Y Y , 4 ¢ 1939 , ‘ >, : 5 Toledo Closes Its Schools Cleveland Teachers Go Payless BY MICHAEL J. ECK December, AUG 28 1947 Checked ¢ Cor 7 a / 4 Christmas Book List— Page 21 aed op diet aa RAMEN ot ee RESELL HE CS URL Re arte RE Kalas Ss \4 , RUGed A ae S TOS ‘ ' Hsia tes Cera HE 4) Se i ‘ se ‘ ; . sidaetiag +) ba rr ssht Pr ied 1! Slade od See bead 72) fo 4 ee) es U < Ld — Lo O y 4 Oo — < ce lu a) Lud iva y < ~ co ee) = < ee) < — ~ jee) QO uu <- pan a [ee] =] Qa. AMERICAN THE eens chemmmeenties Uh nie tertaeete, Caaetnedinedinn Mianiadiiansae at 2A Juside the Cover MATERIALS FOR THE CLASS- room: School Life, the U. S. Office of Education journal, is featuring each month a discussion of controversial is- sues in education. . .. The Public Roads Administration, Federal Works Agency, Washington, D. C., has a limited sup- ply of free copies of “Highways of His- tory,” a pictorial story of transportation in America, which has been prepared especially for elementary school teach- ers. . . . Life, which the Typographical Union is urging all members of organized labor to boycott, has devoted pages 75-76 of its December 11 issue to the Bos- ton Children’s Museum (look at it in the library). . . . Modern Age Books is running a $1,000 contest for the best novel dealing with American youth, which closes May 1, 1940. . .. The mo- tion-picture project of the American Council on Education has just issued a bulletin called “Films on War and American Neutrality.” .. . Porter Sar- gent, 11 Beacon St., Boston, is publish- ing a mimeographed news bulletin called “Sources of Information for Americans” which you can get by writing to him. . . . The American Library Association has compiled a list of recent children’s books, which you can get for a penny. . . . Prof. John T. Frederick who con- ducts CBS’s “Of Men and Books” re- ceives more than 1,000 letters a month on his book-review broadcasts. . . . H. W. Educational TRENDS November-December, 1939 Special John Dewey Issue Articles on Dewey by Georce E, AXTELLE, JoHN J. DeBoer, BAKER BROWNELL, DeELToN T. Howarp, and Paut A. ScuHicpp and a foreword by Jonn Dewey Free: This issue to anyone who subscribes to Educational Trends. Subscription for one year (six issues), $1.25. Enclosed find $1.25 for a qhee to ducational Trends (Dewey issue free). C0 Enclosed find 35c for Dewey issue. MAIL TO: Educational :+Trends, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IIl. Wilson & Co. has just published the 1939 edition of Educational Film Cata- logue which grades the films for ele- mentary, secondary and college use. . . . Three new pamphlets by the Public Af- fairs Committee have been issued re- cently: “Debts—Good or Bad,” “State Trade Walls” and “The Fight on Can- cer.” Silver Burdett & Co. distributes these to the schools. . . . The American Friends Service Committee, 20 S. 12th St., Philadelphia, has published a study of the German in America called “Refu- gee Facts.” * IN 1938 10,000 CANADIAN TEACH- ers received less than the minimum wage for inexperienced and juvenile work- ers in industry and 19,000 received less than the minimum wage for inexperi- enced female workers in industry. . . . Dr. Winifred Nash is working on class- room experiments on the relationship of humor and intelligence, which she feels are closely related. * IN A SPECIAL BULLETIN ON WAR propaganda called “Somebody is Wrong,” the Institute for Propaganda Analysis points out that on four speci- fied days newspapermen from Berlin and Paris covered the Western front. The Berlin correspondents said they didn’t hear one shot; the Paris correspondents reported heavy fighting on the entire front and 50 German towns seized by the French. “Apparently,” the bulletin concludes, “the reporters in France and those in Germany are covering two dif- ferent wars.” Here are two recent propaganda ex- amples from the American press. The first looks like a fake British story, the second a fake German story. On November 1 a Canadian radio station reported receiving an “SSSS” message, meaning “attacked by sub- marine,” from the British freighter Coulmore. The boat was supposed to be off our coast, and U. S. vessels were sent to its aid. The New York Times then reported in a 4-column headline on page 1, NO TRACE FOUND OF ATTACKED SHIP. Suddenly on November 2 the same Canadian station reported the boat was safe. The captain of an American ship which was in the vicinity said: “The whole thing sounds fishy as far as I am concerned. Heavy seas were running. It was pitch dark. In my opinion no submarine could have attacked the Coul- more under such conditions, or even con- sidered the idea.” Why would the British have pulled a fake submarine scare right off the New England coast? Newspaper stories gave the answer that very day: HOUSE VOTES ON EMBARGO REPEAL TO. DAY. If the Coulmore attack was fishy, the English intended it as a last- minute warning to Congress to repeal the embargo and supply arms to the Allies. The second illustration of war propa- ganda concerns the City of Flint, which was creating a hot international incident for the Nazis. Germany showed great dismay at the loss of the ship, but did not mention that Germans had brought the vessel into the Norwegian port after a Norwegian destroyer had ordered her to stay out. Why would the Germans have pur- posely taken the City of Flint into the neutral port? Because this allowed them to get rid of the ship, and avoid antagonizing American opinion in case anything serious should happen. * THREE COPIES OF “GRAPES OF Wrath” will not be burned, accord- ing to the latest vote of the East St. Louis, Ill., library board. After decid- ing by a score of 5 to 0 to burn the three copies in the local library because the book was “obscene and vile,” the board reversed itself at the following meeting by a vote of 6 to 2. * HEYWOOD BROUN WILL WRITE his last column for the New York World-Telegram on December 14... . The following day Guild President Broun starts to work for the New York Post, joining Dorothy Dunbar Bromley and Rollin Kirby, both of whom quit Roy Howard for the Post... . Walt Whitman will soon appear on a U. S. postage stamp. . . . Gas-proof kennels are being sold in London for $14.77. ... Violet and Daisy Hilton, Siamese twins of the amusement world, were classified by .the executive committee of the American Guild of Variety Artists as separate individuals and must pay dues accordingly. . . . Consumers Union Re- ports deals with milk, small radios, radio labor, men’s suits and labor in the men’s suit industry in its December issue. (If you subscribe, use the coupon on