VOL. IV, NO. 2 JANUARY, 1925 BULLETIN OF THE Department of Elementaryi.in}L oy : b> School Principais ESR L Report on Educational Progress—Sargeant Professional Growth of the Principal from the Standpoint of SO PaO ib k bec ct ceccdacescutieneéasdaea os Ja Proper Attitude Toward the Principalship—Fink Conditions Necessary for Effective Supervision—Clement.... 83 A Personnel Record—Davis Schools and Libraries—Morgan An Experimental Study of Children’s Reading—Rich Publicity Work by Chicago Principals McAndrew’s 1924 Report Editorial Comment Cincinnati Program The Fourth Yearbook—Gist Notes from the Field PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS of the National Education Association of the United States 1201 SIXTEENTH STREET NORTHWEST, WASHINGTON, D. C. Entered as_second-class matter November 20, 1922, at the post-office at Washington, D. C., under act of August 24, 1912. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of eotags provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized December 18, 1922. p> BULLETIN of the , DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS Published quarterly in October, January, April, and July by the Depart- ment of Elementary School Principals of the National Education Asso- ciation of the United States. Ide G. Sargeant, Editor. The payment of $2.00 active membership dues entitles a member to attend all meetings of the Department, to hold office, and to receive the Bulletin quarterly. One dollar of each membership fee is for a year’s subscription to the Bulletin. Subscription to non-members is $2.00 per year; single copies, 50 cents; Yearbook, $1.50. Members are requested to report at once any change of address, giving old as well as new address, Entered as second-class matter November 20, 1922, at the postoffice at Washington, D. C., under act of August 24, 1912. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized December 18, 1922. Executive and Editorial Offices, 1201 Sixteenth Street Northwest, Washington, D. C. OFFICERS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 1924-25 President, Jessiz M. Fink Palmer School, Grand Rapids, Michigan First Vice-President, Sara L. RHODES Public School No. 28, roor Herkimer St., Brooklyn, New York Second Vice-President, JOHN MERRILL Lingemann School, Detroit, Michigan Third Vice-President, H. B. Norton 7922 Underwood Avenue, Birmingham, Alabama Secretary and Editor, Department Bulletins, In— G. SARGEANT School No. 10, Paterson, New jersey Treasurer, COURTLAND V. Davis J. E. B. Stuart School, Norfolk, Virginia Executive Committee Mary McSkIMMoNn Pierce School, Brookline, Massachusetts ANNA LaurA Force Lincoln School, Denver, Colorado Luise H. Krauss Grattan School, San Francisco, California W. T. LoncsHore Greenwood School, Kansas City, Missouri Editor, Fourth Yearbook, ArTHUR S. GIST B. F. Day School, Seattle, Washington lar inc bet the the in clu of abc cir chi REPORT ON EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS IpE G. SARGEANT Principal, Public School No. 10, Paterson, New Jersey NUSUAL ACTIVITY in the educational field is reported from all parts of the Nation. The broadening conception, by the people at large, of the part education must play in their own welfare is shown by the increased outlay for new buildings, better equipment, smaller classes, and better trained teachers. And this in the face of critics who view with alarm the ever-increasing amount appropriated for the schools. Fortunately for the public good these critics belong for the most part to a class un-American in attitude if not so by birth. Either because they were educated in ex- clusive private schools or because of their vast wealth, they have drifted out of sympathy with the common man, lack confidence in his ability to rise above a certain level and wish to train their own children in an exclusive circle wherein they cannot become contaminated by association with the children of the masses. To them, taxation to train the average child beyond what is necessary to make him an efficient cog in the industrial machinery is an unwarranted use of the taxing power. The recent utterances and reports of certain prominent individuals and leaders of large accumulations of capital justify my statement. This is not the attitude of our people, taken collectively. They have faith in the common man and in the public school. Just as rapidly as our school forces can demonstrate clearly the need of more money it will be granted by the taxing power. The average man has the good sense to know that our national well-being and safety depend upon an ever- ascending scale in the level of general intelligence and morality. Safety of the individual and of property depends-upon this. The public school is the instrument by which it must be done. For this reason it must be made as efficient and complete as human ingenuity can devise. For this reason the school forces must organize, study, and clearly set forth by suitable publicity what the needs of the schools are. It is our business. We are the paid agents of our people to do this work. It is our part to lay bare the truth. Do this and we shall have the most generous support. No department of school work has shown a greater awakening to the possibilities lying before us through proper organization and codperation than the Elementary School Principals. It may be well to review some of the information coming to our committee from the principals throughout the Nation. Chicago principals assess themselves $30 annually in dues and employ a secretary to carry on needful activities in connection with their school work. Seattle principals paid the expenses of their president to the Department of Superintendence meeting in Chicago last winter. His expenses were also paid while he was making a survey of the schools at Denver, Sioux City, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Spokane. [67] 68 NATIONAL EpucATION ASSOCIATION Boston is working out a plan for Citizenship Training based on the fol- lowing outline: I. A study of the characteristics resulting from the development of the funda- mental virtues. II. A study of the characteristics resulting from adjustment of life work to native endowment. III. A study of characteristics resulting from the developed capacity for the right use of leisure. Detroit and Kansas City report remarkable work with the platoon form of organization. Pittsburgh’s most outstanding progressive accomplishment was the estab- lishment of a vocational trade school. Courses leading to a trade are now offered in shoe repairing, tailoring, auto mechanics, carpentry, printing, machinist, and electricity, with other courses in preparation. Pre-vocational centers were established to care for the over-age and retarded pupil. The platoon school idea has resulted in the changing of many traditional organi- zations into platoon schools. There has been an extension of centers for mental deviates and the Board of Education has just launched a five-million- dollar building program for junior and senior high schools. Philadelphia shows magnificent progress in educational growth along scientific lines. Beginning last year, they selected twenty-four schools to reorganize on the basis of grouping by intelligence. Each grade was broken up into three groups: (a) Composed of those pupils who, as a result of an intelli- gence test, supplemented by the opinion of the teacher and the principal, proved the ablest; (4) the next ablest section; and (c) the third ablest section of the grade. Of course, this is only possible where a school is large enough to break up the grades into three groups. ‘The result has been highly satisfactory to teachers, children, and parents. There has been very little criticism of the plan, and we are considering its further extension. In September, Philadelphia will establish a new type of institution, in the form of a demonstration school. This will be a full-sized elementary school, fully equipped, and manned with picked teachers who will be placed on a special salary intended to attract only the best. The classes will be of normal size, the children will be the “ run of the mill.” The object of this school is to demonstrate through daily activities the possibilities of the course of study as developed by picked school teachers. This school is to help young teachers and others who need to observe good teaching and our course of study exemplified at its best. We hope to get a good deal of professional stimulus from this experiment. Philadelphia is one of the first of the largest cities definitely to adopt the 6-3-3 plan as a city-wide organization. We are not utilizing abandoned elementary schools for junior high schools but we are building new build- ings which cost from $800,000 to $1,000,000 each and which are especially adapted to the purpose. In addition to three elementary school-buildings which were converted into junior high schools, we have now five specially built junior high schools in operation. These accommodate about eighteen ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 69 hundred pupils each and are confined strictly to the work of the seventh, eighth, and ninth years. Every convenience in the way of equipment is provided, and specially trained teachers form the faculties. This fact is recognized by the salary schedule with a maximum of $2800. In the fall we shall open four more such schools. We are completing plans for the construction of about twenty-four. A teachers’ council, known as the Philadelphia Public School Council, has been successfully established and is operating very well, indeed. The purpose of this council is to facilitate the codperation of the teachers with the administration and to assist in the solution of problems which affect the welfare of the teachers. Grand Rapids has accomplished some excellent work along Americaniza- tion lines. Her policy of registering the name, the street address, and mak- ing a personal call on every foreigner within her boundaries explains how it is done. She declares that the success of her plan depends on three factors, namely: (a) A board of education who is willing to authorize sufficient classes to take care of the enrollment. (6) A well organized parent-teachers’ association throughout the city. (c) A good organizer to enlist the codperation of a community in this project, for it is a community affair. Her citizenship classes show a gain of 699 in attendance in 1923 over the number in attendance in 1922. Her work along orthopedic lines is hardly less remarkable. The Mary Free Bed Guild cares for an average of five hundred patients a year in its clinic. This Guild has certainly set a pace for a community organization. Paterson’s notable achievements in the educational field has been the replacement of her old elementary schools by new buildings, representing an outlay of several millions and the building this year of a girls’ high school at the cost of a million and a half. These institutions have all that is best in school architecture and equipment. She has also established a school for the crippled and blind. Her salary schedule for teachers places her among the few leading cities of the Nation. She is one of the pioneers in appointing one of her own teachers a member of the board of education, and this teacher has been a marked success as a board member. A feature at Schenectady that deserves more than passing notice has been the establishment of six centers for intermediate or junior high schools. Although in operation less than a year, her superintendent reports the following gains: The pupils now have real joy in doing school work; better teaching has resulted from her introduction of the intermediate school; overloading by older pupils is now very rare; discipline is easier and better; better scholarship; pupils stay in school at least one year longer; this type of school affords greater opportunity to develop leadership; good citizenship is emphasized in the most practical way—that is, by actual prac- tice; supervised study lessons and often the elimination of home study; and more and better training is now given in the practical arts and in the fine arts. 70 NATIONAL EpucaATION ASSOCIATION When we consider that the cities I have mentioned are but a type of the large number in this broad land who are building for better things, we can see that the forces of education are becoming more aggressive and there is much hope for the better life. Many of our leading thinkers are discussing seriously the fact that in spiritual growth we have not kept pace with material inventions and dis- coveries and because of this fact we are suffering the distressful life men- tioned by H. G. Wells. What is more, other thinkers besides Mr. Wells see the only solution of our troubles in a new type of school, presided over by a new type of schoolmaster. One who is no longer shy. One who dares to be arrogant if the need be. One who is aggressive in the fight for the right. Professional organizations—The last five years have been a period of much activity among principals. During this time, both national and state organizations have been formed. These associations have committees work- ing on important problems the solution of which will do much to bring a more effective procedure into the field of public school work. We have only begun to spend money in education. Vaster and still vaster sums will go into this work as the intellectual horizon of our people broadens. But with these increased expenditures will come an added re- sponsibility to the head of the school to see that none of the money is wasted and that the advantages accruing to the school community are equal to any in the land. No principal can meet these demands unless he actively supports the professional organizations of his group as well as the general associations. He must be familiar with the yearbooks, the bulletins, the monographs, the studies, the committee reports and the work of the various meetings. And there is no agency by which he can keep in touch with all this information except through his membership in his group association. Supervisors—Our study reveals the fact that in the country as a whole, the province of the special supervisor is in a nebulous state. In some systems there is much friction and the special supervisors are a nuisance and a hindrance to educational progress. In some systerns principals decline to show the codperation necessary to make the supervisors’ work the success it should be. In other systems supervisors, principals, and teachers are work- ing in perfect codperation and securing splendid results. This is a trouble- some proposition. Principals and supervisors should get together, clear up the difficulties and work out a plan acceptable and helpful to all. In those systems where the special supervisor is functioning most effi- ciently, the supervisor acts exclusively as an expert adviser or instructor with no administrative powers, all administrative duties being the province of the principal. Assistant principal—We found the status of the assistant principal unde- fined. For many it is an empty title as they teach every period in the day with no free time for supervision. There is no definite agreement, even among superintendents, as to how many teachers can be supervised effec- tively by one individual. This can be determined and should be determined ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 71 in the interests of the children. It should be taken up at once by our national department. Secretary, Board of Education—Within the last few years there has been a tendency on the part of secretaries of educational boards to organize them- selves into bureaucrats. In some systems they have actually usurped the powers of the superintendent, bully principals and teachers, belittle and misrepresent principals and teachers to members of the board of education and become insulting and petty tyrants. In some instances secretaries have been legislated out of office to get rid of them by retiring them on pensions. This is a matter that should be dealt with vigorously by our national and state associations. This is a very important position and it is vital to the welfare of the schools that it be filled by a high-grade broad-minded man. Class welfare—Then there are questions that deeply concern the comfort of the pupils. One of the most necessary is the reduction of the number of pupils per teacher; no teacher can do justice to a class of more than thirty children.and our people as a whole should know it. Modern apartment houses and business plants are equipped with awnings and electric fans for the comfort of the occupants. Yet in 90 per cent of our schools the south and east exposure of the building are without awnings, rooms without fans with teachers and children sweltering in the heat of early summer and fall. It is a mystery why some humane society has not taken up the matter of this disgraceful situation. The windows on the eastern and southern side of all school buildings should have awnings and the rooms equipped with electric fans for hot weather. Common mercy to the little fellows spending so many hours there demand it. Principals, both elementary and secondary, have it within their grasp to do a work for the Nation and for civilization never before vouchsafed to any group or profession in human-history. Are we ready to accept the challenge? During the year the schools have been severely criticised by such well- known publicists as H. G. Wells, Upton Sinclair, Dr, Nicholas Murray Butler, and Dr. Henry Pritchett. We may feel that some of these writers have indulged in poetical license and overdrawn our faults, but all of us well informed know that they have a substantial basis for their assertions. It is useless for us to play the ostrich and hide our faces. We are confronted by cold facts. “The Goslings,” by Upton Sinclair, pictures conditions in the schools that are not only cruel, shameful, and disgraceful but extremely dangerous to the body politic if true. For us to ignore or attempt to dismiss his charges as the work of a sensation monger, shows us to be lacking both in the self- respect and the intelligence to grasp its psychological effect upon the public and the rank and file of the teaching corps. A strong committee of this department should be appointed and properly financed to go to the bottom of the matter. If Upton Sinclair has lied then his untruth should be laid bare. If he has told the truth and the “ black hand ” and crooked politics 72 NATIONAL EpucATION ASSOCIATION have the schools by the throat, it should be blazoned from the housetops until the people arise in their wrath and drive the malefactors from the temple of childhood divorcing the schools forever from everything but honest administration. Because it overemphasized the growing expenditures for public educa- tion and gave utterance to a discreditable babyish wail about increased taxes therefor, the eighteenth Report of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching aroused intense hostility and greatly lessened the effectiveness of its many excellent assertions, suggestions and conclu- sions. A careful reading of this report has convinced me that a committee of our department could do a valuable piece of work for the schools, by giving this report a careful study, separate its vagaries from its truth and make their own report thereon at our winter meeting. The most important single element of gain to education buten the last five years has been the collapse of the idéa that there should be a close analogy between the school system and the military system; with its grada- tions of rank; its feudal notion of loyalty to the chief rather than to the welfare of the community; its tradition that all information about the schools should come from the head of the system, and that any expression of views, or the exercise of initiative by a school worker below the rank of superintendent is a species of insubordination. The imperialistic idea of organization for American schools, as for American business, was an impor- tation from the old world and has been a heavy handicap to American progress. It has made of teachers the “shy and specialized class,” cited by Wells. It has made possible, the wrongs suffered by teachers; their bitterness, and has created the despicable double-faced sycophants in some of the principalships pointed out by Upton Sinclair. In many systems it endangered one’s position and future for one to express an original idea, unless credit was given to the “ chief.” The deflation of this imperialistic notion is giving us a superintendent of larger calibre, one really a leader by right of merit, one who resembles the expert chairman of a board of directors in a big business enterprise. Principals are getting away from the “ cog-automaton’”’ type and developing into real educational leaders. Teachers are sitting in council with principals and superintendents, writing courses of study; rules for the government of schools and becoming mem- bers of school boards. Already the democratic idea has given us more courageous and better trained teachers. It has brought a single salary schedule with equal pay for equal attainment in many systems. Teacher recruiting—The biggest task ahead is the proper organization of the school forces and creating an esprit de corps. Much as we have done in this line, we are still far from being on as effective a basis as the need requires. Not only must teachers be aroused to the call of our time but the public must be thoroughly informed of the needs. America must be made to see that it is not merely schools for children for which we are pleading but public safety. The shocking case of Leopold and Loeb in Chicago, and the Cooneys in New York, are a thundering challenge to the virility of school and community. We cannot evade our responsibility if ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 73 we would. It is not education in three R’s alone but the safety of life and property for which we are working. Thousands of classes are without teachers or properly trained teachers. Children growing up in ignorance of the verities. This summer at the military camps our Government will spend thousands in training young men for war. Is our danger of invasion by a foreign foe as great as our danger from the Loebs, the Leopolds, the Cooneys, the bandits, the con- ditions disclosed by the oil investigation and the booze hounds? Why not establish great summer camps for teachers, similar to the military camps, where large numbers of our best young men and women can be brought together to give them training, arouse their enthusiasm and aid recruiting for teaching? If we are going to induce the grade of ability, which we must have, to enter the work of teaching, the whole attitude of this Nation must be changed toward the work. The financial value of the position, its stand- ing in the eyes of the community as compared with other callings. The respect which citizens generally have for teachers as being persons of sound sense and practical judgment, need to be greatly changed, if our young men and women are to enter the work with the same avidity and enthusiasm as they enter law, medicine, and business. What could do more to arouse the imagination of the Nation, to the magnitude and impor- tance of education than for the United States Government to establish great summer school camps throughout the Nation for the training of teachers as is now done for embryonic soldiers at the summer military camps? Bring to these summer schools for teacher-training as instructors the best the country can offer in the way of inspiration and understanding of the Nation’s problems and possibilities. For the parent it would mean a teacher of the right kind for his children. For the capitalist it would mean a teacher capable of teaching the value of property rights. For labor it would mean a teacher able to train the coming generation in a proper understanding of what constitutes justice and its absolute necessity to any permanent adjustment of the difficulties between labor and capital. HE First Yearbook is out of print. There remain in stock a few copies of the Second Yearbook, ‘‘ The Problem of the Elementary School Principal in the Light of the Testing Move- ment,” and of the Third Yearbook, “The Status of the Elementary School Principal.” The price is $1.50 each. Make check payable to Courtland V. Davis, Treasurer, and address envelope to 1201 Six- teenth Street N. W., Washington, D. C. PROFESSIONAL GROWTH OF THE PRINCIPAL FROM THE STANDPOINT OF THE PRINCIPAL * Rose A. PEsTA Principal, West Pullman School, Chicago, Illinois | gui the past four years I have been so much engrossed with the work of the Chicago Principals’ Club that I have not done the usual reading for professional growth, nor have I been able to