REFERENCE
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AMERICAS
TEACHEI
democracy in education: education for democr.
IN THIS ISSUE
oe ¢ @
Historical Setting of American Federation
of Teachers
Ruth Gillette Hardy
Responsibility of Teachers in Our
Economic Dilemma
Dr. Edward Berman
Sing a Song of Summer Schools
Mary C. Dent
The Depression and Educational
Statesmanship
Dr. Abraham Lifkowitz
Our Children’s Opportunity
William Green
Schools and School-life of Switzerland
Marie Widmer
Cultural Complexes and Teachers
Albert E. Croft
Books as Passports to Peace
Evaline Harrington
Abeunt Studia in Mores
Alice Wood
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LLIBERTY-OF, T HOUGHT AND, SPEECH
DEMOCRACY: IN‘ IN- N-EDUCATION \ON- EDUCATION) IN DEMOC a
THE AMERICAN TEACHER
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF
THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
Editor
LuctE WarInG ALLEN
VoL. XVI
NOVEMBER, 1931
Business Manager
ANNE GRAHAM
Table of Contents
HIsTorRIcaL SETTING OF
THE
RESPONSIBILITY OF TEACHERS IN Our Economic DILEMMA,
SING A SONG OF SUMMER SCHOOLS..................- e
PAGE
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS,
Ruth Gillette Hardy 5
Dr. Edward Berman 7
Mary C. Dent 8
THE DEPRESSION AND EDUCATIONAL STATESMANSHIP,
Dr. Abraham Lefkowitz 10
Our CHILDREN’S OpporTUNITV.........-- :
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL
CULTURE COMPLEXES AND TEACHERS.........
THE PRESIDENT’sS PAGE...
I/DITORIALS ...... eee ere
anan T ENDENCIES IN EDUCATIONAL
MAGAZINES........
William Green 11
LIFE IN SWITZERLAND Marie Widmer 12
cients Albert E. Croft 14
sccanaieseindiainteihemeatciid Dr. Henry R. Linville 15
PER g Serre 16
E valine Herviagten 18
Alice R. Wood 20
Nell Peterson 21
EE eee a TT eee ee Lee Te OIE ST ee 22
CrepIt UNIONS TO THE RE Se _H. S. Bechtol 23
In Juty WE MarRcueED..................--..-- scunaiinancies Helen Taggart 24
TEACHING BY LETTER......................----.-.........02--- Edward A. Richards 25
NEws OF Our MEMBERG........... PET ae ne an eee vee ETT S 32
Un I I ia aicliie eiuesiaabdanebaiti 32
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4 THe AMERICAN TEACHER
MOUNT IPLEASANT SCHOOL
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3313 14th Street N. W.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
NovEMBER, 1931
Historical Setting of the
American Federation of ‘l'eachers
© UNDERSTAND the distinctive
| characteristics of the American
Federation of Teachers and its
place among the teacher organizations
of America one must know and bear
in mind certain facts about the educa-
tional system of America, its history
and particularly the history of teachers’
organization.
First one must appreciate the effect
of the local character of our education,
for it conditions all effective organiza-
tion. Forty-eight state laws and law-
making bodies control American edu-
cation. Furthermore, the effective con-
trol, particularly of finances and con-
sequently of teachers’ conditions of
work, lies with the authorities of still
smaller units (often absurdly small),
never larger than a single city or
county. Therefore it follows that the
only effective teachers’ organization
must be built up of autonomous units,
able to act on their own initiative, pos-
sessed of their own local offices, work-
ers and organizations. A purely na-
tional organization can do little more
than pass resolutions in a vacuum; the
practical work of an organization for
teachers’ welfare must be done to fit
local conditions.
At the same time, education through-
out the United States, without the
pressure of law, is remarkably uniform
in spirit and method, therefore a purely
local organization is needlessly isolated
and ineffective. New York City and
many other localities are infested with
“dollar-a-year” organizations, which do
more or less locally but lack stamina
for a real campaign to better condi-
tions, and lack the inspiration and so-
cial vision which comes from national
organization based on delegate conven-
tions. The American Federation of
Teachers unites the autonomous local
with the national policy forming body.
Again one must look at the present
status of teacher organizations in the
light of our educational history. As
communications grew easier during the
50’s a National Teachers’ Association
Ruth Gillette Hardy
was formed; it held annual conventions
of apparently anyone who could come,
without forming local units. In 1870,
it united with American Normal Asso-
ciation and the National Superintend-
ents Association to form the National
Education Association. The same
loose organization has continued until
six years ago. The convention report
for 1870 contains the names of 170
persons present, with no indication of
the positions held by any. But it is a
safe guess that each had to pay his own
way and that superintendents and
heads of schools predominated.
In this organization superintendents
naturally acquired a dominating influ-
ence. The average teacher of 1870 was
untrained professionally ; the majority
already tended to be women who left
young to marry. The turnover among
men was also great for teaching had
already become a recognized “‘stop-ga
occupation” while “working one’s way”
through college or medical school or
awaiting opportunity in some other
profession. Practically all teachers
were then on annual contract with no
security of continuing from year to
year, and the terms of the contracts
were entirely as made by the local
school board with not even State over-
sight or certification. In this situation
the local (county or city) superintend-
ent often represented the only trained
and professionally minded member of
the staff; he was also usually a domi-
nating personality who had won his
place after some struggle and, though,
also on annual contract with the local
board, yet exercising the influence of
leadership with its consequent security
of tenure.
As an outgrowth of this situation
the National Education Association
followed the interests of the superin-
tendents ‘toward stress on improved
pedagogy, establishment of “institutes”
for the training of teachers in service,
etc., but not on teacher welfare. Such
an organization tends to become what
in labor parlance is known as a “com-
pany union,” operating in the interests
of the local authorities. The mental
picture of a “teacher” as you still see
it stressed in American textbooks of
supervision is typically a young, un-
married woman who has little profes-
sional training or culture, no profes-
sional interest, who will leave in three
or four years at most and who will
accept pretty nearly any terms of con-
tract, salary, working hours, or size of
class because she knows it is only tem-
porary. Such a teacher needs to be
kept under strict surveillance not only
in the classroom, where the labor of
supervisors has been to create as nearly
as possible a foolproof curriculum and
set of textbooks, but in her personal
life where chaperonage seemed essen-
tial and, even today, there are contracts
which specify that an employed teacher
shall wear skirts of a certain length,
keep her goloshes buckled, not receive
gentlemen callers more than three
times a week and teach a Sunday
School class! Therefore a teachers’
organization existed to discuss the re-
lation of Herbartian Principles to Dis-
cipline, but not to interest itself in sal-
aries, size of classes or personal liberty.
Meantime teachers became, first in
the large cities, then in the smaller
progressive communities which de-
manded good schools at whatever cost,
a permanent body of men and women
(though still more of them women
than men), graduates of colleges or
first-class professional schools, often
well read and traveled, entirely able to
direct their own teaching and chiefly
in need of an opportunity to assert
their leadership in the community
through assured professional standing.
This standing, the strict supervisory
surveillance, the tradition of immmatu-
rity and inferiority and the one-sided
annual contracts prevented them from
securing. Some states and some local
communities in the interest of better
teaching raised salaries and passed ten-
ure laws, which essentially give a con-
tract terminable only for specified con-
6
ditions or offenses. These improve-
ments up to about 1910 were rarely
won by teachers’ associations.
It was in reaction to this situation
that early in the century various local
teachers’ leagues were formed in oppo-
sition to the superintendent-managed
National Education Association and
the various state teachers’ associations
which it had absorbed. Their interest
centered on tenure, salaries, fairer con-
ditions of daily work, fairer systems of
rating, pensions, freedom from a vari-
ety of supervisory abuses. They felt
that the essence of professional stand-
ing was personal freedom, from either
nagging regulations or economic pres-
sure. And historically and psycholog-
ically that is exactly what a profession
means ; it is any group banded together
to secure proper support in place of
exploitation from the community it
serves, aware of a common background
and outlook and free to carry on the
work to which its members are dedi-
cated as a matter of the honor of the
profession. Contrast the physician to-
day with the village barber-surgeon of
a century and a half ago! Yet this
change has been the result of the or-
ganization, not of supervisors, but of
all practitioners, in which the Hippo-
cratic oath has had its full share as a
symbol. The American teacher, gen-
erally in 1900, and, in many communi-
ties even today, is worse off than the
eighteenth century barber, because be-
ing full-time employees of public au-
thorities, they may have their whole
lives under surveillance and may even
be forbidden to organize professionally
as they may wish.
In this situation, therefore, many
local teachers’ welfare leagues found
themselves attacked by local supervi-
sors or their asosciations as “unpro-
fessional” and were unable to make
progress at the founding of their pro--
fession, which they sought. They
therefore looked about for allies and
for mutual support. This they found
in the labor movement.
The American Federation of Labor
had already worked out a form of or-
ganization suited to American federal
conditions, that of the autonomous
local able to do its own local work
without interference, but united for
mutual support and counsel in City and
State Federations and State and Na-
tional Craft Federations, which formu-
lated policies and exercised influence
without force in each field. The form
exactly suited the teachers’ needs, and
in 1916 the local welfare leagues in
Chicago, Gary and New York united
as Locals 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 in an Ameri-
can Federation of Teachers. They had
all had previous experience in seeking
local support from their city labor bod-
ies and it was but a short step to de-
cide to affiliate with the American Fed-
eration of Labor where they were wel-
comed and, for several years (until
1920), aided with funds to spread the
organization.
For this affiliation there were two
sound reasons which appear more
clearly in this country than in any
other. First, it can never be too
strongly stressed that the American
labor movement is essentially mon-
political. It influences legislation by
its platform and its active, well-known
legislative agents ; in this the American
Federation of Teachers follows its ex-
ample. It endorses individual candi-
dates of various parties, on their rec-
ords or platforms, but it endorses no
political party ; it puts forward no can-
didates nor does it, as an organization,
raise party funds. - Second, the Amer-
ican labor movement from its inception
has aimed at the establishment of free
public schools without class distinction
or stigma of poverty. Before the
splendid activities of Horace Mann
commenced, the national conventions
and state bodies of labor, from 1828
on, passed resolutions and agitated for
free schools for all. The two move-
ments coalesced to create the American
public school which in many communi-
ties today is the only school, attended
by all classes without thought of seek-
ing any other. American labor has
continued to take the keenest interest
in these schools and no state or na-
tional labor body meets without in-
cluding resolutions for their support
and improvement, often entering into
minute recommendations on new types
such as the continuation school, text-
books, curriculum, and, since, 1916, on
teacher welfare.
To assert the need for a professional
standing for teachers, as distinct from
the professional place of supervision,
required courage; to affiliate with our
natural allies in the labor movement
required more, for we were immedi-
ately attacked and have ever since suf-
fered from opposition, sometimes
open, sometimes insidious, as “unpro-
fessional” (meaning interested in more
than pedagogy). We have appealed,
therefore, to people of courage who
could think analytically and historically
and cannot be caught by labels. The
corollary of this is a membership of
wide social vision, interested in the ad-
vancement of teaching in its broadest
sense and in the welfare of the world
community without which we cannot
bring the oncoming generation commit-
ted to our charge to a full enjoyment
of life.
THE AMERICAN TEACHER
Throughout the fifteen years of our
existence our locals have devoted them-
selves in their various communities to
the task of securing such state legis-
lation and local board action as should
secure for teachers the professional
status, adequate salary schedules and
favorable working conditions which
the National organization has made its
objectives.
When a strong continuous local has
existed as in New York, since 1916,
the value of the organization has been
demonstrated. New York had a ten-
ure law and a system of certificating
teachers by examination free from
personal or political influence before
that date, but both are constantly sub-
ject to attack, often insidious. Every
such attack has been defeated and
always with the aid, often by the sole
activity, of the Teachers’ Union. We
have gained since 1916 a Pension law
which is a model to any community,
based on city and teacher contributions,
actuarily sound, giving full insurance
benefit and on whose governing board
the teachers are equally represented
with the city. We have increased sal-
aries, all teacher associations cooper-
ating, but under the leadership of the
Union’s legislative agent, a teacher
whose bold yet well-considered propo-
sitions often take away his colleagues’
breath, until for various grades they
are 75 per cent to 120 per cent higher
than in 1916. We have secured liberal
allowances for sabbatical leave, and
have fought off various censorship
laws. And we have learned im-
mensely.
We have learned first our recipro-
cal policy in the labor movement. We
joined them for aid and it has been
freely given. For example, our legis-
lative agents are teachers who cannot
get to the State capital when legisla-
tion is being considered, more fre-
quently than once a week. The legis-
lative agent of the State Federation of
Labor is a full-time worker more than
ready to work with us. But we have
also learned that we can help the labor
movement in putting its policy before
an intelligent public opinion. For ex-
ample, again, the educational program
of the New York State Federation of
Labor. has* been called by competent
authorities outside the labor movement
one of the most enlightened programs
for complete public education in the
country; our delegate who, as a matter
of course, sits on their Education
Committee has written this program
and secured its adoption on the floor
of the state convention.
Second, we have learned that we
can, even with weak numbers, use pet-
(Turn to Page 27)
—_ > -
JI no -_-
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ib-
Ty
Lip
ive
NOVEMBER, 1931
Responsibility of Teachers in Our
Economic Dilemma
HE REPUBLICAN administration
blames the present depression
upon European and world-wide
depression. The Democratic party
blames it upon the Republican adminis-
tration. It remains to me to enunciate
anew theory. I blame it partly on the
teachers. Of course, I am not desiring
to impose the full responsibility upon
the shoulders of the teachers; it is a
sort of contributory responsibility.
You and I have been brought up in
the American public schools. We have
gone through the usual teaching of
history in those schools. We have
heard the usual talk about American
ideals. America has a tradition for
freedom, for liberty. I should like to
call your atention to the fact that the
problem of unemployment and _ the
problem of lack of organization cause
situations which make for the oppo-
site of freedom. It is no freedom for a
man to know that he can get a job if he
can find one, when he does not happen
to be able to find one. It is no free-
dom for a man to know that he can
work or not, if he pleases, when he has
to work and cannot find a job because
there is none available.
We have talked in terms of politi-
cal freedom, but there is another kind
of freedom that is more significant for
the man on the street—and that is, the
treedom to work, the freedom to eke
out a livelihood for himself and his
family. That is the kind of freedom
which is desirable—economic freedom
—and a great deal of palaver about
abstract theoretical academic freedom
and liberty does not amount to a row
of pins unless we have this other kind.
