cat RO OM 
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“Fhe NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 


RINCIPAL 


BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 
NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 

















tuary, 1938 
‘XVII, No. 4 

















THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY PRINCIPAL 


BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


Published in October, November, December, February, April, June, and July by the Department of 
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 entities 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 
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 second-class matter November 20, 1922, at the postoffice at Washington, D. C., under 
Act of August 24, 1912. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 
1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized December 18, 1922. 





Executive and Editorial Offices, 1201 Sixteenth Street, Northwest, Washington, D. C., 
Eva G. Pinkston, Editor. 





OFFICERS OF THE DEPARTMENT, 1937-38 


President, Mason A. Stratton, Brighton Executive Committee 
Avenue School, Atlantic City, N. J. Maude A. Rhodes, Whitefoord School, 


, , F Atlanta, Ga. 
First Vicepresident, Edythe J. Brown, Kaley- Mrs. Edith B. Joynes, Washington-Gate- 
Marquette Schools, South Bend, Ind. 
wood Schools, Norfolk, Va. 


Second Vicepresident, Isabel Tucker, Festus Ira M. Kline, 177 Gibson Avenue, White 


Wade School, St. Louis, Mo. Plains, N. Y. 
Third Vicepresident, H. B. Norton, Robin- Irvin A. Wilson, 437 S. Stone Avenue, 
LaGrange, Ill. 


son School, Birmingham, Ala. : , ered ; Y 
Certification Division, Cassie F. Roys, Di- 


Fourth Vicepresident, Arnold Gregory, rector, 2609 Bristol St., Omaha, Nebr. 
Raupp School, Lincoln Park, Mich. Life Membership Division, Herbert C. Han- 


Fifth Vicepresident, Harry H. Haw, Alice sen, Director, 1045 N. Lockwood Ave, 


° ‘ ‘ Chicago, IIl. 
Biracy School, San Diego, Calif. Retirement Division, M. Emma Brookes, Di- 


Executive Secretary, Eva G. Pinkston, 1201 rector, Miles-Cranwood Schools, Cleve- 
Sixteenth St., N. W., Washington, D. C. land, Ohio. 





See space below for Committees as they are appointed thruout the year 





Library Committee 


Dr. James W. Mates, Chairman W. W. McCune . Lottie McDaniel 
Pittsburgh, Pa. Savannah, Ga. Hopkinsville, Ky. 
Sarah L. Young Kathryn Steinmetz Louise Wingate 
Oakland, Calif. . Chicago, Ill. Fitchburg, Mass. 
James M. Chapman Mrs. Margaret P. Alexander Eudora P. Estabrook 
Colorado Springs, Colo. South Bend, Ind. Grand Rapids, Mich. 
Mrs. Irene S. Brosier Alice Pittman 

Ft. Myers, Fla. Springfield. Mo. 


The contents of this Bulletin are listed in the Education Indez. 


The picture appearing on the cover is Danie] Chester French's statue of Abraham Lincoln, which is 
in the beautiful Lincoln Memorial in the Nation’s Capital. 


98 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 











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The National 
Elementary Principal 





Volume XVII, No. 4 February, 1938 





An Important Issue 


This issue of the bulletin is one of the most im- 
portant which we have ever published. Not only does 


it contain articles by eminent people, but it gives you 
several important announcements about the projects 


which are being sponsored by the Department. 


Contents 


Convention Time Is Here Again 100 
Education Enriched by Living—Beard neice ae 


The Principal’s Part In A Safety Education 
Program—Cottrell __ _ 106 


Character Building American Youth—Hoover__ 109 


Second Annual Conference on Elementary Edu- 
cation ‘ : . UZ 


Pupil Cooperation in Control of an Elementary 


School—Perkins __- =. 555 
A Principal Picks a Problem—Quinn 118 
State Advisory Committee on Elementary Edu- 

cation in ‘Texas—A ustin _ 120 
Speaking of Membership—Pinkston 124 
Notes of Interest________ Pieced ie _ 126 


Books on Review___________ 


The opinions expressed in the articles in this bulletin are the ex- 
pressions of the writers, and not necessarily the Department’s. 


FACTS 


THE A.A.S.A. has made 
preparation for a wonder- 
ful convention at Atlantic 
City, Feb. 26-Mar. 3, 1938. 
This highly professional 
group always invites the 
Department of Elemen- 
tary School Principals to 
hold meetings with them 
at this time. Come and 


join us. 
AND 


PRESIDENT MASON A. 
STRATTON has _ com- 
pleted the plans for our 
program on Monday af- 


ternoon, Feb. 28. The 
topics center around 
“Teacher Participation.” 


Mr. Floyd A. Potter, 
President of the New Jer- 
sey Principals Association 
and Director of Elemen- 
tary Education, Atlantic 
City, has planned the 
Tuesday afternoon pro- 
gram. New Jersey and 
Atlantic City principals 
are sponsoring the Tues- 
day meeting. 


COMMENTS 


“McGUFFEY NIGHT” 
—the banquet of the D.E. 
S.P. will be one of the 
high lights of the conven- 
tion. This momentous occa - 
sion takes place Feb. 28, 
Monday, Traymore Hotel, 
6 P.M. Many unusual fea- 
tures will take place. 
Come and learn, for 
everyone present will take 
part in the festivities. 
* se @ 

THE N.E.A. will hold 
its meeting in New York 
City, June 25-30, 1938. 
The Pennsylvania Hotel 
will be headquarters for 
the D.E.S.P. 





PRINCIPAL, FEBRUARY, 1938 


99 








Convention Time 94 Here Again 
ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY 


FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3 
1938 











Our 
Headquarters 
Hotel Traymore 
Come Let’s Celebrate!! 

There are many reasons why you should join 
the happy throng at convention time in Atlantic 

City, February 26-March 3, and a few of these “whys” 

are: (1) The D.E.S.P. is an invited guest; (2) Come and let's 
celebrate the 17th birthday of the Department in its native city; (3) Let’s pay 
honor to President Mason A. Stratton, in his home town; (4) The programs 
are exceptionally fine and helpful; (5) The banquet will be a “McGuffey 
Night”; and (6) You'll receive much inspiration and stimulation, and we shall 
be greatly benefited by your presence. 

Our Social Affairs—The New Jersey principals under the leadership of 
Mrs. Helen C. Brearley, Princeton, and Mr. Floyd A. Potter, Director of 
Elementary Education, Atlantic City, have made arrangements for a week of 
fun, frolic, entertainment and enlightenment. The beautiful Crane Building, 
which is next to the Auditorium, will be Hospitality Headquarters for the 
Department of Elementary School Principals during the entire week of the 
convention. There you may go to register, greet your friends, rest, write letters, 
telephone, and obtain any information regarding the convention. The Crane 
Building is admirably situated and Mr. Scull, manager, is always a real friend 
of our group. 





100 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 














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Listed below are the names of the persons who will act as host and hostesses 
during the different days of the week: Monday—Miss Florence Mason, Eliza- 
beth; Tuesday—Miss Ann Troy, Nutley; Wednesday—Mrs. Verna Dowling, 
Penns Grove; and Thursday—Ralph McConnell, Atlantic City. 

Tea—The Hospitality Committee has made arrangements for tea to be 
served each afternoon during the convention at the Crane Building. On Sunday 
afternoon, all elementary principals and their friends who are interested in 
elementary education are especially invited to come to tea at the Crane Building 
between the hours of four and six, for this event will begin our convention week. 
This lovely affair will be in charge of the County Helping Teachers Group, 
of which Miss Katharine Jamison is president. This group joins the Depart- 
ment in extending a special invitation to all who teach in the rural schools. 

Department Breakfast—The Monday morning breakfast of the Department 
of Elementary School Principals will take place at the Traymore Hotel, 
Rose Room, February 28, 7:30. Let’s start the convention with lots of fun, 
get the announcements of the week and tend to a few business matters of the 
Department. This is always the family meeting, so come and bring your friends. 
The following program has been arranged by the committee of which Miss 
Margaret Buchanan is chairman: 


Mason A. Stratton, President, Presiding 


GREETINGS 
Floyd A. Potter, President, New Jersey Principals Association 
GREETINGS 
Mrs. Helen C. Brearley, Past President, New Jersey Principals Association, and State 
Enrolment Chairman for the D.E.S.P. 
RESPONSE 


Herbert C. Hansen, Director, Life Membership Division, D.E.S.P. 


> 





oom, Traymore Hotel. 


ig 


American Plan Dining I 








PRINCIPAL, FEBRUARY, 1938 101 





Banquet—The banquet of the D.E.S.P. will take place in the American 
Plan Dining Room, Traymore Hotel, 6 p.m., February 28. For the past several 
years the D.E.S.P. has been accused of “carrying off” the banquet honors for 
Convention week, and this time will be no exception to the rule. President 
Stratton has planned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of William Holmes 
McGuffey, famous author and teacher who, thru his readers, had a greater hold 
on the advancement of education than any other man of his time. In the 
banquet hall on “McGuffey Night” there will be an improvised schoolroom,. 
The “scholars” will be a group of nationally known men and women who 
studied those famous McGuffey Readers. Miss Ella J. Hamilton, who recently 
retired as Supervisor of Elementary Education, Atlantic City, will conduct the 
class; Dr. Ernest Horn, University of Iowa, will speak in the person of 
Mr. McGuffey; and Dr. Walter Evans, principal, Philadelphia, will direct 
the class, as well as all assembled, in choral reading. Besides reading together 
we shall sing the songs which were so popular during that time. The illustrious 
Mrs. William Holmes McGuffey (known as Anne Yago McGuffey of Gilbert 
and Sullivan fame) has complimented the Department by accepting our invita- 
tion to sing for us and be the leader of our songs. This gracious lady is well known 
on the concert, grand opera and light opera stage where she has sung with lead- 
ing artists. Recently she scored a marvelous success in the opera, “Rigoletto” which 
was given in Washington, D. C., at Constitution Hall. The choice bits of litera- 
ture, which will be selections from those classic schoolbooks of 1836 vintage, will 
bring many happy memories. Come and enjoy the evening with us. If you 
studied a McGuffey Reader you'll renew its acquaintance, and if you are 
younger, you'll learn how much you missed!! Let us urge you not to miss 
this very momentous occasion. Misses Mabel Castle and Ethel Hammell, who 
are making arrangements for this grand affair, have assured us it will be the high- 
light of the convention. 


