wi x SRS 4 we s a ASS x zs : ONS ON N . SH aus aA Sy i x = “ ; Rates SESS : IS SS oA Seine ae Sk aN RERAROCRRNRRO uss EES Soe SENET west 5 i a : We aR : Aa ty SAS . by Ab ree = pert: Schoen Sei AS " i i a : x NE! a & xi 33147 THE LIBRARY a eCEDE STATE eee: , CALIFOR [COSINE Mind To ASVYSIFOIC-VOSIC © Date Due NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS AND ADDRESSES OF THE seitK bY-s5LX to ANNUAL MEETING MILWAUKEE, WIS., JULY 6-9, 1897 PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION CHICAGO The University of Chicago Press 1897 CUNEENLES: Constitution, = : = E By-Laws, - . - - - = Act of Incorporation, : “ E Calendar of Meetings, Officers for 1896-97, - : - > Treasurer’s Report, - : - - - Report of Board of Trustees, = - = Journal of Proceedings — General Sessions, - - Minutes of Proceedings of Board of Directors (1897), Minutes of Proceedings of New Board of Directors, - General Sessions — Addresses and Discussions, - Department of Superintendence (Indianapolis Meeting), Round Tables, - 2 = z National Council of Education : Constitution, - 2 : Officers, Members, and Standing Committees, Secretary’s Minutes, - 2 E zs Papers and Discussions, - - - Report of Committee of Twelve on Rural Schools, Report of Subcommittee on School Maintenance, Report of Subcommittee on Supervision, - Report of Subcommittee on Supply of Teachers, Report of Subcommittee on Instruction and Discipline, Appendices A-S, - - - Department of Kindergarten Education, - Department of Elementary Education, - Department of Secondary Education, - - Round Tables, - - - - Department of Higher Education, - - - Department of Normal Schools, - = - Department of Manual and Industrial Education, Department of Art Education, - - - Department of Music Education, = & - €™ Department of Business Education, ~ Department of Child Study, - : iy) Department of Physical Training, Department of Natural-Science Instruction, - Department of School Administration, iii 498— 195 278 317 321 326 329 385 399 434 456 473 583 584 614 644 655 700 709 736 755 772 792 825 $70 g16 959 iv NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION PAGE Library Department, - = : 5 2 : 2 1005 Active Membership List, - - - - - - : - 1045, Index to Active Membership List, - - me ee ; - : 1104 Statistical Table of Membership by States for Bon - - - - TI16: Statistical Table of Membership since 1884, - - - - gy, Inventory and Price List of Publications, - - : ead 5 General Index, = - - - - - - = LIIG CONSTITUTION OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. PREAMBLE. To elevate the character and advance the interests of the profes- sion of teaching, and to promote the cause of popular education in the United States, we, whose names are subjoined, agree to adopt the following CONSTITUTION. ARTICLE I— NAME. This association shall be styled the NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. ARTICLE II.— DEPARTMENTS. Section 1. It shall consist of seventeen departments: First, of School Superin- tendence ; second, of Normal Schools; third, of Elementary Schools; fourth, of Higher Instruction; fifth, of Industrial Education; sixth, of Art Education; seventh, of Kinder- garten Instruction; eighth, of Music Education; ninth, of Secondary Education; tenth, of Business Education; eleventh, of Child Study; ‘twelfth, of Physical Education ; thirteenth, of Natural Science Instruction; fourteenth, of School Administration ; fifteenth, the Library Deparment; sixteenth, for the Education of the Deaf, Blind, and Feeble-minded ; and seventeenth, the National Council of Education. Sec. 2. Other departments may be organized in the manner prescribed in this constitution. ARTICLE III.— MEMBERSHIP. Section 1. There shall be three classes of members, namely, active, associate, and corresponding. Sec. 2. Teachers and all who are actively associated with the management of educational institutions, including libraries and periodicals, may become active members. All others who pay an annual membership fee of two. dollars may become associate members. Eminent educators not residing in America may be elected by the Directory to be corresponding members. The number of corresponding members shall at no time exceed fifty. Sec. 3. Any person eligible may become an active member upon application indorsed by two active members, and the payment of an enrollment fee of two dollars and the annual dues for the current year. 2 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION All active members must pay annual dues of two dollars, and will be entitled to the volume of proceedings without “coupon” or other conditions. If the annual dues are not paid within the fiscal year, membership will lapse, and may be restored only on pay- ment of the enrollment fee of two dollars and the annual dues for the current year. All life members and life*directors shall be denominated active members, and shall enjoy all the powers and privileges of such members without the payment of annual dues. Associate members may receive the volume of proceedings in accordance with the usual “coupon” conditions, as printed on the membership certificate. Corresponding members will be entitled to the volume of peceedings without the payment of fees or other conditions. Sec. 4. The names of active and corresponding members only will be printed in the volume of proceedings, with their respective educational titles, offices, and addresses, the list to be revised annually by the Secretary of the association. ARTICLE IV.—OFFICERS., Section 1. The officers of this association shall consist of a President, twelve Vice- Presidents, a Secretary, a Treasurer, a Board of Directors, a Board of Trustees, and an Executive Committee, as hereinafter provided. Sec. 2. The Board of Directors shall consist of the President of the National Educational Association, First Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and one additional member from each state, territory, or district, to be elected by the association for the term of one year, or until their successors are chosen, and of such life directors as are in office. All past presidents of the association now living, and all future presidents at the close of their respective terms of office, and the United States Commissioner of Education shall be life directors of the association. The President of the National.Educational Asso- ciation, First Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees shall constitute the Executive Committee. Sec. 3. The elective officers of the association shall be chosen by the active members of the association by ballot, unless otherwise ordered, on the third day of each annual session, amajority of the votes cast being necessary for a choice. They shall continue in office until the close of the annual session subsequent to their election, and until their suc- cessors are chosen, except as hereinafter provided. Sec. 4. Each department shall be administered by a President, Vice-President, Secretary, and such other officers as it shall deem necessary to conduct its affairs; but no person shall be elected to any office of the association, or of any department, who ts not, at the time of the election, an active member of the association. Sec. 5. The President shall preside at all meetings of the association and of the Board of Directors, and shall perform the duties usually devolving upon a presiding officer. In his absence, the first vice-president in order who is present shall preside ; and in the absence of all vice-presidents a pro-¢tempore chairman shall be appointed on nomination, the Secretary putting the question. Sec. 6. The Secretary shall keep a full and accurate report of the proceedings of the general meetings of the association and all meetings of the Board of Directors, and shall conduct such correspondence as the directors may assign, and shall have his records present at all meetings of the association and of the Board of Directors. The Poke lag of each department shall, in addition to performing the duties usually pertaining to his office, keep a list of the members of his department. Sec: uf The Treasurer shall receive, and under the direction of the Board of Trus- tees hold in safe-keeping, all moneys paid to the association ; shall expend the same only upon the order of said board; shall keep an exact account of his receipts and expendi- a, z —~ ala, aS eS ee in OR REN eT, CONSTITUTION 3 tures, with vouchers for the Jatter, which accounts, ending the 1st day of July each year, he shall render to the Board of Trustees, and, when approved by said board, he shall report the same to the Board of Directors. The Treasurer shall give such bond for the faithful discharge of his duties as may be required by the Board of Trustees; and he shall continue in office until the first meeting of the Board of Directors held prior to the annual meeting of the association next succeeding that for which he is elected. Sec. 8. The Board of Directors shall have power to fill all vacancies in their own body; shall have in charge the general interests of the association, excepting those herein intrusted to the Board of Trustees; shall make all necessary arrangements for its meet- ings, and shall do all in its power to make it a useful and honorable institution. Upon the written application of twenty active members of the association for permission to establish a new department, they may grant such permission. Such new department shall in all respects be entitled to the same rights and privileges as the others. The for- mation of such department shall in effect be a sufficient amendment to this constitution for the insertion of its name in Article 1I., and the Secretary shall make the necessary alterations. Sec. 9. The Board of Trustees shall consist of four members, elected by the Board of Directors for the term of four years, and the President of the association, who shall be a member ex officio during his term of office. At the election of the trustees in 1886, one trustee shall be elected for one year, one for two years, one for three years, and one for four years; and annually thereafter, at the first meeting of the Board of Directors held prior to the annual meeting of the association, one trustee shall be elected for the term of four years. All vacancies occurring in said Board of Trustees, whether by resig- nation or otherwise, shall be filled by the Board of Directors for the unexpired term; and the absence of a trustee from two successive annual meetings of the board shall forfeit his membership therein. The Board of Trustees thus elected shall constitute the body corporate of the association, as provided in the certificate of incorporation under the pro- visions of the Act of General Incorporation, Class Third, of the Revised Statutes of the District of Columbia, dated the 24th day of February, 1886, at Washington, D. C., and recorded in Liber No. 4, “Acts of Incorporation for the District of Columbia.” Sec. 10. It shall be the duty of the Board of Trustees to provide for safe-keeping and investment of all funds which the association may receive from donations; and the income of such invested funds shall be used exclusively in paying the cost of publishing the annual volume of proceedings of the association, excepting when donors shall specify otherwise. It shall also be the duty of the board to issue orders on the Treasurer for the payment of all bills approved by the Board of Directors, or by the President and Secre- tary of the association acting under the authority of the Board of Directors; and, when practicable, the trustees shall invest all surplus funds exceeding one hundred dollars tha shall remain in the hands of the Treasurer after paying the expenses of the association for the previous year. ARTICLE V.—MEETINGS. Section 1. The annual meeting of the association shall be held at such time and place as shall be determined by the Board of Directors. Sec. 2. Special meetings may be called by the President at the request of five directors. Sec. 3. Any department of the association may hold a special meeting at such time and place as by its own regulations it shall appoint. Sec. 4. The Board of Directors shall hold its regular meetings at the place and not less than two hours before the assembling of the association. Sec. 5. Special meetings may be held at such other times and places as the board or the President shall determine. 4 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION Sec. 6. Each new board shall organize at the session of its election. At its first meeting a committee on publication shall be appointed, which shall consist of the Presi- dent and the Secretary of the association for the previous year, and one member from each department. ARTICLE VI.— BY-LAWS. By-laws not inconsistent with this constitution may be adopted by a two-thirds vote of the association. ARTICLE VII.— AMENDMENTS. This constitution may be altered or amended at a regular meeting by the unanimous vote of the members present; or by a two-thirds vote of the members present, provided that the alteration or amendment has been substantially proposed in writing at a previous meeting. BY-LAWS. 1. At the first session of each annual meeting of the association there shall be appointed by the President a committee on resolutions; and at the third session of such meeting there shall be appointed a committee on nominations, consisting of one member from each state represented, the same to be appointed by the President on the nomination of a majority of the active members in attendance from such state; provided, however, that such appointment shall be made by the President without such nomination, when less than three active members from a state are in attendance, and also when a majority of the active members in attendance from any one state shall fail to make a nomination. The meeting of active members to nominate members of the nominating committee shall be held at 2 Pp. M. on the second day of the meeting, at such place as shall be announced in the general programme. 2. The President and Secretary shall certify to the Board of Trustees all bills approved by the Board of Directors. 3. Each paying member of the association shall be entitled to a copy of its ‘pro- ceedings. 4. No paper, lecture, or address shall be read before the association or any of its departments in the absence of its author, nor shall any such paper, lecture, or address be published in the volume of proceedings without the consent of the association, upon approval of the Executive Committee. 7 5. It shall be the duty of the President, Secretary, and Treasurer of the association to appoint annually some competent person to examine the securities of the Permanent Fund held by the Board of Trustees, and his certificate, showing the condition of the said fund, shall be attached to the report of the Board of Trustees. ADOPTED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS. The establishment of a special fund from surplus receipts, after the expenses of the association have been paid, to be known as the “Emer- gency Fund,” was recommended by the Board of Trustees, submitted to the Board of Directors at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., July 12, 1892, and the following resolution was adopted : ; Resolved, That there be established, as soon as the current expenses of the associa-+ tion will warrant, an Emergency Fund not to exceed $4,000. Said fund shall be subject to expenditure by the Board of Trustees in accordance with votes of the Board of Direct- LT EE EE Ee fi. f rp AD “ = > =) ACT OF INCORPORATION 5 ors at any regularly called meeting. The said fund may be used for the purpose of meet- ing deficiencies of income of the association, and for such additional investigations and publications as may be determined by said Board of Directors. ACT OF INCORPORATION. At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Educational Association, held at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., July 14, 1885, the following resolution was passed : Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to secure articles of incorpora- tion for the National Educational Association, under United States or state laws, as speedily as may be. N. A. Calkins, of New York; Thomas W. Bicknell, of Massachusetts, and Eli T. Tappan, of Ohio, were appointed such committee. Under the authority of the resolution quoted above, and with the approval of the committee, and by competent legal advice, the Chairman obtained a CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION. We, the undersigned, Norman A. Calkins, John Eaton, and Zalmon Richards, citizens of the United States, and two of them citizens of the District of Columbia, do hereby associate ourselves together, pursuant to the provisions of the Act of General Incorpora- tion, Class Third, of the Revised Statutes of the District of Columbia, under the name of the “ National Educational Association,” for the full period of twenty years, the pur- pose and objects of which are to elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching and to promote the cause of popular education in the United StateSaces-. > To secure the full benefit of said act, we do here execute this our certificate of incorporation as said act provides. In witness whereof, we severally set our hands and seals this 24th day of February, 1886, at Washington, D. C. Norman A. CALkins, [L. S.] Joun Eaton, [ese ZALMON RICHARDS. (ines Duly acknowledged before Michael P. Callan, Notary Public in and for the District of Columbia, and recorded in Liber No. 4, Acts of Incorporation for the District of Columbia. CALENDAR OF MEETINGS: NATIONAL TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION. 1857,-PHILADELPHIA, PA. (Organized.) James L, Enos, Chairman. W. E, SHELDON, Secretary. 1858.—CINCINNATI, O. Z. RICHARDS, President. J. W. BuLKLEy, Secretary. A. J. Ricxorr, Treasurer. 1859. WASHINGTON, D. C. A. J. Ricxorr, President. J. W. BuLKLEy, Secretary. C. S, PENNELL, Treasurer. 1860._BUFFALO, N. Y. J. W. BuLKLey, President. Z, RICHARDS, Secretary. O. C, Wicut, Treasurer, 1861, 1862.—No session, 1863. CHICAGO, ILL. Joun D. Puivprick, President. JamEs CRUIKSHANK, Secretary. O. C, WiGcutT, Treasurer, 1864.—OGDENSBURG, N. Y. W. H. WELLS, President. Davip N. Camp, Secretary. Z. RICHARDS, Treasurer. 1865 HARRISBURG, PA. S. S. GREENE, President. W. E. SHELDON, Secretary. Z. RicHARDS, Treasurer. 1866.—INDIANAPOLIS, IND. J. P. WickErRsHAM, Presiden S, H, Wuire, Secretary. S. P. Barges, Treasurer. 1867. —No session. 1868.—NASHVILLE, TENN. J. M. Grecory, President. L. Van BoKKELEN, Secretary. JAMES CRUIKSHANK, Treasurer. 1869.—_TRENTON,N. J. L. VAN BoKKELEN, President. W. E. Crossy, Secretary. A. L. BARBER, Treasurer. 1870.—_CLEVELAND, O. DaniEL B, Hacer, President. A, P. MARBLE, Secretary. W. E. Crossy, Treasurer. NAME CHANGED TO NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 1871.—ST. LOUIS, MO, J. L. Pickarp, President, W. E. Crossy, Secretary. Joun Hancock, Treasurer. 1872,—BOSTON, MASS. E, E, Wurre, President. S. H. Wurre, Secretary, Joun Hancock, Treasurer. 1873, ELMIRA, N.Y. B, G. Norrurop, President. S. H. Wurre, Secretary. Joun Hancock, Treasurer. 1874.—DETROIT, MICH. S. H. Wuire, President, A. P. Marnie, Secretary. Joun Hancock, Treasurer, 1875.—MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. W. T. Harris, President. W. R. Assorr, Secretary. A. P. Marsiez, Treasurer, 1876.—BALTIMORE, MD, W. F, PHE.ps, President. W. D. HENKLE, Secretary. A. P, MARBLE, Treasurer. 1877.—LOUISVILLE, KY. M. A. NEWELL, President. W. D. HENKLE, Secretary. J. Ormonp Witson, Treasurer. 1878.—No session, 1879.—PHILADELPHIA, PA. Joun Hancock, President. W. D. HENKLE, Secretary. J. ORmonpD Witson, Treasurer. 1880.—CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. J. OrmonpD Witson, President, W. D. HENKLE, Secretary. E. T. Tappan, Treasurer. CALENDAR OF MEETINGS 1881.—ATLANTA, GA. James H. Smart, President. W. D. HENKLE, Secretary, E. T. Tappan, Treasurer. 1882.—_SARATOGA SPRINGS, N. Y. G. J. Orr, President. W. E. SHELDON, Secretary, H. S. TARBELL, Treasurer. 1883.—SARATOGA SPRINGS, N. Y. E. T. Tappan, President. W. E. SHELpDon, Secretary. N. A. Cavxrns, Treasurer. 1884.—MADISON, WIS. Tuomas W. BICKNELL, President. H. S. TarBeE 1, Secretary. N. A. Carxins, Treasurer. 1885. SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. F. Louis So.pan, President. W. E. SHELDON, Secretary. N. A. Carxins, Treasurer. 1886.—TOPEKA, KAN. N, A, Cavxrns, President. W. E. SHELDON, Secretary. E. C. Hewett, Treasurer. 1887.—CHICAGO, ILL. W. E. SHELDON, President. J. H. CanrieExp, Secretary, E, C. Hewett, Treasurer, _ 1888.—SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. Aaron Gove, President. J. H. CanFiexp, Secretary. E, C. HEweEtrt, Treasurer. Su 1889.—NASHVILLE, TENN, Axbert P, MARBLE, President. J. H. Canrtexp, Secretary, E, C. HEwett, Treasurer, 1890.—ST. PAUL, MINN. J. H, CANFIELD, President. W. R. Garrett, Secretary. E, C, Hewett, Treasurer. , 1891.—TORONTO, ONTARIO. 4 W. R. Garrett, President. E. H. Cook, Secretary. J. M. GreENwoop, Trersurer. 1892.—_SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. E. H. Cook, President. R. W. STEVENSON, Secretary. J. M. GrEENwoop, Treasurer. 1893.—-CHICAGO, ILL. (International Congress of Education.) ALBERT G. LANE, President, Irwin SHEPARD, Secretary. J. M. GrREENWwoop, Treasurer, 3 1894.—ASBURY PARK, N. J. ALBERT G, LANE, President. IRWIN SHEPARD, Secretary. J. M. GrREENwoop, Treasurer. 1895.—-DENVER, COLO. Nicuortas M, Butter, President. IRWIN SHEPARD, Secretary. I. C. MCNEILL, Treasurer. 1896. BUFFALO, N. Y. * Newton C, Doucuerry, President. Irwin SHEPARD, Secretary. I, C. McNeEI11, Treasurer. 1897, MILWAUKEE, WIS. CuHarves R, SKINNER, President. eS Irwin SHEPARD, Secretary. I, C. McNEILL, Treasurer, NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES. OFFICERS FOR 1806-072 GENERAL ASSOCIATION. CHARLES R. SKINNER....... PHEStdend veoucceecsemwos posed pL DALY Nickie IRWIN SHEPARD.......... Se SZ CLA TY ne Season eae ODay Met Af Ga MIGINEO LT ine ae creseictatebscclere sisters TEASE, HAOe BOO IO OBC LOT West Superior, Wis. VICE-PRESIDENTS. Newron C, Doucuerty, Peoria, Ill, Miss Emma F. Bates, Bismarck, N. D W. H. BartHoLomMew, Louisville, Ky. James K. Powers, Florence, Ala. J. N, Witxinson, Emporia, Kan. C. G. PEARSE, Omaha, Neb. T. A, Furraty, Marianna, Ark, J. H. Cottins, Springfield, Il. W. W. Stetson, Augusta, Me, Tuomas B, STOCKWELL, Providence, R. I. Oscar H. Cooper, Galveston, Tex. J. T. Merritt, Cedar Rapids, Ia. BOARD OF TRUSTEES. (See Art. IV., Secs. 9 and 10, of the Constitution.) ACRE RT Got LAN cee aleeeaianers CRAEL PHAR circcngeeies ue eared Chicago, Ill. NicuoLtas Murray BuTLer....... SECPOCAG IN ors. as lemlolew signe eaeaet Columbia Univ., New York, N.Y. HIORAGH |S) LARBELD Gu.6 sce aves Proyidenee, Rs Lssecscerecies ..... Term expires July, 1897. Nicuotas Murray ButTLer....... New York, Ns Wecccess se areavalsleviensts Term expires July, 1898. ALBERT AG, ILANH samececnn tin sieser: Chicago blll aasscye tenet sohion ees Term expires July, 1899. ORMOND WILSON Gee hen ae einer Vy asbinetom. 1). Gaya aciecinoaeine Term expires July, rgoo. CHARLES R, SKINNER ..........- Albany 5 NW. cescctlow sutueeceelerscies Ex officio. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. (See Art. IV., Sec. 2, of the Constitution.) (CHARLES R.SKINNER, J. 00 vse soc PP OSEREIT ie Sta Mareen Cajon eGo Albany, N. Y. Newton C, DouGHERTY........... First Vice-President ......00.006 Peoria, Ill. PRWIN SHEPARD s.; s1e.- (See Art. IV., Sec. 2, of the Constitution.) Cuarves R, Skinner, Albany, N. Y. Irwin SHEPARD, Winona, Minn. Newron C, Doucuerty, Peoria, Ill. I, C. McNEILL, West Superior, Wis. ALBERT G, Lang, Chicago, II]. Life Directors. (See Art. IV., Sec. 2, of the Constitution.) BICKNELL, THomAs W,, Providence, R. I. Garrett, W. R., Nashville, Tenn. Brown, Leroy D,, Santa Monica, Cal. Granam, H, A., Ontonagon, Mich. Butter, NicnoLas Murray, New York, N.Y, GREENWOOD, J. M., Kansas City, Mo. CANFIELD, JAmEs H., Columbus, O. Gove, Aaron, Denver, Colo, Cook, E, H., Flushing, N, Y. Hatt, Cates G., New Berlin, N. Y, Day, L, W., Cleveland, O. Harris, W, T., Washington, D. C, DoucuErty, Newton C., Peoria, Ill. Hunt, Mary H., Boston, Mass, FAIRCHILD, GrorGE T,, Manhattan, Kan. Jewett, A. V., Abilene, Kan, DIRECTORS Life Directors—Coutinued, Lane, Avsert G., Chicago, Ill. Mars_e, ALBERT P,, New York, N. Y. Marsuatt, T, Marcettus, Hyden, Ky. Norturop, B. G., Clinton, Conn. Parker, Cuas, I., South Chicago, IIl. Puetrs, W. F., St. Paul, Minn. PickarD, J. L., Iowa City, Ia, Pike, J., Jerseyville, Ill. RicHarDs, ZALMON, Washington, D. C, Directors by Election. North Atlantic Diviston, New Hampshire WiSSTRO TES CSO ie conte DOME Gceeeee ‘ Massachusetts Rhode Island Connecticut ING WAROT PIS chet s iiclaoia) os clacicsceiew eects 6 PME WHR GES E Yin uri aitlaetereiaeisiswavesisians carte PCS VIVANIA «sis eieicielesescee 66 eniee Melaware.s.. 2s aes 35 Maryland strict OF Columbia’ joc, sis vais: ne a’e/é IVE GIA ioctoscie cas et ens 2 +;-- New York, N. Y. NicuHoLras Murray BuTLer......- News Vous Nop Wenrocrreitene cmc . Term expires July, 1898. PATE PR Ts Gro ANT seictecson cersicincie.e Chica ow lll cmmyceeree eine a eats Term expires July, 1899. J. Ormonp WILSON............... Washington; DS'Ci. foc cmceiecesese Term expires July, 1900. FLOWS: SOUDAN a, .ricicanere cereale Str Louts, MoOssnckiseiaaeeceeccie Term expires July, rgoz. ba James M. GREENWOOD........... Keansas/Grtys Momnse.cceeereeeecere Ex officto EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. (See Art. IV., Sec. 2, of the Constitution.) AMES SM ESGREENWOODS sincioleewiende ee >CSELEIE Wels onielcauisteiciaelenieere eee Kansas City, Mo, Cuarves R. SKINNER ............ First Vice-Prestdent...........+ Albany, N. Y. ERWINS SHEPARD) ¢ icisis(sisle! sisisie sere oct) SECHELEI=W er. « avers eicers saloon cree Winona, Minn. Nes CM GINECEL ctersaisiessieustel oottorsielee ate LP CASUUET wi tonterasseetsteee sree West Superior, Wis. ALBERT G, LANE,.... niaiata]rte eth Sesiets Chairman Board of Trustees,.. Chicago, Ill. BOARD OF DIRECTORS. Directors Ex Officio. (See Art. [V., Sec, 2, of the Constitution.) James M. Greenwoop, Kansas City, Mo. Irwin SHEPARD, Winona, Minn. Cuarves R. Skinner, Albany. N. Y. I. C. McNEILL, West Superior, Wis. ALBERT G. Lang, Chicago, II. Life Directors. (See Art. IV., Sec. 2, of the Constitution.) BICKNELL, Tuomas W., Providence, R. I. Brown, Leroy D., Santa Monica, Cal, ButLer, Nicuoras Murray, New York, N. Y. CanFiELp, James H.. Columbus, O. Coox, E, H., Flushing, N. Y, Day, L. W., Cleveland, O. Doucuerty, Newron C,, Peoria, Ill. FarrcHILp, Grorcr T., Manhattan, Kan. Garrett, W. R,, Nashville, Tenn. Grauam, H, A., Ontonagon, Mich. GrEENwoopD, J. M., Kansas City, Mo. Gove, Aaron, Denver, Colo. Hatt, Cates G., New Berlin, N. Y. Harris, W. T., Washington, D. C. Hunt, Mary H., Boston, Mass, Jewett, A. V., Abilene, Kan, Lang, Albert G., Chicago, Ill, Mars_e, Albert P., New York, N, Y. 12 OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION Life Directors.—Continued. MARSHALL, T. MarceE.tus, Hyden, Ky, SHELDON, W.E., Boston, Mass. Norturop, B. G., Clinton, Conn. SKINNER, CuartEs R,, Albany, N, Y. ParkeEr, Cuas. I., South Chicago, III. Smart, JAMES H., Lafayette, Ind. PHELPS, W. F., St, Paul, Minn. Sotpay, F, Louis, St. Louis, Mo. Pike, J., Jerseyville, Ill. Srratron, C. C., University Park, Ore. PickarD, J. L., Iowa City, Ia. Taytor, A. R., Emporia, Kan. RicHarps, ZALMON, Washington, D. C. Wuite, Cuartes G., Lake Linden, Mich. Rickorr, ANDREW J., Berkeley, Cal. WuitE, E, E., Columbus, O. Witson, J. Ormond, Washington, D. C, Directors by Election. North Atlantic Division. Maine). .cace cent os «temas tetiee Aa even OHI Sr LOCKASe ene siaine ss etelais Meriter ex ar ACOr Die windd ATH P SHITE -nts's cite .)sicloe a sisioisievon ne Ue PeN RCS SEL k rene erinete olersteia ce whorenris ei apcToiereicte Plymouth. SV EXINODU eters hee) os ero antereys slele wen Wwieial Mason S,. STONE...... ap OOdag Betogse Montpelier, MM ASSAGCHUSETES slits cone aioe ieee waloie a's PAE Gre BOVDION tepetic eicietsienicieiois aie elese aitvcih aie Bridgewater, Rehode: Eslaud oxcic. nn sicincie sels’ = ASobune Seeiestoe ils Wel WEAVIOR: tote «isle acaharehs stotelcimesremnciar siara Paris. Me NITESSEE Toe) aieloressiniere vials sleieix oaisseiniciew RE WHARTON OU ONE Siicte eloueirisietelelsieieiele ciciyccisite Memphis. Georpiacea= cronies pen cath ssi a'o ae oiciele Wii LOMA TONG merciiarcmacitctim ee aetioci Atlanta. SALAAM at's crete ciele\s/-.e c'e Sdanedooeacecosne JOHNMENGREGORVs ncecasee cece d araciencrel= Mobile. a MISSISSIPDU ne dlees eidiciecielso e828 2. Parsee Pax eM DASSr: chime ea cisareaea sare ciocietemiaei os Greenville, { HEOMISTAM wrelasorsra els sie /eyavejeojaisielye16 waite ae Wis RIN) ELASTONe nia ice ie eisyelstasisicve steer mic siete New Orleans. 2 Plessx casei ta ofa ele reho es ties seis ere yelaraser gis "e hte er GEORGE TTR WENSTON:. rete titers (ois gare cere eines Austin. S @idahome eae aay ereseeh cscs Shen DAVID: R.cBOYDsscupokaicees re *: cujccsraw i Norman. y Arkansashe renters ssieremens cots ctrs Grorcribs COOkaasenicc rier caacee .. Hot Springs. e : North Central Division. i Ohio... - 00. eee esse eee ee eee eeeeee See Eis DD PIE Roan aatacigss Jactetdnaieis so neisa clesisles Madisonville. % Waa diagiatete sisyeteiseicicts cls sictears eicie ae csie’a\bis EpWARD AYRES.......... Pee rneeeicrie alay.ette. %; Illinois........ Race eae seecne emcee puede COLEINS Beta tape scasec coarse see), “opringtield. TASH orerral eiaisfetete ei1<1=12\ Ee eee ME PLAGHARNE Satlele. civ gis colar aia avelet acne hare . Silver City. Arizona......- Mie stents Bisnis bss ails,» Weegee MISS) LVDTA TG LUN. sfrisioinuerereie'e « erestinis siclri sie San Carlos. 14 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION Directors by Election.—Continued. Western Division.—Continued, (UPA eagaonnede Andonmscososnontostest J. M. TANNER.... 0.220402 cece cree cere eeee Logan. ING yaclatricte!s cers ste aistalcre sielsist <:=\vie1s)olea\a\err ci Ju Be STUBBS 0.25 sce seem oe ee cee nes ieee Reno. ictal. moneteleriereretersieramienyarevaia\e ecrureieteisrartte Je C. BUACK. oveweccsiccs cavenases eaneniee Albion. Washingtonsescsecess cores) wreree, ee RNS, RUNGILAN ss) steiaionte eect etern erates . Tacoma, Oieeyereonogue, oeotnaco Sommadonp ached EE By MCHEROW ).7 212 aie etea eerste Eugene. Galiforttlganmre aoe stsesteee Mee nerrivin ss se (Gye Mls ea a oC on cong orurbudenco0os Berkeley. DEPARTMENT OFFICERS. National Council. (CENA SSD OV MRINOB nen anno cesocces (SARE icuc so cscs cngogoeceron de Swarthmore, Pa. AVM ltees Pay ISGLUIN Grr-tsrece qaverale eisrayeua\cla wiatesauelotere: dials ViCO= PF EStLEM Te repatjacielsele etal era Mt. Vernon, Ia. Miss BEE LIB) A. DUE DON aieccnes ete SECHELATY. wach ones os se oe oie Cleveland, O. aA CEL LIN SUA: Es Herrera sre alelatarotetetelomsia teeiecsiete Executive Commttteé..........+- Ann Arbor, Mich. oie as ACW WS anc eacoukcooconendecnac Executive Committee ............ Birmingham, Ala. COR DN SS DIOS s INA DAE on nega ocaacuen oe Executive Commtittee..........+- Holyoke, Mass. We AlTercl: Ei, Railing ste Es ROVE oe eto tol gil teteste cise Executive Committee..........-. New York, N. Y. Kindergarten. IMassaMiAiey Ce McCULLOCGE. 4-52 PH ESTA EN Eos dutaatectsasd isle cctewc wires cine tisvanle s slesrgutie ooh enn oe Ree Vechten wbreasurers (7509 792)! tee ed nwretels kaa ale twisters veel accel oes Joint agency expenses : F. C. Donald, Commissioner Central Traffic Association (734).........00..00e0 00s iH Guvonald, redeeming ticket (774). cuc..2 ssn ag thea: a aie eae Sascle ie os LGD STS TAR SLUG Gl lel, 210) Gani ae Sea a coos Goer a Ooe Ser sean mates Sea rc ames ombrac en tirak Mrdias anos C753) resco cierto cie)ateie lea aise resale ote xe oe ois ore cious lente uss fasesa) By other expenses : Rent of depository at Washington (772, 719, 758)! 000.000 secs cece sece cece case cces Rent of safety box at First National Bank of Superior (715).... 2.2.0... 0-ec eevee Fidelity and Deposit Co., Treasurer’s bond (727)... ..00 ccs scecceersceeees BE OEAN CSD UES] yerclowsi te cere clamav ie) is = 51g oictere Gia e Sie cts: v/a: ate\ cieteresterefortiayens stehara a vatorall CISbITSed BS: ADGVEs tyes Missi oh icicles loi = ie(2is. seis iesel ase eselisvers,aceleie\stelaloie 9h eisilelais eS ESHER CUCU ipIHEEDOEE TOO) ae esha ovellere eie/eicicis o exets eleis/=isir Sioim 0) sJasa)sysiaisie\(eyeim s.sfsio!sne Sa yvapaiance ,casm tnaVvall able (Denver) cm lecciejeresnicy ee lain eines = alosele eloie a ap = oe elsialeeeiielspsieye\s espa alarice wash inl Marcle eter ay iis stot laiepreicie st isioses sel ictrie avin siete «1 cIat erates see By trausier OF permanent fandsi(770) i oF. «as sites seis enews ce ck Seem ae we saa e ben 17 Seimeeterenp) aed Aae4O 446.52 652.53 170.25 $ 1,712.70 $ 33.62 31.01 63.35 ———— $127.08 $ 4,000.00 300.00 — $ 4,300.00 $ 325.00 I,000,00 750.00 — $ 2,075.0c $ 500.00 Ig,00 g0.00 II.00 $ 620,00 $ 75.00 15.00 50.00 -— $ 140,00 $19,948.16 wacumes $19,948.16 20.50 $ 528.59 584.27 ‘ —. — 1,112.86 $21,081.52 a Nore: The figures in marks of parenthesis refer to the numbers of the orders issued by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees upon the Treasurer for payment of audited bills, * The corrections in the above report were indicated by Charles C. Hoyt, accountant, who examined the books and accounts kept by Treasurers, and by the late N. A. Calkins, who, as Chairman of the Board of Trustees, received and disbursed current funds of the association. Since the Denver meeting the current funds of the association have been handled by the Treasurer and the permanent funds by the Board of Trustees, I. C. McNEILL, 77 ¢asurer. ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF TRUS Ler To the Board of Directors of the National Educational Assoctation: The Board of Trustees presents the following report of the condition of the Permanent Fund of the National Educational Association, for the year ending June 30, 1897: Permanent Fund, July 1, 1896 ......ssececsceccessees 122 teens ceeere secercers see crsces $54,961.75 In the following items: Mortgage on real estate ...--...06 sees eee eee Neo Ibucdom Pan oucennd ooo $ 3,000.00 Kansas school and municipal bonds ....-....- ois dish oemMeCaeme es eyes stan cree on Ue Patoas te 35,937.00 Illinois and Indiana school bonds .....-. ».++ 2 wiataiore ence SGA Gor vas Oto 15,500.00 Total investment ....... rosso eldhielay AW oa. nletetalatoialal ayer eyelet exsiePs 54,437-00 (OES nema ent Ace CO On oiooMon noone rma Lge nage ge 524.75 ——— SB 00re7 5 Cash transferred to Permanent Fund from proceeds of Buffalo meeting .........-+++++.--+2e000- 4,000.00 Cash belonging to Permanent Fund, held by Treasurer (see report for 1896), transferred ........ 300.00 Total of Permanent Fund, July 1, 1897.....+..+---.-- «> Second. cao $59,262.75 _ In the following items: Mortgaceror real, CStatea ccm cigitclapalaiore’s © ele et teicl-sfer si ele ola eiesie eteterelavelerieiers=tnte $ 3,000.00 Kansas school-and municipal bonds, se... <.- ster s © aie cise sleiaie wis oiler vl vie eine eer 33,337-00 Iitnorsandlndiana‘schoolbomdsiisemmce merece eae tan eae eileen ere 21,500,00 Wotal nse cee co nee Gree hardcore vee gr eer tetera 575837.00 ‘CashronGhand) for amyestment ).45-e en sen mer eae aot oie 1,424.75 $59,261.75 INcoME STATEMENT, RECEIPTS. Receivedunterestiom Petmanents Pumdinmaamcae see casein sae cen nenenieee $2,802.95 neeroyalty Feport. Committee ot Lem t.acrciaeicsiser cto actaete eet 66,60 we roy altyerepont Committee ob Mitteen! water ema eee 56.65 = $2,925.20 DISBURSEMENTS. Baidvexchanpesfor coupon collections... ..4e.ceeaesene ete c eae cetee ® 0.75 ‘* rent of box in Nassau Safe Deposit, New York.................- 5.25 “rent of box in Merchants’ Safe Deposit, Chicago..............+- I0,00 “* express charges for transfer of bonds to Chicago. ..............+. 20,00 tame DanC GbOOKS Fre Sect ey ganN ee Ee eee TE 2,60 Eomsliarrysliyon, clericallservice yateesci terete teen er ee nee 25.00 “ Bently & Hatfield, attorney’s fees, Seward county bonds...... -- 50.00 Se) saccrueduinterestion) Wemont boudsin ua) qe ae Senet eerie 60.33 i Vota... ocnpeahantae: eesuech Meee Ee $ 173.93 eC Nic eilltwlreasticers acy chee eee rae a een ee I,500,00 nay lyC. MoNeill Treasurers tenes eeaac ono ae eee - 1,251.27 — $2,925.20 Investment, Jul ae it cec soc eM AoC RE Ee nam Sc een narDAabersocswar boodcussesvn sees + 654,437.00 Bonds paid during the year: Crawford Co,, Kansas, District TQOs, eae a ateigyeascaresahcqystetestelare Or tot nee POR ee eee $ 100.00 Greenwood Co,, Kansas, District a, .. 1.0. ¢:es.n8.ne nee ee ne 200,00 Logan Co, «Kansas, Disttict 27 sys. ne eae a 500,00 eno!Co., Kansas, District 110/se5 sees aese eae nee eee ea ee 300.00 Sumner Co,, Kansas, District 177, MEME ORTEU Ce 4 Oh orc cGy Sande nnS ekiguela es 300,00 Douglas Co., Kansas, Eudora Tips eee 1,000,00 2 wi. reiate des BS pst ake esd oreo ieee 000, Douglas \Co., Kansas, Eudora City, ...... Paarl en 18 350 6 Jul.,1896 (past due) OSS Ce ee > 44 800 6 * July, 1900 Garfield,* - - = - 24 800 6 te January, IgIo Greenwood, - < - 2 200 6 U3 $200 July, 1899 Mitchell,* = - > = 43 500 6 Mi Jul., 1895 (past due) Mitchell, - = = - 106 475 6 Me January, 1902 escapee) tee Sry 41 400 6 oe $200 July, 1898 $200 1902 Ness, > = - = - 7oO 500 6 oe fy 1903 Norton, - - - = ~ 95 200 6 = uly, 1902 Osborne, - = = - 52 310 6 ee July, 1899 Phwiinpss= = = = - 63 272 6 oe January, 1900 Pratt, - - c - - 36 500 6 ee July, rg0x Reno, - = - - - 5I 500 6 id July, 1902 Reno, - = - pare 51 500 6 ui July, 1902 Reno,, = - ae ee = 129 300 6 ye January, 1902 Scott, a anes 400 6 a July 1, 1897 Sheridan, = a 22 100 6 te January 1, 1902 Smith, - - = - 109 400 6 ie April 1, 1902 Washington, - - - - 136 500 6 ce July, 1898 $10,837 KANSAS, COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL, BONDS. Bond Rate of County Kind of bond Nos Amount | interest, | Interest payable Bond due os, : per cent City of Concordia, : : Cloud, = invested on Sept. 35 to 40 $3,000 6 January and July | July 1, r918 syed One due each Douglas,-—- Eudora City 6 to 20 1,500 6 March year, March 1 Grant, - - County 47, 48 2,000 6 January and July | February, 1920 Hodgeman, - County I 1,000 6 January and July | July 1, 1919 Kingman, - Aid bonds 1to7 7,000 6 Jan’y 3x and July | August 31, 1919 Lane,* - - County Ir to 13 3,000 6 January and July | July, ror8 Marion,* - City of Marion I I,000 5% March and Sept. | March 1, 1900 Sharp’s Creek Tp., : McPherson, - | invested December I 1,000 6 January and July | Sept’ber 1, 1916 12, 18 Montgomery, Caney To. 2 I,000 6 April and October | October 1, 1916 Reno,* - - A aaah 1,2 1,000 7 Feb’y and August | April, 1908 With Bentley & Seward,* - Hatfield, Wichita, 1,000 |for collec- Kan, = tion $22,500 *Interest in default, 20 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION MISCELLANEOUS, Rate of County Amount interest, Interest payable Bond due | per cent. ackson, Kansas City, Mo. = = $2,000 5 January and July July 1, 1901 Boe Chicago, TL. Set = 2,000 6 March and September | March 10, 1898 Noblesville, Ind, - - - - 5,000 5 : July 1, 1900 DeKalb, Ill., - - - - - 3,000 ig April x April 1, 1900 Cook, village of Morgan Park, Ill., - 3,500 5 March and September | September, 1905 Providence, real estate, first mortgage, 3,000 6 Lemont, [ll., school, Nos. 4, 6, 8, 12, Issue $16,000, I4, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 30,32, - 6,000 5 June and December $1,000 due each year, June r $24,500 RECAPITULATION, KictmSais, DOINGS) wise diciswarer alk iafo (vee ate Vain 9 0 Golbi[abie sie voscin svete e reFoOeravayeloRaeNs Sake CVAe etarsrahis wre rae ataieyaiteiet ate teeter Dyare - $33,337 Miscellaneous bonds. and real estate mortgages... Sessions] EDUCATION FROM A PUBLISHER'S STANDPOINT 95 tician attacks this subject with a courage born of ignorance. Uniformity and cheapness are apparently the things chiefly considered, under the guise of state uniformity, by state adoption and state contract, or by state publication. All independence and individualism in text-books are killed by this Procrustean method. The needs and preferences of differ- ent communities are disregarded, the voice of teachers and local superin- tendents and school boards is stifled by a centralizing and paternal policy, and dangers of political jobbery are immensely augmented. If experience has taught anything, it is that those schools are best served with suitable text-books where the competition is the freest, and especi- ally where a fair degree of local option prevails in the selection. This is a principle that ought to have the indorsement of every organized educa- tional body in this land, as fundamentally in the interest of good schools. The adopting unit should be the township or the county, for when it gets to be greater than this, the teacher, whose right it is largely to determine this question, is put one side and his influence minimized. In this way, too, local needs can be recognized and supplied, and a proper individual- ism maintained, as against a system which aims to take the independence and life out of a system of schools by a plan compelling all concerned to think exactly alike. The question of text-book supply is an all-important one—how to make it adequate, prompt, and reasonably cheap. ‘“ Free books” has been the most general recent answer, but this plan is not suited to all states. Moreover, it has only been carried so far as to lend books for the pupil’s use for the time being. The full possession and ownership of the books by the pupils for use and reference at all times, in the school and at home, are the further necessary step to make the free-book plan complete. When the supply is not a public one there should be a plan for the books to reach the children’s hands as directly as may be from the publishers, at the lowest competitive prices, without adding any intermediate profit, except the necessary and reasonable cost of distribution. Local option in the selec- tion and direct supply at the lowest publishers’ prices are two points which meet the requirement and cover the whole ground. CONCLUSION. Of the volume that might be written on the relation of the publisher to the schools I have only here and there touched a few of the most obvious points. But it is easily seen that the relation is a close one, and that the work of the publisher all along the line is absolutely identified with the work of the teacher, superintendent, and school board, and that co-operation and sympathy are the necessary watchwords ; excellence and improvement in education profit both. We will give you our best service in an active, high-minded business enterprise, and you will help us by 96 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General approving our endeavors, and in preparing for us better and better books. This is the freedom and union which will best subserve the public interest. EDUCATION OF THE DEAF. BY ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, WASHINGTON, D. C. [STENOGRAPHIC REPORT. ] Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: At this late hour I can do no more than take advantage of the invi- tation of the President to make a few remarks, giving you the points of the paper I had intended to present. You all know that there is a great movement among teachers of . the deaf seeking to bring their work more into affiliation with the work of the public schools. This found expression in a meeting in connection with the National Educational Association in Madison, Wis., in 1884. It also found expression last year in an express desire of teachers of the deaf, teachers of the blind, and others, to become more closely affiliated with this organization and to form a department for the consideration of the education of those requiring special methods in their instruction. The education of the deaf should be of special interest to you, for the teacher of the deaf has far more difficulties to encounter in the work of instruction than the greatest difficulties that you can experience. In looking back upon the history of the education of the deaf we find that the first attempt at instruction of a deaf-mute in America occurred more than two hundred years ago in the town of Raleigh, Mass., when the Rev. Mr. Philip Nelson attempted to teach a deaf and dumb boy to speak. The noise of this achievement went abroad, and it was stated that Mr. Nelson, in his presumption, had attempted to imitate the miracles of Christ by healing a dumb child. The community was very much aroused at this, andin 1679 a meeting of the neighboring min- isters was held to consider this “‘miracle.”” They brought this poor deaf and dumb boy, Isaac Kilbourn, before them and examined him. They talked to the boy, and he did not answer them. He did not seem to hear anything they said, and so poor Mr. Philip Nelson was “sat down upon.” His efforts to teach the boy brought only reproach upon him, and he had to retract all intention of being so presumptuous as to imitate the miracles of Christ. Now, it is a very strange thing that this same process led to the establishment of schools for the deaf in other coun- tries. We read in Bede’s “ Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum” how Bishop John cured a dumb man by blessing his tongue ; how he made the £ . “ le th GIN ao NR Nae il GS ; § : Sessions] EDUCATION OF THE DEAF 97 man put out his tongue to begin with, and then the sign of the holy cross was made on the tongue, and he signed to the man to say “a.” He said “a,” and‘ b,” and so on through the whole alphabet. After that he gaye syllables to the man,and he imitated those; then he gave him whole words ; and after a while the man burst into speech, and talked away, and they couldn’t stop him; and he kept telling his inmost thoughts all that night and the night following. Now, stripped of the miraculous, of course that’ was simply a case of articulation teaching, and the same thing happened in other countries. The ministers of the Roman church, quite different from our ministers in the New England states, instead of crushing out a supposed miracle, helped it all they could; and so we had schools arise in the Roman Catholic church. The results were looked upon as mirac- ulous. One Pedro de Ponce, of Spain, was especially famous throughout all the world. But these schools were too much for the generation in which they appeared. ‘The results were supposed due to the miraculous powers of the priests, and. these schools hardly survived their founders. It was not until the latter part of the last century that permanent schools appeared anywhere, that have lasted until our day. At the end of the last century there were only three schools for the deaf in the world— the school of Braidwood, in Edinburgh ; theschool of Heinicke, in Germany, and the school of the Abbé de VEpée, in Paris. There was no school in America. The American deaf children had to be sent to Europe to be educated. We know of four deaf children who were sent to the school of Braidwood in Edinburgh. One was the child of Mr. Francis Green, of Boston ; and three others were children of Mr. Bowling, of Virginia. They were there taught to speak with their mouths, audibly and well ; and they came to understand the movements of the mouth by watch- ing the mouth of the speaker. They received a good common-school education. Mr. Francis Green, the father of one of these children, in 1783 brought the work of Thomas Braidwood to the attention of the world in a work published in London under a very curious caption: “ Vox Oculis Sudjecta, a dissertation on the most curious and important art of imparting speech and the knowledge of language to the naturally deaf and consequently dumb.” That was the first work upon the education of - the deaf written by an American, although published in England. Ten years afterwards the first work published in America appeared in the transactions of the American Philosophic Society, by Mr. Thornton, being an essay on “The Art of Teaching Speech to the Deaf and Dumb.” In 1803 Francis Green urged upon the people of America the estab- lishment of schools for the deaf in this country, through the columns of the Mew England Palladium, buthe died in 1809, without having attained his object. 98 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General Now, the other three children who were in the Braidwood school were children of Mr. Bowling, of Virginia. It so happened that a hearing brother of these children, Colonel William Bowling, when he grew up and married, had deaf children of his own, nephews of these first deaf-mutes ; and he was anxious to have a school established in America. In 1812 John Braidwood,a grandson of Thomas Braidwood, appeared in America, went to Virginia, and took charge of the children of this Colonel William Bowling. He opened the first school for the deaf in the United States at Hampton, Va., in the year 1812, where the children were taught to speak and to understand speech on the Braidwood, or English, method. Unfortunately, this John Braidwood turned out to be a man of very dissi- pated habits, and, after remaining in charge of the school for a year or so, he departed for regions unknown. His friends helped to establish a school in Baltimore and another in New York, but this unfortunate man decamped with the funds, and left the scholars unattended. It was not until 1815 that steps were taken which resulted in the foundation of a permanent school for the deaf in this country, “‘The American School,” at Hartford, Conn. Dr. Cogswell, of Hartford, Conn., had a deaf chiid, and was anxious to have it instructed in this country. He formed an association in Hartford, Conn., and they decided to get some young man to go to Europe and learn the Braidwood method from England and come back and open this school at Hartford, Conn. They selected a young theo- logical student, the Rev. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, who was sent to Eng- land to learn the Braidwood method of instruction. Now, it proved very unfortunate for Mr. Gallaudet that this John Braidwood was in America. It is true he was a man of dissipated habits, but he knew all about the Braidwood method. When Gallaudet reached England, he was met with the inquiry, “‘ Why wouldn’t you have John Braidwood in your department?’ He said he wouldn’t have anything to dowith Mr. Braidwood. Well, then, he could get no information except under conditions with which he found itimpossible to comply. He thought he would try some other schools of Great Britain, but he found that the whole art of instructing the deaf in Great Britain was a monopoly in the hands of the Braidwood family, the - teachers who had been educated by Braidwood being under bonds not to reveal the secrets of the methods to others; so he had to go to France, where the Abbé Sicard, the successor of the Abbé de VEpée, received him with open arms; and the French method of instruction, instead of the English, was introduced into America. The Rev. Thomas Hopkins Gal- laudet brought with him from the school of the Abbé Sicard a very highly educated deaf-mute, M. Laurent Clerc, who was thoroughly familiar with the French sign language ; and together they opened the Hartford school. The French system spread from that school into all the schools on American soil. For fifty years there was no other method than the French apelin dich Sessions] EDUCATION OF THE DEAF 99 method in use in this ‘country. All the state institutions adopted the sign method of instruction. It was not until 1867 that the German method, which originated in the school of Heinicke, appeared -in this country, and what is now known as the oral method made its appearance. Now, in the sign method of instruction the French sign language was employed as ameans of communication and instruction. I had intended to give you a specimen of the sign language, that you may understand that it is distinct from what is known as “manual spelling.” It isa distinct language, like the French, or German, or Russian ; quite distinct from our own. I will give you a little specimen of the Lord’s prayer, as it was taught to me a good many years ago by a deaf-mute in Boston, which will show you a little of the nature of the language that was originally _ employed in all our schools in this country. Now, you will observe that it is not manual spelling. Most teachers have the idea that spelling upon the fingers, as practiced in many of our schools, constitutes the sign language. To show the difference between the one and the other, I will give you a specimen of manual spelling as used in the manual-alphabet schools, like the school in Rochester, N. Y. You will see that these are two distinct things. Now, the sign lan- guage which was introduced from France is a most interesting language from a scientific point of view. I do not know of any language that can give you more light upon the origin of all languages, or the way in which conventional languages arose from natural effects, for you can in many cases trace the relation between the sign language and the natural pantomime from which these signs originated. Of course, in order to be a true language the signs have to be conventional. In all languages the signs of thought are conventional; the signs of emotion are natural. Now, we have a-close analogy to the sign language in the picture lan- guages that have arisen in the world. We all can understand the signifi- cance of ordinary pictures, but these do not truly constitute a language. - In order to constitute a language the pictures must be condensed, abbrevi- ated, conventionalized. For example, the full picture of a lion may be brought down to the simple mane of a lion, and then that may change its meaning, and this figure, instead of meaning a lion, may mean strength. The beak of a dove may mean gentleness. And so, in the case of the deaf, the Abbé de I’Epée and his associates have constructed a conventional language. From the natural pantomime the signs have been abbreviated and conventionalized. Let me give you an illustration: The sign for female is made by scraping the thumb nail down the cheek. Why should that indicate female? Now, you cannot find out here, because the lan- guage came from France. If you want to find out why that meant female, you will have to go to Paris, and when you go down the Bois de Bologne lmeye) NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General you will see the French donnes with little white caps and long, white cap strings that reach almost’to the ground. The little deaf children first went through this pantomime to give the idea of a woman. They pic- tured this little cap and strings going down the sides, and perhaps the petticoat. This was abbreviated until it meant a woman, and the height would indicate a woman or a little girl. The sign became still further conventionalized, until now it means a female. Our little deaf children pick up this sign, and simply understand the action to mean a female. I do not know of any more interesting language. The point I would impress upon you is that this sign language is a real language, differing from the English. Its affinities are more with the French than any other language Now, in 1817 the Hartford school was opened, and this lan- guage was used as the basis of instruction. The problem then came to the teachers of the deaf, ‘‘ How shall we teach a deaf child the English language?”’ The first plan adopted in this country was to teach them the French language, and then go to work through the means of the French sign language to teach English, as you would teach a foreign ‘language ; as you would teach Latin or Greek ; with the same results — that the English language remained a foreign language, and the sign language became the language of thought. . But I promised not to inflict along address upon you. I shall simply, therefore, point out a few of the changes that have taken place, until the work of the teaching the deaf is gradually approaching the work of teaching the hearing. In 1867 the oral method made its appearance in America, by which children were taught to speak, and to watch the movements of the mouth, without the sign language at all, and without the use of man- ual spelling at all. Two schools appeared in 1867, one the Clarke Insti- tution, in Northampton, Mass., and another in New York. The next year another oral school appeared in Boston and another in Mystic; and then oral schools began to multiply, and this led to a very great change in the methods of instruction in the older schools. The sign-language method alone was employed up to that date. Then the sign schools - began to teach speech to their pupils as well as the sign language. They attempted to combine the oral teaching with the sign teaching, and that process has gone on to such an extent that there is hardly a sign school left in this country. They have all practically become converted into the: combined-system schools, in which the pupils may or may not be taught to speak. Now another change of great significance took place. This move- ment of teaching speech necessitated the instruction of the deaf at an ear- lier age than had heretofore been customary. It used to be the case that children were admitted into our schools at fourteen years of age. The best age for a child to learn speech is very much younger. The age of Sessions] EDUCATION OF THE DEAF IOI admission was reduced, and the necessity of having younger children under instruction led to the very large employment of women as teach- ers.. So two of the immediate results of the introduction of the oral method were the reduction of the age of admission of pupils into our schools and the employment of women as teachers. These two lines of change have gone on to such an extent that possibly the majority of our teachers are now women. They are found to be much better adapted for instruction in the primary classes. The age of admission has been low: ered and lowered and lowered, until now we find that infancy is the best age, and we have infant schools established for the deaf. It has been , urged that in the teaching of speech, when the vocal organs are flexible, and when the children are young and at the natural age when speech is acquired by hearing children, then is the time to teach them. If you wait until the child gets to be twelve or fourteen years of age, the best years of its life are passed for language learning, and so the infant schools came to be established. We have here some of the pioneers of the movement of infant instruction of the deaf. We have the representa- tive of the school of Miss Garrett, principal of the training school for children under school age, located at Philadelphia. We have the McCowen Oral School, of Chicago. The lowering of the age to such young pupils necessitated very great and radical changes in the methods of instruction. Methods that were perfectly well suited to children fourteen years of age were entirely unsuited to little babes; and so there has been introduced the kindergarten in the work of instructing the deaf. But the kindergarten is not quite suitable for the purpose intended. The spirit of the kindergarten is all right, but it has needed the invention of certain special forms to facilitate the work. These spe- cial forms have come into existence, and we now have forms of instruc- tion embodying the kindergarten principles in use in several of our schools for the deaf, and notably in the McCowen Oral School, of Chi- cago. I would recommend all of you to see the methods pursued in that school, because they will be equally helpful to your pupils. Now, another result of lowering the age of admission has been found in the inadvisability of sending deaf children away from home at a very young and tender age. You cannot take a little baby three or four years of age and send it off toa big institution. If it is to be instructed at all, it must remain at home among its own people and with its own friends ; and so has commenced the notable extension of the day-school system for deaf children. Deaf children are scattered throughout the community, and you cannot get large day schools except in the great centers of population. Wisconsin stands at the head of a new movement for day schools. The state of Wisconsin gives state aid to local towns in Wisconsin, by which a teacher can be sent wherever four or five deaf 102 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General children can be gathered together near their homes. ‘These little day schools have become a part of the public-school system of Wisconsin, and quite a number of them are in existence. Already a desire has been expressed in the neighboring states of Minnesota, Illinois, and Michigan fora similar law, providing for the establishment of day schools, in addi- tion to the state’s central institution. One word, and I will conclude. ‘The policy of the states in instruct- ing the deaf in the past was dictated by necessity. It was, in a word, a policy of centralization ; it was a policy of teaching the deaf children by taking them away from their homes and bringing them together into one special school. The first school, the American School of Hartford, was , intended for the deaf children of the United States. When these were found to be too numerous, other schools arose, with the intention of bringing into them the children of one state. So this policy of centraliza- tion has, up to the adoption of this Wisconsin law, been the prevailing policy of the people. It has resulted, as perhaps might have been antici- pated, in making of the deaf an isolated class in the community. They have taken the deaf away from association with their hearing fellows, their ~ brothers and sisters and hearing friends. We have made them acquainted with one another, and when we turn them out into the world to earn their livelihood they know this language of signs, a foreign language, and they are foreigners in their own country. They naturally tend to get together in real life and avoid the society of strange, hearing people. So the deaf have become an isolated class, and the separation of our work from your work has led to the teachers of the deaf becoming an isolated band. We have held our own conventions; there have been very few points of contact between the teachers of the deaf and of the hearing. That is all to be changed. The plan introduced in Wisconsin favors a policy of decentralization. It is much better to scatter the deaf in a community during the process of education. Bring them together in as small num- bers as possible ; separate them as little as practicable from their hearing and speaking friends; let them live permanently in the communities in which they are to live in the future; do not sever the home ties and the ties with the hearing world; and it will be better for the children. That policy is the policy that is being tried in this state. Of course, all deaf children cannot go to day schools. All deaf children will not go to boarding schools and institutions ; but the combination of the two,a state institution working in harmony with the scattered little day schools, is destined to produce great results ; and the affiliation of these schools with the public schools of the state is of enormous importance. The next step foreshadowed is a closer affiliation with your public- school system, and the formation of deaf schools in connection with the - public schools. One of the features of these little schools in Wiscon- a Sessions] EDUCATION OF THE DEAF 103 sin has been that they have brought under instruction a large number of children who would never go to an institution for the deaf and dumb ; who were only partially deaf, but could not profitably receive instruction in the ordinary public school. These children have come into these day schools. Now, I might amplify later on, but in conclusion I would suggest as to whether there is not an important lesson to be gained from this idea in relation to the deaf. You have in all your schools children who require special instruction. Youhave got children whose eyesight is very defective, and yet you would not send them off to the blind institution, because they are not blind. You have children who are too deaf to profit by instruction in the public schools, but you would not send them off to the deaf and dumb institution. You have got children who are noticeably backward in their development and require special work; you would not send them off to the idiot asylum. Now, as to whether this plan of an annex to your public-school system might not with benefit be expanded and include more than the deaf, I would bring to the serious attention of this association. I have in mind a large gathering of the public schools, or the ordinary schools, and of a little annex off this for a class of chil- dren who require special instruction, with a special teacher in ‘charge, where you could send children who were partially deaf, children of defective eyesight, and children who were backward in development, to be espe- cially assisted ; an annex to the public-school system. It has worked in the case of the deaf, and we commend it to your notice in the case of all children requiring special instruction. One word more that I had almost forgot. I had hoped to have pre- sented to you today the most marvelous result of education of the deaf that I have ever seen— Miss Helen Keller; but I cannot do it, and I think it will be interesting to youto know why. I went to Boston, hoping that I might prevail upon her and her teacher, Miss Sullivan, to come up here on a little rustication, and pop in among you; but the reason why Helen cannot come is that she has been very hard at work upon the Harvard examinations. This child, that has been deaf and blind from infancy, is attending Radcliffe College, with the hearing and seeing pupils. Of course, the labor of examination is very great, and those who love the child thought it would be better for her to go right on to the seaside, with the cooling breezes, to rusticate, than to come here and undergo the excitement of appearing before a large body. But I have a letter from Dr. Gilman, from which I will read an extract, giving me the latest news of Helen’s advancement. Dr. Gilman says: ‘‘Helen has taken the Harvard examinations in Latin, English, history, French, German, and advanced German. It seemed to me that she did well in all; and, I have just been informed by the professor in 104 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General charge that she has passed in advanced German. This seemed to me the most severe of all. Of course, it was not a subject taken ordinarily by a candidate at her preliminary examinations. So that having passed in it is exceedingly creditable to Helen.” Then he says: “T spelled all the papers to Helen myself, and no one else’-had access to her. Miss Sullivan was, by her special request, not present at any of the examina- tions.’ Miss Sullivan is her former teacher and now constant companion and interpreter. “I feared that Helen might be handicapped by my inexpertness, but she was very complimentary to me, and her success shows me that I have not entirely failed. Helen fairly reveled in the English examination, and evidently wished that it might have been much longer.” In communicating with Helen the manual alphabet is used, as a rule, by spelling into her hand, while she answers by word of mouth. She also has acquired the power of reading the lips of her friends, and it is very interesting to see a conversation carried on between one of the hear- ing ladies and Helen. I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your attention. FOREIGN-BORN CHILDREN IN THE PRIMARY GRADES. BY MISS°\JANE ADDAMS, HULL HOUSE, CHICAGO. The following paper is given with great diffidence. The writer-has never been a teacher, nor even a close observer, in primary schools. She only had unusual opportunities for seeing the children of immigrants dur- ing and after the period of their short school life. She submits some of the observations and reflections which have come to her concerning the great mass of those children who never get beyond the primary grades, in the hope that they may prove suggestive to the educators present. The observations are confined to the children of the Italian colony lying directly east of Hull House, in the nineteenth ward of Chicago, although what is said concerning them might be applied, with certain modifica- tions, to the children of Chicago’s large Bohemian and Polish colonies. For the purpose of this paper it will be best to treat of the school as a social institution, within which a certain concentration of social inter- ests takes place, for the purpose of producing certain social results. This is certainly legitimate, if we take Dr. Dewey’s statement that “ the school selects, and presents in an organized manner, influences and instruments which may expedite and facilitate the socializing of the individual.” Cer- tainly, after the child leaves school his experiences consist of his partici- wee Bet em enna. a Sessions] OREIGN-BORN CHILDREN IN THE PRIMARY GRADES 105 pation in the social life in the various groups of which he is a member, or with which he comes in contact. Whatever may be our ultimate conception of education, and however much we may differ in definition, as doubtless the members of this con- vention do widely differ, we shall probably agree that the ultimate aim is to modify the character and conduct of the individual, and to harmonize and adjust his activities ; that even the primary school should aim to give the child’s own experience a social value; and that this aim too often fails of success in the brief sojourn of the child of the foreign peasant in the public school. The members of the nineteenth ward Italian colony are largely from south Italy, Calabrian and Sicilian peasants, or Neapolitans, from the workingmen’s quarters of that city. They have come to America with a distinct aim of earning money, and finding more room for the energies of themselves and their children. In almost all cases they mean to go back again, simply because their imaginations cannot picture a con- tinuous life away from the old Surroundings. ‘Their experiences in Italy have been that of simple, out-door activity, and the ideas they have have come directly to them from their struggle with nature, such a hand- to-hand struggle as takes place when each man gets his living largely through his own cultivation of the soil, with tools simply fashioned by his own hands. The women, as in all primitive life, have had more diversified activities than the men. They have cooked, spun, and knitted, in addi- tion to their almost equal work in the fields. Very few of the peasant men or women can either read or write. They are devoted to their children, strong in their family feeling to remote relationships, and clan- nish in their community life. The entire family has been upheaved, and is striving to adjust itself to its new surroundings. The men for the most part work on railroad extensions through the summer, under the direction of a padrone, who finds the work for them, regulates the amount of their wages, and supplies them with food. The first effect of immigration upon the women is that of idleness. They, of course, no longer work in the fields, nor milk the goats, nor pick up fagots. The mother of the family buys all the clothing not only already spun and woven, but made up into garments of a cut and fashion beyond her powers. It is, indeed, the most economical thing for her to do. Her house cleaning and cooking are of the simplest ; the bread is usually baked outside of the house, and the macaroni bought prepared for boiling. All of those outdoor and domestic activities, which she would naturally have handed on to her daughters, have slipped away from her. The domestic arts are gone, with all their absorbing interests for the children, their educational value and incentive to activity. A household in a tenement receives almost no 106 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General raw material. For the hundreds of children who have never seen wheat grow there are dozens who have never seen bread baked. The occasional washings and scrubbings are associated only with discomfort. The child of these families receives constantly many stimuli of most exciting sort from his city street life, but he has little or no opportunity to use his energies in domestic manufacture, or, indeed, constructively, in any direc- tion. No activity is supplied to take the place of that which, in Italy, he would naturally have found in his own home, and no new union is made for him with wholesome life. Italian parents count upon the fact that their children learn the English language and American customs before they themselves do, and act not only as interpreters of the language about them, but as buffers between them and Chicago, and this results in a certain, almost pathetic dependence of the family upon the child. When a member of the family, therefore, first goes to school, the event is fraught with much significance to all the others. The family has no social life in any structural form, and can supply none to the child. If he receives it in the school, and gives it to his family, the school would thus become the connector with the organized society about them. It is the children aged six, eight, and ten who go to school, entering, of course, the primary grades. If a boy is twelve or thirteen on his arrival in America, his parents see in him a wage-earning factor, and the girl of the same age is already looking toward her marriage. Let us take one of these boys, who has learned in his six or eight years to speak his native language, and to feel himself strongly identified with the fortunes of his family. Whatever interest has come to the minds of his ancestors has come through the use of their hands in the open air; and open air and activity of body have been the inevitable accompaniments of all their experiences. Yet the first thing that the boy must do when he reaches school is to sit still, at least part of the time, and he must learn to listen to what is said to him, with all the perplexity of listening to a foreign tongue.‘ He does not find this very stimulating, and is slow to respond to the more subtle incentives of the schoolroom. ‘The peasant child is perfectly indifferent to showing off and making a good recitation. He leaves all that to his schoolfellows who are more sophisticated and who are equipped with ~ better English. It is not the purpose of this paper to describe the child’s life in school, which the audience knows so much better than the writer, but she ventures to assert that if the little Italian lad were supplied, then and there, with tangible and resistance-offering material upon which to exercise his muscle, he would go bravely to work, and he would probably be ready later to use the symbols of letters and numbers to record and describe what he had done; and might even be incited to the exertion of sasha AY Sessions] MPORE/GN-BORN CHILDREN IN THE PRIMARY GRADES 107 reading to find out what other people had done. Too often the teacher’s conception of her duty is to transform him into an American of a some- what snug and comfortable type, and she insists that the boy’s powers must at once be developed in an abstract direction, quite ignoring the fact that his parents have had to do only with tangible things. She has little idea of the development of Italian life. Her outlook is national and not racial, and she fails, therefore, not only in knowledge of, but also in respect for, the child and his parents. She quite honestly estimates the child upon an American basis. The contempt for the experiences and languages of their parents which foreign children sometimes exhibit, and which is most damaging to their moral as well as intellectual life, is doubt- less due in part to the overestimation which the school places upon speak- ing and reading in English. This cutting into his family loyalty takes away one of the most conspicuous and valuable traits of the Italian child. His parents are not specially concerned in keeping him in school, and will not hold him there against his inclination, until his own interest shall do it for him. Their experience does not point to the good American tradition that it is the educated man who finally succeeds. The richest man on Ewing street can neither read nor write—even Italian. His cun- ning and aquisitiveness, combined with the credulity and ignorance of his countrymen, have slowly brought about his large fortune. The child himself may feel the stirring of a vague ambition to go on until he is as the other children are; but he is not popular with his school- fellows, and he sadly feels the lack of dramatic interest. Even the pic- tures and objects presented to him, as well as the language, are strange. If we admit that in education it is necessary to begin with the experi- ences which the child already has, through his spontaneous and social activity, then the city street begins this education for him in a more nat- ural way than does the school. The south Italian peasant comes from a life of picking olives and oranges, and he easily sends his children out to pick up coal from rail- road tracks or wood from buildings which have been burned down. Unfortunately, this process leads by easy transition to petty thieving. It is easy to go from the coal on the railroad track to the coal and wood which stand before the dealer’s shop; from the potatoes which have rolled from a rumbling wagon to the vegetables displayed by the grocer. This is apt to be the record of the boy who responds constantly to the stimuli and temptations of the street, although in the beginning his search for bits of food and fuel was prompted by the best of motives. The outlets offered to such a boy by the public school have failed to attract him, and as a truant he accepts this ignoble use of his inherited faculty. For the dynamic force which the boy has within himself, the spirit of adventure and restless activity, many unfortunate outlets are constantly offered. 108 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General The school, of course, has to compete with a great deal from the out- side in addition to the distractions of the neighborhood. Nothing is more fascinating than that mysterious “down town,” whither the boy longs to go to sell papers and black boots; to attend theaters, and, if possible, to stay all night, on the pretense of waiting for the early edition of the great dailies. If a boy is once thoroughly caught in these excitements, nothing can save him from overstimulation, and consequent debility and worth- lessness, but a vigorous application of a compulsory-education law, with a truant school; which, indeed, should have forestalled the possibility of his ever thus being caught. It is a disgrace to us that we allow so many Italian boys thus to waste their health in premature, exciting activity; and their mentality in mere cunning, which later leaves them dissolute and worthless men, with no habits of regular work and a distaste for its dullness. These boys are not of criminal descent, nor vagrant heritage. On the contrary, their parents have been temperate, laborious, and painstaking, living for many generations on one piece of ground. Had these boys been made to feel their place in the school com- munity; had they been caught by its fascinations of marching and sing- ing together as a distinct corps; had they felt the charm of manipulating actual material, they might have been spared this erratic development. Mark Crawford, for many years the able superintendent of the Chicago House of Corrections, has said that in looking over the records of that institution he found that of 21,000 boys under seventeen years of age who had been sent there under sentence less than eighty were school- boys. The school is supposed to select the more enduring forms of life, and to eliminate, as far as possible, the trivialities and irrelevancies which actual living constantly presents. But, in point of fact, the Italian child has received most of his inter- ests upon the streets, where he has seen a great deal of these trivialities, magnified out of all proportion to their worth. He, of course, cares for them very much, and only education could give him a clew as to what to select and what to eliminate. Leaving the child who does not stay in school, let us now consider the child who does faithfully remain until he reaches the age of factory work, which is, fortunately, in the most advanced of our factory states, sourteeD years. Has anything been done up to this time, has even a beginning been made, to give him a consciousness of his social value? Has the outcome of the processes to which he has been subjected adapted him to deal more effectively and in a more vital manner with his present life ? : Industrial history in itself is an interesting thing, and the story of oo Cee. SAME ALD Met gent Sw a a ee ee ee ee Sessions] OREITGN-BORN CHILDREN IN THE PRIMARY GRADES 109 the long struggle of man in his attempts to bring natural forces under human control could be made most dramatic and graphic. The shops and factories all about him contain vivid and striking examples of the high development of the simple tools which his father still uses, and of the lessening expenditure of human energy. He is certainly cut off from nature, but he might, be made to see nature as the background and material for the human activity which now surrounds him. Giottio por- trayed the applied arts and industries in a series of such marvelous beauty and interest that every boy who passed the Shepherd’s Tower longed to take his place in the industrial service of the citizens of Florence. We, on the contrary, have succeeded in keeping our factories, so far as the workers in them are concerned, totally detached from that life which means culture and growth. No attempt is made to give a boy, who, we know, will certainly have to go into one of them, any insight into their historic significance, or to connect them in any intelligible way with the past and future. He has absolutely no consciousness of his social value, and his activities become inevitably perfectly mechanical. Most of the children who are thus put to work go on in their slavish life without seeing whither it tends, and with no reflections upon it. The brightest ones among them, however, gradually learn that they belong to aclass which does the necessary work of life, and that there is another class which tends to absorb the product of that work. May we not charge it to the public school that it has given to this child no knowledge of the social meaning of his work ? Is it not possible that, if the proper estimate of education had been there ; if all the children had been taught to use equally and to honor equally both their heads and hands; if they had been made even dimly to apprehend that for an individual to obtain the greatest control of himself for the performance of social service, and to realize within himself the value of the social service which he is performing, is to obtain the fullness of. life— the hateful feeling of class distinction could never have grown up in any of them? It would then be of little moment to himself or to others whether the boy finally served the commonwealth in the factory or in the legislature. = But nothing in this larger view of life has reached our peasant’s son. He finds himself in the drudgery of a factory, senselessly manipulating unrelated material, using his hands for unknown ends, and his head not at all. Owing to the fact that during his years in school he has used his head mostly, and his hands very little, nothing bewilders him so much as the suggestion that the school was intended as a preparation for his work in life. He would be equally amazed to find that his school was sup- posed to fill his mind with beautiful images and powers of thought, so me) NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General that he might be able to do this dull mechanical work, and still live a real life outside of it. I know a boy who has finished the third grade, and who shovels coal all day, with no notion of where the coal comes from nor of the processes of combustion, nor of anything else connected with it. Yet it would have been far easier to have taught him all of,those things than his laborious reading and writing, which he never uses, and is fast forgetting. His reading was supposed to have extended his intercourse far beyond the limits of his immediate environment in time and space ; but he has never learned to read with enough facility to enjoy it, nor has he ever made enough connection between his reading and his outside world to induce him to go on with it under difficulties. Foreign-born children have all the drudgery of learning to listen to, and read and write an alien tongue; and many never get beyond this first drudgery. I have interrogated dozens of these children who. have left school from the third, fourth, and fifth grades, and I have met very few who ever read for pleasure. I have in mind an Italian boy whose arithmetic was connected with real life, while his reading was not. He is the son of a harnessmaker who, although he can neither read nor write, kept his little shop, and slowly made money. ‘The great ambition of his life was that his son Angelo should be enough of a scholar to keep his books and to read him the daily papers ; for he had a notion that the latter told you when and how to buy leather to the best advantage. Angelo was kept steadily at school until he was in the fifth grade. He used to come every evening to Hull House for help in his arithmetic, bringing with him slips of paper on which was written the amount of his father’s sales during the day. His father himself could not add, but remembered accurately what he had charged for each thing he had dis- posed of. Before Angelo left school he read fairly well from the Fifth Reader. Five years have passed since then, and, although he keeps the accounts of the shop in which he had a vivid interest from the first, he has almost wholly forgotten how to read. He occasionally picks up a paper and attempts to read it to gratify his father, but he reads it badly and much dislikes the proceeding. There is one fixed habit, however, which_the boy carries away from school with him to the factory. Having the next grade continually before him as an object of attainment results in the feeling that his work is merely provisional, and that its sole use is to get him ready for other things. This tentative attitude takes the last bit of social stimulus out of his factory work, and he pursues it merely as a necessity. His last chance for a realization of social consciousness is gone. . From one point of view the school itself is an epitome of the com- petitive system, almost of the factory system. Certain standards are held SS ee ee Sessions] MOREIGN-BORN CHILDREN IN THE PRIMARY GRADES Wat up and worked for; and, even in the school, the child does little work with real joy and spontaneity. The pleasure which comes from creative effort, the thrill of production, is only occasional, and not the sustaining motive which keeps it going. The child in school often contracts the habit of expecting to do his work in certain hours, and to take his pleasure in certain other hours; quite in the same spirit as he later earns his money by ten hours of dull factory work, and spends it in three hours of lurid and unprofitable pleasure in the evening. Both in the school and the factory his work has been dull and growing duller, and his pleasure must constantly grow more stimulating. Only occasionally, in either place, has he had a glimpse of the real joy of doing a thing for its own sake. Those of us who are working to bring a fuller life to the industrial members of the community, who are looking forward to a time when work shall not be senseless drudgery, but shall contain some self- expression of the worker, sometimes feel the hopelessness of adding evening classes and social entertainments as a mere frill to a day filled with monotonous and deadening drudgery; and we sometimes feel that we have a right to expect more help from the public schools than they now give us. If the army of school children who enter the factories every year possessed thoroughly vitalized faculties, they might do much to lighten this incubus of dull factory work which presses so heavily upon so large a number of our fellow-citizens. Has our commercialism been so strong that our schools have become insensibly commercialized, rather than that our industrial life has felt the broadening and illuminating effect of the schools ? The boy in the primary grades has really been used as material to be prepared for the grammar grades. Unconsciously his training, so far as it has been vocational at all, has been in the direction of clerical work. Is it possible that the business men, whom we have so long courted and ~ worshiped in America, have really been dictating the curriculum of our public schools, in spite of the conventions of educators and the sugges- tions of university professors? The business man has, of course, not said to himself: ‘I will have the public school train office boys and clerks for me, so that I may have them cheap ;” but he has thought, and sometimes said: ‘‘Teach the children to write legibly, and to figure accurately and quickly; to acquire habits of punctuality and order; to be prompt to obey, and not question why; and you will fit them to make their way in the world as I have made mine.” 3 Has the workingman been silent as to what he desires for his children, and allowed the business man to decide for him there as he has allowed 1) NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General the politician to manage his municipal affairs? Or has the workingman suffered from our universal optimism, and really believed that his chil- dren would never need to go into industrial life at all, but that his sons would all become bankers and merchants ? Certain it is that no sufficient study has been made of the child who enters into industrial life early, and remains there permanently, to give him some set-off to its monotony and dullness; some historic significance of the part he is taking in the life of the commonwealth ; some conception of the dignity of labor, which is sometimes mentionéd to him, but never demonstrated. We have a curious notion, in spite of all our realism, that it is not possible for the mass of mankind to have interests and experi- ences of themselves which are worth anything. We transmit to the chil- dren of working people our own skepticism regarding the possibility of finding any joy or profit in their work. We practically incite them to get out of it as soon as possible. I am quite sure that no one can possibly mistake this paper as a plea for trade schools, or as a desire to fit the boy for any given industry. Such a specializing would indeed be stupid when our industrial methods are developing and changing, almost day by day. But it does contend that life, as seen from the standpoint of the handworker, should not be emptied of all social consciousness and value, and that the school could make the boy infinitely more flexible and alive than he is now to the materials and forces of nature which, in spite of all man’s activities, are unchange- able. We do not wish to hold the school responsible for what should be charged up to the industrial system, but we may certainly ask that our schools shall not feed and perpetuate the baser features and motives of that system. The isolation of the school from life—its failure to make life of more interest, and show it in its larger aspects—the mere equipping of the chil- dren with the tools of reading and writing, without giving them an absorbing interest concerning which they wish to read and write, certainly tends to defeat the very purpose of education. The foreign-born child in the primary grades is given neither a greater use of his own powers in the social direction in which he will have to use them, nor yet an ability to share in the experiences of others. I have ventured to speak thus frankly concerning the public school to a body of educators, because I realize that no one is so anxious as the teaching body itself to make the schools as effective and valuable as pos- sible; and I may, perhaps, be able to realize even better than the teachers can how dependent a neighborhood of foreign-born colonists is upon the school as a socializing and harmonizing factor. eset ye The a" ear} Sessions] LVHYANCED MATERIAL SUPPORT FOR RURAL SCHOOLS II3 TOM AND HIS TEACHERS. BY BISHOP JOHN H. VINCENT, CHAUTAUQUA. [ ABSTRACT. ] The address was an abridgment of Bishop Vincent’s lecture on “Tom and His Teach- ers He defined Tom as the American boy, and considered Tom’s teachers chiefly out- side of the schoolroom, insisting that tones of voice, incidental references at table and fireside, style of furniture, pattern of carpet, tint of ceiling, discussion of everyday news, street-corner talk, bulletin announcement of theater and circus, architecture of schoolhouse, dress of teachers, and the very atmosphere in which Tom sleeps-—all are educating influ- ences. Tom is at school twenty-four hours every day, and his teachers are legion. There are minor matters which the speaker wished to emphasize before presenting the radical and all-important teachings which Tom should receive. He pleaded for the careful con- sideration of other people, the burdens which through Tom’s carelessness they are com- pelled to bear, the servants in the kitchen, his mother, her various domestic cares, etc. He ” - insisted upon reverence for old age. The radical things which the address pleaded for are: I. Tom should be taught to account himself a person and not a thing, a cause and not merely an effect. He should be not a floating log, but a tug-boat with the pro- pelling power within. He should have moral courage to stand for what he knew to be right, and that in the presence of classmates and companions. 2. Tom, being a person, should be trained to independence, earning his own living, though his father be a millionaire, and this as much to create in Tom’s mind a profound respect for people who are compelled to support themselves as to guarantee his own livelihood. 3. The address emphasized the law of interdependence. Tom should know and care for and minister to the well-being of the fellow next to him. He should consider himself a member of society, and should live for the general good. ‘The address made plea also for the law of interdependence as applied to Tom’s employers. The most effective teacher that Tom has between fourteen and twenty-one years of age is the man who pays him for service. 4. A very important rule in Tom’s training is this: Never give Tom up. Teachers should not be discouraged with pupils because they are slow. Many men never mature until they are thirty or forty years of age. Some men surprise their old neighbors by some achievement at fifty. It is an inexcusable thing in the teacher to discourage a boy who is slow and dull. Tom should never be given up on the moral side. He is a person, and not a thing. God deals with us all as persons. He gives us liberty; he restrains us; he gives opportunity. Speaking with reverence, the bishop said: “It sometimes takes the Almighty Father eighty years to get a grip upon a human soul.” Therefore, Tom’s teachers at home and in society should never give Tom up. - THE NEED OF ENHANCED MATERIAL SUPPORT FOR THE RURAL SCHOOLS. BY B. A. HINSDALE, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. It is easy to understand how it was in ancient times that the phrase “money is the sinews of the state’? was narrowed down into ‘‘money is 114 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION fGeneval the sinews of war.” War is at once a very prominent and a very costly form of state activity. Still, we may well question whether the saying did not, in being narrowed, lose more in comprehensiveness than it gained in point. At least, what Cicero said of war is just as true of many other services of the state; their sinews are an infinite amount of money. It is very true that patriotism, public spirit, and devotion to human well-being shine resplendent in history; it is also true that, in every healthy state there is, and there must be, a large amount of unrequited public service ; still the great qualities just named have never proved themselves to be sufficient to sustain, for an extended period of time, any of the great serv- ices of the state. .Nor can such a thing be expected. What is more, even if voluntary effort could sustain the state, the need of material support would be dispensed with only in part, because the burden would be merely shifted from the shoulders of society to the shoulders of some of its indi- vidual members. That the sinews of public instruction on the present scale are a great, if not an infinite, amount of money is so obvious a fact as hardly to call for enforcement. Already the educational budgets of the most progress- ive countries have grown to great dimensions, and they are all the time increasing. ‘The expenditure for common schools in the states of our union for the year 1894-95, not including payments on outstanding bonds, amounted to $178,215,556, more than double the annual cost of carrying on the federal government before the Civil War; and there is every reason to expect that we shall cross the century line three years hence with an aggregate common-school expenditure of $200,000,000. The states of New York and Pennsylvania expend more than $20,000,000 a year each on their schools. It is unfortunate that we cannot ascertain absolutely what part of the expenditure for public elementary education is made in urban schools and what part in the rural schools. The Bureau of Education, for the ' best of reasons, has not charged itself with the responsibility of finding out these facts. It would be difficult, or rather impossible, to draw a line between urban schools and rural schools that would not be arbitrary, because it is impossible to draw such a line between the urban and the rural population of the country. Still, existing statistics do throw some light on the problem. The Census Bureau calls a concentration of population of more than 8,000 persons a city, and counts all such concentrations as urban popula- tion. ‘The remaining population is, therefore, technically speaking, rural. In 1894-95 there were, according to the Commissioner of Education, 574 such cities in the country. Now, some of the educational statistics of these cities are extremely interesting when put in comparison with the corresponding statistics of the whole country, or, better, of the rural parts ae ae Sessions] ENMHANCED MATERIAL SUPPORT FOR RURAL SCHOOLS LENS) of the country. Three comparisons will be made, the year being 1894-95. The 574 cities counted school property valued at $236,846,394, while the rural districts counted such property valued at only $203,025,296. Approximately the ratio is 23 to 20. The 574 cities expended for schools $74,721,332; the rural districts $103,494,224. The ratio, approximately, is 74 to 103. The 574 cities enrolled in their schools 3,302,841 pupils to 10,889,491 pupils enrolled in the rural schools. The approximate ratio is 33 to 108. This is a very striking showing. While the 574 cities own more than half the common-school property of the whole country, and expend some- thing more than 41 per cent. of the total amount of common-school funds, they teach less than 24 per cent. of the total number of common-school - pupils. These statistics suggest some interesting reflections. One is that the test made is a very imperfect one, because a great many schools outside of the cities are urban schools to all intents and purposes. If we could draw the line with a reasonable approach to accuracy, the contrast would bestill more striking. Another is that schools in cities are necessarily more expensive than schools in the country, so far as certain large items of expenditure are concerned ; building sites, buildings, and certain kinds of services all cost much more. A third reflection is that, when all due allowance has been made for the greater cost just mentioned, the greater expenditure for urban schools in a general way is the measure of their superiority over rural schools. It may also be remarked that urban schools, in some respects, are much less expensive than rural schools, pro- vided the two kinds of schools are made equally good. For example, 1,000 children could be given a good high-school education in a city high school much more cheaply than the same number of children could be given a similar education in village high schools. It is true, also, that children taught in the country have some advantages over children taught in the city, as their freer and closer intercourse with nature; but scholas- tically their position is much inferior to that of city children. The rela- tively small cost of rural schools means that the country children, as a whole, are taught in inferior schoolhouses by inferior teachers, and for much shorter periods of time. This last point, which is an important one, can be statistically fortified. In the 574 cities of 1894-95 the average of the school year was 190.1 days. The corresponding average for the rural schools is not given by the Bureau of Education, but the average for the whole country, taking city and rural districts together, was but 141.4 days. That is to say, the average city child has an opportunity to attend school nearly fifty days each year more than the average child of the whole country. It may be remarked, again, that if we could separate the 116 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General two classes of pupils with an approach to thoroughness, and could ascer- tain the average length of the city school year and of the country school year, the contrast would be far more marked. If there was opportunity to examine the subject carefully, going into details, it would be easy to show that in large parts of the country, and even in whole states, the material support of the rural schools is most inadequate, no matter whether we compare it with the material support enjoyed by the city schools or witha reasonable provision for the purpose. Thousands of country schools are eking out a miserable existence, subsist- ing in a starving condition on a pitiful income. But such examination is not at all necessary to show that the rural schools, as a whole, need an enhanced material support. The subject is a painful one. Not much imagination is necessary to enable one to see the millions of children who attend the rural schools pleading for a redress of grievances with respect to the education that they receive as a preparation for life. No onslaught on the rural schools is intended; the fact that a great number of these schools are either good or excellent is in nowise denied or forgotten, but is distinctly admitted ; still the stubborn fact remains that, on the whole, the material support of these schools is inadequate and stands in urgent need of enhancement. How shall this enhanced support be provided? Before answering this question, two or three others must be consid- ered. Could better use than at present be made of the material resources that the rural schools now enjoy? Could the present support of these schools be made to go farther, as measured in education, than it goes now? And if these questions are answered in the affirmative, this additional one arises: What changes in organization and administration are necessary in order that this reform may be made? These last questions may be all considered together. Moreover, the brief consideration that they will receive may be confined to a single important feature. There are now scattered over the country tens of thousands of schools that are carried on under the greatest disadvantages. These schools are very small, and they are poorly provided for in respect to material equip- ment and financial support. For example, last year there were over 1,000 school districts in Michigan that enumerated less than 25 youth each of legal school age, while 70 counties contained 468 districts that enumerated less than 15 such persons each. The number of pupils enrolled in the schools is not given in the public statistics. There lies before me, how- ever, a showing made by the county commissioner of one of the old and wealthy counties of the state, namely, Hillsdale county. There were 166 school districts and 165 schools. Six schools had 10 pupils or less in attendance ; 17 had more than 10 and not more than 15; 22 had more than 15 and not more than 20. The smallest school in the county counted 5 pupils ; 2 schools had 7 each; 1 had 8 pupils; 2 had 10 each. ap oe tot Sessions] ENHANCED MATERIAL SUPPORT FOR RURAL SCHOOLS Ley) The 6 schools that contained 10 pupils or less each had, in the aggregate, 47 pupils, and the cost of these schools for the year was $833.85. In 1893 Vermont had 153 schools of 6 pupils or less each. In 1892 there were between 1,000 and 1,200 schools in Maine that enrolled 12 pupils or less. Massachusetts, in 1893-94, reported 16 towns with an aggregate of nearly 100 schools, having an average of 11 pupils. The report of State Superintendent Skinner of New York for 1896 states that, in 1870, there were 1,500 school districts with an average attendance of less than 10 pupils, while in 1896 there were more than 3,500 such dis- tricts. Mr. Skinner makes the surprising statement “that the average daily attendance for all strictly country schools in the state does not exceed ten pupils for each school.’”’ “In hundreds of districts,” he con- tinues, “the number of school district officers exceeds the number of pupils.” This is going beyond Ohio, where, until a few years ago, the school officers of all kinds were about three times as numerous as the teachers employed in the schools. So it would appear that the district school in the Empire state is com- ing to be what the biologists call a rudimentary organ, which Mr. Darwin, in accordance with the doctrine of natural election, holds to be the sur- vival of an organ that was once serviceable. The organ has perished, as he contends, through disuse. He finds examples of such organs in the stump of a tail in tailless breeds of animals, in the vestige of an ear in earless breeds of sheep, and in the minute dangling horns that sometimes appear in hornless breeds of cattle. Now, it is needless to argue to men who are familiar with the subject that, as a whole, the best schools are impossible under such conditions as these. The material equipment is likely to be poor; the money to pay for appliances and teachers is almost certain to be insufficient ; the material for suitable grading is wanting; while the danger is very great that, owing to the absence of the spur that comes from numbers, the func- tionary will take the chair of the teacher, and the pupils will be uninter- ested and spiritless. It is not surprising, therefore, that Mr. Skinner should have heard of a teacher of a two-pupil school who asked to be relieved from her contract; the only cause for surprise can be that he had not heard of more such teachers. It is well known that the number of persons who teach in the common schools in any year is considerably greater than the number of schools. This means frequent changes of teachers and short periods of service. This excess of teachers over schools is found mainly in the country, not in the villages and cities. In Michigan 141 teachers were employed in the course of the year 1891-92 for every 100 schools. In 1886 Calhoun county, in that state, employed 342 different teachers at different times within the year to fill 158 positions ; and while the schools of the county 118 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General were in session on the average 8.4 months, the teachers served on the average only 3.8 months each. The first remedy for the sad state of things thus briefly portrayed is consolidation of the country schools. School districts must be abolished, schoolhouses be abandoned, the number of schools and teachers be reduced, and the children be brought together at fewer points in much larger numbers. This subject in its various bearings is considered quite fully in the report of the Committee of Twelve on Rural Schools. There is also every reason to expect that the subject will be brought before the country, and the attention be secured for it that it merits. Two or three brief observations concerning it will answer the present purpose. In the first place, consolidation is not by any means everywhere pos- sible. On this point physical and social conditions are peremptory. Mul- titudes of children will be taught in small, ungraded schools, or they will not be taught at all. Secondly, a small isolated school is not necessarily a poor school. Youth in great numbers are taught, and well taught, in such schools. We are not to associate fate with the small school any more than with the large one. Still, unusual effort and wisdom are undoubt- edly needed to overcome the unfavorable conditions of the small rural school. Once more, no one should for a moment imagine that the con- solidation of schools, even when effected, will prove to be a panacea for country education. When all has been done in the direction of consolida- tion that is possible, problems will still remain to be solved that are at once difficult and important. We have been dealing with the subject indirectly and negatively. But when all has been said and done, so far as putting the present material support of the rural schools to better use, the subject is not exhausted. There still remains urgent need of a positive enhancement of resources. How shall this be provided? The general answer to this question is that all, or nearly all, of the state systems of financial support need to be revised; some of them need to be revised very thoroughly. The subject is an extensive one, and very difficult, and nothing can be attempted in this paper more than to state some of the changes that need to be made. In the first place, the basis of school taxation in many states is alto- gether too narrow. The burden of school maintenance is thrown mainly upon small local taxing units, sometimes the town or township, and still more frequently the school district. One of two things happens: either the people are overburdened, or the schools are inadequately supported. At present the greatest inequalities in the rate of taxation and in the character of the schools exist. The state passes a law requiring all towns or districts to maintain schools a certain number of months each year, and then leaves them, regardless of their resources, to struggle with the Vi Sessions] ENHANCED MATERIAL SUPPORT FOR RURAL SCHOOLS 119 question of school support. In Rhode Island some districts are taxed fourteen times as heavily as others to keep up their schools, and Connecti- cut exhibits a similar disproportion. In New York still wider divergences present themselves. And so in many other states. The remedy is clear enough. It is to widen the basis of school tax- ation. Local taxation for schools should neither be abolished nor be reduced to insignificance; on the other hand, such taxation should be employed to a reasonable extent; but there is urgent reason for calling in the large taxing units to assist the small ones. With the exception of cities, towns, and villages, the local school district, in the old sense of that term, should be abolished, as well for purposes of taxation as for purposes of administration, and in its place some larger unit, as the town- ship or the county, should be substituted. It is impossible to recommend - a particular scheme; so much depends upon the political institutions and other factors existing in particular states. It is true that there are inequalities in townships as well as in school districts, and in counties as well as in townships; still the important fact remains that the larger the area of taxation the less such inequalities are found to be. Once more, the reasons for calling the state, or the social whole, to the financial sup- port of the rural schools are just as cogent as the reasons for throwing a certain amount of the school maintenance upon the local units. Inequalities in respect to wealth existing among the smaller divisions of the state are very great, much greater than the inequalities existing in the number of youth calling for education, and in the cost for education, provided it is good education. The Census Bureau does not furnish us with tables showing the average wealth of the country per capita of the population by counties, but it does give us the average per capita-value of real estate, including the improvements. The highest and lowest county averages on this basis will be given for a few leading states. In Illinois the highest average is $1,311.90; the lowest, $164.64. In Massachusetts the corresponding averages are $1,554.10 and $466.65; in New York, $1,733.35 and $305.80; in Ohio, $1,562.56 and $265.99; in Pennsylvania, $1,049.88 and $187.36. These statistics tell their own story, but if we had averages including personal property as well as real property, the story would be told in a still more emphatic way. The different states raise their school funds in quite different ways. It will suffice to speak of the varying ratio of state taxes to local taxes. In the South Atlantic states 38.1 per cent. of the cost of common schools in 1894-95 was raised by state taxation, 51.3 per cent. by local taxation; while in the North Central states only 9.9 per cent. came from the states to 75.4 per cent. from the localities. Some of the states levy no state school tax in any way or form, while North Carolica raises 83.3 per cent. of her total school expenditure in that way. Sometimes a much larger 120 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General portion of the cost of public education should be assumed by the state as a unit, and then again a much larger portion should be devolved upon the local taxing units. Only one point more will be presented. This is the important matter of distributing school funds. While closely connected with the subject last treated, distribution is still a distinct question by itself. Very strange methods of distribution have sometimes been employed. The most remarkable one that I have ever come upon formerly prevailed in Vermont. This was to divide the state money among the heads of families according to their respective number of children of school age, without directing how it should be applied to its object, or even requiring that it should be applied to an educational object at all. A man might use the money that fell to his share to purchase a brood sow, if he saw fit. A historian of the state, himself a Vermonter, has well remarked: “This singular application of the funds could not have greatly furthered the cause of education, though it may have stimulated the increase of population, for to the largest families fell the greater share in the distribu- tion of the school money.” But probably nothing so absurd as this can now be anywhere found. Many states apportion their general funds to townships or school dis- tricts according to their enumeration of youth of legal school age. This isa most absurd method to follow, because it obviously fails to carry the money where it is most needed. For example, two school districts lying side by side enumerate forty and twenty children respectively; one dis- trict receives twice as much money as the other, and yet the cost of keep- ing up the two schools, if they are equally good, is practically the same in one case as in the other. Again, funds are sometimes apportioned according to the number of pupils enrolled in the schools, or perhaps the number enrolled for a fixed period of time. This method may stimu- late school attendance, or it may possibly stimulate fictitious enrollment, and it is certainly open to the fatal objection urged against the enumera- tion method. It does not carry the money where it is most needed. Much the same may be said of school attendance as a basis for apportionment ; which is also open to the additional objection that it works in favor of the graded schools and against the ungraded schools, since attendance is much more regular in the one than in the other. It is, indeed, to be said that, on the surface, all of these methods seem to be fair; an aver- age always makes a favorable impression upon the mind of the average man; but a mere glance into the heart of the matter reveals the fact that they are all ensnaring and unfair. They do not bring the help of the strong to the support of the weak. Still more obnoxious is the rule some- times followed, as it is in part in New York, which distributes the funds on the basis of the last national census. Census population at any time “ dex | Sessions] CLASSIFICATION AND INSTRUCTION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 121 is but a rude measure of educational needs, while the great relative changes that take place in the course of ten years in different units of distribution stamp it as a most irrational measure. What, then, shall the method be? After devoting much attention to this question [ am constrained to say that the needed relief can be found only in the adoption of the school or the teacher as the unit of distribu- tion ; that is, a certain sum of money, large enough measurably to accom- plish the purpose, called a “distributive portion,” a “district quota,” or something else, no matter what, shall be set apart for each school, regard- less of its size, that complies in all respects with the requirements of the law. This method is exemplified, though in quite different ways, by the states of Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and California. I do not now indorse the technical rules followed by any one of these states; I speak only of the principle involved. It is easy to say that no method based on this principle will work absolute justice; that is not to be expected ; but, properly qualified and limited, this principle will not work practical injustice, and it will carry the help of the state or social whole to those localities where it is most needed. Without this principle, at our present stage of social progress, it is impossible to carry out, even approx- imately, the sound American doctrine that the property of the state shall bear the burden of educating the youth of the state. The substance of this paper may be summed up in four propositions: (1) The rural schools urgently need an enhanced material snpport. (2) These schools could use their present resources in a much more produc- tive way than at present, if a reasonable policy of consolidation were car- ried out. (3) The enhanced support called for must, in some cases, be obtained by employing larger units of taxation than at present, and then again by using smaller units. (4) The method of distributing state funds or income derived from state taxation should recognize the school or the teacher as the basis of distribution. CLASSIFICATION AND INSTRUCTION IN RURAL SCHOOLS. BY DR. W. T. HARRIS, UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. The Committee of Twelve has made a careful study of the defects of rural schools, with a view to suggest practical remedies. It appeared to that committee, first, that such schools need financial aid. There is on an average less money per capita in country than in city districts. Besides this, there are fewer pupils per teacher. With small p22 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General school funds it is not possible to hire skillful and scholarly teachers, nor for full terms. The remedy for this state of things is obvious, and it is practicable in rich states. The state must come to the aid of the rural districts, and insure it a sufficient fund to employ trained and experienced teachers. Many states have moved in this matter, and many more are able to do so. But will the rural-school problem be solved when an increase of funds has procured good teachers for eight or ten months’ annual session? The committee had arrived at a more serious question. Can a rural school with a good teacher be a good school ? It will find in its ten, twenty, or thirty pupils all grades of advancement, from the beginners at five years to those who have had seven or eight years of schooling, and attained the age of sixteen years or more. These pupils cannot be taught in classes to any great extent ; there must be many recitations, and conse- quently short ones. Let there be good teachers, and they will certainly accomplish more than poor ones. But what can a good teacher do in a five-minute recitation ? One of the accomplishments of a trained teacher is his ability to probe the pupil’s understanding of the lesson and set him to thinking about the relations of what he has just learned to that he has learned at a former time, either at school by study or by experience in the events of his life. But even the skilled teacher cannot, in a five-minute recitation, probe the pupil’s knowledge of the lesson and connect it with all its threads of relation. He cannot teach the pupil habits of deeper thinking. Moreover, the pupil, if he recites by himself, or if in a class of two or three, does not gain the great advantages that come from reciting in a class of twenty pupils substantially equal in ability. For each pupil in a class learns as much from his fellow-pupils as from the teacher direct. He can see the one-sidedness of the recitations of his fellows. They have learned some things that escaped his attention, but have neglected others that he has learned well. There is too great a disparity between the pupil’s view of a subject and the teacher’s view to make a thorough mutual understanding possible, except through the mediation of the class. Each pupil learns more from the teacher’s criticism of the work of the others than from the criticism of his own work. Every recitation reveals to the pupils of the class many points of view that they had missed in the preparation of their lessons ; some have missed this point and some that point. They learn also to criticise the text-book and overcome their superstitious reverence for what they find printed in books. We must admit that even the good teacher is handicapped in the rural school. He cannot use his best devices. Almost without exception the work of the normal school goes to pre- pare the future teacher to handle classes. The class is the instrument we Ay crg SY Sessions] CLASSIFICATION AND INSTRUCTION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 123 presupposed in the school. It is the tool which must be used with skill. But the ungraded rural school affords only five or ten minutes for recita- tions, and the class cannot be handled with skill in so short a time. Fully possessed with an appreciation of the value of the class recita- tion, the earnest reformer of the rural school has proposed to classify or grade it like the city school. But his effort to escape from the evils of short recitations and individual instruction has only thrown him upon a worse evil. He has avoided Scylla by running upon Charybdis. He has brought pupils into classes, but they are of such diverse qualifications that they hinder instead of help one another, and they also balk the efforts of the teacher. Thus we come from one evil to another in our attempts to remedy the defects of the rural school. The bright boy or girl, if given a text-book and assigned regular tasks, will make much progress even in the country school, and without the help of the class recitation. The dull boy and the average boy will also do something. It is not the best, but it is worth while even at its worst. In attempting to remedy this state of things, however, an evilof greater magnitude is developed. Not only in the rural schools of some states, but in the villages of all the states, and also in the suburbs of cities, there are found schools in which pupils are classified in such a manner as to bring together pupils of widely different degrees of advancement—the best and poorest pupils being separated by an interval of a year or two, or even three years. In fact, the classes of nearly one-half of our cities are separated by a year’s interval, as in college, and as a consequence within each class there are wide differences of degrees of advancement — -as wide at least as the interval between the classes, and sometimes wider ; because the tendency is to separate the degrees of advancement more widely as the work goes on. It happens, therefore, that the chief care in the management of the work of instruction in a system of city schools is to grade or classify the pupils in such a manner that the interests of some are not sacrificed for those of others. The effect of placing pupils of different degrees of advancement in the same class will be to urge unduly the backward ones, while the pupils in advance of the average in the class will have too little work assigned them. When bright scholars are kept back for dull ones they acquire loose, careless habits of study. When pupils of slower temperament are strained to keep pace with quick and bright pupils they become discouraged and demoralized. Even when pupils are well classified at the beginning of the year, differences begin to develop from the first day, and after two or three months of good instruction a large interval has developed between the advancement of the slow ones and that of the bright ones. Besides difference in temperament there is difference in regularity of attendance on account of sickness and 124 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General family necessities ; these things affect the rate of progress. Moreover, the degree of maturity and amount of previous study develop differences. Classification in a school is never absolute. No two pupils are of exactly the same degree of progress. There are probably no two pupils alike in ability to do the daily work of the class. From this it is evident that there should be frequent reclassification. There should be promotions of the best ones from below into the class above, and a few promotions from the best of that class to the next class beyond. After such promo- tion has been made through all, or a portion, of the classes of a school from the lowest, each class will find itself composed of fair, average, and poor scholars, together with a few of the best from the next lower class in place of the few that each has lost by promotion. New hope will come to those pupils who were before the poorest in the class, and there will be new stimulus given to the best pupils who have been promoted to a higher class, for they will have to work earnestly to attain and hold a good rank in the new class. But the quick and bright ones thus promoted will grad- ually work their way towards the top of the class again. The slow ones in the class may be passed by successive platoons of bright ones introduced into the class from below, but they will pick up new courage on every occasion when they find themselves brought to the top of the class by the process of transferring the bright ones who had begun to lead them into too fast a pace. This sifting-up process, as here described, corrects the disease known as “ lock-step” in the graded schools. The sifting should take place as often as there develops a decided difference in degree of advancement between the best and poorest pupils of a class. In practice this is found to occur once in two or three months. The rural schools, when small, do not find it possible to make classes to any great extent, except in reading, writing, and spelling. In the larger rural schools, however, there is an attempt to introduce the city plan of classification, but, as a matter of course, the classes have to be very small. What is bad about these small classes is that the intervals from one class to another, instead of being ten to twelve weeks, as in a good city school, are from one to two years. This works a great evil. It leads to careless teaching on the part of the teacher, who has to adapt his instruction to the average of the class, knowing at the same time that such instruction lacks interest to the best pupils, because they are already familiar with the sub- jects, and knowing, secondly, that it is too difficult for the least advanced pupils, for the reason that they lack the insight which a year’s or a half year’s more study has given to the pupils of average advancement. City schools, village schools, and rural schools that grade their pupils with intervals of a year or more between the classes are to be criticised chiefly for this fault. They are called “stiflers of talent” because they do not provide sufficient work for their ablest and brighest pupils, but keep them Sessions] CLASSTFICATION AND INSTRUCTION IN RURAL SCHOOLS 12 5 marking time with less advanced pupils. Moreover, they discourage the slower pupils by requiring more work of them than they can accomplish. This difficulty in regard to classification: exists not only in public schools, but often in a more dangerous form in private schools. It is, per- haps, the greatest evil at present existing in the organization of the schools of the United States, rural and urban. In the first, second, and third years of primary work classification does not present serious difficulty, because of the greater number of beginners—say, pupils of eight years and under. About 69 per cent. of the pupils in the cities and villages of the country are in the first three years’ work; twelve per cent. are found in the fourth year’s work, 7 per cent. in the fifth year, 4 per cent. in the sixth year, 3 per cent. in the seventh year, and 2 per cent. in the eighth year. To form large classes and thereby produce economical instruction the pupils beyond the fourth year must be brought together in central schools, and it is to this problem that the attention of state boards of education is called by the Committee of Twelve. This recommendation of the committee will not seem important to those school directors who fail to understand the value of class recitation and of its dangers when forced on the pupils of small schools of different degrees of advancement. A rural school of one hundred pupils would have, under average conditions, nearly seventy in the work of the lowest three years, and these would make five classes of fourteen pupils each, with intervals of about half a year of advancement— not a very bad classification if readjusted often by transfer of the pupils making most rapid progress into the class above. But there would be only thirteen pupils in the next year’s work, namely the fourth. This would give two classes of six or seven each. The fifth year would have seven or eight pupils, and the sixth, seventh, and eighth years all together would have only nine or ten pupils. If three teachers took charge of this central school of one hun- dred pupils, one could do better work with the seventy in the lowest three years’ work than the one who took the highest three years’ work with only ten pupils. The number of rural schools having few pupils may be estimated from the fact that in Rhode Island 158 schools out of a total of 263 have an attendance of less than ten (1895). In Vermont there are 153 of these schools with less than six pupils each (1893); in New York 2,983 are reported as having less than ten (1895). Consolidation by transporta- tion in suitable vehicles at the expense of the state is the most promising remedy, reducing the cost of instruction, and at the same time improving its quality. The increase of villages and cities throughout all regions penetrated by the railroad makes possible this removal of pupils to cen- tral schools and the discontinuance of outlying districts in more and more towns every year. 126 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General But inasmuch as the evils of classification with wide intervals between classes are not generally understood, it is likely that the concentration of pupils into village schools will not be so great a good as it might be. For it is quite a common belief that the formation of three or four groups or classes for the eight-years course of study is a good thing. Some go so far as to say that it is better than the close grading of the cities. “ It is more flexible, more elastic, or more adjustable to the pupils’ needs.” These words “elastic” and “flexible” are used in a new and strange meaning here. The best city grading is “flexible” and “ elastic,” because the intervals between classes are small — only ten or fifteen weeks. It is easy to promote the brighest pupils over such a small interval when they begin to show power to do a much larger amount of work than the major- ity of the class. They will find it possible to keep up with the average of a higher class. But suppose that the grading or “grouping” has two years’ intervals between classes, as it would have if there were four groups in the elementary school— or, say, nearly three years, as it would have if there were only three classes or groups; then it would be a much more serious matter to promote from one class to another, because of the amount of useful matter omitted. Instead of being elastic and flexible, the four-group or three-group system is rather to be called ‘‘brittle”’ and inflexible—a Procrustean bed. All schools at work need constant read- justment of classification, and this can be made when the intervals between classes are at their minimum; thirty classes between the first year and eighth year are possible in large schools in cities. That all cities do not avail themselves of this possibility is one of the most serious defects in American school supervision. It is very important, therefore, that the rural schools shall not adopt this evil unnecessarily as they grow into village schools by growth of population and by transportation of pupils to central schools. Keep the classes small in central schools, and do not try to economize by saving in number of teachers until the schools become large enough to permit this without making large intervals between classes. It isa terrible arraignment of the schools graded on the one-year, two- year or three-year-interval plan to accuse them of stifling talent in the bright pupils and of discouraging the dull pupils until they lose their self-respect. The old, ungraded school did not commit this error of destroying the habits of industry in bright pupils by yoking them with dull ones, or of destroying the self-respect of the dull ones by constantly provoking com- parison between them and their companions unequally yoked with them. With increase of pupils there ought to come improvement in the instruction of the school invariably, and it will come if the evils of the graded school system are understood as well as are its advantages. Se PRS NA ONE Sessions] KIND OF SUPERVISION MOST NEEDED L277 THE KIND OF SUPERVISION MOST NEEDED. BY HON. HENRY SABIN, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, IOWA; CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEE OF TWELVE ON RURAL SCHOOLS. The doctrine of supervision is in itself most wholesome and efficacious. It implies uniformity in those things which are essential, freedom of choice in those things which are nonessential, and in all things that enthusiasm and spirit which are created by acting with others for accom- plishing a common purpose. This, however, must be granted at the outset. While in many places the schools have been greatly benefited by wise, intelligent, and rational supervision, in other places they have been hindered in their progress, stunted in their development, and dwarfed in their growth by the supervision of the martinet. The narrowness of his purpose, his attention to the minutest details of school management, his attempt by means of rules, regulations, and restrictions to bring all things to the level of lifeless uniformity, are not conducive to the development of strong, vigorous school life. The pedant in the supervisor’s office is a nuisance that ought not to be tolerated even for a single day. You may call it close supervision, but it is unjust, inhuman, and in some cases amounts to an absolute tyranny. We do not want this in the country school. Supervision is a blessing or a curse in proportion to the degree of intelligence and skill with which it is administered. The personality of the supervisor, which someone says “consists of consciousness, character, and will,” is worthy the first consideration. He should be selected with reference to his peculiar fitness for the duties of his office. In this respect the city schools have an advantage, arising from the fact that the superintendent is usually chosen from a number of candidates because he seems to be the one having the highest qualifications, while the county superintendent is too often sifted out by the whirligig of politics, with reference to such availability alone, or in order to balance the ticket. The tendency manifested in many states to require some qualifications as to character, scholarship, and experience from the candidate who aspires to the office of county superintendent is one of the most hopeful signs of improvement in the nature and efficiency of rural-school supervision. The country schools need a supervision which in its entirety and its wholesome effects challenges the respect and support of everyone who is interested in the welfare of the schools. They need a supervision which is broad in its scholarship without being shallow. ‘The supervisor should _make no pretense of knowing everything, but he must be well grounded in those studies which enter into the rural-school curriculum. He should have a varied and successful experience in this kind of work before he 128 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General enters upon the duties of his office, in order that he may be able to devise and execute plans looking to the best education which it is possible for these schools to afford. A man may know’the entire process of manufac- turing Bessemer steel and not be a good blacksmith; he may be an adept in the sciences, or at home in languages or literature, and yet not be able to manage a school of forty pupils; so he may be a most excellent dis- ciplinarian, and an exceptionally good instructor, and be lacking in the qualifications necessary to success as a supervisor of a system of schools. With all our progress in philosophy and our study of pedagogy, the dogma of individuality has not received its share of attention. Hence, in selecting a suitable person to oversee a system of rural schools, in addition to a reasonable education, and to a clean personal character, we should look for the power of adaptability to circumstances, and the ability to discern the fitness of things, so that he may accomplish all that which is possible without attempting the impossible. The integrity of his heart, the nobleness of his aim, the honesty of his purpose should be so patent in his life as to render him secure in the respect and confidence of all with whom he comes in contact. He should be ready at all times to assert his rights as an American citizen, and people will respect him the more for it. The people generally have no use fora political coward. At the same time he should concede to others whatever rights he claims for him- self. There is no occasion for his engaging in unseemly political squab- bles, nor for intruding his peculiar views when they will render him obnoxious or injure his influence. We regret that the office of county superintendent must for years to come be political in its nature, but the officer himself should be a politi- cian only in the highest and broadest sense of that word. The time will undoubtedly come when politics will be eliminated from the election of school officers. Until then we must make the best of circumstances and elect to the office of supervisor or superintendent persons who carry their conscience into their work, and who, therefore, will, when inducted into office; regard in its fullness their official oath. Such men of either party will conduct themselves as citizens and not as partisans, and will dis- charge their duties, looking only to the highest welfare of the schools. The person who is chosen to act as a supervisor of rural schools should have the qualities of leadership developed in the highest degree. He must himself be a thinker as well as a student, and he must be able to incite others to think and study. In the isolation of the country school the teacher too often has no ideals, and consequently no ambition. It is the business of intelligent supervision to suggest these high ideals of work as the end which the teacher must aim to accomplish. Time is often wasted by the supervisor in suggesting new methods to teachers who have no idea that there is any better way than they have been doing IP se a cl Am Sessions] KIND OF SUPERVISION MOST NEEDED 129 since they obtained their first certificate; he might as well whisper the news of the day in the ears of the dead. I would rather have in a teacher one divine spark of originality, lightened up by enthusiasm and zeal in her work, than all the knowledge that is contained in a thousand pages of the dead lore of the past. I do not by any means wish to be under- stood as decrying the study of pedagogical laws, but the country school-teacher who is forced to cram herself with the dry words of a text- book which she has not the intellectual power to comprehend, prescribed by a supervisor as a prerequisite for obtaining his official signature to her _ certificate, is to me one of the most pitiable objects on God’s green foot- stool. The supervision needed in the rural school is one which inspires energy, enthusiasm, and zeal; which awakens a desire to know the best ; which says, ‘“‘Come, let us study, let us think, let us reason, let us dis- - cuss.” Such supervision opens the doors and the windows, that the light of.nature may come in; drives out old traditions, and ushers in the reign of intelligence, knowledge, humanity, and love, which characterize the new education. Now, as to the purpose of the supervision needed in the rural school. It-is here that the most lamentable failure is made. The supervisor visits the school, examines the pupils, looks through the register, praises a few things and criticises many, and, with his little notebook in his vest pocket, goes on to the next district. Has he done all that is required of him? Not by any means. He must note at such a visit the tone and spirit abroad in each school, the relations which exist between the teacher and the pupils, and the morale, which is evidenced by cheerful obedience and strict attention to the business of the hour. If the visit of the supervisor in the country school leaves no lasting influence upon the teacher and the children, it would better not have been made. If he examines a class, it should not be with the narrow purpose of ascertaining how little they know, but with the broader purpose of discovering along what lines they need encouragement, in what respects they are improving, and whether their training is such as to induce power of thought, habits of investigation and freedom of expression, which things are lost sight of in the routine work too prevalent in every section of the country. The influence of a refined, cultured scholar in the person of the supervisor is not to be lost sight of. Sometimes he is the only medium through which bright pupils receive an aspiration which awakens a desire to attend a school offering larger advantages. The supervisor has a three- fold function. He examines in order that he may test the possession of knowledge on the part of teacher or pupil; he inspects that he may in a measure ascertain the quality of the work and control or organize the management; he supervises in order that as an adviser and friend he may point out errors and suggest remedies, encourage honest efforts, and wel- 130 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General come signs of improvement in methods of discipline or instruction. The true supervisor is much more than a teacher. It is only by regarding each of these functions that the supervisor may bring his work into accord with that of the teacher and the pupil, and thus unite for a com- mon purpose all the interests of the school. Formerly the office of supervisor embraced that of examiner of teachers alone. There are many counties or districts even now in which the fitness of the teacher is determined by the per cents. recorded against her name. ‘This has led to a great evil, in that it induces teachers to study for marks. They study questions, not subjects, and test themselves by the number they can answer. For this purpose books are published filled with nothing but questions and answers. Educational journals crowd their columns with last month’s examination questions, and of late they have taken to furnishing answers and solutions, as helps to teachers. As a consequence the rural school-teacher becomes exceedingly narrow, having little depth of knowledge, or breadth of foundation upon which to build her work. She does not cultivate habits of study or investigation. Only an independent thinker can make an independent teacher. Enthu- siasm in presenting knowledge is born of enthusiasm in pursuit of knowledge. The prevailing method of examining teachers, as a test of fit- ness for their work, is an exceedingly ingenious device for enabling them to conceal their ignorance. The examination has its limitations, but this is neither the time nor the occasion to discuss them. The need of the school is a supervision which can reach beneath this accumulated mass of rubbish, and judge the qualifications of the teacher not alone by what she knows, but rather by what she can do in the schoolroom. The teacher who has crammed for the examination ought to be detected and rejected as surely as the one who fails to meet the prescribed standard. To give the rural school the needed supervision, the supervisor must know what is the cri- terion of a good teacher and the elements of good teaching. He must possess the ability to select the teachers whom he commissions, not only in accordance with the results of the examination, but having regard to breadth of knowledge, as evinced even in the answers to technical ques- tions. He must be guided not alone by a system of percentages, but by her evident ability to stamp the impress of her character upon her school. He must endeavor to determine the question, ‘‘ What will be the influence of this teacher over the pupils, and in the community at large?” It is worse than folly for the supervisor to send out teachers who in knowl- edge, character, or adaptability are poorly prepared for their work, and then by some process of close supervision attempt to correct their errors and to convert them into respectable teachers. Of all the duties incum- bent upon the supervisor there is no one which requires more wisdom as aes a Sessions] KIND OF SUPERVISION MOST NEEDED LB and skill, greater intelligence, and