try out the various experiments in education that have appealed to me. All my time outside of school has been spent on the work of the principals as a group. Consequently, I felt that I could formulate no message on the subject, The Professional Growth of the Principal from the Standpoint of the Principal. On more careful thought, however, I realized that this work for the whole group in itself promotes professional growth. Anything which causes one to see his work from a new angle, from a larger field of vision, tends toward growth in his profession, and certainly work done for the whole group of principals does that. But although in doing this work there may be a sacrifice of the growth which would come from individual reading and experimentation, it must be recognized that this service does give a new perspective on the individual problem and causes that problem to be viewed in its larger relationships. In approaching this subject it has been a comfort, too, to recall the Toronto scientist who recently made such advances in the study of diabetes. He stated that if he had read “ all that was written on diabetes and known all the conflicting theories he probably would never have touched the problem.” So with me and this subject. Aside from having read Cubberley’s recent book on the Principal and His School, I know not what the writers are saying on this or allied subjects. In discussing the professional growth of the principal, there must of course be some sort of unanimity of thought as to what we mean by a princi- pal. I do not mean the principal who is merely the head teacher with certain administrative duties with respect to the other teachers and rooms of pupils about him. Not until this head teacher does have some responsibility for the teaching going on in the surrounding rooms would I dignify him by the name of principal. It would seem to me far better if the term principal might always be reserved for the type of office which does imply responsi- bility for the teaching and teacher training of the school. That is the mean- ing of the term as I shall use it. The elementary principal arrives at his position usually by two distinct paths and on the direction of his approach depends in large measure what he needs for his initial professional growth. There is the principal who has been so successful in his teaching work in the elementary grades that he has come up through them and has finally won a principalship; some- times by some additional academic requirement, sometimes not. He is the type that has practical, accurate knowledge of the running of the school; of how to teach children of the various grades and ages. His need would be * An address before the Department of Elementary School Principals, Washington, D. C., July 3, 1924. [74] ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 75 to enlarge his knowledge by reading and study of the more recent investi- gations in the field of education. He would probably need, because of his intimate knowledge of school work, to watch himself lest he go to the extreme of restricting unduly the initiative of the individual. teacher. The other type is the student recently a graduate from the university who comes in directly as a principal of the elementary school after an ap- prenticeship as a high school teacher for a longer or shorter term. In either case, this type of individual is the one who is usually up-to-date on the recent literature in regard to teaching, educational theory, and philosophy. On the other hand, even though he may have had some experience in teach- ing in the high school, he frequently has little practical knowledge of the art of teaching elementary children; he does not know grade work. He would probably, because of his general knowledge of education, his quali- ties of leadership, be an inspiration to the teacher to do her best with her individual problem. But it might easily happen that by his very proper discussion of the larger elements of education combined with a lack of knowledge of elementary school work he could so dissipate the energies especially of the younger, untrained teachers that they would fail to instruct the children in those fundamental facts which are rightly their heritage. His duty would be in every way possible by teaching, by observation, by discussion to acquire some of the practical knowledge of the instruction of little children. The ideal principal is of course the one who possesses the characteristics of both of these individuals. When we find such a one we immediately recognize him as an educational leader. It is the duty of the ordinary indi- vidual to recognize to which type he belongs and to work to improve his weaker side. Here is the first and immediate field for professional growth. Each by reading, by study, by experimentation must develop himself into the full rounded principal; the one who knows the work of the school thoroughly; who is modern and up-to-date in educational literature; who has the qualities of a leader and who has such a grasp of the educational problems of the elementary school that he is recognized in that field by the community; one who furthermore has such relations with the community as to be regarded as a leader by them. We frequently hear the expression, “ As is the principal, so is the school.” I realized a much fuller meaning of this sentiment after a recent tour of inspection of the schools of various cities with the Educational Commission of Chicago. For nine school days we did nothing but visit school after school, usually three and four a day. One of the most outstanding conclu- sions of that visitation is that the principal gives the distinctive character to the school of which he has charge. If he stands for a fine school spirit, the school will have it; if he is especially trained in music, the school will be exceptional in music. If his hobby is tests, the teaching of the school will reveal that. Even in cities where individual schools have, as far as could be judged, little or no initiative in organization or in educational experiment this would be true. The principal would have placed his stamp on the school; would have so impressed his personality upon it that it was evident 76 NATIONAL EpuCATION ASSOCIATION even to visitors who could spend only a short time in the separate schools. Since the schools so take on the character of the principal, we must face the responsibility of this headship. In our schools evidently we build a monu- ment to ourselves; our educational ideas; our philosophy of life. Certainly then it behooves us to stand for the best and finest things educationally since what we believe, what we stand for, is going to affect the lives of so many. We shall conceive then of our ideal principal as doing all that he can to fit himself for the responsibility of his position. He will gain a knowledge of the subject-matter of the elementary school, of the art of teaching that; he will develop by reading and experimentation a philosophy of education; he will refine his own methods of handling his school and he will avail him- self of all the training in the specific duties of the principal that is offered. That is about as far as he can go by himself. Indeed, if the central office or whatever represents higher authority is not sympathetic, he may not develop himself even to this extent. That is to say, he may deduce his educational ideas, but in some systems he could neither put them into prac- tice nor express them. Samples of this, too, I have seen in my visitation of other cities. In ones which were apparently much freer than others in per- mitting individual experimentation I have seen an educational discussion cut off by the superintendent of schools and the interpretation made that that discussion indicated lack of harmony with the prevailing educational theory of the office. I am quite aware that the principal’s function is to carry out the educational ideas of the superintendent of schools in so far as they are practical, but in so doing, unless he is a fossil, he must be forming educational judgments. The superintendent of schools, if he is progressive, if he has the real interests of education at heart, should want these reactions from his thinking assistants. To stifle them is not in keeping with our spirit of democracy, nor does it promote true progress in educational development. However, these are the circumstances under which we work and in any discussion on professional growth we must recognize them. Partly because of the restrictions’ of the central office whether on freedom of speech or experimentation and partly because his advancement is dependent on that of the group, one principal working alone can develop only just so far pro- fessionally. Further, because of the isolated character of his position he needs to have his ideas checked by comparison with those of his fellow workers. He needs also a certain peace of mind for full professional develop- ment. There must be, for example, some assurance as to tenure of office, some adequate compensation immediately for services rendered and some provision for a competence in old age. None of these things can be secured by one principal working alone. They must come either as the result of recognition from above or as group action on the part of the principals. Now while these things which I have mentioned might come as a result of the forces operating above, true professional growth and standards could never come that way. They must be a result of fermentation and action within the group of elementary principals themselves working together. And this then leads me to a consideration of the local organization of principals. QO oO —-_ Fm = = oJ 2 oF, OO Ae 8 me Oe (CUR le Oe cote a= ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 77 The secretary of the National Education Association in his report last July stated that only a few of the local affiliated organizations are working on educational problems. I suppose that applies to principals’ organizations as well as to others. In the formation of an organization the aims are apt to be vague and rather nebulous; the main idea is to get together, to get acquainted and since the members of your would-be organization are all educators then the getting together usually is combined with a presentation of some educational theme, perhaps some discussion. As soon, however, as your association sets for itself any one definite aim to be attained, such as improved pensions, tenure of office law, etc., it becomes a much more closely knit organization, opérates more strictly on a business basis, and has a tendency toward a political cast. Now all these are good and worthy objects which certainly advance the principal professionally. But they are not the only nor indeed the main avenues of his professional growth. These must be found directly in the problems of his educational work. Yet there is the tendency for an asso- ciation to stop with the handling merely of the first type of problem. In fact, there seems to be something almost antagonistic about the two ideas. The association—and I am now speaking of associations in general and not merely those of principals—which develops from the vague formless begin- ning of a social organization with some educational tendencies into a pro- gressive educational organization seems to find it difficult to undertake any battle for the definite improvement of the position of its members. And the association which develops from the same beginning into a closely knit, efficient business organization securing definite advances in administration, in freedom and power for its members seems to find it hard to keep the educational side of its work going. The two types ought not to be antago- nistic ; the ideal association is the one which can combine both these functions. And just as the individual principal must face the problem as to which particular class of the two I outlined he belongs to, so your organization must face this question and then proceed to develop its atrophied side. At the last meeting of this association, the warning was sounded to keep our organizations from becoming agencies for political manipulation. That is the danger in one direction. The danger at the other extreme is that they are so aimless in purpose as to eventuate merely in “ talk.” Most of you know how well organized we principals are in Chicago; besides our general principals’ club which is the main organization, there are two separate clubs, one for men and one for women for social purposes. And now we have growing up among us two more groups; the group of men principals newly elected to the system and a similar group of women principals. Each of these is for mutual help in learning the duties of a new and complex job. One of these groups announced as its topic just prior to the National Edu- cation Association meeting, ‘“‘ What can I get out of the National Education Association meeting? How?” Their announcement continues, “ It will be discussed without regard for the feeling or pride of anybody and with frank understanding that many teachers’ meetings have been simply a place for air- ing theories and getting advertisement, and hence to be avoided. This 78 NATIONAL EpucATION ASSOCIATION expresses what I mean by the danger in the other direction. Thinking indi- viduals are not going to dissipate their energies by belonging to organizations that cannot do some effective work. Your association then must steer its course. carefully between the Scylla of mere talking and the Charybdis of poli- tics. As to whether it will succeed in doing this depends in large measure upon the leaders that it chooses. Mr. Payson Smith, the past president of the Department of Superintendence, has been preaching the doctrine of our need of leaders; that our emphasis should not be on the 100 per cent basis but on whether or not we can develop a leader or leaders out of this mass that seemingly are all on a par. As far as I can gather in all this organiza- tion work, your association is bound to develop in the right direction if you have leaders who have the vision to see what its purposes and aims should be. We are then considering an association with leadership such as to keep it from going to either of the extremes I have described, yet such as will be able to maintain the two-sided character of it—namely, that of securing definite advances in position and recognition for the principal while at the same time solving the educational problems of its field and enabling its mem- bers to be “ students of their calling.”’ Such an association can do much for the professional growth of the principal within its fold no matter how adverse the circumstances. Since I have already referred several times to the conditions necessary to professional growth such as a feeling of security, freedom from worry on the part of the principal, I shall go on immediatel; to deal with the direct elements of that growth. What any particular association would start working upon would depend on what its circumstances are at the time. In Chicago, for example, we have no need to work for the setting up of requirements to become a principal. These have already been set up. And that is true of a great many cities. This is one of the reasons why the principalship has risen in prominence in recent years. It is in many school systems the highest position for which there are educational requirements. In filling positions beyond it, educa- tional ability and attainment may or may not be considered. At least they are not specified. But even for the principalship in many good-sized cities _there are no specific educational requirements. In, such a city one of the first measures that an association should undertake to improve professional con- ditions among the principals is that of working for the establishment of such requirements. It may, first, obtain information from other cities as to what are the requirements for the position. Having this country-wide informa- tion to present to its members and to its central office will at least focus attention on this subject. Certainly, if the central office does not wish to establish such requirements, it can go no further than a campaign of infor- mation. But this campaign is not complete at this point. One of the especial functions of a local association is to develop its members as speakers. Some one has said that “ one of the great responsibilities of principals is that of selling modern education to the people.” If he is to fulfill this function he must be developed, trained as a speaker. There is no better field in which to do this than in his local association. The recognition of this fact accounts in large measure for the local associations so generally throughout the coun- try we tio inf me ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 79 try confining their programs to their own membership. Your principal then would be expected to be in touch with the various clubs of the community, men’s and women’s. He would be accustomed to talking to them on educa- tional subjects. He might very well give these organizations some of the information obtained by the principals. That is one of his legitimate methods of improving education in his community and his city. Another splendid professional field for a young and struggling association to invade is that of establishing a code of ethics for its members. We have no such code in Chicago though there has often been discussion in regard to establishing one. Frequently, the measures we have been particularly inter- ested in have been adopted as rules by the central office. In times past, it was perfectly possible for a principal to go into a school other than his own, visit a fine teacher there and ask her to transfer to his school. That was declared unethical by the principals’ group. It no longer is possible. Nor is it possible for a principal in leaving one school completely to denude that school of its teaching force. In the history of a principals’ association else- where, I have read this statement: ‘‘ Our ideas of ethics forbade encroach- ment upon questions which the superintendent might be called upon to deal with for fear we might interfere with his program.” The article goes on to say that “the superintendent being actively interested in every question affecting the welfare of the schools and the children, there was practically nothing but abstract or academic or social matters proper to come before us.” Certainly that association needed an awakening on the subject of profes- sional ethics and in any organization an understanding of the ethical rela- tionship between the superintendent and the workers in the field is well worth while. How about the ethics of what you owe to your community in giving them the benefit of the practical educational ideas you have evolved through the years? Is there no responsibility there? Is there no responsi- bility to the superintendent himself, in giving first-hand information as to how his theories are working out in practice? I suppose there is no one field in which we need more of light, an honest scientific consideration of educational facts rather than partisan bolstering up or kowtowing to some one’s theories or at best, silence. The hope of education in this country today is its democracy. It should not be a system forced down from above, but a growth from below, utilizing all the wisdom, all the intelligence and experi- ence of the workers.in the field. Ethics constitutes then a splendid avenue of work for professional growth from all angles; the principal’s relation to the members of his group, to the teachers of his school, and to his superior officers. The field of supervision also offers innumerable ramifications for the work of a principals’ organization in improving the professional status of its members. In the past, supervision connoted merely inspection and examina- tion, supplemented by institutes in which teachers were given ideas as to methods and directions of what and how to teach. That is not the concep- tion of supervision in the finer sense today. But it still may be and probably is the opinion and practice of a large number of principals throughout this country who have not made intensive study of this subject recently. The 80 NATIONAL EpuCATION ASSOCIATION thing then for a local association to do is to start working on the new ideas on supervision; get specific examples as developed by the principals of its own community and make all of this known to all the members of its group. The Chicago Club codified some of its work along these lines into its Bulletin No. I on Supervision. . Recognition that supervision is so important a function of the principal has been largely the cause of the increased prominence of the principalship. But no one will force supervision on the principal. If he is not inclined to perform this function on his own initiative, then it devolves on the associa- tion to make him see its importance. The work previously mentioned will tend to do that, but always there comes the plea that there is no time for it. And so the association must do what it can with that problem. It would develop for the group blank forms that will expedite matters, discuss sys- tems of disposing of administrative details, the use of the bulletin board, etc. In other words, it will build up out of the suggestions of the group a whole array of time saving devices, of effective administrative helps. They will be valuable in themselves that they will be even more valuable indi- rectly in forcing on the principal the idea that he must have system, that he must get through his administrative duties expeditiously. The Chicago association has just been at work on this phase and is about to issue Bulletin No. II on Supervision. These are but a few examples of the work which a principals’ club might undertake in order to develop its members professionally. Thus far I have said nothing of the principal’s responsibility for the professional growth of the teachers of his school. It is said that the reason why teachers experience an early professional death is that principals make no effort to keep them educationally alive. This might well be conceived as a field for study under supervision. As he owes distinct obligations to the teachers of the system in regard to their professional growth, so I presume it would be granted that the superintendents under whom he works owe a distinct service and duty to him. Conversely, I am not at all sure but that he in turn has obligations to these superintendents in respect to their professional growth. If this obligation exists, certainly I could immediately specify fields of work under it. And what is the part which the Department of Elementary School Prin- cipals should play in all of this struggle for professional growth on the part of the principals? If it is the belief of this department that local associa- tions can accomplish any portion of this program which I have outlined, then it should be one of its definite objects to assist in the establishment of local organizations. Each local organization that it succeeds in establishing would seem to me to constitute a jewel in its crown. Toward these local clubs and all those already existing, it would owe an obligation in getting them started right, or if started, then headed in the right direction so that they would keep always as their prime purpose the professional advancement of their members as a group. And then there are so many fields in which this organization is so much better able to collect information than are the local clubs. For example, it should have ready for the local organization information as to clerical a ee ee ee, ee ee ee ee ee! ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee a a ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 81 service employed in principals’ offices throughout the United States; it should be able to furnish up-to-date information on the professional attainments required for the principalship throughout the country. This information should not merely be collected once but having been collected the file should be kept up-to-date. It might indeed be done in such fashion as to yield valu- able material at some future date on the status at any particular time of the professional attainments of the whole body of principals. We have heard a great deal about supervision being the prime duty of a principal. I am well acquainted with what is being done in Chicago, but I do not know at all about the work of other local associations in this field. I know that at least one principals’ association has been doing some work, because of the number of articles that have emanated from that source. Probably there are many others. Here again is where the Department of Elementary School Principals can assist us. It could keep us informed of the activities of the local organizations in these various fields. What better way of stimulating professional work in these associations than to let them know what other local organizations are doing? It is the usual method adopted whenever one wishes to spur a group to action. In this respect its function would be to bind together and strengthen all local organizations. But as I conceive it this department has a function beyond all this. In our yearbooks which are being prepared annually, we are getting the opinions of the best minds on the various fields of the principals’ work; the first year on the all important field of supervision; the second, on that of tests, and this year, a bird’s-eye view of the whole field from all angles. Superb com- pilations all of them, but even they do not represent the full extent of the service which the National Association can render to the principals. Let us take, for example, the first yearbook; that accumulated the latest and best thought on supervision at that time. For two years now the doctrine of that book has been seeping down through the membership all over the country. In view of this fact, are we now ready to take the next step—that is, are we as an association ready to express what is our ideal on this subject? Many individuals have done so, but that is not the same thing as doing it ourselves. It isn’t our professional platform unless it emanates from within ourselves. We don’t expect some higher authority to draw up the profes- sional beliefs of the doctors and lawyers. Why should we leave it to a uni- versity professor or a superintendent here and there to utter the platforms of our professional creed? What do we believe is the position of supervision in the field of the principals’ work? Are we ready to define what we mean by supervision? Do we believe that the principal is the responsible head of the school, having charge of all the supervision with all special super- visors acting as adjuncts of his work? By this series of questions, I am merely indicating that it would be quite possible for us as a national body to go one step farther than we have previously gone—namely, to boil down our beliefs, if we have any, on some of these subjects to definite statements which might be issued as a platform. Dr. Owen, past president of the National Education Association, pointed out that there is no national governmental system of education. The only 82 NATIONAL EpucaATION ASSOCIATION unifying force there is comes through the voluntary organization of the National Education Association. As that is true in general, so is it true in regard to each separate field of educational work. That clearly places before the Department of Elementary School Principals the duty of becoming the spokesman for the common elements of the principals’ work throughout the country. We should be able to count then on this department to encourage the development of local clubs; to help these local organizations to develop in the right direction ; to collect nation-wide information on clerical service for principals, tenure, salary, and professional requirements for the position; to disseminate information as to what local organizations are doing as an incentive to others; and finally to recognize its mission as the national organ for the unification and standardization of that section of education com- prised of the principals’ duties. This is a glorious field for service on the part of the Department of Elementary School Principals. PROPER ATTITUDE TOWARD THE PRINCIPALSHIP Jessie M. FINK President, Department of Elementary School Principals, Grand Rapids, Michigan T THE ANNUAL banquet of the Department of Elementary School Principals, Raleigh Hotel, Washington, D. C., on July 2, 1924, Mrs. Jessie M. Fink, newly elected president and late secretary of the Department, in her address said in part: “The one great opportunity sought by the majority of principals in this country is the privilege of functioning in education through organization, administration, and the improvement of instruction. “ Many school boards fail to detect the waste in a system where inadequate office equipment and clerical assistance is denied. No business man would take his efficiency expert to do the work of the messenger boy or telephone operator, or to do other routine tasks easily performed by a modicum of intelligence. Yet that is just what boards of education do when they demand these duties of a principal, though that person be of the highest institu- tional training and successful experience. ‘ “‘ Persons should be trained for this office work, for school machinery, for building and equipment reports, for attendance and census reports, for messenger service, for telephone responses, for graphing and statistical re- cordings, for all information of material and physical values, for the con- servation of school plants and prevention of waste reports, for the many details incumbent upon a clerical position. “ For half price this mechanical side of the school plant could be properly attended to, and the instructional part function to much greater advantage by leaving the one person qualified to supervise instruction free to carry out the needs of the children. “ For the principalship should be recognized as inherently containing the sort of scholarship demanded by the most advanced professions. Its devo- tees should be possessed of a scholarship broad in its nature, including the ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 83 philosophy of education, the technique of education, the mastery of at least one specialty, the development of leadership, and a general cultural back- ground. We have only to glance at our membership to find many such principals. “These men and women are streams of intellectual vigor. They should be allowed to pour their fullness into the lives of our children, nor should the current be deflected by the mechanics of administration or school board procedure. “These principals should be relieved of all material demands and allowed to take these children by the hands and introduce them into the world of books, that they may become citizens there; into the world of art, that they may become citizens there; into the world of religious thought through example, to become citizens there minus creed or sect. “ The public has to be trained to discern spiritual values. If the schools fail to measure up to the standard desired it is because the public has failed to provide for the development of things spiritual and allow for things material. But upon school boards lies the responsibility for providing the future vision of the public. This situation has been pointed out to them. Factory methods fail with the spirit. “We principals must keep hammering until the validity of this assertation is so evident as to defy ignoring. The public must right about face and learn to determine its goals and then provide the means for their attainment, through the special function of the principalship.” CONDITIONS NECESSARY FOR EFFECTIVE SUPERVISION’ W. Woopwarpd CLEMENT Principal of the William Cullen Bryant School, Kansas City, Missyri UNDERSTAND from our President that we are concerned tonight solely with the problem of supervision as it presents itself to the building principals of the elementary schools of Kansas City. It is his hope that out of the discussion which my paper is designed merely to introduce sugges- tions will be forthcoming which will point the way to adjustments more favorable for supervision than those now existing in our buildings. The first requisite of effective supervision, you all will probably agree, is competency in the supervisor. Most of us have come into the field of super- vision through exceptional success in teaching, strength of personality, mana- gerial skill, and the like, rather than through definite training for and proved ability in supervision. Many of us, doubtless, have developed by means of the same traits which brought us success in the earlier recognized functions of school principals a high degree of skill and efficiency in the supervisory functions. These latter are of much more recent development. Even now management takes up an appalling amount of the time of those among us who are best circumstanced, and some are further tied with teach- * Address delivered at the November meeting of the Elementary School Principals, Kansas City, Missouri. 84 NATIONAL EpUCATION ASSOCIATION ing duties. But to whatever extent a principal feels disposed to rest upon his laurels as a successful teacher, organizer, or administrator, and fails to recognize in his supervisory duties a not too well-defined, a growing and a vital thing, which will make incessant demands upon his willingness con- stantly to re-think his problems, to re-evaluate his materials in the light of changing school conditions and in response to the pressure of the new social demands upon the school, to try out new devices and methods, accepting or rejecting only after open-minded experiment—to that extent he himself constitutes a condition subversive of effective supervision. I repeat, then, that the first condition necessary for effective supervision is an adequately informed, thoroughly trained, highly skilled supervisor, one alert to the demands of his duties as such and willing to pay the price of modern progress in this field of his endeavors. Such a person will command the confidence of his teachers, which is a prime essential of success in supervision. Not only will confidence come as a natural consequence of competence, but in the wake of confidence will come that true relation of leadership and followership which makes for unity of purpose throughout a school, a oneness of effort which insures efficiency. I have yet to find a teacher who was not grateful for real help offered in a situation wherein she was aware that help was needed. The second condition necessary for effective supervision is that responsi- bility must be matched with opportunity. As the Kansas City schools are now organized, the destiny of the individual school is in the hands of the principal. I mean. no disrespect to our general supervisory officials when | insist that the principal is necessarily the integrating agency through which the various lines of force must focus. It would be quite extraordinary if the general supervisory officials in the different fields of interest which they represent, vocational education, physical education, primary education, music, art, general method, efficiency, teacher training, et ak, were so thoroughly agreed upon points of materials, methods, time disposition, etc., that their programs and recommendations fitted into each and every district in perfect harmony with each other without the need of modification at the hands of an intelligent codrdinator. It is too much to hope. that in a large system of schools there will ever develop unanimity of opinion among specialists as to all essential considerations. There will always be more or less of ebb and flow, of expansion, as in the last few years in music, and contraction, as with art during the same period, due to various influences interacting. Who but the principal can hope to keep alive a worth while work once established or adjust to the exigencies of local conditions a too ambitious expansion in a given field, if such should come? In every building there are limitations which can be understood and accommodated only by one on the ground and conversant with local conditions in an intimate way. This responsibility for the success of the school is in the nature of things ours. I say that it is generally recognized. But whether it is actually so recognized or not, the logic of circumstance makes it true. My contention is that the second condition necessary for effective supervision lies in a full and free recognition of this responsibility and a granting of full oppor- mA ft © Het DD BAB Ss we ef OS hOUPUlUTFhlUO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 85 tunity for us so to function. More and more must there come to be a grow- ing competence upon the part of the elementary school principal to assume the role of expert supervisor, and along with this must come full and free opportunity to play the part. I have discussed the basis of this contention largely in terms of programs of activities, but the same condition carries over into the other recognized supervisory functions. In the matter of improvement of teachers in service, in methodology, in the application of tests and measures for diagnostic pur- poses or for testing the results of teaching—in all phases of supervision the attitude and activity of the principal largely determines the practice of the building. It is an up-hill business for an idea or plan to gather headway in the face of opposition or even apathy on the part of the principal, while aggressive action by the principal is a wonder worker. Not only must the strategic position of the elementary school principal be recognized and opportunity accorded him as a matter of permission, but more and more must the limitations which now beset him through press of other duties be relieved where possible. This can be accomplished in part by others, in part by ourselves. Adequate clerical help the past few years has helped materially to give opportunity for supervisory activities. Closer organization may release further time. ‘The field is open to us for such constructive work as we can do individually or as a body of principals toward the modification of teaching method, the course of study, the adjustment of conflicting claims upon the time and attention of the pupils and teachers, the solution of the “ interruptions” problem, which this body has worked at from time to time, for any forward-looking plans any of us may devise whose merits are demonstrable. Certainly these can go into effect in our own buildings with little difficulty, and success in one building will insure wider adoption. We can point with pride to much progress for which the principals have already been responsible. The third, and last, condition necessary for effective supervision is not so easily crystallized in a phrase. If the individual school were our only concern, we might stop when we had specified the need of competence on the part of the supervising principal and opportunity for him to work. But the individual school is a failure to whatever extent it fails to function as an integral part of the city system. Our population is a mobile one and there is much interchange of pupils. The teachers of Lowell school of last year are teaching at Bryant this year and at Humboldt or Hyde Park next year. While every school will of necessity develop an individuality of its own, there must be, and will be, a common core of subject matter, common standards of achievement, common aims and ideals of citizenship, common practices, which every efficient elementary school principal will see that his school maintains and fosters. Then, too, there is the obligation resting upon every school which develops any unique characteristic, whether it be a special type of organization, unusual excellence in some particular type of work, or what not, to stand ready to give of its accomplishment or quality for the good of the whole system. Every elementary school principal should hold his school ready for use as an experimental school for a promising device 86 NATIONAL EpuUCATION ASSOCIATION or procedure, when such device or procedure does not threaten to be too costly. There is the obligation resting upon the different elementary schools to bear in mind their relation and obligation to the high schools and the special schools. The individual school should stand ready to give of the services of its teachers for demonstration teaching, for training centers, for whatever use will react beneficially upon the system as a whole. The third condition of efficient supervision is the larger vision and the willingness to serve. If we are going to insist on “ our place in the sun,” and I think we are, if we are going to equip ourselves so as to command the confidence of our co-workers as leaders in the field of supervision, if we are going to demand free opportunity to act in that capacity, let us stand ready to make our con- tribution to the good of the whole, recognizing the need of the larger coérdination of all the forces at work in the system, acutely conscious of the tremendous power of unity of thought and action. ’ A PERSONNEL RECORD CourTLAND V. Davis Treasurer of the Department of Elementary School Principals, Norfolk, Virginia MODE of procedure which conceives a personal record of each child in the school to be very much more than a bare record of school marks from year to year has been often advocated. Such a procedure in its ideal form has included the recording of a wide variety of observations concern- ing the child and accounts of his reactions to varied stimuli at various times and under many conditions. But the clerical burden of recording these observations has been so great that in most instances the plan has been gradually abandoned following the subsidence of the first enthusiasm. Any plan which would successfully provide even a part of the advantages to be gained from the continuous record or case history without carrying with it the onerous clerical burden would be hailed with delight. The ad- vantages of a case history especially in dealing with the abnormal or out of the ordinary cases are too well known to need comment. At Stuart we had on file at least one intelligence test for every pupil. The entire booklet containing the test was filed, primarily because that could be done more readily than could the process of transcribing the results before filing, and secondarily because it was found that there were occasions when the results of certain parts of the test were more valuable than the total result. These tests were filed in alphabetical order for the school as a whole rather than by classes so that the filing would not need to be changed with changes of individual pupils among the classes. For some of the pupils who had been the objects of special study for one reason or another several tests were to be found. To some of these tests booklets letters from the school psychiatrist, the city psychiatric clinic, the attendance officers, or the officers of the juvenile court had been added by means of clips, and it seemed wise that a folder be provided into which all of these papers might be slipped so that none be lost. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 87 Soon we added to these papers all standardized educational test booklets and sheets as soon as they came from the teacher. Formerly these tests had been used by the teacher giving them and then filed away as a group in some storage place where they were seldom disturbed. Now we have them in a live file, one frequently used, where each individual’s tests are easy to find and where each new teacher of the pupil may make use of the information there revealed. The success of this plan was not contingent upon having financial resources sufficient to cover regularly the entire school, but made fullest use of every test given. So began our personnel record. Already we had the usual continuous record card showing the parentage, birth, address, etc., and listing the con- duct and scholarship marks and attendance record for each school term. To that we had now added all intelligence tests and all letters concerning abnormal pupils. Then came the suggestion that there was a considerable body of other written material concerning pupils which might well be added to the list of items filed in this way and which would measurably increase the value of the files without materially increasing the amount of clerical work entailed. As a consequence of that suggestion we now place in our personnel fold- ers, as we have come to call them, all correspondence between teacher or principal and parent concerning conduct, attendance, or quality of work done, all correspondence of a similar sort with the special officers of the school system and juvenile court, and any other papers which may come to hand which will serve to aid future teachers in the handling of these cases. It will be noted that no additional writing or keeping of records is re- quired of teacher or office force. Only material written for other purposes and most of which would otherwise have to be filed elsewhere, is used. It is only required of the teacher that it be left in the office and of the clerk that it be filed at convenience in the personnel files under the name of the child concerned. At Stuart, every teacher goes dheough the test files whenever she receives a new class or a transferred pupil and, noting the I. Q. or I. Q.’s, computes the present mental age of each pupil. With the new additions to these files she now has the opportunity to study, at the same time, a considerable variety of other material bearing directly upon the problems of individual differences with which she will have to deal. ; Here are brought together the various documents concerning each child where they may be conveniently consulted without the necessity of referring to a number of files. It lacks much of the detail of the ideal case record. It is without organization. The virtues of the case record are not claimed for it. But the data which it offers provide many of the most important advantages of the case record, and, best of all, it is a scheme which is thoroughly practicable for use in any school office and adds nothing, once it is in operation, to the already heavy clerical burden of the teachers and principal. SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES* Joy Ermer Morcan Director of Publications, National Education Association, Washington, D. C. EMBERS of the Department of Elementary School Principals: I can- not begin this address without first bringing my word of tribute and appreciation for the great and growing work of this department of the association. Its meetings have grown rapidly in popularity and power. Its publications are known the world around for their outstanding excellence. Its membership is each year reaching larger and larger numbers of the men and women who serve as the captains of our far-flung educational system. May its growth not cease until every principal of an elementary school in this broad land is brought within the sway of its inspiration and work. The yearbook which furnishes the basis of this discussion is a notable volume. No principal can read it without being a better principal—without making a bigger contribution to the children in the schools, and without being firmer in his faith in education and surer in the principles that underlie his leadership. I have been trained and experienced both as schoolman and librarian. Unusual opportunities for observation in both fields throughout this country have been mine. Speaking from that background I congratulate the editor who planned and the authors who wrote the chapters in this year- book that deal with the school library. The chapter by Mr. Hamilton, of Berkeley, California, is an excellent analytical approach to the problems and service of the elementary school library. It tells how a notable elementary school library is organized, what it costs, what books it contains and the contribution it makes to the work of teaching and learning. Were I to make any observation about the article, it would be to suggest instead of the classification here noted the use of the simple decimal scheme worked out by Dr. Dewey. That system is so widely used throughout the world that there is an advantage in becoming familiar with it during the school years. Perhaps the list of books in the library would be more useful were it classified by grades and subjects. But these are minor points. The article stands as a unique and valuable contribution to the literature of the cause. . The second chapter by Miss Clara Mayer, on the public library in the school, is a brief description of school library service associated with a system of public libraries which is probably more varied and complete in its service to the public than any other large system of libraries in the world. A per- sonal visit to this system of public and school libraries is worth a week of any principal’s time. Preceded by a careful study of the volume of the Cleveland Education Survey that deals with “the public library and the public schools,” it would give one a grasp of the purposes, methods, resources and accomplishments of the school library almost at its best. There are two important respects in which I believe the two articles in this yearbook should be supplemented. In the first place, they assume what * An address before the Department of Elementary School Principals, Washington, D. C., July 3, 1924. [88] nee = -— = Hs