The NATIONAL ELEMENTARY. ? RINCIPAL BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS ICAL ROOMATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION LIBRARY »pRIOD ENING IN OTOMAC RK THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY PRINCIPAL BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS Published in October, December Elementary School Principals of the National February April, June, and July by the Department ,j ducation Association of the United States, All elementary principals—administrative, supervisory, and teaching—are eligible to actiy membership in this department. The payment of $3 dues entitles active members to attend ,| meetings of the department, to hold office, to vote, and to receive the Bulletins. Associate membership may be had by all members of the National Education Associatio, who are actively engaged in any phase of school work by paying the regular membership fe, of $3. They are entitled to all privileges except the right to vote and hold office. Subscription to non-members is $3 per year; 36 SESE, --~-> St. Louis, Mo., February GENERAL SESSION, FEBRUARY 23, 1936 Home and School Contacts HE FIRST SESSION of the St. Louis meeting of the Department of Ele- mentary School Principals convened on Monday afternoon in Assembly Room 4, Municipal Auditorium, Edythe J. Brown, principal, Kaley-Marquette Schools, South Bend, Indiana, presiding. This session was opened with four songs rendered by a group of St. Louis elementary pupils, under the expert leadership of Eugene M. Hahnel, supervisor of music, St. Louis, Missouri. Greetings Willard E. Givens, Executive Secretary, National Education Association, Washington, D. C. I am glad to be here, this afternoon, to bring you greetings from the Officers of the National Education Association. We are very much interested in all of the departments, and we are particularly interested in the Department of Elementary School Principals, because its offices are with ours in Washington. Miss Pinkston works with us there as one of our fellow workers, trying to carry forward the work of public education in this country. I think I can say everything I have to say upon the ele- mentary principalship in one sentence: The elementary-school principal has every responsibility that a city superintendent has; he has it in one section of the city. You know what all those responsibilities are, all important; you cover the whole phase of life, all phases, your public relations, your instruction, your administration, morale, and all the rest. I know of no bigger job or no bigger responsibility than that of doing the W. E. GIVENS work of an elementary-school principal and doing it well. We are living in an age when sane constructive leadership is vital. The elementary-school principal influences children at a time in their lives when it counts tremendously. He is a wise guide and friendly leader for teachers when classes are large, salaries -small, and supplies scarce. He must be a builder of morale for his teaching force; one who encourages thinking and initiative; one who praises good work done regardless of who did it; one who ctiticizes, if criticism is necessary, helpfully but never spitefully; and one who encourages growth and makes his school a happy place for all. It is a pleasure for me to bring you greetings and to have the opportunity of sitting in on part of your program, this afternoon. Thank you. PRINCIPAL, APRIL 1936 133 i The 1936 Yearbook Personality Adjustment of the Elementary-School Chili Maude McBroom, Principal, University Elementary School, University of Iowa, Iowa City, lowa I am not sure that I know why I have been chosen to make this report from among the group of people who might have made it. I have a question in my mind, possibly it is comparable with the story I heard of a young English lord, who had a very wonderful estate in England. He had gone on a scouting trip to get some materials, equipment, plants, and animals for his marvelous gardens. He gathered, in his wander. ings, a pair of peafowls. He was very eager to bring these birds home and have them in his gardens, and, if possible, propagate their kind, He gathered his servants together and told them that, whatever happened, in case the hen laid an egg, that egg was to be taken care of so it could be hatched. He had occasion to go down to London ona business trip, and while he was gone, the event happened—the hen laid an egg. The servants gathered together and wondered what to do about it. Finally they sent this message to his lordship: “The peacock has laid an egg. In his Lordship’s absence, we have set it under the largest goose on the place.” I have often wondered why anyone would ac. cept an invitation to help edit a yearbook, the writing of which puts the “wreck” in “recreation.” This I have found to be true, but let me say, I really have hada lot of fun helping to put together this yearbook and I have enjoyed immensely working with the other members of the Committee. We have a yearbook which you are going to have in your hands by the first of September, and it is going to be on a topic in which you, who are working in elementary education, will be intensely interested—The Personality Adjustment of the Elementary-School Child. For a good many years, it has been conceded that we need to know a great deal about arithmetic, if we are to teach arithmetic; we must know penmanship, if we are to teach it; and we must know a great deal about reading, if we are to teach reading. But, strange to say, we have been permitted to teach children withou! knowing a great deal about their natural drives. We are now coming to feel a new stress in education toward child development. We have begun to find out that we must know the nature of the child, know his drives to action, know the things he MAUDE McBROOM Note: Miss McBroom made this report for Dr. Samuel Berman, chairman, who was absent, due to illnes 134 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY is tl whe adjt adul som of t orde that Whi outs scho hom men malé have roo field: T A In outse schoc tifica press tenac evide Be schoo bar te gram avera thoug eleme It: of pai we IV —_— PRI] hild from n my lord, some or his nder- er to n his kind, them id an could on a event vants about ship: hip’s 200se d ac: r eck” had a nsely » first ng in ‘ment if we teach thout 4 new at we gs he illness. ARY is thinking and know what accounts for his behavior. Consequently those of us who are interested in elementary education, are forced to find out about child adjustment. This yearbook is going to help take care of some of these problems. It must worry you, as it has me, to read the statistics of the large percent of adults who are maladjusted and we know that this maladjustment was acquired somewhere along the line. Again we become concerned when we read the statistics of the large percent of people who are in psychopathic hospitals for mental dis- orders, and we know we must do something in school about the question. [am sure that a few of the questions which naturally confront you are the same that have confronted others. What are the natural drives which a child has? Which ones are back of making him think and act the way he does? What factors outside of the school are helping to make a child’s adjustment? What kind of a school should we be running? Who is to blame for maladjustment—school or home? Why call in specialists? Upon what do we actually have careful experi- mental evidence? What has actually been done, on the practical side, about these maladjusted children? What communities have had different enterprises that have helped to mend matters? These questions cannot be answered by those of us who are busy in the school- room, therefore the Editorial Committee has asked specialists in the different fields to help solve these problems for us. Today’s Program of Elementary Education from the Standpoint of the Home A. F. Harman, President, Alabama College, Montevallo, Alabama In order that this discussion may be thoroly understood, it seems well, at the outset, to express the considered judgment that the best teaching in American schools at any level, at this time, is being done in the elementary schools. If scien- tifically trained and inclined persons are disposed to challenge this sincerely ex- pressed judgment, we will maintain our composure and hold tenaciously to our opinion until such time as documentary evidence shall have been presented to prove to the contrary. Because the good and commendable work of the elementary school is readily recognized, it seems that there should be no bar to the utmost freedom of expression with respect to its pro- gram from the standpoint of the home. It is doubtful that the average American home maintains any well-defined, carefully thought-out or conscious conclusions as to the program of the elementary school. It is pedagogically platitudinous to speak of the indifference of parents with respect to the work of the school. None the less, we must keep well in the forefront of our thinking the lack of information, the A. F. HARMAN PRINCIPAL, APRIL 1936 135 indisposition, and the indifference of the average American home. We must remem. ber the tragic ignorance of tens of thousands of them. We must recognize, too the operation of the principle of division of labor in the business of education: certainly, in its more technical or professional aspects. With respect to these professional aspects of education, we may raise wit) dignity the question of the relation of the teacher to the average home. The cay of the school is not the same as the relation of the surgeon to the average patien in the case of an operation. Undoubtedly, however, the inclusion of this topic jp your program contemplated a waiver, pro temporary, of the professional claims of those who are responsible either for making or for the execution of today’s program of elementary education. In the absence of any well-defined demand on the part of the average Americay home, we turn to Dewey’s famous dictum: “What the best and wisest paren desires in the way of education for his child, that the community should desire for all its children.” From this point, therefore, we ought to look at today’s pro. gram of elementary education, not from the standpoint of any home, not fron the standpoint of the American home, but from the standpoint of the wisey and best parent. Obviously, it is difficult to know what the wisest and best parents, scattered over the vast stretches of our country, are thinking about education. In the face of this difficulty, our best recourse is to the thinking of organized, non-profes- sional or, at most, quasi professional groups. I always come back to the first sentence of Section 3 of the great Ordinance of 1787: “Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools, and the means of education, shall forever be encouraged.” The ultimate end of government, education, morality, and re- ligion, is always the same—the happiness of mankind. Our quest for happiness may be only a vague searching, but the wisest and best parent looks to the pro- gram of the school for attainment by his child of this noblest of objectives. How- ever worthy its interests and however wise its activities, no non-professional organization can preempt the services of the school, for which professional people are trained and employed. About the philosophic aspects of the program of the elementary school, I am not so certain. With respect to education, not all the lovers of wisdom are to be found among those of us who are professionally trained for, and professionally engaged in, the work of the school. The hopes and aspirations of the wisest and best parents are to be reflected in the program of the school. The working out 0! ideals of character and culture is the privilege and the responsibility of the whole of society. The problem of the relationship of gainful occupations to culture shouli not be entrusted to any restricted or professional group. Great folk movements do not necessarily originate in or with the school. If my assumption is correct, that the National Congress of Parents and Teach ers provides the best organized expression of the attitude of the wisest and bes parents to the program of the elementary school, it is because that composile expression is philosophical rather than professional. This brings us to the obvious 136 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR! =. Oe hs HF, cd mem- ‘y too, ation: with Ee Case atient Pic in claims day's erican arent desire $ pro- - from wisest ttered e face wr ofes- nce of nment orever nd te- piness € pro- How- sional people , 1 am to be onally st and out of whole should >ments Teach- d best bvious TARY inference that the home looks to the school for the placement of proper emphasis on the scientific aspects of education. Now, science always has its face to the future. Science does not fear the dis- covery of new truths. It demands the laboratory, it resorts to experimentation, it keeps company with congenial and mild mannered progressives; it does not turn a scornful eye upon rugged and hardy frontiersmen. But better than all this, when science speaks or acts, it speaks or acts with authority. The best and wisest parents expect the program of the elementary school to be executed by persons trained professionally for the business. They apply the principle of the division of labor to the school. They recognize their own limita- tions. They wish for their children scientifically trained teachers, who possess scientific attitudes toward the program of the school. They are subservient to the power of authority. Authority is assured to him who is certain of his facts. Many years