the back-of November issue of the AMERICAN TEACHER). . . . Governors of the New York Stock Exchange are wor- ried because a survey shows that only one person out of four understands the function of the Exchange. They would worry more if the majority of the people thoroughly understood how the Exchange functions. G. T. G. THE AMERICAN TEACHER sacha PTS RET ee ot ice Peer es new ee MAIN TIBH i ay / pn i ah om > — mp i. —_, ££ i ao os aot Oe Oe oan me lUKlee CO bee ee OO Ss joe te > oe ee = S| e - < = DECEMBER, 1939 VOL. XXIV, No. 4 TOLEDO CLOSES ITS SCHOOLS Harry D. Lamb 6 CLEVELAND TEACHERS GO PAYLESS Michael J. Eck 8 THE NEW YORK STATE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE REPORTS 9 SUPERVISION—THEORY AND PRACTICE Samuel Tenenbaum 10 AN INDIVIDUAL-CENTERED CLASS Nathaniel Cantor 12 THE HEALTH OF THE SCHOOL CHILD Max Seham 15 TEACHERS’ FREEDOM AND THE WAR 18 VISUAL EDUCATION FOR WORKERS Phillips Russell 20 CHRISTMAS BOOK LIST 21 DEPARTMENTS INSIDE THE COVER G.T.G. 2 EDITORIAL PARAGRAPHS 3 IS OUR UNION CONTROLLED BY George S. Counts 5 THE PRESIDENT’S PAGE: COMMUNISTS? AMONG THE NEW BOOKS: READING AND THE EDUCATIVE PROCESS and GROWTH IN READING Lou LaBrant 22 THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF SCIENCE Ordway Tead 22 THE NEEDS OF YOUTH Paul David 23 NEW ADVENTURES IN DEMOCRACY Abraham Edel 23 LABOR PROBLEMS IN THE UNITED STATES Mark Starr 24 THE PHILOSOPHY OF JOHN DEWEY and FREEDOM AND CULTURE Robert Rothman 25 OF HUMAN FREEDOM Merle Curti 25 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 26 THE TEACHERS UNION IN ACTION 28 ON THE LABOR FRONT 30 THE CONTRIBUTORS 31 Drawings by Chandler Montgomery THE EDITORS of the American TEACHER request that no mate- rial be reprinted from this magazine without an accompanying credit line stating the source and the issue in which such material appeared. THe AMERICAN TEACHER Grorce T. Guernsey, Editor ENTERED as second class matter January 3, 1939, at the post office at Chicago, Illinois, under the act of March 3, 1879. Accept- ance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of February 28, 1925, authorized November 3, 1926. SUBSCRIPTION: $2.50 for the year—Foreign $2.60—Single copies, 35c. Published monthly except June, July and August, at 506 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, Ill. Subscribers are requested to give prompt notice of changes of address. Remittances should be made in postal or express money orders, draft, stamps, or check. AER: 43 Plans for the Coming Issues AT THE last meeting of the Editorial Board plans for the forthcoming issues of the AMERICAN TEACHER were drawn up. ; Our January issue will be devoted to a discussion of the subject of race and the teaching of tolerance. At this time in the world’s history this seemed to be a very impor- tant issue to the Board. Professor Faye Cooper-Cole of the Department of Anthropology of the University of Chicago is contributing a technical article on the subject of race; and we hope to include a short statement by Franz Boas on the importance of dealing with this subject in the public schools. Also we hope to present two or three articles by teachers who are working on this subject in the classroom. Plans include the publishing of “The Function of Higher Education in a Democracy,” the panel which was held as a part of the Educational Policies program at the DECEMBER, 1939 THE AMERICAN TEACHER Published by The American Federation of Teachers AFFILIATED WITH THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR Buffalo convention. Other themes with which we intend to deal during the year are “Federal Aid to Education— 1934-39,” making a rather complete survey of the types of federal aid to education which have been going on dur- ing the last five years; “What Is the Union Doing?” a special issue devoted to the work which our Locals are carrying on in various kinds of communities; the problem of democratic educational institutions (this issue will deal with administrative procedures, class load and democratiz- ing subject matters); and a symposium by school-board members and administrative officers on the function of the Teachers Union. We hope to publish at least one more newspaper, which will deal with financial conditions of schools in America. This will require the greatest cooperation of all our Locals if we are to present an accurate and full account of what is going on in closing schools, cutting budgets, etc. In order to carry out plans of this sort we need your help. Please send us all-the ideas and information at your disposal. Give the AT For Christmas ALTHOUGH THE American TEACHER now has a cir- culation of approximately 38,000, we think it would be fine to have a circulation of 76,000. One way of gain- ing this circulation before the AFT approaches that mark is for every member of the Teachers Union to give one subscription to the magazine to a non-Union teacher as a Christmas present. We have arranged four money-saving offers combining the AMERICAN TEACHER with four publications of special value to teachers. You can get the prices of these by consulting the back cover. We would like to call your attention to the fact that the AMERICAN TEACHER may be sent to one address and the other publication to an- other. Also that Chandler Montgomery, our artist, is designing a Christmas card which will be sent to your friends as soon as you send in your orders. These combination offers expire January 10—so send them in now! Chicago’s Radio Program FOR SOME time we have meant to call your attention to the weekly radio program of the Chicago Teachers Union which goes on the air every Wednesday evening at 8 p.m. Central standard time, 7 p.m. Eastern standard time, over Station WCFL, 970 kilocycles. One way of using this program might be for teachers in various areas to organize listening and discussion groups. Also you might write to friends who are not in the Teachers Union and interest them in the Union through the program. Other AFT Locals have made use of the radio—Detroit and New York City Locals especially—but this is the only weekly Union program of which we know. WCFL is owned by the Chicago Federation of Labor, the Illinois Federation of Labor and the American Federation of Labor. SEP’s Freedom of the Press GARET GARRETT, writer on economic subjects, re- cently had an article in the unfair Saturday Evening Post entitled “Peace on the Rails,” to which A. F. Whitney, president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, wrote a reply and submitted it to the Post. That publication refused to print it, saying that it would be