—E THE sso 3s AMERICAN TEACHER THE ORGAN OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS REFEREN: gtAacKks DO ND) Summum Bonum But over all and above all transcending all other questions in social and material importance is the development of the cultural and spiritual life of the masses of the people. No set policy for the relief of unemployment, for the promotion of social justice or for the expansion of the enjoyment of leisure would be worth while unless it emphasized the impor- tance of intangible human values and sought as a glorious achieve- ment, the promotion and advance- ment of those things which are spiritual and eternal. PRESIDENT WILLIAM GREEN, American Federation of Labor. 22s Wa DEMOCRACY IN EDUCATION EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY STACKS PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, CHICAGO NOVEMBER, 1930 VOL. XV. No. 2 DZAZX ZR TQ IKTIQKIQKTVTILVTILXTINKTINTILQTINTILIIV IT. ee ——_—_———= ee Proceedings of the Fourteenth Convention of the American Federation of Ceachers MEMPHIS, TENN. JUNE 29—JULY 3, 1930 Price 50 Cents Every member should have a copy in order to be fully informed of the progress and program of his organization. Convention addresses are given in full. Much excellent and in- spiring reading will be found in this volume. Ready for distribution October 1. Place your order early. American Federation of Teachers 506 South Wabash Avenue - - - CHICAGO, ILLINOIS HISTORY of the Amvprican Federation of Cearchers THESIS CONTENTS Page High Lights of the Memphis Convention. 1 Value of Cultural Education for Workers. 4 ‘ Prepared for Master’s Degree John P. Frey. at a a i ee ts 6 University of California A \ | in A Workers’ Summer School.... ......... 11 - E. E. Schwarztrauber. J. M. Graybiel Rip Van Winkle in the Public Schocls... 16 Publication Date, November 1 Merrill Bishop. Price 50c Books TELE EP TTC LTT TTL CT ee Te Te 24 Place Your Orders Early Local News 28 —- American Federation of Teachers 506 South Wabash Avenue Chicago, Illinois Ente cept Vol Te it 1 Yet ical ing’ em disc you wat the Tea real is tl beli fare aga elev the for are dow reco Tea unfs a hi £00 q The American Teacher Entered as second class matter Oct. 20, 1926, at the st office at Chicago, Ill., under the Act of March 8, 1879. Ac- ceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Sec. 1103, Act of Feb. 28, 1925, authorized Nov. 8, 1926. Published monthly except July, August and September ——— NOVEMBER, 1930 Two Dollars a Year Volume XV, No. 2 Carlotta Pittman, President of Memphis Teachers Association. So many conventions come to Memphis that it is inclined to call itself the Convention City. Yet when I compare the convention of the Amer- ian Federation of Teachers with other gather- ings I have somewhat the feeling of an old South- em darkey who had listened for some time to a discussion about the war. Finally he asked, “Is you talking about that fight they had cross the water, or is you talking about de war?” To me, the convention of the American Federation of Teachers is the convention because the delegates really believe in democracy and that the school isthe chief agency of democracy. Further they believe that whatever operates against the wel- fare of the teacher reacts inevitably and directly against the child, and conversely that whatever devates the morale and the economic status of the teacher provides a higher type of education for the child. These fundamental facts, which are not recognized by all higher-ups or all lower- downs throughout our school systems, have been recognized always by the American Federation of Teachers. For fourteen years they have labored ufalteringly, courageously and above all with ahigh degree of intelligence for the common good of the teacher and child. Dean Israel H. Noe. The great need today is for a new renaissance for courageous teachers who have knowledge tased upon experience and for freedom from a taucratic or political control ; So God bless you in your work and give you the courage to go on from strength to strength util the purposes of your organization have ten accomplished and our school systems freed from political control and undemocratic domina- tion. High Lights of the Memphis Convention John Dewey. (Message) I appreciate the fine work that you and the other officers of the Federation of Teachers are doing and it would have been a very great pleas- ure to me to express my appreciation publicly and help you in furthering, if I could, the in- terests of the Federation. William Green, President American Fed- eration of Labor. (Message) Please be assured that I am deeply interested in the welfare of the American Federation of Teachers and in the success of your convention. We are glad to have the school-teachers organiza- tion affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and to count your organization as a part of the great economic and educational movement established among the masses of our country. The problems of injunctions restraining working people from exercising their individual and col- lective rights, the problems of company unions, Yellow dog contracts, adequate individual and family income, scientific retirement legislation and civic and community welfare occupying the attention of your organization as well as the other organizations of the American Federation of Labor, call for the best thought and the ex- emplification of the highest courage in proposing and in urging upon the American people a proper and correct solution. I sincerely hope your con- vention will give consideration to all these prob- lems and that you will consider and adopt plans and policies which will provide for the extension and growth of your great organization. Please rely upon the American Federation of Labor to extend to you a full measure of cooperation and all the help possible. Judge Camille Kelley, Judge of the Juvenile Court. I think really the path between the teacher and the mother is rather a hopeless place to travel 2 THE AMERICAN TEACHER and the juvenile court judge sometimes stands right between the two in a way and catches the little fellow that falls off the edge of the preci- pice. I do think in these modern days, shell- shocking times, with traffic and pressure and nerves, emotions and behavior problems and habit formation and all the things that the mod- ern day child faces, the most stalwart, promising, really studied person we have to help us across that, is the teacher sitting in a group such as this, with interests pooled and a prayer in your hearts, with a great understanding for human nature. You are putting your whole life into it and I think the modern day child should be very grateful and that the modern day parent should be very grateful that we have teachers that will come together and study juvenile prob- lems and child life and teaching programs such as you do. Mr. J. Cohen, President Memphis Central Labor Council. I have been with the Memphis teachers’ or- ganization from its birth. When they were born, all of a sudden they came out on a strike. They did not have an organization, it was just a wild strike. They did not know what they were going to do next. They just wanted more money. Since they have organized themselves they do not have to strike because they act and act as a union. Paul J. Aymon, President Tennessee Fed- eration of Labor. I have often thought how well organized the doctors are, and if anybody here does not think they are organized, all you have to do to find out is to go to the legislature with a little bill asking that they write all prescriptions in the American language. I shall be greatly pleased to see the teachers have as strong an organization as the doctors have. A. Lefkowitz (per letter), New York Vice- President, American Federation of Teachers. We failed because of a bi-partisan political combination. We had the people, the data, the argument, they the pull. The bill died in com- mittee. Mrs. Lucie H. Schacht, Chicago Vice-Pregi. dent, American Federation of Teachers. The bulletin of the American Association of University Professors, published May, 1930, has an article on propaganda by public utility cor. porations, one page of which I should like ty read: “It is clear, therefore, that there can bk no objection to propaganda as such, always pro. vided that it be open and above-board. “Tt is the conditions sometimes attached to the propaganda that render it objectionable. If the propaganda is honest, frank and so plain that everyone can recognize its source, there is noth- ing to criticize. On the other hand, where it is full of mistakes, where it becomes difficult or impossible for the public to ascertain its source, where it is so cunningly drawn as to lead to con- clusions that are opposed to the truth, or where it definitely states conclusions that are contro- versial or tentative, then the propaganda becomes dangerous and is rightly to be reprobated.” It is gratifying to find that an independent study of the problem of propaganda of public utilities corporations made by the American As- sociation of University Professors arrives at a conclusion practically identical with the position presented by your Education Committee and adopted by your convention of 1928. Miss Selma Borchardt, Legislative Repre- sentative of American Federation of Teachers. The whole world wants peace—The Washing- ton Conference, Locarno, Kellogg Pact, World Court, London Naval Conference—all are evi- dence that the world wants peace. The world is anxious and hungry for peace. However, we must not mistake the machinery for peace for peace itself. Senator Borah said to me when ! asked him to speak on education and peace, “Teachers must be the ones responsible for the development of peace, for we must have peace from the bottom up, and not from the top down.’ And so with us as teachers rests that responsi- bility of developing peace from the bottom up. W. J. Scott, Atlanta, Vice-President Amer ican Federation of Teachers. One democratic superintendent ventured tht opinion that teacher participation in the construc: tion or revision of curricula will mean more it professional improvement for the teachers than a full course of study in a summer school. E tion tria Mo ven are edu has are dow and seri to j gree rece old of ¢ ally cati and quai mig resi. n of ), has cor- evi- world r, we e for hen | peace, yr the peace own.” onsi- up. \ mer d the struc: re in j than THE AMERICAN TEACHER 3 EXCERPTS FROM ADDRESS OF JUDGE A. B. PITTMAN Convention Banquet Ever since I heard of the American Federa- tion of Teachers I have been hearing about the trials and tribulations of education, poor, old Mother Education. At every one of the con- ventions, the ills and hardships and handicaps are detailed by some speaker. They tell us that education in this country is in a bad way, that it has few friends. They tell us that her teachers are underpaid and overworked, browbeaten, downtrodden, and these speakers are eternally and everlastingly diagnosing the trouble and pre- cribing remedies. I have a remedy which I feek I am at liberty to present. First, I shall diagnose the trouble with Education. I think she has made a very great mistake in her alliance. She has within recent years taken on as her “better half” the dd husband that was discarded by the church. When they were married it was called the “union of church and state.” They quarreled, and fin- aly were divorced. Now comes along Miss Edu- cation and she picks up old man Government and takes him on as her spouse, and they have qarreled ever since. The regular thing has happened to her that might have been expected. He became boss, head of the family, the government, and Educa- tion is waiting on him. He holds the pocketbook, pays the bills, and you her teachers are begging constantly for a little more housekeeping money. What are you going to do with him? Can you handle him? Not unless somebody breathes nto you the spirit of Mrs. Jiggs, and it may be that the American Federation of Labor is the boy that can do it, because he is a fighting man himself. But as long as you cry and plead and tg you will get nowhere. That never won a bout in America. You are married to the gov- ‘mment and you either have got to get a divorce %f you must take on the character of Mrs. Jiggs with the aid of the American Federation of labor and tell him where to head in. The union of Education and Government, in ty opinion, is fundamentally wrong. Education iould be free, and nothing under high heaven ‘an be free that is attached to government. Gov- ernment has taken full possession and charge of education. Recently I tried a court case where a negro was complaining of his wife and this is the charge he lodged against her when he was on the witness stand: “Judge, your Honor, I have been married six times and this the orneriest woman I ever did have.” I said, ‘““What is the matter with her?” “Well,” he said, “the more money I give her, the more she aint got none.” The government must bear the same attitude toward education, because she is everlastingly begging for more money. Besides this financial matter, what else has your boss done to you, Education? . . . I do not know how other state governments treat education and teachers, but I do know some things that Tennessee has done to them. Ten- nessee a few years ago passed a law that no teacher in any classroom in this state, supported by public funds, could make any mention of the monkey tribe. Education thought that was rather a hardship on the children and she protested somewhat and finally defied that law. In his own courts, Government had her prosecuted and he convicted the teacher. The teacher appealed the case to the Supreme Court on the grounds that that law was an interference with the free- dom of speech which was guaranteed by the con- stitution of the state. The court said, “No, that law simply applies to my wife; that applies to public schools only, and you cannot talk about monkeys in those schools at all.” How are you going to get any- where with governments performing that way? Why, it is as unthinkable to me that govern- ment should have anything to do with education as it is that government should try to regulate lovemaking. So my remedy to you, Lady Education, is to divorce the old man and you will then be free. Sue him for divorce on the ground of non-sup- port and cruel and inhuman treatment. That is my advice. But if you still intend to cling to government, then I advise you to hug close to the American Federation of Labor and you will get some considerable assistance in your fights with this person to whom you persist in being married. 4 THE AMERICAN TEACHER The Value of Cultural Education for Workers Address of Mr. John P. Frey at Meeting of Washington Union No. 198, American Federation of Teachers, held at Washington, D. C., May 10th, 1930 To keep abreast of the times and secure con- structive suggestions and advice, Local No. 198 features attendance of guest-speakers at its meet- ings. It is believed that participation in those meetings by veterans in the cause of general edu- cation tends to solve the problems that confront its members and to relieve for them the strain of “Life’s endless toil and endeavor” in the changing world of public school education. At the close of each address, a “round table” discussion follows, and not infrequently these comments indicate practical application of im- proved methods in the routine of class room work. At the meeting of Local No. 198 held May 10th, the guest-speaker was Mr. John P. Frey, an executive officer in the American Federation of Labor, and widely and favorably known for his earnest advocacy of the advancement of labor through education. At Cincinnati and Chicago, Mr. Frey has devoted time to the service in which his sympathies are deeply enlisted and with which he has been particularly identified as a lecturer at the University of Chicago. Taking as his subject “The Value of Cultural Education for Workers,” the speaker disclaimed possession of qualifications drawn from actual experience as a trained professional educator. His graduation had come from the University of Practical Experience, and his diploma indi- cated that strenuous work at his mechanical trade had been his hard but effectual teacher. However, as an incident to his career as a worker, he had sought to engage in self-education as much and as far as his situation allowed, and he was more than willing to offer to others such benefit as might accrue from his endeavors and observations in the educational field. Materialistic Age We Americans are a materialistic people. We live in a materialistic age, and our life, individu- ally and collectively, reflects this phase of our surroundings. The motto of our education has become—“Education is something which equips individuals to be more efficient.” This ideal, the speaker declared, was neither rounded nor complete. rive from his education, when acquired. Proper emphasis on the true advantage coming to him or her should stress the pleasure obtainable from wider interests that take in personal contact with good books, with music and with art in its vari- ous forms. These things are opened up and made features of a life that is broadened by inter- course with matters outside one’s own particular trade and calling. It is at this point—and only here—that we arrive at our destination, namely, true and vital education. Mr. Frey then illustrated his meaning by citing the experience of a musician who had grown familiar with the harmonies that result from the combined work of a symphonic orchestra. Such a musician is no longer a mere performer upon a single instrument; he becomes an appre- ciative sharer in the joy of musical art and all that such appreciation spells for every member of the organization to which he belongs. Wider sympathies mean wider enjoyment; and educa- tion produces this benefit for the progressive worker in all the walks of life. In further illustration of this important point, the speaker affirmed his belief that just as more than mere technical study of a trade in a voca- tional school is necessary to develop a real crafts- man, in like manner practical and earnest work is required to develop the capacity for a wider enjoyment of life. As the material side of life may be over-valued, so the ideal phase may be over-emphasized. Real contact with real prob- lems is required to produce real results and shape character by developing judgment in practical ways. Adult Education for Workers In solving successfully the problems inherent in adult education for workers, it has been found that school curricula do not fit