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The NATIONAL ELEMENTAR 


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BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 
NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 


ALCOVE 








THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY PRINCIPAL 


BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


Published in October, December, February 
Elementary School Principals of the National 


April, June, and July by the Department of 
ucation Association of the United States. 


All elementary principals—administrative, supervisory, and teaching—are eligible to active 
membership in this department. The payment of $3 dues entitles active members to attend all 
meetings of the department, to hold office, to vote, and to receive the Bulletins. 

Associate membership may be had by all members of the. National Education Association 
who are actively engaged in any phase of school work by paying the regular membership fee 
of $3. They are entitled to all privileges except the right to vote and hold office. 

Subscription to non-members is $3 per year; single copies of the Yearbook, $2; December, 
February, and June issues of the Bulletin, 25 cents; October and April issues (Official Re- 


ports) 50 cents. 





Entered as second-class matter November 20, 1922, at the postoffice at Washington, D. C., 
under Act of August 24, 1912. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided 
for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized December 18, 1922. 





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





OFFICERS OF THE DEPARTMENT, 1940-41 


President, Isabel Tucker, Festus J. Wade 
School, St. Louis, Mo. 


First Vicepresident, Irvin A. Wilson, 437 
S. Stone Avenue, La Grange, III. 


Second Vicepresident, Marjorie Walters, 
Harrison School, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 


Third Vicepresident, Lester J. Nielson, 724 
Windsor Street, Granite District, Salt 
Lake City, Utah 


Fourth Vicepresident, Laura E. Kellar, At- 
water School, Shorewood, Milwaukee, 
Wis. 


Fifth Vicepresident, Florine H. Howes, Cen- 
tral School, Mamaroneck, N. Y. 


Executive Secretary, Eva G. Pinkston, 1201 
Sixteenth St., N. W., Washington, D. C. 


Executive Committee 

Arnold Gregory, Raupp School, Lincoln } 
Park, Mich. 

Sarah L. Young, Parker School, Oakland, | 
Calif. 

Elizabeth R. Malcolm, Truman Street } 
School, New Haven, Conn 

Robert H. Edgar, Bedford School, Pitts-| 
burgh, Pa. 


Certification Division, Cassie F. Roys, Di- 
rector, 2609 Bristol St., Omaha, Nebr. 


Life Membership Division, Herbert C. Han-| 
sen, Director, 1045 N. Lockwood Ave.,| 
Chicago, III. 


Professional Relations Division, Mason A 
Stratton, Director, Brighton Avenue| 
School, Atlantic City, N. J. 





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





Conference Committee—1941 


Irvin A. Wilson, Chairman 
437 S. Stone Avenue 
Chicago, IIl. 


Elizabeth Malcolm 
Trumen Street School 
New Haven, Conn. 


The Contents of this Bulletin are listed in the Education Index 


The picture appearing on the cover of this bulletin is the beautiful statue of John Marshall, former_Chiel 


Isabel Tucker 

Festus J. Wade School 
St. Louis, Mo. 

Robert H. Edgar 


Bedford School 
Pittsburgh, Pa. 





Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. This statue is situated in back of the United States Capitol 


Building. 





2 


THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 





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The National 
Elementary Principal 
October, 1940 





Volume XX, No. 1 





What Shall | Wish Thee? 


What shall I wish thee for the coming year? 

Nine months of dream-like ease? no care? no pain? 
Bright autumn, mild winter, spring without rain 

Of bitter tears? Wouldst have it thus, my friend? 
What lesson, then, were learnt at the year’s end? 


Ah, would my wishes were of more avail 

To keep from thee the many jars of life! 

Still let me wish thee courage for the strife— 
The happiness that comes of work well done— 
And, afterwards, the peace of victory won! 


—Anon. 
Contents 
National Defense Begins in the Kindergarten.......... 4 
Our Country—Our Flag—Tueker..................... 5 


Needed Emphases in the Teaching of Reading to Pre- 

pare for Intelligent Participation in Democracy—Gray 7 
Understanding the Child—White..:.................. 10 
The Principal as an Educational Leader—Reed......... 16 
The Modern School—A Workshop in Democratic Citizen- 

II oc id's wigs ded Her wade Nee Ae REE 21 
Adjusting the Curriculum to the Capacity of the Child— 

Re RE REE SHEER REE EE ee ERE Benny Te eh 26 
Just Another Day—Henderson...............0000005- 30 
The Fourth Annual Conference on Elementary Education 32 
“Another Convention Marathon”’.................... 35 
Public Relations in the Elementary School—Carr...... 38 
Our Anniversary Year!—Pinkston................0045 44 
pg oR ee ee ra 46 
American Education Week 1940. ................000. 47 
The Emerging Design of the Elementary School Curric- 

a os opr eat mht cara Scares Raid Se arte 48 
Report of the Necrology Committee— Young.......... 51 
IRAE BONO ooo cre oad sion Sv Ree Se mater s 52 
SAN EPRI 66 sds doin Se odd WRG &SWee-acd caw eee 58 
TE 2. Sse wc biavdiweeb a eevianeear 59 
ER a ere er re ee Mere See 61 








r Chief 
Capitol 





ARY 





The articles herein printed are the expressions of the writers and not 
necessarily those of the Department. 


COMING 
EVENTS IN 
MINIATURE— 


PRESIDENT ISABEL 
TUCKER, St. Louis, Mo., 
has asked that the 1940-41 
programs celebrate the De- 
partment’s Twentieth Year 
of Progress. 


DR. CARROLL R. REED, 
President of the A.A\S.A., 
is preparing an outstanding 
convention program for 
the Atlantic City meeting 
—Feb. 22-27, 1941. 


AS AN ANNIVERSARY 
offer the officers of the 
D.E.S.P. are allowing 
Headquarters to sell, to 
1940-41 members only, the 
Yearbooks of the Depart- 
ment, from the 5th through 
the 11th, at 50¢ per copy. 
There have been many re- 
quests for Yearbooks so as 
to complete professional 
libraries. Here is a_ real 
opportunity! First come, 
first served, for we have a 
limited supply. 


“EDUCATION FOR 
COMMON DEFENSE” is 
the theme for the American 
Education Week—Nov. 10- 
16, 1940. 


“RADIO IN FRE 
SCHOOLS”, a report of 
the Radio Committee of 
the D.E.S.P. of which Jane 
Monahan, Public School, 
No. 92, The Bronx, New 
York City, is chairman, 
will be sent complimentary 
to all 1940-41 members of 
the Department as soon as 
it is completed. 





PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 





National Defense 
Begins in the Kind. ercga'ten 


‘As the twig is bent so the tree will grow’’ is an 
adage centuries old but it is as true today as the day it 
was written. As the school doors swing open and 
children enter, it is the duty of every teacher and prin- 
cipal to see that the cultivation of enduring loyalties, 
mental attitudes, and spiritual values, as they affect 
every aspect of our American life, are taught. Love of 
American ideals is of major concern. Educators have 
a moral as well as a patriotic obligation in seeing that 
the children of our elementary schools of these United 
States love their country; in providing experiences to 
honor the American flag; and in redoubling their efforts 
to teach enduring loyalties which will help preserve the 
fundamentals of democracy. 


Let’s teach democracy as we have never taught it 
before! Let’s teach patriotism as it has never been taught! 
Let’s make the children of these United States of one 
mind and let that be preservation for this beloved land 
of ours now and forever. This can be done and the 
elementary school principals can and will do it!! 


Good old-fashioned hard work ow by every one 
of us will make this nation secure; for besides teaching 
our youth to read, write, spell, and ““figure’’ we must 
also teach him to be a useful citizen with Christian 
ideals. 





4 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 








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Our Country — Our Flag 


Isabel Tucker, President, Department of Elementary School Principals, 
and Principal, Festus J. Wade School, St. Louis, Missouri 


The Star Spangled Banner 
O long may it wave 
O’er the land of the free 
And the home of the brave. 


Sir Francis Scott Key. 


What a hectic beginning for our 
school year 1940-1941! Never before 
in the history of education have we 
embarked on the good ship ‘‘Educa- 
tion” into a sea filled with so many 
social, economic, and political prob- 
lems. 

True, citizenship has been a signifi- 
cant part of all elementary school 
curricula. Most of the teaching of the 
subject in the past, however, was the 
organization, management, and inter- 
pretation of government. This year it 
is a more active citizenship that must 
be taught and thus into our educa- 
tional vocabulary enters “A Citizen- 
ship Workshop.” In this workshop the 
youth must get a deeper understand- 
ing and love of the fundamental prin- 
ciples of a society in which the gov- 
ernment has its source in the people, 
, conducted by the people, and is for 

ISABEL TUCKER the welfare of the same people. 
Teaching the American youth, from 
Kindergarten through the grades, what our fine institutions and our individual 
liberties mean to our welfare, and how they are guaranteed to us,-is far more 
vital today than the teaching of structures or mechanics of government. 

Public schools are the only places our citizenry knows. Look at the place 
designated for the people of the community to register—the school; where do 
they go to vote—the school; what divisions are made of a city or county—the 
school district. The school functions in almost every conceivable way with regard 
to our people. 

The elementary principal must be aware of the dangers to this citizenry of 
these United States of America and plan the curricula that the youth will not 
be carried away by propaganda, slogans, shibboleths, but in this curricula there 
will be developed in each individual inner defense of the American way of gov- 
ernment and life. 








PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 5 








Let the principals of this vast country reaffirm their faith in our democracy, 
be outstanding democratic leaders and, most of all, see that those pupils who are 
under their guidance are imbued with enthusiasm for rational liberty so thor. 
oughly enjoyed by us in America. Let them see that this liberty is continued to 
be enjoyed for many years to come so that the youth of this country, by the 
fruits of their own efforts, will make the United States of America a land of 
intelligent, healthy, happy, and patriotic citizens. 


“From the mountains, to the prairies, 
To the oceans white with foam, 
God bless America, 
My home sweet home.” 
Irving Berlin. 





THE TEST OF AMERICANISM* 


“The time has come when we must make a choice. We can either resolve to 
protect our temples of liberty, or we can go blindly along believing that all is 
well. If we follow the latter course, we will some day find our liberties suddenly 
blacked out by the tyranny of a foreign dictator.” 


“Mere lip service to the letter of our democracy will not suffice. We need 
understanding and we need a renewed dedication to the spirit of liberty. This 
will not be easy to do. For a people to remain free, they must be courageous, 
self-reliant, willing to face the storms of life. Liberty is for the strong in spirit— 
not for the weak.” 


“The American way of living will endure only if it is proved to be efficient. 
The beauty of its ideals and the wisdom of its conduct will be safe only when we 
demonstrate the ability to function better than bloody-handed dictators. This 
we can do only through self-sacrifice and a dedication to the common cause of 
protecting that which we love. America can endure only if we prove ourselves 
to be stronger than our enemies. We must demonstrate unmistakably our effi- 
ciency in government by a willingness to abide by our laws.” 


“A vital test of Americanism is the revival of the pioneer spirit of our ancestors. 
As a people, we have become soft. Modern science has poured the fruit of its 
inventions into our laps. Physical effort has been minimized. We have been led 
to believe that struggle was not an essential part of our environment.” 


“Let us then dedicate ourselves to the preservation of the heritage of the 
American way of living. Let us accept the sacred trust which has been placed 
upon us by other generations who have shed their blood to fulfill their obligation 
to America. Already the enemy is gnawing at the vitals of our American in- 
stitutions. To counterattack, let the call of Americanism sound from coast to 
coast. Let us unite in dedicating our lives and energy, our efforts and aspirations 
in a crusade for America.” 


* Excerpts from an address delivered by J. Edgar Hoover, Director, Bureau of Investigation, to the American 
Legion, September 23, 1940. 








6 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 








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Needed Emphases in the Teaching of Reading to Pre- 
pare for Intelligent Participation in Democracy 


William S. Gray, Professor of Education, University of Chicago, 
Chicago, Illinois 


At various periods in the history of America, reading has 
served unique and significant purposes in the lives of its 
people. It has also had directive aims of a corresponding 
character in classrooms. This situation also prevails today. 

We are now passing through a stimulating but perilous 
era in our national development. As in the past, the domi- 
nant needs and problems of society are influencing to a 
large extent the purpose and nature of reading activities 
: both in school and in adult life. In seeking to define such 
WILLIAM 5. GRAY motives attention is directed instantly to the need for social 

understanding and enlightenment, for wise social planning 
and the preservation of the democratic ideal, for the development of a vital 
American culture, and for the wise use of the greater leisure which is a product 
of recent technological developments. Such needs suggest criteria for use in 
determining the social worth of the reading experiences provided in school. 

As we study current social needs it becomes clear that the reading experiences 
provided in school should promote highly important types of growth or changes 
in the learner. For example, he should grow rapidly in his understanding of 
himself and his physical and social environment, in his sensitivity to and 
concern about the welfare of people, in his understanding of and loyalty to the 
democratic way of life, in ability to organize his experiences into sound generali- 
zations, in the cultivation of attitudes, ideals, and appreciations that are the 
product of deliberate choice, in ability to adjust himself to changing conditions 
and to chart new courses of action, and in the development of broader interests, 
increased capacity for enjoyment, and richer and more stable personalities. 
These and many other values are inherent in reading as a means of preparing 
boys and girls for effective participation in democracy. The responsibility for 
identifying the values that merit greatest emphasis with given groups of pupils 
rests heavily on teachers at every level of general education. 

Efficiency in Reading—If pupils are to acquire clearer understandings, 
broader interests, and deeper appreciations than in the past, it is imperative 
that they develop greater efficiency in reading. To this end systematic guidance 
in reading should be provided throughout the period of general education. 
Furthermore, the reading materials used and the training given should be adapted 
jo the needs, attainments, and capacity of the pupils taught. As pointed out 
repeatedly at the recent Conference on Reading held at the University of Chicago, 
failure on the part of many schools to provide such a program is the chief cause 
for unsatisfactory progress in learning to read and lack of interest in reading 
among many pupils. 

But what phases of reading merit increased emphasis at the elementary school 
level? In seeking an answer to this question attention is directed first to the 








PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 7 








fact that careless, inaccurate reading prevails all too widely today among both 
children and adults. Under these circumstances reading can have only limited 
value in meeting individual needs and in promoting social progress. It follows 
that teachers throughout the elementary grades should devote themselves with 
increased vigor to the task of promoting greater accuracy and thoroughness of 
comprehension. Among the steps that are important in this connection are: 
cultivating strong motives for reading from the beginning; directing attention 
to the content of what is read; training pupils to attach to words meanings that 
are appropriate to the context; stimulating pupils to anticipate the meaning of 
a passage and to fuse the meaning of separate words into a chain of related ideas: 
checking on the accuracy of the meanings or new experiences acquired; and 
aiding pupils in recognizing and correcting their errors in comprehension. As 
accuracy is attained at a given level wide opportunity for growth through read- 
ing should be provided before introducing more difficult material. 

But comprehension alone is inadequate. In addition it is necessary for pupils 
to react to and interpret the ideas acquired. through reading. As pointed out 
frequently by I. A. Richards, Magdalene College, Cambridge, England, pupils 
should not be permitted to accept what they read unthinkingly. They should 
learn to use their past experiences in judging the worth and significance of the 
ideas acquired. It is possible, he states, to teach pupils to accept blindly the 
conclusions of others through a simple system of drill accompanied by quick 
rewards and sharp punishments. Or by training them to reflect and to accept 
or reject deliberately we may educate them to be free citizens. The first of the 
two alternatives is by far the easier; the latter requires patience and expert 
guidance. It gives promise, however, of developing citizens capable of wise 
discrimination and intelligent choice. Obviously, the issue with which we are 
here concerned is fundamental to the preservation of democracy. 

The foregoing statements imply that pupils should devote themselves increas- 
ingly to the deliberate study of the meaning and value of what they read. The 
facts presented should be related to familiar experiences and interpreted in the 
light of them. This involves much weighing of values and critical thinking both 
as they read and subsequent to reading. As a result the content of the page 
should be more fully appreciated and more wisely used because its value, signifi- 
cance, and implications are better understood. 

As pupils apprehend clearly and interpret critically they should integrate 
what they read with previous experience in order that new viewpoints, improved 
ways of thinking, and better guides to behavior may result. All too frequently 
boys and girls read widely without seeing relationships and integrating the ideas 
acquired with what they have learned otherwise. It follows that teachers should 
often raise questions and stimulate discussions that will aid pupils in organizing 
their ideas into more mature thought patterns. In this connection frequent grou 
activities have distinct advantages which are not inherent in a highly individual- 
ized reading program. 

Applying Wisely the Ideas Gained—lIf pupils acquire adequate power of 
self-direction and ability to aid in solving social problems, they must learn also 
to apply wisely the ideas gained through reading. The fact is widely recognized 
that there are two levels at which pupils can apply what is read to advantage. 





8 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 











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At the first level they learn to apply the information secured through reading 
in the study of problems which are challenging to the pupils and the answers 
which can be definitely checked. Three important obligations of teachers in 
this connection are to help pupils to discover problems that are significant and 
worthwhile, to provide guidance as needed in applying what they read in 
solving problems, and to aid them in checking the accuracy of their answers 
or conclusions. As pupils grow in ability to apply what they read wisely they 
usually develop the initiative and imagination necessary in solving increasingly 
difficult types of problems. 

At the second level the pupil applies what he reads in new ways, to new 
areas of interest and ultimately to hitherto unsolved issues. As a result he gains 
rapidly in ability to attack complex problems and controversial issues inde- 
pendently and in ability to plan, to discover, and to invent. Only as pupils 
acquire these qualities to at least a reasonable degree can we hope for intelligent 
social reconstruction in the future. It is doubtless true that only the more capable 
pupils will rise to distinction in the study and solution of new problems. It is 
essential, on the other hand, that all pupils be stimulated and provided with 
opportunities as they read to cultivate the spirit of inquiry and self-direction. 

Inherent in the foregoing discussion is the assumption that reading is a purpose- 
ful activity. It follows that the ends to be attained through reading should be 
clearly recognized by the reader. Furthermore, he should assume large responsi- 
bility for defining the purposes for reading on given occasions and should grow 
in ability to recognize the purpose or purposes that might be served in reading 
different types of material. The additional fact should be pointed out that the 
processes involved in reading vary to a significant extent with the purpose. 
Indeed, the depth and clarity of understanding, the reader’s reactions to 
the ideas acquired, and the use which he makes of them varies with the purpose 
of reading on given occasions. It follows that teachers should study carefully 
the demands made on pupils when reading for given purposes and provide them 
with the guidance needed in achieving the purpose for reading. 

If reading serves its highest purpose in contemporary life it should modify 
helpfully the personality of the reader. One of the vital needs today is social 
rather than selfish personalities. Some of the more obvious values of reading in 
this connection are that it broadens and deepens the interest of the reader, 
develops ideals and appropriate attitudes, and elevates tastes. This list of values 
may be greatly extended. The fact is widely recognized that teachers should 
plan definitely to help pupils acquire new and compelling interests as they 
read and to develop high ideals and appropriate attitudes which will modify 
conduct. In these and other ways reading may aid materially in developing a 
generation of citizens with social, stable, and enriched personalities. 





A Complete Set of Department Yearbooks for Sale!! 


Earl E. Bovee, 4315 Orleans Avenue, Sioux City, Iowa, has retired and writes: 


“Do you know of anybody who would like to purchase a whole set of the Elementary 
Yearbooks beginning with No. 1? I think I also have, with one or two exceptions, 
every bulletin published since the organization began.” 


If you are interested in this set, be sure to contact Mr. Bovee. 





PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 9 








CONVENTION PROGRAM—JULY 1, 1940 


Practices of the Progressive Elementary School 


N MONDAY AFTERNOON, JULY 1, the Department of Elementary 
School Principals held its first general session in Juneau Hall, Main Audi- 
torium, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. For several years the afternoon general sessions 
of the Department programs have been preceded by community singing and the 
meeting at Milwaukee was outstanding in this feature, for that particular section 
of our country seems to develop or give to both men and women exceptionally 
fine voices. With Robert Edgar, principal, Bedford School, Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- 
vania, leader, and Edith Knight, in charge of grade music, Lake Bluff School, 
Shorewood, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, accompanist, the welkin rang. 

The distinguished speakers were selected by President Irvin A. Wilson, because 
of their exceptional ability in their particular line of work, and their knowledge 
of the problems of the elementary school. Miss White is nationally known in 
the field of remedial reading and has had remarkable success in her work as 
Supervisor of Elementary English in the Cleveland, Ohio, schools. Dr. Carroll 
R. Reed, president, American Association of School Administrators is one of 
those genial, fine superintendents whose school system in Minneapolis, Minne- 
sota, is considered one of the very finest in the United States. 





