MAY 99 1996) OUR NAL | GENERAL LISRARY The 7, ae NATIONAL nats CL eANY ae Social Welfare ASSOCIATION and the National — | Welfare ‘ Agnes Samuelson ee eee ee Syme ene Nae mE MON hing eal . * The Scholar in an Age of Confticts Charles A. Beard re A Suggested New Secondary Curricu- lum Wm. H. Kilpatrick » t éntrdvecsio! Is- sues at St. Louis . Sinty Sducationel Books of 1935 * See Page A-55 for Complete Table of Contents APR IL " 1936 * VOLUME 25 NUMBER 4 \ | Read the story of the Columbia River Highway on page 131. ——— es cab A New English Sertes that Prepares for Life ENGLISH ACTIVITIES A Three-Book and a Six-Book Series for Grades Three to Eight A Distinct Contribution to Educational Thought and Practice in Harmony with the Recent Report of the Curriculum Commission of the National Council of Teachers of English In the activity units in these books the pupils learn Eng- lish by conversing, discussing, reporting, taking notes, out- lining, keeping records, dramatizing, telling stories, writ- ing letters and using reference books. These expressional activities occur in each grade with increasing difficulty and attainment. Turoucuout, great emphasis is placed upon the pupil’s growth in social attitudes, such as co-operation, orderliness, courtesy, listening, individual responsibility, recognition of the rights of others, community interest, etc. All these objectives are given conscious attention in the development of language power. By W. WILBUR HATFIELD, Editor of THE ENGLISH JOURNAL, Head of the Department of English, Chicago Normal College, Chairman Curriculum Commission of the National Council of English Teachers, E. E. LEWIS, Professor of Education, Ohio State University, and several other authors actively engaged in teaching AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY New York Cincinnati Chicago For a Satisfactory, Balanced Basal Reading Program Select. THE WEBSTER READERS by ©. R. STONE AND IDA VANDERGAW A nationally known authority in reading has spent five years in building the materials for a more satis- factory reading program. This series was prepared in the classroom, tested over a period of three years in a controlled experiment under direct supervision of the senfor author; and the result is a group of material for use in pre-primer through sixth grade, easy, well- balanced, economical, with reading content interest- ing to children, with objectives, means, and methods definitely worked out. Material of the Webster Reading Course Chart Material New Trails in Reading (third reader) Tom and Jip (pre-primer) Workbook for New Trails in Reading Tom, Jip and Jane (primer) Joyful Adventures (fourth reader) Pre-Primer and Primer Workbook Easy New Stories (first reader) Treasure Chests (filth reader) Work and Test Book to accompany Joyland in Reading (sixth reader) Easy New Stories First Grade Manval Joyful Reading (second reader) Work and Test Book for Joyful Second and Third Grade Manval Reading Intermediate Manual lf interested for classroom use, write for sample copies or additional information, WEBSTER PUBLISHING CO. 1808 Washington Avenue - - - - St. Louis, Mo. Boston Atlanta Dallas San Francisco Save hours of time by using these Loose- | leaf HEKTOGRAPH PROJECTS— _— Each Sheet Makes 50 to 100 Perfect Copies | MADE IT Silent Reading and Art Projects Thirty-two pages in hektograph ink for making 50 to 100 perfect copies, each page with design for coloring and large type reading lesson. Directions for coloring are embodied in story text. Provides thirty-two periods of silent reading seat work. When all pictures are colored, each pupil binds his work into an “I Made It” book. Size of sheets, 6 x 9”. Put up in portfolio. Price, 75c postpaid MY VERY OWN BOOK Reading, Number Work and Coloring Forty-eight sheets of outline pictures with complete instructions for coloring included in the reading lesson. Number work is also included, and, as the pupil advances, spelling is added. The sheets are preserved and when the last picture is colored, each child binds his own book with colored cover, and completes his ‘“‘Very Own Book.’’ The finished books represent the progress made by each child during the school period, Price, 90c postpaid MILTON BRADLEY CO. 70 PARK ST., SPRINGFIELD, MASS. OURNAL Ce’ NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION April , 1936 VOLUME 25, NUMBER 4 THE JOURNAL goes to all members of the Association * Between Editor and Reader— W: HAVE often suggested in THE JOURNAL that there should be in every highschool and college a 10 percent factor of experimental study —courses of a week or six weeks, perhaps as a variation of some longer unit using new ma- terials that have become available. There has recently appeared a book of such outstanding significance and interest that we believe it should be made familiar to large numbers of highschool and college students while it is still fresh. The volume is Sweden: The Middle Way by Marquis W. Childs (Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn. $2.50). Since our American schools cannot be saved if the social-economic order collapses, it be- hooves school folk to give their communities as much help as possible toward an understanding of economic problems and their solutions. The experience of Sweden in her cooperative enter- prises may be a lamp unto our own feet. As the author points out: “The shadow of impending war is very dark. The high civilization that has been achieved to the north of Europe may be degraded or de- stroyed in the general conflagration; the light of this