The NATIONAL ELEMENTAIRY RINCIPAL BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL “—_ PALS NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION APP 8 AL ROOM AL LIBRARY OF MICH. THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY PRINCIPAL BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS Published in October, December, February, April, June, and July by the Departmen, Elementary School Principals of the National Education Association of the United States, All elementary principals—administrative, supervisory, and teaching—are eligible to aciy membership in this department. The payment of $3 dues entitles active members to attend, meetings of the department, to hold office, to vote, and to receive the Bulletins. Associate membership may be had by all members of the National Education Associaty who are actively engaged in any phase of school work by paying the regular membership |, of $3. They are entitled to all privileges except the right to vote and hold office. og + we to non-members is $3 per year; single copies of the Yearbook, $2; single cop of the Bulletin, 25 cents (except the Official Reports, 50 cents). en, | Entered as second-class matter November 20, 1922, at the postoffice at Washington, D. under Act of August 24, 1912. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provi for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized December 18, 1922. Executive and Editorial Offices, 1201 Sixteenth Street, Northwest, Washington, D. C., va G. Pinkston, Editor. OFFICERS OF THE DEPARTMENT, 1939-40 President, Irvin A. Wilson, 437 S. Stone Executive Committee Avenue, La Grange, IIl. Ira M. Kline, 177 Gibson Avenue, Whi : : . Plains, N. Y First Vicepresident, Maude A. Rhodes, 185 y : , Wectanietor Drive, N. E., Atlanta, Ga. Arnold Gregory, Raupp School, Linci ee , Park, Mich. Second Vicepresident, Robert H. Edgar, ag eg Festus Wade School, ' Bedford School, Pittsburgh, Pa. OUI, SO. ” sid eee Elizabeth R. Malcolm, Truman Str Third Vicepresident, Sarah L. Young, Parker School, New Haven, Conn. ; School, Oakland, Calif. Certification Division, Cassie F. Roys, | rector, 2609 Bristol St., Omaha, Nebr Fourth Vicepresident, Lester J. Nielson, Life Membership Division, Herbert C. Hz 724 Windsor Street, Salt Lake City, Utah. sen, Director, 1045 N. Lockwood Ar Chicago, Ill. Fifth Vicepresident, Marjorie Walters, Har- Retirement Division, M. Emma_ Brodie rison School, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Director, Windsor, Ashtabula Co., Ohi Professional Relations Division, Mason Executive Secretary, Eva G. Pinkston, 1201 Stratton, Director, Brighton Aven Sixteenth St., N. W., Washington, D. C. School, Atlantic City, N. J. See space below for Committees as they are appointed thruout the year Visual Education Committee Harry H. Haw, Chairman Eugene Herrington Hamilton School 1301 Forest Avenue San Diego, California Denver, Colorado Fred W. Orth Ruth Livermon 2031 Arlington Avenue Meadowbrook School Los Angeles, California ~ Norfolk, Virginia The Contents of this Bulletin are listed in the Education Index The picture appearing on the cover shows the St. John’s Episcopal Church, which is called the “Che of the Presidents, ’ for it was here that a Committee waited on President James Madison to offer him 4 in the church. Pew 54, which was selected for him, has been set aside for presidents ever since. This is @ one of the many historical churches in the Nation’s Capital. ne 130 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAL aac —_— Vi sol let wh pal ant Gre Cur Twe Ind Rep Whe Seer You PRI ue, Whi 1, Lined chool, § an Str Roys, }) 1, Nebr t C. Hal ood Ar Brooke} 0., Obi Mason { Avent | | re “Chu him ap This is —————] V TAR The National Elementary Principal Volume XIX, No. 4 April, 1940 History Has Again Been Made The meetings of the Department in St. Louis, Mis- souri, were so Outstanding that in this issue of the bul- letin we are giving as complete a picture as possible of what happened. It was unfortunate that all members of the De- partment could not have been present to have enjoyed and to have benefited first hand. Contents Se | ee ae ee ee 133 Curriculum and Instructional Practices in the Ele- mentary School—BUsrton ois voc cede vee caine obese 135 The Contrast Between Traditional and Modern Instruc- Ge SNORNOEG 6.5.5: 1G. 5%: Karaka ensane ade ned none 150 ue GP WIOMMRMOEY TEs oc Seen ee beads babes 153 Introduction of Guest Speaker—Crabtree.............. 157 The Children’s Crusade for Children—Fisher.......... 158 The Modern Elementary School As a Workshop for Citizenship— Wickham... .. 2.0.0... 0 ccc ccc cece eee 163 “The American Way”—Lilly... 0.0.0.0... 00... cece eeee 167 DU He I IID. ok ksi c nk ass Kee deeesesd denny 169 ty SN si cxcciks ea cutee rs naianen deeds siiiek 170 Two Weeks at Madison, Wisconsin................... 171 ave OY the way! —PigRston wc ce ce cee eer does 175 Indoctrinating for Democracy—Benben............... 176 Report of 1940 Editorial Committee—Galvin.......... 178 NN Dia 5. waiee aewine née s ARRON 180 a en SP oe et eee ee 184 I its: n'y nics a maetiledtecadhadbiahorwiehens 190 DO YOU KNOW THAT— THE 78TH ANNUAL Convention of the N.E. A. will convene in Milwau- kee, Wisconsin, June 30- July 4, 1940. Again the Department of Elementary School Principals is an invited guest and will hold two general sessions, on Monday and Tuesday afternoons, July 1 and 2, respectively, a breakfast, July 1 and a banquet on July 2. RESERVATIONS are coming in fast for the Fourth Annual Conference on Elementary Education, which is sponsored by the Department of Elementary School Principals and is to be held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, July 6-19, 1940. Only a limited num- ber can be accommodated in the dormitories; there- fore, send in your reserva- tion now. THE WISCONSIN Ele- mentary Principals’ Asso- ciation under the leader- ship of its president, Miss Laura Kellar, in coopera- tion with the Milwaukee Elementary Principals’ As- sociation of which Mr. William F. Buboltz is presi- dent, will have charge of the Tuesday afternoon ses- sion in Milwaukee and the arrangements for the Mon- day breakfast and Tues- day banquet of the De- partment. PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 —— 131 GENERAL SESSION, FEBRUARY 26, 1940 Theme—What Good Educational Practices Can Be Found iy Our Elementary Schools? 4 ees FIRST GENERAL SESSION of the Department of Elementary Schoo| Principals was held in the Bishop Tuttle Memorial Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, on Monday, February 26, at 2:00 p. m., with President Irvin A. Wilson, presiding Approximately 500 principals, superintendents, supervisors, teachers, and college professors joined in singing the songs, which were led by Mr. Robert H. Edgar. principal, Bedford School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with Mr. Charles B. Pierce, principal, Moore School, Brentwood, Pennsylvania, as the accompanist. Following this community singing, President Wilson welcomed all; asked Miss Amy H. Hinrichs, president, National Education Association and principal, Audv- bon School, New Orleans, Louisiana, to bring greetings from our parent organi- zation; invited Miss Ruth Pyrtle, past president, National Education Association and Department of Elementary School Principals to say a few words; gave the group an opportunity to listen to Dr. J. Murray Lee, assistant professor of educa. tion, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, announce the excellent plan which had been made for the Fourth Annual Conference on Elementary Education to be held at the University of Wisconsin, July 6-19, 1940; asked Miss Cecelia Galvin, principal, School No. 3, Indianapolis, Indiana, chairman of the Editorial Committee, for a report about the coming Yearbook which is to be on “Meeting the Special Needs of the Individual Child”; and called for a report of the prog- ress on the work of other various committees of the Department. Due to the fact that Mr. Harry H. Haw, principal, Hamilton School, Sa Diego, California, and Chairman of the Visual Education Committee was up able to be present at this meeting, President Wilson asked Miss Sarah L. Young principal, Parker School, Oakland, California, to give the report which the com- mittee had prepared. Miss Jane Monahan, principal, School No. 92, Bronx, New York, New York, and Chairman of the Radio Committee, had sent a letter to the Executive Sec- retary telling of the progress to date. At the request of President Wilson Mis Pinkston read her letter to the group and made a few remarks about the fine work being done by this committee. President Wilson read the telegram he had received from Dr. Maycie Southall professor of elementary education, George Peabody College for Teachers, Nash ville, Tennessee, regarding her serious illness (streptococcic infection) which pre- vented her from delivering her address on, “Some Interesting Practices Observe in the Elementary School.’”’ All present regretted deeply to learn of this seriou illness and expressions of sympathy were heard on all sides. Dr. Southall is ont of the outstanding lecturers in the field of elementary education. A discussion from the floor followed the splendid address given by Dr. Willian H. Burton, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mas sachusetts, who is one of the favorites of the Department of Elementary Scho Principals, for it realizes the importance of any message which he gives. 132 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR A “hoo! oUuri, ding, Hlege gar, ierce, Miss \udu- gani- ation e the duca- plans -ation ecelia torial seting prog: , San S Un ‘oung, com- York, e Set- | Miss e fine uthall, Nash: h pre: served serious is one jillian , Mas Schoo —e TAR! Greetings Amy H. Hinrichs, President National Education Association and Princi- pal, Audubon School, New Orleans, Louisiana It is indeed a very great privilege to greet you not only as President of the National Education Association, but as one of your number. As our friend Miss Pinkston says, “You know, this is my gang.” My memories in this Department are cer- tainly happy ones. I have been associated with it ever since I became a principal, which is eight years ago. I remember, when the winter meeting was in New Orleans three years ago, we had a meeting very much the same as this, a hall that looked very much like this, possibly a little smaller, although I doubt it, and people came and came and came and we wondered where we would put them all. That, like this, is just an example of the great suc- cess of the meetings of this Department. When I did take over the principalship of the Audubon School, after having spent nineteen years in high school English chiefly, but in a good deal of adminis- trative work, my friends on the Resolutions Committee of the N. E. A., where I was then working, pressed me to say how I liked the new assignment. I rather made history in that little group by saying that it seemed to me I was chiefly achore girl now, by which I didn’t mean to belittle the dignity of the position. But I found, as you find, that there are indeed many chores to which the princi- pal does have to give attention. But remember, chores are most important to the functioning of a community in which the chores are done, whether the com- munity be a farm house of old, or our schools. Then said others—not in the Resolutions Committee particularly—“Now don’t let yourself get buried in detail.” I have never yet seen the detail that was neglected that didn’t somehow grow into a mountain. But from those sayings it seems to me, in my experience, of course, that there are two things that stand out in the philosophy, perhaps, of being a principal. One is the necessary attention to detail, and the other is the vision of the thing as a whole, of that school as a whole, of the place of that school in the whole educational setup, of the lives of those boys and girls we are trying to direct into the kind of development that will make them able to carry on in the best way for themselves and the communities into which they go. Mr. Wilson said, ‘Talk as long as you like.’ Miss Pinkston said, “Talk three minutes.” I think my three minutes time is probably past, but I have in my hand a little statement that I want to read before I do stop. It is available to you in the little personal growth leaflet of the National Education Association, called “Our Faith in Education.” AMY H. HINRICHS PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 133 It seems to me that part of this vision is our interpretation of education to the lay public, to everyone, and this little statement is not so well known as some of the other quotations in this booklet. It is part of a speech made by a Governor of North Carolina in 1912, and it seems to me that while its language is very simple, it is one of the most eloquent pleas I ever have come across for universal education. Said Governor Acock: “I believe in universal education. Well, my friends, you say to me, ‘I am in favor of education for everybody, but then I want everybody to do his own educating. I am going to educate my children. Yoy need not bother about that.’ “Oh, my friends, I thank God, Who is no respecter of persons, that you can- not get the best for your boy and your girl until you are ready to give the best to my boy and my girl. You can take that boy of yours and send him through the schools, send him through the college, bring him back home, head and shoul- ders above his friends and neighbors, but he won’t be very high when he is head and shoulders above his neighbors if his neighbors are ignorant and untaught and weak. You cannot get the best out of your boy unless other people’s boys are educated nearly or quite as well as your boy. “You are’ going to educate your girl. You are going to save to educate her, going to be stingy to educate her. Maybe you want to make her a musician. You can send her to all the schools; you can let her study under the great musicians until she is almost blind; you can send her abroad until her whole soul thrills and feels the glory of her gifted music, but she cannot bring music to people who do not hear. You cannot talk to an audience that cannot understand.” Isn’t that a plea for just what we are doing, trying to educate all children of all people? Thank you. HOW SHALL WE CELEBRATE? The Department of Elementary School Principals was voted in as a Depatt- ment of the N. E. A. by the Representative Assembly at Des Moines, Iowa, July 8, 1921; therefore, next year (1941) will mark its twentieth year of con stant growth. Members of this Department can be proud of the great advance- ment which has taken place in elementary education during these years, and we hope that much of it has been due to the Department of Elementary School Principals. At the St. Louis convention, February 24-29, 1940, the officers and executive committee voted to recognize this twentieth year of progress at the two banquets of the Department next year—one at the winter meeting of the American Ass0- ciation of School Administrators and the other at the summer meeting of the National Education Association. If you have any suggestions as to how you would like to have this eveil celebrated, will you please write to headquarters? This is your Department ané the officers want you to participate. 134 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR! ecm. Wil WM any tions cult He ¢ educ His georr So John looki some with rials find < man | don’t is des schoo and Ii tices circur Fre there count 20 do proba was Ic The ter ed school lake a _—_——. PRIN . the ome rmor very =rsal nds, vant You Can- best ugh 10ul- head ught boys her, You cians hrills who on of part: Lowa, con- ance: , and choo -utive quets Asso- f the event t and ‘ARY Curriculum and Instructional Practices in the Elementary School William H. Burton, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts If I might take the heart of this question today—not the exact wording—what good educational practices can be found in our elementary schools; if I could take the main question, not the specific reference to elementary schools, I think it would interest you to know that that same question, namely, what better educational practices are available, was under discussion by two very famous gentlemen 2200 years ago. Here, we are discussing it again. That is an indication of the rate of progress in educational thinking! A famous gentleman was studying geometry, and was hav- ing a very hard time mastering it. It didn’t seem to answer any felt need in his life, and he didn’t have to pass the college entrance examina- tions—he already had a job. He was the Pharaoh of Egypt. Having great diffi- culty, he said to his instructor, “Aren’t there some better ways to teach this?” He didn’t blame it on his own learning. In effect he said, “Are there not better educational practices by means of which I could be taught geometry more easily?” His famous teacher and geometer, Euclid, said, “There are no royal roads to geometry, no royal roads to learning.” So much for that. We come down from that, 2200 years ago, to the story of John Dewey, in 1896, walking wearily around the furniture houses of Chicago looking for furniture to fit a kind of school about which he was thinking. He had some ideas about better educational practices, and if he were to operate a school with these new practices he would have to have furniture and apparatus and mate- rials quite different from that which is found in the standard school. He couldn’t ind any. Furthermore, none of the salesmen understood what he wanted, until one man began to get a glimmer—you have heard the remark, I know—and said, “We don’t have the kind of furniture you want, because the kind of furniture we have isdesigned for a school in which pupils listen and read. You want furniture for a shool in which pupils carry on certain other kinds of activities than sit still and listen and read.” In other words, this problem of what good educational prac- tices can be found, comes up again and again and again under different circumstances. From Dewey’s day until now, particularly—we can skip Pharaoh for a while— there has been a steady increase in suggested practices. Dewey started it in this country, and for our era, but many others have now contributed. If you were to x0 down in the basement of the auditorium today, you would find over an acre, probably several acres covered with the kind of furniture, and more, that Dewey was looking for, and of which he could find none in 1896. The question today is—of all the suggestions for new educational practices, bet- ter educational practices, which ones of them have found their way into the schools? Of course, I can’t answer for you today to what extent, because that would lake a very careful survey. WM. H. BURTON PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 135 Examining the question, “what good educational practices can be found?” dif. ferent men, in looking at this, would look at different things. I have chosen an or. ganization and will present the remarks I want to make this afternoon in terms of two contrasting setups. We have on the one hand an organization which we might call the assignment-study-recite-test-stereotype. That is a name under which can be summed a great number of practices. In contrast to that organization of cur- riculum and instruction, we have an organization which may be designated in two or three different ways. We may call it the experience unit, the activity unit, or the functional unit; in other words, the unit of functional experience. Under each of these two general organizations any number of practices occur, I will outline the various practices and point out the good ones that are appearing | in our schools. Before I do that, I would like to take not more than two minutes here to make this point: that as we are shifting from this stereotype, this general setup of cur- riculum instruction, over to a much more functional organization of materials and experiences and learnings, we are not merely exchanging formulas. What I would like to emphasize is that we are moving over from one theory of learning to another. We are making a fundamental shift in the basis of our thinking about learnings, and that shift is responsible for the introduction of many of the good practices which are to be found in schools today. Briefly, four sub-points are: (a), The theory of learning under the stereotype is that learning is chiefly memorization; it is memoriter and it is fragmentary. The learning is passive and is absorption of materials without much active partici- pation by the youngster. The modern theory of learning, based on a large amount of research in biology and neurology, and some in psychology and psychiatry, indi- cates that learning is a very different process from that; that, in blanket terms, learning is experiencing, doing, undergoing, participating in. Those two theories of learning, which I am giving you very superficially now, indicate two very dil- ferent points of view which will dictate the kind of practices we have. The next point (b), concerns the learner. Under the old practice, the learner is regarded as docile and passive and absorptive. The learner, under the new theory of learning, is regarded as an active participant, determining in part his own edu- cation. He is regarded as an individual with purposes. Under the older theory, the learner had to be started off by the assignment. We now regard the learner as an individual possessed of purposes. Someone, in one of the reports a few minutes ago, mentioned the matter of the unification of the organism. That is, we now know that the learner reacts as a whole, he learns all over, he reacts as a living organism. He does not learn in fragmentary and compartmentalized ways. That is a funda- mental difference in points of view. The third thing is (c), our view of society and education. The old practices were based on a theory of society and education which was static and authoritarian. | assume we can all elaborate that for ourselves. The new theory of learning is 0 the basis of a society and an education which is dynamic and democratic. The teacher (d), under the old theory of learning, was regarded as the agent o! society with authority to get done what she wanted done. That is, the practices she followed were based on the assumption that she ran the show, that society knew what was best, that she would direct the learning. Under the new theory of leart 136 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR dif- S of ight can cur- two , OF cur. ring ake cur- rials at I ig to bout z00d type tary. tici- ount indi- rms, | ories ’ dif- ier is \eory r, the as an ; ago, know nism. inda- were ian. | is on ent of es she knew learn- “ARY ing, the teacher becomes a participating member of the learning group. She guides activity which answers the want, or the need, or the drive, on the part of the pupil. My first answer to the question assigned this afternoon is this: The chief good educational practice to be found in the American elementary schools is the steady shift from what we call the assignment-study-recite-test-stereotype over toward a much more functional organization of the learning situation. What I have done is to take half a dozen aspects of the learning situation and contrast the practices under the stereotype with the practices under the new func- tional procedure. If you could all see this (see outline on page 150), which I know very well you can’t—you would see that I have arranged columns and have taken certain aspects of the learning situation and listed the practices in two con- trasting summaries. I might point out, too, that some of the practices under the stereotype are not so bad. That is, they are better than some of the others I will mention, but they are not as good, we think, as some of these under the functional organization. If you have in your minds this organization, you can follow my remarks rather easily. Outcomes of Learning—The first item I would like to use as a basis for con- trast of practice, and to point out the good practice, is outcomes of learning. Under the older theory of learning, the practice was to state outcomes in terms of segments of subject matter to be covered, pieces of subject matter to be mem- orized; to state the outcomes in terms of recipes, formulas to be learned, or levels of skill to be achieved. The standard practice of the old-fashioned school was to state outcome that way. One of the best of the new practices is the steadily increasing custom of stating the outcomes in terms of the varied aspects of behavior and personality; that is, the desired outcomes of the new school can be stated in the types of behavior you want the learner to carry on, the types of personality which you want to develop. The modern courses of study are following the practice of stating outcomes in terms of activity, behavior, personality traits, understanding, attitudes, appre- ciations and skills. In regard to skills, the good practice which is coming in is again vitally im- portant. The old practice in regard to skills was to say, “This is fifth-grade arith- metic, these words are for fourth grade.’’ We set down arbitrary levels to be achieved. The new school is attempting to set up levels of skill which are directly related to the levels of maturity of the pupil; that is, the skill to be achieved will be determined by the ability of the pupil at given levels, which is a very different procedure and, as I say, one of the chief good practices to be noted. Testing the Outcomes—The second item under which to contrast practices is the procedure used in testing the outcomes. The older practices were to give formal essay examinations, to use standardized objective tests which, by the way, are very useful; to give home-made objective tests, still useful for many things. What good practices are emerging? Here we have two, the second of which I think is very important, the first not so very important. The first is the increas- ing effort to balance and test essay questions. That is, the essay test is still useful and still valuable, but not if given at random with arbitrarily selected questions. There is serious effort made in some institutions to set up questions which can be put on a scale, the answers to which can be graded with relative objectivity. PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 137 The second good practice in the matter of testing outcomes is one which I think is fundamental, namely, the increasing use of behavior records, the increasing use of anecdotal records, the increasing use of accounts of what happened. Tha is cumbersome and difficult and hard to work out, but at least we are in the stage of progressing from the very arbitrary testing of outcomes to a very much more functional method of determining outcomes. Marking and Reporting Outcomes—Here we have very clear-cut distine. tions. The older practices and the newer are quite sharply differentiated. The old procedure of marking and reporting was to give arbitrary per cents, numbers, or letters. How many still operate in school systems where grades are given in terms of 92, 83, 64, and so on? It is not your personal fault that yoy are still operating on that basis. I recently went to speak at a commencement and the principal told me with great enthusiasm how they had selected the valedictorian. Two girls with the highest marks had been in high school together all the four years. They were close friends and their marks were exactly even all the way through high school. There seemed to be no way to determine which one should be valedictorian. The princ- pal told me, as I arrived, that they were so relieved because, in the final examina- tion, one of the girls had received a grade of 96.7, and the other 96.3, and that made it all right! Then there was the older practice of using arbitrary letters. The next step was to use the words “Excellent,” “Good,” “Fair,” and “Poor.” The good practices that are appearing are the use of either descriptive para- graphs written by the teachers, descriptive items written out and sent home or, if that is too cumbersome, prepared cards with printed paragraphs or printed state- ments which may be checked or filled in. This is a little bit more formal, but stil useful and good. At least the whole practice today in regard to this matter of marking and reporting is to get away from symbols and go over to reports which describe what the pupil has done, and perhaps how he did it. Improving Learning—What practices can we see in the matter of improving learning? Under the stereotype, there were just three ways to improve learning: Keep the learner after school, exhort him, or scold him. Those are all probably bad What is the new practice? The good practices coming in here are: The increas- ing use of detailed diagnostic techniques to find out many of the subtle things thai affect the learner and his learning; and, of course, the programs of remedial teaching. We might take a look into the future right here, if you want to. A goodly num ber of people contend that a good educational practice, which we do not yet set and which we might see at another meeting when we discuss this problem agail is the elimination of retardation and failure. They say if teaching is expert enougi there will not be any such amount of difficulty and failure and necessity fo remedy. We can look for that in the future. Improving the Curriculum—tThe fifth major item under which I want ti organize my contrasting practices is the matter of improving the curriculum. I would like to go a little slower and point out that the practices under the stere? type represent a progression. These differ from some of the older practices I met- 138 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR) tion gres: appé ditio W the § late each Ar still | you | field try a unit we hi or at towa’ while good more part | Th to me by te a lon pract No of cur curric tice tl intere comm Wi tary | in int tent is in the activi Anc of the namel Ind the cz People long t you al instan (umes: PRIN hink 1sing That 1 the nuch tinc- ents, S are you with 1 the Close ‘here rinci- nina- that step para- or, if state- t still er of which oving ning: r bad. “reas: ; that redial num et see agail, rough y for int to ulum. tere0- men “ART tioned, in that they are still good in some situations. The various steps are pro- gressively better but probably not as good as some of the more radical steps now appearing. Many of your school systems may have to go through the more tra- ditional practices before arriving at the better ones. What efforts were made to improve the older curriculum? The first one was the good old stand-by of correlation. That still assumes subjects. We will corre- late the subjects. That is much better than having independent compartments, each going its own way. Another thing was the better organization of given blocks of subject matter— still subject matter, you see—for teaching purposes. I don’t know how many of you in elementary schools are familiar with Mr. Morrison’s book in the secondary field on “The Practice of Teaching,” but there has come to be used in this coun- try an expression—I think it is a good one—“Morrisonian unit.”’ The Morrisonian unit is not a functional unit, nor experience unit; nor an activity unit of the type we have in many of the elementary schools. Neither is it the old topic or chapter or arbitrarily arranged subject matter procedure. Morrison went a long way toward the new procedure by which he organized subject matter around worth- while topics, understandings, points of view, and so on. Practices of that kind are good if they represent progress away from a formal practice over toward the more functional. The broad field organization stands between the two, probably part of the old and part of the new. The last thing I want to say on the traditional side; the last practice I want to mention, which is disappearing, is the practice of determining the curriculum by textbooks constructed by specialists. That is, the textbooks in this country for along time did, and still do in many places, determine the curriculum. That is a practice that is still going on. Now in contrast what are the good practices that are appearing in this matter of curriculum improvement? The first thing is the emergence of some type of core curriculum. The introduction of the core curriculum is a very definite good prac- tice that we can see moving toward better practice. The substitution of centers of interest, of areas of experience for subjects—all of those are good practices to be commended. Within the special subjects, which doesn’t concern you so much at the elemen- tary level perhaps, but which I think should appear on the upper level, changes in internal organization are taking place. The selection and organization of con- tent is much more closely allied with the things the learners will be doing anyway in their own lives. The materials can be much more easily used in purposeful activities. Another practice which is good is the increasing use of cooperative planning of the curriculum. That is—very good practice in contrast with the older one, namely determination by textbooks and specialists. Individual Differences Cared For—What good practices can we see now in the care for individual differences? That problem was attacked very early. People have been tinkering with taking care of individual differences for a long, long time in this country. Probably in some of your schools, through necessity, you are still operating some of the practices that came in a long time ago, for instance, irregular promotion. I can remember very vividly indeed, as a young PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 139 teacher, the tremendous commotion made in my state by the introduction 9 irregular promotion. People thought perhaps it would disrupt the social order promote a pupil other than in February or June! That was one way to care fy individual differences—clumsy, rather crude, and not very effective. But it wa an effort. Special sections was another early device. Homogeneous grouping on the basis of I.Q., on the basis of apperceptiy. background, on the basis of various types of learning was tried. All these wer sincere efforts to adjust to individual differences. The opportunity room of vari. ous types, and then a great wave of more elaborate organizations for caring fg individual differences—the Gary plan, the Dalton plan, the Winnetka plan were increasingly better practices, but still within the assumption that the pro. cedure is assignment-study-recite-test. Now let us consider the newer practices. We have two that are important. I wil preface what I have to say here by emphasizing that I am not a bit dogmatic about these items. There is some difference of opinion about the following practice; Two practices are coming in which I think are on the right track in this mat. ter of caring for individual differences. First, the disappearance of fixed, arbitrary grade levels of achievement; fixed, definite levels of achievement set up by adult or set up by the average of students. When we fail a youngster in the fourth grade. what do we fail him for? For not passing, which is beautiful logic, of course That isn’t it at all. We fail him because he didn’t do what the other pupils did! That is a very theoretical and useless sort of thing to fail him upon because a pupil can only progress so fast anyway. That is one of the things we know from biology. Living organisms grow at rates determined by their own physiological gradients Some pupils can go only so rapidly. One flunks because the majority of youngster can go faster at that age. This “failing” pupil will learn, but it will take him longer. Let me say that again: We are attempting to set up in place of these arbitrary fixed grade levels (if we set up levels at all), levels which will be adjudged t levels of maturity and rate of growth on the part of the pupil. The second great practice that is coming in here is the steady introduction o/ what used to be called the “no failure” program. Please, let’s not call it tha any more, but rather call it the “continuous progress’ program. That term is no original with me. I have seen it in many bulletins. There is steadily appearing the practice of attempting to adjust a school so that pupils may make continuow orderly progress at their own rate. Sometimes they have to be stimulated to livew to that rate, but at least the good practice is the disappearance of arbitray hurdles, plus an honest effort on the part of leading school people to adjust the school so the youngster may progress at his own rate. That involves nev types of furniture, new types of materials, new types of administrative set-up and many other changes. The Teacher—tThe practice under the stereotype in regard to the teacher wa to regard her as a task-setter and drill master—very often a kindly and syt pathetic and very splendid personality, but nevertheless the practice was i} staph regard the teacher as the ruler. That The good practice which we can see is the increasing practice of having th} throu teacher participate in a learning activity going on. Sometimes she has to set tl 140 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR\ ppyy ion of der to re for it was eptive > were ' vati- ng for an— e pro- I will ymatic Ctices, 5 mat- itrary, adults grade, OUurse, 's did! 1 pupil ology. dients, igsters e him itrary, ged ti tion of it that is not ng the nuows, live up itrary ist the S nev set-up, er Was 1 sym was ti ng th set the —— TAR! stage to get it going. That is perfectly legitimate. Very often she can seize upon learning activities. I have tried to use a simple and crude objective device with my students, and say, “Watch me for just a minute. I will show you the difference. I want you to think of activity going past, like a traffic stream. Children come into schools with interests and purposes, talking about things they are doing. The old school successfully stopped their natural activity pretty well but, nevertheless, they do come in with activities. You step into the traffic stream and go along with them. You get in there and participate as a wise, mature adult. You know far better than they do what some of the outcomes ought to be, but you take what they think they want io do, the outcomes in which they are interested. Then you do not dominate, do not rigidly control, for the purpose of the teacher is to guide them the way they ought to go.” The Pupil—I mentioned this a minute ago, but I will put it in here for the sake of logical organization. Under the old procedure, the practice was to regard the pupil as a docile per- former of tasks, a follower of recipes. The practice, also, was to regard a pupil who failed as stupid or perverse. The new practices are quite different, as we can see in the schools all over the country. The good practice we can see now is to regard the pupil as an active, free participator in organizing, determining and carrying out the necessary learn- ing activities of the school. That is quite different from regarding him as some- body to whom you do certain things. He now actively participates. In place of regarding a failing pupil as stupid or perverse, the practice is to diagnose him sympathetically and in detail, get as many data as possible to find out all about his background, about his nutrition even, and even about his endo- crine balance. Any factors which might affect his learning and personality and activity are looked into. Summary—To come toward a summary of this, I began by saying, ‘Here are two contrasting procedures.” I would like to take them by themselves for just a minute and contrast the practices to be seen. Under the assignment-study-recite-test-stereotype, you saw historically in this country the following progression of formal practices, moving over into a more functional succession of practices. Assignment originally was—you may not believe it, but you can still see it in thousands of elementary classrooms in this country,—an arbitrary imposition upon the pupil. About two months ago I had the pleasure of visiting every ele- mentary classroom in a certain town in the East, and in every single classroom there was just one type of activity going on, assigning lessons in textbooks or in work books, and having the pupils come up and recite orally. In fact, it went so far that in a large number of the rooms the lesson was assigned, “Take the next chapter.” Remember, this was in the lower grades. Then the pupils gathered, and the teacher said, ‘Read the first paragraph.” The pupil read the first para- graph. “Close your book and tell me what it means.” That business still goes on. That was the original assignment. However, the assignment has progressed through to a number of improvements. The next thing was the old Herbartian technique of preparing the pupil for PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 141 what was to come. That was a marked improvement on the arbitrary assignmep; 1 The next thing was the emergence of differentiated assignment, two- and thre} doy track systems. Many of you still have those. Those are two better practices tha} ¢hi the ones I just laughed at, but they aren’t as good as some new practic ] emerging. as | The next thing you saw under assignments was the effort to assign problem} to : and projects. We can’t assign a problem, but we try. That focused our attentig, I among other things, on the necessity of using the pupils problems and purposg} old The new practices are sharply differentiated from the older practices. One gi} fyn the good practices to be seen is the cooperative selection and definition of a pw. itt pose or purposes; that is, the pupils and teacher together, cooperatively, co. ] versationally, select and define the thing to do. ant Correlative with the cooperative selection of purpose, the next good practic} ind is the cooperative determination of how to go about carrying it out. We sil dee around and decide what to do, the teacher always, remember, being the wis} Th manipulator from above, not a dominator. cou Then comes the cooperative distribution of work. Some of my students say} pat: “You can’t do that in the kindergarten; you can’t have first-grade pupils fom) hen committees and decide what they will do and how they will do it.” I am hapy I that I could take them to first class elementary schools and let them see th} you six and seven year old youngsters sitting around and deciding who would | js a this and who would do that, and having the teacher write the arrangement} jsm on the board under committee headings. It is a practice which is emerging in th} acti country, and is, I think, to be highly commended. thin The second part of the stereotype is the study-recite aspect. In the old day} ther the practice was unsupervised study—the pupil studied the lesson by himsel I He came to class and recited. The next great development was supervised study} do t a much better practice, but still not fundamentally right. Then the study coach} whe home rooms, or the formal teaching of how to study. All those are good pra} tria tices, better than the old. a pl What is the contrasting practice that is appearing? It is hard to describei} Wh briefly, but in contrast to studying in the library, which is part of it still, ther} situ is emerging a true working period where the children study books to be sure Ii where they interview people, where they make things, where they draw picture} or | where they go out on any number of excursions in the community, where the} wit! hold group conferences, where they meet in little groups, sometimes in the hal} mas and all around (old stuff to some of you, but still not heard of at all in man} do| many elementary school systems) where they gather exhibits, where they gatht} _ buil materials, bring their ideas together and so on; in other words, where they do@} niqt sorts of things to carry on the purpose which they set up. and The last aspect of the stereotype, testing, was, as I said, essay type tests, stb L jective tests, and so on. the I purposely do not say “testing” under the new. What is the practice unde} in re the new? It isn’t traditional testing. The major point corresponding to testilt} stop should be the “demonstration of learning” period, because the outcome is ™} astr something to be tested. The outcome is to show that that learning actually fun} we s tions in life situations. and 142 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR} PRI iment three. S thay aCtice lems ntion, Poses, One oj a pur r, COl- ractice We sit e wis S Say, 3 forn happy ee the ild do ment in the | days, imsel! study coach, | prac: ribe i , ther > SUT, cture, e they e hal mal gathe do al S, Sub unde testint is no r func — TAR! —_—— We have now good practices, looking toward the recording of behavior, putting down what pupils do, anecdotal records, and so on. I mentioned that earlier in this discussion. I should like to take five minutes more to go back to the matter of theory and, as a matter of fact, this both elaborates the theory and summarizes what I want to say here. I said in the beginning that the contrasting practices I am discussing here, the older practices and what good new practices we can see, are based upon two fundamentally different theories of learning. I should like to elaborate just a little bit the new theory of learning. : I would put it this way: All of the new practices in teaching are based upon a much more adequate conception of what happens when a pupil learns. We are indebted not only to educators and psychologists, but we are indebted very, very deeply to biologists and neurologists, who had no concern with the schools at all. There have been derived in the biological and neurological laboratories in this country over the last fifty years series of principles, series of facts about the nature of living organisms which have fundamentally affected learning and, hence, teaching. If you examine any organism, from a simple organism to a very complex one, you will find the first fundamental characteristic, that it is doing something, it is active, it is behaving. Ongoing activity is a characteristic of any living organ- ism. As the animal or the human goes about its business carrying on its natural activities, something happens. There is a block; there is an interruption; some- thing is needed. The organism or the human being wants it and can’t get it, and there is a disturbance of equilibrium, a strain, a stress, and difficulty begins. Finally, the animal does act in a certain way. The human says, “We had better do this.” In other words, a purpose emerges out of a difficulty, out of a situation where there is difficulty. That isn’t sufficient. What shall we do? We try this— trial and error in some cases; thinking out in the mind in others. From a difficulty a proper purpose emerges, then procedures emerge. We follow those procedures. What is the result of the procedures followed out? Increasing control of the situation emerges. If we follow out and act in an effort to relieve the blockage or obstacle situation, or lack of equilibrium, we will control the situation or drop it. We will emerge with some control of conduct; we will find a way around. In other words, we have mastered the situation. If it is a repeating situation, a routine situation, we can do better next time and, pretty soon, controls emerge. In other words, we have built into our psychophysical organisms a method of behaving, a belief, a tech- nique, mechanism or skill. These control behavior until another difficulty arises and we have to modify the control. Let us summarize in such way as to show the parallel between real life and the school. In life, ongoing behavior; in school, ongoing behavior. The pupils in real life have and bring to school interests, activities, and things to do. We do stop them sometimes, but we oughtn’t to. The next thing: a loss of equilibrium, astrain, a block, a difficulty. That is what we mean in common-sense terms when we say a need arises, a want, a wish, a drive. Corresponding to that, the pupil and the teacher define the purpose. It is the same thing and should be done as PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 143 the organism does it in real life. In real life we figure out what to do,—so should we in school. We develop ways to go about it. We plan what to do. As I said, in life, if we act on your beliefs and plans, we will emerge with some control situation, or we will drop the matter. In school if we act and carry out the plans made, read books, interview people, go on excursions, have committees, and work, we will emerge with understandings, attitudes, abilities, skills, ways of behaving, personality traits which control the situation. For both life and the school, the thing has to be done many, many times. One conquering of a life situation doesn’t settle it. We make a mistake next time, too. Both in life and in school, the same desired outcomes must be attacked again and again and again by different units, varied units, and so on, In life, the controls emerge. They are individuated and integrated into the personality. This is repeated many times. The continuous functional program slowly builds the personality traits, the attitudes, the appreciations we want, In life, behavior is changed. In school, behavior should be changed, because that is the proof of learning. Probably you can’t remember all the details, but the chief point to retain js that there are these two major ways of organizing learning. The practices under each have shown progression over hundreds of years, most of the newer ones emerging only over the last fifty or sixty years. The good practices that you see in the elementary schools today are those which put into effect this functional unit, this cooperative selecting and planning of what to do. The reason we say it is better, in the absence of demonstrable proof yet—that is coming—is that it is logically derivable from what we know about the nature of learning in biological organisms. Discussion—I should be very glad to carry on discussion. PRESIDENT WILSON: I feel sure there will be a large number of questions that the members of the audience will have on procedures and interpretations of this very fine address of Dr. Burton. If you have questions, won’t you please stand where you are and, for the benefit of the stenotypist, give your name and address, and state the question in as few words as possible. Mr. Boccs (St. Louis, Mo.): Dr. Burton, will you say to the audience this brief word: How can we, in the new regime, establish certain skills in the funda- mental subjects of reading, writing, spelling, and mathematics without drill, or will your new scheme permit it? Dr. Burton: No, sir. Practice will always be necessary as long as learning is carried on. Drill must always be there. Practice is always necessary in learning. Under the old regime, we forced the child to practice. He did not participate. Under the new practice, we derive the practice from some real need in the ongoing procedure. The child, himself, wants to practice. He says, “We had better stop here and learn to do this thing before we go on.” The difference is not practice versus no practice; it is in the kind of motivation that lies back of the practice. The new schools, I suspect, have more and better practice (or drill) than the old schools. In the schools where the new program is actually in effect—of course, it has been in effect in many schools for a long time—the achievements in the formal skills are, as a rule, higher, than in the old schools. 