Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/addressesproce1914natiuoft JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS AND ADDRESSES OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES 13 Composed and Printed By The University of Chicajro Pn Cbicasro, Illinois, U.S.A. CONTENTS Act of Incorporation i By-Laws S Certificate of Incorporation 12 Calendar of Meetings 13 Officers for 1913-14 15 Secretary's Minutes of General Sessions . 19 GENERAL SESSIONS Addresses of Welcome: I. Burnquist 25 II. Schulz 26 III. Powers 27 IV. Lange 28 Response to Addresses of Welcome — Fairchild 28 President's Address — Swain 29 The Responsibility of American Educators in the Solution of America's Oriental Problem — Gulick 35 Topic: The Status of Woman A. Training Women for Social Responsibility — Mathews 40 B. Some Aspects of the Public School from a Social Worker's Point of View — Breckinridge 45 C. The Humanities, Old and New — Perkins . 51 D. Preparation of Women for Twentieth-Century Life — Woolley ... 56 Topic: Teachers' Salaries and Pensions A. The College Professor and the Nation — Ddbney 60 B. Salaries Based on the Position and Not on the Sex of Incumbent — Strachan 66 C. Teachers' Retirement Allowances — Hamilton 71 The Public-School Teacher and the Standard of Living — Nearing .... 78 Topic: Principles and Aims of Education A. Common-Sense and Beyond — Bryan 94 B. The Purpose of Elementary and High-School Education — Schaeffer . . 98 C. The Purpose of the Liberal College — Meiklejohn 102 Topic: Education in a Democracy A. Education for Social Service — Ross 103 B. Education for Political and Moral Service — Thompson .... 106 Topic: The Needs of the Public Schools A. Professionally Prepared Teachers — Cook 113 B. The Kingdom of Little Things — Greenwood 115 C. Systematic Education for Those Pupils Leaving School Too Soon — Harvey 119 D. Progress of the Rural Schools — Fairchild 122 E. Let Both Grow Together Until the Harvest— Pear^e 125 F. The Adaptation of the Work of the School to the Needs of the People — Joyner 129 V vi NA TIONAL EDUCA TlON ASSOCIA TION DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE (Richmond Meeting, 1914) PAGE Secretary's Minutes— Lo^an ^33 AddnuotWdcome—ChandUr ^39 RespooBC to Address of Welcome— Gr«tf» 140 Education and Social Economy — Devine 142 Fundamental Distinctions between Liberal and Vocational Education — Snedden iSo BagUy 161 School and Shop— Work and Study— C(mJ(w 171 The Apprentice Schools of the Santo Fe Railway System— r/kWkw 17S Topic: Hopeful Experiments A. Mississippi Canning C\\xhs— Powell 185 B. Some Conditions in Rural Schools and Their Improvement— Prw/o« 189 C. The Moonlight Schools of Kentucky— 5teTe>ar/ 193 The Foundations of Educational Achievement — Thorndike 199 Report of the Committee on Economy of Time in Education — Wilson . 206 Economy of Time in Arithmetic — Jessup 209 The Determinants of the Course of Study — Yocum 223 How the Course of Study Should Be Determined — Withers 235 Rural-School Administration — Cubberley and Elliott 244 round tables Round Table op State and County Superintendents Problems That Confront the Stote Superintendent in His Relation to the Rural Schools — MilUr 251 Dangers of Overorganization of the Rural Schools — Smith 253 Interrelation of the OlQ&ce of Stote Superintendent and That of County Superin- tendent— Blair 257 Morelock 260 Round Table op Superintendents in Cities with a Population op over 300,000 Topic: The Function of the School to the Conmiunity It Serves A. Its Scholastic Function — Gwinn 264 B. Its Social Function — Greenwood 266 Round Table of Superintendents in Cities with a Population of prom 25,000 TO 300,000 Topic: Differentiation in Course of Study in the Upper Grades A. Shortening the Course — Weet 269 B. Substitution of Work of Vocational or Pre vocational Character in the Upper Grades — Greeson 27a Camtnack 274 Round Table of Superintendents in Cities with a Population under 25,000 How Shall the Superintendent Measure His Own Efficiency? — Vance 279 Testing Grade Teachers for Efficiency— Pw^ey 283 How Secure More Effective Supervision ?—Teitrick 286 ** Pre-delinqucnt Boys— Joiner 289 CONTENTS vii NATIONAL COUNCIL OF EDUCATION lAGB Secretary's Minutes (Richmond Meeting) 293 Health Problems in the American Public Schooh— Wood ....*.. 294 Minimum Sanitary Requirements for Rural Schools 295 Report of the Committee on Tests and Standards of Efficiency in Schools and School Systems — Strayer 302 The Public-School Survey — Meek 310 The Method, Scope, and Value of the Survey in Relation to the Course of Study — Kinnaman 314 Topic: Sex Hygiene A. Wanted — ^A Twentieth-Century Ideal — Strachan 317 B. Sex Hygiene — ^What the Schools Can Do — Pearse 318 Secretary's Minutes (St. Paul Meeting) 325 Topic: Co-operating Forces for the Improvement op Rural-School Con- ditions I. Chamberlain 327 II. Schallenherger 332 III. Cary 338 IV. Baylor 340 V. Johnson 342 Topic: Superintendent Problems I. Carr 344 II. Wolfe 349 III. Siders 354 IV. MacDonald 356 V. Monroe 358 VI. Felmley 358 President's Address — Aley 361 History and Achievement of the National Coimcil of Education — Greenwood 364 Some Positive Educational Gains of the Last Decade — Cook 369 Topic: Harmonizing Vocational and Cultural Education I. Preston 375 II. Seerley 378 III. Luckey 380 rV. Crahtree 384 V. Cook 38s Topic: Economy of Time in Education I. Strong 386 II. Wilson 390 III. Blair 395 IV. Harvey 397 V. Scribner 401 DEPARTMENT OF KINDERGARTEN EDUCATION Secretary's Minutes 405 Adaptation of the Work of the Kindergarten to the Needs of Individual Children — Groszmann 406 viii NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION PAGE What the United States Bureau of Education Is Doing for the Kindergarten— WinchesUr 4i3 Standardizing the Work in the Kindergarten and Elementary Schools— Alexander 41 5 DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION Secretaiys Minutes 421 Topic: The Individual Child and His Individual Needs: The School Lite OF the Child A. Self-Expression in the School — Sear son 42 a B. Preparation for Service thru the School — Macdonald '427 Topic: The Individual Child and His Individual Needs: The Home Life of THE Child A. Self-Expression in Society — Walker 430 B. Self-Protection thru Knowledge and Habit — Schallenberger . 435 C. Constructive Civic Agencies — Ward 439 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY EDUCATION Secretary's Minutes 445 President's Address — The Old and the New — Westcott 446 Bishop Grundtvig and the People's High Schools — Cooley 451 The Value of History of Art as a Study in Secondary Schools — MacMurphy 460 The Progress of Industrial Education in Cleveland, Ohio — Short .... 462 Some Things Worth While in Industrial Education in Secondary Schools — Alien 465 The Responsibility of the Teacher with Regard to the Teaching of Sex Hygiene— Blount 470 Some Experiments in Sex Education — Peabody 475 Minutes of the Meetings of the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education 481 Problems Confronting the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Edu- cation— Kingsley 483 Minutes of the Meetings of the Conference of High-School Principals 488 DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION Secretary's Minutes 489 Religious Education in Universities— 5/rowg 489 The Media of Religious Impression in College — Crawford 494 DEPARTMENT OF NORMAL SCHOOLS Secretary's Minutes (Richmond Meeting) 497 The Reorganization of the Normal-School Curriculum— F«/w/ey .... 498 The Preparation of Teachers and Supervisors for the Industrial Branches and Other Special Lines— I- Corhly 505 II. Crabtree ^oo Extension Work in Normal Schools— I. Matkes ^i- U. Minnich ri6 in. WiUiam " . ' .^ 519 The Twentieth-Century Normal School— /Ttfjfe ........ 524 CONTENTS ix PAGG The Twentieth-Century Normal School — New Branches of Study, New Problems, and New Ideals — Pearse 527 The Preparation of Teachers for High Schools — Seerley 529 The Preparation of Teachers for Rural Schools — Doyne 532 The Training-School — Carrington 537 Professional Experimentation and Investigation — Green 537 Secretary's Minutes (St. Paul Meeting) 539 The Practice School and the Work of the Heads of Departments in It — Cook . 541 How Can Normal Schools Best Help the Forward Movement in Rural Life? — Brister 548 The Strength of the Normal Schools — Johnson 552 Notable Shortcomings of State Normal Schools — Thompson 554 The Content of the Course in Sociology in a Normal School — Cheever . . 559 DEPARTMENT OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND PRACTICAL ARTS Secretary's Minutes 565 Statement in Regard to the Work of the Committee on Vocational Education and Vocational Guidance — Fuller 568 The Economic Significance and Relationships of Vocational Education — Seeger . 569 Vocational Education — ^Its Social Relationships — Sumner 572 President's Address — Williston 577 Vocational Education — Its Terminology — Pearse 582 The Place of Industrial Education in a Rational School System — Chamberlain . 586 The Need in America for Schools of Applied Art and the Necessity in American Industries for Art Leaders and Designers of the Highest Grade — Flagg . 589 Art Appreciation for the Masses — Koehler 594 Art Courses in Elementary, Intermediate, and High Schools — Roberts . . . 597 Art Education as a Part of General Culture — McWhorter 599 The Use of the Factory and Office Buildings in New York City for Vocational Education — Haaren 602 Trade Agreements in Industrial Education of Apprentices in Chicago — Roberts . 607 The Apprenticeship and Continuation Schools of Milwaukee, Wis. — Cooky . 614 The Renovation of the Home thru Home Economics — Norton 618 How May the General Aims of Manual-Training Courses Be Best Conserved ? — Potter 622 DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC EDUCATION Secretary's Minutes 625 Community Music — An Opportunity — Dykema 627 High-School Credit for Applied Music Taken under Special Teachers Outside of School — McConathy 634 A Psychological Analysis of the Basis on Which Credit for the Study of Music Is to Be Placed — Cragun 635 When Music Fulfils Its Highest Function — Lutkin 641 ~ DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS EDUCATION Secretary's Minutes 649 The Present Status of Business Education in the United States and Some Recom- mendations— Glade 652 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION PAGE Preparatory Educational Requirements for Collegiate Training in Business, with Special Reference to Articulation between the High-School and College Coursca— Co/«y 657 DEPARTMENT OF CHILD HYGIENE Secretary's Minutes 663 Some Phases of the Health Supervision of Schools — Uines 663 Industrial Hygiene and Vocational Education — Rapeer 668 The Health Administration of Schools — Bracken 672 The Attitude of the Child in Learning — Colvin 677 DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION Secretary's Minutes 683 Physical Care and Training of Children in European Schools — Raihmann 684 The Physical Director in Relation to the School — Samson 691 Shall Sex Hygiene Be Taught in the Public Schools?— I. Keene 695 n. Wright 697 The History of the Development of Physical Education at Newcomb College — Boer 701 The Physical Condition of the Child as a Leading Factor in Determining His Vocational Guidance — Schallenberger 704 Swedish Gymnastics in American Schools — Blijenburgh 707 The Heart Volume in Man — ^The Nitrous Oxide Method and the Results of Pro- fessor Franz Miiller — Berry 713 DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE INSTRUCTION Secretary's Minutes 721 President's Address — The Outiook for the Application of the Scientific Method to the Problems of Science Teaching — Twiss 723 Co-operation by Teachers for the Improvement of Science Teaching — Randall 729 Topic: Geography in Secondary Schools A. Geography in the Large High School — WhUbeck 732 B. Geography in Village and Rural Sdiooh—Sutherland 738 The Use of Lantern Slides in a Course in Electrical Measurements — Frey 742 Motion Pictures as an Aid to Education— 5a«n<^r5 T 743 Biology in the Secondary Schools— Peabody 748 Physics for Girls by the Scientific Method— Fordyce 750 Report of the Conunittee on Janitor Service— Pw/naw 750 The Tendencies and General Status of Courses in General Science— Timbie 7^2 Barber ^rg Applied Science— Its Relationship to Shopwork and the Rest of the Curriculum in an Up-to-Date Technical High School— Morrison 764 DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION Secretary's Minutes 773 Problems in the Successful Teaching of Mechanical Science— 5eWe« 774 The Heating, Lighting, and Ventilating of School Buildings— /«goW 779 CONTENTS xi PAGE A State Teachers' Employment Agency under the Supervision of the Department of Public Instruction — Malmin 785 The Success of a State Teachers' Employment Agency Law after Two Years — Critchett 787 LIBRARY DEPARTMENT Secretary's Minutes 791 The Library's Debt to Culture — Dudgeon 794 The Country Child in the Rural Library — Preston 796 Report of the Committee on Rural-School Libraries — Wilson 798 The Newspaper Morgue, the Library, and the School — Johnston . . . 810 Libraries and Schools: Educational Co-operation — Kerr 813 Normal-School Training in Library Methods — Ovitz 814 A Normal Budget for the High-School Library — Newberry 817 High-School Branches of Public Libraries — Wright 820 Report of the Committee on High-School Libraries — Hall 823 DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL EDUCATION Secretary's Minutes 827 President's Address — Groszmann 829 An Effort to Make the School Fit the Needs of the Exceptional Child — Alderman 830 Fear and Its Cure — Williams 836 Methods for Making Surveys of Public Schools, with Suggestions to Principals and Teachers for Recording Data on Subaverage, Subnormal, Backward, or Defective Children — Campbell 840 The Work of the National Association for the Study and Education of Exceptional Children — Groszmann 843 A Practical Experiment with Backward Children— Carr 844 Reading and Arithmetic as Tests of Mental Ability — Schmitt 848 DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL PATRONS Secretary's Minutes 851 President's Report — Refer an 852 Summary of Reports of State Joint Committees and Afl&liated Organizations, 1913-14 8SS Report of the Committee on School Health — Bates 861 Topic: The Responsibility of School Patrons with Regard to the School Questions A. School Health— 5arfy 865 B. School Revenue — Blair 870 DEPARTMENT OF RURAL AND AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION Secretary's Minutes 877 Rural Demonstration Schools and Study-Center Work for Rural Teachers — Seerley 878 A Beginning in Rural High-School Work and Township Supervision — Glissman 882 The Use of Raw Materials in Teaching Agriculture — Welles 886 The Course in Agriculture for Training Teachers in Normal Training High Schools — I. McBrien 890 II. Storm 89s xii NA TIONAL EDUCA TION ASSOCIA TION PAGE The Federated Bo>'s' and Girls' Club Work— 5 OR More Endowment AND Spending $4S,ocx3 AND Over for Salaries State-aided Colleges 'i<^J Universities and Col- leges WITH Less Than $1,000,000 Endowment AND Spending Less Than $45 ,000 FOR Salaries Carnegie report of 1908 Bureau report of 19 11 Bureau report of 1914 $2,500 $1,600 $1,000 $1,800 3,326 1,596 1,199 $2,186 2,569 $1,427 1,741 $1,028 1,091 $1,200 $ 800 1,768 1,388 1,066 It will be seen from this that while there has been a tendency to increase salaries as the cost of living has gone up, the increase has not been uniform in all classes and is still totally inadequate for every class of college teacher. In the institutions having $1,000,000 endowment or over, most of them in eastern cities, the salaries of the professors have been increased since 1908 about 33 per cent, and of the instructors about 20 per cent, while the salaries of the assistant professors have remained stationary. In the state-aided universities and colleges, the salaries of professors have been increased, since 1911, about 17 per cent, of assistant professors about 22 per cent, and of instructors about 6 per cent. In the universities and colleges having less than $1,000,000 endowment, the professors have lost a little salary since 1908, while the salaries of assistant professors have increased about 15 per cent, and of instructors about 33 per cent. We know, however, that since 1908 the cost of living has increased at least 40 per cent and the demands made upon the professor, which we may Sessions] THE COLLEGE PROFESSOR AND THE NATION 63 call the cost of higher living, have certainly increased 10 per cent. The professors in the smaller colleges — and they represent the largest class in our country — report that their salaries now have only one-half the pur- chasing power they had in 1904. The condition of the professor in the state-aided institution has improved the most. His present salary, however, buys 25 or 30 per cent less than did the salary of ten years ago. The assistant professor in the state-aided institution stands relatively in the same condition; while the assistant professor in both the heavily endowed university and in the small college finds himself in a more wretched financial condition than formerly. The maximum salaries as well as the averages reported by the Bureau of Education also furnish food for thought. The highest-salaried professors are found in institutions in the eastern states having $1,000,000 endowment or more. The largest salary paid in them is $7,500, which is received by five professors of law and one of commerce. The next highest salary is $7,000, and this is received by one professor in each of the following depart- ments: Latin, political economy, sociology, philosophy, physics, and medicine. These salaries are not found among the other classes of institu- tions. Omitting the professors of law, commerce, and medicine, there are this year only five academic professors in all the classes who draw salaries as large as $7,000. I call attention to the fact that it is those who have prepared themselves for other than academic professions who command the largest salaries paid by our universities. The man who has spent all his time and energy in qualifying himself for the academic career has to be content with the smaller salary. We may gain a general idea of the inadequate salaries paid even by the wealthiest institutions from the state- ment that out of 1,067 f^l college professors only 127 receive a yearly compensation of $5,000 or more. An examination of the salaries paid in the other two classes of institu- tions— those aided by the state and those having less than $1,000,000 endowment — reveals conditions even less encouraging. The state-aided institutions have no professors paid above $5,000 and show only thirty- three of these, twenty of whom are engaged in work outside of the academic departments. The colleges and universities having less than $1,000,000 endowment have, of course, still fewer highly paid professors. Out of 1,060 only three get $6,000 and three $5,000. Counting all the teachers at present employed in all the institutions in the three classes we find that only one in seventy-four has a chance of ever attaining to a salary of $5,000. What are the maximums for the assistant professors? Only 725, or 30 per cent, out of the 2,434 assistant professors in all these American colleges draw salaries of $2,000 or more, and the majority of these are found in the $1,000,000 institutions in eastern cities, where this salary amoimts to 64 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General very little. In other words, only one-third of our assistant professors are receiving what may fairly be considered a living salary. Having examined the highest salaries paid in these different classes of institutions, let us now turn to a consideration of the minimum amounts received by men supposed to be doing the same work as the highest- salaried professors just considered. These small salaries give us a clearer conception of the situation for our American college teachers than even the consideration of the averages. The bricklayer who has steady work in any of our western cities now earns $1,500 in ten months. Taking this amount as the standard of com- parison, we find that only 781, or one-fifth, of all the full professors in all three classes of institutions draw a salary ranging between $1,000 and $2,000, and averaging that of the bricklayer. This, however, is by no means the minimum for the salary of the full professor; for, in the state- aided colleges and the less heavily endowed institutions, it falls as low as $750, and in the case of five persons as low as $400. Nine men who gave their full time to the college this year received $750. We touch bottom when we record that there are in these United States 146 men called full professors who are giving their entire time and energy to college teaching for the meager stipend of $85 and less a month. With regard to the estate of the assistant professor and the instructor, it suffices to say that in all the universities and colleges reporting to the Bureau this year, there are 533 assistant professors who receive less than $1,500, and 1,108 instructors who receive less than $1,000 a year. A few comparisons between the salaries of the college teachers and the earnings of men in other professions may be made. We have found that the average college professor, at the age of thirty-four, reaches his maximum salary of $1,768 in institutions having less than $1,000,000 endowment; of $2,569 in state-aided institutions; of $3,326 in institutions having endow- ments of over $1,000,000. The lawyer or engineer of equal education after being out of school eight or ten years will be earning at least $5,000 or $6,000, and a physician perhaps somewhat more. The average college professor at thirty-four is certainly receiving from $1,000 to $2,000 less a year for his services than his contemporaries in other professions and he has reached his limit. How do college men compare with high-school teachers ? In one large city in the near East where the high-school teacher receives from $2,000 to $2,500, the professors in the university receive salaries of from $1,200 to $1,800. The salaries of assistant professors rarely equal those of high- school teachers. A lieutenant just appointed in the army receives a total of $1,800 in salary and allowances, but the average salary of the assistant professor, who is usually older and has invested more money and time in preparing himself for his work, is only $1,741 in state-aided institutions, $1,596 in Sessions] THE COLLEGE PROFESSOR AND THE NATION 65 $1,000,000 institutions, and $1,388 in the universities and colleges having less than $1,000,000. If we consider the instructors whose average salary in all classes is about $1,100, we find that this is exceeded by bricklayers and plasterers in our middle-western cities and about equaled by the journeymen plumbers and the policemen. It is evident that the material rewards for the college teacher are wretchedly inadequate. Is he such a wretched fellow, then, as these salaries would seem to suggest? By no means. What then leads able men to adopt the professor's calling? I think it is fair to say that the chief attraction is the responsibility and influence which the professor has as a servant of society. A second motive with all true men is the love of study and the life of the scholar. The scholar evi- dently considers slightly the financial returns of his profession. He knows when he chooses his life's work how little his own teachers received and how simply their families had to live. He, therefore, enters the profession with his eyes open to its privations and sacrifices. In other words, he makes a deliberate sacrifice of material things in order to get the opportunity to serve his generation as a scholar and to become a member of what Mr. Lowell calls the "only aristocracy in America." The third great attraction, of course, is the opportunity for research. Every true scholar must take a part in the work of extending our knowledge as well as in teaching. The professor feels it his duty not only to keep abreast of the new knowledge in his subject, but to add to it at every oppor- tunity. He knows that to grow he must be productive. In such work he finds great reward not only in the satisfaction he feels, but in the respect of his fellows. It is a sad fact, but true, that research carried on by the university men of this country leads to almost no such material returns as it does in Germany and other countries. His only reward is the honor and respect of scholars like himself, who take up and use his work. Boards of management should remember then that the opportunity to do research work is a very important part of the reward of the college professor. Deprive him of this and you take from him that which every growing professor must consider as his most precious privilege. We should rejoice that this high and responsible service and these opportunities to study still have strong attractions for the right men. If they did not, there would be no worthy men or scholars in the college faculties, for the other rewards are pitifully small. But it still remains true that the public must give the college professor a decent salary, one sufficient to enable him to have and bring up a family in a suitable way, or it will drive the best men away from this most important profession. The reduction of the net salary of the college teacher cannot go on longer without great injury to our college work. The American people cannot afford to sweat the college professors for two reasons: First, the teacher is the maker of men. As the 66 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General teacher of all other teachers, the college professor is the most important man in the nation. For the grade of work he does, he is the worst paid. And, secondly, he is the discoverer of new knowledge. It is the duty of every nation to do its share to advance science, to develop the powers of man, and to widen his vision in all directions. Thru science, we gain a greater knowledge of the world in which we live, a greater power over nature, a greater efficiency in invention, and better prevention and treatment of disease. Science is, thus, our first industry. As the engineer directs the work of the contractor, so science directs every human enterprise. To the college professor, we must look to discover all this new knowledge and to train all our inventors. Where the lawyer, politician, business man, and physician do good service to a few people, the discoverer confers benefits upon the whole world, not for the present age only, but for all time. Surely, then, society should properly support its ablest men in this service of discovering new knowledge and making men. B. SALARIES BASED ON THE POSITION AND NOT ON THE SEX OF INCUMBENT GRACE C. STRACHAN, DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, BROOKLYN, N.Y. At a dinner in Brooklyn recently Rev. Dr. Hillis said: "There can be no political or social equality so long as there is industrial inequality thru class legislation. There is but one solution of the social problem and that is the application of the Golden Rule to the laws of the street." I am going to try to tell you in twenty minutes some of the reasons why teachers in the city of New York feel so strongly about the subject of sex in salary. I have here a book containing nearly six hundred pages which tells part of the story of the struggle made by the Interborough Associa- tion of Women Teachers of the city of New York for "equal pay for equal work," which lasted from April, 1906, to January i, 191 2, at which time a law went into effect providing that there should not be discrimination in salary on account of the sex of the teacher, and adding $3,800,000 to the total annual salaries of the women teachers of New York City. I feel that, to begin with, I must tell you that I myself have never suffered any discrimination in salary on account of sex. I began teaching in Buffalo, N.Y., where salaries are paid according to the position, and I continued my teaching in Brooklyn where salaries were likewise paid according to the position; and before the consolidation of Brooklyn with other municipalities into "Greater New York," I was elected a superin- tendent, and as such for the past fourteen years I have received the salary of that position. When the various salary conditions existing in the different school sys- tems at the time of consolidation were, in April, 1900, crystallized into a state Sessions] SALARIES BASED ON POSITION AND NOT ON SEX 67 law as part of the charter of the new city, the women teachers found them- selves in a situation which probably the teachers in no other part of the country except the East can fully appreciate. They found that this law fixed certain minimum salaries and fixed them for "male" and "female" teachers. The words quoted were those used in the law. It was provided that the salary of a "female teacher" should not be less than $600 a year and that of a "male teacher" should not be less than $900 a year, and that the annual increment for a "female teacher" should not be less than $40, nor less than $105 for a "male teacher." This meant, for example, that my brother, tho he and I might have graduated at the same time from exactly the same course, and might have begun teaching on the same date in exactly the same grade, and tho he might have been a very much poorer teacher than I — as would probably be the case if we were teaching in the lower grades — would begin at a salary $300 a year greater than mine, and at the end of the year — tho I might be marked "A" and he a bare "B" — would be rewarded with an increase of $105, as against my increase of $40. With this rate of increase, I would be receiving $1,080 at the end of twelve years, and he would be receiving $2,160 — exactly twice as much. His salary would remain at $2,160, unless he got into the higher grades where the maximum was fixed at $2,400. The maximum for "female" teachers in the grades of the first six years was $1,240, and in the grades of the seventh and eighth years was $1,320 and $1,440, with a bonus of $60 for "boys" and "mixed" classes. In the position of assistant to principal, the women received $1,600 and the men $2,400; and in that of principals the women reached $2,500 and the men $3,500. Women high-school teachers had $1,900 and men $2,400. The first assistants or heads of departments in high schools had $2,500 and $3,000 respectively. This basing salary on the accident of sex without regard to other conditions made such absurd situations as the following possible: A woman principal of a school having 67 classes — 4,000 boys and girls — in all grades from kindergarten to gradu- ating class, was receiving $2,500, while another principal, who happened to be a "male principal" but who had only 12 classes — 400 pupils — was receiving $3,500. Another striking illustration of the "gross injustices" and "glar- ing inequalities" (the words quoted are from Governor Hughes's veto message on our bill in 1907) existing under the law we were seeking to amend was that of the teacher of a class of 28 girls who received $2,400 because he was "male," while near by was a class of 48 boys whose teacher being "female" received $1,500. The men of the legislature and of various associations to whom we presented these facts readily saw the injustice of such discrimination. When you consider these conditions you will not be surprised that, after accepting them without formal protest for several years, the women united in an association, including all grades from kindergarten to district superin- tendent, for the purpose of correcting them. This organization soon grew 68 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General to be very powerful, with a membership of over twelve thousand; yet it took this immense body of teachers six years to secure a law which elimi- nated the words "male" and "female" from our charter, and provided cer- tain minimum salaries fixed according to position. This law added $3,800,- 000 to the salary budget of New York City. About $150,000 went to men teachers in the high and training schools, the maximum for assistant teachers in such schools being raised from $2,400 to $2,650. This caused an increase for the women in high and training schools of $750 a year. The women principals were given the $3,500 and the women assistant principals the $2,400 formerly paid to men only. In the grades of the elementary schools, the salaries of the women teachers were not raised to the salaries that had been paid to the men — a compromise between the former maximums of the men and the women being proposed by the Board of Education and accepted by our association. The maximum for the kindergarten and grades of the first six years was made $1,500, and for the grades of the seventh and eighth years, $1,820. Some people wonder why this was done. The answer is simple. It would have cost the city over ten millions of dollars to pay the twelve thousand women in the grades of the elementary schools the $2,160 and $2,400 maximums that were being paid to the twelve hundred men in said grades; and every man and woman here knows that to expect any city to add ten millions to its budget to increase teachers' salaries for one year would be futile. The minimum salary of the women in the elementary schools was raised from $600 to $720 and the maximums were increased from $1,240 to $1,500 and from $1,320 and $1,440 to $1,820. The total increase to the women in the grades was nearly $3,000,000. Some of the arguments that were used by our opponents will, I think, be of interest. Our chief opponents were our fellow-teachers, who under the law were classed as "male." As our fight progressed we discriminated among them, and called those who supported our cause "men teachers" and the others "male teachers." One of the favorite arguments was that a man had, or expected to have, a family to support. Now, we all know that many of us women also have families to support; and our families are not the kind of family a man has to support. A man's family is usually made up of children who will later support him if necessary, while a woman teacher's family is almost always composed of those who die ere the teachers themselves have grown old. But even if there were some force in that argument, its application was absurd; since a married man with seven children and a mother-in-law to support was not paid any more than a rich bachelor, nor than a man who had married a wealthy woman who could easily have supported him. The "family" argument was met by one of our speakers by the suggestion that the salary be fixed according to the position and then that a bonus be allowed for each child or dependent relative; but that suggestion did not meet with favor, as most of the men who opposed us were young bachelors. Sessions] SALARIES BASED ON POSITION AND NOT ON SEX 69 The argument of supply and demand and the scarcity of men teachers was sometimes raised; but we were fortunate in that right in the midst of our fight the eligible list of women teachers in New York City was exhausted and the Board of Education had to advertise in educational papers and magazines for women teachers. At the same time there was organized an "Association of Unappointed Men Teachers." This organization was frequently called "The Association of Disappointed Men Teachers." What was the reason for this apparently anomalous situation? Simply that the authorities believed that many classes are better taught by women than by men. Notwithstanding the above facts, I know I am right in saying that in the elementary schools of New York City there are more male teachers than in those of any other public-school system in the country. At the time of our fight, the proportion was about one man to twelve women, and now the proportion of men is greater. There are certain conditions in which we believe it is proper to consider sex in connection with the salaries of teachers. Here in the West, at least in the elementary schools, all your classes are mixed classes; but in the city of New York, we have boys' classes and girls' classes, and, in many instances, schools composed wholly of boys, and others composed entirely of girls. Now we all know that it is easier to find a successful teacher of girls than it it is to secure a successful teacher of boys. Here, therefore, the question of supply and demand properly enters. Since the supply of teachers who can successfully teach girls is greater than that of those who can successfully teach boys, we believe that the salaries of teachers whose pupils are all boys should be greater than those of teachers whose pupils are all girls. As to the scarcity of teachers in the future, I predict that it is not going to be limited to men teachers. There is already a scarcity of the best women teachers; and as the years go by and more fields of work with better salaries and more social freedom are opened to women, the girls are going to take up teaching in ever-decreasing numbers. I am told by the assistant principal in one of our best high schools that the brightest and best girls in the school are not going to the Training School for Teachers. That is something boards of education should consider. A member of our Board of Education told me recently that a woman in his employ had left him to sign a contract with another firm for $20,000 a year, and two or three trips to Europe annually at the firm's expense. There is no department of education that is offering any such inducement. Another favorite argument was that women feminize boys. I should like the men in this audience to speak up and state how many of them remember the influence of their mothers, and then to testify whether it made them weaklings. I know there are many here who teach in school systems where there are no men teachers in grades below the high schools. I think I am right in saying that in Indianapolis there are no men in the elementary schools, and I am sure that the boys who graduate from the schools of 70 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General Indianapolis are not lacking in courage, initiative, and other sterling quali- ties. The influence of the teacher depends not on sex but on personality; and a fine character enshrouded in the form of a woman is just as likely to bring out the best there is in the boy as is a fine character enshrouded in the form of a man. The fetish of feminization is exploded by such authorities as Professor Dewey and Professor Thorndike of Columbia. It is upheld only by foreigners unacquainted with us, our customs, and our schools, and by a few misguided followers of such foreigners. There are always some who say that women cannot do the same work as men. When I hear that opinion expressed, I always tell this story: A wealthy society woman had been appointed a member of the Board of Education and I had secured an interview with her in the hope of enlisting her sympathy for our cause. I was very pleasantly received in her beauti- ful home and for nearly two hours I presented facts and arguments and tried to make her understand why over twelve thousand of the teachers now under her care were practically on strike. As I rose to leave, this woman commissioner of the Board of Education said: I thank you for coming, Miss Strachan. I have been very much interested. But I am not sure women can do the same work as men. Now I'm very much interested in birds — ^in fact, I have an aviary on the top floor of this house — and I've been watching the birds, and I find that the work of the female bird is very different from the work of the male bird. Some say: No two people can do equal work. Probably not. Compare the work of Roosevelt as president and the work of Wilson as president. Who can say they are equal ? Yet the salary does not vary, nor does any- one figure out how many children President Wilson has as compared with President Arthur, nor does he try to estimate how much greater are the expenses of President Wilson, a man with three daughters, than those of President Taft, with one son and one daughter. No, there is a salary fixed for the position and the person who is put into that position draws that salary. That is as it should be. Discriminating against women teachers in the matter of salary is as bad for the man as for the woman. Paying a man more money for teaching a class than is paid a woman for teaching the same class breeds two serious evils for the man teacher. The lesser of these is the lessening of his chance of appointment. By far the greater evil is the degeneraton of his fine sense of truth, of honor, and of justice. This placing of a false and inflated value on his services causes him to imagine he is something he is not. It is as if a four-foot man propped upon stilts should think he was actually a six-foot man. It is inevitable that the male teacher, put by the state in a special and privileged class based simply on the accident of sex, should come to think himself some strange and unusual creature that must be pampered and decorated and even fed and clothed at the expense directly of his sister- workers and indirectly of the community which supports him. Sessions] TEACHERS' RETIREMENT ALLOWANCES 71 Is there not great danger that the person who, sunply because he happens to be of the male sex, receives twice as big a salary as another person in an identical position who happens to be of the female sex, will gradually become an undesirable citizen? Is he not taking unto himself things that are not rightfully his? And must it not follow, as the night the day, that his sense of truth is warped; his sense of justice, untrustworthy; his sense of right, generally, unbalanced? All intelligent people must acknowledge that injustice is immoral. All must agree that to practice or uphold injustice is dangerous to the individual, the corporation, the municipality, the state, the nation. C. TEACHERS' RETIREMENT ALLOWANCES WALTER I. HAMILTON, AGENT, MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF EDUCATION, BOSTON, MASS. Seven years ago two states were paying to teachers pensions from state funds. Now twelve have made more or less satisfactory provisions for such pensions. These states contain over 25 per cent of the population of the country. In several states, laws have been enacted authorizing any school district to pay retirement allowances. In a number of others, special acts have been passed, establishing retirement funds for teachers in desig- nated communities. In all, twenty-three states have enacted laws of vary- ing scope regarding teachers' retirement allowances, with the result that nearly, if not quite, one-third of the teaching force of the public schools of the United States now has the protection afforded by some sort of pension fund. CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF RETIREMENT SYSTEMS Twenty to fifteen years ago, retirement funds as a phase of social welfare legislation had scant attention in this country. Today, workingmen's compensation, widows' pensions, industrial insurance are subjects for an ever-increasing amount of legislation thruout our country as well as the whole civilized world. Reinforcing public interest in, and demand for, such protection at public expense is the rapid extension of old age and dis- ability retirement plans operated by great industrial organizations. More than one hundred large corporations now have retirement systems for their employees. Add to these the workers protected by such compulsory insur- ance laws as are in operation in Massachusetts and New York, and we have evidence of an awakened public conscience as regards the duty of society to its aged and disabled members and a new insight into the economic significance of old age, sickness, and accidents. We have reached the time when we are beginning to apply this conscience and this insight to the economic and educational problems presented by the group of workers to whom society has intrusted the training of youth. 72 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General Twenty to fifteen years ago, people thought in smaller units; then plans for teachers' pensions rarely contemplated including more than the teachers of certain cities. Pension systems were, naturally, first inaugurated in the larger and populous centers, as the need there was greatest, attracting and holding, as they did, many teachers who became superannuated in the service. Today, the situation is changed. We are in a period of merging previously established local pension systems into complete state systems, and of the establishing of state systems in areas where few, if any, local pensions are paid. The merging process is illustrated in such states as New York, Massachusetts, and California, while Maine is an example of a state inaugurating a state system where no local pensions have heretofore been paid. UNSOUND RETIREMENT SYSTEMS If there is one characteristic of our American people that stands out more conspicuously than another, it is our capacity for faith, and our optimism in substituting faith for real knowledge. As a people, we have "guessed" that bridges and embankments have been strong enough until a catastrophe has shocked but hardly changed us. We have "guessed" and taken on faith alluring statements regarding insurance of a tontine variety; we have embraced the dazzling promises of the promoter to whom we would not personally lend five dollars. Characteristically, we have also built up teachers' retirement funds on a scarcely more substantial financial basis than sympathy and a somewhat vague faith that income would be greater than outgo. Regretfully, we have to admit that various teachers' retirement plans have been formulated by amateurs without, and some- times in spite of, competent actuarial advice and have been enacted into law by legislators open to sympathetic appeal. When the funds break down^and there is evidence that several inevitably must — the teacher facing retirement will doubtless have an inexhaustible fund of sympathy to draw upon for support and comfort. For the virtue of sympathy, we can have only the strongest praise, but for sympathy as a substitute for real knowledge of what is sound and safe in the administration of funds collected from the meager salaries of teachers and taxes collected from a public, on the whole favorably disposed to teachers as individuals and as an organization, we can have only the strongest condemnation. CONTRIBUTORY OR NON-CONTRIBUTORY RETIREMENT SYSTEMS The time has passed for discussing the justice and the practical benefits accruing to the teacher and to the public from a sound system of retirement. The question for discussion today is what kind of a system. Two plans for teachers' retirement funds have had extensive development thus far: (a) the sunple non-contributory straight pension system; (b) the relatively Sessions] TEACHERS' RETIREMENT ALLOWANCES 73 complex contributory system supported by contributions from the public treasury and by deductions from teachers' salaries. There is no general agreement among teachers at present as to which plan is more satisfactory or equitable to them and to the taxpayers. Two monographs published within a twelvemonth support opposite conclusions on this point. In an address before this Association in 1907, Dr. Keyes commended the Rhode Island non-contributory plan, but of nine states that have since established state systems only one — Maine — ^has followed that plan. Arizona has a plan permitting the state board of education to pension certain teachers, but this cannot be regarded as a complete or equitable method of retirement. The other state systems require contri- butions from the teachers. The tendency of the times is clearly toward contributory systems, and this is in line with experience with pensions for other large groups of workers at both public and corporate expense. It is also in line with social insurance plans developed in Germany and New Zealand. Opponents of contributory systems have recently pointed out that the only teachers' retirement systems now in financial straits are those based upon the contributory plan, and argue that this is sufficient reason for regarding such plans with suspicion. They allege such plans to be complex, difficult of comprehension, wasteful because involving somewhat expensive machinery for the collection of assessments due, and that the exact amount payable to any teacher at the time of retirement is rarely stated in terms of dollars and cents. These objections seem to them unanswerable argu- ments in favor of a gratuity from the state or municipality, and some con- tend for a fixed level pension for all grades of teachers. To some of us these contentions do not seem to be well grounded. We would claim the only satisfactory pension system to be one that promotes the welfare of the worker, safeguards the efficiency of the teaching profes- sion, and protects society from poverty and dependence. We believe that any industry furnishing product or service, if it uses up human life and energy, should pay its due share of the cost. Such payments are reason- able overhead charges on the industry, be it railroading or school-teaching, but we would further claim that since old age, sickness, and accidents are inevitable risks of human life, due attention to provision for, and protection against, these risks tends to forethought, frugality, economy, and self-help — all of which are fundamental virtues in a sturdy citizenship, not to be transferred lightly to the benevolence or generosity of the public. The state is fully as much concerned with building up a thrifty citizen- ship as with relieving the schools of a relatively small number of teachers who, because of advanced age or disability, are no longer efficient. A gratuitous pension does not encourage thrift; a contributory system demands it. Admittedly, several contributory systems are facing bank- ruptcy because too much has been promised and the rate of contribution 74 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General has not been fixed sufficiently high to cover the risks assumed. A number of plans have tried to insure agairist old age, and disability at any age due to sickness or accident, all being risks that can be calculated against, but fundamentally they are as separate as fire insurance and life insurance. We should probably regard with suspicion the agent who offered to insure our homes and lives at the rate prevailing for fire insurance. In several states agents offering such an inducement would be transported to jail or outside the state limits. Yet that is essentially what we have done when we guarantee fixed retirement allowances based upon years of service rather than a fixed age; when we pay life annuities for disability based on service rather than age; in short, when we utterly ignore insurance experience and statistics as a basis for computing financial protection against old age, accident, and sickness. Repeatedly, we have "guessed" that if we retain one-fourth or one-half of the contributions of those who remain in service for a short time, add to that the dog tax or a certain part of an excise tax, also the amount deducted for absence, together with the payments of those who remain in the service, we could build up a fund sufficient to compensate for numerous unascertained risks. Our faith has hardly been justified by our works, but citing the breakdown of such a " cat-and-dog " fund as evidence against the soundness of the contributory principle does no credit to our intelligence. A STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES Current knowledge of teachers' retirement funds makes possible an assertion of principles now apparent to fair-minded students of the problem. Among them may be enumerated the following: 1. The straight, or gratuitous, pension as applied to teachers does not, and, probably on account of its expense to the public, as well as the question of public policy, never will, meet the needs of the public-school service. On the part of the public there is a growing hostility to such payments, but an increasing willingness to participate in helping those who help themselves. 2. The cost of a contributory system to teachers will to a degree be shifted over to the public in the form of higher salaries, particularly in the case of the lowest-paid teachers, but even so the by-product of such a system, the habit of regularly saving a part of one's income, is of no small value, considering the number of people involved. 3. The custody of the accumulated savings by the state or municipality, forced savings tho they may be, guarantees safe investment for a group of people not heretofore conspicuously successful in their investments. 4. The return of the total amount of all savings with compound interest to the teacher who withdraws from service before being retired should be guaranteed in every retirement system hereafter established. Retaining any portion of these savings is absolutely unjustifiable so long as teaching J Sessions] TEACHERS' RETIREMENT ALLOWANCES 75 remains a short-lived profession. Under existing conditions the average teaching life of all who enter teaching is less than eight years. On the basis of such statistics as we have, not over 10 per cent of those who teach ever reach the age, or term of service, required for retirement on a pension. Taxing the 90 per cent for the benefit of the 10 is not defensible. 5. The justification heretofore alleged for retaining a portion of a with- drawing teacher's contributions has been the promise of payment of allow- ances for disability after a fixed term of service, if disability should occur. This promise is the feature in which most retirement systems depart from insurance actualities, and enter the realm of speculation, as will be discussed later. A fund so accumulated will prove sufficiently, not mathematically, demonstrable, and such a scheme should be abandoned for a better. 6. Fixed annuities payable thruout the remaining life of the bene- ficiaries should be paid only on the basis of age. This is sound insurance. The premium charged for such insurance should be adequate, and is ascer- tainable. If it be alleged that such a charge is a severe burden upon the poorly paid teacher, and that California, for example, offers its teachers equal protection at a flat rate of $12, while Massachusetts charges a mini- mum of $35, we can only say that the latter rate is sound. New York experience justifies the prediction that in a decade or less California teachers will be seeking amendments to the law. We can further point out that Massachusetts refunds total contributions with interest to teachers withdrawing from service, and California does not. If a sound premium rate proves an unbearable burden, be assured salaries will go up, for there is no reason for believing that the public will, in the long run, stand for the poorer teaching that would follow a permanent reduction in salaries. 7. If disability is to be included as a cause for retirement only two safe methods are open. One, advocated by the Carnegie Foundation in its Seventh Annual Report, is to pay the annuity purchasable by the teacher's contributions at the age of retirement and supplement this by an equal amount from the state fund when the years of service exceed a fixed number. While this method may be financially sound it is hopelessly inadequate. An annuity of $100 or less will not remove from the service the unfortunate sufferer from chronic dyspepsia, neuritis, or other physical disorders to which teachers are heirs, and which render their presence in the schoolroom a positive injury to the children in their care, but will continue their presence because of the sharp necessity of earning a living until they collapse. The other method has not as yet been tried in this country, but it promises the only rational solution of an urgent problem. We should establish a dis- ability fund, probably on a mutual insurance basis, and certainly charge a sufficient premium to guarantee decent retirement allowances. At pres- ent, we are unable to do this because we know little or nothing about the occupational risk of teaching; we have no complete or reliable statistics 76 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General upon which to base either rates or equitable annuities. We have not these figures because thus far we have preferred to ''guess" rather than investi- gate, but the time is now ripe for an investigation that will result in real knowledge. May we soon have it, and be freed from "the trial and error" substitution for mathematical formulae! THE PRESENT SITUATION When I compare the successive laws regarding teachers' pensions enacted in the several states, I am reminded of Herbert Spencer's formidable definition, in which he says, "Evolution is a change from an incoherent homogeneity to a coherent heterogeneity, accompanying the dissipation of motion and integration of matter." In the evolution of teachers' retirement systems, our homogeneity seems to consist in trying to meet an obvious need in our public-school service. That our manner of doing it is incoherent is clearly shown by the hundreds of differences in existing laws. That we are dissipating motion is shown in half a dozen states where projected pension plans repeat the errors of pre- vious legislation. That we are integrating by ascertaining and building on sound principles of social insurance in the several states where teachers' pension laws are under consideration, I am not sure. That a coherent heterogeneity may be the goal, I am prepared to admit. Iowa's problem may not be identical with Connecticut's; their constitutional provisions may be different, their teaching conditions may be different, their sources of revenue may be different, there may be a thousand differences, but their problems are identical in this: their teachers grow old, they become incapaci- tated for service thru disease and accident, and the welfare of society demands vigorous, healthy teachers, free from financial or other worry. We can never attain coherency until we recognize these factors in our problem and make equitable provisions therefor, on a financial basis at once adequate and mathematically sound. We should learn by experience. We should urge no teachers' retire- ment legislation in the several remaining states until we have familiarized ourselves with all available knowledge on the subject. The questions involved are too complicated to be settled on a priori grounds. We have in a large measure created "the public sentiment" pleaded for by Dr. Keyes. In fact it is an open question if we have not too much sentiment and not enough facts, but we have not, to any great extent, disseminated "information" of the sort that will bear analysis. In any campaign for teachers' retirement laws, we need three kinds of expert service. We need the insurance expert — the actuary — the educa- tional expert, and the legal expert. Rarely are they combined in one person, and still more rarely can the services of any number of amateurs in these fields be accepted as equivalent. For satisfactory and permanent plans, we should utilize the mathematical knowledge of the expert in social Sessions! TEACHERS' RETIREMENT ALLOWANCES 77 insurance, the skill of the lawyer trained in writing legislation, reinforced by the social vision of the educator. THE PRESENT NEED A movement that has gained such impetus in a comparatively few years will not end until all public-school teachers are included in its scope. To guarantee movement in the right direction, we need more than anything else a scientific investigation into the occupational risk of teaching. This is a study simple enough in the main, but of such a nature that no one person can afford to undertake it. The results would be of great value, but since an adequate study would demand the efforts of half a dozen people for a year, it is a project requiring subsidy from some source. No state association of teachers can undertake it, and no state commission is likely to. Some philanthropist interested in social welfare legislation might find here a useful piece of work; so might such an organization as the Sage Foundation; possibly a national organization representing the people most affected might well turn some of its resources in this direction. I submit this for your consideration. THE FUTURE Seventeen states have had laws permitting towns and cities, or school districts, to pension teachers. In some states under these laws vested rights have accrued and complicated the problem of establishing state systems. In fact some local systems have been so well organized that they have checked or prevented complete state systems. It can never be demonstrated that local pension systems raise the general level of teaching and public-school efficiency thruout a state. Indeed it would seem that in so far as a pension system makes the work more attractive, cities paying pensions would attract an undue proportion of the more highly skilled teachers, leaving behind the less skilful. A certain mobility in the teaching force of a state is desirable, but in the long run cannot be maintained unless accrued rights in a retirement fund can be transferred from one locality to another. In view of these considerations and a variety of others, there is grave doubt whether any teachers should seek further extension of local pension systems, unless constitutional restrictions make state systems impossible. As I have previously stated, pensions for teachers naturally come first in cities, but in the states where no pensions are yet provided, city teachers should join with their fellows in rural areas and work for the common good. In such states, and in the states where local systems will be merged into state systems, the degree to which the city teachers rise above local and personal considerations, and whole-heartedly support a plan tending to promote the welfare of all teachers, at the same time pro- tecting the educational interests of the entire state, will indicate the degree of professional consciousness to which they have attained. 78 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION (General CONCLUSION Because of the acute need of revising some of our retirement laws and the consequent publicity, teachers in some states fear that the movement has been retarded so that attention to their needs will be long deferred. In a cause involving social justice, educational benefit, and sound finance, there need be no fear. The lesson of the twentieth century in our Republic will be the more equitable and scientific distribution of the fruits of labor. In this reorganized distribution social welfare plans will have a conspicuous part. By basing our efforts on the accomplishment of the past ten years, thru our national organization and our state associations, we can, if we will, exercise a leadership worthy of imitation by other groups of workers. A statesmanlike task! May we have the vision to see our duty. THE PUBLIC-SCHOOL TEACHER AND THE STANDARD OF LIVING' scott nearing, the wharton school, university of pennsylvania, philadelphia, pa. Foreword It is essential that the salaries paid by the public to its school-teachers should be suflicient in amount to enable them to live according to the accepted standard of the community in which they teach. Recent years have witnessed a very rapid and general increase in the cost of living, as Robert C. Brooks has amply demonstrated in the Report of the Committee on Teachers' Salaries and Cost of Living of the National Education Asso- ciation. Apparently the time has come when, in any city or town in the United States, public opinion must ask this question: "Are the salaries now paid in this place sufficient to allow the teachers receiving them to live at the standard of living generally accepted as adequate in this lo- cality and among the group of people with whom as teachers they are called upon to associate ? " To such a question there is, of course, no uni- versal answer. It must be answered specifically by each locality. While there is no universal answer to a question respecting the adequacy of salaries to maintain a given standard of living, there may well be a uni- versal method of procedure by means of which each conununity can secure the answer for itself. There is no universal answer to the classification of new botanical specimens. There is, however, a universally accepted method of determining their classification. So, in the face of the standard-of-living problem, each community is an individual case, but the system of metrics by which each standard may be measured is of general application. It is the purpose of this report to indicate the lines of procedure that have been generally adopted by social scientists in their efforts to measure the ade- » Presented as part of the Report of the Committee on Teachers' Salaries and Cost of Living. Sessions] THE TEACHER AND THE STANDARD OF LIVING 79 quacy of a standard of living, and to show in what respect such methods may be adapted to the work of analyzing the standard of living among public-school teachers. The aim thruout has been for a simplicity and a brevity that would at the same time furnish a working basis for a standard- of-living investigation in any interested community. I. What do we mean by a standard of living? — Every self-supporting person is constantly brought face to face with three of that species of stub- born life-facts which are technically called "economic/' These three facts, underlying, as they do, all possibilities of self-support, are of such signifi- cance that a brief statement of their character must precede an intelligible consideration of the standard of living. First of all, man has certain wants or desires for things and for help in living. The things which he wants — food, clothing, shelter, sidewalks, stores, and wagons — are called "goods." The help which he receives in living from doctors, kitchen maids, and grocers is called " services." Goods and services supply wants. If wants are well supplied, a person is said to be contented or happy. If the wants are inadequately supplied, a person is discontented or miserable. Thus, in so far as happiness and misery come from the possession or non-possession of goods and services, these two things determine the economic atmosphere of a person's life, and, since wants and strivings after want satisfactions appear in every phase of man's contact with the economic world, the problems arising out of want satis- faction are among the most important that men and women face. Under the conditions of modern civilization, goods and services must be paid for by the use of a standard medium called "money." The amount of pay is called the "price," or perhaps a person says: "This hat costs so much." In any case, the thing wanted has a market value, which must be given in exchange before the thing can be secured. Thus wants and desires lead to exchanges and purchases. Want is the first economic fact; price is the second. Then, in the third place, since goods and services must be had in order to supply wants, and since these goods and services have a price or cost, the person wanting goods, in order to pay the price for them, must have some means of earning or securing money, some source of income. The price for foods and services can be paid only by people who have some means of income. The whole matter may be briefly summed up by saying that the com- bination of goods and services which a person enjoys constitutes a standard of living; that this standard of living is obtained at a purchase price known as the cost of living, and that the money with which the cost of living is met is derived from a wage or salary. A contrast is thus made between the standard of living, the cost of living, and income. The fact seems almost too obvious for emphasis, yet it is sometimes for- gotten that all people, unless they are to live a Crusoe existence, are more 8o NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General or less dependent on goods and services for their existence. This is true because all people have at least a minimum number of wants which must be met if life is to continue. The wants of the people may be divided into two classes — primary or natural wants, and secondary or acquired wants. The primary wants are the wants which men have in common with other similarly constituted animals. Such, for example, are the wants for shelter in inclement weather, and for food at all seasons. Unless these natural wants are provided, men cannot continue to maintain life. A comparatively small part of the wants of men and women falls in the class of natural wants. Indeed many of the wants even of savages' are acquired, while in modern society almost all of the goods and services rendered to people are wanted because an elaborate system of education has cultivated human desires far beyond their natural bounds. The want for a hat in sunamer; for white kid gloves at a dance; for purely decorative jewelry; for shoes with patent leather on the outside; for education; for books and magazines; and for all of the innumerable other things which modern industry provides were, most of them, unknown a thousand years ago. Yet they have come to constitute so real an element in our lives that unless we are able to obtain them we feel profoundly miserable. The goods and services which provide for both natural and acquired wants make up the standard of living — a phrase which conveys as many variations of thought as the word "stone" or "wagon." Just as there is a multitude of different varieties of stones, and a multitude of differ- ent kinds of wagons, so there is a multitude of different standards of living. Each group of people has its own standard of living, a standard that is based almost wholly upon the things to which those particular people have been used during the greater part of their lives. For example, the frontiers- man wants, among other things, plenty of room, a gun, good hunting and fishing, a life fraught with incident and excitement; the ranch owner wants to ride a broncho; the city dweller is entirely satisflfed with close neighbors and a trolley car. Surrounding conditions, plus education, determine largely the things that people shall want; but, within a given group, no single person can live at ease unless he is able to provide himself with the amount of goods and services ordinarily obtained by persons within that group. Living in a certain class of society, you must have a new gown for each social event; living in another class, you must have at least one new gown a year. The demands in one case are equally as absolute as the demands in the other. Thus each "set" of society determines the standards of living. Then, standards having become firmly established, it follows that all of the persons living within the group who are unable to afford the standard must either leave the group or be miserable. Sessions] THE TEACHER AND THE STANDARD OF LIVING 8i School-teachers belong in a rather well-defined community. As a rule their parents are neither very poor nor very wealthy. In the city, where comparatively high teaching standards are demanded, teachers come from among what is sometimes called "the middle class." In small towns and country districts they are recruited from families which are sufficiently well-to-do to be able to afford a long period of schooling. In either case, teachers, after entering the profession, are expected to live up to a rather exacting standard of dress and social position. A study of the standard of living among public-school teachers becomes valuable if it can show (i) what the teacher's standard of living is, or should be; (2) what such a stand- ard costs; and (3) whether her salary enables her to buy that standard. 