APRIL, 1928 VOL. XII, No. 8 


= Democracy in Education Education for Democracy 


The 
American Teacher 


THE ORGAN OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 





_ ee 























Pacific Coast 
NUMBER 



















THE GOMPERS CREED 


HAT does labor want? It wants the earth 

and the fullness thereof. There is nothing too 

precious, there is nothing too beautiful, too 
lofty, too ennobling, unless it is within the scope and 
comprehension of labor’s aspirations and wants. We 
want more school houses and fewer jails, more books 
and fewer arsenals, more learning and less vice, more 
constant work and less crime, more leisure and less 
greed, more justice and less revenge—in fact, more 
of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures, 
to make manhood more noble, womanhood more beau- 
tiful, and childhood more happy and bright. 

















Oifice of Publication Editorial 0 
ffice 
nia Aer Building eae 99 827 South La Salle St. 
#0ma City, Oklahoma Chicago, Illinois 


Single Copy 25c—Yearly Subscription $2.00 

















THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





A Prayer 


Louis UNTERMEYER 


God, though this life is but a wraith, 
Although we know not what we use, 

Although we grope with little faith, 
Give me the heart to fight—and lose. 


Ever insurgent let me be, 
Make me more daring than devout; 
From sleek contentment keep me free, 
And fill me with a buoyant doubt. 


From compromise and things half-done, 
Keep me, with stern and stubborn pride; 
And when, at last, the fight is won, 
God, keep me still unsatisfied. 


Open my eyes to visions girt 

With beauty, and with wonder lit— 
But let me always see the dirt, 

And all that spawn and die in it. 


Open my ears to music; let 
Me thrill with Spring’s first flutes and 
drums— 
But never let me dare forget 


The bitter ballads of the slums. 

















CONTENTS 


Page 
A Trinity of Pitfalls in Education—Will C. Wood__ 3 


A Key Man: Ralph Waldo Everett, Elizabeth O. Sim_ 4 
California Tenure Law—Jeannette Minard_________- 4 


An Experiment in Continuing Education—Helen C. 
NN aE a ciarntlcnccenaiictesecnaacnipneieteianeidijeeinaees 5 


Certification of Teachers as a Means of Improving 
Teaching in California—Evelyn A. Clement__---—- . 


City Retirement—O. B. Williamson__......-.---~-~ 11 
Teacher Co-operation in School Policy—J. N. Gardner 11 


Retrospect On No. 61- — 7 





Daniel C. Murphy, An Appreciation—David P. Hardy 13 
Can Public School Teachers Be Scholars?—E. E. 














Giiebtnetthde icons ties 15 
The Union Movement in Seattle__.....______----- 18 
Teaching Not a Profession in Seattle__.________---- 19 
The Program of A. F. T. Local 200, Seattle_______- 20 
Attitude Toward the Seattle High School Teachers 

Union -- 21 
That Salary “Raise”_ 22 
Brevities From Seattle_ 22 
Conference On the Cause and Cure of War—Laura 

Puffer Morgan 24 
i scaentracenieinnmnlarionelnionibenctennntnl 26 
I a te nication sipniclipesintaaainpiel 28 














‘Tr 7TT? AAsSTOMDI ART "TRA SLICE YD 


HELP FOR STRIKING MINERS 
Statement by WiLt1aM GREEN, President American 
Federation of Labor 


On November 19 the Executive Council of the 
American Federation of Labor issued an appeal to 
organized labor and its friends to help the striking 
miners and their families in the bituminous coal fields 
of Western and Central Pennsylvania, Ohio, West 
Virginia and other sections of the country. The 
response to this appeal has been most gratifying. 

The sum of $159,734.01 has been sent to th 
American Federation of Labor by members of affil- 
iated organizations and their friends and this, in turn, 
has been forwarded to Thomas Kennedy, Secretary: 
Treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America, 
for the use of the striking mine workers and thet 
families. In addition, hundreds of boxes of clothing 
shoes and supplies have been sent by Central Bodie 
and other organizations of labor. All of this is being 
distributed proportionately among the needy mines 
and their families who have suffered so much during 
the nine months the strike has been in effect. 

_ It is firmly expected that additional sums 
money will come in and many more boxes of cloth- 
ing and supplies will be forwarded. Additional fund 
are badly needed and additional clothing and sup 
plies are required if the miners and their families a 
to be protected against hunger, cold and intense suf- 
fering. 





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The American Teacher 


Entered as second class matter Oct. 1, 1927, at the post office at Oklahoma City, 
Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Sec. 1103, het of Feb. 28, 1925, authorized Nov. 3, isse. 


Okla., under the Act of March 3, 1 











Volume XII, No. 8 


APRIL, 1928 


Two Dollars a Year 





The three most dangerous pitfalls schools must 
avoid if they are to remain progressive agencies, are 
standardization, mechanization and institutionaliza- 
tion. 

The purpose of education is not to make people 
more nearly alike, but to enable each boy to become 
the best and most effective man he has it in him to be. 
With necessary verbal adaptations, the same state- 
ments hold for the girl. 


In the “fundamentals,” such as the mechanics of 





= arithmetic, spelling and reading, we may reasonably 
strive for uniformity of response from children. Stan- 
rican ‘2tdization in these fields, except as to teaching meth- 


ods, is not to be challenged or criticized. But the 
standardization and mechanization of work in his- 
tory, literature and other humanistic studies does not 
necessarily result in education, or the drawing out of 
desirable qualities in the individual pupil. Success 
in these studies depends upon the kind of reaction 
they set up in the pupil, and this depends upon two 
things—how to get the matter over to the pupil and 
what there is inside the pupil to react to the matter 
we try to get over. William Edward Hickman, for 
example, was an apt student of history if we measure 
his work in a mechanical way. He shows exceptional 
knowledge of men and events of the past. Undoubt- 
edly he made a high score in his tests. However, his 
teachers didn’t get from him that kind of response 
that makes for better manhood. There was something 
lacking inside, or that something was so hidden that 
ordinary teaching methods couldn’t reach it and 
make it respond. 


SEEGEERSE Re SERS ce 









THe TEACHER AN ARTIST 
The application of factory methods in the schools 
kills interest, and brings only a mechanical response 
to teaching. Factory methods in education stand in 
the way of our reaching the thing in the individual 
that ought to be reached and made to respond. In 
the end, such teaching is wasteful because unrealized 
Possibilities in any individual are unrecoverable losses. 
The teacher is an artist, not a mechanic. Standard- 


se Ee. 


® 
a. 


A Trinity of Pitfalls In Education 
By Wit C. Woon, - 
Superintendent of Banks of California, Formerly Superintendent of Public Instruction 


ized teaching has about the same relation to real 
teaching, as mechanical piano playing has to Pade- 
rewski’s piano artistry. Both tickle the ear drums, 
but only the artistry of the great player brings a soul- 
stirring and broadening response. Teaching has a 
higher purpose than the tickling of ear drums or the 
storing of facts in the mind like cord-wood in a 


wood shed. 


In the training of teachers, isn’t there too much 
emphasis placed upon the mechanical and methodical 
elements? Isn’t there too much tendency to make 
teachers conform to a pattern or mold,—too great 
dependence upon courses, units, semester hours and 
summer sessions? These things, within limits, are 
good; teachers should be encouraged to keep up to 
date. However, courses like other good things, can be 
overdone and overemphasized. School boards and sup- 
erintendents are too prone to judge a teacher’s quali- 
fications by the degrees she holds—the letters she can 
write after her name. They do not realize that these 
letters may, after all, be dead letters. It is the living 
letters that one writes in his daily work that counts 
toward real education. Degrees are good things to 
have if they are the outward signs of an inward 
grace; they aren’t worth much if they merely bear 
witness that the holdershas spent four years in an 
institution without being found deficient or defective. 


Decrees Not Ipots 
A degree is good if it helps the holder to render 
better service and be better company to himself and 
others. However, degrees are not idols; they have no 
qualities which should command worship. 


What would happen if teachers were judged on the 
basis of what they can do, rather than on the basis of 
where they have been and how long? Of one thing 
I am convinced—that judging the teacher by what 
she can do would give her new spirit and dignity. It 
would encourage her to strive to become a teacher 
artist. It would check the tendency to institutionalize 
education, which, if carried too far, will kill the 
spirit which makes for life and progress. 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 5 

















To become a “skilled artist in the enterprise of 
life” according to a recent writer, is to be able to dis- 
cover means for changing that enterprise. If this be 
true, then that group best serves society which pro- 
duces the greatest number of individuals with such 
ability. 

Appraised by this standard the American Federa- 
tion of Teachers has cause for congratulation. It 
claims with pride Dr. John Dewey, whose philosophy 
has so impelled his followers that within a genera- 
tion it has transformed the whole field of education. 
Another member, Professor Harry A. Overstreet, is 
regarded by many as the prophet of a new day when 
he declares, that education is a continuous process, 
and that only when age begins is education in a pro- 
found sense, really possible. 

Such men as these may be regarded as masterkey- 
men in the life situation, but there are also other 
key-men, whose activities though more circumscribed 
in scope, are of no less unquestioned significance. To 
this group belongs Ralph Waldo Everett. 


ACTUAL TEACHING PREFERRED 


Mr. Everett is a native Californian and is endowed 
with a Californian’s love for freedom and individual 
liberty. His father was a Massachusetts Everett, kins- 
man of Edward Everett and Edward Everett Hale, 
statesman and author, respectively. To make the 
Americanism complete his mother was from Ohio. 
Heredity as well as environment seems to have had its 
share in shaping Mr. Everett’s career. Like his famous 
forebears, and like his father who served his state in 
the legislature, he is interested in statesmanship, diplo- 
macy and oratory; like his mother he chose to be a 
teacher. 

After receiving his early education in the Califor- 
nia public schools and graduating from Stanford 
University Mr. Everett began his career as a class- 


room teacher. Even though he has a home and twokept the faith.” 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


A Key Man: Ralph Waldo Everett 


By EvizaBETH O. Sm 
President Sacramento High School Chapter 31 






































promising children to maintain, he has repeatedly 
denied himself the additional remuneration of an 
administrative position, because of a preference for 
actual teaching. In spite of this preference his activi- 
ties have not been narrow. He has been found in the 
front line of defense whenever the teacher’s political 
or social freedom has been jeopardized. He has been 
fearless without being arrogant. The teachers of 
northern California have expressed their confidence 
in him by electing him president of the California 
Teachers Association for the present biennium. Dur- 





California Tenure Law 
By JEANNETTE MiNarD, Sacramento High School Chapter 31 


California now has what the teachers believe to be 
a workable tenure law; but this has come only after a 
long struggle, through which the members of the 
Teachers Federation have been among the active lead- 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 







ing the struggle for an equitable tenure law for the U 
teachers of California, Mr. Everett was an indefati- I Web 
gable and conscientious lobbyist, and no small meas- & soon 
ure of credit should be accorded him for the passage I teact 
of the present law. teack 
AccorDED Many Honors erthe 
In his own city he is not without honor, for he & ershi 
has been president of the Sacramento City Teachers HJ Cour 
Association and of the Sacramento High Schoool Fed- J dolla: 
eration Local No. 31, which organization he now & secur 
serves as chairman of the Law and Legislature Com- 3% Cour 
mittee. At the present time he is serving as secretary activ 
of the California State Federation of Teachers, and ‘i 
has just recently resigned a vice presidency in the H% Shacr. 
national organization. Into each of these offices he H the y, 
has carried the ideal for which the American Federa- && ers as 
tion of Teachers stands: Democracy in education. Local 
The leaven begins to leaven the lump. If the Amer- Ne 
ican Federation of Teachers can attract to itself, or HH 1. ; 
raise up within its ranks, men and women of ideas agains 
and ideals, who assuming leadership in other groups 
can spread the gospel of teacher self-determination, 
by showing them how slavish is their inferiority-hab- 
it-system and how autocratic is the superiority-habit- 
system of the average school board, it shall have 
served its generation well, and shall be privileged Sho 
say with St. Paul, “I have fought a good fight, I have oe 
mar 
Cans, } 
can sy 
diplon 
cotype 
ers. Mr. Dupuy, for a number of years president of J fornia 
the California State Federation, and Mr. R. W. Evet- be ves 
ett, both as chairman of the State Federation Legit = 
ni 


lative Committee and as chairman of the Legislative 
































Committee of the Sacramento Local, have played a 
large part in bringing about the enactment of the 
various bills leading to the present law. 

The first tenure bill was introduced in the 1921 
Legislature by Assemblyman Eksward of San Fran- 
cisco at the request of the San Francisco teachers, 
with whom the Federation Locals co-operated. At 
this time, in order to eliminate the opposition of the 
rural districts, a clause was written in the bill, pro- 
viding that the two years of successful service re- 
quired should have been performed in a district em- 
ploying at least eight teachers under a principal who 
should devote at least two hours per day to supervi- 
sion in the school or schools under his control. 


for 


rnia 
Jur- RETROACTIVE BATTLE Lost 
- the Upon the passing of the bill, Attorney General 


Webb promptly declared the law retroactive, but 
soon the Santa Cruz Board of Education dismissed a 
teacher contrary to the provisions of the law. The 
teacher dismissed was not a Federation member; nev- 
ertheless the Federations of California, under the lead- 
ership of Mr. Dupuy, took the case to the Supreme 
Court. Although the Federations spent eight hundred 
dollars and Mr. Dupuy was untiring in his efforts to 
secure a verdict favorable to tenure, the Supreme 
Court finally declared that the law was not retro- 
active. 

In the 1923 Legislature Assemblyman Dozier from 
Shasta County tried to repeal the Act, but due to 
the work of the Los Angeles and San Francisco teach- 
ers as a whole and the members of all the Federation 
Locals, he failed in his attempt. 

Next, Judge Thompson in Napa County declared 
the law unconstitutional because it discriminated 
against the teacher in the small rural school. Hence in 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 5 


the 1925 Legislature the teachers were active in get- 
ting passed in both houses an amendment eliminating 
the clause relating to rural schools. The Governor, 
however, vetoed the bill. Meanwhile, a second case, 
concerning which Judge Thompson’s decision was 
made, was carried to the Supreme Court. While this 
case was financed entirely by the California Teachers 
Association, the Federation gave moral support by 
showing a constant interest. The Supreme Court gave 
a decision favorable to the teachers, but in the mean- 
time a new law was enacted by the 1927 Legislature. 
New Law SEcuRED 

This law was drawn up by the Legislative Com- 
mittee of the California Teachers Association. Mr. 
Everett was at that time legislative representative of 
the Northern Section of the California Teachers As- 
sociation. There was then a struggle over the question 
of whether tenure should apply to the person only 
or to the position as well. The San Francisco teachers 
fought for the latter, while the city superintendents 
fought for the former and won; therefore the law 
now refers to persons only; i. e., principals and super- 
visors may have tenure but may be demoted. 