in. The student who has reached the mature age of 40 years does not wish to be bound by set formulas laid down by others—even by his instructors. Years It leaves out of the account the satis- faction and enjoyment that the worker will de. of tow is le able in 2 tors the has pro sucl mer ing | nor satis- Il de- roper ) him from with Vari- . and inter- cular only mely, citing rown from estra. rmer ppre- d all mber Vider Juca- Ssive oint, more voca- afts- work vider life ry be prob- shape ctical erent ound ident years laid ears THE AMERICAN TEACHER 5 of self-guidance have resulted in a degree of assured confidence in his own judgment; and this state of mind is reflected in his attitude toward education—he “wants what he wants when he wants it.” The open door is all he wishes; and when he realizes the avenue leading therefrom is free of access, he will go as far and as fast as his individual tastes and opportuni- ties permit. Sometimes—very frequently, in fact—a con- iderable degree of lost motion ensues. Thus, a worker may feel impelled to become a public speaker, and enthusiastically enters upon a course inelocution. For a time all goes well; but almost invariably the mature student discovers that he is lacking in the cultural background that will en- able him to incubate ideas and to express them ina way that will hold the interest of his audi- tors. Humiliation and discouragement result; but if the student has real stuff in him, he realizes he has presumed too much when he entered upon acareer of public speaking; and back he goes to provide a real foundation per cultural studies sich as acquaintance with the history of com- merce, the principles of law and other broaden- ing branches of learning hold in store for him. Need of Individual Teaching Dwelling forcibly upon this inherent and dis- tinctive phase of modern popular education, Mr. Frey insisted that adult education must succeed or fail as an individual matter; education by dasses drops out of the proposition. It is totally distinct from normal class-room work. Each adult worker-student is a separate unit. He should be—must be—dealt with solely on that tasis. Any other basis is sure to fail. Accordingly, here the function of the teacher assumes a different status. He is transformed from the instructor per se into the character of guide, philosopher and friend. Thenceforth his place in the picture is to be an inspirer of pro- fessive ambitious thought in education; he ex- ists to— ‘Point to brighter worlds, and lead the way.” In brief, Mr. Frey said in conclusion, in adult education for workers the interest of the stu- dent should be aroused. and the instructor’s help should continue so long as that interest is main- , face of its educational opportunities, he adds. tained. To inspire that interest and to maintain it will be the main function of the teacher; and in this relationship the enthusiastic teacher can go far. Our educational system, as at present developed, is lacking in a distinct place for cul- tural studies conducted to accomplish this end. What must be done is to have something in our system of public education which will stimulate the adult who is searching for the cultural, and will guide him but not regulate him. Adults who have missed the opportunity of education in youth should be enabled to know there is something in life that is wider and deeper than the merely utilitarian; and they should be brought to realize this “something” is to be found in that vast fund of knowledge that gives us all so much pleasure and inspiration when we have acquired some slight portion of that fund and made it our own. EDUCATION AD INFINITUM No one has ever accused Chicago of being picayune in the way she goes about things. Her passion is to do it in the biggest way, whether it be a world’s fair, an airplane beacon or a crime problem. Witness the announcement of Mr. Fred Atkins Moore, executive director of the Chicago Adult Education Council, that the city offers a wider range of schooling than can be found anywhere. One might spend a quarter of a millennium at the University of Chicago, says Mr. Moore, and still leave the curriculum uncompleted. A mere 1,000 years of school attendance in Chicago would only skim the sur- If the criterion of learning is bulk, Chicago might claim to be the modern Athens. But active minds will hardly be attracted by the prospect of thousands of years in thousands of classrooms. Many an earnest young student has become confused by the mail-order-catalogue outlines of university bul- letins. A mere four years seems like nothing in the face of Mr. Moore’s computation. But let them take heart. A considerable measure of truth and under- standing can come to one within a lustrum and in places where the air is quiet and the teachers are few. New York Times. The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men around to his opinion twenty years later.—Emerson. Nothing can be loved and hated unless first we have knowledge of it—Leonardo de Vinci. 6 THE AMERICAN e The American Teacher Democracy in Education Education for Democracy Published Monthly, except July, August and September Official Organ THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS OrcaANizep Aprit 15, 1916 Affiliated With the American Federation of Labor Editorial Office: 506 South Wabash Ave., Chicago, Illinois Telephone Harrison 2950 Editors: FLorENcE Curtis HANSON Lucie W. ALLEN At the time sof expleation, a bill will be found i in n the copy. Subscribers are requested to give prompt notice of changes in address. Remittances should be oth | in » postal 8 money- aniee, express order, draft, stamps or check. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, TWO DOLLARS FOR THE YEAR—FOREIGN $2.20—SINGLE COPIES, 25c _ Advertising Rates Made Known | on Application 20° EXECUTIVE COUNCIL President Mary C. Barker, Atlanta No. 89; 685 Myrtle Street, N. E., Atlanta, Georgia. Legislative Representative and Vice-President Secma M. Borcuarpt, Washington No. 8; 1741 Park Road, N. W., Washington, D. C. Vice-Presidents ABRAHAM LeFxkowiTz, New York No. 5; 10414 27th Avenue, East Elmhurst, Corona, New York, N. Y. Henry R. Linvitte, New York No. 5; 70 Fifth Ave., New York, N. Y. A. J. Muste, Brookwood 1s ee Brookwood, Katonah, N CarLotta PittMAN, Memphis No. 52; 131 Clark Place, Memphis, Tenn. FLoreENcE Roop, St. Paul No. 28, 372 St. Peter St., St. Paul, Minnesota. W. B. SatrertHwaite, Local No. 200; 1837 12th Ave., West, Seattle, Washfngton. Lucie H. Scuacut, Chicago No. 3; 6714S. Union Ave., Chicago, Illinois. E. E. Scuhwarztrauser, Portland No. 111; 321 N. Brooks Street, Madison, Wisconsin. W J. Scott, Atlanta No. 89; 212 Kings Highway, Decatur, Georgia. Cartes B. StmtMaAn, Chicago No. 2; 827 Ridge Ave., Evanston, IIl, Secretary-Treasurer FLoreNce Curtis Hanson, Chicago No. 3; 506 South Wabash Ave., Chicago, Illinois. Associate Secretary Lucite W. Aten, Chicago No. 3; 506 South Wabash Ave., Chicago, Illinois. TEACHER “Together, the most inspiring word in the English language. Coming together mean; beginning, keeping together means progress working together means success.’ ‘The Proceedings The Report of the Proceedings of the Four. teenth Annual Convention is ready for distriby. tion. Advance copies are in the hands of each local. A few words on the significance of this publication is perhaps permissible from the Na- tional office. The Convention is the voice of the American Federation of Teachers. At it assemble the rep. resentatives chosen by the locals all over the land to be their spokesmen, to report on local situa- tions and to offer the wisdom gained in local activities for the benefit of other locals and to aid in the solution of problems confronting the National organization. To this meeting are brought reports of com- mittees that have worked throughout the year gathering information on subjects vital to ou schools and our teachers, studying this informa- tion and proposing policies. National officers re- port on the situation as they know it throughout the country. Locals voice their views on matters that seem vital to them. On all these things the spokesmen of the locals deliberate, and out of their deliberations grow our common viewpoint on the policies and program for our organization. The report of this convention should be in the hands of every member of every local in order that all may get the wider view which is one of the chief objects for which we are banded ina nationwide organization. A careful study of the Proceedings also should be made by each local in order that our program may be carried out. Positive instructions for work to be done by the locals are given in many resolutions, whose wisdom was approved by the convention. Lines of work found successful and warnings of dangers discovered are described These suggestions may often be the means of leading locals into new and valuable activities In short we may say the Proceedings should b studied that we may be a unified organization bringing to bear upon educational problems the great power of our unified strength. iS | n the neans THE AMERICAN At Our Best press § Few more significant thoughts have been put ale, Four. stribu- each if this e Na- erican e rep- e land situa- | local and to ng the * com- 2 year [oO Our f orma- ers re- ughout natters igs the out of wpoint zation. in the order one of d ina should rogram ns for 1 many by the ful and cribed. ans of Hivities. yuld be ization ms the | yefore the American Federation of Teachers than the concluding one of our President’s Mes- sage to the Memphis convention. Probably there sre times in the history of every local when it needs to be reminded that its greatest success isto be found in the increase in social efficiency which is apparent in its members. As Miss Barker says we need to scrutinize our programs, our activities, our local life and consider whether we are neglecting to develop in our membership iertness, power, intelligence in the face of edu- cational and community problems, and genuine social efficiency. Failure in that is failure to accomplish our ends even though the local may sem to have considerable achievement to its credit. These achievements will inevitably be coupled with individual growth if our methods are right and the work is accomplished by the co-operation ofa high per cent of the membership. But if there exists in the local a stockholder-director srt of relationship, if the work represents the ativity of only a small portion of the members we are not a genuinely successful organization. We contend for a right to bring the knowledge born of experience to the service of our com- munities in curriculum making and policy form- ing. An important argument for our claim is that only through such participation can a worthy ype of teachers be developed. Whether our communities have recognized the wisdom of this plicy or not, the work of a live local can serve the same end. A program of many sided activities will be of value in many ways. The members of any local present many types of ability and interests. A large number can function in the work if a num- ter of lines are attempted. Also you will build ua fund of information, conclusions and poli- tes which will be of service both to the local and he community. Of great importance too will be the prestige which will come to the organization its work and opinions are felt in many places, ad its services to the community and schools we seen. As Miss Barker says “A program of mere itfense means ultimate defeat” and we must be mthe alert to see that we are ready to take an TEACHER 7 intelligent part in the social and educational movements in our communities. Noblesse Oblige 750,000 teachers in the United States need our message and constructive program as well as our militancy.—Abraham Lefkowitz. Tragically true—but few members of the American Federation of Teachers know it. Did we know it, nothing would seem more important to us than to meet this need. Our obligation would be recognized and assumed if the teacher groups who have learned how to solve their prob- lems and protect themselves through organiza- tion, could feel this need as do those who know conditions of teachers throughout the land. Teachers in California and Indiana who have secured tenure laws only to have school boards evade the law by dismissing all teachers as they arrive at the period of service when the law would protect them! Teachers in Pennsylvania who must pay for their positions in cash or political service! Teachers from whose salary checks a patern- alistic board of education (including a banker or two), took a certain sum each month and de- posited it in savings accounts (at 3 per cent), in order that the teachers might be taught to save! Teachers who must dress, play, and worship according to the dictates of school boards! Are we willing that those who share with us the title of teacher should be treated with such indignity ? Fear A distinguished jurist who, because of his interest in social and educational problems, has become a member of a city school board, in a recent conversation with us, said, “When I became a member of the school board, one of the first things I discovered to my amaze- ment was the sense of fear which pervaded the school system. The teachers are afraid of the principals, the principals are afraid of the super- visors and superintendent, the superintendent is afraid of the Board of Education. Now I don’t want anyone to be afraid of me. I want to serve the schools in a cooperative relationship with all groups. “I believe that the greatest need in the schools today is the elimination of this sense of fear which pervades them. Teacher betterment, school better- ment, society betterment, can come about only x THE AMERICAN through free, frank, unafraid contacts of all with confidence in the sincerity and integrity of each other.” Here we find a school board member voicing one principle of the preamble of the constitution of the American Federation of Teachers, “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 freedom and self-respect.” School board members of this type are wel- comed indeed and it is hoped that they will in- crease in number until there is no other kind and until Mark Twain has been proved entirely wrong in his statement, “God first made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made boards of education.” Is This True for You? In his book on “The Evolution of the Com- mon School,” Professor Reisner of Teachers College, New York city, says: At present the wisdom and planning of profes- sionally trained men and women * * * are brought to bear upon the common school in its every aspect. * * * Security of tenure, more adequate financial reward and just promotion sched- ules are making the occupation of teaching more attractive and are influencing a constantly increasing number of persons to find in teaching not a stop-gap employment but a life profession. Finally, the standard of certification, the facilities for teacher training and the development of in-service oppor- tunities for renewal and growth are steadily improv- ing the quality and professional enthusiasm of the teachers. We have had the impression that the profes- sionally trained class room teacher has very little participation in the conduct of the schools; that teachers’ councils are the exception, not the rule; that teacher tenure laws are in effect in only eleven of the forty-eight states, and in most of these eleven only in selected sections; that the average salary for teachers, including superintendents is $1,275 a year—hardly an adequate financial re- ward; that the merit system, that is just promo- tion schedules, is still in general an unattained ideal; that proper standards of certification are still lacking in very many states; that the facili- ties for teacher training are open to great im- provement; and that the in-service opportunities . TEACHER for renewal and growth are in particular subject to much criticism. We do indeed wish that Professor Reisner’s statement were true of every community. We should like to know if teaching has really been made a profession to such a degree. Will you write us how true this statement js for you and your community? Unemployment Among Teachers In the many discussions regarding unemploy- ment we hear very little about the unemployment of teachers. There is a serious need for a care. ful scientific investigation of the amount of this teacher unemployment, the sections of the United States in which it exists and the causes of such unemployment, the last being especially impor- tant. We are told that there are four thousand pro- fessionally trained teachers without positions in New York city, somewhat fewer in Chicago and many more in the state of California. We are constantly hearing from all parts of the coun- try of properly qualified teachers unable to se- cure schools. This, if true, is a matter of vital importance, the measure of importance depending upon the causes. Among these causes are thought to be, increase in the size of classes, increase in the size of the school unit, methods and administration of the teacher training schools. We can think of nothing more important than scientific research into this problem. Some work has been done, notably by the University of Ohio, but it seems to us to be as yet incomplete. Until the relation of the increase in size of classes to the unemployment situation and the effectiveness of teaching is shown, the research study cat hardly be regarded as adequate. We are strongly of the opinion the teacher unemployment situation and the lack of complete efficiency in the schools in New York city are 4 simple mathematical problem. 4,000 unemployed teachers, 33,000, employed teachers all with classes too large for the best work, 5 pupils from each class equals 165,000 pupils, 40 pupils to 4 class giving employment to 4,125 teachers. In creased revenues for the schools to be sure, but we know of no better way to spend money than on the children of the nation. mploy- byment a care. of this United f such impor- id pro- ions in go and Ve are coun- to se- rtance, on the to be, he size tration t than - work Ohio, Until ses to yeness y can acher nplete are a loyed with from to a THE AMERICAN TEACHER 9 The Nation’s School Costs What are you going to do about it? Again the press of the country is calling atten- tion to the comparative amounts of money spent in the United States for public education, certain luxuries, and various other things, basing its con- dusions on the survey of school costs made by the N. E. A. It seems that, as usual, we Ameri- cans are spending much less for public education than for automobiles, life insurance and “certain luxuries.” The figures given are: Public schools, elementary, secondary and collegiate Life insurance Building construction Passenger automobiles Certain luxuries $2,448,633,561 3,145,584,000 7,065,000,000 1,850,240,000 1,082,790,000 827,740,000 499,660,000 $6,401,650,000 The national income in 1928 is placed at $89- 419,000,000. 