144 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY — > —" un pro at | sub of | sch the the’ eve cee on ita wit] poli mat logi beer hav sche havi cam are Eve gene by 1 attit Hov You mati bilit very grov now rapie PRI —> uld ant. that n is der yes nose ning able now ions ions tion this nda- , or ning ‘ing. ate. oing stop tice tice, the Irse, the |RY a —_ Mr. BRIAN StorporF (Westville, N. J.): In schools where you try to operate under areas of interest and experience, and so forth, how can you answer the problem of the junior high school? When we get these boys and girls we find an increasingly difficult problem, so that we cannot cope with them on the level at which we receive them. Dr. BuRTON: There are a couple of questions, I think. In the first place, I implied in my remarks that on the secondary level special subjects will emerge. I recognize that is controversial. There are a great number of advanced thinkers in the country who don’t agree to that. There are two schools of thought. They say that even the special subjects will disappear on the secondary level, as they have disappeared in the elementary schools. To come to your question, yes, I think there will be special fields emerging there. On the other hand, there is extending up into the junior high school, and even in some of the better secondary schools now, this unified core which pro- ceeds side by side with certain special subjects, in which you attempt to carry on some of the same kind of learning as in the elementary school, and perfect it and bring it up to usefulness in real situations. Mr. StorporF: It involves the question of articulating the elementary school with the junior high school? Dr. BurTON: Yes, of course. That is a system-wide job. That is a matter of policy of the supervisory staff, which should be the curriculum staff. That is a matter of organizing your curriculum so that it is articulated. Mr. StorporF: It is desirable to have certain—we will call them—chrono- logical areas, or grade levels, where certain general fields are to be discussed? Dr. BurToN: I think you have two items there. The gentleman refers to levels, grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, grade 4. That has been the chief sticking point. If you have groups of pupils together, you must have a name for them, Group 1, Room A or what not. In the small number of schools where they are making a very sincere effort to meet the problem you have raised they call them Group 1, Group 2, Group 3. Some say that is just camouflage. Not at all. Back of Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, in the systems that are trying it, there is the honest effort to get pupils of the same social maturity. Everybody knows that you can’t put pupils together and have them alike. The general thinking at the moment is to group on the basis of social maturity. This by no means makes it final but I agree to it for the moment. The most significant way to have pupils alike is in their social maturity, social attitude, social point of view. That seems to make for a better working group. How do you determine that? You list certain attitudes, certain social behaviors. You try to select pupils on this or that level of development in terms of social maturity, getting along with other people and carrying their share of responsi- bility. You put those in this group, in this group, and in this group. The second aspect which I should have mentioned in that procedure is its very great flexibility—in what? Moving pupils about, because the rates of growth are different. We know that from biology. This pupil is in this group now, but he is a rather rapid developer, so he may move up a group much more rapidly than some of the other youngsters. The next thing you mentioned was areas of experience. That is up to the local PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 145 system. There is no one right way of doing. There are in the country any number of curriculum programs which you could look at and say, “I like that, but | don’t like this one.” Probably it is just as good. Within the limits of a broad scope and sequence, yes, there is a succession of things to do, and that will vary from system to system. Within this scope and sequence, which will be broad an general, the individual teacher should have a lot of latitude in what she dogs in this or that area. It will be in a given area, to be sure. Mr. StorporF: This individual system should be organized so that the ninth grade, we will say, will know what is going on in the fifth, sixth, and seventh grade levels, so that there will be articulation. Can you still proceed on the basis uf spheres of influence? Dr. Burton: Yes. There are two things to look out for. It is perfectly normal that your remarks would indicate—this is no criticism of you—an w. conscious reference back to the subject matter point of view. Mr. StorporF: We all have to do that. Dr. Burton: Yes, for a while. (Laughter.) I would sooner put it this way: That at general age fourteen a student is able to do certain things. He has achieved certain levels of skills, he has certain understandings, he has certaiy attitudes. I don’t care about the facts particularly. They have to be discussed and they come in, but out of it all he derives an understanding. I would like the eighth grade youngster to be one who regards the world in a certain way. He believes certain things, he can do certain things, rather than just knovy, I think that is what you really mean. Mr. Storporr: I like your answers very much, but I would like to ask an other question and make it even more specific. Let’s take arithmetic, because that is a little more specific. When they get into junior high school, should ; junior high school assume they ought to know How to do percentage? Suppose in their areas of experience, and so forth, it hasn’t been necessary for them to have that type of thing? Dr. Burton: I know what you want now. There are quite a few of you in this audience who have been in my courses, and you know I always teach by discussion. If you talk long enough, the point will come out. If I just lecture, we all go away with misunderstandings. What the gentleman is pointing to—it is a very practical question and comes up again and again—is that if we move over from the old-fashioned, rigid subject matter point of view to these newer organizations, will there be any danger that certain attitudes, certain beliefs, certain skills will be omitted? No. I have stressed all the way through that the teacher is still a member of the learning group. She is the wise, mature adult. She knows more than the pupils. There is no argument about that. The important point is this: The progressives all agree that a pupil, to get along in this world, must be able to do certain things the way the rest of us do. He must subtract, divide and add as others do. If he doesn't the bank will call his attention to it at the end of the month. We must spell the way other people do or we won’t get what we want when we write to Seats Roebuck. The difference between the old school and the new school is this: The oli school said, “Here it is, kids; darn you, get it.” The new school says, “All living 146 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR\ me gre dot nic it | der pul rea of are ma at | age old yea agr but idea whi \ shot PRI rber ut | rom and oes inth enth the actly Un- way: has rtain issed like way. now, < all alse id a ypose them ou in ‘h by cture, somes ibject that have rning ere is agret > way yesn', 11 the Seals, 1e old living —— — organisms acquire things they need better if they—what?” If they see the need and response meets an actual situation. I am trying to avoid the silly phrase “felt need.”’ Very often you have to bring the student’s attention—to what? That he needs this. I think what you are asking is that question right there. The school is responsible for seeing that certain unmistakable items come in. Mr. StorvorF: I agree 99 per cent with what you have said, but I wanted to get a little more information. Mr. Storerc (St. Louis, Mo.): Did I understand you correctly that you emphasize acceleration rather than enrichment? Dr. BurTON: No, neither one. That was one of the older practices which came in. Mr. STorBerRG: When you spoke of the different groups, Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, did you refer to the grades or the grouping within a larger group? Dr. Burton: That is the same question over again, with another illustration. The gentleman asks if I were stressing acceleration, because I mentioned shifting a pupil from group to group. In the old days, we shifted him from group to group if he mastered subject matter faster and learned certain things faster. Again, you have the same back- ground this gentleman has. It is a different conception. From the biological laboratories it has been shown beyond peradventure of doubt that all organisms have within them certain gradients. That is the tech- nical term. I apologize for using it, but I can’t explain it other than to say that it is a capacity and rate for growth. Some persons develop rapidly. Persons develop socially, physically, mentally, and so on, at different rates. Here is a youngster who gets into Group 1 because he enters school. He is put first with this group of children. He happens to have a much more rapid reaction time, he grows more rapidly and, pretty soon, he has achieved a level of social insight, social behavior, which makes him older than this group who are progressing at a slower rate. You are not accelerating in the sense of subject matter acceleration. You try to replace him with a group with which he is more at home. Mr. SToIBERG: When you say that at fourteen years they arrive at a certain age, you refer to social age, not to chronological age. Some may be twelve years old and may have arrived at the social age of fourteen. Others may be sixteen years old but socially may be only fourteen. Dr. Burton: I would accept that. I wouldn’t use the term “social age.” I agree to that. Mr. STorBERG: With the emphasis upon acceleration? Dr. Burton: With the emphasis neither upon enrichment or acceleration; but with emphasis upon providing conditions for growth at those levels. Mrs. EpNA Hopces (Tampa, Fla.): We are trying to get away from the idea of having a child of eight in a group with a child of thirteen or fourteen, which is quite possible working on the social maturity theory. Dr. Burton: That is right. It is also quite possible in the other theory. Mrs. Hopces: More approved to keep them at their age level? Dr. Burton: That type of question is all right, but let me point this out—I should have said it, I guess—that any principle you lay down will always have PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 147 on the edges—what? Exceptions. What I said was that we put them together ip terms of social maturity. If you find one or two pupils who are grossly out of place in some other aspect than social maturity, I would change that. Mrs. Hopces: What functional place do tests have in checking or determining the individual progress of the children? Dr. Burton: What do you mean by “‘tests’’? Mrs. Hopces: Standard tests. Dr. Burton: Not very much, except for language, arts, arithmetic skills and spelling skills. Even there, I would be careful of this. We are trying to move away from a strict subject matter point of view to another point of view. You can give a standard test on spelling and say, ‘This youngster now spells as well as do the children in the sixth grade.” All that means is that he spells about as well as the average child in the sixth grade spells. He may be well above average, or below average, in this matter of rated growth. A child in the sixth grade, using that term, doesn’t necessarily have to spell at sixth grade level—perhaps he shouldn’t be there. Let me say it several different ways and we will finally get the point. You can’t test a slow-growing child on a standard test which is merely a compilation of averages. I would use the test as a vague indication, as a diagnostic thing, as an aid, but I certainly wouldn’t use it as a hurdle or line or place to move him over. Mrs. Hopces: What is its functional place in this new program— Dr. Burton: I would say to use it as an aid and guide and sort of general help, but I certainly wouldn’t use it as any rigid thing to determine something on, There is another question you ought to ask, and it should be “All right, if you don’t use standard tests, what do you do?” You keep an inventory of actual social behaviors, a record of what he does, things he says, how he acts with other people, how he contributes to committees, what exhibits he brings in. Those can be lumped in terms of levels and groups. Mr. ALLEN (St. Louis, Mo.): If we were going to organize our schools on a social basis, how should we go about it? Who would determine the social develop- ment of the children? Dr. Burton: Nobody determines it. A child at kindergarten level, or about that age, begins in certain ways. You can get inventories. They are still incom- plete and vague. I can give you some references afterward. You can get some help from school systems that have struggled with this, who have tried to find out just what do youngsters do. When they come to kindergarten, do they hang up their coats and hats? Do they seize books from other children or do they wait their turn? There are a great number of habits which, added together, means a youngster’s social attitude, point of view, and behavior. I would say you would use such research as there was, and you would make a lot of studies of your own. Social maturity differs in terms of economic back- ground considerably. You ask, who determines it? Nobody determines it. You derive it from an observation of behavior. Mr. Murpnuy (New York): As a practical proposition of making an inventory of behavior traits, and so on, from the practical standpoint of a large city school, such as we have in New York City with averages of thirty-five to forty 148 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY pup don one cou! inve peo on 1 have are | wha quit the | men enor teacl child there do it M and is the of a areas expel The 1 devel must they | the b Pai well | exper mater MR minds He dents tory 1 “Mee infor PRIN ory ity rty RY = pupils, how can you do that adequately in that setup? It could very well be done, of course, in a school with a small register where a teacher perhaps has one or two other teachers to assist in the work. As a practical procedure, how could we do it in a big system? Dr. BuRTON: With a large grouping of pupils, how can you make a behavior inventory? That is a practical question. The only suggestion I can give—some people disagree with it—is this one: In the first place, a lot of the background on which this thing rests has been done. A lot of research has been done. We have listings of traits and characteristics and behaviors and activities. There are a great number of those in existence. Ideally, with small groups the teacher would, on her own, watch and put down what these youngsters do. You raise the question, “She can’t do that.” You are quite right, because the great burden of a lot of these new practices is that under the old system of mass education the teachers can’t do it. I will recommend this: Use the semi-formal thing of having a printed state- ment. Here is a series—you have seen them, I know—of behaviors. That reduces enormously the labor of having the teacher check. Furthermore, the second thing is this: Even with thirty-five pupils, the teacher, by the end of a marking period, becomes somewhat familiar with those children, and it is fair for her to sit down and think, “That child is about there.”’ It isn’t as good as making an original record, but it is the best way to do it. I think that is the only answer I have ever evolved to that question. Mr. DARLINGTON (Lincoln, Nebr.): In these so-called areas of experience, and so on, we do draw from arithmetic, spelling, language, and so on. What is the place of a standardized textbook to go right along with this area? Dr. BuRTON: To repeat the question, the gentleman asks what is the place of a standardized textbook, say, in arithmetic, where you are operating under areas of experience because, says he, and quite correctly, within the area of experience you have to use arithmetic and you have to use spelling. I can answer that question very vigorously: The textbook is for the teacher. The teacher has that and knows what is in there, and she provides within this developing unit a number of experiences. She provides situations which children must meet, not as a formal thing out of a book, but as an actual part of a thing they have to do which is real and vivid, aid deals with concrete items. She, having the book, can use it if she needs it. Part of this general theory is that such things as formal arithmetic can very well be delayed until far up in the grades. Don’t neglect functional arithmetic experiences. One of the biggest publishing houses is now putting on the market materials for the lower grades to take the place of formal arithmetic. (Applause.) Mr. Witson: I am sure Dr. Burton has raised a great many questions in the minds of most of us. This has been a very delightful and very fruitful afternoon. Headquarters needs to have the names and addresses of the new presi- dents and secretaries of Principals’ Clubs and Associations for the direc- tory which will appear in the Nineteenth Yearbook of the Department, “Meeting the Special Needs of the Individual Child.” Please send this information immediately. PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 | 149 THE CONTRAST BETWEEN TRADITIONAL AND MODERN INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE * The following is a very brief outline of the differences between the older and the newer instructional practices. It must be borne in mind that for the sake of contrast the more striking differences only are here emphasized. The older procedure is not so stereotyped as here presented, nor is the newer as functional as it might seem. Many, many variations of each procedure and mixtures of the two are to be found in actual practice. The points listed under the headings of the older practice are roughly in order of progression from the badly stereotyped toward the more functional procedure, There has been a natural growth in instructional theory and practice from the formal to the functional. Traditional Instructional Practice Modern Instructional Practice I. OUTCOME Memorization of subject matter An integrated and integrating individual Repetition of formulas and recipes Controls of conduct such as: Understand- Ability to follow recipes ings, Appreciations and Attitudes, Spe- Achievement of adult designated levels of cial Abilities skill through drill in isolation from use Achievement of levels of skill suited to level of maturity through practice re- lated to use and purpose II. TESTING THE OUTCOME Essay tests containing arbitrarily selected Balanced and tested essay questions with questions explicit methods of marking Standardized objective tests Observation of behavior Home made objective tests Various techniques for observing and recording behavior Anecdotal records III. MARKING AND REPORTING OUTCOMES Arbitrary percents, numbers, or letters, Paragraphs descriptive of actual types of based on arbitrary sampling of subject behavior, levels of skill, etc., prepared matter—or based on uncontrolled sub- by teacher jective judgment of teacher Printed statements, sentence or short para- Use of very general descriptive terms such graphs descriptive of actual types of be- as Excellent, Good, Poor, etc. havior, levels of skill, etc., printed and Formal report card giving fragmentary ac- arranged for checking by teacher: a be- count of subject matter achievement havior scale. and practically no account of other New type report cards giving as adequate learnings as possible report on types of learning. IV. IMPROVING LEARNING Repetition after school; more drill Diagnostic tests and analyses Exhortation Remedial teaching Scolding or other punishment (Theoretically under expert teaching diag- nostic and remedial procedures would become less and less necessary ) *Outline referred to by William H. Burton on page 137 of this bulletin. 150 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY Cor Bett je Broa Dete st Irreg Speci Hom« no Oppo: Speci tior tice ton A task kind: a tas A docil recip A failin The Ass type Arbitrar topics Intellect Telatec aterm PRINC id ag uld RY Modern Instructional Practice Traditional Instructional Practice V. CURRICULUM IMPROVEMENT The core curriculum; fusion, addition of new subjects; use of so-called centers of interest, areas of experience in place of subjects; functional units for immediate teaching purposes The special subjects; more functional or- ganization and content within subject or field boundaries Determined by cooperative social planning Correlation of subject matter Better organization of given blocks of sub- ject matter for immediate teaching pur- poses; subject matter units Broad field organization Determined by textbooks used or con- structed by specialists VI. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES CARED FOR Irregular promotions Special sections Homogeneous grouping on limited basis: no change in materials or methods Opportunity rooms Special organizations touching administra- tion, curriculum, and instructional prac- tice: Gary (or platoon), Winnetka, Dal- ton Homogeneous grouping on basis of social maturity with frequent rearrangement due to flexibility in shifting individuals: accompanying changes in material and method Disappearance of fixed, arbitrary, grade (or other) levels of achievement. (Nor- mal levels of achievement indicative of adjustment to demands of the world must eventually be achieved but at rate consistent with individual’s capacity and rate of work.) (This is all sometimes called the “no fail- ure” plan which is a very misleading term. “Continuous progress” plan is a better designation. ) New types of furniture, rooms, buildings VII. THe TEACHER A tasksetter and drill master. (Often kindly and sympathetic but none the less a task master. ) A participating guide and stimulator VIII. THe Pupirt A docile performer of tasks, a follower of recipes A failing pupil is stupid or perverse An active, free participator in determin- ing, organizing and carrying out learn- ing situations A failing pupil needs diagnosis to discover factors interfering with normal growth The Organization of Teaching-Learning Situations The Assignment-Study-Recite-Test-Stereo- type I. ASSIGNMENT Arbitrary assignment of pages, exercises, topics or chapters Intellectual preparation through recall of related information (Herbartian) The Functional Organization Utilizing Pupil Purpose and Socially Significant Material I. INITIATING A UNIT Cooperative selection and definition of a purpose or purposes (pupil or teacher initiated). Pupil acceptance the impor- tant thing. PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 151 The Organization of Teaching-Learning Situations—(Cent.) Differentiated assignments—minimum es- Cooperative organization of plan of attack sentials for all plus enrichment—Two Cooperative distribution of work and cop. and three track systems tributions Problems and projects with varied assign- ment II. Stupy II and IIT. Work1nc PERIOD oF 4 Unsupervised individual study of assigned Unit text | : Individuals and small committees carry op Supervised study of assigned text various activities: consult many printed Unsupervised or supervised study of sup- sources, interview persons, listen to lec. plementary references tures, make excursions, perform experi. Study coach for individuals and small ments, hold group discussions, hear com. groups mittee reports, and make analyses there. Home rooms _ of, make original and creative contribu. Formal teaching of study procedures tions, gather exhibits of real materials, construct apparatus and _ illustrations, 7 III. Recitation paint, draw, etc. Individual answers to fact questions Individual and group reports Socialized recitation IV. TESTING IV. DEMONSTRATION OF LEARNING Essay tests containing arbitrarily selected Balanced and tested essay questions with questions explicit methods of marking Standardized objective tests Observation of behavior Home made objective tests Various techniques for observing and recording behavior Anecdotal records The Effort to Align Natural Experiencing with School Experiencing THE PROCESSES OF NATURAL THE CORRESPONDING PROCESSES ExPERIENCING IN SCHOOL ExPERIENCING Behavior ongoing Behavior ongoing Need, want, wish drive arises because of Purposes are defined as the initiation of 1 disturbed equilibrium unit Purposes emerge Efforts to satisfy need arise Procedures are planned and executed in Procedures emerge carrying on a unit Increasingly intelligent behavior results Outcomes of the unit emerge in terms 0/ Controls emerge definite control of conduct Understanding Attitudes Appreciations Special abilities—Skills Further experience is necessary: More units, study, practice Controls are individuated and integrated Controls become part of personality continuously: perfected subject to The organism has been changed change Learning has taken place subject to chang! Behavior is changed Behavior is changed ; New needs arise and the process continues The proof of learning is its appearance! the modification of behavior New needs arise and learning continues 152 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR! B on / all \ idea were man B Hote men whic had and arral and of w Scho pani: wooc Pr Miss noun invit wauk presi Wisc Conf the a preps they At few € B: Febr high] the b cand] Wooc with the e Th by M Louis blurred _ PRIN ck vith and ofa d in s of A hit of Pleasantry ! ! Because of the very meticulous care which was taken by the Local Committees on Arrangements for the St. Louis convention, in planning for the enjoyment of all visiting principals and their friends, St. Louis will long be remembered as an ideal place to go for a convention. Besides the inspirational programs which were held on Monday and Tuesday afternoons, February 26 and 27 respectively, many plans had been made well in advance for the social affairs during the week. Breakfast—By 7:30 a.m. on Monday morning, February 26, Parlor A of Hotel Statler was filled to its capacity, for members and friends of the Depart- ment made it a point to arise early in order to attend the Acquaintance Breakfast, which was the first get-together meeting of the convention week. Here everyone had an opportunity to chat with their friends from other parts of the country and to make new friends. After a very enjoyable breakfast, which had been arranged by Miss Ida M. Hooss, president, St. Louis Women Principals’ Club and her committee, all joined in singing a few old songs, a mimeographed copy of which had been placed at each plate. Mr. Robert Edgar, principal, Bedford School, Pittsburgh, Pa., had no trouble in getting everyone to sing. His accom- panist at the piano was Mr. Charles B. Pierce, principal, Moore School, Brent- wood, Pa. President Irvin A. Wilson introduced those who were seated at the head table. Miss Isabel Tucker, principal, Festus Wade School, St. Louis, made the an- nouncements about the events which were to take place during the week and invited everyone to attend the banquet that evening. A warm welcome to Mil- waukee, Wisconsin, for the summer meeting was given by Mr. William F. Buboltz, president, Milwaukee Principals’ Club. Dr. J. Murray Lee of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, aroused much interest in the Fourth Annual Conference on Elementary Education which this Department is sponsoring at the above mentioned university, July 6-19, 1940, when he told about the splendid preparations which have been made. Many people decided immediately that they would attend this two weeks’ meeting. At 9:30 a.m. all the 155 persons present were glad that they had given up a few extra minutes of sleep in order to attend this social gathering. Banquet*—The Department banquet which was held on Monday evening, February 26, 6:00 p.m., Ballroom, Statler Hotel, was one of the outstanding highlights of the St. Louis convention. Five hundred fifty-nine persons filled the banquet hall, which was a perfect setting for such a festive occasion. White candles had been dipped in silver by Miss Leonide Girault, principal, Calvin Woodward School, St. Louis, and with one lighted candle on each table, together with clusters of candles and bouquets of red and pink tulips at the head table the effect was entrancing. The uniqueness of the lovely banquet programs, which had also been prepared by Miss Girault, was just another evidence of the outstanding ability of the St. Louis principals. These programs were cleverly prepared in silver, buff, and white *Circumstances over which we had no control, caused the pictures which were taken at the banquet, to be blurred; therefore, we regret our inability to include pictures in this issue. PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 153 and placed at each plate. On the silver cover was a picture of the “Shoy. boat’ on the Mississippi River, and on the inside buff and white sheets were found the most popular and best-loved ballad of the famous musical comedy, “Showboat”—“Old Man River,” a history of the Showboat, the program of the evening, and the names of guests of honor. The Department was honored by the presence of its distinguished guests namely: Dr. J. W. Crabtree, Secretary-Emeritus, National Education Associa- tion, Washington, D. C.; Mr. Mark D. Eagleton, President, Board of Education, St. Louis, Missouri; Mrs. Eagleton; Mrs. Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Arlington, Vermont, Author—Lecturer—Chairman of the Children’s Crusade for Children: Dr. Willard E. Givens, Executive Secretary, National Education Association, Washington, D. C.; Mrs. Givens; Dr. Ben Graham, President, American Asso- ciation of School Administrators, National Education Association, and Superin- tendent of Schools, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Mrs. Graham; Dr. Florence Hale, Editor, Grade Teacher, Darien, Connecticut, and past President of the National Educa- tion Association; Mr. George L. Hawkins, Acting Superintendent of Schools, St. Louis, Missouri; Mrs. Hawkins; Miss Amy Hinrichs, President, National Education Association, and Principal, Audubon School, New Orleans, Louisiana; Dr. Joseph Rosier, President, Fairmont State Teachers College, Fairmont, West Virginia, and past President, National Education Association; Dr. Agnes Sam- uelson, Executive Secretary, Iowa State Teachers’ Association, Des Moines, Iowa, and past President, National Education Association; Mr. S. D. Shank- land, Executive Secretary, American Association of School Administrators, Washington, D. C.; Miss Elphe Smith, President, Department of Classroom Teachers, N.E.A. and Teacher, Capitol Hill School, Portland, Oregon; Mr. Irvin A. Wilson, President, Department of Elementary School Principals, and Principal, Delano School, Chicago, Illinois; Mrs. Wilson; and Dr. Caroline Woodruff, Principal, Normal School, Castleton, Vermont, and past President National Education Association. After enjoying the delicious dinner, President Wilson introduced the guests at the head table and asked the following “to make any remarks they chose’: Dr. Ben Graham; Mr. S. D. Shankland; Dr. Willard E. Givens; Mr. George L. Hawkins; Mr. Mark D. Eagleton; and Miss Amy H. Hinrichs. At the request of President Wilson, Dr. James W. Crabtree introduced his friend and the speaker of the evening, Mrs. Dorothy Canfield Fisher, who told the group about great work being done by, “The Children’s Crusade for Chil- dren.” Mrs. Fisher had brought with her copies of a printed folder and had them distributed to each person present. This folder gave an explanation of the plan and purpose behind the “Children’s Crusade for Children;” how the Cru: sade will be carried on; how it will help teachers; and the list of sponsors. Maga- zines, newspapers, radio, and movies are actively participating in this move ment. Therefore, the group assembled appreciated hearing at first hand about this plan. Following the address by Mrs. Fisher, the St. Louis principals under the very able leadership of Miss Isabel Tucker, principal, Festus Wade School, St. Louis, presented a “Showboat Melodrama.” A temporary stage had been erected it the banquet room, the scene on which represented a living room. This was 4 154 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR! typic such in the Show! heroit and a Schoo tain t and ¢ river | The Pappy Annie, Horace, Francis. Showbc Choral Directo} Directo} Und cipals’ in the evening Cha cipals vention Festus St. Lou Miss L man, D St. Lou cipal, ] Wahler: Mr. Ro man, M ment of Othe vention were pr On S Pageant ete PRINC Be TT Pa ee SsSaea[s BST SF FAS: BSF TS nt sts typical setting for a Showboat program. The audience represented the audience such as would be at a melodrama on “The Nancy Lee” in the late afternoon in the summer of 1880. The melodrama as presented was characteristic of all Showboat programs, the villain gloated over his sinister plans, and the hero and heroine had a hard time of it for a long while, but in the end virtue triumphed and all was well. Negro songs, given by the boys and girls of the Vashon High School, St. Louis, under the direction of Mr. C. Spencer Tocus, helped to main- tain that picturesque period in American life when the showboats traveled up and down the Mississippi, bringing romance and color to the people in the river towns. The cast of characters for the program was as follows: SHOWBOAT PROGRAM—A Melodrama Place—On board the Nancy Lee Time—Late afternoon in the summer of 1880 CHARACTERS Ne oe iin As a rahe Xai we donne Oaks eeRe er sees ees ae Reee Mr. E. L. Gooch MRM ION 5.555: dab oe a0. 0d & v-ahind oe Heeheam a ewe oa, 4 anh 4 ae Sal Miss Lucile Williamson TSM RPE, 55a a1 a Sra 9. im cna dees gpa WECM RO v: W acgede wip elan Dace cae Mr. Thomas J. Rucker MMM MINNIE ois. o, k se aig si. gic aca Goa arcane Rie cane? i > as this now hou tate nen! adgt ible (RI Introduction of Guest Speaker James W. Crabtree, Secretary Emeritus, National Education Association It would please me to introduce any one of America’s out- standing women in literature and art, but in this case the pleasure is intensified because of a deep seated friendship which originated many years ago out on the Western plains of Nebraska. My mind naturally goes back to many incidents but I must mention one occasion in particular. Just 48 years ago next May, I had what I felt at the time to be the thrill of a life-time,—that of presenting for our High School Com- mencement Address, the most prominent leader in Education in Nebraska, and one of the great leaders in the Nation. No,—it was not Dorothy Canfield, for she was only a little tot at the time; it was in the family, however—her father, Dr. James H. Canfield, president of the State University. I think of that address this evening because it was a plea for an education and a square deal for every boy and girl in the State. It was an inspiration to old and young alike, wherever Dr. Canfield went over the State and over the Nation. I had just decided on teaching as my life work. The sacrifices he was making impressed me as they did all who met him. I am indebted to him more than he ever knew for the promotions and successes that have come to me since that time. I am one of hundreds who now realize their obligation to him and who pay tribute to his memory. Hundreds already feel that they owe a debt of gratitude to his daughter, Dorothy, for similar inspiration and help. Ask Nebraskans about her and they will tell you “she is a chip off of the old block” that she is her father over again. They are proud of her wonderful record. This is a case where the daughter inherited her father’s good graces; his strength of character and intellect, his love of youth and his leadership ability, and she is building well on that foundation. You know as well as I do of her achievements and of her marvelous success; you know of the children’s stories she has written and of what she has done for the Nursery School and for Parent education. Who in the Nation is better fitted by inheritance, experience and natural fitness for organizing and promoting this timely movement, The Children’s Crusade for Children. After hearing her I predict that every principal in this audience will gladly lend a hand and that they will see that the children and their parents have a chance to cooperate in the near future. Now ladies and gentlemen—lI take pleasure in presenting as our guest speaker, the leader of the Children’s Crusade for Children, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, who will now reveal what is on her heart. Mrs. Fisher. JAMES W. CRABTREE Be sure to be with us at Milwaukee, June 30-July 4, and Madison, Wisconsin, July 6-19. PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 157 - The Children’s Crusade for Children Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Author, Arlington, Vermont (Editor’s Note: The Children’s Crusade for Children, which js being actively led by Mrs. Fisher is a nation-wide, non-partisan, non-sectarian movement for securing help from American schoo} children for the children without a country throughout the world But more important, co-ordinately it will aim to inculcate a viyig consciousness in American children of the unrecognized blessings they enjoy in this land. It will thus be a continuing lesson jp living patriotism. The campaign will culminate in the week starting Monday. April 22, and will extend through Tuesday, April 30.) When a fortnight ago, I was laid low with bronchitis | and feared I might not be able to come to St. Louis. DOROTHY CANFIELD this dinner with you was the occasion I most ener. FISHER getically regretted. In fact, it was, I feel sure, my fixed determination not to miss seeing this group, which, doctor or no doctor, got me out of bed and into the westward-bound train. To tell you something about your President, Mr. Wilson, was the goal to which that train was taking me. But before you can understand why that seemed so important to me, I must explain something of what had gone on before I wrote to Mr. Wilson, about the Children’s Crusade. It may interest you, as a piece of Americana, for that is what the story is, evidence about what sort of a country ours is. Early in last October, an old friend of mine, the wife of Henry Canby, sat with me in the living-room of our small mountain home in Vermont. She was just back from Europe, where she had been trying to help the Quakers in their desperate effort to do something for refugee children. Her mind was full of the desolation of those helpless innocent victims. Her heart was aching in horrified sympathy for them, and in apprehension as to what would happen to the world if they were not rescued. And, because I had lived through the World War in France, and had struggled to help take care of the much smaller numbers o/ refugees of that period, I needed no description from her to know what she had seen. Our talk turned from them to our own American children and to quite another fear for them, well-cared for materially as the large majority of them are, but increasingly, by the machinization of our industrial society, shut of from real usefulness in their childhood and youth, and from the moral health which comes with useful activity. I have been a member of the Youth Commission for five years, following with close and anxious attention the many, many surveys and research studies made by the fine specialists they have employed. These surveys and resear¢ studies have brought to the Commission reports as to the attitudes, the ideas the emotional reaction of hundreds of thousands of American youth from the ages of fourteen to twenty-two or three. It has been very painful to me to find among all these hundreds of thousands not one who gave any sign of appreciating or even recognizing what his nation has done for him. That their huge continet! 158 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR! was hell pen was rem in ¢ fort are hav diffi “Tf sum C divi of ¢ day doir wha of t first me 1 of v the stan grov the T ican wha’ B pare mea: it qu of tk of of that help fair W the ¢ ized stim Fron for ( out 2 make PRI! h is san, hool orld, ivid ings n in day, | to ned rote e of atry was heir the fied orld r in s of had uite hem off alth ving dies arch the find ting nent {RY was at peace, from ocean to ocean, while the European continent was a veritable hell of hate and preparation for war, that they had been educated at the ex- pense of the state, that they were in safety in a nation which, from low to high, was filled with anxious good will towards them, that they literally did not once remember. Our economic difficulties, although no worse than, nor as bad as, those in other countries had blotted out from their minds, all our immense good fortune in being citizens of a great Federation which works, and in which we are all free to come and go over all of a vast continent at peace. They were having a hard time finding jobs (or the kind of jobs they wanted). For that difficulty they blamed their nation and especially the schools of their nation. “Tf the schools had done what they should by us, we’d have jobs’ —that about summed up their reaction to the institutions of their country. One’s first impulse is to blame them for this. But it is imbecile to blame in- dividual human beings for a phenomenon so widespread. The basis of their trouble, of course, is no fault of theirs. It is the basis of most of our troubles in these days, a too pervasive feeling that what you can’t get paid to do isn’t worth doing. This pitiful narrowing of the glorious diversity of human endeavor to what will bring in a profit, is, I suppose, left over from the frantic commercialism of the nineteenth-century first phase of industrial development, when in the first flush of business expansion, the touchstone was quite naively “Will it pay me to do it,” pay being defined as cash. Our painful struggling out of that standard of value as we grope toward a life in which doing rather than possessing will be the goal—of course our younger generation grope and fumble as we do, and stand, forlorn and idle, with thousands of interesting, delightful, adventurous, growth-possibilities all around them—which would pay them to do, in any but the cash sense, a thousand times over. That, I suppose we are all agreed, is the philosophic basis for much of Amer- ican youth’s discontent, concentration on what it has not, and failure to perceive what it has. To change that will take years of growth. But one immediate concrete factor is the fact that neither they nor their parents nor their teachers have had any standard of comparison with which to measure their situation in life. They knew only American life, and measured it quite naively by its divergence from their ideal—the natural human ideal— of their getting what they wanted, not by any comparison with the achievements of other governments. And because there is really honestly realistically so little that children can do for others, nowadays, they have far too few chances to help others, have far less than they need of the spiritual vitamin of taking their fair share of responsibility for the welfare of their fellows. We two American mothers of grown-up children felt as anxious, morally, over the children of our nation as, materially, over the panic-stricken, starved, brutal- ized refugee children of Europe. Our American children needed a spiritual stimulus. Those desperate exiled children needed food and clothing and care. From these two ideas sprang the spark of the idea of The Children’s Crusade for Children—the attempt to call the tragic plight of the exiled children with- out a country to the attention of our cherished American children, as a way to make them look with eves that see, at their own lot, and as an opportunity to do PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 159 what is so seldom within their reach, to give actual, real help to others in such need as no American child has ever dreamed of. Do you think I’ve taken a long time to tell you about the anxious thoughts of just two out of the millions of Americans—mothers, fathers, teachers, indus. trialists, lawyers, doctors, farmers, actors, mechanics and all the rest? The vital point of this tale is not what those two American womien were feeling up on a mountain-side in Vermont, but that the same thoughts and emotions were felt all over this enormous country—as has been proved by the magnificent response to the Children’s Crusade. Now that those hundreds of “yes, yes” letters from north, south, east and west are in, from newspaper men and school superin- tendents and union labor representatives and Catholic priests and manufacturers and teachers and authors and college presidents and clergymen and all the rest, it is, of course, a hundred times proved all over again that our country is not a sprawling collection of heterogeneous units with little in common, but a nation —a great unified nation, unified not only by the incomparably successful mecha- nism of our political organization, but by a common way of thought, common standards of what is decent conduct, common emotional reactions—the real cohesive power which holds a nation together. Looking back on it, it is easy to say of course, thus is America. But believe me, all that was by no means obvious at the beginning. A good many people who held themselves to be shrewd realistic observers of American life were sure of the contrary. Especially were these long- and hard-headed people sure that the American public-school system had long since, because of the huge bulk and weight of its numbers, because of the vast amount of administrative detail neces- sary to keep such an immense machine from falling to pieces, because of the politics inevitable in the running of such a—and so forth and so forth, you know the style used by wise cynics—well, because of all that, the American public school system had become the great American bureaucracy, set granite-hard in routine, swathed to immobility in red-tape, wholly out of touch with American life of its time—and so forth and so forth! You can imagine their line. Now I was born and brought up with an impassioned faith in our public schools, and I remember thinking with resentment of such smoothly sophisticated people “I’ll wager it is thirty years since you set foot in a public school!” But after all how could I know? How could anyone know? America seems too daunt- ingly big and diverse to know anything about! The only way to find out of course what America, in general what American public school people, would feel about an idealistic project like this, was to ask them. So those first scores of letters which were sent out were a sort of explora- tion of the American mind and spirit, especially that part of it occupied with running our public schools. Had the flood of materialism and routine really risen as high as the wiseacres thought? One of the first letters naturally was to the this-year’s President of the De- partment of Elementary School Principals of the National Education Associa- tion of the United States. You could hardly find a title more bristling with pro- fessional and technical implications, could you? I had not the slightest personal acquaintance with the man who had been elected to that office. Nor did [, (as 160 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY suf the pro wal far It i the reat unt: his get wou scho my poin wou. duct com resp Ame elt lot ion ha- 10n eal eve vho of the and "eS- the 10W blic 1 in can blic ited But unt- ican ora- with ‘isen cia- pro- onal (as {RY certainly any European in my place would have done) cautiously scout about first, to locate someone who among his circle of friends or professional colleagues could “bring pressure to bear on him” and then myself “bring pressure to bear” on this person to give me a letter of introduction to this perfect stranger so that he would know that I had “influence” back of me. I hadn’t any influence back of me! Just an idea about which I wanted to get his impression, a plan by which our school children might be given the opportunity of making a gesture worthy of the finest American tradition. I wrote as one American to another, to this educator, wholly unknown to me, who lived half across the continent from me, “What would you think of a plan to give our American school children the oppor- tunity to help—by penny contributions, within the limits of their power—the terrible suffering of the exiled children of the world? And does it seem to you, as it does to me, that to have the attention of our own children drawn to such suffering and the cause for it might naturally make them more appreciative than they are of the extraordinary success of our American political institutions which protect them from the pain and sorrow and despair of boys and girls across the water.” Thus one American to an