marys CROMER'S ROOM 





je APR 28 193 J Shack. 
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“The ‘AMERICAN 
‘TEACHER 


DEMOCRACY IN EDUCATION EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY 


PACIFIC COAST 
NUMBER 


The Challenge Supreme 


If all teachers were within the teachers’ unions 
and if they were not merely somewhat nominal 
members who try to keep their dues paid, but 
active working members who come in contact 
with the labor unions, with the working men of 
the country and their problems, I am sure that 
more would be dene to reform and improve our 
education, and to put into execution the ideas and 
ideals written about and talked about by pro- 
gressive educators and reformers than by any 
other one causc whatsoever, if not more than by 
all other causes together. 








—John Dewey. 


Organ of the American Federation of Teachers 


MAY, 1931 VOL. XV. No. 8 
EF 20 







































































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CONTENTS " know 
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Se rer 1 po 
San Francisco Salary Survey........... = granit 
How Our Dollar Was Spent............-. 3 Th 
The Voorhis School for Boys............. 4 schoo 


Editorials — aweus pee ee eens nee e nee een aes ; | CHICAGOS NEWEST prese' 


Teacher Supply in Oregon............... 




















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CR SNEED sc ccenvssccccceesecens 10 | DOWNTOWN HOTEL Hi i 
OS ee ere 1! i A, I : 
San Francisco Administrators’ Federation. 12 BS progr 
Education in the California Legislature... 13 of seated 
Teacher Participation in Curriculum Mak- : Nh At 
BO Oh OES gg ono c ce se seennncss% 14 é Wy a hii 
California Child Labor Laws and Voca- nit ER nye ; ug 
EE Sear eer 16 i OOM es lorces 
Why Workers’ Education................. 17 a Feder 
sc inichieewate bandas 18 Be sitions 
Brookwood Conference of Teachers in oe = 
Cy SD cvencnceriaceaveaen 20 oe ‘late 
ee Oe -  ckecvencseeincswsds ame sal superi 
Teacher Credit and Loans................ 23 t a law 
Books ......- ees Dee ereee tee eeeeneee ees 26 Can BOULeUAeG states. 
Educational Tendencies in Current Maga- T 
ee cen cua aabemobebew his 28 en 
NE ii ln cndecdyencessvassedes 30 attack: 
Convention Program ............scccesss ¢ 32 advers 
T , \/ — ? i le TT . 
News of Our Members.................. 32 | ing stg 





























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The American Teacher 


gntered as second class matter Oct. 27, 1926, at the post office at Chicago, Ill, under the Act of March 3, 1879. 


tance for mailing at special rate of postage 
Accep’inc$26. Published monthiy except. July, A 


XV, No. 8 


— 


Volume 


MAY, 1931 


provided for in Sec. 1103, Act of Feb. 28, 1925, authorized 
ugust and September by American Federation of Teachers, 
506 South abash Avenue, Chicago, Ill. 


Two Dollars a Year 


Retrospection 
1919 - 1931 
By Susie Corpstein and E. J. Dupuy, Local 61 


The history of Local 61 during its twelve years 
is that of determination, optimism, steadfastness, 
loyalty to a principle, unrelenting pushing for- 
ward. When established in 1919 by a handful, 
the required seven, all men, four of whom are 
still in service, it had to face an odd set-up, a 
dual school administration in the city, an elected 
superintendent, an appointed (political) board. 

The test soon came, when the local, an infant 
having barely cut its teeth, was ordered crushed 
by the board of education. Possible bludgeoning 
by the authorities was stopped through the an- 
nouncement that the local would fight under con- 
stitutional rights. 

Then came a subtle campaign of slander, fear 
and petty persecution. The members who were 
known (only a few) were marked for attacks, 
nevertheless the Federation stood as solid as 
granite. 

There started a campaign for a change in 
shool administration, a new amendment was 
presented to the people. In its vigorous cam- 
paign, the Federation struck regardless of rank, 
influence or position. A yictory was won for 
progressive education, and a labor man was 
ated on the new board of education. 

At the same time teacher tenure was being 
fought for at Legislature and Local 61 joined 
forces with the other state units of the American 
Federation of Teachers, In spite of many oppo- 
sitions, disturbing snubs, aloofness of the leading 
‘late teeacher organization, of boards and of 
‘uperintendents, the 1921 tenure became a fact, 
2 law, placing California among progressive 
Slates, 

Tenure was roundly criticised, but withstood 
attacks, when in 1927 through fear of a possible 
adverse decision in the Supreme Court, the lead- 
ing State educational organization fo.ced through 
anew law on tenure, more general in its scope. 


A split almost occurred in the ranks of the 
Federations, but Local 61 stood loyal to the 1921 
law and. denounced the 1927 bill as dangerous. 

Now in 1931, the storm has broken out with 
fury, and Local 61 is again on the firing line 
helping to save tenure, which is very seriously 
threatened. 

The defeat of tenure in California would be 
a setback for tenure throughout the States. 

Locally, in San Francisco, No. 61 has fought 
for an advance in teacher salaries whenever it 
was deemed just and fair to do so. In 1925 the 
president of 61, Mr. Paul J. Mohr, was selected 
by all groups as chairman of the salary campaign 
committee and, due to the affiliation with labor, 
the cause was won. 

In 1928, a renewed attempt was made for a 
systematic study and survey of the salary ques- 
tion in San Francisco. Local 61 again appeared 
actively supporting the Consolidated Salary Com- 
mitte composed of delegates of every local teach- 
ing organization. The Board of Educat'on de- 
cided to parallel the teacher’s work and set up 
a committee of its own with a labor man as 
chairman. Good work was done, but the board 
of education reviewed the entire survey and re- 
arranged the schedule, striking at those who were 
disliked and favoring a few, not satisfying the 
mass, 

For years the city board of education had been 
withholding illegally a part of the teachers’ sal- 
aries. Due to a peculiar recommendation of the 
superintendent of schools to the board, a move- 
ment started in the ranks of the teachers and 
after over four years of a legal contest a Su- 
preme Court decision paved the way for recovery 
of hundreds of thousands of dollars. In this 
instance again the Federation of Teachers en- 
tered the struggle at the start as a champion of 
teacher rights. 











2 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Nevertheless the Board of Education has not 
had a more staunch supporter when politicians 
strove to endanger the protective provisions of 
the city charter. Likewise Local 61 never ceased 
to support the Superintendent loyally, altho dif- 
fering with him at times on questions of law or 
policy. 

During the first eleven years there was only 
one president, P. J. Mohr. He stood at the 
helm during all the stormy days and never 
flinched under the attacks from without. Al- 
though he now isa valued member of Local 215, 
the administrators group, he will always be con- 
sidered as a part of 61. 

As an official and as treasurer, Con A, Davis 
achieved a splendid record, a worthy companion 
of his president. 


Miss Susie Corpstein, pioneered also as a f. 
nancial secretary, and her successor, Miss Mar. 
cella Glazier, is equally loyal and faithful. 

An increase in membership in the last year has 
given an increase in the number of delegates ty 
the Labor Council. 

However, this is only the beginning of th 
great struggle, the awakening of the classroom 
teacher, and the protection of education from 
control by interests bent on stamping out inde. 
pendence and originality. 

Local 61 has been known as the “fighting” 
local, because it has stood courageously for twely 
years in the breach, and hopes to remain there as 
long as there will be seven, or seventy times 
seven, who are willing to protect child and teach 
er against political domination. 


The San Francisco Teachers’ Salary Survey 
Local 61 


Three years ago the teachers of San Francisco 
determined to make a thorough study of the 
salary situation here and elsewhere to ascertain 
whether increases were justifiable and possible. 
To this end a committee of thirty-four teachers 
was chosen, representing twelve local teacher or- 
ganizations. That committee, organized in April, 
1928, and still active, worked harmoniously as a 
committee and with the Citizen’s Committee ap- 
pointed by the Board of Education, maintained 
a high degree of cooperation among the teachers, 
and conducted a survey (1) costing almost ten 
thousand dollars. The final result was the 
adoption by the Board of Education in 1930 of 
a new Salary schedule establishing new maxima 
ranging from three hundred dollars to eight 
hundred dollars over the schedule. 

It is not the purpose of this article to trace 
the history of the work of the Consolidated Sal- 
ary Committee. We are interested primarily in 
the part played by Labor in the whole work. 

Of the thirty-four members of the Teachers’ 
Committee, eighteen were members of the 
Teachers’ Federation. The full significance of 
this is not apparent until one realizes that the 
membership of the Federation was approximately 
seven per cent of the total teaching force. Yet 


1Teachers Salaries in San Francisco; A Survey 
and Professional Salary Scales. F. W. Hart and L. 
H. Peterson. 


this seven per cent furnished over fifty per cent 
of this, perhaps most important teachers’ com 
mittee in this city for years. 

The Board of Education appointed a Citizen's 
Committee to review any data submitted by the 
teachers and render a report with recommenda 
tions as to a new Salary schedule. The chairman 
of that committee is a recognized Labor leader, 
Mr. James W. Mullen. The statistician choses 
as executive secretary by the Citizen’s Commit 
tee, Mr. H. P. Melnikow, is a former member 
of Teachers’ Federation Local 61. 

The entire work was actively supported by or- 
ganized labor from the inception of the move 
ment until the final adoptior of the schedule. 
The teachers of San Francisco may well b 
thankful for Locals 61 and 215 and their cot 
nection with Labor, more thankful than they wil 
ever know or be. 





Without the union all labor would still be the victim 
of the long day, the insufficient wage and kindred 
injustices. Under the present organization of society, 
labor’s only safeguard against a retrogression to former 
inhuman standards is the union—Commission on Soci 
Justice, Central Conference of American Rabbis. 





I rejoice at every effort workingmen make to 
ganize. I hail the labor movement. It is my only hor 
for democracy. Organize, and stand together! Let 
the nation hear a united demand from the labormmg 
voice.—Wendell Phillips. 








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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 3 
HOW OUR DOLLAR WAS SPENT 


C. A. Davis, San Francisco Local 61 


CALIFORNIA STATE FEDERATION OF LABOR 


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ENTERTAINMENT 
PRINTING 
LEGISLATION 


NATIONAL PER CAPITA 


MEMBERSHIP CAMPAIGN 


“eee ee OO OOOH ee een ewe ee een eeeee 


ET A ET Ea I EPS <> | 


The treasurer of the San Francisco Federation 
of Teachers, Local 61, at the suggestion of the 
lcal’s secretary, Mr. G. M. Klingner, took the 
figures of the expenditures for 1930 to show 
how a member’s dollar was spent. He shows 
approximately on a percentage basis in the ac- 
companying graph how the dollar was divided. 
The experience of this local in a California city 
may be of interest to members of other locals 
throughout the country, especially those who have 
0 do with the finances of their locals or who 
are contemplating the making of a budget. 

The writer realizes that the channels through 
which the money goes on the Pacific Coast may 
differ from those of other sections, and he hopes 
that the officers of other locals will publish their 
lifferences, 

Our affiliation with the California State Fed- 
tration of Labor costs the modest sum of one 
‘ent per member per month. It is quite needless 
‘0 say that we get our money’s worth in the 
‘upport that a great state organization can give 
aly educational movement that we recommend. 

In contributing one per cent to the Trade 
Union Promotion League we are reciprocating 
lor support that its members give us. 


The clerical expense is practically for materials 
such as stationery and stamps only. Our officers 
and members perform their duties gratis. 

Three per cent of our 1930 expenditures went 
to floral pieces. There were cases of sickness 
and death in which our sympathy was expressed 
with flowers. Flowers were also used as table 
decorations at our banquets. 


Guests were entertained during the year cost: 
ing four per cent. 

Our printing bill took five cents out of the 
dollar, while the expense of our representative 
to the legislature amounted to six per cent. 

During part of the year we had two delegates 
at the San Francisco Labor Council and later 
three. Those delegates’ fees amounted to twelve 
per cent. 

Thirty per cent of our expenditures for the 
year went in the form of per capita to the Amer- 
ican Federation of Teachers. 

The largest item of expense during the year 
1930 was entailed by our membership committee. 
The campaign cost our local thirty-six cents on 
the dollar. The outlay was considered justified, 
however, in that our membership was trebled. 











4 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


The Voorhis School for Boys 


By H. J. Voorhis, Local 210 


Southern California boasts but one local of 
the American Federation of Teachers—The 
Voorhis School for Boys, Local 210. The mem- 
bers all teach in the same school and live in the 
same community. 

This community is a unique one and such 
importance as may attach to Local No. 210 is 
derived not from the number of its members 
but from the part the teachers’ organization 
plays in a social and educational venture which 
may be a prophecy of more liberal thought in 
Southern California, a new method of caring for 
children, and a new governing principle in the 
relationship of man to man throughout the world. 
No one with common sense would dare expect 
so much as this if he based his expectation mere- 
ly on what members of the community say or do. 
The only justification for the hope is found in 
the nature of the community—what it is. 

First of all it is a village. In the village are 
ten homes, In five of these live the families of 
members of the so called faculty. In each of the 
other five live twelve boys with their foster 
mother. Sprinkled among the homes are a gen- 
eral mechanic shop, a newspaper office and print 
shop, a library, a kitchen (of course) a small 
hospital, a barn, chicken houses, and a church. 
Surrounding the buildings and occupying every 
bit of available level land is the farm. 

The primary business of this community is 
the education of all its members, both old and 
young. This education is a constant process and 
takes place more in the experiences of living 
together than in formal classroom instruction. 
The basic aim of the education is to train people 
for citizenship in a new world when it shall have 
been built and for the work of building it in the 
meantime. Therefore members of Local No. 210 
are not engaged in carrying out orders or follow- 
ing a plan, Rather their work consists in creating 
plans together and in creating here and now the 
sort of community in which all of us in the labor 
movement hope someday to live. They are in 
no sense employees of the school. They are 
members of a community to which they give 
freely according to their abilities and from which 
they receive, so far as the community resources 


permit, according to their need. 

But not only do teachers at the Voorhis Schod 
not receive orders. They do not give them either 
The boys of the community own it as their hom 
—~-most of them having no other. The school 
so far as possible, their project quite as much a 
that of the older people. Practically all of then 
are devoted to it, although there are, of cours 
degrees in the excellence with which they expres 
this devotion in action. There exists no system 
of discipline in the community. It is governed bj 
the spirit of its public opinion. “Punishment 
consists in having one’s mistakes pointed out to 
him and in an appeal to his best nature to exer 
itself. 

In other words the idea of the community i 
that people should learn to do right by thei 
fellows, to be earnest, generous, and self-sacri- 
ficing because they are led to love these ways oi 
living and not because external authority compel 
them to do so. And, excepting a few cases, the 
plan actually works. The reward of socid 
earnestness is found in the approbation of the 
community and its leaders. 

Perhaps it is not too much to hope that if this 
community can actually succeed in living together 
on this basis it may furnish an example which 
will be good evidence toward the conclusion 
that, should the larger communities of the worl 
undertake to deal generously with their members 
the members would respond with loyalty. 

It is already a trite statement that the school 
are undertaking more and more of the function 
of child care and development which were for- 
merly taken care of in the home. The compar 
ison between the opportunities for learning by 
doing on the farmstead and in the city is too wel 
known and too obvious to bear repeating. Along 
with this goes the justifiable despair of many 
over the fact that many homes are failing 
give their children proper mental and emotional 
adjustment to the’complex life of the modem 
day. To cope with the modern child’s problem 
the parent needs considerable study and an esp 
cially sympathetic and understanding personality. 
Parenthood being a rather universal experienc 
among humankind (!) it is not reasonable 





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THE AMERICAN 


expect all parents to be so equippea. Add to all 
this the question—it is at least an open question 
_whether the world of tomorrow will not re- 
quire of its citizens such close cooperation with 
their fellows that the biological family can hardly 
be expected to give a sufficiently broad experi- 
ence in social living to equip them for this. In the 
case of the leaders of the future it may be not 
only necessary but positively advisable that they 
grow up in a highly socialized environment. 