The Programs—The Department of Elementary School Principals has 
always been proud of the very fine programs arranged by the presidents of the 
Department for Monday afternoon, as well as the ones planned by the state 
and local group of principals for Tuesday afternoon. President Mason A. 
Stratton has selected two nationally known gentlemen who will bring messages 
so vital that all assembled will be greatly benefited; and Mr. Floyd A. Potter, 
president of the New Jersey Elementary Principals and Director of Elementary 
Education, Atlantic City, has arranged for another splendid meeting on Tuesday. 
The programs are planned as follows: 


First Session—Monday, February 28, 2:00 p.m., Rose Room, Traymore Hotel. 





‘TEACHER PARTICIPATION 
Mason A. Stratton, President of the Department, presiding. 
GREETINGS FROM THE PRESIDENT 


EpucaTIon WITH A PURPOSE 
Dr. Edgar Doudna, Secretary, Board of Regents of Normal Schools, Madison, Wisconsin. 





102 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 











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DiscussioON—15 min. 


TEACHER PARTICIPATION IN CURRICULUM MAKING 
Dr. Paul Hanna, Professor of Education, Stanford University, California. 


DiscUssioN—15 min. 
Second Session—Tuesday, March 1, 2:00 p.m., Rose Room, Traymore Hotel. 


Sponsored by the New Jersey and Atlantic City Principals 
Floyd A. Potter, President, presiding 


Music AND COMMUNITY SING 
REPORT OF THE EDITORIAL COMMITTEE 
Miss Maude McBroom, Chairman, and principal of the University Elementary School, 
Iowa City, Iowa. 


REPORT OF THE LIBRARY COMMITTEE 
Dr. James W. Mates, Chairman, Principal, Burgwin School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 


REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT 
Miss Eva G. Pinkston, Executive Secretary, 1201 16th St., N. W., Washington, D. C. 


A HIGHER MEANING For THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 

Dr. A. L. Threlkeld, Superintendent of Schools, Montclair, New Jersey. 
DiscussioN—15 min. 

Exhibits—There is no auditorium in the country which has a better exhibit 
hall than the one at Atlantic City. With such adequate space 250 exhibitors are 
bringing their wares to show you what is the latest in schoolroom realia. You 
should spend as much time as possible among the exhibits for there you will 
find much which is new and helpful. Those expert salesmen have everything 
from Academic Gowns to Window Shades. All you have to do is to ask for what 
you want. 

Other Special Features of the Convention—The American Association 
of School Administrators will have a reception and tea for new members at 
the Ambassador, Monday afternoon, February 28. President Glenn, member 
of the Executive Committee, and past presidents will act as hosts on that 
occasion. 

Another very interesting occasion which every one will want to attend will 
be the Fellowship Dinner, Wednesday, March 2, in the Auditorium at which 
2000 guests are expected. At the close of the dinner the guests will be enter- 
tained with a dazzling Ice Carnival in the Arena. 

Welcomes Extended—Washington and headquarters, 1201 Sixteenth St., 
N.W., extends a very cordial invitation to you to stop and see us on your 
way to and from the convention. You will find your national city most inter- 
esting. At Philadelphia the Principals Club will have headquarters for you at 
Benjamin Franklin Hotel. The arrangements there are under the direction 
of Dr. Reinhold Goll, president. In this historic city of brotherly love, you will 
find the beginning of our American history. For those who visit New York, 
let us say that information and service may be obtained at Hotel Pennsylvania. 


Enrolment Chairmen Meeting—All Enrolment Chairmen attending the 
convention are urged to come to the enrolment chairmen meeting which will be 
held at the Crane Building, hospitality headquarters, Wednesday, March 2, 2 p.m. 
Many important subjects will be discussed. 





PRINCIPAL, FEBRUARY, 1938 103 








Education Enriched by Living 
Dr. Charles A. Beard, Historian and Author, New Milford, Conn. 

A short time before his death, Justice Oliver Wendell 
Holmes remarked to a friend, “At the age of ninety-three 
I have about lost interest in improving my mind.” A great 
many people are not able to improve their minds at any 
age, but there seem to be possibilities for most of us, at 
least until the age of ninety-three. At all events, I labor 
under the impression that [ am among the fortunate and 
feel quite convinced that I have improved my mind a little in 
recent years. 

A part of that improvement has come from contact with 
real teachers in the public schools—classroom workers and CHARLES A. BEARD 
superintendents. Altho I had managed to get thru the elementary school in 
Spiceland, Indiana, and gathered both knowledge and pleasant experiences on 
the way, I had not remained close to the process of elementary education. Life 
had led me far away—to universities at home and abroad, and I had been 
fortunate enough to find an ivory tower in the system of higher education at 
Columbia University. There, of course, I read learned books on education 
and had as students men and women who came from and went into the ele- 
mentary schools. 

But all that experience was remote from the trials and tribulations of the 
front line. After my retirement from the ivory tower, my experiences, tho 
more earthly, did not involve teaching John and Sue reading, writing, and 
arithmetic. At last by a series of ‘‘accidents” I became rather closely associated 
with front-line teachers and superintendents, as a member of the Krey Com- 
mission on the Social Studies under the auspices of the American Historical 
Association, as a member of the Glenn Commission on the Social Studies Cur- 
riculum, and as a friendly side-partner of the Educational Policies Commission. 
In these relations I heard actual classroom teachers and superintendents discuss 
their methods and problems, and what is more | became rather well acquainted 
with living personalities engaged in teaching boys and girls in the elementary 
and secondary schools. And, believe me, I did improve my mind. 

Perhaps the times were auspicious. —TThe commissions above mentioned carried 
on their work after the big burst of 1929, in days and years when the souls 
of men and women were sorely tried. The age of innocence had passed. ‘The 
dream of Coolidge “prosperity,” with bigger and better schools forever and 
ever had faded. Superintendents and teachers were struggling to carry on their 
work in the most adverse circumstances. It had been relatively easy to be a 
fair-weather patriot, to superintend and teach when “everybody was prosperous.” 
But after 1929 the stresses and strains were frightful. Millions were un- 
employed. Homes were falling apart. All over the country struggling families 
were vainly searching for work. Children came to school ragged, cold, and 
hungry. Many children could not come at all, for lack of barest necessities. 
School funds were diminishing. -School burdens were increasing. ‘Teachers, 
even in rich cities, went for months without salaries and still worked away 





104 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 








SS a 











bravely, some of them borrowing money to help feed their ill-fed charges. Then 
“sunshine patriots” took to the woods and brave, self-sacrificing, and indomitable 
teachers stood by the cause. The real test of humanity is not prosperity; it is 
adversity. It was in such days and years that I learned something about teachers 
and superintendents. 

This experience gave me an opportunity to contrast the positions and modes 
of thought possessed by college or university professors with those of school 
teachers, principals, and superintendents. How great the contrast. The securely 
placed professor received his salary check regularly, from some source, and 
looks forward to a fair, if modest, pension at the end of the road. His students 
are generally well-fed and clothed, tho some of them are poor enough, no doubt. 
They do not come ragged and hungry to the classroom. They do not have 
to be fed, doctored, and nursed there. No stark realities of the suffering outside 
world are thrust into the utopian scene. Well protected against the buffets 
of life, the professor can be high, dry, and abstract in his discourse. The terms 
rent, interest, profit, income, wages, employment, unemployment, farm, factory, 
housing, family, and community, for example, fall from the professor’s lips as 
words little burdened with the poignancy of life. If his students fall asleep, 
it is from ennui, not from hunger or lack of proper sleeping quarters at home. 
In other words, the professor does not encounter life at first-hand. 

The world of the elementary teacher, principal, and superintendent, I dis- 
covered, is a different world. ‘There, inescapable, before them is life, not 
artificial life, but the real sum and substance of it. Right there are represented 
the comfort and poverty, the health and illness, the assurances and trying per- 
plexities, the delights and distresses of the people. To the teacher, the principal, 
and the superintendent the social studies cannot be abstractions. The very 
terms are pulsating with the content of living. Nor does the check for the 
support of the schools come automatically from the bursar’s office. In some 
fashion the schools must serve the needs of the children and the community 
or they perish. Every dollar must come from taxpayers’ pockets. No generous 
endowments, administered by remote trustees, cushion the impact of life on 
the schools. 

More could be said, but these hints are sufficient. After working with and 
talking to teachers, principals, and superintendents in those trying days, I became 
convinced that the gulf between college or university instruction and elementary 
instruction is too wide, that the front-line workers carry burdens little appre- 
ciated by ivory-tower dwellers. Even more. | became convinced that the front- 
line workers had a realistic sense of the social studies not possessed by many, 
if any, professors of the subject. They might not be adepts in ontology and 
epistemology, but they could fill the words of higher instruction with content 
from experiences from the substance covered. It was an education for an 
ex-professor to gu to school to elementary teachers and superintendents; and 
other professors, active and retired, might well profit from the example. 

Yet it may be said that the education of professors is a matter of slight 
importance. In this particular instance it is, but by and large, if education 
is significant for life, then the enrichment of the higher learning by first-hand 





PRINCIPAL, FEBRUARY, 1938 105 











contacts with elementary work is among the necessities of the case. After all, 
isn’t education, high or elementary, for people? If not, then for whom or what? 

If all this be discounted, then I have one more point to add. Out of the 
experience above mentioned, I also became convinced more than ever that the 
future of American democracy depends upon popular education. If we are to 
overcome the stresses and strains of our civilization by democratic processes 
rather than by the sword then the foundations must be laid by the front-line 
teachers. If we are to widen the civilization of the people, as distinguished from 
the culture of an elite, teachers must be advance-guards. From what I have 
learned of them and their work I have reached the conclusion that it is exactly 
this function which they are now fulfilling, not as well as the best among 
them would desire, but in a way full of promise even in this hour so beset by 
perplexities over the very fate of civilization. 