remote candle extinguished in the gen- eral hurricane. But whatever the future may bring there will remain the record of a people who cultivated their garden, their rocky, re- mote, lonely garden, with patience, with cour- age, and with an extraordinary degree of in- telligence.” Donne these coming months, there is a matter of imperative importance to the people as a whole—the selection of an able Congress. Here are five tests to apply to every candidate: First, does he represent all the people or has he been obligated by some special privilege? Second, has he the intelligence and courage to face the difficult problems now before the nation? Third, if the war issue comes, can you trust him with the lives of your dear ones? Fourth, will he support free and universal education as the inherent right of all the people? Fifth, will he diligently safeguard the funda- mental rights of democratic citizenship? VOLUME 25, NUMBER 4; APRIL 1936 J MorE ABOUT THE “Bap Boy” PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 1201 Sixteenth Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. AGNEs SAMUELSON, President Writarp E. Givens, Executive Secretar, J. W. CRastrReE, Secretary Emeritus Mary J. Winfree, Accounts and Records Harriett M. Chase, Secretary’s Office H. A. Allan, Business S. D. Shankland, Secretary, Depart- Agnes Winn, Classroom Service ment of Superintendence, and Direc- Charl Ormond Williams, Field Service Pear thi Ps ga toy ladys W. Jones, Secretary, Depart- Joy Elmer Morgan, Publications , tig : ; ment of Deans of Women T. D. Martin, Membership Eva G. Pinkston, Secretary, Dept. of William G. Carr, Research Elementary School Principals JOY ELMER MORGAN, Editor H. A. ALLAN, Business Manager In This Ilssue— EDUCATION AND THE SOCIAL WELFARE Glenn Frank 103 Charles A. Beard 105 Thomas H. Briggs 106 RURAL EDUCATION AND THE NATIONAL WELFARE Agnes Samuelson 107 THE SCHOLAR IN AN AGE OF CONFLICTS THE IssuES IN SECONDARY EDUCATION THE SociAL STUDIES CURRICULUM 108 CONTROVERSIAL IssuEs AT St. Louis 109 A NoTABLE CONVENTION 110 & A SuGGESTED NEw SECONDARY CURRICULUM William H. Kilpatrick 111 Ellis R. Martin 112 AMERICAN EDUCATION WEEK 1936 113 A PROGRESSIVE TEACHERS MEETING TEACHING USEFUL ARITHMETIC: Part II. REPLACING THE ISOLATED WRITTEN PROBLEM Guy M. Wilson 114 SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF REVOLUTIONARY EUROPE Philip W. L. Cox 115 GERMAN AND AMERICAN EDUCATION: CONTRASTS Roscoe L. West 117 TEACHING PROFESSIONAL ETHICS 118 A. H. Lass 119 Stxty EpucaTIONAL Books or 1935 121 Theodore R. Rhea 125 George H. Hallett, Jr. 126 Lester Keathley 127 William G. Carr 128 ScHooL HEALTH IN Hawalr PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION EDUCATING FOR WorRLD CITIZENSHIP THE EDUCATIONAL PoLicres COMMISSION THE LAYMAN’S JOURNAL OF EDUCATION ; 129 THE LAND OF THE Royat CHINOOK Belmont Farley 131 NoTEs AND ANNOUNCEMENTS 132 THE Honor ROLL or THE NEA 134 * The payment of $2 active membership dues entitles a member to attend all meetings of the Associa- tion and its departments, to vote for delegates to the Representative Assembly, to hold office.. and to rece ive THE JOURNAL. The payment of $5 instead of $2 entitles an active member, in addition to the privileges of the $2 membership, to receive the Research Bulletins and the Annual Volume of Addresses and Proceedings. The payment of $100 gives the privileges of the $5 active membership for life. Subscription to nonmembers is $2 per year; single copies, 25 cents. Advertising rates on application. Please report at once any change of address, giving old as well as new address. £ JOURNAL is a member of the Educational Press Association of America. Published monthly, except June, July, and August, by the National Education Association of the United States, 1201 Sixteenth Street, N. W., Washington, D. C Entered as second-class matter October 23, 1920, at the postoffice at Washington, D. C., under the act of August 24, 1912. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, act of October 3, 1917, authorized January 26, 1921. A-55 MANY GOOD SCHOOLS ARE STILL USING METHODS AS CRUDE AS THIS Through lack of efficient duplication in school work, countless teachers are placed under a great handicap. Perhaps they do not realize how much they could benefit from using more modern methods made possible by the Mimeo- graph Process. First in high schools and now more widely in elementary schools, this revolutionary betterment has brought results beyond expecta- tions. Teaching effort can be systematized; lesson sheets and other timely teaching helps become quickly available; a greater measure of teacher help can be given to all students; large classes are handled with ease and certainty; teachers have more time for self-advancement. Such results are achieved through the one all-purpose duplicating method, the Mimeograph Process. It is simple, easy to operate, cleanly, and low in cost. It is unique because it meets every duplicating need of the modern school system. May we tell you how itcan help you? For full particulars, address A. B. Dick Company, Chicago. Free to teachers. A new and illuminating booklet showing in a graphic way the many and varied uses of the Mimeograph in elementary schools and high schools will be forwarded gladly without the least obliga- | tion. Address Educational Department, A. B. Dick Company, Chicago. MIMEOGRAPH THE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION _ aw = aeeeaeae SE then oan csneneitlt hs VOLUME 25 The of the NATIONAL - EDUCATION + ASSOCIATION ] 3 U R N A fe