the exercise of more common sense than this of determining the fitness of persons to enter upon the work of teaching children. The supervision needed by the rural schools has still another mission. The low state of public opinion, which accepts the conditions of poor schools as the best attainable, is due to the fact that the school is not appreciated, and that the work which it ought to do is not well under- stood. The supervision of rural schools should be made to include the duty of awakening public concern, and of strengthening the entire tone and trend of thought, as it is directed towards the promotion of educa- tional interests. This is a new field for supervision, and one in which it ought to achieve most beneficent results. The supervisor of rural schools should be acquainted with the material resources of his district. He should not only know what constitutes good farming, the grazing interests, the dairy, the rotation of crops, but the prevailing industry of that region should be so familiar to him that he can converse intelligently with the inhabitants and convince them that he knows something besides books. The object is not alone to gain an influence over them, but to bring the school into touch with the home life of the community about it. For this reason the supervisor should make himself well acquainted with the prevailing conditions of the wage-earners of his territory, in order that the instruction of their children may commend itself to them as sensible and as calculated to meet their present and prospective wants. New thoughts, better methods, live matter, and stronger incentives must come to the country school through the efforts of rational supervision. The dawn of a new education for these schools will break over the horizon as soon as we can bring to the aid of the teacher the light of science, and the knowledge of common things. It is not to invite the farmer or the miner to the school, but to take the school to the farm or the mine, and to show the pupils that here, before their eyes, are the foundations upon which have been built the great natural sciences of our day. I have only touched upon the remote borders of a subject which opens in many directions. But it cannot flourish under any system of close supervision. The teacher must have great latitude; she must be herself a lover of nature in its various forms and be able to interpret the language of rocks, and trees, and flowers ; the running brook, the snows of winter, and the fruits of autumn. The wise and intelligent supervisor aids and encourages her and her pupils and commends her work in these new lines, as he does that included in the regular school curriculum. The supervision needed by the country school must concern itself also with school extension, lectures, and libraries. The county associa- tions must be supplemented by meetings of the directors and parents for consultation and advice. In these the supervisor must be the moving 132 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General spirit. The isolation of the country school can be broken up through the influence of these meetings. The establishment and maintenance of good roads must find in the supervisor a ready and popular advocate. Under the stimulus of his influence the rural school grounds should be made attractive and the school buildings neat and convenient. There are instances on record in which the work of one man has changed the educational aspect of a county, but he had first to gain the confidence of the people, and they responded by electing and re-electing him for along series of terms. I am inclined to close as I began. The country schools do not need what we ordinarily call close supervision. It is as unsuited to their wants as would be the close grading of the city schools. The supervision needed by the rural schools must be intelligent and rational. It must abound in common sense, be able to adapt itself to circumstances, be strong, manly, and vigorous, so that the character of the supervision shall commend the wisdom of the supervisor. There must be added also an element of permanence in office, so that the supervisor may feel that he has time in which to work out his plans, and to demonstrate the feasibility of his theories. ‘The supervisor must be kept in the field every day of the school year, when it is possible. He should have all the clerical help he needs, but the worst use that can be made of him is to keep him in the seclusion of his office, at work over papers and reports. The vacations should not be entirely free from field work, for then he should be with the people and school officers, looking after school grounds, advising with directors or trustees in regard to the repair and improvement of buildings, or the erection of new ones, consulting with them as to the choice of teachers, the text-books most suitable for their schools, and the general educational interests of the district. The supervision which I have attempted to mark out is that of a live, enthusiastic man, in sympathy with educational progress, in touch with the common people, consecrated to his work, who thinks no sacrifice too great, no labor too severe, when made in the cause of the common district school. INTELLECTUAL NEEDS OF RURAL SCHOOLS. BY D. L. KIEHLE, PROFESSOR OF PEDAGOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA. The most attractive part of any civilization is the material instruments which it has devised, and which are indispensable to its progress. This is equally true of that part of our civilization which is included in our school system. We have schoolhouses, in beauty, comfort, and healthful- es ee Sessions] INTELLECTUAL NEEDS OF RURAL SCHOOLS L323 ness, such as the world has never before seen; we have text-books which, in elaborateness, simplification, and taste, excel all before them; we have apparatus that presents in distinct form, and for separate study, every form, every phenomenon, and every principle known to natural ‘science ; we have organization, systems, and methods all elaborately wrought out and offered for use. It is assigned to this part of the general discussion of the rural-school problem to consider what is necessary to make all this material effective in the proper education of the children of rural schools; in other words, what intelligence is required to wield these instruments of education, and what spirit must be embodied in this material mechanism in order that it may serve its purpose. We must begin by calling to mind the purpose of education, and what, in its application to rural schools, it ought to accom-: plish for them. In general, it is to introduce the child into the civilization into which he has been born, to give him power intelligently to appropriate its accumulated experience, to understand its peculiar problems, and to make most skillful use of present possessions for his higher comfort and well-being. In short, it is to prepare him for the most complete living within his environment of which he is capable—for acomplete living as a human being, satisfying the demands of his physical nature in material comforts, and of his social, esthetic, and moral nature in cultivated con- tact with the life of the race. Now, education considered as a development of the powers of the individual as man or woman is quite the same the world over; but as the unifying of the individual with his environment, the methods must change with changed conditions. Without doubt the most marked separation exists between rural and town or city life. The latter is based on social relations. Its spirit is interdependent and co-operative. The former is based on the soil, and its spirit and tendencies are largely mechanical in occupation, and socially segregating and independent. ~ This general problem of education applied to our rural schools, there- fore, is this, how to prepare the youth of the country to live their lives most fully and worthily —not as toilers, and not for mere sustenance, but as men and women of the race, who in taste and understanding are to live the larger lives of the social and intellectual world. It is, doubtless, the most difficult of all. undertakings in education to enable each individual to live his own best life, within the limitations of his subjective and his objective environment. The natural tendency is to fix upon some accepted and traditional standard, to expend all energy in readjusting one’s personal characteristics, and in escaping one’s surround- ings in order to be what another is. Hence, the poor covet wealth ; the wealthy covet nobility; the mechanic would be a professional man, and 134 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General the boy on the farm would abandon the farm for what seems to him the paradise of city life. Educational systems have contributed their full share to this mischiev- ous tendency, having done much in educating our youth away from their native environment without educating them into another. The school represents some ideal of social life that is accepted as worthy the ambition of the cultivated and governing classes ; hence the schools set the fashion, and what the schools do not recognize is impliedly unworthy. Not many years ago our education recognized only the demands of professional life, and the culture, knowledge, and training that were especially appropriate to professional life were offered indiscriminately to all classes, with the result that all positive intellectual movement was -toward professional lives. Later, when agricultural life began to assert itself and demanded recognition in our education, there were established so-called agricultural colleges, which were nothing more nor less than the classical school with its atmosphere of ancient form and spirit, with some theoretical and practical agriculture attached, yet offered as if for those whose intellectual and social conditions excluded them from the more respectable subjects of abstract and classical study. The men in charge represented cultured life, and the industries as found in the great social and industrial centers. The result was that they invariably educated away from rather than into the rural life and its occupations, which they were created to serve, and were, therefore, justly condemned by the farmers whose sons they had undertaken to educate. In our city schools we have made great progress in broadening our curriculum of education, by which we undertake to prepare each individual for a successful and contented life in his particular environment, whether industrial or professional, whether as as employer or employé. But in the country, and in the interest of agricultural life, we have just entered upon the solution of this phase of our educational problem. Our dis- trict school is an ungraded arrangement of matter and method adopted from the schools of the city. The governing impression seems to be that the country is but a suburb for a sort of probationary life for the paradise of the city, and the country school a trial school for the teacher who hopes for promotion to the grades of a city. But the worthier view, and that which has inspired. this discussion, is that it is an independ- ent life of itself, as dignified and as worthy of ambition as any other, and, accordingly, that its education should be organized and conducted in its interest, in the application of all facts and laws of science, economics, and zesthetics for its intprovement. Thus far the most valuable con- tributions in this direction have appeared in those. forms of education belonging to adult life. Sessions] INTELLECTUAL NEEDS OF RURAL SCHOOLS 135 First are the agricultural colleges and_ schools. Imperfect as the earlier movement was it did send out men who were nearer the people and more interested in agricultural education than the most of their teachers. Following this we have entered upon the second and more effective stage —the conduct of the agricultural school. The agricultural school has cut loose from all the restraints of the classical schools, and, following the example of manual training schools, it organizes its course of study wholly in the interest of agricultual life. It lays down as its fundamental principle that agriculture in rural life is an industry that offers, beside remuneration and healthful employment, the fullest and finest exercise of the scientific ability in the study of nature, of eesthetic taste in the adornment of home, and, in this age, abundant opportunity for social and literary culture in the multiplication and extended circulation of books and periodicals. In such aschool the boys are those who have had their taste, ideas, and experiences cultivated by life-long contact with farm life. They are educated in immediate contact with the farm. Their education consists in the applications of science to the material of rural life and agricultural industry. The product of such a school is a cultured American citizen, living on his farm, conducting it with intelligence and scientific insight into the various processes that are going on about him, and with the enjoyment that comes from intelligent self-respect and application of the operations of nature. The next contribution that has been made to rural education has been in farmers’ institutes. These are short sessions of farmers, generally of the most enterprising and intelligent class, who are addressed by scientific agriculturalists upon the practical matters of agricultural life. Here you will see the most complete examples of object lessons and laboratory practice. At one lesson the whole class is gathered about a cow, ora sheep, or a hog, discussing its characteristics, its heredity, and the best methods of its culture. At another, they study the dairy and its products. At a third, the housewives are gathered about the instructor in domestic economy, who not only illustrates processes, but gives the scientific explanations. The result is that we have farmers who not only use more rational and economic processes, but have the enjoyment that comes from less physical and slavish drudgery and more intellectual and social inter- course. ; It has been the universal rule that the children are served last. Edu- cation had made great progress among men long before the schools for children felt the influence of progressive movements. After the same fashion, the schools for country children are still under the restraints of ancient methods, and rigidly exclude the very methods and the matter by 136 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General which their parents are made intelligent and practical. They may read the stories of Homer, the tales of Shakespeare, and study the geography of Asia, but to bring into the schoolroom a squirrel, a bird, or a bug would surprise the neighborhood, and to take the children into the fields and by the streams to study the formation of land surface and the effects of water currents would hazard the salary of the teacher for taking holiday without authority. I submit, then, that the first intellectual need of rural schools is a cur- riculum of study furnishing materials and methods that are natural to the life they live. It is quite unnecessary, at this time, to elaborate any out- line or course of study. I need only refer you to the ample provision of material made by your Committee on Rural Schools, whose report is now before you. I come now to the second of the intellectual needs of rural schools, and upon which depends the efficacy of all else —I mean, of course, the teacher. A civilization in either of its types can only be introduced and engrafted by life that embodies its spirit. The machinery of civilization set up among a barbarous people will not develop the industries. The literature of the world set up in libraries will not change rudeness to cul- ture. The Bible itself, with all the developed products of Christian life in literature, churches, and ceremonies, will not of itself purify and elevate the lives of heathendom. It is only life that begets life, and that of its own kind. It is only as the institutions and products of civilized life are made the instruments of the life itself that they can be effective in elevat- ing others to the same plane. ‘This law holds equally good in respect to rural schools. The civilization of the age has ennobled its institutions, means of expression, its literature in recorded experience, discoveries, inventions, and speculations, its science and its philosophy; and for its schools it has systems, architecture, text-books, apparatus, and libraries, but all these, to be effective in educating the youth, must be the instru- ments of influence in the hands of a teacher whose ambition kindles its like, and whose attractive power in thought and feeling draws to itself and molds to like forms the spirits of youth with whom it comes in contact. All this is a very old doctrine, exemplified a thousand times, from the days of Socrates in Athens to Abélard in France, all the way down to the humble service of our university settlements, as well as in the whole history of Christian missions. The first service required of the teacher in rural schools is to represent in himself aspiring intelligence and character, by taking the children of the soil, living their segregated and mechanical lives, and introducing them to the society, thought, and achievement of the race. The second service required is that he represent in himself and in his teaching the dignity and honor that attach to the occupations of country a re 5 Sessions] INTELLECTUAL NEEDS OF RURAL SCHOOLS 137 life. Youth gets its ideas from the standard set before it. When manual labor is performed by slaves and menials, freemen and the cultured avoid it. When manual training came to be represented in our public-school system by scholarly and cultivated men, who handled the saw, the shovel, and the plane in company with the pupils, then labor took honorable rank, and students became skilled mechanics. When domestic economy was given a place in our schools, and our girls, who had never seen kitchen work done by any but uneducated servants, and that most mechanically, saw their teachers with skill and intelligence do the same, and make it the topic of interesting observations and an application of their knowl- edge of chemistry and hygiene—it was at once taken out of the rank of menial employment and given honorable rank as a worthy pursuit. It must be in this same way that country life and country pursuits will be prompted by the educating influence of rural schools. When the teacher with scholarship and a character that commands respect and admiration will in like manner represent the spirit of rural life, and utilize the envi- ronment of rural life for the exercise of intellectual power and industrial skill, we shall have not only educational results, but, what is more, we shall see agricultural life taking higher rank and given greater consideration by the introduction into it of skill, intelligence, and self-respect.that is begot- ten of education. It is not in my mind that rural schools shall educate for country life, as if to exclude their youth from the pursuits of the city, but that they shall do their share in the magnificent undertaking that seems to be the’ peculiar calling of our public-school system, namely, to conduct its edu- cation to the end that all artificial distinctions, by which men are ranked in honor and social respectability according to the accidents of national- ity, birth, and vocation, may be obliterated, and men ranked according to character, and the virtues of philanthropy and intelligent industry. We have already done more than all the world before us. For our daughters as well as for our sons, for all of every religious faith, for white and black, for rich and poor, our schools are all free. From the narrow lines of classical culture we have broadened to include all languages, all literature, all science, and all history. From the single occupation— the clerical — as the only one requiring highest culture and greatest learning, we have by our education given social and intellectual standing to a multitude of industries, in which are represented the best culture of our schools. Our education should do the same for rural life and its industries, when intel- ligence shall apply itself to making it, first more remunerative, then more comfortable in the hygiene and ornamentation of the home, and, finally, in bringing it into social and intellectual touch with the great world about it. Then, when rural life is made congenial to intellectual and social culture, and when its occupations have been dignified by the exercise of the skill 138 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General that comes from education, we may leave our youth to satisfy their own preferences in the selection of an occupation according to their several tastes and natural fitness. In this discussion thus far we have had in mind the individual teacher in the schoolroom, but, upon reflection, we shall see at once that this individual teacher is but a factor, a part of a system, including the school that prepares him, and the supervision that directs him. I am, therefore, of the opinion that in securing for our rural schools the teaching they require we shall have to face the question of special preparation of teachers for them. In the history of our modern movements for the enlargement of the scope of education we see that as long as the classical and scientific school prepared the teachers it was quite impossible to develop manual training schools, but as soon as teachers of manual training could be sent out from the schools of manual training, they and their schools took educational rank. So, too, as long as teachers of agriculture were prepared in the classical and scientific schools, the farmers complained, and justly, too, that their boys were turned to every vocation but that of their fathers. Thus far our training schools for teachers have been organized for, and conducted after, the ideal of city schools and city life, and the complaint is universal that the disposition of teachers is more determined as they approach graduation to escape the conditions of country life and the country school. Shall we say that all this is a necessary condition of things, and must we allow that as we perfect our system of education we must intensify the prevailing disposition of our modern civilization to abandon country life and crowd into cities? I do not believe that we are committed to this unnatural and dangerous alternative. On the contrary, the indications are very distinct that the reaction from the centralization of social cast in industries and learning has begun, that the claims of the country are as distinctive as those of the city, and that we are required to provide for rural schools in courses of study and in teachers with the same care that is shown the mechanical industries in manual training. This, however, is a problem that belongs to our normal schools and which I commend to their attention with a reference to the suggestive and valuable contributions made to this subject in the report of the Committee of Twelve on Rural Schools, especially the two articles found in the appendix, namely, “School Courses” and ‘The Farm as a Center of Interest.” Next is the intellectual need of adequate supervision. The superin- tendent must not be a mere representative of country politics, nor of the unprogressive, unintelligent drudgery of common farm life ; neither should he be a mere representative of the schools and courses of the city. watie ought to embody the spirit of farm life, and in his selection of teachers and in his supervision he should contribute to the ideal of rural school life. Aree Sessions] THE MARCH OF THE IDEAL 139 To discuss the obstacles that beset this movement would take more time than belongs to this paper. However great the difficulties to pro- gress, they are disappearing. ‘The great intellectual and political move- ment, that has begun in the country and has already made itself felt in higher education, will soon apply itself to the interests of its common schools, and will require a corresponding consideration of this important and peculiar department of our educational system. te MARCH OF, THE IDEAL. BY CLINTON SCOLLARD, CLINTON, N. Y. i No hoary sage, enamored of gray eld, Howe’er so keen his eye, Has ever pierced the Past’s obscuring veil, And, in the mythic morning-time, beheld Where the primeval founts of Knowledge lie. In vain does man assail The starry bastions of the midnight sky, Seeking the source of light, The awful Infinite ; And so in vain Man’s rapt desire to read the riddle plain,— The source of that incalculable store That in the brain foregathers more and more. 1B, Have we not known, “In the lush upland regions overgrown With beech and bracken, in a quiet dell, Mossed at the edge, And overhung with sedge, A tiny pool, a crystal woodland well,— A little thing half-hidden from the day? “A little thing,” we say ; Yet from so small a source May sweep a Hudson in majestic course, A Mississippi take its seaward way! 140 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION So is it with that immemorial spring Hid in the illimitable uplands of the Past,— The well of Knowledge. Variant and vast, Through the successive ages widening, The floodtide from it cast! Ti Ere Susa was, or gardened Babylon Lifted its pillared porches to the sun, Amid the cumbrous coil of human life, The interblended calm and strife, Were men who stood above, apart, Mighty of brain and militant of heart, The freshening founts to swell The onward sweep from the sequestered well. There was a time When pulsed the current like a choral chime Celestially sublime ; When ran the tide as clear As is the hyalescent atmosphere © Round St. Elias in Alaskan snows,— The Periclean age of high repose. Again the flood grew broad What time the imperial Augustus awed The outland peoples with his mighty sway, And, on Judean hills, the “‘ Lamb of God,” A little child, within the manger lay. TV~ Who giveth to this tide? Prophet and poet and the argus-eyed Searcher into all problems intricate Whether they be of science, or the fate That on the soul doth wait. Happy the age wherein These high-inspired and lofty figures dwell ! Their truth triumphantly assoils the sin ; The stream flows broader from the living well. One haunted by the old Greek loveliness, Who has his final home In alien loam f Beneath the many-battled walls of Rome, Sang sweet of Beauty’s purifying power ; [General ee Ee ET iericethice pier bene ewes 6 Fo sa talhasion in ehsteaie dacanaensiin en tei eaten ie tee Sessions] THE MARCH OF THE IDEAL I4I Another voice, of rapture none the less, Long stilled for aye By the chill billows of blue Spezzia bay, Loud chanted Justice and man’s equal dower. With cup at lip, heroic Socrates, Shakespere, the myriad-minded one, Grave-thoughted Emerson,— Such souls as these Leave to all time the richest legacies. V. Whichever be the plan, Nature through mankind, or through Nature man, ’Tis Nature is the great idealist, Fashioning from out the somber morning mist Mountains of rose and hills of amethyst ; Molding with incomparable toil From out the base essentials of the soil The immaculate lily-tower, All grace and sweetness centered in a flower ; Prisoning within one small wood-warbler’s throat Ecstatic note upon ecstatic note. "Tis those close cleaving unto Nature, then, Who are the master spirits among men, . Idealists, Holding their noontide and nocturnal trysts With what is lofty, elemental, pure,— The essences divine that shall endure. VI. Upon them let us keep Our vision fixed while flee the fateful years, As doth the mariner on the storm-vexed deep Upon the beacon-star by which he steers! Their shining names . Are ours as well as Fame’s, Whate’er the beauteous mold in which they wrought f Their mind-ennobling thought ; — Whether with Phidian skill In marble reproducing mortal will, Or limning, Raphael like, the human form Till on the canvas it seems live and warm, i Vi 142 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General Or welding states fragmental into one As did our hero-hearted Washington. VIL. Alas, for obdurate souls that will not heed The seer’s exalted voice of prophecy, That will not follow where the climbers lead Along life’s radiant hilltops, glad and free! But plait a crown of cruel thorns for those, The men of mastery and of rapt insight, Who, fearless, face the blinded bigot’s blows, And stand, unswerving, for the truth and right ; Who place the good of all o’er that of self, And honest penury o’er dishonest pelt; Who keep alive the patriot’s holy ire Against the truckler and his low desire, And hold the honor of a nation’s shield Should bear no stain upon its fair white field ! VEY Have we not read how great Canute of old, Sitting within his chair of beaten gold Beside the shore where dashed the thunderous sea, To show how small is earthly sovereignty *’Gainst Nature’s laws and their imperious sway, Bade the upheaving waves their course to stay ? “Thus far,” he cried, “no further shalt thou go!” But lo, The impetuous forward flow, With unabated bound, And deep, triumphal sound, Swept on and broke the royal seat around! As impotent, and no whit wiser, they Who deem that puny human power can stay The spirit’s course on its celestial way ! IX. Life’s real Outreaches longing hands for the Ideal ; Never was nurtured an aspiring soul That did not dream of a more lofty goal, With recompense more glorious set therein, Than the clay-cumbered feet of man may win. eeceneen ge ates Dy Ste Sessions] AS HEART OF PEOPLE CHANGED TOWARDS SCHOOLS? I 43 Within the artist’s mind the imaged saint Is fairer than his finest brush can paint ; The poet’s fancy far outwings his word, And the musician’s music, what is heard ; And never lover lived who did not grace With ideal beauty the beloved face ! It is this touch of heaven that bids us hope By sure degrees we may ascend the slope - That leads to those aerial summits whence The spiritual inner sense, Mounting beyond the mortal vision-line, May soar to the divine ! xe Oh ye who, valiant-hearted, in the van Of human progress march, Let not your eyes from off the hills be drawn, But watch the aureate splendor of the dawn Transfigure all the sky’s expanding arch! Tis the eternal, slow-unfolding plan That the Ideal, like the beaconing light Of morning o’er the height, Shall guide mankind forever up and on. If toward the gleam be turned the lifted face, Behold it shall be written of the race: They live and shall live, for those cannot die Upon whose altars burn ideals high, Who worship nothing base! Maple HLART IOL- GIS PEOPLE CHANGED LOWAKDS ITS SCHOOLS ? BY CARROLL G. PEARSE, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, OMAHA, NEB. [STENOGRAPHIC REPORT. | The question is, I think, a pertinent one for us. The message I bring is a plain and homely one, but I believe it touches the schools very closely —the schools of the whole country. -The public-school idea was present from the beginning in New Eng- land. As soon as shelter and food were provided, the school was estab- lished. The child must learn to read that he might not be ignorant of 144 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General the holy Scriptures and the capital laws. He must learn some useful employment that he might not become a drone or a vagabond. That learning might not perish from out the colonies, the university was set up, where the ministers of the new land might receive such train- ing as had made the clergymen who came with the immigrants a mighty force in shaping the policies and institutions of the growing common- wealth. This brought a new need. Some school there must be where boys could get such learning as would fit them for entrance to the university. Here, then, was the complete foreshadowing of our modern school system — the common schools for giving the elements of knowledge; the secondary schools (then called grammar schools), where boys might be fitted for the university and get some knowledge of the humanities; the university, giving the higher education; the training in the home of the hand and judgment through the teaching of some craft, which has been revived inour day in the manual-training and trade schools. The idea of universal, popular education took firm hold upon the public policy of the states and upon the imagination of the American people. Provision was made to teach all children. As the ball rolled, it grew. New studies were added from time to time. Arithmetic came early, with writing, completing that trio, the “three R’s.”” Geography presented itself, and was admitted, and English grammar came also. Algebra and bookkeeping sometimes crowded in. Physiology and hygiene claimed attention. Then music, which had long been used as a recreation and inspiration, began to be taught as a science. ‘Drawing followed for its use and for its influence. The training of the hand and eye received more attention in the way of manual training in the high schools and in the lower grades. Sewing and cooking began to be added here and there. Physical culture assumed a place. The best teachers had greatly increased skill over the ancient peda- gogue, and competition for the best teachers among the more enterpris- ing schools had largely increased teachers’ salaries. Following the example of other great business organizations, superintendents of schools had been employed to have general care and direction of the large school systems. ‘Teachers of special subjects had been freely employed, as well. as supervisors to direct work in music or drawing, or other special branches. And all this had come about with very little opposition. The new studies as they came in received a few shafts of ridicule. But the heart of the people was with the schools. They were the schools of the people, and to him who came and pleaded in the name of the schools nothing was denied. The schools were riding on the crest of the wave of prosperity and public favor. The people of the nation were busy increasing their wealth ol, BaP ote Sessions] MAS HEART OF PEOPLE CHANGED TOWARDS SCHOOLS? 145 and developing the resources of the country. The money for the schools was freely furnished, and often far too little scrutiny of its expenditure was exercised. But a few years ago conditions changed. Prosperity fled. Develop- ment was checked. ‘The wealth of the people ceased to accumulate. Capital fell idle or began to be eaten up by operating expenses. The grasshopper of taxes, which had not been felt in the midst of general prosperity, now became a burden. Not only were financial conditions distressing, but in the general slackness of business people had time to think of their unhappy condition. The time was no longer filled by the pleasing employments of selling goods to paying customers, clipping coupons, or collecting interest on mortgages. Deprived of accustomed employment, the people were uncomfortable, and had ample leisure to realize their unhappiness to the full. A critical spirit filled the air, and this spirit did not fail to take account of the public schools. They have been denounced for extravagance and waste; as the leech that was taking the life blood of the body politic; as the nursery and hot- bed of “fads;” as the agency which is setting young people above their station, and rendering them unwilling to take up the disagreeable but necessary duties of life as their fathers did. For these few years the schools have borne heavily the yoke of public condemnation. In one great city it has been proposed to decrease the salaries of teachers one-third. In hundreds of cities and towns salaries have been reduced. Cities have dispensed with their supervisors of music and drawing. The high school has been attacked as contrary to the spirit and intention of a proper public-school system. This storm of criticism, and these drastic measures, some of which have been proposed, some put into effect, have fairly given rise to the question whether or not the heart of this people has changed towards its schools. It is a question which each of you will wish to answer in the light of his own experience. Having raised the question at this time, however, I think I shall make bold, for the purposes of my argument, to give an answer, and to give it in the negative. I do not believe that our recent unpleasant experience indicates a loss of public regard for the schools, or of belief in them. It may indicate that we have not, in the conduct of the schools, kept closely enough in touch with the people, for whom the schools exist and upon whose loyalty and favor the schools must rely for future well-being. It may indicate that we have not taken the people enough into our confidence as to our plans, and as to what we were doing with the money they were providing for our use. It may indicate that we have been somewhat too prone to act upon our own initiative, and to set about the operation of new plans without first securing the advice and 146 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General consent of these masters of ours. It may, I believe it does, indicate all these things, and so, when stress and grinding times have come, we and our plans have been too nearly strangers to those we have been called to serve. I believe, if we learn from the discomforts of the past few years that the people must accompany the schools upon the path of progress, the suffering will have been for our enduring profit. But here among ourselves it may be proper for us to go a little farther and acknowledge that sometimes the finances of the schools have not been well managed ; that sometimes we have paid too dear for our whistle. This has sometimes been true because the broth was brewed by too many cooks; because the sovereign people dabbled too freely in the manage- ment of details. In these cases the result has been much as it would be if the merchant or real estate agent, those eminently respectable and responsible members of the city council, had assumed responsibility in detail for operating the new engine at the city waterworks. But often it has been true because of a lack of proper knowledge as to what education should cost. The member of the board of education, holding his office for three years, cannot be expected to have this expert knowledge. He is an authority on matters pertaining to his own business; but this is not his own business, it is the public business. The need of expert advisers in municipal affairs is coming to be recognized; men who know how many gallons of water per day for each inhabitant a city needs; what street cleaning should cost; at what rate a city might profitably make its own gas ; at what cost it should be paved. In the same way a knowledge of the cost of education is coming to be a part of the needed equipment for a man who aspires to superintend a system of schools, just as is a knowl- edge of the subjects his teachers are to present to their pupils, or of the faculties of the mind, and the laws of the physical and mental growth. It has not been, often it is not now, the fault of superintendents that they do not have this knowledge. There has been no school in which to acquire it, except the dear school of experience. But in some way the knowledge must come. ‘The area of low barometer is central over the financial side of school management just now. More injury seems to threaten from ignorance of values and of proper cost than from ignorance of school subjects, or of the laws of development. Those connected with the schools cannot afford to be at ease in this matter until the normal cost of education per child in average daily attendance is as well known among us as the cost of hauling freight per ton per mile is known among railroad men. meae has told us that science is comparison. The best means of Some Pabisou $0 far has been afforded by the tables published in the reports of the United States Commissioner of Education. These cannot, how- ever, go into such detail as is often desirable, and the process of their Ee q . ri OEY Mneyeh ee E Aa I tete ales ein eo ae! 1S ge ae Spe re weet, Biman he Sessions] EDUCATIONAL EXTREMES 147 issue is necessarily slow. The best source of information for purposes of comparison should be the reports issued each year by the leading cities, and by the various states. These reports have not been by any means uniform in plan, nor have they made clear the same items of income and outgo. For this reason instructive comparison has been difficult, often impossible. Cannot this association bring about some uniformity in these fiscal reports? Might not a committee, appointed by this body, consider the matter of acommon plan and form for state, for city, and, perhaps, for village school financial reports? Would it not be a long step toward providing a standard for comparisons, and thus reducing the matter to a scientific basis? Might not the National Educational Association in this way just now render a distinguished service to the cause of education ? EDUCATIONAL EXTREMES. BY O. T. CORSON, STATE COMMISSIONER OF COMMON SCHOOLS, COLUMBUS, 0. Educational extremes have their origin in educational extremists, of whom there are many varieties. They can, however, be grouped into two general classes—those who are perfectly satisfied with what has been done in the past, and those who propose and demand undesirable, ‘unreasonable, and, very frequently, impossible things for the future. The first class is fairly represented by the man who absolutely refused to look at the new moon because of his unbounded admiration and love for the old. The motto of this class is: Whatever has been is right and cannot be made better. In this class are found the educational fossils of the day, who bear the same relation to the educational world that the rock fossils do to the physical world —show plainly the different stages of growth and development. The second class, having once glanced at the new moon, seem to be possessed with the idea that it is their own creation and therefore worthy of their veneration and worship. They are so infatuated with the new that they fail to realize their very close connection with the old, for which they henceforth have nothing but scorn and contempt. Their motto is: Whatever has been, or is, is wrong and must be changed. Between these extremes —satisfaction with everything as it is, with no desire to investigate with the object of improvement, and dissatisfaction with everything as it is, with the constant attempt to change educational policy, courses of study, and methods of teaching to suit the demands of 148 NATIONAL EDUCA TIONAL ASSOCIATION [General visionary theorists who have neither experience, foresight, judgment, nor common sense, the teachers of the public schools are constantly in danger, on the one hand, of falling into that state of self-satisfaction which means professional decay and death, and, on the other hand, of becoming the victims of a policy so unstable as to result in the most superficial work in the class-room and in the loss of confidence on the part of the people in their public schools. At the risk of being considered too conservative by many, and even non-progressive and old-fogyish by some, I must give expression to my honest conviction that, in the first place, there is in this country today a tendency to go to the extreme in the educational policy, proposed by some, of practically ignoring the common people in the management and control of the common schools which they own and support, and which, I am thoroughly convinced, are very near their hearts. The conclusion at which some school superintendents seem to have arrived, that the public schools cannot trust their own product, is a sad comment either on the schools themselves or on the lack of judgment which has led to such a conclusion. I have nothing but words of severest condemnation and denunciation for the interference of the professional politician in the management of the educational affairs of his community. I believe that the very safety and perpetuity of our government demand that our public schools be kept free from the influence of both political demagogues and sectarian fanatics. But in our attempt to free ourselves from the reign of the political demagogue it is neither desirable nor necessary that we ignore the people and institute the reign of the educational autocrat whose opinion is law and whose action is final. It is well to remember that good schools and all true and enduring educational progress and reform must have their roots down deep in the hearts of the people. If half the time and thought now spent in devising some plan by means of which teachers and superintendents can be entirely relieved from respon- sibility to the people were spent in developing a strong educational senti- ment among the people and thereby bringing them into closer sympathy with the work of the schools, the cause of public education would be greatly advanced. I believe, therefore, in boards of education elected by the people and responsible to the people ; in superintendents who are ready and willing to be advised and directed within proper limits by such boards, and in teachers whose tenure of office shall be secure enough to encourage faith- fulness and efficiency, but not so secure as to make possible permanency in spite of laziness, incompetency, and inefficiency. It is in the formation of a course of study, however, that the extremist finds his greatest opportunity. It is admitted by everyone that a course of study should be in a certain sense a growth, but it is also true that it IA Oe i ee “ep aP.2ne ote tet Qe At Reed Sessions] EDUCATIONAL EXTREMES 149 has its limitations. The old régime of the “three R’s” was in many respects narrowing, but it is possible that even this extreme, to which no sensible, progressive person has any desire to return, may be preferable to the opposite extreme, to which we are now tending in so many schools. It is at least reasonable to conclude that it will take several round-tables like the one held at Indianapolis last February to determine the exact limitations of the “three R’s.” I am certain these limitations were not definitely settled at that meeting. The greatest objection to overloading a course of study is found not in the inability of pupils to get the scores of lessons assigned in the great multiplicity of subjects, but in their failure to develop, in the getting, any mental power or ability to do continuous, independent, hard work. The little girl was not far wrong who, going home from an intermediate grade with her arms full of books, and after spending two hours in going over her lessons with her mother, replied to the suggestion that she now understood them by saying: ‘‘ Understand them ! why, we are not expected to understand them, we are just expected to get them!” It is in the getting of lessons so numerous that the undertaking or digesting of them is impossible that, in my judgment, is found the danger of the present tendency of going to the extreme of undertaking to teach a little of everything to the boys and girls of our primary and intermediate schools. If the active, earnest, and really successful teachers of these grades could be heard in a committee of the whole, I am positive that their united voice would be in favor of less quantity and more quality and thoroughness in their work, and they would be joined by a united request from the best high-school teachers in the land that their schools be supplied with pupils who know a few things thoroughly and as a result of such thoroughness have the power to do independent work, the lack of which power is today driving thousands of students from our high schools and colleges. The extremes to which we are tending today will, if unchecked, soon furnish our country with the educational hothouses and forcing apparatus so aptly described by Charles Dickens. Hear his description and judge whether it does not in some respects apply to the conditions existing in some of our modern schools: ‘Dr. Blimber’s establishment was a great hothouse, in which there was a forcing apparatus incessantly at work. All the boys blew before their time. Mental green peas were produced at Christmas, and intellectual apparatus all the year round. Mathematical gooseberries (very sour ones too) were common at untimely seasons, and from mere sprouts of bushes under Dr. Blimber’s cultivation. Every description of Greek and Latin vegetable was got off the driest twigs of boys under the frostiest circumstances. “This was all very pleasant and ingenious, but the system of forcing 150 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General was attended with its usual disadvantages. There was not the right taste about the premature productions, and they didn’t keep well. Moreover, one young gentleman with a swollen nose and an excessively large head (the oldest of the ten who had gone through anything) suddenly left off blowing one day and remained in the establishment a mere stalk. And people did say that the doctor had rather overdone it with young Toots, and that when he began to have whiskers he left off having brains.” It is ‘possible that some of our modern schools, with their overcrowded courses of study, also have a tendency to overdo it with similar results. As one extreme naturally necessitates another, it is not at all surpris- ing that we find over-crowded courses of study accompanied by the pro- posal of unnatural and unreasonable methods of carrying them out. Those who go to the extreme of insisting that everything shall be taught, when presented by a practical teacher with the impossibility of doing it, bring forward the beautiful doctrine of correlation, and explain away all the difficulties of presenting so many subjects by showing that all the knowledge of the universe can be grouped around one common center. As to what that center is no two persons agree, and while the principle of uniting to a reasonable degree subjects that have a natural connection is already practiced by all successful teachers, the difficult problem of how to correlate the correlators remains unsolved. It is a matter of sincere regret to many earnest teachers that so important a principle as correlation is often made a laughing stock by the senseless extreme to which it is carried by some who have evidently only very recently discovered its existence. In fact, this extreme is equaled only by the extreme to which that greatest of all studies—the study of the child —is carried by some persons who are engaged in the work, not that they may actually know the child in his real condition, but that they may have the reputation of being original investigators. To a teacher who really studies children as they are, some of the so-called modern discoveries resulting from original investigation are, to say the least, very humorous. To be told that a careful and scientific investigation has revealed the wonderful fact that Santa Claus appears to have a strong hold upon the hearts of boys and girls of all ages makes us tremble at the dense ignorance in which we have all been living. To know that children actually like colored pictures better than black and white ones, and that, up to the exact age of twelve, pictures of cats and dogs performing tricks are more acceptable to them than works of art, is certainly very important to the earnest teacher who is striving to train intellect and develop character. It is encouraging to know, however, that in the midst of these extreme tendencies, of which the time allotted only permits a mere mention, there is genuine progress in the work of education, and with united effort on & tm Sa en ee ee ee Cs sr Sessions] WHAT NOT TO DO I5t the part of teachers and patrons it is possible so to conduct the public schools that they shall have each year that genuine growth and improve- ment which come neither from a foolish worship of the old nor a senti- mental love for the new, but from a just and sensible appreciation of the good there is in both. WHAT NOT TO DO. BY MISS ESTELLE REEL, SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, STATE OF WYOMING. After listening to these eloquent and masterly addresses, I feel that I have nothing zew to offer you, but, coming from the West, as I do, I want to tell you what the West demands of the East. Our population in the far West is largely composed of young men. A great many young men took Horace Greeley’s advice, and the result is that, with us, young men hold most responsible positions. We want the East to send us young men and women properly equipped for the battle of life, and by that I mean young people whose educational foundation has been well laid. We do not care for the graduate of a high school, college, or university, who has a diploma with a long list of ’ologies, but who has no practical knowledge. To help us and help themselves they must be clear-headed, accurate students, who have been taught to think instead of memorize. Looking backward through the reports of the thirty-eight years’ exist- ence of the National Educational Association, many volumes and almost countless pages of positive advice have been published and many new methods advocated. May I venture to call your attention at this time to a very few of the things which are to be avoided. Do not sacrifice the practical for the liberal. With a most profound regard for the liberal in this world, I have yet a profounder regard for the practical. It was said by Herbert Spencer.that many of the miseries of human society are due to over-legislation. It may be the case, as some would have us believe, that some of the evils of life are due to over-education. We certainly cannot have too much education, but our education is often not well-balanced. It is not the education which makes us masters of ourselves, our capabilities, and our conditions. Our education should equip us for the particular work in the world for which we are destined, but many of our pupils leave school with as hazy an idea of their capabilities as they had before entering. The time is coming when, to succeed, our young men and women must be able to do at least one 152 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General thing well, and our education should develop and encourage this quality. Something definite, or special, is looked for in everyone. In the West we want the education that develops personality and makes men useful. Today the demand is for men who are not afraid to work, or, as we say out West, men who can “rustle.” To develop a pupil’s personality is one of the most practical things a teacher can do. One reason why I mention this is because, in the West, above all things we want leaders. We want men who know what they can do and who have high ideals. There was a professor of English literature and rhetoric in Bowdoin College who had, as pupils, Franklin Pierce, Longfellow, and Hawthorne. Hawthorne, the greatest prose writer America has ever produced, and Longfellow, our finest poet, received their inspiration from that quiet, retired teacher in Bowdoin. Scores and scores of our great men have been inspired by such men as Thomas Arnold and Horace Mann, teachers who developed personality. It is only by this means that one’s heart is inspired ; therefore, do not sacrifice your personality. You know in your own life that such and such a teacher aroused you. Other teachers were very learned, but their per- sonality did not seem to impress you at all. We know it is personality that counts in the world; therefore, our education should develop it. Next, do not sacrifice your individuality to new methods. Discrimi- nate among methods, and use those which are best adapted to the child’s needs. Whatever methods the originality of the teacher may devise, the idea of stimulating thought and inspiring new life should be always present. It is mental power that the world needs, not acquirement of knowledge. Again, do not make the teaching profession a stepping-stone to some- thing else. There is, among teachers, a greater amount of undeveloped talent than in any other calling. I have known, and I now know, teach- ers who would, under different conditions, have made their mark in journalism, in music, in business, who are lamentable failures. And here I want to say to you, fellow-teachers, that if your heart is not in your work, if your soul does not prompt it, drop out of the ranks of the teach- ing profession. We are not all of us “born teachers ;” we have not what is called the “knack of teaching,” and when we find that the work is uncongenial, unsatisfactory, we should take up some other occupation, for we shall never find happiness in the work. “Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness,” said Carlyle. A mul- titude of women who, upon leaving school, are obliged to provide for their own support, cannot enter the professions; they must enter upon some occupation which does not require a long course of special training, and they turn to the profession of teaching as yielding the quickest » Jol Ow - ww hee a ee, ee Sessions | WHAT NOT TO DO 153 returns. When women feel, as men do, the permanent necessity of fitting themselves for their life work, and choose a profession because of their ability in a special line of work; when they stop to think that the first considerations which ought to determine the choice of teaching as‘a_pro- fession are, first, love of the work and love of children, and, second, phys- ical health and energy combined with clear-headed common sense, they will have a foundation upon which may safely be reared a superstructure that will reach from the “lowly earth to the vaulted skies.” Then, and not until then, shall we stand in the golden age of great achievements. Now a word, not to the teachers, but to the school boards. At the present time the question of civil-service reform is being discussed in all parts of the country, and the general verdict of the people is that the basis of civil-service reform-is the proper reward of merit, and that faithful government servants are not to be dismissed by reason of the advent of a political party to power. Is it not time to apply the civil-service-reform idea to our own profession? If, in our general government, it is deemed a wise policy to have clerks appointed for at least four years, why should it not prove a wise policy to employ teachers for the same length of time? The profession of teaching requires as careful preparation as any other calling in life. A good teacher must be an expert in his knowledge of human nature; he must know about the developing processes of the human mind; he must understand the philosophy of education, and he must not only be familiar with the best methods of transmitting knowl- edge, but he must discriminate between methods and be able to employ the best at the right time. Years ago it was believed that what one knew that he could teach, but I am happy to say that now a distinction, and a wide distinction, is made between knowing and the ability to impart knowledge. The appointment of teachers for not less than four years would certainly increase the effectiveness of their work. Frequently, during the last months of school, teachers are in such an unsettled condition, owing to the uncertainty of retaining their positions, that they are unable to do their best. In the schools of a western city there was a young woman in the primary department who was, in many respects, an ideal teacher. Her teaching was skillful, and her success with her pupils apparent. Yet, for several months preceding the close of each year, she was in a contin- uous state of nervous excitement through fear of not being re-engaged. She, and thousands of teachers like her, are entitled to as much considera- tion by those in authority as any government official or clerk. And now, in closing, do not think that the days of heroism are over, and that the calling of a teacher requires no sacrifice. I remember visit- ing a Wyoming country school; after a hard day’s trip, in which I had driven sixty-five miles, fording the Platte river twice, I came to a cabin, half dug-out, consisting of one room divided by a curtained partition ; 154 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General here the teacher boarded, and that night I slept on the floor rolled up in blankets. The next morning I started with her to visit her school, and such a pitiful school building! A rough board room, with dirt floor, and a sliding board for a window, an old stove on three legs, and, for pupils, two forlorn little children. This teacher rode eight miles a day, carrying a child on the horse behind her, fording the Platte river morning and evening ; often cold and wet, she had her own wood to cut and her fire to make. Yet she hoped to retain her school another year, as she had a helpless father dependent upon her, and she was so pleased that the directors had promised to put glass in the window and lay a floor, and the children were doing so nicely, she told me. If this is not heroism, I know not what is. If we believe in our common schools, and believe that they are the hope of the country, we must believe that the teacher has a mission, and a high one. As was said by Benjamin Rush, “There is but one method of preventing crime and of rendering our republican form of government durable, and that is, by disseminating the seeds of virtue and knowledge through every part of the land. I am so deeply impressed with this opin- ion that, as the best proof of my affection for my native country, my advice to the guardians of her liberties would be, ‘Establish and support public schools in every part of every state in the Union.’” When this is done, and teachers are chosen because of their love of the work, there will be developed men and women whose strong personality will stamp itself upon the nation’s history, and in each individual “The tongue will be framed to music, And the hand be armed with skill; The face be the mold of beauty, And the heart the throne of the will.” THE EDUCATIONAL OUTLOOK. | BY WILLIAM B. POWELL, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, WASHINGTON, D. C. [STENOGRAPHIC REPORT. ] The outlook, what is it? It depends upon the point of view very largely. Each man who talks will talk from his own point of view. To me the outlook is encouraging ; not altogether satisfactory, but very prom- ising. ‘Twenty-five years ago the public schools educated only the upper 40, 50, or 60 per cent. of the pupils who were talented, and barred out by a system of examinations and promotions the 4o or 50 per cent. for whom really the public schools exist in this free nation, which is controlled by Sessions] THE EDUCATIONAL OUTLOOK 155 these people. This has been changed, in part; it is changing rapidly, and that is why I say the outlook, to me at least, is encouraging. The thought of the day is what will best suit the child, and so the child has been set uppermost in the minds of men and women who are teaching school; and, when the child is studied, we begin to see how we have been proceeding, and how we ought to change what we have been doing. And lo, what a change has come over this country in fifteen years, in one important aspect — that the school exists for the child, and not for itself. It is a wonderful thing, but you cannot study the child without dis- covering that he is delighted with the world around him, with things that he sees, with things that he handles, with things that he can make; more delighted in these things than he is in marbles. The children are using their hands in the primary schools in making things and in adjusting things; they are using their eyes in seeing things; they are using their little feet in going after things; they are using their hands and eyes and feet, in correlation with the brain, for the acquisition of knowledge, and while they are acquiring knowledge in this correlated effort they are mak- ing mind. This is the correlation that is at the basis of all human educa- _tion, correlation of hand and body with mind in the process of knowledge- getting, and in the process of mind-making. Thus the girls move along the road of knowledge, learning to read and write, and learning to cook. The boys engage in the shop, and boys and girls of all ages engage in man- ipulating with the hands, in the use of the whole body, in making and in doing — with the result of the greatest happiness in the world to the child ; with that infinite happiness with which the boy plays baseball; with that infinite happiness with which the boys and girls play tag; and all the time with no loss to the actual gain of knowledge; with no loss to spell- ing, but an actual gain; with no loss to penmanship, but with an actual gain; with no loss to a knowledge of history and grammar, but an actual gain; all along the line an actual gain. This is the outlook from my standpoint. From my point of view the child is happy; the child likes to go to school. He didn’t like to go to school, with its punishment and credit marks. I believe the child would rather be in school than out of it, where school is properly conducted. Make your schools attractive and interesting to the children, and they will be filled. It can never be done by compulsion. It will be done only by teaching the child as God intended he should be taught. Study the child, and see how he thinks. There are things being accomplished by the study of the child. That is what we are accomplishing by making a study of the child. We are learning what he ought to know; we are learning what he wants to know, and we are learning how he can know the most easily and the most naturally. 156 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General This, to me, is the outlook. To mea great benefit has come from _ manual training. This puts manual training in the primary school, where it belongs. This puts manual training in the hand of the child when the brain is forming, when his hand will help to make the brain. This makes the kindergarten what it ought to be, and gives every child the blessed privilege of going to the kindergarten, where his hand, his eyes, his feet, his brain, and his heart shall be trained in correlation, making a man of him right through. You know that is the civilization that has developed in the middle states, where men’s brains and hearts and hands work together. And you know how that civilization has swept across the continent to the other sea. The grandest civilization that the world has ever seen is that made up of a correlation of the hand and brain, because they have worked together. You remember that other civiliza- tion in the South, where they had slaves who did the manual work, and the educated did nothing but think; they did not work. One civilization is made up of that grand correlation which the modern primary school gives to every child. The other civilization was made up of a segregation of one line of activities and a suppression of the other. The outlook to me is encouraging, because I see that the primary school with all these improvements is growing in influence and power. More men and women are believing in it. All this has emancipated the pupil, who was a slave before. Formerly the teacher was simply a mas- ter. We have come to believe that one great trouble with all our schools is that we do not know enough to teach school. It is perhaps one of the encouraging features of the general outlook today, that we believe we must know more to teach school. And so I say the great blessing of emancipation has come to the teacher, and teaching school is not a bur- den any more, but one of the most delightful professions in the world, when carried on from this point of view. Now, what has become of the three R’s? Why, our best graduate from the colleges ten years ago could not read English as well as our fifth-grade pupils can today. Boys from the grammar schools or high schools fifteen years ago could not write English very much better than first and second-grade children do today. Today the child learns in school to think and act and do—to create. The child has become a character. He has become an independent thinker; and the child has been doing this form of work better than ever he did it before. I am talking from my own experience; I do not know what yours has been. Our schools are a very different thing from what they were twelve years ago. A school is not a place for tasks. Any school is not what it ought to be where the children do not attend as willingly as they will hunt squirrels or go fishing or play tennis. Why should it have been a task all of these years? Why should it have been necessary to keep a Sessions] HOW SHALL AMERICAN HISTORY BE TAUGHT? 157 gad in the schoolroom to make boys and girls learn when they delighted to hunt birds’ nests? And why shouldn’t the child delight in school? No, it will never be a task for the child to learn, if he is taught rightly. SHALL AMERICAN HISTORY BE TAUGHT IN CROSS SHELIONS OR TN PARALLELS? BY JAMES M. GREENWOOD, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, KANSAS (CiMING MO., PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE ASSOCIATION. [STENOGRAPHIC REPORT. ] Within the space of 290 years is included the history of our country — a history clearly lying within what one may call the historic period, not covered by the dim, uncertain guesses at the truth. One of the living questions is, How shall each one of the common branches be taught? And this inquiry is as applicable to teaching the history of our country as to any other branch that engages the attention of American teachers. The statement of the question on the programme, “In cross sections or in parallels,” is significant. The mere announcement is enough to attract the attention of all persons present interested in the teaching of history. Were I to ask those of you who are teaching United States his- tory, if fifteen anecdotes were to be related by the same individual, and he would start in and give alittle introduction to the first anecdote, and then drop it and take anecdote No. 2, and then pass to anecdote No. 3, and so on through to fifteen, with a slight introduction to each, and then return to the first and give alittle bit more of it, and then to the second, and so on— would it be an interesting manner of relating anecdotes? Just think of this for a moment! Is this not the same in principle as the method by which the history of the United States is studied? Perhaps this plan of historical study is the best we have yet thought out. I leave it here forthe present. But the one who destroys ought to be able to reconstruct—to put something better in the place of that which he destroys. All recognize the importance of giving the boy or girl at first a gen- eral survey of the history of our country. There are but two or three subjects in our common schools that touch the moral nature of the child. He is touched through literature and his- tory, and also through personal influence. His moral nature is not inspired much by arithmetic, and I cannot find that he is influenced largely by grammar and other subjects he pursues. In a country like . 158 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General ours, where the citizen ought to understand not only present issues, but also past ones, and the great crises through which the nation has passed, it is imperative that the history of our country should occupy a prominent place in the common-school course. Then, first let the pupil take a rapid survey of the history, of this country, and then take it up in what I have denominated parallel lines. Let him learn how the nation has spread from a few settlements along the Atlantic coast out over this continent. This is true territorial growth. Once started on that part of our history, carry it through from what it was to what it is. He will learn how these great areas were acquired, and what led to their acquisition, and the results. This is simply a suggestion; I have not time to enumerate details. Another point regarding the settlements along the Atlantic coast: How did the people begin to go into the back country, and how did the back country trade with those nearer the seashore ? What were those little Indian trails, those paths blazed upon the trees, the going up stream in a canoe, or walking up, and there trading with the Indians, and then float- ing down to the settlement again? How were these things done? Com- pare that early beginning with what we have today. Think of it! Twelve million horse power of steam bringing the back country into the cities and towns, and only eight million horse power engaged in the manufactory of the products of this country. Think also of the difficulty of travel in going back only a few miles from the first settlements in those days, as compared with the means of communication from the East to the West, from the North to the South, from British America to the capital of Mexico, in these days. Take into consideration all the questions when the pupil has commenced to study the means of travel and the channels of trade in the light of their present development. Every department of our history should be studied on parallel lines with every other depart- ment. And when once the study of trade and travel and traffic and of commerce, not bounded by the sea, but encircling the globe, is seized upon, a faint conception is lodged in the minds of our boysand girls how the products of one country are exchanged with the products of the world. Milwaukee is a city of 250,000 people, a center of intelligence, of art, of culture, of influence, refinement, and progress. Behold what her citizens have done in fifty years! Truly have they made a magnificent city. Once, in conversation with Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, he said, “ We have to come to this western world to see cities building ;” and how true itis! ‘Take the little huts of 250 years ago, then a hundred years later, even of fifty years ago, and see what has been the advancement in rural and public architecture. One of the grandest lessons in progress is taught in the structure of our buildings, both public and private. Take up the political history of our country. Study it from the begin- Sessions] SOME TENDENCIES OF MODERN EDUCATION 159 ning to the present time. Study it clear through. Show how it was; how it grew; what it is-‘now; what it was when it started in Massachusetts ; what it was when it started in Virginia; what it was as Jefferson under- stood it; what it is now. United States history can be divided into ten or twelve parallel lines, or perhaps a less number. Certainly it is true that by studying history along parallel lines the striking facts in connection with each parallel can be easily strung together and better remembered. It is historical evolution. Ladies and gentlemen, I leave the question with you. SOME TENDENCIES OF MODERN EDUCATION. BY JAMES A. FOSHAY, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, LOS ANGELES, CAL. The present rushing age of progress, with its great wealth and enthu- siastic people, and its many improvements in method and direction, neces- sarily makes changes in our educational policy. As we stand on the verge of the new century and look back, we note that the ideas generally held today concerning education and the purposes to which their educating influences should be applied are greatly in advance of the ideas of former times ; and this fact gives us glorious hopes of the future. One marked tendency of the times is toward a universal diffusion of education. At the beginning of the present century our people, as a whole, had the elementary public school only; the colleges could benefit few, except the sons of the wealthier classes; but now a complete system, from the kindergarten to the university, is free to all. Not only is education more widely diffused than formerly, but its character is greatly altered. Two and one-half centuries ago, when the free school was established in the New Haven colony, there was little difference of opinion as to what should be taught. Since then many cus- toms, religions, and prejudices, and some of the worst zsms of which we can conceive, have come to this country, making the conditions very differ- ent, and thus demanding of the schools work along new lines to meet these conditions. Our experience has taught us that the first work of the school is to make American citizens; and to that end the modern education is placing great stress upon teaching the obligations and duties of citizenship; not only in the higher grades, but in the lower grades also. The children of today are the hope of the nation; and those who have the administration of school affairs have realized the necessity of teaching them to be loyal and devoted to their country’s interests. They are taught not only to read and 160 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General study the constitution, but to realize their obligations to support and defend it. They understand that this nation is a grand and noble co-oper- ative association, and that they are soon to be members of this association, entitled to all its privileges and subject to all its responsibilities. We have just celebrated our nation’s birthday with festivities, rockets, bombs, and illuminations, showing our joy and gratitude that the labors of our forefathers have been so fruitful, and that the anticipations of the founders of the Republic have been realized. ‘The observance by our schools of other special days set apart for the states and nation, the birth- days of our noted men, and days commemorating epochs in our country’s history, is doing much to inculcate in the children the purely democratic ideas of our people. The sentiment of patrotism is fostered, too, by the fact that day after day the children work in school buildings over which the “Star-Spangled Banner” floats, and that they are taught gladly to salute it and pledge to it their allegiance. Another important feature of education at the present day is the amount of attention piven to child study. Teachers in the primary grades are paying more attention to the teaching of children than the teaching of subjects. They are studying the children, to know their needs, instead of dealing out in a certain order, without regard to the pupil’s previous preparation, that which is prescribed in the course of study. Modern education does not consist in assigning pages of a text-book and then hearing the recitations, but in the development of the children; and this requires that the teacher should know the necessary conditions for the best growth. A knowledge of the psychology and the physiology of childhood is essential to one who would teach in the schools of today. Modern research is furnishing reliable information that mind growth and body growth are not independent, but that they operate together. Teachers, physicians, and mothers are assisting the leaders in child study, in collecting data needed to perfect the science. Thus there is being given to the world a new educational philosophy, designed to assist in bringing the highest development to man. Its importance is recognized not only in state, county, and city organizations for child study, but in the department of the National Educational Association devoted to that purpose. It is this thoughtful consideration of the nature and needs of children that has led to the introduction of industrial education, and we are pleased to note that every year sees more and more attention given to this work, not so much to fit pupils, while at school, for mechanical pursuits, but as a means of mental development. Industrial education has passed the experimental stage, and is received for its value in disciplining the intel- lect and training the hand. Manual training schools should not be considered as trade schools, Sessions | SOME TENDENCIES OF MODERN EDUCATION 161 unless they are places where regular trades’are taught; and such schools are usually private. We do not attempt to teach trades in our public schools any more than we attempt to make lawyers or doctors; but the knowledge obtained in the manual training exercises of the general school courses will prove beneficial not only to mechanics, but to professional men and employers. This knowledge makes a bond of sympathy between employer and employé, and will do much towards closing the gap between labor and capital. This addition to our courses of study assists not only in preparing bread winners, but in preparing citizens useful to society and the world. There seems to be better preparation and equipment in this regard for the kindergarten and high school than for the primary and grammar grades. The cities, however, are adopting courses of work for all grades, and before long the famous sentence of Dr. Woodward, of St. Louis, ‘‘ Put the whole child to school,” will be realized. Society in the past has looked down on the man who wore the soiled clothes of the mechanic and the large boots of the rancher; it should be understood that hand work is in reality brain work, and the more brain in the hand the better it can accomplish what has to be done. Weare recti- fying many such abuses, which have been prevalent in our country, by inculcating in our public schools the principle that true and noble man- hood deserves as full and prompt recognition on the ranch and in the workshop as in the pulpit or the office. Manual training is an illustration of the practical tendency of modern education. The world says to the young man or woman, ‘What can you do?” not, ‘‘ How many subjects have you taken?” Our schools, which are for the people, must furnish the education demanded by the people; therefore, growth through self-activity of body and mind by means of organized play, occupations, etc., is carefully put forward in the kinder- garten ; different forms of manual training are taught in the primary and grammar grades; in the high school the commercial course is made a part of the curriculum, and technical training is being given in our col- leges and universities. The same practical tendency appears in the increased attention given to the natural sciences. High schools and col- leges which formerly gave but a few months to these subjects now have full scientific courses. But the fact is recognized that the training of the mind and hand is not sufficient. This age is asking for mez, not professors, not scientists, but men of personal worth and stability, who will not be swayed from the truth and right, and who will see that justice is not perverted and that public offices are not given to spoilsmen. They must not only be intelligent, but honest. Honesty is as essential to business as the plumb line to the mason. We cannot afford to send educated rogues out of our schools. 162 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General A tendency of modern education is to pay more attention to moral training, to the education of that finer part which is to furnish the motive for using all that is learned in other lines. Discarding examinations as the basis for promotion, and causing the promotion to depend upon the fidelity and success of daily work, has done much to remove deception on the part of the pupil. It is realized that ethical teaching must come mainly, not from text-books, but from the noble and gracious personality of the teacher. The teacher must inspire to high ideals, and be what we would have our children become. Examining boards of education are beginning to see that the first qual- ification of the teacher is a personal character above reproach. The teacher must be the living example of morality and correct dealing, and improve the grandest opportunity for doing good by sending her refining influence to the parents and the home. Heretofore too much attention has been paid to the cultivation of the intellect, without directing the knowledge to anything beyond an intel- lectual occupation. The tendencies of modern education, as we have seen, are to remedy this, to have more of the practical and less of the theoretical ; also to teach the “dignity of labor,” and the value of occupa- tions other than those purely mental, and to inculcate morality and patriot- ism. Modern education aims, in short, to discover and satisfy all the needs of the pupil, both those growing out of individual nature and those result- ing from his present and prospective environments. These tendencies are some of the most important and helpful ones; there are others, some of which are less favorable, which time will not permit me to discuss. LHEQIWENTIETH CENTURY SCHOOL. BY JAMES L. HUGHES, INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS, TORONTO, ONT. 1. The schools of the twentieth century will be free. The nineteenth century schools are called free because attendance at them is free. The child will be free in the twentieth century school. Free growth is the only full growth. Subordination dwarfs the human soul at any stage of its development. There will be no truly free men till the children are made truly free. The coercive, mandatory, cumpulsory spirit will become but a shameful memory, when teachers aim to develop the divinity in the child instead of making their supreme purpose the restriction of its depravity. What weak, imitative, conventional, indefinite, unprogressive, dependent, servile men and women most schools have made of the beings who were originally created in God’s own image! How much worse they would Sessions] THE TWENTIETH CENTURY SCHOOL 163 have been if they had been subject to school discipline during all their waking hours! How original, self-reliant, self-directing, and progressive they might have been! How much of independence and helpfulness and executive tendency they had when they first went to school com- pared with what they had on leaving school! The schools should not be catacombs in which are buried the selfhood, the originality, and the executive tendency of childhood. Schools should be gardens in which each child grows to be its grandest, most complete self. The child can never become its real self so long as adulthood blights it and dwarfs it by daring to stand between it and God. Liberty is the only sure basis for reverent, co-operative obedience. Anarchy is not born of freedom; it springs from coercion. It is a poi- sonous fungus that grows from the tree of blighted liberty. It grows rank and noisome from the sap that should have developed stately trunk, spreading branches, and rich foliage. Fungi come not on the tree of full, free growth, but where blight has brought decay and death. Con- scious subordination secured by coercion blights and dwarfs the tree of liberty. Liberty does not mean freedom from law, but freedom through law, in accord with law. There may be life under law, or deadness under law. Law itself may be used to develop or dwarf life. Its true use develops life, and power, and freedom. Falsely used as coercive restraint it weakens human character. Human control, like divine control, should be prompted by love, based on love, and exercised inlove. Loving sym- pathy is man’s strongest controlling force, as well as his greatest life-giv- ing power. Divine law is often necessarily restrictive of wrong, but it is lovingly restrictive. It is stimulating and growth-giving; never destructive. Coercion may repress evil; it never eradicates it. Coercion never made a child creative, and creative power is the central element in education. Coercion does more than restrict the power of the child: it corrupts its ideals. The common and unnatural dread of divine authority arises from degradation of human authority into unreasoning, unloving coercion. The greatest improvement yet wrought by the new education is the altered attitude of adulthood towards childhood in disciplining it. The reformation of the coercive ideals of adulthood has only well begun, how- ever; the twentieth century will complete the reform. When adulthood recognizes divinity in each child and learns that the highest function of training is to develop this divinity, not merely to restrict depravity, then will the schools become what Froebel aimed to make them: “Free repub- lics of childhood.” The dominating elements in a child’s life are love of freedom and productive activity. The unity of these elements is the only basis for 164 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General true discipline. Spontaneity in productive self-activity develops active instead of passive obedience, co-operation instead of obstinacy and stub- bornness, activity instead of inertness of character, energy instead of indo- lence, positiveness instead of negativeness, cheerfulness instead of dull- ness, independence instead of subserviency, and true liberty instead of anarchy. The truest educational progress of the ages has been toward harmony between control and spontaneity, guidance and freedom, obedience and independence, submission and liberty. Restriction, coercion, and domination must be removed from the list of disciplinary agencies. Restriction dwarfs, coercion blights, and domination destroys individual- ity. Across the end of every schoolroom, opposite the teacher’s desk, should be printed the motto: “The school should be a free republic of childhood.” 2. Teachers will not try to dominate the interest of the child in the twentieth century school. The pupil’s self-active interest is the only per- sistent propelling motive to intellectual effort. It alone makes man an independent agent, capable of progressive upward and outward growth on original lines. It alone stimulates the mind to its most energetic activity for the accomplishment of definite purposes. Self-active interest is the natural desire for knowledge appropriate to the child’s stage of evolution, acting with perfect freedom; it is the divinely implanted wonder power unchecked by restriction and undiminished by the substitu- tion of the interests of others. The development of self-active interest is the highest ideal of intel- lectual education. School methods in the past have substituted the teach- er’s suggestion for the child’s spontaneous interest, and have thus rendered it unnecessary, if not impossible, for the pupil’s own self-active interest to develop. Interest is naturally: self-active, and it retains this quality in increasing power, unless parents or teachers interfere with its spontaneity. “Every child brings with him into the world the natural disposition to see correctly.” The most unfortunate children are those whose untrained nurses, untrained mothers, or untrained teachers foolishly do for them what they should do for themselves, and point out to them the things they should see for themselves, or, worse still, things they should not see at all at their stage of development. Mother and child should not always see the same things in their environment. “See darling,’ may prevent the development of the child’s power to see independently. The child’s own mind should decide its special interests. Most parents and teachers make the mistake of assuming that they should not only present attractions to the child’s mind, but also arouse and direct its attention. Whenever this is done by any agency except the child’s own self-active interest, its power of giving attention is weakened. Sessions | THE TWENTIETH CENTURY SCHOOL 165 No two children should be attracted by exactly the same things or com- binations of things during a walk in the country, or in any other gallery of varied interests. The special selfhood of each child sees in the outer what corresponds to its developing inner life. The individual power to see in the outer that which is adapted to the development of the inner life, a¢ present most active, is the arousing source of all true interest. When a teacher substitutes his own interests for those of the child, the child’s interest is weakened and made responsive instead of self-active. Under such teaching the real life of interest dies, and teachers, after kill- ing it, have in the past made energetic and often fruitless efforts to gal- vanize it into spasmodic responsive action. Allowing the motives of others to stimulate us to action is no more true interest than allowing other people’s thoughts to run through our minds is true thinking. The responsive process in each case is really prohibitory of the real self-active process which lies at the root of true growth. The teacher of the twentieth century will multiply the conditions of interest. Whatever he can do to make the child’s external environment correspond with its inner development he will do carefully, and attract- ively. He will know that, if the conditions are appropriate, interest will always be self-active, and that only by its own activity can it develop power. Responsive interest never develops much intensity, energy, endurance, or individuality. When teachers complain that children are not interested in the work, their statements are usually incorrect. It would be more accurate to say the children are not interested in the teacher’s work. Adulthood must not interfere so much with childhood. 3. In the twentieth century school the child will be trained to find most of its own problems. The child discovers its own problems before it goes to school. When it reaches the school its problems are showered upon it by the teacher. This difference in educative process is the chief reason for the rapid development of children before they go to school compared with their development afterwards. Before the twentieth century ends it will not be correct to define a school as a place in which self-active interest is checked, originality condemned, and brain development and co-ordination sacrificed to knowledge-storing. If anyone claims that such a definition is unfair to the nineteenth century schools, let him con- sider carefully what the condition and character of a man would be if he had been kept in school during the whole of his waking hours till he was twenty-one years of age. It will not always remain true that the race shall receive its brain development and co-ordination, and its individual character force, chiefly outside of school. The schools of the coming days will not weaken minds by the processes of storing them. The power of problem discovery is much more useful than the power 166 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General of problem solution, both to the individual and the race. Problem dis- covery is more educative than problem solution. In the near future the pupils will find most of the questions which they and their companions have to answer in daily work or periodical examinations. They will value the answers, too. They will require train- ing in this work, but in giving such training teachers will have the pleas- ant consciousness that they are working with God and not against him. The race creeps where it should soar because the child’s natural power to discover new problems is not developed. The wonder power of childhood, which Mr. McChoakumchild proposed to destroy, is the source of greatest intellectual and-spiritual evolution. We fail to reach our best individual growth, and our highest fitness for aiding our fellows in their upward progress, on account of our intellectual and spiritual blindness. We are surrounded by material problems, intellectual prob- lems, and spiritual problems which are never revealed to us, but which we might see and solve if our power of discovery had been developed in the schools as assiduously as our mind-storing was carried on. Greater power of problem discovery will lead to increased power of problem solu- tion, and larger capacity and desire for mind-storing. . 4. Teachers will distinguish clearly between responsive activity and self-activity, between expression and self-expression, in the twentieth cen- tury school. The neglect of selfhood and the warping of selfhood have been the greatest evils of school life in the past. Self-activity includes the motive as well as the activity. It must be originative as well as opera- tive, or selfhood is not developed. Even kindergarteners often fail to see the full meaning of Froebel’s fundamental process of human growth, self-activity. The highest ideal of executive development given by any other educator is co-operative, productive activity on the part of each individual. Froebel’s ideal is co-operative, productive, creative activity. Activity, even in response to the direction or suggestion of the teacher, is infinitely better than the old-school processes of information —reception, in promoting intellectual development and in co-ordinating the motor and sensor departments of brain power. Every method that tends to make the child an executive agent is based on a productive edu- cational principle. But there is a wide and vital distinction between responsive activity and true self-activity. Each individual has three elements of power—originative power, direct- ive power and executive power ; responsive activity does not demand the exercise of originative power at all, and develops directive power imper- fectly. The central element of selfhood is originative power. A man’s originative power constitutes his individuality. Originative power develops, as all other powers develop, by full opportunity for free exercise. Froe- bel made self-activity the fundamental law of growth, with the purpose Sessions | THE TWENTIETH CENTURY SCHOOL 167 of developing the complete selfhood of each individual. Unless the self of the individual is active, the development is partial and defective in its most important element. There are yet few school processes or methods that demand true self-activity. True self-activity includes the motive that impels to action as well as the resulting act. In every study, and especially in every operative study, the orginative and directive powers should act with the operative powers. Education is defective in its most vital part, if originative power is not developed. Teachers should test every process in their work by the attitude of the pupil’s selfhood in relation to it. Is the pupil’s selfhood passive or active? Is his activity responsive to the suggestion or instruction of another, or is it the result of an effort to accomplish a purpose originat- ing with himself? Does it result from outer stimulation or inner motive ? If action results from outer stimulation, what is the nature of the inducement to activity? Is it mandatory or reasonable? Does the external influence coerce the pupil or merely guide him? Does it develop interest or weaken it? Is it a temporary motive which logically tends to make the pupil self-active and gradually gives place to inner motives and interests that continue the action spontaneously, or does it leave the pupil inert and passive when the external stimulus is removed ? Can activity induced by commands, or by personal power, will, magne- tism, or other influence of the kindergartener, teacher, or parent, be made as energetic and as definitely productive as true self-activity in the acquisition of knowledge, in the development of the brain both in its sensor and its motor departments, or in defining the individuality of the child? It is only by thus testing their own work that teachers can be aroused to the energetic mental condition that leads to reform and dis- covery. One of the commonest fallacies in the list of educational theories is, “Expression leads to self-expression.’’ Expression and self expression are the results of two widely different intellectual operations. Self and expression should never be divorced. Expressive power has been trained, so far as it has been trained at all, independently. It has not been related to the selfhood of the child. The theory has been: Train the power of expression, and the selfhood will in due time develop and be able to use the power of expression we have so thoughtfully provided for it. The amazing stupidity of this course has begun to reveal itself. To some the revelation of the folly of training expressive power and neglect- ing the selfhood that is to use it came with such force that it led them to the other extreme, and they have propounded the maxim: ‘Develop the selfhood, and expression will take care of itself.” This theory is infinitely nearer the truth than the old one—the one still practiced almost uni- versally. It is true that clear, strong thoughts never lack expression. 168 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General ON eee ee ee eee Henry Irving was right when he said: “If you are true to your individu- ality, and have great original thoughts, they will find their way to the hearts of others as surely as the upland waters burst their way to the sea.” But it is also true that the schools should cultivate the powers of expres- sion, and add as many new powers as possible. Every form of expression should be developed to its best limit by the schools ; expression in visible form by construction, modeling, painting, drawing, and writing, and expression by speech and music, should receive fullest culture in the schools. To add new power of expression opens wider avenues for the expression of selfhood and thereby makes a greater selfhood possible. The supreme folly of teaching has been to attempt to cultivate the powers. of expression and neglect the selfhood that has to use them. It is not wise in correcting this mistake to make another, by leaving developed selfhood without the best possible equipment of expressive power. Self and expression cannot be divorced without weakening both of them. The revelation of the utter folly of training the powers of expression and neglecting to train the selfhood at the same time has been almost entirely confined to the forms of visible expression. There are many good schools in which writing, drawing, and other forms of visible expres- sion are now used from the first as means of revealing selfhood, to enable the pupil to make his inner life outer, but in which the processes for developing the powers of oral expression are still as completely unrelated to selfhood: as they were in the darkest days of preceding ages. The processes of culture of the powers of oral expression have undoubtedly improved, but still the dominant principle is the fallacy, ‘‘ Expression will lead to self-expression.” The schools train in the interpretation and expression of the thoughts of others, in the vain hope that to express the thoughts of others in the language of the authors will give power to express orally in good form the original thought of selfhood. There can be no greater fallacy. Actors have more power than any other class to interpret and express the deepest and highest thoughts of the greatest authors, but, although they are accustomed to appearing before large audiences, very few of them have well-developed powers of self- expression. Responding to the motives of others does not cultivate our own motive power; allowing the thoughts of others to run through our minds does not make us original thinkers; expressing the thoughts of others does not develop the power of self-expression. 5. The school of the twentieth century will give increased attention to physical culture, to arrest the physical deterioration of the race, and to strengthen it intellectually and physically. Play will become a definite element in human development throughout the entire course of school training, especially in cities and towns. It will some day be possible to find children of the fifth generation reared in a city. Sessions] WINNERS OF MEN 169 6. They will give manual training for educational, not economic, rea- sons, and to all children, especially to younger children, instead of to senior pupils, as at present. 7. They will teach art as the highest form of expression to qualify for clearer interpretation of the artistic ideals of the leaders in human evolu- tion, and to enlarge the expressive power of humanity. 8. The supreme purpose of the schools of the twentieth century will be to develop a strong, self-reliant, self-directing individuality, and to train it by the experiences of school life to become a co-operative element in an interdependent community. The community ideal will dominate all departments of life work in the new century—national, religious, social, industrial, and educational. The greatest educational advance of the early part of the century will be the unity of school and home in the direct as well as the indirect training of the child. All the forces of civilization will co-ordinate around the child. The district school will become a center of uplifting influence, in which will be focused the highest aims of the community, and through which will be revealed the transforming ideal of unity or inner connection, or the interdependence of the brotherhood of man. WINNERS OF MEN. BY JAMES H. CANFIELD, PRESIDENT OF OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. [STENOGRAPHIC REPORT. ] In these few moments it will be necessary to put assertion in the place of argument, to speak very briefly, and, as usual under such conditions, to speak subject to misunderstanding and misquotation —if quoted at all. I beg you will understand at the very outset that I yield to no man in recognizing that a keenly developed and a keenly sensitive intellect stands at the very threshold of all successful human activity. The history of the peoples of the earth shows that development of thought-power has been such as to put this last in point of time, though higher than that which has come earlier. First has come that which manifests itself in and through imagination and sentiment. In all literature the history of the race has its first expressions in poetical forms. That has always been followed by oratory—when men of action, men who are determined to secure action on the part of their fellow-men, men full of impassioned fire and fervor, undertake to add to the imagery of poetry that kind of expression that stirs the wills of others and melts them in one grand crucible, out of which shall come, later, superb movement and form. 170 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General After this comes prose. As men become more conservative, they become more thoughtful; and so the intellect comes at last into full rec- ognition, into place and power— just as sometimes I think that the bright- est stars appear last above the horizon. But the intellect itself, without the stimulus of the imagination, of the emotional side of man; the intel- lect that seems satisfied with itself and with its own action, that does not go out and find its highest and best expression in and through the exercise of the will-—is really of little consequence to the world. It may have a place in the construction of encyclopedias; it may possibly render a service in close and logical argument, in connection with rather mechan- ical forms of proof, of distinct assertion of premise and conclusion. But after all, that which every nation needs, and that which every nation must have if it is to live, is the intellect not dominated by the imagination, by the emotion; an intellect not subservient to impulse that leads to wild and riotous living; but the intellect which is ever warmed and quickened into new life and into constructive life by these other potent factors in man. Now we have reached a point in education when we begin to realize the value of this powerful intellect, this keen intellect, this apprehensive intellect, this intellect that can ask questions and answer them, that can select the premise carefully and go quickly and directly to a conclusion that cannot be shaken. But in education, as in all other things, we are only too apt to stop right there. We are apt to forget the other faculties and powers, even to let them fall into disuse —until we already know that they have become weak and indeed are disappearing. The history of nations that have gone into oblivion shows that when the intellectual point has been reached, the other factors or forces being forgotten, dry rot begins, and then comes universal decay. Therefore, I have not, and dare not, put mere thinking, no matter how strong and accurate, as the best and highest type of intellectual or individual development. We need this, it is true, in the great work we have before us. This is a marvelous work. I fancy at times that we only half understand it. In a single sentence, we are to bring into existence that true democracy in which riot and war and strife are things of the past, in which every citizen is a perpetual bene- diction to every other citizen. In this great work the largest factor is, without question, the public schools. A keen intellect may make a mana leader of his fellow-man in a work like this. It is quite possible for him so to arrange the scheme of movement, so to see the details of the advance and so present these to his fellows, that they will accept his leadership, — even though he has not won them to himself. But such leadership is temporary ‘and sure to fail. That there are leaders of men by the score who are never winners of men is certain. But if we are to succeed with the work which we hope to carry to full fruition in the public schools, we must have winners of men. Sessions] WINNERS OF MEN a0 Of course, winners of men are leaders of men; and in education this is the leadership that we must have. We must have men who are determined to count and to be counted, and for more than one, in the great sum of life. We must have men who are determined to strike twelve every time they pos- sibly can, every time the opportunity offers. We must havemen and women who are not content to be human flints that never strike fire, but men and women who propose to strike fire, and to see that the fire is communicated, and that it burns in the hearts of their fellow-men. We need those who will feel that they are in the community, not simply to teach, but to serve, and to serve all interests of the community. We need teachers who will realize that only in this large and generous service are they to find life in any true sense of the word. Weneed teachers who will understand, and will mani- fest in their daily lives, that they clearly understand that there is a wide difference between getting a living and getting life—as much difference as _ there is between earth and God’s blue sky. We need men and women who will insist upon having the place that rightfully belongs to them in the community, and who are willing and determined to grow, even though they must endure all the pains of growth. We need men and women who are willing to move forward quietly and humbly, with all due sense of their imperfections ; yet who propose to move forward, and who will stand four-square to all the winds that blow. We need men and women who will make themselves felt in the community, as well as simply be known. We need men and women, who when they pass down the street, will carry with them something of that pervasive influence referred to by a friend of mine in a western city, who said, as I pointed out a quick-stepping young fellow: “Why, when that man walks down Main street real estate goes up 15 per cent.!”” We need men and women who believe that they can paddle their own educational canoes, and paddle them up stream if necessary. We must have men and women who can stand steady under fire. What a superb courage that demands, and yet how many a forlorn hope has been wrought into glorious victory by that courage! We need men and women who do not fear to express themselves lest they may pos- sibly find themselves without a place; men and women who, because they dare express themselves honestly, intelligently, unselfishly, earnestly, nobly, truthfully, are never out of a place! The people of this country, my friends, appreciate all this; and the standard by which we are to measure people hereafter is entirely changed from the standard of the past. Heretofore we have been measuring men by what they got out of us. Now we are going to measure them by what we get out of them. From this time on, this principle of giving life that we may get life, this principle that is as old as the teachings of the Master, this principle of large and intelligent service for others —this is to be the principle that is to dominate all American society worthy to be called WZ NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General American. We need men and women who will walk on the sunny side of the street always; never under a cloud. We need men and women who are never discouraged because they cannot at once put hands upon all that they think they need, that they believe necessary to their work; men and women willing to work with a definite purpose, with long-continued patience, to labor with divine love. I tell you that in spite of all that has been said in the press and everywhere else, upon the street corners, in private and in public, about the American public school, to thousands of people it is still a sealed book and an enigma, and to other thousands it is simply a phrase with which they may conjure and juggle in their own behalf. We must have in the teaching ranks intelligent men and women, who can go into society at large and prove what the public school is, what is its value, what is its power; and by their common sense—the most uncommon of senses—and by their executive ability, by their capacity for organization and administration, by their sincerity and earnestness, by the fact that others see that they never waver in their loyalty, by the steadiness with which they set themselves to their task——bring man after man and section after section of the community into this larger knowledge, this better appreciation of the work that we are doing. We have large educational revenues today, and we must have these. But we must administer these so wisely and so well that there shall be no reasonable ground of complaint on the part of those who thus liberally transfer to us these great sums from the public treasury. We are able to do much today; but we must be able to do more tomorrow, because we have men and women teaching who can draw around them a larger circle of those who can and will co-operate actively and intelligently in all this great work. Give us something of this power of enthusiasm—this divine madness — which we seem to have lost! Take Germany; see the tend- ency there to worship mere expert knowledge. Yet I would not decry such knowledge nor attempt to lessen its value. Take France; see the tendency to accept mere brilliancy of intellect and activity of movement. We in America must have all this, but far more. Give us a keener and larger appreciation, each in his own sphere, of the power to dream dreams and to see visions—of the desirability, of the necessity, of this power. Woe to the land and to the people thereof when their prophets prophesy no more and their people no longer see visions! Let us have something of this power, even though it lack what some men foolishly call worldly wisdom. Let us determine to press forward with our work, without per- petually counting the cost. I would to God there were more of us who did not stop so long to count the cost that we never do anything but count the cost ! With a greater enthusiasm, with more bravery and true heroism, than ever before let us take hold of this great problem—the education of the Sessions ] LINES OF GROWTH IN MATURING £73 great common people of America in the common schools of America. This whole country lies open to our hand, the fields are white for the harvest, the door swings wide, the way is broad and clear for all American teach- ers to become winners of men. I can only say, in closing, somewhat as one of old addressed the chosen of Israel: Come out from among the stuff, stand head and shoul- ders above your fellows, be anointed with the holy oil of a divine enthusiasm, work —WORK—with earnestness of purpose and with power; and be crowned as you have a right to be crowned — kingly citizens and citizen kings. LINES OF GROWTH IN MATURING. BY RICHARD G. BOONE, PRINCIPAL STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, YPSILANTI, MICH. Pestalozzianism may be said to comprise three somewhat distinct, if not altogether new, factors in the teacher’s conception of education: (1) that it is a process of development or unfolding, and only incidentally one of acquisition and possession ; (2) that it is an ethical process, and means to socialize the individual to the end that all community relations shall be safer and more tender, and (3) that the primary means for ini- tiating and furthering this evolution of the individual is the systematic study of things in the form of what has come to be known as object- lessons for the elementary grades and laboratory science for the higher classes. Of these three distinctive characteristics of the system the emphasis which it, himself and his associates included, put upon the individual development as above scholarship in education, is pronounced and vital, and places Pestalozzi high among the world’s educational leaders. Clearly this was no discovery of Pestalozzi ; that is, no exclusive discov- ery. Others had glimpsed the truth before, as others have done since ; some of whom have but vague notions of either the personality of Pesta- lozzi or the Yoerdun movement. But this forerunner of Froebel and modern teaching saw, as no others of his time saw, the force of the principle requiring immediate touch with things as a stimulus to learning, as a determining law of the school. . With Pestalozzi this contact with nature, and the constant use of it, served as a stimulus, not as that upon which to draw. They were made the means of developing or unfolding the child’s powers, and only inci- dentally of value in themselves. Development, maturing, was the end. The thought is common enough now; poorly comprehended by most 174 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General teachers, maybe, but nevertheless persuasive in a way, and reforming. Both the term and the idea haunt pedagogical literatures. We say educa- tion is development and teach as if it were storage. Growth is exalted in precept and, in practice, is crowded out of recognition by the supposed claims of the daily life and the dominance of the traditions of the well- informed. Just what are the outward signs of an inward spiritual growth is not easily determined ; perhaps it is indeterminate. The modern emphasis put upon development as distinct from scholar- ship seems to be rather an intuition than distinct knowledge. It is held by faith, not followed by eyesight. It is easier to apprehend educa- tion as a process of unfolding, a true development, than to observe and comprehend its successive changes and discriminate its forms and changes. That poet of nature and of the human heart, Wordsworth, aptly and beautifully phrases the common thought in words not less pedagogical than poetic, as follows: “So build we up the being that we are: Thus deeply drinking in the soul of things We shall be wise perforce. .... . .. . Whate’er we see, Whate’er we feel, by agency direct Or indirect, shall tend to feed and nurse Our faculties, shall fix in calmer seats Of moral strength, and raise to loftier heights Of love divine, our intellectual soul.” The interpretation of this is not hidden: we shall grow more wise; shall gain in steadiness of moral strength and rise to loftier heights in the exercise of divine love. But what are the steps in this growth toward wisdom which comes “perforce” to him who “drinks in the soul of things’? May the unread teacher, or any teacher, recognize the suc- cessive levels of “the intellectual soul”? The vision of details by the poet is not expected; but to the teacher, as daily guide and lesson- hearer, it is obvious that ignorance of them may be fatal. Life appeared to Froebel to be a “progressive development from lower to higher grades of being.’ But what are these suecessive grades here characterized as lower and higher? Elsewhere he defines this development as a “‘ perpet- ual, uninterruptedly continuous, unseparated whole,” always “rising from one stage to another.” But, more specifically, he saw that, in addition to increase in bulk or quantity, the idea of development means “an increase in complexity of structure, an improvement in power, in skill, and in variety, in the per- formance of natural functions.” Mr. Bowen, in his biographical com- mentary on Froebel, summarizes his teachings upon this point by saying Sessions ] LINES OF GROWTH IN MATURING 175 that “increase in bulk will be represented by an increase in the amount of material retained in mind—in the memory; development will be a per- fecting, so to speak, of the structure of the mind itself, an increase of insight into the connectedness of knowledge, an increase of power and skill and variety in dealing with knowledge, and in putting knowledge to all of its natural uses.” Progress in the mass, and in the individual as well, has always been an advance toward clearer perceptions— not neces- sarily more of them—greater exactness, a more decided marking of limits, and the discarding more and more of what is extraneous. In the individual, education that is development “aims at producing clearness, quickness, and soundness of observation ; a mind capable of retaining and readily recalling what it has learned, with power to combine and use what it knows; able to grasp the general ideas and principles which underlie particular cases, rapid and sagacious in drawing inferences, sound - and wise in reasoning ; full of interest and pride in its work, moved by a sense of what is good and true and beautiful ; energetic, honest, strong in purpose, full of kindness.” This is most admirable. It is compre- hensive of the best things the growing mind covets. It is far removed from simple utility standards. Education on this plane means fullness of life. It is an excellent summary—but at best an unclassified inven- tory, something like St. Paul’s catalogue of the “ fruits of the spirit ”— suggestive and many-sided, but not typical. It affords a charming description, but is scarcely a guide. As a working programme it would be valueless. My only contention is, without intending to be controversial or hyper- critical, that the doctrine that education is development has the sound- ness of a creed; we believe in it, but it constitutes no working guide. The conviction, once universal, that education was scholarship, was defi- nite, and might be followed. With this in mind there was no doubt about courses of study, and the objects of education, and school methods. Theoretical pedagogy was simple and easily mastered. There was no need for a science of education. There was no science of education. The pedagogical creed had but one article, and teaching was an art. But as the body of teachers came to think of and habitually to inter- pret education as a process of maturing or unfolding, realizing potential functions, and that exercise of faculty is the means of development, the work of the schools was greatly complicated. You will doubtless concede that in all ages and among all peoples the clearest insights of seers and prophets have discovered the same thing. This truth is believed to be more generally held today by teachers and mothers and interested guard- ians of children than ever before. Education may be thought of in terms of its instrumentalities; in terms of its products; or in terms of the process involved. Most people 176 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General are familiar with its first meaning. They think of it in terms of the apparatus, the furnishings and equipments of the school, for which they have paid or must pay money. It connects itself inseparably with teaching. If education be described as a process, it is far removed from their con- ception. If it be characterized as taking place naturally, wholly apart from the school, or enveloping and permeating and vitalizing the influ- ences of the school, the idea, in the presence of many well-balanced adult minds, but untechnical and non-professional, becomes hazy and all but unintelligible. And yet this is, in substance, I take it, of the mod- ern conception of education, as a process of maturing. Moreover, we hold the process to be germinative and not architectural ; mind grows and unfolds, and is not constructed or built up. Again, another large class of people, good people as the world goes, think of education in terms of mental or physical possession or attain- ment. Education means information, or, better still, knowledge or scholarship. Knowing many things, one is educated; knowing much, in accepted groups of standard subjects, one is scholarly. To persons who are themselves possessed of abundant learning he who has not mastered the traditional curricula of the schools is, therefore, uneducated, what- ever else he knows or can do. Faith in the virtues of rich scholastic attainments easily becomes restrictive, and the college-bred man is slow to concede an equivalent training or efficiency from outside school halls. To another education means skill, resourcefulness, adaptability, suc- cessful manipulation, effective execution. One’s power to achieve results is the measure of his education. To be effective in public influence, suc- cessful in business, possessed of mechanical skill and ingenuity; to have pleased the public taste with well-written books ; to paint, to carve, or do battle, or legislate with insight and wisdom ; to explore, to discover or invent—are tangible marks of real education. What leaves these out cannot be real education. All else may be omitted, and the man still be educated. In the judgment of a third class, of growing numbers, too, education connects soundness of character, integrity of life and profession, honesty, purity of motive, intended and habitual straightforwardness. For the accomplishment of these are all tasks and exercises. He is well educated who has learned to be good, to live unselfishly, and to realize the com- mon virtues in his daily walk. Here are four somewhat distinct views of education. Three of them regard education as a result, as something to be possessed; and one, the means or instruments employed for working out this result. But in the conception of education as development these means and products are only incidents, or more or less certain accompaniments. The cardinal fact is the maturing process. It is this upon which current emphasis a ay Sessions] LINES OF GROWTH IN MATURING lay seems to be converging. Whatever may be the practice in the school- room, this seems to be the theory: that education is a change that takes place in mind, rather than any coveted result of such change. Information, skill, discipline, character, are mental products. So are a genial temper, a chastened will, seriousness, sincerity, and patience. The teacher will have these things in mind in the process that is here called education. The conviction is all but universal that the process that does not result in giving some sort of needed power, or discipline, or skill, or other efficiency, is a waste of one’s years. In most minds edu- cation is connected with these qualities. They are the outward marks of an inward change. But the inward change is more fundamental than any specific power, or discipline, or skill, or efficiency. It ought not to need saying, perhaps does not, that it is of far less moment what a child knows than how and with what spirit he knows, the projective, forward- looking interest that masters him. Gathering up the threads of what has been said in the preceding pages, mind would seem to grow or mature in the following distinct ways : First: It is obvious that while an increase in the number of experiences may not be the highest form of mental growth, as it is not all, it consti- tutes one very important factor. Not only does the adult, if he be men- tally grown or developed, have a larger store of judgments and insights, a greater aggregate of opinions, joys, pleasures, pains, satisfactions, and interests than the child; but for any given moment his experience seems to be richer. This cumulative tendency of the mind—thrifty and curious advance agent of the soul—lies at the foundation of all scholarship. No education is satisfactory that does not assure one of a reasonably large and definite accumulation of significant group facts. One difference of note between the two educations called the zew and the o/d takes its rise here. The one said, Learn facts, and the more of them the better. To the other, facts are seen to have value for the mind only as they type | facts—significant of a class. Froebel said to teachers, “ Plant mother thoughts’ —thoughts that multiply themselves into a line of descendants. A thing to be worth either teaching or learning is one that easily and naturally gathers other things about it and relates them to it. The one theory differs from the other, therefore, not in saying, Minify scholarship or neglect information ; but in standing for the selection of such matter as may be called representative, centripetal, and organizing. But education has to do with not only increasing the aggregate of experience, but a growing complexity of the operations of the mind. Where there is a healthy process of maturing, remembrance gives place to, or is supplemented by, recollection—percepts by concepts, present and transient interests by distinct and vital ones. And the principle will at 178 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General once be recognized as the subjective ground for a course of study, and the gradation of schools, the distribution of lesson matter, and the form and sequence of questions. It is acommonplace thought, but more far-reach- ing in its consequences, and more conditioning as a principle of teaching than the young teacher is ready to allow. All the stages of life are upon successively higher planes, in this respect the law of the moral life being exactly the same’as that of the intellectual life. We are all more or less prone to forget this, or else have never learned that, in the entire life of the child, the law of increasing complexity holds good. His pleasures and sorrows, his interest in nature and people, his occupations and games and leisure, his love of the beautiful, his fears and hates and standards of conduct, his sense of personal rights and unselfish interest in others— must be measured and interpreted by the same law of an increasing mastery over complex problems of mind and heart. A third way in which the maturing of mind manifests itself is in the greater accuracy of its movements and.the clearer definition of its images. Sharp, clear-cut discriminations, well-defined pleasures and satisfactions, unquestioned choices and purposes, distinct perceptions, a conscious and intended bias of mind and heart—these belong to maturity, not to child- hood. In the process of maturing all processes become better defined. There is a growing accuracy of mind, a definiteness and precision and positiveness of boundary in feelings and thoughts and motives. It is an entirely natural process, but may be greatly furthered by the school or by any wise direction. Hold the child responsible for all the accuracy of function and clearness of vision which his experience justifies. Be sure _ that his words are the legitimate prompting of his understanding. Keep him up to his best. One of the most dangerous forms of leniency, the unkindest form of intended kindness, is that which allows a child to become addicted to uncouth and disorderly thinking upon any affairs. Dawdling means slow suicide for both mind and heart. Sharp, clear-cut, purposed living upon high planes is the ideal. A fourth form of improvement in human maturing is in the increased control over one’s actions and the relatively less of life that is given over to spontaneous or impulsive doing. Either the power or the habit of deliberate action, as taking the place of haste; taking time to consider; planning, experimenting, adjusting means to ends in some intelligent way ; all revision of experience in how- ever simple form; restraining one’s feelings or behavior to accomplish coveted personal ends; bearing disappointment and loss; honorable conduct in the presence of temptation to crookedness —as concrete cases may be, separately and collectively, unimportant in themselves; but as means of working a rational self-mastery, or, what is better, as signs of ed a ee ee ee ee Sessions] LINES OF GROWTH IN MATURING 179 control and a habit of considerateness already attained —such experiences are invaluable. In a greater or less degree every one of them may be found exempli- fied in the conduct of every normally maturing child in every grade throughout the school. The teacher is interested to know the fact, and to be able in a sure way to recognize the more or less visible signs of this growing control. Her foresight must plan occasions for his exercise of choice and self-guidance, and the realizing of preferences, and the pur- posed handling of instruments of expression; and, best of all, frequent opportunities for creative work. To grow in self-direction there must be frequent exercise of the power, purposed, continuous, and fitted to child experience, always inviting to greater effort. No system of education is worth much, whatever its other merits, that fails to do this in some-degree for every child. To be dependent upon others, to be easily led, to show temper in trivial matters, to live in, and be satisfied with, the passing day, contradicts whatever claims may be made for education. But this control, if it be real, touches all the life, and every instant. Every intellectual function, and bodily skill, the emotions, occupations, amusements, come gradually, and in time, under the law of purpose and intelligent direction — self-direction. Among the several forms under which mental growth appears none is more commonly recognized, or generally well understood, I suspect, than what may be termed facility——the ease with which the mind per- forms its accustomed acts, and the readiness with which it takes up with the new and the more difficult. One purpose of all training is to mechan- ize right-doing of every sort. What once was done with effort only is now easily done. The purposed achievement that required attention is repeated or used unthinkingly, and well used. ‘There is no loss of effect- iveness, and there remains the power to make every unconscious, or automatic, action conscious and regulated as occasion demands. Prompt- ness of judgment, quickness of perception, readiness in forming one’s images, a facile recollection, cheerful sacrifices, generous unselfishness, spontaneous, hearty joy in one’s pleasures, are signs of a healthy maturity, as much to be coveted as it is unusual. These would seem to be legiti- mate aims to be kept before all classes by all teachers. No exercise of the intellect or the heart whose much repetition leaves it unfamiliar and difficult has done its perfect work. Voluntarily to choose an act as right and do it cheerfully shows a high degree of goodness. There is no virtue in the mere struggle to avoid being bad. If there be a struggle, the virtue consists in having ended it, once and for all, so that future rectitude is easy. Facility is to be coveted in every wholesome exercise. In no respect does the educated adult differ more widely or more fundamentally from the untrained child than in the growing recognition 180 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ‘ASSOCIATION [General of the moral quality in actions, and the disposition to regulate one’s con- duct in terms of its standards. To the child few things are either right or wrong. Actions are merely indifferent. Soon it is the majority of actions that are indifferent. Every day revises the classification, The line of division, for the average individual, gradually encroaches upon the group of indifferent actions, and naturally. The field of recognized moral interests enlarges. The moral quality is seen to inhere in an increasing number of one’s experiences. What yesterday was regarded as purely impersonal and neutral presents itself today as having ethical bearings and involving responsibility. But recently the youth did unthinkingly and habjtually what he comes to perform with misgivings or refrain from doing altogether. The moral sense is developing. Primarily the child——-the young child—does as right what pleases himself; later the standard is what pleases others, that is, some others— his parents or teachers, or others in authority over him. In time he comes to be guided by,the real or supposed utilities in behavior; he regards as right those actions that pay, 2. ¢., that yield him some advan- tage in a personal or social or economic way. In the beginning he values some present advantage, for which, upon occasion, he substitutes a distant, but more inviting good. Still further, in place of this standard of utility, he comes to regulate his conduct by the standards of those about him. Public opinion is his all-sufficient guide. He does as others do, and counts as safe what others approve. To this is added in time a recognition of some things as right and having authority because of the race’s experience ; their test in many lands at different times, their wide- spread use and final approval. History, literature, art, invention, govern- ment, ethics, religion, industry, are full of such lessons. These may be called the elementary stages in the process of moraliz- ing life. Each stage has some advantage over the preceding. From doing as pleases one to have submitted to recognized authorities ; to have replaced obedience to external control by a judgment from within; to be again corrected by the larger estimates of public opinion, and in time by the net results of the race’s best insights—is a somewhat gradual but sure progression along an ascending scale. The child has gained at every step. More and more life everywhere takes on the moral quality, and few indifferent actions remain. The field of responsibility has greatly extended; and if, along with the recognition of this universally moral aspect of the world, there goes a disposition to measure one’s con- duct by the revised standards, education would seem to be doing her perfect work. Along with this moralizing of life, an incident of it, and re-enforcing it, is the process by which the individual is socialized. hat is, one form of growth that belongs to education is the more intelligent consciousness a A i yn GF a ee ee ee Sessions] LINES OF GROWTH IN MATURING 181 of the individual that he is one of many, sharing common interests and mutual limitations. The child loves society, but is imperfectly fitted for living in it. Life for him is centripetal and exacting. Things, and other people, exist for him. They are meant to come his way and serve his want. He must learn, as he will learn, to be co-operative and self- forgetting. He comes to do for others as others have done for him; or rather, he comes to act with others for the common good. He sees the increasing richness of the life that accompanies this union with others, combining into institutions, and the more transient local organizations, and that can cheerfully, and does habitually, subordinate itself to the general welfare, and measures its privileges by its duties. Education that leaves out this form of improvement is growth in a partial and narrow sense only. It is insular and disintegrating. The problem of school education is twofold. How to fit the individual for the larger and most fruitful inner and personal life finds its comple- ment in the question of how to introduce him to a high and conscious participation in the results of the race’s culture, in the form of science, art, religion, ethics, philosophy, invention, the social police, and intel- lectual commerce. The process’is a natural one. ‘The schools can only help it on. But the schools cannot afford to be found not helping it on. To this end are made to contribute not only the games and concert of the little folk, but the lessons in history and story, the economic aspects of studies, the class constitution of the school, and whatever reasonable reg- ulations grow out of the massing of children into groups and schools. No claim upon the teacher has more far-reaching consequences for either the child or the community than this—that instruction shall have in mind the increasingly complex social life he must live, and consider how best to fit every child for it. Finally, the process of education as growth appears in what is well characterized as solidarity of mind. By a process of integration the many-colored manifold of one’s experience is woven into one pattern. The lights and shadows of life—joy and sadness, fortune and misfortune —take their respective places in the general design. But it is one design. The tendency is to make the life one and organic. This is the ideal with the teacher for every child. In the perfect life, what the heart prompts and mind approves is one. Then an active memory shall no longer be a menace to the judgment. Precedent shall re-enforce the understanding. Duty and pleasure shall have become allies when the highest self-interest is found to coincide with the common good, and duty and privilege are seen to be equivalents. This solidarity of mind is (1 and primarily), a massing of one’s expe- rience, and (2) the converging and co-operation of one’s powers, the whole mind functioning as a unit. The former calls for correlation of 182 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General studies, that the act of instruction shall help on the tendency toward integration; the latter requires alertness and a rich and inviting environ- SIEM. Child experience is multiform, but not manifold. One should rather * speak of his experiences ; education is to convert them into experience. In childhood they are numerous, but shifting, without fixed connections, fluid. The process of maturing is a process of organizing these discrete experiences into an individual whole, giving it the quality of the body of knowledge. Thinking and feeling, consciously in the adult, as spontaneously in the child, come, easily and surely, to find their issue in doing. They are no longer two functions, nor yet two sides of the same function; but rather two stages or orders of the mind’s acting. In a like manner, understand- ing and expression, and purpose and expression, correspond and supple- ment each other. To wish my friend a good is to do him good to the extent of my ability. Experience tends to round itself out. Processes re-enforce each other. A reliable memory makes judgments safe. A controlled imagination expands the field of the understanding. Refined feelings make one sensitive to impressions and multiply perceptions. One’s purposes are clearer and more positive if grounded upon accurate knowledge and given direction under the influence of an abiding interest. Motives are refined as life is broadened and the heart is touched. By all of which discussion is meant simply that one aspect of educa- tion is this integration of experience and the concert of faculties. Growth of mind appears in its increasing solidarity. It becomes more consistent with itself. Contradiction between precept and practice becomes less frequent. Learning and efficiency are more often found united; learn- ing and virtue are seen to be of kin. Along with a sound mind ina sound body is implied a pure heart as justifying both; and an educa- tion that does not aim to accomplish something of this for every child has not even begun aright. School education, not less than the preaching of the pulpit, must seek a wholeness of life that is the first atonement. Scrappiness of learning will not accomplish this. Much learning, in the sense of knowing many things, is deceptive and often cruel. What is learned without in some way being lived is vain or hin- dering. Culture, to be a spiritual force, must permeate the whole life; so of goodness, a sense of the beautiful, one’s habit of industry, the forms of courtesy. To be kind to one’s equal, but not to one’s servant; to be diligent in business and neglect one’s home; to exalt the beautiful in dress and furnishing, and be indifferent to it in one’s manner and habit; to be good when convenient or when it is easy, and to be cross in adversity —is neither courtesy, nor industry, nor refinement, nor good- ness, but only their semblance. It is this identification of learning with eS a ee re Ta Sessions] HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH 183 life that must save education, if it be saved, from the charge and blight of formalism. Besides an increase in the number of accurate mental pictures, and an increase in the accuracy, control, and facility of the mental process, and the mastery of successively more difficult and intricate operations, directed growth seeks the cultivation of a rich and constructive foresight and the twofold process of moralizing and socializing the individual, to the end that the whole life be perfected and mankind be improved. HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH. BY GEMRGE T. WINSTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS. The highest expression of a people’s life is found in its instrumen- talities of education. For two hundred years the life of the southern people, rural in occupation and semi-patriarchal in character, was marked by the highest development of individualism and by lack of community organization. The mass of the people were educated, not by schools, newspapers, and lyceums, but by churches, courthouses, and _ political discussions. It was a church-going people, among whom habitual absence from worship, or inability to follow the preacher through the endless divisions and subdivisions of his historico-metaphysical discourse, was accounted a mark of inferior, if not defective, understanding. The preacher was the scholar of every community, and usually conducted a select school, wherein mathematics, Latin, and the hickory switch con- stituted a strong trivium of culture. What the newspaper and the lyceum were to the North the court- house and the hustings were to the South. To the county courthouse came, at least six times a year, every able-bodied citizen. Here was a forum for the display of the best learning in the community, whether legal, historical, or scientific. Here titles to property were transferred, and issues of life settled by descriptions of the Trojan war, the death of Socrates, or the downfall of the Roman empire. Great speeches were talked over, memorized, and handed down from father to son; each’ generation came in turn to hear, in the county courthouse, the best thought, the largest learning, and the noblest aspirations of its greatest leaders. Political campaigns were less frequent, but equally efficient, as popular educators. It would have been difficult to find a voter in the Old South who had not listened to political discussions from noon until night. The amount of popular intelligence on political subjects would scarcely be credited by one who had not witnessed it through personal 184 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [General contact. Men who could neither read nor write were familiarized, through political discussions, with the best thought of the continent, and frequently quoted, not merely the ideas, but the very language employed by Marshall in legal opinions, or by Webster in forensic debate. Among such a people higher education was mainly an instrument for the training of leaders. The southern college reflected the life around it. It existed, not in response to a demand for popular education, but in response to a demand for leaders in political, social, and professional life. Its foremost students were learned and scholarly, but the college world, like the outside world, esteemed scholarship less highly than character. The southern college, therefore, was a nursery rather of man- hood and character than of learning and scholarship. To be faithful in friendship, to be truthful, generous, and courageous, to keep one’s honor in return for confidence bestowed by teacher or fellow-student,to make an honest failure rather than dishonest success—these were the standards most esteemed in the higher education of the Old South. They may all be summed up in the single phrase, ‘To bea gentleman.” This ideal had its cheap side in artificial class distinctions, social gewgaws, and undue emphasis on dress and manners; but its. sterling worth and genuine power were manifested in the purity and happiness of social and domes- tic life, and in public lives, unsullied by love of lucre, and free from scandal ; in the incorruptible integrity of southern statesmen, who molded the destinies of this nation in the agonies of birth, and guided them afterwards for half a century. Its loftiest expression was made by Henry Clay, who said, “I’d rather be right than be president.” Its highest manifestation was in the life and character of Washington, who will remain forever the finest type of humanity, nobly illustrating the superi- ority of character over intellect. It cannot be denied that colleges and universities in the southern states have failed to keep pace with the progress of education, either in America or in Europe. The reasons for this are not far to seek. In addition to one already suggested, namely, the emphasis of character cul- ture above mental culture, there is another, which goes directly to the root of the matter and explains, not only the collapse of higher education in the southern states immediately following the war, but also its revival since, upon a stronger foundation, and its rapid development in harmony with the educational system of the country. It is a notable fact that the earliest attempts at higher education in the South were made through institutions supported by public taxation, or endowed by public grants. It is notable also that they were organized with plans of instruction, and equipped with instructors representing the best ideas and the best learning of their time. But they lacked the vital. Sessions] HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH 185 principle which gives power of growth to every living organism; they were not a natural evolution, growing out of and founded upon lower schools for popular education, but were an articifical creation, demanded for a special purpose by a special class. They did not rest upon the con- fidence and patronage of the Great People; they were not fed by public schools, and did not grow, for lack of food to grow on. The southern universities were dependent upon a small, dominant class for their maintenance and development; and the overthrow of this class by the fortunes of war destroyed at one blow the southern institu- tions for higher education. With the establishment of public-school systems in all the southern states there has come a new conception of higher education, and a stronger basis for its support and development. Two generations have now been educated in the public schools of the South, and are demanding higher education. They are making a genuine demand, which is echoed in every public school and heard in the halls of legislation, and will not be satisfied until at least every larger state is provided with one thor- oughly equipped state university. The hope of higher education in the South depends upon the state universities, and the hope of state universities is based upon the develop- ment of public schools. The southern universities are rapidly fulfilling this hope, in the face of continued opposition and threatening dangers. The South is undergoing a social, political, and industrial upheaval as great as an earthquake. The people are feeling their power, and manifesting it in every direction. In South Carolina the leaders of the revolution have almost destroyed a well-equipped state university in their zeal to build up so-called colleges for the people. In that state, once famous for culture and learning, the penalty is now being paid for higher education separated by a broad chasm from the life of the people. A noble university, resting, not upon the foundation of public schools and popular desire, but upon the needs of a small class favored by birth or for- tune, was swept from its foundations by one political storm. A like fate has threatened every southern university. Political destruction, or political control of state universities, is today the most serious obstacle that con- fronts higher education in the South; but the danger is only temporary. Such folly cannot triumph, nor long endure. which is a lack of that unity of purpose through which, for the sake of harmonious action in the consummation of a desired end, one is willing to subordinate self and individual plans, and to consider his work as but a fraction of a great whole. “The chief business of the superintendent is the organization and management of the system of schools upon certain general principles. What shall be the end and aim of the system? What subjects shall be studied? At what stage shall they be introduced? In what sequence shall they follow each other? What shall be the correlation of studies and methods at every period ?” To see that these matters are carried out in detail, and that teachers have sufficient technical instruction to introduce any new subjects added to the course, his hands and his brain must receive aid. Hence there has been created, in recent years, a corps of men and women who are supposed to labor in unison to carry out the general plan. Briareus of old had only the problem of a hundred hands to be directed by one brain. The modern Briareus finds each new hand endowed with intellect and its attendant ambitions, passions, weaknesses. The head and heart and soul of Briareus must be great enough to check, to encourage, to stimulate, to direct, and in all things to prove himself a leader, with but one end in view, and that the advancement of the interests of the public schools, which are the interests of the children. Thus only will dissensions cease and the source of authority be established. Men and women seek advancement naturally, and are eager to accept office, too frequently without pausingzto consider the responsibilities of the position, Superintendence] SUPERVISION AS VIEWED BY THE SUPERVISED 231 and their own powers to fulfill the obligations imposed by rank. Have we wisdom, insight, justice, moderation, discretion? If not, a burden awaits us more grievous than that which chafed the shoulders of Pilgrim, and a veritable Slough of Despond obstructs the way. APPOINTMENT, PROMOTION, TENURE OF OFFICE. The last matter, while seemingly simple, is, in fact, the most complex of all. Fitness for the position should be the only test of appointment and promotion, and unfitness attended by dismissal. The superintend- ent, in conference with his assistants, should be the sole judge of fitness or unfitness. How simple a case it seems! And yet the superintendent and the board of education, while probably desiring to be just and faith- ful in the discharge of these duties, are besieged, menaced, flattered, and cajoled by an army of people, who for personal, political, business, social, or unclassified reasons desire the appointment, promotion, or retention of some one or more persons, without consideration of age, fitness, or pre- vious experience. If these conditions are not complied with, off comes the head and probably many of the hands of Briareus. To what is the country coming when one’s plain duty is so hedged about by circumstances that its discharge means official execution or nervous prostration ? Appointments from without the city are largely ruled by examinations, and followed by probation, which should be clearly understood by the teacher and principal under whom she works, and the supervisor and special teachers immediately interested. In confirmation, promotion, or dismissal all parties officially interested should be consulted, so that no room for prejudice be given. Candidates from the training school should come in the order of excellence presented by the principal and critic teachers, and not in the order of personal interests or the degree of sympathy one may have been able to arouse in some member of the board, the mayor, minister, or other prominent person. : A more trying class still remains to be considered. ‘The applicants may or may not have taught, may or may not have had previous prepara- tion. Through financial or domestic misfortunes, influential friends make out a strong case in their favor, pleading their need, their qualifications; but the candidates themselves are unable to pass the examinations. Duty seems plain, but the various lights turned upon it distort the perspective. Who is able to grapple with these cases in all their complexities, and who is willing to shoulder the responsibilities of acceptance or rejection ? Courage to do the right can only come from a clear understanding of the province of the public schools. Evils surrounding the dismissal of incompetent teachers can be less- ened by extending the time of probation, and by preparing a list of 232 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Indianapolis unsatisfactory teachers early, each year, to be placed in the hands of superin- tendent, supervisors, special teachers, and principals. These teachers should receive special care from the supervising staff, and clearly under- stand their position. If improvement has not been made at the close of the year, they are to be recommended for dismissal. It will be urged that in the event of informing the teacher of her standing the case is often complicated by the army of sympathizers she is able to enlist in her behalf. I grant the danger, but see no other honorable position to take in relation to the teacher; and a position once assumed must be consistently main- tained, even in the tempest following announcements. Honest and fair means have been used throughout. Honor compels a stand to be made. If these are restored to position, it must be done over the veto of the chief, and the consequences be upon the heads of those who pass the measure. The above may seem heroic measures, and more in accord with dreams than reality ; but after years of scorching experience I am still convinced that what the city needs is men and women with moral stamina, who are willing to abide by opinions based upon personal knowledge of the situation, re-enforced by the opinions of colaborers, liberal-minded and competent to judge. Here is an opportunity to educate public opinion by assuming the obligations imposed by rank, and holding a public trust as beyond all private fears or ends. We have the example of the Great Teacher ‘ who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame.” Perhaps you recall the passage from St. John, which is often in the thoughts of the writer. Facing physical anguish and certain of death, he, the strong man, in the prime of life, shrinks from the ordeal. ‘Now what shall I say? Father save me from this hour; nevertheless, for this cause came I. unto this hour!” ; In conclusion, there needs to be established throughout the system of schools a feeling that, whatever the circumstances, those at the head are actuated by professional motives as opposed to personal ambition, that those in authority are not unmindful of the difficulties which surround the individual teacher in her efforts to carry out the general plan and regulations of the system. . A spirit of fairness must encourage the best efforts of supervised and supervisor, and a feeling of confidence in the head of the system as courageous “to do the right as it is given him to see the right;” that he has not only a mind to direct, but a heart to respond to, the labors of the individual, in whatever capacity he may serve. A spirit of harmony must direct the efforts of the whole supervising force, if we expect unity of action on the part of the schools. Otherwise true development is impossible, and the very end for which supervision was created will be defeated. aad . os) Ww Superintendence] DISCUSSTON 23 DISCUSSION. C. F. CARROLL, Worcester, Mass.