The outstanding points of the present law are 
the following: Teachers are classified as permanent 
at the end of either the second or third complete year 
of teaching at the option of the governing board of 
the district. No adviser or supervisor shall be classi- 
fied as a permanent employe other than as a classroom 
teacher. A permanent teacher may be dismissed, after 
a fair and impartial hearing, for one or more of the 
following causes: immoral or unprofessional conduct, 
incompetence, evident unfitness for service, persis- 
tent violation of or refusal to obey the school laws 
of California, or reasonable rules prescribed for the 
government of public schools. 













Should education be made safe for the educated? 
The success of adult education in England and Den- 
mark has given point to this question among Ameri- 
cans. Many are asking themselves whether the Ameri- 
can system is producing minds too well satisfied with 
diplomas—minds that tend to become fixed and ster- 
cotyped after formal schooling is over. Certain Cali- 


ant of fornia leaders of education believe that this need not 
Ever- fim ¢ true, and they provided this past summer a con- 
Legis: MM ‘fete demonstration of their convictions. 

slative Under the general direction of Miss Ethel Richard- 


i 7 fe Pa ae oo | jin SS —— oe | 


An Experiment in Continuing Education 
By HELEN C. THomsEN, Local 31, Sacramento, Calif. 


son, then director for California of adult and immi- 
grant education, a plan was worked out to combine 
vacation and summer school. The lovely campus of 
Mills College, near Oakland, California, was “bor- 
rowed” for a three weeks’ session. An announcement 
was made that there would be no entrance require- 
ments, no examinations, no credits and no compulsion 
of any sort. There was offered the opportunity to 
“learn for the fun of it,” to “form opinions after 
careful discussion and study under inspiring leaders.” 

Miss Richardson secured the co-operation of eight 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 7 


re _ _— —_— | oe: a eeFerrsIeee 4M SS ES 








46 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


widely representative organizations: 

California Association for Adult Education. 

Adult Education Teachers Association. 

California Library Association. 

California Federation of Women’s Clubs. 

California Federation of Labor. 

American Association of University Women. 

California League of Women Voters. 

Young Men’s Christian Association. 

The attendance was limited to one hundred and 
fifty. Recreation was to be found in tennis, swim- 
ming, horse-back riding, hiking, music, dramatics and 
art work, this last “merely to show that using the 
hands serves to relax brain workers, though it may 
not produce high art.” Living quarters were available 
on the campus, making it possible for special speakers 
to meet the school in evening gatherings. The tuition 
fee was nominal and living expenses were less than 
at most vacation resorts. 


DiversE GRouP IN ATTENDANCE 

The school opened on August 7th with a large and 
diverse group. There was a physician from the Middle 
West and a poet from New England. There was a 
civil engineer who was also a leader in the Farm Bu- 
reau and an ex-member of the state legislature. There 
were college professors, school administrators, class- 
room teachers and Americanization workers. There 
were ministers and labor leaders. The eight co-operat- 
ing organizations sent representatives in varying num- 
bers. The President of the State Federation of Wom- 
en’s Clubs was in residence, the present and junior 
past state presidents of the American Association of 
University Women, and officers of the League of 
Women Voters from the important centers of the 
state. The Sacremento High School Federation, Local 
31, had a representative. There were many women 
who described themselves as “just housewives.” 

Here was a group of the “educated.” What hap- 
pened to them during those three weeks of trenchant 
lecture-discussions on the general topic: Is there social 
progress in the United States? It seemed to many of 
the participants that a genuine and profound re-crea- 
tion went on—not only intellectual, but what is 
vastly more significant, emotional and temperamental. 
Prejudices were dragged forth from the depths of 
personality and stood revealed for what they really 
were. Tolerance in considering the view point and 
opinion of “the other fellow” grew with each discus- 
sion hour. An objective attitude toward social ques- 
tions became increasingly evident. Eagerness to find 
the facts bearing on a problem and a willingness to 


T'LICD ALATDICCA NT TRACLICYD 


follow those facts to their logical consequence came 
to be accepted as criteria of the educated man or 
woman. Proof of this was seen in the change from 
somewhat dogmatic general statements of the first 
week, to the truth-seeking questions put by the same 
persons toward the close. And this change came about 
in the consideration of those very issues which com. 
monly produce “more heat and less light”—dquestions 
of race-relations, of politics and political parties, of 
labor and capital, and industrial control. 


Dr. OVERSTREET ABLE LEADER 

This sounds, perhaps, somewhat Utopian, but it has 
an explanation. The leader in this achievement was 
Dr. H. A. Overstreet of the College of the City of 
New York, author of Influencing Human Behavior 
and About Ourselves; also a member of the A. fF. 
T., Local No. 5, and a believer in the value of the 
Federation to all teachers. The magic which mad 
these results possible was Dr. Overstreet’s mastery of 
the conference—group technique. The school demon. 
strated the value of the old Socratic dialogue applied 
to the problems of this our world. Positive solutions 
of these problems were few; methods by which we 
may attack all our ptoblems were set forth and 
applied continuously. 

The fundamentals of the scientific method were 
laid down during the first week by Dr. Franz Boas 
in his lectures on the general topic from the angle 
of race relationships. His unfaltering devotion to e- 
actness and accuracy, his insistence upon clear-cut 
reasoning processes, probably did much to give t 
the group discussions their distinctive trend. Even the 
discussions of the week given to industrial issues, with 
lectures by Dr. Gordon Watkins of the University of 
California at Los Angeles, proceeded with few explo- 
sive moments. During the last week, the general topic 
was examined from the political approach, with Dr. 
William Eliot, head of the Political Science Depatt- 
ment of Harvard University, as lecturer. Here ws 
stressed the possibility of group-organization which 
might supplement the machinery of party system 
and representative government now proving inadt 
quate to the needs of a new economic and industria 
order. The qualities of leadership were analyzed a0 
the function of groups in informing and focusing 
public opinion was illustrated by concrete modern it- 
stances. 

UNKNOWN TALENTs DiscOVERED 

It is impossible even to suggest in a brief report the 
stimulative atmosphere of this conference. Wit and 
humor abounded, and one of the most delightful fer 









decis 


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it has 
: Was 


ty of 


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of the 


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ang 
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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 7 


tures was the good comradeship and real understand- 
ing established among people from many occupations 
and interests. It seemed amazing to many that the 
conference method could be maintained with so large 
a group, dealing with somewhat controversial sub- 
jects. The newspapers found “news” possibilities, and 
made a good deal of the “adult kindergarten,” as 
someone named the art-room. The “kindergarten” 
was made up of grown-ups who had had no artistic 
training. They worked with crayons, water-colors or 
clay and were afforded another opportunity for the 
expression of feeling and for the discovery of un- 
known talent. One elderly man looking sorrowfully 
at his own stiff conventional effort at a picture and 
comparing it with a few vigorous lines with which his 
daughter sketched the Campanile, said “I see the dif- 
ference. I try to draw everything I see and you just 
put down what you feel.” One student, unaware of 
having any ability in art, moulded a figure of a buck- 
ing broncho which was worthy of being cast in 
bronze. 

The school illustrated that adult education is more 
than intellectual development, and that a well-round- 
ed program should include an opportunity for artistic 
and emotional expression. Dramatics toek an original 
turn in that instead of searching for the expression 
of talent, the leader attempted to show the student 
that the liberation of dramatic impulse would give 
him greater power in whatever work he might be 
doing. The evening entertainment was often fur- 
nished by a group of students thinking of an interest- 
ing life situation which might have evolved from the 
discussion of the afternoon and, without previous 
decision as to how the solution would be reached, act- 
ing it out as if it were a real situation in which the 
various actors were participating. 


The session closed with enthusiastic hopes for not 
only one such conference next year, but for at least 
three in different parts of the state. . 

Have there been concrete results from this experi- 
ment? Five large discussion groups in different parts 
of the state have met weekly this winter for the 
study of international questions, in most cases, spon- 
sored by the local school authorities. The groups in 
and near Sacramento have been led by Mr. M. J. 
Brickley, a member of the Sacramento Junior College 
faculty and a participant of the summer session just 
described. The Sacramento work is now going on un- 
der the leadership of Mr. R. W. Everett, an active 
member of Local 31 and the subject of an article in 
the present issue. The teachers of a large city system 


are finding leaders for such groups among themselves 
and are developing them for professional study. The 
school administrators in another city have organized 
for the discussion ef their problems. The committees 
on educational problems of a large high school teach- 
ers’ federation have adopted the method for the study 
of certain specific questions. Twenty leaders of wom- 
en’s clubs in another community have met regularly 
for the study of the technique of leadership. Perhaps 
the most important application of the “conference 
group technique” has been made to the parental edu- 
cation movement which was begun in California last 
year by Dr. Herbert Stolz, at present research direc- 
tor of the Institute of Child Welfare, at the Univer- 
sity of California. Mr. John F. Dale, who was in at- 
tendance at the adult education conference last sum- 
mer, is now in charge of this enterprise for Northern 
California. He is finding the method genuinely pro- 
ductive of results in the seventy-five classes for par- 
ents which he has continued or organized this year, 
particularly in the groups of fathers who are study- 
ing the adjustment problems of their ten to fifteen 
year old boys. 

The open mind, the scientific attitude, the tolerant 
view, the critically constructive spirit toward social 
institutions and social problems seem to be continuing 
adult education in California. If the test of education 
is its power to change behavior, here is promise that 
education need not be a closed episode in our lives 
when we leave school, but may go on to make us safe 
citizens for a dynamic world. 





TOLERATION 

If a person can not be happy without remaining 
idle, idle he should remain. It is a revolutionary pre- 
cept, but, thanks to hunger and the workhouse, one 
not easily abused; and within practical limits it is one 
of the most uncontestable truths in the whole body 
of morality. Look at one of your industrious fellows 
for a moment, I beseech you. He sows hurry and 
reaps indigestion; he puts a vast deal of activity out 
to interest and receives a large measure of nervous 
derangement in return. Either he absents himself 
entirely from all fellowship and lives a recluse in a 
garret, with carpet slippers and a leaden inkpot, or he 
comes among people swiftly and bitterly, in a con- 
traction of his whole nervous system, to discharge 
some temper before he returns to work. I do not 
care how much or how well he works, this fellow 
is an evil feature in other people’s lives. They would 
be happier if he were dead.—Robert Louis Stevenson. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 9 





mundane 





8 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Certification of Teachers as a Means of Improving Teaching 


——— ea ee OO EE 


In California 
By EveLyN A. CLEMENT 
Sacramento Local 31, Chief Division of Teacher Training and Certification, California State Department 
of Education 


Granting that education in the schools is the most 
important conscious means which society has of 
influencing its future, the teacher holds the critical 
position of being the factor which can give it reality 
and meaning. The selection, training, and certifica- 
tion of teachers must be carried on, not for the pur- 
pose of producing trained practitioners, but with a 
definite policy of providing the children and youth 
of the state with well trained leaders. 

During the past six years, since the post war 
period, the shortage in teachers which characterized 
the preceding years in California has been overcome; 
in fact, there seems to be a considerable oversupply 
in the state. This means that the major question 
confronting school people is not that of securing a 
sufficient number, but of providing well-selected, 
adequately-trained teachers—men and women of 
large ability. An effective method for raising the 
professional standards in California has been through 
the issuance of teaching credentials. Every change 
in certification regulation has been for the ultimate 
purpose of improving the teaching profession, and the 
revision now under consideration by the State Board 
of Education has this for its main objective. 


During the war period it was impossible to secure 
an adequate supply of teachers from teacher training 
institutions. In order to keep the schools open it 
was necessary to bring in under-trained persons, or 
those with scattered training, and ex-teachers who 
had dropped out of the schools. In an attempt to 
uphold standards, the State Board of Education 
definitely outlined regulations in more or less detail 
and demanded that all candidates for teaching cre- 
dentials should meet these, either before or after the 
original credential was granted. To assure itself that 
the standards would be maintained, an elaborate 
machinery was set up whereby all applicants must 
verify their training, experience, and general qualifi- 
cations; and only as these specifications were met 
were credentials granted. The reason for the pro- 
cedure lay in the fact that the institutions were not 
able to supply to the schools an adequate number of 
trained teachers. 

Such procedure is no longer necessary since the 





teacher training institutions in the state have 
increased both in number and facilities for profes- 
sional work, until they are in a position to take over 
the function of training and recommending candi- 
dates for credentials. Work prescribed for the new 
credentials by the State Board of Education has been 
reduced to a minimum. The greatest possible free- 
dom has been given to the institutions to deal with 
individual situations and to prescribe such work as 
will best qualify the candidate for undertaking his 
work, The first credential granted to any person will 
be upon the direct recommendation of an approved 
teacher training institution. Each of the recom- 
mending institutions must set up objective standards 
for determining the physical and mental fitness of 
the candidate, including dispositional traits, scholar- 
ship, and success in practice. 

The credentials are arranged in a carefully graded 
series, the first being in the nature of a preliminary 
or trial certificate. This may be kept valid upon 
verification of successful teaching experience and 
continued study, but is intended primarily for the 
beginning teacher. The highest type of credential 
is led up to by a graded system and presupposes 
added knowledge, successful experience, and profes- 
sional growth. The period of growth and develop- 
ment is under the general supervision of a teacher 
training institution, and the highest credential is 
granted upon its direct recommendation. This pro- 
cedure will give to the recommending institutions 
the opportunity to keep in touch with its graduates 
and ascertain if they are making the professional 
growth expected of progressive teachers. 

A fundamental principle underlying the new cer 
tification policy is that teachers from other stats 
with equal training and competency are welcomt 
into the California Schools. It is possible for th 
State Department through a careful study of inst- 
tutions to decide which institutions in other stats 
are offering a training equivalent to those in Cali- 
fornia. A list of Teachers Colleges, Colleges, and 
Universities throughout the United States will be 
approved and published. If the Department of Edv- 
cation in each institution is willing to reco: 


OUAAAAMELALLYS BULIUOVEINLE UE LIM CULLCICING, WwW tt 


the facts bearing on a problem and a willingness to humor abounded, and one of the most delightful fer 






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~~ PASO issue, ihe teachers OF a iarge City 


DE DAPpler Lh Le WEEE Ula erm" ANE E LANES OEE VETRUTE 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 9 


candidates as being physically and mentally fit to 
teach, and as having received training equivalent to 
that required in this state, a credential may be 
granted without residence work in California. How- 
ever, the credential granted will be of the lowe-= 
class, and before the professional credential may be 
issued, successful teaching experience must be secured 
in this state, and a recommendation must be secured 
from one of the state teacher training institutions. 
GETTING Away FROM “PRESCRIPTION” 

In the twelve years of schooling provided for the 
children and youth of California, the whole course 
should be thoroughly integrated into a unified system, 
and the sharp distinctions between the training, ex- 
perience, and salaries of elementary and secondary 
teachers should disappear. For this reason, the State 
Board of Education adopted a resolution at its last 
meeting that after September 15, 1930, the minimum 
training for elementary teachers should be four years 
with the bachelor’s degree. Until that time, the 
lower class of elementary credential may be granted 
under two classifications; first to graduates of ap- 
proved colleges and universities with the bachelor’s 


degree, and second, to candidates who have com- 
pleted a three year course of not less than ninety-six 
semester hours in a State Teachers College or ap- 
proved normal training school. With three years of 
unqualified success in teaching in California, and 
upon verification of professional growth, a Califor- 
nia Institution may recommend the teacher for the 


professional high class credential. Professional 
growth need not be construed as completing college 
work for units of credit. The revised system of 
certification provides that a teacher may attend a 
summer session at least once in every five years in 
order to keep his professional theory up to date. But 
other lines of growth are open to him. He may 
choose to travel and enlarge his horizon for the sake 
of culture or of gaining new concepts for teaching. 
Research work may be pursued either in laboratory, 
clinic, or school system. Artists may produce origi- 
nal work, and thinkers along educational lines may 
work their experiences or theories into publications 
valuable for other teachers. The State Department in 
getting away from prescription wishes to encourage 
the teachers to strive for that growth which is the 
most natural and spontaneous for himself. 