Understanding the Child 
Margaret L. White, Supervisor of Elementary English, Cleveland, Ohio 


I believe in organized and planned subject matter. I wish 
to emphasize this point since the major portion of my talk 
will be devoted to the other factors—integrated experiences 
and integrated personalities. However, I feel that we begin 
our organized and formalized subject matter too early for 
some children, in fact for the majority of children. The school 
i is a new environment for the child, with numerous and strange 

ff y experiences to be assorted and digested. We need a longer 
/ i % 4 period of adjustment and growth in interests and experiences 
MARGARET L. wHiTe SUCh as are so ably begun in the kindergarten, rather than 

a shortened period, which plunges a child so hastily into 
various organized subject matter fields. A child’s personal habits need to be 
established; growth in self-control, confidence, cooperation, curiosity, and powers 
of observation need to be developed before he becomes an innocent slave to 
formalized subjects. 

One basic philosophy does not necessarily eliminate the other—we should 
have both. We want organized subject matter and the integrated personality. 
In fact there cannot be a well integrated personality unless the individual has 
information and facts. My plea is for a reversal of approach and emphasis, 
namely, that the child is more important than any single fact or group of facts 








10 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 











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or skills. The child, his interests and needs, should be our guide in planning 
school activities. We should delay formal progression of subject matter until 
a child has had a period of maturation in his newer and wider school environment 
and experiences. This point of view is ably stated by Lee Edward Travis of the 
American Speech Correction Association in regard to speech correction: 


The primary concern of speech correction is the person. It is not enough to know 
what sort of speech defect a person has. In addition, one should know what kind of 
person has a speech defect. The speech defect has no particular meaning apart from 
the person who presents the defect. We are not interested in speech defects alone but 
in speech defectives. 


In order to understand the child, one must have some understanding of the 
environment in which the child lives, as well as the problems which he will be 
required to face. 

Dr. William H. Kilpatrick said at the time of his retirement from Teachers’ 
College, Columbia University, New York City: 

The education of the future will more and more consistently consider the “whole 
child”—partly because only thus can we take adequate care of all the simultaneous 
learning effects that all the while are building themselves up, partly because only thus 
can we care properly for personality adjustment. Mental hygiene, under that name or 
a better, is here to stay, and on far stronger terms than we have yet known. 

Also, the education of the future will still more consistently respect child purposing 
as the strategic manifestation of child personality—partly to make it the basis of 
school activity, partly because it alone can give point and meaning both to life and 
learning, partly because it alone can take care of child personality. 

And still further, the education of the future will put first, before learning, the im- 
proving of life qualitatively conceived. The necessary learning will follow this almost 
inherently. The central aim and focus will be to make life good for all, always ever 
better than otherwise it would be. This must be the school’s inclusive aim. 


Analysis of the Problem—One reads similar thoughts expressed over and 
over in a variety of ways in all types of literature—professional, philosophical, 
and religious. The changing social order is a part of every discussion. 

Too much of the literature dealing with mental hygiene and personality de- 
velopment is devoted to a discussion of “problem” children. Perhaps this is 
due to the fact that clinics have given more attention to abnormal children than 
they have to children who have not as yet shown strong tendencies toward anti- 
social behavior. It is different with the schools. The schools should be concerned 
with conditions that are favorable to wholesome development. They must ask: 
“What are the conditions and experiences which children need in order to mature 
with adjusted wholesome personalities? What do children need in the way of 
things, activities, experiences, and relationships in order to attain functional 
effectiveness in our society and, at the same time, be reasonably happy? Instead 
of presenting the negative picture of the unwholesome conditions which are at 
the root of much present maladjustment with the admonition to school people 
that they avoid these conditions, we should undertake a more positive statement 
of what children need for the promotion of their mental health and for the 
development of normal adjusted personalities.” 


PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 11 











Children’s Needs—Children’s needs fall naturally into three classes repre. 
senting three major aspects of the life of a person. These needs can be called: 
physical, social, and personality or integrative needs. 

Since the physiological needs of growing children are a phase of the subject 
too lengthy to discuss at this time, I shall only mention this phase as an impor- 
tant factor in behavior and emotional stability. May I stress only these points, 
that activity must be followed by rest and that a proper balance and rhythm 
between the two be preserved. This is vital to emotional adjustment as well as 
to physical health. 

The social needs of the individual grow out of the fact that life must be lived 
in contact with other people. As a child establishes himself with his classmates, 
teachers, and other social groups, he realizes his own abilities and faults. Through 
these experiences he must learn to adjust and modify his own behavior. He must 
live in an environment of kindliness and fairness, for only in this way can the 
child have the feeling of security which is essential to personality development. 

He must also have the experience of belonging and contributing to the group 
with which he works. If he is to learn to respect the rights and opinions of others 
he must realize his own value to the group. It is entirely possible that the group 
or the teacher with whom a child works is more important for child development 
than is the subject matter itself. 

The story of Nancy which appeared in the journal, Understanding the Child, 
April, 1937, tells of one little girl who was given the feeling of not belonging: 

Nancy is in the second grade. She is buoyant, healthy, happy, full of imagination, 
above average in intelligence, pretty. Her mother is terribly proud of her, spoils her, 
makes her the center of attention, waves her hair, laughs at her remarks. Her teacher 
is plain, intellectual, emotionally aggressive under a quiet repressed exterior. The 
children like Nancy who is full of fun, always has ideas for playing. is sometimes too 
bossy, but who has ways of “making-up” when she finds she can’t have her way. 
When the seven-year-olds began to learn to read, Nancy took it none too seriously. 
She played around on the edge of the group, looked out of the window, thought about 
a lot of interesting things, giggled now and then. Day by day most of the group learned 
more and more about reading. Nancy and three or four duller children began to be 
left behind. A cold kept her out of school three weeks. When she returned, most of 
the other children could read. Nancy could not. The teacher called on her and she 
failed. The teacher told her that she couldn’t read because she didn’t pay attention 
The teacher was not surprised. Nancy, certainly to her, was an unattractive child whose 
activities were a nuisance in her school. Gradually Nancy did not want to go to 
school in the mornings. She talked about hating school and hating “old Miss Brown”. 
In school the children reflected somewhat the teacher’s attitude: Nancy was in disgrace 
because she could not read. In school the old Nancy was gone; in her place was a 
quiet, withdrawing unhappy little girl who thought nobody liked her. 

This is an example of a school situation wherein the teacher was teaching read- 
ing, rather than teaching children to learn to read. The methods she used were 
all right for some of the children, but they did not work at all for Nancy. This 
teacher acted as if she thought that the way to cure a little girl of expecting all the 
attention in school was to give her none at all, that the way to teach a little 
dawdler how to study was to shame her because she was behind the group, and 
that really a buoyant, imaginative child like Nancy deserved to be made ashamed 
before her peers and to be unhappy if she could not settle down and work. 
Interestingly enough, the teacher did not really think this way at all; she acted 





12 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 








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in this way because she was primarily interested in reading, was in fact a spe- 
cialist in reading methods, and because she understood very little about the 
growing, developing personalities of children. 

This points to our need for adapting subject matter and school routine to 
meet the needs and personalities of children. An individual wants to feel that 
he is like other members of his group. It is largely through comparing himself 
and his accomplishments with other persons about him that the individual learns 
his own strength and develops confidence in himself. Rich and varied experi- 
ences are the best means for developing social behavior and attitudes. 

As the child progresses through school, he learns the inevitable results of 
causes and effects. He can use this knowledge if he learns to make his own 
behavior harmonize with the laws of cause and effect. Unfortunate indeed is 
the child, or adult, who has not learned to adjust to changing environment and 
conditions and who continually fights the necessity of conforming when con-~ 
formity is desirable. 

Gradually children should be given more and more responsibility for their 
own conduct. They should depend less and less upon other persons for their 
decisions. Naturally, this ability comes slowly and grows as a child develops 
standards and the ability to judge. These abilities develop only through practice 
in self-direction. 

Learning to Value—lIn the final analysis an individual learns to value him- 
self and earn the respect of his associates by the ability he displays in meeting 
situations. The ability to meet new and challenging situations is developed 
through meeting familiar situations successfully. For this reason a child needs 
to be successful in learning the things he has seen other children learn. He needs 
to experience a fair balance of success and failure in order to gain confidence 
in himself and feel that he is respected and valued by others. 

Often, in the primary stages, at least, one can help a child more effectively 
to learn to read, not by teaching reading, but by giving him experiences and 
developing abilities which in turn will make him feel the need for reading, and 
the acquiring of skill in reading a real thrill and pleasure, rather than a dull, 
uninteresting, and unintelligible experience. 

Many of the schools and courses of study have been organized to teach subject 
matter, based upon the logical arrangement of the subject rather than upon 
children’s needs and personalities. If we are to plan for individual differences 
in children, we must vary the content of subject matter as well as the amount 
and method of presentation. 

The schools will need to reorganize very thoroughly, with the child and his 
need for rich experiences the primary concern of all activities in the school. 
The integration of personalities and child development should be the major 
objective in education, and teachers should experiment until they determine 
what experiences and environment are vital to children in developing normally. 
Specifically, how do we start? May I offer a few practical suggestions? 

In any philosophical material in the field of education, one reads that educa- 
tion is life, that the schoolroom situation and the curricula should be as life-like 
as possible. Let us examine a life-like situation. 





PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 13 








Each one of us is an individual who is living in an environment which is made 
up of organized activities and experiences. In Cleveland, for instance, we have 
the Symphony, The Playhouse, picture shows, department stores, an elaborate 
park system, and many other activities all of which are completely organized. 
Any individual in Cleveland may choose, from time to time, any one or several 
of these activities and experiences, but no one of us would wish to engage in 
or follow all of these activities all the time. 

I wonder if this is not one of the fallacies in our organized subject matter 
and curricula for the primary grades. In our eagerness to surround the child 
with interesting experiences and a rich environment, perhaps we confuse him. 
Would it not be better to pursue one interest or experience more fully, and 
then go on to another interest? For example, the class might engage in an 
experience or activity with Science as the center of interest. Most of the subject 
’ matter in the classroom would center around this particular interest or experience 
which might be carried on for two weeks, four weeks, or even six weeks. Natu- 
rally, during this time other activities such as singing, physical, and manual 
activities, should be carried on sometimes with the large unit but most generally 
not. These subjects have a place all their own in the lives of children. After 
the completion of this stimulating and intensive period of Science, the group 
might turn its attention to Social Studies which again could be carried through 
for a period of three or four weeks, and thus go through all of the various 
subject matter fields if we must think of them as separate subjects in the pri- 
mary grades. The primary curricula would be a series of vital and interesting 
experiences which build definite and live concepts for children. Naturally, this 
program would be somewhat more difficult to carry through in the upper ele- 
mentary grades, but in the primary section at least we could expose children 
to these various centers of interest or experiences, one after another, arousing 
their curiosity, their interest, and their desires to learn more, and later, giving 
them an opportunity to pursue, under proper guidance, the experiences and 
activities which are of the greatest need to them. This should be carefully 
organized. 

Still further, I wonder if it would help to think of the child and the organiza- 
tion of subject matter in the primary grades as a wheel. The child is the hub 
or the center. Each subject radiates from the hub as do the spokes in a wheel. 
Following this analogy through in the primary grades, the subject matter should 
be very closely related to the child and his environment. The spaces at the hub 
dividing one subject from another are so small that they are scarcely recog- 
nizable. As the lines radiate from the hub, the subject matter lines become 
farther and farther apart. 

We should be concerned with keeping these spaces small in the beginning in 
order that the hub may be strengthened for its trip over rocky roads as well 
as smooth pavement. 

Perhaps this is a suggestion for the organization of our subject matter for 
the primary grades. 

As long as schools have been organized, society and tradition have dictated 
that a child should learn to read the first year he is in school, or the first year 





14 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 











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after he leaves kindergarten, if he is fortunate enough to have attended kinder- 
garten. I am not arguing that this procedure should continue. Personally, I think 
many children learn to read too early. In general I think most children would 
be far better off if the formal phases of reading were delayed until they were 
seven years old or at least until the gap between the home environment and 
the school environment has been bridged and the child has more ideas, concepts, 
a larger oral vocabulary, and experiences to bring to his reading. But if we 
must teach children tc read shortly after they enter the primary department, 
then I feel that, in justice to the child, during the initial stages of carrying 
this rather complicated schedule, other formalized subject matter activities 
should be postponed. 

I am not suggesting that other subjects should give way to reading, for after 
all, preparation for reading and reading itself is an essential part of other 
activities. I am making a plea for the child, because I am sure that positive 
harm is done when many complicated activities are given to him simultaneously. 
Psychologists go so far as to say that teachers should not attempt voice place- 
ment or voice training in connection with reading, that this brings about a 
nervous tension which complicates the learning in both situations. May this 
not be equally true of children who are struggling with the first stages of 
reading? Perhaps these conditions may be the cause of some of the stutterers 
and emotionally upset children which we have in our schools. 

Possibly we are concerned too early with the growth and development of 
the child in a particular subject or skill. I remember an illustration which I 
heard years ago. A mother is perfectly willing to see her baby kick without 
wondering how far he has got in his kicking but with confidence that through 
this kicking and the use of his muscles the child will eventually learn to walk. 
But not so with educators. I am afraid we would immediately begin to analyze 
and check to determine just how far the child had got with his kicking and 


to urge him to begin to walk. 
Checking and analyses are essential in education as in any activity, but do 


we begin this too soon? 





FIFTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON ELEMENTARY 
EDUCATION 
Harvard University 
July 7-18, 1941 
President Isabel Tucker and the officers of the Department of Elementary 
School Principals are delighted to announce that plans are fast being made to 
hold the Fifth Annual Conference on Elementary Education at Harvard Uni- 
versity, Cambridge, Massachusetts, July 7-18, 1941, immediately following the 
National Education Association’s convention at Boston, June 29-July 3, 1941. 
Dean Francis T. Spaulding has selected Dr. William H. Burton, as our contact 
man, and those who know Dr. Burton realize that we shall have another superb 
program. 
Watch for further announcements of this conference in The National Ele- 


mentary Principal. 





PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 15 





The Principal as an Educational Leader 


Carroll R. Reed, President, American Association of School Adminis. 
trators, and Superintendent of Schools, Minneapolis, Minnesota 


I thought it might be best to talk to you about the prin- 
cipal by beginning with a story of one of our very fine ele- 
mentary principals who went into the kindergarten the very 
first day of school last fall and met the problem of the little 
boy who came with his mother and persisted in crying just 
as soon as his mother left. He was in tears and the principal 
went in and said, “What’s the matter?” He said, “I am 
afraid, I want to go home with my mother.” The principal 
told the little boy to come with her and she took him with 
cannes. &. name her as she went around the building doing various things. 

Every fifteen minutes or so she would bring him back and 
try to leave him but when she left he would set up a howl again, and she would 
take him by the hand and take him with her wherever she went. Finally, after 
this had been going on for two or three hours, she took the boy back into the 
kindergarten and said, ‘““Now, sonny, what is the matter, what are you afraid 
of?” He answered, “I am afraid of the principal.” 

A good many people are afraid of the principal, but I have never been able to 
be afraid of principals, for I was a principal myself once. I was in a town in New 
England where, due to circumstances, I became elected superintendent of schools 
when I was 23 years old. It seems I was pretty young but I stayed superintendent 
for two or three years. I went up to Newton, where Frank Spaulding was super- 
intendent and I confessed to him that I was superintendent of schools but I didn’t 
know enough to be superintendent of schools, and I wanted to be an elementary 
principal for five years. We talked the matter over and I became an elementary 
school principal in Newton and was there for five years before I started on the 
superintendency again. I feel whatever insight I have into the problems of the 
elementary school goes back to those five very happy years that I spent as a 
supervising principal in the schools of Newton, Massachusetts. 

National Emergency Affects Elementary School—During the last four 
or five weeks I have been in Washington four or five times and in New York two 
or three times on this problem we are facing, characterized by our President as a 
temporary emergency. Those of us who live out in the middle west do not realize 
the hysteria which has developed east of the Appalachian Mountains. When you 
go to New York, Boston, or Washington, you find a tense situation. When I look 
back to 1917 I can see a resemblance in the way people are thinking and the way 
they talked and thought in 1917. We are in a national emergency and it doesn’t 
do any good to underestimate the kind of opposition we are having. | say “having” 
for we are already in that contest and have been for several years. It is a contest 
of two great ideologies—whether the citizen lives for the state or whether the 
state exists for the citizen. I want to mention one or two fundamental points we 
could keep in mind at a time like this. It is true education will have to help, and 
education can help in two ways. It can help by cooperating, and it can help by 








16 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 





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encouraging our program of vocational education. It can help by assisting in the 
cataloging of our man power, our personnel, and find out what our people can 
do best. We have been doing that under the name of guidance a good many years, 
but we have to speed it up. 

We have the great problem of consequences of education. It is very easy in a 
time like this for us to lose our sense of proportion and to interfere very largely 
with some of the educational values that are being developed day by day in the 
school. One of the best means of public differences is education as it is, and as 
it has been in this country for the past twenty years. There will be all kinds of 
demands—they are being made already for more flag salutes, more slogans, and 
patriotic demonstrations—but in a last analysis, we have to keep on teaching 
children to live together, to work together cooperatively, to abide by the opinion 
of the majority, to respect each other’s opinions, all kinds of opinions, to be willing 
to discuss questions where there are differences of opinion, and having discussed 
those questions, to agree to either disagree or to agree to abide by the opinion of 
the majority. These are the fundamental things that are going on in our schools 
day by day, year after year, and these are the things about which a layman does 
not know, and when a parent like this comes, he wants to do something quickly 
and the trouble is we are apt to upset the routine by which we are doing things 
correctly in building for American citizenship through the years. I want to leave 
this with you as a note of warning in a time like this. 

Qualities a Principal Needs—The most important qualities a principal 
can have are those qualities of personality, sympathy, and understanding. These 
are very difficult to measure but we all know when we see them, and we all realize 
they are absolutely necessary—at least those of us who have had any experience 
of being a school principal. 

One of the problems we have been facing in Minneapolis, and I know you have 
in other cities, is the very difficult problem of promotion of teachers to the position 
of elementary principalship. We have betn working on it for several years. We 
have tried examinations, requiring courses, inquiry blanks, years of experience, 
yet in all of our studies and all our plans and attempts to measure those qualities 
we come back always to the fact that you have to have some things for some 
schools and you have to know what those things are. I think I would mention 
sympathy, understanding, approachability, the qualities of making other people 
feel at ease, the quality of cheerfulness and the development of an atmosphere 
of happiness in teachers and pupils—all those things are necessary in a successful 
principal, yet they are difficult to measure. We are trying to measure them by 
opinions of various kinds, by watching the development of those qualities in the 
principal. 

I maintain that if we are going to discuss the subject of the principal as an 
educational leader, we should first start with the fundamental thesis that the 
school exists for the children and that the communion between the teacher and 
the child is after all the reason for this complicated modern school system. The 
elementary school principal who protects and improves this relationship between 
pupil and teacher is making the most effective and important contribution to the 
school system. In accepting this task the principal must have large responsibility 
and limit it to work out a program accepting these fundamental objectives. 





PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 17 





Let me give you an outline of my idea of the qualities that make an elementary 
principal a real educational leader and I would like to divide this outline into fiye 
main headings. 

Organization of the School—Good school organization includes the prob. 
lem of the assignment of teachers, of analyzing the load and of giving to each 
teacher the maximum opportunity for carrying on in the classroom according t 
her ability and interest. This would include classification of pupils on the basis 
of ability and interest, together with a close check on progress of the pupil 
Special attention must be given those who have difficulty in adjusting themselves, 
In accepting these aims the principal must be acquainted with modern education 
and must be able to keep records. 

I am going to depart a moment from this paper and talk for just a few moments 
about this matter of records. I suppose there is nothing that causes any more 
irritation and discussion in an elementary school than records, but personally | 
am convinced you cannot run the school successfully without them. It seems to 
me an effective record system is absolutely important, and necessary for the 
functioning of a modern elementary school. Now, I know what the teacher says, 
“How can I teach and how can you maintain the communion between the teacher 
and child, if you are going to ask the teacher to spend a lot of time making out 
records?” The teacher is right and yet wrong. I consider it is possible to ask a 
teacher to spend too much time on records, yet a certain amount of bookkeeping 
about this pupil or that pupil helps us, as teachers, to form an opinion and to 
evaluate the abilities and interests of each particular child. I think the teacher 
may be right in this extent that in most elementary schools we do not have enough 
clerical work, and I am convinced we could spend more money to hire clerks, for 
it takes away some exceedingly valuable time from the teachers. We do need 
records, but we should have more clerks’ assistance for making them available for 
the visiting teachers, counselors, and high school principals later on. 