—In general, we can probably agree to what was said by Superintendent Jones, in regard to tests of school work. The principal use of the test must, however, be confined to determining neatness, accuracy, and form. It can scarcely show the best that a teacher is doing, much less can it show the best of which a pupil is capable. : This last statement is true, because a written test must be confined chiefly to work in penmanship, spelling, technical language, and simple sentence-making or reproduction. All culture subjects, in which we may include reading, geography, history, nature work, literature, music, manual training, cannot be satisfactorily worked out upon paper. The list, therefore, is very small, and is confined chiefly to subjects that are purely mechanical. Culture subjects depend upon the instincts, upon feeling ; imply a horizon, relations, soul. Any focusing, such as is called for in written examinations, tends to sac- rifice the larger side. In fact, testing at this point is almost fatal, as we learned by sad experience under the old régime. Written examinations by the superintendent will show the principals and teachers what subjects and what points he may desire to emphasize; but they may be dangerous for that very reason. ‘The teachers, themselves, should be expected and required to give tests frequently, and principals should be asked to watch and direct both written and oral tests in all subjects. High-school teachers throughout the country generally review and test their work in mathematics and the languages at regular intervals. The next three points in Mr. Jones’ paper I! can class as one. I refer to the oral test, to the observation by the superintendent of actual teaching which the teacher does, and to the teaching by the superintendent. It is something of an art for a superintendent to know how to entera schoolroom. A pleasant greeting is most important; anything more is likely to be a nuisance. Neither the class nor the teacher should be turned aside from the business in hand. The current should not be interrupted while he is present. Bluster, and much conversation, beyond a pleasant word, tend to remove all responsibility from the teacher, and change what ought to be a real business transaction to a hollow formality and a mockery. Many superintendents never seriously listen to a recitation. Many more never take a primary class in hand, giving their suggestions in concrete form. Some do not do this because they have never learned how, others because they are prevented by dignity or by tradition. It is absolutely necessary that a supervisor should teach constantly, if he would be a living part of any school system. A conference later with the teacher has its advantage, but can never do the same thing that can be accomplished by his questioning the children in the presence of the teacher. Moreover, these questions should always be in line with what the teacher is doing, if they are to be of assistance to the teacher. They should be given to show the teacher how to do her own work better, or how to carry it farther. Supervisors who do not thus identify themselves with the work of the schoolroom should have a name of their own and be classed by themselves. Teachers’ meetings afford altogether thé best means of directing school work as a whole. At the teachers’ grade meeting we stand directly at the center. If we have visited intelligently and have before us at the moment the strong and weak points that we have discovered in very recent visits, we can mold instruction to the full extent that our skill will permit. The superintendent must get down to a few essentials in drill and emphasize these 234 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Indianapolis points, not only by what he says, but by the best class exercises that he can produce. The use of the blackboard and of nature in teaching reading; the objective work in connec- tion with teaching the multiplication table and fractions, tables of weights and measures ; the preliminary interpretation of problems, writing of decimals, making of sentences; the giving of a lesson in penmanship —all these technical details should be gone over. Either the superintendent or some person fitted to comprehend and carry out some consistent plan should give directions and full illustrations at the teachers’ meeting. The most inexcusable and most criminal waste of time is made at this point, and Dr. Rice has not said too much in his recent articles on the necessity of teaching economically and effectively a limited number of essential points in the “three R’s.” Moreover, a superintendent should conduct many of his own grade meetings. It has become the fashion for the superintendent to invite people to make addresses on educa- tion at his grade meetings. Such speeches are a farce, and are sure to be disconnected and as out of place as a magic lantern show. I can subscribe most cheerfully to all that Mr. Jones has said relating to the effort called for by both superintendent and teacher. On this basis of hard work teaching may become a profession. The physician, the lawyer, and the clergyman, the architect, and the artist, regard their work as a business and seek constantly to keep up to date; and they do this voluntarily. The teacher who is thus enterprising can always be recognized, because she will anticipate the superintendent in most of his suggestions. She ranges the whole field of inquiry, and brings to her work things both new and old. Moreover, she prepares with care every lesson which she is to teach. She estimates in advance the work of the week. Every lesson is a review or has in it an element of review, carefully provided for in this preparation. Such a working-over and working-up of old material as a matter of prin- ciple is in itself the best form of correlation, is in itself a substitute for the old-fashioned examination, and makes the test only an everyday affair. The papers read have treated chiefly of the superintendent and teacher. The pupil himself has been referred to only incidentally. I should insist that he demands the first place in this discussion. An improved knowledge of the child is changing theories of training teachers, and methods are sure to change with theories. First, school hygiene is at present given a large place in pedagogy, and has a place upon the program of this convention. This is a good beginning, but we need to get much closer to the pupil. We need to discuss, not only heat, light, and ventilation ; but also to discuss the growing body, its stored energy, the dynamic force that works upon the organism of every child, the impulse to movements that compel ecu and drive on the child and the man in their ceaseless activities. Biology has come to be the best part of physiology and physiology the best part of psychology, and physical and chemical forces are back of all. Nutrition has come to be regarded as the greatest fact in education, and a well-nourished child, living with culti- vated people, will attain to their estate with a minimum of formal teaching. If he lacks proper food or fails to appropriate it, he will be deficient both morally and intellectually. Studies of defective and criminal children show that they are usually improperly nourished, and that physical development has been arrested in a greater or less degree. The most interesting spectacle, because the highest product of civilization, is the well-nourished child, abundantly active, free from unnecessary irritation or restraint, with interests that call into activity the many sides of his nature, moving on from one phase of his life to another, absorbing the best things—in other words, normal in estate and receiving the normal treatment sensed and dimly suggested in the immortal classic of Rousseau, = AR ee Superintendence] DISCUSSION 235 Another of the inner forces of education that has been brought to light recently is found in the emotions and instincts, supplemented by interest and attention; and, while all these are classified and treated separately, they are inseparable, have a common origin, and are a unit in character. They are often more important than intellect. They condition even perception and rule reason. They must have free play at every stage, or a man defective at some point is the result. Restraint of instinct, restraint of affection, lack of normal interest, have been the marks of the modern school system, and the partial restoration of these to their proper places is the first problem of the modern school superintendent. Another hopeful indication is the presence in this program of the subjects relating to the social forces that are co-ordinated with the school. We often lose our perspec- tive and forget the part that the home, the church, literature, art, and society play in edu- cation. The “three R’s” contribute but a meager amount of our intelligence, while our surroundings are all-powerful in their influence upon both character and judgment. The intelligent supervisor must take these conditions into account. He must base his treatment of courses of study upon them, and his methods must be in general harmony with them. It is a good thing for teachers to look about for methods, to be thrown upon theirown resources. Standards and general principles are, indeed, authoritative ; methods, - art, ways and means are incidental. No man is more contemptible than he who plods along, following in the rear of his best teachers, following in the rear of the best public sentiment. Our best teachers, our best citizens, are alive to all the questions that I have raised. Our best teachers are both broad and skillful. Woe to us if they outstrip us in their grasp of great questions; woe to us if we fail to do so much as to be able to interpret their art-and intuitions, and to be able to both learn and impart the wisdom that they can teach ! SUPERINTENDENT J. W. CARR, Anderson, Ind.—I agree with Mr. Jones most heartily that the supervisor should be a man of liberal education, broad-minded, profes- sionally trained, one who is able to point the way upward and then lead the way; that he should set the standard of efficiency of work in his schools, and then devise ways and means whereby this standard may be attained by all capable teachers. I also approve of the methods suggested whereby this standard of work may be attained, but I wish to emphasize one point especially, vzz., the personal observation, on the part of the super- visor, of the actual schoolroom work. Our schools will never reach a creditable standard of efficiency so long as superintendents are content to remain in their offices, sending out examination questions, receiving and examining reports, tabulating and comparing sta- tistics. These things have their value, but they are of secondary importance to schoolroom visitation and the friendly criticisms and suggestions that result from such visits. By the systematic visitation of his schools the superintendent learns the real difficulties of the teachers, becomes acquainted with the strength and weakness of the teaching force, ascer- tains the merit and weaknesses of his own plans when put to the test, thereby learning whether it is best to insist on their enforcement or have them returned to his office for repairs. It has been my experience that some of my most cherished plans have failed when subjected to the actual test. In many instances I would have thought the failure was due to the teacher, if I had not been present to see for myself that the plans were vitally defective. Again, the supervisor gets quite as much from his teachers as he gives them in return. He cannot hope to keep abreast the times unless he is acquainted with the best things in his profession, as exemplified by the best thought and practice of his teaching force. a5 I like the position taken by both speakers in reference to the supervisor as a critic — 236 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Indianapolis that he should be a friendly critic, that his criticisms should be suggestive and, so far as possible, constructive. But few things are more embarrassing and discouraging, yes, hurtful, to teachers than harsh, unsympathetic, destructive criticism; while, on the other hand, nothing is more encouraging and helpful than friendly, sympathetic, constructive criticism. Teachers, as a rule, are criticised quite enough; what is needed is a better and higher form of criticism. One point that, perhaps, has not received sufficient consideration in this discussion is the relation of the supervisor to the public. He should understand, not only the theoret- ical and practical workings of the schools under his care, and be able to criticise, advise, and instruct teachers; but he should be a man of affairs, thoroughly in touch with the professional and business men of the community, understanding the tastes, prejudices, and needs of the people, so that the schools may be the better suited to the environment, may the most nearly meet the needs of the people who support them. But, in order that the schools may not become warped and stunted by local influences, the supervisor should have a clear and comprehensive view of the age and civilization in which he lives. He should have an understanding of and a sympathy with American life and institutions. And, while he should welcome truth and light from whatever source they may come, yet he should not disparage and despise the educational achievements of his own country- men, nor think that there are no true pedagogical principles except those which have been formulated around a lager-beer table in Germany. Lastly, Mr. President, I cannot conclude this discussion without calling special atten- tion to Mr. Jones’ classic sentences in reference to the supervisor as the inspirer of higher ideals. ‘It is,’ says he, “in the sphere of ideals that the influence of the supervisor, if he be capable, is of supremest worth. Ideals of education must be developed in the minds of teachers, so as to inspire to highest and noblest effort. The ideals must express the hope of the future and cast such radiance over the plain path of common teaching as shall make it seem the very way of salvation to pupils and teachers alike.” Such, in my opinion, is the highest service that a mortal can render his fellows. By a change of ideals, Saul of Tarsus became the apostle of the Gentiles. By a change of ideals, Sir Launfal saw the leper transformed into the Savior, and stand before him Shining and tall and fair and straight As the pillar that stood by the Beautiful Gate, By climbing from the low plains of common life up to the mountain top, the three disciples saw the Son of Man transfigured into the very God. But we cannot inspire higher ideals in others unless we first possess them ourselves. The electric globe does not send its radiance abroad unless there is heat and light within. We grow into what we would like to be. By contemplating the Great Stone Face, Ernest came to resemble it in the benignity of features and goodness of heart. So, if we would inspire higher ideals in our teachers, we must not worship the golden calf of our own making, but pay our devotions to the perfect ideal. It has been wisely said that every noble art has its divine counterpart, and I wish you to note that teaching is no exception. ‘God formed and modeled the world out of chaos, and that is sculpture. He builded the mountains, with their domes and spires and minarets, and that is architecture. He carpeted the earth and tinted the seas and hung the ‘bow of promise’ in the heavens, and that is painting. He made the birds and the winds and the waterfalls, and that is music. He peopled the earth with human beings, and that is the everlasting drama. But when He wanted the perfect teachers, He sent His Son from heaven.” Miss SARAH L. ARNOLD, Boston, Mass. —It seems to me that it is not only our duty, but our privilege, and, furthermore, our necessity, to make these conferences as frequent as practical. The danger line lies in the necessity which takes us out of our own school- Superintendence] DISCUSSTON 2247 room, and our danger line is this that we are apt to get away from each other, and that, therefore, these conferences are necessary. But unhappily in the city,schools, where the supervision must be divided, it becomes absolutely necessary for us to substitute another kind of conference, but which does not by any means take the place of the present con- ference. I cannot speak with assurance upon this subject, because I have come to learn that the conditions must be modified according to the surrounding circumstances. It is a duty to study the individual teacher as well as to study the individual pupil.~ A flash light has very often been cast upon my work by some child in which I was interested; once by a small boy, aged six. He was very fond of a little girl named Dorothy, and guarded her very carefully. One day he was taken sick with chicken-pox, and during his illness a little neighbor, Mark, stepped in and took Dorothy from him. When the child recovered he threatened to thrash Mark, as he expressed it. When Christmas came, his mother insisted that he should invite this little boy, Mark, to his Christmas tree. He reluctantly did so. He put on his muffler and overcoat, and thus bundled he waded through the snow slowly, and, when he arrived at the child’s house, he said: “ My mother told me to tell you to come over and visit my Christmas tree, but if you come I’ll punch your head.” Outward compliance ; inward defiance. I believe that when we command the presence of our teachers at numerous meetings we are in the condition of the mother who commanded her small boy. It should not be a habeus corpus act. The beginning of our circulars should be “‘ Whosoever will, let him come.” SUPERINTENDENT FRANK B. CoopER, Des Moines, Ia.— I do not believe complaint from the teacher in service is so general as we might be led to believe from the papers presented. I am quite sure that it was not so intended by the reader of the paper. I address myself to but one or two points in the paper. In considering the papers I was led to notice the parallelism that runs between the relation of the teacher to the school and the relation of the superintendent to his teachers. The good teacher or the good school represents a democracy. The school is not the teacher’s. It belongs to all. It is the children’s as well as the teacher’s, and I believe that these papers that have been pre- sented show that the dictatorship has passed away. The school is a thing of joint owner- ship, and so is the school system, Both Superintendent Jones and Miss Brooks brought out the idea of joint work, joint study of children, joint examination of papers, joint teaching. In the schoolroom the teacher proposes something to do. She secures the co-operation of the children in doing that. By her art there prevails an atmosphere of good will. A wise plan properly presented is necessary, for the perfect fulfillment of which sympathy must enter in, and that rests upon knowledge. Unification must come through two channels, the course and the teacher. The most serious mistake is that we expect too much of the teacher, leaving her to work out the development alone, without chart or compass. I once heard Thomas B. Reed say that the opinion of all is greater than the opinion of any. The best thought of all who are thinkers is better and larger than the thought of any one. The proportion of the work to be done in the school system should not be and, to be good, cannot be the work of one mind. Back of the unity of effort lies sympathy of spirit. The course of study, the plan of work, in some sense, should be a joint product. Working together comes by getting together — by conferences. SUPERINTENDENT F. Louis SoLpAN, St. Louis, Mo.— The one quality which I should say a superintendent should possess above all others is appreciation. I mean by it that a superintendent will find, in the first place, that he can learn much more from his teachers than he can teach them; that the quality of appreciation developed in a super- intendent will lead in two directions. It will make him admire much that he finds in a large system of schools, and he will pass his judgment with careful criticism. I substitute for child study, teacher study. The application of the critical faculty on the part of the 238 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Indianapolis superintendent is necessary again and again, but it is fraught with danger, and the super- intendent who does not know the individuality of a teacher may do harm because he does not know her personally. I should recommend teacher study. A. E. WinsutP, Boston, Mass.— One thought has been left unsaid with all that has been so well said this morning. No superintendent’s work is a success which makes the teacher self-conscious. I have had some opportunities for watching the work in schools all over this land, and I think the one test of all tests of the superintendent is the spirit of the teacher when the superintendent is present and when he is absent. I wish to bring this one thought from the business side. I notice that successful men see to it that they interfere as little as possible with the people through whom they are working. They give them instruction as far as they can, and if it fails, then they must go. In one of the largest book houses in America a man was employed to introduce a change of books in five prominent cities. Failing in two, he returned to the house, determined to acknowledge his vain efforts and retire; but, as he entered, the chief officer rose and said, ‘ You have made a glorious fight. I have ordered your salary raised.” And the man went back and captured the other three cities. It should be the same in spirit with a superintendent when a teacher is fighting her battle. Help her. THE CORKELATION OF EDUCATIONAL FORCES JV sisi COMMUNITY. BY S. T. DUTTON, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, BROOKLINE, MASS. The energies of school supervision have hitherto been largely employed in perfecting the organization of teaching and in bringing it into the true pedagogic form. We have treated the school as though it were sufficient unto itself and somewhat independent of all other factors. I believe the time has come when we may wisely give more attention to the utilization of forces outside of the school,-to the end that community life and effort may be richer, better directed, more economically employed, and that the schools may gain the commanding position that rightfully belongs to them. Henry Ward Beecher uttered a great truth when he said that, in America, there is not one single element of civilization that is not made to depend in the end upon public opinion. I care not how skillfully and thoroughly school supervision does its work—unless the interest and confidence of the people are enlisted, so that they believe in the value of what is done, much of the labor goes for nothing. There may be much of indifference and apathy, but there is never strict neutrality in public sentiment. A community that is not thoroughly committed to a broad educational policy and active in sustaining it is likely to assume an unfriendly attitude, if the slightest provocation arises. Much energy has been wasted in trying to perfect a school system while the people were ignorant of the motives and aims that animated its directors, and were incapable of understanding and approving the methods employed. There A oe Ct hie baal Superintendence] CORRELATION OF EDUCATIONAL FORCES 239 are plenty of communities that have never yet been reached by the spirit of modern education. ‘They are like those broad stretches of thickly popu- lated country in India or China where, here and there, a single mission- ary is trying to break the ice of paganism, with scarcely any perceptible success. In such cases the schools are as good as they can be under the circumstances, but there is no enthusiasm concerning them, and the well- to-do people, knowing nothing of their excellences, send. their children to private schools, often of an inferior character. There are many instances where the conditions are right for the development of an educational spirit in the community, but those in charge make no effort whatever to bring about this most-desired end. Some years ago a young man was called to take charge of a group of schools in one of our pleas- ant New England boroughs. He had his own ideas and carried them out. He made no study of the community to see what synthesis could be made of existing forces. He enjoyed the privacy of his own room better than the exactions of social life, He made few acquaintances, and few people knew him or cared for him. At length a single indiscretion on his part in connection with a case of discipline aroused the hostility of the local newspaper. Having no public opinion in his favor, he lost ground rapidly, was soon compelled to resign, and the good work he had done in the school went for nothing. I venture to assert that this is a type of many cases, occurring all over the country, which give to educational supervision the character of instability and Bohemianism. Morever, the failure to work constructively for healthy public opinion is not the only shortcoming of our craft. The apparent inability of some men and women to recognize the unity of all moral and social aims, and to justly value the work of forces other than the one to the service of which they are especially committed, is a difficulty no less serious than the one already indicated. Herbert Spencer, in one of the closing chapters of his work on “Illustrations of Universal Progress,” calls attention to the fact that “‘The different parts of the social organism, like the different parts of an individual organism, compete for nutriment, and severally obtain more or less of it according as they are discharging more or less of duty.”” Unless the several agencies which operate in community life for the improvement of the conditions of living and the elevation of society are made conscious of each other’s claims, this sort of competition, to which reference has been made, is likely to work harm in preventing some forces from achieving all of which they are capable. Let us consider briefly the principal factors that, speaking broadly, contribute to education in the community. They are the church, the home, the school, the public library, the newspaper, the art museum — where there is one —and the civil state, with its laws protecting life and property, its provision for public health and convenience, and its orderly 240 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Indianapolis conduct of all civic affairs. We should mention, also, the opportunity of hearing good music, the operations of commerce, the daily miracles of science, as applied in mechanics and electricity, securing rapid travel, communication, etc. Now, in the general work of education each of these forces has its own peculiar task. It does what none of the other forces can do. The church, by its constant appeals to the higher spiritual nature, by consecrated self-denial, lofty example, and helpful ministra- tions, must be regarded as an important educational factor. The presence all over the Christian world of imposing church edifices conceived in the highest types of architectural art, with their towers pointing upwards, are simply the visible expression of those deeper sentiments that are inspired and developed through the ministry of the church. The home, with its tender parental nurture, its solicitous care and wise guidance, contributes a fundamental element to education. Especi- ally is it true, when an air of culture pervades the home, that it often becomes, as Holland describes it, “the sweetest type of heaven.” What it does, no other power can do. Deprive a child of a good home, and you blast the very flower of his opportunities. It was observed in con- nection with a series of articles by eminent persons published a few years since on “How I Was Educated”’ that each and every writer paid a high tribute to the potency of the home as a factor in his own education. The school holds a central place. More than the church, or even the home, it moralizes the child and establishes his character upon the founda- tions of good habits. Its regular routine, continued day after day, and the constant appeals made to the best efforts of the child, make the school pre-eminent among educational forces. The public library — or people’s university, as it has been called—isa reservoir of knowledge and inspiration for the entire community. Rightly supported by the church, the home, and the school, it supple- ments them all in their efforts to elevate and refine society. Without speaking in detail of other educational forces, it seems strange that devotees of any of these agencies are blind to the relative importance of the others, as well as to the fact that the highest success of any one of them depends upon the support it gets from the others. I shall venture to refer again to the church in this connection, in the way of mild criticism. Mr. Brooks Adams, in a recent monograph on “The Law of Civilization and Decay,” finds that the fundamental idea in religion is fear, “which, by stimulating the imagination, creates the belief in an invisible world and ultimately develops a priesthood.” To such an extent have the world religions taken advantage of this principle that their history has been a record of tyranny and darkness. Under the same influence the light of Christianity became so obscured that the work of freeing the human mind from its slavery has been only partially Superintendence] CORRELATION OF EDUCATIONAL FORCES 241 begun ; and, even in this most democratic of countries, whose foundations were laid by those seeking religious freedom, we often find the church arrogating to itself rights and powers which it does not possess, and pretending to accomplish results which it never has nor ever will accom- plish. The minister too often forgets that the pulpit is a means to an end, and that its highest function is to dignify and sweeten human service of every sort, and establish the brotherhood of man and the unity of all work for the cause of truth, to the end that there may be mutual co-oper- ation. Only recently one of our most liberal-minded clergymen, in naming to a body of young people the benefits that have come through the Christian dispensation, made no mention of the Christian school. Too often schools are entirely omitted in prayers, from the pulpit or in pastoral ministrations. It is because of the influential position of the church that I feel compelled to emphasize this omission. It seems to me to be entirely opposed to the spirit of Him who came upon earth and went about doing good. ‘The love of the Master for children is unques- tioned. I have often thought that were He to be among us again, He would be seen quite as often in our schools as in our churches. No less, lack of co-operation has often existed between the home and the school. Here are two forces operating to the same end, yet often so antagonistic that the impressible child is trained in ways of discourtesy and disloyalty, his school life is made wretched, and his childhood is clouded. Dissension in the home is bad enough, but strife between teacher and parent is fatal to those finer results for which the home and school shouldaim. Is itnot about time that the traditional schism between parent and teacher be bridged over? Should we be contented with the relation of armed neutrality which so often exists? The importance of the issue at stake demands mutual sympathy and co-operation. The teacher greatly needs the respect, the confidence, and the esteem of the parent. He needs information concerning the child’s home life, his tastes, habits, etc. The parent, on the other hand, should have the frankest statements from the teacher concerning the child’s interests, as displayed in the schoolroom. Through such conference teacher and parent are able to supplement the efforts of each other. There is something to be said about the place the schools should hold in the opinions and good wishes of the people. As the most influential of the forces in education, as the prime factor in determining the civic intel- ligence of the community, they should be held in high honor and esteem. They should be regarded with generous feeling and interest, and every citizen should feel a personal obligation to contribute to their efficiency. The late President Garfield once said that “the best system of education is that which draws its chief support from the voluntary effort of the com- munity.” It is worth a good deal to have the school taxes paid cheerfully, 242 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Indianapolis but we want something more than a passive interest. This brings me to the point of announcing two principles that deserve to be recognized everywhere. First, the social and educational forces of the community should be brought into correlation. There should be the fullest mutual readiness to co-operate. Second, the school, better than any other factor, may become a center for this correlation. It exists for all the people, is unhampered by creed or sect, and at the same time stands for the very highest aims to which human efforts can be directed. In an article writ- ten for the Atlantic Monthly of January, 1896, Horace E. Scudder urges the propriety of making the schoolhouse the center of community life, and concludes by declaring that the school system holds the key to the situation in any problem we may encounter when considering the momen- tous subject of American civilization. There is little that is new in these propositions. Indeed, there has been a growing recognition of their importance during the last few years. The so-called institutional church is an attempt to utilize various educational forces, to supplement preach- ing, so that now we often find organized under the roof of one church various means for physical, intellectual, and moral cultivation. The same idea expresses itself in missionary endeavor, but the most significant illus- trations are those local societies that have been formed in various cities with the avowed purpose of helping on the cause of education. Some years ago the Public Education Society of Philadelphia began a career - which has resulted in many educational reforms. In fact, it is said that the establishment of the kindergarten, the reorganization of the school system with the employment of a superintendent of schools, the introduc- tion of manual training, and the broadening of all courses of study, have been the indirect results of the labors of this society. A similar organiza- tion in New York has enlisted the active assistance of the influential citizens of the city, some of whom are social leaders. What appeared to many to be almost a hopeless undertaking has already borne excellent fruit in the well-known reform measures which it is to be hoped are the beginning of a thorough reformation of the school system of that city. A striking instance of what a local society may do is seen in the work accomplished for the Boston schools in a single year by the Association of Collegiate Alumne, acting in co-operation with the officers of the Institute of Tech- nology and certain school officials. There was undertaken a thorough investigation of the schoolhouses of Boston, to determine their condition with respect to health and sanitation. A vigorous report made at the conclusion of this task has resulted in a thorough awakening of public interest on this subject, and will ultimately result in larger appropriations for the correction of defects pointed out. One of the best illustrations of social co-ordination is seen in the Twentieth Century Club of Boston, which has been in existence a little Superintendence] CORRELATION OF EDUCATIONAL FORCES 243 more than three years. The avowed purpose of the club is “to promote a finer public spirit and a better social order.” Among its founders were such men as Philips Brooks, Edward Everett Hale, and George A. Gordon. Its membership of 300 includes about an equal representation of lawyers, ministers, journalists, artists, teachers, and business men. Among these are many names well known as philanthropists and social reformers. Under the skillful management of its president, Edwin D. Mead, its meet- ings, which are held on alternate Wednesday evenings, have presented a remarkable instance of a perfectly free platform, where any subject, social, religious, or political, could be discussed with the utmost candor and in the best spirit. A lunch ‘is served to the members of the club at its rooms on Saturday, after which some topic of living interest is brought forward, and a most interesting comparison of views follows. It is generally recognized by the members of the club that its purposes are distinctly educational, and the interests of schools and colleges have been given a - prominent place in its deliberations. It is impossible to estimate the good that such an organization may accomplish. The fact that woman’s clubs throughout the country are making public schools a special object of study, and that at Louisville last May the federation passed resolutions recommending such study, is full of significance and promise. _ In response to request, I will now speak particularly of the purposes and work of the Brookline Education Society. The inhabitants of Brookline are widely scattered, and are not especially homogeneous. The town, territorially, is a part of Boston, and is nearly surrounded by that city. As in the case of ancient Rome, all the tram lines lead toward the city, and the several parts of the town are not connected by public conveyance. It is a community where, previous to a few years ago, the well-to-do people patronized private schools, of which there were excel- lent examples both in the town and just across the city line. Hence, Brookline cannot be regarded as a place to be easily organized with public _ education as a center aim. The high intelligence of the people and their generous public spirit of course favored such an attempt. The public schools for several years have been conducted with special reference to the union of the home and school. Parents have been taken into consul- tation upon every possible occasion, have been invited to co-operate, and the course of study and the school life have been made both acceptable and attractive. There was plenty of conservatism to overcome, and the customary hankering after the leeks and onions of the old régime. All this has largely been overcome by the dictum oft repeated, until it was at the tongue’s end of every teacher, that the aim of the school was moral character building, and that nothing could serve this end but a broad, elastic curriculum, entirely free from quantitative standards. It was the recognition of the validity of these aims, as seen in actual results, that 244 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION {Indianapolis did more than anything else to help on the Education Society. It was fortunate from the start in having social leaders among its officers and active members. ‘The society has been in existence less than two years, and has a membership of more than 500. Its purpose, as announced in the constitution, is “to promote a better knowledge of the science of education, a better understanding of methods now employed, and a closer sympathy and co-operation between the home and the school.” It holds regular meetings once in six weeks, with such special meetings as the officers may think desirable. All arrangements of programs, etc., are made by the Executive Committee of seven persons, including the presi- dent and the secretary. Pains has been taken to offer for discussion at the regular meetings those vital questions that lie between the home life and the school life, such as “‘The Home Care of Children,” “‘ Home Study,” “The Reading of Our Boys and Girls,” “Works of Art in Schools,” ‘The Study of Nature in the Home and in the School,” ‘“‘Manual Training,” ‘‘Domestic Arts,” etc. In almost every discussion the conclusion has been reached that the home and the school must be in accord, and that the child, in passing from one to the other, should be in the same atmosphere of kindly sympathy and wise guidance, and that there should be agreement between parents and teachers in regard to sports, companions, books, and all other elements that enter into his life. There are special committees on child study, physical training, history, science, music, art, school libraries, and lectures. Any member of the society may become an associate member of one or more of the committees and find an opportunity of rendering service therein. The Child Study Committee has encouraged the holding of mothers’ meetings in all sections of the town in connection with the kindergarten and primary schools. 374 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National so impressive, that they assume the importance of the very ends of human existence. Under this dazzling influence of material forces and enterprises man’s chief end seems to be to till the soil, invent machinery, manufacture material products, and build and run railroads and steamships. The sus- picion grows that man’s supreme mission in the present life is to fit up the world for some coming race of beings worthy of its material ministry. We are told that the Garden of Eden was created for the abode of our first parents ; but this new philosophy of life assumes that Adam and Eve were created for the garden, and especially to till and dress it. Another of these aggressive theories may be called socialism in edu- cation. It assumes that the practical end of education is to fit man to bea helpful factor ina social organism — to co-operate with his fellows in secur- ing social well-being and progress. It sees nothing in the individual that is abiding, much less supreme, except as he is absorbed in the greater and more permanent self called society. It asserts that what the individual needs is not self-directing power or selfhood, but the power of easy articulation with others ; a lock-step facility in social and civil activities. Education thus becomes a process of fitting youth for social absorption and service ; and the knowledges of supreme worth are the facts of social, or community, life and progress. Organized society thus becomes the lord and master of men, with power to allot their work and mission ; and, as a logical consequence, with the duty of supplying each with food, clothing, and shelter. Over against this socialistic doctrine, and in sharp contrast with it, is the theory which is known as individualism in education. It assumes that every child is born into the world an individual entity, with little in common with his fellows in capabilities, tastes, and tendencies. It asserts that every child should be studied and educated as an individual being, asa personality, with sharply defined characteristics and needs ; and it, con- sequently, condemns the attempt to provide a general course of instruc- tion for children and youth as impracticable and undesirable. It clamors for individual instruction and opportunity. This theory also assumes that the special endowments or aptitudes of youth are so clearly manifest in consciousness that each may be left free, not only to choose his future pursuit, but the preparations and steps that lead to it. This involves individual choice of studies and training from the beginning. It is further claimed that the aptitudes and possibilities of children may be early discovered by observation, and hence the special studies and training needed by each as a preparation for his special work in life fall within the certainties (?) of the new science called “child study.” It is thus proposed to reduce individualism in child education to a scientific basis. ehesindun nent (oe ee - - S”.”.h CU Council] ELECTION IN GENERAL EDUCATION 375 This view of education has recently been advocated under the assump- tion that all persons are born lop-sided in mental endowment, or, to use the stronger diction of an apostle of the new philosophy, all children are born “long” in some powers and “short” in others. One child, for example, is born short in mathematics, another in language, another in music, another in drawing, etc. It thus becomes the province of the teacher to discover in what powers his pupils are born “long,” and then afford these powers the opportunity to grow longer, thus co-operating with nature and moving in harmony with her “ divine ordinations.” This “long-and-short”’ theory of the mental endowments of youth also applies to their activities and labor. One child is born short in farm work, another in the mechanic arts, another in housekeeping, and so on; and, since inclination is assumed to be in the direction of natural ability or aptitude, it follows that no youth should be required to do what he does not like to do. If, for example, he does not like farm work, he should be excused from what will be to him drudgery ; and if, perchance, a youth is born short in all work, he should be permitted to honor nature’s ordination by being an idler and living off the toil of others. In the light of this philosophy the professional tramp may be defined as a man born short, except in stomach and legs. Closely related to this theory of individualism are phases of the doc- trine of interest, the term being loosely used to cover, not only interest proper, but tastes, inclinations, affections, desires, etc. This doctrine assumes that the interests of a child indicate his special endowment or natural aptitude, and hence, in following the child’s interests education is moving in the direction of least resistance, and thus makes the most rapid progress. It is even claimed that interest may be accepted as a sure and safe guide, not only in education, but in industrial pursuits, and it is confidently urged that it is the duty of the teacher to discover the pupil’s interests and follow them, not only in the selection of studies, but also in methods of instruction. It is assumed, somewhat in the face of experience, that teachers have the insight and wisdom necessary for such a task. Other advocates of the doctrine of interest recognize the fact that the present interests of pupils are not always in harmony with their best endowments, and so the problem in their education is the establishment of new interests that are in harmony with such endowments. This view makes education largely the process of awakening and confirming proper interests in pupils, interest thus becoming an end of education. Both of these views overlook the fundamental fact that interest is at best only a condition or concomitant in education—never a cause or end. It is true that interest is ‘‘the mother of attention,” that it leads the way in man’s best efforts; and so is a necessary condition in all successful 376 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National learning. Experience attests the statement that the awakening of the pupil’s interest is essential to success in teaching. It is thus seen that interest is a principle of great importance in pedagogy ; and it is well that this principle has lately received new attention and emphasis. But the assumption that interest is a safe guide in education is sadly jostled by the well-known fact that human interest is subject to very sudden and radical changes. A new interest is often born of some deep experience in a day, and new interests are constantly supplanting earlier ones. As we climb the ladder of human experience, we are constantly leaving the successive rounds of interest behind us. We do not carry ” these rounds with us. It is also to be noted that new interests are awakened by new knowledge. There may be a subjective aptitude and condition, but there must also be an external excitant. Interest in a new style of hat is excited by seeing it, and we are assured that absorbing interest in a bicycle can only be realized by riding it. We suspect that this principle explains several things in this modern art; as, for example, the apparent indifference of a lady to on-lookers when she is riding a wheel. THESE THEORIES REVIEWED. These several theories of human nature hold each a large element of truth, but the difficulty arises when any one of them is put forward as the whole truth, or even as the basis of the whole truth. A complete human life is a very complex thing, even if we accept Herbert Spencer’s analysis as comprehensive. The ends of such a life, according to Mr. Spencer, are (1) direct self-preservation, the preservation of life and health; (2) indirect self-preservation, or self-maintenance ; (3) parenthood, or the rearing of offspring ; (4) citizenship, including the social and civil functions; and (5) rational enjoyment, enriched by culture, which Mr. Spencer belittles as “the refinements of life.” The attainment of even these ends of com- plete living involves, not only endowments of a high order, but wise and wide preparation. Moreover, they are attained, if attained, under the demands and limitations of civilization, to say nothing of the conditions and laws of an all-controlling divine moral government. It is obvious that an education that prepares man to fulfill these ends of human existence must deal primarily with common endowments and common interests. It is true that each individual of the race is born with individual characteristics, but the deeper and more vital fact is that all men are born with common powers and needs. It is this common, or type, endowment, facing, as it does, common, or type, ends, that makes the school and the college possible and necessary. Special aptitudes are the variations of the individual from the type, but the type remains and is the dominant factor in the education of youth. Council] ELECTION IN GENERAL EDUCATION Shy . There must be, it is true, a wise recognition of the individual varia- tions, but the common powers and needs must not be sacrificed. Pre- paration for complete living, even in the five directions specified by Mr. Spencer, involves the efficient training of type or race powers, and this training must be aided by “organized knowledge”—‘. ¢., knowledge properly arranged and correlated. There is no problem of human life more interesting than the adjust- ments of the special endowments of individuals to the conditions and demands of civilized life. The industries and arts that minister to self- preservation, self-maintenance, parenthood, and citizenship lie at the basis of civilization, and are properly considered as fundamental activi- ties. The normal child is born with capabilities needed for the mastery of these activities. Wide experiments show that children, as a class, can learn the primary arts of reading, language, number, writing, drawing, 'and singing. Very few children are born “short” in any one of these fundamental school arts. They involve the common endowments of the race for great common ends. But each of these arts has a higher, or true art, phase, and its attain- ment requires special endowments, which in a degree are exceptional, not universal. Hence few persons, comparatively, are born with aptitudes that make it possible for them to be great artists, whether in oratory, literature, music, painting, or sculpture; and for the reason that the highest civilization demands but comparatively few great artists—a reason that touches the deep principle of design in human life, a principle which has been strangely overlooked. This principle is strikingly obvious in those industries that minister directly to self-preservation and self-maintenance. All men are born with capabilities for the simple industrial activities that supply food, clothing, and shelter, while but few men, comparatively, have those special endowments which are requisite for high inventive skill or large executive efficiency. In a sentence, there seems to be a marvelous adap- tation of individual capabilities to the demands and needs of civilization —a divine economy, if I may so speak, in the distribution of human endowments. . It would, however, be a serious mistake to infer from these facts that the common endowments of the race are low and rudimentary in possible activity, or to assert, with Carlyle, that “the mass of mankind are born putty-headed.” In a low civilization the great majority of the race seem to be born “hewers of wood and drawers of water,” but universal enlight- enment and wider opportunities find man’s natural endowment equal to the new demands. The marked triumphs of popular education have been in the direction of industrial power and skill, as well as in moral and social elevation. It has put intelligence at the loom and the spinning wheel, 378 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National and made the brain of labor stronger than its muscles. It is, indeed, a long road from low barbarism to high civilization, but the human race is capable of making the ascent. RESULTS OF CONFLICT BETWEEN THESE THEORIES. The conflict between these theories of human life for supremacy in the American school and college has brought the traditional methods of education into the very throes of revolution. This conflict is thickest around the question of a true course of study. For years past there has been an increasing recognition of the importance of several courses of study in the college, and also in the high school, each looking to some great interest, or department of industry or life. Hitherto these several courses have contained in common at least the elements of all funda- mental studies and arts, and their differentiations have been in the higher phases of these studies or in branches less fundamental. But individualism demands something more radical than several courses of study, each leading to an appropriate degree. It urges that the student should have a choice, not between courses, but between studies, thus determining his own course, if course it be, from first to last. In an address at John Hopkins University a few years since the pres- ident of one of our leading universities advocated the scheme that a university should provide instruction in some eight or nine great lines of knowledge, and that students should be permitted to select any three of these and, on completing the studies selected in a satisfactory manner, be graduated. This scheme was presented in the interest of what the dis- tinguished speaker was pleased to call a “broad education.” It struck me at the time as a broad scheme for permitting students so choosing to obtain a narrow education under the cover of a deceptive degree. It is not the breadth of the university scheme on paper, but the studies actually mastered by students, that determine the breadth of their training and attainments. This scheme for “broad education” is akin to the assumption that a well-equipped college gymnasium, in which a score or two of students are trained to be athletes, will, in some vicarious manner, impart physical development to the hundreds of students who have no systematic: physi- cal training. It is also a close cousin to the assumption that lends a supposed special virtue to the provision made for manual training in some of our cities—this provision being limited to a separate manual training school of high-school grade, in which less than one pupil in twenty in the schools takes shop exercises, called “work,” for two hours a day for a few months. It seems to be assumed that this limited recog- nition of the value of manual training will somehow inspire all the youth of the city with desired respect for hand labor, and that, by a common Council] ELECTION IN GENERAL EDUCATION 379 impulse, they will at last rush from the schools into the workshop and the kitchen. The value of physical and manual training is largely limited to the students, few or many, who take the training. Nothing is gained in education by over-claims and pretention. ENDS OF HUMAN EXISTENCE. It seems unnecessary in this presence to enter into a formal discussion of the ends of human existence in order to show that no one of the theories now considered affords an adequate basis for a system of general education—z. ¢., an education that seeks to give the student a general preparation for complete and successful living ; an education that involves at least five fundamental studies and disciplines, both in their elementary and higher phases. Mr. Spencer seems to overlook the fact that the preservation of man’s - physical nature is but the condition of a higher good. The body exists for the soul that inhabits and glorifies it. Physical health, comfort, and perfection are but means to a higher end—that end the nurture and perfection of man’s physical nature. What is the worth of this physical temple when reason chatters at its portals, or idiocy stares through its windows? ‘The soul is the supreme human fact, and the perfection of the soul is man’s supreme personal interest and duty. Nor is this subordination of man’s two natures, the physical to the spiritual, changed if we make earthly happiness the supreme end of life. Here we shall find that the highest enjoyments flow from the perfection and use of man’s highest powers. The sensualist, the glutton, and the savage are not the best types of human happiness. The exalted delights of the intellect, the exquisite joys of esthetic taste, the sacred raptures of moral beauty and Christian faith, far exceed the epicurean pleasures of appetite and sense. ; Morever, the culture and perfection of man’s spiritual nature multi- _ ply and ennoble the sources of physical enjoyment. The nearer a man comes down to the brute, the fewer and the coarser are his physical wants; and, on the contrary, the higher his elevation above the mere animal, the more exalted are his desires, and the richer and nobler his enjoyments. THIS LAW OF SUBORDINATION UNIVERSAL. The same law of subordination that rules in man’s nature pervades all human activities and interests. As a man’s chief personal duty is the perfection of his higher nature, so the highest parental duty is the devel- opment and culture of his child’s spiritual nature. The body of the child is, indeed, to be wisely cared for, its health and vigor faithfully preserved; but there is something in that unfolding life dearer to the parents’ heart than physical perfection and well-being. In every smile 380 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National of joy, in every gleam of dawning intelligence, is seen the indwelling worth, the object of supremest care and solicitude—the God-imaged soul. A like subordination is seen in man’s relation to material civilization. The great enterprises that tax and honor human skill and industry, the humming manufactories, the winged and steam-pulsed commerce, the iron highways that belt the continents, the lightning’s nerves stretched through the ocean’s depths and pulsating with the world’s passing history —these all are but agencies to minister to man’s needs and well-being. Their glory and their value are alike the reflex of the soul’s worth. Let intellectual and moral civilization be turned back towards paganism, and how quickly the tide of material progress recedes! ‘The supreme human need is a higher, broader, richer, and truer manhood. The same law of subordination pervades man’s civil and political duties. An important function of government is the protection of life and property, and for the reason that these are necessary to the higher ends of human existence. Likewise material advancement and physical comforts and easements are important elements of national prosperity, and as such demand the attention of government. But these are not the highest ends of government. The vital elements of national life are liberty, justice, truth, honor, virtue, righteousness, dwelling regally in human hearts and life; and when these cease to vitalize and ennoble a nation’s material civilization, its bloom and fruitage perish. Constitu- tions and laws, executives and courts, commerce and art, churches and schools, are but co-ordinate agencies for the nurture and perfection of man in his complete birthright and destiny. This view reveals the fatal defect in that philosophy of education which regards man as a grand physical organism, born of physical nature and reaching up to nothing; that makes a complete human life rest upon the broad base of bread-winning activities, and taper upwards through parental, social, and civil duties and interests to mere esthetic gratifi- cation and enjoyment; that makes the material forms and conditions of civilization more important and fundamental than civilization itself. Such a view of life subordinates the soul to the body and reverses the ends of human existence. A complete life is rather a truncated cone, resting on the smaller base of physical being, and lifting itself by widening sections of nobler activities, until it fills the circle of the soul’s highest aspirations and loses itself in the infinite perfections of its Maker. In a true philosophy of life man is broader and higher than his physical conditions and needs. THIS SUBORDINATION RULES IN EDUCATION. This law of subordination that rules in man’s nature and activities — the physical to the spiritual—indicates, not only the prime functions of Council] ELECTION IN GENERAL EDUCATION 381 education, but also their true subordination. The first and highest function of school training is the development and culture of all the pupil’s powers in due harmony. The second and subordinate function is the imparting of a knowledge of those facts and principles which are practically useful for the purposes of guidance in life. The first is disci- pline or training; the second knowledge. In each of these functions the physical is subordinated to the spiritual. The disciplinary function includes (1) the perfection of man’s physical powers—the developing, purifying, and beautifying of the soul; and (2) the nurture and perfection of the body. The second function includes (1) the acquisition of knowledge needed for the proper discharge of life’s higher duties; and (2) the acquisition of information useful in promoting physical well-being and self-maintenance —that is, “in getting a living.” In the order of time the physical may, especially in early training, take ’ precedence, but in importance and emphasis it is always subordinate to the spiritual. In determining the value of knowledge for guidance in life, a careful distinction must be made between those empirical facts and details which are best learned by experience, and those general facts and principles that can guide and fructify experience. The knowledge necessary to make a boot or a coat, to shoe a horse or build a house, is to be acquired by learning the art, and the schools cannot be made workshops for this purpose. It may be true, as Froude claims, that ‘every honest occupa- tion to which a man sets his hand would raise him into a philosopher if he mastered all the knowledge that belongs to his craft,” but this method of making philosophers is not practicable in our schools. A school in which tailors, weavers, carpenters, shoemakers, hostlers, nurses, etc., are each taught the “knowledge” that belongs to his craft would be a curi- osity. Such a scheme of general education is utterly Utopian. The fact is, the knowledge directly and specially used in the different trades and pursuits of life can receive but little attention in a course of general education, and for the reason that such knowledge has a special applica- tion and is not of general interest and utility. Moreover, what a man most needs, even for the work of life, is not so much specific knowledge as mental aptitude and power. ‘‘ Education,” says Mill, ‘makes a man a more intelligent shoemaker, if that be his occupation, but not by teaching him how to make shoes; it does so by the mental exercise it gives, and the habits it impresses.” The abiding, practical result of school training is power. A knowledge of the facts and principles relating to a given pursuit is very important, but higher than this is that developed strength and ability, that power of discern- ment and application, which can change the dead facts of knowledge into the living realities of human action. Knowledge may guide and 382 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [ National enlighten, but discipline gives acumen, insight, grasp, inspiration ; and these are the lucky winners of success in all the conflicts and emergencies of life. Practical facts, to be of practical utility for guidance, must be applied by an intelligent mind. ‘‘ With brains, sir,” was Mr. Opie’s reply to the student who wished to know with what the great artist mixed his paints, and this answer contains the practical philosophy of both art and industry. The prime want in getting a living, which Mr. Froude makes the chief end of life, is brains—a mind keen-sighted and far-sighted, steady in aim and purpose, and full of faith. The prime question to determine the value of knowledge for guidance is not whether it bears directly upon the labor of the farmer or mechanic as such, but rather, Will it fit him for complete and successful living as @ man? ‘Man does not live by bread alone.” The artisan must also be the guide of the family, a member of society, a citizen of the state, the subject of divine government; and out of these relations flow duties of the highest importance. Every child born into American citizenship is con- fronted by the grandest political and social problems in earth’s history, demanding a ripeness of judgment, a breadth of information, and a catholicity of spirit. Here the knowledge of most value is that which prepares man to meet the obligations of an exalted, noble manhood. The engineer must be swifter than his engine, the plowman deeper than his furrow, and the merchant longer than his yardstick. Besides, all experience shows that an education dwarfed to the facts that concern a given occupation defeats itself. Special preparation for given pursuits needs to rest upon a general preparation for all pursuits, and the more comprehensive the general preparation, the more fruitful and useful the special training. This general training is all the more neces- sary since most occupations, when pursued continuously and intensely, groove the mental activities and result in narrow, lop-sided men. Moreover, were it desirable to narrow everyone’s education to the groove of his future calling, such a system would not be feasible in this country, where the child is not necessarily born into the occupation of his father. Here the different pursuits stand with open doors, and neither the child nor his parents know which he will enter, nor how long he will remain. How few Americans find themselves at forty in those callings which guilded their day-dreams at fifteen! This one fact is sufficient to show the fallacy in deducing the necessity of a system of general industrial education in this country from the educational expe- rience of countries where the occupations of life are inherited and prede- termined. The future calling of an American boy does not fall within the certainties of intuition or instinct, and by no calculation of chances can he foretell what knowledge or what quality of mind he will need in the affairs of life. A majority of American students come to the begin- = A se Snot Council] ELECTION IN GENERAL EDUCATION 383 a AE ee SY ning of their college course ignorant of their special bent or their aptitude in higher studies. It is only after a wide and varied trial of their powers in the mastery of branches in all the great departments of knowledge that they find out the studies and pursuits for which they have special aptitude or fitness. It is one of the purposes of general education to disclose the student’s bent and mission. The idea of putting before a young lad a catalogue of studies from which he is to select his course is about as hazardous as a later attempt to choose a wife from a collection of photographs, or, what is a fitter illustration, from a list of names of the feminine gender. Our likes and tastes are quite dependent on knowl- edge, and love before sight is not quite sure to be love at sight; and especially after sight. ELECTIVE STUDIES. I here venture the judgment that a choice by students between two or three carefully arranged courses of study in college leaves no rational place for elective studies below the junior year. A knowledge of all the fundamental higher branches is necessary to an intelligent choice among elective studies in succeeding years. And this knowledge is now embodied, more or less fully, in the more progressive courses of study arranged for secondary schools and the first two years of college. These courses include, not only language and mathematics, but also modern science, literature, history and government, etc. While these studies are not taught exhaustively to train experts, they are increasingly taught by scientific methods, thus affording students a broad and fruitful prepa- ration for university work or for special pursuits. It is true a youth’s general education may be limited by conditions beyond his control, and so he may be obliged to turn to special studies earlier in the course— as early, it may be, as the close of the high school, or even as early as the close of the elementary school. But whatever be thé length of his general education, it should be broad and helpful. Besides, we are now considering what is ideally best, not what hard necessity may demand. CONCLUSION. The principles reached in this discussion shed a clear light upon the problem of American education. They show that our schools and colleges for general education should have for their first aim the develop- ment and culture of man as man, and his elevation toward the highest and best ideals of human life; and their second and subordinate aim should be to furnish him with knowledge necessary for guidance in the duties of life. They show that such is the harmony between man’s nature and his life work that the education which best meets the needs of the former is the best general preparation for the latter—thus converting the terms of Herbert Spencer’s famous aphorism. ‘They indicate that the 384 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National reform needed in our courses of study is not one of exclusion or narrow- ing, but of adjustment and correlation ; that the “‘new education”’ of the near future will be as wide as the soul’s needs and as comprehensive as the duties of life. They welcome the modern sciences and arts to their true place in the school and the college, and they open the doors of the university, not only toward the professions, but also toward technical pursuits and the great industries that conquer nature for man. We thus reach the basis for an exhaustive statement of the aim and purpose of school education—a statement that places man above, and yet prepares him for, his life’s work; that neither exalts him into an ethereal region of supreme repose to be satiated with what Arnold calls “sweet- ness and light,” nor trails his manhood in the furrows of life’s toil. It unites man to nature, to society, and to God—to nature, that he may discover her laws, utilize her forces, and enjoy her munificence ; to society, that he may eradicate its evils, improve its condition, and receive its protection; and to God, that he may be sustained, guided, purified, and saved. My earnest plea is for an education which seeks the perfection of man in nature, enjoyment, and labor; an education whose polar idea is “not the mind only, but the man;” an education that prepares the mind to think the truth, the heart to enjoy it, the will to purpose it, and the hand to perform it. DISCUSSION. [REPORTED BY R, G. BOONE. |] It was explained by the writer of the paper that the discussion had reference to work below the university entirely. D. L. KIEHLE raised the question: What has been the contribution of Herbert Spencer on this matter of elective work in education? Has he not subscribed to the view as set forth by Dr. White? PROFEssoR A. T. ORMOND, Princeton University—The difficulty with Mr. Spencer’s definition that education has to fit one for complete living lies, not in its form, but in the- interpretation which he puts upon life. This conception is wrong. It approaches life genetically and not spiritually. The notion is not broad enough to include the higher activities. It is, therefore, inadequate as a pedagogical guide. It does scant justice to the spiritual activities. He gives no satisfactory scale of values. He reduces the ethical relation to a material basis, and does not adequately provide for the humanistic instinct in nature —that instinct which responds to the higher and refining influences of life. His definition is inadequate from the religious point of view. No scale of values is sufficient that leaves this out. The standpoint from which our view is to be developed is on the side of art rather than science. Arse 1 e9g Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 385 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF TWELVE ON -RURAL SCHOOLS. To the National Council of Education: The undersigned Committee of Twelve on Rural Schools, appointed at the meeting of the National Council of Education, Denver, Colo., July 9, 1895, has the honor to submit the following report discussing the rural school problem in its four several aspects, each of which has been the - special care of a subcommittee of three persons, who have submitted their results from time to time to the criticism of the entire committee. These subcommittee reports are preceded by a general introduction, written by the Chairman of the Committee of Twelve, in which a history of the for- mation of the committee is given, together with a brief summary of the recommendations of the several subcommittees. In the appendix will be found a number of valuable contributions illustrative of different points made in the several reports. HENRY SABIN, D. L. KIEHLE, A. B. POLAND, C. C. Rounps, J. H. PHILLIPS, B. A. HINSDALE, INTRODUCTION. To the National Council of Education: The undersigned, Chairman of the Committee on Rural Schools appointed at the meeting of the National Council of Education, Denver, Colo., July 9, 1895, would respectfully submit the following report : 386 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION | [National At the meeting of the Council on July 5 the Committee on State School Systems made a report on the rural-school problem, through its chairman, Henry Sabin. C. C. Rounds, President of the Council, urged immediate action, in view of the importance of the subject, and of the growing interest in the question of improving the condition of the rural schools. Other members joined in the discussion, and, on motion of B. A. Hinsdale, the chair was directed to appoint a committee of five, who should submit a plan for the further investigation of this subject. July 9 the committee reported as follows: Resolved, That there be undertaken, under the auspices of the Council, an investiga- tion of the subject of rural schools, embracing such topics as revenues and expenditures, the constitution, organization, and duties of boards of management and control, and the provision of suitable teachers. More definitely, said investigation shall be conducted in general on the lines laid down in the report of the Committee on State School Systems submitted to the Council at its present session. Resolved, That a committee of nine be appointed to conduct this investigation, said committee to consist of the following persons: Henry Sabin, of lowa; D. L. Kiehle, of Minnesota; A. B. Poland, of New Jersey; C. C. Rounds, of New Hampshire ; J. H. Phillips, of Alabama; B. A. Hinsdale, of Michigan; S. T. Black, of California; W.S. Sutton, of Texas; and L. E. Wolfe, of Missouri. Resolved, That the Board of Directors of the National Educational Association be urgently requested to appropriate, at some session to be held during the course of the pres- ent annual meeting, the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars, or such part thereof as may be necessary, to defray the expenses of this investigation, including the publication of the report of the committee. Resolved, Thatthe committee should report within the period of two years, in such form as it may determine, and that it be authorized to publish its report. Respectfully submitted, B. A. HINSDALE, G. P. Brown, D. L. KIEHLE, J. R. PRESTON, EARL BARNES, Committee. At the same time the committee was empowered to enlarge its num- ber to twelve, and to fill any vacancies which might occur. On the twelfth day of July the Directors adopted a series of resolu- tions, under which a sum not exceeding two thousand five hundred dol- lars was set aside and placed in the Emergency Fund for the use of the committee. The resolutions also provided that not more than one thousand five hundred dollars should be drawn during the year 1895-96; that no compensation should be allowed any member of the committee; and that the fund may be drawn upon, if necessary, to defray in whole or in part the publication of the report. It is proper to add here that at a A. 2st dll eee > oe Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 387 meeting of the Directors at Buffalo, upon the request of the Council, an additional one thousand dollars was placed in this fund for the use of the committee under the same conditions as above. The committee held its first meeting July 10, 1895, at which time, on motion of Dr. Hinsdale, the committee was increased from nine to twelve by adding the following persons: W. T. Harris, Washington, D. C.; L. 'B. Evans, Augusta, Ga.; C. R. Skinner, Albany, N. Y. Messrs. Sabin, Kiehle, and Hinsdale were constituted a special com- mittee to formulate a plan of work and furnish members with copies of the same; also, to divide the committee into sections and to assign appropriate work to each. The committee as finally constituted consisted of the following gen- tlemen: Henry Sabin, Des Moines, Ia., Chairman; B. A. Hinsdale, Ann Arbor, Mich.; D. L.. Kiehle, Minneapolis, Minn.; W. T. Harris, Washington, D.C.; A. B. Poland, Trenton, N. J.; C. C. Rounds, Plymouth, N. H.; J. H. Phillips, Birmingham, Ala.; S. T. Black, Sacramento, Cal.; W. S. Sutton, Houston, Tex.; C. R. Skinner, Albany, N. Y.; L. By Evans, Augusta, Ga.; L. E. Wolfe, Kansas City, Mo. _The special Committee of Three met in Chicago October 25 and 26, 1895, and, after consultation, divided the entire committee into four sub- committees, and assigned certain topics to each for investigation and report. These subcommittees were constituted and the work assigned to each in accordance with the following schedules: I. School Maintenance. Subcommittee: B. A. Hinsdale, Chairman ; Wes outton,.o- 1. Black This branch of the subject was divided for convenience into three subheads: 1. Revenues.—Permanent school funds ; taxation, general and local, embracing state, county, township, and district taxes; miscellaneous sources of school income, such as fines, licenses, gifts, etc. 2. Expenditures.— Machinery and methods of distribution, general and local. The main points to be considered are the channels through which the funds reach the schools, and the rules and methods governing their distribution and application. 3. Organization of Business Administrative Machinery.—The county, district, and township-unit systems; the consolidation of schools; the transportation of pupils; county, township, and district high schools; the relation of rural schools to city schools. Inquiry should be made into the main social, industrial, and economical factors that conditiom rural education, as density of population, wealth, means of communica- tion, etc. 388 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [ National II. Supervision. Subcommittee: L. B. Evans, Chairman ; C. R. Skin- ner, Henry Sabin. 1. The manner of electing the superintendent, state, county, district, or township. 2. Minimum qualifications required of each, and term of office. 3. The relation of the superintendent, state, county, district, or town- ship, to the teachers and pupils as officer and adviser. 4. The relation of the superintendent, state, county, district, or town- ship, to school officers, and their duties. 5. The relation of the state superintendent to the county and town- ship superintendent. 6. The relation of the superintendent to the public at large, as creat- ing and shaping public opinion in rural districts. 7. The relation of the superintendent to school buildings, architec- ture, sanitation, and hygienic conditions. III. Supply of Teachers. Subcommittee: C. C. Rounds, Chairman ; J: Hi Phillips; D> Le Kichle. 1. An inquiry into the assistance rendered rural. schools by the follow- ing facilities for preparation : (2) Normal schools. {4) Training schools in high schools and academies. (c) Summer training schools. (d) Institutes. 2. An inquiry into the means provided for the improvement of teach- ers already in the service. (2) Teachers’ meetings and associations. (4) Reading circles. (¢) Libraries and current literature. 3- An inquiry into the manner of electing, employing, and paying teachers. (2) By what authority examined and certificated. (4) By what authority employed. (c) Terms of engagement, certificates, and salaries paid. IV. Instruction and Discipline. Subcommittee: W. T. Harris, Chair- , man; A. B. Poland, L. E. Wolfe. 1. Methods of teaching and government peculiarly affecting rural schools. ~~ a. - - a a Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 389 2. Courses of study, text-books, and other appliances. 3. Working programmes. 4. Gradation and classification of pupils. 5. The relations of rural schools to their environments; as to farm life, mining life, etc. It was also provided that the investigation of the several subdivisions of the general subject should follow two main lines: 1. The condition of rural schools now existing. 2. Changes to be recommended; whatis, and what should be. It was not thought necessary that the committee should go into his- tory or development farther than to make the conditions that now exist, and the reforms that are recommended, intelligible. It was also recom- . mended that changes to be made, or reforms to be proposed, should have respect to existing facts; that they should be practical in the rational sense of that word. It was further left to the several subcommittees to determine the meth- ods to be employed in carrying on their work, and to exercise the greatest freedom in enlisting aid from every possible source. Each subcommittee was thus left free to formulate such questions as seemed best designed to elicit the desired information in the most definite form. The committee met at Jacksonville, Fla., February 18 and 19, 1896, for consultation and comparison of results. An informal meeting was held during the sessions of the National Educational Association at Buffalo in July, 1896, at which time it was determined to hold a meeting of the full committee at Chicago November 18 to 21,1896. The chairman of each subcommittee was also directed to have such preliminary matter ready at that time as would embrace all the essential points necessary to a fair understanding of the scope of the final report to be made to the Council in July. It was also voted to ask certain experts in rural-school matters to meet with the committee, in order that it might have the benefit of their experience. The committee met at the Auditorium in Chicago, as determined. The entire committee was present at each session, with the exception of D. L. Kiehle, who for satisfactory reasons was not present until Thursday morning. The following gentlemen were present upon invitation of the chairman : John MacDonald, editor of the Western School Journal, Topeka, Kan.; W. W. Stetson, State Superintendent of Maine; J. L. Pickard, of lowa City, Ia.; O. T. Bright, County Superintendent of Cook county, Ill. ; Albert G. Lane, City Superintendent of Chicago; D. E. McClure, County 399 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National Superintendent of Oceana county, Mich.; W. H. Chandler, of Madison, Wis.; President F. W. Parker, of the Chicago Normal School; G. R. Shawhan, County Superintendent of Champaign county, Ill.; John Trainer, of Decatur, Ill.; T. C. Chamberlin, of The University of Chi- cago; J. J. Schobinger, of Morgan Park, Ill.; W. S. Jackman, of the Chicago Normal School; A. W. Edson, State Agent, Boston, Mass. Wednesday and Thursday were devoted to general discussion, one half day being allotted to each of the four subcommittees in the following order: School Maintenance, Supervision, Supply of Teachers, and Instruc- tion and Discipline. Friday and Saturday were devoted to the considera- tion of the preliminary reports submitted by the chairmen of the respective subcommittees. The sessions were held from 9 a.M. to 12 M. and from 3 to 6 p.m. In order to facilitate discussion printed or typewritten copies of the main propositions in each report were placed in the hands of those present. During Friday and Saturday the reports were read section by section, and, after alterations and amendments as suggested by various members of the committee, they were adopted. It was further ordered that the reports of the different subcommittees should appear in the printed volume in the following order: 1. School Maintenance. 2. Supervision. 3. Supply of Teachers. 4. Instruction and Discipline. On motion, the entire matter of printing the report, when completed, was intrusted to the charge of the chairman of the committee, with the suggestion that he confer with the United States Commissioner of Edu- cation in regard to securing the co-operation of the national bureau for publication purposes. T. C. Chamberlin, of The University of Chicago; W. S. Jackman, of the Chicago Normal School, and F. H. King, of Madison, Wis., were requested to prepare a discussion of the possibilities of a course of study especially adapted to agricultural environments. This discussion consti- tutes Appendix G of this report. Appendix A, consisting of a paper read by B. A. Hinsdale before the Department of Superintendence at Jacksonville, is published by order of the committee. The course of study for rural schools and the paper by Dr. White, designated as Appendix J, and the paper by F. W. Parker, Appendix H, are inserted by the same authority. The other matter in the appendix has been placed there in accordance with a vote of the committee, leaving the selection to the choice of the chairman of each subcommittee and of the general committee. Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 391 The date for publication of the report was fixed at from four to six weeks before the meeting of the National Educational Council at Mil- waukee. After determining that the chairman of each subcommittee should send a typewritten or printed copy of his report to each member of the committee before publication for suggestions or amendments, the committee adjourned. In the foregoing historical statement no attempt has been made to follow the exact order of proceedings, but only to gather from the Secre- tary’s records such main points as will give the Council exact information of the methods adopted by the committee. As soon as possible after the adjournment of the committee the chairman of each subcommittee prepared his report, and printed or type- written copies were sent to other members, and also in all cases to persons who were supposed to be able to point out omissions or to suggest altera- tions. As aresult these reports represent the combined experience of many competent persons besides members of the committee. This method led to much correspondence on the part of the chairmen, but it has undoubtedly aided them very materially in making a broader and much more comprehensive report. The committee found itself con- fronted from the beginning with the fact that the environments of schools differ so much in various sections of the country that it is impossible to make other than very general suggestions. Conditions vary so much between Maine and California, or Minnesota and Texas, that what would be an excellent system in one would possibly fail in the other. SCHOOL MAINTENANCE, Those who read the following reports will find that several recom- mendations are made by more than one subcommittee. Thus in the matter of organization the necessity of adopting a larger unit than the district, as the township or the county, is very strenuously insisted upon by two or more subcommittees. It is a fact of such great importance that other essential points hinge upon this. The arguments are very fully stated in the report of the Subcommittee on School Maintenance, but the general committee is fully agreed upon the desirability of effecting this change wherever the district system at present prevails. It would con- duce to effectiveness and simplicity of organization; to economy in the use and distribution of funds; to the equalization of the burdens of taxa- tion, and to a system of supervision which would produce better results from the instruction given in the rural schools. Again, all the subcommittees are strongly in favor of the consolidation of schools which are too small to employ profitably the time of one teacher into larger schools, when practicable, in order that better instruction may be provided than is possible under the present system. This involves 392 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National also paying for the transportation of pupils to some central school at the public expense. The different subcommittees have reached this con- clusion, each from its own standpoint. The inferences drawn from facts and figures are too obvious to need any argument. The conclusions arrived at in the discussion of the two points, organization and con- solidation, are very broad, and would seem to be applicable to some section of nearly every state in the Union. The manner of raising and distributing the revenues has been care- fully investigated, and the subcommittee having that subject in charge seems to have reached very wise and just conclusions. The township, or special district, in which the parents of the pupils reside should contribute to the school funds, as should the county and the state. Every interest concerned in the education of children should bear a proportionate share of the burden of taxation. In the distribution of school funds, because of the community of interests involved in popular education, the strong and wealthy must contribute to the support of schools in weak and impov- erished districts. It may not be possible to provide equal school facilities in every part of the state, but every district in which a school is estab- lished should be assured beyond all doubt of a sufficient sum of money to employ a competent teacher for the minimum number of months or days fixed by the law. The duty of providing for the pupils of the rural schools the means whereby they can have the benefit of high schools in their neighborhood has not been overlooked. It is not necessary to dis- cuss fully these points. Attention is invited to them as set forth in the report of the Subcommittee on School Maintenance. SUPERVISION. The subject of school supervision is discussed under the general divi- sions of state, county, township, and district. The task assigned this sub- committee is difficult because, as far as rural schools are concerned, there are no well-defined lines of work upon which there is a general agree- ment. There is great need of supervision which is intelligent and which carries with it some degree of authority. As a general thing, the officer known as state superintendent has only advisory authority. He can make suggestions, but they carry with them no more force than there is in the character and influence of the officer who makes them. He is too far removed from the rural schools, and is too much engaged in other matters connected with his office, to come into close touch with them and their present interests. No one questions that supervision should be compulsory. In fact, such is the case in most states today. The great question connected with it is how to make it effective. A supervisor who has charge of a hun- dred schools or more, scattered over an entire county, finds it impossible Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 303 to control and direct them in accordance with well-devised plans. Accord- ingly the subcommittee urges township or district supervision where it is practicable, or that each supervisor should have such deputies or assistants as will enable him to reach every part of his field. Again, if supervision is to be effective it must be the product of skill and intelligence. As well put an ordinary seaman, selected from the crew by lot, in charge of an ocean steamer, with its precious cargo of lives and wealth, as to place a raw, uncultivated man or woman, selected by the chances of a political convention, in charge of the schools in which our youth are being trained for citizenship. The subcommittee is of the opinion that certain qualifi- cations, moral and mental, with some experience in teaching, should be exacted from everyone who aspires to the duties of a supervisory office. The duties which are incumbent upon a supervisor of schools have been so minutely discussed that it is not necessary to restate them here. It is sufficient to say that knowledge and skill, enthusiasm and patience, sym- pathy and forbearance, firmness and justice, are requisite in one who would discharge his duties conscientiously and with due regard to the highest good of all concerned. The importance of bringing the school into touch with the farm ‘and the home has been dwelt upon at some length (Appendix O). To this end the supervisor should make himself thoroughly acquainted with peculiar conditions of life in his supervisory district. It is not enough that he visit the school and consult with the teacher. He must: meet school officers and parents, awaken their sympathy and arouse their interest, if he would do his whole duty. He must have a controlling influence in the selection of teachers, in the erection of school buildings, especially as concerns sanitation and hygiene, in teachers’ meetings, and in general school work throughout his entire territory. A wise supervisor cannot fail to observe carefully the environments of the school, which exert a powerful, though unconscious, influence upon the character of the pupils. The bearings of the esthetical upon the ethi- cal side of the child’s nature, the relations of music and art as determin- ing the development of the child along right lines, should be observed and guarded as well in the rural as in the city schools. SUPPLY OF TEACHERS. The question of the support afforded teachers is one great hindrance in the way of improving the rural school. The following table, showing the average monthly salaries paid teachers in rural schools, has been com- piled from answers to circulars sent out to state superintendents. It is unfortunate that in most states the statistics make no distinction between city and rural school-teachers. Consequently many of the returns are 394 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National estimated. They are valuable, however, for purposes of comparison and general information. Males | Females Males |Females A labamanir ae season capaie ete $25 $20 Missouritiece ne eee $40 $34 Arian Sasi nmanp eo eeiuee ees, © 33 201i Montatiaec.c.1-1etece siete 60 45 Galiiorntaysicmacceterie siertonste =< 67 56~ Nebraska erraceure aera 35 30 Colorado 2tees nace ene 50 45 Nevada Saes.cne scree aa ene 85 60 Conne€tticut a asics os says «is 30 30 New Hampshire .........- 30 30 WDOLA WATE saency acevo cciele cs a 35 33 New York4 7. acters. 37 yi MLITINOIS ee ctok stsaae + shatstes aids 30 25 Ohio seek eites eetcmreerats 35 29 INGA oo eesas apse) sine cscs 40 35 Pennsylvania5.........--- 42 33 LOK ETS ci Scie ec aeetns eee 35 30" ||| Rhodesislandsy scsetsa ace 40 36 IGanTiSAS™ dig Macralene ne cicero ee 40 32 Southi@arolisia.ereters te 30 27 Reemtuclaynwitee excuse osteeie 36 BA Wi south sDalkcotaaseiteairteeteae 36 31 TFOUISIAN A, erecta fe crore cenere ore 40 33 Vitali eon suoeee aus een eeet 53 37 MiaIN€ Peecttenas aiqetaeie aici. 35 22 WiErMlOnl Ae se ueiele slayer ete tare 39 27 Wiekavenelncceg sbomoncc Game 29 29 \Nieiyeaten abe boc can tous es 28 25 Massachusetts.s:. sre cmccre vice 32 26 Wrest Virginia ....-...«-+- 36 36 Michigans: .ciseteciecs sale cele 29 25 WaASCOMSIM sce alenerenel uerateter ere 46 30 WOTTON) C5656 cas ooade 40 31 Amon oooccy ocd coe Sue 45 40 In connection with above table we must take into account that in only a few states is the average length of the school over eight months. This includes cities and towns, as well as rural districts, so that it is fair to conclude that in general the country teacher finds employment not to exceed seven months in a year, and often not more than five or six. The subcommittee regrets that so few are able to apprehend the quali- ties essential to a good teacher. Professional fitness is ignored in nearly every case. The smaller the unit of organization, the greater is the dis- position to engage teachers for short periods of time. All engagements should be for one year at least, and frequent changes of teachers should be discouraged. Perhaps the most important subject intrusted to this subcommittee has reference to the training and preparation of teachers. There is no doubt that the normal school in most states does not reach down and take hold of the common district school. There is room, as indicated in the report, for a series of normal training classes with a course of one year, or at most two years, not modeled after a state normal school, but suited in all respects to the needs of a class of young people from whom we draw nearly all our rural school-teachers. Instruction for one year in such a school could be made to so inspire students with a desire for knowledge, ‘Includes schools of not more than two teachers. * Includes the schools in the agricultural sections only. 5 Based on fifty-two male teachers and 143 female teachers in towns under $500,000 valuation. 4 $9.26 a week, counting thirty-three and one-third weeks in a year. 5 Not including the city of Philadelphia, Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 395 to so fill them with the teaching spirit, as to work a most beneficent change in the schools coming under their charge. The proposition to establish continuous sessions in normal schools, as set forth in the sub- committee’s report, is full of promise for the improvement of rural school-teachers without withdrawing them from active service. The terms and courses could, under the plan, be so adjusted as to enable them to attend a normal school for work in regular courses of study during that large part of the year not occupied in teaching. A course for one year is indicated below. If extended to two years, the extension should consist not so much in the introduction of new branches as in doing something more than elementary work in the branches already in the curriculum. COURSE OF STUDY FOR ONE YEAR OF FORTY WEEKS. General Divisions First Term Second Term Language. Reading and Literature.| Grammar. > Elements of Rhetoric. Mathematics. Arithmetic. Geometry. Algebra. Natural and Physical Science. ; Geography. Botany. Elements of Chemistry. | Elementary Physics. History. U.S. History. General History. Civil Government. Biography. Professional Studies. School Economy. Physiology with special reference Elementary Psychology} to hygienic conditions. Practice Teaching. Practice Teaching. The number of lessons in each branch per week must be determined by the conditions and necessities of the class. Singing and drawing should have such a place as their importance demands. At least two lessons per week for each of them should be insisted upon. The course of study to be completed in one year is arranged according to relation of subjects and not according to order of study. It embraces, so far as elements are concerned, those subjects which are necessary in order to enable a teacher to deal with organic and inorganic nature, with history and civil government, with literature and language, and with so much of music and art as the conditions of the school will admit. While provision is made for professional training, the success of such a course as this as a means for preparing teachers for their work will depend almost entirely upon the good judgment and skill of those who are intrusted with the management of the school. The tendency to overload 396 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National such a course, to crowd two years’ work into one, will have to be very carefully guarded against. The entire course is intended to be only ele- mentary, and is for the benefit of a large class of teachers who have but little preparation, and are not able from various reasons to devote more than one year’s time to attendance upon a normal school. The advan- tages of a school of this nature would be greatly enlarged by the possession of a carefully selected library, and of sufficient apparatus for purposes of illustration and experiment. If the students could be taught to make this apparatus, with maps, charts, etc., for use in rural schools, it would add to their usefulness as teachers. Very great advantage would accrue to the pupils from coming in contact with disciplined minds in the persons of their instructors. But few rural teachers know how to study or how to get the most out of the books which fall into their hands. Summer schools, reading circles, and institutes have received their share of attention. The whole ground has been well covered and wil] repay a careful perusal. The scheme for the examination and certification of teachers has been thoroughly digested. There will be some who may not agree with the subcommittee in all particulars, but no one will dispute the fact that too many teachers in the rural schools are contented with the lowest grade of certificate which will answer the purpose of the law. There is a great necessity for some scheme such as is here recommended, whereby teachers can rise step by step in their calling, if they earnestly desire to improve. On the other hand, this scheme furnishes a reasonable excuse for not afford- ing further professional recognition of any kind to those who show no disposition or no ability to do anything better in the line of preparation for their work. INSTRUCTION AND DISCIPLINE. The report under this head will be found to embrace several important recommendations. Some of these will provoke discussion, but most of them are of such a nature as to commend themselves to every thoughtful person. ‘The report opens a broad field of inquiry, which must of neces- sity receive more attention as the wants and necessities of rural schools are better considered. The evils of attempting to grade the rural school as the city school is graded are very clearly set forth, accompanied by the suggestion that those normal schools which as part of their work train teachers for rural schools should carefully impress upon such teachers the necessity of considering the size of the school in determining the uses and abuses of grading and classifying pupils. This suggestion is all the more pertinent in view of the movement in many states to require some previous professional training as a prerequisite for entering any public school as a teacher. Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 397 Considering that the course of study for the rural school need not differ in any material point from that provided for the city school, it is urged that the aim of such a course is to enable the pupil to recognize the con- ditions of inorganic and organic nature, and to pursue the studies of literature, language, and history, as they are necessary for his entrance upon civilization. The difference in courses of study for rural or city schools is found to be in those collateral branches which relate to the envi- ronment of the pupil or to the neighborhood in which he dwells. The report upon this point is very full and will repay a careful study of its details. The subcommittee calls especial attention to the relation of the course of study to the system of grading and classification. The sugges- tions made are of great practical value in any discussion which endeavors to determine the method of adapting a course of study to the wants and con- ditions of rural schools. It cannot but be very helpful to be told that the course of study is the measuring rod used only to determine at what point in his work the pupil has arrived, and not a Procrustean bed used to give the work the lifeless beauty of a dead uniformity. The consolidation of those schools which have become so reduced in numbers as to render it unprofitable to maintain them separately, the trans- portation of pupils at public expense to other schools than their own, and the concentration of higher-grade pupils at a central point, are urged as means of lessening many of the evils from which rural schools are suffer- ing. This provision, having been grafted into the law of several states, bids fair to prove of great benefit. Wherever it has been tried it has commended itself as economical, and as a means of affording better teachers and consequently better schools. The matter of improved roads enters incidentally into this discussion, as having great bearing upon the question of transporting children to central points for school purposes. In connection with school exercises at the town or county center, once or twice a year, competitive examinations are not recommended, unless they are very carefully guarded. The feature of social intercourse, the stimulus which comes from meeting with his mates, have advantages which ought not to be overlooked or neglected. Home reading, with what is termed school extension, is dwelt upon at such length as its prominence demands (Afpendix O). To carry good reading material, whether of science, literature, or fiction, prose or poetry, into the schools and homes of the rural districts must be a part of any educational scheme which has for its object making country life more endurable or more attractive. The various recommendations of this part of the report are worthy of careful consideration at the hands of those even who may not wholly agree with them. a 398 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National CONCLUSION. Your committee has called in the aid of a number of persons whose time and thought have been largely given to matters connected with the management and instruction best suited to the wants of rural schools. It was found impossible to embrace the entire matter placed at our dis- posal in the body of the report. We have, therefore, printed much of it in the form of an appendix, believing that it will add largely to the value of this report. It is not to be supposed that every point has been covered, or that the entire subject has been exhausted. The committee has endeavored diligently and to the best of its ability to throw some light upon what may possibly be regarded as a collection of subjects embracing avery large field. While there are many points worthy of especial atten- tion, I have gathered up the following as a brief summary of those which may be considered of most pressing importance: SUMMARY. 1. For purposes of organization, maintenance, or supervision, noth- ing should be recognized as the unit smaller than the township or the county ; the school district is the most undesirable unit possible. 2. Every community should be required to raise a certain sum for the support of its schools as a prerequisite for receiving its share of public money. A certain definite sum should be appropriated to each school out of the state funds, and the remainder should be divided in accordance with some fixed and established rule, a discrimination being made in favor of townships most willing to tax themselves for school purposes. 3- One of the great hindrances to the improvement of the rural school lies in its isolation, and its inability to furnish to the pupil that stimu- lative influence which comes from contact with others of his own age and advancement. The committee, therefore, recommends collecting pupils from small schools into larger and paying from the public funds for their transportation, believing that in this way better teachers can be provided, more rational methods of instruction adopted, and at the same time the expense of the schools can be materially lessened. 4. There is a tendency to fill the rural schools with untrained, imma- ture teachers. The establishment of normal training schools, under competent instructors, with short courses, each year of which shall be complete in itself, would do much to remedy this evil. The extension and adjustment of the courses and terms of the state normal schools so as to constitute a continuous session would enable them to contribute more directly than now to the improvement of the teachers of rural schools (Agpendix S). The state would then be justified in demanding some degree of professional training from every teacher in the rural as well as in the city schools. te Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 399 5. The establishment of libraries, the prosecution of the work of school extension by lectures and other means, the introduction of such studies as will have a tendency to connect the school and the home, especially those having a direct bearing upon the everyday life of the community, and the necessity of applying the laws of sanitation to the construction of rural schoolhouses, demand immediate attention. 6. The rural schools are suffering from the want of official and intel- ligent supervision. In every state some standard of qualifications, moral and intellectual, with some amount of actual experience, should be demanded by law from those who aspire to fill the office of superintendent or supervisor of schools. 7. Good morals and good manners constitute an assential part of an educational equipment. The inculcation of patriotism, of respect for law and order, of whatever tends to make a good citizen, is of as much impor- tance in asmall asina larger school. Regularity, punctuality, obedience, industry, self-control, are as necessary in the country as in the city school. Country school-teachers should call to their aid the beautiful things in nature, that with reverential spirit they may lead the children to reverence Him who hath made all things good in their season. HENRY SABIN, Chairman. REPORT OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON SCHOOL MAINTENANCE. The maintenance of an efficient state system of public instruction involves numerous sociological factors of an important character. This is particularly true in a democratic state, where public opinion gives the final sanction to all public activities. Moreover, there is good reason to think that it is even more important to consider such factors carefully when providing rural schools than when providing urban schools. The bearing of the wealth of the state, both in the aggregate and in relation to population; the density of population and the ratio of rural to urban population; the ratio of the adult or wealth-producing population to the population of legal school age; the facilities for travel and the character of the people in respect to race elements—the value of such factors as these in the problem is almost too plain for argument (Appendix A). The organization and administration of the powers of government must also be considered. The government of the United States stands to all the members of the Union in the same relation; that is, within the states it has no proper educational function whatever. The state government, however, is a constant factor: it exercises the central state authority. But 400 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National when we take the next step we are at once confronted by contradiction and confusion. First, we find in New England the town system of local government. Here nearly all the local governmental functions are per- formed by the town; the county exists, but it is more a judicial than a political unit, and in Rhode Island it is wholly judicial. The town is much, the county little. Secondly, the county system, which exists throughout the South and in several of the western states, more than reverses these conditions. The county is the organ of local govern- ment, and the township does not commonly exist. The county is divided into districts for the purpose of defining the jurisdiction of justices of the peace, into election precincts, and sometimes into school townships. Here the county is everything, the town nothing. Thirdly, the old middle states and most of the western states have what is called the mixed or compromise system. In these states the township is less than in New England and the county more, the county less than in the South and the township more; in other words, both township and county are employed in something like equal measure. Again, two types of the mixed system are found in different states. In New York and the states that have imitated her the county legislative and executive board is composed of supervisors elected by the several townships, while in Pennsylvania and the states that have followed her example this board is composed of commissioners elected by the county at large. The county is, therefore, a governmental organ in all the states, while the town- ship is found only in two groups of states. Moreover, in those states where the town or township is found it varies considerably in powers in comparison with the county. These elementary governmental facts it is necessary to remember, because they directly affect the matter in hand. Manifestly, the people will not be apt to create local organs of government for any one single purpose unless they deem it absolutely necessary; on the other hand, they will manifestly use for any such purpose, as far as consistent, the same organs that they use for other local purposes. This is just as true of schools and education as of other publicinterests. Except that Vermont has a county examiner of teachers, no mention is made of the county in any New England school law;* no mention is made of the town or township in any southern state; while the states that have the compromise system use both the county and the township as organs for carrying on their schools. It will be seen that no account is here taken of the city or municipality, because this is common to all the states and does not relate to rural schools. *Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire once enacted laws creating the county super- intendency, but these laws did not remain long on the statute books. No state is likely to use the county for an administrative school purpose unless it uses it for other adminis- trative purposes. Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 401 An ambiguity in the use of the term /own is also to be mentioned. The ¢ownship of the middle and western states corresponds in general to the New England own; while in these states the /own is a village, hamlet, or even city. All the recommendations made in this report will recognize distinctly the facts now stated. Still another preliminary explanation is called for. The term district, as used in school legislation and in educational discussions, is very mis- leading. The two leading senses of the word must be sharply discrimi- nated. This can be done by describing the two principal forms of local school organization. 1. Zhe Town- or Township-unit System.—This is something wholly different or separate from the town system of local government described above. The two systems may exist together, but not of necessity so; the town- or township-unit system, called also the sown-district system, is found in connection with both the town and the compromise systems of local government; it could not exist with the county system, as a matter of course. The town system of local government relates to local affairs generally; the town- or township-district system to schools only. The name fownship-untt system means only that the town or township is the ultimate unit of school organization and administration. This unit, with such assistance as it receives from the state or county, provides and carries on its own schools independent of any other unit. It raises funds by taxation and expends them, subject only to the law of the state. It is the organized town’or township, a body corporate and politic, under its educational aspect. The local authority is sometimes a school committee, as in Massachusetts; sometimes a board of education, as in Ohio, and again a township trustee, as in Indiana. Again, the township-unit sys- tem does not necessarily involve the consolidation of rural schools. The school children within the unit may all be brought together in one cen- tral school at some advantageous point, or they may attend a plurality of schools scattered through the township. In the second case, the limits or boundaries of the several schools must be marked off for the regulation of school attendance, unless indeed pupils are permitted to attend such schools as they please, and these areas are commonly called dstricts or school districts. In Ohio they are known as suddistricts, and they serve also as units of representation in the township board.* Here, then, are *The explanation of the Ohio law on this point is historical. Previous to 1892 the township was the school district proper, but this was divided into subdistricts. The town- ship board of education raised all the local funds by a tax levied on the taxable property of the township, and apportioned them among the subdistricts; the subdistrict boards of directors employed the teachers and carried on the schools. The voters of the subdistrict, in annual school meeting, elected the three directors, one every year, for three years, and these again elected one of their number clerk, who represented his subdistrict in the township board. Under the Workman Law of 1892 all the old powers of the directors 402 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National two clear uses of the term ds¢rict: one is the town or township, and the other a part of the town or township defined primarily for the regulation of school attendance, but also sometimes serving as a unit of representa- tion. 2. The District System.—Here district is used in quite another sense. Geographically, the school district is now commonly a subdivision of a town, as in Connecticut, or of a township, as in Michigan, or of a county, as in the county-system states. Ordinarily it is a body politic and corpo- rate, and is the ultimate unit of school organization and administration. It has its own school committee or-board elected by the voters of the dis- trict, in school meeting, and, with such help as it receives from the state or county, it builds its own schoolhouse and provides and carries on its own school or schools. It is, therefore, a taxing as well as an administrative unit. Under this system the district is the controlling factor of school organization. Not only is it the most democratic form of school organi- zation, but it has been called “‘ probably the most communistic as well as democratic feature of our political institutions, and is certainly the small- est minor civil division of our system.”’* Still other districts are mentioned in the laws and reports, as special districts, city districts, borough districts, joint districts, and the like; but these names do not present any new features of an essential character. These explanations premised, the subcommittee will divide this report into three grand divisions, vzz., Revenue, Distribution, and Organ- ization. The last topic, however, will be considered ‘only so far as relates to school maintenance. By school maintenance is meant the provision and support of public schools. REVENUE. The subcommittee submits that the first essential to the material improvement of the rural schools of the country is the provision of revenue sufficient for their adequate support. Accordingly, this is the first subject to be considered. The educational items in the budgets of all progressive countries have assumed great proportions, and are all the time growing. The Commissioner of Education reports the expenditure for common schools in the states of our Union for the year 1894-95, not including payments on bonds, at $178,215,556. Seven states expended more than $5,000,000 and less than $10,000,000 each, and five more than $10,000,000 and less were transferred to the township board, but the subdistrict was left for the regulation of school attendance and to serve as a unit of representation in the township board. *Mr. Wellford Addis, specialist in the Bureau of Education. See chap. xxxiv. of the Report for 1894-95, “The Social Unit in the Public School System of the United States.” Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 403 than $20,000,000 each. New York alone stood above $20,000,000. In 1888-89 the total for the country was $132,129,000, and in 1883-84 only $103,909,528. Buty unfortunately, we have no statistics showing the division of these vast sums between the rural districts and the towns and cities. A czty, in the dictionary of the National Census Office, is a con- centration of population containing 8,000 people or more of all ages, and in 1894-95 there were 574 cities in the country. The Commissioner of Education reports for the year 1894-95 that 3,302,841 children were enrolled in the schools of these cities, to 10,894,911 enrolled in other schools. He reports further that the maintenance of these city schools cost $74,721,332, of the others $102,876,359. But this is no proper division of rural and urban schools, since the educational conditions exist- ing in many centers of population containing less than 8,000 people are the same as those existing in the 574 cities. At present it costs much more to school 1,000, 10,000, or I00,000 children in the cities than in the country, but this is mainly due to the fact that the education furnished is so much greater in quantity and so much better in quality. It is not improbable that, if rural schools were brought as near as possible to the level of urban schools, they would be quite as costly. At least, it is evi- _ dent that the first condition of good rural schools is a sufficiency of funds with which to provide and maintain them. How shall these funds be provided? I. A century ago the American people began to take an interest in the creation of permanent school funds or endowments. ‘This interest was originally stimulated, if not created, by the policy that Congress foreshadowed in 1785, and subsequently firmly established, to endow the common schools in the public-land states with liberal grants of public lands. In every state in which Congress has exploited the wild lands either one-thirty-sixth or one-eighteenth part of such lands has been dedicated to the public schools. Beginning with Connecticut in 1795, nearly all the non-public-land states have also created such endowments out of their own resources.. Several of them devoted the United States deposit fund of 1837 to this purpose. At the beginning of the century no one dreamed to what proportions public education would grow in one hundred years; and men thought, not unnaturally, that permanent endowments would greatly ease the burden of taxation for school pur- poses, and would keep the educational machinery of the state constantly running and well regulated. It will not be denied that, relatively, these funds have come far short of meeting the expectations of those who laid their foundations. There can be little doubt that, in many of the states, and particularly when such states were new and poor, they have hastened educational development; but it is quite certain that they have often done great harm, causing the people to rely upon the feeble income 404 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [ National derived from them, and to turn their faces away from the only adequate source of school maintenance, that is, public taxation. Texas has been gazetted as having the most magnificent possibilities of any state in the way of a permanent school fund, but some citizens of that state are now questioning whether these possibilities may not prove other than an unmixed blessing (Agpendix B). The fact is, public schools in the United States have far outgrown all present or prospective endowments. In 1888-89 the income from such funds was $9,825,000 in a total of $132,- 125,111; in 1894-95 the corresponding figures were $8,336,612 and $177,- 597,691; that is, the per cent. fell.from 7.4 to 4.7 in six years. New York and Ohio derive less than $300,000 each of their great school reve- nues from permanent funds, and Pennsylvania derives nothing from such asource. In fact, it would require a permanent fund of $400,000,000 to carry on, at the present scale of expenditure, the common schools of either New York or Pennsylvania. The subcommittee submits, there- fore, that all permanent school funds, either state or local, should be carefully husbanded and wisely administered ; that they should be pre- served intact, and the income be scrupulously applied to the support of schools; that, under special conditions, it may be wise to augment old funds or create new ones, as when certain miscellaneous revenues can be devoted to that purpose; but that such funds must necessarily play a constantly diminishing part in popular education. Massachusetts is com- mitted to the policy of adding to her fund $100,000 a year, raised by taxation, until a total of $5,000,000 shall be reached, and New Jersey to the policy of similarly dedicating the proceeds of certain riparian rights that belong to the state; and to this there is no objection; but for these states, or any others, to lean heavily upon such funds for school maintenance would be a most fatuous policy. Public educa- tion is, or at least should be, a recognized function or service of the state; the public schools of the country are civil schools, created and carried on by the civic authority, and they must rest ultimately, upon the same general means of support as the other functions or services of gov- ernment. As well, therefore, endow any other branch or function of the state government, such as the asylums and hospitals, the judiciary, the civil service, or the militia, as the state schools! II. Gifts to popular education should be sedulously encouraged. Education has long been a favorite object with public benefactors, as the annals of every progressive country show, and none more convincingly than our own. No doubt when the public mind is aroused to the advan- tages of popular education, and school taxes are abundant, such persons who choose an educational object for their beneficence will rather be inclined to seek some other form or kind of education. Still, the con- stitution or laws of nearly every state, if not indeed every one, provide Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 405 for the acceptance and use of private gifts for school purposes, and there are generous persons who are peculiarly interested in the common schools. Scattered over the country are many local public-school-endow- ments that had a private origin, and such gifts have not come to an end. The subcommittee is not aware that there are any statistics showing how far private benevolence contributes to public education, but it is apprised that the contribution is by no means contemptible, and it believes that it might be made considerably larger than it is. The favorite forms of such contributions, under existing conditions, are most likely to be land for building sites, and apparatus and libraries for schools; and the subcommittee is of the firm opinion that much more could be done than at present in all these directions, and particularly in the way of pro- curing apparatus and books for the schools in communities where the public funds that are available for these purposes are meager or insuf- ficient. Ill. The great resource of the public school zs, and must continue to de, some form or forms of public taxation. The ratio of the total school revenues derived from taxes to those derived from permanent funds is all the time growing, and it will continue to grow. At two periods sepa- rated by six years the sources of the common-school revenues expressed ir per cents. were as follows: Year Taxes Permanent funds Other sources 1888-89..... ifie 85.9 7-4 6.7 1894-95....- pein aes: 85.7 4.7 9.6 Manifestly such areas or units of taxation should be created, or con- tinued if already in existence, as will fully develop the sound American principle, that she whole wealth of the state shall be made available for edu- cating all the youth of the state. This is both right and necessary, for it mnust be remembered that, in the United States, education is a civil, or state, function, to be supported like other similar functions. What shall these units of taxation be? The subcommittee names those following as coming under the principle just stated : 1. The State—A liberal provision of funds from the state treasury, to be distributed according to some rational method, is indispensable, as a rule, to the maintenance of a good system of state schools. Formerly the burden was mainly or wholly thrown upon the local units. The old Massachusetts plan was to throw upon the towns the whole burden of maintaining their own schools. But the greatly increased cost of schools, growing out of enhanced salaries, longer terms, and improved material equipment, long ago demonstrated that this plan must be materially 406 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [ National modified. Many local taxing units are too poor to carry such a load, and they must either abandon all hope of good schools, or they must receive assistance from the state or social whole. This fact began to gain recognition as early as the middle of the century. When the constitu- tion of Ohio, adopted in 1851, provided that the legislature should make such provisions, by taxation or otherwise, as, with the interest arising from the permanent school fund, would secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state, the law-making power hastened to levy upon all the property of the state, as rated by the assess- ors, a state school tax of two mills-on the dollar, to be distributed on the basis of the school enumeration. Taking the country together, the cost of public education is divided between two or more taxing units. Still the fact remains that the part which falls to the local unit is often disproportionate. In 1888-89 the per cent. of the total amount of school revenues raised by local taxation was 66.8 to 19.1 per cent. raised by state taxation. In 1894-95 the corresponding per cents. were 67 and 18.7. The ratio of the two elements is variable in different divisions of the Union and in different states of the same division. The per cents. raised by state tax, as reported, range all the way from zero to a maximum of 83.2, found in North Carolina. We should naturally expect the southern states, since local government is there less fully developed than at the North, to rely relatively much less on local taxation and much more on state taxation, and such is the fact. But political habit is not the only factor that enters into the problem; economical conditions also assert themselves. Ina state where wealth abounds, and is somewhat evenly distributed throughout its limits, as where manufacturing and commer- cial towns are frequent, there is not the same necessity for the state, as a unit, to assume a large proportion of the whole burden that there is in a state where wealth is meager, and where such wealth as exists is largely found in a few concentrations of population, leaving large areas thinly populated and poor. These remarks will throw light on the per cents. of school moneys raised by state taxation and local taxation in the five divisions of states that the Census Office recognizes. The date is 1894-95. (See also Appendix B.) No account is here taken of income from other sources than taxation. Divisions State taxes Local taxes North; AtlantictsStates..... es eesenee: 19.4 68.2 SouthvAtlantien states. dien emer 38.1 53 South) Centralestatess lee aot nees 48.4 S127) North CentraliStates) capes eerie 9.9 75-4 Western Division........ Sarsteneld teianstenees 23.0 61.3 Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 407 In some of the states, as will be shown hereafter, local taxation must be more fully developed than in the past or present; in others, and these principal states too, the same may be said of state taxation. 2. In all states where, for other local purposes, the county is the sole unit of taxation, a liberal county tax should be levied for the schools. This proposition applies especially to those states where the county sys- tem of local government prevails. In states where, for such purposes, the county is a large unit of taxation, it may be wise to levy a county school tax; that circumstances must determine. This remark applies to the states having the mixed system of local government. Under the town system county taxation for schools would be out of harmony with the social and political traditions of the people, and could be accomplished only through a change of habit; perhaps this end is attainable. For the year 1894-95 the Commissioner of Education shows that 67 per cent. of the total school revenues of the country came from local taxes. The scale ran from 1.7 per cent. in North Carolina to 98.2 in Massachusetts. Unfortunately we have no statistics showing from what sources the local taxes come; how much from districts, towns, and counties respectively. The point must, however, be strongly pressed that local supply for public education should be forthcoming as well as state supply. It is a great mistake to teach the people to look altogether, or mainly, to the state treasury for school maintenance. They should rather be taught to depend in due measure upon themselves. It is the confident opinion of the subcommittee that some states are now committing this mistake. Many states having the county system of local government have in the counties a resource for school maintenance upon which they have never adequately drawn. 