MAY, 1928 


Democracy in Education 


VOL. XII, No. 9 


Education for Democracy 


The — 


American Teacher 





THE ORGAN OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 











CHICAGO 
NUMBER 








is fit for you to serve him, do not take back 

your words when you find that prudent peo- 
ple do not commend you. Adhere to your own 
act and congratulate yourself if you have done 
something strange and extravagant and broken 
the monotony of a decorous age. It was a high 
counsel that I once heard given to a young per- 
son: “Always do what you are afraid to do.”— ~ 


Ralph Waldo Emerson. 


I’ YOU would serve your brother, because it 








Office of Publication 


Oklahoma” City, Okighoma 


BEB 99 


Single Copy 25c—Yearly Subscription $2.00 


Editorial Office 
827 South La Salle St. 
Chicago, Illinois 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





It’s All in the State of Mind 


Full many a race is lost 
Ere even a race is run, 
And many a coward fails 
Ere even his work’s begun. It 
Think big, and your deeds will grow, of C 
Think small and you fall behind, 
Think that you can, and you will; 
It’s all in the state of mind. tion, 


If you think you are beaten, you are; 
If you think you dare not, you don’t; 
If you think you’d like to win, but you can’t, 
It’s almost a “cinch” you won’t; 
If you think you'll lose, you’ve lost, 
For out in the world you'll find 
Success begins with a fellow’s will— 
It’s all in the state of mind. 


unde1 


prete 


If you think you are outclassed, you are; Pre 
You’ve got to think high to rise; dt 
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before ow! 

You can ever win a prize. The . 
Life’s battle doesn’t always go me fe 


To the stronger or faster man; 
wheln 


But sooner or later, the man who wins 
Is the fellow who thinks he can. 


—Author Unknown. 











Contents 


Why McAndrew Failed 
Dr. Owen on the Chicago Situation 


Tribute to William Bishop Owen 
William J. Bogan. 


Possibilities of Public School Education in Chicago__ 10 
Charles B. Stillman. 


Democracy Returns to the Chicago Schools 
Launching Local No. 199 


Some Objectives of the Elementary Teachers Union_ 18 
Agnes B. Clohesy. 


Sabbatical Leave of Absence 
Chicago News 
Editorial 


The Value of Mathematics 
Eva V. Heth. 


Ashland School for Adult Education__.______~~- ae 


Manumit School and the Labor Movement______-- 26 
Nellie M. Seeds. 


Convention Program 


Local News 








THE AMERICAN DISCOVERY 
OF RUSSIA—SUMMER OF 1928 


The two greatest nations on the earth no longer 
know each other. Volumes have been written. 
But in the past ten years a mere handful of 
American social workers, writers and business 
men has seen revolutionary Russia at work. Still 
fewer Russians have visited this country, and the 
American who goes into Russia today is something 
more than a tourist. 


Last summer two parties of American students 
and intellectual workers, men and women, were 
enabled to visit Russia through the instrumen- 
tality of the National Student Federation of 
America and the Open Road. They were received 
by the Society of Cultural Relations with Foreign 
Countries and the Sovtorgflét. The same organi- 
zations are again welcoming a few groups. Each 
will comprise eight members under the leadership 
of an informed American, and will be accompa- 
nied in Russia by a Russian interpreter. 


Itineraries: 3, 4, 5 and 6 weeks in Russia. 
Inclusive round trip prices: $725 up. 

Sailings: June 16th, 23rd, 30th and July 7th. 
Visas: Application through the Open Road. 


THE OPEN ROAD, INC. 
2 WEST 46 ST., NEW YORK 











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The American Teacher 


Entered as second class matter Oct. 1, 1927, at the post office at Oklahoma City, Okla., under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Sec. 1103, Act of Feb. 28, 1925, authorized Nov. 3, 1926. 





Volume XII, No. 9 


MAY, 1928 


Two Dollars a Year 





Why McAndrew Failed 


A Statement by Chicago Locals 2 and 3 


It is important that the attitude of the teachers 
of Chicago during the McAndrew trial should be 
understood by the public of Chicago and of the na- 
tion, and especially that it should be properly inter- 
preted by the teaching forces of other cities. 

Press comments both in Chicago and outside have 
drawn a very lopsided picture of the McAndrew case. 


The deposed Superintendent has been represented as 


an heroic figure, battling valiantly against over- 


whelming odds for educational principle and for 
teachers’ rights—lonely in default of the support he 
merited from principals and teachers. This touching 
picture has been given such continual and extensive 
currency that our friends in other cities, even mem- 
bers of the American Federation of Teachers, may 
well have felt surprise at the fact that teachers and 
principals did not rush instantly to his support. 


The situation presents an apparent anomaly. In 
many former educational crises the teachers of Chi- 
cago had earned honorable distinction for courage 
and persistence against any odds. Mr. McAndrew’s 
predecessors in office had found warm and strong 
and general support from teaching groups whenever, 
in defense of educational principle, of their own 
prerogatives, or of policies for school reform, they 
had been at odds with a hostile majority in the Board 
of Education. Mr. McAndrew won no such support. 
Why the discrimination against him? 

No superintendent in recent years had a better 
introduction to his task. Mr. McAndrew was hailed 
by the press as an eminent educator, a man of fine 
administrative qualities, thoroughly efficient, and of 
tried experience as a school executive. He had the 
additional advantages of an earlier good record as 
teacher in the Chicago system. Practically all civic 
groups welcomed him, and the teachers were in a 
receptive, even an enthusiastic mood, because of many 
published utterances of his which seemed to depict 
aman of liberal and progressive ideals and of a demo- 
cratic bent. Yet within less than six months after 


his arrival, his lack of tact and judgment had alien- 


ated most of the teachers and principals whom he 
needed to make his program effective. 
DEsTROYS MACHINERY OF DEMOCRACY 

The causes of Mr. McAndrew’s failure as Superin- 
tendent of Chicago schools, we believe, lie partly in 
his nature, more largely in his habits of thought and 
action, also perhaps in part, in the implied or ex- 
pressed conditions under which he became Superin- 
tendent, and in the fact that he came a stranger to 
the situation, without the tact and patience to study 
it before acting. He found in the Chicago educa- 
tional force a spirit new to him or long forgotten as a 
possibility among teachers—the spirit of democracy. 
The view that principals and teachers should have 
a voice in the discussion of educational policies and 
that machinery should exist by which their seasoned 
and deliberate opinion should directly reach the Sup- 
erintendent, affected him, as it affects all autocrats, 
with an immediate impulse to destroy. 

This growth of democracy is the fruit of thirty 
years’ evolution in Chicago schools and reflects the 
spirit of our people. It is embodied in a number of 
voluntary organizations which were not exposed to 
direct attack, and in the teachers’ councils which 
were so exposed because of their official recognition 
by the Board of Education. 

Mr. McAndrew began his term by alienating the 
voluntary organizations. He did this by most dis- 
courteously refusing to meet their representatives who 
sought to present to him matters of mutual concern 
to the superintendent and the teacher. But the main 
objective of his destructive intention was the teach- 
ers’ councils. First, he failed to call the council meet- 
ings in accordance with the rules of the Board. Then 
he had the Board pass a rule denying councils the 
privilege of meeting on school time. In so doing he 
cut off the only direct channel by which the general 
opinion of teachers could reach the Superintendent, 
and he roused a just resentment in all who had 
planned and worked for the councils, and for the 
development of the thorough co-operation and good 
understanding which are the bases of morale in any 
great organization, 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Mr. McAndrew further showed his determination 
not to hear the voice of the teacher when he estab- 
lished a rule requiring individual teachers to commu- 
nicate with him only through the official channel of 
a bureaucracy consisting of Principal, District Sup- 
erintendent, Assistant Superintendent, and finally the 
Superintendent. This entirely precluded the hearing 
of any teacher-organizations, since they are composed 
of members from different schools. 

LiBELS CHICAGO SCHOOLS 

Mr. McAndrew’s outstanding betrayal, however, 
was his constant and skillful use of press publicity 
during his first year here to depreciate “he teachers 
and principals of the Chicago schools and perhaps in- 
cidentally to exalt his own reputation as an educator. 
There was poured into the newspapers a continuous 
stream of criticism directed at the whole school per- 
sonnel and consisting of excathedra statements about 
the poor quality of teaching and administration which 
he found. All this was said at a time when it was 
actually impossible for the new Superintendent to 
have had either an extensive or an intensive acquain- 
tance with this huge system of schools. 

MANUFACTURES EVIDENCE 

He went further. He manufactured proofs of his 
allegations. He gave tests to large unselected groups 
without warning or preparation; then, much later, he 
gave the same or similar tests to small selected groups, 
and repeated those tests until the desired results were 
attained. Publishing the results of these two entirely 
incomparable tests, he claimed that the difference 
between them indicated the dreadful condition in 
which he found instruction when he came, and the 
splendid achievement of his administration. 

Then Mr. McAndrew began his famous drive for 
two entirely inconsistent objects, i. e. for 100% per- 
fection in achievement and for the 100% promotion 
of pupils. We hope the public will think this over. 
Every pupil in a class must be promoted, no matter 
what his qualities or capacities. Every pupil in.a class 
must attain 100% mastery of a division of a subject 
before passing on. Add, as capstone to that struc- 
ture, the requirements of the course of study that a 
definite field must be covered in a given semester’s 
work. Then read Mr. McAndrew’s bulletin to Dis- 
trict Superintendents: “Get the facts as to what 
teachers and principals are failing to prepare the pu- 
pils for steady promotion . . . dispense with those 
who fail to show this ability.” (Mid-Year Prospectus, 
February, 1926—Sec. 35) There is the hiss of the 
lash in that demand, and it is one of the clear proofs 


that Mr. McAndrew consciously intended to employ 
the destructive factor of fear in his relations with 
the teachers. He did worse. He must have foreseen 
that when he used such threats as loss of position to 
his hardworked subordinates the threat and the fear 
caused by it would be automatically relayed through 
all the ranks to take vicious effect upon the relations 
of teachers to pupils. If a teacher must produce im- 
possible results she will do one of two things: She 
will put such extraordinary pressure upon the stu- 
dent as may involve real cruelty to a helpless child, 
or she will protect the child by evasions which are in 
fact lies. Neither of these results is in any way desira- 
ble, we believe, from the point of view of the public 
or of any real educator. 

Mr. McAndrew probably has no spirit of cruelty 
toward little children. If that is so, we have a right 
to assume that he foresaw the probability that the 
teacher would take the path of evasion. There is even 
clear evidence that Mr. McAndrew intended that 
evasions should be used. For instance, official instruc- 
tions were issued which authorized the teachers to 
report a weak student as wrongly classified and to 
transfer him to 2 lower grade without counting this 
a demotion. Or she might say that he was too re- 
cently admitted to her class to be counted in tests; 
or that he had been absent, or ill; or that intelligence 
tests showed his I. Q. subnormal. All these latter eva- 
sions would leave him im her class but not of it so 
far as the 100% requirements were concerned. That 
is the way the selected groups were obtained, which 
attained the 100% standard used to demonstrate 
McAndrew’s great improvements in the administra- 
tion of the Chicago schools. The effect of such meth- 
ods upon the sense of integrity of principals and 
teachers need not be pointed out. They breed con- 
tempt for the school administration, disrespect for 
official authority, and involve a loss of self-respect 
in all concerned. 

Mr. McAndrew was often quoted as claiming that 
the teacher-morale he found in the Chicago schools 
was low. Those of us who have spent a decade ot 
longer in the schools can better measure the com- 
parative levels of morale in 1923 and 1928. We know 
the depth of our fall and we know who caused it. 


IsoLATES TEACHERS 
While Mr. McAndrew’s so-called “educational” 
methods were seriously jeopardizing all the most val- 
uable and praiseworthy features of the Chicago 
schools, and while he was carefully building up a bar- 
rage of false information concerning his accomplish- 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 5 


ments, both in the daily press and in his constant 
speeches before civic groups, he was also completely 
blocking the attempts of the teachers to reach the 
public with reports of actual conditions. He refused 
them permission to appear before civic groups which 
they were invited to address during school hours, and 
in doing so deprived the public of Chicago of knowl- 
edge of what was really going on in the classrooms. 
He threatened “to bring before the Board to deter- 
mine their value” what he called the “‘ever-ready let- 
ter writers” who sought publicity for school condi- 
tions by letters to the daily papers. And, in the case 
of a teacher who reported on unfavorable conditions 
to the local labor body and reached the public press 
by that avenue, he even sent out the district super- 
intendent for an immediate interview the purpose of 
which was obviously intimidation. 

Furthermore, when in accordance’ with what had 
been the rather informal custom of communication 
between previous superintendents and teachers, letters 
were sent directly to him, either in response to edito- 
rial request on his part or as reports from organiza- 
tions, those letters were answered not to the writers, 
but by communications reporting the activities of the 
writers to their principals, who had not been at all 


concerned in the subject of the original matter. 


Lacks EDUCATIONAL VISION 

In many other ways also, Mr. McAndrew failed to 
measure up to the hope of the Chicago teachers for a 
leader with educational vision. During the war and 
the subsequent period of adjustment, public education 
was exposed to many perils. These were due to the 
long stoppage of building and to enforced economies 
in other ways. To meet the situation of overcrowding 
and underfinancing, in a period when the people were 
struggling under the load of war taxation, govern- 
ment bond purchase, and rising costs, resort was had 
to all sorts of shifts and expedients. Not one of these, 
be it noted, was a natural growth in the educational 
field, or sprang from any popular demand. None of 
them had the support of educational authority or of 
mature experiment. On the contrary nearly every 
one of them was detrimental to the interests of pupils 
and to the convenience and advantage of the public. 
Among these expedients we may name the double 
school, the “staggered” day, the platoon system, and 
a largely increased ratio of pupils to teachers. 

Mr. McAndrew came to the superintendency when 
these makeshifts were at their worst. Because the 
teachers had endured them as temporary emergencies 
and had looked eagerly for an early return to regu- 


larity, they felt betrayed by Mr. McAndrew’s com- 
placent acceptance of these emergency and tem- 
porary measures as permanent and satisfactory solu- 
tions. He even came forward as apologist and defen- 
der of the worst feature of all, and in advocating 
the continuance of over-crowded classes, cited hand- 
picked “experts” to testify that fifty or more in a 
class had no adverse affect on instruction or pupil 
progress! 

Because of his advocacy of such cheapening of edu- 
cation, many people felt that he had been brought 
here to introduce a definite economy program. Mr. 
McAndrew’s arbitrary methods helped to support this 
view. When the Junior High Schools were introduced, 
for example, they were declared to be an experiment 
which was to be tried out in a few schools to deter- 
mine their value. Yet without any authority from 
the Board, and before the public, the teachers, or the 
Board knew anything about it, a number of schools 
were ordered established, and the “experiment” had 
become a “fact” of educational life in Chicago. But 
the very secrecy which “put over” the Junior High 
School in Chicago made it an object of the greatest 
distrust, and may have seriously impaired that success 
which the excellent work of principals and teachers in 
this promising educational experiment deserves. 


