipulate that teachers should not 
“go over the heads” of their immediate superiors 
without first going to such immediate superiors. 


Eleven States caution teachers and boards of educa- 
tion not to express publicly any criticism of one 
another. The code of Alabama is particularly ex- 
plicit on this point. Connecticut, however, says that 
“constructive criticism should be eagerly sought and 
gratefully accepted, and he who thus seeks and ac- 
cepts it is a truly great teacher.” 

Four States condemn any harboring of spite and 
jealousy on the part of teachers toward one another. 
Six States insist that no ill-feeling between teachers 
should be indicated in the presence of pupils. 

Sixteen States tell teachers to conduct themselves 
so that no “reproach” will be brought upon the pro- 
fession. They affirm that teachers should be ex- 
amples to their pupils, in matters of conduct and 
in their dress. 

—New York Times. 





A TEACHER’S BILL OF RIGHTS 
Definite Objectives in the Teaching Profession 


JEREMIAH E. BURKE 
(Superintendent of Schools, Boston, Massachusetts) 

All America acknowledges its obligation to the 
classroom teacher. Hundreds of thousands of most 
worthy citizens reflect to the light of her personality. 
Surely, she is deserving of all eulogy and praise; 
but fortunately she does not need this form of trib- 
ute, however gratifying it may be. 

But what the classroom teacher deserves and ex- 
pectantly asks, is an assurance of peace, comfort, 
and security—such conditions as may enable her the 
more effectively to discharge her professional duties, 
so vital to the welfare and stability of the republic. 

In this “bill of rights” should be incorporated the 
following provisions: } 

1. An adequate salary that.will permit the class- 
room teacher to enjoy the ordinary necessities of life, 
and at least some of the luxuries possessed by crafts; 
men of other pursuits. 

2. Security of tenure that fortifies the teacher 
against exploitation or petty annoyances. No regu- 
larly appointed teacher should ever be dismissed from 
service because of racial, partisan, or religious preju- 
dice. To thwart all-attempts to so dismiss a teacher, 
there should always be possible an appeal for jus- 
tice to the Courts. 

3. A retirement «pension, actuarially sound, that 
will avert financial worry or distress; and thereby 
strengthen the teacher for the performance of her 
classroom responsibilities. 

4. Academic freedom that does not mean the propa- 
gation of hypothetical or revolutionary theories, but 
rather the exercise of initiative and independence in 
the preparation of individuals for freedom in a 
democracy. 

5. Sabbatical leaves of absence for professional - 
study or travel at the completion of seven years of 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


service, and for undisturbed rest after a period of 
twenty years. ; 

6. A merit system not only for making original 
appointments to the service, but likewise for promo- 
tions therein; thereby insuring to all teachers “equal 
protection of the laws.” ; 

7, Substantial courses of study for professional and 
cultural development, offered free of tuition charges 
by all Teachers’ Colleges and Normal Schools main- 
tained at public expense. 

8. Generous participation that gives the teacher a 
voice in the solution of classroom problems and _ 
makes her a conscious and integral part of the entire 
school system. 

9. An avenue of approach whereby classroom) 
teachers, either collectively or individually, may ex-\ 
press their opinions and convictions upon the for- \ 
ward-looking policies of school administration. 

10. Straightforward, sympathetic and courageous 
support from principals, superintendents and school 
committees, as occasion may, require. 

—Yearbook of the Department of Classroom Teachers. 





AS OTHERS SEE US 


The Autocratic American School System 
(Translated from the “Allegemeine oe Leher Zeitung.”’) 
The autocratic organization of the American school 


system which puts all the power in the hands of city 


or cOunty school boards is being severely scrutinized. 
There are still those who attempt to excuse it, as for 
example, W. C. Bagley, a prominent professor of 
pedagogy in Columbia University, who in his book 
“Classroom Management” says, “Unquestionably, 
obedience is the first commandment of successful 
teaching. The classroom teacher owes obedience to 
his superiors, and if he does not wish to render such 
obedience, then his only alternative is to resign. In 
school organization as in all other organization, as 
for example in the Army, the Navy and big business 
enterprises such is the case. A’ united power pro- 
ductive of results can only be obtained in this way. 

Such obedience must be carried over into the 
classroom, and-such a sense of appreciation of au- 
thority must be instilled in the pupils themselves. 
Youth feels sufficient unto itself, and does not wel- 
come authority. I do not overstate my case when 
I insist that our present theories of bringing up 
children contribute much, perhaps unbeknown, to in- 
stilling in them resentment to authority. . An 
appreciation of the need of obedience is essential 
throughout the system. The Board of Education 
demands results from the Superintendent who, in 
turn, makes similar demands of his téachers, and the 
teachers are expected to force these demanded re- 
sults from the pupils. Centralized authority, bril- 
liantly expressing itself through intermediate authori- 
ties is to them the only known method to assure 
economy alsa” 


19 


“Democratic” America permits the administration 
of the schools of a community through a Board of 
Education which selects a superintendent to carry 
out its wishes. This superintendent is the main rea- 
son for school politics, the type and form of which 
have previously been determined by those in author- 
ity. At times if he is a “good autocrat” he can ad- 
vance his schools. However, as he himself is not’ 
necessarily a superman and as he lowers his officials 
to servants and his teachers to dwarfs, the entire 
school organization suffers. School and Society 
(October 25, 1924), a quite progressive pedagogical 
organ, says: “Because of this condition the pressure 
for democratic organization is irresistible.” 