2.44 per cent of that sum went for edementary and secondary instruction, and 0.3 per cent for colleges and universities, making a total of 2.74 per cent for public education as a whole. The cost of passenger automobiles is five times the expenditure for public education ; the amount spent on these certain listed luxuries istwo and a half times as great as the amount spent on public schooling. gum Theatres, movies and similar amusements... Jewelry, perfumes and cosmetics Sporting goods, toys, etc These facts are interesting, but not nearly so interesting as what we are going to do about it. Are we, as a nation, going to adopt the pro- gram of the American Federation of Labor, “in- creased revenues to maintain and develop the public schools ?”” Are we to have, as is necessary, a “far more adequate plan for financing public education than that now in effect?” We want more than just our present education; we want a better education; we want betterment all along the line—teacher, school, society. And to secure it we must have, a “far more adequate plan for financing public education than that now in effect.” The problem of school finance is the most im- portant one before the friends of public educa- tion today. How are we going to solve it? The solution of this problem calls for the best heads and hearts of the nation. Let us spend more and let us see that we get our money’s worth. On Guard! Resolution No. 19, adopted by the Memphis Convention, reads in part: Whereas, Political efforts to influence and control the expenditure of school moneys never cease, and Wuereas, Such efforts manifest themselves in such ways as granting of temporary certificates, or perma- nent certificates to unqualified candidates . . be it therefore RESOLVED, That the American Federation of Teachers request all locals to be particularly alert to detect all such efforts at political control . . to inform the public of such attempts and of the necessary evil re- sulting therefrom. It is safe to say that neither the local that introduced the resolution, nor the convention in adopting it, anticipated that so spectacular a proof of the timeliness of the warning would so soon be manifest. The New Republic of Sept. 17th recounts the taking over of the state educational institutions of Mississippi by the Governor of the state to be used as political spoils, in a story so amazing as to give an impression of broad farce or opera bouffe. Three college presidents deposed and three new ones made in two hours, 179 faculty mem- bers dismissed, their places given to political satellites without a semblance of educational qualifications, and heads of departments ordered to inform members of their faculties “that they are all subject to the pleasure of this board and to immediate discharge by the heads of these in- stitutions for any cause whatsoever.” Once more we find that what happens in small in any locality and is discovered by the eyes of watcnful teachers, is apt to prove a prophecy and a warning of what is possibly or very probably going on in many places and in many guises. The shock of the crude, bald desecration of education in Mississippi, of the exhibition of the helplessness of educators to protect themselves, their institutions and their students, is indeed severe. But to those who have been watching and have understood this same struggle of edu- cation to maintain its integrity against the power of organized, economic interests as well as or- ganized political interests in less open and less conspicuous ways, this debacle in Mississippi is less surprising. 10 THE AMERICAN One representative at the Memphis convention told of endless debates in a Russian village on whether it is better when it is worse, or worse when it is better. We think we know the answer. The people of Mississippi will not tolerate this atrocity long, possibly the educational world will be shamed into a declaration of rights and the people of the nation will awaken to the danger in which their educational system stands. Already, the New Republic reports, two-thirds of the first-year enrolments at the State Uni- versity have been withdrawn; the United States Department of Agriculture has notified Governor Bilbo that federal aid to the Mississippi Agricul- tural and Mechanical College has been with- drawn; the American Medical Association and the Association of Southern Colleges and Second- ary Schools are threatening to withdraw recog- nition, and the superintendent of education ad- mits he fears the three schools will not remain on the accredited lists. To the locals of the American Federation of Teachers this situation should be a new challenge to watch for leaks in the dike. The constant as- sertions of our organization of the rights of our schools to freedom from political exploitation, and the rights of teachers to tenure during ef- ficient service are highly important. But the in- telligent watchfulness of our locals in every sec- tion of the land for the particular activity of this destructive force which may be uncovered there, the focusing of public attention on it and the organizing, of all forces that can be marshalled against it—these are indeed services to your com- munity and to your profession. The Challenge of Waste If a one cent postal will save four cents in stamps what is the answer? But that is not all, two more cents for a letter to your local and two more for the secretary’s letter to us. What are we talking about? Why you have moved haven’t you? And you missed your last number of the American Teacher. It came back to us all stamped in red. Moved—no address and a little red hand pointed to our promise, Return Postage Guaranteed. So we paid the postman two cents—and we thought of the many useful thing all those two cents’es could do. TEACHER ENGLISH INTELLECTUAL WORKERS ORGANIZE The strongest professional organization of journalists in the world from the numerical point of view, and one of the most active in the scheme of trade-unionism, is in Great Britain. Known as the National Union of Journalists, it was founded in 1907 and had an active membership in 1928 of 4,800. (There are about 10,000 jour- nalists all told in Great Britain.) This union of British journalists soon turned towards most pronounced trade-union methods, perhaps be- cause side by side with the union there existed an organization, the Institute of Journalists whose methods, very different in character, had not obtained adequate results in the opinion of many journalists. The National Union is af- filiated to the Printing and Kindred Trades Fed- eration, one of those rare instances in which in- tellectual and manual workers of a branch of production are organized together. Organization, co-ordination, co-operation, are the right of every body of men whose aims are worthy and equitable; and must needs be the resource of those who, individually, are unable to persuade their fellow men to recognize the justice of their claims and prin- ciples. If employed within lawful and peaceful limits, it may rightly hope to be a means of educating society in a spirit of fairness and practical brotherhood— Bishop Potter. It is obvious that complete living cannot be achieved unless our education enables us to develop our faculties in such a way as to earn a livelihood. The chief thing after all is to keep alive and to perform the feat with pleasure to ourselves. No use or sense in magnificently educating ourselves for complete living if in the end we have to depend on others for our bread-and-butter, or if we can only earn our bread-and-butter in ways that are repugnant to us! Before it is anything, living is, and ought to be, a business proposition; and no human specimen is more absurd than he who can do every- thing except keep himself by his own exertions.—Arnold Bennett. “Forget not, I pray you, the right of personal free- dom. Self-government is the foundation of all our political and social institutions. Seek not to enforce upon your brother by legislative enactment the virtue that he can possess only by the dictates of his own con- science and the energy of his will.”—John Quincy Adams. ERS n of point heme nown was rship jour- on of most ; be- ‘isted lists, _ had mn of s af- Fed- h in- h of the orthy those ‘ellow prin- imits, ociety od.— lieved ulties thing with cently id we r, OF ; that ng is, uman very- rnold free- | our force virtue . con- uincy THE AMERICAN TEACHER 1] A Workers’ Summer School By E. E. Schwarztrauber It is a far cry from the day when the facili- ties of the university were for the select few in the ranks of the well-born and the rich, to that of the day when those same facilities are made available to the garment worker, the jani- tor, the painter, the waitress—men and women so often classed as unlettered and uncultured. The worker, early in the nineteenth century, asked that the opportunities of an elementary education be given him. The request was granted only after a long struggle. Today, early in the twen- tieth century, he knocks at the doors of the uni- versity for the riches it holds in store for him. Some cynically declare that the knocking is done for him by patronizing intellectuals filled with an urge to “uplift labor.” However that may be, the fact remains that a leaven is at work affecting the university and the worker. Again the cynic points out that the leaven, if there is any, is affecting an almost infinitesimally small percentage of the millions of American workers, that it is hopeless, therefore, to assume that the university or the workers’ schools can ever touch the great body of the American work- ing class. Undoubtedly those who are most in- timately connected with the workers’ education movement in America often ask themselves whether it can ever rise to full stature. The worker as a class has yet to be aroused by the evolutionary processes inherent in the machine age to a desire and then to a demand for what is now only a faltering wish on his part. The vision of those who have and those who have not is still too blurred by America’s past lavish open- handedness in land and resources. Any man, so we are told, can rise to the top if he only has the ambition. Behold the Fords, the Rockfellers, the Carnegies!' What need, then, for workers’ education ? And yet, despite discouragements and failures, the foundations of workers’ education are being established, Brookwood, Commonwealth, Rand, Denver, and a few others represent the perma- nent workers’ schools which have remained after the wave of first enthusiasms in workers’ educa- tion had passed. The Universities of North Carolina and Wisconsin, Barnard College and Bryn Mawr, opening their doors to workers dur- ing the summer, have brought a new type of workers’ school into the field and have promise of proving a powerful supplement to the others which are predominantly winter schools. What do these university summer schools actu- ally attempt? How do they function? Is their work likely to be transitory or permanent? What contributions, if any, can they make to education generally? Perhaps an answer to such questions cannot yet be fairly made. But an appraisal of the activities of one of these schools by one in- timately connected with it for six weeks of the past summer may be helpful toward an answer. The Wisconsin Summer School for Workers in Industry is the outgrowth of an experiment initiated six years ago at the University of Wis- consin. A group of women students of the uni- versity, in conference with a group of Madison factory girls, suggested exchange of places for the duration of the summer session. This sug- gestion proved impracticable so far as the stu- dents were concerned. But it was carried out with regard to the factory girls. They were that summer duly registered at the university and admitted to regular classes in economics, history, literature, and allied subjects. The obvious weak- nesses in this plan resulted in the organization the following year of a school for workers only, and with its own faculty. In the past three years it has been opened to both men and women. The school is an integral part of the university, financed by it so far as administrative and faculty needs are concerned, and linked with the life of the university through a co-ordinating com- mittee made up of Professor John R. Commons of the Department of Economics, Professor Max C. Otto of the Department of Philosophy, and Professor Frederick W. Roe of the Department of English. Through Miss Alice Shoemaker, Executive Secretary of the Summer School, the link between the community and the university is made possible, for it is she who, by correspond- ence and travel, acquaints the wide-spread com- munities of the Middle West of the opportuni- 12 THE AMERICAN ties offered to workers at Madison. And it is she who, during the busy days of the six weeks of summer school, acts as the co-ordinator of faculty, students, and university, a function of inestimable importance to the success of the ex- periment. But why call the school experimental? Is it actually such or is it merely a replica of what is generally accepted as an educational institu- tion? Does the faculty of the school merely follow old worn grooves because it was taught in them and therefore knows them best? Does it approach the needs of textile workers, printers, waitresses, household employees with traditional measuring sticks? Perhaps on superficial ob- servation one might conclude that the school shows all the earmarks of the usual traditional school. The fact is it has some of them, for how could it be otherwise in standardized Amer- ica? The school completed its sixth summer with an enrollment of 62 students, representing 12 states and 33 cities and towns. It boasted a faculty of seven instructors, three in economics, two in English, one in history, and one in phys- ical education plus an assistant in history and a hostess. These instructors met their respec- tive quotas of students in the traditional fashion, came and went at the sound of the bell, shifted or attempted to shift student attention from Eng- lish to economics, to history, or to physical edu- cation as the schedule demanded, assigned read- ings and report topics, in some cases lectured predominantly, in others attempted group dis- cussion based on student background and experi- ence. But the faculty did not quite follow ap- proved fashion in beginning the work of the summer with a segregation of students on the basis of a composite of trade experience, com- munity activity, educational background, and general intelligence, the latter determined by use of tests given on the opening day. So much for the traditional. But there is another picture. Among the thousands of students who swarmed over the campus at Madison this sum- mer the little group of factory boys and girls— 75% of them in the 19 to 26 year age grouping— were a unique unit. A stranger on the campus could not have distinguished them from other students as they trudged up the hill toward the TEACHER library, or as they passed from room to room between class periods. But had the stranger seated himself in the class room, or attended an open forum, or joined in an outdoor picnic, he would have come to the conclusion that here was a most unusual little world living its life apart from and yet linked closely to that greater world, the university. In the first place he would have noted that faculty and student body moved along together in an atmosphere of delightfully friendly informality where teacher addressed student by use of the given name and where, outside of the class room at least, students had no fear of disturbing professional dignity by calling to their teachers, “Jerry,” “Bill,” “Helen,” as occasion required. Then, too, the stranger would have noted the absence of certain pronounced ear- marks of traditional education, namely, written examinations, quiz sections, large classes ner- vously taking down notes in preparation for the evil day of finals. Also he would have noted ; surprising degree of eager participation in class discussion which, by the way, he would have to set down as the predominant method of class procedure And then, if he could have known that searcely any of these eager students had had any high school experience and had come largely with only their distant grade school background, he would have been amazed at the quality of contribution made by individual students out of their rich experience in the world of industry. Nor would his amazement have been less pro- found at hearing the questions propounded for teachers to wrestle with or the arguments hurled ‘back and forth between earnest students over controversial issues. All in all our stranger would have beer compelled to admit that here in this little world the educational ideal, as pic- tured by John Dewey, was being approximated to an unusual degree. The inner working of faculty sessions give further evidence of the fact that the Wisconsin Summer School is a growing thing. The in sistent questions and problems thrusting them- selves forward out'of the experiences in the class room made faculty sessions many and long. To the credit of the faculty, an unusual group com- prising in all cases men and women of wide experience in the educational field and in contacts with the worker, there was no standardized TOoom anger ed an ic, he e was apart vorld, have along endly nt by le of ar of their asion have ear- ritten ner- r the red ¢ class have class 10wn | had rgely und, y of it of stry. pro- | for irled over nger here pic- ated give nsin | in- 1em- slass To om- wide ‘acts ized THE AMERICAN TEACHER 13 answer to any of these questions and problems. The stimulation, through clash of opinion, did however result in one unanimous conclusion, reached at the close of the summer’s work, namely, that traditional methods of education, so far as they had been used during the summer, should be very largely revised. In a brief article such as this it would be impossible to discuss in detail the proposals made for next year’s pro- gram. It is perhaps sufficient to state here that the proposals suggest an attempt to eliminate class room regimentation and the artificial seg- regation of economics, history, and English into the hitherto usual isolated compartments, and to