unknown fellow-pilgrim on the American road, far away. I have not asked Mr. Wilson’s permission to read his answer here tonight. It is a historic document, an authentic piece of evidence of what America was in the winter of 1939 and 1940, and anyhow it’s been copied so many times, and read far and wide all over this country, it is no longer personal property of his. He did not, as our skeptical prophets of evil had foretold, cautiously wait until he heard what other people were going to say. He did not timorously consult his superiors in the hierarchy of school administration. He did not circuitously get permission from the politicians of his town and state. He did not write, as a European in his position would have written, even their first and best, “It would be out of the question to consider any plan so different from the usual school routine. Ignorant of the technique of school administration, as you are, my dear Madame, you cannot realize how—from a technical and professional point of view—wholly impossible to carry out your quite unprofessional idea would be, and permit me, also, to call to your attention that ideas for the con- duct of our schools can in the nature of things, be considered only when they come from within the professional ranks of those who have been trained for that responsibility.” No, this man from Illinois wrote back at once, as one free American to another,— “T find myself sharing with you a grave concern about the many prob- lems of education and human welfare involving childhood as resulting from the tragic situation in which so great a part of our world finds itself at this time. “Your plan to have a ‘Refugee Week’ established in our American public schools in April, at which time voluntary donations of money would be made by the pupils for the purpose of alleviating the suffering of refugee children the world over, seems to me to be an excellent one. Not only would PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940, 161 NSS this offer direct aid to oppressed childhood but it would serve, at the same time, as a splendid type of social training and development for the pupils in our schools who would be willing to direct their interest, enthusiasm and money into this channel of human childhood relief. “T thank you for giving me an opportunity of expressing my approval of such a project.” r Do you see, if he had been talking things over in the living-room of the little | Vermont house with those two unprofessional, nobody-in-particular American , mothers who had been anxiously taking thought about what would be best for . American children, he could not have more completely shared their concern, b their impulse. It was America’s. Mr. Wilson’s letter was one of the first proofs S of that, and—as you see,—dramatic as evidence in a matter far more vital to . our country than just this one emergency measure of the Children’s Crusade, A dramatic as proof—blessed proof—that America is still America, has a moral and emotional oneness as well as a political unity. - Since then, proof of that unity has grown and leafed out in vital profusion, = But when the story of the Children’s Crusade is set down (as it must be, some- C time, as part of the picture of American character), there will be—as for us y who read that letter—no moment more dramatic than the appearance of that “ first strong, bold, green shoot from the old American root. al to HOW AMERICAN EDUCATION WEEK WAS CELEBRATED | °) The pictures below show the signs which were put over the four doors of the Bush School building, Birmingham, Alabama, during American Education Week last fall. J. F. Vaughan, the principal, says: “This was our device for bringing to the attention of teachers, pupils, and parents, the four vantage points from which the process of American Education is viewed by the Educational Policies Com- C mission. We know that these things should be written on the hearts , of the parties concerned, but we took advantage of our four entrances eas to write them on our school building, attempting to show that Bush the School offers opportunities in these four fields. A folder was sent to tert the homes explaining the idea in further detail.” me; real . Beep " grol on to | oy st ote to A 0 _ {al AL IZATION N RELATIONSHIP NOMIC E = that ee — ’ pon be | supt _ drer und forn by ¢ PRI tle for m ofs de ral on. ne- us hat ED the eek GENERAL SESSION, FEBRUARY 27, 1940 Theme—The Role of the Elementary School Principal as Director of a Workshop for Citizenship HE SECOND GENERAL SESSION of the Department of Elementary School Principals was held in the Bishop Tuttle Memorial Hall, St. Louis, Missouri, Tuesday, February 27, at 2:00 p.m. After fifteen minutes of com- munity singing, led by Mr. Robert H. Edgar, principal, Bedford School, Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania, accompanied by Mr. Charles B. Pierce, principal, Moore School, Brentwood, Pennsylvania, President Wilson turned the meeting over to Dr. Frank H. Gorman, president of the Missouri Elementary Principals’ Association, who presided. Everyone present enjoyed to the fullest extent this program, which had been arranged by the Missouri Elementary Principals’ Association. Following a most interesting address by Miss Ola Wickham, principal, Manchester School, Kansas City, Missouri, a most inspiring dramatic review of the play, “The American Way,” by Moss Hart and George Kauffman, was given by Mrs. John F. Lilly of Clayton, Missouri. This drama review held everyone spellbound as it taught all an excellent lesson in citizenship. From the moment Mrs. Lilly concluded, the group from all sides of the audi- torium surged forward to express their appreciation, and it was the consensus of opinion that it is a pity everyone in the United States could not have had the privilege of hearing Mrs. Lilly give this very fine rendition. The Modern Elementary School As a bcc for Citizenship Ola Wickham, Principal, Manchester School, Kansas City, Missouri There are many aspects of citizenship, the discussion of any one of which could easily occupy the entire time allotted to me. But due to time limitations, only the habits, attitudes, and appreciations will be discussed. Some years ago the term “citizenship”? was almost synonymous with voter. Training in citizenship meant preparing youth to become adult voters. In more recent years, we have realized that elementary school pupils are citizens of their school and community groups. We have become aware that the school must assume more and more training for citizenship since less of this is being done in the hon 2. We recognize that there are certain habits, attitudes, and appreciations that « in not be post- poned until adulthood, “as the twig is bent, so the tree will grow” could never be more aptly applied than in citizenship training. For that reason, it is of ‘supreme importance that those of us who are engaged in the education of chil- dren should have a deep and abiding faith in childhood, an appreciation and understanding of children’s problems, and foresight enough to assist them in ‘forming the habits and attitudes necessary for happy and profitable living day by day in a democratic society. PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 163 It is a foregone conclusion that vicarious experiences will not produce dynamic citizens. It does not necessarily follow that the pupil who reads the most biographies will be the class president. Pupils have to be trained in those habits and given an opportunity to develop those attitudes and appreciations that produce good citizens the same as an expert swimmer has to practice those strokes that make him a champion. Training, to be most effective, presupposes knowledge. Children must know what is expected of them and, in turn, what they have a right to expect of each other. This information is acquired through class and group discussions, dramatizations, pantomimes, talks by teachers and other leaders who come in contact with the pupils, reading, pictures, and other usual channels through which information is obtained at various age levels. May I add that information is also acquired through example. Teachers and others who work with children will do well to remember this. Every hour—yes, every minute—the child is in school something is happen- ing to him that makes him a good, bad or indifferent citizen. He is either forming desirable habits or he is forming undesirable ones. He must react in some way to every situation. For that reason, it is important that the school be so organ- ized and the work so planned that reactions that produce good citizens, are easier, more pleasant, more satisfying and more profitable than reactions that produce poor citizens. For example, if the class is organized so that pupils are allowed freedom in moving about the room to get necessary books, maps and other equip- ment, and to talk with the group in which they are working, they will soon assume a businesslike attitude. Talking will become a matter of business, not something to be done behind the teacher’s back for sport. Moving about will be a matter of routine to accomplish a piece of work, and not an opportunity to get out of the seats and waste time. Pupils become aware of the value of time more readily if they participate in planning the work for the day or week. Some teachers find it worthwhile to take their class into their confidence each planning period and discuss with them what must be done, what they would like to do, and what they actually can do. The teacher has to be aware of the individual differences in the class and of the possibilities of the plans being accomplished. Plans which are not accom- plished form the wrong type of work habits. Furthermore, the teacher must be informed, full of inspiration, enthusiastic, willing to listen to pupils’ ideas, and be able to guide and direct without discouraging pupils who have not yet devel- oped judgment. And there you have another reason for bringing pupils into the planning period. Not only will they learn to appreciate the value of time but they develop judgment. They learn to evaluate and to be discriminating in their thinking. This is invaluable since these children must learn to discriminate. They are besieged on every side with propaganda, commercial advertising and “isms” of every sort. They are living in a Democracy where freedom of speech makes it necessary for each individual to think through his own problems and not be too easily swayed. As pupils participate in the planning period, the wise and skillful teacher will put on them the responsibility for carrying out their plans. This is very important. It is the key to good citizenship. Freedom without responsibility soon runs to license. Whatever work the children plan should be completed by them 164 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY — ind vel- nto ime + in ate. and ech and her ery oon em RY in the time limits set. The work should be done as well as they are capable of doing it. Each pupil should be made to feel personally responsible for his own part and the successful completion by the group. A recognition and accept- ance of the fact that every act of freedom must be accompanied by an added responsibility must become a part of every citizen’s philosophy if democracy is to endure. We have been too willing to enjoy freedom without assuming any responsibilities. Aside from the daily planning period and the regular classroom procedures there are many activities (referred to by some people as extracurricular activi- ties) in which the pupils get much training in citizenship. In my own school, we have three organizations which provide such activities. The one to which the kindergarten and primary grades belong we call The Good Neighbors’ Club. According to their own constitution, the object of their club is to: Learn to conduct meetings; Be good citizens; Have a good Manchester spirit; Be a polite audience; and Be more courteous. Membership in this club is composed of pupils chosen by their classmates. They must meet the standards of good citizen- ship set up by the club. The standards are (again quoting from the club consti- tution): Try to help others; Do our own thinking; Get to school at the proper time; Keep hands to ourself; Remember the safety rules seven days of the week; and Obey all the rules of the school. When a pupil is admitted to the club he takes this pledge: “T pledge to be a good neighbor, be friendly, be careful, keep healthy, and do my best at all times.” This club meets every two weeks with a president and secretary presiding. Reports are given of any outstanding acts of courtesy or honesty observed since the last meeting. Good class work is exhibited. Excellent readers bring stories or poems that illustrate points of good citizenship and read their selections to the club. Posters and pictures made by club members are displayed at the meetings. During the recent cold weather several clever pictures were drawn and displayed showing how to feed and care for the birds. The value of this club does not come from the well-oiled machinery through which it runs, but because it is a means to keep actively and constructively before the small children those habits, attitudes, and appreciations which are the foundation of good citizenship. It binds the pupils and teachers together in a common purpose. When pupils pass into the intermediate and upper grades, they are eligible to belong to the Manchester Good Citizens’ League. The object of this club is the same as the Good Neighbors’ Club but it is stated in more grown-up language in the constitution. The membership is also acquired from the good citizens of the school by election. The pledge as worked out by the League is: “We, the boys and girls of the Manchester Good Citizens’ League, agree at all times and to the best of our ability to conform to the rules and regulations governing our school. We will try to get others to do likewise, but will not use force in so doing. We will do our part to maintain a desirable Manchester spirit.” The work of the League is more extensive than that of the Good Neighbors’ Club. Members of the League are organized into committees whose business PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 165 it is to supervise games in the gymnasiums and on the playgrounds, repair balls, assist the nurse, act as host or hostess in the childrens’ lunch room at noon, and perform similar duties. This League meets every two weeks to discuss policies and plans for the school, to hear reports from various committees that serve about the building and grounds, and to receive suggestions from Good Neighbors, Junior Safety Council, and from any class or teacher. When the members return to their class rooms, they carry reports of the meeting, especially any change of rules or constructive suggestions. Another organization which promotes good citizenship among the pupils is the Junior Safety Council. The Council has several committees similar to those of the League but whose duties are limited to activities related to safety, such as supervising playground apparatus, guarding stairways, and assisting the traffic officer in directing the children across the dangerous street corner. In addition to requiring all safety committees to know the safety pledge, which is prepared by the National Safety Council, the safety committees have to meet the follow- ing standards set up by the local school council: Be an associate member of the Manchester Safety Council; Be a good citizen when not on duty; Be de- pendable; Be fair in dealing with other people; Be able to initiate ideas; Be neat and clean; Be regular in attendance; Be able to think for yourself; Be at the right place at the right time; Be especially interested in safety; and Be willing to do what you should do and not what you want to do. The Council meets every two weeks and considers all matters pertaining to the safety of the pupils. One meeting is a business meeting when reports are made by various committees. The other meeting is devoted to a safety play, a talk by the traffic officer, a film portraying safety, or some form of entertain- ment. The associate members of the Junior Safety Council meet with the active members when there is a program or an election of officers. When members return to their rooms, a report is given for the benefit of the pupils who are not members. In this way, safety is brought to the attention of the pupils often and in a variety of ways. A conscious effort is made to have variety and to keep the reports on a high plane. Criticism must be constructive. Each organization that I have described is sponsored by a teacher who has shown particular interest in this type of work. We have been most fortunate in having teachers who are well prepared and who believe in the value of pupil participation in such activities. However, they have been ably supported by all of the other teachers. The most valuable contributions the principal can make are to encourage both pupils and teachers in their good work, inspire them by showing appreciation, be generous with compliments when they are deserved, take time to attend the meetings, show a sincere interest in the work, provide a comfortable meeting place, and make provision in the time schedule for the meetings. The principal will find it pays big dividends to circulate about the building and grounds when the committees are on duty, to stop and talk with them about their particular assignments, and to make them feel that the job they are doing is of supreme importance to the school. You have already surmised that the type of activities which I have just described takes an immense amount of time, effort, planning, skill and knowl- edge on the part of teachers who are already busy beyond measure. What then 166 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY chil grat Maj tow! sma The of ti ning Wrig celel out 1 factc citize daug soldi to 1¢ camp PRI} lly Se js to be gained to compensate for the expenditure of all this valuable time and effort? My answer is the perceptible development of such desirable habits and attitudes of good citizenship as cooperation among the pupils, which calls for tolerance, diplomacy, a sympathetic understanding, fairness, and a willingness to compromise; evidence of being loyal to a pledge and to a cause; proof that pupils are growing in ability to think for themselves and in ability to carry a project to a successful end. When these attributes of good citizenship are in evidence, even 90% of the time, teachers feel themselves compensated and lose themselves in the satisfaction of work well done and in the pride of their accom- plishment. There is ample evidence that the modern elementary school can be a workshop for training in citizenship. “The American Way” Mrs. John F. Lilly, Clayton, Missouri The play, “The American Way” by Moss Hart and George Kauffman, was received most enthusiastically in New York when the Frederick Marches starred in it on Broadway during the past season. It is a timely piece of literature and one to give inspiration to all of us who believe that American democracy should be preserved as it was conceived by our forefathers. The drama is a series of episodes in American life from 1896 to 1939. As central figures in picture we see the German- MRS. JOHN F. American couple, Martin and Irma Gunther, their children, LILLY Lisa and Karl, and their friends and acquaintances. When the play opens, Martin Gunther is at Ellis Island meeting his wife and children, who have come to join him in America. He had come over as an immi- grant the year before and established a home for them in the small town of Mapleton, Ohio. All the succeeding scenes of the play take place in this litile town, which, the dramatists tell us, is typical of a thousand other American small towns. The play is divided into two acts, each act consisting of a succession of scenes. The lights are dimmed and brightened between the scenes to denote a passage of time and a change of location in the town. During the first act we see a bit of the Bryan-McKinley campaign, the begin- ning of the motion pictures, the excitement of the first successful flight of the Wright brothers, the upheaval caused by our entrance into the World War, the celebration of the Armistice, and the return of the boys from France. Through- out these years Martin Gunther starts as a cabinet maker; soon starts a small factory; then becomes a successful business man and one of the town’s foremost citizens. His children grow up into typical Americans. Lisa marries, has a daughter, and her husband goes off to war as a captain. Karl also enlists as a soldier and is killed overseas, leaving a widow and son. The second act covers the time from 1927 and the Lindbergh flight to Paris to 1939. These are the years of the financial boom, the Hoover-for-President campaign, the years of deflation with their accompanying bank failures, panic, PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 167 and struggle for life and opportunity. We see the insidious Nazi propaganda campaign gripping the young men of Mapleton and Karl’s son becomes involved. Through these years Martin Gunther loses all his wealth, but keeps his firm faith in the American way of life and his confidence that the country will regain its equilibrium. The climax comes when, just after the celebration of the Gun- ther’s golden wedding, Martin tries single-handed to combat the frenzy of a totalitarian mob composed of the boys he has known since their childhood. His appeal for Americanism as it has always been is inspirational to say the least. The mob frenzy results in his death, but restores sane vision to the boys. The play has been called “a first primer in Americanism.” It is propaganda of the kind we welcome in America and we feel that it stirs us anew to an active struggle to maintain our American standards and American ideals of freedom and equality, no matter what sacrifice is entailed. As Walter Winchell said, “ ‘The American Way’ is as exciting and beautiful as the American flag. Long may it run!” Two New Yearbooks! SAFETY EDUCATION The protection of health of children while in the school has long been a con- cern of educators. For more than a half century state institutions and national conferences have included discussions of safety in the school house construc- tion, heating, lighting, and equipment. In April, 1937 the Executive Com- mittee of the American Association of School Administrators selected safety education as the topic for the 1940 yearbook. Manuscripts for chapters were prepared, reviewed, and revised again and again. Every member of the committee contributed freely of his ability and the final report, in the form of the 18th Yearbook of that associa- tion, has been published and sent to members. This book “Safety Education” places its emphasis upon procedures and ac- tivities carried out in the school or under the immediate direction of edu- cators. - NEWER INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES OF PROMISE This Twelfth Yearbook of the De- partment of Supervisors and Directors of Instruction gives allegiance to the idea that the most important task of the school is guidance of youth in the demo- cratic way of life. New practices which are likely to lead to the realization of educational purposes have been care- fully treated. Each chapter in the Yearbook was presented to a jury of critics for sug- gestion and evaluation. Therefore, each chapter represents the thinking of a number of qualified persons in the par- ticular field. In general the Yearbook gives testi- mony to the reality and vitality of an educational program designed to help youth acquire their social heritage through a process of interaction with a stimulating environment. 