2. The study of the standard of living. — Social science has proceeded far enough to make some rather definite statements regarding the standard of living. The matter is no longer open to dogmatic misrepresentation; it is one that must be dealt with thru the medium of scientific analysis and exposition. The facts must be secured, and upon them alone sound con- clusions may be based. The standard of living may be studied in one of several ways. There is an old, and in many ways an unsatisfactory way, which until very recently was generally accepted as the proper means of making a standard study. Scientists, following this method, analyzed the actual amount of goods and services secured by specific families. Such studies are important because they give an accurate picture of the economic conditions existing in the families under consideration, and because they may be so readily compared with an ideal standard of living. The actual amounts of food, clothing, shelter, and the like secured by the family are set out in great detail; income is also ascertained and contrasted with expenditure; some such studies contain careful descriptions of the family surroundings and the family life. Altho the method of making these individual studies varies, the result is the same — a picture of the economic conditions existing in the family under consideration. Persons desiring to make a detailed study of this subject will find valuable illustrations in the Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage-Earners in the United States, "Family Budgets of Typical Cotton-Mill Workers" (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1911), XVI, 46 and 99; and in L. B. More, Wage-Earners' Budgets, p. 167. Such detailed family studies are still made — indeed they form the basis of standard-of-living investigations — but they become really valuable for scientific conclusions only in cases where they are made in sufficient numbers to justify general conclusions and only in cases where there has been pre- viously established some model standard with which they may be con- trasted. Studies of the economic conditions in individual families are important because of their fidelity to the actual situation. Their defect lies in the failure to determine whether or not the conditions which they reveal are adequate to maintain home life or human efficiency. 82 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General In the past few years this has led to a new type of standard-of-living study, which aims to determine the amount of goods and services which a person or family needs to maintain either bodily existence or efficiency. The former is called a standard of ** minimum subsistence"; the latter is called a "fair," "normal," or "efficiency" standard. The fair standard of living is now generally accepted as the social ideal. It was formerly taken for granted that if a family was provided with a mere subsistence, everything necessary had been done. During recent years, however, particularly in Germany, great emphasis has been laid on the maintenance of efficiency, as well as of mere physical existence. Starting as an industrial concept aimed at the preservation of the workers for indus- trial or even military purposes, the efficiency idea has spread into social fields, until there is a general recognition of the desirability of maintaining an efficiency standard in every walk of life. Nowhere, perhaps, is the need for efficiency greater than among the teachers who are called upon to shape the lives of America's future citizens. In the case of the teaching profession, mere subsistence means little or nothing. The teacher must be able to maintain not only physical and mental efficiency, but likewise a certain professional proficiency which can come only thru leisure time spent in reading the right books, in pursuing advanced studies either under direct instruction or by correspondence, in travel and observation of places and methods, and in any other legitimate pursuits which enable her to keep abreast of the times. 3. The standard of living and the teaching profession. — ^The teachers of any locality, where a standard-of-living study is attempted, fall naturally into three well-defined groups. In the first group there are the te3,chers who are living at home and do not absolutely need the income which they earn as teachers. For them teaching is either a pastime or a means of securing additional income. With them this study has really nothing to do because their standard of living is set by forces entirely apart from the salary received in the teaching profession. They may be, therefore, dis- missed from consideration at once. This decision seems more justifiable in view of the fact that such teachers probably constitute a small minority in the teaching profession. In the second place, there are teachers who must be largely, or wholly, self-supporting. If they live at home they are expected to make a contri- bution to the maintenance of the family; if they live away from home, they are of course subject to all of the expense involved in individual up-keep. The third group of teachers is made up of those who must support families — the women who have dependent parents, children, or other rela- tives; the very few married women who teach, thereby adding to family income; and the married men who secure a living for their families thru the teaching profession. The exact proportion in which their various groups make up the profession is suggested by the figures of the United States Sessions] THE TEACHER AND THE STANDARD OF LIVING 83 Bureau of Education and the United States Census Bureau. Any other study of the standard of living among teachers must of necessity take into account the very different situation of the girl of twenty-five who has only herself to look out for and who expects in any case to marry and be sup- ported by her husband, and that of the man of twenty-five who hopes to marry and support a family on the salary which he secures as a teacher. Nevertheless, the same questions can be asked about each of these classes, tho the answer will differ materially in the two cases. Among school- teachers, a standard-of-living study involves, first of all, a determination of the amount of goods and services which will be required to maintain teaching efficiency or which would be considered a " fair "standard for teachers. After this standard is set, two facts must be determined: (i) What will these goods and services cost? (2) Is the salary paid to school-teachers sufficient to enable them to pay the price of a fair standard of living ? 4. Measuring the standard of living. — Teachers in each community must solve their own standard-of-living problem; first, because the standards of living vary with each community; second, because the cost of goods and services varies with each community; and third, because salaries vary with each community. Altho the specific work of determining efficiency living standards must be done by the local teachers' association, there are certain general principles which may be followed in that work. The first step in a standard-of-living investigation involves the determi- nation of what should be included in a standard of living. Altho it is difficult to decide upon a classification of things that will fit all needs, the following headings cover most of the things needed by the ordinary teacher: 1. Food. 6. Health. 2. Housing. 7. Insurance. 3. Clothing. 8. Recreation. 4. Fuel and light. 9. Sundry minor items. 5. Carfare. It is easy to go into greater detail,^ but sufficient accuracy for all practical purposes may be secured by using the simple schedule outlined above. The actual collection of facts should be in charge of a committee. In ordinary standard investigations, paid agents would fill schedules, going from family to family for the purpose; but, in the case of teachers, the filling of schedules can be intrusted to the teachers themselves, since they are sufficiently acquainted with such detail to be able to answer the questions satisfactorily. The facts must be uniform in order that they may be comparable and definite. Such uniformity is insured by the preparation of a schedule. The committee should prepare a schedule in some simple form, asking only those questions to which answers are absolutely essential. The schedule » Arthur Shadwell, Industrial Efficiency, pp. 224-25. 84 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General should be so printed that the teachers furnishing answers to questions may write on the schedule blank. The schedule should be printed on paper heavy enough to stand in an upright file, or else it should be filed in an envelope which should contain all the data about the same family. In small towns most of the teachers may be included in the investigation. In larger places, however, the work is necessarily restricted to a small group of teachers. If the results of the investigation are to be accepted, the group of teachers or of families about which facts are to be secured must be representative of the whole body of teachers in the locality under investi- gation. A hundred cases in any group are adequate to any ordinary study, but a committee will do well to start with at least a hundred and fifty, because of the inevitable dropping-out of some of them. The hundred cases should be so picked that they are t3T)ical of the entire group for which they are selected. Furthermore, the records about the cases should be complete; no data should be missing. Records are not really complete unless they are kept for an entire year; but as this is usually impracticable, they are considered sufficient if kept for one, three, or six months— the longer the better. Most of the standard investigations have been made in records of from one to six months. The determination of the standard of living, in the case of single teach- ers, is greatly simplified. Items 1,2, and 4 in the standard classification (food, housing, fuel and light) may be lumped together under the one item, *'board." The price at which good board can be obtained may be accepted as a fair standard and the money equivalent of these three items at once secured. These items, in the case of teachers with families, present a much more complicated problem, of which the measurement of the amount of food necessary to maintain a standard of living is by far the easiest part. Food requirements are usually measured in calories of energy, and, in order to secure uniformity, they are stated in terms of the requirements of an adult man. The United States Department of Agriculture, which has made some valuable experiments on food values, states that a man in the full vigor of life, doing moderate muscular work, requires each day a quantity of food containing, as it is purchased, 3,800 calories of energy. By the time this food is eaten, it will contain but 3,500 calories, from which quantity the digestive system extracts 3,200 calories of energy.^ After an analysis of the available data, Rowntree concludes that Atwater's estimate of 3,500 calories for a man doing "moderate muscular work" must be interpreted in terms of very moderate work if it is to be adequate.^' Generally, however, it is conceded that from 3,200 to 3,900 calories of energy, depending upon the intensity and character of the work done, must be supplied to the body each day. « Yearbook of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1907, p. 371. Article by C F. Langworthy. • B. S. Rowntree, Poverty, pp. 91-97. Sessions] THE TEACHER AND THE STANDARD OF LIVING 85 The actual amounts of food consumed vary considerably from this standard. Atwater has compiled an extensive table, in which he sets down the results of "comparing the dietaries of persons with different occupations and incomes and performing different amounts of muscular work." The energy supplied by the rowing clubs in New England, for instance, is 3,955 calories; by football teams in Connecticut and California, 6,590 calories; by farmers' families in eastern United States, 3,415 calories; by professional men, 3,200 calories; by poor families in New York City, 2,845 calories; and by negro families in Alabama and Virginia, 3,395 calories.^ Since the dietaries of different groups of people differ as radically in their content as do the various foods in their energy-yielding power, the computation of the dietary value of any group is a purely individual affair. In order to analyze on a scientifically comparable basis the diet of a number of families, Atwater prepared a system of comparison between men, women, and children, showing the relative amount of food consumed by each. An adult woman requires. A boy of 15 to 16 A boy of 13 to 14 A boy of 12 A boy of 10 to II A girl of 15 to 16 A girl of 13 to 14 A girl of 10 to 12 A child from 6 to 9 A child from 2 to 5 A child under 2 8 as much as an adult man .9" 8 " i( ( (( « < « < « (( ( .7 " .6 " « ( (( < (( ( (( ( .8 " (( ( (< < •7 " .6 " (( ( « ( « ( (( ( .5" .4 " « c (( ( tt ( <( < .3" ti < « ( These estimates by Atwater may be accepted, since they correspond rather closely to similar tables prepared by other experts. Their value lies in the fact that, by means of them, the food consumption of families may always be reduced to a common denomination — the requirements of a man. The method of applying this formula is stated very well by Chapin. " Suppose that a family consists of father, mother, a girl of 4 years, a boy of 3, and a baby under 2. The father buys lunch six days in a week. The calculation therefore runs: "^ I man 15 meals per week 15.0 I woman 21 meals, equivalent for man to 21X0.8 meals per week 16.8 I boy 21 " " " " "21X0.4 " " " 8.4 I girl 21 " " " " " 21X0.4 " " " 8.4 I child 21 " " " " "21X0.3 " " " 6.3 Total number of meals, on basis of consumption of adult man 54.9 The family under consideration is, therefore, consuming weekly the equivalent of 54.9 meals for one adult man. Any other family, or any • W. O. Atwater, Principles of Nutrition (Washington: Government Printing Oflace, 1910), pp. 34 and 35. •R. C. Chapin, The Standard of Living among Workingmen's Families in New York City, pp. 126 and 127. 86 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General number of families, may, in this manner, have their dietaries reduced to a common denomination for the purpose of comparison. There are two ways in which this standardized method may be used to measure the status of a particular family. The family dietary having been secured and analyzed, an expert may say whether or not the amount of food consumed provides adequate nutrition; or else some given dietary may be fixed upon as standard and the dietaries of individual families compared with it. The simplest way for a local committee to proceed is to take a dietary such as that adopted in the federal investigation already referred to and, accepting that as a standard, to compare with it the dietaries of the families under consideration. The authors of the federal investigation began their food study with an analysis of the very carefully prepared dietary of the federal prison in Atlanta. This dietary was then compared with those of families which were living fairly well. The comparison shows that for breakfast and dinner the quantity of food of the family living fairly well is not far different from the prison diet; they have a little more variety, perhaps. For supper, however, the prison diet falls short of what the people demand as a fair standard for food. Bread, butter, and coffee are not regarded as a satisfactory meal after a long day's work. It is clear from the menus of those who are living fairly well that a fair standard must allow either a meat or a vegetable for supper. Again, the prison diet is a little low in the quantity of protein it furnishes. The addition of a meat or vegetable for supper would, perhaps, bring it nearer the requirements.^ In order to make the matter entirely concrete, the menu of one family, which was living well but not extravagantly and which represented in its diet a varied and a complete supply of nutrition, was adopted as repre- senting a fair standard. In this family, the average value of food consumed per man per week for the year was $1.67. The menu for the week ending January 3, 1909, was:' Monday Breakfast: Ham, sausage, biscuit, coffee, sugar, butter, syrup. Dinner: Baked sweet potatoes, stewed Irish potatoes, collards with bacon, com bread, biscuit, coffee. Supper: Ham, Irish potatoes, biscuit, coffee, butter, syrup. Tuesday Breakfast: Fried pork (fresh), biscuit, butter, syrup, coffee, sugar. Dinner: Peas and bacon, butter beans, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, buttermilk, com bread, biscuit, coffee. Supper: Beefsteak, Irish potatoes, biscuit, butter, coffee, sugar, syrup. Wednesday Breakfast: Fried pork, ham, butter, cheese, biscuit, coffee, sugar. Dinner: Cabbage with bacon, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn bread, biscuit, coffee, sugar. Supper: Steak, rice, biscuit, butter, syrup, coffee, sugar. » Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage-Earners in the United Stales, "Family Budgets of Typica Cotton-Mill Workers," XVI, 143. 'Ibid., pp. 40-41. Sessions] THE TEACHER AND THE STANDARD OF LIVING 87 Thursday Breakfast: Pork, sausage, biscuit, butter, syrup, coffee, sugar. Dinner: Collards and bacon, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn bread, biscuit, butter, buttermilk. Supper: Beefsteak, rice, biscuit, coffee, syrup, sugar. Friday Breakfast: Pork, rice, biscuit, butter, coffee, sugar. Dinner: Peas, bacon, butter beans, sweet potatoes, fried pork, onions, pickles, corn bread, biscuit, coffee, sugar. Supper: Ham, cheese, biscuit, butter, coffee, syrup, sugar. Saturday Breakfast: Pork and rice, biscuit, butter, syrup, coffee, sugar. Dinner: Collards, bacon, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn bread, bread, biscuit, coffee, sugar. Supper: Oyster stew, fried pork, biscuit, butter, syrup, coffee, sugar. Sunday Breakfast: Pork, oyster stew, biscuit, butter, coffee, sugar. Dinner: Beans, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, pork, biscuit, corn bread, coffee, sugar. Supper: Ham, biscuit, butter, syrup, coffee, sugar. An itemized statement of the cost of the food entering into this menu follows the menu.' The character of the food dietary in each community necessarily varies. For a given locality, however, a diet can be outlined which will contain all of the necessary food ingredients and will at the same time be considered fair by the community. The standard for housing is fixed more arbitrarily. Most studies have assumed that decency requires a proportion of at least three rooms for five people (a man, wife, and three young children). Four rooms for five people, not including the bathroom, would be a much fairer estimate. They have likewise insisted on the sanitary conveniences, including a bathroom and toilet, as essential to a fair standard. A little inquiry will show the amount of rent for which such a house can be secured. Fuel and light necessarily vary with the size of the house and the local- ity. Again the decision must be arbitrary. The number of tons of coal, feet of gas, and gallons of kerosene required by a careful housewife for a five- or six-room house must be accepted as the measure of a fair standard of living. Their cost can readily be computed by an appeal to local prices. The items of board for single teachers, and of food, housing, and fuel and light for teachers with families, include the major part of the expenditures. Probably two-thirds of the money spent by families earning less than $3,000 will go for these items. ^ There are other things which figure natu- rally in the expenditure list, however. ^ Jbid., p. 41. •R. C. Chapin, op. cit., p. 70. 88 NA TIONAL EDUCA TION ASSOCIA TION [General The clothing is by far the most difficult item because of the immense difference in cost between ready-made and made-at-home clothes. Pro- fessor Chapin solved the problem by making an arbitrary list of clothing.* The federal study, proceeding in a much fairer way, based its calculations on the clothing of families which were well dressed.* A similar method must be resorted to in the case of teachers or of teachers' families. The clothing items of a careful, well-dressed teacher or teachers' family must be taken as a standard, and the cost of a fair standard of clothing based on them. A particularly clever woman can make clothes and trim hats in a way that will make a thoroly presentable appearance. Nevertheless, the average woman cannot be expected to possess such accomplishments. Ready- made clothes are always an element in the budget of the average family. The woman can be expected to patch and make over, but not to create. Carfare (item 5) either is or is not an item, depending entirely on the distance the teacher lives from the school, since carfare expenditures for recreational purposes are charged under recreation. If only a small per- centage of teachers live beyond easy walking distance from school, carfare cannot be regarded as an item in a fair standard of living. If, on the other hand, frequent transfers of teachers to distant parts of a large city make walking impossible, carfare will be an item. The standards for health, insurance, and recreation are purely arbi- trary and vary extremely with the conmiunity and the individual. For a man with a young family, doctors' bills are inevitable and insurance is a necessity. In the small town, recreation is inexpensive. In the city, pleasure trips, music, and drama all are important items in a fair standard of living. 5. Estimating the cost of a fair standard of living. — When the facts regard- ing each item in the standard of living have been secured, the cost of a standard of living may be determined. The method of doing this is well illustrated in the federal study, where the items are divided into those which vary with the size of the family and those which do not so vary. A table is thus prepared, showing both groups of facts.^ It is to be noted that the proportion of income spent for various items varies considerably with the size of income.4 Still for a given standard of life, the relation is very similar. The cost of a Standard having been estimated, but one thing remains— the comparison of the cost of a standard of living and the income of the teachers under consideration. This comparison will show that the teachers either are or are not receiving salaries sufficient in amount to provide a fair standard of living. A conclusion reached in this manner is sufficiently scientific to be well-nigh unanswerable. It will show whether the teachers » Ibid., p. 166. • Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage-Earners in the United States, XVI, 144-46. » Ibid., pp. 149-53- < R. C. Chapin, loc. cit. Sessions] THE TEACHER AND THE STANDARD OF LIVING 89 are adequately paid, and, if not, the investigation will place in the hands of the committee conclusive evidence on the basis of which a campaign for higher salaries may be fairly inaugurated. 6. The economic dilemma of the public-school teacher. — The time may not yet have arrived when the public-school teacher is willing to recognize that she has social rights and to assert them publicly. At no very distant date, however, economic pressure will compel teachers to secure a new relation between salaries and the cost of living, or else to lower the standard upon which they have been accustomed to live. There is no longer any doubt that living costs have risen faster than teachers' salaries. Figures show that very plainly. There might be a reasonable doubt about the adequacy of the teacher's salary to buy a fair standard of living were it not for the unanimity with which teachers assert the contrary. The inquirer is astounded by the frankness and sincerity with which teachers state their economic position.^ No less surprising is the apparent inadequacy of the salaries generally received to meet the ordinary expense requirements of the profession. There is, to be sure, no question of securing the bare necessaries of living. The difSculties which confront the teacher are concerned with the maintenance of that standard of comforts and of luxuries which is generally expected of those in the teaching profession. Teachers report peculiar difficulties in living up to the standard of their group. During recent years, these standards have advanced with alarming rapidity, and the salary schedule, trailing far in the rear, makes no pro- vision whatever for the increased budget which the teacher is forced to carry. The same standard of life is expected of her in spite of the failure of standards and salaries to rise in like ratio. Teachers encounter peculiar difficulties in continuing those forms of professional work which are indispensable to good teaching. The edu- cational journals, some of the latest and best books, observation of schools in neighboring towns, and travel all absorb time, energy, and money. All are necessary to good work, yet most of these expenditures place a tax upon the salary which the ordinary teacher is unable to afford. Despite the oft- repeated warnings of superintendents, principals, and institute lecturers, the public-school teacher is failing to follow out a course of study that would mean increased teaching efficiency. The failure is often due to financial stringency, not to choice. Teachers are unable to make provision for exigencies. Their salaries are not sufficient to enable them to save adequate sums against ill health and old age. Be it said, by way of explanation, that ill health is alarmingly prevalent among school-teachers. The teacher who is confronted with the necessity of caring for a dependent relative finds her salary utterly insuffi- cient to meet such a demand. Moving from one town to another eats up a » Report of the Committee on Teachers* Salaries and Cost of Living, pp. 217-44. QO NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION IGcneral year's savings. Salaries do not allow of surplus. They buy only the day- to-day necessaries. There is probably no group of the population which is harder pressed by the necessary cost of living than are the school-teachers. Their stand- ards have risen with the rapidly rising standard of life among the well-to-do portion of the population. The prices of the things which they buy have increased during the past two decades at a phenomenal rate. Meanwhile salaries have lagged woefully behind or have stood stock-still. Between their Scylla of higher living costs and their Charybdis of stationary income, the public-school teacher finds herself hard put to it. The time has evi- dently come when teachers as a body must face the issues squarely, discover the cost of a fair standard of living, and insist that the teaching profession receive salaries high enough to enable them to pay for that standard. A LIST OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS DEALING WITH THE STANDARD OF LIVING Booth, Charles: Life and Labor of the People in London. London, 1889-92. Vol. I, Parts V and VI. Vol. IX, Part III, chap. jdii. The budgets of thirty families are given in Vol. I, pp. 136-39. Bosanquet, Mrs. Bernard (Helen Dandy): The Standard of Life and Other Studies. London, 1898. A discussion of the conception of the standard of living and its relation to wages. Boykin, James C, and King, Roberta: The Tangible Rewards of Teaching, 1914. A 465-page monograph issued under the direction of the National Education Asso- ciation Committee on Teachers' Salaries and Cost of Living, and published by the United States Bureau of Education as Bulletin No. 16, 1914. Bruere, M. D. and R. W.: Increasing Home EflSciency. New York: Macmillan Com- pany, 1912. A suggestive and very popular study of standards of living among people earning $1,200 to $1,800 a year. Chapin, Robert Coit: The Standard of Living among Workingmen's Families in New York City. New York, 1909. The most elaborate of any of the recent studies. Goes into very great detail regard- ing the family expenditures of 391 New York families. Devine, Edward T.: Principles of ReUef. New York, 1905. Chap, iii, "The Standard of Living." Foreman, S. E.: Conditions of Living among the Poor. Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor, No. 64, May, 1906. Expenditures in detail for five weeks for nineteen families in the District of Columbia. Gould, E. R. L.: Social Condition of Labor. Johns Hopkins University Studies, Vol. XI, No. I. Baltimore, 1893. A comparison of family budgets of workers in coal, iron, and steel in the United States and in Europe, based on the sixth and seventh annual reports of the United States Bureau of Labor. Great Britain, Board of Trade: British and Foreign Trade and Industry, 1903, Series i, 209-58. Consumption of Food and Cost of Living. Contains (i) estimates regarding quantity and cost of food for a typical family; (2) itemized returns of expenditures for food from 286 urban families. Sessions] THE TEACHER AND THE STANDARD OF LIVING 91 Great Britain, Board of Trade: Cost of Living of the Working Classes. Report of an inquiry into working-class rents, housing, and retail prices, with the standard rates of wages in the principal industrial towns of the United Kingdom. London, 1908. Compares by index-numbers rents in eighty-nine towns with rents in London, with data regarding cost of food and fuel. Great Britain, Board of Trade: Cost of Living in German Towns. London, 1908. A comparison of housing and retail prices of food and fuel in thirty-three German towns with conditions in the United Kingdom. The total number of family reports obtained is 5,046. Great Britain, Board of Trade: Memoranda on British and Foreign Trade and Industrial Conditions, 1904, Series 2. Embraces deductions from reports received from 1,800 families with reference to weekly expenditures for food and for housing together with calculations of the va- riations in cost of all the principal items of household expense since 1880. Herzfeld, Elsa G.: Family Monographs. New York, 1905. Twenty-four families on the West Side of New York City are studied, primarily from the sociological rather than the economic point of view. Kenngott, George F. : The Records of a City. A Social Survey of Lowell, Mass. New York: Macmillan Company, 191 2. Chap. V deals generally with the standard-of-living problem. Lovejoy, Owen R.: Social Standards in Industry. A Platform by the Committee on Standards of Living and Labor. National Association of Charities and Correction, Cleveland, Ohio, June, 191 2. A brief and notable summary of the work to 191 2. More, Louise Bolard: Wage-Earners' Budgets. A Study of Standards and Cost of Living in New York City. New York, 1907. A study of 200 family budgets, obtained in the southwestern section of New York. Nearing, Scott: Financing the Wage-Earner's Family. New York: B. W. Huebsch, 1913. A comparison of standards and wages, employing the latest data available in 19 12-13. Patten, S. N.: The New Basis of Civilization. New York, 1907. A suggestive interpretation of the meaning of an ample standard of living in its effect upon the welfare of mankind. Richards, Ellen H.: The Cost of Living. New York, 1899. Suggestions as to economy in expenditures, especially for families with incomes between $1,500 and $2,500. Rowntree, B. Seebohm: Poverty, a Study of Town Life. London, 1901. A study of the city of York. Chap, iii deals with the standard of life of various income-classes; chap, vi with housing; chap, vii with health; chap, viii contains analyses of eighteen family budgets with discussion of dietary standard. Ryan, John A.: A Living Wage: Its Ethical and Economic Aspects. New York, 1906. A vindication of the right to a living wage, with an estimate of its actual content. Shadwell, Arthur: Industrial Efl&ciency: a Comparative Study of Industrial Life in England, Germany, and America. London, 1906. In Vol. II, chap, xi treats of housing; xii, of cost of living; xiii, of social conditions. Streightoff, Frank H.: The Standard of Living among the Industrial People of America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 191 1. A very well-made book. It approaches the standard-of-living problem from the theoretical side, citing many original sources. United States Commissioner of Labor: Eighteenth Annual Report. Cost of Living and Retail Prices of Food. Washington, 1904. A very discursive report on 25,000 workingmen's families in thirty- three different states. 92 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General Worcester, W. F. and D. W.: Woman and Child Wage-Earners in the United States. Vol. XVI. Family Budget of Typical Cotton-Mill Workers. Washington: Gov- ernment Printing OflSce, 1911. An intensive study of the standards among cotton-mill families in Fall River, Mass., and in certain southern mill towns. DISCUSSION John W. Carr, superintendent of schools, Bayonne, N.J. — ^We have discussed the question of teachers' salaries and rediscussed it, again and again. We have collected data and written reports and published them. The public realizes that in most places teachers' salaries are inadequate. The real question at this time is, "What are we going to do about it ? " I offer the following as a brief synopsis of what seems to me to be a practical program: 1. Keep down other expenses so that there may be funds for increasing teachers' salaries. In making up the school budget, it usually happens that everything else is provided for before any provision is made for increasing teachers' salaries. The result is that other school expenses are increasing far more rapidly than the advance in teachers' salaries. Let us keep down the "miscellaneous expenses" and we shall have more money for teachers' salaries. 2. Standardize expenses, and in many localities there will be suj6&cient funds to pay reasonable salaries to teachers without increasing the burdens of taxation at all. By standardization of expenses, I mean the pa3H[ng of a reasonable price for all commodities and service which are really needed, but no more. I give a few examples by way of illustration. In 1903, there were more than four himdred country schools in Indiana each with an enrolment of fewer than five pupils, and more than eleven hundred such schools with an enrolment of fewer than ten pupils. By consolidation, these schools could have been taught with one-third the number of teachers. In a small city, the amount expended for books and educational supplies exceeded $17,000 per year. A care- ful estimate of the supplies actually needed was made and money appropriated accordingly. The result was that altho the attendance had increased more than a thousand, yet the annual decrease in expenditures for supplies was more than $2,000. By many small savings, the amount available for teachers' salaries may be materially increased. 3. Utilize the various teachers' organizations for the study of tax laws and the laws and practices for collecting and distributing school funds. Appoint active executive conimittees whose duties it shall be to see to it that the fimds which are voted are really available for school purposes. In many localities if the tax dodgers and dead heads were made to pay up, there would be adequate fimds for teachers' salaries. ^ 4. Organize and maintain educational publicity committees — local, state, and national. The people want to know what the great body of teachers really need in the way of support in order that they, the teachers, may do their work most effectively. In most communities that is all that is required to secure the necessary legislation to provide minimum salary laws, permanent tenure, and adequate pensions. The great report of this Association on "Teachers' Salaries and Cost of Living" has done and is doing much to acquaint the people with real conditions, but such work needs to be supplemented by permanent committees whose duties are to keep the public informed. 5. Lastly, let us go to our homes, formulate a reasonable salary schedule for the particular locality in which we live, and then see if we cannot get it adopted. In my humble opinion the most difficult problem we shall have will be to agree among ourselves as to what is a reasonable schedule. Let teachers agree among themselves on a schedule which is reasonable, and in most communities the schedule will be adopted. Nothing is dearer to the hearts of the American people than their public schools, and in the end they will see to it that their teachers receive reasonable compensation for their services. L. E. Wolfe, San Antonio, Tex. — ^The physical, intellectual, and moral powers of the twenty million children of this country are active for good or evil, during twelve months of each year. Likewise, the needs of the teacher for food, clothing, and shelter continue for twelve months of each year. In other words, neither the teachers nor pupils belong to the class of hibernating animals. On account of the foregoing, our schools should be in session, in cities, towns, and villages, practically the year round; and in order that the Sessions] THE TEACHER AND THE STANDARD OF LIVING 93 work might not unduly fatigue teacher or pupil, it should consist of a judicious combina- tion of books, industrial training, and play. The general practice in other lines of employ- ment is twelve months' service with two weeks' vacation. The work of the school- teacher is more fatiguing than some other kinds of employment because, in our almost exclusive book course of study, we attempt the unnatural and irrational. This lengthening of the school term would incidentally give teachers a larger salary, but not in proportion to the lengthened term, for the salary now paid teachers for six to ten months' service is practically a yearly salary, since teachers seldom earn anything from outside service. While I believe at least an eleven months' term is sooner or later inevitable, in most communities this term will be reached gradually. With the lengthened term and the book-industrial-play course of study will doubtless come the lengthened school day, especially during the longer days of the year. Think of a half-million teachers, in a nation-wide chorus, lamenting the want of time to teach the modem, many-sided course of study, when they are not using more than half the time already available. In view of the continuously diminishing purchasing power of money since 1897, and the ever-increasing investment by teachers in professional improvement, thru summer schools, correspondence, and other non-residence courses, the able report of our committee on teachers' salaries and pensions together with this and other discussions is very timely. In order that this report may bear fruit thruout the coimtry, a synopsis of it should, from time to time, be sent to school board members, the press, and state teachers' associa- tions with the request that the subject be given a half-day on the program. But such salary agitation has its dangers, already apparent in many quarters; namely, that praiseworthy movements for increase of salary may degenerate into a scramble for higher salaries that will overshadow efforts for the professional improvement of the teachers. Greatly increased emphasis should be given to the improvement of teachers in service. Superintendents in counties, and superintendents, supervisors, principals, and superior teachers in cities and towns should be organized for the profes- sional improvement of the teaching corps, with a graded course of study definitely related to schoolroom ej65ciency, and with creditsieading to higher certificates, and higher salaries. There is a tremendous waste in our present poorly organized teachers' meetings. Not only do the interests of the children demand that professional growth and efl5- ciency be prime considerations, but that efl&ciency be made a chief factor in determining advance of salary. I am reliably informed that in some cities, a rule conditioning advance in salary upon attaining a high rank in efficiency is nullified by an organized pressure inside and outside of the teaching force, resulting in according this high rank to practically the entire corps. The signs of the times indicate that there is an irrepressible conflict between the members of the board, superintendent, and members of the teaching corps who believe that efficiency should be a prime factor in determining salaries and promotions, and those who believe that length of service alone should determine salary. The making of efficiency a prime factor in salary schedules is in the interest of the children, is in line with the practice in the business and industrial world, and ought ulti- mately to prevail thruout the country. With the universal adoption of this principle will come more definite standards and tests of efficiency, greater reliance upon the super- vising corps in determining the promotion of pupils, and possibly the more general practice of promoting teachers with their pupils. Again, the world-wide movement for efficiency in both public and private expenditure should react powerfully to stimulate efficiency in educational expenditure. Public service is notoriously inefficient and wasteful; and we must not deceive ourselves by supposing that public-school service is an exception to the rule. There are probably few school systems in this country in which an able superintendent (held to definite results by an independent committee), if given an absolutely free hand in selecting, promoting, training and dismissing teachers, could not add 20 per cent to the efficiency of the system. It 94 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General seems harsh to speak of dismissing teachers for inefl5ciency, yet it is not nearly so bad as depriving helpless children of their only opportunity to prepare for their life-work. Besides, a vigorous policy of appointment, promotion, training, and dismissal would save to the school system in eflfidency many times what it would cost to pension the teachers who are inefficient on account of age. Again, the fact that, in common with the other civilized nations of the world, we are rapidly approaching a tax burden that will be confiscatory, re-emphasizes the necessity of permitting neither whim nor false sentiment to prevent the adoption of every available element that makes for efficiency. David B. Johnson, president, Winthrop Normal and Industrial College, Rock Hill^ S.C. — No achievement of the National Education Association could be of more vital importance to the welfare of the coimtry than to secure for the teachers' calling dignity, security, independence, proper financial and social rewards, and certainty of support in old age or in case of disability. The present inadequate salaries and insecurity of position are keeping many of our best men and women out of the teachers* calling, which should command the services of the best brain and character of our land. The good school is the hope of the coimtry, and the good teacher is the hope of the school. What a prosperous, well-governed, law- abiding, progressive, enlightened country, flowing with milk and honey, we would have in a few years if we had in each schoolroom a devoted, skilful, intelligent teacher, imbued with the spirit of civic service and having scholarship and patriotism and social leadership and the freedom and independence resulting from adequate salaries, permanency of position, and security as to the future! Then, indeed, would appear the Golden Age. The salaries of teachers were low enough ten or fifteen years ago, but since that time the cost of living has been steadily increasing, so that the purchasing power of a dollar now is only about 70 per cent of what it was then. As a result, it is not to be wondered at that so many teachers drop out of the work every year. In some of the states of the south more than one-fourth of the teachers drop out annually. The exhaustive discussion of pension systems, by President Henry S. Pritchett, in the 1913 report of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, is worthy the study of anyone interested in this subject. Dr. Pritchett strongly favors pensions for teachers of the public schools, but urges a careful study of the whole question before any plan is adopted. He shows that pensions are justified upon the grounds of a larger social justice and as a necessary condition to an efficient school system. TOPIC: PRINCIPLES AND AIMS OF EDUCATION A. COMMON -SENSE AND BEYOND PRESIDENT, INDIANA UNIVERSITY, BLOOMINGTON, IND. In our time a multitude is bent upon establishing a new education in which children shall be taught to earn their bread. Meanwhile a stout minority is afraid that this new industrialism will sacrifice the essential interests of the spirit. It has been suggested to me that I should speak on some phase of the profound conflict between these two points of view. I shall try to suggest in a few words my view of the underl3dng philosophy of that conflict. In a word I may say that I do not agree with either side in this conflict when it Is opposed to the other. I do indeed believe that an industrialism Sessions] COMMON-SENSE AND BEYOND 95 which excludes or slights any accent of the spiritual life is perilous to the individual and to society. But I also believe that an idealism which ignores or slights the spiritual values of the industrial life is equally perilous to the individual and to society. I agree with the idealist Bergson that the intellect itself was very largely developed on this planet by the making of things with the hands. And I agree with the idealist John Dewey that the college professor who chastely withdraws from concern with the economic life and who imagines that he is the special conservator of the higher cul- ture^ is the victim of an illusion and is, in fact, a tame parasite. The spirit in which I believe is the spirit incarnate. I wish at this time, however, to dwell especially upon one side of this question and to afl&rm the practical reality of the forces which transcend the immediate vision of common- sense. We must all live in the world of common-sense, with its familiar things, tasks, and ways of doing. The laws of that world are harsh, and are enforced by penalties such as failure, hunger, misery, and death. The best thing which the world of common-sense does is to make us work at sensible tasks. This is the best safeguard against insanity and the best means of developing practical judgment and efficiency. The worst thing which the world of common-sense does is to make us blind — is to make uS^ believe that there is nothing beyond itself, nothing but superstitions, speculations, theories, dreams. Physical science has done much to correct this false belief. When, in the fall of 1752, Franklin sent a kite up into a thundergust in order to catch lightning in a bottle, his kite went clear and clean out of the world of common-sense into another world of which common-sense by itself knows nothing at all. The lower end of that kite-string was held by the man who wrote Poor Richard^ s Almanac. He wrote of thrift: "An empty bag cannot stand alone." "Diligence is the mother of good luck." He wrote of prudence: "An egg today is better than a hen tomorrow." He wrote of pretended wit and learning: "The most exquisite folly is made of wisdom spim too fine." "There are many witty men whose brains cannot fill their bellies." It was this supreme genius of common-sense who went out in a rising storm to find a new world, not like Columbus with ships, but with a kite and a bottle. And he foimd it. He and others of his kind found a world incalculably more vast and rich than the America of Columbus. They found the world of force, within whose infinite ranges our world of conmion-sense floats like a bubble. It is the special business of science to send up kites of every sort in every direction. A university is a station for the flying of kites. The fire that comes back along their strings we must have. It bakes our bread. And the same fire, blazing high, lights up for us the immeasurable world of force invisible to common-sense. Exactly the same connection exists between common- sense in its appli- cation to the conduct of life and the higher spiritual laws by which we are 96 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION fGenetal begirt. The everyday rules of thumb for the conduct of life are essential. They teach us, as children, the first necessary lessons of obedience. They teach us common ideals and ways of doing, so that we can live together in families and as neighbors and citizens. To paraphrase St. Paul, common- sense is our schoolmaster, to bring us to the truth. But common-sense never teaches us the whole truth. It does a man fatal harm to believe that it can. It does a man fatal harm to believe that he can choose for himself a little world with little purposes, little standards of success, and little rules of cunning, and there can shut himself in safe from the living God. There has lately appeared the biography of a man who thought he could do this, tho, like many of his kind, he believed in a sort of absentee God who might make trouble after death and who might be appeased by the founding of a theological seminary. Fifty years ago this man was one of the richest in America. Like Rousseau, Benvenuto Cellini, and others, he wrote with naked frankness the inside facts of his life. He wanted one thing — money. He believed really in nothing else. What would bring money was practical and good. Whatever stood in the way must be brushed aside. He brushed aside considerations of friendship and loyalty. Again and again he tells of betraying and ruining his own partners. '* Busi- ness is business," he said. He tells of organizing the farmers of Putnam County, New York, into a protective league against Vanderbilt's Hudson River steamboat monopoly, and then selling out the farmers to Vander- bilt. "The dog that snaps quickest gets the bone," he said. He tells of arranging to get his partners into his debt so as to have them in his power. "You own your debtor," he says, "body and breeches. You are the cat; he is the mouse." He brushes aside considerations of patriotism. "Such far-off things as wars in Mexico, Missouri Compromises, slave wars in Kansas could not be allowed to come in and take my thoughts away from business." Again: "I saw very quickly that the War of the Rebellion was going to be a money-maker for me." "It's good fishing in troubled waters." He tells of corrupting officials of the government in the interest of stock manipulations, but adds: "We didn't dare to make offers of the kind to Old Abe. Lincoln was an impractical man as far as money went. All he thought of was saving the Union.'* Finally, he brushed aside considerations of loyalty to his family. In his last days his greed for money on any terms so possessed him that he proved an unsafe trustee of the estates of his grandchildren, and he was dismissed from his trusteeship by the court. By an accident of fortune which does not always happen, the millionaire lost all his money and died in poverty and solitude. His philosophy of life is expressed in a paragraph by Balzac: "The more cold-blooded your purpose," says a worldly countess to her young relative, "the surer you will be of success. Strike without pity, and the world will fear you. Treat men and women as post-horses. Ride them Sessions] COMMON-SENSE AND BEYOND 97 and leave them foundered at each relay, if you would attain the goal of your desires." From this terrible picture turn to the President whom the millionaire called impractical. In truth, Lincoln was the very genius of practical sense. No other man of his century knew so well as he the range of forces by which men are actually moved. He knew, among other things, the powers of money. He knew that there must be soldiers and cannon and mules and corn and bacon, and money to pay for all. He knew that the Union must be saved by good financing as well as by hard fighting. He knew thoroly well that the world of money has laws from which neither men nor nations can escape. Lincoln was asked once how long a man's legs should be. He replied, "A man's legs should be long enough to reach the ground." His feet were planted on the ground as solidly as Franklin's. But, like Franklin, in the extremity of need he stretched forth his hand to the impractical heavens. And there he found forces mightier than lightning. If you ask where in literal fact he found the spiritual forces which saved the Union, I cannot tell, except in part. I know in part. It came from millions of common men, such as you and I, who a little while before had been all worldly prudence and cowardice and compromise. And then, somehow, in millions of common men, such as you and I, some- thing burst up from within which burned up their prudence and their fear, and sent them marching on to death in the service of the Spirit. Dante believed that there are above the earth many heavens, one circling above another. This is to us a myth. In substance it is the truth. There is what Dante might have called a heaven of physical force, invisible to common-sense, slowly revealed thru men of science, still largely unknown. But we know its reality because every day and more and more we make it do our work. There is a heaven of art. It seems quite unreal — nothing but play, romance, song, dreams. But in truth these have proved their reality in the works and battles of men as surely as any force which engineers can measure. Every great work begins in dream and rises in song, and often when the work perishes the dream and the song survive. Finally, above all others, there is the heaven of charity. You may not believe in it. You may try to escape it. You may barter your one chance of life for a mean wage. You may work with might and cunning for your low desire, careless how your work affects others, and, at the worst, using men and women as post-horses to be ridden and left perishing by the way. But the hardest man is still a child of the Infinite Life. In the thick of your battle, in the moment of your meanest victory, you may be seized and shaken by the ultimate need of man — to give and receive unselfish friendship. In that moment the dollar and the bank and the factory and the whole hard, practical world turn to ashes and you are caught up before the judgment seat whose law is the terrible charity of God. In like manner 98 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General you may try to found your home life upon motives of shrewd worldly policy, or upon baser motives, and, at the worst, you may thus descend into horror and darkness. But, in truth, you and your mate are children of the Infinite Life. The hour may come when you shall realize that. In that hour the voices of worldly prudence and evil passion shall be still. In the heart of your mate you shall see something infinitely sacred, some- thing that shall smite you into unspeakable reverence. You shall stand together in your home and know that you are also standing, like Dante and Beatrice at the last, in the most holy heaven. The Lord of that heaven was not of those idealists who despise the earth and earthly labor. He was himself a carpenter and a physician. He said, "Raise the stone and thou shall find Me. Cleave the wood and there am I." And His supreme idea for Himself and for us, for our politics, our industry, our education, is found in the phrase, "The Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth." B. THE PURPOSE OF ELEMENTARY AND HLGH-SCHOOL EDUCATTON NATHAN C. SCHAEFFER, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, HARRISBURG, PA. Many of our so-called educational reformers give the teacher a bad conscience with reference to her school, and, before a teacher whose con- science has been thus disturbed can again be happy in her work, it is neces- sary to clarify her mind on the purpose of elementary and high-school education. It goes without saying that every school in our day aims and should aim to conserve the health of its pupils. If the laws of health and sanitation are to be obeyed, they must be known; if they are to be known, they must be taught — taught both by example and by precept. From this point of view I do not regret woman's invasion of the high school. A girl can go thru college without contracting the cigaret habit. She can teach half a day without taking whiffs of tobacco between successive recitations, thus neutralizing by her example what she is trying to teach by precept. We may lay it down as a universally accepted proposition that from the kindergarten to the university it should be the aim of the school to conserve the health of the pupil and to develop his powers of body and mind into health, strength, and maturity. But the preservation of health was not the purpose for which the school was originally established. It will throw light upon our problem if we look at a few facts culled from the history of education. According to John Fiske, Lewis Morgan, and other high authorities, the human race passed thru several stages before the school and the vocation of the schoolmaster were called into existence. At first man lived on nuts and berries and the fruits of the earth, then he learned how to catch fish, how to build a fire and Sessions] PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 99 to prepare food by means of fire, and later he domesticated the dog and learned to hunt game with bow and arrow. But neither fishing, nor hunt- ing, nor the building of a fire called the school into existence. The next great step upward was due to a discovery made by woman. Is it not strange that when the average girl begins to study history she soon wishes she had been born a boy ? Why ? Because the histories are written and the subject is taught as if everything great and heroic belonged to the other sex. At a New England dinner, they were glorifying the pilgrim fathers, telling what hardships they had to endure. Some one proposed a toast to the pilgrim mothers who endured all the hardships the pilgrim fathers endured and then had to endure the pilgrim fathers besides. It is a function of the school to teach the girl that what makes life worth living is not found in carrying a gun and spilling blood, nor even in science and literature, but in the personal relations which the human being sustains to his fellows and to his God and Maker — a domain in which woman reigns supreme. As soon as the girl learns that lesson she no longer wishes she had been born a boy. Here is a woman who, in order to retain the juices of the game which her proud lord has brought from the hunt, thatches the basket in which the meat is to be cooked, and by the time the meal is prepared the clay is baked and the secret of the art of pottery has been discovered. This discovery improved food conditions to such an extent that man left his savage state — a state in which he does not feel the need of a school and a schoolmaster. In the making of pottery, one finds secrets which the pupil can learn from a master. Pottery is a trade, but the original school was not a trade school. Upon the new plane, life is at first nomadic. Wealth consisted in cattle grazing upon a thousand hills and valleys. If you are introduced to a cattle king who can write his check for thousands of dollars, do not blush because you are a teacher; your vocation sprang up later and ranks higher. Next, man learned to irrigate the soil and to practice the arts of husbandry. When people talk as if the primary purpose of the school were to make farmers, I enter my protest as a student of the history of education. Without question a good school makes the farmer a better farmer, just as it makes the man a better workman and the workman a better man. The little woman who cultivates the immortal minds of a score of children does a higher work than the man who raises for the market thousands of cabbage heads and vegetables and other eatables. Man took another important step before the advent of the professional schoolmaster. In his upward progress he gradually learned how to smelt ores and to work in iron. Work in metals did not call the vocation of the schoolmaster into existence. He came later than the ironmaster and did a more important work for civilization. What caused the dawn of civilization ? According to John Fiske and other historians, civilization dawned when man learned how to record his lOO NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION IGeneral thoughts and achievements and how to transmit the knowledge of the same to distant peoples and to future generations. It was the need of written language that called the school and the vocation of the schoolmaster into existence. Volumes of history are crystalized in the letters of the alphabet. In other words, it is the primary purpose of the school to banish illiteracy and to make ignorance impossible. Without a knowledge of reading, writing, and reckoning, no one is adjusted to the demands of American life. To read English, to write English, and to understand English is the primary aim of the evening schools which Pennsylvania has established for the foreigners who work in our mines and shops. As soon as they know Eng- lish, the number of accidents is greatly diminished. A knowledge of the three R's, of drawing, and of geography is still the most essential part of the preparation for vocational life. From the viewpoint of the industrial school, there is little justification for placing history in the school currictdimi. From the \dewpoint of preparation for citizenship, a knowledge of the genesis and history of our free institutions is of inestimable importance. To teach our native and foreign-bom boys our patriotic songs is to beget in them love of the flag and of all that for which the flag stands. Moreover, while the pupil is learning the things in the traditional school curriculum, he should be acquiring certain habits without which he cannot hold a job or fill a position in the industrial world. From the very routine of a good school, the pupil develops habits of punctuality and regularity, of accuracy, veracity, and obedience, of politeness, self-restraint, and self- control — habits which, when the will enters into them, become the school virtues, and lay the foundation of industrial, commercial, and professional success. It is not surprising that the boy who has been faithful at school is preferred above the boy who has formed the habit of playing truant. I find that the ambitious parent considers a trade school a good school for his neighbor's son, but for his own son he prefers, at least if the boy will take to it, the training of the traditional high school. There is a sub- conscious motive for this preference, which deserves to be lifted into the light of consciousness. There are today about forty vocations which have in them the best-paid workers and which the boy cannot enter if he quits school before the completion of four years of training in a standard high school. About five millions of our people are engaged in these vocations, every one of which has a basis in the scientific knowledge of this age. In the elementary school we must often be satisfied if pupils learn to go thru the motions, if they grasp the surface relations of things. In the high school the pupil should be taught to penetrate beneath the surface to the relations that are scientific. What is science? Science is the knowledge of things in their causes and essential relations. It is the function of the high-school teacher to get the pupil's mind to move from cause to effect, from reason to consequence, from law to its application. The twentieth century will be an age of science and scientific applications. Sessions] PURPOSE OF EDUCATION loi It is a source of surprise that American superintendents can visit the schools of Germany without discovering the radical difference between the European school and the American school. The European schools are organized to perpetuate the distinction between the masses and the classes. In the United States — to use Huxley's phrase — we have constructed an educational ladder, stretching from the humblest walks thru the free high school into the college and the university — a ladder on which any boy, if he has the strength to climb, can rise into one of the forty vocations which have in them the leaders of our civilization. The workman will sooner or later win an eight-hour working day. It devolves upon the school to determine whether the eight-hour day shall be a curse or a blessing. If the hours which are not needed for bread-winning are spent in dissipation and riotous living, the eight-hour day will prove a curse instead of a blessing. On the other hand, if the school will teach the rising generation to enjoy good music and a good book, if the school will teach its pupils to relish high thinking and plain living, the eight-hour day will prove a source of uplift and progress. If I were called upon to put above the door of the schoolhouse one word expressive of the aim of elementary- and high-school education, I would put there in electric light the word "truth." Truth is more than knowl- edge altho the latter is the broader term. Knowledge may abide as a mere matter of intellect, but truth touches the heart out of which are the issues of life. If truth passes into speech, it becomes truthfulness or veracity. If it passes into life, it gives us true men and true women. It is true men and true women that our nation needs everywhere. Pythagoras had so high an estimate of truth that he said if the deity should make himself visible to man, he would choose light for his body and truth for his soul. Give us true men and true women as teachers in our public schools — teachers in whom the truth has become incarnate as it was in the Great Teacher, who said of himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" — and we shall realize the highest aim of elementary- and high-school education by giving back to the nation, thru the silent influence of example and the potent word of instruction, true men and true women. By way of admoni- tion and guidance to the teacher, I close in the words of another: Thou must thyself be true If thou the truth wouldst teach; Thy soul must overflow If thou a soul wouldst reach; It takes the heart's o'erflow To give the lips full speech. Think truly and thy thought Shall the world's famine feed; Speak truly and every word Shall be a fruitful seed; Live truly and thy life Shall be a noble creed. I02 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General C. TEE PURPOSE OF THE LIBERAL COLLEGE ALEXANDER MEIKLEJOHN, PRESIDENT, AMHERST COLLEGE, AMHERST, MASS. There are many different interpretations of the purpose of the liberal college. They are all partially true but most of them are false as accounts of the primary aim of liberal education. The liberal college is not simply a quiet retreat shut off from the conflicts of real life. Such men as Kant and Darwin, in the quiet of the study and the laboratory, were molding and shaping the entire social scheme of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The warfare of ideas may be quiet, but it is not shut off from the affairs of life; it is fundamental to them all. The liberal college is not a place where boys may seek *' culture" in some sense which shall make them consciously superior to their fellows. Genuine culture is always a by-product. It comes not by seeking, but by doing something worth while. The liberal college is not concerned merely with the classics, if by that is meant a study of the past. No people were ever more modern in spirit than the Greeks. Their language and literature, their art and philosophy are well worthy of our study. But perhaps the best lesson they have to give us is that of the vital necessity of knowledge of our own time and our own people. The liberal college is not an institution which has lost its mission. It is some- times said that since the college was founded to train ministers and since that work is now done by the theological schools, it has no longer any justification for existence. But the old college had something to give, not only to ministers, but also to doctors, lawyers, teachers, and business men. And the new liberal college has the same mission for men whatever their calling is to be. It is sometimes said that the task of the liberal college is sim- ply to train boys to think, to give them intellectual method, and that hence it makes very little difference what they think about, what courses they take, during the college years. But if thinking is worth doing, those four years should not be wasted. There are certain essential and fundamental interests to which any liberally educated man should give attention; and no man is liberally educated unless he has in some way or other dealt with them in his own experience. Finally, the liberal college is not merely an institution for training *' scholars," men who are to be by profession "investigators" in some field of learning. In a democratic society the liberal college is seeking, not merely the intellectual boy, but also the average American boy, and it proposes to train him for life whatever his profession or calling may be. The fundamental principle of the liberal college, like that of all advanced education, technical or professional, rests on the opposition of action by custom and action by intelligence. All schools alike believe that activities guided by ideas are, in the long run, more successful than activities deter- mined by habit and hearsay. The liberal college has, therefore, selected one group of activities for study. Just as the bridge builder studies mathe- Sessions] EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL SERVICE 103 matics and applied mechanics, just as the physician studies chemistry and biology, so the teacher in the liberal college studies those activities which are common to all men. We believe that human living can be made more successful if men understand it. We set our boys, or should set them, to the study of the religious life, the moral problems, the social and economic institutions, the world of physical and natural phenomena, the records of literature and history. Here are features of human living common to all men. To understand them, to be acquainted with them, is to be liberally educated. There are men who would prefer that their sons be not educated with regard to religion, morals, social and economic problems. These men want all the new appliances in farming, all the newest devices and inventions in transportation and engineering, but they, would prefer that the fundamental things of life be left to habit, tradition, and instinct. As against such men the liberal college is up in arms. There never was a time when men needed light on the great himian affairs, the things we have in common, more than we need it now. Intelligence has improved our roads and bridges; it will improve ourselves, our living. The task of the liberal college is just as definite as that of any technical school. Its day is not ending; it is just beginning to dawn. TOPIC: EDUCATION IN A DEMOCRACY A. EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL SERVICE EDWARD A. ROSS, PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON, WIS. Within the last twenty years many of our colleges and universities have caught something of the social view of things. But in the schools naive commercial ideas prevail. Our more promising youth still issue from the classroom into practical life with glowing visions of a personal and private success. They have been told of the wonderful chances to rise and have been stimulated with the assurance that the harder they studied the sooner they would get up in life. "Out in the world," we tell them, "there is the great game, and there are the great prizes. Go in and win.'