strive toward something more closely approxi- mating tutorial methods of instruction though retaining the advantages of group stimulation. This is a briefly and, no doubt, unsatisfactorily stated summary of the faculty’s proposals for procedure next year. It is recognized that such a program would involve many difficulties in achievement. Nevertheless, it is also recog- nized that the school cannot succeed on tradi- tional lines. A new technique must be developed and an entirely new approach must be made to the workers’ needs. Old formulae are failing even in traditional academic circles. How then can such formulae be expected to succeed with the materials drawn from the mill and factory? The background of these latter is totally unlike that of the comfortable middle and upper class families. Regimented in the factories, shall workers be regimented in the class room as well? The regimentation of the mind would then be inevitably fixed. This the Wisconsin Summer School faculty would above all things avoid. Hence the proposals for drastic changes the com- ing year. The experimental nature of the Wisconsin Summer School for Workers in Industry is of primary importance in any attempt to measure results. Our national worship of efficiency in the industrial world carries over to a demand in the educational realm for tangible results easily set down in statistical tables. But human beings are not so many pounds of steel to be made into so many watch springs. What should We expect, for instance, of a young printer who, possessed of a keen but somewhat undisciplined mind and molded by a variety of experience in as many states, comes at last into ‘the circle of the school’s influence? Or perhaps here comes a young girl from an upstate small town where she has worked in a restaurant, is a member of a girls’ club, reads but little, yet is wide-awake and alert. Or here is one whose whole life has been one long struggle with economic and social handicaps. Or yet again there comes one with an immigrant background and the language handicap incident thereto and perhaps with the further barrier of racial difference. These types can be multiplied many times over. What can the faculty of such a school say at the end of a period of work as to what the results should be? A faculty’s measurements of the in- dividual student may be mere guesses, for no one can measure what takes place in the human mind, at least not at the immediate moment. Some boys and girls who go from our midst may, in their home communities, show delightful re- sponses to community needs. Others may go home disappointingly sterile in their sense of social responsibility. We take pride in our handi- work in the one set of cases and lay our failure in the others to individual stupidity or other causes. But who is to say that the latter judg- ment is just? The educational process, freely applied to all who come within its influence, must bring results of some kind. The only difficulty is that we are yet too unfamiliar with the human mind to see those results. We are also too im- patient to wait for them. Efficiency demands immediate dividends. It is true, however, that there are immediate dividends set down by the teachers in a workers’ school as rich returns to time and energy ex- pended. To indicate what those dividends are is to indicate very largely what the ideals of the school are. A faculty is expected to hold up cer- tain ideals to which they would lead their stu- dents. But the peculiar thing is that in a workers’ school the relationship between faculty and students is so intimate, so democratic that the ideals which evolve are a composite product. Hence, if this is true, the returns also are a com- posite. That is, both students and faculty go from the summer’s activities changed in their inner experience and their outlook on life. This is not a mere guess or a pious wish. It is any- thing but a guess to write out of experience as 14 THE AMERICAN a member of the faculty on the changes wrought in them. As to the students the facts are borne home to one as he mingles with them, reads their criticisms of the courses of study, or when, in days following summen school, he begins to receive their friendly letters of comment on the past school work and their present activities at home. At the last forum meeting the subject for discussion, chosen of course by the students, was, “After summer school, what?” The choice of such a subject is a fitting illustration of the stu- dent sense of responsibility to the school for its contributions and to the community for its needs. In the discussion which followed it was quite evident that class room analysis of community industrial life had turned students toward self- analysis in relation to their respective communi- ties. It would be foolish, of course, to assume or even to expect that the many expressions of hope and faith at that evening forum would re- sult in a general activity of missionary-like zeal in its intensity. Such zeal, unsupported by wis- dom, might in many cases even prove disastrous. But the general tone was one of wholesome de- sire to give expression to an awareness of life’s complex needs. Is this a dividend for a sum- mer’s work? When one considers the colorful variety in religious, economic, social, and political back- grounds brought together in one small group of 62 industrial workers, it was to be expected that there would be many opportunities for friction. It would be interesting to list the students ac- cording to their range of religious beliefs from the one extreme to the other, and to do the same with them in their economic and political points of view, and then to classify them by race and nativity. But merely to hint of the existence of these wide ranges is to indicate the very great value of their presence. Of necessity if the school was not to end in failure the students must learn that most difficult and most vital of all lessons, the need for critical-mindedness and tolerance. In the class room, at student-faculty gatherings, at play, necessity drove home the les- son as any careful observer could note. At the close of the summer session there was one request which came to faculty members quite generally. It was that book lists be prepared TEACHER in economics, history, and literature which the students might take with them for continued study in those new fields opened up to them ip the class room. A letter just arrived today from one student mentions the use he is now making of the library in his community. It is to be ex. pected that the spur to self-improvement under the inspiration of the summer’s experience will lose its force with many, but the school serves a fine purpose when it directs the energies of the worker into the field of the world’s best literature. The deadening monotony of machine tending can be neutralized only by the creative use of leisure time—assuming that there is leisure time to use. The best literature drawn from all fields of human thought ought to be the right of workers to enjoy. The Wisconsin Summer School holds that its duty and privilege is to open this avenue to the worker. If thus a sense of social responsibility, a de- gree of critical-mindedness and tolerance, and an introduction to the beautiful in literature and life are products of the experiment at Madison, certainly they are worth while. But the by-prod- ucts are perhaps equally valuable. Believing as we have every reason to that Barnard, Bryn Mawr, the Southern Summer School, and all the other schools concentrating on workers’ educa- tion are experimental in the same fashion, as Wisconsin, we are justified in the further belief that their spirit, their strivings untrammeled by tradition, may have far-reaching effects apart from their immediate aims. In the first place, no teacher can continue long in a workers’ school without making enormous readjustments in life values. It is true teachers do not ordinarily seek or get sought for workers’ schools unless they are adaptable, growing. But thousands of potentially fine teachers in America stultify in the atmos- phere of tradition simply because of lack of opportunity such as a workers’ school affords. It is reasonable then to hope that teachers who receive this contact in workers’ schools with the realities of industrial life may in time bring new life into the general educational field. And, furthermore, there is reason to believe that the experimentation such as Wisconsin and other schools are carrying out will not pass unnoticed. Who can tell what the future of education m America will be now that these daring ventures ev in th the tinued em in ’ from taking be ex- under e will Serves ies of > best ichine eative eisure m all rht of mmer open a de- , and e and lison, prod- ng as Bryn Il the duca- n, as relief d by apart lace, chool life seek y are tially mos- k of ords. who » the ring And, > the ther iced. n in ures THE AMERICAN TEACHER 15 are being made in strategic centers of all parts of the United States? Finally, it is to the lasting credit of a great yniversity such as Wisconsin that it encourages nd fosters in its midst this unique experiment in workers’ education. The path which it, in empany with its sister institutions, is breaking requires vision to permit established traditions in educational procedure to be scrapped, if nec- essary, to meet new demands. It is a principle of life that those institutions which adapt them- glves to changing condition survive. The ma- chine age has thrust into the foreground an in- dustrial class whose escape from a robot-like exissence depends, among other things, upon the ever-widening function of our higher educational institutions as well as of our elementary schools. Therefore, those institutions which, however falteringly, place their rich facilities at the dis- posal of the least privileged of America’s popula- tion and its most needy part will in turn feel the creative influence of a growing usefulness. THE CHALLENGE OF WORKERS’ EDUCATION By J. L. Kerchen, Director of Workers’ Edu- cation, State Federation of Labor, California “The main reason for teaching, it seems to me, is to open students’ minds to the possibilities of questioning the fundamentals of current think- ing. I want to turn out men who cannot be led tasily but naively by common judgments, but who will subject these judgments to tests based upon the validity of their underlying assump- tions,” says R, F. Hoxie, in ‘Trades Unionism in the United States.’ ” This quotation expresses aptly one of the many purposes of workers’ education. A ques- tioning of the fundamentals of thinking is the greatest service that any education can render. The need for this questioning attitude toward the thinking of the time is made evident when one considers the strides in material progress that man is making. The minute that things become fixed they become to some extent out of date. This is one of the penalties that all pay for liv- ing in a changing world. Nor is this lack of inclination to keep abreast of the march of progress the only cause of con- stvatism. Thinking is very likely to follow the lines of least resistance. It is so much easier to accept the well-worn paths of thinking in politics, economics, religion and manners than to hew out new pathways. No person wholly escapes this process of standardization. Hence our thinking generally lags behind the material progress that the present situation seems to imply. It is this outworn rehearsal of past forms that lays present-day education open to severe criticism. It is here that workers’ education makes its widest departure. Workers’ education springs from hopes, not so much for an increased measure of education (however important that may be), but for an education with a different emphasis. It challenges current educational prac- tice because such practice is largely oblivious of the economic forces that shape labor’s hopes, aims and ideals. Labor is and always has been ruthlessly exposed to the bare, rough and rugged forces that make for social change. Its program always has been determined by exposure to the firing line of conflicting economic interests. Hence the philosophy of labor, owing not to superior wisdom or insight, but to the closeness of economic struggle for existence, takes its color, complexion and very being from the arena in which it must perform whether it likes it or not. A glance at the history of labor in these United States will indicate the truth of the above state- ments. The free public school, land reform, the abolition movement, prison reform, the ten- hour day, the eight-hour day, the five-day week, minimum wage and unemployment relief, indus- trial accident and social insurance, political democracy and industrial democracy are all a part of labor’s progress onward. For this reason and others, will it give a more significant con- tribution to education in the future. —Labor Clarion. Of all human ambitions an open mind eagerly ex- pectant of new discoveries and ready to remould con- victions in the light of added knowledge and dispelled ignorances and misapprehensions, is the noblest, the rarest and the most difficult to achieve—The Human- izing of Knowledge—Robinson. Rome endured as long as there were Romans. Amer- ica will endure as long as we remain American in spirit and in thought—David Starr Jordan. 16 THE AMERICAN TEACHER Rip Van Winkle in the Public Schools By Merrill Bishop, Asst. Director of Education, San Antonio, Texas There are few professions where laymen feel that they are at home; where they feel they know as much as any one who has studied and schooled himself in a particular line. Certainly as far as medicine is concerned no layman would dare to tell a physician what to do in case of sickness. In the law no one who had not studied it would dare to tell a lawyer what to do in the case. In religion there are few who would dare to tell a minister or a priest what to say in a sermon. In all of the professions, except one, laymen are content to abide by what is said by those who are conversant with the particular profession they represent. Except one, and that one is the most universal of all, for each and every one has to pass through it. It is not necessary for all to know the law or medicine or theology. If they did there would not be the need for many of our institutions. But it is necessary for all to be educated. For this reason many believe they know what ought to be done in education, for they have been edu- cated. Yet education as a profession has, in our day, come into its own. Formerly any one could teach, but now only those who have done suf- ficient study to qualify are accepted. Laymen Dictation in Curricula In most localities few laymen realize this. They do not consider that education has changed since they went to school. They think back on the school day and remember what they passed through. They look at the success they have made of life and sentimentally lay it to the stren- uous effort on their part for study. They have built around those halcyon days a sort of mist which they will not permit knowledge of truth to invade. Hence they feel that they are qualified to advise, criticise and suggest to those who have educational positions. Every little prejudice they had in school they bring up. and champion. Every hobby they have acquired they feel at liberty to coerce into the curriculum. In some cases they have gone so far as to suggest to teachers what to teach and how to teach. Each father or mother, keen to the need of his or her own child, demands that his or her child shall receive the particular subject matter that he or she received in school. They are not willing to leave it to those who have studied and whom they have employed through, their representative, the school board. If they cannot succeed in obtaining the desired end by harass- ing and worrying the principal they finally go to a member of the school board and demand from him the things they desire. He does not know any more than the parent but he is to be re- elected sometime so he takes it up with the super- intendent of schools and persuades him, if pos- sible, to grant the request. In a certain public school system, a very in- fluential society woman who had sons attending the public schools was not satisfied with the particular kind of subject matter which was be- ing taught in the English department. It did not meet the requirements of a particular pre- paratory school which she wanted her sons to enter. She complained. Those in charge of the subject did not think that the greatest number would be served by introducing such a course as she suggested. They refused her request. She, however, was not satisfied and appealed to many of the mothers who were members of the Parent-Teachers Association. They took the matter up with the principal and sought from him the desired change. He was adamant and told them that he did not believe that the time had come when public schools were preparatory schools for “college preps.” She then appealed to a member of the board. It happened that this was an election year. He immediately took the matter up with the supervisor in charge and made it plain to him what his duty was. But it happened that this man was trained and had studied the very issue involved. He cited many instances where other systems had thought it best not to follow the proposed plan and. were doing the very thing this system was doing. He showed that there were special schools to which this lady might send her boys and receive the desired end. These schools made a business of doing the very thing she wanted, coaching prpils to enter certain higher schools and colleges. The board member was stumped so he went to the superintendent. Within a few days the supervisor We cle e not udied their annot irass- go to from know e re- uper- y in- iding | the s be- > did pre- is to f the mber urse uest. d to t the the ‘rom and time tory aled this the and But had lany t it vere He hich the ; of pils The the THE AMERICAN TEACHER 17 was summoned and told to make room for one dass who would study the particular subject mat- ter necessary to enter the higher school. Into this class would be sent pupils who were pre- paring to go to preparatory schools. The class gumbered twenty and out of these only three had made arrangements to go to any special prepara- tory school. Here plainly a layman who had not studied the matter inducted her personal aims into a well- organized and thought-out curriculum. These programs of study are not hit and miss prob- lems. Each school system has a well organized program. There can be and should not be any objection to a