INTRODUCES Factory METHODS IN SCHOOLS 

Among the earliest of Mr. McAndrew’s official 
acts was the introduction of the requirement that all 
teachers sign a time sheet on each arrival and depart- 
ure. The vast majority of the teachers needed no 
time sheet to insure their promptness. Most of them 
were continually giving hours before or after school 
to preventive and remedial work for backward pupils. 
They had a deep, conscientious sense of duty toward 
pupils. They felt that theirs was a profession, and the 
adoption of the time-sheet plan humiliated and in- 
censed them. 

Another unnecessary petty humiliation of Mr. Mc- 


’ Andrew’s regime was the fact that teachers who re- 


signed after even thirty or more years of service were 
given, contrary to the previous practice, no personal 
notice of appreciation by the superintendent. ‘The 
routine notice acknowledging the resignation of any 
teacher or principal leaving the service after even the 
briefest period, was all that was received. In these 
days when corporations print honor rolls of employees 
who have served “the company” ten years,—in these 
days when universities offer college majors in Per- 
sonnel Service,—an executive with real pretentions to 
competence should recognize as part of his task some 





6 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


slight acknowledgment of thirty years of service on 
the part of those under his direction. 

Mr. McAndrew also changed Chicago’s long-estab- 
lished usage as to honoring deceased members of the 
teaching force. On the occasion of the death of a 
high school principal who had been associated with 
the school for twenty-five years, and its principal for 
fifteen, the teachers requested permission to have 
memorial exercises during the afternoon session so 
that all pupils could be present. The Superintendent 
gave them to understand that all classes ought to go 
on. The exercises were therefore crowded in at noon 
between sessions. In another case the funeral of an 
assistant principal who had been on the faculty for 
thirty years and had acted as assistant for twenty 
years, was held during school hours. Word came from 
the Superintendent’s office that any teacher who at- 
tended the services would lose a proportionate amount 
of salary. This treatment of human material, both 
pupils and teachers, as mere cogs in a huge machine, 
would make of our schools nothing but vast fac- 
tories. 

The Chicago teachers, and particularly the organ- 
ized teachers who have always devoted their own leis- 
ure time to work for the welfare of the group, rec- 
ognize the value of “having classes go on” but they 
recognize also the imponderables which Mr. McAn- 
drew ignored, and they know that an educational 
value greater than that in the holding of the next 
class is to be found in the solemn public recognition 
of the death of an educational leader, when he has 
given the greater part of his life to the work of his 
community. 

SHATTERS TEACHER MORALE 

Mr. McAndrew’s regime was one long record of 
the shattering of teacher-morale thru the adoption of 
factory methods. It was not merely that he subjected 
teachers to such petty humiliations as we have cited 
above, but that he seemed constantly to handle them 
not as the decent, educated, competent men and wo- 
men they knew themselves to be, but like the “dumb 
driven cattle” he wished they were. 

For example, totally without warning, certain 
shops and special classes from the Senior High Schools 
were transferred almost overnight to the Junior High 
Schools. In some cases this meant the ruthless destruc- 
tion or discarding of thousands of dollars worth of 
equipment, sometimes equipment that had been paid 
for and collected from the plays that students in 
the school had given. But the really serious conse- 
quence was that many teachers were suddenly trans- 


ferred to distant parts of the city, many taught 
subjects in which they were totally unprepared, and 
all felt the insecurity of their positions. 

The inauguration of the emeritus service, if not a 
deliberate attempt to affront and humiliate teachers 
can at best be termed not less than a tactless blunder, 
Mr. McAndrew proposed, through the Board, a regu- 
lation providing for automatic and immediate trans- 
ference of teachers and principals seventy years of 
age or over from active to emeritus service. Now, 
Chicago teachers as a whole did not and do not ob- 
ject to an age limit for service, and consider seventy 
years well chosen, but by Mr. McAndrew’s regula- 
tion, over seventy teachers were retired on half pay 
in the middle of a school year with less than a month's 
notice. Many of them had entered upon leases and 
made other business contracts for the year, because 
the state law as to tenure ensures them employment 
unless they are shown by open trial to be inefficient 
or immoral. The appellate court of Illinois has just 
rendered a decision declaring McAndrew’s whole pro- 
cedure in this matter illegal, but the teachers and 
principals who suffered under it have none the less 
been without their positions for two full years. Of 
more vital importance so far as the schools of Chi- 
cago are concerned has been the disquieting and dis- 
turbing effect upon the entire 13,000 teachers and 
principals in service. 

For all of these reasons, and for many more in the 
experiences of individual teachers in Chicago, the 
Executive Boards of the Chicago Federation of Men 
Teachers Local No. 2, and the Federation of ‘Women 
High School Teachers Local No. 3, unite in this 
common statement of their position. 

Loyalty begets loyalty. If Mr. McAndrew had been 
true to the teachers and, above all, true to the best 
idcals of education and the real welfare of the pupils 
he would have secured teacher-co-operation and sup- 
port. However much teachers may deplore the meth- 


- ods used in his humiliation, the vast majority of them 


think the humiliation itself was merited. 





“] shall count that man a good patriotic America®, 
regardless of where his ancestors were born, regard- 
less of what language they spoke, regardless of what 
church altar he bows his knees upon—I shall count 
him a true American citizen if in word and in deed, 
he seeks through enactment and enforcement of laws 
and through his own co-operation to give this unde- 
veloped republic of boys and girls a fair chance and# 
square deal.”—Francis G. BLam. 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Dr. Owen on the Chicago Situation 


On February 7, 1928 the late William Bishop Owen, Presi- 
dent of the Chicago Normal College, Past President of the 
N. E. A. and a member of its Executive Council, gave an 
informal interview to a Chicago newspaper man which (se- 
lected and summarized) was to present Mr. Owen’s comments 
and conclusions on the McAndrew trial. 

Mr. Owen died February 17, 1928 without ever having 
seen the transcribed notes of his talk. 

From these notes we have condensed and arranged what we 
believe to be a fair statement of Mr. Owen’s opinions with 
regard to certain phases of the Chicago situation. 


SILENCE Gives CONSENT 

“Anyone who understands Mr. McAndrew and un- 
derstands the opportunity he had and threw away, un- 
derstands why, when he goes, the school people acqui- 
esce with silence. If he had been a competent leader, 
an educational leader, of these schools and school peo- 
ple you would have got an entirely different story. 
I think’the silence that gives consent in Chicago is 
the most marvelous thing that ever happened. 

“This is not the freakish notion of just a few here. 
This testimony is the universal attitude . . . That 
he should go I think is the unanimous conviction of 
everybody in the Chicago Public schools, and the 
sooner the quicker. 


Cuicaco SysTEM DEMOCRATIC 

“This big city has grown up rapidly and the school 
system has developed until it is the best-organized 
and most efficient school system in America from the 
standpoint of humanity and education and‘ growth 
and development. I mean specifically the teachers 
have been more aggressive, more intelligent, more in- 
dependent, more self-reliant. And the principals are. 
. . « They are more powerful individually and of 
course they are more powerful collectively. 

“I would not know where to go to find teachers 
0 highly effective and organized as they are here. 
And I believe in that. I will tell you why I believe 
in it. I do not think that the ordinary teacher in 
America could have enough independence in Chicago 
or any other great city to maintain a respectable 
intellectual integrity unless she had the support of 
other teachers with her. I think, (individually) she 
would be so browbeaten and frightened and driven 
that she could not do anything, and you can not 
very well handle a great organization of teachers 
except by open, direct and on-the-table methods. 
So these organizations have been practical and they 
have gone ahead and controlled themselves. When 
you had a poor man at the head and you had a poor 
Board of Education, you had just as good schools as 


you did when you had a fairly good one, because they 
were not dependent on him .. . 

“Our people were recognized everywhere as being 
able to move . . . They thought those Chicago 
teachers and principals were . . . an awfully aggres- 
sive lot . . . McAndrew’s idea was to get them back 
into their places and keep them there, to make a 
factory out of the school system. 


ATTEMPTS TO FAcCTORYIZE SCHOOLS 

“Nobody objects to being held up to rigid stan- 
dards, but they do not want to live in an atmosphere 
of terrorism and fear, which is unnecessary and wrong 
in principle. And I do not think it is efficient. I 
don’t think anybody thinks it is efficient anywhere. 
Even the most rigid business people don’t think it 
is any more. They are all trying to build up the 
spirit and the morale of the group. And he comes 
in here and deliberately attempts to kill this morale 
in the public school system, in the finest school system 
in America. 

“The whole situation is pretty clear. He came here 
with a certain policy, namely to put the superintend- 
ent in control of the teachers and principals and make 
of the public school system what the manager of a 
factory would expect to have in the way of a factory. 
I think we ought to have a superintendent of schools 
that has power and I never heard anyone object to 
that. What they do want is somebody that uses it 
intelligently, humanely, and effectively and not dis- 
honestly. 

LEADING CITIZENS MIsLED 

“I meet a good many people who say ‘Isn’t this an 
awful situation?’ “and I say: 

“*T don’t see that the schools are being touched at 
all.’ 

“They say: “What do you mean by that?’ 

“* ‘Well, so far as I know all the principals and teach- 
ers are doing their job. All we know about the thing 
you talk about is in the newspaper. . . I don’t think 
the schools are suffering a particle.’ 

“Don’t you think it was an awful thing the way 
McAndrew was treated?’ 

“I said to a man the other day: ‘Oh, no, he is the 
worst failure I ever saw.’ 

Reports ON CHIcaGo ScHOoLs UNFOUNDED 

“Why should Chicago begin to lament about the 
fact its schools are in such a bad situation? He (Mc- 
Andrew) came in and said these schools were no good 





8 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


before he ever got here and he never visited them to 
find out. If Mr. McAndrew had to resort to all the 
technicalities he employed to find out wherein the 
Chicago schools were good schools or not after he 
got here, how dare he come to the city and say they 
were not good, before he ever employed these means? 


“At which times was McAndrew an educator? 
When he misrepresented the Chicago schools before 
he ever visited them, or after he attempted to find 
out by the bungling use of the so-called scientific 
means after he got here? 


“Some of these records in the testimony show that 
he misrepresented the situation he found in Chicago 
and then in a brief time he planned a method by 
which he could show the effect of his own work with 
the Chicago schools, endeavoring to show that he 
had brought them up to a high level of efficiency 
rapidly. He stated he had found them at a low level. 


“Mr. Keener, Director of Bureau of Educational 

Research testifies that Chicago was in good condition 
in fact above the standard of the United 
States. He bases this conclusion on standardized tests 
administered just shortly before McAndrew’s arrival 
under controlled conditions by people trained to give 
them... 
SuBMITs UNSTANDARDIZED TESTS 

“McAndrew came in and made his own tests with- 
out any conditions of uniformity or standardization. 
His tests were all given under such unintelligent and 
unfavorable and unfair conditions and they were 
marked or interpreted so unscientifically and dishon- 
estly and disingenuously, let us say, that they don’t 
amount to anything. And all these conclusions that 
he drew as to the marvelous changes he had made 
were paper conclusions, not supported by facts. 

“When he used the Ayers writing scale, for exam- 
ple, he marked them 60 or below and marked them 
poor. Then two years afterwards with children in 
the eighth grade the class rating 60 or above was 
marked 100 per cent. 


“The fact is he came into a situation where stand- 
ardized tests were being slowly and certainly and 
rationally applied in order to find out what help the 
tests could be in improving instruction. It was being 
done without irritating, or threatening, or disturbing 
anybody and when certain schools were below and 
certain schools were above, then that information 
was given to the principal for his benefit and the 
teachers, without drawing hasty and unwarranted 
conclusions . . . because as a matter of fact what 


conclusion you should draw no man could tell ex. 
cept the people who did the work. 
FosTErS FEAR 
“For twenty years the whole effort had been t 
see that you must put meaning into your symbolism 
before you began to drill on symbols ... He diverted 
them to a little stunt training on a few things— 
drill! drill! drill! drill! to get a certain result and he 
got it. But when you do get it, it does not mean 
anything, and it does not stay with the children. It 
is not of any use to them at all. The awful part of 
it was that he took a very minor selected part of 
the total control and life of the teachers and children 
together, and made the fate and efficiency of thos 
teachers depend on the efficiency of that little thing, 
and that little thing was a discarded thing when he 
took it up. . . .The most ironical thing in the whol 
situation is the fact that they are demonstrating all 
over America and Europe in psychiatry that the first 
thing to do is to get the human being to act success- 
fully and that in order to do that you must take the 
fear out of them . . . He put that fear into them. 
. but what I am trying to say is that his real 


- business was to take it out instead of putting it in. 


“Anybody who knows anything scientifically about 
this world knows he (McAndrew) never got the re- 
sults he pretended to get in three months under God's 
heaven unless he found people all very well prepared 
before he began to work on them . . . The logic of 
getting that kind of results out of pupils who had 
not been trained would be ridiculous. 

“If the leading citizens don’t know any more about 
the situation they are talking about why should they 


say anything? . . . They do not really know.” 





THE CASE AGAINST WILLIAM McANDREW 


(Mr. Owen’s conclusions with regard to the McAn- 
drew Trial) 


The case against Wm. McAndrew before the Chicago Board 
of Education so far as it relates to unsound educational poli- 
cies charged against his administration as Superintendent of 


Schools is contained inj the testimony of 66 witnesses. It cov & 


ers the testimony of teachers, principals, district superintend- 
ents and others connected with the educational department of 
the Chicago school system who were called to the witness 
stand by attorneys for the Board of Education. ; 

This testimony against Mr. McAndrew’s educational policies 
is contained in the transcript of his trial on December 14 
and December 20,1927, and January 4, 10, 24 and 31, 192 


CONCLUSIONS 
A careful reading of this record of testimony Wa 
rants the following conclusions based upon the evi 
dence testified to: 
FIRST. That the widely advertised record of prog- 








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ress under Mr. McAndrew’s superintendency is im- 
peached on all points by the testimony of those closest 
to the work of teaching in the Chicago Public School 
System. 

SECOND. That the conclusions drawn by Mr. 
McAndrew in his reports and public statements as to 
the marvelous progress he had brought about in the 
Chicago school system were paper conclusions unsup- 
ported by the facts and unsubstantiated by the testi- 
mony at this trial. 

THIRD. That Mr. McAndrew’s entire educational 
program represented a return to old, outworn and dis- 
carded educational theory and practice. 

FOURTH. That through threats and fear Mr. 
McAndrew throughout three and one-half years’ ten- 
ure as Superintendent irritated and disturbed the 
entire teaching body and discouraged initiative in both 
teacher and pupil. 

FIFTH. That for more than three years a body 
of 13,000 teachers has had a vast amount of deadening 
mechanical drill and useless detail superimposed upon 
them, and emphasis and attention shifted from char- 
acter building. 