OF * THE - UNITED - STATES—APRIL 1936 NUMBER 4 Education and the Social Welfare writer, published the results of an exhaustive study of the mass moods of various European countries which preceded drastic overturns of po- litical, social, and economic arrange- ments. In such countries as Italy and Germany he identified twelve distinct mass teachings which made possible the phenomena of Fascism and National Socialism in these countries. I list these twelve moods and ask you to ask yourselves whether each and all of these moods have not, in greater or less degree, been present in the mass mind of the United States during the last six years: |“ vEAR, G. D. H. Cole, British [1] An uneasy feeling that alike in politi- cal and in economic organization, the world is getting nowhere. [2] A haunting suspicion that the exist- ing forms both of political government and of economic organization are ill-adapted to the effective guidance of this age of large- scale enterprise, complex relationships, and swift tempo of change. [3] A growing sense that vast potential wealth is going to waste while millions go hungry and productive genius is held in chains to obsolete economic politics. [4] A restless unwillingness to be con- tent with the cynical assumption that nothing much can be expected from political action anyway. [5] A chilling fear of insecurity among millions who have in the past possessed some measure of security. [6] A widespread conviction, at least among the young folk, that all of the old political parties have gone stale and futile. [7] An epidemic insistence that some- thing be done even where there is no clear notion of what should be done. [8] A panic retreat from the terrifying complications of modern world-problems to the delusive over-simplifications of extreme nationalism. [9] A vehement reassertion of the rights of private property by large and small prop- erty owners alike. [10] An increasing demand for state in- tervention to help any section of the com- munity that feels the pinch of economic ad- versity. [11] A nervous flight from representa- tive institutions to personal leaderships. [12] A growing tendency to think of VOLUME 25, NUMBER 4; APRIL 1936 GLENN FRANK President, University of Wisconsin politics less in terms of adjustment thru discussion and more in terms of coercion thru force, and, if necessary, thru violence. These moods have been present in the mass mind of the United States during the phase of confusion and arrest thru which we have been passing. They have gone far towards determining the atmos- phere in which the schools have had to function and in which the schools must today function. The one thing that ties all these twelve moods together is the clear in- sistence of the masses that all our insti- tutions are means to an end, not ends in themselves, and that the end which must be served by all our institutions is the stabilization and enrichment of life for the millions. In short, the social welfare has be- come, in the mass mind, the supreme Y Sae THRELKELD, superintendent of schools Denver, Colorado, and president of the Department of Super- intendence 1936-37. justification of all our institutions— political, social, economic, religious, edu- cational. What is the role of the schools in the promotion of the social welfare of the people as a whole? The social welfare of a people is not a specialized concern that can be farmed out to any single professional group, such as the social workers or the teachers or even to the state. The social welfare of a people is the net result of the whole human venture we call civilization. . In short the social welfare is determined by the way in which men live and make their living, rear their families, conduct their schools, run their businesses, prac- tise their professions, and administer their governments. No one of our insti- tutions alone ...can insure social health to our social order. But each has its part to play. What, at the immediate moment, is the biggest contribution the schools can make to the health, happiness, and se- curity of our social order? The answer is different in a selfgoverning democracy than it would be under a dictatorship or in a nation committed to the doctrine of the totalitarian state as in Italy or in Germany... . In the totalitarian state, the business of the schools is to train yes-men who know how to take orders from head- quarters. . . . Let me cite the attitude of the Italian government toward educa- tion as one example indicating the atti- tude of the totalitarian state towards its schools. To quote from an official circu- lar of 1922: The government demands that the school shall derive its inspiration from Fascism; it demands that the school shall not be, I do not say, hostile but not even aloof from Fascism, or agnostic in the face of Fascism; it demands that every school in every grade and in all its instruction train Italian youth to understand Fascism, to ennoble itself thru Fascism, and in this historical atmos- phere created by the Fascist es 7's Revolu- Until recently few, if any, Americans could be found who did not think this 103 enslavement of the schools to a formula utterly dangerous. Lately, however, from the widely separated quarters of the Right and Left have arisen Americans who demand that the schools be made agencies of propaganda. The Americans from the Right want the schools to become agencies of pro- paganda for their particular conservative concept of the traditional social order. The Americans from the Left want the schools to become agencies