Perhaps, then, as time goes on, it may be that 
more and more children, instead of growing up 
in the biological family home, will spend their 
later childhood and adolescence in communities 
with other. children and adults whose special 
business it is to provide a human and material 
environment which is definitely planned to draw 
out of the children those creative powers, emo- 
tional responses, and social tendencies which will 
ft them to live in a highly cooperative society 
where the spirits of people must be very free and 
happy to compensate for the necessary surrender 
of a large amount of the economic and material 
independence which Americans, at least, have in 
the past regarded as so essential to a happy life. 
Should this change come about it is well for the 
lines to be laid so that the children may be happy. 
This necessitates experimentation along the line 
of developing a sort of institution which will be 
at once home and school,—wherein the love, se- 
curity, and comfort of the home may be so 
taken for granted that the institution may present 
itself to the world as an educational community 
training leaders for society. In the doing of this 
experimental work it seems that members of an 
organization whose slogan is “Democracy in 
Education and Education for Democracy” should 
be among the pioneers, And boys of small priv- 
ilege, boys without homes, boys who have known 
a little of the suffering of life (as is the case 
with all those of the Voorhis School) are the 
best material that could be chosen for the de- 
velopment of this sort of leadership. 

The Voorhis School attempts to foster the 
creative spirit in the teachers and pupils alike. 
Inthe literary society both groups make contribu- 
tions, Plays are written by students and teachers 
working together. The newspaper is a product 
of their joint endeavors. In productive work the 
teachers and the boys set up type, clean buildings, 


TEACHER 5 


make gardens, care for stock, repair automobiles 
together. The school day is so divided that all 
the required studies—those which seem necessary 
to equip students to meet the world as it now is 
together with those prescribed by the “educa- 
tional ladder’”—are finished in the morning ses- 
sion. The afternoons are periods of free activ- 
ity, aiming at the creation of an environment 
as it ought to be. These activities once again are 
joint projects of teachers and students, They 
include newspaper work and creative writing, 
literature, geology, music, art, farm work, shop 
work, camera club, travel club, nature study, 
biology, Bible study, typewriting, an open forum 
on current problems, and other worthwhile acti- 
vities. 

Teachers of Local No. 210 are trying to stand 
for scme ideas which, widely accepted elsewhere 
in the United States, are struggling to gain a 
foothold in Southern California. First among 
these is the right of labor to organize. Another 
is the right of minority free speech. Still others 
are the right of teachers to select their own text- 
books, the general principle of academic freedom, 
and the introduction of more _ progressive 
methods in the schools. Finally they attempt to 
exert an influence toward an increasing measure 
of social control of life in the interests of the 
majority of people. 

The community which is led by the members 
of Local No, 210 of the American Federation 
of Teachers desires to become an educational 
and social laboratory. It has certain central aims 
and purposes, the more important of which are 
the following: the fostering of the creative spirit 
in teachers and students, the development of a 
self-supporting community conducted on the 
principal of “from each according to his abilities 
and to each according to his needs,” the educa- 
tion of a certain number of individuals for life in 
a cooperative commonwealth, the development of 
a love of physical excellence and the sport of 
games well played, the production of reading 
material bearing on junior high school subjects 
which shall be written by students and for stu- 
dents, and the offering to the world of an ex- 
ample which will prove that the principle of the 
Kingdom of God is not only beautiful in theory 
but highly practical as a basis for the governing 
of the life of a community. 








6 THE AMERICAN 


The American Teacher 


Democracy in Education Education for Democracy 
Published Monthly, except July, August and September 
Official Organ 
THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS 

Orcanizep 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 
Luce W. ALLEN 





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


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


SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, TWO DOLLARS FOR 
THE YEAR—FOREIGN $2.20—SINGLE 
COPIES, 25c 





Advertising Rates Made Known on Application 


ee EZ 20 


EXECUTIVE COUNCIL 
President 
Mary C. Barker, Atlanta No. 89; 685 Myrtle Street, 
N. E., Atlanta, Georgia. 
Legislative Representative and Vice-President 


SetMA M. Borcnarpt, Washington No. 8; 1741 Park 
Road, N. W., Washington, D. C. 


Vice-Presidents 


AsprAHAM Lerxowitz, 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. MusrTE, ——— Brookwood, Katonah, 





CarLoTta PittMAN, Memphis No. 52; 131 Clark Place, 
Memphis, Tenn. 
FiLorence Roop, St. Paul No. 28, 372 St. Peter St. 
St. Paul, Minnesota. 
W. B. SatrertHwaite, Seattle No. 200, 1837 12th Ave., 
West, Seattle, Washington. 
Lucie H. Scuacut, Chicago No. 3; 6714S. Union Ave., 
Chicago, Illinois. 
E. E. SCHWARzTRAUBER, Wisconsin University No. 223; 
1404 Vilas Ave., Madison, Wisconsin. 
W J. Scort, Atlanta No. 89; 212 Kings Highway, 
Decatur, Georgia. 
Cuartes B. StittMan, Chicago No. 2; 827 Ridge Ave., 
Evanston, III. 


Secretary-Treasurer 
Fiorence Curtis Hanson, Chicago No. 3; 506 South 
Wabash Ave., Chicago, Illinois. 
Associate Secretary 
Lucire W. Aten, Chicago No. 3; 506 South Wabash 
Ave., Chicago, Illinois. 





TEACHER 


April 15th, 1916. 


Democracy in Education 
Education for Democracy 


After fifteen years of growth and experien: 
the American Federation of Teachers finds x 
action of its founders of more lasting worth thay 
their choice of the motto which should expres 
the fundamental objective of the organization, 
Education in and for Democracy—to this the 
dedicated the new federation of teacher unions. 
and toward this goal the organization has ever 
striven. 

It has become more and more manifest as the 
years have passed that attainment of this objec. 
tive can be effected only through the acceptance 
of John Dewey’s admonition to begin with the 
teacher. It has come to be a truism in A, F, T, 
but it will bear repeating, that to make the 
schools of America a fit place to develop citizen: 
for a democracy we must first have teachers who 
are themselves clear thinking. self respecting 
citizens. 

To develop such teachers we have come to see 
we must apply to the teachers themselves the 
general educational principle, growth through selt 
directed activity. We believe the Union move 
ment among teachers is the best possible field 
for such activity and hence we see in it a vita 
force in the nation. 

That we are not altogether academic in our 
acceptance of this tenet, a recently published 
leaflet of the American Federation of Labor 
gives evidence. We quote it in part that our 
members may know that this is a trade union 
principle, not merely a pedagogical one. 


Trade Unions Develop Workers 

The trade union movement means more than high 
wages, short hours and improved working condi 
tions, It means intellectual development of the 
workers. It means uncontrolled wage earners who 
carry this independence from the shop, mill, and 
mine into the affairs of everyday life. 

The trade unionist is interested in other things 
than shop conditions. Every economic, political, and 
social question attracts him. 

His collective voice is heard in education, finance, 
industry, agriculture, and transportation. He insists 
that the heritage of free press, speech, and *& 
semblage be assured. 

He creates new public opinion by his constructive 
statesmanship, by his exposure of wrong and by his 
insistence on just relations between men. 

He demands that democracy function. 





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THE AMERICAN 


Trade unionism is a challenge to autocracy and 
cham. It has established the first element of de- 
mocracy in industry, 

* * & * * 
The British statesman correctly declared: “Trade 
ynions are the bulwark of modern democracies.” 





The Convention 

The Fifteenth Annual Convention of the 
American Federation of Teachers will be held 
in Chicago the week of June 29. An interesting 
agenda and a fine program of speakers and enter- 
tamment have been arranged. 

This convention which brings together the rep- 
resentatives of what are undoubtedly the most 
outstanding, forwardlooking groups of teachers 
in all parts of the country is always an event of 
considerable importance. This year when the 
schools of the land and many teachers personally 
have suffered under the chaotic economic condi- 
tions, the deliberations of this convention will 
doubtless be of marked significance. 

Teachers who have been brought into daily 
contact with that most disastrous of all effects 
of unemployment, poverty diseases in children, 
will give earnest consideration to the problem. 
Decrease in property values with the consequent 
reduction in public revenues has produced finan- 
tial problems in school systems which have been 
met by decreasing salaries, increasing the num- 
ber of pupils per teacher and general reduction 
of the efficiency of the schools.. These problems 
will be before the convention together with those 
of certification, tenure and unemployment among 
teachers, 


The American Federation of Teachers believes 
that in organization of teachers is to be found the 
only effective method by which dangers to our 
schools can be averted and hence will consider 
ways and means of extending its protection still 
more broadly among teachers in every field of 
tducation, 

The general theme for the meeting is, “Edu- 
‘ation for Democracy—Representative Govern- 
ment in School and Society.” 

The headquarters of the Convention will be 
at the Congress Hotel, corner of Michigan 
Avenue and Congress Street, overlooking Grant 
Park and the Lake. Very favorable hotel rates 
have been arranged and low summer railroad 


TEACHER . 7 


rates to nearby resorts in Michigan and Wiscon- 
sin are available. 

A large attendance is anticipated. The ses- 
sions of the Convention are open to the public 
and friends of the American Federation ef 
Teachers are cordially invited. 





The 1930 Convention 
A Delegate Says: 


It is difficult—and I find now that it is im- 
possible for me—to communicate the sense which 
the delegates to an A. F. T. Convention acquire 
of the facts that the teaching profession can be 
master of its destinies and that classroom teach- 
ers can have statesmanlike attitudes toward their 
work and toward their communities. Memphis, 
Atlanta, St. Paul and New York are among the 
communities in which that has been especially 
exemplified. I have read reports of conventions 
of other teacher organizations, particularly of 
the N. E. A.; masterly papers are read by 
masters in education. But nowhere other than 
in the proceedings of the American Federation of 
Teachers are classroom teachers actively en- 
gaged in working out school and community pol- 
icy on matters that concern the children of the 
nation. The fact that these teachers are under 
no illusion concerning the extent of their 
achievements or the prospects of early and easy 
success speaks all the more for the quiet strength 
that is in them. 





Education’s Hope Is Unionism 

Bishop James E. Cassidy declares that Labor’s 
hope is unionism. We accept this unqualifiedly 
and paraphrase it in an equally true statement, 
E:ducation’s hope is unionism. 

Bishop Cassidy says: 


I am not going to dwell unnecessarily upon the 
short-sightedness of men and women who are so 
blind to their own interests as to fail to recognize 
that battling, as they must battle, for right, they 
are un-united and unorganized, beaten before they 
begin—and that their oniy hope for obtaining any- 
thing like justice lies in their ability to present a 
united and unbroken front. 

I am not going to fitly, as I might, characterize 
the conduct of the workers who, declining to unite, 
let union workers do all the fighting and get all the 
punishment—and then step in and profit and prosper 
with the ‘boss’ as ‘non-union’. 








8 THE AMERICAN 


And we may add, in applying this philosophy 
to teachers and schools, the educational situation 
is in dire need of drastic revaluation. In the 
Education of Henry Adams, Mr. Adams says: 
“The chief wonder of education is that it does 
not ruin everybody concerned in it—teachers and 
taught.” Education is on the defensive. 

An editorial comment on the criticisms of 
Professor T. H. Briggs, of Columbia University 
in which he says, “Education needs overhauling, 
colleges and high schools are costly failures,” 
reads as follows: 


Most of it is founded on the impression that teach- 
ing is conducted by persons out of living contact 
with the more significant areas of modern experi- 
ence, that courses and methods are withdrawn in 
academic segregation, sufficient to themselves, with- 
out communion with the great streams of outer 
action, that the materials and subject matter are 
irrelevant to life though solemn, and frivolous 
though full of pomp and minute circumstance. ‘The 
impression of the critic is in great part right. 

The faults of American education are obvious. 
The overgrown juvenility of our college students, 
the provincialism and indifference of our commu- 
nities, the barrenness of our intellectual and crea- 
tive life, except as it becomes professional, the cul- 
tural dispersion and lack of living integration all 
show that our educational methods provide no mo- 
tivation nor an abiding interest in fuller, more 
thoughtful, more dynamic ways of life. And though 
the causes of this failure surely lie in great part 
in our cultural and national immaturity, in the 
tremendous social shift and economic change of 
recent years that has broken old tradition, made 
inept old methods, thrown out of date half the ideas 
and educational agencies of a century ago, there 
is still much to blame for evils that could be reme- 
died. Our national preoccupation in the settlement 
of a continent may have left our education immature 
in method, but that will not account for the whole 
failure. 


Harsh criticisms, undoubtedly justified, are 
the order of the day. 

For production purposes it is easy enough to 
produce sufficient education, even a surplus of 
technological skill and mechanical aptitude, but 
for living purposes you cannot overstock the 
market. You cannot have too much spiritual 
insight, intellectual clarity and moral beauty. 

In the past the scramble has been for means 
of living, a necessary practical policy to date. 
Now that the means of living have been accom- 
plished we keep on in the same way—taking 


TEACHER 


the means for the end. This is both ridiculoy: 
and tragic. The necessary mechanical and tech, 


nical policy of the past is dominating and coz 


trolling men when no longer a necessity, Vj; 
are ready to live but we don’t know what we ar 
after. We have a great urge to be moving, by 
no sense of direction. 
Eventually we must change; why not nov’ 
And whose job is it to make this change? 
Read the preamble to the Constitution of th 
American Federation of Teachers for the answer 


We bélieve that the schools have failed of thei: 
fullest attainment because of undemocratic adminis 
tration, adherence to tradition, and lack of respor. 
siveness to the needs of the community; and tha 
the teachers must find the remedy, if it is to & 
found. 

H. G. Wells says: 

No conqueror can make the multitude differen 
from what it is; no statesman can carry the world: 
affairs beyond the ideas and capacities of the gen 
eration of adults with which he deals; but teacher 
—I use the word in its widest sense—can do mur 
than either conqueror or statesman; they ca 
create a new vision and liberate the latent power 
of our kind.” 

The schools are the teachers’ business and the 
should be about their business. The specifi 
problem is the organization of teachers. Le 
them organize in such strength that they ma 
secure power enough to make their stand ¢f 
fective and respected on any question upon whic! 
they, as teachers, should take a stand, to secur 
such constructive control over the education 
forces of this country that these harsh criticism 
can no longer be justifiably made. 

That there is strength in union is just as true 
today as it was in the beginning of our nation 
history. We must build up the strength of or 
ganizations that have proved themselves effec: 
tive in their efforts for the teachers and the 
educational system. 

Then and only then will education’s hope am 
purpose be a reality. 





There is not a wrong against which we fail 
protest or seek to remedy; there is not a right 
which any of our fellows are entitled which it * 
not our duty, mission and work and struggle 
attain. So long as there shall remain a wrom 
unrighted or a right denied, there will be wot 
for the labor movement to do.—Samuel Gompers 








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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Teacher Supply in Oregon 


By Mabel Southworth, Portland Local 111 


Until within the past four or five years there 
has never been a sufficient number of native 
achers to fill the positions in this state. Each 
fall there was an influx of men and women from 
the East and Middle West, some of them coming 
here because of better salaries, some because of 
our climate, and some for mere change and ad- 
venture. This fact was so well known that it 
was used in the campaign four years ago for the 
new normal school at La Grande. Those of us 
who were born and educated here have experi- 
enced no difficulty in the past twenty years in 
obtaining better positions or better salaries each 
year; especially if we showed promise and were 
willing to further our academic training. 