SIXTH. That one month after becoming Superin- 
tendent of the Chicago Public Schools, Mr. McAn- 
drew, by means of unstandardized, unscientific tests 
in mechanical skills, made it appear that the Chicago 
Public Schools were at a low level of efficiency, 
whereas the official record of results of scientific, 
standardized tests given under the direction of, and 
reported by, the Bureau of Educational Research, less 
than four months prior to Mr. McAndrew’s coming to 
Chicago, shows the Chicago Public Schools were above 
the national standard. 


SEVENTH. That not only were non-standardized 
tests of his own making employed, but their results 
were misinterpreted by Mr. McAndrew and a com- 
parison was made with results of later tests, given 
under entirely different conditions and this compari- 
son was used as evidence that he brought the Chicago 
schools up from a low to a high level of efficiency. 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 9 


EIGHTH. ‘That he repudiated one of the funda- 
mental positions in scientific measurement in educa- 
tion, namely, recognition of the normal distribution 
curve, and set up in place of this curve an arbitrary 
standard of his own, namely, an impossible “100 per- 
cent” from every child every day in tests in the 
mechanical processes of the tool subjects. 

NINTH. That the procedure forted upon the dis- 
trict superintendents, principals, and teachers to ob- 
tain this impossible “100 per cent” every day from 
every child was of a doubtful, if not dishonest, char- 
acter. 

TENTH. That these “100 per cent” tests were not 
only without value educationally but seriously im- 
paired the teaching of the cultural subjects. 

ELEVENTH. That the public was misled by Mr. 
McAndrew’s official reports of schools having reached 
100 per cent in computation, when the fact was that 
any school was officially reported and recorded a one 
hundred per cent school in computation when, in one 
room in that school on one day every child made 100 
per cent in one exercise in simple addition. 

TWELFTH. That the “100 per cent” testing pro- 
gram in the mechanics of the tool subjects demoral- 
ized the Chicago Public Schools by placing a pre- 
mium on the employment of doubtful means to secure 
alleged improvement. 

THIRTEENTH. That he sought to make the effi- 
ciency rating of both teachers and principals depend- 
ent upon unscientific and unstandardized tests of effi- 
ciency of the children in certain mechanical skills of 
little or no educational value. 

FOURTEENTH. That Mr. McAndrew gave a 
committee of high school principals to understand 
that, in selecting a candidate for District Superin- 
tendent to supervise high schools, he would give con- 
sideration to certain educational qualifications and 
requirements for that position, when, prior to this 
understanding with the high school principals, he had 
(as shown by the testimony) chosen a candidate for 
that position who did not meet these requirements 
and qualifications. 





Tribute to William Bishop Owen 1866-1928 
Address Delivered by Witt1am J. Bocan, Assistant Superintendent of Schools 
Reprinted from Chicago Schools Journal March, 1928 


“Greater love hath no man than that he lay 
down his life for his brother.” 
The application of this quotation to the life of a 


man sixty-two years of age who died a natural death 
might seem like poetic exaggeration, but those of us 
who knew William Bishop Owen intimately, who 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 11 











10 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


knew of his educational work, of his school worries, 
of his constant desire to give service to others, will 
accept the quotation, as applied to him, with absolute 
literalness. He died for his brother. His friends and 
physicians knowing of his work day by day and night 
by night, year in and year out for the teachers and 
the children of this community, knowing of his tre- 
mendous energy and his inability to take school life 
at a gentle pace gave warning that a return to school 
work would be fatal. He took the risk for the good 
of the school. He would have done so even though 
he knew to a certainty what the outcome would be. 
He preferred death in harness to disintegration 
though a life of idleness. 
Wwe Score or His Work 

His work was international and national, as well 
as local. He took a prominent part in the councils 
of the National Education Association, believing that 
the work of that organization would inure to the 
benefit of the teachers and children of Illinois. He 
took a prominent part in the controversy relating to 
unit versus dual control of education. Many of you 
know the attempts made by powerful interests to 
organize a separate system for vocational education 
practically independent of the regular Board of Edu- 
cation. William Bishop Owen, believing that such 
a move, if successful, might do great harm to edu- 
cation in general and vocational education in partic- 
ular, fought it day and night. He fought it in the 
face of overwhelming obstacles; he fought it in the 
face of great danger to his prestige, and to his posi- 
tion as President of the Normal College; but he was 
not deterred by any obstacles or by any dangers. It 
is to his everlasting credit that largely through his 
efforts the schools of Chicago, yes, the schools of 
Illinois, the schools of the nation were saved from a 
great catastrophe. At that time many people, many 
great educators looked upon the struggle in Illinois 
as a tempest in a teapot. They asked, “What differ- 
ence does it make? Why should Owen and his friends 
worry about this matter? There is nothing fundamen- 
tal at stake.” He won and now we know that his 
course has been justified. 


NORMAL COLLEGE A MONUMENT 


This great Normal College represents the highest 
ideals of its departed President. During the past six 
months he has practically reorganized the school with- 
out letting the world know it. He worked as never 
before, presumably fearful that he might not .com- 
plete his task before his death. Apparently he had 


returned from the West with a new vision. His 
friends will tell you that he showed a new outlook 
on life. He had conceived new ideas in education and 
he proceeded to make them effective through a reor- 
ganization of this great institution. While engaged 
in the task he was stricken and died. 

It is a sad consolation in a case like this to try to 
estimate the influence of such a life upon the school 
system. Try it for your own satisfaction and you will 
be astonished at the results after making liberal allow- 
ance for guesses and other inaccuracies. During the 
incumbency of President Owen it is probable that 
from ten thousand to twenty thousand students came 
into close contact with him, came under his remarka- 
ble influence. Multiply this if you can by the num- 
ber of pupils that came under the influence of these 
ten or twenty thousand or more teachers and you 
will gain some idea of the widespread influence of 
this man. 

His VaLtuE IN a DEMOCRACY | 

This influence is one of the compensations of a 
teacher’s life, the influence that he has on children, 
on citizens of the community, of the state, of the 
nation. In a democracy what a tremendous blessing 
it is that we have teachers, men and women of the 
character of William Bishop Owen who can inspire 
the thousands and millions of the community. With- 
out them democracy would soon perish from the 
earth. We all know that it would be impossible to 
train independent, upstanding men and women 
through servile, obsequious, weak teachers forever in 
fear of dismissal. There is an old saying that a lion 
was never begotten by a rabbit, a saying that might 
be paraphrased by another, independence was never 
begotten by servility. It would be well for every 
one who believes in democracy to know that the 
nation will never have the independent citizens s0 
necessary to carry out this great experiment in dem- 
ocracy until we encourage teachers to develop vision, 
wisdom, independence, and courage. 

In the course of years the sayings and doings of 
William Bishop Owen will become part of a tradi- 
tion and as the educational world acquires true appre 
ciation of his work his name will be placed beside 
those of the other great educators of this country. 
But his intimates will not wait for that time. They 
know his worth now. Even if he had known that 
the end was near he might well have said in all mod- 
esty, in the consciousness of a life’s labor well done, 
“Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart i 
peace.” 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 11 


Possibilities of Public School Education In Chicago 


An Address Delivered Before the Chicago Forum, January 8, 1928 
Cuas. B. STLLMAN, Past President Chicago Local 2 
Past President and Vice President A. F. T. 


There has seldom been a time when the public 
schools were more in the limelight, or when the public 
mind was more confused as to the facts in the 
school situation. And there has seldom been a time 
when it was more important for the public intelli- 
gence to penetrate the smoke screen of non-essen- 
tials arising from such comparative side issues as a 
trial of a superintendent of schools, or a controversy 
over history texts. Because I believe that the clash 
of fundamental educational policy beneath that smoke 
screen, a Clash that never makes the front page, will 
determine the life or the stagnation of public school 
education in Chicago. In the long run the public 
will determine the answer, and in a democracy the 
public should determine the answer. 

As a teacher I might be expected to overplay the 
importance of the schools, but if I ever had faith in 
the power of the schools to mold society, I have lost 
it. The schools can not successfully combat the other 
influences of the community combined. They can be 
a tremendous and indispensable aid to those other 
community forces in securing progress—or in resist- 
ing progress. The direction is fixed by the commun- 
ity. So I believe that any estimate of the possibilities 
of public school education in Chicago must be based 
on the possibilities of co-operation between the pub- 
lic and the schools in the spirit of a mutual sympa- 
thetic understanding of the needs and the problems 
of both. 


INVENTORY OF PRESENT CONDITIONS 

Any intelligent forecast of future possibilities must 
always start with stock-taking, with an inventory of 
present conditions, unpleasant though the process may 
be. I would like to avoid recalling the acerbities of 
the past. My whole interest is in constructive sug- 
gestions for the present and future, and is in princi- 
ples, not personalities, but understanding can be 
achieved only through frankness. 

The essential part of an inventory of school condi- 
tions can not be prepared by a bookkeeper, or a statis- 
tician, or even an efficiency expert. The essential 
part does not consist of the number, condition, and 
equipment of school buildings, though that can be 
very important, or of the cost of upkeep, and cer- 
tainly not of the superintendent’s annual reports. 





Since the school functions primarily in the class room 
contacts of the pupils with one another and with 
the teacher, the quality of that contact and the at- 
mosphere of that classroom is the vital thing about 
the school system. If it is stilted, deadened with rou- 
tine, standardized and mechanized, excessively regi- 
mented and autocratic, the teacher becomes a mere 
cog in the machine, an automaton, and the child is 
deprived of its birthright as a child, and of the oppor- 
tunity to develop toward full, free manhood or wom- 
anhood according to its capacity. 
SPIRIT OF FREEDOM IN CHICAGO 

Until comparatively recently the Chicago schools 
have been outstanding for the spirit of freedom and 
spontaneity and initiative in the class room, for the 
democratic atmosphere that pervaded the system. This 
was so notably true that our system was a constant 
target for the powerful influences in our city and in 
the nation which selfishly desires a thoroughly regi- 
mented school system turning out a docile, uniform, 
standardized product, not developed individual human 
beings, but machine fodder, equipped not with gen- 
uine intelligence, but only with such skills as will 
promote easy, unprotesting absorption into the mon- 
ster machine of Production which threatens to domi- 
nate our country and our civilization. 

Our system was also a target for some of the uni- 
versity schools of education because we were not 
standardized according to their precious formulae, 
because we were not topheavy with high powered 
administrators—and what is a great school system 
for, if not for administration—and because we re- 
fused to accept as gospel many of the current theo- 
ries and methods of their infant science. 

HostiLe LINE-UP A SURPRISE 

We knew the power and temper of the enemies of 
a liberal-spirited, democratic type of education too 
well to doubt that an attack in force was inevitable, 
and we were not altogether surprised when it devel- 
oped during the last four years. But we were sur- 
prised by some of the alliances these hostile forces 
were able to make with many groups in the commu- 
nity. Several years ago when a persistent attack on 
the physical integrity of our school system was 
launched in the proposal of a dual system of voca- 





12 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


tional education, the teachers found many powerful 
groups fighting successfully with them to save the 
schools. But during the much more subtle and dan- 
gerous attack of the last four years on the educa- 
tional and spiritual integrity of our school system, 
many of these same erstwhile liberal and understand- 
ing groups have deserted the defenders and supported 
the attackers. I think the reason is lack of under- 
standing rather than relapse from liberalism, and the 
development of that understanding conditions the 
possibilities of the future. The groundwork of facts 
necessary to an understanding can be secured pri- 
marily only from those with first-hand knowledge 
of classroom conditions day in and day out—and that 
means the teachers. For it is very easy for an admin- 
istrator to be charmingly liberal in the press and in 
public utterance, and exceedingly arbitrary and dic- 
tatorial on the job as an administrator. 


RESTORATION OF DEMOCRACY ESSENTIAL 


I believe that the first essential in building for the 
future of the Chicago schools is the restoration of an 
atmosphere of democracy and freedom in the class- 
room and in the system. For years the schools have 
been stifled by the discouragement of initiative, the 
elimination of democratic teachers’ councils, and the 
imposition of an inspectorial type of supervision 
which made for mechanization and rigidity in every 
phase of school life. You may have heard it charged, 
as I have, that this is simply the natural reaction of 
soreheaded teachers and principals, who are rudely dis- 
turbed in the course of an easy life. Any denial of 
mine would of course be discounted. Let me quote, 
then, as I do rather frequently, from two outstanding 
recognized authorities from Columbia University, cer- 
tainly not a radical institution. Of this disastrous 
tendency, John Dewey says: 

“In the big cities, they (public schools) are, by 
and large, big scholastic factories, efficiently managed 
for the American commercial specialty—mass pro- 
duction of standardized products at low cost. 

“In the name of scientific administration and close 
supervision, the initiative and freedom of the actual 
teacher are more and more curtailed. By means of 
achievement and mental tests carried on from the 
central office, of a steadily issuing stream of dictated 
typewritten communications, of minute and explicit 
syllabi of instruction, the teacher is reduced to a liv- 
ing phonograph. 

“In the name of centralization of responsibility and 
of efficiency and even science, everything possible is 


done to make the teacher into a servile rubber stamp,” 

Professor Kilpatrick of Columbia corroborates: 

“How can you expect teachers to think when they 
are tied hand and foot? To tell a teacher what she 
shall teach and when she shall teach it, and to count 
success to be only and exactly that children shall suc. 
cessfully pass these mechanical subject-matter tests— 
all this I say is to treat a teacher as a factory opera- 
tive. 

“Under such a regime a teacher may be a skilled 
artisan, but an artist and thinker, no. She has no 
chance. In fact she is not expected to think.” 


Factory MetHops Must Go 

I submit that any real progress must be predicated 
on a reversal of that direction of school policy. Sure- 
ly it is a tragic blunder to reduce teachers to the 
spirit of obedient clerks who feel no joy in their daily 
efforts. For teachers, however conscientious, who are 
content to let their work be made formal, can never 
create an environment in which boys and girls will 
find an incentive to significant achievement. Know- 
ing the possibilities, yet bound by conditions that 
hinder their development, and often even compelled 
to teach by methods which they disapprove whole- 
heartedly, some teachers become indifferent, or cyni- 
cal, or rebellious, and others are filled with a dan- 
gerous despair. It is a fearful responsibility to run 
the risk of destroying the spirit of the good life at its 
source in the hearts of children—even when it is done 
under orders. 

Also, if pupils are to be prepared for citizenship in 
a democracy, they must live in a democratic school 
atmosphere. Professor Kilpatrick again has some very 
pertinent and trenchant observations that can scafce- 
ly be quoted too often: 

“If we are going to make a success of our demo- 
cratic experiment begun (formally) about 1776, we 
must have a type of education that fits democracy. A 
democratic society should have a democratic school 
system, and in this system a democratic method will 
play a most important part.” 