of propaganda for their particular brand of new social order, based upon some measure of col- lectivism. [ am against both these groups. The schools will cease to be educational in- stitutions if either gains control... . In a democracy the business of the schools must be different. Democracy rests upon leadership and popular under- standing. It must, therefore, be the major business of the schools in a democracy to train the exceptional man for the re- sponsibilities of leadership and to culti- vate in the vast and seething majority a capacity for understanding the policies that leaders propose. .. . John Buchan in his Oliver Cromwell, writes: “A knot of determined men, who see their course with the terrible sim- plicity of the fanatic and have armed forces to do their bidding, are more than a match for a million puzzled civilians.” In this sentence the history of much of the world for the last fifteen years is mirrored. . . . When affairs are com- plex, when government is lax and the masses confused, militant minorities get their chance at power. This is why in a democracy like the United States it is important that the many shall think as well as feel politically. . . . The temptations to desperation and defeatism among men have been power- ful during the last two decades. We can- not afford to permit the national destiny to be dictated by moods of desperation among the millions. Today the rich, or the erstwhile rich, are desperate and clutching at something or anything that will stabilize their future. The poor are likewise desperate and clutching at some- thing or anything that will promise se- curity for the future... . If the des- peration of the poor grows great enough, a Clever leadership might swing them to Communism. If the desperation of the welltodo grows great enough, a clever leadership might lead them to Fascism. ... Unless the schools can stock this nation thickly with minds that are at once free and disciplined, American democracy may well go the way that selfgovernment 104 has gone in other nations where educa- tion has not been the popular passion that education happily has been with us from the very founding of the Republic. And yet the paradox of the situation is that now, just when we most need free- dom and fearlessness in the school’s han- dling of the basic issues of the time, waves of popular hysteria against a free fearless scholarship begin to beat over the schools. In a time of vast social uncertainty such as this, it is only natural that insti- tutions like the schools which seek new truth as well as concern themselves with old truth, should be looked at critically. When old truths we prize are in danger we are likely to fear the search for new truth and think that it would be better to turn every institution into a defensive force rather than a force for discovery as well... . When any institution is withdrawn from criticism and made sacrosanct it begins to die from the malignant disease of complacency... . The school is at once society’s organ of conservation and its organ of criti- cism. It must conserve the golden heart of the great traditions in which the race distils the wisdom of the centuries. But the school must also blaze trails into the future. ... I have a son on the verge of college age. I want no university to seek to stock him up with a set of ready-made ideas upon which he will expect to function for a lifetime. I want him to learn to keep his head and use his head in the swirl of a changing civilization. In all this, then, the supreme contri- bution the schools can make to the social welfare in this democracy is the training of leaders and the cultivation of popular understanding. I am aware that I seem to confine the business of the schools to the field of intellectual discipline. But the schools are in the business of making men as well as minds. In our all-to-exclu- sive absorption in the purely intellectual aspect of education, we have at times produced nothing better than a cynical, indecisive, and futile intellectualism. Great civilizations have never flowered from such a:stalk. I bring my plea to a climax, there- fore, by saying that just now it is part of the business of the schools to help their students to bring their lives to focus under the sovereignty of some supreme objective. In the difficult days ahead our sons and daughters will need something of that sense of dedication to high ends that animated the old Puritans. .. . The old Puritan faced a stern struggle for survival in the New England he was carving out of the wilderness. He knew that he could not afford to waste vital energies on profitless adventures. He knew that he had to bring his life to focus. And so, in the manner of his liv- ing, he cut a channel thru which his energies should flow and, with their chan- neled power, turn the wheels of the New England enterprise. . . . The old Puri- tan was at once a man of social defiance and a man of selfdiscipline. With his so- cial defiance he resisted the political and ecclesiastical authority that seemed to him to be smothering the sanctity of life. With his selfdiscipline he held himself aloof from the moral degenerations that seemed to him to be sapping the strength of life. That he made mistakes in apply- ing these principles does not invalidate them for us and for our time. . . . The youth I see around me from day to day impresses me with its magnificent vitality, but if there is a central weak- ness at the heart of this vitality it is that youth is blind to the necessity of conserv- ing its vital