lUrrOlUCUCUITCO]UCUDDD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 89 I think we dare not assume that the importance of the school library in our educational economy may be taken for granted. In the second place, they emphasize too little the necessity for thoroughly trained professional libra- rians, well grounded both as teachers and librarians in the history and philosophy of education and in the purpose and resources of the elementary school. I have shaped what I have to say today largely with these two points in view. It is a curious thing that in the evolution of the American library move- ment, the emphasis on the library of the elementary school has come last. Our public libraries, whose development on a professional plane came first, can never render their maximum service until all the people are trained and habituated to use them. Our great research collections and the libraries in our colleges and universities to which the library profession and benevolent wealth have given so much can at best reach directly only a limited few. The elementary school is the school of the masses. It is the only school that in our day the great majority will be privileged to finish. The secondary school, notwithstanding its marvelous growth during the past few years, does not yet reach the great masses of the Nation’s children. We are now getting at the real base of the educational pyramid in the elementary school. It is reassuring to see such work as that now being done on standards for elementary school libraries by the joint committee of the American Library Association and the National Education Association, under the chairman- ship of C. C. Certain, of Detroit, a former school principal, and to see such publications as the volume of the Cleveland survey and the chapters in your 1924 yearbook. Another movement that should be mentioned is the work of the joint committee of the Library Department of the National Education Associa- tion and the American Library Association, which is forming standards for libraries in teacher-training institutions and for the instruction of prospec- tive teachers in the use of library methods and materials. These are important beginnings, but there are many questions to be answered, many purposes to be defined and many practices to be refined and tested under wider use. However, we know enough now to get a glimpse into the future of education with the library along with the laboratory at its center. “ The race is between education and catastrophe,” and the ability of democracy to survive will depend upon its ability to make men think. The whole program of public education is to make men think—to encourage the maximum use of intelligence by all the people—all the time. To accom- plish this end, democracy has evolved two institutions—one the free public school with compulsory attendance, designed to lay, in the universal educa- tion of children, the foundation for thinking men and women; the other, the public library, whose business it is to perpetuate among all the people the high spirit and the fine ideals which make the best schools veritable para- dises here on earth. There are, of course, private agencies working along parallel lines—newspapers and magazines, the public forum, the theater and the picture show, and finally the magic of radio, but in the large, the public school and the public library are the chief agencies which are supported and 90 NATIONAL EpuCATION ASSOCIATION managed under government auspices in an effort to maintain an informed and thinking citizenry. The two are inseparable in any complete system of public education, and in discussing the library in the school one must consider its relation to the public library for which the school prepares. We must keep ever in mind that from the standpoint of the individual all education is self-education; that it continues outside of school as well as inside, and that it is a lifelong obligation. Upon this goal the American people have pinned their faith and nothing less is worthy the triumphant promise of democracy. Education today is in a state of flux. There is profound reéxamination of the philosophy which underlies it, and critical study of the curriculum in the light of the needs of the individual child. There is a strong tendency to study education as a unified whole, not only from the standpoint of the indi- vidual but also from the standpoint of society itself. The present educational trend is characterized by a comprehensiveness of conception and a unity of movement that would seem strange indeed to the men of Horace Mann’s time, who fought for proper recognition for some particular phase of education. In those simpler times, men placed high value upon education in the life of the individual and the Nation. But they did not realize as people do today that we must build intelligence and right attitudes in men and women everywhere, or face the probability that the great structure of civilization that has been built up through all the centuries, with all its securities and opportunities, will crumble like a house of cards. The growing recognition of this fact on the part of people generally and its expression by newspapers, magazines, and public speakers indicate that education is coming into its own, that partial attempts at education through the development of any one agency are being codrdinated into the sweeping movement which will use for the constructive purposes of society all the educational agencies that have been created, that may modify existing agen- cies for new needs and that may create entirely new agencies as our rapidly shifting situation may demand. Before speaking of the various problems associated with the library of the elementary school, it is well for us to think of it in its larger relationships to the other educational institutions of which it is a part and for which it prepares. We have in America a large variety of educational agencies which may be divided into two general classes. First, those that deal with education informally, perhaps influencing the thinking of our people more than the formal agencies with which our profession is immediately concerned. Among these informal agencies are the newspaper, with its hundreds of millions of circulation, the magazine, the poster, the labels on packages, public dis- cussions from the platform, the film, the theater and perhaps greatest of all in its ultimate influence the young giant, radio. It is estimated that $500,000,000 will be spent this year for radio, opening the ears of millions to a world of vast magnitude. Most of these vitally important informal agencies have been left in private hands, often subject to the whims and ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 91 mistaken purposes of those more eager to accumulate fortunes than to contribute to the development of mankind. On the other hand, we have the agencies of popular education which the public itself has developed. Grounded on a great base of the pyramid which is the common elementary school, we have a rapidly growing secondary school system, a system of college and universities and professional schools which draw to them such increasing numbers of men and women that we talk glibly of the possibility of institutions enrolling 60,000 students. Never in the history of the world has any civilization built upon such a vast scale opportunities for such a variety of education as we have here in America, during the beginning of what many of us believe to be a period of still greater expansion and development. I know that you who administer elementary schools realize that. any system of formal school organization involves for the individual more or less loss of time and energy. From the standpoint of mere learning, many individual children would make faster progress working as individuals than they are able to make as members of a class group. Of course there are com- pensating advantages from working with other children, even in lock-step fashion. Children who study together in the public schools get that under- standing of one another which is necessary if, as grown men and women, they are to work shoulder to shoulder in the common enterprises of our society. We are, however, now concerned with the study of the child as an indi- vidual, and our educational philosophy is insisting that we obtain the social advantages of group education with less sacrifice for the individual pupil— that somehow we must find a way to recognize his initiative, his capacity for study, the breadth of his interest and the possibilities of preparing him for self-directed personal development beyond the school to a degree that we have hitherto been unable to accomplish. Intelligence tests, subject-matter .tests, problem project method, the Dalton plan, Winnetka individual instruction, the laboratory system, the platoon school, the great enterprise of Sanderson of Oundle and the develop- ment of the library in charge of trained workers—all these are phases of our attempt to deal with the child as a human being to be developed by freedom rather than by compulsion. Through the age-long sweep of the development of education, we have passed the period of brutality, when the rod was the symbol of the teacher’s office; we are passing rapidly through the period of competition when schools are characterized by class lists, ratings and similar devices, designed to make the child compare his output with that of his fellows rather than with some more reliable standard which will more accurately measure his capacity. We are now entering the period when the natural urges and curi- osities of children are conserved and directed in such a way as to bring to the child some of the joy of work and the power of self-direction which make life rich and worth while for the successful adult. It is for just this that the school library stands. It is for just this that the public library is maintained. I sometimes wonder if the object of public 92 NATIONAL EpucaTIon ASSOCIATION education, which is to give the masses everywhere the power and inclina- tion to use intelligence in every-day relationships, would not be better served if we spent a larger proportion of money for the informal, self-directed education which is associated with the public library. According to the best available estimates, we are spending about a billion and a half annually for public education in the United States, and only about thirty million to provide free public library service which will aid men and women to continue the education begun in the schools. In other words, where we spend one dollar to lay a foundation in education, we spend only a few cents to see that that education carries over into the years beyond the school in terms of intelligent living. No one can critically examine his own life or the lives of his neighbors and friends without realizing the tremendous gap between really intelligent living and the kind of living that is exemplified by the lives of the great majority of people. There is too much of the attitude that education is all over when the school days are ended. Our schools are not sufficiently domi- nated by the ideal that their work is merely preparation, a sort of appren- ticeship for the larger use of intelligence, for the more extensive studies that should belong to the years beyond the school. While we emphasize the tremendous contribution which the school library may make as an aid to teaching in the enrichment of all the studies in the curriculum, we must not overlook what may be an even more vital function—that of inspiring the individual child with the desire to go on and of leaving him with definite plans to read this, to investigate that and to organize what he is able to learn in the interests of a better life for himself and his fellows. Time was when educational workers believed that merely to put a col- lection of good books in the school was to accomplish the purpose of the school library. We now realize that the vital factor in the case of the library, as in the case of the school itself, is not the books, but the presence of the living personality which connects the books with the child’s living aspirations. The possibilities of education through independent reading are now so vast that to expect a teacher, loaded with other responsibilities, to be familiar with all the great realm of print is too much. The heart of the school library is the librarian with a rich knowledge of childhood, with special training in the organization of library materials, but more especially with a mastery of the printed materials which the school is expected to use. And this mastery is not something that can be acquired once and for all. Our printing presses do not stop when the student finishes college or the library school. In the United States the presses ceaselessly turn out each year some eight or ten thousand different books and tens of thousands of pamphlets and magazines, circulars and pictures, many of which have a bearing on education and a possible use in the schoolroom. To keep in touch with this wide river of printed material is a task requiring not only special training but much time and attention every week in the year. One of the cardinal mistakes of the library movement has been to empha- size books more than service. We have come honestly by our impression ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 93 that a library is primarily a collection of books. Libraries began in the dim past when books were laboriously copied by hand. In those ancient days knowledge was a sort of vested interest for the few, to be chained and guarded and preserved for the use of its narrow circle. The invention of movable type, the linotype, the monotype, the automatic printing press and many other flowers of modern science have given us a changed situation. We have a society founded on the democratic spirit demanding mass educa- tion as its foundation—a civilization which can come to its fullest develop- ment only as knowledge, whether for culture or vocation, is made the habit, the ambition and the servant of each individual citizen. Because of the importance of system in the handling of printed materials, librarianship has too frequently drawn to its service persons more interested in system than in people. Books have too often been regarded as things to be preserved and catalogued rather than as tools to be used, worn out and replaced. ‘The great centralized research collections, like that which Dr. Finley has aptly called the memory of the State of New York, have overshadowed the less imposing but equally important service to be rendered in schools and smaller communities. This emphasis on system and collections rather than on service has led to serious misconceptions, First among these is that librarianship is a clerical job requiring little vision and training. The school principalship was long regarded in much the same light. We are now coming to value more highly the work of the principal and of the school librarian and to train for both. Weare realizing more and more that while in the smaller school both func- tions may be combined with teaching, the teacher-librarian, like the teacher- principal, is always in danger of neglecting his broader duties of the more pressing tasks of the schoolroom. There is always the danger that the trees will obscure the view of the forest; that the fog of pressing duties will hide the north stars that should guide the work of the school. I have already indicated in a broad way what the school library does for society by its emphasis on life-long education. It also serves the teacher in the classroom in many important ways, making her load lighter and her work more fruitful. Such investigations as have been made show that teachers have little time for reading and apparently less inclination. This lack of inclination to read is partly due to early training and partly to the lack. of the kind of service the library should give. The first attempts to make teachers read prescribed rather clumsily the same reading for all teachers, regardless of their place in the school or their years of experience. A more intelligent method inspires teachers to read to satisfy needs which they themselves have been led to recognize. First, for familiarity with the technical and professional problems associated with teaching. Second, for mastery of the golden books of childhood which enable the teacher to live with the child in his own realm. And third, that leisure reading, browsing about in the green pastures of literature—the love of which, along with the love of children, should be the heritage of every teacher. The school library encourages teachers to read along these lines. By organizing the 94 NATIONAL EpuUCATION ASSOCIATION materials of instruction and making them easily available, it conserves the energy and time of teachers so that more is available for reading. The service which the library renders the child can be characterized in many ways. The library has its greatest opportunity when, having learned to read, the pupils first discover the book as a joy and a tool. That time comes during the elementary school years. Then is the time par excellence to lay solid foundations for right and permanent reading habits. Such habits will add to the richness of the child’s elementary school experience; they will cause many pupils to enter junior and senior high schools and even colleges, who otherwise would lose interest; they will furnish those whose formal educational opportunity is over the open sesame into the broad high- way of useful and liberal learning where he who reads may travel indefi- nitely and, growing in knowledge and in power, live a life that will be in- creasingly worthwhile. To speak of the service the library renders in terms of curriculum will be most appropriate in this presence. New courses of study are being pre- pared in scores of the largest school systems of the United States. The best of these courses are based solidly on definitely stated objectives of education. First, the curriculum makers ask themselves what people actually do in the life for which the schools prepare. Having catalogued the acts and attitudes that characterize our daily life, they proceed to classify them into broad groups which suggest the great goals of education. The committee which the National Education Association appointed in 1911 to study the reorganization of secondary education defined the seven great social aims of education as worthy home membership; health; mastery of the tools of learning ; vocational effectiveness; good citizenship; wise use of leisure; and ethical character. For each of these objectives the library, under proper leadership, has a large and vital contribution. A number of influences are working in our homes so that the home of tomorrow promises to be quite different from the home of yesterday. First, there are the great leavening ideals of democracy—the increasing rights and opportunities for women and children, which promise to make of the home a more highly codperative organization as contrasted with the despotic con- ception of an earlier day. Second, we have such influences as the motion picture show and the automobile, and the development of city life which tend to break the family circle. Everything that can be done to stimulate interests that will knit the family group more closely together is 9 real force for good. The school librarian can do much to encourage the joys of read- ing aloud, home discussion of books read by parents and children, the own- ing of books which should be read and reread, in order that new titles may not supersede the worthier ones. The help which the school librarian can give parents in the selection of the books for birthday and Christmas is well recognized in many communities. Worthy home membership carries with it the ideal of the art of living together. There are many beautiful stories which emphasize this ideal and bring to children from sordid homes the atmosphere of home at its best. What more effective way could be found 3 ct a. aw A OO Oe the 1. n d O e e $ f ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 95 for instilling in all children an appreciation of and an appetite for the kind of home which Louisa May Alcott has done so much to popularize? The second objective—that of sound health—applies to both mind and body. They affect each other. Good books are powerful factors for pre- serving and promoting a healthy mind. The healthy mind, like the healthy body, is an active mind. Lazy habits of thinking, like lazy habits of work- ing, break down health. For back of every physical breakdown is first a mental and moral breakdown. Then, too, there is the wealth of printed material that relates to the various phases of health. The discoveries of science are rapidly crowding upon us until the layman of today knows more than did the physician a few decades ago. No matter how much the schools may teach of the principles of healthful living, there will still be room for independent reading and study of the fine books on health, which come each year from the multitude of presses. The third objective is the mastery of the tools of learning—reading, writ- ing and arithmetic. We hear much these days about silent reading and the need for variety of printed material so that there may be stimulation of thought and the development of the power to express thought. Writing is no longer limited to mere training in technique, but carries with it the estab- lishment of writing as a means of expression and service which may well develop into writing books or for magazines. Arithmetic opens out into a variety of calculations that lead to such matters as automobiles, radio and aviation, which cannot be adequately covered in the elementary school, but which may well become a continuing interest of many people. The fourth objective is vocational effectiveness. Printed materials have much to contribute to this objective. There are the books that describe various types of work, thus helping children to choose wisely the service which they will render. There are also books which assist the young crafts- man to continue his development in his chosen line of work. In this day of high-pressure activity, the people who advance in trade or profession are those who have mastered the hard task of self-criticism and self-improvement. The young man who waits for his employer to tell him what to do next will soon see his fellows passing him in the race for the better positions in life. Finally, in this day of specialization, books can help us to appreciate the services of our neighbors which we cannot always see at first hand, as could our forefathers in the earlier days when life was simple and com- munities were small. The fifth objective is good citizenship. Good citizenship depends pri- marily upon an anoreciation of the value of organized society, the desire on the part of each citizen to carry his share of the burden, and the knowledge of the machinery by which the rights and privileges of citizenship are exer- ‘cised. No mere classroom outline can accomplish this end. But wide read- ing of such books as the “ Americanization of Edward Bok,” and the lives of Washington, Franklin and Lincoln does help us to understand the long struggle by which our government has been built up and the common services which can be rendered through organization to the end that our lives may be safer and richer. 