PERIOD! UU GENERAL LIBRAR* The NATIONAL ELEMENTARY RINCIPAL — BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION TEPER ERS IY ett | ya ae aT Te I f Higa | © BUCKINGHAM THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY PRINCIPAL 7 BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS Published in October, November, December, February, April, June, and July by the Department of P Elementary School Principals of the National Education Association of the United States. All elementary principals—administrative, supervisory, and teaching—are eligible to active mem- bership in this department. The payment of $3 dues entitles active members to attend all 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 Association who are Ve actively engaged in any phase of school work by paying the regular membership fee of $3. They are —_ entitled to all privileges except the right to vote and hold office. Subscription to non-members is $3 per year; single copies of the Yearbook, $2; single copies of the Bulletin, 25 cents (except the Official Reports). Entered as secand-class matter November 20, 1922, at the postoffice at Washington, D. C., under let Act of August 24, 1912. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section . 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized December 18, 1922. cre ele Executive and Editorial Offices, 1201 Sixteenth Street, Northwest, Washington, D. C., Eva G. Pinkston, Editor. the Mi OFFICERS OF THE DEPARTMENT, 1937-38 President, Mason A. Stratton, Brighton Executive Committee Avenue School, Atlantic City, N. J. Maude A. Rhodes, Whitefoord School, Atlanta, Ga. Mrs. Edith B. Joynes, Washington-Gate- [Th wood Schools, Norfolk, Va. ; e: First Vicepresident, Edythe J. Brown, Kaley- Marquette Schools, South Bend, Ind. Second Vicepresident, Isabel Tucker, Festus Ira M. Kline, 177 Gibson Avenue, White : Wade School, St. Louis, Mo. Plains, N. Y. Gu Third Vicepresident, H. B. Norton, Robin- Irvin A. Wilson, 437 S. Stone Avenue.) Ho son School, Birmingham, Ala. La Grange, Ti. : ; } Certification Division, Cassie F. Roys, Di- : Fourth Vicepresident, Arnold Gregory, rector, 2609 Bristol St., Omaha, Nebr. Edi Raupp School, Lincoln Park, Mich. Life Membership Division, Herbert C. Han-)> \fe sen, Director, 1045 N. Lockwood Ave.) _, Chicago, IIl. Con Retirement Division, M. Emma Brookes, Di- The Executive Secretary, Eva G. Pinkston, 1201 rector, Miles-Cranwood Schools, Cleve- in Sixteenth St., N. W., Washington, D. C. land, Ohio. Fifth Vicepresident, Harry H. Haw, Alice Birney School, San Diego, Calif. Atl: , . : ; | Soci See space below for Committees as they are appointed thruout the year Cas Let Atlantic City Hospitality Committee Pris Mason A. Stratton, Chairman Floyd A. Potter John P. Milligan Stat Atlantic City, N. J. Atlantic City, N. J. Bloomfield, N. J. i Mrs. Helen C. Brearley Verna Dowling Ralph C. McConnell AR Princeton, N. J. Penns Grove, N. J. Atlantic City, N. J. A. Virginia Adams Rep Vineland, N. J. 5 Secr The contents of this Bulletin are listed in the Education Index. Ki . . ‘ina The picture appearing on the cover is the beautiful Terrace Fountain and Reflecting Pool, which is situated on the plaza to the East of our Nation’s Capitol. On. 2 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY PRI t of | em- ings are are me © let us build together for a firmer foundation and in- crease the enthusiasm of those who are working in the — elementary field. This issue of the bulletin is devoted primarily to __| the report of the summer convention at Detroit, Michigan, June 27-July 1, 1937. Contents ool, ave . Teacher Participation—Stratton + ate-" The Three C’s of Education—Character, Citizen- aid ship and Culture—Hogue 6 Guidance in the Elementary School-—Sto/z 12 nue.) Horace Mann—An Exponent of Education for a oil Richer and Fuller Life—Elliot 19 yr, | Education in a Democracy—Cameron 25 = Mental Hygiene and Behavior—Baker 29 ") Conference on Elementary Education 36 , Di-) The: Principal’s Part in a Safety Education Pro- jeve- gram—Cottrell 39 | Atlantic City Meeting 4] ~ | Social Affairs at the Detroit Convention 42 ' Congratulations are in Order 43 ~~ |) Let us Continue to Move Forward—Pinkston +4 Principals Plan Too—Scrivener 46 | State Control Over Teacher Supply —Owen 48 A Report of the Enrolment Chairman Meeting 52 Reports of Committees 53 | Secretary’s Report 57 ai Financial Statement 61 On Our Bookshelf 62 RY! PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1937 The National Elementary Principal Volume XVII, No. | October, 1937 Greetings for the New School Year With so many changes in education taking place, REFLECTIONS ARRANGEMENTS have been made for the Tray- more Hotel to be head- quarters at the Atlantic City convention, Feb. 28- Mar. 3, 1938, for the D.E. S.P. The Atlantic City and New Jersey principals will be hosts, with Mason A. Stratton, president of the Department, as chair- man of the group. The D.E.S.P. is one of the in- vited groups of the Amer- ican Association of School Administrators at its win- ter convention. OF THE SECOND annual Conference on Elementary Education will be held at the New York University, under the leadership of Dean J. W. Withers, Dr Robert K. Speer, and Mr. Ira M. Kline. Another marvelous meeting will be held July 4-15, 1938. COMING AMERICAN EDUCA- TION WEEK will take place Nov. 7-12 inclusive. The general theme “Edu- cation and Our National Life’ has been divided into the following topics: Can We Educate for Peace?; Buying Educa- tional Service; The Hor- ace Mann _ Centennial; Our American Youth Problem; Schools and the Constitution ; School Open House Day; and Lifelong Learning. EVENTS NEW YORK, N. Y., was selected as the N.E.A. convention city for 1938. 3 Teacher Participation Mason A. Stratton, president, Department of Elementary School Principals The very great honor of being president of the Department of Ele- mentary School Principals brings with it a gigantic responsibility. This De- partment represents the key group in the structure of our educational sys- tem. Tho I approach the office with deep appreciation I also approach it with a humility of spirit for those © o - who work in the field of elementary 43 a s Yon: / education know how vital their task § * ’ The Detroit convention and the ail Conference on Elementary Education, Lin J which was sponsored by the Depart- ment and held at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, marked the closing of one of the most successful years in the history of our group. This success is measured by the growth of membership, the worth- tins and the many services which our MASON A. STRATTON headquarters renders. Our great parent association—The National Education Association—is work- ing for enlarged and expanding opportunities for the youth of our country as well as the upbuilding of our great profession. Let us continue to help in this worthy cause by building our part of the structure solidly and firmly. We can do this by principals and teachers working together and each understanding thoroly the work encountered by the other. By cooperation much waste effort will be eliminated and a calmer more thoughtful and more intelligent approach acknowledged. The superintendent needs the help of teachers and principals fully as much in working out policies and plans as he does in making his own ideas effective. There are few leading superintendents who do not draw heavily on the teachers in working out important questions of administration. ‘here are likewise few successful principals who do not value the support of their teaching force. Pick out some of the most successful superintendents you know. Do they not plainly owe the greater part of their success to the backing of teachers and principals? Pick out some of those who have lost out. Do they not owe their si am : » i whileness of our Yearbooks and bulle- to the problem of teaching our boys and girls of the elementary schools will be downfall to a lack of teacher support? But the saddest of all is the case of the + THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY al wi to na ah Pr tea the im me mi the pre: His abo PR ork- this © 1 do ling fort yach 1 be 1uch tive. hers few not and their ' the {RY principal who goes ahead on his own steam, ignoring the help he could so easily get from superintendent and teachers. He is in bad above. He is in bad below. If he loses out, who is to blame? A lonestar teacher is also to be pitied. In most cases principals and teachers do work together in harmony. The better the cooperation the more it means to the children and the community. That which is most greatly needed in these schools as well as in other schools is to place the work on a more formal basis. It will pay principals and teachers in every elementary school to have a formal organization and to give more time and attention to this important work. The plans should provide for giving the teacher an important place in this joint arrangement. Principals and teachers, who have cooperated with each other, have arrived at the full height in their profession, for poise, and independence of thought are in evidence as they build curriculum and extra-curriculum programs. The in- ternal control, the school plant, records, service agencies, as well as others help them build. Thru this intimate study of pupils, they jointly guide the learning, stimulate the individuals and lead boys and girls into a more useful citizenship. The principal and teacher in our modern school system should try to approach this ideal by earnest preparation and thoro work. Both are preparing themselves to fit into the general scheme of school administration and supervision, and better training is assuming professional function, which is highly important to the welfare of the school. They are availing themselves of all opportunities offered and are becoming more professionally minded because these opportunities let them explore fields of purposeful interest. This cooperative relationship between teacher, principal and superintendent, we call Teacher Participation. We have never yet attached enough importance to this principle, yet it has been a real force in thousands of schools in the nation. What we have done, however, may serve as a foundation for what is ahead. ‘The recent plans adopted by the Department of Elementary School Principals give promise. It is to make the study of teacher participation a major item in its program for 1937-38. The superintendent reaches the teacher at work thru the principal. The teacher reaches the authorities of the school thru the principal. That is why the principal is said to hold the key position. That is why it is of such vital importance for the Department to join hands in this movement with the Depart- ment of Classroom Teachers and the American Association of School Ad- ministrators. It adds the strength of joint action to the personal and spasmodic efforts of the past. Has the Department ever devoted itself to a more fundamental matter ? Of course all principals will be glad to know that Mason A. Stratton, our president, is rapidly recovering from his very serious auto accident of August 6. His relations and his friends in the teaching profession were deeply concerned about his condition for more than four weeks. —Eva G. Pinkston, Executive Secretary. PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1937 