STACKS 


STACKS 

















“The AMERI 


REFERENCE 
DO NOT LOAN 


STACKS 


CAN 


‘TEACHER 


DEMOCRACY IN EDUCATION 


SOUTHERN 
NUMBER 





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Labor and the Public Schools 


If the public school system as you know it 
may be said te have any special beginning, such 
beginning may be found back yonder in car- 
penter’s hall in Philadelphia, in mechanic’s hall 
in Boston and the trade unions throughout 
Massachusetts and the East when the workers 
joined hands with each other and held up the 
right arm of Horace Mann as he fought the 
battle for public education. You are, therefore, 
allied with a movement which holds the public 
school system and the public school teacher dear- 
est to its heart. a movement whose support is 
not subject w the whims of politics but stands 
by year after year ready to strike in defense of 
the rights of the teacher in the class room. 

—Jerome Jones. 


Organ of the American Federation of Teachers 
In Two Parts—Part I 


JUNE, 1931 


VOL. XV. No. 9 


EBB: 20 








EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY 

































































eI 
HOW MUCH DO YOU CARE te 
Nov. 
about Schools and Children? 
The Progressive Education Association translates your interest into service for Vole 
your ch’. for your school, for your community. Volu 
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as’ ers 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- 
is this movement in education to the public. t 
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You DO care about schools and children— * 
can you afford to keep out of the oe 
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Membership in the Progressive Education Association, with its many personal 
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only $3.00 in money—but a great deal in personal satisfaction both to you and to us. you 
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subscription to expire October, 1932. Enclosed is my check for $3.00. Jt is understood that I am to I cat 
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force 
Ee re PER ee Ea ae LAS ge eter ete Pe nee eee 
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from 
publi 
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oe eae] “YOUR JOB AND YOUR PAY” |||“ 
i — princ 
A Message to New Teachers............. 1 : 
Jerome Jones , ; , begin 
Jerome Jones—An Appreciation.......... 2 A Picture of the World in Which tion 
James P. Barron We Work t 
FS Ue a 3 can 
W. J. Scott ay the te 
Dt! tiidecsnkan pil cdieaaneknieness 6 wing 
Report of Education Committee, Georgia . KATHERINE H. POLLAK and Labo 
Federation of Labor. beeen eee eter eeees 8 TOM TIPPETT 
The Teaching Load in Mempitis.......... 10 =‘ Th 
Memphis Local Activities................ 12 , , in an 
pagal asia Megane : A simple, concrete book, written for workers, [= 
A Plea for More Teachers—Washington h f lab ; used 
techie cc nciyieudsatcancans 14 teachers of labor economics, and those who 
Tie Stel Teacher 17 want to know what can be done to make life schoa 
« ee ‘ e 
Nell Owen on earth more fair and fine and free.’’ room 
Fulton County Teachers Association...... 18 certai 
ER, OPT Oe ETF 19 Part! How Industry Treats Its Workers . 
Carlotta Pittman mu 4 ew We o That Way Princ 
Washington Union 27................000: 20 = hat Can Be Dene? rom 
: : As Part IV Ch Needed in The Way Ind Is R 
A Little Country Discovers a Great Truth 21 . ey ae a a ar 
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RPGMEN TUGIIGIN onc cccccccccccvccses ae uecuimeaal Its ve 






































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—— 


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The American Teacher 


Entered as second class matter Oct. 27, 1926, at the post office at Chicago, Ill, under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postee® provided for in Sec. 1103, Act of Feb. 28, 1925, authorized 
Nov. 8, 1926. Published monthly except July, August and September by American Federation of Teachers, 
506 South abash Avenue, Chicago, IIl. 


A ———n —————— — — — 


Volume XV, No. 9 JUNE, 1931 Two Dollars a Year 


————— 














A Message to New Teachers 


By Jerome Jones 


I am delighted to learn that the new teachers and present status is indebted very vitally to the 
are joining the local Teachers’ Association and trade union. Go back of the beginning of our 
thereby affiliating themselves with the labor union public schools, back to the time when we had the 
movement. It is my opinion and my expectation so-called “free” or “charity” schools, back when 
that as you grow in your experience as a teacher the “respectable and well-to-do” thought it a 
you will grow in your knowledge and apprecia- social sin to send their children to the public 
tion of and your devotion to the union move- schools and you will find trade unions passing 
ment. Whatever may have been your immediate resolutions demanding a system of public schools 
motives, whatever may have been the primary supported by taxation and open to all on an 
impulses leading you to join the teachers’ union, equal basis. 


I can assure you that you are joining whatever . If the public school system as you know it may 
force you have to one of the staunchest friends be said to have any special beginning, such be- 
that the teaching profession possesses. binning may be found back yonder in carpenter’s 


The American Federation of Labor has been hall in Philadelphia, in mechanic’s hall in Boston 
irom its very beginning a strong defender of the and the trade unions throughout Massachusetts 
public school teacher and a persistent advocate of and the east, when the workers joined hands with 
better salary and teaching conditions. Tenure each other and held up the right arm of Horace 
of position, for instance, is fundamentally a union Mann as he fought the battle for public educa- 
principle. The union realized from the very tion. You are, therefore, allied with a move- 
beginning the fact that without security of posi- ment which holds the public school system and 
tion there can be no efficient service, that there the public school teacher dearest to its heart, a 
can be, in fact, no position at all. Even before movement whose support is not subject to the 
ihe teachers realized this to the extent of organ- whims of politics but stands by year after year 
ing themselves as a union the Federation of ready to strike in defense of the rights of the 
labor was advocating the principle. teacher in the class room. 

The union movement has shown its friendship Teachers and children are reaping daily the 
in another very practical way. It has constantly very material advantages which have come to 
ued its influence toward stabilizing the public them as a result of an alliance with the Federa- 
school system so that the teacher in the class- tion of Trades. 
toom and the child would be free from the un- Much remains to be accomplished. The teach- 
‘ertainties surrounding political changes. The cr has not yet reached the point where she can 
ptinciple of the divorcement of public schools render her best service, where she can work with 
from politics and the setting up of the schools her children in freedom and satisfaction. 

a an institution and as a function absolutely The forces opposing adequate expenditures for 
apart and above political considerations has been public school purposes are just as persistent and 
inthe labor platform for more than fifty years. apparently as strong as ever. They may be re- 

If you would like to go further back into his- treating but they are seeking to burn every bridge 
ory, as indeed you may have done already, you behind them if thereby they may handicap even 
will find that the public school system today in to the slightest extent the march of public educa- 
i$ very inception as well as in its development tion. May I assure you as you face the future 











2 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


and its problems that the union movement not 
only here in Atlanta but throughout the nation 
is organized and mobilized to help you. 

Not only are you joined to a movement which 
has been the very life of public education, not 
only are you affiliated with an organization which 
offers to you the very highest opportunities for 
your own advancement professionally but an or- 
ganization which represents the overwhelming 
majority of the parents of the children you teach. 
It is generally agreed that no teacher can do her 
best work unless she has some knowledge and 
understanding of the homes from which her 
children come and unless she shows some inter- 
est in and sympathy with these homes. By your 
membership in the Teachers’ Association you ex- 
press at once that interest and appreciation. Your 
contacts with the members of the local unions in 
their meetings and the contacts which you will 
make in your own local will give you abundant 
opportunity for discovering the ideals and aspira- 
tions that struggle in the minds of the parents 
of your children and that motivate their home 
life. The union movement represents directly 
and indirtctly ninety per cent of the homes of 
your children. There is not another single organ- 


ization anywhere possessing a unified, coord 
nated and cooperative purpose as does the unig, 
movement. Let no one belittle your move, let y 
one despise the action you have taken. 

The trade union interested itself early iy 
public education not for the teacher’s sake pr. 
marily but for the sake of the children and th 
perpetuation of our American institutions, |; 
our institutions of democracy are to survive an 
even function as institutions of democracy th 
child as an individual and as a future leader mus 
receive that consideration. It is no selfish devo. 
tion, therefore, but a patriotic one having for it 
purpose the perpetuation of what we hold dear. 
est to our national security and what we hold 
necessary to our national progress and, most of 
all, to the child, the one not only nearest our hear: 
but “fresher from the hand of God”. We join 
hands with you and welcome you as you join 
hands with us, therefore, because you represent 
the movement which means most to us. 

The union movement needs your help, your ad- 
vice, your leadership and your high professional 
standards. We look to you not only to guide the 
feet of the children as they tread the paths of 
knowledge but to guide us as we seek to aid 
you in your worthy endeavor. 





Jerome Jones— An Appreciation 
By James P. Barron 


When organized labor is mentioned in Atlanta 
all think at once of the one who has to the 
largest degree been responsible for the splendid 
progress which has been made in Atlanta in the 
past twenty-five years in the organization of the 
workers under the American Federation of 
Labor, and in the promulgation of the principles 
of labor. As an official in the Typographical 
Union, as an official for many years and as 
President of the Atlanta Federation of Trades, 
and as Editor of the Journal of Labor, Jerome 
Jones has helped to guide the destinies of labor 
in Atlanta and Georgia so successfully that he 
has become a national figure. To his construc- 
tive leadership is due largely the fact that no 
civic undertaking is considered in Atlanta which 
does not have the support of organized labor. 
The wise and constructive advice of Mr. Jones 
is sought by many high officials in the city and 
state, and during the World War he was chosen 


as a special representative of President Wilson 
in the South. 

One of the dreams which he cherished for 
many years, and more than any other person 
helped to bring to a reality, was the orgat- 
ization of the Atlanta public school teachers um 
der the banner of the American Federation of 
Teachers. Mr. Jones has always realized and 
stressed the importance of public education as the 
hope of the workers, and his keen insight led to 
the conclusion that the best education could no 
be had under teachers who lacked freedom in 
their work. The knowledge too that teachers 
who had assumed a place in the ranks with other 
organized crafts would be a more socially-minded 
group and would have a more sympathetic under- 
standing of the children of workers added to his 
zeal for such a step on the part of the teachers 
For years the Journal of Labor had been pleat 
ing the cause of the teachers and had beet 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 3 


fighting, sometimes single-handed, for the rights 
of the children. So when conditions reached a 
crisis following the World War the teachers 
were ready to accept the advice of a proved 
friend to take a step which has meant much to 
themselves and to the cause of education in 
Atlanta. 

To a large degree the success of Local 89 has 
heen due to the wise counsel and unfailing as- 
sistance of Mr. Jones. Always ready and willing 


‘I to give of his time and energies to the leaders 


of the organization he has never in any way 
attempted to direct their activities except as his 
advice was sought and accepted. When disaster 
has threatened the schools or when threats have 
been made against teacher salaries his voice was 
the first to be raised in protest. He has spoken so 
soundly and with such unmistakable emphasis 
that the daily press has invariably joined in the 
protest and the rights of the children and the 
teachers have been protected. The welfare of the 
schools has always had the largest amount of 
space in the editorial columns of the Journal of 
Labor, and the Federation of Trades has made 
these editorials the basis of their stand in regard 
to the Atlanta school system. No wonder that 
the teachers have such a warm appreciation and 
a deep affection for one who has given of him- 
self so willingly and so unselfishly in their behalf. 


Certainly Mr. Jones is one of Atlanta’s most 
widely respected and beloved citizens. Not only 
is his advice sought and followed by those in 
the ranks of organized labor and those in civic 
life but by the leaders of industry as well. To 
his unfailing wisdom and to his keen apprecia- 
tion and understanding of human nature is due 
the peaceful settlement of many industrial dis- 
putes. Indeed any community is fortunate to 
have in its midst one who can see clearly the 
weakness of individuals and yet so to appeal to 
the best in them that they rise above their frail- 
ities and contribute splendidly to the progress of 
the labor movement. It is a wonderful influence 
to have in a recognized leader one who has 
reached a mature age with such a clear vision, 
such a wholesome philosophy of life, such an 
understanding insight into human nature, and 
such courage fearlessly to champion the right 
regardless of what the opposition may be. 

In apprecation of all the splendid services of 
Mr. Jones to the children and teachers of Atlanta 
the members of Local 89 feel that this Southern 
number of the American Teacher would be in- 
complete without this evidence of our love and 
esteem and an expression of our hope for many 
more years of such invaluable assistance from 
him, our counsellor and beloved friend. 





Is the Teacher a Citizen? 


By W. J. Scott, Atlanta Local 89 


Conditions and events in different parts of the 
country seem to indicate that the type of citizen- 
ship conceded to teachers is of a strange anomal- 
ous type. 

All over the nation teachers have been told to 
keep out of politics, out of economic questions, 
out of religious questions, even out of questions 
pertaining to their own business, education of 
the nation’s children, and, perhaps, most fre- 
quently, they have been told how they must 
conduct themselves personally in the community. 
I sat as a visitor in a class in Rural Education 
in a teacher-training schoo! and heard the pro- 
fessor of education advising college seniors in a 
fatherly tone that county superintendents are 
within their rights when they restrict the per- 
‘onal habits of county school teachers, even in 
matters of dress, “dates”, and social conduct. 


Teachers in many communities of the nation 
have lost their positions because they have ex- 
pressed themselves on current political, economic, 
and religious questions. In a great city in the 
rich Northwest, teachers who dared to organize 
a professional association and to affiliate with a 
national organization that they thought would 
help them raise the standards of the profession 
in their community, were compelled to relinquish 
their membership. Teachers in Georgia last year 
waited weeks for their salaries and were accused 
of lobbying in the halls of the Georgia State 
Legislature last summer when the secretary of 
their state organization was active in trying to 
secure remedial action from that body. Teachers 
becoming lobbyists! What sacrilege! What sac- 
rilege! Rules of boards of education in scores 
of communities prohibit the marriage of women 











4 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


teachers on penalty of loss of position. Marriage 
-—a social evil among teachers! These and other 
restrictions prevail, tending to make the lives of 
America’s teachers abnormal, devitalized exist- 
ences. 

If the teachers are not entitled to a status that 
is comparable to that of other members of social 
order, on what grounds can this condition be 
justified? If they have a normal citizenship 
standing, are the teachers the only ones to bene- 
fit by the privilege? Does the work of the teacher 
have some peculiar characteristics that make it 
unwise for him to participate in the same rights 
of citizenship as any other member of the com- 
munity? Should a teacher participate in con- 
troversial questions that arise in the community? 
If so, to what extent? If not, why not? Does 
the principle of free speech apply to the teacher 
as well as to other members of the community 
family? Or does some singular trait of his 
professional life disqualify him for this privilege 
that has been the wing-power of progress for 
centuries passed? These are some of the prin- 
ciples involved, and we pass now to a considera- 
tion of them. 

The chief objection to teacher-activity as a 
citizen seems to be in the matter of their rights 
to participate in matters of a controversial na- 
ture. Let us consider this aspect of the question 
and see how the teacher fits in. A defining of our 
terms seems to be the first consideration. Just 
what kind of question is a controversial ques- 
tion? Chafee in his book on Freedom of Speech 
defines a controversial question as a “conflict 
between two Vital principles.” Dr. Meiklejohn in 
his book on the Liberal College defines a con- 
troversial matter as one “concerning which rea- 
sonable men differ”. In the former statement, 
it seems to the writer, that the word “vital” is 
the key word; in the latter, the word “reason- 
able”. If the question applies to an individual 
only, then it is vital only to that individual; if 
the principle is one that affects the communal 
life, then it is vital to the members of the com- 
“munity, and they are concerned in the conflict. 
If the mayor comes to his office wearing a gaudy 
yellow tie, there is nothing vital about it except 
his right to wear whatever kind of tie his taste 
dictates. If it has been learned, however, that 
the mayor has just signed a bill providing for 


the sale of the city waterworks to a privat 
corporation, the matter is of vital concern } 
the public and is fit subject for a reasonable co. 
troversy. 