96 NATIONAL EpuCATION ASSOCIATION The sixth objective is the wise use of leisure. In an earlier day when leisure was the privilege of the few, it was associated with reading and the development of fine private libraries, of which we have many examples in the older countries in Europe. Today leisure is more and more becoming the privilege of the masses and we have Mr. Edison’s prediction that due to efficient government and the effectiveness of our machinery and indus- trial organization, it will soon be possible to maintain society with an average working day of only four hours. With increasing leisure for the masses has come a high state of com- mercialization of the methods of spending leisure time so that our tastes and habits are often controlled by men more interested in making money than in building lives. If we can systematically teach even a small fraction of our children the joy of reading and give them an appetite for it such as we find in Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt, we shall have made a contribution worthy the effort of our best teachers and our greatest librarians. There are many vicious books and magazines that emphasize phases of human life that should be ignored or passed lightly by. There are great quantities of books that, to say the least, are worthless, empty husks which pour into the minds of millions a sterile stream of impressions that can mean nothing else but muddy thinking, superficial interests, and the lack of genuine mental vigor. What the use of the library during leisure moments means to the child is well characterized by a letter which, unsolicited, according to Miss McCullough, of the Evansville Public Library, was handed in as a class exercise. This letter, which was written by a country girl, follows: The public library is mine, yours, and everybody’s. To me it is a paradise, wherein is every adventure imaginable, from the tales of princes and princesses to histories, novels, and mystery tales of every kind. Books to me are “ flying carpets” to lands of dreams and adventure. Without the public libraries could you or I or any one collect treasures so adorable and enchanting? Indeed, I would rather live near a public library than have the treasures of Captain Kidd. Mark Twain’s stories will, for many generations to come, give the world a hearty laugh. He, and others, have given the people of our world a better and newer spirit of living. Poets, too, have painted for our minds vivid and beautiful pictures of life and life’s adventures. For ages our posterity will enjoy our litera- ture. But could they enjoy it half as much without the libraries? No lover of good literature can buy all the books he enjoys, but there is not a person denied the privilege of our public libraries. Great authors are a rare gift tc this world, for they give the beauty of life to all. The libraries pass it on to us. Can any one read such a letter as this from a childish pen without feeling that this child has laid the foundation for a life rich in books and adventure ? The last objective is ethical character. It is the cumulative result of all the others, the net outcome of all the mass of impressions and habits with which our life is filled. Companions and books have long been recognized as great cornerstones of the noble edifice of character. Nowhere more than in the great biographies and the great stories of home life are the ideals of civilization embodied. Cannot the school, must not the school, give to every child an introduction at least to the great inspirational books which the ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 97 world so much needs in this age that Mr. Wells has called the “ age of confusion.” In considering these objectives, it would seem that school library activi- ties are fundamentally educational; that they enrich the curriculum; that they stimulate initiative on the part of pupils, and develop healthy minds; that they socialize and democratize values, and that they have an important part in character development. Whether the schools reach these objectives depends very largely upon whether the pupil can be taught successfully to use the right books in the right way. In this the assistance of the school librarian is invaluable. In the administration of the school library there are various practices. In most of our cities the public library system in its management is inde- pendent of the public schools, or, if under the board of education, is admin- istered by a director whose responsibility is codrdinate with that of the superintendent of schools. —The most common practice is to link the public library system to the school system by means of a codperative arrangement in which the public library administers the school libraries, many of which are housed and financed by the board of education. The relationship between the public library and the school libraries is exemplified in Pittsburgh, according to the twenty-first annual report of the Carnegie Library of that city. School libraries under this plan are ad- ministered under the supervision of the school’s division of the public library by school librarians and assistants, recommended by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and appointed and paid by the board of education. An agree- ment between the board of education and the trustees of the public library covers such matters as equipment, supplies, transportation, and book collec- tion, which are furnished largely at the expense of the board of education. The policy of having the school library under public library control in the elementary school is growing in Minneapolis, according to a letter from Mary A. Tawney, head of the instruction division of the Minneapolis Pub- lic Library. The library board has endorsed the plan to open two or three such libraries each year, and the board of education plans to provide a library room in each new or enlarged elementary school building. This room will be at least as large as a standard classroom, and the plans for it are to be approved by the librarian of the public library. The school depart- ment of the Minneapolis Public Library has three divisions, one dealing with public library stations housed in elementary school buildings, another dealing with classroom librarians, and a third in charge of library instruc- tion in the public schools. The new Minneapolis course of study is to include definite assignments of library lessons, which will aim to teach children the use of books as tools, as well as to outline their reading for culture and pleasure. As we face the problem of trained management of the school library, we must look both at the immediate situation and at the ultimate goal. The immediate situation demands that all teachers have some training in the use of books and libraries, that teacher-training institutions throughout the Nation open courses for school librarians as well as for teacher librarians ° 98 NATIONAL EpucCATION ASSOCIATION who will work in the smaller schools which cannot afford full-time libra- rians. Teacher librarians should meet the requirements for teachers, plus training in the use of books and library methods. School librarians should have more training than the teachers in the schools wherein they serve. The training of the school librarian should make it impossible for her to become a mere clerk, just as the training of the school principal teaches him to dele- gate many routine duties to others, saving his own time and strength for the broader tasks. In the training of the librarian nothing quite takes the place of the atmos- phere of the library school, with its rich and well organized collections and its highly developed spirit of inquiry. But for those who cannot do resident study an effort is now being made to provide correspondence courses in such subjects as library administration, the school library, book selections and the library as a profession. These are courses now offered by the Ameri- can Correspondence School of Librarianship, of Syracuse, New York, which has recently been established under the management of librarians of broad experience. The American Library Association has created a Board of Education for Librarianship which will seek to increase facilities for the training of libra- rians and to formulate minimum standards designed to encourage adequate preparation for this great profession. The committee on education of the American Library Association has recommended as a minimum service standard at least one full-time school librarian for an enrollment of one thousand elementary or high school pupils, with status equal to that of other teachers in the school. To create libraries without training librarians is as futile as to create hos- pitals without trained physicians or surgeons. At the hearings on the Educa- tion Bill, late in January, 1924, Senator David I. Walsh, of Massachusetts, remarked that it would be as sensible to expect university graduates to begin practicing medicine without special training as to expect them to undertake the difficult problems of teaching. The same could be said of librarianship and the average layman can be made to see the validity of the statement if the facts are effectively presented. The approach, therefore, to the problem of extending library service is primarily through the training of librarians. —The magnified librarians col- leges of the future will be the prime movers in library extension. I recall a story which was told by a school principal who, having ten teachers each with a roomful of children, conceived the plan of dividing the children among nine teachers and releasing one for the organization of the library along the lines I have been’ suggesting. The change in the spirit of the school was immediate and surprising. The nine teachers whose work had apparently been increased, found their burden lighter and a new spirit pervaded the whole place. It is something like this that I would suggest to the 40,000 elementary school principals of the United States. No group of educational workers holds greater opportunities. Daily you are in touch, on the one hand, with the Nation’s hundreds of thousands of teachers and millions of children, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 99 and on the other with the citizens and administrative workers who, in the end, determine what kind of education and how much shall be provided. I am glad that your working program includes the development of the school library and I have been led to calculate the cost of giving to every school and community in the United States a librarian such as I have here suggested. For purposes of calculation, let us assume that there should be one library worker for every ten teachers, one half to be assigned to the public schools and the other half to work with the community at large through the public library, which reaches all classes and ages and interests. We should then require for the United States about 70,000 trained library workers. Let us assume the very conservative estimate that the period of service of these library workers would average ten years. We should then have to produce in our library training institutions 7000 new library re- cruits each year. Let us assume that these library recruits would require two years of special training included within the junior and senior years of the teachers’ college or an equivalent school and that the total cost _of such special training will be $1000 each. We then have for the United States a library training program which would cost $7,000,000 per year, but which I verily believe would do more to raise the level of intelligence of the entire Nation than money spent in almost any other way. Of course these figures are arbitrary. They are crude. They do not take into account the varia- tions in educational outlook of various communities; but on the whole and for the Nation as a whole they are highly suggestive. They at least show the method by which programs for mass education are constructed. They give us a rough measure of educational needs, a hypothesis which we can take into the various states and communities for further testing and analysis and calculation. Realizing that every group of workers requires leadership, we have as- sumed that one library worker in every ten should have training beyond that represented by the bachelor’s degree, and have calculated for the Nation and for each of the States the number of librarians each year who should be graduated from graduate schools to provide such leadership, giving us the number 700 for the entire United States. The picture is a pathetic one when we check this requirement against the actual facilities for library training and the output of library schools, both graduate and undergraduate, that exist today. We are indeed in a day of beginnings. Among the next steps are these: First, let every school buy more good books for children—not only story books but books on mechanics and science and art and biography and every phase of life’s activities. Second, let every school assign to some one the task of developing the library, relieving that person of all or a part of his other duties to give him time for his library opportunities. Third, let every school that can employ on full time a trained librarian, even if to get a trained librarian it must select its best teacher and send him at public ex- pense to the best library school and into the best library system for in- struction and inspiration. And finally, yet there be developed adequate institutions for the training of librarians—men and women of great heart 100 NATIONAL EpucaTION ASSOCIATION and sound mind, with love of children, with faith in humanity, with a growing sense of the importance of intelligence in every act of daily life; leaders who can play their part in building citizens to match the great insti- tutions and the gigantic problems of our day. ‘Trained and sustained intelli- gence for the masses of mankind everywhere is the vision of this generation. In the realization of that vision, the school library, leading out into the public library, will have a larger and larger part. AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF CHILDREN’S READING Frank M. RicH Principal of School 19, Paterson, New Jersey N 1921 the Paterson board of education passed a resolution authorizing the superintendent and the general supervisor to grant special certificates of attainment to any teacher or supervisor in the system who would under- take and complete in a satisfactory manner an approved educational study or experiment of distinct value to the city and the profession, using his own work and his own classroom as a laboratory. This certificate was made applicable toward advanced rating on the salary schedule the same as work of equivalent scope taken in college. In this way the board of education took one of the best means conceivable for promoting growth among teach- ers in service, of enlisting help in solving problems that supervisors alone would have great difficulty in handling, of providing demonstration work, highly interesting and instructive both inside and outside the system, and not least, of getting some exceptionally good teaching done in place of pre- scribed routine. Among the first to avail themselves of this opportunity to make an experi- mental study of a worth-while educational problem for credit, was Miss Margaret M. Fitzpatrick, a third-grade teacher of School 19, who was especially interested in the use of miscellaneous little readers and other books loaned nightly to children for home study. There were several questions like the following that she wanted to answer. How much progress in read- ing ability actually comes of this informal use of odd books in spare moments? What books are most effective for this purpose? Which the most attractive? Economical ? On study and consultation with two or three others, Miss Fitzpatrick decided to measure each child’s reading ability by two standard tests at the beginning of the term, next to turn them loose with the library books, keep- ing track of the number of loans, then measure each pupil at the end of the term by equivalent reading tests, and compute the correlation of gain in reading as compared with the use of the library, and the relative gain of these pupils in a half year as compared with the average gain of other classes not provided with library material. As often happens in a pioneer study, the main objects of the experiment were not realized, due to a curious turn of affairs that nobody anticipated. It was impossible to determine the cor- relation between gain and practice because the interest in borrowing the ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 101 new books became so keen that practically no child failed to borrow a book at every opportunity, hence the difference in number of loans was so slight as to be without significance. The gain as compared with other classes was also hard to judge, since their figures were for a full year, and Miss Fitz- patricks’ for only a half year. The subsidiary problems, however, more than repaid the cost of the investigation. In getting together the books for the experiment at the library Miss Fitz- patrick decided to take 25 from the approved list of standard readers used in the city, 25 from the list of supplementary readers, 25 from a list sug- gested by the book department of John Wanamaker’s store in New York, and 25 selected by the staff of the local public library, making a total of 100 books for a class of about 40. Pupils were given frequent periods for look- ing over the books and deciding which ones they wished to borrow for use over night. No attempt was made to influence their selection. The only provisions made were that those who wished to take the same book they had had the night before were given the opportunity to do so. All borrowers took the long cardboard strip from the book, signed it and left it with the teacher as a receipt. “They were required to return the book the next morn- ing and replace the slip, a very simple but effective method of keeping record. Retaking the book a second night counted as two loans for that title. It was an easy matter to judge the relative popularity of the books as shown by the number of times they were borrowed; the depth of appeal as shown by the number of repeats; the durability of binding, etc., by comparing the condition of the book at the end of the term with the cards showing the number of loans. The figures collected by Miss Fitzpatrick are interesting and worth giv- ing in detail, but we can present only one or two of her general findings here. The most popular class of books were those chosen by the saleswomen in charge of the children’s books at Wanamaker’s. Next came the supple- mentary readers, and close behind them the method readers, all of which were modern and attractive. Far in the rear were the books selected by the public library, which, by the way, were new books, bought by the librarian fresh from the market, so that they need not suffer in popularity because the books they competed with were bright and new.’ This part of the experi- ment, so far as it demonstrated anything, emphasized what is rather notice- able in other connections—namely, that our library people know books better than they know children, that their contact with children is more with the high-brow, book-worm type who habitually frequent the library than with average children of the rank and file, consequently their selec- tions are usually too hard and their ideas of children’s books governed by tradition and by the reputations of the authors as writers for adults, rather than by pragmatical tests of what is demonstrably interesting and inspiring to typical red-blooded boys and girls of any given definite school age. *In making their selections, the library staff did not follow their own personal choice but used a list drawn up by an expert famous in library circles as an authority in the juvenile field. 102 NATIONAL EpUCATION ASSOCIATION At the end of the term’s study, the books were rated according to condi- tion as good, medium and poor, and ranked according to their resistance to wear. Here the school books as a class were far ahead of the trade books selected by the store and by the librarian. Some attractive books that would otherwise have been admirable for library purposes, fell apart the first time they were opened ; the tipped-in illustrations detached themselves, and except for home repair would have been almost worthless for library purposes. The experiment seemed to show that on the whole, from the combined stand- point of interest and economy, the best material for classroom libraries is found in the school editions of popular titles, or, in other words, the so-called supplementary readers. Miss Fitzpatrick analysed her figures further to discover whether children of this age seemed to favor picture books, with relatively little space devoted to text; whether very easy reading had _a distinct advantage over the rather difficult ; and whether, other things equal, tiny books were more popular than large ones. The findings did not support any of these theories. It was apparent that the average eight-year-old who can read wants reading, not mere pictures for an evening’s enjoyment; he prefers an easy book only when it furnishes as much life and action as he can wrest from a hard one; and that the charm of the tiny book is of short duration and is soon dis- counted in favor of one that promises to give lasting satisfaction. Miss Fitzpatrick’s little experiment, inadequate and of limited value in itself, served its greatest purpose in arousing local interest in outside read- ing for children, and in paving the way for another experiment along the same line some twenty times as extensive. Two years later, a group of teachers and principals from six different schools in Paterson, Mr. Rich, chairman, met to talk over this matter of reading in the elementary grades. “ For years,” they said, “ we have been having fair success in teaching children how to read. But what success have we had in teaching them what to read? Every year we put pupils through a creditable number of good books; but do we ever get them to the point where they can find and read equally good books for themselves? If not, plainly something is lacking. A few good books read and laid aside do not go far in guiding young people to the vast world of books outside the school- room walls. With books as with mushrooms, one does not learn to pick out the good ones by merely tasting what others have gathered and served. How can we make pupils acquainted with vastly more good juvenile writers and get them into the habit of finding and reading them for themselves? ” Discussion pointed out the need for a series of lessons made up from sam- ples from various books—the best books that could be found in children’s literature—then pupils, as they practice the mechanics of reading in the usual way, could see for themselves what some of these superb juvenile writ- ings are really like. By making a good many of these books available in the class library, and a still wider range by the same authors or in the same class available in the public library, there would be nothing to hinder pupils from knowing and enjoying the best things published in the whole juvenile field. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 103 The idea seemed so reasonable and worth while that two teachers of each grade from one to eight volunteered to work out a series of lessons and an accompanying class library by some such process as Miss Fitzpatrick had used some time before. These teachers were not unconscious of the diffi- culties before them. It was necessary for them to cull from among the end- less thousands of books for children a reasonable number—150 to 200 per grade—for experimentation. After finding the books it was necessary to find the money to buy them, for Paterson, like most other cities, appropriates no money for class libraries, and none for experimental purposes. If any- body in the system is so restless as to desire new fangled apparatus to carry on his* work, he must apply some of his ambition to hustling for it. As usually happens, the difficulties in this case in the way only added zest to the undertaking. The teachers collected reviews of the leading papers and magazines, book lists of various state departments of education, of various libraries, especially the lists of the American Library Association. They talked with children’s librarians in Paterson and New York, with experienced salesmen in most of the publishing houses having branches in Boston, New York, and Phila- delphia. They visited the big New York bookstores, like Baker and Taylor’s, Brentano’s, The Children’s Bookshop, John Martin’s, and Wanamaker’s, getting the heartiest courtesy and codperation from salesmen and women who had spent a lifetime in the study of books for young people. They examined displays and had large numbers sent on approval for more ex- tended examination. Considerably over a thousand of the best books so found were purchased and turned over to the work with pupils in classrooms. The proprietor of a motion-picture theater in the neighborhood furnished one of the principal means of raising funds. “I will give you the use of the theater one afternoon a week,” he said, “ allow you to select your own films, and give you three cents of every ten taken in.’’ Iwo teachers with a little assistance from their colleagues got up an attractive program— mainly, school work, and had a very successful entertainment. Pupils sold chocolate, and turned in part of the profits. —The New Jersey library com- mission donated the usual ten dollars apiece in five schools. The city libra- rian agreed to take surplus books after the experiment was over and class sets selected, and pay a fair price for them, to use in the public library. In these ways several hundred dollars were made available for the experiment. From there on, to use a simple paradox, the carrying out of the plan was easy, requiring nothing but hard work. Books had to be graded to suit the interests and reading ability of different ages. From the 150 to 200 volumes per class that the teachers, reviewers, etc., liked best, the pupils were to select the 40 or 50 they liked. best. For several months, one class of pupils in each grade kept the books, borrowed them nightly, used them in the schoolroom more or less for seat work, had short periods of class discussions to exchange impressions, marked passages they enjoyed, wrote brief reviews and read to each other interesting samples. By means of book slips, the number of loans and the names of all borrowers were accurately recorded. After a reasonable time the same books were transferred to 104 NATIONAL EpuUCATION ASSOCIATION corresponding classes of the same grade, where another teacher’and another set of pupils repeated the same experiment as a control to the first one. During the following summer vacation, the two teachers of each grade met with the chairman of the committee in relays of two or three weeks apiece, assembled their data, and decided upon the best titles, all things considered, to recommend for the ideal three-foot shelf in each grade. The first consideration which placed any book on the list was its appeal to children. Unless the book sold itself for a generous number of loans it was ruled out, no matter what reviewers said of it, nor in how many lists of “best books” it appeared. The committee took the position that a good book for children should interest children. Usually, as a matter of fact, the best ones for little folks are also decidedly interesting to adults, but unfor- tunately the reverse is not so often the case, and adults, however “ literary,” are not always reliable judges of what will make an immediate and lasting appeal to the average child. In making the library lists, coolness on the part of the pupils kept out a number of books traditionally supposed to be very popular. Their delight helped to save others that grown up critics did not always seem to appreciate. Mere popularity, however, was only one of the bases of selection, other- wise a few very popular writers like Thornton W. Burgess, or a few favor- ite kinds of stories, like bunny tales, scouting tales, etc., might have crowded out other good types of literature. Hence two or three rules were adopted. To make the libraries a guide to as wide a choice of books as possible, it was decided not to have more than one book by an author in any one grade; not to have too many books of the same general class; not to have too many costly books, or books not built to last. By listing similar books by the same author, or similar series by other authors, and calling children’s attention to them, the small classroom libraries were made the key to a vast amount of good reading available in the home circulating or public library, and each lesson was made to reach the end long recognized in theory—namely, that school work should open endless avenues of interest and activity that would long outlast any supervision by the teacher, and become a lasting influence for continual future growth and development. Principals and teachers at work on the library project were soon ini- pressed with the pedagogical value of the task they had undertaken. Pupils read more books and better books than before. Reading more and enjoying it more they,soon came to read surprisingly well. Talking over books and retelling stories made a noticeable change in their English. The information picked up helped every subject in the course. This was not unexpected; it was part of the purpose of the work. But what perhaps was the greatest merit of all came as a surprise, a gift of the gods, as it were, that the experimenters had hardly taken into con- sideration. After books had been lent out a few nights, stories began to come in of children who could not get a chance to read the books they bor- rowed, because other members of the family captured the volume and sat up half the night to finish the story. Then came reports of how these and other families had solved the difficulty by forming a family circle, where ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 105 members took turns at reading aloud for each others’ entertainment. Children of foreign parentage told of reading to fathers and mothers who could not read for themselves, and it is reasonable to suppose that it was a night school of no mean value in the making of these new Americans. Some read to shut-ins, hungry for such a treat; others gathered together the chil- dren of a busy mother, and while entertaining her brood, gave her an hour of welcome rest. In these and in other ways, school, home, and community were brought into close and cordial relation, and a useful training of the head was united with an even more useful training of the heart. The lives of many children became richer and happier by reason of an active useful share in the betterment of home, school, and neighborhood. As a supervisory device—a means of developing in teachers an increas- ingly open-minded, scientific, codperative attitude toward new, big, pro- fessional problems—the library project is typical of many lines of work that can be undertaken by supervising principals. A book could profitably be devoted to an exposition of this and similar coéperative undertakings as means of maintaining inspiring, useful, democratic leadership among teach- ers, and, what is perhaps equally important, furnishing a wholesome offset to the supervisor’s own tendency to narrowness, self-sufficiency, and blind conservatism, which seems to be one of the natural concomitants of advanc- ing years. The project method in supervision affords a real motivation of mutual study and experiment by round-table methods. It helps to create an appetite for knowledge and improvement that grows by what it feeds on. The library project, carried through months of experiment and a long summer conference, probably strikes the casual observer as a rather complete and elaborate study of the attractiveness and general appeal of a wide range of children’s books. The experimenters themselves, however, found that what they had done was not the end, but only the beginning, of studies they needed and wanted to make. New problems cropped up, and further refine- ments presented themselves. It was apparent, for instance, that the tabulated number of loans was no reliable index of the comparative popularity of authors, when one was represented by a long series of titles and another by only one or two. Further experimentation was necessary, limiting each author to the same number of volumes in any given class of writings. Likewise the experiment lacked finality when poetry, fairy tales, construc- tion books, and so on, in various numbers, were indiscriminately matched against Indian legends, farm books, travel stories, children’s plays, and so on. Again, pupils’ reactions to books in certain classes were not comparable with each other’s except as they had read similar stories in the same class, and hence had a similar background for comparison. This needed to be arranged, and new tests applied to clear up doubts in these and other particulars. There were lessons to prepare, with attractive samples and interesting re- views to give pupils an inner glimpse of the quieter, less conspicuous books, so that their real merit would have a fair chance against the sensational appeal of a more superficial class. There were scores of publishers and authors to interview, so that samples can eventually be printed and made available for use in connection with the libraries in other schools. It is easy 106 NATIONAL EpucaTION ASSOCIATION to see that professional stagnation is considerably postponed when teachers are engaged in a line of study so interesting and so productive. Fortunately for those who would like to do something of the kind on their own account, there are thousands of educational problems just as promising waiting for solution. In a succeeding article we shall give a list of books found by this experi- ment to be the most popular for classroom libraries in each of the elementary grades. PUBLICITY WORK BY CHICAGO PRINCIPALS NE of the most important needs in education is to bring about a thorough understanding by the general public of the vastness and complexities of the school proposition: the necessity for adequate financial support and the necessity for high grade ability and a comprehension of the intimate way the schools affect the life of the family and the state. To do this, school people everywhere must utilize all legitimate avenues for pub- licity—especially those which the great business organizations have found most effective. —The Chicago principals have made an excellent beginning which may well be taken as a pattern by other groups throughout the Nation. We feel we cannot do better than to give an outline of the plan as shown by their Club Reporter. PUBLICITY WORK OF PRINCIPALS’ COMMITTEE T THE November 26 meeting of the School Board the Superin- tendent submitted the following report: To the Board of Education: Lapigs AND GENTLEMEN—In accordance with paragraph 9, Superintendent’s an- nual report, 1923-24, proposing communication on special projects during the year, I beg leave to report that a committee of principals directed by Principal George A. Beers and Principal Charles S. Winslow, regretting that the newspaper-reading public sees so much sensational mention of “ fights,” “turmoil,” “ squabbles,” “war,” etc., in connection with school affairs, organized a service for supplying affirmative and constructive matter to the newspapers. This is in line with similar work in Boston, Springfield, Massachusetts, Pittsburgh, Madison and Cleveland. Mr. Fred Charles of the Plaindealer newspaper in his book “ Publicity and the School” gives some valuable hints. Many newswriters are as devoted to the welfare of the schools as are the school people themselves. Every board meeting, every school gathering is an avenue actual or potential to the public mind. Board members and school officials remembering this will have all meetings of such a character that newspaper reports of them are likely to benefit the schools. A great deal of news concerns contests and differences. But it is neither necessary nor desirable that bickerings be exposed to public view. Far less harmful news would be displayed if board members and school officials were careful in guarding their speech, more willing to sacrifice their own egotism for the good of the children in the schools. They can translate every meeting into terms of child welfare. This editor lists “contact with civic bodies, meetings of the Board of Education, exhibits of school work, accounts and pictures of school activities, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 107 reports, monographs and bulletins, students’ publications” among the means for reaching the public through the newspapers. “The newspapers need the schools; the schools need the newspapers.” Mr. Charles H. Dennis, of the Chicago Daily News, recently said: “Members of the Principals’ Club in interesting themselves in this important subject, in my judgment have taken a wise step that should be followed up with confident persistence. By well devised publicity interpreting the schools adequately and truthfully without exaggeration or distortion, to the community in which they constitute the chief agency of progress, the effective coéperation of many parents of school children and other interested citizens should be won. Results of such coéperation should be lastingly beneficial to all the city’s legitimate interests and should afford inspiration to all its constructive forces. For the successful functioning of the schools is dependent upon good local government, which in turn is dependent upon alert and informed public opinion. Indifference to civic duty, involving as it does along with an entire train of evils, sacrifice of the schools to predatory politics would be almost unthinkable, if there were a right understanding of the greatness of the work done by the school and of their need for full opportunity to develop steadily and systematically upon sound principles.” In line with these ideas and to the extent that their duties permit, your principals are working out results which deserve your commendation. WiLuiAM McAnprew, Superintendent of Schools. EDUCATIONAL ARTICLES IN THE CHICAGO DAILY NEWS Adult Education Regular Series on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Sept. 29. Should City Have Adults’ Schools?............... William McAndrew Oct. 1. Night Classes for Adults Are Popular Morgan G. Hogge Oct. 3. Night School Pupils Tell of Ambitions.............. Letters of Students Oct. 6. Schurz Lifts Bar of Work to Educations............ Lieut. O. N. Taylor Oct. 8. Employed Negroes Eager for Schooling C. C. Willard Oct. 10. Haven School Mecca for Adult Foreigner Annas Higgins Oct. 13. Adult Day Classes Gain in Popularity Frances K. Wetmore Oct. 15. Americanization of Mother a Success G. A. Beers Health Health Board Aids Children in Schools Herman N. Bundesen Children’s Handicaps Lightened in School Frank G. Bruner Schools Aid Cripples to Become Useful Jane A. Neil Sanitarium School Aid to Tubercular Thomas C. Johnson Scanlan School in Crusade for Health Harriette T. Treadwell Schools Give Blind Complete Courses John B, Curtis Sight-Saving Classes Boon for Children John B. Curtis Health Foundation Fills School Need Frank W. Stahl Physical Defects Handicap Pupils Mary E. Rodgers Young Pupils Need Physical Training E. C. Delaporte Physical Training Introduced in 1859 E. C. Delaporte Military Training Big Aid to Boy in School Maj. F. L. Beals Oral Speech Taught to Deaf Children Clara E. Newlee Life Lessons Taught Upon Athletic Field E. C. Delaporte Plea for Health Teachers Maj. F. L. Beals Children Cite Need of Greater Caution Pupils Fiske School NATIONAL EpucaTION ASSOCIATION Command of Fundamental Processes McAndrew Outlines Teaching Methods William McAndrew Teacher Points Out Need of Arithmetic Lewis W. Colwell Arithmetic Games Natural Class Aids Mary T. O’Connell Gauge Children by Arithmetic Tests E, E. Keener A Reading Project Clyde A. Brown Improving the Composition Ability of Pupils Margaret Madden The Measurement of Reading Ability in Elementary Schls.E. E. Keener Geography in the Public Schools Marion Sykes Letters on the Wide Awake Page Memories of the Play Center at Wells School Wells School Accuracy Field School Open Window Rooms Graham School Chemistry Hamilton School Chemistry Hamilton School The Handicapped Children Fallon School Deaf-Oral Department at Parker Parker Practice Blind and Sight-Saving Classes Various Schools Crippled Children at the Field Museum Jahn School See Nation Outgrow Eight-Grade Schools Carroll Binder Junior High Schools Hold Pupils Longer Binder Junior High a Beacon for the Adolescents Binder Pupils Like Junior High School System Binder Harmonious Living Is Junior High Aim Binder Sturdier Race Seen Through Junior Highs Binder Urges Junior High Pupils Read Books William J. Bogan Expect Junior Highs to Ease Congestion Carroll Binder Urges Teachers Make Schools Interesting Dennis Analyzes Condition of School Finances . Rogers Tax Dodgers Cost Schools a Fortune Don C. Rogers County Gets Interest on Schools’ Money Don C. Rogers City Moves to Lower Halloween Damage Reporter School Children Have Own Election Reporter School Pupils Gain by Dental Clinics Reporter Harmonica Bands Develop Children Reporter Long Fight to Put Art in Schools Wins Frances L. Walshe Library a Valuable Adjunct to School George L. Voorhees Amateur Ukulele Makers to Compete ‘ School Housing Is City’s Big Problem Charles J. Lunak Aid Society Is Boon to School Children June H. Mac Conkey School Athletics Won by Hard Fight Reporter How Differences Are Adjusted in Schools Merit System Wins Playground Pupils Reporter Efficiency Keynote of Chicago Schools John E. Ryckman OUR NEWSPAPER PUBLICITY HIS PAST summer our president and I called on the editors of each of the afternoon dailies. I have since been to the offices of the other two papers. We wanted to know their attitude toward receiving news from the schools themselves. They all expressed a desire to codperate. The Chicago Daily News was the only one, however, that made us a defi- nite offer of regular space. As the weeks have passed they have been even more generous with space than they first suggested. — ~ r r r r r r n r S Ss J $ 7 r 4 J _— -_ ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 109 We are now running a regular series of signed articles on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The first subject in the series was “ Adult Edu- cation,’ and the contributors numbered eight. The articles dealt largely with evening school activities but also included the adult classes at Haven and the Americanization work, among others. At present we are trying to show how the schools function along the lines of the “ Seven Objectives ” laid down by a committee of the National Edu- cation Association a few years ago. Possibly you remember that the topics are Health, Command of Fundamental Processes, Worthy Home Member- ship, Vocation, Citizenship, Worthy Use of Leisure Time, and Ethical Character. The Series on Health, consisting of fourteen articles, closed with the letters of the Fiske School, descriptive of their Safety First Campaign. We are now in the midst of the series on ‘“‘ Command of Fundamental Processes.” The News is also giving its columns on each of the other days to educa- tional articles. Carroll Binder, special writer of the News, wrote a series of eight articles on ‘The Junior High.” Don C. Rogers presented his ‘Slant on School Finances ”’ in three articles to the public. Each Saturday the News reporter has an article on outdoor recreation that is secured from the playground department. We are also running sev- eral articles on Tuesdays and Thursdays. These have included one on the ideal Public School Art Society, another on the value of a branch library, one on the work and needs of the Children’s Relief Society and one on Double Schools. This plan not only enables us to carry through a syste- matic scheme to show how our schools are functioning, but it gives a flexi- bility which allows for the publishing of other articles of current interest. The plan followed by Miss Doniat last year of securing letters from school children for publishing on the Wide Awake page on Saturday is being continued. We are varying the plan slightly, however, so as to have the letters each time from one school and usually descriptive of some phase of activity peculiar to that school. The schools contributing so far have been Wells, Field, Graham, Hamilton, Fallon, Parker Practice, Jahn, Garfield and Sight Training and Braille classes in several schools. We suggested to both the editor and the Superintendent that the story of a visit to the schools would be interesting if told by a reporter and illustrated by the camera. Both parties agreed to the experiment and you have just recently been reading of this trip in the paper. We haven’t yet succeeded in convincing all the papers that in the schools we have material that their readers would prefer to much of what they furnish them and we as principals haven’t yet learned to pick out the inter- esting features of our schools and to put them into written form that appeals to the reading public, but we are “ happy on the way.” CuHar.es S. WINSLOw. CHICAGO SCHOOLS ON THE RADIO Besides carrying on the excellent work organized and developed by Mr. Beers during the past two years, the Speakers Bureau of the Chicago 110 NATIONAL EpuCATION ASSOCIATION Principals’ Club has added a weekly audience of five million to those who are hearing of the good things the Chicago public schools are doing. For the first three months of the school year twenty principals have spoken at as many meetings of clubs and other organizations on school topics. So favorable has been the impression made by them that requests for addi- tional speakers on school topics have already been received and filled. About twenty-five other dates up to June 10, 1925, are provided for. By arrange- ment with Mr. Winslow, who has charge of newspaper publicity, these engagements are sent to the newspapers in advance so that notice can be given through the papers and rererters assigned to such as promise news value. About forty principals hz _n dated and in every case the member asked to meet an engagement, sen.ctimes with less than a week’s notice, has cheerfully undertaken the work. This is the spirit and ability that has made the Chicago Principals’ Club the greatest educational organization of its kind in the country. Every member should be on the alert to get further engagements for the Club. And every speaking engagement filled by you and not listed through the bureau should be recorded there so that we can have a complete record of the work done at the end of the year. By arrangement with Mr. Walter Wilson, familiarly known to the chil- dren as “ Uncle Bob,” each school in Chicago will have an opportunity to broadcast through station KYW some of the best things its pupils are doing. As Mr. Wilson has an audience of three million children and two million adults stretching from New ‘York , ‘9 Jenver and from Canada to New Orleans, a goodly proportion of them in our own city, this is a splendid opportunity to extend Educational Week over the year. Instead of bringing © the parents to school once a year we shall be able to take the school to them every week. The broadcasting is being done every Friday evening from the Edison Building at six-thirty. If you have a radio get this program which lasts about twenty minutes. It will be good for you to hear some of the things other schools are doing. Also let Mr. Wilson know that you appre- ciate ‘wm and your pupils will find this a good opportunity to make school letter writing a real thing. The Chicago American prints a full program, giving school, principal, pupils and numbers every Tuesday evening. To date, the following schools have furnished programs: Scott, Fallon Cripple, Moos, Clarke, Jackson. The following dates are booked: November 28th, Monroe, glee club; December 5th, Marsh; December 12th, Ryder; December 19th, McLaren, glee club and orchestra; January oth, La Fayette. The earlier programs have been solo numbers by individu: pupils not necessarily the product of school work, but in the later ones \, are trying to give real school work that will at the same time show what the school is doing and entertain children as young as four years. I shall be glad to have you phone me and arrange a date for your turn at broadcasting. I need not say that both parents and pupils will see that your performers are on hand at the Edison Building to produce your program. Get your program now and phone me for your date. H. W. SuMNER. ee RAN ME wena TET Stu h two ratk De cos! citi cre sal an co cel pr ar scl who lave DiCs. ddi- out nge- hese 1 be ews ber has ade its her you can hil- to ng. ion ew lid ne -M ch he re- ol m, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 111 REPORTER ITEMS BY THE SPECIAL SECRETARY Through a misunderstanding, the November 24th meeting of the Finance Study Class was not held. Hereafter, the class will meet regularly at 4:15 on Mondays. Mr. Charles A. Kent, principal of the Garfield School, has written up two projects on the Junior High School. His write-up gives evidence of a rather careful study and a keen analysis. SomME Ranpom, Nores ry you know that— , . Of 19 representative cities in the Writed States, chosen by the U. S. biatinean of Labor, Chicago leads them all in ten-year increase in rent costs. It has had twice as much increase as the average of them. 2. Rent in Chicago has increased 12.3 per cent since last year. The other cities have averaged only a 2.3 per cent increase since last year. 3. Chicago leads all these cities in ten-year increase in cost of food, here in the center of the world’s granary. Chicago stands 12 per cent above the average of the cities, and has had a 24 per cent increase since last year while the other cities were having a 2} decrease at the same time. 4. The total cost of living in Chicazo has gone up 8.4 per cent from March, 1923, to September, 1924. 5. The median weekly wages of lac >rers in 24 trades in Chicago in- creased 134 per cent from May 15, 1923, to May 15, 1924. 6. From May 15, 1923, to May 15, 1924, Chicago School Principals’ salaries were increased—nothing! Extend the dates a year and a half earlier and half a year later, and they still hold true. Let’s hope that they ue not correct for 1925. 