5 GENERAL SESSION, JUNE 28, 1937 Appraisal of Elementary Education—Stressing the Culture Side HE FIRST GENERAL SESSION of the Department of Elementary School Principals’ programs was held in the Memorial Hall, Woodward Avenue Baptist Church, Monday, June 28, 2 p.m., with President Edythe J. Brown, principal, Kaley-Marquette Schools, presiding. ‘Those assembled were indebted to the group of boys and girls of Stephens School of which Miss Esther J. Cousins is principal, for the lovely musical program which they ren- dered. These musical programs which we hear at the different conventions, are always thoroly appreciated by the group, for they demonstrate the splendid work carried on by the musica! directors in the elementary schools. The Three C’s of Education—Character, Citizenship and Culture Mrs. Helen Gibson Hogue, counselor in mental hygiene, Highland Park Schools, Highland Park, Michigan My approach to this subject must necessarily be from the point of view of the mental hygiene worker who is con- cerned, of course, with the personality development of the child and his relationship with his world; who feels that education for character, citizenship and culture cannot take place effectively unless the curriculum, the activity, in fact the whole atmosphere and approach of the school is per meated with understanding of the importance of the raw material with which the school works, viz., the personalities HELEN G. HOGUE of the children themselves. We cannot “lead out” to a high order of citizenship and a living culture unless we know the mental, physical, and particularly the emotional make up and needs of the child we are attempting to educate. Harold, for instance, altho he has high normal intelligence according to his mental tests, has not “learned the lessons’’ assigned him this past year. In addition he has kept his classes in a state of upheaval by his constant bullying of boys younger than himself and by his defiant attitude and behavior. His needs are not being met. He is making no progress toward good citizenship. No amount of punishment has accomplished any change for the better in this boy’s development. At home he lives with a maternal aunt and her two younger children. The mother, who is separated from the father, also lives in the home. The mother is constantly on the defen- sive for the boy and resents the aunt’s criticism of him when he bullies his more fortunate younger cousin. Both of the women express great hostility toward Harold’s father and tell the boy how much he is like his father in appearance and disposition. Harold feels that all the world is an enemy. As he has no legitimate satisfactions that would lead to a happy, responsible adjustment to his world, he finds substitute satisfactions in anti-social expression of his feelings. 6 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY me for in of ful the lea the jue ot 1T)¢ ot in hig mi ed ot we we po be da lit mi ot are vo ha be wl 193 PI h e SS Ne oom = Exposing Harold to six more years of “subjects” and “activities” that do not meet his needs will accomplish little, except, perhaps to serve as a hot house forcing of the already deep rooted anti-social tendencies. Not only must the school know the child, but education must be deeply rooted in a growing cultutYe and the school must know the direction, the movement of that culture. George Counts in speaking of “progressive” schools says: “They have focused attention squarely upon the child; they have recognized the fundamental importance of the interest of the learner; they have defended the thesis that activity lies at the root of all true education; they have conceived learning in terms of life situations and growth of character, they have championed the rights of the child as a free personality. Most of this is excellent, but in my judgment is not enough—it constitutes too narrow a conception of the meaning of education. If an educational movement, or any other movement, calls itself progressive, it must have orientation; it must possess direction. The word itself implies moving forward, and moving forward can have little meaning in the absence of clearly defined purposes.””! Here in America, it seems to me, if we accept the direction of the best in democracy, as the basis for our education, we may be able to develop the highest civilization that has ever been known. For democracy is a culture in the making. It holds within it the possibility of emerging in many directions. And educators are in a strategic position for guidance. Too often in the past we have thought of culture as a static thing—a matter of learning and taste. We thought to pass on to our children those things that were done and said in past civilizations that we felt were finest. By so doing, we thought to contribute to their ‘culture’. But as Alfred North Whitehead points out, this conception or definition of culture, that it is “the best that has been done and said in the past’’, is dangerous. It omits the great fact that in their day the great achievements of the past were the adventures of the past. He says, “Only the adventurous can understand the greatness of the past. In its day, the literature of the past was an adventure. Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides were adventurers in the world of thought. But adventures are to the adventurous. Thus a passive knowledge of the past loses the whole value of its message. A living civilization requires learning; but it lies beyond it. A civilization preserves its vigor so long as it harbors a real contrast between what has been and what may be; and so long as it is nerved by the vigor to adventure beyond the safties of the past. Without adventure civilization is in full decay.”” | believe the most confirmed pessimist would agree that here in America we are in the midst of a live adventure—the adventure of democracy—of self- government for the “good of the whole’. We have been passing thru and per- haps are still strongly entrenched in the immature, self-centered stage of seeking benefits for the individual without due consideration of the “good of the whole’, which is so necessary a part of the healthy functioning of a democracy. But 1Counts, George S. “Dare the School Build a New Social Order?’’ New York: The John Day Co., 1932. P. 100. 2Whitehead, Alfred North. ‘‘Adventures of Ideas.’"” The Macmillan Co., New York, 1935, p. 360. PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1937 7 there are everywhere evidences of our growth from the self-centered to the social—of our struggle toward the social ideal of democracy. We are at that stage in our growth when the imagination and all the powers of youth may be stimulated to find satisfaction in seeking the “good of the whole”. Whatever mistakes may have been made under the New “Deal, and whatever dangers may be inherent in its trends—we have had ample evidence that a large majority of the American people, care, and care greatly for the welfare and happiness of the whole. We may lack wisdom in working out the problems; our procedures may be halting and unstable, but the direction is unmistakable. There is a temper, a movement, a force of opinion, that will not be denied—that con- siders the many as well as the chosen few. There is a strong feeling everywhere that the fruits of labor, the contribution of the individual, must be shared ade- quately by the laborer himself. There is a growing feeling that the “forgotten man”’, is a product of society’s failure to meet his needs in the past and the play of social forces upon him with which he was inadequate to cope. Out of the strife, the hostilities, the clash of opposing forces there may come to the whole of America, the realization that with the privilege of democracy goes the deep responsibility of labor and of capital, of all human beings who share the privileges of freedom. It is this stage of the adventure of democracy, that of growing from the self-centered to the social; from seeking security for the self alone or for one | group with which the individual identifies himself, to seeking the security and welfare of the whole, that needs so desperately the clear-eyed vision and scientific approach of education. If this barely conscious social trend is to possess the vigor, the courage necessary to bring this greatest adventure of all civilization to fruition, then education must indeed become more vital. It must first of all conceive of the adventure as vastly worth struggling for. At its heart must be the religious spirit that has as its social ideal that it should be the common basis for the unity of civilization, that has to do with the attitudes and technics of cooperation rather than those of force. As Whitehead has pointed out, this religious spirit is always in the process of being explained away, distorted and buried. Yet since the travel of mankind toward civilization it is always there. Its present manifestation he says, began with the statement of Plato toward the end of his life that the idea of the divine is contained in the power of persuasion rather than coercion. And now, two thousand years since the life of the man who best personified this divine idea, may it not be that the power of that idea may be working out in the reality of a social order—a democracy that has stumbled and wondered, but has worked on—failing in certain areas, but gather- ing new knowledge from each new scientific discovery of man’s kinship with his world? The social gospel of brotherly love, attacked on all sides by the adherents of the older gospel of might and force, persists in the dreams of thousands who are slowly learning that science is a mighty tool in the hands of man for building his dreams into reality. This cultural pattern of a cooperative society as contrasted with a coercive one, will require for its survival and growth the developing of personalities who are emotionally mature. They must not feel the need, growing out of past ex- ant PT OEE 8 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY Fe ams kt 2 ote OF the lat be ‘ge nd yur pre on- ore Je- lay fe, | of ep FES ‘he ne nd ‘he to all be sis his nd re. he on an lea 1as r- his its ho ng ve ho + pee a ee SN EMR perience to dominate others; to escape into day dreams, illness or self-pity; to regress to an effortless infancy; to punish because of their own past sufferings; or to destroy those who oppose or threaten their personal ambition for supremacy. The schools must know the psychological implications of such needs. Such per- sonalities are the victims of their infantile fears, hates and self-loves that have grown out of their past experiences in meeting their world. The fact that these personality patterns which determine the character of the child are given their original set in the home does not lessen, but greatly com- plicates the responsibility of the educator. How to help the child to become a healthily functioning part of the social organism in spite of his past experience, is the challenge which the school must meet. To say that nine year old John, who steals and lies and gets most of his satisfactions out of outwitting authority, comes from a slum area that provides a big percentage of the city’s delinquency, is a distinct challenge that must be met honestly, with knowledge and with insight. The school cannot wait