The NATIONAL ELEMENTARY RINCIPAL BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION MAY 2} 1940 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY PRINCIPAL BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS Published in October, December, February, April, June, and July by the Depart Elementary School Principals of the National Education Association of the United Stater All elementary principals—administrative, supervisory, and teaching—are eligible to actiy membership in this department. The payment of $3 dues entitles active members to attend | meetings of the department, to hold office, to vote, and to receive the Bulletins. Associate membership may be had by all members of the National Education Associatiy who are actively engaged in any phase of school work by paying the regular membership {y, of $3. They are entitled to all privileges except the right to vote and hold office. rey se to non-members is $3 per year; single copies of the Yearbook, $2; single copy of the Bulletin, 25 cents (except the Official Reports, 50 cents). — 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 provide; 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, Whit First Vicepresident, Maude A. Rhodes, 185 Plains, N. Y. ' Westminster Drive, N. E., Atlanta, Ga. Arnold Gregory, Raupp School, Linc , , ’ Park, Mich. Second Vicepresident, Robert H. Edgar, Isabel Tucker, Festus Wade School, § Bedford School, Pittsburgh, Pa. Louis, Mo. Elizabeth R. Malcolm, Truman Stre Third Vicepresident, Sarah L. Young, Parker School, New Haven, Conn. School, Oakland, Calif. Certification Division, Cassie F. Roys, li- rector, 2609 Bristol St., Omaha, Nebr Fourth Vicepresident, Lester J. Nielson, Life Membership Division, Herbert C. Ha- 724 Windsor Street, Salt Lake City, Utah. sen, Director, 1045 N. Lockwood Ave Chicago, Il. Fifth Vicepresident, Marjorie Walters, Har- Retirement Division, M. Emma Brooks rison School, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Director, Windsor, Ashtabula Co., Ohi Professional Relations Division, Mason 4 Executive Secretary, Eva G. Pinkston, 1201 Stratton, Director, Brighton Avenu Sixteenth St., N. W., Washington, D. C. School, Atlantic City, N. J. See space below for Committees as they are appointed thruout the year Yearbook Committee for 1939-40 MEETING SPECIAL NEEDS OF THE INDIVIDUAL CHILD Cecelia Galvin, Chairman Jess Hudson School No. 3 1523 S. Evanston Indianapolis, Ind. Tulsa, Oklahoma Nellie V. Lind Washington Park School Denver, Colorado The Contents of this Bulletin are listed in the Education Index The picture appearing on the cover is that of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, which is anole “Church of the Presidents.”” John Quincy Adams was a member of this church and from its pulpit deliver the memorable ‘‘Farewell to Lafayette” just before the Revolutionary hero returned to France. Other presides! who worshipped at this church were Presidents Jackson, Harrison, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln, Jobs Fillmore, Cleveland, and Roosevelt (Theodore). This is another historical church in the Nation’s Capital. es 194 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR Tk Vol Meet From Wil Coope Child Hos Anoth The F Adr stru Our T Lest V The PRIN ALS tment 9 ites, Lo active ttend | }OCiation rship fee le copies n, D.C, provided e, White Lincols hool, St n Street oys, Di- Nebr. C. Har od Ave Brooke, »., Ohio fason 4 A venut a is anoth? deliver Johns pital. TAR! The National Elementary Principal Volume XIX, No. 5 a June, 1940 Headquarters Wishes You a Fine Summer!! Sure, this world is full of trouble I ain’t said it ain’t. Lord! I’ve had enough an’ double Reason for complaint. Rain an’ storm have come to fret me, Skies were often gray; Thorns an’ brambles have beset me On the road, but say, Ain’t it fine today! —Author Unknown Contents BE SPU Aik SREP OTROS ico ooo 86S Sree bo te eee Hs 196 From Milwaukee to Madison..................0e000: 199 A Balanced Education for an Unbalanced World— NS Chis pot. cia'Stach Spr Brelno so Wien © (1) Use of building other than . Electricity supply for actual classes—Commu- ‘ : 2 ‘ Spgs : 3. Telephone nity Singing, Club Meetings, lier ; 4. Telegraph Dramatics, Adult School, etc. T : g. School budget 5. — (1) How the money is raised, and > Trolieve ; what it must pay for Pi ea tl (2) Cost of education per pupil d. Taxis b os with similar e. Ferries and boats te , 6. Post Office Ww (3) State aid. 7. Health Service } (4) School taxes as related to ac- y "? mn Mies 1a tual use of school supplies a — 4 Deum tenes b. Visiting nurse ia a. Income, real estate, hidden taxes, ™ School medical departments gas, tobacco, etc. Compare to d. Nearby hospitals and Clinics by county, state, and national taxes e. — and state facilities avail- Ww able VI. CommMuNITY ORGANIZATIONS—WHAT DO 8. Courts THEY DO? 9. Places for recreation dr 1. Churches a. Playgrounds and places nearby wl a. Auxiliaries for swimming, games, etc. fo! 2 + ey VIII. INTERESTING PEOPLE fre 3. Manor Club 1. Who are some of Pelham’s important to 4. Men’s Club people?—both in community life th 5. Lion’s Club and in the world at large? ev 6. Charity Organization 2. What are their claims to fame? 7. Woman’s Exchange 3. How do they contribute to commu- ms 8. Service League nity life? h 9. Red Cross 4. Private collections and hobbies which the 10. Boy, Girl and Cub Scouts would interest us all the to WHAT’S IN THE WIND!! tea Everyone wants to keep up with our great leaders in education and know what He they know. Members of this Department for next year (1940-41) will have this the opportunity, for in celebration of the 20th year of progress of the Department of Elementary School Principals, each issue of The National Elementary Principal hu will carry articles by men and women who are well known in elementary education. per Some of these leaders who have agreed to write an article especially for us are: oth Drs. Mary Dabney Davis, William S. Gray, Nelle Haley, Paul R. Hanna, Maude McBroom, Worth McClure, E. T. McSwain, Beryl Parker, and Edwin Reeder. — 10Nn¢ 214 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY PR == lec- we n— mas vail- arby tant life