Administration—The word “administration” is mighty big, for a multitude 
of duties consume a great deal of time and also interfere with other duties which 
have to do with the improvement of instruction. A few years ago in Minneapolis 
we made a careful study of the time consumed by principals in various duties and 
discovered about 40 percent of the total time was used for administrative duties. 
This raises the suggestion which has been much discussed as to whether the prin- 
cipal shall be an educational leader or just a trouble “shooter.”’ This problem has 
to do with maintaining of school buildings, discussing problems with the janitor, 
administration of attitudes, problems of discipline, safety measures, school 
patriotism, making a schedule for the visiting teachers, disposing of health prob- 
lems, cooperating with the charity societies and relief of needy families, and 
financing equipment—motion pictures, athletic supplies, art supplies, and other 
things the Board of Education cannot or will not buy. It is in this field that the 
principal needs clerical assistance. There is no use expecting the principal to have 
background, and personal qualities and then ask that person to spend the 
majority of her time in clerical work. If this help cannot be secured, then the 
only solution is in carefully budgeting the principal’s time. Although every super- 
intendent of schools realizes the difficulty of following a set schedule, it is helpful 
for the superintendent or principal to have such a schedule. One which was worked 





18 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 








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out in Minneapolis was: 8:30-9:15 a.m.; 12:00-1:15 p.m.; and 2:15-4:00 p.m. 
were the office hours and during those hours the principal had conferences with 
parents, pupils, teachers, or whatever clerical duties or work was necessary. The 
hours 9:15 to 11:45 and 1:15 to 2:15 were hours for supervision. During these 
hours the principal visited classrooms and spent this time for the improvement 
of instruction and had no conferences with parents. In other words she tried to 
get away from the telephone during those hours. If you start on that plan, you 
may be able to do it part of the time. 

Supervision—Supervision has to do with the improvement of instruction 
and to my mind this is the duty which is of paramount importance. To return 
to this problem of the promotion of teachers to the principalship, the first 
question we ask on our application blank is, “What contribution do you feel you 
could make to the field of the principalship in working out a program for that 
building?” In every school system of the country we are facing the problem of 
decreasing income. In attempting to adjust school expenditure for this decreased 
income, the question of reducing supervision from the central office is always 
questioned. This expenditure, while it is of the utmost importance and is visioned 
very highly to the layman, has been called overhead cost and seems to be a 
legitimate place for making a saving. After a careful study of the situation, we 
have been able to reduce central supervision by eleven people. It has been a ques- 
tion of meeting an emergency which has been faced in our city and is being faced 
in every city. We have tried to justify these reductions, for principals can accept 
this responsibility of supervision of their teachers. I realize that is not done in 
every city. There are cities where principals have very little to say about super- 
vision of the building. I maintain the principal should be and could be responsible. 
A certain amount of supervision is necessary in order to provide unity in the 
school system. In most schools they believe in line staff organization. The school 
principal is the line officer in the school system and as such should be held respon- 
sible. He is in command of the building, and he should keep his thoughts in accord 
with the modern educational theories of the superintendent and his central staff. 
He is directly responsible for the educational campaign in his district. Supervisors 
are special officers of the superintendent in making policies relating to the super- 
intendent. They are experts to whom the superintendent must look for assistance 
in the matter of advice, but when the supervisor enters the school building, he 
comes under the jurisdiction of the principal of that school, and should not change 
any of the policies without the knowledge and consent of the principal. On the 
other hand the principal has no right to thwart the policies in a school system. 
Common sense and the understanding of teamwork must be present. The purpose 
of supervision is the improvement of instruction and in bringing this about the 
principal should accept the responsibility for discussing the places where improve- 
ment is necessary and then call upon the supervisor for assistance. Of course, 
beginning teachers need more than the usual amount of help. Recently we ques- 
tioned a group of teachers as to whether they welcomed supervision. The replies 
were: “Supervision has helped me.” “It has pointed out the weak places in my 
teaching.” “It has cured me of talking too much.” Then we asked a group of 
beginning teachers what were their difficulties and we received the following 





PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 19 





replies: “I don’t know how best to proportion time and make my teaching eff. 
cient.” “I am expecting too much from my pupils and not getting the results | 
desire.” “I find it hard to get children to take responsibility and do things fo 
themselves.” 


The principal who accepts this responsibility must visit the classes and musj 
know what is going on in his school. In my early days as principal I used to spend 
most of my time making rating sheets for my teachers. It cannot be done and | 
think we all realize it. It is very difficult to put in a rating for teachers. Surely 
we can rate them as poor, indifferent, good, and some as superior, but it is difficul; 
to put it on a qualitative basis. I think we have arrived where supervision is ap 
attempt to help the teacher and of course it must make use of all the agencies— 
teachers’ meetings, visiting classes, curriculum planning, standard tests, and every 
other known device that comes along to make supervision more efficient. 

The principal may accept the problem or solve the problem of lightening the 
teaching load by (1) taking care of discipline cases promptly and (2) preventing 
or reducing interference of daily routine of teachers. Teachers must be protected 
from the unwarranted attacks of unreasonable critics. 

Friendliness and Teamwork Among Teachers—This can be promoted 
by making arrangements for hall duties, lunchroom duties, and by distributing 
student activities so that the work may be clearly divided, and by avoiding long, 
uninteresting teachers’ meetings at the close of a day’s work. I am going to mention 
two other fields in which I think the principal can prove himself an educational 
leader. (1) The principal and teacher should be willing to contribute to the 
professional growth of the school system. It means a certain amount of school 
studying and reading. It means joining a professional organization or organiza- 
tions and giving some time to them and to the development of its policies. Ii 
there is ever a time when teachers should be organized, it is right now and this 
National Education Association and the Department of Elementary School Prin- 
cipals, and Classroom Teachers are right now in a position to do a real work in 
this problem of national work. (2) In the school system and community there is 
need for developing responsibility for the whole school system. All principals 
should loyally accept and support any measure that brings a gain for the system 
as a whole, even if it means a loss for his own school. Every principal is faced 
with this vital problem of a decrease in the schools’ enrolment. Such problem: 
must be faced and solved for the benefit of the boys and girls. That is a problem 
we are all facing and we have to face it together. The real, true, educational leader 
is willing to cooperate in solving these problems and in forgetting his own school’s 
problem and working for the school system as a whole. 

Principal as a Public Relations Expert—You know we talk a good deal 
about public relations. We hire reporters and write newspaper articles, but the 
greatest and most effective advertising is the efficient elementary school principal, 
for you are right there in the district. The system is made up of a collection o! 
districts and if you can make your people happy about the school and look to the 
school as a center of their life in the community and if you can become the judge, 
the policy maker, and in some cases the clergyman of the district, then you are 
doing the most effective job that can be done for your school system. 





20 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 








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CONVENTION PROGRAM—JULY 2, 1940 


HE SECOND GENERAL SESSION of the Department of Elementary 

School Principals was held Tuesday afternoon, July 2, Juneau Hall, Main 
Auditorium, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. With Robert Edgar as leader and Edith 
Knight at the piano the group again thoroughly enjoyed thirty minutes of com- 
munity singing. President Irvin A. Wilson held a short business meeting at which 
William F. Buboltz, president, Milwaukee Elementary Principals’ Association, 
welcomed the principals to Milwaukee; Laura E. Kellar, president, Wisconsin 
Elementary Principals’ Association, gave a welcome for the state of Wisconsin; 
Cecelia Galvin, Indianapolis, Indiana, chairman of the 1940 Editorial Committee, 
gave a report of the new Yearbook, “Meeting Special Needs of the Individual 
Child”; Sarah L. Young, Oakland, California, gave the report of the Necrology 
Committee, of which she is chairman; and the officers of the Department were 
elected for the coming year. President Wilson then asked Arnold Vieth, principal, 
Twentieth Street School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and chairman for the afternoon 
session, to take charge. He asked the other members of his committee to stand. 
They were as follows: Thomas Boyce, principal, Cass Street School, Milwaukee; 
Marguerite Cleary, principal, Washington School, West Allis; Albert W. Krueger, 
principal, Jefferson and Wilson Schools, Wauwatosa; and Barton Rogers, prin- 
cipal, Lincoln School, Oconomowoc. The delightful program was sponsored by the 
Milwaukee and Wisconsin Elementary Principals’ Association. 

All who have ever had the great pleasure of hearing such eminent leaders as 
Drs. E. T. McSwain, Northwestern University, and J. Murray Lee, University 
of Wisconsin, know that the afternoon meeting was thoroughly enjoyed and highly 
instructive. The group sponsoring the program could not have chosen two edu- 
cators more thoroughly versed in the problems faced by our elementary schools, 
or more capable of telling how these problems may be solved. 





The Modern School—A Workshop in Democratic Citi- 
zenship 


E. T. McSwain, Associate Professor of Education, Northwestern 
University, Evanston, Illinois 


I desire to make one statement in the beginning in order 
that our communication may be comparable in purpose and 
intellectual choice. My remarks shall be based on my inter- 
pretation of democracy, the needs of children, the learning 
process, and the purpose of the elementary school. I rec- 
ognize that there is more than one concept regarding the 
factors I have mentioned. Each of you is entitled to his 
own point of view. If we all thought alike we would lose 
the benefits of growth through reflective conflict. We are 
under obligation to examine our views and practices in terms 
of new evidence and recent research findings. The applica- 
tion of the scientific method requires continuous examination of assumptions 


PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 21 





E. T. McSWAIN 








and conclusions in light of new data. Reflective appraisal of one’s concept and 
understanding of the child, the learning process, and the obligations of the 
school is a responsibility no principal can evade without serious consequences. 
Citizenship—First, I desire to call your attention to the communicative 
symbol, citizenship. As a symbol it possesses no meaning. The meaning and 
value of the word, citizenship, emerges out of the accepted learning and organ- 
ization of meanings from past experience. In reality, each of us brings our 
interpretation to the word when we use it. In fact, there are as many inter- 
pretations of citizenship as there are individuals in this room. We communicate 
effectively when using the term, only as there is similarity in our past experi- 
ences. I say this in order that we may direct our consideration to the social 
bases underlying citizenship. Each person reveals the social meanings of words 
used, not by the exercise of our vocal chords but by applied meanings in our 
inter-actions with others. The genuine concept of citizenship is revealed in 
one’s association with children, fellow-teachers, parents, and others. One diffi- 
culty in America today is that we find so many people ready to talk at-length 
about patriotism and American citizenship but are unable or unwilling to live 
democratic citizenship in association with others. Genuine democratic citizen- 
ship presents important privileges and requires mutual responsibilities. Are we ; 
courageous enough to strive to live the basic meanings inherent in democratic 
citizenship? The answer presents an imperative challenge to each of us. 
The moral function of the school is to help boys and girls learn how to live 
more adequately with others. Building the desires and procedures to seek con- 
tinuous improvement in social living is, as I see it, citizenship. We cannot teach 
citizenship by the direct method. Our errors in character education should 
reveal the shortage in teaching by imposed patterns and requirements. Our job 
is to strive in every way to provide a school environment of social experiences 
out of which each child interprets, learns, and applies the values in democratic 
citizenship. Dr. Kilpatrick has helped us to see that the child learns as he 
lives. The quality and meanings of the child’s citizenship represent the accepted 
learnings found in school and home life. The child learns his citizenship as 
he lives it and observes it lived by us. Ritualistic patriotism provides a faulty 
foundation for democratic citizenship. To force a child to salute the flag does 
not guarantee intelligent citizenship or patriotism. We must help the child learn 
to respect and be loyal to the flag and our American way of life by demonstrating 
the cherished values of each in our daily living. No individual or nation can 
rise higher than the quality of citizenship lived daily in association with others. 
Behavior—I think it essential that we consider another factor related to 
citizenship. As we face physical or social danger or as we are required to 
experience complex problems and tensions in social living, we tend to increase 
our concern about the behavior or citizenship of other people. Today, we are 
discouraged by the fall of democracies in many countries in Europe. Should 
we not give reflective attention to what may be emerging in America by ou! 
failure to seek solutions to many crucial social problems in America? The failure 
of democracy in certain European countries can be traced to the low quality o! 
democratic citizenship practiced by all persons. The chief enemy to America® 
democracy is home grown, not a foreign variety. We can be influenced to use 


22 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR\ 








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the tragedy in Europe as an escape for facing social reality at home. Internal 
disintegration comes more from malpractice in democratic citizenship than from 
foreign invasion. Our best defense for American democracy is a united, intelli- 
gent attempt to solve our internal problems and conflicts. 

Today, we are witnessing the extensive development of a military program 
for defense. Enormous appropriations are being made for instruments of war. 
Citizenship must be built from different material—improved social ideals, values, 
and the desire to live democratically. As educators, should we not concern our- 
selves with the probable consequences of an extensive, expensive military 
program for children, citizens, and education? What are the inevitable outcomes 
of a military environment? War fear, war practices, and war instruments may 
produce significant changes in our concept of democratic citizenship. The role 
of the soldier may be accepted to be more important than that of the teacher, 
or the citizen. In no way do I wish to reflect upon the value and importance 
of our army or navy. Honesty demands that we view the relations and effects 
of the interrelated institutions in our society. It is my conviction that the real 
dangers to American democracy are internal in origin, rather than invasion by 
foreign foes. The strongest “fifth columnist” in our country is the complacent, 
uninformed citizen who fails to practice the quality of democratic citizenship 
he professes. Problems are emerging more rapidly than we are able to find 
adequate solutions. We cannot use fear of invasion as an escape from facing 
the demand to seek a solution to such problems as unemployment, social and 
racial intolerance, unjust economic inequalities, and selfish individualism. Social 
intelligence and applied democratic citizenship are the most effective weapons 
to safeguard and extend democracy as a way of life in America. Are we strong 
enough to endure the struggle and big enough to pay the cost? 

You and I as educators have a moral obligation to help seek adequate solu- 
tions. We must teach citizenship. However, we must remember again we teach 
it only as we demonstrate its values. Therefore, as teachers may we strive to 
help prevent social ignorance of boys and girls by helping them develop ability 
by which to distinguish truth from propaganda, to understand the working of 
the vested pressure groups. We can help boys and girls see the effects of social 
ignorance and racial intolerance in this country. Why do we have so much 
of this? We have had public education for over a century. We have been 
so concerned about teaching content and skills that we have not had time to 
help boys and girls acquire the techniques, ideas, and understandings that will 
help them build a new culture. You and I are under obligation to help them 
build this new culture. The best way to make democracy work in America, 
according to Thomas Jefferson, is to make it work at home. The best way to 
help pupils see the value of citizenship is for the school to serve as a laboratory 
in citizenship. I call your attention to the July issue of Harpers’ M-Day and 
The Business Man by Leo Cherne. What is the status of the teacher? We are 
listed among the non-productive group. In times of stress those who are giving 
their every thought and energy to improve the mind and character of future 
citizens are classified as an unproductive group. The army and the navy of 
America can defend democracy against foreign invasion. Only one institution 
can build democracy and that is education. 





PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 . 23 





Human Relationships—The school is more than a physical institution. 
It’s in reality a system of human relationships. I think it is unfortunate that 
we have failed to help parents understand the important features of the school 
and its program. Parents and laymen in many communities take you to the 
best physical plant when showing the school. Take the school report prepared 
by many principals or superintendents and examine it. Does the report reveal 
the total school? I think not. Too many reports show the best front of the 
school system. Then we talk about individual honesty! If you and I give the 
physical side of the school, many will say progress is being made. Let us give 
both sides of the picture. Incorporate unfavorable working conditions as well 
as favorable working conditions. Let us help laymen see that the quality of 
the school is no higher than the quality of the relation practiced between the 
teacher and child. Do not stay in the area of assets. Go into the area of human 
relationships. What is the attitude of the child, the teacher, the parent? Are 
they developing a sense of belonging? These are fundamental questions. Too 
many children conceive the school to be a great climbing process. They start 
in the kindergarten and if they are promoted, there is something socially 
important about it. If they are retained, there is the stigma that goes with it. 
The higher they go the more education becomes a process of accumulated 
social practice. Have you ever examined the American culture? We must place 
education above the ritual approach. I am urging that we help children con- 
ceive the school to be a social family in which the welfare of all members 
is as important as the welfare of individuals. 

On the other hand we have the question of environment. Did you ever examine 
an organization of the school in terms of the side of the track children come 
from? Examine your school. Promotions—we won’t go into that. Commence- 
ments—I saw in the Chicago Tribune this spring a picture of a kindergarten 
class all dressed up, even a diploma. Citizenship?. No! Exploiting the children 
to meet the desires of parents and some teachers. You and I in the classroom 
are not offering the school for the children. We are trying to re-live our lives 
through our children. If it were not true we would not be so concerned about 
imposing standard patterns upon them. If school is the laboratory for citizen- 
ship, the development of creative minds must come before subject matter 
mastery. I challenge principals to consider the question, ‘““What is scholarship?” 
The learning of factual information so you can give it back on paper when 
somebody asks you? Scholarship is social, not symbolic in terms of grading. 
Children are born into this world without a mind, with potentialities to discover 
a mind. Here is a child. What kind of mind does he possess? Do you and 
I sit around and let him seek for the truth? Or do we help him to find under 
guidance the solution to his problem or the truthful answer to his questions? 
Let us see what we are doing in developing a creative mind. What do children 
know? Important? Yes. But more important is what are children working 
toward. Yet you will find a standardized course of study and it tells you what 
a child in the fifth grade will do unless a change is made in the course of 
study. How can this group of principals say we are interested in the develop- 
ment of democratic citizenship and yet buy a copy of the same book for a 
group of forty children in one room. I believe in textbooks, but not in the 





24 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 





way they are used. If they cause a child to feel that he gets his education out 
of a textbook, something’s wrong. 

Social responsibility and authority are essential elements in intelligent living. 
Democracy demands that each individual recognize and respect the function 
of authority and social responsibility. We cannot give children freedom. We 
have talked too much about freedom in education. Children and individuals 
have to earn their freedom by demonstrating their ability to exercise responsi- 
bility. The more education we have the less freedom we possess to consider our 
acts apart from the welfare of others. 

Anyone who does not see it this way is not thinking of democratic education. 
You may be thinking of a type of laissez-faire philosophy of education and 
social living. How can children learn responsibility if they are not given a 
chance? So many times we have let them work in the area where we have 
decided they can work best. Examine the conditions in halls—we march them 
in and march them out. Who is the most important individual of the school? 
Where does the authority come from? Don’t misunderstand me. There is a 
growing of importance regarding the place of discipline. However, it must 
emerge from group thinking under teacher guidance. We must help children 
to learn that authority is a fundamental part of education. It takes an artist 
teacher for a group of children to learn that responsibility and social authority 
emerge from group endeavor. The test of a teacher’s contribution in the area 
of authority is not what happens when he or she is in the classroom. What 
happens when the teacher leaves the classroom, is the test. Try to make some 
arrangement by which the teacher can get out and give the children a chance 
to take care of themselves. We are afraid to leave children alone. 

The principal is a leader not an administrator. Why have we put adminis- 
tration above teaching? Teaching is far more important. Unfortunately, in 
too many schools administration is considered more important. I am not crit- 
icizing the principal. I am criticizing the concept. The principal is a teacher 
first and then an administrator. The principal tries to encourage through lead- 
ership, tries to lead by helping each individual—teacher and pupil—feel a 
sense of belongingness. When a principal practices democratic citizenship with 
teachers, we shall have a different situation in the classroom. When the com- 
munity grants to teachers the right to live citizenship, we shall have boys 
and girls ready to apply this concept in their daily lives. The child is the only 
reason for your work or my work. He lives in his world and we can only help 
him build a better world as he listens through our actions rather than through 
our words. A child thinks what he accepts inside and he accepts what he finds 
to be valuable in terms of his goal. As the school serves as a laboratory in 
applied democracy, the child or pupil will be encouraged and properly moti- 
vated to learn through living democratic citizenship. 





It is a fine thing to have just the right tool for one’s task. But if you 
do not have the perfect tool, use the tool that you have. Better be 
carving with love and a jack-knife than wait discontentedly for a 
sculptor’s chisel. Anon. 





PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 25 





Adjusting the Curriculum to the Capacity of the Child 


J. Murray Lee, Assistant Professor of Education, University of 
Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 


There are two ways to plan a curriculum. We can start it 
with subject matter which we think can be considered by the 
child as a progression from grades one to six, and take that 
subject matter and break it up into six pieces—one to be 
covered in each grade. Then if we look over different courses 
of study and piece them together we shall have a sort of crazy 
quilt pattern which will represent the curriculum. The second 
approach is to look at boys and girls, find out what we can 
about the way they grow, about the way they develop, and 

ee yon about their social and personal needs, and then we can select 

activities and experiences which will aid this process of de- 
velopment. 

We have done a lot recently in looking at boys and girls and finding out what 
they need and in modifying our school practices. For instance, in our first and 
second grades, we realize growth in quantitative thinking does not come about in 
memorization of hundreds of educational facts. We have moved those out of the 
grades and have substituted thinking for boys and girls. We have postponed 
reading for many boys and girls and as Miss White said yesterday, “You have 
to do something or other about it.” It seems to me it is the need of the boy and 
girl which should determine what should be done in the school. 

This afternoon I am starting with the second method of constructing an ele- 
mentary school curriculum and looking at the needs of the boys and girls and 
asking you to think about the implications of the statements you naturally have 
practiced in your own school. As an elementary school principal I remember 
my day was made up of so many demands, I never reached the point where | 
thought about the program or what I was trying to do. What do we know about 
boys and girls? This process of growth is one of continuous development and 
that exists in all phases. We want to keep that in our thinking as a primary prin- 
ciple which will guide us in planning learning experiences for boys and girls. 

Implications for Physical Growth—The size of a boy or girl is apt to 
affect personality. A very thin boy or a very small boy will react in certain ways 
because of his size. You heard Miss White say that a youngster needs a balanced 
program of rest and exercise, yet, in how very few schools we provide for that. 
In the kindergarten we do a grand job, but when the child goes into the first 
grade he is in a different world and we forget that he needs rest and exercise. How 
can you arrange your daily program to take care of that? There are several 
patterns of growth which we need to take into consideration. We know the young- 
ster is farsighted until about age seven (7) and has not reached his full develop- 
ment until that time, yet we start him out on the very closest job of reading. We 
also know certain facts about muscle control. Up to the second grade the youngster 
should be using his large muscles and should not be endeavoring to use very fine 
muscles, which usually develop from grades three to six. Yet, look at the activities 





26 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 





you require of the boy and girl in your school and see how you are violating this 
rule of health. 

We seldom think about the differences in the growth patterns of children. Our 
authorities tell us by the end of the second grade the girl is actually one year 
older than the boy, for she is a year closer to her final development, and by the 
end of the eighth grade she is two years older. What are the implications of that? 
We are continually placing boys and girls in competition and expecting the same 
type of performance from them. You would not think of expecting the same type 
of performance between a six year old and a seven year old. What is the difference? 

Intellectual Development—You are very familiar with the facts about 
intellectual development. Let us discuss the problem of growth and reasoning 
ability. What do we know about that? We know there is considerable reasoning 
ability in evidence when the youngster enters kindergarten. Those of you who 
deal with boys and girls of that age know that they have the ability to reason. 
What things condition the reasoning ability? Recent research has shown that 
reasoning ability increases with age. Increased background, experience and train- 
ing, is more important than maturation and intelligence. What type of challenge 
is that to your school program? It is your problem to provide instruction and 
experience which will lay the foundation of reasoning and thinking. 

Development in Language—In general the advisability of language, and 
amount of vocabulary depends on the child’s environment. Our problem in the 
elementary school is one of increasing that vocabulary—the number of words he 
uses and the number he understands. The number he uses in his talking, reading 
and writing, are very closely related. Studies have shown that with very young 
children the factor which has the greatest relationship to the size of the vocabulary 
is the composite of the environment in which the child operates. The school must 
give a wealth of concrete experiences. It must furnish the child with sufficient 
opportunities and motivation so that he has a real experience in using language 
to the best of his ability. Language must be recognized as a unit. How foolish 
it is to discuss diagnosis in reading, language, and spelling, as separate problems 
to be studied in their own areas. It is easy to show that there is a vast amount 
of relationship between these phases of language and that more frequently than 
not the student’s difficulty will lie in the elements common to all phases of 
language rather than being due to the mechanics which are unique to one phase. 
The language development of the individual certainly should revolutionize our 
practice in educational diagnosis. We try to increase the youngster’s reading 
ability through mechanical means, when the thing that youngster needs is a rich 
environment in which to live. 

Social Development—What are some leads to the social development of 
the child? The instant the youngster enters school he has a totally new situation 
to which he must adjust. He has to become adjusted to other boys and girls. We 
recognize that in our kindergarten program. In many cases when the boy enters 
the first grade without kindergarten we pay no attention to that. Our gap between 
kindergarten and first grade is entirely too wide. See what is happening to boys 
and girls and see what type of social difficulties are developing in the first grade 
which did not exist in the kindergarten. When my own youngster passed from 
kindergarten to first grade, I began to learn some things about the effects of 


PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 27 








school programs upon the child. Personally as a parent I want my youngster to 
come from the elementary school as a well-adjusted individual. That is much 
more important to me than if he learns certain facts or skill. And I think every 
parent will feel the same way. I would much rather see my youngster in the 
first grade making good social adjustment to the group than seeing him able to 
read ten words a minute more than he would have if the program had stressed 
some other factor. 

What are some other leads for planning experiences in the social field? What 
do we know about developing group life of boys and girls? In the first grade they 
work in small groups which change from time to time. By the fifth grade it is 
possible to develop an allegiance to the class as a whole, and the gang now forms 
an important part in his life. We can so plan our activities, that we plan that 
ability of the youngster to participate as a member of the group. The school has 
the responsibility of filling in and completing what environment lacks. What can 
you do in your elementary school to provide for a rich social institution where the 
youngsters will find that it is important to participate as a member of the group. 

Moral Judgment—Moral judgment develops more at the elementary school 
age than any other age. The boys and girls are beginning to develop a sense of 
fairness and fair play. Boys and girls are reaching high school age with no civic 
consciousness. This result cannot be laid at the door of the high school solely. 
We must realize that moral judgments develop gradually as do all other phases 
of growth and that in the elementary school we have a responsibility for providing 
for these. As you heard- Dr. McSwain stress today, we should develop that type 
of behaviour in boys and girls. Yesterday we heard Miss White stress clearly the 
basic needs for boys and girls and I would like to quickly review some of the 
things she said. She pointed out that the school must organize its curriculum so 
that basic needs can be cited. The child has need for valuable recognition, social 
approval and a feeling of belonging and likeness to others. They must feel they 
have a place with others and that they are a member of the group. They must 
join the group approved for them. How can a school plan its curriculum that 
these needs can be met? 

Another need is that need for every child to have success of some form. Too 
easy and constant success is a danger as is constant failure. The curriculum must 
be so constructed that it can provide for the child that is not keeping up with the 
rest of the group. Many people who term themselves realists say that if a child 
cannot successfully compete in school with his classmates neither will he compete 
with life, so he may as well learn to face failure in school. The first fallacy in this 
point of view is that failure begets failure just as success begets success. Another 
fallacy is that while the business world does far from a perfect job of vocational 
guidance, by and large, people land in jobs fairly well suited to their abilities 
and the day laborer might be well able to successfully compete with his fellow 
laborer on the job. 

Another factor is related to the need of increasing self-direction and inde- 
pendence of action. These are necessary to give self-confidence and to help the 
child establish himself in his own eyes, really to feel himself, to be a personality 
in his own right. We must plan our school program so we can provide some 
measure of success in those activities that children term worthwhile, so that we 


28 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 








can provide for friendship and develop increasing self-direction and independence 
of action. 

We stressed the need for providing for social development, and for providing 
for physical development, taking into consideration what we know about the 
child. You know several years ago much more credit was given to environment 
than to sciences. That is the challenge for our schools. We have heard this after- 
noon Dr. McSwain stressing the need for the modern elementary school to be a 
workshop in citizenship. I should like to leave the child a minute and stress again 
the thing which you have already heard stressed at the convention—that our race 
to preserve democracy within our country needs to be as rapid as our race to 
protect democracy from foes without our country. We have seen the world over, 
people trading freedom for security. In the last month we have seen our own 
country suddenly become defense conscious. We cannot wait in this country for 
a gradual evolving program to develop which will better meet our needs. The 
program must be speeded up. Work needs to progress along two lines. First, we 
must improve the problems or subject matter to be studied. Second, we must 
change the technique of learning and the method of teaching. It is necessary that 
children have an opportunity to practice democracy in the classroom, to develop 
responsibility and a willingness to share common interests and concerns and that 
they have opportunity to apply intelligence to the solution of their most pressing 
problems. 

These beginnings of democratic understanding and democratic participation 
must begin in the elementary school. Growth in these factors is of the same type 
as other factors. It is gradual and expanding. To begin it is the job of the ele- 
mentary school. The elementary school must be set up as a democratic institution. 
It is no longer the beautiful line and staff organization. 

As we have looked at the child this afternoon and have studied his needs we have 
seen no conflict between the type of program which we need to provide to meet 
his needs and the type of program which a democratic system requires us to 
provide to attain its goals. It should be very clear that attempting to meet better 
the needs of children will provide for much better training in democracy than 
has our traditional classroom which is concerned solely with the mastery of fact 
rather than development of understanding and participation. 





RADIO MONOGRAPH WILL BE SENT COMPLIMENTARY 
TO 1940-41 MEMBERS 


The monograph “Radio in the Schools” is fast being completed and as soon 
as the Chairman of the Committee, Miss Jane Monohan, principal, Public School 
No. 92, Bronx, New York City, New York, completes all details, it will be pub- 
lished and sent complimentary to all members of the Department of Elementary 
School Principals for 1940-41. This monograph will be of very practical value 
to all school people interested in radio for school use. 





PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 29 











Just Another Day 
Elmer A. Henderson, Public School No. 101, Baltimore, Maryland 


The sun peeped its head over the eastern horizon causing 
the shades of the night to disperse just as frightened chicks 
scamper from an approaching animal. The radio announcer 
sounded his regular time of clock calls to sleepyheads. The 
dreamer roused from her slumber, slowly opened her eyes, 
glanced at the nearby clock and arose with a yawn. For 
her another morning had come, another day had been 
ushered in. She fell upon her knees, first thanking her God 
for protection through the night, and then realizing the tre- 
ELMER A. HENDERSON Mendous responsibility ahead of her, invoked His prom- 

ised blessings for the day. After this communion she arose 
refreshed, ready for the many problems which the coming day would hold. 

The yesterday had passed; the present lay before her as a beautiful view 
greets a traveler who pauses upon the brink of a mountain to scan the out- 
stretched plain below. Breakfast over, she hastened to her waiting coupe and 
guided its passage with skillful hands through the busy traffic. Passersby nodded 
to her with a smile, obviously sensing the purport of her journey. Acknowledg- 
ments were readily made and the jovial expression on her face extended to all 
a hearty salutation. 

E’er long she parked her car near the entrance to a public building. To her 
it was familiar and even its inanimate structure apparently said “good morn- 
ing.”’ Scattered about were young and older children waiting the opening of the 
door that they might enter. Their faces were expressions of hearts that loved 
her for she was their friend, their sister, and even their mother. The greetings 
were courteous and cordial and many edged closer that they might hear, without 
trouble, her, ‘““How-do-you-do? I am glad to see you. You look fine this morning. 
I missed you yesterday. We needed you so much.” The tiny ones in the crowd 
touched her with their little fingers as did the Woman of Old who touched the 
Master and caused Him to exclaim “Virtue hath gone out of me.” 

Reaching her office she beheld a beautiful flower waiting her arrival. Each 
morning, sometimes a tulip, ofttimes a lily, sometimes a pansy, ofttimes a rose, 
was placed there by different unseen angels. The fragrance from this flower spoke, 
in language not made up with words, the affection of her co-workers. She smiled 
and paused to inhale the fragrance. 

After a brief span she began her tour of inspection,—for rooms must be ade- 
quately lighted, and equipment in order. To her the comfort of her fellow- 
laborers was of extreme importance. Exchanges of salutations, informal com- 
ments both humorous and serious, took place in rooms and corridors, and the 
building atmosphere thus was made more wholesome and buoyant. Even the em- 
ployees were included, for they looked forward to her coming with pleasurable 
anticipations. 

Her rounds were made and she returned to her office. On the desk before her 
lay the morning mail. Each letter was opened with care, for it represented in her 








30 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 

















estimation a professional and confidential communication. The messages they 
contained dealt with various subjects—registration of occupational pupils, con- 
servation of natural resources, promotions to high schools, Red Cross assemblies, 
radio programs, recreation schedules, summer school bulletins, community solici- 
tations, and the sort. To each she gave her attention and placed them where they 
would receive due consideration. 

Her daily plan called for an observation and though the visit was unan- 
nounced she sensed a welcome, for the purpose of her coming was to stress the 
desirable and to offer suggestions. She noted the lesson’s purpose and evaluated 
the technique utilized. The responses and reactions were carefully diagnosed. 
Her recollection carried her back to the time in her career when she stood before 
a group of learners and endeavored to bring about certain inculcations. She re- 
called her resolution never to forget what her own emotions were when under 
observation. The lesson ended. A smile greeted the teacher, an encouraging word 
was spoken as she left the room. Later in the day she participated in lessons sit- 
ting among the pupils as they discussed a topic, sang a song, dramatized a story, 
constructed a project, and solved a problem. To these eager, anxious boys and 
girls she was one of them, their pal, and co-worker. 

The conference periods proved intensely interesting,—those with teachers 
and those with pupils. Frankness and sincerity were the outstanding factors. 
Contributions were exchanged and they closed with mutual advantages. During 
these periods pupils unfolded their innermost feelings and laid bare their very 
souls, for to them a balm of Gilead would be forthcoming with its healing po- 
tion. She talked with teachers as participants in a common cause and kept upper- 
most the fact that the advancement of their interests was her highest ambition. 

Regardless of her schedule interruptions were numerous and emergencies 
arose that needed attention and questions were asked which demanded answers. 
Unannounced visitors occupied part of her time, and problems so pressing and 
matters so important, utilized her energy to such an extent that her physical self 
tempted to become weary. Ruffled parents, problem children added to her numer- 
ous perplexities, while understanding superiors and co-operating supervisors 
recompensed her with pleasure. 

E’er the day was done, all records were recorded. Standing on the steps of the 
building outside she waved good-bye to the departing children and deep down 
in her heart realized that they had left in better condition than when they came. 
When the last one passed out of her sight she looked up to the blue heaven above 
her and thanked the Almighty that she had been spared to give another day’s 
service to the uplift of her people and the brothers and sisters of her profession. 
Departing co-workers paused to wish her a pleasant evening. 

Glancing at the flower which greeted her in the morning, clearing her desk 
in front of her, glancing out of the window beside her she recalled the words of 
Longfellow, and applied them to herself—“Something attempted, something 
done, has earned a night’s repose.” Passing out of the door which had admitted 
her in the morning a public school principal returned to her home and family. 





No nation has a right to dream of peace that is not prepared to go out and 
defend it. Anon. 





PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 31 








Members of the Fourth Annual Conference on Elementary Education, which was sponsored by the Department of . 


THE FOURTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 


University of Wisconsin, Madison, ' 


The campus of the University covers a wooded hilly area along the shore 
of Lake Mendota and the 675 members of the Fourth Annual Conference on 
Elementary Education, housed in the Kronshage group of buildings, spent two 
ideal weeks at this wonderful spot. All are still wondering how Dr. J. Murray 
Lee, assistant professor of elementary education, and chairman of the University 
Conference committee, with his helpers, Professors Gordon Mackenzie and Paul 
Sheats, could induce the weather man to concede to his demands too. All soon 
realized that everything which his “magic wand” seemed to touch came at his 
“beck and call,” but how he and his committee could talk the elements into 
obeying is more than anyone can understand. Two ideal weeks—ideal weather, 
excellent program, eminent speakers, fine meetings, lots of fun, splendid trips, 
delicious food, and grand folks. 

Committees—The committee of the Department of Education of the Uni- 
versity had cooperated with the National Department of Elementary School 
Principals in formulating the program. The arrangements for the conference 
had been made possible through the cooperation of the Wisconsin Elementary 
School Principals’ Association, Dean Goodnight and the Summer Session Staff, 
and the Dormitory and Commons Staff. 

Members of the Wisconsin Elementary School Principals’ Association, func- 
tioning as a Hospitality Committee and as official hosts and hostesses during 
the Conference were: Mrs. Alice Rood, Chairman, Madison; Annie Axtell, 
Madison; Josephine Benson, Superior; Alice M. Byrne, La Crosse; Laura E. 
Kellar, Shorewood; G. Leistikow, Winneconne; Velmar Pratt, Madison; Barton 
Rogers, Oconomowoc, and Fred Schnell, Sheboygan. Besides all these folks 
whose names have been mentioned there was another very charming gracious 
lady who efficiently tied the ends of any details which were found dangling. 





32 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 


































Yepartment of Elementary School Principals at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, July 8-19, 1940 


ENCE ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 
ison, Wisconsin, July 8-19, 1940 


She was Mrs. J. Murray Lee, the attractive wife of our Chairman of Affairs. 

Completeness of Program—From the moment of arrival, July 6, things 
started to happen—registration was expedited, for Dean Goodnight spent the 
day at Kronshage signing cards. A printed program was given to each member 
of the Conference as he left the Rose Taylor room. As one member expressed 
it, “This program is absolutely fool-proof.” The answer to every imaginable 
kind of question was found therein, for it not only contained the program 
for the conference, but gave in minute detail information about general topics, 
dormitory schedules, recreation information, what to do on arrival, the lovely 
reception on Saturday evening, Sunday church programs, map of the University 
campus, the social program, and campus events of general interest. 

With all of these things to do packed into two short weeks each member 
realized the theme of the Fourth Annual Conference on Elementary Education 
had been aptly stated—‘Enriching the Elementary School Curriculum.” 

States Represented—Forty-one states were represented at this Fourth 
Annual Conference on Elementary Education, as follows: Alabama (4), Ar- 
kansas (1), California (10), Colorado (6), Connecticut (2), District of Co- 
lumbia (8), Florida (2), Georgia (19), Idaho (2), Illinois (52), Indiana (18), 
Iowa (41), Kansas (13), Kentucky (4), Louisiana (1), Maine (1), Massa- 
chusetts. (9), Michigan (33), Minnesota (16), Mississippi (6), Missouri (39), 
Nebraska (15), Nevada (1), New Hampshire (2), New Jersey (4), New 
Mexico (1), New York (23), North Carolina (4), North Dakota (10), Ohio 
(69), Oklahoma (2), Pennsylvania (11), South Carolina (1), South Dakota 
(10), Tennessee (4), Texas (21), Utah (6), Virginia (12), Washington (1), 
West Virginia (8), and Wisconsin (148). This does not include the 35 prin- 
cipals who were registered in the summer school. 








PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 33 


Volume of Proceedings—So that every person at the conference could 
have a report of each general assembly meeting, each seminar meeting, and 
each evening meeting, a Volume of Proceedings has been prepared. This val- 
uable compilation of 196 typewritten pages is another milestone in the 
progress of the fine work done for elementary education throughout the 
United States. The price of this volume was included in the registration fee. 
Extra volumes may be secured by writing to the Dean of the Summer Session, 
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. Price $2.00. 





The above pictures, taken at the conference, represent: 1. Views of the receiving line at the Saturday night 
reception; 2. Members of the Fourth Conference who were also members of the First Conference; 3. Present 
and past officers of the Department attending the conference; 4. The people who made the wheels go ’round 
at the Milwaukee Convention, and attended the conference; 5. Those people who have attended all four con- 
ferences of the Department; 6. Dr. Lee unwrapping the gift presented to him and Mrs. Lee by the conference 
members, while Robert Edgar and Mrs. Lee watch; and 7. Entertaining a few of the dignitaries at luncheon. 


34 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 














“Another Convention Marathon” 


Milwaukee, Wisconsin 
June 30-July 4, 1940 


Folks came by plane; by train; by bus; by car; and it was reported that 
several “hitch-hiked”’ their way so as to be at this gala affair. The convention 
distances from meeting to meeting were just right. The ideal weather condi- 
tions which Wisconsin gave, caused one to enjoy a brisk walk from the hotel 
to the auditorium, but those who scheduled themselves to “see all” and “do 
all” realized they were soon whirling here and turning there in a regular 
“Convention Marathon.” It was simply impossible to go fast enough to partake 
of all the delightful entertainment which had been planned by the Milwaukee 
and Wisconsin principals. Hospitality reigned. Cars were ready for any who 
wished to go—anywhere. But best of all was the group ef fine men and women 
found playing and working together, whose ability, efficiency, and desire to 
please made the convention the very grand success that it was. 