The Principal’s Part In A Safety Education 
Program 


H. Louise Cottrell, consultant on safety education, Public 
Schools of East Orange, New Jersey 


Part I1I1—Acciwent REporRTING* 
In 1922 in Kansas City, a child died every 26 days as 


a result of an accident. Kansas City decided to do some- 
thing about it and did. Today this city can boast of an 
excellent child accident record. During the year recently 
completed, there was not one child killed on the street. 
Much of the credit for such an excellent record is due to 
the safety teaching in the schools. There are school authori- 
ties of other cities who can point with pride to a consistent 
reduction in child accident fatalities due in a large measure 


to their well planned and supervised safety education pro- 
grams. H. LOUISE COTTRELL 





The committees who planned these programs should well be proud of their 
accomplishments. They are the pioneers from whose experiences other cities 
may now reap the benefits. 

Are you planning a safety education program? Perhaps you are revising one. 
If you are you have asked yourself this question. Upon what basis shall we 
build this program? Were we to put this question to anyone of our expert 
safety education program builders no doubt the answer would be something 
like this. Before we can present to children any safety knowledge, or develop 
safety attitudes we must be familiar with the causes and frequencies of accidents 
in general. We must also know those types of accidents which are peculiar to 
the various age groups of the school community. 


*Parts I and II of this article appeared in the October and December bulletins respectively. 





106 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 








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What are the general causes and frequencies of accidents? Have you con- 
sulted the many tables in the 1937 edition of Accident Facts, published annually 
by the National Safety Council, 20 North Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois? 


“Studying statistics is dry work and often hard work,” you may say. True, 
but the statistics in Accident Facts are presented so vividly and clearly by 
means of illustrations and diagrams, that with one glance all antagonism toward 
statistics disappears and we hecome impressed with the importance of the 
safety problem. We are so startled at the great number of children injured in 
other places besides the street that we read this paragraph again. 


Student accident reports received by the National Safety Council during the 
school year 1936-37 show that about 18 percent of all accidents occurred in the 
school buildings, 17 percent on the school grounds, 7 percent on the way to or from 
school, 28 percent at home, and 30 percent at other places. 


The second reading of this paragraph leads one to inquire, “What is meant 
by student accident reports?” If Mr. Alvin D. Battey, Assistant Statistician 
of the National Safety Council were present when this question was asked, or 
someone in charge of a successful city safety education program, there would 
probably appear a series of forms which furnish a school with all necessary 
information concerning accidents to children in attendance there. 


A number of methods, thru which child accident information may be ob- 
tained, have been tried out, but the Standard Reporting System sponsored by 
the National Safety Council seems to be most commonly used. It can be de- 
scribed here but briefly. Report cards and summary sheets are distributed to 
each school. One of these is filled out for every child who has any accident 
which results in an absence from school of a half day or more, or which re- 
quires the services of a physician. Such a complete individual record of a 
child accident is invaluable to a school for it provides a practical and intelligent 
basis for safety teaching. 


At the end of the month, the blanks are forwarded to someone in charge, 
who in turn fills out the summary sheet. This summary not only reveals the 
total number of children injured but also provides the safety program com- 
mittee with necessary and definite information: the various types of accidents 
and the grade level upon which they occur most often, the causes of accidents, 
the places where they occur, the time of day or season when a particular acci- 
dent occurs most frequently. 

Besides being a scientific basis for a safety education program, this statistical 
data, conveniently recorded, is important in other ways. Do you, Mr. Principal, 
know so far this year, how many children have been absent from your school 
because of accident? Do you know the causes of the injuries? At a glance 
the summary sheet will answer these and other questions of importance to you 
not only as an administrator, but also as a guide and counselor of those carrying 
on your safety education program. As the safety work progresses, student 
accident reporting enables principals and teachers to locate specific weaknesses 
in the safety program, and at the same time serve as a source of encouragement 
as the figures grow smaller and smaller. 





PRINCIPAL, FEBRUARY, 1938 107 





The combined reports from cities ranging in population from a million to 4 
thousand in different parts of the country are interpreted by Mr. Battey month 
in Safety Education Magazine. This “over-all” view often emphasizes certain 
trends which a local summary may not reveal, but which are of value to the 
program builder. For example, the accident peak is from grades 5 to 7. This 
proves the need of intense safety work with children of that age. Here is another 
example. The child’s age and the frequency of auto accidents varies very little. 
This indicates the need for continuous traffic safety program from kindergarten 
to high school. 

The greater part of Safety Education Magazine for December 1937 js 
devoted to the many important phases and the value and use of accident re. 
porting in the schools. The closing paragraph of Mr. Battey’s article Student 
Accidents—“The Facts and What They Mean,” makes a plea for more schools 
to begin recording student accidents, and intelligently to use the information 
obtained, so that we will have more definite data, and be able to work more 
purposefully. 

This is a challenge. The principals of Kansas City accepted it, and won. 
Mr. Principal, how about you? 








STUDY OUTLINES 


of 
Appraising The Elementary School Program 


Sixteenth Yearbook 
of the 


Department of Elementary School Principals 


The 16th Yearbook of the Department of Elementary School Principals 
“Appraising the Elementary School Program” is the topic being discussed in 
many Principals’ Clubs, Faculty Meetings, and Conferences on Elementar) 
Education. Dr. Samuel Berman, Chairman of the Editorial Committee, has 
prepared a Study Outline for each chapter in this book. Mimeographed copies 
of this outline are now available to those persons and groups who desire this 
help. Send 25 cents to the Department of Elementary School Principals, 1201 
Sixteenth Street, N. W., Washington, D. C., and a complete set of outlines 
will be sent to you. This small price covers the cost of mimeographing and 
mailing. 

Price 25 cents 








108 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 








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Character Building American Youth 


John Edgar Hoover, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 
United States Department of Justice, Washington, D. C. 


Last year witnessed over 1,300,000 major infractions 
committed in the United States. There is a robbery every 
10 minutes, a burglary every two minutes, a larceny every 
forty-four seconds, and an automobile stolen every two and 
one-half minutes. It is rare indeed that a desperate crimi- 
nal becomes such over night. He begins in a petty way— 
often with pilfering and other minor violations finally to 
feed upon society until he reaches the status of a public 
menace. When we trace his history we find that in his boy- 
hood, the causes of his early crimes often were parental 
laxness, lack of discipline, and failure to set the proper ex- J. EDGAR HOOVER 
ample. The boy who hears his father boast of how he fooled the police in a 
trafic violation should not be held solely responsible if he too decides that it is 
smart to outwit the law. 

Crime begins in the American home. To curb it there must be reestablish- 
ment of respect for law in our homes. In this regard, more than 18 percent 
of all our crime is being committed by youths of twenty-one years or less. 
Moreover, during the first nine months of 1937, persons under twenty-one years 
of age constituted 13 percent of the murderers arrested, 28 percent of the 
robbers, 41 percent of the burglars, and 51 percent of the automobile thieves 
arrested. They did not learn their disrespect for law in our schools. They 
did not learn it at the grocery store or at the drug store, or in church. They 
learned it because they were not taught differently at home. They learned it 
from parents who took pride in the exploits of rats like Dillinger or “Pretty 
Boy” Floyd, and who exulted in their exploits. They gained their disrespect 
from parents who in many instances were themselves addicted to the greater 
crime, that of toleration of crime. 

“As a man thinks, so will he act. As he believes, so will he continue to 
act, intellectually, and morally.” It is a man’s thoughts that are the main- 
spring of his external actions. Therefore, it is interesting to know the pre- 
vailing thoughts in the mind of our youth. From his repeated actions which 
grow from those thoughts, his habits are formed, and they in turn facilitate 
and predispose their subject spontaneously towards subsequent deeds. Frequent 
exercises of deliberate choice in childhood and youth cut a groove in the will 
thru which volition flows with increasing smoothness in one’s later years, and 
it is the accumulation of such ingrained habits which finally determines the 
quality, the character, and the general direction of a man’s social conduct in 
his maturity. 

The future lies in an enlightened moral education directed to the awaken- 
ing of the conscience of the community and the forming of the habit of civic 
responsibility—instruction, information, knowledge, wisdom, character! 








PRINCIPAL, FEBRUARY, 1938 109 











Our problem, therefore, is to change the mistaken idea that crime is romantic, 
to carry on a campaign of education thru which the unthinking American 
shall be forced to realize his disgrace in thinking that crime is anything other 
than what it is, filthy, unclean, and vile. This can be accomplished. Already 
we are experiencing a change. No longer is the criminal a hero to our youth, 
The honorable citizen and law enforcement officer are assuming that role. We 
must work with a dual purpose, never failing to realize that while we combat 
the growth of criminal instincts in youth, we also must combat the inherent 
criminal worship in many of our men and women. 

This we of the FBI are seeking to accomplish. We are constantly working 
toward not only the capture and conviction of the enemies of society, but 
toward the building of a new viewpoint which we hope will result in fewer 
violators of the law. 

Behind the efforts of the Bureau in its necessary campaigns against the more 
desperate of our outlaws, lies the never failing desire to build a barrier between 
the law and its violation. We have no happier days in the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation than when vast throngs of boys under the guidance of friendly 
Special Agents are taken thru the building in Washington and shown how the 
FBI operates. We hope our young visitors will take pride in honesty rather 
than worship for the gangster thereafter. We hope to see the day .when 
every law enforcement officer in America will realize that the best weapon 
against crime is a feeling of confidence and friendship upon the part of every 
boy and girl in his neighborhood. 