There are from time to time arising in even 
community questions that are of vital importang 
to the welfare of the social group. Should teach. 
ers participate in them? Are teachers reasonabk 
people? Surely there is no one who would sy 
that teachers should not be reasonable folks. 4 
study of the preparation of teachers in a profes 
sional way should give us some light on his point 

A large part of the teachers of the country 
are graduates of liberal colleges, and certain it 
that the vast majority of them have had contac 
with men and women as teachers and trainer 
who have a liberal education, and it would k& 
expected that they have come to feel some of th 
influences of a liberal education. It would seem 
proper, then, in this paper, to consider the qual- 
ities of that type of training called liberal, ani 
how it shapes the attitudes and ideals of its sub- 
jects. Quoting Dr. Meiklejohn again, we not 
two essential parts of a liberal education: | 
“The student should become acquainted with the 
fundamental motives and purposes and beliefs, 
which clearly and unclearly recognized, underli 
all human experience and bind it together. He 
should see and appreciate what is intended, wh 
accomplished, and what left undone by such ir 
stitutions as property, the courts, the family, th 
church, the mill. 2. Our college curriculum 
should be arranged and our instruction so de 
vised that its vital connection with the living 0! 
men should be obvious to an undergraduate.’ 
We see, then, that the advantage that the liberally 
educated individual has over the illiberal is tha 
the former can see life with all its integrating 
factors, understand the thoughts and emotiond 
tendencies of his fellowmen, and discipline him 
self to put “learning at the helm of life” and no! 
be swept into imprudent action by inclination 
intolerance, and personal interest. The liberal 
mind can discern the proper relationship tha 
should exist between the various elements i 
society and perceive the whole in all of its parts 
He has learned that truth is seldom, if ever, @ 
inclusive, and that most opinions and truisms at 
only fragmentary. One so trained is thus able 
comprehend the wisdom of tolerance and af 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 5 


preciate the prudence of respect for the opinions 
and feelings of others. Society needs nothing so 
much as it needs integration. The life of the 
community and of the nation needs to be in- 
tegrated if it is to enjoy the state of well-being 
that is as necessary to national development as 
it is to the growth of individuals. 

What is the source of this integrating influ- 
ence? “If learning is to be the guide of life”, 
says Dr. Meiklejohn, “it must be one, not many. 
Learning is criticism; it is interpretation. Criti- 
cism is the bringing together of separate things 
to find out their relations. It is the calling to 
account of this and that in terms of that and 
this. It is the finding of principles that run 
through and bind them together, making them 
one. Learning interprets them, gives them mean- 
ing, makes out of them a scheme of life, a 
system of knowledge which one can understand 
and use”. Granting that in the liberal colleges 
such conditions exist that make teaching free, 
we can safely say that the student would learn 
by means of analysis and comparison those fac- 
tors that have contributed most to human de- 
velopment. 

Having provided the college student with this 
type of training, what should society expect him 
to do with it? The statement of the college 
graduate whose trunk accidently fell into a 
river while he was returning home is all too often 
true. Reflecting over the fact that his trunk con- 
tained all of his college notebooks, he moaned: 
“There goes all of my college education”. Shall 
society say to him what my colonel said to a 
group of his officers who had been detailed to 
attend an army school? “Here are your orders,” 
he said, “to report to Camp Blank for a four- 
week course in tactics. You have to go; but, 
remember, when you return to the regiment, I 
shall expect you to forget all you have learned 
there”. Shall society say to its teacher-students, 
“All right, go ahead to college and get a liberal 
education—study the sciences that will give you 
an understanding of human relationships and hu- 
man experiences, train your minds to think 
straight, honestly, and without fear—but, re- 
member, when you come back you must forget 
all you have learned.” 

Or should society say “Here are our members 
to whom we have given extraordinary opportun- 


ity to develop social usefulness; of them we 
have a right to expect that they shall give back 
to society in full measure the benefits they have 
received” ? 

Is there any thing in the work of a teacher 
for which this social participation will unfit him? 
Does this freedom to make his contribution to 
the social order as a citizen affect his value in 
the classroom? Is the teacher a worse teacher 
because of this freedom? On the contrary. John 
Dewey has led us to believe that the teacher 
must bring the world to the schoolroom, and only 
to the extent that he does this is his classroom 
activities worthwhile. It is evident that the 
teacher cannot perform this important duty if 
society insulates him from the vitalizing currents 
that full activity in civic life engenders. How 
vital can a social science teacher make his sub- 
ject if he live as a hermit? How well can the 
literature teacher inspire his students with the 
passions of the great literary geniuses if he se- 
clude himself from the full stream of life that 
flows eternally by his door? We know that the 
most dynamic teachers in the history of the world 
realized that they could be a better friend to man 
by going into his market places, mingling with 
him, learning of his aspirations, his difficulties, 
his yearnings. Let modern teachers follow their 
example, and the dull classroom will be electrified 
with interest and intrinsic learning. The possi- 
bilities of concomitant learning in the school 
room will be multiplied a hundred-fold, because 
the teacher himself will have learned concomit- ° 
antly many-fold by virtue of his living a rich and 
abundant life in the midst of his fellowmen. For 
the sake of the nation, for the sake of progress, 
bring the world into the classroom; but, let us 
remember that the teacher cannot bring the at- 
mosphere of the world if he voluntarily or in- 
voluntarily live in a social vacuum. 





“For freedom, we know, is a thing we have to 
conquer afresh for ourselves, every day, like love; 
and we are always losing freedom, just as we are 
always losing love, because, after each victory, we 
think we can now settle down and enjoy it without 
further struggle The battle for freedom is 
never done, and the field never quiet.” 


Henry W. Nevinson: Essays in Freedom. 








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 

OrGANizep Aprit 15, 1916 
Affiliated With the American Federation of Labor 
Editorial Office: 
506 South Wabash Ave., Chicago, Illinois 
Telephone Harrison 2950 
Editors: 


FLorence Curtis HANSON 
Lucie W. ALLEN 





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cE 20 


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


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


Vice-Presidents 


AspraAHAM 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. Muste, a Brookwood, Katonah, 





Cartotta Pittman, Memphis No. 52; 131 Clark Place, 
Memphis, Tenn. 
Frorence Roop, St. Paul No. 28, 372 St. Peter St., 
St. Paul, Minnesota. 
W. B. Satrertuwaite, 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, IIl. 


Secretary-Treasurer 


Fiorence Curtis Hanson, Chicago No. 3; 506 South 
Wabash Ave., Chicago, Illinois. 


Associate Secretary 


Lucie W. Aten, Chicago No. 3; 506 South Wabash 
Ave., Chicago, Illinois. 





TEACHER 


The Fallacy of Numbers 

In promoting an organization for the purpose 
of advancing a significant social program the 
members of such a group need to keep in mind 
the fact that their program, the reason for the 
group existence, is of greater importance to the 
organization than is the size of its membership, 
A. small group advocating social conditions that 
shall be characterized by an intelligent and lively 
interest in truth and justice and general well- 
being, can make that program felt throughout 
all the social order if the group is of the right 
caliber. Persistent effort in holding an ideal 
aloft in practice and persuasion will bring that 
ideal eventually to the time “when its hour has 
come” regardless of whether a large number oi 
people may or may not have previously pro- 
fessed allegiance. 

The American Federation of Teachers has al- 
ways been a group of this type, and its members 
and locals would do well to examine continually 
and to re-examine their program and their meth- 
ods of advancing their program to see wherein 
weakness may be eliminated and effectiveness 
increased. 

This emphasis on the program of an organiza- 
tion is not by way of minimizing the importance 
of a growing and increasing membership as a 
means of promoting a social program. A large 
membership is all to the good provided it repre- 
sents the program at work and not in abeyance. 
The point we are trying to make is that no or- 
ganization can be better than its living, working 
program, that size cannot take the place of pur- 
pose. Moreover, if appreciation of the purpose 
is allowed to drag an increasing membership 
neglected may become itself, through inertia, an 
obstacle to the promotion of the program. 

Another consideration that must not be ignored 
by such a group is that recognition because of 
numbers and the implied power therein cannot 
have the social value that comes through the 
challenge that a worthy program makes to the 
best that is in a people. 

The program of .such an organization must 
keep in the lead in its own field and must be 
abreast of the best among its environmental con- 
temporaries. Assuming to analyze and appraise 
the past and the present, and undertaking to 
help to determine what the future shall be, the 
American Federation of Teachers in its active 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 7 


program must make its appeal to the best as re- 
gards the thought and interest, the spirit and 
courage of that portion of the popdlation from 
which it proposes to draw its membership. 
Should the organization cease to enlist the sup- 
port of such its contribution would have become 
fined and limited, even though its days were as 
yet far from numbered. There must ever be an 
atmosphere friendly to the cultivation of that 
vision and courage that go into the making of 
leadership for an advancing social order, and no 
group needs more to safeguard its resources in 
this respect than do teachers. 
Mary C. Barker, Local 89, 
President of American 
Federation of Teachers. 


Young Voters and Old Policies 

Under this caption the Chicago Daily News 
recently published an editorial to which the 
AMERICAN TEACHER invites your attention. We 
feel like saying Att EpucaTIoNAL JOURNALS 
PLEASE Copy, 

The American Federation of Teachers from 
its incipiency has stood for Academic Freedom, 
the right of pupils to study present day prob- 
lems, to know both sides of controversial ques- 
tions and to think for themselves. It is heart- 
ening to hear the sounds of other divisions w.ieel- 
ing into line beside us. 

Robert H. Lucas, executive director of the republican 
national committee, complains that the tendencies of 
young men and young women are away from conserva- 
tism. The schools and colleges, he asserts, are teaching 
radical and utopian doctrines. 
lian party has difficulty in getting its fair share of 
the new voters. 

Mr. Lucas appears to have*no hope of reforming the 
educational institutions of the land. Therefore he 
recommends that some new and effective approach be 
made to American youth. The nature of the approach 
which might serve he does not indicatg. 

The assumption that all radical t ing is wrong 
and hopelessly impracticable, while standpatism is right 
and sane, vitiates Mr. Lucas’ argument. It is the duty 
of educators to be progressive, since truth is progress. 
It is the prerogative of youth to think radically, to 
question and analyze, to demand explanations of social 
evils and maladjustments. Without radical thinking 
there can be little advancement. Without sincere efforts 
at eradication of existing abuses society would drift 
into revolution and chaos. 

Mr. Lucas sweepingly attacks what he calls inter- 
nationalism, free trade and nonpartisan politics. That 
is pure Babbittry. The world needs more internation- 
alism, not less; freer trade, not higher tariff walls; 


Consequently the repub- - 


increasing independence in politics, not gullible ac- 
ceptance of evasive and often hypocritical party plat- 
forms. 

On such grave questions as unemployment, world 
peace, reduction of armaments, governmental efficiency, 
sound methods of taxation and civil liberty the world 
will have to think radically, since present and past 
conditions will not serve humanity’s needs. Shallow 
optimism may suit the so-called practical politicians; 
it will not satisfy those persons—young or old—who 
think distinterestedly and who desire to advance the 
cause of justice and humanity. 

—Chicago Daily News. 
An Important Review 

A book récently published by the University 
of Minnesota Press is reviewed in our book sec- 
tion. We urge you to give it careful considera- 
tion. The book is a study of the effects of size 
of classes on pupil progress. It will be eagerly 
accepted and broadly quoted, we dare say, by 
those who will welcome ‘t as a justification of 
the reputed economy of the large class. 

The American Federation of Teachers is eager 
for practical, genuinely scientific investigation of 
educational problems, but we feel that our re- 
viewer makes some valuable criticisms of this 
study. 


Friends of A. F. T. 

The business friends of the A. F. T. who 
advertise in the AMERICAN TEACHER expect the 
friends of the organization to prove their friend- 
ship by their support of the advertised product. 
The loyal member and true friend does patronize 
and does boost our business friends. 

We frequently are told that teachers do not 
stick together, that they do not patronize or pur- 
chase the product of the advertiser who is 
friendly to the organized teachers. With our 
better knowledge of the facts we can only deny 
the allegations and assert our faith in the soli- 
darity and loyalty of our membership. 

We insist and maintain that there is a larger 
percentage of members of the A. F. T. who 
live up to their principles than any other similar 
group of human beings. 

With these thoughts in mind, we are again 
urging our readers to patronize and to do every- 
thing possible to further the business of those 
business men whose advertising appears on our 
pages. 

Patronize them yourselves. 

Tell your friends about them. Always mention 
the AMERICAN TEACHER. 











8 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Report of Education Committee Georgia Federation 
of Labor - 


Submitted at State Convention, April 16, 1931 


The Committee on Education appointed as a 
standing committee wishes to submit its report 
under the following heads: 

I Practical work done. 

In planning the outline of procedure for the 
year, your committee had in mind, first, the 
necessity of arousing our own local organizations 
to the need of great concern for,equal educa- 
tional advantages and, second, impressing the 
candidates up for election with the fact that or- 
ganized Labor. is taking cognizance of the condi- 
tion of education in Georgia and will demand 
improvement through proper legislation and a 
fair and hodnest management of money rightfully 
belonging to the schools of Georgia. 

Accordingly a questionnaire (attached below) 
was sent to each Central Body to be filled out by 
the secretary asking information about condition 
of school buildings, length of: school year, en- 
forcement of compulsory school law, financial 
support of schools, salaries of teachers, method 
of electing teachers, and political entanglements 
of schools. 

A letter and questionnaire were then sent to 
110 candidates for state public office. Our letter 
pointed out the fact that for 1926 there still re- 
mained an unpaid balance of over one and a 
half million dollars and for 1929 that all appro- 
priations had been paid except the appropriations 
for common schools, Also that 110 counties out 
of 161 had to close schools before completing 
their term and as a result 100,000 children were 
turned out of school without completing their 
grades. 

The answers to questionnaires to candidates 
which we have on file pledges the support of 
about 89 successful candidates to support better 
school program with prompt payment of school 
appropriations, 

During the Extraordinary Session of Legisla- 
ture your committee chairman was in frequent 
attendance in both the Legislature and the Senate 
but it did not seem best for the ultimate good 
of our cause to advocate any particular bill for 
raising money for schools owing to the unfortun- 
ate cross wire of political alignments, but your 


chairman did endeavor to point out to various 
legislative members the tragic condition of 
schools of Georgia. 

II Need for Upholding Education in Georgia. 

The present time has factors terrifically at 
work to undermine the democracy on which our 
country is founded. The invention of machines 
that supplant human labor and the merging of 
business which reduces the number of employes, 
these two factors produce unemployment unless 
we distribute leisure fairly among all occupations, 
Unless unemployment is effectively combated, 
our democracy is at an end. Education is our 
only hope. You cannot give a man his freedom— 
you can only give him the means of freeing 
himself. Leisure should be fairly distributed. 
Leisure will become idleness unless there is 
training for culture to guide it. 

We believe that education should be not only 
along vocational and technical lines but that it 
should also be along the lines of the cultural 
subjects, Latin, modern languages, history, sci- 
ence, etc. The vocational fits the boy or girl to 
make a successful living, the cultural fits a boy 
or girl to make a successful life. The cultural 
should always receive the greater emphasis—the 
vocational should receive stress when occasion 
demands. Your committee recommends the in- 
sistence upon equal educational opportunities 
throughout the State. There is abroad in our 
land much hue and cry for economy in schools. 
As a nation for every dollar we spend for edu- 
cation we spend $2.61 for chewing gum, theaters, 
and similar items. Are we investing too much iti 
education? Also, the very people who cry “Econ- 
omy, Economy in Schools” are themselves send- 
ing their sons and daughters to the best schools 
and colleges in the land. They wish that others 
may be dealt with economically that they may 
have affluent means for their own children. We, 
as a committee, recommend that each delegate 
return to his local with the firm determination 
to fight to the finish a successful battle for equal 
educational opportunities. The question is not, 
can we afford good schools? The question is, can 
we afford not to have good schools? 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER y 


A quotation from the Mississippi Educational 
Advance, Sept., 1922 states: 

There is a book called ““Whogs Who in Amer- 
ica.” This book contains the names of those 
persons who are well known because of their 
good works. The person who cannot read and 
write has one chance in 150,000 to get his name 
in this book; the grammar school graduate one 
in 4,250; the high school graduate one in 1,600; 
the college graduate one in 180; the honor stu- 
dent one in three. Does education pay? Our 
committee recommends that each delegate here 
present shall think carefully upon the matter of 
his personal debt to the next generation and 
that he determine within himself to provide for 
that obligation as seriously as any other debt of 
honor and of fine obligation. We urge that 
every delegate here urge all boys and girls of 
school age to devote themselves to education as 
the only safe investment against thralldom of 
the future. 