* Upon many of us it has not dawned that one aim of our public schools should be to make it impossible for the boys to accept the game as they find it. Into the public mind have filtered during the last twenty years many of the newer ideas about the meaning of industry and trade. But, on the other hand, business men have been drawing together into associations and hearkening to the utterances of their big dominating personalities. While the social view has been making headway in the general public, the contrary manner of thinking has been hardening and defining itself within the busi- ness world. Commercialism has become self-conscious and aggressive. It insists that business is an arena in which the strong hearted and the I04 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General capable contend with one another for the Supremely Desirable, i.e., money. In this battle, strength has a place and cunning has a place. The "tricks of the trade" are to be tolerated as we tolerate the feints and ruses of the prize ring. Obviously, the rules of the fight should not be changed while the fight is going on, and, of course, the fight is going on all the time. To tie down the combatants with rules limiting the use of their superior strength, adroitness, or cunning spoils sport and is unfair to the "better man." In these commercial battles, natural resources, and workingmen, and child toilers come to be looked upon as mere raw material to be moved about, husbanded, or sacrificed, as the exigencies of the fight may demand. As to the consuming public — for the sake of which, in sooth, all such enter- prises exist — it lies vague in the dim background with no interest in the fight save as humble and admiring spectators. The hampering of the con- tending business men with pure-food laws, sanitary requirements, safety regulations, anti-combination acts, and, finally, the meddling of a trade conunission on the alleged behalf of the consuming public, is an intrusion and an impertinence inflicted on "legitimate business" by the demagogy of "politicians." In some of the professions likewise the combat idea is well established. The typical newspaper man is by no means apologetic of the sensationalism, red-ink, fakes, deceitful headlines, and spiced news, by which he has beaten his rival in circulation. All is fair in circulation-getting, and the other fellow would have done the same if he had been smart enough. He has no kick coming. The public ? Oh, they are there to be gulled, and besides they like it. We are simply "giving the public what it wants." Most of the lawyers are warm defenders of the time-hallowed conten- tious procedure by which our courts ascertain the right and wrong of dis- putes, despite the obvious consideration that the stronger side ought to win the case, not the side with the means to retain the stronger champion. As a whole the legal profession looks askance at the new matter-of-fact procedure, followed by the new administrative boards and commissions, which sends impartial experts to search out the matter in dispute or adjourns to the laboratory instead of listening to contending hired advocates. In spite of the impression social ideas have made on the worker and the producer, commercialism has gone on developing within its sphere until it is becoming a religion. Boards of trade and chambers of conmierce are its temples. The business interests are its priests; its holy days are Monday to Saturday. Its promise is prosperity. Its first great command- ment is "Let us alone." Its plea is "Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not." Its beatitude is "Blessed is the employee who demands nothing and expects nothing, for verily he shall not be disap- pointed." Its favorite parable is of the man who burned down his barn to get rid of the rats. Sessions] EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL SERVICE 105 This whole conception of business as a jungle fight with its implied admiration of the money-maker as a wonderfully clever fellow; its thinly veiled contempt for the man who wins only a livelihood; its cool ignoring of the public for whose sake business exists belongs in a class with trial by ordeal and judicial combat. Slowly there is rising in the popular mind the idea that businesses and professions are not owned by the men who, for the moment, are engaged in them, that they are but instru- mentalities for meeting the wants of the public, not roped rings for the con- duct of a prize fight; that while oceans of legal verbiage are poured forth on the question whether or not this or that business is "affected with a public interest," there is, in fact, no legitimate business or profession that is not affected with a public interest, and should not be required to square itself with the ascertained social welfare. Rebellion is spreading against manufacturers gradually converting children into worn-out paupers which the public is to support, against industry's needless production of cripples for the public almshouse to shelter, against engineered scarcity of the necessities of life, against brought- on panics, against the ruthless maneuvers of big business, trampling us down as if we were caught in the midst of a herd of maddened elephants. The social service that is supreme is not some bit of charitable work, but the following of one's calling as a service, not as an exploit. Education for social service is to open the eyes of the young to the social nature of their work in life, to purge their minds of the current false notion that to enter one's life-work is to take a hand in a poker game or put on the gloves for a prize fight. It is to persuade them that it is wisdom to spend wealth for more welfare, but folly to spend welfare— even somebody else's welfare— for the sake of more wealth, that industries should be run to yield dividends rather than profits, that a "living wage" must come before a "living dividend," that commercialized sports, commercialized amusements, commercialized newspapers, and commercialized vice are tumors, not flesh, that "prosperity" in the business man's sense is but one element in social well-being and not always the greatest. The next social service is to fight the anti-social tendency of the combat regime. Education for social service ought not to dampen the primal impulses of moral indignation. Five-sixths of American teachers are women, and there is danger lest they, with their ladylike ideas of conduct, quench the natural pugnacity of our boys below the point of even chivalrous spunk. Certainly, a woman-taught generation is showing an alarming willingness to take oppression and robbery lying down. The good- government movement, I notice, attracts many mild-mannered gentle- manly citizens who are quite bluffed by ward-heeler's invitations to the use of the natural weapons. I fear our schools are turning out too many sissies, and that the rough, greedy element are taking advantage of it. I, for one, deplore the ladylike- citizen. Social service implies not only a willingness io6 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General to be spent for the common good, but, as well, a capacity for ire and hard- hitting. One way to divert the people from fundamentals is to get them hurrah- ing for petty betterments. I sometimes suspect that trivial social service is employed to sidetrack people from economic reform. The kept news- paper is strong for "swat the fly," anti-roller- towel, and "clean-up'* move- ments. Likewise, it seems as if little charities for newsboys or tenement babies or hospitals prosper greatly just because they raise no embarrassing questions and leave the public with a soothing illusion that something is being done. It seems to me sometimes as if the springing-up of a great variety of petty charities which annoy nobody, antagonize nobody, and produce but trifling results is to be interpreted as an endeavor to switch the public mind from big reforms involving questions of fares, prices, wages, hours, and conditions of work, which antagonize prominent people, but which also hold forth the possibility of raising the plane upon which great groups of us live. Not that there is a purpose behind it all; but those who start innocent charities get support and put them thru; while those who promote movements that lessen somebody's profits or dividends or rentals get the cold shoulder and fail. So that the promoters of social service learn the lesson: "Ask for reading-rooms, or fresh air, or teddy-bears; don't ask for less risk, or less hours, or for more pay, or more rights." A democracy, then, will use its schools to coimteract the anti-social spirit that too often radiates from the big masterful figures of commercial life. It will rear its youth in the ethics of brotherhood, teamwork, and responsibility. In educating for social service, its aim is at something greater than lessons in kindness and consideration. It presents life from a new angle. It employs ideas, not appeals and exhortations. It meets current notions of success and reward with more exacting ideals growing out of a new vision of social welfare. It aims to turn out youth ready, not only to make their calling a service, but to grapple with the old egotistic carnivorous type and eject him from places of influence where he can be a sinister pattern and pace-setter for the next generation. B. EDUCATION FOR POLITICAL AND MORAL SERVICE WILLIAM O. THOMPSON, PRESIDENT, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, COLUMBUS, OHIO The modem idea of democracy implies a state where all citizens are interested in, and perform the duties of, citizenship. This involves for successful administration a clear vision of the functions of government, the willing and cheerful paying of taxes, a hearty response to public service, and a service of integrity and honesty on the part of those who represent the Sessions] EDUCATION FOR POLITICAL AND MORAL SERVICE 107 people in public office. Briefly stated there are two great issues in a democracy — one is the integrity of the citizen, the other is the integrity of his representative in office. These two being realized, most other problems fall into proper perspective and await an easy solution. The familiar phrase "of the people, by the people, and for the people" suggests the three fundamental things, namely, the source of all authority, the people; the agency springing from the people in the form of duly accred- ited representatives; and third, the object of the government, the welfare of the people — that is to say, where all the people operate thru the people, in the interest of all the people. It need not be more than remarked that this ideal of democracy is realized only in part. The topic now under consideration raises the general issue as to the function of education in a democracy in the preparation of citizens for political and moral service. I know not the distinction in the minds of those who selected this topic, as between the terms "political" and "moral." In these days the term "political" suggests the office, the holder of the office, and all the means and organizations necessary to the operation and maintenance of government. The word "political" is, therefore, of nar- rower horizon than the word "moral." The political to which reference is made is therefore but one phase of citizenship for which education should prepare us. The moral service involves all our personal, social, financial, political, private, and public relations growing out of our experiences as productive and constructive factors in society. There are certain fundamental qualities and attitudes necessary in everyone who would render important service. First of all is that of intel- ligence. In the matter of political service our preparation has been limited in the elementary and secondary schools to a brief study of civics and American history. This study has been confined chiefly to the forms of government and the great movements in history. We have studied the forms of a state government, we have committed to memory the names of the offices, but this has been often futile for the very reason that the forms of local government have been frequently changed so that educated people are often limited in their intelligence upon details. The duties of office- holders and the requirements necessary for filling an office satisfactorily receive superficial treatment. In the colleges where advanced courses in political science are offered the theory of the state receives the major portion of time and study. Recently a tendency has developed to make a practical study of actual conditions within limited areas, but it remains true that few professors of political science, to say nothing of the college graduates, would pretend to anything more than a superfi- cial knowledge as to the duties incumbent upon officeholders. Unhappily most of the education in this field has been gained from the instruction of the practical politician who has not always been inspired by the purest motives for the public welfare. The evils of patronage have proved lo8 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General a serious handicap in the matter of presenting the truth concerning political office. The second consideration is that a genuine sympathy with the purpose of popular government is essential for any progress in political or moral service. Here the school may render a large service in stimulating popular sentiment. A genuine patriotism develops as we come to see the vital things for which government stands. It should be drilled into the consciousness of the American people that government stands for service. It is the organ- ized agency of the people thru their representatives to do what the indi- vidual cannot do, and to do in better form some things that groups of indi- viduals might undertake, and in general to respond to the intelligent demands of the people. Too often the agencies of the people are construed as opportunities for private profit to the individuals who succeed in winning the agencies. This enlarged conception of the state, together with a very decided tendency to utilize the state's power not only for protection but for pro- motion of the interests of the people, calls for a wider patriotism and a cor- responding sympathy with the purpose of all government. The old police theory of the government made it a power to be feared. The modern theory that the state is the organization of all the people for public welfare makes it a thing to be loved and patriotically served. It is fundamental, therefore, that in our system of education the youth of the land should be brought to understand the importance of the indi- vidual in a democracy and to appreciate his place and function. He should be brought to understand that citizenship carries with it duties and obliga- tions. If the government stands for the rights of the individual it must also insist that he recognize his correlative duties. The moral obligation to fulfil one's duties as a citizen in a free government cannot well be overstated. The school should recognize its freedom to insist, as one of the agents of society for the education of the people, upon the moral obligation resting upon every youth educated at public expense to meet his duties with a resolute will. This injunction as to moral responsibility with reference to citizenship is more vital than much of the detail now presented for con- sideration. The spectacle presented in many of our commonwealths in recent years where fully one-third of those entitled to vote failed to exercise their franchise, and thus perform a duty, should soon be an experience of the past. An educated draaocracy cannot tolerate a condition where a large minority of the people are indifferent to political duty. A third consideration is that all education should bring attention to, and emphasis upon, the fact that at some time and to some degree all citizens are leaders. It is an interesting observation that all active citizens sooner or later attain an unexpected prominence or a degree of influence wholly unlooked for. There is a large amoimt of leadership unrecognized even in politics. Many men whose names are not heralded are the deter- Sessions] EDUCATION FOR POLITICAL AND MORAL SERVICE 109 mining factors in local elections and government. Education should, there- fore, bring to view the moral qualities necessary for all leadership if govern- ment is to be safe, beneficent, and patriotic. No leadership, even in the smallest circles, can long be trusted where integrity is lacking. Perma- nent leadership among an educated people is synonymous with abiding integrity in the leaders. An educated democracy will learn more and more to rely upon such leadership. We must, therefore, develop a keener sense of trusteeship in public affairs. Grover Cleveland has been credited with the wise remark that public office is a public trust. We need now to develop a keener moral sense upon this idea of trusteeship. In the ordinary experiences of life, trusteeships have been held sacred, illustrating the most honorable relations among men. Witness the high character of service rendered by the trustees of the great endowments for education. Witness the conscientious devotion of trustees of religious funds, both for education and for missionary service. Only a little lower ranks the service of trusteeships in estates where family interests are at stake. To be sure the courts with a high sense of honor have enforced these ideals. Apart, however, from the attitude of the court, men have usually recognized with singular fidelity the honor of trusteeships. There is no higher trusteeship than to have committed to one's hands the interests of all the people in a local community, a commonwealth, or in the nation. In the great crises of history, men have recognized this high obligation. I am making the appeal, however, that the school shall insist upon it that public office of whatever rank is a public trust to be defended as valiantly as one's personal honor. In concluding upon the phase of education for political service, let me suggest that such a career, if properly presented, could be made attractive to the best youth of the land. In my opinion it should be so presented. A proper public sentiment would prevent a low-minded or selfish grasping individual from asking to be made trustee of public affairs. The upgrowing generation might well be taught that the highest forms of human service call for the best talent, the truest heart, and the most courageous of char- acter. Under this high idealism, political service, which is only another name for public service, offers opportunity for the development of the high- est type of character and makes appeal to the best of motives. The schools can render a great and notable service by setting out the moral qualities needed for public service and the open opportunity for noble development in rendering the service. There has been enough of this unselfish devotion to the public welfare among public officeholders to warrant a recasting of much of the material of American history with a view to putting a new emphasis in a new place. Passing now to the broader conception of education for moral service, one can readily see that any principles announced as applicable to political service would be alike applicable for any service a citizen might render. no NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General Distinctively Christian service makes this appeal in the interests of human- ity. Philanthropic service falls within the same general category. The familiar and somewhat overemphasized social service of recent years is based upon the reorganized conception of modem political economy and sociology. Indeed, the strictly financial circles of the world are coming to recognize that the financial operations of great banks and business enter- prises are in the last analysis moral issues. American experience with the New Haven Railroad is not exceptional, but only the last pronouncement upon the fact that the moral issues are the supreme issues even in the man- agement of a railroad. The producers of great wealth are coming to under- stand that it is easier to build a great fortune than to maintain it with integrity. Since the day when Admiral Dewey sailed into Manila Bay, the moral quality of American citizenship has had a deeper significance than ever before. Every new advance that the world makes in its own progress and development brings a wider vision and a heavier obligation both upon the individual and upon society. If our education may be expected to pre- pare citizens for complete living, it is evident that the schools must inter- pret citizenship in larger terms than heretofore. The mere ability to read a section of the Constitution of the United States is no preparation for American citizenship. If, as we have fondly hoped all these years, our country is steadily to take its place in the council of nations and to meet the obligations resting upon a great country rich in resources of materials and of men, then it is evident that the supreme issues of the future will include the moral integrity of American citizenship. The schools must, therefore, come to the rescue with no uncertain sound as to fundamental morality as related to the perpetuity and character of the nation. This morality must be something more than mere expediency. It must be an inherent principle that makes men fear to do wrong and love to do the right. In my opinion there will be religious sanctions for the abiding morality of the future. Such principles as reverence for God and reverence for man- hood and womanhood underlie the moral commands protecting the sacred- ness of human life and human property. No doctrine of mere expediency will ever protect a nation's or an individual's honor. It is not necessary that any objectionable religious doctrines be injected into our system of public education in order to maintain the religious sanctions of morality. A generation taught that honesty is the best policy should never be deceived into thinking that honesty is merely a matter of policy. The incidental results of a great truth should never be substituted for the truth itself. There is a long-standing academic and philosophic interest in the origin of ethics. Men love to speculate upon these things. The common judgment of the multitudes, however, wliich is usually a correct test upon elementary things, is that the abiding sense of moral obligation is proof of man's inti- mate relation with God under whose moral government he lives. It takes a highly specialized course of university thinking to get a country boy far Sessions] EDUCATION FOR POLITICAL AND MORAL SERVICE iii enough away from his conception of morality to enable him to live a stand- ard life on mere expediency. I am disposed to believe, therefore, and because I believe I therefore declare, that the nation at large will never lose its moral quality until it loses its vision of God. This vision will interpret all questions of human duty and measure all bounds of obligations. Our moral ideas will in the end determine our own estimate of service. People with a fine moral sentiment are capable of the highest service. Wherever this sentiment is lacking, brutality and crime steadily make their entrance. The human family, which is the finest flower of a Christian civilization, reaches its most beautiful expression under the Christian ideal- ism underpinning our moral conduct. The American home, commonly cited as the bulwark of the American nation, has been essentially a Christian home from the beginning. Every lapse of moral integrity in the home may be traced to a loosening of the religious sanctions underlying American morality. This problem is sufficiently serious to command the attention and interests of our most thoughtful citizens. While not receding a single inch from the obligation of the church or the family, or the obligation of the individual citizen to propagate the truth, it is yet evident that education need not assume any of these obligations in order to have a distinct duty in preparing citizens for moral service. Service is the highest expression of character. There will be no beautiful moral service in a generation lacking in moral character. The American school system, from the kindergarten to the university, should, in my judgment, recognize not only its oppor- tunity but its duty to organize education in the interest of character and the service that only character can render. This problem of education for moral service is intensely practical. There could be no condition of society in which the practical phases would not develop. The condition in the American population, however, is such as to intensify the problem. We are rapidly changing our locations, and thus citizens from one community carry to their new locations the ideals of the community from which they migrate. The centralization of large populations in our cities, and the removal of the family from the ordinary influences affecting morals, put upon the school the special burden of instilling the right moral ideals into the lives of school children. The steady stream of immigration from European countries brings a population unfamiliar with the customs of America and oftentimes unprepared to adjust promptly to the new Ameri- can life. In this early experience prejudices are often engendered requiring a generation to eradicate. Meantime the children of these immigrants, if Americanized, absorb most readily the undesirable features in American customs, while tardily acquiring the moral ideals that constitute the safe- guard of American citizenship. No blind optimism should ignore the facts in the case. The problem of education in moral ideals is beset with a good many difficulties, but a determined patriotism should turn aside from all petty strifes about words and face the problem with that moral earnestness 112 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General which grows out of a clear vision of the needs of American citizenship. It is gratifying to know that in educational circles, at least, there has been a keen appreciation of the importance of the ethical foundation in our systems of education. There has been no disposition to forsake or deny the funda- mental tenets of morality, but the awakening of the last two decades has shown a remarkable lack of the application of these truths to practical living. The demand now is that men square their conduct with their consciences. Men are now appreciating the embarrassment of holding to a theory while denying its application. Conduct must be illuminated with our ideals. Truth which does not express itself in human life and conduct fails to inter- est us. This evidence of progress only emphasizes the necessity of bringing the new generation and the acquired generation into conformity with the best ideals of our time. It may be urged that the opportunity of the school is either indirect or remote. I doubt whether this is as true as it seems. The organizing agencies of the school and the living teacher can never be wholly divorced from the practical life of the school. In some way the school reflects the idealism both of the community and of the teacher. There is a mutual reaction with the teacher distinctly in the lead. It is therefore most vital that the teachers of America should catch the spirit of American edu- cation in its relation to the service which the product of the public school is expected to render. In my opinion, most teachers, if asked to analyze the present situation and to account for the undesirable features in student life, would point us immediately to the counteracting influences that drift in upon young life from irresponsible sources. There is no direct or positive charge against the home for false teaching, but somehow teachers feel the lack of support together with the demoralizing effect of social life. The teacher is the chief expression of society's organization for constructive morals, and realizes that the efforts of the school should at least be parallel with social organization, formed for the purpose of aiding the school in protecting the youth against the assaults of degenerative influences, while instilling into them the truth which develops and builds character. In conclusion let me suggest that the highest type of political or moral service will always require that he who renders it shall reinforce his message or his service with his own personal character. Character must somehow express itself in action. The law of "like teacher like pupil" will have increasing force as we understand that service is the highest expression of character and that character is the true measure of men and of nations. Sessions] PROFESSIONALLY PREPARED TEACHERS 113 TOPIC: THE NEEDS OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS A. PROFESSIONALLY PREPARED TEACHERS JOHN W. COOK, PRESIDENT, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, DE KALB, ILL. Last year there were enrolled in the public schools of this nation more than eighteen million children. This army is officered by nearly five hundred fifty thousand teachers and is maintained at an annual expense of almost a half billion of dollars. It must also be remembered that this vast expenditure does not include interest on an investment of approximately a billion and a half. Notwithstanding this enormous enrolment and this vast expenditure of money, the nation has far from ideal results. One-fourth of the pupils enrolled were absent every day. The enrolment, large as it is, includes but little more than half of the population between the ages of five and eighteen. So far as the public schools are concerned, the average child of school age is receiving but ninety days of schooling each year. If this is the record shown by the average child for the thirteen years lying between five and eighteen, it would mean that the completion of the sixth grade of the ele- mentary school is what we are to rely upon in the way of a common scholar- ship in perpetuating the institutions of which we are so proud and which have been established by so immense an expenditure of blood and treasure and toil. I do not forget that I am dealing with that anomalous creature that never had a concrete existence — the average child. Nor do I forget the incalculable value of an educated leadership which will continue to emerge from our higher institutions of learning. But I insist that there is another thing that should not be forgotten, and that is the theory of the nature and ► destiny of man upon which our system of government is broadly grounded. This is not a theory of the average man but of the individual man, and what we are learning about the average man in these startling statistics points to the more startling fact that as there are vast numbers above the average, so there are vaster numbers below the average, because of the small contribution of their limited education. Moreover, these statistics do not seem disposed to change. It is evident that these conditions must change and change radically or we must rely upon some other agency than popular education for the perpetuity of our civilization. But this is not all that lies on the shadow side of the picture. There are indeed five hundred thousand teachers, which will afford one to every twenty-four of the children that are at school every day. If they were all thoroly skilled in their task, the favored twenty-four would be well cared for during the brief time of their attendance at school. Certainly, since the children are to be there for so short a period, every consideration would seem to demand that the teachers should possess the highest attainable 114 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General capacity so that no part of this precious fragment of opportunity should run to waste. Conservation of resources is the watchword of our modern industrial life. Save everything that will yield a profitable atom is the essence of our economic theory. The pride of the manufacturer bears an inverse ratio to the size of his scrap-heap. But what of this human scrap- heap and what it suggests of all the other consequent scrap-heaps if the teaching shall lack in effectiveness because of the poor qualifications of the teachers ? "As is the teacher so is the school" is as trite as the multiplica- tion table and also as true. If there shall be a negligible scrap-heap at the factory, it will mean that thoroly trained operatives are doing the work. In some way they have learned the technic of their calling. There should not be even a negligible scrap-heap at the school; every worker should be a master of technic in the multiform relations of a teacher to a child. Where does the capable worker in the great factory get his skill ? He acquires it thru a carefully guarded apprenticeship. He is not permitted to spoil material in learning how to produce a product. He must begin with the elements of his art and proceed by slow stages to independent construction. We have all seen him at his work when his only task was to hand the required tool to the master. However apt he may be by nature, years must elapse before he can presume to claim recognition as a master workman or even as a journeyman. Yet he would be the last to designate his calling as a profession. He calls it an art, an occupation learned by imitation and practice, a dealing with inert matter, with no extended study of historical background, of fundamental principles, of wide knowledges, of the relation of what he is doing to the existence of those institutions that determine the course of civilization and hence of human destiny, that give the ultimate explanation, indeed, of what he is spending his life upon in his daily calling. Turn from the capable artisan to the teacher and what do we find? Society dignifies his occupation by including him within the professional class, a class that is supposed to be differentiated from other workers by a clear consciousness of the scientific principles which determine its procedure. It goes without saying that in every profession there is an art side, possibly an artisan side, but no calling has warrant to be designated as a profession if it lack this regulative scientific knowledge. Teaching is unquestionably an art, but if it is not more then it must be denied the privilege of ranking with the professions. All of us have seen the "natural" teacher with her wonderful "knack," doing wretchedly bad things in a wonderfully skilful way. She was left to her own devices. She learned as the apprentice would learn if he had no master. As he would consign spoiled material to the scrap-heap by his educational blunders, so she will consign precious material to the spiritual scrap-heap as the price of her education. And what shall we say of our five hundred thousand teachers ? I shall certainly be among the last to deny the existence of a class of workers in Sessions] THE KINGDOM OF LITTLE THINGS 115 this vast organization who are as clearly entitled to professional honors as any men and women in the great complex of our civilization. They have reached their eminence by the traditional method of producing a profes- sional class — thru a thorogoing study of the underlying scientific principles and their rational application in practice. Unfortunately the greater part may not thus be regarded. Success has come to them thru a wasteful experience; thru a violation of this principle of conservation that is the battle-cry of the time; thru the sacrifice of the richest resource of any people. Allowing six years for the average life of a teacher, and the estimate is liberal, more than eighty thousand new teachers annually find employment in the elementary grades of the public schools. The public normal schools graduate some twenty thousand; sixty thousand untrained teachers annually begin to find their way to skill by their experiments with the defenseless children; sixty thousand more have been struggling with their problem for a year; and another sixty thousand are beginning to feel some- what comfortably at home after an experience of two years, if they have been so favorably conditioned as to be under intelligent supervision. If they have not, the chances are that their latter state is as bad as their first and possibly worse. The case is clear. The supreme need of the school is a body of carefully trained teachers. To this end the professional schools for their preparation must be multiplied until there shall be a real profession of teaching and no one shall be admitted within its portals who lacks the password. B. THE KINGDOM OF LITTLE THINGS JAMES M. GREENWOOD, ADVISORY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, KANSAS CITY, MO. "Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times. Get wisdom, get understanding, and forget it not." — This injunction does not exist for the educational triflers in "The Kingdom of Little Things." Let us go back to fundamental truths before we have cast aside all charts, compasses, logbooks, instruments, mental and mechanical, to take observa- tions with on this unexplored sea we are endeavoring to navigate. Is it not the part of wisdom to take an inventory of the merchantable educa- tional stock we already have before throwing it into the junk pile ? There are many who think so. Many new assets are worthless in any market; in fact, most of them have no quotable value in any educational stock exchange. Let it be granted that educators ought to judge of means, agencies, and achievements from the nearness as well as the remoteness of things. Very close to each one are growing and changing boys and girls, and each one is composed of thousands of traits, tendencies, and variations inherited from a long line of ancestors, modified by environment of former ii6 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION (General ages reaching down to the present. The homely but true adage that "you must earn for yourself before you can call it yours" is a discarded balance in many of our modernized methods of forming independent, self-centered, and self-controlled men and women. Attention has been so focused upon the lame, the halt, the dullards, and the feeble-minded that the "ninety and nine" have been lost to view or relegated into the lot back of the bam, and no shepherd has been detailed to look after them. It is a glorious thing to take care of the dependent weaklings and no heart goes out to them with a deeper fervor than mine, but it is for the great mass that I plead. Has it not been true for years that at all educational meetings and social improvement congresses emphasis has been placed on the little things adapted to the weak and helpless, while those children of average ability and those of superior mental endowment have virtually been reduced in their studies and powers to a common denominator with the slow, the lazy, the dullards, verging down nearly to the scale of imbecility? Courses of study, textbooks, application, habits of steady industry, power of concentration are all on the low line of a mediocrity that is an insult to the children themselves as well as to their parents. Once it was the rankest heresy to bribe children to make them work either in school or at home. Children did their work because it was the right thing for them to do, and it gave them a stability and firmness of character for doing best their fractional part of the world's work. When the shoddy stuff of doing small chores about the house, in the garden or orchard, or on the farm is to be given so many credits in this branch or that one, are not school engineers nearing the danger line of mental unsoundness ? Healthy children ought to work and on the same principle of self- improvement that they should obey their parents, respect those in author- ity, be polite, cleanly in speech and thought, and fear to do wrong. I thank heaven and my parents that I was taught to work at home, and that I was sent to school to obey the teacher, get my lessons, play at the proper time, and when school closed to walk home and do my assigned part of the chores both night and morning. The only motive held up before me was that an education was a better thing to have than money, in fact the very best thing in the world except a good name meritoriously deserved. Hiring children to do their duty should be placed as a statutory offense against the peace and dignity of the state. Our truancy laws, juvenile courts, houses of correction, detention homes are so many evidences of the spread of this contagion in American homes. It is high time that we stop, each one, and question ourselves on the output of results— the harvest of "the crop of little things." Pedantic school superintendents in too many instances are fertile in novelties that catch the eye for a moment and then vanish forever. Humanity has traveled a long and weary road, and it has learned that nearly all the world must learn and work. The common-sense of mankind Sessions] THE KINGDOM OF LITTLE THINGS II 7 affirms in no uncertain sound that a system of education that puts children to work at home after the necessary lessons and play have been had each day is the best nurture for the healthy, growing child, and it will be better off mentally and physically. It is not a matter of surprise that our best educational thinkers are criticizing our schools on the very points that I have mentioned, and telling the American people that our boys and girls are two or three years behind the boys and girls in their studies in the corresponding European schools, and that too among nations who do not rush thru life at the same speed as we are accustomed to go. Our children in completing the elementary course of study can do one or more years' work beyond what they now do if they were put at it in earnest. School frivolities, ignorance, laziness, stupidity in high places, slow-going processes, and thinly gruelled textbooks have so entrenched themselves behind innumerable hoards of supervising bandits that the teachers have no time to do the real, essential work of the schools. There are so many efficiency engineers running hand cars thru the schoolhouses in most large cities that the grade teachers can hardly turn around in their rooms without butting into two or three of them. Under such conditions real progress in the things the children ought to learn is impossible. If some device could be contrived by which the "snapshot" schoolmaster and the "snapshot" school could be sent to the shades below for a season, the order of banishment should be issued at once. How much we can stand of brainless theories, aimless studies, mindless methods, without providing an asylum for dangerous leaders running at large, no one can predict. There is an encouraging feature, notwithstanding that so much educational thinking is running at a very low ebb; there are streams of educational intelligence that issue from pure fountains which are displacing mere animal existence and the savage virtues by searching for the purpose and reason for things. Education on a low plane is not a good collective result for community interests; it does not form men and women to pursue each his own individual ends with enlightenment and intelligence, and to make the most of his powers for benefiting the world. Struggle counts and one should never play football with his convictions. If one does, his underpinning has a bad attack of wobbles. It is bad taste to mock at painful impotence or bodily or mental deformity, but when supposed grave educators set about seriously making mental cripples of well-born children, it is such a wretched spectacle as would make Jupiter Olympus weep. All the keen edge of interest has been blunted off the child's mind, because he has not been trained in the elementary school to cut to the heart of any subject; no memory trained, enriched, and reliable; no imagination heightened and chastened; no judgment balanced by frequent trials on intricate points; no habits of remorseless application acquired and nobly exercised. He may have much bluff, but no power; he may be to discipline a stranger, and to definite principles in any branch of learning a Ii8 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General barbarian and outcast. He has been distracted, amused, nauseated, but not educated in the fundamentals in any study. It is a serious question as to whether those who advocate many things in ''The Kingdom of Little Things " have a well-assorted stock of educational ideas of their own. Are they not judging the size of things by their nearness or remoteness without considering their eternal and unchanging value? A single horseweed may blot out the most beautiful landscape and keep the eyes from seeing it. We need to widen the intellectual horizon of our boys and girls rather than to fit them into little narrow holes of living and box up their thoughts. Our people need capacity to look at the world from many angles. Thru the aid of expert advice, the mother can do nothing but look at her little one and love him. Yet her inner sense tells her that she can do much more and many things that no other one can do for him. She knows that self-reliance, thoughtfulness, and thoroness should all be inculcated. For efficiency it is necessary to know thoroly the skeleton of each sub- ject studied. Every day in school should be the equipment of the child for larger and more complicated knowledge. Teaching is to be judged by the condition of mind it produces in the learner. If it produces a devour- ing eagerness, independent judgment, accuracy, and rapidity in doing the work, and a becoming modesty, it is good teaching, however done. The interest in school work should be steady and quiet, and there is no use in trying to make good school work soft and mushy, but there is much need of making it serious and cultivating the habit of steady pulling . against a cold collar. Live children like to be fed from a full educational manger, not from a soup bowl. A subject should still continue to be a matter of interest after it has ceased to be a study, and one needs frequently to go back and visit with it, unless the intention is to make the child a mental vagrant. After the child begins his formal education, there ought to be a constant desire for knowing the things that are far away and high — long- ing to know more. "The Kingdom of Little Things" is making a scatter- ing scramble of smatterings. Children, like grown people, delight in the victories of effort and purpose. Sound knowledge pays the largest and surest dividends. To educate a useful human being there should be a good beginning, a strong middle, and a glorious ending. Raise up a child in the way he should go, and keep him going on that way as long as he says father and mother, if he is to lead a healthy, rational, and full life to save him from "The Kinlgdom of Little Things." Sessions] PUPILS LEAVING SCHOOL TOO SOON 119 C. SYSTEMATIC EDUCATION FOR THOSE PUPILS LEAVING SCHOOL TOO SOON LORENZO D. HARVEY, PRESIDENT, STOUT INSTITUTE, MENOMONIE, WIS. Two-thirds of the children who enter the elementary schools in the United States drop out of them and end their school work before or by the time they have reached fourteen years of age. The best statistics avail- able indicate that at least two-thirds of this number leave school, not from pressure of necessity but from choice, and, of those who leave school from choice, by far the greater number choose to leave because the elementary school as now organized does not give the kind of work which appeals to them or to their parents as being worth while. The whole theory upon which our educational system has been devel- oped is an argument for pupils remaining in school beyond the age of fourteen, and that argument is reinforced by every consideration of the unproductive character of the work open to the fourteen-year-old child as regards his best development for future usefulness. Laws have already been passed by some states, and other states are considering the advisability of passing laws, for the establishment of a system of continuation schools to give systematic instruction to those children who have been compelled to leave school and go to work. The establishment of the continuation school is a prime necessity for this class of children. It may not give adequate opportunity for education, but. it gives all that can be given and all of which the individual may be able to avail himself. The continuation school is for the one-third who drop out of school too early from necessity; it is not what is needed for the two- thirds who drop out from choice. For them the reorganization of the curriculum of the elementary school, providing the kind of work that will appeal to them as having a value in increasing their wage-earning power, is a necessity. This, then, brings me directly to the problem of what shall be done in our public school to make its appeal more effective than it now is to the two-thirds of that large number of children who leave school each year at fourteen years of age — those who leave from choice and not from necessity. In determining what readjustment of the public-school courses of study should be made, it is essential to consider first what modification must be made to make the appeal of the schools so strong as to hold in school longer the class of pupils of which I am speaking. It is clear that the requisite readjustment will not result from a mere change of textbooks or of subjects taught thru the textbooks. There are two reasons for this: One is that for the larger number of these pupils who leave school from choice at the age of fourteen years the mental stimulus of the printed page is not suffi- cient to secure an effective response from them; and since it is not stimulus that educates, but effective response to stimulus, it follows that if there I20 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General is no such effective response the pupil is not being educated, his interest is lost, he leaves school, or, if he remains, the school becomes of little value to him. The second reason is that even where there is an effective response to the stimulus of the printed page, the pupil does not see its value and for that reason his interest lessens and the school loses its appeal to him. We must recognize that from this class of pupils the demand is for some kind of work that will increase their earning capacity, and that not far in the future. If courses of study can be so readjusted as to meet this need, the school will become attractive to a very large number of the class of pupils under consideration, and the parents of these children will see a value in it that they have not seen before. The combined interest of pupil and parent will result in the child's remaining longer in school. By far the larger number of these pupils will after leaving school be employed in occupations requiring handwork of some sort. Mental train- ing is essential in any education, but, when the work of life demands skill of hand, the mental training should to a considerable extent be directly related to motor training, and one must supplement the other. We must recognize that for the broadest training the stimuli for mental training must come, not from a single source, but from many sources; and for the mental training that is to develop power in the control and guidance of motor activity to productive ends, the stimulus must come thru an appreciation of a given end to be realized and thru the materials, tools, processes, and means employed to reach that end. If this statement is correct, there is ample justification for the intro- duction of instruction in the manual arts into our courses of study, and that entirely irrespective of whether the manual arts are taught with a direct vocational end in view or not. The boy who has had good training in the use of even a limited number of tools where close observation of materials and processes was necessary, who has had a clear understanding of what was to be done and then has made a definite effort to do it, who has compared the results of his doing with other similar work of high standard, and who has made a renewed effort to improve the quality of his own work has taken on quality of mind and gained a control of his motor activities thru the action of the mind that will make it easier for him to master the use of any other set of tools in working with any other kind of material. If we broaden his training so that he shall be trained to use a great variety of tools and work with a corresponding variety of materials, with correlative demands upon his mental and motor processes, he will find it much easier either to develop a high skill in the use of any one of these varieties of tools or to master a new and different kind. It has been discovered that boys in the seventh and eighth grades may be trained to do many kinds of work requiring motor activity which it has heretofore hardly been thought practicable to give even in the high school. Sessions] PUPILS LEAVING SCHOOL TOO SOON 121 To me it is entirely clear that the mental training resulting from properly- organized instruction in the manual arts is of great value to the child whose subsequent vocation makes little demand for manual dexterity, and that it is indispensable for the child whose subsequent vocation does require manual dexterity, provided his education is to aid him directly in earning a livelihood. The readjustment of the courses of study may not mean that every child is to be trained in the public schools to the point of developing the grade of manual dexterity required in the labor market; but it does mean that the chUd will have as a result a somewhat developed industrial intelli- gence, a wide acquaintance with materials and processes employed in the industries, and such training of the hand in a wide variety of processes with tools and materials as will enable him to form some intelligent judgment of the kind of work for which he is adapted and will give him at least the begin- nings of industrial efficiency. He may not travel very far upon that road, but, whatever the distance, he has shortened by that much the route to be traversed. He can turn himself to a great variety of work, not at the wages of the skilled workman, but at better wages than he could possibly secure without this training, and with the certainty of advancing more rapidly than he otherwise could to the ranks of the skilled workman. It is not my purpose to enumerate in detail the different kinds of work in the manual arts nor the scope of that work which I deem essential in this readjustment of the courses of study, but simply to indicate on broad gen- eral lines the principles upon which such readjustment should be made. To do the former would be to rewrite the courses of study in detail, and that is too large a task for any single individual. This readjustment may be made in two ways. It may be made by organizing the kind of work I have indicated as a part of the course of study for all pupils in the public schools; or it may be made by differenti- ating the work of the pupils at about the fifth grade so that a pupil may have an option of a course of instruction which does not involve motor training for vocational ends, or of a course of instruction which does involve such training and requires less of the textbook work than is required in the other course. If either plan is adopted, much more time must be given to this portion of the course of study than has been given in most of the elementary schools in the past. Good teachers are required for good work with any course of study. With a traditional textbook course, an inferior teacher may make a showing thru rote and memoriter work out of all pro- portion to the benefits derived. Such a teacher cannot make any such showing in that portion of the course of study devoted to instruction in the manual arts. The pupil's work is not measured in words, but in things that he has wrought with his hands, which things bear permanent witness to the character of his thinking and to his skill in expressing that thought thru the work of his hands. This work in the manual arts must be begun early. 122 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General It would be justified in the lower grades for the relief it brings to the monot- ony of textbook work if for no other reason, but it has other value. It begins earlier to present this new kind of stimulus (new in the schools) which demands and controls motor expression. A properly organized course of study in this field will present varied and progressive stimuli for mental activity which the textbook course presents in a much more limited way. The essential things demanded, then, in this readjustment of the course of study so that it shall present an effective appeal to the thousands leaving school from choice at fourteen years of age are a wide range of instruction in manual arts, with adequate time and equipment and teaching force; an elimination of the nonessentials and the less essential things in the existing course of study; and a co-ordination of what remains, after these elimi- nations are made, with the work in the manual arts. That portion of the course of instruction devoted to the manual arts must be carefully organ- ized with a view to presenting that which has the largest value and the strongest appeal to pupils. It must not be organized with the idea that this work is simply preparatory to work in a more advanced school. It must be organized primarily with the idea of holding a pupil if possible until he is sixteen years of age, with the certainty that large numbers who remain for these two years will have developed an interest and an ambition that will carry them on into some higher school for a longer or shorter time. D. PROGRESS OF THE RURAL SCHOOLS EDWARD T. FAIRCHILD, PRESIDENT, NEW HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE, DURHAM, N.H. The growing interest in our rural schools is most encouraging. In every state the effort to develop and to modernize the school for the boy and girl in the country is bearing fruit, while the gap between the city school and the country school is sensibly lessening. The public is beginning to understand that the one half of our school population must have educa- tional facilities equal to that of the other half. Evidence of this somewhat belated consciousness of the rural youth is not wanting. The national Bureau of Education has set forth in plain but vigorous language the weakness and the needs of the rural schools; the press has commented on these facts; and the people are realizing the situation. State superintendents of public instruction see that in the country school lie their greatest problems, while increasing numbers of lesser school oflScers and many thoughtful citizens are displaying a commendable interest in the educational welfare of the rural child. Surveys, state and local, are adding to our knowledge of country-life conditions and to our sense of individual and collective responsibility. Other signs of rural progress thruout the nation are: I. The unprecedented interest in all rural-life problems thruout the country — including the rural school, the rural home, the country church, scientific agriculture, Sessionsl PROGRESS OF THE RURAL SCHOOLS 123 and industrial education. The rural-school and rural-life conferences that have been held during the past and in recent years have had these subjects as the principal topics on their programs. The publicity given these discussions by the public press has been far-reaching in its effect and has brought about signal progress in rural education. 