Hospitality Headquarters—The 212 elementary principals and their friends 
who registered at “Headquarters for all Elementary Principals’ followed the 
arrow to Parlor H, Schroeder Hotel, July 1, 2, 3 and 4. The Milwaukee Club, 
the Wisconsin Association, and the National Department of Elementary School 
Principals had made arrangements for a headquarters room for local, state, 
and national guests to register and meet friends. Those who reached this beau- 
tiful room a wee bit early had the delightful pleasure of meeting the local 
and state groups working as chairmen, co-chairmen and helpers, and watching 
them check final plans. Let us depart from the usual routine of reporting a 
meeting to express our great appreciation for the very able manner in which 
each assignment was checked, and the efficiency with which each problem 
undertaken was solved. 

Acquaintance Breakfast—‘There is no tonic so stimulating, so fine for 
the system as one of these Department breakfasts. Boy! I wouldn’t miss one of 
these for anything.”” This comment was heard as two gentlemen entered the 
Crystal Ballroom, Schroeder Hotel, Monday, 7:30 a.m., July 1, 1940. And 
there were 131 others who must have felt the same way, for within a very 
few minutes after the signal was given to “Go” the dining room was filled 
with a happy throng. Each person had been given a ticket upon entering the 
room and the persons holding the lucky numbers received a pair of Nylon 
hosiery or a pound of Gargoyle coffee. One of the interesting facts about the 
whole Milwaukee convention was that even though some one person was desig- 
nated as chairman of some particular function, you looked around and found 
everyone there helping as if it were his own job to do. The teamwork was 
most noticeable and what fun all seemed to have in seeing the job splendidly 
done. As the result of this cooperation, each guest found at his place a bag 
of souvenirs representing products of Milwaukee, and the peals of laughter 
when some one found a “surprise’”’ were most contagious. Who could help be 
happy when such delightful hostesses and hosts as Beulah Delight Kobler, 





PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 35 














general chairman, and her co-chairmen for the breakfast meeting, Lillian Thies, 
chairman, Peter Stormonth, and Ethel Gardner, had made the arrangements. 

After a delicious breakfast, President Irvin A. Wilson welcomed all; intro- 
duced Laura E. Kellar, president, Wisconsin Elementary Principals’ Association, 
who announced the week’s events; invited groups to see a Workshop being 
held by the University of Wisconsin, the American Council on Education, 
and the Milwaukee State Teachers’ Association, at her school in Shorewood: 
called attention to the beautiful dioramas which surrounded the breakfast 
room; introduced charming Beulah D. Kobler; presented “Bill” Buboltz who 
at the urgent request of the group sang, “The Bells of St. Mary’s” and “My 
Wild Irish Rose”; and asked that Lillian Thies “say a word or two.” 

After welcomes, introductions and announcements, the group was led in 
singing by Robert Edgar, principal, Bedford School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 
accompanied by Edith Knight, in charge of grade music, Lake Bluff School, 
Shorewood, Wisconsin. 

President Wilson asked J. Murray Lee, assistant professor of education, 
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, who was the guiding spirit 
behind the conference on elementary education at the University of Wisconsin, 
to tell the group assembled about the last minute details for the conference 
and to answer any questions pertaining to this two weeks’ course. 

Two committees were appointed at this breakfast meeting by the president, 
namely, the Nominating Committee: Maude Rhodes, Atlanta, Georgia, chair- 
man; Cassie Roys, Omaha, Nebraska; William Buboltz, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; 
Margaret Foristel, St. Louis, Missouri; and Elizabeth Malcolm, New Haven, 
Connecticut; and the Necrology Committee: Sarah Young, Oakland, California, 
chairman; J. D. Williams, Birmingham, Alabama; and Bess Rogers Clement, 
Clarksdale, Mississippi. 

President Wilson then asked those present to stand as the name of the 
state from which they were, was called. The roll call showed that thirty states 
were represented. 

This very enjoyable breakfast meeting closed with a final song by the group, 
led by Robert Edgar, accompanied by Edith Knight. 

Banquet—The beautiful Crystal Ballroom, Schroeder Hotel, was again the 
place in which the elementary principals assembled Monday evening, July |! 
at 6:30 p.m. Another enjoyable semi-annual banquet of the Department of 
Elementary School Principals was held. Nearly four hundred persons were 
on time to enjoy an evening of entertainment and to listen to one of the finest 
addresses of the convention, for William G. Carr, secretary of the Educational 
Policies Commission of the National Education Association and the American 
Association of School Administrators, is an authority about the numerous prob- 
lems which public education is having to face today. He is also a most excellent 
speaker. The committee, of which Beulah D. Kobler was general chairman and 
Harold Peterson, principal, Keefe Avenue School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was 
banquet chairman, had spent many long hours making preparations for this 
occasion. Again each person found at his plate a bag of favors, representing 
products of Milwaukee, and nylon hosiery and Gargoyle coffee were again given 
away to the persons holding the lucky tickets. 





THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 





36 












President Wilson requested all to stand while Agnes Samuelson, executive 
secretary, Iowa State Teachers’ Association, asked the blessing. She gave the 
following: 

“Our heavenly father, our master teacher, we bow to thank thee for the blessings 
we enjoy and to pray for strength to face our task. We dedicate ourselves and this 


occasion to thee and the children, and pray for guidance that we may direct their 
steps throughout an abundant life. Amen.” 


A most delicious meal was served, after which President Wilson introduced 
the distinguished guests who were seated at the head table, and asked a few 
words of greeting from Amy Hinrichs, president, National Education Associa- 
tion and principal, Audubon School, New Orleans, Louisiana; Willard E. 
Givens, executive secretary, National Education Association; S. D. Shankland, 
executive secretary, American Association of School Administrators; and Carroll 
R. Reed, president, American Association of School Administrators, and super- 
intendent of schools, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

At the request of President Wilson, J. Murray Lee, assistant professor of 
education, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, again made the an- 
nouncements about the Fourth Annual Conference on Elementary Education, 
which was to be held for two weeks at the University of Wisconsin immediately 
following the convention. President Wilson then presented the speaker of the 
evening, William G. Carr, secretary, Educational Policies Commission, National 
Education Association, who gave a most outstanding address on “Public Rela- 
tions of the Elementary School.” * 

Following this very stirring address, Harold Peterson, chairman of the ban- 
quet committee was asked to take charge. He presented the members of his 
committee who were: Carrie Schwartz, principal, Humboldt Park School, Mil- 
waukee; H. T. Ralph, principal, Washington School, Waukesha; Adelbert Peck, 
principal, Siefert School, Milwaukee; R. J. Stewart, principal, Union School, 
Waukesha; and Annette Kottnauer, principal, Vieau School, Milwaukee. A most 
enjoyable program was presented, consisting of selections by Norman Clayton, 
a baritone soloist from Milwaukee; splendid singing by the A-cappella Choir 
of the West Division High School of Milwaukee, under the direction of Gola 
Coffelt; and a presentation of “Dances of the Nations” portraying the Modern 
Dance, the Russian Quadrille, the Hungarian Folk Dance, the Polish Folk 
Dance, and the Creation Folk Dance, under the very able leadership of 
Dorothy C. Enderis, Department of Municipal Recreation and Adult Education, 
Milwaukee Public Schools. Every person present thoroughly enjoyed the attrac- 
tive and unique entertainment presented. The program was another evidence 
of the very fine work which the Milwaukee and Wisconsin principals did in 
making preparations to entertain their guests during the convention week. 


* Dr. Carr’s address may be found on page 38. 





If you have not yet sent in your dues for 1940-41, please 
do so immediately, for the new membership year started on 
September 1. 





PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 37 





Public Relations in the Elementary School 


William G. Carr, Secretary, Educational Policies Commission, 
National Education Association, Washington, D. C. 


The current situation of American education might well be 
compared to that of a boat in a heavy sea which has just been 
battered by one overwhelming wave of depression. The crew 
are hard at work bailing the salt water out of the engine room. 
Now they see approaching them another wave of a magnitude 
even more frightful than that from which they are just re- 
covering. There remains little time to size up the situation, 
to prepare for another extended period of struggle and to pull 
their forces together for a supreme effort. Before the turbulent 

WILLIAM G. CARR waters break over the endangered craft, let us see if we can 

discover anything that may be helpful in determining the 

size and speed of the wave and the forces back of it as well as the possibilities 

of remaining afloat on the surface of the financial waters without losing vessel, 
crew, and cargo. 

It is never a grateful task for anyone to assume the role of a gloomy prophet, 
“Cassandra-like prognosticating woe.” Nevertheless, if one is candid in facing 
the future of the financial support of American education, he must report that 
problems of a serious magnitude lie ahead and not very far ahead. 

In the first place, American education has not yet recovered from the heavy 
blows dealt to it during the period of depression. The professional equipment of 
teachers and the morale of the teaching profession generally were badly shaken 
and the few years of semi-prosperity in which we have been living have not been 
sufficiently encouraging to restore that morale and equipment to first-class condi- 
tion..The schools have been caught in a giant pincers-attack, with increasing 
demands for service and decreasing funds and personnel pressing in on them from 
opposite sides. 

The second feature which is not encouraging for the future is the fact that our 
national economy is not in good shape. During the years of 1928 and 1929 the 
national income of the people of the United States was estimated at approximately 
90 billion dollars. During the depression this fell to approximately 50 billion 
dollars or less. More recently we have seen a gain to about 70 billion dollars. 
If we could restore our national income to 90 billion dollars a year instead of 70, 
we could increase the American standard of living, expand our educational pro- 
gram, and retire the national debt within a few years. 

Not only are the schools and the general economy still suffering from the 
depression period, but there are additional forces which threaten education with 
grave difficulties within the next few years. We have, for example, the pressure 
which is being exerted on all public budgets due to the great increase in the func- 
tions and cost of government. During the past decade America has embarked on 
a series of social reforms of a costly nature. I am not for a moment questioning 
the value and importance of adequate relief, old-age security, unemployment 
compensation, and the like. I am merely trying to point out in a realistic way 





THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 





that these additional public services have made it increasingly difficult to secure 
adequate funds for the more fully established, long-time educational and other 
services of government. During the depression, for example, when educational 
costs were declining, all the other costs of government were going up. The pro- 
portion of municipal expenditures set aside for education last year was less than 
it had been at any year since we began to keep our records on this subject. 

Now a new force enters into these calculations; namely, the demand for vastly 
increased expenditures for national defense. Again, one need not decry or minimize 
the importance of making these expenditures, but if one is honest enough to face 
the facts, he will have to admit that the making of these expenditures will place 
great burdens on the other functions of government and that there will be an 
effort to finance national defense out of money which is in part saved by drastic 
curtailments in education and the other social services. 

The financing of education under these circumstances suffers from several 
special types of handicaps. The services of education, as far as many people are 
concerned, appear to be remote and impersonal. Unless he happens to have 
children in the public schools, the ordinary citizen is scarcely aware of the service 
that is being rendered. Furthermore, public education by its very nature is a 
quiet, orderly process with little of the spectacular and attention-getting qualities 
of some of the other types of public activity. Again, public education is directed, 
almost wholly, to the service of a group of our citizens who have not yet achieved 
the full status of adult voters, and who, therefore, have little or nothing to say 
with reference to the public activities which they would like to see supported. 
All of these facts suggest that only the greatest vigilance can prevent unfortunate 
raids on education, and it may be that they will occur in spite of anything that 
we or anyone else can do. 

But my catalog of danger is still incomplete. For many years the declining 
birthrate and the lowered rate of immigration to this country have been reducing 
the number of young children. This reduction has begun now to make itself felt 
in public school enrolment. The elementary school enrolment has already passed 
its peak. There were more children graduated from our public schools last year 
than may ever be graduated again in a single year. The cry is already being 
raised that since total school enrolments are declining, or about to decline, the 
funds for education ought to be decreased. 

One more point before I conclude this review of the forces which, in my view, 
are threatening the financial support of American education as it has never been 
threatened before. The whole tendency of public finance in recent years has been 
to shift burdens from local governments to state governments and from state 
governments to the federal government. This shift has been due in part to the 
greater ease and, in many ways, the greater equity, of collecting funds by state 
and federal governments as opposed to the local governments. Local government, 
by and large, has only one important source of revenue—a tax on general property 
—and it is universally admitted by students of taxation that exclusive reliance 
on the general property tax is not sound financial policy. Now, with all of the 
other functions of government gravitating toward state and federal support, it is 
natural that those functions that are left for the local revenue system to carry 
may have a very difficult time of it. This appears to be exactly the situation in 





PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 





which the schools are finding themselves. While it is true that state aid has 
increased, it has not increased nearly enough in most parts of the country. As 
far as federal aid is concerned there has been no success whatever, as yet, in 
securing constructive attention to this problem by the Congress or by the other 
officers of the national government in Washington. 

Now let us call the roll of the defenses that we can summon to meet this 
situation. ; 

1. As far as logic and common sense are concerned, the public schools in the 
country have an air-tight case for escaping these dangerous conditions. Education, 
as we all know, is the very heart of the democratic process and he who endangers 
our system of universal education endangers democracy itself. Furthermore, edu- 
cation is a service which cannot be postponed. Children grow up into enlightened 
citizens or into ignorant citizens. There is very little we can do to remedy the 
situation if we neglect their education while they are young. The schools also have 
a strong support from the rank and file of the American people, a support which 
grows in part out of their inarticulate faith in the value of education and in part 
out of the natural concern of any people for the welfare of its children and youth. 
All of these assets of education in logical argument and in emotional attachment 
are valuable and should be conserved. Yet we have always had these assets and 
they have not saved us from very difficult problems in the financing of education. 
I do not think that these circumstances alone will suffice to protect the schools 
in the future. 

2. In the current situation we have a new and very telling argument to add 
to our case for public support for education. We have every reason to go before 
the public and to say: “If you fail to support these schools, you will have less 
money to spend for other things than if you do support them.” We can make a 
case of great strength for the sheer dollars and cents value of an educational 
program. We can make such a case, I say, provided we have the materials at our 
disposal with which to reinforce it. Until a few months ago those materials were 
not available. They were scattered in books on economics and school finance and 
the data were hidden away in dozens of obscure investigations. Today, thanks 
to the efforts of the Educational Policies Commission, we have available the first 
comprehensive analysis of the effect of education on economic well-being that has 
been published.’ It is my judgment that if we had a few hundred thousand 
teachers in this country who were ready to rehearse the argument for education 
in terms of its economic values, we might succeed in staving off most of the serious 
difficulties which are going to confront us. 

Now this argument for education in terms of its dollars and cents value is not an 
easy one to trace. It requires close application to master it and it requires appli- 
cation of a kind which school people are rarely willing to make. We all like to 
think of education in idealistic terms as something which has values of a different 
order from the financial values which we attach to many other things in our daily 
lives. There is no denying that the supreme values of education are not economic. 
They are spiritual and moral in nature. Nevertheless, we are tossing aside very 
~~ 1 National Education Association and American Association of School Administrators, Educational Policies 


Commission. Education and Economic Well-Being in American Democracy. Washington, D. C.: the Commis- 
sion, 1940. 227 p. 





40 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 





valuable defensive weapons if we fail to equip ourselves with a thorough knowl- 
edge of the effects of education on the national‘economy. 

The report by the Educational Policies Commission which explored this whole 
topic is readily available to anyone who wants to get it and there is not time now 
for me to rehearse in detail the arguments which that volume contains. 

3. I would like to urge you to broaden educational opportunities beyond your 
school by cultivating effective relations with the public. You should make it your 
business to see, if it is humanly possible for you to do so, that everyone who comes 
to your school leaves that school with an enhanced appreciation of what it is doing. 
Don’t you sometimes feel a little bewildered and confused and vaguely resentful 
when you visit some relatively unfamiliar institution, a hospital perhaps, or a 
‘court room, or even a bank? Most people feel just exactly that way about a 
school. The class schedule, the arrangement of rooms, all the things that you, 
through long familiarity, take for granted are strange and therefore vaguely 
irritating to others. You should help to bridge this gap. Couldn’t you prepare a 
neat little folder for visitors, mimeographed, perhaps, to keep the cost down, with 
a cordial greeting on the front cover and a simple, direct account of what you 
do in your school and how people can help you do it better? I know that too 
many parents go to school only to beam at commencement or to protest at 
report-card time. But whenever they do come, smile at them! Make them welcome 
within the walls of their own schools. 

I know that my counsel is not entirely agreeable. I know that it means hard, 
and sometimes unpleasant work. We must work hard at building up favorable 
public attitudes toward education and at breaking down bad ones already estab- 
lished. The American people must be shown again the splendid vision of how a 
democracy could lean and grow upon a dynamic system of education. Out of 
such understanding will come a new kind of public support—a public support 
which is not expressed merely in dollars in school budgets and legislative appro- 
priations. Beyond and above financial support are moral support, public sym- 
pathy, appreciation for what the schools are doing, intelligent cooperation between 
schools, homes, churches and other educative agencies, and public assistance in 
removing from the community environment of children those influences which 
destroy the best educational efforts that you can make. 

4. A promising field of public relations activity in which elementary school 
teachers could engage more generally outside of their classrooms would be the 
development of mutual understandings and various kinds of cooperative rela- 
tionships with the other social services which meet the needs of children in your 
classes. I wonder how many teachers, for example, are acquainted with the 
librarian in charge of the children’s section in their public library. Do teachers 
know what the librarian’s professional problems and needs are? I wonder how 
many teachers have become familiar with the work of settlement houses and 
other social agencies in their community. How many teachers know what forms 
of public health service are available to the children in their classes? How many 
teachers are aware of the recreational opportunities or the lack of opportunities 
in the neighborhood in which their school is located? The time has come, I believe, 
for much closer coordination among the various services for children than has 





PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 41 








existed before. Let me make it crystal clear, however, that I do not think that 
such collaboration should mean the abdication of responsibility for education 
on the part of school people or the subordination of the educational function to 
any governmental agency. 

These other services to childhood, however, are facing difficulties just as 
education is. A united front against a common enemy is called for. It would seem 
to be the part of wisdom, for reasons of self-preservation if for no other, that all 
related social services get together and give whatever understanding, assistance, 
and support they can to one another’s program. More fundamental than this, 
however, is the fact that as we come to understand what other agencies are doing 
to help children, we can make our own work, and theirs, much more effective. 
This cooperative spirit is strongly emphasized, and ways of making it effective 
are suggested, by the report of the 1940 White House Conference on Children 
in a Democracy * and by the Educational Policies Commission’s volume on 


Social Services and the Schools.* 


Most people, I am convinced, want to help the schools. They believe in educa- 
tion, but they are uncertain of what education is and of how it is conducted. 
Just a little more consideration, explanation, and guidance by each teacher in 
the United States would soon change the public from wavering neutrality into 
cordial allies in the war against ignorance and evil which every good school is 
constantly fighting. 

5. Finally we can and should challenge very sharply the efforts of certain 
individuals to place the schools in an unfavorable light before the court of public 
opinion. 

We hear a good deal of jittery talk these days about subversive activities and 
subversive agencies. Some ill-informed people have even called the schools sub- 
versive. 

A beautiful illustration of confused thinking about education is provided by 
an article in the current issue of Nation’s Business, official organ of the U. S. 
Chamber of Commerce. I cannot give you all the article, but I shall read a few 
sentences which, I believe, give a fair picture of its general level and tone. The 
article is illustrated by a cartoon which depicts an American school child, com- 
munist textbook in hand, trembling under the tutelage of a Russian bear, thinly 
disguised as a school teacher. You have to see that cartoon to appreciate to the 
full the savage nature of this attempt to smear the good name of our schools. 
Now, for the excerpts: 

Have you noticed how little present-day children know of American history and 
the basic reasons for the liberties we enjoy? . . . There are reasons for this. . . . The 
main reason is that our entire educational system has been “reconstructed” in several 
vital particulars. Textbooks and complete courses teaching that our economic and 
political institutions are decadent have been placed in public schools in more than 
4,200 communities in the United States. . . . That’s what has happened in little more 
than a decade, while you and I and others have been too much engrossed in our own 
affairs to look between the covers of our youngsters’ textbooks. It has come about 
through the widespread teaching of “Social Science.” 