energies, of bringing them to focus, of cutting a channel for them to flow thru. ... I remember vividly the days, some fif- teen years ago, when the young writers and artists of New York were going in rather heavily for the irregularities of Bohemianism. Youths huddled together in little colonies, like Greenwich Village, where they lived above the ordinary bat- tles of morals and manners. . . . Today you are more likely to find the produc- tive young writer in the country outside New York than in the cafes inside New York. What has effected this change? It is simply that all save the dreaming incom- petents have learned by experience that creative art demands a decently strict husbanding of the artist’s vital ener- gies, which alone make intelligence and intensity of application possible and pro- ductive. Art, imperious mistress that she is, whips her followers into acknowledg- ment that selfexpression without self- discipline becomes only something for futile Bohemians to talk about over cof- fee and cognac. All this is but another way of saying that education, rightly conceived, con- tributes to a religion of maturity. It is vital that we keep church and state sepa- rate but a divorce between education and religion will be fatal to the national future —From an address before the De- partment of Superintendence, St. Louis, Missouri, February 23, 1936. THE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION The Scholar in an Age of Conflicts HAT is the primary function of \ x / the public-school system in American democracy? It is, as I see things, the training of minds and the dissemination of knowledge—knowl- edge useful in the good life, in the con- duct of the practical arts, and in the maintenance and improvement of Amer- ican society. The teacher is not a physi- cian, a nurse, a soldier, a policeman, a politician, a businessman, a farmer, or an industrial worker. These offices have their rights and duties, but the rights and duties of the teacher’s office are marked by special features. . . . The teacher’s principal business is the train- ing of minds and the dissemination of knowledge. For the training of minds, a trained mind is required. For the dissemination of knowledge, a mastery of knowledge is required. The union of the trained mind and knowledge makes scholarship. So the teacher is under obligation to be a scholar—not a pedant, but a scholar dedicated to the cultivation of the mind and the transmission of knowledge use- ful in the good life, the arts, and the man- agement of social affairs. . . . The first quality of mind required of the scholar in the humanities may be described as judicial. . . . The spirit of the judicial mind is the spirit of the quest for truth in cases particular and general. It is not given to mortals, apparently, to know the whole truth about anything; but humanity has found by long experi- ence that it cannot live well without truth, without the knowledge that can only be attained by patient inquiry in the equitable temper. If the mind is closed and made up at the outset, if blinders are deliberately put on, if there is a resolve to hear and see only one part of each case, then accurate knowl- edge and the utmost truth cannot be attained... . The judicial mind is only attained by study and practise. Before it must be kept the examples of the world’s thinkers who have represented it at the best, who have advanced knowledge and served mankind by the patient quest for truth. The galleries of history are crowded with such figures and in its better hours man- kind pays tribute to them. If in moments of rage and distemper, it defies and spurns them, in all hours of constructive effort it must seek wisdom in their achievements and resort to their methods in dealing with life’s exigent problems. VOLUME 25, NUMBER 4; APRIL 1936 CHARLES A. BEARD Author and Historian Otherwise it must surrender to passion and brute force... . Knowledge disseminated in the schools roust be accurate, realistic, and relevant, not false and fantastic. . . . It must be comprehensive knowledge — knowledge that takes into consideration the known facts and factors relevant to any subject, topic, or theme in hand. At once elements condemned as “controversial” by the thoughtless are introduced into instruc- tion. How could it be otherwise? Does ° anyone really believe that there can be a true history of the United States, for example, that does not deal with the great issues of banking, tariff, taxes, bud- gets, agriculture, industry, and labor that have formed, and still form, so much of the substance of American history and practise? Surely no intelligent American believes that European history should be deliberately falsified by omitting all ref- erences to Communism, and by teaching, as one school persecutor has urged, “only the geographical facts of Russia”... . We have reached a point in American life where the maintenance of educa- tional liberty can no longer be taken for granted. All over the country, schools are attacked by highly organized and well-financed minorities that seek to browbeat legislatures, the Congress of the United States, schoolboards, and teachers. The precious values of liberty and scientific inquiry are threatened with extinction, and with them the principles upon which democratic government rests. If we are to uphold and defend the liberties and responsibilities of educa- tion, we must take a leaf from the book of the patriots who founded the Amer- ican Republic. They wrote the principles of liberty in fundamental laws and they provided