mu- hich vhat this 1ent ipal ion. are: ude RY —— Lest We Forget" Aaron Kline, Principal, Pullman School, Chicago, Illinois 5. The Scientific and the Human in the Teacher-Pupil Relationship The scientific in education has made rapid strides in recent years. Child psychology, experimental psychology, diagnostic testing, case studies, remedial procedures and adjustment service are a few of the topics now commonly discussed by every progressive teacher. So much emphasis has been placed on the scientific procedure in education that there is danger that the human side may be overlooked. Child life is not one bed of roses as most writers would have us believe. The fears and worries of childhood are serious and loom large in the children’s lives as does business, society, money and war in the lives of adults. The scientific presenta- tion of a reading lesson, or a history lesson may miss its goal with some child because of an emotional disturbance that does not appear on the surface. The teacher who does not realize the importance of the human side of teaching and who does not have the confidence of that child will never know why that child failed to get what was intended in that lesson. The teacher who is human enough to get the confidence of the children will realize how serious, little things to us, are to the child. A child emotionally upset by some fear whether real or unfounded will not respond to educational activities whether scientific or not. The teacher who takes time from her scientific teaching to listen to the chil- dren’s troubles will be remembered in after years by the children. The teacher who dismisses them with a wave of the hand or a sarcastic remark will soon be forgotten. The teacher or the principal who forms a habit of seeing a problem from the child’s point of view or from the family’s point of view is more likely to decide justly and secure the cooperation so necessary for successful work on the part of the child. “Take time to be human” is a motto that should be hung in every teacher training institution. To be human is not to be sentimental. It is to be kind, considerate, to help, to encourage. It is to cultivate the confidence that loosens the child’s tongue so that the teacher knows what he really thinks. To be human makes teaching a joy to the teacher and a never to be forgotten experience to the child. All great teachers have been human first and then scientific. They have sought to help, to encourage, td allay fears, and to inspire self-confidence. The greatest teacher of all time spent his time among those whose needs were the greatest. He seldom condemned but first of all showed the disciple that he understood and then helped the faltering to see a better way. He who teaches seeks to guide a human soul. He must not forget that the relationship is first of all human. Two personalities in fellowship, one who has traveled that way kindly guides the other. “Take time to be human.” AARON KLINE _*In each issue of The National Elementary Principal this year Mr. Kline has discussed a pertinent educa- tional problem. PRINCIPAL, JUNE, 1940 215 Wilson (Continued from page 205) process of compromise, conference, debate, search for pertinent facts, plebiscite, and co. operation, as contrasted with the use of force.” Problems Facing our Schools—What are some of the social, economic, and political problems of the twentieth century living in America and the world with which our public schools must be increasingly concerned and for which education must make definite and thoughtful provision? Are the schools as organized today producing the kind of intelligent, tolerant, efficient, fearless, honest citizens which society has a right to expect of them? What is the real function of public education? Is the major responsibility of education to the individual or to society as a whole or to both? How can we best organize our courses of study, our teaching techniques, and our problems of educational administration so as to produce the kind of boys and girls that the ever-changing society of tomorrow will need to build a happier, a saner, a more intelligent, a more human world in which all people everywhere may live and work and play with all their fellowmen at home and throughout the world intelligently, happily, understandingly, sympathetically, helpfully, tolerantly ? These are but a few of the grave problems which education and educators must face today and solve tomorrow or else dictatorship, autocracy, ignorance, force, and the worst form of demagoguery may be enthroned in America as it has been in so many other parts of the world, to crush the individual, desecrate human personality, and crucify all that is good, and fine, and human in civilization. Make no mistake about it, “It can happen here.” The school teachers of America are the real guardians of liberty and democracy. God help America and the world if we fail in the great task that is before us. The day has passed when one may interpret education to mean textbook education, class- room education, or even school education. As the circle of contacts has multiplied many times over, we, in the field of education, often find our finest efforts nullified, our school room ideals reversed, our educational hopes blasted, and all that we've tried to build up and develop in our boys and girls torn down and trampled to earth by a society which too often does not seem to understand and at times does not seem to care. The radio, the moving picture, the street, the playground and the “gang”, all must be considered an inte- gral part of the problem of education. With a comparatively small proportion of the child’s time actually spent in the classroom and under the direct influence of the school, we are coming to a realization of the fact that the scope of the school’s interest must widen to include all those activities and contracts of the child, wherever he may meet them, which tend to modify his subsequent behavior and attitudes, whether for good or ill. No longer can we justify the attitude of the old school which took the position that its only concern was with the child while he was within the four walls of the school building. Some of the best and finest lessons