We want to help build the youth of America into strong men and women. 
In this direction it is our intent to possess in the forty-seven field divisions 
of the FBI a type of Special Agent whose history has been traced almost from 
babyhood to assure us that he is an upright, honest, courageous citizen. Ours 
is only one organization which requires men of this type. Others are seeking 
them and the supply does not meet the demand. It is all too obvious that there 
is a reward for right honest living. We are gratified that our files in the FBI 
contain numerous letters from boys thruout America who want to so live that 
they, upon reaching maturity, can fulfill these obligations and become candidates 
for positions in this and similar organizations. 

It is time for America to resurrect that standard of discipline which did much 
to give this country its rugged, stalwart honesty of purpose, its determination, 
its achievements. I refer to that parental discipline and guidance which did 
so much to create law-abiding, successful, and forward-looking citizens. 

Here we have been lacking and we find that our youth has been handicapped 
from the beginning, that he had a bad start for which he is not responsible. 
If we try to tell youth today that crime does not pay, we are confronted with 
the question of why it does not pay. If we answer that the price of crime 
is prison, youth answers that it is easy to get probation, a pardon, or a parole. 
Youth, in spite of all its imagination, is literal. Youth is factual. Youth 
possesses a certain clarity of vision which often is lost in the more mature 
mind. One child in a neighborhood, who has learned the fallacy of our all- 
too-often maladministered law enforcement, can become a professor of law 





110 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 


re eed 




















evasion for a hundred other neophytes in crime. Do not for a moment think 
that youth today knows nothing of the tricks by which it can avoid punish- 
ment. You must remember that civilization as it exists today is in direct 
conflict with the guiding impulses in the days of the cave men. Law as such 
is an artificial barrier reared by society for the protection of all against in- 
dividual desires for the gratification of greed. Once we fail to teach reverance 
for these laws from infancy onward, and the reason for them, then indeed have 
we a recalcitrant and rebellious being whose very instinct inclines him toward 
crime. 

The only answer can be that this condition constitutes a national crisis 
calling for a reawakening of our patriotic instincts. It demands that we give 
of our time; that we give of our energy; that we contribute our best thought 
and endeavor toward the wiping out of conditions by which such an emergency 
is created. It means that our children must be taught that adventure lies not 
along the road of violation but that there are adventures in honest endeavor— 
greater ones, laudable ones, happy ones. They must be shown the true character 
of the criminal—that law infraction can lead only to disillusionment, to the 
weakening, physically and morally, of anyone who follows its teachings. They 
must be taught that a great career lies before them—more exciting than that 
of any criminal’s life—the career of law enforcement. They must be urged to 
fight for honesty and the thought be instilled within them that they are crusaders, 
the volunteers in a new battle for American character and integrity. They 
must be inculcated with a new political economy—the economy of political honesty. 








McGUFFEY NIGHT 
BANQUET 


Department of Elementary School Principals 


American Plan Dining Room 
Traymore Hotel 


Atlantic City, N. J. February 28, 1938 


6:00 P. M. 


100th Anniversary of those famous McGuffey Readers 


Tickets May Be Secured at the Registration Desk in the Auditorium 
and at Hospitality Headquarters, Crane Building 





PRINCIPAL, FEBRUARY, 1938 111 













Second Annual Conference o 
Sponsored by the Department of 


and the 


ROBT. SPEER School of Education of N 
July 1-45, 1! 


‘ 
Announcement was made in the last issue of the National 
Elementary Principal of the Second Annual Conference on Ele- 
mentary Education to be held in New York from July 1 to 15, 
under the joint auspices of the D.E.S.P. and the School of Edu- 
cation of New York University. Additional information concern- 
ing this conference is now available. 


EpucaTion 125.500 or 125.501—ELEMENTARY EpUCcATION— 
Discussion CONFERENCES. 
“The American School in Transition” is the theme of this 
Second Conference. 


10:00—11:00 A.M.: Assemblies of the entire group with 
lectures by prominent American social analysts and educators on 
the American Scene, The School in a Changing Society, Philosophy 
of the New School, and The Administration of the School in 
Transition.” 

11:00—1:00: Following the general session the group will 
divide into sectional discussion conferences. An analysis was made 
of the replies from questionnaires regarding the subjects desired 
for discussion at the Second Conference. The sections will be 
tentatively formed on the basis of this analysis. The groupings 
later will be adjusted to suit the desires of the registrants. , 


Section I The Pupil (Growth, Personality Adjustment, 
Adapting Schools to Needs, Guidance Program, 
Grouping, Grading, Developing Creative Expres- ; 
sion, Developing Social-Economic Consciousness, 
Gifted, maladjusted, Individual Records, etc. ) 

Section II The Teacher and Teaching (Making Teacher 
Participation a Success. The Teacher: Education, 
Adjusting Maladjusted Teachers, Training in Ser- 
vice, How to Inspire Teachers to Secure Broader 
Professional Outlook and Greater Interest in 
World Affairs. Teaching: Improvement, Teaching 
the Whole Child, Types of Procedures, Special 
Education, etc.) 

Section III The Curriculum (Interpretation of and Its De- 
velopments, Broadening, Developing an Integrated 
Curriculum, Building of Curricula, Curricula in 





CLAIRE ZYVE 





| F.C. BORGESON 





HARVEY ZORBAUGH 


pe Se 






ce on Elementary Education 


tof Elementary School Principals 


and the 


of New York University 


y 1445, 1938 


Modern Schools, Various Subjects, Activity Units, 
Individual Instruction, etc.) 

Section IV Evaluation: Appraising the Elementary School 
Program. 


Section V_ Practicum: A round table to discuss problems and 
issues that do not fit naturally into the other sec- 
tions. 


Afternoons: In the afternoons, in addition to continuation of 
informal professional discussion, provision will be made for cul- 
tural and professional excursions—children’s courts, settlement 
houses, W.P.A. educational projects, the summer play schools of 
the Child Study Association, Children’s Village, regular ele- 
mentary schools open during the summer conference. 

Evenings: Group socials, symphonies, band concerts, opera, 
theatre. A staff member of New York University will devote 
his entire time to supervising the afternoon and evening programs. 

Members of the conference faculty and others on the regular 
staff of the School of Education of New York University will 
be available for small-group and individual conferences. 

Our Conference Faculty: Among the coordinators of the sec- 
tions will be: Dr. Claire Zyve, Assistant Professor of Education, 
New York University; Dr. F. C. Borgeson, Chairman of De- 
partment of Coordination of Teacher Training, New York Uni- 
versity; Professor Harvey Zorbaugh, Clinic for the Social Ad- 
justment of the Gifted, New York University; Dr. Robert K. 
Speer, Chairman of Department of Elementary Education, New 
York University; Miss Mabel Simpson, Associate Editor New 
York State Education, Albany; and one other to be named. 

‘Faculty assigned or “on call” will be: Dr. J. Cayce Morrison, 
Assistant Commissioner for Elementary Education, Albany; 
Dr. E. T. McSwain, Associate Professor of Education, North- 
western University; Dr. John J. Loftus, Assistant Superintendent 
of Schools, New York City; Dr. Stephen F. Bayne, Associate 
Superintendent of Schools, New York City; Dr. A. L. Threlkeld, 
Superintendent of Schools, Montclair; Ordway Tead, Economics 
Editor, Harper and Brothers; F. R. Wegner, Superintendent of 
Schools, Roslyn; Vinal H. Tibbetts, Superintendent of Schools, 





J. W. WITHERS 


































JEAN BETZNER 


J. C. MORRISON 





IRA KLINE 





E. T. McSWAIN 








i) Manhasset; Dr. Jean Betzner, Assistant Professor of Education, Teachers Col- 
lege, Columbia University; Mrs. Adele S. Mossler, Director Summer Play 
Schools, Child Study Association of America; Professor L. Thomas Hopkins, 
Lincoln School of Teachers College; Leonard Covello, Principal, Benjamin 
Franklin School, New York City. Also, from New York University: Dean 
John W. Withers; Dr. Rhea Kay Boardman; Professor Forrest E. Long; 
Dr. Beryl Parker; Professor Alonzo F. Myers. 

Subject specialists and experts in various aspects of elementary education in 
the greater metropolitan area will be “on call’ by members of the group. 
Additional individuals from a distance will be invited. 

One morning session will be conducted by officers of the Department: 
President, Mason A. Stratton, Brighton Avenue School, Atlantic City, New 
Jersey; and the members of the committee, Mrs. Edith B. Joynes, chairman, 
Washington-Gatewood Schools, Norfolk, Virginia; Miss Maude A. Rhodes, 
Whitefoord School, Atlanta, Georgia; Dr. Ira M. Kline, Director Bureau of 
Appointments, New York University; and Miss Eva G. Pinkston, Washington, 
D>. < 

Fees, Credits, Housing Accommodation, Etc.: The University fee for those 
who do not wish college credit is $15.00. The University fee for those who 

| wish two points of credit is $22.00. Registration and discussion of summer 
conference plans will take place on Saturday, July 1, at 10:00 a.m., in the 
auditorium of the School of Education Building, 35-41 West Fourth Street. 
The entire group will be accommodated at the Prince George Hotel. 

In addition to the regular facilities available to the patrons of the hotel— 
including lounges, roof gardens, conference rooms, etc.—our group will have 
\ | a large and comfortable social room for its exclusive use. Weekly rates for 

rooms follow: Single rooms $11.20; Double rooms (twin beds) $8.75 per person: 
Double rooms (double beds) $7.88 per person. 


(Tear here and mail) 


APPLICATION BLANK 


Second Annual Conference on Elementary Education 
Department of Elementary School Principals 
| July 1 to July 15 


Department of Elementary School Principals 
1201 Sixteenth Street, N. W. 
Washington, D. C. 
I wish to become a member of this conference. 
I wish (do not wish) college credit. 
Enclosed is $5.00.* Kindly make hotel reservation for me. Check choice: 
1. Single room. 
2. Double room (twin beds) 
"4 3. Double room (double bed). 
EE eae eee ney te ee ee 








4 


SINT scieeitiltiees hatha se schinteineiadigshetichdaitineineetits cithinenared temaenenere 
} *The check should be made out to the Prince George Hotel, New York City. Mail application and check 
to Miss Pinkston. 