concerted effort on the part of citizens to get the best for the pupil for this has always been done. It is not, however, for every individual layman to feel that he can run the schools as he sees fit to meet his own selfish gain. These same people would resent any in- terference with the plans which they had thought out in their club or society. They would be the first ones to suggest that the dissatisfied member resign and withdraw. The same privilege is given them to withdraw their children from the public school if the instruction there does not meet the special need. That is why private schools exist. The public school is run to meet the needs of many and it is the masses to whom they cater. When one considers the various elements which go to make up a public school he will recognize the difficulty of meeting the needs of the whole. Each community has a special need, each indi- vidual school may have a special need. These have to be met and met effectively. The public schools have always been distinctive in this, that they do for many and provide for the needs of the many. The private school has always met the special need of those who do not wish to give their children mass education. School Boards School Boards as a rule are made up of pro- fessional and business men. The special function- of a school board is to see that the schools func- tion within the financial budget alloted them. ° It is purely an administrative position. They elect the superintendent and in most cities leave him to administer the schools and wholly hand over to him the educational policies which are to be followed. He generally is a trained man, both in theory and in experience. Most school boards follow the recommendations of the superin- tendent in electing officials and teachers. In some unfortunate instances there have been members who believe that they know as much about cur- riculum making as those appointed for it. Here again the layman is asserting a belief that be- cause he once went to school he knows what should be done. In those systems where they have women members of the board this is very apt to be true. A lady member of the board of education be- came excitedly interested in handwriting. She never took the trouble to look into the matter and to read what students of handwriting had discovered in reference to habit formation. She believed in her day children wrote better formed letters than they do today. She began a crusade. She went to every school and visited. It made no difference as to the time she spent or the hour she went. She demanded to see the note books of the pupils and criticized the teacher for the poor handwriting shown in the books. She never inquired for the data as to the mental abilities of the children; when she found a book that pleased her she showed it to all the children and asked them why they all could not do work like that. Teachers became wary and when they saw her coming immediately hid the poor books and had on hand only the good ones. The teacher is not to be blamed. Her job might hang in the bal- ance. The teacher knew the influence that the lady board member had and so put her best foot forward. This member went into the high school and reported to the board of education that there wasn’t a high school pupil who could write a legible hand. Parent-Teacher Associations took it up and every one who thought that some new positions might be opened was an ardent follower of the lady. Nothing came of it. The superin- tendent explained to the board the program which was being followed and they were satisfied. No one, however, seemed to realize the time that had been wasted, the breaking down of the teach- ing morale, the explanations that had to be made and the general furor that had been created, all because back in some earlier day this lady had been taught to write in a certain way. We all remember those books, blue paper cover with the most beautifully formed letters on the top of the page which we were supposed to copy. Why 18 THE AMERICAN did it not occur to this board member that she through the board of education had already em- ployed a specialist to look after this and if she did not approve of the method employed, why had she endorsed the specialist in electing him? No. She remembered how it used to be done and she based the entire crusade on the remem- brance of her school days. There was a minister who preached an entire sermon on some of the book titles which would be found in the school libraries. He had never been in any of the schools to see and investigate the libraries; he evidently was basing his entire sermon on one title which had been given him by a very ardent Fundamentalist. In his sermon he referred to titles of books which were read by his sisters in the school days of his youth. Child literature to him had not changed nor did he seem to know that the fundamental principle of children’s books, especially those dealing with facts, is to give the truth to the child. One hardly imagines the girl of today getting the same thrill from “Little Women” as her sister of yesterday. The moral-preaching story is not as popular as it was in the Victorian Era. This particular min- ister had not troubled to find out the character of books, he was drawing on the vast store- house of the past and was picturing the little old red school house with the few books it con- tained and the joy he got from reading them. One would like to present him with a copy of Kilpatrick’s “Education for a Changing Civiliza- tion.” This much is true that no one in his congrega- tion would have questioned his right as a spe- cialist in religion. No one would have dared to criticize openly his entire church school on one book to which might be attached some question of advisability. He was supreme in his sphere and, unless the church is paramount to all things, he as a specialist ought to have recognized the authority of a specialist in another field. A great deal of harm was done by that sermon. It caused a doctrinal strife among the teachers. They took sides and the echo of it can be heard today although the sermon was preached some four years ago. A lawyer who became vitally interested in the public schools went over one day to visit the nearest junior school. He called upon the prin-. TEACHER cipal and asked where he might see some histor being taught. He was given a room number anj escorted there by one of the student helpers, Hy had a hobby and this was apparent after he hag been in the room a little while. He asked th teacher if he might ask a question. She replied that he was most welcome to ask anything he wished. Getting up as though he was addressing a jury, with great dignity he asked if there wer any there who could give the names of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He waited and then some boy gave one name. Soon after another name was given. He obtained five jn all. This did not satisfy him so he proceeded to have the class learn the names by heart. He took the entire hour and then of course did not succeed. He told the teacher that he was com- ing back to continue the lesson. He never went back but proceeded around the city telling every one that he met that the children these days were not being taught the fundamentals. Back in the halycon days when he had gone to school he had taken a prize for giving the name of each signer of the Declaration of Independence. Therefore, now in nineteen thirty the same must be done. He did not know that the junior school had a special mission, he did not know that social science includes geography, history and civics. He went into a school of the present and ex- pected to find the identical place he left forty years ago. If he were asked whether he con- ducted his law office as his father did, he would have been keenly insulted. Educational Standards for Today Rip Van Winkle is a good story but it never would be practical. One cannot sleep and expect to find the world the same. This lawyer or lady board member would brook no interference by one who was twenty years behind the time. The law of yesterday has been changed in some re spects, the religion of yesterday has altered somewhat and domestic practice has leaped in bounds. Certainly the standards of all these professions have bettered and no one would like to have them compared with those of forty years ago, for the purpose of going back to those earlier standards. It is true that education as a profession is the baby of the family. The standards have been (Continued on page 32) T 10 ¢ of nati history Der and ers. He he had ced the replied ing he ressing e were signers waited n after five in ceeded t. He lid not S$ com- r went - every S were in the he had signer refore, done. had a social civics. id ex- forty > COn- would never x pect r lady ce by The 1€ re- Itered ed in these d like years those is the been THE AMERICAN TEACHER 19 Freedom of Thought Threatened The American Federation of Teachers wishes call to the attention of all locals that a matter of the utmost importance to the people of our ution, to education and to organized labor, will wme before Congress, probably in December, in , Resolution introduced in the House of Repre- gntatives by Honorable Frank R. Reid of Illinois. This resolution seeks to amend the radio act of 1927 by providing that the Federal Radio Commission shall assign three cleared-channel broadcasting frequencies to the Departments of Agriculture, Labor and Interior respectively and shall issue no licenses to any persons for the use of these frequencies except as directed by the Secretaries of these departments. The secretary of each department shall recommend the licens- ings of the use of the frequency assigned to that department to the station or stations most repre- sentative of the interests of labor, agriculture and education in the United States. This proposal is so clearly important and so reasonable that it should be unthinkable that a fight should be necessary to assure its adoption. That three of the possible ninety channels for broadcasting should be reserved by Congress for the use of the people as a whole, to be set aside for education, instruction, information and in- siration, to be used only under the auspices of these great Federal departments of public wel- fare is so modest a request that the only criticism possible is that the number to be reserved is so small. Mr. Reid explains his introduction of the res- dlution in part as follows: I was impelled to introduce this resolution on account of the arbitrary and biased action of the Federal Radio Commission in denying a cleared channel to the station of organized labor, radio station WCFL, while it has granted six or seven cleared channels to the Radio Trust. Organized Labor Discriminated Against by Radio Commission Organized labor, with some 4,000,000 members and comprising with their families almost a fourth of the entire population of the country, and represent- ing not only its actual membership but the many other millions of men and women who toil, has asked the Federal Radio Commission for just one channel of the 90 available in this country, together with ample power and adequate time of operation. The commission, however, has denied this petition and has granted to WCFL, labor’s station, the right to broadcast on only 1,500 watts power during the daytime only, while it has granted to the Radio Trust six or seven cleared channels, with unlimited time of operation, besides numerous other broadcasting stations with part-time operation. Metropolitan newspapers, which already have a powerful means of communication, but which are nevertheless local institutions, have been given the choicest wave lengths, with ample power and un- limited time of operation. Hundreds of private individuals and corporations, who are seeking solely to make a private commercial profit out of radio, have been granted choice chan- nels, with ample power and time of operation. But the great body of millions of workingmen in the country, represented in the American Federation of Labor, and its affiliated organizations, have been told that it is not “in the public interest, necessity, and convenience” for them to have a voice on the air. Congfess Must Prevent Monopolistic Control of Radio It is extremely important that the Congress shall enact such legislation as will recover this priceless treasure—radio—from monopolistic control by a few corporations which are using it for private profit and gain. Sixty Million Radio Listeners Sixty million radio listeners in the United States are keenly interested in the outcome of this pro- ceeding, and are seriously concerned in all efforts to prevent the air from being monopolized by a few gigantic corporations serving their own selfish ends. Vested Rights in Air Aim of Radio Trust The aim and purpose of the Radio Trust is to secure vested rights in the air, and when it has been successful in its attempts good-by to freedom of the air. It will never be possible, then, to loosen the grip of the monopoly on the radio facilities, and a virtual dictatorship will prevail in the United States in all matters concerning this marvelous new means of communication. Never in the history of the Nation has there been such a bold and brazen attempt to seize control of the means of communication and to dominate public opinion as is now going on in the field of radio broadcasting. Never in our history has an agency of the Federal Government shown such favoritism or such a crass disregard for the interests of the working men and women of the Nation. Is it in the public interest, necessity, and con- venience that all of the 90 channels for radio broad- casting be given to capital and its friends and not 20 THE AMERICAN TEACHER even one channel to the millions who toil? Will the public interest be served by opening all channels of communication to those who employ and deny- ing) any channel of communication to the vast group of the employed? Mr. Reid is clearly justified in his claim that this proposal that the United States Government shall hold clear these three channels in perpetuity for all the people will meet the approval of not only the organized workers but also the farmers and educators of the entire nation. ; Particularly will it be true that the American Federation of Teachers with its record of years of championing freedom of thought, will rec- ognize in the threatening danger of control by a few, of this great avenue to public thought, a menace to our democratic institutions and to the intellectual life of our people. All locals have received a number of copies of Mr. Reid’s speech on the floor of Congress and a copy of the resolutions. Each local should immediately put these in the hands of the candi- dates for Congress from their district, and ask them to state how they will stand on this resolu- tion. It will be of great service to put on record all possible members of this Congress and the next. The stand of the candidates should be communicated as soon as ascertained to your national office. We are confident you will see the importance of this too clearly to fail in this chance for a service of practical patriotism. LABOR’S FREE RADIO AND TELEVISION COURSE “Tell me, how much is your radio course, and —if it’s free—what’s the catch?” is the brusk inquiry a modern-minded stranger addressed to Labor’s only broadcast station, WCFL, Chicago. Quickly flashed the reply: “Believe it or not— and this is Chicago—our course is absolutely free to all who will study.” Evidently the doubter was convinced: he enrolled at once. Little wonder that Organized Labor’s good- will project provokes such inquiries—it is so un- usual. Anything of value, offered without price tag attached, naturally arouses suspicion. How- ever more than 80,000 interested parties have proved to their entire satisfaction that WCFL’s offer is exactly as stated—an excellent home- study course in radio and television absolute) free of cost to all who will study. During the last school year the WCFL Radi and Television course was used as standard tey in more than 400 high schools and by scores oj radio clubs in local unions and other organiza. tions. The youngest student enrolled to date js a lad of eleven while the oldest is a retired phy. sician of 81 years. The average age of the “sty. dent body” is over 25 years. The enrollment oj middle-age mechanics and of professional men is exceptionally large. Launched in a small way less than a year ago, Labor’s good-will project has become so popular that arrangements must be made to care for ; quarter of a million enrollments during the pres. ent season. The course explains thoroughly the theory of radio transmission and supplies practical instruc- tion on radio construction. One lesson on trouble-shooting and servicing tells how to locate and remedy faults in radio receivers. Short- wave reception and television are treated in later lessons. A card addressed to Station WCFL, 623 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago, will bring you the first lesson. The entire course is furnished free asa means of creating good-will for Organized Labor and Labor’s only broadcast station, WCFL. WAGE WOMEN SUFFER BY BACK- WARD IDEAS Wage-working women are victims of ancient ideas, declared Miss Mary Anderson, director United States Women’s Bureau. “If progress in ideas could be made to keep pace with our material progress,” said Miss Anderson, “much of the injustice and discrimine- tion against women workers would disappear as by magic.” The bureau chief pointed out that invention has revolutionized women’s work and that the gradual transformation of women’s unpaid serv ices into paid employment has developed many social and economic problems. “With the resultant new scale of living costs, many men become unable under existing wage standards to meet the family needs,” said Miss Anderson. olutel; Radiv rd text Tes of raniza- date js d phy- e “stu. ent of il men ar’ ago, Opular for a pres- ory of istruc- on on locate Short- n later South 1e first e as a Labor CK- ncient irector ) keep Miss imina- ear as ention at the | serv- many costs, wage | Miss THE AMERICAN LOOKING BACKWARD: BOSTON, 1889 The fiftieth convention of the A. F. of L., at Boston, is held under social and economic con- ditions that differ from when the eighth con- yention was held in the same city in 1889. The A. F. of L., in 1889, had a membership of 200,000. Its purpose was misunderstood and the workers’ right to organize was hotly chal- lenged in every quarter. “Unions interfere with the right of a man to run his own business,” was the popular cry. The unions were then discussing an