Now I think teachers should recog-
nize that they have been guilty of some
contributory negligence in this matter.
I think that the pupils turned out by
the American school system have
grown up without an adequate under-
Standing of the economic situation.
The teaching of the public school sys-
tem has been at fault in three impor-
tant respects.
Professor Edward Berman
In the first place, this whole idea of
political freedom and great economic
opportunity has been grossly exag-
gerated by our school systems. It has
been too commonly said that every boy
who is ambitious has a fair chance in
life. It has been too commonly said
that this is a country of unrestricted
freedom, a country in which anybody
who wants to go ahead and make his
way can do it, a country in which
there is real and true and thorough-
going liberty. Those are splendid
ideals ; but it is one thing to teach an
ideal, and it is another thing to teach
and talk to your students and pupils as
though that ideal were a reality.
A second thing for which I think the
teachers should be blamed is the exag-
gerated narrow type of patriotism that
is taught in many of our schools. I
grew up in a pretty good school sys-
tem tut had the inspiration of Francis
Parker and some other people to carry
it on; and yet all through the grades I
was told and given to understand—
sometimes told very directly—that the
best country on earth was the United
States and that no other country could
hold a candle to it, that we could prac-
tically lick the rest of the world with
our hands behind our back. The rest
of the world was bunk—too bad they
could not help it, but they were not
American, and we thanked God that
we lived in a country which was re-
plete with virtues.
What is the consequence of that
kind of teaching? In a situation like
our present one, it seems to me to have
four very significant consequences.
In the first place, it creates in the
minds of immature pupils, people who
grow up into citizenship, the notion
that there is nothing wrong with this
country. After all, if we are the best
country on earth and have little or no
vices at all, how can there be anything
wrong with us?
In the second place, it creates a
notion that other countries do not
amount to much, which is a bad thing
not only from the business of tackling
our own economic problems, but also
from the point of view of international
peace.
In the third place, it creates the im-
pression in the minds of many of the
growing youngsters of this country
that people who desire to make con-
structive changes in industry and so-
ciety are cranks, fools, and people who
might well be despised and not people
to whom you have to pay much atten-
tion. ‘They are unsound.
In the fourth place, I think, very
seriously, that people grow up with
the notion that even though there may
be certain evils in a system of ours, we
cannot learn anything from an emer-
gency like this.
The further consequence of all this
is that the citizenry, in my opinion, is
ignorant and intolerant, intolerant to
new ideas and to the desire for change
which experts on the subject, careful
students of the problem, recognize as
essential and necessary before the con-
dition can be remedied.
There is a third thing for which I
should like to blame the teachers. 1
think that our school system has exag-
gerated the virtues of modern society.
Teachers have instilled a belief in the
minds of their pupils, directly or by
assumption, that we live in a pretty
good system which requires very few
changes, that we have economic oppor-
tunity, freedom, wealth, and all the
blessings that there are to be given to
humans on earth; and that, therefore,
we do not want to make many changes.
These youngsters are brought up with
the notion that our present system is
about the summit of human intelli-
gence on this universe, that for thou-
sands of years some mysterious hand
has guided in a mysterious fashion the
destinies of history and has finally cre-
ated this beautiful thing.
I am no unbridled critic of the capi-
talist system, because I think that it
has many virtues. But I think it is
utterly absurd to assume that a thing
is sO virtuous that it is foolish to find
(Turn to Page 28)
THE AMERICAN TEACHER
Sing a Song of Summer School
OME time ago I made a solemn
4 promise to myself in these words:
“T shall never make you go to
summer school again.” I said “again”
because I had just finished sweating
through a long, hot summer at Colum-
bia trying to get proficient in a certain
field in which I was then interested. I
kept that promise until this year. Ah
me! Would I had never broken it!
And now as I sit at my enforced labor,
absorbing words of wisdom in classes,
reading in secluded corners of libraries,
studying and writing endless papers
at my desk in Grays, my attention oc-
casionally wanders, and time and again
the questions arise: “What is it all
about? Why are we all here at sum-
mer school? What do we want from
summer school?” Especially do I pon-
der on these questions if I walk
through the Yard in the long summer
twilight and see so many lights in so
nany different windows, signs that all
the industrious students are hard at
work. Even more forcibly is the
whole problem brought home to me
when the voice of the typewriter is
heard in my neighbor’s room when I
want to go to sleep. What is it all
about ?
Have I the courage to here set down
in black and white my tentative answer
to so weighty a question? Well,
whether I have the courage or not, I
feel the time is ripe for an answer, so
I hasten on before I change my mind.
Summer School is one of the symp-
toms of a strange, new disease attack-
ing American education. It is a dis-
ease which defies classification, yet it is
one which, to my mind, is so serious
that unless its progress is checked, what
is most worth while in American edu-
cation will succumb to its evil effect.
That the malady is prevalent is evinced
by the fact that in many public-school
systems increasing pressure is being
brought to bear to make teachers take
courses in methods and courses in gen-
eral educational theory. In some sys-
Mary C. Dent
tems yearly increases in salary are
made dependent on taking a certain
number of points in education. In
most systems professional advance-
ment is made contingent on the amass-
ing of these credits in education. It
does not seem to matter what the cred-
its come from, just so they come.
Hence, as long as the disease is ram-
pant, teachers will come to summer
school to get credits. This mad rush
for points is a fatal symptom of the
dread malady. American teachers are
simply mad about piling up credits.
One summer I stayed a long time at
Oxford, not attending lectures but ab-
sorbing the atmosphere. A_ chance
question of an English friend of mine
as we Sat at a leisurely lunch at “The
Mitre” lighted the fuse that set off this
particular train of thought in my mind.
The question was, “What are these
credits that you Americans are so mad
about?” What indeed? Why was a
friend of mine recently advised by a
certain school official to (in said offi-
cial’s own, words) “pile up a lot of
credits in education,” if she wished to
qualify for a higher salary group?
Incidentally she had already piled up a
mountain of credits in English litera-
ture, her own subject, but that meant
nothing. Will the piling up of a lot of
credits in education make her a better
teacher and worthy of the slightly
larger salary of the higher group?
And that brings me to another point.
A grave symptom of this menacing
disease is that one never seems to be
urged to get credits in courses having
to do with the content of the subject
one teaches. Perish the thought! Dur-
ing the last ten years the emphasis in
elementary and secondary education
has shifted from what is taught to how
it is taught. What one teaches is a
mere tail to the educational kite. You
may know nothing to teach, but you
must teach that nothing according to
the latest and most approved methods.
And so we have countless methods
courses: How to Teach Chinese to the
Chinese, Special Methods in Elemen-
tary Copying, Special Methods in Vo-
cational Guidance Follow-up Work
Throughout the Pupil’s Life, How to
Approach a Pupil in Order to Recon-
dition his Behavior Patterns, How to
Overcome the Handicap of a Roving
Eye, How to Be Happy With a Low
I. Q. Is a teacher a better teacher
because she has sat through six long
weeks in Professor Sleepwell’s course
in How to Get On With One’s Princi-
pal? Is a teacher a better teacher be-
cause she has written theme after theme
for Professor Thinkfast’s course in
How to Teach Proper Attitudes in Oc-
cupational Behavior by the Case-Con-
ference Method?
When Lord Tennyson had the aged
Ulysses say:
“T am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch where-
thro’
Gleams that untravelled world whose
margin fades
Forever and forever when I move—,”
he sounded a fundamental truth and
by the beauty and imaginative scope of
the lines crystallized that truth forever.
We are part of all we have met, and
the teacher, of all people, should build
up for himself an arch of experience
that frames for him vistas into an un-
travelled world so beautiful, so various,
so humane, that he can start his pupils
on their long journey through life well-
equipped for the journey. Is the
teacher who is a part of endless courses
in educational measurements and spe
cial methods in teaching nothing to
nobody the best teacher? Shall I re-
turn to school this fall a more under-
standing teacher because I have piled
up some credits in education, evel
though I went through the trying
process within the august precincts 0!
Harvard?
When I have gone back to school
after other happier summers, I have
carried with me little pictures that fre
a. ati a epee oboe Gh ae 2a a5) sa east = 2h
ao — aA
ER
iled
ven
ying
s of
hoo
ave
fre-
1931
NOVEMBER,
uently “flash upon that inward eye
which is the bliss of solitude.” Again
| see the fishing boats with their red
sails and blue nets flutter into the har-
bor of Douarnenez, lying all gold in the
evening light. Assisi, the little white
town perched on its hilltop and per-
meated with the holiness and meekness
of St. Francis, lies before me dream-
ing under the summer moon while at
its feet is spread before my eyes the
Umbrian plain flooded with brittle, sil-
ver moonlight. In Budapest the blue
dusk is reflected in the Danube and the
wid, sweet music of the gypsy orches-
tras mingles with the lap of the waves
against the Quai. The young, slender
up a few credits in education. Such is
life in the educational world.
Another aspect of this credit hunt-
ing trend in American education rather
terrifies me. The teacher who during
the winter takes extension courses and
other university courses and then
plunges deep in summer school lacks
the opportunity really to live. I have
always been tremendously impressed
with what Emerson means in The
American Scholar when he speaks of
being able to tell immediately upon
speaking with people whose words are
“loaded with life” and whose are not.
From a mathematical standpoint there
are not enough hours in the year for
The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial
Library, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Mass.
Basque men in white with red sashes
and red berets leap through their ath-
letic folk dances at St. Jean de Luz to
the accompaniment of old Basque folk
tunes played on an odd little barrel-
shaped drum and a piercingly sweet
pipe. Could any credits in education
make up for the memory of the Rein-
hart production of Everyman on the
steps of the cathedral at Salzburg when
the blue of the summer sky overhead
matched the robes of Hope posed on
the steps in the lovely attitudes of the
Virgins of the medieval religious paint-
ers? Could a course that counted a
thousand points make up for glorious
mornings spent sitting on a ragged
edge of nothing far up the mountain
opposite the majestic Cirque de Ga-
varnie while the music of a thousand
streams of melting snow rang in my
tars, or for the summer spent walking
in Cornwall and Devon along the cliff
paths hanging over the sea and backed
by endless stretches of purple-heath-
ered moor? Ah well, this year I shall
&0 back educated because I have piled
9
and in doing settlement work in New
York, or in my leisure moments dur-
ing the school terms when I ran a
group of workers’ education classes in
the evenings and came in contact with
trade unionists in trades ranging from
the brick!ayer’s and butcher’s all the
way through the Federal employee’s.
If I were faced with the choice of los-
ing what I have gained from these
contacts, or losing at one fell swoop
all my credits in education, I should
not hesitate a second in making my
decision.
There is another distinct disadvan-
tage. too, in leaving all else and cleav-
ing to credit hunting only. What time
does such a policy leave the teacher for
reading for enjoyment? I think my
favorite line from Walt Whitman is
the line in Song of Myself, “1 loaf and
invite my soul.” To me the most de-
lightful way cf loafing and inviting my
soul is reading the books of writers
whose words are “loaded with life”
and open up for one alluring new vistas
of vicarious experience. As I look
back, some of the most satisfying hours
I have ever spent were those spent in
reading authors who have so much to
say about a certain character they have
created that it can’t be compressed into
one book, but must be spread out over
T OP LAS
Biarritz, Le Baste
the teacher who makes a business of
credit hunting to get his words “loaded
with life.” It is only through contacts
with people in varied walks of life that
one can do this. No course in educa-
tion could ever help me to understand
my pupils as much as I have been
helped toward understanding them by
summers I spent in working for the
Associated Charities in Washington
three or four volumes. Nothing can
ever take from me the joy of having
read Rolland’s Jean-Christophe, Tol-
toy’s War and Peace, Nexo’s Pelle the
Conqueror and Ditte Girl Alive. Was-
sermann's The World's Illusion,
Mann's The Magic Mountain, Doro-
thy Richardson’s Pilgrimage, Sigrid
Undset’s Kristen Lavransdatter.
(Turn to Page 26)
The Depression and Educational
Statesmanship
HE world-wide depression, a
product of an over-mechanized
industral system or economic
Frankenstein that lacks social planning
and social vision, is giving our states-
men many sleepless nights. Why?
Not only because the problems of un-
employment and underconsumption are
difficult of solution but especially be-
cause statesmen seek makeshifts to tide
them over instead of remedial legisla-
tion and reconstruction leading toward
permanent solutions.
A similar problem is facing educa-
tional administrators. With fewer op-
portunities in the business world, and
with job uncertainty, many former
teachers are seeking to return to the
system while many who planned to
enter the business world are instead
seeking to enter the teaching profes-
sion. The result is teacher unemploy-
ment. How shall teacher unemploy-
ment and the general business depres-
sion be faced by boards of education?
Shall a policy of makeshifts be fol-
lowed in dropping teachers as has been
done in several states? Shall salaries
be reduced or increments be denied, as
has been done by boards of education
who see not beyond the mechanical
economic law of supply and demand?
The Union Teacher believes boards
of education have an unusual oppor-
tunity for the exercise of educational
statesmanship. We suggest that the time
is opportune to raise educational stand-
ards so as to retain the ablest teach-
ers as well as to attract to the profes-
sion others equally good or better ones.
This can be done only by paying cul-
tural salaries. Sound progressive edu-
cation pays the community in the form
of productive socially-minded citizens,
in decreased retardation, truancy and
delinquency. Reducing salaries is the
solution of the educational shyster and
the visionless bread-and-butter busi-
ness man to whom economy is the
cure-all instead of being the desperate
act of an intellectual bankrupt. Wage
reduction in a cyclical and technolog-
Dr. Abraham Lefkowitz
ical depression spells economic ruin to
all.
Instead of dropping teachers, we
urge that more teachers be hired.
At the present time large school sys-
tems are suffering from excessive re-
tardation due to thousands of over-
large classes of 40 to 55 pupils and
teachers who do not meet the highest
educational standards. We urge that
registers be reduced to a maximum of
35 per recitation teacher and that spe-
cial teachers-at-large be assigned to
each school with a register in excess of
2,000 students. This will give employ-
ment to hundreds of teachers, reduce
retardation and give needed experience
to young teachers and help to pupils.