2 White House Conference on Children in a Democracy. Preliminary General Conference Report. Washington 
D. C.: Children’s Bureau, U. S. Dept. of Labor, 1940. 50 p. (Mimeo.) 

3 National Education Association and American Association of School Administrators, Educational Policies 
Commission. Social Services and the Schools. Washington, D. C.: the Commission, 1939. 147 p 








42 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 











that 
ation 
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What a climax! The American people are first asked to believe, without a 
single morsel of evidence, that our children do not know much about “the basic 
reasons for the liberties we enjoy.” And then they are gravely advised that this 
evil day has fallen upon us because of that wicked “Social Science.” And the 
editor of the magazine takes pains to explain in the foreword that these con- 
clusions are based on two years of research by the author. 

What is subversive? If we recall our Latin derivatives, we quickly see that 
this adjective applies to the process of “overturning from the foundation.” What 
is the foundation of the future of our democracy? Does it not rest, finally and 
completely, on educated citizens? I conclude, therefore, that the noisy minority 
who attack or weaken the public schools are attacking the foundations of democ- 
racy. And they who dare to do that are the real subversive agents, in whatever 
disguise they may appear. Yes, even though they carry banners inscribed with 
the magic word “economy”; even though with the grand gesture of patriots they 
wrap themselves in the folds of the flag itself; even though they burn incense 
before the most conspicuous altars of jingoism; still they remain under every 
disguise the enemies of that evolving democracy which we wish to insure for 
ourselves and our posterity. 

If you seek the Trojan Horse of democracy, look no further. Those who op- 
pose public education ignorantly are weakening democracy inadvertently. Those 
who hamper public education deliberately are flagrantly disloyal to the ideals 
of equal opportunity and an educated citizenship on which our way of life rests. 

Some people are indifferent to public education; let us eagerly inspire them. 
Some are ignorant about the work of the schools; let us patiently enlighten them. 
Many people have sincere and helpful comments and criticisms to make regard- 
ing the public school system; let us encourage them and give their views careful 
consideration. And some few are opposed to public education for selfish reasons; 
let us fight them to the last ditch; let us expose them as the enemies of democ- 
racy that they are. 


Report of the National Elementary Garden Committee 


Gardening as an elementary school activity is rapidly being developed in 
numerous rural and city districts throughout the United States. The demand 
for information on organization has been such, that a garden committee has been 
appointed by the Department of Elementary School Principals to make a study 
of existing projects, namely: Hattie Rainwater, J. Allen Couch School, Atlanta, 
Georgia, Chairman; J. F. Moore, Brookline School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: 
Lyle E. Hotchkiss, Salina Junior High School, Dearborn, Michigan; and Ida B. 
Helpinstine, School 72, Indianapolis, Indiana. 

The committee would like to contact every elementary school principal, but 
finances will not permit such an extensive study. It is, therefore, requesting 
that any person who knows of a school that is sponsoring a gardening program, 
no matter how small, kindly notify one of the members, giving the name and 
address of the school. A contribution from you will help solve the gardening 
problem of other schools. 








PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 43 








Our Anniversary Year! 


Eva G. Pinkston 


We are all starting a new year. Perhaps you have changed schools and the 
new (or different) school brings new plans, new folks, added responsibilities: 
perhaps you have accepted a position in another city; or perhaps you have 
been given new teachers to supervise. There is not one of us but what this new 
year brings the challenge to do our task better than we did the year before. We 
can win if we do not worry but work. This new year myst be our best. 

Headquarters is enthusiastically entering its 1940-41 year’s work, for two 
reasons: (1) The whole world is so topsy-turvy that the burden of keeping 
things straight is fast falling on our schools, therefore, we who have been placed 
in strategic positions should keep ourselves abreast of the best educational pro- 
cedures; and (2) The Department will be celebrating its Twentieth Year of 
Progress and the officers have made marvelous plans for this ANNIVERSARY, 
This year is really going to be a “whale of a year” for our members. The $3.00 
membership dues will entitle al/ to the following: 


1. The 19th Yearbook, “Meeting Special Needs of the Individual Child.” (Study 
Guides have been prepared for this new Yearbook by the Chairman of the 
1940 Editorial Committee, Cecelia Galvin, Indianapolis, Indiana—25c.) 

2. Five issues of The National Elementary Principal containing articles written 
by eminent educators. (a) October issue—DEMOCRACY—Dr. William 
Gray, contributor; (b) December issue—LATER CHILDHOOD PROB.- 
LEMS—Dr. Beryl Parker and Dr. Worth McClure, contributors; (c) Feb- 
ruary issue—EVALUATION—Dr. Paul Hanna and Dr. Helen Heffernan, 
contributors; (d) April issue—FUNDAMENTAL SKILLS—Dr. Edwin H. 
Reeder and Miss Nelle Haley, contributors; and (e) June issue—LEARN- 
ING TO LIVE—Dr. E. T. McSwain and Dr. Mary Dabney Davis, con- 
tributors. 

3. “Radio in the Schools,” a one hundred page monograph, prepared by the 
Department’s Radio Committee, of which Jane Monahan, principal, Public 
School, No. 92, The Bronx, New York City, is chairman, will be sent com- 
plimentary to, all 1940-41 members. 

4. The fifth through the eleventh Yearbooks of the Department may be pur- 

chased by 1940-41 members at 50c per copy as long as the supply lasts. 

Two ANNIVERSARY Convention programs, (a) Atlantic City, N. J- 

February 22-27, 1941; and (2) Boston, Mass., June 29-July 3, 1941. 

6. The Fifth Annual Conference on Elementary Education, which will be held 
at Harvard University, July 7-18, 1941. Two credits will be given by the 
University to those who attend. 

7. Services of the Department. 


UW 
. 


You know that a celebration of any kind brings extra services and that is 
exactly what will happen to all who are members of the Department of Elemen- 
tary School Principals this year. Let all principals know we are going forward 


44 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 











| the 
ties: 
have 
new 
We 
two 
ping 
aced 


Dro- 
r of 


3.00 


udy 
the 


ten 


)B- 


os | eT 





and invite them to come along and join in the profits and fun. Two cities have 
already come in one hundred percent—Ft. Smith, Arkansas, and Boulder, Colo- 


rado. 


The following persons have accepted the responsibility of being State Direc- 
tors in their individual states. We hope you will give them your co-operation 


in your particular city or county: 


ALABAMA—Robert C. Johnston, 2030 Mag- 
nolia Avenue, S., Birmingham. 


ArizonA—Howard Soule, 3999 Cleveland 
Road, Phoenix. 
ArKANSAS—Mollie Williams, Belle Point 


School, Fort Smith. 

CALIFORNIA—Sarah L. Young, Parker School, 
Oakland. 

Cotorapo—Jessie K. Fitzpatrick, 936 Maple- 
ton Avenue, Boulder. 

CoNnNECTICUT—Elizabeth R. Malcolm, Tru- 
man Street School, New Haven. 

District OF CoLumBIA—Robert W. Eaves, 
Thomson School, 12th and L Streets, N. W., 
Washington. 

FLtoripA—Mrs. Mary Kent, 2802 Sitios Street, 
Tampa. 

GrorciA—Mary Standard, Moreland School, 
Atlanta. 

Ipano—Coral M. 
Street, Boise. 

Irttnois—Kenneth E. Vayette, 204 N. Perry 
Avenue, Peoria. 

InpIANA—Carl W. Lemme, 1820 Bayard Park 
Drive, Evansville. 

Iowa—Murva R. Kelly, 1671 Main Street, 
Dubuque. 

Kansas—Myrtle M. Evans, 15th Street and 
Troup Avenue, Kansas City. 

Kentucky—E. E. Gotherman, 750 South 
Limestone Street, Lexington. 

LovistanA—Florence Dixon, 3821 Franklin 
Avenue, New Orleans. 

MaryLanp—Mrs. Anna P. Rose, Chevy Chase 
Elementary School, Chevy Chase. 

MAssSACHUSETTS—Raymon W. Eldridge, Law- 
rence School, Brookline. 

MicuicAN—Arnold Gregory, Raupp School, 
Lincoln Park. 

MINNESOTA—James F. Lichtenberger, Win- 
dom School, Minneapolis. 

Mississipp1—Gabriel Houston, 111 W. Sec- 
ond Street, Clarksdale. 

Missourni—Emma O. Mumm, 1027-A Felix 
Street, St. Joseph; Genevieve M. Turk, 
Scarritt School, Kansas City; and Euris J. 


Norton, 406 Franklin 





Jackson, 2616 Cora Avenue, St. Louis, Co- 
chairmen. 

NEeBRASKA—Mrs. Mae T. Clark, Hotel Yan- 
cey, Room 1017, Grand Island. 

NevapA—Mary S. Black, Battle Mountain. 

New JerseEy—Guy L. Quinn, 2106 Bangs 
Avenue, Neptune. 

New Mexico—Stella Kiker, 240 S. Fifth 
Street, Raton. 

New Yorx—Florine H. Howes, 
School, Mamaroneck. 

NortH CarorrnAa—J. E. Miller, John H. 
Small School, Washington. 

North Daxota—Mrs. Sadie A. Walker, 303 
Eddy Court, Fargo. 

Oxn1o—L. Daisy Hammond, Patterson School, 
Dayton. 

OxLtaAHoMA—Ralph H. Kennedy, 1908 W. 
41st Street, Tulsa. 

OrEGoN—W. C. Painter, 425 S. E. 45th Ave- 
nue, Portland. 

PENNSYLVANIA—William J. Laramy, Oak- 
mont School, Haverford Township, Upper 
Darby. 

RuopvE IsLanp—Herman G. Patt, John Clarke 
School, Newport. 

SoutH Carotrina—Simon Fogarty, 151 Moul- 
trie Street, Charleston. 

TENNESSEE—Thomas N. Johnston, 226 Keith 
Avenue, Knoxville. 

Texas—W. L. Darnell, Palm School, Austin. 

Uran—Lois Anderson, Uintah School, Salt 
Lake City. 

VircIntA—Lillian M. Johnson, 404 Chestnut 
Street, Norfolk. 

West Vircrnta—Rachael E. Wilson, 621 First 
Street, Huntington. 

Wisconsin—Barton Rogers, 26 South Locust 
Street, Oconomowoc. 


Central 


Wyominc—Margaret Chambers, Grant 
School, Casper. 

AtaskA—Anthony FE. Karnes, Territorial 
Schools, Juneau. 

Hawau—John Luiz, Pohukaina School, 


Keawe and Pohukaina Streets, Honolulu. 
Puerto Rico—Mrs. Julia M. Velazquez, Box 
748, San Juan. 


The December issue of The National Elementary Principal will carry addi- 


tional names of representatives. 





PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 


45 








ATLANTIC CITY MEETING 


February 22-27, 1941 


“Glight 20” 


The Department of Elementary School Principals of the National Education 
Association was created by vote of the Representative Assembly at the Des 
Moines, Iowa, meeting, July 8, 1921. The movement which led to this action 
began in Dean W. P. Burris’s (a visiting professor) class at the University of 
Chicago, summer of 1920. He was offering a course in supervision and admin- 
istration of elementary schools. A committee from this class was selected to 
contact elementary principals throughout the United States and to plan a pro- 
gram to be given at the winter meeting of the Department of Superintendence, 
which would be held at Atlantic City in February, 1921. 

President Isabel Tucker, St. Louis, Missouri, has issued a decree that the 
1940-41 year of the Department be an ANNIVERSARY year, and that cele- 
brations be held in accordance thereof. With the first meeting which the Depart- 
ment ever held, being at Atlantic City and the American Association of School 
Administrators choosing this same city twenty years later in which to hold its 
convention, President Tucker has asked that a real celebration take place. She 
has selected Mason A. Stratton, member of the Executive Board, a past presi- 
dent of the Department, and principal, Brighton Avenue School, Atlantic City, 
as General Chairman of all functions for this important meeting. The Depart- 
ment’s Twentieth Year of Progress meeting at Atlantic City will be a “high- 
spot” in its life history. 

The plans for the banquet are unique and you will enjoy them. The Acquain- 
tance Breakfast will be another festive occasion. The two afternoon general 
sessions will be splendid, as always. 

Those of you who have been privileged to attend any or all of the meetings 
of the Department of Elementary School Principals, which have been held at 
Atlantic City, New Jersey, know how splendidly the local and state committees 
have entertained their visitors; how the functions for the Department have been 
for many years held at the Traymore Hotel—at which lovely hostelry we shall 
again have our breakfast, banquet, and perhaps our programs this coming year; 
and how the beautiful Crane building, which is next to the auditorium, has been 
the headquarters for the Department so many times. Not only has the genial 
manager, Ralph Scull, displayed a sign to welcome us, but he has offered the 
lovely parlors on the second floor for us to use as a place to register and meet 
our friends. 

Carroll R. Reed, president, American Association of School Administrators, 
has selected for the convention theme, “To Provide for the Common Defense: 
to Promote the General Welfare; to Secure the Blessings of Liberty.” 

The Atlantic City meeting is one you will want to attend and one you will 
long remember after the convention. The December issue of Te National Ele- 
mentary Principal will give further details of the meeting. Put these dates down 
—February 22-27, 1941, Atlantic City, New Jersey. 





46 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 














all 


en 
ial 
he 
et 





AMERICAN EDUCATION WEEK 1940 


The twentieth annual observance 
of American Education Week, No- 
vember 10-16, 1940, will be built 
around the general theme, ‘“Educa- 
Ad, tion for the Common Defense.” The 
mL insicuinme, | daily topics are shown in the accom- 
——"— a ao panying illustration. 

The basic purpose of American 
Education Week is to help inform 
the parents and citizens of every 
community regarding the achieve- 

DEVELOPING ments, the objectives, and the needs 
Yumnnom’ | of their schools. 

The theme, “Education for the 
Common Defense,” is of universal 
interest at a time when the nation is 
embarked upon a tremendous na- 
rv tional defense program in terms of 

Economie SECURITY armament, conscription, and the 
inva LinenTts a training of personnel. If democracy 
is to be safeguarded we must also 
mobilize our intellectual, moral, and 
spiritual resources as well as build armaments. The school’s responsibility for 
this task begins with the elementary school child. 

Our system of universal public education, constantly adapted to changing 
needs and problems, is the greatest common defense the American people have 
erected or can erect. American Education Week 1940 is the opportunity of a gene- 
ration to carry this message to the American people by vigorous, concerted effort 
throughout the entire nation. It is of the utmost importance that this be done. 
Other demands for public funds make it increasingly difficult to finance educa- 
tion. Meanwhile, new problems confront the schools as the nation moves into a 
new period of world history. 

The National Education Association has prepared materials to assist you. 
These include posters, leaflets, stickers, a Handbook, an illustrated booklet 
“Education for the Common Defense,” and a folder “Things To Do, American 
Education Week in the Upper Elementary School.” A classroom supply of these 
materials may be secured in the Elementary School Packet which is available 
at 50 cents per packet. 

If you are interested in the kindergarten-primary grades another folder 
“Things to Do American Education Week in the Kindergarten-Primary School” 
is available. The Kindergarten-Primary School Packet carries this folder and 
the other materials listed above. It also sells for 50 cents. 

Address your order to the National Education Association, 1201 Sixteenth 
Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. Make American Education Week count in 


your community. 














FINANCING 
puBLic EDUCATION 
Tacsday, November | 





Selanen' ma THE 
ry Rarer COMMON DEFENSE 
Wak 











SAFEGUARDING 
WATURAL RESOURCES 
Thursday, November 14 

















PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 47 








The Emerging Design of the Elementary School 
Curriculum * 


J. Harold Straub, Willard School, Ridgewood, New Jersey, and 
State Teachers College, Paterson, New Jersey 


Would you agree that a new design of elementary edu- 
cation is emerging as we experiment and play with old and 
new patterns of education? And would you be willing to go 
along with the thought that an educational design is an ever- 
changing, ever-growing, undetermined, dynamic process of 
growth, and not a static, fixed, finished, model pattern to 
be followed? And then, would you accept the thought that 
the emerging design of elementary education is the coopera- 
tive, full, democratic, happy living of children and teachers 
in and about their in-and-out-of-school experiences? J. HAROLD STRAUB 

Curriculum: It has been said that the curriculum of the 
school is what the children are actually doing in school, and not what they are 
supposed to be doing according to some predetermined, printed course of study 
or program of activities. The curriculum of any school is the every-minute interact- 
ing of the child with his environment while he is in any way connected with the 
school. The curriculum of every school is the school living going on in and about 
the school. It is the sum total of the child’s school experiences both desirable and 
undesirable, both academic and non-academic, and both known and unknown. 

Hence, curriculum really is the school living of the child. This raises the ques- 
tion, how much real, true, child-like living do children really experience in 
school? Do they live uninterrupted child lives, or do they live predetermined, 
patterned, adult-planned school lives? It would be the opinion of the writer that 
present-day school curriculums very much set a general pattern of life to be 
lived by all children regardless of individuality and differing personality. Chil- 
dren, in the eyes of our present-day curriculums, are expected to be one-like-the- 
next when really no two are alike, nor could they be alike. It is true that individ- 
uality and differing personality have been given some curriculum consideration, 
and it is likewise true that attempts are being made to somewhat individualize 
school instruction; however, our schools are still mainly organized and planned 
in terms of the pattern child, and not in terms of the different individual child. 

Have you ever watched children lock-stepping aimlessly, and without interest, 
through a predetermined adult multiplication-table desire? Have you ever been 
in the presence of young children full of life passing from kindergarten to 
whether-you-like-it-or-not, whether-you-are-ready-for-it-or-not first grade read- 
ing? And have you ever tried yourself in the shoes of the one, two, three, or four 
years retarded child? And the question again flashing before us is, though ques- 
tions might be many at this point, do children live child lives in school, or do 
they lock-step through predetermined school patterns? 


* Part I of an article ‘‘The Emerging Design of Elementary Education” by J. Harold Straub. 





48 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 














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sub 
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Hence, it appears that the emerging teacher must be interested in something 
more important, something more vital, in the personal life of the child than mere 
subject matter and mere pattern lock-stepping. The teacher must be interested 
in the child and in all of his problems. The teacher must be interested in an 
in-and-out-of-school learner. Thus, the allowing of the child to grow and develop 
with the help of understanding teachers, and according to their differing personal 
life experiences becomes the primary concern of the school curriculum. Schools 
are built for children. Children are the prime factors in any and every classroom, 
and the continuous development of these children still remains the paramount 
goal of the school and the emerging teacher. 

The subject matter of such an emerging school program must emerge out of 
the activity of the school living. As children experience they will meet many 
types of subject matter integrated within various different larger problems of 
life. Subject matter will be neither wholly academic, nor wholly non-academic; 
but rather, it will be all that goes to make up the integrated experiencing neces- 
sary for the solution of real, life problems. Subject matter must lose its decided 
academic characteristic, and must emerge from life’s experiences. It must be 
found in the going. It must be liberated with the unfolding of experience. And 
it cannot be picked out of the larger problem for isolated study and consideration, 
for such cuts its vitalizing blood stream of relationship within the larger problem 
and entirely changes that part so isolated. 

Subject matter must not, and cannot, be mechanically planned in advance. 
The definite and mechanical subject matter plans of the teacher never so unfold 
in the larger life problem except as this larger problem is the personal problem 
of the teacher, and not the personal problem of the child. The problems must be 
the personal problems of the child. All subject matter must unfold from the 
problems, or life experiences, of the child. Children “learn by doing”. The doing 
only remains the interest of the child as he feels his results helping him to 
approach his own personal goal. Thus, it becomes more and more evident that 
definite subject matter must not be set up in a printed course of study, or school 
program. And, it seems to follow, that such definite subject matter cannot be 
distributed to teachers for teaching according to a rigid schedule. 

The solving of personal problems, the guiding of personal experiences through 
to the goal of the individual, the managing of one’s experiences through the 
larger life problem to a satisfactory personal result, and the integration of 
experiences through personal problem solutions emerge in the design of educa- 
tion. Training to match set patterns, the development of skills in isolation, 
isolated drill for habit formation, the acquiring of isolated facts and information, 
and the sectional part-building of education fade in the passing design of educa- 
tion. The emerging design is one of relationship. The final result of any problem 
finds its balance and weight in the relationship of the parts. Parts integrated 
within the total whole bearing relationship to all of the others, as well as weight 
within the whole, make up the problems of life. Parts only have meaning in 
relationship, and parts taken out of their natural wholes lose their related 
meaning, and take on new and often entirely different meanings. Therefore, 
thinking of one’s life as a whole, it becomes evident that all things are learned 





a einai a 





PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 49 








in relationship, and that new learning gets its meaning from the total of one, 
past total experiences. Hence, all learning and all value are relative. 