agencies, tribunals, and proce- dures for their enforcement. From the field of constitutional law, organized edu- cation in America must borrow its guid- ing rules. In the light of constitutional experience, its immediate obligations are clear. They are: [1] To draft a national code of good practise for the teaching of subjects which in their nature involve or touch upon con- troversial questions—a code incorporating the fundamental liberties of press, speech, and religious worship guaranteed by our constitutions. [2] To define the rights and duties of teachers and pupils in conducting classroom exercises. [3] To secure the cooperation of parents and schoolboards. [4] To provide rules of procedure for the examination and adjudication of specific cases of controversy. [5] To publish a constitution for the teaching profession, setting forth the prin- ciples, rules, and procedure of good prac- tise. [6] To educate teachers and the public in the liberties, responsibilities, and duties of inquiry, research, and scholarship in American society. [7] To establish a national body, perhaps connected with the National Education Association, provided with funds and com- petent legal talent and charged with the duty of promoting and defending the rights of free scientific inquiry before the public in general and in particular communities beset by witchburners and fanatics. With Europe turning to a tyranny more frightful than that against which the founders of the American Republic waged war in the eighteenth century, with voices crying that liberty is a delu- sion and that brute force is a virtue, a crisis is upon us. Recognition of this fact is already at hand. The Commission on the Social Studies, sponsored by the American Historical Association, saw the challenge and made proposals for coping with it. . . . In July 1935 there was held at the summer school of Harvard Uni- versity a conference on “Academic Free- dom in the Public Schools”. . . . The discussion was summarized in the Har- vard Teachers Record for October 1935 —a prime document on this issue. . . . The theme is also treated in the 1936 Yearbook of the Department of Superin- tendence on The Social Studies Curricu- lem... The task before us is to carry forward the work thus far competently advanced. . . . Let us study the problem. Let us clarify our minds. Let us set up a con- stitution of safeguards for scholarship, and devise processes for enforcing it. Let us rededicate ourselves to the American tradition of liberty and to the faith that error need not be feared where reason is free to combat it. Let us assert anew against brute force the values of inde- pendent scientific inquiry, of the unham- pered search for truth, of the fair hearing and the fair play, and uphold them by fearless and united effort—From an ad- dress before the Department of Superin- tendence, St. Louis, Mo., Feb. 25, 1936. 105 The Issues in Secondary Education N ISSUE is defined as a conflict be- Ae theory and theory or be- tween theory and practise in some matter of fundamental importance to the whole plan of procedure. . . . There are at least ten highly important issues, each one of which must be resolved before a sound program for secondary schools, as well as for the care of youth by other social agencies, can be set up. Four years ago the Department of Secondary School Principals appointed a Committee on the Orientation of Secondary Educa- tion, which has just reported on the ten issues that it thinks are of most impor- co: ae These issues are enumerated here. In reflecting on any one of them you should keep the others in mind, for there is among them an interrelation that cannot be ignored. The first issue is whether secondary education shall be provided at public ex- pense for all normal individuals or for only a limited number. This issue arises because of a conflict of theories and also because of the marked conflict of our practise with the theory of inclusiveness, which all of you approve. The second issue, raised by conflicts between theory as well as between prac- tise and theory, concerns the right to terminate a pupil’s persistence in the secondary school regardless of his or his parents’ wishes. Recognizing that a small percentage of youth cannot profit under any program that can reasonably be set up by secondary schools, the wisdom of establishing separate institutions prima- rily for protection until society has need for this minority is indicated. r The third issue raises the question of the extent to which secondary education has an obligation to develop youth only in those ways which will contribute most to the welfare of the supporting society. The conclusion seems clear, but it is in direct conflict with a large part of the prevailing practise. The fourth issue is the conflict between a common curriculum for all, or differen- tiated offerings. The approved theory clearly indicates that far more differen- tiation than is now common or under present conditions possible will be neces- sary to achieve commonly desirable goals with heterogeneous youth. The fifth issue concerns vocational education, about which a discussion for years has reached no satisfactory agree- ment in either theory or practise. 