As the N. E. A., in which the important offices are 
held by the school authorities, conducts its business 
most conservatvely, the American Federation of 
Teachers was organized, and affiliated with the 
American Federation of Labor. The American Fed- 
eration of Teachers declares, “If the schools are to 
achieve their fullest attainment and be most respon- 
sive to the needs of the community, they must them- 
selves be democratically administered. We believe 
that servility breeds servility, and that if the schools 
are to produce frée, unafraid men and women, Ameri- 
can citizens of the highest type, the teachers must 
live and work in an atmosphere of freedom and self- 
respect.” 


In ‘many cities there are teachers’ councils which 
advise and consult with the school officials. W. P. 
Burris, professor of pedagogy in the University of 
Cincinnati, in School and Society, does not speak very 
highly of the idea. He believes them to be quite 
inadequate. Power and responsibility would then 
have to be divided between the school authorities 
and the employees. A teachers’ council chosen by the 
teachers would then replace a representative parlia- 
ment. An elected assembly composed of officials 
and teachers of all grades and subjects must in the 
end be provided. The function of such a body 
would be to present their views and projects to the 
Board of Education. If their proposal is not ac- 
cepted, then the Board of. Education, which ought to 
represent the people, should refer the subject back 
again to the executive staff of the schools with an 
explanation and statement governing the case. In 
this type of school organization the teachers and the 
minor officials would no lenger regard themselves as 


mere puppets of the organization which appoints and 


pays them, but rather as servants of the community, 
and so the ensuing decisions would tend to become 
all inclusive and, in light of the public goods, they 
would be the result of observations on a broader 
basis. In this way the worth and significance of the 
teaching profession would rise. Professor Burris does 
not doubt but that the American teachers have suffi- 
cient academic training and experience to enable them 
to assume this new responsibility to the full satis- 
faction of citizens and parents.” - 





20 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


The Educational Gap—SPIRITUAL VALUES 
IN ADULT EDUCATION. By Basil A. Yeaxlee, 
New York: Oxford University Press. 1926. $8.75. 


Reviewed by Mary Agnes Hamilton 


If I were asked to put in a sentence, what I feel 
to be the biggest advantage enjoyed by the United 
States over my own country, I should cite the fact 


that free public education, which with us stops when 
the child, at fourteen, leaves the primary school, 


there extends to secondary schooling. Free primary . 


education is, with us, not more than half a century 
old; for free secondary education we are still fighting, 
and, at the moment, with but poor hope. That being 
so, the movement described by Dr. Yeaxlee, in his 
two amiple volumes, is, inevitably, more important in 
Great Britain than in the United States. For though 
he talks of adult education as applicable to all adults, 
and urges, with incontrovertible force, that there is 
none whose education is finished, in a sense, and that 
a tragic one, adult education, as commonly under- 
stood and practiced in England, is an admission of 
social failure. 

It is thought of and organized, whether inside the 
churches or outside of them, as education for the 
working classes—a form of instruction designed to 
fill up, belatedly, the gap left in their equipment for 
life by the fact that 90 per cent of them leave school 
at the age of fourteen, and get no subsequent organ- 
ized teaching. Free education terminates: the pres- 
sure of economic necessity drives boy or girl into the 
labor market. That is normal. That, further, is why 
a proportion of the téaching supplied, by voluntary 
agencies, to these same half-baked products, is deep- 
ly colored by a propagandist bias which Dr. Yeaxlee 
very justly condemns as aside from any true purpose 
of education. There is a harsh realism in this, which 
his enthusiasm is too honest to refute. The propa- 
gandism of some groups corresponds to the philan- 
thropy of others; both arise out of the same root 
fact—the fact that there is this huge educational gap, 
covering the great majority of the workers. 