meaningless to those who had not read Garrett’s article. “It was not concerned with furnishing the facts to those of its readers who may have been misled by Garrett,” said Whitney. And so Whitney printed his reply to Garrett in brochure form, in which he says: “A million railroad workers, their families and friends, will conclude that the Saturday Eve- ning Post cannot be depended upon to publish the truth about them and their industry.” “What this country needs is a good 5-cent magazine!” concludes Whitney. The Associated Press on Tuesday, December 5 re- leased a story on Dr. Jerome Davis’ suit against the Satur- day Evening Post in which he charged that because of the appearance of their article he lost an appointment to a posi- tion with the National Youth Administration. Points the Way THE AMERICAN Youth Commission of the American Council on Education, headed by Dr. Floyd W. Reeves, has just issued a report on youth in a time of crisis. The Commission proposes a three-point program (1) to enable young people to stay in school until the age of six- teen; (2) to combine part-time schooling with part-time work; and (3) a government program to provide a job for every youth. 4 The Commission, whose temporary chairman is Owen D. Young, states on point three: “In addition to all types of conservation activities and the construction of useful public buildings, one type of work which would be a true service to the community and which should be greatly expanded would consist of producing the goods and serv- ices which are needed by the young people themselves and by others who are unemployed and in need. “The Commission does not regard this as competition with private business, although it may be so considered by some persons. In any event, it is far preferable to un- employment or to the levels of taxation which would be necessary to support a decent level of subsistence for those in need if they are not allowed to do anything for themselves.” Neilson Fights “Alien’’ Bills WE ARE glad to report that Dr. William Allan Neilson, president emeritus of Smith College, has consented to act as co-chairman of the fourth annual conference of the American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born, to be held in Washington March 2 and 3. Serving with Dr. Neilson as co-chairman is Ernest Hemingway. In a recent interview Dr. Neilson declared that the time had come for serious-minded citizens of this country to take stock of the growing animosity against refugees and aliens. More than 70 bills intended to harass aliens will come before Congress next session. Dr. Neilson explained that the conference has been called to devote “serious and immediate attention to the elimination of certain tendencies in American life which threaten our concept of equality regardless of race, color, creed, nationality or place of birth.” He pointed out that attacks upon the freedom of non-citizens can be used to destroy the constitutional rights of American citizens as well. A Challenge to Other Journals WHILE WE imagine many AFT members will enjoy reading “Supervision—Theory and Practice,” page 10, we do not think the AMERICAN TEACHER is the magazine in which this article should appear. Rather we think it should appear in a journal which goes mainly to school administrators. Therefore we challenge any administrators’ magazine in American education to reprint this article; and the AMERICAN TEACHER in return will be glad to print an article (furnished by any such magazine) dealing with democratic methods of solving these irritating prob- lems which so many classroom teachers in America face daily. At first glance the articles on “Visual Education for Workers” on page 20 and “An Individual-Centered Class,” page 12, which deals with a college classroom, may seem not to have much significance for public-school teachers. However, we feel that both articles are concerned with techniques of teaching which may be applied in any field or level of education. Comments would be appreciated. THE AMERICAN TEACHER ful za itly ves ion red for for on, act the to ith the try EES NS the ich The President's Page Is Our Union Controlled by Communists ? PUBLIC CHARGES have been made from time to time that, the American Federation of Teachers is “con- trolled by the Communists.” Now the Dies Committee, for reasons of its own, has begun hearings on the affairs and politics of the Union. The purpose, the moving forces and the consequences of this inquiry are by no means clear. Its pattern, like American life in general, is doubtless full of inconsistencies, contradictions and ambiguities. In this situation, amid the heat and passion of bitter partisan struggle, the maintenance of a calm and tranquil spirit is the counsel of wisdom. Neverthe- less we are under obligation both to the American people and to ourselves to make a clear and candid statement on the major issues involved. It is true that members of the official Communist Party are enrolled in the American Federation of Teachers. It is also true that organized units of the Party have operated in certain locals and in the national organization. Anyone at all familiar with the Union, however, knows that the Communists constitute but the smallest fraction of the total membership. On the other hand, because of their solidarity, their loyalty to the “Party line,” their tenacity of purpose, their unflagging zeal, their practice of anonymity and their methods of work generally, coupled with the indifference of many non-Communist teachers, their influence always greatly exceeds their numbers. In recent years, under the aegis of the “united front,” they have seemed to achieve new heights of power. This achievement, however, though the occasion of much self- congratulation on the part of Party spokesmen, is essen- tially spurious. By outwardly abandoning many of their doctrines and deliberately advocating policies which they knew liberal-minded teachers would be inclined to support the Communists often deceived themselves into thinking that they were exercising the role of leadership when they were merely marching with the crowd. That they can actually deliver this crowd to any destiny of their own choosing has been proved false by the events of the last three months. The allegation that the Party controls the Federation is clearly contrary to fact. At various times and places, along with other political factions and politically ambitious persons and groups, it has split locals by methods of manipulation, achieved a precarious tem- porary control in some communities, hampered the work of the national