To stimulate progressive teachers or
to galvanize the less active ones into
activity we suggest that the best teach-
ers in the elementary, junior and senior
high schools be released for a month
or more to study the especially fine
constructive and original work being
done within the school system or in
nearby school systems ; that their places
be taken by regularly licensed teachers
awaiting appointment; that vacancies
being held open by principals for teach-
ers who are not available be filled so as
to prevent those trained by the city at
great public expense from being lost to
the profession ; that the sabbatical leave
be extended to one year for all who de-
sire restoration of health, and for
study, travel or rest ; that the three-day
visiting period be restored to all teach-
ers to prevent stagnation and that there
be established in conjunction with the
State Department of Education an
Employment Bureau to secure em-
ployment outside of large cities for
teachers on eligible lists, giving such
teachers credit for such service toward
salaries and pensions. This will give
our unemployed teachers employment,
give them necessary educational experi-
ence without cost to the city, give out-
side communities highly trained and
qualified teachers, give our experienced
teachers greater opportunities for cre-
ative work and stimulate the stagnant
types to renewed activity and vigor. In
this way the whole educational system
will be revitalized and will receive a
new lease of life.
Educational statesmanship requires
that a Department of Instruction be
created under a director of instruction
whose business it will be to unify and
to supervise the training of teachers
while in the Training Schools and dur-
ing the probationary period. Where
necessary this supervision should be
extended especially when asked for by
the teacher. The director should fur-
ther establish a bureau of instructional
research to develop a body of facts
which will enable supervisors to im-
prove teaching by the application of
scientific methods and data scien-
tifically arrived at. At present the
whims or prejudices of a supervisor
rather than scientific data too often
form the foundation for teacher criti-
cism or teacher effort—a great educa-
tional loss. Moreover, the director,
aided by an advisory council composed
of representatives of the whole educa-
tional system, will centralize the activ-
ities of the system and on the basis of
factual studies and experimentation,
modify the courses of study, improve
teaching technique and assist both
teachers and supervisors to reach a
sound solution to an _ educational
problem.
The Union Teacher calls upon the
Board of Education and the Board of
Superintendents of our city to inaugu-
rate this type of statesmanship in the
present educational crisis, and thus help
lead our politically-appointed and po-
litically-minded administrators out of
the educational bog into which purblind
business methods are driving them.
Never has the world needed clearer
thinking than now. Will our educa-
tional leaders make that thinking pos
sible or shall the world blunder into 4
catastrophic change and its conse
quences? The world faces a crisis.
What are educators going to do about
it ?—The Union Teacher (New York).
THE AMERICAN TEACHER
on
the
sor
ten
iti-
ca-
or,
sed
oth
nal
the
of
the
ielp
of
lind
em.
rer
1(a-
05-
to a
nse-
isis.
out
rk).
NovEMBER, 1931
11
Our Children’s Opportunity
William Green
President American Federation of Labor
The President’s Commission on Unemployment Relief has launched a nation-
wide campaign to keep young people in school during this time of acute eco-
nomic distress due to unemployment. President William Green of the American
Federation of Labor was invited to make the opening radio address.
The American Federation of Teachers, since its organization, has held as one
of its principal objectives the furtherance of all types of protection for the
child worker.
The American Teacher gladly cooperates with this movement to
keep the children in school by presenting President Green’s address, and urges
its readers to give earnest consideration to the twofold purpose of the move-
ment and to participate in it by every means in their power.
HERE are over five mil-
lion persons walking
the streets looking for
jobs. There are approxi-
mately five million more work-
ing part time. What stronger
or more convincing argument
can be offered as to why any
boy or girl under sixteen
years of age having been given
gainful employment should
now be sent to school and the
work they have been doing be
performed by adults?
Why have we committed
this double folly of taking
from an adult the opportunity
to earn a living and giving it
to a child and thereby depriv-
ing it of a child’s heritage?
Partly because we know not
what we do and partly because
we have not had the wisdom
to establish and maintain the
social and economic standards
necessary to protect the chil-
dren of the nation.
We have permitted boys and
girls to leave school in order
to help the family when the
bread-winner lost his oppor-
tunity to work. Such a policy leads to
immeasurable social waste and enriches
noone. If we would create real wealth
we must first protect our children. We
must give children a chance to prepare
for the problems and_ responsibilities
of life.
The present unprecedented unem-
ployment problem sharply discloses our
failure to establish a far-sighted policy.
Only three states require boys and girls
under 18 years of age to return to
school when unemployed. These states
are Colorado, Utah and Ohio. Dela-
ware, Indiana, Massachusetts, and New
Eprror.
PRESIDENT WILLIAM GREEN
Jersey require children under 16 years
of age to attend full time school when
not employed. New York requires all
under 17 to attend school 20 hours a
week when unemployed. To enforce
such regulations, employers must be re-
quired to return work permits to the
issuing authority upon the termination
of the employment.
The first step in an emergency pro-
gram to send children back to school
might be an executive order by the
permit issuing authority of each state,
requiring work permits to be returned
upon the expiration of the work for
which said permits were issued.
The supplementary step should be a
public demand that no more work per-
mits be issued to children of school age
during this national emergency.
Forty-five states and the District of
Columbia require employed children to
have certificates certifying to their age
compliance with school attendance laws.
In most states the age limit for which
a certificate is required is 16, a few ex-
tend the requirement to 17 and
18 years. In some states even
yet minors of 14 years are per-
mitted to work in factories and
other gainful occupations. But
these laws are not effective
without vigorous, efficient ad-
ministration. Any _ general
movement to put children back
in school must plan to secure
adequate administration.
Despite the fact that 1930
was a year when millions of
men and women were out of
work, 103,000 children under
16 years of age were granted
employment permits! These
figures do not present the full
picture, for statistics are not
available for the whole coun-
try. The reports show that 60
per cent of these children had
not completed their eighth
grade and many had gone no
higher than the sixth grade!
With this meager equipment
the work capacity of these
children is definitely limited.
When they have burned out
the enthusiasm and vigor of
youth, they must either accept
employment that holds no hope of
progress, or turn to casual labor.
In the great industrial state of New
York, 37,150 children 14 to 15 years
of age were granted work certificates
in 1930; 18,035 found vacation em-
ployment. In Massachusetts the num-
ber under 16 years of age to whom cer-
tificates were issued in 1930 was
23,248. The figures of these two states
show a distinct drop over 1920, which
shows the results of efforts to prohibit
child labor and keep children in school.
In New York City a_back-to-the-
schools movement rescued many.
(Turn to Page 28)
WD iwwuinain—
—
e ——
ek
mg
AD’. dM!
e
7.”
Market Day on the Place de la Riponne at Lausanne Ouchy on the Lake of Geneva, Switzerland. The imposing University rises in
the background.
Schools and School-life in Switzerland
ROUSSEAU, PESTALOZZI, with these two names the history of modern education has largely
concerned itself. From the schools established in the latter part of the eighteenth century in the little
Alpine republic of Switzerland, went out influences which have molded education in every country in the
world even unto this day.
How his own country has adapted the principles of Pestalozzi to the educational need of the twentieth
century is of considerable interest to those who are seeking to accomplish the more perfect realization of
Pestalozzi’s great dream of schocls that should educate for a better life through the activity possible to
childhood.
THe AMERICAN TEACHER believes Miss Widmer’s survey of the schools of Switzerland will be of
value and interest to its readers.—Editor.
HE intellec-
tual and pro-
fessional cul-
ture to which
Switzerland owes
the privileged posi-
tion she occupied
among the nations
is due chiefly to the
thoroughness with
which scholastic ed-
ucation is adapted
to the requirements
of modern life and
conditions. Swiss
culture is of long-
standing origin and
derived its inspira-
tion from the most
varied sources, no-
tably from the
great reformers and
Marie Widmer
Picturesque Public School in Village of Lutzelfluh
their predecessors like the famous Irish
monk St. Gallus, whose name is per-
petuated in the abbey and town of St.
Gall. In later days, Basle, Geneva and
Zurich became great centers of learn-
ing based on a groundwork of classic
lore which is the
essential! of all true
culture.
Jean - Jacques
Rousseau, born in
1712 in the city of
Geneva, presented
the . orld with new
ideas on education
in his book “Em
le.” Heinrich Pes-
talozzi, Ziirich’s
noted philanthro-
pist and pedagogue,
born in 1746, real-
ized the greatness
of Rousseau’
teachings and utr
lized them in 4
practical way for
the public schools.
His writings and
THE AMERICAN TEACHER
a a a
=< - —-> me
ER
“i .
rish
per-
St.
and
arn-
SSIC
the
true
ues
1 in
y of
nted
new
tion
-mi-
Pes-
h’s
hro-
gue,
real-
ness
uti-
n 4
for
ools.
NovEMBER, 19381
the educational establishments he di-
rected at Neuhof-Birr (Argovie) and
at Yverdon, on the lake of Neuchatel,
became world famous. Froebel was a
student of his methods; and from the
normal school at Oswego, New York,
under Sheldon, his doctrines of sense
training, observation and_ practical
knowledge were spread throughout
America. Pestolozzi’s own methods
were successfully employed by another
eminent pedagogue, von Fellenberg,
whose private institute at Hofwil, near
Berne, was attended by the sons of
families known on both sides of the
Atlantic.
As early as 1830 the Swiss cantonal
governments began to study the school
problems, for in those days already the
school was recognized as the instru-
ment by which a
democracy trains its
members for effi-
ciency and patriotic
service. The elemen-
tary school, a canto-
nal institution subsi-
dized by the govern-
ment, is the basis of
education in Switz-
erland. It is com-
pulsory up to the age
of 14, with the op-
tion of continuing to
16, and is entirely
free of charge for
all children.
“Continuation
schools” (suggestive
of the people’s high
schools of Den-
mark) are available
for young men who
for some reason are able to attend only
the prescribed compulsory term in the
elementary grades. An intermission
of one or two years is generally al-
lowed between the termination of the
first school period and the beginning
of continuation school. In this manner
the pupil resumes his studies at a some-
what more mature age. The new
courses concentrate especially on the
perfection of the mother tongue, on
Swiss geography, history and govern-
ment questions. The attendance of
these schools is limited to the winter
months and does not exceed seven
hours per week.
Pupils desirous of attending “sec-
ondary schools” are generally trans-
ferred to these schools from the fifth
primary grade, provided they can pass
the State-imposed examinations. The
average duration of a secondary school
course is four years and after gradu-
ating from these schools the students
are ready to enter the so-called inter-
mediate schools,” which cor ..se:
1. Institutions preparatory to uni-
versities, such as the gymnasia
with their scientific, literary
and commercial departments.
2. Teachers’ seminaries.
3. Technical schools.
4. Commercial schools.
The course of study in the first
named group of institutions generally
covers four to four and one-half years.
After its completion and the passing
of a State examination, the students
are eligible to enter one of the univer-
sities or the Federal Institute of Tech-
nology at Zurich.
Some intermediate schools, especially
those of the smaller cantons, merely
endeavor to give their students a com-
plete education of a higher grade and
many of them afford at the same time
Forest School near Zurich, Switzerland
opportunities for boarding to pupils
from distant localities. A few of these
institutes are enterprises of religious
orders and among them are the Roman
Catholic colleges at Schwyz, Einsie-
deln, Engelberg, Disentis and Fri-
bourg.
A noteworthy feature of the inter-
mediate schools of French-speaking
Switzerland are the language courses
and the special classes for native and
foreign students whose mother tongue
is not French. After becoming suffi-
ciently proficient in French in these
classes the pupils are admitted to the
normal classes.
The public intermediate schools gen-
erally require a moderate fee, but
scholarships are available for deserv-
ing students.
Switzerland believes in showing her
children their country. Hikes and
sightseeing trips of one or several days
are a regular feature of Swiss school
life. While the lower grades may be
taken on half-day or day’s outings, the
18
higher institutions of learning provide
for more extensive excursions, and in
all cases the country’s railways cooper-
ate generously with greatly reduced
tariff for schools.
In most of the regions where skiing
is possible in winter this popular win-
ter sport has become an important part
of physical training and many progres-
sive towns have in recent years set
aside a special credit for the purchase
of skis for boys and girls attending
the upper elementary and secondary
grades. Gymnastics on skis, cross-
country hikes, races and even jumping
contests have thus become a much en-
joyed feature of Swiss school days in
winter.
For children of frail constitution
many cities have established open-air
or forest schools.
yi With specified peri-
Ne ods of the day de-
voted to study, rest-
ing and games, and
with nourishing
meals served free of
charge, these delicate
children grad ually
develop into healthy
members of human-
ity. School lunches
and “summer vaca-
tion homes for
school children” are
other vital problems
efficiently taken care
of throughout the
land, and donations
mem from public spirited
‘citizens are never
lacking when the
welfare of youth is
at stake. Workers for Switzerland’s
outstanding industries, such as weav-
ing, embroidery, machinery, watch-
making, hotelkeeping and woodcarving
are trained in schools especially de-
voted to these branches. A number
of technical institutes for students of
the age of 15 years up prepare for a
theoretical and practical activity in
construction, machine building, electri-
cal engineering, chemistry, etc. The
diploma given by these schools makes
a student eligible for the Federal Insti-
tute of Technology at Zurich.
A small number of agricultural and
dairy schools, which all maintain model
farms, afford a thorough training to
young men who desire to become pro-
ficient in this field. For the girls there
are special schools for complete in-
struction in housekeeping. Courses
are available also in dressmaking,
millinery, embroidery and household
economics.
(Turn to Page 27)
14
THE AMERICAN TEACHER
Culture Complexes and Teachers
Shee COMPLEXES! What ab-
surd things they make us do!
Men remain custombound in uncom-
fortable and insanitary clothing ; farm-
ers vote for politicians who juggle
tariffs against rural welfare; non-
union workers oppose collective bar-
gaining while they profit from union
standards; idealists abhor materialism
when all intellectual culture rests upon
material bases; teachers remain ultra-
individualists in a world of collective
and cooperative endeavor; and educa-
tional leaders emphasize psychological
compensation when adequate service
depends upon economic security.
Why and how do these culture pat-
terns, or complexes cause us to be-
have so inconsistently? We could
readily answer this if we knew the his-
tory of the ideas that are contained
in our “experience,” and if we knew
to what extent we, as individuals, are
controlled by our ideas. Ideas get into
our minds, we accept them, become
loyal to them, then stubbornly resist
any change that seems to conflict with
our attitudes. Since these ideas usually
have become traits in our mental pat-
terns long before we attained the
habit of discriminating, we carry on
many incompatible concepts. When
we try to examine these ideas and
eliminate the inconsistencics we dis-
cover that they are rather elusive.