SociaL VaLuEs Lost 

“A regime that is content with assignment-and- 
testing-under-penalty will tend to restrict itself t 
the things that can be so assigned and tested, which 
means that there will be small consideration for the 
attitudes out of which are the issues of life. . - - 
The general assignment-testing practice lends itself 
most easily to the authoritative management of teach- 
ers. The administrator, because he must succeed 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 13 


an administrator, almost inevitably seeks a plan that 
can be mapped precisely in advance, where precise 
expectations can be laid down, and precise checks 
made on results, so that responsibility is exactly lo- 
cated. That this defeats the purpose of education is 
not usually perceived either by the administrator, or 
by his board or by the parents.” 


An obvious obstacle to progress is the tendency to 
impose upon class room teachers the results of think- 
ing done by experts, of more or less genuineness, in 
lieu of encouraging them to think for themselves. 
Some administrators tell teachers in effect to put 
their conscience to sleep and obey orders without pro- 
test like good soldiers. 

A high school principal has actually been known 
to rebuff a teacher who in connection with certain 
instructions was raising the question of whether the 
interests of education and the welfare of the pupils 
would best be served in that way, with the amazing 
declaration that they were not concerned with the 
interests of education or the welfare of the pupils but 
only with the receiving and carrying out of orders! 
Co-operation a la the army could scarcely have a 
better illustration. 


Miurrary HrerarcHy Must Go 


Perhaps the most alarming phase of the current 
tendency is the adoption in the organization and con- 
duct of the school system of a hierarchy, and atti- 
tudes, and methods patterned after the military. The 
military mind, essential as it sometimes may be, is 
inescapably authoritative and bureaucratic, and is 
therefore the negation of the educational attitude. 
True education must be a co-operative “leading out” 
and not a process of authoritative driving, although 
the necessary qualifications for drivership are .indefi- 
nitely less exacting than those for leadership. This is 
equally true whether applied to teachers in their rela- 
tionship to pupils, or to administrators and supervisors 
in their relationship to teachers. And it is too often 
forgotten that the atmosphere surrounding the lat- 
ter official relationship, whether democratic and co- 
operative, or authoritative and military, will inevi- 
tably be reflected in the atmosphere and spirit of the 
classroom. 

Last week at the conference of scientists at Bat- 


tle Creek, in a paper on newer values in education, 
Professor O’Shea of the University of Wisconsin said 
according to the press: 

“Militarization of system in education has been 
abandoned, and in its place may now be found, even 


in Germany, spontaneity and freedom, which are more 
favorable for mental and nervous health and sta- 
bility,” 

That is a needed note of encouragement, though 
Chicago teachers during the last few months have 
commenced to feel an easing of bureaucratic pressure. 

It is of course freely granted that there must be 
the exercise of a certain amount of authority in any 
system, but fortunately there is such a thing as a 
democratic technique in the exercise of authority 
which is commonly called leadership. And there can 
be a piling up of red tape, of a harrowing multiplic- 
ity of reports, of bureaucratic procedure, of inspec- 
torial supervision, of emphasis on mechanical details 
and non-essentials, of cumulative petty irritations, 
all in the name of authority and even of efficiency, 
to the point of strangulation. And most of that can 
be cleared away, and I am optimistic enough to believe 
will be cleared away, as an obstacle to the real educa- 
tion of Chicago’s children. 

SizE oF CLASSES AND TEACHING LoaD 

I have concentrated on what seems to me the essen- 
tial underlying basis for progress almost to the exclu- 
sion of other matters of school policy which are also 
crucial, The size of classes and the teaching load 
have been insidiously creeping up and up until teach- 
ers are thoroughly disheartened in a situation made 
educationally impossible by sheer numbers. Increas- 
ing size of buildings up to enormous administrative 
units of five thousand pupils make factory methods 
and deadening bureaucratic emphasis of administra- 
tive detail inevitable. And unavoidable in any dis- 
cussion of educational progress, the inadequacy of 
present school revenues to maintain the schools at 
even their present intolerable level of overcrowded 
classes and teacher load must be remedied. And if the 
community honestly desires real educational oppor- 





“The 
Opinions and Reflections 
of Napoleon’’ 


Edited by Lewis Claflin Breed 
Twenty-three Sections, 532 Pages, $5.00 


THE FOUR SEAS COMPANY 
ROSTON, MASS. 


“In the great bulk of his own words the man is finally 
discerned. These crisp, vigorous expressions are not only 
inspiring but of real historical value.”—Boston Tran- 
script. 














14 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


tunity for its children, it must find sufficient in- 
crease in revenue to provide substantial reduction in 
the size of classes, and the number of pupils among 
whom a teacher must distribute his energy during 
a day. I think you may permit me merely to sug- 
gest also that the community should provide com- 
pensation for its teachers sufficient to meet the de- 
mands of their position, and to attract and retain the 
type of men and women it wants in the schools. 
DICTATORSHIP vs. DEMOCRACY 

I spoke at the beginning of a clash of fundamental 
educational policy in the school situation, which at 
the moment even dwarfed a textbook controversy 
that ordinarily would easily be a major professional 
and social issue itself. Let me close with another ref- 
erence to what I believe will be the basic struggle of 
the American people during the life of the rising 
generation—the struggle between traditional democ- 
racy with its regard for the individual, and some form 
of dictatorship with its tribal insistence on conform- 
ity, though such dictatorship might easily camouflage 
itself in the trappings of democracy. 

I can accord the rights of belligerency in the field 


of social controversy to those who believe democracy 
is outworn and a failure—though how anything can 
be outworn when it has scarcely been tried may be 
a puzzle. I know that in many parts of the world 
that has become the dominant political faith with 
Mussolini as its prophet. I know that it has many 
powerful adherents in this country. And I recog- 
nize that if some form of dictatorship, industrial or 
political, should ever be substituted for democracy 
as the social philosophy of the American people, and 
there are disquieting indications, then the public 
schools, belonging to the people, in conformity, would 
necessarily focus on standardization, rigid regimen- 
tation, and efficient preparation for the living death 
of the human spirit that would then be American life, 
Then there would need be Mussolinis of various sizes 
and degrees not only in political capitals, but in school 
superintendencies and principalships all over the land. 


But that time has not come. And the alert ‘people 
of Chicago, in co-operation with the teachers of Chi- 
cago, must see to it that our schools are not subtly 
used to hasten its coming. 





Democracy Returns to the Chicago Schools 


EQUALIZATION OF THE TEACHING LOAD 


The problem of the increasing number of students 
assigned to each teacher in the Chicago High Schools 
has disturbed the members of the Federation of Wo- 
men High School Teachers for several years. We have 
watched the official ratio of pupils per teacher 


raised from thirty-one to thirty-five in the past two 
years. We saw the junior high school ratio established 
at thirty-seven. We have felt what it means to try to 
teach and inspire two hundred and fifty to two hun- 
dred and seventy pupils every day. We have seen that 
this overcrowding in the classrooms throughout the 
city produces results harmful to the student and the 
teacher alike. For these reasons, the Executive Board 
and individual members of the Federation have de- 
voted much time and energy in bringing to the atten- 
tion of those in authority and of others interested 
in education the detrimental effects of the over-large 
class. 

We have gone further. Over a period covering 
more than a year we made investigations, examined 
programs, and compiled data. Our committee met in 


discussion with the Board of Superintendents. We 
conferred with the Superintendent and the Assistant 
Superintendent. Finally we formulated a series of 
definite suggestions which we presented to the Direc- 
tor of Administration of the Board of Education on 
December 13, 1927. 


Our suggestions are here printed: 


SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY OF OUR 
SCHOOLS BY EQUALIZING THE TEACHING LOAD 


These suggestions, offered by the Federation of Women 
High School Teachers, apply only to the departments of Eng- 
lish, History, Mathematics, Foreign Language, and General 
Science in the High Schools. 


RECOMMENDATION FOR THE TEACHING LoaD 

1. A maximum of five classes per day for each teacher. 

2. A maximum of 200 pupils to be taught per day by each 
teacher, this maximum to be reduced to 175 as rapidly as 
possible. 

3. One completely free period each day for teachers of 
every subject. Two completely free periods for all teachers 
of English. 

4. Assistants to the principals and deans of boys and girls 
to teach part time, in accordance with the rules and regula- 
tions. (See Superintendent’s Bulletin No. 5, Aug. 29, 1927-) 


5. Administrative assistants to continue to count as one- 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 15 


half teacher, and to carry one-half of the teaching load 
required of others in their department. 
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SCHOOL SERVICE 

Under this head are to be included all those school activities 
not considered as direct and actual teaching. 

Of these, some require the expenditure of so much energy 
as to be the equivalent of a class. No teacher is to have respon- 
sibility for more than one of these forms of service, so that 
no teacher will have fewer than four regular classes. 

A. School Service considered the equivalent of one class. 

1. Supervising the preparation of publications. 

2. Supervising a large study hall in conjunction with the 
additional management of a division of students. 

B. School Service considered NOT the equivalent of a class. 

Under this head is to be included a type of school activity 
requisite for the complete functioning of the schools, but 
requiring the expenditure of less energy than teaching. Since 
an accumulation of these militates against efficiency in the 
classroom, no teacher should be responsible for more than two 
of these forms of service. In that way, responsibility for these 
activities will be shared equally by all the teachers in the 
school. 

1. Teaching of extra small groups of weak students. 

2. The routine work of a division of students. 

3. A study period in a classroom. 

4. Supervision as sponsor or adviser for each of the 

a. Class organizations. 
b. Departmental clubs. 
c. Social clubs. 

Supervision of finances for school publications. 

Supervision of lockers. 

Supervision of free text-books. 

Acting as chairman of a department. The chairman is 
to be elected annually by the members of the department. The 
work of that chairman is to be considered the equivalent of a 
class only when that work is the actual organizing of the 
department. 


On December 16, 1927, the president, Miss Ber- 
olzheimer, was requested by the Assistant Superin- 
tendant of Schools, Mr. William J. Bogan, to appear 
before a meeting of all the high school principals. 
She presented this list of suggestions to the assem- 
bled group, and explained the position of the Federa- 
tion of Women High School ‘Teachers on the question 
of equalization of the teaching load. Statistics com- 
piled from the teachers’ program cards for the semes- 
ter and read by Miss Connery, Director of Adminis- 
tration, showed conclusively the necessity for the 
reforms which we had suggested. The data included 
such facts as (1) that 172 teachers have daily loads 
of more than 200 pupils and (2) that 26 teachers 


had no classes whatsoever. Discussion followed. The 
result of the conference was a request from Mr. Bogan 
to the principals that as many of these suggestions 
as possible be embodied in the school programs for the 
next semester. 
IMMEDIATE RESULTS SEEN 

That conference marked a historic moment. For 
the first time in nearly four years the teachers of 
Chicago were permitted to speak through the voice 
of their own chosen representative, and to present 
conclusions drawn from their actual classroom expe- 
rience. The principle of democracy had been reestab- 
lished in the Chicago schools. 


The result of the summary of data sent out by the 
District Superintendent in charge of High Schools 
appeared immediately in some schools. At Roosevelt 
High, the entire school, this semester, was organized 
on a basis of five classes instead of six. Classes of 
sixty were divided, where, possible, not reduced. 
Classes of fifty were reduced. Teachers’ class aver- 
ages dropped from forty-five to thirty-seven. At 
Harrison, over-large classes were reduced by tens, 
instead of by ones or twos. At Lake View one teacher 
with a teaching load of two hundred and twenty- 
three last semester has one hundred and eighty-two 
this semester. In several schools the quota of teachers 
allowed by membership was filled for the first time. 


Our work must continue. At present our com- 
mittee is busy checking on teachers’ programs for this 
semester, in order to determine present teaching loads. 
We have had the fullest co-operation and sympathy 
from Mr. Bogan, the Assistant Superintendent, from 
Miss Connery, the Director of Administration, and 
from others in the Education Department of the 
Board of Education. The teachers have assumed their 
rightful position in helping to improve the condi- 
tions under which they teach, and their self-respect 
and their respect for their work has increased in 
proportion. 

BEULAH BEROLZHEIMER, 
President Local No. 3. 





ELIMINATION OF LIMITED CERTIFICATES 


Teachers holding limited certificates in Chicago 
senior high schools were previously handicapped in 
Passing promotional examinations into the general 
certificate group, but they have recently received the 
desired relief, through unusual co-operation between 
the Board of Education and committees representing 
the Chicago Federation of Men Teachers. 


With the introduction of new subjects into the 
secondary school curriculum, it was at first difficult 
to procure teachers with the combined educational 
and special training necessary to teach the new sub- 
jects. This has led to two salary standards in Chicago 
senior high schools. A limited certificate, recogniz- 
ing a teacher’s ability to teach the technical and com- 





16 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


mercial subjects, has carried with it a maximum 
salary standard of $500.00 per year less than that 
given to the teachers of academic subjects holding 
degrees. 

The. Federation of Men Teachers recognized the 
idcohsistency of continued discrimination in salary 
dnd subject standards, prevailing long after the tech- 
nical and commercial studies had become permanently 
recognized as regular subjects in the senior high school 
curriculum. A committee made up of teachers of 
academic and technical subjects and holding both gen- 
eral and limited certificates was appointed to study 
the situation. An impartial study was made and the 
findings, with remedial recommendations, were pre- 
sented to the Board of Education. 

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS CHANGED 

The report advised that, since at this time teachers 
with both technical or commercial training and with 
the prescribed academic training as well could be pro- 
cured, provision should be made to eliminate the lim- 
ited certificate and submit only general certificate 
examinations for teachers of subjects included in those 
branches of education. 

In order to carry out such a plan successfully it 
was suggested that the examination questions for 
teachers of these subjects be changed, so as to con- 
form in difficulty with the academic general certifi- 
cate examinations, but be adopted to practical appli- 
cations of problems involved in theories relating to 
the major subjects. 

To provide for those teachers in the service hold- 
ing limited certificates and at maximum salary for 
that group, it was proposed that with a satisfactory 
teaching record, they be admitted to the non-acade- 
mic general certificate group and by presentation to 
the Board of Education of one major credit of uni- 
versity or college work, each year for five successive 
years, receive a $100 per year increase in salary until 


the maximum salary of the general certificate group 
is reached. 
EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT GRATIFIED 

The plan as submitted by the Federation of Men 
Teachers was adopted by the Board of Education, and 
during the past year one hundred thirty-six teachers 
holding limited certificates have taken advantage of 
the new ruling. Of this number one hundred one 
teachers have presented the required credit for the 
first year, and are now benefiting to the extent of 
the first $100 per year increase, and the remaining 
thirty-five are presenting credits so that they will 
be eligible to continue to the general certificate max- 
imum salary after one year only at the present limited 
maximum. 

This plan has provided the type of educational 
study most beneficial to the teachers, and the Educa- 
tional Department enthusiastically states that ninety 
teachers of the group of one hundred one presented 
to the Board of Examiners credits for university and 
college educational courses, and the remaining eleven 
teachers received credit for curiculum revision work. 