168 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY Lest We Forget * Aaron Kline, Principal, Pullman School, Chicago, Illinois 4. The Teacher We hear much these days about child centered schools, progressive schools, core-centered curricula, etc., etc. Some of us have had the good fortune to live through many years of educational changes. One thing that these years of experi- ence has taught is that all schools are teacher centered. This is a fact in spite of table pounding and blood-vessel bursting by college professors from schools of education. Principals and supervisors who learn from experience as well as from books, know that the only curriculum that ever AARON KLINE functions in a school is the curriculum that is in the mind of the teacher. We have spent too much time putting courses of study on paper and too little time in getting the educational philosophy underlying the course of study into the minds of the teachers. If the school is child centered, it is because the teacher makes it so. If the organization of the room and procedure in the class is democratic, it is because the teacher makes it so and not because of the nationality, age or social back- ground of the children. In a democracy each child must have competent guidance if his individual talents are to be properly ‘developed, and he must be wisely guided in his interpretation of his environment, if he is to gain a complete under- standing of those places and things which are not included in his surroundings. The teacher who does what the principal or supervisor suggests exactly as it is suggested, is invariably a poor teacher. The teacher who hesitates and questions, who reads and visits and tries a little at a time is the superior teacher in the process of adjusting the curriculum in her mind. When she arrives the curriculum is hers. It has been thought out in terms of her particular class situation. Then and then only will it function. How often have we been delightfully surprised to find a suggestion weeks later revised, adjusted and developed into possibilities of which we never dreamed. The school is progressive, child centered, or traditional, only because the teacher makes it so. It will change and progress only as the teacher is stimulated and helped to change her point of view. It will drift along, if the teacher chooses the path of least resistance. Good teachers and good schools go together. A good teacher is not a conformer but rather an open minded person who holds fast to the good she has until convinced there is a better. Inservice training is essential in changing a school curriculum. Much of this inservice training should take place in the school. The principal with the help of the supervisors should be able to provide most of this inservice training. . "In each issue of The National Elementary Principal this year, Mr. Kline will discuss a pertinent educa- tional problem. PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 169 The skyline of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ou te Milwaukee! June 30-July 4, 1940 President Irvin A. Wilson is fast completing his program for the Monday afternoon meeting July 1. He promises that we shall have two outstanding edu- cators to bring addresses, after which those present will have an opportunity for a discussion from the floor. “Plans and preparations are already in the making,” say President Laura E. Kellar of the Wisconsin Elementary Principals’ Association, and President William F. Buboltz of the Milwaukee Elementary Principals’ Association, for the Monday morning Acquaintance Breakfast, Tuesday afternoon Professional meet- ing and Tuesday evening Banquet for those attending the N.E.A. convention in Milwaukee from June 30 to July 4, inclusive. Both presidents attended the Acquaintance Breakfast for elementary princi- pals in St. Louis on February 26th and extended a most cordial invitation to all elementary principals in the nation to join the great throng of educators assemb- ling in Milwaukee this summer. They assure us that the organizations which they represent are planning to make the Milwaukee Convention the greatest gathering of elementary principals ever assembled in any city. The principals of Milwaukee and Wisconsin are most enthusiastic about the convention coming to their city and state. Wide interest has been aroused through the publication of the Wisconsin Elementary Principals’ Bulletin of which Lucile Clock of Madison is editor, and Fred S. Schnell of Sheboygan is managing editor. A complete program will appear in the June issue of The National Elementary Principal. b] —_—<————— 170 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY FO T ing pres and ing tain’ prob culti cred A the ( 10:0 the I the g Giver John Robe Fo prese 3:00 he wi confe; _ , The Pring ipa _— PRIN day edu- nity a E. dent the ieet- ‘tion inci- all mb- they ring the yugh ucile itor. tary —_ {RY ws Red aoe, adage a oo. = &- aan | aan A rr, CL BIE Bette - An outing group assembles at the Union, University of Wisconsin, to meet the tour leaders. Tuo Weeks ai Madison, Wisconsin FOURTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION July 6-19, 1940 The Fourth Annual Conference on Elementary Education will soon be meet- ing at Madison, Wisconsin. Will you be among the large group who will be present at the University of Wisconsin for two weeks of professional meetings and social get-togethers? The conference will be from July 6 to 19. At this meet- ing those persons interested in elementary education will discuss problems per- taining to the elementary school. Contacts with other people having the same problems which you encounter will help you in solving many of your own diffi- culties. Come and give others the benefit of your experiences, earn two college credits, and enjoy the good times which have been planned. A Day at the Conference*—After a dip in the lake (if desired) , members of the Conference will eat breakfast together in a large dining room. From 9:00 to 10:00 they will attend a large group demonstration or small demonstrations in the Elementary Laboratory School, and from 10:15 to 11:45 they will listen in the general assembly to such speakers as Dr. W. H. Kilpatrick, Dr. Willard E. Givens, President, C. A. Dykstra, Dr. Kate Wofford, Dr. Howard Dawson, Dr. John Kolb, Dr. J. W. Wrightstone, Dr. William S. Gray, Dr. Bernice Leary, Dr. Robert West, Dr. Jessie La Salle, Dr. Joseph Pessin, Dr. John Guy Fowlkes. Following the general assembly, at which there will be discussions of the presentations all will have lunch in the conference dining hall. From 1:30 to 3:00 seminars will be held and each person will select the seminar with which he will want to stay for the two weeks. From 3:00 to 6:15 the members of the conference will be free to do as they please. ane detailed program of the conference was published in the February issue of The National Elementary Principal, cece PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 171 The eight ‘seminar meetings planned to date, together with their respective | leaders are as follows: 1. How CAN CITIZENSHIP BE BUILT THROUGH THE SOCIAL STUDIES? Leader: Dr. Neal Billings, Milwaukee State Teachers College 2. THE UsE oF VisuAL Arps AND RapIo To ENRICH THE CURRICULUM Leaders: Visual Aids: Dr. John Hansen, Chief, Bureau of Instruction, Uni- versity of Wisconsin, and President of the N.E.A. Visual Aids Division Radio: Mr. H. B. McCarty, Director of WHA and formerly President, National Association of Educational Broadcasters, 3. UttLizinc NEw TECHNIQUES IN SUPERVISION FOR CURRICULUM ENRICHMENT W Leader: Mrs. Ethel Falk, Director, Workshop in Elementary Education, University of Wisconsin d al 4. ENRICHING THE CURRICULUM THROUGH LANGUAGE ARTS st Leader: Dr. Bernice Leary, Visiting Instructor, University of Wisconsin T 5. ENRICHING THE CURRICULUM THROUGH SCIENCE AND HEALTH sh Leaders: Health—Dr. Robert Francis, University of Wisconsin he Science—Mr. Ira C. Davis, University of Wisconsin ra bl. 6. How CAN THE CURRICULUM FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN BE ENRICHED? M Leader: Dr. J. Kenneth Little, University of Wisconsin ex ' th 7. How CAN THE CURRICULUM FOR RURAL SCHOOLS BE ENRICHED? i Leader: Miss Lois Nemec, State Elementary Supervisor of Wisconsin Di W 8. PROGRAM OF EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETATION FOR THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL a Leader: Dr. John Guy Fowlkes, University of Wisconsin. ote In the evening after dinner the group will gather in a large lounge and discuss i a : : ; ' n problems of the elementary school principalship. This very informal meeting will be under the direction of Irvin A. Wilson, president, National Department of Elementary School Principals. Here everyone will have an opportunity to exchange ideas and find out what is happening in other schools throughout the United States. Social Activities—There will be unusual opportunities for recreation in and near the campus. Swimming, tennis courts, golf courses, horseback riding, horse shoe pitching, boating and fishing will be available. One of the unique features” of the conference will be the opportunity to visit many places of interest in and near the University. There will be: tours through the city and the campus, visits to the Forest Products Laboratory, which has an international reputation, opportunity to see a cheese factory in operation, and special trips to visit the Wisconsin Dells, where the Wisconsin River, stopped in its normal course through the Devil’s Lake gap by the glacier, has carved deep gorges of grotesque forma ——— 172 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY ‘tive Uni- Aids lerly ters, [ENT tion, ‘D? ‘HOOL iSCUSS eeting tment ity to ut the n and horse atures: tions for a distance of ten miles. Motor launches will carry visitors on a fifteen mile cruise up the river, making shore landings at Stand Rock, Witches Gulch, and Cold Water Canyon. In the evening a two hour ceremonial is presented at Stand Rock by native Wisconsin Indians, adding still another unique opportunity to join study with recreation. In addition, trips will be made to Taliesin, the world-famous home and archi- tectural laboratory of Frank Lloyd Wright, and there will be a tour to the replica of a tiny Norwegian village which has been built in one of the nearby valleys, and which give participants an opportunity to see architecture and furnishings of the Scandinavian homes that sent to Wisconsin many of its pioneer settlers. Social activities include a reception the opening night, which will be held in the new Memorial Theatre; and a theatre party for all of the members who wish to attend one night during the two weeks. Credit—The course carries an upper division number, thus permitting upper division students or graduate students to register for credit. For those electing to audit the course, the fee is the same. In every case notification will be sent to superintendents indicating that the participant was registered for the course. This will enable everyone to receive what local credit is due. Reservations—To secure accommodations in the dormitory, reservation should be made early. There are no single rooms available; therefore, it will be helpful, if you will indicate the person with whom you wish to room. The housing rate, including room and meals for the two weeks, will be $25.00. The application blank accompanied by a deposit of $5.00 should be mailed to Miss Pinkston before May 25. The check should be made out to the University of Wisconsin. It is expected that the dormitories will fill early, for reservations are coming in fast; therefore, you should send in your reservation as soon as possible. If accommo- dations are desired in a place other than the dormitories, please write directly to Dr. J. Murray Lee, School of Education, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, stating your desires. If families are coming with children and desire accommodations in the dormitories, please write to Dr. Lee for rates for children, stating the number in the family and the ages. Tuition—The registration fee of $16.00 includes regular registration in the University, the report of the proceedings of the conference, use of the student recreation building, and services of the student infirmary in case of illness. River Gap at the Wisconsin Dells Materials Needed—Samples of programs of educational interpretatigy which various elementary schools or systems have carried out are needed {i the Fourth Annual Conference on Elementary Education. These would includ: types of material sent to parents, radio programs, or any other publicity material which has been effective. Outstanding courses of study in social studies language arts, science, health, and courses especially adapted for use in rural schools and courses for exceptional children are also needed. Will you please send to J. Murray Lee, School of Education, University of Wisconsin, Madisop, Wisconsin, any illustrative material which you have in these fields which you feel would be a help to the people attending the conference? Plans for the conference have been made possible through the cooperation oj the School of Education of the University of Wisconsin, under the direction of Dean C. J. Anderson, and the Wisconsin Elementary Principals’ Association under the direction of Miss Laura Kellar, President. The university committee for the conference consists of: Gordon N. Mac. kenzie, Associate Professor of Education; Paul Sheats, Assistant Professor of Education; J. Murray Lee, Assistant Professor of Education. The department committee for the conference consists of: Maude A. Rhodes, 185 Westminster Dr., N. E., Atlanta, Georgia, Chairman; Irvin A. Wilson, prin- cipal, Delano School, Chicago, Illinois; Fred S. Schnell, 2722 Highland Terrace, Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Additional application blanks may be secured from headquarters, 1201 16th Street, Northwest, Washington, D. C. (Tear here and mail) APPLICATION BLANK Fourth Annual Conference on Elementary Education Department of Elementary School Principals July 6-19, 1940 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 a reservation in the dormitory for me. Name Address Position * The check should be made out to the University of Wisconsin. Mail application and check to Mis Pinkston. 174 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR! aly the giv hel ati me nu she sec in 1 inf PR ‘tation ad for nclude Dlicity udies, rural please dison, h you ion of ion of iation Mac- sor of nodes, prin- Trace, 16th to Miss 'ARY Ks . by the way! ! Eva G. Pinkston We hope you are enjoying your membership in the Department of Elementary School Principals as much as we are enjoying the privilege of serving you. We have tried to make the publications and services worthwhile. Our principal aim is to help make easier your job of helping the elementary school child. Services of the Department—It would take a very large book to explain in detail the many personal services which are being rendered daily to our members. Always remember, it is the policy of your Department to do everything possible to assist you. One of the newest services to our members, is a complimentary copy of the 96 page monograph on Visual Education, which will be sent to all 1939-40 members within the next few days. This fine bulletin is a report of the Department’s Visual Education Committee which consists of Harry H. Haw, principal, Alexander Hamilton School, San Diego, California, chairman; Eugene Herrington, 1301 Forest, Denver, Colorado; Fred W. Orth, 2031 Arlington Avenue, Los Angeles, California; and Ruth Litvermon, Meadowbrook School, Norfolk, Virginia. Within the near future, we hope to place in your hands a report of two other committees of the Department, namely, the Radio Committee of which Jane Monahan, principal, School No. 92, New York, New York, is chairman, and the Committee on Safety of which Mrs. Edith B. Joynes, prin- cipal, Robert Gatewood School, Norfolk, Virginia, is chairman. This Department consists of a group of people, like yourself, who have banded themselves together in the interest of elementary education. We hope you will always recommend friends, who are professionally minded, for membership in your group—an increased number of members give greater strength and add to the exchequer so that we can do a better job. The increased number of members gives this additional revenue through which the number of requests for personal help may be answered more fully. Accomplishments of Our Representatives—Through the splendid cooper- ation of our members and representatives we now have 6004 (March, 20) members. It is our hope that we may reach a ten percent increase over our number of last year, (6104) before the books are finally closed. To do this we shall need the help of every member. The states which have already reached and surpassed their quotas set by the executive committee are: Arizona, District of Columbia, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Alaska. Cities and districts which have reached 100% in membership since the Decem- ber issue of The National Elementary Principal are: Itt1Nots: Maywood; PENNSYLVANIA: Tyrone District; and Texas: Gatesville, Georgetown, Hearne, and Marlin. Principals’ Club—lIf your club or association has recently elected new offi- cers, will you kindly forward the names and addresses of the president and secretary, so that we may include your organization in the directory of clubs in the back of the Nineteenth Yearbook of this Department? We shall need this information immediately. PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 175 Indoctrinating for Democracy John S. Benben, Superintendent, Midlothian Public Schools, Midlothian, Illinois Present-day conditions and unrest have awakened many to critically analyze our nation’s progress not so much from an economic viewpoint but particularly from a social viey. point. The trying years of the depression developed in ys a social and economic farsightedness and furnished the impetus necessary to initiate governmental interest in socia| security, housing, farming and recreation. Newspaper depic. tions of Naziism, Fascism, Communism, New Dealism, etc are serving as excellent contrasts which are awakening a interest in our government and its progress during the past 163 years. All in all, at no time during our history, excepting war periods has so much interest been displayed in the activities of the nation as today. In educational conferences and circles we have been hearing for sometime such phrases as: “Democratization of School Administration,” “Teach for Demoe. racy,” “Social Studies and Democracy,” etc. Newspapers, magazines and books have been emphasizing the evils of Naziism, Fascism, Communism and Ney Dealism, indicating that the nation is in a condition susceptible to anti-demo. cratic teachings. Our history of the past century and a half is one of unprece- dented progress in the advancement of industry, trade, science, medicine, ete. as such but comparatively very little in the betterment of man as an individual or collectively. Teachers are beginning to realize the extensive importance of their work from a social viewpoint. They finally are learning that teaching is not merely a matter of imparting knowledge and the development of skills but that it is rather a job of developing the pupil for purposeful living. It is their job to ascertain the child’s interests, and, having discovered these, they must with sympathy and understanding, bring out and develop these interests. But like most humans many people in the teaching profession have not given enough thought to this purpose (which sounds so simple), and acting upon impulse have chosen the first possible solution that occurred to them—namely, indoctrinating. The teaching profession has always taught by indoctrinating and its employment by many teachers to counter the “ism” evils of the day is easily understood. At first thought this method appears sound and promises to be effective in a very short time. Granting that indoctrinating has its evils and shortcomings it would seem that its application as a method to teach ‘‘equality, “freedom of speech,” and “for the general welfare of the people” would be justified in that it would tend to develop an antidote that would counteract itself. But this is an admission of its weakness. Indoctrination itself implies the absence of intelligence. It implies the us of force and confesses that to be successful it must have inequality. It woull retain its hold only as long as intelligent thinking remained dormant. Indo JOHN S. BENBEN 176 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR\ tri de’ tra ant pos ger exp em cou lac] inte Sec nes: trer the that hun brot as a ful . a de W bers of tl Dep. Ham com! Virg artic avail a lar searc this It bers _ sity ( All p soon, 1A, PRI) ian, Nany from view- in us | the social lepic- i, ete, 1g an > past »pting ation » such emoc- books New demo- prece: 2, etc. vidual work nerely t it is job to t with . given upon amely, ng and - easily to be Is and ality,’ uld be nteract he use would Indoc- TAR! trination would leave the administration to experts and a consequent possible development of an autocracy or aristocracy. Who would say when the adminis- tration should cease to give the treatment a chance to begin developing an antidote against itself? And what if the experts administer too much? Is it not possible that the subsequent effect would be a complete submersion of intelli- gent planning and building for human betterment, the very thing it would be expected to resurrect? Indoctrinating for democracy would not build a democracy but rather an empty, frictionless, hard-shelled structure with which and around which nothing could be built. It would be a structure entirely devoid of beauty, completely lacking the power to command admiration or encourage a desire to create, plan intelligently, or construct. Nationally, the acceptance of Federal and State relief, the W.P.A., Social Security, and Old Age Pension, are indications of a trend toward a social aware- ness of fellowmen. Here is education’s golden opportunity. It must recognize the trend and initiate plans to nurture this developing social awareness and accept the challenge that Sociology flung at it in 1915 and prove itself the wizard that will “turn thorny, unproductive, selfish shirking, exploiting, cross-grained human natures into co-operators, good citizens and members of a great human brotherhood.” * Here is education’s opportunity to prove itself necessary, not as an institution to impart skills and knowledges but as a force to teach purpose- ful living and to develop feelings, sentiments and ideals that are important in a democratic state. ANOTHER SERVICE TO MEMBERS!! Within the next two weeks, headquarters will send complimentary to all mem- bers of the Department of Elementary School Principals for 1939-40 a copy of the ninety-six page monograph on visual education, which is a report of the Department’s Visual Education Committee of which Harry H. Haw, principal, Hamilton School, San Diego, California is chairman. The other members of the committee are: Eugene Herrington, Denver, Colorado; Ruth Livermon, Norfolk, Virginia; and Fred Orth, Los Angeles, California. This monograph, which is an additional service to D.E.S.P. members, contains articles pertaining to the use of visual aids in the elementary school, a list of available films and the companies from which these films may be obtained, and a large bibliography. This splendid piece of work is the result of extensive re- search work by the committee and is different from any other publication on this subject. It was the plan of the officers of the Department to have this report to mem- bers long before this, but the publishing of it was delayed because of the neces- sity of obtaining permission from publishers to quote from various publications. All permissions have been granted and the monograph will be sent to members soon, 1A. J. Todd, ‘“‘Theories of Social Progress.’’ PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 177 - Report of 1940 Editorial Committee Cecelia Galvin, School No. 3, Indianapolis, Indiana, Chairman " The Editorial Committee of this Department endeavors to prepare a book as an aid in the solution of problems that seem to be of major importance at the time the committee convenes. A discussion by a group of principals from various sections of our country on how we could more adequately provide educational opportunities for all the children in our public schools was the challenge which prompted this com- mittee to start an investigation which resulted in the ma- terials which the 1940 Yearbook will offer you. As early as the publication of the Twenty-Fourth Year- CECELIA GALVIN book of the National Society for the Study of Education, questions asking how the problem of individual differences could best be me in the classroom were discussed in conferences. This book did stimulate superin. tendents and principals to make demands in their budgets for materials and personnel that would promote a more intensive study of the needs of children, and more effective methods of meeting the problem presented by individual dif- ferences. Social and economic changes affecting our school population since that time have intensified the need for more study. Within the last ten years, professional and non-professional books have called attention to emotional factors which cause children to be different. The Children’ Charter placed emphasis upon the right of every child to an understanding and guarding of his personality, to an education which through discovery and devel. opment of his individual abilities would prepare him for life, and for the diagnosis and treatment of children with mental and physical handicaps. The 1936 Year. book of our Department which was widely read by members of our own pro- fession as well as others, was rich in its suggestions for a study and treatment of maladjusted children. The 1938 book on Newer Practices in Reading in th Elementary School contained helps for a better understanding of causes of reat: ing difficulties, and of administrative plans to help in the solution of these prob lems. The 1939 Yearbook, Enriching the Curriculum for the Elementary Schoo Child contains articles which show an attempt through enrichment of the curricu- lum to give each child an opportunity to participate in the day’s program. Ai the present time the Educational Policies Commission is asking this question administrators, “What are you doing in your school to make children appreciatt the privileges, and accept the responsibilities of our American Democracy’ That question can only be answered satisfactorily when every school system his made provision for the maximum development of each school child regardless mental, physical, or social handicaps in an environment which is conducive | the building up of attitudes, habits, and skills which are desirable in a democrat) When we meet the specific needs of every elementary school child we at helping him in the American way. The 1940 Yearbook of the Department 0 Elementary School Principals has for its title, Meeting the Special Needs ( the Individual Child. 