organization and driven teachers from the Federation. But to speak of control is to credit a boast which no sober Communist would make unless he were DECEMBER, 1939 reporting his successes in Moscow with the hope of being awarded the “Order of the Red Banner of Labor.” The fact that, both as individuals and as an organization, they customarily resort to secrecy and anonymity reveals a deep sense of inadequacy and weakness. Openly working under the banners of Communism, they would be quickly shorn of influence. The American people, however, are entitled to know not only whether the Communists control the Federation but also where the Federation stands on the entire question of totalitarianism. Although no official position has been taken formally on some of the points at issue, I am convinced in the light of innumerable conferences with Union members of all ranks in many parts of the country during recent months that there is widespread agree- ment among us on social orientation and purpose. We are devoted first of all to the defense of the economic, civic and professional rights and interests of teachers, the guarding and improvement of public education and the ‘conservation and development of our American demo- cratic heritage. We are utterly opposed to the domina- tion of the Federation by any political faction or partisan body whatsoever. In particular we are unalterably and unequivocally opposed to totalitarianism in every form. We are opposed to any movement or tendency that repudi- ates the civil liberties, nurtures the idea of violence and dictatorship, and looks with favor on a regime sustained by machine guns, secret police, bureaus of propaganda, concentration camps and firing squads. We are opposed to any party or order that takes political instructions in the least detail from any foreign government or power. In still greater particular, we are opposed without excep- tion to the current political movements and patterns known as Communism, Fascism and Naziism. Knowing, however, that these movements and patterns arise from conditions of insecurity, misery and frustration, we are equally opposed to all tendencies, however respectable their guise, which drive men and women first to contem- plate and then to embrace desperate measures. We are convinced, moreover, that the greatest threat to American democracy comes, not from doctrines and movements imported from beyond the seas, but rather from our fail- ures at home. Neither the Dies Committee nor any other influence should be permitted to shift our major atten- tion from this fundamental truth. We believe that teachers above all others must oppose without ceasing every effort and every movement cal- culated to limit and crush the freedom of the human mind. If we are true to our own calling we must believe in education and enlightenment as the way to a better world. We and our craft, as we understand the processes of education, would be the first casualties of the triumph 5 of dictatorship in our society. Less than any other body of citizens can we afford to serve as a “front” for any move- ment that can even be suspected of being disloyal to the democratic process. At the same time we must steadfastly defend freedom of conscience for the individual, refuse to countenance heresy-hunting in any and every form, cultivate a spirit of tolerance and charity and welcome to the Federation all teachers in our public schools. Believing all of this, as we do, we do not hold the Dies Committee beyond criticism. On the contrary, as Amer- ican teachers and citizens, we have the right and the obligation to criticize this or any other committee and to Toledo Closes Its Harry D. Lamb THE TOLEDO public schools are closed. They are closed for an indefinite period. The Board of Education has promised that the minimum of 32 weeks as required by Ohio law will be offered; beyond that they can make no statement. Closing came after the failure to pass a 2-mill additional levy and the renewal of a 2-mill levy which has been in existence for the last twenty years. The opponents of the levy, who proclaimed brazenly that the schools would not close if the levy failed, made every coercive effort to see to it that the schools remained open. This of course is a reversal of position, historically, but it is a surface change of heart really. The Allied Tax- payers of Lucas County, the Toledo Real Estate Board and Walter Beartschi, head of Friends and Neighbors, formerly allied with Father Coughlin, are not really inter- ested in seeing that a good educational plant operates in Toledo; they are really interested only in the surface appearance of a good school system, which to them means only that the schools remain open so that real-estate values do not suffer. Now that the schools are closed, various interests are being adversely affected. The lessened buying power of 2,000 school employees and their families is noticeable in the community. Closing the schools of a city as large as Toledo is news of major importance—it has been carried by United Press and Associated Press. Newspaper Enter- prise Associates sent in a reporter from Cleveland to get the Story; Life sent in a newsman and photographer, but empty buildings are not Life-like and it is doubtful whether he snapped any. But the closing of any large city school system is a disgrace to the city, and its reper- cussions are immediately noticeable in the business life of the city. The president of Franklin Creamery Com- pany, Irving Reynolds, demands that the schools open Monday, December 4. He may be motivated by a sense 6 insist that it conduct its operations in the spirit of democ- racy. Because of the anxieties generated among our people by the war in Europe, we must all be vigilant lest an organ of government, created to combat “un- American activities,” be converted into an instrument of “un-Americanism.” If this committee should serve to weaken our civil liberties, propagate a spirit of intoler- ance and bigotry or crush the efforts on the part of work- ing people to organize, it might itself become the agency of introducing into American life the philosophy of to- talitarianism. Against this we must be ever on our guard. Grorce S. Counts Schools of civic virtue, but he operates the largest chain of ice cream parlors in the city, most of which are near public schools, and open schools mean more sales of ice cream. He offered no solution to the economic problem confront- ing the schools except cutting the budget—which means cutting salaries or eliminating essential educational serv- ices. The Toledo Real Estate Board