7. The Chicago dollar is worth 58 cents compared with its value of 100 cents ten years ago. Notwithstanding gross salary increases since;,1914, principals’ salaries have never been adjusted to their pre-war value. If you are one of the many principals who has been on the maximum of the salary schedule since 1914, you are losing $716 this year. 8. Illinois ranks first in per capita income among the 12 states in the Middle West. You are lucky to live in such a wealthy State. g. Illinois ranks first in support of roads and last in support of schools 4mong the 12 States in the Middle West. Not so good, eh? »¥The Illinois Educational Commission called a meeting of representatives of leading city and State organizations such as the Bar Association, the Manufacturers’ Association, the Illinois Agriculture Association, the Cham- ber of Commerce, the Chicago Teachers’ Federation, etc., to devise means and support for taxation revision. Mr. Huber and the Special Secretary represented the Club. At the City Club meeting of the Principals’ Club, Mrs. Hefferan said that Board Members had received helpful ideas from the finance article 112 NATIONAL EpuCATION ASSOCIATION printed in the Club Reporter. At the November 26th meeting, Mr. Greene- baum presented a resolution to authorize the employment of a special attor- ney to investigate the Board of Review actions in respect to its bearings on scaling down property values. Any connection? Mr. Greenebaum said that although there was a $500,000,000 increase last year in assessed valuation, the Board of Review has already scaled down the assessed valuation until there is now only $80,000,000 increase over 1921 valuations, and the scaling still goes on apace. With a fixed maximum levy rate, and property values illegally held at a low rate, is it any wonder that there are insufficient schocl revenues. Of course that isn’t half of it; it’s the inequality of the assessments that is worse. The Board employed Attorney Henry M. Ashton in this matter. Don C. RoceErs. A CONTRAST IN EXPENDITURES ON INSTRUCTION AND EXPENDI- TURES ON OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE OF PLANT IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEMS OF THE EIGHT LARGEST CITIES (1923 DATA) Per cent of total | Per cent of total! “snnualcurrent | Ratio of instruction annual —— expense devoted to operation expense devotes tooperation- | and maintenance to instruction maintenance? | | Per cent | Rank | Percent | Rank Ratio 8927/1073 8803/1191 8619/1381 8484/1516 8415/1585 8367/1633 8072/1928 8288/1712 10.2 11.1 12.9 14.3 14.6 14.7 17.7 Philadelphia Detroit St. Louis Cleveland | 75.3 Pittsburgh 74.1 770 | 15.9 | 849 | Los Angeles | r | | | | HAonunkr wn Nr wt n an o “SIO An WD H Average of the 7 cities... 80.0 14.4 8530/1470 | 1 Instruction expenditures consist mainly of teachers’ and principals’ salaries, educational supplies, etc. 2 Operation of plant consists mainly of engineers’ and janitors’ salaries, supplies, gas, elec- tricity, fuel, etc. Maintenance of plant consists mainly of repairs to buildings and equipment, insurance etc. Except for Pittsburgh, Chicago has the least desirable ratio educationally of these great cities—it is 7th out of the 8. Expenditures for instruction and for operation and maintenance—Chicago con- trasted (7) with New York City, and (2) with the average of seven great cities. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS A. PER CENT EACH ITEM IS OF TOTAL ANNUAL CURRENT EXPENSE Per cent total of instruction, operation, and maintenance Per cent operation and maintenance _ Per cent instruction 92.9 New York City r 95.1 Average of the 7 cities ’ 94-4 B. RATIO OF INSTRUCTION TO OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE Operation and Total Instruction maintenance CHICAGO 8288 1712 New York City 8927 1073 Average of the 7 cities 8530 -1470 CuIcAGO SPENT THE FOLLOWING AMOUNTS IN 1923 Amount Instruction . . -$29,380,423 Operation and Maintenance 6,069,448 $35,449,871 1.0000 AmounTs CHICAGO WouLD HAVE SPENT OF INSTRUCTION AND OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE, IF IT HAD THE SAME RATIO BETWEEN THEM AS New York City, OR THE AVERAGE OF THE SEVEN GREAT CITIES New-York City Average expenditures of expenditures 7 great cities | Amount | Ratio | Amount Ratio Instruction $31,646,100 8927 Pare .8530 Operation and Maintenance.. 3,803,771 1073 5,211,131 -1470 “Sonu & WN HH $35,449,871 1.0000 $35,449,871 1.0000 ional elec- ADDITIONAL AMOUNTS WHICH Coutp Have BEEN SPENT BY CHICAGO ON INSTRUCTION: t, Z - a om A. According to the New York City ratio $31,646,100 Actually spent by Chicago 29,380,423 Wuat Curicaco Lost FROM INSTRUCTION $2,265,677 B. According to the average ratio of the 7 great cities $30,238,740 Actually spent by Chicago 29,380,423 Wuat Cuicaco Lost FROM INSTRUCTION $858,317 114 NATIONAL EpucaTION ASSOCIATION Whichever ratio is right, Chicago’s instructional activities lost a consid- erable sum of money. Instructional needs are such that they could ill afford the loss of $2,265,677, or even $858,317. It only goes to show that appar- ently Chicago has been spending too little on instruction and too much on the business side of the school system. Don C. Rocers. McANDREW’S 1924 REPORT The report of Dr. William McAndrew, superintendent of schools, Chicago, is one of the great educational publications of the year. It is National in its scope. So many of the points discussed are of such vital interest to principals that we have felt justified in including portions of it in this Bulletin. COMPARISONS WITH NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS OF THE YEAR From the proceedings of the two 1924 meetings of the National Education Asso- ciation and from a summary of the year’s school work prepared for the American field in a publication issued by Ohio State University, I submit this list that you may compare the activities of your system with those of the country at large. This is the National record of the year: Reduction of civic service by schools from general doctrine to specific, orderly, and prepared practice as an essential rather than an incidental part of the term program. Reform of the practice of collecting contributions from children, teachers, and parents. Reduction and foresighted organization of activities requested of the schools by civic, philanthropic, and cultural organization who have advocated boys’ week, girls’ week, bird day, tag day, poppy day, bundle day, mothers’ day, Uncle Robert, Christmas giving, Thanksgiving offerings, prize essays, Wilson memorial, Oratorial contests, Louvain Restoration, Red Cross, better homes movement, anti-cigarette campaigns, humane celebrations, Servian relief, Marne Monument, Salvation Army aid, Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Milk fund, etc. With sympathy and approval for each worthy drive but recognizing that schools must be called on for participation in a smaller number, planned at the beginning of the year with due regard for other duties, the managers of schools have reduced the participation. Increased use of experimental classes. ¢ Project method relinquishing extravagant claims and becoming supplementary. Individual instruction experiment (Winnetka plan), not gaining wide imitation. Proofs have been general that the howlers for the good old schools of their fathers, had fathers who had worse schools than we. More thinking and less memoriter work by children (and teachers). Emphasis upon platoon system. Growth of parent-teacher association. Legislative additions to courses of study. Increased attention to physical training for all as against concentration or athletic teams. More extended employment of research and test departments leading up to improved teaching. Greater attention to vocational guidance. Reduction of extravagant claims for intelligence tests. Investigation of value of classical studies. Attacks on school costs. Greater interest in religious and moral education. -~ ne se . of os oes a ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS Greater stress upon character ideals. Evaluation of visual instruction. Extension of free textbook system. Enquiry as to use of the radio in education. Peace propaganda in schools. Improvement of rural schools. More teacher participation in making courses of study. Improvement of training teachers already in service. Improvement in rating the teachers’ work. Increase of safety training. Improvement of supervision. Improvement in building programs. Recognition of a need of general revision of manual training. Increased favor and disfavor of an all-year school program. More attention to educational publicity. Encouraging prospects for the Sterling-Reed Bill creating a National Depart- ment of Education. Civic Service I do not know of a single school that omitted direct civic services. The number and variety is notable. They comprised: Junior Red Cross work, Christmas offerings to the poor and disabled, a like service at Thanksgiving time, clothing for sufferers in the Near East, relief for Japanese earthquake sufferers, contributions for buying the Stuart portrait of Washington, share in work of School Children’s Aid Society, making dolls and toys for hospitals, contribution to the milk fund, Easter gifts to veterans, raising money for families of firemen killed on duty, participation in Clean-Up Week, guarding street crossings, free service of school bands, and orches- tras in hospitals and for the public, participation in Memorial Day services and in Washington Birthday celebration. The majority of the principals desire that civic participation be organized at the beginning of the term and untoward interruptions be reduced by Board authority. In June, I invited an expression of opinion from the principals as to the need of organization of these civic activities. So large a majority advised that they be pro- vided for regularly in the terms’ program that I shall request you in September to designate a fair number and to limit the years’ work to those selected. Philadelphia has forbidden all participation; New York has reduced it; Denver has authorized only one participation a year. In a paragraph of this report you will observe that reduction and organization of civic service is listed as among the prominent educa- tional acts of the year in the country at large. Patting Ourselves on the Back There is evident in educational gatherings generally throughout the country, a tendency to boast “ We have the best in the United States,” “Our school leads them all.” This is like a man’s praise of his mother or his children. He is unnatural if he doesn’t talk so. But it has its dangers also. Napoleon III and his officers spoke thus of their army. They neglected to inform Von Moltke of it. When the test came they stood nowhere. In these days of measurements, we need not guess at our standing in arithmetic, reading, writing, and spelling. The attempt to change educa- tion from a Fourth of July boast to a proved science is reducing self-praise in school systems. Our city has no license to put itself out of this movement, nor to generalize without comparative figures of other cities. Absent Treatment I have not been able to give satisfactory supervision sitting in an office attend- ing to callers, answering letters, by attending committee meetings, or by addressing 116 NATIONAL EpuUCATION ASSOCIATION teachers, citizens, or clubs. The war degraded schools. They are not in a normal situation. They need to be visited, observed, shown what to stress and what to let go. There is too much arm-chair supervision in school systems according to the makers of books on management. Needs Your newspapers in January carried much matter regarding education in Chicago. The gist of it was that what is most needed is order. Organized disloyalty and mischievous suggestion by a minority have lowered respect for the pursuit of teach- ing and made Chicago education notorious here and elsewhere. At the same time there has persisted in school circles a practice of taking all problems, however unimportant, to the superintendent as if to a potentate who by word or nod can settle everything. Not a One-Man Concern Other school systems suffer from the tradition that every teacher with a special idea or complaint, every principal, every inventor of a new device, or author of a new book, every friend of an applicant for promotion should properly take the case to the “head man.” Since beginning work here I have, in deference to Chicago usage, received all comers. It is a large price to pay for a reputation of approach- ability. To each visitor it has been explained that a specified officer is employed to handle almost every case. Business has slowly adjusted itself to a more expeditious, satisfactory, and less wasteful conduct. A system directly touching a total of $45,929 pupils and paid members must work clumsily on the old village conception of a one-man affair. It must adopt the motto of other business: “ organize, deputize, supervise.” This is a Business We are paid every year by funds taken from every citizen of Chicago on the historic promise that we shall “ promote the general welfare,” “give a thorough and efficient education.” There is no decent usage governing the spending of investors’ money which blinks the duty of watching and directing the work with intelligent provision for the best product possible. Chicago schools have the same hard task as others: an immediate and strenuous effort to repair the damage of war time, when so large a proportion of lower standard certificates were honored. The supply of prepared teachers has now returned to normal proportions. No sentimentality or charity is needed in this situation. Principals, district superin- tendents, all of us, must be held to a strict accountability for raising and maintaining standards. How to do this is suggested in another paragraph. Reduction of Superfluous Matter It seems to many in your system that you cannot introduce anything without relieving what is commonly regarded as an overloaded course of study of as much as, if not more than, you add to it. Your course of study is characterized by many persons within and without as huge, bewildering. I have found no one who can tell with adequate exactness what he is expected to do with it. It contains material of conspicuous value, but too extensive. It is like a house to which fine new furniture has been brought and not enough discarded. Permit me next year to use the experience of principals and teachers to make syllabuses of minimum essentials which are standards for every grade. These syllabuses are to select required and optional matter from your expansive and expensive courses. Not some classes, but all, should be held to a standard. At the same time there will be, in the optional portions of the course, material for children and teachers of unusual talent. Business Practice The department has sought economies in an improvement of practices in the conduct of its business. They are repeated here with the expectation that this —_a Oe Sa ON SF” =—— ‘3 os ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 117 report may be read by members of the teaching and supervising staff. The chief deficiencies noted during the year have been corrected somewhat and should be diminished further by observance of these suggestions: Date your documents with year as well as month and day of month. Typewrite your name along with your signature. It makes it less puzzling for correspondents and it makes identification of a carbon copy easier. Make your document self-explaining without the necessity of an oral supplement. If your proposition is to be given extended consideration, write it. Some one must make a record of it. You are the most likely one to put it into the form desired. Put usually your proposition first and reasons next. The mere proposal may carry conviction without the labor of reading the argument. Condense. We school people have a damaging reputation for verbosity. Separate your propositions and indicate by title the substance of each paragraph. Identify yourself as to position, school, and address. If your proposition is to be considered by a board, don’t waste your time and its time by going to the members separately. Finish it in one sitting with the board itself. Use form letters, mimeographed or printed. for routine business. In answering a letter give its date and a brief summary of the communication you are answering. List at the bottom of your letter every enclosure that is to accompany it in such detail as to identify each. When receiving such a list, at once check the enclosures with it. Consult the list of assignments of special activities to particular persons and consult them first not the Superintendent, who supervises these persons. Send your letters to the person in the Department of Education in charge of the particular matter. When one under your supervision is assigned to a special duty refer matter appertaining to it to him instead of handling it yourself. Be exact when numbers are involved. Don’t say “‘a very large number”; say 19,635 or whatever the number is. Make no promises that involve performance of work by others. Altogether too many persons are demanding performance of alleged promises. Write and keep copies of your promises and directions. The directed and the directing both forget important details. Violation of Civic Fairness In contrast to the trend of the management of American schools toward the Constitutional ideal of promoting the general welfare is some disregard of another American intent; the breakdown of special privilege, the promotion of equality and fair dealing. This violation of the civic purpose of public school education shows itself in the use of influence of prominent persons to affect examination markings, to accelerate appointments and promotions. Everyone knows that abuses from this cause in school systems led to the laws which are designed to assure to teachers without influential friends equal consideration with those of more useful acquaint- anceship. That the spirit of these laws should be disregarded by any of us who by the nature of our calling are committed to equality of opportunity, the promotion of justice, and other democratic ideals is scandalous. A principal desiring promotion who writes to an office holder “A word from you to the Superintendent will put me farther ahead than any other consideration” indicates unfitness to have charge of the preparation of citizens. Chicago has tried to clean this virus out of the school system in the past. During one period it required the superintendent to report every case of attempts to influence appointments. Under the present school law your suprintendent must nominate for appointment and promotion. If “ influence” affects this the blame is on him. To anyone in whose behalf political pressure is used a form letter is now sent showing that such influence indicates ability and record too low to be relied on without adventitious aid and that the expectation that the superintendent’s action will be affected by this kind of plea is an insult comparable to the attempt to influence a court by private appeal. Such a letter can issue only after the damage has been done. The publication of this policy here will help eradicate from a democratic school system the unfortunate tendency inherited from 118 NATIONAL EpuCATION ASSOCIATION old monarchical regimes where “ a friend at court” was indispensable for advance- ment. From a count made for a sample week it is estimated that during the year 520 appeals fo: candidates were made by persons who never saw them teach, who had no respectable knowledge of their professional fitness, and who believed the Educational Department susceptible to improper influence. As soon as those who ask for this kind of help learn that it is a liability, the practice will cease and this department will enjoy the reputation Cesar demanded of his wife. Supervision Once More Only an extensive survey of your system would determine to what degree it shares with the schools of the country an aversion to supervision. You have an organization for it: teachers directed by principals; principals, by district superin- tendents; they by division superintendent; a set of staff officers for specialties; a superintendency assigned ample authority by law; a board with power of veto and approval. Yet your critics repeatedly assert your system is demoralized. We have the American instinct of resistance to authority and, persisting from days of low salaries, the feeling that educational service is missionary work and immune from firm discipline. But supervision does mean overseeing, direction, control. The teaching service is a paid one involving the expenditure of citizens’ money earned by labor and contributed with sacrifice. The responsibility is imperative that super- vision be strict, insistent upon hard work, obedience and productive of results. There is no reason why we teachers should be treated with any more leniency than any other paid workers. Our service is no less important, our toil no more arduous, our breakdowns no more numerous, our risks no greater. It is an occu- pation with great opportunities of satisfaction and enjoyment. We live longer; we are better insurance risks than most workers. We have more reason to rejoice than to whine or complain. The large majority of us know this. The few loud-speaking ones of us who stir up strife and discontent attract more notice than is for the public good. General Pershing told the fine assemblage of women nurses: “ If anyone feels that entering this service is a cause for condolence or pity she has no place with us. Work here is a privilege, a reason for congratulation.” Appeals We recognize the necessity of providing for circumstances in which the person con- sulted does not give a decision satisfactory to the enquirer. It should be understood that in such cases an appeal to the next supervisory officer is in order and so on through the list if necessary. There is a fairness that should be observed. Either the appeal should be written or both parties concerned should be present when the next supervising officer takes the matter up. This is plain Anglo-Saxon, Magna-Carta usage. That school-systems so generally violate it is no excuse for discarding it. We want to get away from listening to complaints or accusations against an absentee whether it be teacher, principal, or supervisor. We believe that if the matter is serious enough to take up it is worth an exact written record. We know that this kind of fairness has cleared the atmosphere in many an organization. There has been more suspicion, unsubstantiated assertion, one-sided condemnation, in this system that I have ever seen elsewhere. But it is largely repetitive and trace- able to a few continuous sources. It has a bad effect of giving a wrong reputation to the entire teaching force. Observance of business fairness, dismissal of gossip, provision for regular appeals, is recommended. Supervision a Help Everybody knows that the teacher is the essential feature of the service, all of us other employees being supplementary. The time when the system functions is when teacher is exercising influence on learner. I am therefore reminding us supervisors all the time that the test of our worth is the efficiency of the teaching done. Negative ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 119 correction, necessary as it is, merely lessens errors. Positive standards, achieved and held up as goals; helpful demonstrations of how they are reached; generous com- pliment for work well done; a vigorous loyalty to the plain duty of service to Chicago; are the means I am recommending daily. Junior High Schools You adopted the recommendation of your Education Commission that as rapidly as practicable junior high schools be established to accommodate pupils of the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. You authorized the inception of this system in five schools beginning next September. You confirmed my assignment of the propo- sition to the division superintendent and district superintendent in charge of high schools. In view of the surprising opposition to the plan developed here and the desirability of affording the trial sympathetic and adequate supervision, there should be provided another district superintendent. Senior and junior high schools are too large a field for one assistant and one district superintendent. They are devoting long hours and plan to give the entire summer to the service. They have with the codperation of the University of Chicago, given ten preparatory lectures attended by 256 of our principals. Five conferences for participation by citizens have been held. The lectures have been printed and distributed. The Normal College will give a full summer term of courses for intending junior high school teachers; examinations for certificates to teach will be given during the summer. Platoon Plan of Daily Program On June 24 your Educational Commission made reports of its study of the so-called platoon schools. This plan of organization divides the pupils into two platoons, employs special teachers for auditorium, library, art, hand work, and