The Secondary credential is composed of a series of 
four grades, The Class D, lowest grade, requires the 
bachelor’s degree based upon four years of training, 
and is granted in the fields of Art, Commerce, Home- 


Making, Industrial’ Education, Librarianship, Music, 
Physical Education, or Vocational Education. This 
credential may be maintained in its special field, or 
the holder may by securing experience in teaching 
and by completing graduate work secure a higher 
class of credential. 

The Class C is the preliminary general secondary 
credential secured for the first time in California, 
upon a year of graduate work beyond the bachelor’s 
degree. The emphasis in training for this credential 
is along professional lines,—the training of a teacher 
and not a specialist in any field. Under present 
school law the general secondary credential is of a 
blanket nature and the holder may teach any grades 
or subjects in the school system. Legislation is be- 
ing looked forward to which will limit its service to 
teaching the major and minor subjects indicated 
upon it, in all schools except the rural high schools, 
where the organization is such that one teacher must 
handle various subjects. 

RESEARCH Courses URGED 

The Class B Credential is designed for teachers in 
the junior colleges. The emphasis in training for this 
credential is in subject matter, with less emphasis 
upon the purely professional courses. In the higher 
levels of secondary education the instructor may be 
justified in fixing his mind primarily upon subject 
matter, with less training in the psychology of the 
learning process and principles of education. 

The Class A Credential is the highest grade and 
is secured after a teacher has secured at least three 
years of unqualified successful teaching experience 
and has secured a higher ~legree, either the master's 
or doctor’s, or has. completed two years of graduate 
work. 

In order to secure professional and highly trained 
educational leadership in the field of supervision and 
administration, the proposed revisions demand at least 
one semester of training beyond that required for a 
teaching credential. The supervision and administra- 
tion credentials are carefully graded and the highest 
type may only be secured by persons who have had at 
least three years of successful teaching experience, 
three years of supervisory or administration experi- 
ence, and who have secured a master’s degree in edu- 
cation with a thesis dealing with some problem in 
school organization, administration, or supervision. 
Except in special cases where a teacher may produce 
evidence of having had exceptional experience in 
supervision or administration, the bachelor’s degree 
will be the prerequisite requirement to either of the 





10 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


credentials. Work completed for the credentials 
would therefore be of graduate grade and should be 
counted toward the master’s and doctor’s degree in 
education. Some of the courses at least should be of 
research character. This is in keeping with the theory 
that specialization of certification is recognized as 
necessary and desirable in the classroom teaching 
situation. In the case of supervisors and administra- 
tors where there is a great difference of function 
from that of the teacher, there is need for a creden- 
tial to show evidence of training for their special 
field. With the increased professional training, there 
is a decided tendency to place educational leadership 
on a professional plane. 
PROFESSIONAL GROWTH ALL IMPORTANT 

One of the questions now before the teachers of 
California is whether or not the life diploma as ad- 
ministered in the state is a patent for cessation of 
professional growth. There are many situations 
where the possession of a life diploma is looked upon 
with the suspicion, merited in many cases, that it is 
held merely as a safeguard against losing tenure. This 
is especially true where the diploma is granted on the 
basis of mere teaching service, and a more or less 
formal recommendation. Such procedure does not 
indicate that the teacher is professionally competent, 
or that he merits the honor which should be con- 
ferred with a life diploma. 

To justify the issuance of a permanent credential, 
there should be a gradual leading up to it by a 
graded system of credentials, each presupposing 
added knowledge and professional growth. When 
once secured it should be valid during the profes- 
sional service of the holder. To insure that it would 
not be regarded as a rainy-day safeguard, there should 
be a provision, such as is indicated in the laws of 
several states, that it would lapse if the holder were 
not engaged in school work during a period of years 
without a reasonable cause. 

The question at stake in the whole certification 
problem is that of securing to the youth of the state 
the services of trained teachers who have not only 
kept pace with the changing times, but who have 
shown professional growth. To each teacher the 
matter of his certification is a real and vital problem 
and there is a wide-spread idea that the major con- 
sideration should be absolute protection against all 
teaching vicissitudes by holding a certificate which 
will be valid under any and all conditions. The 
argument is constantly adduced that doctors and 
lawyers are permanently licensed and that teachers 


should have the same measure of protection. But 
when it is considered that a doctor or a lawyer can 
not hold his practice or make a living unless he is con- 
stantly growing and making a success of his practice, 
and that the schools are at the mercy of teachers 
who have tenure and life diplomas, there is every 
reason to demand that permanency of certification 
be conditioned upon constant professional growth on 
the part of the teacher. 





“Fact-mindedness is the last and highest achieve. 
ment of the civilized intellect, and few there be that 
attain thereto. If you have it, and if you can train 
enough others scattered in enough places, so that 
everywhere there will be somebody who knows the 
facts, you won’t have to teach the whole people. It 
takes only one pointed fact to let out all the gas 
from the hugest bag of guff. If there is somebody 
at hand who has that pointed fact, the bag —, 
—Chester Rowell. 





Even more to be avoided than the man who per- 
sistently seeks new causes for complaint is the one 
who kicks for ever about the same thing. 


An American 
Discovery of 
Russia 


Open Road Tour Under Leadership of 


E. E. SCHWARZTRAUBER 
Portland Local No. 111 


Seeing Russia with one’s own eyes—Eight only 
in the party—Educated English-speaking Rus- 
sian as host and interpreter—Leningrad, Mos- 
cow, the Ukraine, Georgia, the Caucasus— 
Visits to factories, travel among the peasants, 
entertainment at famous Moscow theaters. 


Sailing about June 23—Rate $800 approxi- 
mately—Two months round trip (four weeks 
in Russia)—The promise of the best Russia of - 
fers in travel facilities, food and lodging. 


For further information write E. E. Schwarz- 
trauber, Route 5, Box 68, Portland, Oregon. 
Party to be recruited chiefly from states west 
of Mississippi. 











THE AMERICAN TEACHER 11 


TEACHER CO-OPERATION IN SCHOOL 
POLICY 
The Differentiated Program and Hour Period 


(Chapter No. 31, Sacramento, California, has been experi- 
encing a fine spirit of co-operation with school authorities to 
which the following articles testify.—Editor). 


In June 1927, when Mrs. Sim, president of the 
Sacramento High School Board, began her term, she 
suggested that the members undertake the study of 
current educational topics. This suggestion met 
with the hearty approval of the membership. Last 
summer the Sacramento High School changed prin- 
cipals. Shortly after the new principal, Mr. George 
C. Jensen, arrived at the school, a committee from 
the federation met him with the request for his 
co-operation in the proposed studies. He seemed 
pleased as well as surprised, and suggested as subjects 
for investigation, “The Differentiated Program” and 
“The Hour Period.” 

Voluntary groups were formed of federation mem- 
bers and a few teachers who are not members. The 
group studying the differentiated program was small. 
As there seemed to be little opposition in the Sacra- 
mento High School to such a program, and as the 
principal was eager to introduce the differentiated 
program at the beginning of the second semester, 
this group soon disbanded, recommending to the 
heads of the departments the task of working out 
the details of such a program. 

The group studying the hour period is larger and 
is continuing its investigations. At the present time 
the Sacramento High School has forty-minute 
periods. The administration seems to be desirous of 
introducing the hour period and supervised study, 
but only if sentiment in the school is favorable to 
such a plan. The group studying the hour period is 
striving to reach an intelligent and unbiased conclu- 
sion concerning it. It has been the especial aim to 
secure expressions of opinion from class-room teach- 
ers who have had experience with the long period, 
for teachers are perhaps best qualified to speak on 
the subject. As yet the group has reached no defi- 
nite conclusion. 

J. N. GarpNeER, Sacramento Local 31. 





CITY RETIREMENT 
There has been some real progress made through- 
out the country in the last few years in regard to 
teachers’ retirement annuities. The Sacramento 
Chapter of High School Teachers had been consider- 
ing such a feature for the city teachers but felt that 


the time had not yet arrived for successfully secur- 
ing it. However, at the fall meeting of the city 
teachers called by the administration, a recently 
appointed, broadminded and progressive member of 
the board of education, who had been chosen president, 
stated in his talk to the assemblage that he was much’ 
interested in such a thing and hoped that through the 
co-operation of the administration and teachers a 
suitable retirement system might be organized. 

The High School Chapter very soon appointed a 
committee to consider and determine upon a satis- 
factory general plan and to consult with the president 
of the board of education. The committee deter- 
mined that it would be best to contract with a regu- 
lar life insurance company and that the premiums 
be such as to give a retirement allowance of $700 
per year at the age of 60 which together with that 
received from the state system would give the indi- 
vidual $1200 per year. It was also felt that the pre- 
miums due to prior service should be paid by the 
school department and all subsequent premiums be 
met one-half by the school department and one-half 
by the teacher. In addition, should a teacher leave 
the service he or she should receive back the prem- 
iums paid in by the individual plus interest approxi- 
mating 4 per cent. 

The committee called upon the president of the 
board of education and found that he had already 
formulated the same general plan as that of the 
committee. As a result, at a recent meeting of the 
board of education he introduced a motion to have 
the executive council in consultation with the com- 
mittee representing the teachers, work out a plan 
with the insurance companies, and also get an opin- 
ion as to the legality of making such a contract. 
The executive council has requested a legal opinion 
of the state’s attorney. The opinion has not yet been 
given but it appears upon the surface that it will 
require an enabling act by the state legislature. 
Should this be necessary, such a bill will be intro- 
duced when the legislature meets next winter. In 
the meantime it is hoped that everything can be sat- 
isfactorily arranged so as to put it into immediate 
effect when the bill passes. 

O. B. WiLiaMson, Sacramento Local 31. 





It is right and necessary that all men should have 
work to do which shall be worth doing, and be of 
itself pleasant to do; and which should be done under 
such conditions as would make it neither over-weari- 
some nor over-anxious.—William Morris. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Retrospect on No. 61 


Had I the pen of an angel, it would be inadequate 
to relate the inside story of 61. Three things stand 
out: Struggle, Strength, Steadfastness. Three valu- 
able points: Active minorities, higher ideals, zealous 
endeavor. One fact, huge, overshadowing all. Pressure 
on the majorities by the despised minority. Final rec- 
ognition. 

In the light of the present economic trend, of me- 
chanical work and alignment, with the business and 
industrial methods invading the educational realm 
and crushing out independence of thought, initiative 
and spontaneity, the brief story of 61 reads as a bit 
of fiction. 

Bear with me, although my saga will be that of the 
bard on the sea of political passion, in the clashing of 
selfish interests and personal prejudices. 

Way back in 1919 or thereabouts, for years mean 
naught in the unfolding of progress, seven men met 
in a quiet downtown room in San Francisco and re- 
solved to cast their lot with the American Federation 
of Teachers, affiliated with the American Federation 
of Labor. They knew what was facing them. They 
promised each other to stand firm, whatever might 
happen. 

No sooner was the word passed to a few friends, 
than the opposition reared its head. The press started 
the noise, the San Francisco school department gasped 
and the superintendent, a labor man, knew not what 
to say or do. 


First SKIRMISH BATTLE ROYAL 


The definite knowledge that the labor council was 
in favor with the City Hall brought many around 
and the membership grew. Those fair weather friends 
dreamt of many beautiful things. But the frst strug- 
gle began with the question of salaries and adjust- 
ments. The Board of Education had to render justice, 
but at once it raised the cry of: Unclean! Unprofes- 
sional! etc., and the labor superintendent sided with 
the Board. 

Calumnies, slanders and lies were spread around 
and it was a battle royal, until the death edict came 
forth. Los Angeles had crushed their budding local, 
and had expected San Francisco to synchronize. For- 
tunately something failed in the Bay City, when the 
edict was promulgated to forbid joining the local 61; 
loyal counsel waited on the President of the Board 
and as a result, nothing more took place, and like 
many other resolutions, this one died out, because 
nothing would happen if 61 did not commit any 


overt act. Imagine an overt act! Perhaps the bombing 
of the Board of Education—poisonous gas? 
PROGRESSIVE GROUP FORMED 

Naturally, the fair weather friends were told tha 
they would be better off outside of the fight, becaus 
only men and women were wanted. 

And only men and women stayed. 

The State Federation of Labor was meeting down 
the Valley; undaunted, 61 decided to send delegates; 
one was to be the goat; permission to leave was not 
granted to the delegate. The delegate went; under 
the rules the labor superintendent was in a jam, but 
rose to the occasion by keeping still, and the Board 
waited. 

Meanwhile the Labor Council had been untiring ia 
its efforts, and unceasingly through its secretary, John 
O’Connell, worked overtime, in and out of season, to 
secure the proper recognition by the Mayor and the 
Board of Education. 

However, in the silence of patience, and with th 
realization of the tremendous strength back of it, 61 
was ready for the great test.: 

The dual school government in San Francisco had 
proved so unsatisfactory in past years that an attempt 
was made to change it. The effort to bring about: 
change failed, but in 1920 was renewed. This tim 
61 came to the front, and aligned itself with th 
earnest group of progressive people, a union of Cham- 
ber of Commerce and Labor Council. 

After a committee session, one day, a C. of C. ma 
remarked that it was useless to look for success whet 
laborites were on the committee. A week later th 
same man stated that he wished all laborites were like 
those he met on the committee. There would be m0 
trouble in adjusting any labor trouble, concluded he 


SoME MEMBERS BLACKLISTED 


The celebrated Charter Amendment 37 marked th 
opening of a new era in San Francisco school history: 
A terrific fight arose, bringing about divisions unt 
pected, even in families, between friends of long 
standing. Churches preached for or against 37. The 
friends of the Superintendent produced a count! 
amendment, 25. Strangest irony! The labor supefi- 
tendent fought against the Labor Council, agains 
61, against 37. 

Many an amusing incident could the writer relat 
The Mayor, the City Hall, etc., stood for 25. A hand 
ful of workers from 61 sallied forth undaunted. 

The victory was won—at a cost. 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER : 13 


The new regime began, and 61 has stood loyally by 
the new Board and Superintendent. 