Committees from the various departments repre- 
senting the technical studies, have compiled and sub- 
mitted to the Board of Examiners, through the Feder- 
ation of Men Teachers, typical examination questions 
in various technical subjects for future teacher exami- 
nations. 

Through unusual co-operation between the Chi- 
cago Federation of Men Teachers and the Board of 
Education, this problem, that had appeared to be so 
difficult of solution for a number of years, has been 
satisfactorily solved, and a precedent has been set 
which well illustrates what the American Federation 
of Teachers understands by Democracy in Education. 

W. E. Hix, Chairman, 
Committee On Technical Education, 
Local No. 2. 





Launching Local No. 199 


The most auspicious social and educational event 
of the year for Chicago Teachers occurred Friday 
evening March 2, in the dinner given by the three 
Chicago Locals, No. 2, No. 3 and No, 199, the newly 
chartered Elementary Teachers Union. 

Over six hundred people, labor-leaders, educators, 
teachers, principals, board members and friends of 
the teachers—the largest and most representative 
educational gathering ever held in Chicago—packed 
the rooms of the Men’s City Club for the first public 


appearance of Local No. 199. 

For nearly ten years elementary teachers in Chi- 
cago have had no affiliation with labor, and there 
was universal public rejoicing over their entrance 
into the fold. Everyone talked of the need for labor 
affiliation, the necessity of organization, and the 
important power wielded by teaching groups work- 
ing together in the solution of their common 
problems. 

Nothing could better indicate the wise guidance 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 17 


which Locals No. 2 and No. 3 have had for the 
past two years under their respective presidents, 
James A. Meade and Beulah Berolzheimer, than the 
presence at the dinner, with hearty expression of 
good will, of all factions, complexions, and shades of 
thought in the educational public opinion of Chicago. 

After a short word of welcome by Miss Berolz- 
heimer, and the presentation of the program of 
action of Local No. 199 by its president, Agnes 
Clohesy, Mr. Meade, the presiding officer, introduced 
Professor Robert Morss Lovett of the University of 
Chicago and of The New Republic, who was the 
principal speaker of the evening. 


Appress BY RoBert Morss Lovett 

Mr. Lovett brought greetings from the New York 
Local, to which he belongs. In his talk he emphasized 
the need for organization as an expression of democ- 
racy which he says is on trial the world over and 
must prove its worth unassisted by the short-cuts to 
efficiency afforded by the dictatorships of Fascism or 
Bolshevism. 


“Those of us who believe in democracy,” he said in part, 
“because we like to live in a democratic world, because the 
values of life as we see them can be preserved in a democratic 
world, those of us I say, who have that personal faith and hope 
in democracy, must not delude ourselves, we must not for a 
moment under-rate the importance of the social experiments 
which are going on in other parts of the world. For one 
thing, the Dictatorship, whether it be of Mussolini or of the 
Soviets, has one great advantage over democracy, in that it 
can employ experts. And it has a second advantage in the 
matter of efficiency over democracy, it can conscript the entire 
population, it can put the population under control of experts 
and can accomplish a feat of organization that is comparable 
to the hive of bees or the hill of ants or the island of the 
coral workers, It can accomplish a feat of organization in the 
direction of efficiency that democracy cannot pretend to. The 
essentials, however, of life and the essentials of society—of 
social efficiency—must be taken care of under democracy, and 
they must be taken care of by voluntary action. Democracy 
must do through the voluntary co-operation of its members 
what the Dictatorship does by fire, by command. 


ScHOOLS THE Hope oF DEMOCRACY 
“Now, how are we to bring about that spirit of co-operation 
—that spirit of voluntary co-operation—which will result in 
the accomplishment of this fundamental social purpose? Do 
you suppose that Mussolini would undertake to keep his Dicta- 
torship alive in Italy without the support of the schools? Of 
course not. His schools teach Dictatorship, they teach Fascism. 
Do you suppose the Communists in Russia would regard their 
regime as having any stability or strength unless they con- 
trolled the schools in the interests of Communism? Certainly 
not. The hope of Russia in the future is in making Com- 
munists of the pupils of the schools, and I may say that I 
think the hope of democracy is in making democrats of our 
Pupils, using the schools as nurseries of democracy, and I do 
not feel the least ashamed of declaring that that is the main 
Purpose of our schools, when you consider that under a democ- 
racy, Dictatorship, Communism, or other forms of government 
re a right to appeal by public discussion to the public vote. 
tel that democra¢y, more than either or more than any 
rs form of government has the right to claim for its own 
Public schools. Now, what is essential in our public 
ls to make them real nurseries of democracy?” 


Here Mr. Lovett discussed the four essentials of 
Democracy presented by President Eliot of Harvard, 
(1) a belief in and respect for freedom of opinion, 
speech and discussion, (2) a thorough skepticism 
toward propaganda, (3) a recognition of special 
ability and willingness to subordinate one’s own 
will to the judgment of experts and finally (4) co- 
Then he continued: 


TEACHERS Must ORGAN:ZE 

“Now, how are we to bring about—how are we to have— 
in our public schools, a spirit which will insure these four 
requisites of democratic education? Well, obviously we can’t 
have those things, we can’t spread that doctrine among our 
pupils unless the teachers are already imbued with that doctrine, 
unless they are already free men and women and devoted to the 
principle of freedom, until they themselves are free from any 
suspicion, any danger of following after propaganda, until they 
are willing to submit their judgment to the experts, until they 
are co-operative. And I will say that the way to bring about 
this movement among the teachers is through organization. 
Such a movement must start from within. It must come 
about through the education of the teachers themselves, through 
their organizations, and I should be willing in the last analysis, 
and possibly even before we come to the last ditch, to turn 
over the schools to the teachers for their direction and man- 
agement. If it were a question of giving up the democratic 
ship because we haven’t any crew to manage that ship, I would 
call upon the teachers. I would say, ‘See here, this is ycur 
job, your job more than any other class in the community. 
You are better able to fulfill it. The hope of democracy is 
nearer to you than any other single group.’ And I should have 
the very greatest confidence that that remedy would be suf- 
ficient even if democracy were in greater danger than it appears 
to be at present. I should distrust teachers as individuals just 
as I should distrust individuals generally, but I believe that 
teachers organized can develop a spirit of responsibility, a spirit 
of co-operation which will make that experiment a success. 

“Wherever I meet teachers in organization I have a new lively 
faith in the future of democracy to be worked out very largely, 
I believe, through the reinforcement of democratic forces, which 
we shall achieve’ through the teachers organized in connection 
with the trade union movement of the United States.” 


ADDRESS OF JOHN FITZPATRICK 

The second speaker was John Fitzpatrick, presi- 
dent of the Chicago Federation of Labor. After 
telling how glad he was to be present at a meeting 
“for the purpose of getting more light and more 
understanding, for the better common interests of 
all teachers,” he outlined the organization of the 
American Federation of Labor explaining its tre- 


mendous democratic possibilities: 

“. . . it is the effort of the America Federation of Labor 
to bring the workers of any particular line of activity into 
their own organization on a national basis and then to leave all 
affairs in connection with that particular occupation in the 
hands of the men and women who are involved in that occu- 
pation. I don’t know that there could be anything more 
democratic than that. The levying of the fees, the expenditure 
of them, the mapping out of the program, the laying down of 
the laws or of the declarations, and everything else that the 
workers in that industry believe to be to their best interests, 
are absolutely and wholly within their own making.” 

He showed how questions of hours and wages are 


really questions of human life about which we can- 
not afford to be indifferent. 


operation. 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


PauL Douc Las SPEAKS 
The third speaker, Professor Paul Douglas, talked 
about the desirability of making the teaching pro- 
fession a free profession, and of the power of organ- 


ization to effect freedom. 


“There will be conflicts of opinion, there will be differences, 
but out of the clash of differences there will ultimately come a 
synthesis, a moving on to newer, greater truths, and it is 
chiefly for that reason, I think, that I favor the organization 
of teachers everywhere, from the cradle to the university, so 
that education may indeed be free and so that the human 
spirit may be free. It is a collective enfranchisement which 
we must secure, it is a collective freedom to which we must 
attain.” 

ADDRESS OF JOHN ENGLISH 

Mr. John A. English, vice-president of the Chicago 
Board of Education and a member of the Chicago 
Typographical Union, was the next speaker. 

Mr. English talked about recent conditions in 
Chicago: 

“Probably the main reason that you want to get together 
is for more freedom of expression, more democracy in the 
teaching profession of Chicago. You haven’t had much of it, 
but you have had a lot of it taken away from you. I am 
very pleased with the platform that you have presented here 
this evening. I think it is just, I think it is reasonable, I 
think it is workable. But you have had things happen to you, 
and probably that is one of the reasons you had impossible 
tasks thrust upon you. I will submit that there was not a very 
good feeling in the schools of the City of Chicago when you 
were asked to go out and do things it was impossible for you to 
do, when you were asked to get these 100% tests and things of 
this kind that you knew were impossible, and probably had for 
its purpose making teachers turn in false reports in order to 
please somebody who wanted to make some sort of a showing 
and you didn’t want to do that. Probably there were many 
other reasons why you wanted to organize, and I probably 
could enumerate many of them but I don’t propose to do that. 

“I have never met with a more sincere and a more honest 
and efficient body of people than I have met with in the teach- 
ing force of Chicago, and I think it is a crime against the edu- 
cational activities of the City of Chicago when all of their 
efforts were thrown aside and spurned and they were not even 
given a hearing. Maybe that is one of the reasons that you 
have organized, because you won’t ask for a hearing; you will 
demand a hearing and you will get it. I don’t want to bring 
any indictment, I don’t want to bring any charges against any- 
one in particular,” (laughter) “but I want to say that I am 
very glad to have this opportunity. I am just going to say to 
you that if I have been of any service to you it has been one 
of the pleasures of my life, it has been one of the greatest 
pleasures to have met with the group of people that I have come 
in contact with during my connection with the Board of Edu- 
cation, and I know that insofar as an organization of the 
teachers union is concerned, that is assured right here this 
evening.” 

AppREss OF Mr. MULLENBACH 


Mr. James Mullenbach, another member of the 
Board of Education and friend of the organized teach- 
ers, followed Mr. English. He said in part: 


“I think all of us who appreciate the value of organization 
were quite thrilled, at least I was, this evening, as I listened 
to the statement that was read us, as I listened to the leader 
of your new union, your new organization. I think that that 
was a platform of principles that ought to be a standard and 
a star toward which your whole organization will be moving, 
and I don’t say that because they mention school councils as 
the first item on the program, but it is one of them, and I 


think we all rejoice over the fact that you have such a clear 
cut view over the path that you have to travel. It isn’t going 
to be an easy one. Organizations don’t get together without 
pressure. That is certainly true outside of the school system, 
You know the Master said that the ‘Kingdom of heaven is 
taken by violence’ and some folks never get in unless they are 
kicked in. That ought not to to be true of teachers. They 
ought to be enlightened enough to go in on their own initiative, 
their own power, without having to be compelled to go in 
by force. 

“I want to thank you for the opportunity of being here at 
this hour and having the encouragement and fellowship which 
comes from association.” 

OTHER ADDRESSES BY REPRESENTATIVES 


Two other representatives of Labor spoke. Mr. 
Fitchie of the milk-wagon drivers represented the 
State Federation of Labor and particularly its sec- 
retary, Victor Olander, who was obliged to be 
absent because of business outside of the city. Mr. 
Fitchie encouraged our newest local by his inspiring 
story of what his own local had accomplished in the 
face of adverse public opinion and other nearly 
insurmountable obstacles. Mr. Collins, secretary of 
the Electrical Contractors’ Association, presented his 
good wishes, offered us his services, and spoke par- 
ticularly about better teaching facilities for the 
building apprentices at present attending continua- 
tion school in Chicago. 

Appress BY Mrs. F. C. HANSON 

The meeting was ably and fittingly concluded by 
the address of the Secretary-Treasurer of the Ameri- 
can Federation of Teachers, Mrs. Florence Curtis 
Hanson, who extended the hand of invitation and 
welcome to those who might be present without 
having yet joined our organized groups, and told 
us all good tidings of the growth of our movement 
throughout the country. She concluded her re- 


marks with the following: 


“It was a glorious moment when the Chicago teachers of 
No. 199 joined themselves with the one force that recognizes 
the fact that schools exist for children and not children for 
schools, that asks nothing of the schools but an education for 
children, that is battling for social betterment. These teachers 
joined themselves with a force that has arrayed itself against 
the enemies of mankind: disaster and waste and crime and 
poverty and mal-adjustment and ignorance and inhumanity 
and war. The habit of courage, not of fear, makes for your 
happiness, and I say to the Elementary Teachers Union of 
Chicago that because it has joined itself to this force it will 
be blessed as well as courageous.” 

Certainly the real spirit of the Chicago schools 


emerged that night after four years of _pitiable 
suppression. 

The meeeting was a thorough inspiration to all 
who were present, and one upon which the teachers 
of Chicago and indeed of the country at large may 
well congratulate itself. The auspicious beginning 
augurs well for No. 199, and No. 2 and No. 3 cet 
tainly wish her luck. 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Some Objectives of the Elementary Teachers Union 


Address by AGNEs B. CLOHESY 
President E. T. U., Local 199, at the Dinner Meeting of the Chicago Union Teachers, on March 2 


I consider it a very great privilege to come before 


you this evening as a representative of the Elementary 
Teachers Union. I think it is a momentous occasion 
when the three unions of teachers in our city schools 
can come together on the common ground of their 
labor affiliation. 


Our organization is young, having only a few 


months’ existence to its credit. It is vigorous, and 
its vigor is apparent in its program of action. This 
program of action has twelve planks. It stands for, 
among other things: 


1. 


The re-establishment and official recognition of 
self-governing teachers’ councils, meeting on 
school time, for the purpose of utilizing the ex- 
perience and initiative of the teachers in the 
conduct of the schools, the recommendation of 
such councils to be made a matter of official 
public record. 


Adequate upward revision of salary schedules. 
Maintenance and protection of the present pen- 
sion system. 

Alert vigilance in the protection of security of 
tenure during efficiency. 

Reduction in size of classes to make possible 
effective personal contact between teacher and 
pupil. 

Equitable enforcement of present tax laws, com- 
bined with persistent effort to secure moderni- 
zation of our revenue system. 

Revision and modernization of the taxing sys- 
tem to provide adequate school revenues and 
practical effort to provide revenue under pro- 
visions of the present law pending permanent 
revision of the present taxing system. 

A reversal of the tendency toward mechaniza- 
tion in school procedure. 

The freeing of teachers from the increasingly 
intolerable burden of red tape and clerical work 
for what should be their main function, teach- 
ing, through the simplification of records and 
procedure, and the placing of transferable cleri- 
cal work in the hands of clerks. 

The placing of supervision on a constructive 
co-operative basis. 