Your committee, Mr. Chairman, has reason 
to believe that our compulsory education law is 
in some sections of the state a mere farce. Child 
labor is more prevalent in the South than any- 
where in the country. Georgia has 88,934 child 
laborers. Mississippi ranks highest in this ne- 
farious practice, Georgia second. Georgia is one 
of ten states with the lowest school attendance. 
Georgia is ranked third from the lowest in liter- 
acy. You see the connection: child labor causes 
non-attendance in school; non-attendance in 
school causes illiteracy; illiteracy causes crime, 
and a wreckage of human lives. Mr. Chairman, 
your committee recommends that all possible in- 
fluence that organized labor can muster be thrown 
to support our compulsory school attendance law. 

When we sift down to the bottom of reasons 
for inadequate educational opportunities we find: 
(1) Inadequate measures for school funds and 
(2) unfair machinery for distributing the funds 
received. To consider the first point: Georgia’s 
school funds are secured from the Treasury by 
apportionment and that treasury is never very 
wealthy because of allocations to other sources. 
An exception to this plan was by the act of 
1927 in which an increase in gasoline tax of 
’ was allocated to schools. Also, by a similar 
act of 1927 a one cent tax on kerosene was 

; Voted to be credited to equalization fund. 


In 1929 an income tax was levied by Legisla- 
ture, presumably for the purpose of relieving the 
school situation. Did you hear of any relief? 
Was not a special session of Legislature called 
to pay teachers and to relieve the state ele- 
emosynary institution? What did the Legis- 
lature do to aid schools? Nothing. They spent 
$200,000 to support themselves during 100 days 
of ineffectual dilly dallying. Another income tax 
law was passed at the special call which while we 
may criticize it in some points should yield in- 
creased revenue to the state. We recommend 
that each delegate return to his local imbued 
with the idea of demanding a fair deal in school 
money by seeing that school apportionments 
should be paid before other claims, or at least 
at the same time other claims are paid. 

III. Recommendations for an Educational Pro- 
gram for Georgia. 

We are submitting to the Convention for con- 
sideration a program which our Committee rec- 
ommends for adoption. 

1. Enforcement of compulsory attendance 
laws. 

2. Prompt payment of teachers’ salaries. 

3. Salaries of teachers commensurate with 
the services they render. 

4. Establishment of teacher tenure laws to 
render teachers free from political favoritism. 

5. Provision for old age pensions for teachers. 

6. Higher standards for teaching profession 
be required. 

7. Adoption of free text books. 

8. The use of school grounds and school 
buildings for improving community life, and es- 
pecially for adult education. 

9. Legislative measures to provide more 
money for schools—by appropriation or by al- 
location. 

10. An equable distribution of funds receiv7d, 
so that no County may be favored over any other 
County, and no school in a county over any other 
school in that county. 

Respectully submitted, 
Aire Mann, Chairman, 
H. C, Camp, 
J. E. Bernwarprt, 
W. C. JEFFRIEs, 
L. B. HeErrino, 
Tom STRICKLAND, 








10 THE AMERICAN 





TEACHER 


Some Aspects of the Teaching Load in Memphis 


By Carlotta Pittman, Local 52 ® 


The facts and figures presented in this article 
were obtained and compiled from a survey of 
the white schools made in November, 1930. 
Three of the four high schools all four junior 
high schools, and all elementary schools except 
those recently taken into the city from the county 
are included in the report. At present writing 
we believe there is little change in numbers or 
conditions. The mid-term shifting normally in- 
creases the size of some classes and diminishes 
that of others. The following committee from 
the Memphis Teachers’ Association participated 
in the survey: 

Janie ‘Armistead, Rozelle School. 

Lidie M. Carr, Leath School. 

Elizabeth E, Dix, Central High School. 

Susie Johnson, Humes Junior High School. 

Jennie May, Lauderdale School. 

Maria L. Mosby, Riverside School. 

Vivian Poindexter, President Local 52, Mer- 

rill School. 

Carlotta Pittman, Chairman, Rozelle School. 

Our report covers the following points, al- 
though in a few instances complete replies to the 
questionnaires to elementary teachers were not 
received: Maximum number taught in one class, 
minimum number, median; number and length 
of recesses, number and length of rest periods. 
We made no attempt to study the physical aspects 
of schoolrooms or schoolhouses. 

The teaching load has recently been the sub- 
ject of searching investigation and deep study 
by organizations and groups of teachers all over 
the country. Although reports in many cases 
pronounce the load to be too heavy for the most 
effective teaching, so far as we can learn com- 
paratively little has been done to lighten it. We 
have not much knowledge, however, of condi- 
tions outside of Memphis. 

A definition of the term, teaching load, must 
include many things—the number of pupils 
taught, the number of teaching periods per day 
and per week, rest periods, the amount of out- 
side work necessitated by the subject taught, 
the amount of extra-curricular work, and last, 
but far from least, the amount of clerical work 


required. To these essentials we may well add 
certain physical aspects of the schoolroom and 
the schoolhouse. The convenience and adequacy 
of seating arrangements, the space per pupil in 
a room, and the adequacy or inadequacy of a 
restroom for teachers, are at least contributing 
factors in determining the teaching load. 

In 1929 a partial survey was made by the 
Memphis Teachers’ Association of overcrowding 
in the schools and a report given on the schools 
studied. Since that time Memphis has passed the 
250,000 mark in population, has taken in a num- 
ber of county schools, and has built one new 
elementary and one new junior high school. 
These schools have somewhat relieved the con- 
gestion in the schools from which they have 
drawn their pupils. 


High Schools 


According to the Association of Colleges and 
Secondary Schools of the Southern States, no 
high school: teacher should teach “more than 
750 pupil periods per week.” Those teachers 
carrying the maximum load in our high schools 
may overstep this boundary line. However, they 
all come within the limit of an average number 
of 30 in a class. Although some classes contain 
more than 30, the average is preserved, because, 
according to our information, no teacher has a 
number of pupils exceeding 180 per day. 

These are the figures for three of our four 
high schools. 


Maximum number taught by one teacher per 


GP etbcwsnnceesesesvceesece errrrert 176 
Average maximum (three schools)......... 171 
Median taught in one class..............++: 27 
Maximum taught in one class........ oe 
Minimum taught in one class.............- 9 

Rest Periods No. Length 
Maximum number ............. 2 45 min. 
Minimum number ............. 1 45 min. 


We do not possess information concerning the 
amount of outside work, extra curricular activi 
ties, and clerical work of the high school teach- 
ers, but we do know their teaching load is enor- 
mously increased by these factors. 








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THE AMERICAN TEACHER il 


Junior High Schools 

Our report from the four junior schools is 
complete, although the information is given in 
the form used by the elementary instead of the 
high schools. It is interesting to note the in- 
crease over the high schools in numbers and 
teaching periods. No association of colleges dic- 
tates standards on this plane of school life. 


Maximum number taught in one class....... 52 
Minimum number taught in one class....... 16 
Median number taught in one class......... 33 

Rest Periods No. Length 
Maximum number ............ 1 45 min. 
Minimum number ............. l 42 min. 


Junior high school teachers teach 7 periods 
per day. The length of their lunch period varies 
from 22 to 30 minutes. With a median of 33 
and 7 teaching periods per day, they are carrying 
an average load of 221 pupils per day. In one 
of these schools the maximum number taught 
per day per teacher was 416. Another number 
given the committee was 316. A large majority 
of the teachers in this school taught over 200 
pupils daily, and at least 9 taught over 250. These 
figures, however, great as they may seem in 
comparison with those of the high schools, sink 
into insignificance when we descend to the third 
great division in our school system—the ele- 
mentary schools. 

The Elementary Schools 

Since the completion of our fourth junior high 
school last fall most of ‘the elementary schools 
have but six grades. They constitute, of course, 
a large majority of the school population, and 
we sometimes wonder why this majority should 
be so large when compulsory school attendance 
up to the age of 17 is in effect in Memphis. 

Unless the Association of Colleges and Sec- 
ondary Schools of the South errs seriously in its 
judgment that 30 is the maximum number for 
effective teaching in the high schools, or unless 
pupils ‘in the first six grades require far less 
individual instruction and attention than pupils 
of high school age, the classes in our elementary 
schools are too large. 

An expert curriculum maker has said, “Child- 
hood is not a vestibule through which we pass 
into adulthood. It is an intrinsic room in the 
mansion of life.” If so, why then is not a full 
share of time and attention the birthright of 
every child? 


The following figures speak for themselves. 
Most of them represent the number in one class 
taught in all subjects all day by one teacher, al- 
though in a few schools there are special music 
and art teachers. 


Maximum number taught in one class...... 59 
Minimum taught in one class........... EY 
Median taught in one class............... 39 

Rest periods No. Length 
Maximum number ............ 1 45 min 
Minimum number ............. 0 0 min. 
Length of noon recess.......... 30 to 45 min. 


A majority of schools have a 30, 40, or 45 
minute lunch period. Only two of which we 
know have an hour. Because there is greater 
uniformity in the size of classes and length of 
recesses and rest periods in the high and junior 
high schools, the maxima, minima, and medians 
in those tables are more representative. In one 
elementary school the maximum number taught 
by one teacher was 65, the median, 44, and the 
minimum 41, 


One teacher writes with her report, “The 7 
rest periods per week belong to those teachers 
having 11 different classes during the week— 
425 different children or more—an irregular pro- 
gram.” Another school reports a 30 minute rest 
period every other day for some teachers. So 
far as our information on this point goes a rest 
period for elementary teachers is exceptional. 
“No rest period for any teacher,” was the re- 
port from most of the schools. 


In addition to their other duties many teachers 
report “yard duty,” “recess duty,” and “service 
in the school cafeteria.” 


Local 52, in which senior and junior high 
school teachers are united with elementary teach- 
ers in a common bond, is looking forward to the 
discussion of teaching load at the convention. 
It is also eagerly awaiting, with teachers all over 
the country, some definite reports and rulings 
on teaching load by those in authority. So far 
as we know the American Federation of Teach- 
ers is the only organization which has taken a 
stand on numbers in classrooms. Whatever the 
solution which is worked out, the thought of the 
welfare of the child must be dominant, and the 
child’s welfare and the teacher’s are inseparable. 








12 THE AMERICAN 


GROUP DISABILITY INSURANCE 
By Alga Reeves, Local 52 


Just three years ago the Memphis Teachers 
Association decided to enter the field of Group 
Disability Insurance. To that end the president 
appointed a committee to investigate the avail- 
able contracts and make recommendations to the 
organization, 

After several months of diligent research the 
committee was unable to find a contract to which 
it could subscribe. Hence it was agreed to draft 
one containing the desired items of protection 
and have it tailored to fit the needs of the As- 
- sociation. 

It was eagerly desired that our contract should 
have the merit of simplicity—simplicity in its 
items of protection, and simplicity in the filing 
and settling of claims. That this was achieved 
has been demonstrated by two and one-half years 
of satisfactory experience. 

The elimination of all technicalities has been 
a joy not only to the claimants but also to their 
attending physicians. We regard this as invalu- 
able, because in disability insurance it is essen- 
tial that all who participate in the settlement of 
claims work together understandingly, and there- 
fore harmoniously. 

We are now much beyond the experimental 
stage in the use of our protection. It has func- 
tioned well and brought messages of good cheer 
to many of our ill and injured. 


During the time that our contract has been 
in force, there has been an annual increase in 
our number of insured. This is because the 
broad coverage offered has become better under- 
stood and because the members of our Associa- 
tion have become more enlightened on the sub- 
ject of insurance. 

There are still those who are not in our insur- 
ance group because they are slow to grasp the 
idea of protection. They do not realize the ex- 
tent to which they hazard their earning power, 
which is undeniably one’s most valuable asset. 
Why then should any one not protect himself 
against loss of salary during a period of disa- 
bility ? 

The strongest weapons that could be found 
have always been used for self-protection and 
for the protection and the preservation of homes. 





TEACHER 


Among the satest, the most modern, and the 
most humanitarian of weapons is group disability 
insurance, 

When one has met disaster, what is to be 
prized more than the sense of security one feels 
in knowing that each week a certified check will 
be received? Certainly, it eliminates the re- 
proachful and poignant If— 

Looking at the question from every point of 
view only serves to strengthen and confirm the 
argument in favor of disability insurance for 
teachers. Those wi? are in active touch with 
the benefits that hay. resulted from the contract 
sponsored by our organization, feel that it is a 
piece of welfare work that is very worthwhile. 
As a twin sister, we are happy to welcome our 
newly organized Credit Union. 





MEMPHIS TEACHERS ASSOCIATION 
CREDIT ‘UNION 

A.direct result of the A. F. of T. convention 
in Memphis last summer was an awakened inter- 
est in the matter of credit unions, 

Letters from National headquarters and from 
officials of Credit Unions in St. Paul and De- 
troit showed credit unions in those cities as in 
others in successful operation. At the March 
meeting of the Memphis Teachers’ Association, 
Mr. B. B. Barnes, president of the Federal Em- 
ployés Credit Union of Memphis made a very 
helpful talk on the subject and answered ques 
tions, All this resulted in the formation of a 
credit union for members of Local 52 with 
twenty-six signifying a desire to belong to the 
new organization. As soon as the charter and 
other official papers were received, a meeting 
was called for the election of officers and direc- 
tors. This done, all felt that a progressive step 
had been taken, helpful to the teachers as well 
as to the Association. 

We hope for a slow, steady growth and have 
every reason to expect it. Like all new enter- 
prises, the Credit Union idea must be “‘sold” to 
many members of the Association, This takes 
patience and intensive work on the part of the 
officers and all interested. Once the Credit 
Union is started, no group is more open-minded 
than the teachers as to the value of the Credit 
Union, both as an aid to thrift and a help in 
time of need. Elizabeth E. Diz. 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 13 


REFLECTIONS 

[t is amazing that there are still people who 
do not realize the need of organization, of ten- 
yre, and of adequate retirement and pension 
funds for teachers. More astounding yet is the 
fact that there are some teachers who are ignor- 
ant or apathetic on the subject. Teachers’ or- 
vanizations there have been for years untold, and 
if they are controlled by a small group of poli- 
ticians, aS is sometimes the case, or if they are 
yiterly unable to do aught but discuss problems 
without the power to carry out in practice their 
conclusions, it is not surprising that an indif- 
ferent, sometimes a supine attitude, may exist 
among the teaching force. Teachers can be the 
most fearless, resolute, indefatigable workers for 
2 principle, or they may be fearful, vacillating, 
and spasmodic in their efforts. When, however, 
teachers are banded together for the purpose of 
“mutual assistance and co-operation,” in order 
“to obtain for them all the rights to which they 
are entitled,” “to raise the standard of the teach- 
ing profession by securing the conditions essen- 
tial to the best professional service,” and “to 
promote such a democratization of the schools 
as will enable them better to equip their pupils 
to take their places in the industrial, social, and 
political life of the community,” then the goal is 
eminently desirable. Then, too, the pathway 
is sufficiently rugged to attract and hold those, 
and only those, who are thoroughly alive, men 
and women who find a thrill in battling, if need 
arise, for an idea or a principle, who rejoice in 
achievement but never attain to complacency. 