ago, at the feet of a great teacher, I listened to lectures on the subject, “Contribution to the science of education.” Over the years, I have lived very closely with one sentence from those lectures: “Science gives versatility to art.” I am sure that the wisest and best parents would have the scientifically trained teacher of their child be not merely a scientist but also a versatile artist. We parents would have you who work in the schools emulate the virtues of the artists, whose lives are devoted to beauty of sound, of form, of color. We would have you delve to their spiritual depths if you would, but love your art for art’s sake. We would expect you to be temperamental. We would wish you to open the eyes of little children to the beauty of blue skies and placid lakes, of gray mornings and golden sunsets, of the evening star and silver moon, of a flooded stream in springtime, or of brown autumn leaves. We would have you attune their ears to the loveliness of nature at work, the hum of bees, the song of birds, the chattering of squirrels, the dog’s bark, or the roll of distant thunder; to the music of their own voices; and to every kind of beauty of sound that the artist is able to produce. We would have you open their hearts to feminine grace and masculine strength; to the beauty of motherhood and the glory of fatherhood; and to the stern voices of truth and duty. All this, we parents know can be done by no rule of thumb. Fifteen years ago, I wrote a sentence (you may make of me a heretic for re- peating it), “Give me for the teacher of my own child one of those choice and noble spirits who allure to brighter worlds and lead the way, and I do not care what she teaches him or how she teaches it.” The wisest and best parent is looking for a versatile artist to execute the pro- gram of the elementary school. If the program of the elementary school is at all in danger, I do not think that it is due to loftiest tendency of the progressives so much as to the smugness and complacency of conservative reactionaries. Some months ago, I was asked to speak to a Women’s Club on the subject, “New Things in Education.” I presented to them a conclusion already expressed to you, namely, that (all the controversial possibilities admitted) the ends of education are finally to be summed up in the noble objective of human happiness. If we are wise and good, we love and long for a balanced program of living befitting human beings. PRINCIPAL, APRIL 1936 137 I also reached the conclusion that there is little or nothing new in the content of education. When Adam and Eve in the Garden sewed their fig leaves together, we had our first lesson in household arts. There are times when I doubt that we have made very much progress since that day in the matter of costume design, In the morning of the world, the younger generation was having its lessons, crude tho they were, in cooking. ‘A cave man sketched on the walls of his primitive home; he cupped his ears to the notes of the drum and shell in that far-away day, Then in the modern days of old Greece, Socrates, surrounded by the youth of Athens, having convinced them that education was essential to the ideal state, said, “Let us begin with education of the traditional sort, namely, gymnastics for the body and music for the soul.” Almost five hundred years ago, Martin Luther was taking his stand for music and the tournament, with fencing and wrestling, saying, “Unless a schoolmaster sings, I think little of him.” And again, “Let no man think himself so intelligent that he can despise children’s play.” There is but one conclusion: Let the elementary school of today be not troubled as to the end of education. Let it not be taxed with the content aspects of curric- ulum making. Let it be held to a strict accountability for procedures that shall be everlastingly new. Let it shun the besetting evils of shut-mindedness. Let it nourish and foster the cardinal virtue of receptivity to change. Let its progress be founded upon the authority of science. Let its work be perfected thru the skill of artistry. If the authority of science is to dominate the program of the elementary school, if the school’s program is to be modified and refined and perfected by the skill of artistry, inevitably we shall come upon a new philosophy of procedure. We shall still develop in children skill in handling the tools of knowledge, but mere cor- rective processes will make way for influence. Formation—not reformation—will be the order. Readjustment for individual children will continue to be, but the adjustment of children by wholesale to a defective society will cease to be. Instead, we shall have in the elementary school the beginnings of a society befitting human beings —a balanced program of living. If we of the home have hitched our wagon to the star of idealism, let me say that we lack no faith in you of the elementary school. We are in earnest. We are mindful of a passage from the address of Matthew Arnold, at the dedication of the memorial window to Milton, in St. Margaret’s Church: “A lady in the State of Ohio,” said Mr. Arnold, “sent to me, only the other day, a volume on American authors. The praise given thruout was of such high pitch that, in thanking her, I could not forbear saying that for only one or two of the authors named was such a strain of praise admissible, and that we lose all real standards of excellence by praising so uniformly and immoderately. She answered me with charming good temper that, very likely, I was quite right, but it was pleasant to her to think that excellence was common and abundant.” But excellence is not common and abundant. On the contrary, as the Greek poet long ago said, “Excellence dwells among rocks, hardly accessible, and a man must almost wear his heart out before he can reach her.” Whoever talks of 138 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY er 65 w —— Pl er nt ure ier igh wo all he yut excellence as common and abundant is on the way to lose all right standard of excellence, and, when the right standard of excellence is lost, it is not likely that much which is excellent will be produced. We of the home should hitch our wagon to the star of idealism. We are in earnest. We would have you go to your task of executing the program of the ele- mentary school with your hearts overfilled with the enthusiasm of John Ruskin for education. “Education does not mean teaching children what they do not know; it means teaching them to behave as they do not behave. It is not teaching the youth the shapes of letters and the tricks of numbers, and then leaving them to turn their arithmetic to rot and their literature to rust. It means, on the contrary, training them in the perfect exercise and kingly countenance of their bodies and souls.” It is a painful, continuous, and difficult work, to be done by kindness, watching, warning, precept, praise, and, above all, by example. Parent Education as Supplementary to the Modern Elementary-School Program Miss Willie A. Lawson, Secretary, Arkansas Education Association, Little Rock, Arkansas My talk, in its major premises, is very much like the one you have just heard. I know you are saying, “Why not hand it to the secretary and quit?” But I have two or three good stories that this speech is wound around and I cannot pass up the opportunity of telling them. About three months ago I was riding with a friend of mine when she reached over and turned a button on the dashboard of the car. We heard a voice say, ‘““The President of the Radio City Corporation will now speak to us. He is 975 miles out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.” We gasped at the thought of it. In a moment we heard a voice in New York City say, “Madam Jeritza, who is in Austria, will sing for us.” And we heard it. Then, this same voice said, “Walt Disney in Cali- fornia will present Mickey Mouse, after which we shall return to New York to hear Paul Whiteman and his orchestra.”’ I kept shrinking and shrinking at the thought that I, a mere human being in this great world of science, could ride along in a Ford, on a country road in south Arkansas, and hear a man out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean make a speech, listen to a lady in Austria sing, visit Cali- fornia for a presentation of Mickey Mouse, and next hear music in New York. It did not seem possible. Not long after that, I visited a fifth- grade physiology class. It went something like this: Teacher: “Bill, what is a bandage?”’ Bill: “It is a cloth of certain materials made for surgical dressings.” Teacher: “All right. John, what are the kinds of bandages?” John: “A circular, a spiral, spiral-reverse, figure eight, recurrent, four-tailed.” APRIL 1936 PRINCIPAL, 139 Teacher: “All right. Sarah, what is a circular bandage?” Sarah: “It is one that encircles a part of an affected area, each layer overlying the layer beneath.” (Sarah was very original.) Teacher: “Tom, where is a circular bandage used?” Tom: “On the neck.” This kept on and on. The only difference in that physiology lesson and one in which I sat as a pupil some thirty or forty years ago, was the fact that the children had the books open just about as often as they had them closed. I might have been the valedictorian if the books could have stayed open. It seemed that the one who found the answer first was the smartest. Another thing, the children sat instead of standing to recite and the teacher’s voice was a little bit more in- formal than it used to be. From that school I went to another. Before I got there, I saw what seemed to be a great deal of confusion on the school ground. As I looked more closely I saw a boy stretched on the ground and another standing over him, one child had on a recurrent bandage and still another had a bandaged forearm. Thinking aloud, I said, “Shall I go for a doctor, or turn at this corner and not go to that school today?” I felt it was one of those community feuds and I was arriving on the scene just in time, not to save the day but to be a witness in a case. The teacher was leaning nonchalantly up against a post and of course I wanted to know what on earth had happened. He said, “Bill cut his arm on a wire and Tom got snake bitten.”’ Hurriedly I asked, “Have you sent for a doctor?” Then I saw the twinkle in his eye. That fifth-grade class was having a lesson on band- ages too. What is modern progressive education? In some places children are still carry- ing books home—+thirteen books! We used to have geography so we could name Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connect- icut. We did not know if Maine was north, east, south, or west, but we knew it was in the right-hand corner of the map. Some of you learned the same way. Now we have geography in its relationship to man and the world in which he lives. The child in the modern elementary school is promoted by subjects; he works with others and progresses at his own rate. Two-fifths of the time is given to in- dividualized subjects, three-fifths to socialized subjects; and he gets help from the teacher as he needs it. I never make a talk to a parent-teacher association and say anything about home work, but what some father will say, “I long for the day when the modern elementary school will be put into practise, so that the parents will not have to teach the children at home.” This home study program is still in vogue in many places. What is the modern elementary-school program? The average legislator thinks that lessons should be heard at a specified period each day; the apathetic and indifferent teacher thinks her principal “an old bear who’s gone modern” if he insists on a study of and trial of curriculum revision plans. The principal would be called a poor administrator, if he should force his teachers to teach a certain way; and some superintendents spend much time in deciding what should be taught. There is a definite trend toward the practical or utilitarian instruction. Useless material in the curriculum must go. 140 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY vil in lie Za! ne wa the ba: bu an the col T-—FeP&F TH te SS OS eee —-_ ovr A school is just as surely a place where children may live together, learn and develop naturally under the normal conditions characteristic of the age level as a municipality or state is an institution where adults may live, learn, and develop naturally at their age levels. A school should be set up as such, because in your elementary school there are potential bankers, carpenters, dressmakers, scientists, draftsmen, clerks, social workers, and federated club presidents. I have seen them at the age of six. They are just as surely there in the children’s group as they are developed individuals in society. Your school program should be one in which each child may find his job, learn it, and live it under the best and happiest en- vironment. This program should not be patterned after some adult situation. Is it not interesting to hear people talk about education in this day and time? There is not a public man who dares stand before an audience and deny a worthy interest in education. We had one governor in the United States, who said, “I be- lieve in education. I think it ought to be taught in all the schools.” One very important part of an adult education program is to take down from the educational altar the old idol of extensive information and successful memori- zation marked “education”; to remove from the minds of a deluded public the fantastic notion that there are shortcuts marked by credits and culminating in degrees; and to establish in the minds of people a clear notion that an educated person is not merely a person who can say the answers and work the problems, but one who knows and practises the principles of adjustment to society, who knows why he does certain things, who “talks about” events and ideas, instead of quoting continuously what someone else has said about them. Are you turning out children who do not know how to follow the traffic laws but merely quote them? I was parked, the other day, against the curb, and when I had gotton into my car and started to pull out, a very well-dressed, intelligent looking man drove up in front of me, saw the situation, parked his car in front of mine, so it was impossible for me to get out, and walked off. Even tho he may have had a number of academic degrees, he was not educated, because he did not know how to adjust himself to a society in which he was living. There was a doctor down in Arkansas who had a hurried call to a little village nearby. It was during the flood season, and when he got to the stream the bridge was washed away and he did not know what to do. He looked up at a cabin on the hillside and saw a negro boy sitting there, and he called to the boy and said, “Has anybody around here a boat?” He said, “Yes, sah. There’s one tied to the bank.”’ He saw the skiff and said, “(Can you row?” He said, “No, sah, I can’t row, but there’s a boy about a mile down the river that can.” The doctor trudged down and got the boy and brought him back, and when he came down to untie the boat, the boy on the hill said, ““Mister, you meant could I paddle. I thought you meant could I roa’ like a lion.” : You see the gist of this whole situation. We must know what the other person is talking about. When elementary schools and parent education programs sup- plement each other we shall have a utopia. Supplement means to supply a lack, and any plan which proposes modern elementary procedure for the education of children certainly stands incomplete if it does not include the mamas and pajas. PRINCIPAL, APRIL 1936 141 The Portland Meeting Soon after the organization of the Department of Elementary School Principals, it became the custom for the Department to have two general sessions, a get. together breakfast, and a banquet to be held when at the convention with our parent organization—the National Education Association—and when we are invited guests at the meeting of the Department of Superintendence each Feb. ruary. These four meetings at Portland will take place on Monday, June 29, and Tuesday, June 30. The Get-together Breakfast—This happy occasion always takes place at seven-thirty o’clock on Monday morning of the convention week. This time it falls on Monday, June 29. Those who have attended these lovely affairs have said that this breakfast of the elementary-school principals starts the convention, It is here that old friends meet old friends, new friends are “taken into the bosom of the family,’ memories are reviewed, new plans are aired, and songs tie the hearts together. Come and join us. The Two General Sessions—Agnes Samuelson, president of the National Education Association, has chosen as the general theme for the Portland con. vention, “Education Moving Forward.” She has chosen subtopics for each day’s programs and has asked all allied organizations to build their programs around these theme topics as the central idea. For Monday the topic is “Gaining a New Perspective,” and for Tuesday, it is “Building a Stronger Foundation.” President Harley W. Lyon is now planning his Monday afternoon program. He has invited the principals of Portland to sponsor the Tuesday afternoon program and they have accepted. These complete programs and other activities of the Department will appear in the June issue of the National Elementary Principal. The Banquet—This momentous occasion each year is one of the high lights of the convention. This delightful occasion will take place Tuesday evening, June 30, at 6 o’clock. President Lyon has chosen one of the most outstanding educators of the country as the speaker of the evening. Be sure to make your plans to attend. Meeting of the Enrolment Chairmen—One of the most vital and impor- tant meetings which was held at the St. Louis convention was the meeting of the Enrolment Chairmen. At Portland this group of distinguished people are asked to assemble again on Tuesday morning in the parlor of President Lyon's suite, Multnomah Hotel. We are very anxious that every state in the Union be represented. This does not mean just State Enrolment Chairmen, but it includes City, District, and County as well. Please make arrangements to come, or send someone to represent you. Chairmen of Affairs—Charles H. Boyd, principal of Highland School, Portland, and president of the Oregon Elementary School Principals Association, is chairman for the Tuesday afternoon program, which is being sponsored by the Portland and Oregon principals. C. E. Perry, principal of Lents School, Portland, and vicepresident, Portland Principals Association, has been selected as our local chairman for the Conference on Elementary Education. 142 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY woos =— ws of MeO ~—- © Oo S Aa ea, na =~ _— -— li et orl at i TOOTS lr — Has the Public Accepted the New Elementary Education? John A. Sexson, Superintendent of Schools, Pasadena, California It is, of course, impossible for me to know exactly what those who phrased this question had in mind. What does “new elementary education” imply for them? In recent literature, there is such general use of the terms “progressive school” and “conventional school,” that, for the purpose of laying a broad basis of dis- tinction, we may use these terms with the following meanings: The “conventional elementary school” may be thought of as a formal, “vernacular school,” devoted to skill and knowledge mastery with respect to the fundamental tool subjects. It is, in better-understood parlance, the typical American elementary school—best illustrated by the one-room rural school, as con- ducted at thousands of American crossroads, before the influ- ence of Harris, Dewey, and others was felt—say, prior to 1900, or thereabouts. Critics of this school have devised a long list of descriptive adjectives and appellatives which they have applied to it with) JouHN A. sExsoN rather more enthusiasm than discrimination. A list of examples will illustrate: “repressive,” “depressive,” “conventional,” “disciplinary,” “un- motivated,” “cloistered,” “deadening,” “unrelated to life,” “unserviceable to so- ciety,” “extrinsically motivated,” “knowledge-centered,” ‘a drill mechanism,” “a training agency (animal level implied),” etc. These and other adjectives and phrases more or less significant, and all implying grave deficiency and unservice- ableness, are scattered copiously thruout our professional and lay publications, and are heard with monotonous regularity from the platforms and about the tables where education “as it has been going on” is systematically “paneled’’ or “pommeled.”’ Unfortunately, most of the discussion deals with broad generalities, rather than with specific practises, with the result that one must be content with a rather vague, or blurred, impression, both of the school and of the aspects of the school about which its critics most complain. It is a bit significant that those who know this school best, namely, those who teach or who have taught in it, or those who, in earlier years, have passed thru such a school, are less sure at just what these criticisms are really aimed than are those who, standing far off, direct their darts at everything they observe, good and bad impartially. When pressed, the worst objectors to the “conventional school” do not bar the teaching of reading, they even accept (a bit enthusiastically) conventional spelling and legible pen- manship. The fostering of high ideals of citizenship, character, ambition, initia- tive, honesty, and decorous behavior, is not singled out as an objectionable goal; nor is it ever quite alleged that even the most conventional or traditional of these schools ignored or neglected such outcomes. As was implied earlier, those who have known the traditional American elementary school find themselves, at best, Nore: Paper read for Dr. Sexson, by Percy Davis, Superintendent of Schools, Santa, Monica, California. Dr. Sexson was ill. PRINCIPAL, APRIL 1936 143 a bit at a loss to understand how any social institution as wholeheartedly dedi. cated to the outcomes to which our schools have traditionally adhered could justly be characterized in such scathing terms as some of its more violent critics are wont to employ. If the phrase “Has the public accepted the new education?” involves a con- currence with some of the more undiscerning criticism current in the screeds of the advocates of educational reform, I would be compelled, in defense of a life. time of service to the conventional school, to offer an ineffective, perhaps, but none the less vehement defense. Now, a word as to the “new elementary education,” if by the term the so-called “progressive education” is meant. One finds many descriptive words and phrases, tomes of definition and description, and an equal amount of vagueness as to spe- cific details. Superintendent McGinnis, of New Jersey, in a recent magazine article, defines the new school as: . a school in which as many as possible of the pupils’ needs and interests are pro- vided for, a school in which the total learning effects receive attention. It is a school in which it is recognized that freedom under guidance is helpful in producing desirable outcomes in the learning process, and it is a school in which the propaedeutic function is recognized in the light of the needs of the pupils but never ignored or left to chance. Superintendent A. J. Stoddard, of Rhode Island, in an article in the National Elementary Principal, has this to say: One of the most significant differences between progressive education and that of the more formal education of the past is the recognition of what has been called “an estate of childhood.” That is, the school procedures and curriculum are based upon the fact that childhood has certain inalienable rights separate and distinct from mere preparation for adult life. It is the right of the child to live fully and richly at each age level and to participate in the school, home, and community life as a person. The recognition of these rights changed disciplinary practices both in the school and the home. It resulted in a discontinuance of the cruel disciplinary procedure fol- lowed in the past, and substituted therefore a humane consideration of the child’s right to be treated as an intelligent being. It brought a new emphasis on a child en- vironment in which it was possible for childhood to have those experiences peculiarly benefited to it. I have selected my definitions from the angle of the public school, preferring to accept, for the purposes of this paper, a popular and comparatively simply worded concept, rather than one of the many more involved and technical defini- tions, or even one of the more enthusiastic paeans of elusive terminology cus- tomarily employed by the extreme progressive left-wingers, such as, “an educa- tion built upon the quest for happiness, . . . of such nature that indifference, sloth, and carelessness bring no unhappy consequences,” or “a school organized for children who can look forward to a life of leisure and comfort, a kind of school calculated to hinder rather than help the development of children.” Of this school, the hostile critics are by no means charitable. ‘Soft pedagogy” heads the list of minor epithets ranging up toward such characterizations as “in- tellectual discipline,” “mad-houses,” “crime-breeders,” “time-wasting,” “fad and frill ridden,” “pupil dominated and controlled,’ “undisciplined,” ‘“un- directed,” “ineffectual,” “non-functioning,” “destructive of scholarship and a re- 144 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY - cn or a —_ -* AS en! a re ee. er ee ee ae | oO - ould itics con- ynal ‘ser tle UP ‘ing ply ini- \ca- Ice, zed of ” « »” 6 spect for scholarship,” “non-factual,” “deficient in training,” “unproductive of measurable results,” “forgetful of the fundamentals and dangerous for the institu- tion of education and inconsistent with the American ideal of training for char- acter and citizenship.” One gets a bit dazed in the face of a dilemma such as is created by these widely divergent viewpoints, and, looking questionably from one to the other, is prompted to inquire, in the words of the befuddled inebriate, “Ish we you and me or two other gentlemen?” It seems quite safe to say that in the case of this new school, or progressive school, however one may choose to term it, those closest and most familiar with it would be most surprised that such preposterous criticisms and characterizations could be made by either its proponents or its opponents. They are forced, as I was for the conventional school, to present a defense based upon what most thoughtful persons will recognize as a thoroly factual contention—that the school as it has been going on is neither as bad nor as good as the extremists contend. They will point out certain basic and fundamental adjustments of curriculums, method, and accepted outcomes, but they will emphasize the continuity and the similarity of these new concepts with those of the old conventional school, and will base their defense much more upon the similarities than upon the dissimilar- ities between the two schools—the new and the old, or the progressive and the conventional. Since my audience today presumably is familiar with the literature of the advocates of both schools, I shall now turn my attention to the public reaction, first, to the schools themselves and, second, to this fiery