During the past two years, however, the situa- 
tion has changed; and last summer and _ fall 
especially there was much publicity given to the 
fact that there were not enough teaching jobs 
‘ego around and that many of the home-trained 
girls were being left unemployed. The agitation 
became so genera! that the public began to make 
demands; and, as so frequently is the case with 
public demands, they were more emotional than 
intelligent. The members of our community 
lboked about them and without giving the matter 
ay scientific thought, began to clamor for the 
lismissal of those teachers wha were known to 
nave any degree of economic independence aside 
irom their salary. Naturally the ones who were 
most obviously in this class were the married 
women. The matter of dismissing all married 
women was so noisily before the public for a few 
weeks that one was forced to the conclusion 
that all-too-many people still believe that teach- 
ig positions should be apportioned out to the 
indigent member of society as a sort of courteous 
lole, and that chivalry demands that school 
wards should elect to positions appealing and 
needy young girls and widows regardless of 
their lack of experience and training. 

That we have such haphazard and silly stand- 
ards in the choice of teachers seems inexplicable 
in face of the fact that the members of other 
bofessions are judged purely on the basis of 
merit. If our neighbor the merchant found his 


son involved in an embroilment which necessi- 
tated legal advice, the father would surely pro- 
cure the services of a lawyer who had proved 
his worth, regardless of how many needy young 
fellows might be striving to get a start. If our 
brother the union carpenter found that his 
daughter was suffering from a pernicious physi- 
cal ailment, he would demand the services of the 
very best doctor he knew and not be content with 
the diagnosis and treatment of some beginner who 
had as yet done nothing to establish a reputation 
for himself as a reliable practitioner, And as 
for the old man who retired from medicine years 
ago because he found stock-raising or contracting 
more profitable, and has returned to it now only 
as a make-shift in emergency,—surely no one 
would trust such a doctor with a precious human 
life. Yet surely all thinking people realize that 
preparation, experience, and years of consistent 
application to a loved profession are as valuable 
in the case of teaching as in the case of law or 
medicine. 

We teachers in Portland can say with a great 
deal of pride and relief that the local newspapers 
and a majority of our school board stood solidly 
for efficiency as the only basis upon which any 
teacher should be elected or retained. Although 
organized labor was not nearly so staunch in 
their support of efficiency, they at least refrained 
from going on record publicly as advocating that 
teaching positions should be given only upon the 
ground of need. 

These matters have interested and agitated 
those of us in the state who are deeply serious 
not only about our personal work but about all 
problems of education. The new bulletin, 
TEACHER SUPPLY AND DEMAND IN OREGON, by 
C. L. Huffaker, Professor of School Admin- 
istration at the University of Oregon, gives us 
more food for thought. According to the statis- 
tics which Professor Huffaker has compiled 
from the questionnaires which he sent to every 
teacher in the state, 31 percent of the teachers 
employed in the state at the present time are 
inadequately prepared. Professor Huffaker 











10 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


means by proper preparation the standard re- 
quirements of normal school or college training. 
The fact that this educational expert pointed out 
the flaws in our antiquated method of certifica- 
tion by examination would lead one to believe 
that the time is ripe for a change. When the 
attempt to make this change was brought before 
the recent legislature, however, the matter was 
dismissed as immaterial. 

We remain then in the sad state indicated 
below : 


Improperly prepared teachers in 

one-room schools ...............55 percent 
Improperly prepared teachers in all 

elementary schools ..............39 percent 
Improperly prepared teachers in all 

high schools 


22 percent 


Professor Huffaker’s findings concerning mar- 
ried women teachers are admittedly incorrect as 
he says that he merely asked the women teachers 
to prefix Mrs. or Miss to their names and made 
no attempt ta segregate the married women, 
divorced women, and widows. It is hardly worth 
while to mention then as an indictment of mar- 
ried women teachers, that he found those who 
bore the title of Mrs. before their names to be 
less adequately prepared than the unmarried 
women., He also found, however, that those 
who were or had been married had more years 
of experience to their credit, and longer periods 
of tenure. The life of married women in the 
profession shows 11.5 years, while that of un- 
married women shows, 6.1 years. So far as 
salaries are concerned, the unmarried teachers 
show a very slight advantage, and Mr. Huffaker 
points out that no principal or board can argue 
for the hiring of married women because they 
teach more cheaply. 





CULTURAL DIVERSIONS 
By Edith Forbes, Local 111 


The Portland Teachers Union does not con- 
fine itself wholly to academic and economic prob- 
lems but is interested also in social and literary 
movements. 

For the last three years it has had a thriving 
Book Club, which meets about once a month at 
the homes of various hospitable members. Mrs. 


Southworth and her capable assistants on th 
Book committee have provided excellent m. 
terial for these meetings. During the past yey 
the following books have been discussed, ani 
one can readily see that they have been chose 
because of their current interest and provocatiy: 
nature. 

Lippmann—A Preface to Morals 

Krutch—The Modern Temper 

Jarnes—The Twilight of Christianity 

Martin—Liberty 

Bates—This Land of Liberty 

Hindus—Humanity Uprooted 

Rugg, Harold, and Shumaker—The Child 
Centered School 

On¢ member gives a review of the boo 
chosen for the evening and leads the discussion 
This is followed by brief reviews of magazin 
articles which attack or defend the same ide: 
As the viewpoints of the members are ofte 
widely divergent, and as the meetings are quit 
informal, everyone feeling free to express hi 
opinion, the discussion waxes lively at time 
However, when it tends to become too cor 
troversial, equanimity is restored by the appear 
ance of sandwiches and coffee, and the evening i 
saved. 

The Union has sponsored this winter a serie 
of four lectures on Modern Poetry. They wer 
given by Miss Ethel Sawyer of the Catlin Scho. 
who has made an extensive study of the subjec 
Miss Laura Northup hospitably offered he 
spacious home on Portland Heights for the le 
tures, and they were well attended. 

In the first lecture, which she called “Whithe 
Pegasus”, Miss Sawyer discussed various defi 
tions of poetry and explained by abundant illus 
trations how modern poetry presents an idea até 
leaves the reader’s imagination to work it ov! 
The second lecture of the series dealt with “Ov 
Rhythmic Response” ; in this the speaker recalle! 
to her listeners the definite familiar rhythms 0 
the Victorian poets and discovered to them ti 
new and exhilarating, though more subtt 
rhythms of modern verse. She inspired he 
audience to go home, take down a book of cot 
temporary poetry from the shelves, and hunt for 
rhythms. In the third lecture, “The Authent 
Voice”, Miss Sawyer enlarged upon the princif! 





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° THE AMERICAN TEACHER ll 


dearness, restraint, perspective, sympathy and 
jwmor. The last lecture was devoted to “Some 
Prize Poems of Yesterday and Today”. Miss 
Sawyer’s beautiful reading added much to the 
charm and distinction of this delightful series. 
Inasmuch as Miss Sawyer has not only the 
soul of a poet but also the mind of a philosopher, 
she made in the course of her talks numerous 
yertinent comments on contemporary society. 
And as she is not at all a worshiper at the shrine 
of the god of things-as-they-are, her observations 
—usually deliciously ironical—proved a source 
of great delight to members of the Union. Some 
of our less progressive friends were given a 
sumber of things to turn over in their minds. 
It is pleasant to add that under the manage- 
ment of Miss Fanny Berber, the series was a 
financial success, 





EDUCATION VS. CONTESTS 
By Edna Scott, Local 111 

After absorbing the information as to time, 
place, rewards, bibliography, etc., of the fifty- 
eventh variety of contests which may have been 
her portion to supervise; and after reading the 
results of the same, even the most modern and 
enthusiastic teacher will heave a gusty sigh for 
the good old days of “readin’, ’ritin’, and ’rith- 
metic”. 

We keep pondering upon Dr. Hutchins’ asser- 
tion that education should teach students to think 
traight, if possible, but above all, to think, Do 
contests educate, or do they? Or, are they just 
propaganda? Consider this partial list to which 
the pupils in the city of Portland are exposed 
tach year, and judge for yourselves. Space 
imitations make a complete list impossible, and 
tach year sees more added. 

Our particular pét is the annual League of 
Nations examination. (During the next war we 
hall probably take our Sabbatical leave in jail 
a a pacifist). Complications arise when one 
liscovers that the Paris Peace Pact contest comes 
at the same time, offering the same prizes. Evi- 
dently even pacifists are not harmonious, What 
0 do? Scatter the ammunition, or concentrate? 

Then there is the Constitutional oratorical 
contest, and the review of the Pershing memoirs. 
Would a child who suggested that the Constitu- 


tion is not the “greatest document ever struck 
from the brain and hand of man at a given time”, 
or that Pershing is not the military genius of 
all time, win a national prize? 

The National Safety Council essays, the Fire 
Prevention orations, the annual health essay, and 
the new contest of the Oregon Tuberculosis As- 
sociation in their “early diagnosis campaign” 
are substituted for the toothbrush drills of gram- 
mar school days. 

One which sounds as if it could be taken in 
stride by the English teacher is the National 
High School Awards contest, to which essays, 
poems, stories presented in regular class work 
may be submitted. Would that we were sure that 
every teacher resisted the temptation to do a 
little polishing of such material! 

Electrical Manufacturers essays, art poster 
contests, science treatises extend the list ad in- 
finitum. 

If contests must be a part of our school sys- 
tem, is there some criterion which the teacher 
may use? Are they worth the precious peda- 
gogical moments? or the students more or less 
haphazard efforts? Is propaganda or informa- 
tion the impelling motive? Perhaps the day will 
come when there will be an essay contest teacher, 
whose sole duty will be to sift out tne worthless, 
and who will be trained to resist the temptation 
to be too helpful. 





FREE TEXTBOOKS WIN IN OREGON 

Salem, Ore.—Free textbooks for the school 
children of Oregon, long a bone of contention 
and bitterly opposed to the end, passed both 
branches of the legislature and is now up to the 
governor who is expected to sign the bill. 

The bill, limiting expenditures to $1.50 a year 
for each pupil, is most modest in its terms but 
nevertheless raised cries of socialism and pater- 
nalism by the opposition. 





Without free speech there can be no progress, 
no advancement by state or nation. Every citi- 
zen, be his station high or humble, has the right 
to give his reasons for the course he pursues. 
The suppression of this right constitutes a double 
wrong—it denies the right of one to speak and 
the people to hear. 


Gov, Julius L. Meier. 











12 THE AMERICAN TEACHER ° 


San Francisco Administrators’ Federation 
Local 215 


San Francisco, the city by the Golden Gate, 
has ever been unique and foremost in many of 
its activities. It has been a leader in commercial 
and industrial enterprise and as such has always 
encouraged organization of groups connected 
with the American Federation of Labor. Twelve 
years ago teachers of this city formed the San 
Francisco Teachers Federation, Local 61. This 
grew from a small beginning to become an 
important and powerful influence in the educa- 
tional and civic life of the community. It has 
had the respect and support of organized labor 
and because of its sane and intelligent stand on 
all matters of policy, it has had the deserved 
confidence of the educational leaders of the city. 

A wise provision in the Constitution and By- 
Laws of the Teachers Federation prevented those 
in administrative and supervisory positions in 
the schools from becoming members of the or- 
ganization. This rule made it strictly a teacher 
organization and made it impossible for those in 
administrative positions to control or direct 
the work of this organization. This meas- 
ure, however, prevented a large number of 
administrators and supervisors who were sym- 
pathetic with the objects and aims of the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor in its attitude toward 
the public schools from affiliating with the Fed- 
eration and lending to it their support. The desire 
to secure this affiliation prompted certain indi- 
viduals to investigate the possibility of organiz- 
ing an Administrator’s Federation and as a result 
in April, 1930, ten members signed the Charter 
of Administrator’s Federation, Local 215, Dr. 
Milton Blanchard, Principal of Noe Valley Jr. 
High School, a veteran in the parent organiza- 
tion, Local 61, was elected temporary presi- 
dent of No. 215 during the preliminary period in 
which the Constitution and By-Laws were 
drafted. In May, 1930, Local 61 held a 
dinner in honor of the members of the new local, 
at which time President Roe Baker, Secretary 
John O’Connell of the San Francisco Labor 
Council, and Mr. James Mullen, Editor of the 
Labor Clarion were honored guests, The educa- 
tional principles of the American Federation of 


Labor were explained by these gentlemen and the 
new local was thus christened and started on its 
voyage. 

During the past year there has been a stead 
growth of this Local and nearly 40 of the leading 
administrators of the city have jo:ned its ranks 
From the Senior High Schools, two principal 
and two vice-principals have joined; from the 
nine Junior High Schools, seven principals and 
four vice-principals have become members. The 
balance of the membership includes three Deputy 
Superintendents and many elementary principals, 
directors, supervisors, and assistant supervisors 
Any individual in the school department whos 
work requires an administrative credential is 
eligible to membership. 

The organization has two delegates to the San 
Francisco Labor Council and has been well repre 
sented there by Miss Carrie Daly, Principal oi 
the Sunshine School, and Mr. Wallace Taylor, 
Vice-Principal of the Francisco Junior High 
School. A number of important matters have 
come up for consideration this year. Amendment 
No. 27 to the City Charter providing for the 
selection of Board of Education members by 
popular election was voted upon and lost by 3 
narrow margin in the fall election. This spring 
an entirely new Charter was submitted to tht 
voters in a special election. In the case of both 
of these elections the local federations held joint 
dinner meetings at which proponents and oppo 
nents had the opportunity to present arguments 
relative to the measures under consideration. 

The biennial session of the State Legislature 
has had presented to it mahy measures of vita 
interest to the teachers of the state. Among thes 
are measures relative to state retirement, tenure 
for teachers, and the state printing of textbooks 
Through the San Francisco Labor Council and 
the State Federation of Labor great aid wa 
secured in support of measures which would bk 
of the most value to the teachers of the state. 

Labor is again proving to be a sincere friend 
of the teachers and a strong bulwark in defens 
of the interests of the public schools. 





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THE AMERICAN 


TEACHER 13 


Education in the California Legislature 
By R. W. Everett, Sacramento Local 31 


The California Legislature is at present grind- 
ing its usual grist of bills but they are of un- 
ysual interest to the educational forces of the 
sate. The four questions of Retirement, Ten- 
ure, School Textbook Printing and School Bud- 
gets are the most important. One of the minor 
questions is that of Sabbatical Leave, which is 
going through the Legislature for the third time. 
It will probably become law at last. 

The joke of Tenure being a “Ten Year Law” 
is given point by the fact that it was first en- 
acted in 1921. To avoid the fear of unconstitu- 
tionality it was made to apply to all teachers in 
1927, Previously it had applied only to districts 
of eight teachers or over. The 1927 change 
aroused the ire of the rural districts. In many 
counties inadequate supervision makes it difficuli 
to recognize good teachers when they find them. 
More important is the fact that these schools 
seldom have salary schedules designed to reward 
successful service. The other ordinary attrac- 
tions of the city systems all tend to draw the 
successful teachers away from the rural districts 
after they have obtained their initial experience. 
These factors and the rural adherence to the 
Jacksonian theory of rotation in office have 
ended to make the idea of civil service in the 
schools very unpopular. Many boards have 
adopted the policy of not hiring a teacher after 
the end of the probationary period. 