Prevention of legislation tending to restrict 


truthful teaching in the social and natural 
sciences. 

Endorsement of the spirit and principles of the 
American Federation of Teachers as exempli- 
fied in the Preamble to its Constitution. 

“We believe in democracy, and in the schools as the 
chief agency of democracy. 

“We believe that the schools have failed in their 
fullest attainment because of undemocratic admin- 
istration, adherence to tradition, and lack of respon- 
siveness to the needs of the community; and that the 
teachers must find the remedy, if it is to be found. 

“We believe that servility breeds servility, and that 
if the schools are to produce free, unafraid men and 
women, American citizens of the highest type, the 
teachers must live and work in an atmosphere of free- 
dom and self-respect. 

“We believe that the teacher is one of the most 
highly productive of workers, and that the best inter- 
ests of the schools and of the people demand an inti- 
mate contact and an effective co-operation between 
the teachers and the other workers of the community 
—upon whom the future of democracy must de- 
pend.” 

Teachers holding elementary teachers’ certificates 
who are in good professional standing are eligible to 
membership in our organization. 

Now, as to the question—‘‘Why should the ele- 
mentary teacher join a labor union?” Everywhere 
it is conceded that teachers may join, in fact, should 
join, associations which make special study of a par- 
ticular subject, such as associations of history teach- 
ers, English teachers, cooking teachers and so on. Each 
one of these associations emphasizes the isolation of 
the teacher from the rest of the cummunity, sets the 
teacher apart from other members of society. But in 
a labor union and through its affiliations, the teacher 
makes contacts and develops interests in common not 
only with other workers and producers in the imme- 
diate community, but also with that vast group of 
workers which comprise cur nation. Thus the labor 
union is the gateway to the humanizing of the teach- 
ing profession. 

We agree with a distinguished educator that the 
time is not far off when the burden-of proof will be 
on the non-union teacher to justify her failure to join 





20 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


other workers and producers in the community for 
the common good—“When the question will not be, 
Why should I join the Teachers Union? It will be, 
Why should I not, or why has not this person and 
that person done it? The time will come when the 
principle of organization and co-operation and the 


recognition of commo2 interests of all of those who 
work in any way, whether mostly with their head or 
with their hands, or mostly with their voice, will be 
so clear that the explanations and the apologies and 
arguments will have to come from those who ar 
not members of the Teachers Union.” 





Sabbatical Leave of Absence 


On August 3, 1927, the Chicago Board of Educa- 
tion passed a rule for Sabbatical Leave of Absence for 
Chicago Teachers which includes the following pro- 
visions: 

Leave is granted for a period not exceeding 
one school year and not less than one-half school 
year, for any or all of the following purposes: 

a. Study along lines relating exclusively to 

schools and.school work. 

b. Travel which shall not involve financial 

remuneration or benefit. 


Observation of schools and school work 
outside of Chicago. 

This leave may be granted at the completion of 
seven years or more of continuous satisfactory service 
and at the completion of any subsequent period of 
seven years of such service; preference is given to 
those who have reached the maximum of the salary 
schedule, seniority in service being the deciding fac- 
tor between applicants meeting the other general re- 
quirments. 

The teacher on leave is paid the salary which he or 
she would be paid for regular service, less the amount 
paid the substitute teacher. Upon expiration of leave 
the teacher is re-assigned to the position formerly 
occupied, upon presentation of satisfactory evidence 
that the period of leave has been utilized in good 
faith for the purpose for which it was granted. 

NuMBER TAKING LEAVE 

During the first semester that the law existed for- 
ty-five teachers took advantage of it, and in the 
present semester one hundred sixty-seven teachers are 
out on Sabbatical Leave. 

Because Mr. John A. English, the labor representa- 
tive on the Board of Education, was a staunch advo- 
cate of the law, and because the Presidents of Locals 
No. 2 and No. 3 appeared before committees of the 
Board to urge its adoption, we teachers affiliated with 
labor feel especially responsible for its passage. 

Pass RESOLUTION OF APPRECIATION 
It was on this account that at the meeting of Feb- 


ruary 17, 1928 the Federation of Women High 
School Teachers unanimously approved the following 
resolution in appreciation of the Sabbatical year. Cop. 
ies were sent to each member of the Board of Educa- 
tion: 

Whereas, The rule for Sabbatical Leave of Ab- 
sence has now been in operation for one semes- 
ter; and 

Whereas, Many teachers have enjoyed or are 
now enjoying the opportunities for professional 
improvement that Sabbatical Leave affords; 
therefore, be it 

Resolved, That the Federation of Women 
High School Teachers express to the Board of 
Education its deep appreciation and gratitude for 
the advantages made available to teachers under 
the rule for Sabbatical Leave of Absence. Furth- 
ermore, the Federation wishes the members of the 
Board. to know that the passage of this rule has 
had a salutory and inspiring effect upon the 
morale of the teaching force, and that, because 
of the possibilities for professional development 
opened to the individual teacher, the entire edu- 
cational system of Chicago will be benefited. 








Chicago News 





ELEMENTARY TEACHERS UNION OF 
CHICAGO 
Loca. 199 
The need in Chicago for a group of elementary 
teachers within the labor movement has long bee? 
felt. Accordingly, on May 10, 1927, the Chicag? 
Teachers Federation which had previously held 4 
charter as Local 1, was formally invited by letter © 
renew its affiliation with the American Federation of 
Teachers. After a wait of five months, no reply © 
this invitation had been received. On October 1); 
1927, therefore, a group of elementary teachers orga 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 21 


ized, and were granted a charter as the Elementary 
Teachers Union, Local 199. 

This local admits to membership all elementary 
classroom teachers. Their primary aim is to work 
in the cause of education, and in the protection of 
the interests of teachers. They realize that no better 
channel exists than by affiliation with the labor 
movement, which has an advanced educational and 
social program. 

The older Chicago Locals, the Federation of Men 
Teachers No. 2 and the Federation of Women High 
School Teachers No. 3 have been keenly interested 
in the program of No. 199, and have made every 
effort to assist the new organization. On March 2, 
1928, a dinner meeting was held at the City Club to 
launch the new local. This very enthusiastic gath- 
ering resulted in many new applications for mem- 
bership. Local-199 now includes among its members 
a goodly number of the elementary teaching force, 
and is gratified by its steadily increasing membership. 

The officers of this new organization are: Presi- 
dent, Agnes B. Clohesy; Vice Presidents, Elsa Wolf, 
Edyth Brogan, Anna Goebel, Mae Reed and Helen 
Orrell; Secretary, Florence B. Green; Treasurer, Eve- 
lyn Ownby. 

Local 199 has affiliated with the Chicago Federa- 
tion of Labor and the Illinois State Federation of 
Labor. 

The coming year promises to be a banner year for 
the new local, and every effort is being made by the 
members and interested friends to build up a large 
organization which will make a real contribution 
to the educational and civic life of Chicago. 

FLORENCE B. GREEN, Secretary. 
oe ob oe a 
VocaTIONAL GUIDANCE BUREAU 

The Vocational Guidance Bureau of the Chicago 
Board of Education is gradually developing an edu- 
‘cational and vocational guidance service which, it is 
hoped, will eventually be available to all young people 
in the public schools. At present the staff consists of 
a director and 29 advisers, 7 assigned to the Central 
Office and the others doing counselling in the 14 
Junior High Schools and in 13 of the 24 Senior High 
Schools. 

At the Central Office the Bureau maintains a Place- 
ment Division for the use of boys and girls who leave 
school to go to work. A special effort is made to find 
employment for high school graduates and for handi- 
capped children: An Industrial Studies Division is 
charged with gathering accurate occupational and 


industrial information and presenting it in printed 
and mimeographed form for the use of teachers, ad- 
visers and pupils. 

The counselling programs in the schools include 
orientation of incoming pupils, advising students in 
regard to courses of study and choice of electives, giv- 
ing vocational information, interviewing “drop-outs,” 
and individual case work with failing pupils and 
problem children. Graduacing students are informed 
as to opportunities for employment or college en- 
trance requirements. The programs vary somewhat 
according to the needs of each particular school or- 
ganization. 

Feeling an identity of interest with the members 
of the teaching staff and the advantages to be gained 
from closer association with them, the advisers, all 
of whom hold General High School Certificates, are 
joining the ranks of the teachers’ organizations. Of 
the 27 advisers who have finished their probationary 
period and are, therefore, eligible to membership, 21 
are already members of either the Mens’ or the Wo- 
mens’ Federation, and several others have indicated 
a desire to join. From this affiliation has resulted a 
better understanding in each group of the other’s 
problems and a sense of solidarity which could not 
otherwise have been achieved. In addition, the Federa- 
tions have been working actively toward securing a 
salary schedule commensurate with the certificate re- 
quired for vocational advisers, who are a group at 
present too small numerically to be effective in secur- 
ing the adjustment in its own behalf. 


RutTH M. BarTLetrT. 
+ + + & 


WHY THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACH- 
ERS ARE JOINING THE UNION TEACHERS 

The Junior High School teachers are affiliating 
with the Federation of Women High School Teachers, 
and the Federation of Men Teachers as they recog- 
nize how directly such a move is going to benefit 
them. First, such affiliation is a marked step toward 
uniting the Junior and Senior groups in interests per- 
taining to their really allied problems, and in giving 
each group an understanding of what the other group 
is already doing and what they hope to do. The 
Junior High teacher is realizing that the Federations 
are making a concentrated effort to better working 
conditions by asking for a lighter teaching load and 
by trying to bring about a better salary scale. The 
direct advantage of being affiliated with Labor makes 
it possible to receive at first hand such information as 


(Continued on Page 27) 





a= * THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


The American Teacher 


Democracy in Education Education for -Democracy 
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 
Frorence Curtis Hanson, Secretary-Treasurer and Editor 








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Advertising rates made known on application. 





EXECUTIVE COUNCIL 


President 
Mary C. Barker, Atlanta No. 89, 685 Myrtle Street, N. E., 
Atlanta, Georgia. 


Legislative Representative and Vice-President 
Setma M. BorcHarpt, Washington No. 8; 1741 Park Road, 
N. W., Washington, D. C. 
Vice-Presidents 
Lucrm: W. ALLEN, Chicago Women No. 3; 1803 Livingston 
Avenue, Evanston, Illinois. 
Amy A. Fox, Minneapolis No. 59; 2809 Park Avenue, Minne- 
apolis, Minnesota. 
ABRAHAM LEFKow!Tz, New York No. 5; Grand Avenue, East 
Elmhurst, New York, N. Y. 
Henry R. Linvitte, New York No. 5; 70 Fifth Avenue, 
New York, N. Y. 

A. J. Muste, Brookwood No. 189; Brookwood, Katonah, N. Y. 
FLorENcCE 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. Scort, Atlanta No. 89; 212 Kings Highway, Decatur, 
Georgia. 

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

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

Secretary-Treasurer 
FLorENcE 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 





A few years ago I went over a good many of the 
documents in that field and 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 lib- 
eral progressive public education as will be found in 
the printed records of the American Federation of 
Labor Joun Dewey. 


SCHOOL WHO—OR WHICH? 

One of the delights of Professor Manniche’s article 
in the February AMERICAN TEACHER was his use of 
the relative “who” in referring to school, “The high 
school, who should neither become officials or 
scientists, but farmers, tradesmen, artisans, etc.” It 
would appear that in Denmark it is generally 
accepted that the teachers and the students make the 
school, not as too generally in America the building 
and equipment. 

We have many things to learn from this Danish 
experiment in education. One of them may be the 
recognition of the true nature of a school. We may, 
from observing this movement, relearn the Mark 
Hopkins definition of a school. The idea seems to 
be only too prevalent and to be growing that a fine 
building makes a fine school. A center of interest 
for advertising and economy does not constitute an 
educational center. We are grateful for any move- 
ment that leads us back to the teacher and the pupil 
—the true educational center. 


Write to THE AMERICAN TEACHER about it. 


Editor, 
AMERICAN TEACHER, 





The editor of THE AMERICAN TEACHER would 
like to start a correspondence page, called, shall we 
say, The Voice of the Teacher? Can it be done? 
She knows a writer whose job is to write the letters 
which appear in a certain magazine. But she does 
not want that kind of a page, but a page which 
shall be a real expression of opinions. 

THE AMERICAN TEACHER is the best medium 
through which our members, scattered all over the 
United States, can become acquainted with each 
other. In it you may air your views and report 
your news, and by so doing may make a contribu- 
tion to the interest of your publication and to the 
advancement of your organization. 

Let us make a start in the June issue and carry 
the policy forward next year. Who will be first? 





The Manitoba Teacher, official organ of the Mani- 
toba Teachers Federation, for February, reprinted 
from the January American Teacher, Dr. John Dew- 
ey’s article, “Why I Am a Member of the Teachers 
Union.” 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 23 


EDGAR WALLACE, THE TEACHERS’ FRIEND 


In the death of Edgar Wallace the teachers lost 
one of their best friends. No matter when or where, 
any hour of the day or night, the teachers asked his 
help, it was theirs most generously. 

Edgar Wallace, for long an outstanding figure in 
the United Mine Workers of America and for the 
last nine years a member of the legislative committee 
of the American Federation of Labor, died suddenly 
February 25. He was 61 years old. 

Mr. Wallace was born in England and came to 
this country in early youth. He went to work in 
the coal mines of Indiana and became active in the 
miners’ union. He served the United Mine Workers 
of America as an organizer and later as editor of 
The United Mine Workers’ Journal, the official pub- 
lication of the union. Before the United States 
entered the World War, Mr. Wallace went to Canada 
and joined the British army, serving over seas. He 
assisted the late Samuel Gompers abroad during the 
war and served in 1918 as a member of the second 
American labor missions to Great Britain, France 
and Italy. 

Mr. Gompers employed him as legislative agent of 
the American Federation of Labor and when William 
Green became president of the Federation, Mr. Wal- 
lace was continued in that capacity. 

The American Federation of Labor as well as the 
organized teachers sustains a very great loss in the 
death of Mr. Wallace. 





COLORADO LABOR GROUPS WORK WITH 
MRS. HANSON TO ORGANIZE TEACHERS 


It is indeed an encouraging note that comes out 
of Denver regarding the efforts of organized labor 
in that city and state, in co-operation with those of 
Secretary Florence Curtis Hanson of the American 
Federation of Teachers, to organize the teachers of 
that state. 

It is not important that school executives “do 
not approve” of such an organization. Our mind 
fails to record many industrial executives that gave 
their approval to the organization of workers in 
industry. Nor do we expect active efforts on the 
part of the N. E. A. to co-operate with the 
A. F. of T. 

Those who decry the value of teachers’ organiza- 
tion should give themselves a treat by reading Pro- 
fessor John Dewey’s reasons why he is a member of 
this great organization of educators: they are clearly 
stated, briefly stated, eloquently stated. 