2. The departments of rural education, rural economics, and sociology in all of the leading state normal schools of the United States, and home economics and manual training in our colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts, with their extension courses and rural leaders; the great campaign for rural-life betterment provided for in the Smith- Lever Bill, thru the agency of our land-grant colleges and the thousands of rural leaders to be sent out under this act. 3. The rural educational rallies and all associations held thruout the country during the past and recent years; the boys' and girls' industrial clubs, educational exhibits, etc. 4. The provisions made for effective supervision of rural schools by the various states. The first national conference of state supervisors and inspectors of rural schools was held at Louisville, Ky., in April, 1914, thirty-seven states being represented in that conference. The proceedings of this conference will give a nation-wide interest in the work of more effective supervision of the rural schools. 5. The agricultural departments established in hundreds of our best high schools in rural communities; the establishment of county agricultural high schools and consoli- dated rural schools. 6. The professional zeal of rural teachers in taking advantage of the extension courses as offered by the universities, colleges, and normal schools; and the thousands of rural teachers now in attendance at summer schools in a study of rural education. 7. The teacher-training courses for rural teaching as established in the Central West, New York, Vermont, Maryland, and Virginia on the Atlantic Coast, and in California, Oregon, and Washington on the Pacific Coast. Sixteen states are now providing such courses in high schools. This year in one state alone twenty-eight hundred graduates of four-year high schools took the state examination for normal-training work, having devoted more than a year to the study of rural-school problems. The qualifications of rural teachers have been raised in many of the states; in some none is eligible unless a graduate of a four-year high school. The requirements of rural teachers have been raised in 50 per cent of the counties of the western coast states during the past three years. A LARGER UNIT OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION I quote the resolutions adopted yesterday by this Association: The Association indorses and approves the plan of a larger unit in school organization and administration. It believes that the logic of events, as well as considerations of economy and eflSciency, will displace the small district and recognize the county as the natural unit of administration — supervising the township, groups of townships, or such other geographical divisions as would be suggested by community convenience. It is significant that in thirteen states the county is now the school unit, five of which states are west of the Mississippi. Campaigns are on in several states for the county as the unit. Thirty states are now sup- plied with rural-school inspectors, while the number of assistant rural supervisors is constantly increasing. Full of promise is the growing senti- ment to take the oflSce of state and county superintendence out of politics. The day is here when the child can no longer be bartered for pohtical gain. Consolidation of weak districts into strong central divisions is constantly growing. Mr. Monahan, of the Bureau of Education, says that more 124 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General inquiries about consolidation are received than upon any other subject in relation to the rural schools. More commodious and more sanitary rural buildings are the order of the day. In the state of Washington, teachers' cottages are provided, especially in Spokane County, and hot lunches are served. Play sheds in Washington, Oregon, and northern California have been provided that children may play in inclement weather. New Mexico has given more than fifty thousand dollars this year to weak districts that better school build- ings may be erected for rural children. To all this we may add the fact that courses of study are being liberalized and made to articulate with the environment of the country child. More money is provided for the maintenance of the school and the payment of better salaries. And yet, it is but the morning of a better day. When we realize how great a number of the three hundred thousand rural teachers have inadequate training, many whose education does not extend beyond that of the grades; when we think of the short terms of schools in many parts of our country; when we realize that the majority of the rural schools still lack proper supervision, we find that the battle is just begun. Of the army of twenty- seven million of educable youth, more than sixteen million receive their elementary training in the rural schools. All of these schools urgently need men and women of fine professional training, deep social insight, large executive skill, and personal power as supervisors. There is also needed a type of teacher who understands and is interested in rural service. There are those who say that these betterments cannot be secured until the country people themselves demand them. In the light of other rural problems this is not true. The agricultural colleges have shown the way to rural progress. By carrying the college to the people they have secured their confidence and hearty co-operation. By similar means the people may be won to a true conception of the need of twentieth-century schools. It is said there is no demand for normal-trained teachers in country schools. If this be true, the state can easily secure a demand by providing a small bonus to every school employing a properly prepared teacher. The rural-school problem, tied up as it is with the whole rural-life problem, has now become too complex to be solved by local effort. The state must realize that its prosperity is the prosperity of all the people. State aid must be given as generously as it is now extended to state institutions of higher learning. Adopting this policy, practically all of the ills of the country school can be overcome. Money from the state, even in small amounts, will hasten consolidation where physically possible. It will open the way to township high schools, thus solving the problem of secondary education for the country child, and will furnish a powerful incentive to the pupil Sessions] LET BOTH GROW TOGETHER UNTIL THE HARVEST 125 to remain thru the grades. And by the same simple process we may crystallize into fact many of our hopes for the rural school. We think in millions as to higher institutions, in thousands as to elementary schools; no man should find it necessary to remove from the farm to educate his children. Our people are coming to realize the truthfulness of this principle. E. LET BOTH GROW TOGETHER UNTIL THE HARVEST CARROLL G. PEARSE, PRESIDENT, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, MILWAUKEE, WIS. Our social structure and the educational system we have built up within it for our children are based upon the theory of equal social and educational opportunities for all. Our common schools are meant to give the son of the mill worker and the son of the mill owner alike training for good citizenship, and to open to each alike the doors of opportunity to whatever extension of education and whatever future economic and social status he may have aspiration and ability to attain. To this end we have generally arranged the studies in our elementary schools so that children of ordinary ability devote to them eight years, from their sixth thru their fourteenth, and not before the fourteenth birth- day are they brought face to face with the necessity of deciding whether they wish to and can go on thru the high school, and perhaps beyond, or whether they must or wish to seek work as wage-earners or begin the preparation for some particular craft or vocation. We have become conscious of late that the course of study which we have framed for these elementary schools, especially that for the grammar grades, is not so well adapted to tjie needs and the interests of the growing and developing boy and girl as is desirable; we have been compelled to notice that large numbers of them are leaving the schools at the end of the fifth or sixth or seventh grade to begin work. Making due allowance for those who are compelled by their own or the family circumstances to become earners, and for that equally large number for whom earning is not necessary, but who, to please greedy parents or to gratify their own desire for spending, early leave the school, there still remains too large a number who go because they are not interested and do not care to stay. Some employers who use child labor complain that the children sent out of our schools are not well fitted to take up the special work in their establishments; these employers desire from the schools a product more immediately profitable to the mill owner. Some persons concerned with education have the opinion, which is doubtless correct, that children can learn French and Latin and allied subjects more easily and thoroly if they are able to devote six years to the study of those subjects, beginning them at the end of the twelfth, rather than at the end of the fourteenth, year; and these persons wish to move downward two years the division line that 126 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General separates the elementary from the secondary school — a plan which is intended to result in separating from their companions at the end of the twelfth year those children whose parents have destined them for higher studies and liberal culture, while less favored pupils are to be put into separate classes or separate schools, there to receive training for the employ- ment and the station in life to which they have been "devoted." Thus, curiously enough, we have the mill owner, who wishes a more immediately profitable quality of child labor, the avaricious parent, who perhaps plans to live in idleness on his children's earnings, the educational person, who wishes French and Latin to be better learned and who wishes to bring about an earlier separation of those children who are destined for a liberal education and a higher station in life, and, not infrequently, the worried schoolmaster, who sees too great a number of his charges slipping out of the school one, two, or three years before they are fit to go, all imiting in advocacy of what is probably the most dangerous proposal made in many years for modification of our public educational system. It makes little difference whether this proposal comes in the guise of the junior high school, which is to take boys and girls at the end of the sixth grade and retain them for six years (if possible), such a school, by the very fact of its organization, presupposing a separation of its pupils into groups or classes in accordance with the careers for which their parents or their teachers have destined (or doomed) them; or whether it comes in the form of a frank demand for the selection at the end of the sixth grade and the training, in "industrial" or "commercial" or "pre- vocational" classes or schools, of those children who are to be "devoted to labor," thus sending them to their prospective employers with some preliminary training in the work of the shop or other establishment, and rendering it less necessary for the employer to waste time in training childish hands; the effect of any such plan will be, in general, to shorten by two years the elementary- school period, to fix two years earlier than now that point in the school life of our children where they will feel— and in thousands of cases their parents will feel— that the elementary-school course having been finished the child may with propriety leave school and take up the sterner duties of life. Any such plan will force most of our children, two years earlier than now, to the iron gates of decision. Those who leave school at that time will by that fact have decided; those who remain must also decide, and, all raw and immature and unconscious of their powers and the possibilities which the future holds for them, choose the way to liberal culture or to this vocation and station or that. Whatever may be the thought of those who advocate this redivision of time between the elementary and secondary schools, and whether or not it is their wish to do so (and it seems to be the wish of many of them), we may be sure there can be but one result— for tens of thousands of our children school life will be shortened by two years, and thousands of those who do not leave will be forced, two years earlier than Sessions] LET BOTH GROW TOGETHER UNTIL THE HARVEST 127 now, to decide their future career or the direction which the remainder of their education shall take. The fact that in some European countries the plan proposed is in operation, and children are forced to this decision, or others decide for them, at their twelfth year, need have no weight with us. Among us, the citizen does not exist for the state, the state exists for the citizen. The purpose of our educational system is not to make mechanics, or commercial experts, or doctors of philosophy; it is to make citizens and men and women who know their duty to their state and do it, but who are free and untrammeled in their right of choice as to a career, and to whom no door of opportunity, educational or vocational or social, is closed pro- vided they have the desire and the courage and the ability to enter and occupy. The American schoolmaster, worried by the premature withdrawal of so many grammar-school boys and girls, need not feel driven to the adoption of this plan for a six-year elementary school, copied from foreign lands, where different industrial and social conditions and different ideals of life and opportunity prevail. Other remedies lie ready to his hand. The present grammar-school course is not sacred; liberties may safely be taken with an arrangement which is a survival of conditions, industrial and social, that no longer exist. This course should make good citizens, intelligent, well disposed, fairly well eqmpped for the duties which all citizens may be expected to perform, and with some basis for wise choices in citizenship and in vocation or career. There is no reason why each grammar-school girl should not get a good elementary knowledge of the duties and occupations of a house-mother and some training in their perform- ance, since probably nineteen out of twenty women sooner or later come into their kingdom at the head of their own household. There seems no good reason why each boy should not have such training in the use of the elementary hand tools as will make him decently useful about his own house when he comes to have one, and shall put him in such touch with industrial employments that he will be able to judge whether he has any liking and ability for them, and toward which one, if any, he is attracted. There seems no valid reason why both boys and girls should not have such chance to acquire certain of the knowledge useful in business offices as will enable them to decide whether they have some aptitude in this direction, and how and where best to continue their studies to fit themselves for such employ- ment if they wish, and, incidentally, to acquire a knowledge of business methods and correspondence and record-keeping which will be of use to them in their own affairs, no matter what their future employment may be. For those children who are tempted by the promise of a small wage which they wish for spending-money, but who do not need to leave school, the school may make some systematic arrangement, either for small employ- ment out of school hours or for the turning of some of the knowledge 128 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General learned at school to practical account thru the sale of articles which the children can make or service which they can render. For those cases where the necessity to earn is real, the part-time plan can be brought into requisition. It should be possible for employers to realize both their duty and their advantage and to co-operate with the school in arran^g so that children who need to do so may work half time and attend school half time, thus enabling children to prolong their time in school and insuring to the employers in the future far more intelligent and effective help. If it is thought necessary that certain pupils have an opportunity at the end of the sixth grade to begin French or Latin, it need not be impracticable for such classes to be formed as extras, open to those who desire them, either as additional work or in lieu of some other of the less vital portions of the curriculum. The preservation of democracy among us and the prevention of strati- fication and the growth of classes in our society are difficult enough at present without introducing a plan which would in effect cut off two years from the elementary school — that school in which all our citizens should be trained — and which would in effect begin at the twelfth year, instead of at the fourteenth, to separate the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares, those children who are to enjoy the benefits of the higher education from those who are not. Those charged with responsibility for our schools should be on their guard against such suggestions from those who look upon foreign systems as necessarily better than our own and those who want a more inamediately profitable grade of labor from children's hands. There are enough other ways to meet the real problem and minister to the need of our youth. The school people should be the last to assist in crowding downward the harvest-time for our children — the time when they finish the elementary school and come to the time of decision and separation, according to the choice made of a future career or occupation. They need each other's society and companionship, the continuance of common studies and interests and comradeship, at least as long as they have it now — thru the fourteenth year. Lengthen then the time rather than shorten it. Shun any practice which will tend toward untimely separation and make strati- fication easier. Make later, rather than earlier, the harvest. And, in the words of the Great Teacher: ^*Let both grow together until the harvest." Sessions! WORK OF SCHOOL AND NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE 129 F. THE ADAPTATION OF THE WORK OF THE SCHOOL TO THE NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE JAMES Y. JOYNER, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, RALEIGH, N.C. STATEMENT OF THE PRINCIPLE AND ITS BASIS Perhaps the most remarkable educational movement of the past quarter of a century has been the rapid democratization of educational ideals and methods. Perhaps the greatest educational need of the hour and of the future in this democracy of ours is the further democratization of these imtil there shall be the closest adaptation of the work of the schools of all grades to the needs of the people of the states and communities that they serve and by whom they are supported. In a democracy, equality of educational opportunity can mean nothing less than the opportunity to each man to develop to the fullest such ability as he has in a school adapted to his ability and needs and to the needs of the community in which he lives and serves. Lowell's definition of a uni- versity as a "place where nothing useful is taught" illustrates the old ideal of the university and almost of the college and the secondary school, but it is out of date in this age. The modern university is a place where every- thing useful is taught to everybody, and the modern college and secondary school are rapidly becoming just such places. DIFFICULTY OF APPLICATION OF THIS PRINCIPLE The application of this principle of adaptation of the work of the school to the needs of the community is one of the most difficult problems in modern education. The difficulty of the problem in a country like the United States will be readily suggested by the mere contemplation of the diversity of environment and conditions — natural, industrial, social, rural, and urban — the diversity of the population, the diversity of individual and racial capacity — mental, moral, physical, and sexual — the corresponding diversity of needs arising out of these, and of schools and courses of study required to meet such diversified needs. Except in certain essentials tested by the ages and found to be adapted to certain common needs of humanity, there can be no static uniformity in the courses of study. The principle of adaptation of the work of the school to the diversified needs of diversified communities has had but tardy recognition in the United States except in the larger cities, but during this decade it has made rapid headway, and it promises to become the dominant factor in determin- ing the types of schools of the future and the courses of study in them. QUESTIONS SUGGESTIVE OF NECESSARY READJUSTMENTS Lest I appear dogmatic upon a subject which is still in a stage of inter- esting experimentation, let me conclude this paper with a few questions I30 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [General suggestive of some of the readjustments that will be involved in the appli- cation of this principle of adaptation. Must not intelligent direction of the work of the community school be preceded by careful diagnosis of the conditions and needs of the com- munity? Except in the essentials for meeting the fundamental common needs of humanity, should not the rural school be essentially different in type and in course of study from the urban school ? If 90 per cent of the population of the United States is industrial and only 10 per cent profes- sional, should not the work of the schools, urban and rural, be readjusted to minister more to the needs of the industrial classes in city and country respectively ? Is there not some radical defect in our educational system when there is an oversupply of professional workers and many misfits and an undersupply of industrial workers and many inefficient and few skilled artisans ? According to the report of the United States Bureau of Education, 92 per cent of the children of school age are enrolled in the elementary schools, only about 5 per cent in the secondary schools, and only about 2 per cent in the higher institutions; at least one-half of these children leave school before finishing the sixth grade, and only about one-third ever enter the eighth grade. Do not these facts call for a readjustment of the work of the elementary schools to correlate primarily with the life and the everyday needs of the two-thirds rather than with the curricula of the high schools and colleges, and to assist them in preparing for life's problems and duties ? Only a small percentage of high-school students complete the four-year courses — perhaps not more than 10 per cent; only a very small part of these enter any higher institution; a very large percentage of these high- school students leave school at the end of the first year; and a still larger percentage at the end of the second year. Do not these facts demand a readjustment of the work and a reorganization of the courses of study of the secondary schools in city and country so as to correlate with the life and minister to the needs of the large majority as well as of the few, and thereby retain a larger number till graduation, and better fit all for more efficient, happy, and contented living in their environment ? Do not these facts also call for complete short courses of study for the large number of short-term students in these secondary schools ? Is one-fourth, one-third, one-half of a four-year course as good as a complete one-, two-, or three- year course? Are there differences in sex needs, tastes, and duties that should be given more recognition in the work and courses of study for boys and girls respectively in the secondary schools ? Finally, should not the determining question in the method of teaching any subject and in the selection of the subject to be taught to any child in any school be: "Does it function with life in his environment?" If efficiency and utility are the ultimate ends of all education, is not adapta- Sessions] WORK OF SCHOOL AND NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE 131 bility of the work of the people's school to individual capacity and individual and community needs and environment the only means of attaining these ? In the readjustments that must follow the inevitable wider application of this principle of adaptation to the work and curricula of our public schools, must not some subjects, hoary with age and sacred from long use, be eliminated to give time for others more needful? Must not shorter courses and briefer and fewer textbooks in some subjects be arranged to make time for the study of some new subjects and for longer courses in other old but more important subjects ? Must there not be less of grind on senseless facts and more of study of vital forces — more of practice and less of theory ? In the delicate and difficult adjustment necessitated by the intelligent application of this principle of adaptation to the diversified needs of diversi- fied communities, are not well-trained, well-paid, well-housed, long-tenured, professional teachers absolutely necessary? CONCLUSION We teachers must seek and find a way to secure unity without uni- formity, flexibility without chaos, variety without loss of accuracy and thoroness, utility and practicability without sacrifice of culture and ideality. DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE RICHMOND MEETING, FEBRUARY 23-28, 1914 SECRETARY'S MINUTES FIRST DAY EVENING SESSION— Tuesday, February 24, 1914 The Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association met in the City Auditorium, Richmond, Va., at 8:00 p.m., President Ben Blewett, superintendent of instruction, public schools, St. Louis, Mo., presiding. The session opened with an invocation by Rev. H. D. C. Maclachlan, of the Seventh Street Christian Church. Addresses of welcome were given by George Ainslee, mayor of Richmond, and J. A. C. Chandler, superintendent of schools, Richmond, Va., to which response was made by James M. Green, principal, State Normal School, Trenton, N.J. Edward T. Devine, director, New York School of Philanthropy, New York, N.Y., presented a paper entitled "Education and Social Economy." A joint resolution from the General Assembly of Virginia welcoming the National Education Association, and inviting its members to visit the legislative halls at any time they desired, was read and unanimously accepted. The privileges of the Y.M.C.A. building were also proffered. Thanks were extended by the department for these invitations. President Blewett appointed the following committees: Committee on Nominations George I. Aldrich, superintendent of schools, Brookline, Mass. Joseph M. Gwinn, superintendent of schools. New Orleans, La. Fred L. Keeler, superintendent of public instruction, Lansing, Mich. Archibald A. McDonald, superintendent of schools, Sioux Falls, S.D. Bettie A. Dutton, principal, Kentucky Street School, Cleveland, Ohio. Committee on Resolutions John A. Whiteford, superintendent of schools, St. Joseph, Mo. Charles D. Lowry, district superintendent of schools, Chicago, 111. Paul W. Horn, superintendent of schools, Houston, Tex. H. Whitford Maxson, supervising principal of schools. West New York, N.J. Josephine C. Preston, state superintendent of public instruction, Olympia, Wash. SECOND DAY MORNING SESSION— Wednesday, February 25, 1914 The meeting was called to order by President Blewett at 9:30 a.m. in the Auditorium of the John Marshall High School. After music by the John Marshall High School Chorus the following program was presented: "Fundamental Distinctions between Liberal and Vocational Education "—David Snedden, commissioner of education for Massachusetts, Boston, Mass.; and William C. Bagley, professor of education, University of Illinois, Urbana, 111. ^33 134 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond Governor Stuart, of the Commonwealth of Virginia, welcomed the Department of Superintendence to Richmond. In response, President Blewett voiced the appreciation of the audience for the honor of this greeting. On motion, the discussion of the morning's topic was elaborated by Commissioner Snedden and Professor Bagley. This was further discussed by the following persons: Arthur D. Dean, chief. Division of Vocational Schools, State Education Department, Albany, N.Y.; Henry Suzzallo, professor of philosophy of education, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.; William W. Black, dean. School of Education, Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.; C. P. Cary, state superintendent of public instruction, Madison, Wis.; George H. Bremhall, president, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; Edwin Hebden, director, Bureau of Statistics and Research, Department of Education, Baltimore, Md. AFTERNOON SESSION The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m. in the High School Auditorium, with Vice-President Walter E. Ranger, state commissioner of public schools, Providence, R.I., in the chair. The following program was presented: 1. "School and Shop — Work and Study" — Randall J. Condon, superintendent of schools, Cincinnati, Ohio. 2. "The Apprentice Schools of the Santa Fe Railway System" — F. W. Thomas, supervisor of apprentices, Topeka, Kans. 3. "Trade Schools" — Lewis Gustafson, superintendent of David Ranken Jr. School of Mechanical Trades, St. Louis, Mo. This paper was read by Clifford B. Connelley, dean of School of Applied Industries, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, Pa. A discussion followed in which Mrs. Milton Higgins, Worcester, Mass., and Paul Kreuzpointner, chairman. Committee on Industrial Education, American Foundrymen's Association, Altoona, Pa,, took part. George Piatt Knox, assistant superintendent of instruction, public schools, St. Louis, Mo., announced the aims and purposes of the new National Vocational Guidance Association. EVENING SESSION After the singing of many southern airs by the negro singers from the Whitlock Tobacco Factory, the meeting was called to order at 8:00 p.m., in the City Auditorium by President Blewett. The following program was presented: 1. "Hopeful Experiments": a) "Mississippi Canning Clubs" — Susie V. Powell, state agent. Girl's Clubs, United States Bureau of Plant Industry, Jackson, Miss. b) "Some Conditions in Rural Schools and Their Improvement" — ^Josephine C. Preston, state superintendent of public instruction, Olympia, Wash. c) "The Moonhght Schools of Kentucky" — Cora Wilson Stewart, president, Kentucky Illiteracy Commission, Frankfort, Ky. 2. "Some Conditions in Rural Schools and Suggestions for Their Improvement" — P. P. Claxton, United States Commissioner of Education, Washington, D.C. THIRD DAY MORNING SESSION— Thursday, February 26, 1914 After music by the pupils of the high school, the meeting was called to order by President Blewett in the Auditoriimi of the John Marshall High School at 9:30 a.m. Superintendence] SECRETARY'S MINUTES I35 President Blewett announced the following committee to act with Commissioner Claxton to secure adequate support for the United States Bureau of Education : Francis G. Blair, of Illinois W. K. Tate, of South Carolina John H. Finley, of New York William P. Evans, of Missouri James E. Russell, of New York Edward Hyatt, of California Martin G. Brumbaugh, of Pennsylvania C. N. Kendall, of New Jersey M. L. Brittain, of Georgia Robert L. Jones, of Tennessee W. S. Sutton, of Texas C. G. Schidz, of Minnesota The following program was presented: 1. "The Foundations of Educational Achievement" — Edward L. Thorndike, pro- fessor of educational psychology. Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, N.Y, 2. "Report of Committee on Economy of Time in Education" — Harry B. Wilson, superintendent of schools, Topeka, Kans.; James F. Hosic, head of the English depart- ment, Chicago Normal College, Chicago, lU.; and W. A. Jessup, director, School of Education, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. 3. "Report of Committee on Uniform Nomenclature in English Grammar" — C. R. Rounds, head of department of English, West Division High School, Milwaukee, Wis. The annual business meeting followed the program. At this time, Superintendent C. E. Chadsey, of Detroit, Mich., made the following motion: I move that the Department of Superintendence receive the Report of the Committee on Economy of Time in Education as a preliminary report; that this committee be con- tinued; that the president of the Department of Superintendence be authorized to appoint two additional members to the committee; and that the National Council of Education be requested to recommend to the Conrntiittee on Appropriations an appropriation of five hundred dollars to meet the necessary expenses to be incurred by the committee. This motion was adopted after being amended as follows by Superintendent Frank B. Cooper, of Seattle, Wash. : If it appear that the appropriation requested is not forthcoming from the National Education Association it is moved that a special finance committee be appointed for the purpose of raising funds from the members of the department for the use of the committee. President Blewett then called for the report of the Committee on Nominations, which was as follows: For President — Henry Snyder, superintendent of schools, Jersey City, N.J. For First Vice-President — Paul W. Horn, superintendent of schools, Houston, Tex. For Second Vice-President — E. C. Warriner, superintendent of schools, Saginaw, Mich. For Secretary — ^Mrs. EUor C. Ripley, assistant superintendent of schools, Boston, Mass. On motion, the report of the committee was adopted and the secretary was instructed to cast the vote of the department for the persons named for the various positions. This being done, the persons named were declared duly elected. The following report of the Committee on Resolutions was presented by Super- intendent John A. Whiteford, of St. Joseph, Mo., chairman of the committee: We, your Committee on Resolutions, beg to submit the following report: 1. Resolved, That we recognize in the pubUc schools the foundation of our form of government, the bulwark of democracy, and we believe that they are the surest means of solving our social and civic problems and of fixing correct American ideals in the youth of our country. No investment does so much to promote the general welfare as taxation for education and no public service is of more consequence than that rendered by teachers and school officials. We invite constructive criticism from those who have the welfare of the schools at heart and we deplore any attempt to exploit the schools for personal or partisan gain. 2. Resolved, That we indorse the movement to establish and support vocational schools for pupils over fourteen years of age; that we urge the special preparation of teachers for this vocational work; that we encourage the estabUshment of continuation schools for boys and girls between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years who have entered vocational life; that we recommend that the attendance upon these continuation schools be made compulsory for such boys and girls between the ages of fourteen and sixteen. 136 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond 3. Resolved, That every rural school should provide a home including a small farm for the teacher. This teacher will be one trained for rural schools, will know the child and his needs, will cease to be a tramp teacher, will be able to correlate school life with life in the country, and will be a leader of men. That we favor a county or a larger adminis- trative district unit for rural school work, thus providing equality of educational privi- leges, equ£dization of taxes, adaptation to the growing needs, and eflScient supervision. 4. Resolved, That we indorse the work being done by our national Commissioner of Education; and that we particularly appreciate that phase of his work which consists of sending out letters whereby helpful experiments along educational^ lines in various parts of the Union are called to the attention of city and county superintendents. Resolved, furthermore, That we believe that the national Bureau of Education should be provided with financial support, buildings, and equipment in keeping with its importance. 5. Resolved, That we recognize fully the importance of the proper teaching of sex hygiene, but that we believe the ideal place for giving such instruction to be the home; that we believe the school should be willing and anxious to help the home in this matter as best it can. If instruction in sex hygiene is to be given in school at all it should be given not to classes but to individuals, and by teachers specially qualified for such work. 6. Whereas, The Educational Committee of the House of Representatives has granted a hearing on the bill now pending to establish a national university, to which hearing the standing committee of the National Education Association has been invited, therefore be it Resolved, That we reafl&rm the declaration favoring a national university made by the National Education Association in 191 2, and recommend that the president of this depart- ment appoint a conmiittee to attend said hearing in co-operation with the standing com- mittee of the National Education Association. 7. Resolved, That the thanks of this department be given President Blewett and his committees for the strong program that has been presented for our consideration and especially for that part which provides ample opportunity for discussion from the floor. 8. Resolved, That we express our appreciation of the consideration shown us by the railroad associations in extending to us an open rate for this meeting. We express the hof)e that this plan may be continued for succeeding meetings. 9.^ Resolved, That our sincere thanks be given to the Governor and the legislature of Virginia for the courtesies extended to us; to Superintendent Chandler and the local conunittees and citizens for the generous hospitality shown us, and especially to Mrs. A. J. Montague and her committee of ladies for the warm-hearted courtesies shown the ladies of this convention. 10. Resolved, That in the recognition of the power of the press in molding public opinion, our thanks be given to the local papers for the publicity they have given our meetings and for the reports of our proceedings that they have published. 11. Resolved, That it is a matter of pleasure and pride to this organization that one who has for the greater part of his life been a professional school man should have possessed the confidence of the American people to such an extent as to be elected by them for the highest position within their gift, and that in the performance of his duties in this position he should have proven that a man may be both a "schoolmaster and a statesman." Resolved, furthermore, That we find in this instance merely another refutation of the idea sometimes advanced that school men are not capable of Uie administration of prac- tical affairs of great difficulty and importance. Respectfully submitted, John A. Whiteford, of Missouri Charles D. Lowry, of Illinois Paul W. Horn, of Texas H. WmxFORD Maxson, of New Jersey Josephine C. Preston, of Washington Committee Superintendent J. M. Gwinn, of New Orleans, La., moved that the report be accepted as a whole. Objections were raised to Section 5, by Ella Flagg Young, superintendent of schools, Chicago, 111., and discussed further by Charles McKenny, president. State Normal College, Ypsilanti, Mich., Carroll 0. Pearse, president. State Normal School, Milwaukee, Wis., and J. J. Keyes, superintendent of schools, Nashville, Tenn.; and to Section 11, by A. S. Downing, assistant commissioner of education, Albany, N.Y. A substitute motion was then made by Superintendent Keyes to adopt all of the report except Sections 5 and 11, reserving those for further discussion. This was adopted. Superintendence] SECRETARY'S MINUTES " 137 Superintendent Young, of Chicago, 111., then moved that the last sentence in Section 5 be made to read as follows: **If instruction in sex hygiene is to be given in the schools, it should be given by teachers specially qualij5ed for the work." The original section, thus amended, was adopted. Section 11 was adopted as amended by A. S. Downing, assistant commissioner of education, Albany, N.Y., striking out the clause beginning, "Resolved, furthermore." President Blewett expressed his appreciation of the kindness of Superintendent Chandler and his local committee as shown in handling business matters, in the courtesies extended and help given, and in the service rendered by the young men ushers. The alphabetical roll call of the states by President Blewett brought invitations from three cities to hold the meeting of the department for the year 1915. Superintendent Young presented the claims of Chicago but subsequently withdrew them; Superintendent Condon, those of Cincinnati; and Superintendent Chadsey, those of Detroit. The vote being favorable to Cincinnati, Superintendent Chadsey withdrew the name of Detroit and moved that Cincinnati be declared unanimously the meeting-place for 1915. This was so adopted. AFTERNOON SESSION The afternoon session was given to round-table conferences, as follows: (a) round table of state and county superintendents Chairman — ^Augustus L. Downing, assistant commissioner of education, Albany, N.Y. 1. "Problems That Confront the State Superintendent in His Relation to the Rural Schools" — George B. Cook, state superintendent of public instruction, Little Rock, Ark.; and Frank W. Miller, state commissioner of schools, Colmnbus, Ohio. General discussion. 2. " Problems That Confront the County Superintendent in His Relation to the Rural Schools" — ^Albert S. Cook, superintendent of Baltimore County Schools, Towson, Md. General discussion. 3. "Dangers of Overorganization of the Rural Schools" — ^Payson Smith, state super- intendent of public schools, Augusta, Me. General discussion. 4. "Interrelation of the OflEice of State Superintendent and That of County Superin- tendent"— Francis G. Blair, state superintendent of public instruction, Springfield, 111.; Oliver J. Morelock, superintendent of Essex County Schools, Newark, N.J. General discussion. (b) round table of superintendents in cities of over 300,000 population Chairman — Martin G. Brumbaugh, superintendent of schools, Philadelphia, Pa. Topic: The Function of the School to the Community It Serves 1. "Its Scholastic Function" — ^J. M. Gwinn, superintendent of schools, New Orleans, La. 2. "Its Economic Function" — F. B. Dyer, superintendent of schools, Boston, Mass. 3. "Its Social Function" — ^J. M. Greenwood, advisory superintendent of schools, Kansas City, Mo. (c) round table of superintendents in cities with 25,000 TO 300,000 population Chairman — Ernest O. Holland, superintendent of schools, Louisville, Ky. Topic: Differentiation in Course of Study in the Upper Grades 1. "Shortening the Course" — Henry Suzzallo, professor of philosophy of education, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.; H. S. Weet, superintendent of schools, Rochester, N.Y. 2. "Substitution of Work of Vocational or Prevocational Character" — William A. Greeson, superintendent of schools. Grand Rapids, Mich.; Ira I. Cammack, superin- tendent of schools, Kansas City, Mo. 138 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond General discussion: Lloyd E. Wolfe, San Antonio, Tex.; David Snedden, com- missioner of education for Massachusetts, Boston, Mass.; Leonard P. Ayres, director, Division of Education, Russell Sage Foundation, New York, N.Y.; W. L. Ettinger. associate city superintendent of schools, New York, N.Y. ; John H. Haaren, associate dty superintendent of schools, New York, N.Y. ; and M. H. Stuart, principal Manual Training High School, Indianapolis, Ind. (d) round table of StJPERINTENDENTS IN CITIES UNDER 2 5, COO POPULATION Chairman — E. E. Bass, superintendent of schools, Greenville, Miss. 1. "How Shall the Superintendent Measure His Own Efl&dency?" — ^William McK. Vance, superintendent of schools, Delaware, Ohio. 2. "Testing Grade Teachers for Efl&ciency" — Edwin D. Pusey, superintendent of schools, Durham, N.C. 3. "How Secure More Effective Supervision?" — Reed B. Teitrick, deputy super- intendent of public instruction, Harrisburg, Pa. 4. "Pre-delinquent Boys" — C. E. Joiner, superintendent of schools, Monmouth, 111. EVENING SESSION The meeting was called to order by President Blewett at 8:00 p.m. in the City Audi- torium. After m.usic by a quartet of negroes from the Whitlock Tobacco Factory, the follow- ing program was given: 1. "The Determinants of the Course of Study" — A. Duncan Yocum, professor of educational research and practice. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. 2. "How the Course of Study Should Be Determined" — ^John W. Withers, president, Harris Teachers College, St. Louis, Mo. FOURTH DAY MORNING SESSION— Friday, February 27, 1914 After music by the High School Chorus, the meeting was called to order at 9:30 a.m., in the High School Auditorium, with President Blewett in the chair. The following program was presented: 1. "The Work of the General Education Board" — ^Wallace Buttrick, secretary, General Education Board, Nfew York, N.Y.; and Abraham Flexner, assistant secre- tary. General Education Board, New York, N.Y. 2. "Rural-School Administration" — A collaborated paper by Ell wood P. Cubberley, professor of education, Leland Stanford Junior University, Stanford University, Cal.; and Edward C. Elliott, director, course for the training of teachers, University of Wis- consin, Madison, Wis. (This paper was read by Edward C. Elliott.) President Blewett added to the Committee on Economy of Time in Education the names of John F. Bobbitt, assistant professor of school administration, University of Chicago, Chicago, 111., and Vivian A. C. Henmon, assistant professor of education, Uni- versity of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. President Blewett then asked Superintendent Chadsey, of Detroit, Mich., to conduct President-elect Henry Snyder to the platform, after which the new officer was presented to the department with high words of appreciation, to which Superintendent Snyder responded, thanking the department for its confidence and pledging himself to the office. The meeting then adjourned. Anna Elizabeth Logan, Secretary Superintendence] ADDRESS OF WELCOME I39 -* PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS ADDRESS OF WELCOME J. A. C. CHANDLER, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, RICHMOND, VA. It is a pleasure for me, as superintendent of the schools of Richmond, to welcome the visitors of the Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association to the city of Richmond. The chief execu- tive of our city. Mayor George Ainslie, has, for the city government and the citizens of Richmond as a whole, assured you of the delight that he feels at your gathering in such large numbers in our historic city. Many citizens by their presence here tonight assure you of their welcome. But it is not for our city fathers, nor for the united body of citizens, but for school officials, teachers, and pupils that I wish to speak. From all of these I bring you greetings and give you a most cordial welcome to our city and our schools. We are glad to welcome you as visitors to our schools. We trust that in our exhibits and in our classrooms you may find some things to delight, others to help, and some to stimulate. We know you will be a help and inspiration to us. Our educational system is young. Previous to the war between the states, many children were educated at the expense of the state, aided by small appropriations from the literary fund; but, on the whole, every man paid the tuition of his own children. Therefore, we say that the free-school system for all the children began in 1870, since which time our growth has been rapid. With your permission, I shall for a few moments indulge in a few figures and a little past history with regard to Richmond. Just twenty years ago, the Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association met in Richmond. You found at that time a city with a population of 81,000, and a school population of 24,000, with a school enrolment of 12,000. Today you find a city of 127,000 population, a school population of 29,000, and a school enrolment of 21,000 pupils. The total number of teachers twenty years ago was 244. Today, including night-school teachers and supervisors, we have 635. Twenty years ago the expenditure for the entire school system was $151,000, Last session our expenditures were $707,000. Twenty-two years ago the superintendent of Richmond urged the intro- duction of manual training in a very able report on that subject. His ideas were regarded as absolutely ridiculous and nothing was really accomplished in carrying out his admirable suggestions. Twenty years ago there were no fads in our school system — ^no music, no manual training, no medical inspection, and no domestic science, except a class in cooking at the high school, which class was soon discontinued. According to some reports, this class was discontinued because it was thought that French was more I40 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond important. Today you will find that we have many fads, which we regard, however, as essentials; such, for example, as medical inspection, music, domestic science (in both high and elementary schools), woodworking cen- ters, manual-training courses in the high schools, and drawing and physical education thruout the system. Today, moreover, the citizens and school board of Richmond believe that the proper type of education is that which will adjust the child to the community in which he is to live, and more and more the needs of Richmond are being studied, and we are trying to give the children of our city such educational facilities as will be most helpful to them in the vocations that they will have to follow. This effort to adjust our education to the needs of the community has made possible a most rapid development in the night schools, and at present we have an enrolment of over 3,000, an increase of more than 130 per cent over last year. The members of this Association will be more particularly interested, however, in our dual system. We have a well-developed system of educa- tion for white pupils, in which we try to meet the needs of 14,000 pupils; then we have another equally distinct system of education in which we try to meet the needs of 7,000 colored pupils. I am happy to say that in the adjustment of this dual system we have no friction. We shall be glad for you to visit all of our schools, good or bad, for white or colored pupils. The doors are open to you. We invited you to come to our city in order that we might learn from you, but we hope also that there are some things in Richmond which may be helpful to you. Therefore, in the name of the school board, teachers, and pupils, and in the hope that this meeting may be helpful, not only to our city but to our visitors, we welcome you. We urge of you to make yourselves at home. The mayor has thrown open to you the city; the schools are open to you; go wherever you desire. May your visit here be so pleasant that you will come again to see us. For retired capitalists and indigent school-teachers, Richmond is a pleasant home. In any event, come to see us often. RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME JAMES M. GREEN, PRINCIPAL, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, TRENTON, N.J. It was very gracious in the people of Richmond to invite the Depart- ment of Superintendence of our National Education Association to be their guests at this time. A guest is honored in proportion as the host is dis- tinguished. When we recall the illustrious records of your citizens on the pages of our country's history our appreciation of the honor you have conferred upon us is secure. There are reasons other than those of historic associations why we have looked forward to this meeting with more than ordinary interest. Superintendence] RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME 141 This seems to be a period of general unrest in our country. We hear much of tariff, revenue, and currency reforms; much of the regulation of our business corporations and our public utilities; much of industrial and social reforms; much of the reform of our judicial system, our army, and our police; much of the reform of the ballot, of municipal government; much of the application of literary tests and other restrictive influences to immi- gration. It is but a natural consequence that this spirit of unrest should reflect itself in our educational institutions. Our national education has in it much that is good. It has enabled us to accomplish great things. We have been able to receive great tides of immigration, largely from the least educated of other nations, and assimilate them, make them law-abiding and helpful. We have been able to carry on great enterprises in engineering, in railway and canal construction; we have erected great buildings and made many inventions, and we have produced men of science and letters who are respected by the civilized world, and yet the most enthusiastic of us will admit that our national educational system is in a certain sense a patchwork. It would be too ambitious to undertake to point out the way to an easy solution of our national educational problems, but it will be within the bounds of modesty to suggest that we carefully take our soundings, that we examine our chart, and, in the light of the great men whose spirits sur- round us here, find our bearings. The limitations of my time prevent my reviewing the thoughts of any number of those who have figured here in the annals of education, such as Washington and Lee and Madison, but I may briefly refer to the educational chart of the one who was most conspicuous in your roll of educators, the great Jefferson. It is very encouraging to teachers generally that one who wrote the Declaration of Independence and served as President of the United States should choose as the crowning work of his life the founding of an educational system for his state. His range began with the primary and included the university. His expressed purposes were: 1. To give every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business; 2. To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts, in writing; 3. To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties; 4. To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either; 5. To know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he retains; to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor and judgment; 6. And in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed. He favored practical learning. His chemistry, natural history, anat- omy, medicine, law, modern languages, fine arts, principles of justice and 142 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond international relations came direct from the laboratory of daily contact and experience. The community was his educational unit. He saw at that early day that it is the community that largely defines our education, that indeed outside the community there is little need of education. The state was his organic community. The program that has been prepared for us offers a variety of topics and yet they all relate themselves to the liberal and the practical, the economic and the social. To consider these great fundamentals in a setting where the spirits of the historic great look down upon us and to be wel- comed to institutions and homes by a worthy lineage is an opportunity that calls for our best effort and our sincerest gratitude. EDUCATION AND SOCIAL ECONOMY EDWARD T. DEVINE, DIRECTOR, NEW YORK SCHOOL OF PHILANTHROPY, NEW YORK, N.Y. The persistent problems of social economy are poverty, disease, and crime, for which the conventional remedies have been respectively relief, medicine, and jails. The social economist discovers by experience that relief is no cure for the first, nor medicine for the second, nor jails for the third. Relief, medicine, and jails are no doubt needed, for our sins, until we learn how to apply real remedies, until we have social programs adequate to our problems, but conceived as remedies they are all alike futile, inade- quate, obsolete, undemocratic, uneconomic — that is to say wasteful — and uneducational — that is to say stupid. In these extremely unsympathetic characterizations I am, of course, but plagiarizing from eminent authorities in the three special fields to which the three particular problems belong. What is now proposed in regard to poverty is not to relieve it but to abolish it: to abolish it by the education of the individual and by economic and social changes. We recognize that society now has potentially at its disposal, in our American communities at any rate, resources sufficient to enable a decent standard of living to be maintained in every class. If this seems to involve various kinds of social action, such as shortening the hours of labor, fixing a minimum wage, pre- venting the exploitation of women and child workers — extending women's work in directions which are not injurious, and restricting children's work in directions which are — taking the mentally defective under more complete social protection, organizing employment exchanges for the better distribu- tion of labor, shifting the geographical location of industries, aiding the immigrant to find the place where there is a legitimate demand for his labor, providing for social insurance against dependence from death, protracted illness, and even unemployment, and above all modifying our elementary educational system in such a way as to increase substantially the efficiency, Superintendence] EDUCATION AND SOCIAL ECONOMY 143 the earning capacity, of those who yearly enter and have entered industry, commerce, or agriculture, then we are ready to consider any and all such measures, if for no other reason because they are necessary steps, altho by no means the only steps, in the abolition of poverty. What is true of poverty is also true of disease. The members of the medical profession are the officers and leaders of the campaign for the pre- vention of disease. What they can do which the rest of us cannot is to treat disease; and the treatment of disease is no more to be identified with its prevention than the relief of distress is to be identified with the preven- tion of poverty. The monopoly of responsibility ceases when it becomes a problem of reducing the death-rate, of lengthening the working life, of eradicating preventable, what Metchnikoff calls "violent," deaths, i.e., deaths from any other cause than old age, the yielding in the fulness of time to that instinct for death which is perhaps as natural and as little to be deplored when the time for it comes as the instinct for life, for generation, and for immortality. It is a commonplace, again, among students of social work that the criminal courts, the policemen, and the keepers of prisons are no longer our main reliance for the prevention of crime. Judges and reformers who look an inch beyond their immediate tasks are continually appealing for public co-operation, not only in prevention, but in reformation and correction. The probation system which has developed in the courts as a substitute for imprisonment is avowedly an educational and not a penal measure. If we agree that neither public relief nor voluntary charity, however necessary and valuable they are, has any potency in itself for the abolition of poverty, we are driven a step farther to an analysis of its causes, to the discovery of its tap-root cause, if we can find that, if there is any such thing. Socialists find it in exploitation. Anti-socialists, when they have a clear- cut philosophy on the subject, are likely to find it in economic inefficiency. Being neither a socialist nor an anti-socialist but an impartial student of social economy — as of course many socialists and anti-socialists are also — I am constrained to combine the two partial explanations into one which I think really does explain the larger part of our poverty. It is in fact the exploitation of the exploitable; the underpay of those who can be under- paid; the overwork of those who do not know how to secure leisure; the lack of protection of the subnormal; the cultivation for commercial profit of vicious habits, of depraved appetites, of human weaknesses; the play of unrestrained greed upon individuals who do not have resisting power as individuals and whose combined latent resisting power, in the form of social control, has never been brought into effective counterplay. Disease results when there is an unhappy coincidence of an infecting agent with a receptive condition in the human body, just as an explosion, to use an old illustration, results when a lighted match comes into contact with dry gunpowder. We may prevent the explosion by extinguishing the 144 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond match or by dampening the powder. We may prevent disease by destroy- ing the bacilli or by increasing resisting power. Crime, likewise, is to be attributed neither to natural depravity or degeneracy alone, on the one hand, nor to social and economic influences on the other, but to accidental and preventable combinations of these two half-causes. This is especially true of the so-called petty crimes — the very crimes which have the most serious social consequences. Do not believe it if they tell you that treason, murder, arson, and the like are the serious crimes. On the contrary, the serious crimes are truancy, vagrancy, drunk- enness, prostitution, commercialized vice, desertion and neglect of family, thieving, quarreling, and disorderly conduct. If we look out for mis- demeanors felonies will take care of themselves. Penal reforms will help. Better industrial and living conditions, altho this is not their motive, will help more. Better homes and schools, altho this is not at all their prime function, will help most. Penal reforms are negative, removing the reproach that society actually manufactures criminals in its bungling attempts to punish crime. Economic and social reforms are positive, but external, in that they lessen temptation, occasion, and opportunity; but the radical advances in the conquest of crime are not to be negative or external. They can be made only where habits are formed, where the will is trained, where the permanent foundations of character are laid in infancy, child- hood, and adolescence; where motives are differentiated, clarified, and strengthened; where individuals are individualized, and personal diflftculties, however exceptional, are discovered and removed. The moral of the statement which I have tried to make of the persistent problems of social economy is obvious. The omnipresent local social economist is the school. For what do we mean by social economy but the logical projection in many directions of the influences which center or should center in the school? Social economy as I understand it is com- munity housekeeping. It is not a distinct branch of human knowledge, like astronomy, but something far more ambitious, viz., the organization of knowledge for the common good. Its end is practical, viz., the utiliza- tion of whatever is usable in that which the student gets from history and literature and science, from disciplinary studies and from cultural studies, to enrich his civic life, to insure his becoming a contributor to social welfare instead of its debtor, to make him less a parasite and more a creator of social values. The problems of education have been variously formulated, sometimes in terms of culture or of character, sometimes in terms of productive efl&ciency. I am informed that the tendency now most in favor among pro- gressive school men is to emphasize the very principle for which social economy stands, that education is to be tested neither by culture in the abstract nor by utility in the concrete — but by the extent to which any slight knowledge and any manual dexterity and any useful tricks of spelling. Superintendence] EDUCATION AND SOCIAL ECONOMY 145 counting, and the rest are assimilated into thd organic complex of personal character. The assumption of social responsibility for poverty, disease, and crime clearly involves the transformation of the school into the foremost instru- ment of social economy. This is not merely to tack a new label on an institution already sufficiently belabeled. On the contrary, it means some- thing. And what it means is: First, a different training of teachers; second, a new curriculum; and third, more vital and diversified contacts between the school and the adult community. The first demand then is that teachers, who are the most numerous of all the regiments of social workers and in the vanguard, shall become more effective as social workers, more conscious of this their high calling, better prepared for this, the greatest, as I believe, of their great opportunities. Teachers are teachable; but they have approached their tasks from the public-school system direct or from the normal school, and have not yet fully caught the new social spirit which is in the air. They have thought that they are to prepare pupils to pass into the next grade, into the high school or the college, and so they are, among other things. If the larger social task of the teacher could be more clearly formulated, if before coming into the schoolroom the teacher were to learn some of the elementary facts about social conditions, about the death-rate and what the things are that raise and lower it, about juvenile and adult crime and what the underlying causes of it are, about poverty, industrial inefficiency, casual labor and unemployment and their causes, the relation of physical defects to mentality, and of undernourishment to physical defect, about the prin- ciples and methods of family rehabilitation and child welfare, if in short they could take an extended course in one of the schools of philanthropy, then we might hold them to a more useful service on this side of their work. The more practicable means, I presume, to this end is the introduction of brief courses in social work in the high