until all the slums are cleared to begin its task, altho it can inspire the type of citizenship that demands slum clearance. Harvey is from a well-to-do home, socially and economically secure. Harvey pays Byron ice cream cones to work his arithmetic problems. Harvey tells the boys in his room (one at a time and very confidentially), that he will take them on a cruise on his father’s boat if they will vote for him for “safety patrol’. He never faces any issue courageously and honestly but avoids all hard work. He has the ego need to be honored and approved, but has no sense of responsibility. ‘These two boys with totally different backgrounds, will be unable to function whole- somely in a democracy. Neither will be able to think in terms of the “good of the whole’. Each will be busy attempting to satisfy his own needs in ways that are personally satisfying without regard for others. Equally dangerous is Donald’s aggressive shrewdness that places him in a position of leadership. He “wrangles” things to his own advantage. He plays up to the ego needs and weaknesses of his teachers and schoolmates to gain advantages for himself. He will hurt a friend if necessary in order to maintain his position. He has narrow, individualistic views of citizenship and is imbued with the sacredness of “things as they are’. There is Marvin, who has been hurt and hurt deeply. His father does not make enough money to keep his large family in decency. They live in crowded quarters, have inadequate food and clothing. Marvin feels the sting of social ostracism by those whose interests he would like to share. His father is cruel to his mother and Marvin rebels in his heart against a world that inflicts such suffering and injustice. He begins to dream of power to force injustice from the earth. He has within him the making of a dictator. The dictator becomes dictator by virtue of his thirst for personal power. He trades on the fears and hates and self-love of his followers. He uses catch phrases and moral pattern to win men, women, and youth to his program, and the age-old need of humanity to feel itself worthwhile in the scheme of things prompts an emotional response that leads often to disaster. The dictator is most successful when he is least conscious of the real motivation for his behavior. The school cannot deal with these character problems on the basis of “right” and “wrong” or “good” and “bad”. It must rather deal with them on the basis PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1937 9 of “healthy” and “unhealthy” and consider emotional and social “needs”. The healthy personality has a feeling of security, of being wanted, of “belonging” in his world. He must have this feeling of belonging in his own family, in the larger social group or community, and there seems also to be a deep-seated need of every human being to “belong”, to have a sense of “relatedness”, with the Larger Universe of intelligence, beauty, truth, harmony, and love, that means God to each individual. This feeling of belonging, of being wanted, comes thru relationship and is experienced first in the family. The whole set of the child’s adjustment to his world is formed in the matrix of his family relationships and experiences. Those of you who have read the recent book of Healy and Bronner, Neu Light on Delinquency and Its Treatment, have a graphic picture of the import- ance of relationship. The book reports and interprets a study of the causes of delinquency that was sponsored by the Yale Institute of Human Relations. One hundred and fifty-three delinquent boys and girls, all repeatedly offenders, were studied. No delinquent child was accepted for study unless there was a non- delinquent brother or sister in the family who might also be studied. “There were eight pairs of twins in the group, one delinquent and one non-delinquent. ‘The most important finding according to the report was the fact that in each case the delinquent child had felt rejected and had never had a satisfying relationship with any adult, and in each case the non-delinquent had felt wanted by one o1 both parents and had experienced a satisfying relationship with at least one adult. Even in those cases where the adult had not been the most desirable type of person, the relationship. had given the child enough security so that he did not feel the need to seek substitute satisfactions in delinquency. Relationship is established in the beginning thru the satisfaction of two funda- mental needs which every human being possesses; one is tor affection, the other for recognition. Failure to satisfy these needs may cause the child to “shrink’’ from his world of fear, and thus cut himself off from relationship; or he may rebel or “fight” his world in anger or hate. In either case he may develop substitute satisfactions that are described as “bad” or ‘‘weak’”’ character. If he is a “shrinking” personality, he may escape meeting reality thru day dreams or self-pity or other escape mechanisms. Who in the school world has not met the plain, shy, poorly dressed little girl, who has been compared unfavorably with a more attractive cousin or sister? She makes no effort to build relationship with her world, but escapes into day dreams of being beautiful and rich and much sought after. Her world calls her “lazy”, which is a layman’s diagnosis and gives no insight into causes. It is a totally inadequate term for the school ‘that would attempt to build character, citizenship, and culture. Punishment and criticism will only drive her into further introversion and phantasy. Only thru establishment of relationship and the opportunity to earn success and recognition can she be given that sense of belonging that will insure healthy personality, and courage to meet her world. It is difficult to build relationship with the “fighting” personality. He loves to punish and defy. His behavior arouses in ourselves all of our old childish punitive reactions. We forget that his behavior fulfills his need to maintain 10 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY PU rt- ine re yn- op he himself as an individual (any attention is more desirable than no attention) in a world that has not made it a happy experience to gain status in more socially acceptable ways. The pattern that has been developed out of experience will persist into adulthood, and will be carried to the grave unless education can give the individual insight into his own behavior and can provide the sort of relationship and experience that will help him to identify himself with the good of the whole instead of with those enemy forces that we call anti-social. Too often we reject such a child and leave his needs for recognition and affection to be supplied by the anti-social gang. The latter are frequently much more adept at meeting ego needs and supplying relationship than are those defenders of the social good who make up the personnel of the schools, the churches, and other “character building” agencies. Not only do we have the personality who cannot build relationship because of his hates and fears, but we have to work with and help that personality who has experienced a too prolonged coddling. Mother and sometimes father, grandparents, aunts, and uncles have revolved in wonder around his throne. His satisfactions have been derived from their adoration. It is most essential that every infant have the experience of the safety and security of affection. This is the very foundation of all his liking, his love, for his new world. But at the first possible moment we should provide the opportunity for the child to express his liking, his love, by some small service—by making his contribution. This should be made a pleasurable experience. In this way he will be learning to build relationship, instead of expecting that his satisfactions shall be supplied by society without effort on his part. Love will be growing up and becoming more mature. This is the key to a fine degree of character, citizenship and of our developing American culture. Oskar Pfister, whose writings I believe American educators could study to great advantage to themselves and to their pupils, tells us that all neurotics, all persons who are overcome by anxieties or a weariness of life, the moody, those who lack will power, the erratic, those who enjoy suffer- ing or those who delight in punishing others, all are suffering from the in- capacity to love or a cramping of the love sentiment as a result of childhood experiences in relationship. He says that these may be guided toward a normal adjustment if sufficient insight and goodwill be forthcoming.* A society that values the individual and makes it a satisfying experience for the individual to contribute the best of which he is capable is building a society of individuals who actively promote the best interest of society as a whole. lf schools thru a more scientific and objective approach, can learn the child’s individual talents and needs; if it can supply relationship where it has been lacking and see that growing personalities continue to widen and build broader relationships; if it can supply activities that require the children’s cooperative consideration of school problems, and cooperatively made plans for carrying out suggested solutions; if it can promote a genuine interest in and appreciation of the group for the contribution of the individual’s best effort, and a healthy joy in the individual for the accomplishment of the group; if the children them- selves can gradually be given an insight into causes for anti-social behavior and “Pfister, Oskar, ‘“‘Love in Children and Its Aberations,’’ Dodd, Mead and Co., N. Y. Pp. 273-308. PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1937 11 a an understanding of what constitutes a healthy personality; if these things are done thoroly, actively, and consciously, then education may indeed be helping to integrate the inner nature and activity of the individual with the cultural pattern that was the dream of our founders, “‘one for all and all for one”. The success of this dream would be the social triumph of the highest spiritual law that has yet been sensed by man, viz., the triumph of the power of persuasion over the power of coercion and force. Can this higher divine law triumph over that of the tooth and the claw? As a race we are very young and immature. On an unconscious plane we are largely at the mercy of our hates and fears and self- love—but we have a vision—and I believe that the greatest concrete manifes- tation of the new spirit that has yet appeared, that of the public school, free to every child, is our strongest, most efficient tool for building our dream into a reality. Guidance in the Elementary School Herbert R. Stolz, assistant superintendent of schools, in charge of Individual Guidance, Oakland, California Guidance as an Aspect of Education—Just as the word “college” evokes the associated word ‘“‘foot-ball’’, so “guidance” is apt to call forth the association “vocational.” But guidance is both theoretically and actually much more inclusive. Even in the limited field of formally organized education, guidance is being recognized as an important emphasis which is applicable at every level of developmental age,—to nursery school children, to elementary school pupils, to high school students, and to college matriculates. HERBERT