Essentially, and in its origins, the adult educational 
movement is, and always has been, an effort to fill 
this gap. It was thus that Lovett, the-Chartist, saw 
it; his sense of it compelled him to devote his later 
years exclusively to the cause of education. The gap 
was still yawning, in 1903, when the Workers Educa- 
tional Association was formed. It remains, today; 
the multifarious, and mainly unco-ordinated activities 
Dr. Yeaxlee describes only register its reach and ex- 
tent. He gives a most excellent survey, of a com- 
pleteness that, in itself, lends value to his volumes, 
of all that is being done and.attempted in the way 
of adult education; anyone who wants to know the 
data will find them all assembled and organized. here, 
clearly and definitely. But the fulness of his descrip- 
tion only forces home more sharply the sense of in- 


adequacy, and of deprivation. As Sir George New- 
man puts it: 

In the first place, the education provided has prob- 
ably been too miscellaneous and casual, insufficiently 
thorough and organized. Some schools have been 
everdone with emotional religiousness (though never 
with religion) and underdone on their intellectual side. 
With others, the opposite has been the case. . . . The 
education afforded by an Adult School tends to be 
discontinuous . . . The whole movement is. lament- 


_ably short of teachers and tutors, of books and equip- 


ment. We have hoped great things of it, but we 
have starved it. 

Dr. Yeaxlee’s purpose is not merely descriptive. He 
is concerned with the spirit as well as the substance 
of education, and on that spirit he can be, and often 
is, eloquent. It is, however, a pity that possessing, 
as he does, ideas and ideals that are transparently 
clear, although difficult of attainment, he should rely 
so little on his own power to state them. The scrap 
book habit is a temptation to nearly everyone who has 
a case which he feels strongly; the illusion that a 
“cloud of witnesses” will enforce conviction is hard 
to resist. Dr. Yeaxlee has compiled a useful book, 
but it might have been half as long and twice as 
readable had he cast overboard most of the support- 
ing quotations h s laboriously assembled, in order 
to drive home the view that education is an affair of 
the spirit. He knows what he thinks. He is a Chris- 
tian, who sees no necessary antithesis between Chris- 
tianity and science, but believes that “Courage and 
Catholicity” can, and should, go hand in hand. Most 
of his authorities however, are platitudinous.—The 
Saturday Review of Literature, Sept. 11. 


PICTURESQUE AMERICA.—A truly fascinating 
book, this “Picturesque America,” on which 200 peo- 


ple have collaborated—among them Zane Grey, Mary 
Roberts Rinehart, Henry Van Dyke, Charles F. Lum- 
mis, Mary Carolyn Davies and Arthur Stringer. Five 
hundred pages and 550 soft half-tones, here and 
And maps that really visualize 


there a color plate. 
the country—simple maps, profile maps, aeroplane 
maps. Attached is just enough reading matter to 
whet the appetite. 

The title, taken from William Cullen Bryant’s de 
luxe work issued in monthly numbers in 1872, was 
chosen with the thought that it would “dignify” this 
volume. “America” here includes not only the United 
States, but the Canadian Rockies, Mexico, and the 
Caribbean. No reader of this volume will need the 
slogan “See America First,” if he loves Nature. 

There is: a school edition that Resorts and Play- 
grounds of America is offering at little more than 
half the original price. We commend it as a val- 
uable reference book. 





' THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


CHARACTER EDUCATION 


Objectives in character education which will stimu- - 


late and develop moral judgment and the ability to 
fulfil one’s moral obligations successfully are pre- 
sented in Bulletin No. 7 (1926) of the United States 
Department of Education. Topics discussed include 
the following: processes of character education, class- 
room procedure, curriculum materials, character 
scales, measures of delinquency, and character edu- 
cative plans. 


More or less conflict exists in the elements which 
constitute the child’s volitional flow. _From these 
elements, through selection and confirmation, must 
emerge character. Conscious and deliberate educative 
procedure gives a positive means of guiding the pupil 
in his selective development so that the “I” merges 
into new and wider forms of the “We.” 


Fitting the individual for various tasks and occu- 
pations aids him in development for service and in 
appreciation of service rendered to him. Appreciation 
of honesty, cleanliness, reliability, and promptness on 
the part of a merchant constitutes one series of les- 
sons in character development. 

Studies of traits and character qualities are made 
in observing the fundamental elements of personality. 
Self-rating and rating by associates is made helpful 
through various devices. Attention is called to val- 
uable experimental studies in the bodily changes in- 
cluding vaso-motor phenomena, glandular secretion 
and blood constitution in their relation to the de- 
velopment of personality and moral responsibility. 

Teacher-training must emphasize these same objec- 
tives, and the pupil as a person must be the “cen- 
ter of reference” in every educational problem. 
Schools must be pupil-centered instead of being’ sub- 
ject-centered. 


Delinquency may be decreased through the pro- 
jection of control experiments and by analysis of 
available case studies in definite observation of de- 
linquencies. ; 

Indiréct moral instruction through all school stud- 
ies is possible. Direct moral instruction through 
groups, student participation in the management of 
the school community, and many extra-curricular 
activities foster these essential objectives and the 
pupil’s best moral and social development through 
practical service. —Josephine E. Haff. 

3 





THREE QUOTATIONS 


| Education makes it possible for a per- 
son to determine the relative qualities of products.” 
—Chancellor Lindley, Kansas University. 

2. “College teachers are among the worst paid of 
skilled laborers.”—Report of the Alumni Committee, 
Bowdoin College. 