To analyze some of these culture
complexes which control us is to get
a revealing view of our characteristic
reactions. We would not appear in
public clad in the costume of 1850 (a
type of material culture complex), at
the same time we escape notice if our
idealogy (an immaterial culture com-
plex) contains culture traits as obso-
lete as the hoop-skirt. Physically the
members of the educational profession
are well dressed. Intellectually their
minds often incongruously mix the
fashions. For example, if one con-
siders the ideas upon which some teach-
er organizations are based, one is
Albert E. Croft
startled to discover that tliey are like
the old guild systems which the eco-
nomic world abandoned nearly two
centuries ago. Yet, without a scruple
they are being rationalized into use un-
der modern conditions.
When we examine society from the
standpoint of occupational groupings,
we find some interesting contrasts be-
tween teachers and other worker
groups. From the banker to the day-
laborer we find occupational organiza-
tions that function efficiently along
modern principles and result in mental
ease and economic security. The
methods- by which these occupations
have attained their goals involve or-
ganizing in such a way as to enable
them to control the conditions under
which they market their services and
goods. Does this cast light upon why
teaching is often the least favored
profession? In the world trend
towards cooperative activity, the teach-
ers are among the last to understand
the importance of occupational team
play for their own professional ad-
vancement—economically and other-
wise.
The chief difficulty confronting the
teaching group seems to be that of
freeing itself from certain culture
traits that became traditional decades
ago. Before the era of generalized ed-
ucation, teachers represented the so-
called “upper classes.” They brought
the idealogy of those classes into their
work. It became part of the teacher
culture. When education became de-
mocratized, because of the demands of
the general public for greater educa-
tional opportunities, the teacher atti-
tudes were well founded and even tra-
ditional. Accordingly the old concepts
have continued to dominate our minds
when underlying economic and social
conditions have widely changed, and
the old patterns leave us with “blind
spots.”
By the nature of the profession, the
teacher has been barred from the eco-
nomic and social activity of the com-
munity. This protection from direct
contact with the material trends in
community life has made it natural for
the teacher to become idealistic, and
“impractical.” Furthermore, old aris-
tocratic traits often led the teacher to
hold himself aloof from “common-la-
borers,” and a complacent disinterest
in them has caused the profession to
remain uninformed of the means by
which the major cooperative move-
ments have achieved their far-reaching
results. (It is useless to point out
that teachers owe their jobs to the fact
that the struggling “common people”
demanded democratized education).
On the other hand, teachers are not
acceptable members for higher eco-
nomic organizations since they are
“merely paid employees.” When we
consider how these inconsistencies in
the teacher mind have escaped notice
we find a measure of the control the
old patterns have had. At the same
time we find an excuse for much of
the leadership of teacher organizations.
It, too, is under the same control.
The first step in correcting this cul-
ture complex which is preventing the
teacher from attaining full professional
standing, is to analyze the existing cul-
ture pattern and find out something
about its historical settings.
The next step is to eliminate from
the pattern those ideas and modes of
behavior which are no longer useful
under present conditions. “Fixations”
which retard growth are dangerous.
Incidentally, it takes much courage to
face the problem of changing our fixed
ideas. They are rooted in the emo-
tional nature, which makes readjust-
ment a struggle between intellect and
feeling.
The final step is to study present life
and incorporate the best it can offer
into the making of a new culture com-
plex. Teachers should then adopt the
slogan, “Be Practical,’ which means in
these days, “Be Group-Minded.”
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NovEMBER, 19381
15
The President’s Page
England
The reaction of English teachers to
the fifteen per cent reduction in salary
recently imposed by the Coalition Cab-
inet is worth noting.
The London Teacher
for September 18
says “His Majesty
the King reduces the
Royal Civil List by
50,000 pounds while
the emergency lasts.
Teachers have to
submit to the ordeal
of a permanent cut.”
Thus, even in what we may have been
calling liberal England teachers are ex-
pected to submit to discrimination. But
it would do your heart good to know
how the English teachers hold to strict
accountability the political leaders of
all parties represented in the new gov-
ernment. Those who attack the sched-
ules are named “salary apaches,” and
a spade is called a spade. The front
page protest ends, “Whatever the im-
mediate sequel may be, we will never
accept the criminal wrong which has
been done to the teaching profession.
We will fight on, and fight on, until
our just dues are restored to us.”
America
Reports have been coming in show-
ing that salary cuts are being proposed
in various parts of the country. In
some localities, especially it seems in
Pennsylvania, local school boards have
openly stimulated low bidding among
unemployed teachers. Such a game re-
quires two to play. The teacher, of
course, is the “sucker.”
In New York City where salaries of
teachers are higher than elsewhere,
many leaders advise the adoption of
the policy of keeping quiet, apparently
with the idea in mind that New York
teachers may be able to conceal them-
selves and their salaries from the
“apaches” when they come around.
Possibiy we have not suffered
enough in this country to develop the
back-to-the-wall, fighting spirit which
our English brothers and sisters evi-
dently have. But there is no reason
why we cannot do some thinking
against the day when the storm strikes
us,
Dr. Henry R. Linville
Our Business
As workers in the social enterprise
of education, we are obliged to do busi-
ness with representatives of the public.
Some of these representatives will be
worthy citizens, while others, indeed,
may be “apaches.” But evidence is not
lacking to show that both may occa-
sionally unite on a program of “econ-
omy.” ‘Then we must be business-like
and wary. If we are gentle and sub-
missive, and in other respects replicas
of the old-fashioned pedagog, or of the
new officially conceived pollyanna, we
shall probably accept the “hand-out”’
when it comes. When the real con-
flict emerges in the existing economic
depression, if it comes, we may find
that the public attack on those of us
who resist will turn on
Our Manners
Perhaps the manners of some who
fight for the basic conditions of self-
respect would not make an appeal to
those who think of us as “shining
examples to youth.” But youth needs
character. And its chance of absorb-
ing some inspiration to that end seems
to me vastly better if it comes into
touch with men and women who seek
professional self-respect as a funda-
mental requirement. Then, too, youth
remembers that kind longer. After
which it is a proud thing to be a
teacher.
But Also
It is not enough to think of the fight
we may have to wage as all we must
prepare for. Whether we all accept
the responsibility or not, we are in-
‘volved in the social job of building up
a sounder program of education than
exists at present. The ability of edu-
cational officials to do this job may be
increased, but the potentiality of the
rank and file to reconstruct and to
build more adequately for the present
and the coming age is a resource which
lies at hand practically untouched.
It is for such as we in the American
Federation of Teachers believe our-
selves to be that the future holds great
promise, as well as great responsibility.
Postscript
No sooner had the above been writ-
ten and despatched than the Eighth
Annual October Week-end Conference
of Local 5, New York, assembled in
the glowing hills of New Jersey, fifty
miles from New York, unwittingly
followed up the thought expressed in
the foregoing paragraph. Practically
every one of the speakers at the Union
Conference called attention to the need
of a comprehensive plan for educa-
tional reconstruction. As was to be
expected, there were manifest various
degrees of clearness as to the areas in
the present educational structure
where the beginnings of a new order
might be undertaken. There was some
disposition to take over the psycho-
logical method of another great na-
tion, Russia, and accept the tactic of
propaganda as a necessary and logical
feature of a new educational order.
But there was also enough good brake-
lining in the wheels of the conference
to keep the pepped-up new gasoline un-
der control.
For those who are interested not
only in the development, the organiza-
tion and the promotion of ideas, but
also in the working of the minds of
those who produce ideas, there is much
profitable study. When a _ distin-
guished American professor of some-
what liberal tendencies expresses ad-
miration for the comprehensive social
plan of Russia, he is not logically
bound to approve the tactic of propa-
ganda in education. But if he does,
one is led to wonder whether he hasn’t
always favored teaching children “what
they ought to know,” or whether he is
merely permitting his enthusiasm to
boil over. Nevertheless, it is as ex-
citing to watch such manifestations of
interest as it is to have the feeling that
goes with the experience.
The main thing, however, is to real-
ize that the era of thinking toward re-
construction is getting ready to show
itself. Soon we may be talking in
terms that imply tearing down as a
preparation to building more ade-
quately and more beautifully. Well,
we ought to be getting ready to lend
a hand.
American Federation of Teachers
Organized April 15, 1916
Affiliated with the American Federation of
Labor
NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
506 South Wabash Ave., Chicago, III.
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
President
Henry R. Linvitte, New York Local 5;
70 Fifih Ave., New York, N. Y.
Secretary-Treasurer
FLORENCE Curtis Hanson, Chicago Local 3;
506 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, III.
Legislative Representative and
Vice-President
SeLtMA M. BorcuHarpt, Washington Local 8;
1741 Park Road, N. W., Washington, D. C.
Associate Secretary and Vice-President
Lucire Warinc ALLEN, Chicago Local 3;
506 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, III.
Vice-Presidents
Mary C. Barker, Atlanta Local 89;
685 Myrtle Street, N. E., Atlanta, Ga.
Amy Fox, Minneapolis Local 59;
906 W. 42nd Street, Minneapolis, Minn.
ABRAHAM LeFrxkow1tTz, New York Local 5;
10414 27th Ave., East Elmhurst,
New York, N. Y.
A. J. Muste, Brookwood Local 189;
Brookwood, Katonah, N. Y.
Bernice Rocers, Cambridge Local 195;
20 A. Prescott Street, Cambridge, Mass.
FLORENCE Roop, St. Paul Local 28;
372 St. Peter Street, St. Paul, Minn.
W. B. SattertHwalite, Chicago Local 2;
5463 Kimbark Ave., Chicago.
E. E. ScCHWARZTRAUBER,
Wisconsin University Local 223;
130 Breese Terrace, Madison, Wis.
W. J. Scorr, Atlanta Local 89;
212 Kings Highway, Decatur, Ga
Book Week
Whoever chose the subject for Book
Week this year might have had an ad-
vanced copy of the October AMERICAN
TEACHER and been inspired to play up
to it! Laura Puffer Morgan, Selma
Borchardt, Senator Borah and the
Right Honorable Arthur Henderson
all put it up to the teachers last month.
‘Through the youth of all lands must
come international-mindedness. Upon
the shoulders of the teachers rests the
burden of responsibility.’
We have heard it before, too, and
sometimes those shoulders move a bit
uneasily under the load. Particularly
this year does the responsibility seem
heavy, and we welcome the proffered
aid of a Book Week with such an
alluring title as Round the World in
Books.
From November 15th to 21st the
boys and girls of America are going
to have invitations to roam in many
lands and pick up acquaintance with
other boys and girls who may live afar
but who will be found to make very
good chums. Through the gateway of
books (and there are so many splen-
did ones) you will be able to send your
little Americans into a world made
really quite small by science and our
interdependent economic system. It
isn’t too much to promise that they
will come back with a broader citizen-
ship and a more sound patriotism.
Bon Voyage.
The Convention
Miss Barker in her president’s ad-
dress stressed the important place
which the annual convention plays in
the work of the American Federation
of Teachers. All who grasp the sig-
nificance of our movement recognize,
as Miss Barker says, that our most
important work is the social education
of teachers. The convention is our
chief means of unifying our work, of
developing and formulating our poli-
cies and of sending out to our locals
through their delegates a knowledge of
principles and methods of work.
Miss Barker deplores that all locals
have not considered that they were able
to send delegates to the conventions
and thus the organization has lost what
it should have had, a hundred per cent
contribution of experience and wis-
dom, and the locals have lost the
broader view which is one of the main
THE AMERICAN TEACHER
Democracy in Education
objectives in forming a national organ-
ization. Miss Hardy in the Union
Teacher (New York Local 5) de.
scribes Gur conventions thus:
“The conventions of the American
Federation of Teachers have always
been working conventions. Every del-
egate is a member of a committee,
Here new delegates are tried out and
both they and the spirit of their locals
can be studied by the more experienced
members. There results an increased
understanding of our variety in back-
ground and expression, with a conse-
quent solidarity of spirit. To the com-
mittees are referred the resolutions
presented by the locals; these are con-
sidered, amended, sometimes quite re-
written. In addition, a committee may
bring in additional matter to formu-
late a program and each point is pre-
sented to the convention, which often
debates closely and makes _ further
amendment or reverses the judgment
of the committee. There is nothing re-
sembling a steam-roller in the pro-
ceedings.”
From every standpoint it is regret-
able in the extreme that this convention
experience should not be more widely
the privilege of our members. From
the earliest fall meetings the question
of how to make it more general should
be before our locals. Few locals are
so situated but what an official dele-
gate could be sent if plans were started
early, and many more teachers could
make the convention a part of their
summer.
The Proceedings of the Fifteenth
Convention will be ready for distribu-
tion early in November and should be
owned and studied by all our members.
In this locals will find suggestions for
their own work, information of condi-
tions in other communities and expe-
riences of other locals. Carefully con-
sidered reports of committees who
worked all year on problems which
many locals face will be invaluable if
they become generally a part of the
equipment of our membership. Ad-
dresses too fine and inspiring to stop
with those who could hear will add
immeasurably to our individual and
collective strength. Unity of purpose
and breadth of view will increase the
effective strength of our organization.
The convention is the voice of the
American Federation of Teachers. Its
record should be in the hands of each
member.
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NOVEMBER, 1931
Education for Democracy
No School Over
Two Thousand
Scarcely has a convention passed in
years in which some city local has not
voiced the rebellion of its harassed
members against the noise, strain and
inefficiency of the oversized schools.
Resolutions have been presented and
debated and passed. Some have said,
why two thousand? Others have said,
very nice, but too costly.
It is recognized, of course, that
there is no magic in the number two
thousand, but it is the symbol of the
small school—the school large enough
to offer all facilities of a rich pro-
gram and adequate equipment, but
small enough to avoid the factory at-
mosphere.
Chicago being one of the cities
where the school population constantly
presses the school building pros -am,
the tendency to larger and larger school
units has been considered justified. It
has seemed quicker and cheaper to
build one large school than several
small ones. Besides, the big school
satisfies something that seems to be in
Americans some way, a temperamental
love of the superlative perhaps.
Chicago teachers, however, have
realized the evils of this scheme of
housing, and the Chicago locals have
protested in season and out, at every
plan for a huge new plant and at every
addition to an existing school. Be-
fore school authorities, before clubs
and groups of citizens of every nature,
wherever they could get an audience,
they have explained that the reputed
economics were insignificant and that
the loss in educational efficiency was
incalculable.
They have had the satisfaction in
the last year or two of discovering
that their effotrs were winning some
measure of success. Wiser plans were
being recommended, and a growing
public sentiment was finding expres-
sion.
A recent editorial in a paper of large
circulation is so clear an expression of
the contention of the teachers that we
quote it for its argument as well as in
evidence of the success teachers may
win through persistent effort.