To placate this group, the teachers themselves 
have prepared a measure, the Cobb Bill, to make 
tenure optional with the Board of Trustees in 
all districts with less than three hundred average 
daily attendance. This figure will undoubtedly 
be raised by the Legislature. The re-apportion- 
ment quarrel may further complicate the matter. 

The objection of the boards in the larger dis- 
cts, that it is too difficult to remove an un- 
aatisfactory or inefficient teacher, has not been 
satisfactorily met. More trouble may develop 
a the future from this source. The teachers 
hope to minimize this difficulty by the organiza- 
tion of Professional Relations Committees that 
wil help to solve administrative problems of 
aching before they reach severe crises. Local 


No. 31 has been developing such a committee 
during the current year. 

The question of Retirement Salaries is also of 
vital interest to all. The present scheme of five 
hundred dollars per year after thirty years serv- 
ice, which has been in operation since 1913, is 
unsatisfactory because of the small amount, and 
is not actuarially sound because the teacher puts 
in only twelve dollars per annum. The Cali- 
fornia Teachers Association has prepafed a bet- 
ter scheme, the present Rochester Bill, in which 
Mr. Geo. Buck, the well-known New York 
actuary, has worked out a plan whereby the 
State shall pay six hundred dollars per year as a 
flat pension, the teacher at the same time de- 
positing four per cent of each year’s salary to 
furnish an added annuity. If the teacher with- 
draws from the service without reaching the 
age of retirement, his deposits with earnings are 
returned. The plan is based on thirty years of 
service. 

The difficulty that this bill faces is lack of 
funds. It is at present before the Senate Finance 
Committee. If this hurdle can be passed, it will 
probably be adopted as Governor Rolph has ex- 
pressed himself as friendly to the measure, All 
agree that the present scheme of retirement is 
actuarially unsound and will eventually end in 
disaster, yet finance directors are quite willing 
to pass the problem on to their successors. 
Manéna has an alluring sound even in Anglo- 
Saxon lands, 

The problem of textbooks has arisen to com- 
plicate the legislative situation. For a half cen- 
tury California has had state adoption and print- 
ing of elementary textbooks. These are fur- 
nished free by the state but districts are allowed 
to buy supplementary books from the book com- 
panies out of their library funds. The state 
appears to print the books at a lower cost than 
the private companies will supply them, but the 
service is Slow and the State Board of Educa- 
tion, which makes the adoptions, is slow about 
making changes. The city superintendents gen- 
erally are opposed to state adoptions and hence 
printing. Four years ago the legalizing of the 











14 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Junior High School removed the seventh and 
eighth grades from the elementary schools and 
hence from state-printed texts. The Printers 
Union, with the backing of Labor and the be- 
nevolent attitude of several papers and the rural 
element generally, are supporting the Nielsen 
Bill which would return the seventh and eighth 
grades of the Junior High School to the state 
printed texts, and would about double the state 
printing program by calling for two basic texts 
wherever supplementary books are now used. 
The C. T. A. opposed the bill, but seeing the 
opposition was useless, will for the present do 
little more than hold a bad thought over it. An 
attempt to put the State Council of the C. T. A. 
on record recently as sponsoring an initiative 
measure for abolishing state adoption, and hence 
state printing was temporarily blocked. As a 
successful initiative measure calls for an outlay 
of many thousand dollars, it is to be doubted 
that the teachers of the state will voluntarily 
subscribe such an amount right away. The fact 
that this action will necessarily antagonize labor, 
their most dependable friend in the Legislature, 
may also have a deterring effect. The value to 
the people of California of state printing of 
clementary text-books is a controversial one, and 
so it is likely that the coming controversy will 
generate more heat than light. Local No. 31 has 
not taken any action in the matter. 

The fourth measure that is agitating the teach- 
ers, and also the administrators and trustees, is 
an attempt to give the county supervisors power 
to cut the school budgets. Under the present 
state law each board of school trustees, if they 
wish more than sixty dollars per average daily 
attendance and seven hundred dollars per dis- 


trict, and all but some of the rural schools d 
want more, send to the supervisors an itemized 
estimate for the next year and the latter must fix 
the tax rate at such a figure as to supply th 
money. This provision enables each district to 
spend all the money that it wishes and is largely 
responsible for the high rank that California 
schools hold. But California’s local revenues, 
like those of most of the other states, depend 
chiefly on that antiquated and discredited system 
known as the general property tax. These taxes, 
falling almost entirely on land and improvements, 
particularly the latter, seem to have just about 
reached their possible maximum. But schoo! 
costs still are mounting because Californians are 
still thoroughly convinced of the increasing valu 
of an education, even of the necessity of a high 
school and college education. An immovable ob- 
ject, the upper limit of the general property tax, 
seems to stand in the way of an irresistible 
force, the need for more education, The obvious 
method, of course, would be to go around the 
“object” by changing from the general property 
tax to a land tax and an income tax. It is too 
much to hope that this will be done right away. 
The proposed remedy is to give the supervisors 
power to cut the budget. Thus would education 
be placed on a Procrustean Bed, with the county 
administrators prepared to lop off any parts thai 
might expand beyond their specifications, The 
passage of this bill would be the severest blow 
that education has ever received in this State. 

Local No, 31 has taken active interest in the 
first two measures and against the last, both 
by appealing to the Sacramento representatives 
in the Legislature and through its membership 
in the C, T. A. 





Teacher Participation in Curriculum Making in Sacramento 
By Sara Canterbury Ashby 


Curriculum making in Sacramento began in 
1928. Before that date the city schools had had 
occasional spasms of revamping courses of study 
in which committees of teachers made over, cut 
down, or enlarged, but always more or less fol- 
lowed the traditional lines of the older patterns. 
Curriculum making as it is now known was an 
undiscovered field. 

In 1927 came faint glimmerings of the dawn 
in the form of coordinating committees which 


strove to organize the entire system from tht 
elementary schools through the junior collegt 
into one harmonious whole. With a central com- 
mittee made up of representatives from each seg 
ment of the city system a clearing house for tht 
problems of each department was set up whic! 
ended the year by formulating some recom 
mendations for better coordination which wet 
presented to the city school administration at! 
were very generally adopted. 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 15 


The coordinating committees in English, So- 
cial Studies, Language, Mathematics, etc. formed 
a pattern which was adopted the following year 
when the curriculum tidal wave struck the city 
in earnest and the entire school system became 
a mobilized army of curriculum makers. 

The English department was the first to be 
organized. The central curriculum committee 
was practically the old coordinating committee 
with a representative from the elementary 
schools, the junior high school, the senior high 
school, and the junior college, with a general 
chairman forming the fifth member. Each of 
these representatives was in turn a chairman of 
acommittee made up of three members from his 
group or segment, as it came to be called. The 
segment committee was responsible for the actual 
writing of the course of study while the larger 
policies and the major objectives were formu- 
lated by the central committee. Finally the other 
departments were organized on similar lines and 
the entire city became a beehive of industry. 

Money was set aside by the board of educa- 
tion for the purpose of providing substitutes for 
teachers engaged in curriculum work. A cen- 
tral curriculum library was set up in the ad- 
ministration building with a trained librarian 
in charge. Here also were clerks and typists 
ready to attend to the mechanical details as copy 
was handed over to them. The library itself was 
filled with professional books, magazines, re- 
ports, and courses of study: from other cities. 
Once a month curriculum experts met as con- 
sultants, with the busy teeming groups who were 
constantly at work reading, discussing, writing, 
revising, 

Then came the mimeographing and distribut- 
ing to the teachers throughout the entire city for 
the final tryout in the classroom—all of this fol- 
lowed by checking and rechecking on individual 
units of work until all was ready for printing. 
English with its head start was the first to 
achieve this final -form but June of 1931 will 
find most of the other departments either partly 
or wholly in print. 

But, one may ask, out of all this seething, 
churning ferment of activity what has come that 
is of value either to the system or to the in- 
dividual? The whole thing reminds one of the 


new theory of the composition of matter. In 
place of the hard, mutually exclusive little atams 
impinging upon each other in the molecule we 
have colonies of intensively active electrons, mu- 
tually stimulating, stimulated, and inter-penetrat- 
ing, so that in the end we have what Dr. Over- 
street has aptly called “inter-penetrating person- 
alities’”—highly socialized individuals who live 
and prosper by swopping ideas and ideals, 

To one who has gone through this very ex- 
citing experience in Sacramento it would seem 
that never again could one live in a narrow little 
world of his own, shut in by four walls. The 
larger outlook that has come from interchange 
of opinion, from reading, discussing, weighing 
values is important beyond measure but most 
important of all is the discovery that a system 
can actually be organized so that these values 
may be attained not in spite of organization, but 
because of it. 

Teaching has long been considered a deadening 
stultifying business for the very reason that it 
provided no contacts with adult minds—‘“Con- 
tacts’”—many crimes have been committed in its 
name but it is still the magic word—“interpene- 
trating personalities’ are what we need, and 
Sacramento has found one way of developing 
them through city-wide curriculum making. 

Sacramento’s plan involves class room teach- 
ers, supervisors, and administrators. In 1928-29 
over 220 teachers were actually working upon 
courses of study while several hundred others 
were meeting in small or large groups, as thev 
were called together, to discuss the findings of 
the committees or the tryouts in the class rooms. 
Meeting with these groups from time to time, 
stimulating, suggesting, guiding, were experts of 
national reputation, such as Dr. Wiliam Gray of 
the University of Chicago, Dr. Walter B. Pitkin 
of Columbia University and Dr. William Proctor 
of Stanford University. 

What has come out of it all is not only a 
course of study embodying many of the newer 
and, we hope, more psychologically sound the- 
ories of education, but what is even more im- 
portant, a highly sensitized and dynamic group 
of teachers who are interested in putting some 
of these new theories to the test in their class- 
rooms, 








16 THE AMERICAN 





TEACHER 


California Child Labor Laws and Vocational Education 


By Louis Bloch, Statistician 
Division of Labor Statistics and Law Enforcement Department of Industrial Relations 


Briefly, under the California child labor laws, 
the employment of children under 16 years of 
age is prohibited. Children between 8 and 16 
years of age must attend full-time schools, unless 
exempted for special reasons provided for by 
law. Minors between 16 and 18 years of age, 
who are not graduates from high schools main- 
iaining regular four-year courses, must attend 
part-time schools. The time such minors spend 
in school and at work is limited to 8 hours in 
any one day. The time of the day during which 
minors under 18 years of age may be employed 
is also regulated by the child labor law. In short, 
the child labor laws of California supplement its 
compulsory education laws; the former laws 
prohibit the employment of minors when, ac- 
cording to latter laws, such minors must attend 
school. 

If it were not for our school and child labor 
laws, many thousands of children, who are now 
attending schools, would be engaged in gainful 
occupations, Teachers are familiar with the urge 
and impatience that possesses minors to quit 
school to go to work and begin earning money. 
Little do the youngsters know of the insecurity, 
hardships, monotonous routine and drudgery that 
is the lot of hundreds of thousands of workers 
in our present-day factory system. To the young 
and inexperienced minds, the career of a worker 
often appears as colorful as a rainbow and as 
enviable as that of a generalissimo in a World 
War. 

Vocational education has been developed be- 
cause of the recognition of the important fact 
that too many children leave school wholly un- 
prepared to undertake effectively their economic 
struggle in the ranks of wage earners. Vocational 
education is relatively new in this country; 
moreover, it has been promulgated during times 
of ever-changing industrial processes, when 
skilled occupations, acquired after many years 
of apprenticeship and experience, are being ra- 
pidly swept away by the constant introduction 
of mechanical devices. The problems of voca- 
tional education become even more complex in 
view of the frequently recurring periods of 


glutted labor markets, when millions of adu} 
workers, skilled and unskilled, are tramping th 
streets in vain search of employment. 

The vocational educator is faced with the fae 
that his school shop equipment is becoming dail 
more and more obsolete and that if his pupils ax 
to learn actual industrial processes they mus 
enter factory employment. But mere factory em 
ployment is not education. The solution tha 
seems to be gaining favor is the placing of th 
youngster in the factory under the joint guidane 
of the employer and the school. 

But this solution does not end the trouble 
of the vocational educator. Representatives oj 
organized labor sometimes object to the plan oi 
sending to factories regularly enrolled vocationd 
education pupils. This objection grows out of: 
feeling that these pupils are encouraged to ente: 
industry a year or two sooner than is necessary 
Regular workers do not like the competition o' 
the part-time school pupils, whom they woul 
like to see kept at school as long as possible 
The employer, on the other hand, does not ob 
ject to having youngsters placed in his factor 
under partial school guidance, if his costs oi 
production are not increased and his productio 
schedules are not interfered with. There ar 
other employers who sincerely believe that minor: 
who desire to learn trades would gain most b 
placing themselves entirely under the guidance: 
of their foremen, without any school supervisiot 
whatever. 

The writer is not an educator, but he has be 
come somewhat familiar with the difficult prob 
lems arising out of the administration of voce 
tional education. He has undertaken the writin; 
of this brief article primarily for the purpose 0! 
advancing a suggestion that has been labeled # 
absurd by those who are in the know. This sug 
gestion is that vocational education should see 
to recruit its: pupils from the factories rathe' 
than send its pupils into the factories. Tht 
present practice of sending into the factorits 
regularly enrolled vocational education pupils 
the cooperative part-time education plan result 
in the placing of such pupils in jobs similar 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 17 


those already occupied by part-time education 
pupils who, in California, are subject to school 
supervision only four hours per week. The 
regularly enrolled vocational education pupils, 
sent into the factories on the week-about plan, 
under cooperative part-time education, thus be- 
come competitors of the part-time education 
pupils. The latter are allowed to shift for them- 
selves, while the former are placed in competitive 
jobs under the joint protection of the school and 
the employer. 

There are thousands of youngsters who annu- 
ally enter industry as wage earners, but who, 
under the part-time education laws, must attend 
school at least four hours a week. Vocational 
education should seek to bestow its advantages 
upon these minors, between the ages of 16 and 
18, by inducing them to return to school on some 
plan of cooperative part-time education. Voca- 
tional education should seek to impart to these 


factory-recruited pupils, as well as to the chil- 
dren regularly enrolled in vocational education 
courses, such information as would enable them 
to adjust themselves readily to the ever-changing 
industrial processes and methods. Along with 
the academic knowledge and mechanical skill 
that vocational education undertakes to teach its 
pupils, it must also undertake to furnish the 
youngsters with economic facts pertaining to the 
industries which they are to enter as wage 
earners. Such economic facts should include in- 
formation concerning continuous employment op- 
portunities, wage scales, hours, and other work- 
ing conditions. 

The California child labor laws make it pos- 
sible for the schools to keep minors under 18 
years of age under their supervision. Voca- 
tional education should seek to hold such minors 
within the schools by offering them courses and 
information which would make them more ef- 
fective in their economic struggle for existence. 





Why Workers’ Education 


By Paul Scharrenberg, Secretary, California State Federation of Labor 


Many workers are apt to disregard the need 
for education. They think that “it isn’t for us,” 
and that it is only people who can go to colleges 
and devote their whole life to study who can hope 
to become educated. But that all depends on 
what we mean by education and being educated. 
We can get on quite well in life without knowing 
anything about many of the things studied at uni- 
versities, because they do not touch the problems 
of our everyday life—though they may be very 
interesting and, in some respects, very valuable 
forms of knowledge. But there are some ques- 
tions forever facing us in our daily life and labor 
which very few of us can answer, and which yet 
are of vital interest to us and our fellow-workers. 
These are questions of work and wages, strikes 
and lockouts, unemployment and economic de- 
pressions. 