3. “A combined indoor stadium, gymnasium and 


21 


natatorium—said to be the largest and most expen- 
sive building of its type in the country—is now un- 
der construction at the University of Pennsylvania. 
The Cost, $1,250,000. ."—School and Society. 
—The New Student. 


Our Executive Council 


TABLOID BIOGRAPHIES 


CARLOTTA T. PITTMAN 





Educated at Highbee, Memphis, Tenn. Summer 
work. at University of Chicago and Columbia. 

Primary teacher in Memphis City Schools. 

Charter member and first president of the Mem- 
phis Teachers’ Association, Local 52. 

Four times’ a delegate to the convention of the 
American Federation of Teachers. 

Three times a delegate ‘to. the Trades and Labor 


Council, central.labor organization of Memphis. 


Twice president and once first vice-president of 
Local 52. 
Vice-president of the Executive Council of the 
American Federation of Teachers. 
Faithful, loyal, judicial, enthusiastic. 
(To be continued) 





(Continued from Page 13) 

1. That the adminiStrative officials recog- 
nize no rights of the teacher to be consulted 
as to their terms of employment or as to any 
change in those terms. 

2. That the administrative officials consider 
only their own wishes in making changes in 
rules, wages, hours, or working conditions. 

3. That the administrative officials refuse 
to recognize teachers’ organizations or any of 
their accredited representatives. 

4. It means individual bargaining. 

In conclusion, there is forming in the public 
mind a code of mutual obligation between 
teachers and administrative officers. Vital 
relations between teachers and school officials 
ought not to be changed before each side has 
been given an opportunity to discuss with the 
other the desirability of such a change. The 
day of the educational and industrial autocrat 
is passing and should pass. School adminis- 
trators may well rid themselves of their “ofi- 
ishness” in receiving representatives of the 
teachers, because mere discussion between 
teachers and administrators does not bind 
either side. 











TEACHERS’ UNION TO GO OUT FOR 
A MEMBERSHIP GAIN 


E. E. Schwarztrauber, Vice-President of A. F. of T., 
Chosen Organizer 

A teachers’ union of a numerical strength, com- 
bined with the influence of other labor, that will se- 
cure for the teachers the things which they cannot 
secure individually and which no other teacher or- 
ganization can secure for them is the aim of an organ- 
izing campaign that is to be prosecuted during the 
present school year. 

For several years there has existed a teachers’ 
union in Portland.. In the past year there has been noticed 
an increased interest, and at the last meeting of the union 
an organization committee was named which will 
endeavor to place: before the unorganized teachers 
the advantages which the union has to offer. E. E. 
Schwarztrauber, now president of the union, is chair- 
man of the committee and will bear the title of 
organizer after next meeting, when he retires from 
the presidency. 

There has been much talk in the union, says Mr. 
Schwarztrauber, of doing things for humanity, much 
altruistic planning and effort, but there ‘has. been lit- 
tle consideration of the matters directly and vitally 
affecting the teachers. This is to be changed. The 
union will devote itself to the problems of the teach- 
ers, but that does not mean that the interests of the 
schools are to be sacrificed or ignored in any case. 

The five cardinal points to be sought by the union 
are: A voice for the teachers in the conduct of the 
schools; a genuine tenure that will protect the teacher 
and based on efficiency of the teacher; fair working 
conditions; an adequate salary schedule, and full 
rights as citizens. 





Miss Beulah Berolzheimer, teacher of English at 
Crane Junior College, has been chosen as president 
of Chicago Women No. 3 to succeed Mrs. Hanson, 
who resigned when she became secretary-treasurer 


of the American Federation of Teachers. Miss Ber- 
olzheimer has been devotedly active in the Chicago 
Local since its organization. The Chicago Federa- 
tion of Women High School Teachers will be able 
to continue its career of effective accomplishment 
under the able leadership.of its new president. 





Chicago Men No. 2 and Chicago Women No. 3 
will have a joint luncheon at the Hotel Morrison on 
Saturday, October 23rd. . Dr. Joseph K. Hart, of 
The Survey, will be the principal guest.and speaker. 
He will speak on “The Community and the School.” 





Chicago Men No. 2 and Chicago Women No. 3 
have published jointly a Program of Action with 
opinions of the Federation and its work by distin- 


Our Locals 





22 


guished educators and citizens. They have found it 
effective in interesting and enlightening non-mémber 
teachers. Would you like a copy? 





The Chicago Locals are co-operating with the 
City Council in a campaign for the equalization of 
taxes. They will continue their suits against tax 
delinquents, which were so productive both Meccily 
and reflectively last year. 





Dr. Henry R. Linville, New York Teachers’ Union 
No. 5, was the delegate of the American Federation 
of Teachers at the convention of the American Fed- 
eration of Labor, October 4th-October 16th, Detroit, 
Mich. A. J. Muste, Brookwood College, was also. in 
attendance. Secretafy Hanson spent one week at 
the convention. Dr. Linville is a member of the 
permanent Committee on Education of the A. F. of L. 


and was a member of the Convention Committee on 


Education. The report will be published in a future 
issue. 