To have accomplished within the short period 
of fifteen years as much toward making teachers 
wafraid men and women, and to have unfolded 
ina degree what an atmosphere of freedom and 
lf-respect can mean, is no small part of the 
great service for which we are in debt to the 
American Federation of Teachers. 

To Local 52, the year 1931 has brought some 
keen disappointments and some high spots: of 
joyous attainment. We had hoped for a Tenure 
bill and a more adequate Teachers’ Retirement 
and Pension bill before the close of the Legisla- 
lure. Progress has been made along both lines. 
Barriers are breaking down. Objections plainly 
‘ated are less antagonistic than blanket rejec- 
on of an entire plan. Co-operation has been 


promised by some of the administrative officers. 
A fuller understanding of the actual problem and 
the realization that each local must work out its 
own salvation will result in stronger building for 
the future. The next two years are a challenge 
which will be buoyantly and vigorously answered. 

One of the achievements of Local 52 this year 
has been the establishing of our publication, “The 
Teachers’ Forum.” One feature of its distribu- 
tion was the sending of copies of the two issues 
to teachers in Nashville and Jackson, and to the 
State Convention of Labor meeting in Jackson 
in May. 

The Pacific Coast number of “The American 
Teacher” reveals anew in striking clearness the 
fact that no matter what part of the country we 
may own for our workshop, our problems as 
“teachers and workers of the community—upon 
whom the future teachers of democracy must de- 
pend” are practically the same. Wherever lo- 
cated the various locals find the same foes from 
without to fight and the same or similar diffi- 
culties to contend with from within. Few locals 
can Claim unique situations. We heartily rejoice 
in the progress reported in this last stimulating 
copy of our official publication and congratulate 
our co-workers of the Pacific Coast. 

Mary V. Little. 





TOGETHERNESS 


Stand off by yourself in your dreaming, 
And all of your dreams are vain; 

No grandeur of soul or spirit 
Can man by himself attain. 

It is willed we shall dwell as brothers; 
As brothers then we must toil; 

We must act with a common purpose 
As we work in a common soil. 

And each who would see accomplished 
The dreams that he’s proud to own, 

Must strive for the good of his fellows, 
For no man can do it alone. 


—Patchwork, Boston, 











WHAT THEY THINK OF US 
Editor of The American Teacher: 

As a Statistician I arise against the graph on 
the cover of your April issue. Whose dollar? 
Where were the figures obtained ? 

Otherwise an interesting number, Glad the 
credit union is up again. Horace B. Davis 








14 





THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Washington Local Makes Plea for More Teachers 


Teachers Union of Washington, D. C., Local 8 


On March 16, 1931 the Board of Education of 
Washington, D. C. held its annual Joint Confer- 
ence on Public School Needs. With various other 
civic bodies the Teachers Union of Washington, 
D. C., Local 8, was invited to attend the 
Conference. As the work of the teachers in the 
various departments of the Washington schools 
is yearly growing heavier and more burdensome, 
the Union asked the Board of Education for 
more teachers. Following are the pleas made by 
Union representatives at this meeting. In addi- 
tion formal briefs giving statistics were filed with 
the Board of Education. 

MRS. EDNA ELLIS HILTON FOR THE 

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 

Teachers are interested in guiding and helping 
. the children of today to grow into splendid citi- 
zens of tomorrow. Their responsibility is to 
develop in boys and girls character of high type, 
to train their minds and to help to make their 
bodies strong and vigorous. This, in itself, is a 
big task in this modern age. 

The teacher is trained to work with flesh and 
blood—not statistics, and deplores the fact that 
her time and energy are used for many things 
which do not assist her in helping the child. Too 
much valuable time and vitality are wasted on 
meaningless records. Too much of her day is 
spent at a desk copying facts, worthless, as far 
as the growth of the child is concerned. By 
count, there are more than 32 types of clerical 
work, which require from 3 minutes to 3 hours 
to do. This means a great loss to children. The 
school has taken over many extra activities and 
has not decreased the teaching duties—rather in- 
creased them. It is a matter of arithmetic. A 
human being has just so much time and energy. 
If this power is divided among activities, each 
activity gets only a fractional amount of con- 
sideration. Teaching should be the job of the 
teacher. When you make her a clerk, you weaken 
the efficiency of the school system and the chil- 
dren and community suffer. She is highly trained 
for teaching. Why waste her on clerical jobs? 
Let clerks do the clerical work, (it is cheaper in 
the long run) if the school wishes to incorporate 
the numerous activities that now satiate us. 


Give the teacher time to think! She is sup. 
moned here, there, everywhere. for all kinds ¢ 
meetings which are often a waste of time an 
energy. She is crammed with lectures, sugge; 
tions, and orders, and has no time to digest, a 
similate, and react to all that she hears. It; 
a kind of stuffing! There is little good derive 
from the many meetings. Each directing officid 
considers only her own problems, and little r. 
alizes that many other officials are also demani. 
ing of the teachers the same meetings, anothe 
kind of response, their time, their energy. Ther 
is little vitality left to prepare work efficiently- 
it goes in an endless round of extra activities 
The school day is interrupted often by notices 0: 
this and that. School life is hectic—hurried- 
slurred over—. There is little peace, calm, relax 
ation, leisure, because of the tremendous é 
mands upon the teacher which keep he 
over-fatigued, often ill, unhappy, restless, ani 
discontented. She meets her children tired out 
She hurries and scurries through the day, ther 
attends meetings afternoon and night,—som 
days with not a moment’s let up in twelve lox 
hours. So we beg of you—“Give the teacher tim: 
to think—to relax.” 

The teacher must be a college student and stud; 
continually. Imagine her power of concentratia 
in class after struggling through the days ju 
described. Would it not be better for her t 
study her own problems in the class room ati 
have time to work them out, than to be stuffel 
with theories and isms that often do not work’ 
Do not measure a teacher’s ability by the initial 
after her name. Teachers are often born—10 
made. 

Teachers are asked to supervise playground 
With every minute filled with teaching, excep! 
those taken out for interruptions, a teacher 
asked to give up part of her recess periods, 
watch playground activities. This is unwise, si 
needs moments of rest during the day, and wht 
deprived of them the teaching and the childrt 
suffer. 





Teachers are called into conference with aget 
of charity organizations, school doctors, nuts 
and parents, and valuable teaching time is 


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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


to many because of the problems of a few. A 
school welfare worker could handle this phase 
of school life. 


A teacher is called upon by grim necessity to 
mother children. Imagine a child trying to live a 
school day through on a cup of coffee and clothed 
in garments made for summer wear,—sometimes 
with undergarments missing. Cold, hungry chil- 
dren cannot concentrate and learn well. They 
often come to the teacher with toothaches, sores, 
disease, undernourished, illtreated, abused and 
cowed. It is difficult to help these children today 
—there is no time for them. But if something is 
not done now, they will be social problems to- 
morrow. A teacher welfare worker should look 
after the physical needs and defects of these 
needy children and keep a close check on them, 
not a superficial one. The teacher can then give 
to them spiritual hope, sympathy, encouragement, 
a new lease on life, if she is given time to do so. 


The teacher is a business manager and must 
take all care of supplies and equipment, keeping 
a stock sheet and inventory. She is held respons- 
ible for all things used by her children in her 
toom. Let a clerk take care of this and save 
the teacher’s time and energy for teaching. 


The teacher is a city guide and is expected to 
take children on field trips to see places in rela- 
tion to their work such as the Museum, Zoo, 
Capitol, a dairy, a farm. She is expected to walk 
blocks to a moving picture. theatre for lessons in 
Visual Education. 


The teacher must be a civic leader, participat- 
ing in worthwhile community activities. She is 
supposed to work enthusiastically in the Parent 
Teacher Association and improve the connection 
between home and school,—attending meetings 
at night or after school hours. 

The teacher must be a writer. She is encour- 
aged and urge to write articles for educational 
magazines, bulletins and other professional in- 
fluences. 


And last and most important, the teacher is 
expected to teach in the classroom, efficiently, 
cheerfully, successfully. She is required to de- 
velop boys and girls into finer, stronger indi- 
Viduals and to make her class room a happy, 
ispirational, environment. 


And so we teachers wish to say, “Give us time 
0 teach, to think, to breathe, to develop boys 


15 


and girls into strong men and women with splen- 
did characters, fine minds, well trained and vig- 
orous bodies—so that tomorrow they may carry 
on. 

If we are to have time to teach, to think, we 
must not be required to be clerks, college stu- 
dents, playground supervisors, welfare workers, 
mothers, business managers, city guides, maga- 
zine writers and civic leaders. Give us extra 
workers for this extra work. 





MRS. ELIZABETH DRAPER, VICE-PRESI- 
DENT OF LOCAL 8, FOR THE JUNIOR 
HIGH SCHOOL 

In presenting a plea for additional teachers in 
the junior high school, the Teachers Union calls 
attention to two important aspects of junior high 
school organization. The first is the type of child 
to be taught, and the second includes the aims 
and functions of junior high schools in general. 
The adolescent pupil is passing through the criti- 
cal and formative period so far as his present and 
after life are concerned. 

The aims of junior high schools as laid down 
by Dr. Koos in his book The American Second- 
ary Education are: (1) civic—social—moral 
responsibility, (2) recreational and aesthetic par- 
ticipation and appreciation, (3) occupational 
efficiency and, (4) physical efficiency. The func- 
tions include (1) achieving a democratic second- 
ary education, (2) recognizing individual differ- 
ences, (3) providing for exploration and 
guidance, (4) recognizing the adolescent nature 
of pupils, (5) imparting knowledge and skills in 
the fundamental processes and (6) fostering 
transfer of training. 

With the above accepted as fundamental, the 
service of each junior high school teacher is 
fourfold. Such service comprises the instruc- 
tional phase, the student welfare phase, the so- 
cialization phase and the phase of professional 
advance. 

Under the instructional ,..ase are listed plan- 
ning of school work, organization of material, 
testing and marking of the pupil, and teaching of 
classes, 

In the student welfar: phase are vocational 
guidance, educational guidance, character train- 
ing, training for wise use of leisure, handling 
of the problem child, clinic classes or cases, and 
coaching backward children. 











16 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


The socialization phase includes many of the 
extra-curricular activities such as student govern- 
ment organization, clubs of all sorts, assemblies, 
school paper activities, parties for various oc- 
casions, dramatic productions, and graduation 
programs. 

Under professional advance may be grouped 
faculty meetings, institute meetings, subject de- 
partment meetings, college classes and prepara- 
tion, meetings for making courses of study, and 
text book committees. 

The above does not include the heavy amount 
of clerical work done by junior high school 
teachers. 

Because all junior high teachers are supposed 
to share in this fourfold service to the pupil, no 
special effort has been made to determine how 
long the teacher’s day is and for how long a 
period the teacher can carry several pieces of 
work concomitantly with fairness to the pupil, the 
school or to himself. 

Several recommendations are made in order to 
focus the attention of school officials on the 
problem. The first asks for the appointment of 
enough teachers so that there is one free period 
of forty minutes for each junior high school 
teacher every day. The second advises making a 
study of extra-curricular activities in order to 
determine which are worth developing; discard 
those which are not justified and slow down the 
rapid pace at which the junior high school is 
moving. The third recommendation suggests 
adding the worthwhile extra-curricular activities 
to the pupil’s program and including them in the 
teacher’s plan of activities in order to obtain a 
truer picture of a teacher’s working day. The 
fourth asks for credit for study hall assignments 
on the teacher’s working day, for much super- 
vised study is not only desirable but actually 
takes place. 





MARY C. DENT, PRESIDENT OF LOCAL 8, 
FOR THE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

The Teachers Union of Washington, D. C., 
respectfully petitions the Board of Education to 
ask for additional senior high school teachers in 
the appropriations for 1932-33. 

We make this request because the work of 
the teachers of the senior high schools is yearly 
becoming heavier and, because of the increased 


work with no extra teachers provided, the effi. 
ency of the teacher is being seriously impaire/ 
and the energy of the teacher, whose real bus. 
ness is to teach, is consumed in various task 
which, if they are considered of sufficient valy 
to be in the school programs, should be carrie 
out by an adequate force of teachers. In adgj. 
tion, there is a vast amount of clerical wor; 
which has to be performed by high school teach- 
ers, much of which could be equally well per. 
formed by clerks on a lower salary scale tha 
the teachers. 


While it is true that the figures of the teache 
load of the senior high schools of Washingto 
would appear to be low, these figures represen: 
only a portion of the teacher load. They ax 
based on formal class instruction only, beside 
which the teacher has study hall assignments 
section periods, and various other lines oj 
work. In computing these figures which rep- 
resent an average, only the numbers of pupil 
taught during the day in formal classes ar 
shown, Thus it can readily be seen that whil: 
a teacher may, as in some cases, teach thre 
actual classes in the day and the rest of his tim 
be spent in program making, vocational guidance, 
school publications, dramatics, college entrance 
work, etc., this teacher’s actual teaching load 
though in reality very heavy, would show a rele: 
tively low pupil hour load, and in the averaging 
of the teaching loads, help to pull down the fig 
ures for the city. 

A teacher may have a study hall with super 
vision of as many as a hundred pupils, or a 
in many cases, he may have two such study halls 
in figuring his teacher load no credit is given for 
study hall assignments, though a heavy study hal 
assignment, requiring, as it does, close super 
vision, carrying out of supervised study, an/ 
maintenance of discipline is an assignment which 
should properly be reckoned as teacher load. 

Teachers have section room assignments which 
involve keeping the section periods, periods which 
require the closest supervision. In addition 4 
section room means a vast amount of cleric 
work, These assignments are not counted is 
figuring teacher load. 

In the individual teacher’s load as now com 
puted, participation in extra curricular activitié 





whether in school time or after school time, ® 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 17 


not counted. A teacher may, in addition to his 
regular class work, stay hours after school coach- 
ing dramatics or working on stage settings for 
plays. Teachers who are faculty advisers, for 
sororities and fraternities have to attend night 
meeting of these organizations. Teachers in some 
cases give up a large part of their Saturdays 
chaperoning hikes and other kindred student ac- 
tivities. No credit for this type of work is given 
in the individual teacher’s load. 

Because of the nature of shop equipment and 
the nature of shop work itself, the shop classes 
and classes in domestic art and science are small, 


far smaller than the academic classes. This is 
true also of the classes in the natural sciences. 
Here again these relatively light teacher loads 
pull down the figures for the city. 

After school laboratory periods and after 
school typing classes also are not courted in the 
teacher’s load. 

In other words, as modern educational ten- 
dencies force more and varied activities into the 
schools placing on them a heavier responsibility, 
the individual teacher’s load measured by the old 
fashioned standard appears to grow less and less, 


while actually it is growing heavier. 





THE IDEAL TEACHER 
By Nell Owen, Local 52 


“You are”, the order came, “to feature 

The attributes of the ideal teacher”. 

(Voice from gallery, “There’s no such creature.”) 
“Her perfect qualities rehearse. 

And—yes, we want this done in verse.” 

(Voice from gallery—a smothered curse.) 


My muse, unwooed for many years, 
And timidly approached with fears, 
Benignly melted to my need ¥ 
And sent to me her favorite steed; 
So, giving Pegasus a wallop, 

I dashed away at sprightly gallop. 


Drawing rein at far Utopia, 

The Ideal Teacher’s habitat, 

I snuffed ambrosial breezes that 

Only made my Peggy dopier— 

The bumpy motion of my steed 

Is quite apparent as you read— 

(Voice from gallery, in a squawk, 

“Get off the horse, you boob, and walk!’’) 


“Utopian tourists need a guide”, ‘ 

A mellow voice spoke at my side, 

“The season’s slack; I’ve just been fired; 

The wife and kiddies . . .” “Enough! You're hired! 
Now, lead me by the shortest cut, 

To the Ideal Teacher’s simple hut. 