Work on the new Lane Technical High
School has been virtually suspended be-
cause there is no money in the treasury to
Perhaps, then, it is
Pay the contractors.
not too late to change the plans. The school
has been advertised as the largest in the
world. That distinction may cause the
bosoms of child-minded members of. the
school board to swell with pride, but to any
one who has the welfare of the pupils at
heart such a school can only be regarded
as a capital mistake.
The ideal school is the small school.
When a school becomes so large that the
head of it does not know all his pupils inti-
mately the school is too big. When the
school is so large that the principal has dif-
ficulty in knowing even his teachers inti-
mately, that school is certain to be an infe-
rior educational institution. It may repre-
sent a large outlay of the taxpayers’ money
and it may contain all the frills in the way
of dancing studios and swimming pools that
the inventive mind of the architect can put
in it and still it will be second rate or worse.
Probably the board of education lacks the
money to build enough schools of ideal size,
but there is no justification whatever for
going to the opposite extreme and building
such educational monstrosities as “the big-
gest school in the world.” In authorizing
the new Lane school the board has placed
itself on an intellectual level with marathon
dancers, flagpole sitters and pie-eating cham-
pions. They also go in for records.
—Chicago Tribune.
Canadian Teacher Makes
Good in Parliament
Agnes McPhail is the only woman
in the Canadian Parliament. She is a
teacher. In the recent debate over the
Beauharnois power “grab” she was the
voice of the decent citizens of Canada
raised in a protest that too few of her
colleagues dared make.
Canada now is having her revelation
of the plundering of the nation by the
unholy alliance of money and public
officials. With Miss McPhail’s splen-
did protest against this plundering of
her people we must all thrill in sym-
pathy. As teachers also we must ap-
preciate her candid statement of a pre-
dicament in which many teachers have
found themselves at various times and
in sundry places in these United
States.
Too many teachers on both sides of
the international border know the
quandary in which the teacher finds
herself when public officials cease to
be examples which can be used in the
class room even to explain the ma-
chinery of government, because even
the mention of the names of the pres-
17
ent encumbents of certain offices must
make loyalty and respect for govern-
ment difficult sentiments to inculcate.
During the power debate in the
House Miss McPhail swept aside the
hair-splitting technicalities with which
corrupt politicians were seeking to
protect themselves, and gave expres-
sion to the indignation that all who
understand must feel.
“I confess my lack of legal train-
ing,”’ declared Miss McPhail, “but one
does not need to be a lawyer to recog-
nize dishonesty and to know how to
deal with it.
“If a hungry person takes a loaf of
bread or a bag of potatoes, he is sent
to jail. Why should not people who
have taken millions of wealth that cer-
tainly did not belong to them also be
sent to jail?
“Are we to do nothing about it?
Are people of that type to be honored
rather than condemned?
“We are passing through very diffi-
cult and very hard times. There is
nothing quite so nauseating to the
people of Canada, nothing that arouses
a rebellious spirit so strongly, as the
fact that when they are striving to
remain honest and hard-working they
see a bunch of rogues making off with
wealth that really belongs to the
nation.
“We are told that these valuable
rights are to be turned over to three
bankers, but | think we should know
who the bankers are before we agree
to a proposition of that kind.
“Unless something definite is done
to curb these so-called financiers and
the Senators who got some of their
money through what appears to be
their supposed political values, then as
a former teacher and as a woman I
ask: ‘What are we going to teach
the children of Canada?’
“What is the use of saying to the
boys and girls, ‘We must have high
ideals, we must be honest and hard-
working, we must respect our institu-
tions, we must look up to our public
men and have confidence in them,’ if
such men are to be allowed to remain
in the Parliament of Canada and be
permitted to retain the lawless gains
they have accumulated ?”
a small boy of eight riveted the
gaze of fellow-diners by lifting
his plate and peering under it, thereby
creating a perilous angle for vegetable
soup. His lips spelled out the words,
“Made it England,” which he an-
nounced to his mother with satisfac-
tion. He had found what
T the dining car of the Pullman
Books as Passports to Peace
Evaline Harrington
out,” she concluded as they left. The
boy hugged his book to him, his pass-
port to peace. He is peacebound, be-
cause he is beginning to sense, through
books and wise teaching, that he is a
citizen of the world. So are we all—
citizens of the world, real cosmopolites,
but few of us know it and some of us
space, and this great wide world has
shrunk in the last fifty years from the
size of a football to that of a walnut.
It wi!l continue to shrink and we can’t
stop it. We must adapt ourselves to
our new life, for adaptation is the law
of survival. We can’t isolate our-
selves, there’s no place to go. The
automobile, the airplane,
he sought, the name of a
foreign country. His moth-
er stopped his further turn-
ings-over and explained in
an undertone to her table
companions, “tHe wants to
know where everything
comes from. The first of
this schoo! year the teacher
told all the children to
bring from home articles
made outside of America
and now he turns every-
thing he sees upside down.”
“IT know where every-
thing on this table comes
from,” sped on the young
advocate of interdepend-
ence. “The tablecloth’s
from Ireland, the coffee’s
from Brazil, the pepper’s
from Africa, the pineap-
ple’s from Hawaii.” “Yes,
ves, but eat your soup now,”
put in the mother. “And I
know where clothes come
from, too; your fur’s from
Russia, silk’s from China”
—another flood of geo-
graphical names deluged us
before the mother could
stop the flow of imports
from the mouth of this well-
taught boy who realized in his child-
ish way that foreign trade was a magic
carpet bringing treasures to his front
door. “He’s crazy about foreign
countries and stories about the chil-
dren there and wanted all his Christ-
mas books of that kind. The one he
has now, The Twins Go Airplaning
Round the World, is just about worn
aN
Su
. Pe
ens
Courtesy “Through the Gateway.”
The Earth is Everychild’s Home. No matter where to
his home is, the whole earth, with its blue oceans
and green fields, is Everychild’s treasure chest and
workshop and playroom.
do not want to know it, because it
brings responsibilities, tolerating and
even loving our neighbors being the
heaviest.
For all peoples from the near East,
near West, near South, near North
are our near-dwellers, our neighbors.
Science through inventions is fast an-
nihilating the limitations of time and
the telephone, the talkies,
the radio, and _ television,
like the goblins, will get us,
even if we do watch out.
On the whole, we glory
in our cherished interna-
tional bonds with all peo-
ples, but if we are to live
peaceably with them we
must cultivate the ways in
which we are alike and
overlook, or better still, en-
joy the ways in which we
are unlike.
The finest and _ loveliest
of our arts are interna-
tional—painting, _ poetry,
music. Since literature is
international and the writ-
ings of all races are com-
mon treasures, books are
the most natural passports
to peace. With them we
enter into the lives and
hearts of a people and find
Q that their yearnings are
¢ strangely like our own.
Through reading we come
understanding. We
never really like people
whom we do not under-
stand. The common ties
which bind us to other
races are recognized even by children.
They are grounded in home life, im
family affection, in folklore, in school
life, in games and amusements. The
children of all races and ages have
spun tops, have played ball and blind
man’s buff. By reading of these com-
mon ties, boys and girls come to ul
derstand the life of their neighbor
THE AMERICAN TEACHER
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1931
NovEMBER,
children in the lands now called far
away.
Children cannot grasp the abstrac-
tions connected with peace pacts and
world courts, but they can get through
books this one underlying fundamen-
tal fact for peaceful living. They are
not the only people in the world. The
welfare of other races must be con-
sidered.
According to the tales of explorers,
isolated tribes often think they are the
only people on earth, and many poli-
ticians and statesmen act as if they be-
lieved it true of their own nationali-
ties. Americans are accused of hold-
ing this insular idea, but shall we pass
it on to the next generation of this
changing world? Children are born
internationalists, but we try to make
them 100 per cent Americans by in-
stilling a false and cocky sense of pa-
triotism, a state of mind which breeds
discord and war.
Through travel and through books
children are led to see the fine traits
of other peoples, the thrift of the
Dutch, the stick-to-it-iveness of the
English, the courtesy of the Oriental
peoples. All these differences add to
the common worth of the human race.
A child taught respect and appreciation
of racial qualities is not likely to call
foreign-born children by insulting
names and to hate them when he is a
man.
That thoughtful persons believe in
books as passports to peace is proved
by the large yearly output of juvenile
literature dealing with folklore, travel,
and child life in foreign lands. This
wealth of informing and recreational
reading for children is no literary ac-
cident. Educational organizations are
behind a recognized movement to bring
about an understanding of so-called
foreign peoples through books of this
character. By furnishing such pass-
ports, they hope to speed on world
peace. The World Federation of Edu-
cation Associations, the National Coun-
cil for the Prevention of War (Wash-
ington, D. C.), the National Child
Welfare Association, the League of
Nations Association (New York), and
the American Library Association
(Chicago) encourage, and sometimes
sponsor, the publication of this type of
story. Similar organizations abroad
are engaged in fostering good will
through books. Mrs. Dwight Mor-
row, the wife of the former Ambas-
sador to Mexico, might have written
a book for adults on Mexican customs,
but instead she wrote a child’s book,
The Painted Pig, centering around the
Mexican toy markets and home life.
This was a diplomatic service, for in
the minds of little children must be
planted the seeds of friendship and
oneness with other peoples if we wish
to reap a harvest of national under-
standing. Incidentally, an adult must
read to the child, so two persons are
reached.
Through the Gateway, by Florence
Brewer Boeckel, a book of stories,
poems and pageants, seeks to show
children that people living in all parts
of the world can help each other if
they work together in friendly fashion.
Across Borderlines by the same au-
thor stresses the spirit of the world-
wide movement for peace and sug-
gests programs for Good Will Day,
May 18 of each year.
If The Wonderful Adventures of
Nils is a child’s passport to Sweden,
Shen of the Sea, a key to a boy’s life
in China, and Hari, the Jungle Lad,
a little window in India, then the child
or adult will not feel strange when he
flies or “rockets” to these countries,
both possible procedures. If he never
goes beyond his dooryard (almost an
impossibility now), at least he has cul-
tivated a little international corner in
his mind, and that is a start for a gar-
den of good will.
“Tt seems as if I had been here be-
fore,” said a co-ed tourist in Switzer-
land. She had—in a sense, for with
Spyri’s Heidi she had tramped the
Swiss Alps and lived in a Swiss chalet.
Many favorite fictional characters of
American childhood have through
translation found harbor in countries
all over the world, and we know that
Little Women, Tom Sawyer, and Re-
becca of Sunnybrook Farm would be
at home in any country and find there
an understanding welcome.
As children advance in years and ap-
proach their teens, they find that the
list of imports noted by the eight-year-
old diner has grown unbelievably long.
In Kirby’s little book Aunt Martha’s
Corner Cupboard, even the familiar
“homey” articles on the shelves speak
for the far places of the globe. We
and the World by William Redfield,
author of Dependent America, will lead
children to realize that they cannot
make the simplest gesture without
touching hands across seas and deserts.
With Kipling, youth senses the fact
that “‘Earth’s a market place and none
may thrive without his fellow’s grace.”
Boys and girls of fourteen, if rightly
taught, by this time know that the
peace of this interdependent world de-
pends upon friendly relations, for no
one nation or country has within its
boundaries all the substances needed
for the luxuries and inventions which
civilization demands, nor for carrying
on war.
19
.Children of this age may be too
young to investigate the functions of
the League of Nations, but they can
understand Winifred Hulbert’s book,
Cease Firing. Each story is based upon
some phase of the League’s work and
shows how various international prob-
lems affect the lives of boys and girls
everywhere.
Hands Round the World by Wallace
presents heroes of all nations and
creeds. With these courageous souls
youth is proud to claim brotherhood
and the “will to brotherliness will do
what war has not done and will never
do.” Many are the books on heroes
of peace and of science, stories about
men and women of all races whose
services of devotion, of invention, and
discovery have bound the generations
of the world together with strong ca-
bles which should make for friendship,
happiness, security, and mutual trust.
Juvenile literature finds its last field
in books for the “teen” age and takes
the boys and girls through the high
school. Now they are old enough to
realize the common bonds of knowl-
edge shared by all world dwellers and
to appreciate what is meant by the hu-
man family and the stream of history.
Far stronger are the bonds of knowl-
edge than the ties of trade and com-
merce. The results of learning and
study are international possessions;
the present generation enters into that
rich racial heritage with no thought of
inquiring into the nationality of the
donors.
Now, these coming men and women
have reached the age for some solid
meat about war and the necessary
need for worl. peace through sympa-
thetic understanding, cooperation, and
friendship. It is touching that the
Quakers in their opposition to war
called themselves “Friends.” This
generation of boys and girls must
make the start toward a warless world,
for already those with ear to the
ground hear the marching feet of Eu-
rope’s soldiers. Let youth be informed
about the facts of war by reading from
Stanton A. Coblentz’s Marching Men,
Stanley High’s The Revolt of Youth,
and Baroness Bertha von Suttner’s
Lay Down Your Arms.
To be war-minded, young people
must cling to the old tradition and
believe with Vergil that it is a sweet
and glorious thing to die for one’s
country. To be peace-minded, they
must want to live for their country;
not see themselves as sheep led to the
slaughter, as pawns of fate, as vic-
tims of an outworn system, but as
contributors to their day and genera-
tion.
(Turn to Page 30)
Abeunt Studia In Mores
E KNOW that life, all experi-
ience, is developing character,
that it is a continuous proc-
ess, carried on by all procedures and
all activities. Willy-nilly, we are in
our schools developing some kind of
characteristics in every child, every
day, in every way.
The scope of this paper will confine
our study to the means offered, and the
methods consciously employed for
character building through the study of
literature with adolescents in the sec-
ond, third, and fourth year of high
school. I stress adolescents for our
encouragement, for we may well re-
meitnber the kaleidoscopic changes in
adolescents, and learn not to take tow
seriously what may seem like danger-
ous preoccupations or reprehensible
laziness, since in a few months the un-
happy symptoms have disappeared if
we were wise enough to ignore them.
I shall consider the study of litera-
ture through reading and interpreta-
tion, and through class discussion.
The broad principle to be followed
in the study of literature should, I
think, always be to place emphasis on
the concrete and the personal, rather
than to stress abstract virtues. We
should also minimize exhortation and
advice. We are all led by our admira-
tions, and youth even more than we.
hates to be scolded. A senior boy wrote
on a paper on George Elict, “She mor-
alizes—-how I hate jit!”
We shall find, perhaps to our sur-
prise, that this generation is different
from ours in its admirations, and that
it may be tactful to soft-pedal a little
some of the old-fashioned virtues, and
stress the ones a little more appealing
to this age. I learn that no girl feels
it is a compliment today to be calJed
“sweet”! Courageous, efficient, intelli-
gent, fair-minded, but not sweet. Let
it go—she will still accept “sympa-
thetic.”