Some of the members of 61 have been rewarded 
under the new regime. But a few remain who are 
blacklisted, and we could relate facts which prove 
beyond cavil that in educational circles as in reli- 
gious, narrowness, prejudice, and intolerance are 
rampant. 

At Sacramento, under the dome of the State Leg- 
islature, another fight was on: this one for State 
Tenure. A bill was introduced by 61 through the 
Labor interests. Labor had a good representation. But 
certain teacher associations in Los Angeles and San 
Francisco were not favorable to broad guage tenure; 
some were opposed and concealed their opposition 
under the apathetic indifference of a calloused admin- 
istrator. 

TEACHERS ACTIVE IN LABOR STRUGGLE 

In the train coming down from the Capitol at 
Sacramento, one night, a well-known educator said: 
“Tenure may be all right, but then we will never be 
able to get rid of the teachers.” 

When the representative of 61 tried, with a minor- 
ity on the committee, to pass a broad gauge tenure, 
the Los Angeles representative threw down the gaunt- 
let and was ready to wreck the project. So limited 
tenure went through, weak, unsatisfactory, violated 
time and again. It took seven years to amend it and 
make it general, as 61 wished to and advised in 1921. 

The Labor question is so acute in San Francisco 
city that 61 is always in the struggle, seeking to 
bridge the abyss between opposing interests and to 
safeguard the progress of the schools. 

Sixty-one is still advocating progressive measures; 
better schools, better methods, more protection for 
teachers, better conditions for pensional ones, Sab- 
batical leave, etc. 


In 1925 during the salary campaign the onl presi- 
dent of the local, P. J. Mohr, was the president of 
the United Committee for a raise in salaries. 

Now, a reaction has taken place. And it is not our 
purpose to lead you into the hidden halls where plans 
are laid and prepared. There may be another call for 
struggle, but now many more realize that 61 is the 
bulwark of the teacher rights. 

Only, as a parting tribute to those who strove and 
paid, and fought and won, may I say that in the San 
Francisco schools a Deputy Superintendent, a Junior 
High School Principal, two Vice-principals have been 
promoted from our groups. 

Furthermore, we may count among the most dar- 
ing, outspoken, fearless, audible members of the de- 
partment members of 61. 

At the hour of crisis they are called on, looked to 
and relied on. And they have never failed. 

To Banquet DaNntEL MurPHy 

I did not mention names, they are only the leaves 
that are blown away by the wind, but tomorrow 61 
will have a greater roster and will be found in the 
midst of a battle which will soon rage again, for the 
issue is not yet settled, and here is the reason. 

Said an administrator to a teacher: “When the 
heads of the California Teachers Association have de- 
cided to support certain measures, the teachers should 
not question, but support those measures.” 

The heads of the C. T. A., the Council of Educa- 
tion has started something. A. F. of T. in California 
will have something to say. 

Postscript: The President of the Board of Educa- 
tion, Daniel C. Murphy, is to be banquetted by 61, 
for he stood by us, while President of the State Fed- 
eration of Labor, when days were stormy and dark. 

Yours for A. F. of T. 

PERTINAX. 





Daniel C. 


Murphy 


An Appreciation 
By Dav P. Harpy, 
Deputy Superintendent of Schools, San Francisco, California, Member of Local 61 


Daniel C. Murphy, elected President of the Board 
of Education of San Francisco in January of this 
year, is a sincere friend of all who labor- with brain 
or hand and a real source of inspiration and strength 
to the teachers of the city. His election is a recog- 
nition by his fellow members on the Board of the 
unselfish service which he has rendered to the mem- 
bers of the school department and to the taxpayers 


of San Francisco during the past seven years. 

Mr. Murphy was born in San Francisco on De- 
cember 3, 1881, and has remained true to the city 
of his birth ever since, receiving his education here 
and remaining within its geographical limits even 
while varying his occupations from one end of the 
scale to the other, His public activities have been 
along four main lines, all essentially suited to his 











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| 
: 
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f 
. 


14 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


nature and his abilities and all of equal concern to 
him. He is vitally interested in everything he under- 
takes and gives the impression of concentration at 
all times, never appearing rushed or flustered and yet 
always being on his way forward. One gets the im- 
pression that a 21-year-old Dan Murphy, having 
been told by his coach to “go in there and hit that 
line” and having become convinced of the righteous- 
ness of his cause would be some line-smasher to stop. 
There is a directness to his speech and a definiteness 
to his questioning that is disconcerting to petitioners 
whose hands are not clean. 
A SuccEssFUL LaBor LEADER 

He is best known as a member of organized labor 
and as one of its most able leaders. He has been a 
member of the local union of Web Pressmen ever 
since entering that trade, serving as its President for 
eight years and representing it in the San Francisco 
Labor Council for over twenty. He has acted as 
chairman of the scale committee of the organization 
on many occasions and has the remarkable record of 
having been chairman of the committee to draw up 
working agreements with the publishers during all 
of these years and never having had a strike or 
serious altercation with them. As a member of the 
central council he assisted in deciding many questions 
and in establishing many policies and served as Presi- 
dent for two years in 1915-16. As a delegate he 
minds his own business, listening attentively and with 
apparent interest to expressions of opinion until 
forced out of his seat by flagrant violation of his 
ideals of trade unionism or by direct request of the 
chair, after which things are apt to be brought to 
a pyrotechnic climax and issues made clear in a most 
positive way. Dan has a remarkable memory and 
one is inviting the lightning who wobbles in his 
position on questions of policy. The out-and-out 
Red and the Pale Pink are liable to be lambasted 
equally. 

He was a delegate from the Council to the Cali- 
fornia State Federation of Labor six times and was 
President of the latter body for the five years from 
1917 to 1922. Those who have seen him in action 
at some of the turbulent conventions of those years 
proclaim him the peer of all presiding.officers. He 
was Pacific Coast representative of the International 
Pressmen’s Union in 1916 and 1917 and has attended 
four conventions of the American Federation of 
Labor, the one at San Francisco in 1915 as a dele- 
gate of the International Pressmen, those at Buffalo 
and Atlantic City in 1917 and 1919 representing 


the Labor Council and the 1927 meeting in Los 
Angeles for the State Federation of Labor. 
A Power POLITICALLY 

Mr. Murphy was appointed to the Board of Edu- 
cation in 1920, serving from January 8, 1921, to 
the present date. During this time very definite 
changes have been wrought in the personnel and 
policy of the Board but his position has been secure 
and his worth to the city admitted by all. Many 
members of the system have been assisted by him in 
various ways and the best return which they can 
make to him is to make good in the position to which 
he has recommended them. He never forgets the 
people out on the job and his greatest admiration is 
for the one who goes quietly about his business and 
displays his respect for fundamental principles by 
his actions rather than by loud declarations. The 
robbery of a laboring man on his way home from 
work by a gang of young thugs in a stolen automo- 
bile is more to him than the taking of forty or fifty 
dollars and the physical suffering involved. It’ is the 
violation of a sacred right specifically guaranteed to 
every citizen by the Constitution of the United States 
and for which such men as he have fought and died. 

Without serious opposition he has been elected 
and re-elected State Senator from the 24th Senatorial 
District since 1922. His forceful personality and 
clean-cut common sense have been factors in placing 
beneficial legislation on the statute books and in pre- 
venting raids on the provisions of laws already there. 
His vote has always been right with the best inter- 
ests of Labor and there has been no evasion on his 
part, the clerk’s roll-call always being answered, 
“Aye” or “No.” 

In August, 1921, Mr. Murphy’s friends were inter- 
ested to hear that he had accepted a position with 
the Liberty Bank. After two years of experience at 
the central office he was placed in charge of the Mis- 
sion branch and became the financial adviser of hun- 
dreds of acquaintances in that district. When this 
bank was taken over by the rapidly-growing young 
Bank of Italy, his ability and energy were further 
recognized and he was brought back in June, 1927, 
as manager of the branch where he had started his 
career as a banker. His connection with this powef- 
ful financial organization is a fitting one. 

Goop ForTuNE WELL DESERVED 

Labor leader, legislator, school director, banker! 
Truly an honorable and active all-round training 
for citizenship and yet his life has one more facet. 
His interests in all of these activities are sharpened 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 15 


by his contact with them through his wife and 
family. His pride and interest in the records being 
made by his four stalwart sons and his daughter are 
evident to all. When the dedication of a new school 
building fell on the same day that one son was to 
help hold the line of his university’s football team 
against the thrusts of another son captaining the team 
of a rival college, it was only a formality when one 
particular member was asked whether he would pre- 
side. The Honorable Daniel C. Murphy became one 
of a cheering throng and may have spent some fleet- 


ing seconds speculating on the clash of the irresistible 
force and the immovable body as represented by two 
perspiring, red-headed young offspring but the proba- 
bilities are that he did nothing of the sort and yet 
enjoyed every minute of the battle. 

Every person who knows him rejoices in his well- 
earned successes and wishes him well for the future, 
realizing that his good fortune is thoroughly deserved 
and that it will mean greater opportunity to assist 
others whose abilities might not otherwise become 
known. 





Can Public School Teachers Be Scholars? 


By E. E. SCHWARZTRAUBER, 
Portland Teachers Union, Local 111, Vice President American Federation of Teachers 


The question in the title to this article implies that 


One might take a still 
more controversial position and use the word “may” 
in place of the word “can” and by implication assert 
that scholars are not wanted in the public schools. 
Boards of Eduction, superintendents, and principals 
would all indignantly resent either implication if they 
were faced with the necessity of answering the ques- 


teachers are not scholars. 


tions suggested. The community, generally, and not 
a few teachers, would join in chorus. Nevertheless, 
an unbiased consideration of the facts would make 
a negative answer to the question, whichever way it 
were written, seem the more reasonable. 


School systems are, on the whole, cut on very much 
the same pattern. What is true in Portland, Oregon, 
has its counterpart in other cities with slight varia- 
tions. New York attempts to withhold promotion 
from teachers who do too much thinking, for by such 
methods teachers may be persecuted out of the system. 
Dayton, Tennessee has become a name synonymous 
with fear of progressive thought; “safety first” be- 
comes the watchword of those who stay in the schools 
while others get out. Each city has its own formula 
for keeping the great body of its teachers to an ap- 
proved community level. Part of it is conscious; much 
of it is unconscious. Portland’s teachers cannot, on the 
whole, become scholarly, creatively so, because Port- 
land’s formula for caring for its teachers will not 
Permit it. Portland is an average city, therefore an 
analysis of what happens to teachers in Portland may 
be of value, generally, in understanding why teachers 
on the whole cannot attain places of leadership 
ascribed to them in Fourth of July orations. 


Even though one were to agree with those who 
believe that scholarly attainment is wanted in Port- 
land teachers, he would have to take issue with those 
claiming such attainment possible, that is, generally 
speaking. Facts in the school system tell their own 
story. In the first place, the demands upon a teacher’s 
time in school work make for tread-mill habits of 
mind. Portland, in this respect, is average. Twenty- 
five to thirty teaching periods in themselves drain 
the energy of the most vigorous of teachers. And 
in those periods the teacher is expected to “inspire” 
and train and hold in leash 125 to 150 “flaming 
youth.” In addition to this she must spend on the 
average, in Portland by actual survey of the facts, 
time on clerical duties which in the course of a 
school year total 25.3 days of teaching hours and 
another 6.2 days of her “free” time. Having done 
this she may go home and grade theme papers and 
other written work, and make preparation for the 
coming day’s recitations. If she thus manages to 
keep “one jump ahead” of her students she is for- 
tunate. If she sits down to creative study she is 
unusual. If she attends University of Oregon night 
school classes, she may some day get a master’s 
degree—and $10.00 per month additional on her 
pay check. 

In contrast with a public school teacher’s work 
hours are those of the average college instructor. 
Fifteen lecture periods per week are looked upon as 
excessive. Nine are ideal. Clerical duties there are 
none. Problems of discipline are a minimum, if any. 
In a large university, classes may range from 25 to 
200 or more, but a reader takes care of all papers or 
most of them. If the instructor is not lazy he has 


























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time and energy for intensive study in his field. He 
does research work on a favorite project. Perhaps 
he writes a book which gets into the state “reading 
circle course,” which Portland teachers are required 
to read for “credit.” Teachers probably growl at 
the book’s dryness but the college man derives from 
the writing of it a real pleasure, and a royalty. The 
college teacher, in other words, has the time and the 
energy for creative work and can attain scholarly 
levels. The public school teacher has neither time 
nor energy for striving toward these higher levels; 
she remains behind. 
LITTLE VARIATION IN LIFE OF MAJORITY 

Again, Portland teachers’ salaries do not permit 
that richness of life which shows its fruits in scholar- 
liness. Assuming the possibility of patient and per- 
sistent study the while she plods her way through 
years of teaching, no teacher, except the unusual one, 
can keep alive and alert toward great and changing 
social and economic forces in the world unless she 
takes time off occasionally for study and travel. 
Sabbatical leave is not provided in Portland. A 
maximum salary of $2,400, attained after 14 years 
of teaching, with the promise of a magnificent sum 
of $500 annuity after 30 years’ service, is no 
encouragement to a general practice of either study 
or travel. Contrary to a popular conception would 
be the facts, undoubtedly, of an investigation of the 
economic status of those who ordinarily “do the year 
in the university or in Europe.” A little observation 
is sufficient to make one suspect that study and 
travel is largely done by those who through happy 
circumstances, possess an independent income, or by 
those who plunge into debt for their “time-off” 
luxury and painfully crawl out, or by those who 
recklessly throw prudence to the winds, break from 
the tread-mill of the class-room when their earn- 
ings allow it, and trust to the Community Chest or 
the grim reaper to take care of old age. The large 
majority of teachers, it is safe to assert, either remain 
hitched to the post of duty with little variation in 
their yearly program of intellectual stimuli other 
than occasional lecture series, of summer school 
courses offered in Portland by the University of 
Oregon, and books read in vacation time, or else, 
getting discouraged at the 14 years of apprenticeship, 
‘they get married or hunt other new occupations. 