114 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 





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Pupil Cooperation in Control of an 


Elementary School 
H. V. Perkins, principal, Boulevard School, Cleveland Heights, Ohio 

Pioneer thinkers thruout the world have long recognized 
the importance of the school program in training citizens 
for the state. The Founding Fathers of our own country 
early emphasized the importance of an educated citizenry 
to the establishment of an enduring democracy. For years 
leaders in secondary education have recognized the responsi- 
bility of the secondary school to train pupils to take their 
places as efficient citizens. —Thus many secondary schools 
in the United States have supported plans of student govern- 
ment which were first initiated to contribute an important 

H. V. PERKINS element to the civic training of their students. 

However, in the elementary school, and particularly in the school containing 
grades one to six, preparation for adult citizenship is a remote objective. For 
such a school, the purpose of pupil cooperation in school control should be 
more immediate than that of preparation for adult life, because adult life is 
not regarded by children as of great importance. The following contributions 
to children’s growth are presented to illustrate some values of a plan of pupil 
participation in the control of an elementary school: 





1. A simple governmental organization provides a plan to which every pupil citizen may 
bear allegience. The pride of a pupil from an ungraded upper primary room as he told 
the story of their citizenship and safety club illustrates this value. He “stood tall” and his 
eyes fairly shone as he glanced downwards toward the school colors pinned to his blouse 
and said, “Every Thursday afternoon we wear our badges while we hold our room meet- 
ing so that we can understand that we are really a part of the school citizenship and 
safety group.” 

2. Such a plan provides a means by which children may express personal or group opin- 
ions and achieve group action. When the children of one school recognized that assembly 
conduct was far below desirable standards, they discussed the problem in their own room 
meetings, suggesting various remedies. At the council meeting representatives suggested 
several rules which they. reported back to their homerooms. After discussion in the class 
meetings, a few suggestions for assembly conduct were formulated at the next council 
meeting. Because all the children in the school had had an active part in presenting these 
rules for the consideration of the whole school, it is not surprising that audience manners 
were greatly improved at the next assembly. There was further satisfaction expressed by 
the children themselves that they enjoyed the assembly much more than they had the pre- 
vious program during which they had been so careless. 

3. While trained professional teachers long have recognized their responsibility for 
teaching children to live and work with others, a successful plan for pupil cooperation in 
control is an added means to this end. In such a program, every member of the school 
faculty may unite in teaching the school at large and individual children under their care 
how to cooperate in carrying out recognized activities. Such teachers may assist pupil 
officers in the practise of courteous direction of those they serve and may guide individual 
pupil citizens to loyal cooperation for the conflict between recognized standards of conduct 
and anti-social behavior. 

_4. This plan provides a channel thru which faculty and pupils may contribute to the 
solution of recognized problems. When a candidate for pupil president stated as one of 
the planks in her own platform that she would work for an extension of inter-school athletics 





PRINCIPAL, FEBRUARY, 1938 115 











and was successful in being elected, she and her class, the oldest in the school, became 
disturbed as her term of office drew to a close and no inter-school contests had been ar- 
ranged. She first presented the problem to the council advisor who suggested that she take 
it directly to the principal. In the conference that followed, between the principal and the 
members of her class, all found a clearer understanding of the problems involved in inter- 
school athletics and of the need for a planned athletic program for the school. Tho not 
a direct result of this conference, the opportunities for inter-school contests have been ex- 
panded. 


5. If problems of society are to be solved safely and its economic ills are to be healed 
each generation must find pioneers of vision motivated by a social conscience. Leaders may 
be born but they must be made surely. In the unsupervised play of children leaders appear 
thru aggressive survival with the probable neutralization of much unrealized talent for 
leadership. Plans by which children cooperate in school control permit the development of 
latent talents for leadership thru exposing children to responsibilities and assisting in 
their success. This is particularly important in the elementary school where self-confidence 
is little impaired thru academic and social defeat. 

Doubtless a plan of pupil participation in control of an elementary school 
may make other contributions to the social life of the school and to the growth 
of individual pupils. These are presented only as illustrations of the types 
of values that may be achieved when a plan is successful. It is now necessary 
to suggest some principles which may guide in the establishment of a success- 
ful program of pupil cooperation. 

While articles in current literature describing plans used in different schools 
present various developments of the plans started, no one type of organization 
is representative of current practises in schemes for pupil participation in con- 
trol of elementary schools. Each plan, with its individual variations, appears 
to be indigenous to the school in which it is found. Therefore, I am not de- 
scribing any one plan in operation in any one school. A successful plan operating 
in one school may not work smoothly or at all in another situation with a 
different principal, different teachers, and pupils of different social or racial 
backgrounds. Some plans seem to be used largely because they have proved 
successful thru one or more years of experience. It is not known, for example, 
whether a pupil should hold office for one semester, one month, or one year. 
Pupils and teachers alike come to accept the plan in use unless there seems 
to be some point of conflict with the needs of the school or of individuals in it. 
In some buildings, the council is purely a representative body set up for the 
abstract purpose of discussing and passing upon general problems. In another, 
the delegates meet in a safety council or a service group with a definite program 
of action and individual duties assigned. In still another school, both these 
elements of pupil control may be found. Because of these varying practises, 
some principles governing the success of a pupil participation plan are offered: 


1. The plan should be very simple so that pupils easily understand its operation and, 
therefore, can accord it their loyal interest. Where there is an evident purpose to teach 
children the operation of adult governmental machinery, one may find a primary election, 
general election, inaugural ceremony, and even judicial procedure. In some schools such 
complicated activities may be not only successful but valuable to the children. Yet in an- 
other school an equally successful scheme may embody in one group of representative pupils 
the functions of playground and crossing supervision, discussion of school problems, and 
classroom officers. In such a plan, elections may be very simple activities in the individual 





116 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 








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classrooms or within the council itself and student officers be recognized by common con- 
sent. 

2. A successful plan should have a functional basis: safety, service to the school, or 
other activities of recognized importance. ‘Those who work with elementary children recog- 
nize the impelling urge to do something. Children do not make good “stuffed shirts.” If 
a child has an office, he wants to do something about it and with it. If it is one in which he 
can render a real service, it claims his allegiance so long as he is aware of its value. There- 
fore, if cooperating pupils can see children safely across traffic, assist in maintaining peace- 
ful play relations or restrain hazardous practises on the playground, or assist in main- 
taining reasonable order and safety in the corridors, they have a tangible activity thru 
which they can make their individual contributions to the welfare of the, school. Further- 
more, this very activity itself becomes at once their badge of office and their challenge to 
new and unexplored experience. 

3. The initiation of a plan should be piece-meal and its growth gradual instead of its 
being launched completely at one time. As previously stated current articles describe entire 
plans as operating in given schools, also, a plan successful in one place may not work at 
all in another. Therefore, it is recognized by those working thru children to achieve co- 
operative control that a particular element of a proposed plan better may be started and 
placed upon a working basis before further plans are attempted. This permits close at- 
tention to and guidance of the activity being introduced. It further permits the example of 
one group of children to illustrate possible activities to others and may stimulate the others 
to request an opportunity to carry out a similar or a different service. As each new element 
of the plan proves itself worthy of a place in the life of the school, necessary additions to 
current practise or modifications of existing activities may be made. 

4. Few plans of pupil cooperation in elementary school control can be successful without 
the enthusiastic support of the teaching staff. We all recognize the importance of teacher 
attitude as it influences her children. Thus, if a teacher is convinced of the value of 
proposed plans, she is ready to see that her class lends its support and that children shar- 
ing in the plan receive needed guidance in so far as she can give it. Again, it is im- 
possible for one advisor to be present in all situations when conflict or difficulty may arise. 
Yet, if every member of the teaching staff is a loyal supporter of the plan in effect, some 
teacher may give a word of encouragement to a harassed officer or offer a suggestion to 
a rebellious child which will solve the difficulty without impairing the morale of the group. 
Classroom teachers, sympathetic to the plan in operation, will see that it does function and 
willingly lend needed assistance to the advisor or to individual children as they find oppor- 
tunity to do so. Appointing different teachers to be group sponsors each semester or each 
year increases faculty understanding of and sympathy with the values and difficulties in- 
cident to cooperative pupil control. 

5. As stated previously, a successful plan usually grows out of the life of the school. 
If a new principal or new teachers are assigned to a building, it is possible that activities 
operating in other places may be started. However, experienced elementary-school educa- 
tors recognize the need for modifications of a program as it continues from year to year. 
Thus, whatever the plan that is started, its essential development is largely governed by 
the school situation in which it operates. These principles and illustrations should be just 
suggestive in an elementary school of eight grades as in one of six. The presence of older 
children may warrant the expansion of some phases of a plan which are not so suitable for 
use in a six-grade elementary school. What these phases are will become apparent as the 


plan grows and changes. 

In closing, I shall briefly summarize the points already presented. Pupils 
participate in control of elementary schools not that they may become efficient 
adult citizens but because they wish to help solve the problems of which they 
are aware. ‘hus their cooperation becomes their contribution to the on-going 
life of the school. The organization thru which children share in school con- 
trol should be simple and has an added value if it is centered in a functional 





PRINCIPAL, FEBRUARY, 1938 117 








program of service or of activity whose value is generally recognized. Teacher 
should regard a plan of pupil cooperation in school control as an additional 
medium thru which children may be taught desirable ways of living with ang 
in their own environment. Instead of launching a plan of pupil governmen 
in order to establish some claim to recognition as progressive educators, ele. 
mentary-school principals may well view a program of cooperative pupil control 
‘as a challenge to adventurous leadership. 





A Principal Picks a Problem 
Guy L. Quinn, principal, School Number Three, 
Neptune, New Jersey 
(Epiror’s Nore:—We are indeed sorry that space forbids us publishing the whole of Mr, 


Quinn’s excellent article. If anyone wishes to have the other part of this write-up, we shall 
be glad to send it upon request.) 