A meeting of presidents of state federations of 
labor and presidents of central labor bodies from 
regions as far apart as California and Massachusetts, 
Montana and Florida, was held on Monday evening, 
October 11, for the purpose of discussing the organ- 
ization of teachers. There was much lively discus- 
sion and many suggestive plans. A most hopeful 
interest in teacher organization was stimulated. Harry 
Fox, president of the Wyoming State Federation of 
Labor, was chairman of the meeting. Mr. Fox has 
worked out a plan of co-operation looking to the 
organization of the Wyoming teachers which has 
already been inaugurated. 






Portland Labor College opened for class work on 
Monday, October 4. Courses are given in America 
Today, National Social Problems, Crucial Problems 
in American Education, Practical Public Speaking, 
English, The World We Live In, History of Trade 
Unions, and the Place of Women in the Labor 
Movement. The most successful year in the history 
of the college is anticipated. 





St. Paul Men Teachers’ Federation, Local No. 43, 
has organized a Joint Protective Committee to pro- 
tect the teachers’ rights in any proposed new charter. 
The working riiles for teachers, sick leave, pension 


.fund, method of salary increases, local tenure, and 


other items of lesser importance were secured after 
years of struggle by teachers, and the purpose of 
this committee is to safeguard these dearly bought 
and long-struggled-for rights. 

The St.Paul Men are using every endeavor to 
secure the passage of the teacher tenure bill in 












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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Minnesota, the provisions of which were first pro- 
posed in the St. Paul Local.. The Federations of the 
Twin Cities Locals forced the bill into the last ses- 
sion of the Legislature. Through their efforts the 
teacher tenure bill just as it passed the House at the 
last session of the Legislature by almost a three- 
fourths vote will be presented again in January. It 
applies to cities of the first class only, which are 
Duluth, St. Paul and Minneapolis. As there is the 


least opposition to such a bill in the large cities, . 


there is the greater hope of securing passage. It is 
not designed to protect unworthy teachers, but to 
safeguard the school children and the worthy, hon- 
est and efficient teachers against unwarranted dis- 
missals for political and other ‘irrelevant reasons. 
Shrewd observers believe that such a law will force 
the procrastinating superintendent to dismiss the no- 
good teacher rather than keeping her year after 
year and merely hoping for results. Certainly the 
responsibility is placed squarely on the superintend- 
ent. After three years in a position a teacher may 
not be dismissed except for one of the four causes 
listed in the bill, and then only after due notice and 
a full hearing at which the teacher may. have all 
witnesses desired and counsel of his or her own 
choice. The causes of dismissal must be in writing 
and signed, and a decision must be rendered within 
twenty-five days after notice of dismissal. The fact 
that reactionary interests are now trying, but with- 
out success, to persuade the committees in charge 
of the tenure movement to agree to certain amend- 
f ments indicates that there are teeth in the bill. 

There is a well-organized committee at work in 
each city, and the teachers have, out of their own 
resources, financed a full-paid worker to organize and 
carry on the campaign for this bill. 


Gathered at the Hudson Guild Farm, which is 
located picturesquely in the hill and lake country of 
northern New Jersey, seven miles from a railroad 
station, the members of the Teachers Union of the 
City of Néw York and the Teachers’ Union Auxil- 
iary and their friends, entered upon their third annual 
October Conference with a zest rarely found in the 
hurried conditions of the city. From Friday eve- 
ning, October Ist, through Sunday afternoon, Octo- 
ber 3rd, the 140 conferencites who had traveled to 
the conference in special coaches chartered for the 
occasion via the D. L. and W. Railroad, met morn- 
ing, afternoon and evening informally out of doors 
or in a rustic hall with a fire crackling cheerfully. 
The Farm was filled to capacity and not another 
chair could have been placed in the dining room. 

The program of the conference was divided into 
five sessions. There were two speakers apd a chair- 
man for each session. Every speaker appeared as 
announced, a fact which conference-going’ members 
know is in itself remarkable. 
Mr. E. C. Lindeman, of the New York Schoo! for 


One of the speakers,. 


23 


Social Work, had hurried home from a European 
trip to be on hand, and had talked at length with 
Bertrand Russell about the best message to bring 
to the’ Teachers’ Union. Most of the speakers were 
on hand not only for their “turns” but throughout 
the conference. 