went on record against the levy, sent its secretary, Carl Brandes, to Dayton to find out what steps had been taken there to re-open their schools. He came back empty-handed. Now that the Real Estate Board has found that real- estate values depend upon a functioning school system, they are anxious that the schools re-open. They have attempted to get the school employees, especially the teachers, to offer to serve without pay so that school could continue. Real-estate interests made every effort to defeat the levy; they are making every effort to force the opening of the schools, but they are unwilling to make the effort to pay the taxes on real estate which are neces- sary to maintain Toledo schools at an efficient level. Toledo school employees are being branded as “strik- ers.” The levy opponents call them selfish and hold them responsible for the closing of the schools. This is a dust screen to cover up the fact that real estate is the tax striker in Toledo. The tax duplicate in Toledo has shrunk from $619,000,000 in 1929 to as low as $405,000,000 in 1935 and after a reappraisal went up to $449,000,000 for 1939. And the county auditor, Hale Shenefield, who advocated the reappraisal was bitterly fought by real- estate interests and lost re-election last year. The re- appraisal chiefly affected industrial and commercial prop- erties. The present state of tax delinquency in Toledo is chiefly attributable to the real-estate companies. Nat- urally enough the selfish interests of the small home- owner were appealed to throughout the campaign against THE AMERICAN TEACHER mre ~-® AF hm #4 «© tf = DB we SS OU — = — A ws Mr. Shenefield and again were revived against the school levy. Actually the school levy would have cost the aver- age small homeowner not more than an additional $6.00 per year. The tax rate in the Toledo school district is 19.6 mills, of which the schools receive approximately 40 per cent. In other words, the average homeowner is paying a total of $24 annually to support schools. The cost to educate a single child in Toledo (1937-38 figures, U. S. Office of Education Pamphlet No. 86) is $107.39 as compared to the national average of $120.87 for cities of our classification. The difference between what the small homeowner pays and the actual cost to educate one of his children is borne by industrial and commer- cial properties, by holders of speculative real estate and by childless property owners. The picture as a whole since 1929 reflects an even greater advantage to real estate. The Toledo schools received $4,355,669 from local real-estate taxes in 1929. In 1938 this had been reduced to $2,400,225. The State of Ohio Foundation Program supplied $1,370,000 but this still left a short- age. But state aid does not come from local real estate, and since 1929 local real estate has been relieved of nearly $2,000,000 annually for support of schools. Had the 2-mill additional levy passed, local real estate would still be paying approximately $1,200,000 less for schools than in 1929. Real-estate companies with new subdivisions to sell demand school facilities and use pres- sure to obtain them. Ironically and logically the schools have no choice in the source of their local revenues other than levies upon real estate—and it looks like a stalemate for some time to come. During the campaign the opposition through Mr. Beartschi and the Allied Taxpayers attacked the Toledo schools, comparing their costs with those of Columbus, Ohio. To those familiar with the two school systems it is obvious, as a former state inspector of schools recently asserted, that the only similarity is their size. Toledo has kindergartens; Columbus has not. Toledo offers outstanding work in art and physical education. Toledo has vocational education programs that if continued will be a model for the nation. Columbus spends less than a thousand dollars annually in vocational education. Hence, comparisons between the school systems are unjust. Salary schedules of Columbus were held up as desirable for Toledo by the Allied Taxpayers of Lucas County, Inc. A. L. Keller, executive secretary, asserts: The Toledo School Board can operate with an annual surplus, if they will reduce salaries to the present Colum- bus base rates as shown below: Grade School High School Minimum Maximum Minimum Maximum Columbus ....$1000 $2000 $1250 $2625 , a 1360 3010 1360 3010 As a matter of truth, Toledo operates on 88 per cent of the basic salary schedule; consequently a correct salary schedule for Toledo is as follows: Grade School High School Minimum Maximum Minimum Maximum Toledo ..... $1196.80 $2648.80 $1196.80 $2648.80 DECEMBER, 1939 And as a matter of truth a “money” saving could be ef- fected by lowering salaries to the Columbus level. It is not true, however, that the saving would be as great as Mr. Keller’s estimate. The average salary paid in Colum- bus to elementary school teachers in 1938-39 is less than in Toledo; Columbus pays more to junior-high teachers and less to high-school teachers. The total “saving” would be approximately $300,000, but Toledo’s annual operating deficit is $600,000, a difference of approxi- mately $300,000. This fallacious comparison was used for campaign purposes to indicate extravagance by the Board of Education, and is again being circulated as evi- dence of the rapacity of Toledo teachers. School levy opponents claim the 2-to-1 defeat of the levy was a man- date to the Board to cut salaries and live within the funds available. Because the Board itself closed the schools, teachers and other employees have never been required to state “their position. All employee groups, however, are back- ing the administration and the Board in this action. For seven years school employees have taken pay cut after ~ pay cut, have borrowed against checks several months past due, have bought necessary classroom materials from their own meager funds and have carried on welfare work in their own schools. Sentiment of school em- ployees against continued attacks upon the educational system has possibly never been more unified than it is now. When in 1936 and 1937 levies were defeated and schools remained open through deficit financing, the public was unappreciative either of the sacrifices of school employees or of the astuteness of the Board in handling its funds. In fact, this levy was opposed on the grounds that previous levies had failed but the schools remained open and the schools were again crying “wolf.” Since damnation followed either course it seemed better to the Board to close the schools and redeem the campaign statements