It is evident that meaning is by far the most important element in any ¢,. 
perience. The important element is not skill, it is not habit formation, and it j 
not the acquiring of facts and information. Meaning, resulting from the relatiop. 
ships of all of the elements within the larger experience, has true and permanen 
learning value. What, fer example, is the meaning of the word, boat? What i 
the meaning of pleasure? What is the meaning of Civil War? What relative 
values do you attach to these terms? They take on meaning only as one is abk 
to give them relative interpretation in terms of the depth and breadth of hj 
total of past experiences. Of course, no two people attach the same relatiy 
values in interpreting; hence, no two people give identical meanings. If an indi. 
vidual has no background for the interpretation of such words, meaning j 
impossible. Have you ever watched a child try to color and relate a new word 
when he had nothing in his past experience with which to color and to which t 
relate? Have you ever seen a child seemingly learn something one day, and no 
know any of it the very next day? Have you worked with children who, after 
listening to the same explanation of a word or thought, use this gained learning 
to greatly varying degrees? Such, if answered, are examples of the depth and 
breadth of meaning. 

The individual child emerges more and more in the design of education. The 
day of the lecture type of classroom procedure is fast passing. The day of large 
group instruction has already given way to small group instruction, and in some 
cases individual instruction. The design clearly and definitely indicates a closer 
and closer approach to individual instruction. Children cannot be taught the 
same things in the same ways. Children should not be given one same, over-all 
educational exposure. Children should be exposed to different things at different 
times and in different ways. Such exposure must be guided by the personal 
patterns of the children as individuals. Differing personalities must be recognized. 

The freedom of individual creativity, the escape from force and pressure, and 
the respect of child personality flash as elements of new design. Children must 
be allowed and helped to express their individual personal life patterns. Biologi- 
cally, they must be free. They must create for themselves their own individual 
life designs as they freely live their own lives. Naturally, such a creative life 
design embodies, and continually uses, the sum total of the experiences of the 
child. Regardless of how small, or how big, every new experience reshapes this 
sum total. Some of this reshaping is immediately noticed through the outward 
reactions of the child, but much of this changing is never in evidence. Hence, the 
child is always changing though we may never see any signs of a changing 
individual. This changing, or creating, can be done only by the child. No one 
can create his changed self for him. He designs his own life pattern in response 
to his interacting with his environment, and in terms of his sum total past. This, 
we have failed to appreciate in our educational designs. Evidences of our failures 
are all about the school and classroom. Curriculum evidences, teacher method 
evidences, pupil procedure evidences, and many others all failing to appreciate 





50 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 








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that all learning is an internally child-controlled process, and not an externally 
teacher-controlled method. All learning is internal. And the design of life is an 
ever-changing, ever-growing, undetermined, dynamic process of whole develop- 


ment. 


Conclusion.—Thus, it seems rather true that a new design of elementary edu- 
cation is emerging as we experiment and play with new and old patterns of 
education. It also appears sound to say that the new educational design of ele- 
mentary education is an ever-changing, ever-growing, undetermined, dynamic 
process of growth, and not a static, fixed, finished, model pattern to be followed. 
And finally it appears that we must accept the statement that the emerging 
design of elementary education is the cooperative, full, democratic, happy living 
of children and teachers in and about their school experiences. 








Report of the Necrology Committee 


Sarah L. Young, Principal, Parker School, Oakland, California, 
Chairman 


DEATH Is A Door 


Death is only an old door 
Set in a garden wall. 

On gentle hinges it gives, at dusk 
When the thrushes call. 


Along the lintel are green leaves 
Beyond, the light lies still. 
Very willing and weary feet 
Go over that sill. 


There is nothing to trouble any heart 
Nothing to hurt at all. 
Death is only a quiet door 
In an old wall. 
—Nancy Byrd Turner. 


Mr. President and friends: It is most fitting that we pause a moment at this 
busy convention to pay tribute to the memory of those of our group whom death 
has called during this past year. It is not possible to name them all at this time, 
but as complete a list as can be compiled will be printed in the December issue 
of The National Elementary Principal. 

While we listen to quiet strains of music, let us stand as we pay tribute to 
those who have gone. 

(Everyone arose and remained silent for a few minutes while music was 
played.) 


PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 51 








SECRETARY’S REPORT 


Milwaukee, Wisconsin 
June 30-July 4, 1940 


The semi-annual meetings of the Department of Elementary School Principals were held 
on Monday and Tuesday afternoons, July 1 and 2 respectively, in Juneau Hall, Main 
Auditorium, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Several hundred principals and others interested in elemen. 
tary education arrived early so as to enjoy the splendid community singing led by Robert 
H. Edgar, principal, Bedford School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, accompanied by Edith Knight 
in charge of grade music, Lake Bluff School, Shorewood, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We are 
grateful to Miss Knight and Mr. Edgar for the splendid contribution which they made 
to each afternoon program. 

The topics and speakers for the general sessions were as follows: 


First Session—Monday, July 1, Juneau Hall, Main Auditorium, 2:00 p. m. 
Presiding, Irvin A. Wilson, President of the Department 
Practices of the Progressive Elementary School 

ComMuNITY SINGING 

Leader, Robert Edgar, Principal, Bedford School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 

Pianist, Edith Knight, In charge of Grade Music, Lake Bluff School, Shorewood, Wisconsin 
UNDERSTANDING THE CHILD 

Margaret White, Supervisor, Elementary English, Cleveland, Ohio 
THE PRINCIPAL AS AN EDUCATIONAL LEADER 

Carroll R. Reed, President, American Association of School Administrators and Superin- 

tendent of Schools, Minneapolis, Minnesota 


DISCUSSION FROM THE FLOOR 
Second Session—Tuesday, July 2, Juneau Hall, Main Auditorium, 2:00 p. m. 
Presiding, Irvin A. Wilson, President of the Department 
Community SINGING 
Leader, Robert Edgar, Principal, Bedford School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 
Pianist, Edith Knight, In charge of Grade Music, Lake Bluff School, Shorewood, Wisconsin 


Business MEETING 
Report of Committees 
Election of Officers 
Program Sponsored by Milwaukee and Wisconsin Elementary Principals’ Associations 
Chairman, Arnold Vieth, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 


THE Mopern ScHoort, A WorkKsSHOP FOR CITIZENSHIP 
E. T. McSwain, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 


ADJUSTING THE CURRICULUM TO THE CAPACITY OF THE CHILD 
J. Murray Lee, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 
DISCUSSION FROM THE FLOOR 


Social Affairs 


Breakfast—One hundred and thirty-one elementary school principals and friends gathered 
together in the Crystal Ballroom, Schroeder Hotel, for the first meeting of the convention 
Monday morning, July 1. This Acquaintance Breakfast proved to be one of the most unique 
affairs which the Department members have had the privilege to attend. Due to the splendid 
work of the Local Committee, of which Beulah D. Kobler, principal, Lake Bluff School, 
Shorewood, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was general chairman, and Lillian Thies, principal, Mc- 
Kinley School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was chairman for the breakfast meeting, each person 
present found at his place a bag of souvenirs representing products of Milwaukee, Wisconsin 
All enjoyed this innovation and were more than glad to carry these favors home with them 

After enjoying a most delicious meal and having an opportunity of making new acquaint- 
ances, President Wilson welcomed all those who had come to this meeting of the Department 





52 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 








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Laura E. Kellar, president, Wisconsin Elementary Principals’ Association, introduced Beulah 
Dp. Kobler, who in turn, told about the favors at each place and extended a welcome to all 
visiting principals. 

At the request of President Wilson, Miss Kellar made the announcements of the events 
of the week, urged all principals to register in Parlor H, Schroeder Hotel, the Headquarters 
room for all elementary principals—local, state, and national—and invited all to visit her 
school in Shorewood, where a Workshop is being held by the University of Wisconsin, the 
American Council on Education, and the Milwaukee State Teachers Association. 

Attention was called to the dioramas which surrounded the breakfast room representing 
twenty-five industries for which Wisconsin is famous. These had been prepared by the 
WP.A. Handicraft Project. 

Each person present had been given a ticket upon entering the room, and the persons 
holding the numbers drawn received either a pair of Nylon hosiery or a pound of Gargoyle 
coffee. Harold Peterson, principal, Keefe Avenue School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and chair- 
man of the banquet arrangements, announced that twelve more pairs of hosiery would be 
given away at the banquet. 

At the urgent request of the group, William Buboltz, president of the Milwaukee Elemen- 
tary Principals’ Association, rendered two lovely vocal solos, after which the entire group 
was led in singing by Robert H. Edgar, principal, Bedford School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 
accompanied by Edith Knight, in charge of grade music, Lake Bluff School, Shorewood, 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

President Wilson introduced those persons at the head table; asked J. Murray Lee, Assistant 
Professor of Education, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, to make the announce- 
ments about the Fourth Annual Conference on Elementary Education which was to be held 
immediately following the convention week; and announced the appointment of the following 
committees: 

Nominating Committee—Maude Rhodes, Atlanta, Georgia, chairman, Cassie F. Roys, 
Omaha, Nebraska, William Buboltz, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Margaret Foristel, St. Louis, 
Missouri, and Elizabeth Malcolm, New Haven, Connecticut. 

Necrology Committee—Sarah L. Young, Oakland, California, chairman, J. D. Williams, 
Birmingham, Alabama, and Bess Rogers Clements, Clarksdale, Mississippi. 

It was found that thirty states were represented as President Wilson asked each person 
to stand to represent his state when the roll was called. In closing this delightful get-together 
meeting all stood and sang “God Bless America.” 

Banquet—Before a most appetizing meal was served to the 389 persons gathered in the 
Crystal Ballroom, Schroeder Hotel, for the semi-annual banquet of the Department, Tues- 
day evening, July 2, President Wilson asked all to stand as Agnes Samuelson, executive 
secretary, Iowa State Teachers Association, asked the blessing. 

Again each person found many favors and souvenirs of products of the host city and state 
at his plate, and more Nylon hosiery were given away to the persons holding the lucky 
numbers. 

After partaking of the delicious food, President Wilson introduced those distinguished guests 
who were seated at the head table and asked Amy Hinrichs, president of the National 
Education Association, and principal, Audubon School, New Orleans, Louisiana, Willard 
E. Givens, executive secretary of the National Education Association, S. D. Shankland, 
executive secretary, American Association of School Administrators, and Carroll R. Reed, 
president, American Association of School Administrators, and Superintendent of Schools, 
Minneapolis, Minnesota, to “speak their minds.” J. Murray Lee, Assistant Professor of Edu- 
cation, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, invited those who had not already 
registered for the Fourth Annual Conference on Elementary Education to be held at the 
University immediately following this convention, to do so. 

The banquet committee, of which Harold Peterson, principal, Keefe Avenue School, Mil- 
waukee, Wisconsin, was chairman, had worked diligently to prepare the outstanding program 
of the evening. Norman Clayton, a baritone soloist from Milwaukee, rendered several beauti- 
ful selections. Only time prevented him from answering the many encores which he re- 
ceived. William G. Carr, secretary, Educational Policies Commission, National Education 
Association, gave a stirring address on “Public Relations of the Elementary School.” Still an- 
other outstanding feature of the evening’s program was the excellent singing by the A-cappella 











PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 53 





Choir of the West Division High School of Milwaukee, under the very able direction of Gg, 
Coffelt. These boys and girls showed that very splendid work is being done in the Milwauky 
schools. 

Most interesting was the presentation of “Dances of the Nations” representing Americ, 
Dancing, under the direction of Dorothy C. Enderis, Department of Municipal Recreatig, 
and Adult Education, Milwaukee Public Schools. The first section of this part of the ppp. 
gram represented the Modern Dance, which was interpreted by Nancy McKnight and he 
pupils; next was the Russian Quadrillo, presented by the Happy Hour Folk Club of th 
Siefert Social Center; the Hungarian Folk Dance was given by the Badger Folk Club of th 
Siefert Social Center; the Polish Folk Dances by the Marshall Pilsudski Folk Club of ¢ 
Forest Home Avenue Social Center; and the Croatian Folk Dance by the Eagle Folk Dany 
Club of the Siefert Social Center. The boys and girls participating in these dances all hay; 
foreign-born parents, and they are being taught patriotism and citizenship through the wor 
in these different clubs. Orchestra selections were given by the Blue Danube Orchestra, Th, 
climax of this lovely program came when a pageant of the American Flag, given by th 
Evening Girls’ Clubs of the Siefert Social Center, representing “United All” was shown as th 
orchestra played “The Star Spangled Banner.” 

We are deeply indebted to those persons who made it possible for us to have such an e. 
cellent presentation. 


Executive Meeting, Sunday, June 30, 1940 


The officers and executive committee of the Department of Elementary School Principal 
met in the Private Dining Room E, Schroeder Hotel, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at 1:30 pm 
June 30, 1940. Those present were: Irvin A. Wilson, president; Maude A. Rhodes, first vie 
president; Robert H. Edgar, second vice president; Sarah L. Young, third vice president 
Lester J. Nielson, fourth vice president; Marjorie Walters, fifth vice president; Arnold 
Gregory, Isabel Tucker, and Elizabeth Malcolm, members of the executive committee; Her- 
bert C. Hansen, director, Life Membership Division; and Eva G. Pinkston, executive secre- 
tary. 

President Wilson called the meeting to order and expressed his pleasure that so many found 
it possible to be present, and expressed regret at the absence of those members who had foun¢ 
it impossible to attend. 

A motion was made by Mr. Hansen, seconded by Mr. Gregory, that the reading of th 
minutes of the St. Louis meeting be dispensed with, since they had been approved by each 
member of the executive committee and had been printed in the April issue of The National 
Elementary Principal. Motion carried. 

The secretary had prepared detailed reports of the progress of the Department during this 
past year, as well as a résumé of the steady growth of the organization during its 19 year 
of existence, a copy of which was presented to each person present. At this time the Pres- 
dent asked the Secretary to present her report. All were enthusiastic about the splendid 
progress which was shown by the Department since its organization. 

It was suggested by Miss Young that some plan be made whereby publicity of the Fourth 
Annual Conference on Elementary Education which was to be held at the University of Wis- 
consin, Madison, Wisconsin, July 8-19, 1940, be given in the different professional magazines 
in the fall so that people throughout the country may know of the fine work done in this 
two weeks’ course. 

A motion was made by Miss Rhodes, seconded by Mr. Edgar, that the regular fall broad- 
cast letter be sent only to principals of the 100 percent schools of the N.E.A., principals oi 
cities; and principals of schools having five or more teachers. Motion carried. 

A motion was made by Mr. Hansen, seconded by Miss Malcolm, that Dr. Givens be asked 
to include in his broadcast letter which is sent to all elementary school principals in the earl} 
fall, a sentence inviting them to join their own Department—the Department of Elementar 
School Principals. Motion carried. 

A motion was made by Miss Walters, seconded by Mr. Gregory, that the state representa- 
tives of the Department be asked next year to endeavor to find out how many elementary 
principals there are in the state which they represent. All believe this to be a splendid idea 
and the motion was carried. 


54 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 








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A motion was made by Mr. Hansen, seconded by Miss Young, that the secretary be in- 
structed to send a message from the executive family to W. T. Longshore, a past president 
of the Department, expressing very deep regret for his illness and the hope that before long 
he will be restored to perfect health. Motion carried. 

A motion was made by Mr. Gregory, seconded by Miss Rhodes, that the secretary’s report 
be accepted. Motion carried. 

A motion was made by Mr. Nielson, seconded by Miss Tucker that the meeting recess 
yntil 9:00 a.m., Monday, July 1. Motion carried. 


Executive Meeting, Monday, July 1, 1940 


On Monday morning, July 1, the officers and executive committee met in Private Dining 
Room E, Schroeder Hotel, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at 10:00 a.m. Those present were: Irvin 
4. 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; Arnold Gregory, Isabel Tucker, and Elizabeth Mal- 
colm, members of the executive committee; Herbert C. Hansen, director, Life Membership 
Division; Mason A. Stratton, director, Professional Relations Division; and Eva G. Pinkston, 
executive secretary. 

President Wilson called the meeting to order. A motion was made by Miss Young, seconded 
by Miss Tucker that the reading of the minutes of the June 30 meeting be dispensed with 
at this time, since a copy will be presented to each member of the official family later. Motion 
carried. 

The problems presented in the secretary’s report were discussed at length. Several plans 
were proposed for improving the publications of the Department and suggestions were made 
as to how to interest supervising principals, teaching principals, vice principals, and other 
persons who have charge of our elementary schools in becoming members of this Department 
and working together for the betterment of elementary education. 

A motion was made by Miss Tucker, seconded by Mr. Gregory, that members be offered 
the Fifth through the Eleventh Yearbooks of the Department at fifty cents per copy as long 
as the supply lasts, so that their libraries may be completed. Motion carried. 

A motion was made by Miss Rhodes, seconded by Mr. Nielson, that the secretary present 
to the president of the National Education Association a suggestive list of the names of 
principals to be used on its programs during the 1941 meeting. Motion carried. , 

Tentative plans for a Fifth Annual Conference on Elementary Education were set up. This 
two weeks’ course is to be held at Harvard University which is near Boston, the convention 
city of the National Education Association in 1941, provided facilities were adequate for 
caring for the groups’ needs. 

Ways of creating more interest in the Department Representatives’ Meetings at the conven- 
tions were considered. It was recommended that this meeting be held from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. 
on Wednesday afternoon and that some light refreshments be served. 

Plans for the Atlantic City meeting which will be held in February, 1941, were discussed. 
Suggestions were given for ways of celebrating at the banquet the twentieth anniversary of 
the Department. It was the consensus of opinion that the Department should take charge of 
both the Monday and Tuesday afternoon meetings. Suggestive themes were presented for 
these two general programs. 

At 12 o’clock the meeting recessed until Tuesday morning at 8:30. 


Executive Meeting, Tuesday, July 2, 1940 


The officers and executive committee of the Department of Elementary School Principals 
met in Private Dining Room E, Schroeder Hotel, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Tuesday, July 2, at 
8:30 a.m. Those present were: Irvin A. Wilson, president; Maude A. Rhodes, first vice presi- 
dent; 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; Herbert C. Hansen, director, Life 
Membership Division; and Eva G. Pinkston, executive secretary. The meeting was called 
to order by the President. 








PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 55 








The discussion of plans for the Atlantic City meeting were continued. Additional Sugges 
tions for the banquet program and suggestive speakers for the afternoon programs Wer 
presented. Following this, tentative plans for the summer programs of this Department at the 
convention of the National Education Association at Boston in 1941 were made. 

The Department received the very great honor of being asked to prepare a Personal Grow) 
Leaflet on the work of the elementary school. This challenge was unanimously accepted ay; 
it was recommended that President Wilson and Miss Pinkston prepare the contents of th 
leaflet. 

Mr. Hansen, Chairman of the Budget Committee, presented the following proposed budg: 
for 1940-41: 


Estimated Receipts: $30,000 
Printing EO PP er Sia $8,000 
General Office ; bea sommes a . 9,500 
SN Sb Ara nt devas Poe eee ars ; . 8,500 
Convention Expense . Ms a etry de ae ' 1,000 
Editorial Committee Pa ar 700 
Miscellaneous eee Ree Sn date 600 
Contingent crate ne pares ea 1,700 

TOTAL Piriers -<e $30,000 


A motion was made by Mr. Hansen, seconded by Miss Tucker, that this proposed budge 
be accepted. Motion carried. 

Dr. Frank Hubbard, director of research, National Education Association, sent a memoran. 
dum to Miss Pinkston, executive secretary, asking that the Department of Elementary Scho 
Principals participate with his Division in undertaking a study to find out the number , 
supervisory officials of various types in the United States and to get some indication as | 
whether there has been an increase or a decrease in numbers. In this connection President 
Wilson has been asked to appoint three consultants from among the active members of thi 
Department. A motion was made by Miss Tucker, seconded by Miss Rhodes that the De 
partment thank Dr. Hubbard for allowing it to cooperate in this study. Motion carried. 

A motion was made by Mr. Edgar, seconded by Miss Walters that the secretary be ip- 
structed to write to all who had a part in making the fine arrangements for this meeting an 
express to them the very great appreciation of the officers and executive committee. Motion 
carried. 

A motion was made by Mr. Hansen, seconded by Miss Tucker that the officers express the 
deep appreciation to the executive secretary for the splendid work she has carried on for th 
Department. Motion carried. 