3. In those states where the town or township is a large taxing unit for other local purposes it should also be made to contribute liberally to public education. This recommendation it would be idle to urge in most of the southern and in some of the western states, because the civil town or township does not exist, and it would be vain to urge its creation for school purposes exclusively. But in those states where the town and mixed sys- tems of local government exist a township school tax would be congru- ous with the general social and political habits of the people. The desira- bility of local taxation for school purposes was urged under the last head. Such taxation develops self-reliance and local character, and tends to awaken and keep alive the interest of the people in the schools. The town was the sole school-taxing unit in old New England, and it is still a prominent, Sometimes almost an exclusive, one throughout the north- ern states. The local school taxes of New England are town and district taxes, and, taken together, they range from the minimum of 69.2 per cent. of the whole in Maine to 98.2 in Massachusetts. It can hardly be 408 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National oa eS eee doubted that the New England states, as well as some others, now throw the burden too heavily upon the towns and districts, and that they will find it advantageous considerably to raise the ratio which state taxation bears to local taxation. The other New England states will probably fol- low, sooner or later, the example of Maine, which raises nearly one-third of her school money by state taxation. In some states, no doubt, the town- ships should carry a heavier weight than at present, at least as compared with districts; at all events, the township should bear a reasonable part of the cost of its own education. 4. Special districts, as incorporated villages, towns, and cities, the sub- committee considers not only proper but necessary units of school taxa- tion. Such districts are the concentrations, large or small, of population and wealth ; they are the industrial and social centers of the country. We have already seen that, in 1893-94, $69,886,413 was expended for school purposes in the 443 cities ofthe Union. In Massachusetts $7,088,- ooo was expended in cities; in New York, $12,723,000; in Pennsylvania, $7,745,000; in Ohio, $5,097,000; in Illinois, $8,110,000. If we had the figures for the smaller cities and the incorporated towns, the aggregate would be much increased. Now, not only do the cities, taken together, raise by taxation nearly all of the school money that is expended in them, but, as will be shown in another place, any of them contribute largely to the support of rural schools. Again, they must in the future, collectively as before, contribute still more largely to this end. Special districts, then, are essential as taxing units, care being taken to secure approximately a fair distribution of the public burdens. As a rule, dwellers in cities are much better able to pay heavy taxes than dwellers in the country, but there is great reason to fear that they do not always do so. The school district, in the commonly accepted sense of that term, is not a desirable taxing unit, but the contrary. It is now such a unit in a majority of states, and the subcommittee is decidedly of the opinion that it should either be made much less prominent than it is or be abolished altogether. Asa rule, the second course is to be preferred (except in special districts already mentioned). The town or township is the smallest area that should be employed for this purpose. Even this may be over- weighted, as can easily be shown. The unanswerable objections to dis- trict taxation are the inequality in burdens that results, and the inability of many districts to carry the load that good schools would necessarily impose upon them. A few statistics will inake both propositions per-’ fectly clear. In 1871 Superintendent Fallows, of Wisconsin, published a table showing the amount of property assessed per scholar, in the school districts of a certain township, which he believed to bea type of the state of things generally existing throughout that state. The maximum was $2,860; the Council | REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 409 minimum, $784; the average, $1,378. In 1878 Superintendent Graham, of the same state, published a table for the whole state, showing that the valuation of property per district varied from $2,300 to $1,979,708. Dis- tricts with less than $3,000 and districts with $40,000 were found in the same township. But the poor districts were required by law to maintain a school six months in the year, just as the rich ones were. The ratio of district taxation ranged from half a mill to fifty-five mills on the dollar. Superintendent Wells, of Wisconsin, published similar facts in 1893 for a number of states. He showed that in Rhode Island some districts were taxed fourteen times as heavily as others, and in Connecticut a similar disproportion existed. In New York the ratio of tax raised in two coun- ties varied from .oor2 per cent. in one district to .o431 in another. One township presented the extremes .ooog and .oo07o, and still another one .0048 and .0371. Two districts in one township paid respectively $5.66 and $58.11 per capita ; two in another one, $5.43 and $60.37; two in a third, $11.25 and $181.85. ‘‘Thatis tosay,” says Mr. Wells, “the rate of taxation is seven times as great in one district as in another in the same town, and the per-capita cost of educating a child is eleven times as great.”* But the first of these New York comparisons presents a ratio of almost forty to one. Statistics such as these could be collected almost without limit. The most instructive way to study the subject is, so to speak, on the ground. If a man unfamiliar with it, who lives under the independent district sys- tem, will only take the trouble to collect the facts relating to his own county he may easily be astonished at the result. And yet, as a rule, the law lays upon the districts, rich and poor alike, the same burdens in respect to school maintenance. It is hard to see how or why the peo- ple have so long borne such inequalities—inequalities so contrary to the cherished American principle that the property of the state should educate the youth of the state; or, rather, it would be hard to see why they have borne them, if we did not know the extent of the public ignorance on the subject, and the strength of conservative habit, and did not see also how the district as a taxing unit is bound upin men’s minds with the district as a unit of administration. But the two are not insepa- rable. The legislature of Ohio abolished the district as a taxing unit twenty-five years or more before it abolished the district as an adminis- trative unit. In Connecticut, too, town taxes and district management are both met with in the same towns. Before dismissing units of school taxation, a single point calls for This is raised by the question: What is the advantage closer attention. of looking to large units for supply rather than small ones ? The answer to this question rests upon the fundamental assumption «Township System of School Government.” Madison, Wis., 1894. 410 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National that public education is a state function, and that the whole state is responsible for the education of all the youth of the state. Now, if the cost of public education bore the same ratio to the ability of the people to bear this cost in all the communities of the state, or, what is nearly the same thing, if the wealth per capita of all the communities were equal, then, as a matter of course, it would make no difference whether the school tax were levied upon large areas or small ones. But this is far from being the case. The cities are indeed concentrations of both absolute popula- tion and school population, as well as of wealth; but their wealth tends to increase much more rapidly than-either the absolute or the school pop- ulation. The fortunes of the country are either made in the cities or else tend to flow into the cities. The last report of the Census Office shows the per-capita wealth of the Union, of the states severally, and of the five groups of states, but it does not show the per-capita wealth of the cities and of the rural districts separately. The nearest approach to it is the tables showing the per-capita value of real estate with improvements, by states and counties. These averages throw important light upon the sub- ject, and some examples will be given. Illinois: state average, $860.88; highest county average, $1,311.90; lowest county average, $164.64. Massachusetts: state average, $848.01; highest county average, $1,564.10; lowest county average, $466.65. 5 New York: state average, $969.66; highest county average, $1,733.35; lowest county average, $305.80. ; Ohio: state average, $689.01 ; highest county average, $1,562.56; low- est county average, $265.99. Pennsylvania: state average, $719.13; highest county average, $1,049.88 ; lowest county average, $187.26. If personal property were included, the extremes per capita would be still more widely separated than they are at present. Formal argument is not needed to show that the rich counties are much more able to con- tribute to the.expense of government, education included, than the poor ones, and the proposition that a due proportion of such expense should be thrown upon these units rests upon this fact. The tendency would be to remove inequalities in bearing the common burden. Levying the local school tax upon the township instead of the districts that compose it, Or upon the county instead of the townships, would work in this direction. It is very true that townships are unequal in per-capita wealth as well as districts, and counties as well as townships; still the fact remains that large units are less unequal than small ones. Every step towards the highest taxing unit tends to distribute the burden more equally. In fact, the argument for removing a portion of the burden from the small taxing units to the large ones is the same that justifies us Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS ‘ 411 in calling upon society to educate individuals or families that are too poor to provide for their own education. Why do we impose a public tax for educational purposes at all? Simply because education is a com- mon interest, while some individuals or families are unable to educate themselves. : It may be said that the line of reasoning which has been followed would lead to placing the whole burden of state education at the door of the state treasury. Why should not the state defray the cost of the com- mon schools, just as it defrays the cost of the reform schools for boys and girls, and of the asylums and hospitals? It must be confessed that this would be strict logic. However, we are to remember that governments are never carried on according to strict logic, and cannot be from the very nature of the case. What is more, there are the best of reasons, as shown above, for making education, to a reasonable degree, a local charge —reasons that do not apply to some other public services. The people are more likely to be vitally interested in the schools if a portion of their cost is derived from local taxes. In no country of the world, so far as the subcommittee is aware, is elementary education made an exclusive general charge. It is not desirable that it should be. The present contention is for a reasonable distribution among the several tax- ing units. At the same time, it may be worth observing that in some countries there is a strong tendency, as in England and France, to rely more than formerly upon general rather than local supply. The appropriations for schools that states make from the common treasury differ greatly in form as well as in amount. Massachusetts levies no state school tax, but the legislature nevertheless votes various specific appropriations, as for the salaries and expenses of state agents, aid to pupils of normal schools, compensation of local superintendents, the pay- ment of high-school tuition for pupils living in towns whose valuation of property does not exceed $500,000 and that do not maintain a high school. Connecticut raises annually a state school tax equal in amount to $1.50 multiplied by the number of persons in the state between the ages of four and sixteen, as enumerated annually. Rhode Island, while not levying ~ a state school tax, so-called, votes enough money out of the state treas- ury, each year, to make, with the income of the permanent fund, a total of $120,000. New York raises annually, by taxation based on the real and personal property of the state, such sum for the support of schools as the legislature shall determine. New Jersey assesses and col- lects a total state tax amounting to $5 for each person in the state between the ages of five and eighteen years. It is this tax that places New Jersey at the head of the column of northern states in respect to the per cent. of school revenue derived from a state tax. The constitution of Pennsylvania provides that the state legislature shall appropriate every . 412 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION PNationsl year $1,000,000 from the state treasury for the use of schools, but the present appropriation is $5,500,000. Ohio levies a tax of one mill on the dollar of the grand tax duplicate of the state. Indiana raises eleven cents, and Kentucky twenty-two cents, on each $100 of taxable property. The Michigan law directs the supervisor of every township to levy a school tax of one mill on the dollar for schools within the township, but as the proceeds are kept within the districts where they are raised, this is only a compulsory local tax; still it stimulates further local taxation for the grand object. The legislature of Michigan also levies a specific tax on certain corporations, as railroads, etc., which is first applied to the payment of the interest on the various educational funds that the state has borrowed, as the university, agricultural college, and common- school funds, and then to the support of the common schools. Nebraska makes an annual Jevy and assessment not exceeding one and a half mills on each dollar’s valuation on the grand list of taxable property. The California system of school finance will be mentioned under distribu- tion and in an appendix. ‘These are a few of the states; still others will be dealt with in connection with distribution. The basis of school taxation, or the ultimate sources of school supply, is an important subject. Whether more money can be had for the schools often depends upon the manner in which it is proposed to levy the tax. In general, taxation for schools will conform more or less closely to the character of the state taxing system as a whole. While admitting the great importance of the subject, the subcommittee does not feel called upon to discuss it beyond offering brief remarks on two or three points. Pennsylvania meets her annual state school appropriation, in whole or part, by laying a tax of four mills on the dollar on all moneys loaned by citizens of the state. Some states levy poll taxes, and some “ occupa- tion” taxes, for their schools. Quite miscellaneous sources of school revenue are met with in the state constitutions and laws. We find specific taxes on dogs, and on banks, railroads, and other corporations. Escheats ‘and forfeitures are often, or commonly, devoted to the schools. The constitution of Nebraska prescribes that all fines, penalties, and licenses arising under the general laws of the state shall belong, and be paid over, to the counties where such fines, etc., may be levied or imposed ; also that all fines, penalties, and licenses arising under the rules, by-laws, or ordinances of cities, villages, towns, precincts, or other municipal divisions less than a county, shall be paid over to the same respectively ; and further, that all these moneys shall be appropriated exclusively to the use and support of common schools in the respective divisions where the same may accrue. Nor is Nebraska peculiar in so dedicating such funds. It has been suggested to the subcommittee that an inheritance Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 413 tax would prove a popular, as well as an abundant, source of school supply. DISTRIBUTION. The subject of distribution is only less important than that of income. It-is easy so to distribute school funds as, first, either to defeat, in whole or part, the very end sought in taxing the larger units for-the benefit. of the small ones ; or, secondly, materially to weaken local enterprise and lib- erality, or wholly to destroy it. The subject will be considered under both these aspects. 1. The assistance that the large political and social units render to the small ones, as the state to counties, townships, and districts ; or the county to townships and districts ; or the township to districts, should be made contingent, in part at least, upon what the small units do for themselves. No community, it is believed, is so poor that it cannot do something towards educating its youth. Again, a state educational system should be so organized and administered as to stimulate, and not repress, local spirit and effort. It is a great mistake to remove the burdens of public education so far from the people that they forget, or tend to forget, their existence. The principle here involved is a vital one. History shows conclusively that popular education has flourished most in those states of our Union where government is most democratic. It is difficult, or rather impossible, to lay down a general rule that shall govern the division of taxation between the state and the local com- munities. Two things are to be considered. One is the political institutions that exist in the state. If government is largely cen- tralized at state capitals and county seats—/ha¢ is one thing; if it is largely decentralized, as where the principle of local self-government is fully developed—‘¢ha¢ is quite another. For example, it would be idle to expect that the same results would obtain in the southern states that are found in New England, or even in that great group of states where the mixed system of local government prevails. The governmental machin- ery and the traditions of the people w// assert themselves in such matters. The other factors to be considered are social, and particularly economical conditions. As remarked early in this report, where wealth is abundant and its distribution general and somewhat equal in different communities, school burdens may be thrown, and should be thrown, much more heavily upon localities than where the opposite conditions prevail. Density of population, relation of urban to rural population, average wealth per capita, ratio of wealth-producing population to the population of legal school age, the expenditure for education per pupil and per capita, and the per cent. of school revenue derived from state taxes and local taxes in the different states—are peculiarly interesting when studied together 414 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National (Appendix A). North Carolina shows the largest per cent. of state school tax (that is, of the whole tax) of any state in the Union, while the average population per square mile and the average wealth per capita are also small. Maine surpasses all the other New England states in these partic- ulars. The proportionally high ratio of state taxation in the South is due to the two facts stated —- political institutions and economical conditions. But there can be no manner of doubt that, as the cities of the South grow, towns multiply, and concentrations of population increase in num- ber and in the value of property, local school taxation will materially increase. Legislatures could hardly prevent it if they should try, and it would be most unwise for them to try to do so. 2. Funds raised by the large taxing units should be distributed in such a manner as to bring the support of the rich and strong to the poor and weak. The only reason for taxing these units at all for general purposes is to secure this end. On no other principle can a state school tax, or even a county or township tax, be defended, unless indeed the county or township is a single school district. The practical question is: How shall such funds be distributed so as not to defeat the end in view? A historical account of the leading methods actually pursued will help on the inquiry. The public-land states may be divided into two classes. From the admission of Ohio to that of Arkansas (1803-36) Congress gave to the congressional townships of such states, severally, 640 acres of land each for the perpetual use of schools, and vested the title in the state legisla- tures. Accordingly, in these states every township has its own inde- pendent permanent school fund,* which is sometimes managed by local authorities and is sometimes in the keeping of the state. Generally speaking, the sum of the township funds makes the so-called state school fund, so far as itis derived from public lands. If the township-unit system prevails, the ultimate distribution of income has been made in advance; if the district system, then the township distributes to the districts. From the admission of Michigan to that of Utah (1837-95) Congress gave the common-school lands to the states as units rather than to townships, which resulted in the establishment of consolidated state school funds. The annual income from these funds, so far as the subcommittee is informed, is uniformly distributed to the local school organizations on the basis of the youth of legal school age as enumerated every year. The ages vary, but the principle does not change. It should be added that since the admission of California, 1850, 1,280 acres of common-school lands have been given to every congressional township. The rule of apportionment just explained is followed far more gener- ally than any other. Thus, Maine distributes her state funds, from whatever * Ohio and possibly other states offer some minor exceptions. Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 415 source derived, to the towns according to the number of children between the ages of four and twenty-one. Connecticut distributes the annual income of her permanent fund, and the proceeds of the tax of $1.50 for every child between the ages of four and sixteen, according to the number of children between those ages. Pennsylvania apportions her state tax of $5,500,000 annually, Ohio the proceeds of her one-mill tax, Michigan so much of her specific tax as goes to schools, and Indiana and Kentucky the proceeds of their state school taxes, according to the same general rule. But other rules are followed. Vermont apportions her state tax to the towns, cities, and unorganized districts according to the number of legal schools maintained during the preceding school year. New Hampshire distributes her state funds to the towns according to the number of pupils returned as attending school not less than two weeks in the year. So much of the Massachusetts permanent fund as goes directly to the schools is apportioned to the towns of the state that have a property valuation of less than $3,000,000, towns ranking above that line receiving nothing. Fur- thermore, the scale is so adjusted that the poorer the town, the larger the amount that it receives. Towns whose valuation does not exceed $500,000 receive $275 each; those exceeding $500,000 and not exceeding $1,000,000 “receive $200; those exceeding $1,000,000 and not exceeding $2,000,000, $100, and those above the last amount and not above $3,000,000, $50. Again, a portion of the state fund is divided among the towns that are eligible on the basis of the ratio that the town’s school tax bears to the whole town tax; the larger the ratio the more help it receives. Rhode Island distributes her annual state contribution of $120,000 as follows: first, $100 is assigned to every school, not exceeding fifteen in number, in a township ; then the remainder is distributed to the towns proportionally to the number of children from five to fifteen years of age, inclusive. The state school moneys of New York are apportioned in a compli- cated manner. ‘The state superintendent first sets aside the annual salaries of the school commissioners (district superintendents). Next he sets apart to every city, incorporated village having a population of 5,000 and upwards, and every union free-school district having a like population, which employ a competent superintendent of schools, $800; and to cities having more than one member of assembly in the state legislature, $500 for each additional member, to be expended according to law for the sup- port of the public schools. He then sets apart any money that may have been appropriated by the legislature for library purposes, and $6,000 for acontingent fund. Next he sets aside to the Indians on reservations, for their schools, a sum equal to their proportion of the state school money, -on the basis of distribution established by law. These sums set aside, the remainder of the state moneys is divided into two equal parts. The super- ‘ 416 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National intendent now apportions to every district in the state $100 (called a ‘‘dis- tributive portion” or “district quota”), provided it has maintained a school, taught by a single qualified teacher or succession of such teachers for the legal term of the preceding school year; and the same sum for every additional qualified teacher or succession of such teachers, not counting monitors. The school year is 160 days, not including holidays that occur during the time, or Saturdays. This apportionment made, the superintendent divides the remainder of the school moneys among the counties according to their respective population as determined by the last preceding United States census, excluding Indians on reservations. But cities that have special school laws receive their due share separate and apart from the remainder of the counties in which they are situated. The New Jersey state school tax, equal to $5 for each child in the state between the ages of five and eighteen, is raised by the several coun- ties according to their amounts of taxable property respectively, as shown by the tax rolls of the townships and wards of the counties. Ten per cent. of this tax, when it is paid into the treasury, is known as a reserve fund, and is apportioned among the counties by the state board of education “equitably and justly, according to their own discretion.” The go per cent. remaining is then divided among the counties in the proportion that they have contributed to the tax. When the state school moneys reach the counties they, together with all other school funds in the cus- tody of the county, are distributed to the townships and cities on the following basis: (1) $200 for each teacher employed in the public schools for the full term for which the schools are maintained during the year next preceding (nine months) ; (2) the remainder according to the last pub- lished school census (children from five to eighteen years of age), provided. that no district shall receive less than $275, and that districts with fifty five children or more shall not receive less than $375. If these funds are not sufficient to maintain a free school nine months in the year, then the inhabitants may raise by a district tax such additional amount as is needed for that purpose. The local one-mill tax levied by Minnesota is expended within the districts where it is raised. It is, therefore, only a compulsory district tax, the same as in Michigan. The current school fund of the same state, which includes the income of the permanent fund, is distributed on the basis of the number of pupils who have attended school forty days or more in districts that have had school for five months or more during the year. In addition to the above apportionment, graded schools having not less than three departments, which come up to certain requirements, receive aid from the state to the amount of $200 each. Besides, there are eighty-five high schools that receive state aid to the amount of $400 each. The grants to these graded schools and high schools are paid from Council} REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 417 permanent appropriations that are met by general taxation, and are appor- tioned by the state high-school board, on evidence that the schools are complying with the requirements. Minnesota also gives the sum of $500 annually to state high schools providing elementary normal instruction of a kind that satisfies the high-school board. Wisconsin also has an ‘approved high-school list, one-half the cost of maintaining these schools being paid from the state treasury. Moreover, Wisconsin pays $250 each to certain approved high schools in which manual training is taught. The California system of school finance is a unique system. The state superintendent apportions to the counties the state school fund according to their respective numbers of school-census children (from five to seventeen, certain classes being excluded). Each county super- intendent first ascertains the number of teachers every district in the county is entitled to on the basis of one teacher for every seventy school-census children, or fraction thereof not less than twenty, as shown by the next preceding school census, and then the number to which the county is entitled by adding these district numbers together. He then calculates the amount of money to be raised at the legal rate of $500 a teacher. From this amount he deducts the quota of the state fund assigned to the county, and the remainder is the minimum amount of the county school fund to be raised by taxation for the ensu- ing year, provided: that the minimum of such fund shall not be less than $6 for every census child. The county fund thus made up is then distributed to the districts in accordance with this rule, wvzz., $500 for every teacher, except (1) that to districts having less than twenty census children only $400 is assigned, and (2) that to districts having more than seventy census children $20 additional for every such child less than twenty in number shall be allowed. All school moneys remain- ing in the treasury after this apportionment has been made are then divided among the districts of the county in proportion to the average daily attend- ance upon each district during the preceding school year. District taxes may also be raised, subject to certain legal conditions (Appendix C). The subcommittee does not feel called upon to deal with all the states, or even with all the peculiar modes of distributing school moneys. It believes that the enumeration of particulars now made is ample for the present purpose. Some remarks upon the leading rules or methods of distribution are, however, called for. 1. Distribution according to the school census or enumeration is open to a serious objection, vzz., it does not carry the money where it is most needed. For example, two districts lie side by side, one having twenty and the other forty youths of school age; the second district draws twice as much money as the other, but the cost of keeping up the two schools is practically the same. The same would be true of two township units, 418 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National unless the schools were consolidated. The result is that the district or township that needs the most help receives the least. The rule is simple and easily worked, but it tends partially to defeat the end of state or county aid. 2. The same objection holds against rules based on the school enroll-_ ment or on attendance, only with somewhat diminished force. Again, if the enrollment is followed, or attendance for a brief time, there is danger that some children will go to school long enough to be counted, and then drop out. Besides, such rules of distribution work in favor of the graded schools and against the rural schools, on account of their larger enrollment and more regular attendance. 3. Taking everything into account, the subcommittee is inclined to think that a fixed sum or sums, based on an arbitrary unit or units, is most equitable. Examples of such rules are furnished by the states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and California. The most serious objection to such rules is that they are necessarily com- plicated ; some of those given above are quite complicated. Then, if the fixed sum is so much a teacher, as in New York, or so much a district, as in Rhode Island and New Jersey, there is a temptation to the undue mul- tiplication of schools or teachers. But this point can be safeguarded by fixing statutory limitations, as in California. No rule can be devised that will not be open to objection. The subcommittee does not believe it possible to invent any rule of distribution that will well accomplish the purpose of taxing large units for the benefit of small ones, unléss it rests on the school or the teacher as a unit, with the necessary qualifications. The Massachusetts rule is open to the objection that the school needs of towns cannot always be measured by low valuations of property assessed for taxation, as the number of pupils to be educated is also a factor. If the method of distribution now recommended is objected to as an exclusive one, then it may be supplemented by basing a part of the appropriation on the school census, enrollment, or attendance. The resort to the United States census is most Objectionable, as great changes of population occur in the course of ten years. The difference in the working of the school-census method and the fixed-sum method of distribution is well shown by comparing the statis- tics of two states. For the fiscal year ending November rs, 1895, the mill tax of Ohio produced $1,720,922. Of the eighty-eight counties forty paid More into the fund than they received from it, while forty-eight paid less than they received. Some of the major counties of the state received more from the fund than they paid into it, while minor counties paid more than they received. For the year 1896 the city of Cleveland actually received $2,616.67 more from the state than it paid to the state. Assuredly, a rule that makes the agricultural counties of Ohio, or many of Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS AIg them, contribute to the education of Cleveland, the most populous city in the state, is a travesty of common sense. But the same year Cincinnati paid in round numbers $70,000 more than it received. This is hardly bet- ter than repealing the mill tax outright, and letting the burden of educa- tion fall directly upon the cities and townships. On the other hand, the state of New York, in 1896, paid a total general school tax of $4,062,903, of which $3,500,000 was immediately distributed to the counties again. Fifty-four of the sixty counties received more from this tax than they con- tributed to it; only six counties paid more than they received. Erie county paid $241,597 and received $185,460; while the corresponding figures for Kings and New York counties were $503,603 and $387,879, and $1,884,584 and $636,133, respectively. The New York rule does bring the strong to the help of the weak. A question arises in respect to separate funds for buildings, the pay- ment of teachers, and incidental expenses. In the opinion of the sub- committee such division is desirable. The need of providing new buildings is often made an excuse by boards of education for keeping down the salaries of teachers. The triple fund would not indeed pre- vent such injustice, which makes teachers as such contribute to buildings, but it would Zevd in that direction. It is often stipulated in school laws that state funds apportioned to communities shall be wholly applied to the payment of teachers. This is a wholesome regulation. The cost of grounds, buildings, and incidental expenses should be met by local taxes or other local funds. Touching the division of the cost of public educa- tion, State Superintendent Stetson of Maine, in a private communication, thus defines the prospective policy of that state: ‘‘ Local communities shall provide school lots and school buildings, and keep the same in repair. Two-thirds of the money raised for maintaining schools shall come from the state, and one-third from the local communities. The apportionment of the money to the several municipalities shall be upon the basis of average attendance. We shall also try to get a law prohibit- ing towns from receiving state aid, if they maintain schools having less than a certain average attendance.” Such a law as this would serve to prevent the undue multiplication of districts, and would even work a certain measure of consolidation. The distribution of taxes levied on railroads, telegraphs, long-distance telephone lines, express companies, and the like, is an important ques- tion. In some states, as New York, Texas, and Ohio, school taxes levied on railroads inure to the exclusive benefit of the districts or townships through which the tracks run, excluding any state tax that may be levied on such property. This rule the subcommittee regards as unjust. The location of railroads is determined largely by physical conditions, and the mere fact that a line happens to run through its territory, where 420 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National probably not a dollar of the stock or bonds is owned, is no reason why a district or township should profit thereby to the exclusion of other and less fortunate districts or townships. In Pennsylvania the taxes on railroads are paid into the state treasury and are distributed by the legislature along with other revenues, the public schools, normal schools, and colleges being included among the objects of the appropriation. California has a similar provision. The mode of distributing the Michigan specific tax has already been described. It is believed that such revenues as the foregoing should inure to the common benefit of the state; but what is here said, let it be remarked, in no way relates to pending controversies about the taxation of railroads or other similar property. The Nebraska law contains one excellent feature that is worthy of mention. All public high schools in the state that, as determined by the State Department of Education, have a proper equipment of teachers, appliances, and course of study, are open to attendance by any person of school age residing outside the district who is a resident of the state and whose education cannot be profitably carried on in the public school of the district of his residence. Such pupil must have a certificate, signed by the county superintendent, that he has completed the common-school course prescribed by the state department for work below the high school. He must attend at the high school nearest to his residence or at a high school of approved grade in the county of his residence. Any school board that furnishes high-school instruction to such pupil is authorized to charge fifty cents a week for the time that he has been in attendance, and it is made the duty of the county board to pay all such bills out of the county school fund. Massachusetts and Ohio, and perhaps other states also, provide for educating qualified pupils in high schools in other places than those where they reside, provided there are no home schools for them to attend, and this without cost to themselves. As Massachusetts is the only state that makes the provision of high schools compulsory under any circumstances, it may be well to mention the principal features of the state law in regard to that subject. Every town having a population of 4,000 persons or 500 families is obliged to maintain a high school, the grade of the school depending somewhat upon the fact whether it has the larger or the smaller population. Pupils living in towns that are not required to maintain a high school can attend any neighboring high school that will receive them. In such cases the state pays the tuition of the pupil, provided the valuation of the town in which he resides does not exceed $500,000; if the valuation does exceed that amount, the town pays the tuition. High-school tuition is, therefore, wholly free to every qualified pupil in the state. Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 421 ‘ ORGANIZATION. The subcommittee is not here interested in the subject of school organ- ization further than it relates to school maintenance. Its relations to teaching, supervision, and studies are topics belonging to other divisions of the general report. The statement and enforcement of two proposi- tions will answer the present purpose. I. The first proposition is that the township-unit system is far supe- rior to the district system, and should be substituted, if practicable, for that system wherever it exists. The superiority of the town or township as an administrative unit is as great as its superiority as a taxing unit. The principal advantages are the following: 1. If the schools of a township are under a single board elected from the township at large, schoolhouses will far more likely be built where they are needed than under the other system. 2. Equality of school provision will be much more fully secured in respect to schoolhouses and grounds, length of school terms, and the abil- ity and character of teachers. 3. The tendency will not be to multiply schools unduly, but to restrict their number, bringing together more scholars, and thus making better classification, grading, and teaching possible, and increasing the interest and enthusiasm of the pupils. 4. Better supervision can be secured. The county superintendent can deal more effectively and easily with one board in a township than with six, ten, or twelve; while township and township-union supervision will be greatly promoted. 5. Simplicity and economy of administration will be facilitated, and the sense of official responsibility be enhanced. 6. The tendency will be to employ teachers for longer terms, and thereby to restrict, in a considerable degree, the evils that flow from fre- quent changes. On this point the statistics of Mr. Gass, presented in this report, may be mentioned. 7. The strifes and contentions between districts that are now not infrequent will be prevented. 8. Transfers-of pupils from school to school will be made more easy. 'g. The reason last to be mentioned is perhaps the strongest of all. The relations of the township-unit system to school consolidation have already been suggested. The township system does not necessitate such consolidation, although it is likely to work that way ; but consolidation is almost wholly dependent upon that system: schools zwz// not be con- solidated in great numbers if a plurality of district school boards have to do the work. The subcommittee has stated that the adoption of the township-unit system 77// de followed by the reforms that have been mentioned. It is not, 422 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National indeed, meant that such will be the unvarying result ; there will be excep- tions— perhaps many exceptions — when the whole country is considered ; but the tendency wd/ de strong in the directions named, or such well be the general character of the result. Not only is this the suggestion of common sense, but it is the teaching of experience as well (Appendix £). The town-unit school system was the ancient system of New England. The classic school law enacted by the General Court of Massachusetts in 1648 ordered that the towns should found schools on their reaching a cer- tain number of householders, the teachers to be paid either by the parents of such children as resorted to them for instruction or by the inhabitants in general by way of supply, as those who ordered the prudentials of the town should appoint. The word “township” is also used in the law. Con-_ necticut followed the example of Massachusetts. The original New Eng- land town, which was a small concentration of population, was well adapted to this system. But ‘‘as the population of each little nucleus of settlement spread itself out from the center of the original ‘ plantation,’ it early became convenient, in Massachusetts and Connecticut at least, to allow neighboring families at a distance from the local concentration, or nucleus, to form themselves into a school district.” The original church parishes were divided in the same way. If these districts had been founded merely for the purpose of school supply, or to regulate attend- ance, there would have been, under the conditions existing, no objection to their formation, but the contrary. Unfortunately, however, these new districts also became units of school maintenance, bodies corporate and politic. These districts appear at first to have existed by sufferance merely, but the celebrated school law of 1789 legalized them, thus paving the way for the general introduction of the new system. Horace Mann declared in his Tenth Annual Report: “I consider the law of 1730.2<3. 5 @ “autners izing towns to divide themselves into districts the most unfortunate law on the subject of common schools ever enacted in the state.’ Still this “act was not repealed until manufacturing had restored those concen- trations of population which in the early colonies had invited township control of school affairs.” This was finally done. Mr. Mann in the same report (p. 37) bore this testimony to the superiority of the town system: “As a general fact, the schools of undistricted towns are greatly supe- rior to those in districted towns—and for obvious reasons. The first class of towns—the undistricted—provide all the schoolhouses, and, through the agency of the school committee, employ all the teachers. If one good schoolhouse is provided for any section of the town, all the other sections, having contributed their respective portions of the expense to erect the good house, will demand one equally good for themselves ; and the equity of such a demand is so obvious that it cannot be resisted. If, on the other hand, each section were a separate district, and bound for Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 423 the whole expense of a new house if it should erect one, it would be tempted to continue an old house long after it had ceased to be comforta- ble, and, indeed, as experience has too often sadly proved, long after it has ceased to be tenantable. So, too, in undistricted towns we never see the painful, anti-republican contrast of one school, in one section, kept all the year round by a teacher who receives $100 a month, while, in another sec- tion of the same town, the school is kept on the minimumprinciple, both as to time and price, and, of course, yielding only a minimum amount of benefit—to say nothing of probable and irremediable evils that it may inflict. In regard to supervision, also, if the school committee is respon- sible for the condition of all the schools, it is constrained to visit all alike, to care for all alike, and, as far as possible, to aim in all at the pro- duction of equal results; because any partiality or favoritism will be rebuked at the ballot box. In undistricted towns, therefore, three grand conditions of a prosperous school, vzz., a good house, a good teacher, and vigilant superintendence, are secured by motives which do not operate, or operate to a very limited extent, in districted towns. Under the non- districting system it is obvious that each section of a town will demand at least an equal degree of accommodation in the house, of talent in the teacher, and of attention in the committee; and should any selfish feel- ings be indulged, it is some consolation to reflect that they, too, will be harnessed to the car of improvement.” The district system was at one time universal, and it exists in some form in a great majority of the states today. In Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New Jersey it has been wholly swept away. In Con- necticut and Rhode Island the town system is permissive, and exists side by side with the district system. The township system exists in Pennsyl- vania, Ohio, and Indiana. It is permissive in the upper peninsula of Michigan, in Wisconsin, and in Minnesota, and doubtless in other states. It varies somewhat in the organization of the local authority. The Massachusetts school committee consists of three members or a mul- ; tiple of three, elected from the town at large. In New Jersey the board consists of three, five, or nine members, as the town may elect. The Ohio board consists of delegates or representatives elected by the sub- districts, one each. A single trustee elected by the people manages the schools of a township in Indiana, except that he is assisted by a director in each attendance district who looks after incidental local matters. : Considering the great superiority of the township system over the dis- trict system, it is not a little strange that its introduction in the room of its competitor should have been so steadily resisted as it has been. This . opposition is due in part to the power of conservative habit, in part to the belief that the district system is more democratic, and in part to the. 424 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National popular fondness for office holding, all conjoined with much misconcep- tion and ignorance in respect to the merits of the two systems. It has. also been urged in favor of the district, by politicians, that it is the best unit for canvassing the states for political purposes. Certainly it cannot be objected to the township system, in its pure form, that it is not suffi- ciently democratic. In 1875 there were 15,087 teachers employed in teaching the common schools of Ohio, and there were in the state at the same time more than 35,000 school directors and members of boards of education charged with the administration of the schools. ‘This, assur- edly, is an excess of democracy. The “community” system is much worse than the district system, and fortunately it is confined to a single state. The Texas law permits par- ents, guardians, or other persons having control of children of scholastic age, residing in any one of the so-called “community” counties (thirty-five in number out of a total of 250), to unite and organize themselves into a free-school community entitled to the benefits of the available school fund belonging to the county, upon complying with certain prescribed ‘conditions. The persons so uniting and organizing first address a peti- tion to the county judge, who is ex-officio county superintendent of schools, duly signed by the petitioners, setting forth that the community is white or black, as the case may be, giving an alphabetical list of the names of children of scholastic age within the limits proposed, describing the capacity of the schoolhouse and the character of the other conveni- ences that the petitioners have to offer, naming persons to act as trustees, etc. The matter then passes into the hands of the judge, who has no discretionary power in the premises. He may not even throw aside such a petition either because it is signed by few persons or because the alpha- betical list carries few names. The law does not fix any minimum num- ber in either case. If the people of a neighborhood desire a school, no matter how few they may be, a school the judge must grant them. The “community” is a voluntary district in the strict sense of the term, having legal existence for one year only, and having no authority to levy a local school tax, and the evils that attend it are far greater than those that call so loudly for the abolition of the district system wherever that is practicable. The people of Texas can, however, congratulate them- selves that the ‘“community” school, which plainly originated in pioneer society, has lost ground in later years. In the South, and in those western states that have the county system of local government, the only practical alternative to the district system of school organization is a county system. It must be remembered that in these states the town or township does not exist. Fortunately, such a system is not altogether unknown. In a few counties of Georgia it has been in successful operation for a number of years. These are the prin- Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 425 cipal features of the system as it exists in Richmond county, in which the city of Augusta is situated : The county is the unit area of organization, and the rural parts and _the urban parts of the county district, as far as practicable, are treated just alike. A board of education, composed of representatives elected by the people of the county for the term of three years, one-third retiring each year, manages all the schools. The school tax is levied ata uniform rate upon all the property of the county, without revision by any other author- ity and without any limit as to rate or amount. The county and state funds are distributed to the schools according to the number of children to be educatéd. ‘here is no district tax. The same qualifications are required for country and for city teachers. The teachers are treated as nearly alike as the conditions admit, and they are paid about the same salaries. The schools are in session the same length of time in a year, nine calendar months. The country schoolhouses, on the average, are situated four miles apart, and no child is out of walking distance of a school open nine months in the year, and taught by a good teacher. One superintendent has charge of all the schools. Augusta has nine-tenths of the taxable property of the county, but only three-fourths of the school population. In other words, the rural parts of the county pay one-tenth of the school tax and receive the benefit of one-fourth of it. For the most part, these are excellent provisions. The county would seem to be the natural area unit for popular schools under the county system of local government. The subcommittee confidently believes that this mode of school organization has a great future before it in the United States (Appendix D). II. In those parts of the country where existing physical and social conditions render it practicable there should be such a consolidation of rural schools as will diminish the existing number of schools, school- houses, and teachers, and bring together, at advantageous points, the pupils who are now divided and scattered among the isolated schools of the township or other similar district. This step should be taken in the interest of good education as well as of public economy. To make this reform possible the children, as far as may be necessary or practicable, must be conveyed to and from the schoolhouses at public expense. How absolutely fatal to good schools the existing conditions are in many parts of the country statistics show most conclusively. State Super- intendent Wells of Wisconsin reported in 1894 that his state had 183 districts whose average attendance the previous year was not more than five each ; that 858 others were not above ten each ; while 2,481 more did not exceed twenty each. “In other words,” he said, “3,522 country districts, about three-fifths of the total number, have an average attendance not exceeding twenty, and about two-fifths above that average, with the great , 426 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National majority near the lower margin.”* Mr. H. R. Gass, of Michigan, citing the state report for his authority, states in a published paper that in 1886 the country schools of Calhoun county in that state required 158 teachers, and that they employed 342 different ones in the course of the year. | The average length of the school in the district was 8.4 months, while the average term for which the teachers were employed was but 3.8 months. He cites a second county that presents like statistics, and then observes ; “The ratio of the number [of teachers] required to the number employed is about the same as this throughout the state, the tenure being longer in the newer than in the older counties.” This state of things Mr. Gass attributes to the prevalence of the district system. He refers to Massa- chusetts and Indiana, where changes of teachers are much less frequent and teachers’ tenures much longer than in Michigan. While two teachers on an average were employed in Michigan for a school every year, but few schools in the other states employed more than one. In the same state, at the present time, there are over 1,000 districts that enumerate less than twenty-five children of school age each, while seventy counties contain 468 districts that enumerate less than fifteen each. The statistics at hand do not show the actual-size of the schools. -Nor are the small schools found in the newer and poorer parts of the state only; the oldest and richest counties have.their fair'share of them. In fact, the newer parts of a state often have the largest and best schools. - Not only so, the oldest and most densely populated states frequently make a very poor showing. In 1894-95 there were 7,529 school districts in New York, in each of which the average attendance upon school during the year varied from one to twenty pupils, while the average daily attendance in each of 2,983 dis- tricts was less than ten pupils (Appendix 7). In 1893 Vermont had 153 schools of six pupils or less each. In 1892 State Superintendent Luce of Maine reported that the average enrollment in the schools of that state for the previous year was less than twenty-five pupils to a school, and that the number of districts having less than twenty-five was larger than the num- ber having more. He declared that there were probably between 1,000 and 1,200 existing schools in the state whose enrollment was twelve or less, and that 600 or 800 schools then existing could be abolished without detriment.? Twenty-five years ago a large number of schools on the Western Reserve, Ohio, long famed for schools, had dwindled to the most insignificant size. Still other statistics of similar import will be found in the report of the Subcommittee on Instruction and Discipline. Atten- tion is drawn particularly to those relating to Rhode Island and Massa- chusetts. *“The Township System of School Government.” Madison, 1894. *Quoted by Mr. Gass. See “Transactions of the Michigan State Teachers’ Associa- tion, 1887.” 4 Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 427 But it is needless to multiply statistics, or to insist at length that thousands of rural schools furnish their pupils with a miserable prepara- tion for the duties of life. When we consider the various elements that enter into good education, and especially training for social activities, it is not too much to say that a very small school is almost necessarily a very poor school. The facts are notorious. Hitherto it has been sup- posed that, although the cities and towns surpassed the rural districts in higher education, the rural districts contained a smaller proportion of illiterate persons. This has been the prevailing view in the northern states, and probably it was once in accord with the facts. The cities have been considered the great hives of illiteracy. But there is now grave reason to question whether the fact is not often the other way. Certainly it is so in the only state where, so far as the subcommittee is informed, the subject has been statistically investigated.* But however this may be, a remedy for the unsatisfactory state of the rural schools is one of the pressing needs of the day. What can be done? One thing that can be done is to consolidate many of the small schools by carrying back and forth such pupils as need to be carried, and thus, by one stroke, create several of the conditions of good schools. ‘The interest that this subject is beginning to awaken is one of the hopeful signs of the times. It was Massachusetts that led the way in developing the district sys- tem, and it is Massachusetts that is leading the way in consolidation. An act that dates from 1869 authorizes any town in the commonwealth to raise money by taxation to enable the school committee, in its discretion, to provide for the conveyance of pupils to and from the public schools at public cost. The towns were already empowered to build schoolhouses wherever they were really needed. Availing themselves of these powers, t The state referred to is Michigan. According to the state census of 1894 the ratios of the foreign-born persons in the cities of the state, ten years of age or more, unable to read and write, and in the state at large, were practically the same, eighty-four in 1,000. But the ratios of the native-born in the cities, in the state at large, and therefore in the country districts, were quite different. In the cities it was fourteen in 1,000; in the state at large, twenty-one in 1,000; in the country, twenty-four in 1,000. For every fourteen persons ten years of age or upwards in the cities unable to read and write there were twenty-four in the country; that is, the ratio in the country is 70 per cent. greater than that in the cities. If the country rate of illiteracy could be reduced to the city rate, the number of illiterates of the native-born population ten years of age and upwards unable to read and write would be reduced about 8,000. Several facts, no doubt, enter into the explanation of the greater illiteracy of the country districts, but the most important of them is the inferiority of the country schools. It does not explain matters to say that Michigan is comparatively a new state, that much of it is thinly settled, that it contains large lumbering and mining districts, etc. The fact is that in the oldest and wealthiest parts of Michigan the cities, as a rule, surpass the counties in which they are situated in respect to popular intelligence. The city of Detroit ranks distinctly higher than Wayne county, and the same may be said of the cities of Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor as compared with ‘Kent and Washtenaw counties. The counties named contain the cities mentioned. 428 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National many towns have entered upon the work of consolidating their schools. How the work goes on is shown by the following table exhibiting the sums of money paid for public-school transportation for a series of years. Year Amount Year Amount ESO OH SO others erancoamedsta Ceasar fs 8's $22,118.38 ||| TSO2—O3iac es «aie vt Ots Ge: $50,590.41 TS SO—O Ont crcretere relent et stare stats DATA GSUD: | TSO =O Aosta eee ele eletetts atelers 63,617.68 ESQO=OT sorte aie ons CMe oistiyarar oh ohe 30:648;68) ||| TSO4=O Sera eise roe ete ie eee 76,608.29 ES OOO ae eee vaieite, sis omcl sues s/6re 28.726.07 jl 105 —GOraaee sects ie aietal sierenete 91,136.11 The movement has extended beyond Massachusetts and reached every one of the New England states. In these states many hundreds of schools have been consolidated, and with the most gratifying results. Occasion- ally an unsuccessful experiment is reported, but the great stream of testi- mony runs strongly the other way. Longer school terms, better teachers, better grading, better instruction, more interest in the pupils, greater physical comfort on the part of the children, better supervision— these are the claims that are made for the new departure (Appendices EF and F). Other things being equal, the new way is never more expensive than the old one, and often it is less expensive. ‘The movement has spread beyond New England. In 1894 a law was enacted in New Jersey providing for the transportation of pupils at pub- lic expense in order that rural schools might be consolidated with city ones. A most interesting experiment in consolidation is being tried in northeastern Ohio, where some schools had already died out, and many more were lingering on the verge of death. Permissive legislation has been obtained in several counties, and already many townships are work- ing the plan successfully, while many others are looking on expectantly and are apparently on the point of making the new departure. The news- papers are quick to note the innovation, and it is already attracting atten- tion beyond the borders of the state (Appendix F). The distinct pedagogical advantages of consolidation are much more fully set forth in the reports on supply of teachers and instruction and dis- cipline than here. In this report the topic is dealt with mainly as it is related to organization and administration. The fact is, however, the sev- eral aspects of consolidation are inseparably connected. As arule, whatever promotes simplicity and ease of administration promotes good instruction, and wice versa. No one of the subcommittees that handle the subject for a moment supposes that there is any charm in the word “consolida- tion” to cast all the evil spirits out of the rural school, but they all believe, after giving the subject mature consideration, that great possibil- ities of improvement lie in that direction. It is perfectly true that the consolidation remedy cannot be universally applied, because physical and Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 429 social conditions often forbid. The fact is that a large proportion of the children of the land will be schooled in little schools—rural schools, ungraded schools—or they will not be schooled at all. Suggestions looking to the improvement of these schools will be found in the reports of all the subcommittees; but insistence is here placed upon the fact that the consolidation remedy can be applied on a grand scale, with the largest promise of success. In most states some new legislation will be necessary to that end, but not in all. Wherever the township-unit system exists, the first step, and the long step, has already been taken. In such states it should not be difficult to secure the needed legislation in relation to transportation. State Superintend- ent Emery of Wisconsin has already notified the people of his state that the laws contain all the provisions that are necessary to enable them to move at once in the direction of school consolidation. It is important that the consolidation reform shall not be misunder- stood. It does not necessarily mean that there shall be only one school in a town or township. It does not mean either that parts of different townships or counties sHall not be comprised in one school. These questions are merely matters of detail, and their adjustment will depend upon such factors as the size of townships, the distribution of villages or other local centers, the direction and condition of roads, streams, and bridges, the distribution of population, and the physical configuration of the township and the adjacent parts of the country. ; It is noteworthy how the different phases of educational reform all tend to hold together. In the northern states the cause of school con- solidation depends intimately upon the adoption of the township-unit system. A certain amount of consolidation can be effected by the aboli- tion of small districts; it may be possible, also, for several independent districts to merge their schools into one, for the time at least, and still preserve their independence; but it is manifest that the first plan will not prove effectual, and that the second one will be infrequent and precarious. The subcommittee believes confidently, therefore, that the fortune of effec- tual consolidation is closely bound up with the fortune of the township- unit system. It is also noteworthy, let it be remarked again, how different social elements tend to attract one another and so to coalesce. School consolida- tion, especially its practicability, turns largely upon means of cheap, safe, and easy communication throughout the school area. Here we touch a question intimately relating to social progress that has been receiving increasing attention the last few years. Reference is made to the improvement of roads. Those who have been promoting this movement have not probably regarded it as a measure of educational reform; but such it is. Perhaps there is no rural interest of a social nature that 430 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National would be more decidedly enhanced by good roads than the educational interest. The people of some of the towns of Ohio, where the new plan is being tried, claim this as a decided advantage that the drivers of the omnibuses serve as carriers for the mails between the farmhouses and the post offices, thus promoting the diffusion of intelligence in still another way. Only a single point remains to be pressed, but it must be pressed strongly. This is the necessity of lengthening materially the time that the country schools, on the average, are in session each year, and the securing of a more regular attendance of the pupils. The legal years now vary widely in different states, and the practical, or real, years still more widely. Some communities always surpass the legal minimum of time, others as regularly fall below it. In the thickly settled states of the East the rural schools are in session eight, nine, or ten months in the year; but often in the South, and sometimes in the West, one-half the shortest of these terms is not reached. The legal year is frequently absurdly short. Until two years ago the Michigan year was but three months, and now it is but five months. It is quite unnecessary to argue that short schools are, even relatively, poor schools. In order to have a good school, it is necessary not only to bring pupils together in consid- erable numbers, but also to hold them to the work a certain number of hours each day, and a certain number of days each year. There must be a concentration of effgrt as of pupils. It is as wasteful a method of education to send children to school seventy or eighty days in the year as it is to send them two or three hours in the day. Persons interested in popular education, and particularly in rural education, should not rest, therefore, in their efforts until they have made the legal school year in every state at least 160 or 180 days. But it will not be enough for the state simply to fix aminimum school year: it must see to the enforcement of the law. The law should hold communities to a rigid accountability in respect to maintaining schools of legal grade for the full legal period, to employing none but certifi- cated teachers, and making all the required reports to the state educational department. Most school laws contain such provisions as these, but it is feared that they are not always enforced. The only practicable mode of enforcement is absolutely to withhold from the local organizations all aid from the superior taxing units, as the state, until they first observe the law. And again, it will not suffice for the state to see that the prescribed quality of instruction is actually furnished. It might, perhaps, be thought that if the state only provided local schools, and made them free, the people would be only too glad to avail themselves of them to the full ; but sad experience shows that this is not always the case. The Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 431 indifference, ignorance, and selfishness of some parents come between their children and the schools. In communities where the school attend- ance is compulsory some parents are in an almost constant battle with the authorities, to keep their children out of the school as much as pos- sible. It is possible that such extreme indifference or selfishness as this is more common in cities than in the country; and yet it is true, as a tule, that the country child’s labor, especially the farm boy’s labor, has a greater money value than the city child’s labor, and that the farmer is, therefore, under a special temptation to keep his boys out of school. On the whole, there is quite as much need of an efficient compulsory-attend- ance law in the country as in the city, and perhaps more. The subcommittee has not taken space to discuss, in general, the common education that the American states are now furnishing the American people. That is a large subject, and for the most part lies out- side the field of the present inquiry. It will suffice to say, on this large question, that the people had better pay what they do pay for what they get than to go without it, or even twice, thrice, or four times the sum; but, at the same time, they might receive, and should receive, a great deal more for their money than at present. This is particularly true of the rural schools. No doubt there are many excellent schools in the country; but, on the whole, it may well be doubted whether any money that is expended in the people’s interest is expended more wastefully than what goes to the country schools. No doubt the country school has points of advantage over the city school, as the freer communion with nature, but, on the whole, it is inferior. The typical “little red school- house,” so invested with sentiment, is a costly and unsatisfactory institu- tion of education. Owing to social changes, in many parts of the coun- try it is much less efficient and useful, at least relatively, than once it was, and a new organization is imperatively called for. Something should be done to stop the wasteful expenditure of the public money. State Super- intendent Stetson, speaking for his state, puts the case thus in a com- munication to the subcommittee: “JT have devoted quite a number of pages in my report [1895] to - showing the people of Maine that we are wasting an enormous sum of money in this state because of the unbusinesslike methods which are used in the expenditure of its school funds. This waste is made in every direction in which money is spent. We pay more than we need to for school lots, the erection of school buildings, the furnishing of school appliances, text-books, fuel, making repairs, etc., etc. The waste along these lines aggregates more than one-third of a million of dollars each year. I have shown in the report that the money which we spend for common schools is sufficient to maintain schools taught by professionally trained teachers, and superintended by competent superintendents; that, 432 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National in addition to doing these two important things, we would have money enough left to supply them with the appliances necessary for a successful school, and also furnish the needed apparatus, library books, and make all the needed repairs and additions. I feel that I have demonstrated this point so that there will be no further question about it in the state of Maine. The whole matter turns upon the simple point that we are. alarmingly wasteful in our expenditure of school money. “Personally I am in favor of local communities being responsible for providing school buildings. I think two-thirds of the funds required for the maintenance of the common schools should be furnished by the state, and that the other third should be raised by local taxation; that the state should examine all teachers and issue all licenses to teach; that towns thus receiving state aid must employ teachers who hold such certifi- cates. The state should inspect the school accounts of the towns receiv- ing state aid.” The subcommittee deems it advisable, now that the whole ground has been covered, to restate the fundamental propositions that have been urged in this report. These all start from the one central postulate that a provision of funds sufficient for their adequate support is essential to the existence and life of good schools. The threefold division of the subject will be preserved in the summary. I. REVENUE. 1, The great resource of the public schools is, avd must continue to be, some form or forms of public taxation. 2. Such areas or units of taxation should be created, or continued if already in existence, as will fully develop the sound American principle that the whole wealth of the state shall be made available for educating all the youth of the state. 3. To accomplish this end, resort must be had to the larger units of taxation, especially where population is sparse and wealth meager. The following recommendations must be specifically urged: (1) a liberal provision of funds from the state treasury; (2) a county tax in at least all the county-system states; (3) a town or township tax in the states where this civil division exists; (4) taxes in special districts, that is, in cities and villages. The school district, in the commonly accepted sense of that term, is not a desirable taxing unit, but quite the cone, and should be abolished as such unit. II. DISTRIBUTION. 1. Funds raised by the large political or social units for general school purposes should be distributed in such a way as to bring the rich and the strong to the help of the poor and the weak. 2. Such rules of distribution should be adopted as will accomplish Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 433 this end. In order to do this, distribution must be based, to a certain extent at least, upon fixed or arbitrary units; that is, so much money must be given to the school or to the teacher. 3. The large taxing units should render assistance to the small ones only upon the condition that the small ones first do something for themselves. III. ORGANIZATION. 1. In the states where the town or mixed system of local government exists, the town- or township-school system should, as far as practicable, be substituted for the district system; in the county-system states the county-school system is the natural alternative to the district system. 2. In those parts of the country where existing physical and social conditions render it practicable there should be such a consolidation of rural schools as will diminish the existing number of schools, school- houses, and teachers, and bring together, at advantageous points, the pupils who are now divided and scattered among the isolated schools of the township or other similar districts. 3. There is urgent need of lengthening materially the time that the country schools, on the average, are in session each year. The ideal should be a minimum school year in every state of at least 160 or 180 days. The subcommittee does not expect to see, and does not desire to see, the school systems of the country all brought to one uniform pattern. It is too well aware of the great diversity of conditions that exist to think such a thing is possible. Even more, a certain variety, and so conflict, of systems is conducive to life, activity, and improvement. Neither is the subcommittee under any illusions as to what is possible, or probable, in a field of education so vast as that offered by the United States, with the great number of authorities, state and local. At the same time there are certain general laws governing successful school systems and schools that cannot be ignored. Some of the principal of these laws have been set forth above; and it is believed that their general recognition will be followed by a marked improvement of the common schools, and so of the popular education, of the country. Some persons may ask, ‘‘ How shall the principles laid down in this report be made practical?” ‘How shall they be established in communi- ties or states where they do not exist, or exist only in part?” To these questions only a general answer is needed. The state legislature, the law-making authority, is the only source of power in relation to education, as well as in relation to all other branches of the state government. Accordingly, if the school law is defective and weak, the legislature must be called upon to repair and strengthen it. No progress can be made with- 434 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [ National out an efficient law and efficient school authorities. But how shall the legislature be induced to act in the premises? In precisely the same way that it is induced to act in other matters. Facts, arguments, persuasion, must be addressed to the members of the legislature. Above all it is impor- tant that the public mind shall be informed as fully as possible upon all branches of the subject. If the people generally knew how much better schools they might have than those that they do now have, and for no more cost, it is impossible to believe that they would not bestir them- selves to effect reforms. The subcommittee marks out what it believes to be broad lines of educational progress. it enforces its views, as far as possible, with appropriate arguments. But it must necessarily leave the application of these views and arguments to the exigencies existing in particular communities or states to such persons, belonging to these com- munities or states, as are interested in the subject and are familiar with all the local facts and conditions. B. A. HINSDALE, Chairman, W. S. SuTTON, Sale AG: REPORT OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON SUPERVISION. The Subcommittee on Supervision of Rural Schools has taken into careful consideration the’ various topics submitted for investigation. Its inquiries have extended into all the states and territories except Indian Territory and Alaska, and the facts are based on returns more or less full from all parts of the country. Professional supervision is today regarded as an essential factor in our school system. It has been observed that the schools that are closely supervised by men who thoroughly know their business at once respond: to the influence of this supervision. Expert supervision has resulted in systematic, orderly, and well-directed instruction. It is a matter of remark that the most competent superintendents have the best schools, and that cities noted for their excellence in school work have attained this pre-eminence through the medium of intelligent supervi- sion. ‘This is also true of those counties which have come under the same influence. “There is no other agency in our school system that has done so much for the improvement of our schools in organization, and in methods of instruction and discipline, as the superintendency.”’ The attention of the profession, however, has been mainly directed toward expert supervision in city schools, and but little heed has been paid to the demand for such work in rural districts. It is quite time Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 435 that our inquiries should be directed toward the character of the super- vision demanded by the country school. If supervision through a com- petent superintendent is a good thing for city schools, there is every reason why it would be a good thing for rural schools. STATE SUPERINTENDENT. Although the state superintendent stands at the head of the public- school system of the state, his work is more closely related to rural than to city schools. As this report has reference only to the conditions of rural schools, your subcommittee will consider the duties of this officer as bearing upon that part alone of the general school system. No officer connected with the administration of state affairs requires higher or more essential qualifications than that of superintendent of public instruction. He should be a man of high moral character, well acquainted with approved methods and with the history and condition of education in his state. He should be in close touch with the educational spirit of the times, and should be one whom the profession regards as authority in all that constitutes excellence in school matters. It is also agreed that he should be an experienced teacher, of broad and thorough scholarship, and a good public speaker. With these qualifications there should be combined a large share of good common sense, and sufficient executive ability to manage the details of his office. The legal term of office in Massachusetts and Rhode Island is one year. In Connecticut it is at the pleasure of the state board. In twenty states the term of office is two years; in four states, three years ; in seven- teen states, four years; but in no state does it exceed four years. The average length of term of the state superintendent is two years and ten months. The lowest salary paid is $1,000 and the highest $5,000 per year. The average salary is $2,475 per year. In answer to the question as to how much time the state superintendent devotes to supervision of schools, we had definite answers from thirty-seven states, in which we find that nineteen of these superintendents devote more than half of their time to visiting schools and traveling in the interest of education, and eighteen devote less than half their time. Quite a number of the state superin- tendents report that they divide their time equally between the office work and supervision. In only a few of the states does the state superin-, tendent exercise no supervision, and in several the supervision is carried on through deputies or agents. The state superintendent under present arrangements has but little time for personal inspection of school work. The superintendents in fourteen states visit each county once a year and in eight states once every two years. From the other states no definite information could be obtained. Many superintendents say, as often as practicable; in some 436 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National instances, not at all. Our information is to the effect that most of the state superintendents devote as much time to supervision as they can spare, but that it is generally considered secondary to work of a clerical nature. There are undoubtedly in some states sections which have never been visited by the state superintendent or his deputy. By some means the influence of the state superintendent should be extended until it reaches every rural school in the state. In all possible ways the office should be made useful to the teachers and school officers. The rural schools need this stimulating, helpful influence more even than those of the city. While in moststates the office has but little more than advisory powers, yet, through lectures at associations and through the inspection of institutes, the state superintendent ought to be able to con- vince the teachers of rural schools that he is in close sympathy with their work. The work of the state superintendent ought to be made more effective by so increasing his clerical force as to enable him to spend more time in direct contact with the schools and school officials of the state. The careful compilation of statistics is very important, but it can be intrusted to a skillful statistician, while much of the routine work of the office can be well done by clerks. The higher and by far the more important work of directing educational movements, of instructing the people, and of creating public opinion and arousing public interest devolves upon the state superintendent. There is a general demand for more assistance in his office, longer tenure of service, and more liberal financial support. His work should be so related to that of the superintendents in the vari- ous subdivisions of the state for school purposes that the whole may be properly articulated, and the county or town superintendents be under his direction and control. He should come in frequent contact with them by conventions held for the purpose of instructing them in their partic- ular duties, and should send them such circulars and letters as may be necessary to aid and direct them in their work. The state superintendent should have the power to withhold the state appropriation from all counties or school districts not complying with the law in every particular, because he would then hold the key to the situation and could enforce his orders. The main duties of the state superintendent are not only to organize and direct educational influence and laws already existing, but also to go among the people in the spirit of Horace Mann, and, by public addresses, by the liberal use of the press, and by securing the assistance of the lead- ing men of the state, to arouse and keep alive an interest in the cause of popular education. In connection with the rural schools especially the state superintendent not only has great possibilities for a wise supervisory influence, but also great opportunities to arouse and instruct the people. Council | REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 437 In a majority of the states the most needful legislation is that which _ bears upon the organization and maintenance of rural schools, and a sup- ply of competent teachers for the same. The state superintendent, there- fore, should be a man able to secure the co-operation of the legislature for the enactment of proper statutes. This can be done only by one who sees clearly the great needs of the school system, and who is able to go before the people and the legislature and unite all influences to obtain the necessary legislation. While putting into this high office any person solely through his political affiliations is to be deprecated, the state super- intendent should be a man who knows how to approach the leaders of all parties and convince them of the justice and soundness of his plans, viewed from the high vantage ground of the general good. COUNTY, TOWNSHIP, OR DISTRICT, SUPERINTENDENT. A still more important question opened for discussion is the char- acter and degree of supervision below that of the state superintendent.’ Thirty-eight states, mainly in the South and West, have county superin- tendents, whose duty it is to visit the schools and exercise the duties usually belonging to their office. The New England states generally have what is known as township or district supervision, which arises in large part from their political organization. In New England the town is the dominant political unit, while in the South and West it is the county. The simplicity and effectiveness of supervision are promoted when the units of political organization and of school administration are identical. This condition has its limitations, however, in the amount of territory to be covered and in the density of population, which is a varying quantity. The main point is to bring every rural school of the country as far as pos- sible under the watchful care of a competent supervising officer. Respon- sibility is a strong stimulant. It is one of the weak points in our present system that too often the rural school-teacher is responsible to no one. In regard to the operation of the two principal methods of supervision there is no reason why any section should abandon the practice which has been found best adapted to its peculiar conditions. It must be con- ceded, however, that a single township, containing on an average ten or twelve schools, is too small a territory to engage profitably the entire attention of one person. In such a case one of two things must neces- sarily happen: either the schools are supervised to the point of interfer- ence, or the supervision becomes uncertain, feeble, and unsatisfactory. In a general way, the rural township is too small a supervisory unit. Wher- ever it has been tried the supervisor has generally had some other busi- tIn this report the term supervisor is used to include also county superintendent, commissioner, or any other term by which the supervising officer of a county or super- visory district is usually designated. : 438 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National ness to attend to, and thus his work has been found wanting in those results which are most desirable. In order that the work of overseeing and directing may be effective, it must engage the entire time and the best thought of the supervisory officer. A proper remedy for this is the combination of towns for supervisory purposes. Three, four, or five towns could be united in one supervisory district, until a sufficient number of schools have been secured to engage the entire attention of one good man. ‘The burden of his salary could be borne by these towns in the proportion of the number of schools they contribute to his work. This plan is in operation in Massachusetts, and has been satisfactory. A complete exposition of the Massachusetts plan of supervision of township schools is found in A. W. Edson’s monograph, “Supervision of Schools in Massachusetts” (Boston, 1895). In that state 253 of the towns are supervised by 155 supervisors. While some of the large towns can alone support a supervisor, several of the smaller ones must unite to secure the services of an efficient officer. In addition to what the towns do for themselves the state grants to those of low valuation, when they combine into a supervisory district, the sum of $750 to pay for a supervisor. These towns, however, are required to raise an additional sum equal to that furnished by the state, thus insuring a sufficient sum for the employment of an expert school man. By these means 93 per cent. of the children of Massachusetts have been brought under close supervision. The salary paid to a supervisor is at least $1,500 a year, and he is enabled to devote all his time to the work and to inspect each school once a month. It is true that there are still about 100 towns in Massachusetts without supervision, yet the feasibility of co-operative supervision with aid from the state is proven beyond all doubt. “The state aid to a district amounts at present to $1,250— $750 towards the superintendent’s salary and $500 towards the salaries of the teachers. The remainder of the superintendent’s salary, $750, must be raised by the towns of the district. They are at liberty, of course, to raise more than $750 for the purpose, if they desire to do so” (Massachusetts State Report, 1895). What has been said regarding the combination of towns for supervi- sory purposes can be repeated with equal emphasis as to other small divisions of territory termed ‘school districts.” The same principle applies here as elsewhere, that the interests of the schools included in a given territory should be sufficient to warrant the employment of a thor- oughly competent person, at such a salary as would justify devoting his entire time to his work. After all has been done, there will still be vast sections of country, especially in the West and Southwest, without any means of efficient supervision. No present remedy can be devised to aid them. It can be safely left for the several states, as population increases, Council | REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON. RURAL SCHOOLS 439 to look after the interests of the schools in the light of the experience of older communities about them. The worth of the county superintendency is acknowledged, but in many cases the county is too large an area and contains too many teachers for one man to properly supervise. The county is as much too large a unit for supervisory purposes as the township is too small. This remark, however, does not apply to every county nor to any.one state. In counties where the number of teachers is too large for one man to supervise the county superintendent should have one or more assistants or deputies to aid him in his work. They should be directly responsible to him forthe kind and character of their work, and should be charged solely with supervisory duties. The importance of having one superintendent for the county or district to whom other supervisors are responsible must be emphasized, as it would be an error and a fruitful source of strife if in any territory there should be two or more supervisors having concurrent jurisdiction. THE COUNTY UNIT. Since this report is a symposium of suggestions. for supervising rural schools, it may not be amiss to discuss a plan of supervisory organization that has found favor in some few counties that contain large cities as well as arural population. We mention it here because it has valuable features for supervising the rural schools. ‘There is but one school board for the entire county. One set of men legislates for the whole area, and it is their duty to relate the urban and suburban and rural schools into a sym- pathetic system. This is based upon the idea that every city is bound to respect the people that immediately environ it. It is to the interest of a large city to have good roads leading to it, good crops in the fields around it, and good schools to which the farmers may send their chil- dren. With this as a foundation principle there is but one school fund for the entire county, raised by taxation upon all property in the county, whether it be in or out of the city. This makes the general school fund, which is distributed upon the basis of school population and according to the needs of the city wards and the rural communities. The same quali- fication for teachers is required whether they teach in a city graded school or in a country ungraded school, and the same salary is paid to them and in the same way, and for just as long aterm. In this system one super- intendent is in charge of the whole area. He looks after a city graded school one day and the next day may be twenty miles away inspecting a country school. Expert supervision by a superintendent and his assist- ants is thus extended into the rural districts, and both city and country school receive the benefit of what there may be in each that is of real value. 440 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National Upon this plan, as a matter of course, a large portion of the school fund raised by taxation on city property is annually distributed to the country schools. The city is really made to assist in supporting the rural schools around it. And who shall say it is not a good thing for the city to do, especially in agricultural sections, in which the education, liberal and special, of the farmer’s child is the probable salvation of the farming interests of the country. We should not lose sight of the truth that the farmer’s child is to be made a useful citizen, not only content to stay in the home in which he was born and reared, if that is best, but fitted to fill honorably any station in life to which he may be called. To do this he must have all the opportunities of education and culture that the city affords. This can be brought about in no other way than at the city’s expense, for wealth is massed in our populous centers. The expert supervision, the well-trained teacher, the long term, the modern text- book, the good schoolhouse, can be placed at the farmer’s door by the agencies of the neighboring city, that owes him this and much more (Appendix D). TRAINED TEACHERS NEEDED IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS. Supervision is one of the vital needs of the rural schools, since most of their teachers are inexperienced. The number of normal-school graduates in rural schools is lamentably small. The reason is that the normal-school graduate can obtain a better salary by teaching in a larger field. The demand for this class of teachers makes their salaries so high that the country schools cannot afford to employ them. As soon as teachers become proficient by reason of experience acquired in rural schools, the probabilities are that they will be induced to seek better posi- tions in cities, where their experience and abilities will command higher salaries. Add to this the other fact that many young men begin to teach asa stepping stone to some other profession, and while they are teaching a country school are studying law or medicine, and their hearts are with that rather than with teaching ; and also add that many young girls teach until they marry, or as long as they are compelled to teach, and no longer, that they have no real love for their work and no wish to stay in it, and we see how the problems multiply. Rural schools suffer from lack of trained teachers. In them, as a gen- eral thing, are young graduates from the village high school, or some favorite among neighborhood families, or a type of ancient teacher whose placid life is not disturbed by the vexing problems of his profession. This raw material must be developed, made shapely, orderly, and system- atic, if time is to be saved to the children, and schools properly supported. A bright and live supervisor will bring order out of confusion, harmony oe Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 441 out of discord, and will give life and beauty to that which before was inert and ungainly. Teaching isa great art, based on a profound science. The supervisor is the expert who has given this art and science his careful attention, and whose business it is both to know how to teach and to show others the way of teaching. He can in some measure compensate for the lack of skilled work in the school by closely supervising and guiding inexperi- enced teachers and showing them what to do. An expert is one who possesses skill gained by practice. A supervisor who claims to be an expert should have experimental knowledge of “the how to teach.” He is supposed to have given careful attention to those things which character- ize a good school. Not only must he know how to teach, but he must know how to instruct others in the art and science of teaching. He must be a skilled teacher of teachers. Without this directing spirit, schools must necessarily suffer until teachers happen upon some better way. It is a great misfortune for schools to wait for wisdom in teaching until the many mistakes of teachers have pointed out better methods. The pres- ence of skilled supervision has been the salvation of many schools. It is one province of supervision in the country school to bring teach- ers into contact with each other, to illustrate better ways of teaching, to break up the isolation and monotony of rural school life, and to take to the doors and homes of people and teachers alike the life and freshness which have been the result of research and study on the part of the best minds in the profession. ‘The province of supervision in rural schools falls far short of its legitimate purposes when it begins and ends in the schoolroom. This point is not sufficiently well appreciated by those who have the oversight and care of schools scattered over a large tract of territory. Country schools have an environment of their own which should neither be forgotten nor ignored. The best supervisory work is that which brings into the rural school everything in farm and rural life which is strong and pure and wholesome. It is possible for the supervising officer so to exert his influence as to give grace and dignity to each individual school, and make it the rallying point for every good influence, a blessing to the entire community in which it is situated. Attention is here called to the fact that in general but little care is taken in the selection of officers chosen to look after the interests of the rural schools. In the majority of states the county superintendents are elected by the people of the county without any regard to the preparation or qualifications they may have for the work. Very few states require the superintendents to have any special qualifications, and in many instances supervisors are put in charge of teachers who know more about teaching than they do, and are required to hold examina- 442 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National tions that they themselves could not pass. Add to this the fact that the superintendents are generally paid very small salaries (average $828 for the whole country) or a meager per diem, and that many engage in other business and regard supervision of schools as an incidental matter, and it becomes apparent that professional supervision is too often the excep- tion rather than the rule. WORK OF SUPERVISORS. We need everywhere trained superintendents of schools. ‘Supervision of schools should rank next in importance to the instruction in schools ; indeed, so necessary to successful instruction is competent supervision that the two should receive together the watchful oversight of the state” (New Jersey State Report, 1894). Supervisors should know as much of teaching as the teachers under them, and should be able instinctively to distinguish good teachers by their manners, dress, speech, disposition, and character. The best work of a supervisor is his skill in selecting teachers. Not by the results of examination alone, for some learned people make poor instructors; not by yielding to the pressure of family or politi- cal influence, for this will ruin any system of schools; not by selecting his own friends or favorites, for this is unworthy of his office; but by follow- ing the knowledge that comes to him through study, by long experience, by careful observation, and by conscientious conviction, which enables him to know a teacher when he meets one, though he may not be able to tell why. Teaching is a matter of both disposition and knowledge. The former cannot be examined, but it ought to be recognized; careful supervision will aid in developing it. Skill in doing this is an essential characteristic of a good supervising officer, especially in connection with rural schools. If the cry is raised (and it is) that there is not enough money to pay for professional supervision, the reply is that it would be wiser to have fewer teachers in order that those employed might be better qualified. A super- visor who is an expert can so arrange and organize the system that a less number of teachers can do the work and do it better, because each one is thoroughly competent. ‘A good superintendent earns many times his salary; a poor superintendent is too dear at any price. The work of supervision may be unsatisfactory either because the number of schools is too large for the oversight of one person, or because the supervising officer lacks the talent for moulding, inspiring, and directing the work of others” (Pennsylvania State Report, 1895). Underpaid supervision is often unskilled and inefficient, and against this we raise our decided protest. Such supervision is of no value whatever to the schools—a penny-wise policy that economizes in the wrong place. A supervisor should have no other business than to care for the schools. He should not be a mer- Council} REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 443 chant, nor a lawyer, nor a farmer, nor an active teacher. His business should be to supervise the schools of his county, or township, or district, or whatever his area be called. With a given sum of money for school purposes, to devote a part of it to skilled supervision will bring more children under enrollment, better teachers in the community, better instruction in the schools, and more satisfaction to the people, than if all the money were spent in paying the salaries of teachers. In twenty-eight states the supervisors are required by law to visit each school twice a year, in the other states they are allowed to visit the schools as often as practicable. In one or two states the supervisors visit the schools very seldom. The length of time the supervisor spends in each school varies from fifteen minutes to one-half day. The time seems to depend very largely upon circumstances, the number of pupils, the character of the teacher, the efficiency and the pay of the supervisor. A skilled supervisor inspecting an intelligent teacher can do more service in fifteen minutes than an unskilled supervisor visiting a poor teacher can do in a whole day. The average time spent in the ordinary rural school by the school super- visor is about one hour every year. In twelve states the supervisors devote all their time to the work. In these states the average salary is $1,002 a year. In fourteen states the supervisors devote only a part of their time to supervision, with an aver- age annual salary of $408. Sixteen states report that in some counties the supervisors devote all their time to supervision, while in other counties the supervisors devote but a small part of their time to that work. In these states the salaries paid supervisors vary from $100 to $2,000 or $3,000 a year. Where good salaries are paid they devote all their time to supervision. Where small salaries are paid they devote but little time to this special work. All states have some supervision, though it varies greatly in amount and in efficiency. In many sections of the country a supervisor not capable of suggest- ing to teachers better methods of teaching and not able to detect false methods pays only a perfunctory visit to the schools. He merely sees whether the building is clean, whether the children look bright and inter- esting, whether the enrollment is good, such facts as would be noticed by any person of ordinary common sense. Too often the contact of the average supervisor and the teacher of the rural schools is nothing more than a mechanical business performance, with such elements of aid and encouragement as any intelligent visitor may give the school. Although this is not without advantage, it falls far below the standard of profes- sional supervision. How many teachers a supervisor can direct cannot be discussed except in a general way. Schools are more widely separated in some localities 444 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National than in others, roads are better, teachers are better, and supervisors vary greatly in the rapidity with which they work. As a general rule, however, every rural school ought to be visited at least once in two months. Supervision cannot be called close that does any less than that, and it would be better if the schools could be visited once every month. No accurate information can be gained concerning the conditions of the school, nor can the proper influence be exerted over teacher and pupils, unless the supervisor has time at his disposal to make a reasonably thorough examination of the school and its surroundings. Sometimes, with an inexperienced teacher, he may find it necessary to spend the entire day in the school, while in other cases he may be able to visit two or more schools in one day. The point is that he must not feel compelled to shorten his visit, or to leave his work half done, in order to meet other engagements. To make his visits effective in the highest degree requires time and patience. The length of his visit must depend upon the necessities of the school, and of these he must be his own judge. An ideal system of supervision would give one supervisor from fifty to seventy-five teach- ers to supervise. Where the number of teachers is greater some will be neglected, for a supervisor generally has many interruptions in his work, such as rainy days, holidays, and the demand upon his time for office work, board meetings, committee meetings, public addresses, etc., so that it is impossible to put in every day in supervision. Allowance must be made for other important duties. Attention is also called to the power which the supervisor can exert through rightly conducted teachers’ meetings, institutes, associations, and round tables. Here he may meet the teachers under his direction, and make use of the information which he has gathered in visiting their schools. From free and open discussions by the teachers he will get an insight into their habits of thought and their methods of expression. Such meetings help break up the unsocial character of rural teachers by bringing them into contact, so that each learns something from the expe- rience of all the others. In this way teachers and supervisors become better acquainted, gather fresh courage and new inspiration, and go home feeling that they have much in common, and that, if they will, they can in many ways be mutually helpful. The most deadening influence about the country school is its isolation. Nothing is more potent in overcom- ing this than frequent gatherings in which teachers, school officers, and parents freely discuss matters of common interest. To encourage such meetings is one of the duties incumbent upon the supervisor. Without being too prominent, he may still be the inspiring spirit, guid- ing, directing, and stimulating the tone and energies of all who partici- pate in the proceedings (Appendix P). Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 445 LEGAL REQUIREMENTS AND QUALIFICATIONS. The necessity of establishing some qualifications to be required of those who are to occupy the position of supervising officer is emphatically insisted upon. “Tf it is desirable to insist upon a certain degree of qualification for a school-teacher in the humblest district of the state (this proposition has passed beyond the realm of discussion), it would seem that there is no question that the superior officer clothed by statute with such extended powers as a school commissioner ought to be a person possessing some fixed qualification for the performance of the duties of his office. The schools of the state will never reach that degree of efficiency which the state has a right to demand, and which is expected from the generous provision made for their support by the people, until this evil is corrected. Some standard of qualification should be insisted upon, and the power of removal in case of the election of a person not possessing these qualifica- tions should be vested in the state superintendent” (New York State Report, 1895 ). In only seventeen states are there any qualifications, beyond that of being a resident and a voter. In some states a first-grade license is required, in others a normal or university course, and again in others he must be an experienced teacher. In a majority of the states, however, the electors are allowed to choose any person without regard to educa- tional qualifications. In answer to circulars of inquiry the following information was obtained regarding supervisors : Wisconsin — By the law of 1895, must hold a university, normal, state, or special superintendent certificate. New York —No standard of qualification. Pennsylvania— Must hold a college diploma, or a state or local certifi- cate; must have at least three years’ experience in teaching. Michigan — Must be a graduate of a reputable college, university, or state normal college, or must hold a state or first-grade certificate. Mississippi — Must hold a first-grade certificate. Texas— Must be a person of educational attainments and hold a.first- grade teacher’s certificate. Tennessee—Can be appointed only from applicants who pass an examination on questions sent out by state board. Georgia— Must pass a satisfactory examination. Louisiana—Must have a common-school education. Montana— Must hold a first-grade certificate and have one year’s experience as teacher. South Carolina —Must be able to conduct a teachers’ institute. 446 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National Kentucky — Must be able to obtain a first-class teacher’s certificate, hold a state diploma, or state certificate. Arkansas—Must have a first-grade certificate. Maryland — The county school board may require applicants to be examined by the state superintendent. Utah — Must have a valid certificate not lower than the grammar grade. West Virginia— Must be skilled in the art of teaching. Iowa — First-class certificate, good for two years, a state certificate, or a life diploma. It is unquestionably true that a supervisor should be as well and as highly educated as the better teachers he supervises. He should be a man of broad and generous culture, a lover of good books, versed in the best literature of the day, one whose presence is an influence for good, and whose words are an inspiration. To require him to be in every case a graduate of some higher school would be unreasonable, perhaps, but he should be a friend of higher education in every sense of the word. He must for a long time continue to be one from whom will come the influ- ence which will lead the pupils in the rural district to strive for the high- est education possible under the circumstances. His influence should be given to the establishment of rural or township high schools wherever the population will permit it. These schools should include in their courses whatever is required, on the one hand, for entrance:to the school of the next higher grade, or, on the other, those studies, a knowledge of which can be made so to change life on the farm, in its various forms, that it will become more attractive and more profitable. In the establishment and conduct of such schools the influence of the supervisor should be a very prominent factor. A supervisor should have a thorough knowledge of school work. He should know what a teacher ought to do in managing a class of pupils of any age on any subject. This is one of the things he is paid to know. He should be an expert to whom teachers may go for advice and direc- tion. If the advice is good and the direction wise, teachers will have confidence in the administration of the schools, and rely more and more upon the supervisor. The system is thus reduced to uniformity and becomes a source of strength. The supervisor should be able to direct teachers in their professional reading, and select wisely a library of teachers’ books, and place them where they are most needed. He should know about school periodicals and be able to form his teachers into read- ing clubs and circles, and direct their studies. He should be able to arrange teachers’ meetings so that time will not be wasted, and that teachers will come with pleasure and stay with profit. He ought to be able to aid in selecting a library suited to the wants and tastes‘of an agri- cultural community (Appendix Z). In school extension he should be a Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 447 leader, for he can thus make his influence felt in every part of his territory. In directing the home reading of the pupils and the people he may, if he will, find an immense field of usefulness. He can thus create and foster an inter- est in the welfare of the farm and the home as adjuncts to the rural schools. He can understand and sympathize with teachers better if he has an experimental knowledge of their work. No supervisor is so good as he who climbed from the lowest rounds and knows all the steps. That this is indispensable we are not prepared to state. There are some very excel- lent supervisors who have but little experience in teaching, but who have seen enough and studied enough to know how it ought to be done. Experience would have been helpful, however, in understanding the limi- tations of their work. First and foremost a supervisor should be able to instruct his teachers in the methods of organization and management of schools. This is par- ticularly the case in rural schools, where so few teachers have acquired skill in teaching. But instruction with a teacher is like instruction with achild. There must be an awakening, an arousing, a hungering after instruction. The conditions of “being filled” are that we must “hunger and thirst.” The supervisor must inspire his teachers with a desire for better things. He should lead them to see that time is precious, and that the children in school this year may be on the farms next year and no more in school forever. They must know what to do and doit. ‘The super- visor should be a source of inspiration. His corps of teachers must be alive, and eager, and studious. The thing most to be abhorred in school work is the teacher dead to advancement in professional studies. The supervisor must rouse teachers to work out for themselves plans and meth- ods for building up their schools, and must set forth the principles which should control them in their work. The county superintendent, or the supervisor of schools in any rural community, should have had recent experience in the schools which he is to supervise. In cases where this is not possible he should make a care- ful study of the peculiar surroundings of the schools of which he is to take charge. If the new departure which seems to be at hand in rural school education is to be a success, it must be carefully conducted in reference to those environments which are peculiar to each section. The supervisor who is to have a controlling influence in choice of text-books, in courses of study, in the selection and use of libraries, should be thor- oughly conversant with the physical characteristics of his district, with the interests of the people, with their sources of wealth and living, and with the home life of the children (Appendix O). Whether it be a mining or a grazing region, whether agriculture or horticulture predominates as an interest, he should make himself at home in that domain of science or knowledge which will increase his usefulness as a school officer. 448 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National THE HOME AND THE SCHOOL. The parents of children need instruction as well as the children themselves. The home influence and the school influence should be harmonious, or confusion and uncertainty will arise in the child’s mind as to what he should do. The people must be reminded that the school is an integral part of the community, and not a separate affair which the law compels them to support, and which takes their children away when their assistance on the farm is most valuable (Appendix O). In establishing the true relations between the home and the school, between the necessities of physical and those of intellectual education, the supervisor of rural schools finds an unlimited field of usefulness. In rural districts parents are often ignorant of the advancement education has made since the days when they went to school, and they are often too ready to criticise anything new. The supervisor must gain their confi- dence, so that they will yield their ideas to his, and allow the teacher in their school to follow his directions without any hindrance from them. The supervisor can exert a wonderful influence in bringing the fireside to the support of the teacher. To do this he must be able to educate the people concerning their relation to the school, as to sending the chil- dren regularly, as to providing necessary material, such as books, etc., as to allowing every teacher to pursue those methods of teaching which his skill and experience suggest as best suited to the wants of the school. At meetings of agricultural clubs, at town rallies, at educational “ barbecues,” at commencements, at spring festivals, at farmers’ institutes, he should embrace every opportunity of saying a word for the schools, in order to arouse the people and interest them in the whole system of education. The columns of the country paper afford the supervisor a very ready means of reaching the people. Almost every farmer takes the county paper that comes weekly to his fireside, which gives the news of the out- side world and the doings of his neighbors. School news is an impor- tant item and should never be omitted. Every week the paper should contain something of educational interest from the pen of the supervisor, though not always over his signature—suggestions for improvement, statistics of enrollment and attendance, new and better ways of teaching, plans for schoolhouse construction and decoration. The press is valu- able to every teacher and helpful to the system of education by bringing farmers into sympathy with the great educational movements of the world. ‘The press gives a larger audience, though it enforces a shorter address. But a little every week, full of variety and interest, will even- tually build up a healthy sentiment in the county and educate parents as well as children. The supervisor should have a direct or indirect control of the selection of teachers. The crisis in the history of schools is when teachers are to c Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 449 be chosen. No one is so well qualified to choose them wisely as a faith- ful supervisor, and no one is more likely to do so conscientiously, since he knows the value of efficient teachers. This control can be given him directly or indirectly. If he does not wish to have the direct choice in individual instances, the same may be accomplished by giving him the power to examine and license teachers for his supervisory district. No one, then, can be selected by the board of directors except such as are approved by him. He prepares an eligible list, to which the board is limited in making its choice. If the superintendent is conscientious and courageous in the preparation of this list, he can safely leave the respon- sibility of the individual appointments to the board. In many cases the questions for such examination are prepared at the state office. In some instances the county board conducts the examina- tions, and in a few the answer papers are sent to the state office for final examination and approval or rejection. The supervisor should be slow to condemn a teacher who is honestly striving to succeed, but if, after faithful and earnest effort, teachers clearly prove that school teaching is not their vocation, or, after repeated warn- ings, teachers will not try to do the right kind of work, it is clearly the duty of the supervisor to report the facts to the directors, and his report should be given great weight by them. The power to revoke the certifi- cate is usually in the hands of the supervisory officer. It should be exercised with great caution and deliberation, but fearlessly whenever there is sufficient reason for it. Since the supervisor is responsible for school methods and for results in teaching, the arrangement of the course of study and the selecting of the text-books should be largely, if not entirely, left to his direction. It is his particular business to know books as well as to know teachers. It is not to be expected that the men who constitute the ordinary ‘‘commit- tee on text-books,’’ and whose daily business has no relation whatever to school texts and their use, can decide what book is best for use in the schoolroom. It is very well to have a committee on text-books com- posed of the members of the board, to prevent possible abuse, but the advice of the supervisor should have much influence in determining the character of the books used in the schools. SCHOOL. DIRECTORS. It is important that the relations between the supervisor and the school officers should be clearly defined. The directors* stand much nearer the people and have an immediate interest in the welfare of the schools. They contract with the teachers, care for the financial affairs of t Director includes whatever term is used to designate the local school officers in any state —as director, commissioner, school committee, trustee, etc. 450 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National the district, purchase supplies, and are charged with the general business management. ‘The success of the school depends very largely upon the kind of men who are elected to that office. In the rural districts especially the duties of the director are mainly of a supervisory nature. He should inspect frequently the schoolhouse and school premises; he should see to it that everything is provided which is necessary for the comfort and convenience of both teacher and pupils, that the outbuildings are in a decent condition, and that the supplies are used with due regard to a wise economy. In the discipline of the school he should give a strong moral support to the teacher, and his influence should at all times be on the side of order and obedience. The board of directors should make such rules and regulations for all the schools under its control as it deems necessary for the preservation of school property, for securing punctuality and regularity, and for the general welfare of all concerned, and it should support the teachers in their rigid enforcement. It should be in constant correspondence with the supervisor, so as to keep him informed respecting the progress of the school, and in case a teacher is derelict in his duties, or if for any reason the school needs a special visitation, it should inform him at once. On the other hand, it should be the aim of the supervisor to establish the most cordial and intimate relations with the local directors. ‘The supervisor should magnify the office of the director. Whenever he visits the school he should, if possible, induce the director to go with him. If at such visits they inspect the condition of the outbuildings and the premises, the supervisor can often propose plans for the improvement of the buildings which the director will more readily appreciate and approve. The inspection of a school by a competent supervisor is an object lesson of importance to the director. He is able to see at what points the supervisor is aiming, and he learns something of his ideas and plans. He will thus be better able to counsel and advise the teacher in the frequent visits which he makes to the school, and make more intelli- gent and specific reports to the supervisor. The practice on the part of the supervisor of calling the directors together at stated times for mutual conference is very commendable. These officers are often ignorant of their duties, but in a large majority of cases they are willing and anxious to learn. There is no more effective way of improving the rural schools than that of instructing and informing the men who have them in their immediate charge. No doubt large sums are lost to the various funds through carelessness on the part of treasurers and secretaries in the rural districts in keeping their accounts. The supervisor should make it his duty to audit these books at least once each year, with a view to accuracy of statistics and economy in expenditures, and this should be one of his duties under the law. Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 451 THE VISITATION OF SCHOOLS. The supervisor’s method of visiting schools may be considered briefly. First, he visits schools to see how and what the teachers teach, whether their manner is composed, their method clear and concise, their style interesting ; whether they are teaching valuable facts, or wasting time on trifles; whether they are teaching what is right or what is wrong. Second, he goes to find out what the pupils know. This is a test of the past work of teachers, which is shown by the general manner of recita- tion, the promptness with which pupils reply, the amount of information they have, the degree of skill they manifest, or the power of original thinking they have developed. Third, he inspects the physical condi- tions of the school building and grounds. He should note the condi- tions of the outbuildings, and, if he finds them unsuitable in any respect, he should say so frankly to teachers and directors, and insist -upon a change at once. The supervisor must know whether good light, good seats, proper temperature and ventilation, and thorough drainage are secured. The supervisor should carefully observe the moral atmos- phere which surrounds the school, whether it is on the side of order and obedience, of modesty, and of all those virtues which make the character of the typical American citizen. All these are demanded in order that good teaching may be made possible, and good health and public morals may be preserved. Such being the purpose of the visit, the supervisor should put him- self in easy and cordial relations with the teacher and the pupils, that he may have a true understanding of what each can do. The teacher may conduct one or more recitations in the various subjects of study, in order that the supervisor may see the usual methods of instruction. The supervisor can then suggest improvements if needed, and can even take the class in hand and demonstrate them. ‘That he should ask for a class in any particular study and give the pupils a rigid oral, or even written, review, while the teacher may be attending to some other duty, is proper, for by this means he can find out how much instruction has been given since his last visit and how thoroughly the course of study is being adhered to. It is, however, often best to allow the teacher to pursue the usual routine of exercises, in order that the supervisor may see the school at its everyday work. An inspection of the teacher’s register should not be forgotten. Such a register in every rural school should show the name and age of each pupil, the studies pursued, where each class commenced and its progress during the term, so that a new teacher can at a glance under- stand at what point the study of each branch to be taught is to be taken up. The supervisor should insist that such a register be a kept by every teacher under his control. 452 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Nationa A private record of his own, in which names, dates, classes heard, conditions of rooms and premises, material needed, and general observa- tions, are kept, will aid the supervisor. He can by this means trace the development of any one school and can more readily observe whether it progresses or retrogrades. SCHOOLHOUSES AND FURNITURE. Before closing, your subcommittee desires to emphasize the proposi- tion that the supervisor should have a controlling voice in the erec- tion of the rural schoolhouse, as respects all its sanitary conditions. Before the contract for a new building can be legally let, the written approval of the supervisor should be necessary, certifying that as con- cerns heating, lighting, ventilation, and everything which conduces to the health and physical growth of the pupils, the requirements of hygi- enic rules and sanitary science have been carefully and fully complied with. The rural schoolhouse should be built in accordance with the laws of sanitation and modern civilization (Appendix MZ). It never will be until the state, speaking through the supervisor, compels it as a prerequisite for receiving a share of the public funds. The supervisor should not be blind to the small things which min- ister to the comforts of the pupils. Often the rural school-teacher has received no instruction upon these points. If the supervisor finds pupils facing a strong light, he should call attention to the evils likely to ensue, and suggest aremedy. ‘The same is true as regards unsuitable desks or seats. The necessity of proper ventilation and proper temperature should be constantly dwelt upon. Without a thermometer, with no means of ventilation except the door and windows, the rural school- teacher needs and appreciates all the suggestions an intelligent supervisor may make. Akin to this is the suggestion that the supervisor should insist that the schoolroom be kept clean and neat for sanitary reasons. The floors should be scoured as often as they are soiled; the wood, trash, and ashes should be carefully kept away from around the stove. The walls should be swept free of dust, the chalk racks kept clean, and the window panes polished. Pupils also should be required to keep their desks in order and their books clean. It is stimulating to the little ones and helpful to teachers for the supervisor to have them show their books, and to take occasion to comment on the care or on the untidiness with which they are kept. ‘ No better educational influence can surround the children than a well- arranged schoolroom, whose floors and windows are clean, whose walls are free from dust and decorated with pictures, whose school grounds are well-ordered and shaded by trees and adorned with flowers, and the Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 453 school presided over by a qualified teacher who is the personification of neatness and good cheer. Under such conditions the child is self- restrained and respects himself because his surroundings are respectable. The child naturally puts himself in harmony with his environment. If the teacher is neat and the schoolhouse is in proper order, the pupil will copy the example. Day by day beautiful, comfortable, and clean sur- roundings will have their ethical influence upon his development, until he comes in time to abhor anything that is not beautiful, well-ordered, ‘and clean. This point is too often overlooked in plans for supervision. The reverse of this feature is also true. The rural schoolhouse, generally speaking, in its character and surroundings is depressing and degrading. There is nothing about it calculated to cultivate a taste for the beautiful in art or nature. If, under the influence of intelligent supervision, this can be changed, it will be a work over which coming generations will Ep Tejoice. “There is scarcely a sounder principle in pedagogy than that care begets care; order, order; cleanliness, cleanliness; and beauty, beauty. Things conspicuously good command the respect of children, invite their imitation, and in ways real, though obscure, sink into their souls and mold their being. The power of good example in men and'‘women no one disputes, but there is power akin to it in things, provided they embody the better thoughts of men and women—a power of which more should be made in school management than is made at present” (Massa- chusetts State Report, 1895). If children are daily surrounded by those influences that elevate them, that make them clean and well-ordered, that make them love flowers, and pictures, and proper decorations, they at last reach that degree of culture where nothing else will please them. When they grow up and have homes of their own, they must have them clean, neat, bright with pictures, and fringed with shade trees and flowers, for they have been brought up to be happy in no other environment. The true test of our civilization and culture is the kind of home we are content to live in, and the influences of our schools should help to form a disposition for those things that make home life happy and healthy. If the farmer’s boy can be taught to love books when he is at school, he will have a library in his home when he becomes a man; if the farmer’s girl can be taught decoration at school, she will want pictures and flowers and embroidery when she becomes a woman. We appeal also for the influence of classical art in our schools. If we have pictures, why not have reprints of those that have moved the hearts of men? Why not have the best looking down from our school walls ? They are within the reach of any purse. One reprint from the great masters is an uplifting influence for all time. Cheap and gaudy adver- 454 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National tisements, glaring and painful chromos, depress the true spirit of art and perpetuate the crudeness we seek to overcome. The same can be said of music. If we are to sing songs, why not sing the songs of masters? They have sung many for children, beauti- ful far beyond the rude compositions that fret our ears everywhere. Also with literature. Why not read the simple classics written’ for the little ones, and the greater classics for the older ones? Why not in all things get the noblest and best that the world has given, and use them to help our children onward and upward? The silent influence of clean surroundings, of cheerful teachings, of classical pictures and music and literature, the presence of flowers and their care, the planting of shade trees and studies of their growth, will be a supervision so constant and so searching that no child can escape it. Under its potent warmth, like the steady, quiet shining of the sun, the child plant grows into all the marvelous possibility of flower and fruit. SUMMARY. 1. As to the character of the supervisor who is brought in contact with the rural school-teacher in the discharge of his official duties : (1) He should be selected with special regard to his peculiar fitness for that office. Whether his office is elective or appointive, his qualifica- tions, in order that he may be eligible, should be such as to enable him to challenge the respect of those whose work he is required to supervise. (2) In regard to his scholarship, it should breathe that essential spirit of learning necessary to making good, strong schools. The position of supervisor should be made professional with a view of meeting the demand for the best education which the rural school can possibly afford. This requires a scholarship which is above that of the ordinary man. The tendency to put persons in the supervisory position who have no mental attainments worthy of mention is earnestly deprecated. (3) In regard to moral character, the supervisor should be a living, inspiring example of such a life as alone is worthy the Christian civiliza- tion of our times. He should carry with him a spirit of sincerity in his work, so that people, teachers, and pupils may look to him with hearty respect, and with entire confidence in the integrity of his purposes. (4) In regard to his professional spirit, he should be in touch with the best educational thought of the times, carrying with him to the country school-teacher, and to the people of a rural community, the freshness’and life which come from reading and studying whatever bears upon the ques- tions he is called upon to aid in solving. He should be a leader, endowed by nature with strong native sense, and at the same time able to impart enthusiasm and energy to all with whom he comes in contact. 2. As to the purposes of rural school supervision : Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 455 (1) It should serve to inspire and stimulate the rural school-teacher. If the supervisor is alive to his opportunities, every teacher within the sphere of his influence will be quickened and lifted up to higher efforts for the good of the school. The teachers should learn to look upon him as a friend, and not as a critic; as a wise counsellor, and not as a mere fault-finder. (2) It should be the means of awakening and stimulating the pupils as well as the teacher. They should look for the visits of the supervisor with pleasure, and profit by his talks and advice. By instituting a system of central examinations for the rural schools, he may quicken and encour- age the brighter pupils to obtain the best education within their means. The influence of a scholarly supervisor over the pupils is a very desirable thing in the rural school. (3) The improved condition of the rural schoolhouse is a sure index of the work of a competent supervisor. The present lamentable condi- tion of these buildings is due largely to ignorance and neglect. Com- petent supervision in skillful hands can work a marvelous change. The cultivation of a spirit of order and neatness which leads to the ornamen- tation of the school grounds and to a watchful care over all the environ- ments of the schoolhouse, is one of the purposes of supervision. (4) Supervision does not accomplish its legitimate purpose when it fails to cultivate a strong, healthy public opinion in favor of everything which tends to make a good school. Hence, the supervisor who contents himself with a perfunctory visit to the school only is not a supervisor in the broad sense of that word. A large share of the work of the super- visor is away from the school and among the people. 3. As to the results to be expected from intelligent supervision: (1) In regard to the school, it unites teachers for a common purpose, and, by teachers’ meetings and by the visitations of the supervisor, it breaks up the monotony and isolation of the country school. Under its influ- ence better teachers find their way into the schools, better methods of instruction prevail, and the tone and spirit of the school are greatly improved. (2) In regard to the community at large, supervision is just beginning to do its legitimate work. In the establishment of school libraries, in the relation of the supervisor to the directors, in an improved school architecture in which due regard is had to sanitary conditions, in the ornamentation and care of the school grounds, in school extension, in the introduction of studies which will add to the attractiveness and profit of life on the farm, in the consolidation of small districts into larger and stronger schools, in awakening a public interest in rural education, there is a field large enough to occupy the time and thought of the most pro- gressive and most intelligent supervisor. It is here we are to look in the 456 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National near future for the best results of supervision as concerns the rural schools of the country. Lawton B. Evans, Chatrman, CHARLES R. SKINNER, HENRY SABIN. REPORT OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON SUPPLY OF TEACHERS. The Subcommittee on Supply of Teachers has distributed a large number of circular letters of inquiry, designed to elicit information in regard to the agencies now existing for the preparation of teachers for rural schools, and for the improvement of teachers already in the service, and also in regard to certain conditions, as to the manner of certificating, employing, and paying teachers, which affect the supply. In connection with this inquiry the attempt has been made to gather information as to the defects and excellencies of existing systems, together with suggestions for improvement. To these a sufficient number of replies has been received to justify the belief that they give a fair average statement of the conditions which this report has to meet. Without attempting to sum- marize the returns, your committee would state the results of the inquiry upon the problem presented, and mark out the lines which must be fol- lowed, and to what end, in order that the child in the country school may receive the education which is his due. In some state systems progress along these lines is much more advanced than in others, and in some individual cases the desired end has been attained; but this is true, as regards the entire country, in so small a degree that it is unnecessary, even if it were possible, to particularize. With but few exceptions the recommendations made could be justified by reference to various states or communities in our own country, and there are none which do not rest upon successful experiences at home or abroad. It will be found quite impossible to treat the rural school in any of its aspects without touching in some degree upon ground common to all classes of schools, and this is especially true as regards that branch of the problem assigned to this subcommittee. Certain conditions now very general must be changed in order that the rural school may be supplied with better teachers. TEACHERS. There must be in rural communities a clearer appreciation of the qualities essential to a good teacher. It is too often the case that no dis- tinction is made between a teacher of superior scholarship, of proved AME _—— o Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 457 ability in instruction and discipline, of long experience, and one far inferior in all the qualities essential to success. The teacher must be engaged for the school year. In many cases the engagement is from term to term, and these frequent changes are without exception classed among the most potent causes of failure in the rural school. It is widely true that the school is in session less than half the year; it is often true that in this short school year two teachers are employed, and seldom does a teacher remain a second year. Engage- ments should be for a longer term than one year, or continuous, and terminated only for cause, as is the case in many cities. One of the most important points to be considered in a system of schools is that of the authorities employing teachers and assigning them to their work. In cases in which the county or township is the unit of school administration, the problem is solved; in case the district system prevails, the district containing one school, it is evident that the employ- ment and assignment of teachers should be transferred to the authorities of the larger school unit, in order that in the assignment advantage may be taken of peculiar abilities and aptitudes. The authority which examines should not employ. Closely allied to this question is one of great interest in the southern states, namely, that of assignment of teachers to negro schools. Fora full treatment of this subject see Appendix /. SCHOOL YEAR. The school year must be lengthened to a full school year of nine or ten months. .In many states a minimum length is prescribed by statute, but in few cases is this sufficient. Whatever efforts may be made forsthe improvement of the rural school, until there can be offered a “year’s work and a year’s wage,” it will be difficult and often impossible to retain accomplished teachers for continuous service ; with this, many such teach- ers would choose this service, from family and social connections, and from a natural preference for rural life. In countries in which people are accustomed to the action of central- ized authority, prescription settles the matter, as in France, where the school year is more than forty weeks; in England, where, as conditions of receiving the government grant, the principal teacher at least must hold the government certificate of qualification, the school premises must be in good sanitary condition, the staff, furniture, and apparatus must be sufficient, and she school must have met 400 times (200 days) in the year. In countries like our own, in which popular initiative in political matters has been the rule, success must usually come by other methods, and in this respect we have much to learn from our neighbors. In Can- ada the schools have been lengthened to a full school year mainly 458 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National under the stimulus given by the mode of distributing the government grants. Letters and reports have been received from the different provinces. By these it appears that the average length of the school year was in Ontario 212 days; in New Brunswick, 216 days; in Nova Scotia, 198.7 days, the full school year being 216 days, and some schools exceeding this limit. A report from Regina, in the province of Assiniboia, states that the full school year is considered to be twelve months less the holidays, amounting to seven weeks, but this limit cannot be attained where the sparseness of the population obliges the pupils to travel long distances, on account of the severity of the winters.’ Adding to our plan of requiring a minimum school year the Cana- dian plan, already in a degree recognized in some recent school legisla- tion, of making the amount of government grant depend in a large degree upon the length of the school year and the average attendance, consoli- dating schools wherever practicable, and giving from the larger units of school administration to aid the smaller and weaker, the obstacle of the short term and insufficient compensation can be removed. SUPERVISION. Incompetent supervision forms one obstacle to a supply of better teachers. This obstacle may be removed by securing professional super- vision, as is provided by the plan of district supervision so successfully applied in Massachusetts, and just enacted in Maine. The Subcommittee on Supervision treats this subject fully. It is necessary that more definite tests of professional fitness for the work of supervision be instituted. The extension of pedagogical instruc- tion in colleges and universities in recent years is gradually elevating the work of supervision to a higher pedagogical plane, yet the point has not been reached of demanding professional preparation as an essential con- dition. For examples of the requirements of more definite tests of fit- ness see Ontario and France (Appendix lV). It is not unreasonable to hope that in the not distant future the popular standard of education may be so raised that on all educational boards of control, from the state board down to the county or township school board, so much of pedagogical fitness, from the professional point of view, may be demanded as to insure the intelligent consideration of such questions pertaining to the profession as may come before them. *The subcommittee is under obligation to more than it can name, throughout the United States, for information. For aid in its inquiries received from the provincial school authorities of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba, and from Mrs. Etta F. Grover, of Regina, Assiniboia, and Mr. Chisholm, Principal of the high school in Regina, it would here express its thanks. ete (Oa ee Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 459 There are various recognized agencies for the improvement of teachers. ASSOCIATIONS. The state associations are mainly in the control of teachers represent- ing systems of schools; in but few states are rural school-teachers much in evidence at these meetings. The fact that in some states the opposite condition holds shows that the state association may be made a powerful means of uplifting for the rural schools. In many of the states vigorous county associations are found, although this is by no means universal. In these the rural school receives more recognition, but not often all which is its due. When the county asso- ciation holds frequent sessions, and makes the interests of the rural schools prominent, it proves one of the most efficient agencies. Some of the states report local associations of rural school-teachers - which are very efficient. Generally the success of these is largely depend- ent upon the spirit of the local or county superintendent. With good professional supervision in township and county, the wants of rural schools and their teachers can find due consideration in local and county associations ; and by proper organization of rural school sections in the state associations there may be secured such an affiliation of state, county, and local associations as will insure in time a full recognition of the pecu- liar needs of the rural schools. It is desirable that the affiliation between these associations be such as to secure in part the working together, along the same lines of thought, during the same years, by the local, county, and state associations, under the inspiration of the state department of education. SUMMER SCHOOLS OF SEVERAL WEEKS’ DURATION. In some cases summer schools are apparently conducted for the pur- pose of enabling those attending to pass examinations for certain certifi- cates. The tendency is necessarily toward cramming for the examina- tions, and so far they cease to be educative in any proper sense of that term. There is another class of summer schools, often held in connection with colleges and universities, conducted by able teachers, specialists in their departments, for the purpose of advancing education along true lines. Among these, the Agassiz School at Penekese, many years ago, was a revelation and an inspiration to the teachers of the United States. These schools have multiplied in number and enlarged in scope through- out the land, and have proved of great advantage to thousands, not only by increasing their knowledge, but also and much more by bringing them under the personal influence of leaders of thought and masters in teaching. 460 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National A third class, with professional courses in psychology, pedagogy, and methods, often combining the character of the second class, preceding, offers great advantages for professional improvement. ‘There should be in every county one of these for the especial benefit of teachers of the common schools; they should be free of tuition, organized and conducted under the supervision of the state department of education, continuing from four to ten weeks. There should be provision for practice teaching, and the instructors should be familiar with rural schools, their condition and needs. INSTITUTES. The normal institutes, so-called, organized in some states, especially in the West, are essentially the same as the third class of summer schools, described above. County institutes of one week or more, held during the school year, may exert a great influence in the improvement of teachers. When they are conducted under efficient supervision, with a body of instructors capa- ble of increasing the range of thought of teachers, and are organized under such laws as will secure the attendance of the teachers of the county, they prove a powerful means of educational advance. For the description of such an organization of institutes and results see Appendix P. Teachers’ conventions or institutes of one day, as conferences between teachers, or with superintendents, will prove effective to a greater or less degree according to the purpose, plan, and mode of conducting. In order to-secure the best results, they should be held at intervals so fre- quent that the effect may be continuous. READING CIRCLES. The success of the Chautauqua movement, of various organizations for home study, and of teachers’ reading circles, in some cases, proves that these may be made generally efficient. There will be no lack of interest on the part of the teachers, if the organization and direction be wise. The problem is apparently not a difficult one in the larger places, with systems of schools, where numbers of members are readily brought together, but the case is quite different in the case of rural schools. The results reported clearly indicate certain elements essential to success. To secure the advantage of organization there must be a central board of control. This may be a state board with auxiliary boards in counties and towns. Not only are books for reading to be selected, but a plan of work should be carefully drawn up and widely circulated among teachers. The central board should keep in touch with the members of the circles, Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 461 papers based upon the books read should be written and carefully examined, and the results attained should in some way be passed to the teacher’s credit; thus, for a certain number of certificates indicating the completion of a course, a diploma may be granted. The plan of organization is perhaps best formed by the teachers of the state acting through their associations, and the courses of reading can best be made out by committees chosen by the teachers for this purpose; the work may be directed by a committee, but, from comparison of results reported, the varying degrees of success, and the many failures, your committee believes it desirable that there should be in the state department of education a bureau of teachers’ reading circles, with sufficient force to keep in touch with the local circles, to conduct and encourage correspondence with them, and in every way to promote their interest and efficiency. Effective study demands the use of books for consultation and refer- ence. Hence the reading circles should be conducted in conjunction with the lending libraries hereafter mentioned. The reading circles must be considered as a means of improvement, especially for teachers already in the service. No other agency can - really take the place of personal instruction in the original preparation of a teacher for his work. (See Appendix Q.) LIBRARIES. The country town has suffered, and still suffers, from the lack of books. In many states there is now a movement toward the extension of free library privileges, and wherever there is a town library every school should be made a branch. This system of library extension, becoming universal in cities, can be extended to country as well. By frequent exchange of books, under the immediate direction of the teacher as branch librarian, every teacher and pupil will have the use of a larger library in addition to the special library which should be found in every school. Some books should be added to the library for the special benefit of teachers. The library belonging to the school is a necessity. Books lent for a time serve their purpose, but a love for good books and the ability to use them aright come most surely from daily companionship. From the library center, the school can be carried into the home. A more valuable “work can hardly be done by the rural school-teacher than this, of developing a love for good reading. In addition to these there should be established in the county, or the state, or both, a professional library for the use of teachers. This might well be a state library with county branches, and the management of it might well be under the bureau of reading circles which has been men- 462 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National tioned. Such a state school library has been established in New York (Appendix L). TEACHERS’ TRAINING CLASSES. The agencies thus far treated tend to the improvement of teachers already in the service, none of them furnish a first supply for rural schools, and there is a lack of special agencies designed for that end. The investigations of your subcommittee show that the existing normal schools in general do comparatively little in this direction, except by the teaching of their undergraduates. Although originally established for the benefit of the common school, they have naturally tended to keep step with the development of systems of schools in cities and large villages; the majority of rural teachers, often a vast majority, are now without any professional preparation whatever. The tendency is strikingly shown in returns from the Oswego, N. Y., Normal School: “Nine-tenths of our pupils come from the country ; not one-tenth ever teach in rural schools.” In one of the older states, after many years’ existence of normal schools, of more than 12,000 teachers in the public schools of all classes less than 5,000 have ever attended normal schools, less than 4,000 have graduated from normal schools. Over 1,500 vacancies occur annually in the schools of the state; the normal schools of the state graduate about 300 annu- ally, nearly all of whom become teachers in graded schools. One of the leading states of the Union, with a well-organized school system and a grand equipment of normal schools aiming directly to train teachers for the rural schools, reports that a majority of its teachers have had professional training. Many other states report a much smaller proportion of trained teachers; one, 8 per cent.; another, with one of the best school systems, 30 per cent. As a contrast, an answer to the inquiry of your committee, from Manitoba, states: ‘‘Sixty-six per cent. of the teachers employed in the province in 1895 were trained. After this year all will have training.” (See Appendix NV.) The cause for such a contrast appears later in this report. The normal-school system was first devised especially for the benefit of the rural schools, and in obedience to a tendency which had become increasingly strong for some years previous to the time of their establish- ment. Some brief passages of educational history bearing upon this sub- ject are here cited: In 1823 Samuel Reed Hall opened a normal school in Concord, Vt., a school for the academic and professional education of common-school teachers, with a school for practice in teaching. Here Mr. Hall’s lectures on school keeping were delivered to his class. These were afterwards published. The character of his work led to his being called to the prin- cipalship of the English department of Phillips Academy at Andover, xt ihe bea es a Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 463 Mass. He was afterwards invited to take charge of Holmes’ Academy, Plymouth, N. H., and consented on condition that the school should be called a teachers’ seminary. He opened this teachers’ seminary in 1837 and continued it two years. In this school there was a classical depart- ment and no practice school, but the course, as printed in Appendix K, shows the pedagogical character of the institution and the provision made for its students to gain experience in teaching. In 1829 a training school for teachers of the common schools was opened in the town of Effingham, N. H., by Hon. J. W. Bradbury, ex-United States Senator from Maine, now living, at more than ninety years of age, in Augusta, Me. By request, Hon. W. W. Stetson, State Superintendent of Maine, recently visited him to ascertain the facts in regard to this school, and the interview is annexed to this report as Appendix K. The sole purpose of Horace Mann in the establishment of the first state normal school in Massachusetts, a purpose zealously carried out by the principal, Cyrus Peirce, was to elevate the common schools of the country. The course of study of the normal school was for one year. In the first year of the school a model school was organized, in which normal- school students had daily practice in teaching. Mr. Peirce himself taught in the model school, as he felt that upon its success the success of the normal school very largely depended. Almost all the pupils at first came from country towns, almost all returned to teach in country schools. There was not then the difference between the rural school and the city school which now exists. In 1847 John D. Philbrick began the exper- iment of modern grading in Boston, and, with the full development of this system, later, the contrast between the school of the country and the school of the town became more and more marked, and the rural-school problem appeared. The normal-school course, at first simple and adapted to the conditions it was designed to meet, developed to keep pace with the developing school system, and gradually drew away from the rural schools. The normal school is often removed still further from those who would teach in rural schools by the tendency to raise the standard of admission to the requirements of a high-school course. The fact that most of the towns of the state have a high school is no proof that all those who will teach rural schools can go through a high-school course of three or four years, and then a normal-school course of two or three years. Great care should be taken that the normal school does not get too far from those whom it was especially set to serve. There is needed a more careful determination of the qualities and attainments requisite for entrance upon the work of preparation for teaching. These are sometimes given in larger measure by the experiences and responsibilities 404 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National of country life than by the graded city high school, and with these every added step in education is great gain. So far as raising the standard of admission is in response to a claim that all academic studies should be taken out of the normal-school course, it may be said that the claim is not universally recognized as valid by those who have had most experience of work at home, and can find but little warrant abroad. In the normal schools of Prussia, Austria, Switzerland, and France, for example, a larger proportion of time is given to,academic studies than in many of the nor- mal schools of the United States,t but with directions, certainly in France, that in all the course the professional aim shall be constantly kept in view. It is evident that for the fitting preparation of teachers for the rural school some agency is needed intermediate between the brief convention or institute and the normal school, with its two or four-years’ course, so far beyond the reach of the majority of rural school-teachers. What shall it be? Several facts must be kept in mind in the solution of the problem : (1) A large proportion of the teachers of rural schools cannot afford the time and expense of a two-years’ course in a normal school. (2) The receipts from employment in the rural school under present conditions do not remunerate one for the expense of a normal-school course. ‘This is a simple matter.of business, and sentiment will not change the facts. (3) Other conditions remaining the same, attendance at a school is in an inverse ratio to the distance between school and home. This is especially true for a short course. To meet these conditions there is needed a normal training school with a short course of study. The place—a village which will give over its schools to this normal training school for practice schools. These practice schools, organized as primary schools in one room and as gram- mar schools in another, will show what can be done with schools in the simplest form of gradation. For a part of the course all the grades should be brought together to illustrate the work of the one-teacher school, such work as should be done in the ungraded school. A faculty of five or six good teachers, including practice-school teachers, would suffice for such a school. This the general organization—what the work? ‘Treatment of mat- ter essential to good teaching would be grounded on simple fundamental principles. Deficiencies in education would be supplemented by sound teaching; principles of teaching and of school management would be taught and illustrated. Many might learn to do well what they had never done at all; most would learn to do better what they had done poorly. *See Report of Committee on Normal Education, Proceedings of National Council of Education, 1892. Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 465 From these schools would come many students for fuller courses of train- ing and a still wider usefulness. This plan in its development would give a system of district training schools, analogous to the county model schools of Ontario, and the train- ing schools of Quebec and Manitoba, with a course of study and training of one year, the first half of which should be mainly aca- demic, for those who need this preparation, the second half mainly pro- fessional, the work so planned that those of more advanced scholarship need take only the course of the second half year. Of these schools there should be at least one in every county of the state (Appendix NV). The practice in teaching should be thoroughly organized. Every teacher in the school should be, in a certain sense, a training teacher; he should be responsible for the methods of teaching in his own subjects, and should direct lessons given by members of his classes to children from _ the model training schools. Besides such lessons, illustrative of methods of teaching, the pupil-teacher should be trained in conducting school work in the schoolrooms, under conditions similar to those which she will find in her own school. While teaching in the practice school under the direction of a teacher in charge, she should be left more and more to her own judgment; she should be held responsible for the control and direction of the school, and for the teaching of a class, not merely of a group. The membership of the class for training should be limited to such numbers as will give the full advantage of the training course, or, with a practice school of the size presupposed, to about twenty-five. A large class necessitates the teaching of groups, not of full classes with the con- trol of aschool. The French law limits the number of students in each normal school to three classes of twenty-five each. The practice schools should be under the exclusive instruction and control of their regular teachers a sufficient proportion of the time to keep them up to the standard of veritable model schools as well. The completion of this course should give a teachers’ certificate of elementary grade, which would also give admission to the state normal school with due credit on the normal-school course for work already accomplished. There should be a summer term for rural school-teachers in every normal school in the United States. The plant of the normal school has cost thousands, in some cases hundreds of thousands, of dollars, and for two or three months in the summer this investment remains entirely unproductive. The success of the summer term in The University of Chicago is significant, and the Winona plan, adopted this year in all the state normal schools of Minnesota, sets the example for the nation (Appendix S). In normal schools the work of the first year—or the first 466 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National part of the course—should be so planned as to have a unity in itself as a preparation for rural school-teachers, and the results accomplished in the summer term should count on this course, so as to encourage sub- sequent attendance at the normal school. The summer term should not be an institute nor a summer school, in the usual sense, but should com- bine the elements of the other terms of the year; the attendance of children in the training school could be secured easily for two or three hours a day. There should be organized in all states a system of normal-school extension analogous to the university extension. Wherever a class of sufficient size can be formed, a teacher should be provided. The work should be so organized and conducted as to lead to definite results which can be credited to the members of the class. There are two possible’ agencies in the preparation of teachers for rural schools that have not been mentioned : 1. City Training Schools.—In large cities it is not to be expected that the city training school will prepare teachers for rural schools; all their graduates usually find employment at home. But cities in this country with a population of more than 50,000 are comparatively very few, and it is reasonable to suppose that training schools in cities of less than 50,000 will prepare more teachers than can be provided with employ- ment in those cities. The surplus will naturally seek positions in the village and country schools. Birmingham, Ala., a city of about 50,000, has had a training school for eight years. During that time 25 per cent. of the graduates of this school have found employment in the ungraded schools of the county and state. If the training school is encouraged, it can be made an impor- tant factor in the preparation of teachers for rural schools. A part of the course in these schools should, therefore, deal with the conditions of the ungraded schools of the county, and the instruction should be specifically adapted to meet those conditions. 2. Agricultural Colleges—Many pupils in agricultural schools and colleges teach during their course. In some cases the agricultural college is brought nearer the people by the establishment.of branches. Thus in Alabama there has been established in each congressional district a branch agricultural school, closely related to the agricultural and mechanical college of the state. Cannot such schools accomplish much in the specific preparation of teachers for the work of the rural schools ? 3. High Schools.— An effective auxiliary in the training of elementary teachers may be found in high schools. In 1894-95 there were in New York 247 such classes, with 2,482 students. The regulations prescribe the professional qualifications of the teachers who are to instruct these ~ classes, and the equipment and the opportunities for observation and. + jaongd ed el Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 467 practice to be furnished. The course of study, extending through one year, covers the ground of common-school studies, including with sub- ject-matter the treatment of methods of teaching, the history of education, school management, and school law. The school is to furnish each day the opportunity for the class, or some members of it, to observe methods of teaching in the several grades of common-school work, and, when practicable, the opportunity to teach in such grades under proper criti- cism and direction. A system similar to this is in operation in the province of Quebec. Although these training classes cannot take the place nor do the work of special training schools, yet they offer a ready means for effecting some immediate improvement in the teaching force of the state, and for the selection of those who have such fitness for teaching as will justify their pursuing a special professional course. The teachers of such classes -must themselves have received thorough pedagogical instruction, else the result must be a failure; hence the necessity is apparent for pedagogical courses in all colleges. According to the generalizations of the superintendent of the last census, Over an area of our country of 1,688,827 square miles, containing a population of two to forty-five to the square mile, the occupation of the people is mainly agriculture; of this territory 1,096,790 square miles are occupied by a people mainly engaged in systematic agriculture, leaving about 260,000 square miles, with a population of forty-five and upwards to the square mile, in which the leading interests are commerce and man- ufactures, and in which professional and personal service are in large demand. The numbers engaged in the principal occupations in the United States, according to the latest United States census, were as follows: Farm and garden, - - - - = 8,375,979 All the professions, - = = 2 * $ 944,323 Domestic and personal service, - - - - 4,360,506 Trade and transportation, - - - > - 3,325,962 Manufacturing and mechanical industries, - - 5,091,669 In behalf of all these occupations, except the professions and agricul- ture, the claim has been made and has been allowed that special instruc- tion in their interests be made an important part of the school curriculum —in commercial courses; in cooking; in manual training, on which such vast sums have been expended. Indeed, for many of the professions much of the school instruction is a direct preparation. Much is said of the necessity for considering the environment of the child; for bringing into his school life the thoughts and interests of his home life, that the school may not prove to him a thing remote and foreign; of making the school a recognition of his past and a prepara- 468 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National tion for his future. Little sign of this can be found in the ordinary rural school. The courses of study in normal schools of all grades should recog- nize more fully than they do the environment and probable future life of the children in the schools, or rather, they should recognize the lines along which lives of most probable future happiness would lie. As has been shown, much the.largest class of the workers of this country is engaged in agriculture. The environments of their children are rural. The rural school should aim especially to make country life more attractive and beautiful, and should pay more attention to rural industries. Every normal school should have as a means of instruction a school garden, planned and conducted not merely to teach the pure science of botany, but also the simple principles of the applied science of agriculture and gardening ; and every rural school should also have its garden, through which the training of the normal school may reach the home. This element of industrial training should be especially emphasized in the colored normal schools and rural schools of the South. Other countries lead us. A farm has been set apart for this line of instruction at the Provincial Normal School at Truro, Nova Scotia. The school garden is common in the countries of Europe most advanced in popular education. The school garden and the nursery of fruit trees are a feature of the normal schools of France; there is a course of agricul- ture in the normal schools for men, of horticulture in the normal schools for women. The course in agriculture treats of preparation of the soil, special culture of trees and shrubs, of fruit trees, grafting, and the vegetable garden. The course in horticulture in the normal schools for women treats of the garden in its general arrangements—the fruit garden, the vegetable garden, the flower garden. Each garden has a space reserved as a botanic garden for instruction in the science of botany. The instruction received in the normal school is applied in the school garden of the rural school.* * The school garden in the New Hampshire State Normal and Training School has proved a source of interest and of instruction to pupils of all grades in the training schools and in the normal schools, such as nothing else can replace. In this garden all the grains and vegetables grown in the region were cultivated, together with a great variety of flowers. Each class in school had assigned to it a plot, for which it was respon- sible. In the George Putnam School, in Boston, a part of the school yard was turned into a garden, which has received several prizes from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. On certain days the Jardin des Plantes in Paris is used as a place for botanical study by the school children. I found once on the roof of a London schoolhouse, which was used as the girls’ play ground, a large and beautiful collection of plants. And yet ve ve, a ‘ SEE — ee Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 469 A French report says that the French farmer is at first opposed to book farming ; but when he sees that the products of the teacher’s garden are superior to his own, he is glad to learn. M. Boutan, an inspector general of public instruction, says in a report: ‘We can cite several departments in which, thanks to the initia- tive of the teachers, the wealth of the country has increased from year to year, and from which the exportation of fine fruit has become the source of considerable profit.” There can be no doubt that great improvements in agriculture might result from the general diffusion of such instruction through school gar- dens, under the direction of qualified teachers. Is there any other means for such improvement in sight of this generation? And a still higher good for the country life might come from thus blending its utilities and its beauties in the thought of the child. Your subcommittee would also emphasize the importance of two other ‘lines of work already developed in the graded schools, and of a third, which must be made prominent in all schools—language, elements of science or nature study, and morals. Whatever goes into the common school must go into the normal school. Hence, even in the brief course of normal-school training, the instruction in the English language, instruction in the essential elements of its beauty and strength, instruction leading toward such command of its best forms as will tend to make it a transparent medium for the expression of thought, must be held of fundamental importance. There mus be such training in elementary science and in manipulation as will give the teacher essential knowledge and skill in this line of teaching, and there must be such instruction in elementary psychology and ethics as is necessary for the comprehen- sion of general principles of method, and of the scope and methods of instruction in morals; and as the result of all the preparation which can be given there should be a clear comprehension of the essential aims of education. Would that all our teachers could have constantly in mind and at hand such a statement as is found on the desks of the common-school teachers of France (Appendix R). EXAMINATION AND CERTIFICATION OF TEACHERS. Were teaching a profession in the sense in which law and medicine are professions, teachers themselves would formulate the terms of professional recognition ; but evidently the time for that is not yet. What the public school is.immediately to aim for is uniformity in state examinations, and we have to consider the agencies, the standards, the methods for these the rural school almost utterly ignores its only possible laboratory, the out-of-doors, the garden laboratory, right at hand. Here lies a duty, not a choice merely, for the normal school.—C. C. Rounps. ] 470 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National examinations. The agency may be the state superintendent of public instruction, a special examining board, or a state board of education when such board exists. Times and places for examination should be announced frequent enough and numerous enough to meet all reasonable demand. The scope and character of the examinations should be announced long enough beforehand to enable candidates to consider the matter deliberately, as is now done in regard to examina- tions for admission to college and for the civil service. Information as to books for use and as to modes of preparation should be given. Each examination should be conducted by an expert, and the papers should be critically examined. Certificates granted should be graded as to the range of the examina- tion, not as to length of validity, unless the certificate be a provisional one. A one-year’s physician would receive little credit; why should a one-year’s teacher receive more ? Examinations should cover the range of work required of the teacher, and should be written, oral, and practical. The written examinations should be planned not merely to test the candidate’s range of acquire- ment, but rather his accuracy, his general style of thought and expres- sion. The oral examination should test the range of attainment, the per- sonality of the candidate, and his readiness in resource. These two are generally combined in one—the written form, but there are great advan- tages in the separation whenever it is practicable. The examination for the elementary certificate should cover the ground of common-school studies, with so much of the elements of natural science as is demanded for the intelligent teaching of the nature lessons in the common-school course. The questions should be few, but comprehensive, and such as will fairly test the reflective power of the candidate. The professional examination for the elementary grade of certificate should not be severe, but should require clear general statements regard- ing methods of conducting recitations and the organization and manage- ment of a school. The practical examination, or the test of skill, for the elementary grade of certificate, should include some test of the candidate’s ability to plan a lesson and an examination paper in some common-school subject, and to conduct a recitation. If the candidate has been a member of a class in training, a record of this practical work might be brought over from the work in that class. So much ability as is implied by this examination is necessary to the good teaching of any school. Wherever this ability cannot be secured now for the rural school, a clear public appreciation of the need will lead to a supply. of the means. The examination for the advanced certificate should in general cover ee sat aint te lian alas a ASR A DOF y —_—vr Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 471t the ground of an English high-school course of at least three years, or fair equivalents for such a course. A special certificate might be given for a foreign language. This examination should include psychology and ethics, drawing, and the elements of vocal music. The professional examination for the advanced certificate should include history of education, methods of teaching, general principles of pedagogy, and the organization and management of schools. The practical examination should include the preparation of plans of lessons and of examinations ; judging the character of a lesson and a written paper; teaching, including an oral lesson on some subject in nature study, elements of science, language, or morals. As in the examination for the elementary certificate, if the candidate is a member of any training class, the practical examination can be taken in that class. Formulating the preceding statements, teachers’ certificates should be graded in two general classes—elementary and advanced—and in each class three grades. ELEMENTARY. (1) Elementary scholastic certificate, Grade 3. (2) Elementary professional certificate, Grade 2. (3) Elementary certificate of skill, Grade 1. ADVANCED. (1) Advanced scholastic certificate, Grade 3. (2) Advanced professional certificate, Grade 2. (3) Advanced certificate of skill, Grade tr. A life certificate of either class and honorable recognition in the pro- fession should be granted after a certain period of successful teaching to those holding the first-grade certificate of that class. In each class the higher certificate presupposes the lower; thus Grade 1 cannot be obtained without 3 and 2. Many, if not most, of the examinations of teachers for rural schools in the United States today do not go beyond the range of the elementary cer- tificate, Grade 3, as here given; the elementary certificate, Grade 2, could be obtained by attendance upon a teachers’ training class in a high school. A course in a district training school organized as described in this report, or a partial course of one year in a state normal school, should give the complete elementary certificate. In many cases thoughtful and successful teachers in the rural school, by their own study and the help afforded by .a well-conducted reading circle and a normal extension course, could rise from the elementary certificate, Grade 3, to the com- plete elementary certificate. A high-school course would give advanced certificate, Grade 3, and, with the course in a high-school teachers’ train- 472 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National ing class, might give advanced certificate, Grade 2. The complete advanced certificate could be obtained by a two-years’ course in a normal school. This gradation of examinations and certificates will utilize to the utmost the existing educational agencies, will point out to teachers a way in which they may rise step by step, and will thus encourage their advance, and will secure to the rural school the benefit of their improvement. A question will arise as to the interval between the elementary and the advanced certificate. (For a wider interval established in Manitoba see Appendix NV.) In many cases it may be best to lower the standard of the advanced certificate and make it intermediate between the ele- mentary certificate and the normal-school diploma attesting the com- pletion of a two-years’ course. On this question your subcommittee pro- nounces no opinion. It would point out a way by which the teachers of the rural school as it now is may be taken as they are and induced to enter upon a course of advanced study, and by which the school may derive all possible benefit from the advance; and your subcommittee believes that, by such a course, standards will gradually be raised all along the line. Your Subcommittee on the Supply of Teachers for Rural Schools, in closing its report, would call attention to some of the main points in this discussion. It appears that there are numerous agencies which may be made avail- able for the improvement of rural school-teachers already in the service. With these the only question is that of more perfect organization. Although there is in general an increase in interest in educational questions, and an elevation of standards of teaching, yet the large major- ity of rural school-teachers now enter upon their work with no professional preparation; the improvement in the character of rural schools, where there has been any improvement, has been slow; large sections of the country report no advance, some report a decline. The causes for this condition, and the changes needed, are not far to seek: 1, The school year must be lengthened to a full school year of nine or ten months, in order that skilled teachers may be retained. This result can be secured, as it has been secured elsewhere when its absolute necessity has been recognized. The state, among other conditions for Bement from the school fund, may prescribe a full school year, which is gone in England, as logically as six, or seven, or eight months, now done mesome of our states, or it may secure this result, as it has been owes in Canada, by making the length of the school so prominent a condition in the distribution of the school fund as to insure the co-opera- tion of the county and the town to this end. 2. The existing agencies for the supply of teachers for rural schools “ ieee Council } REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 473 do not suffice. There must be modifications in these, and the provision of others. 3. There must be some definite standard for the certification of teach- ers, coming within reach of the teacher of the rural school, and encourag- ing advance to such higher degrees of attainment and skill as will give : full professional recognition. And your committee believes that some _ provision should be made to secure inter-state recognition. The question of finance does not lie within the province of this sub- committee, but it does not believe that the financial difficulty need pre- vent the necessary reform. When there is once full recognition by the state of its final responsibility for the education of every child within its borders, there will be possible such an adjustment of expenses between it and the lower educational units as will be burdensome to none and just to all. Your subcommittee has sought to ascertain accurately what the rural school now is; in all its suggestions it has had in view the rural school as it ought to be. It believes that this nation can have such a system of schools for all its people as may challenge comparison with any other, and that it will have such a system when it clearly perceives the injustice _ and the peril of the present condition, and the way in which safety lies. CHARLES C. RouNDs, Chairman, Davip L. KIEHLE, Joun H. PHILLIPS. REPORT OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON INSTRUCTION AND DISCIPLINE. Your Subcommittee on Course of Study, Methods of Instruction, and Discipline in Rural Schools begs leave to report herewith that it has care- fully considered the conditions which prevail in thinly settled districts with the intent to discover the evils that exist in the schools as a conse- quence of those conditions, such, for example, as (1) the want of classifi- cation and (2) the impossibility of thorough instruction on the part of the teacher, as well as (3) the lack of that stimulus which comes to the pupil from working at reasonable tasks in company with his equals. Your committee has hereinafter described and discussed various remedies, which it believes will have useful results in practice. About one-half of all the teachers in the United States‘teach what are called ungraded schools. They receive in one room pupils of all ages and all degrees of advancement, from ABC’s upward, sometimes even to alge- bra and Latin. In extreme cases each pupil is a class by himself in all branches, except perhaps reading, writing, and spelling. It quite often = ‘ 474 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National happens that there is no uniformity of text-books, each pupil having a different edition or different author; the teacher is often obliged to bor- row the pupil’s book when he hears him recite. According to Mr. Hinsdale’s studies of the United States census (see Appendix A) the sparsely settled region of the country includes, first, one-third of the whole domain entirely uninhabited or containing fewer than two inhabitants per, square mile; secondly, an area of 1,688,827 miles with from two to forty-five inhabitants per square mile, leaving only 260,000 square miles containing more than forty-five to the square mile, and the 443 cities with an aggregate of nearly 19,000,000 people. It happens that ungraded rural schools with a very small attendance are to be found even in the most thickly peopled states and often in proximity to cities. Rhode Island in 1895 reports 158 out of its 263 schools as ungraded and sixty-four of them as containing fewer than ten pupils each.; three towns have in the aggregate thirty-nine schools aver- aging fewer than ten pupils. Vermont in 1893 reported 153 schools with six pupils or less each. Massachusetts in 1893-94 reported sixteen towns with an aggregate of nearly 100 schools with an average of eleven pupils. New York in 1894-95 reported 2,983 schools with fewer than ten pupils each and 7,529 with less than twenty. Other examples are mentioned in the report of the Subcommittee on Maintenance. A school with ten pupils of ages from five to fifteen years, of different degrees of advancement, some beginning to learn their letters, others advanced from one to eight or nine years in the course of study, cannot be graded or classified to advantage, but must for the most part be taught individually. The beginner who does not yet know a letter should not be placed in a class with another who began last year and can now read lessons in the middle of the primer. It will not do to place in the same class a boy beginning numeration and another one who has already mas- tered the multiplication table. The beginner in grammar has not yet learned the technique, and is confused and discouraged by the instruction given to another pupil in his class who has already learned the declen- sions and conjugations. Any attempt, in short, to instruct two or more pupils in a class, when there is a difference of a year’s work in their advancement, results in humiliating and discouraging the less advanced and in making the maturer pupils conceited. Higher learning in the possession of a fellow- man seems to an illiterate person as something magical, or bordering on the miraculous: he can make combinations of thought which surprise those who are unused to them. The case is worse with the child in school. To him the elevation given by a year’s study seems an endowment of nature and not a result of industry. Permanent injury to the pupils is very often occasioned by wrong classification. For not only does the = rae a ss Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 475 lower suffer from discouragement, but the higher pupil is necessarily injured by not being held to his best. The teacher is perforce obliged to adapt the lesson to the average of the class. This does not give enough work for the advanced pupil, although it gives too much for those below the average. There is not enough demand upon the first to continue the increase of his powers ; he becomes indolent and stops growing. For these reasons classification as above described ought not to be expected in the rural school; it must remain ungraded, and as a result the teacher must resort to individual instruction wherever there are inter- vals of a year or more. in degrees of advancement between pupils, and this is the actual practice in perhaps the majority of such schools. The older pupils at least should have separate grammar, history, and arithmetic lessons. It is understood by your subcommittee, as a matter of course, that _ even in asmall school of six to ten pupils there may be two or more pupils of sufficiently near stages of progress to form one class—for example, two beginners in arithmetic, grammar, geography, or history. It may be that a dull pupil has already been studying arithmetic, grammar, or history for a quarter or a half year, and that a bright pupil just commencing the study would be able to keep up with him on a review from the beginning of the book; but it would not do to place a dull pupil commencing a study with a bright one who had already a half year’s start in it. It often happens that pupils placed in the same class at the beginning of the year separate widely in power to learn new lessons before the middle of the year. In such cases a class should be broken up to prevent the twofold injury, namely, to the bright pupil by assigning him too short lessons, and to the dull pupil by assigning him more than he can well accom- plish. The teacher, even after forming classes in writing, reading, and spelling, has twelve to fifteen lessons to hear in a forenoon and nearly as many more for the afternoon. There is an average of less than ten minutes for each recitation. The ideal of the recitation or class exer- cise is that the teacher probe to the bottom the pupil’s preparation of his lesson, and correct bad habits of study. If the pupil fails to master by sufficient industry the details—the facts and external items—the teacher counsels and reproves, requiring more work on the same lesson. If he finds that the details are mastered the teacher next tests the combina- tions, the thoughts that the pupil has used in connecting one fact with another and in seeing relations. Facts are connected so as to form a science when each one is made to throw light on every other fact, and all explain each. So a lesson is learned properly when the pupil can place each item in its systematic relation to the whole. He must understand the bearings of all; he must think out the interrelations. 476 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National Hence it happens that the good teacher is not satisfied with a memo- riter recitation of the details of the lesson—still less with a word-for- word rendition of the text-book. Not the mere words of the book, nor even the disconnected facts or details which the words indicate, but to bring out the thought which unites these details and explains them, is the main object of the good recitation. But such a recitation requires time. The teacher cannot probe the pupil’s knowledge in five minutes and cor- rect his bad habits of study—nor in ten minutes. In the necessarily brief recitation of the ungraded school there is barely time to test the pupil’s mastery of the external details of the lesson, the mere facts and technical words. It is for this reason, more especially, that the rural school has been the parent of poor methods of instruction— of parrot memo- rizing and of learning words instead of things. At the beginning of this century only one-thirtieth of the inhabitants of the United States lived in towns of 8,o00 people or upwards, . and more than go per cent. of all the public schools were ungraded schools. The question has often been asked how it is that so many able men who became scholars and statesmen and professional men of emi- nence could have come from schools as poor as the rural school is said to be. Such eminent men as were produced in those times came from the rural school; there were few graduates from graded schools to compete with them. Of the men now living, past the middle age of life, nearly all received their early education in the rural ungraded school, because even as late as 1850 at least 80 per cent. of all the public schools were ungraded, there being only 12% per cent. of the population resident in cities. The rural school threw on the pupil the burden of his education. He was obliged to get his knowledge from books, such books as he could come to possess. Bright pupils do pretty well by themselves if given good books and taught how to read and to understand the technique used in the elementary books of mathematics, grammar, and the other liberal arts. Any country boy who acquires a love for books, who has access to the best ones, and studies them with energy, will by middle age become a learned man. In the ideal classified school the teacher has two classes of pupils, each class containing within it pupils substantially at the same stage of advancement. The pupils of a given class recite together in all the branches, and the teacher has a half hour for a lesson and can go into the dynamics or causal relations of the facts and events treated. Each pupil in a class learns as much from his fellow pupils as from the teacher direct; for the teacher draws out of the class its store of observations and reflections on the topic of the lesson. He shows up the one-sidedness of the preparation of the individual pupil ; some have neg- lected this point and some that other point. Each has probably neglected Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 477 something. But, on the other hand, each of the diligent ones has brought forward something new that is valuable to his fellows. Each pupil finds through the recitation of the others that they have seen some things that had escaped his notice, although he supposed that he understood thoroughly the book presentation of the subject. His teacher suggests many new ideas and criticises the one-sidedness of the views of the pupils and also, it may be, of the text-book. All the statements ofthe book are brought to the test of verification—either through the child’s experience or through other authorities. The child thus learns the method of study. : The ideal classified school can teach, and does teach, proper methods of study; the rural school cannot do this effectively in its five- or ten- minute recitations. It is because of this that wise directors of education have desired the consolidation of small schools into large schools wher- _ ever practicable. Two schools of ten each furnish on an average one- half as many recitations if united as they do when separate, owing to the possibility of pairing or classifying pupils of the same degree of advance- ment. Ten such schools united into one will give 100 pupils, with a pos- sibility of classes of ten each, which can be more efficiently taught than before, because the pupil can learn more in a class than by himself. The -class in the hands of a good teacher is a potent instrument for reaching all sides of the pupil’s observation and reflection. Again, it is evident that five teachers can teach the roo pupils united in one school far better than the ten teachers were able to teach them in the ten separate schools. If still further consolidation were possible and 400 pupils were united in one school, the classification might be improved to such a degree that a teacher could easily take the charge of two classes of twenty pupils, and ten teachers could do far better work for each pupil than was done by the forty teachers in the forty small rural schools before consolidation. Hence, economy becomes a great item in what are called “ Union Schools.” Your subcommittee, in this discussion of the advantages of classifying and the corresponding disadvantages of the want of classifying, has assumed that as good teachers are supplied to the rural schools as to the schools of villages and cities—teachers of experience and skill, teachers of thorough academic and professional training in normal schools. It is assumed that states have made provision for good salaries in these ungraded schools, and that the license to teach requires professional training. It is admitted as a fact, however, that the average rural school-teacher receives a small salary—not more than one-half that of the teacher in the city or large village. It is true, as reported by the Subcommittee on Maintenance of Schools, that some states, notably California, New Jersey, 478 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [ National Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and others to a greater or less degree, are providing, by a wise distribution of school money, to secure skillful teachers for these small, ungraded schools. But the evils above described as appertaining to instruction in ungraded schools are of such a charac- ter as not to yield to ordinary remedies. Your subcommittee would call special attention at this point to the evil results that come from the attempt to remedy the defects of the rural school by forcing on it the system of classification found in cities. It is assumed that some of the benefits of the close grading possible in cities will be gained for the rural schools if they can roughly group the whole school into three or four classes. A rural school of thirty pupils com- prising children from six to sixteen years of age, and covering different degrees of progress from beginners up to those of eight or nine years of schooling, are grouped, let us suppose, into four classes or grades— thus leaving intervals of two or more years of school work between a given group and the next one above it. Your subcommittee has already pointed out the evils of classifying pupils in such a way as to bring together pupils differing in degree of advancement by intervals of two years. In fact, it has been found in city schools that one year’s interval between classes is too much. The greatest danger of the graded school system in cities comes from holding back bright pupils for the sake of the slower and duller pupils. Next to this is the evil to the dull ones who are dragged forward at an unnatural rate of progress to keep up to the average rate of the class. ‘The best pupils are engaged in “marking time,” while the slowest are constantly spurred forward by teachers and parents to keep with their class, and their school years rendered miserable. Their self-respect is undermined by a false standard, that of mere speed in learning. The “marking time” injures the bright pupil by developing lax habits of study, while the forced marches of the slow pupil tend to destroy his poise of character. It has been found desirable, therefore, in city schools to make the inter- vals between classes as small as possible, so as to favor frequent transfers, namely, on the one hand, of bright pupils who are becoming capable of a greater amount of work into a higher class, and, if necessary, of those who are falling behind the average of the class into the next one below. Intervals of a half year are, therefore, adopted in a majority of the pro- gressive city school systems, and many prefer intervals of a quarter of a year where it is practicable to make them, that is, where a large number of pupils makes possible the assignment of a requisite quota for each class. At the request of the subcommittee, Dr. E. E. White, an eminent authority on all that relates to school management, has furnished a state- ment of his views of classification in the rural school, illustrating them by a programme, which allows twenty-five minutes for each recitation. But oe - el —— Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS A79 the intervals between the classes amount to two years’ work, and inasmuch as he expressly provides for capable pupils, letting them “work ahead of their classes,” he leaves the question where it is left by the subcommittee, unless the pupils are supposed to do their “advance work” without the teacher’s supervision (Appendix J). Your subcommittee would respectfully call attention to the danger of attempting to classify the rural school in imitation of the city school as peculiarly liable to happen in those schools where professionally educated teachers are employed. The state and city normal schools have very properly laid stress on grad- ing and classification, and on the methods of instruction by classes, and have ignored individual instruction. Their graduates have mostly sought and obtained places in the graded schools of cities and villages. In fact, the graded schools have outbid the rural schools for teachers having pro- fessional training. But, with the new movement to secure better teachers ‘for rural schools by larger appropriations from the state, it has happened that many experiments of classification are attempted which result dis- astrously in the manner described, namely, by demoralizing, or destroying the courage and ambition of the exceptionally bright and the exception- ally dull pupils. The charge has been made that such rural schools as adopt a partial grading system are apt to become stiflers of talent by placing a premium on the average scholars, and holding back the promising youth of the district. It is obvious from this that where state normal schools furnish teachers for the rural districts there should be conducted a special inquiry into the influence of the size of the school in determining the uses and the dangers of grading and classifying pupils. There is no doubt, moreover, that the abuse of classification is the crying evil of the schools of villages and small cities. For the average pupil these village graded schools are uniformly good, but they often work injury to the exceptional pupils and are in this respect sometimes inferior to the ungraded schools in sparsely settled districts. Your subcommittee would here explain that the technical terms “ ‘grad- ing” and “classification” are often used, as above, to signify the same thing, namely, the dividing of the pupils of a school into groups or classes, each containing children of the same, or substantially the same, degree of advancement. But another meaning is often given to one of these terms. The work of the year, more or less, is also called the work of a grade, and the work of the elementary school, consisting of the first eight years’ work, is divided into eight grades. It will be readily understood in this second use of the word “grade” as covering a year’s work that a school may be graded, that is to say, its work may be arranged upon a programme of eight grades, each one of which requires a certain modicum of reading, 480 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National writing, arithmetic, geography, grammar, etc., for a year’s work, and yet have only ten or twenty pupils, and perhaps these representing only three or four of the eight grades. By a graded school, as applied to sucha state of things, is meant simply a school whose programme requires a regular sequence of studies and a full quota of studies for each pupil. If a pupil is at a certain degree of advancement in his arithmetic the pro- gramme of the graded system would place him also in a class correspond- ingly advanced in geography, history, reading, or other studies. But the small rural school has been called “ungraded” because it contains or may contain pupils of all grades, from the lowest to the highest, and conse- quently obliges the teacher to scatter his teaching force over a wide range of topics. The large school permits specializing by dividing the school in such a way that the pupils of one grade, or perhaps two grades, are taught by one teacher, the next one or two grades by another teacher, etc., permitting each teacher to specialize his work by giving him fewer topics to teach, and consequently insuring longer recitation periods and constant improvement in skill. It is to be supposed that all schools will be graded in the sense that they will have a course of study, and that pupils will take up their branches of study in due order, and that these studies will be associated, so that a given degree of advancement in one study implies a given degree of advancement in another. What is properly called the correlation of studies presupposes that a certain degree of advancement in arithmetic corresponds to a certain degree of advancement in geography, reading, grammar, and other studies, all of these being determined within limits by the pupil’sage. The word “grading,” as a synonym for classification, is freely used by your subcommittee in this report, but it has discussed the topic indicated in the other and less frequent use of the word “grading” in that part of its report which follows, relating to the course of study. THE COURSE OF STUDY. Your subcommittee has assumed that the course of study in the rural schools should be substantially the same as that of the city schools. The differences should concern only minor details. It would, therefore, refer here to the report of the Committee of Fifteen for fuller details, and for the discussion of the grounds for selecting the several branches of the course of study. The course of study of the elementary school, whether urban or rural, should contain those branches which give the child an insight into the physical world and the means of conquering it for human uses, and also an insight into human nature and the motives that control the actions of men. The child should above all be taught how to combine - with his fellows to secure reasonable ends. The windows of the soul are to be opened by the five branches of the course of study, thus enabling the Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 481 youth to see (1) the conditions of inorganic nature by arithmetic and the elements of physics and chemistry ; (2) the conditions of organic nature by studying plants and animals, the land, water, and air, and, besides these, the means that man invents and uses to connect each place with the rest of the world —these things belonging to geography. These two “windows” look out upon nature. The three others enable us to see man ; (3) literature and art as revealing human nature, arousing pure and high aspirations in the youth, and freeing him from narrow and mean views of life; (4) the study of the structure of language, as found in the several subdivisions of grammar and rhetoric; (5) history, which treats of the greater self— of man as a social whole. These five branches belong to all schools, for they relate to the sub- stance of humanity and are necessary for entrance upon civilization. Besides arithmetic, geography, literature, grammar, and history, there are collateral branches that each school should include —some of them infor- ‘mation studies, such as oral courses in the sciences, in history, and in the arts —others of the nature of disciplines, or -arts of skill, such as vocal music, gymnastics, manual training, the art of cooking, and some special attention to the elementary principles of the useful arts practiced in the neighborhood of the school, namely, farming, horticulture, grazing, mining, manufacturing, or the like (Appendices G and ZZ). In general these collateral branches should relate to the pupil’s envi- ronment and help him understand the natural features of that environ- ment, as well as the occupations of his fellow-men in the neighborhood. There are two things to understand in this matter of the geography of the environment. First, what it is and how it came to be— its land and water, its mountains and river valleys, its climate and soil, its produc- tions, mineral, vegetable, and animal, and their peculiarities, how they differ from the productions of the rest of the world. Second, the means by which man procures from nature what is useful for himself and others, manufactures it and uses it, or exchanges it with his fellow-men so as to share in the productions of all climes and places, no matter how far dis- tant. If a comparison must be made, this second topic of elementary geography is more important than the study of the natural features of the environment, because it is more immediately useful to the pupil and to the community in which he lives. Let the pupil beginning the subject of geography commence with what is nearest to his personal and social interests, namely, with the prod- ucts of the industries of his section. Let his studies go out from these products in two directions: first, to the natural conditions which make these products possible and which furnish in general the raw material ; secondly, in the direction of the purpose of this, the uses made of it, the things produced, the needs and wants of his fellow-men near and far ; 482 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National and the productions of the other parts of the world which are needed in his section to complete the supply of articles for food, clothing, shel- ter, protection, and culture. These items, including natural produc- tion and the human occupations of manufacture and exchange, may be said to be the chief theme of geography as it should be taught in the ele- mentary schools. But the home environment is also to be kept in mind by the teacher throughout the entire course. Arithmetic should gain concreteness of application by its use in dealing with home problems. Literature should be pointed and applied, so far as may be without becoming provincial, to the pupil’s environment; and so the other branches— history, and even grammar—should be brought home to the pupil’s knowledge or experience in the same way. The pupil should have prepared for his study a list of the chief provincialisms of speech to which his section is addicted, and to the peculiarities of pronunciation in which his neighborhood departs from the national or international stand- ard of usage. The Committee of Fifteen has already advanced the opinion that the industrial and commercial idea is the central idea in the study of geog- raphy in the elementary schools. It leads directly to the natural elements of difference in climate, soil, productions, races of men, religion, political status, and occupation of the inhabitants, and it explains how these differ- ences have arisen in some measure through cosmic and geological influ- ences. It should be the teacher’s object to make the pupil understand, just as early as his growing capacity admits, the peculiarities of his habitat, leading him to study the land and water formations in his neighborhood, and giving him power to recognize in the visible landscape about him the invisible forces that worked in the past, and still are at work in the pres- ent, molding these shapes and forms. On the basis of this knowledge of the elements of difference produced by nature in soil, climate, and con- figuration of the landscape, he should explain the grounds and reasons for the counter process of civilization which struggles to overcome these differences by bridging the rivers and tunneling the mountains — by using steamboat and railroad so as to unite each particular habitat with the rest of the world. He should see how man adapts to his needs the climate of each place by creating for himself a comfortable temperature, using for this purpose clothing and shelter, as well as fuels of wood and coal or derived from oils and gases, to protect from cold, and on the other hand utilizing ice or power fans, and creating easy access to summer dwellings on the heights of mountains, or at the seashore, to mitigate the heat. He turns the soil into a laboratory, correcting its lacks and deficiencies by adding what is necessary to produce the crop which he desires. He naturalizes the useful plants and animals of all climes in his own habitat. It is evident that the details of the process by which differences of soil, climate, and ore) Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 483 production arise, important as these are, should not be allowed to occupy so much of the pupil’s time that he neglects to study the counter-process of industry and commerce by which man unites all parts of the earth to his habitat, and progressively overcomes the obstacles to civilization by making climate and soil to suit himself wherever he wishes. To restate this important point in a word, it is true that the deeper inquiry into the process of continent formation, the physical struggle between the process of the upheaving or upbuilding of continents, and that of their obliteration by air and water; the explanation of the moun- tains, valleys and plains, islands, volcanic action, the winds, the rain dis- tribution, is indispensable to a comprehension of the physical environ- ment. But the study of the cities, their location, the purposes they serve as collecting, manufacturing, and distributing centers, leads most directly to the immediate purpose of geography in the elementary school, for it is the study of that civilization in which the pupil lives and moves and has his being. Keeping this human standpoint in view all the time as a permanent interest, the inquiry into causes and conditions should proceed concen- trically from the pupil’s use of food and clothing to the sources of the raw materials, the methods of their production, and the climatic, geologic, and other reasons that explain their location and their growth. It is important in this as in all matters of school instruction to avoid one- sidedness. Although the human factor should receive the most emphasis, special care should be exercised lest the nature factor should be neglected. Your subcommittee would refer to the discussion of this subject under the head of ‘“Geography”’ in the report of the Committee of Fifteen for further illustration. There is not much use in requiring instruction in branches not yet reduced to pedagogic form. It is necessary that matters taught should be so systematized for school use as to admit of arrangement in a pro- gressive series of lessons, the first of which alone would be useful if no second lesson followed, and the subsequent lessons each useful if the pupil studied none of the following. Each lesson when arranged in a pedagogic form leads up to the fol- lowing lesson and makes it easy to grasp, just as each stair makes the next one easy to climb. For example, the first lesson in cookery is an exercise in accurate measurement by spoonfuls and cupfuls, etc., and cal- culated not only to aid in the next lesson and make it possible, but also to be of use through life in the kitchen. Concerted efforts are being made in agricultural colleges'to reduce to pedagogic form the arts of the: farm, the garden, and the forest. 484 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION (National THE PROGRAMME OF STUDIES. Your subcommittee deems it important to call attention again in this place to the prevalence of a misconception in regard to the relation of the course of study to the system of grading and classification. Every school, whether ungraded or graded, should have a course of study minutely arranged so as to show the average or reasonable rate of progress of the pupil of a given age and advancement in the work of the school; but, as has already been shown, it is not required that the school shall contain classes in each and all of these grades, nor indeed classes at any given stage of progress in the course of study as laid down for any particular quarter or term of the year. Above all it must be understood that in lay- ing down the quarters or other divisions of a grade or year’s work it is mot to be expected or desired that the pupils entering school at the begin- ming of the school year in the fall should commence at the beginning of -any grade’s work. Ifa class consisting of two or more individuals (or of -one individual only) left off the previous year in the third quarter’s work of the fourth grade, it should begin its work after vacation at the point where it left off, unless there are special reasons which require a review ‘of some portions of the work. The course of study is the measuring rod or scale which is used to determine at what point in the eight years’ work of the elementary course a pupil has arrived. It should not be used as the Procrus- tean bed on which to stretch the work of the school in order to give it uniformity. It has happened not infrequently in the past that upon the first adoption of the graded system the superintendent of city schools held annual examinations on the completion of the work of the grade, and for this purpose insisted upon the unreasonable requirement that all of the pupils in the school should have begun the work of a grade on the first day of the year and should be expected to finish the grade work in the fourth quarter of the year. This was said to be for convenience of promotion—all pupils leaving the work of one grade and passing to the next were said to be promoted. This fiction has effected serious injuries in city schools. The apparent reason for such a system was the con- venience of the superintendent who desired to make only one set of ques- tions for each grade, and hold his examinations all at one time. If he had adopted a plan of preparing an examination for any class of pupils at the time when they should have completed the work of the grade (whether in the first, second, third, or fourth quarter), such a system need not have existed. The false idea of promotion has also been the source of great evils. When a pupil has finished the work laid down in the course of study for any grade, he should begin the work of the succeeding grade at once, and it is not necessary to have any special examination. The class teacher .is supposed to examine her pupils from day to day, for each recitation is " cate hime «f it ell RODEN Ac PII Pt soi 4 _— Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 485 an examination revealing the pupil’s understanding not only of the day’s work but of his previous lessons; and the principal of the school is supposed to be well acquainted with the progress of his pupils. It is not necessary, therefore, to hold a general examination on the work of the grade if the class teacher and the supervising principal have performed their duty. - It is understood, too, that there should be much written work in the school, but that it should not as a rule take the form of competitive exam- inations. There is no other exercise in the school more valuable than that of written expression, but this should be limited chiefly to the review work of the pupil. The teacher, for illustration, should prepare questions at the close of the week, on the previous five or six days’ work, such ques- tions as bring out the most essential points and the principles which con- nect the details that have been studied. The pupil should be permitted _to sit down by himself with plenty of time before him to write out his answers to these probing questions. By this means he learns gradually to collect his thoughts, and will do more thinking in connection with his written examination than in any other test or study in his school course. The written examination should not be postponed till the end of the year or to the end of the quarter, but should be a matter of at least weekly occurrence. It should be written work of a review character rather than examination of a competitive character. While the course of study for the elementary school will cover eight years and be subdivided so as to show quarterly, semi-annual, or other stated progress, as already said, it will not be expected that the rural school, with its ten or twenty pupils, will have each and every grade represented ; perhaps, for instance, there will be three pupils in the first grade, two in the second grade, one in the third grade, none in the fourth grade, two in the fifth grade, none in the sixth and seventh, and two in the eighth grade. Your subcommittee assumes likewise that the discipline of the rural school should be strict though mild, like that of the city school. The fundamental school virtues of regularity, punctuality, and industry are auxiliary to moral virtues and form together a training of the will which is of great importance in producing the future good citizen. Itmust not be thought that, because a school is small, therefore the discipline is of less importance. The formation of habits of order, and of respect for the rights of the social whole, is necessary for the good citizen, whether of country or town. REMEDIES FOR THE EVILS OF THE RURAL SCHOOL. Your subcommittee would here point out that some of the evils of the rural school are due to its non-social character, its inability to furnish to 486 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National each of its pupils that educative influence that comes from association with numbers of the same age and the same degree of advancement. The rural school furnishes only a few companions to the youth, and those either above him or below him in grade of progress in studies. The remedy for the evils of the ungraded school are suggested by this very feature or characteristic. Radical remedies in this case must all contain some device to bring together pupils of different districts and bring into wholesome competition with one another the pupils of the same grade of advancement. Transportation to Central Schools.— The collection of pupils into larger units than the district school furnishes may be accomplished under favorable circumstances by transporting at state or local expense all the pupils of the small rural districts to a central graded school and abolish- ing the small ungraded school. This is the radical and effective measure which is to do great good in many sections of each state. As shown already by the Subcommittee on the Maintenance of Schools, Massachu- setts,in which the plan began under the town superintendent of Concord, Mr. John B. Tileston (about the year 1878 in Concord, or even earlier in the town of Quincy, see Appendix F), paid in 1894-95 the sum of $76,608 for the transportation of children from small rural schools to central graded schools— 213 towns out of a total of 353 towns and cities using this plan to a greater or less extent, and securing the two-fold result of economy in money and the substitution of graded for ungraded schools. The spread of this plan to Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Ohio, and some other states (see Report of Bureau of Education for 1894-95, pp. 1469-82) demonstrates its practicability. Experiments with this plan have already suggested improvements, as in the Kingsville experiment in Ohio, where the trans- portation reached in all cases the homes of the pupils and yet reduced the cost of tuition from $22.75 to $12.25 a year for each of the fifty pupils brought to the central school from the outlying districts. Improvement of Roads.—Wherever this plan of abolishing the small ungraded school is practicable it is by far the best remedy to be applied. But there will remain large numbers of small ungraded rural schools in which the plan of transportation is not feasible by reason of great dis- tances and poor roads. The Agricultural Department is seconding the efforts of many states to improve roads in rural districts. In many places road improvement is a necessary condition previous to the better- ment of rural schools. Special Appropriations for Small Rural Schools.—The device of secur- ing skilled and professionally trained teachers by providing, as in Califor- nia, a sufficient salary for each district, no matter how few its pupils (see Appendix C), has already been described by another subcommittee (that ' . a Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 487 on maintenance). It is undoubtedly a wise measure, provided it does not hinder the consolidation of districts through the adoption of the Massa- chusetts plan. If it works to preserve the small ungraded school in places where consolidation is feasible it will in the end be an injury to the cause of rural schools. Your subcommittee, therefore, ventures to call attention to the importance of adopting such laws as are operative in California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New York, for the better remuneration of rural school-teachers, but with a proviso that makes it a pecuniary advantage to a town to abolish its outlying ungraded schools and furnish transportation to a central school. Concentration of the Higher Grades of Pupils—Where transportation of the whole schoolis not feasible it sometimes happens that the teaching may be very much improved by the transfer of two or three of the pupils of the higher grades who consume very much of the teacher’s time. By transportation of these two or three pupils to the central school the teacher thus relieved may find time for much better instruction of the pupils in the lower grades who remain under his charge. School Exercises at the Town or County Centers—For the small _ ungraded schools that cannot be abolished, perhaps one-third of. all the schools in the United States at the present time, your subcommittee sug- gests the provision of occasional meetings at town centers or county centers, perhaps twice a year or oftener, under the direction of township, union township, or county superintendents, as the case may be. The meeting should have as its primary purpose the bringing together of advanced pupils-—say sixth to ninth years’ work for examination and comparison, the examinations to be chiefly written. Certificates should be given to those who complete the elementary course of eight years as a whole or in any one of its branches, permitting a pupil who passes in one branch this year, say in grammar or history, to pass in another branch at a subsequent examination whenever he presents himself. These examina- tions have been in operation in several counties of New Jersey for nearly twenty years. This plan has an interesting and profitable illustration of many of its features in the operation of the Boxwell law in Ohio (State School Com- missioner Corson, Report 1895-96). It was also carried out years ago in many particulars by Superintendent Wade in West Virginia. The Proper Use of Competitive Examinations.—It is understood by your subcommittee that the prejudice against competitive examinations is well grounded. ‘It often happens that schools are subjected to mere mechanical drill in order to secure a higher per cent. in this sort of exam- ination. High per cents. cannot be obtained by entire classes upon work which requires not only a knowledge of details, but a knowledge of the causal relations underlying them. Your subcommittee desires to say 488 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National > that it does not recommend indiscriminate competitive examinations, but that it recommends written work and examinations which test the thinking ability of the pupil and lead him to considerate inquiries and accurate statements. High per cents. on anything except mechanical work, such as spelling, the multiplication table, the tables of weights and measures, and paradigms, are not desirable. The plan of township and county union exercises of rural schools above described obviously includes the good feature of social intercon- nection, each pupil of the remote districts working consciously in com- bination with many others towards a common end, and all the pupils stimulated both in school and out of it by this social motive. Promotion of Home Reading.-—The excellence of the Chautauquan plan for the promotion of home study lies in the same feature. Each reader is stimulated and encouraged by the consciousness that he is working on a task common to the endeavors of a vast multitude. The task is digni- fied and ennobled by such social participation. ‘The youth in the rural district is by this plan to be made a home student, and his education is thus to be extended beyond the school. He may have obtained his first recognition in the township examination while he was a member of a rural school. He is an object of semi-annual inquiry on the part of the township or county superintendent for years afterwards. Each new teacher that comes to the rural school is charged by the superintendent with the duty of looking up the young men and young women who made a record in the central examinations, and inquiry is made after their con- tinued reading and study. This in itself will be a powerful influence to cause young people to continue self-culture by studying a prescribed series of books in years subsequent to the school period. It will add dignity and self-respect to the rural school-teacher who is charged with the work of making friendly inquiry into this school extension, and of offering help in case of application from any of the parties interested. Reviewing Studies.—'The rural school with its five-minute or ten-min- ute recitations cannot do much in the way of reviewing previous lessons. The good teacher in a graded school carries on from day to day a review of previous lessons. He gathers up and connects with the lesson of the day all the essential threads that bind it to what has gone before. It is this work of reviewing that will be assisted by the occasional examina- tions at the township center. Moreover, the old evil of the rural school, that of having all pupils begin at the beginning of the book at the commencement of each annual term, will be removed. For the superintendent will have a record of the standing of the advanced pupils and will require a report from the new teacher as to their programme of study. This plan also points to the utility of more written work in the rural . tprserete teal WRN ~ Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 489 school. A set of questions prepared beforehand and given to a pupil at the close of the week, as above recommended, will test not only his knowl- edge of the superficial details of his week’s work, but also of his under- standing of their deeper connections and principles, as no oral recitation could be made to do. School Extension—In this connection another branch of what is called “school extension” or ‘university extension” is practicable. Home reading can be managed from the same center, namely, the rural » school. Everything that adds social importance to the rural teacher may be of service. It is evident that those pupils who have graduated from the public school and have entered upon the business of life may profit- ably carry on useful courses of reading in the various departments of literature and art, science, and history. The township or union township superintendent, in conjunction with the county superintendent or state superintendent, should set into operation as far as possible courses of home reading, employing the aid of the rural school-teachers to carry this into effect. A record containing the names of the persons who have undertaken home reading, the names of the books completed, and the dates of such completion, will form an interesting record. This home reading, moreover, should have its social gatherings in which there are discussions of the contents of particular books that are read. For this purpose the township superintendent or the county superintendent may select specially well-fitted persons who shall present analyses of the books and discussions of their contents. It is desirable that the course of home reading shall not be one-sided, but shall move in each of the three direc- tions: literature, including poetry and prose; science, looking towards the organic and inorganic kingdoms of nature, the plant, the animal, and the details of matter and force; and towards archeology, ethnology, and sociology, and politics, history, biography, and art. One must not be altogether dissatisfied if it is found that the novel is the chief book in demand, especially in the first five years of the home reading circle. In our day the novel discusses every question of history, politics, sociology, and natural science. The old-fashioned novel which describes manners has its great use, too, in the fact that it gives to the people of whom we are speaking, the people of the rural districts, a ready knowledge of man- ners and customs of polite society. In this respect it is sometimes more useful than books of science and history. Lancastertan or Monitorial Plan.— The topic of written work dugbeats a further topic of great importance in the rural schools, namely that of the occasional employment of older pupils in the work of supervising the exercises of less advanced pupils—a committee of two or three pupils to examine and mark the papers written by those studying geography; a monitor assigned for some hour in the day to inquire into the work of a 490 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National backward or dull pupil who has reached a difficult place in arithmetic; a similar assignment of a pupil to help another in a grammar lesson or a history lesson; these are cases where the monitorial or Lancasterian sys- tem may have greater or less utility. It cultivates directive power and self-respect in a pupil to be called to the aid of the teacher. But the dangers of it are well known. No weak disciplinarian should try the monitorial system. On the other hand, every strong disciplinarian in the ungraded school can use some features of it to advantage. The bane of the Lancasterian system was its use to furnish cheap assistant ‘teachers in graded schools. It resulted in bringing into the schools a class of so-called ‘“pupil-teachers,” educational novices in the place of experienced and professionally trained teachers who ought to be everywhere, employed in graded schools. Limited entirely to ungraded schools and to teachers with disciplinary power, the older pupils may profitably be employed to help in the work of the school. But they should not take up any work continuously —it should all be occasional, inasmuch as every thread of the school work must come under the eye of the schoolmaster frequently —daily, or nearly as often. If he has asked an older pupil to explain a point in arithmetic to a dull pupil, the latter will show the degree of efficiency of that help, in the first recitation after it. Another rule for the guidance of the teacher is: never to employ a monitor unless such assignment of work is useful both to the pupils taught and to the pupil-teacher. A teacher may gain time needed for assistance of the advanced pupils in some important study by requiring in advance the assistance of these ~ pupils in some of the following forms: (1) Marking examination papers. (2) Helping pupils over some difficulty in arithmetic, grammar, or other branch having strict logical sequence in its topics. (3) In explaining the thought of a reading lesson to a backward pupil. The effort of one pupil to explain to another a difficult passage of literature is one of the most profitable of all school exercises. There will undoubtedly be crudities in the explanation, but this will all come out under the teacher’s subsequent tests, and the exercises will increase in profit through the final explanation given by the teacher. (4) In assisting to test mere memory work on the part of a pupil, as in the case of the spelling of difficult words, the learning of paradigms in grammar, the learning of the required tables of weights and measures, the multiplication table, etc., or in any other necessary data that have to be fixed in the memory. In general, what is nearest to mechanical work may be supervised at times by monitors, and monitors may be useful in assisting in the preparation of thought lessons that are to come later Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 491 before the schoolmaster, as, in the example given, the getting-out of the thought of a reading lesson— or even of a history lesson. In conclusion, your subcommittee would lay chief stress on the func- tion of school extension, above sketched in outline, as the most profitable line of work for the improvement of the rural school—both pupils and teachers. WiLLiAM T. Harris, Chairman, ADDISON B, POLAND, Lioyp E. WOLFE. Mr. Poland, while concurring in most particulars, desires to add the following statement : While I concur most heartily in nearly all of the recommendations made by the Subcommittee on Course of Study, etc., I feel compelled to state that, in my opinion, the report somewhat exaggerates the difficulties and dangers of attempting to classify pupils in rural schools. It fails to discriminate between rural schools of ten pupils each and schools of a larger number, say thirty to sixty pupils each. The general argument is based upon conditions that exist in a “school with ten pupils of ages from five to fifteen years;” and the con- clusion drawn is that “for these reasons, classification as above described ought not to be expected in the (any) rural schools.” The conclusion, it seems to me, is altogether too general. My own observation of rural schools in the states of Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey has led me to believe that their efficiency as a rule is in direct ratio to their wise and careful gradation; that, in fact, the best- graded schools are the most efficient. I am speaking, of course, of rural schools containing twenty-five pupils and upwards, where partial grading, at least, is generally believed to be practicable. Grant all the cases of individual hardship that the report truly affirms of misgraded pupils, yet the total loss of efficiency is immeasurably less than where no grading is attempted. Economy of teacher’s time, longer recitation period, class emulation, etc., more than offset the disadvantage, often only theoretic, of a pupil’s working in advance of his point of ‘“‘maximum efficiency.” I am not, therefore, in full harmony with the report, in so far as it may have the effect to discourage teachers from attempting to classify pupils, whenever and wherever practicable. A. B. POLAND. Mr. Wolfe, while agreeing in many points with Mr. Harris, desires to make the following statement: Perhaps my opinion may be characterized as explanatory or supple- mentary rather than dissenting. Believing with Dr. Harris that the chief 492 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION | National aim of the report of the Committee of Twelve is to provoke thought, I make this contribution to that end. Complete unanimity no more exists among the members of this committee than among the great army of teachers for whom the report is prepared; nor is such unanimity desir- able. The subject will be treated under the following heads: (1) Zhe present condition and trend of rural-school grading and classifica- tion in the states of the Union; (2) Dr. Harris’ plea for individual instruction rather than the instruction (in the same class) of pupils who are more than one year apartin their advancement; (3) the underlying pedagogic principles that seem to justify Dr. Harris in opposing the doctrine of his report to a body of opinion on classification and grading which is gathering volume and momen- tum with each decade; (4) objections to the doctrine of the report. 1. Recent decades have witnessed a strong movement in many of the states of the Union to model the rural school course of study, grading, and classification after the ideal of the city graded school. Several states pre- pare, publish, and distribute state courses of study for rural schools, and send out, at stated times, uniform examination questions prepared with ref- erence to the course of study and the system of grading and classification set forth therein. In other states, the county school authorities issue the rural school course of study. In still other states, the school journals and associations hold up the grading and classification of rural schools as an ideal to be obtained in the near future. 2. The burden of Dr. Harris’ report is: ‘‘Be ye not unequally yoked together.”’ Just here a word of explanation of the expression “the ideal of the city graded school.” Thisideal is a course of study divided into at least eight yearly divisions, or grades of work, the pupils of the school being divided into eight corresponding divisions, or grades. A school is graded when the pupils of a certain year, or grade, are pursuing the work of a corresponding year, or grade, in allthe branches. It is, therefore, evi- dent that the word “grade” has two meanings—a grade of work and a grade of pupils. All pupils who are graded are classified, unless there be but one pupil to the grade. But all pupils who are classified are not necessarily graded. A pupil without classmates is graded when he pursues all the work of the corresponding grade, and yet he cannot be said to be classified. Pupils may be grouped in classes, and thus be classified, and yet not be graded, because they may be pursuing work of different grades. Dr. Harris is not opposed to a course of study for rural schools, nor to dividing that course of study into eight divisions, or grades of work, nor yet to grouping pupils into classes, or grades, provided classmates are not more than a year apart in their advancement. But most rural school courses of study necessitate the grouping of the pupils of the fifth and sixth years of advancement into one grade; also, the grouping of the pupils of the seventh and eighth years into another grade. It thus happens that ’ Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 493 not only are pupils two years apart in their advancement yoked together in the same class and grade, but that, on alternate years, they are obliged to study the sixth year’s work before the fifth, and the eighth before the sev- enth. It will thus readily be seén that the main thought of Dr. Harris’ report is a standing protest against the grading and classification of pupils in the rural school as now practiced in many of the states. 3. We are now to inquire what pedagogic principles can be invoked to justify Dr. Harris in throwing the whole weight of his influence against the evolution of the ungraded country school into the graded school. And first, we must bear in mind that the subject of the report of Dr. Harris is “Instruction and Discipline in the Rural Schools.” First, efficient instruction must be adapted to the capacity of the learner, otherwise tt cannot be grasped and assimilated. Second, other things being equal, instruc- tion is more efficient when given to pupils associated tn classes than when given to individual pupils. Not only does a pupil gain much information from his classmates during a recitation, but the recitation gives him an insight into the individual capacities and peculiarities of those among whom he is to succeed or fail in professional or business life. Third, effictent instruction requires a reasonable length of time for a class exercise. In a city graded school, with at least one teacher for each grade of work, the three principles—adaptation of instruction to the capacity of the learner, grouping of pupils into classes, and a reasonable time for recitation — can be conserved. But, in a rural school with one teacher, to maintain one of these principles is to sacrifice another. The principle of the adap- tation of instruction to capacity can be adhered to by dividing the pupils into eight grades of advancement; but such division gives a minimum time for recitation and a minimum association of pupils. If, however, pupils of the third and fourth, fifth and sixth, seventh and eighth years of advancement be grouped into three corresponding grades, we secure a longer time for recitation and a larger measure of association, but we violate the principle of adaptation of instruction to capacity, thus associ- ating, in the same grade and class, pupils two years apart in their advance- ment. It thus appears that the problem of the most efficient instruction in a rural school with one teacher is one of maxima and minima. The principle of adaptation of instruction to capacity forever antagonizes the other two. A maximum adherence to it means a minimum adherence to the other two, and vice versa. Perfect adaptation of instruction to capac- ity would necessitate a grade for each pupil. Dr. Harris’ report shows that he feels that, when pupils one year apart in advancement have been grouped in the same grade, this great principle of adaptation of instruc- tion to capacity has been strained to its utmost limit, and that any sacrifice thereafter must come from other antagonistic and minor principles. His report throughout shows that he considers adaptation of intruction to 494 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National capacity the paramount and controlling principle ; and the fact that he has made this the burden of his report shows with what trained acumen he has brushed aside the trivial and subsidiary, and has laid grasp upon the vital and fundamental. A still more universal principle underlies this valuable report. It is this: that the success of an institution of any kind — political, religious, economic, educational— depends upon its adapta- tion to its environment. A republic is, no doubt, abstractly the best form of government; but equally true is it that, under certain environment, an aristocracy or a monarchy is better than a republic. I take it, then, that Dr. Harris has been a spectator of this evolution of the rural school, with its peculiar environment, into the city graded school, with a very different environment, till he has said to himself: ‘‘This is a forced and artificial evolution.” Having arrived at the conviction that the rural school with one teacher cannot, without injury, be metamorphosed into a graded school, Dr. Harris addresses himself to the problem of changing the present rural school conditions, (1) through transportation of pupils and (2) through pupil-teachers. Now this goes to the very heart of the question. For, through the transportation of pupils to central schools, the rural school conditions are transformed into city school conditions, and instruction can then proceed in harmony with the three principles above discussed. Or, if pupil-teachers are employed, or if the pupils of the higher grades — fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth, or seventh and eighth only —be transported, the rural school condition will be in a measure removed, and instruction can proceed more in harmony with these prin- ciples. It is true that transportation of pupils now seems practicable only in a small portion of the territory of the United States, and that pupil- teaching meets with but little favor among rural school-teachers and pupils; but a careful study of the report of Dr. Harris will, no doubt, lead to a larger use of pupil-teachers and a much wider extension of pupil transportation, especially in the upper grammar grades. . During the last few decades there has been in operation in many of the western states a strong evolutionary force, which has eliminated most of the high-school branches from the majority of the country schools. In such cases, the pupils who have completed the eight years’ work of the country school are expected to find high-school instruction elsewhere at their own expense of tuition and transportation. May not this same evolutionary force, in its own due time, similarly eliminate from the rural schools the work of Grades 7 and 8? Whether such rejected pupils will be transported or not will depend upon the sentiment of the community. In favor of the ultimate transportation of not only Grades 7 and 8, but of higher grades, is that great socialistic force that has given birth to our free-school system, our postal system, and our asylums for physical, moral, and mental delinquents. Having addressed himself to the modification Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 495 of rura] school environment through pupil transportation and pupil-teach- ers, the Doctor finds himself face to face with a great body of rural school conditions which are unmodified and at present unmodifiable. It is here that he makes his plea for individual instruction rather than the instruc- tion, in the same class, of pupils who are more than a year apart in their advancement. 4. The branches of the eight-years’ course of the rural schoolare: writing, drawing, music; physiology, grammar, civil government; spelling, lan- guage, geography, history; reading; arithmetic. We shall be able to get a better understanding of the subject if we suppose a city school of eight grades, four rooms, and four teachers to be suddenly reduced to one-fourth its former number of pupils, rooms, and teachers. There will then remain one teacher, one room, eight grades of pupils and eight grades of work, and, say, forty pupils; that is substantially rural school conditions. This one teacher now finds that, while he has no more pupils to instruct than he had before, these pupils are scattered among the eight grades. If he adheres strictly to the former graded structure of the school, keeping each grade of pupils distinct in all the branches (allowing six recitations a day - to each grade), he will have eight times six, or forty-eight, classes. This gives him an average of about five minutes for a recitation period. The inadequacy of this time for the development of a subject needs no comment. He must group these scattered pupils into classes, largely ignoring grades, and many of these classes will contain pupils from different grades. By almost unanimous consent it is agreed that the pupils of the eight grades can be grouped, for general exercises, in writing, drawing, and music, requiring but one recitation period for each branch. One recitation period will answer for each branch in grammar, physiology, and civil government ; two recitation periods each in spelling, language, geography, and history ; four in reading; five in elementary numbers and arithmetic. This gives twenty-three recitations, ranging from ten minutes in the lowest grades to twenty in the highest. It will be observed that I state above that many of these classes will contain pupils from different grades. Here appears the significance of my definitions of c/ass and grade in the beginning of this discussion—definitions on which the teachers of this country are far from being a unit. The fundamental principle underlying grading is symmetrical development; the fundamental principle underlying ¢c/assify- ing is harmonious development. Symmetrical development aims to advance the pupil with equal pace in all the branches ; harmonious develop- ment aims to advance him in harmony with his individual capabilities. Many of the pupils of our best graded schools are classified in violation of the principle of harmonious development. This statement takes no note of mistakes in grading, by which pupils are assigned to the wrong grades. The grading of schools in accordance with the principle of symmetrical 496 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National development necessitates a violation of the principle of harmonious develop- ment. I have reference to those pupils who are assigned to the right grade in a majority of the branches they pursue, but who, in one or more branches, belong to grades above or below the one to which they are assigned. It, therefore, follows that the reorganization consequent upon transforming the four-teacher school into the one-teacher school would bring some pupils into classes better suited to their abilities than the classes to which the graded system had assigned them, thus bringing about a classification more in harmony with the principle of adaptation of instruction to the capacity of the learner. Classification and its correlative principle of harmonious development are the corner stone of the rural school; grad- ing and its correlative principle of symmetrical development are equally fundamental to the city school. In a graded school the pupil is assigned to classes belonging to one grade only; in the country school he is assigned to classes adapted to his capacity, regardless of the number of grades represented by these classes. I institute no comparison here as to the relative merits of the principles—harmonious development and sym- metrical development— but simply state the fact of their relations respec- tively to the city and rural schools. If practical adaptation of instruction to the capacity of the pupil were really attainable in the graded school, I should hesitate to recommend a classification that would group, in one class, pupils more than a year apart in theiradvancement. But such adaptation is largely ideal and theoretical. However well the school be graded, the strongest pupils and the weakest are separated by a long distance in the character, or grade, of their work. Whether in the primary, the grammar, the high school, the college, or the university, a certain per cent. of the students do most of the highest order of work. ‘These strongest pupils discover and develop the deepest relations. The weaker pupils soon learn to repeat the stereotyped expressions of these relations, and to store them away in their memories to be fished forth at stated intervals by the written test. The apostle Paul, that he might not offend his brother, would eat no more flesh while the world stood; but a large per cent. of the students of all grades, not from fear of offending their brother, but from their very mental constitu- tions, abstain, with equal fidelity, from the strongest mental diet. I can select, at random, one-half the pupils from Grades 6 and 7 of a city school, and put them to studying, indifferently, North America, South America, Europe, or Asia, and the former leaders in Grades 6 and 7 respectively will still lead. What is true of geography is true of history, civil government, physiology, spelling and reading, and, in a measure, of grammar and arithmetic. Certain pupils are mentally built for accuracy, clearness, depth, and power; others, for relative inaccuracy, obscurity, shallowness, and weakness. A rule requiring, as acondition of promotion, Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 497 that all pupils, of any certain grade, should do as high an order of work as is being done by some of the pupils of that grade, would virtually stop the wheels of promotion. Many of the pupils would never reach a higher grade; many others would do so only after repeated attempts and failures. The gist of Dr. Harris’ objection to grouping pupils who are more than a year apart in their advancement is that the more advanced pupils will be kept marking time, while the less advanced will be dragged along at an unnatural rate. My answer is that the stronger pupils will do the higher order of thinking, just as they always do, while the weaker pupils will do the lower order of thinking, as they always do, getting some knowl- edge from the books, some from the teacher, and some from their stronger classmates. The rural school has the advantage over the city school in that its pupils learn much from the recitation of classes to which they do not belong. Ina graded school, the walls of the schoolroom shut pupils out from what is being recited in other grades. In a rural school, the pupil can listen to the recitation of any grade. You tell me that this is absorption, that the pupil gets this outside knowledge at the expense of the preparation of his own lessons, and that the practice of listening to - other recitations militates against the principle that a great aim in edu- cation is to learn to master the printed page; but it is nevertheless the testimony of many of our greatest educators that the knowledge thus obtained by them in the country school was invaluable. The mind has strange and subtle methods of threading its way to knowledge, not always in harmony with the pedagogue’s theory. What teacher in arithmetic (who has had the courage, temporarily at least, to lay aside his cut-and- dried solution-formulz) has not been surprised and delighted at the ingenious methods different pupils have of solving problems? What master of the topical method in history, civil government, or literature has not marveled at the rich relations revealed by pupils when left free to take their own initiative? A nation does not postpone its entrance upon - a career of republican government till all its members are ready for self- government. The members of a church are not of equal intellectual or spiritual caliber, nor are the members of a family; yet they are associated in one class—the state, the church, the family. In actual life, persons of all degrees of advancement behold alike the same procession of the heavens, the same succession of seasons, the same world-happenings ; but all do not get the same kind and amount of information from the mar- shaling of the constellations, the budding and fruiting of spring and summer, and the drama of events daily unfolding. I grant that the examples above given are not identical with the thing to be exemplified ; but they présent important elements of similarity. Finally, I am fully con- vinced that the rural school conditions necessitate a departure from the doctrine so ably laid down by Dr. Harris, and I believe principles can be 498 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National found to justify such departure. Whether or not I have found these principles and set them forth in this supplementary report is another question. L. E, WOLFE. APPENDIX A. SOME SOCIOLOGICAL FACTORS IN RURAL EDUCATION. [From a paper read before the Department of Superintendence of the N. E. A., at Jacksonville, Fla., February, 1896, by B. A. Hinsdale, Professor of the Science and the Art of Teaching in the University of Michigan. (See “Journal of Proceedings and Addresses of the Thirty-fifth Annual Meeting, held at Buffalo, July, 1896,” pp. 261-9.) A discussion on the same lines, but much fuller, will be found in Dr. Hinsdale’s work, entitled “Studies in Education,” pp. 313-38. ] First we will give our attention to density of population. The importance of this element in the rural-school problem becomes obyious at a glance. In populous districts fewer schools and districts relatively are called for, while, at the same time, owing to the larger numbers and the more varied attainments of the pupils, the system can be more fully developed. The school and the home, under the present system, cannot be far apart; otherwise children will attend the school with difficulty, or not at all. Once more, the interest and enthusiasm of pupils and teachers depend directly upon the number and the ability of the pupils present. For the majority of children individual instruction, or any- thing closely approaching it, isnot to be commended, Aristotle condemned such instruc- tion on political grounds. It may also be condemned on pedagogical grounds. Children need the inspiration of numbers. Besides, numbers contain ethical value. As a rule, you can no more make a good school out of a half dozen pupils than you can make a powerful galvanic battery with one or two pairs of plates. Then, again, the question of cost is directly involved. Where pupils are scattered and the schools are small education is neces- sarily very expensive, provided it is at the same time good. Generally, however, it is bad. To illustrate: Some twenty years ago I investigated one of the old townships in northern Ohio with respect to its school condition, and with these results: Schools, 7 in number; youth of school age enumerated, 191; pupils enrolled in schools, 103; average daily attendance, 71; average size of schools, 10 pupils; largest enumeration in any dis- trict, 85; smallest, 12; largest enrollment, 37; smallest, 3; largest daily attendance, 25; smallest, 3; largest cost per pupil in any district, $42.60; smallest, $18.56. The average cost per pupil the same year in the state was $13.36. Argument is not needed to show that this was an inefficient and wasteful township system of education. How much better it would have been if the seven schools could have been consolidated, thus putting all the pupils under two or three teachers! I remember a school in Ohio, within sight of my own home, that was kept in session a whole summer with but two pupils in attendance, and those two were all there were in the district. My father, who was a man of close obser- vation, was in the habit of remarking in my boyhood that a farm of 1,000 acres situated all in one school district would, as a rule, spoil the school, by reducing the number of children, and I have often seen confirmation of his statement. The Census Office at Washington considers those parts of the country that have a population of less than two to the square mile unsettled. These parts amount to a little more than one-third of the whole, not including Alaska. Once more, in constructing its. tables and maps to show density of population, the Census Office excludes the cities, or those centers of population containing 8,000 persons or more. In 1890 the second of the two rules excluded 443 centers of population, containing an aggregate of 18,835,670 inhabitants, or 29.12 per cent. of the whole. oe. Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 499 The whole country, less the parts excluded by the first rule, the Census Office has divided with reference to certain maxima and minima of population, as follows: 2 to 6 to a square mile, - - - 592,037 square miles. 6to1s “ ic > : : - 394,943 LO todas. a ey - - - 701,847 3 45togo0 “ 7 = = es 2355148 a go and above - - - 24,312 Ge Total, - - - 1,947,287 MY The superintendent of the census makes some interesting remarks upon the eco- nomical significations of these statistics, as follows: “These limits define in a general way the extent and prevalence of various classes of industries. The first group, two to six to a square mile, indicates a population mainly occupied with the grazing industry, or a widely scattered farming population. The second group, six to eighteen, indicates a farming population with systematic cultivation of the soil, but this either in an early stage of settlement or upon more or less rugged soil. The third group, eighteen to forty-five to a square mile, almost invariably indicates a highly successful agriculture, while in some localities the beginnings of manufactures have raised into this group a difficult farming region. Speaking generally, agriculture in this country is not carried on with such care and refinement as yet to afford employment and support to a population in excess of forty-five to a square mile. Consequently the last two groups, forty-five to ninety and ninety and above to a square mile, appear only -as commerce and manufactures arise, and. personal and professional services are in demand.” He might have introduced education with equal propriety. The statistics given throw a direct light upon school material, and an indirect one upon school resources. Much the same may be said of churches and the intellectual and moral instruments of society generally. There is, therefore, cause for deep regret that such large areas of country are falling off in population. From 1880 to 1890 more than 400 counties, or about five times as many as there are in the state of Ohio, suffered in this way. But, secondly, the character of the population must be considered as well as its number. It is evident that a certain homogeneity is very conducive to public education. The children of such a community can be educated together, and hence more cheaply and more effectively. One system of schools suffices for all classes, But if the children must be segregated in different schools according to non-educational tests, one of two things will certainly happen: either public education will become expensive, or it will become inferior in quality. Looking at the subject from this point of view merely, it is unfortu- nate that in large portions of the United States popular education should be embarrassed by the race question. In 1890 the per cents. of white and colored population, respec- tively, were distributed in the five great divisions that the Census Office recognizes in the following manner: North Atlantic States, - - - - - 98.4 1.6 South - a - - - - - = ORs2 36.8 North Central States, - - - - - 08.019) 2.0 South 4 s - ae Nei - - - 68.3 By ieyp Western States, - - - - - - 94.8 5.2 If per cents. for the states severally were given the contrasts would be still more striking. The per cent. of colored people in New Hampshire, for example, was .18, while in South Garolina it was 59.87. Now there is little probability that the educational value of such statistics as these will be exaggerated. The presence of a large colored popula- tion in any state or other community tends to affect popular education unfavorably in three ways: to increase its cost, to make its quality inferior, and to lower both the intel- lectual and moral level of society and its money-earning capacity. 500 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National In one respect the rural parts of the country are better off, upon the whole, than the cities. Religious differences do not disturb popular education to the same extent. Relatively, parochial schools are much fewer in number. In the third place, the wealth of society is a very important factor in education, and particularly in rural education. Naturally the per-capita wealth of the several divisions of the country varies greatly. In 1890 these were the averages: North Atlantic States, - - - - $1,132 per capita. South Atlantic States, - - : - - Eyer North Central States, - - - - L120 South Central States, - - - - - hopete oe Western States, - - - - . 2-25 On In the North Atlantic states the maximum was in Rhode Island, $1,459 per capita; the minimum in Maine, $740. In the South Atlantic states the maximum was in Mary- jand (excluding the Federal District), $1,043 per capita; the minimum in South Carolina, $348. Now it is perfectly well understood that a good modern system of state education can tbe supported only at great public cost. Still more, the cost is all the time increasing. Our total expenditures for this purpose the last twenty years have been mounting upward ‘by leaps and bounds. At present the money expended by the states together is $175,- 000,000 annually, which is more than twice the cost of supporting the national govern- ment before the Civil War. Education has come to be a great item in the budget of every highly civilized country in the world. Fourthly, the character of the population in respect to its money-earning power must tbe taken into the account. The size of the average family and the relative number of taxpayers, or the adult males, and their productiveness as economical agents, all become educational factors of much importance. If families are large, the number of children to be schooled is proportionally great; which, under some conditions, would add to the efficiency of the schools, and under other conditions would increase their cost. Then the darger the relative number of adult males, and the greater their producing power, the higher their intelligence and educational needs, and the greater their ability to provide the sinews for educational warfare. We need not enter into the correlation of the size of ithe family and its material condition. It still remains true, however, as in the time of Solomon, that the destruction of the poor is their poverty. In respect to educational pos- sibilities there is the greatest difference between a community having a high ratio of adult male population of large wealth-producing power and a community having a small ratio of such population with small wealth-producing power. The country taken together in 1890-91 showed surprising variations in this respect. There were 91.4 taxpayers for each 100 children six to eighteen years of age; but in different sections the ratio varied from 65.9 ‘to 100 in the South Central states to 156.7 to 100 in the western states. In South Carolina ‘there were but fifty-five adult males to earn the money with which to school 100 children, thirty-two of whom were colored men. Comparing the taxpayer factor with the per-capita ‘tax for education, some very striking results are obtained. Dr. Harris has shown? that in Montana a contribution of $5.85 per taxpayer furnished in 1890-91 $16.02 for each child of school age, while in Texas a contribution of $6.55 per taxpayer produced a result of only $4.48 for each child. Mississippi, after raising per taxpayer about half what Nevada raised, had only about one-eighth as much as the latter state for each child of school age. The causes that affect the ratio of school children to the adult population are Heside the present inquiry. But it is perfectly obvious that this is an educational factor of auch yalue. Little logical’ acumen is required to see either the educational value or the social congruence of such factors as the wealth per capita of the country or of any state in it, *Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1890-91, p- 24. Council] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS 5Or the expenditure per capita for public education, the expenditure for the same purpose per pupil in the schools, and the per cent. of illiteracy, taking the population ten years old and more into the account. These items are shown in the following table: North Atlantic States, - - - $1,132 $2.06 $23.65 6.2 South Atlantic States, - - - - 579 .96 8.25 40.1 North Central States, - - - 1,129 2.81 19.96 6.7 South Central States, - - - - 583 .98 7.59 39.5 Western States, - - - - 2,250 3.55 34.03 11.6 It must be remembered, however, that these statistics are, in part, now several years= old. Perhaps I should observe that statistics may be taken too seriously. We need not: now examine the arguments by which Mr. Buckle and others like him have sought to- show that man has no free agency, but that society is governed in all its movements by » laws as fixed as those of material nature. It answers the present purpose to say that the- highest state of education is not always found in the most populous, the richest, or the- most homogeneous states. France is much richer than Germany, but she is inferior in= education. England*is far richer than Scotland, and has been behind her in schools of< popular education since the time of John Knox. Relatively, Rhode Island is the richest: and most populous of the American states, but she has never led the American common— school column. There are other factors than those that are distinctly social which enter= into the problem. Educational traditions and ideas, public spirit, and force of character all tell. At the same time it would be the sheerest folly to exclude or belittle the mate rial factors that enter into public education and all similar social interests. APPENDIX B. PERMANENT SCHOOL FUNDS. I. CONNECTICUT. It began to be noticed as early as 1824 that the Connecticut common-school fund’ was not working altogether as it had been expected to work. (See James G. Carter’s- “Letters to the Honorable William Prescott, LL.D., on the Free Schools of New Eng- land, with Remarks upon the Principles of Instruction,’ Boston, 1824.) Connecticut,. however, made the fatal mistake of distributing the income of the fund to the towns and! districts without requiring them to raise by taxation an equal amount, or, indeed, any cer- tain amount, for the support of their schools. In 1853 Conneeticut was expending on» her schools only one-third as much per pupil as the neighboring states were expending, while she was raising by taxation only one-tenth or one-twentieth part as much as they were raising per pupil. Dr. Henry Barnard says: “Taxation for school purposés had not only ceased to be a cheerful habit of the people, but was regarded as something: foreign and anti-democratic. The supervision of the schools had become in most socie- ties a mere formality, and the whole system seemed struck with paralysis.” And yet the governor of the state had sounded the alarm as early as 1826, while prominent citizens: had counseled other states not to repeat the mistake that Connecticut had made. (See & valuable article on the Connecticut School Report, subhead, ‘‘The School Fund and Its Effects,” in Zhe American Journal of Education and School Review, edited by Absalom Peters and Henry Barnard, Vol. I. (1856), pp. 590-9.) II. TEXAS. Mr. C. Lombardi, member of the school board of Houston, Tex., contributed to The Business Record of that city, November, 1896, the following article, entitled “ Our School Fund”: 502 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [National “First of all comes the question of revenues. While we have been boasting of our princely educational fund, consisting of millions of acres of land, we have forgotten to inquire into the location, character, and value of this land. It was long taken for granted that any kind of wild land would increase in value as time passes. It was argued that as the amount of land in any country is a fixed quantity, and as population tends to increase steadily, land could not but increase in value as population increases. But a rude shock awaited these plausible theories when suddenly land values began to decline, not only here, but everywhere, in other states as well as in Texas, in Europe as well as in America, along with the depreciation of agricultural products. Many circum- stances led to this result, chief of which is the long interval of peace among civilized nations, thus liberating and increasing an immense productive force, formerly largely devoted to the destruction of both life and the means of life; the facilities and cheap- ness of transportation, and the opening up of immense tracts of land in other portions of the world, made accessible to cheap labor. It was found that the most abundant commodity in the universe is raw, untilled land. “Then as to the character of the land set aside for our school fund. Time was when any kind of land was supposed to have some value, if only for pasturage or mining pur- poses. Here again a revolution has taken place, making wild grazing lands almost valueless, and mining lands in this state quite so. The demand for range cattle has been transferred to the domestic-fed cattle raised on small farms, and our great cattle industry of the past has practically passed away. ‘As for mining lands containing iron, copper, and coal, the great abundance of all these found nearer to market and closer to lines of transportation, together with the greater facilities for working old mines afforded by modern invention, and the agitation for a lower tariff policy throughout the South, has put a quietus to any thought of devel- opments or investments in Texas for some time to come. “Hence, while our school fund derived from the sale and lease of land has not increased in value, the scholastic population has largely increased, and the financial demands for public education are increasing every day. They are increasing, not only by reason of the natural increase of the scholastic population, but also by reason of the very progress achieved in educational methods and the higher ideal attained. Not only has this higher ideal induced more people to send children to school, but it is demand- ing a higher standard of ability and character in the teachers, and this costs more money. “What is the remedy? Obviously special taxation as a supplement to our revenue from the school fund. Either that or a curtailing of our school facilities, and this last is not to be thought of. But here again we labor under a singular disadvantage from the fact that we have a school fund, that we have exaggerated its importance and value, and indulged in extravagant boasts about it. Our people have become too much accustomed to rely on this great school fund, and will be unwilling to entertain the idea of raising a school revenue by taxation. Had we never had a school fund, or never talked about it, our people would probably not hesitate to tax themselves heavily for the benefit of the schools, as do the people of Colorado, for example. But it will be difficult to reconcile the glory of our great school fund, which has been dinned into the taxpayer’s ears, with the necessity of going deep into his pockets to supply the educational deficit. “Tt is just as well that we should begin to consider this matter and bring it before the people. It is bound to become an issue sooner or later, and the sooner the better. We must not wait until we are confronted with a deficit so great as to paralyze our schools and destroy their efficiency. Other things demand the attention of the friends of popular education, but this is fundamental.” (‘¥oS *d uo saj}0u 92S) 593 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RURAL SCHOOLS Council} 69S‘z99 zzb‘og 1bg‘ghS Lo6‘SvPr vLe‘oor goe‘Se Pro OIG) OO Sos Spatvrels vsliepeyece ve (¥6-£6g1) eplop yy SzS‘blo‘r 610‘r9 PSb'Q6E'T ZOL‘6gE zSLigoo'r | zSo'ziz bSieiso ce mri oi) aici slate ern elmore (7G Ce et tO Oe) 1g0‘gvS ozo‘'se 190‘E1S gr6‘ss Spi‘Lev fe) Sede cht seat oS ST ke Cae tememeet CCl OLE@) YynNos 6LO‘LLL €1z‘A11 99°69 Coe CL ebS‘gr9 fo) Do ceeese res sser tere cesss (Y6-€61) BUlpoIeD: GON Egv‘OEO'I gb9‘961 Cols Lov't L61°6Q0‘1 goS‘grt Pe1sse cig Mela lelleuels Sheltts) elle? isiiolie ejfa ie (ens: she lie) ,eliehe (shel eusne) BIUIBILA ISOM QQzVzR‘I LIO‘VYV ELSSSELST Gz0‘S0g gbS‘of6 Yogev Se) 8 Beka) ¥ wleld (eje..dcerse76ls 186 eum 18 ore ieee 961859 laren s is VIULBIT A oS1°SS6 oO SS1°eS6 $S1°CS6 fe) fe) selayamshenebeusasie (a) woaeredous SUsi emia oie ieee TC UL ELT OMS) JO JOLSIq. £09‘SEzz CSz‘cri Sz0*QEo'~ TSoOShS PT pLo‘egs Ezesss A Cakes OT at me a) ot Cr eC Od Or rc puvpAreyy 000‘S Lz (a) 000‘S 1z 000‘60z 000‘9 7 000‘09 ween cee e eres esse sees teses ssp (06-69gT) sIeMelad :WOISIAIG IU YW YMOS PELSL6L‘oz LSS*SSHE LLE‘cvEi Lt TQO'QS9°TI gie‘hgrss 4 O wo bee nee tees gales Foes Soot tes Hoel eTUeAASUUSG) pLL‘600v SgS‘101 EL6‘ogEv €1S‘19z‘z oor 611'z gfz‘Lz1 Bring ado doubs cdo oon Sho Roman USconageyy MON Lbi‘gzz‘1z IVIELy‘s b69%z7zL‘L1 069°SgQ‘EI bog‘gS Qe ZISO€ Dea EC eG OORT ILOCOS FOTO SFL RELIES: AON eNE)INE plzgsvz Soz‘Egt 661‘901‘Z gi f‘0S gr Eggssz oLg‘gq1 Spm ODO ODDS GO GHO MICROCODE OLDS 1) ayia iaRiG)) 1zg‘gve'r zg1‘ss pSS‘zgQe'r ozL‘egr‘t PEQQII So1‘6 wee eee tee ee eee ece er see tee ss > “Dues SpOyy 9S£‘199‘01 bro‘gl ggf6gr‘or ggt‘6gr‘or fo} broeslig BDI OID DDI DOU OCI CUIDD DSO ORI DEO Araya ASS €36'068 Sz7‘Q9 gt 1vLs 0gS‘ogg 9SS‘E6 e79‘Qb 260 6)'ece 610 16hs © 1s) 6 e) aie sense) is sie DINO Os OLAS GhareheoneyiN. 60L‘16g £96‘09 €66°ST8 gl1‘6zL L19‘98 ESLVI eur es Siege aga OS SS (+6- €6gr) sarysdwep] MON Qz3‘LZQ‘I1 fe) ggL{1gL‘t 060'S9z‘I g6g‘g1S ovo‘gr pv « Shall we have alarge number of subjects, desultorily pursued, with recita- -tions two or three times a week, or fewer studies continuously pursued, with not fewer than four recitations a week ? Shall a modern foreign lan- guage, pursued the same length of time as an ancient, be a full equivalent for the ancient? Shall we encourage the study of solid geometry in all secondary courses, or shall we generally limit mathematics to plane geometry thoroughly studied for one entire year? Should any institution for any course demand a knowledge of trigonometry ? Shall the degree of A.B. be withheld from students who do not choose to study Greek, or shall not the same degree be granted to all who are worthy the benedic- tion of the college at the end of a conscientiously conducted career of four years ; or, still further, shall not all degrees be abolished save those secured by a resident post-graduate university course of two years? ‘These are some of the questions, ladies and gentlemen, which, in connection with the printed report, you are requested to discuss this afternoon. I have been brief that you may speak at length. The issue of this great movement depends much upon your attitude toward it today, upon the plans which you formulate for our committee, and upon the final reports which we receive from the distinguished gentlemen who in all lines of study have entered into this work with a zeal which entitles them to the gratitude of every secondary teacher. Personally I will not be discouraged, nor will I entertain the thought of defeat, for upon the success of this movement, so auspiciously begun, depends the welfare of the public high school and the very highest inter- ests of the children of the great middle class which is the soul of the Republic. The time is soon coming when there will not ‘be a village in all this broad land without a high school, and may we not hope that this question will be so definitely settled, and the relations between the secondary schools and the colleges become so intimate and cordial, that no graduate of a four-years’ course in a good high school shall find closed to him the doors of any college in the Republic ? DISCUSSION. Dr. NicHoLas Murray BuTLer, Columbia University.—The problem of the relation existing between secondary schools and colleges is a purely artificial one. We shall approach its solution more easily if we try to examine the problem historically. Entrance examinations to colleges were established early in college history because of the circumstances existing at that time. The colleges were without a constituency. Students, self-prepared or trained by private tutors and by unknown fitting schools, a a ae Decedincnt| COLLEGE-ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS 653 applied for admission. A test of the ability of these pupils seemed necessary ; thus the college-entrance examination was established as a means to an end. If you examine the progress of the pupil, you will find that no counterpart to this college-entrance examina- tion is found elsewhere in his course, either at the time he passes from the primary to the grammar grade or at his entrance to the high schoul. It is bad psychology and bad edu- cation to suppose that there is an obstacle at the pupil’s sixteenth year which can only be surmounted by an examination. I am sure that this should be done away with. A preparatory, or “ fitting,” school limits its work to the needs of the college that its pupils expect to attend. Work done in secondary schools in view of college-entrance require- ments may not always be the best work for the pupil. We may agree with President Eliot when he says that the colleges which have kept up their entrance tests have in such instances done much to uplift and inspire the general educational work of the country. This is a statement which, as an exception, proves the rule. In the vast majority of cases the opposite effect has been produced. For the sake of broadening college influence I would do away with the entrance tests. The colleges are doing admirable work, but not enough of it. They need more students. The public high schools will furnish them, if permitted to do so. When Columbia became a university, in 1890, we decided that the graduate of any reputable college should be admitted on the face value of his diploma. His work after entrance would be determined by us. It would be preposterous for universities to take the same attitude toward colleges as colleges take toward the high schools. There is no reason why colleges should not receive pupils from reputable high schools without entrance tests. The objections to this come, first, from the private fitting schools, and, second, from within the colleges themselves, where the complaint is heard from certain professors that they would prefer pupils should come to them absolutely ignorant of sub- jects than poorly taught. This is not a real alternative, and the objection is unreasonable. You in the West must bear in mind that the eastern colleges have little affiliation with high schools, their preparatory work being largely done by private “fitting ” schools. When the Committee of Ten inquired into the condition of the secondary schools of the country, it was found that a very large number of subjects and divisions of subjects were taught. There was a tendency to allow the pupil to carry from five to eight studies for a few hours a week each, and to drag out the high-school course. This is highly objectionable. The course must be rearranged so that fewer subjects are taught and greater concentration permitted upon them. Everything must be done to make it easier for pupils to attend college. When a new college is founded, the faculty usually wishes to prepare a curriculum whose requirements differ from those of every other college, so ‘they may show their “individuality.” A faculty should rather consider, What instruction can we best give? When we get the colleges to understand that they are not doing the best thing by isolating themselves, when they learn to feel the influence of the high school, a good work will be well begun. The leadership in this movement belongs to the state universities of the West, and those schools which they can influence. Proressor A. C. MCLAUGHLIN, University of Michigan.