learned by the child, are learned from incidental and accidental experiences entirely outside the school. And some of the most damaging and soul-warping influences are those which come to childhood because intelligent adults, our “best citizens,” do not take thought of the dangers which lurk, sometimes all too innocently, just around the corner, on the playground, at the movie, or at home sitting quietly in front of the radio. The School’s Concern—The school must concern itself with every influence or experience which would mold the plastic clay of childhood. It must understand and appreciate the fact that no two children—even though they be from the same family—have had or can have identical experiences. Each is an individual, different from all the rest; and, as a unique individual, his reactions will be different; his needs will reflect his individual background of heredity and experience; and the educational plan set up for his personality and intellectual development should be “tailor-made” to the most accurate measure of the individual child, which it is humanly possible for us to make. Whether it be in the teaching of subject matter—the schools of learning, or in the teaching of ideals, attitudes, points of view and interests—the tools of living, the school must recognize and accept its responsibility as the major positive influence in the building of better childhood. We have come to recognize generally in these days, that every child is the product of all his experiences, influences and heredity, good or bad, which have touched him at any point in his life. “The school is not set apart from society on an academic hill,” says the “Unique Function of Education.” “Teachers are more constantly and intimately associated with, or a least brought into con- 216 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY a insi tha are cap thr Us | fam It ] of | Stuc hav alar page PR. ‘ical blic and ent, hat the 3 of > to eed ople 10ut and 1 of the ood, The help lass- lany hool | up hich the inte- \ild’s - are n to hich nger cern e of ental ping ens,” ound adio. ience fact have lique id of ctual *hild, bject and 5 the gnize ences chool ion. con- iRY = tact with, things great and small in American society, high and mean, than the members of any other profession, public or private. They must grapple with the distempers which society and individual conduct generate, while seeking to preserve and to disseminate the best that is in its culture. The schools deal with the enduring stresses of human life, as well as with its enduring values.” It is a trite saying, but one which those of us in the field of education need to emphasize to ourselves over and over again, that the “business of the school is to teach the child not what to think but how to think.” There is no other way to teach children how to think about the problems of life in the world about them except as we make it possible for them to discuss and live these “live” problems in their classrooms. Our children must be made to feel their share in, and responsibility for, the solution of the problems of the school, the community, and the world about them. They learn to become efficient citizens only by exercising their rights and privileges and responsibilities as citizens—now, today. Democracy in America will be safe only so long as its citizens are intelligent in meeting its problems and its issues. America today needs, more than any other one thing now, an intelligent, ag- gressive, independent citizenry willing and able to think through the problems of government, industry, finance, and personal relationships, as these affect the welfare of the world, and to arrive at sound and sane conclusions regardless of what those particular conclusions may be or how far they may deviate from the traditional thinking of yesterday. We must train our present generation of children and thus bring our citizens of tomorrow up to the point where they will be as willing and as intelligently able to break the shackles of tradition in social thinking and democratic living as they are to discard the old and accept the new in invention and discovery in the field of science. Democracy, here and now, if it is to be saved in our world, needs honest, intelligent, careful re-thinking followed by fearless, coura- geous, trail-blazing social and political action. The gravest danger to your government and mine today, and the most alarming and menacing influence loose in this war-mad world today, is not to be found in the honest citizen who arrives at wrong conclusions as a result of an attempt at intelligent thinking, but the real threat to the ideals of democracy in our nation and throughout the world comes from that citizen who arrives at conclusions (whether they be right or wrong) as a result of no thinking whatever. This, then, will be the major responsibility of the school of the future, to develop an interested and informed citizenry, intelligent enough to think through the problems which the next generation must face, and courageous enough to break the shackles of blind tradition, and blaze new social trails through the wilderness of a highly complicated and unbalanced human society to the end that each future generation may build a better, a finer civilization than any which has preceded. Unless and until our schools are able to meet this high social challenge, education will “become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal” and civilization and democracy will be recorded as the forlorn hope of a disallusioned people. Education in these days ahead must either improve the quality of human living and build a saner, a more intelligent, a more human world, or it will go down to inglorious defeat in its contest with materialism and scientific efficiency. Man has failed through his own brilliant successes because his social insight and understanding have not kept pace with his scientific successes. Notwithstanding a potential productive power almost staggering to the human imagination, we find more than ten million people in America unemployed. Hundreds of thousands of our citizens are ill-clothed, ill-housed, and ill-fed and all this in a land whose natural resources and