R. STOLZ Indeed, to some, guidance and education appear as syn- onymous concepts. Probably this point of view is more apt to prevail among elementary-school teachers and principals because the traditions of the primary schools do not emphasize specialization of function as do those of the secondary schools. Actually, good teachers and principals in elementary schools have always recognized that they could not avoid combining individual guidance with group instruction. From the experience of those who have focused attention upon training for occupational efficiency, from the experience of those who have emphasized charac- ter, and from the many recent studies of the phenomena of personality develop- ment, there has emerged a more inclusive meaning for the word guidance in relation to education and to schools. Without attempting to define the extent of this enlargement, | wish to draw attention to certain practical implications which indicate the scope of guidance and the present direction of its evolution. In general, formal education in elementary schools has been organized upon the assumption of similarity among the pupils of a given age. Individual differ- ences have been discounted or treated as troublesome exceptions to the rule of homogeneity. Guidance is an expression of the increasing recognition of the 12 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY on RT 2 ETE ROPERS tee eee ire Tn ess 1as lat an If- CS- ito al importance of individual differences. ‘Thus it focuses attention upon meeting the peculiar needs of each child rather than upon the development of general characteristics which children have, are supposed to have, or should have. Another feature of the guidance program is its emphasis upon the essential integrity of the personality. On this now generally accepted hypothesis, any separate consideration of “mental,” physical,” or “spiritual” aspects of develop- ment is a rank distortion of reality and leads to dangerously oversimplified educational procedures. In other words, guidance connotes not only full aware- ness of the differences among children, but also full realization of the necessity to treat each child as a person rather than as an aggregate of separately modifiable traits. Obviously, then, guidance is concerned with the coordination and direction of all aspects of the learning process. This means that it is a continuous effort to assess the peculiar needs of each pupil, to make direct adjustment between the pupil and the school environment, and to attempt to secure the cooperation of other individuals and social agencies in formulating and carrying out an even broader educative program. The Continuous Assessment of the Individual Pupil—To be effective, the continuous assessment of the status of the individual pupil must include the systematic collection of significant information from several sources and in various ways. First of all there should be collection of data from the parents when the child first enters the school. I think that it is fair to say that generally this source of information has been neglected. We know that entry into the school involves considerable adjustment for the youngster and often his experi- ence during the first months sets the pattern of his attitude toward schooling, toward teachers, and toward the other pupils. Wise guidance during this critical period can prevent tensions and inappropriate attitudes as well as unsuitable behavior. Such guidance must be determined partly by understanding the more important trends of the individual child’s prior development. In addition to such items as age, general physical fitness, status regarding immunity to specific communicable diseases, the teacher who is to guide the child should know some- thing about the family setting in which the child has developed, something of his play interests, and something of the methods of control which the parents think are successful with this particular youngster. Only on such a basis can the teacher gauge the emotional needs of the pupil and know how to deal with him. This initial inventory should be made thru direct personal contact between the teacher and one or both of the parents. The time required will be justified many times over during years to come. Guidance can rest only upon cooperation among the several important agents involved and the establishment of rapport between the home authority and the school authority is an essential first step. Information concerning the child can be garnered from the systematic use of special inspections, tests, measurements, and examinations. In this process many schools have established rather elaborate programs in which the staff of the school cooperates with specialists supplied by the central administrative office of the school system. Here, as elsewhere, the sequence of emphasis has commenced PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1937 13 with the measurement of achievement in subject matter mastery and then in- cluded general intelligence, physical status, and, finally, has focused increasing attention upon the evaluation of total personality responses. . The early detection of significant impairment of vision or hearing is an im- portant function which the schools have assumed and which illustrates the use of special test technics in appraising learning readiness, and in ferreting out specific causes for unwholesome trends in development. Altho the Snellan Chart test of visual acuity is admittedly inadequate for the discovery of all cases of visual impairment and strain, it does sort out a large number of pupils for further individual examination and treatment. In some schools the classroom teachers conduct the tests; in others this service is rendered by a special team of testers. As a compromise arrangement, in many schools the testing is carried on very satisfactorily by the school nurse with a standard view box which can he taken from one building to another. In contrast to the vision testing, the group and individual testing of hearing requires a special team of expert testers in order to insure reasonable reliability. The principal and classroom teachers have important functions in assisting with the arrangements but they cannot take the place of the experienced tester. Health inspections by school nurses and inspections or more complete exami- nations by school physicians also illustrate the part which the trained specialist can play in supplying useful information to the teacher and principal. ‘This usefulness is greatly enhanced by personal conferences between the teacher and the specialist. Indeed, the bare record of findings is frequently of little practical value unless thru such consultation the interpretation of the test findings and the description of the child’s behavior can be brought together and discussed in relation to his total personality needs. The arrangement of appropriate oppor- tunity for such conferences is not easy and often this difficulty blocks progress toward adequate guidance in the elementary school. In school systems where specialized diagnostic service has been developed over a period of years, the usefulness and the limitations ot specialists are usually well understood. Less generally recognized is the extent to which the classroom teacher can contribute to the continuous assessment of the individual pupil. Let me illustrate her contribution in three closely related kinds of procedure. ‘These may be designated as (a) systematic observation at a stated time in a stated situation, (b) systematic incidental observation as the opportunity is presented, and (c) systematic observation in connection with certain occasional critical situations. Morning inspection is a well-known example of systematic observation at a ‘stated time. ‘This procedure may be aimed at early detection of cases of communicable disease, or it may be used as a teaching device for emphasizing various aspects of cleanliness. ‘hese are defensible objectives, but from the point of view of guidance, the morning inspection gives the teacher the oppor- tunity to look at each of her pupils and discern something of the physiological and emotional status of each on that particular day in comparison with his usual status as she discerned it on preceding days. The teacher who has practised this becomes remarkably expert in sensing the daily fluctuation of energy level, THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 1+ in hz se m ol m al to in- ing m- use put art of for ym of ed an he TS Ts ot tension, and happiness, as well as the significant trend of personality change over longer periods. In some schools the opportunity afforded by routine morning inspection is supplemented by a twenty-minute period once a week during which the pupils are reading or drawing and the teacher can sit at her desk and, with the pupils before her, review her knowledge of each child’s progress in physical, academic, social, and emotional development. But behavior which gives significant insight into personality may occur at any time during school hours. Therefore, observation at specified times is less pro- ductive of insight than is the second procedure which we have called systematic incidental observation. This takes no special time nor effort for the teacher who has practised it, but, unfortunately, many teachers seem never to have learned to see the whole child even when they look at him. The importance of instructional methods and classroom management are so stressed that the systematic incidental observation of the child as a person is not practised. Fortunately we know that many teachers do manage to pay attention to this and that it facilitates instruction and simplifies discipline. Systematic observation in connection with critical situations is closely related to the procedures already described. We know from experience that investigation of the causes of absence and tardiness, of misbehavior in the classroom, in the halls, or on the playground often yields significant insight into the problems of living which are troubling a child and into areas of insecurity where he needs help. The teacher who is interested in guidance cannot afford to neglect these special occasional opportunities for understanding the dynamics of personality in the individual concerned. Sometimes the important information lies on the surface to be easily gathered in a brief conversation; in other cases insight is ob- tained only thru repeated contacts which require considerable time and much patience. The Direct Adjustment of the Pupil and the School—lIn the vuidance of elementary school pupils there are many factors beyond the direct control of teachers and principals. Nevertheless, the daily contacts with children during the school hours and under the peculiarly important conditions of the school situation give us a large opportunity and a corresponding responsibility to make whatever adjustments we can between the pupil and his school experience. Re- gardless of what goes on outside of school, we can make a significant contribution by the manipulation of the many activities over which the school has direct control or in which the school takes the primary function of leadership. For example, we can adjust the length of the school day to meet the needs of an individual for whom it seems unwise to insist upon the regular