controversy raging in the fields of philosophy and theory, which is, in my opinion, far more indicative of the state of mind of the combatants than revealing of educational practises in America. In short, those who point with pride at what they claim to be a progressive school, have, in fact, made minor, but admittedly significant, changes in method, with little real change in curriculum or objectives; while the conserva- tives, who take their comfort in their adherence to the fundamentals, have, in most cases, of necessity shifted considerably with respect to these same factors, and are today adjusting their schools to new conditions, yet are the while dis- claiming any progressive taint. Meanwhile, the lay public looks on a bit confused and, without either quite accepting or rejecting the claims of one or the other, inquires querulously what it is all about. In the meantime, things are happening to our schools that speak eloquently as to public attitude. Since I do not have at my disposal such means of explor- ing public opinion and public reaction as were recently utilized by a periodical of nationwide circulation which polled the country as to its attitude, I am com- pelled to interpret the state of the public mind by mentioning the utterances of those who, presumably, reflect public opinion or who may, by the expression of their opinions, contribute much toward the formulation of public opinion, Have you read H. G. Wells’ series of articles which appeared in Collier’s Weekly in May and June of last year? Mr. Wells, after a careful survey of what is going on in the United States during a period of recovery, sees, as the most ominous picture in the American scene, the neglect of public education. PRINCIPAL, APRIL 1936 145 Turning to the pages of the Atlantic Monthly for June 1935, one finds William Orton, a professor of economics in a private school, and one who, presumably, could not be accused of speaking from the standpoint of any vested interest, with respect to public education at least, speaking in a language descriptive of what. to him, seems to be the attitude of a portion of the public toward public education, Along the same line as revealed by Mr. Orton, one finds, in the Nation of April 1934, an editorial discussing closed schools and diminishing school revenue. Again, on turning fo the Country Gentleman, we find an editorial by Philip §, Rose, in which he discusses conditions in the country, and which may, for our purposes today, be put over against the quotation from the Nation, which re. veals the situation in a typical city. If these conditions reflect accurately the state of the public mind and its present attitude toward public education, it is safe to conclude that, if the public has accepted either the conventional school or the new education, it has done so with controlled enthusiasm. It might salve our consciences a bit if we could ex- plain that the reductions in the revenue for the support of public education have been due to the economic crisis and not to any dissatisfaction with the program. During that period of our history when the economic depression was at its height and there was an admitted shortage in public revenues, such a rationalization would have some basis; but in the last three or four years when the public income has admittedly increased, when recovery is everywhere evident in our economic and industrial life, and when public expenditures for various and sundry services of government are being increased at an unprecedented rate, it is increasingly difficult to explain why our people, if they were enthusiastic about our program of public education, did not demand that education should share, to a larger degree than it has, in the redistribution of our social income. Not only has there been no appreciable increase in the revenues available for the support of our program of public education, but there have been, during the last three or four years, unmistakable evidences that, if the public is disposed to increase the revenues to be devoted to public education, it is not disposed to entrust the expenditure of those moneys to the now-constituted agencies of pub- lic education. What federal support has come to education in the period of the emergency, what federal subsidies have been granted, have gone, for the most part, to the creation of entirely new agencies of education—agencies set up, ad- ministered, controlled, and directed by persons, not part of, or party to, any of the controversy that is raging about the conventional or the progressive school, but who have been recruited from an entirely different walk of life, approaching the problem of education apparently entirely oblivious of what the professional educators seem to think is a basic and fundamental issue. If these tendencies and trends represent what the people want in the way of public education, it would seem to be fair to conclude that they had not accepted either the old program or the new—either the conventional school or the progres sive. When one comes to discuss, specifically, the attitude of the public toward the progressive school, as contrasted to the conventional, and to confine one’s atten- tion to the issue of whether the public would advise rapid progress in the direc- 146 THE NATIONAL ELE ME NT. (RY iif acl lam bly, vith hat, ion, t of ue, » §, our its blic a a ave am. ight tion ome mic ices igly ram ger ible ring sed 1 to ub- the 10st ad- 1 of ool, ing nal ~ tion of, and in conformity with, the philosophy advocated by either the progres- sives or the conservatives, it is more difficult to get specific material. Most of the utterances are from the pens of professional educators or from those who speak out of the frame of reference of one or the other of the two schools men- tioned and who are, to this extent, partisans of the viewpoint presented. An article by Rolla G. Reynolds, principal of the Horace Mann School, Teachers College, Columbia University, writing in the New York Times Maga- gine in May 1934, is in defense of school fads and frills. While it may not be specifically a defense of the so-called progressive education, or new education, it presents a viewpoint which seems to me to be interesting and instructive. It reflects an opinion to which I personally subscribe, namely, that these changes which are admittedly going on in our schools, and which are generally referred to as progressive tendencies, do not, in fact, originate in the minds of school- masters; nor are they definitely based upon abstract, or abstruse, educational theory. They are, in fact, symptomatic and reflective of great fundamental changes which have their roots deep down in the society, and are, therefore, largely the outgrowth of the influence of this society upon the institution of public education, which is, in fact, an expression of that society. A similar interpretation of the new education, altho approaching it from an entirely different angle, is voiced by Claude M. Fuess, headmaster of Philips- Exeter Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, writing in the Atlantic Monthly of June 1934. Mr. Fuess observes that modern schools are making it easier for teachers and pupils to know one another as personalities. Only recently have the schools begun to abandon the plan of education in which the teacher was a drill ser- geant. The modern technic has given the real teacher a chance. The curriculum has been modernized and enriched. Pupils are regarded as individuals. School- masters look upon themselves as physicians of the mind, whose duty it is to dis- cover differences in personality and to make allowances for them. Teaching methods have been informalized; discussions are encouraged. The modern school isa friendly place. In sharp contrast to these opinions, Bruce Barton, writing in the Woman’s Home Companion of June 1934, registers his disapproval of modern schools, He acknowledges their theory that the purpose of education is to draw out the per- sonality of the child, to produce interesting individuals rather than standardized types. But he insists that without discipline and accuracy life holds only dis- appointment for all except an occasional genius. Mr. Barton eulogizes the old education, supporting it largely in terms of the old psychology based on a transfer of training. He commends Greek and mathematics because it gave background and perspective. As an outgrowth of these two characteristics of the old educational program, he names a third, which seems to him directly and logically connected with the two, namely, a love of books. Mr. Barton neglects to point out exactly how the old education brought him to this happy state, gives no data as to the number of cases in which this outcome was the result, makes no comment upon the fact that a tremendous number of graduates of institutions of higher learning, admittedly products of PRINCIPAL, APRIL 1936 147 the old school, leave their books never to return, and concludes his article with a statement which I think may very fairly be regarded as much the expressioy of an extreme progressive as that of a reactionary conservative. In an address delivered at the opening of the City and County Institute jp San Francisco last fall, C. Harold Caulfield, president of the San Francisco Board of Education, made the statement that, while it is not his contention that the development of the educational program should stop, he does belieye that it is time to check the effect of the modern process of education and ty determine the soundness not only of the program but of its trends. I am convinced in my own mind, that there is no possible answer to your query, Has the public accepted the new education? There is no way available to collect any objective data on the attitude of the public, and, even if I were able to collect it, I think I have presented enough evidence today to convince anyone that these data would not all point in any single direction. It is even doubtful whether one could find, in the present confusion, many definite and specific trends, either in public school practise or in public reaction to that practise, to which many of the data collected could be related. It is apparent that our program of public education has been subjected te criticism so general and so vociferous that no one could ignore the wide differ. ences of opinion that exist within the public mind. The few rather definite sources of criticism that are easily identifiable may be named, roughly, as follows: taxpayer leagues, politicians seeking an issue upon which to base an appeal for votes, reactionary boards of education, and many conscientious and honest citizens who have not taken the time to understand either the practise or the purposes of education, and who, because they do not understand, are loud in their criticism. Some of the groups named above are tax-conscious. They recognize a period of economic retrenchment, world-wide in its operation. They have been reminded continuously that public education represents a large part of every public budget and, since they are seeking economy, and economy only, they naturally turn to education as a possible area in which public moneys may be saved They realize that in an earlier and simpler civilization we did not spend » much money for other services of government either. But since they were edv- cated in these simple schools, and since their education has brought them thus far, they substantiate their claims of possible economies by condemning al changes in the schools, and elsewhere, as fads and frills, and characterize them as ways of giving teachers an easy life or of wasting the taxpayers’ money. Without having any information to guide them as to what the school program has been, either in the past or in the present, they characterize all of the school activities which have to do with health, music, art, or any other constructive and creative activity, as originating in modern theory and as being detrimental to their concept of education; and pick them out as targets for criticism without! making it clear whether or not they would, if they were given an opportunity to do so, greatly alter the program of public education and drive their ow children reluctantly to a school of Spartan simplicity, military discipline, and skull drudgery. —— 148 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR! Sion e in cisco ition lieve d to your lable were rince even that d to iffer- inite , as e an Ctise are riod nded ublic rally ved. d edu- x all ‘hem rram hool ctive ental hout nity own and ARY Persons who seek economy at any price agree with these people that the whole program is bad, but disagree with them that the new program would remedy its defects. By taking this position, they see a possibility of escaping the paying for any education at all. Persons who are parents of children—who have something at stake with respect to public education—listen first to those who argue for the new school, and seem a bit unwilling quite to accept either extreme position. They are satisfied if we proceed to modify and adjust the old conventional pro- gram in the light of new situations and new conditions. But most of us are dis- posed to believe that the future safety and security of our institution of public education rest with persons who belong to this group. They do not quite discard the old; nor do they wholly accept the new. They recognize the fact that a public school system, with its host of teachers, its strong traditions, and its well-estab- lished practises, cannot be changed over night. They sense the fact that even those who advocate the new education are not agreed among themselves as to what they want or as to how they are going to get