that inadequate revenues were available for a decent school program. The saving of salaries and operating costs for the six weeks of no school would be approximately $600,000. The deficit at the end of the year will still be approxi- mately $400,000. Consequently it is evident that clos- ing for six weeks is not a solution to the problem. To live within the budget would mean the elimination of many vital services or cutting wages approximately 25 per cent for the remainder of the year if schools reopen in January. That means that school employees would receive roughly about 65 per cent for the last five months, 73.6 per cent of basic pay for actual teaching time, and counting the six weeks of pay lost through closing, about 62 per cent of their basic salaries. It is a sorry prospect not at all enlivened by the fact that many vital educa- tional services—sometimes called “frills’—are likely to go under the axe of “economy” unless there is an awaken- ing of the public conscience. People are starving in Toledo. School children by the score have fainted from hunger. The city relief program 7 has broken down, through inadequate finances. A Sep- tember, 1939, 114-mill special levy for relief was defeated even more ignominiously than the school levy. The opponents of the school levy were those who opposed the relief levy—man for man, organization by organization. But opposition to real-estate taxation is so strong that Toledo with $10,717 per pupil real-estate valuation will not tax itself for schools or for relief. The Toledo Blade newspaper after weeks of promotion reached a $10,000 total for food for hungry school children. Food service is being maintained in the schools from this private chari- table fund—and this is the only activity for which Toledo schools, potentially one of the finest school plants in the county, are now being used. Cleveland Teachers Go Payless Michael J. Eck BECAUSE THE Cleveland school district cannot pro- cure sufficient revenue to maintain 100-per-cent salary restorations voted for teachers and other school employees, salary payments must be deferred for the last few weeks of 1939. That was the decision of the pro-labor Cleveland Board of Education at a meeting held on November 24, 1939. Representatives of the Cleveland Teachers Union and other employee organizations urged the Board not to close schools and offered to go without pay until the shortage could be met. Once more, therefore, school employees agreed to subordinate their needs to the needs of the school system in the hope that patrons of the school district eventually will provide money to restore them to normal salary schedules. Deferred payrolls are in order in spite of the fact that approximately $4,000,000 of Cleveland school funds lie unused in Cleveland banks. It has been common practice to use this excess in taxes collected for debt retirement as a loan, except that the interests which always oppose adequate salaries and educational oppor- tunities have threatened to sue Board members on the ground that such transfer would be illegal. All three daily newspapers in Cleveland joined the clamor against the Board and raised cries of “reckless spending” because funds were inadequate. The history of the Cleveland crisis is as follows: Early in the depression lobbyists for the budget-cutters succeeded in getting the voters to pass a constitutional amendment limiting the number of mills which could be levied without a vote of the people to 10. At the same time, real-estate interests fought and won a battle for lowered tax valuations. In Cleveland alone, in 1932, some $200,000,000 of value was removed from the tax duplicate of the Cleveland school district, and tax income was reduced shortly afterward to a new low level. Teachers’ incomes bore the brunt of the reduction. Salary increments were suspended in 1931-32. The fol- lowing year one regular increment was given, and then all salaries were cut 15 per cent. For the last four months of 1933, school employees suffered a total cut of 40 per cent. From January to September of 1934, a cut of 11 per cent was added to the previous reduction. In May, 1935, a one-third increment was granted for the balance of the year. The following year a two-thirds increment was granted from January to September, 1936. In 1936-37 salaries were restored to 85 per cent of normal, and the tax groups and other special interests demanded that they be frozen at that point permanently. For the next two school years the Board voted 9%6-per-cent salaries and, effective in September, 1939, 100 per cent. The salary committee of the Cleveland Teachers Union carried on research which showed that preceding non- labor Boards had penalized teachers a total of $6,440,104 from 1932 to 1936 by cutting wages while bond payments were being made on time and in full. From 1931 to 1936, the aggregate loss to teachers because of withheld increments was $3,228,000, a total loss in six years of $9,668,104. Almost $10,000,000, then, was the con- tribution of Cleveland teachers to the maintenance of the schools at a time when $11,454,000 of school funds was used to pay bonded debt. Last May the Union published this characterization of the present Board of Education, five of whose seven members were elected on a labor-supported slate: The present Board is willing to hold conferences with employee representatives relative to policies, and to accede to reasonable requests. It is willing to budget on the basis of need rather than on a cautious estimate of the funds available, as was the consistent policy of its predecessors. The city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County have pro- ceeded upon this latter basis, and the public has responded to the necessity of providing the funds. We are confident that the Board of Education will receive similar backing. At the present time no decision has been reached on whether a special levy to restore salary cuts will be sub- mitted to the voters in 1940. Anti-tax groups probably will oppose such a move, though the Cleveland Press, ’ original paper in the once liberal Scripps-Howard chain, has announced that it will approve a levy “provided the Board agrees to live within its income.” THE AMERICAN TEACHER defeat of a levy three years ago which would have per- mitted the schools to abolish depression paycuts. At that time the Press, and other papers, argued editorially that the Board was asking for too much money. Union leaders informed the executives of that paper that the excess, if any, would be used to bring salaries as close to normal as possible. The Press