The important part of the Denver movement is 
that there are liberal, non-fearing teachers in public 
schools, universities and colleges who are desirous of 
adding their contribution to a movement that has 
done more to elevate the material and social (as well 
as make possible its spiritual) advancement of the 
world than any other. 


There might have been little opportunity to 
“teach” if it had not been for the pioneering efforts 
of organized labor of 100 years ago; many teachers, 
lacking property and religious qualifications, might 
not have voted, if “free labor” of that period, had 
not declared and insisted on “manhood suffrage” 
without the restrictions of existing laws. 

How many “homesteads,” and the developments 
following later that have builded the West, would 
have been possible, if organized labor had not first 
taken up the cudgel in its behalf? __ 

The “free public school text book” must also be 
a monument to the efforts of union labor, which 
made its significant contribution to the freeing of 
the chattel slave, the enactment of “liability,” and 
later, compensation legislation owed its genesis and 
its present status to the efforts of the organized 
workers. 

The “labor movement,” derided by ignorance and 
greed alike; opposed by every employer who “sees 
the hole before he views the doughnut” and whose 
desire to “dictate” prompts him to deny recognition 
of the right to organize, is the one great movement 
that is striving to perpetuate democracy in govern- 
ment as well as to establish it in industry. 


Teachers should organize. If all other reasons had 
been satisfactorily satisfied, such as wages, teachers’ 


tenure legislation, a happier arrangement of the 


school day; freedom from unnecessary and unwar- 
ranted political interference (which causes so many 
to “fear for their jobs”); they should still organize 
to carry forward the ideals that form the back- 
ground of the labor movement. 


For any school board, any superintendent, any 
interest to attempt to deny them the right to 
organize, or to stop the exercise of that right, is an 
invasion on their part of freedom of action, unwar- 
ranted, unjustified and tyrannical. People who talk 
of “teachers striking” as the result of their organiza- 
tion, either for themselves or in sympathy with 
others, simply parade an ignorance of the philosophy 
of organization that is deplorable——Wyoming Labor 
Journal. 





24 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


The Value of Mathematics or the Place of Mathematics 


In the Curriculum 
By Eva V. Hetu, Washington Teachers Union, Local 8 


Secondary schools in approximately 70 per cent of 
the states in the Union require mathematics, usually 
algebra or geometry or both for graduation. In a 
list of 93 accredited colleges and universities, includ- 
ing at least one from every state, it is found that 
approximately 68 per cent require mathematics for 
admission. And rightly. For what subject is more 
closely inter-related with the cardinal objectives of 
education? 

In order to have what Prof. W. C. Ruediger calls 
an intelligent mastery over one’s environment and to 
be in harmony with it, one must have a knowledge 
of the principles of arithmetic. It is needed in the 
management of the home, the purchase of com- 
modities, the investing of money, and the determin- 
ing of financial obligations. 

The vocational value is readily seen, when we 
consider the wide field of gainful occupations,— 
from bookkeeping to engineering—in which a knowl- 
edge of pure mathematics is essential. Closely related 
to this is the immense influence of machinery on our 
industrial and manufacturing development. The 
machine may be called the embodiment or physical 
expression of mathematical principles. 

MATHEMaTIcs A WorKING TOOL 

In the study of physics, chemistry, mechanics, 
astronomy, even biology and sociology, mathematics 
is used as a working tool. As Oscar Codier* points 
out, physical laws and natural phenomena are 
expressed in mathematical equations or formulae; 
and it has been said that the progress of a subject 
undergoing development is measurable by the degree 
in which it has found mathematical expression. 

The physical concepts of Faraday, as Birkoff tells 
us, were not adequately stated without the assistance 
of his mathematical interpreter, Maxwell. By work- 
ing out Faraday’s theories of the relation between 
light and electricity, Maxwell found that the velocity 
of the electromagnetic wave, such as is sent from 
wireless stations, is the same as the known velocity 
of light, therefore, the light wave is electromagnetic, 
i. e., the same in type as the wireless wave. Electrical 
phenomena may be expressed in terms of calculus. 
Madame Curie used calculus in the study of radio 
activity. 


By combining or otherwise manipulating equations 
according to known mathematical processes, new 
facts and relations may be developed and modes of 
research are suggested. Fresnel worked: out the 
theory of light interference, and foretold by mathe- 
matical consideration or calculation, discoveries 


which he subsequently made. 


THE Law oF THE MusicaL STRING 

Mendeleeff by means of his periodic table of 
elements foretold the properties of certain elements 
before these elements were discovered. ‘Thomson by 
means of mathematics brought out the fact that all 
elements are made of the same matter. Their various 
properties are due to a difference of energy and 
arrangement of the atoms. 

Not only in the pursuit of the sciences or in 
earning our daily bread, however, do we find the 
influence and aid of mathematics, but in_ those 
esthetic and liberalizing activities that promote the 
worthy use of leisure. 

Pythagoras, five hundred years before the Christian 
era, held number to be at the root of everything; 
that the seven planets gave out musical notes propor- 
tionate to their distances from the sun, forming the 
music of the spheres. This theory naturally led to 
his discovery of the law of the musical- string, 
namely, that if its length is halved, the note is 
raised exactly an octave. 

The diatonic piano scale is a mathematical com- 
promise between other forms of scale; and, a 
we learn from Henry S. Carhart, its eight notes have 
the following vibrations per second: 

256 288 320 3411/3 384 4262/3 480 512 
C d’ e’ f’ g’ a’ c” 

(C’ is middle c.) 

The desire for mathematical expression of fact is 
found even in law; for example, in determining the 
degrees of liability of a bailee, under different 
conditions. 

MATHEMATICS AND PROGRESS 

And so, if mathematics of which it may be 
assumed only an infinitesimal part is known, has 
brought us thus far into the realms of scientific 
knowledge and accomplishment, is not the vision of 
what is before us sufficiently liberalizing and inspit- 





“No 
amor 
inert 
is th 
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A 
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what 
are | 
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the « 


—_—_ 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 25 


ing to justify the pursuit of this subject in all of 
its branches? 

If through mathematics and the other sciences, 
progress has been made from the works of Tubal- 
Cain to the iron mills of Pittsburgh, from the courier 
post service of ancient Rome to the modern tele- 
phone, from the pipes of Pan to the radio, from 
Icarus to Lindbergh, what may be the revelation 


of tomorrow? 
*Oscar Codier, scientist and patent attorney of Washing- 
ton, D. C. 


THE ASHLAND SCHOOL FOR ADULT 
EDUCATION 

There is increasing dissatisfaction with the pre- 
vailing convoy system of education under which the 
individual is herded together with untold numbers 
of other individuals that they may be carefully 
chaperoned across the ocean of new knowledge and 
unexpected truth in ways which will neither startle 
nor shock them to death. As Henry Adams said, 
“Nothing in education is so astonishing as the 
amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of 
inert facts . . . The chief wonder of education 
is that it does not ruin everybody concerned in it, 
teachers and taught.” 

A few of those who have not yet been “ruined” 
are constantly on the alert for new ways of doing 
what we meant to do under the old system. They 
are trying to find means whereby the student will 
not continue to be confronted with the card-index 
cabinet of accepted knowledge from which in the 
best cafeteria style, he may snatch a little here, a 
little there, but have the waiters—academically 
speaking—relieve him of the most elementary ef- 
forts at independent thought or action; until at 
the end of the season, by cataloguing and carefully 





editing the menus for the year he may be assured 
that he has attained to a degree. (Only those who 
have not been “ruined” may be expected to ask, “a 
degree of what?”’) 

Among the already established new efforts may 
briefly be mentioned President Arthur E. Morgan’s 
Antioch College of which President Eliot said short- 
ly before he died that it was by far the most inter- 
esting experiment in education now carried on in 
America. And many look with the most compelling 
anticipation at the experiments now carried on by 
Dr. Meiklejohn. That attempts should be made to 
get still further away from traditional pedagogy 
should only be expected. Such an attempt is the one 
now contemplated by Dr. Kirkpatrick and his 
friends. 

They plan to take over the physical plant of the 
old Ashland Folk High School near Grand Rapids. 
Started by a group of Danish settlers some 
fifty years ago as a folk-high-school it will now be 
turned by a few progressive American educators 
into a project in adult education, based on no acad- 
emic curriculum but on collateral research through 
group discussion into actual life situations. There 
will be a summer session from July 30th to Sep- 
tember 8th devoted to the following problems: 
1. Sex—marriage—home, July 30th to August 4th. 
2. Occupational—economic, August 6th to 11th. 
3. Community-life, August 13th to 18th. 
4. Leisure-play—August 20th to 25th. 
5. Educational,—both in and out of school, August 
27th to Sept. Ist. 
6. Religious—September 3-8th. 

The comment of the Dean of American educa- 


(Continued on Page 27) 








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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Manumit School and the Labor Movement 
NELuE M. SEEDs, Manumit Local 191 


Little, if any surprise is manifested today, at the 
phenomenon of workers running colleges. Brook- 
wood Labor College, The Worker’s University, Labor 
Colleges in Philadelphia, Boston and other cities no 
longer challenge attention as verbal contradictions. 
They are established institutions that have come to 
stay. 

In launching an experimental school for children, 
however, labor is venturing into an hitherto untried 
field. Nowhere in Europe or America has the organ- 
ized labor movement as such provided elementary 
education. Manumit School is the first experimental 
school for the children of trade unionists, directed 
and controlled by a group of trade unionists and 
educators. 

Pioneering in educational methods is by no means 
new, but it has hitherto been fairly well confined to 
kindergartens run under private or public auspices, 
private schools directed and financed by individual 
educators and philanthropists, and a few scattered 
instances within the public schools, where a teacher 
of unusual ability or vision has revolutionized pre- 
scribed routines and procedures in the class or classes 
immediately under his jurisdiction. 

Witt New Ipeas Worx? 

Within this limited field the theory of modern or 
experimental education is gradually evolving. It must 
be free in that no external compulsion is exerted upon 
the child. It must give scope to his desire for self- 
expression and offer as the incentive to activity, not 
prizes or punishments, but the joy of creative activ- 
ity. It contemplates a concrete rather than an 
abstract approach to all material studied. It offers a 
genuine comradeship between children and teachers 
and relies on the interest motive rather than authori- 
tarian discipline to direct the bodies and minds of 
adolescence and youth. It teaches children, not sub- 
jects, visualizing them as complex organisms whose 
balanced growth is infinitely more important than 
the individual, isolated development of either mind 
or body. The new education takes for granted that 
the individual who learns as a child to make his social 
coordinations, his mental, physical and emotional 
adjustments, can become a relatively more independ- 
ent, rational and intelligent factor in a democratic 
society. ' 

For the past century, in America, children of the 
trade union movement have been educated in the 


public school system which labor helped to establish, 
and of which it is justly proud. But because of the 
enormous proportions of the system, because it js 
supported by public funds which can not ethically 
be risked by large scale ventures into the field of 
experimentation, there has been but little infiltration 
into the public school system of the newer ideas on 
education. Organized labor is often frankly dubious, 
when the question is put up to them, as to whether 
these new fangled ideas will work with their own 
children. “The public schools are pretty good” they 
say, “Why not let them alone?” But Manumit, like 
the man from Missouri, wants to be shown. It intends 
to find out, definitely, concretely, specifically, 
whether these new ideas of education will work ona 
cross section group of average public school children, 
taken from the public school, kept up to grade, 
that they can return to the public school, living a 
life of simplicity and ordinary comfort quite within 
the reach of any skilled worker in industry. 
Work, Play anp Stupy 

Directed by the Manumit Associates, a voluntary 
group of trade union men and women and educators, 
Manumit School has already been endorsed by several 
dozen trade unions, and received financial support 
from a number of them. It has this year 33 boys 
and girls from nine to fourteen years of age, repre- 
senting parents from sixteen different trades. 

Manumit takes these trade union children at the 
rate of $40 per month for nine months, gives them 
all that the normally eager heart of an adolescent 
boy or girl can ask for: 177 acres of beautiful rolling 
country in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains, 
a rambling trout stream, where boats can be launched 
and swimming has no danger. A horse to ride, ani- 
mals to be cared for; hillsides steep enough to make 
skiing a thrilling diversion, an ice pond for skating, 
innumerable slides for coasting; a carpentershop, 3 
printshop, an arts and craft shop and a music studio, 
a class room for each group where the study cet- 
ters, not around subjects but around projects, such 
as installing a radio, or printing a newspaper; a gy™- 
nasium for games, dramatic performances 
movies, and the fireside for poetry parties, a com- 
munity dining room and kitchen where every ont 
helps to do the work, in squads or shifts which the 
children help to regulate; a co-operative life con 
trolled by bi-monthly community meetings whert 





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every individual, little or big, has one vote; these are 
only the obvious advantages that Manumit has to 
offer. 

Of Manumit’s less spectacular, but perhaps more 
intrinsically valuable contributions in the psychologic 
field, little can be more than suggested. Modern 
psychology has taught us that habits, health habits, 
emotional reactions and suppressions of childhood 
carry over to maturity; that the development of 
initiative, independence, responsibility and judgment, 
must come at an early age, if at all. Keenly aware 
of these facts and their many ramifying conse- 
quences, Manumit is trying to teach democracy by 
practicing it, trying to free the child, to lead the 
man. 

Is organized labor aware of the far seeing possi- 
bilities of Manumit as a demonstration school? Not 
yet. 

Individual leaders here and there see the vision, 
but the rank and file of any organization is hard to 
reach and slow to rouse. When labor does take hold, 
however, its grip is a firm one. It will utilize Manu- 
mit as its own experiment station for trying out all 
that is new in modern educational theory, and hand- 
ing on what is most worthwhile to labor’s other edu- 
cational institution, the public school system. If the 
school is the mould which determines the type of 
the children of today, they it is, who as the men and 


women of tomorrow, will set the mould of our gov- ° 


ernment and national life. Free schools in the broad- 
est spiritual sense make free individuals. Free indi- 
viduals offer the possibility of achieving democracy 
in essence as well as in name. 





CHICAGO NEWS 
(Continued From Page 21) 


vitally affects the community that the teacher serves. 
Then, too, the group insurance offered to the women 
members is of unquestioned value, and the prompt 
settlement of recent claims has proven of no small 
advantage. CHARLOTTE SPAULDING. 

ci + % + 

THE CHICAGO MEMBERSHIP CAMPAIGN 

The Joint membership campaign that the Chicago 
Federation of Men Teachers and the Federation of 
Women High School Teachers started in March is 
beginning to show results in the membership applica- 
tions that are coming in steadily. 

Every attempt was made to make the appeal’ as 
direct as possible; a letter was sent by each organi- 
zation to the building representatives urging them 
to speak to non-member teachers personally, and to 






THE AMERICAN TEACHER 27 


give into their hands the folder which the committee 
had prepared. The folder, which was printed in detail 
in the April number of THE AMERICAN TEACHER 
under Chicago Local News carried the record of past 
achievement, the program for present and future ac- 
tion, and an application blank. In addition to the 
folder, a personal letter, signed by the presidents of 
the organizations, inviting affiliation, reached the men 
and women teachers in the junior high schools. 