These same admirations can be used
to form standards of taste in literature,
as well as in conduct, and a beginning
may be made for the wise filling of
leisure time.
A writer in Harper’s set forth the
thesis that aesthetic criteria may come
Alice R. Wood
to take the place of moral—since the
moral have so largely been set aside.
Often I think an appeal can be made
to the intelligence, showing the lack of
wisdom, the silliness, the folly of cer-
tain modes of conduct.
Beside the direct and expressed “ad-
mirations” for as nearly as possible
what is truly admirable, I am a great
believer in the less tangible but very
real spiritual value of beauty. We all
know that a beautiful poem or picture
or deed may lift us as. nothing else
could, above our usual selves, and that
all would be ruined by added words.
A vast amount of our character-train-
ing should be to let the great poet plant
the seed and ourselves religiously re-
frain from digging it up to see if it is
growing. There is a great deal besides
sex that can be talked about too much
with adolescents.
In the class discussion of literature,
however, much may be done. In the
procedure of the discussion there is a
fine field for the stressing of sincerity
and tolerance on the part of all. Sin-
cerity will not be attained in the pupil
without broad tolerance on the part of
the teacher. Tolerance toward widely
divergent opinions among pupils them-
selves is, alas, still a goal to be worked
for.
Among younger pupils the admirable
traits of Odysseus and Ivanhoe—forti-
tude, courage, chivalry—are brought
out. By the third year Public Duty of
Educated Men affords a splendid op-
portunity for the ideal of noblesse
oblige, of the value of independent
thought and action, of duties in a group
which may be applied to their own class
committees, the drudgery of daily ac-
tivities for a group, etc. Discussions
can be made concrete and _ practical
without being made too personal. Ad-
olescents should not be urged to too
much introspection or self-analysis.
Fourth year students, who mature
very rapidly between third and fourth
years, usually have begun to formulate
some kind of philosophy of life. They
are full of questions about life. Liter-
ature can be presented to them as the
answers of a great many men to these
questions. Poetry is a criticism of life.
Art is life seen through a temperament,
They can understand this—at least
many can. The problem is, of course,
to relate the literature to their own
lives. I have prefaced a study of Tin-
tern Abbey with three questions: (1)
What are some of the things people do
when everything seems wrong—when
they are blue? (2) What do you do?
(3) What does Wordsworth tell Doro-
thy to use as her shield and solace?
I get most interesting replies to
No. 2—and we discuss some of them,
without names, of course.
Current industrial problems that in-
volve character come out beautifully in
the Mediaeval and the Modern Work-
man. We get the problem set and then
the class is told, ‘““You have been left
a factory by will, with the provision
that you are not to sell it. How will
you solve the problem, avoid making
men into machines?’ Modern maga-
zine articles, particularly Stuart
Chase’s, are given on the same line.
In discussion of novels, RKomola,
with Tito’s slow degeneration, Vanity
Fair, with a Victorian “gold-digger,”
are very fruitful.
Burke’s ideas and ideals of govern-
ment; Macbeth, with the chain of con-
sequences of a choice; Macaulay’s
Johnson, with his pronouncement of
Johnson as “a great and a good man,”
used for class analysis of what consti-
tutes a great man, and a good man, and
the measurement of Johnson by those
standards—all these texts afford fine
opportunity for the expression and an-
alysis of character-ideals by the class.
Discussion of situations and ques-
tions as they come up are of infinitely
greater value, I think, than hypotheti-
cal questions. Spontaneity, sincerity,
tolerance, with application of princi-
ples to our own lives, render such dis-
cussions alive and valuable.
But after all, character is a plant of
slow growth. If we throw open the
storehouse of English literature, and
live with our students in an atmosphere
of sincerity and sympathy, we shall
have done what we could. The harvest
may come twenty years later, and no
man know who planted the seed.
THE AMERICAN TEACHER
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NovEMBER, 1931
21
Some Tendencies in Educational Magazines
Possible Escapes From Planlessness
AM SKEPTICAL of any high utility
of even the most simple and vivid
description of Now which does
not go a little deeper into the causes
of chaos and a little farther in suggest-
ing possible escapes from it.”
So said Norman Thomas, in review-
ing Morris L. Ernst’s picture of our
planiless American economy. It ap-
pears that many teachers share Mr.
Thomas’ mood, for several valuable ar-
tices in the September magazines dis-
cuss plans that may lead educators
nearer to the “substitution of re-
search, foresight, and control for ig-
norance, guess, and _particularistic
chaos.”
Norman Fenton, of the California
Bureau of Juvenile Research, issues a
suggestion for the next step in dealing
with problem children. For a long
time, he says, wise teachers have
known that no single expert—physi-
cian, pastor, sociologist, or psychi-
atrist—no matter how wise or well
trained, can handle the case of a seri-
ously maladjusted child. Yet these
same teachers will trustfully put the
problem child into the care of a group
of experts banded into a clinic. There
the child will be studied in his relation
to his home, his school, and his neigh-
borhood, as well as in the “mysterious
recesses of his own heart.” Later the
clinic will endeavor to carry out a
jointly planned program of treatment.
Of course such treatment is much
better than that usually available for
children. Mr. Fenton, however, has
discovered that sometimes even those
children who have received the best
assistance possible in the best equipped
clinics do not find adjustment. Some
other agency is needed.
“This seems to be the community
4s a whole, so organized in its program
of child guidance that it can supple-
ment the clinic and insure the carrying
out of the clinical program and recom-
mendations.” The rank and file of
citizens in a democracy can not evade
responsibility by building expensive in-
stitutions; they must collaborate with
the conscientious paid officials - until
they discover the causes of juvenile
delinquency and maladjustment and at-
Nell Peterson
tack them at their sources in the home
and in the neighborhood.
Community Planning and the Problem
Child, by Dr. Norman Fenlon, in School and
Society, Sept. 19, 1931.
Among the September magazines
the one that seemed richest in sugges-
tions for solving the “special problems
that confront us as parents, or teachers
or as members of the community in
which Young America is growing up”
was Survey Graphic. It contained one
article that may be an illustration of
the kind of cooperation Dr. Fenton is
asking for: Adelaide Nichols’ account
of the community experiment in char-
acter education now being carried on in
Norwalk, Connecticut. Here for about
three years the Bureau of Character
Education Research of the Connecticut
State Board, under the supervision of
the Yale School of Education, has been
working together with the people of
Norwalk. Naturally the teachers have
helped. Ninety-five per cent of them
voluntarily enrolled in courses in the
technique of using school work as a
means of building character, and paid
for the courses. The Bureau also car-
ried on educational work among other
members of the community so that the
activities undertaken by the teachers
would be understood by parents and
by other agencies that touched the
children at various points.
In the classes the teachers them-
selves mapped out plans for each school
department, plans that called for infor-
mal and indirect methods of giving, in
everyday work, experiences that would
lead to desirable character develop-
ment by the force of repeated activi-
ties. For the past two years these
plans have been tried out by the
teachers who initiated them.
Miss Nichols concludes: “Here is an
experiment which is alive and growing
in the hands of men and women whose
abilities and training may be diverse
but who have caught with amazing
unanimity an idea that has real vital-
“To those who have done educa-
tional work in smaller and more homo-
geneous groups under the leadership of
inspired schoolinasters, most of these
things sound reminiscent rather than
revolutionary. If it is surprising to
find a ring of adventure in the Nor-
walk project it only underscores the
lack that our larger school machines
too often display. And in the effort to
fill this lack, the interplay of a State
Department of Education with a uni-
versity group offers a new and prom-
ising approach to the problem of char-
acter building as the real end of edu-
cation, to the modern problem of bring-
ing to bear on it our best scientific
training and research.”
Connecticut Bends the Twig, by Adelaide
Nichols in Survey Graphic, Sept., 1931.
In Norwalk teachers have reported
that the comprehension of the chil-
dren’s social background has given a
new meaning to the teaching of the
three R’s and the college preparatory
work. In Wisconsin and in Chicago
other teachers have been concerned
with the effect of personality develop-
ment upon school work. A profoundly
interesting question is now being tested
in the Montefiore Special School,
Chicago :
“Does the development of the com-
plete personality of the mentally de-
fective child by means of correct group
activities increase the mental activity of
the child as well as producing a more
adaptable citizen ?”
This question was suggested to the
Chicago teachers by an experiment in
socializing the defective child con-
ducted in the public schools of Fond du
Lac, Wisconsin. There the deliberate
introduction of new material contain-
ing socializing influences, and the pro-
vision of appropriate group activities
brought about a better adjustment of
the personality of the pupils. Also a
careful check of academi~ progress by
means of standardized tests showed in-
creased facility in academic skills and
increased mental activity.
While the Chicago experiment,
which has been carried on for one year,
is too new to warrant conclusions, Miss
Beaman has noted that so far increased
social poise has given a corresponding
increase in mental activity.
Social Training of the Defective Child, by
Florence N. Beaman, in The American Jour-
nal of Sociology, Sept., 1931.
99
ww
THE AMERICAN TEACHER
ad ou A |!
)
There is no frigate like a book to bear us lands away.—EmtiLy Dickson
Seeing the World as a Whole
Books for Children
I. Attn ArouND THE WoRLD
Applegarth, At the Foot of the Rainbow.
Richard R. Smith, N. Y., $1.50. Stories
of the red, yellow, black, brown and
white races,
*Entwhistle, Zhe Books of Other Babtes.
Missionary Education Movement, N. Y.,
40c each.
Entwhistle, Children of Other Lands.
ford University Press, N. Y.,
Stories of the Orient and Asia.
*Hall, Children at Play in Many Lands.
Missionary Education Movement, N. Y.,
75c. Games of Asia and the Orient.
Hulbert, West Indian Treasures. Friend-
ship Press, N. Y., cloth $1.00, paper 75c.
Adventures in the West Indies.
Neumann, Timothy Travels. Coward Mc-
Cann, N. Y., $2.50. A boy discovers
how much alike people are all around
the world.
*The Nursery Series: Ah Fu (China),
Kembo (Africa), The Three Camels
(India), Esa (Nazareth), Mitsu (Ja-
pan). Friendship Press, N. Y., 50c each.
Scantlebury, Little World Children. Ginn
& Co. N. Y., 72c. The home life of
children everywhere.
Stuart, The Young Folks’ Book of Other
Lands. Little, Brown, Boston, $2. China,
Japan, India, Egypt, Palestine, Greece,
Turkey, Great Britain, France, Italy,
Spain, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium,
Scandinavia.
*Thomas, George Washington Lincoln Goes
Around the World. Thomas Nelson,
N. Y., $1.50. A boy travels around the
world and can find no boundary lines
between countries.
*Warner, The World in a Barn. Friendship
Press, N. Y., $1.25. Toy villages built
by children in a barn—Japanese, Chinese,
Philippine, Alaskan, and Eskimo.
Yonge, Little Lucy’s Wonderful Globe. Har-
per, N. Y., $1.00. A child’s dreams of
many countries reveal the importance of
having friends everywhere.
Ox-
85c.
Il. How Men or Att Aces AND ALL
Nations Have CREATED THE
Wor.p or Topay
Bridges, Young Folks’ History of Invention.
Little, Brown, Boston, $2. How men of
all ages have contributed to the great in-
ventions and to the civilization of today.
The same idea is brought out in the follow-
ing books:
* Books starred are for little children.
*Dobias, The Picture Book of Flyina.
Macmillan, N. Y., $2.
Eaton, The Story of Light. Harper, N. Y.,
$1.25.
Eaton, The Story of Transportation, Har-
per, N. Y., $1.25.
Grain Through the Ages, Quaker Oats
Co., 80 East Jackson St., Chicago,
Ill. Free.
Grimmage, The Picture Book of Ships.
Macmillan, N. Y., $2.
*Hadu, The Picture Book of Travel, Mac-
millan, N. Y., $2.
Watson, Story of Bread.
$1.25.
Coffman, The Child’s Story of the Human
Race. Dodd, Mead, N. Y., $3.50. Story
‘f man’s life on earth told as one story.
Colson, Friends of Ours. Missionary Educa-
tion Movement, 150 5th Ave., N. Y., 75c.
Stories of different peoples at work.
Hodgdon, The Enchanted Past. Ginn, Bos-
ton, 80c. How much today owes yes-
terday.
Kirby, Aunt Martha’s Corner Cupboard. A\-
bert Whitman & Co., N. Y., $1.00. The
contents of our cupboards come from all
parts of the world.
Kummer, First Days of Man. Doran, N. Y.,
$2. Beginnings of civilization, sug-
gesting the unity of mankind.
Redfield, We and the World. Silver, Bur-
dett, N. Y., 84c. Every day we need and
use things that come from all parts of
the world. :
Harper, N. Y.,
Ill. THe Quest ror PEAcE AND Its
HEROES
Alden, The Boy Who Found The King.
Bobbs, Merrill, Indianapolis, $1.75.
Applegarth, Never Again. M. H. Lewis,
agent, North Cambridge, Mass., $1.
Protests against war.
*Boeckel, Through the Gateway. Macmil-
lan, N. Y., 75c. Stories, poems, plays
and pageants promoting goodwill.
*Committee of Friends, Children’s Story
Garden. Lippincott, Philadelphia, $1.50.
Stories which show the power of friend-
liness.
Crew, Saturday’s Children. Little, Brown,
Boston, $2.00. Children of Europe find
other adventures than war.
Gould, Heroes of Peace. Harper, N. Y.,
90c. Lives of men who have worked
for world peace.
Griscom, Peace Crusaders.
adelphia, $1.50.
poems, essays.
Hulbert, Cease Firing. Macmillan, N. Y.,
$1.50. Dramatic stories about what the
League of Nations has done for the peo-
ple of many countries.
Lippincott, Phil-
Recitations, stories,
*Ross, Paths of Peace. Oxford University
Press, London, $1.05. Stories of the
quiet “growing-up” of the world.
Schwartz, From Then Till Now. World
Book Co., Yonkers, N. Y., $1.20. Stories
of the growth of friendliness.
Wade, The Boy Who Dared. Appleton,
N. Y., $1.25. The adventurous life of
William Penn.
The World and Man
A Bibliography for the Teens
I. Times HAvE CHANGED
Fosdick, The Old Savage in the New Cwv-
iligation. Doubleday, Doran, N. Y.,,
1928, $2.50. A series of addresses pro-
posing the question: “What use are we
going to make of our new machinery?”