106 THoMAS H. Briccs Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City The sixth issue is the conflict between secondary education as a preparation for advanced studies or as a satisfaction of needs as far as it is continued. The posi- tion of the Committee of Ten of forty- odd years ago, a position commonly denied by practise, is approved. The seventh issue concerns the form in which the curriculum shall be organ- ized. There is a conflict between the theory which approves the common or- ganization into subjects and the minority but strengthening theory of organization of experiences into functional categories. Of course practise all but universally ap- proves the former type, but there are in practise many significant innovations of the second. The eighth issue asks to what extent the curriculum shall be extended to in- clude the direction and the establish- ment of attitudes and ideals, in addition to the presentation of organized knowl- edge. If education is concerned with the development of the whole personality, it cannot neglect attitudes and ideals, espe- cially as their sum is equivalent to what is generally recognized as character. The ninth issue, naturally growing out of the eighth, is the most contro- versial of all. It brings up the conflict between those who, on the one hand, would have secondary education seek merely the adjustment of youth to pre- vailing social ideals and those who, on the other hand, would have it seek the reconstruction of society. Real agree- ment on one alternative or the other would necessitate a radical modification of the usual curriculum program. The tenth and final issue challenges the existence of the secondary school as a separate institution contributing to the gradual, continuous, unitary proc- ess of education. If there should be separate elementary schools, secondary schools, and colleges, each one must more clearly than at present recognize its special functions, all of them con- tributing to the general objectives of all education. ... What are the uses that can and should be made of a report on the ten most im- portant issues in secondary education? It is intended to focus the attention of all professionally minded teachers and administrators on the basic problems in the education of youth. Obviously it wil not do so until it is studied thoroly. The first step that every professional edu- cator should take is to ponder over the issues and the arguments for each alter- native until he has made up his mind which one must be approved as an ideal. If he is a leader, he will involve in such a study as many of his professional sub- ordinates or of his colleagues as possible. Every administrator and every class- room teacher who studies these issues will realize some justifiable changes that are desirable in his own work. Such changes he should attempt to make, get- ting, of course, all possible help from others to indicate what changes are wise and possible and what means promise to be effective. . . Another step that should be taken by educational leaders, whether they be administrators or teachers, is to acquaint the public with the issues and their im- plications and to make them concerned about the program of secondary .educa- tion as it is and as it ought to be. . . We can scarcely expect the public to give wholehearted support to any proposed innovation until it has been made intelli- gent about it—has learned the justifying reasons and understands the superiority of what is proposed over what is com- monly practised. .. . After each professional individual or group in any community has done all that is possible, there will remain the major job of constructing a new pro- gram for the care and education of youth. . . . This planning requires abil- ity, effort, and time not possible from any group, especially when already oc- cupied with the immediate necessity of doing a full day’s work on the regular job. It must be done by wisely selected experts, representative not only of edu- cation but also of all related fields. They must be employed for fulltime and given ample resources to make plans for the entire general structure... . Far- sighted planning based on agreement on fundamental principles is the only sal- vation of secondary education, and sec- ondary education today holds more pos- sibility of contributing to the happiness and to the progress of our world than does any other public agency.—From an address before the Department of Sup- erintendence, St. Louis, Missouri, Febru- ary 24, 1936. THE JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION Rural Education and the National Welfare HE ASSIGNMENT given the newly created Educational Policies Com- mission to chart the next steps in educational progress is no small one. Meanwhile it behooves all of us in every community and state to examine our working program in terms of the general welfare of all the people and the equal- ization of educational opportunity for their children. This cannot be done with- out turning the spotlight upon the edu- cational needs of that half of our school population living in rural areas. The farmer’s contribution to human advancement—The problem of bringing culture to the children of agriculture can hardly be approached without pausing to consider the part which the farmer has played in human advancement... . The farmer has made significant contri- bution to every aspect of our national culture, traditions, and institutions. He has always been a great patriot. He has produced a fair share of recognized writers, scientists, and engineers. Every farm home can look with pride upon the accomplishments of Burbank and Bur- roughs. .. . The farmer has improved plant life and soil fertility. Land utiliza- tion now concerns him. His mechanical genius has produced new machinery which is making a science out of agri- culture. As a practical engineer he