it. Consequently, they resent and wholly disapprove of mere change as a solution to educational ills. The honest conservatives who sincerely believe in the old school, and who philosophically support it in their thinking, are equally unwilling to recognize the fact that the movement toward the new education has not, when administered by thoughtful persons, hampered or hindered the mastery of the fundamentals on the part of the children. Their contention that, to be progressive, one has to pro- ceed in utter disregard of facts, and without a knowledge of fundamentals, is a defense mechanism which they have built up quite outside the realms of reality. Two Kinds of People * There are two kinds of people on earth today, Just two kinds of people, no more, I say; Not the saint and the sinner, for ’tis well understood The good are half bad, and the bad are half good; Not the rich and the poor, for to count a man’s wealth You must first know the state of his conscience and health; Not the humble and proud, for in life’s little span Who puts on vain airs is not counted a man; Not the happy and sad, for the swift flying years Bring each man his laughter, and each man his tears. No, the two kinds of people on earth that I mean Are the people who /ift and the people who lean. Where’er you go you will find the world’s masses Are always divided in just these two classes; And, oddly enough, you find, too, I ween, There is only one lifter to twenty who lean. In what class are you? Are you easing the load Of overtaxed lifters who toil down the road? Or are you a leaner, who lets others bear Your portion of labor and worry and care? *This poem was given on the Neighbor Nell program, National Broadcasting Co., Sunday morning, March 15, 1936, by Nellie Revell. Miss Revell’s programs are rich in thoughts which are helpful in everyday living. PRINCIPAL, APRIL 1936 149 | i | BANQUET, FEBRUARY 24, 1936 bee SEMIANNUAL BANQUET of the Department was held in the big ballroom of the Statler Hotel, on Monday evening. Earl R. Laing, member of the Executive Committee and district principal, Detroit, Michigan, was master of ceremonies for President Harley W. Lyon, who was ill. The rainbow decorations in flowers, candles, and programs; the genial and informal introductions of the toastmaster; the lovely music rendered by a String quartette from the Cleveland High School; the songs of R. E. Strickler’s rich baritone voice, accompanied by Miss Gene Meenach; the delightful surprise which Dr. Gerling gave by asking Miss Elda Vettori of the Metropolitan Opera to favor the group with a few of her choice selections; and the splendid and enlightening address of the speaker of the evening created an atmosphere of congeniality and friendliness which will long be remembered. The Influence of Education on the Motion Pictures Colvin McPherson, Dramatic Critic, St. Louis Post-Dispatch In the beginning, I would counsel you not to pay too much attention to the title, or the announced title of this address, for, in my capacity as an observer of the motion pictures, I have often found that original titles do not hold good, I think, myself, that a subject like “The Influence of Education on the Motion Pictures” has very little box office, or whatever it is that got you to send in your reservations. Titles, you know, are used to attract the trade, and I find in the movie titles today the plainest evidence that something has happened in motion pictures, in the last ten years. Looking back a little, I found such classics as The Admirable Crichton offered to the movie-going public under the title of “Male and Female”; Madame Govary was “Unholy Love”; The Man Without a Coun- try was “As No Man Has Loved”; and Ann Karenina—well, they achieved a gem of sim- plicity in that one, and just called it “Love.” This year, the American public is being in- vited to see pictures such as The Story of Louis Pasteur, Green Pastures, Dodsworth, Anthony Adverse, and Romeo and Juliet. Not only titles change. You can remember back when much of the screen’s talent was re cruited from the collar advertisements, young ladies who “ankled” down the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, and society people who went into the movies just for the “heck” of it. COLVIN McPHERSON 150 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY SO) SC] an co big r of ster and ring rich rich vor ring and the rver ood, ‘tion er it ade, nest tion ck a able nder vary oun- inna sim- ” ; in ouis hony nber 3 Te . the just There was a day when the movie publicity agents thought it was a great stunt to tell you that Theda Bara used skulls for party favors, and Nazimova wore a ring with poison in it. Now they brag about Shirley Temple’s I.Q. I suppose nothing is thrown at us so constantly as this publicity about motion pictures. [ would not be at all surprised if you were entirely sick of it. I get very sick of it, myself, sometimes. I know sometimes I have an impulse to flee to the utter ends of the earth to get away from it. I heard of a gentleman who did that. He was very much opposed to motion pictures, at least that sort of publicity; he fled to the Sahara Desert, was heading for it in terror. Just as he was about to board his camel, he thought it might be well to ask what the camel’s name was, and the camel driver said, “Oh, that one— that’s Greta Garbo.” The impression persists, as a result of these many tall tales, that Hollywood is acolony to which the benefits of education have never been extended. The stories are often good for a laugh, in fact two plays this season poke delightful fun at Hollywood. We who have a sort of naive faith in motion pictures will concede that most of those stories are true. We know that our favorite art has a lowly past. Its pioneers were pants-pressers, glove salesmen, penny arcade men, clothing makers, and concessionaires, who made movies only to make money. Many of those pioneers remain, today, and we can be amused by stories about them. But that is not the entire picture. You know, Hollywood’s staff has education, too. Among the executives of the studios, I find one man who has five college degrees. It might interest you to know that two of last year’s “Ten Best” pictures, that is David Copperfield and Anna Karenina were produced by David O. Selz- nick, who was educated at Columbia University. Producers of two others of those same “Ten Best” were educated at the University of Arkansas and Dartmouth. And a fifth, “Broadway Melody of 1936” a very sparkling, gay musical picture, was produced by no less than a Ph.D., John W. Considine, Jr., who, by the way, was educated at Stanford, Yale, Oxford, and Heidelberg. Mary of Scotland now going into production, was written by Maxwell Ander- son, B.A. of North Dakota and M.A. of Stanford, and is being adapted to the screen by Dudley Nichols, University of Michigan; directed by John Ford, University of Maine, and its stars are Katharine Hepburn, a Bryn Mawr girl, and Frederic March, who looks back to college days at the University of Wis- consin. Last fall, when I spoke at the Columbia University alumni dinner here at the Statler, I was pleased to announce that there were many Columbia men in Holly- wood, and of all things—you Columbia people try to laugh this off—those tough guys of the screen—Jimmy Cagney and Nat Pendleton. If you wish to be informed further, just haul out the Motion Picture Almanac. You will find producers, directors, and actors, educated at New York University, Southern California, the University of Chicago, Tennessee, Missouri, Texas, Cornell, Cambridge, Berlin, and Moscow. Hollywood, in the past, has thought it had to talk down to its audience, had to write down to its audience. They tell of a producer who calleé in a script writer PRINCIPAL, APRIL 1936 ' 151 and said: “Here, this script will never go. In the first paragraph, you have used the word ‘optimist’ three times. I know you mean an eye doctor, but not every- body does.” When I started into inquiring into the movies, I was told that the average mental age of movie-goers was fourteen. At that time, I did not see how that quite could be figured without Dr. Thorndike’s aid. But since then I have wished, as | have often wished in intelligence tests, that they might be taken over. I think the average intelligence of the audience, today, would be greater. Peculiarly enough, the motion pictures of today have to be educational to exist, especially since the decency drives, in which we have lost many themes of novelty in pictures. We have been thrown to the background of history, biography, | _and science, and—wonder of wonders—they have all been good box office. Box | office because people of all degrees of education found something to interest them, | There used to be a day when anything done in costume was “poison.” But | nowadays, producers do not hesitate to make a costume picture. Along with that, the studios have a perfect passion now for authenticity. In the old days, movie men did not care for details. They could use a broomstick to represent an ostrich, But, today, technical experts have become important persons. And they range from, “Sourdough Bill,” who can tell how Yukon was in the old days, to the two Harvard and Cornell professors who are out in Hollywood to see that Shakespeare’s bones are not scattered to the four winds after Romeo and Juliet is made. A little inexpensive film that costs only $125,000 can be made with what we call common knowledge. I daresay there are many of us here who could tell how to | handle a machine gun, or give our advice on hitch-hiking, which seem to be very important subjects in Hollywood. But when a million dollars is involved, research departments, that would put several graduate schools to shame, get busy. Nobody can say, after seeing David Copperfield, that it did not truthfully depict England in Dickens’ day. The studio had spent two years getting ready. They sent camera men over there and they even photographed doorknobs and wallpaper of the era. Lives of a Bengal Lancer required camera crews to be sent to India. Romeo and Juliet will show more of the actual Verona of the fifteenth century than Shakespeare ever dreamed of. Cost is no item. If you need His Majesty’s ships, “Bounty” and “Pandora,” build real ones that can be taken over to Catalina and run on the reefs. If you need a schooner for Captains Courageous, have one sailed around from the Atlantic Ocean. They tell of a producer who was out swimming with one of his actresses, and she got caught in the riptide, poor thing, and was carried away out and swallowed a great amount of water. They got her in to the beach, tossed her down on the sand, truly unconscious. A Boy Scout dashed up and said, “Somebody give her artificial respiration!” The producer said, “Artificial respiration nothing—give her the real thing—I can afford it.” Motion pictures, as Mr. Will Hays has often pointed out, are three things— art, science, and industry. I think probably most people will disagree with me on the first thing, that they are art. That seems to attract most objections, and there is where I would have to go to the mat with anybody who disagrees, altho | 152 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY | | cel pic ye wil an In an ica yes the to rel mu the cof wri col nec pic the an ser edt dis spe dri % gro dus Ha mo inc rn less PR very- erage quite , as] k the | al to es of phy, - Box them, But that, novie trich, range 2 two are’s e call yw. to very -arch fully sady. and sent enth ra, you - the ywed 1 the | » her give gs— ) me and iltho {RY certainly not this evening and here. But when eighty million people attend motion pictures in the United States, every week, eleven million of those under fourteen years of age, we may look upon movies as pretty much of an industry, to begin with, and beyond that, pretty much of an educational question. We cannot prophesy with any degree of certainty what direction motion pictures are going to take in the future. One thing is certain, that for the last twenty years, they have existed as the entertainment for the masses of the people, and any artistic progress must be predicated on that fact. As a dramatic critic, I am constantly impressed with the age limits in attend- ance at the movie theaters. Most striking is the absence of the younger generation. Income, I strongly suspect, is a factor, but most certainly times have changed and the growth of a generation in those times has something to do with it. Today, the motion pictures have come to be recognized as an entity in Amer- ican society. Recognition has come from quite dignified sources. In the last year, one hundred thousand good Rockefeller dollars went to the formation of the Modern Art Film Library in New York. That organization has shown itself to be very capable in assembling all the notable films of the past, and they are released to schools and colleges for showing. The reaction on that evidence must necessarily have much to do with the direction of the motion picture in the future. Public libraries over the country are assembling scenarios, as they might copies of plays or novels. Universities are offering courses in motion picture writing, directing, and acting. More than two thousand high schools in the country, I am informed, have motion picture appreciation courses, either in con- nection with the study of English or a separate study. In many schools of the country, high schools particularly, there are motion picture clubs in which the boys and girls write their own plays, film and project their own movies. It is an expensive plaything compared to other diversions, but an interesting development when viewed by anyone who takes the motion pictures seriously. I