school, college, and normal school. Teachers cannot cultivate the civic spirit, economic efficiency, and physical well-being unless they know what they are, unless they have a genuine interest in them and an enthusiasm for imparting that interest and knowl- edge, unless they are in effect social workers and citizens. I cannot help thinking that the acquisition of the franchise, however it may work in general, will put the women who are training citizens in the schools in a stronger and more logical position in this field. The preparation of non-technical, pedagogically well-arranged and typo- graphically attractive textbooks, leaflets, outlines, and other available printed material would no doubt be an aid in instruction of this kind. But training in the study and interpretation of social conditions can never be obtained from books. Perhaps it is an advantage to our generation that, for lack of textbooks, we are compelled to look at realities instead of symbols. In this field it is our high privilege to help our students to create a literature, 146 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION (Richmond perhaps to the bedevilment of future generations but certainly to the emancipation of our own. The second demand relates to the school curriculum. The social econo- mist holds that the prevention of poverty, disease, and crime is the first, elementary, fimdamental obligation of a public-school system. His demand for a re-examination of the curriculum in the light of this primary obligation is radical and insistent. It is not to be put off by any plea of a crowded course of study or conflicting demands from other quarters. It is not a class demand, nor a fad and fancy, nor an external pressure such as might come from a university or from commerce or industry. It is simply a formulation of a universal social need, of a vital condition of social health and progress, nay, in the last analysis, of social existence. If the three R's, or history, geography, and pure science, interfere with accomplishing the end we are here considering, then they must be cut out or circumscribed as cheerfully as we would spare the latest novelty of them all. But the fact is that the disciplinary studies and human-interest studies are useful in developing an appreciation of economic values, which is the cure for poverty; respect for the rights of others, which is the cure for crime; and respect for one's own health, the cure for disease. The acceptance of the point of view of social work, the realization of the obligation on the part of the schools for the prevention of crime, disease, and poverty, may or may not involve a change in the subjects nominally pursued. That is for the experts to say. It does involve, I think, a re-examination of the order of studies from this point of view. It does put the burden of proof on those who champion any existing curriculum to show that it does contain the elements which the vital interests of society so imperatively demand, and equally upon those who propose changes to show that they are in harmony with these purposes. My own belief is that no curriculum in any school should be allowed to stand from year to year without frequent and drastic overhauling, or, at any rate, unprejudiced reconsideration. The abstract studies which may be said roughly to correspond to the three particular fields of which I have been speaking are, I suppose, eco- nomics, civics, and hygiene. But the purpose which we have in view is not the mastery of any three abstract disciplines. There is no necessary con- nection between a knowledge of economics on the one hand and economic efficiency on the other; between a knowledge of civics and law-abidingness; between a knowledge of hygiene and its practice. Natural relations there are, but natural relations are sometimes poor relations. It is efficiency and not theories about efficiency; respect for the rights of others and not a classification of rights or familiarity with the mechanism for enforcing rights; clean and wholesome living and not acquaintance with the facts of physi- ology and anatomy, that are required. The knowledge which is power, the knowledge which leads to virtue, the knowledge which illumines the under- standing, is the knowledge to be sought. Superintendence] EDUCATION AND SOCIAL ECONOMY 147 What John MacGunn, of Liverpool, calls the nurture of the civic spirit and by analogy the nurture of economic efficiency and the nurture of the healthy body are the ends in view. It should be possible to ascertain pre- cisely what studies will have these effects; what exercises and activities; what plays and what tasks; what personal counsels; what warnings or other disciplines; what opportunities; what rewards and punishments; what influences extending from the school into the home or elsewhere. Certainly the one great thing which it does mean is a complete scheme of vocational education: industrial, commercial, and agricultural. I have heard threats — serious and significant threats — that the educational experts are about to be relieved of the responsibility for devising and directing vocational teaching and especially for the system of continuation schools. I have been assured vehemently that nothing of practical value can be expected from the inside; that Caiaphas could have been expected to found Christianity or Tetzel to abolish indulgences as soon as school superin- tendents to bring the schools into vital relation with industry on a demo- cratic basis, on any basis which workingmen who know their own interests can rightly accept. No doubt that is a libel, and perhaps the best way of proving it to be so is for the experts voluntarily to bring representative employers and representative wage-earners into consultation, into continu- ing co-operative relations in working out such a basis. My own belief, which I shall not elaborate, is that only teachers with the teacher's instincts, teachers with sympathy, who know, not so much by the accretions of much pedagogical instruction, as by the power of wise discrimination and exclu- sion, what the essential elements of an elementary education are, teachers who do individualize their pupils and are really fit to teach may be intrusted with vocational studies and that all others would better stick to the old subjects, to the old textbooks, to the old and still current, even if under- mined, traditions. Our third demand is for more varied and more vital contacts between the school and the community; and while this may take many forms, such as the use of the school plant for civic purposes and the development of vocational guidance as a part of the school system, what I have chiefly in mind is the personal leadership of the superintendent of schools in specific social movements, such as those for improved housing and for the preven- tion of disease, for rational recreation of young men and women and adults, for the enforcement of child-labor laws, for measures for the protection of women in industry, and for the more rational treatment of criminals. In every town and every countryside there is need for organized social work, and the most natural initiator, counselor, and promoter of such social work I believe to be the official head of the school system. It is desirable that all such social measures shall be in fundamental har- mony with the aims and purposes of the school systems. It is desirable that the abounding evidence of the need for such work which the experiences 148 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond of the schoolroom present shall be made available. It is desirable that such movements shall be — like the schools — non-partisan, non-sectional, above all suspicion of any other motive than the public good. Some com- munities boast leading citizens who by various routes attain the eminence which gives such guarantee to any cause to which they give their names, but speaking generally the citizen who is intrusted with the conduct of the public schools should be such a citizen ex officio. His position gives him the facts needed, or at least the possibility of securing the facts; gives him the public ear for a sympathetic hearing of the facts and the remedies; gives him easy command of allies such as scarcely any other citizen has so readily at his disposal. It will take time — perhaps time that seems needed for the day's work — ^but within reasonable limits it will be a good investment of time. For there is no more economical method of getting that kind of vision without which the schools will indeed perish. So if there is any bad social condition — such as an alley problem, a high infant death-rate, congestion of population, immoral and notoriously dan- gerous places of amusement, a corrupt and inefficient civil service, an unspeakable jail or workhouse, or above all men or women unemployed because they are inefficient, the superintendent or principal of schools has no right to an easy conscience. From the very nature of the case the leader of the schools has no private life. His personal conscience has per- force become a social conscience. With the welfare of the children on his conscience by contract, he carries there also, by implicit understanding, the conditions which affect that welfare. Both working conditions and living conditions do vitally affect the present welfare of school children, and inversely the value of the education which the children receive is tested by the extent to which those conditions are improved as the children take their place in active life in successive years. Is the standard of living steadily rising, the death-rate falling, the working life lengthening, then the pre- sumption is that the schools are not wholly ineffective. Are the homes more sanitary, the food more wholesome and better prepared, the standards of taste in art, literature, furniture, and dress, etc., improving, then the education of the children must have some, at least, of the elements that are required. If there is to be this close relation between the school and the community, the one who leads the school, who has the guiding voice in shaping the curriculum, in establishing the educational standards, must be a leader also in the community, helping there effectively to shape the larger curriculum of the school of life, to establish social standards, to learn at first hand what are the real problems of the city and of the nation. It has occurred to me that it would be an excellent thing for every superintendent of schools to be tempted at least once in his life to become a thorogoing radical revolutionist. I do not know that I should want him to yield to the temptation. If he can summon forces of equilibrium, reassurances that conservative progress is possible, so much the better; Superintendence! EDUCATION AND SOCIAL ECONOMY 149 but no man who has ever faced squarely the evidences to the contrary, who has felt the sickening, unhuman misery which disease, unemployment, or even mere inefficiency bring in their train, felt them until his soul revolts angrily against the civilization of which they are the seamy side, will fail to understand the plea for such further transformation of the schools as will make them mighty engines of social improvement. Shake the schools from their still too complacent lethargy, my brethren; bring them into line with the insurgency against social injustice, social neglect, social ignorance, social exploitation, social impotence. Give us a race of men who are sound in body, who cannot be exploited, who will know how to combine in the common interest, not class conscious but community conscious, spurning from their midst the conditions which break down health and the conditions which break down character, watching with tender solicitude every influence which heals and strengthens and enriches the common life. You have made the schools democratic, now make them positively and constructively social. You have made them free, now make them from the social point of view more valuable. You have put psychology and nature study into them, now put social economy and civic nurture into them. You have taught the facts about alcohol and tobacco, now teach more thoroly and drive home to the understanding the facts about intem- perance in food, overeating, and undernourishment. You have brought people to the point at which they are willing to be counted once in ten years in the census. Now bring them to the point at which they will not balk at registering continuously births, deaths, marriages, diseases, residence, and occupation. I wonder whether even in this audience there would not be a substantial minority who would fail to see the necessity for a complete, continuously corrected registration of the entire population. And yet there is no simpler test of whether the inoculation of the socializing process has really taken. I may seem to have spoken as if the school were the only agency of social welfare; as if the whole responsibility for the prevention of poverty, disease, crime, and other social ills unnamed devolves upon the school. But I do not forget that the family exists; that churches exist; that industry itself has certain responsibilities; that the state has created and will gradu- ally bring to greater independent usefulness such agencies of social welfare as the public-health service, industrial commissions, and a factory-inspec- tion service; that numerous voluntary social agencies such as settlements with their clubs, philanthropic societies with their varied preventive and educational programs have their part to play; and that it is high time for us to consider anew the relation of all these agencies to one another. The public school has undoubtedly suffered from the tendency to impose upon it too many tasks even if it were well suited for each of them severally, which it is not. I am no friend of the pack-mule theory of edu- cation even if the "donkey" were more patient. It is true that almost any I50 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond group of enthusiastic well-organized fanatics have found the schools an easy victim of their propagating zeal. It is not surprising if after many expe- riences school men become a trifle cautious about admitting new claimants, even if they come in the name of progress. What is most of all needed is an understanding, a differentiation of functions, a co-ordination of social agencies, a survey of overlapping fields. Recognizing that under existing conditions the family rather than the school is responsible for health, so far, at least, as it relates to original physi- cal constitution and resistance, and that the home and that composite of influences which for convenience we may call the street have perhaps more than the school to do with determining whether a boy is to be law-abiding, the third of our big responsibilities, protection from poverty and failure in life by the development of efficiency, certainly remains largely if not pri- marily on the school. It is fortunate that our generation is inclining to formulate the task of education largely in economic terms, in terms of earning and spending, of productive efficiency and standards of living. Those are no ignoble or materialistic terms. It is a misinterpretation of this tendency to say that it is for the advantage of industry. The demand for economic efficiency is made, not in the interests of industry, but in the name and in the interests of education. If we can increase by 50 per cent the earning capacity of the boy who enters industry, we shall make him relatively independent of his employer at the same time that we bind them closer together in mutual interest. If he becomes worth nine dollars a week at the start instead of six to industry, he becomes by the same educational process worth more than that to himself. I am far from suggesting that earning capacity at the moment of leaving school is the only or even the best test of the efficiency of the schools, but it is a very definite test and one from which the exponents of modern ideas in education dare not shrink. Men and women who are fit to do the work of the world and keen to appreciate in due proportions the fruits of labor, capable workers, and discriminating ultimate consumers and producers of wealth — these are the goal of education as the social economist would formulate it, asking from the schools not everything, but a generous slice. of that large everything of which social welfare consists. FUNDAMENTAL DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN LIBERAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION I. DAVID SNEDDEN, COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION FOR MASSACHUSETTS, BOSTON, MASS. For many years, even centuries, secondary schools, colleges, and ele- mentary schools have existed for the purpose of giving to young people, and especially to those of greatest promise, what we call general, or liberal, education. Every civilization has had its schools, wherein have been taught Superintendence] LIBERAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 151 the vernacular and other languages, philosophy, science, art, literature, and history. Many and varied have been the alleged objects of this general education. At times, peoples have sought thru it to increase and diffuse the social inheritance of culture which they had evolved largely from within themselves. In other eras, peoples have sought thru their schools primarily to make available the liberal learning of other peoples and sometimes of other ages. So long have schools for the giving of general culture existed that their methods and processes have become fixed and stereotyped — those that are wasteful and ill adapted hardly less than those that are fruitful and demonstrably efficient. These methods and processes, like those found in the pre-scientific stages in almost all other lines of human endeavor, have been formed thru ages of selection, have become crystallized as customs, and are approved and defended usually with all the fervor that attaches to the historic laiths. But in education the ages of faith are coming to an end and the age of science is drawing on. Education henceforth can rest on a basis of custom and dogma hardly more than can medicine, engineering, agriculture, and war. The public is forcing the demand for a more purposeful, a more scientific, and a more efficient liberal education in the schools. This demand is not always articulate and always lacks definition, but it is real, nevertheless. It is the public, likewise, that is back of the present demand for schools for vocational education. Vocational education has hitherto been carried on in civilized society largely by agencies other than schools, among which the shop and the home have been the most conspicuous. Schools have, indeed, long existed wherein have been trained physicians, engineers, teachers, accountants, military leaders, and the like. These schools have come to be recognized as the chief agencies in training for the professions; but for other callings, not professions — such as those followed by the car- penter, the machinist, the weaver, the farmer, the cook, the stone-cutter, and the thousand other specialized workers in modern society — few schools have yet been organized or even projected. Now comes the twentieth century, with its demands on America, as on other civilized countries, that opportunities for vocational training in schools shall be made available for any and all of those desirous of entering the great variety of pursuits wherein men and women contribute useful service to the world. It is a matter of easy demonstration that the work- shop, the home, and other non-school agencies are unable, under modern conditions, to meet the demand for an efficient vocational education. History is here repeating itself, since schools of general learning were established when the home, the church, and the forum proved unequal to the task of providing liberal education in needed amounts. Statesmen and educators are now confronted by the gigantic work of organizing vocational schools in great variety and in large number to 152 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond supplement schools of general education. Society is demanding that these schools provide training for the agricultural, commercial, industrial, and homemaking occupations and is insistent that such schools shall not disregard the needs and capacities of any young people over fourteen years of age, as these are confronted by the necessities of entering upon profit- able occupations. The difficulties to be encoxmtered in establishing vocational schools are great and almost endless in number. Few satisfactory precedents for systematic vocational education for occupations other than the pro- fessions exist. Professional schools offer but limited suggestion as to suc- cessful forms of vocational education for agricultural, industrial, and other non-professional pursuits. It is very necessary that, before we begin to organize vocational schools, to formulate courses of instruction, and to train teachers for vocational education, we should endeavor to state, as clearly and definitely as possible, our theories as to effective aims and methods for this form of education. The public will charge us, and rightly so, with gross inefficiency if we under- take to spend the public money in creating new types of education before we have clearly defined our aims and plans for its profitable administration. We occupy the position of educational architects. It is to us that the public looks, first, for our sketched plans of the structures that it is proposed to erect, and, later, for detailed plans and specifications. The questions first encountered are as to how far vocational education resembles, in its underlying principles, desirable methods and serviceable practices, the forms of historic school education with which we have already become familiar. What are the essential likenesses and differences between vocational education and the general, or liberal, education which now for many centuries we have seen carried on in school and college ? How can we expect to utilize our experience in connection with general or liberal education as a basis in devising a suitable practice in vocational schools ? To what extent can the two forms of education be carried on side by side, or merged, in actual practice, and to what extent must they be kept distinct and perhaps, in a measure, opposed to each other? How far will it be practicable to utilize existing administrative machinery, including such factors as school boards, superintendents of schools, school principals, school buildings, and the various material appurtenances of education, to accomplish the ends both of liberal and of vocational education? To what extent can teachers trained for the one form be utilized in the other ? Obviously, these questions are of fundamental importance, in view of the prevalent tendency to demand that the existing school organization shall be expanded so as to include the new forms of education. It is the primary thesis of this paper that vocational education differs from general, or liberal, education fundamentally as regards its essential aims, and that, therefore, it will differ also, fundamentally, as regards the Superintendence! LIBERAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 153 means and methods of instruction, as well as the administrative agencies which are intimately related to means and methods of instruction. It is further contended that vocational education and liberal education cannot be effectively carried on, so far as regards a given group of pupils, in a way which permits of a considerable blending of the unlike types of instruction. To attempt this is to defeat the aims both of liberal and of vocational training. One of the essential conditions of genuine efficiency in either liberal or vocational education is a considerable degree of concentration on the part of the pupil on the one type or the other, so far as regards the expenditure of his time and energy in any given time. The chief difficulties encountered in the effort to make the foregoing thesis comprehensible arise from the fact that, as respects many phases of education and especially that of secondary grade, we have as yet no clearly defined aims which are of demonstrable validity. A large part of the effort which we expend on general education is directed by aims which are the outgrowth of custom, crude psychological analysis, and vague aspirations after culture and social efficiency. These aims do not yet stand the tests of efficiency as should aims that are scientifically derived and pur- posefully pursued. Clearly, there is as yet comparatively little definiteness to be found in our formulations of the aims of any of the forms of education. Indeed, we educators seem to be reluctant to define our aims in ways that are concrete and specific. It is a reproach to education that this should be so. With the exception of a few of the subjects taught in the primary grades, it seems clear that we have quite failed so to define our educational purposes as to demonstrate, on the one hand, their worth or validity, and, on the other hand, to make such purposes serve both as the guide and as the measure of the results which we attain thru the practices that we employ. A few illustrations may serve to make this statement clearer. In the primary school, among other ends held in view, is that of teaching children to write — that is, of giving them mastery of the art and skill designated as penmanship. The educational value of this subject is one about which there can be comparatively little dispute. We have not, perhaps, as yet defined our standards of attainment quite clearly. Nevertheless, we all appreciate that the ability to write constitutes a distinct social asset for every individual, both in his vocational and in his cultural relationships toward life, and that effort expended in giving the pupil mastery of this art is well worth while. Efforts are now being made to define more pre- cisely the standards of legibility, speed, and form which should determine our aims in the various grades. When we come to know with a reasonable degree of certitude the pur- poses which should control in the teaching of penmanship, we can turn to a discussion of the most suitable means and methods of realizing these aims. We are able to test, comparatively, various methods of teaching. In the 154 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond course of time we shall undoubtedly find ourselves able to test the effi- ciency of teachers, as well as their methods, in terms of the product of their teaching. A similar condition exists as regards formal reading and spelling as subjects of elementary education where aims are quite satisfactorily defined. But outside of these limited fields, we possess no satisfactory definitions of valid aims such as a well-developed educational scheme obviously requires. We have, for example, been urging for many years the introduction into the elementary school of rudimentary science teaching, variously characterized as "nature study," ''elementary science," and "general science." But we have never yet developed a generally acceptable formu- lation as to the aims which should control in teaching this subject. We have argued in many tongues as to its educational value. We have set up for it, indeed, a variety of aims, of a more or less mystical nature, usually expressed by such general phrases as "love of nature," "general information," and "scientific spirit." None of these formulations of aim have stood the test of time in the sense that they serve to define and test methods of teaching. A partial consequence of this situation is that means and methods of teaching nature study, as well as the organization of the subject itself, have been without guiding purpose, and have therefore remained chaotic, vague, and futile. Similar criticisms can be appUed to much of the other work in elementary schools. The situation in secondary education is worse. We surely have, for example, no clearly defined purposes to control in the teaching of mathe- matics in high schools— purposes, that is, of a demonstrable validity. Two purposes now are supposed to guide our efforts in this field — -one that of fitting pupils for examination and the other that of giving general mental training. Neither of these objects, however, can be called educationally valid. The first is surely not an end, but a means, while the latter possesses no necessary connection with the steps which are now taken in mathematical teaching. In other words, tho we may intend that mental training shall result from the teaching of mathematics, we have no assurance that it does so result, nor is this end yet so clearly defined as to have a bearing upon the means and methods of instruction which we employ. It would appear that we should be capable of giving more clear definitions to vocational, than to liberal, education, because in its simplest and most significant sense vocational education is some form of edu- cation designed to equip a young person for a recognized calling. In endeavoring to define vocational education, we have already, indeed, created many unnecessary obstacles. It should surely be possible for us, by studying the requirements of recognized callings, such as medi- cine, teaching, bookkeeping, carpentering, printing, tailoring, cooking, and the like, to derive from each one and to define those specific re- Superintendence] LIBERAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 155 quirements as to skill, technical knowledge, and ideals which persons trained for that vocation should possess. Having thus defined the ends which we are to achieve, the procedure of seeking appropriate means and methods of realizing these aims should not be difficult. We have undoubtedly been confused as regards vocational education, on the one hand, by our efforts to link such education up with the practices of general, or of liberal, education. We have also obscured the situation by our unwillingness to undertake in our schools more than a part of the vocational training actually required to produce efficiency in a calling. In most normal schools at the present time, for example, the ostensible aim is to train teachers for elementary schools; but usually no clear distinc- tion or difference exists between that training which is truly vocational in its nature and that other training which is designed to give culture and gen- eral intelligence to students in normal schools. The effort to make such a distinction is often resented, as tho it would result in an impairment of the efficiency of instruction instead of greatly increasing such efficiency. Again, engineering schools, while having made great progress in defining the professional ends which they seek to achieve, have, nevertheless, also constantly laid stress on certain general studies, especially mathematics and science, which are supposed in some way to furnish a background of professional competency. Similarly, in schools designed to train mechanics, especially where such schools have been influenced by the demand for techni- cal instruction as it manifests itself in evening schools, there has been a reluctance to make clear-cut distinctions between the kind of specific training that the successful mechanic requires in any particular field and the general education which might be useful to him as a man, but which has little or no direct bearing on his efficiency as a mechanic. The failure to make those distinctions is largely due to the persistence of the academic tradition in all public education. Again, while it is generally recognized that completely to equip a person for any given calling requires not only a greater or less amount of instruc- tion in technical subjects related to that calling, but also a considerable amount of actual practice in the calling itself, under carefully controlled conditions, with a view to giving skill and the other habit-products of prolonged participation in actual work, it is obviously difficult for schools to provide this latter element in vocational training. In the early stages of the development of vocational education in schools, whether on the pro- fessional or other levels, the problem of giving such training has been evaded. It has been said above that the aims of liberal, or general, education, as now carried on, are not clearly defined. Some of the alleged aims con- trolling in the choice of ways and means of liberal education are directed toward what are, in reality, means only, as when a school seeks to make the mastery of Latin, or of algebra, or of ancient history a goal of its efforts. IS6 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond Other aims, often held forth in glowing terms, but which are rarely analyzed and defined, are vague and mystical, lacking definite connection with the educational processes as actually administered. Such are the ends described by the mystical phrases "culture," "character," "mental discipline," "self-realization," "capacity for self-direction," "social efficiency," and many others of similar nature. But in the best of contemporary practice where the liberal education of youth from fourteen to twenty years of age is concerned, three types of aims may be distinguished, each of which possesses obvious validity, altho the actual "functioning" of the means employed to attain them is often questionable. In the first place, the attempt is made to have the youth master the use of certain intellectual tools which are assumed to be capable of general application in the pursuit of vocational, as well as in the pursuit of cultural, ends. The most perfect example of these intellectual tools is that of Eng- lish expression, while modern languages and mathematics probably rank next in importance. In the second place, contemporary secondary and college education seeks to have the youth become master of certain more general intellectual processes of work, such as scientific methods of inquiry, the use of logical methods of reasoning, ready abilities to employ reference materials, and the like. This is not a well-defined aim yet. In the third place, the endeavor is made to have the youth gain in appre- ciation of some of those forms of art, literature, science, and other divisions of the social inheritance, the general or universal possession of which is esteemed a thing of value. The three foregoing classes of educational aims as found in liberal education are all, without doubt, valid in a degree. The criticism that may be made of the educational practice by which we seek to realize them is that we yet possess no definite means of ascertaining to what extent the practice based upon these aims actually produces the results sought. It is probable that a more fundamental analysis of the aims of liberal education will be necessary before the contrasts which undoubtedly exist between it and vocational education can be clearly defined. It is also probable that, to a certain extent, contemporary so-called "liberal educa- tion" is actually confused by the attempt to realize certain quasi- vocational aims. For example, it may be doubted whether algebra, as the subject is commonly taught, contributes in any way to culture or liberal learning, whereas for some students it possesses undoubted usefulness as a vocational tool. The attempt to teach it in conjunction with liberal studies, however, leads to confusion, because the methods of approach and the character of study suited to algebra as a vocational tool do not suit such studies as English literature, history, and others of a more purely liberal nature. Superintendence! LIBERAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 157 It is the writer's conviction that the most useful definition of liberal education now available is that which defines it primarily in terms of educa- tion toward higher utilization. Man stands, to the world about him, in a twofold relationship. He is a producer of utilities on the one hand, and on the other, for his own growth and development, he must utilize utilities. That education which trains him to be a producer is vocational education. That education which trains him to be a good utilizer, in the social sense of that term, is liberal education. Men specialize their efforts greatly in producing utilities. Men become respectively teachers, farmers, machinists, novelists, scientific investigators, engineers, sailors, in their endeavors to find fields of service adapted to then: powers, the products of which are in social demand. On the other hand, men as consumers, or utilizers, do not specialize. Owing to ignorance, undeveloped interests, and poverty, their standards of living may be low or deformed. But given sufficient leisure and economic resources, each one of us seeks to utilize literature, art, music, history, science, newspapers, the drama, and the various forms of service rendered by those who minister to us in providing medical knowledge, means of travel, foodstuffs, clothing, shelter, and protection. In each of these directions, capacities for right utilization can be refined, elevated, and socialized. An education that seeks to make a man vocationally efficient must first find a calling in which a given combination of inherited talents most ade- quately fits, after which systematic training toward efficiency in that calling can be made a dominant purpose. A system of education which trains men as utilizers must touch the world at many points, often superficially, and with due regard to inherited tastes and interests. The pedagogical methods of approach to the two types of education must be fundamentally unlike each other. Liberal education embraces, however, something more than the develop- ment of appreciation and the ability to make valuable choices among the various utilities offered for man's utilization. It may include, as noted above, in contemporary practice certain definite forms of training in the use of intellectual tools, such as reading a foreign language, and the like, and also probably certain definite intellectual powers or habits which are capable of quite general application, such as appreciation of scientific method. If the foregoing analysis possesses validity, it indicates quite clearly certain distinctions that will follow in the organization and conduct of liberal education, on the one hand, and vocational education, on the other. Vocational education will not be begun until the youth has reached an age suitable for active and concentrated participation in vocational activities with the vocational end in view. During all the period of childhood, a comprehensive system of education will give the child and youth abundant opportunity to participate in a great variety of the practical affairs of life, but not on the vocational basis. He will participate in them in play and 158 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond in the spirit of the amateur. He will gain in experience, enlarging his world. Both nature and custom, however, seem to indicate that for a large majority of people vocational capacities as well as genuine vocational interests develop between the ages of fourteen and twenty. During this time the youth should have the opportunity to concentrate his endeavors for long periods in acquiring vocational competency. This is not a time for allowing liberal education to monopolize his attention. Liberal educa- tion may, indeed, be still carried on as a minor — that is, occupying leisure hours in evenings and holidays. It may be expected that a vast deal will have been done for the youth, in the way of liberal education, long before he reaches fourteen years of age. For those who have the time and the inclination, the period from fourteen to twenty may also be taken for liberal education, with the under- standing that during this period every attempt will be made to raise the standards of utilization manifested by the individual. Ideals, finer senti- ments, appreciation of those products of civilization which are accessible with difficulty should be cultivated. It is in this field that the higher reaches of art, literature, science as a culture, the application of art to sur- roundings are to be made much of. It is still questionable as to how far, during the adolescent period, any youth may devote himself primarily to obtaining an extended Uberal edu- cation. It is certainly possible that further inquiry will show us that for all youths a certain amount of devotion to vocational education, from the age of fourteen onward, will prove wholesome and valuable. This voca- tional training, however, must be so adjusted as regards time and concen- tration as not to produce in the youth the spirit of the dilettante. Long periods must be devoted to it, and the product must be of a definitely valuable nature. It is easy to give excessive attention to the abstract elements of vocational training at this time — a process which is probably psychologically unwise. As a basis for future discussion as to the distinctions between Hberal and vocational education, the following theses, or conclusions, are submitted: 1. The permanently valid ends of liberal, or general, education are as yet shrouded in the clouds of mysticism. Proximate or immediate ends, as expressed in terms of the mastery of subject-matter, are, of course, not genuine ends, but in reality are means only. Remote and general ends as held forth by secondary schools and colleges, such as "mental discipline," "culture," "social efficiency," are too vague, intangible, and unrelated to the means actually employed in education to be of value in scientific analysis of educational means and methods. 2. Until recently, vocational education as defined by school men has been, to a large extent, also confused by an element of mysticism. Edu- cators have fallen victims to the popular belief that some form of manual- Superintendence] LIBERAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 159 training or textbook instruction in various of the practical arts would contribute in marked degree to vocational efficiency. This uncertainty- is now passing away, and, where sincere and positive thinking prevails, vocational education is capable of being defined quite clearly as to the aims which should control its processes, thus clearing the ground for a discussion of the most effective ways and means by which it is to be realized. 3. From the standpoint of a sound social economy, there can be no doubt that society is developing a constantly increasing need of a more general and a more "functioning" liberal education, especially for young people from twelve to eighteen or twenty years of age. 4. Also, from the standpoint of a sound social economy, the demand of society that effective vocational education shall be available in vocational schools is sound and normal, this demand, in fact, growing out of the fact that non-school agencies of vocational education have largely ceased to be effective in the face of modern demands. 5. There is ample evidence that vocational education, carried on in schools especially designed to meet the needs of some one calling, can be made effective. Schools of medicine, engineering, pharmacy, stenography, machine-shop practice, bricklaying, sign-painting, plumbing, and farming have already demonstrated that a school organized primarily to train a young person to proficiency in a calling which he has determined to enter upon can be made effective. 6. There is no satisfactory evidence that vocational education has been achieved to any satisfactory and economic degree in schools where such education is blended with the traditional processes of liberal education. In general, the commercial school that makes specific conamercial training only a feature, and perhaps a minor feature, in a program of general edu- cation, while it may give good general education, does not produce any conspicuous degree of vocational power. Selected graduates of such schools will undoubtedly succeed in the occupations toward which the general atmosphere of the school has directed their attention; but this is no proof that vocational efficiency has been produced by the alleged vocational courses offered in such schools. Similarly, most existing secondary schools of agriculture do not actually produce competent ability in their students as farmers. 7. Available evidence points to the conclusion that any school designed to give successful vocational education must make possible a large amount of concentration in the practical even more than in the theoretical phases of such education. An evening school can be vocationally effective only if its instruction is intimately correlated to the wage-earning work done by its students during the eight or more hours of a working -day. A short course of instruction in an agricultural college can become effectively vocational for young farmers who have already faced, in a practical way, the problems of agriculture. Other so-called "part-time" i6o NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond courses designed for people who have had practical experience can be made effective in this way. But, for young people who have not already a learning basis in practical experience, a vocational school must, to a large extent, reproduce practical processes, must give the pupil many hours of each working day in actual, practical work, and must closely correlate theoretical instruction to this practical work. To meet these requirements, therefore, it is required that when the pupil enters a vocational school he should be able to give at least six or eight hours per day of undivided attention to the ends of vocational education. Under these conditions, liberal education must be regarded, for such a pupil at this time, as a minor issue. Some liberal education will result, as a by-product, from a sound program of vocational education; but it is quite unwise to plan for any extended amount of liberal education in this way. 8. It is desirable that boys and girls shall be encouraged to remain in schools of general or liberal learning as long as their economic resources and position justify. For some, the proper time for leaving the general school may be fourteen years of age, for others sixteen, for others eighteen, and for others twenty-two. When, however, the time comes to turn to the voca- tional school, concentration of effort should be required for the latter purpose. 9. In much of liberal education the controlling purpose, pedagogically, is not to produce skill or highly organized and definite knowledge, but rather to expand intellectual experience, to provide for deeper appreciation of those things of the social inheritance that are most worth while, and to refine tastes and create intellectual interests of various kinds. To this end, the most effective pedagogical methods must be quite xmlike those which will give best results in vocational education. 10. The controlling purpose in vocational education being to produce certain fairly definite forms of skill and power which shall enable the learner to become a successful producer of valuable service, the pedagogical methods to be employed must be those involving concentration, painstaking appli- cation to detail, and continuity of purpose. These pedagogical methods will be quite unlike those suited, in the main, to general or liberal education. 11. Available experience points, therefore, to the conclusion that voca- tional and liberal schools should possess separate organization and admini- stration, in order that there may not be fatal confusion of aims and processes employed. The vocational school must be in a position to go constantly to the world of economic activity, in order to derive clear knowledge of the purposes which should control it. It should be governed by or possess an advisory conaunittee containing men who are intimately identified with the occupation for which it trains, both as employers and employees. The vocational school should divest itself as completely as possible of the academic atmosphere, and should reproduce as fully as possible the atmos- phere of economic endeavor in the field for which it trains. Superintendence] LIBERAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION i6l 12. The school of liberal learning, whether secondary or collegiate, should increasingly bring its students into contact with the wide and varied forms of the social inheritance of our day, in order that they may gain in powers of appreciation and of effective response to it. The liberal school, aiming to produce good "utilizers," must develop a wide and very flexible program. The school of liberal learning may well include so-called prac- tical arts — manual training, household arts, commercial subjects, and agriculture — as phases of liberal learning whereby pupils, thru participa- tion in practical activities in the spirit of the amateur, shall gain an appreciation of the economic activities of life. Such practical training is not to be regarded as vocational, since it does not bear profitable fruits in this direction. It may be so adjusted as to contribute valuable results to vocation finding — that is, it may be pre-vocational training, in the true sense of that word. 13. While vocational and liberal schools must be organized apart from each other, and on independent foundations, nevertheless the con- trol of the two types should somewhere be unified, in order that a proper co-ordination of activities may result. In a city, it might be well for the superintendent to have under him an assistant superintendent giving his entire time to vocational schools, the superintendent and the board of education being the unifying force. In states and communities not yet clear as to the purposes of the two forms of education, it is probable that the separate organization of both a local and a state machinery of control for vocational education would expedite the development of right ideals and standards of such education. It will be many years before the school- master, as such, will fully appreciate either the social significance or the pedagogic requirements of genuine vocational education. n. W. C. BAGLEY, PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, URBANA, ILL. It is possible to contrast vocational education with cultural education from a number of different points of view. The contrast that appeals to me as most fundamental and thorogoing is based upon the necessity of providing thru vocational education for specialized efficiency in some one occupation and of providing thru liberal education for adaptability to changing conditions. If we grant this as at least one important difference between the two types, we have a possible explanation of the relative obscurity of aim which is charged so frequently against what we call liberal education. Vocational education deals with a specific and tangible problem; liberal education with a very complex problem — and a problem that is highly resistant to helpful analysis. The grave danger lies in our tendency to infer from this difliculty of analysis that the problem is not really very 1 62 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond important or that we can dispense with its solution. The great difficulty lies not in the fact that the aims of liberal education are inherently obscure but rather in the fact that they are inherently remote and inherently broad and comprehensive. Because "social efficiency," for example, or "adapt- ability," or "morality" are so broad as to make analysis difficult, it does not follow that they are unimportant or that we can replace them by narrower aims. What we must do is to analyze them and find what inter- mediate ends must be interpolated, so to speak, between our practical work- aday teaching task and the remote end that we seek. In certain respects, liberal education has accomplished this task. It has recognized the importance of mastering certain units of knowledge which represent certain large and admittedly important phases of human experience. This has been a definite aim looking toward a more remote goal; and while the exact connection between the immediate aim of getting lessons and passing examinations on the one hand and the remote aim of becoming socially efficient on the other hand has often been lost to view, the solid fact remains that getting lessons and passing examinations has done something to secure the desired results. We are hearing so often today these charges that the traditional methods and processes of teaching have been utterly futile that we are coming to take the statement as a fact without asking for the evidence. The evidence for these sweeping indictments has, so far as I know, never been presented. There is abundant evidence that we fail with certain individuals and that we fail to realize all of the possibilities with all individuals. But, after all has been said, that policy which emphasizes the systematic mastery of race experience as the basic condition of human welfare and human progress is clearly estab- lished. It remains for us to improve and refine the methods and processes thru which we seek to attain our ends. We need certainly to be clearer upon the precise nature and function of these interpolated aims, and for this reason we should be grateful for the suggestions which Dr. Snedden makes in this interesting distinction between the productive activities and the consumptive activities. He would define vocational education as that which aims to develop the productive capacities; he would define liberal or cultural education as that which aims to develop capacities " for utilizing the products of others upon a broad and social scale." The distinction is only partially new, for it represents — altho upon a broader plane — the older distinction between an education which prepared for work and an education which prepared for leisure. The older distinction harks back to the time when leisure and labor were sharply differentiated by the all but impassible chasm of social caste. The gentleman was the man of leisure, and essentially the consumer; the working-man was essentially the producer, and the man of toil. The trend of social organization and development today is to com- bine these two functions in one and the same individual, to insist that every Supmntendencel LIBERAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 163 man produce at least in proportion to his consumption, and to insist that every man consume with reference, not to his own selfish gratification, but to his efficiency as a producer and to the service that he should render society. While I should agree with Dr. Snedden that an important task of liberal education is to train the consumer to utilize intelligently and upon a broad social plane the products of others, I cannot agree with him that this constitutes an ultimate or even an exclusive function of this type of educa- tion. I believe, furthermore, that an attempt to distinguish between the two types of education on this basis, while it will clarify certain aims of liberal education, will obscure and often entirely hide others that are much more important. My objections to the production-consumption theory may be summed up under the following heads: I. In the first place, production and consumption are convenient abstractions made by the economist for the same purpose that other abstractions are made by other sciences — the purpose, namely, of pro- moting clear thinking with reference to a specific problem. The economist's task is to define wealth and to describe the processes by which wealth is created and consumed. Now, by extending the idea of wealth to include all possible goods of life — immaterial goods as well as material goods, anything that satisfies human desires of any kind — it is quite clear that production and consumption may be made to cover a large number of life's activities. It would be quite possible to conclude with Professor Weeks that these economic terms comprise and include all of one's relationships; for, from this point of view, one is always either satisfying one's needs or producing satisfiers for the needs of one's self and others. It is, I repeat, quite possible to reach this conclusion and to base a theory of educational values upon this distinction. But, granting the possibility, does it help us in solving our problem? Are not these two terms, like all the technical terms used by special sciences, really abstractions devised for the purpose of solving special problems ? And is there not always a danger in applying these abstractions to processes that they were not intended primarily to cover — a danger of narrowing our point of view and of overlooking impor- tant values simply because it is difficult to fit them into our special categories ? Now the processes of life can be comprehended under an infinite variety of separate abstractions — abstractions that can be easily made to comprise the whole gamut of experience just as comprehensively as do pro- duction and consumption. ''Matter" and "motion," for example, can be made to cover the universe. Organic life can be reduced to "nutrition " and "reproduction"; and I have no doubt that an enthusiastic biologist could construct a plausible theory of educational values based upon these two abstractions. "Normal" and "abnormal," "healthful" and "patho- logical," "sane" and "insane" — each of these pairs of terms can be used to separate the human species into two great varieties. And each of these i64 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond pairs of teclinical abstractions is useful and valuable in respect of the specific problem for the solution of which it was devised. We may apply them beyond the limits of these specific problems, but in so doing we are incurring risks of which we should at least be cognizant before we invade other fields. The field of education has always been peculiarly open to this type of exploitation at the hands of doctrinaires. Twenty years ago, when I began the study of education, I was convinced that its problems could be adequately described, formulated, and solved in terms of nerve cells and nerve fibers. These concepts of physiological psychology had their brief day and added their small mite to educational theory — a day much briefer and a mite much smaller than I dreamed of at that time. A little later, experimental psychology, with its distinction between the motor-minded and the eye-minded and the ear-minded, held the field. Then genetic psychology, with its culture-epoch-parallelism, came and went in its turn, leaving behind it a host of disappointed hopes and a few grains of precious truth. And today a veritable host of abstractions are clamoring for educa- tional content to give them meat and substance — Madame Montessori with her borrowings from the Italian anthropologists and the French alienists, to say nothing of her Mediterranean theory of morality and her rejection of sacrifice and duty as second-rate virtues; the statisticians with their modes and their medians, their traits and abilities; the behaviorists with their puzzle-boxes; the physical educationists with their glorification of muscle and brawn; the pragmatists with their contempt for the absolute; and a host of others. As has been suggested, each of these partial points of view has its own advantages and its own mite to contribute toward the solution of our prob- lem. We should not have it thought that we do not welcome them. Edu- cation has never failed to welcome them. We are anxious for all the light that our sister sciences can bring to illuminate our task. But no single norm, borrowed from a science which must, by the very nature of science, be an abstraction from the total of human experience, should be accepted as a criterion for educational values. Education, too, has its own specific field and its own specific problem; and it must insist upon its right to formulate its own standards and to define its own task. 2. But all this represents a theoretical objection to Dr. Snedden's proposals. Let us pass to the practical difficulties which beset the applica- tion of his doctrine. In the first place, it is clear that there is no sharp distinction between a man as a producer and as a consumer. A man does not produce during so many hours of the day and then consume or utilize during the remainder of his time. As a producer, he is also a consumer. In his vocational life, he is utilizing the skill that he has learned from others or developed for himself; he is utilizing the tools that others have invented; he is utilizing the principles and rules of procedure that have come to him from the past experience of his fellow-workers; he is utilizing the ideals. Superintendence] LIBERAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 165 the standards, and the tastes that the race has wrought out of its long experience. What phase of education is to be responsible for the inculca- tion of these skills, tools, principles, ideals, standards, and tastes which he utilizes as a producer ? Obviously both his vocational education and his so-called liberal education will contribute each its own share. Is a man who is consuming literature and art adding to his vocational efficiency ? Cer- tainly if he is not gaining new strength, new standards, new enthusiasms for his daily work, his recreative activities are a pretty costly luxury. Again, there are certain fundamental activities of life which I defy anyone to classify satisfactorily as either predominantly productive or predominantly consumptive. Take, for example, two activities of life with which education, by common consent, must be intimately concerned — • the activities involved in citizenship and the activities involved in the home relations. When a man is a good citizen, is he a producer or a consumer or both or neither ? Certainly one might say that he is producing good govern- ment— in which case training for citizenship is vocational training. Con- sequently training for good citizenship belongs in a separate vocational school where it will not be confused and rendered ineffective by the processes that are preparing pupils to be consumers — that is, if the producer-consumer theory means anything. This, of course, is akin to word-quibbling; but it simply illustrates the absurdity of applying economic concepts to a field that they do not include and with which their relationships, while important, are upon an entirely different level than that contemplated in the application. The same strictures could be passed upon the attempt to cover home activities by these concepts. They simply will not fit. They confuse rather than help. The housewife is both a producer and a con- sumer, and the activities are so intimately interwoven that any attempt to separate them leads to hopeless confusion. Even if we take the mere matter of aesthetic adornment, while we may say that a woman con- sumes the artistic products of others, she is producing or trying to produce attractiveness — something, let us say, for others to look upon and admire — • that is, to consume. Again, let us test the production-consumption theory by application to certain accepted subjects in the elementary and secondary programs. We shall all agree, I take it, that every individual should know that the earth is round. Is this fact productive or consumptive in its tendencies ? Obviously, neither; and yet it is a basic fact with which everyone must be familiar. A theory of educational values must make some provision for that type of value which is purely conventional; for it is a very real type that we should neglect with certain disaster. Shall we teach literature in order primarily to give the pupil a taste for good literature and so enable him to consume literature more effectively and helpfully, or shall we also try to make literature the vehicle of great ideals and standards of conduct crystallized in fundamental types of character? If we do the latter as 1 66 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond well as the former, we are influencing every phase of life — productive as well as consumptive. Shall we teach physics as a liberal study in order simply and solely to make the pupil a better consumer ? A consumer of what? Electric lights ? Automobiles? Pumps? Literature on physics ? But would these useful consumptive capacities be at all inconsistent with giving the pupil some comprehension of the method of science, some appreci- ation of what mechanical progress has cost? And would this not affect his productive life just as much as his consumptive life — and a form of life most of all that is neither productive nor consumptive, but more important than either ? 