It must be borne in mind that $2,400, the maxi- 
mum for those without master’s degrees, is enjoyed 
by only 141 of the 440 high school teachers of Port- 
land. The proportion is even less among the grade 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 









teachers. Time has not permitted an investigation 
of the average wage of Portland teachers. The turn. 
over, as one might suspect, is quite large, which 
means that the median for teachers’ wages must be 
nearer the minimum than the maximum. A survey, 
if such were possible, of the material educational 
equipment of teachers of Portland would probably 
reveal what observations suggest, i. ¢., a comparative 
barrenness. Books, for instance, cost money now-a- 
days and the teacher’s library is not stocked with the 
tools of her trade, at least, not the newest and best, 
If she is fortunate enough to be head of a depart- 
ment, she may possess shelves of samples from aspir- 
ing book companies. Great works in history, in 
literature, in science, the tools to which she may 
resort at any time and all times without the incon- 
venience of waiting for the city library service, she 
does not buy in a casual manner. Magazines? The 
Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal, 
Atlantic Monthly perhaps, and in some instances a 
journal of opinion like the Nation, constitute proba- 
bly a fair sample of her materials for keeping abreast 
of the times. 
CRUEL REALITIES OF Mass PRODUCTION 

There is, however, a serious obstacle in the way 
of a real scholarship among public school teachers in 
addition to that of meager salaries and overwork. It 
is to be found in the teacher’s environment. Under 
our present school system the opportunities for the 
exercise of creative ability on the part of the teacher 
are on the whole meager to say the least. Size of 
classes, long hours, and the consequent mass’ produc- 
tion processes of education, together with the grow- 
ing tendency to regimentation of teachers and stu- 
dents, all kill that prime element in the making of 
the true scholar, namely, the creative instinct. Given 
such conditions, what is the further effect upon the 
mind of the teacher when she is forced to associate 
for seven periods a day, two hundred days in the year, 
and year upon year with immature minds from si 
to eighteen years of age? Stripping the task of all 
beautiful verbiage about helping the child unfold and 
flower, etc., etc., the teacher is chiefly concerned 
with the job of getting into those young minds é 
store of information and some skill with which they 
can be promoted on and out as quickly as possible t 
make room for the ever increasing horde who aft 
coming in and who must be “educated” on an ecot- 
omy program. That is mass production in all its 
cruel reality. But what is the effect on the teacher! 
That process she is engaged in has eventually about 






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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 17 


the same effect that the worker in a Ford factory 
experiences standing before an endless belt endlessly 
doing nothing but giving Nut 847 a twist. Even 
as he is in danger of finally becoming Nut 847 him- 
self, so the teacher is on the way to becoming at 
least a crank. Moreover, the process of instruction 
allows in the schools little variation in the use of 
subject matter. When once the teacher has mastered 
the subject matter needed, then the tragedy happens. 
She vegetates. In self defense she does it, for what 
is easier than to use old mental equipment when there 
are 135 students to meet each day, 135 papers to 
grade, records to keep ad infinitum? Furthermore, 
having gotten her facts “down pat” she develops a 
superiority complex before her young brood and 
learns to lord it over them in true Prussian fashion. 
The superiority complex, in turn, precludes further 
mental growth. 


SHIFTING TO HUMAN VALUES 


Finally, teachers can not become scholars under 
present conditions, because they may not. A true 
scholar is a pioneer, a trail blazer. A teacher-scholar 
leads youth to an awareness regarding life about them. 
She gives them perspective and a sense of values. She 
makes them aware of the phenomenon of change 
and challenges them to become in turn pioneers for a 
better social order. There are such teachers every- 
where in our schools but they are not the dominant 
type. They are occasional, The world does not yet 
want them. They are not “‘safe and sane.” They are 
not true to form. The world is gone mad making 
things and therefore lays a heavy hand upon the 
public schools. The teacher’s job becomes one of 
grinding out uniform products. The colleges have 
not suffered so greatly from such a Babbit controlled 
world. They deal with youth after it has gotten 
past the most plastic period. The danger of “freak” 
production is not then so great, and consequently 
colleges are left somewhat to their own devices. 


If the above conclusions aré sound, if teachers can 
not become scholars by reason of their working con- 
ditions, and may not become scholars by reason of 
an unfriendly environment, is their case hopeless? 
To refer to Portland’s local situation again as a basis 
for answering the question, it is probably fair to 
assert that what applies to Portland applies generally. 
The vision of a need, once grasped by a group how- 
¢ver seemingly insignificant that group may be at 
first, can grow, and change the attitude of a com- 
munity. The Portland Teachers Union may or may 


not have such a vision. However, it has aligned 
itself with that group in the community which, in 
common with the labor movement of the world, sees 
though ever so dimly the need for shifting the 
emphasis from things to human values, It, in com- 
mon with labor, believes that, by placing itself behind 
the forces for change of emphasis, the teaching pro- 
fession in the public schools may again become 
synonymous with true scholarship. 





A KIND WORD 
February 21, 1928. 
Mrs. FLoRENCE Curtis HANSON, 
Editor American Teacher, 
327 South LaSalle Street, 
Chicago, IIl. 
Dear Mrs. Hanson: 

No one enjoys more thoroughly the reading of THE 
AMERICAN TEACHER than do I, and you can have 
no idea how much I rejoice with the coming of each 
issue. I understand that my old love, Local No. 89 
of Atlanta, will have a part in the preparation of the 
coming number. Naturally I want you to send 
me a few extra copies this time, so that I can see 
to it that a few of our people here get a little first- 
hand information as to what the American Federa- 
tion of Teachers is doing. The doings of Atlanta, 
since Atlanta is a Southern community, will naturally 
have a greater appeal to our folks here. 

Remembering with a great deal of pleasure my 
former associations with the American Federation 
of Teachers, and trusting that all goes well with 
yourself and with the organization, I am 

Very sincerely yours, 
C. E. PHILuips. 





A TREAT FOR CHICAGO TEACHERS 
Dr. Alfred Adler, of Vienna, eminent Psychiatrist 
and Psychologist, will give a course of lectures on 
social and educational problems especially valuable 
to teachers in Recital Hall, Fine Arts Building, Chi- 


cago. 
Tuesday, April 10, 4 P. M. 
Thursday, April 12, 4 P. M. 
Saturday, April 14, 10 A. M. and 
Monday, April 16, 4 P. M. 
Course tickets $5.00; single admission $1.50. 





Should we consider it a blessing that some people 
don’t do more thinking and develop more original 
ideas? 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


The Union Movement in Seattle 


By Ratpu C. JoHnson, Chairman, W. E. Micuxen, O. D. Stopparp, LEN Toomey, Press Committee, 
Local 200, American Federation of Teachers, Seattle, Washington 


Among the newly-formed locals of the American 
Federation of Teachers is the Seattle High School 
Teachers Union, Local No. 200. It is now in its 
infancy, but is making a rapid growth toward robust 
maturity. 

The teachers of Seattle passed through the period 
of Wilsonian encouragement to labor and the period 
of high wages brought on by the World War without 
profiting therein. Even in 1920, the pay of the Seat- 
tle teachers was still on a pre-war level and was hope- 
lessly inadequate. In 1920, after much agitation and 
acrimonious discussion, salaries were raised $300 and 
the situation was thus slightly bettered. But in 1922, 
like a bolt out of the blue, came a salary cut amount- 
ing to $150. Four rather hard and barren years for 
the class room teacher passed before the scale of 1920 
was reached again. Then the Seattle high school 
teachers found themselves stopped at $2,400 and that 
Seattle ranked last of cities of its size in maximum 
salary of high school teachers. 


Resentment toward the situation was felt by many 
of the teachers, but no means of forceful protest were 
at hand. The regular organization seemed unable to 
do anything and the situation was further aggravated 
by rapidly increasing numbers in the classes, greater 
impositions of extra-curricular duties, and a threat- 
ened lengthening of the school day. It is significant 
that when the wages were reduced by the Board of 
Education in June, 1922, the Board proclaimed as 
one of the reasons for the reduction, the necessity of 
employing more teachers in order to relieve the con- 
gestion in the class rooms. Since that time however, 
the class load of the teachers has been gradually aug- 
mented. 


UNION MessacE Is HEARD 


Economic distress naturally showed itself greatest 
in that group where many of the teachers had depend- 
ents—the high school group—where nearly all of the 
men teachers were to be found. A High School Men’s 
Club was organized and set to work on the problems 
that confronted the teachers, but in any attempt to 
better things, the men found themselves facing the 
necessity of breaking away from the women teachers. 
This was deemed unwise and those leaders most inter- 
ested sought some form of organization which would 
“divide us the least.” The American Federation was 


the answer and Local No. 200 was chartered in Octo. 
ber, 1927. 

In February, 1927, at a called meeting of the Seat- 
tle High School Teachers League, Mr. E. E. Schwartz- 
trauber, Vice President of the American Federation of 
Teachers, and a member of Portland Local, No. 111, 
addressed a small group of the high school teachers 
and explained the necessity and desirability of union- 
ization of the teachers. The League at that time was 
conducting a campaign for higher salaries and it was 
deemed unwise by those present at that meeting to 
do anything that might becloud the issue in the salary 
campaign. 

However, a resolution was passed creating a com- 
mittee and making it obligatory upon that committee 
to call a meeting of the high school teachers at a 
later date to discuss further the advisability of the 
formation of a union. 


REFERENDUM VOTE TAKEN 


As soon as the salary request was a dead issue (per- 
haps it is necessary to say that it was refused) a 
meeting of the high school teachers was held for the 
above-stated purpose and was well attended. The 
discussion was entertaining and enlightening and an 
actual majority of those present favored the forma- 
tion of a union. However, it was considered advisable 
to secure an expression of opinion from every Seattle 
high school teacher. Therefore, the committee was 
continued and charged with the duty of carrying 
out a referendum upon the question. 

In carrying out this referendum the following 
question was addressed individually to the 476 high 
school teachers: 

“Provided a considerable majority (235 or more) 
of the Seattle high school teachers signify their wil- 
lingness to do so, would you favor joining the Ameri- 
can Federation of Teachers and affiliating with the 
American Federation of Labor?” 

Thirty-nine per cent returned an unequivocal 
“yes;” thirty-one per cent voted ‘“‘no;” and thirty 
per cent gave middle-ground answers, such as “unde- 
cided,” “inclined to favor, but want more inform 
tion,” and “open to conviction.” 


Heavy Work oF N. E. A. MEETING 


In April, 1927, Mr. Schwartztrauber happened t 
be in the city again for a day and in conference with 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 19 


the committee gave helpful advice. The remainder of 
the school year was spent in discussion and the fur- 
ther education of the corps. 

During the summer of. 1927, Seattle entertained 
the National Education Association and naturally an 
immense amount of work devolved upon the teach- 
ers. Because of the unselfish sacrifices of the teachers, 
tremendous and fulsome laudation of the Seattle 
teachers was expressed by administrators, local news- 
papers, and education journals. The Seattle teachers, 
tired of trying to pay bills with praise and climate, 
decided that the setting was propitious for an attempt 
to unloose some of their shackles. 

As soon as the school year 1927-1928, opened in 
September, the work of unionization was taken up. 
At a meeting held late in October, 1927, Mrs. Flor- 
ence Curtis Hanson, Secretary-Treasurer of the 
American Federation of Teachers, was present and 
addressed the high school teachers. At the close of 


this meeting a petition for a charter was signed and 
the movement approached fruition. 
._ Unton ForMaALLy LAUNCHED 

On November 4, 1927, a meeting of a few leaders 
was held and plans made for an organization meeting 
to be held November 22. On that date the union was 
formally launched and announced. A temporary 
organization was perfected and a constitutional com- 
mittee chosen. Two weeks later another meeting was 
held, the constitution reported by the committee was 
adopted and regular officers elected. The officers are: 
President, Lewis A. Morrow; Vice President, Miss 
Lila Hunter; Recording Secretary, Mrs. Leah Griffin; 
Corresponding Secretary, Miss Belle McKenzie; Treas- 
urer, George M. Smith. 

Thus Seattle High School Teachers Union, Local 
No. 200, American Federation of Teachers, became 
an actuality and a dominant influence in the lives 
and work of Seattle high school teachers. 





Teaching Not a Profession in Seattle 


By Press COMMITTEE, 
Local 200, American Federation of Teachers, Seattle, Washington 


Teaching school has never attained the dignity of 
a profession in Seattle. Members of a profession are 
generally conceded the right to determine in no small 
measure matters pertaining to their working condi- 
tions, policies of the group, and remuneration. It 
has been the usual practice in Seattle for the admin- 
istrative department to inform the teachers of policies 
and salary schedules after they have been virtually 
approved by the board. This fact was striking!y 
exemplified recently in the salary schedule adopted 
by the Board of Education. The high school teachers 
who had waged a long and intensive campaign for 
higher salaries, were ignored by the board in the 
formulation of the new schedule. As a consequence 
the scale that was approved is honeycombed with dis- 
criminations and inequalities. 


It is patent, of course, that if the teachers had had 
an efficient organization they would have been con- 
sulted freely and frequently in regard to the determi- 
nation of educational policies and the arranging of 
salary schedules. It has been demonstrated again and 
again, that teachers’ organizations, in order to be 
effective, must not only be aggressive, but must also 
have contacts outside the so-called profession. When 
the employers in the building trades, in the printing 
trades, in the railways, contemplate a change of 


policy which in any way affects the workers, the 
workers are consulted in regard to the proposed 
changes. The teachers in Seattle have not been rated 
quite as high as ordinary laborers. 


LEAGUE “TOLERANTLY” IGNORED 

The Seattle high school teachers, it is true, have 
had an organization, the High School Teachers 
League, since the spring of 1917. However, it had 
no affiliations with any other civic, educational, or 
commercial group in the community, and accom- 
plished little for those whom it was designed to serve. 
It elicited no paeans of praise, nor evoked bursts of 
wrath, but was more or less tolerantly ignored as an 
innocuous growth of exotic hue. 

The Seattle High School Teachers League, while it 
has been open to all high school teachers in the city 
that pay their annual dues and assessments, has had 
usually an active membership of not more than fifty 
per cent. A heavy weight of dead-heads has proved 
the death of many an organization. 

Upon two notable occasions the Seattle High 
School Teachers League has failed the teachers in a 
crisis. The first occurred in the late spring of 1922. 
The teachers had asked the Board of Education for 
an increase of salary. Instead of voting a raise, the 
Board postponed election of teachers until a few 











20 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


days before the close of school in June, and then 
announced that salaries of all teachers drawing less 
than $3,000 a year would be cut $150. Those 
receiving more than $3,000 a year would be 
reduced $300. 

Protests PROVE FUTILE 

The protests of the High School Teachers League 
were futile. 

The second crisis came in April, 1923, when some 
twelve or fifteen members and former members of 
the Executive Committee of the High School Teach- 
ers League, received this letter from the Superin- 
tendent of City Schools: 

“T am dircted by the Board of Education to inform 
you that your name will be withheld from the list 
of teachers elected until an investigation is completed 
relative to a meeting of teachers that was held the 
last of June or the first of July, 1922, at which time 
a statement was prepared denouncing the Board for 
certain action relative to salaries. 

“I hope this investigation will be completed within 
a few days. 

“Very truly yours, 
“T. R. Coe, 
“Superintendent.” 

Although the teachers involved were falsely 

accused, the High School Teachers League took no 


action toward defending its members. Some two 
weeks later the teachers in questions were informed 
that their names were restored to the list of thos 
elected, but no further explanation was offered as to 
the nature of the charges against them. 

Had the High School Teachers League been an 
efficient organization, and had school teaching been 
recognized as a profession in Seattle, the teachers 
would have been accorded a full explanation of and 
proper apology for the injustice done them. 

Now AFFILIATED WITH LABOR 

It is the desire of the members of the recently- 
formed High School Teachers Union, Local 200 of 
the American Federation of Teachers, that this order 
will achieve many of the aims which the league 
failed to accomplish. The union now comprises a 
membership of upwards of 250 teachers, or more 
than fifty per cent of the high school teachers in 
Seattle, and it is an active membership. 