—I come as a representa- tive of the Committee on History, which has in charge the mapping-out of the work in this subject. I was asked by the committee to appear here to try to awaken interest in _and sympathy for the work, as only by the co-operation of the teachers of the country can much bedone. Each committee feels its work is onerous, but that of history is especially so, since other subjects have been long accepted and methods of study recognized; but ‘history has yet to find her place. We expect to map out a model programme. In order to do this well, we wish to go to the bottom of the affair, to agree as to methods of teach- -ing, amount to be taught, when each branch of the subject should be presented, etc. To 654 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary this end circulars have been sent out to representative high schools to obtain data. A part of our committee is now in Europe studying this subject in European schools. The great desire of the committee is to be helpful, to open broader vistas to the teachers, It is evident that there will be a disagreement as to the order of presentation of sub- jects. I believe it should be treated chronologically — ancient history in the first year, medizval in the second, English in the third, and United States in the fourth. The vexed question of general history will present itself. This resolves itself into the question as to whether we shall take the history of one nation for the period from the fall of Rome to modern times, or study that period by episodes. The teacher who knows what he has to teach and has high ideals will teach wisely. I do not see how English or American history can be taught without that of consti- tutional development; hence civil government may well be presented in connection with the history of these two nations. PRoFEssOoR H. MorRSE STEPHENS, Cornell University ——I happen to be the man who named this committee, and thought I had done well, and that my work was finished, until I heard at the New York meeting that I also must serve on the committee. We wish to have this committee embrace secondary as well as college teachers. If we can awaken interest in the subject among secondary teachers, we shall do much. I deprecate the teaching of history with political economy. History is a jealous mistress, not a hand-maid. When treated as subordinate, the teaching of history is bad teaching. One danger which threatens us is that we may be accused of teaching some special faith; but if the teacher of history have an enthusiastic love of his work and a proper reverence for the subject, he may be trusted. Let my closing counsel be, Separate history from economics. PROFESSOR B. A. HINSDALE, University of Michigan.—I wish, in the first place, to say that I did not understand Professor McLaughlin as Professor Stephens did. History must be taught with reference to a co-ordinating of materials. Bushels of facts do not make history, material must be organized around some nucleus, arranged with reference to the institutional facts of countries, of races, and of the world. I think this is what Professor McLaughlin meant. Let me ask this important question: What have been the prevailing tendencies of educational thought in progressive parts of the world? I believe this question should be studied carefully, thoughtfully, reverently.. Let us notice first in these tendencies the democratizing feature. I might speak of the secular tendency or of the scientific tend- ency, but I wish to mention especially the catholic tendency of this age. A movement may be discerned at present to attempt to deal with the present need of mankind. Anyone who has given much attention to the subject has noticed also the changing conditions. In the eastern states, under the old régime, colleges had their own fitting schools, which did just such work as the colleges required. This is largely the case in the East still, although all over the country the colleges are beginning to cast off their fitting schools ; and this is due to the democratizing influence of the day. The establish- ment of public schools has brought this about. The’situation is this: institutions now depend upon the public high schools for-pupils. This is a very important fact; especi- ally in the West do the colleges and universities rest upon the public high school as a basis. There are two points of view from which the high school may be considered: first, it is a finishing school for those who go no farther, called the “people’s college ;” second, it is a fitting school for the college or university. The question arises as to whether the ame school which is best for one is also best for the other. We are confronted by this Department] PRINCIPALS’ ROUND TABLE 655 as a situation, not as a theory. College men should ask themselves, How far is it possible to use these schools for our purpose? Dictation from either side is wrong, Careful study of the subject from both sides is necessary in order to make the high school the best finishing and also the best fitting school. PROFESSOR CHAMBERLIN, The University of Chicago.—As teachers we consider the individual too much, the community too little. We cannot bring the community into school, so we must send educators into the community. The question may arise as to whether we shall tax the community to educate individuals, but we can never question the right of taxing the community to educate itself. Again, if we send into the com- . munity persons who are diversely educated, we are educating the community along the different necessary lines. If we send out those who are enthusiastic for history or science, we are doing more good to the community than if we send those who are poorly educated or half-educated in many subjects. 4 A phase of the report which I especially like is the tender regard whichis shown to the younger subjects. The committee has done all that it could to give these younger subjects opportunity to grow. The beauty of the entire report is that it has considered all subjects which need our attention. PRESIDENT CANFIELD, Ohio State University. This subject comes to us with many phases. First, the money which supports our educational institutions comes from the taxpayers, to whom we have a duty to perform in explaining how wisely we have expended their money. The public demands, and rightfully, that we give to its young people ability to satisfy the reasonable demands which are made upon them. Under these demands we consider, first, ability to live independent of the community; second, ability to think well; every man desires to be able to square himself with other men; third, every man desires to do something which shall remain after him. We must set him right at the start, that he may be enabled to do for himself the best possible. PRINCIPALS’ ROUND TABLE. 1. Ls t¢ desirable and possible by better correlation of studies and closer articulation between the grammar and high schools to fit students for college at sixteen or seventeen years of age? Mrs. HELEN E. SCARRETT, Scoville Place School, Oak Park, Ill— The evident reply to the question, “Can students be fitted for college at the age of sixteen or seventeen ?” would seem to be, “It can be done, for it has been done.” Scores of instances can be given, many of them in the case of eminent men and women of our own and former times, where preparations for college have been accomplished at even an earlier age. Long- fellow graduated from college at the age of nineteen. President Harper of The Univer- sity of Chicago graduated from Muskingum College at the age of fourteen, spent two years out of college, and then graduated from Yale at the age of eighteen. It will, of course, be objected by those who do not believe that such early prepara- tion is desirable that these and other instances of successful early preparation for college are exceptions, and to be accounted for by the exceptional mental maturity of the students. They will say, as did the president of Leland Stanford University, when asked if he would advise sending a girl to a co-educational college: ‘It depends on the girl.” Whether a student can be fitted for college at the age of sixteen or seventeen depends 656 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary upon the student himself. The great differences in mental maturity, habits of study, and early training between students of the same age all must admit ; nevertheless, I must give it as my opinion that by careful, thorough, and systematic work students in general can be fitted for entrance to college at the age of seventeen, and in many instances at sixteen. Leaving to others the discussion of the necessary co-ordination of studies and of the relative amount of time to be devoted to the mathematical, linguistic, and other branches required for admission to college, I wish to emphasize especially two things which seem to me essential factors in successful and adequate preparation for the years of college life, _The first of these is the systematic division of time in the hours given to study and the cultivation of the habit of concentrated attention during these hours. Much time is wasted by pupils in the golden years between thirteen and sixteen in a kind of mental dawdling. Lessons which might be learned in an hour, did the pupil but concentrate his attention, are allowed to occupy at least two hours. ‘To teach a student to work when he works and to play when he plays is to equip him with mental habits that will be of the greatest value to him throughout life. Our duties in life are like articles of apparel or other material belongings. Left lying around in disorder, they seem to fill all space, but arranged and packed in a systematic and orderly manner, they take up a comparatively small portion of either time or space. This disposition to orderly and systematic appor- tionment of time is seldom found in the pupil as a natural faculty; hence it must be cul- tivated by those whose duty it is to superintend his work. It is for the lack of this systematic division and use of time that so many students preparing for college drop from their curriculum music, general literature, and history of art. To my mind the loss of these factors in the education of the young mind is an irreparable one. Professor John Dewey has well said that the tendency to regard the aesthetic studies as only the frills and luxuries of education is a most deplorable one. To lose these elements of the higher education is to rob life of its keenest and purest sources of enjoyment. I care not how much nor how many of the “information studies,” as they are called, have been packed into the mind: that student is imperfectly educated who has left out of his curriculum the study and the practice of those elements of education which teach him to feel. The student who reads so little of good literature that he comes to the reading of the English classics required for college as to a dreaded task is shut out from one of the purest sources of human happiness. The student who has given so little time and thought to observation and study of the beautiful that he does not recognize beauty when he sees it, either in nature or art, knows not of the world of pure enjoyment from which he is debarred. And yet, in the hurry and rush and often unsystematic work of preparation for college, we principals of secondary schools too frequently allow all this neglect and destruction of the finest elements of life to go on, scarcely daring to lift our voices in protest, because the “information studies”? must be finished if our student is to be accepted as ready for college. Some modification of the entrance requirements for college, it seems to me, is desir- able in order to give more time for these esthetic necessities, if we would develop the pupil into a harmoniously rounded mental and spiritual maturity. But that it is possible, by a systematic division of time and careful arrangement of hours of study during the preparatory period, to carry all these departments of preparatory education toa successful culmination at the age of sixteen or seventeen years both experience and observation lead me to believe. PRINCIPAL E, W. Coy, Hughes High School, Cincinnati, O.— There are two points to be considered in this discussion: First, is it desirable to fit pupils for college at the age of sixteen or seventeen ? My impression is that it is doubtful. College work requires greater maturity of mind than the average sixteen- or seventeen-year-old youth possesses. Secondly, the education of a boy begins at six; ten years might seem enough for college yo wie se ae re Department] PRINCIPALS’ ROUND TABLE 657 preparation, but is it practicable to shorten it? The majority of our pupils are not expecting to go to college, hence, as their life training is to be obtained in the high schools of the country, to shorten the amount of required work would be to defraud these pupils of what is due to them, I think something might be done by condensing the work below the high school, yet I doubt the advisability of hastening. PRESIDENT THURBER.— That great bugbear, the “people,” frightens us sometimes. This “people” thinks we keep our boys and girls too long in school, consume too much time in preparing for life. This question is, therefore, of utmost importance. PRoFEssoR A. P. BRIGHAM, Colgate University, thought that here as elsewhere the golden mean is desirable. While a few boys would be able to enter college at sixteen or seventeen, he thought eighteen was a better age for the average youth. SUPERINTENDENT T. A. Mort, Richmond, Ind.—I have been much interested in this discussion. I agree in part. In the discussion of the morning very lofty ideals were presented. The boy who is able to reach these ideals must have gained the maturity of at least eighteen years. I believe we may by means of the nature work in the lower grades remove the need of physical geography in the high school, and by our grade work in algebra and geometry shorten the time required for these studies in high schools. SUPERINTENDENT J, A. TORMEY, Winona, Minn.—Of the fifteen thousand names which have become eminent in the history of our country a great majority have been those of college graduates. The important thing is that the boy go to college. While it may not be desirable for men to enter the profession before their twenty-fifth or twenty- sixth year, it is highly desirable that they receive college training before entering their professional schools. Objections to college training are made on the score of lack of time. If we could gain some time, might we not send more men to college ? PROFESSOR G. N. CARMAN, Director of Lewis Institute, Chicago, Ill.— Of course, it is possible to enter pupils at sixteen or seventeen, if it is desirable, and it seems to me that it 2s desirable, for the reason suggested by Superintendent Tormey. Business men will not go to college because it is so late when they have completed their preparatory course. We must not think the pupil is made for the school, but the school for the pupil. All the trend has been toward lengthening instead of shortening the time of preparation. 2. What effect has the study of algebra and geometry in the ae grammar grades upon the work done tn the high school ? PRINCIPAL W. H. SmILEy, High School, Denver, Colo.— For the purpose of secur- ing the opinions of those superintendents and principals of high schools and grammar schools whom I had reason to believe had made trial of these subjects in grammar grades, I asked the following questions of twenty-five different persons, receiving answers from twenty: 1. How much time do your schools give to each of these subjects in these grades ? Algebra? Geometry ? 2. If geometery is not taught as a separate subject, to what extent and in what form is it correlated with other subjects ? 3. Is less time given in the high school to either subject because of this instruction ? 4. If the same time be given, is the quality of the work improved and the ground covered greater ? 5. Have you noticed any increase in power on the part of students in other work because of this instruction ? 658 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary 6. Have you noted any loss of interest or other ill effect upon these subjects in the high school because of this elementary instruction ? 7. What value, as elementary subjects, do you attach to each study, for those who do not intend to enter the high school as well as for those who do? As indicative in a’ general way of the standing of those from whom answers have been received, I will mention Principal Huling, English High School, Cambridge, Mass.; Superintendent Balliet, Springfield, Mass.; Principal Atkinson, High School, Springfield, Mass.; Superintendent Dutton, Brookline, Mass.; Principal Coy, Hughes High School, Cincinnati, O.; Superintendent Speer, Chicago, Ill.; Principal Rockwood, Marquette School, Chicago, Il.; Principal Buchanan, Boys’ Classical High School, New York city. While the number from whom replies were requested is not large, yet, if multiplied, I doubt if the inferences that might be drawn would be different, or more conclusive. The whole movement is still experimental, and several of those on whose judgment we habit- ually rely affirm that it is too soon to draw sound conclusions. That the experiment is tentative is furthermore indicated by the extraordinary variation in time allotment, which varies for algebra from five months to three years, and from one hour per week to three hours per week. For geometry only three schools make report; one gives ten weeks length of time per week unspecified; one gives two hours per week for two years; one gives five periods per week for one year, divided between algebra and geometry in the ratio of 3 to 2. The answers to the question regarding the correlation of geometry with other studies were disappointing because of their meagerness. Much true geometrical instruction is certainly given in many schools, though the replies would not so indicate — in kindergar- ten work, in geometrical problems, in mechanical drawing; and in arithmetic wherever” Superintendent Speer’s arithmetical system is employed; the fundamental postulate being that no rapid, intelligent handling of abstract numbers is possible, unless the sense-per- ceptions are thoroughly drilled in the handling of concrete geometric space units in all their relative relations. All that a teacher who has been trained in rote methods of hand- ling abstract numbers needs to be convinced of the value of such concrete inventional geometry is to see little fellows in the fourth grade easily outstrip him in the rapid and understanding solution of problems which he himself can perform only by the slower abstract methods of his boyhood. By the answers to this question I expected to find it shown conclusively that geometry adapted to children in the lower grades is much more valuable than algebra, both for discipline and for information. -I regret to state that several principals seem not to conceive that geometry can be attacked in any other method than by the deductive learning of theorems and demonstrations. The replies to the other questions, therefore, refer for the most part to algebra. All agree that the amount of time given to the subject in secondary schools is no less, and about one-half think that greater efficiency is secured. Some have noted increased power in other subjects, because of better habits of work formed in these mathematical subjects. One-third have noticed an increased interest in these subjects when continued in the high school. One only has noted loss of interest —‘‘because,” to use his own words, “ poor teaching of the high-school subject in the grammar school gives a distaste for that subject. When these subjects are uniformly and properly taught, I shall attach considerable value to them.” As to the question of such subjects being of value to all pupils, regardless of the fact that only a small percentage of the pupils of the elementary schools will reach the high school, I regard it as an unfortunate sign that some see little value in algebra for those who do not continue on to the high school. As regards geometry, the opinion is all but unanimous that the subject has great value, both from the point of view of discipline and the practical value of its subject-matter; this in face of the fact that 90 per cent. of the schools are experimenting with algebra and only 10 per cent. with geometry. ye i +! ls gy ll, Bh a ed w f a Department] PRINCIPALS’ ROUND TABLE 659 PRINCIPAL O. S. Westcort, North Division High School, Chicago, Ill—We are attempting to discuss a subject five years in advance of history. We can only give our views as to what will be accomplished if this work is carried on. Such.a book as that issued by Professor Hill in geometry would surely be very helpful if carried by grammar grades. The danger will always be what it is at present, namely, the grade teachers are not prepared to teach the subjects properly, and there is so much already which must be done in the higher grammar grades that we wonder where the time for all is to be found. We have tried algebra and geometry in the eighth grade for two years. Early last fall I asked my teacher of mathematics in the high school hew she found the pupils who had had the training of the previous year in comparison with those who had not. She replied that they took the work up more readily. But when I asked her again in June, she replied that she preferred that the grammar grades let the work alone. I agree with her. Our pupils are not ready for college before their eighteenth or nineteenth year. Per- haps, if the pupils were older, we should have less trouble with hazing and kindred evils. PRINCIPAL W. J. PRINGLE, Aurora, Ill.— It seems to me that the air which we breathe this afternoon is of a conservative quality. Cane rushes are not the worst things, although there are better things. I think something should be done to enter our boys in college earlier. Is there a waste in grammar or high school? I think there is. There is a notion that a boy could do more work before he enters college. It seems to me he might, if he were hurried along a little faster. I also believe in more freedom in the high school. Teach self-control, and thus prepare the boy for college life. SUPERINTENDENT L. H. Forp, Owatonna, Minn.— Economy of time is economy of life. We owe it to our young people to economize their lives, but we cannot do this by forcing their growth. Nature requires time; let us not hurry our pupils so much that we shall have forced natures as a result. There is no question but that concrete geometry should be taught in the lowest grade; the same is true of algebra and of the sciences. We have had algebra in the eighth grade two years, and have found it successful. As to the previous question, I should say it is neither desirable, nor practicable, nor possible, to prepare pupils for college by the time they are sixteen years old. SUPERINTENDENT H. A. WIsE, Baltimore, Md.— Many of our college presidents desire that we send them our boys at an earlier age than we do, I believe, by enriching the grammar course of study, a boy might be prepared for college at sixteen or seventeen. In Baltimore algebra is taught in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, and geometry in the seventh and eighth, with satisfactory results. Why not introduce Latin, French, or German instead of so much work in English? Would not time be gained and English improved ? A. F. NIGHTINGALE, Superintendent of High Schools, Chicago, Il].—I believe the higher grammar-grade teachers do as good work as the high-school teachers and the high- school teachers as good work as the college professors. We are too much in the habit of laying the blame upon the teachers of any or all other schools than our own. We should stop this complaining ; we waste time and energy, and delay progress. I believe the subjects taught in the universities and colleges should be begun in the lowest grades, in a manner, of course, adapted to the appreciation of the child; but the great trouble is that we have been enriching the grades by piling in for a long while, while we have taken nothing out. The result is that the grammar grades are congested. If we should spend less time on political geography and technical English, we should have more which might be given to physical geography and Latin. Abridge as well as enrich. By intro- ducing algebra into our eighth year we saved during the first year of its trial three weeks 660 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary in the ninth year, and after another year’s trial we saved six weeks in the ninth year. I expect it to do more in the future. 3. Should the high-school principal be given a voice in selecting hts asstst- ants ? SUPERINTENDENT HENRY P. EMERSON, Buffalo, N. Y.—At first reading it seemed to me that there was but one answer which could be given to this question, for it is so obviously true that the principal should have a voice in choosing his assistants that it need not be discussed. If the principal is large enough to be a principal, he is large enough to choose his assistants. There is no doubt that in the average case the principal could do better than his superintendent, but we may expect the best results when he acts conjointly with the superintendent. I have known one principal who chose those teachers whom he could easily manage; in such a case it would be unwise for the principal always to do his own selecting. High-school teachers should have opinions of their own; they should be men and women of character. But, if the principal is large enough for his position,I say again, he is large enough to choose his own assistants. PRINCIPAL J. REMSEN BisHop, Walnut Hills High School, Cincinnati, O.—The question may arise as to why it would be well to allow the principal this power. I think one reason is, the principal is much less subject to political influence. If he were allowed to nominate his assistants from such candidates as he knew to be best suited to fill the place needed, much of the evil of political wire-pulling would be eliminated from the high-school work. Again, the principal knows better than anyone else just what sort of person will best fill the place and do the specific work which he desires. SUPERINTENDENT H, A. WISE, Baltimore, Md.—I think this is a delicate question. In Baltimore we have done much to eliminate the political influence below the high school by having a civil-service list, and giving the positions to the candidates in order of pro- ficiency. PRINCIPAL E. W. Coy, Hughes High School, Cincinnati, O.—I do not like the civil-service list ; so much that enters into the making of a good teacher cannot be ascer- tained by a written examination. PRINCIPAL HENRY S. PurpDy, Brewster, N. Y.— Most of the high schools of our country are under a different organization from those mentioned. The teachers are elected directly by a board of education, instead of being chosen by the superintendent. Even in these cases, though, I believe a broad principal will make himself felt, so that his wishes will be consulted. s ROUND TABLE IN LATIN AND GREEK. 1. Are not college-entrance requirements pitched too high ? PROFESSOR GEORGE M. SMITH, University of South Dakota.— Differences of opin- ion arise from different points of view. Some schools wish to fit a few well; others to do as much as possible for the many. It isa mistake to continue raising the requirements for admission to college. We are overloading pupils’ minds with information instead of ~- =, ed Z Department] : ROUND TABLE IN LATIN AND GREEK 661 giving them culture. We should keep our secondary education as near the masses as possible. PROFESSOR C. W. SUPER, Ohio University.—Who is to set the pace, the college, the high school, or the community? In some particulars the requirements are too high, in others too low. Put Latin and Greek more largely into college courses, and give more time in high schools to English branches. I doubt the wisdom of requiring any modern languages for admission. PROFESSOR RICHARDSON, East St. Louis, I].— Pupils have been defrauded of their birthright, the right to a high-school education, by being coerced into taking Latin in first year; failing, and having to take the work over, they drop out of school. Begin Latin in the second year, and give only three years. PROFESSOR W. H. SMILEY, Denver, Colo.— Quantity is less than quality of work. Encourage all pupils to take some work that shall give the culture so much needed in the determination of the social problems which are pressing upon us. Let the colleges con- cede something to the public good. 2. Ls there any better test of power and proficiency in English than a twofold translation ? PAPER BY PRINCIPAL WILSON FARRAND, NEWARK ACADEMY, NEWARK, N. J. I have been asked to answer this afternoon the question, Is there any better test of power and proficiency in English than a twofold transla- tion? J apprehend that there is more in this question than appears on the surface. The words deal simply with the testing of power and _ profi- ciency, no matter how attained. We are more concerned, however, with the best means of attaining power and proficiency than we are with the best means of testing our work. And yet the ultimate test to be applied largely conditions our work. I assume that the question refers mainly to the test of fitness for admission to college. If the college-entrance test is to consist of a twofold translation from Latin, or Greek, or German, it must inevitably affect the work of our schools. And it is right that it should. For I hold that it is an axiom, a self-evident truth, that college requirements should be so framed as to guide and direct the work of the secondary schools. It seems to me, then, that an adequate answer to the question presented to us this afternoon must also answer the question, What is the value of the practice of twofold translation in developing power and proficiency in English ? The first proposition that I have to lay down is that twofold transla- tion is an extremely valuable aid in increasing a pupil’s command of English. It helps his power of expression in three distinct respects. First, it increases his command of words. The habit of considering and choosing the best possible word to express the exact shade of meaning intended by the author cannot fail to produce an enlarged vocabulary and an increased discrimination and refinement in one’s diction. Sec- -ondly, the practice of twofold translation gives most valuable training in 662 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION | __ [Secondary the use of equivalent or alternative expressions, and thus induces flexibil- ity and variety of language. I am inclined to think that it is in this direction that its greatest value is to be found. In the third place, it forms in the pupil the habit of criticising his own work, of looking at his own expression ‘with reference to its accuracy, its clearness, its precision, its harmony. I am not sure that it would not have been wiser to call this developing of the critical instinct the most important function of twofold translation. When I think of the flood of bad and slipshod English poured out upon our boysand girls in the street, at home, and in the press ; when I think how sweetly and calmly they assimilate and reproduce the worst models ; when I recall how often they say, when we point out arrant errors in their writing, ‘I don’t see anything the matter with it ;”’ when I think of these things, I am sometimes inclined to feel that the first requisite to securing power and proficiency in English is the development of an abnormal critical instinct. We are safe, I think, in assuming the substantial truth of this first proposition that twofold translation is a most valuable exercise in Eng- lish. But side by side with this must be placed another, that, valuable as this practice is, it is still inadequate. We are all probably prepared to admit that translation from foreign tongues by itself would hardly give all the training in composition needed by our pupils. It may pay us to consider the question of just where it would fall short. In the first place, it fails to give a clear grasp of the principles of English sentence structure. One of the most glaring faults of the ‘‘ school English” of the present day is in the line of defective sentence structure. Loose, rambling, disjointed, sprawling sentences are only too character- istic of the pupils’ writing, even in many of our so-called “ best schools.” Something more than mere imitation is needed to produce the desired result. Knowledge is imperative. Latin and German sentences, too, are constructed on fundamentally different principles from those of our own tongue, so that they are not the best models for imitation. Some tenta- tive examination of the work of classical pupils who have had little spe- cific instruction in English composition has shown a distinct tendency toward looseness and weakness of sentence structure. Do not misunder- stand me. I am not arguing that the study of Latin and Greek has a bad effect on English style. I am simply trying to point out the fact that, admirable, I had almost said, invaluable, as is the effect of classical study on one’s handling of the vernacular, it is not sufficient ; there are some things it does not do, some points in which it must be supplemented. Sentence structure is one of these points, and another is the use of the paragraph. Nothing has been more significant in the rhetorical field of late years than the tendency to lay increased emphasis on the para- graph. Many of our soundest teachers hold that the true method of _ >" Department] ROUND TABLE IN LATIN AND GREEK 663 teaching English composition is to make the paragraph the unit, and to treat sentences and words as component parts of the larger whole. Be that as it may, there is practically no dispute as to the importance of the ability properly to construct an English paragraph. And that: ability is not imbibed indirectly through the process of twofold translation. There is still another point to be considered in this connection, and this, after all, is the vital point. Composition does not consist in precise diction, in deft phrasing, nor even in clear and vigorous sentence forma- tion. Nor does it consist in the expression in our own tongue of thoughts that were uttered in another. It consists in the formation of ideas that have shaped themselves in our own minds. The purpose of composition is the expression of one’s own thoughts. Translation is an excellent gymnastic. The following the thought of a great mind, the attempt to express in English the idea that was first formulated in Latin or Greek, must make it easier for one to express his own thoughts. It is excellent gymnastics, but, after all, it is only gymnastics. The gymnasium and the rowing machine are excellent, but one learns to row better in a boat. Translation is admirable, but one learns better to compose by the prac- tice of composition. Efficient as translation is, effective as the practice of twofold translation is, it is yet not sufficient. It must be supplemented by study of sentence formation and of paragraph structure, and by prac- tice in the expression of one’s own ideas. The study of Latin and Greek is believed by many of us to be one of the most valuable instruments of modern education. We find many reasons for the faith that isin us. Not the least of these reasons is the increased command that it gives one over his mother tongue. I am pre- pared to maintain the truth of the principle that the classical student needs less formal training in English than his fellow who studies neither Latin nor Greek. Side by side with that, however, I lay down the princi- ple that formal work in English can never be wholly superseded by work in the classics. Latin and Greek may be so taught, and should be so taught, as distinctly to increase the student’s command of his own tongue. The better they are taught, the less will be the need of studying English gram- mar and rhetoric; but if the student is to develop to its full extent the power to express his own ideas, there is imperative need of something more than translation alone. I have stated, and have endeavored to maintain, two propositions. The first is that exercises in twofold translation are of great service in increasing a pupil’s command of English, particularly in regard to the choice and use of words, and in regard to accurate and harmonious phraseology. The second proposition is that, excellent as these exercises are, they are inadequate, in that they give but little training in sentence formation, and none whatever in paragraph structure or in the expression 664 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary of one’s own ideas. From these two corollary propositions may be deduced without argument. The first is that a twofold translation is an excellent test of a pupil’s diction and of his ability to handle subordinate phrases and clauses. ‘The second is that it does not adequately test his control of the sentence, and fails to show anything whatever of his ability to con- struct a paragraph, to arrange his thoughts in logical and forcible order, or to express his own ideas in clear, accurate English. On these grounds, and without considering at all the interesting prob- lem of how far a pupil’s English in translation is affected by his inability fully to grasp the meaning of the original, I am prepared to answer in no uncertain words the question that has been propounded: Is a twofold translation the best possible test of power and proficiency in English ? No; for it fails to test the command of certain fundamentals of composi- tion, and shows nothing of the power to arrange and to express the thoughts of one’s own mind. Is there any better test of power and profi- ciency in English than a twofold translation? Yes; the orderly arrange- ment and expression, in proper literary form, of the pupil’s own ideas on some subject well within his mental grasp. PROFESSOR MANCHESTER, Illinois State University, called attention to the oppor- tunity for correlating English and Latin. PROFESSOR C, W. SUPER, Ohio University, Athens, O.—Pupils may be able to express their own thoughts in good English, but not able to express the thoughts of others. How shall we explain the fact that the study of Greek and Latin in Germany almost destroyed the writing of good German, and in England produced the greatest period of literary activity ? Miss Lewis, of Iowa.—If pupils give literal translations, they are not able to give free translations ; but if they give free translations, I doubt whether they understand the constructions. Mr. HEALEY, of South Dakota.— Should we not aim to bring pupils into the spirit of the Greek, not destroy it by Anglicizing it ? Mr. VOLLAND, Grand Rapids, Mich.— Literal translation is detrimental to the pro- duction of good English. Let the translation be altered to make an exact expression of the meaning of the Latin. ; PRINCIPAL SAWYER, Minneapolis, Minn.—Is the object to increase the stock of synonyms, or to give greater power to composition ? PROFESSOR SMITH, University of South Dakota.—If we are to have translations at all, they should be into correct English. If we do not have translations made, pupils should be taught to think in Greek and Latin. 3. Ls wt time for Greek composition to be discontinued in preparatory schools ? PAPER BY PRESIDENT W. E. WATERS, WELLS COLLEGE, AURORA, N. Y. The question which is before us for discussion touches upon the not infrequent problem of the teaching of Greek. Presupposing, however, ie vist fo Department] ROUND TABLE IN LATIN AND GREEK 665 that Greek has its legitimate place in the curriculum of secondary schools, the question now before us is, more precisely: ‘“‘What about the practice of writing English into Greek, or what we commonly call Greek prose composition ? Can we not dispense with it and put the time usually devoted to it upon something else with greater profit ?”’ The raising of the question here must be based on the fact that in the minds of a great many teachers considerable doubt exists as to the neces- sity or the expediency of giving Greek prose composition the place which it has, and which it is claimed it should have. Itis felt that the discipline and culture that are derived from the study of the classical languages in the schools, and, notably, from the Greek, must be seized by the pupil with no waste of time at all. The great majority of those who study Greek in the schools do so in preparation for college. And requirements for admission being continually raised, and entrance examinations being made more and more severe, and even the high schools and preparatory schools themselves offering so many attractive courses that tempt-—and tempt successfully —the pupil whose strict duty it is to prepare himself for college, and whose labors with Greek grammar are certainly for that purpose, as I have just said—there is a feeling that, if anything is old- fashioned or of minor or evanescent importance, it should be cleared out, or forced out, from the curriculum. I hear some one inquiring: “Is not that the case with Greek prose composition ? Can we not, by eliminating it from the curriculum at the same time that we carry out certain further changes, introduce a new requirement, or bring some other requirement into prominence? Can we not cut down the time devoted to Greek from three to two and a half years, or even to two years?” I hear some one else inquiring: ‘‘What is the value of the study after all? Do we not tolerate or advocate the study of Greek in order that pupils may acquire facility in the reading of Greek? What, pray, then, is the use or pro- priety of our pupils’ reversing the process and trying (and, at best, trying with only a great deal of failure and uncertain stumbling) to read their thoughts into Greek?’”’ Some one else inquires: “Is it not something like impudence to assume to acquire the ability to write Greek, a thing which we ought to know that only aGreek himself can do, one who has the language as his mother tongue, and has absorbed the grammar from his infancy?” Another says: “Greek prose composition? fie! what value do the colleges put on it? If the pupil can pass his entrance exam- ination in Xenophon and Homer, or bring a certificate that he has read the required amount in two authors, that is often the end of it. They make little or no further inquiries about his grammar and prose composi- tion.” I suppose, too, that there are further positive or interrogatory objections to it, which may come out in the discussion of the subject. I will not consider these objections in order, but will proceed at once to 666 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary express my judgment as to the place and value of Greek prose composi- tion in the curriculum of secondary schools, where boys and girls are being prepared for college, and then criticise the attitude of the higher institutions towards this, a regular, but a variously valued, requirement for admission. Greek is studied in the secondary schools entirely as a preparatory discipline; Xenophon’s “Anabasis,’’ in order that the beauties of Attic prose may be unveiled to the pupil when he enters college; the “Iliad,” in order that Homer and all the forms of Greek poetry may be appre- ciated in college. There is no cultural value at all intended in the study of the “Anabasis,” though many admirable teachers do feel for it and do incidentally make their pupils find it. With regard to Homer, the case is different. No one can read five lines of him understandingly without feeling at once that his esthetic sense is being appealed to. Yet I main- tain that the study of Homer is primarily a drill by which the pupil is to be enabled to read the poet, and other poets, rapidly and easily in college. It is because some schools have found time to give a cultural value to the study that the cry has been raised that the time given to it should be cut down. Now, there are no better proofs that a pupil has been successful in his preparatory work with a language than these: (1) That he can pick up a bit of the printed literature of that language (not a difficult bit neces- sarily) and show that he is able to interpret its sense correctly ; (2) that he can express some of his ordinary thoughts in the vocabulary and idiom of that language, and (3) can derive some correct notion of what people are saying when he hears that language employed either in conversation or in public address. The test and proof do not rest in the certificate or the mere complacent consciousness that he has read so and so much, but in his demonstration of the fact by the actual use of the language, in some way or other, whose literature and grammar he has been studying. Now, Greek prose composition affords one of these tests. It is just like French prose or German prose composition. And who would think of suppressing ¢kem in the study of French or German? ‘They imply and require the possession of a knowledge of the greater portion of the gram- mar and the idioms of the language studied. ‘““Ah, but then,” you say, “what will be the use of the ‘ Anabasis’ at all? Why not limit your pupils at once to your word lists and your grammar lessons?” I reply that that would be proper enough, if the reading of the literature of the language and its proper interpreta- tion were not also a requirement, and, indeed, che requirement. And to meet this, there must be constant reading of original texts. This is the only way, of course, to understand any Greek author’s style, or the general Greek style. But Greek prose composition is the test whereby is made ar re Sa “A. Department] ROUND TABLE IN LATIN AND GREEK 667 sure that the pupil has some preparation for understanding an author’s diction and vocabulary and the flexibility of the grammar of the language. The difficulty with the subject is, as I am aware, that it is frequently taught poorly. Instead of coming in at each exercise or recitation as an organic part of it, it is relegated to a fortnightly hour. The “ Xeno- phon” is laid aside then, and a wrestle goes on with certain features of Greek grammar, through the medium of a certain circumscribed vocabu- lary. It would be far better to consolidate the common parsing drill, which constitutes a kind of aftermath to each recitation, with some serious exercise in Greek writing. That is, let the translation be, as it always should be, an exercise in the interpretation of the author’s style and meaning into good, acceptable English. Let there be reviews and advance. But let this portion of the exercise be completed within twenty to twenty-five minutes. Let all the novelties of form and construction occurring in the lesson be investigated, as matters for an explanation of which the pupils understand they are accountable. Then, instead of that heavy drill which follows, and upon the sharpness and thoroughness of which many a teacher has made his reputation, with here a mode and there a case, let there be some exercise in the vocabulary and in the essentials of the grammar, as the pupil sees them in the author he is reading, by the putting of English into Greek. Who will deny that ¢hzs may be a most searching drill, and a test of how much of the dictionary of the language and of its grammar the pupil actually has in his head and at his command for successful work in college? It is, in fact, the same test we first and naturally employ in ascertaining how much of a modern language a person possesses. A young man fresh from his second or third year at college tells his father that he has been reading and study- ing such and such an author. ‘Oh, have you? Then how would you say or express such and such an idea in your French or German?” And if the young man stands the test, then the hope is warranted that he understands the language—at least to that extent. The purpose of Greek prose is to show, not that a pupil feels with his authors, but that he has reached a certain emancipation from the dictionary, commands the essentials of inflections and of constructions and of style. It is, in my opinion, the best way in which he is going to prove to his college instructor that he is not likely to prove himself a bungler. And now I admit my belief that colleges have been slow to put this high value upon Greek prose composition, and that their failure to do so largely accounts for the feeling that it might as well as not be dropped out of the curriculum of the secondary school. Not all colleges, how- ever, have been slow; some have, and others have not. It is, then, the lack of a uniform recognition of the value of the subject that creates the willingness to drop it from the established curriculum. Let me 668 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary quote from a few statements made by certain colleges regarding their requirements in the subject under consideration. After I have finished my quotations, it will be seen how vague and uncertain is the general value attached by the general college to the study of Greek prose com- position as a subject in Greek examinations. Harvard College divides its subjects for admission into elementary and advanced. If the applicant includes among his subjects elementary Greek, it is simply recommended that he shall have been accustomed from the beginning of his preparatory course to translate both orally and in writing passages prepared by the teacher on the basis of the prose authors read ; that is, his Greek prose is only a recommendation, not a necessity. He must be able merely to translate at sight simple Attic prose and stand questions on the usual forms and ordinary constructions of the language. If he offers Greek and Latin composition as one of his advanced studies, it is only then that he must have a thorough and persistent training in prose composition. For admission to Yale the case is greatly different. Not only is Greek not an elective requirement, but it is required of all applicants ; and of the examinations in Greek the authorities of the college consider most important those in Greek grammar, translation at sight, and composition, and the papers in them are read and marked with special care and strict- ness. A candidate who shows marked proficiency in these subjects is not conditioned for slight deficiency in ‘“‘ Xenophon.” ‘The passages set for translation from English into Greek call for acquaintance with the vocabulary and style of simple narrative. And teachers are advised to connect exercises in Greek composition, both oral and written, with all the Greek studies of the preparatory courses. Probably no college is so stiff in its requirements in Greek composition as Yale is. And were all colleges equally insistent, there is no doubt that composition, instead of finding a less importance in the secondary curriculum, must find a greater. At Princeton nothing more is looked for in Greek composition than that the graduate of the secondary school who applies for admission shall be able to write simple sentences in Greek, in an easy continuous dis- course based upon Xenophon’s “ Anabasis,” the purpose being to test the candidate’s knowledge of accent, inflection, and the fundamental rules for the syntax of the noun and verb—a purpose which can be just as well accomplished by an examination in the grammar. Were we instructed in the secondary schools to fulfill in our Greek prose work the simple purpose as enunciated in the Princeton requirement, I confess we might with ample reason drop the prose work altogether; Latin composition has, however, the same dignity as a requirement for admission which Greek prose has at Yale. - >a t Department] ROUND TABLE IN LATIN AND GREEK 669 In Columbia College Greek prose composition is considered a mere appendage of Greek grammar; there is no separate examination in it; and any candidate is considered to be properly prepared in it who has covered Jones’ exercises in Greek prose composition— exercises which, in my opinion, teach but little of style (and, really, composition that does not teach a narrative style is not doing its full work). Prose com- position must be more than exercises for drilling grammar into a student to the tune of a Procrustean vocabulary. Turning to the Chicago University, we find that our secondary schools are expected to do a stricter and more advanced work in the subject in properly preparing pupils for the junior college ;- for there are two exami- nations in the subject, the first in connection with the grammar, and the sentences are not easy, but “are of average difficulty, and based on the ‘Anabasis.’”” The second examination is on the translation into Xeno- phontic Greek of a connected passage of idiomatic English. The “Register” of the university distinctly states that the special object of the elementary requirement in Greek prose is to test the pupil’s knowl- edge of the elements of Greek style, as well as of form, syntax, and vocabulary. For The University of Chicago requires the securing of such facility in the reading of Greek that the college course may be devoted mainly to the study of literary form and of Greek life and thought as reflected in Greek literature. The requirements, therefore, of Chicago and Yale are high in the matter of Greek composition. I have time to cite the expectations of but one more institution—the University of Michigan. Here, as in one or two of the institutions I have named, the requirement in composition (Jones’ exercises, with special reference to the writing of Greek with the accents and to the general principles of syntax) appears to be so slight that. it seems possible to include it under the grammar requirement, which is merely the thorough mastery of the inflections. I have done enough, I think, to make the point clear that there are two distincts attitudes held by the higher institutions with regard to the value of prose composition. Perhaps we might say that the highest value is attached to it by Yale and Chicago, while the other institutions which I have named appear to attach to it a varying and lower impor- tance. My own attitude I stated in the earlier part of my paper. It is because of this very evidently unsettled attitude of the colleges of the land toward the requirement in Greek prose composition that the ques- tion is natural: ‘Why hold on to it in the secondary schools, when there are so many other subjects that might be brought to pupils in preparation for college upon whose value at least all secondary schools are agreed ?”’ But, in all soberness, let us first ask which of the two college attitudes is the right one? Are Yale and Chicago wrong, or are they right? Per- 670 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary sonally, I have no doubt that they are right, and that a very significant value may be given to the discussion of this matter of Greek prose com- position, if this association could go before the colleges and say: ““Gen- tlemen, it will be a great boon to the cause of the secondary curriculum if you could come to some agreement, and report that agreement to us regarding the importance of Greek prose composition, and the objects you think it feasible to attain by means of it.” PROFESSOR FRUESDALE, Lake Forest Academy.—The best test of a student’s mastery of a language is his ability to express his thoughts in that language. The first thing to be dropped from the Greek curriculum ought not to be prose composition. 4. Ls it desirable to concentrate the study of preparatory Greek upon Attic prose to the exclusion of Homer? PROFESSOR C. W. SUPER, Ohio University, Athens, O.—The student begins with Greek grammar based on the Attic Greek. He studies the “ Anabasis.” Then he studies Greek grammar over again in Homer. This violates the principle of concentration. He ought first to read the Greek testament, as the style is simple and the subject-matter fam- iliar. Then he should read Xenophon’s “‘Anabasis of Cyrus;” next he should read Arrian’s “ Anabasis of Alexander.” The ideal Greek author is Herodotus. The college might well spend the freshman year on the Homeric poetry. It is unfortunate that the Greeks seem to have made little provision for the education of children, inasmuch as much of the writing in Attic Greek is difficult beyond the comprehension of children, ¢. g., Thucydides. ; ” PROFESSOR G. M. SMITH, South Dakota University, advocated the study of Lysias as giving an insight into Greek life and thought, and agreed that studying Homer was illogical because of the necessity of carrying along two vocabularies and two grammars. ROUND TABLE LN HISTORY: PRINCIPAL C. W. FRENCH, HYDE PARK HIGH SCHOOL, CHICAGO, LEADER. 1. Source-study method of teaching history in high schools. PAPER BY PROFESSOR H. W. CALDWELL, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. Perhaps what I shall say this afternoon will be rather along the line of the use of sources in the teaching of history than in full harmony with the subject assigned me for my paper. On every hand now in the West, and I doubt not the same is true of the East, one hears the “laboratory method” of teaching history dis- cussed. This marks, I believe, the beginning of a new era in our subject. It means, if I am not mistaken, that history is just ready to take on more dell ete ate eee oo ~ Department] ROUND TABLE IN HISTORY 671 completely the scientific aspect, and to be recognized as a training as well as a culture subject. The teaching of botany, chemistry, and physics, as well as of geology and zodlogy, has been modified to a great extent within the last quarter of a century. The text-book has been replaced by the laboratory. The study about things has been transformed into a study of things. The text-book is now only an aid to interpretation ; it is to guide, to correct, and to help bridge over the gaps; it is no longer to be committed to memory. To a certain extent the same transformation has taken place in history. The historian’s laboratory is his library. Books have taken the place of one book, and of the lecture. Another change is now in process of making. The material of the historian’s laboratory is under- going a reconstruction. Collections of sources are being made. The old library, consisting very largely of secondary histories, is not enough. In fact, if it contains only such histories, it is nearly useless for the purposes of the new idea. We wish now to get as near as possible to the thing itself, to the actual living, breathing spirit of history, and to do this we must get as close to the time and to the event as possible. For example, if we wish to understand the nullification controversy, we must have access to Jackson’s “ Proclamation,” to-some, at least, of Calhoun’s letters, to the proceedings of the South Carolina convention, to Webster’s speeches, and, finally, to some of the newspapers of the time. Mr. Schouler may help us to understand these various documents, but he can- not, for us, put the breath of life into them. This each person, to a great extent, must do for himself. It is to be noted, in passing, that we may see three steps in this development in historical teaching. In the first stage a text was swallowed whole, and, in general, no digestion took place. The poor child rarely wished a second dose; history was dry and hateful to him. The second step was the library, or comparative, method, in which various authors were compared with each other. This was a great improvement. Interest, at least, was secured, and under a skillful teacher considerable training, especially when the facts were given in sufficient detail, so that judgment in weighing evidence might be called into play. I believe that 1 am now speaking for the next stage in this evolution. In the source we are going to the thing itself, or, at least, as near to it as it is possible to get. We are using the secondary writing largely for a different purpose than formerly; vzz., only to aid us in our work. This last step does not do away with the good points of each of the preceding. Whatever of value in the text-book and the lecture, whatever of good in the library, is to be retained. But we now seek at first hand what before had come to the student filtered and diluted till there was little strength left in it, and as a result most of our historical students died young, died of inanition. We believe we may now begin to say to the student: 672 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary “Come to us; we have mental, ethical, and moral food, which will strengthen your fibers and prepare you for the conflicts of life equally well with the other studies in the curriculum.” Equally well! Yes, in some respects in a better way, for each branch of study has a work in education to perform, which no other can perform. No full-rounded education, it is believed, can now be had which does not embrace some work in history. But it is my task to give very briefly some suggestions in regard to how source study may be introduced into the high school. In the first place, we must keep clearly in mind the meaning of a “source.” It is a record, in some form, made, in general, by contemporaries of the event described. The form may vary. The value of sources will be unequal. The office of historical criticism will be to determine the worth of the various sources which shall come before us for use. It will be the duty of the skilled historian to furnish annotated compilations of sources to which the student may go. The high-school pupil cannot be presumed to be able ordinarily to determine the authenticity, for example, of a doc- ument; therefore, that part of the work must, as a rule, be done for him. In other words, it is not historical criticism which we wish our pupils to perform ; it is, rather, historical interpretation. But, again, as a preliminary conception we must note that there are two very distinct sides to history. There are the inner spirit and the outer form. ‘The first is the thought, the idea, the feeling, or the emotion which prompts to action. ‘This spirit is cause. It is the living part of history. From it-flows action. Events and results are its products. This thought . —public opinion, if you will—is continuous, but always in process of change. It lives in various manifestations. On the other hand, events occur, and that is the end; they never repeat themselves. ‘This outer, formal side of history exists in records, the sources from which we are to reconstruct the past. The student from these sources seeks to know how public opinion was formed, and to determine what effects it produced. Ordinarily it will be found that the idea itself is modified to a greater or less extent in the process of action. This is well illustrated by Douglas in connection with the Kansas-Nebraska bill. The idea of the early days of January was greatly developed in action, and by March it had taken on almost a new form. An idea existed. Those who held it attempted to put it into action. In doing so they met resistance, and either became more intense or they compromised. Some of those who first opposed were convinced. Thus the idea emerged from the field of strife changed. The idea produced an event; the event modified the idea. Thus a new shade of thought was outlined ready to become the basis for future action. We may in this way see the two laws at work which are fundamental to our discussion —the law of continuity and the law of differentiation. Both /( ———— ae " Department] ROUND TABLE YN HISTORY 673 of these laws will be implied in every piece of interpretation which our pupils are going to undertake. Finally, we shall need in the use of every source which comes before us to perform two processes with which we are already familiar in other fields of study. In the first place, we shall have to analyze our material to find out what we have; then, by synthesis, we shall have to construct our picture, that we may understand what it all means. Personally, I believe that work in the sources may be introduced into the grades with advantage. The sources used must be of a simpler or more ele- mentary character than those for the high school, just as the latter must be chosen on a different basis from those we are to use in college and uni- versity. Iam sure, also, that much of the formal part of the work, which I shall attempt to describe later, should be made. familiar to the pupils in the grades, and hence any drill on it in the high school would be unnec- essary. The desirability of doing source work to some extent I deem to be beyond the point of discussion. How much shall be done and how it shall be done are as yet open and debatable questions. The feasibility has also ceased to be open to discussion with us in Nebraska. One hundred or more of our best schools have used the sources to a greater or less extent during the last year—in every case, as far as I have been able to find out, with results more satisfactory than those obtained from methods in vogue before. Experience, then, has demonstrated the desirability and the fea- sibility of source study. Of course, the answer in both cases is based upon assumed premises of what constitutes desirable results. Of this I may speak later, but in general it should be said that knowledge, culture, and mental taining have all been taken into consideration. It has been said above that the object of historical study is to under- stand the past. We desire to know causes and their effects, purposes and their ends; in fine, to get into the spirit of the period under observation. The people who lived then have left the record of their life in public and private documents, and in various other forms. Now, the advocates of the source-study method urge that the only way in which anyone can get into their spirit is by coming into contact with these records. One who had never seen or handled a flower would have a very vague idea of its nature from a mere verbal description of it. In the same way, the living past can be made our own only by seeing and studying it at first hand—no mere description can be enough. After one flower has been studied and analyzed, the student can picture to himself quite vividly another from mere description; hence it is not expected that all our botanical knowledge will come to us at first hand. The same is true in our science; enough source study must be done that the method by which narratives have been constructed may be understood. Then accumula- tion may continue by making use of other men’s work. But it must ever 674 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary be kept in mind that all such knowledge is more or less lacking in defi- niteness and in real comprehension. Is knowledge our aim in history teaching? The study of the sources, being more vivid, will leave more decided impressions, and, in the long run, the memory will retain more. Is culture in its broadest sense what we seek? Then the sources should, at least, be used along with the secondary account, in order that the latter may be made definite and intense. But if it is primarily mental training that we seek, then the original material is almost an essential. An event is before us for interpretation. ‘The pupil is given, not some one else’s conclusions to be memorized, but the record of the event itself. Memory alone is not able to solve the problem. The student must use his judgment; he must analyze in the most careful way every word and phrase; he must go over the matter from every point of view; he must get it into his mind; in fact, he must live again the life of the vanished past. Now, all this calls for thought. There is no chance for mere passive reception. The mind must be alert, active. Interest will be aroused, for, to a certain extent, the person is again living over the scene under examination. ‘This intensive work may, in a way, be done by a use of secondary authors, in the study of relationships. How-. ever, it lacks the vital interest of the use of the sources, for then the pupil —in his synthetic work, at least— may feel that he isa real creator; he is not dependent on the judgment of others merely. Besides, the work in the one case is almost sure to sink into a mere study of words, and to have no vital connection with things. From what has been said above it seems scarcely necessary to repeat that the ‘‘sources”’ are not to constitute our sole equipment for work in the high school. The best of secondary authors should be accessible—the more the better. But the secondary authority is to supplement, to give the formal side of history, to fill in the connections, to give us a basis of comparison, that we may judge the correctness of our conclusions ; while the source is to give the vital life to our work. But, it may be asked, how much time shall be given to the source work? ‘The answer must vary. There is no hard and fast rule. The preparation of the teacher, the time at her command, the sources access- ible, and other conditions, will all come in as factors in each individual case. In what years shall the work be done? Most emphatically, I answer, in every year of the high school, from the ninth to the twelfth grade, since history study must be made a part of every year’s work. The amount of source study should increase with each year, and the character should change as the pupils gain in power. But perhaps the fundamental part of this paper should be on the next question, How shall the work be done? Here, I have to admit, I have no Department} ROUND TABLE IN HISTORY 67 5 patent plan. On the whole, I believe that in the grammar grades, and in the first year or two of the high school, the Sheldon plan of question and answer, as a means of collecting the subject-matter, which is to be woven into the pupil’s narrative, is to be commended. Now, the equipment needed for this work is simple, yet essential. Each pupil should have loose sheets of paper, and a neat cover in which to arrange them. This notebook thus made should be divided into several sections for convenience of use—one division for class notes; another for notes from secondary writers; a third for the readings on the sources; and, finally, a division for the “analyses” and “narrative” papers. Such a plan should be insisted on, not only for its convenience, but also for its value as a train- ing in form and system. Our source material now lies before us. The question is noted and the answer worked out. The proof for the answer should then be stated, and the page cited where it can be found. This is an essential part, since it teaches the pupil that no assertion can be made unless the proof is forthcoming. When this plan is persistently followed, even for a few months, it will be found that the whole school is transformed ; proof will be demanded for everything, and the bane of so much of our work— unquestioning acceptance of text-book statements—will be gone. The foundation for a higher citizenship will also be laid. But after we have in this way critically gathered the material for our little history papers, the next step must also be faithfully taken. This material must now be analyzed, classified, and arranged in such a manner that it will be logical and present the matter in such a way that the nearest approach to a repro- duction of the event under discussion shall be secured. This “‘outline”’ should be so constructed as to give ready reference to every point that is found in our notes which we wish to weave into our narrative. It goes without saying that each pupil should be given some scope for originality in preparing these outlines; yet a class criticism is always desirable. Finally, from the “material” gathered, following our “outline,” we are to write our little history. Footnotes for important statements should be demanded, just as if the work was as important as a monograph or a thesis for a doctor’s degree. Of course, this plan may be varied from in details, and, in fact, not followed at all, and yet good teaching be done. However, I can say that I know of no expedient which secures such accuracy, careful training in form, close thinking, and splendid prepara- tion for higher work, as the plan above outlined. We must always be on our guard, however, lest it sink into mere formalism, the chief danger to which it is exposed. As we advance to the higher classes in the high school, the plan of question and answer as a means for gathering the subject-matter should be used less. The pupils of the higher grades, as the twelfth, may be given 676 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary a document, or set of documents, and asked to find out what it contains. The mental processes used, however, are always the same. There can be no change. The gathering the material, the arranging it in logical order, and then the composition of the paper must be followed, whether the person be the humblest schoolboy or whether he be a von Holst or a Macaulay. But I see I have about reached the limit of my time, and only a touch has been given to the subject here and there. I have attempted to make the paper suggestive rather than complete. If some one has gained a new idea or a little inspiration to push the work further, this paper has accom- plished its mission, for I feel that I am only an anxious searcher for truth in method as in matter, and do not claim to be ready, as yet at least, to lay down any dogmatic principles, from which to vary is an educational sin. But I cannot close without attempting to summarize the advantages which those of us who have been working along this line believe exist. Negatively mere memory work is almost wholly avoided, and pas- sive receptivity on part of pupil is impossible; while the teacher, also, is forced to be alive and to work. Upon the positive side many advantages are gained. Accuracy and definiteness are secured. Nearly all who have tried the method claim that the tone of the whole school is raised in this respect. There is a marked improvement in form. Methodical work can be secured as in few other subjects of study. Possibly too much attention may be given to this side of the work, yet I believe that few teachers will deny that our pupils are generally very careless in form; hence a training in this respect will improve their chances of future suc- cess in life. Without exception teachers report greater interest, especially on the part of many who before seemed to have no ability at all for his- torical work. Of course, one of the main claims made is that the judg- ment is cultivated. This is peculiarly true for all topics which, like history, deal with probabilities, not certainties. But above all and every- thing else it is found that the spirit of research is aroused. The desire to find the truth is awakened. Investigators are created, and the fact is established that the only way to find the truth is by going to the head of the stream —to the source itself. Thus a greater degree of broadminded- ness, a keener moral sentiment, a nobler ethical standard, as well as a better intellectual training, are secured. If these claims be not chimerical, may we not hope that a new enthusiasm will seize us as history teachers, and carry us forward till we have come nearer the goal we all seek — perfection? PROFESSOR A. MORSE STEPHENS, Cornell University, spoke of the advantage to be gained by knowing what method was pursued by teachers of secondary schools. The Committee on History would be glad to obtain such information. He asked if the a na tio aati i Department] ROUND TABLE IN HISTORY 677 “source method” was possible in the secondary schools, and said he would think it impossible on account of lack of libraries and trained teachers of history. PRoreEssor L, E. WoLFe, High School, Kansas City, Mo.—The purpose of teaching history is to prepare for civilization. I should say that the only wise way to teach it is by the laboratory method. 2. College-entrance requirements, with special reference to the problem of the ordinary public high school of the central West. PAPER BY DR. E. B. GREENE, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. I wish to preface what I have to say by assuming that studies required for admission to college should generally be such, in amount and char- acter, as to provide the best training available, under existing local con- ditions, for the average secondary-school pupil, whether preparing for college or not. College-entrance requirements ought, instead of dis- couraging, as they have too often done, to encourage every effort to secure a balanced high-school course. I should, at least, wish to apply this test to college-entrance requirements in history. _ I should like, then, to consider, in the barest outline, what changes are desirable in the position of history in the programme of the ordinary public high school of the central West. It seems clear that certain conditions prevailing here call for greater emphasis upon a right teaching of history. Especially significant is the comparatively limited scope and almost unavoidably inferior quality of classical instruction (I am not, of course, speaking here of the best city schools). This is accompanied by depreciation of what we may call the humanistic side of the high-school course. In all but a mere handful of the high schools of Illinois no Greek is taught. In a majority of those schools the teaching of Latin is so mechanical as to exert almost nothing of that humanizing influence which is the strongest argument for classical studies. Nor are these conditions merely temporary. The teaching of Latin will be improved, but probably Greek will never find general acceptance in the high-school programme. Yet the end sought in the old discipline of the “tere humantores, the ideal of a liberal culture, is one which, in these days of the practical and the materially useful, we must be careful not to neglect. We may condemn the narrowness of the old discipline, we must respect its lofty idealism. We must emphasize, not less, but more, those studies which illustrate the ideal, universal aspects of humanity, ‘“‘the things that are unseen and eternal.” We have not forgotten the old ideal, though we work toward it through different means. Two subjects, which are taught and can be well taught in almost every public high school, which have to a marked degree this humanizing value ‘ 678 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary —which, therefore, demand the most careful attention— are English literature and history. I wish here particularly to emphasize the impor- tance of Greek and Roman history, taught, not as an exercise in learning by rote, nor yet mainly as an exercise in scientific historical method, but with the humanistic motive in the first place. The pupil who reads Plutarch, even in translation, may well catch such a glimpse of the Hellenic spirit as was not always attained by the boy who plodded through the “ Anabasis” or the “Iliad” as through some willfully bewil- dering puzzle. Some substantial results of this sort are certainly attainable, if a year of four or five exercises a week can be given toancient history. They are certainly unattainable in the single term allotted in the common general- history course to the immense field from the building of the pyramids to the days of Augustus and Constantine, somewhat as Cook’s tourist covers Europe in a summer vacation. For medizval and modern times the general-history plan seems to me distinctly unfortunate. A very serious criticism, which is not new, but, in my judgment, has never been successfully met, is that this supposed superior comprehensiveness, which I believe to be generally delusive, involves necessarily a broken, and hence unsatisfactory, treatment of the development of any particular people, failing thus to bring forth that best fruit of scientific historical study, the sense of historical continuity. Lim- its of time prevent any illustration of this fact, which must be obvious to any careful teacher. Another result of insistence upon general history has been compara- tive neglect of English and American history. Some wise men, indeed, consider it a great triumph if they can relegate American history from the high school to the grades. If the year of Greek and Roman history could be followed by a second year of English and American history, it would be possible to give the average high-school pupil some useful con- ception of the development, first on British and then on American soil, of institutions still familiar to the pupil, in modified forms, in the life of his own people. Here, somewhat more than in the ancient history, we ought to emphasize the scientific aspect of the study, to give elementary train- ing in historical methods, and to awaken the sense of historical continu- ity. The practical value of these studies, as a preparation for citizenship, is sufficiently obvious. One practical advantage of the simpler subjects over the more difficult general history is the comparatively abundant, easily accessible, easily intelligible material available for teacher and pupil. The conscientious teacher of continental history needs to work a considerable literature, often in foreign languages, not generally accessible; but in the study of Greek history Grote, Curtius, and Plutarch are ready to hand in almost ee age oe + Department] ROUND TABLE IN HISTORY 679 »any good town library. In English and American history the advan- tage is still clearer. Certainly this is a consideration not to be ignored, if the teacher is to be a real student, not a mere hearer of lessons. I should like, if there were time, to examine the claim that the general- history plan gives a really sounder knowledge of what are called the great general movements of European history than can be gained in a careful course in English history, broadly taught. To give but one simple illus- tration: Some people seem to think that, without a course in general his- tory, the high-school pupil would go out into the world without ever having heard of Napoleon. Yet, what sort of teaching of English history would that be which should fail to impress upon the boy’s mind something of that Titanic struggle between the land power and the sea, power ? My study of the situation in Illinois leads me to believe that more than two years in history is not possible in the average high school. A two-years’ course seems at least possible. A year of Greek and Roman history, followed by a year of English and American history, will, I believe, yield better results than the present general-history plan or some extension of it. The humanistic value of acquaintance with the remoter past of Greece and Rome will be combined with the practical value for citizenship of studying movements and institutions closely related to our present national life. 3. An ideal course tn history for secondary schools. PAPER BY PRINCIPAL E. V. ROBINSON, MUSKEGON, MICH. It is happily no longer necessary to adduce arguments to prove that history is the peer of any subject, both in informational and educational value. This is now generally conceded. And substantial agreement has also been reached regarding the best methods of instruction. But opin- ions still differ not a little as to what constitutes an ideal course of his- torical study. . It may be well, before entering upon a discussion of the unsettled problems connected with this question, to enumerate briefly the points which may now be regarded as settled. These are, it is believed, some- what as follows: 1. That historical study should be continuous during the last four, and preferably six, years of the elementary school. 2. That, in an ideal curriculum, at least three exercises per week should be devoted to history throughout the secondary school. 3. That the history of Greece and Rome should be taught, because of their contributions to the modern world, and the striking simplicity and power of their leading personalities and forces. 4. That the history of England should be included, because of its inti- 680 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary mate connection with American history, and because the world is indebted to England for constitutional government and the modern system of industry. 5. That, for many and obvious reasons, a thorough study of American © history and civics should be made in the last year of the course. The chief matter still under discussion is the advisability of teaching general history. The Madison conference cast its commanding influence for the substitution of French or German history, and this proposal has been approved by the New England and New York conferences. Yet expressions of radical dissent are heard, both from the rank and file of high-school teachers and from recognized leaders of educational opinion. Thus Professor Salmon, in a recent article entitled ‘“ Unity in College- Entrance History,” makes a strong plea for the retention of general his- tory. Professor Hudson, representing the University of Michigan, has urged that general history be given in preference, if need be, to English history. And even President Adams, who was chairman of the Madison conference, declares in the introduction to his “ Manual of Historical Literature,” in most felicitous and emphatic words, that a general outline of the subject should be secured before proceeding to the detailed study of special nations or epochs. The reason usually assigned for this proposed substitution is the diff- culty of teaching general history successfully. It is apt to fall into the Scylla of mere routine memorizing, or, if this be avoided, into the Charybdis of vague and meaningless generalities. This is a real diffi- culty, but experience shows that it is not insuperable. It is no uncom- mon thing to hear teachers maintain that their pupils grow in intel- lectual stature through the study of general history more than through any other one subject; and this is frequently corroborated by the pupils themselves. A more important reason for the opposition to general history is sug- gested by the following passage in the report of the Madison conference: “Fortunately the subject of history, like that of natural science, is one in which the educational advantages may be obtained without covering the whole field.” This indicates that the discarding of general history is a part and a result of the attempt to transfer attention and emphasis from the informational to the disciplinary side of the subject; the assumption being that the very incompleteness of the knowledge thus attained will tend to concentrate attention on the educational effect of the exercise. But, however desirable this object may be, it is at least open to question whether the means adopted will not injure rather than promote the cause of historical study. In the first place, can we afford to have people and pupils feel that the knowledge acquired in the study of history is a matter of no moment ? ey qurkng a Department] ROUND TABLE IN HISTORY 681 Is not the attitude of the public towards purely formal studies, which are ridiculed as mere “intellectual gymnastics,” a sufficient warning of the dangers inherent in this procedure? Morever, waiving this question of expediency, is it true that the informational value of history can be safely neglected? Are we justified in sending pupils out into life with an imperfect and distorted conception of what has actually happened in the world, and, consequently, of the forces which are operative in the present and destined to control the future ? In order to break the force of this objection, it is suggested that French or German history be “so taught as to elucidate the general movement of medieval and modern history.’’ If this could really be done, there would be little room for controversy. But is it psychologi- cally possible? Is it not rather in conflict with the precepts of sound pedagogy, no less than the teachings of experience ? Let us consider a moment just what is involved in this proposal. Less than a generation ago history was either not taught at all in American colleges or was taught as a side issue by some overworked professor in another department. The marvelous change which we see today is due, above all, to one cause: the doctrine of the unity of history ; that is, of a progressive development pervading the entire course of human events. In the words of Professor Sloane: ‘The doctrine of the unity of history has been so emphasized that the consequences are simply revolutionary. To accept the doctrine of unity is to admit that no country is more than one wheel in the series which moves the hands on the dial plate of human progress. We no longer study nations, but epochs. We have found the movement of the race more majestic than that of nations or individuals.” And President Adams says: ‘The history of civilization is one continuous story of development. Before this fact all artificial distinctions between different periods of history and different kinds of history fade away.” Now, it is precisely this fundamental doctrine of unity which is ignored in the new programme. One wheel—to retain Professor Sloane’s metaphor—is to be substituted for the whole series; the study of sep- arate nations is to displace that of human development; and the artificial distinctions between different kinds of history are to be restored. Could anything be more reactionary? — The old text-books in logic used to cite the case of a man who carried about a single brick as a sample of the house which he wished to sell; is not this a fallacy of exactly the same kind? In both cases the logical error consists in the substitution of a part for the whole, forgetful of the fact that the whole contains something different from and superior to any or all of the parts. Outside of mathe- matics it is seldom true that the sum of the parts is equal to the whole. For this reason a pupil might study in succession each of the great 682 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary nations, and yet at the end of his course, on account of the artificial separations and groupings thus occasioned, be unable to form any correct conception of the general movement of history. Something very like this actually happened in the case of a boy of unusual ability who had studied both French and English history, but was unable to grasp them in their relations to each other or to the rest of the world, until he studied general history ; then he declared that it seemed as though the sun broke through the fog, and he saw in their true relations things which before had been confused and distorted. _It would seem, therefore, from this point of view, to be almost a truism that the only way of really “elucidating the general movement of history” is to study the general movement of history, not as a mere appendage to the history of France or Germany, but as being fer se the chief subject of historical study. Any other treatment must fatally obscure the unity and perspective of history, by giving to one nation the prominence which belongs rightfully only to the common achievements of all nations. In view of this fact, what is to be said of the claim that equal or greater disciplinary results may be obtained from a limited portion of history ? Before answering this question, a distinction must be made between technical and general discipline: the one being best attained by the intensive study of parts, the other by the extensive study of wholes. If the object of historical study be the mastery of the processes of historical interpretation and criticism, it is perfectly true that the history of some one nation would be preferable to general history. Not only so, but a single period would be better still, and a single document, studied inten- sively month after month, would be best of all. But such intensive study presupposes maturity of mind, which cannot be expected in secondary schools, and a wide knowledge of the subject as a whole—the very thing it is now proposed to get along without. Moreover, even were this not the case, such technical skill would be relatively useless for all pupils not destined to become scholars by profession. And the chief function of secondary schools is not the training of scholars, but the education of men and citizens. The discipline demanded of history as of all other subjects is, therefore, not technical, but general. It is that training of the mind and heart which will be most valuable in the most difficult and most neglected of all fine arts—the conduct of one’s own life. If this is true, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the cutting-up of history into a number of longitudinal strips, of which the pupil could take only a small part, would diminish both the informational and the educational value of the subject. Can the interest of the pupils be i Se Department] ROUND TABLE IN HISTORY 683 sustained when they see only snatches, here and there, of the great drama, while the rest goes on behind the scenes? Can they follow with equal certainty the relations of cause and effect, when the one or the other usually lies in regions beyond their gaze? Can their judgment receive a training of equal value, when the materials for comparison are largely denied them? Can the moral uplifting and purification, which constitute so large a part of the value of history, take place, when the unity of action is destroyed, so that they are no longer able to recognize the justice of the Nemesis which overtakes nations as well as individuals ? Finally, can the study produce the deepest and most abiding impressions on mind and character, when the pupil sees but dimly, at uncertain inter- vals, the sublime procession of the ages—the slow, but absolutely sure and irresistible, advance of human progress out of the measureless past, even to the present ? To all these questions it seems to me that but one answer can be made, and that an answer not favorable to the elimination of general history from the course. In the arrangement of courses of study local conditions must be taken into consideration. But, in general, some such arrangement as the following would possess distinct advantages : Ninth grade, ancient history, three periods per week. Tenth grade, medieval and modern history, three periods per week. Eleventh grade, English history, three to five periods per week. Twelfth grade, American history and civics, five periods per week. No doubt, the objection will at once be raised that it is impossible to teach this amount of history and, at the same time, meet collegiate requirements in other branches. At present, this is unfortunately true. But the time is surely at hand when the many who never enter college will no longer be sacrificed to the few who do—or, rather, to the anti- quated requirements which the colleges still maintain. If they cannot be brought to modify these, then so much the worse for the colleges. But there are encouraging signs of progress all along the line. Last fall Dr. Tetlow nearly secured important action in this direction on the part of the New England Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools, and much is expected from the National Committee, of which Dr. Nightingale is chairman. The difficulty is, therefore, in a fair way to be removed. For the present it may be met, in all except the smallest schools, by offering college-preparatory pupils the required studies, and, at the same time, giving to others that training which will best fit them for life. This is not only the chief function of secondary schools, but their impera- tive duty. 5 684 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary ROUND TABLE IX ENGLISH. MISS HARRIET L. KEELER, HIGH SCHOOL, CLEVELAND, O., LEADER. 1. Are secondary schools getting the best results from present methods in English and composition ? OUTLINE OF DISCUSSION BY GEORGE B, AITON, STATE INSPECTOR OF HIGH SCHOOLS, MINNESOTA. SITUATION — Deficiencies in: 1. Eye and hand: Penmanship and appearance on the page. 2. Features requiring thought and becoming largely automatic : Spelling, capitalization, punctuation, paragraphing. 3. Thought work requiring : (a) Culture — choice of words. * (6) Logical training — syntax. 4. Thought proper —literary content. 5. Expression — literary grace. CAUSES — 1. Illiterate homes : (z) Naturally and persistently illiterate, in spite of continued opportunity. (2) Foreign unschooled element — honest, industrious, of hopeful potentiality, but not at present literate. (c) Decadence through : (a) Separation from literary influence. (8) Abeyance of family reading, especially scriptural reading. 2. Influence of an undignified, careless press. . Spirit of the times. 4. Neglect due to: (a) Crowding by information subjects. (4) Wrong theory that English would incidentally take care of atself. (c) Wrong estimate of literature as dilettant. (Z) Real want of knowing how to proceed. REMEDY — Attention to: (a) Mechanics. (6) Material. (c) Dynamics. 2. College-entrance English. PAPER BY DR. RICHARD JONES, UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. WHAT THE COLLEGES WANT. At the thirty-third convocation of the University of the State of New York one of the members of the committee which selected the books sty he ee Department] ROUND TABLE IN ENGLISH 685 upon which the college-entrance examinations in English are now based said : “ Theone defect of English teaching in our schools is its unrelated- ness, disjointedness, its vagueness of aim, its uncertainty of method.” And, enlarging upon this theme, he observed that “what the colleges desire in the work of the secondary schools is unity of effort and harmony of method.” Requesting the principals of the state to make, as the basis of their work in English, the books selected by the committee which he represented, he urged them to get their courses in English “into conso- nance with the college systems,” to get into “‘ harmony with the spirit of the English work being done now in institutions below you, above you, around you.” With the view of rendering some assistance to secondary schools in their present effort to get “into consonance with the college systems,” the following letter was sent to professors of literature in various parts of the country : UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, ALBANY, 16 November, 1896. My DEAR Sir: Asa result of the co-operation of colleges and university men with the principals of academies and secondary schools, we have now college-entrance requirements in English substantially uniform throughout the United States, 2. ¢., the requirements are uniform as to the texts upon which these examinations are based. A pressing problem yet remains, however, vzz., how the texts thus chosen are to be studied, and what isto be the nature and the extent of the preparation upon these texts required for entrance to college. The subject of English as a college-entrance requirement being so new, many teachers are, as a matter of course, somewhat uncertain as yet in regard to methods of teaching it andthe goal to be aimed at. Will you not, therefore, kindly send us a sample set of examination questions on the texts for the present school year (1896-97), such as will indicate to teachers of English in secondary schools the kind of preparation you require for admission into your freshman class? And if, as is probable, these ques- tions are a compromise between your ideal and your recognition of the present limitations of candidates, will you not send in addition a set of questions such as you hope to ask as soon as preparatory schools are more able to meet your ideal? Selections from the sets of questions received, with comments and generalizations based upon these questions, will be published by the University of the State of New York. The publication will, pre- sumably, be of interest to college and university men as a means for comparing require- ments and ideals, and will, it is believed, prove genuinely and substantially helpful to teachers of literature, especially in college preparatory and secondary schools. I shall be glad if you will add any suggestions, either on the subject of preparation for college-entrance examinations in English, or on the general subject of aims and methods in the study of literature. Hoping for your co-operation and advice, I am, Sincerely yours, RICHARD JONES. A DIVERSITY OF OPINION AMONG COLLEGE MEN. The replies indicate a wide diversity of opinion among college and university men as to the nature and extent of the preparation on these uniform texts which may be required of candidates for college. Indeed, 686 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary it would appear impossible at present for any secondary school to get ‘“‘into consonance ” simultaneously with the college systems of the coun- try. For, though the aims of individual colleges in their entrance requirements may be perfectly definite, the aims of the colleges, collect- ively considered, are not; and on the supposition that the adoption of uniform texts implied some uniformity in the treatment of these texts, the teachers of English in secondary schools, who must attempt the diff- cult task of preparing classmates for these various kinds of entrance examinations, are justified in some sense of disappointment that the win- ter of their discontent is not yet made glorious summer on account of the “vagueness of aim” and “uncertainty of method ” which prevail in the college-entrance examinations in English, notwithstanding the adoption of uniform texts. As, for example, to select a few of the more extreme cases of diversity,” some of these pupils will be required at Harvard chiefly to demonstrate their ability to ‘write English ;” or at Cornell, in conformity with Pro- fessor Hart’s view that compositions based upon literary models should be the sole test of the candidate’s capacity in English, to give the action of “‘Comus” in about 150 words, arranged in two paragraphs of seventy- ‘five words each. Others will, at the University of Pennsylvania, give “the lesson ”’ of ‘‘ Comus,” and will tell in what act and scene the chief characters of the ‘‘ Merchant of Venice” appear together, and why they do not appear together in any other scene. At Trinity still others will indicate ‘the correct and incorrect” pronunciation of a list of words, and name two or three words sometimes wrongly pronounced which they have learned to pronounce correctly. At Rochester candidates will define and give the etymology of many words, and will “ show definitely why the following statement is true: .... ‘as civilization advances, poetry almost necessarily declines.’’”? They will also tell how old Macaulay was when he wrote his ‘‘ Essay on Milton.” At the Teachers’ College they will give ‘the dramatic purpose ” of Antonio’s intercession with Shylock after the time of the bond has expired, and will be required in general to show some elementary power in literary criticism. At the University of Indiana, also, they may be asked to explain ‘“ foreshadow- ing,’ “local color,” and ‘‘ dramatic suspense,” and to discuss the need of the fifth act of the ‘‘ Merchant of Venice.” At The University of Chicago, and at several other institutions, they will be required to point out the *To guard against a possible misapprehension, it should, perhaps, be distinctly stated that the purpose of this discussion is not to advocate uniformity, but merely to direct attention to existing conditions. Many of the diverse, unconformable questions mentioned here and elsewhere are most suggestive and stimulating. It is apparent, how- ever, that they are not compatible with the “unity of effort and harmony of method ” which is urged by the colleges. od he — — Department] ROUND TABLE IN ENGLISH 687 grammatical errors in incorrect sentences. At the University of Pennsyl- vania they will parse. Candidates have been asked at Cornell to name the members of the Spectator Club, and to describe three of them, but, in view of Professor Hart’s proposition to regents’ schools that ‘‘ composi- tions upon subjects taken from the books read as literary models” shall be “the sole test of the scholar’s capacity in English,” one must conclude that it was the description of these three members of the club, and not the bit of literary history, which the examiners had prominently in mind. At Wesleyan University, in addition to minute questions on the pre- scribed texts, candidates may be asked whether they think Rosalind over- bold and unwomanly in her talk with Orlando, and whether Portia gives Bassanio any clue to the right casket when he makes his choice—a ques- tion set by Johns Hopkins also. A discussion of these topics would cer- tainly enliven the English recitations in a secondary school. Yet, if two or three members of the class are preparing to enter the University of the South, the wise teacher will “scant” any “ excess” of this kind of joy, and will turn to a careful study of every difficult word or unusual gram- matical construction in the prescribed texts, for in the examination the candidates will be called on to “‘comment on ‘ to come,’ ‘ L’allegro,’ 1. 45.” - They will also comment on “Angel,” ‘ Lycidas,” 1. 163, and on the grammatical peculiarity of “‘Comus,” 1. 48. LITERATURE OR COMPOSITION ? The chief considerations suggested by the entrance-examination ques- tions of the colleges are: (1) Which shall the secondary schools emphasize, literature or composition ? (2) How shall the literature that is taught as literature be taught ? Harvard, Cornell, and Dartmouth expressly state that ability to write correct English is considered of more importance than a knowledge of the prescribed texts. Cornell and Dartmouth treat both lists exactly alike, i. é., as containing subjects for themes, no direct questions being set on either list. Harvard, however, sets questions on the books for “study,” the answers to which may, indeed, be judged, to some extent at least, as essays. The answers to Wellesley’s question were doubtless graded as essays. Several other colleges, 7. ¢., Yale, Columbia, Brown, Johns Hop- kins, and Chicago, set no questions on the books prescribed for “‘reading,” but suggest topics for themes based on these books. Some of these colleges, however, perhaps all, do not treat these themes as themes merely, but insist upon some indication of passable knowledge on the part of the essayist of the subject-matter of the prescribed texts. Possibly the greater attention now given to English in the secondary schools has enabled Professor Briggs also to modify the position which he held in 1887, vz., that if the boy can “write English,” “he may pass the yy 688 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary examination, though, with Julius Cesar for his subject, he declares that Marc Antony loved Cesar less and Rome more.” .... The composi- tion element in some college-entrance requirements may be described in the words of Iago concerning his purse, “’tis something, nothing.” On the other hand, candidates for the freshman class of either Harvard or Cornell find English composition to be, indeed, like good name in man and woman, ‘the immediate jewel of their souls.” Professor Briggs, of Harvard, writes: “In general we lay more stress in our examination on English composition than on minute knowledge of the prescribed books. Our first question is, ‘Does the candidate write English?’” .... HOW SHALL LITERATURE BE TAUGHT P Unanimity of opinion on the question as to the chief end in view in secondary-school instruction in English, vzz., whether it be composition or literature, 7. ¢., ability on the part of the student to write English or to understand and appreciate the great English already written, being man- ifestly not to be hoped for at present, there remains to consider the second question: What method or methods for teaching literature are suggested by the entrance examinations of the colleges ? There is obvious uniformity of method on the part of a number of the colleges in their treatment of the books prescribed for “reading,” but what is the approved method of study on the books prescribed for ‘“‘study’’? Shall these be conned “ word by word” and “line by line,” or shall an appreciation of the “significance and spirit of the whole”’ be the goal of endeavor ? Shall the secondary-school pupil be required to define, to parse, to give the etymology and the grammatical construction of the more difficult words of the “‘ Merchant of Venice,’ to comment on the italicized words in the passage, ‘‘ Now, infidel, I have thee on the hip,” to discuss the meter, and to scan the more difficult lines; or shall he be trained to state clearly the argument of Shylock and that of Portia in the trial scene, to tell whether our sympathy is aroused for or against Shylock and why, and to give what he considers to be the principal idea in the play ? FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT METHODS OF STUDY SUGGESTED BY THE COLLEGES. Some illustration of the variety in the questions set by the colleges has already been given. Nor is this variety confined to minor matters of unimportant detail. Methods of study fundamentally different are sug- gested to the secondary schools by the questions of Cornell and of Colum- bia, for example, or of Cornell and of Rochester. Cornell will ask the candidate to give (usually “in two paragraphs, about seventy-five words each”’) Webster’s statement of the object of the monument or the substance Department] ROUND TABLE IN ENGLISH 689 of the argument between Portia and Shylock, but will not ask him to define ‘“‘sycophancy”’ or any other term, nor to explain the sense of “hard food for Midas,” nor to tell what Macaulay means by “ Augustan delicacy of taste.” These questions, admirable as they are for testing the faith- fulness of the candidate’s study of the prescribed texts, are not compatible with- Professor Hart’s doctrine that compositions based upon the books read as literary models shall be the “sole test’’ of the candidate’s capacity in English. An adequate impression of the difference between the methods of study suggested by Cornell and by Rochester is not easily given, unless the lists of questions are compared side by side. Harvard and Yale also require different methods of preparation upon these uniform texts. Harvard suggests to teachers of English that these books “ should not be studied word by word, or line by line, as if they were in a foreign tongue. Pupils should, of course, be made to understand what they read as they go along; but attention should be fixed, not on unimportant details of substance or of style, but on the significance and spirit of the whole. In studying a tragedy of Shakespeare, for example, far less time should be given to the discussion of details than to the march of events, the play of character, the main lines of the plot, the significance of the whole as a work of genius?’’ And, therefore, Harvard requires of the candidate for college entrance a clear statement of the argument of Shylock and that of Portia in the trial scene, and his opinion of the treatment Shylock receives throughout the play. Furthermore, the candidate’s paper will be judged largely by its effectiveness as an essay and by the correct- ness of its English. Yale, however, insists upon a more minute knowledge of the details of the prescribed texts. Professor Cook distinctly disavows a willingness to permit Marc Antony to love Cesar less and Rome more, however faultless the English in which it. be done..... Columbia’s questions on the books for ‘‘study,” like Yale’s, imply a somewhat minute knowledge of the details of the text. To what extent, then, does Harvard’s suggestion that these books should not be studied ‘“ word by word, or line by line, as if they were in a foreign tongue,” express the opinion of college men ? What study of words and of the exact meaning of difficult passages do the colleges in general recommend ?* The following—Columbia, Yale, Rochester, Union, Teachers’ College, Brown, Wesleyan, Rutgers, Johns tIt is true, paradoxical as it may appear, that a reader may grasp the thought of a passage as a whole when he cannot define all the words one by one, or does not even > understand them all; it is equally true that he may define and understand the words one by one and fail to grasp the whole thought. The mind may take either one of two views, both of which are harmful when carried too far: it may overlook small points in the general drift or substance of the passage, or it may be so intent on small points that it fails altogether to grasp the drift or substance. (Hinsdale, “Teaching the Language- Arts,” p. 99.) 690 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary Hopkins, University of the South, Chicago, Nebraska, Stanford, Toronto (University College)—all require something at least of this “ word-by- word” preparation on the college-entrance texts. They all call for the meaning of italicized words in given passages, as for example, All in a robe of darkest grazn. And storied windows richly dghz. And sadle stole of cypress lawn Over thy decent shoulders drawn. Various other linguistic requirements are approved by one or more of these colleges, such as a rule for the correct use of shad/ and w/t, or illus- trations of the correct use of a list of words not found in the prescribed texts, or parsing, or the correction of examples of ‘ bad English,” or answers to questions on formal grammar and rhetoric, or a personal con- fession as to whether the candidate ever uses the word “pants.” In the entrance examinations under consideration the following col- leges ask no questions whatever on the meaning or the use of individual words; they require no definitions, no etymologies, no syntax, no pars- ing, no correction of incorrect use, no interpretation of difficult passages : Harvard, Cornell, Wellesley, Williams, Tufts, Swarthmore, Indiana, and Knox. Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, and Trinity would also be included in this list, were it not that Pennsylvania requires parsing, and Dart- mouth and Trinity the correction of examples of incorrect use. The colleges in the first group which require somewhat of the “ word-by-word” preparation may, as a matter of course, also set ques- tions bearing upon “the significance and spirit of the whole’’—as, indeed, some of them do. Several colleges in the list set but a single question implying this ‘“‘word-by-word and line-by-line’’ method of preparation, the examination as a whole somewhat conforming to Har- vard’s ideal. ‘These may possibly have found the golden mean, or possi- bly may not yet have found a consistent method of expressing by means of examination questions their ideal of secondary-school study of English. And yet, difficult as this method of expressing ideals may be, it is manifestly a matter of prime importance to secondary schools that in these entrance examinations college men shall, so far as possible, indicate an approved method of study. Comments on “yon grey lines that fret the clouds” imply a preparation widely different in method and in inter- est from that required to indicate “the dramatic center of the play,” to explain “the need of the fifth act,” to tell “what each of the following scenes contributes to the development of the play,” and to give “the principal idea of the play.” What is the approved method of preparation on these uniform texts ? A singular interest attaches to the entrance examination of the Uni- Mies Aud Department] ROUND TABLE IN ENGLISH 691 versity of the South because of the irreconcilable methods of study sug- gested by this examination and by the address of Professor Trent at the Buffalo meeting of the National Educational Association, July, 1896. . . . There is undoubted educational and disciplinary value in the closest study of certain masterpieces of literature, such as will cultivate in the pupil a habit of endeavoring to apprehend clearly the exact meaning of every passage — indeed, of every word ; such as will, in short, give him the ability to understand language. And yet, if there be any measure whatever of truth in the proposition of Horace E. Scudder that ‘“ between the ages of six and sixteen a large part of the best literature of the world may be read, if taken up systematically in school,” there must manifestly be some limit to the time spent upon the grammatical peculiarities of ‘‘Comus.” But the teacher who, following the spirit of Harvard’s advice, has passed lightly over Hamlet’s line, ‘“‘ For, O, for, O, the hobby horse is forgot,” in order to dwell more at length on the comments of Goethe and Cole- ridge and Werder as to the significance of the whole as a work of tran- scendent genius, and who turns now to Milton’s great poem, purposing here also to pursue a similar study of the significance and spirit of the whole, is perplexed to find that the colleges require of his pupils but two of the twelve books of “Paradise Lost,” a poem whose purpose is to justify the ways of God to man, and which presumably then contains an argument, a movement of thought. The poem is thus more than a mere collection of discrete episodes, and yet apparently the Committee on College-Entrance Texts does not expect him to direct the attention of his pupils to the significance of the whole, to insist upon their keeping ever clearly in mind the movement of thought in the poem, and thus gaining in the end a clear conception of the ‘“ height of this great argument ” and of the poet’s solution of the problem he has proposed. Has the modern world, then, so passed on to other modes of thought that the secondary- school pupil is not to be urged to climb to the height of this great argu- ment, but is to be advised to read two books of the “‘ Paradise Lost”’ mainly for the music of the incomparable blank verse? Or shall he be trained to write vivid themes on Satan and his crew? Or shall he parse man’s first disobedience, and comment on the mor¢a/ taste which brought death into the world and all our woe ? SUBJECT-MATTER, FORM, AND STRUCTURE. Many of the questions set by the colleges were evidently intended merely as tests of the candidate’s knowledge of the subject-matter. Indeed, some college men distinctly disapprove of any attempt at formal literary criticism in the secondary schools. And yet questions on matters of fact lead imperceptibly on to considerations of form and structure, _that is, to a more or less formal literary criticism. Rochester sets a 692 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary question respecting the introduction, body, and conclusion of Macaulay’s “Essay on Milton,” and asks whether the discussion respecting Charles the First mars the wxzty of the essay. This question is certainly justified by the suggestions of the committee in regard to the study of “form and structure.” Brown asks how the stories are jozned in the play of the “Merchant of Venice.’’ Johns Hopkins also asks how Shakespeare has made the two stories one. Yale asks for “the dramatic center” of the play, the Teachers’ College for the “dramatic purpose” of Antonio’s intercession with Shylock after the time of the bond has expired. Wes- leyan asks for the purpose of the first act and the last act, and why the passage There’s not the smallest orb which thou beholdst But in his motion like an angel sings was ‘‘put here rather than earlier.” Pennsylvania, after the question, “In what act and scene do all the chief characters appear together?” asks why they do not appear together in any other scene. University College (Toronto) requires the candidate to give the main impression which the poet is attempting to produce upon the reader in the first twenty lines of a given passage from the “ Lady of the Lake,” and to point out the means which the poet employs to attain his end, and to state whether the succeeding five lines enforce or weaken this impression, and to tell how far the parts of the poem which treat of the flight of the deer, the funeral of Duncan, and the episode of Blanche contribute to the main story. Toronto also asks the purpose of the introduction of the songs in the “‘ Lady of the Lake,” and what each of certain scenes in the “Merchant of Venice”’ contributes to the development of the play. The University of Indiana requires definitions and illustrations of “ foreshad- owing,” “local color,” and “ dramatic suspense,” and asks how each canto develops the plot of ‘“ Marmion,” and the need of the fifth act of the “Merchant of Venice.” Dartmouth suggests an essay on “ The literary methods of Defoe as shown in the ‘ History of the Plague.’ ” Assuredly, the student is now fairly launched upon the uncertain sea of literary criticism, and yet, assuredly, no one would question the intel- lectual stimulus given by the foregoing questions, and the heightened interest in the study of literature resulting therefrom. Still other questions, not all distinctly questions of literary criticism, suggest stimulating topics for class-room discussion, such as Union’s question why so many people like “ Evangeline,’ or how the “Tales of a Traveler” differ from the magazine stories of today. Expressions of the candidate’s personal opinion are often called for. Columbia asks the candidate to criticise two passages and to say-which passage he prefers and why. Wellesley asks for a “candid opinion, with full explanation and support,” and for nothing else. Williams asks whether Shylock was ed he Department] ROUND TABLE IN ENGLISH 693 fairly treated and for the candidate’s opinion of Shylock’s daughter. Harvard, too, asks for the candidate’s opinion of the treatment of Shy- lock, and Wesleyan asks whether Shakespeare makes us pity Shylock at last. The Teachers’ College requests the candidate to point out the ways in which our sympathies are turned for or against Shylock, a form of statement which suggests a method of study conducive to intellectual discipline and yielding definite results. Rochester’s question as to the age of Macaulay when he wrote the “Essay on Milton” suggests to the secondary-school student the impor- tance of a chronological study of an author’s work. If the significance of this question be perceived by him, he will now begin to distinguish in all his reading between the early work of a youthful poet, pluming the wings for a lofty flight, whose Weltanschauung was then, perhaps, an emotion rather than a thought, and the later, matured view of life, the chastened judgment, of the silver-haired sage. No longer will Milton be to him indifferently Milton, whether the lines be a portion of a rhetorical exercise done within college walls or the majestic music of the ripened statesman-poet, who, having taken part in the struggle for liberty of thought and liberty of unlicensed printing, is now attempting themes “‘unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.”’ A poet’s later work, his Locks- ley halls sixty years after, may possibly be less poetic, notwithstanding the greater weight of thought ; or possibly his poetic powers may develop continually to the end of life. Rochester’s question, then, suggesting the importance of the chronology of an author’s work, gives to the young reader a hint of a method of study which will enable him to follow and to understand the development of the author’s spirit. And yet, suggestive and stimulating as are many of these questions which deal with the “form and structure” of the college-entrance texts, touching thus upon the boundaries, at least, of formal literary criticism, there is, as yet, manifestly, no ‘“‘system’’ of instruction in English, uni- formly recommended by the colleges, with which the secondary schools may get “into consonance.” The adoption of uniform college-entrance texts was a step toward the desired harmony of method. ‘There still remains, however, to determine the nature and the extent of the prepa- ration upon these uniform texts which shall receive the uniform approval of college men. THE END IN VIEW DETERMINES THE CHOICE OF TEXTS. It is certainly true, as Professor Jacobs, of Brown, has written, that “English teaching should be wider than any examination,” and yet, since the method of secondary-school study approved by the college professor may to some extent be inferred from the character of the entrance-exam- ination questions which he writes, and since there is so great variety in 694 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary the questions set by the colleges, notwithstanding their desire for har- mony of method, there would seem to be practical wisdom in his sugges- tion that there is need of “a model course of instruction in English which shall set forth the aims of such instruction, and which shall be the joint product of college men and of secondary-school men.” For while a complete and thorough-going dead level of uniformity in the method of teaching literature in the secondary schools is by no means to be desired, yet, if the movement to secure college-entrance texts in literature uniform throughout the.United States be a wise movement, then there must fol- - low a substantial agreement in regard to the end in view and the method of attaining this end, for the end in view determines, or should deter- mine, the choice of texts. Even the masterpieces of literature are not all equally adapted for these various methods of study. One selection lends itself readily to the purposes of the teacher of composition, it supplies satisfactory material for themes ; another selection suggests inspiring and noble thoughts, thoughts too deep for tears or too delicate and evanes- cent for unpoetic expression and for juvenile themes ; while still another English classic, because it Aas exquisite form and structure, will be wisely included in the prescribed texts —if the study of artistic form and struc- ture, “of the relation of the parts of a literary art-piece to the whole,” be a proper study for secondary schools. What is the end in view? Not until this question is satisfactorily answered can there be a wise choice of texts for secondary-school study and an intelligent treatment of the texts thus chosen. ROUND TABLE.ON THE HIGH SCHOOL AS tAgSOCIAG FACTOR. : SAMUEL T. DUTTON, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, BROOKLINE, MASS., LEADER. 1. The high school as a democratic institution. Dr. C. H. THurBeER, The University of Chicago.— The high school is not only a democratic institution, but it is he democratic institution of our educational system. We all know of its representative character; we know how the children of the higher classes of society mix with those of the lower, indifferent to rank. Children are born democrats. The public high school is nearer and dearer to the hearts of the people than all other institutions. Theoretically the high school recognizes diversity of aims, but practically it often does not. The high school is too likely to be a slave of its course of study, which is expected to prepare for the higher institution of learning. There is the tendency to dritt away from commercial callings, a tendency which must be checked. The cause of this SS i el * > el Department] THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 695 condition of affairs does not lie in any desire to follow such a line of work. We have simply drifted into our present condition. The idea was once prevalent that only pro- fessional men needed the higher education. To counteract this wrong tendency we should introduce more practical studies, history of commerce and industries, politics, economy, civil government, and the study of the Spanish language, which is coming to take such an important part in commercial transactions. 2. The relation of the high school to the home. PROFESSOR C. C. RouNnDs, New York.—In studying the relation of the school to the home, we study also its relation to the community. We must consider making a living in order to make a life. Such an adjustment of environment should be made as will enable the child to live and pay for his living. Study of physical laws necessary —that which concerns the mind more necessary. Social and economic laws must be investigated, if we would understand our relations to our fellow-men. The law of right and wrong is needed as soon as the child knows the meaning of the word “ought.’”’ Home goes into and culminates in the school. The school is a society, representative of the world. If all parents were fitted to be parents, if all homes were good homes, all schools might more easily be good schools. There is great need of ethical training in high schools. The pupil should learn that he can no more violate a moral than a physical law. He should be trained to a reverence for authority. A flag on a schoolhouse will not answer the purpose. A well-ordered school makes a well-ordered state. There is no pleasanter subject or study than that of ethics, and it should have a regular place and time on the programme from the lowest grade up. The school must supplement the family and must have the state in view. We grieve over the condition of affairs in Europe; we blush at the weakness of Christian monarchs. We can’t reform Europe, but we can set our own house in order. 3. The high school in tts relation to the community. PRINCIPAL W. J. PRINGLE, Aurora, Il]—- Dr. Rounds has just said that there should be in our high-school curriculum a fixed time and place for the study of ethics. I question the wisdom of this. The study is interesting, but I do not think it will make a man better. In order that an emotion amount to anything either right or wrong, it must be followed by action. Ethical training is so intimately connected with ethical actions that we must teach ethics all the time. But to the subject in hand, “the relation of the high school to the community.” The conditions today are widely divergent from what they were fifty years ago. Then the average man lived on a farm, he was a local man, his needs were more circumscribed. The average man of today is cosmopolitan, he must know more of the world. Courses of study should be correspondingly broader for the citizen of this day. I believe in greater freedom and greater elasticity of school curricula, in order to bring into the school a larger proportion of the youth of the country. There must be more incentives to bring and keep the boys in school. In proportion to the number we may be able to enroll in our schools will be our influence upon the community. The very best I can advise is to have the school so constructed on the inside that the boys and girls will love it, be loyal to it, and gladly carry its influence with them into their homes, and thus affect the community. 696 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary 4. The high school as a training place for citizenship. PAPER BY PRINCIPAL J. REMSEN BISHOP, CINCINNATI, O. There are three things which especially make for good citizenship: virtue, honesty, and self-support. Without virtue, by which I here mean clean living as regards the relations of the sexes, there can be no security. The man or woman—I refuse to believe that there is really any distinc- tion between man and woman in this matter—-who has cast away the sweet and fragrant flower of virtue may be likened to a bark upon the lake hard by that has lost its anchor. This ship might thereafter, on its voyage, through favoring winds and absence of storms, reach its haven in safety. But let a storm wind rise when she is near a lea shore, and noth- ing short of a miracle will save her. Without honesty, in which should be included truthfulness and hon- orableness toward our fellow-man in all our dealings with him, the fabric of society would fall apart. ‘Trickery in business, in politics, and in social relations, unless confined to those whose natural or acquired moral turpitude unfits them for honest dealing, would soon destroy confidence in the general probity of our Anglo-Saxon race. It is needless to point out that with the loss of this confidence, never shaken by a small number of exceptions to the general rule of honesty, would depart much of the happiness that still falls to the lot of the honorable man or woman. When such sentiments as, “Do your neighbor or you will be done by him,” are uttered in a tone that is not all jest, we are nearing the danger line in this regard. The ability to support herself or himself—for here again women no longer hide behind their sex—alone gives assurance that a man or woman will not be likely to join the apparently growing forces of discontent. ‘This is not, under present conditions, a simple matter. The solving of the problem how to direct the development of the boy’s or girl’s powers, that he or she may find a niche in the structure of society, more nearly con- cerns our schools than even the question of reaching more successfully the moral nature. In the everlasting conflict of “sense at war with soul” it is the chief duty of the teacher, as captain or lieutenant, to see to it that the young recruit is armed and trained. The young soldier must fight his own bat- tle for his soul’s victory. The teacher and the parent cannot do his fighting for him; but a certain kind of preparation gives almost perfect assurance of victory. I will briefly outline the general character which I think should mark the training. The young are imitative and enthusi- astic. If moral men and women of this age and of former ages are held up to them as noble examples of good and successful lives, and if, in i Sey Department] THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 697 addition to this, their enthusiasm is kindled to emulate their lives, much has been accomplished towards moral training. A habit of admiration for what is pure and good in human nature, implying a disgust for what is unclean and base, is gradually formed; the will of the young pupil assist- ing, under the stimulus of enthusiasm, in the completion of the process. As soon as the habit of admiring and imitating what is best, and of rejecting what is worse, becomes subconscious in this person’s nature, will interferes with this subconscious, and, therefore, perfectly aiding, motive force toward virtuous and honest living. It seems to me that every high-school teacher, formally or incidentally, should aim to start, foster, and complete this process of moral training in the case ot every one of his pupils. The unconscious influence the teacher ever exercises over his pupils will assist. The environments and relations of some of his pupils outside of school will defeat his effort, but where other influences are favorable, or even reasonably negative, he will succeed. In succeed- ing, he will have done what the Savior of mankind commissioned every man to do. He will have saved souls from vice and iniquity and conse- quent misery, for honor and purity and consequent happiness. All credit to the high-school teachers of the land, who, I believe without exception, are, as grace has been granted to each, training the young to win victory in that grim “‘ war of time against the soul of man.” Just what the high school can do to direct the development of a boy’s or girl’s powers, that he or she may at once begin to earn a wage suited to age and condition, is now being carefully considered. In the use of the manual training high school and the business high school, or business course in the high school, we see the first practical effort to solve this problem. While I have no quarrel with manual training and business courses, and feel that the movement will reach a wide extent, I do not think these courses the best preparation for citizenship. If our high schools, with courses sufficiently elastic to allow for individual bent in the pupil, should graduate their pupils at sixteen years of age, I believe they would be doing all that could be done by this class of schools toward training for citizenship. Sixteen is not too advanced an age at which to begin at the bottom of any business or manual trade ladder, while the liberal instruction of the high school gives a certain power of ezsthetic and intellectual comprehension that must add to a man’s efficiency as a small factor and to his enjoyment of his own existence. I would strike at the traditional grading of schools. Destroy the foreboding and irrational gap between lower school and high school, and graduate at least nine-tenths from the public-school system at sixteen years of age. I am conscious that this is an unpopular view of the subject, and that teachers with reason are complaining that the pupils in the high schools are too young to grasp their subjects. The fault may be 698 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Secondary with the subject or with the manner of presenting it, and not with the age of the pupil. Noble work has certainly been done by our high schools; splendid men and women owe the incentives that made them so to the loving, wise, and patient training of the high-school teachers. If now, owing to the close competition of the age, when the machine does the work of many men, and it is hard to tell just what service society really requires of the young on the threshold of active life, if now the high school must set backward its beloved work a year or two years, the sacrifice will cheerfully be made. A true patriotism, such as actuates every public-school teacher, never hesitates when individual prejudice conflicts with the demands of our country’s welfare. The high schools have trained those who in city, town, or hamlet bear the burden and heat of the day. Without the slightest doubt, modified or unmodified, they will continue for all time to render this inestimable service to our country and to mankind. ProFessor A. S. Downine, Albany, N. Y.—I wish to emphasize this statement as a fundamental principle that education is formation. It is not a drawing-out nor a building-up, but a formative process. When girls and boys enter the high school, they bear the print of the teacher’s hand. Now the work of the high school is to train these pupils for citizenship by teaching them self-control. The pupil is to work freely, the teacher overseeing and correcting. Boys and girls should issue from the schools as self-controlling men and women. No one is virtuous without self-control, no one is honest without self-control, no one works constantly without self-control. It is the imperative duty of the high-school teacher so to discipline his pupils as to cultivate this quality. Pupils should be allowed to act freely, but when the teacher finds that the boy is going wrong, then the teacher must control him, until he has learned to control himself. I have known of a whole community being changed by the wise training of the pupils of the high school. If we train our pupils to self-government, we are giving the best possible training for citizenship. The second topic of the syllabus suggests that this citizen-training be carried on through the study of local history and local institutions. If we can awaken an enthusiam for their own environment — city, state, country — we shall do much. We should try to do this and to teach the pupils that it is a sacred duty to work for the institutions of their own locality. 5. High-school extension. James L. Hucuss, Inspector of Schools, Toronto, Canada.— The greatest problem of the century is the co-ordinating of forces around the child. This is the great purpose of education. Teachers are at the center of the movement; they should be the guiding, dominating influence. In cities and towns I think the high school the best co-ordinating center for the movement. There are two ways in which the high school may work : First, downward through the teachers and pupils of the higher grammar grades; through the teachers by helping them toward better methods, through the pupils by inspiring them with a desire for higher training. In Toronto we have the university assist in this work. The pupils of the higher grammar grades are frequently taken to the university to listen to a lecture by one of our special professors; thus they are stimulated by a desire << Department] THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL FACTOR 699 to gain a higher education for themselves by having an interest in the higher studies aroused. Secondly, the high school may work outward. By its night courses in litera- ture, history, or science it influences directly the older members of the family. These high-school extension courses may follow any lines of thought, and for them the best available lecturers should be secured. This country is democratic, whether we be ruled by a queen, as on our side, or by a president, as on yours; we are all democratic, and we are socialistic. I use the term in its better sense. We ought, therefore, better to prepare ourselves for the work our country demands of us. It would, therefore, be well to teach civics, and kindred subjects, in these high-school extension courses. A wonderful study for today is the effect of foods and their value, as nutrition. Ventilation and sanitation will be gladly received. Child study under the head of mothers’ meetings — though they should be parents’ meetings — will be popular; and very many other subjects, which will suggest themselves, all of which wiil tend toward the co-ordination of society. DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION. SECRETARY so MING ES: FIRST SESSION.— WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 1897. ( JOINT SESSION WITH SECONDARY DEPARTMENT.) SECOND SESSION. —TuHuRSDAY, JULY 8. The department met in Milwaukee -Downer College at 3 P. M., with President Swain of Indiana University in the chair. In the absence of the Secretary, Professor Robert J. Peters, of Missouri Valley College, was appointed secretary pro tempore. The President announced the following Committee on Nominations of officers for 1898 : President James H. Baker, University of Colorado, Chairman; Professor A. T. Ormond, Princeton University ; Chancellor Snow, Kansas State University. President James H. Canfield of Ohio State ae delivered an address on “ The Practical Value of College Training.” The discussion was opened by Chancellor G. E. MacLean, University of Nebraska, and continued by Professor A. T. Ormond, of Princeton University, and Chancellor Snow, Kansas State University. President Henry Wade Rogers, Northwestern University, read a paper in support of the following resolution : Resolved, That the state should exercise supervision over degree-conferring colleges through some properly constituted tribunal having power to fix a minimum standard of requirements for admission to or graduation from such institutions, and with the right to deprive of the degree-conferring power such institu- tions not conforming to the standard so prescribed, The discussion was participated in by President R. H. Jesse, University of Missouri; President James H. Baker, University of Colorado; Chancellor Snow, University of Kan- sas; President King, Cornell College, Ia.; Professor Fellows, University of Chicago; Chancellor MacLean, University of Nebraska; Professor Ormond, Princeton University ; Professor Buck, lowa College; President Henry Wade Rogers, Northwestern University. A motion was passed to amend the resolution by inserting the word “ institutions ” for “colleges,” and the resolution, as amended, was adopted unanimously. A motion was passed that the. officers of the Department of Higher Education be requested to enter upon an investigation looking toward the possible formation of a national association of colleges and universities in the interest of proper standards for higher education, and to report at the next annual meeting. By motion, the following resolution, introduced by Chancellor MacLean, University of Nebraska, was referred to the Executive Committee of the National Educational Asso- ciation : Resolved, That it is the sense of this department that in the English work of the secondary schools a large and open list of books for reading and study is preferable to a small required list, such as is recom- mended by the Joint Committee on the Uniform Entrance Requirements in English. The Committee on Nominations submitted the following report for officers for 1898 : For Prestdent, Dr. R. H. Jesse, President Missouri State University. For Vice-President, Professor A. T. Ormond, Princeton University. For Secretary, President Henry Wade Rogers, Northwestern University. 700 Department] SUPERVISION OF DEGREE-CONFERRING INSTITUTIONS 701 The report of the committee was adopted, and the nominees declared duly elected. Adjourned, ROBERT J. PETERS, Acting Secretary. [The editor regrets that from the valuable papers and discussions of this department only a single paper and a report of but one discussion were furnished by the department secretary for publication. ] PA bio UNL) DISCUSSIONS, STATE SUPERVISION OF DEGREE-CONFERRING INSTITUTIONS. BY PRESIDENT HENRY WADE ROGERS, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, EVANSTON, ILL. Mr. Freeman, the English historian and Oxford professor, publishing his “Impressions of the United States,” declared that one of the first things that impressed the stranger was the amazing number of univer- sities and colleges existing here. After stating, ‘‘ We can hardly be wrong in inferring that the degrees granted by some of these institutions can- not be worth very much,” he goes on to say: “Now, my feelings make me most loath to say a word in any federal country against the powers of the several states, but it is surely not unreasonable to hint that the right of granting degrees should be assumed only by authority of the federal power. For a degree is surely a national thing, or, rather, it is something more than a national thing. It ought to be—I donot say whether it any- where is —something like knighthood in old times, a badge of scholar- ship which should enable a man to take his place among scholars in any land to which he may come.’”’ Mr. Freeman seems to have been led to make these observations by the fact, to which he directs attention, that in the one state of Ohio there were thirty-two institutions with authority to grant degrees. It is easy to imagine that his feelings on this subject would have been not a little intensified, and his convictions very consid- erably strengthened, had he known that in the single state of Pennsyl- vania, which has not generally been regarded as sinning in these matters, one hundred and twenty institutions have authority to confer degrees. How many institutions there are in the country as a whole which have like authority I have not ascertained. The number is certainly large enough to afford good and sufficient reasons for reflections of a serious character. 