3. One further objection, however, I should urge against this dis- tinction; and that is that it perpetuates an older prejudice under which the so-called liberal education already suffers too much. I refer to the notion that the liberal education is in some way opposed to the practical things of life. It is natural that this notion should have held sway at the time when liberal education was the prerogative of the leisure class; but even then it did not always or perhaps often mean impracticality. It meant efficiency of a different sort than that which we should include under the head of technical skill. It meant often productive efficiency of a high order, and not alone capacity for utilizing the products of others. It often meant, as it often means today, constructive leadership, the highest kind of produc- tive efficiency. But the old distrust of liberal education still clings, in spite of the fact that human freedom owes to liberal education its existence today; in spite of the fact that the surest measure of a nation's station in the scale of civilization is most clearly indicated by the extent to which liberal educa- tion is diffused among its masses. Our public schools are branded today as a failure by the more radical advocates of the very plan that Dr. Snedden is proposing. Yet with a predominantly liberal program — characterized by all the vagueness that Dr. Snedden has described — these schools have succeeded in saving us from the fate of Mexico and Bulgaria and Spain and Russia. Never was anything more unjust than this persistence of the notion that liberal education is impractical. And one reason why I dislike this producer-consumer theory is that it still represents that unjust and worn-out prejudice. Dub a program of studies as designed to produce efficient consumers, and you give it a black eye from the start. The con- sumer is not a popular idol. Even the cartoonist takes a shot at him, delineating him as a diminutive, weak-jawed, bespectacled individual who is continually being ground down by the tariff-protected producer. There is no particular credit in the popular mind in being a consumer; it is some- thing that one just has to be. Think what a time the consumer has had in this country in getting a slight recognition of his rights! I fear that with this theory in full swing he would have an equally hard struggle in education. Superintendence] LIBERAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 167 4. Toward constructive differentiation of the two terms under discus- sion, I should offer the following suggestions: First: That the distinction between vocational and liberal education which is now current in our discussions be replaced by a distinction between specific education on the one hand and general education on the other hand. Here the differentiating principle would be extremely simple: Educational materials and processes which are of chief or exclusive value in training for specialized occupations or modes of life will comprise the materials and processes of specific education. Those materials and processes which will be of probable value to every individual, whatever his specific occupation or mode of life may be, will constitute the content of general education. If desired, specific education may be divided into subordinate types, of which vocational education, as we now understand the term, may be one. General education may also be subdivided into at least three well-recognized types. The first of these is most clearly represented by the tj^ical elemen- tary program of studies. It comprises those habits, skills, knowledges, and ideals which must be made the common property of all: (i) the arts of speaking, writing, and reading; the fundamental arts of computation; (2) the specific habits that make up the universal social amenities — good behavior, deference to age and womanhood, respect for the authority of the law as representing the collective will of society, and social service; (3) the habits and ideals that make for personal and social health; (4) the habits and the information representing the fundamentals of good citizen- ship; (5) the basic facts of geography and of national history; and (6) those methods of work that are applicable to all types of human endeavor so far as these can be made the common property of all. This type of general education should have a name which I am not ready to propose, but I shall call it for the sake of convenience fundamental education. A second type of general education I shall call liberal education. Its primary aim will be to make the individual adaptable to changing situations. It will equip him, not so much with specific skill in the narrower sense, for this is the function of fundamental and vocational education which prepares for situations that can be predicted with reasonable certainty. Liberal education will deal rather with explanatory principles which will give him the possibility of a rational control over new situations which we cannot foresee, but which we are morally certain will arise in his life. It will aim to make the world just as meaningful to him as possible. It will aim to give him the power to detect new situations and to devise methods, implements, and devices for their solution. It will furnish him with stand- ards of value, thru which he can view his problems in their proper propor- tions— not distorted by local, selfish, sectional, or partisan points of view. It will rid his mind of the fallacy of the immediate; thru the study of his- tory, it will give him a time-perspective upon his own life and upon the issues of his own generation which he must help to meet. Thru science, i68 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond it will rid his mind of superstition and fraud and error — those soul-destroying and energy-destroying forces that reduce strong men to the helplessness of infancy. Thru literature and art, it will reveal the finer and more subtle forces which dominate human motives and so often determine human conduct — forces so subtle that only the masters can detect them and inter- pret them — but which, once caught and crystallized, are available to all who can appreciate and understand. How much of this liberalizing or "liberating" education we can give to every individual will depend upon a variety of factors : how long we can keep him in school; how clearly we can connect these materials and processes with the motives and interests that dominate him at the time; how skilfully we can stimulate effort to the systematic mastery of recorded knowledge; with what economy we can meet the demands of fundamental educa- tion on the one hand and of vocational education on the other hand. My contention in the present connection is that we have here a type of training, coeval in its importance with fundamental education and vocational educa- tion. From the point of view of a national policy of education, this type needs perhaps the greatest emphasis — for it is the liberal education, inter- preted in thi3 way, and made universal among the people, that makes a nation truly great. It is because an education of this sort inevitably leaves its stamp upon every act of a man's life — 'it is for this reason that I protest against identifying liberal education exclusively with the training of the consumptive or utilizing capacities. I protest, too, against the theory that this type of education is merely for adornment or for enjoyment. It lies at the very basis of progress. It furnishes very frequently the com- pelling motive of toil and sacrifice and effortful achievement. It is fighting today the world's great battles — it is in the very van of the struggle against corruption and evil and exploitation and injustice. It is not alone unfair to liberal education to give it (in the eyes of the young and the untutored) a subordinate position; it is a sin against the children of the land, and it is a crime against posterity. As I have suggested, there is here a large need for a much more adequate analysis of functions and values than has hitherto been attempted. We must learn to think clearly from the details of subjects, methods, and requirements to the ultimate goal that we have in view. The steps must be worked out just as carefully as possible, and what each step may bring with it must be determined. But this is far from saying that everything that we teach will inevitably fulfil the fimction that we have in mind. In the very nature of liberal education, something — perhaps much — that is taught will fail to influence life. For here we must imitate Nature, we must be prodigal. The organs of the body are commonly larger and stronger than the normal demands require. Of the forty thousand or more sensations which can bring us information about our environment, we commonly use but a small fraction. Nature thruout her realm has been Superintcndencel LIBERAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 169 prodigal, for Nature must provide against crises; and we also in education must provide against crises. And that, I believe, is the peculiar function of liberal education as contrasted with the other types. A third subtype of general education I should call cultural ^ and while the distinction between the liberal education and the cultural education should not be sharply drawn, I should think of the latter as essentially the education that prepares for leisure. Literature and art and music and healthful sport all have a function here, altho each may also have a function under one or another of the heads already discussed. This is the t)^e of education that does train the consumer in the sense in which Dr. Snedden and Dr. Weeks use this term. It is important and must not be neglected; but again it is a mistake to think that all education which cannot be justified upon the basis of its specific vocational value must either seek justification as a preparation for leisure or surrender its claim to a place in our schools. And now a final word with regard to the bearing of these distinctions upon the problem of educational administration. Dr. Snedden argued from the distinction between productive and consumptive activities to the conclusion that vocational and general education are essentially different in aim, content, and method, and therefore demand separate schools and, some would add, separate administration. If my own analysis is correct, all forms of education are most intimately connected and correlated. Nay, more than this, every curriculum proposed for a boy or a girl should represent in a fair proportion each of these distinctive types of training. We shall grant the necessity for intense specialization in vocational subjects; we should not grant for a moment the wisdom of making any vocational curriculum so intense that the liberal or the cultural should be neglected. The arguments for separate vocational schools are commonly argimients from expediency. Dr. Snedden's plea is more fundamental than this, for he urges these basic differences between the two types of education to support his contention. The aims are different, he says, and the methods must consequently differ. But, as I have attempted to point out, the aims differ only in degree and not in kind. With the more adequate analysis of the remote aims of liberal education, we shall have these interpolated aims approaching in definiteness the aims of vocational education. And one reason why I should protest against the proposed division lies in the fact that competition with the definite and tangible vocational subjects will has- ten this analysis and compel the formulation of these interpolated aims. This process is already going on in some schools, and one of the most suc- cessful attempts that has thus far been made to formulate concrete values for a traditional subject has been in connection with that bugbear of the secondary program, Latin. If I mistake not, it was this very competition that worked this desirable miracle. Nor should we overlook the influence which concrete vocational interests may have in making meaningful and vital the more general and abstract lyo NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond principles and processes with which liberal education deals. That correla- tions between vocational and liberal subjects may be worked out with great profit to both and without destroying the integrity of either I have no doubt. I know that it has been effectively accomplished in certain cases. Against the danger of social stratification that are inherent in separate vocational schools, even upon the secondary level, warnings innumerable have been voiced; and so far as I know they have never been answered except by the question-begging statement that such stratification already exists. Even granting its existence, we can see no good reason for extend- ing it or for making it still more rigid. A stratified society and a permanent proletariat are undoubtedly the prime conditions of a certain t)rpe of national efficiency. But wherever our people have been intelligently informed regarding what this type of efficiency costs, they have been fairly unanimous in declaring that the price is too high. As a people we are pretty clearly committed to the theory that talent is distributed fairly evenly among the masses and that it is the special prerogative of no especial class or group. As a people, we are fairly firm in our faith that this latent talent may be trained to high efficiency in practically every case. We mean to keep open the door of opportunity at every level of the educational ladder. It is a costly process, but so are most other things that are precious and worth while. DISCUSSION Edwin Hebden, director, Bureau of Statistics and Research, Department of Educa- tion, Baltimore, Md. — Permit me for a moment to present one or two points in this dis- cussion from the viewpoint of the student of statistics. Recently, at the request of the Board of School Commissioners, I sent a questionnaire to a number of cities in this country, seeking for information as to what was being done along vocational lines. The replies showed that almost every subject in the curriculum was, in one place or another, considered as entering into vocational education. One can see the confusion that must necessarily result. My point is that there should be agreed upon a terminology that would be inter- pretable by all alike. In this way the experience of all would become available without misinterpretation. It seems to me that thus at the threshold of this comparatively new branch of educational activity such an agreement might be reached by a properly consti- tuted committee of this Association. At the same time, and as a result of the questionnaire above referred to, there was shown the greatest need for scientific basis and organization of the course of study for the vocational work. In this subject educators are not enthralled by tradition and inherit- ance as they have always been in the course of study for the regular academic branches. Here again there should be worked out a course of study based upon scientific data and in terms that would be uniformly understood thruout the country. Superintendence] SCHOOL AND SHOP— WORK AND STUDY 171 SCHOOL AND SHOP— WORK AND STUDY RANDALL J. CONDON, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, CINCINNATI, OHIO In an old Cincinnati directory which has recently come into my hands, I read these words: "Attached to the institution is a farm of one hundred and ten acres; and the students are required to labor either on the farm or at some mechanical business three hours a day." The principal of the school is given as Rev. Lyman Beecher, D.D.; the institution. Lane Theological Seminary; the date of the old directory is 1836. In the same directory I read that the Woodward High School offers the means of education for all pursuits. The parent who designs his son for the bar, the medical profession, or for the sacred desk may find for him [in this school] as thoro a classical and philosophical training as can be obtained in any other [institution] in the West. And those intended for mercantile pursuits, civil engineering, or any other of the departments of business life may enjoy [in the high school] all those advantages for the acquisition of the preparatory education which is so essential to their future respecta- bility and success. Here, then, is the "Cincinnati idea" of 1836: Shop and school; work and study combined — education for different vocations with differentiated courses of study: classical and philosophical training for the law, for medicine, and for the ministry; industrial training for mercantile pursuits, engineering, and other departments of business life; and vocational guid- ance— those "designed" by their parents for the professions and those "intended" for industrial pursuits; and the end or purpose of education, "future respectability and success." We haven't been able to improve much on that program in eighty years. It all has a very familiar sound; it might have been written in 19 14 instead of in 1836 as an expression of what Cincinnati and many other cities are trying to do in adapting education to the needs of individual pupils, helping them to prepare for the occupations of their choice — doing it that they may be respectable and successful, and hoping to accomplish this thru a union of mental and manual activity. This "Cincinnati idea" is further emphasized by one of the symbolic windows in the city hall, before which I often pause as I mount the stairs to my office. It bears these significant words: "Labor and Education." But in spite of this constant reminder that the two must be united, in spite of the fact that they had been combined in actual practice in the early days, they had been divorced in Cincinnati, as well as elsewhere, until Dean Schneider, of the University of Cincinnati, again brought them together in 1906 in his co-operative courses in the college of engineering, by which the students were to spend alternate weeks working in the shops or out on the road with the construction crew. And he added this one new and important principle: The work was to be not merely work, but work that was an application of the study; and the study not merely study, but 172 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond an interpretation of the work. This principle once having been recognized and applied, its extension and adaptation to different phases of education have been comparatively easy and rapid. In Cincinnati, its first application was in the continuation school for apprentices in 1909, to which the apprentices from some twenty machine shops are sent for a half-day a week, receiving pay for the time so spent, to obtain instruction in mathematics, blue-print reading, mechanical and freehand drawing, English, economics, and civics — all bearing more or less directly upon their present and future work as machinists and their relation to the community as good citizens. A similar plan of co-operation and instruction for the printer's apprentices followed a little later. These classes were all composed of pupils who had left school, generally at the end of the fourth or fifth grade, to go to work. The school reached out and invited them to come back for a half-day a week, and asked the employers to permit them to attend without loss of pay. It would be more correct to say that the offer came from the employers themselves. For under date of May 21, 1909, six of the largest machine manufacturers addressed a communication to Superintendent Dyer asking for such a school and saying: The manufacturers consider this training of such importance that they have agreed on their part that if you will establish these classes they guarantee to furnish enough boys for at least one teacher, and to send their boys to school one-half day each week; and, as an inducement to attend the school, they will agree to pay the apprentices regular wages during the period of instruction. Its next application appeared the following year, 19 10, in the organiza- tion of the high-school co-operative courses for both boys and girls, in the two largest high schools, Hughes and Woodward. During the last two years of these courses, the boys are spending alternate weeks in various industrial establishments, while the girls are alternating between school and dressmaking, millinery establishments, and department stores. This year, for the first time, we have extended the plan to the Seniors in the commercial department, whereby they have the opportunity to apply in the office and counting-rooms of the commercial establishments the book- keeping and stenography which they are taught in the high school. The third application of the principle appeared in the organization of the compulsory continuation classes in 191 1, whereby all pupils under sixteen, who had left school before the completion of the eighth grade, were required to attend school for not less than four hours a week. This particular phase of the work will largely disappear next year, under the enactment of the Children's Code at the last session of the legislature, requiring all girls to remain in school until they are sixteen and boys until they are fifteen; girls must also have completed the seventh grade and boys the sixth grade before they are permitted to work. So the only group for the elementary con- tinuation schools will be boys between fifteen and sixteen years of age who Superintendence] SCHOOL AND SHOP— WORK AND STUDY 173 go to work before they have completed the eighth grade — a comparatively small number. We are hoping, however, to secure at the next session of the legislature the enactment of a law with reference to co-operative courses for pupils between fourteen and seventeen or eighteen years of age, under which they may be employed for half-time as a part of such courses. All of these developments are only applications of the principle of related work and study, each reinforcing and giving content to the other; for it is not enough that the two should go on side by side in school and shop. They must be essential parts of one comprehensive plan, under the control of the educational authorities. To better realize this, a teacher who had had large shop experience was appointed in September of 19 13 who gives nearly all of his time to the supervision of the work of the high-school boys — doing only such teaching as will enable him to establish helpful relations on the school side, applying from his shop experience certain lessons which he is best prepared to teach. A similar appointment was made for the girls' co-operative work — a teacher who by experience and inclination is able to direct their work along educational lines and who comes into close touch with each girl during her working assignments. It is not essential that the periods of alternate study and work should be the same for all industries; they may be varied to meet varied conditions. In the commercial work, we have started with biweekly alternations; in the machine shops, the length of the period is one week; in millinery and some other occupations, it is seasonal; in others it may be a half-day of study and a half-day of work. However, it is essential that the plan should be worked out upon a co- operative basis, not simply that the pupils should be permitted to work for a part of their time, but the arrangement should be undertaken with a conscious purpose to make the work educational. And it should be in accordance with a definite agreement between the school authorities and the employer, specifying the hours of work, the rate of pay, and permitting employment only when the conditions as to safety, sanitation, and morals make it desirable for the pupils to undertake such work. When these conditions are met, I am in favor of permitting pupils to work between the ages of fourteen and sixteen years for not more than one- half of each biweekly period, considering the work and study, whether in school or shop, as a distinct part of their education, to be carefully directed by school ofiicials with that end in view. The agreement should also speci- fically require employers to provide such opportunities for work and instruc- tion in the same as will afford the pupils so employed the largest possible opportunity for learning as a whole the occupations in which they are engaged, and will also afford opportunity for promotion to the more desirable positions within the establishment. It should be the business of the educational authorities to see that there is no attempt at exploitation. 174 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond thru the development of productive skill, at the expense of a more general knowledge of, and education in, the occupation as a whole. They should reserve the right to decide many of these questions and should withdraw from the agreement whenever it appears that the employer is not endeavor- ing in good faith to meet his part of the contract. Pupils should be per- mitted to work only in establishments which have been carefully inspected and approved. I believe, too, that we should extend our educational control to all minors under eighteen years of age, providing co-operative courses connecting with all the leading industries; and that we should be ready to organize any such course, when not less than twenty pupils desire the same. The principle should be clearly established that we are approaching the problem from the educational end, retaining pupils under school control until they are eighteen, but permitting them to work for a part of the time between fourteen and eighteen as an essential feature of their education. And this must be compulsory education: compulsory on the child to attend; on the parent to send the child to school; on the community to provide the right kind of education ; and on the employer, not only to permit the child to attend school, but, under certain conditions, to provide such opportunities in his establishment as will make education possible thru work connected with study. Pestalozzi said: "The end of instruction is making ideas clear," and "Impressions and expressions united lead to clear ideas." If this is so, then the best way to produce clear ideas is not by applying the instruction at some subsequent period, but in connection with the teaching. The learning process, considering both the teacher and the pupil, seems to follow somewhat this order: explanation; demonstration or illustration; appKca- tion; repetition; with a judicious mingling of these elements of teaching and learning. The school is the place where the teacher explains and demonstrates; the shop, store, and home the place where the pupil applies and repeats the process, until he has learned that which the teacher taught. Back and forth from the school to the shop and store; from the store and shop to the school, the teaching and the learning go on side by side — explanation and application; theory and practice; study and work — until by sufficient repetition the process has been learned and the teaching has been forgotten. But we must not forget that it is to be educational work — not so much work for work's sake, but work for the worker's sake — so organized and directed as to give a maximum of educational value, a value which will be measured largely by the joy of accomplishment — the consciousness of difficulties overcome and made the stepping-stones to higher accomphsh- ments. And to this end the industries, as well as the schools, must be organized with reference to vocational education that is liberal and funda- mentally sound; for I believe we may obtain the elements of a liberal Superintendence] APPRENTICE SCHOOLS OF SANTA FE RAILWAY 175 education from work-study, when rightly organized, quite as much as from word-study. Culture comes not from the particular form of study, but rather from the spirit awakened by study. For one the approach to the spirit and the opportunity for self-expression will be found in art; for another, in music; for another, in literature; for another, in nature; for others, it will be found at the forge, the anvil, the carpenter's bench; in the machine shop and the counting-room; or in farm and household occupations. Culture is the ripening of life, the inner self-enlargement; and the daily toil and the daily rest must supply the opportunity and the incentive for this enrichment of life. If it is not found here it will not be found anywhere. There must be less study for study's sake and more study that expresses itself in terms of work; learning that becomes knowledge thru its application and wisdom thru its expression in terms of unselfish service. It is only in its outgo that the soul is enlarged. It is the things that we love deeply that influence our lives in large measure. In developing our plans for industrial education, and other forms of education as well, we need to be on our guard that we do not imprison the soul. The routine and the mechanical must be so taught and learned and practiced that there will still be opportunity for the cultivation of those soul-qualities that give joy to work and that find in the humblest tasks opportunities for expanding self-expression. These are some of the fundamental principles that have controlled and will guide in the development of the work-study program in the Cincinnati schools. THE APPRENTICE SCHOOLS OF THE SANTA FE RAILWAY SYSTEM F. W. THOMAS, SUPERVISOR OF APPRENTICES, TOPEKA, KA.NS. The Santa Fe is a railway running from Chicago on the lakes to San Francisco and Los Angeles on the Pacific, reaching the Gulf of Mexico at several places in the Lone Star State -and touching the Mexican frontier at El Paso and San Diego; gridironing the state of Kansas with nearly as many miles of road as are within the state of Virginia; five times crossing the Rocky Mountains and the Sierras or their spurs at an elevation above seven thousand feet; with nearly a thousand miles of road in the arid or desert section upon which not enough business origi- nates to pay the cost of maintaining the roadway; with a number of division terminals located in the desert where water must at times be hauled one hundred miles or more, not only for drinking purposes but for its locomotives. I have used this introduction to show the conditions under which this artery of commerce operates, in order that some of the tenderfooters this 176 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond afternoon may appreciate fully some statements I shall make later on in this paper. There is no road in the country that requires any more exacting service of its employees, and there is no road in the country that has done more for the comfort and happiness and welfare of its employees than the Santa Fe. Thru its pension system it provides liberally against old age; thru its magnificent hospital system it furnishes succor to the sick and injured; thru its recreation halls and clubhouses it furnishes wholesome amusements free to all its employees even in the remote desert terminals; and, lastly, thru its educational department it furnishes a place and means where chil- dren of its employees and the boys living adjacent to its lines may learn a vocation, receive a training for lifers work under a system which we think is the best that money and means and brains can devise. The apprentice system is as old as time — as far back as we have any authentic history, scriptural or profane, we read of boys learning trades, boys being bound out to serve a master. Thousands of years ago God's chosen people had an adage: "He who teaches his son no trade teaches him to be a thief." Not only was the son of the poor taught a trade but all classes had to learn a trade. Saul of Tarsus, tho born of well-to-do parents, an aristocrat by birth, who studied at the feet of Gamaliel, the greatest teacher of that age, was still taught the trade of tent-making. Who knows but that the lessons learned thru association and contact while serving that humble apprenticeship gave him that insight into human nature which so brilliantly illuminates the pages and sermons of that great mis- sionary to the Gentiles ? In 1907, the Santa Fe, like all the great employers of labor, during that year of flood-tide business, suffered from the lack of competent and skilled workmen. Good wages, pleasant surroundings, splendid treatment, and an indulgent corporation, all these could not bring them for the reason that there were none to come. Our management said that if we couldn't find and hire them we would make them. So in August, 1907, a committee with orders visited a great many manufacturing plants and railroad shops, looking into those having an apprentice system. A report was made as to what should be done. Orders came back to organize and put it into effect within three weeks. Railroad orders are orders to be obeyed. Nothing was said as to preparation, as to expense, as to the personnel of the organization — only to start things by September 15. A place in an already crowded shop had to be found for a schoolroom, furniture had to be made, lessons and problems had to be written, drawing instruments, etc., purchased, and instructors selected; but three weeks later, September 15, the machinery was set in motion, some of it crudely designed, some roughly thrown together, but we had an abundance of lubrication in the shape of official backing, a hearty co-operation, intense interest, and enthusiasm. Our first school at Topeka being fairly installed, two months later we started Superintendence! APPRENTICE SCHOOLS OF SANTA FE RAILWAY 177 another in California, two weeks after California we jumped to Texas, then to Kansas again, to Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa, etc. — all within six months. Under our present organization of minute detail operation, I wonder how we accomplished so much within that six months. Today we have twenty-nine apprentice schools with thirty-eight instructors and over eight hundred apprentices. THE ATCHISON, TOPEKA & SANTA FE RAILWAY SYSTEM Report of Apprentice Department Showing Growth in Number of Apprentices in Each Trade from September 30, 1907, to January 31, 1914 September 30, 1907 . . . September 30, 1908 . . , September 30, 1909 . . . September 30, 1910 . . . September 30, 1911 . . . September 30, 1912 . . . September 30, 1913 . . . Total January 31, 19 14 1 11 i S § s ?! •ss 0^ -^ 2 ^s J4 .■a S'-' uS. >l c •ll 1 *"0 .ai 11 1 IS 1 1 1 3 w m u H A, (^ t> s c«' H 231 35 IS 19 20 5 15 I 0 4 345 302 44 18 30 23 t 20 3 0 3 449 326 49 14 32 28 4 20 3 I 10 487 409 52 IS 37 29 4 20 3 3 8 580 472 73 24 43 36 3 18 3 2 8 682 Si« 69 22 42 34 2 18 3 4 II 723 570 95 21 45 39 I 20 3 8 12 815 570 96 20 42 37 I 17 4 6 10 803 o 64 126 178 248 343 457 490 Don't confound the Santa Fe apprentice system with any public insti- tution nor think of it as a school. It is simply an advanced method of training and educating boys to fill the places made vacant by retirement and to take care of the increased number of positions due to the road's expansion and growth — a recruiting system. At each mechanical division point, we have a room or building set aside and dedicated to the cause of education and known as the Apprentice School. This room is furnished with desks, drawing-tables, models, cabinets, etc. A man both theoretically and practically educated presides here. The apprentices are required to attend a stipulated number of hours a week during daylight or regular working hours and are paid while in school the same as if they were at work in the shop. The schoolrooms in the beginning were modest in appearance, painfully plain. We did not have time to build a house; we simply picked out the most suitable unused room or building near the shop and began business. Today we have modern schoolrooms, splendidly equipped, specially constructed for our needs, these being conveniently located in the midst of the other shop buildings. We teach these boys spelling, writing, arithmetic, shop mathematics, some of the simpler elements of mechanics, sketching, mechanical and 178 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION fRichmond freehand drawing, and also give them a short treatise on their trade and the materials with which they work. We originally intended teaching them only mechanical and freehand drawing, but we found that the majority of boys of sixteen years of age coming to us were so practically deficient in the first-mentioned subjects that we added spelling, writing, and arith- metic, three branches above all others which our public schools should teach and teach thoroly. In the shops where the boy must learn the real work, we have a shop instructor for every twenty-five boys — a man skilled in his particular trade, a man of pleasing personality and engaging manners, a boy-loving man, whose sole duty is to instruct the boys under his charge. He is not respon- sible for the output of the shop, not responsible for the management of the shop, not concerned as to the cost of the products, but his only duty is to take the raw material in hand and make a mechanic. The boy upon entering the shop finds a new world, a sea of whirling machinery, a bedlam of strange noises, a thousand new faces, a thousand eyes gazing at him; he feels lonely, frightened, fearful of his personal safety, fearful of some misstep. He longs for home and friends; but here he finds a warm hand, a kind heart, a friendly face, a man who takes him by the hand and guides and directs him step by step, day by day, from machine to machine. For four years he is drilling, teaching, and instructing that boy, molding a mechanic from that young, green, embarrassed boy of four years ago. The boy soon realizes when he enters the shop that he is making something. There is no experimenting. The first job he does is making something to be used, something useful. He soon, and probably for the first time in his life, learns the value of time. A job in a railroad shop to be finished at eleven o'clock means eleven o'clock; not five minutes past eleven, or twelve o'clock, but eleven o'clock. He soon learns the absolute meaning of obedience and subordination. He soon finds out that the two unpardonable sins in rail- roading are disobedience and insubordination. In the selection of apprentices, we are not so very strict or particular. If a boy can read intelligently, write legibly, and perform accurately the four fundamentals of arithmetic — addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division — we will take him. He must be physically sound, free from any serious organic troubles or chronic ailment. We don't care so much about his father, so long as the boy is honest and industrious. He fills out an application blank which gives his name, age, nationality of parents, his height and weight, and schooling, and which states why he left school and what work he has ever done. We do not care for character letters as they are about the most worthless things in existence. We question him closely as to his domestic affairs, his playmates, recreation, sweet- heart, etc. We aim to find out from him as much about himself as possible. We want to know as much as we can gather as it will help us in our dealing with, and treatment of, the boy during his apprenticeship. These little Superintendence] APPRENTICE SCHOOLS OF SANTA FE RAILWAY 179 personal examinations bring out some strange stories, some sad tales, some of the real, uncolored romances of everyday life. There is nothing which touches me so much as the story of real hardships of a boy. There is nothing which has softened my heart so much as the story of a boy prematurely grown old thru neglect, thru mistreatment — a life robbed of all the boy's joys and the pleasures of the 'teens, a life with little or none of the sim's rays of hope and happiness. While we desire a boy with a grammar-school education, we do not tie ourselves down to any ironclad rule. Of the boy of unlimited oppor- tunities, we require much upon admittance; with the boy with few oppor- tunities, we are exceedingly charitable. Four years ago one hot August day, a boy, very small for his sixteen years, stood in the doorway of my office. In his hand was a personal letter, an autograph one, addressed to me, from the superintendent of shops, requesting me to examine the bearer for the position of painter apprentice. He was very small, poorly dressed, illy fed and nurtured, extremely bashful, and nervous. Giving him a glass of ice water and a seat in front of a cooling fan, with a few words to allay his feelings, we began to draw out his life's story. We found that his father was a worthless, brutal man, a drunkard who had left home. The boy had been so unmercifully beaten by an inhuman father that his very being and nature were cowed. His mother, who could not stand without the aid of crutches, was doing her best to eke out a living for herself and brood by taking in washing. Yes, he said, there were some more, some "leetle" ones at home. I knew then the superintendent of shops knew the story. My first and natural impulse was to turn him down, but I could not do it. We did not have the heart to do so, tho I knew he was the least promising boy that ever came into my office. Three months later, the shop instructors reported that he was only fair, was away below the standard, below the average. The school instructor was using a great deal of that characteristic which made Job famous. The boy could read simple words, knew nothing of arithmetic, could spell a few of the simpler words. One day the instructor accidentally ran upon something. The boy had made, on the under side of the piece of paper on which he was supposed to be writing, an Old English letter "A," shading and illuminat- ing it in a manner that would have been a credit to one who had been trained in such work. Next day he uncovered the head of an Indian chief, glori- ously decorated with feathery headgear. We did not scold him. That poor boy was never scolded by us. We gave him more of that very kind of work each day. His interest was aroused, his tongue was loosened, his mind so long cramped and imused began to expand. Last week we graduated him as a journeyman painter, capable of doing any work in painting and decorating our passenger cars or office furniture. He has not entirely outgrown the cowed, subdued spirit infficted by his brutal father l8o NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION IRichmond and he never will, but he has grown in body, in mind, in intelligence, and has been a blessing and comfort to his mother and the little fellows. He has been faithful during his apprenticeship and I have no doubt but that he will give many years of faithful service to us as a man. We have issued him a diploma which will be the open sesame to a job anywhere they may need painters. But he prefers to stay with the Santa Fe, and will do so at the full rate of pay paid journeymen. In reward for his faithfulness as an apprentice, we have given him $135 in cash. This will go toward building a home upon some land already purchased with money saved from his apprentice wages. About the first thing we noticed upon opening the school phase of our apprentice system was the absence of suitable textbooks. There were none in print. We had to get busy at once, writing our own books. We chose a loose-leaf lesson system, and having our own printer and press we change these leaflets any time we see fit. The success of the schoolroom work has been due first to the men we selected as instructors, men practically and theoretically educated, intensely enthusiastic over their work, and, above all, thoroly in accord with the head of the department and most unselfishly loyal. Next I attribute it to the individuality of our instruc- tion. While the boys come to this apprentice schoolroom at the same time, each is a class unto himself. There is no massing of boys of unequal age, imequal talent. Each progresses just as fast as he masters the subject. Next I attribute our success to the adaptability of our lesson sheets. We make them simple, very plain, each having a direct bearing on the boy's trade, each drawing lesson, each problem relating directly to some engine, car, shop tool, or feature of the railroad. This fixes in his mind some definite goal, and the course leads directly to that goal. No side trip, no excursion in foreign fields, no rambling in strange lands. He stays at one station of the work, but is brightened by the light or scene of the station just ahead. The reason, the purpose, the cause are plainly apparent to him. Another factor which has made our apprentice system so successful is our determined effort to find out the fitness of the boy after he enters. The first six months is a probationary period, and when a new boy enters upon his apprenticeship we send a notice every thirty days to his general foreman, department and gang foremen, his shop and school instructors, advising them of the fact that he is a new boy and requesting them to pay considerable attention to him so as to be able to intelligently act at the end of his first six months, or probationary period. The above-named shop officials compose what we call the Apprentice Board. They compose a jury which at any time during the apprenticeship may make recommenda- tions as to a boy's unfitness for the trade he is indentured to learn. This board is bound by no laws but their own opinions; each has as much power as the other, each member must handle the boy during his apprenticeship, and some afterward. At the end of the first six months, or probationary Superintendence] APPRENTICE SCHOOLS OF SANTA FE RAILWAY l8l period, they meet in a serious session to finally say what the future of the boy must be. If the boy is adapted to the trade, we keep him, if not, we transfer him to other work or dismiss him. There never was a jury or court any more anxious to deal out real justice than these apprentice boards of the Santa Fe Railway. They may dismiss a boy, but they do not do it because he is simply a boy, or because he is a boy without influential friends and without a pull, or because he may be poor, or because they may not personally like him. They meet in solemn session to aid that boy in his life's work and their action is the result of this conference. We are firm believers that God has endowed each with some peculiar or dominant talent and we endeavor to locate or find it. A great deal of the misery of life and distaste for work is caused by the unsuitableness of the talent for the task, or, in other words, because of misfits. We all like to do those things which we can do well. We do those things well or better which utilize our dominating talent — a boy with constructive talent loves to build things, loves to use the hammer and saw; a girl who has talent for embroidery loves to make things requiring fine needlework; a boy with agricultural taste and talent wants to plant, to cultivate, and reap; one who has mechanical talent is never so happy as when working with machin- ery. To require any boy to learn the blacksmith trade when all his talents are for medicine or surgery, to require any boy to learn the trade of machin- ist or telegrapher when his heart yearns for the farm, is doing him an unpar- donable injury. You are overturning the will of the Creator. You are committing a crime against his young life and against society. Right here is where our public schools are lame, where our colleges are weak. There is seemingly no effort upon their part to locate the talent of the boy — no defined effort to ascertain the dominating talent or pro- nounced tendency of the brains of the boy. The average teacher cannot understand why a boy may be dull in grammar and a prodigy in arithmetic, why he may be a dunce in history and a genius with carpenter's tools. This scheme of locating the boy is to be one feature of our new schools and colleges. The public-school teacher of the future will find out and say or at least advise as to the future of her boys. She will say when the boy ought to leave school and go to work; she will advise him whether to go on thru high school and on to college. There is no duty save motherhood so supremely great as that which aids a young boy in determining his future, his life's work. The home training for a life's work has long since left the home and gone to the factory. We no longer spin and weave our cloth at home; we no longer forge the farm implements, for we can buy these cheaper and better than we can make them at home. Who is to say what the child must do for a life's work? You take the child away from its mother's arms, fresh from the hands of the Maker, and from six to sixteen he is yours to make and shape his plastic young soul. Is it not your duty to study the boy, in order that you may recognize the mold that his Creator 1 82 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION IRichmond has built for him to occupy, and so to drill, so to teach, so to develop the boy that he shall fill the mold to the uttermost and that the cast shall not be faulty from your neglect ? The idea or scheme of the elementary schools is to prepare the child for high school, and the idea of the high school is to prepare for college. The whole curriculum, the whole training, is for that one idea or end. Not all go to college; not all can go. Seventy-five per cent have no need for it; 50 per cent will be severly handicapped by having a college education; some do not have the means. The great majority have to leave school at the age of fifteen to go to work. The necessities of life, of family, make many a child of sixteen a bread-earner. What have you done to prepare him for this serious reality ? It is soon to be the problem for you to map out your course to suit the needs of the child— not what those who have gone before have thought, not what you may deem the proper thing, but what the boy needs. The time is coming when you will be called upon to provide clerks for the stores, stenographers for the ofiSces, and apprentices for our shops, and the public will demand that you be able to do it. This may interfere with that which you call culture and it may change the idea or meaning of so-called cultural education. People are rapidly learning that a college or university diploma does not necessarily spell culture. We are too prone to call cultured the agri- culturalist whose hands have never touched the plowshare, but whose knowledge has come from books, papers, and colleges; too prone to call cultured the surgeon whose knowledge is deep only from long years of study and reading, yet whose hands have never wielded the knife in removing or correcting some disorganized portion of our anatomy. That culture which has zeal without practical knowledge, and enthusiasm without sanity, should no longer sit with the mighty. We admire and love real culture, that culture which brings peace, happiness, and contentment to the com- munity, which builds homes, rears families, gives them the conveniences of life and some of the luxuries, which makes one honor and love his neighbor, and makes one interested in the affairs of the town, the state, and the nation — a culture whose mission is objective and not always sub- jective. The prevalent idea that a college or university education is synonymous with culture, coupled with the idea that culture and work are foreign to each other, is one reason why we have so many young men in college and coming from college with no fixed idea of the future, no sane view or thought of life's work, with faculties practically wild and undis- ciplined, without willingness to do as they are told, and without that dis- ciplined faculty of concentrating their attention on unpleasant work or necessary tasks. The term "cultural" is too closely allied to a life of ease and luxury, and this so-called cultural education fits him for such a life and not for a life of work, not for a life which finds real happiness in work and in life's material things. 1 Superintendence] APPRENTICE SCHOOLS OF SANTA FE RAILWAY 183 Our public educational system, in all its teaching and textbooks, selects a few characters of history as examples of emulation — those who grew great in wars and bloodshed, Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Grant, and Lee. Mere mention is made of the inventor of the printing press; I do not see anything in our modern histories of George M. Pullman, of Matthew Baldwin, of Edison, of Marconi, or of Luther Burbank, and any one of these has done more for the commercial world, and for our own com- fort and happiness, than all the generals and heroes of war and bloodshed of all times. No wonder our business men decry the failure of our college men when you are making them dreamers and criticize even our high schools when indirectly you are teaching social ostracism against him who by the sweat of his brow earns his living; against the mechanic of today, whose genius may startle us ten years hence; teaching education and culture and not work, not the love of work, nor the true greatness and nobleness of work. We teach our apprentices that the trade they have indentured themselves to learn is the best possible vocation for them; we teach them that not all the great brainy men of the country are practicing law, practicing medicine, making laws in Congress, or engaged in professorial work; that there are just as many and great brains in agricultural work as in law, just as wonder- ful minds in engineering as in medicine, just as ponderous thinking in finan- cial fields as in the professor's chair; we teach them that the plumber or machinist is of as much value and use to the community as the lawyer or banker, that a good carpenter or a good tinner is far more valuable to the town and community than a poor doctor or a poor banker; we teach them that the average earnings of our graduate machinist apprentices now working in our shops are greater than the average earnings of the lawyers or doctors of Kansas, of Virginia, or of any other state; we teach them the great value of clean living, of clean thinking, and of good citizen- ship. We have our rules and regulations governing the employment and training of apprentices, but only two ''don'ts" appear therein. We say: "You must not drink intoxicants or smoke cigarettes," and we enforce it. We say: "You must work and not loaf." The worker is rewarded, the loafer is disciplined. The other regulations were made to safeguard the boys' interests. The railroad company realizes fully that this system of training boys is a recruiting scheme and shall not be used as a matter of convenience. While the system is in fact a great convenience, the Santa Fe Railway System has taken a broad view of things, which is a wise course in preparing for the future. It is not all work with our apprentices. The system is not a merciless machine moving in one fixed path, for it is humane in the extreme. Fields are provided for athletic contests in baseball, football, and basket-ball 1 84 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond between apprentice schools of the various localities, and some athletic teams are allowed to go from five hundred to a thousand miles for such contests. The boys have their clubs and social organizations. Brass bands of from twenty to forty pieces, orchestras, and glee clubs may be found at several places. All of this that indulgent corporation encourages and fosters. While discipline is strong and determined, it is tempered with mercy. We no longer send a boy home or suspend him for any infraction of our rules and regulations. We do not let him loaf in the streets subject to all kinds of temptations, which a suspension would offer. We penalize him on his agreement by making him serve a little longer. For every day which we would have suspended him, we add that much to his regular apprentice time. The rule works both ways. Afterward, by close application to business for a stipulated period, he may have part or all of his penalty removed. We keep a real record of all the apprentices. We know the boy before he enters the service, and the records in my oflSce will tell me what he has done each day during his four years' apprenticeship, his good deeds and his bad ones. We do not stop here. Our records show that we follow up that young man. If he moves to any shop on the system our record follows him, sometimes precedes him. If he leaves the road and goes elsewhere we know and keep up with him; know what he is doing, how he is doing it, and the wages he is getting. Seventy per cent of all the mechanics we have graduated the past six years are with us today. Twelve per cent are occupying official positions. In the year just passed, 1913, the Santa Fe Railway System, which reaches thirteen states, paid into the treasury of the state of Kansas alone $420,000 in taxes for the support of her schools. No wonder Kansas has fewer illiterates than any other state in the Union. We have never used this to bring about a curriculum that will fit the boys particularly for our service, but we do hope that it may be used to the better advantage of the thousands of boys and girls who must leave school at sixteen and go out into the world to earn their daily bread. It is up to you superintendents. I pray you may look at it in its right light and not deaden your ears to their appealing cry. DISCUSSION Paul Kreuzpointner, chairman. Committee on Industrial Education, American Foundrymen's Association, Altoona, Pa. — ^It is very gratifying to know of the progress being made along lines of trade and shop school training as outlined so ably by Mr. Thomas and Mr. Gustafson. We are fully aware of the value of such schools, and it is highly creditable for us to have as many of them with as many students as has Germany. We have now 144 railroad shop schools with some 6,000 apprentices, and some forty private corporation schools with about 3,000 apprentices, but when we realize what the industries of our country need along lines of skill and general intelligence in order to carry Superintendence] MISSISSIPPI CANNING CLUBS 185 on their work successfully, and when we further contemplate that there are some eight millions of industrial workers of all kinds, who, in one way or another, have to contribute their share, however little it may be, to material prosperity and the general mental and moral welfare of the country, then all the shop and trade schools help us but very little to meet the educational problems of the industrial masses. Out of every hundred rail- road shop workers, there are but two or three in shop schools, and out of every hundred workers in the shops, only four or five of the kind of graduates the Ranken and similar schools turn out are needed. According to the latest statistics from the Bureau of Education at Washington, there are about 60,000 students in all of our shop schools, trade schools, and technical high schools, and of all these only about five or six out of every hundred are eventually found in shops as mechanics or at the lathe or bench. Upon the other hand, history tells us in unmistakable terms, and those who have their eyes open can see it plainly enough now, that in the end the masses always will rule and if they do not rule by intelligence they will rule by brute force. Hence it is not the two or three out of every hundred found in the shop school as described by Mr. Thomas, or the four or five out of every hundred industrial workers turned out by the Ranken and other technical schools, who will eventu- ally rule this country, but it is the seven or eight millions for whom we have made no provisions, and who, as industrial and economic conditions now are, must get their indus- trial and civic training in part-time and continuation schools. Therefore since part-time schools of the Fitchburg kind will not attract many, it will be left to continuation schools to prepare the great mass of our industrial workers in shop, store, and office for their vocational and civic duties. This will be all the more necessary because we have to meet the competition of the 800,000 German industrial workers who have been and are being trained in the continuation schools of Germany, and who, with the exception of the unskilled laborers and mine workers, get, in many cases, better industrial and civic education than we give our young people in our shop and trade schools. And not only Germany but all other industrial countries are making strenuous elfforts to train effectively their industrial workers. From all my experience and observations of the workings of large shops, mills, and factories, during more than a generation, industrial and economic success depends not so much upon the specific trade training of the highly skilled few, but it depends in the last analysis upon a comparatively high degree of general intelligence of the masses of the industrial workers in shop, store, and office. With the decrease of quality or quantity of our natural resources, when the waste of material and time multiplied by millions of hands daily amount to enormous quantities annually, it is not the high skill of the few, but the general intelligence of the many which must secure for us, not only material success in our industries, but also that intellectual and moral standard in the community whereby peace and order and general good will are vouchsafed for our country. Since it is manifestly impossible to diffuse this education for the masses, as far as the school can do it, thru our high schools, we must do it with the help of continuation schools and a compulsory law. TOPIC: HOPEFUL EXPERIMENTS A. MISSISSIPPI CANNING CLUBS SUSIE V. POWELL, STATE AGENT, GIRLS' CLUBS, UNITED STATES BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY, JACKSON, MISS. In February, 191 1, under instructions from Seaman A. Knapp, co- operating with the State Department of Education, the Canning and Poul- try Clubs were first organized in Mississippi. This first year the work was 1 86 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond confined to two adjoining counties, with an enrolment of one hundred and fifty members. In 191 2, the clubs were organized in twelve counties, most of these being in the southern part of the state where the ravages of the boll- weevil were most felt. In 1913, twenty- three counties were organized, including several northern counties. Already, for 1914, thirty-two counties have been organized with a membership that will probably reach five thousand. The state agent of Girls' Clubs is also supervisor of school improvement and has promoted the club work thru the state and county school improvement associations. One of the requirements for organizing a club in any county is that the county superintendent and his teachers shall pledge their co-Operation as follows: 1. By organizing local clubs in their school communities. 2. By sending the names and addresses of members to the county agent. 3. By arranging for club meetings at which the county agent may instruct the club members. 4. By correlating the common-school studies with the club work as a center of interest. The second requirement is that sufficient funds be raised to pay the salary of a woman to supervise the club work for at least two months. As long as the appropriation from the General Education Board lasts this amount is supplemented. The average term of service in 19 14 will be about five months. The local funds are given by business men, club women, boards of trade, and boards of supervisors. It is due these women who are acting as county agents that it be said that while they receive pay for their services for a few months in the year, they have worked at the organization of the club work for ten or twelve months in each year. The local clubs elect the usual officers and meet every two weeks to study the bulletins and letters of instruction and to report on their work. Programs for these local clubs are furnished from the State Department of Education, and all the material for these programs may be found in the textbooks on agriculture and the bulletins issued from the Bureau of Plant Industry. These programs consist of lessons on the hotbed, cold frame, preparation and cultivation of the soil, staking, pruning, spraying, and the canning processes. At these meetings the girls learn club songs and yells that embody the very spirit of co-operation. They learn to make their uniform cap and apron, which teach by their dainti- ness the lesson that household work and neatness of dress should go hand in hand. The purposes of the club for girls are: I. To make living conditions in the home cheaper and better by con- serving the vegetables and fruits that would otherwise go to waste and having these in a permanent form for the family table, instead of having a superabundance for a few months and living on meat and bread the rest of the year. Superintendence! MISSISSIPPI CANNING CLUBS 187 2. To afford the girls an opportunity to make some money without leaving the protection of their homes. This is done by canning the surplus vegetables and fruits scientifically and selling them largely to the local dealers and housekeepers. 