The Friday evening session was #2. subject of 
The Press and Platform in Educatiofi for Citizen- 
ship. The speakers were: Paul U. Kellogg, Editor 
of the Survey, and Robert Morss Lovett, of. the 
Editorial Staff of the New Republic and Professor 
of English at the University of Chicago. Royal J. 
Davis of the Editorial Staff of the New York Eve- 
ning Post was chairman. The Saturday morning 
session was on the subject of Labor’s Contribution 
to \Educational Progress. The speakers were: Ruth 
Gillette Hardy, Chairman of the Girls’ Commercial 
High School, and Dr. Norman Thomas, Executive 
Director of the League for Industrial Democracy. 
The chairman was Dr. Abraham Lefkowitz, teacher 
of history in the High School of Commerce. and 
Legislative Representative of the Teachers’ Union. 
The discussion at the Saturday afternoon session on 
“How Shall Our Schools Educate to Combat the 
Domination of Prejudice and Dogma in Education?” 
was led by Dr. Joseph K. Hart, Associate Editor of 
The Survey, and Mr. E. C. Lindeman, Instructor 
in Social Psychology and Philosophy, New York 
School of Social Work. Dr. John Lovejoy Elliott, 
Headworker of Hudson Guild, was the chairman. 
The Saturday evening session on the subject of 
“Parents and the Newer Educational Procedures and 
Objectives” was led by Dr. Louis A. Marks of the 
Board of Examiners, Department of Education of 
the City of New York, and Dr. Harold O. Rugg, 
Educational Psychologist, Lincoln School, Teachers’ 
College, Columbia University. Dr. Benjamin C. 
Gruenberg, Managing Director of the American 
Association for Medical Progress, presided. After 
the formal program, the conference listened to the 
singing 6f the American, French, Russian and English 
folk-songs by Agnes Armington Laidler. The Sun- 
day morning session on, “What Can the Training 
and Normal Schools Do to Produce a Better Teach- 
ing Body for Our Public School Systems?” was ad- 
dressed by Dr. Ambrose L. Suhrie, Professor of 
Normal-School Education, New York University, and 
Dr. John L. Tildsley, District Superintendent in the 
High School Division, Departnfent of Education, City 
of New York. Dr. Henry R. Linville, President of 
the Teachers’ Union of the City of New York, was 
chairman. Except for the Saturday evening pro- 
gram and a Saturday-supper-sing which poked good- 
natured fun at the educational system of New York, 
the conference devoted itself-earnestly to trying to 
solve these pertinent educational questions. It is 
agreed that the Union October Conference has be- 
come-a splendid institution in our work for educa- 
tional reconstruction. 








First School Named After Samuel Gompers 


ire wa) 





The Samuel Gompers Public School of Chicago, at 123rd and South State Streets, which will 
be finished in the spring of 1927, is one of the first, if not the first, to be named in honor of the 
dead labor leader. It will be dedicated with impressive ceremonies. President William Green of the 
American Federation of Labor has promised to be present. Judged from the architect’s drawing, it 
will be one of the largest and handsomest schools in Chicago. 


Credit for the maming of this public school 
in honor of the great American trade unionist 
is due to John A. English, organizer for Chi- 
cago Typographical Union No. 16-and a mem- 
ber of the Chicago”Board of Education. Mr. 
English proposed the name to the board and 
later selected the site for the location of the 
school. 

“T believe we are placing this school in just 
the kind of environment that Mr. Gompers 
himself would have selected,” said Mr. English 
to International Labor News Service, which 
has forwarded this article to the “Labor 
Press.” “It is to be down among the poor and 
the lowly, the kind of people that Mr. Gompers 
loved and to whom he gave a lifetime of service 
and devotion.” 

“This monument to the memory of the great 
unionist, the great patriot and great citizen 
will be an inspiration to the youth of the Calu- 
met region,” continued Mr. English. 

“It was for the children that President 
Gompers fought his greatest battles. It was 
not so much for the adult trade unionist of his 
time that his achievement counted, but for the 
coming generation, for whom he will have les- 
sened poverty and distress, enabling them to 
reach higher ground and to enjoy blessings 
that we of this generation and the ones pre- 
ceding us havé only dreamed of. This is a 
fitting manner in which to immortalize our 


great chieftain’s achievements in behalf of 
humanity.” 





SCHOOL PREPARATION THEORY 
IS OUTLINED 
University of Chicago Dean Advocates Twelve Years 
of General Education 


The Bureau of Education, Department of the 
Interior, made public September 27, a statement by 
Dr. Charles H. Judd, dean of the School of Educa- 
tion at the University of Chicago, giving Dr. Judd’s 
theory. of the manner in. which a child should spend 
his years of scholastic preparation for life. 

Dr. Judd’s statement follows in full text: 


A six-year elementary school should be organized 
to take care of all the fundamental training of pupils. 
Following this should be a second school six years 
in length covering what is now covered in the ordi- 
nary high schools and in the first two years of col- 
lege. At the end of these twelve years the pupils’ 
general education should be measurably completed 
and he should be equipped with the mathematics and 
languages and elementary science necessary to pre- 
pare him for specialized study. 


At 18 years of age, instead of 20, he ought to be 
ready for the advanced professional training which 
must now wait until he is 22. The six-year second- 
ary school which is thus proposed should not only 
train pupils in general lines; it should also select its 
pupils for various types of advanced work. Thus it 
should deliver to the professional schools a group 
of students especially equipped for advanced study. 