capacity to produce the necessities and even the luxuries of life as well are unequalled throughout the entire world. Hungry, shivering children, pale, weak, and wan, sit before us in our classrooms. Poverty, hunger, crime, and disease stalk about our land. There is a positive and clearly-defined relationship between the social background and family income and the amount of education which the children of a family receive. It has been estimated that 50% of the children born in a recent year (1935) in the state of Michigan were born to parents who were then on relief. The Society for Curriculum Study in one of its recent publications has estimated that the families in the United States having annual incomes under $2,500—which comprise over 70% of our population—have less than half the medical, dental, and eye care which they actually need. And here is an alarming statement of fact, packed with the most dangerous social dynamite. I quote from page 70, “How Fare American Youth” by Homer P. Rainey: “In New Mexico a third of PRINCIPAL, JUNE, 1940 217 the fatally sick die unattended by a physician. —— Facilities (health services) and prac. titioners are distributed (throughout the country) not according to need but according to the ability of patients to pay.” This is not necessarily an argument for social medicine, |; is a fact with which those of us working in the field of education must be vitally con. cerned. Make no mistake about it, you cannot educate a sick child. As a part of this same picture let us consider the educational and social implications of the fact that “Big houses have little families, and little houses, big families.” And a corollary of this might be stated somewhat as follows: Low incomes mean large families; large families, on the whole, secure poor education for their children and poor education results, in turn, in low income for the next generation. And here you have a vicious circle of economic and educational determinism, which tends to set a dead-level of educational attain. ment and economic status. The same gross inequalities of opportunity for education which exist as between individuals born into different economic levels, exist, in a like manner and perhaps to an even greater degree, as between different communities within the Nation, and different nations throughout the world. For example, it has been stated in “Human Resources” published by the American Council on Education, pp. 55-58 that: “In urban areas (1931-32) one school child in four was attending high school, while in rural areas only one in seven of the school population was in high school. The difference is a product primarily of difference in opportunity rather than difference in native ability or even in interest.” And here is practically the same statement from the pen of Dr. W. H. Gaumnitz, of the United States Office of Education, published by the Department of Rural Education, National Education Association, February, 1934: “It is believed that for the nation as a whole the figures cited . . . show that nearly half again as large a proportion of the city children are enjoying the advantages of high school education as rural.” “Am I not my brother’s keeper?” in the matter of furnishing equal educational oppor- tunity to every child in America? What is equal educational opportunity and how can it be furnished to all the children of our land? We have heard a great deal in recent years and we shall hear a great deal more as time goes on, about the equalization factor in educa- tional finance, Federal Aid to education, and “collecting the taxes where the money is and spending it for education where the children are.” It would seem to the writer that no one who contemplates for a single moment the mobility of population could question the soundness of some form of Federal and State aid to the poorer school districts of the nation. We cannot afford to permit local poverty anywhere to cripple education and limit educa- tional opportunity. The welfare of “the least of these” must be made the concern of all. It has been said, for example, that the state of Mississippi would be wholly unable to support a school system remotely approximating that of some of our more prosperous states even if she were to spend for the operation of her schools alone every single cent of tax money collected within the state and leave all other public governmental and social services entirely without funds to operate. And every single one of us can point to illustrations of like disparity in ability to support education as between different school districts within a single state or even between two different communities within the same county. And here is one of America’s gravest problems. What shall we do about the boys and girls, the young men and women between the ages of 16 and 24, an estimated 20,000,000 of them in 1930, who have completed their formal education and are out looking for jobs which are not to be had? In a recent study of Connecticut high school graduates (1931-34) out of a high school from six months to 2% years it was found that as high as 58% in some sections had been able to find no job whatever following high school graduation In an Iowa study of 1,000 rural high school graduates who had been out of school on an average of 3% years the report was even more alarming. Fifty-six percent of these young men and women had not yet found any regular employment after 34% years of search. What is happening to the spirit and the souls of these millions of hopeful but disappointed youth’ Can society afford to let them drift? Can we afford to dismiss them from our thinking and let them shift for themselves? Of a group of 13,528 such youth (age 16-24) studied recently in the state of Maryland and reported in “Youth Tell Their Story,” 57.7% listed “economic security” as the major problem of youth today. And what tragedies lie behind these replies no one will ever know. No price, in the opinion of this writer, would be too high for society to pay for the proper economic and social adjustment of this great body of splendid American 218 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR) o> © =| ce PR, race ig to e. It con- s of lary large