There are various subjects that we should 
study and, in fact, must study if we are going 
0 enable ourselves to construct a new social 
system. 

Industrial history—and here we mean the 
Workers’ view of industrial history—is the first 
subject in importance. We must learn that things 
have not always been as they are today. The 


lesson that we should get rooted in our minds, so 
that we shall never forget it, is that everything 
is always changing. History deals with the gen- 
eral changes that take place in the relations of 
man-—the changes from Feudalism to Capitalism, 
for example. We must learn the direction of 
change today, and see thereby what our work in 
that change must be. 

The whole social organization is and always 
has been based upon the labor of the masses, and 
as the methods of performing that labor change 
the whole of life, the institutions of society must 
sooner or later change in conformity with those 
methods. We should learn how the methods of 
work have changed from age to age, and how 
these changes have reacted on the working class. 
We should learn how the working class has 
struggled through the ages, and by what means it 
has been successful, and why it has usually 
failed in its struggles. We must learn finally that 
as individuals, as unions, as a national working 
class we are dependent on other individuals, other 
unions, other national working classes. It is the 
fact of our being workers that binds us together 
in mutual interdependence—whether we will or 
no. Our salvation lies in recognizing that inter- 











18 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


dependence in a practical way and in organizing 
our labor for our common well-being. 

Economics deals with the laws that underlie 
the labor of the workers; it examines the rela- 
tions between the sections which do the work in 
the different industries. One of the most im- 
portant practical problems of economics is the 
manner in which the product of the workers is 
divided into rent, interest, profit and wages. But 
behind all, more important than all, is the 
struggle between those who live on labor and 
those who live by labor; between those who do 
the work and those who enjoy the best and finest 
fruits of the work. Education in its highest 
sense is necessary to help us work intelligently 
for a fairer adjustment of these two ever-warring 
factors. 

The power to produce wealth grows with every 
new discovery and invention. We are faced with 
the great contradiction of modern society—the 
vast wealth and the almost boundless possibilities 
of wealth production and, on the other hand, 
unemployment and misery of the masses. We 
can “produce wealth like water,” yet millions go 
short of food, are clothed in shoddy, and have 
not a decent roof over their heads. Society today 
presents the spectacle of “progress and poverty.” 

The masses, while they are fortunate enough 
to have work, are producing far more than they 
ever hope to buy back; the amount they must 
provide in rent, interest and profit far exceeds 
their share. And those other parts—rent, inter- 
est and profit—are not wholly consumed either. 
They accumulate, and accumulate rapidly—more 
rapidly than they can find a sufficiently remunera- 
tive field of investment; but they seek such fields 
in every part of the world. Capital, accumulated 
out of the surplus unpaid labor of the masses 
must be exported because it is incapable of find- 
ing employment at home. This leads to a vital 
factor in the relations between the industrialized 
(or advanced) and the non-industrialized (or 
“backward”) nations of the world. The eco- 
nomic interests of the advanced country demand 
political control over the backward nation. That 
is the reason for military intervention in Nica- 
tagua, Haiti and other countries today. 

We may learn of industrial history, economics,. 
and imperialism, but we will learn of these sub- 
jects far better if we understand the instrument 


Now, what i 
the instrument by which man arrives at this s¢. 


which we have to use in doing so. 


entific and conscious understanding? It is, ¢ 
course, his brain. And just as in our ordinap 
daily work we must know the nature of the too 
we use, so with this most important instrumey 
of all, the brain, we need to know what its wor 
is, and how it does its work. Like the heart, tk 
brain goes on with its work, whether we are ful) 
aware of it or not. Countless generations of me 
lived and died before the real functions ot th 
heart were discovered. In the same way, th 
functions of the brain are even yet but litt 
understood. 

Why do different people hold different ani 
often contradictory views about the same thing’ 
There are two reasons. In the first place, ther 
is the fact that some brains work better tha 
others, are brighter, more efficient machine 
Secondly, the material put into the machine i 
widely different in different cases. These m:- 
terials out of which the brain fashions ou 
thoughts are our experiences. The science 0! 
understanding shows the way in which the brait 
takes this experience-material and fashjons it int 
thoughts, ideas and ideals. 

Our minds have two definite sections, the cor- 
scious section and the unconscious section. We 
have to learn not only how the instrument of ow 
conscious reasoning works, but also the influence 
exerted on our minds by those thoughts and fee! 
ings which are entirely unconscious. Psycholog 
explains how our mental tools are fashioned, an. 
logic will explain to us how to use them. 

The very essence of worker’s education is ! 
cultivate that logical and reasonable understané 
ing of the common problems of our lives, so the 
each generation, each individual, will leave thi 
earth in the knowledge of the fact that it isé 
little happier and a little better because of h: 
efforts. : 





THE CALIFORNIA PLAN 
J. L. Kerchen, Director Worker’s Educatio: 
Worker's educafion in California is a joit 
enterprise carried on in cooperation by the Ex 
tension Division of the University of Californ 
and the California State Federation of Labor. 
The administration of the work is placed © 
the hands of a Joint Committee on’ Worker! 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Fducation consisting of nine members, five of 
yhom represent labor. 

The organization of classes and direct promo- 
tion of the work is placed in the hands of a Di- 
rector of Worker’s Education who gives full time 
io the work and who is responsible to the Joint 
Committee, which is duly affiliated with the 
Worker’s Education Bureau of the American 
Federation of Labor. 

Worker’s education is based upon the assump- 
tion that the worker because of his economic 
position as a wage earner in modern industry 
needs a specialized education in the facts of his 
economic life. It is not a general increase in 
knowiedge that the worker so much needs as 
it is a special knowledge with a purpose. For 
example, he does not at present need vocational 
education, for he is so vocationally efficient that 
approximately one-fifth of the workers in these 
United States are without jobs. Vocational edu- 
cation for production, obviously, would only in- 
tensify this situation. 

One of the chief aims of worker’s education 
is to instruct the worker to understand the nature 
and the purpose of the industrial society, in 
which he as a wage earner must, for better or 
for worse, work, toil, struggle, live and die. All 
other knowledge—however important it may be 
—is of secondary importance to this. It is this 
“Great Society” in its economic aspects that 
gives color and complexion to a worker’s educa- 
tion movement. 

Another phase of worker’s education is to build 
up a body of knowledge of working class needs 
and necessities. During the gradual develop- 
ment of industry from a family to a factory 
system the relation of the worker to his means 
of living has vitally changed. A machine tech- 
nology has forced its challenge not only upon 
labor but upon all of industrial society, with the 
brunt upon labor. An education centered around 
the problern of living upon a wage is one of the 
chief concerns of worker’s education. 

Worker’s education, it is hoped, will develop 
into a powerful tool of the working class; in 
the words of President Green of the American 
Federation of Labor, a “powerful arm of labor.” 
Today education in its extended sense is a most 
cogent tool in the hands of persons who wish to 
control and direct the thinking of the masses. 


19 


Evidently much of this thinking is not for pur- 
pose of human betterment or social and economic 
progress. The education that worker’s education 
must provide is an attempt to break down “gov- 
erning class control over working class thinking.” 

Finally worker’s education is education by, for 
and of workers and whatever it is to be, it must 
be built and controlled by them. During the 
past five years in the State of California the 
Director has taught and organized some fourteen 
classes each year. These take the form of short 
term lecture courses given for the most part to 
labor locals whose interest is sufficient to main- 
tain a class. Courses in Wages, Public Speaking, 
Economics of Unemployment, and Problems of 
Poverty are the most pursued. The current year 
has been centered entirely upon the Economics of 
Unemployment. Interest and attendance have 
been the very best in our experience. Maybe 
“increasing misery” does stimulate thinking. 
Let us help it before it is too late. 





“I-very man is worth just so much as the 
things are worth about which he busies himself.” 
—Marcus Aurelius. 





Men Are Valuable —As they are able to think 
for themselves. As they are able to execute orders 
with accuracy. As they are able to make their 
efforts fit in with those of other men. As they are 
able to forget the trifles for the sake of the big 
objectives. As they are able to stand by their 
convictions and good humor. 





If you wish success in life, make perserverance 
your bosom friend, experience your wise counsellor, 
caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian 
genius.—J. Addison. 





“Labor is the superior of capital and deserves 
higher consideration. And inasmuch as most things 
have been produced by labor, it follows that all such 
things belong of right to those whose labor has pro- 
duced them. But it has so happened in all ages of the 
world that some have labored and others have, 
without labor, enjoyed a large portion of the fruits. 
This is wrong and should not continue. 

—Abraham Lincoln. 





“To secure to each laborer the whole product 
of his labor, as nearly as possible, is a worthy 
object of any government.” 

—Abraham Lincoln. 








20 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Annual Conference of Teachers in Workers’ Education 
By Cara Cook, Brookwocd Local 189 


The Annual Conference of Teachers in 
Workers’ Education, authorized by the Ameri- 
can Federation of Teachers and promoted by 
3rookwood Local 189 of the American Federa- 
tion of Teachers, was held at Brookwood Labor 
College, Katonah, New York, February 21st to 
23rd, 
in attendance from a large number of labor col- 


Teachers or administrative officers were 


leges and classes including Bryn Mawr, Barnard 
and the Southern Summer Schools, Vineyard 
Shore, Commonwealth, Philadelphia Labor Col- 
lege, Industrial Y. W. C. A. classes in New York, 
Cleveland, Buffalo and Lawrence, Mass., Manu- 
mit School and Brookwood. 

Since 1931 is the tenth anniversary of the 
founding of the Bryn Mawr Summer School, 
Brookwood, the Workers’ Education Bureau of 
America and a considerable number of non-resi- 
dent labor colleges, the sessions of the Teachers’ 
Conference this year were devoted chiefly to an 
effort to evaluate the progress made during this 
period in various departments, such as textbooks 
and other forms of teaching material, teaching 
methods, recruiting, finance and personnel; and 
to estimate the effectiveness of the work done 
by the graduates of labor colleges and classes 
and the general influence of workers’ education 
on the labor movement and public opinion. The 
closing session of the Conference was devoted 
to an attempt to forecast the course the move- 
ment is likely to take in the next few years. 

Very little time was devoted to theoretical dis- 
putation, the Conference settling down at the 
outset to a thorough discussion of the technical 
problems mentioned. The discussion was made 
much more realistic by the fact that a number of 
questionnaires dealing with a variety of problems 
had been sent out, the answers to which pro- 
vided factual material which will be placed at the 
disposal of a larger audience in the proceedings 
of the Conference, soon to be published by 
Local 189, 

From members of all the various enterprises 
represented at the Conference came the sugges- 
tion that each of them had certain kinds of edu- 
cational material, recruiting contacts, experience 


as to teaching methods, etc., which might be us. 
ful to others, if there were some simple clear. 
igg house machinery through which this materig 
might be placed at the disposal of those needing 
it. It was suggested also that at certain point 
cooperation in advancing the workers’ education 
movement could be arranged. After the poim 
had been repeatedly brought up and one com 
mittee had been actually appointed to issue ; 
bulletin containing a list of textbooks, syllabi 
reading lists, which the various schocls cou 
make available for use by others, it was decided 
to appoint an informal committee to consider th 
general problem of the establishment of a clear- 
ing house. 

This committee consisted of Ernestine Fried 
mann, chairman, Vineyard Shore School and the 
Barnard Summer School, Lois MacDonald, sec. 
retary, the Southern Summer School for Wome 
Workers, A. J. Muste, Brookwood, Eleanor Coit 
Affiliated Summer Schools, Frieda Seigworth 
Educational Classes Industrial Department Y 
W. C. A., Cleveland, and William FE. Zeuch 
Commonwealth. There was a unanimous opinior 
in the committee that forma! steps should bk 
taken to develop an official conference of rep 
resentatives of the various enterprises interested 
This recommendation was enthusiastically re 
ceived by the Conference and steps have beet 
taken by the committee to bring together officia 
representatives of the labor colleges and classes 
for the purpose indicated, in the latter part o! 
April. 

Of special interest to officers and members 0! 
the A. F. of T. were the remarks made at on: 
of the sessions by A. J. Muste, Dean of Brook: 
wood and A. I. of T. Vice-President : 

“There has been said Mr 
Muste, “in this Conference of present tendencit! 
in the American labor movement and particular! 
of the official attitude toward workers’ educe 
tion. With these criticisms I am, as you know 
in complete accord. It is well to bear in mind 
however, that these criticisms do not appiy 
all the members and all of the trade unions af 
filiated with the American Federation of Labor 

“In particular it is a source of gratification an 


some criticism,” 








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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 21 


«couragement to all of us that the union to 
yhich most of us belong, the American Federa- 
jon of Teachers, has in the last few years ex- 
serienced a fifty per cent growth in membership 
and has generally pursued a vigorous and pro- 
gressive course under the able leadership of two 
women of magnificent courage, Miss Mary 
Barker of Atlanta, Georgia, our President, and 
Mrs. Florence Hanson of Chicago, Secretary- 
Treasurer. 

“Within the past few months new locals have 
heen established at Smith College, in the anthra- 
cite region in Pennsylvania, and in Georgia. 

“Wherever there are locals of the A. F. of T. 
and any labor educational work at all has been 
carried on, we find the A. F. of T. locais actively 
interested. This has been true in New York 
City, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Paul and Minneapolis, 
and Los Angeles. 

“As the international union most directly con- 
cerned with the controversy, the A. F. of T. stood 
quarely by Brookwood when it was under at- 
tack by certain reactionaries in the American 
Federation of Labor a few years ago. Miss 
Barker actually assumed the chairmanship of the 
Executive Council of the Southern Summer 
School for Women Workers when at about the 
same time it seemed to be threatened with at- 
tack. 

“In such unions as this lies the hope of our 
American labor movement.” 

The delegates were also interested in a report 
on the Seattle situation, made at another session. 

Miss Hilda W. Smith, who has for ten years 
been closely identified with the Bryn Mawr Sum- 
mer School for Women Workers and has been 
a great influence in the establishment of other 
summer schools, and A. J. Muste, of Brookwood, 
addressed the closing session of the Conference 
on the subject of future possibilities. Both ex- 
pressed the conviction that the independent 
workers’ educational enterprises had chosen the 
tight course in holding that workers’ education 
must be an integral part of the labor movement 
and must concern itself with the actual living 
issues confronting the workers and their organ- 
izations and that on the other hand such labor 
education can be carried on only in an atmos- 
phere of genuine freedom of thought and dis- 
cussion. They expressed the conviction that 
workers’ education carried on along these lines 
would flourish in the decade ahead. 