The Problem: That it should be expedient to deny a 
teacher a second contract is an indictment against (1) the 
influence preceding an initial assignment (and/or) (2) the 
attending factors in beginning teaching. 

In the training of teachers no one can anticipate, in any 
great measure, any one or all of the reasons for discontinu- 
ing services of a teacher at the close of his first year of 
teaching. The question is, on whom shall fall the responsi- 
bility of saving teachers from failure when the reason for 
terminating their services has been: 





GUY L. QUINN 


1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 


. Weak in much of the subject matter content. 

. Lack appreciation of the mores of the local community. 

. Limited knowledge of the ramifications of testing. 

. Insufficient training in discipline and disciplinary problems. 

. Lack in the understanding of organization and class management. 
. Own peculiar unpreparedness. 


It is one thing to note the indifferences and inefficiencies and to have the 
conviction that perhaps, conditions could be remedied; and it is quite another 
thing to set up a plan of possible action. Therefore, before releasing any beginning 
teacher, an administrator would do well to find where-in her experience 
were her difficulties; and, having these facts, he should build a program that 
would forever minimize the necessity of “firing” a beginning teacher. 

I. The beginning teacher can do much for herself in-service training 
thru (1) Continued professional study, (2) Re-evaluating herself 
in a conscientious adjustment to the various personalities and pres 
sure of her in-and-out-of-school-living, (3) Participating in the 
many public and scholastic affairs of the community, (4) Traveling 
for recreational and cultural leisure when finances permit, (5) 
Visiting museums, libraries, forums, etc., (6) Systematically study- 





118 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 











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ing the persistent errors that seem to commit her to failure, (7) 
Starting a club, organizing her own library, developing a hobby. 

II. The local administrator can be of great help to a beginning teacher 
if he will (1) Accept the responsibility of cadet teaching—and par- 
ticipate in its practises, (2) Assimilate some of the pertinent current 
literature on teacher training, (3) Visit the state teacher training 
institutions, (4) Extend his educational outlook to include the 
philosophy of the teacher-training work in his thinking and his 
yearly program, (5) Participate in programs at the normal schools 
and in those programs built around the problem of in-service and 
pre-service training, (6) Recognize the limitations as well as the 
obligations of the state teacher training staff members, (7) Give 
the teachers of his school a chance to feel the importance of co- 
operating in the work of teacher training, (8) Re-organize his 
program so that a failing beginning teacher might have an oppor- 
tunity to succeed in another grade, perhaps another school, (9) 
Support his co-operating and student teachers, (10) Observe the 
student when the candidate is doing her cadet training. 

III. The co-operating teacher will find she will grow if she will (1) 
Appreciate the self-growth that attends the participation in cadet 
training, (2) Welcome visitation from cadet or supervisor co- 
operating in a training program, (3) Visit the state training in- 
stitutions, (4) Ask the principal to share the problems attendant 
in practise periods. 

IV. The supervisor will be given much help in her problem if she will 
(1) Learn the philosophy of the school that houses cadet students, 
(2) Extend appreciation for evident co-operation, (3) Live as the 
students—especially in situations that might be weighty with im- 
plied responsibilities. 

V. The staff at the training school will be benefited if it will (1) 
Give consideration to suggested advice from (a) The public, (b) 
Former graduates, (c) Fellow staff members, (d) Cadet teachers, 
(e) Co-ordinating teachers and supervisors, (f) Principals, ad- 
ministrators. (2) Continuously re-evaluate the various philosophies 
of (a) The state training institution, (b) The various depart- 
ments, (c) The on-and-off campus laboratory schools, (d) The 
contemporary program of education on their own and other levels 
of scholastic training. (3) Develop or initiate programs that will 
challenge fellow staff members and involve off-campus co-operating 
representatives. 


George M. Crutainger in his article on “Problems in Teacher Training”’ 
says, “The primary function for educational guidance of young teachers in- 
service rests with the state, which is the unit of government responsible for 
public education; but the active discharge of this responsibility must be shared 
by the States’ agents: (1) The administrative and supervisory force of the school 





PRINCIPAL, FEBRUARY, 1938 119 











system to which these teachers are under contract, and (2) the normal school 
or teachers college in which pre-service training was obtained. 

With these facts before us, let us ask ourselves the question, on whom should 
fall the responsibility of answering the implied indictment of the original six 
issues? We feel the responsibility of failing to give the beginning teacher the 
adequacy of training that will guarantee her successive successful contracts is 
and will always be, a mutually shared program by and for all involved in her 
growth. 





State Advisory Committee On Elementary 


Education in Texas 
Frank D. Austin, principal, Franklin School, Port Arthur, Texas 


Many school people in Texas for several years have been 
aware of the fact that the elementary schools need to be 
greatly improved. Only a few statistics need to be quoted 
to prove beyond a doubt that elementary grades are of vital 
importance in any public school system. 


(1) Of the 1,157,034 school children, original entries in the schools 
of Texas in 1935, 78 percent were enrolled in the elementary schools, 

(2) Of the 37,559 white teachers in Texas in 1935, 27,810 white 
teachers or 74+ percent were teaching in the elementary schools 

(3) Of the $33,811,941 paid in salaries to classroom teachers in 
1935, 68 percent was paid to teachers in the elementary schools 

(+) Of the expenditures for free textbooks for a five-year period, 73 percent was for 
books to be used in the elementary schools. 

(S$) Approximately 25 percent of the children who enroll in the elementary schools do 
not remain to complete the work to enter the high school. 





FRANK D. AUSTIN 


After an investigation of the present organization in Texas it was found 
that the secondary schools (Junior and Senior high schools) are well represented 
in the State Department of Education in Austin, but the elementary schools 
had neither a director of elementary education nor any type of a coordinating 
agency in the state. 

A group of people interested in elementary education arranged a conference 
with the State Superintendent of Schools, L. A. Woods, and Second Assistant 
State Superintendent, Miss Edgar Ellen Wilson, on November 9, 1935. The 
purpose of this meeting was to discuss with these two state school officials the 
program for elementary education and to solicit their aid in setting up an 
organization for leading and directing such a program thruout the State. 

Because of the lack of funds for financing a Department of Elementary 
Education, the State Superintendent of Schools deemed it advisable to appoint 
a State Advisory Committee on Elementary Education. This committee con- 
sists of twelve people—three from each of the following state organizations: 
Elementary School Principals’ and Supervisors’ Association; Association for 
Childhood Education; Classroom Teachers’ Association; and County School 
Supervisors’ Association. These organizations recommend their representatives 
to the State Superintendent of Schools to be confirmed by him. 





120 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 








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This committee had its first meeting in Austin on March 25 to 27, 1936. 
Many recommendations were worked out and approved by the group to be 
presented to the COMMITTEE ON CLASSIFIED AND ACCREDITED 
HIGH SCHOOLS at its meeting in June of that year. The State Superin- 


tendent of Schools is Chairman of the accrediting committee. 


The accrediting committee considered the recommendations, but did not take 
any action on them. The elementary group was not discouraged by this failure, 
but rather blamed themselves for not properly informing the membership of 
the accrediting committee of the program previous to the annual meeting. 


The State Advisory Committee on Elementary Education met again in Austin 
on April 12 and 13, 1937. The recommendations as made the previous year were 
revised to be submitted again to the accrediting committee for action. The 
recommendations were as follows: 


]. CERTIFICATION OF TEACHERS: 


(1) Starting September, 1938, beginning teachers may not be employed to teach in the 
elementary grades who have not completed four years of college work including eighteen 
semester hours of elementary education. In September, 1939, these requirements shall be 
raised to twenty-four semester hours in elementary education. In addition to the require- 
ments for elementary education courses, beginning teachers shall meet the minimum re- 
quirements of the State Department of Education and of the State Board of Education in 
elementary content courses. Teachers now teaching in elementary grades without elemen- 
tary training must have completed twelve semester hours by September, 1940. 

(2) Starting September, 1938, people beginning work as principals and supervisors of 
elementary grades shall hold a bachelor’s degree including twelve semester hours of college 
credit in elementary education administration and six semester hours in elementary edu- 
cation methods from a recognized teacher-training institution. By September, 1939, these 
requirements shall be raised to twenty-four semester hours in elementary education ad- 
ministration and six semester hours in elementary education methods. Principals and 
supervisors now in service without elementary training must have completed twelve semes- 
ter hours in elementary education administration and six semester hours in elementary 
education methods by September, 1940. 

2. TRAINING OF TEACHERS: 

(1) Tentative syllabi for writing, drawing and art appreciation (6 S.H.) ; public school 
music (6 S.H.); social science (6 S.H.) are now available from the State Department. 
We believe this effort to improve teacher-training courses to be of fundamental importance. 
We urge these syllabi be continuously improved and developed to include a four-year 
program, 

(2) Our Committee is to study offerings of teacher-training institutions with the pur- 
pose of helping the State Department in planning a four-year elementary teacher-training 
program. 


3. SALARIES OF TEACHERS: 
(1) We recommend that a single salary schedule similar to the salary schedule now in 
operation in state aid schools be adopted and put into practise in all Texas schools. 


4. TEACHER-GRADE LoaD: 


Our standard of teacher-grade load does not approach standards set up in other states. 
The unequal teacher-grade load condition in Texas needs careful consideration. Data 





PRINCIPAL, FEBRUARY, 1938 121 











indicate clearly that there are many schools (one-teacher, two-teacher, and three-teacher) 
teaching up to and including the eleventh grade. The committee wishes to recommend: 


(1) That one-teacher and two-teacher schools be limited to do school work only thry 
the seventh grade. 


(2) That three-teacher schools be limited to do school work only thru the eighth grade. 


(3) That four-teacher, five-teacher, and six-teacher schools be limited to do work thry 
the ninth grade. 


(+) That only schools of seven or more teachers be permitted to do work thru the 
eleventh grade. 