sults, le of tain- vhich " and ition, iman irban areas oduct en in nnitz, ation, as a > city ppor- ‘an it years duca- is and at no mn the ation. ~duca- of all. ble to states, of tax rvices ons ol within rs and 100,000 r jobs } 1-34), 8% in uation. on an young _ What youth? ng and ecently onomic replies society nerican a [TARY youth. I believe the time is not far distant, and may God speed the day, when every boy and girl in our land, regardless of race or creed or economic status, will be offered and it will be made financially possible for him to receive, not only four years of high school training with a curriculum fitted to his own individual needs, capacities, and interests, but that society will assume responsibility for the further education of all youth. Free Education—We have always referred to our system of public education in America as a system of free public schools. Your speaker has long held that the mere provision of free tuition and even free text books and supplies in our public elementary and high schools does not constitute a system of free public schools but he has hesitated to pronounce such revolu- tionary doctrine for fear of being accused of economic and educational heresy. How can we say that we have free public schools, when hundreds of thousands of boys and girls—young men and young women, the very flower of American youth—are compelled to drop out of, or are never able to enter, our colleges, high schools, and even our elementary schools because of the cost of other necessities of schooling besides the tuition. Is it Utopian to predict that the day will surely come in America, and come it must if we are to save youth and preserve democracy, when the state, through some form of individual endowment or financial grant, will make it possible for every youth who has the interest and the ability, to complete four years of technical, academic, or professional training beyond the high school? “Effectively free schooling requires more than free tuition,” writes Dr. John K. Norton in “Education and Economic Well-being in American Democracy”—the latest publication of the Educational Policies Commission, which the present writer recommends to you as very much worth your reading. “It means,” he continues, “that food, clothing, medical aid, and shelter will be pro- vided if the lack of such provision will keep one from school.’ Nothing short of an educa- tional philosophy as broad and as deep and as human as this can save democracy in America. May the public schools of tomorrow, your dream and mine, build a bridge safe and sound and true, over which the childhood of the future may travel to a land where there is no poverty, hunger, and crime; a land where tolerance and sympathy and human understand- ing make all men brothers; a land where the carnage of war shall be known no more and men and nations shall know each other and understand and peace shall reign forever; a land where the unbalanced world shall become balanced and democracy shall guide the hand and heart of all humanity. Education is always facing the sunrise of a new day, a higher hope, the dream of a finer civilization, a more human world. Let us not forget that the principal holds the key. His is the responsibility and high privilege of a master builder of human lives. These words from Percy R. Haywood’s “I am Tomorrow,” summarize in a fine way the spirit with which those in the field of education must face the future, for a balanced world: “IT am Tomorrow. I belong to the teacher. I gather up all the mistakes of yesterday and hold them before the eyes of forward-looking men and say, ‘Behold, in me all things are to be made new.’ I have tried in many ways to build a new world, but all my plans have failed. Business and prosperous ‘Good Times.’ Wars and Death Plans that depend upon Force and the thud of the Mailed Fist. All these have failed me. But today I look to childhood and youth as my last and only chance to become what I ought to be. And to the teachers of the world I turn my face in eager yearning for what they will do for me. I am Hope. I am Courage. I am a new buoyant Faith. I am Tomorrow.” PRINCIPAL, JUNE, 1940 219 Hodges (Continued from page 207) How Could These Specialists Help?—Miss Holmes gave Bill additional tests besides the annual routine ones. On February 13, 1939 she administered the Stanford-Binet test (old form) and checked it by giving the Revised Stanford-Binet test Form L. The results of the two tests were as follows: 9 M. A. 5. @. Old form 9-8 8-5 87 New form L 9-8 8-0 83 Miss Holmes says in part: “I should say that an average of these two is a good measure of that type of intelligence which is measured by this test. From an analysis of the specific responses I should say that Bill is quite typical of a boy with an I.Q. of about 85 and a mental age of 8-0 to 8-5. His responses were fairly normal for his life-age in language com- prehension, in spontaneous interest in number and ordinary things in his environment, jp form and in rote memory for numbers. At his own age level he comprehends concrete tasks and carries out commands in practical situations. “He registered at seven and eight year levels in the more abstract situations such as (1) association of ideas on the basis of similarities and differences; (2) comprehension of absurdities; (3) reasoning as to relation of cause and effect even in familiar situations; and (4) association of ideas involving sentences, words and stories. “He registered above his life-age in situations dealing with special relationships and forms, “All of this means that Bill probably will make very slow progress in academic work, that he will work best under close supervision and much individual guidance; and that his most satisfactory achievements will be in those fields which require manual manipulations resulting in tangible evidence of accomplishment. “Other observations resulting from the test situations are (1) that Bill is quite suggestible and inclined to conform to the situation at hand; (2) that he is fond of animals; (3) that he has a fine attitude toward school and teachers; and (4) that he is anxious to please those with whom he is associated at the moment. “In order to