hours of attendance. In some cases, the excitement and nervous strain of school work and school associations is so great that the purpose of education is defeated by too much of it. In other cases there are problems arising on the way to and from school so that it is advisable to have a pupil come a little later in the day or leave a little earlier. Appropriate placement in class work within the school is an important con- tribution to wholesome development. Good practise in guidance demands that there be sufficient flexibility in the grouping of pupils to permit those with special PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1937 15 talent or with special handicaps to profit by subject matter experience appropriate to their capacities and needs. The thoughtful principal will take occasion at the beginning of each school year or perhaps at the beginning of each term to go over the entire list of pupils in his school to see what special placement adaptations should be made to meet the needs of these pupils whose academic achievement does not correspond in each subject to the grade standards of the curriculum. Nor is placement appropriate to the difficulty of subject matter the only criterion to be considered. Altho, theoretically, each teacher is expected to be able to deal wisely and sympathetically with any pupil, actually we are aware that there are frequently peculiar antagonisms of personality between teachers and certain pupils which preclude the possibility of a wholesome learning re- lationship. Some pupils need sympathy and encouragement while others need rigorous, impartial discipline. To see that insofar as possible each pupil has the opportunity to experience the leadership of a teacher who can best supply his peculiar personality growth needs is a responsibility of the principal which is too frequently unfulfilled. Successful experienced teachers need no prodding in making appropriate adaptations within the scope of the regular class work. Nevertheless, the fre- quency with which such minor adjustments are neglected warrants special attention to this systematic, incidental fitting of pupils and experience in their daily work. Occasional observation of a class will show which pupils are not actively and enthusiastically engaged in the tasks assigned. This lack of en- thusiasm is the exception rather than the rule among healthy children and calls for further investigation of the natural interests which might be tapped and legitimately exploited in order to make school work meaningful to each pupil. Similarly, there are in the varied activities centering about the school and the playground many special functions in which individual pupils may participate and so enhance their zest for school experience. To bring together pupils need- ing these special outlets for self-expression and the appropriate opportunities for such self-expression is the peculiar prerogative of the principal. The spread of individual differences among pupils in our schools has made necessary the organization of special groupings and special classes as a regular part of school organization. The feasibility of such special classes depends upon the size of the school population and on the availability of specially trained teachers. In the larger school systems, the organization of such a special class for the physically handicapped, the deaf, and the hard of hearing, for those with defective vision, and for those with significant handicaps in speech, is accepted as a responsibility which must be met. Even in individual schools and in small school systems there is no reason why special supplementary classes should not be organized for those who need a period of rest and relaxation during the school day, for those who have nervous disorders of speech or articulation diffi- culties, and for those whose retardation in reading constitutes a primary bar to their effective education. The Cooperation with Agencies Outside the Individual School— The public school is but one of the educational institutions of our culture. For successful adjustment of the pupil in school and in the community, as well as 16 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY di by ne Ww nt or OV co he hy in di at ce ate he yer yns ‘nt las sly ch ite ial ir ot n- Ils | | i i i | j i for reasonable progress in scholastic activities the school must continuously co- operate with the home, the public health authority, the juvenile court, the several welfare and character building organizations and also with such individuals as render semi-public service to the community, including its children. In this latter category we find physicians, dentists, clergymen, the police officers and others with less direct and less frequent educational functions. The cooperation with these several agencies is made up of a mosaic of obtaining information and carrying out plans for the better adjustment of individual pupils. In the opinion of the writer, cooperation between the school and the home is, in many cases, not so effective as it could easily be made. There still remains the tendency among school employees to stand upon their rights as teachers and to divorce the educational program at school from the more general education which goes on during the balance of the twenty-four hours. Granting the danger of troublesome interference by parents who do not appreciate the school problems, the fact remains that any adequate program of individual guidance must include continuous and sympathetic cooperation between home authorities and school authorities. Experience has shown that it is possible to build up over the years a spirit of mutual confidence and support between these two social institutions which is important to every child and which is absolutely essential for the guidance of a pupil when stress or trouble arises. The start towards this cooperation should be made as soon as the child comes to school—even before, if possible. It should be a recognized function of kinder- garten and first grade teachers to spend time discussing with each mother the personality needs of her child. In some school systems provision is made for this during school hours and the mothers themselves help to make it possible by supervising the class while the teacher is engaged in personal conferences. Group conferences with the parents of young children are also valuable, but do not take the place of the series of personal conversations. As a part of the effort to establish this rapport between the parents of children who are just entering school, the systematic home visiting by teachers, school nurses, and principals is essential, and its importance should be measured, not only in terms of immediate understanding, but also in terms of its usefulness over the many years to come during which parents and teachers will have a common function in the guidance of the pupil. In the larger school systems, the program of building up cooperacion between home and school will be strengthened by the school physicians, dentist, dental hygienists, and other specialists employed by the central administrative office. The details of cooperation between the school and the community agencies interested in the wholesome development of children are too many and too diverse to be dealt with in this presentation. For the same reason, the consider- ation of the problems of cooperation between the individual school and the central office staff must be omitted. Suffice it to say that thoro-going programs of individual guidance must be supported by the regularly established technics of coordination among the several services. Here again the elementary-school principal is in the key position. PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1937 17 Coordinating and Recording within the School—We have considered the assessment of the status of the individual pupil and the efforts at adjustment which can be initiated by teachers and principals. We have touched upon the larger field of cooperation between the school, the home, and other social institutions. It remains to say something concerning the functions of coordinating and recording which are implied by the activities already described. Obviously, the school principal must undertake the burden of this coordination and devise a system of recording which will serve the purposes of individual guidance. In vary- ing degree, he is assisted in the maintenance of this administration and clerical structure by the school nurse, the teachers, and in some instances by the clerk. No matter how carefully any scheme of written records is devised and carried out, vital coordination will depend largely upon personal conferences. “The ™incipal should not wait for trouble to arise before consulting with the teachers ‘oncerning an individual pupil. Rather, he should arrange time and place for s\ tematic conference with each teacher so that the educational and personality needs of each pupil in her class may be discussed briefly or at length, as the situation seems to demand. In relation to some pupils, the principal should also arrange for systematic conferences with parents, school nurse, school physician, and any other agents vitally concerned. As a basis for this discussion with the principal, it is important that the teacher keep an informal, temporary record book in which, at the beginning of each semester, she enters pertinent data concerning each pupil and in which from time to time she adds a running record of her observations and of the special individual treatment which the pupil has received. Such temporary record books have proven most effective in the education of teachers, as well as in the guidance. The practise of maintaining a permanent, cumulative record for each pupil is too generally accepted to require emphasis. It should be remarked, however, that experience has shown that such a permanent cumulative record cannot take the place of the informal notes described in the preceding paragraph. At the end of each semester a resumé of whatever in the temporary record remains pertinent can be transferred to the permanent record. For the most part the permanent, cumulative records which are being kept are open to grave criticism both as to form and as to the selection of data recorded, but any detailed con- sideration of this problem is precluded by the limited scope of our discussion. What Are You Planning for A. E. W.? The National Education Association urges that American Education Week be observed in the schools. The theme for the celebration, November 7-13, 1937, “Education and Our National Life,” is of vital interest and significance not only to the profession but to the future of American democracy itself. Most effective results of American Education Week are achieved by early planning and provision of materials for committees, teachers, pupils, and lay friends. As usual the National Education Association has prepared valuable materials to assist schools in the observance of this occasion. 