5. TeAcHER-Pupit Loap: 


From the date obtainable, the teacher-pupil load in the rural and urban schools are 
practically identical. Since the teacher-pupil load in the rural and the urban elementary 
schools are not up to the standard of the high school teacher-pupil load, the committee on 
elementary teacher-pupil load wishes to make the following recommendations: 


(1) That the elementary advisory committee go on record as favoring one number as 
maximum class load for elementary and secondary teachers. 


(2) That no teacher be permitted to teach double-sessions. 


6. SUGGESTED CHANGE IN ADMINISTRATION OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: 


Due to the fact that children are now enrolled in school at the age of six years, we be- 
lieve that an extra year should be devoted to the education of our children in the public 
schools, and we recommend that this extra year of work be distributed among the grades 
of the elementary school. (At present eleven years is the predominating organization in 
the public schools of Texas.) 


7. TEXTBOOKS: 


The recommendations on textbooks as adopted by the elementary advisory committee 
to be approved by the state textbook committee have not as yet been presented. The 
recommendations are as follows: 


(1) In view of the state curriculum movement, it is becoming increasingly evident that 
more latitude be given the State Board of Education in order that books may be adopted 
which more nearly coordinate with the new curriculum. 


(2) Since textbooks in sets, that is, one copy of the same book for each child in the 
class, are becoming less useful, we feel that several good books in each field should be 
put on an approved list by the State Board of Education and that the local system be given 
permission to make its requisition from one set or from the several sets, provided that 
total number of books so requisitioned does not exceed the present quota. 


(3) It is recommended that primary grade readers in unbroken series be approved. 


(4) We recommend that books of informational character be added to the approved list, 
which coincide with the state elementary course of study. Such an arrangement will not 
necessarily increase the per pupil cost of instructional materials. 


Definite progress was made at the April, 1937, meeting. The elementary 
advisory committee did not consider it best to have a separate accrediting 
committee from that of the high schools, because one committee could better 
serve all public schools if education is to be a continuous process. The name of 
the Committee on Classified and Accredited High Schools was changed to the 
Committee on Classified and Accredited Public Schools. The membership of 
this accrediting committee was increased from seventeen to twenty in order 
that the elementary schools have four representatives instead of only one. The 





122 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 





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State Superintendent also created an elementary division in the State Depart- 
ment. Miss Edgar Ellen Wilson, Second Assistant State Superintendent, now 
occupies this position. 

This new Committee on Classified and Accredited Public Schools met for its 
first annual meeting in June, 1937. After hearing the report of the elementary 
advisory committee the following recommendation was unanimously adopted: 
“Beginning with the session of 1939-40 all non-state aid fully accredited two- 
year and four-year high schools, as well as those high schools seeking to be 
accredited, shall place all teachers, including those in both elementary and high 
school positions, on the same salary schedule with a minimum of $100 per month 
for a period of nine months. Any increase in salary above the minimum of 
$100 per month for teachers in the elementary and high school systems shall 
be based on college training, experience, and tenure, rather than on the level 
of instruction to which the teacher may be assigned.” 

By getting a single salary schedule adopted for the teachers in the public 
schools on a state-wide basis, it means a great step forward for the elementary 
school. The teacher-training program will be greatly improved and good 
teachers will be attracted to the elementary field. The accrediting committee 
did not reject any of the recommendations made by the elementary advisory 
committee, but instead asked that they be allowed to study them for another year. 

The members of the State Advisory Committee on Elementary Education in 
Texas realize that this program is not new for many states, but it represents a 
beginning for Texas. 





Do You Know— 


1. That the D.E.S.P. has received 28 reservations for the Second Annual Con- 
ference on Elementary Education, which is to be held at N.Y.U.? Among these 
we have nine from Georgia, three from Virginia, two each from Ohio, New York, 
Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, and one each from California, New Hampshire, 
New Jersey, Indiana, Hawaii, and Washington, D. C. 

2. That the 17th Yearbook of the Department, which will be published and 
ready for distribution early in September, is on “Reading in the Elementary 
School,” and that Miss Maude McBroom chairman, is going to make a report 
at Atlantic City? 

3. That we have heard recently of four State Principals Organizations which 
have been formed this year? Let us know if there are others. 

4. That many State Journals devote one whole page each month to the State 
Organization of Elementary Principals for things which will be of interest to ele- 
mentary principals? Get your State Journal to do the same. 





We need report cards and office record cards for display purposes 
at the Conference. Please help us by sending a sample of your cards 
to the Department of Elementary School Principals, 1201 Sixteenth 
St., N. W., Washington, D. C. 








PRINCIPAL, FEBRUARY, 1938 123 











Speaking of Membership! 
Eva G. Pinkston 


We are sure you are anxious to know about our membership campaign. Because 
of the splendid cooperation of our fine enrolment chairmen and because of their 
untiring enthusiasm in telling teachers, principals, supervisors and superintep- 
dents about the work of the Department we have continued to grow. On 
January 1 we were nearly 10 percent ahead of the number of members of 
the same date last year. Never in the history of the Department has our enrol- 
ment at this time of year been so large. We naturally are proud of this achieve. 
ment but we must not stop if we are to further the cause of elementary edv- 
cation and to improve our methods and technics as we go. 

Become Department Conscious—Should we ask each of the 4508 persons 
who have joined the Department since September, why he or she sent us their 
membership dues, we wager that the greatest number of answers would fall into 
the columns marked, “We need help,” or “Self-interest.” It is the need for 
help or our own self interest which makes all of us bend to the task at hand and 
contribute our bit to aid the cause, but we also need for each member to become 
Department conscious. Very little altruism in the present state of human de. 
velopment has ever been shown as an effective driving force to move more than 
a few people. We are only benevolent when we have something we wish to 
give away and very few of our real red-blooded members are apt to lean on 
human sympathy as a driving force. Therefore, the members of this Department 
must realize they are the ones who must keep in the middle of the stream of the 
life of these United States. We must study our problems and we must face them 
in the strong light of criticism. 

We firmly believe that every elementary principal is anxious to do a better 
piece of work because he likes his work and realizes its importance. He or 
she wants to be kept in touch with what is happening and to be included in this 
progressive group. Often the only thing which keeps him from joining is 
because someone has by accident not invited him to come in. Make it your bus- 
ness to invite him. Not only do we try to give help but we also need help. 
For instance, let us ask you to read the splendid article on page 104 by 
Dr. Charles A. Beard, internationally known author and lecturer and then 
turn to page 109 and really learn from the gifted pen of J. Edgar Hoover, 
director of the F.B.I. Help us keep our cause of elementary education before 
the minds of leaders and help us build the Department so that the enterprises 
it sponsors will be reaching out for an ever-better elementary school. 

It has always been and is the aim of the officers and those at headquarters 
to see that help is given. Naturally we can render a better service and give 
more help if we have more members. The membership fee is our only source 
of revenue. Think what a mighty force we could be if each member would make 
a pledge that he would be responsible for getting just ove to join the Depart: 
ment of Elementary School Principals by March 1. 

President Mason Stratton and the officers set a goal of 6000. As we go to 


124 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 








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press our membership is 4535 and 165 life members making a total of 4700. 
We must gain 1300 members if we are to reach base. 


Membership Facts—As we go to press we find that we have several 100 
percent cities and counties, namely: Charlottesville and Lynchburg, Virginia ; 
Cape Girardeau, Missouri; Baytown, Texas; Glynn County, Georgia; Lincoln 
Park, Michigan; Terre Haute, Indiana; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and the Supervising 
Principals of Austin, Texas. These are the 100 percent places about which we 
know. If there are others, be sure to write to headquarters about it. 


The ten leading states in membership in order of rank are: New York, 
California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, New Jersey, Texas, Missouri, 





Massachusetts. Won’t you help us make your state lead next month? 

President Mason A. Stratton set a quota for each state at the beginning of 
the year, and headquarters is glad to announce that five states have already 
reached their quotas. These states are: Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, North 
Carolina, and Oklahoma. Be sure to reach your quota by next month. 


Enrolment Chairmen—Since December the following names have been 
added to our list of splendid Enrolment Chairmen: 


DELAWARE 
City Chairman—Mrs. Elva M. Dugan, 
Wilmington. 


FLORIDA 
County Chairman—Mtrs. Loraine, Byrnes, 
Miami. 


ILLINOIS 

County Chairmen—C. C. McCormick, Ma- 
comb; Chris S. Apt, Oquawka; Luther 
Black, Tuscola; Walter E. Buck, Virginia; 
Oscar A. Schmitt, Waterloo. 

City Chairmen—Alice J. Mead, Decatur; 
W. S. Dimmett, Forest Park; Mary O’Con. 
nor, Freeport; Anne L. Smith, Joliet; E. L. 
Carlyon, Oak Park; Katherine Cosgrove 
Ottawa; Anna C. Kumpf, Pekin; Nettie 
Dodge, Rock Island; R. Carley, Sparta; 
Flossie Wiley, Urbana; Earl L. Koehler, 
Chicago; Georgia Elberson, Danville; Har- 
riet Fredeen, Kewanee. 


MASSACHUSETTS 

City Chairmen—Agnes F. Barry, Bright- 
on; William L. Bates, Jamaica Plain, Bos- 
ton; Anne J. Caton, Everett; Vivian A. 
Dingley, Belmont; G. Milton Fisher, Wor- 
cester; Alice L. Goodspeed, Dedham; John 
H. Graham, Cambridge; Mary A. Hayes, 
Fitchburg; Alice E. Ramsdell, Springfield ; 
Herbert L. Rand, Salem; Ward Raymond, 
Taunton; Marion H. Swasey, New Bedford. 


NEW JERSEY 

County Chairmen—Elizabeth A. Mathews, 
Camden; Raymond 8S. Michael, Trenton; 
Ruth B. Kelley, West Creek. 


New York 

City Chairmen—Mae Sherwood, Endi- 
cott; Agnes M. Bennett, Frankfort; Fred 
B. Painter, Ithaca; Allison J. Galbraith, 
Jamestown; Jennie E. Frail, Johnson City; 
Mrs. Velma W. Hendrickson, Long Beach; 
Harry S. Simmons, Newburgh; William 
Thomas, New Rochelle; Miss M. De Quette- 
ville, Port Jervis; Olive A. Paine, Roches- 
ter; Anna Dano, Watertown. 