get some idea of Bill’s reading status I gave him two types of the Gates Primary Reading Test. His average on these two types was 1.62 with a reading age of 6-9 which is below the expectation for his mental age. My recommendations with respect to reading are (1) that further diagnostic and remedial procedures be applied; (2) that Bill be placed in a group apart from a younger, brighter sister; and (3) that, if possible, he be given opportunities to do worthwhile things with his hands and to care for animals.” Dr. Hart Reports on Bill’s Health—“Bill is a moderately well nourished boy of nine years of age. His height is four feet, one inch, with a weight of sixty-four pounds. On first observing him, one notices that he is quite attractive, skin fairly dark, eyes and hair dark; he walks briskly, his eyes are bright, and show an alertness found usually only in normal children. He approaches the examination table without hesitancy, and apparently with no misgivings or fears. He cooperates in answering questions quickly without a lot of unnecessary remarks, as we find in so many children. “On physical examination, we find conditions normal with a few exceptions, such as: A slight retraction of the left ear drum, a slight hypertrophied condition of the mucous mem- branes of the nose, moderately enlarged tonsils, and six teeth with definite caries, three of which are abscessed. There are no particular recommendations as to his physical condition, with the exception of the teeth. Three of these teeth were extracted February 7, 1939, and the other three on February 9, 1939. His demeanor in the dental clinic was most outstanding, we felt. Large numbers of children come through our dental clinics, and we feel that when we say a child’s demeanor is unusual, it is a distinct compliment to the poise and self control of an individual child. Many adults would have quaked at extraction of this many teeth within such a short interval of time. And it is to be remembered that these were molafs. “It is my opinion that the difficulties arising in the case of Bill are sociological and financial.” The Home Situation is Described—Mrs. Rice visited the mother in the home several times. She became fairly well acquainted with the younger children who ranged in age below 220 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY cont in t him seek We him the PR Sides (old ts of re of ecific nd a com- it, in tasks yn of - and orms, work, it his tions stible that those Gates ge of espect that le, he [ nine 1 first dark; ormal th no essary as: A mem- ree of dition, 9, and nding, when ontrol teeth nolars. 11 and several below ‘ARY Bill as follows: ages eight, four, three, and one respectively. In addition to the father and mother there was a paternal grandfather who lived in this small and very crowded home. All these people lived in two small rooms. In substance the mother seemed happy, blames no one for her condition, and is optimistic. Mrs. Rice never saw the father but found that he works intermittently as a truck driver. He seems to love his children but is probably a little harsh in dealing with their misconduct. The family moved from a small town in Oklahoma less than a year before, and Bill has not yet established himself firmly into any social group. He attempts to steal and divide with his associates to establish himself in the group. Dr. Brown Has a Talk with Bill—We are all anxious to gain Bill’s confidence and to give him more confidence in and stability with his group. We make a special effort to speak to him and talk with him often. Dr. Brown, after getting acquainted with Bill gave him some personality tests to learn some of his likes and dislikes as well as some other tendencies in his philosophy of life. The results of these tests indicated that Bill loved and enjoyed his family but feared the wrath of his father on occasions. He respected teachers and thought school was fine but was slow to achieve. He was quick on his responses but not always consistent. Dr. Brown says finally: “Bill is an example of a child who tries to buy recognition from his teacher and his classmates and evidently feels insecure and inadequate in the school situa- tion.” We immediately began to look for possible causes for such feelings in Bill’s relations with his environment, and in the child himself. We felt that the thing he needed most was a chance to experience success, and to achieve recognition in some natural way. This, we thought, would be the first step in building up in the child feelings of self-respect and self confidence. Once having these, he would no longer need to Ke or steal to get status with his group. We suggested: “(1) that a friendly visitor trained to work with parents call at the home to counsel with Bill’s mother about home guidance; (2) that Bill be given an allowance, how- ever small, and taught to use it; (3) that Bill be re-introduced to the Community Center where he would have special opportunities to continue some craft work in which he was interested; and (4) that he have some special help in reading.” We were Assisted by Specialists Outside the School—Miss Pye agreed that children such as Bill must in most cases be given material aid before much can be done that will be of permanent value. We were able to get more food and clothing for Bill, and we did what we could to give him a chance to make his own money. There is not much anyone can do for this type of children’s maladjustments in most cases as long as they are hungry and poorly clad. Miss Titus says that much can be done for such children if we can give them something to do during their leisure time. Bill had belonged to various activities in the community center, but he had had friction because his playmates said he would steal. Miss Titus thinks there is a definite need for parent education in this family, for even the mother shows a tendency of dishonesty. Mr. Chapman was very understanding and sympathetic at all times and on many occasions attempted to help him. In fact, each member of the group was willing to do anything pos- sible that would help Bill in any way, and the teachers in his school have done every thing in their power to improve his chances in life