What have you to say about this? Let us know. 


24 








The Children Look to You 








WE KNOW HOW MILK TASTES NOW! 


Are Children People? Children of the Passaic Textile Strikers enjoying milk at Victory 
Playground and realizing for the first time in their dreary young lives that there are people, 
outside of their parents, who care what becomes of them. The now defunct Citizens’ Com- 
mittee made strenuous but futile efforts to deprive these kids of the milk their starved bodies 
crave. To cut off their milk supply was one way of starving their parents back to the mills, 
and the mill bosses onmed at nothing. But thanks to Labor’s generous support of strike re- 
lief, there was no cry ungry children to break the strike. Instead, the children became the 
back-bone of the strike! 


In Passaic, New Jersey, today, thousands of FOR ALL THE RACE 
little children are looking to you for help. ; f 
Their fathers and mothers are the striking vain picucesy ahaa inlet ale di 

. . erever wrong is done, 
textile workers who, since last January, have To the humblest. and the weakest, 
been struggling bravely for decent American ’Neath an all-beholding sun, 
living standards. That wrong is also done to us; 

This committee has undertaken to help give And they are slaves most base 
milk and shoes to some ten thousand of the Winnes, tove of right, i tor themselves 
F ; aa ih f And not for all the race. 
neediest children. If you subscribe to this 5 i ae 
fund you will be rendering genuine service to 
the poor and oppressed. 

You canhot be deaf to the cry of these Pas- Wictided is eath tor délists 
saic children. 

Give generously to this worthy cause. 

Send your check-or money order to H. S. 
Raushenbush, Treasurer, Passaic Children Milk 
Fund, Room 638, 799 Broadway, New York 
City. 








for the Passaic Children Milk Fund. 


25 





26 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


PLANS ANNOUNCED FOR MEETING OF 
PACIFIC NATIONS 
Pan-Pacific Conference on Education, Rehabilitation, 
Reclamation, and Recreation 





The Department of the Interior has just issued a 
statement regarding the Pan-Pacific conference on 
education, rehabilitation, reclamation, and recreation, 
to be held at Honolulu, Hawaii, April 11 to. 16, in- 
clusive, 1927. The conference is being organized 
and conducted by Dr. Hubert Work, Secretary of 
the Interior, under the terms of a joint resolution 
passed at the last session of Congress. 


Countries Bordering on Pacific Invited 

These comprise Australia, Canada, Chile, China, 
Colombia, Dutch East Indies, Ecuador, France, 
French Cochin-China, Great Britain, India, Japan, 
Macoa, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Oceania, 
Panama, Perd, Portugal, Siam. 

Invitations have been issued by the Secretary of 
the Interior through the appropriate departments of 
the United States Government: to all territories and 
outlying parts of the United States. These comprise 
Alaska, Canal Zone, Hawaii, Philippines; Porto Rico, 
Samoa, Virgin Islands. 

All organizations and institutions, public or pri- 
vate, which are engaged or interested in the fields 
covered by this conference are invited to send dele- 
gates. The expenses of these delegates must be borne 
by the organizations they represent, or by themselves. 

Although this conference is planned primarily for 
Pacific countries and territories, yet all other coun- 
tries having an interest in the conference will be 
welcome, and invitations will be sent to any other 
countries desiring to participate and not included in 
the invitations previously sent. 


Leaders in education, reclamation, recreation and 
kindred subjects representing countries outside the 
United States will have important parts in the pres- 
entation and discussion of topics. Ample provision 
will also be made for unofficial representatives on 
the program. 

III. Purposes of the Conference: This conference 
is planned (1) to establish a basis of co-operation 
for the promotion of peaceful arts and pursuits among 
the countries participating; (2) to provide a medium 
for exchange of knowledge on the subjects under dis- 
cussion; (3) to afford a wider field of service for 
certain technical activities; (4) to be of assistance 
to the territories of the several participating coun- 
tries. - 

Section 1. The conference will convene on Mon- 


day, April 11, and close on Saturday, April 16, 1927. 

Section 2. An international exhibit relating to the 
major interests of the conference will be held in 
conjunction therewith. The Department of the Inte- 
rior of the United States Government will offer an 





exhibit if the work and activities of three of its 
bureaus, the Bureau of Education, the Bureau of 
Reclamation, and the National Park Service. All 
countries participating in the conference are invited 
to send exhibits, Space will be provided for all ex- 
hibits, but the expense must be borne by the respec- 
tive governments. 

Section 3. The conference will be divided into 
three sections: (1) education; (2) reclamation; (3) 


recreation. 
—The United States Daily. 





Mr. Benjamin Chass, in an admirable article en- 
titled “America’s Poorly Paid School Teachers,” de- 
clares that there is a widespread fallacy that Ameri- 
can schools are the best in the world. Actually “this 
nation ranks first and foremost in industry and 
finances, but ninth in education. Is there any reason 
why the richest nation in the world should occupy 
a position in the educational world behind most of 
the civilized nations? 