18 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY ne ca co ed ~ I gi} at an ta tri in PI Horace Mann—An Exponent of Education for a Richer and Fuller Life Eugene B. Elliot, state superintendent of public instruction, Lansing, Michigan In reading the files of the National Education Association meeting for 1859, I came across a resolution which was adopted on the death of Horace Mann. In adopting the resolution the assembly was greatly shocked that one of their own members should come to his death at a com- paratively early age. They felt that they had lost a friend whose efforts in the cause of human improvement would forever make him beloved by his people. His persistent and untiring labors with a readiness to cooperate in enterprises EUGENE B.ELLIOT of reform and philanthropy “sacredly embalmed him in the memory of all associated with him.” After three-quarters of a century the prophesy has been fulfilled and this year all over the United States we are celebrating and commemorating the life of this great educator. While monuments and buildings have been erected to his memory, there is no greater memorial to him than the educational progress which has been made thruout the years in emphasizing the need for education in a democracy. If Horace Mann were alise today and could see the millions of children in schools he would realize dreams come true. In Michigan we have an unusually sympathetic feeling for the activities of Mr. Mann. He was a close associate with General Isaac Crary, who was a member of Michigan’s first Constitutional Convention and who was a repre- sentative to National Congress even before Michigan became a State, and Reverend John D. Pierce who was Michigan’s first Superintendent of Public Instruction between the years of 1836 and 1841. These two men, together with Henry Rarnard and Horace Mann comprise a quartette of men who are easily ranked as the pioneer leaders of public education in the United States. When Horace Mann was born on a poor New England farm on May 4, 1796 near Franklin, Massachusetts, no one realized the part he was to play in edu- cation. No one could have realized that from this New England soil would come a modern Peter the Hermit, soldier, missionary, zealous leader for public education. Franklin, Massachusetts, was named after Benjamin Franklin. Before Franklin died the village fathers decided that Franklin should make some little gift to the community. Accordingly, they wrote to him asking that he give them a bell which could be used as a curfew to call the children in from the streets at night. In characteristic Franklin fashion, however, he sent them a library and it was in this library that young Horace Mann learned how to read. Cer- tainly the schools of his day were too poor to be much help in that respect. His mother died when he was 13 years of age and one of the most glowing tributes that was ever paid to motherhood was written by Horace Mann describ- ing her as “one of those sober, sensible, energetic New England women who PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1937 19 bring to the dull, ceaseless routine of domestic drudgery the will and courage of actual heroines.” After attending the school at Franklin only eight or ten weeks a year and for a very few years, he took some preparatory work in an academy and entered Brown University. There he was rated as one of the best students and at the same time one of the best whist players. We would say today he was one of the best bridge players. It is significant that later in his life we learn that he forgot to play. Some of the privations which he went thru in later years to accomplish the fulfillment of his ideals took away from him the ability to relax and play. Probably this, more than any other thing, contributed to his comparatively early death. After completing the work at Brown University he taught Latin and Greek literature in that institution. While thus engaged he studied law, leaving the university to practise his chosen profession. So successful was he that the people of Massachusetts elected him to the Assembly and it was as president of the Massachusetts Assembly that on April 20, 1837 he signed the act which created the first State Board of Education in Massachusetts. This was the be- ginning of 100 years of rapid progress in education. A comparison of the schools of that day with the schools of today gives an indication of the progress that has been made. Today, we fail to see how we could live in our highly complex democratic society, shot thru and thru with scientific discoveries and inventions, except all are reasonably well educated. Perhaps no more colorful example can be given of this fact than the methods of control in the schoolroom itself. “Che old school was conducted on the belief that to spare the rod was to spoil the child. In reading the description as given by an observer, one master of the school was prone to sit in an armchair near the center of 12 or 13 children. A long whip with the butt resting conveniently on the arm of the chair kept the children in perfect order. The master could easily reach each child with a crack of the whip without leaving his comfortable location. Another description begins by portraying a quiet schoolroom when suddenly the master’s voice booms out and some luckless chap is grasped by the shoulder and by a dexterous movement which was made perfect by long practise, the victim is thrown over the master’s upraised knee resting on a bench in such a manner that his cotton trousers perfectly fitted the rotundity of the posterior. With strap in hand the master beat the youngster asking him if it hurt. ‘The youth would say, “Indeed it does, master,” and he would reply, “Then | will hurt you more.” It was a day when teachers held their positions by main strength. Corporal punishment was the rule of the schoolroom. ‘Today if a teacher would punish a child in such a manner, even in the remote sections of the state, I would probably get several letters complaining of such cruelty. Psychological methods of handling students, better teaching methods, and greater training on the part of teachers have obviated this need. In many ways Horace Mann may be classified as our greatest educator but he was extremely human. We are sometimes prone to put a halo about the heads of great leaders to such an extent that they are removed from this earth entirely. We think of them as almost divine. ‘The reactions of Horace Mann to many of the aspects of life will serve to show us how human he was. 20 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY crf & F n a h n He lived at a time when the abolitionist was hated beyond words. Legisla- tures in many states had passed laws seeking to eliminate the anti-slavery element in society. In the face of these laws and considerable opposition from his friends and acquaintances, he was an ardent abolitionist. In preference to any extension of slavery to the other states he would prefer “the rupture of the Union, civil war, even servile war.” This in itself illustrates the character of the man. He was always a soldier and fighter who was filled with a keen sense of duty. Many have argued that Horace Mann was irreligious. They said he had left the church. It is true that he was driven from the Congregational Church, which was the church of his forefathers, by a fanatical preacher who was an extra or hyper-Calvinist. He found a religious refuge for his active mind in the Unitarian Church. It is, however, significant that later in life he wrote: “If ever you are preplexed as to what you ought to do, ask yourself what Jesus Christ would have done in your place.” He was a lover of nature. To him the laws of the physical universe were sublime, but above the sublimity of these laws existed a moral law to which the highest intelligence bent the knee. The law of the winds, the tides, the rolling planets, the suns, the subtle combinations of atoms, laws of electricity, germ- ination, and reproduction fade before ‘‘the moral glories which envelop the universe in celestial light—Virtue shines with a purer ray than the diamond, the gardens of Arabia do not breathe so sweet a perfume as that of charity.” To him the most beautiful of arts was that of painting smiles on the faces of children. Just as he was an ardent abolitionist so was he an active temperance worker. In 1832, Mann proposed a law which forbade the selling of intoxicating liquors to the public on Sundays. He later cautioned school examiners to never grant a certificate of fitness to any teacher who was habitually addicted to the use of spirituous liquors and at all times when considering two people of equal worth, one of whom was a drinker and the other a total abstainer to always choose the total abstainer. He carried his attitude on temperance into the habit of smoking. Commenting upon this favorite pastime, he observed that: ‘It isn’t mere smoke, young men, which you see floating off in cloudy spirals, it is a part of your soul. .. .” I don’t know what he would have done if he had lived today. He went even further in his attitude on temperance to include the temperate use of food. He regretted that the quantity and quality of food which people eat could not be determined by a fixed rule. He urged the proper respect for the stomach and the lungs—that they were the sailors of the ship. Again it should be pointed out that he himself failed to properly consider his own bodily requirements in his enthusiasm to accomplish desired ends. To make him more real we might mention that he was an advocate of the theory of phrenology. He thought it possible to determine one’s mental capabili- ities by locating telltale bumps on one’s head. A little investigation today usually shows that these bumps which account for idiosyncrasies of individuals can be traced by doting parents to some fall during childhood. PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1937 21 It would be unfair to Mann to fail to mention his regard for his fellow men. He was a great believer in the common people. To him “it would be easier to turn back the sun in its course than to monopolize again in the hands of a few the power which had passed into the hands of the people. Sooner will the oak reenter the acorn... .” He rejoiced that the groans of the oppressed and the cries of those who had perished on the battlefield for ages and ages had resulted in a government by the people themselves. To him who could do the most for his fellow men went the honor of being the master of masters who had learned the art of arts. The education of each succeeding generation of children provided an oppor- tunity for society to pass on the heritage of free government. The holders of wealth were its trustees. They have a moral mandate to provide an adequate education for all the children of each community, to guard against poverty and vice and “prepare them worthily to perform their civic and social duties.” In this we find the basis for one of Mann’s fundamental philosophies that the “successive generations of mankind taken collectively constitute one great com- munity.” His real contribution to education, however, came shortly after he signed the act which created the first State Board of Education in Massachusetts. Beginning with July of that year he left a very lucrative law practise to become the first secretary of the first board. I am keenly interested in this because I am secretary ex officio of the State Board of Education in Michigan. Mann a voluminous and colorful writer was a keen observer. During his 12 years as secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education he worked unceasingly for the cause of public education. We