by helping him help himself. There is much, however, that remains to be done to help Bill return to the activities of the normal group, but we hope we have done a few things that will help him. What are Some of the Things We Have Accomplished—We have had some of Bill’s teeth pulled and are watching for other things to do to keep him in good physical condition. He has been placed in another section of the second grade so he would not be in the same room with a younger and brighter sister, and we have cooperated in getting him a job selling magazines. We give him more attention on the playgrounds and constantly seek chances to cause the other children to accept him as a regular member of their group. We have partially succeeded in getting him to drop his older associates who have encouraged him in stealing because they had received part of the loot, and he is encouraged to come to the office and talk with us at any time. PRINCIPAL, JUNE, 1940 221 Bill Must Be Guided Constantly for Many Years—We are optimistic about the ultimate outcome for two reasons. First, Bill is young enough to overcome with guidance his deficiencies in his personality. Second, he has definitely improved up to this point. Many of you have probably had similar experiences to this one, but maybe there is some idea indicated here that might help some one help some child along the way. These children need some one to love them, work with them sympathetically, and help them with materia] aid. In most cases they do not need harsh treatment. Richards (Continued from page 211) Administrators need to be aware of and sensitive to some of the difficulties one encounters in attempting to cooperatively inaugurate a program of democratic leadership. When one con- siders historically the role of the American teacher, he recognizes the fact that our elaborate systems of administrative organization are indicative of the fact that too little confidence has been placed in teachers and in their ability to assume responsibility for their own activities, Low certification requirements have played an important part in permitting meagerly trained people to assume responsibility for which they were inadequately prepared. An elaborate system of direction and supervision was set up in order that those employed to teach might function at all. And, in mary instances, this complicated system of supervision would seem to have been necessary. The principal of an elementary school even today, in many communities, is merely a manager. Too often he has been selected upon the basis of his cleverness in his social contacts; or upon the basis of his willingness “to keep the machine well oiled;” or asa reward for long and “meritorious service.” Often he has been a successful teacher in the secondary field for which he had been prepared, and it is assumed that he will be relatively successful as an administrator at the elementary level. The principal, who should become the professional leader, too often becomes a routine organizer depending upon the prestige of his office for authority to manage and direct the activities of the school. With this heritage in administration and supervision of educational practice, the sincere leader often finds himself surrounded with a group of more mature teachers. As a rule they are admired and respected by the patrons; they have given years of “faithful and valuable service”; they use, in the main, the techniques they acquired in normal school; many of them have secured life certificates; most of them have very little income in addition to a teaching salary; practically all of them have some dependents; they look to and expect the principal to tell them Aow and what to do; and, strange as it may seem, they appear, in many instances, to be happy and satisfied with their lot. Supervisory officers—superintendents and assistants—often present a problem by handi- capping the democratically and experimentally-minded professional leader. Courses of study are usually distributed and principals’ meetings often consist of a series of routine instruc- tions. One is usually engrossed in a veritable barrage of uniformities to which every unit in a system is expected to conform. One is expected to use uniform textbooks; report cards; promotion policies; standard tests; techniques; even school hours, dismissal times, and tardy bells are often required, as well as uniform crayon, paper, pen points and other educational supplies. The school buildings themselves, in many localities, retard, if not actually prevent, the us of informal democratic procedures. Built as permanent structures at great expense they have become monuments to an undesirable formal type of education and are a liability from a mort desirable point of view. Dean Melby ° in discussing this problem maintains it is probably not an over statement to say that the average American schools are, in practice at least, twenty years behind our mos forward-looking theory. Foreign visitors who come here to see the educational innovation in this country have difficulty in finding the features concerning which they have heard much. We know a great deal about individual differences in children, yet everyone knows that our instruction violates this knowledge in wholesale fashion. We have accumulated 4 ® Melby, Ernest O. The Teacher and Society, Appleton, 1937, p. 122. 