“One very important reason why America’s place 
is ninth in education is that this nation hardly re- 
gards education as a thing of foremost importance, 
if we are to judge by federal and state expenditures 
for education in comparison with other items of ex- 
penditure. According to the figures it would seem 
that this nation is more interested in killing its young 
than in the education of its children. America shows 
this preference most conclusively, according to an 
analysis of federal appropriations for the year 1920. 
In that year 68 per cent of all federal appropriations 
went for past wars; for future war, 25 per cent; civil 
departments, 3 per cent; public works, 3 per cent; 
education and science, only a meager 1 per cent. In 
other words, over $5,000,000,000 for wars, past and 
future, and only $57,000,000 for education and sci- 
ence.”—H. L, K. 

—Official Bulletin, Cleveland Teachers’ Ass’n. 


“ 


A Government Monthly 

SCHOOL LIFE, published monthly (except July 
and August) by the Department of the Interior, has 
a most attractive number for September, well il- 
lustrated. There are articles pedagogical, social, 
recreational. Rural schools, Junior high schools, 
Americanization by parent-teacher associations, kin- 
dergarten and home economics have their pages or 
half-pages. The newest idea voiced is that of a 
Municipal Lodging House for Visiting School Chil- 
dren. The oldest scene is the foot of Mount Shasta, 
where a valley school held its summer session. 


It strikes one with surprise that such an excellent 
periodical is issued at five cents a copy, singly, or in 
quantity. All one need do is forward the subscrip- 
tion price 50c to Superintendent of Documents, Gov- 
ernment Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 












THE. AMERICAN TEACHER 27 


“CONSENT” 


By Wm. Green, President A. F. of L. 

The outstanding difference between the company 
“union” and trade unions may be summed up in one 
word—consent. : 

Company “unions” are planned and brought into 
being by management. 


Trade unions are planned and fostered by the: 


workers. Everything connected with them is rep- 
resentative of the will of the workers. 

In the case of the company “union” the company 
endeavors to tie employes to their jobs by various 
types of paternal benefits. 

The company “union” is opposite in spirit to the 
trade union. - The company “union” was created 
without the consent of the wage earners. Because it 
is not the product of their consent or initiative, wage 
earners do not have the trust and confidence: toward 
it that they have in organizations of their own mak- 
ing. 

Company “unions” lack backbone and virility and 
can never perform the type of service nevessary to 
keep industrial relations policies upon a scientific and 
efficient basis. 





A recent study of Teachers’ Councils in the. United 
States and on -ae extent of teacher participation in 
school administration.shows that there are only thirty- 
five cities in the United States having. a Teachers’ 
Council, and in none of these cities. has the Council 
the final say in any school question. 


MAJORITY FRENCH TEACHERS ARE- 
MEMBERS OF THE UNION 


Paris.—A majority of the teachers in the elemen- 
tary schools" of France now belong to the National 
Union of Teachers, which affiliated in 1921 with the 
General Confederation of Labor through the Feder- 
While 
the teachers’ local unions have not in all cases, as 


ation of Employes in the Public Services. 


yet, co-operated with local trades councils, they” have 
taken.out a total of 64,050 cards of affiliation with the 
General Confederation of Labor. 

\This development, one of the most significant in 
French labor unionism, since the war, is expected to 
stimulate the interest of French boys and girls in 
the working class struggle which France anticipates 


in the next two decades. *» 





Teachers’ Union No. 11}, Portland, Oregon, has 
out a fine booklet, called Federation Facts. “This 
pamphlet answers the most common questions in 
the minds of members, both present and prospec- 
tive,” e.g:, as to our principles, our object, why 
unionize:| It sets forth what the Portland Local has 
done and what it proposes:.te do. It contains the 
opinion of John Dewey of the work and standing 
of the American Federation of Teachers. It is diffi- 
cult) to see how such a pamphlet could fail to be 
effective. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 











American Federation 
i. i of 


Teachers 
327 S. La Salle Street 
CHICAGO, ILL. 


Affiliated with the American Federation of Labor 
Organized April 15, 1916 
RPE 6 


The American Federation of Teachers desires to establish an 
intimate contact and an effective cooperation between the teachers 
and the other workers of the community. 


The American Federation of Teachers desires to cooperate with 
all civic organizations for improved civic life. 


Groups of seven or more public school teachers are invited to 
affiliate with this National Organization of Classroom Teachers, 
for mutual assistance, improved professional standards and the 
democratization of the schools. 


Our Slogan Is: 


Democracy in Education: Education for Democracy. 


“The American Teacher” is published monthly by the 4meri- 
can Federation of Teachers. Membership dues carry subscription 
to the magazine. To all others the epee price is $1.00 per 
year, 15 cents per copy.