Many teachers in the senior high schools needed 
only a little urging and a bit of personal attention 
to join; and the response from the junior high schools 
promises a source of strength in the future. Schools 
where federation representatives and members took 
an active part in this drive show a marked increase. 
Schurz High showed a particularly large gain in 
members. To date, over a hundred new names have 
been added to the roll of the two organizations. 

NATALIE CHAPMAN. 
% bos cg 
GROUP INSURANCE 

Reliable low rate insurance is now offered to the 
women high school teachers of Chicago through the 
group insurance plan sponsored by Local No. 3. The 
policy covers disability through illness or accident 
and in addition carries a death benefit. 

The group plan is cheaper than individual insur- 
ance, it allows a ten-year higher age limit and it cov- 
ers all types of illnesses, 

More than one hundred members of the Federa- 
tion of Women High School Teachers have taken 
advantage of group insurance during the past year and 
forty claims totalling over $2,600 have been paid. In 
at least three cases each woman received more from 
her group policy than she did from an individual pol- 
icy which she also carried. 

We recommend the plan to other locals. It not 
only brings new members but it offers an opportunity 
for individual service. Mary E. Ross. 





THE ASHLAND SCHOOL 
(Continued From Page 25) 

tors, President-emeritus David Starr Jordan, on the 
new enterprise, according to Dr. Kirkpatrick, reads 
“I shall watch, with interest the development of 
your People’s College. Some day soon the univer- 
sities will shed two pests, the examination and the 
informing lecture.” While there is a place for exact 
information, the emphasis at Ashland will be to 
educate, that is to lead forth and develop the poten- 
tialities of the individual. Eric H. THOMSEN, 





















































THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


American Federation of Teachers Convention 
Chicago, Illinois, June 25-29, 1928 


AGENDA. 

Chief Topics. 

1. Teacher Contract System. 

(A) Yellow Dog. 

Teacher Load. 

Organization. 

Merit System. 

Company Union. 
. Injunctions. 

Monday, June 25, 10 A. M.:—Executive Council, 
Office of American Federation of Teachers, 506 S. 
Wabash Ave., Room 526. 

Tuesday, June 26, 10 A. M.—Congress Hotel, 
Florentine Room. 

President’s Address. 

Addresses of Welcome: Presidents of Chicago 
Locals 2, 3 and 199; Agnes Nestor, President, W. T. 
U. L.; Mrs. W. A. Roberts, President, League of 
Women Voters and Mr. James Mullenbach, Board 
of Education. 

Address—John H. Walker, President Illinois State 
Federation of Labor. 

Appointment of Convention Committees. 

2 P. M. 

Address—‘‘A Scientific Teachers Retirement Sys- 
tem,” Herman G. Ekern, former Attorney General, 
State of. Wisconsin. 

Address—“An Experiment in Adult Education,” 
Professor John E. Kirkpatrick. 

Committee Meetings. 

Wednesday, June 27, 9:30 A. M., Congress Hotel, 
Florentine Room. F 

Address—A Definition of Democratic Education, 
Robert Morss Lovett, Local 5, University of Chicago, 
Associate Editor, The New Republic. 

Reports of Permanent Committees: 

Education—Chairman, Lucie W. Allen, Vice- 
President, Past President, Local 3. 

Academic Freedom and Tenure—Chairman, Amy 
A. Fox,Vice-President, Past President Local 59. 

Legislation—Chairman, Charles B. Stillman, Vice- 
President, Past President A. F. of T., Past President 
Local 2. 

Pension — Florence Rood, Vice-President, Past 
President A. F. of T. 

2 P. M. 
Address—““Why I Am a Member of the Teachers 


Union,” Dr. John A. Lapp, Local 79, Marquette 
University. 

Address—Educational Values in Workers’ Educa- 
tion, A. J. Muste, Dean of Faculty, Brookwood Col- 
lege. 

Reports of Permanent Committees: 

Professional Improvement—Chairman W. J. Scott, 
Vice-President, Past President Local 89. 

International Relations—Selma M. Borchardt, 
Local 8, Vice-President, Legislative Representative, 
Member Executive Council, World Federation Edu- 
cation Associations. 

Organization—Florence C. Hanson, Local 3, Sec- 
retary-Treasurer, A. F. of T., Past President Local 3. 
7 P. M. 

Banquet—Florentine Room, Congress Hotel. 

Address—‘‘Company Unions and Contracts,” John 
P. Frey, Secretary-Treasurer, Metal Trades Depart- 
ment, American Federation of Labor, representing 
William Green, President American Federation of 
Labor. 

Address—Experiments in Education. To be filled. 

Music and Entertainment. 

Thursday, June 28, 9:30 A. M. 

Experience Meeting—10 minute reports from 
Locals. 

2 P. M. 

Election of Officers. . 

Report of Legislative Representative, Selma M. 
Borchardt. 

Committee Reports. 

5 P. M. 

Visit to WCFL Radio Station. 

Visit to Union Label Stores, Inc. 

Friday, June 29, 9:30 A. M. 

Committee Reports. 

Adjourn 12:30 P. M. 

2 P. M. 
Executive Council, Room 526, 506 S. Wabash Ave. 





“We are proceeding on the theory that the future 
of international relations is very largely in the hands 
of the college students of today and are trying 
cultivate the spirit of good fellowship and give 4 
better understanding on which to build national 
friendships."—F. Lent, President, Elmira College, 
Elmira, N. Y. , 





Fat ANN EIN SSUES 


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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Here’s Something New 
In Vacations! 


During the period from June 18 to September 
A F I I WwW k 2 the New Hotel Sherman, Chicago, will pro- 

u ee vide a weekly schedule of entertainment and 
sight-seeing, offering motor tours in luxurious 


e * 
in Chicago parlor coaches, theatre parties, Lake Michigan 


boat trips, visits to the beaches, golf courses, 
parks, public buildings, museums, and race- 
tracks—all activities, including room and meals 
at Hotel Sherman covered in the initial cost of 
$77.50, exclusive of fare to and from the tour- 
ists home. 


A BRIEF RESUME OF THE PROGRAM 


Breakfast served in the Celtic Grill, luncheons and 
dinners in the famous College Inn. 


There will be an all-day trip on a Great Lake steam- 
ship—trips to Chinatown—Black Belt—Race tracks— 
Fort Sheridan—Great Lakes Naval Training Station— 
Municipal Airport—Tours of 40 miles of Chicago boule- 
vards—public buildings—Stock Yards—Museums — An 
evening at a radio broadcasting station—Evenings at 
the theatre—White City—Afternoons at a Big League 
baseball game—Golf course—Bathing beach—and many 
other features, with, as well, plenty of time to go-as- 
you-please. 


The visitor may pick up the tour on any day of the 
week and follow through up to the same time seven 
days later. 


Hotel Sherman has 1700 rooms, each with bath. 
There is a floor reserved for women. A special hotel 
rate will prevail for those who wish to remain over 
for an additional period. . 


Here is an opportunity to see more of Chicago than 
the average Chicagoan sees in a lifetime. 


A full week of entertainment with hotel accommoda- 
tions for only $77.50. 






































For Complete Information Send Coupon to 
Vacation Tours Department 

















N. E Ww HOTEL SHERMAN, Chicago, 


Vacation Tours Department 


HOTEL SHERMAN | onitrcouas cx. 


. Randolph, Clarke, Lake and La Salle Sts. 








CHICAGO 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 





Local News 








New York Locat No. § 

TEACHERS TERRORIZED BY MEDICAL Doctors 

NEW YORK, April 5.—Women public school 
teachers are terrorized when called before the medical 
board of the Department of Education, according to 
a lengthy report by a committee appointed by the 
Teachers Union. 

The board examines these employes who have been 
ill and orders the time of their return to work. 
Thirty-two thousand teachers are subject to the 
decisions of this board. The report indicates that the 
functions of the board are carried out with harshness 
and brutality. 

“From the evidence in our possession and the state- 
ments made by many reliable principals, heads of 
departments and teachers,” the report states, “the 
committee is warranted in drawing the inference that 
many hundreds have suffered unnecessarily at the 
hands of an official who, in dealing with women 
teachers, has adopted the methods of the army dis- 
ciplinarian which he learned in the army service. 
These teachers, at best fearful of official displeasure, 
experience abject terror when they are forced to 
appear before the medical board in a weakened con- 
dition in early convalesence.” 

The committee states that many. charges against 
this autocracy were made by non-members of the 
union. 





FULTON COUNTY TEACHERS ASSOCIATION 
LOCAL 183 

W. F. Dykes, Fulton High School principal and 
former superintendent of Atlanta public schools, 
was elected president of the Fulton County Teachers 
Association at the first general meeting of the school 
year, held at Fulton High School. 

The other officers, who were re-elected, are Rob- 
ert H. Lamkin, vice president; Miss Lydia Guice, 
secretary, and Mrs. Len H. Cox, financial secretary. 

Boyd Taylor, whom Mr, Dykes succeeds, was 
president of the association for two years, but re- 
signed in order to continue a journalistic career on 
the editorial staff of an Atlanta newspaper, which 
he began prior to entering the teaching profession. 

The association comprises 300 teachers of Fulton 
County, East Point and College Park, and is affiliated 
with the Atlanta Federation of Trades and the 


American Federation of Teachers. East Point anj 
College Park have been added to the county system, 





BuFFaLo, N. Y., Locat No. 39 

The following officers have been elected by Local 
No. 39 for the year of 1928: 

President, Aubrey C. Dayman, 52 Ketchum PI, 

Vice-President, John A. Hislop, 150 Saranac Ave, 

Recording Secretary, Arthur Solomon, 211 Wins. 
low Ave. 

Financial Secretary-Treasurer, Herman P. Eschner, 
82 Duerstien St. 

The School Board has granted permission to the 
organization to meet in the Vocational School Build- 
ings. The meetings are at 6:30, preceded by a dinner 
served by the cafeteria service. 

ARTHUR SOLOMON. 





R. W. EVERETT WILL GIVE POLITICAL 
SCIENCE COURSE 

The adult education lecture courses, which grow 
more and more popular each year, will next Monday 
evening be under the leadership of R. W. Everett, 
local high school teacher. He will be assisted by 
other able leaders not yet announced. Two of the 
subjects for the coming lectures will be “Political 
Science and Economics.” These classes are being held 
every Monday evening at the Sutter Junior High 
school, and anyone is welcome to attend.—Sacre- 
mento News. 





DINNER OF THE SAN FRANCISCO FEDERATION OF 
TEaAcHERS, No. 61, IN HONOR OF 
PRESIDENT MURPHY 

The officers and members of the San Francisco 
Federation of ‘Teachers, No. 61, had the very great 
honor and pleasure of entertaining our President of 
the Board of Education, Mr. Daniel C. Murphy, and 
Mrs. Murphy at a very enjoyable dinner held at the 
Hotel Stewart, on Saturday evening, March 3, 1928. 

About forty members and guests of our organizi- 
tion were present at this dinner—a small, but enthv- 
siastic, family group, eager to show our friendship 
for our new “Educational Chief” and to express © 
him our sincere best wishes in his new position of edv- 
cational leadership. 

Our President, Mr. Paul J. Mohr, acted as chait- 
man of the evening, in his usual gracious and plea 
ant way, introducing the guest of honor and other 
speakers. Mr. Murphy gave us a short but most it- 
spiring talk on the “Ideals of Education and Labor.’ 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 31 


Deputy Superintendent David P. Hardy made a short 
speech, then was excused, in order to hurry home to 
celebrate his tenth wedding anniversary. Other talks 
were made by Mr. E. J. Dupuy, Mr. Peck and Mr. 
Wm. Bonsor. 

The vocal solos rendered by Miss Haseltine of 
Crocker Junior High School were most enjoyable. 
Miss Haseltine possesses a splendid voice, and was 
most generous in her encores, in response to enthusi- 
astic applause. She was accompanied by Miss Alma 
Rother of Polytechnic High School, who is always 
an inspiring and sympathetic accompanist. 

We went away from the dinner, inspired by Mr. 
Murphy’s sincere, straighforward message to us, a 
message which makes us realize anew the significance 
of the slogan of our organization: 

Democracy In Education. 
Education for Democracy. 
MARGUERITE GERTRUDE Roppy, 
San Francisco Classroom Teachers Bulletin. 





PATERSON TEACHERS UNION, Loca. 92 

The School News of Paterson, N. J., is published 
regularly each month by Local 92. The April num- 
ber is a fine twelve-page magazine containing a 
number of excellent educational articles. Your atten- 
tion is called especially to the editorial on The Junior 
High School. 

The Paterson Local and its Board of Editors are 
to be congratulated on the fine appearance and the 
superior material of their periodical. 





PoRTLAND TEACHERS UNION, LocaL 111 

The regular March meeting of the Portland Teach- 
ers Union was very largely attended by members and 
many guests. Alfred Coyle spoke on Condition of 
Labor in Russia. Final arrangements were made for 
a course of six lectures on International Politics by 
three members of Reed College faculty. These lectures 
will be open to the public. 

The interest and outlook are now especially good. 

Laura H. Nortuup, 
Financial Secretary. 





Brooxkwoop, Loca 189 
Nearly $1,500 in money and clothing has been 
sent for the relief of the striking miners as a result 
of appeals made by students of Brookwood Labor 
College to local unions and communities in West- 


chester County. 
“The Price of Coal,” a one-act play originally 


adapted by a group of miners in Sub-District 5, Illi- 
nois, has been given before several audiences with 
gratifying results. 





SEATTLE TEACHERS UNION, LocaL 200 

The High School Teachers Union in the regular 
meeting of March 19 instructed the press committee 
to issue each month, during the school year, a bul- 
letin conveying to the members of the group reports 
of the various activities in which the Union is en- 
gaged, and such other information as may seem 
desirable. 

An excellent four-page bulletin, High School Union 
News, was published in April. It includes a review 
of the March issue of THE AMERICAN TEACHER, 
urging all teachers to read with care this particularly 
important number. 





ANOTHER KIND WORD 


The January AMERICAN TEACHER has just reached 
my hands. Let me congratulate you! It is one of the 
finest numbers I can recall having read. From the 
little “Ornaments” by Bangs and Bailey to the “Cap- 
stone and Keystone” by Lefkowitz and Dewey—it’s 
all good. 

With best wishes for the New Year to you and 
to the A. T. Sincerely yours, 

F, W. ScHAcHT, 


Principal Brenan School, Chicago. 





Orders - Inquiries 


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orders and inquiries for your products 
or services. 


Write for Your FREE Copy 
R. L. POLK & CO., Detroit, Mich. 


Largest City Directory Publishers in the Werld 
Mailing List Compilers—B Statistics 
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32 





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 
EZ 00 


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. 




















JUN. 


Offi 
Oklah«