Rugg, Changing Civilization in the Modern
World, Ginn, Boston, 1930, $1.96. A
help in understanding modern civiliza-
tion.
II. Procress THROUGH THE CEN-
TURIES — COOPERATION FROM
GENERATION TO GENERATION
Bridges, The Young Folks’ Book of Inven-
tions. Little, Brown, Boston, 1924, $2.00.
History of inventions from primitive to
modern times.
3uchan, Last Secrets. Houghton, N. Y,
1924, $2.50. Final mysteries in explora-
tion.
Happold, The Adventure of Man. Harcourt,
Brace, N. Y., 1926, $2.00. A brief his-
tory of the world told as a story with
man the hero.
Holland, Historic Inventions. Macrae,
Smith, N. Y., 1922, $2.00. Sections on
the Wrights and the airship. Stephen-
son and the locomotive, Davy and the
safety lamp. ;
Lansing, Great Moments in Exploratwn.
Doubleday, Doran, 1928, N. Y., $2.50.
Marshall, The Story of Human Progress.
Macmillan, N. Y., 1928, $1.48. View of
the main forces involved in living to-
gether.
Sherman and Spaull, The United World. J.
M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., Toronto, 1929,
is 9d. (Obtainable at Friends Book-
store, 302 Arch Street, Philadelphia).
An excellent history of progress show-
ing the development of languages, art,
industry, transportation, commerce,
health and government. (Ages 12-14.)
Stuart, The Boy Through the Ages. Dorat,
1926, $3.00. (Ages 14-16.) A history
of boy customs, costumes, and lore. |
Van Loon, Man the Miracle Maker. Live-
right, N. Y., 1928, $3.50. The story of
man the inventor.
(Turn to Page 31)
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NovEMBER, 1931
23
Credit Unions to the Rescue
ONFIDENCE! That is not the
( easiest mental attitude to as-
sume in these days of failure
of salaries, failure of investments, and
failure of banks. Especially in Chi-
cago is this a triumph of faith and
intelligence over mass_ psychology.
When a member of
H. S. Bechtolt
One bright spot on the Chicago hori-
zon this vacation has been the favor-
able action taken by the state auditor
of public accounts in reply to the appli-
cation for change of charter which will
allow any Chicago union teacher to
join the Union Teachers Credit Union.
of the last convention appear, credit
unions will be seen to have occupied a
place on the agenda which their impor-
tance warrants.
As a help to those who are not yet
fully instructed as to its operations,
we venture to quote from the report
of a highly successful
Local 2 came into the
Union offices recently
and offered fifty dollars
for investment in the
Union Teachers Credit
Union it almost stopped
the works! Entire ab-
sence of salaries since
April, defaulting of in-
vestments and bank fail-
ures have made that
much real money a rare
sight at Union head-
quarters.
But this was more than
agesture. It was an act
of faith based ona
knowledge of sound
facts and intelligent in-
terpretation of these
facts.
Listen to these statis-
tics which the summer
has yielded! During the
decade ending at the
close of 1930 there were
in the United States 7000
bank failures involving
deposits aggregating two
and a quarter billions!
The year 1930 saw over
1300 bank failures, while
in the first six months of
1931 there were more
than 600! That is not a picture calcu-
lated to inspire public confidence in our
present banking system! During the
same decade the bank failures in Great
Britain were relatively negligible, al-
though that land was much harder hit
industrially and ecunomically.
Recall that during the two decades
during which credit unions have been
operating in the United States failures
are almost unknown! Is there any
other conclusion to be gathered from
this contrast except that the future lies
in the field of cooperative banking and
credit ?
— ————
ee =
C bMtilinton”
Cop yrs (O01 by Th Oh-cago Tritene
railway credit union
which we received re-
cently:
“The Credit
Union is typical of the
many hundreds of credit
unions throughout this
country; all operate or.
the same broad plan.
iy N ' Its progress is due to the
nal a fine cooperation of the
E membership, without
MONEY FOR TH which no credit union
tanta oy can function.
TIMES WERE :
“An important fact to
remember is that all
credit unions operate un-
der State laws and su-
pervision; further, that
an annual audit is made
by an examiner from the
State Auditor’s office.
“What is a credit union
for? To wipe out the
loan sharks and promote
the savings habit.
“Oftentimes the ques-
tion is asked, ‘Suppose I
invest some money in the
credit union, can I with-
draw the same?’ To
Courtesy The Chicago Tribune.
That will give probably four times the
number of potential members. As soon
as paydays return to Chicago teachers
the -development of this promising
credit enterprise may be confidently
expected ; and this in time will mean
protection for its members from much
of the distress in which this period of
salary loss has found them.
It is the purpose of the American
Federation of Teachers to continue
emphasis upon the establishment of
credit unions. When the proceedings
date more than $14,000
have been withdrawn
from this credit union.
“What rate of interest would I re-
ceive on money so invested? In the
year 1927, 6 per cent was paid and 7
per cent compounded semi-annually
each year since. However, no certain
rate can be guaranteed.
“To whom is this money loaned and
for what purposes? To members only,
and since its inception this credit union
has loaned $135,000 for reasons as
shown:
$26,000 to pay off loan sharks, etc.
$25,000 indebtedness to doctors,
hospitals, nurses, dentists, etc.
(Turn to Page 29)
THE AMERICAN TEACHER
In July We Marched
Next Chapter in Chicago’s Story
EST some may have missed the
first chapter (and the movies),
we repeat that the American
Federation of Teachers in convention
assembled formally adjourned its ses-
sion and marched to express its sup-
port of the claim of the Chicago teach-
ers to be heard by the Revenue Com-
mission of the Governor of Illinois.
On September 22nd they were
heard. Throughout the summer the
Teacher Unions have watched every
move of Board and Commission, pro-
testing against crippling economies and
injustices to the teachers and to the
schools.
The teachers and the public were led
to believe that the teachers’ only hope
for relief from payless paydays must
emerge from the action of the Gov-
ernor’s Cothmission. The Board of
Education gave out the impression,
moreover, that economies which they
were proposing were a necessity as
the Commission would consider no re-
lief until sizable savings in school
expenditures had been effected.
When the situation became acute the
Union Teachers turned for advice to
Victor Olander, Secretary of the IIli-
nois Federation of Labor and a mem-
ber of the Governor’s Commission.
As in other times of need, he proved
a wise friend. He told the teachers
that the Governor’s Commission had
taken no action which called for the
economies which the board was pro-
posing. He believed that no amount
of saving would solve the difficulties,
and that the real solution lay in finding
revenue sources other than real estate.
Shortly preceding the date set for
the hearing of the teachers before the
Governor’s Commission the Board of
Education had presented its plan to the
Commission. The first step in the
Board’s plan was to issue $75,000,000
in bonds, to be added to the working
cash fund for the education fund.
With the proceeds of these bonds the.
Board would purchase 1931 and 1932
tax anticipation warrants.
This is an
Helen Taggart
expansion of the idea used in the
emergency legislation passed in the
spring of 1930 when the working cash
fund was created. Under this pro-
posed plan, however, the revolving
fund would be larger than is necessary
to purchase these tax anticipation war-
rants except in this emergency. The
original purpose of this working cash
fund was to meet demands for cash
during the interim between the assess-
ing and the collection of taxes. The
Commission asked the Board of Edu-
cation to work out a plan whereby the
fund could be reduced after the pass-
ing of the emergency.
The second step in the plan was to
issue short-time notes, which would be
more marketable than tax anticipation
warrants because of their having a due
date. The concensus on this proposal
was that the unmarketability of the tax
anticipation warrants was due to the
uncertainty of tax collections. With
that rectified, the tax anticipation war-
rants would be just as good as the
short-time notes.
The third step of the Board’s plan
had a strong appeal in that it offered
a way of carrying out the whole plan
without increasing taxes. It was to
bond the building fund to the extent of
$50,000,600 and then transfer the ma-
‘jor portion of the building fund to the
educational fund. Favor for this
scheme vanished, however, when it be-
came apparent that the plan would
leave the building fund without suffi-
cient funds after the present emer-
gency had been met, unless further
hond issues were made which would
extend indefinitely into the future.
On September 22nd, when the
Teacher Unions were heard, they
unanimously stressed the indisputable
fact that Chicago’s vital welfare de-
pends on more and better educational
opportunities for Chicago’s children.
Waste and extravagance were not pri-
marily responsible for the present di-
lemma. The breakdown of an archaic
taxing system, the poorly managed re-
assessment, and the attempt to provide
an ever broadening type of education
on money sufficient only for the simple
and unlimited education of a genera-
tion ago, were the main factors in
bringing about the present crisis,
Economy will not solve the difficulty;
only provision for adequate revenue
will. The state distributive fund
should be increased and sources of
revenue other than real estate tax,
such as income and luxury taxes,
should be found for this purpose. Re-
organization of the board of reviews
and the board of assessors so as to
make possible the fixing of responsi-
bility and the stabilizing of tax assess-
ing and collecting was advocated.
An amendment to Section 81 the
general school law was suggested so
that provisions which apply now to
the rest of the state would apply to
Chicago. This section provides that
if there are no funds with which to
pay teachers warrants bearing 6 per
cent interest are issued the day salaries
are due and they are a first lien on
taxes collected.
The Unions emphasized the stabil-
izing effect of the schools in this time
of depression and declared that at a
time of unemployment like this when
the increase over last year in the
Junior and Senior high schools was
14,000, there should be no talk of cur-
tailment.
The Commission heartily commend-
ed the teachers for their return to the
classrooms in September in spite of the
fact that they had not been paid since
April.. The members made a con-
certed effort to correct the impression
that the Commission had any inten-
tions of curtailing the educational de-
partment or of decreasing teachers’
salaries. The statement was made that
teachers’ salaries ought to be i-
creased.
The teachers of Chicago now await
(rather grimly) the final deliberation
of the Governor’s Commission and the
special session of the legislature.
NovEMBER, 1931
25
Teaching by Letter
used extensively in universities
it is important to discuss some
of the problems of the teacher who
uses this method.
Some teachers are classroom teach-
ers beyond everything else. In the
classroom they are most alive; they
find there the greatest excitement and
satisfaction in their profession; they
feel able to control and to lead a group.
They like the activity, the interchange
of question and answer, the public re-
sponsibility, the immediate clash of
personalities. They are likely also to
be able to present a subject interest-
ingly without sacrificing emphasis on
essentials. They have something of
Socrates and something of Demosthe-
nes, they are both searching and urgent.
They will not be content with access
to one mind; they would enter every
mind within reach. They are the salt
of the profession, but on beginning to
teach by correspondence they might
find some of their strength turn to
weakness, in spite of the fact that
many of the qualities that lie behind
successful work in the classroom are
required here as well. The work is so
varied that one article cannot cover it;
I hope only to set down what seem to
be the considerations that affect the
teacher’s work most nearly.
What are the tools of the corre-
spondence teacher? He has a syllabus,
standard textbooks, and the personal
letter. Sometimes the syllabus may be
the text as well, but this is inadvisable
for two main reasons. First, the home
student, like any other, needs the ad-
vantage of more complete and varied
presentation than any one book is likely
to furnish. Secondly, a syllabus full
of information and explanation pre-
pared with the idea of giving a fairly
exhaustive treatment of subject mat-
ter defeats its own end. The syllabus
is primarily a work book and it is more
personal than a textbook can or should
The preparation of a syllabus for
the home student is no casual job.
The mere statement of required and
optional work is not sufficient.
First of all a multitude of possible
questions from the student must be
anticipated. The main purpose of the
S' correspondence teaching is
Edward A. Richards
course, the best methods of grasping
the material, the required method of
presenting it for criticism—all these
must be covered. Each lesson, fur-
thermore, should be prefaced by a
brief discussion showing the relation
of the work to the rest of the course
and indicating the special significance
of it. Many of the general and spe-
cific statements will have to be re-
peated later in letters to the student,
but it is vital that the instruction con-
tainéd in the syllabus should answer as
many unasked questions as possible
and that it should be personal and in-
formal in tone.
Furnishing standard texts to stu-
dents is expensive but it is necessary,
since the student may not be able to
get them at his local store, or if he
lives in a town without a store, as many
do, the errors and delay incident to
placing his own order may seriously
retard the work or discourage the stu-
dent altogether.
The personal letter of criticism is,
however, the most useful and adapta-
ble instrument in the course, and the
remainder of this article will deal with
the problems arising in the use of it.
The teacher must be able to forego
the stimulus of a crowd. He is alone
and if possible quiet. There is noth-
ing obviously arousing about his sur-
roundings. A manuscript, a lesson lies
fore him; materials for dictating or
writing are at hand. A student ten
or five hundred miles away has done
some work and has sent it in for his
eye. What should he say about it and
how? Here we come to one of the
first considerations for a correspond-
ence—the record of his instruction is,
as such things go, permanent. This
means that many emotions that even
good teachers give rein to must ap-
pear vestigially if at all. Petulence
and sarcasm look silly on paper. Ego
can show itself in the flavor of sharp
criticism rather than in personal stories
and references. Jokes and points that
“score” in a class are on paper likely
to be either cold or irrelevant. The
teacher must not only know what he
wants to say but he must consider how
it will sound when his student possi-
bly on the other side of the continent
opens his letter and starts to read.
Without “babying” the student he
must consider his temperament, age,
and probable response to critical sug-
gestions. Stinging, direct criticism
that might succeed face to face may
appear on papers to be nothing but
bad temper. In short, the instructor
must see that the spirit as well as the
content of his letter will be understood.
This does not mean that the teacher
may shirk his responsibility and allow
the student to think himself right when
he is wrong. On the contrary, he must
often be forceful, even severe. The
confidence of the isolated student will,
however, fail under unrelieved adverse
criticism more quickly and for less real
cause than that of the classroom stu-
dent. Since all ages, occupations, and
- racial stocks may be represented in a
group, the teacher must adapt his in-
struction to the personalities that be-
come clearly marked for him through
letters and actual lesson work. The
fact that neatly all home students are
over twenty and many over thirty nat-
urally affects the teacher a good deal.