physical training; employs more class rooms all day than in the formerly-used program and thus increases membership in the school building. The Commission recommended that “as soon as practicable a limited number of platoon schools be established believing that a fair trial will win them enthusiastic approval from principals, teacher, parents, and children alike.” If you adopt this recommendation the experience of other cities will be utilized. In New York, in Detroit, in Akron, in Birmingham, in Pittsburgh, in Newark, the plan was introduced gradually and was carefully guarded by study, by experi- ment, and by guidance of a special supervisory staff. The experience of the few pioneer schools led to requests from principals for the extension of the plan. New York, after a period of successful operation in ten schools, made an official extension of the plan to the entire city, got it involved in politics with disastrous results. Adoption of the Commission’s report here has aroused respectable protest. Even if it had not met with opposition there is here scant justification for attempting to crowd the plan upon school workers unfamiliar with it. With your approval I will study the local field, recommend principals and schools for experimenting with it, and arrange to send promising persons to cities in which they may become familiar with its most successful operation. Sabbatical Year I have proposed to you the adoption of a system successful in other cities whereby teachers desiring may take a seventh year for travel, rest, or study. Should you approve the general proposal I will submit to you for adoption or amendment details of the plan. Instruction of Children as to the City’s Educational Opportunities This year a better organized plan of advising children and parents as to the advantages of high-school and college education was put into effect. The teachers 120 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION in the higher grades gave regular lessons on the work of the higher schools stressing not so much the selfish motives of personal advantage as emphasizing the civic duty of becoming a more useful part of society; general not individual welfare. This will be repeated next year. Conclusion Many commentators remark the abundance of human energy characteristic of this city. The school workers have their share of it. The task confronting us is to avoid the waste of this stream into by-passes or unprofitable eddies, but to direct it so that it may turn the wheels and produce the results for which it is maintained. OFFICIAL BREAKFAST AT CINCINNATI F grencnersmngrys to custom the official breakfast will be Tuesday morning 8 o'clock, February 24, at Hotel Sinton. At this time officials of the Department will discuss matters pertaining to its welfare. It is the only time available for the officers to formally present in person progressive plans of procedure. BANQUET IN CINCINNATI ICKETS for the banquet of the Department of Elementary School Principals at Cincinnati may be reserved by addressing Principal Ide G. Sargeant, School Number Ten, Paterson, New Jersey. Price per plate, $2.75. The traditional banquet will take place under the auspices of the Department of Elementary School Principals on Tuesday evening, at five o’clock, in the Ballroom of Hotel Sinton. A most interesting program is promised. Speakers from all groups of education will give of their best on this festive occasion. Among the number being Dr. Hall-Quest, Dr. Russell J. Condon, Principal W. T. Long- shore, Miss Olive M. Jones. Forget your troubles; relax for an hour; imagine you are on Mt. Olympus where your struggles and endeavors have at last been appreciated. Meet your comrades of old and greet those who are strangers—but still your friends. BE THERE! TIME—s.00 P. M. PLACE—-HOTEL SINTON. EDITORIAL COMMENT Attention is called to notices on another page of our advance program, railroad rates, hotel reservations, identification certificates, and the like, matters which if attended to early insure the greatest degree of comfort possible on the trip to the mid-year meeting. We are planning to make the Cincinnati meeting the greatest since our organization. There you will meet the most wide-awake and the hardest workers among our principals. Men and women from the most progressive school systems of the land. The officers and clerical force of the National Education Association and of our Department stand ready to do all in their power to help in a ministerial way. You cannot afford to miss the meeting. The 1924 report of Superintendent William McAndrew to the Chicago Board of Education is one of the great educational publications of the year. The problems which he discusses in a masterly way are the problems confronting all of our large city systems. In dealing with them thus frankly with straight-from-the-shoulder thrusts, Dr. McAndrew has performed a distinct service to education everywhere. Every progressive school administrator and supervisor should give the report a careful reading in its entirety. In another part of this Bulletin we have used extended quotations from those portions of the report which we feel will be most helpful to principals. In this connection we wish to register our emphatic approval of what Dr. McAn- drew has to say about “influence” while discussing VIOLATION OF Civic FAIRNESS. At the same time it is our prayer that the paragraph may be read by those pussy- footing superintendents and spoils-mongering school boards who by their despicable practices drive their teachers and principals to resort to “influence” as a measure to obtain simple justice. To read the vigorous propaganda running rife throughout the country for increased war and naval appropriations, one could well imagine that the fate of the Nation depends on huge preparations for war, whereas the truth is that its fate depends upon education. Those desiring large war and naval appropriations have shown themselves pastmasters of the art of publicity in preparing people to bear the tremendous burdens that have crippled and impoverished mankind. There is no antidote for war but education. It is the imperative duty of the leaders of education everywhere to show themselves equally skilful in presenting the need of a proper support of education to their communities. For this reason we are giving considerable space to an outline of the highly commendable publicity work being done by the Chicago principals. We wish to call attention of our readers to the schedule of conferences with the superintendent for the year from Elizabeth, New Jersey. It will be noted that Dr. Chapman has arranged to meet his principals in the middle of the forenoon or the middle of the afternoon. A right step. At the close of the daily session and for the remainder of his working day the place of the principal is in his office, free to meet parents, teachers, children, the general public and to organize the work for the following day. One of the most artistic and helpful programs for visting parents comes to us from the ALMEDA ScHOOL, Baltimore. How many cities will be ready to report one-hundred per cent membership in the Department for our April Bulletin, as Tacoma does in this issue? Remember a light hidden under a bushel is of little use. If you are doing anything new or particu- larly helpful, send a notice of it to the Bulletin that the rest of us may be benefitted by it. Much thought is being given to the matter of reading by children and adults. Two of the most scholarly and helpful articles of the year on this subject are contained in this issue, one the address of Joy E. Morgan before our Department at Washington last summer, the other a report of investigation carried on in Paterson by Principal Frank M. Rich. Also the publicity sheets issued by the American Library Association, Chicago, contain valuable information. [121] DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS Cincinnati Program President, Mrs. Jessie M. Fink, Principal Palmer School, Grand Rapids, Michigan Secretary, Ide G. Sargeant, Principal Public School No. 10, Paterson, New Jersey Monday Afternoon, 2:15 P. M., February 23, 1925 Cincinnati Music Hall The Principal at Work THE OPPORTUNITY SCHOOL Emily Griffith, Principal Opportunity School, Denver, Colo. SPEcIFIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF PRINCIPALS RELIEVED OF CLERICAL DETAIL A Case study of how it was worked out and is working in: Lincoln, Nebraska Ruth Pyrtle, Principal, McKinley School Chicago, Illinois Gertrude Corrigan, Principal, Nobel School ONE PRINCIPAL’s DEFINITE RESULTS FROM ADVERTISING THE WorTH OF EDUCATION— A Case Stupy. How Ir Was Done 1n Granp Rapips, MICHIGAN Mrs. Anna Weatherwax, Principal, Plainfield School, Grand Rapids, Mich. THE PRINCIPAL AND THE SPECIAL SUPERVISOR Fred C, Ayer, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. Tuesday Afternoon, 2:15 P. M., February 24, 1925 Cincinnati Music Hall Some High Lights on Salary Adjustments THE RELATION OF THE SALARY SCHEDULE TO THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM Jesse B. Newlon, President N. E. A., Denver, Colo. How THE SINGLE SALARY SCHEDULE WoRKED OuT IN ANN Arsor, MICH. Leslie A. Butler, Superintendent of Schools, Grand Rapids, Mich. Tue EFFect oF A DAILY SCHEDULE ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF AN ELEMENTARY PRIN- CIPAL’s ACTIVITIES Menlo S. Kuehny, Principal, Rowan Avenue School, Los Angeles, Calif. THE PRINCIPAL'S INTEREST IN THE CHILD LABOR AMENDMENT J. W. Crabtree, Secretary, National Education Association, Washington, D. C. SEMI-ANNUAL BANQUET—HOTEL SINTON, Cincinnati, February 24, at 5 o’clock, P. M. Wednesday Afternoon, 2:15 P. M., February 25, 1925 Cincinnati Music Hall ReEporRT OF COMMITTEE ON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LIBRARY STANDARDS C. C. Certain, Detroit, Mich. SUPERVISION—A SCIENCE AND AN ART Dr. Alfred L. Hall-Quest THE PRINCIPAL AND THE COURSE OF STUDY Dr. James F. Hosic, Teachers College, Columbia University SUPERVISORY PROBLEMS IN RELATION TO SILENT READING Dr. C. R. Stone, San Diego, Calif. Has THE CHALLENGE TO THE ELEMENTARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS BEEN SATISFACTORILY ACCEPTED ? Olive M. Jones, Principal, Public School No. 120, New York City [122] THE FOURTH YEARBOOK ARTHUR S. Gist, EpIToR B. F. Day School, Seattle, Washington T IS planned to have both the professional and administrative phases of the elementary-school principalship studied and reported upon for our Fourth Yearbook without duplicating any of the professional functions treated in our Third Yearbook. It is hoped that the tentative outline will be studied carefully and that suggestions may be freely made to the editor concerning the Yearbook or its title, ‘‘ Some Professional and Administra- tive Aspects of the Elementary-School Principalship.” It will be of material aid to the Editor and insure an early issue of our Fourth Yearbook if articles to appear are ready and turned over to Mr. Gist at the Cincinnati meeting. The editor is hopeful that the same spirit of helpfulness extended tc him in preparing the Third Yearbook, will again be in evidence. TENTATIVE OUTLINE FOR PRINCIPALS’ FOURTH YEARBOOK A. THE PROFESSIONAL SIDE I, The principal and his professional training—a study of desirable courses. II. The rating of principals in service. III. The principal and the improvement of instruction. . Local geography. . History. . Spelling. 4. Literature in the grades. 5. Outside reading of pupils—an experiment. 6. Natural science in the elementary grades. a. A general outline covering a desirable and practical course. b. The teaching of agriculture. c. The study of local birds. d. The study of local flora. e. The study of local animals. f. The school garden. (One topic to a contributor.) 7. The school assembly as an aid to the academic subjects. 8. The librarian in the elementary school. IV. The principal and the pupil. 1. The principal and the delinquent boy. 2. Work with the slow pupils. 3. The bright pupil—an enriched course in place of special advancement. 4. The crippled child. 5. Home study—an investigation of conditions. 6. The education of pupils with defective vision. V. General. . Visual education. . Thrift education. . The school and the public museum. 4. The scientific selection of texts. 5. The principal’s health. [123] NATIONAL EpUCATION ASSOCIATION 4 CD ONI AWN PY D B. THe ADMINISTRATIVE SIDE . The principal and his community. . The principal and the administrative office. . The principal and the selection, transfer, and dismissal of his teachers. . The principal and the janitorial service. . The principal and his remuneration—a study. . The principal and extra-curricular activities. . The principal and his office equipment and assistance. . The principal and the business management of his school. . The principal and the use of educational experts. . The principal and his physical plant. CINCINNATI MEETING IMPORTANT FACTS Special railroad rates, one and one half fare for the round trip. Identification certificates furnished on request. Write N. E. A. Headquarters at Washington or your State director. If you neg- lect to secure in advance your identification certificate, no adjust- ment of fare can be made after arrival at Cincinnati. Sleeping-room reservations are handled through the Housing Bureau, of which Mr. Thomas Quinlan, manager, Convention and Publicity Department, Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, is chairman. Write him. General Sessions—Music Hall. Registration and Post Office—Music Hall. DIRECTORY OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS ORGANIZATIONS LEASE send to Mr. S. D. Shankland, our executive secretary, 1201 Sixteenth Street, N. W., Washington, D. C., the name of your organization and its officers, and also those of any organiza- tions of which you know that may not as yet be affiliated. We are desirous of compiling a directory of all organizations. Such infor- mation would be of incalculable value. President Jessie M. Fink is giving the “ Bugle Call” to this Department to step forward and occupy, by merit, the great field that the educational world is allotting to them. May we rise to the occasion as a unit and bring to the cause all the things which we have so ably discussed; may we contribute to education the results of our devotion and continue our endeavors to further progressive policies. We have put our shoulder to the ploughshare. There is no turning back. NOTES FROM THE FIELD Hyannis, Massachusetts—The Hyannis State Normal School, Dr. Francis C. Bagley, principal, is planning to give a course on the Administrative and Super- visory Duties of the Elementary School Principal, at its summer school, July 7- August 15. Another evidence of the growing realization on the part of progressive educators of having properly trained principals at the head of our schools. Elizabeth, New Jersey—The elementary school principals of Elizabeth have just completed an unusually fine piece of constructive work in the preparation of a new course of study. The principals, Miss Isabel Davidson, director of Elementary Education and Superintendent Chapman are to be congratulated on this evidence of the proper coéperation in the schools of that city. Elizabeth is also working out a systematic schedule of conferences. The plan for this year is given below. ELIZABETH, N. J., PUBLIC SCHOOLS SCHEDULE OF CONFERENCES—SEPTEMBER 16, 1924 Place of Conferences Meeting Prins. Sup’rs Hds. of Depts. (7 to 12) or Representa- tive Comm. Groups Day Time M. |Board Room Supt. of 1st Tue. 2:00 P. Schools Supt. of 2nd Tue. 10: 00 A. M. Principals Schools Supt. of Schools Principals: Elementary B. H. S. & Cleve. J r. Special times Special Com- d designated mittees Teachers Optional—other than scheduled days Special time desig- nated by prins. & app. by Supt. 1st Wed. Teachers Sup’rs & Hds | Departmental Battin H. S. Auditorium of Depts. for Grs. 7 to 12 roups— gts. 7 to 12 a3 g0 2. Ei: unless otherwise designated Director Ele. Edu. Principals 10:00 A. M. Board | Room Director Ele. du. Kindergart- ners 3:00 P. M. Director & Supervisors Teachers of Grs. 1 & 2 9:30 A. M. 3:00 P. M. Director & Supervisors Teachers of Grs. 3 & 4 4th Tue. 3:00 P. M. to 5:00 P. M. Dismiss 2:30 P. M. Board Room | 'A four-hour day for part- time teacher. Full day, dismiss at 2:30 P. M. No. 2 _ 1st : meeting No. 3 Director & Supervisors Teachers of Grs. 5 & 6 2nd Thu. 31 00 P. M. 4th Thu. to 5:00 P. M. No. 2 Dismiss at 2: 30 Director of Elementary Demonstra- tion Groups 1st Thu. 9:30 A. M. to 2:00 P. M. Various bldgs. Teachers of Opportunity Classes Attendance required at one meeting each month [125] NATIONAL EpucATION ASSOCIATION BALTImorE, Mp., EDUCATION WEEK DIRECTORY, ALMEDA SCHOOL, CENTRAL AVENUE AND STILES STREET, BALTIMORE, MD. Milton L. Regus, Principal FIRST FLOOR Teacher Class Louise R. Muchow 1A Elizabeth K. Hastings and Charlotte H. Feast Kind’g’ten Helen R. Bealmear 2B Mildred G. Davis 2A Emma E. Hesse 2B Eleanor Duke 1B Cornelia D. Deal 1B H_ L. Evaline Ulrich 1A and 1B THIRD FLOOR Room Teacher Class Sidney Chayt 5A Margaret A. Madison Ethel Jones Audrey E. Pryor Minnie Bernstein Helen M. Gardner W Alan L. Gordon X Jane M. Kelly SECOND FLOOR Room Teacher Class Anna L. Baldwin Special Ethel L. Collenberg 3A Loretta C. Lohmuller Sewing Esther Paulson ‘Mildred Wolff Margaret K. Reese Mary Shaw Gertrude Moses wmOoZzerAc GROUND FLOOR Room Teacher Class Special Special Y Maria C. Moore Z Mary M. Lochman Assembly Room and Gymnasium Girls’ Clubh—Wednesday Boys’ Club—Thursday Miss Grace Ridgeway, the School Nurse, is in her office on the third floor on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday morning. Dr. A. Palmisano, School Physician, is in the building on Wednesday morning. Americanization Class for Mothers is held every Monday and Wednesday after- noons at 2 o’clock in Room I, second floor. You are welcome. Sewing Classes are conducted in the building daily. Manual Training and Cooking Classes, for Sixth Grade pupils, are held at School No. 93 every Friday. Miss Edna Burhenn, Music Supervisor, is in the building every other Wednesday. Miss Florence Wallace, Art Supervisor, is in the building every other Thursday. Miss Naomi M. Lantz, Physical Director, is in the building every week on Wednes- day, Thursday and Friday. Assemblies: Kindergarten, Grades I and II, every Friday from 10 to 11.30 A. M.; Grades III and IV, every Friday from 1.30 to 2 Pp. M.; Grades V and VI every Wednesday from 1.30 to 2 P. M. Parents and visitors are always welcome. Babies’ Clinics, under the direction of the Babies’ Milk Fund, in the Assembly Room every Tuesday at 1.30 Pp. M. and every Saturday morning at 9.30 o'clock. (Please enter by Central avenue door.) The Playground Athletic League holds Boys’ Classes, for Seniors and Juniors, in the Gymnasium every Monday and Wednesday night beginning at 7 o'clock, and for Girls every Tuesday night. The Principal is in his office daily to give information and prevocational guidance advice to parents and to receive visitors: Morning, 9 to 9.30, 11.30 to 12; evening, 1.30 to 2, 3.30 to 4. : Give your child a useful education. Please visit your school often. coun prince 10 A. eee it Oi i a a Tea recent perfec more fessior offerir interes ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 127 New JeRsEY STATE PRINCIPALS ASSOCIATION Lawrence S. Chase, President, Ann Troy, Vice-President. E. H. Dutcher, Trea- surer. F. H. Budd, Secretary. Executive Committee: L. H. Dix, Elizabeth Edwards, Howard J. McNaughton, Harold Phillips, Ide G. Sargeant. Call sent to: COMMITTEE OF ONE HUNDRED ON PUBLICITY AND MEMBERSHIP DRIVE Montclair, New Jersey, January 1, 1925. My DEAR : An opportunity for service to God and Country, lies open to the school principals of the land such as was never vouchsafed to any group or calling before in the history of civilization. Are we big enough in brain and imagination to conceive and organize a plan to make the most of this opportunity? One of us or a few of us alone cannot do it. Together we can. It means organization and more organization until every principal has been enrolled. It concerns the principal of the big school and of the small school. The problems of each are the same in kind. The enormous industrial development of the metropolitan State of New Jersey has created the great institutions within our borders known as the modern community school with many departments and requiring as its head an individual with as large intellectual capacity and poise as the better judicial positions. The principal’s professional training should be as thorough, his compensation as adequate, and the public respect for his position as high as that accorded to our judges. The welfare of public education in our State demands this. In 1920, the Department of Elementary School Principals was organized at Atlantic City. Already it has become a power in the field of professional education, and by making clear the work to be done and the responsibilities to be borne by those holding this position, has done more than all other agencies combined to create respect for the principal and establish his proper standing in the community. It is with the aim to make the New Jersey Principals a similar power in the educational councils of our State that the committee named below comprising many of our better known principals, together with the officers of the association will meet Saturday, January 10, 10 A. M. at Newark. PROBLEMS FOR IMMEDIATE CONSIDERATION . Requisite clerical assistance. . Requisite assistance in class supervision. . Curriculum changes. . Relation and sphere of principals and special supervisors. Attitude toward questionnaires and surveys. A new basis for reckoning principals salaries imperative. . The vital need of a better understanding of the place for professional organization. . One-hundred per cent membership for the New Jersey State Principals’ Association. 9. Shall the New Jersey State Principals’ Association publish a quarterly bulletin and a yearbook, in which the more important studies and projects of principals in various parts of the State, one published so as to be of help to all the principals? It gives me great pleasure to appoint you a member of this advisory committee, and I trust you will be present at our first meeting. I enclose herewith a list of the entire committee. Cordially yours, Lawrence S. Cuase, President. Cosy AYP WD Teachers College, Columbia University—Remarkable progress has been made recently by the leaders among the elementary school principals of the country in perfecting a National organization and taking steps to make the work of principal more truly a profession. This has helped to create a demand for adequate pro- fessional training for the principal. To meet this demand Teachers College is offering for the first time a full complement of courses planned especially for those interested in this field. 128 NATIONAL EpuUCATION ASSOCIATION Besides increased emphasis upon topics relating to the organization and manage- ment of an elementary school in the major course in elementary education, a two- point course in this subject is offered both during the week and on Saturday morning during the present semester. In the Spring Session corresponding courses will be offered in supervision and the improvement of teaching. In addition, pro- vision is made for research and for seminar work leading to the Ph. D. degree. The chief responsibility for the conduct of these courses and for advising with students interested in graduate work in this field has been entrusted to Professor James F. Hosic, who retains the direction of extramural instruction. Tacoma, Washington—Miss Jennie M. Reed, secretary-treasurer of the Tacoma Principals Association, recently sent a check for annual dues in the Department of Elementary School Principals for every principal in Tacoma. This organization ° one hundred per cent in the National Education Association as well as in this Department. Newark, New Jersey—The new schedule for Newark principals provides a maximum of fifty-five hundred dollars for heads of the larger schools. This will give the Newark principals an advantage of five hundred dollars over the prin- cipals of Jersey City and Bayonne, whose maximum is five thousand. REMITTANCE FOR MEMBERSHIP DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS Mr. Courtianp V. Davis, Treasurer 1201 Sixteer h Street Northwest Washingtor D. C. My dear 1 .r. Davis: I am a member of the National Education Association. I inclose my fee of $2.00 foi e..ibership in the Department of Elementary School Principals during the year 1924-25. One dollar of this fee is for a year’s subscription to the Department Bulletin. Kindly send all publications, including the Fourth Yearbook, to be issued in June, 1925, to me at the address given below. i |