NorTH CAROLINA 


District Chairmen—Mrs. E. L. Shearon, 
Raleigh; J. E. Miller, Washington. 


PENNSYLVANIA 

City Chairmen—Ira M. Frankenfield, 
Bethlehem; Edna Froyd, Clearfield; Mary 
M. Burley, Tyrone; Mary Carlin, Houtz- 
dale; Joseph M. Dunleavy, Scranton; 
Thomas L. Hinkle, Hazelton; Zura E. Raup, 
Milton. 


RHODE ISLAND 
City Chairman—Gertrude 
Woonsocket. 


L. Kelley, 








PRINCIPAL, FEBRUARY, 1938 


125 











Notes of Interest 


*Honor Received—lIra M. Kline, Exe- 
cutive Committee Member of the D.E.S.P. 
was elected president of the Phi Delta 
Kappa for the next two years. This is a 
very significant honor and it shows very 
decidedly the high standard of the officers 
of the Department of Elementary School 
Principals. 

*Newly Elected Officers—/daho De- 
partment of Elementary Principals: Presi- 
dent, Clinton Barber, Meridian; Vice Presi- 
dent, Lester McCracken, Lewiston; Secre- 
tary, James Chance, Payette. 

New York Elementary Principals Associa- 
tion: President, Charles Joyce, Irondequoit; 
Vice President, Fred V. Painter, Ithaca; 
Secretary, Ella Smallenburg, Buffalo; 
Treasurer, George Graff, Hicksville. 

Men’s Elementary Principals Club of 
Pueblo, Colorado: President, John Dunlap, 
Minnequa School; Secretary-Treasurer, C. 
T. Johnson, Irving Place Schools. 

Oakland Principals’ Club, California: 
President, Will W. Green, Alexander Ham- 
ilton Junior High School; Secretary-Treas- 
urer, Jessie Calder, Burckhalter Elemen- 
tary School. 

Pennsylvania Department of Elementary 
School Principals: President, Charlotte 
Trubey, Pittsburgh; Vice President, Dr. 
Reinhold W. Goll, Philadelphia; and Sec- 
retary, D. J. Mahoney, Wilkes-Barre. 

Utah Elementary Principals Association: 
President, Lester J. Nielson, Salt Lake City. 

*School Newspapers—The following 
splendid school newspapers have been re- 
ceived at headquarters since the publishing 
of the last bulletin: The Brooklyn Banner, 
Brooklyn School, San Diego, Calif.; Barclay 
News, Barclay School, Oregon City, Ore.; 
State Road Mirror, State Road School, 
Parma, Ohio; Siebert Street School Sentinel, 
Siebert Street School, Columbus, Ohio; 
Thaddeus Stevens News, Thaddeus Stevens 
School, Indiana, Pa.; Overbrook Elemen- 
tary, Overbrook Elementary School, Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

The Globe News, Elementary School, 
Chevy Chase, Maryland. 

*National Conference on Research in 
English—Mr. C. C. Certain, executive 
secretary, National Conference on Research 
in English, announces the Seventh Annual 


Meeting of the Conference in Atlantic City. 
N. J., February 26 to March 1, to be held 
concurrently with the meeting of the Amer. 
ican Association of School Administrators. 
The following subject will be discussed a, 
the Saturday afternoon meeting: ‘The Spo. 
cial Demands of Written and Oral Lap. 
guage in the Elementary Schools.” On Tues. 
day morning, March 1, this conference will 
meet jointly with the American Educational] 
Research Association, and Miss Mildred 
Dawson of the University of Tennessee, 
will present a research monograph prepared 
under her direction as chairman of the Con- 
ference Committee on “Current Practices in 
Using Textbooks in Elementary School Lan- 
guage, Composition, and Grammar.” The 
meeting Saturday will be held in the Surf 
Room, Ambassador Hotel, and on Tuesday 
in the Venetian Room, Ambassador Hotel. 
The tickets ($1.25) will be on sale at the 
ticket booth at the headquarters of the 
American Association of School Adminis- 
trators. 

Miss Maude McBroom, Chairman of the 
Editorial Committee for the D.E.S.P. is 
president of this National Conference on 
Research in English. 

*Studies Being Made—Headquarters 
is pleased to learn of the different studies 
being made over the country. Miss Florence 
Paris, of Buffalo tells us that her school 
system is making a study of Vocational 
Guidance and the Teaching of Arithmetic. 
Miss Marie Wetzel of Omaha, Nebraska, 
is making a study of arithmetic in her school. 
Mrs. Winnie C. Thornburg of Wichita, 
Kansas, is working on the improvement of 
office record cards. Miss Cassie F. Roys of 
Omaha, Nebraska, has been made chair- 
man of a Social Studies Program. Miss 
Rebecca E. Walton of Moorestown, New 
Jersey, is interested in “Safety.” Are you 
making any special study in your school? 

*Deceased—Enrolment Chairman, M. P. 
Watts has let us know of the death of Mr. 
Owen Shatzer, principal, Edgefield Elemen- 
tary School, Plain Township, Stark County, 
Ohio. Mr. Shatzer was a member of the 
Department for several years. We, too, 
shall miss him. 


Mrs. Frances Burdette has been appointed 
to fill this vacancy. 





126 


THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 





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Books on Review 


A Full-Grown Nation by Edna McGuire, 
is the third book in a series of histories for 
the elementary school, the purpose of which 
js to present a complete history of our na- 
tion; its background, early development, 
and ultimate rise to a well-rounded picture 
of the United States, but the emphasis thru- 
out is upon the social and cultural growth 
of our country. 

In this book, the story of the United States, 
from 1787 to the present time, is presented 
with the same charm of style and simplicity 
of diction that have characterized the former 
books of the series. 

A high standard of pictorial equipment is 
met by the illustrations in the book. Every 
illustration is an artistic product from the 
pen of George M. Richards, and in addition 
to its decorative value is a definite part of 
the educative purpose of the book. The text 
thus teaches by visualization as well as by 
narrative and description. By means of the 
pictures social customs and the important 
facts of American history are taught in a 
way that would be impossible thru the text 
alone, tho each custom or fact shown in 
the illustrations is also fully treated in the 
text. This fine book is published by the Mac- 
millan Company. 

x * * 


An excellent book for the fifth and sixth 
grade, Peter and Nancy in Australia, by 
Mildred Houghton Comfort has been pub- 
lished by the Beckley-Cardy Company, Chi- 
cago. Checked against contemporary ma- 
terial, Peter and Nancy In Australia gives 
an up-to-date picture of the great sixth con- 
tinent, and of the islands of the Pacific. 
Places visited on this long trip include Aus- 
tralia, New Zealand, the Samoan and Fiji 
Islands, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Philippines, 
and Hawaii. 

The book contains over a hundred beau- 
tiful pictures, those of the Philippines being 
particularly artistic. 

x FF ®& 

A revised and enlarged Edition of Games 
for the Playground, Home School, and 
Gymnasium has been prepared by Jessie H. 
Bancroft and published by the Macmillan 
Company. The changes in this book consist 
mainly of additions required by the amaz- 
ing spread of the play spirit and its prac- 


tical applications in education and commu- 
nity. 

This book aims to be a practical guide 
for the player of games, whether child or 
adult, and for the teacher or leader of 
games. An especial effort has been made 
to secure games for particular conditions. 
In short, the book aims to bring together 
all related material and every available de- 
vice for making it readily accessible and 
easily understood. 

x * * 

Our Changing World, a teaching Unit 
Library, presents to the boy or girl a well- 
rounded picture of some special phases of 
the development of man’s civilization and 
culture. It deals with information which is 
believed worthwhile in the education of 
modern youth. It contains facts which are 
correct, and information which is true. It 
can be used in connection with Teaching 
Units, or singly as supplementary readers. 
It is graded to the comprehension level 
and reading ability of the children of the 
intermediate grades. 

Gay bindings and endpapers, and many 
illustrations make them attractive to the 
child at the outset. The straightforward 
and vivid presentation of the material holds 
his interest to the end. This series of books 
is published by the Thomas Nelson & Sons, 
381 Fourth Avenue, New York. 


x * * 


The American School of the Air, com- 
piled by Helen Johnson, Broadcasting Di- 
rector, and published by the Columbia 
Broadcasting system, 485 Madison Avenue, 
New York, is an excellent Manual and 
Classroom Guide for Teachers. This book, 
centaining the daily schedule of the Amer- 
ican School of the Air Program for the 
year, 1937-38, deals with such subjects as 
History and Current Events; Human Rela- 
tions Forum; Geography; Music; Litera- 
ture; Science; and Vocational Guidance. 
These broadcasts which are designed as a 
supplementary aid to education, have come 
to be a regular feature of the daily curric- 
ulum of thousands of schools thruout the 
nation, and they have inspired confidence 
among educators. Headquarters recom- 
mends this manual to you most highly. 





PRINCIPAL, FEBRUARY, 1938 


127 











McGUFFEYISMS 


Selected from the sayings of William Holmes McGuffey 


All distinquished instances of patriotism are based upon domestic training, not 
education by the state. 


The charity that thinketh no evil will ultimately unite mankind. 

To memorize the dictionary is no better than cracking nuts with your teeth. 
Curiosity is the desire for knowledge. 

All men are liars; therefore, he was a liar who said so. 

Money hoarded withdraws efficiency from industry. 

Instinct is wiser than uncultivated reason. 

The teacher takes the watch apart; the learner puts it together. 


Nor can any man teach anything well who does not think it into life before 
going into the class room. 


The young are on the voyage of life; the old have reached the harbor. 


The teacher does not aim to be but to become useless to his pupils. 


Real friends should have a monoply of our time and attention. 


The child needs more help than the boy, and the boy more than the man; hence 
the primary schools require the best, most philosophic instructors. 











PONT 
CLE 
NTA 


|, 1938 
XVII, |