I'm sent to get an interview, 

I'd like to make a talkie, too; 

Or if Utopia has a mike, 

She can tell the world just what she’s like.” 


“But won’t this sudden interest, stranger, 
Go to our schoolma’am’s head and change ’er?” 


“Oh, here in Utopia she may be 

Prophet without honor in her own countree, 
But down on the earth, in the grime and soil, 
They’ve crowned her the fair-haired queen of toil. 


There are Boards of Education, 

All through our broad, bright land, 
Who invoke her shining presence 
To stand at their right hand. 


There are hordes of earnest teachers, 
In this land of libertee, 

Who moil and sweat and labor 

To become ideal as she. 


In the name of the great Minerva, whence 
Comes this lady’s intelligence? 

That mind, unbiased and profound, 

Of wisdom deep and judgment sound? 

How does she keep that brow serene, 

’Mid the shrieking whirl of the modern scene? 
How emerge refreshed from the daily bout, 
That frazzles other teachers out? 

How does she make of flaming youth 

Loyal devotees of Truth? 

(She comes out in a statement, signed, 
That Modern Youth is much maligned.) 
Where obtain the strength to impart, 

Aside from the strength of the pure in heart, 
Instruction unto forty and ‘leven 

Just as easily as to seven? 


From the vice of gossip utterly free, 
That sin well known, alas, to me; 

Self long since purged on a funeral pyre, 
She works for love and not for hire; 
Properly meek to the Powers That Be, 
Unwavering in her loyalty; 

Striking beauty of form and face, 
Radiant health and elfin grace, 

Setting the senses in a whirl, 

Oh, take me to the darling girl! 

I long to see this lovely creature, 

Oh, lead me to the Ideal Teacher!” 


“T can’t, because, last week, by gollies, 
She went and signed up with the Follies.” 








18 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


The Fulton County Teachers Association 


Mrs. R. T. Aderhold, Secretary, Savannah Local 183. 


Twelve Months Salaries 

1931 will long be remembered by the teachers 
of Fulton County as the year they were given 
twelve months salaries, after seemingly fruitless 
effort and endless waiting. 

While the salaries of the teachers of the Futon 
County system have been increased by the pres- 
ent administration in a most considerate way, 
not until this year has provision been made for 
a twelve months salary schedule. Prior to this 
time salaries were on an eleven months basis. 

Our Local petitioned the school authorities be- 
fore the beginning of the school year to add, if 
possible, the twelfth month’s salary. 

The aid of the Federation of Trades was en- 
listed in an effort to secure an appropriation 
from the Commissioners to provide for the extra 
payment. As a result the appropriation was se- 
cured and for the first time in the history of the 
system, salaries will be paid for twelve months. 

Group Insurance 

A few years ago it would have seemed a wild 
and visionary thing for teachers to have their 
own Group Insurance, providing them liability 
and death benefits. In fact it has been only a few 
years that any insurance at all has been provided 
for women. 

Don’t say this can’t be done, for it has been 
done, by the Fulton County teachers, and has 
succeeded so well that it requires very little 
solicitation to enlist new teachers coming into 
the system, for this cause. 

At present we have one hundred and seventy- 
two teachers insured. The total number insured 
since the beginning is two hundred and thirteen. 
Only forty-one have dropped it—and most of 
these because they left the system. The dividend 
declared for 1931 was five hundred sixty-six 
dollars and seven cents ($566.07). 

We have had no casualities so far. Now isn’t 
this a record? 

Miss Addie Cash, an elementary principal, 
graciously acts as Insurance Secretary for the 
Association. Her work is greatly appreciated. 


Credit Union 
Our latest activity, I might say, our youngest 


Sw a ee 


child, is the Credit Union, and like a fond 
Mother’s feeling for her baby is our pride in this 
movement. 

Credit for the work goes unquestionably, to 
our young men High School teachers, who, feel- 
ing the need and knowing the service to be ren- 
dered by such a movement, sponsored this whole 
heartedly. 

William O. Speer, Head of the Commercial 
department of one of our High Schools, volun- 
tarily gives every Wednesday afternoon of his 
time to the necessary clerical work. He is ably 
assisted by C. W. O’Rear, teacher of Mathe- 
matics in High School. 


In December this Credit Union was incorpo- 
rated and has already proved that it will be of 
material benefit to a large number of teachers. 
More than 50% of the teachers had enrolled as 
members by the end of April. The lack of 
banking credit had sent many teachers to high 
interest companiés and it is hoped that the Credit 
Union will relieve this. condition. Also co-opera- 
tion buying as a group is planned. One company 
has already issued courtesy cards to the members 
granting them a substantial reduction in the 
price of gasoline. Our superintendent and the 
board of education heartily endorse the move- 
ment. 

Emergency Relief Work 

Fulton Teachers realizing the benefits that 
have come to them through their affiliation with 
Organized Labor, and in a spirit of deep appreci- 
ation for past efforts in our behalf, voluntarily 
contributed a certain per cent of their December 
salaries, so that some Christmas cheer might be 
brought to many homes of Federated Labor, 
where there was acute suffering for the necessi- 
ties of life owing to the financial depression. A 
considerable amount of money was contributed 
and was carefully distributed to more than one 
hundred families. In most of our schools, this 
entire winter, welfare committees composed of 
the teachers, generously giving of their time and 
money, have been kept busy providing hot 
lunches, clothing, shoes and fuel to destitute 
children in their midst. 








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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 19 


The Challenge of the Future 
Secure Tenure 

We believe that secure tenure in return for 
efficient service is a primary essential in the 
growth of the teaching profession. The greatest 
enemy of service is fear and insecurity. No 
teacher can give his best to the children when in 
danger of having his professional household 
moved into the street. Teachers are public 
servants and are as much entitled to the -safe 
guards of tenure and retirement as is the soldier 
and the sailor. The life of the teacher roots deep 
in the hearts of the children, and of utmost im- 
portance is the genuine identification of the 
teachers with the child and the community in 
which he lives. 

Fulton County teachers, feeling that the time 
is ripe to work for security of position, have 
appointed a strong committee of workers. who in 
conjunction with other Fulton County employees, 
Tne Atlanta school teachers and the Dekalb 
County school teachers have employed the serv- 
ices of a competent lawyer to advise them in the 
preparation of such bills as are necessary to be 
presented to the Georgia Legislature in their 
1931 session in June. 


Teacher Retirement 

The problem of the aged school teacher is fast 
becoming a major consideration. Society is going 
to be called upon to give more attention to those 
who have passed beyond the age of self support. 
One encouraging evidence of this is the fact that 
the governors of thirteen states in recent mes- 
sages to the legislatures discussed this problem, 
most of them making definite recommengations. 

As our people become more socially minded, as 
they become more human and less mechanical in 
their thinking, as they stress personal values 
more, we will find the community more and more 
willing to provide that those who, after long 
years of service in the community are unable 
longer to care for themselves, are taken care of 
in a tender, dignified manner. Naturally there 
will be objections. Cries of socialism and pater- 
nalism will be raised, but these will find a dimin- 
ishing echo in the minds of the people as a whole. 

It will take long, patient, individual and col- 
lective effort for people generally to be led to 
appreciate these issues, but in this need alone 
is a challenge to every teacher in Local 183, and 
I believe that they will be able to find a way 
around every obstacle. 





HIGH PRESSURE 


“What is this A.F.T. movement?” 
Asked the brand new teacher one day. 
“Just another organization 
That I must join, did you say?” 
Smiling, the veteran answered, 
“You misunderstood me quite. 
High pressure is not our method, 
Only those who wish unite.” 


“Oh! Oh!” Then the brand new teacher 
Paused, speechless in her surprise, 
A look of genuine wonder 
In depths of her sparkling eyes. 
Her voice returned. Her next questions: 
“Don’t you want a hundred per cent? 
If so, how can you secure it? 
I can’t figure what you meant.” 


“Would you like to talk things over?” 
The veteran teacher asked, 
Her yearning to win a new convert 
By a casual manner masked. 
So the two sat down together— 
Gray hair and bright hair of youth 
Quite close in a friendly huddle, 
While that young girl learned the truth. 


By Carlotta Pittman, Local 52 


First of all the gray-haired teacher 
Discussed that “hundred per cent”. 
“We'd love it,” she said, “But only— 
Now get this just as it’s meant— 
Only when every teacher 
In the length and breadth of our land 
Receives and accepts our message, 
And joins with us, heart and hand.” 


The veteran told the story 
Of the birth of A.F.T. 
How it early joined with labor, 
How it loved democracy; 
Lauded to the skies its courage, 
Praised its wisdom and its worth; 
To its high officials handed 
All the virtues here on earth. 


Eagerly the brand new teacher 
Listened to each glowing word. 
Then at last she burst out laughing, 
“No high pressure? How absurd! 
But you’ve won a willing convert— 
I had no desire to flee— 
Now I'd like to work forever 
In the cause of A.F.T.” 











20 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Washington Teachers Union, Local 27 


GARNET-PATTERSON NIGHT SCHOOL 
FOR ADULTS 


By R. A. Gillem 

(Note—Mr. R. A. Gillem is one of the most public 
spirited teachers in Washington. He has given time 
and money, without any compensation, to test cer- 
tain important legal questions of benefit to all 
teachers. He has published a valuable pamphlet of 
classroom aids in geography teaching. Mr. R. L. 
Alderman, United States authority on Adult Edu- 
cation, calls Mr Gillem’s night school in Washing- 
ton, a model of its kind—M. M. Jones.) 

Washington is a Mecca for Education. Spe- 
cial provisions for training youth and adult in 
all fields abound. Many citizens, however, do 
not realize these advantages until too late. But 
this is not true of the nine hundred and thirty 
earnest seekers for learning who assemble in the 
Garnet-Patterson Night School three times each 
week to sit at the feet of twenty-five specially 
trained teachers who have dedicated their lives 
to the social, moral, and educational uplift of 
the community. 

The school plant is a model of its kind, having 
every modern equipment and facility. It has 
thirty classrooms, teachers’ rest rooms, sick 
rooms, assembly hall, conference rooms, library 
and science laboratories, and the fullest equip- 
ment for physical education. 

The courses outlined for adults are based upon 
the facts of their needs ascertained by careful 
research, The establishment of social activities 
play a most important part in this program. 
More intensive work on the minimum essentials 
of each grade make it possible for certain adults 
to be promoted at the end of each half year from 
Section A to section B, 

Departmentalization of the work from grades 
3 through 8, makes it possible for pupils to re- 
ceive training each night in mathematics, English, 
and the social studies, whereas the old traditional 
type of organization requiring each teacher to 
teach all the three “R’s” often failed in this. 
Grades one and two are for illiterates and those 
not sufficiently qualified to pursue the work of 
grades above as prescribed by the curriculum. 

Domestic art classes are preparing prospective 
home makers and young women bent on saving 
on their clothes during these hard times. 


Music plays an important part in this school 
The class in music is limited to 80, but frequent 
assemblies require the use of all the voices in the 
school. Miss Virginia Williams, a member of 
Local 27, and Mr. Clyde Glass, both outstand- 
ing musicians have planned the course for adults 
with special emphasis upon Negro music. The 
latest methods are used and members of the 
neighborhood choirs have enrolled in large num- 
bers, much to the improvement of the church 
music of the community. 


To aid in the great national objective of the 
worthy use of leisure, clubs of many kinds have 
been formed. They meet every third week. The 
last hour of each Friday night is given to social 
development and character training activities, 
A very creditable school paper, The Beacon, has 
been issued and the thought and composition of 
articles by the pupils are of surprising merit. 


In summarizing the value of this institution 
for the education of adults in the nation’s capital, 
four educational experts, Dr. R. L. Alderman, 
‘Dr. Ambrose Caliver, Dean Dwight Holmes of 
Howard, and Miss Maude Aiton of the Ameri- 
canization school, have characterized it as a 
model school, well planned to meet the conscious 
needs and interests of adults in moral, mental, 
and physical development. 





AN ESTIMATE OF THE CHILD FROM 
NIGERIA 


By Mary Mason Jones, President Local 27 


Much valuable information about the African 
forbears of American Negroes is unearthed in 
the annual efforts to furnish valuable programs 
during the observance of Negro History Week 
in the public schools of Washington, D. C. The 
following race tradition from, Nigeria was 
brought to my attention by Dr. T. Joseph Mor- 
ford, for many years a missionary and educator 
in that valuable British Protectorate in West 
Africa. ; 


Every birth is welcomed in a Nigerian home; 
each babe is the incarnation of an angel spirit, 
from among the myriads which hover about 
the earth. If a child die, it is because its earth 


home 
its rei 
child 
names 
only 
time C 
for in 
stands 
on a! 
may $ 
not th 
‘| tell 
beholc 
If 

would 


In 
bund] 
and ¢ 
credit 
event 
plom 
and f 
ing ai 
vital 
nation 
Ne 
painle 
tiona! 
despa 
whick 
a self 
try. 
Lil 
came 
callin 
culty: 
epics 
heroi 
wishe 
new | 
of na 
schoc 
drear 
root 
first 





ool. 
ent 
the 

of 
nd- 
ults 
The 
the 


rch 


an 


ns 
ek 
he 


or 
st 


ei 
t, 
it 





. THE AMERICAN TEACHER 21 


some has not been made sufficiently attractive ; 
js reincarnation is desired and expected. Each 
child is in the course of its lifetime given four 
sames, One Of which is a secret, to be uttered 
oly at the child’s seventh birthday and at the 
ime of its burial. Every one is kind to children, 
jor in the presence of the Creator there always 
stands one oversoul to represent each little one 
om earth; any offense against a child, therefore, 
may subject the offender to grave punishment. Is 
not this like the words of The Great Teacher, 
‘| tell you that in Heaven their angels do always 
behold the face of your Father?” 

If America and Europe held such creeds 
would child labor and child privation exist? 

Mary Mason Jones. 


THE DITCH DIGGER 
By Esther Popel, Local 27 
“Poor devil!”—This they call you 
As they stand, these lesser men 
Who could not bear the strain 
Of sweating toil and its monotony, 
Watching the rythmic swing 
Of your strong arms and 
Mighty, earth-daubed hands 
That grip and guide 
Your pick-axe up and down— 
And down—and up—and down— 
And up—and down—and 
Up—and down— 
To fashion from resistant earth 
And rock—a cesspool ! The Crisis. 





In this day of neat and relatively unrelated 
bundles of knowledge known in high school 
and college as “courses” for which one receives 
credits and from which, as Dr. Learned says, one 
eventually saves enough coupons to get a di- 
ploma, it is refreshing to find a country seeking 
and finding the real meaning of education—find- 
ing and using is so successfully that a real and 
vital transformation occurs in the life of the 
nation, 

Neither a man nor a nation finds wisdom 
painlessly. Out of the travail of a crushed na- 
tional spirit and a financially and _ politically 
desparate situation came the germ of the idea 
which was to transform prostrate Denmark into 
a self-respecting, self-sufficient, prosperous coun- 
try. 

Like the voice of one crying in the wilderness 
came the voice of a great man, Bishop Grundtvig, 
calling the people back to their own ancient 
culture, to their own folklore and their own 
‘pics. He sought to set their feet firmly in their 
heroic past and so to lead to a heroic future. He 
wished to accomplish this through schools of a 
new type, schools that should lay the foundation 
of national pride and of self education. His own 
school was a failure but he had dreamed a great 
dream and his faith was strong. Great ideas take 
foot slowly. It was nineteen years before the 
first successful school was established. This 





A Little Country Discovers a Great Truth 
By La Verne Garrett, Girls’ High School, Atlanta 


school was established in 1851 by a shoemaker, 
Kristen Kold. At last Bishop Grundtvig’s idea 
had found one idealistic and patriotic enough to 
embody it and at the same time practical enough 
to set it firmly on its feet financially. 