178 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR) Geese tot Pe Se ee a CO ste an ca tio clo pli wo far Sin dra con unc of { PR. > ALVIN e met perin- Ss and dren, al dif- e that called ldren’s 1g and devel- agnosis . Vear- N pro- atment in the f read- e prob Schoo “UrTICl: am. Al stion 0! preciate cracy? rem has dless 0! icive ti yocracy we art ment 0! ‘eeds 0! ——— V TAR! The introductory chapter upon “The Challenge of the Individual Child” will give the psychological and biological bases of individual differences and will suggest other factors that must be taken into account in the study of children. Dr. Frank S. Freeman, the author, says that the human organism is “an inte- grated unit, the effectiveness of whose intellect may be increased or vitiated by other aspects of individuality.” Experts in the field of child study will, in Chapter II, present material helpful to both administrators and teachers who need more enlightenment upon what causes children to be so different. The following topics are discussed: The Child’s Physical Characteristics by Dr. H. McCloy, Iowa University; The Child’s Capacities, Interests, and Achievements by Dr. David Segal; The Child’s Environmental Background by Dr. Ruth Strang; The Child’s Personality by Dr. Willard Olson, University of Michigan; and Use of Tests, Reports and Records by Dr. Ruth Streitz, Ohio State University. Chapter III will contain certain articles telling how guidance programs are carried out in a township system, in a suburban community of the Middle West, in a suburban community of the East, and in a large city system. One chapter will have stimulating manuscripts from principals and other directors of instruction telling how in their respective school systems they have made provision for individual children in a heterogeneous grouping of abilities. In other chapters will appear articles showing new procedures in the education of the physically handicapped, the maladjusted, the slow and backward child. All will emphasize the type of an education that will enable these children to become social assets instead of liabilities. The chapter which caused the committee the most concern was the one on providing for children of superior ability and achievement. Through following leads in professional literature, and through letters to superintendents a number of contributors were obtained. Their reports are an evidence that in some school systems at least those with unusual general ability and specific abilities are given opportunity for a maximum development of those abilities. The committee can give the assurance that this Yearbook will reach the standard of the best this Department has produced. It proves that in every section of our country, North, South, East and West, an earnest group of people interested in the improvement of elementary edu- cation is working to see that the individual child is receiving the type of educa- tion that will help him to be socially useful. It should present a challenge for closer study of each child. As opportunities for first-hand experiencing on the part of pupils are multi- plied, the teacher’s need for something more than a bookish knowledge of the world is increased. Principals must bring teachers into first-hand contact with farms, factories, stores, docks, zoos, and other aspects of community life. Similarly, teachers must master the techniques of expression in art, music, dramatics, rhythms, and construction as well as in words, if they are to be competent in guiding children in giving worthy expression to the concepts and understandings which emerge from their first-hand contacts with the realities of the world about them.—Author Unknown. PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 179 What’s Happening ! ! * The State Department of Educa- tion in California called a second an- nual state-wide conference of elemen- tary school principals and district su- perintendents in charge of elementary education in Santa Barbara, March 17-20. The meeting was held in con- junction with the Annual Council Meet- ing of the California Elementary School Principals’ Association, which has met during the spring holiday for many years. In 1939 the first state-wide con- ference of elementary principals was held in Oakland, with approximately 700 principals in attendance. * Dr. George Willard Frasier, presi- dent of the Colorado State College of Education at Greeley, Colorado, was the principal speaker at the Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association sectional meeting during the East Texas division meeting of the Texas State Teachers Association at Henderson, Texas, March 9. His topic was, “A Challenge to the Elementary School.” * Vital and timely topics were dis- cussed at the Joint Conference of the Nebraska State Teachers Association, Department of Elementary School Prin- cipals, Industrial Arts Teachers, and Superintendents in Omaha, Nebraska, March 29-30. Out-of-state speakers were Dr. C. A. Prosser, director, Dun- woody Industrial Institute in Minne- apolis, and Mr. Aubrey Williams, di- rector of the National Youth Adminis- tration, Washington, D. C. * The newly elected officers of the Elementary School Principals’ and Su- pervisors’ Association of Texas are: President, F. M. Mathias, Tyler; Vice President, Inez Foster, San Antonio; Secretary, A. E. Wells, Gladewater; Committee Chairmen: Corinne Nash, Publications ; J. E. Cox, Membership; Thomas E. Pierce, Single Salary; George P. Mecham, Textbooks; and F. D. Austin, Teacher Education. * Dr. Lester B. Sands, formerly prin- cipal of Channing Elementary School of Palo Alto, California, has been ap- pointed Coordinator of Curriculum of the Palo Alto Public Schools. Dr. Sands is also a lecturer in the University of California Extension Division, in San Francisco. He is instructor this semester in a course on “The Elementary Cur- riculum.” * Hugh G. Grant, U. S. Minister to Albania, was the speaker at the annual luncheon of the Elementary School Principals of Alabama, which was held at the Bankhead Hotel, Birmingham, March 14. His topic was “Four Years on the European Front.” R. C. John- ston, State Representative for the National Department of Elementary School Principals, had charge of ar- ranging for this luncheon. * W. Paul Allen, Immediate Past President of the Ohio Education Asso- ciation Elementary Principals’ Depart- ment, has resigned the principalship of the Garfield Heights Elementary School to become principal of the Fox Meadow School, Scarsdale, New York. We wish Mr. Allen much happiness in his new work. * Maude A. Rhodes, Atlanta, Georgia, immediate past president ol the Department of Elementary School Principals, was on the program of the 180 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR! SS SO nio: ter; ash, hip; ary; and prin- ‘hool | ap- m of ands ty of San ester Cur- er to nnual chool ; held rham, Years John- - the ntary yf ar- Past Asso- epart- hip of school eadow e wish is new tlanta, ent of School of the —$—$———— TARY 74th Annual Convention of the Georgia Elementary Principals’ Association, which was held in Macon, Georgia, March 14, 15, and 16. Miss Rhodes told those present about the splendid plans for the Fourth Annual Confer- ence on Elementary Education, which this Department is sponsoring at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis- consin, July 6-19, 1940. * The Colorado Association of Ele- mentary School Principals and the Ele- mentary Division of the State Depart- ment of Education are cooperating in asurvey to determine the present status of the administration and supervision of the elementary schools of the state. In order to make this study as com- plete as possible, all schools having two or more teachers have been included. A preliminary report was presented at the annual meeting of the Principals’ Association in March. * District H Elementary Principals Association of Northern Virginia held a dinner meeting at Colonial Inn, Fair- fax, Virginia, February 9, 1940. This was the first mid-winter meeting at- tempted by the group. Forty-five mem- bers attended. Officers of the associa- tion are: Mrs. J. N. Howdershell, An- nandale School, Fairfax County, presi- dent; Robert A. Myers, Hillsboro School, Loudoun County, vice-presi- dent; Eleanore King, R. E. Lee School, Arlington County, secretary. Presidents of local groups assisted. There were no outside speakers, as one purpose of the meeting was to help the members to know each other and to learn more about their own group. The topic of the evening was, “How Can District H Elementary Principals’ Association Be Most Helpful?” includ- ing these phases: (1) To the Individual Principal; (2) Through Its Local Asso- ciations; (3) To Associations Having Elementary and High School Principals as Members; (4) To Counties Having No Associations; (5) To the State De- partment; (6) To the State Associa- tion; and (7) To the National Depart- ment of Elementary School Principals. The last two topics were discussed by James E. Bauserman, president, Vir- ginia Department of Elementary Prin- cipals, who emphasized the need of a stronger progressional pride among ele- mentary principals and a wider partici- pation in state and national activities. Suggestions for having a news letter were made and referred to the Execu- tive Committee for further considera- tion at its spring meeting. The group went on record as favoring a closer study of state legislative programs by local principals’ groups, and increased publicity for the Virginia Department of Elementary Principals through the state Publicity Committee. * Earl R. Laing, District Supervising Principal of Detroit, Michigan, was chairman of the Committee on the School as a Social Institution, a Sub- committee of the Curriculum Steering Committee, which prepared Bulletin No. 3004A on “Teaching the School in the School.” This splendid bulletin, which has been published by Eugene B. Elliott, Superintendent of Public In- struction, Lansing, Michigan, is a guide for the development of Instructional Units dealing with the school as a social institution. It is hoped that the material in this bulletin may be of assistance to those teachers and administrators who are interested in this challenging in- structional problem. * On January 6 a conference on Ele- mentary Education was held in Raleigh, North Carolina. J. E. Miller, Washing- ton, North Carolina, president of the PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 181 Department of Elementary School Prin- cipals in that state, led the discussion. At this time plans were made to hold four two-day conferences at East Caro- lina Teachers College, Greenville, The Woman’s College, Greensboro, Appala- chian Teachers College, Boone, and Western Carolina Teachers College, Cullowhee, during the first term of summer school. The conference will consist of observation in the practice school and discussion. The theme will be, “What Are the Good Practices in Evidence in a Good Elementary School?” A steering committee com- posed of Julia Wetherington, Chair- man; Kate McIntyre, Dean E. Pruitt, and Ruth Fitzgerald was appointed to work out the details of the conference. * The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Seth Boyden School, Maplewood, New Jersey, of which Grace E. Koerner is principal, was celebrated by a dinner November 16, 1939. The very attrac- tive programs which had been printed, carried a picture of the school in 1913 and one as it stands now, and a history of the school. * About 250 elementary school prin- cipals gathered in Santa Ana, Califor- nia, February 17, for the meeting of the California Elementary School Prin- cipals’. Association, Southern Section. Dr. Peter L. Spencer, of Claremont, spoke, all in poetry, on “What is Ahead,” and a panel discussion on “Im- proving the Graduate Program in Training Elementary School Person- nel” was an interesting part of the pro- gram. A splendid feature of the meeting was an extensive demonstration of in- dustrial arts for elementary schools, and a mimeographed syllabus covering many arts and crafts was given out. Leonard Hummell, Supervising Prin. cipal, Chino, California, was elected President of this organization for the year 1940-41. A copy of the lovely pro- gram was sent to headquarters by Harry H. Haw, principal, Hamilton School, San Diego, California. * A 151-page bulletin on the history of education in the state of Virginia, “Education in Richmond,” has been prepared under the Virginia Division of the Works Progress Administration, Part of the revision was done while the author, Margaret Meagher, was on the staff of the Federal Writers’ Project. Headquarters is indeed proud to have a copy of this excellent compila- tion of facts, thanks to Cornelia §, Adair, Richmond Director. * Volume I, Number 1 of The Geor- gia Elementary Principal was mailed to members of the Georgia Elementary School Principals’ Association in March, 1940. Maude A. Rhodes, immediate past president of the National Depart- ment of Elementary School Principals, is editor of this splendid new Official Bulletin. This first issue was a Conven- tion Number and contained the pro- gram of the Second Annual Conference on Elementary Education, sponsored by the Georgia Elementary Principals Association in Macon, March 14; a message from the president of the Geor- gia Elementary Principals’ Association, Mrs. R. D. Osterhout; greetings from Irvin A. Wilson, president, and Eva G. Pinkston, executive secretary of the National Department of Elementary School Principals; a report from the State Enrolment Chairman, Mary Standard; and an article on “The Im- portance of the Elementary School” by Mrs. R. B. Whitworth, member, Ex ecutive Board, Georgia Elementary Di vision, Georgia Education Association. 182 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARI! — pu ke pr lis! Cl pri for int s0C pri ifor SeCt on tha: fell a CC a prin sion loge Grol abou ing } cent ware bein; Elen trict Octo PRI, Prin- cted * the pro- 5 by ilton story zinia, been yision ation. le the n the oject. id to npila- lia §. Geor- led to ntary [arch, ediate epart- cipals, )fficial ynven- e pro- erence nsored cipals 14; a » Geor- ‘iation, s from Eva G. of the entary ym. the Mary he Im- yl” by er, Ex ary Di ciation. ——— TARY * Among the recent school news- papers which have been received at Headquarters, we find: The Boydenite, published by the Seth Boyden School, Maplewood, New Jersey, Grace Koer- ner, principal; Hardy Highlights, pub- lished by Nahum Hardy School, Wal- tham, Massachusetts, Emily Sweet, principal; Lucretianapolis News, pub- lished by School No. 3, Indianapolis, Indiana, Cecelia Galvin, principal; The Harding Globe, published by Harding School, Detroit, Michigan, Inez Kep- perling, principal; Elsworth Herald, published by Elsworth School, Pough- keepsie, New York, Mary V. Rowley, principal; and Boulevard Flashes, pub- lished by Cleveland Heights School, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, H. V. Perkins, principal. You write to these principals for an exchange and see how many interesting things are taking place. * The Alameda County Education As- sociation of which Sarah L. Young, principal, Parker School, Oakland, Cal- ifornia is president, held its twenty- second annual meeting at a luncheon on March 9. Headquarters wishes to thank Dan Gilson, principal, Long- fellow School, Oakland, California, for acopy of the program. * The Davenport, Iowa elementary principals recently formed a_profes- sional club for the purpose of working together to improve their schools. Group action of this club has brought about a closer and more efficient work- ing relation with the executives of the central office. The club is looking for- ward with a great deal of pleasure to being host to the State Department of Elementary School Principals at the dis- trict convention in Davenport next October. * The seventh grade of Class 2 of the Batavia, Illinois school presented its principal, Frank K. Platt, with a mem- bership in the Department of Elemen- tary School Principals. Mr. Platt was very happy that the children chose this particular gift to give him and so are we. * Headquarters is sorry to learn of the serious illness of Ruth Pyrtle, Lin- coln, Nebraska, past president of the National Education Association, and the sixth president of the Department of Elementary School Principals. Every- one wishes for her a speedy recovery. * Dr. Willard S. Elsbree of Columbia University, New York City, was the speaker at the recent meeting of the Connecticut Elementary School Prin- cipals’ Association. He discussed group- ing, grading, and promotion practices and policies and presented evidence sup- porting the recommendations he made. The principals attended in goodly num- ber and found the meeting to be very profitable and stimulating. * The Idaho State Department of Education, under the direction of J. W. Condie, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, has published several fine bulletins pertaining to elementary edu- cation. A few of the bulletins which have been sent to headquarters by Min- nie D. Bean, State Elementary Super- visor, are entitled: Social Studies and Science (Grades 1-8), Guiding the Language Experiences of Children, Making the Most of Environment, Or- ganization of the Elementary Library, Study of Reports and Reporting on Pupil’s Progress, and A_ Tentative Course of Study in Arithmetic. PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 183 SECRETARY’S REPORT St. Louis, Missouri February 24-29, 1940 The semi-annual meeting of the Department of Elementary School Principals was held jy St. Louis, Missouri, February 24-29, 1940. Two general sessions were held in the Bishop Tuttle Memorial Hall on Monday and Tuesday afternoons, February 26 and 27, respectively Knowing that many of the people who would attend the Monday and Tuesday afternog programs had very excellent voices, President Irvin A. Wilson had asked Mr. Robert Edgar. principal, Bedford School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to select many of the old familiar song and have them mimeographed and ready for distribution. Appreciation is extended t) Mr. Edgar for his fine cooperation and to Mr. Charles B. Pierce, Moore School, Brentwood Pennsylvania, for his very able assistance as pianist. The programs were as follows: First Session—Monday, February 26, 2 p. m., Auditorium of the Bishop Tuttle Memoria Hall What Good Educational Practices Can Be Found In Our Elementary Schools? Irvin A. Wilson, President of the Department, Presiding Community Srncinc—Robert H. Edgar Principal, Bedford School, Pittsburgh, Pennsy- vania, Leader Charles B. Pierce, Principal, Brentwood Schools, Brentwood, Pennsylvania, Accompaniy GREETINGS Amy H. Hinrichs, Principal, Audubon School, New Orleans, Louisiana, and President oi the National Education Association REPORTS OF COMMITTEES Editorial Cecelia Galvin, Principal, School No. 3, Indianapolis, Indiana, Chairman Conference on Elementary Education J. Murray Lee, Assistant Professor of Education, University of Wisconsin, Madison Wisconsin. Visual Education Harry H. Haw, Principal, Hamilton School, San Diego, California, Chairman Given by Sarah L. Young, Principal, Parker School, Oakland, California Radio Jane E. Monahan, Principal, School No. 92, Bronx, New York, New York, Chairmar Letter read by the Executive Secretary CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL William H. Burton, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridg Massachusetts Discussion FROM THE FLOOR Second Session—Tuesday, February 27, 2 p. m., Auditorium of the Bishop Tuttle Memori Hall The Role of the Elementary School Principal as Director of a Workshop for Citizenship Sponsored by the Missouri Elementary Principals’ Association Frank H. Gorman, President, Presiding Members of the National Council of Childhood Education are specially invited guests Community Sincinc—Robert H. Edgar, Principal, Bedford School, Pittsburgh, Pennsy!: vania, Leader Charles B. Pierce, Principal, Brentwood Schools, Brentwood, Pennsylvania, Accompanii THE Mopern ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AS A WORKSHOP FOR CITIZENSHIP Ola Wickham, Principal, Manchester School, Kansas City, Missouri A Drama Review—“Tue AMERICAN Way,” by Moss Hart and George Kauffman Mrs. John F. Lilly, Clayton, Missouri 184 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR! floa valt plac Old in i stor the tabl of § of § Asso Mr. Hin Edu the « one mucl of Melc boat Negr Tocu reluc PRI “a | held in Bishop ectively, ‘ternoon . Edgar, ar songs nded to nt wood, Lemorial Pennsyl- ym panis! ident of Madison, hairmar mbridge Memorial ship uests Pennsy!- ompanis! cad V TAR! Social Affairs The perfect arrangements planned and executed by the St. Louis and Missouri principals, under the fine leadership of Miss Isabel Tucker, principal, Festus Wade School, St. Louis, Missouri, caused everyone to go away feeling that they had just attended one of the very finest conventions ever held. Breakfast—One of the lovely affairs which caused this friendly feeling was the Acquaintance Breakfast held on Monday morning, February 26, Parlor A, Statler Hotel. Our hostess, Miss Ida M. Hooss, president, St. Louis Women Principals’ Club, assisted by Mr. Robert Strickler, president of the St. Louis Principals’ Club, had made arrangements for this very delightful occasion and delicious breakfast. After everyone had eaten, had enjoyed meeting with old friends, and had formed new acquaintances, President Wilson called upon Mr. Robert Edgar to lead the group in singing a few favorite songs. Mr. Charles B. Pierce was accom- panist. Following the music, President Wilson introduced those persons at the head table; asked Miss Tucker to tell briefly of the plans for the convention week, including the banquet to follow that evening; introduced Mr. William F.. Buboltz, president of the Milwaukee Elementary Principals’ Association, who brought words of greeting from Milwaukee and invited those present to attend the Milwaukee convention June 30-July 4; and asked Dr. J. Murray Lee, School of Education, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, to tell about the excellent plans which have been made for the Fourth Annual Conference on Elementary Education, which is sponsored by the Department and is to be held at the University of Wisconsin, July 6-19, 1940. President Wilson thanked all the 155 persons present for coming, and the local committee for this very enjoyable get-together. Banquet—Words of praise and commendation could be heard on all sides, as 559 members and friends of the Department of Elementary School Principals gathered in the Grand Ball- room, Statler Hotel, Monday, February 26, 6 p. m., for the semi-annual banquet. Beautiful white candles, which had been artistically hand dipped in silver by Miss Leonide Girault, were in the center of each table. Many different shades of tulips at the head table made the banquet room very attractive. Most attractive programs had been prepared by the St. Louis Committee of which Miss Leonide Girault was chairman. The cover of silver carried a picture of a Showboat floating down the Mississippi River. Because the world is rapidly recognizing the musical value of songs and ballads inspired by this majestic river, on the second page had been placed the most popular and best-loved ballad of the famous musical comedy, “Showboat”— Old Man River, whose origin is an unrecognized negro spiritual and which is truly a classic in its simplicity. On the inside back page of this beautifully designed program was the story of the origin of the evening’s entertainment, told under the caption of “Here Comes the Showboat.” P After a very enjoyable dinner, President Irvin A. Wilson introduced the guests at the head table and asked for a brief greeting from Dr. Ben Graham, president, American Association of School Administrators; Mr. S. D. Shankland, executive secretary, American Association of School Administrators; Dr. Willard E. Givens, executive secretary, National Education Association; Mr. George L. Hawkins, acting superintendent of schools, St. Louis, Missouri; Mr. Mark D. Eagleton, president, Board of Education, St. Louis, Missouri, and Miss Amy H. Hinrichs, president, National Education Association. President Wilson then introduced Dr. James W. Crabtree, Secretary Emeritus, National Education Association, who, in turn, introduced his very good friend and the speaker of the evening, Mrs. Dorothy Canfield Fisher, author and lecturer, Arlington, Vermont. Every- one present received Mrs. Fisher’s address on her “Children’s Crusade for Children,” with much enthusiasm. Following Mrs. Fisher’s address, the