The union is affiliated with the American Federa- 
tion of Labor and the Central Labor Council of 
Seattle, and is making arrangements to join with the 
Washington State Federation of Labor. 

With these connections the High School Teachers 
Union of Seattle will be in a position to command 
the respect of society, which the older high school 
teachers organization has never been able to gain. 





The Program of The American Federation of Teachers 
Local 200, Seattle, Washington 


By Press COMMITTEE, 


Those who entertain the idea that The American 
Federation of Teachers, Local 200, was organized 
solely for financial benefits are unaware of the scope 
and nature of the program which has been accepted 
as a basis of future action. Although the economic 
situation has been critical and all members are decid- 
edly active in furthering ways and means to improve 
that situation, Local 200 realizes that her duty is 
one of progress through education and reform. Our 
ideal is not to travel rainbow paths at whose ends 
lie gleaming pots of gold. 

One of the problems which we are facing, under 
our new organization, with renewed purpose and 
determination is that of taxation. As the teachers 
in Chicago and elsewhere are discovering, we here in 
Washington. are beginning to find that much of the 
revenue rightfully belonging to the children of the 
state is never collected or is turned into less import- 


ant channels. Our group proposes to investigate the 
tactics of the tax evader and administrator and © 
expend whatever is necessary to bring such persoss 
to a fuller recognition of their duties as America 
citizens. The committee in charge already is laying 
the foundations for such a study and expects withis 
another year to have made definite progress. 


TENURE Law Prime CONCERN 
Another cause to which Local 200 has dedicated it 
services is teachers’ tenure. There is no law in thi 
state so far interpreted as meaning that a teacher’ 
services can be engaged for a period longer than om 
year. This is a condition which manifestly must be 
remedied. 


Legislative activities, other than concern tenut 
are to be promoted. We shall use the strength of o 
group to assist in the endorsement of an amendmest 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 21 


to the state constitution providing for the taxation 
of intangibles. This proposition has been referred by 
the state legislature to a vote of the people at the 
election next November. Such a law will materially 
increase the revenue for school purposes. We shall 
do all we can to secure the enactment of a retirement 
law adequate for the purposes for which such laws 
should be made; and what we attempt for our own 
group, we shall as faithfully strive to assist all other 
laborers to attain. There is the dawning of a new 
day; and the State Federation of Labor is beginning, 
with new effect, to formulate propositions for the 
general welfare of this commonwealth. 
STRIKING MINERS ARE AIDED 

Another active interest of the organization will be 
the effort to establish a basis for more intimate co-op- 
eration between administrative departments and class 
room teachers. A more desirable organization of 
school life is sought. In this effort, the Local will 
find opportunity to call to the attention of the pub- 
lic the right and duty of class room teachers to direct, 
in a larger way, the affairs of the school; to assist 
in determining length, number, and size of classes; 
in adjusting room conditions; in revising courses of 
study; in limiting extra-curricular activities; and in 
shortening the working day, etc. It has long been felt 
by our membership that those who have, for the most 
part, determined such conditions, have not been, at 


least in recent years, closely enough in touch with 
school life. It is the desire of the Local to co-operate 
more efficiently with the administration in the work- 
ing out of these problems. 

One of the most recent signs of an unselfish spirit 
in our Local is the part taken in the relief of suf- 
fering miners in the coal fields of Pennsylvania and 
Ohio. Although the treasury is low as a consequence 
of the expensive campaign of publicity recently con- 
ducted by high school teachers in the Seattle press, a 
liberal contribution of money and clothing has been 
sent. This is the first expression of the group in the 
direction of social service; but it augurs well for 
future activity in this field of usefulness. 

Finally, Local 200 may point with pride to a per- 
sonal interest in the union labor movement whether 
local, national, or world-wide. Many of us have been 
students of organized labor; we have suffered in her 
defeats; we have rejoiced in her victories; and now we 
come to reaffirm our faith in the ideal of Unionism 
—a larger share in the management and rewards of 
her enterprises. We join with the laborers of the 
world, unafraid of the future, if we may count as 
our friends that great army of men and women who 
work with brain and brawn for their daily bread, who 
strive always for just conditions of work, leisure, and 
culture, and who are, in the full meaning of the 
expression, “the salt of the earth.” 





Attitude Toward the Seattle High School Teachers Union 


By Press COMMITTEE, 
Local 200, American Federation of Teachers 


Although the formation of the Seattle High School 
Teachers Union was a distinct shock to people of 
tender social sensibilities, it has not aroused the 
antagonisms that might have been expected. The 
most vigorous attack against it perhaps was that 
made by Mr. C. W. Dawson, President of the Asso- 
ciated Industries, in an interview in The Seattle Star, 
December 7, 1927. 

Mr. Dawson expressed the fear that the “teachers’ 
certificate would be replaced by the union card,” and 
denounced the principle of unionism as not “com- 
patible with the policy under which the public schools 
of this city are conducted.” 

“EarRLyY Demise” DesiRED 

Mrs. R. N. Coats, chairman of the High School 
Teachers Council, Seattle Parent-Teachers Associa- 
tion, expressed the view that the organization of the 
union was “unwise,” and at the same time, hinted 


that an early demise of the union from inanition 
would not be a bad thing for the cause of education 
in Seattle. . 

On the other hand, Mr. E. B. Holmes, member 
of the Seattle Board of Education, in an interview 
in The Seattle Star, December 10, 1927, while not 
giving the new-born infant his official blessing, 
stated that: 

“As for the teachers forming a union, that is 
entirely a personal matter with them. 

“If I were so narrow-minded that I could not give 
proper consideration to every individual teacher who 
appealed to me, regardless of his personal likes and 
dislikes and personal affiliations, I would be unfit to 
sit on the board.” 

The only open hostility encountered in the press 
by the union thus far is confined to three weekly 
publications in Seattle of the extreme re-actionary 














22 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


type, and insignificant as to circulation and prestige. 
The daily press, although not enthusiastic about the 
idea of a public high school teachers’ union, has 
manifested no unfriendly spirit toward the organiza- 
tion. In fact, the teachers feel that the daily press 
has dealt with them in a manner eminently fair. 
Labor has been the teachers’ friend, and naturally, 
the High School Teachers Union was welcomed 
warmly by the Seattle Central Labor Council. The 


teachers have also received assurances of sympathy 
and support from thousands of business and profes. 
sional men and women in the city. In fact, several 
leaders in the civic and commercial life of the city 
frankly declare that without the union the high 
school teachers could never hope to accomplish any- 
thing for their betterment. They ascribe the recent 
raise of salary, slight though it was, to the influence 
of the High School Teachers Union. 





That Salary “Raise” 


By Press COMMITTEE 
Local 200, American Federation of Teachers, Seattle, Washington 


The Seattle high school teachers, who have been 
conducting a campaign for an increase of salary for 
the past six or seven years, have decided to continue 
their activities indefinitely. The teachers who were 
asking that the board advance the maximum salary 
immediately from $2,400 to $3,000, were granted a 
raise in February of $40 a year for teachers receiving 
the sub-maximum salary, while those receiving the 
maximum salary were voted a raise of $100 a year. 
In other words, the sub-maximum teachers were 
given 6 2/3 per cent of the $600 increase requested. 

BELow Cities IN SEATTLE CLAss 

The board adopted a single salary scale, with a 
minimum of $1,300 for the elementary schools, and 
a maximum salary of $2,700 for all teachers holding 
a Master of Arts degree. However, this new max- 
imum salary does not become fully operative for 
three years. The maximum for holders of the degree 
of Bachelor of Arts, $2,600, does not become effective 
for maximum teachers for two years. 

The maximum salary in Seattle is still more than 
$400 below the average maximum salary in the 
thirteen cities of the Seattle class. 

$3,000 MaximuM SouGHT 

Since the immediate relief granted the teachers is 
such an infinitesimal amount, and since it is such a 
meager percentage of the increase asked for, the high 
school teachers have agreed with enthusiastic unan- 
imity that the salary schedule adopted by the board 
is a challenge to them to continue their efforts for 
an advance of the maximum salary to $3,000. 

Below is the single salary scale as approved by the 
Seattle Board of Education in February: 

$1,300 2 years experience—Elementary Schools 

1,400 3“ . . “ 

"1,500 4 “ . r 
~*Maximum beginning salary, Elementary School. 


1,600 2 “ 53 Intermediate or Senior 
High Schools 
1,700 3 years experience—Intermediate or Senior 
High Schools 
**1,800 4 years experience—Intermediate or Senior 
High Schools 
Intermediate or Senior High Schools 


1,900 
2,000 ” 
2,100 Maximum salary, Elementary Schools—2 
years training or equivalent. 
Maximum salary, Elementary Schools 
Maximum salary, Elementary Schools—3 
years training or equivalent. 
Maximum salary, Elementary Schools 


ec 


ee ec e 


2,200 
2,300 


2,400 

2,500 as “ 

2,600 f “A. B. degree, or equiv- 
alent. 

Maximum salary, M. A. degree or equiv- 
alent. 


2,700 


**Maximum beginning salary, Intermediate or Senior High 
School. 





BREVITIES 


Mr. Lewis A. Morrow, President of the Seattle 
High School Teachers Union, represented Knox Col- 
lege at the inaugural ceremonies of Dr. M. L. Spencer, 
February 22, when he was inducted into the presi- 
dency of the University of Washington. Mr. Morrow, 
who now teaches Latin and German in Queen Anne 
High School, Seattle, was a member of the faculty 
of Knox College for several years. 


The constitution of the Seattle High School Teach- 
ers Union, Local 200 of the American Federation of 
Teachers, has been amended to admit college and uni- 
versity teachers. A number of professors in the Uni- 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 23 


versity of Washington had expressed a wish to become 


members of the organization. 


Unionism is popular among the department heads 
in Seattle high schools. More than three-fourths of 
the heads of departments in Seattle have joined Local 
200 of the American Federation of Teachers. 


Representatives of the Seattle High School Teachers 
Union are much in demand as speakers before groups 
of teachers in neighboring cities and towns. Tacoma, 
Bremerton, and Bellingham are among the cities that 
have considerable bodies of interested teachers. 


The word “union” is still a term of horrendous 
import to the Seattle Board of Education. A request 
for the use of a room in the Roosevelt High School 
for a meeting of union teachers was denied by the 
honorable body in November. 


School executives, as a rule, do not consider moral 
courage a desirable trait in a class room teacher. 
Those Seattle high school teachers who have done 
most for the advancement of education during the 
past six months are the least popular with the admin- 
istrative division of the city school system. 





A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY IN RUSSIA 

“I like poor people with rich souls. Russia is full 
of them.” So wrote a member of an Open Road 
party after return from Russia last summer. Others 
will have like opportunity to gather rich experiences 
this coming summer in the parties being organized 
by the Open Road in co-operation with the National 
Student Federation of America and the International 
Hospitality Association. One of these parties will 
draw its membership largely from the West and will 
have for its leader, E. E. Schwarztrauber of the 
Portland, Oregon, Local 111. 

The tour is planned for a period of approximately 
five weeks in Russia. The party will leave New York 
about June 23. Its itinerary will include Leningrad, 
Moscow, the Ukraine, the Crimea, the American 
Reconstruction Farms in the Caucasus, and Tiflis in 
the Georgian Soviet Republic. The Open Road has, 
by careful planning based on past experience, per- 
fected the details of travel so that there is assured a 
maximum of comfort under conditions of travel in 
Russia and many intimate points of contact with the 
Russian people. A guide-interpreter, provided through 
the Russian Society for Cultural Relations with 


Foreign Countries, will look after all technical de- 
tails of travel in Russia. Furthermore, since the 
party is:limited to eight, all the advantages of indi- 
vidual travel are secured without the disadvantages 
of the usual tourist crowd. Mr. Schwarztrauber’s 
party will be back in New York about August 25. 
The Open Road permits arrangements for joining the 
party at the port of entry to Russia or of leaving it 
to remain in Europe on the return out of Russia. 
Proportionate reductions are made in such cases on 
the cost of the tour which, complete, amounts to 
about eight hundred fifty dollars. 


For further information, write E. E. Schwarz- 


‘trauber, Route 5, Box 68, Portland, Oregon. 





INAUGURATION OF DEAN WILLIAM 
FLETCHER RUSSELL AND NATIONAL 
EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE 

The new dean of Teachers College, Columbia, 
University, William Fletcher Russell, will be inau- 
gurated in New York on April 10, 1928. On this 
and the following day a national Conference will be 
held to consider the present condition of American 
education, its successes and shortcomings, and its 
future development in response to new social de- 
mands. The alumni of Teachers College will join in 
the exercises of the occasion instead of holding their 
annual homecoming at an earlier date as already 
announced. 

The main features of the two days’ program will 
be general sessions at which nationally known speak- 
ers, both educators and laymen, will discuss educa- 
tional needs, group conferences of persons interested 
in particular aspects of education, the installation 
itself, with addresses by President Butler, Dean Rus- 
sell, and others. The program will close with a ban- 
quet on Wednesday evening for the visiting delegates. 

The threefold nature of this coming event gives 
to the announcement of it unusual significance. The 
installation of a new dean in Teachers College is 
itself of interest to educators everywhere. The alumni 
conference serves as the annual reunion of members 
of the largest group of its kind in the world. And 
there is added, for full measure, a conference on 
fnajor issues in professional education to which con- 
tributions will be made by institutions throughout 
the country that will represent not merely individual 
but rather matured group opinion on new issues and 
methods of meeting them. 

More detailed announcement of the program will 
follow. 











THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Conference On the Cause and Cure of War 


By Laura PUFFER MORGAN 


Secretary, National Council For Prevention of War 
Washington Local 198 


The National Conference on the Cause and Cure 
of War, called by nine national women’s organiza- 
tions, meeting for the third time in Washington on 
January 15, marked a distinct advance in the wom- 
en’s movement for peace. Six hundred women, many 
of whom had participated in the two preceding con- 
ferences, and had continued their studies on the prob- 
lem of abolishing war in the interim, gathered here 
under the chairmanship of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, 
prepared to take a definite step forward. Whereas 
the first two conferences had produced only “find- 
ings” on the causes and cures of war, this time action 
was taken recognizing compacts between nations as 
the only substitute for war, and presenting a plan 
for an intensive campaign of education on this prin- 
ciple throughout the country in order to create a 
public demand for the successful conclusion by the 
State Department of such treaties substituting peace- 
ful settlement for war, and their ratification by the 
Senate. : 

The conference did not set its stamp of approval 
on any one proposal but promised active and con- 
crete support to the “efforts of the State Department 
to conclude either a multilateral treaty or bilateral 
treaties with the five principal Powers, and urged con- 
tinued efforts if the present negotiations with France 
fail.” It was recalled that our present arbitration 
treaties with Great Britain and Japan, as well as with 
France, expire during 1928. This national crusade, 
as it was outlined by Mrs. Catt, must, before its 
inauguration, be approved by the participating organ- 
izations themselves, The American Association of 
University Women, The Council for Home Missions, 
The Federation of Women’s Boards of Foreign Mis- 
sions of North America, The General Federation of 
Women’s Clubs, The National Board of the Young 
Women’s Christian Association, The National Coun- 
cil of Jewish Women, The National League of Women 
Voters, The National Women’s Christian Temperance 
Union, and The National Women’s Trade Union 
League. 