222 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR! NE Wa: 7B PRI the e his some \dren terial inters : COn- orate ce has vities, rained ystem nction » have nities, in his yr asa in the atively me the of his sincere le they aluable f them eaching cipal to stances, handi- f study instruc- unit in - cards; d tardy cational the use ey have 1 a more ‘ment to yur most ovations heard 80 e knows ulated 4 ——_————— TARY considerable body of information concerning child growth and development, yet every one who is intelligent about educational activities knows that our ordinary school practice, on almost every level, is in direct conflict with our knowledge of the child. Taken in the aggre- gate, this apparent lag between theory and practice in education constitutes a rather severe indictment of our elaborate and expensive machinery for educational administration. We are no doubt experiencing the most complex and challenging social problems which the world has known. It is unthinkable that the school should continue to ignore social and in- dustrial progress and permit educational progress to lag a quarter-century behind. Yet we see evidence on every hand that education has failed to meet the issue. Dr. Boyd H. Bode’ con- tinues to insist that even with its dynamic, forward-looking leadership, the progressive educa- tion movement has failed to provide a well-articulated educational program committed to the democratic ideal. And when one surveys the operation of our present plans for effective educational leadership he finds a disturbing, if not alarming, situation. Many are at a loss to fully understand the seemingly apathetic attitude of administrators in general toward a functional plan of action. After critically and carefully searching the educational literature one realizes with even more conviction that pioneering needs to be done in reconstructing a functional educational program. Many forward-looking and social-minded educators are committed to the idea that the public school will function effectively only to the extent that it becomes an experimental laboratory where children become a part of the democratic way of life through practicing democracy by living democratically from day to day. Many students of the problem are also convinced that it is one to be solved by a more functional type of administration; and admin- istration not only more capable, but one which is more interested and more willing to act. We need to re-examine our educational principles; re-orient ourselves in terms of a functional social philosophy; and re-dedicate our efforts to assist in providing a type of democratic and scientific leadership which harmonizes more closely in character with the accepted purposes of the school in a constantly emerging democratic social order. NORTHEASTERN REGIONAL CONFERENCE Classroom Teachers of the Northeastern states will hold their first Regional Conference at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, on Saturday, May 25, under the sponsorship of the N.E.A. Department of Classroom Teachers. All teachers, principals, superintendents, members of boards of education, and repre- sentatives of the press in the following states are invited to attend: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and District of Columbia. The general theme will be Teacher Relationships. In the morning the delegates will have their choice of six working conferences and in the afternoon they will assemble in famous Woolsey Hall on the Yale campus where a summary of the morning conferences will be presented by the chairman of these discussion groups. Following this a number of outstanding speakers will address the Assem- bly. Mrs. Mary D. Barnes of Elizabeth, New Jersey, northeastern regional direc- tor of the Department, is in charge of the conference. A printed folder giving further information will be sent upon request. Address N.E.A. Department of Classroom Teachers, 1201 Sixteenth Street, Northwest, Washington, D. C. ™Bode, Boyd H. Progressive Education at the Crossroads, Newson, 1938. CO PRINCIPAL, JUNE, 1949 223 Thoughts Lf Do not attempt to do a thing unless you are sure of yourself; but do not relinquish it simply because someone else is not sure of you.—Stewart E. White Education is: to be at home in all lands and all ages; to count Nature as a familiar acquaint. ance and Art an intimate friend; to gain a standard for the appreciation of other men’s work and the criticism of one’s own; to carry the keys of the world’s library in one’s pocket, and feel ix resources behind one in whatever task he undertakes; to make hosts of friends among the men of one’s own age who are the leaders in all walks of life; to lose one’s self in general enthusiasms and co-operate with others for common ends. . .—William DeWitt Hyde We should try to succeed by merit, not by favor. He who does well will always have patron: enough.—Plautus Every man | meet is in some way my superior; and in that | can learn of him.—Emerson To give birth to an idea, to secretly cherish it, to develop it and live down opposition to it is a fair life-work.—John Wanamaker Life is so brief. There really isn’t room for bitterness—or time to give it attention. There i everything fine and noble to that adage about its being ‘divine’ to forgive. There is also divin. ity in just forgetting. We can always, with great safety and dignity, afford to overlook most of the slights, unintended injuries and misunderstandings. It is so easy to be kindly, considerate, tolerant and understanding. Energy is a precious commodity—too precious to waste in ill feeling and imagined injuries. Munch bitterness and you put evil poison into your veins where good clean blood should flow.—George Matthew Adams | don’t believe for one minute that everything we have gained in thousands of years of exper ence can be wiped out in one disaster. Man has used his ability to think to create the presen! situation. He has not lost this accomplishment and will, as a matter of course, think himself out— Charles F. Kettering In our candid moments we acknowledge that it is most unwise to try to live more than one day at a time, that the best achievements are wrought through patience and application. We see the foolishness of crowding into today the failures of yesterday and the possible disappointment of tomorrow.—Grenville Kleiser A man is never astonished that he doesn’t know what another does, but he is surprised # the gross ignorance of the other in not knowing what he does.—Haliburton Civilization by now has become the spiritual blood of vast portions of human kind, withou! which it cannot live. Depression, yes, but not destruction. And when eventually the skies cles again there may well be expected a spiritual rebound that will compensate for the losses.—) Ales Hrdlicka simply Quaint. ark and feel its men of juSiasms patrons on to it, There is ‘© divin. - most of siderate, | Feeling re good f experi- > present IF out— one day e see the Sintments prised ¢ , without kies cleat sses.—. MEETING SPECIAL NEEDS OF THE INDIVIDUAL CHILD