DR. CHARLES F. CARUSI 


Wueras, At the meeting of this Union held 
on the 2ist day of March, 1931 there has oc- 
curred a general expression of deep regret at the 
death of our former member Dr. Charles F. 
Carusi, and 

WHERAS, It is the sentiment of this organiza- 
tion that there has been a distinct loss to the 
community as well as to our Union by the de- 
parture of Dr. Carusi from our midst, and 

Wueras, Every member appreciates the bene- 
fit which the City of Washington and in particu- 
lar the Public School System of the District of 
Columbia derived from hig interest in the cause 
of education and from the excellent judgment 
displayed and deep interest evinced during his 
occupation of the position of President of the 
Board of Education, and 

Wueras, It is further appreciated that Dr. 
Carusi volunteered and engaged in active service 
in the Spanish-American War and thereby af- 
forded an example of patriotic effort and will- 
ingness to defend his country’s cause: 

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that Washington 
Educational Union No. 198, in meeting assem- 
bled, hereby records its deep appreciation of 
those services in education, in civic duties and 
in military service rendered by our deceased 
former member, and our deep sympathy with his 
family at the great loss they have sustained, 

Be 1r FurtHer Resorvep, that the President 


‘and Secretary under the seal of this Corporation, 


execute a copy of this Resolution and transmit 
the same to the family of our deceased former 


member. 
May P. Bradshaw, Richard T, Harvey, 
Secretary. President. 
SINCERITY 


Sincerity is the very foundation stone of true friend- 
liness. It is also a human trait that is hard to counter- 
feit, as the sincere friendly impulse comes from the 
soul of a man and not from the calculating mind. 
Think kindly and friendly thoughts. If you have a 
heart and a soul, why be ashamed of them? Bring 
them into the shop, the office, and your daily life. 
The hand may be cunning, and the head may contain 
the brain that can conceive the most brilliant thoughts, 
but every good and worthy impulse comes from the 
heart. Strengthen your faith in men, think kindly 
of them, believe that they are your friends, and in 
the long run they will be. 

—Raymond Cosgreve 








22 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Purposes of a Union 
By Ralph E. Blount, Chicago Local 2 


Mr. Vestal’s reply in the March issue to Mr. 
Jablonower’s broad discussion of the activities 
of teacher unions contains a statement which 
should be promptly challenged. He limits the 
field of teacher unions strictly to “the protection 
and advancement of the economic and service 
conditions of its members.” From the context 
and from what we know of Mr. Vestal’s work in 
Local 2 we understand that “service con- 
ditions” mean hours of work, tenure of position, 
retirement age, sabbatical leave, sick leave, etc. 
This is certainly a clear cut position but gives 
the unions a field altogether too limited. Many 
of Mr. Vestal’s brothers in Local 2 would not 
agree to such a narrow outlook. Mr. Jablonower 
in his February article, in the paragraph num- 
bered 2, recognizes the necessity of these prac- 
tical activities but he warns us against limiting 
ourselves to these ends. The warning is needed. 
We are already so taken up with these matters 
that we signally fail to work for the advancement 
of these ends which many of us consider vital 
in a teacher’s life. 

Among the things which have received too 
little of our attention and which would hardly 
come within Mr. Vestal’s narrow field is our 
slogan—Democracy in Education and Education 
for Democracy. Our whole school system is or- 
ganized on the principle which prevails in most 
business concerns—at the top a Board with com- 
plete authority limited only by general state laws, 
under it a highly paid superintendent with dic- 
tatorial power over his subordinates, under him 
lieutenants of varyine ranks issuing orders to 
their subordinates, lowest of all the class teacher 
receiving orders from his superiors and in turn 
lording it over the children under his care. Not 
much democracy and not much training for de- 
mocracy. The only thing that saves it from utter 
ruin is the recognition, by officers of the corps, 
of the archaic character of the organization and 
the gratuitous introduction of a modicum of 
consultation and cooperative planning. We 
should be working for a radical change which 
will promote instead of hinder a fraternal spirit 
all the way from the bottom to the top and 


facilitate the extension of the influence of the 
more progressive teachers throughout the group, 

Again, although in Chicago we are fortunate 
in having no official discrimination against mar- 
ried women, against any religious faith or poli- 
tical sect, yet in some places there are such dis. 
criminations and very bitter antagonisms t 
teacher unions. It is therefore within our prov- 
ince to work for a more just public sentiment, 
We should invest more energy and finance in this 
campaign. 

It is not in Tennessee only that scholastic 
freedom is checked by ignorance and _ supersti- 
tion in positions of control. Greed of profit of 
those in power is holding a sword over the heads 
of teachers in many schools and so intimidating 
them that they conceal their convictions from 
their pupils and teach the lie the money lords 
decree. Even a young and struggling union can- 
not afford to ignore this challenge to its spirit oi 
independence. 

It is with a union as with an individual, a hie 


- devoted to getting for self can never develop the 


finest character. A union whose sole aim i 
“protection and advancement of the economic 
and service conditions of its members” may suc- 
ceed in getting much that its members need, but 
it cannot develop the fine type of membership 
which comes from devotion to unselfish ends 
Our union should be just as much concerned that 
each member does his duty to the school as that 
he receives his dues from the school authorities. 
Some professions and guilds have at times heli 
high codes of ethics which their members were 
compelled to observe. We have done little to 
establish a high professional standard for the 
members of our union. The cynical slurs at 
visionary idealists which we so often hear in our 
meetings indicate a sordid standard which augurs 
ill for the future of our organization. An im- 
portant part of our union activity should be to 
make clearer té the members the responsibilities 
as well as the privileges of their high calling, 
and to be as much concerned in their meeting 
their responsibilities as in their enjoying thei 
privileges. 


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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 23 


Teacher Credit and Loans 


By H. S. Bechtolt, Local 2, Chairman of A. F. T. Committee Teacher Credit and Loans 


Part II — 


Since the appearance of the article in the 
April issue a letter came to me from a man in 
Pennsylvania asking if I could refer him to any 
place where he could borrow $275 at less than 
214% so that he might repay a loan to a certain 
nationally advertised small loan company on 
which he was paying the above rate per month 
on unpaid balances. 

Judging by the Chicago situation, there is little 
doubt that that is a typical case which could be 
multiplied many thousands of times over the 
length and breadth of the land, if the facts were 
really known. It is estimated that loan sharks 
have in the United States probably two million 
customers, These victims of the lenders who are 
not regulated must frequently pay up to 20% a 
month and higher on unpaid balances. Then 
there are probably other three million families in 
24 states which borrow from licensed and regu- 
lated companies, and must pay up to 3%% 
monthly on unpaid balances. 

No doubt many of our readers have listened to 
the beguiling radio programs of these personal 
finance companies which offer to settle all your 
credit problems by the simple device of borrow- 
ing from them enough to pay off all your debts. 
They are careful to omit any mention of the fact 
that you will pay 2%4% to 344% a month on un- 
paid balances, which means from 30% to 42% a 
year on the money which they are so eager to 
press upon you. In defense of this high rate 
they argue as follows: “By the system of in- 
stallment repayments and charges only on unpaid 
balances, the borrower never pays $42 for an 
original $100 loan even though the rate is the 
3%% states may be precisely stated at 42% per 
annum. The actual cost of the original $100 loan 
is $22.75 when the rate is 314% and the loan is 
retired in 12 months. This is a charge against 
the borrower’s income of about 6 cents per day.” 
Then they proceed to compare this return with 
net return of various representative great in- 
dustries and it is claimed that 22.75% is almost 
exactly the average of the net return of this 
group. The fallacy of this argument does not 
always dawn on the radio listener, 


Companies such as our correspondent referred 
to above assume the pose of public benefactors 
because by operating under the law which re- 
stricts them to a maximum of 314%, they are 
protecting the public from the usurious exactions 
of the real loan-sharks operating without the law 
and charging up to 20% and more a month. And 
there is something to be said for those who place 
themselves under legal restrictions. But there is 
abundant evidence that the licensed small-loan 
organizations are operating highly profitable 
businesses. If credit unions can charge one third 
as much interest and still pay shareholders divi- 
dends ranging from 5 to 8%, even allowing for 
the overhead of the moneylenders, it is clear that 
they are not operating solely for the public in- 
terest, as one might gather from the radio pub- 
licity and other extensive advertising forced upon 
us continually. 

But to return to our friend from Pennsylvania. 
Of course we were obliged to reply that we knew 
of no other way to avoid paying 2’4% monthly 
except to join a credit union. For his benefit, as 
well as for others who may never have seen the 
address, we suggested that he get in contact with 
the Credit Union National Extension Bureau, 5 
Park Square, Boston for any information desired 
concerning the procedure necessary for organiz- 
ing a credit union. Since writing him we received 
a copy of the newest book on the subject, which 
is just off the press, and which all our readers 
should own. Crepir Unton—A Cooperative 
BANKING Book by Roy F. Bergengren contains 
300 pages which are well worth the $1.25 which 
it costs postpaid from the above address, Besides 
a meaty introduction, it contains the following 
chapters: Cooperation — Cooperative Credit — 
Credit Union; The Problems Confronting the 
Credit Union; Credit Union Mechanics; Practice; 
History and Accomplishment; Conclusions. The 
last 30 pages of the book are organized into a sort 
of catechism summarizing about every imaginable 
question one might ask about credit unions and 
answering them most satisfactorily. Truly here 
is the Baedeker for the credit union movement 
which every socially minded union teacher should 
read and then carry into practice. 

Last month we promised to bring to you the 








24 THE AMERICAN 


results of the questionnaire sent out to leading 
school superintendents over the country by The 
Nation’s Schools. Without further acknowledg- 
ment I quote from some of the most significant 
replies, which will show us what leading school 
executives think about the problems of teacher 
credit and loans. 

Willis A. Sutton, president, National Educa- 
tion Association, superintendent of schools, At- 
lanta, Ga. : 


“The loan shark evil has been 
Atlanta and among the public school teachers for 
a number of years. Pursuant to a study of the 
question a credit union was formed among the 
teachers of Atlanta that has resulted in relieving 
a large number of our teachers who otherwise 
would have been caught in the meshes of the loan 
shark. No work could be of greater value to the 
teachers of the nation than the efforts you are 
making to relicve the teachers of the embarrassment 
of going to those who would charge exorbitant 
prices. I give my hearty commendation to the 
article in the January issue of The Nation's Schools, 
and to the effort being made to give the teachers 
a chance to borrow at a reasonable rate.” 


recognized in 


William John Cooper, Commissioner of Edu- 
cation, Washington, D. C.: 

“IT did not have any idea that this loan business 
had become so much of an incubus on the teaching 
profession. I have no information on the subject 
other than what is in your article, so that all I can 
do is to wish you well in your campaign to benefit 
the teachers and to congratulate you upon attacking 
the problem so vigorously.” 


The superintendent of public instruction for 
Illinois, Francis G. Blair, comments as follows: 


“Certainly anything that can be done to save 
innocent persons from such slaughter ought to be 
done. My own feeling is that the best cure that 
can be administered is to let them be bitten once. 
Anyone who has a high school education and in- 
telligence ought to know something about the laws 
of interest which make him proof against such 
fakirs. There are many places in every community 
where men and women of character and reputation 
for honesty and paying their debts can always secure 
a loan at reasonable interest. However, I can agree 
with your general attitude against these hold-up 
concerns even when the victims themselves perhaps 
deserve very little sympathy.” 


J. M. Gwinn, superintendent of schools of 


San Francisco: 


“IT can say that information contained in your 
article was a great surprise to me. I had no knowl- 





TEACHER 


edge that teachers were paying so great a sum ty 
loan sharks. You are to be highly commended fo, 
bringing the facts to the attention of the public and 
especially to school executives. Some vigorous ar. 
tion should be taken to remedy such conditions 
The situation made clear by you emphasizes the 
need teachers have for education on personal f. 
nances. Teachers are as a class men and women oj 
high ideals. However, along with these ideals the 
should consider the practical things of life.” 


Cornelia S. Adair, a director of the Virginia 
Education Association and a former president of 
the National Education Association, is enthusi- 
astic in her approval of credit unions: 

“T am delighted to know that The Nation's School; 
has taken up the cudgels for the teachers against 
the high interest money lenders. The sad examples 
cited in your January article are, I fear, only to 
common throughout the country. The ever increas- 
ing demands that teachers have on their frequently 
inadequate salaries do not leave wide emergency 
margins. I believe a credit union to be a satisfactory 
answer to a very real need. If I can be of any 
service, please call on me.” 

Hlearty endorsement of the move to establish 
credit unions more extensively is contained in 
the letter from William McAndrew, 
superintendent of Chicago’s schools, an educa- 
tional critic, as follows: 


former 


“You and I know that there is no class of workers 
more honest and generally intelligent than teachers. 
Now, we have a recent confirmatory declaration by 
President Hoover. But with money teachers are 
not so smart. They haven’t had enough of it te 
gain experience. You should keep on telling super- 
intendents how profitable a credit union of teachers 
themselves, can be made. It can be one of the 
soundest, most professionally fraternal ventures con- 
ceivable. An unworried teacher is a community 
asset.” 


Paul C. Stetson, superintendent of schools, 
Indianapolis, reports the existence of strong 
teacher’s credit union among his co-workers, an‘ 
agrees definitely with the other leaders of his 
profession in supporting the crusade against high 
interest lenders: 


“The battle which The Nation’s Schools is waging 
against Shylocks who, prey upon teachers who find 
themselves in need of funds is one that should have 
aggressive support of every teacher and adminis 
trator. Many teachers, from the very nature of 
their work, are unfamiliar with ordinary banking 
methods so that when they face an emergency the) 
are lured by the high pressure salesmanship of ut 
scrupulous firms. When they find themselves i 





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THE AMERICAN 


clutches of those usurers, it is often difficult and 
many times a source of embarrassment to get out 
of them. 

“Indianapolis has had a teacher credit union for 
several years. Such should be formed in 
every city of any size. m 


unions 


Frank G. Pickell, Montclair, New Jersey: 


“I think you have opened up a very important 
subject. It is shocking to learn in how many in- 
stances the teachers of this country have been com- 
pelled or felt it wise to approach high interest 
money lenders to enable them to meet some sudden 
emergency. I hope you can keep up the good work, 
for in nearly every city of any size it seems to me 
that it would be advisable for the teachers organ- 
zations to work out some simple credit union 
plan under which teachers could secure funds at 
reasonable rates of interest. I am going to take this 
matter up in our teachers’ association, and make the 
recommendation that they form some such credit 
union as you have described in your article.” 


George N. Child, Salt Lake City, Utah: 


“You have stated the case clearly and are making 
a much needed fight against an injustice. Many 
cases have come to my attention of teachers in our 
system who have been victims of this high handed 
usury. You will be contributing to the teachers’ 
peace of mind, if you can aid in bringing about a 
way of preventing their falling into the hands of 
money sharks when they are compelled to borrow 
small sums.” 


J. R. Barton, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: 


“You are certainly to be congratulated upon the 
stand you take upon this issue. The educational 
profession is truly indebted to you for waging the 
battle in its behalf. The figures you submit are 
appalling, because they picture the nation-wile total 
of tribute that the members of our profession are 
paying to money lenders. In most cases this is 
because they are so susceptible to the appeals of 
others more needy than themselves, yet the picture 
as presented is certainly not exaggerated. 

“Success to you! May your efforts cease not until 
you have arousel the profession to action, resulting 
ina pooling of their resources to take care of their 
own,” 


Before closing this article, let me repeat the 
invitation extended last month. It will be most 
helpful to this department, if we may hear from 
your own communities concerning this problem 
of teacher credit and loans, for we are eager to 
assist any teachers in meeting this embarrassing 
Situation and thus any and all information will 
be helpful. Help us to help all the rest on the 
Way to solvency! 


TEACHER 25 


CONFERENCE OF THE PROGRESSIVE 
EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 

The Eleventh Annual Conference of the Pro- 
gressive Education Association, held in Detroit, 
February 26 to 28, was notable for the largest 
attendance in its history, and for at least two 
significant forward steps. Resolutions were 
passed for the organization of a worid movement 
in education which will not only coordinate all 
educational agencies in this country to promote 
a knowledge of modern educational philosophy 
in all countries, but which will transfer to the 
teaching body the impetus and means of advanc- 
ing better international understanding and good 
will which the politicians have signally failed to 
accomplish. 