3. To supplement the instruction given in the rural school and to vitalize the conamon-school studies by correlating them with the club work as centers of interest. The measuring and la)dng-off of the plot illustrates lessons in mensuration. Keeping accounts of proceeds and expenditures, estimating profit or loss, ordering canning supplies, all embody vital prob- lems in arithmetic. The depositing of money earned in a bank and learn- ing to draw a cheque on it are both cultural and comfortable. The canning process calls for a knowledge of bacteria and spores. The use of the vege- tables serves to provide a balanced ration for the family, which is practical physiology. Combining muriatic and zinc to make a soldering fluid, and having the sealing irons in a mixture of sal ammoniac and solder are both chemical processes. The cultivation of the plot puts into practice the lessons from the textbooks on agriculture, geography, and nature study. Giving reports of the club work affords opportunities for both oral and written com- position, and when a girl writes the history of her club work she puts into effect all the lessons she has been taught in composition, including spelling, capitalization, punctuation, paragraphing, and right use of words. In fact, every subject taught in the rural schools is enforced thru the club activities. The state board of examiners has decided that the examinations for teachers should embody the affairs in which they are required to show an interest, therefore for the last year at every examination held from one to three questions concerning industrial clubs for boys and girls have appeared. These easily fall under the heads of arithmetic, physiology, geography, composition, agriculture. Lessons in correlation are given to the teachers at the summer normals, and suggestions are given in the oj0&cial school journal. Exhibits of book- lets illustrating schemes for such correlation are shown at the county and state fairs and the state teachers' association. In 1913, 375 girls packed 210,000 pounds of tomatoes and 6,000 gallons of other vegetables. At least a dozen girls spent a whole term in college as a direct result of their club work. Two girls made more than $200 while ten made more than $100 from their club work. The average profit was about $50 for each member. The earning of this money and its careful expenditure have taught the girls valuable and much-needed business lessons. Most of these girls never had $5 to spend as they pleased before, and, if a few spent their money or part of it unwisely and for what some might call foolishness, let the one of us who has not spent one dollar foolishly in the last week cast the first stone of reproach at these girls, some of whom learned by actual experience for the first time the purchasing power of money of their very own. 1 88 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond The club work trains the head, hand, and heart, and conserves health. Opportunities for social service arise constantly in the work. Ethical lessons are abundant. The girl whose plot is grassy and cloddy and whose goods are carelessly packed and labeled is the girl who does slipshod work in school, while the one who studies carefully the instructions and puts these into practice is the girl who carefully prepares her lessons for the school- room. The club member who makes false reports to win a prize is the same student who will cheat on examination and forge the answer to a problem. The club girl who puts on the market goods that are light weight, poor quality, and otherwise under the standard is very apt to give the wrong answer to school problems and in fact to the problems of life. In organizing the clubs, we are confronted at present with two problems upon the solution of which depends the success of the work. First; We must provide funds for paying competent women to supervise the work. Second: We must have competent, educated women to do this work of supervision. At present, our county boards of supervisors may pay a county agent to teach the farmer and his son how to make the soil more productive, to house his Percheron horses, his Jersey cattle, and his Berk- shire pigs in sanitary and hygienic manner, and to feed them a balanced ration; but under a strict interpretation of the law they cannot pay one dollar as salary to a woman to instruct the farmer's wife and daughters how to conduct home affairs with efficiency and economy, how to make the home healthful, comfortable, and beautiful, and how to supply the family table with proper food. Human beings are fully as important as live stock, and as much atten- tion, at least, should be given to the proper housing and balanced rations for the one as for the other. Our legislature is being asked to enact a law that will enable boards of supervisors to pay a county agent of home economics to supervise industrial clubs for girls and women and other organizations for home improvement. Close personal supervision is necessary to bring out steady, honest work rather than extravagant claims. The offer of large prizes without this super- vision has given rise in a few instances at least to extravagant reports with- out the substantial bases of steady, honest, thoro work. Dr. Knapp very wisely said that the supervision of the plot gives the agents entrance to the home garden, and supervision of the canning gives them entrance to the kitchen, which is the heart of the home. When these county agents have got this far, their opportunities for service to the mother and daughter are measured only by their tact, judgment, good coEomon-sense, and training. Therefore it is vitally important that we have superior women thoroly trained for this work and we cannot expect to hold such women unless we can give them a reasonable remuneration. Superintendence] SOME CONDITIONS AND THEIR IMPROVEMENT 189 B. SOME CONDITIONS IN RURAL SCHOOLS AND THEIR IMPROVEMENT JOSEPHINE C. PRESTON, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, OLYMPIA, WASH. The need of constructive work in rural schools and rural life is every- where recognized. We have a new vision of the socialized community life in our rural neighborhoods. The rural-school problem is the country-life problem. The rural school represents the community life. If the com- munity is progressive, that atmosphere permeates the rural school; but if the community is indifferent, has low ideals, or is prejudiced toward all change, then even the most capable teacher finds it impossible to make much headway. The three things which I have in mind to present to you tonight as a partial solution of the rural-school problem are: First, community centers; second, boys' and girls' contest work; and third, cottages for rural teachers. Washington has a law for consolidation of schools and many consolida- tions have been effected which have materially bettered the rural schools and, at the same time, have maintained a rural atmosphere. The difficulty with the consolidation plan is that it operates too slowly. The people many times must come to consolidation only thru the process of education after prejudice, neighborhood contention, and selfish interests are overcome. Experience has shown that consolidation, if attempted before the community mind is prepared for it, is invariably accomplished by contention and strife that engender much bitterness of feeling which operates against the desired ends. The purpose of consolidation is wise, but practice has demonstrated that if we wait for the consolidation plan to solve the problem of the rural school, we shall wait until human nature is greatly modified. In my work in Washington, I felt unwilling to wait for consolidation to solve the rural-school problem; I felt that we must move faster. Yet I realized that the state was not ready for a complete reorganization of its present district boundary plan which would give us larger, stronger, and more economic educational units. So I gave consideration to the plan of stimulating community interests and vitalizing community life by making a social center of the rural school. The legislature of the state of Washington in 19 13 provided by statute for the "Wider Use of the School Plant" in these words: The school board in each district of the second class and third dass may provide for the free, comfortable, and convenient use of the school property to promote and facilitate frequent meetings and association of the people in discussion, study, improve- ment, recreation, and other community purposes, and may acquire, assemble, and house material for the dissemination of information of use and interest to the farm, the home, and the community, and facilitate for experiment and study, especially in matters per- taining to the growth of crops, the improvement and handling of live stock, the marketing igo NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond of farm products, the planning and construction of farm buildings, the subjects of house- hold economics, home industries, good roads, and community vocations and industries; and may call meetings for the consideration and discussion of any such matters, employ a special supervisor, or leader, if need be, and provide suitable dwellings and accommodation for teachers, supervisors, and necessary assistants. Because of the increasingly larger land holdings and the consequent depopulation of rural districts, it was not possible to fully socialize all individual districts, so I went a step farther and asked each county superin- tendent to divide his county into natural neighborhood centers, usually composed of the graded school at a trading center and the rural schools naturally tributary to it. In each community group, the principal of the graded school usually acted as supervising principal and was the social engineer. While the supervising principal was not a supervisor in the ordi- nary acceptance of the term, he organized the social activities of his super- visory district. This plan carried with it a series of school contests in spelling, declamation, cooking, sewing, manual training, gardening, and stock judging. Two general contests and one large representative com- munity gathering were attempted at each community center during the year. At the general meeting outside speakers were usually provided by the county superintendent. Sometimes we found that a district was sufficiently able within itself to carry out social-center work. In such instances, the district could carry on independent commimity activities, unless some neighboring district needed its help. Because the country-life problem is primarily one of community organi- zation, and because the great rural need is a plan of organization that will include the whole interest and enlist the united energy of the people, we have urged that the "community center" be large enough to form an efficient social and economic group with conmion interests. Thus we now have the basis for districting the county into natural supervisory districts with the leader provided for. Our hope is to secure legislation that will make it possible to legalize this reorganization of the county into larger educational units and thus give efficient supervision and leadership in all rural districts. Rural neighborhoods are realizing the need of teamwork, and the desire for organized effort is constantly growing. We are attempting to show them the superior advantages of equalization of educational privileges, equalization of burdens of taxation, general elevation of standards of efficiency, more complete unffication, thoro supervision of all schools, better adaptation to growing needs, broadening the scope of usefulness, economy in administration, improvements in sanitation, and justice to the pupils. This year the State Department of Education launched a state-wide plan for boys' and girls' agricultural and industrial contests. These con- tests were attempted in the community centers, winners of events went to the county fairs, and, as a climax, a state children's contest was held. The Superintendence] SOME CONDITIONS AND THEIR IMPROVEMENT 191 movement was enthusiastically supported by the bankers, the farmers, the women's clubs, and the other educational agencies, and the 1913 state legislature gave a liberal financial support to be handled thru the state office. We started a unique plan of working contests. Each of the larger high schools sent a team of three picked students to our state contest — one in sewing, one in cooking, and one in manual training. In a series of uniform booths these teams went to work at the sound of a referee's whistle and stopped at a similar signal. Six working periods during the three days con- stituted the time limit of the contest. During that time the sewing girls each worked on a plain dress, the cooking girls on preparing and serving special dishes, and each boy on a bookrack for a desk. At the close of the contest, the teams were each given a total rank, the winning team getting for its school a handsome silver cup donated by the governor. We are going to extend and enlarge upon these working contests, adding such features as potato or apple paring, typewriting, stock judging, etc. But as important as the state contest may be, the real value of the contest work lies in the local or community exhibitions where each and every boy and girl comes and sees his products matched with those of his neighbors. While the benefits of these local contests may be hard to put into figures or tables, they are not hard to see and feel when we go into these communities and note the greater mental activity and self-confidence of the children who have actually achieved something in tangible, practical work. When we get our club system organized upon the broad foundation laid by general exhibit work, we shall be able to show increased land yields, boys who have bought and paid for property while going to school, and girls who have become proficient homemakers during spare hours of their school years. It is now our plan to articulate this contest work with the boys' and girls' club work managed by the federal department of agriculture. When the plans for this contest work are fully carried out, we shall have a means of disseminat- ing scientific information and giving a system on many problems confronting the rural worker in the field of agriculture and household economics. In my experience as a county superintendent in the state of Washington, I found increasing difficulty in properly housing the teacher. Better accommodations were needed in many parts of the coimtry. In most cases, the desirable homes were closed to the teacher-boarder, while, in some instances, the undesirable home, for purely mercenary reasons, opened its doors. I found, also, that any change made by the teacher in her boarding-place in a rural neighborhood, imless approved by the whole community, involved the teacher in neighborhood dissensions and some- times meant dismissal. I well remember my experience one fall when a young girl came across the state to teach in one of our wealthiest districts. The family that always boarded the teacher had moved to the county seat for high-school advan- tages. Every door in the neighborhood was closed to the teacher-boarder. 192 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond The farmers' wives claimed that they had too much to do in summer to be confined to their homes in winter because of a boarder. The winter was their opportunity to get away for social purposes. One farmer said that he did not want a stranger at his fireside all during the winter months. In answer to my proposal that he give the teacher a stove in her own room so that she might not have to intrude her presence upon the family life, he indignantly exclaimed: "If I found a teacher who thought herself too good to sit with my family circle in the evening, she could not stay a minute in my home." I insisted that that district should provide the teacher with a comfortable boarding-place or I should transfer her to another district. A happy idea came to the teacher and the clerk, that of using a portable house in the farmyard directly opposite the school for a dwelling-place for the teacher. It was moved into the school yard, banked up, and for nine months the teacher kept house. The idea of a teacher's cottage grew out of this experience, and the following September a comfortable two-room cottage was built on the school grounds where the teacher lived with her mother for three years, leaving only when the opportunity presented itself to finish an incomplete college course. I took the stand in my county that no teacher could give her best service in the schoolroom if she was unhappy or uncomfortable in her boarding-place; that she was entitled to good board, to a comfortable room, to peace of mind, and to be by herself when she desired. Friends warned me that I was treading on hallowed and dangerous ground when I attempted to make the problem of the teacher's boarding-place a part of the administrative work of the county superintendent's office. But this determined stand, persisted in, gradually brought about a recognition of the importance of the problem with the result that either the board of directors took the responsibility of providing a suitable boarding-place or a teacher's cottage was built. Teachers' cottages came as a welcome solution to the housing accom- modations for teachers, thus attracting some of the best talent to the country and adding permanency to the teacher's tenure of office. Home life is pleasant because it is real. The home for the teacher appeals more strongly to me perhaps than any other one thing accomplished. It took courage to stand firmly for the teacher's right against a community's inherent right to give or deny the privilege of comforts and good home food to the molder in the schoolroom of the future citizens of one of our great states. The three movements which I have presented to you tonight have come to me as a partial solution to rural-life problems. The commimity center idea grew out of my intimate knowledge of rural conditions. I came to realize fully that "community and school must develop together" and that organization of rural centers was inevitable. The boys' and girls' Superintendence] THE MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS OF KENTUCKY 193 contest work came from the need of attention being directed thru our schools toward practical home work. Living in an agricultural state with a course of study slightly touching the agricultural needs, the farmers, the bankers, and rural-school people urged a vitalized school curriculum. C. THE MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS OF KENTUCKY CORA WILSON STEWART, PRESIDENT, KENTUCKY ILLITERACY COMMISSION, FRANKFORT, KY. The various impressions which have obtained thruout the country as to the moonlight schools of Kentucky, as expressed in letters to me, have been most interesting and amusing indeed. Some have conjectured them to be schools where children studied, scampered, and played on the green like fairies in the moonlight; some have imagined them to be ideal courting schools where lovers strolled arm in arm, quoted poetry, and told the old, old story by the light of a bewitching moon; while others have specu- lated as to their being schools where moonshiners, youthful and aged, were instructed as to the most scientific method of extracting the juice from the corn and the most secretive method of providing successfully against gov- ernment interference. Three years ago there was established in Rowan County, Kentucky, the institution known as "moonlight schools." They were so called because in the begmning they were held only on moonlight nights. These schools were designed primarily to emancipate all the men and women in the county who were enslaved in the bondage of illiteracy. They were intended, also, to afford an opportunity to those who possessed a limited education. First, the public-school teachers of Rowan County were called together and informed of the conditions and needs, an appeal was made to them, especially on behalf of the eleven hundred and fifty-two men and women whom the schools of the past had left behind, and they were asked to vol- unteer for night-school service. Those teachers received the plan and pur- poses of the moonlight schools with sympathy and enthusiasm, and not only volunteered to teach at night, free of charge, but to canvass their dis- tricts in advance and to inform the people of the purpose of these schools and to urge them all to attend. That they did their work well, and that they met with hearts responsive and minds hungry for learning and souls that yearned for higher things was attested by the fact that when the first session opened on the bright moonlight evening of September 5, 191 1, instead of the lone and solitary student or the straggling few at each school, as was anticipated, they came thronging up out of the hollows and over the hills, they came hurrying in groups, they came walking for miles, they came carrying babes in arms, they came leaning on canes and bent with age— they came twelve hundred strong. There were overgrown boys who had dropped out of school at an early age and had fallen behind their classes 194 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond and who had felt ashamed to re-enter school and be classified with "tiny tots" — and they came to catch up again; there were maidens in their teens who had been deprived of an education earlier by reason of isolation, home duties, invalidism, and other causes, but whose souls had yearned for better things than ignorance dense; there were women who had married in child- hood, practically, as is too much the wont of our mountain girls, and who for years craved that which they knew to be their inherent right, their mental development; there were their husbands by their sides, who had too often known the sting of humiliation when making their marks in the presence of the educated and when they had asked the election ofl&cerS to cast for them a vote for the candidates of their choice; there were middle- aged men, who had seen a hundred golden opportunities pass them by because of the handicap of illiteracy, whose mineral and timber and mate- rial stores, as well as their time and energy, were in the control of the edu- cated men, making them but beggars, as it were, on the bounty of those whom they enriched; there were women who had seen their children grow up and vanish from the home, some of them into the Far West, and, when the spoken word and the handclasp had ceased, there had been no heart- to-heart communication, for a third person as an interpreter between mother and child is but a poor medium at the best; there were grandfathers and grandmothers who had heard the Bible read and the gospel propounded but had never had the privilege of reading and verifying the precious prom- ises of that Book of Books with their own eyes — these and other folks, such as make up the average rural community in the southern mountains, some half-educated, and some more, made up these schools. "Just to learn to read my Bible" was the cry of many a patriarch and many a withered dame. "To write my children with my own hand and read their letters with my own eyes" was the earnest wish of the mother's heart. "Just to learn to write my name — to escape from the shame of making my mark!" was the appeal of the younger men, while "Just to have a chance with other folk, to be something and do something in the world!" were the desires expressed by the younger people. The youngest student was aged eighteen and the oldest was eighty-six. It was a scene to bring tears to the eyes, and yet to make the heart rejoice, to see these robust young people and those hoary-haired old people, as they sat at their desks and studied together or stood at the blackboard and wrote their names for the first time with inexpressible pride, or stood in a row and spelled. They learned to read and write during the first session and wrote letters to their friends and loved ones. Two school trustees, who could read and write but possessed little other literary attainment, received encouragement and inspiration from their rapid progress in the night school and entered the day school when the night school closed, pursuing their studies with unsurpassed diligence, and they are today two of the most faithful members of the corps of teachers in that county. One man, who had labored for Superintendence] THE MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS OF KENTUCKY 195 years at the low wage of $1 . 50 and had seen many men less worthy pro- moted above him from time to time, specialized in mathematics, mastering the principles of the branch which dealt with his particular business, limibering, and at the close of the night school was promoted at a salary double the one which he had previously earned. There were a hundred instances of individual development and individual achievement which are on my lips to tell you tonight if time would but stay its hand. The joy in achievement, simple achievement tho it was, is beyond the power of mortal tongue to describe. The newly learned wrote their names with frenzied delight on fences, posts, barns, logs, barrel staves, and every avail- able scrap of paper, and those who possessed even meager means drew their store from its hiding-place and deposited it in the bank and wrote their checks and signed their names with satisfaction. Friction and factional feeling, which existed in some districts, gave place to a spirit of co-operation. A community spirit and Sunday schools and other organizations were direct results of the moonlight schools. The institution was too popular and too fruitful of results to abandon. When the teachers entered their districts the next year they were greeted with a chorus of inquiries, " When will the night school begin ? " A teacher who hesitated was a teacher who lost the good will and esteem of his patrons. We conducted a six weeks' session the second term, running forty-eight schools. We surpassed our first year's record in every par- ticular. Sixteen hundred students were enrolled, 350 were taught to read and write, and a man aged eighty-seven came and put to shame the record of the proud school girl of eighty-six of the session before. The moonlight schools were now an established institution in Rowan County and had been adopted in some one or more districts in eight or ten other counties in the state, and whether it was in the bluegrass county of Madison, among the tenant class, or in Garrard in the distillery section, or in Johnson among the miners, or in Lawrence among the farmers, it had always been with the same results: there had been men and women in large numbers who came and eagerly welcomed the opportunity and who strove with all their might to make up for the years which they had lost and who plead for a longer term when the session closed. When the third session of moonlight schools opened in Rowan County, in August of 1913, it was destined to be the most strenuous campaign against illiteracy that the world had ever known. The teachers had met in the month of March and had agreed with their superintendent to wipe illiteracy finally from that county. We had employed each trustee in April to take a careful census of the illiterates of his district, and when the reports came in each individual case was investigated and an illiteracy record made. On this record we had not only the name and age of every illiterate in the county, but the history of each and every one, his religious preference, his political faith, his weaknesses, tastes, his peculiarities, his family ties, his 196 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond home environment, and the influence or combination of influences thru which he might be reached. Each teacher was provided with the record of illiterates in her particular district, with instructions to call and culti- vate these people — like good politicians — ^before the session of night school began. We established a home department, in which the feeble and those disinclined could be instructed by the teacher or by someone under the teacher's direction in the home. We enlisted every educated person possible to campaign, to speak, or to teach. Ministers, doctors, lawyers, stenog- raphers, merchants, school children, and even many of the illiterate them- selves as soon as they passed out of the illiterate class began to teach members of their families and their friends. We tried by every means, fair and foul, to get every man in the county to learn to read and write. An overwhelming majority accepted the opportunity with joy and gratitude. A few had to be coaxed. Four in their ignorance had a false conception of the movement and stubbornly and persistently refused to attempt to learn; six were afflicted with defective eyesight or total blindness; five were con- firmed invalids languishing on beds of pain; six were imbeciles; and two who moved in at the close of our session did not learn to read or write, leaving us twenty-three illiterates in all. A few weeks ago a Rowan County teacher, whose school had closed, took a sudden and peculiar notion to go and board a while with one of the stubborn old women who had refused to learn and to pay her an exorbitant price for board. She induced the woman to teach her to knit and as they sat and knitted together they became fast and familiar friends, and when the time was ripe this teacher said: Now you have been so kind as to teach me something which I have always wanted to know, I am going to be as kind to you. I am going to teach you to write to Elias in the state of Washington and to Jacob in Illinois and to Charies in Indiana. I know how glad they will be to have a letter from their mother and how happy you will be to read a letter from them. And all the time she was talking the teacher was getting her paper and pencil and materials together, and this old woman, either from a long- smothered desire to communicate with her absent loved children, or from the fear of losing a valuable boarder and charming companion, or from some other inducement, was soon at work copying the letter "E," the first letter of her name. On last Thursday, this earnest little teacher came up the stairway and knocked at my door. I opened, and, with shining eyes but without a word, she laid that old woman's first letter on my desk. Oh, those Rowan County teachers! They have the spirit and they know the method, and I do not believe that any illiterate within their reach has a chance to escape them! Illiteracy is an easy thing to eradicate. It does not take long for an adult to learn to read and write. Saul Dehart, aged thirty-eight, states in this his first letter that it took eight evenings' instruction to achieve it. S. P. Johnson, a Baptist preacher aged fifty, says that he could only write Superintendence] THE MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS OF KENTUCKY 197 one letter in his name when the night schools began, the letter "S." In four days, he signed his name to the assessor's list for the first time and after seven lessons wrote me this, his first letter, pleading that we should not let the night schools go down. Mose Wallace says that it required five evenings for him to learn sufficiently to write me this, his first letter. Tom Stapleton says that four evenings sufficed for him. Burr Harfield says that he learned in two evenings, and is very happy, and his teacher verified his statements. Henry Kissick says that the school supervisor taught him in the woods, where he was making ties, and I have his and the supervisor's affidavits stating that he had never attempted to write before he learned to write and wrote this note, which was done after only two hours' instruc- tion and practice. While we were reducing our illiteracy in Rowan County, we had time to organize and direct night schools in other whole counties and in individual districts in twenty-five other counties in the state. In Grayson County, where we organized twenty-two night schools last August, a man ninety- four learned to read and write and wrote me this letter which I hold in my hand, and which may be plainly read, and which, it is needless to say, I treasure more than fine gold. These statements as to the rapidity with which some men have learned to read and write and the achievements of these venerable students may meet with skepticism in some. They are too unusual and too remarkable, I realize, to meet with fullest credence from those who have known no such experience and have never witnessed such efforts and results. And, not- withstanding the fact that all the world knows that it is risky to dispute a Kentuckian's word, I should cringe and cower to stand before this intelli- gent audience and make such assertions did I not have in my possession proofs to substantiate them. I hold in my hand photos of the most remarkable group of students in the world: Dulcina Morefield, aged eighty-three; Dicie Carter, aged eighty- six; Martin Sloan, aged eighty-seven, and John Hatfield, aged ninety-four. To every apostle of education seated in this audience, the desire and the determination and the efforts of these men and women to escape from ignorance, even as they stand at the very portals of the grave, should be an inspiration and a stimulus to a newer and fuller and completer conse- cration to the great and noble profession in which those assembled here have chosen to engage. It should stimulate us to a consecration which would hold us to the task beyond the shining hours of day and impel us by some means to pry open the doors of all the schoolhouses in this country for the use of the people at night. There sit in this audience men and women who are superintendents of rural communities. The United States Census Bureau reports that illiteracy exists in the rural communities in almost double the proportion that it does in the urban, and this despite the fact that a stream of illiterate foreigners is pouring into 198 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond the urban districts daily. I want to ask you who are superintendents of rural schools, whether section, township, county, or state, if there is any good reason why a night school should be a city product and a city insti- tution only. Is there any just reason why our sturdy pioneers, who were deprived of an education in the strenuous duties of pioneer life in the newly- developed sections, and our pure-blooded Anglo-Saxon retarded moun- taineers of the Appalachian highlands, and our American farmers should be condemned to everlasting ignorance, while illiterate foreigners who enter this country may find the schoolroom door wide open in the cities where they land ? A day school in every community ! Once it was a doubtful experiment, and it has come up only thru trials and tribulations and struggles innumer- able. But it is firmly established, and forever so. A night school in every community! If a cultured community, a night school for more culture, for specialization, for social development; if an ignorant community, a night school for the emancipation of illiterate men and women and for their new birth into the realms of wisdom and power. I believe that the public school should be as liberal in its policy as is the church. I do not believe it has any right to say to men and women, *'If you embrace me not early I will close my doors to you at a certain time or a certain age." The hour of a man's opportunity should be that hour in which he awakens to his need, whether that be at the age of six or one himdred and six. Kentucky is awake on the subject of her adult illiteracy and her heart beats a sympathetic response to the cries of **Wait" from her men and women whom the schools have left behind. Kentucky's governor recom- mended in his message to the general assembly, which is now in session, that an illiteracy commission should be created to study and to relieve the condition of adult illiterates in the state. I was privileged to be present when the lower house passed that measure with a unanimous vote, and some of its members were so enthusiastic in its favor that not content with voting once they voted twice, shouting "Aye! Aye!" One week ago today I received this message telling of the disposition of the measure in the Senate: Dated C. H. Frankfort, Ky. 18 To Mrs. Cora Wilson Stewart, MOREHEAD, Ky. "Your illiteracy bill passed the Senate this morning by unanimous vote and many complimentary remarks about you and your noble work in the state of Kentucky." (Signed) Starling L. Marshall This commission is designed to organize the other counties of the state to do in six years what one of its counties accomplished in three — to prac- tically wipe out illiteracy. Hasten the day when the rural dweller, wherever he may be, whether in the mountains or by the sea, in the cotton fields or on the western plain, Superintendence] FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT 199 may have a school that is not only open to his children and his grandchildren by day but is open to his wife, his grown son, his aged father, his hired man, and himself by night. Hasten the day when there shall be no men and women in this country who have eyes to see but see not the splendid truths which have been written in books, and who have hands to write but write not the thoughts which, if recorded, might stamp with genius someone whose wisdom the world, in its urgent need, is seeking tonight. THE FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT EDWARD L. THORNDIKE, PROFESSOR OF EDUCATIONAL TSYCHOLOGY, TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK, N.Y. A minister of the gospel who was asked to enumerate the foundations of the religious life answered, "Everything in God's world and its proper use." Doubtless the proper use of everything in the world of knowledge and skill and conduct is not too wide a description of the fundamentals of educational achievement. You do not, however, expect anybody to outline an entire educational creed and practice in thirty minutes. What you wish, I judge, is that, as a representative of educational psychol- ogy, I should report any contribution that recent psychology has to offer to your work of making schools more efl&cient — of increasing educational achievement. There is such a contribution, and, as I hope to convince you, an impor- tant one in the general view of human nature which recent studies of human thought and action support. About fifteen years ago the point of view of students of human nature showed the first clear signs of what has been a rather abrupt change toward thinking of a man's mind as the sum total of connections between the situa- tions which life offers and the responses which the man makes. Up till then the mind had been thought of primarily as a set of magical faculties or powers — attention, memory, inference, reasoning, choice, and the like — or as a collection of certain contents — sensations, images, thoughts, volitions, and the like. Today the progressives in psychology think of a man's mind as the organized system of connections or bonds or associations whereby he responds or reacts by this or that thought or feeling or act to each of the millions of situations or circumstances or events that befall him. Their customary name for the mind is the connection-system; their ideal of psychology is a science which can predict what any given situation or stimulus will connect with or evoke in the way of thought, feeling, word, or deed in any given man; their offering to education is an offering of knowl- edge of the laws whereby connections in thought and behavior are made and broken, are preserved and weakened, and are of help and hindrance one to another. 200 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond From this point of view educational achievement consists, not in strengthening mystical general powers of the mind, but in establishing con- nections, binding appropriate responses to life's situations, "training the pupil to behavior" ("behavior" being the name we use for "every possible sort of reaction on the circumstances into which he may find himself brought"), building up a hierarchy of habits, strengthening and weakening bonds whereby one thing leads to another in a man's life. The first suggestion resulting is the obvious and simple but profitable one that nothing is achieved by schools unless some connection is influenced, that we cannot assume change in any pupil unless bonds have been made or broken so as to cause him to respond as he did not before. The connection may be one leading only to an attitude, say of interest or enjoyment. It may be only partly made, guaranteeing the possibility of a certain response, not its surety. It may be hidden, showing itself only indirectly, or only after years, or in some subtle modification of intellect or character. It may lead from some elusive element or feature of a situation, such as the "place- value" of a number or the subjunctiveness of a subjunc- tive, to some general element or feature of many responses, such as open-mindedness, or cheerfulness, or readiness to do what one accepts as right. But if anything is achieved, some actual connection or bond has been made, strengthened, weakened, or broken. A child's mind is never a witch's pot to be set in action by educational incantations. Its defects are not curable by faith. To discipline it means to improve its specific habits. To develop it means to add bonds productive of desirable responses and to weaken their opposites. Learning is connecting. It never becomes so spiritual, so general, or so involved as to evade expression in terms of concrete couplings between real happenings to a man and real responses by him. Of any assumed educational achievement that does evade such expression, we should be suspicious. Probably its only existence is in our hopes or fears. What bonds are being formed, what is being put with what in the pupil's experience, then becomes a fundamental question concerning school achievement. It is of course the old, old question of what knowledge, what habits, what interests, what skill, and what ideals are being taught, but put so as to encourage real rather than verbal, and detailed rather than vague, answers. We need to ask it. For this new point of view protects us against careless omissions and mistakes. For example, I venture to prophesy that more will be achieved in arithmetic by special exercises in teaching the addition-combinations with the higher decades — that is, in forming the connections 26 and 5 are 31, 26 and 6 are 32, 26 and 7 are 33 — than by leaving them to be deduced from the previously formed connections 6 and 5 are 11, 6 and 6 are 12, 6 and 7 are 13, and so on. Whether or not these particular bonds do need special drill or may be left to come by trans- fer, the general rule, not to assume that a bond exists imless you find it or Superintendence] FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT 20l make it, is sound. Again, I venture to prophesy that written single-column addition with sums of lo or more and without carr)dng should and will disappear as a preparation for addition with carrying. A child who adds 6 and 4 and 3 and writes down the 13 is forming a habit that he will have to break when in two-place addition he has to write down only the 3 and use the i in adding. The answers in the preliminary drill may be better announced orally. However this particular case be, the general rule, other things being equal, not to form any connection that will have to be broken, is sound. Again, I venture to prophesy that soon the millions of connec- tions formed in the present teaching of arithmetic and algebra only to test the existence of some other connections will be replaced by connections that do this disciplinary and drill work as well and also serve some intrinsi- cally worthy end. For the psychology of connection-forming carries the educational corollary, "Other things being equal, favor those situations which life itself will offer and those responses which life itself demands. Form connections for use.'* Let me read you one or two problems, all from arithmetics published within the last ten years, and ask you to consider whether, if the writers had thought of just what bonds or connections these problems formed, they would have printed them. 1. The step of an ostrich measures 5 feet. How many yards does it travel in taking 120 steps? 2. At I of a cent apiece how many dozen eggs can I buy for $60 ? 3. Eight (8) times the number of stripes in our flag is the number of years from 1800 until Roosevelt was elected President. In what year was he elected President ? 4. In a school there are 12 classes and an average of 50 pupils in a class. If everyone in the school should make 500 straight marks on each side of his slate, how many would be made in all ? These needed connections now neglected, avoidable connections now formed only to be broken, and wasteful connections formed only for the sake of some principle or power which really useful connections could illustrate or exercise as well, I have illustrated in the case of arithmetic only. But any other school subject would have served as well or better. If each of you will master the psychology of learning, and then scrutinize each page of your approved textbooks and each exercise prescribed by your course of study, asking, Ime by line, " What connections are formed by this ?'* the importance of the facts and the point of view for criticism and for con- struction will soon be proved. I turn now to a second fundamental principle for school achievement, the order of formation of the connections. The bonds to be formed having been chosen, the next step is to arrange for their most economical order of formation — to arrange to have each help the others as much as possible, or, as we psychologists say, to get the maximum of facilitation and minimum of inhibition. 202 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond You have heard so many discussions and read so many treatises con- cerning the sequence of topics, the correlation of studies, and the like, that you perhaps shrink from re-examining a minute inventory of all school work and reconsidering its best possible arrangement as a system or hier- archy of connections to be formed, each with the interests of all the others in view. It must, indeed, be admitted that the work is long and also tedious, unless one has a scientific interest in minute matters of educational efficiency and in principles whereby to adjudicate them. It is, however, important, for economy in educational achievement means that we form the most desirable connections in the most useful order. And it is needed; for, in spite of the very great advance of the past hundred years, textbooks and courses of study still follow mere traditional customs or the order which happens to appeal to some individual expositor. I may illustrate this need in the simple case of the bonds between printed words and their meanings that should be formed before, or at the time that, certain work in arithmetic is to be done. It is obvious that to follow printed directions and to solve printed problems a pupil needs to be able to read the directions and problems — that is, to have formed the bonds leading from the sight of certain words and phrases to their meanings. What I propose to show is that even the best of our modern arithmetical textbooks presuppose, at stage after stage, ''word-meaning" connections which, at that stage, have not been and should not have been formed; and that, on the other hand, they and the textbooks in reading fail to form in early grades certain connections which would enormously facilitate the arithmetical learning for these grades. I shall first read you a list of words all of which occur within the first fifty pages of one or more of four elementary beginning arithmetics intended for pupils in Grade II (or Grade III at the latest). I submit that the majority of the children in question will not have formed the connections in question and should not be expected to have done so, and that to make achievement in arithmetic hang on knowledge of these words as a pre- requisite is a monstrous offense against rational organization of learning. The words beginning with "c" are: cabbage California camped camphor candles cardboard carriage charity Clara Charlotte Carrie's circus circumference closet cloudy clothespin cocoa collected combinations conmiittee covered county cradles crane cranberries crew crumbs currants , These four books show in the first fifty pages at least four hundred words which not half of the children at the middle of Grade II can read or should be expected to read. For example, in one or more of the four may be foimd a galaxy of seventy proper names which these children must master before they can understand their problems. Superintendence] FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT 203 I submit that so long as such offenses come in our best textbooks a scrutiny of the order of formation of bonds in school work is no empty- psychological amusement, but a vital concern for educational policy. On the other hand, consider the bonds between these words and their meanings: How much, how many, count, with, together, add, sum, difference, take away, is left, are left, once, twice, two times, three times, four times, half of, some, all, in all, any, not any, equal, part, whole, greater, less, longer, shorter, cost, buy, bought, sell, sold, measure. The existence and sure action of connections between these words and their meanings must precede or accompany early work in arithmetic, if it is to be efficient, yet few books or courses of study in arithmetic provide for their formation save hit-or-miss; and surely the primers and first and second readers do not. The four books in arithmetic which I examined actually avoid forming these bonds. The word *' difference," for example, occurs only once in twenty pages, the pupils' time being spent in getting acquainted with such words as dairyman depot department Dorothy discharged dishwater Two of the four do not use the word "sum" in these fifty pages, yet find room for Samuel, Susan, Susie, swimming, syllable, syrup, soldiers, sparrows, strips, stripes, and so on. Bear in mind that the textbook writers who thus leave unformed impor- tant facilitating connections, and burden the beginners of arithmetic with the task of learning to read the names of rare food products, strange vehicles, and the Adele, B)^on, Dorothy, Esther series, are from our best — that without such a deUberate warning to consider the place of every connection in the hierarchy as I have given not one of us would have done better. Bear in mind also that textbooks in elementary geography show a similar state of affairs. A psychologist examining the connections made by the school subjects with a view to their arrangement in an optimum order finds many of these chances for sure improvement and also many problematic cases where, it appears, experimentation has a fair probability of showing ways to increase school achievement. Any few of these problems for investigation will serve as illustrations. Consider, for example, teaching certain facts about pints and quarts, feet and yards, cents, dimes, and dollars, very early as an introduction to and confirmation of knowledge of our system of decimal notation and of the processes of "carr3dng" in addition and "borrowing" in subtraction. The later decimal-system habits would undoubtedly then be more mtelligent and less productive of interference. Whether this gain would be outbalanced by other losses can best be discovered by experiment. Or consider, for example, teaching the metric system as an 204 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond introduction to, instead of as a consequence of, decimal fractions. This change may seem preposterous, but I venture to remind you that doing just this in the case of United States money is one of the most successful features of the arrangement of modem textbooks. Or consider teaching much of United States history first in the reverse chronological order — from aeroplanes to automobiles, to the electric trolley, to the steam railroad, to the stagecoach; from the building of the school- house to the settlement of the town, to pioneer days, to the Pilgrims; from the discovery of America by Isidore Strauss to the discovery by Columbus — reviewing and expanding and co-ordinating later in a direct chronological account. As romance or panorama, history begins with centuries back, but as a science, it may perhaps best begin at home, and with facts near and verifiable, as we have found it profitable for geography to do. Or consider the order of acquaintance with the words in a foreign lan- guage. The commonest bonds found among words are those binding words to their opposites (good-bad, father -son, boy-girl, hot-cold, up-down, and the like), yet I have searched a score of Latin, French, and German language books without finding any systematic use of this fact. Again the word- meaning connections of most help in facilitating reading are with the rela- tional words, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, pronouns, and directive adverbs. Yet these words are very rarely given early or extensive or ingenious treatment. Indeed, I do not find much recognition of any principles of economical arrangement of vocabularies save the utterly obvious one that words not fitting the grammatical and translational exercises are kept out, and the common words or words used in the "first five books of Caesar'* or the like are worked in. Yet the maxunum of achievement demands that there should be a reason for every word taught and for teaching it at just that time and no other. Such problems as these in mental mechanics — ^problems in choosing, ordering, and manipulating the mind's connections — are now the growing- point of experimental education. By skilful analysis of human learning into the millions of elementary connections between situation and response which constitute it and by experimental study of the ways in which these connections are best formed, preserved, organized, and used, the psycholo- gist hopes to get both comprehension and control of the foundations of educational achievement. The foundations of educational achievement are these connections or bonds or habits of response, but these habits themselves lead us back farther to the unlearned, original capacities and tendencies of man. Human beings, as you well know, are not indifferent clay to be molded at will by the teacher's art. They are themselves active forces to help or hinder. They inherit as a human birthright instincts and interests of which education from the start and thruout must take account. Educational achievement Superintendence] FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT 205 is small or great in proportion as it neglects these natural untaught tend- encies in man or utilizes them to further his ideal aims. And educational science needs as its basal equipment an exact and adequate inventory of the original nature of man as a species and of the idiosyncrasies of individual men. No choice of the habits of thought or action to be formed by schools is sound which gives technique irrespective of needs felt by the pupil, or adds knowledge without any motive for its use, or tries to cultivate artificial virtues in disregard of the crude forms of courage, kindliness, zeal, and helpfulness which nature already affords. No arrangement of the mind's connections is economical which fails to use the inborn organizing power of curiosity, the problem-attitude, and the desire to test and verify or refute by eyes and hands. No manipulation of bonds in learning is efficient which disregards the pupil's own sense of sociability, kindness, and achievement during the learning process. The original proclivities of the human animal are as real as its laws of learning and condition these thruout. Every habit is formed in the service of some instinctive interest. The inborn interests of man in movement, novelty, color, life, the behavior of other human beings, sociability, cheerfulness, notice, approval, mastery, and self-activity are not ultimate aims of education, nor is their presence a guaranty that school work is well directed and efficient. But we double achievement if we get them on our side and we enrich life enormously at little cost if we turn these fundamental passions into line with higher nature and the common good. I hold no brief in favor of avoiding in schools anything necessary for human welfare, either because it is hard or because it is disliked. I find many of the tendencies born in man to be archaic, useless, immoral, adapta- tions to such a life as man lived in the woods a hundred thousand years ago, when affection had not spread beyond the family, or justice beyond the tribe, or science beyond the needs of tomorrow, and when truth was only the undisputed and goodness only the unrebuked. That the natural is the good is a superstition which psychology cannot tolerate. Still less, how- ever, can psychology tolerate the superstition that there can be any founda- tion for educational achievement other than the best that human nature itself affords. Truth is only what the best in human intellect accepts; goodness is only what the best in human nature craves. We mean by the rational, ideal, and impersonal aims of education only the nobler inborn human interests purified of their crude accompaniments and broadened to harmonize with the common good. We must not find too much fault with human nature; for ultimately it is all we have! Its best elements are the best the world has or ever will have. What psychology offers education today is thus a matter-of-fact view of human nature as a set of original unlearned connections or tendencies to 2o6 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond respond, which we redirect and to which we add by arranging the situations of life so that new and better connections are formed. The efficiency with which we do this work will depend on our knowledge of man's inborn equip- ment, our wisdom in choosing and arranging the connections to be formed, and our justice and ingenuity in maneuvering these forces of instinct and habit for human betterment. A flawless architecture of human affairs will not be attained until every possible response of every variety of himian being to every situation of life is thus understood and controlled by human reason in the interest of human weKare. However, each minute addition of scientific knowledge of man's nature means one more stone (or at least one molecule of cement!) of wise placing in the foundation for education's building. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ECONOMY OF TIME IN EDUCATION H. B. WILSON, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, TOPEKA., KANS., CHAIRMAN In its report of progress one year ago, your conmiittee indicated that the largest result of its labors by that date consisted in securing the co- operation of a number of investigators, each undertaking some study with a view to a future report on some significant phase of the general problem of economy of time in public-school education. Undoubtedly, the most significant thing which occurred during the past year in relation to this general problem was the publication of the report by the Committee of the National Council of the National Education Association on Economy of Time in Education by President James H. Baker, chairman, together with the other members of his committee. This report, as is well known, resulted from the persistent efforts of President Baker since the meeting of 1903 and represents the labors of President Baker and the other members of his committee, working since 1908. As a result of their efforts and upon their advice, two co-operating committees have been created within the past three years — one from the National Association of State Universities and the other from this depart- ment. The work of President Baker's committee is of significant value in that the attention of educators thruout the country has been constantly kept upon this problem of such consequence during this period of wonderful educational reconstruction, and in that, resulting from their work, there has developed a large amount of co-operative thinking, practicing, and testing, and in that the printed report sets forth clearly and succinctly the fundamental principles which should consciously guide in a constructive way in the further work upon this problem, and in that they proposed in closing their report the following divisions and distribution of the time consumed in the period of general and special education: Superintendence] COMMITTEE ON ECONOMY OF TIME IN EDUCATION 207 Elementary Education 6 to 1 2 Secondary Education (two divisions — 4 years and 2 years) 12 to 1 8 College 18 to 20 or 16 to 20 University (graduate school and professional schools) 20 to 24 In closing their report, this committee also suggests that upon the committees from the Association of American Universities and from this department "rests the responsibility of a final solution.'* In a letter to the chairman of your committee following the issuance of this report, President Baker says: "I believe the final solution of the problem will come largely thru the work of your committee." During the past year, extended, aggressive work on the part of your committee has been impossible owing to financial embarrassment. Altho this department at its meeting in Philadelphia one year ago recommended the continuance of your committee and the appropriation of $500 to defray necessary expenses, and altho the Council at its summer meeting indorsed this recommendation to the Committee on Appropriations of the National Education Association, the funds available did not enable the setting apart of any money for the use of your committee. As soon as we were ofiicially informed that the expected deposit could not be made to our credit, we pro- ceeded to learn the size of our overdraft and to notify all investigators that no additional expenses could be defrayed. In spite of the heavy draft on the funds of the National Education Association, however, all bills which had been contracted were properly paid. Despite the fact that we were unable to lend them financial encouragement, a number of the co-operating investigators have found ways of continuing the work, some meeting their expenses personally, and others finding ways of charging limited expenses to the institutions with which they are connected. In addition to the two reports which are to be presented in the program of this session we are able to report definite progress on the part of the following co-operating investigators: W. C. Bagley, on "The Formulation of the Minima in Geography and History." L. D. Coffman, on "The Size of Classes in Relation to Economy of Time." W. W. Black, on "Reading." C. W. Stone, on "The Elimination of Arithmetic in the First Two Grades." L. W. Rapeer, on "The Relation of Health to Economy of Time." O. I. Woodley, on "What the Normal Schools in the United States Are Doing in Practice and in Theoretical Investigation Pertaining to Economy of Time." While he has not begun his investigation, W. W. Charters has com- pleted his plans for studying "The Methods of Prolonging the Professional Growth of Teachers in Active Service." During the year, F. E. Spaulding completed his study of "Measuring Efficiency," which was published in Education for December, 19 13. Further progress is manifest thru the interest in the work of your committee which has been evidenced by numerous inquiries from educa- tional associations and investigating committees thruout the United 2o8 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond States and by the attention to the topic of economy of time in the programs of various educational meetings. The most significant and exhaustive of such programs was that of the Western Section of the Northern Illinois Teachers Association which met at Rockford, 111., in the autumn of 19 13, the program for which was organized by Superintendent J. B. McManus, of La Salle, 111. Copies of this program may be had by those interested in constructing similar programs by writing to Superintendent McManus. There is probably no more effective means of carrying this theoretical discussion over into practice than that of arranging for its detailed presen- tation and consideration in the programs of educational meetings. Meetings held by your committees since the opening of this session of the department show that your committee is able to announce the issuance, by the time of the meeting of this department one year hence, of a printed statement of the minimum content which both good practice and theoretical considerations indicate should be required in a number of subjects of the elementary curriculmn. This statement will attempt to indicate also the time which should be required in the teaching of this content as reflected in the general practice thruout the country and particularly in that prac- tice which indicates that less than the usual time is sufficient for the doing of thoroly adequate work. Arrangements have already been completed for the formulation of such a report on arithmetic by W. A. Jessup; on language by J. F. Hosic; on history and geography by W. C. Bagley; on spelling by Hugh C. Pryor; on reading by R. G. Jones; and on writing by Frank N. Freeman. Plans have also been consummated for the publication of these reports as a yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. Your committee confidently believes that this step insures a significant advance in the matter of insuring, in the near future, additional safe attempts to economize time in public education. This yearbook will contain a study of systems which are definitely attempting practical programs for econo- mizing time, setting forth concretely such facts in reference to their organiza- tion and practices as are essential to understanding specifically their prac- tical programs and undertakings. This study will be made by Frank E. Thompson. A study will also be made of the time distribution by subjects and grades in representative cities in the United States the study being interpreted from the standpoint of the suggestions it may contain in relation to economy of time. This study will be in charge of Frank E. Spaulding. The need at this time, as it seems to your committee, is further serious study of the problem, from the standpoints of both practice and theory. This end will be furthered, as we believe, in very specific and concrete fashion by the studies above announced for publication. That programs for securing desirable economies may actually work out in practice, ways and means of insuring constructive thinking and doing on the part of the rank and file of teachers and superintendents must be sought. In this Superintendence] ECONOMY OF TIME IN ARITHMETIC 209 interest, we urge the study of the topic on the part of teachers in service as well as on the part of intending teachers now in training. We also urge the testing-out of various plans for economizing time as they may come to the attention of those in administrative positions. It will also aid a popular grasp of this program if our local as well as our national educational journals give space to good articles relating to the topic and if educational programs provide opportunities for presentation and discussion of various significant phases of the problem. ECONOMY OF TIME IN ARITHMETIC WALTER A. JESSUP, DIRECTOR, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA, IOWA CITY, IOWA In September of 1913 a questionnaire was sent by L. D. Coffman, of the University of Illinois, and myself to the city superintendents listed in the directory of the United States Bureau of Education, which includes practically all of the cities with a population of 4,000 and over — about 1,700 in all. The same questionnaire was sent to every sixth county superintendent in the United States. The questions were answered by 52 per cent of the city superintendents, and by 24 per cent of the county superintendents. Returns were received from practically every sized city in the country. However, the larger cities were a little better represented in the matter of replies than were the smaller cities and rural districts. Each section of the country was well represented in returns. Thus it can be said that the data here submitted represent the attitude of one-half of the superintendents distributed quite evenly over the country as to size of city and geographical location. Questionnaire economy of time as related to material used in arithmetic City State Underscore once the subjects which should receive slight attention; underscore twice the subjects which should be eliminated: apothecaries' weight, troy weight, furlong, rood in square measure, dram, quarter in avoirdupois weight, surveyors' tables, foreign money, folding paper, reduction of more than two steps, long method of G.C.D., L.C.M., true discount, cube root, partnership, compound proportion, compound and complex fractions, cases in percentage, annual interest, longitude and time, unreal fractions, alligation, metric system, progression, aliquot parts. Others Underscore the subjects which should receive more attention than is usually given: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, percentage, interest, saving and loaning money, banking, borrowing, building and loan associations, investments, bonds and stocks, taxes, levies, public expenditures, insurance as protection and invest- ment, profits in business, public utilities. 2IO , NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION (Richmond ECONOMY OF TIME AS RELATED TO THE METHOD USED IN TEACHING Percentage of recitation time in arithmetic which should be given over to strictly drill exercises in each grade. Grade 123456789 Percentage Percentage of recitation time in arithmetic which should be given over to rationaliza- tion work in each grade. Grade i 2 3 4*5 6 7 8 9 Percentage Approximate number of minutes per week given over to recitations in arithmetic in yow^ schools in each grade. Grade i 2 3 4 5 6 7 89 No. Minutes Remarks: Signed City . MANIPULATION OF DATA' The returns were distributed so as to reveal differences, if any, between the responses of school men in the different sections of the country and for the cities of different sizes. Some of the superintendents answered only a part of the questions; hence the totals in the various parts of the report are not all the same. All doubtful answers were eliminated or checked by means of a supplementary inquiry asking for verification of statement. MATERIAL USED IN ARITHMETIC The percentage of superintendents who favored elimination was calcu- lated so as to show the difference in attitude toward each of the twenty- five topics suggested. A large percentage favored the elimination of certain formal subjects such as alligation, cube root, unreal fractions, progression, etc., and certain more or less obsolete tables such as paper- folding, surveyors' measure, etc. Table I shows the exact distribution for each subject. Many superintendents who did not go so far as to favor absolute elimination did favor the plan of giving less attention to these subjects. Table II shows the percentage of superintendents distributed for each subject. ' This report would have been impossible had it not been for the painstaking statistical work done by a group of students in the graduate seminar in the College of Education, State University of Iowa. The following men assumed the chief resjwnsibility: James Richardson, Chester Buckner, H. W. Anderson. Superintendence] ECONOMY OF TIME IN ARITHMETIC 211 Chart I is made up by combining Tables I and II and reveals the atti- tude of 867 superintendents toward these topics. The crosshatched portion indicates the percentage of superintendents who favor the elimination of each of these subjects; the shaded portion indicates the percentage of superintendents who favor giving less attention to each of these subjects; and the unshaded portion indicates the percentage of superintendents who are satisfied with the present status. It is seen from Chart I that the super- intendents are overwhelmingly inclined to favor the elimination or at least a lessening of emphasis on these subjects. TABLE I Percentage of Superintendents Who Favor Elimination of the Topics, Dis- tributed so AS TO Reveal Differences in Attitude in Large Cities, Cities and Counties, and for All Cities Topic Cities of 100,000 and Over Cities and Counties All Cities Apothecaries' weight Troy weight Furlong Rood in square measure Dram Quarter in avoirdupois Surveyors' tables : Foreign money Folding paper Reduction of more than two steps . . Long measure of G.C.D Least common multiple True discount Cube root Partnership Compound proportion Compound and complex fractions . , Cases in percentage Annual interest Longitude and time Unreal fractions Alligation Metric system Progression Aliquot parts Per Cent 72 75 8S 13 78 81 72 25 63 25 66 25 66 56 50 72 28 28 63 13 72 88 41 88 Per Cent SI 40 70 19 S8 66 43 27 34 21 33 20 44 41 23 49 24 18 40 7 70 82 19 63 19 Per Cent 53 42 72 20 60 68 47 28 35 22 35 22 47 46 25 52 26 20 41 8 74 85 20 67 21 Analyses of these data indicate that the superintendents of the larger cities are inclined to favor more elimination than are the superintendents of the smaller cities. The returns from the county superintendents who represent the rural schools seem to reveal no striking differences in attitude. Analyses of the replies on the basis of the geographical sections of the country indicate that there is a slight difference between the North and the South, but this is no greater than the difference to be found between the North Central division and the North Atlantic division. 