For example, I should have no hesi-
tation in telling a boy to his face that
a silly question was not worthy of his
years. But [ should think twice before
saying the same thing in writing to a
man or woman of forty or fifty whom
I had never met. Instead I should tell
the simple answer; probably the next
letter would contain an apology from
the student for not having seen the
answer in the first place. The crank,
the bore, the misfit turns up here as
he does in the class-room, but the stu-
dents as a body possess with their ma-
turity a tenacity, an eye for essen-
tials, and a balance that keep the teach-
er on his mettle. Furthermore, they
know how to express appreciation
without embarrassment and_ disap-
proval with cogency and restraint. This
articulateness is a real boon to the
teacher, for a great check to the ef-
fectiveness of teaching adolescence and
youth is the unvoiced or sub rosa dis-
satisfaction with the way in which he
is taught. It is by no means easier
to teach adults than young people by
any method, but in correspondence the
adult is likely to show the teacher
where his effort most needs to be ap-
plied.
Just off the Press
The
American Labor
Year Book,
1931
There is no other volume in the
world giving such thoroughly up-
to-date, accurate, and expert data
on the labor movements and in-
dustrial conditions at home and
8 other countries.
A Few of the Topics
Included:
EXTENT OF UNEMPLOYMENT
DEPTH OF THE DEPRESSION
AMERICAN FARMER'S PLIGHT
WAGE CUTS AND COST OF LIVING
OLD-AGE PENSIONS AT HOME
AND ABROAD
PROPOSED PLANS FOR
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
SYSTEMS IN ALI,
COUNTRIES
The 1931 edition contains one
of the most complete sections on
Trade Unions since the encyclo-
It has a
new chapter on Foreign Legisla-
pedic volume of 1926.
tion. It gives latest statistics on
Soviet Russia, Germany and
Great Britain.
RAND ScHooL PREss
7 East 15th Street,
NEW YORK, N. Y.
352 Pages Price $3.15, postpaid
The conditions under which a stu-
dent works also must he known by
the teacher whenever possible. the
- un-
the
real-
ague
~e if
hem
in-
1em-
NovEMBER, 1931
ber that George Washington warned
against entangling foreign alliances but
do not forget that he quilled his Fare-
well Address by the light of a tallow
candle.
The Kellogg Peace Pact for the out-
lawry of war, signed at Paris and pro-
claimed at Washington by President
Hoover as the supreme law of the land
in 1929, has been signed by sixty-
three nations, but do students appre-
ciate its significance? If a World
Court did not already exist, the adop-
tion of the Kellogg Pact with its re-
quirement of a peaceful settlement for
all disputes, would make it necessary
to create one.
Teachers should impress upon stu-
dents that new humanitarian eras do
not burst flower-like into bloom, but
are at first plants of feeble growth in
the stony soil furnished by greedy hu-
man nature. The dawn of peace will
hear and see nations clamoring over
boundary lines and clawing for the con-
trol of ports, oil, and gold, but these
disputes and infringements of rights
wili be settled by a World Court, not
by war; by reason, not by brute pas-
sion helped on by science to destroy
both soldiers and citizens, mixed spar-
ingly with a guilty few.
Just as an engineer must double the
strength of a dam to take care of in-
creased volume in time of flood, so
this generation must in like measure
be fortified for peace through an en-
lightened public opinion against war,
because when war threatens all the
baser passions are loosed. The dam
of reason breaks and men’s minds are
swept away on a wild and destructive
rampage.
High school students know some-
thing about mass psychology as applied
to publicity and advertising; let them
read of it in relation to war as in John
Dewey’s The Public and Its Problems,
Arthur Ponsonby’s Falschoods in War
Times, Lasswell’s Propaganda Tech-
nique in the World War.
In literature classes, except for a
few war poems, modern short stories,
and plays, almost no mention is made
of our changing scientific age and its
relation to world conditions. We con-
tinue to drag nonunderstanding boys
and girls through thick tomes about
the Crusaders questing for the Holy
Land when that vast gulf between
Bethlehem, Judea, and Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania, is still our burden and
our shame.
Crusaders for Peace, your passports
are in your hands—soon you must
make a new port, establish a world
community of peaceful folk bound
through the sea of space and time on
our whirling ball, the Commonwealth
of Earth—Reprinted by the courtesy
of Ohio Schools and the League of
Nations Association.
Book Week
(Continued From Page 22)
III. Cooperation TopAy From Na-
TION TO NATION
Contributions to Civilization, Inter-racial
Citizens Committee of Mass., 49 Bea-
con Street, Boston, 1930.
Gibson, Heroes of Science. Lippincott, Phil-
adelphia, 1926, $2.50. Stories of men
such as Roger Bacon, Copernicus, Gali-
leo, Newton, Franklin, Brahe, Kepler,
Priestley, Cavendish, Herschel, Dalton,
Davy, Faraday, Darwin, Kelvin and
Maxwell.
Redfield, Dependent America. Houghton,
Mifflin, N. Y., 1926, $2.50. A _ revela-
tion of the extent to which the U. S.
is dependent on other countries.
IV. War Topay
Allen, War. Winston, Philadelphia, 1929,
$1.50. A straightforward statement on
modern warfare, its folly and futility.
Irwin, “The Next War.” E. P. Dutton,
N. Y., 1921, $1.50. The futility and com-
plete destructiveness of the “Next War.”
Maurois, The Next Chapter. E. P. Dutton,
N. Y., 1928, $1.00. World conditions in
1962 and after, and the beginning of an
era of inter-planetary war.
V. Tue Peace MovEMENT AND Its
HEROES
Boeckel, The Turn Toward Peace. Mis-
sionary Education Movement, N. Y.,
1930, cloth $1.00, paper 60c. Brief dis-
cussion of why there is a peace move-
ment and what it is. (Order from N. C.
P. W.)
Leiper, Blind Spots. Missionary Education
Movement, N. Y., 1930, cloth $1.00,
paper 60c. Helpful in discovering race
prejudices and in getting rid of them.
Matthews, Heroes in Friendship. Oxford
University Press, London, 1927, 85c.
Stories of heroes in service to others.
VI. ADVENTURES IN TIMES OF PEACE
de Kruif, Hunger Fighters, Harcourt, Brace,
N. Y., 1928, $3.00. Men who have done
much for civilization in plant, bacteria,
and nutrition research.
de Kruif, Microbe Hunters. Harcourt,
Brace, N. Y., 1926, $3.50. The story of
Leeuwenhock, the first of the microbe
hunters, and of those who followed him.
Chamberlain, Heroes of Peace. Sully, N. Y.,
1929, $1.50. Stories of twenty men and
women who carried out plans for the
good of their fellow men.
Hagedorn, The Book of Courage. Winston,
Philadelphia, 1929, $2.50. Stories of
thirty heroes who have helped glorify
civilization.
Wallace, Hands Around the World. Richard
R. Smith, N. Y., 1930, $1.00. Heroes of
many lands.
Wallace, Heroes of Peace. Richard R. Smith,
N. Y., 1930, $1.00. Stories of fifteen
men whose discoveries and
have made the world happier.
sacrifices
31
American
Federation
of
Teachers
506 South Wabash Ave.
CHICAGO, ILL.
The American
Federation of Teachers
desires to establish an intimate
contact and an effective co-opera-
tion between the teachers and the
other workers of the community.
The American
Federation of Teachers
desires to co-operate with all civic
organizations for improved civic
life.
Groups of seven or more public
school teachers are invited to affil-
iate with this National Organiza-
tion of Classroom Teachers, for
mutual assistance, improved pro-
fessional standards and the de-
mocratization of the schools.
Our Slogan Is:
Democracy in Education
Education in Democracy
The American Teacher
is published monthly by
The American
Federation of Teachers
Membership dues carry subscrip-
tion to the magazine. To all oth-
ers the subscription price is $2.00
per year, 25 cents per copy.
Union
Cooperative
Insurance
Association
1200 Fifteenth St. N. W.
| Washington, D. C.
)
ORGANIZED LABOR’S FIRST OLD
LINE LEGAL RESERVE LIFE
| * INSURANCE COMPANY
>) ¢
Special Attention Given to |
SCHOOL!
and
SOCIETY
Edited by J. McKeen Cattell
Life Insurance For Teachers
A weekly journal that aims
to present the unity of edu- |
cation from the nursery |
school and before, to the
university and after, and to |
keep the educational system
in touch with modern demo-
cratic civilization. |
Five dollars a year
Fifteen cents a copy |
The Science Press
Grand Central Terminal
New York, N. Y.
News of Our
Members
Miss Dorothy Weil, delegate from
the Federation of Women High School
Teachers of Chicago to the annual con-
vention of the Illinois State Federation
of Labor, was appointed chairman of
the convention Committee on Educa-
tion. The convention unanimously en-
dorsed the report of this committee,
which recommended that the State
Federation support efforts for more
adequate housing for Chicago schools,
the elimination of crippling economies
in the schools, and the reduction of
size of classes, number of pupils per
teacher, and the size of schools to
the standards advocated by the Ameri-
can Federation of Teachers.
Three books by members of the
Brookwood local have been issued
within the last year: “When Southern
Labor Stirs,” by Tom Tippett; “Your
Job and Your Pay,” by Katherine Pol-
lack and Tom Tippett, and “The Labor
Movement in Postwar France,” by Da-
vid Saposs.
Dr. Marius Hansome’s book, World
Workers’ Educational Movements:
Their Social Significance, was pub-
lished last spring by the Columbia Uni-
versity Press. It has received much
favorable comment. The Columbia
Press announcement of its publication
will be found in the October issue of
the AMERICAN TEACHER.
Miss Lillian Herstein is to speak on
October 12 at the memorial exercises
at Mt. Olive, Illinois. This is the
thirty-third anniversary of the Virden
riots, when miners of the newly
formed United Mine Workers of
America were killed by strike breakers
sent in by carloads by the employers.
This memorial is held every year and
no mine in the region works. This is
the first anniversary day since the
death of Mother Jones, who is also
buried here. In their invitation to
Miss Herstein the miners said they
particularly want another woman who
had contributed considerably to the
cause of Labor. John H. Walker,
president of the Illinois miners, is the
other speaker.
Miss Herstein is also the speaker of
the Detroit Open Forum on Novem-
ber 1. Her address on “The Value of
Teachers’ Unions” follows Dr. Lin-
ville’s address on this subject last
year.
Who’s Who in This Issue
Ruth Gillette Hardy, Locai 5, Chair-
man of Department of Economics,
Girls’ Commercial High School,
Brooklyn, N. Y.
Dr. Edward Berman, Department of
Economis, University of Illinois, au-
thor of Labor and the Sherman Act
and other works on political science,
Mary C. Dent, Local 8, Department of
English, Eastern High School,
Washington, D. C.
Dr. Abraham Lefkowitz, Local 5,
Vice-President American Federation
of Teachers, Legislative Representa-
tive New York Teachers’ Union.
William Green, President of Ameri-
can Federation of Labor.
Marie Widmer (nom de plume Bar-
bara Scott), native of Switzerland,
magazine writer and publicist.
Albert E. Croft, Department of Eco-
nomics, University of Wisconsin.
Dr. Henry R. Linville—President of
American Federation of Teachers,
President of New York Teachers
Union, author of scientific works,
recognized leader in Liberal Edu-
cation Movement.
Evaline Harrington, Department of
English, West High School, Co-
lumbus, Ohio.
Alice Wood, Local 8, Department of
English, Western High School,
Washington, D. C.
Nell Peterson, Local 3, Department
of English, Nicholas Senn High
School, Chicago.
H. S. Bechtolt, Local 2, Department
of Foreign Languages, Calumet
High School, Chicago. Chairman
of - Special Committee on Credit
Unions, American Federation of La-
bor.
Helen Taggart, Local 3, Department
of Science, Lake View High School,
Chicago.
Edward A. Richards, Associate Direc-
tor Home Study Department, Co
lumbia University.
THE AMERICAN TEACHER
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nta-
neri-
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=co-
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‘du- :
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igh
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Publisher's Guarantee: Upon request to the
ant : ly | yl publisher, the full amount paid for any cop-
ol nt aa ies not previously mailed will be refunded.
| 0 Car
‘:How Much Education Will Satisfy You?
fh Cnpeome people a grammar school education
may séem sufficient; some believe that a high
schooltraining or its equivalent is necessary;
others would never be content unless they or
their children continued education at least through
college. Many of the professions require both
college and post graduate training.
The greatest thinkers—statesmen, writers,
preachers, and eminently successful business men
—have repeatedly said that education must
never stop; that to be happy and successful
to one’s capacity one must continue study
throughout life.
How much education will satisfy you, and help
you most toward your objectives? There is no
doubt that, by careful selection of subjects, every-
one can reap great benefit from continued study.
Whether the objective is a greater ability for ser-
vice, a larger financial reward, a more interesting
social life, or a richer background to train one’s
children, there are available to all, who will give
spare time, valuable and attractive courses pre-
pared especially for study at home.
Columbia University invites you to inquire
about them, and to enro!l fcr courses that seem
suited to your neec's.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Offers Home Study Courses of University Grade
in the Following Subjects:
Personnel Administration
Philosophy
Physics
Poetry
Psychology
Public Speaking
Religion
Secretarial Studies
Short Story Writing
Sociology
Spanish
Stenography
Tvpewriting
World Literature, Ete.
Greek
Harmony
High School Courses
History
Investments
Italian
Juvenile Story Writing
Languages
Latin
Library Service
Literature
Machine Design
Magazine Article Writing
Marketing
Mathematics
Composition
Contemporary Novel
Corporation Finance
Drafting
Drawing and Painting
.conomics
English Composition
English Literature
European History
Fire Insurance
Foremanship
French
Geometry
German
Grammar
Accounting
Agriculture
American Government
Applied Grammar
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Classics
| this country we are in the midst of an adult
education movement. University home study
courses are one of the important factors in this
progressive movement, for they offer expert
guidance under educators qualified to direct.
Our courses have been prepared by our in-
structors to meet the special requirements of
study at home. While all basic material essen-
tial to the full understanding of each subject is
fully covered, sufficient elasticity is allowed to
permit adaptation to the individual needs of the
student. Everyone who enrolls for a Columbia
course is personally taught by a member of the
University teaching staff. Special arrangements
can be made for group study.
The University will send on request full in-
formation about these home study courses. A
coupon is printed below for your convenience.
If you care to write a letter briefly outlining
your educational interests our instructors may
be able to offer helpful suggestions. Mention
subjects which are of interest to you, even if
they are not listed here, as additions to the
courses offered are made from time to time.
HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE
PREPARATORY COURSES
OLUMBIA University Home Study Depart-
ment has prepared courses covering the equi-
valent of four years of High School study. This
complete High School or College Preparatory
training is available to those who can not under-
take class room work. We shall be glad to send
you our special bulletin upon request.
=
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, University Extension—Home Study Department, New York, N. Y.”
Please send me full information about Columbia University Home Study Courses. I am interested in the
following subject: Am. Teacher 9-31