The other movement fostered by the Associa- 
tion is the work of a committee under the direc- 
tion of Wilford M. Aikin, Head Master of the 
John Burroughs School, St. Louis, Missouri, to 
reorganize the entire relation of the secondary 
school to the college by doing away with the 
credit and unit system, liberalizing entrance ex- 
aminations, and establishing standards of sec- 
ondary education which the colleges will accept 
as the basis for their curricula. 





FEDERAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON 


EDUCATION 
The Advisory committee on education ap- 
pointed by the Secretary of the Interior at the 


request of President Hoover has been studying 
for the past eighteen months the problem of 
the relation of the Federal government to educa- 
tion. The committee has as yet made no final 
report, but its report of progress made a few 
months ago showed that it was thinking along 
the line of larger Federal contributions but with- 
cut any transfer of control from the state to the 
Federal government. Since this is in harmony 
with the position taken for years by the Ameri- 
can Federation of Teachers, the final report of 
this committee is awaited with great interest by 
our organization. 

Successfully to accomplish any task it is nec- 
essary not only that you should give it the best 
there is in you, but that you should obtain for it 
the best there is in those under your guidance. 

—George W. Goethals. 








26 THE AMERICAN 





BOOKS 


“There is no frigate like a book 
To bear us lands away.” 
—Enmily Dickinson. 











Your Jog anp Your Pay, By Katherine H. Pol- 
lak and Tom Tippett. Vanguard Press, New 
York. Cloth, $2.00, Paper, 50 cents. 


The dismal science of economics with its the- 
ory of marginal utility, Gresham’s Law or the 
law of diminishing returns or that delightful 
cover for a multitude of economic sins—all other 
things being equal—are no more! Your Job and 
Your Pay deals with the problems of the every- 
day worker in simple, vivid, dramatic fashion in 
language that can be readily understood by the 
literate worker with even a minimum educational 
background. 

Those workers who retain their Pollyanna 
concept of our government and the thriving con- 
dition of American workers generally should read 
this book. What a shock it will be for them to 
learn that the majority of our independent 
workers earn a living that does not harmonize 
with the American standards of health and de- 
cency; that long hours, low wages, speed-up and 
unsanitary conditions, industrial accidents and 
unemployment are the inevitable by-products of 
a system run for profit for the few rather than 
for the service of all. Why? Because the gov- 
ernment and the courts have been prostituted by 
those powerful economic groups who finance, 
control and use political parties to secure tariffs, 
subsidies, use of troops, injunctions to cripple 
strike, or decisions to prevent mass picketing or 
boycotts. The authors make a strong case for 
trade unions as against boss dominated company 
unions; for a labor party as against the futile 
non-partisan policy of the A. F. of L.; for a 
government built upon the service rather than 
upon the profit ideal. 

In place of a money-mad world which pays un- 
told millions in dividends for no social service at 
a time when millions of workers are in want, they 
picture another society ushered in by organized 
workers, In this society every child will have the 
fullest educational opportunity and every worker 
a guaranteed job, a worker inspired not by per- 
sonal gain but by a desire to serve, by the good 





TEACHER 


will of his fellow workers, by the creative urg 
or the desire to do a good job, What an eye 
opener this book will prove to the average high 
school student or to the worker exposed to the 
educational influence of the Daily Mirror or the 
public schools! 

—Abraham Lefkowitz. 





“A SoctaL INTERPRETATION OF EDUCATION.” By 
Joseph K. Hart. Henry Holt, New York 
$3.60. 


In a lengthy review of A Social Interpreta- 
lion of Education Franklin Bobbitt praised the 
book for its clear and honest presentation of the 
shortcomings of actual educational practice, but 
blamed it for its failure to present the picture 
of a fully socialized type of education. Adverse 
criticism is a thing needed today. “For those 
just entering the profession, however, the re- 
viewer would rather recommend readings that 
present a clear, constructive, socialized modern- 
ized program. For them the new may be made 
to supplant the old without the painful inter- 
mediate stage of disillusionment. For them the 
constructive method of educational science will 
be better than acrimonious denunciations by a 
critic of the outworn.” 

To the present reviewer Mr. Bobbitt’s last 
sentence appears to dramatize the need for Mr. 
Hart’s lifework. Accepting all the work of 
educational experimenters as valuable in _ its 
proper place and proportion, Mr. Hart still has 
insisted that no one knows today how to construct 
a socialized, modernized program. ‘We do not 
now need answers. We need to become aware 
of the problem.” He aims to show the failure 
not of outworn methods but of that alleged 
“method of educational science” which in this day 
claims to be able to give a real education, He 
calls all of his former books prefatory mono- 
graphs upon the theme of A Social Inter preta- 
tion of Education, In it his intent is “to um 
settle our educational complacencies, and to com- 
pel passive minds to realize something of the 
same chaos that now really obtains in the social, 
economic, and educational realities of the world 

The problem of education is the problem of 
community making, in the most fundamental 
sense of the word. The problem of the school 
is simply a chapter in that more inclusive prob- 
lem. Neither the “old” nor the “new” schools 





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THE AMERICAN 


have adequately visioned the larger goal of a 
real education. 

So Mr. Hart cheerfully turns away from 
schools to make a survey of processes of edu- 
cation actually going on under all conceivable 
conditions, in home and family relationships, at 
work or play, under the influence of the beauty 
and the ugliness of life around us. The pur- 
pose of all this inquiry is to discover, if possible, 
how to achieve an American education “rooted 
in the realities but capable of rising out of old 
customs and habit to become the social intelli- 
gence of the age.’’ No one, he insists, as yet 
knows how this is to be done. 

Yet in Part 1V of the book he attempts to con- 
sider the future of education in the light of such 
imagination as he can summon, to make sugges- 
tions for investigations that may rise above the 
academic, and to furnish something in the way of 
“a great hypothesis, the framework of the fu- 
ture within which educational progress will be 
likely to get ahead.” 

—WNell Peterson. 
Civic Atrirupes IN AMERICAN ScHooL TEXxtT- 
Books. By Bessie Pierce. University of 
Chicago Press, Chicago. $3.00. 


Miss Pierce’s last sentence reads: “What do 
the American people want their children to re- 
member?” Her book answers this question if it 
can be answered by an exhaustive survey of hun- 
dreds of texts in history and civics and foreign 
language. A few quotations will help to indi- 
cate the general tone of what she finds. 

A part of a confession of faith in América 
reads: ““My flag is unstained, My navy is uncon- 
quered, My army defends the freedom of the 
world.” Another text says: “the greatest thing 
that any man can say is, that he is a citizen of 
the United States.” In still another text the Con- 
stitution is adjudged “the most marvelous po- 
litical instrument that has ever been written.” 
One wonders how many teachers believe it is 
good public policy to cultivate such national 
elf-satisfaction. 

The attitude of our school texts towards other 
nations is examined and illustrated by frequent 
quotation. The child must get the impression 
that all Spaniards are haughty and cruel. Ger- 
many is pictured as greedy and oppressive. She 


TEACHER 27 


is held responsible for the World War, and is 
accused of deliberately bombarding hospitals, of 
repeating the cruelties of the Huns, etc. ‘No 
authors,” says Miss Pierce, “adopt the revision- 
ist point of view regarding the war guilt.” Is 
it possible that they have never heard of it? 
Or have not the texts been revised within the 
past ten years? 

The book, it seems to the reviewer, is deficient 
in one important respect. Certainly in a school 
text what is omitted may be as significant as 
what is written. This volume contains no hint 
of omitted material. For years informed people 
have been aware of the efforts of the “power 
trust” to influence the school texts on the im- 
portant question of public ownership of public 
utilities. Yet I couldt find no mention of this 
important subject. Certainly since 1924 it cannot 
be regarded as an academic question. Are our 
young citizens to be kept ignorant of important 
controversial subjects—particularly if they relate 
to domestic policies? 


Another important subject ignored, if this vol- 
ume fairly represents the texts, is the history 
of the relations of capital and labor. The labor 
injunction is not mentioned although for years 
it has been the subject of bitter controversy, of 
state and national legislation, and of judicial 
interpretation. Again one is tempted to ask: 
“Which is more important the history of dead 
issues or the history of living ones?” 

Still the conclusion may be justified that there 
has of late been improvement in some respects. 
For example: “Isolation makes for suspicion and 
war, world commerce makes for peace.” One 
book questions the justice of the Monroe Doc- 
trine as now applied. The author does not say, 
but is there not less glorification of war? How- 
ever this may be there is much room for im- 
provement. The teacher who wishes to keep 
well informed will want to read and study this 
book. Miss Pierce has done a real service in 
making this information so easily available. 


W. J. Hipple. 


Of the $1,801,082,900 spent by the Federal Gov- 
ernment during the past six months, nearly $1,125,- 
000,000 was expended for the cost of wars of the 
past and for national defense, according to the 
Treasury Department. 











28 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


EDUCATIONAL TENDENCIES IN CURRENT 
MAGAZINES 


By Nell Peterson 

“Begin with the teacher!” Dr. M. V. O’Shea 
chose this slogan to represent the outstanding 
issue discussed at the recent N. E. A. convention 
in Detroit. 

There were, as usual, different opinions about 
ways of securing growth in service. Walden, 
New York, offered its newly inaugurated policy, 
which will eventually require every one who 
teaches in the public schools of Walden to attend 
summer school at least one summer in every five 
years, 

A somewhat different note was sounded by 
Miss Florence Cane, director of art at White 
Plains, New York, when she declared: “If we 
desire real, creative art in the lives of our chil- 
dren, not just some dead formulations about art, 
we must first have art in the life of our teachers. 
That means time to study and rest and create. 
We must find some way to lighten the work of 
our teachers.” 

Miss Cane discussed the same problem in the 
March issue of Progressive Education, an issue 
devoted to discussions of teachers for progressive 
schools. This journal gives space, once more, 
to some wise and familiar words of John Dewey: 
“All other reforms are conditioned upon reform 
in the qualifications and character of those who 
engage in the teaching profession—If any 
scheme could be devised which would draw to 
the calling of teaching, persons of force of char- 
acter, of sympathy with children, and consequent 
interest in the problems of teaching and of 
scholarship, no one need be troubled for a mo- 
ment about other educational reforms, or the 
solution of other educational problems. But as 
long as a school organization which is undemo- 
cratic in principle tends to repel from all but the 
higher portions of the school system those of 
independent force, intellectual initiative, and of 
inventive ability, or tends to hamper them in 
their work after they find their way into the 
school room, so long all other reforms are com- 
promised at their source and postponed indefi- 
nitely for solution.” 


John Dewey, Democracy for the Teacher, reprinted 
in Progressive Education, March, 1931, from Elemen- 
tary School Teacher, 1903. 


It is encouraging to see that intelligence test 
are being seriously challenged. The Horace Mam 
School, Teachers College, Columbia, has dis 
continued grouping on the basis of abstract mer. 
tal ability as measured by intelligence tests. Mr 
IE. W. Butterfield, also, has concluded that the 
/. Q. movement has done education harm. Abilit 
grovping belongs to an educational philosophy 
which gives supreme attention to the academic 
with the consequent neglect of other aspects o/ 
the child’s nature which are of even more in. 
portance. Accordingly use of the tests has in. 
tensified the verbalism of the schools at the ver 
time when enrichment was needed. 

“With proud acclaim we have declared seven 
school objectives, and yet we depend upon stané- 
ards which are commensurable with only the las 
one of these seven.” 

Mr. Butterfield pleads for recognition in the 
secondary school program for boys and girls who 
are bright in social values, or in the two grea 
commandments, or in manual skills, or in know! 
edge of art and the production of beauty, or it 
the ability to “bear silently and without con: 
plaint the burdens of life.” 

Ek. W. Butterfield, in The Journal of the Nation 
Educational Association, April, 1931. 

Frederick Winsor, headmaster of Middlesex 
School, in Concord, Massachusetts, has often 
been faced with the problem of what to do with 
the unintellectual boy. In the Aflantic he tried 
to outline a better procedure for his education 
than the one now current in school and college. 

Mr. Winsor thinks the public must be educated 
to the view that only certain types of pupils wil 
be benefited by college. Since colleges exis 
for the purpose of promoting intellectual training 
and for the advancement of knowledge, the edu 
cation they give will be of benefit only to young 
people who are fitted intellectually for serious 
thinking. If this point of view were accepted, i 
would not only free the colleges from the neces 
sity of trying to adjust their standards to idlers, 
dullards, and butterflies; but it would free sec 
ondary schools from the handicap of trying t 
prepare unintellectual boys for college and % 
would enormously increase their chance of giv 
ing a real education to all. 

The non-intetlectual boy is not necessarily ut 








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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 29 


intelligent; he is merely one whose intelligence 
runs along practical rather than theoretical lines. 
The leaders in politics, business, and social life 
are rather more apt to be drawn from the class 
who are not academic-minded than from the 
dass which has special talents for learning. 

Today secondary education does not give to 
the unintellectual training for their minds, It 
merely offers them training in athletics or in 
“futile courses in vocational training especially 
designed to obviate all necessity of thought.” Yet 
they should be given, along the lines of their 
genuine intelligence, the same sort of exacting, 
stimulating training which the best schools now 
give along academic lines. 

“When we have come to realize that it is 
perfect nonsense to suppose that all boys should 
go to college, and when we realize that there is 
no more disgrace necessarily involved in a boy’s 
not going to college than in his not having blue 
eyes, we shall have made a great stride toward 
sanity in American secondary education. The 
colleges will profit by it, the schools will profit 
by it, and most of all, the community will profit 
by it, because at last real education, real mental 
training, will be given not only to the learned but 
to the practical men who do the work of the 
world.” 


Frederick Winsor, the Unintellectual 
Atlantic Monthly, April, 1931. 


Boy, in The 





TEACHERS AND THE NEW WORLD 

The American Friends Service Committee will 
this year conduct an institute of International 
Relations for Teachers, to be held from June 
22nd to July 3rd, at Haverford College, Haver- 
ford, Pa. (near Philadelphia) Teachers, princi- 
pals, superintendents, and others interested in 
secondary education, who desire to promote in- 
ternational relations, can gain here both the 
information they desire, and something of the 
technique of using it. 

The three basic courses will be on the Eco- 
nomic, Political, and Spiritual Problems of es- 
lablishing World Peace. Dr. Herbert F. Fraser, 
Professor of Economics at Swarthmore College, 
will give the first; and Edward W. Evans, mem- 
ber of Philadelphia Bar, and student and teacher 
of International Law, will give the second; while 


the spiritual aspects will be presented by Leyton 
Richards, pastor of the Carr’s Lane Church, 
Birmingham, England, and Henry J. Cadbury, 
Professor of Biblical Literature at Bryn Mawr 
College. 

It should be noted that this is not a conference ; 
it is an Institute, with concentrated, but complete 
courses, of college grade. Teachers will be par- 
ticularly interested in the course to be given by 
Dr. William H. Kilpatrick, Professor of the 
Philosophy of K:ducation, at Teachers’ College, 
New York City. He will give five lectures on 
“How Attitudes are Created in Children”, These 
will consider the psychological and other factors 
which enter into the creating of mental attitudes. 
and the factors which determine what our atti- 
tudes shall be. 


There will also be special courses, with com- 
petent leadership, on the part that History 
teachers, the Assembly period, and Extra-curri- 
cular activities may play in creating international 
good-will. .Other special discussion groups may 
be formed if desired. Current international 
issues will be considered, and there will be sev- 
cral single lectures by well-known ‘men, such as 
Augustus O. Thomas, President of World Fed- 
eration of Education Associations. His topic 
will be “Teachers and the New World”. 