Miss Pinkston expressed her appreciation to all the members of the official family for thei 
splendid cooperation during the past year. 

Meeting adjourned. 


Business Meeting, Tuesday Afternoon, July 2, 1940 
Juneau Hall, Main Auditorium 


President Wilson called the group to order and held a short business meeting before th 
presentation of the afternoon session which was sponsored by the Milwaukee and Wiscons# 
Principals’ Associations. He asked Sarah L. Young, Oakland, California, chairman of the 
Necrology Committee, to give her report. This report is printed in the October issue of Th 
National Elementary Principal. Cecelia Galvin, Indianapolis, Indiana, chairman of the 1% 
Editorial Committee, gave an excellent report of the 19th Yearbook. Maude A. Rhodes 
Atlanta, Georgia, chairman of the Nominating Committee, gave the report of that Committee 
Miss Rhodes presented the following report: President, Isabel Tucker, St. Louis, Missouri 
First Vice President, Irvin A. Wilson, La Grange, Illinois; Second Vice President, Marjort 
Walters, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Third Vice President, Lester J. Nielson, Salt Lake City, Utah 





56 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR) 





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Fourth Vice President, Laura E. Kellar, Shorewood, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Fifth Vice Presi- 
dent, Florine Howes, Mamaroneck, New York; Member of the Executive Committee to 
fnish the unexpired term of Isabel Tucker, Sarah L. Young, Oakland, California; and Mem- 
ber of the Executive Committee for a four year term, Robert H. Edgar, Pittsburgh, Penn- 
sylvania. 

“4 motion was made by Miss Rhodes, seconded by William Buboltz, Milwaukee, Wiscon- 
jn, that the report be received. Motion carried. 

A motion was made by Mrs. A. Virginia Adams, Vineland, New Jersey, seconded by Arnold 
Vieth, Milwaukee, Wisconsin,’ that the nominations be closed and that the officers recom- 
mended by the committee be elected. Motion carried. The above named officers were elected. 


Department Representative Meeting, Wednesday, July 3, 1940 


The following people met in Parlor D, Schroeder Hotel, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednes- 
day afternoon, July 3: Alabama—R. Voyt Hill, Birmingham, and H. B. Norton, Birmingham ; 
Arkansas—Mollie Williams, Fort Smith; California—Ida F. Coleman, Los Angeles, Mrs. 
Howardine G. Hoffman, Pasadena, L. G. Hummel, Chino, C. W. Preston, Los Angeles, and 
Sarah L. Young, Oakland; Connecticut—Elizabeth R. Malcolm, New Haven; District of Co- 
lumbia—Eva G. Pinkston, Washington; Georgia—Louise Connally, Brunswick, William A. 
Eyler, Jr., Savannah, Maude A. Rhodes, Atlanta, W. B. Trammell, Columbus, and Lila Stal- 
lings, Brunswick; Zdaho—Anna Johnson, Idaho Falls, and M. Lillian McSorley, Lewiston; 
Ilinois—Joseph Murphy, Peoria, Roe M. Wright, Robinson, and Irvin A. Wilson, Chicago; 
lowa—Marjorie Walters, Cedar Rapids; Missouri—Isabel Tucker, St. Louis; Mississippi— 
Gabriel Houston, Clarksdale; New Jersey—Mrs. A. Virginia Adams, Vineland; New York— 
Florine Helen Howes, Mamaroneck, Mary Lawlor, Syracuse, and Jane E. Monahan, New 
York; North Carolina—J. E. Miller, Washington; Ohio—L. Daisy Hammond, Dayton; Ore- 
gon—L. E. Rinearson, Milwaukie; Pennsylvania—R. H. Edgar, Pittsburgh; Texas—Mamie 
Boone, Dallas; Utah—Lois Anderson, Salt Lake City, James L. McDougal, Wallsburg, and 
L. J. Nielson, Granite District, Salt Lake City; Virginia—Hensel Eckman, Pulaski, and Mrs. 
Edith B. Joynes, Norfolk; West Virginia—Edna B. Preston, Huntington, Dora W. Scarff, 
Huntington, and Rachael E. Wilson, Huntington; Wisconsin—William F. Buboltz, Milwau- 
kee, Elizabeth Flanagan, Milwaukee, and Laura E. Kellar, Milwaukee. 

These leaders in the Department of Elementary School Principals came together for the 
purpose of discussing ways and means of increasing the membership, the enthusiasm, and 
the services of the Department to the people out in the field. They realize that the success 
of any organization in the long run, after everything else is said and done, depends upon the 
service rendered by that organization to the people out in the field who are interested in the 
organization. For more than two hours these people discussed plans and procedures which 
were found to be successful in their own communities, and they presented helpful suggestions 
for the officers to consider. It was the consensus of opinion that each one should strive to 
promote the work of the local, state and national organizations of elementary principals. All 
were urged to feel free to use the National Headquarters as a clearing house for problems 
which might arise out in the field. 

Plans for the twentieth anniversary of the Department were most enthusiastically re- 
ceived. The officers of the Department are anxious to review in retrospect the progress made 
in elementary education during the past twenty years, and especially will it be apropos for 
elamentary principals to participate in this great feat. 

Miss Monahan, who is chairman of the Radio Committee of this Department, told those 
assembled about the splendid monograph, which will be ready for distribution to members 
this fall, as an extra service. 

Each person asked questions and told about the particular problems in his individual city 
and state. Many questions were answered, and those present left the meeting with a better 
understanding of the National Department of Elementary School Principals and with in- 
creased inspiration to go back home and tell others about the worthwhileness of holding a 
membership with this important group. 


Respectfully submitted, 
Eva G. Prnxston, Executive Secretary. 





PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 57 





Financial Statement 
Year Ended May 31, 1940 


Permanent Fund: 


Securities 
Cash 


Balance as at May 31, 1939 
Receipts: 


Current Year—6043 members at $3 each 
Arrears—15 members at $3 each 
Advance members—55 at $3 each 
Adjustments 

Sale of Yearbooks 

Interest on Bonds 


Travel Expense and Honorarium to Eva G. Pinkston 


Sale of Study Outlines 


Disbursements: 
Printing: 


Yearbook, Sept. 1939 a 
Yearbook, Reprint 16th, Oct. 1939 
Yearbook, Reprint 15th, Jan. 1940 
Yearbook, Reprint 17th, Mar. 1940 
Yearbook, Reprint 18th, Apr. 1940 
April, 1939 Bulletin 

June, 1939 Bulletin 

Oct. 1939 Bulletin 

December, 1939 Bulletin 

February, 1940 Bulletin 

April, 1940 Bulletin 

June, 1940 Bulletin 


Visual Education Monograph, April, 1940. . 


Printing—Leaflets, Cards, etc. 
Services in Typing Section 
Services in Multigraph Section 
Services in Mailing Section 
Services in Addressograph Section 
Postage 

Insurance, Stationery and Supplies 
Stenographic, Clerical Services and Salaries 
Telegrams and Express 
Miscellaneous 

Convention Expense: 


San Francisco 
St. Louis 


Conference Expense 
Travel Expense: 


Maude A. Rhodes 225.00 
Eva G. Pinkston 


Editorial Committee: 


Jess Hudson 
Cecelia Galvin 
Nellie Lind 
Walter Jacob 


Balance as at May 31, 1940 


$164.16 
177.52 





— 





$18,129.00 
45.00 
165.00 
38.50 
7,782.73 
288.75 
78.65 
144.50 


10,874.63 
1,129.13 


1,336.56 
209.00 
47.40 
246.14 


2,687.76 


100.92 
110.95 


341.68 


97.91 


681.98 


571.64 


$9,856.48 


985.14 $10,841 6) 


6,613.84 


28,125.33 


S 5.160.604 


THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY 








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What’s Happening !! 


*Dr. Lester B. Sands, formerly 
principal of Channing School, and Co- 
ordinator of Curriculum, Palo Alto, 
California, has accepted the position 
of Assistant Professor in Education at 
De Pauw University, Greencastle, In- 
diana. In his new position, he will of- 
fer courses in Elementary Education, 
Secondary Education, Philosophy of 
Education, and Psychology of Educa- 
tion. Dr. Sands is editor of the thir- 
teenth yearbook of the California Ele- 
mentary School Principals’ Associa- 
tion. Headquarters wishes to thank 
Sarah L. Young, Oakland, California, 
State Representative for the Depart- 
ment of Elementary School Principals, 
for sending this news item. 


*Two Seattle, Washington, princi- 
pals retired from active service in the 
elementary schools this past June. For 
sixty years, Anna B. Kane has taught 
school, and since 1912 has been prin- 
cipal of Colman School. Before going 
to Washington, Miss Kane was a 
teacher in North Dakota, Minnesota 
and Montana. 

Frank Farrar, principal, Adams 
School, Seattle, who hasn’t been tardy 
or absent in forty-five years as a school 
teacher and principal in Washington 
State, leaves his position, with the 
comment, “I’ll miss the children, and 
I'll miss their parents. School teaching 
today is a matter of knowing the par- 
ents as well as the pupils; sometimes 
you can help a whole family, if you’ve 
taught school forty-five years and 
liked it.” 

Earl M. Towner, principal, Stevens 
School, Seattle, Washington, sent word 
to headquarters about the retirements 
of these two fine principals. 


PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 





*Under the direction of District 
Principal, James Baird, the schools of 
District F, Detroit, Michigan, used a 
novel method to bring to the attention 
of the parents and the general public 
the value of public school music. This 
was done by presenting a free concert 
at the Belle Isle Shell at 7:30 p. m. on 
Wednesday, June 5th. Belle Isle is a 
famous city park and the Shell is ordi- 
narily used for presenting concerts 
during the summer months by the De- 
troit Symphony Orchestra. 

About 150 children from fifteen dif- 
ferent schools participated in this one- 
hour concert. The orchestra was di- 
rected by Duane Van Orden, assisted 
by George Danz, Lloyd LaVerne, 
Clarence Gadde, and Ralph Banta. 

Thanks to Urban Hartung, princi- 
pal, Scripps School, Detroit, Michigan, 
for sending this interesting piece of 
news to headquarters. 


*Among the retirements from active 
school service in Detroit, Michigan, 
we find three excellent elementary 
school principals listed: Esther Ham- 
ilton, who has been principal of Pat- 
tengill School since its opening; Frank 
Steele, who was successor to Frank 
Cody as principal of McMillan School; 
and Nora L. Egan, who has been a 
principal for many years in Detroit. 

These principals leave their school 
work, knowing that they have accom- 
plished a job well done. Headquarters 
wishes them much happiness. 


*Knowing the new Waring School, 
St. Louis, Missouri, would be completed 
by June, 1940, the principal, M. J. 
Gilliam, felt that the June graduating 
class could do no finer piece of work 


59 





than to write the life of Oscar Minor 
Waring, a great negro educator of St. 
Louis. Fired by this challenge, the 
class entered wholeheartedly into this 
adventure, and now there is a copy of 
the booklet on “The Life of Oscar 
Minor Waring” at headquarters. This 
is an exceptionally fine piece of work. 


*For the third consecutive year the 
sixth grade class of Jefferson School, 
Port Angeles, Washington, has pre- 
pared an annual, giving a record of the 
class. A copy of the 1940 edition was 
sent to headquarters. This very at- 
tractive book, entitled Jeffersonian, is 
prepared in the class colors and each 
member of the group contributed in 
some way to it. The principal of this 
school is L. W. Sharnbroich. 


*Through the combined efforts of 
many classroom teachers and super- 
visors of primary reading throughout 
the state of West Virginia, there has 
recently been published, “A Curriculum 
Study—A Handbook for Teachers of 
Primary Reading.” This bulletin was 
prepared under the direction of the 
Division of Elementary Schools, De- 
partment of Education. Superintendent 
W. W. Trent says, “This Handbook 
follows the same general principles and 
ideals followed in a former handbook, 
‘Organization and Procedure for One- 
Teacher Elementary Schools.’ For the 
energetic and aggressive teacher, it 
will be a source of inspiration and 
guidance. It will confirm her theory 
that out of the interest of the children 
and activities comes growth. It will 
guide her in the use of more material 
centered around the child’s life. It has 
value in itself because it came out of 
the experience and activities of teach- 


ers in active service. It will have valy 
to others as they make it a part of the}; 
own experience.” 


*The D. S. Wentworth School, (hj. 
cago, Illinois, of which Claude L. Wi. 
liams is principal, celebrated its 50); 
anniversary on May 9, 1940. On this 
occasion there assembled the largey 
number of people ever housed in th 
school building. Many graduates of the 
school came back for the celebration 
The program was dedicated to th 
principal, teachers, pupils, Parent. 
Teacher Association, and friends ¢ 
the D. S. Wentworth School who hay 
contributed to the principles of Demoz. 
racy for which that school has eve 
stood. 

A copy of the Golden Jubilee pro. 
gram was sent to headquarters by the 
principal. 


*Atwater School, Shorewood, Mil- 
waukee, Wisconsin, of which Laura £ 
Kellar is principal, is working this year 
to make a complete democracy of the 
school in the form of a “Student: 
Teacher Self-Government Association. 
Officers of this organization were 
elected September 18. Miss Kellar sent 
to headquarters a copy of Atwate 
News, the regular ““Monday Morning 
News,” which contains much informa 
tion about this new organization. 


*Send to Headquarters any news 
item which is interesting in your city 
or state. For the December issue 0 
The National Elementary Principd 
please report the deaths of any prin 
cipals during the past year. You do nol 
want the name of any of these loved 
ones from your state not to be in 
cluded in the list. 





60 


THE NATIONAL ELEMENTARY) 








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Your Bookshelf 


Principals and teachers all over the coun- 
try will welcome Subject Index to Children’s 
Plays, compiled by a sub-committee of the 
American Library Association Board on Li- 
brary Service to Children and Young Peo- 
ple, of which Elizabeth D. Briggs is chair- 
man. It will simplify to a great extent their 
task of finding program material suitable for 
every occasion. Whether it is a scene for 
Armistice Day that is needed, a Book Week 
festival, an outdoor play for a boys’ camp, 
aradio or puppet show, the teacher will now 
find what the preliminary search has done for 
her, so that, instead of having to read scores 
of plays to find the one which meets her 
needs, she may consider only the ones which 
are listed under the desired subject. 

A copy of this splendid new Index can be 
obtained from the American Library Asso- 
cation, 520 North Michigan Avenue, Chi- 
cago, Illinois. 


x * * 


A little book which will be of special inter- 
est to the elementary school group has been 
published by McKnight and McKnight, 
Bloomington, Illinois. Js Your Face Red? by 
Ruth L. Millett and Margaret B. Stephen- 
son, contains lessons on manners for the very 
young child. Children will delight not only 
in doing the handwork called for, but by so 
doing will learn the difference between right 
and wrong manners. 


x 2° @ 


Elementary Education—What is it? by 
Helen K. Mackintosh, Senior Specialist in 
Elementary Education, U. S. Office of Educa- 
tion, had its inception during a conference 
on elementary education held at the Office of 
Education in June, 1938. Subcommittees of 
the conference stated their points of view 
concerning the problems of elementary educa- 
tion, the curriculum, school administration 
and organization, and teacher education. An 
editorial committee which met in October, 
1938, to discuss outgrowths of the conference 
outlines a series of four publications in the 
field of elementary education based upon re- 
actions to the first committee reports. This 
bulletin, the first of these publications, is 
planned to give a bird’s eye view of elemen- 
tary education—its nature and importance, 


together with its relation to and contribution 
to the whole process of education. 

Copies may be secured from the Superin- 
tendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. 


x * * 


Human Nature and the Social Order, by 
E. L. Thorndike, is just off the press. It is the 
purpose of this book to present students of 
government, law, economics, business, social 
work, and education some facts and prin- 
ciples of the basic sciences of man, especially 
of psychology, which may help them to ad- 
vance knowledge and avoid error in their 
several fields. These facts and principles 
should help all thinking men and women to 
choose more wisely among doctrines and 
policies for the management of human af- 
fairs. 

The Macmillan Company, New York, New 
York, has published this fine volume: 


x * * 


The reading program, begun in the Pri- 
mary Readers of the New Work-Play Books, 
is continued in the Intermediate Readers, 
Let’s Look Around, Let’s Travel On, and 
Let’s Go Ahead by Arthur I. Gates and Jean 
Ayer. The vocabulary of each book has been 
checked against the Thorndike Word List. A 
preparatory book accompanies each reader 
and is used in preparing children for reading 
a selection or a group of selections, in the 
reader. A teacher’s manual accompanies each 
reader and provides a full explanation of the 
method of instruction. 

The Macmillan Company, New York, New 
York, is the publisher of this new series of 
books. 

* * * 


Improvement of Basic Reading Abilities, by 
Donald D. Durrell, is in reality a description 
of methods and instructional devices that 
have been found useful for improving the 
reading of children in elementary classrooms, 
remedial classes, and reading clinics. Its pur- 
pose is to help the teacher observe children’s 
needs and provide suitable instruction in the 
classroom. 

This book has been published by the World 
Book Company, Yonkers-on-Hudson, New 
York. 





PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 


61 








Study Guides 











USING 


Tue 19TH YEARBOOK: 


MEETING SPECIAL NEEDS OF THE INDIVIDUAL CHIL) 


Tue 18TH YEARBOOK: 


ENRICHING THE CURRICULUM FOR THE ELEME\. 
TARY SCHOOL CHILD 


THe 17TH YEARBOOK: 
NEWER PRACTICES IN READING IN THE ELEMENTAR) 
SCHOOL 
(a) Covering the Entire Field of Reading 
(b) Based Entirely on the 17th Yearbook 





These Study Guides deal with the material as pre- 
sented in the above-mentioned Yearbooks. They are 
more than just a résumé. General discussion prob- 
lems as well as specific questions regarding the best 
procedures in teaching have been used. 

These Guides are for use in principals’ clubs, 
faculty meetings, college classes, study groups, etc. 


Check one: Number of copies: 


_] The Study Guide of 
the 19th Yearbook icc ania 


| The Study Guide of 
the 18th Yearbook anki 


(| The Study Guide of 
the 17th Yearbook iia 


(a) 
(b) 


When ordering be sure to designate which guides you desire. 


Price 25c Per Copy of Guide 











Department of Elementary School Principals 
1201 Sixteenth Street, N. W. 
Washington, D. C. 


62 THE NATIONAL ELEMENTAR! 








De 
ofh 


me’ 


PI 








To 1940-41 Members Only a 


BOOKS ON ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION 


50¢ per copy 


In celebration of the 20th ANNIVERSARY of the 
‘HILE Department of Elementary School Principals, the 
, oficers are allowing headquarters to sell to 1940-41 
MEM members only any of the following yearbooks at om/y 


50¢ per copy: 





AR) STUDIES IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALSHIP— 
5th Yearbook 


PROJECTS IN SUPERVISION—6th Yearbook 

THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALSHIP—7th Yearbook 
ACTIVITIES OF THE PRINCIPAL—8th Yearbook 

THE PRINCIPAL AND ADMINISTRATION—9th Yearbook 
THE PRINCIPAL AND SUPERVISION—10th Yearbook 

THE PRINCIPAL AND HIS COMMUNITY—1Ith Yearbook 


These books demonstrate that good administration precedes good 
supervision, and upon the solid foundation of practical administration 
the complex superstructure of supervision is reared. They show how 
the same school activities may be administered successfully in a number 


of different ways. 





IF YOUR LIBRARY NEEDS ONE OR MORE OF THESE 
FINE BOOKS TO COMPLETE IT, DON’T FAIL TO TAKE 
ADVANTAGE OF THIS OFFER. 





This offer is good only as long as the supply lasts. 





Department of Elementary School Principals 
1201 Sixteenth Street, N. W. 
Washington, D. C. 





RY} PRINCIPAL, OCTOBER, 1940 63 

















GET UP AND GET OUT 


Don’t you think some people in this 
land have talked too rough? 

Don’t you think the time has come to 
call their little bluff? 

Ask them—What’s the matter? 

Make them can their chatter, 

Then proceed to make the party rough. 

Tell them they’re a menace to the land, 

Tell them in a way they’ll understand. 


Get up and get out, if you’ve got any 
doubt about this U. S. A. 

If you don’t like it here— 
there’s a boat going home every day. 

Now, we don’t want to brag 

But there’s only one flag, 

The flag that will never fall, 

Lay your life down for that, 

If you won’t, here’s your hat, 

Just Get Up and Get Out—tthat’s all. 


Geoffrey O’Hara. 




















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