get some idea of the apathy toward edu- cation from Horace Mann’s observations that if one had a terrible riot on his hands, and the mob was unmanageable with the officers of the law unable to cope with the situation, to break up the mob it was only necessary to get up and give a speech on education. Nothing, he said, will break up a riot quicker. What a change in 100 years! During the 12 years he saw the salaries of men teachers increase 62 percent and the salaries of women teachers increase 54 percent. Every year thousands of people gather to consider the problems of education. Mann said as he went from town to town expounding the doctrines of public education that he felt like a tramp before the door waiting for a few crumbs to be thrown out to him. Mann’s reaction to the severe infliction of punishment and the rule of the rod of his day resulted in the establishment of a normal school where teachers could be trained in proper methods of teaching subject matter and the managing of-children. He secured a textbook grant whereby books were made available for instruction in each school district. In 1843 he visited Germany. This was at a time when the German schools were far ahead of the American schools and he came face to face with the need for compulsory education in children. It is significant that it was in Germany that he learned of the articulate method of teaching the deaf. It is only today that this method is in general use. In the field of reading he found that the German schools were using the word and phrase method as contrasted to the letter. method employed in the American 22 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY Oe n t -— ee 4 2 AAA schools of the day. Perhaps many of you have noticed the letters which have been written back and forth in the public forums and editorials on this same subject in 1937. Hundreds of people even today urge that children be taught the letter method of reading. They fail to see the errors which the letter method intro- duces. It is argued that the reason we cannot spell is traceable to the fact that we use the phrase and sentence method of reading today. It is not necessary for me to tell you who are teachers, about the merits of the phrase as compared to the letter method. In passing I may point out that research shows that children of high school age can easily pass examinations which were prepared for children of college level three-quarters of a century ago. The rapid develop- ment of reading is probably one of the fundamental reasons for this acceleration. In Germany they had discovered that there was a close association between writing and drawing, and even at that time geography was associated with history and the natural sciences. So important was singing that it had been in- troduced into the schools. Is it any wonder that when Horace Mann returned to America he said that the American schools were no more than dormitories and the children than “hibernating animals—actual marmots.” Such statements as well as general opposition from the private schools which lost membership to the extent that the number of children in private schools declined during these 12 years from 76 percent to 36 percent, resulted in Mann’s dismissal. After a term in Congress he came back with new zeal. Talked of for Governor of Massachusetts he chose the presidency of Antioch College a Christian Union School to be started at Yellow Springs, Ohio. It was here that Mann was enabled to work out many of the theories regarding the education of young people. It was at Antioch, also, that he suffered his greatest privation. It was here that he virtually wrecked his own ship. At one time in order to secure enough money for the institution he ate only one meal every two days for a period of six months. At another time we know he went to his doctor to ask him what he could do for a man who had not slept for three weeks. There were many difficulties in getting the college opened. He found mutiny among the students and is it any wonder, because the students had to fill their pitchers at a well a distance of a quarter of a mile from the college. Even the pigs of the community roamed thru the hallways at the same time they were attempting to have classes. One of Mann’s principal innovations at Antioch was to establish a co- educational school. He believed that women should be educated as well as men, altho he always considered that this education should be somewhat different— their educations should not be identical. He believed that a young girl should not “wear a mustach or sing bass.” Mann himself rejoiced in the fact that the outcome of his co-educational plan resulted in the engagement of many couples which “enlivened the monotony of these studies in common.” Antioch was dedicated to the discipline of freedom. Self-government was established. Mann could not see how it would be possible to maintain a democracy unless people were able to guide themselves. He thought they could not guide them- selves unless they had been taught to do so. The autocratic, domineering teacher found no place in his classroom. The classroom was a cooperative enterprise. PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1937 23 Problems were to be settled on the basis of fact and merit rather than prejudice and emotion. What a philosophy for America today! If ever there was a time when we should have stability and emotional control it is at the present time. America’s educated and near educated are on trial today. With the social unrest of the world flowing over and seeping into our life’s veins the paramount question is whether or not the American people can solve their problems in- telligently and thru the system laid down for the government of free peoples, or whether we are going to be governed by ruthless mobs. In establishing self-government at Antioch College Mann must have been peering down thru the years to see some of the conditions with which democracy must compete when he offered the resolution at the convention of Ohio colleges insisting that “the pupils in an institution of learning shall cooperate in its government and contribute toward maintaining order.” Another innovation established at Antioch was the privilege of students electing optional courses. Up until Mann’s day we hear very little about the plan of allowing students to make an election of subject matter which they deemed necessary for particular needs. We find very little need for diversifi- cation. College courses were largely for limited ends such as the ministry, law, and medicine. To reach these objectives traditional courses of long standing had ‘been developed. It was believed that all who attained the desired goal must arrive by a well developed route. His idea of selective subject matter was limited indeed. One might substitute Calculus for Greek or Greek for Calculus. 1 am afraid today that we would not consider such a selection as being adequate and on the other hand it may be that in the interests of accuring a greate1 liberality in the n.atter of subject selection the pendulum has swung too far the other way. The large high school of today has such a bewildering array of electives that the average student is puzzled beyond comprehension about what subjects to elect. On the other hand, we are finding out that success in college is not so much dependent on the subjects taken in high school as upon habits, attitudes, and many other personal qualities undiscernible in the textbook. In 1859 his health broke down. Lack of food and sleep, coupled with worries innumerable brought about the collapse. He must have known that the end was approaching. In addressing the graduates of Antioch he told them that if he could issue his life in a revised edition he would do more and greater work for education, peace, temperance, especially the education of women, and that if he could enrol in another 50 years campaign he would do more for humanity. He closed the baccalaureate address with the stirring appeal that they should be afraid to die unless some victory for humanity had been won. A few weeks later this lover of moral law, believer in mankind, the soldier and missionary for education, lay upon his deathbed. With a few students and a few members of his immediate family he uttered three words which we can easily remember and which sums up the life of this great leader more than the volumes which have been written about him. These words were: “God—Man—Duty.” Join NOW so that we can send you the Annotated Bibliography. 24+ THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY ee te Rn ha th m: oft a of th ot! th din be ju if no ex in ex, to SOL no PI 1 TarseR ME om GENERAL SESSION, JUNE 29, 1937 HE SECOND GENERAL SESSION of the Department of Elementary School Principals’ programs at the Detroit convention, Tuesday, June 29, 2 p.m., was held in the Memorial Hall, Woodward Avenue Baptist Church. This splendid program was sponsored by the Detroit and Michigan principals, under the splendid leadership of Mr. Earl R. Laing, principal, Burt School, Detroit, and executive committee member of the D.E.S.P. After a short business session, in which reports of committees and election of officers took place, President Edythe J. Brown introduced the local chairman Mr. Earl R. Laing, who presided. The music furnished at this session was rendered by a delightful group of boys and girls, which constituted the District Band and Glee Club, District P, Detroit schools. Mr. Laing called them his own boys and girls. The execution of the difficult pieces which they rendered, met with great enthusiasm. Education in a Democracy William J. Cameron, Ford Motor Company, Detroit, Michigan I have never before spoken on democracy. I don’t know what it means. I have never seen it, and as no two descriptions of it agree I am not sure that | should be able to identify it were it to appear. Sometimes I suspect that in the absence of something better to do, this term ‘‘democracy” is just one of the maypoles we dance around, one of the labels we affix to give us the appearance of belonging. Or it may be that our interest in democracy is an expression we give our formless protest. Yet, tho | don’t know what democracy is nor anyone who does, and in spite of the very undemocratic attitude of some of its exponents, J am for it. In fact, | am for all the ’ocracies. I fail to see how we can get on without them. And the more I am for democracy the more I find that it absolutely requires all the others in order to exist even as a philosophical proposition. The elements of influence in human society—the ‘ocracies—are four. I think they are one, but they have been given four names; they have been artifically divided into four jurisdictions. ‘They are Aristocracy—the jurisdiction of the best. Autocracy—the jurisdiction of the individual or self. Theocracy—the jurisdiction of the moral universe or God. Democracy—which must be defined, if at all by these three. We label these as mutually exclusive, yet never has a society existed that did not depend on all of them at the same time. Moreover, none of them can exist except in the presence of the others. “There has never been more democracy than in some autocracies, and never more autocracy—we know this from American experience—than in some democracies. It is a serious mistake to think that a society can