St. Louis principals, under the very able leadership of Miss Isabel Tucker, principal, Festus Wade School, St. Louis, presented a “Showboat Melodrama” which was dramatized by principals and teachers of St. Louis. Songs of show- boat days, led by Mr. Rogers T. Monagan and Robert E. Strickler, were sung by the group. Negro songs by pupils of the Vashan High School, St. Louis, directed by Mr. C. Spencer Tocus, helped to give the real atmosphere of the Mississippi Showboat. It was with great reluctance that the guests stopped applauding and left the banquet hall. PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 185 Executive Meeting, Sunday, February 25 The meeting of the officers and executive committee of the Department of Elementary School Principals was held in Parlor C, Statler Hotel, Monday, February 26. Those present were: Irvin A. Wilson, president; Maude A. Rhodes, first vice president; Sarah L. Young third vice president; Lester J. Nielson, fourth vice president; Marjorie Walters, fifth vice president; Isabel Tucker and Elizabeth R. Malcolm, members of the executive committee: Cassie F. Roys, director, Certification Division; Herbert C. Hansen, director, Life Member. ship Division; and Eva G. Pinkston, executive secretary. Other persons invited to report at this meeting were: Cecelia Galvin, Jess Hudson, Nellie Lind, and Walter Jacob, Jr., members of the Editorial Committee; Dr. Richard Foster, Research Division, National Education Association; Dr. J. Murray Lee, Coordinator for the Fourth Annual Conference on Elemep. tary Education, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin; and William F. Buboltz. president of the Milwaukee Elementary Principals’ Association. President Wilson called the meeting to order and then asked Mr. Hansen to preside while he participated in a radio broadcast. Letters were read from M. Emma Brookes, director, Retirement Division; Mason A. Strat. ton, director, Professional Relations Division, and Edith B. Joynes, N. E. A. Director, who found it impossible to come to St. Louis to the convention. A message was also received from Arnold Gregory, member of the executive committee who was very ill. A motion was made by Miss Tucker, seconded by Miss Roys that the secretary write these absent friends expressing regret that they were unable to attend the convention and telling them the officers appreciated the lovely messages they had sent. Motion carried. A motion was made by Miss Walters, seconded by Miss Malcolm, that the secretary write to Mrs. Edith B. Joynes, N. E. A. Director for Virginia, expressing condolence on the recent death of her father. Motion carried. A motion was made by Miss Young, seconded by Miss Rhodes, that the reading of the minutes of the San Francisco meeting be omitted, since they had been approved by each member of the executive committee, and published in the October, 1939, issue of The National Elementary Principal. Motion carried. Dr. Lee was asked to give a report of the progress of the Fourth Annual Conference on Elementary Education, which is sponsored by the Department of Elementary School Prin- cipals and which is to be held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, July 6-1), 1940. Dr. Lee presented to each person present a mimeographed outline of the splendid plans he had prepared for the conference, and explained in detail the many excellent arrangements The report also contained an announcement of the summer session of the University oi Wisconsin, and a booklet giving the recreational facilities at the University. After a very lengthy discussion of the fine plans which Dr. Lee has made, a motion was made by Mis Rhodes, seconded by Miss Young, that thanks be extended to him for the marvelow presentation he had made. Motion carried. Mr. Hansen asked Mr. Buboltz to discuss some of the plans which are being made for the Department meetings to be held this summer at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Arrangements were discussed for the Monday breakfast, the Tuesday banquet, and the Tuesday afternoon program. It was recommended that Mr. Buboltz meet with Miss Laura Kellar, president, Wisconsin Elementary Principals’ Association and Miss Pinkston to complete arrangements for these affairs. Miss Galvin, chairman for the 1941 Yearbook of the Department reported the progres the committee had made to date and stated that the title is to be “Meeting the Special Needs of the Individual Child.” A complete report on this Yearbook can be found om page 178 of this bulletin. After a discussion as to whether the preparation of study outlines should be continued a motion was made by Mr. Nielson, seconded by Miss Walters, that the committee continut to prepare study outlines, and that each member of the Editorial Committee prepare th outline for the part of the Yearbook for which he or she is responsible, and send it to the chairman, Miss Galvin, for final compilation. Motion carried. The officers were asked t0 send any suggestions as to the type of outline which they think should be prepared the chairman of the committee. 186 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR! 19: thi wa: this to | wol pre] tion was anxi not unti TI cipal prese Edga vice Male Divis execu Pre discus The Granc betwe bershi A mo the G Princij possib’ Am to ma Depart Associ: Associ Seve associa discuss; of an Depart: es PRIN ntary resent ‘oung, h vice rittee; mber- ort at ‘mbers ication lemen- uboltz, preside Strat- r, who d from ; made friends officers y write - recent of the ry each ‘ational nce on i Prin- ly 6-19, d plans ements. sity of a very yy Mis irvelous for the its were ‘ternoon resident, gements progres Special yund on ntinued, continue pare the it to the asked to yared to — TARY > The Editorial Committee recommended to the executive committee that a stiffer cover be placed on the forthcoming Yearbooks of the Department. It was recommended that the secretary be instructed to see how much the increased cost would be and report to the president. Mr. Hudson, chairman for the 1942 Yearbook of the Department gave a very splendid report of progress on this future Yearbook, which is to be on the subject of Language Arts. He reported that letters have been sent out to principals asking for articles to be con- tributed and to superintendents asking for names of principals who are doing especially fine work on some phase of this subject. Miss Lind presented the tentative title, “In-Service Growth of School Personnel,” for the 1943 Yearbook of the Department of which she is chairman. It was the concensus that this is a very excellent subject which should be discussed as a Department Yearbook. The chairman for the 1944 Yearbook, Dr. Jacob, gave as possible topics for his Yearbook: (1) Ethics in the Profession Itself; and (2) Educating the Whole Child. This latter topic was considered to be a very vital one at this time. However, the final subject to be used for this Yearbook will be determined at a later date. A motion was made by Miss Roys, seconded by Miss Tucker, that appreciation be expressed to the chairman and members of the Editorial Committee, and Dr. Foster for the splendid work which they are doing and for the high standard which they have set and kept, in preparing the Yearbooks of the Department. Motion carried. How to encourage principals to join the Department because it is a professional organiza- tion and to interest principals to work together for the betterment of our elementary schools was a problem which was discussed at length. The officers and executive committee are anxious that all members of the group feel that they have joined to work as a member and not just to receive the publications. A motion was made by Miss Malcolm, seconded by Mr. Nielson, that the meeting recess until Monday morning, February 26, 9 o’clock. Motion carried. Executive Meeting, Monday, February 26 The officers and executive committee of the Department of Elementary School Prin- cipals convened on Monday morning, February 26, in Room 106, Statler Hotel. Those present were Irvin A. Wilson, president; Maude A. Rhodes, first vice president; Robert H. Edgar, second vice president ; Sarah L. Young, third vice president; Lester J. Nielson, fourth vice president; Marjorie Walters, fifth vice president; Isabel Tucker and Elizabeth R. Malcolm, members of the executive committee; Cassie F. Roys, director, Certification Division; Herbert C. Hansen, director, Life Membership Division, and Eva G. Pinkston, executive secretary. President Wilson called the meeting to order and requested the secretary to present and discuss her report, a copy of which had been mimeographed and given to each officer. The secretary presented a request which had been received from the Principals Club of Grand Rapids, Michigan, that a plan be made whereby closer coordination can be had between the state organization and the National Department with regard to obtaining mem- berships, editing yearbooks, and securing hotel reservations for the convention meetings. A motion was made by Mr. Edgar, seconded by Miss Malcolm, that the secretary write to the Grand Rapids Principals’ Club, and the Michigan Department of Elementary School Principals, expressing the desire of the National Department to cooperate in any way possible where it was found that both the state and national were benefited. Motion carried. A motion was made by Mr. Hansen, seconded by Miss Roys, that the Department not try to make block hotel reservations in the convention cities for different groups since the Department of Elementary School Principals is one of the invited guests of the American Association of School Administrators at the winter meeting, and of the National Education Association at the summer meeting. Motion carried. Several state elementary principals’ clubs have written to headquarters asking that their association be allowed an affiliation membership with the National Department. After much liscussion, it was recommended that the Secretary write to these clubs explaining the value of an affiliation with the National Education Association and why such a connection in the Department of Elementary School Principals would be of little value to a state club, since PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 187 the N. E. A. affiliation fee entitles a club to have representation and a vote at the convention meetings, while all active members of the Department of Elementary School Principals ay, entitled to a vote. Because of numerous requests from other Departments of the N. E. A. to allow them tp have speakers at the meetings of this Department, a motion was made by Miss Roys, seconded by Miss Rhodes, that the president be authorized to invite those speakers whose contributions will best fit into the programs which have been planned, provided his programs were jo} completed. Motion carried. It was the concensus of opinion that the large discounts which are now being given op quantity orders of Yearbooks should be decreased and that the price of the Yearbook should be increased to non-members. A motion was made by Mr. Hansen, seconded by Mr. Nielson, that this problem be considered further; that the Secretary look into the matter; but that no steps be taken until the summer meeting. Motion carried. A motion was made by Miss Walters, seconded by Miss Tucker, that the Department continue to hold Conferences on Elementary Education at some university near the con- vention city of the N. E. A., for two weeks following the convention. Preference is to be given to the State University, if such university is available. Motion carried. A motion was made by Miss Tucker, seconded by Mr. Hansen, that the twentieth anniversary of the Department of Elementary School Principals be celebrated next year, 1940-41. Motion carried. A motion was made by Miss Rhodes, seconded by Miss Walters, that the Department cooperate with Miss Charl Williams, Field Director of the N. E. A., in giving publicity to her new book, “Schools and Democracy.” Motion carried. A motion was made by Miss Young, seconded by Mr. Edgar, that the meeting recess until Wednesday morning, February 29, 9 o’clock. Motion carried. Executive Meeting, Wednesday, February 28 On Wednesday, February 28, 9 a. m., the officers and executive committee met in Room 108, Statler Hotel. Those present were: Irvin A. Wilson, president; Maude A. Rhodes, first vice president ; Robert H. Edgar, second vice president ; Sarah L. Young, third vice president; Lester J. Nielson, fourth vice president; Marjorie Walters, fifth vice president ; Isabel Tucker and Elizabeth Malcolm, members of the executive committee; Cassie F. Roys, director, Certification Division; Herbert C. Hansen, director, Life Membership Division, and Eva 6. Pinkston, executive secretary. The meeting was called to order by President Wilson for the purpose of continuing the discussion of pertinent problems of the Department. Tentative plans were set up for the Monday afternoon meeting of the Milwaukee con- vention to be held June 30-July 4. Possible speakers were recommended and President Wilson was instructed to contact those persons desired as speakers for this general session. Since the executive committee voted to have a Ffth Annual Conference on Elementary Education immediately following the N. E. A. convention in 1941, a motion was made by Mr. Edgar, seconded by Miss Malcolm, that the Secretary be instructed to contact universities where the Fifth Annual Conference might be held. Motion carried. Plans were discussed for celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the forming of the Ne tional Department of Elementary School Principals. A motion was made by Miss Rhodes, seconded by Mr. Nielson that the Secretary be given authority to appoint a committee or committees to make arrangements for such celebrations at the banquets at both the winter and summer meetings during 1941. Motion carried. A motion was made by Miss Young, seconded by Miss Walters, that the Visual Education Monograph, which has been prepared by the Visual Education Committee of the Departmen, of which Harry H. Haw, principal, Hamilton School, San Diego, California, is chairmat be planographed and sent complimentary to members of the Department of Elementar) School Principals. Motion carried. It was recommended that the report which is being prepared by the Radio Committee, 0! which Jane E. Monohan, principal, School No. 92, Bronx, New York, New York, is chait- man, be sent complimentary to members of 1940-41. A motion was made by Mr. Nielson, seconded by Miss Roys, that appreciation be expresst! 188 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR the sin thi f Mi: Ele not in | to | carl Mis sy ntion IS are m to onded tions € not en on hould elson, lat no tment » con- to be ntieth year, ‘tment ‘ity to TeCess Room S, first sident; Tucker irector, Eva G. ing the e cOl- Wilson nentary ade by versities he Na- Rhodes, ittee or » winter Jucation artment, airman, mentary ‘ittee, of is chait- xpressed —_—— TARY sy ii! to Miss Tucker and her committees for the splendid arrangements which had been made for the convention in St. Louis. Motion carried. A motion was made by Miss Tucker, seconded by Mr. Hansen, that the secretary express sincere appreciation for the fine work done during the past three years by Miss Cecelia Galvin on the Department’s Editorial Committee, and especially for her contribution during this past year as chairman of the committee. Motion carried. A motion was made by Mr. Hansen, seconded by Miss Rhodes, that commendation be given Miss Young for the fine work she did last summer in making the Third Annual Conference on Elementary Education the great success which it was. Motion carried. A motion was made by Miss Roys, seconded by Mr. Edgar, that the secretary write a note of thanks to all persons who helped make this convention one of the most outstanding in the history of the Department. Motion carried. A motion was made by Miss Walters, seconded by Miss Young, that thanks be extended to the Executive Secretary for the splendid service she is rendering at headquarters. Motion carried. Since there was no further business, a motion was made by Miss Malcolm, seconded by Miss Tucker, that the meeting adjourn. Motion carried. Department Representatives Meeting, Wednesday, February 28, 1940 An informal gathering of State, District, County and City Representatives of the Depart- ment and presidents of State and Local Principals’ Associations was held in Room 104, Statler Hotel, Wednesday, February 28, at 2:00 p. m. Those present were: CALIFORNIA—Mrs. Gertrude Best Hammond, Los Angeles; Sarah L. Young, Oakland; Connecticut—Margaret M. Dorsey, Bridgeport; Elizabeth Malcolm, New Haven; District or CotumBiA—Eva G. Pinkston, Washington; FLorma—Mrs. Edna Hodges, Tampa; Grorcta—Maude A. Rhodes, Atlanta; ILr1vo1s—Ottis K. McMahon, Carterville; Kenneth E. Vayette, Peoria; Claude L. Williams, Chicago; Irvin A. Wilson, La Grange; InpIANA—Carl W. Lemme, Evansville; C. D. Plank, Lafayette; Iowa—Murva R. Kelly, Dubuque; D. D. Kinser, Davenport; Marjorie Walters, Cedar Rapids; Massachusetts—Joseph E. Lynch, Boston; Muicuican—G. O. Lockwood, River Rouge; Grace Wilson, Flint; Georgia Worfel, Grand Rapids; Missourr— Mabel McCallister, St. Louis; Emma O. Munn, St. Joseph; Isabel Tucker, St. Louis; NEw Yorxk—Charles W. Joyce, Rochester; Mary Lawlor, Syracuse; Paul Wamsley, Buffalo; Oxn10 —W. A. Yauch, Euclid; Oxtanoma—J. H. Hodges, Tulsa; H. P. Rice, Ada; PENNSYL- vantiA—Robert H. Edgar, Bellevue; A. Reaga Mullen, Philadelphia; Uran—Lester J. Nielson, Salt Lake City; West Vircrn1A—Rachael E. Wilson, Huntington; and Wisconsin—Laura E. Kellar, Shorewood. President Wilson cordially welcomed the group and expressed his appreciation and those of the officers of the Department that so many had come to the meeting to discuss ways and means of not only furthering the cause of the Department but to get aids and helps from the Department in extending the services of their own state and local groups. He stated this united effort of local, state and national groups would do much to build for a better education of our American youth, who will be our citizens of tomorrow. Each person present gave a most inspiring report of the work being done in his or her association and community. Many expressed appreciation for the fine contributions made and told how many new ideas and helps they had received from this discussion meeting. Members of the Enrolment Committee who were present reported on the progress they had made during this past year with regard to interesting those persons working in the elementary school in becoming members of this Department. Many State Representatives who could not find it possible to attend sent a report of their activities in advance of this meeting. President Wilson asked Miss Pinkston to make announcements about the activities of the Department. She requested each one present to see that the names and addresses of the officers of State and Local Principals’ clubs and associations are sent to headquarters to be included in the Directory in the back of the new Yearbook, which will be sent to members of 1940-41 in September and which is to be entitled, “Meeting the Special Needs of the Individual Child.” The meeting adjourned at 4:30 p. m. Eva G. Pryxston, Executive Secretary. PRINCIPAL, APRIL, 1940 189 Your Bookshelf The Changing Elementary School, by Leo J. Brueckner, is a report of the Regents’ In- quiry into the character and cost of public education in the State of New York. Four- teen elementary school experts carried on the investigation for this report. Nine chapters are on the strengths and weaknesses of the elementary school today—packed with recom- mendations for improvements, and six chap- ters are by specialists on the teaching of major elementary-school subjects—one chap- ter each on social studies, health, English, mathematics, art, and reading—with recom- mendations for improvements in each sub- ject. The findings in this book are valid and important to the problems of every elemen- tary school in America. The publisher of this book is the Inor Publishing Company, 207 Fourth Ave., New York, New York. * * * Have you seen Samuel A. Kirk’s new book, Teaching Reading to Slow-Learning Chil- dren? It was written to make the teaching of reading to the dull and backward child more effective. This book serves two purposes: (1) to assemble and evaluate factual and theo- retical material relevant to the subject; and (2) to present to teachers tangible and work- able methods of teaching reading to the slow- learning child, whether in the regular grade or in a special class. An attempt has been made throughout to keep the book on a prac- tical plane. It avoids technical language and concepts, yet gives due consideration to ex- planation of the psychological factors in- volved and the results of research bearing on the subject. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, New York, has published this book. * * * Step By Step In English, by Bair, Neal, and others, a language series covering the work for grades three to eight inclusive is based upon and satisfies every standard of “An Experience Curriculum in English.” Each book is carefully graded to meet the ability level of pupils in the grade for which the book is intended. Each entire book is made up of experi- ences that are familiar to the pupils. All chap- ters begin with situations that are common to the lives of children; exercises and ac- tivities are intimately related to the main situation; and drills in usage are interwoya with the incident with which the chapiy begins. A copy of this splendid book can } secured from The Macmillan Company, Ney York, New York. * 6 « Those persons who have been privilege to use the five books entitled, “Progre Arithmetics,” by Boyer, Cheney and Whit will be glad to know about the New Progr Arithmetics, Books A, B, C, D, and E. The form a variant edition of the first five books previously published to conform to a revise grade placement which is becoming increx. ingly common in many localities where) many of the more formidable understanding and skills are undertaken from one to ty years later than in the older and more cop. ventional courses. The Macmillan Company, New York, Ne York, has also published these new books. * * * Classroom Administration and Pupil Ad. justment, by Reinoehl and Ayer, has bee published by D. Appleton-Century Con. pany, New York, New York. The purpoy of this practical and up-to-date explanaton discussion is to show the elementary-scho teacher, and the student who is preparin to teach in the elementary school, how! organize and manage her classroom progr so that it contributes directly to pupil deve: opment and guidance, and how to adjust he program of studies to take effective care «i individual needs and abilities. For the first time in a book on this subject a classroom administration is considered « an integral part of education rather than « purely routine duty. The discussions a written in a simple and direct expositor style and are adequately illustrated wil tables, charts, and pictures. * * * Have you seen the new Walt Disney: Pinocchio and Here They Are? The We Disney story books are written with humo literary quality and a regard for education requirements. These books have a univels appeal and a unique place in the textbooi field. Simple structure of sentences and pat graph forms have been used. D. C. Heath and Company, 285 Columb Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts, publish this series. | e e >Twoven = This Fall You Will Want— can bk ny, New a — — — rivileged Progres n 1 Whit: Progre; Meetin g E. Thee ve book # e 1 . i | hoof The Special Needs where} er of the ore Con- } | @ @ a rit | Individual Child 00ks, upil Ai-§ | has beng§ | ° _ | The Nineteenth Yearbook of The Department y 2 Roe of Elementary School Principals ry-school ; preparing receiver diesacad how te | i dev! Chapter Headings Will Be: djust hej | e care it | I. The Challenge of the Individual Child. s subjet | | II. Studying the Child. idered « y than # | III. Comprehensive Programs of Individual Guidance. si art | me IV. Meeting Individual Needs in Heterogeneous Classes. ds with “" | V. Providing for Children of Superior Ability and Achievement. Lae VI. Providing for Slow-learning, Disinterested, and Retarded Bay | Children. sn | | VII. Providing for Physically Handicapped Children. ucatione } — | VIII. Providing for Children with Cultural and Economic Handi- textboue | a ma caps. naan | IX. Providing for Children with Personality Problems. olumve publish X. General Administrative and Supervisory Practices. Ready for distribution September 15, 1940 IT MAY BE It may be that you cannot stay To lend a friendly hand-to him AL. Who stumbles on the slippery way, - Pressed by conditions hard and grim; It may be that you dare not heed His call for help, because you lack The strength to lift him, but you need Not push him back. It may be that he has not won The right to hope for your regard; He may in folly have begun The course that he has found so hard; It may be that your fingers bleed, That Fortune turns a bitter frown UE Upon your efforts, but you need o. Not kick him down. —S. E. Kiser. 1940 XIX, N