has brought moisture to the fields and made gardens out of deserts. He has wrested the land from the sea and converted swamps into fertile fields. Is there any reason to believe that the farms of the present shall not continue to produce the nation’s fair share of leaders in politics, art, literature, and sciences, if the stability of the farm life is maintained and improved? Conditions and problems impinging upon rural life—It is not new to say that the income status of farmers since 1912 has been all but favorable. Recent figures may tell a different story, but in 1929, while about one-fourth of the nation’s population lived on the land, they en- joyed only about one-eighth of the na- tion’s income. Out of this income about one-third went to the cities thru migra- tion of population, payment of interest and rent to city dwellers, settlement of country estates going to urban residents; approximately one-third went for wages, taxes, and various items purchased from industry; thus only about one-third was left for the maintenance of living stand- ards in the home. / VOLUME 25, NUMBER 4; APRIL 1936 AGNES SAMUELSON President National Education Association The number of farmers no longer own- ing the land they till has been increasing during the past thirty or forty years. The United States Department of Agri- culture reports that the percentage of farmers who were tenants increased from 28 percent in 1890 to 42 percent in 1930. There is reason to believe that this per- centage has now reached the 50 percent mark. Another tendency during the last thirty years has been to convert agri- culture into an industrial and commercial enterprise rather than a mode of main- taining the social and economic life of a family unit. While economists agree that farms must be commercialized to a cer- tain extent, they say it is equally de- sirable that the best elements of what might be termed live-at-home agriculture can and should be encouraged and main- tained... . The problem of obtaining adequate governmental services and at the same time of controling the steadily mount- ing general property tax has become serious. In 1929 the percentage of the farmer’s income going for taxes was 13 percent or nearly one-third more than the average for the nation. Recent stud- ies of the U. S. Department of Agri- culture show that, in spite of decreased assessments and reductions in tax rates during the depression, the farmer’s taxes in ratio to his income and the value of his land have increased. These burdens become all the more onerous in view of the fact that the per capita income of farm people is usually only from one- third to one-half the per capita income of the entire nation. If public services such as government, schools, health serv- ice, and the like, are necessary to an ade- quate standard of community living, consideration must be given to the prob- lem of public taxation for their main- tenance. In 1930 about 21 percent of all women of child-bearing age were living on farms but from this 21 percent came 29 per- cent of the nation’s children. Thus typi- cal farm sections must support more than one-third of their population in the school as compared to less than one- fourth for typical urban areas. During 1925-29, the farm population received about one-tenth of the nation’s income, comprised about two-tenths of the na- tion’s women, and nurtured about three- tenths of the nation’s children. . . . If two-tenths of the nation’s women are to be responsible for three-tenths of the na- tion’s children, they should certainly en- joy more than 1 percent of the nation’s income, and are certainly entitled to at least three-tenths of available oppor- tunity for education and health pro- tection of their children. Implications for education—These facts touching only a few of the major problems have a direct bearing on the total educational program, urban as well as rural. . . . The march of equali- zation is halted as long as one-eighth of the children live in school districts with- out funds to keep schools open the customary term, as was reported by U.S. Commissioner of Education J. W. Stude- baker, to be the situation last spring... . The plain task is to catch up with our unfolding ideal of educational equality. The Children’s Charter sets forth the rights of every child regardless of race, color, or situation, wherever he may live under the protection of the Ameri- can flag. The Carter is still ahead of accomplishment. Rediscover it in your library and use it as a basis for discus- sion and action. ... The only way by which adequate school facilities can equitably be made available to all children is thru federal action. .. . The support of public schools is no longer a matter of local concern only. People migrate from the districts supporting the schools they attend. They do not always live there. Check this for yourself in the community where you graduated and see how few are still there. The uneven distribution of wealth also makes education more than a local obli- gation. The national wealth has been concentrating in certain congested cen- ters of population. The wealth produced in all sections of the country tends to drift to the eastern seaboard. Build a wall around any urban community and see how soon it will collapse without the inflow of farm products. Truly the wel- fare of the whole people is wrapped up with that of the farmer. Collect the funds where the money is and spend it in edu- cating the children where the children are—From an address before the De- partment of Superintendence,