eight-hour day. The 10 and 11-hour day was the rule and longer hours were not uncommon. Company script and orders on company stores were used for wages in mining and other indus- tries. Safety and sanitation in industry were un- known. Workmen’s compensation was a dream and employes accepted the common law—as- sumed risk, contributory negligence and the fel- low servant theory. These defenses by the em- ployer made it almost impossible to secure dam- ages for injury or loss of life. The various States were beginning to give favorable consideration to the system of secret balloting in popular elections. Adoption of the Australian ballot ended the herding of employes in long lines on election day that they could be more easily watched in casting ballots marked by the employer. Free text books and compulsory education laws were unknown and trade unionists were urging the establishment of Federal and State labor departments to collect statistics and to further mediation and arbitration in industrial disputes. Safety appliances were not discussed. There was no sentiment against convict labor and na- tion-wide wage reductions was the rule in busi- ness depressions, which were considered beyond man’s control. Economists insisted that wages were set by the law of supply and demand and that high wages increased production costs. The unions were pleading for rigid exclusion of Chinese who were flooding the West Coast. Aliens were imported to break strikes. The state militia were used to intimidate strikers and armies of private detectives were assembled with TEACHER 21 the aid of public officials during large industrial disputes. The unions were tolerated, but not accepted. They had no chain of benefits, no newspapers, no salaried officials, no homes for the aged. They met in dingy back rooms and they owned no of- fice buildings. Their theory of non-partisan political action amused a nation gripped by frenzied partisan- ship, that ignored the purpose of government and brazenly declared: “To the victors belong the spoils.” No “practical” man advocated municipal ownership. Public corporations, like railroads, considered they were under no obligations to the people. It was an era of rampant individualism, with workers considered no part of the social organ- ism. Employers were referred to as “good men because they give work to the poor.” Organized labor has led in the struggle to es- tablish other social concepts. Its success is shown by the difference between Boston in 1889 and Boston in 1930. AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR REPRESENTED ON NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION The National Advisory Committee on Educa- tion was appointed by President Hoover to in- vestigate policies pursued by the Federal Gov- ernment and to present recommendations. This committee requested the American Federation of Labor to delegate. a representative to serve on that committee. Matthew Woll, Chairman of the A. F. of L. Committee on Education, was appointed. The steering committee of the Na- tional Advisory Committee holds conferences with various groups especially concerned with education. It requested the Education Com- mittee of the American Federation of Labor to meet with them March 6, 1930. Dr, Henry Linville of the Teachers Union of New York is a member of the A. F. of L. Committee. For ten years I made as desperate a fight against or- ganized labor as was ever made by mortal man. It cost me considerably more than a million dollars to learn that there is no labor so skilled, so intelligent, so faithful as that which is governed by an organization whose officials are well-balanced, level-headed men.— Potter Palmer. 22 THE AMERICAN TEACHER COMPULSORY UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE Following the Labor press of the last few weeks one gets a view of an interesting differ- ence of opinion among thinkers of the Labor Movement on the question of compulsory un- employment insurance. President Green finds it only one step removed from the “dole” and believes it is totally un- acceptable to American Labor. Organized labor’s program said Mr. Green, was es- tablishment of voluntary joint unemployment insurance funds in seasonal industries, division of work instead of wholesale discharges, the shorter work day and work week, and a guaranteed yearly wage. “American labor does not want charity, but a chance to work,” said he. “The best, the real remedy for un- employmentt is employment. The obligation rests upon industry to provide employment for men and women willing to work. The dole system embodies a vicious principle in that it attempts to provide relief by sup- plying the minimum of subsistence. “The American workman resents the idea of being compelled to make a fixed contribution to a fund. In this respect he is different from the European work- man. He is, however, willing to develop a system of voluntary payments worked out by joint agreements with employers. He resents being told what he must do.” That this is not the only view held is evidenced by pronouncements of a number of organizations and leaders. The New York State Federation of Labor at its recent convention declared for un- employment insurance. The Canadian Trades and Labor Congress recently took a similar posi- tion. Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York has accepted principle and President Hoover has advocated the appointment of a commission to study the question. GREEN SAYS BUSINESS CYCLE NOT INEVITABLE Newark, N. J.—(FP)—Assailing the idea that a depression every few years is inevitable, Pres. William Green of the A. F. of L., told the New- ark Kiwanis Club that “in a country like the United States it ought to be possible to solve this problem.” Meanwhile, Green advocated the establishment of reserve funds for labor similar to those maintained for dividends in hard times. The welfare of human beings must be the first con- dition of any industry carried on by Christian men— Dr. John McDowell. “There is, to my mind, no economic failure , terrible in its import as that of a country Possessin a surplus of every necessity of life with numben willing and anxious to work, deprived of those necgy sities. It simply cannot be if our moral and eq. nomic system is to survive.”—Herbert Hoover, CHARITY IS HARMFUL; TO LABOR Is NORMAL 3oston, Oct. 11.—More than $24,000,000 was expende in charity relief in 79 cities during the first six month of the present year, according to the Russell Sag Foundation of New York City. Unemployment wa the cause of a very large portion of this relief. More than 160,000 families, on an average, applied for help each month. Even in the most prosperous three months of 1929 charity organizations expended more than $1- 000,000 a month. “These figures, impressive as they are, can not show the full extent of the human and economic waste re- sulting from unemployment,” says the A. F. of L Executive Council in its annual report. “To give a man charity when he wants work is to teach him dependence and take from him the satisfac- tion of earning his living by constructive activity. It is equally unsound, economically, to give men charity while they are idle, instead of letting them create wealth by their labor. Unemployment is an indictment of our economic control. “No employer would depend on charity to keep his machinery in repair or carry his overhead in dull seasons. And yet thousands actually depend on charity to carry their work force when they are not needed for production.” CANNOT ENDURE George Lansbury, Labor member of the Eng- lish parliament, says: “No civilization, no empire, living as parasites on the labor of others, has endured, or ever can endure. Only by social control and social owner- ship can the social evils and inequalities of life be removed.” Economic slavery is as great an injustice, as cruel, as any political slavery ever established by man; and if, by the combination of vast amounts of wealth, the economic, the political and the social functions of our race are controlled and dominated by those who own the combination, then those who are controlled are in reality, slaves.—Senator George W. Norris. F. by enc ad mis the evl rea rer geae ek BB lure % SSESSiny umben e nece, nd eco. ver, R IS xpended months 11 Sage ent was More or help months 1an $1, >t show aste re- of L. k is to atisfac- ity. It charity create ictment eep his in dull charity needed » Eng- rasites er can ywner- of life ce, as ed by 10unts id the d and ation, eality, THE AMERICAN FAILURE TO ORGANIZE CAUSE OF INSECURITY The theory that people who are competent are hound to succeed in life was hit a severe blow by Dr. John A. Lapp, member of the social sci- ence department of Marquette University in an address before a convention of social workers. “Our system of society is run on the hit-or- miss plan, and it amounts to the survival not, of the fittest, but of the luckiest,” Dr. Lapp said. Economic insecurity is one of the greatest eviis in America, he declared, and the main reason for it is unemployment, and the best remedy is unemployment insurance. Another big problem is the high cost of sick- ness, he pointed out. “Less than half the workers have any ade- quate protection against the terrific expenses of sickness,” he asserted. “There is practically no old-age protection, and a worker struggling to dear himself of debts is always in danger of having his troubles complicated by a wage-garn- ishment. “But back of all this economic insecurity lies the failure of workers to organize to get proper wages to care for their needs.” —Labor. Whatever of public understanding has been built in regard to these iniquities has been built by organized labor. Labor that is not organ- ized has never struck off a single shackle. Un- organized labor cannot be represented anywhere; it cannot protest against anything; it cannot fight for anything; it takes what is handed to it; it is helpless in the face of modern industrial might. The union has led the way. That is why every wage earner belongs in the union and that is why thousands are getting into unions all over the country. Union membership means industrial enfranchisement ! The time is past in the history of the world when ay living man or body of men can be set on a pedestal and decorated with a halo. True, many criticisms may be, like their authors, devoid of good taste, but better al sorts of criticism than no criticism at all. The mov- Mg waters are full of life and health; only in the still Waters is stagnation and death—David Brewer. TEACHER 23 AN ANSWER These days every one is talking the why of the business depression. Do you sometimes want an answer to the people who tell you it is largely due to the high wages union labor demands? Mr. Green to Mr. Legge will help you. “I observe in copy of the address you will deliver at the New York State Grange meeting given to the press in advance for publication statement that much of the ills from which agriculture is suffering is largely due to the advance in labor rates. This statement is neither justifiable nor accurate. For that reason I trust as a matter of fairness and justice to the wage earning class and the farmers of our country you will correct your statement. Since 1914 the cost of wages to employers has changed five-tenths of one per cent only. In 1914 employers in the United States paid 16.8 per cent of the wholesale price of their products to workers in wages. In 1927 they paid 17.3 per cent. Ob- viously your statement that 80 per cent of the whole- sale price of many manufactured articles can be directly traced to somebody’s pay envelope is incor- rect. Since 1919 wages paid workers employed in manufacture have increased 11.4 per cent only while output has increased 46.5 per cent. As 2.9 per cent fewer workers were employed, productivity has in- creased 53.5 per cent. It is apparent wage earners are not responsible for farmers’ troubles. Their wages have not increased in proportion to what they produce. Eighty per cent of the consumers of this country are composed of wage earners and their families. They spend 55 per cent of the nation’s income. They make up very largely the customers to whom farmers look for consumers of their prod- ucts. It would be a calamity if this portion of the consuming market was destroyed through the estab- lishment of low wage rates.” In the United States, over 6,000 women are en- gaged in newspaper work out of a total of above 40,000 journalists. Among 3,235 members of the German Press Association there are 78 women. In Belgium there are scarcely a dozen; in Australia, 85 to 1,850 of men; in Great Britain, 400 among 10,000 journalists; and in Greece only 6 out of 300. Female journalists represent only “an insig- nificant fraction” of the total number engaged in the profession in Brazil, Russia, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria, Italy, Hungary, Ru- mania, Luxemburg, Sweden and Switzerland. 24 THE AMERICAN BOOKS “There is no frigate like a book To bear us lands away.” —Enmily, Dickinson. JOHN DEWEY The Man and His Philosophy Harvard University, desiring to join with the educators of the world in honoring the great philosopher and prophet of education, asked the National Committee to Honor John Dewey for permission to publish the addresses delivered at the celebration of Professor Dewey’s seventieth birthday. Harvard thus honors herself and puts the world in her debt. The book is a notable contribution to educa- tion. As Dewey says “The reorganization of education so that learning takes place in con- nection with the intelligent carrying forward of purposeful activities is slow work.” Hence until every school is an activity school, every medium which helps to spread the ideas of this master thinker in education, every publication which serves to interpret his philosophy to the educators of all lands, is a gift to mankind. To those who have learned from this great teacher of teachers, either in class room or from his written word, this book will be a delightful recapitulation of the world changing principles he has taught them. To those to whom Dewey is only a great name (if there be such) this book may be the means of establishing a contact with the greatest educa- tional philosophy of our day. The thousands who attended this memorable celebration will be grateful that the inspiration of the hour may be to some extent recreated, the enthusiasm relived and the wisdom retasted. Many others who desired but might not share the exhilaration of the actual gathering, many who were there, but in spirit only, will be over- joyed to take this book and sit down with the more favored ones to review John Dewey’s con- tribution to humanity and to pay their tribute by rethinking some of the great thoughts that were there expressed. The plans for honoring Professor Dewey in the celebration and in the publication of the book TEACHER are explained by Dr. Henry R. Linville, Preg. dent of the Teachers Union of New York an Dr. Kilpatrick of Columbia. Dr. Ernest ¢ Moore of the University of California survey; Dewey’s contribution to Educational Theory jy a study which is itself a splendid contribution ty education as well as an inspiration to a restud of the great series of writings of Dewey. _ “No wonder Rousseau called this (The Republi of Plato) the greatest book on education ever writte, It was that until John Dewey wrote his Democrag, and Education.” “We think of Professor Dewey as the most profoun and understanding thinker on education that the work has yet known. The image which has forced itselj upon my mind as day by day I have reread the writing of this protagonist of a life worthy to be lived by ever man is of nothing so much as of another Atlas strug. gling to lift a world. He will lift it.” Dr. Jesse H. Newlon of Teachers College Columbia, writes of Dewey’s Influence in the Schools. To read this address is to know why Dewey believes in the American Federation of Teachers and why the American Federation of Teachers finds in Dewey its prophet and spokes- man. “As long as the teacher, who is after all the only rea educator in the school system, has no definite and authoritative position in shaping the course of study, that is likely to remain an external thing to be ex ternally applied.” “It is folly to suppose that we can carry on the education of the child apart from the education of the teacher.” “The reality of education is found in the personal and face-to-face contact of teacher and child. The condi- tions that underlie and regulate this contact dominate the educational situation.” Isaac L. Kandel, George H. Mead, Herbert Schneider and James R. Angell pay tribute to phases of Dewey’s many sided contribution to philosophy and education. Jane Addams speaks on John Dewey and Social Welfare and James Harvey Robinson on Dewey and _ Libera Thought. Lastly we get the lovable response of the great man whom all had delighted to honor. “As I listened to the discussion last evening, I wa reminded of ‘a story, an episode that happened either many thousand years ago or on another planet, I am not quite sure which, about a man who was somewhat sensitive to the movements of things about him. He had a certain appreciation of what things were passing away and dying and of what things were born and e, Preg. ork ang nest ( SUTVeys 1€Ory in ution ty Testud) y. Republi ” written emocracy Profound he work ed itseli Writings by every aS strug. College, in. the WwW why tion of tion of spokes- nly real ‘ite and f study, be ex: on the | of the nal and - condi- ominate ferbert ute to ion to speaks James Aberal nse of honor. I was either Tam 1ewhat 1. He passing n and THE AMERICAN growing. And on the strength of that response he foretold some of the things that were going to happen in the future. When he was seventy years old the people gave him a birthday party and they gave him edit for bringing to pass the things that he had foreseen might come to pass. He fooled himself somewhat by being told these things, but he didn’t fool himself very much. But he had a very good time and he hoped that everybody else had a good time too.” John Dewey, THE Man AnD His PHILOsopnHy. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. Price, $2.00. Is THIS NOT SOMETHING YOU NEED? Pioneers of the New Civilization is the title of the third and new series of programs for high school assembly and classroom use prepared by Rachel Davis DuBois from her own experi- ence as a teacher at Woodbury, N. J. This 58 page pamphlet published by John C. Winston Company, Philadelphia, for the Women’s Inter- national League has for its aim “the development of tolerant attitudes toward modern movements of social progress” It is divided into nine monthly sections, each composed of four weekly programs, the objectives for which are dearly stated. The September program alone treats of explorers in the geographical or physical world—“Horizontal Pioneers”, as the author calls them—depicted by tableaux of the Phoe- nician trader, Isabella bestowing her jewels on Columbus, “Johnny Appleseed”, and finally Com- mander Byrd and his crusaders. The following months are devoted to a study of pioneers of the “vertical type—lifting men to higher levels” in the home, school, industry, social welfare, race relations, health, prison reform, peace and the peaceful solution of disputes. Several complete playlets are included, as well as sketches of sig- nificant personalities, topics for talks and essays, outlines for individual group development and a wealth of reference material. A revision of the folder containing program material suggested for the use of schools in the celebration of Armistice and other patriotic holi- days, emphasizing world fellowship and peace in place of rivalry and war, has just been completed. This source list of poems, stories, prose readings including Bible selections and the speeches of famous men, plays and pageants, dances, songs, and topics for talks or. essays, was originally TEACHER 25 prepared by a group of teachers several years ago and has had wide distribution. It now appears with the addition of much new material. Series I. The Contribution of Racial Ele- ments to American Life—price 10 cents. Series II. Education in World Mindedness— price 10 cents. Series III. Pioneers of the New Civilization —price 20 cents. Armistice Day Folder—single copies free, 2 cents apiece in quantities. These publications may be obtained from THE WoMEN’s INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE 1924 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, Pa. SUPPRESSION OF OPINION I also believe that the aftermath of war is the worst time to expect advancement in social in- telligence or in political justice. Nevertheless, I am convinced that the issue of personal free- dom now stands in the first rank. Wrong opin- ions should be met only in fair discussion. To put them down by force or terrorism or by spe- cial legislation is a policy more dangerous than any expression of opinion can be. Let crime be served as crime deserves, but let no freedom of utterance be treated as crime. The suppression of opinion, honest or otherwise, in the last eight years has been one of the most humiliating epi- sodes in the history of Britain and America alike. If those with whom I disagree are not free to speak, then I, too, am muzzled. Wendell Phillips said: “The society that is afraid to hear its humblest members without molestation is only fit for chains and slavery.” —Professor David Starr Jordan. THE VISION GLORIOUS Let us say: Blessed is the man who has added one link to the chain of understanding wherewith we are girdling the world. For the world of our vision is no single field of waving grain, every ear like its fellows and blown the same way by the same breeze, but an infinitely diversified landscape seen as an airman would see it, from above—land and sea, city and country, cornland and pasture, orchard and forest, all placed at the service of man, of a humanity united in one great community, of mutual understanding.—Alfred Zimmern. 26 AMERICAN EDUCATORS FORM WORLD MOVEMENT For those teachers and parents who are conscious of the diverse sources of educational progress and who are desirous of being informed of educational research and experiment in all parts of the world, an affiliation has been arranged between the Progres- sive Education Association of America and the New Education Fellowship, an international world-wide organization with headquarters in England. International Services The New Education Fellowship has bureaus and sections in 28 countries and links together all those who, in all countries, are seeking to adapt education to modern life. Every two years an international conference on new education is arranged at which members meet their colleagues from other lands. At Elsinore last year 2,000 teachers from 43 countries attended. The Report of the Conference Towards a New Education is now available. The next confer- ence will be held in August, 1932, probably in the South of France. The Fellowship has also set up international Commissions to study key problems of education that are facing educators in every country. Reports of these Commissions will be available to members, Assistance will be given to teachers who are plan- ning educational tours abroad, who need introductions to educators in other countries, etc. Exchange of teachers and international correspondence between pupils will also be arranged. Membership A joint membership ($6.00 per year) of the New Education Fellowship and of the Progressive Education Association entitles members to the receipt of the two magazines, the New Era (an international monthly, edited by Mrs. Beatrice Ensor, and bringing news of ex- periment and research in all countries) and Progressive Education (a monthly reflecting the growth of pro- gressive education in the States), and to the bulletins and services of the two organizations. World Relationships At this crucial time in the world’s history there is an urgent need for international cooperation in educational and cultural spheres. There is a need for minds that think in world terms if we are to solve the great international problems that confront us. Education must prepare the young for new outlooks. It is to the teacher that we look to foster in the young that international mindedness necessary to the attainment of world peace. The teacher her- self must realize the new viewpoint of unity with the rest of the world and it is to help her that the above affiliation has been arranged. Sample copies of the two magazines and a booklet giving further information will be sent on application to THE ProcressiveE EpucaTIOon ASSOCIATION 10 Jackson Place, Washington, D. C. THE AMERICAN TEACHER THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE Dreams of an international language have resulte/ in many attempts to devise a scientific tongue or: t replace the 3000 different languages now in use through. out the world. Such proposed languages include f;. peranto, Volapuk, etc. However, none of these sug. gested mediums of expression has attained more tha a minority following throughout the world. ‘ The English language is spoken by the people oj Great Britain, including England and most of the colonies, and also, of course, by the people of th United States. Throughout North and South America and in the Orient, English has grown rapidly in recen years as the accepted language of commerce. There have, it is true, been characteristic differences in th so-called British and American languages; these dif. ferences are slight, however, in comparison with the language as a whole. The world-wide popularity of radio and the growing popularity of the talking motion picture are sweeping away the dialectal and provincial differences of Eng- lish speech. English-speaking countries have by far the greatest influence in both radio and “talkies”, s that English is making rapid strides toward becoming a world language. It has been predicted, indeed, that this century may see a universal language established, and that this international language will be English. The English language received its name from Eng- land. That country was christened “Angleland” by the Angles, who were, according to Webster’s New Inter- national Dictionaryy, “a tribe of Germans from the southeast of Schleswig, in Germany, who settled in Britain and gave it the name of England.” The Angles, together with the Saxons (people of Holstein, Ger- many) and Jutes (tribes of Jutland), invaded and con- quered Britain in the 5th century. Old English is therefore known as Anglo-Saxon; it prevailed from the year 450 to about 1150 A. D. Middle English held sway from about 1150 to 1550. Since 1550 the language has been what we now know as Modern English. A THOUGHT OF WALT WHITMAN “This moment yearning and thoughful, sitting alone, It seems to me there are other men in other lands yearning and thoughtful; It seems to me I can look over and behold them in Germany, Italy, France, Spain. Or far, far away in China, or in Russia, or Japan, talking other dialects. And it seems to me if I knew these men, I should become attached to them as I do to men in my own lands, Oh, I know we should be brethren and lovers, I know I should be happy with them.” ’ _aaes:s ws Oe resulte/ > or: & through. lude Fs. ese Sug. ore than cople of of the of the A merica In recent There $ in the ese dif- vith the growing weeping of Eng- by far ies”, 50 ecoming ed, that blished, glish. n Eng- by the ' Inter- om _ the tled in Angles, 1, Ger- id con- lish is om the h held nguage 1. AN iting lands them apai, men THE AMERICAN TEACHERS OF ENGLISH TO MEET The National Council of Teachers of English at the annual Meeting in Cleveland at Thanks- giving time will consider “a curriculum vertically integrated to develop the tastes and powers use- ful in after life.” Sessions will begin on Thanks- giving afternoon with reports of several com- mittees, followed in the evening by three ad- dresses on the appreciation of literature. In conformity with the theme of the conven- tion, the address of the President, Miss Ruth Mary Weeks, of Kansas City, will be on “Edu- cating the Whole Child.” There will be section meetings on oral English, written composition, reading, grammar, adapting to ability, junior col- lege, teachers’ colleges, junior and senior high schools, extra-curriculum activities. The ele- mentary section on Saturday morning offers nine speakers. A significant international aspect of teaching will be furnished by a conference on European methods of teaching composition and literature under the chairmanship of Dr. J. H. Hanford, Western Reserve University. Reports on methods of teaching in Italy, France, and Great Britain will be made by Phyl- lis Robbins of Boston, Russell P. Jameson of Oberlin, J. R. Derby of Iowa State College, and Bruno Rosselli of Vassar. About one hundred persons are scheduled to address the meetings, among them Harry C. Morrison of Chicago; Lucy Wilson of Philadelphia, recently in Chile to study schools ; Lucy Chapman of the Ethical Cul- ture School, New York; B. S. Monroe of Cor- nell; Merrill Bishop of San Antonio; Mabel C. Hermans of Los Angeles; O. B. Sperlin, Uni- versity of Washington. Conditions in Russia will be described at the banquet by Anna Louise Strong of Moscow, who will speak on “Mass Education in Reading,” and Hallie Flanagan of Vassar, “The Educational Theater in Russia.” Practical conditions in the theater will be discussed by Jane Keeler, who directed the winners of the Belasco cup, and Frederic McConnell, Director of the Cleveland Play House. Reading enables us to see with the keenest eyes, to hear with the finest ears, and listen to the sweetest voices of all times—James Russell Lowell. TEACHER 27 WESTERN TEACHERS OF SPEECH The Second Annual Convention of the West- ern Association of Teachers of Speech will be held in San Franciso, Nov. 27-29, at the William Taylor Hotel. The central theme of the convention is a Pro- gram of Speech Education in a Democracy: General Sessions will be held Thursday and Saturday afternoons; divisional sessions for graduate school, college, secondary school and elementary school, Friday afternoon; Sectional conferences on original speaking, oral interpreta- tion, dramatics, speech sciences and speech cor- rection, Friday afternoon; and group meetings on voice science, forensics, oral interpretation, stagecraft, speech correction and the high-school curriculum in speech, Saturday morning. The announced program is exceedingly at- tractive. It covers many phases of this highly important subject, and gives promise of great value. The school I shall be thinking of will be a real, live, civilized school, a school fit to dominate the village or the street in which it is found. It will be a more im- portant building by far than the local bank or the chief local stores. It will have to be much larger than any church, for a church needs only one gathering place for its congregation and the school needs several; it needs a great variety of classrooms and laboratories, a picture gallery, a library, a theater, a museum, and an experi- mental garden. Of course the local cinema theater will be included among its dependencies. It will not only be making the lives of the future, but it will be enter- ing into the lives of the present in a hundred various ways, and its staff will be among the most prosperous and important people in the place—H. G. Wells. There are three social prejudices, which exercise constant pressure on the average man’s thought; color- ing it and making it irrational: they are, first, “my country, race or nationality are better than the other man’s”; second, “my class, social caste, or social habits are better than the other man’s”; and, third, “my moral code, religious outlook, guidebook to heaven, are better than the other man’s."—(The New Age of Faith, by John Langdon-Davies.) WISDOM A Chinese proverb says: “Be not disturbed when you are misunderstood. Be disturbed when you misunderstand.” 28 U.S. ATTORNEY CHARGES NON-UNION TEXTBOOK TRUST CORRUPTS SCHOOL BOARD EMPLOYES New York—(FP)—The American Book Co., non-union text book publishers, paid $200-$225 a month to a Tammany politician for his influence with the New York Board of Education, charges U. S. Atty. Tuttle. The text trust, according to Tuttle, employed Martin J. Healy, Tammany leader, in 1919 when he was a minor employe of the school board and continued its fees to him as he climbed the Tammany ladder. Evidently other politicians connected with the school board were paid equal or higher sums for their in- fluence on behalf of the American Book Co., Tuttle said. Pres. Leon Rouse of Typographical Local 6 told Federated Press that the school book trust has its printing done by contract with low labor cost printing shops, many of them in the south. The international union has been fighting the con- cern several years. According to Pres. Charles P. Howard of the I. T. U., in an interview with Federated Press in October, 1929, the American Book Co. pur- sues the policy of corrupting school board em- ployes in “several states.” In many cases mem- bers of the school board itself are carried on the trust’s payroll in order to give it an inside track in lucrative school book contracts. Revelation of the trust’s corruption in New York was brought to light when U. S. Atty. Tuttle began an investigation of Tammany Ty- coon Healy’s financial accounts in connection with charges that he is an intermediary in handling the money judges pay Tammany Hall for their seats on the bench. He is facing federal action for alleged income tax evasion. Tuttle declares he found the following contract under date of Dec. 1, 1919, among Healy’s papers: “Provided you devote your whole time and energies to our business, giving us the full benefit of your experience and bringing to our support the influence of teachers, school officers and other persons whose acquaintance and friend- ship you now enjoy or may hereafter acquire, devoting all your time faithfully to the discharge of such duties as we may require, we will pay you a salary of $200 per month from and after the first day of December, 1919. We will also THE AMERICAN TEACHER pay all your reasonable and necessary traveling expenses while absent from home in the prosecy. tion of our business. “It is understood that your work primarih will be in the public schools of Greater Ney York, with headquarters at 100 Washington Square, but that you will serve us in such othe ways and in such other places as the exigencie of the business may demand from time to time’ The contract was later increased to $225, month and continued until June, 1928. Decency, security and liberty alike demand that gov. ernment officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct as the citizens. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.—Justice Brandeis. As to law enforcement, the first essential to a suc- cessful operation is to have your instruments clean— San Francisco Chronicle. “PULLS” ARE FACTOR IN BOYS’ EDUCATION “American educators have implicitly credited a sta- tistical falsehood that education pays, regardless of kind, and that the college-trained man, generally, has a better income than others,” Dr. Harold B. Clark of Columbia University told the American Sociological So- ciety at their conference in Washington. While statistics may show that the college-trained man has a better income, said Dr. Clark, the fact that the average college man has wealthier parents and that much of his income superiority comes from inherited securities, or “pull,” is constantly overlooked. In some “ases, asserted Dr. Clark, higher education may result actually in a lower income. It could be statistically shown, Dr. Clark pointed out, that nearly all boys who attend expensive private schools or summer camps have larger incomes in after life than boys who do not, because boys who must make their way in the world seldom go to such places. Ignorance means more than the inability to think straight which is so diligently fostered under our pres- ent ways of education. It means also a want of knowl- edge of the basic facts which people need to think with. —Judge Ben B. Lindsey. Education alone can conduct us to that enjoyment which is at once best in quality and infinite in quantity. —Horace Mann. te, cipa nex foll ~ ak en bee Ae Oe ot wh on int Ca traveling Prosecy. rimaril) er Ney Shingtoy ch other ‘igencie O time,” $225 ; hat Zov- rules of If the ontempt LW unto a suc: clean— a sta- ess of has a irk of al So- rained t that d that erited some result 1 out, hools than their hink yres- owl- vith. nent tity. THE AMERICAN TEACHER Local News | MEMPHIS, LOCAL 52 Memphis started her year with a successful tea, complimentary to the new teachers and prin- pals in the system. A membership drive is the next objective, one hundred per cent increase, the expectation ! At the first regular meeting, October sixth, the following new corps of officers took the reigns: Vivian Poindexter—President. Jennie Allensworth—I1st Vice-President. Genevieve Oakley—2nd Vice-President. Rosalie McClellan—Recording Secretary. Grace Mauzy—Corresponding Secretary. Kate Donelson—Treasurer. To the National, 52 gives Carlotta Pittman, who has been their splendid leader for several years. She will be 52’s National Correspondent. The National is grateful. [Now that we all know 52 better, her column on the local page is going to be one of great interest to people all over the country who jour- neyed down there to be shown how the South can make people happy—even in July.] CHICAGO LOCALS The Teachers’ Unions of Chicago start the year with several major and many minor activi- ties engaging the attention of all. Foremost in importance is our big objective of “putting over” at the November election, the Amendment to the revenue section of our state constitution. To do this in the face of our rigid amendment clause isa task whose difficulty none but Illinoians can understand. A speaker’s bureau has been or- ganized, and all media of publicity and education are being used to explain to the people of the state the necessity for this modernization of our basic law. A banquet is planned for October 25, at which Governor Emmerson will be the guest of honor. President Myers of the Board of Edu- cation, Secretary Olander of the Illinois State Federation of Labor and Superintendent Bogan of the Chicago Public Schools are also on the list of speakers. 