have inquired, for the purpose of this address, into the extension of visual education, or what is superior, audio-visual education. That, I believe, is being discussed at other sessions. Considerations of the social effects of motion pictures offer also a different and specialized field for investigation. Yet developments attendant on the “decency drive” of a year ago last summer, do concern some of us. Next to government, I suppose the movies offer the surest target for any group wishing to “clean up” conditions at random. The very nature of the in- dustry establishes it in that position. _ The movies have held open house to all the uplift societies ever since Will Hays was called in, some fifteen years ago, to devote his time to the tone and morale of the cinema. The interests banded together in the “decency drive,” including the Legion of Decency, got just about what they wanted. So the situation, today, is that we feel that motion pictures are more or less under the influence of a mental attitude of what is good for the children— PRINCIPAL, APRIL 1936 153 a situation which we think cannot last; a situation which is directly traceable to the interests which you represent. We should like to see some differentiation, We know that children like pictures like Sequoia, the Frank Buck pictures, Charlie Chan mysteries, and aviation melodramas. They would not trade Joe E, Brown for all the Noel Cowards in the world. If you could have sat with me at a screening of the Admiral Byrd picture, you would have known, as sore of you probably do, that the icy grip of the Antarctic is much preferred to all the clinches of Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. We have no quarrel with that, I should like to see pictures made that would treat of more mature themes, which we, ourselves, might enjoy, without children. I should like to see the intelli- gence level, maybe the age level, raised, but any of us who trust in the motion pictures are quite willing to wait for that. It will come. Eventually, we shall distinguish between children’s movies and adults’ movies. Realizing the power of the screen, we wish sometimes that it could do more in shaping opinion. We regret to see sometimes that a story like Paths of Glory cannot be filmed for fear of hurting France’s feeling—altho I think they would probably change the locale to Russia. We would like to see a book like Sinclair Lewis’ /t Can’t Happen Here, and I understand that is held up now for reasons which both sides deny. Perhaps, the best thing we can say about motion pictures, today, is that they do offer little enlightenment for adults. Nevertheless, I have found this, and] hope you will bear it in mind, that those people who are most bitter toward motion pictures, those people who call them stupid, see very few motion pictures, If we are to make the movies intelligent, we must favor them with our pres ence. Otherwise, Joe Doakes and his girl friend, who go every week, are going to out-vote us at the box office and we are going to get shoddy motion pictures. I have no sympathy with anybody who goes to a motion picture, I mean an intelligent person, not knowing what he is going to see, and then comes out and says the picture is bad. You must pick your movies like you do your clothes. If you do that, you will be safe. If you do that, we will be saved. We critics perceive an intellectual growth in the movies up to now, one which I think we may attribute very correctly to the schools. You have taught young- sters and you have taught adolescents to be smarter, and these Hollywood people cannot get away with what they once did. I wish, therefore, that we might go just a step farther and, by a little more serious study of the motion picture, chart its course for the future and for education. An Invitation from Portland (Sent to Group at St. Louis) Greetings to the Department of Elementary School Principals from Portland, Oregon, “City F of Roses.” It won’t be long till June, and we’re looking for you. Now that we can speak o the depression in the past tense, we’re anticipating with assurance that the Portland meeting $ will be the best in many a moon. Come, help make it so. Can we get the word to every principal in America? We would like to—Cart S. Zoox, Oregon State Enrolment Chairman for DESP. 154 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY eable ition, ‘ures, pe E, h me sorme 0 all that, mes, itelli- Otion shall more clory vould rclair asons they ind | yward tures, pres- going tures, in an S out othes, which oung- eople ht go chart What “Specialists” Say I am delighted that this dinner is so great a success. I happen to know the effort that has been put on it by your local committee and your headquarters office, for a long time. Their picture has been a picture of this room, with a long table, ladies in beautiful dresses, gentlemen with stuffed shirts, candles along the fringe, and eight people at a table, just as thick as you could get them in. Their dreams have come true—S. D. SHANKLAND, executive secretary, Depart- ment of Superintendence. Mr. Lyon sends his greetings to you, and we will tell him what a lovely banquet it is and how well the Toastmaster presides——GrorcE H. MEREDITH, deputy superintendent, Pasadena, Calif. It gives me pleasure to express appreciation not only for the kindnesses shown here this evening, but for the kindnesses shown to me during a long period of service as secretary of the National Education Association. I owe the success which you are attributing to me largely to the work of the elementary principals of the United States—J. W. CRABTREE, secretary emeritus, N. E. A. I understand that the elementary principal is the key to the school situation; therefore, I am very happy to be so near the key.—AGNEs SAMUELSON, presi- dent, N. E. A. The elementary principalship is one of the most important positions in educa- tion. Its possibilities are large enough to challenge the very best in our wisest and ablest educators—WILLARD E. GIvENs, executive secretary, N. E. A. Of course, one never expects a woman to rise without saying a word, so I do wish to express the one word in hearty thanks—Mrs. EttAs MICHAEL, mem- ber, Board of Education, St. Louis, Mo. The St. Louis Club wishes to express our welcome, and we are very glad to have you meet in the city of St. Louis. We have attended so many of the Superintendence meetings, most of the women principals have, and we are glad to be hostess to you in the city of St. Louis. Anything you want, just ask the women principals, and they will certainly be glad to take care of it for you— MARGERY GRIFFIN, president, St. Louis Club of Women Principals, St. Louis, Mo. + Sees: A very special privilege and honor comes to me, this evening. We have with us a true daughter of St. Louis, one who is a great artist, a member of the Metropolitan Opera, who has achieved great distinction in our country. In her, we also have one whose talent is joined with rare gifts of the heart. I happen to know that is so. I am not going to make a long speech to you about her, because she will deliver far better than I could hope to deliver even my small part. I do want to introduce to you, present to you our very distinguished—may I say—citizen, child of St. Louis, who, I believe, is willing to sing to us this eve- ning, Miss Elda Vettori of the Metropolitan Opera.—HeEnry J. GERLING, super- intendent of schools, St. Louis, Mo. PRINCIPAL, APRIL 1936 155 The Mitchell Point Tunnel hewn out « solid rock part of the Columbia River Highway Conference on Elementary Edueation Extension Center, University of Oregon, Portland, Oregon July 6-17, 1936 Why have a conference?—The pendulum of public opinion is again point- ing its needle of interest towards the needs of the elementary school. The past few years have brought home to many of our citizenry the fact that the educa- tion obtained in the elementary school is the only type of education which many of the boys and girls of our country ever receive. Those who man our elementary schools have been growing more and more conscious that the changes which have taken place in the world outside the school have had a very decided effect on the school world as well. Headquarters has received letters and requests from teachers, principals, and superintendents asking that the Department of Elementary School Principals sponsor a meeting at which discussions on these various prob- lems would take place, and a choice could be made as to the best ways and methods to follow. Those interested in elementary education are eager to give to this vast army of boys and girls the very best training for life and the Depart- ment is anxious to help. At the Denver meeting a committee was appointed to arrange for a conference to follow the National Education Association convention at Portland. The Com- mittee is greatly in debt to Fred M. Hunter, chancellor of Higher Education, University of Oregon, and Willard E. Givens, executive secretary of the National Education Association, for the valuable assistance they have given in making plans for the meeting. [ 156 ] vay Why choose Portland?—The Officers of the Department chose the Exten- sion Center, University of Oregon, Portland, as the institution at which to hold the conference. This selection was made because of its many advantages. Below are listed a few. 1. Many teachers, principals, and superintendents will go to the N. E. A. convention, and a conference in the same city gives them the advantage of attending both at a minimum cost. 2. School systems requiring those connected with them to secure a certain number of advance credits over a certain period of time. (This conference gives two credits of work at the University of Oregon.) 3. The instructors are being chosen because of their ability to bring a message and much help to the group. 4. The “City of Roses” has an ideal climate; its nearness to both the moun- tains and the ocean makes it accessible to each or either; its beauty is unsur- passed. Many will drive to Portland this summer. Therefore, the scenes along the Columbia River Highway will be an education. What are the facts?—PLace—Extension Center, University of Oregon, Portland, Oregon; Trme—July 6-17, (two weeks or 10 days); Crepits—Two credits of work at University of Oregon; TUITION AND REGISTRATION—$12 for the two weeks (this includes a syllabus). All who are interested in elementary education are invited to attend. The last page of this bulletin carries more information about this great meeting. Let Dean Alfred Powers, director of summer session, University of Oregon, Extension Center, Portland, Oregon, know if you plan to attend, so that he may make arrangements for all. Mrs. Epitu B. JoyNes, Chairman Mason A. STRATTON EpYTHE J. BROWN This scene is from one of the yards in the “City of Roses” GENERAL SESSION, FEBRUARY 25, 1936 The Elementary Principalship Develops John L. Bracken, Superintendent of Schools, Clayton, Missouri I do not think there is any place that anyone can have more genuine joy than in dealing with young children. Some of my most interesting experiences have occurred in elementary schools. One of our most treasured possessions in Clayton is a big bus which we use to take the children into the community, to see how people work and what they do. The very first journey this bus made was to take a group of kindergarten children from one of my schools over to the St. Louis Zoo. In order to see what happened, I drove along after the bus, but was back in the kindergarten room when they returned. After they had strug- gled out of their outer clothing and had occupied their little chairs, I ventured to ask, “Did you enjoy your trip, this morning?” I got an enthusiastic, unanimous response. I ventured a little farther and said: ‘Possibly, there are some other things we ought to go to see. What do you think we jonn L. BRACKEN ought to go to see, next?” I waited for a perceptible space of time and then a little blonde girl in the second row, arose, stood on one foot, put one finger guilefully at the corner of her mouth, and said, “Well, how about going out to dinner sometime?” I am certain that young lady will get along. I have an idea that there is not any place in all the world that you can mirror the changes in our social existence any better than you can in the lives of the children who occupy the little chairs, such as on the platform here, today. I would like to give you an example of this, which is perhaps meaningful. I recall that I learned my letters in the most beautiful room I can remember. You might not think it was a beautiful room, because it was my mother’s kitchen. I learned my letters from the gleaming letters on my mother’s stove. I can see them: as clearly as I did long years ago, a thousand miles away, “Buck’s Stoves and Ranges, St. Louis.” Youngsters do not do that any more. Youngsters came into the kindergarten, a few years ago, and the teacher, trying to find out what the children knew, said, “Is there any little boy or girl who can read?” No one could. Then she said, “Is there any little boy or girl who knows his numbers?” One little fellow put up his hand and said, “I know my numbers.” “Can you count?” “Yes.” “How far can you count?” He said, “I can count all the way.” “What do you mean ‘all the way’?” “Why, I can count all there is.” “That is interesting,” said the teacher, “I want you to come right up in front and stand by me and count for all these other boys and girls.”’ And he came, pulled himself proudly erect, and began to count to the peculiar rhythm of threes, in this fashion, “One, two, three—four, five, six—seven, eight, nine— ten, Jack, Queen—King, Ace.” » 158 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR} joy Ces use ot, Ow vill ror the ald er, en, see ves er, rirl Tho my all tht Civilization has changed almost out from under us, and other things have been changing than the elementary-school principalship. I have an idea that many of you people would find it difficult to imagine the world of education in which there existed no Department of Elementary School Principals, and because of my patriarchal position, I wish to speak about the trembling, faltering be- ginnings of this Department, which seems now to be depression proof, which raises the total number of its membership even thru the difficult years thru which we have been passing. In the year 1921 there was no National Organization of Elementary School Principals, but I think this movement was on the brink of occurrence in every part of our country. I do remember that we discussed this in a class of W. P. Burroughs in a University of Chicago summer session. This course was devoted to the problems of the elementary principalship. When we came to that final session which precedes the final examination of the course, it seemed to me that something ought to be done about it, and so I arose, and suggested that we should form an organization of elementary-school principals, that would look forward to becoming a department of the National Education Association. You know how motions are easily picked up and carried without any opposition in classes, just before the final examinations, so there was no difficulty. They appointed a committee, at once, with Leonard Power, who was then at the Franklin School in Port Arthur, Texas, as chairman, and myself as secretary of this organization, which we ventured to call the National Associ- ation of Elementary School Principals. We set about organizing our very first program for the Atlantic City meeting the next winter. One of the interesting things that I recall from the early days has to do with a Des Moines meeting the next summer, which Leonard Power and I had organized. When we arrived at the church where this meeting was to be held we found a meeting that filled a fairly large auditorium, comfortably, already in progress. Believing that we had come to the wrong place, we immediately retired to the sidewalk for a conference. We checked the program and found to our amazement that we had come to the right place, and that the meeting was a live organization of elementary-school principals that had already established the precedent of beginning programs on time, whether the officers were there or not. During the years that have followed, the elementary-school principalship has developed an organization which today takes its place in the family of the National Education Association subsidiaries, one of the lustiest of its children. Many fine things have been done. I know that your programs are outstanding, your bulletins are much sought after publications, but perhaps your yearbooks are, to date, your outstanding contribution. I recall during those early days that it was difficult sometimes to secure proper subjects for discussion. The following question was seriously proposed for dis- cussion in one of our first general meetings: “What are the best ways to get the lines of children in and out of the school building?” I submit to you that we have traveled a long way since those days. PRINCIPAL, APRIL 1936 159 You recall Dr. Judd’s incident, describing as he does his visit to an elementary school, that needed many, many things that were not discerned by the people who were in it. When he talked to the principal at the close of his visit, he said, “Is there anything that you need here?” She looked about the office, blankly, for a moment and then said, “Well, I have thought some of requisitioning a new rug for the office.” That happened many years ago, but it is not happening now to the type of principal who has charge of the elementary schools of America. You know the source of elementary-school principals. We do not know where in the world we get them, they come from almost every other type of service: and the crossing over from one field to another is difficult. The adaptation must be made, but it presents stubborn difficulties. There is always the difficulty op the part of us who have to make the appointments of principals, to determine whether or not a good teacher will of necessity become a good administrator. There is not an answer to that question, but if you will look in the Seventh Yearbook, and some of your more recent publications, you will establish the fact that only in recent years has there been a bridge of dependable sources over which an individual can come from the training and experience which has been his into the domain which belongs of right to the elementary-school person, I have decided that the elementary-school principalship, which contains the utmost in possibilities, can, in a large mechanized school system, become the most deadening job in all the educational field. One reason I decided I ought to be a superintendent instead of a principal is because I looked about me and saw some of the older elementary-school principals and said, “I don’t believe I wish to get old in that fashion.” But that was before I had observed groups of superintendents, in any large numbers. I have an idea that it is possible for principals to get into ruts, but it is easy for them to get out. You know, when you stand away from yourself, you can see things that you did not know were there, and as I have looked about me in recent years, I have found several types of principals. I have seen principals who seemed to be secretaries of their schools, instead of being actual principals. They enjoyed making requisitions; all the reports had to balance. I think some of them had to rhyme before they were complete. They were tremendously interested in keeping records in connection with the work, and became secretarial-principals. On the other extreme, there is the administrative principal, who regards his school as a going institution, who wants things to run smoothly, who is concerned with the things that can be handled, and who wants his institution to be recog- nized. It is a going concern, it is a thing which he is directing. I have seen a few teaching principals, people who have not been able to forget the fact that they came from the teaching profession and have assumed a somewhat different position, and they have found it impossible to generalize on the teaching which they do to such an extent that they can control the entire situation. And yet, I have an idea that it is an excellent thing for every principal of schools, where it may be possible, to teach an occasional class, just to find out how resistive the young mechanism can be to the intrusion of new ideas and new learning. 160 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY - = - «ee ss ~ = mm Os = wee nt OS lary ople aid, kly, new now here ice: Aust On nine nth the rces has son, the the ight and ve | s of asy can ead orts ete. the his ned » to ned lize tire ipal find leas Then there is a supervisory principal, who marks out all his time for visitation, conference, and follow-up work, who is concerned with this sort of thing and allows other people to see that the building is a going concern. I used to see the kind of principal who was a sort of grandfather or grand- mother to the entire community, and just kept everything going, because the principal knew everybody and his children and some of the grandchildren, and it was just a nice community atmosphere; the kind of an atmosphere in which many things in education could be lost. But the thing that has come out of that is a composite which selects here and there those component elements that can go together best, and will make the kind of principal that will fit into the present day. Instead of being a secre- tarial person or driver, instead of being a teacher who attempts to generalize, instead of spending all time in supervision, we have, today, the composite principal. These elementary-school principals have learned to coordinate the activities which make an institution, today, instead of spending their time regarding merely the things that represent them. And they have learned how to lead in their community, without bothering to get off of the campus. They have begun to treat their schools as a central organism, as one of the nerve centers of a responsive community, and, by directing the development of this institution, they have made the community more the kind of a community that it ought to be. The elementary-school principal of today is able to energize and to vitalize the school until it has become an organization that we were just beginning to vision back in the ancient days when this organization had its trembling beginning. The elementary-school principalship has developed. As I close, let me mention the thing that must always be uppermost in our mind: The elementary schools of America still develop all of America’s children. It is to the elementary schools, it is to the domain of the elementary-school principal that little youngsters, five and six years of age, first direct their steps in a journey that is longer, a journey that takes them farther away from home than any other journey of the same length can ever do. These folks come in, all of them, to our schools. The high school is still a selective institution in spite of the events of the last few years, but all of the children of America come to us, and as you principals and as you teachers develop them, so will the course of America be. Interesting to Principals Tell Your Teachers FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONVENTION THE ASSOCIATION FOR CHILDHOOD EDUCATION APRIL 28—MAY 2, 1936 Hotel Pennsylvania New York, New York THEME: The Teacher in the Community SPECIAL FEATURES: (1) Eleven study classes; (2) five discussion groups; (3) directed school visiting. For further information write to Mary L. Leeper, executive secretary, 1201 Sixteenth St., N. W., Washington, D. C. PRINCIPAL, APRIL 1936 161 An Experiment in the Adjustment of Retarded Upper-Grade Pupils H. H. Mecker, Principal, Blow School, St. Louis, Missouri One of the most difficult problems facing the schools is the adjustment of retarded pupils. All systems have a considerable proportion of these pupils, yet, altogether too often, not much is done about it. These pupils have abilities, but they do not thrive in our customarily organized schools. They are the square pegs in round holes, and usually drop out of school sooner or later, disgusted and out of tune with the social order in which they find themselves. Many of them, no doubt, follow bad leadership and end up in a life of crime, petty if not serious. It is this situation which caused the authorities of the St. Louis school system to attempt to deal with the problem in a very definite and concrete way during the past three years. In different parts of the city, under varying school conditions, different methods are being used in handling the prob- lem. The method described here is one used in connection with the Henry and the Blow Schools. The writer’s position as principal of the Henry School last year, and as principal of the Blow School during the present year, constitutes the experience on the basis of which these remarks are organized. Before launching into this, a few statements regarding the organization of the St. Louis school system must be made to give a background of the work under- taken, so that a definite conception of the plan may be possible. The city has the eight-four plan of organization. Due to overcrowded conditions in the high schools and the existence of many vacant rooms in elementary-school buildings, twenty-one eighth-grade schools have added the ninth grade and are offering the first year of high-school work. Running parallel with this academic set-up, two vocational schools of high-school rank have been established, in which no claim to college preparation is made. For the past several years, the pupils of the eighth-grade graduating classes have been grouped into two sections known as Lists I and II pupils. Those placed on List I have done good work, receive a regular eighth-grade diploma, and are recommended for admission to either the high school or the vocational school ninth-grade program. Those placed on List II are fifteen years or more of age and have done only a poor grade of work in the elementary school. They do not succeed well in a purely academic atmosphere and there is no advantage for the elementary school to hold them longer. They receive diplomas which admit the holders to the high-school entrance examinations. Otherwise, they are not admitted to the ninth grade of either the high school or the vocational school without further preparation. To give such pupils further opportunities, centers have been organized known as “high-school preparatory classes.” Along with the above problem child is another of a similar nature, which is known locally as the List III pupil. This is one who has already become fourteen H. H. MECKER — 162 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY and nder rob- aud year, the f the der- has high ings, ring t-up, h no Asses laced 1 are *hool r age y do itage yhich y are nters ch is rteen or fifteen years of age, but has not yet reached the eighth grade. He is a potential List If pupil, as explained. The nature of his case is such that he also needs a special type of treatment which necessitates his withdrawal from the regular elementary grade. The Henry and Blow Schools were chosen for this work because the elementary grades in them have been diminishing and the buildings are suitable for the new work to be developed. The Henry School