The plan of the Institute will be the usual one 
of classes in the morning, recreation and fellow- 
ship in the afternoon, lectures in the evening. 
The dates are June 22nd to July 3rd. For further 
information write to the American Friends 
Service Committee, 20 S. 12th St., Philadelphia, 
Pa. 


AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND 
SOCIAL SCIENCE 


The Thirty-fifth Annual Meeting of the 
American Academy of Political and Social Sci- 
ence will be held in Philadelphia, April 17th and 
18th at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel. The gen- 
eral topic of the conference is “I*lements of an 
American Foreign Policy.” The delegates of the 
American Federation of Teachers are Professor 
Jesse H. Holmes of Swarthmore, W. Carson 
Ryan, Director of Education, Indian Service, and 
Henry W. Hetzel, President of Local 192. 








30 THE AMERICAN 








| Local News 





NEW LOCALS 
ATLANTA FEDERATION OF PUBLIC 
SCHOOL CLERKS, LOCAL 232 

Atlanta has a new local, the fifth in Fulton 
County and the tenth in Georgia. The Atlanta 
Federation of Public School Clerks has affiliated 
as Local 232 of the American Federation of 
Teachers. 

The officers are president, Sara Redwine; vice- 
president, Kathryn Ficken; secretary, Rachel 
Whatley ; treasurer, Sara Milner. 

GREEN BAY TEACHERS UNION, LOCAL 233 

The teachers of Green Bay, Wisconsin, or- 
ganized the Green Bay Teachers Union as Local 
233 of the American Federation of Teachers on 
April 2. The organization is open to all teachers 
of whatever rank in Green Bay and Brown 
County. It is starting off with a good member- 
ship and a fine program. : 

The temporary officers are FE, J. Hedstrom, 
president, and L. H. Wochas, secretary. 





These two new locals are welcomed very 
cordially into the family of the American Feder- 
ation of Teachers and are assured of every pos- 
sible assistance by the National Office and their 
fellow locals in the furtherance of their program 
of educational and social advancement and teach- 
er protection. 





CHICAGO PLAYGROUND TEACHERS 
LOCAL 209 


The April meeting of the Playground Teachers 
Union was made very interesting by several valu- 
able reports. A representative of the Tobacco 
Workers Union reviewed the child labor condi- 
tions in some tobacco factories. George Mum- 
mert, chairman of the Research Committee, and 
Mrs. Anne Prete, chairman of the Educational 
Committee, gave reports that showed that valu- 
able and constructive work is being done by these 
committees. The May meeting will be held in 
the morning, as the membership has voted to 
alternate morning and evening meetings. Nom- 
ination of officers will be the principal business. 


CoRNELIA MACDOUGALL, 
Vice President. 





TEACHER 


FULTON COUNTY LOCAL 183 

The Fulton County Teachers’ Association ; 
at present much interested in the recently o- 
ganized Credit Union. Although only two months 
old it has far exceeded the Association’s fondegs 
expectations, in fact already has attained th 
membership anticipated for its first year. 

Our most active committee during the month 
of April will be the Insurance committee becaus 
this is the month for the payment of premiums 
So universal has been the satisfaction with ow 
insurance the two years it has been in effect tha 
new teachers entering the system almost auto. 
matically become members with very little solici- 
tation from the committee. A nice dividend was 
received last October on all first year policies, 

Just now the teachers are interested in working 
for tenure and professional improvement, condi- 
tions which will promote the health and happi- 
ness of the teacher. 

We were much gratified in January to be told 
by our superintendent of schools that we would 
have twelve months salaries this year. For two 
years we have had committees from our associa 
tion working on our salaries, which were below 
the avergae salaries paid by counties of the same 
class throughout the country, while the qualifica 
tions of our teachers are much above the other 
schools of our class. 

We have done much relief work this winter. 
Our teachers have voluntarily collected clothing 
and shoes and distributed wherever needed. 
Many of the well to do schools have aided those 
in the poorer sections, while generous contribt- 
tions of money have been given also. 

One of our members was invited by President 
Hoover to the White House Conference on child 
Health and Protection. Several of our members 
during the past few months have contributed 
articles to some of the leading magazines, 4 
varied and wide range of subjects—from legis 
lation, music, art and science to bird lore. 

Our members, too, as those of Local 27, art 
hampered by the fact that they become ever 
busier and busier. They have a desire seemingly 
but so little time to advocate their own interests 

Mrs. R. T. ADERHOLD, 
Secretary. 








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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 31 


LABOR COLLEGE WILL CONDUCT BOYS’ 
CAMP 

Commonwealth Labor Youth Camp, a summer 
camp for workers’ and trade unionists’ boys from 
tn to sixteen years, will begin its first season 
of ten weeks on June 15th, 1931, on the Com- 
monwealth College grounds, which lie in the 
country surrounded by the Ouachita Mountains 
near Mena, Arkansas. 

Here, under the guidance and care of a staff 
drawn from the students and teachers of the 
labor college, campers will live a group life and 
will participate in various educational, recrea- 
tional and manual activities. The entrance charge 
for each camper for the ten weeks will be $50. 
There will be no extra charge for special activ- 
ities, but the camper will work ten hours a week 
at communal tasks such as gardening, building, 
cooking and laundering. 

Commonwealth Labor Youth Camp, by pro- 
viding a stimulating and natural environment 
definitely of, for and by workers, hopes to give 
the children a sympathy and understanding of 
workers’ problems and a desire to improve and 
enrich their own lives as workers. It will give 
them useful information and training, and an 
appreciation of cultural and creative pastimes. 
The director of the camp, Raymond Koch, is a 
graduate student at Commonwealth College, who 
has had a varied experience with summer camps. 
A doctor and a nurse will be in attendance. 

The activities will include arts and crafts, car- 
pentry and masonry, a camp wall paper, dra- 
matics, music, photography, nature lore, hiking, 
swimming, tennis, discussion meetings, garden- 
ing, wood craft, camp fires and other sports and 
hobbies. 





COMMITTEE ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM 

The Committee on Academic Freedom has 
heen organized with Dr. Henry R. Linville, New 
York, as chairman. The other members of the 
committee are Maude Aiton, Washington; New- 
tn Arvin, Smith College; May Darling, Port- 
land; Paul Douglas, University of Chicago; 
Alice F, Dreschler, Minneapolis; R. W. Everett, 
Sacramento; Viona Hansen, Grand Forks; Jacob 
Kinney, Crane College, Chicago; Carlotta Pitt- 
man, Memphis; Bernice Rogers, Cambridge ; and 
W. B, Satterthwaite, Seattle. 


The committee is working on the basis of Dr. 
Linville’s statements at the 1929 and 1930 con- 
ventions of the desirability of endeavoring to 
educate school and college teachers to the impor- 
tance of freedom in teaching as a condition neces- 
sary to good teaching and indispensable to the 
development of professional character among 
teachers. To this end they will take into account 
the social environment and the influences oper- 
ating on the institutions in which the cases in- 
volving academic freedom originate. 

This is obviously a larger undertaking than 
anything contemplated by other organizations 
that handle cases of academic freedom. 





SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS 

An advertisement appearing in the AMERICAN 
TEACHER indicates that the advertiser is in a 
measure friendly to the American Federation of 
Teachers. 

This advertising gives us a support that we 
need. 

It is the duty of the membership to return this 
friendliness and support in kind. 

Show by forming contacts with our advertisers 
that you are loyal members of A. F. T. and in- 
terested in anyone it endorses. 

And always mention the AMERICAN TEACHER. 





SOMETHING GREAT TO DO 

Tue ConveENTION, to quote Miss Pittman, is 
to be in Chicago, June 30-July 3rd. 

But in case you can’t go there, and are in the 
mood to go West (and see how some other folks 
do a convention, perhaps) there are some great 
trips in and around America that will make a 
worth while summer. 

Some of you know how delightfully the Amer- 
ican Express Company can take care of you 
across the Atlantic. (Ask Mrs. Hanson if you 
don’t.) Be sure they can do it just as well on 
the Pacific. 

Honolulu, Panama, or the Canadian Rockies 
(look on the inside cover). Some one of them 
will fit your mood and taste, and bring you back 
a new man. 

Then next year you can come to a real con- 
vention. 








THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Fifteenth Annual Convention 


American Federation of Teachers 
Congress Hotel, Chicago, Illinois 
June 29—July 3, 1931 


Theme—Education for Democracy—Representative Government in 
School and Society 
Agenda— 
1, Organization of Teachers 5. Social Agencies 


2. The Children’s Charter a. Credit and Ioans 
a. Employment of Children and Young People b. Group Insurance. 
b. Part-time Schools . School Finance 


a f Classes. 
c ize O asses . Social Policy of A. F. T. 


3. Teacher Contract System and Tenure , : 
a aint . Educational Policy and the Crime Situation, 
b. Pennsylvania . Program of Action 
c. Married Women Teachers a. Revision of 1925 Program 
d. Teacher Certification b. Special Program for College Teachers 


4. Unemployment 
a. Class Teachers in Excess of Classes 
b. Placement Bureau 


Speakers— 

Hon Bronson Cutting, U. S. Senate (tentative); Grace Abbott, U. S. Children’s Bureau 
(invited); John P. Frey, Sec.-Treas., Metal Trades Dept., A. F. of L.; Fred Atkins 
Moore, Director Chicago Adult Education Council; Reuben Soderstrom, President, 
Illinois Federation of Labor; Frank E. Baker, President, Milwaukee Normal College 
(invited); Wiley W. Mills, President, Chicago Liberal Club; Laura Puffer Morgan, 
Assoc. Sec., National Council for Prevention of War; Agnes Nestor, President, 
Chicago, W. T. U. L.; William J. Bogan, Supt. of Schools, Chicago (invited); 
E. N. Nockels, Sec., Chicago Federation of Labor; Mrs. Wm. T. Hefferan, Chicago 
Joard of Education. 


Reports— 

Academic Freedom, Dr. Henry R. Linville; Education, Lucie H. Schacht; Tenure, 
Florence Fish; School Finance, C. L. Vestal; Seattle, W. B. Satterthwaite; Pennsyl- 
vania, Barbara McGlynn; Organization, Florence Curtis Hanson, Allie B. Mann; 
Credit Unions, H. S. Bechtult; Group Insurance, V. Reynolds; Size of Classes, 


Florence E. Clark. 


Entertainment— 
Luncheon, Tuesday, June 30. 
Janquet, Wednesday, July 1. 
Excursion and Other, Thursday, July 2. 





Nellie M. Seeds, Director of the Manumit 
News of Our Members | School, took her usual trip in the West this 
winter in behalf of the school. She visited schools 
Dr. William FE. Zeuch, director of Common- and colleges in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Madison, 
wealth College is one of the recipients of the Milwaukee, and Detroit, speaking upon the prin- 
Guggenheim fellowships for study in foreign ciples of ‘Progressive Education’ and ‘Education 
countries. Dr. Zeuch will study labor education for a New Social Order,’ with illustrations from 
in Western Europe. Manumit and other American schools and Euro 
” . pean schools. Miss Seeds gave a short talk 
Mabel Blazier is delivering two talks during one of the Federation meetings of Chicago 
April for the Radio program of the Women’s Local 3 of the American Federation of Teachers. 
International League for Peace and Freedom. Members of the Federation are reminded that 
Miss Blazier’s subjects are “Why the United children of union members are entitled to 2 
States Rejected the League of Nations” and _ scholarship rate at Manumit. Since the waiting 
“The Opportunitigs for Teaching World Peace list is a long one, early applications are advis 
instead of War in our Public Schools.” able. 





























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Junior-Senior High School Clearing House 
A Cooperative Study of this Field of Education 


Editorial Office, School of Education 


New York University, New York City 


Volume V consists of the following numbers: 


No. 1. Advisement and Guidance 


Chairman: RicHarRD D. ALLEN, Assistant Super- 
intendent of Schools, Providence, Rhode Island. 
Margaret Alltucker Norton 


James M. Glass 
William M. Proctor 


No. 2. Miscellaneous Problems 


Chairman: PuHILip W. L. Cox, Professor of Sec- 
ondary Education, School of Education, New 


York University. 
W. E. Hawley 
Arthur D. Whitman 


No. 3. Athletics 


Chairman: H. H. 


son, Wisconsin. 


Merle Prunty A. G. Oosterhous 


Ss. O. Rorem 


No. 4. Visual Education. 


Chairman: Ratpuw E. Pickett, Professor 


Vocational Education, School of Education, 


New York University. 
Dorothy I. Mulgrave 
Jay B. Nash 


No. 5. The Adolescent. 


Chairman: JOHN RurFi, Professor of Education, 


University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. 
Calvin O. Davis 
W. C. Reavis 


Price for the ten numbers, 640 pages, $3.00 


Paul S. Lomax 
Forrest E, Long 


RYAN, Principal, University 
High School, University of Wisconsin, Madi- 


John H. Shaver 


Charles Forrest Allen 
Earle U. Rugg 


No. 6. Mathematics. 

Chairman: JOHN R. CLARK, Lincoln School of 
Teachers Coliege, Columbia University. 
Philip W. L. Cox J. Andrew Drushel 
Charles J, Pieper John L. Tildsley 


No. 7. Clubs 
Chairman: F. T. SpauLpine, Graduate School 
of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, 
Massachusetts. 
Charles Forrest Allen Elbert K. Fretwell 
Joseph Roemer 
No. 8. Creative Arts 
Chairman: ARTHUR M. SEYBOLD, /l’rincipal, 
Thomas Jefferson Junior High School, Cleve- 
land, Ohio. 
L. H. Bugbee 
Vincent Jones 


Howard R. Driggs 
Robert A. Kissack 
Hughes Mearns 
No. 9. Promotions and Graduations 
Chairman: HARRISON H. VAN Cott, Supervisor 
of Junior High Schools, State Department of 
Education, Albany, New York. 
W. H. Bristow Ernest L, Butterfield 
No. 10. Wholesome Living 
Chairman: Wituis L. Unt, Dean, School of 
Education, University of Washington, Seattle, 


Washington. 
Charles M. Gill Jay B. Nash 
Edwin Miller W. Carson Ryan, Jr. 


Paul S. Miller John W. Withers 
32 Washington Place, New York City 


























HOW MUCH DO YOU CARE 
about Schools and Children? 


The Progressive Education Association translates your interest into service for 
your child, ‘for your school, for your community. 
No matter what helpful service other organizations render, it is the ONE which 


asks and answers these questions: 


What IS real education? 
How can it be secured for the 
children of today and tomorrow? 


PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION, the monthly organ of the Association, inter- 


prets this movement in education to the public. 
You DO care about schools and children— 
can you afford to keep ou' © the 
current of this movemei. °. 


Membership in the Progressive Education Association, with its many personal 


services, and an annual subscription 


to PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION, means 


only $3.00 in money—but a great deal in personal satisfaction both to you and to us. 


Will you come along? 


Progressive Education Association, 
716 Jackson Place, 
Washington, D. C. 


Note the SPECIAL OFFER in the attached coupon. 


SG. chcnasnerdcanceceadees 


Please enrol me as a subscribing-member of the PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, my 


subscription to expire October, 1932. Enclosed 
receive the May, 1931, issue, and one previous 


Name 


Address 


is my check for $3.00. It is understood that I am to 
issue free of charge. 












































American Federation 
of 
Teachers 


506 South Wabash Avenue 
CHICAGO, ILL. 






SS 


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 subscription price is $2.00 per year, 25 
cents per copy.