29 The Chicago Locals have for long shared the office of the National organization. As the num- bers have increased and the work grown, all have felt the need for more room. October first the Locals moved into a handsome, commodius suite across the hall from the National office. Here it will be possible to carry on the growing volume of our work with greater efficiency and ease. All four Unions were represented at the State Federation of Labor. Mrs. Schacht and Miss Clark of No. 3 were assigned to the Education Committee, Mrs. Schacht serving as Secretary of the Committee. The Unions have been very prominent on the Superintendents Advisory Council, Teachers section, which has been working on a revision of the sick leave rule. The rule which has been submitted to the Rules Committee of the Board of Education is based on the findings of this Committee. All unions are actively backing the fight of the Bakers Union to have union made bread served in all the lunch rooms of the city schools. No. 2 has secured for the widow of one of their members, who was killed in his shop, full compensation under the Workmen’s Compensa- tion Law of Illinois. This is the first time the application of this law to teachers has been recognized. ACCIDENT COMPENSATION FOR TEACHERS Many among the older teachers of Chicago will remember the time, years agé, when there was hung on the walls at school a framed notice to the effect that the Board of Education assumed no responsibility whatever for any accident incurred by a teacher while engaged in his regular work. This condition prevailed for many years even after the State of Illinois had a good compensa- tion law, chiefly through the ignorance of teachers as to their rights and their timidity in pressing claims against the Board of Education. During the past two years the Federation of Men Teachers has presented the cases of a num- ber of its members injured in the line of duty and has been uniformly successful in securing just compensation under the law. In all these cases it has received uniformly fair and courte- 30 ous treatment from the State Industrial Com- mission and the law department of the Board of Education. Two important claims have been settled since school started in September and another one is pending. The most notable case was that growing out of the accidental death of Herbert J. Mc- Ewen, manual training teacher at the Austin High School. Mr. McEwen was injured while operating a planing machine in his shop at the school, June 10, 1930, and on June 14 he passed away at the hospital. The widow, Mrs. Josephine McEwen, was given prompt assistance by the Federation of Men Teachers in filing her claim against the Board of Education. The case came up for a formal hearing on Sept. 4, 1930, before Arbitrator S. J. Simon, of the State Industrial Commission, and Mrs. McEwen was awarded $228.25 for medical and hospital fees and in addition the sum of $3,750.00. Because Mr. McEwen was for many years a faithful member of the Federation of Men Teachers and because this is the first case of compensation for accidental death to be paid by the Board of Education to a public school teacher, all union teachers rejoiced at the successful ter- mination of this case. More recently another of our members, Mr. Henry J. Peters, has received a sum covering all medical charges and compensation amounting to $675.00 for a broken arm suffered last February while teaching in his woodshop at the Harper Junior High School. The acquiescence of the Board of Education in these awards of the Industrial Commission is indicative of a new and better day in the rela- tions between the teachers and the public. A HOPEFUL NEW PLAN Because of its rapid increase in membership, especially in junior high schools, and its difficulty in finding a meeting time to fit all shifts, Local No. 3 has devised a plan of regional conferences of delegates and occasional regional meetings for schools on each of the three sides of the city. The arrangement will meet the needs, in part, of those members who cannot get downtown in time THE AMERICAN TEACHER for the regular meetings on the third Frid, of the month, and will give delegates sufficien time for discussion of their local problems, ay a chance to participate in general plans lo before they are crystallized. During the secon; and third weeks in September, the delegates ; each “region” met with their respective vice. presidents and made plans for future group mee. ings, and for the general meeting of delegatg held at the Woman’s City Club, September 2 to plan the year’s membership campaign. The North Side delegates had tea on Sept. 1 at the Hotel Belden; the South Side represent. tives, on the same day, at the Midway Plaisance and the West Side group, one week later, at the Graemere Hotel. In each group a junior high school delegate is to keep records of meeting and also to keep a check on changes in delegates The responsibilities of delegates were blocked out for those newly elected by the “old timers,” and useful comparisons were made of methods used to arouse interest and to pass on informe tion speedily and accurately. Each group is planning to work out a meeting for members as well as delegates sometime during the semester, and the South Siders are planning a second dele- gate meeting for the eighth of October to dis- cuss ways of furthering the tax amendment in their communities. Material concerning group insurance was eagerly taken for local groups, and information as to the actual awards made to our members was available. Altogether, the spontaneity and earnestness of the delegates was an indication that this geographical device wil make possible increased participation of larger numbers of our membership in definite and con- crete activities aimed to better school conditions. The executive board feels keenly that such active participation through an easy channel is an essential means of combating the inevitable tendency of an over-worked, widely-separated membership to thrust the major responsibility for the direction of the organization onto the shoulders ofa few people. In other words, it is hoped that we are working out a plan which will make our union not only stronger and more efficient, but in actual fact, more democratic. Mary J. Herrick. Hot May Cit tet che d Frid, sufficiey Cems, an ANS lon € secon) gates jy Ve vice Up meet. lelegate nber 2 Sept. If resent aisance, , at the or high 1€€tings legates, blocked imers,” 1ethods forma- OUp is ETS as nester, 1 dele- ‘0 dis- ent in group roups, ade to , the S was 2 will larger | con- tions. such ie] is table rated y for the ls, it hich nore THE AMERICAN TEACHER NEW YORK, LOCAL NO. 5 New York opens the year in a characteristic way. She is too busy to report to headquarters, but the New York press shows her to be attack- ing political exploitation of the schools in her ysual masterful way. Dr. Linville’s letter to Mayor James Walker at a time when this evil is being uncovered in many communities, and doubtless exists in many more, is so devastating ai arraignment, so timely and unfortunately so general in its application, that we reproduce it as the first sortie in Number 5’s offensive. Hon. James J. Walker, Mayor of the City of New York, City Hall, New York. Dear Sir: You are quoted in the press of Saturday, Sep- tember 13, in commenting on the school supplies charges as follows: “I never have stinted the Board of Education on appropriations, but if I thought there was any poli- tics mixed up with the school system and the sup- plies furnished to the children, I would refuse to vote 2 penny for it.” You go on to say that it is the policy of your administration to keep politics out of education, but while admitting that you be- lieve in the theory that Democrats need employment more than Republicans do, you say you would never apply that principle to the great public school pop- uation of this city. This seems to the Teachers Union to be an astonishing statement coming as it does from an alert, intelligent man, one who is the titular leader of his political party in this city. As an organization of teachers conversant with the actual situation we maintain that for many years it has not been possible in the City of New York to select on merit alone a superintendent of schools, a member of the Board of Superintendents, a district superintendent, a di- tector or assistant director of a department or bureau, or a principal of a high school or a training school. With but rare exceptional cases every suc- cessful candidate owes his promotion to the support of one or more powerful politicians. This fact is so well known that ambitious teachers make their calculations accordingly. That men in public life may seriously deny an open and actual condition in the school system is but another indication of the breakdown of civic morality conspicuous now in the courts and in other departments of the city. The issue has been raised, whether school officials have been induced to buy supplies on the suggestion of a politician employed by a publishing firm. This ‘8 an important matter and the Union hopes that the Board of Education will investigate thoroughly. 31 But the question of graft is of passing significance in comparison .with the deep-seated and persistent injury which the system of political preferment and control in the school system is inflicting on the children of New York. Although at this time no one is blaming the school system for the presence on the bench of dishonest or criminal judges, never- theless there is a vital and important connection between a sound type of education and the output of the schools in a competent and honorable-minded citizenry. At the present time no program for the development of such a citizenry would have any chance of success, especially in view of the fact that cynicism prevails to a shocking degree among our young people regarding the significance of the ideals in vacuo talked about by teachers and principals. The alert-minded children know that there is scant strength and independence among their teachers for an open and accurate analysis in civics class of the conduct of a Vitale, an Ewald or even a Healy. Intelligent teachers of history and civics, for example, realize that New York City is a veritable mine of significant material, and believers in the new creative education see in the free and uncen- sored use of this material the very opportunity which training for sound citizenship requires. But few are the teachers who dare to use this material, so inti- mate are the political relationships of school officials with district leaders and others who determine who shall be future superintendents in the school system. The working out of the social kinship of school officials with political leaders is destructive of edu- cation in making the system a source of livelihood for followers. Does the Mayor of the City realize that under the system of merely dividing the jobs among Democrats and Republicans he turns educa- tion into a “racket”? If he does not know it, others have found out that there are more $10,000 jobs in the school system than in any other department of the city government. The discovery has been well- nigh fatal to the development of professional and civic spirit among our public school teachers. The Executive Board of the Teachers Union has authorized this letter to you, and urges further that if the Mayor of the City is deeply interesed in the welfare of the schools, and we believe he is, he may aid them most by lending his influence to the con- demnation of the political control now existing in the school system, and to the development of a non-political, intelligent and statesmanlike leadership of a kind that does not exist in New York at the present time. Not until a real, instead of a farcical system of promotion on merit prevails will the school system of New York City become a signifi- cant social power in the life of its millions of citizens. Very truly yours, HENRY R. LINVILLE, President of New York Teachers Union. 32 | News of Our Members PROFESSOR JOHN DEWEY RETIRES FROM ACTIVE TEACHING At the close of the academic year, June 20, Professor John Dewey, America’s foremost phil- osopher and educator, retired from the faculty of Columbia University of which he has been a member for twenty-five years. He will now de- vote himself to his writings on philosophy and social and political problems. Professor Dewey sailed for Europe the last of June to attend the Philosophical Convention. We had hoped to have Professor Dewey with us at the Convention in Memphis, but his Euro- pean booking conflicted with the date of the Convention. In his letter of regret he sent us greetings and said, “The future of the American Federation of Teachers is very dear to me.” Mr. and Mrs. Abraham Lefkowitz spent the summer in Europe as the guests of grateful fel- low-teachers, who took this delightful way of ex- pressing their appreciation for Mr. Lefkowitz’s unselfish and highly efficient services in their interests. Miss Beulah Berolzheimer, former president of Local No. 3, was appointed dean of the School of Letters and Arts of Crane Junior Col- lege. The reorganization of this college of the City of Chicago is considered of great impor- tance, and the choice of Miss Berolzheimer as the dean of the largest division of the college is an honor, but one which teachers and officials of Chicago Schools’ know is richly merited. Mr. E. E. Schwarztrauber of Portland, Local 111, was a member of the faculty of the Sum- mer School for Workers at the University of Wisconsin. During the current school year he will do advanced work in Economics in the Uni- versity. Charles B. Stillman of Chicago No. 2 was a fraternal delegate to the convention of the ‘Wis- consin Federation of Labor, representing the American Federation of Teachers. He delivered an address which received favorable comment in the published proceedings. THE AMERICAN TEACHER Mrs. Lucie H. Schacht, Chicago No. 3, rep resented her local at the convention of the [jj nois Federation of Labor. She served the cop. vention as secretary of the Education Committe ——_ Rip Van Winkle in the Public Schools (Continued from page 18) changed, but few people recognize this to be, fact, and the reason for this seems to be the olf adage that what is everybody’s business is no. body’s business. The untiring effort on the par of teachers to obtain an education fitting for them, the new and modern investigations and sta- tistics, ought to lift this profession to the same plane as others, and those specializing in this pro- fession should be given credit for the things they know. Well paid school teachers are the least ex- pensive. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE ENTITLED TO 1. A voice and a vote in the management of you school ; Independence of thot, freedom of expression and e- ercise of initiative; Working conditions that are sanitary, cheerful and inspiring. A promotion in rank based on merit only; A salary commensurate with the dignity and im portance of your office? IF SO JOIN THE HOST OF READERS OF The American Teacher Published by teachers for principle; net for profit THE AMERICAN TEACHER is the only teachers magazine whose sole excuse for existence is the desire to improve the working conditions of the teachers, and to raise teaching to the dignity of a profession. SP } Pf SUBSCRIPTION PRICE TWO DOLLARS FOR ONE YEAR Send In Your Subscription Today THE AMERICAN TEACHER $06 South Wabash Ave. Chicago, IL EE ’ @f || THE AMERICAN LABOR the Ij. he com YEAR BOOK nmittee a for 1930 Ools is now ready to be. the of || Covers Every Aspect of Working is nf || Conditions, and the Labor Move- he pat} || ment in America and Abroad. e b The year 1929 will undoubtedly e sam f || $2 down in labor history as one of io nab the most significant since the end of gs the the world war. set! RAND BOOK STORE 7 East 15th Street NEW YORK, N. Y. Back Numbers Price Mineral Baths will tone up your entire system. Physicians are strong in the recommendation of Saline-Sulphur Salts for rheumatism, nervousness, neuritis, lack of vitality, arthritis and other ailments. New Modern Hotel Overlooking Lake Michigan ST. 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ARE TEACHERS WORKERS? Progressive Teachers Are Reading Labor’s News The News Magazine of the Labor Movement to find out. Once a week, in 8 small pages, LABOR’S NEWS brings you a comprehensive survey of the American labor scene, with high- lights on working class movements of Europe, Asia, and Australia. Written by 60 Federated Press correspond- ents all over the world, and edited by trained FP staff men, LABOR’S NEWS fairly seethes with human interest. Published by the largest labor newsgathering agency in the Western hemisphere, authorities agree that it stands alone as a reliable source of labor facts. Send for Your Free Sample Copy Today! The Federated Press, 112 E. 19th St., New York, N. Y. i= Please send me a free copy of LABOR’S NEWS. C] Enter my _ subscription to LABOR'S NEWS for one year. I enclose $2. CORR TT REGED 0060066060 ccccsasnasescsccccssesecsess ee Oe os i cinenedes séseeseecdonneee American Federation of Teachers 506 South Wabash Avenue CHICAGO, ILL. ae The American Federation of Teachers desires to estab- lish an intimate contact and an effective co-operation be- tween 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 sub- scription price is $2.00 per year, 25 cents per copy. crease sae