nevertheless urged the defeat of the levy, and it was voted down. This year the Press editorializes that the Board has been guilty of reckless spending because it restored salaries to teachers when the funds had not been budgeted. In other words, the Board was wrong when it sought extra funds and wrong when it restored wages in the hope that the public would support the restoration. The Cleveland schools now aré spending at approxi- mately the 1934 rate of going, which was excessively low. The Cleveland school district has the lowest tax rate in its county for the 12 city school districts. It has the lowest per capita debt of any of the 12 school districts, and its per capita operating costs are lower than those in most of the principal suburbs. Its bond rating is excel- lent, and its financial operations entirely in the interests of the schools and the people who support the schools. For example, the school district has reduced its share of the Clevelander’s tax dollar from 40.5 per cent in 1930 to 30.7 per cent in 1939. In the same period, the city increased its share from 36.7 per cent to 47.2 per cent, and the county from 16.8 per cent to 22.1 per cent. Thus while the schools were reducing the tax burden, the other two major subdivisions were increasing it, so that the saving in school operations was not passed on to taxpayers. but was absorbed by city and county. These are facts not widely known, because largely they have been ignored by the newspapers and other agencies of public information. If they were known, there would be little question of public support in this emergency. 1. Whether or not anything needs to be done with or to the New York State educational system depends on two things: (1) Whether the system is delivering to the citizens of the State all that it should and nothing that it should not; (2) Whether the amount which the State is now spending on education is being spent intelligently and whether it is greater than the State should spend. 2. The great purpose for which the schools were founded is to preserve and strengthen the State by making better, abler citizens. Other benefits derived from it are secondary. By and large states are not preserved and strengthened by culture or education or knowledge. They stand on character, morals and physical well-being. A review of history indicates that as culture rises, morals and physical well-being go down and that often the destruction or disintegration of the State has followed 3. We place FIRST on our list of things necessary to produce “The Schools New York State Wants” a Deep, True Religious Understanding and Viewpoint 4... . the question of health . we place SECOND in importance. . . . We need to build powerful bodies and nervous systems quite as much as educated minds. . . . The State has been doing something along this line, but it should do more 5. The New York State schools are educating youngsters to make them better citizens Two things are especially necessary for that . . . a knowledge and appreciation of our political system .. . and . . . a better understanding of inter- national conditions and relationships. 6. Our experience and our observation convince us that a large percentage of students in every grade are just trying to get by, to stay in. . . . When they get out they cannot spell—_they cannot write—they cannot speak on their feet they cannot read out loud—they cannot compose a good letter or statement—they cannot multiply 4 by 3% and divide it by 7 without a pencil and paper and a considerable time. We realize that it is very difficult to make students serious and thorough with their work—but somehow it must be accomplished. From the standpoint of a youngster’s value to the State —from an educational standpoint, from a cultural standpoint, from the standpoint of employers—it doesn’t matter much what Excerpts from the Report of the Special Committee on Economical and Efficient Education of N. Y. State Chamber of Commerce a youngster studies or how much ground he covers; the all important thing is how well he plans and accomplishes what he undertakes to do. Better they spend their time working or even in ‘the ball parks—anything in which they are doing what they do the best they possibly can and with interest. The greatest factor in arousing that interest on the part of students is the teachers. The importance of their being able and inspiring cannot be overstressed. Outside of religion and health, perfect, complete work is the most important thing and the thing of which there is least. ge there is a definite line which must be recognized and that is the line between the amount of education it requires to kill illiteracy and the amount of education we give beyond that point. We must not have an illiterate people; all but defectives must be taught to read, write and figure 1:easonably well. But there is a fair question as to how many should go farther. Some do not want it, others are not fitted to take it, and these should stop when they have passed the point of illiteracy. The State must endeavor to carry all the young- sters up to that point, but beyond that point youngsters will do better if they have to put up a real fight to go on, and beyond that point it is a fair question whether the State should bear all the expense or whether parents who are amply able to educate their own youngsters should pay for it. In not carrying students too far and in having parents who are able to do so pay the cost of all education beyond illiteracy is found a means of reducing the cost 8. The vocational field is as wide as the combined life works of all the men and women in this country, and we may as well face the fact that many young men cannot get employment if they get no vocational training and neglect their opportunities in school. . . . Some of our young people so inclined should have diplomatic training—and a knowledge of foreign nations and their business activities. 