be built on any of these alone, and it is a crude historical error to suppose that any of thése terms represents a distinct form of society anywhere. They may have existed in different proportions, but always together, in the same society. They represent complexions of the mind, temperaments. They are the normal moods and expressions of life—life that clothes itself in social forms. PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1937 25 Whole areas of our life are autocratically controlled—and we are the auto- crats. We need only mention under this head our minds, our growth and de- velopment as human beings, as parents, as lonely makers of our attitudes. Whole areas of our lives are aristocratically controlled—the pervasive compulsion of the best is upon us all. We give it our free respect and by that it rules us. Nothing is funnier than to see our literary liberals and rebels bow before the aristocrats and autocrats of their profession. They can’t help it. The democrats of literature are all aristocrats. And, then, whole areas of our life are theocrat- ically controlled—we are under the sway of moral ideas, of truth standards, and a sense of Right and Rights, all of which root back to religion which in turn means some idea of God. Even the so-called “godless” are unable wholly to escape this. Now, all these ‘ocracies reign over us in the United States, and this is our principal reason for speaking of our country as a democracy. A democracy that would exclude any of them is a contradiction of terms. The ’ocracies are not distinct types of society among which you can pick and choose; they are in- dispensable elements of every society. You never see one without the other, either as antecedent, concomitant, or succe’-=t. Where one sticks up its head too far, the others pull it down. And where you see them most equally mingled, there you see the most balanced society, the least socially conscious society, for social health is like physical health—the more we have it, the less conscious we are of it. Otherwise we are concerned with various patent medicines that arise to exploit ill-health—physical or social. These are points, it seems to me, that are too often missed in discussion of democracy. Many of the books | read and lectures I hear, and some of the teaching of which reports occasionally come, seem to proceed on the theory that democracy means class elevation. Of course, they don’t say class, because what they mean is mass, but mass is class, and the use of either term means class antagonism. In fact, the more democratic the democrat who preaches democracy, the deeper the note of antagonism, that is profoundly anti-democratic. Militant democracy today springs largely from the autocratic will to rule—its origin is in the auto- cratic element of human nature. That’s not only where it begins, but also where it ends, for democracy, or what goes under the name, when thus achieved, when trusted with power, becomes intolerable autocracy. There are three notable national examples of this on the planet at the present moment. It is perfectly natural that this should be so, for to clothe any partial idea, or single constituent element of society, with power, requires the dilution of its essence. Religion gains power only by becoming more secular and less religious as a system; Democracy gains power by becoming. undemocratic—it is the way these one-idea, single- elemented things work. We had an extreme example of that in the United States when an onslaught was made upon individualism—extremely foolish, but real at the time. Its ob- ject was the creation of a general condition of non-individualism, or whatever the opposite of individualism is—we’ve never seen the condition, so we cannot supply the name. How was the campaign made ?—by gentlemen divesting them- 26 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY ARIE TET - ee = selves of their own individualism to show us how it was done?—was it made by a group of Mr. Milquetoasts? Not at all. The attack on individualism was made by the most extreme individualists this country has ever seen! It takes a superb degree of individualism to propose to denude all others of that quality— for the anti-individualist never thinks of himself as being de-individualized— that is what he is going to do to the rest of us. As in the ’ocracies—one of them can singly seek its end only by the very negation of its essence. When the thing called “democracy” comes to power, it holds its power by the strength and force of the autocratic idea. If it were true unadulterated democracy alone, it would soon become weak and formless. So, it seems to me, if we are to make progress toward the dim ideal we call democracy, especially if we are to educate for it, we must take into account the indestructible human instincts that motivate our social forces. For that is all you have to work with, and you must work with it according to its own laws, and not our own theories. You will not find this in books. There is as yet no sociology that fits the American people and American life. The sociology you read most concerns peoples that can be subjected to pressure. In the societies that have most closely and normally approached what we think we mean when we say “democracy,” what elements are present ? 1. There is Government, which forms the framework within which the social life is lived. In its defined limits, government is autocratic—the expression of our own individual autocracy. Society would disintegrate into loose and drifting particles. Among a free people government is an allocation and limitation of autocratic power for specific purpose, and under a free government we retain large areas for our own individual autocratic control, and for aristocratic and theocratic control. 2. To maintain this framework, to make it more than an empty shell, there is Aristocracy, which is an unofficial, private leadership of brains, taste, vision, character—the whole field of the quality of life. That this is a matter of mind and not of class, we fully recognize in our American school system. This inner sway of the Best upon our people utilizes gifts no government can confer or take away—government can only maintain the conditions of their free exercise. And the work of government gives scope to but a small part of these gifts—so small a part, that most of the ability of the country always is functioning outside the government. By these government lives, and, not they by government. 3. Neither of these two desirable conditions exists in any considerable degree where there is not over men’s principles and thoughts and conduct and relations something that answers to Theocracy—some belief in God or the essential morality of the universe that holds the helm of character firm from the wrenching and diverting power of passionate storms and the currents of selfishness to which our as yet undevloped humanity is exposed. If there is not such a Theocratic over-rule, societies have found it necessary to invent one. 4. Separately these degenerate—autocracy into tyranny; aristocracy into caste and class; theocracy into spiritual oppression, and then what we call democracy arises fiercely to redress the balance. But when the three ’ocracies are in free and balanced operation, the label “democracy” is not needed; we then have the thing itself. If you add Democracy as a fourth element—then the others rise to redress the balance, for that is class rule. Each of the three calls for the other, and their union is what we know as democracy. Democracy is not a separate system; it does not arrive by superseding the others; it is the name we give to the goodly effect of all the others on human welfare. 5. The very first education for democracy, it seems to me, is to understand that all the kingdoms of the mind minister to democracy, as all the kingdoms of nature minister to human life. To become apostles of any single ’ocracy in the hope of abolishing human selfishness is merely to give a new boost to the selfishness we would eliminate. Where PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1937 27 “democracy” is most loudly touted, as a separate system, selfishness is most rampant— but it is the same wherever any of the other secial elements have been unnaturally elevated. To belittle any of the constructive elements of society is to hinder the coming of democracy. Anyone who discovers that his zeal for democracy fosters antagonism toward any class, or breeds a fanatical belief in the superiority of any class may be certain he is on the wrong track. These are the most subtle and powerful hindrances to the social conditions desired by honest and competent minds. They lead toward counterfeit democracy. ‘The fact that the counterfeits have found no foothold in this country indicates that we have a sufficient degree of the real democracy, of real social health, to resist these diseases. It is the sign of a misinformed mind when the obvious imperfections of our present condition breed social antagonisms. I am speaking now of educators and of other leaders. The masses have no recourse other than social antagonism They cannot but complain. And we glory in their freedom to complain. In other societies with greater imperfections there is no freedom to complain. Where no rights exist, no wrongs are ever heard of ; where every right exists, the smallest wrong is touted to the skies. Yo that extent we are free—we are going on to- ward what we mean in our best use of the word “democracy.” To interpret our restlessness and to maintain its quality of aspiration, is the work of educators, and it is painful when we see them falling into the same fallacies and futilities that beset those who do not understand. We sometimes wonder where our teachers get the ideas they communicate—from what anti-democratic source they come. Who should be so informed, so balanced, as the teacher? Who should be less deceived by the temporary sensations—the short-lived political and economic fallacies that rise out of societies that have no traditions? Who should more surely know that HERE we are biologically and spiritually immune to the fevers that have overset so many modern nations? And who, more than the teacher, should possess and impart that breadth of knowledge and sanity of interpreta- tion which alone can keep open the road to the democracy of the future? In any case, our teaching concerning democracy should be of such character as to leave least necessity for painful unlearning in its wake. Second Annual Conference on Elementary Education The Second Annual Conference on Elementary Education, sponsored by the Department of Elementary School Principals, will be held July 4-15, 1938, at the University of New York at the campus upon the heights. Perfectly splendid arrangements are being made by Dean John W. Withers, our own Ira ©. Kline (who is now a member of the New York University faculty) and that fine group of professors which has been chosen by the Dean. The conference plans are being made for the accommodation of 250 people, and this year,those who wish to attend will have to make their wishes known early. Letters to headquarters will be filed and listed as they are received. More information will be given in the December issue of The National Elementary Principal. 28 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY EAE OB