ABOLITION OF War PosstBLE 

In adopting arbitration—using the word in its most 

general sense to include all peaceful means of settle- 


ment—as the anti-war specific and the objective of | 


future activity, the conference followed the lead of 


Mrs. Catt’s keynote speech on “The Status of War 
Versus Peace.” Though she warned her audience that 
she was treading on controversial ground, Mrs. Catt 
declared that after some years’ study on this ques. 
tion she had reached certain conclusions, which can 
roughly be summarized as follows: that war as an 
institution can be abolished by civilized nations when 
the people will; that the only way to treat the prob- 
lem of war is to isolate it and treat it by itself, 
“clearing away the rubbish;” that the so-called causes, 
which are really only excuses, are a part of the rub- 
bish—this conclusion she had come to after listing 
257 causes; that the complicated problems about 
which men write books can not be settled with guns 
but call for statesmen; and that the only possible 
substitutes for war are compacts among civilized 
nations to prescribe war as between themselves and to 
find peaceful means for settlement. 

The program of the Conference indicated the 
increased power of the delegates to tackle the prob- 
lems with which they were confronted. Less stress 
was laid on formal speeches and several sessions were 
given over to an open forum discussion among the 
delegates themselves. An innovation was introduced 
in the opening public session when the Secretary of 
War and representatives of the State and Navy 
Departments presented the points of view of their 
respective departments. They were courteously and 
even enthusiastically received, but the arguments of 
the military men that the only way to prevent wat 
was to prepare for it, and of the diplomat that the 
State Department could very well preserve peace if 
“the professional peace makers” would leave it alone, 
were calmly ignored by the delegates in their deliber- 
ations. 

BURTON RESOLUTION ENDORSED 

A completely novel feature of the program was the 
introduction of two round table discussions, one 00 
the Cause and Cure of War, one on the Foreign 
Policy of the United States,—participated in by pro 
fessors James T. Shotwell, Philip Marshall Brows, 
John H. Latane, Harry Elmer Barnes, Mrs, James M. 
Morrison of Chicago, President Mary E. Woolley of 
Mt. Holyoke College, and other experts, seated on 4 
platform with the delegates as an interested audience. 
It was, as Mrs. Catt announced, such a round 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 25 


as had never been held before anywhere in the world, 
but it was pronounced a great success. The delegates 
received a valuable object lesson on the way to meet 
the arguments which they will have to face. Miss 
Woolley voiced the teacher view point when she 
urged that every person in the room should do his 
part to stimulate in the young that understanding of 
foreign nations which is the basis of peace. 


In addition to the plan for future activity, which 
will be submitted to the national organizations, the 
delegates, acting in an individual capacity, discussed 
and unanimously adopted two resolutions dealing 
with emergency questions. These were an endorse- 
ment of the Burton resolution (H. J. Resolution 1) 
prohibiting exportation of arms to a nation which 
has engaged in war in violation of a treaty, and a 
denunciation of the naval building program now 
before Congress. : 

The Burton resolution was under consideration by 
the House Foreign Affairs Committee while the Con- 
ference was in session, and during this time was 
changed so as to make the prohibition of arms export 
apply not only to the guilty nation but to any bellig- 
erent, except by act of Congress. The action of the 
Conference, nevertheless, was allowed to stand as 
taken, since the effect of the change is to broaden 
the scope of the resolution, which is regarded as a 
long step forward toward enforcing peace. (The new 
Burton Resolution (H. J. Resolution 183) was fav- 
orably reported by the Foreign Affairs Committee on 
January 30 (H. Report 492) and early action by the 
House is expected.) 


Nava. ExpaNsION OPPOSED 


Animated discussion followed the introduction of 
the resolution opposing the five-year naval program. 
It was evident that the sentiment of the Conference 
was entirely against a policy of naval expansion, but 
there was a difference as to details, in the course, of 
which one delegate announced that a navy man’s defi- 
nition of “an adequate navy,” always simmers down 
to this: “adequate preparedness means one battleship 
more than any possible enemy.” In the end all agreed 
on the resolution finally framed: 


“RESOLVED, That the Conference on the 
Cause and Cure of War deplores the policy of 
greatly increased Naval armaments for the 
United States, at the same time that our State 
Department is offering Treaties renouncing War 
as an instrument of national policy, and urges 
that in the adoption of any Naval building pro- 


gram the President be authorized to suspend 
construction if circumstances warrant it.” 


The Conference could not adjourn without some 
declaration on the World Court situation, which has 
resulted in a deadlock in spite of the Senate’s over- 
whelming vote. The first conference declared for 
participation in the Court and visited the President 
to tell him so. The second conference sent a letter 
to him urging further negotiations. This year a let- 
ter, drafted by Mrs. Catt, was approved, asking for a 
declaration from the Administration on the interpre- 
tation of the clause “has or claims an interest,” the 
implications of which have so far made our adherence 
to the Court Protocol impossible. With this matter 
cleared up, said the letter, resumption of negotia- 
tions should not be difficult. The letter calls for a 
reply, and the answer, of interest to millions of 
women, is eagerly awaited. 





THE OUTLAWRY OF WAR—By Charles Clayton 
Morrison. Willett, Clark & Colby, Chicago, 1927. 
$3.00. 

The Outlawry of War by Charles Clayton Mor- 
rison is highly recommended to those who wish to 
study the industrial and economic problems that 
are the causes of international warfare. Mr. Morri- 
son interprets clearly the philosophy of the move- 
ment to outlaw war. He shows that permanent 
world peace can come only by establishing an ex- 
tensive legal and judicial system which will safe- 
guard peace. To outlaw war, he claims, is a step 
and a long one in the direction of the discovery of 
ways to establish universal peace and justice—ways 
which will obliterate the principal cause of war, the 
competitive economic international organization, 
with its ambitions and greeds and its creed, to the 
victor belongs the spoils, 





DOLLARS AND WORLD PEACE—By Kirby Page. 
George H. Doran Company, New York, 1926. 


$1.50. (In paper covers, at 15 cents.) 

Kirby Page, editor of The World Tomorrow, has 
given us again a worth-while book in “Dollars and 
World Peace.” The reader will find much valuable 
information concerning foreign trade and invest- 
ments and a clear exposition of the industrial and 
economic problems leading to intérnational warfare. 

Mr. Page very clearly demonstrates the economic 
interdependence of nations. The goal toward which 
he is aiming is permanent world peace. He advocates 
outlawry of war as one means of strengthening 
international friendship. 











26 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


The American Teacher 


Education for Democracy 





Democracy in Education 


Published Monthly, except July and August 
Official Organ 
THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 
Office of Publication, Leader Building, Oklahoma City, Okla. 
Editorial Office: 
327 South LaSalle Street, Chicago, Illinois 
Fuorence Curtis HANson, Secretary-Tteasurer and Editor 





At the time of expiration, a bill will be found in the copy. 
Subscribers are requested to give prompt notice of changes 
in address. 

Remittances should be made in postal money-order, express 
order, draft, stamps or check. 


SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, TWO DOLLARS FOR THE YEAR 
FOREIGN $2.10—SINGLE COPIES, 25¢ 











Advertising rates made known on application. 





EXECUTIVE COUNCIL 
President 
Mary C. Barxer, Aticnta No. 89, 685 Myrtle Street, N. E., 
Atlanta, Georgia. 
Legislative Representative and Vice-President 
Sexma M. BorcHarpt, Washington No. 8; 1741 Park Road, 
N. W., Washington, D. C. 
Vice-Presidents 
Luce W. ALLEN, Chicago Women No. 3; 1803 Livingston 
Avenue, Evanston, Illinois. 
Amy A. Fox, Minneapolis No. 59; 2809 Park Avenue, Minne- 
apolis, Minnesota. 
ApraHaM Lerxowrrz, New York No. 5; Grand Avenue, East 
Elmhurst, New York, N. Y. 
Henry R. Livvize, New York No. 5; 70 Fifth Avenue, 
New York, N. Y. 

A. J. Muste, Brookwood No. 189; Brookwood, Katonah, N. Y. 
FuoreNnce Roop, St. Paul No. 28; 328 Cedar Street, St. Paul, 
Minnesota. 

E. E. ScHWARTzTRAUBER, Portland No. 111; R. F. D. 5, 
Box 68, Portland, Oregon 
W. J. Scorr, Atlanta No. 89; 212 Kings Highway, Decatur, 
Georgia. 

F. G. Strecker, Chicago No. 2; 1618 Lake Avenue, 
Wilmette, Illinois. 

Cuartes B. StmiMan, Chicago No. 2; 827 Ridge Avenue, 
Evanston, Illinois. 

Secretary-Treasurer 
FioreNnce Curtis Hanson, Chicago Women No. 3; 327 South 
La Salle Street, Chicago, Illinois—Telephone Harrison 2950. 
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 
OrGANIzeD Aprit 15, 1916 


Affiliated With the American Federation of Labor 


The responsibility for this issue of THE AMERICAN 
TEACHER is shared by California locals Vallejo 26, 
Sacramento High. 31, Sacramento Elementary 44, 
San Francisco 61, Fresno 72; Portland, Oregon, 111 
and Seattle, Washington, 200. 








We must teach the young that no one ought on 
any pretext to hate his neighbor.—Socrates. 


GIVING AND GETTING 


What can the American Federation of Teachers & 
for me? 

What can I do for the American Federation of 
Teachers? And why? 

These are questions which every teacher should ask 
himself. They are queries to which many teachers, 
either in the membership of the Federation or outside 
of it do not seek an answer. On all sides are heard 
vigorous protests and complaints against existing con- 
ditions. “‘Can’t something be done for the teachers?” 
is a very common question. 

These questioners do not look to the logical means 
—mass action—for a solution of their difficulties, A 
large group has behind it the strength of members 
and the prestige of a representative body. The Amer- 
ican Federation of Teachers has behind it the strength 
not only of its own members but also of the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor, of whose educational pro- 
gram Dr. John Dewey says: “I say without any fear 
of contradiction that there is no organization in the 
United States—I do not care what its nature is— 
that has such a fine record in the program of liberal 
progressive public education as will be found in the 
printed records of the American Federation of Labor.” 

The individual can do little to help himself and 
certainly less for anyone else. An organization 
becomes more effective as its membership strength 
increases. But before the members can receive they 
must give. Teachers must learn more generous giving 
if they expect liberal returns. A chief reason why 
teachers have received so meagrely is because. they 
have not learned large scale action. Those who get 
must expect first to give. Organization means get- 
ting for members something which they could not 
get as individuals, nor in groups of tens, twenties of 
hundreds; it means getting only what its members 
give,—results in proportion to the support given. 





OHIO TEACHERS RESENT POLITICAL 
CONTROL 

Interference by politicians in public school matters 
and attempts to use teachers for political purposes 
was condemned by the Northwestern Teachers Asso 
ciation in their January meeting in Toledo. A res0 
lution deplores political control because it reduces 
the teachers’ freedom and hence the pupils in their 
charge. 

The American Federation of Teachers agrees most 
heartily with the sentiments of the Ohio teachers 
but feels that one of the gravest evils of the situation 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER og 


is that when teachers have passed resolutions con- 
demning political control of school affairs they have 
come to the end of their power in most places today. 
They dare not openly attack specific political activi- 
ties in any definite locality if they teach in that 
locality. Loss of promotion or even of position 
would be meted out to the leaders. To many citizens, 
the use of school positions, both business and educa- 
tional, as political awards is to be unreservedly con- 
demned only when carried on by political opponents. 
In one’s own party such procedure may seem to be 
justified at times. Hence teachers do not feel safe 
even with tenure laws in openly attacking local 
political control. They would be supported only by 
a part of the public in any case and that part might 
desert them later on some other issue and leave them 
holding the bag. Until the general public becomes 
sufficiently interested and enlightened to take an 
unselfish and intelligent share in choosing good 
officials and in helping them to remain good while 
in office, teachers can only show their opinions in 
these vital matters by passing resolutions. 

This situation of “‘politics in the schools” is unfor- 
tunately only too common, but there is a ray of hope 
in the few communities that are leading the way to 
a better state of affairs. The stories of A. F. T. 
locals’ activities elsewhere in THE AMERICAN 
TEACHER give us encouragement to believe that a 
not remote day will find teachers generally daring 
to do more than pass resolutions, even backed up by 
a socially intelligent public, making their opinions 
effective. 





WHY A NATIONAL? 
By Marian C, Lyons 
Federation of Women High School Teachers No. 3 

Members of strong locals may wonder of what 
value a national organization is to them that they 
should support it. They plan and finance their own 
projects, and think that perhaps the national dues 
would be better spent on some local issue. Hence, 
we ask: Why a National? 

Consider the case in which local groups of teachers 
have engineered a successful plan for salary increases. 
They have made investigations, laid plans, built up 
favorable public opinion and convinced the Board of 
Education of the justice and necessity for the increase. 
The local board granted the increase. What outside 
locality or agency had anything to do with the 
increase? None, it seems at first thought; but no city 
lives in a vacuum. 


The situation in any locality as to teacher load, 
pensions, sabbatical year or salary is not an isolated 
thing, unrelated to the situation in other localities, 
but reflects the good or evil in these particulars as 
they exist in those other localities. One of the best 
arguments (to the mind in favor of any proposition) 
of the board is that other cities “are doing it.” 
Teacher gains in one place make more probable 
teacher gains in others. Local conditions are certainly 
taken into consideration but the ultimate decision 
in any case is definitely affected by the policy else- 
where, 

The national, since it is in a position to know what 
is going on in various states, can give information as 
to the gains being made and as to the methods used 
successfully. If the sabbatical year has been given 
to Chicago teachers the news is carried to locals in 
other cities, and causes them to strive for the same 
objective. Some locals will win it and report their 
experiences. Thus ideas and plans from a score of 
locals can be pooled through the National to the 
enrichment of the work of each local. Increased 
efforts and enthusiasm will be aroused as teachers 
in different sections of the country feel themselves 
parts of one big unit working nationally to improve 
school conditions. 

Since there are so many worthy objectives to strive 
for, there might be loss of results through working 
for too many things at once. The National is there- 
fore needed with the annual convention to unify our 
efforts. Not that any good objects are to be discarded 
but simply that each may be evaluated and the whole 
arraigned in some harmonious pattern. Progress will 
be more logical and assured if a chosen few are to 
be striven for by all the locals during any given year. 
These few objectives will be given publicity in the 
newspapers more readily if discussion on them is 
national and a general public opinion can be built up. 
A concerted drive over the country makes local suc- 
cesses more likely. A push in one locality can not 
help general school conditions much but a push alto- 
gether with the constant backing by the National, 
can. 