702 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Higher In the first place, we must concede that there is no disposition on the part of the American people to transfer to the national gov- ernment any part of the powers now vested in the state governments. In the second place, there appears to be no adequate reason for sup- posing that, if the federal government were possessed of the power advocated by Mr. Freeman, the educational standards of the country would be any higher than they are under existing conditions. It cannot even be said with any degree of certainty that there would be a uniform law, under which institutions of learning would be incorporated, unless the constitution should be so amended as expressly to require it. What- ever reform is to be accomplished will have to be wrought out by the individual action of the states. The difficulty under which we labor in this country is not due to the fact that the states, rather than the United States, are in control of the subject of education. In Germany control over the universities is not in the empire, but, as in this country, is in the several states. The only dif- ference is that in Germany the states exercise their rights of supervision, while in the United States, as a rule, they do not. In this country it is usual to provide in the state constitutions that the legislatures shall pass no special act conferring corporate powers, but shall provide by general laws for the organization of corporations. The practice is, therefore, to enact a general law, which commonly pro- vides that any three or five persons may be incorporated as a college or university on filing in the proper office a certificate stating the name, object, number of trustees, and place of location of the institution, and that it shall have power to grant such literary honors and degrees as are usually conferred by such institutions. In some states the degree power is granted without any restrictions, while in a few instances, as in Michi- gan and Minnesota, it is given, provided “the course of study to be pur- sued in such institution is in all respects as thorough and comprehensive as is usually pursued in similar institutions of the United States.” This last provision is very well in theory, but in practice does not always afford that protection against abuses which it was intended to secure. Under laws like these institutions are incorporated as colleges and universities that are without endowment, and, in not a few instances, are permitted to confer degrees, although the conditions prescribed for graduation are not higher than those prescribed for admission by insti- tutions of high rank. Institutions whose total endowment is not equal to the necessities of an academy of the first rank presume to confer the doctorate of philosophy on non-resident students and have more candi- dates enrolled for that degree than they have college students in actual attendance. The degree of Doctor of Civil Law is being dishonored ina manner that deserves the utmost censure. A law school announcing ii Nie ee Meare Department] SUPERVISION OF DEGREE-CONFERRING INSTITUT TONS 703 that it has for its object “the promotion of a higher standard of legal education” belies its pretensions by its prostitution of that high degree. These are the conditions which it prescribes : 1. The candidate, if he possess “a good common-school education,” is admitted to the school, and at the end of two years obtains his degree of LL.B. (although law schools of the first class now require three years for that degree). 2. Having received the degree of LL.B., he spends one year longer in the school and obtains the degree of LL.M. 3. Having received the degree of LL.M., he continues for a fourth year and then obtains the degree of Doctor of Civil Law, although he has no knowledge of a single foreign language, is unfamiliar with English liter- ature, with the natural sciences, or the higher mathematics. Taking into the account the amount of time spent in previous preparation, this degree can be obtained in less time than is’ required for the degree of Bachelor of Arts. And yet, on the advisory board of this school may be found the names of a senator of the United States, several of the judges of the supreme court of the state, a bishop of the church, and the president of ‘an academy of sciences. One cannot help wondering how men of their prominence can lend themselves to such an enterprise. They are not quite consenting to the sale of the degree, but they are certainly consent- ing, whether they are aware of it or not, to its woeful prostitution. The cause of professional as well as of academic education suffers from the want of adequate state supervision. Professional schools have ~ been established, generally in the large cities, which are governed by purely commercial standards. We have in this country schools of law, medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy that appear to be organized and con- ducted for the purpose of making money. ‘They are stock corporations, the stock being generally held by members of the teaching force, the teachers being chosen, not for their fitness for any particular chair, but because of their willingness and ability to put up the money that is needed. The shorter the course of study, the cheaper the class of teachers; the less expended for books and apparatus, and the easier it is made to be admitted and graduated, the greater the number of students becomes and the larger the amount of the dividends paid. Men who make merchandise of professional education have low professional and scholastic ideals. They are inclined to receive all students who apply for admission, without much regard to their previous preparation or their moral character. They allow the students thus admitted to con- tinue in their school without being concerned greatly as to the manner in which they apply themselves to study. They graduate them after an attendance for the allotted period, without scrutinizing too closely the 704 ; NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Higher extent of their ignorance, and confer upon them a degree which in theory is supposed to stand for high attainments. This sort of thing, impossible in Europe, should be made impossible in America. Such a condition of affairs is demoralizing beyond question. The tendency of it is all in the direction of low standards. It destroys the value of degrees. It imposes on the public a class of educational charlatans, and works injury to the students whom it falsely pretends to educate. It multiplies the difficulties in the way of those institutions that are endeavoring to do their work according to the highest standards. A faculty of law, or medicine, or dentistry, or pharmacy that is conducting a school on any such basis as that described ought not to have authority to confer degrees. There should be no hesitancy in declaring that the interests of education, and, therefore, the interests of the public, require that, when the state does not exercise a power of supervision and does not establish a minimum standard of admission and graduation, it should withhold from every stock company the power of conferring degrees. I do not desire to be understood as intimating an opinion that no school can be worthy of public confidence which is conducted by a stock corporation paying dividends to its members, but only that the danger from schools of this class is so great that it is not wise, in the absence of state supervision, to intrust them with the degree-conferring power. While here and there a dividend-paying school may exist with. high standards and be worthy of confidence, the influence of the great major- ity of schools conducted for the purposes of revenue is so bad, from an educational point of view, that the state would be justified in withholding from them all degree-conferring power. The state of New York has recognized the evil which is connected with this class of institutions, and the ordinances of the university con- tain the following provision : “No educational institution or association incorporated or conducted as a business enterprise, so that any part of its assets or income may be divided among stockholders or members, shall have university member- ship, or share in any grant of public money, or publish itself as holding its charter from, or having any connection with, the university, except in words for the use of which it has written permission from the regents. If subject to university supervision, it shall use the words ‘Chartered as a stock (or business) corporation,’ or some other descriptive word or phrase accepted by the regents as sufficiently indicating its proprietary character, wherever the fact of its incorporation is printed. “This group shall include all corporations holding limited charters for the university, and also every association or institution under univer- sity supervision not so organized that all its assets and receipts from tuition or other sources must be used solely for the benefit of the public en oe eee ee 2 By xan bees too Department] SUPERVISION OF DEGREE-CONFERRING INSTITUTIONS 795 and without profit to stockholders, officers, or teachers, beyond reason- able compensation for services actually rendered.” State supervision justifying state recognition of diplomas must be a supervision that extends impartially over all the degree-conferring insti- tutions of the state, and which is exercised by prescribing standards and by seeing that those standards are honestly conformed to. Special privileges based on a supervision that extends to less than the whole no state should think of granting. In some states the diploma of a professional school is accorded recognition by allowing the one to whom it has been granted to practice law, medicine, dentistry, or pharmacy, as the case may be, without requiring any examination as to professional knowledge. ‘This is a mistake and in itself tends to lower educational standards. A school which knows that its graduates will have to take the examination by the state will be ambitious, if the examination by the state is at all what it ought to be, that those whom it has trained and graduated should not only pass the state’s examination, but that they should rank as high as those who have been graduated from other schools. The state’s examina- tion furnishes a constant pressure upon these schools in the direction of ‘thorough work and higher standards. But irrespective of the effect upon the schools, it certainly is quite indefensible that a state which exercises no supervision over the schools, which does not prescribe a minimum of requirements for admission and graduation, and which does not ascertain for itself wpon inspection the thoroughness of the work done, should accord to the graduates exemption from the examinations required of persons proposing to practice law, medicine, dentistry, or pharmacy. The state, in the absence of its own supervision, is without any adequate guarantee that the work of the schools is so thoroughly done as to entitle any and every person holding a degree to be at once allowed to enter upon professional practice. This want of any sufficient guarantee is especially true when stock companies are allowed, without supervision, to confer, and I had almost said to sell, their degrees. But there is no good reason why diplomas may not be accepted in lieu of examinations in states which really exercise supervision over the degree-conferring institutions. It would, however, be most unjust and unworthy to accord to the diplomas issued by a state university any special privileges, simply because it is an institution under state control, and any attempt of that kind might very properly arouse resentment to the prejudice of the institution concerned. There might be, in the same state, institutions under private control doing as good, if not better, work. To attach to the diplomas of the state university, because of its state character, any special privileges would manifestly be unfair, and the thought of it is not to be entertained. © 706 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Higher The Jaisses-faire policy which is responsible for the existing abuses which characterize our educational affairs is not in favor in the state of New York. That state has set an example which deserves to be followed by other American states. Its legislation on this subject has been wisely framed. The legislature of that state, at its first session after the close of the Revolutionary War, created the University of New York and placed the same in the control of a board of regents composed of men of the highest character and distinction. The University of New York is not a teaching body. It includes and has supervision over all the col- leges and academies of the state, although each has its own board of trus- tees for the management of its individual affairs. The regents of the University of New York are elected by the legislature of the state, and no person can be at the same time a regent of the university and a trustee or officer of any one of the colleges or academies of the state. The laws of New York confer upon the regents authority to incorporate univer- sities, colleges, academies, and other educational institutions, with such powers and subject to such limitations and restrictions “as the regents may prescribe in conformity to law.” They are also given the right, for sufficient cause, to suspend or revoke the charter of any educational institution. Under a law passed in 1892 it is provided that, ‘‘No institution shall be given power to confer degrees in this state, unless it shall have resources of at least $500,000; and no institution for higher education shall be incorporated without suitable provision, approved by the regents, for buildings, furniture, educational equipment, and proper mainte- nance.’ Under the ordinances of the university it has, however, been pro- vided that, “if the regents are satisfied that public interests will be pro- moted by such incorporation, that suitable provision has been made for buildings, furniture, educational equipment, and proper maintenance, and that the institution has resources of at least $100,000, if it is a col- lege, $50,000, if an academy,” then a charter may be issued to it. But institutions incorporated under this provision are not given degree-con- ferring powers. The state of Pennsylvania has recently followed the example of her sister state. In 1895 the legislature of that commonwealth passed an act creating a college and university council, and conferred upon it full authority to decide upon the advisability of chartering new institutions. No institution can now be chartered in that state with power to confer degrees, unless its assets amount to $500,000 for the exclusive purpose of promoting instruction, and unless the faculty consists of at least six regu- lar professors, who devote all their time to the instruction of its college or university classes. The council has adopted uniform entrance require- ments, which are obligatory as a minimum on all the collegiate institu- + engl & Department] SUPERVISION OF DEGREE-CONFERRING INSTITUTIONS 70% tions of the state. And no baccalaureate degree in arts, science, philoso- phy, or literature can now be conferred by any institution in the state on any student who has not completed a college or university course cover- ing four years. In America we are too easy-going about many things, and we have much to learn from a study of European methods and the legislation of foreign states. American degrees are discredited in Europe because of the want of supervision of the degree-conferring power. The constitutional provisions against special laws and making it necessary to incorporate under general statutes do not prevent the state from establishing all needed restrictions for the safeguarding of degrees. There should be established in each state a council of education, which shall be intrusted with powers similar to those vested in the regents of the University of New York, and it should be composed of the most eminent men in the state, without any reference to political considera- tions. No degree-conferring institution should be incorporated without the approval of the council of education, which should be indorsed upon or filed with the certificate of incorporation. That council should have the right to fix the minimum standard of requirements for admission and ‘graduation, and the conditions under which degrees may be conferred, and the degree-conferring power should be withheld from all institutions not complying with the regulations established. Such legislation should be made applicable to all institutions thereafter incorporated, as well as to those already incorporated, when the state has reserved the power to modify the powers conferred. It could not be made to apply to institu- tions already incorporated in cases where the state has not reserved power to do so. There appears to be no good reason for doubting the constitutionality of the proposed legislation. No constitutional provision is violated by creating a council or commission, and giving it the power to decide the questions which otherwise would be left to each institution to decide for itself. The principle that legislative power cannot be delegated is not involved. On determining the questions submitted to it, the council is no more engaged in acts of legislation than would be the institutions themselves or the individual incorporators. ‘Cannot the legislature,” asks the New York court of appeals, “‘confer upon a commission the power, upon the application of individuals, to make the same determina- tion for the individuals which they could make for themselves?” The court answered the question in the affirmative, and so, I believe, would the courts of the country generally. May we not hope that, in the several states, legislation may be obtained which shall protect the universities of the country from the evils which exist from the failure to exercise a supervision deemed essential by 708 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Higher European states? We Amerieans need to rid ourselves of the notion that a “ go-as-you-please”’ policy is good enough for us. The time has come when institutions doing only preparatory work should not be per- mitted to confer university degrees, and when professional schools estab- lished as money-making manufactories should be deprived of the right to sell degrees. DISCUSSION. PRESIDENT JAMES H. BAKER, University of Colorado.— The state should exercise control over degree-conferring colleges, because (a) the country is developed beyond the period when crude expedients for higher education are necessary; (4) the majority of the states provide, at public expense, higher education of a good standard, making col- leges of inferior grade unnecessary; (c) the state should guard the people against the deceptive claims of institutions not properly equipped to maintain work according to the accepted standards of the country; (d) for practical considerations, as well as reasons of sentiment, a degree should be such as to merit the respect of genuine scholars; (e) proper control would reduce the number of unnecessary colleges; (/) the kind of degrees should be subject to control, and the abuse of honorary degrees should be regulated; (g) in this matter the advantages of freedom and competition are more than offset by the disadvantages. To this end (a) there should be a national association of colleges and universities, the conditions for membership in which should be a reasonable standard as to income, equipment, faculty, admission, graduation, and use of honorary degrees; (4) an effort should be made in each state to conform to the requirements of the national association. he a NORMAL DEPARTMENT. De Gn Pawn oovil NU Bo; FIRST SESSION.—WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 1897. The first session of this department met in the Normal School, Milwaukee, Wis., at 3 o’clock. Albert G. Boyden, of Bridgewater, Mass., President of the department, occupied the chair. J. N. Wilkinson, of Emporia, Kan., was asked to report the discussions of the session. President Z. X. Snyder, of Greeley, Colo., Chairman of the committee appointed at the Buffalo meeting to report upon the present condition of normal schools in our country, and upon means of improving and unifying normal work, read the report of the committee. President Snyder, President Seerley, and President Pierce, of the committee, contrib- uted to the explanation and defense of the report. The report was further discussed by President Cook, of Illinois, and others. President Cook moved that the committee be continued and be requested to formu- late minimum requirements necessary to constitute a true normal school. President Taylor offered the following substitute for Dr. Cook’s motion, which, after some discussion, was adopted, as follows : Resolved, That the report be accepted, and the committee continued, with instructions to go on with the investigation on the lines proposed, and also to submit a course of study with minimum professional instruction for the state normal schools of the United States. Dr. Boone moved that it be the sense of this department that the National Educa- tional Association appropriate the sum of five hundred dollars ($500) to meet the expenses of this investigation. Carried. Upon motion of President Snyder, Presidents Boone, Cook, and Lyte were made a committee to wait upon the trustees of the association and endeavor to secure the above appropriation. The President appointed the following Committee on Nominations : Jno. W. Cook, E. A. Sheldon, Albert Salisbury. SECOND SESSION.—FRIDAY, JULY 9. President Richard G. Boone, State Normal College, Ypsilanti, Mich., read a paper upon the subject, “How Can the Normal School Most Effectively Accomplish Its Purpose ?” The paper was discussed by Albert Salisbury, State Normal School, Whitewater, Wis., and others. The Committee on Nominations then made the following report : For President, H. H. Seerley, Cedar Falls, Ia. For Vice-President, Rose C. Swart, Oshkosh, Wis. For Secretary, F. B. Palmer, Fredonia, N, Y. By a unanimous vote the Secretary was instructed to cast the ballot of the department for these officers, and they were declared elected. 709 710 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Norma On motion of Z. X. Snyder, of Colorado, A. G. Boyden, Bridgewater, Mass., was placed upon the Normal Committee, vice Larkin Dunton, Boston, Mass., resigned; and the President was instructed to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Miss Marian Brown, New Orleans, La. The President appointed R. G. Boone, Ypsilanti, Mich. Adjourned. E. A. STRONG, Secretary. PAPERS AND. DISCUSSIONS. REPORT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL COMMITTEE. The committee appointed one year ago at Buffalo to report on the report of the Buffalo meeting has the honor to submit the following : THE BUFFALO REPORT. It is thought best here to state the Buffalo report, that all may have a clear understanding of the report about to be given. It is as follows: I, That there be inquiries (1) as to their control; (2) management; (3) maintenance ; (4) variations that exist on account of geographical location; (5) course of study, com- prehending academic and professional work; (6) model or practice school; (7) kinder- garten work; (8) the effect upon public schools of the country; (9) recognition of diplomas in states other than the one in which issued; (10) the consideration of any other lines pertinent to normal schools. II. Your committee recommends the appointment of a committee to make a printed report on the above to the Normal Department at its next annual session. III, The nature of such printed report to determine if it be of sufficient importance to present the matter to the general association for a thorough investigation. Respectfully submitted, Z. X. SNYDER, Chairman, Greeley, Colo.; N, C. SCHAEFFER, Harrisburg, Pa.; H. H. SEERLEY, Cedar Falls, Ia. The committee appointed is as follows: Z. X. Snyder, Greeley, Colo., Chairman; Nathan C. Schaeffer, Harrisburg, Pa; Homer H. Seerley, Cedar Falls, Ia.; Edward T. Pierce, Los Angeles, Cal.; Mrs. Delia Lathrop Williams, Albany, N. Y.; Frank M. McMurry, Buffalo, N. Y.; Larkin Dunton, Boston, Mass.; Miss Marion Brown, New Orleans, La. The work of the committee was distributed as follows: To N. C. Schaeffer, Inquiries 1 and 2; to Mrs. Delia Lathrop Williams, Inquiry 3; to Homer H. Seerley, Inquiry 4; to Larkin Dunton, Inquiry 5; to Frank M. McMurry, Inquiry 6; to Miss Marion Brown, Inquiry 7; to Z. X. Snyder, Inquiry 8; to Edward T. Pierce, Inquiry 9. Reports have been made upon all these inquiries, with the exception of 3 and 5. No. 5 has, however, been partially investigated in Inquiry 8. mm ~ © 5 ae cae as Department] REPORT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL COMMITTEE 711 SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS. Following are the reports received from various members of the com- mittee : INQUIRIES 1 AND 2.— N.C. SCHAEFFER. CONCERNING CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT OF SCHOOLS. A brief summary of the report is : I. That as a rule the external affairs of the schools are under the control and man- agement of a board of trustees usually appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate. 2. That there is a general unanimity among state superintendents and principals of the normals that the plan is good. 3. That, in addition to the external control of the affairs, the trustees select the teachers and delegate to the faculty or its head powers that must be exercised by those having internal control. 4. That usually the wishes of the principal are consulted in the selection of his col- leagues. However, if this right is not accorded to him either tacitly or by statute, there is constant danger of friction and discord in the faculty. 5. That, to increase the efficiency of control and management, more money, less politics, limitation of the power of local trustees, the vesting of greater power in the head of the faculty, and the raising of the standard of admission, are necessary. INQUIRY 4.— HOMER H. SEERLEY. VARIATIONS THAT EXIST IN NORMAL SCHOOLS OF THE UNITED STATES BECAUSE OF GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION. I sent the following letter to every state normal school in the United States, and have had answers from many of them. It was apparent that not much thought had been given to many of the replies. I append, however, an abstract of the letters which will give you the notions that you will need to gain in addition to this report. President State Normal School: Dzar Sir: The Normal Department of the National Educational Association has entered upon an inves- tigation of state normal schools, with the purpose of coming to a more definite understanding of the province and work of this class of schools, I am asked to make a subcommittee report on the subject “‘ Variations that Exist in Normal Schools on Account of Geographical Location.”? Will you please tell me: x. To what extent your courses of study are statutory ? 2. In what ways the work of your school is modified by local or state conditions ? 3. What are the limitations of the school in its founding act ? 4. What favors are granted to your graduates by law ? Please give me these facts and other information that will enable me to come to a fair knowledge of the conditions existing in state schools in the United States, at your earliest convenience, so that I may get the summary before the general committee in a short time. Yours truly, Homer H. Seervey, President. SUMMARY OF THE STUDY. 1. Almost all of the normal schools of the United States are founded for the sole purpose of preparing teachers for the state that establishes them. Most of these schools are conducted on the theory that normal-school education has no right to exist on the same general theory that state universities exist—the general welfare of the people of the United States, and the bettering of the entire teaching profession. 2. Such a theory in the foundation acts makes these schools more provincial than they should be, and, therefore, keeps them limited to the field of preparing elementary 712 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Normal teachers for the lowest grades of schools, and does not insure them the patronage of the best and most promising students, since these necessarily go to the colleges and univer- sities for far more extended and complete courses, and there is left to the state normal schools a class of students that do not seek large provinces, and cannot invest much in their preparation for life. 3. There is, because of these things, large variation in the courses of study, as the field of thought in the organization of such schools is not the world, but the district or state, and hence everything is bent to make the courses such as these probable districts need or demand. If a school is located in a district or section where there are meager privileges through public schools, it becomes a low-grade school, like the public schools themselves. 4. It is apparent, also, that the most advanced normal schools that do not try to meet this need for rural teachers are not supplying the common schools with teachers. The assumption, therefore, is taken that a normal school must not get above educating the rural school-teacher, if it fills its province. 5. The colored normal schools in the South are nearly all industrial, and are an attempt to suit the provincial demand to supply the negro with skill in workmanship, as well as ability and scholarship to teach the ordinary school. The white normal schools are not of this class, but maintain a course of instruction that is adapted to a provincial condition. 6. The system of normal schools in the Middle Atlantic states show that they are schools with a variety of courses, to suit not only a teacher class, but also another class that is seeking secondary education alone. This places professional studies in a mini- mum and academic studies in amaximum relation. This is notably true in the great states of Pennsylvania and New York. ; 7. The New England normal schools have a special professional character that is not yet known elsewhere. They are peculiar in their organization and management, and are distinct from those found in any other part of the country. 8. The north central state normal schools form a part of the entire system of public education, and are gradually growing to be more and more of a factor in general educa- tion. They assume to provide for three classes of students: (a) the common school- teacher now authorized to teach; (4) the high-school graduate; (c) the college graduate. They are commonly recognized by the university as fitting schools, and students who graduate from them do not lose more time on a university course than they would if they sought to take a professional course in pedagogy in a year after getting their college degrees. g. There is another class of normal schools which profess to do no academic work, and to be purely professional schools. This is particularly the case with the New York Normal College ( Albany). 10. There is another class of normal schools that claim to be colleges in fact, such as the one at Troy, Ala. 11. There is also large variation in this class of schools in the recognition given to graduates. (a) In some the states make the course of study, pay all bills, examine the students, and in the end confer the right to teach anywhere in the state without examina- tion, (4) In others there are no favors of any kind granted graduates of these schools, they being required to be examined by the common authority, the same as other persons. not thus educated. (c) In still others the school diploma is authority to teach. (2) In still others the diploma is not conferred until success in teaching is proved by actual experience. (¢) In some others cities and towns do not even accept state certificates and normal-school diplomas, even where the laws permit them to do so. 12. There is also large variation in the training in actual teaching through a practice oEeenS. Department] REPORT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL COMMITTEE 713 school. (a) Some schools value this work as the best thing in the course of study, and others consider it neither a guide nora help. (4) Some give much, some little of such work. (c) Some allow this work to form the greater part of the course of study, and some give it hardly any consideration at all, and do not care for it. 13. There is also large variation in the amount and kind of professional work required. Some put history of education in the first year, at the time of pursuing the common branches. Others give history of education as a concluding didactic subject in the fourth year of the course. The same thing is true of psychology and school manage- ment. 14. In conclusion, I do not see how these variations could be either more marked or more definite if the plan was to put forth as many theories and experiments as the human mind could invent. There is no typical state normal school yet developed. It remains for the future to develop it. There is no typical course of study for teachers to pursue to get a certain preparation for the business. There are no single ideas that are common to all schools that are called by the name “normal.” These schools are wonderfully pro- vincial, and are not managed by the states to be any broader in conception or plan. There is scarcely any reciprocity between schools of this class, and very little faith in one another’s work. There is a confusion that makes meetings of persons at work in differ- ent states, or at the National Educational Association, entirely unsatisfactory, since there is no disposition to get together and formulate any plan that will unify their professional efforts, but a constant disposition to show peculiarities and specialties, and oppose others in their notions just as peculiar and provincial. Until there is a change in this policy and purpose, the normal school will remain an indefinite and unsolved problem. Respectfully submitted, H. H. SEERLEY. INQUIRY 6.—FRANK M. McMURRY. THE RELATION OF THE PRACTICE SCHOOL TO THE NORMAL, ETC. I have been considering for a good while what I should do in regard to the sug- gested inquiry touching practice schools. For the points needing investigation I would give very little for the expression of opinions that might be gotten together by circulating a suitable list of questions. The answers in such cases are given too hastily to be worth much. Consequently I choose, as my report, to formulate a few serious questions in regard to practice schools, with the suggestion that a committee of picked men be appointed to increase this list, if necessary, and to draw up an argumentative reply to the same. This seems to me especially important, as the practice school was largely regarded as the very center of a normal school at our meeting in Buffalo last summer, and the relation of the normal faculty and students to it is, therefore, a matter of fundamental importance. F. M. McMurry. x REPORT OF INQUIRY REGARDING PRACTICE SCHOOLS. Suggested that a select committee be appointed to report answers on the following questions (others to be added by committee, if considered necessary): 1. Should each member of a normal-school faculty be held directly responsible for a portion of the instruction given in the practice schools ? 2. Is it advisable for each professor in a normal school himself to conduct a recita- tion with children occasionally, allowing students and other professors to be present with a view of offering searching criticism later ? 3. Should professors in a normal school instruct their students by essentially the same method as the latter will be expected to employ in the instruction of children ? 714 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Normal Sen eee EEE 4. Should most of the observation of teaching that is done by students precede or follow their practice teaching ? 5. Should much time of students be spent in the observation of teaching ? 6. Should a student in his practice teaching assume full charge of a room, or should he hold only one recitation per day ? 7. To what extent is it important in critic work that a large number of persons observe and criticise at length a single recitation ? INQUIRY 7.— MISS MARION BROWN. KINDERGARTEN WORK IN RELATION TO THE NORMAL SCHOOL. Number of circulars sent out, - - - - - - = =, 5 = 140 Number of replies received, - - - - = z : E 2 : 72 Number of state normal schools with kindergarten department, - - - - 15 Number of city training schools with kindergarten department, . - - 5 Number of state normal schools without kindergarten department, . - se 36. Number of city training schools without kindergarten department, - - - 4 Number of private normals with kindergarten work, = - - - - - = 9 Number of schools with kindergarten work for observation, - - - - 3 Quite an elaborate circular was sent out by this subcommittee. The following would seem to interest this body most : Question 13. At what age are children admitted to kindergarten practice class ? Answer: Three to six. Majority admitting at three to four years. Question 14. Do you promote to primary grade by age or development ? Answer: Majority promote by development. Question 15. If attached to normal school, what is the relation of the kindergarten to practice class ? Answer: In majority of cases the kindergarten seems to be for purpose of observation by normal classes. Question 16. Relation of kindergarten training to training in normal school ? Answer: Number of indefinite answers. Majority reply, a co-ordinate department, or sustains a very close relation. Question 17, What is done closely to relate kindergarten to primary work? About equally divided between an effort by specific work closely to relate them and no effort to do so. Question 18. Have you a special kindergarten library ? Answer: Majority report a special kindergarten library; some reporting it as small. Rest report it as incorporated in normal library. Three answer “no.” INQUIRY 8.—Z. X. SNYDER. WHAT EFFECT HAVE THE NORMAL SCHOOLS HAD ON PUBLIC EDUCATION ? Number of circulars sent out, - - - - - - - - - - 300 Number of answers received, - - - - - . - - - - 256 The questions and answers are given below: 1. Do normal-school graduates do better work than those of same age and experi- ence who are not graduates? Answer: Yes, 213; no, 18; not answering, 25. 2. Has the normal school dignified teaching? Answer: Yes, 207; no, 19; not answering, 30. 3. Do you give preference to normal graduates in the selection of your teachers ? Answer: Yes, 201; no, 37; not answering, 18. 4. Has it been the influence of the normal schools that has led the universities and colleges to establish chairs of pedagogy? Answer: Yes, 101; no, 27; probably, 64; - not answering, 64. 29t @e a ae Lees tho Department] REPORT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL COMMITTEE 715 5. Are you in favor of the city training school, and why? Answer: Yes, 147; no, 85; not answering, 24. 6. Taking all things into consideration — importance of the work, tenure of position, salary, etc.—is the course of work offered by the normal school sufficiently extensive and intensive? Answer: Yes, 78; no, 130; not answering, 48. 7. Are there enough normal schools? Answer: Yes, 90; no, 131; not answer- ing, 35. 8. What has been and what is the effect of the normal schools upon elementary Sau cation? Answer: Good, 206; bad, 10; not answering, 40. g. Make some suggestions, the adoption of which would increase their efficiency. Answer: Higher admission, 68; more practice, 37; more professional work, 47; better faculties, 7; not answering, 97. Io, Should they do academic work ? Answer: Yes, 74; no, 154; not answering, 28. INQUIRY 9.— EDWARD T. PIERCE. RECOGNITION OF DIPLOMAS OF OTHER STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS IN OTHER THAN THE STATE IN WHICH THEY WERE ISSUED. The following questions were addressed to the state superintendents of the United States. The answers have been inserted : 1. Are diplomas from normal schools of any other state than your own recognized in your own state ? Answer: Yes, 15; no, 21; conditional yes, 5. 2. If so, to what extent? If all states are not recognized, name those that are. “Answer : Michigan recognizes Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, Delaware, and Wis- consin; Wisconsin recognizes New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Michigan; New York recognizes by reciprocity. 3. If none are so recognized, state reasons why? Answer: No law, 14; unequal standard, 6; no need, 4; “tit for tat,” 2 4. Do you think it would be well to have comity of states in this matter? Answer: Yes, 31; no, 4; not answering, 14. 5. If such a plan were adopted, would it not be necessary for the normal schools in the several states to have courses of study approximately equivalent ? Answer: Yes, 36; no, 3; no answer, I0. 6. Would it not be well for the authorities in the several states to recognize diploma from certain approved normal schools in all of the states? Answer: Yes, 31; no, 5; not answering, 13. 7. What plan would you suggest to make normal-school diplomas national in their significance and legality? Answer: Legislation, 4; N. E. A. control, 2; reciprocity, 4; equality of course, 4; interstate committee, 3; not answering, 29. In this preliminary report the committee has not deemed it its prov- ince to discuss to any great extent the merits or the demerits of the find- ings in the different inquiries investigated, but to present to the depart- ment its investigations showing that there is a field for investigation out of which great good would accrue to the normal schools and to education in general. There are many problems connected with normal-school work that need more attention than has been given them. But few educational problems, if any, are capable of exact solution. They are all experi- mental. The process of interpretation is tentative. 716 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Normal 1. Inquiries Nos. 1 and 2, Control and Management, indicate consid- erable unanimity in regard to control and management, with the sugges- tion that there should be less politics, more centralized power in the head of the school, less influence of local members of boards of trustees. It will be.readily recognized that the above suggestions are significant facts. A systematic study of the above inquiries setting forth the best remedies is what will help the entire cause. 2. Inquiry 4. Variations that Exist among Normal Schools on Account of Geographical Location. You will observe that the report made by President Seerley is clear and succinct. This investigation indicates a distinct segregation on account of geographic location, and probably a tendency still further to segregate. Every geographic center is a part of the national life and force, and it would seem that there should be some common ground, that is sufficiently marked, upon which to unite. An A.B. degree from a rep- utable institution of learning means so much training—not necessarily the same subjects, but so much training. Now, it would seem that some sort of standard should be established, that the normal schools might command more respect as a factor in public education and thereby accom- plish more good. 3. Inquiry 6. What is the Relation of the Practice School to the Nor- mal and to the Public Schools? The report of Dr. McMurry is sufficient to indicate its importance. This is a problem in normal-school work in which the conditions are not clearly set forth as yet, much less a solution reached. It would seem that it certainly should be the center of life in the normal school. It should be a veritable pedagogical laboratory. There has been too much contentment in normal schools in regard to the practice school. It is quite a machine. It needs investigation and some sort of practical interpretation given it by this body. 4. Inquiry 7. The Relation of the Kindergarten Work to the Normal School. The investigation of this inquiry shows a very indefinite conception of the kindergarten as a department in the normal school. The lethargy with which the normal school takes hold of movements is one of the rea- sons why it is seemingly relegated to the rear in educational develop- ment. No normal school can claim to be abreast the times in educational sentiment, opinion, and character that has not a well-developed kinder- garten department. An exhaustive and keen report on this inquiry and some action toward universalizing the kindergarten will be very beneficial to our department and education. 5. Inquiry 8. The Effect of Normal Schools on Public Education. (a) An effort was made to determine the opinion of educational men Department] REPORT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL COMMITTEE Talay — superintendents and principals—on the work of normal graduates, on the influence of the normal schools on teaching, and on the preference given to normal graduates. There seems to be a decided opinion in their favor. Yet 15 per cent. and over were very positive in the opposite view. (2) Investigations were made as to the number of normal schools. True, in this they were influenced by local conditions ; but the fact is sig- nificant that in those populous states where there is but one normal school the unanimous opinion is that there are not enough. The opinions were made quite emphatic in very many instances. Even in the states having several schools many thought there were not enough. (c) In regard to what would increase the efficiency of the schools vari- ous Opinions were given, but chief among them were: A better practice school, a higher standard of admission, better trained faculties, and stronger professional courses. (z) On the question of academic training there seem to be a very decided sentiment and opinion that they should not attempt it. Make the admission such as to eliminate distinct academic work, is the judg- ment of a great majority. From the foregoing your committee is of the opinion, and it so recom- mends, that the Normal Department ask the general association to make an appropriation to meet the expenses of a committee, whose duty it shall be to make a thorough investigation of the normal-school problem in all its phases and submit the same to this department. Respectfully submitted, Z. X. SNYDER, Chairman, Greeley, Colo.; N. C. SCHAEFFER, Harrisburg, Pa.; Homer H. SEERLEY, Cedar Falls, Ia.; Epwarp T. Pierce, Los Angeles, Cal.; Frank McMurry, Buffalo, N. Y.; Miss Marion Brown, New Orleans, La. DISCUSSION. PRESIDENT A. R. TayLor, of Kansas, inquired whether Item 1, in Dr. Schaeffer’s report, brought any information as to the desirability of continuing the present plan of appointing boards of control. PRESIDENT SNYDER, of Colorado.—The plan is good, and there is no special desire for change. The criticisms are given in the fifth item. The local trustees are said to form attachments for individual members of faculties, and to support them because of personal friendship. . 718 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Normal STATE SUPERINTENDENT EMERY, of Wisconsin.—Did the inquiry learn whether these influences operate on the principal as well as the resident regent ? PpEsIDENT E. O. LyTeE, of Pennsylvania.—Is the board better as a continuous body, with terms expiring at different times ? PRESIDENT SNYDER.—They should be appointed to long terms, six or eight years, and one or two should go off at atime. President Pierce, of California, could give infor- mation about that. PRESIDENT PiERCE, of California.—By our new law there are to be four local boards, one for each of the four normal schools, and these, in conjunction with the gov- ernor and the state superintendent, are to elect the presidents. After the president is elected, he becomes a member of the local board. He nominates to the local board all teachers elected by it. After two years of service, teachers are elected for four years, and can be removed by the general board on charges. So little power have the local boards that, whereas our board wrangled last year for a whole day on the election of teachers, the entire work was done last week under the new law in fifteen minutes. PRESIDENT DoBsON, of Missourii—Does the board make the same course of study for all the schools? PRESIDENT PIERCE.—No, sir. It fixes a maximum and a minimum length of time for each subject. Considerable freedom is exercised by the various schools for the arrangement of studies, one school putting a subject in the first term and another the same subject in the last. PRINCIPAL E. A. SHELDON, of New York.— Should any limitations be set upon the number of pupils that should be admitted ? PRESIDENT R. G. Boone, of Michigan.— Was there any time to investigate cost, the amount of money appropriated per capita, the financial side ? PRESIDENT SNYDER.— That item was given to Dr. Dunton, of Boston, but he has been ill. PRESIDENT Cook, of Illinois.— There are things of great importance we are not touching. Oneof the most important is touched by President Seerley — whether it is advisable to have uniformity, whether we are not in a stage when it is better that the school should be provincial rather than uniform. These precious minutes are getting away, while we are discussing the boards and other items that can be studied from statistics. Taking Topic 14,1 think we want just as many experiments and theories as the human mind can invent. Who has clearly developed a plan for a normal school that can be handed out here ? We do not yet know what a normal school is to be. For my part, Iam thoroughly opposed to control by one board for all the normal schools of the state ; I would have as many boards as there are schools. We want competition developed. Normal schools under a central board will not allow to each an opportunity to show its superior right to exist. I regard this diversity in the country as a very hopeful fact, and so it must continue until many of us know more than we can now know. PROFESSOR STRONG, of Michigan.— Is not what is said here of diversity in normal schools said also with equal truth of universities ? PRESIDENT SEERLEY, of lowa.—The section criticised is a statement of fact, not an argument. There seemed to be a call to find out what was the general trend of thought, and I selected catalogues and wrote letters. Paragraph 14 reports that there is no uni- formity and no trend toward uniformity. We have a problem in Iowa that is not the < eee Ly, Department] REPORT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL COMMITTEE 719 a ee problem in Massachusetts nor the South. I was impressed, in looking the matter up, that the schools of one section resemble one another, but differ in general from the schools of other sections. PROFESSOR THOMPSON, of Massachusetts.—I would like to say just one word from a state where they have only one board. I can hardly agree with President Cook, at least so far as our state is concerned, that we should have a different board for each school. If any state is to accept diplomas from eyery school under its control, there should be unity. Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer, of our normal-school board, says she does not believe that all the schools should be the same. The board lays down certain lines, and then itis left to the principal to differentiate. These things vary in different states. The plan that President Cook commends for Illinois would be bad for Massachusetts. PRESIDENT SALISBURY, of Wisconsin.— It seems to me that this report on Inquiry 4 might have been headed historical rather than geographical. Brother Cook is addicted to separate boards for each school, we in Wisconsin to a single board. Our state chari- ties were formerly under several boards. They are now under one. We had a propo. sition to bring the normals and the university under one board. It would be a waste of time for us to fall upon one another in a discussion of this matter. Dr. Seerley’s word provincial seems to have a little sting in it. Thatis a disrespect- ful word. I believe that in one sense every normal school should be provincial. There is one sentence in this Paragraph 14 that weighs a little upon me: “ There is scarcely any reciprocity’ and “very little faith in one another’s work.” Why should there be so little faith in one another’s work ? ”? PRESIDENT TAYLOR.— In the development of any idea it seems necessary that we should have more or less of this diversity that has been mentioned. Our friend has sug- gested that he discovers the same difference of opinion among university men, but there is a general agreement as to what a university should be. I recall that a friend of mine was elected to the presidency of a normal school that had nothing professional but the perfunctory reading of a very small work on pedagogy. When I compare that with the work at Bridgewater, or Oswego, or northern Illinois, I find that the normal schools are ranging all the way from the very low to the very high grade. Now, is it not possible for us to come to some kind of an agreement as to what should constitute, in a general way, a normal school? I believe it would be very unfortunate for us to agree upon all particulars; yet, at the same time, something of agreement would seem desirable. We have a good many people coming to our state holding credits for two or three years in a normal school or presenting diplomas, and when they come from Pennsylvania, for instance, or from New York, these credits differ in significance. When coming from a state university, their credits do not have such indefinite values. I made a report on this same question at the Topeka meeting, and when Principal Gray made a similar report before this section at Chicago on this subject, we heard pleas just as strong for diversity and just as strong for unity as now, but the matter was dropped, and here we are at the same thing again. I think this discussion comes from a felt need. Is it not possible to have something more definite ? I meet a man not familiar with the normal school, and he asks me what is its work. I do not believe that uniformity means death; I believe that a certain definiteness of idea is worth having. I believe it can come from this afternoon’s discussion, and from the continuation of this committee’s work. PRoFEssOR GRAY, of Minnesota——The question is what constitutes pedagogic training, and if this body would reduce to form the definition of a diploma that would have the indorsement of this body, we might gather round a common notion. The National Association of Medical Societies has declared that medical colleges not reaching a certain standard shall not have a recognition. Now, there is certainly talent enough in 720 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Normal this body to define what shall constitute a minimum. I do not see how_ we can get on any common ground until we define what is common ground. Then, if there be normal schools that can exceed this standard, we bid them God speed. I would urge that this body proceed to define. PRESIDENT LytTE.— This Section 14 by Dr. Seerley does not give me much concern, but 6 and 12 I feel contain very much criticism, and, I think, just criticism. I do not believe that either New York or‘Pennsylvania puts academic before professional studies. In Pennsylvania we must do what Dr. Snyder calls academic work, what we call scholastic work. And we have yet to find a student coming to us well enough prepared to dismiss all his academic work. I think there are a good many schools in Pennsylvania that regard the work done in a model school as the best work. The school with which I am connected regards the model school as the center. If there is this variety in the practice work, I think it is very necessary that we should define in some way what constitutes a minimum amount of training. I find a difference in catalogues and a difference still greater in the attain- ments of pupils. I find many universities in Pennsylvania whose graduates would not be admitted to the entering class of a normal school. I am written to once in a while with respect to other normal-school diplomas. Pennsylvania has no law to recognize them, and no state authority could accept them without a formal examination. PRESIDENT BooNE.— Are there in the Pennsylvania normal schools any not intend- ing to teach ? PRESIDENT LYTE.— Yes, in some schools separate classes are formed for them. Jn our school most expect to teach. ‘ SUPERINTENDENT McConatny, Louisville, Ky.— The discussion has been too lim- ited. I donot think there is any one method by which you can make a good teacher. I think this provincialism is a good thing, because through this variety of work somebody may discover a better thing than we have known. At the same time, I think you could define the minimum of academic and of professional work. I want to know the effect of passing these pupils through the practice school, how much practice they should have in the two-years’ course ; also, what kind of professional studies they should have. PRINCIPAL PRETTYMAN, of Maryland.— It seems to me that this department is where we must distinguish what will create this system of comity between the states. If we are going to have a profession, there must be an amount of preparation therefor. All these questions hinge upon the proposition that a committee shall report a minimum of profes- sional study, the least that can be recognized. If that shall be set up, then it will be an easy matter to receive the diplomas from other states. The experiment was tried in New York, and when they decided on reciprocity, the superintendent was authorized to recog- nize certain diplomas, but he found he must study each school. There is no such comity in teaching as in law and medicine. I, therefore, hope, sir, that this committee will report to the next meeting. PRESIDENT Cook. —I was about to rise for the purpose of making the motion to continue this committee to formulate a minimum course, a course which must be attained as a minimum to secure recognition by this department. I shall not regret if there be a sharp distinction between the state schools and those private schools that call themselves normal schools for the one reason that they want to get the patronage of those who wish to teach. a PROFESSOR Rounps, of New York.— As to whether there should be academic edu- cation in normal schools, I wish that question could be postponed for a few years. When a 4 Derarinent] ACCOMPLISHMENT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL PURPOSE 721 the normal school sends out a class, it is responsible for the academic training, no matter where that education has been attained. I have worked in two states where throwing out all academic work would have killed the normal school. Even if the high school is in reach of all students, to require all to prepare there would be about the same as requiring that all Milwaukee people living in reach of Hotel Pfister should board at that hotel. Let loeality settle where the academic education comes from. Is it not settled now that practice teaching is a necessary part“of a normal school ? It is only a short time since we settled it. Now it may be decided that any one of several plans can be accepted, it will be shown that there are several plans now in use that we could not accept. I like that word “minimum,” a minimum of scholastic training, of practical training; the minimum of necessity, the maximum of opportunity. Let us mean something, and then we have the right to recognition from universities and from all authorities. Having lined up to that point, we are ready to advance to something still better. - PRESIDENT HARVEY, of Milwaukee.— Suppose this committee goes on and does this work, what will it effect ? Whom are you going to affect, what are you going to reach? It seems to me, gentlemen, you are simply wasting time. To say that this shall be the work, which would allow a school to call itself a normal school, is absurd. When you have got it done you will print it, and we will go on doing just the same work as before. It occurs to me that if this body of normal-school people agree on something as to how to do work, it will be more to our advantage. There is a great difference between the kind of work possible in Massachusetts and in other localities —as, for instance, in Wisconsin _— just as there is a great difference between the work possible now and what was possi- ble twenty-five years ago. There is a difference between what is possible in the older states and what in the new. If you are going to cut off a normal school because it cannot equal the standard of older states, you are doing a wrong thing. The showing of what should be done and /ow it should be done is the thing of most value. PRESIDENT CooK.—I trust I am not trespassing upon the department by saying a word inreply. I do not regard this as a matter of very great moment. Great heavens! Why talk about wasting time? This department has chiefly occupied itself in wasting time since it was organized. Surely the requirements of a normal school may be made sufficiently definite to meet all possible objections. It is not worth while to make a fight on that ground. We have plenty of timber to put into these very things. Let us proceed with the work, and formulate a standard. HOW-MAY THE NORMAL SCHOOL BEST ACCOMPLISH LIS PURPOSE? BY RICHARD G. BOONE, PRESIDENT STATE NORMAL COLLEGE, YPSILANTI, MICH. The relation between teaching and learning is made clear through a comprehension of the relation between learning and education. Not every process of acquisition has a creditable educational value. Some learning seems to confer no power, and does add mental impediment. Occasionally real education does result in spite of accumulations of infor- mation. It is always helped on by any learning that takes hold upon 2) 2. NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Normal first-hand experience and involves a personal reaction. Mere passive receptiveness has educational results of a rudimentary sort only. - If by learning, therefore, is meant simple acquisition, a gathering and cumulative process, much taking in and little using, education is learning in an inci- dental way only. If, however, by learning is understood that positive and aggressive seizing of knowledge, inquisitive, experimenting, testing, using, applying, and the accumulating of interests, and the storing of questions held for answer, then learning and education are correlative terms, coextensive in use, and having a well-defined likeness of meaning. Teaching may be described as causing to learn in this larger sense: establishing in the child a habit and the courage of independent attack. Every learner, to the extent that he is a real learner, becomes an invader, as the scientist is an investigator. He lays siege to the world of thing and force and spirit, and has faith inhimself. The effectiveness of learn- ing is measured less by what is actually discovered or acquired or accumu- lated than by what one aspires to know or discover, and the effort put forth to know or discover or use. Teaching is the process of giving this trend to mind, and especially to child mind. But no teacher can give this who does not himself possess it. One indispensable quality of the true teacher, therefore, is that he be himself a learner. He must be familiar with the way over which he would lead his pupils. He must be a learner, aggressive, independent, alert, resourceful. Whatever the young candidate knows or doesn’t know of subjects academic or profes- sional, as he leaves the school, he has need to have well fixed the habits of the student to be interested and growing; and no normal school, of whatever grade, can be held to have realized its purpose that has failed in a measurable degree to accomplish this as a professional result. To this end the normal-school faculty should themselves be students, more or less scholarly, but students; lovers of learning, fresh and interested, inquiring and creative. As the vitality of a tree is attested by the fresh branches it sends out, the new wood it is making, the pushing- down of its roots, and, in general, its reaching outward and upward, so must the teacher of teachers be judged by the new fiber he is making and the strengthening of the old. Once learning ceases in the teacher, teach- ing deteriorates. This year to follow last year’s lessons, to add no new references, not even once to have substituted a new topic for an old one, or to have changed their order asa larger vision gave a new sequence, to have had no larger vision, to be satisfied with the old book rather than risk a new one, to perform the same experiments and no others, means in. time sterility, if not something worse. An institution’s board of control can do no more effective service for its students than to make it easy for every teacher to carry on related studies for himself parallel with his teaching. It is, perhaps, true, as has been said, that ‘‘ only investigators Department] ACCOMPLISHMENT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL PURPOSE 728 can be or are great teachers.” They must be interested in problems to be solved, which they are attempting to solve, as a condition of really effective sympathy with children for whom it is made the business to solve problems. The stolid plodder, all of whose days are alike, has little in common with the ambitious, restless, planning, questioning, eager student, or the pushing farmer, or the lawyer who is climbing; and doubts their sanity. No teacher has a right to be a plodder of such sort. If he would be helpful to growing youth, he also must grow. Before applying for admission to any normal school, a young teacher has a right to ask: What are the instructors doing for themselves and their profession? What are they contributing to pedagogical insights? Are they informed as to what is doing in the profession elsewhere? Are they moving along and upward, and do they carry their classes with them? If their own lives are becoming daily and yearly richer, their teaching will probably show a corresponding improvement, and the students will profit by the freshness and vigor of the leadership. For a like reason, also, the school as an institution must be relatively less of a teaching agency, and more and more of a laboratory; less a place where formal and, perhaps, traditional lessons are to be communi- ‘cated, and more a means of stimulating an interest in questions of educa- tion and the school, and in conditions and means of learning. The remark applies to all kinds of schools, but bears with particular force upon schools for the training of teachers. Here, more than in the college or the university, more than in law or medical schools, more than in the theological seminary, it is a fatal policy to seek to turn out students from any exclusive course of indoctrination. The normal school should be a laboratory where every grade of learning, in its order, is brought to the test. Throughout the course there should be some hours, daily, where students and teachers work together. A normal school must contribute the means and conditions for cultivating the student spirit touching school questions. Graduates of such a school will be turned out students by habit and spirit; but not scholars. They will be lovers of good literature, alert and interested to question its inner significance ; aspiring to be masters of the sciences of life and society; in sympathy with nature’s ways, and eager to discover their meaning—well on the way to be scholarly, but not yet learned. They must believe in learning and the regenerations of a liberal scholarship. In their minds, when they come to teach, there must be no half-hearted assent to the doctrine that a generous education pays: pays in pocket and mind and heart. It must be seen by the teacher, and must be made to appear in her teaching, that the coming farmer is made a better farmer to the extent that he is made a better man; so of the house- wife, the mechanic, the physician and the dealer, the office holder and 724 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Normal the voter, the teacher and the professional student; the teacher has need to believe in behalf of all these classes, in the wholesome effects, and upward tendency, and multiplied opportunities for gain and effort, inci- dent to a large and accurate training in the schools, and an acquaintance with the results of science, and the achievements of man that endure. The scholar has many chances in life of coming to the top, where the unschooled man hasone. The teachers-to-be of our children must see this, and make the vision effective in their teaching ; else teaching misses its aim. But that this belief may take hold upon her children, it must first have found effectual lodgment in her own experience. She must believe in its saving influence for herself and for hers. She must daily practice it. It must be apparent in her conversation. Her library will show it. It will shine out in her manners. Her faith in its power to uplift and refine coarse, rude youth, and the badly born and the ill-conditioned, must be unshaken. ‘That the much-beholding of culture is doing its per- fect work in her stimulates a like free course in others. The first step toward the professional teacher has been taken when one has given or has acquired a fixed and serious habit of inquiry, a sane and chastened interest in the busy life that environs us; when studies are pursued, not because they lead to certificates and diplomas merely, and save one from harassing examinations, and are required by boards of education, and appear in the school’s published courses ; but because they are open doors into an interesting ew world, and promise coveted relations. Studies then become privileges. Not every student is a teacher, much less every scholar. But the real student has already two admirable qualities that make teaching easy: (1) a full mind, and (2) a growing, filling mind. This, I take it, applies to all the work of the normal school, both professional and academic. It is no less true of technical and special schools than of the college and university that the end to be coveted is an abiding bias toward learning and skill and right living; and not the possession of any specific learning or deftness or virtue. It would seem to be sound pedagogy, not less than safe theology, to set the mind brood- ing upon questions of life, in a guided and sober way, rather than learning creeds. Teachers are made professional by sending them out concerned to understand professional problems, not through grounding them in accepted theories. This, as I see it, can in no other way be so well accomplished as by setting them to study educational problems, not learning the conclusions of those who have studied them. To this end intending teachers in the normal school will take advantage of every contribution that really assists in the solution —but acceptrthem warily as solutions. If the purpose of the school were to confer upon its graduates a sure way of carrying on instruction, a recipe that should be valid for all time, a dozen books of formule and device might be named a a’ vi Department] ACCOMPLISHMENT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL PURPOSE 125 that would well repay mastering. If the work is done in the spirit of conferring any sort of specific or formulary, indoctrinating students with the thought of any exclusive school, or setting up hard and fast lines among devices, as if any treatment were fixed and free from revision, and that teachers are to be manufactured in such way, that fault would seem to be the same in kind. But if the purpose of the school be to make somewhat self-reliant teachers, students of pedagogy and the art of instruction, growing teach- ers, whom every day finds more skillful, whose success is to be viewed through the perspective of years, and whose value to the state and to themselves steadily increases, there will be neither attempt to make dis- ciples, as if this school contained the only pedagogic wisdom, nor any clap-trap of device to catch the public eye, and hoist a would-be teacher into immediate recognition. ‘‘ As he who knows but one language or one religion knows none well, so he who knows but one system of education knows none well.” ‘In every field it is the comparative method that does the best work.’”’ ‘One of the teacher’s highest endowments is ver- satility; and to create this power ought to be one aim of professional instruction.” Normal schools can well afford to take positive grounds against any form of the fallacy that teachers can be manufactured to order, that they can be filled up with an all-sufficient theory, or equipped with any sure specific of recipe and formula that assures them of success. The best the most efficient normal school can do is to have given them a safe start on the way, to have endowed them with right habits of pedagogical study, and a sound interest in these questions. The test of a normal school is what its graduates do, or come to do in the next ten years ; not how they teach, alone; but what have they contributed to their profession? Does the influence of the normal school follow them into higher studies? or are they satisfied with being graduates and holding certificates? Of a normal school it may reasonably be asked: How many of its graduates continue their studies subsequently, either academic or professional, in their own school or elsewhere, with teaching in view? What provision does the institution make for advanced pedagogical study? In their course, shorter or longer, do they catch the spirit of the student and crave the opportunity for further preparation? Do they become home students? Follow the aluinne for a decade, and find where they have studied and what they have studied. How many of them all have received such an insistent bias forthe work that teaching has become their mis- sion? To have justified the work of the normal school, it is not enough that they be made students merely, but students of pedagogy. ‘They are to be teachers, lovers of teaching, interested in the art of teaching, stu- 726 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Normal dents of its principles, acquainted with its history, in sympathy with the child and in touch with child life, and alert to the significance of children’s interests and instincts in the institutional life about them. ‘This, as I see it, is the task set the normal school to do; to select from such as apply those who betray a fitness for the training, make clear to them their power and give them faith in themselves for this service; and let its own teaching be such as to show the unfit—unfit either by nature or training —the unwisdom of their choice. ‘To have prepared a few score persons well, so that they are really impressed with the gravity and dignity and privileges of the work to be done for the children and in the schools ; who have no thought that their training is complete ; whose studies planned and in prospect outnumber and outweigh the studies done; who believe in normal schools, and have acquaintance with and revere some real speci- -mens of living and teaching on high planes, and feel growing within themselves a like power—will do more to win among people respect for teachers and their professional training than a school in every county, if it be a pretense, and work expedients, and conceal a meager culture with a veneering of device. Summarizing the points of the paragraph, it may be said that the nor- mal school that would have the most wholesome and far-reaching influ- ence upon its students, and through them, upon the profession, should : (1) Resist the ever-present temptation to “method-cramming,” that “specific and fatal disease’ which Ziller ascribes to normal schools as he knew them, and from which, in this country, they are not by any means so free as they might be. (2) But it should equally avoid the narrow proselyting spirit that seeks to indoctrinate students, making them disciples of a school or a system, and not interested, open-minded learners, and cautious critics. What one of our own number has called “ the intolerant orthodoxy of one method ”’ is always to be shunned. (3) The school should further seek to endow it graduates with right habits of study, and a vigorous and far-seeing interest in questions of schooling and child training, rather than in artificial resources and a prescriptive order. (4) In fairness to the children of the state and the public welfare, the course of instruction should be made a process of selecting among candi- dates, weeding out, not the slow and the unfavorably conditioned, but the incapable and the unfit. Whatever their scholastic and other qualifica- tions, students who fail to give unquestioned evidence of a sympathetic insight into child life and processes of training should be advised to try something else. Both the administration and the instruction of a normal school should be such as to exalt the dignity and the attractive- ness of the teacher’s work with whatever age of children, and freelyas as ee Salle a a ee Sees Department] ACCOMPLISHMENT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL PURPOSE 727 indorse such as discover the professional temper. Better fewer people of the right quality, with a minimum preparation, than large classes indis- criminately certificated without regard to personal and professional fit- ness. Pedagogical preparation, not less than other technical training, has this element of exclusiveness, being selective and critical, and must reserve the right, in the interest of the state’s wards, to’ close its doors against the unfit. As a companion thought to what has been said of the student habit as a quality of the successful teacher, it will be evident that normal schools which are really intended to make /eachers, and not disciples of an institution, must employ courses greatly extended beyond the rudi- ments of history and the sciences, methodology, and pedagogics, with which most of us are now content, and must be ready to contribute to a many-sided interest in the subject-matter of schools and education. What a recent writer delights to call “ the intolerant orthodoxy of one method” may, or may not, be properly characterized by the phrase, but it must be admitted it often stands for a narrow and unsophisticated view of a very complex process. When education, not to say teaching, meant to master the three R’s, the preparation for teaching was a simple thing. When ‘these and other subjects were seen to be the means of culture, and educa- tion was recognized as a mental process, the problem was complicated. Along with the doctrine of an indifferency of means within certain limits, leaving the teacher an option in his choice of subjects, method became a thing of abstraction, and the effectual training of teachers a difficult task. When to this conception there was added the comparatively modern interpretation of education as being a social as well as an individual proc- ess, and schooling, as fitting one for preparation in an interminably com- plex conventional and institutional life, the preparation of teachers came to take on the character of a highly developed profession. If there be remembered, also, the emphasis currently put upon the cultivation of the sensibilities and the moral and physical natures along with the intel- lectual, an appropriate question of the normal schools would seem to be: “‘Who is able for these things ?” In the preparation of teachers, therefore, relatively more emphasis must be put upon the racial and social aspects of education. The great problems of the day are distinctly social problems. They not only claim more attention from the platform and the pulpit and the press, but they seem, of all human interests, farthest from settlement. Their solution is beyond legislation, because they concern the heart and human instincts. The church cannot effect it alone, primarily because the problem concerns so many whose interests lie beyond the direct influence of the church ; but also because, except with a small per cent. of its membership, it has to do with adult conditions only. The solution must come from the 728 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Normal schools; and must start with the earliest years. How to get along with others, and save one’s self-respect, and the internal initiative, and safely resist being dominated by the machinery of life, and conventional restric- tions, concerns the curriculum and teaching of the lowest grades. Indeed, to the extent that lessons of co-operation fail of mastery in the grades and among children and youth, and the youth slip into manhood selfish and suspicious, and improvident, and ambitious beyond their condition, any social reformation is either impossible or transient. The schools must be trusted to make real any coyeted social improvement. If the subject-matter of the elementary courses should remain just as at present, there would still be need of teachers who comprehend their enlarged function. ‘Teachers who understand the use of the elementary subjects as giving information merely, or as means towards further-study, or as furnishing a guide to conduct, and are able to administer the course to these ends, have done much. But the teacher herself will have need of far more extensive knowledge, and especially knowledge of type-forms ; will have need to have acquired for herself right habits of study and its necessary tools, and to be familiar with the conditions and limitations of conduct, both social and personal, for which.schooling is to furnish a guide. And as a large part of conduct concerns one’s social relations, in a conventional way, or in matters of business, or in civil affairs, or in domestic intercourse, or, finally, in ethical and religious interests, the preparation of the teacher must be made to include, as it appears to the writer, an increasingly larger element of training on this side, and the introduction of more work in the so-called humanities. Hence the importance attached to the historical and ethical courses; studies of man and his achievements; the conditions in person and environment under which he has attained and held his best culture and power; historic instances of both at their best estate; geography in the larger and modern sense; economic science, fixing man’s relation to nature, his dependence upon it, and his use of it, through following up his inventions and discoveries, and their relation to his comfort and happiness and effi- ciency ; art and its development, including the social and intellectual conditions that have helped it on, or hindered it; the institutions and regenerations of religion and the church ; the general philanthropy and public responsibility for individual conditions; the civil government and its relation to the common welfare. And all of these should be studied not at all, or alone, because they are history, or science, or art, or religion ; but because they make clear this larger relation of the indi- vidual to society, and its institutions; his dependence upon them and his use of them; and the possibility that the school and intelligent instruction may fit him for a richer participation in their power and privi- leges. They become professional subjects, and should be pursued by the “We ol ce Yet << pte ae; Department] ACCOMPLISHMENT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL PURPOSE 729 young teacher for professional ends. They constitute the more compre- hensive psychology, the psychology of the community, comprising an insight into the forces and processes and conditions of culture and improvement in bodies of people, organizations, and neighborhoods. Child study for the teacher must be made to include, or be supplemented by, a like study of communities also, of social groups, and organized life, and the individual as he appears in combination with his fellows. And every training course, whether longer or shorter, should be made to include its proportioned view of these subjects, as a sound basis for the more detailed and pedagogical and critical studies of the elementary course, and the order of presentation. It will be seen, also, how important it is that the teacher be familiar with and habitually employ the general principle of evolution in the interpretation of social and culture questions. It vitalizes most investi- gations to carry them on in the perspective of their antecedent investiga- tions. And, ina particular manner, this is true of all matters of education. “There is no phenomenon so stupendous, so bewildering, and, withal, so interesting to man as that of his own evolution in society.” Here is the real process of education. To comprehend the aims and means and steps in schoo! education, where individual growth is directed, requires an insight into the processes of racial growth which, for the most part, is undirected. Evolution has been described as “the natural directory of the sociologist, a guide through that which has worked in the past to what may be expected to work in the future.” It is not less a guide for the individual, and even more significant for the teacher. ‘“‘ Here, for each one, is a new and impressive summons to public action, a vocation chosen of nature, which it will profit him to consider, for thereby he may not only save the whole world, but find his own soul.” And this process of self-orientation —“ finding one’s own soul’’—is a fundamental one for him who would teach. It was the scholarly Professor Caird who said: ‘The study of the historical development of man, especially- in respect to his higher life, is not only a matter of external or merely speculative interest ; it is closely connected with the development of that life in ourselves. We learn to know ourselves, first of all, in the mirror of the world; or, in other words, our knowledge of our own nature and its possibilities grows and deepens with our understanding of what is without us, and, most of all, with our understanding of the general history of man..... It is only with a deepened consciousness of the world that the human spirit can solve its own problem..... The inner life of the individual is deep and full just in proportion to the width of his relations to other men and. things; and his consciousness of what he is in himself as a spiritual being is dependent on a comprehension of the position of his individual life 730 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Normal in the great secular process by which the intellectual and moral life of humanity has grown and is growing. Hence, the highest practical, as well as speculative, interests of men are connected with the new exten- sion of science which has given fresh interest and meaning to the whole history of the race.” It is not meant, of course, that the normal school should include in its instruction a formal study of evolution ; but that such school relations as are made subject to study shall be so employed as to establish in teachers a habit of historical interpretation, a keen appreciation of the developing process, sensitive to dynamic relations in mind and heart; a conviction that whatever has virtue in human interest for the individual or the com- munity is part of an unfolding series; and that, in the improvement of mankind, or the individual man, in school or out of school, while one series may be broken, the break only gives place to another series. The principle of becoming —the new from an old, the heterogeneous from a less heterogeneous — is everywhere present. The general history of culture, the development of educational doc- trine, the growth of the elementary course, the origin and progress of the school and its organization, the expansion of the world’s store of science, literature, art, history, and industry, available for the youngest children, are subjects of study for which the normal school should give every teacher a lasting introduction. Sound insight here must form the only enduring basis for intelligent perception of pedagogical truth throughout the school. Not only will more emphasis be put, in the normal school, upon the racial and social aspects of education, and, therefore, upon historical and ethical courses, and upon the principle of evolution in the interpretation of social and culture’ questions, but a new importance will attach to con- structive and creative exercises. Whatever throws upon one the necessity of an independent use of material, or encourages resourcefulness in initi- ating or handling or applying experience, or arouses invention, or culti- vates skill, or makes for leadership, or intelligent and fearless criticism, belongs to this group of constructive and creative exercises. They are valuable — invaluable — as instruments of education for anyone, whether in general culture or technical schools. But they are also valuable in the preparation of one who is to teach the arts which they represent. In a much higher sense, however, they are useful in all teachers’ courses in fixing correct conceptions of the learning process, and so the teaching process, and the conditions and coveted results of a wise system of train- ing. Any system of professional schooling that magnifies discipleship, or minimizes original quest and free performance, is of doubtful value to the teacher. On the side of training, however, most normal schools maintain depart- / ‘es Be Cr ao a a ee —| a Ue Department] ACCOMPLISHMENT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL PURPOSE 731 ments for observation and practice. But here, again, it is submitted as the doctrine of this paper that the most effective process of fitting to teach lies in the intelligent effort to teach or observe good teaching, with an open mind, eclectic and eager, groping and growing, using every means of helpful direction and re-enforcement, testing and comparing, esti- mating in an impersonal way one’s own successes and failures, experi- menting up to one’s best insights ; all thé time anxious to find a right way for the practice, rather than copying another’s way or adopting his interpretations, however excelfent they may be. Better to have tried and lost than to have won without the trying; for what is so won belongs to the surface only and is transient. And the need of the teacher in train- ing is for an abiding zeal, intelligent and full of faith, that thrives with time. The training school obviously comprises three somewhat distinct func- tions: (1) as a test of educational doctrine; (2) as a test of pedagogical practice ; and (3) as an exposition of accepted doctrine and practice, This last compasses the most immediate need, most felt, and most urgent. The temptation is always strong to give teachers some specific for present use and local distinction; a way of doing things, a body of rules and formule. But I am persuaded that, whatever the practice of the schools we represent, the most of you will agree with me that better than a way of working for the teacher, who is a student, is a clear notion of what is to be accomplished. The bias of normal schools, 2” practice, is toward this third function; and it seems to the writer unfortunate that it is so. Let us not forget— we shall not, probably; but let us not so teach as that others can forget—that normal schools exist for the establishment of a correct conception of education among intending teachers, and conferring upon them a disposition and resourcefulness to work out their conception with children. This is not something to be passed upon and established by any one or any group of us. We shall not settle it by thinking upon it simply ; much less by working our own points of view alone, The final questions of education lie outside the field of dogmatism. There is need that every one of them at some time be made the subject of test; just as hypotheses, however probable, debatable theories, new or recent inferences, are first, and often, and always with any accessions of light upon related ques- tions, submitted in the laboratory for verification. This, you are aware, is done, not when there is doubt alone, but where the probabilities are strongly in favor of the hypothesis. Touching gravity, and electricity, and the vegetable cell, and nerve currents, and physiological functions, nothing is taken for granted that can be brought to the test of experi- ment. Why should the attitude be different toward spiritual growth, its means and conditions? toward standards of efficiency, motives and pur- s 732 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Normal poses in education, and the elements of wise teaching? Obviously every training class connected with any teacher’s school is a mark of the con- viction of the similarity, if not the identity, of the two problems. In the training school, among other functions, educational doctrine must be brought to the test. Here, and throughout the institution, there should be the freest discussion of educational problems, in a philosophical and critical way, with a minimum of personal bias, and a strong rising above provincialism and expediency. | Teachers of adult classes have many opportunities for detecting lines of strength and weakness in elementary teaching, and should be helpful in reviewing methods. But a larger service will come from them and from us all when, freed from dependence upon mere scholastic standards, we shall find our first real duty to be, not projecting and perpetuating our own pet theories, but the effort to establish and make clear to teach- ers, ourselves included, a reasonable and working conception, tentatively held, of what education, as directed in the schools, aims, or should aim, to do for the individual and for the community. The training school, once comprehending such question, should be left free and unhampered to give it a fair trial and submit an answer. Every one of us is interested in seeing how supposedly sound educational doctrine sustains itself, recovers or fails at the hands of authoritative teaching. Given this clear picture of the function of teaching, the means to be used and the steps to be taken, both become important. For the accom- plishment of an educational result there may be several sets of means available. Usually this is the case. If there is any one principle of pedagogy, more than another, for which the reader stands, it is that peda- gogical training does not mean the mastery of any fixed and unques- tioned way of doing any part of the work of instruction. There is, so far as he has been enabled to see, no set and exclusive, unmatched right way of conducting any lesson, or developing any desired mental habit, or giving any worthy moral bias. ‘There are, nevertheless, right ways and wrong ways of most undertakings. Among right ways some are better than others-—more productive of good or more economical. This is a better way for one teacher, that for another. With one group of children a practice fails that has had marked success with others. A habit of critically estimating the effectiveness of the several ways of reach- ing a result, rather than the mastery of any plan, or scheme of lessons, or sequence of steps, or form of questioning, is the subject of training- school practice. ‘There must be something more than the ability to com- pare devices and teaching directions; the school must fix she habit of doing so, and cultivate a sense of appreciation of the better way, and why it is the better way, and a disposition to choose the better way succes- sively — better ways, and the best way——at whatever cost of preparation —— ee Department] ACCOMPLISHMENT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL PURPOSE 733 and inconvenience and time, if only the quantity and quality of results justify. Omitting from the present consideration the candidate’s practice teach- ing, of so vital significance in his training, this may be said: If graduates are sent out from our normal schools in sympathy with the practice as well as the theory of their chosen profession, growing, mentally and morally alert to its dignity and the value of its public service, interested in and on the road to a larger knowledge and surer skill—the school may be said to be well on the way towards realizing its purpose. DISCUSSION. PRESIDENT ALBERT SALISBURY, State Normal School, Whitewater, Wis.— If “ brev- ity is the soul of wit,’ we who “discuss” papers must be witty perforce. Confined to so narrow limits, our views must be hinted at rather than expressed. The question, “How the normal school may best accomplish its purpose,” involves an earlier question, What zs the purpose of the normal school? As bearing upon this question, some things said by John Cotton Dana in the Popular Science Monthly for July, 1897, concerning the public library deserve consideration, being equally pertinent here. Slightly paraphrasing his language, we may say: The public owns the normal school. The means of its sup- port are taken by force from the pockets of the general public. This fact sheds much light on the question of normal-school management. It means that the normal school must be fitted to public-school needs. It must do the maximum of service at the mini- mum of expense. The American public-school idea implies an army of teachers. But no great pro- portion of the human race are teachers by birth or natural instinct. To secure even mod- erate qualifications in so large a body of teachers as is necessitated requires adequate provision and machinery for converting such material as can be had into as competent a teaching force as human possibilities will allow. The normal school is charged with this task of converting raw material into accept- able teaching force. It is, therefore, pre-eminently a practical agency, aiming at definite, practical results in the interest of the whole community. It follows that we must keep near the earth in our study of the normal-school prob- lem. We do well to analyze and philosophize and ponder the ideal; but we must ever return to the practical questions: How can normal schools best serve the interests of the communities by which they are supported? How can the “greatest good to the greatest number” be realized in their administration ? The answer involves considerations of quantity as well as guality. The problem is not simply how we shall most perfectly pre- pare a few for the work, but, also, how we shall present to the state large numbers made more fit for the handling of its children than they would otherwise have become. No exception can be taken to the main proposition of Dr. Boone’s paper. It is true that the good teacher must be, first of all, a good learner, of an inquiring mind. Nothing can be done for teachers of greater value than to make them “concerned to understand professional problems.” The “abiding bias to learning and skill and right living ” is the best thing that we can give to anybody, whether teacher or otherwise. But here we just reach the practical problem. Is it possible to give this bias without “the possession of 734 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Normal any specific learning or deftness or virtue”? Is it possible to give aptitude and power, except as the direct outcome of intellectual mastery, of actual learning; and if so, ow is it possible ? We believe that it is, in a sense, both possible and desirable; but can any- one formulate or describe the process? This seems to me the practical point of attack. But we must do more than develop the inquiring mind in our pupil. He must be taught to Jove and honor the teacher’s vocation. I believe that learning, scholarship, may be carried to such a point as actually to destroy, or prevent, real teaching power. The ruling interest becomes an interest in philosophic abstractions and systems rather than an interest in embryo human character and its development. The proposition that the normal school must be “relatively less a teaching agency and more a laboratory’? seems to me to be a questionable inference. All depends upon what is really meant by the term “laboratory.” If it is meant that the normal school should be an educational experiment station, [ must enter my dissent. There is need of educational experimentation ; but this function would seem to be more in the line of uni- versity work, when the universities wake up to it, as a few are doing, notably, The Uni- versity of Chicago. But it would be extremely unfortunate for the normal schools to send out a callow brood of experimenters, thinking that nothing has been settled in all these centuries in the way of educational theory or practice. Normal-school graduates should go out, not as dogmatists, neither as iconoclasts, but with a reasonable faith in the best that has thus far been discovered and formulated. In short, I believe that the relation of normal schools to the public requires that they shall be somewhat conservative in their policies; not hide-bound, nor blindly conservative — heaven forbid! but wisely and cau- tiously progressive, remembering how many things educational innovators have to unlearn. It is, indeed, time to lay more emphasis upon the function of the normal school as a selective agency. It should not be content to train simply those who come to it unsought. It should look out and reach out through all its territory for promising youth who can be drawn under its influence. The teaching mind should be sought out and enlisted; there is no superabundance of it anywhere. But still more urgent is the obligation to weed out “the incapable and unfit,” before they shall fully and permanently inflict themselves upon the children of the land as teachers “‘ for revenue only.” In Wisconsin it has been ordained by the regents of normal schools that any unpromising student may be elimi- nated “by notice from the president [of the school] that in his judgment such person will not become an apt and suitable teacher.” This is simply the logic of the situation. The normal schools have no right to boost stupidity and woodenness into the teacher’s seat, though they are now doing it to a considerable extent. Time permits me to touch upon but one item further. If the state normal school has any right to exist at all, it exists for all the people. It should carry itself to all the peo- ple. It must multiply and distribute itself so as to come within easy reach of those will- ing to submit their talents to a course of pedagogical training. The normal school can never accomplish its true mission in those states whose policy is to build up one great school instead of a system of schools widely distributed and wisely co-ordinated. You cannot bring the prospective teachers of a great state to one normal school; you must carry the normal school to the teachers. Dr. E. A. SHELDON, of Oswego, N. Y., continued the discussion, giving high praise to many points in the western plan. He expressed especial admiration for the western plan of receiving well-accredited graduates of good high schools without examination. This made the normal school an integral part of the public-school system, just as the high school itself is. _He thought it right to accept good high-school preparation at its accredited value, as well as all preparation in the common branches that had been adequately reviewed in the high school. He was not so sure that our normal schools — mea tS” oe : oa XK ee. * vl \ Department] ACCOMPLISHMENT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL PURPOSE 735 were meeting the need of teachers for the rural schools. He would have three classes of normal schools— one to prepare teachers for the district schools, one to prepare teachers for the grades below the high school, and one to prepare teachers for the high schools. He also thought that most normal schools are too large to make it possible to secure the requisite amount of practice teaching. He would keep the membership of a normal school below 350. PRESIDENT PIERCE, of Los Angeles, Cal., was of the opinion that teachers of rural schools need as high preparation as teachers of the city schools. He would make the examination of teachers more stringent, and so avoid the great surplus of incompetent certificated teachers. PRESIDENT SALISBURY had found that high-school graduates do not know common- school subjects well. In the main, they have not reviewed them adequately in the high school. Some agreed with Dr. Sheldon that the unity of our public-school system still demands that these graduates be received without examination and credited in full for the work done there. DEPARTMENT OF MANUAL AND INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. SECRETARY SaMINU TES, THURSDAY, JULY 8. The meeting was called to order at 2: 45 P. M. by President Oscar Clute, Lake City, Fla., President of the department, who read an address on the subject, “ The Head and the Hand.” The Committee on Nominations was named as follows: W. H. Chandler, Madison, Wis. J. L. Snyder, Agricultural College, Mich. H. H. Seerley, Cedar Falls, Ia. A paper was read by Edward O. Sisson, Director of Bradley Polytechnic Institute, Peoria, Ill., on the subject, ‘Some Mental Results of Tool-Work.” Discussion by A. H. Chamberlain, Director of Sloyd, Throop Polytechnic Institute, Pasadena, Cal. President W. D. Parker of State Normal School, River Falls, Wis, read a paper on ““Some Possible Relations of Normal Schools to Manual Training.” This was discussed by President Homer H. Seerley of the lowa State Normal School, Cedar Falls. The Committee on Nominations reported as follows : For Preszdent, Edward O, Sisson, of Peoria, Ill. For Vice-Prestdent, Wm. R. Lazenby, Columbus, O. For Secretary, Judson E. Hoyt, Menomonie, Wis, On motion, the Secretary was instructed to cast the ballot for the persons named, which being done, they were declared elected. The following resolution was presented by Professor George Robbins: Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed by the chair, to inquire, first, what influences tend to promote, and, second, what influences retard, the progress of manual and industrial training in schools; which committee shall present the results of its investigations in a written report at the next annual meeting. The resolution was adopted, and the following were named as the committee : Professor George Robbins, John Worthy Manual Training School, Chicago. President J. L. Snyder, Michigan Agricultural and Mechanical College, Principal A. J. Rogers, East Side High School, Milwaukee, Wis. Superintendent J. E. Hoyt, Stout Manual Training School, Menomonie, Wis. The meeting then adjourned. Jupson E. Hoyt, Secretary. 736 pare. Department | THE HEAD AND THE HAND 737 Pino Nw DISCUSSIONS: PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. THE fJIEAD AND THE HAND BY OSCAR CLUTE, PRESIDENT FLORIDA AGRICULTURAL AND’ MECHANICAL COLLEGE, LAKE CITY, FLA. Probably no well-trained man can converse for a short time with a good mechanic without being convinced that the mechanic is, in the true sense of the word, an educated man. That is, his mind has been trained to think and act correctly. He knows the qualities of the materials with which he works, and is able so to use those materials as to produce the desired results. He will show clearly the points wherein the materials are good or bad, he will state clearly what the good workman can do with the materials, and he can use the materials in the most efficient manner for making any product in his line that is desired. That is, the good mechanic observes carefully, he compares accurately, he judges correctly, and his hands work with skill. Now, observation, comparison, judgment, the ability to do, are powers of the mind. In the mind of the good mechanic these powers have become well trained, though his days in the ordinary school have been few or none. If we find the mechanic a well- educated man in some respects, though he has not been a student in any school, there must be something in his daily work which has educated him. It is worth while to consider this for a few moments. There is a very close dependence of the head and the hand upon each other. Often the commands of the head cannot be executed unless the hand be strong and well trained. Always the hand is powerless unless the head issues commands, and guides every effort. I sharpen my pencil to facilitate writing only by the head using the hand to give movements to the knife. The carpenter can make a box when his head is able to direct the hand to saw, and plane, and hammer correctly. The horticul- turist by brain-work controls hand-work. He clears off trees, removes stumps, plows, plants, fertilizes, cultivates. After years of care he gets the orchard, fragrant with bloom in the spring time, filled with the melody of birds, laden in after months with fruit more luscious than apples of Hesperides. Through the painter’s head flow visions of entrancing beauty, and his brain guides his skillful hand in the effort to reproduce the vision. He stretches his canvas, puts some bits of color on his palette, 738 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Industrial takes in hand his ready brush, and soon upon these few square feet of canvas gleams forth the grass of June, brooks dash through the meadows, mighty trees hold aloft their verdant arms, and the deep sky bends above in glowing beauty, while everywhere through the picture there is a subtle presence that cannot be told in words, but by which the artist’s hand has faithfully expressed what his soul has seen. In your home, as twilight comes on, before the lamps are lit, your daughter sits at the piano. She is one whose ear can catch the melody of humming bee and singing bird, of roaming brook and wind-swept tree, of the rolling thunder among distant mountains, and of the tumul- tuous seas when smitten by the tempest’s power. She can read and appre- ciate the scroll whereon some master mind has written the symbols to guide her hands upon the keys. The piano is dead before her, just a box of wood, holding an iron frame work, across which are stretched some wires that may be struck by the hammers when the keys are touched. Her hands touch the keys, and at once the piano wakens into life. From the vibrant wires come strains as varied as the thoughts, passions, and aspirations of the player. To him who has the hearing ear the music brings the sounds of bee and bird and brook; of sighing grass and whispering pines and raging sea; of mighty tempests sweeping through mountain gorges ; of reverberating thunder that falls from riven skies; of the songs of progress, of war, of victory, of triumph ; or, in calmer hours, he hears the gentler strains of love, aspiration, and worship. Thus everywhere, in all departments of human thought and activity, the trained hand is the willing and efficient servant of the trained mind. It is the delicate instrument which the head uses to do much of its finest work. A large part of education has to do with the training of the hand to follow accurately the commands of the head. In its efforts to guide the hand the head itself is trained. Writing, drawing, painting, playing upon musical instruments, laboratory work in all the sciences, are but examples of this training of the hand and the head together. While this has always been the case, it is only in recent years that hand-training has taken a recognized and honored place in courses of education. After a long process of evolution, during which it has passed from ideal to ideal, education today recognizes that hand-training is an important factor in head-training. Leading educators everywhere are advocating it and introducing it into courses in their schools. The manual training school of Washington University in St. Louis was one of the first to adopt a complete course in manual training, and has been one of the most success- ful in carrying it out. Tulane University in New Orleans has not been far behind. The Manual Training School in Chicago has done service that has attracted the attention of the country. Many other schools, north, south, east, and west, and in countries beyond the sea, have oe «eter Department] THE HEAD AND THE HAND 59s applied it. Wherever carefully adopted and wisely carried out, the sweep has been triumphant. The students are interested, look upon their work with delight, get their other lessons better, remain longer at the schools, are better trained in mind as well as body, and obtain that skillful con- trol of the hand that is invaluable to them, whatever their calling in life may be, and that gives them ability to enter any of the mechanical pur- suits with much better chance of success. In spite of this general success, there are some who fear. They fear especially that manual training schools will turn out men and women who in some way will be lacking in power of thought, in force of will, in business, and literary and moral perception. The fear is groundless ; the results already reached by manual training schools prove this. Yet this fear is an honorahle one; it is grounded in the desire to secure such education as shall make able and moral men and women. It, therefore, should receive our respectful attention. Education should do for us at least two things. It does much more than this, but certainly it should do this much: First, it should teach us facts about many things; that is, it should give us knowledge. _ Secondly, it should teach us to think and to act clearly, correctly, and forcibly ; that is, tt should train the mind to have strength, power, force in all the ways in which the mind acts. It may be truthfully claimed that manual training teaches facts, gives knowledge. But on this I will not enter now. In the other direction— that of developing power in many of the faculties of mind—manual training has superior merits. Let us see. All educators are familiar with the difficulty of getting pupils to give close attention. The mind wanders from the subject before it; flits from subject to subject, dwelling only a moment on any one. Only by over- coming this inattention can the student be led to knowledge and power. Manual training in the kindergarten, the drawing room, and the shop aids wonderfully in fixing the attention. The student is easily led to attend to that which interests him. He is interested in tools and in the things he can make by their use. He thus forms the habit of attention, and he finds that, in proportion as he holds his mind intently upon his work, that work becomes easy and pleasant. He begins soon to attend carefully to other lessons and other work, and the habit of attention is strengthened. By and by he is able to concentrate his mind upon any subject and to hold it there for a long time. Another difficulty which educators meet is the inaccuracy of pupils; the spelling, the reading, the drawing, the writing, the laboratory work are inaccurate. Unless accuracy can be substituted for inaccuracy, the students’ lives will be failures. 74° NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Industrial The boy or girl at work with tools soon comes to realize the necessity of accuracy. The saw must be guided exactly on the line; the plane must be carefully set; the chisel must not run too deep; the block of wood must have its corners square, it must be neither too large nor too . small, even by a hair-breadth; the pieces that make the joints must fit each other perfectly, or the joint shows gaps that will condemn it. It is at first a grievous thing to find the work of a day or a week thrown away by the teacher with a zero mark, because it is not accurate. But this steady rejection of inferior work, coupled with the pleasure the student feels when a piece of work is accepted, leads to such care as brings, after a while, accuracy in every piece of work. If accurate in the shop, he will be accurate in other exercises. The habit of accuracy is formed. He is discontented with himself unless all his work and all his lessons are well done. This habit, carried into all the work of later years, gives him an immense advantage. Impatience is one of the most common causes of failure in life. We cannot wait for the slow but sure process of nature. We would learn all music, all mathematics, all chemistry, in one term. We would recover from the most serious illness in a day. We would reform the city, the state, the nation, in a single effort. We cannot endure delay. We despair of success if our efforts do not bring immediate and large results. Finding that the work in hand must be accomplished slowly, we give it up and begin something else, expecting that this can be done with imme- diate success. After a time we find that this, too, moves slowly, and it is given up for some enterprise around which our glowing imagination throws a charming halo of speedy results. No one thing is followed long, hence in nothing do we really succeed. Now, the student who is being educated through the hand finds himself at every turn trained to patience. He begins, perhaps, with saw and plane and square to make a small piece of wood smooth and true. He smiles a little derisively when the teacher gives him a task which seems so simple. He begins confidently. But the tools are new to his hand and will not move just right. Somehow that special piece of wood is most difficult to shape. After a much longer time than he expected he finishes the work and takes it to the teacher. He is surprised that the teacher promptly rejects it. The teacher applies the square, and lets him see how untrue are the surfaces and angles. With another block he is again set to work. The derisive smile has disappeared, but he is still sure that a task so simple can be done quickly. He works now somewhat more slowly and carefully. When the work is done, it is taken somewhat less confidently for examina- tion. Again the teacher’s practiced eye, and the relentless square, show imperfections. So it goes from day to day, until at length the head gets power to guide the hand with greater steadiness, and the eye can see ‘ Department] THE HEAD AND THE HAND 741 more accurately. By and by the exercise is accepted. As the work goes on from term to term, from year to year, the student becomes more patient and more painstaking. He thus in time becomes more patient with the limitations, the difficulties, with which he will surely meet in life. A common remark about a person is, ‘‘his judgment is poor,” or “his judgment is good.” Ifthe man is not able to compare fact with fact, condition with condition, and come to a rational conclusion as to what should be done, or should not be done, we say he lacks judgment. if he does so compare, and does come to well-grounded conclusions, we say his judgment is good. In the exercises of manual training schools there is constant need for comparing and judging. At every point the student must compare tool and material and work and result with the pattern and the ideal, and judge as to whether it is right, in good condi- tion, well done, or ill done. He thus slowly comes to recognize the importance of slight differences and slight resemblances, and to give them weight in the judgments he forms. When, in after years, he finds him- self surrounded by conditions that demand swift comparison and prompt decision, his training does not fail him. He is equal to the emergency. As arule he will then find that he sees the end from the beginning, and that his swiftest judgments have been wise. The leader in business, in education, in religion, in politics, must have perfect control of self. Indeed, the merely successful man, if he be not a leader, must not be wanting in self-control. He who fails in this fails of the highest material success, and he fails especially in the cultiva- tion of that noble inner force we call strength of character. In the exercises of the manual training school there is not a movement, not the use of a tool, not the simplest exercise, that does not require control of self. Let the boy become a little excited, and fail to control the head and the hand, and in a moment his joint is ruined, his pattern for casting is spoiled, or the casting itself is rendered useless. Let the girl even for a moment allow her attention to wander, and her unsteady hand has made a false stroke, and the carving on which she has spent many days is marred. That one false stroke cannot be remedied. To keep the carving now would but remind her for years of the thoughtless second. She throws it sor- rowfully on the fuel heap, and, as the lines around her mouth assume a firmer tenseness, she determines that the next carving shall not be spoiled by the one moment in which self-control failed. How happy will it be for boy and girl if this training of the shop, added to the training of the class-room and laboratory, shall in the end give them control over their best friend and their most dangerous enemy, the self! I have spoken thus far of the manual training acquired in the shop. All that has been said in its favor applies with equal force to the training in the garden, the orchard, the farm, and the barn—the garden and the 742 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Industrial farm, in their varied kinds of work, in the noble material body, vivified and directed by the noble mind in which dwells the power of close atten- tion, of perfect accuracy, of unconquerable patience, of rational judgment, of thorough self-control. And may we not believe that such qualities of mind will result in that pure and noble character which is the highest expression of humanity ? I once attended the dedication of a beautiful church, which had been built by a wealthy gentleman as a memorial to his father and mother. As we entered the edifice, which artisan and artist had striven to make as beautiful as possible, we saw at the opposite end of the church, high over the pulpit, a large window of stained glass. Its left half showed a young and sturdy blacksmith at his anvil. Its right half showed a young and beautiful woman at work with a spinning wheel. I learned that the two figures were portraits of the father and mother in their younger days, when the father had been a workman in a machine shop, and the mother a spinner in a cotton mill. They had done fruitful work, they had honored their calling. With their savings the father soon owned a small machine shop; later he owned many mills and accumulated a large fortune, which enabled the son to enjoy all things which money will command. The son’s own early life had been spent in the work of the mills. When, after years of active leadership in the great world of industry, the father and mother passed on, the son was not unmindful that it was the hand work of his parents in their early life, guided by heads in which were trained mental powers, that had laid the foundation of the fortune that now put him among the most wealthy of the land. So, when he built in their memory, he put, in the place where all who entered the church must see, their portraits engaged in the honored labor of their younger days. That magnificent church, and many other philanthropic works, had come from the hands and the heads of the young workman and his wife. Now, all the results of their labor, and that of the son also, were consecrated to mental and spiritual uses, and so were uplifting humanity. Let the clear head guide the hand; let the skillful hand obey the head; then let the wealth which their joint labor wins minister wisely to human needs. So shall both hand and head be servants of the Most High. MENTAL RESULTS FROM MANUAL TRAINING. BY EDWARD O. SISSON, DIRECTOR BRADLEY POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, : PEORIA, ILL. The title of this paper was framed with the intention of including intellect, sensibility, and moral nature. It soon became evident, how- Department] MENTAL RESULTS FROM MANUAL TRAINING 743 ever, that my own power and time, and the limits of the paper, were inad- equate, not only for treatment of the triple subject, but even for any one division of it. Hence I may be allowed to substitute for “‘ Mental Results” the topic “Intellectual Results,” and, even after that limitation, it is with great hesitation that I present a paper which is necessarily brief and crude on so-_great a topic. Moreover, the demands of brevity have sometimes enforced a dogmatic form of expression which does not well suit a subject of such difficulty. It is not necessary, in this audience at least, to emphasize the fact that the term “manual training” must shut out technical and trade shop work, neither of which can need any defense. The reason for the paper, aside from personal bent, is found in the following opinion: Manual training has won its way into many schools where its only claim can be general educational power—such are the manual training high schools and similar schools, under whatever name. Far more schools, in other points similar to these, have no shop work. The logical conclusion seems to be either that this training has no right in the former schools, or it ought to be also in the latter. Which is true can only be decided by determining the general educational value of the shop work. Now, the development of skill of hand and eye by the work*will be denied by no one. If, then, we can show that it gives also an oppor- tunity for thought growth, its claim to a place in the curriculum will be made good. We do not claim that shop work will infallibly produce thinkers—some so-called shop work is more likely to make blockheads ; but so is some Latin, and some science, and some mathematics. We do not now speak of what shop work must inevitably do, nor even, great though that is, of what it is doing, but of what it may do; and I apprehend that the picture will be Utopian enough. But the educator, if any man, must “hitch his wagon to a star,” and first he must see the star. There is another instrument of education so much resembling the shop that a parallel between them cannot be out of place. I mean, of course, the laboratory ; and in this would be included the field work of the geol- ogist and naturalist. The laboratory has fought its battle and won its ground —the shop has its place largely yet to win. So much have these in common that no hard and fast line can be drawn between them. It is true that the general proximate aim in the laboratory is the discovery of physical facts, while that of the shop is the accomplishment of physical ends ; yet, in all except professional and technical work, the ultimate aim of both shop and laboratory is the development of power in the student. Moreover, the mechanical and constructive side of laboratory work merges into the experimental and investigating side of shop work. The essence of both shop and laboratory is contact with things and learning at first hand; here they perfectly agree, and show themselves as parts of the “new 744 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Industrial education,” in the best sense of the word. Some specification of the com- mon intellectual results of shop and laboratory may be in place. iN First, these methods of education employ, and cultivate, sense-percep- tion, and all raust agree that the great majority of our ideas are con- structed of the material gained by sense-perception. The boy peering into the test tube or crucible, or scrutinizing the swaying balance, and the boy laying the try-square to the board which he is planing, or watching when his iron shall be hot enough to strike, or feeling the decreasing effect of equivalent blows upon the cooling mass — these both differ from the book student, in that they gain ideas direct from things through sense; or we might better call these intellectual acquisitions, in the language of Locke, impressions, the marks or images made by the things upon the mind. Here, then, in shop and laboratory, the student is gaining new material wherewith to build his mind. . After perception, logically, comes conception. Concepts are either patch-work structures of misfit ideas suggested by words, or they are mental counterparts of the real thing which. has acted upon the mind through eye, hand, ear, and other sense organs. The latter variety are born in the actual world, and in the shop and the laboratory, because these are parts of the actual world. Constructed in the presence of the object, they are in accord with reality, and have a fullness of detail never found in the patched-up conception; in other words, they are true; built of sense impressions, they are vivid and permanent; belonging to actual things, they are of practical value. When we remember that judgment and reasoning depend absolutely upon concepts, the great importance of concepts becomes evident. Perception and conception, as a matter of fact, unite in a process which we call observation ; a process which is, perhaps, the foundation of the difference between a man and a stone. Shop and laboratory develop this power, and test it. Words from a book may be repeated in parrot fashion, but the description in words of what has happened under the eyes proves the mental process. Judgment and reasoning are based upon conception; as the character of the concept is improved, so the basis for good thinking is increased. Particularly is this true when the conception is made fuller and more in accord with the thing. II, There are, however, differences of great importance between shop and laboratory, and we must now note some of the peculiar characteristics of the shop work. sf tna wel fh eS z Ps, Department] MENTAL RESULTS FROM MANUAL TRAINING 745 First comes the large activity of the student in all processes. The wood or iron is shaped and molded under his forceful hand — purpose, volition, effort, on his part, and, lo, the vainly resisting stuff is turned to his conception! The possibilities of thought crowd here beyond our enumeration—the perception of change, the conception of cause and effect, and the relation of equivalency or correspondence, the great ethical idea that to understand and obey nature is the only way to control her. Here, also, we are tempted to wander whither we must not go, into the field of moral ideas and the growth of character. Ideas which were mingled with action at their birth have the maximum of vividness and permanence. Such ideas, moreover, have more fullness; they growin a kind of interchange of action and perception. Ductility and malleabil- ity cease to be mere words; they represent what they should, logically and etymologically, namely, an experience—an actual memory of a drawing-out, or a beating-out; with a hundred details, moreover, entirely lacking in the non-experimental conception. The conception formed is no longer that of the thing inert, but the thing changing in response to human effort; and how vitally important it is to know of things, not only what they are, but what they will do in response to a stimulus. Secondly, the objects dealt with in the shop are close to everyday life. The laboratory seeks to penetrate the secrets and hidden places of matter and force; the shop deals with them on their face. The latter, no less than the former, deals with these two fundamental physical concepts— matter and force; not, indeed, in the dim regions where the line between force and matter seems to be fading away, the favorite ground of the physi- cist and chemist, nor when they enter into a mysterious compact to pro- duce the phenomena of life and furnish the biologist’s problem; but rather under the terms of raw material and labor meeting for the satisfac- tion of human wants, a problem in which lack of abstruseness and mystery is atoned for by tremendous ethical and economical interest. There are in this connection four important concepts developed, to which I wish to devote some space; namely, the material, the implement, the process, and the finished product. First, that of mazteriai—the stuff or “‘stock.”’ It would be possible, by tracing the material to its source, to introduce almost all the sciences of nature, especially, of course, botany and mineralogy. But the shop work is chiefly interested in the present condition; its texture, strength, forms, and the readiness with which it yields tothe tool. Here may come the study of all the physical properties of matter —impenetrability, hard- ness, tenacity, brittleness, ductility, malleability. What an endless study is here of cohesion in all its forms and degrees! Friction and adhesion are no less exemplified whenever one material is to be attached to another. 746 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Industrial All these qualities are to be studied, not abstractly, but with a view to the accomplishment of some practical end. The physicist asks: “ What is the intimate structure and essence which underlies the forces of attraction and repulsion?” The mechanic asks: ‘Under what controllable con- ditions do these forces act and vary? In what quantity are they found, and how can I make use of them ?”’ Next comes the concept of the ¢mplement—itself material—not to be used as a component part of the final result, but to work its influence upon it. There may be noted three divisions here: First, that implement which comes in direct contact with the material, and which cuts, abrades, molds, perforates, grinds, polishes, and the like. This is the tool. It is a piece of matter found or formed by man to aid him in working his will on other matter. Its chief functions are the concentration, accumu- lation, or distribution of force. But often, to secure the best results from the tool, the material and the tool must be moved with respect to each other in a specially complex, or a specially forceful, or a specially deli- cate manner. Man then devises a combination of levers, wheels, cogs, bands, and the like, to secure the desired motion—this is a machine. It grasps material, or tool, or both. A complex motion is often gained by an interesting co-operation of man and machine: the machine furnishes one definite motion of tool or material, the man supplies the more varied adjustment of stuff or tool. A notable example is the turning lathe, with its ceaseless whirl ever in one simple circle, the gouge and chisel, which, in the workman’s hand, carry the graceful curve from the mind to the work. Truly a noble conception! The dull matter of the machine has been, as it were, endowed with at least one thought, and has been taught to do at least part of the work of an intelligent being. This is the second form of the implement. But the machine demands power in such quantity that its develop- ment has necessarily been contemporary with the growth of devices for utilizing the non-human forces of the world. These are chiefly the steam engine, and, in a less, but increasing, degree, the dynamo and motor. I know of no name for this third type of implement. After the material, and the implement, comes the meeting of these two in the process —the hand driving home the nail, the vise tightening on the block within it, the chisel meeting the swiftly revolving bar of wood. What law of force is not illustrated here? Here are levers, inclined planes, rods, wheels, and all their combinations in action; here are velocity, inertia, friction, moments, reaction at every turn, generation, transmission, modification of force. Time fails us to do more than thus hint at what the shop can do along these lines. Force in the infinite, and in the infinitesimal, at lightning speed, and at an invisible snail’s pace — yet equally sure and relentless! Here, surely, is a veritable laboratory sna amaitaaaa i ge As mage D5, ee ee Department] MENTAL RESULTS FROM MANUAL TRAINING 747 of statics and dynamics, with every law printed in clearly legible characters. I can only touch upon the fourth great conception of the shop — the manufactured article. To the ordinary man it is a mere chattel, to be used and worn out; to the shop-trained mind it tells a story of human life, thought, effort, achievement; hardly an angle or a curve but speaks ; every cross-bar and brace has a meaning; the oaken wainscot is again seen growing in the forest, and the great iron gates before the palace are known as the lineal descendants of pig iron, or even of the black rock in the bowels of the earth. I might well have spoken of pure, logical products of tool work — causation and the geometry of space; but the above concepts seem to me the real contribution of the shop to the mental treasury. The danger of education in all ages seems to be the same—a tendency to become esoteric and far removed from daily life. Such was the learning of the school men of days gone by; there is not wanting a fear that modern scientific research, which entered as the herald of the new and practical learning, is erring in the same direction. Perhaps some of the fondness of the physicists for ether and atoms which have never been seen, and of the mathematicians for what are by definition ‘impossible quantities,” is no wiser than the love of the medizevalist for discussing how many angels can dance on the point of a needle. A great body of educators call themselves humanists, and, surely, any man might gladly enroll himself with the true humanists; but, after all, are Plato and Virgil and Browning the humanities any more than the things which occupy the effort of a majority of civilized mankind and underlie the life and coinfort of all ? DISCUSSION. A. H. CHAMBERLAIN, Throop Polytechnic Institute, Pasadena, Cal.—The paper to which we have just listened certainly outlines the intellectual results of manual training in a most clear and forcible manner. It shows, as it ought, a high conception of the value of the workshop in the educational arena. In this discussion I can hardly do more than approve the stand taken, and perhaps add a few additional thoughts. In the first place, however, one difference of opinion: To admit that manual train- ing has a right to be in manual-training high schools and some other institutions is not, under the existing conditions, to admit its right to be in all schools similar to these in most points. Not all schools or communities are yet ready for it. Manual training, if poorly taught, will certainly fall into disrepute. The curriculum is now overfull, and if manual training is to stay and become part of the daily programme, its exponents must be men and women who thoroughly understand its value and are capable, not only of teach- ing their own subject, but of teaching the other subjects as well. They must see clearly the relations between manual training and the traditional lines of book work. Of such teachers there is still a comparatively small number. 748 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Industrial The patch-work conceptions suggested by mere words and a tangible something, a correspondence to the real object, have been spoken of and compared. In no depart- ment of school work, so far as I know, as in the shops is the great value of the latter brought out, and nowhere else is there such opportunity for its growth. Such conceptions are in all respects true. A mistaken or wrong impression gained in the shop, and incor- porated into, or made a part of, some piece of constructed hand work, can readily be detected and the defect shown the pupil, where, in some other line of work, it might pass unnoticed. As to the comparisons made between shop and laboratory. The true shop is, in the broad sense, the true laboratory. In the true shop the student is not only to construct his model of wood, to make the joint, to temper or draw the piece of metal; but he must know why he goes through each process as he does, and understand the effects on the completed object, should some other method be employed. In the true shop the student must not only construct, he must execute as well. Along the line of mental results of manual training, let me read the answers to four of several questions sent out some time ago. These answers come from supervisors and teachers of manual training from all parts of the country—teachers of grades and high-school classes where manual training forms part of the regular programme; principals of manual and technical schools; normal-school and college men, and prominent educators, who, by observation and experience, are qualified to speak on the subject. Of course, the answers are boiled down, some of the typical ones only being given, but covering, as they do, such a wide field of educational thought, they should certainly prove most valuable : I. Can you trace any improvement in discipline, character, etc., to the manual training work ? “Improvement in manners, earnestness of thought, and promptness.” ‘ Decidedly.” “Those who take manual training are superior, as a class,in both respects to those who do not.” “ Boys reputed bad settle down to amore sedate view of the school relation.” “Promotes self-respect by opening new lines of power, and thus discipline is easier.” “ Stimulates to a sense of responsibility and a degree of well-founded self-respect, which are incompatible with the puerilities, conceits of the mere book students.” ‘ Yes, gen- erally.” ‘ Best kind of moral training, if rightly directed.” “Yes. Productive and crea- tive activity in manual work furnishes pupils tangible proof that they are of some account in the world, and they are meant to control the universe by beneficent ends.” 2. (a) Is the pupil’s power to grasp and retain thought strengthened? (4) Is his power of application strengthened ? Unanimously “yes” to both. “Yes; power to grasp and apply thought in action is strengthened. Foresight, care, and perseverance are increased. Mere memory is but little exercised.” 3. In what way do you see a manifestation that the mental machinery of the child is being improved ? “ By increase of power to understand drawing, solve problems, and master difficul- ties. Thought is led into healthful lines. Proud to be able to do things in the home. Inventive power is strengthened.” “In every way.” ‘More logical reasoning; more exact; grasps abstract conceptions more readily. Laboratory experiments in science work are performed more intelligently and rapidly, accomplishing 25 per cent. more work.” “Student is more logical, and consequently has a better verbal expression, mani- fested in the manner in which any line of mathematics or science is attacked.” “In his general attitude toward his other lines of work, and his actually increased progress.” “Learns to apply knowledge and to think concretely.” ‘Develops judgment, persever- ance, observation, accuracy, and application.” ‘In love for manual work, in habits of P= es Department] &ELATION OF NORMAL SCHOOL TO MANUAL TRAINING 749 accuracy and neatness, in persistent effort for the accomplishment of a given aim.” “For healthy physical, mental, and moral training,there is nothing better for the child from four to eleven years of age than continuous manual training, connected with the arts — modeling, painting, drawing, etc.” 4. Do you think as much is accomplished in the book lines as if no time were given to manual training ? “Yes,more. The modern languages and music are taken up with more vigor.” “A moderate amount of manual training work increases the amount of work done in the book line.” “‘Time is unquestionably gained by increased powers of application and stimulation of interest. Pupils are less apt to waste time dawdling.” ‘‘ Theoretically, yes; but much depends upon the effective co-operation of the regular teacher.” ‘The change of work inyigorates the worker, and there is, therefore, no loss in accomplish- ment.” ‘Yes, more.” ‘Yes, if time is judiciously distributed between academic and industrial work.” ‘‘ Manual training, combined with the other arts, is the best possible means of training the constructive faculty or the constructive imagination of the child.” “Pupils learn more readily from books, and retain what they have learned more tena- ciously than their less fortunate fellow-students.” The intrinsic value of the article made in the manual training workshop is slight, but the energy working through the tool and manifesting itself in the finished object shows to the observant teacher characteristics of the boy never before known to exist in him. A finished piece of work is viewed with much satisfaction by the student. He sees the relation of cause to effect; his conceptions of form are increased, and he sees that - only that is beautiful which is made for good and true purposes ; that color, shape, and magnitude are, indeed, of a secondary consideration, when compared with the creative idea and execution of the object. SOME POSSIBLE RELATIONS OF NORMAL SCHOOLS TO MANUAL TRAINING. BY W. D. PARKER, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, RIVER FALLS, WIS. This paper contends that manual training has such intrinsic merit and has made for itself such actual place in a variety of schools as logically to demand the preparation of teachers for such schools by normal schools. The normal school has sought to prepare persons for teaching whose qualifications in science and literature at the time of entrance were yet largely to be made. ‘This proceeding has the disapproval of experienced teachers, and its like in the other professions has invited the earnest pro- test of lay and professional writers. While the conditions of sixty years ago showed immediate need for teachers at the hands of American normal schools, then first operated, normal management seemed to be justified in graduating persons of meager institutional preparation laid in method. Nearly the same length of time has been employed in teaching that man- agement that the child is more than a mere reader, a calculator, and a writer, and that management is now invited to aid the child in expressing 750° NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Industrial a large body of truth that finds acceptance through his persistent wish to draw, to construct with his hands objects of beauty and of utility. Normal management now finds difficulties in changing procedure, thus showing a historic conservatism that is well or ill according to its alertness to reform from within, or to its willingness to await compulsion from without. Psychology itself has taken more vital forms of late years, and, through its applied pedagogy, normal management has learned the importance of studying anew the meaning of all manual effort that may be introduced into institutions ; and it may be said that new stimulus therefrom has already come to many schools. This industrial section of the National Educational Association has elicited and put on record ample outlines of manual courses of study, and has named the grades of schools that should practice in them. Its discussions have shown abundantly the belief of eminent men that the leading purpose of institutional manual work is the immediate reaction upon the moral and intellectual well-being of the operator, derived through attention and through manual habits that are created in child- hood and maintained in youth. Normal schools may be pleased to remain seminaries, though invited by lower schools to inaugurate pedagogic laboratories for observing, for enabling introspection to realize itself in the outer world. Booker Washington’s account of his colony at Tuskegee tells the tale of social, as well as of economic, education. The wish to construct many forms, as a sequence of earlier tendency to analyze them by destroying them, may well lead to the view of John Fiske, as repeated by Dr. Butler, wherein the protracted period of plastic childhood is stated by Fiske to have afforded time for “‘ converting our forefathers from brute creatures into human creatures.” ‘It is babyhood that has made man what he is.”’ Whether or not Herbert Spencer’s uniform answer to varied questions pleads for changes in the practice in normal schools, there can be no ques- tion of preserving the child’s symmetry by employing the intelligent hand in verifying truths by the construction of objects and by delineation of forms. Dr. Harris is pleased to say that ‘‘ There are a number of branches of study, such as drawing, manual training, physical training, and the like, which ought to be taught in every well-regulated school.” John Stuart Mill says: “The test of real and vigorous thinking is successful applica- tion to practice.” Dr. Bain included under the title of “mechanical training” “the command of the bodily organs for all the ordinary pur- poses of life.” A brief example may suffice here for justifying the introduction of manual work in aschool: It may be claimed that development through ao Ay noel Department] AEZLAT/ON OF NORMAL SCHOOL TO MANUAL TRAINING 751 the mind-hand is a tonic for performance in ordinary school study —not to say that manual and literary work are admissible during greater time than either when pursued alone. Dr. Belfield, of Chicago, has, during thirteen years, steadily maintained that young men make at least as rapid progress in the academic-manual course of study as they did formerly in the separate academic course of a breadth equivalent to the academic side of the academic-manual course, thus making a clear gain of the manual side of study and a certain other increment gained in buoyancy of spirit. Professor James, of Omaha, testified to like results in the city high school. Denial will scarcely be made of the sustained stimulus coming through the restful alternative offered chiefly by manual practice after work that is chiefly mental, when periodicity with proper integration is observed. Thus the concession of the effect of such com- bination in common schools logically carries like effect innormal schools in their effort to prepare teachers. Not the least value of manual train- ing in any school is the tonicity of discovery by the introduction of the learner to the living practice of a large line of truths that relate to materials that have, heretofore, been unknown to school practice. When schools perform, under the titles of zodlogy, geology, and psychology, relevance to the mechanics of anatomic and botanic structure will be pro- vided through the mechanism of manual training ; and allusion to the external in known terms of the manual will make psychology find its con- stant corrective in the object. The normal school that teaches in typical forms in any set academic branches, making it the pleasure of learners to discover illustrative relevancy of the emphasized type, will thus save time which may be used for manual training, as in botany and zodlogy the consideration of functions leads to noble suggestions in the name of classification — just as the doctrine of the kindergarten gifts leads to wide relevance of gift forms everywhere ; just as “ man intuitively feels that his unrealized self lies in the objective world, that there is a community of life between himself and that world,” in phrase of Professor Arnold Tompkins. Hence, if objection is made to further inclusion in normal or other curricula, the aggregate in such courses may be made constant by teaching in types and by omitting multitudes of extensions by name, under the belief that concentration in a few branches for a few lines is admissible whenever the spirit of teaching accommodates to the learner’s present status. Nearly all normal schools have introduced drawing, with permitted differentiation of free-hand and~ mechanical, between the sexes; it is believed that as readily can construction through tool work in wood and paper for all pupils —culinary and needle work for girls, metal and gen- eral engine construction for boys — be introduced. An encouraging sign for manual work is found in Wisconsin, in the 752 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Industrial statute, passed in 1895, that provides for the establishment of manual training departments in high schools, for supervision, and for qualifying teachers therein, and for furnishing two hundred and fifty dollars’ aid to each school, though not to exceed ten schools in the state may be so aided in any year. Five schools are already operating under this law, and with satisfaction to local people. The history of this movement will interest at another time, but it may be remarked now that this demand for teachers must, in part, rest upon normal schools. — The range of desired manual training is revealed by a glance at the prospective use of the hand in civilization. The art which every sane person should acquire is shown in his necessary touch with personal belongings, with food, clothing, domestic furniture, and other common objects; and such touch ought to attract attention of school children. This minimum enlarges itself greatly when the persons are to act and think in community. Their language is heightened in power, both in receiving and interpreting truths, by the use of delineation in varied forms, by writing, by cutting with several tools, and by joining for con- structive purposes in paper, wood, fabrics, and metals ; and by cooking, sewing, and draping. From kindergarten through twelfth grade appropiate manual instruc- tion should be the pleasure of every child in his own interest, in order to make him a more intelligently co-operative citizen, though permitting him to do what he wants to do to his betterment. If schools purpose having pupils find the unknown through its discoverable relevance to the known, even admitting Dr. Payne’s placement of the unknown within, and the known without; if the belief is tenable that self-activity alone makes individual progress possible ; if the purpose of education “is to carry us to a knowledge of ourselves in the work,” as named by Matthew Arnold, then manual training will be included in any worthy system of schools; for manual skill of any kind may be heightened by institutional effort. Hence the normal schools must fit teachers to deal with manual work, since their graduates are to organize courses of study, are to exe- cute work thereunder, and are to be expositors of plans therein, for the information of school officers and of the general public. “Fail to the skillful, cunning hand ; Hail to the cultured mind ! Contending for the world’s command, Here let them be combined.” DISCUSSION. HoMER H. SEERLEY, Cedar Falls, la.—The day has passed when argument is neces- sary to establish the importance of manual training as a part of an elementary education. - acs RT <_< Ss eel ee eee aaa Department] RELATION OF NORMAL SCHOOL TO MANUAL TRAINING 753 The day is even here when the means and methods of its introduction are leading ques- tions for discussion and solution. The people of the United States are ready to do anything that is rationally possible to accomplish the bettering of the chances for pros. perity and success for their children through public education. They are dissatisfied with present results, and are waiting patiently and hopefully for the thinker who can solve the problem and show them how to make elementary education more effective and more practical. That there is need of training in industry for every child who is born into this progressive civilization is an accepted fact, but the way to secure this desired end is not yet solved. There is no doubt but the country boy, with his industrial training obtained on the farm, even when short in intellectual education through inefficient and badly con- ducted rural schools, has more chance in the struggle for success in life than the city boy with no industrial training, even though he attended the best public schools and have the best chances the age affords for intellectual education. One needs but to investigate the record of successful men to learn that training in some industry is an essential factor to an individual’s success in any of the present-day vocations. The city boy has an environ- ment that is naturally against a training in any form of industry, unless there is some co-operative effort like the public-school organization to give it tohim. To learn to work, to acquire the disposition to be industrious, to get such a training as to make one ready to do and efficient in doing, ought to be the privilege of every child that comes in con- tact with public education. I am led to believe, therefore, that rural schools, with all their deficiencies, are not depriving the children they serve of this sort of training to the extent that city schools ‘do. There is no doubt but the rural schools could be so modified in the courses of study they offer and in the character of instruction they give that they could better serve the children that they are organized to teach. There is necessity for the rural school-teacher more clearly to understand the industries of the farm, and to unite more closely to the regular studies the life of the country, but it is also much more true that the education of the cities and towns should be thus combined with the industrial life that the children in the schools of these cities and towns must afterward live. This much from the economic side of the problem. But there is another side to the problem, that of training and discipline, both of which are obtainable through such modification. Learning to work with economy of expendi- ture and effort, learning to work skillfully and rapidly, is a great training in mental dis- cipline and mental activity, and in no way can this particular kind of skill and economic development be given except through exercise in manual industry. But our problem today is not so much these as the relation of normal schools to the public schools in the aiding of the solution of the question of proper teacher supply — furnishing such persons as are able actively to lead in this work in all schools. There is no doubt, if there is no state agency in the training of teachers to teach manual industry, that the progress in these desirable lines will be very slow. These state normal schools have a province in public progress and development that must not be overlooked, and they must be enlisted in this work and be thoroughly in sympathy with it before much can be done to hasten the day when a complete education for a child is obtainable in a public school. Normal-school students go at once to the work of teaching in public schools, and, if they were taught in these lines themselves, they could become an immediate factor in developing and popularizing the work. The states could give great aid to this indus- trial training by at once opening a manual training department in each normal school, and by offering two lines of instruction: first, a course in general training suitable for all grades and kinds of schools, which would constitute a part of the course that every stu- dent graduating from a normal school should be required to take; and, second, a course that was intended to prepare persons to do special work as instructors in cities and towns 754 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Industrial where such instruction is put into the hands of a special teacher. There is a danger that, if the advocates of this work as a part of public school educational effort stop long enough to settle the forms that are essential and best, there will be several generations of children neglected and ignored that could have been at least partially trained if some form had been zealously undertaken. There must be more or less experiment in these new attempts. There will be much difference of opinion and much variation in the plans undertaken. There should be, however, serious efforts in every field, whether or not these attempts are more than approximations toward a desired end. These experiments can be made at the normal schools more cheaply and universally than anywhere else, and can be thoroughly tested there with actual children in every grade of public-school work, so that, before long, some of the normal schools will certainly develop a system of training that will be known to be possible to be accomplished, and that will show such evident results that it will be acceptable to the general public. There is no question but the advocates and the instructors in present-day manual training will be somewhat disappointed at these preliminary efforts of the normal schools, as these schools will not go to the full measure of instruction that the majority of these workers now think essential and important; but they can be satisfied of one thing, that the normal schools will occupy the middle, con- servative ground in the effort, and will be able finally to accomplish the purpose of their attempts through securing some actual training in industry for the pupils in the public schools. All things are of slow growth, if they continue long. All things are of slow development that are to be of lasting benefit, and, for this reason, a moderate and a con- tinual progress toward an ideal condition, an approximation toward an ideal state of edu- cation and training, is all that should be sought. To the securing of this very much desired state of affairs there can be no more useful, nor more effective, agency than the state normal schools, and their full duty to public education will not be met until they are aggressive factors in the further development and complete application of industrial training. DEPARTMENT OF ART EDUCATION. Se ChE oie oo vlINO LES, FIRST SESSION.—WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 1897. The department was called to order by the President, Mark Maycock, of Buffalo, N. Y., who opened the meeting with a few well-chosen remarks. Miss Harriet Cecil Magee, of Oshkosh, Wis., read a paper, “ Drawing in Normal Schools — Problems Solved and Unsolved.” D. R. Augsburg, of Salt Lake City, Utah, delivered an illustrated address on the “Expression of Lines.” The following Committee on Nominations was appointed : Miss Mary Thompson, Miss Florence Hines, Miss Skinner, Miss Hattie White, and Miss Stratford SECOND SESSION.—THourRsDAY, JULY 8. The department was called to order by the President at 3 P.M. Jesse H. Brown, of Indianapolis, Ind., gave an address on “Principles of Diawing for Illustrations.” Miss Lillie M. Godden, of Chicago, Ill., read a paper on ‘“‘ What Do People Want in the Way of Drawing?” The paper was illustrated with blackboard sketches. The Committee on Nominations reported as follows: For President, Miss Harriet Cecil Magee, Oshkosh, Wis. For Vice-President, D. R. Augsburg, Salt Lake City, Utah. For Secretary, Miss Florence Browning Himes, Albany, N, Y. The report was adopted, and the nominees declared unanimously elected as officers for the ensuing year. After passing a vote of thanks to the local committee for its many courtesies, the department adjourned, D. R. AUGSBURG, Secretary. PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS. OPENING REMARKS. BY MARK M. MAYCOCK, PRESIDENT OF ART DEPARTMENT. There are two features of elementary art that have not yet received the attention they merit. * One of these is the systematic use of drawing 755 756 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Art as an aid in teaching other subjects, and the other is the value of certain lines, forms, and colors as aids in expressing feelings and emotions. Rightly to use art as an interpreter, it must tell its story in a simple way, it must not lose force by unduly emphasizing many things, and it must be clear in the one thing it is expected to say, and truthful in its statement. Further, it should be without effort at artistic finish or labored execution. Illustrative drawing may be given a much broader scope than is now accorded it; this is particularly true of geographical drawing, which is now confined almost exclusively to maps, but which may profitably be extended to most of the common descriptive features of geography. In nature study, including the study of insects, and in the higher sub- jects, nearly every branch offers opportunities for impressing special features by the aid of drawing. In the realm of decorative art we have made less advancement than in either pictorial or geometrical drawing, and it is for that reason that I wish to call attention to the positional and associational value of lines and forms as elements of decorative and pictorial composition. By decoration we understand not merely a change, but an improve- ment, in the appearance of an object. It is not simply covering one piece of hideousness with another that is possibly still worse, or merely changing it in form, color, or texture. Neither does it mean the pro- miscuous combination of beautiful elements for the purpose of enrich- ment; but true decoration means, rather, a thought or mood given form, in order to produce a similar thought or mood in others. The language of decoration and its influence are learned from the expression of lines, forms, and colors, as derived from the fact that cer- tain causes produce certain effects, and, where one is, the other will usually be found. A straight line conveys the impression of permanence and stability ; it is the leading line in all primitive structures built for protection and convenience, and, on account of its comparative ease of adjustment of rectilinear parts, it is the prominent line in the architecture of all nations lacking in mental and physical activity; it is also the line in nature of objects or parts requiring longitudinal resistance, such as the trunks of trees, stems of plants, and many of the bones. When in an upright posi- tion and with suitable width, the straight line gives the impression of support and security. Thus trees that endure the most are those that are straight and upright.. From daily contact with this principle we have learned that straight upright lines express strength and stability, and the decorator who wishes to convey this expression in his work relies on this principle, and gives the effect of stability by the generous use of sub- stantial upright lines. 2 —? Department] OPENING REMARKS 757 The expression of horizontal lines is that of quietness and rest, if too numerous, producing sluggishness; they are the lines in nature that seem to have no end; the position is that of rest or decay. The preval- ence of these lines in the sunsets, moonlight views, prairies, and fields gives them their well-known peaceful effect. While the horizontal line expresses peace, rest, or decay, roundness is the expression of quiet life. It is nature in her satisfied mood, without an excess of life and without much motion. These are not the forms either in the animal or vegetable kingdom that reach out into exposed places; but they prefer rather to be of the many than to stand alone. . There is also a class of objects that at once convey the thought of spirit and motion, forms that have life and activity in every line. These are the angular forms in nature, and the more acute their angles are, the more life and motion are expressed. Birds that are noted for swiftness of flight, animals of activity, and boats constructed for speed, all possess this feature in a marked degree. A slanting line leads the eye in its own direction, and a row of slant- _ing parallel lines will carry the eye in the direction of their slant. If these slanting lines be opposed by lines of similar slant, the eye, in attempting to follow both directions, will be carried toward the meeting point of these lines. Not only have form and direction an expression, but size is also to be considered, for there is size of grandeur, size of stability, size of activity, and size of insignificance, all of which are active elements in giving expression to constructive design and decorative enrichment. As no style of decoration has existed without color, and as color aids so much in giving expression to decoration, it becomes an important ele- ment in the expression of ornament. Experience has taught us that colors are warm or cold, advancing or retreating, soothing or exciting, and cheerful or gloomy, and rightly to use colors decoratively it is necessary to know their expression and value. We must know the effect, also, that one color has upon another, and the hues, tones, and quantities that will best harmonize. More than is necessary is said about the refining influences of art, and not enough about its underlying principles. Not that I object to refine- ment, or doubt that art is refining in its influences any more than I doubt that science or literature are refining, but the need of elementary art work just now is not refinement or taste so much as a knowledge of the esthetic value of the competent elements of art. For if every line has an expression of its own, and every position of a line conveys a thought peculiar to itself, and every form is the germ of an idea, then elementary art is a science which must be viewed from its 758 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Art psychological and scientific sides, as well as from its esthetic standpoint. But beyond its educational value and its esthetic worth, the crucial test of the value of our work is its effect upon the minds of our pupils. If the impression our work produces is frivolous and enfeebling in its tend- ency, our effort is wanting in its vital element, but if it is wholesome and uplifting, then it must be good, and we are in some measure meeting the demands of the better side of education. DRAWING IN NORMAL SCHOOLS— PROBLEMS SOLVED AND UNSOLVED. BY MISS HARRIET CECIL. MAGEE, OSHKOSH, WIS. G. F. Watts, who has been the interpreter of more spiritual beauty than perhaps any other living English artist, says in the catalogue of his last exhibit in the New Gallery, London, that the object of much of his work has been ‘“‘to suggest in the language of art modern thought in things ethical and spiritual.”’ Is not this in a humble manner the object of art training in our nor- mal schools today? Is it not to suggest in the language of schoolroom art “‘modern thought in things ethical and spiritual”’ ? The new education is most surely ethical and spiritual; and it is the spiritual that must mold and inspire the spiritual in all our educational work. In art we call this motive power by different terms— feeling, thought, inspiration ; and unless the material expression reveal something of this, we say that the results are dead, dry, and inartistic. How shall the students in our normal schools be imbued with this spiritual quality, is a problem that confronts us today. It is a problem that each of us has met on the threshold of our teaching. It is is one we still wrestle with after years of experience; and it is one that we must leave at the last unsolved, unless we find the solution in our own soul. No one can solve it for us. It must be wrought out in the smelting fur- nace of our own individuality, and imparted by means of our own person- ality. You must do it in your way. I must do it in mine. We cannot do it in the same way. It is wrong for us to think even for a moment that we can do so by any set plan or method. To use the words of Longfellow, put into the mouth of Michael Angelo, Itis the gift of God, and must be used Unto His Glory ; or, as Robert Browning said of music, ea ae AY Department] DRAWING IN NORMAL SCHOOLS 759 The finger of God, a flash of the will that can, Existent behind all laws: that made them, and, lo, they are ! And I know not if, save in this, such gift be allowed to man. The pictorial element in schoolroom art is another unsolved problem. We are, too many of us, slaves to the real. We have not yet reached that point in life called by Philip Gilbert Hamerton “emancipation from reality.” As a rule, educators are not considered artists; though some may admit that the greatest educators have had the artistic impulse to a greater degree than the least. If we consider these two classes, I think we shall find that the artist is an educator, and the educator is an artist in the highest and broadest sense. For an artist is an interpreter, a revealer of abstract beauty by concrete examples. What other is the educator? What were the elements of greatness in the teaching of the geatest teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, who ‘“ taught as never man taught’? 1. He taught spiritual abstraction by concrete methods. The lilies and the sparrow, the grain by the wayside, and the tares in the meadow furnished him teaching material. 2. He was the great interpreter, for he understood both the language of humanity and the language of divinity. Every true teacher is an interpreter. Every true artist is such, also. But to impart this power of interpretation, to teach this subtle language so that those taught shall become like interpreters, was given in full measure to Jesus Christ, and to him only. Yet to do some little part of such a mighty work is the commission of everyone who enters the class- room of a normal school and stands in the sacred office of a teacher of teachers. One may have that artistic insight that enables him to see in nature and commonplace objects about him a beauty hidden to vulgar eyes ; and he may be possessed of sufficient technical training to express what he feels and sees in a graceful and skillful manner; but no amount of mere technique will ever give to normal students the power to interpret to the minds of children the truth and beauty of the things about them. Children are too imaginative to have an accurate memory, and the teacher who makes much of technique deals too much with memory and not enough with imagination. Our normal students must be “emanci- _ pated from reality,” and trained in imaginative memory. For it is upon the control and education of imagination and memory that the artistic powers largely depend for their highest and best development. Several years ago, in Paris, some interesting experiments were made along this line by M. Lecoc Boisbaudran. His experiments were undertaken for the purpose of ascertaining how far the artistic memory may be cultivated. His account of these experiments astonished the most experienced artists 760 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Art What may have been done in this direction here in America I do not know, but I am convinced that the training of the artistic memory has not been wholly neglected in our schools. Yet I do fear that in our normal schools not enough attention has been given to the training of imagination and memory, the two working in unison. When I began my teaching in the West, I was impressed with the slug- gish manner in which the imagination of the normal students worked. But after a time I found that, while it may be true that the imagination depends much upon the environment, that young men and women reared in alevel, inland country have less vivid imagination than those reared on the seacoast or among the mountains; yet the arousing of the imagina- tion of the student, be it much or little, depends largely upon the teacher. That teacher, to be successful, must possess in himself the power to awaken and inspire images otherwise unformed, and so to open the mind’s eye and turn its gaze upon things hitherto unknown. How imaginative memory may be cultivated isa fitting question. So much has been made of object drawing from geometric solids and com- mon and familiar objects that one may justly ask : Does such work control and cultivate imagination and memory? We would answer that in our judgment, deduced from experience, it does do this to a certain extent, but not altogether. In fact, one has said and said truly that ‘When we keep children drawing from objects, learning always to reproduce what they see before them, are we not virtually exalting means toanend? Are we not giving them a graphical vocabulary, without encouraging them to say anything with it? While to encourage a child to use his graphical vocabulary, attained through drawing from objects, to express his artistic conceptions, is to lead him into the world of art and to relate him to it.’’ Objects having three dimensions must be drawn so as to suggest the third dimension and cause the mind to image the part not visible. But are we not in danger of calling upon our students to study only the part seen, and to dwell upon the facts of appearance until they represent them as baldly as they do the facts of form in constructive drawing? Thus they are educated away from artistic feeling and representation, and the imaginative memory is not roused or cultivated. Subjective drawing is better for young children than objective. It is true that there are minds to which the ‘subjective always makes a stronger appeal than the objective. This, however, is not perhaps general with adults, and object drawing must be given to such persons at the begin- ning of their work and continued till they recognize what they see. Later they come into the subjective work, having, as it were, learned back to child sight. In the case of children much imaginative drawing should be given before and in connection with object drawing. But the adult eae! inn aad Sema x © T Department] DRAWING IN NORMAL SCHOOLS 761 who comes into the school untaught must be taught, first, to draw from objects until he has, to a certain degree at least, mastered the alphabet of form language. When in possession of this, he may be set free to express his own thought by means of the new language. But one who dwells upon technical drill for its own sake is like a writing master as compared with the inspirational language teacher. The material results are con- ventional and not according to nature. If the convention is dwelt upon in this way for its own sake, the life is not represented. To bring the mind close to nature is most essential in this depart- ment of work. “°Tis life of which our souls are scant, More life and fuller than we want.” It is form and movement that must be expressed in a bold, spirited manner. It is not the quality of the line used for this expression upon which the soul of the student must exercise itself so unceasingly. “I think our lines are better than yours,” said a student of one school to another. He did not say that the line was more expressive of form and movement. Poor young man, he did not get beyond the mere fact of the line. His educational horizon in art was evidently not much broader than the line in which he modestly rejoiced. With children this is especially necessary, and normal-trained teach- ers must be taught that the objects to be presented to the little child must be brought directly from life, the life of the child. A loving inter- est is at once excited, which will express itself in line and outline, giving to the crudest work “That touch of nature that makes the whole world kin.” Read to children poems and stories of the known, not wholly of the unknown, something at least that touches upon his limited experience. It is absurd to attempt to teach empirically from facts that have never entered the experience. Read to a little child such a descriptive poem as the “Old Oaken Bucket,” and you will probably secure as illustrations of mental images a series of such drawings as those described by Mrs. Lucy Fitch Perkins in her paper on “ Imagination and Drawing.” The draw- ings referred to consisted of three circles and a number of spots dotted about on the paper. When asked what these were, the child replied that the first circle was the ‘“‘old oaken bucket,” the second “the iron-bound bucket,” the third circle ‘the moss-covered bucket,” and the dots “the loved spots that my infancy knew.” For the cultivation of imaginative memory by means of drawing and the kindred representative arts the teacher must go from the known to the unknown. He must so teach that glowing mental images shall be formed. If such concepts are formed, they will find fitting expression, for 762 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION re “No beauty, nor good, nor power Whose voice has gone forth, but each survives For the melodist, When eternity affirms the conception Of an hour.” There are other problems in drawing in normal schools that call for consideration; for example, mechanical drawing, color, composition, sketching from life, and a broader and more thorough study of the history of art. Whether in our short course of thirty or forty weeks, of three and one-half hours per week, we should attempt to cover more than the work of the eight grades, and omit the high-school work entirely, is a question of importance. When the normal school is situated so that the majority of its students have had years of training in drawing before they enter the normal school, then advance work may be carried on with assurance of success, the elements having been mastered. But when only an occasional student in even our large high-school contingent has received the slight- est instruction in drawing before entering the normal school, the problem assumes a different aspect and must be solved in a different manner. Then it seems to us that the most we can do is to teach our students the RECOGNITION OF ESSENTIALS. In the “Florentine Painters of the Renaissance,” by Benard Beren- son, the author makes a statement regarding painting that is equally true of any pictorial representation, no matter what the medium. He says that, ‘Setting aside those elements in painting which it has in com- mon with literature, that is to say, all the elements of association and sentiment, the suggestions of pleasant scenes, attractive types, and the emotional states induced by these; setting aside all, in fine, that we call poetic in a picture as not being specific elements of enjoyment capable of being afforded by painting, and by nothing else, the art of painting is differentiated from all other arts by the: fact that on a surface of two dimensions it represents objects that have three, and it represents move- ment by means of objects actually motionless.” But how do we realize form and movement? Every physiologist and every teacher of young children knows that the realization of form comes through touch, and that, too, through active touch or the muscular sense. Exercises in handling and grasping are given to young children in order that the correct idea of form may be developed in the child’s mind. Work in clay modeling and the manipulation of other plastic materials are carried on for the purpose of completing form ideas. The thought, then, that one can enjoy pictures by touch, by the muscular sense, “sounds,” as one has said, “as comic as to say that our enjoyment Department] DRAWING IN NORMAL SCHOOLS 763 of music comes to us through the sense of smell.” Nevertheless, if we consider the working of the imagination in the senses, we shall readily see that, although “crude finger tips are not in question, the sense of touch does lie at the bottom of the matter.” We know that it is largely by means of touch that we learn to appreciate distance, solidity, and motion ; and paintings, whose peculiar task it is to represent objects of three dimensions upon a surface that has only two, must, therefore, call the sense of touch to its aid; and “those pictures which succeed in arousing the imagination of touch are the only ones which solve the problems peculiar to their art, and are, consequently, the pictures which we must regard as great art.”’ The work of the Florentine artists, from Giotto to Michael Angelo, was almost exclusively devoted to the human figure in repose or move- ment, and Mr. Berenson would have us think that this accounts for the hold the art of this school has upon us. The artists of this period devoted themselves to the rendering of form and movement, “the specific task of the art of painting.” In the representation of form and movement the artist must represent them in such a way that we shall realize them more readily than we do in actuality. This is why “We love First when we see them painted, things we have passed Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see.” To illustrate this fact to a class of students a few months ago, I placed upon a stand a group of objects represented in a water-color drawing on the wall. I asked the class which afforded them the greater enjoyment, the reality or the representation. ‘They answered that it was the representation. They realized that the form was represented in the picture in such a manner as to rouse their imagination of touch and to “stimulate to an unwonted activity psychical processes never tending to pass over into pain.” Drawing must, therefore, select or invent those surfaces and those articulations “which shall startle our ideated sense of touch and muscular tension into unwonted activity,’ for from such ideated sensations most of our pleasures arise; and the chief problem of drawing in normal schools will be solved when our normal students find themselves in the possession of the ability so to represent form and movement that those that look upon the representation shall have this ideated sense of touch roused and stimulated into unwonted activity. Then shall the art of our public schools afford pleasures that are exhilarating and life-giving. Then shall drawing fall properly under the category of art which “enriches life and re-enforces personality,” confirm- ing our hold upon those vital principles that strengthen ond develop selfhood to its fullest and freest activity. 764 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Art THE EXPRESSION OF LINES. BY D. R. AUGSBURG, SUPERVISOR OF DRAWING, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH. Expression is the language of spirit expressed through form. Every- thing has expression which gives rise to some thought or feeling. Because the limbs and leaves of a certain tree droop we call it the weeping willow. The somber color and peculiar moaning of the pine trees give an expres- sion of sadness and a feeling of lonesomeness. The oak tree expresses sturdiness, the hickory tree is tough, the elm is graceful, and the maple cheerful. Thus each tree, as well as each shrub and plant, has an expression peculiar to itself. Animals have expressions, which we speak of almost unconsciously : greedy as a pig, stubborn as a mule, gentle as a dove, strong as a horse, fleet as a deer, the patient ox, the ferocious tiger, the active cat —are all expressions which characterize these animals. . And to prove how true these expressions are, exchange one for the other and speak of the gentle pig, the ferocious dove, the active ox, the stubborn cat, the gentle tiger, and we see at once how unfitting the expressions become. If we were walking through a forest and should suddenly come upon a snake, instantly there would be a feeling of revulsion. Why is this so? A snake is really both beautiful and graceful, its every movement is the per- fection of grace, and its color is beyond criticism ; yet to all of us it is repulsive in the extreme. Why is this? Simply because the snake gives expression to that which is disagreeable to us, to that which is sneaking, creeping, crawling, crafty, and treacherous. We have no such a feeling when we see a bird. I know it is impossible to separate the so-called expression of form from thé expression of spirit, or to make an analysis of either. It cannot be done, nor is it desirable that it should be. Our aim is merely to choose some of the most familiar form elements and to illustrate, not all, but some of their leading expressions. Let us begin with lines. Lines are divided into three general classes —the straight, the curved, and the angular. There are three kinds of straight lines—the vertical, the horizontal, and the oblique; each having an expression widely differing from that of the others. ; The vertical line expresses strength, life, stillness; the horizontal line expresses weakness, death, repose; the oblique line expresses action. When a line is said to express a certain quality, it is not implied that Department] THE EXPRESSION OF LINES 765 it expresses that quality exclusively, or that it will express it under all conditions. Other lines and combinations of lines may express the same quality, but in a less degree. THE VERTICAL LINE. The vertical line is pre-eminently the line of strength. It suggests strength. The strong are vertical, upright. I have heard people say that they would not dare to ascend the leaning tower of Pisa, thus uncon- sciously condemning the oblique structure as appearing weak. THE HORIZONTAL LINE. The horizontal line is the line of weakness. It is the weakness of this line that limits the powers of man to throw a bridge across Lake Michi- gan. He cannot erect vertical, that is, strength lines high enough, nor get material strong enough, to support the weakness of such a long hori- zoutal line as this span would make. The vertical line, being the line of strength, suggests life. Life is the vital element of strength and has made the vertical line possible. I almost dare say that there can be no vertical line without the aid of life. The vertical is the natural position of life. Plants grow upward. The word growth implies a vertical direction. On the contrary, the horizon- tal line, the line of weakness, suggests death. A landscape composed of horizontal lines is a desert. A forest of trees is expressive of life. Let some mighty tornado sweep through it and level it to the ground, and it _ expresses death and desolation. é THE OBLIQUE LINE. The oblique line is the line of action; it may express other qualities, but first of all it expresses action. The vertical line of stillness and the horizontal line of repose are connected by the oblique line of action. THE CURVED LINE. The curved line is the line of grace and beauty. This is the most pleasing of lines, and is to the beautiful what the vertical line is to strength. There is scarcely a piece of decoration that does not contain it in some form or other. All of the lavish foliation derived from the celebrated acanthus leaf is in like manner modifications of the single and double curve. In nature the curve is the predominating line; it is met with in end- less profusion and in the most subtle combinations. It abounds in all kinds of plant growth, in leaves, buds, flowers, fruits; in trees, shrubs, and plants; in fact, it is the most abundant line met with. The graceful 766 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION | Art movements of animals, especially wild animals, are in curves. Did you ever watch the flight of a large bird as it sails through the air? What long beautiful curves, both single and double, mark its flight! THE ANGULAR LINE. The opposite of the curved line is the angular line. The angular line is the awkward line, the line of confusion and disorder. Broken things are angular. Place such antonyms as the following together: Plenty = - - - - Poverty Fatness : - - - - Leanness Smoothness - - - - Roughness Pleasure - - - - awe Pain Gentleness - - - - Harshness Gracefulness - - - - Awkwardness and it will be found that the curved line is necessary to represent the first row and the angular line the second. PARALLEL LINES. Parallel lines express order. They are the lines of order, monotony, and formality. When we put the room to order, we make the lines par- allel. An orderly arrangement of lumber, logs, and wood is when they are arranged in piles, the pieces parallel to each other. Trees arranged in rows express order. ‘The angular line is the line of disorder. When we comb our hair in the morning, we make the lines of disorder parallel, and order is at once established. It is the angular lines about the house and yard that create disorder. There are three forms of lines that seem to mark the hand work of man wherever he is found. They are the circle, the right angle, and parallel lines. These lines are not found in nature to any great extent, and, even when they are found, they seem more the result of accident than design; but wherever man is found, they may be seen on every hand. Streets are parallel and at right angles to each other. The pavements are the same. The angles of buildings are right angles; the lines of the doors and windows are parallel; the arches are segments of a circle; the trees are planted in rows; in fact, wherever the eyes are directed, parallel lines, right angles, and circles are seen, lines that can be made in only one way and by one unalterable rule. Now, go to nature, where man’s handiwork is not seen; here are no straight paths, no rows of trees, no perfect circles, few parallel lines, few right angles ; but in their place are the curved lines, the obtuse and acute angles, each capable of infinite variety and combination, obeying laws so subtle as to puzzle the acutest mind. Bleparenent| DRAWING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 767 PROPORTION. Now, last of all we have proportion, possibly the most important ele- ment of all. The vertical line may express strength, the curved line grace and beauty, but only when they obey that indefinite law of propor- tion without which strength becomes cumbersome and béauty vanishes as if by magic. A form may be composed of the most beautiful lines, and made with the highest skill, but if it does not contain a right proportion, it is weak and unsatisfactory. We have tried by these simple illustrations to show the expression of some of the most common form elements, not so much with a view to their analysis as to lead the mind to see that these elements have expres- sion in themselves distinct from the form of which they area part. A knowledge of these elements may lead to higher thought and a clearer understanding of the mightier attributes of spirit in its myriad manifesta- tions through matter. WHAT DO THE PEOPLE WANT IN DRAWING IN THE POBLIC SCHOOLS? BY MISS LILLIE M. GODDEN, CHICAGO, ILL. What do people want from drawing in the public schools? ‘There are some who insist that the public school shall primarily fit for one’s calling ; it shall send out pupils ready to succeed as workmen or as money getters. Industry in all its departments expects the public schools to fit for its demands. Howseldom now do we hear of apprentices! Qualified trades- men are expected. The expositions of the last fifteen or twenty years say : “Improve the finish of your goods, add esthetic ornament to useful yoods and wares.” Dr. Wm. T. Harris says: ‘The true general industrial edu- cation for us and all commercial peoples is the study of drawing, not of the mechanical or machine sort, but of the sort that reproduces analytically and synthetically the historical forms of the beautiful.” This is good for all children, for all people; laborers in the mechanical arts, in the textile arts, in the trades, in the professions, in the home, and on the farm. Never before have the children of the United States had such fine opportunities; never have they lived in such a paradise as at present, or in such training schools as are now seen in the East, West, North, and South. Even district schools are taking up this subject of drawing. It is true the time was when it was almost a crime fora child to draw in school, but at that time it was thought necessary to cramp a child’s activ- ities, to ride roughshod over his sensibilities, or to lash him like a brute in 768 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Art order to round out men and women. Now we try to study the child, to nurture and cultivate in all kindliness every faculty. In the practical work of the school there is a perpetual tendency to lose sight of the essential matter of drawing, which is the cultivation of taste. and to drift into drawing for the sake of mechanical construction. Drawing in our public schools should be educational. It should be practical. It must stimulate the mind to self-activity and cultivate the powers of perception, conception, memory, imagination, and judgment. It must, as far as possible, enlist the intellect and the feelings, the head and the heart. It must be considered as a means of expressing thoughts, feelings, and desires. As some one has said: ‘The trinity in practical art is the mind, the eye, and the hand; the eye to perceive, the mind to con- ceive, and the hand to execute or express.” In short, drawing means mind training, eye training, and hand training. That which the mind’s eye can see clearly the hand can be taught to place or picture. Parents and . teachers often cultivate false notions of education for the average child. He is led to set up false ideas and worship them, and expect the upper seat in the synagogue of education. To such, to be good in drawing means to be an artist or nothing. We do not mean to produce artists. Drawing means infinitely more than this. Drawing in our public schools should be another means of expression. It should mean a language, a universal language. It unites, and it is intelligible to all nations. The hieroglyphics of the Egyptians picture to us a life of a people of four thou- sand years ago. Are not those drawings to us a language? Yes, a lan- guage older than script. Who can belittle it and call it only picture work ? Drawing, if properly taught, isa means of expressing thought, not a mere accomplishment for the amusement of persons of leisure. I do not believe in placing drawing in public schools, using public money, simply that pupils may be taught to make a few pictures for the beauty of them and call it artwork. Art—drawing I prefer to callit—is forusall. The work done in our public schools, artistically speaking, is of little value, but from an educational point of view it is invaluable. How many pupils in our public schools are apt to become artists or geniuses? We must not look for or expect to find such genius with such talent or energy as the boy West had. His genius impelled to rob the cat of her tail for bristles to make his brushes. True, we do find them, but in our public-school drawing we want to lead out the little of the Benjamin West there is in all pupils. Every child has an esthetic side, to be developed or withered. Drawing develops the esthetic nature. Ruskin says: “It is better and more important a thing for young pupils and unprofessional students to know how to appreciate the art of others than to gain much power in the art themselves.” a Bee i eS hv > Department] DRAWING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 769 Again I say we do not place drawing in public schools that our pupils may become artists. Language is not taught with the idea that pupils may become poets or orators. The work in drawing must be based on the ground that it is educational, that it is practical. We must look at the utilitarian side, Drawing does not stand alone. It should be, and is, a part of every other branch. All instruction in public schools should be general, not special; broad, not narrow. Our aim is to make the best being possible out of every pupil, to broaden and strengthen him along all lines. The question should not be only what use can be made of this drawing, but rather what power will it bring to us in the mastery of life’s problems. How often have I heard teachers say: “I can’t draw; there is nothing of the artistin me. Why, I can’t draw even a straight line.” Anyone who has a normal brain, a hand, and an eye may be taught to draw. Now,don’t misunderstand me; I don’t mean that all may become skilled artists, but simply that all may be taught to draw. If the mind and the eye can detect the difference between one inch and six inches, the hand can be made to represent it. I do not know of a teacher who could not master—and very soon, too—the principles underlying the work in drawing, and even become skillful in light touch, in free move- ment, and eye training, or drawing. Drawing is both a means and an end, and in my judgment teachers —primary teachers, especially — who neglect it not only fail to avail them- selves of a very valuable auxiliary, but also neglect an essential element. There is no mysticism about drawing; it is something practical. I want none of that ethereal, fairy-finger wonderfulness about it that I have known teachers to wrap around drawing and call it art. Away with all such clouds! Let the sunshine of truth show us that honest hand training and eye training will give us the skill to draw the forms we see or imagine. As soon as teachers can see that drawing is a language, that we teach drawing that pupils may draw, and that it is to be taught in a systematic way, to be corrected according to certain laws as oral or written language is corrected (for drawing can no more be taught haphazard than mathe- inatics or language); and, again, as soon as parents and school boards see that this education will multiply one’s practical advantages—then will be seen the masses receiving true mind, hand, and eye training, called drawing. Of course, we find poor teachers and very poor work done because teach- ers do not thoroughly understand the subject, and, as a usual thing, what they do not thoroughly understand is easily crowded out, and everything else is considered of a little more importance. Nevertheless, it should have its place in every primary, grammar, and high school, and every teacher should be qualified to teach it. How quickly can we detect the change in a school which this esthetic 77° NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Art study gives! How quickly do we see the improvement in the order, neatness, and accuracy of arrangement! Step from a city school where no drawing is taught to one where good work in this line is done, and note the difference in the pupils. In the former the pupils are slower to observe, the eyes are blind to much that is beautiful around them. ‘The schoolroom shows the difference. It is not beautiful; itis bare and cold; there is not the accuracy shown in the studies. In the latter there is close -and accurate observation, and order, neatness, and skillful arrangement in the schoolroom present themselves. We teachers do not always realize the importance that is to be attached to our surroundings in the schoolroom. The influence of beautiful and appropriate surroundings cannot be overestimated. Is it not true that the best and most lasting things we learn are the things we learn unconsciously? Many of the -higher and nobler aspirations of pupils are awakened through the influence of a beautiful picture. A servant girl attending a public school where drawing is taught was asked: ‘‘What good does drawing do you?” Her reply was: “Oh, I don’t know. It makes me work more; for there is something in me now that makes me put the rugs straight instead of crooked.” Her esthetic nature was being cultivated, her idea of order drawn out. Systematize this work in drawing so well that pupils may be trained in a true space-art education. The study should enable one to express form, first, in solid matter, second, on a flat surface by means of outline shade and color. The first we call handling, making, or modeling; the second, the object, the pictorial, or mechanical drawing. There seems to be a tendency to hold pupils to object drawing, and to neglect the dec- orative or industrial part of the subject. The decorative or the industrial certainly has its place. It should not be crowded out by the object or pictorial work. I have visited schools where nothing but a little drawing from the model was given; nothing in the decorative, nothing in the mechanical; nothing inthe illustrative. We cannot escape decorative art. Look where we will, we can see it. Children delight in drawing, as they delight in anything constructive or imitative, and the reward for each effort to place what is seen is a quickened observation and a taste for form and proportion. I want pupils to draw from object, and not to copy from the flat or some one else’s idea of form. Then to draw from memory. Ideas of form must first be obtained by observation before they can be elaborated by the imagination. A little child sees few difficulties and fears nothing, but puts bravely on the paper his mind picture ; the older pupil’s self-con- ‘sciousness arises from his knowledge and ability to criticise and his ina- bility to express as he knows the picture. Draw out the primary pupil in plenty of illustrative or imaginative as 4‘ es tad or a Department] DRAWING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 771 drawing. and by the time the pupils reach the grammar grades there will be nothing the eye and mind can picture which the hand cannot express. We need much illustrative drawing. It necessitates clear, concise, direct ideas. By the illustration we see the mind picture. I remember asking this question in an eighth grade of a large city school: “Is there anyone in this room who can tell me the position of a cow’s ear on her head ?”” The pupils had seen cows many times; I mean they thought they had, but their seeing was not accurate. Their mind picture was not clear. To help them I said: ‘‘ Think of the cow in front position, then in side view. What is the direction of the ear from the horn?” In this school there was not one pupil who could give me a cor- rect answer. If those pupils had ever tried to draw a cow from a model or real object, they would have had a clear mental picture and could have given a correct answer. It has been truly said we do not thoroughly know a thing until we can drawit. If the mental picture is not clear, the hand, however well trained, cannot draw.. Drawing should not stand alone. It should be correlated with every subject taught ; it should illuminate and enrich every study. Avoid all _ tendency to mechanical methods, which will become fixed habits and hinder the efficient training of the hand and eye. In object drawing look at the whole as a mass, at its mass of light and shade, of cast shadow ; then make the hand do. In botany, zodlogy, geography, and mathematics, what a field for drawing! How can we well teach those subjects without drawing ? And yet I have heard superintendents say: “ Drawing is all right in itself. Oh, yes, it has its place. But I have no place for it.”” Think of it, no place for it, and yet teach language, botany, zodlogy, geography, and physics, and still no place for drawing! Make a place for it. Round out your training in every branch. Don’t send your pupils out of your schools as you were sent out, with eyes closed to beauty and hands unskilled in hand language. Fifteen minutes a day carried through the grades will give a pupil a very good knowledge and a fair amount of skill. You will have opened the children’s eyes to see what otherwise they would have been blind to all their lives. . Then, too, notice the effect on the pupil’s character. I believe boys are made a little more tender to spar- rows and flies who have drawn and studied them closely. Common objects become beautiful when seen through the medium of a pencil. An old shoe is more than an old shoe, and a weed a beautiful plant, when studied in all its parts, in all its forms, with its touches of light and shade and tone of color. DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC EDUCATION. SECRETARY'S s MINUTES: FIRST SESSION.— WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 1897. The session was called to order at 3 o’clock by the President, F. E. Howard, Super- visor of Music, Bridgeport, Conn. E. G. Ehlmann, of Milwaukee, rendered a violin solo. Miss S.. Lillian Byington, Supervisor of Music, Moline, Ill., read a paper on “ The Development of Rhythm.” The audience was favored by two selections by the Roney Quartette, of Chicago. Frederic A. Lyman, of Syracuse, N. Y., read a paper on ‘‘ Eye and Ear Training as Related to Sight Singing.” F. W. Westhoff, Decatur, Ill., read a paper on ‘‘ High-School Music.” On motion of P. C. Hayden, Quincy, IIl., the following committee was ap pointed by the chair to report at the next session a plan for forming a national federation of music teachers in order to bring all these teachers into closer sympathy with this department of the National Educational Association : P. C, Hayden, Quincy, Ill. F. W. Westhoff, Decatur, Ill. Mrs. Gaston Boyd, Newton, Kan. The President appointed the following Committee on Nominations : Frederic A. Lyman, Syracuse, N.Y. C. H. Congdon, St, Paul, Minn. Miss S. Lillia Byington, Moline, Ill. SECOND SESSION.—THurRspDay, JULY 8. The department met in round-table session, and discussed the following topics : “* Music in the Normal Schools.” ‘* Music in the Rural Schools.’’ ** How the Music Department of the National Educational Association Can be of More Assistance to the Public-School Music Teachers of the Country.”’ THIRD SESSION.—Fripay, JULy 9. Mr. Robert Stockweather rendered a bass solo. F, E. Howard conducted an exercise in singing with a class of children from the Milwaukee public schools. P. C. Hayden, Quincy, Ill., Chairman of the Committee on School Songs, read the report of the committee, REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON SCHOOL SONGS. After considering on all sides the problem presented, and consulting with several members of the associ- ation, your committee determined to ask the assistance of all music teachers in compiling a list of songs. Our circular was ready to send out January r, but a brief correspondence with President Howard revealed the fact that only $r5 had been allowed the section for its entire expenses of printing and mailing circulars and pro- grammes, Having by this time discovered that a complete report could not possibly be made at this meeting, 772 Department] SECRETARY’S MINUTES 773 we decided to hold our circular and to send it out with the programme of the section meeting issued by the President. In this way is explained the very late appearance of the circular letter asking for lists of children’s songs. Lists representing five or six hundred songs have been sent in response to this letter. Some lists were very full. Miss Hall, of Boston, a member of this committee, sent a list of over three hundred classified songs, and Miss Caroline V, Smith, of Winona, Minn., sent a large classified list. We wish to thank those who have sent lists for their prompt response to the Jetter of the committee. We wish also to request everyone present who has not sent a list of songs to do so at once, naming the composer, and publisher when possible. A small list of good songs may prove more valuable than a large list of songs selected less critically, We shall be glad to receive many small lists. It may be of interest to know the principles of selection which will be applied in the work of this commit- tee. In the first place, the topics treated in the poems must be of a nature to interest the child. In the treat- ment of those topics a story should be told or a thought unfolded in a manner suited to the child’s nature, and the literary character of the words must be unquestioned. The most perfect literary production that can be written byjthe most brilliant poet is none too good for the children, if it is written in the atmosphere of the child world. Nature poems should predominate ; the earth and all it contains, the changing seasons, the flowers, birds, rain and sunshine — anything the child has known or may know about the natural world, if written in a child spirit, will give expression to wholesome child-like emotions. We should have no one-verse songs in such a collection as your committee has in view. A fact may be stated in one verse, but it takes three or four verses to tell a story. The literature of all the songs should be even better than the literature of the reading book, and the words should be entirely suitable for language study both in thought and diction. Our greatest lack is in suitable songs for special occasions, notably Thanksgiving, Lincoln’s birthday, and Arbor day, The committee makes a special request that the list may be made as strong as possible in this particular. It is not necessary for me to attempt to define the position the song should occupy in the musical training of the child. There has been a change of sentiment favoring a better and more genera] use of the song, and the present movement among our educators is in that direction. It is the hope of your committee that a worthy, useful, and somewhat complete report may be made if continued another year. P. C, Haypen, Chairman of the Committee on School Songs. On motion of O. E. McFadon, of Minneapolis, Minn., the committee was continued and instructed to make as complete a report as possible at the next meeting. The name of Miss Caroline V. Smith, of Winona, Minn., was substituted for that of Miss J. Etta Crane, of Potsdam, N. Y., on the committee. F. E. Howard read a paper on “ ‘The Child Voice.” Discussion was led by Mrs. Emma A. Thomas, Detroit, Mich. Miss Anna Birchard, Anderson, Ind., who was to have discussed Mr. Grigg’s paper, gave a short talk on the subject, “ How to Establish Good Musical Standards in Public School Music.” C. W. Weeks, of Ottawa, IIl., offered the following resolution : Resolved, That the thanks of the Music Section be extended to Mrs. C. D. Crane, and the ladies associ- ; ated with her on the local committee, for the many courtesies extended to this section; to Mr. Wm, Ehlmann; Mr. Robert Stockweather; the Roney Quartette, of Chicago; the Ehlmann String Quartette; to the class of children who so kindly sang for us, and to the members of the parish of Temple Emanu-E] for the use of their beautiful church. Frederic A. Lyman, Syracuse, N. Y., offered the following resolution, which was adopted : Resolved, That, looking forward to a more complete and systematic development, and a wider field of usefulness and influence, of the Music Section of the N, E, A., a committee of three, of which the chair shall be a member, be appointed to make such recommendations as seem wise at the next meeting of this depart- ment, Frederic A. Lyman and W. F. Heath were appointed on the committee. Mr. Congdon offered the following : Resolved, That it is the sense of this meeting that we should have music represented on the genera] pro- gramme next year. Adopted. The Committee on Nominations reported the following : v fe NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Music For Prestdent, O, E. McFadon, Minneapolis, Minn. ForV2ce-Prestdent, Mrs. Emma A. Thomas, Detroit, Mich, For Secretary, Miss S. Lillian Byington, Moline, Ill, The thanks of the Music Section were tendered to the retiring officers. Mr. Westhoff read a report of the committee appointed to present a plan for the form- ing of a national federation of public-school music teachers. Report adopted, and fed- eration formed. C. W. WEEKS, Secretary. PAPERS “AND DIS@€USSIONS: THE DEVELOPMENT OF RHYTHM. BY MISS S. LILLIAN BYINGTON, MOLINE, ILL. Music is composed of two great factors, rhythm, or time, and tune. Tune, the second factor, is dependent entirely upon the first, and consists of different sounds, rhythmically produced. Rhythm was the first to be developed. Whether it came from pre- historic man trying to imitate Mother Nature we know not. We know that instruments of rhythm were the first to be used, and the kettledrum of today is but the evolution of a stick pounded against a hollow tree. Not a nation of the world but has this germ of the foundation of music strongly marked in its development. Given any number of musical sounds, and unless they are held together by this bond of accent, what impression do they leave, or what influence do they exert? In listening to that matchless composition, the “‘ Moonlight Sonata,” the rhythm holds us. In the smooth, flowing movement of the first part the chords are so strong they would be but discords, were they not changing, or seeming to, as the measures lure one deeper into their mysteries. In the presto agitato the sounds would be but confusion of noises, were it not for the tumultuous waves of rhythm that sweep with constant regularity through it. Careful observation, together with self-examination, indicate that this part of the music life is not as faithfully taught as tune. All children do not inherit a natural aptitude for rhythm, ‘Feeling for accent is undoubtedly a natural one, yet in practical life it is far from being universal. When the time proper, with divisions, etc., has been faithfully taught, we find pupils totally deficient in the rhythm of the whole ; they will play or sing one measure fast, the next slow, without a clear conception of the time in its entirety.” Our work is to avoid, if possible, this tend- ency. Department] THE DEVELOPMENT OF RHYTHM 7s As in the study of.voice or instrument we find many exercises that seem mechanical devices to tire us, but which eventually develop a fine technique, so must we work that we may awaken this feeling for rhythm that lies sleeping in the child’s mind. We have certain established rules regarding the representation of music that divide it into measures. These represent the real things of music. As “A chain is no stronger than its weakest link,” so a song is no more rhythmical than its weakest measure. How are we to read? Musi- cally, the same as arithmetically, we must begin with the little “ two-and- two-make-four” problems; that is, the measure—the time-table of rhythm. The time must be kept, and, as a result, felt, in the simple measure itself ; then in measures, one after the other, over and over — mechani- cally, it may be, at first, as regularly as the clock, and as unceasingly; before we can bring out the rhythm of the whole. It is a well-known fact that our curricula are overcrowded, and each year brings something in addition to the preceding for the regular teacher: The question is this: How may we economize our own and the pupil’s time and make him master of this problem? Can-we train him to think time? Shall we use a system of time names? Is it better to have a pendulum before the class? Perhaps the ticking metronome is best. Shall we keep time by individually marking it? No child can be taught ‘an abstract thing fer se, and thinking time without some concrete manifestation in the beginning is an impossibility. A system of time names is commendable. The accented note is then given a name and reality. In so far as they are only a means, it is wise to use them. When, as is frequently the case, time names seem to be the end, and are resolved into mere humdrum syllables, they should be abandoned. Investigation shows that, with inexperienced teachers, time names are often a hindrance in the work, and the experienced teacher will have devices of her own for bringing out this subject. If the pendulum is used, we may, after hours of drill, realize that the pupil’s head is also swinging, his foot tapping the time, as he interprets it himself. He does not feel the rhythm it indicates, unless he has some inward conception of the time, which he will manifest by the accent. The pendulum simply regulates the time—does not mark the accent. For a child who has not a natural feeling for rhythm we must work along the outside line, through the sense of touch, combined with count- ing. He can feel the accent and beats when he taps lightly with his finger, at the same time counting: one, two; one, two; etc.; remember- ing the one is stronger than the other parts of the measure. The teacher may guide the child by tapping, just enough to keep the 776 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Music tempo regular. Systematic practice in this way will develop an apprecia- tion of rhythm. Very well, you say, but how about divisions of the beat? The dotted note, triplets, etc.? The question, When should this development begin? has come to each of us. The first year in school? Surely before that. The seeds are sown during the cradle period of life. Every child enjoys rocking, a swing, hobbyhorse, or anything in motion; songs with strongly marked accent; marching, dancing, and the many ways manifested by a swinging to and fro. In cities where the kindergarten is a part of the public school we find it working along this line. In Chicago I saw one teacher who was bring- ing this out in a marked degree, and teaching, unconsciously, interpre- tation through rhythm. One was chosen from the circle to act the story the music revealed to her, and, as it changed from march, waltz, ‘the rain- drops,” ‘‘the wind,” the little mind was very sympathetic, and the feet changed their steps as instantly, showing the deep feeling for rhythm that can be brought out in some children. Who has not seen girls, as well as boys, straighten up, put themselves into the full spirit and rhythm of a soldier, while singing : “A drum that can sound, A musket so brave, A long wooden sword, What more would you have ? Trum, trum, trum, de dum, de dum, Trum, what more would you have ?” or the little girls prepare to rock their dollies to sleep to the lullaby, “Come, dolly, dearie, You must be weary, We have been busy all day. To bed you must go, And tomorrow, you know, Together again we will play — Come dolly, dearie, come.” The songs we teach have great influence in this direction, and the same thought should be carried all through the grades. Calisthenics aid materially in accuracy of time and development of rhythm. Children are poetical, and very early in life manifest a delight in more than mere nursery rhymes. ‘ Paul Revere’s Ride,” ‘“‘ Hiawatha,” “The Children’s Hour,” and similar gems, appeal to them; not only the story, but the way in which it is told. What we wish to do is to plant the seed of desire in the child’s mind. The work on his part will follow. Too much stress has been placed upon that word “develop.” We Department] THE DEVELOPMENT OF RYTHM 177 would not, of course, do for a child what he can do for himself; but have we not sometimes analyzed the life out of a subject? The same may occur in our music. Lastly, much really depends upon the individuality of the teacher. If she has this consciousness, her own personality will be one of the strongest factors in revealing to the child this part of life, as well as music, that he may grow to live in harmony with the world, and daily recognize this great bond that holds creation together, ever growing broader, yet stronger, until we come into touch with the divine. DISCUSSION. Mrs. GAsTON Boyp, Newton, Kan.—There is no necessity of a barren exercise in connection with the study of music. A lesson in pure technique, if properly presented, will be infused with life and with intense interest. It is a principle in education that nothing shall be done for the child that he can be led to do for himself; so, in the devel- opment of rhythm, the child should be led from what he already knows to the solution of ' the new problem which is presented. Children are not all alike; some learn more readily from observation than do others. The nature of the child must be taken into consideration. With regard to the use of songs in the lower grades, they should occupy in this branch the same relation as speaking pieces, quotations, poetry, etc., sustain to the study of reading. It is said, in defense of the use of songs versus the study of notation, that a child must learn to speak before reading. With few exceptions the child comes to us prepared to study notation. He has heard songs from his cradle; he has learned to sing them at his mother’s knee; he has heard them everywhere as he has heard speech. He may have heard them and learned them in a crude fashion; but so has he construed his sentences and made his wants known in language fully as crude. To the degree in which a lesson in music leaves the child stronger, mentally, may be measured the success of the teaching. Nothing tends more directly to develop this strength than the ability on the part of the pupil to solve his own difficulties and accomplish his own work, C. H. Conepon, St. Paul, Minn.—Rhythm should not be taught by mechanical devices, but through real music. A good song tastefully sung will give the child better ideas of rhythm than hours spent in the tedious practice of time names or in barren exercises. _ Once the spirit of song is aroused, the elements of rhythm are unconsciously acquired. It is then an easy matter to differentiate the various forms of measure and present the symbols used to represent them. The child is full and bubbling over with the essence of rhythm, and it is now only necessary to aid him in classifying the concepts already existing in his mind. Call his attention to one thing at a time, and give him drill in reading that one thing at sight. Teachers are prone to introduce too many things at once, and oftentimes the tune is so difficult that, no matter how well grounded the pupils are in rhythm, they stum- ble and fall because they cannot think tones fast enough. Their attention should be called to one thing at a time, and that should be introduced 778 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Music through easy tune, and many exercises or examples should be given. Six or eight exercises are not sufficient to develop the ability in pupils to sing the new problem at sight. Fifty or a hundred are required. The elements of time as well as tune are taught primarily by imitation. Children are easily led by steps from plain measure to, first, the divided beat, and then to the beat- and-a-half note. The latter consists simply of bridging the voice from the undivided beat to the first part of the following divided beat. Six-eight time should be analyzed in like manner, presenting one fact at a time, and developing it through easy tune. Physical training and calisthenics, well taught, are a great aid in devel oping rhythm in children. EVE AND EAR TRAINING AS RELATED TO SIGHT SINGING. BY FREDERIC ALLISON LYMAN, SUPERVISOR OF MUSIC IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, “ SYRACUSE, N. Y. There can be no doubt that both the senses of sight and hearing are necessary to the so-called act of sight singing. As to which one of the two is more important teachers will disagree according as they have been trained to present their work. In the elementary stages of the work there is no doubt in my mind that the ear is of more value. In the advanced stages of the work one sense is as necessary as the other. Musical power is first gained through the ear. The auditory nerve is the tell-tale to the brain, the seat of all real impressions of tonal concepts. Can all children hear correctly? No; neither can all children see cor- rectly. When children fail to distinguish quickly tone progressions, many teachers say such children have no voice. What they mean is, they have no ears, or, rather, no well-defined idea of tonal concepts. These pupils are the unfortunates, and the teacher’s ability is shown by the manner in which she trains them to a knowledge of tones. Do you say that all children can be made to think tones correctly? No, not all; neither can all learn to spell; but, if handled by a teacher who is conscientious and persevering, the number may be reduced to a minimum. I wish to put in a strong plea for individual recitations in music. The teacher who simply does chorus work in music only one- half fulfills her duty. ‘Time is no criterion of results. It is not so much a question of how much time is spent, but what is being done while lessons are going on. Are you making music study in your schools of benefit to the individual pupil, or are you simply giving children a pleas- ant time during the singing period? Could we look deeply into the minds of those children who do not sing the scale accurately, what might we not discover ? At least two kinds of non-thinkers are readily distin- Department] EVE AND EAR TRAINING 779 guished : those who shout on with perfect abandon, wholly unconscious that they are singing incorrectly, and the larger class who realize that they are deficient and that quick tone thought is lacking in their make-up. The first are hard to cure, the second less so. Surely, the teacher who loves mankind and her art will stoop down, take these unfortunates by the hand of thought, and assist them to rise. Do you say it cannot be done? My answer is, you have not conscientiously tried it. Rest assured of one thing: Anyone who has helped a so-called mono- tone, or child of imperfect tone sense, to a correct mental solution of the series of sounds known as the slide or scale will ever after be the recipient of cordial appreciation from such pupils, even though at first it is not demonstrative. The rank and file of children hear more or less correctly from the start, so make simple vocal records with accuracy. Having this ability, the step toward musical thought and eventual sight singing is imitation of some sort. The model should be the best possible, otherwise the child unconsciously forms a low ideal of beauty from the start. Harsh tones are as offensive as harsh colors. Never was greater mistake made than that any teacher is good - enough for the lower primary grades. Some are placed there because they cannot discipline higher grades. What if discipline of mind is lost in the attempt to get only discipline of the body? Unfortunately many of the regular teachers in the lower grades of our schools have not abso- lutely correct ears, carefully managed voices, and magnetic musical abilities. Having taught the beautiful rote or imitative song correctly and musically, many supervisors and regular teachers fold their hand with complaisance, imagining they have done all that should be required in the teaching of music to the primary grades. Rote songs please—they do not give power; they tickle the ears, but do not teach a child to know tones as comparative objects of thought. White very truthfully says: “Children may be kept swinging on the gate of sense when they are fully prepared to make easy and fruitful excursions into the garden of thought.” Assoon as the major scale is taught as a whole, a unit of moderate musical ability has been established. The child has something tangible, something concrete. How does he get it? Through the sense of correct hearing, which in turn becomes molded thought. At this stage of the work the sense of sight has not helped. The more faithfully teachers carry out this practice of tone judgment, the better will pupils hear music from the printed page when once it is shown them; not alone that, the better they will solve all other problems of school or daily life. They are yaining power to do. Music is very materially aiding in the upbuilding. The object of thought in music is the regular succession of tones, which is heard, not seen, on the printed 780 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Music page or blackboard. All tone relations must first be studied through the ear. Rhythmical work must primarily be done through the sense of hear- ing. No amount of explanation of written signs or the attempted teach- ing of fractions, under the guise of musical notation, will aid pupils to acquire a knowledge of the necessary essentials of rhythm. Many super- visors understand this fact. Some, alas, are groping along the shores of representation and abstractness rather than objective conception. \ Rhythm is first felt in the pulsing of the mind. As no conception can be gained through the written word, so no feeling of rhythm can be gained through the abstract study of fractions. When once the object is known, the mind summons the thought. When once rhythm is felt, then will the pic- ture of a measure have a meaning. To sum up this feature of our topic: We may safely say that when any new thought in music is presented normally and according to the plan laid down in the presentation of all other subjects by the best educators, all impressions must first be gained through the medium of the ear. Therefore we must conclude that it is the ruling sense. Having been carefully drilled in the act of singing tones, the child’s attention is unconsciously drawn toward the printed signs of music, 2. ¢., musical notation. What more simple and effectual way of recording tones in print has been offered than our notation? It is doubtful if anything will ever supersede it. All other kinds of notation have lived for a time, then gradually faded out of existence. When once the ear has received proper attention, the step between the eye and ear is very short. In fact, there is no step. One sense correlates with the other; the eye sees quickly that the little notes indicate tones, and the voice makes the record. So long as the difficulties of notation are not harder than what has been done through the ear sense, all goes well. Just the moment that the notation precedes ear training, instantly confusion follows. The eye sense, instead of assisting, actually hinders for the time. What is to bedone? Simply direct the attention from the printed page, until the ear sense and its consequent mind sense have caught up, after which the eye again per- forms its proper function—that of calling up musical tones. Take the subject of chromatics, one of the most fascinating and simple features of music; give one class a thorough knowledge of chromatic tone color, as compared with diatonic tone color, by hearing and singing; show a few pictures of the problems, and let them sing the tones represented by the notation. If the process be known by doing, turn to any key you choose, show the same problem in any dress you like. A correct record will besung. The principle is as follows: If you know a man, it matters not whether he wear a sack or frock coat, whether blue, black, or yellow; Department] EYE AND EAR TRAINING 781 you know him to be the same person. On the other hand, attempt to teach chromatics by the old-fashioned way of explaining about the signs that represent. When all this has been done, the child knows not how they sound ; the eye sense has only served to mystify him. And what shall be said of the training of the voice per se, without which all our practice of ear and eye has been vain? How many people hear their own voices? Very few. The ear must again be made the prominent factor in the training of that most subtle of arts, vocal expres- sion. The eye can have but a small part in this. It may note the facial result which certain tones or succession of tones produce; further than that it cannot go. In order that children may learn to sing without harsh- ness and with pure, sweet tones, they must be given a chance to hear ideal tone. Pride comes in at this time and does much to establish a correct basis of tone. Good enunciation and easy singing are as much a matter of pride as of practical voice exercising. Until a child is made to feel the dignity of fine tones, he will not continue to build them. This pride must be brought about through ear training. Shakespeare says, “Speak that I may know you.” Today we might say, “Sing that I may hear an ideal tone!’’ Environment has much to do with agreeableness of tone, and a child’s ideal of well-modulated voices comes from contact with them. Herein is music strong as an educational power. It heals the mind. Heart becomes linked to heart, and from concrete expression arises a desire for the best that life affords. Music, therefore, appeals to the senses in a way which no other subject does. Music lifts us out of ourselves and lets us roam, fancy-free, in the highest realms of art. It is a constant flight and return. Take away the sense of hearing and mark what follows: the ugliest kind of despondency and ill will, as witness the struggles of the master Beethoven. Compare.him with Bach; the first deprived of hearing, the other of seeing; the one drinking in new life and inspiration from his very blindness, the other sinking lower into his own thoughts at his awful misfortune in thus being shut out from nature’s voices. Think of all the people whom you have known well in your life. For whom have you the warmest affection and greatest regard? Unless you are different from the majority of human beings, it will be the people who have the sweetest tones of voice; voices full of honesty, assurance, and kindness. We shrink from the person with harshly toned voice, even though it proceed from a good-looking face. Is there a more sorry object than a beautiful face and form from which comes an ugly voice? Some- times it is the fault of a physical defect of throat; more often there is a lack of good breeding, with a liberal deficiency of ear training. Having briefly outlined some of the mental processes and results 782 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Music involved in sight singing as related to eye and ear training, let us take an onward step and inquire into the character of the material we are allowing pupils to read or sing. Life is too short and valuable to waste on school days with naught but ear-tickling trash. In every course of instruction there must be food for thought; the senses must receive exercise of a healthy tone. The book that makes us think, and not the one that does all the thinking for us, is what we need. Many say: “It doesn’t matter what material we have ; just as good work can be shown with one kind as another ; it is the teacher and not the material that makes results.”” Only partially true is the state- ment. A man may bea very practical farmer, but he cannot get a fine crop of potatoes froma brush pasture. A jeweler may be one of the most expert, but he cannot make a fine watch from tin and brass. If your pupils become ready readers of music, they must study some- thing worth reading. If they have something worthy of attempt, they will gradually grow to love the art and search for its hidden beauties. The mental problems necessary to prepare the mind for this desire for knowledge must be many and varied; furthermore, they must be gram- matical. Anything will not do. To put an illy composed or arranged bit of music before a child, as is done repeatedly in some courses of instruc- tion, expecting him to gain correct methods and notions of art and life, is like drawing the picture of the globe in the shape of a pear; neither the form nor the content is correct. Supervisors should be on the alert to suppress any of this juggled harmony that is making its way into the schoolrogm, because, perchance, it is cheap and encouraged by some unfeeling members of school boards who know less about instruction than politics. Away with such so-called music instruction! Sad pity is it that the so-called educators of the country are often blindly deluded into the notion that this sort of composition is just as good as, or better than, the masterpieces of musical art! Music must deal with determinate sounds, and it is only through the proper adjustment of these sounds that pure harmony and melody can exist. ‘There must be a triple affinity in all music that educates in the truest sense. ‘These three features must be rest, suggested motion, and impelled motion. The proper adjustment of the.four kinds of triads — major, minor, diminished, and augmented — together with their expanded chords, furnish material for this triple alliance. Music that is built on bare poles of tonic, dominant, and subdominant is not complete. The suggestions are limited and one-sided. I cannot go further into this part of the subject at this time, as it is too large and would endanger my text. Healthy rhythm must predominate in any good course of music. The Department] > EVE AND EAR TRAINING 783 suggestions of rhythm must also be many and varied, so that the child may be constantly led to observe and conquer all difficulties. Rhythm is the basis of aH music, and consequently of all expression. The more we study it, the greater ideas of the universe we shall form. How shall we study it in its fullest extent if our ears be stopped? Even the cadence is but the result of regularity in duration of particular sounds. The con- trasts in music are brought about more largely through rhythmical features than in any other way. When it is left to move freely, then does the poetic element seize melody, and it acquires true liberty and independ- ence. Yet art in its greatest sense cannot content itself with melody. All races of people delight, either consciously or unconsciously, in the union of several pure melodies into a complete and perfect harmonious structure. Here, again, the ear becomes the ruling sense. It is here that the creative power is made manifest, and expression grows as readily as the tender plant under the rays of the warm sunshine. What a sorry sight it is to see children devoting precious time to list- less music, to music that has no story to tell, no thoughts to suggest! And yet there are scores of pages of such so-called music being studied, or rather drawled out, each day. It arouses neither the true sense of hearing nor sight, least of all the faculties of the mind which these senses are supposed to help develop. My plea at this time is that you, as supervisors of this grand art, look carefully at your material for study and see if it is real art or only a make- shift. Will it stand a searching pedagogical test? Is it music in the highest sense of the word? Does it suggest pure thoughts? If so, adopt it; if not, look until you find that on which you can rely. If it does not contain these qualities, rest assured, no matter how much drill for the eye and ear is done, little of value will result. Given pure music, when once our pupils have been trained so that they can look at the printed page of music and silently hear what the eye sees, then will our work mean something. Supervisors, do you stop with mere eye and ear training as related to sight singing? They are but means to anend. Music, rightly studied, means much more than sight singing. It is only one of the rungs of the ladder. Add to it the training of the voice, the ability to think complex problems in daily life, the thorough enjoyment and understanding that must and do come from a well-graded course of instruction in school music, the stern, though mild, character that is wrought from close con- tact with its power, and the time is not far distant when the powers that are interested in school matters and education in general will not only see the utility of music study, but, like the ancient Greek and Roman, they will look upon it as one of the chief pillars of a liberal education. 784 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Music THE CHILD VOICE. BY F. E. HOWARD, BRIDGEPORT, CONN. Rational voice training is based on data of two classes: the scientific, which is chiefly physiological, and the experimental data. If, in the musical profession, the same educational qualifications were demanded as are required, for example, in the medical profession, then we might expect—in fact, we would positively have—greater -clarity of ideas on the relation of scientific knowledge to practical experience in voice culture. As it is, anyone has as much right to teach voice as to saw wood. It naturally follows that there exists the most distressing chaos of theories, fads, whims, and crazy notions on voice culture, which find their expression in periodicals, lectures, etc. It is no wonder that the com- mon sense of musicians cries out against the pseudo-science of vocal quacks, and extols the good old days of the Italian masters, when pupils were taught to sing, to really make tone, when voices were made to sing so beautifully that their possessors’ names live in history. Yet the old singing masters were guided almost wholly, if not entirely, by rules deduced from experience. If the tone was clear, beautiful, well poised, and under the singer’s control, as is the bow in the hands of a violinist, then the training was proceeding along safe lines. If the tone was: bad, pinched, throaty, then training was proceeding along unsafe lines. When the parts act harmoniously together and there is a proper normal adjustment of all the organs concerned in the production of tone, the result is good. Bad tone follows from ill adjustment of parts concerned in production, and the office of the voice teacher is to correct this ill adjustment and bring about perfect performance of the functions. As a matter of fact, practical teachers of voice, while they find, or may find, extended physiological knowledge and scientific information of great value, yet, in practical teaching, they are well aware that they must judge as to the proper or improper action of the parts concerned in tone production by the sense of hearing. The laryngoscope, which, as you may know, is a system of mirrors that physicians use for observing the throat, and which voice teachers have also used to observe the action of the vocal bands in tone production, has, when all is said and done, con- tributed practically nothing to the voice trainer. We know today little more of the action of the vocal bands in pro- ducing the tones of what are called various registers than was known a hundred years ago. Tone colors guide us in determining the registers, being used as much now as ever. Department] THE CHILD VOICE 78 5 Now, in dealing with the child voice, we are deprived of the benefit of any researches whatever, and must deduce our principles from general physiological knowledge, and, as with adults, determine when the child is using his voice rightly or wrongly by the sounds which reach our ears. These facts in physiology, however, may be borne.in mind, and may constitute a basis for our deduction: First, the larynx grows rapidly until the age of six years, when the vocal bands attain the length which they retain until the age of puberty is reached. At that time the general physical changes which take place in the entire person are accompanied by a more or less rapid growth of the larynx, so that the vocal bands of the male become twice as long as in boyhood, and the vocal bands of females increase their length one-third. There are, of course, corre- sponding changes in the thickness, breadth, and general strength of the vocal bands. The one point then, which emphasizes itself to us is the small size and weakness of the vocal bands in childhood. It is also true that the laryngeal walls, the cartilages of the larynx, are in childhood lacking in rigidity, as may be easily understood when we recall the danger of that dread disease, croup, to which all young chil- dren are exposed. Death in this disease is occasioned, primarily, by the collapse of the walls of the larynx. Now, as already pointed out, while the vocal bands do not increase in length from six years of age on to the period of voice mutation, yet there is a constant gain in structural firm- ness of the laryngeal cartilages, and this, together with the increased elastic power and strength which each year brings to the vocal bands of the children, accounts for the constant gain in the tonal strength of children from the age of six. Bearing these facts in mind, it is just as easy for one person as for another to deduce a safe rule for the use of the child voice in singing, viz., the voice must be used so lightly that injurious physical strain of the, weak and delicate organs is impossible. But here we are confronted with the practical side of the question, and the fact that, however familiar we may be with the physiology of the voice, it is only through experi- mental knowledge that we are able to determine whether the voice is being strained or not, during singing. At this point another principle asserts itself, as before mentioned, vzz., that when, in a normal throat, all the parts concerned in tone production are acting in a normal, healthy manner, the resultant tone must be good. In childhood, as in adult life, bad tones, whether nasal, or guttural, or possessing other disagreeable qualities to an offensive degree, are the result of ill adjustment, or wrong action, of the functions. In other words, a good tone is healthy, and a bad tone unhealthy, and as the doctor tells by your pulse, complexion, and staté of your tongue the particular disturbance from which you are suffer- ing, so the teacher by the color of the tone must determine the particular 786 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Music disturbance of the parts from which the singer is suffering. Having set forth these general premises, we may now practically consider the child voice, and those rules which have been deduced by the experience of specialists in this line. The trainers of boy choirs in England and on the continent have for years understood and practically carried out good principles as to the training of boys’ voices. These principles are equally applicable to the voices of girls. They and we today speak of a child as possessing two voices. The one is called the chest voice, a purely technical name which is applied to a tone rather thick, usually coarse, and which is produced evidently by very full and strong vibration of the vocal bands. Whenever little chil- dren sing loudly, they use this voice. The height of compass to which they may carry this voice depends on several conditions. First, the age of the pupil. A child of six years of age will carry the thick voice as high as “E,” fourth space, but, as they grow older, they find more and more difficulty in using this voice in high pitches. Then, again, children who have light, firm, fluty voices use the chest voice with great difficulty, possibly because there is more firmness in the cartilages of the larynx than is possessed by others whose voices, while sounding stronger, are evidently produced from weaker throats. The loud voice, so commonly known in the schoolroom, and so foolishly admired, is really, in most cases, a voice which is produced by vocal bands which are less elastic, strong, and much more easily injured than are the vocal bands of those who have much lighter voices. From the foregoing it will be seen that, as children grow older, they will find more and more difficulty in using the thick voice on the upper notes of their compass. For instance, children of six years of age carry the thick tone as high as “E,” with apparently little exertion. Children of ten years of age, unless spurred by great urging, will cease to use it at “C,” while girls and boys approaching the age of mutation can hardly carry ttcabove “G” or “A.” The other voice, technically called the head voice, is light in body, fluty in character, and utterly devoid of what is called the reed quality in tone. It is evidently produced by the vibration of only a portion of the substance of the vocal bands. How large or how small a portion is purely a matter of conjecture, for, until the X-ray is applied to this branch of physics, we shall emphatically know nothing, except conjecturally, of the action of the vocal bands. Now, one conclusion, and one only, has been reached by specialists in the training of boys’ voices. It takes the form of two statements: those who, while paying very little attention to the theoretical considera- tion of registers, declare that boys must use the upper register almost entirely, and must take great care to sing lower tones softly; and those : : j : A A : , Department] THE CHILD VOICE 787 who frankly say that boys must be required to use the head register alone. As a matter of fact, as before said, it is impossible to tell, even when a boy has been trained entirely in the head register, whether or not, when he sings at pitches below “F,” first space, he uses exactly the same mechanical action of the vocal bands as at higher pitches, and it does not matter if the tone is easily produced and is good in quality. The sole criterion, then, in training children’s voices is the character of the tone. The tone which is generally accepted as being the only one for children to use, which is physically safe and beautiful in quality, is the head tone. It may be said that, while the conservatism of bad habits, and the popular unthinking demand for heartiness in singing, or the lack of thoughtful criticism on the part of principals, school superintendents, and others, are obstacles in the way of securing good tones from chil- dren, yet, when the habit of using the voice in the right way is once fairly formed, both the mental perceptions and physical sensations form the strongest safeguards for its continuance. ‘There is no teacher who has had experience in training either school children or choir boys in the use of the head voice but knows that it is an easy voice, and one which his pupils enjoy using. So far as the general public are concerned, they may be slow to recognize the value of this light voice as compared with the more boisterous singing which seems to excite their admiration— whether because they love noise, or because they suppose children to be the hap- pier the louder they shout, I do not know. But, as long as the criticism of the musical element in any community is favorable—and it always will be to the class of singing which will be secured when children use their voices properly —the general public will very soon acquiesce. It will be the thought of nearly all teachers—it is the commonly expressed thought of teachers today—that this matter of securing from children good tone in singing necessarily requires the use of many voice- training exercises, and more or less method especially adapted to this end. On the contrary, the whole secret of the child voice lies in secur- ing a light, easy action at the vocal band. The matter of resonance, tone placing, and a dozen other things which are more or less important, need concern us very little. Moreover, there is great homogeneity in the structure of the resonance cavities in childhood. There is great physical homogeneity in every respect among children. And the use of special exercises to secure the proper use of the voice, or, as we usually say, for training the voice, are necessarily only small in scope and few in number. If good position is maintained, breathing habits will attend to themselves. If the voice is used lightly, if the mouth is opened properly —that is, if it assumes the proper position for “‘E,” when we wish the pupil to sing “E,” if it assumes another position, and the right one, approximately, for “Ah,” when we wish him to sing ‘‘Ah,” and so on 788 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Music through the various forms which constitute our vowel sounds in song — most conditions for voice use in training will be fulfilled. Elaborate systems of voice culture are entirely out of place in the schoolroom. The voice should be used properly in singing every scale, and every song, and every exercise. No special exercises are needed, except as a kind of a vocal tonic. Every chorus director knows the value of vocalizing a page or two of music during the course of rehearsal. It sets up good singing action and good tone ideas, which carry themselves over into the singing of words by the chorus. Just so in the schoolroom. ‘The use of some voice exercises at the beginning of a singing lesson will be found easily to set up a good standard of tone in the mind of the pupils. But the voice of the child does not lend itself to extended training. It may be doubted if the large amount of work to which special choir boys are put, in order that they may become soloists, is not detrimental. In this connection it may be said that, where it is desired to bring about the change from the use of the so-called thick voice to the use of the head voice, it may be necessary to adopt certain stringent rules in regard to the amount of power which shall be used; it may be necessary to require the very softest of tones, and it may also be necessary to limit the range, as, for instance, to “‘E,” first line, below which the voice shall not be carried; yet these rules will be found capable of great relax- ation when once the habit of using the voice in the right way is formed. There is nothing intrinsically wrong in singing low, if the voice is used lightly, without physical strain, and the resultant tone is satisfying to the musical ear. It is nonsense to say a child must not sing at that pitch at all. However, the ease with which children break into the thick voice at lower pitches constitutes an element of great danger when music is taught by unskilled grade teachers. In conclusion, let me say that music in the public schools, after all, should be musical, and that the finest results, as far as tonal beauty goes, that have ever been attained by skillful choir trainers with their boys, or any skillful teachers in different schools.of the country, are none too good for every teacher and every school in the land. To get good singing from children requires a little knowledge and a good deal of taste, and the exercise of faculties that are possessed, actively or latent, by nearly every teacher. It is possible to teach what we call sight singing, and to do it in such a way that very few ideas of music, real music, enter into the life of the child. Perhaps it has been the tendency among teachers— and a very natural tendency, due to the practical character of Americans —-to emphasize the strictly practical side of school music; and, on the other hand, there has been a strong tendency by certain educators to belittle the practical teaching of notes, and to demand that school music Department | CHEICHELD VOLE ij 89 should appeal only to the esthetic side. The fact is that the language in which music is written is, in its signs and symbols, very simple. It will be but a short time before the skill and industry of the music supervisors of the United States will find short, pedagogical, and practical methods by which note reading will be mastered almost as early in school life as the signs of speech language. But, however this may be, the one thing which our profession demands at the hands of its every member, and the one thing which the public demands of us, and which every musician calls for, is that the character of our work, even in such simple particulars as singing up and down a scale, shall be strictly musical. Implying, as this does, primarily the proper use of the voice, and the inculcating of ideas day by day, by precept, by example, and by practice, of beauty of tone, it will be understood why so many of us are emphasizing, with all possible force, the consideration of the child voice. With the thousands and tens of thousands of grade teachers, more or . less unfitted for teaching music, who are obliged to present the subject from day to day, it may seem impossible that children throughout the land should be taught to sing in a proper way. But it is possible. - There is no mystery about good singing. It is easier to sing right than to sing wrong, as it is easier for water to run down hill than up. Con- sider the subject in the simplest way possible, and do not get hold of some puzzling detail and magnify it. Take it for granted that your children, on the whole, prefer to do a thing in the right way. Do not get excited at unthinking criticism, which often proceeds from a desire. to keep busy, or appear wise. Hold on your way firmly, steadily, good-. naturedly, and, whatever the future may bring of good to school music: in our country, be sure you have done your share. DISCUSSION. Mrs. Emma A. THomas, Detroit, Mich. —In a large number of schools, as in my own, we have twelve minutes a day allowed for music. In this time we must train the voices of the children, teach them to read music, and teach them songs for pleasure, as patriotic songs, folk songs, etc. How to accomplish all this in so short a time is the problem. I will give a few suggestions to supplement Mr. Howard’s paper. To obtain the best results in tone production is to begin at the top of the voice and work down. Second, keep the throat open and relaxed. Again, sing plenty of songs with high tones. If we begin with, say, “middle C,” most children will produce what is commonly called a “chest tone.” If a scale is now attempted, they will carry this “chest” or “ thick” quality up beyond its legitimate limit, causing a contraction of the throat, and a forcing and straining of the voice, which make an open throat improbable, if not impossible. ; Therefore, begin with a pitch on which the child cannot use either the low or the 799° NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Music middle register, say somewhere about third space “C,” and when a scale is to be sung, sing it descending. In difficult cases it will often be found necessary to begin higher. An advantage of beginning high is that the tone is produced without “ throat effort” (throat strain), and it is possible, and easily so, to train the child to sing “with his voice, and not with his throat.” Of course, power is not to be aimed at at first ; that will come later, and the child who uses his high quality exclusively will be able to sing long at a time without fatigue. Position is a very important factor in good tone work. We must have good erect position, either standing or sitting. Do not combine calisthenics and singing ; the voices of the children will surely suffer. Where our teachers wish to have marching with music, and have no musical instrument, I suggest that a little choir be formed, and, standing in the front of the room, they can sing a little marching song while the others march. Be sure that the temperature of your rooms is kept even; if the air is impure, raise the windows, or do something to freshen it. Do not have the singing lessons immediately after recess. Never tolerate loud, harsh, coarse singing. While the large majority of my teachers have pleasant speak- ing voices, which has so much to do with pure, sweet singing, I have labored hard with those of my teachers who have not, to have them cultivate a pleasant speaking voice. We all know how quickly the pupils will imitate the harsh, peculiar voice of a teacher either in speech or song. How happy we all ought to be that the humdrum, half-spoken, half-sung recitation of a lesson in arithmetic is almost wholly something of the past! Again, in teaching children the correct use of the voice, the most varied exercise of the imagination on the part of the teacher is very necessary. That teacher will succeed best who can most correctly picture the child’s thought and estimate the impressions which given effects produce upon the mind. The singing exercises of the schoolroom should always be earnest; even very young children’s attention can be directed to the sentiment and meaning of certain qualities of tone. Show them how the scale can be sung to express either sadness or cheer; teach them to use a quality of voice suited to the meaning of the words they use. Let them know that the eye is the “ window of the soul,” and they should express what they sing with their eyes. It is always best to have the reading lessons precede the singing les- sons, and if the thought and story of the new song can be brought out in the reading lesson, it will prove a great help to the singing. It would, also, be a great advantage to the children if, from time to time, they could hear their own school songs interpreted by real artists. Through the generosity and great kindness of some wealthy citizens, this is being accomplished in some cities. May it in all! Be very careful in the selection of your songs ; choose songs of bright, lively character, varying with lullabies and songs that will appeal to the imagination. Above all, our children should sing music worthy the name. HOW TO ESTABLISH GOOD MUSICAL STANDARDS IN PUBLIC-SCHOOL MUSIC. BY MISS ANNA BIRCHARD, ANDERSON, IND. It has been said that the mind rules the world, and, in any line of thought, daily contact with master minds cannot be other than elevating sh ee Eh Department] ZHE ESTABLISHMENT OF GOOD MUSICAL STANDARDS 791 and inspiring. How much more so is this in music, where one meets, not only the mind, but the very personality of the author! I would say, then, begin with the child, educate his ear by hearing the best music, and, when he has once caught its spirit, he will not be content with any but the best. From the first days of our existence the ear becomes accustomed to good or bad sounds. The more it hears of the better tones, the more sus- ceptible does the ear become to them. Gounod says: “ My mother made me her pupil, hence my perception of airs and of the intervals composing them was quite as rapid as my perception of words. Before I could speak I could distinguish and recognize perfectly the different airs with which my ears were lulled.”’ It is a fact that we can initiate the ear to musical language exactly as to spoken language, and can develop the musical sense in a much larger number of children than is commonly supposed. Then let the songs that the child hears be carefully chosen and cor: rectly rendered in tone and expression, and thus help in forming high ideals, and lay a foundation for future appreciation of good music. This will in time help solve the problem where music is taught in schools. When music is once introduced into schools, let it be placed on the same basis with other studies in the school curriculum and a portion of time be set aside for preparing the music lesson, the same as for number, lan- guage, or geography. This will not only increase a respect for the work, but better and quicker results will be obtained. This last year my school that did the best work was the one in which the principal was in sympathy with this idea and had ten minutes each day set aside for the study of music lessons. Again, let the music teachers be more active and, as much as lies in their power, interest the community at large in getting the legislative bodies to pass bills making _ music compulsory in all schools. I was greatly interested in Mr. Congdon’s report in that line, and it seems to me the work he is doing is worthy of imitation. Another sug- gestion made in yesterday’s meeting seemed very practical; it was to have a paper on music read before the general assembly at state teachers’ associations. This will do much toward broadening the work and awak- ening interest in it. In some states—and I am proud to say Indiana is among the number — it is becoming quite customary to have music taught at institutes. This affords rare opportunities for the regular teachers to acquire a knowledge of music ; for in the mind of the grade teacher, as well as the special teacher, high standards of music should be established. We, as teachers, can then train the pupils under our charge not only to think in time and tune, but can give them the unfailing resource of an intelligent love of music which will be a blessing to them all their lives. DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS EDUCATION. SECRETARY S MINUTES. FIRST SESSION. — WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 1897. The session opened at 2:30 P. M., at the Spencerian College, with A. N. Palmer, President, in the chair. President’s address by A. N. Palmer. : Report of Committee on Correlation and Co-ordination of Business Branches by J. M. Mehan. Discussion by Mrs. Spencer, Mr. Lyon, Mr. Barnes, Mr. Rider, and Mr. Wilmot. Report ordered to be printed, and referred to the department for discussion at its next meeting. Paper on “Course of Training in English,” by Mrs. Sara A. Spencer; on “ Short- hand,” by Isaac S. Dement; on “‘ Rapid Calculation and Business Arithmetic,” by Samuel H. Goodyear. Discussion by Mr. Mehan and Mrs. Spencer. The following motion was adopted : Resolved, That the entire work of the Committee of Nine be referred back to the committee for final report at next year’s meeting, The following committees were appointed : Committee on Auditing—E., E, Gaylord, B. B. Jones, Committee on Nominations —¥. B. Richardson, E. J, Heeb, H. B. Chicken. SECOND SESSION.— Fripay, JULY 9. Chas. H. Thurber read a paper entitled, “Is the Present High-School Course a Satis- factory Preparation for Business? If Not, How Should it be Modified ?” H. M. Rowe read a paper on “ Laws and Ethics of Business, Duties of Citizenship, and Science of Wealth.” R. C. Spencer discussed the paper. “ E. H. Beach read a paper on “ Brains in Bookkeeping.” The report of the Treasurer was adopted, as follows: RECEIPTS: Balance from last report, - - - - : - - - - - - $B 0.68 From Treasurer National Educational Association, - - - - - = 25) By contribution, - - - - - - - - - - - - 20. $45.68 EXPENDITURES: For printing and stationery, Executive Committee, - - - - - - $26.20 For printing report of Committee of Nine, - - - 15.25 $41.45 BALANCE ON Hann, - - - - - - - - $ 4.23 ALLEN Davis, Secretary and Treasurer, Approved: B. B. Jones, E. E. Gay orp, Auditing Committee, 792 = << : 4 Department] PRESIDENT’ S ADDRESS 793 The following report of the Executive Committee was adopted : Wuereas, The Business Education Department of the National Educational Association deems it due to the public and to itself that a statement should be promulgated as to the present standard curriculum of American business colleges ; therefore be it Resolved, That, in our opinion, the report of the special Committee on the Correlation and Co-ordination of the Branches of Study Comprised in the Course of Instruction and Training of the Better Class of Business Colleges presented at the Milwaukee meeting, July 9, 1897, fairly embodies and sets forth in outline a stand- ard course for American business colleges ; Resolved, That we do not desire to discredit business and commercial schools that do not come up to this standard, but would encourage them to work steadily and faithfully towards it; Resolved, That we hold it to be a duty incumbent upon all concerned to raise this standard so far and as fast as the conditions of business colleges and the community render practicable ; Resolved, That, in our opinion, the science of wealth and of human society form the true basis of bus- iness education, as they do of prosperous life and right human intercourse and relations, and that only on such recognized foundation can business colleges build a system of education adequate to the demands of business and social interests entitling them to equal recognition with professional, scientific, and technical educational institutions, representing human advancement along important lines; Resolved, That the Executive Committee be, and it is hereby, instructed to report to the next meeting of this department courses of reading of business-college students ; Resolved, That the Executive Committee be, and it is hereby, instructed to furnish to the business colleges of America copies of this said report and of these resolutions through the National Bureau of Educa- tion, R. C. Spencer was appointed a committee to prepare a suitable resolution relative to the death of Mr. L. A. Gray, of Portland, Me., ex-President of this department. The election of officers resulted as follows: President, D. W. Springer, of Ann Arbor, Mich. First Vice-President, A. N. Palmer, of Cedar Rapids, Ia. Second Vice-President, W. F. Lyon, of Detroit, Mich. Secretary-Treasurer, D. M. Willis, of Morgantown, W. Va, Chatrman of Executive Committee, Allan Davis, of Washington, D.C, A vote of thanks was unanimously tendered to Mr. R. C. Spencer for his hospitable treatment of the department. Adjourned. ALLAN DAVIs, Secretary. PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS. PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. BY A. N. PALMER, CEDAR RAPIDS, IA. In view of the fact that we have much important work to do and a very limited time in which to accomplish it, I have thought that, as presiding officer, I could best subserve the interests of this body by mak- ing what your committee has been pleased to call the President’s annual address somewhat limited in its scope. Had this opportunity been given me ten, or even a half dozen, years ago, I am not sure but that I should have felt it my duty to have advised you quite fully as to the best manner in which to conduct your schools. Exercising my pre- 794 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [ Business rogative as chairman, I might have felt it incumbent upon me to have instructed you in the manner in which you should organize, equip, advertise, and operate your institutions, regardless of the demands made upon you, the class of patronage you control, or your environment. Many things may happen in a half dozen years, and it has come to pass that at this moment I feel myself less able to prescribe educational cure- alls to my brethren than I thought myself capable of doing not many years ago. . At our Buffalo meeting, last year, the correlation and co-ordination of the business branches were ably treated in a comprehensive paper by my co-worker, Mr. J. M. Mehan. At this time I thought Mr. Mehan handled his subject well, and I stillthink so. I am in more hearty accord with the spirit of that paper today than I was one year ago. I think the paper outlined a course of study and practice as broad and comprehen- sive as the average business training school of today can safely adopt. I say safely adopt, because I am not a teacher who believes it possible for the business school to do the work of the college or the university. Neither do I believe that it is possible for us to correct in the student very many of the deficiencies in his education, caused through a lack ot common-school training. The exceptions I find are rare in my neigh- borhood where students could be induced to come to my school and pay my rates of tuition for training offered them free in the public school. Again, I find that students seeking literary or scientific training, on broad lines, seek those great institutions where hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of students are all working along the same lines; institutions with millions of dollars in endowments, and sometimes paying one noted teacher a salary equal to half the annual income of some good business schools. Friends and teachers, we have a noble work to do, and, without question, we will continue to do it unflinchingly. I am nota pessimist, and, as I contemplate the horizon of my field of labor, I find myself buoyed up with hope, and unconsciously taking a very optimistic view of the future. As I meet, in all walks of life, men and women who have been trained for the business office by business colleges, and learned what the short business course has been worth to them, I cannot but believe that in many cases we are doing more for our students in a nine-months’ business or shorthand course than the literary college could accomplish for them in a four-years’ course. We take young men and women who have a fair English education, and train them for positions, not only enabling them to earn a competency, but to mount the business ladder to commercial supremacy, to honor, and to affluence. For more than thirty years the business training schools of the better class have been doing a noble work, have been strengthening their — \t Department] PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS 795 courses of study, and, during all this time, have merited and received the confidence of thoughtful business men, as well as the heartfelt gratitude of their worthy students. In my brief experience as a business educator I feel that my work has been accorded from business and professional men the recognition which it merits. I find that, where thoughtful men care- fully investigate the work accomplished by the best business schools, those institutions receive a full measure of credit. I deplore the tendency to undervalue the work we are doing, to place too lowan estimate upon a course of training that enables our best young people, without financial backing or influence, to establish and maintain themselves in positions of responsibility and pecuniary profit. As you sit here today, can you not think of a dozen young men who are now honored heads of families, surrounded, not only by the comforts of life, but many of the luxuries, whose upward course in busi- ness dated from the day you recommended them to the positions they now occupy so acceptably to their employers and with so much profit to themselves ? Can you not think of a dozen young women who, through the same channel, secured positions that have enabled them to main- . tain themselves comfortably, and aid unfortunate parents ? Could you not name young people of both sexes who have left your school for bookkeepers’ or stenographers’ positions, and who have, later, used the money so earned in putting themselves through institutions of higher education ? I am a friend to liberal education, and will not knowingly place an obstacle in the path of any young man or young woman who desires a college course, but we, in the middle West at least, are supported by a class of young people who come to us for special training in the branches taught by our best business schools. It is our duty to teach these young men and women, without waste of time, the branches they pay for. We are expected in a nine-months’ business course to give them rapidity and accuracy in all classes of arithmetical computations; a rapid, rugged, and easily executed style of writing; a comprehensive knowledge of leading forms of accounts, as applied to the farm, the household, the shop, the grocery, the general store, the dry-goods house, the lumber yard, the wholesale house, commission business, real estate, banking, etc. We are expected to teach these students how to write comprehensive business letters ; how to write and use business forms and papers; how to draw up legal contracts; the laws governing business transactions, contracts, etc. Incidental to this we must drill many of our students in spelling and grammar; for, irrespective of their former training, we find that much work is these branches is needed. Personally, I should like to go farther and, under the head of civics, give my students sufficient training in economics and governmental : 796 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Business affairs to create in them a desire to continue their researches along those lines. I find, however, that the greater number of those who attend busi- ness colleges do not have at their disposal sufficient time or money to enable them to meet our wishes in all directions, and I hold it a solemn duty to teach our business-course students, in the most thorough manner possible, those branches I have particularized. In a word, we must get down to the level of our pupils, and not make the mistake of shooting over their heads while aiming at the stars. To me it isa most painful spectacle to witness the erudite teacher expounding philosophical truths to a class of youngsters who do not understand a word he says, but who are hungering for a morsel of plain instruction in the best methods of figuring interest. I have known busi- ness-college teachers who have made the grave mistake of attempting to teach their pupils higher accounting before they could correctly keep a simple cash or personal account, and I have known large-minded, well- educated, cultured business educators who have found it quite difficult to descend from their lofty heights to the level of their students’ minds and needs. I am nota believer in daily lectures in business-college work on abstruse, economical subjects, even by men of the most profound erudition. Short, sharp talks, trending in the direction of the students’ work, are, to my mind, better. Young teachers, beginners in our special field, I want you to stick a pin here; I want you to remember a few things I am going to say to you. When you are engaged by the manager of a school to teach in the insti- tution over which he presides, you are intrusted with grave responsibili- ties. If the school employing you has been successfully conducted for a dozen or more years, has a clean record for honest, thorough work, the confidence of the community in which it is located and of its graduates, you may safely conclude that the man who is responsible for such a con- dition is fully as capable as you of shaping the policy of his school. Do not try to supersede him in your relations with pupils; do not endeavor to undermine the influence of your employer in his own school. Be upright, be straightforward. If you think you see an opportunity to increase the efficiency of the school and extend its influence, go to your employer and lay your plans before him. He engaged you to teach for him because he had faith in your mental endowments, your teaching ability, and your worth as a man. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred he will be glad to accept sugges- tions from you and consider them. He may not always think it advis- able, in the light of his experience, to act upon your suggestions, but he will think more of you for the interest you show. I have in mind many more things I would like to say to young teachers, but one parting admonition, and I will leave you. Do not, after being in the employ of Department] ENGLISH IN BUSINESS SCHOOLS 797 a school for a few months, consider yourself absolutely indispensable to that institution. You may be an excellent teacher, but the moment you consider yourself the most important factor in the school plans, that moment you vitiate your power to help your employer, and make yourself of less value to him than you were the first day you entered his employ. Pull with your employer, or pull away from his school, is ° my advice. I trust our meeting this year will be characterized by unusual good fellowship ; that each member will feel free to express his opinions upon all subjects under discussion, and that, when we adjourn at the close of this session, it will be with a pleasant memory of this convention. As presiding officer, it is my sincere desire to be fair in all rulings and to give each member his full share of the allotted time. ENGLISH IN BUSINESS SCHOOLS. BY MRS. SARA A. SPENCER, WASHINGTON, D. C. The imperative necessity for a thorough mastery of the language of our own country nowhere so strikingly appears as in the administration of its business interests. The peril to home, life, property, and sacred honor from a single erroneous statement is so frequently illustrated that one is appalled to see a youth imperfectly educated in his own language intrusted with grave business responsibilities. If it be true that business statements first, last, and always require clearness, precision, accuracy, force, discrimination, judgment, and skill, then we do the business world a great wrong if we fail to make a thorough training in English a szne gua non in a curriculum for business schools. The Committee of Fifteen well says in justification of the large share of time claimed for language studies, “language is the instrument that makes possible human, social organization.” One who is ignorant of the properties of words, and of the laws of construction in language, does not know how to tell the truth, and cannot safely be trusted to understand or to deliver a message, to send a tele- gram, or answer a simple note of inquiry. In a single assertion, the verb therein having form, voice, mode, tense, and, in relation to its subject, number and person, it may be ignorantly made wholly to misrepresent the facts in a case. A punctuation mark, misplaced by a clerk, has defeated an act of Congress, or of a state legislature. Correct punctua- tion requires familiarity with phrases, clauses, transpositions, and varied shades of meaning. 798 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [ Business A course of training in English for business schools should be simple, yet comprehensive ; condensed, yet ample and sufficient. The rank and standing of schools of business in the educational world largely depend upon the standard of attainment in English established and maintained by this class of institutions. ~ The National Educational Association’s Committee of Ten announces the objects of teaching English to be: 1. To enable the pupil to understand the expressed thoughts of others, and to give expression to thoughts of his own. 2. To cultivate a taste for reading, to give the pupil some acquaintance with good literature, and to furnish him with the means of extending that acquaintance. The committee proceeds to say, and we indorse and adopt it: “Every lesson taught should be a lesson in English throughout his school life.” There can be no more appropriate moment for a brief lesson in expres- sion than the moment when the pupil has something he is trying to express. A recitation in another branch may easily undo all that a set exercise in English has accomplished. In order that both teacher and pupil may attach due importance to this incidental instruction in English, the pupil’s standing in any subject should depend, in part, on his use of clear and correct English. He should be advised not to choose ignorant persons for daily companions, and thus accustom himself to ignorant language, but to choose for associates the studious and thoughtful, and, as far as possible, the well-educated. As to the time required for special instruction in this subject in common schools, the Committee of Ten recommends oral instructions the first two. years of school life, oral and written instruction in composition the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth years, and not earlier than the seventh school year, that is, about the thirteenth year of the pupil’s life, formal, system- atic, scientific instruction in grammar. One year only of this is scientific training. For the remaining one or two years of the grammar-school course, analysis, composition, reading of best authors, and continuance of faithful criticism of English by all teachers of all branches. It is urged that training in English should continue five hours per week throughout the high-school course of four years. ‘The teacher should be an accomplished specialist. In submitting a course for business schools, this Committee on English, Shorthand, and Typewriting undertakes the gigantic problem of epitomizing these twelve or thirteen years’ training in the best of modern graded schools into a course for one or two years in schools of business. Those who enter business schools may have received the first half or two-thirds of the above described systematic training in English. If so, their lines have fallen in pleasant places. Even these cannot be assuned to have finished English, but only to have well begun. Of these Department] ENGLISH IN BUSINESS SCHOOLS 799 few we sometimes find certified to the high school, and graduated from the high school, those who will spell incorrectly fifty to sixty standard words out of a hundred, and who are liable to frequent errors in construction. The large majority of students entering business schools throughout the country, however, have had far less instruction than these, many com- ing from rural districts, or from various grades below the high school. It is in their favor that they desire to use what they learn without delay, and are in a receptive condition to grasp and appreciate, and are suffi- ciently mature in mind to comprehend, a condensed course in English. TIME REQUIRED. There should be set apart for and devoted to instruction and training in English, including spelling, systematic construction, and critical analysis, not less than four periods of one hour each per week, preferably the second hour each morning, after penmanship, these two topics giving order, color, and style to all the work that follows. The fifth period of two hours on Fridays should be devoted to the reading and study of standard authors, especially those famous for noble, inspiring thoughts and choice, eloquent language. This period will be a school Sabbath, giving an uplift and outlook, healthful and restful to the soul of pupil and teacher. PRELIMINARY TEST IN SPELLING. Upon entrance, the student should take an examination in spelling, consisting of 100 words selected from those in common use in business, legislation, domestic and foreign news, and social life. He is likely to be satisfied with the limited vocabulary he has acquired, and to object to instruction inspelling. This test will be anillumination to him. Few can pass at go per cent. to 95 per cent.; and a business correspondent should not be liable to even from five to ten errors in a hundred selected words. The rank and file of students in business schools need to add to their vocabulary from 3,000 to 4,000 words which they have not generally, up to this tine, had occasion to use. This can be done in dictation exer- cises, 20 words per lesson, 4 lessons per week, of 20 minutes each, in 4o weeks, or one scholastic year of ten months, 7. e. - Words. Lessons, Weeks. 20 x 4 x 40== 3,200 words ; and these words should immediately be used in original construction in the language lesson of 40 minutes that follows. No dead words, whose meaning and use are unknown to students, should be carried in stock. The entrance examination in spelling furnishes a standard of measure- ment which should be applied to subsequent monthly examinations of 800 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [ Business a similar character throughout the year, to test progress and encourage student. Every error should be corrected in red ink." EXAMINATION TEST IN ENGLISH. To develop a candidate’s present practical knowledge and use of his own language, your committee recommends that the following test be applied without exception, the question being, not where nor how he was previously educated, but how he habitually uses the English language : 1. A page of straight copying matter, involving a considerable variety of capitalization, punctuation, paragraphing, and construction, as a run- ning debate, rapid dialogue, quotations, titles, etc., the purpose being to test mental perception, fidelity of eye, and accuracy of hand. 2. A page of dictation of similar matter, at twenty words a minute, throwing the candidate wholly upon his own responsibility as to all details. 3. A page of errors in construction to be corrected, including twenty sentences, and illustrating through popular errors every law of construc- tion. The corrections should be underscored. 4. A page of original composition, the points being given on exami- nation paper. It may be a letter, or a brief review of a popular topic. A well-trained English scholar, who is a candidate for business train- ing only, will not object to this examination. He will enjoy it. And if he passes at 95 per cent. to 98 per cent., English training in his case may be made optional. PROGRAMME OF CONDENSED COURSE IN ENGLISH. First month.— Four lessons per week: The nine original elements, subject, predicate, adjective (or participle), adverb, object, conjunction, comparison, and peculiar and irregular forms. If a class is backward or especially deficient, two months may be devoted to this work, which is to be treated as a thorough review of what, it is assumed, has at some time been learned. Every element must be illustrated by the student in original sen- tences, introducing words drawn from his new spelling vocabulary. Second month. Phrases. — Subject-phrases, objective, adjective, adver- bial, and conjunctive, introducing, in original sentences, every variety of preposition, and illustrating the danger of a wrong shade of meaning conveyed by using a wrong preposition, or a preposition in the wrong place in the sentence. Third month. Clauses.—Subject-clauses, objective, adjective, and * Your committee knew a student who rose from 9§ per cent. wrong to 95 per cent. right under this training in one year. He was an intelligent foreigner, it is true, but this indi- cates how greatly he needed that special training. Department] SHORTHAND 801 adverbial, introducing, in original sentences, every variety of subordi- nate conjunction, and reviewing the declension of personal and relative pronouns, illustrating the common errors in their use in clauses. fourth month Comparison and illustration of simple, compound, and complex elements, and comparison and illustration of simple, com- pound, and complex sentences — all illustrations being original sentences by student, introducing daily new words from his new vocabulary. There are seventy-five varieties of complex elements, giving grace, style, accu- racy, and strength to composition. fifth month. Laws of construction and laws of punctuation.—As all work done by the student in English, and in other branches, has been criticised and corrected as to construction and punctuation, and has been returned to him to be rewritten, he should have acquired a fair degree of accuracy as to habits of construction and punctuation, but for author- ity, for reference when in doubt, for life-long use, he needs a code of laws upon these two essentials of language. Since copious, original illustrations on every one of these laws should be required, it may be found necessary to extend the time allotted another month. The regular time assigned to language during the remainder of the school year should be devoted to abstracts and reviews of lectures and lessons in ethics, civics, commercial law, the science of wealth, and other topics of the school curriculum, each paper being criticised and, if necessary, returned to be rewritten. There should be a review of the whole year’s course before the final examination for grad- uation, and the tests applied at the close should cover the same ground as those given at the beginning to ascertain whether training in English was imperatively needed. A standard of go per cent. to 95 per cent. should be demanded for graduation from either the business or the shorthand department, and the standard should be the same for both departments. Throughout the course there should be developed in the student a love for the study of his native language, an admiration for its beauties, an appreciation of its power. One year is sufficient for the systematic course herein outlined. A lifetime of careful research, critical analysis, and faithful practice still leaves a mine of wealth to be explored. SHORTHAND. BY ISAAC S. DEMENT, PRESIDENT SHORTHAND TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION. Shorthand is so large a subject and the misunderstanding of it so great that I feel it is impossible to explain the one or remove the other within 802 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION [Business the time allotted, and I shall not attempt either, confining myself to some general remarks. : Shorthand is a science that appeals, at times most beseechingly, to the artistic sense. As paint is paint, whether on the canvas, showing, with intricate precision, the magnificent conception of the artist, or upon the house, mixing its colors with the hues of nature; so shorthand is short- hand, whether its imprint upon the page be a photograph of some impas- sioned utterance or a distorted image, showing dim fragments of the glorious ideas of the speaker. ‘This is according to the accepted defini- tion. But shorthand is as broad as the English language— it is a full, a complete language. It responds, in the hands of an artist, with quick sympathy, to all the moods, to all the passions, and submits to the monot- ony of ponderous logic. It is like the trolley of the electric car, the throttle of the locomotive, the sail of the ship. It is that which pre- serves and gives force to individual power. Without it we should have few great men, for their greatness would not be known; without it the commerce of the entire world would not have reached its splendid pro- portions. If it were swept from existence, by some such miracle as occurred at the Tower of Babel, when would the world recover from the shock ? Shorthand has made England and the United States the powers they are. And yet the business educator does not concern himself about it. He employs a shorthand teacher and advertises to teach shorthand. ‘Does he look into the pedigree of the system? Why should he? Does not its author claim that it is rapid? that it is accurate ? that it is easily acquired? Is that not sufficient? Does he feel called upon to ascertain whether it is an untried theory or a tried and proved system. If he be a hunter and wish to purchase a canine assistant, will he look into its pedigree? If he enjoy driving, will his 2:30 team be scrubs or thoroughbreds? If he desire a critical chemical analysis performed, will he employ some one to do it who has had no experience in such matters ? In all affairs of life the business educator is most critical, save in shorthand. There are hundreds of bicycles, some good, some medium, some bad; and there are many shorthand systems based on the grand ideas of Sir Isaac Pitman, some of which are good, some medium, some bad. Will the business educator ever come to require the author of a shorthand text-book to prove his theories by actual demonstration ? An author who cannot do personally all that he claims can be done by his system should not be permitted to delude the public, and the business educator should not be a particeps criminis in the transaction. Pardon this digression, for it is inseparable from the subject. As I have said, shorthand is as extensive as the English language, it is its