Kold proposed a two year course, designed to 
teach his pupils to love God, their neighbors and 
the fatherland. When asked for a program he 
proposed : 

(a) Great trends in human history 


(b) Great themes from Biblical history 

(c) The history of Christianity 

(d) The myths of the North and Danish 
history 

(e) Geography 

({) Literature of Denmark 

(g) Songs and Singing, especially the heroic 


songs of the North. 

There are now some sixty schools of this new 
type called the Peoples Highschools. They are 
independent of each other but all strive for the 
same ideals and are much alike. 

They are not state schools but so valuable does 
the country find them that they receive sub- 
stantial aid from the state without the slightest 
effort at state control. 

They take as pupils young people who have 
had eight years of schooling and have been out 
of school four years. During these four years out 
of school they have lived in their communities 








22 


and have begun to ask questions of life. They 
come to the Peoples Highschool to find the 
answers. 

The Peoples Highschools are called high- 
schools because they deal with things of high 
concern in the life of the community. They are 
designed to develop personality and a sense of 
responsibility. The young men come for four 
or five months and the young women for two or 
three months each summer. 

Here they find a school which helps them 
answer the questions about life and the world, 
so often ignored in other schools. 

The only requirement for entrance is that the 
student be at least eighteen years old. The 
pupils get no grades, no credits, no diploma, but 
something infinitely better—inspiring glimpses of 
the great pageant of history, an appreciation for 
a rich community life and the rudiments of a 
self-developing and enlarging culture. 

Each teacher gives but one lecture a day and 
so he has leisure for thought and development 
and for endless informal discussions with his 
pupils, These schools attract great teachers and 
the pupils profit by contact with great high minds. 
There is no rush, no strain, no hurry. The pupil 
has no assigned lessons, no required readings. 
He is even protected from too many lectures. He 
has leisure and inspiration for thinking and 
growing. He has contact with great minds in his 
teachers and to whatever extent he desires in the 
written records of other great minds. “A democ- 
racy,” said Bishop Grundtvig, “has need of two 
kinds of schools since there are two fundamental 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 
















values, knowledge and intelligence. The Peogt 
Highschool is concerned with the latter.” Why 
a contrast to many schools in which we seg 
busy reading without thought, crowding in th 
ideas of others with never the leisure or ty 
stamina to add one of our own, acquiring knoy al 
edge of an inexact sort without the intelligence vd 
use it for any really worth while purpose! “ ee 
Through the Peoples Highschools have pass! iad 
30% of the adults of Denmark and they hay "7 
changed profoundly the community life. Th South 
state church has been largely replaced by a fre 
religion, great cooperative schemes have i 
creased the prosperity of the country and a re ong 
culture has developed in the small communiti . de 
of the land. The Danish peasant prefers villa i 
life. His community is prosperous due to ty 
leaven of modern science applied to farming af* 
to the great cooperative schemes which he, as « < 
intelligent and enlightened man, has been able lady’ 
organize and use; but best of all it has real a " / 
satisfying cultural life to hold his sons aaj 0 
: death 
daughters on the land where they in turn a ! 
making Denmark one of the richest agricultur . 
countries in the world. The Peoples —_ 


choo! 
pent 1 
dore 

Schoo 
yorks 


sublic 


ae .  Bclecte 
has found the secret of directing the emotio 
; - era W 
energy of youth into the ideal of making a bette] 


Denmark. “1 

American conditions are in many ways quitf <" 
different from those of Denmark, but nese 
much to learn from the schools of this gre ’ 
little country of the real nature of education asl a. 
the conditions under which it becomes function, 


' speeck 
in the life of a people. wome 





Georgia 


By Perle Bokritzky, Editor of Atlanta Teacher 


Beginning with Lady Oglethorpe, the owner of 
Cranham Hall near Upminister, England, and 
the wife of Georgia’s founder, the women of 
Georgia have played an important part in the 
development and history of the state. 

There is no field of endeavor in which 
Georgia’s women have not occupied prominent 
positions; there is no single phase of life in 
which they have not had contributing parts. 
Georgia women hold records of service to the 
nation, the state and to their communities. 

The Martha Berry School near Rome, Georgia 


agains 
breadt 
she ec 
tribute 
was founded in 1902 in a log cabin with tw tion, ¢ 
pupils—a boy and a girl. Since that time it ha No 

grown into the greatest educational institution J ,, 4 
its sort in the world and is constantly expandi earth 
to larger proportions. Miss Martha Berry, "4... 
founder of the school, has often been asked Wi}, 
she gave up her home of ease and comfort "fining 
work and live among the mountain people "f Po, 
North Georgia. Her answer, inspired with a he] po4, 
full of love for the underprivileged boys and gf , ters 
of her native state, has always been, “To tty" iourp. 
make them useful and respected citizens.” trench 


Women 











S 








. ¢hool has appealed to many of the most promi- 
sent men of the nation. Former President Theo- 
- jore Roosevelt said after a visit to the Berry 
School, “This is one of the greatest practical 
yorks for American citizenship that has been 
jone within this decade.” Martha Berry has not 
iled in her magnanimous answer to the cry of 
ser students, ““Help me to be a man.” She has 
acceeded in meeting the educational and indus- 
ial needs of the poor white country boys of tke 
South ; she has reached the children of the farm- 
¥ free es and toilers, has taught them useful and re- 
ve " wunerative trades and ways of making a living; 
ws he has helped to make mountain people inde- 
a gndent, thrifty, and self respecting. 
y » The first woman in the history of the re- 
Jmblic to be sworn in as a member of the United 
ng ang” ; 
a States Stnate was a Georgia woman. Mrs. Re- 
able t becca Latimer Felton, Georgia’s “Grand Old 
flady” was appointed by Governor Thomas W. 
al an! ; ; 
<a Hardwick to fill the vacancy occasioned by the 
ma death of Senator Thomas E. Watson. After 
ltung CUPY INS the seat for two days she gave way 
to Senator Walter F. George who has been 
dected to the unexpired term. She grew up in an 
ta when women were homemakers only, but 
“flved to see woman suffrage an accomplished 
.fiact. Mrs. Felton managed her husband’s cam- 
‘Ipaign for a place in the United States Legislature 
Jin 1874 and served as his secretary during his 
f'erm of office. At a meeting of the W. C. T. U. 
in Macon in 1886 she made her first public 
speech, speaking against the system of herding 
women convicts with the men prisoners and 
against the leasing of convicts. Mrs, Felton’s 
breadth of vision was discerable in the fact that 
she considered her appointment to the Senate a 
ribute to the women of Georgia and of the na- 
‘| tion, and not a personal triumph. 
| No Georgian ever carried the literary fame of 
_ | te state more nearly to the four corners of the 
fartth than has Mrs. Cora White Harris. She 
hares with Joel Chandler Harris—to whom, by 
‘[ te way, she is in no wise related—distinct pre- 
‘J‘minence in the world of literary achievement. 
| From her vine-covered retreat at Rydal up in the 
| orth Georgia foothills, Mrs. Harris once wrote 
J‘ terse and tonic paragraph to a sophomore in 
urnalism, who had asked for the secret of her 
enchant style. It read like this: “Learn to 





e 
in the 
Or th 
know! 
ence ti 
se! 
Passe! 
y haw 
. Th 








tions! 












THE AMERICAN TEACHER 23 


halt quickly at your periods with the snap of 
your idea putting its foot down so that even the 
mind of a fool can feel its print. Avoid the 
weakest of all fluids, the facility of expression. 
People who have it never have anything else. 
Love words. Use them reverently and sparingly. 
Take infinite pains to fit them to your thought. 
Avoid passive verbs and get one good adjective 
rather than three poor ones to make draperies 
for your ideas. I do not ask your pardon for 
giving you this advice. I am old enough to do it, 
and I like to see you young ones succeed.” 

Gladys Hanson (Snook), one of the foremost 
actresses of our day, is a Georgia woman, Her 
home is in Atlanta though she is at present living 
in New York where she is pursuing her very 
successful stage career. She is esteemed as 4 
gifted and dependable actress and her praises 
are sounded by the dramatic critics of the Amer- 
ican stage. 

The originator of our “Poppy Day” is a 
Georgia woman. This day is observed annually 
throughout the United States in memory of those 
who died on Flanders Field. The seeds of Miss 
Moina Michael’s patriotic love and devotion in 
memory of America’s dead and wounded which 
she planted in the hearts of the American Legion 
are not only responsible for our beautiful symbol 
of “valor in war” but each year net millions of 
dollars for the relief of disabled soldiers in 
America and around the world. Miss Michael is 
a resident of Athens and is prominent in the edu- 
cational life of the state. 

Mildred Lewis Rutherford, affectionately 
known as “Miss Millie” by her fellow Georgians, 
was an authority on Southern historical topics 
and devoted herself for years to searching and 
recording the truth thereof, particularly as it ap- 
pertained to the Confederate States. She was 
born in Athens, Georgia, and was the state 
historian for the Georgia Division of the U. D. C. 
and was historian general for the Confederate 
Memorial Association. Her contributions in 
writing to the historical annals of the South 
make her a prominent figure in the world’ of 
letters. 

Mary Brent Whiteside, one of Georgia’s fa- 
mous women poets, was born at Shelbyville, 
Tenn. but moved to Atlanta in her early child- 
hood. Her exquisite poetry with its transcendent 








24 — 


beauty and simplicity of charm is read on both 
sides of the Atlantic. Miss Whiteside has been 
the recipient of many prizes though she rarely 
competes. “A Ballad of Tiberius” shared the 
international prize offered by the Poetry Review 
of London. The Poetry Society of Virginia 
awarded to her the sonnet prize for 1927 for her 
poem “Again Sappho.” The Sterling Memorial 
prize, was awarded for her “Junkman of the 
World” offered through the International Order 
of Bookfellows in 1928, and “Westminster Ab- 
bey” received third prize for a Cathedral poem 
offered through the Poetry Review of London. 
Further proof of the quality of her distinguished 
contributions to literature may be sought in the 
fact that Miss Whiteside holds prominent offices 
in the literary societies to which she belongs and 
has been singularly honored both in America 
and in England. 

Miss Laura Mays, a designer and a business 
woman who lives in Marietta, Georgia, can boast 
of clients who come from all over America and 
from many nations abroad. There is no other 
woman in the South who is conducting a business 
in any way comparable with hers. She is noted 
for her gorgeous creations for women and has 
displayed her designs in New York with such 
artists as Chanel and Patou. 

Isa Glenn (Mrs. S. J. Bayard Schindel) whose 
home is now in New York is a Georgia author 
and writer. She has achieved great distinction in 
American literature. Highly praised books from 
her pen are “Heat”, “Little Pitchers”, and 
“Southern Charm”, all novels. Besides these 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 



























he Cr 
Park § 
nforir 


literary accomplishments Miss Glenn has oy 
tributed to Scribner’s, to Pictorial Review q 
to other well known publications. 


| nade | 
Her interest in education, history and art hh th 
been a source of great pleasure to Mrs, Eliufave z 


beth Miller Bullard of Savannah and a source df of ’ 
much benefit to those whom her work h@ Wit 
touched. To the Georgia Historical Society, there ir 
Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences and tiity gi 
Savannah Public Library she has given untiriggrticle: 


foubt 
ill be 


interest. The preservation of the Telfair fun 
ture and the restorations of the old kitchens 
they were in former days in the Telfair hongiratert 
and the repairing and rebuilding of 200 volumgp cred 
of Georgia newspapers dating back to 1774 {qgmion 
the Georgia Historical Society, have been accongquate 
plished through her thought and liberal aid. us i 

Bobby Jones is not the only golf champiog2¢ 
that Georgia has given to the sports world. M weedy 
Alexa Stirling Fraser, now of Canada, is one df" ha 
the five women who have won the United Stag 1#! 





championship three times. She is also knowgeU" 
as the supreme stylist of the goli links. fo I 

Miss Eda Elizabeth Bartholomew of Atlanta "7 
well known and highly regarded in practical,” 
every educational establishment in the Unite Jot 
States which devotes any of its activities to 
study of the organ. She studied music at th 7 





Royal Conservatory of Music in Leipsic asi 





Teacher Credit and Loans 


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


Part III 


Yes, the Credit Union ferment is working! In 
the past month came a query by air-mail from 
California asking for details about Credit Union 
organization. From Savannah, Georgia, have ar- 
rived most encouraging accounts of organization 
and progress. Memphis is right now in the 
process of starting operations. Our own Union 
Teachers Credit Union here in Chicago, altho 
only a couple of months old, has enlisted support 
of a very sizeable group. But we are finding 


graduated with distinction. She has been th _ 
; : he int 

central figure of numerous recitals and concert = 
Georgia is justly proud of the noted wome Th 
who have brought laurels to her door! gai 
n the 

isury 

galiz 

; : _ pt less 

that we have need of iar greater enlistments, "J wp, 


we are to care for applications for loans. Iti Natior 
the history of most Credit Unions that it take, its 
some time for folks to become conscious of whaf.. 
it is all about, teachers with all their intelligentf 
being no exception to that rule. 
But it is just because of our conviction thi yd 
teachers need even further enlightenment on thif, - 
subject, that we have asked for the chance # ae 
add this month another installment, in the bof 
that other teacher groups may be impelled # 
organize credit unions. We have appealed ® 





Th 





















ie Credit Union National Extension Bureau, 5 


we Bark Square, Boston, to supply us with as much 
"W We formation as possible regarding the progress 
made by the movement among teachers through- 
art lt the country. This information we hope to 
Elizave available for the national convention of A. 
urce die of T. this summer. 
rk hal With salary payments temporarily suspended 
ty, tere in Chicago due to financial difficulties in the 
ind tikity government, the subject of this series of 
ntirigrticles becomes most vital locally. There is no 
fumgioubt that a large number of Chicago teachers 
ens gill be forced to resort again to the small loan 


- honfiraternity, either because they do not belong to 
olumi credit union, or because present teacher credit 
‘74 fomion facilities in Chicago are still quite inad- 
accommuate to cope successfully with the present crisis. 
1, us it seems timely to examine further the dif- 
ference between what credit unions may do for 
nedy teachers and the treatment they secure at 
ie hands of the commercial money-lenders. 

THe PEopLe’s Business presents some back- 
round material unler the caption, “Legalizing 
2% Interest for the Poor,” from which we are 
aking the liberty of making extended quotation 
fs follows: 

“John Maynard Keynes, internationally known 
Feonomist, in a continent-to-continent radio 











. / broadcast April 11, declared that the present 

~ an'orld business depression may be stretched out 

vs “ definitely, and go from worse to worse, unless 

— he interest charge for capital is lowered, on long 
ss well as short loans. 

vom “This declaration, made in the hope of avoid- 
ga world cataclysm, finds a movement on foot 
n the United States to repeal the laws against 
isury (so far as they protect the poor) and to 

- galize 42% per annum interest on loans of $300 

».pr less, 
we “The headquarters of the movement are in the 


ational Capital. The innocent-sounding name 
a mits door is American Association of Personal 
igen Nance Companies, 
This association is composed of about 1,000 
money-lenders sefected from the loan shark class. 
.ftis the most powerful aggregation of the kind 
me a the world. It is infused with the crusading 
pint. Its executive officer is referred to as 
general, commanding the entire army.’ Already 
ed tf Members (some of them nation-wide chains) 


THE AMERICAN 


TEACHER 25 


are lending upwards of $500,000,000 a year at 
42% interest or thereabouts, with negligible losses. 
Its clientele (more than a million American fam- 
ilies), kept in almost perpetual financial peonage, 
may be likened to the tenants of the notorious 
Irish rack-renting landlords whose motto was 
‘The best rent than can be obtained without a 
fine’. In view of its practices and its legally 
protected monopolistic privileges it is sometimes 
called the Loan Shark Trust. 