The gains made by teachers which are purely local 
can be easily lost. The local board knowing that their 
school conditions are better than those in other locali- 
ties may naturally decide that they are too good and 
retrench. If the gains in any locality are not isolated 
but part of a nation wide campaign in which similar 
gains have been made in various other places, retro- 
gression locally would not be so easy and unchecked. 











THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





Local News 





Cnuicaco, Locats 2, 3, AND 199 

The Federation of Men Teachers and the Federa- 
tion of Women High School Teachers are conducting 
a joint membership drive. Miss Natalie Chapman, 
Lindblom High School, is chairman of Local 3’s com- 
mittee and T. J. Wilson, Englewood High School, of 
Local 2’s. Though barely launched the results are 
already manifest and a decided growth is expected. 
The teachers of Chicago are realizing more than ever 
the value of organization and their debt to the 
Federations. 

The following record and program of action was 
sent to all Senior and Junior high school teachers 
with an invitation to join: 

The Federation of Women High School Teachers, 
The Chicago Federation of Men Teachers, have been 
effective in helping to secure 

1. Adjustment in size of classes. 

2. Equalization of the teaching load. 

3. The Sabbatical leave of absence. 

4. Protection of the interests of the individual 
teacher. 
Presentation of the point of view of the class- 
room teacher in educational matters. 
New rule for promotion of teachers on limited 
certificate. 
Leave of absence on full pay for ex-service 
teachers at the Paris Legion convention. 
Invaluable publicity for the schools over 
station WCFL. 
Establishment of the principle that a teacher 
may teach her major subject. 
Group insurance for all women. 
Raising the minimum salary from $1,000 to 
$2,000. 
Shortening the salary schedule to ten years. 

Our Program for this year is: 

Continued effort to reduce size of classes. 
Equitable upward revision of the salary schedule. 
Campaign for new high schools not larger 
than 2,000. 

Official recognition of the teachers’ councils. 
Careful study of educational experiments. 
Co-operation with all groups interested in 
education. 

Teachers’ organizations affiliated with organized 
labor represent all groups of teachers in Chicago: 


elementary, junior high, senior high, normal and 
junior college. 
National affiliation provides direct contact with 
classroom teachers all over the United States. 
Become a part of this Great Movement! 


Interest in the program of 199 continues if mem- 
bership increase is an evidence. On the Monday 
following the dinner on Friday, March 2nd, seventy- 
five membership applications were received and they 
have been coming in steadily ever since. The presi- 
dent, Agnes B. Clohesy, is a teacher at the McLaren 
School and also a practising attorney. She is treasurer 
of the Chicago Women’s Bar Association and was 
chairman of the banquet committee on the occasion 
of the Association’s annual banquet on March 10, 
This was a most brilliant and successful affair. 





New York, Loca § 


The Teachers Union of New York City is working 
to secure the passage of Lefkowitz Merit Bill Print 
No. 721 Int. No. 706, establishing the promotion 
upon the basis of merit for those now in the exempt 
class. The bill seeks to have all exempt positions 
below that of associate superintendent filled on the 
basis of merit, rather than by political preferment. 
The Union believes that once the Board of Super- 
intendents is freed from political pressure, it will 
have time to face the educational problems demand- 
ing solution and to study them adequately. 

The Teachers Union has endorsed two non-educa- 
tional bills, the substitution of life imprisonment for 
electrocution as the penalty for conviction of first 
degree murder, and the granting women the right to 
serve on juries on the same terms as men. 

The pension victory is most gratifying. The sec- 
retary of the Teachers Retirement Board, who had 
been appointed without the approval of a teacher 
member, as required by law, has been ousted. Mrs. 
Mabel L. Rees, one of the editors of The Union 
Teacher, in co-operation with the teacher members 
of the Retirement Board, brought suit for the removal 
of this political appointee. The Court of Appeals 
fully sustained the teachers’ contention. 





MINNEAPOLIs, LocaL 59 


The salary campaign has been partially successful 
Not all the teachers wanted, but enough to enable 
them to continue the fight. Details and schedule 


later. 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Sr. PAUL FEDERATION OF WOMEN TEACHERS, 
LocaL 28 

The St. Paul Federation of Women Teachers held 
its regular monthly meeting which was well attended 
and devoted to organization business. A second 
special meeting, social in its nature, was crowded and 
devoted to bridge. 

Most of the present effort is on plans for a salary 
increase on which a joint salary committee of the 
three teachers’ organizations of the city, the Prin- 
cipals’ Club and the two Federations, is working. 
The work is difficult because of the peculiar financing 
method of the city, augmented by the industrial 
depression of the northwest. The committee believes 
it is beginning to see a way out. 

A committee of Local 28 has been organized to 
study the interruptions in what is supposed to be 
normal school programs. The committee is selecting 
teachers in each grade whom it believes can be relied 
on to keep accurate records. Blanks will be supplied 
each recorder to be returned each week to the com- 
mittee so that a check may be kept on the work 
being done—so that if some of the recorders fail to 
continue the task the committee may know of it. 


The work of recording will probably be carried on 


this spring and repeated in the fall in order to 
insure as comprehensive a report as possible. 
FLORENCE Roop, Publicity Chairman. 





WasHINGTON, D. C., Loca 8 

The Washington Teachers Union, Local 8, had a 
most successful theatre party which netted them 
close to two hundred dollars. Mrs. Gifford Pinchot 
graciously opened her home for a card party, which 
was a brilliant success. 

Local 8 has more than doubled its membership 
this year and reports a gain of 47 last month. 





SACRAMENTO HicH ScHooL Loca 31 

A local that holds two and three meetings per 
month in these days of heavy teacher load is certainly 
to be commended for its ardor. Local 31, in addi- 
tion to its regular monthly meeting, has had one 
special meeting each month and in February had, 
besides, a social meeting which served to stimulate 
and interest members who had acquired a somewhat 
“Let-George-do-it” attitude. 

Study groups have been organized to handle school 
problems, one of which is doing worth while work 
on “The Hour Period.” 

ALMA ScHockeE, Corresponding Secretary. 


Mempnis, Locat 52 

The Memphis Teachers Association is carrying for- 
ward its salary campaign and its work for permanent 
tenure. 

The membership drive is still on and is being con- 
ducted through a committee member in each school 
and through letters and literature sent to all non- 
members. After a gain of 300%, this month has 30 
new members admitted. 

CaRLOTTA PrrTMan, President. 

(There can not be many left.) 





St. PauL FEDERATION OF MEN TEACHERS, Loca. 43 
The St. Paul Federation of Men Teachers has been 
making progress with its group insurance. Two new 
members have been added. The salary campaign is 
dragging somewhat, before its final spurt to what is 
expected to be a successful eventuality. 
S. S. Tuncie, Vice President. 





PaTERSON, N. J., Locau 92 

At the last election two more teachers from the 
Central High School were elected members of Boards 
of Education in the communities in which they live. 
Mr. George Harris, 2 commercial teacher, was elected 
in East Paterson with the second highest vote of 468, 
compared to 482. In Glen Rock, Mr. Myron C. Rob- 
erts, also a commercial teacher and President of the 
Paterson Teachers Association, was second highest 
with 354 votes, the highest being 365. Mr. John M. 
Shute, head of the Science Department, also a mem- 
ber of the Teachers Union, has served on the Board 
of Education in Wyckoff for five years and is now on 
his sixth year. Mrs. J. H. Shute and Mrs. Albert F. 
Long were on the election board at the last election 
in Wickoff. Mr. William Shepard, head of the Com- 
mercial Department at Central was chosen chairman 
of the election board, in Wyckoff. The Central High 
School is justly proud of Miss Julia Pierce who is 
President of the Borough Council in East Paterson. 
Mr. A. K. Harris as a trustee of the Board of Fire- 
men in Wyckoff is responsible for a great many im- 
provements in that body as well as for the efficiency 
the firemen showed at recent fire emergencies. 





SUPERIOR FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, LocaL 202 
The Superior Federation is continuing its campaign 
of education. Meetings with prominent speakers to 
explain the ideals and policies of the organization are 
held regularly. A growth in membership is reported. 
Hugo Swanson is the Federation representative at the 
Superior Trades and Labor Assembly. 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


ATLANTA, LocaL 89 
The regular meetings and the directors’ luncheon 
have: been held by the Atlanta Public School Teachers 
Association. The central office and part time worker 
will be continued until June 1. Marked progress has 
been made in the financial situation in that a definite 
sum upon which to budget was secured, rather than 
a percentage which would be subject to changes. 
The membership committees are working to make 
89 a 100% local. There are less than 100 non-mem- 
bers in the system. 
W. J. Scott, Publicity Chairman. 





Brooxwoop, Loca 189 

Local 189 of the Teachers Union, which consists 
for the most part of the faculty of Brookwood Labor 
College, held its annual teachers’ conference at Brook- 
wood February 24-26. The subjects discussed ranged 
from “Is Workers’ Education to be Classed with the 
Panaceas?” to ““What Relation Should Workers’ Edu- 
cation Enterprises Sustain to the Labor Movement?” 





PORTLAND, OREGON, Loca 111 

At the February meeting Paul Blanshard, field 
secretary of the League for Industrial Democracy, 
was the guest of the Portland Teachers Union and 
spoke to the members and their friends on “From 
Ford to Bernard Shaw.” 

The Union is putting on a series of public lectures 
on International Politics by professors of Reed Col- 
lege. 

Laura H. Nortuvp. 





A Messace From MaNumIT SCHOOL 
Loca. 191 
My Dear FRIEND: 

A New Year’s Greeting to you from Manumit 
School. We are sure that you will be interested to 
see our new catalog and to hear what progress we 
are making. 

Our drive for $10,000 last summer was successful, 
and we are today a completely solvent institution,— 
because we cut down our plant to fit the size of our 
pocket book. We sold our cows, paid all our debts, and 
have devoted our efforts to making the year the most 
successful from an educational point of view that 
Manumit has ever had. 

Thirty happy healthy children bear testimony to 
what we have accomplished. Applications are pour- 
ing in upon us from all sides from eager parents who 
want to send their children to Manumit. 


Must we refuse them? I hope not. Manumit con. 
tains the germ of a new life that is bound to grovw, 
The recent fire that destroyed our barns has only 
kindled anew our determination that Manumit shall 
truly fulfill the promise of its founders. If “‘a little 
child shall lead them,” Manumit wants to be one of 
those institutions who shall show him how. 

Yet today our buildings are actually being kept 
in repair by our own faculty group, because our 
budget provides nothing for outside labor. We want 
our farm animals once more, and an opportunity for 
the children to have real agricultural experience. 
Above all we need a new dormitory if we are to take 
more than thirty children, and extend Manumit’s 
benefits to the many who want to come. 

What will you do to help us? 

With the faith and hope, that if God does not 
always help those who help themselves, at least our 
friends will. 

Fraternally yours, 
NELLIE M. SEEDS, Director. 





CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Loca 195 

The Cambridge Federation of Teachers is carrying 
on its excellent program and looks to have a good 
report of progress to make soon. This would move 
faster if there were fewer watchers on the side lins 
and more workers pushing forward. 

Why wait until the work is done before getting 
in? Why not help put it over? 





SEATTLE H. S. TEacHERs UNion, Locat 200 

The Seattle H. S. Teachers Union has held one reg- 
ular business meeting and two special educational 
meetings this month. Membership is constantly 
increasing. The membership work is handled by 4 
working committee in each of the eight high schools 

Two hundred fifty pounds of wearing apparel wa 
sent to Pittsburgh to the striking miners. 

Be sure to read 200’s story elsewhere in the magi 
zine and keep in mind that this local is only five 
months’ old. A precocious youngster. Congratule 
tions to them and to all of us. 





WIscONSIN STATE FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 

The Wisconsin State Federation of Teachers cot 
sisting of the locals of the American Federation of 
Teachers in Wisconsin will meet at Madison, 
10th. All unaffiliated teachers are invited to attend 
and become informed of the program and policié 
of the organization. The national secretary, Ms. 
Hanson, will be present. 





ternat 
supery 
stay i 
guests 
one w 


the D 


ments. 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


AN ALLURING EUROPEAN TRIP 

The folk high schools of Denmark and other 
schools in Europe showing the advances made by the 
progressive education movement will be visited by a 
party of American teachers and educational leaders 
who will make a tour of Europe next July and Au- 
gust under the leadership of Chester Graham of the 
University of Illinois, according to an announcement 
made yesterday. Peter Manniche, president of the In- 
ternational College at Elsinore, will have: personal 
supervision of the program of the party during its 
stay in Denmark and Sweden. Its members will be 
guests at the International College at Elsinore for 
one week during which they will attend lectures on 
the Danish folk high school and co-operative move- 
ments, the Scandinavian labor movement and the 
study circle movement in Sweden. From Denmark 
the party will make an excursion to Sweden, visiting 
Lund University and Swedish high schools and agri- 
cultural schools. 

In Berlin the party will visit the university and 
attend social gatherings and informal conferences 
with educational leaders arranged by Dr. K. O. Bert- 
ling of the German-Amerika Institute. In Prague 
they will visit the Sixth International Congress and 
the international exhibition of work from schools of 


art, high schools, technical and vocational schools. 
In Vienna they will be guests at social gatherings 
with educational leaders arranged by Dr. Paul L. 
Dengler of the Austro-American Institute of Edu- 
cation and in Geneva they will visit the League of 
Nations and the International Labor Bureau and 
attend informal conferences with representatives of 
the International Bureau. of Education. During its 
stay in London the party will be present at several 
discussion gatherings arranged by the World Asso- 
ciation for Adult Education. 

The program which was arranged with the assis- 
tance of World Acquaintance Travel includes many 
sightseeing trips in an effort to make it a true summer 
holiday for members of the party as well as a tour 
with a definite purpose. 

In addition to the progressive education tour, 
World Acquaintance Travel has announced two in- 
ternational seminar tours in charge of Dr. Alfred 
Zimmern, director of the Geneva School of Interna- 
tional Studies. In the first of these tours arrange- 
ments have been made for a series of lectures on in- 
ternational problems in both Paris and Geneva while 
in the second plans have been made for members of 
the tour to devote their mornings while in Geneva 
to the Co-ordination Course of the Geneva School of 
International Studies. 





Buy Union Stamped Shoes 








COLLIS LOVELY 
General President 


We ask all members of organized labor to 
purchase shoes bearing our Union Stamp on 
the sole, inner-sole or lining of the shoe. We 
ask you not to buy any shoes unless you 
actually see this Union Stamp. 


Boot & Shoe Workers’ Union 


Affiliated with the American Federation of Labor 
246 SUMMER STREET, BOSTON, MASS. 





CHARLES L. BAINE 
General Secretary-Treasurer 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 

















American Federation 


of 


Teachers 


327 S. La Salle Street 
CHICAGO, ILL. 


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


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


The American Federation of Teachers desires to 
co-operate 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 
American Federation of Teachers. Membership dues 
carry subscription to the magazine. To all others the 
subscription price is $2.00 per year, 25 cents per copy.