9. We would propose that there be appointed a “carrying- en” board or commission, with very considerable power, to take the work done by the Inquiry and from that and from what else the new body can uncover to set up and accurately define an ideal state educational system. . . . It should not be made up of educators alone—because educators could not avoid having the present system too much in mind. One-half its personnel should be sound, able businessmen with successful records, high intelligence and time enough available. DECEMBER, 1939 Samuel Tenenbaum THE SUPERVISOR, according to textbooks on the subject, exists to help teachers do better teaching. The theory rests on the assumption that the supervisor is superior, a sort of an expert, in the educational process and therefore can help teachers in the dilemmas that confront them. The question arises, Are supervisors friends, helpers of teachers? As a teacher in the New York City school system, with its more than 800 school organizations and approximately 38,000 teachers, I naturally hear a great many teachers talk about their supervisors. What impresses me most is that they nearly always regard the supervisor as a “task- master,” a “boss,” someone to be feared, someone to whom to cater so as to avoid his enmity. Hardly ever do teachers talk of him in terms of the beautiful philosophy propounded in textbooks. That the principal or any supervisor is a “boss” I took for granted, so much so that when the thought occurred to me that he shouldn’t be, it struck me as an amazing revelation. His job really is not to harry teachers, not at all. He is supposed to help, guide, befriend teachers. All the leading authorities in education say that that is his function. All the textbooks in supervision assume that that is what he is doing. But I’ve listened to teachers and hardly ever have I heard practice square with theory. I believe that what is set down here presents a better picture of actual practices and relationships between teacher and supervisor than that found in a textbook written by a college professor. In all instances I found teachers very much concerned at the prospect of a visit by a principal at an inopportune moment. Hence, whenever a principal has visited a teacher, her colleagues invariably ask her, “What were you doing?” If, when he visited, she was busy with some important- looking work, three-quarters of her worries are over. However, if he happened to come in during a lull in the lesson, when the children were doing busywork or when the teacher, fagged out by a previous lesson, plopped down to rest, then she is in great fear and experiences sleepless nights in the belief that she did not make a good impres- sion. And she is justified in that feeling, for many principals become irritable and grumpy and nothing she can do will wipe out the first impression. In fact, the principal is apt to drop in shortly again, in order either (1) to catch the teacher in the same position, or (2) to make sure it does not recur. Sometimes this leads to ridiculous situations. One teacher came to school one morning without breakfast. She thought that she could do without it, but found that her appetite was becoming 10 § Supervision—Theory and Practice troublesome. She took her lunch and asked a child to stay in the wardrobe. She stuck her posterior outside and the eating portion of her body inside and proceeded to gobble what food she could. In case of an unexpected visit, the teacher had the child handy as evidence and she intended to retrieve her honor by explaining that she had to discipline the culprit. In one school a principal ordered his teachers to coach children in the standardized intelligence and achieve- ment tests. He wanted, he explained, to “raise their I.Q. and E.Q.,” believing that a low average I.Q. for his school reflected poor and unsuccessful teaching and, consequently, poor supervision. When there was a district survey, he would go from room to room frantically coaching the children in various standardized tests, hoping to hit the one selected by the board. Nothing made him happier than to discover a new standardized test to add to his copious collection. In another school, the big thing was timing. The teachers had to follow the program. A glance at the program of an elementary school makes one think of a six-day bicycle race. Five minutes are de- voted to class hygiene, ten minutes to reading, six minutes to phonics, fifteen minutes to history, two minutes to setting-up exercises, etc. If a teacher was off schedule by as much as five minutes, the principal would demand the reason in an impervious tone. If she explained that some untoward incident occurred, then she was protected by this rule: Any teacher who was off schedule was required to notify the office. If she had done this, she was saved. If she hadn’t, woe betide her! To one principal nothing mattered but good penman- ship. The result was that the teachers would pick out good penmen and have them rewrite all papers that did not come up to standard. One morning the principal, AMOLSIM Tic WRITING holding a set of papers in his hand, came into a room and called for Tony, a well-known problem. With all the flourish of a Legion of Honor ceremony, he planted on Tony’s shirt a button denoting merit in penmanship. Tony, overaged, overgrown, never having learned either how to read or write, looked mystified. He probably did not know the paper for which he won the award was written by one of the school’s famous penmen. There was a superintend- ent in one district who liked flashcards, and, of course, the principals and the assist- ant principals in that district were convinced that there ex- isted only one right way of teaching and that was the “flash- cards-and-more-flashcards” method. They hounded the teachers, concentrating on those about to be visited, for flashcards in nature, phonics, history, geography, arith- metic, etc. In fact, you were judged as a teacher by the extent by which you could somehow or other twist each subject into a flashcard type of pedagogy. They even vot, the story goes, a teacher of swimming to teach her subject by the flashcard method. The teachers stayed in afternoons at school and evenings at home making flash- cards. Their closets bulged with them. In one district, there was a superintendent whose inspection was concentrated on poetry and spelling. Of course, the school’s supervision was concentrated on that also. But this superintendent would ask a line of children to stand, not from any one row, but diagon- ally. He would hurl a word at each child and from each he would expect a perfect response. After he had satisfied himself on that score, he would start the next phase of his investigation, namely, poetry. Again diagonal and criss-cross lines would stand, and to each child he would say, “Next stanza.” One of the new teachers, who had just taken a course in psychol- ogy with Dr. Pintner of Co- e: lumbia University and had Pi - . 3 . ‘ ad i come away imbued with the & et : - net J importance of the whole ™ wt Pw method, had taught the chil- ee er , v < dren poetry accordingly. The 7 ° "i - S s # \e sou/ children, apparently, knew Lm gage” ji - = the entire poem. But when 6Z= A the principal came to check é —