“The movement or crusade began in 1916 at a 
conference called by the Russell Sage Founda- 
tion. It is alleged that W. Frank Persons, now 
executive vice president of the association at a 
salary reputed to be $25,000, inspired the Founda- 
tion with the idea. At this conference the Magna 
Charta of the 42% money-lenders (called the 
Uniform Small Loan Law) was drawn up and 
agreed to. It is a masterpiece for disarming the 
superficial friends of the poor whose consciences 
cease from troubling when assured that poor bor- 
rowers are to be devoured by uniform legality. 
The Russell Sage Foundation fraternally agreed 
to sponsor the movement. 

“What has happened during the past 15 years? 
At a great gathering of the Forty-two Percenters 
held last summer in the palatial quarters of the 
U. S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington an 
interested speaker said: ‘The Russell Sage 
Foundation, armed with theory rather than ex- 
perience but sustained by the genuine crusading 
spirit, had the Uniform Act passed in more than 
a score of states.’ 

“If the way of salvation for America’s tragic- 
ally poor is extortionate legal interest, social 
progress is certainly being made. We are well on 
the way. But this is too serious a matter to 
joke about. Publicity policy with regard to usury 
is based on the sound judgment of mankind 
formed in the light of bitter experience. 

“Ts there no relief to the black picture of the 
progress. of the usury crusade in the United 
States? Fortunately, there is. The speaker above 
quoted ventured to put these questions to his fel- 
low crusaders: ‘Could you today pass the Act 
in twenty more states? Aren’t you rather on the 
defensive?’ What he had in mind was that in 
1929 not a single one of the seven state legisla- 
tures attacked by the crusaders was captured. 
Also that in nine states already captured fights 








26 


were staged resulting in several instances in re- 
ducing the interest rate. 

“With the view of recovering lost prestige, the 
crusaders have made a determined drive on 
Congress during the past two sessions to get their 
usurious Uniform Small Loan Law adopted for 
the District of Columbia. It was incorporated in 
the Bowman Bill. According to their custom, 
nothing that propaganda or lobbying could do 
was left undone. Congressional proprieties were 
knocked into a cocked hat. Finally they got 
their bill reported out favorably by committees 
i1 both House and Senate. With what result? 
The moment it came up for consideration the real 
friends of the poor borrower in both House and 
Senate put to rout the sponsors of this camou- 
flaged measure to legalize the robbery of the poor 
by the self-glorified loan sharks in the Nation’s 
Capital. Congressman LaGuardia led the fight in 
the House. In the Senate it was led by Senator 
Blaine who, when Governor of Wisconsin, had 
twice vetoed a similar bill. What they said about 
the bill even satisfied the People’s Legislative 
Service, which has been steadily at the front in 
the fight against it. . : 

“No doubt the usury crusaders will make an- 
other :ry of it at the next session of Congress. In 
the meantime they are assaulting such of the un- 
captured state legislatures as are in session this 
year.” 

To present a rather different angle to this 
matter of usurious rates, we are taking the lib- 
erty of quoting from “Credit Union” by Roy F. 
Bergengren, who is undoubtedly the man best 
qualified to speak on the subjert in America and 
whose book costing $1.25 from the aforemen- 
tioned Boston address has already been highly 
commended to all teachers. 

“The credit union is geared to take care of 
this credit problem of the masses of the people 
at fair rates of interest in effective and scientific 
fashion, and is the most practical and construc- 
tive agency as yet devised to eliminate eventually 
the private money-lender preying on workers and 
small farmers at usurious rates of interest. 

“In this connection it must be remembered that 
Tacitus wrote about usury; that both Testaments 
of the Bible have reference to it; that the litera- 
ture of every land sufficiently civilized to have a 
literature notes in some place and in some form 


THE AMERICAN 


TEACHER 


the curse of usury. No greater evil has man gq 
wrought upon himself than the exaction of wy, 
rious interest-from his neighbor. 

“This is the primary present-day problem wis 
which the credit union has to do. The justific 
tion of the Uniform Small Loans Law is that ty 
rate is the lowest at which the private lender cy 
operate at a fair profit; that the alternative (j 
a regulated 42%) is an unregulated rate s 
usurious as to make 42% seem fair and equitabi 

“There is much to be said for the Unifor! 
Small Loans Law. It has been very proper 
espoused by the Russell Sage Foundation (whe 
it originated) as a humanitarian, social servir 
measure for over 15 years, and the Foundatig 
has been primarily responsible for its enactmer. 
in one form or another, in the states where iti 
now operative. The law has had an importa 
bearing on the problem; it has doubtless curt: 


and restrained usury. The Uniform Small oe 


lLaw is the alleviative of a serious problem, @ 
which the credit union is the permanent sol 
tion.” 

So it would seem that as long as teachers i 
any similar group lack the necessary social co 
sciousness to avail themselves of this credit unier 
instrument to solve their credit and loan pro 
lems, they really should be grateful that mam 
resort to agencies no more usurious than 2a 
those operating under the Uniform Small Loz 
Law. And similarly, it would seem that only tk 
supporters of the credit union movement shoul 
consistently assail the legalized loan operators. 


And now a final word to the readers of th 
AMERICAN TEACHER all over the land. Remem 
ber, you can greatly assist the writer of thes 
articles if you will inform him regarding th 
teacher credit and loan situation in your own le 
calities, so that he may have this data for use # 
the convention this summer. And don’t forge 
this! Last year nearly 1,000 banks failed in ov 
country, while such a thing as a credit unig 
failure is practically unknown in the history 0 
the movement either here or elsewhere! If this 
study has stimulated any of our readers to th 
interest in the whole cooperative movemet! 
which its importance deserves, then the write 
feels amply rewarded. 


SEE YOU AT THE CONVENTION! 








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THE AMERICAN 





BOOKS 


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











4(Lass SIZE IN HicH ScHoot ENGLIisH—METH- 


ops AND Resutts. By Dora V. Smith. 
University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. 
295 pp. $2.50. 

This exhaustive study of experiments made 
to test the effects of class size on pupil achieve- 
ment and development should be given very 
thoughtful consideration by all interested in the 
well-being of our schools and our school chil- 
dren. It is well known that the cos@of educa- 
tion is increasing, it is also known by those in 
direct contact with the public schools that this 
increasing cost is being met very generally by 
increasing the size of classes. These experiments 
have been made because of the recognized need 
of ascertaining the desirability of this method of 
reducing class cost by increasing class size. 

The author first shows the widespread condi- 
tion as to the large class at present. The maxi- 
mum number of pupils per teacher occurs in the 
grades, the average for cities reporting being 
43.6 pupils per teacher. In the Junior High 
an average of 32.9 pupils is found with an 
average maximum amounting to 39.40 pupils. 
The smallest number is reported from the senior 
high schools, an average of 27.44 pupils per 
teacher. Some forty studies relative to the re- 
sults of large classes on pupil growth have been 
investigated, the methods are explained, and the 
results tabulated. 

In comparing results in ordinary class rooms 
the author found no connection between per- 
centage of pupils promoted and size of classes. 
Many of. the experiments were made with the 
large and small classes paired as to chronical 
age, sex and achievement of pupils. The sub- 
ject matter given was the same and attempts were 
made to suit instruction to size of class, In 
‘ome experiments the same teacher taught one 
large and one small class. The author’s investi- 
gations covered all grades and many subjects. 
She summarized the results of the findings gen- 
tally in the *following statement: “The meas- 
ureable results of instruction bear little observ- 





TEACHER 27 


able relationship to the size of the class in which 
the pupil is taught. Progress of pupils in large 
and small classes seems to be independent of the 
method of instruction used. Few ex- 
perimenters have concerned themselves with edu- 
cational outcomes other than those measureable 
by objective examinations. Practically 
no evidence exists as to the effect of increasing 
size upon average teacher load. Further in- 
vestigation of administrative devices and more 
economical handling of paper corrections is es- 
sential before generalization can be attempted 
concerning the strains upon the teacher oc- 
casioned by an increase in class size.” 


Following the report upon the investigation of 
€xperiments made in various parts of the United 
States the author gives detailed information of 
an experiment carried on in the ninth grade of 
English work in the University high school in 
the University of Minnesota in the years 1925-26 
and 1926-27. The conditions and pupils in the 
classes to be studied were paired and almost 
stenographic account was taken of pupil par- 
ticipation, the attitude of both teacher and pupil, 
time consumed in routine business, and so on. 
Part of the aim of the experiment was to devise 
efficient methods of handling large groups of 
students. Standardized tests were frequently 
used and the results showed that “the efficiency 
of instruction was independent of the size of 
class in grammar, punctuation, capitalization and 
composition exclusive of letter writing. The 
small classes were definitely superior in letter 
writing and in library methods. Large classes 
were decidedly advantageous for progress in 
spelling, increase of vocabulary, knowledge of 
literature, general spirit and enthusiasm.” 

The technique of instruction developed to han- 
dle the large classes included division of the 
classes into a number of groups, each with a 
bright pupil as leader who was to help with the 
routine work of taking attendance, collecting and 
checking home work of his group. Very care- 
ful planning preceded the lesson and detailed in- 
structions were given for advance lessons. Later 
when the time for drill or group discussion ar- 
rived the classes broke up into groups each under 
its leader and proceeded to group drill on gram- 
mar lessons or discussions of compositions read 
aloud in the groups. The teacher moved from 





28 


group to group settling questions beyond the 
grasp of the leaders. Later on class grammar 
tests were given or essays chosen by the separate 
groups were read aloud to the whole class. 

' The observers in reporting on the two years 
experiment indicate that the discipline problem 
may be a serious one in a large class, the large 
class being noisier though more enthusiastic. 

This book.on Class Size is an exceedingly 
stimulating and vital one. Members of the 
American Federation of Teachers will be ex- 
tremely interested in studies which should be 
made as to the effect of large classes on the edu- 
cational outcomes other than those which can 
be tested by objective tests. for these other out- 
comes seem to them the really vital ones. Also, 
they will want more conclusive evidence con- 
cerning the effect in increased strain on the 
teacher of increase in pupil load. 

The author reports that the experience of 
many investigators is opposed to the opinion that 
large classes are more tiring to the teacher than 
small ones. The author also claims that scientific 
evidence now available seems to be to the effect 
that teachers can teach large classes with the 
same zest and inspiration and efficiency as small 
ones. Chicago teachers who are in the habit of 
handling five or six large classes are a unit in 
declaring that there is much more fatigue at- 
tending the teaching of the large class. The 
Chicago High School Teachers Council, during 
its short existence, worked strenuously against 
factoryizing education. Chicago teachers who 
have had to consult doctors or attend sanitariums 
in pursuit of health have reported these authori- 
ties as agreeing on the evil effect of mass educa- 
tion on the teacher. Again the author states 
that the effect of teacher load on paper correc- 
tion in large classes is a matter of purely mathe- 
matical calculation, that because of the effect of 
momentum and practice it takes not quite two 
and a half times as long to correct fifty papers 
as to correct twenty. Such a statement is ab- 
solutely contradicted by all studies of fatigue and 
the worker. Today in many industrial lines the 
day has been, or is being, shortened with the re- 
sult that more and better articles are produced. 
The worker is less fatigued and makes fewer 
mistakes. The concentrated mental effort, such 


THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


as is used in marking papers, is extremely fatigh 
ing as every teacher knows. However, this, | 
thor makes no reference to any investigation 
to fatigue on brain workers and its result ¢ 
their work, 

Another problem unnoticed in this study of i 
relation of teacher to her pupil is the situatg 
in which many teachers find themselves toij 
in handling pupils of diverse nationalities ej 
with his own critical and peculiar home Situ 
tion. 
the complexity of modern life, to function s 
cessfully there and at the same time be a sat 
factory member of a home, requires that tH 
teacher have time to know the home life andi¥ 
particular @roblems and to discuss these sym 
thetically with the pupil. Miss Lea Taylor, 
Chicago Commons said recently that soz 
workers oppose the mass school and class } 
cause it complicates life so much for the child 
of the foreign born. 


The cost of education is increasing and wi 
have to increase more, but much of this increas 
is due to the fact that the schools are operatiy 
in an increasingly complex society, and that « 
them rests the responsibility of preparing chi 
dren for life in this more complex social ar 
economic system. Along with this study ¢ 
whether a child can be taught spelling and grat 
mar as efficiently in a large class as in a sm 
one, careful consideration should be made as * 
whether he can as well be fitted for life unde 
modern conditions. 

—Marian C. Lyons. 


LaBoR AND THE SHERMAN Act. By Edwoi 
Berman. Pp. 332. Harper & Bros., Nev 
York. $3.00. 


Nothing can interest Labor and its frient 
more than the law relating to what trade uniot 
may do and the manner in which that law * 
interpreted and applied by the courts. They wil! 
therefore, heartily welcome Professor Bermat's 
excellent and timely book on Labor and th 
Sherman Act. It’ should be read along with such 
books as that by Frankfurter and Greene 
The Labor Injunction, by union leaders, legis 
tors, attorneys, and judges, as well as by students 
of the labor movement, such as the writer 0 
this review. 


To help such pupils adapt themselves ¥ 








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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Labor and the Sherman Act is divided into 
three parts. Part I deals with the Intent of 
Congress when enacting the law. This is of 
more than usual historical interest, for on more 
than one occasion the federal courts have em- 
phasized the view that Congress intended that 
the measure should cover labor organizations as 
well as industrial combinations. Upon thorough 
examination of all the available evidence, how- 


' ever, Professor Berman arrives at the contrary 
_ yiew—the view that Mr. Gompers always took. 


Professor Berman’s analyses and conclusions are 
a valuable corrective of accounts given by such 
writers as Mason in his volume on Organized 
Labor and the Law. 

In Part II are surveyed all of the leading 
labor cases in which the Sherman Act, both be- 
fore and after revised through the Clayton Act, 
has been applied in strike and boycott situations. 
Indeed, Professor Berman does more; he 
analyzes each case and its reasoning in a manner 
entirely satisfactory to the reviewer. He makes 
clear how the Supreme Court made the boycott 
restrainable and actionable in the famous Dan- 
bury Hatters’ Case; how the constitutional right 
of free speech was limited by property right in 
the Buck’s Stove Case; how the doctrine of 
proximity or immediacy of interest was devel- 
oped in the Duplex and Bedford Cut Stone 
Cases; how Chief Justice Taft laid down the 
English Taff-Vale doctrine of union pecuniary 
responsibility in the first Coronado Case; how 
in the Brim’s Case the ban was placed on the 
union’s refusal to use non-union materials when 
interstate commerce is involved; how in the 
Hitchman Case the yellow dog contract came to 
be a contract at law rather than a mere descrip- 
tion of an employment device used by anti-union 
firms to hinder and prevent organization of the 
workers ; and how, in the Red Jacket Case, Judge 
Parker took an additional step to place a ban 
on the strike when it was effective enough to cur- 
tail the quantity of non-union goods crossing 
state lines and entering into interstate commerce. 
He also makes clear how, contrary to the hopes 
and views of Mr. Gompers and labor leaders 
generally, the Clayton Act was interpreted into 
a gold brick or something less. 

An outstanding thing in Part III, Analysis and 
Conclusions, is in showing that what the law has 


29 


been and is has depended and continues to de- 
pend very much, on the social and economic 
views of the courts. From the same facts, Jus- 
tice Brandeis or Justice Holmes has frequently 
arrived at an application of the law quite differ- 
ent from the application made by Justice Pitney 
and other judges most frequently constituting a 
majority on the Supreme Bench. 


Another point effectively made by Professor 
Berman is that while the Supreme Court has 
read the “rule of reason” into its decisions in 
the American Tobacco, the United States Steel, 
and other cases involving industrial combina- 
tions, it has failed to see the whole situation in 
proper social and economic perspective and has, 
therefore, failed to read the “rule of reason” 
into important labor cases. His plea is that the 
courts should see the entire situation in labor 
cases, place proper emphasis on ultimate objec- 
tives and mere incidental results, and apply the 
“rule of reason.” 