plan, worked out during the past school year, will be described in some detail. The reason for that: Enough con- clusions can be drawn so that certain statements can be made. The Blow School organization was just created in September, so there is not very much that can be said in conclusion on that particular experiment. The Henry School was erected as an elementary school and contains twenty- five rooms. Altho formerly a crowded elementary school located in a foreign, underprivileged district, the enrolment had decreased more than 50 percent in recent years, due to changes in the neighborhood. Therefore, the building and its community presented an excellent place to organize a type of work with much less emphasis on the academic phase. To increase the enrolment, the school had assigned to it a ninth-grade high-school department, a vocational ninth-grade department, and a considerable number of retarded pupils from other school districts. The latter section not only gave these pupils better advantages, but italso relieved the neighboring elementary schools of misfits in their organizations. In the fall, the Henry School opened with five hundred pupils classified in eight grades, occupying eleven rooms. The remainder of the building (fourteen rooms) was set up to house the specialized type of junior high school already referred to. The elementary section of the school constituted a very serious problem from the standpoint of retardation. The age-grade table showed that only 19 percent were making normal progress, that 25 percent were one year retarded, that 55 percent were very seriously retarded, and that only 1 percent showed any acceleration. Next, the matter of pupil intelligence was studied. The pupils of Grades VII and VIII were given the Terman Intelligence Test to arrive at the IQ. picture. The findings revealed: two superior pupils; twenty-three normal pupils; thirty-eight inferior pupils. The median I.Q. was found to be 87. By the end of the first semester, a reorganization of the elementary school was accomplished. All pupils over fourteen years of age were removed from Grades VII and VIII and were transferred to the newly organized specialized junior high school. Furthermore, all pupils of fourteen years of age were also removed from Grades IV, V, and VI, and were grouped in a rapid promotion room, but remained a part of the elementary-school unit. Some pupils graduated from the eighth grade and a few who were making normal progress were trans- ferred to neighboring schools. This made it possible to cut off the seventh and eighth grades, reducing the elementary school to six grades of about four hun- dred pupils. At the beginning of the second semester, the building housed: 400 elementary- school pupils, 111 high-school ninth-grade pupils, 216 vocational ninth-grade pupils, 87 List II pupils, and 91 List III pupils. PRINCIPAL, APRIL 1936 163 An analysis was made of the pupils enrolled in the different divisions of thjg junior high-school unit. The typical List III pupil is one who has come froy Grade VII, is past fifteen years of age, has an I.Q. of 72, is ten years olj mentally, has an educational age of ten years, and shows a fifth-grade achieye. ment on the Stanford Test. The typical List II pupil is one who has been oye; the work of the eight grades, is about sixteen years of age, has an I.Q. of gg, is twelve years old mentally, and shows a sixth-grade achievement on the Stap. ford Test. In passing, it might be pointed out that these pupils have achieved well jp relation to their mental ages. It is also interesting to note that pupils of this type achieve considerably higher than the norm on the Stenquist Mechanical Apti- tude Test. The pupils at the Blow School, during this term, have rated twelye to fifteen points higher. The girls at the Blow School, during the last few weeks, took the Detroit Mechanical Aptitude Test. They did not show quite the same figures. I do not think any conclusion can be drawn from that. The various types of pupils mentioned have been organized into a unit school as any junior high school might be. There are seven forty-five-minute periods and one fifteen-minute advisory period. The work of the teachers is distributed among the various types of pupils so that the Lists II and III pupils do not become dubbed as “dumb-bells.” In a general way the List III pupils follow a one semester program on a seventh-grade level, the List II pupils a one semester program on an eighth-grade level, and the ninth-grade pupils follow the regular high-school or vocational program. The program of studies for Lists II and III pupils is the same so far as the names of the courses are concerned, but the level of accomplishment is based upon the ability of the group. The boys and girls work on different programs, in activities based upon their needs, and the program is largely pre-vocational. They do such academic work as they can, with much emphasis upon and guidance along vocational lines. Theoreti- cally, they may ask for admission to high-school work when the teachers feel them qualified to carry it, but, so far, practically all the pupils who go on have chosen to continue with the vocational program which the school emphasizes. The program for the List II pupil is worked out on a two semester basis. During the first semester, he works on the List II program. This work is considered the equivalent of the first half of the ninth-grade vocational school and, if carried satisfactorily, the pupil is promoted to vocational II work, which is the last half of the ninth-grade vocational course of study. The List III pupil works on a similar program but on a lower level. His set-up is a three semester plan, at the end of which he will have finished the ninth-grade vocational course of study and can enter Grade X of the vocational school. There are several paths which these pupils can travel on their way thru the school, depending upon the character of work done. The strong List II pupil can finish the work in one year and begin Grade X at the end of that time. The medium List II pupil is promoted from List IT work to vocational I and II work in that order, thus requiring three semesters. The strong List III pupil can be promoted from the List III program to that of voca- tional I and II in that order, thus finishing the work equivalent to Grade IX in 164 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY the the the inc sir im wh tio - this from $s old ‘ieve- Over f 80, Stan- ell in this Apti- welve eeks, Same chool Tiods buted 0 not low a lester gular d Ill level their rk as oreti- ; feel have eS. uring d the irried > ast ks on n, at study vhich ‘acter de X work The voca- X in — ARY three semesters and go to Grade X at that time. Slower pupils may require four semesters. The chief objective of the school is not to require the academic performance demanded of normal pupils, but to test and develop the vocational outlook and abilities of the pupils, with a view to getting them into the tenth grade of the yocational school at the earliest moment, so that they may enter upon the learn- ing of a trade. They are reaching the point where they will soon drop out of school and must be salvaged in a short time. The school does not measure the success of the pupils as much in terms of academic achievement as in the develop- ment of interest, a willingness to try, a desire to get into trade training, and a disposition to act in terms of approved citizenship conduct. The adjustment which these pupils have made to their new environment has convinced us that they are making progress, that they are gaining renewed confidence in themselves, and that they are beginning to enjoy the feeling of success. Socializing Procedures in the Elementary School Frank M. Underwood, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction, St. Louis, Missouri We are coming to consider the socialization of the child as the most important of all educational objectives. Training in good citizenship is very much in the focus of attention at the present time. The development of social-mindedness in the foremost is essential in the development of good citizen- ship. As the emphasis in our philosophy shifts from rugged individualism to social cooperation and collectivism, the de- sirable socialization of the individual becomes increasingly important. Socializing activities may be said to be activities which promote the process of the socialization of the child. There are two processes which are going on constantly , y uynpERwoop among individuals. who constitute a society—individualiza- tion and socialization. The individual is developing his individual abilities and, at the same time, is learning to adjust himself to others in a continuously better way. We regard the development of his individual powers as individualization, and his adjustment to others is socialization. If he uses his individual abilities in antisocial ways, as a criminal who preys on society would do, he is going thru ‘a process of individualization, but he is not going thru a process of socialization. The one antagonizes the other. The desirable situation is found only when the two processes are in harmony and each helps the other. What are the conditions which make a classroom activity a socializing activ- ity? The fundamental essential is that the activity be a genuine, cooperative group enterprise. There must be free interchange of opinion among the members of PRINCIPAL, APRIL 1936 165 the group and, preferably, the activity should be carried on by the group op its own initiative. The teacher is not a taskmaster or a dictator of every move the pupils make. but becomes more of a chairman of a cooperative group. The relationships withip the group become as informal as possible. The pupils act as nearly as possible as the members of any club or social group outside the school would act jp carrying out their objectives. An ordinary club would hold a meeting, have a chairman, conduct a free general discussion of its purposes, arrive at majority decisions, appoint com- mittees, and in other ways proceed to realize its purposes. So the class in the school might be organized, and hold meetings in a similar way, discuss its pur. poses, a free “give and take” discussion among the members, arrive at its own judgments and decisions, with the teacher acting as a cooperative member of the group, perhaps more as a consulting expert and adviser, coming into the . discussion only when necessary and advisable for proper guidance. The purposes projected in such a case would be projected by the pupils, rep- resenting problems to which they themselves desire solutions; hence, we may be confident that they are understandable by the pupils. Considerable freedom must be permitted in order to secure the desired social situation, such as might be present in the meeting of any social group outside the school. How much freedom? The answer is, in the words of Professor Kil- patrick, “As much as the pupils can use wisely; more as they grow.” The teacher always has the veto power thruout the activity, if it proceeds along objectionable paths. It is exactly such an activity to which we invite your attention, this afternoon. The pupils are from the Humboldt School of St. Louis, one of the schools along the riverfront. The work presented is entirely that of the teachers, Adele Cun- ningham and Helen Pierce, and the principal, C. L. Sampson. This school is notable for the extent to which it utilizes and relies upon the self-activity of the pupils. From the kindergarten thru the eighth grade, the pupils rate their own work. This school holds that this activity is one of the most educative activities that it can offer. You will easily note the self-reliance, even of these third-grade children, and the degree to which the socializing process is taking place. We have not the time or the facilities to present an elaborate pageant or socializing activity of that kind, but we have selected a daily classroom briel period activity of these third-grade children, in the correlation of English. We have in St. Louis a subject curriculum, and the Humboldt School feels the value of correlating the work among the various subjects. There we have reading, oral and written composition, grammar, spelling, and penmanship. This particular activity is based primarily upon a selection in reading, which the pupils have read, and then have written a composition, based upon some topic in connection with that reading. When the pupils write this composition, they know that it is to be rated in penmanship, spelling, grammatical construc tion, and conformity to the reading content. In this way you get an intensive drive and a unifying drive upon the various elements in this field of English. — 166 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY hi se yé gu re We ake, thin sible t in free . the pur- rT of - the rep- y be ocial tside Kil- cher able 100N. long Cun- ol is f the rities rade it or brief value oral hich some tion, truc- nsive We have to improvise a classroom by portable blackboards. The composition has not been graded as yet, but that is the socializing activity I want you to see, We are going to throw on the screen the composition under discussion, but you will not be able to see on the screen, how the pupils will rate it. The pupils have a way of rating all these things they are concerned with, and I hope you will be able to read and that you will judge what the composition js, with the errors, as you will see it. A Socializing Project “The Correlation of Work in English.”” Demonstration by Third-Grade Pupils of Humboldt School, St. Louis—Principal, C. L. Sampson; Teachers, Helen Pierce and Adele Cunningham—