The only criticism the reviewer is inclined to 
make of Professor Berman is of this plea, Of 
course there will always be some necessity for 
applying such rule of reason as judges have, but 
as little room as possible for this should be left 
by enacting laws with adequate definition and 
detail set out in plain language. After all, it is 
the business of Congress, not of the Supreme 
Court, to declare what shall be regarded as good 
public policy. The reviewer wishes Professor 
Berman had written a chapter addressing himself 
to the provisions of the bill developed by the 
Sub-Committee of the Senate Committee on the 
Judiciary. , 

H,. A. Millis. 





CORRECTION 


The price of Your Jos anp Your Pay, 
by Katherine H. Pollak and Tom Tippett, re- 
viewed in the May issue, was incorrectly listed as 
50 cents for the paper bound edition. The paper 
edition is $1.00 per single copy; 85 cents per 
copy for 5-10 copies, and 75 cents per copy 
for over 10, This edition is available only from 
Brookwood Labor College, Katonah, N. Y. 

The cloth edition sells for $2.00 per copy, and 


may be ordered through Brookwood or the Van- 
guard Press, 100 Fifth Avenue, New York. 











30 * THE AMERICAN TEACHER 








| Local News 


SAN FRANCISCO LOCAL 61 

On April 25, Local 61, the San Francisco 
Federation of Teachers, celebrated its twelfth an- 
niversary. At the time it honored Miss Mar- 
cella Glazier, Financial Secretary, who for a 
number of years has held this office with utmost 
efficiency. Miss Glazier expects to retire at the 
end of the current school year. 

Dr. F. W. Hart of the University of Cali- 
fornia was the principal speaker. Dr. Hart, with 
his colleague, Dr. Peterson, made a salary sur- 
vey for the San Francisco teachers two years 
ago. He is now engaged with the Taxpayers 
League on a survey of the Pasadena schools. In 
combating the proposal of the League against 
salary increases, Dr. Hart, always a friend of 
the teacher, has proposed a scheme whereby sal- 
aries once established on a professional basis 
would automatically adjust themselves to chang- 
ing economic conditions. 

Dr. Hart outlined his plan briefly and asked 
for reaction. An open forum resulted in whieh 
many took part. Comment at the time and since 
have been most favorable. We hope soon with 
Dr. Hart’s consent to give his plan in detail 
through the medium of the AMERICAN TEACHER. 

G. M. KLINGNer, 
Secretary. 





PORTLAND OREGON LOCAL 111 

It seems odd that long established organiza- 
tions for teachers may move along in a deeply- 
beaten groove unchallenged as to worth-while 
accomplishments. But a group whose opinions 
are even faintly tinged with the iconoclastic must 
justify its existence with a list of obvtous and 
instant improvements. “Just what has the 
Union done?” Voice and brow always register 
the admirable trait of investigation before ren- 
dering judgment. And, indeed, a survey of the 
tangible results of our unionization may not, to 
the outsider, loom large. 

The addition of seven members, all superior 
teachers; interested observation of legislation, 
with our desire, on occasions, telegraphed or 
written to legislators ; contributions sent the Dan- 
ville strikers; a definite campaign for sabbatical 
leave brewing; luncheon talks by Mr. Paul 
Blanchard on democracy and the machine age, 


by Miss Bowman on her personal impressions oj 
Russia’s five year plan, by Oregon’s A. F. of L, 
secretary, Mr.. Ben Osborne, on sidelights at the 
last legislature ; the recognition, by our Board oj 
Education, of a member of the Teachers’ Union 
as a very desirable delegate to the state conven- 
tion of the A. F. L.—these are some of year 
accomplishments. 

Moreover, the value of the Union is measure( 
even more accurately by that intangible ministry 
it renders the Spirit. 
: Be_Le TENNANT, 
National Correspondent. 


COMMONWEALTH LOCAL 194 


Dr. William E, Zeuch, Director of Common- 
wealth College, will be absent from the college 
about a year, beginning September next. The 
time will be spent travelling and studying ona 
Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, re 
cently awarded. Dr. Zeuch’s itinerary as planned, 
includes England, the Scandinavian countries, 
3elgium, Germany, Russia, France, Spain, and 
Italy. He expects to visit many resident workers 
schools, and will carry on investigations pertain 
ing to the origin, history, curriculum, govern- 
ment, sources of income, relation to organize( 
labor, and educational ideals of these institutions. 

Mr. Lucien Koch, Director-elect of Common- 
wealth College, will take over his new duties 
shortly before Dr. Zeuch’s departure for Europe. 
Mr. Koch is a native of Oregon, and spent his 
first sixteen years in a rural, semi-pioneer com- 
munity of that state. At the age of sixteen he 
entered Commonwealth College and remained 
five years as a student. As a student-teacher 
during his closing year at Commonwealth he 
handled the subject of Introductory Economics. 
He then entered the economics department of the 
Graduate School of Wisconsin for two years of 
study, principally under Dr. John R. Commons 
and Dr. Selig Perlman. There he has made 2 
very high record, and during the academic yeat 
just closing has been an advisory instructor im 
the Experimental College. At the early age of 
twenty-three, Mr. Koch presents a, combination 
of intellectual ability, executive capacity, prac 
tical background in hard work, and proficiency 
in skilled labor, which carries great promise of 
success in his new and difficult task as Director 
of Commonwealth College. 





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THE AMERICAN TEACHER 31 


Other facts have a more pertinent bearing on 
Mr. Koch’s connections with the 
Union. He has been in continuous membership 
since 1928, first joining Commonwealth Local 
194. While a member at Commonwealth he 
represented the local at the convention of the 
Arkansas State Federation of Labor. At present 
he represents the University of Wisconsin local 
in the Central Trades and Labor Assembly of 
Madison. 

Ear C, Hamitton Secretary 





GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN, LOCAL 233 

The Green Bay Teachers Union Local 233 has 
completed its organization and is. increasing its 
membership. A live membership committee is 
functioning. 

The affiliation of the local with the Green Bay 
Trades Council was made the occasion of special 
welcome and congratulation. - 

The local and the Trades Council have en- 
dorsed the state Tenure Bill and notified their 
representatives at Madison of their action. 

The officers of the Union are L. H. Wochos, 
president; Florence Fell, vice-president ; George 
E, Klak, secretary-treasurer. 

Georce E. Krak Secretary 





NEW YORK LOCAL 5 

The New York public schools are in for an 
investigation at the hands of a legislative in- 
vestigation committee. -As might be expected 
Local 5 will have part in preparing the case for 
the prosecution of a Tammanyized school sys- 
tem. This work will be done in cooperation 
with the City Affairs Committee of which Dr. 
John Haynes Holmes of the Community Church, 
New York, is Chairman. The City Affairs Com- 
mittee represents in a significant way the new and 
effective interest of persons not primarily in poli- 
tics in the management of our cities. It seems 
to us in Local 5 that teachers belong with such 
committees, and should do their part in protecting 
the schools against the selfish uses made of them 
by partisan politicians. It seems to us also that 
those teachers who refuse to enter public affairs 
When the schools need their support are very 
much the same breed as those who refuse to 
join a teachers’ union in the belief that such 
action would be unprofessional. 

Henry R. Linvitie, President. 





Teachers | 


News of Our Members 











Miss Helen Lochrie, a member of Local 52 and 
teacher of dramatic art at South Side High 
School, has left the schoolroom for the field of 
professional broadcasting. She has signed a con- 
tract with NBC and is at present in Chicago 
where her skit, “Adam and Eva”, goes on the air 
daily. 





Miss Eleanor Richmond of Local 52, a teacher 
at Humes High School, delivered a splendid 
address on “The Teaching of English” at the 
Tennessee State Teachers’ convention held in 
Nashville April 2-4, 





Lillian Herstein, Local 3, is delivering a course 
of six lectures on Recent Trends in American 
Labor before the Jewish People’s Institute of 
Chicago. 

Miss Herstein was also one of the three speak- 
ers at the 1931 Institute on Cultural Cenflict 
held April 21, 22 and 23 at the University of 
Wisconsin. 





Professor William Orton of Smith College, 
president of Local 230 has an article entitled 
“Unscrambling the Ether” in the April 16th 
number of Education by Radio. 





Dr. Mark A. May, professor of educational 
psychology, has been appointed on a committee 
of the Institute of Human Relations of Yale 
University which will make a study of human 
problems in industry. 





Allie B. Mann, president of Local 89, was the 
Chairman of the Committee on Education of 
the Georgia Federation of Labor when it met in 
Convention the week of April 13th. 








SCHOOL AND SOCIETY 
Edited by J. McKeen Cattell 


A weekly journal that aims to present the unity of 
education from the nursery school and before, to the 
university and after, and to keep the educational system 
in touch with modern democratic civilization. 


Five dollars a year Fifteen cents a copy 


THE SCIENCE PRESS 
Grand Central Terminal New York, N. Y. 





























32 THE AMERICAN TEACHER 


Fifteenth Annual Convention American Federation of Teachers 
Congress Hotel, Chicago, Illinois 
June 29-July 3, 1931 
Theme—A. F. T. Slogan, “Education for Democracy”—Representative Government in School and Society 


AGENDA 
I. Organization of Teachers V. Social Agencies 
II. “The Children’s Charter” a. Credit and Loans 
a. Employment of Children and Young b. Group Insurance 
People VI. School Finance ; 
b. Part-time Schools VII. Social Policy of the American Federation of 
c. Size of Classes Teachers 
III. Teacher Contract System and Tenure VIII. Educational Policy and the Crime Situation 
a. Seattle in Municipalities 
b. 1931 Tenure Legislation IX. Program of Action 
c. Married Women Teachers a. Revised Program of Action of 1925 
d. Teacher Certification b. Special Program of Action for College 
IV. Unemployment, General and Special Teachers 


a. Class Teachers in Excess of Classes 


b. Placement Bureau 
Monday, June 29, 1931 
10:00 A. M. and 2:00 P. Mi—Executive Council Meeting 


Tuesday, June 30, 1931 
10:00 A. M.—Addresses of Welcome 
Presidents of Chicago Locals, 2, 3, 199, 209 and 224 
Agnes Nestor, President, Chicago Women’s Trade Union League 
Wiley W. Mills, President, Liberal Club 
Rose A. Pesta, Assistant Superintendent, Chicago Public Schools 
Address—Freedom of the Air—E. N. Nockels, Secretary, Chicago Federation of Labor 
President’s Address—Miss Barker 
Report of Secretary-Treasurer—Mrs. Hanson 
Report of Legislative Representative—Miss Borchardt 
Adoption of Rules 
Appointment of Committees 
12:45 P. M.—Get-Acquainted Luncheon 
Address—A New Goal in Education—Fred Atkins Moore, Executive Director, Adult Educa 
tion Council of Chicago 
2:00 P. M.—Seattle and Yellow Dog Contracts—W. B. Satterthwaite, Seattle Local 200 
Tenure—Pennsylvania—Barbara C. McGlynn, Wilkes-Barre Local 211 
Wisconsin—Ira D. Pilliard, Milwaukee Local 212 
California—C. A. Davis, San Francisco Local 61. 


Committee Meetings 
Wednesday, July 1, 1931 
9:30 A. M.—Organization—F. C. Hanson 
Southern Organization—Allie B. Mann, Atlanta Local 89 
School Finance—C. L. Vestal, Chicago Local 2 
Credit Unions—H. S. Bechtolt, Chicago Local 2; Mary McGough, St. Paul Local 28 
2:00 P. M.—Address—Mass Education—Frank E. Baker, President, Milwaukee State Normal College 
General Disarmament Conference—Laura Puffer Morgan, Assoc. Sec., N. C. P. W. 
International Relations—Selma M. Borchardt, Legislative Representative, Washington Local8 
Education Committee—Lucie H. Schacht, Chicago Local 3 
Size of Classes—Florence E. Clark, Chicago Local 3 
Local Reports 
Nomination of Officers 
7:00 P. M.—Banquet—Congress Hotel 
Addresses— 
School Legislation—Reuben Soderstrom, President, Illinois State Federation of Labor 
Financing Our Schools—Mrs. W. S. Hefferan, Chicago Board of Education 
Industry anl Social Progress—Professor Edward Berman, University of Illinois 
Our Economic Crisis—John P. Frey, Metal Trades Dept., A. F. L. Representing President 


William Green 
Thursday, July 2, 1931 
9:30 A.M.—Group Insurance—Vera Reynolds, Florence Rood, Vice President, St. Paul Local 28 
Academic Freedom—Henry R. Linville, Vice President; President, New York Local 5 
Policies Committee 
Local Reports 
12:45 P. M—Luncheon 
Address—Unemployment—Professor Jerome Davis, Yale University 
2:30 P. M—Resolutions Committee 
Local Reports 
Election of Officers 
Excursion and Entertainment 
: Friday, July 3, 1931 
9:30 A. M.—Legislative Committee 
Local Reports 
2:00 P. M.—Executive Council Meeting 

















Ociety 


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Editorial Office, School of Education 





Junior-Senior High School Clearing House 


A Cooperative Study of this Field of Education 


New York University, New York City 


Volume V consists of the following numbers: 


No. 1. Advisement and Guidance 
Chairman: RicHarD D. ALLEN, Assistant Super- 
intendent of Schools, Providence, Rhode Island. 
James M. Glass Margaret Alltucker Norton 
William M,. Proctor 


No. 2. Miscellaneous Problems 
Chairman: PHILIP W. L. Cox, Professor of Sec- 
ondary Education, School of Education, New 
York University. 
W. E. Hawley Paul S. Lomax 
Arthur D. Whitman Forrest E, Long 


No. 3. Athletics 
Chairman: H. H. RyYAwn, Principal, University 
High School, University of Wisconsin, Madi- 
son, Wisconsin. 
Merle Prunty A. G. Oosterhous 


* 


Ss. O. Rorem 


No. 4. Visual Education. 

Chairman: Ratpuw E. Pickett, Professor of 
Vocational Education, School of Education, 
New York University. 
Dorothy I. Mulgrave 

Jay B. Nash 


No. 5. The Adolescent. 

Chairman: JOHN RuFi, Professor of Education, 
University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. 
Calvin O, Davis Charles Forrest Allen 
W. C. Reavis Earle U. Rugg 


John H. Shaver 


Price for the ten numbers, 640 pages, $3.00 


No. 6. Mathematics. 

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


No. 7. Clubs 
Chairman: F. T. SPAULDING, Graduate School 
of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, 
Massachusetts. 
Charles Forrest Allen Elbert K, Fretwell 
Joseph Roemer 
No. 8. Creative Arts 
Chairman: ARTHUR M. SEyBoLD, Principal, 
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 Cort, 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 
Edwin Miller W. Carson Ryan, Jr. 
Paul S. Miller John W. Withers 


32 Washington Place, New York City 


Jay B. Nash 























A HOTEL 





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CHICAGOS NEWEST 
DOWNTOWN MOTEL 


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Just off the Press 


THE AMERICAN LABOR 
YEAR BOOK, 1931 


There is no other volume in the world giv- 
ing such thoroughly up-to-date, accurate, and 
expert data on the labor movements and in- 
dustrial conditions at home and 48 other 
countries. 


A Few of the Topics Included: 


EXTENT OF UNEMPLOYMENT 
DEPTH OF THE DEPRESSION 
AMERICAN FARMER’S PLIGHT 
Wace Cuts ANpD Cost oF LIVING 
Orp-Ace Pensions at HOME AND ABROAD 
Proposep PLANS FOR UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE 
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE SYSTEMS IN ALL 
COUNTRIES 
The 1931 edition contains one of the most 
complete sections on Trade Unions since the 
encyclopedic volume of 1926. It has a new 
chapter on Foreign Legislation. It gives latest 
statistics on Soviet Russia, Germany and Great 
Sritain. 


RAND SCHOOL PRESS 
7 East 15th Street, NEW YORK,N. Y. 
352 Pages Price $3.15, postpaid 












































ee  —SwoOoOoaoo SF 





American Federation 
of 
Teachers 


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CHICAGO, ILL. 





ia 


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.