212 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond ^Uquo f parts 7Q:>od fjscfi/cHon Thrfne^r^hip T*oreign mon^ fajpe'ir folding ffn. Tnf&resi: *Jroy v^t ^(/hc tvot Sun^eyorb *Jahtes ^iscoirnir (^ojj^. pr(jpojfioj7 ^po/hecaries t^. pTogression QvarfGjr FSjrlong Unreal fh^c^t ^ItigaHoj^ 10 ZO 30 90 J'O eo 70 80 30 100 Chart I. — ^Percentage of superintendents who favor "elimination" or "less atten- tion" (830 dties represented). Superintendence] ECONOMY OF TIME IN ARITHMETIC 213 After distributing and tabulating the material in order to learn of differences in cities of different sizes in different sections of the country, it seems safe to say that the differences are so slight that Chart I can be taken as a representative measure of the attitude of the superintendents of the country toward the elimination or decrease of attention in regard to the different topics in the list. TABLE n Percentage of Superintendents Who Favor the Plan of Giving Less Atten- tion TO THE Topics, Distributed so as to Reveal Differences in Atti- tude IN Large Cities, Cities and Counties, and for All Cities Topic Apothecaries' weight Troy weight Furlong Rood in square measure Dram Quarter in avoirdupois Surveyors* tables Foreign money Folding paper Reduction of more than two steps . Long measure of G.C.D Least common multiple True discount Cube root Partnership Compound proportion Compound and complex fractions . Cases in percentage Annual interest Longitude and time Unreal fractions Alligation Metric system Progression Aliquot parts Cities of 100,000 and Over Cities and Counties AUCiti 46 36 44 20 19 39 42 24 23 17 17 40 40 57 57 34 46 35 48 39 40 44 45 31 31 39 37 43 44 33 32 42 44 34 35 32 55 11 17 15 10 9 42 44 21 20 31 32 31 32 12 37 18 14 40 47 31 45 47 SO 27 34 39 38 49 36 35 55 9 4 42 12 28 ADDITIONAL EMPHASIS The percentage of the superintendents who favored the plan of increas- ing the emphasis upon certain subjects was tabulated so as to show the different attitudes toward each of the subjects suggested. A large percentage were in favor of giving more emphasis to the fundamental subjects such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. There was also a very strong sentiment in favor of increasing the em- phasis on the applications of arithmetic to the social and economic con- ditions of the day; such as the saving and loaning of money, taxation, public expenditure, insurance, etc. Table III shows the exact distribution for each subject. 214 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond The replies were also tabulated on the basis of size of the different cities represented. The superintendents of the larger cities seemed to be less inclined to favor an increase in attention to these subjects. This may be due to the fact that these cities are already giving more emphasis to these subjects than are the small cities. TABLE ni Percentage of Superintendents Who Favor the Plan of Giving More Atten- tion TO THE Topics, Listed so as to Reveal Differences in attitude IN Large Cities, Cities and Counties, and for All Cities Topic Cities of 100,000 and Over Cities and Counties All Cities Addition Subtraction Multiplication Division Fractions Percentage Interest Saving and loaning money . . . Banking Borrowing Building and loan associations Investments Bonds and stocks Taxes Levies Public expenditure Insurance Profits Public utilities 59 SO 59 56 56 31 25 50 38 22 13 16 9 25 6 28 31 28 34 75 68 72 69 66 51 41 61 40 37 46 44 20 S3 36 54 54 47 57 75 69 72 70 65 50 39 61 39 37 48 44 20 53 35 55 55 46 57 The replies were tabulated on the basis of the geographical sections of the country. Only a slight difference was found in this particular. The South is perhaps slightly better satisfied with present conditions. This may be due to a situation similar to that in the large city. Chart II, based on the returns from all cities, seems safely to represent the present attitude toward the increased emphasis upon these topics. The shaded portion indicates the percentage of superintendents who favor giving more attention to each of these subjects. POSSIBLE ECONOMY OF TIME In connection with the special problem in which the committee is inter- ested, namely, to find out if conditions are favorable for effecting an economy of time by means of the elimination of certain subjects, or by means of reducing the time being given these subjects, it seems reasonable to say that the time gained from this elimination or decreased attention to the twenty-five foregoing subjects may wisely be given to the nineteen sub- jects which demand more attention. While it is true that it is impossible Superintendence] ECONOMY OF TIME IN ARITHMETIC 215 to say how much time will be saved thru this change in emphasis, it should be borne in mind that the superintendents overwhelmingly favor increased 'Stocks }F ^onda ficinking In Merest Try^estm en ts y// ^vilding if h>oan rrqfif P®rc&xyi-age Insvrancer "Pvhlic Wap&nditvre Vy Jrhhtic Utitifiea Sailings money T*r act tons Qvhfractlon Wit^ision J^vtHpilcafion ^ddii-iorx /' '\ \. \ IS \ > v^ "-v '\ w "-. % Gmdes U M n w Chart IV. — Showing the median percentage of time given over to strictly drill work in the recitations in each grade (564 cities). of existing practice based on the experience in hundreds of cities. A con- servative view will no doubt tend toward the adoption of a standard such as the median for the whole country unless local conditions offer some specific reason to do otherwise. Analyses of the replies on the basis of the size of cities represented revealed only slight difference in the time distribution for drill in the cities of different sizes. Further analysis of the returns reveals the difference in different sec- tions of the country. The North Atlantic section stands out in striking 222 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond contrast to the South Atlantic section in that in the North a very much higher percentage of time is devoted to drill in the first three grades than in the South. It would be of interest to compare the arithmetical achieve- ment in the schools of the North Atlantic division with the schools of the other sections where very much less emphasis is placed on drill in these grades. It is significant that there is great agreement in regard to the emphasis placed on drill in the three lower grades. This is true not only for the country as a whole, but it is also true for cities of different sizes and for the different sections of the country. Experience seems to have become standardized in regard to stage of emphasis if not as to degree of emphasis. SUMMARY This study reveals the fact that there is an overwhelming tendency on the part of half of the superintendents in this country in favor of either eliminating or lessening the attention to be given to certain subjects in arithmetic such as alligation, cube root, unreal fractions, progression, and certain obsolete tables such as folding paper, surveyors' tables, etc. Again, it reveals an overwhelming attitude in favor of increased emphasis on such fundamental subjects as addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division. There is also a decidedly strong disposition to favor increased emphasis on the application of arithmetic to the social and economic conditions of the day, such as the saving and loaning of money, taxation, public expendi- tures, life insurance, etc. The wide variation in the recitation time given to arithmetic as a whole, and in the different grades indicates that many cities are already effecting a large economy of time in this particular. // is recommended that the 50 per cent of the cities spending the most time reduce this to the amount being expended by the 50 per cent of the cities spending the least time. This plan would cut the range of practice in two and still give opportunity for the expression of the conservative and radical points of view. This standard is shown in Chart III. The wide variation in the percentage of time given to drill indicates the importance of scientific investigations of the relative achievements secured from the different time allotments. The median time allotment in practice now in the different grades thruout the United States most nearly represents the judgment of the school men based on their own experi- ence. It is suggested that this median percentage of recitation time given over to drill in each grade be adopted as a standard until scientific investigations have proven this to be in error. This standard is shown in Chart IV. In conclusion it should be said that this investigation clearly points to the desirability ot a study of relative achievements attained in the work in arithmetic in these same schools. Superintendence! THE DETERMINANTS OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 223 THE DETERMINANTS OF THE COURSE OF STUDY A. DUNCAN YOCUM, PROFESSOR OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND PRACTICE, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA, PA. Four sharp distinctions are fundamental for course-of-study-making: Between (i) knowledge and power; (2) specific and general usefulness; (3) general education and specialization; and (4) essential and optional material. The first three represent all possible forms of usefulness. The fourth results from the measurement of relative usefulness. If, by reducing each of the three to its simplest terms, usefulness is made definite; if a valid test is provided which, by measuring relative usefulness for all three, discriminates between what is so essential that it must be compelled of all learners and what must be presented to all but left to the option of each, course-of-study-making can become a science. KNOWLEDGE EDUCATIONAL ONLY THRU FIVE FORMS OF FORMAL ACTIVITY As education depends upon the retention of experience and the control of new experience thru activity which has been given continuity and domi- nance by the old, knowledge in the educational sense means an idea or activity in the relationships in which it is retained by the learner, and power the resulting forms of self-activity which form or control his future experience. Now our everyday experience furnishes us with the fate of all presenta- tions from the standpoint of retention, whether we gain them in school or out. Most of them are forgotten altogether, except thru vague impressions they leave behind. Some of them, usually in the form of new words, are barely held in mind, in some partial or accidental relationship; about others, many-sided associations gradually gather, differing in individual learners with varying interests, experiences, moods, and circumstances, but resulting in fuller ideas, information, and mental interconnection. Still others, definitely and certainly retained in specific relationships, take the form of habit and systematic knowledge. A few, general enough to be found in other fields than that in which they are acquired, are more or less generally applied in other fields. All knowledge gained in school, or out, is retained either in forgotten relationships, in single or partial relationships, in varying and many-sided relationships, in definite and certain relationships, or in relationships general enough to be found in various fields of experience. The usefulness of knowledge as a means to power or mental training consists solely in its contribution thru these five sets of relationships in which it is retained to five corresponding forms of formal activity. Forgotten relationships result in impression, which cumulatively develops permanent interests, tastes, ideals, and points of view. Single or partial relationships form vocabulary thru the partial concepts by which most words and ideas are held in mind; many-sided relationships bring about an interconnection 224 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond of ideas which constantly reassociates them in new and varying connections. Definite and certain relationships result in specific discipline in the sense of habit and system; while a relationship general enough in its form may, under favorable conditions, bring about a general discipline or application which carries ideas over into branches of knowledge and fields of experience other than those which have developed them. Even with analysis as rough as this, the strength and weakness of present-day mental training stand revealed. For the growing many- sidedness and vocabulary which constitute its strength in elementary education, Herbartianism is only partially responsible. The multiplica- tion of children's books and periodicals, story-telling, the phonograph, the mechanical piano-player, the moving-picture show, the improvement in methods of instruction which gives the pupils of the first school grade a half-dozen readers in place of one — all tend to vocabulary expansion and information getting, with a consequent mental interconnection, widely varying in the case of each pupil. In the general college course this many-sidedness is threatened by an overspecialization, which excludes it from essential domains of knowledge and experience. Partly thru the elective system, partly in reaction from it, partly as a concession to vocational specialization, but even more largely thru the influence of graduate-school training upon college teaching, a tendency to concentration upon a few academic subjects has set in, which is more of a menace to democratic culture than the old classical course itself. If the mastery of mathematics and the ancient languages, as elementary wholes, long required of all, involved the certain memorizing of technical details, useless both in everyday life and to habit formation, it at the same time compelled moral and intellectual habits which, if not economically insured elsewhere, cannot be bought too dear. If limitation of culture to the study of Greek and Latin literatures made it aristocratic and excluded it from broad fields of modern thought and experience, it insured more many-sided contact with the spiritual inheritance of the race than either the elective system or the more persistent academic specialization being seized upon as its antidote. The most serious weakness of present-day education on the side of mental training is its failure to compel what is most useful: its lack of per- sistency in the development of tastes and ideals thru cumulative impression; its lack of the drill and continuity adequate to the building-up of per- manently essential habit and system; its failure to insure the conditions favorable to general application; and even in the individual and varying selection, necessarily left to each learner, from the material not made certain by drill, its failure to so limit and control that what is relatively most useful is given the greatest likelihood of survival. In course-of-study-making at least three facts concerning power or mental training must be held in mind; First, all vaguer terms and generaliza- Superintendence! THE DETERMINANTS OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 225 tions regarded as essential to mental development either can be reduced to one or more of these five forms or can result from them. Second, all five forms must be considered in determining the usefulness of material in any branch of knowledge or any phase of preparation for life. Third, no one of the five forms can be fully developed by any one branch of knowledge and some can result only from the partial use of all. Cumulative impression is mainly dependent upon an emotional form of expression which is strongest in nature, literature, music, and art, while vocabulary and varying inter- connection, as the Herbartians have long demonstrated, result from the correlation of essential parts of all branches of knowledge. Specific dis- cipline can be developed by any subject that insures habit and system, but general discipline or application cannot fully result without the varying interconnection which comes from the study of the more general phases of all subjects. It is difficult to determine which assumption is more stupid — that any subject which insures habit and system is useful regardless of its specific usefulness, when so much of habit and system is incapable of general application; or that mere many-sidedness of knowledge insures application, in the absence of the thoro drill and never-ending review which must build up the habit and system useful enough and permanent enough to be applied. ALL FIVE FORMS OF FORMAL ACTIVITY CAN BE SPECIFICALLY OR GENERALLY USEFUL The second fundamental distinction necessary to course-of-study- making is between general and specific usefulness: that is, between "mental training," "general knowledge," "discipline," or "culture," and direct and definite preparation for life. While direct preparation for life consists in mental training, mental training does not necessarily prepare for the various phases of life. A man may be generally learned or intelligent, but immoral, imhealthy, industrially inefficient, unsocial, weak or dangerous as a citizen, and ill prepared for the right enjoyment of leisure. Indeed the more learned and intelligent he is, the greater the menace he may be to the conmiunity and the state. On the other hand, a man may in a very definite and certain sense be prepared for every phase of life and at the same time be a mere creature of habit — unintelligent in his action and ignorant of all that he has not put to specific use. In either case, every step in his educa- tion has resulted in one or more of the five forms of formal activity. But the specific usefulness that prepares for life involves impression, vocabulary, interconnection, habit, and application that are definitely and certainly useful to religion and morality, health, industry, social service, citizenship, or individual and social leisure. However variously we phrase it, this is what we mean by education as "adjustment" or the "social aim." While general usefulness, on the other hand, consists of mere multiplication of vocabulary in general, all possible interconnection of ideas, knowledge for 226 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond the sake of knowledge, and the ideals and the habits of some academic field that may or may not carry over to life. In any efficient scheme of education, general and specific usefulness must supplement each other. No one questions the primary necessity of direct preparation for life, but we have too slowly come to the realization that the school must contribute to every phase of it, at every stage of development. Because of the lessening educational service possible to home and to organized industry, because the school, legally at least, reaches all learners as the church can no longer reach them, because of its growing efficiency, and because of the fact that as a democratic institution its instruction is accepted as a universal right, it is being compelled to add every form of specific training to an academic learning whose general usefulness in the sense of the mastery of elementary subjects as wholes is being seriously questioned. In order that material adequate to the effect- ive teaching of each specific educational end shall be supplied, the details within each branch of knowledge must be examined with a view to their relative usefulness for each specific end. In order to insure material adequate to the development of each form of formal activity in its general usefulness, the details within each branch must be examined with a view to their general as well as their specific worth. No detail of knowledge is educationally useful which does not further one or more of the five forms of formal activity in either a specific or a general usefulness. It is readily apparent that the most useful details are those that add to definite and specific usefulness the possibility of general usefulness. But there are generally useful facts that have no specific value except for aca- demic specialization and specifically useful details that have no general value either within or without the field in which they are taught. Every detail within each of these classes will be included, or excluded, either on account of a unique usefulness which nothing else can supply or its relative worth as compared with other details. THE EDUCATIONAL ABSURDITY OF SACRIFICING THE PARTIAL STUDY OF MOST BRANCHES TO THE EXHAUSTIVE STUDY OF THE FEW Now it has already been demonstrated that all branches must be drawn upon, if the course is to contain all that is essential to the five forms of formal activity in general. It is equally true that all the branches taken together will fail to contribute any more material than is essential to specific preparation for some of the various phases of life, and that each will con- tribute relatively useful material to preparation for one or more phases. Nothing, then, can be more obvious than the inconceivable folly of substituting the exhaustive study of a few branches as elementary wholes, with their great mass of relatively useless details, for the partial study of all branches in general, confined to the relationships most useful in both the specific and general sense. Yet this is the absurd basis on which the Superintendence] THE DETERMINANTS OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 227 course of study is at present organized. A fallacious seeking after thoro- ness in the sense of exhaustive detail, for the sake of discipline, has defeated its own purpose. The thoroness that truly makes for discipline is repetition adequate to the mastery of a few essential relationships, persistent con- tinuity of instruction necessary to their permanent retention, and the cumulative association of the material favorable to their general application. At best, from the standpoint of discipline, the detailed study of some one elementary science, a historical period or a branch of mathematics, to the exclusion of material infinitely more useful contained in others, insures a few fixed habits, without the conditions favorable to their being carried over to other fields or even any certainty of permanence thru continuity of instruction and relationship to everyday life. Even the crudest sort of pedagogical analysis reveals the utter weakness of a high-school course that teaches one or two sciences in technical and insignificant detail, to the exclusion of what is fundamental in all others; algebra and geometry in the first two years without any continuity of instruction to keep their essentials alive until they are reviewed in the fourth, taken up again in college, or forgotten altogether in life; or Greek and Roman history, or English and American history in petty detail, in place of that general sequence of historic periods and epochs which assures the only unique contribution made by history to mental training — the great mnemonic system thru which all ideas belonging to the past can be not only remembered, but placed in mental proximity with others to which they may be essentially related. The remedy is twofold. First: In the general school course, logical thoroness, thru the mastery of a few subjects as detailed elementary wholes, must give way to pedagogical thoroness, thru the partial mastery of all subjects in proportion to the relative worth of their details to the five forms of formal self-activity, both in their general usefulness and in their specifically useful relationship to each phase of direct preparation for life. Second: The continuous review and cumulative expansion of this essential material at such intervals thruout the entire school course as are found to insure its permanency and its dominance. In the elementary school, this means that the study of the most useful material in geography, history, or arithmetic, instead of ending with the grade in which it is first mastered, will be reviewed and broadened at gradually increasing intervals thruout the entire elementary and high-school course. Probably above the sixth grade, a review period each week for each subject will be adequate, owing to the fact that as the amount of material accumulates the time necessary to the review of the older material lessens. Determination of the interval effective for the retention of definite relation- ships is one of the most important problems for experimental pedagogy. In the high school, general science, general mathematics, and general history, for one or two years, will be followed by review courses of, say a 228 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond period a week, thruout the remaining school years. In a formal program, such studies in their initial presentation may seem superj&cial and as review courses attenuated, but they are infinitely more thoro in the sense of mental training, continuity, and dominance than courses full of relatively useless details that are not reviewed at all. One important consequence of limiting required work in courses such as these will be more adequate provision for specialization. THE EXTENT TO WHICH SPECIALIZATION SHOULD BE PROVIDED FOR IN THE GENERAL SCHOOL COURSE In fact, the third distinction fundamental for course-of-study-making is between general education and specialization — between the material that is presented to all learners in common and that presented only to particular individuals. Specialization in this, its true meaning, involving the presentation of qualitatively different material to chosen individuals, adapted to their varying abilities, interests, and vocations, must be dis- tinguished from quantitative differentiation made in the proportionate amount of material presented to so-called bright pupils as compared with those who for any reason are incapable of learning as much; and from both quantitative and qualitative differentiation, yet to be discussed, due to the fact that most of the material presented to all learners in common cannot be made certain to all thru drill, and therefore must be left to the varying retentiveness and interests of each individual. Three phases of specialization must eventually be provided for thru the school: (i) early opportunity for specialization according to individual abilities and interests; (2) inclusion of such material in the general course of study as will keep the door open to the commoner forms of specialization possible later on; (3) provision for specialization with vocational intent above the sixth or the eighth school year. Adaptation to the social and economic needs of different communities in course-of-study-making will be brought about thru provision for these three forms of specialization, rather than thru variation in what is most essential to general mental training and specific preparation for life in general. It will also be provided for thru the great mass of optional material of approximately the same relative usefulness from which selection can be made from the standpoint of individual abilities and community needs. Early specialization thru special aptitude must in the end be made possible in the earliest school years, either thru provision for more rapid advancement in some part of the general course of study than in others, or thru assignment to special classes where instruction is given in subjects not included in the required elementary course: such as foreign languages, a natural science, instrumental music, stenography, or in more advanced phases of any required subject, whether it is mathematics, literature and composition, or drawing, painting, and manual training. Such work as Superintendence! THE DETERMINANTS OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 229 this will either continue in the higher schools as academic specialization or merge in vocational specialization at some point above the sixth school year. The inclusion of material in the required course, with a view to keeping the door open to future specialization, is especially necessary for those subjects which are conditioned by a certainty and persistency in habits, tastes, and ideals or a cumulative system of knowledge and experience. The approach to some specialized subjects is kept open thru the fact that the general course itself requires all that effective specialization must presuppose. This is probably true of the aesthetic appreciation basal for the fine arts and of fundamental habits essential to natural science. But for those branches of knowledge where the course required of all learners in common fails to insure all that is preliminary to future specializa- tion, opportunity for early specialization cannot be safely counted upon to insure it. Individual interests and abilities are often late in revealing themselves and occasionally late in development. Some material, there- fore, must be included in the general course wholly with a view to keeping the door open for future specialization — at least for those subjects, such as mathematics and the languages, that lead the way to a variety of occupa- tions or avocations. For example, utilitarianism in the narrow sense has gone too far with its elimination from arithmetic of all complex problems and operations and all causes or explanations of rules and principles that afford no aid to practical application. Perhaps the most fundamental con- ditions to success in mathematical specialization are the feeling of confident willingness and the habit of persistency, in the face of complex mathematical diflGiculty, and the rational attitude of mind due to the consciousness that every mathematical process and judgment has a necessary reason behind it. It is not necessary that either a complex solution or the definite cause of each operation or principle should be remembered, but only that they should be experienced often enough to insure an attitude of mind. All that ideals require is adequate repetition of impression extending thru long periods of time, frequently combined with an utter forgetfulness of most of the experi- ences thru which the impressions have been gained. This is not true of the cumulative knowledge and gradually developing system of habits and judgments necessary in arithmetical reasoning, mainly useful thru their own definite retention thru drill and review rather than thru impressions which they leave behind. Here, usefulness to future specialization must be very great and the necessity for cumulative development thru a long period of time certainly demonstrated, before material, otherwise of little worth, can be required in the general course. But the usefulness of any material is greatly increased if to specific usefulness, general usefulness, or both is added usefulness from the standpoint of future specialization; and each subject must be investigated to determine the specialized material useful enough to parallel or be included in the general course. 23© NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN ESSENTIAL AND OPTIONAL USEFULNESS FUNDA- MENTAL FOR COURSE-OF-STUDY-MAKING The contrast just made between the forgotten experience adequate to ideals and the specific retention essential to a cumulative system of habits involves the fourth and most fundamental distinction necessary in course-of-study-making — between essential and optional material; between the material which must be certainly memorized and persistently retained by all learners in common on account of its supreme usefulness, and the material which, while presented to all alike, will be variously retained and associated by different individuals according to their native retentiveness, innate abilities, past experience, and immediate interests. Much of the past discussion has been planned to make this less familiar distinction definite, apparent, and compelling. Each of the five phases of formal self-activity, whether developed on account of its specific or general usefulness to all or its usefulness in speciali- zation, requires in its development some relationships which have been definitely and certainly mastered. That is, habit, in the broad sense of definite and necessary relationships, conditions all the others. Cumulative impression must center about a permanent idea or activity, and is greatly furthered if it is transformed into an emotional center thru certainly and permanently associating with it one or two exceptionally emotional inci- dents or experiences. Vocabulary expansion and mental interconnection are immensely aided thru the earliest practicable memorizing of general terms and groups of ideas that tend to reach out after others. General application of a fundamentally useful idea depends not only upon the many-sided interests, vocabulary, and interconnection thus insured, which makes it possible to apply it to any experience, but its firm retention in the relationship that makes it a useful habit and in the most general form in which it can be usefully applied; such specific centering of cumulative impression upon it as will emotionalize it and create a permanent desire to apply it; such definite association with it of vocabulary and intercon- nection most many-sidedly related to it as will tend to make its application probable in every field in which it ought to be applied; and, in the case of ideas that are supremely useful, a further system of habits and knowledge that insures all remaining conditions favorable to their application. That is, general application is far less dependent upon the specific system peculiar to mathematics, a language, or a science than upon a specific pedagogic system definitely planned to insure it. No matter how mechanical the drill or slavish the imitation, if it is necessary to the building-up of the systems of knowledge and habits essential to these five forms of formal self-activity, it constitutes the most direct and certain road to the intellec- tual freedom which they alone can insure. Logically opposed, but educationally complementary, to this essential material which must be made as certain and continuing as possible for all Superintendence] THE DETERMINANTS OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 231 learners is the optional material which, tho presented to all learners, will, thru the very absence of adequate drill, be variously retained and associated by each individual. It is just as necessary educationally that each learner shall vary in the experiences that are creating cumulative impression, in the relationships in which a developing vocabulary is held in mind, and in the many-sided associations which bring about completeness of mental inter- connection as it is that all learners shall be compelled to possess the definite and unvarying relationships that are generally most useful in developing vocabulary and interconnection and specifically most useful either to specialization or to morality, health, industry, social service, citizenship, individual leisure, and social intercourse. Essential material is limited in quantity, both by the fact that relatively few details are so highly useful that they must be required or compelled and by the limited amount of memorizing and review possible for each individual and for the majority of individuals. It is the uniform element in the course of study, almost wholly identical for all localities and indi- viduals, for the sake of insuring to all, not only the common essentials of specific preparation for a community and social life that must be led in common, but the equally common elements in general training essential to individuality and specialization. Optional material exists in unlimited quantity. Everything is useful to some one or other some time or other. Thru it, the test of relative worth must add to the compulsion of repetition, the compulsion of selection and emphasis. While each individual mind will freely select from the optional material the details it prefers and the relationships in which it will retain them, the test of relative worth should prevent the presentation of any material that excludes what is relatively more useful, and should result in such emphasis within what is presented, that the most useful material will have the greatest likelihood of being retained, and that, in material equally useful, the details which have the greatest likelihood of survival and permanence will be most likely to be selected. With optional material, then, uniformity consists not in identity of details, but in equality of worth. Various communities may have equally useful courses of study and various individuals equally useful selections from them, if their few essential and identical details are retained in common by all pupils thru drill in the specific relationships in which they are most useful and if the optional material presented in each to serve the same educational end differs in everything but its relative worth to that end. THE TEST OF RELATIVE USEFULNESS NECESSARY TO DISTINGUISH ESSENTIAL FROM OPTIONAL MATERIAL In the last paper read before the department at the Philadelphia meeting, a test of relative worth was presented in technical form and detail. All that is necessary to point out at present is that relative usefulness, from 232 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond all of the points of view which analysis yields, can be measured by its many-sidedness of useful relationship, its frequency of recurrence in useful relationship, and its inherent sensational or emotional appeal. The main object of such a test is the determination for each school subject and educational aim, first, of the details so obviously essential in some definite relationships that their permanent mastery must be com- pelled by drill; second, of those so low in their relative worth that they can be excluded altogether; and, third, of those lying between these two extremes which exist in such variety for each degree of relative worth that it does not matter which are chosen, except in so far as they differ in relative likelihood of survival. While exact determination is unnecessary for each of these classes, the test of relative worth is capable of the mathematical expression essential to scientific exactness. Degree of emotional appeal can be measured, the number of useful relationships possible for an experience counted, and frequency of occurrence estimated. No one of these tests is adequate without the others. Indeed a few things have so unique a usefulness that since nothing else can take their place, no comparison of relative values is necessary to insure their inclusion in a course of study. IMMEDIACY OF USEFULNESS DETERMINES THE STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT AT WHICH MATERLAL SHALL BE TAUGHT The most serious misuse yet made of any of these factors is thru the assumption that sensational or emotional appeal should determine the material to be introduced into the course of study and the period at which it shall be taught. It is false doctrine to proclaim: " Find out what inter- ests children, and you know what to teach; find when it interests them, and you know when to teach it." Essential things are not useful because they are interesting. They must be made interesting because they are useful. The true basis for selection at each stage of advancement is relative usefulness and immediacy of usefulness. That is, the most useful material should be taught as early in the grades as its many-sidedness and recurrence become in part immediate for the learner and always early enough to insure the time necessary for its mastery before its many-sidedness and recurrence begin to be inmiediate. If material is capable of expanding vocabulary, multiplying intercon- nection, furthering specific usefulness, or supplying conditions favorable to useful application, if it gives children something to remember by and think with, compels right habits, broadens their interests and develops their ideals, what does it matter whether their comprehension of it is complete or whether the time when itfe educational usefulness begins coincides with the time when it can be most readily developed or when interest in it is most natural and spontaneous? The too frequent defect both of the so-called spiral method in the elementary school and of the textbook Superintendence] THE DETERMINANTS OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 233 prepared by the specialist for high school or college lies in the assumption that because subject-matter can be understood at a given period of develop- ment is reason why it should be taught there. Equally misguided is the complementary defect of insisting on immediate fulness of comprehension for all ideas that are to be taught. It has manifested itself in substituting words that are simple in the sense of having few associations for words that cannot be fully comprehended because they have a wealth of associa- tions that will gradually be added with the growing years. It teaches island and volcano in the first school year, because they seem objectively simple, in place of California and New Jersey, which, tho objectively complex, more or less many-sidedly recur in the life of most children. It teaches all possible combinations which can result in the number six and all into which six can be separated, because six is objectively smaller than the subjectively simpler and more useful decimal concept involved in ten times six, or sixty and six, or sixty-six and one. It teaches Robinson Crusoe in mono- syllables or makes an objectively simple phonetic reader instead of poly- syllables more many-sided and recurring in child life outside the school. It substitutes a juvenilized literature that is fully understood, and at least the efifort at fulness of comprehension of Burke's Conciliation with America and the Merchant of Venice, for a far more partial and more loving compre- hension of what is noblest and most impressive in every field of literature. If life outside were not less simple and primitive than some culture epochists and biologists have attempted to make life within the school, their simple schools would make simple children. Such mental development that victims of over-simplification have gained has been in spite of a simplified school. To this misuse of comprehension has been added the misapplication of culture epoch, child study, and biology in determining thru natural interest and points of readiest development what shall be taught in the various grades. It may be that modern flesh creeps at the touch of a fur coat because antediluvian bodies jumped when in contact with a cave bear and that children successively pass thru the same stages of development that civilization has passed thru, but this is no reason why their primers should contain bloody pictures of prehistoric combats between man and beast or why their primary arithmetic should fail to make them think by means of the simple judgments and combinations of judgments which must become habitual thru long periods of time to prepare for the more complex reasonings of the grades above. Because things are naturally interesting or ready of development in a particular school grade is no reason why they should be taught there. Because they respond to natural interest at a later period or can be more readily developed is no reason why their teaching should be postponed. At best, natural interests and nascent periods point out the educational line of least resistance. But it can be followed in the work of the school only when they make easier the mastery of something 234 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond developed, not because of its immediate naturalness, but because it is immediately useful. Material must be included in the course of study in the order of its relative usefulness, in the relationships which make it useful, as early as its usefulness becomes partially immediate. If it is complex, it can be partially understood. If it is not naturally interesting, it can be made interesting thru cumulative impression and growing inter- connection. If it is difficult of development, it must be more effectively and persistently taught. THE SUCCESSIVE STEPS NECESSARY IN SCIENTiriC COURSE-OF-STUDY-MAKING With the completion of this rough analysis, the bases for course- of-study-making can be definitely summarized. Whether we approach the problem from the standpoint of what is most useful within an academic branch or from what is most useful in realizing a specific educational end, the procedure is the same: 1. Classification of all useful material within each branch of knowledge into what definitely furthers cumulative impression, vocabulary develop- ment, varying interconnection, habit and system, and application. 2. Its further division into (a) what is specifically useful either to the branch as a specialty or (b) to a particular phase of direct preparation for life and (c) what is generally useful or (d) what is both specifically and generally useful. 3. Its classification within these phases and divisions in the order of its relative usefulness measured by its possible many-sidedness, recurrence, and sensational and emotional appeal. 4. Its division thru its many-sidedness and recurrence (a) into material useful only to the specialist, including the specialist whose aptitudes are discovered in the early school years, and (b) into the material useful in general education, including what is essential to keep the way open for future specialization. 5. Its distribution among the grades in the order of its relative use- fulness as it becomes partially immediate — in the sense both of immediate many-sidedness, recurrence, or emotional appeal and of sufficiently early presentation to insure the drill necessary to the mastery of what will become many-sided and recurring in the immediate future. 6. Its division within each grade into (a) the essential material so exceptionally high in its immediate usefulness as to be made certain and permanent by drill, for all localities and individuals, and (b) optional material often varying with localities, but including nothing at the expense of what is immediately less useful and emphasizing what is most useful and has exceptional chance of survival. 7. The inclusion in essential material of certain details unique in their usefulness, regardless of their relative value — especially from the stand- Superintendence] HOW COURSE OF STUDY SHOULD BE DETERMINED 235 point of adequate representation for each phase of specific preparation for life. 8. The limitation of essential knowledge at each stage, both by the amount that can be newly memorized and by the gradually accumulating mass of essentials already memorized that must be adequately reviewed. 9. Such organization of the material so selected, classified, and limited, thru textbooks and courses of study, as will make possible an actual many- sidedness and insure the system both essential and optional that results from the correlation and subordination of material in accordance with its relative worth. The science of course-of-study-making is no simpler than any other science, no less technical. Fundamental as it is for the mastery of all, why should it be? If the present paper to any extent contributes to its formation, it is thru its attempt to reduce complex familiar factors to their lowest terms and to include every^ factor that affects educational values. If any have been omitted, further analysis will surely include them; if others lack definiteness, they will be further simplified. But analyses, resulting as this has resulted from the combined efforts of many thinkers, must in the end compel the agreement of all. There is one compulsion stronger than tradition or authority, before which individualism, however strongly intrenched in idealism or successful practice, has always given way; and that is the compulsion of the universally valid fact which analysis and research must sooner or later reveal. HOW THE COURSE OF STUDY SHOULD BE DETERMINED JOHN W. WITHERS, PRESn)ENT, HARRIS TEACHERS COLLEGE, ST. LOUIS, MO. To get this problem fully before us it is necessary to consider the meaning, scope, and aim of education in modern life; the means and pro- cesses involved; the agencies by which the means are to be selected and applied; the public school's rightful place among these agencies, and its proper relation to them; its own peculiar work and the part of this work which should be accomplished thru the course of study. On the meaning and scope of modern education I submit the following propositions: The needs and values of life to which education in the broad- est sense should minister cover the whole period of life and cannot be con- fined to any particular part of it; these needs and values can only be progressively realized ; education is a continuous process coextensive with life itself; the aim of education, in the case of any individual, is either furthered or hindered by every experience thru which he passes, he is being edu cated to some degree and in some direction every moment of his waking life; education cannot take place except thru experience, but experience itself is not education. By experience is meant any interaction between 236 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond an individual and his environment; it is the response, physical and mental, which he makes to any situation which his environment provides or sug- gests. Education as a process may be identified with this living inter- action, but education as a result is the modification or effect which it leaves behind. The experience which thus produces education may be, and usually is, conscious, but the education which results can only be known by the influence which it exerts on subsequent experience and behavior. Briefly then education is taking place wherever responses are being made directly or indirectly to one's environment; it is by no means con- fined to the school, but involves all human experiences including those that hinder as well as those that further the aims and purposes of life. They all educate in one way or another. The terms "environment,'* "situation," "response," and "modifi- cation," which I shall continue to use, need definition. By environment is meant all forms of energy or other influences external to an individual and capable of evoking responses in him. An educative situation is that part of an individual's total environment which acting upon him at any given time calls forth in him an educative response. This response may be considered from two points of view: the direct, immedi- ate, and partial response, and the indirect, prolonged, and complete response. The direct response is the kind of consciousness immediately called forth and the bodily behavior directly occasioned by the situation. The indirect response consists of the reflective, emotional, and volitional processes that are started by the direct response and guided and controlled by association, attention, and will. In the science of teaching, therefore, there can be fundamentally only two kinds of problems: (i) given a desired educational result, required to find the situation or series of situations which thru the educative responses evoked will produce that result; and (2) given a certain situation or series of situations including the method of applying them, required to ascertain the educational result that should be expected to follow. The two terms "educative situation" and "educative response" therefore involve all that is meant by education as a process. As already stated, education as a result is a modification or effect left behind by experience. This result may be and usually is of a twofold character, for the individual is different and the environment may be differ- ent, after the experience, from what they were before. Both these changes have educational significance, for both may exercise an educative influence over subsequent experiences of the same and of other individuals. The changes in the environment that persist become important means of edu- cation; taken collectively and for the entire human race, past and present, they constitute the whole of material civilization. The change that takes place in the individual is both mental and physical and is known by the Superintendence] HOW COURSE OF STUDY SHOULD BE DETERMINED 237 influence which it exerts upon his subsequent life of consciousness and behavior. Considering, then, the educative process as an observable transaction taking place in the physical world and determined by the two facts, educative situation and educative response, I desire to distinguish three important processes that influence the determination of the course of study, (i) The process of educating may evidently go on without the aid of a teacher. It is determined by the nature of the educand and of the edu- cative situation to which he responds. It therefore involves two variables, the nature of the environmental situation and of the individual making response to it; the outcome or resulting education is a function of both variables. The basic science is educational psychology. (2) Teaching is the process of selecting and applying environmental situations that are designed to evoke or stimulate responses on the part of the educand. This process is determined by the will, intelligence, and skill of the teacher and the availability of appropriate environmental means. It therefore exer- cises a limited direct control over but one of the variables involved in edu- cating. The basic science is the science of teaching. (3) Testing is a process of ascertaining as accurately and fully as possible the results of edu- cating. Like teaching, testing is also limited to environmental control. Since the results of educating can only be known by the influence which they exert upon the subsequent experience and behavior of the educand, the process of testing can only determine thru the study of new responses the modifications produced by former ones. Its problem is that of ascer- taining what responses in any given case will truly reveal the effects of previous educational effort and of providing the proper situations to call forth these responses. Testing stands as truly in need of a basic science as does teaching itself. There is probably nothing more significant in present-day education than the effort that is being made to attain at least the beginnings of such a science. The hope of much further improving both the theory and the practice of teaching, in real fact rather than in mere opinion, lies to a very large degree in the direction of improving the means of scientifically testing, as far as possible, the results of teaching. Herein lies also the hope of detecting and eliminating useless material from the course of study and of otherwise improving the course by ascertaining the relative effectiveness of different methods of instruction and different plans of organizing and presenting the subject-matter of the course. From what has been said up to this point, it is obvious that the means of education are limited entirely to educative situations. The course of study itself is nothing but a gigantic plan or scheme designed to aid the teacher in providing the right situations to call forth in the child the desired educative responses. This is the one operation of fundamental importance to which everything else is subordinate. A school or system of schools is, in fact, an organization having the one supreme function of providing thru the course 238 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond of study or otherwise educative situations of the right sort, in the right order, and at the right time. The actual production of the situations planned for in the course of study is, of course, under the direct control of the teacher, and the effectiveness of the course depends mainly upon his insight, intelligence, and skill in making the situations which the course calls for real and vital to the child. The teacher is the biggest factor in making any course of study really effective. Since the whole means of education are the environmental situations which call forth the responses of life, it follows that the only means that can be employed by one person in the effort to educate another are physical and confined to the possibility of modifying, in one way or another, the physical environment of the educand. In fact, the whole effort to educate is but an effort to make changes in the physical environment with more or less definite ends and purposes in view. Without such changes and the capacity to respond to them there can be no education. The teacher can, within certain limits, manipulate the environment of the child, but when he has done this, if the desired response does not take place, there are no other different means which he can employ. Taken as a whole the means of education are of two general kinds, human and non-human. The latter are those which are determined and applied by non-human forces constituting the natural environment. The himian means, those which are, or may be, determined and controlled by human agencies, are also of two kinds, the direct and the indirect or sym- bolic. The former consist of the manipulations of things, objects, etc.; the latter of language, illustrations, and symbols of all kinds. If the foregoing conception of the means of education is tenable, and I am sure it is, it is evident that all the facts of education are essentially such as can be studied by the same scientific methods that have proved successful in other less complicated and difficult fields. Having defined the general meaning and scope of education, the pro- cesses involved, and the means that may be employed, we may now con- sider the aim of education as governing, in general, the choice of means. A satisfactory conception of the general aim of education must meet the following conditions: (i) it must be general enough to cover the whole of education, not merely that of the school; (2) it must represent the inter- ests of society as well as those of the individual and give the right value to each; (3) it must include education as a process and also as a result, since education as a process is life, or the living interaction between an indi- vidual and his environment, and since education as a result is not life, but the effect of life whose value comes solely from the fact that it prepares for life; this is equivalent to saying that the aim of education is identical with the aim of life, and that changes in the conceptions and practices of the one must keep pace with changes in the conception and needs of the other; and (4) the aim of education must be consistent with the spirit which per- Superintendence] HOW COURSE OF STUDY SHOULD BE DETERMINED 239 meates the life and thought of the present. It must take account, not only of the profound changes that have taken place in our economic and social life, in recent years, but also of those changes, equally potent and profound, in our mental attitude toward the world and toward human life in all its relations. There is growing need that present-day education, in its aims, practices, and products, shall be characterized by open-mindedness and reasonable adaptability. There is also the increasing conviction that we must look to education more than ever before to solve the hard problems, minister to the needs, and promote the values and ideals of our increasingly complex democratic life. As a result of these transitions, profound changes have also taken place on the moral side of life. Previously accepted stand- ards have proved more or less inadequate; the influence of recognized moral sanctions has in general declined; the contacts and wants of life have greatly increased; the opportunities to go wrong as well as to do good have been multiplied; the pace of life has been accelerated and its strains in- creased; in short, the whole problem of moral life and moral education has become exceedingly complex and difficult. Briefly, then, we define the aim of education as being the aim of human life, both individual and social. As we conceive the latter, so must we conceive the former. Education's central purpose is to reduce suffering and waste of life and to promote individual and social well-being, to assist as fully and economically as possible in meeting life's needs and in the realization of life's values thru the proper selection and control of the means of education. All agencies in modern life which in any way control and apply the means of education are involved in the realization of this aim. Among the most important of these are the school, the home, the playground, the various occupations, the neighborhood, the church, the press, the library, the stage, the museum, the club, and the government. Each of these has a share in the work which varies more or less with local conditions and with the time considered. The principles which must be applied in determining the public school's proper relation to other educative agencies are the following, (i) The total task of education should be accomplished in such a manner, at such periods of life, and by such agencies as will secure the most perfect con- servation and utilization of human energy in doing the work and realizing the values and ideals of individual and social life. (2) Each agency having a share in the work should be held responsible for that part of it which that agency can do more efficiently and with greater economy than any other. (3) The principle of co-operation among the various agencies should be applied in such a way as mutually to stimulate endeavor and as far as possible eliminate waste in accomplishing the total work. (4) The public school as the only exclusively educative agency which represents the col- lective will of the people should be regarded as the final arbiter and 240 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION rRichmond custodian of the child's educational well-being. (5) In our democracy, the public school is charged by the state with the pecuhar responsibility of defining the aim and work of education as a whole, and of determining the right relation of other educative agencies to itself and to each other. Applying these principles we note that the public school should endeavor to understand the actual operation and results of other educative agencies in so far, at least, as they are operative in its own particular community, and to the extent that is necessary to ascertain their significance. It should have a definite constructive policy with regard to other educative agencies operating within its own territory — it should actively stimulate and encour- age them to do the part of the total work which belongs to them and should attempt in some degree even to direct their operation. If such agencies neglect the functions which belong to them or faU properly to discharge them, these functions should be taken over by the public school within limits determined (o) by the social necessity for the performance of these functions; (b) by the legal right and actual ability of the public school adequately to perform the neglected functions in addition to those that are peculiarly and distinctively its own; (c) by the probable deleterious effect upon the effi- ciency of other agencies which would be produced by taking over their special functions; and, if the results of other agencies neutralize or vitiate those of the public school, (d) by the latter's responsibility in the matter which it has no right to ignore but which it must try to meet in any way that is legitimate and effective. But what is the public school's own peculiar function and what are the values which it should directly seek to realize ? Referring once more to the educative process as involving both the educative situation and the corresponding educative response, we must find the source as well as the realization of all educational values in edu- cative responses and their results. In other words, the value of any edu- cational effort must be measured by the character of the responses which it produces and the more or less permanent educational results of those responses. With reference to the aim of education, these results are of two kinds: those which are of value to society, and those which are of value to the individual himself. Those results which are of primary importance to society are the organized motor tendencies and bodily forms of expression constituting behavior in its broadest meaning. The results which are of first importance to the individual are those which secure for him the satisfactions of life. A bit of organized mental life which is the result of education, and which may be highly valued by the individual, is of no concern to society unless it somehow actually or conceivably influ- ences his behavior in relation to others. The word "behavior," as I am using it, is not restricted in meaning to volitional conduct, that is, conduct determined by consciously chosen ends, nor merely to the grosser forms of behavior. It means bodily behavior of all sorts that can in any way Superintendence] HOW COURSE OF STUDY SHOULD BE DETERMINED 241 influence the lives of others and thus become means of education, including those forms which are initiated and controlled by consciousness and those that are not. There are two and only two ways in which anything may have value; it may have value either in itself directly or as a means to something else which has value in itself. The first kind of value may be called intrinsic, and the second instnmiental. The seat of all human values is in the feeling or emotional aspect of individual human consciousness. To eliminate feeling entirely would be to eliminate the possibility of value of any sort. But feeling is individual; its very essence lies in its being experienced by somebody. It follows, therefore, that all intrinsic educational values can be realized only in individuals and that they are for the individual the values that are of primary concern. It is also evident that society is pri- marily interested in the behavior aspect of the educative responses of indi- viduals, for it is this aspect alone that can serve as means of producing desirable conscious responses in other individuals. In other words, my fellow-men are interested in my education and are willing to tax them- selves in order that I may receive it, but they do so fundamentally because they hope that out of that education will come forms of behavior which may serve as means of enhancing the lives of others by producing in them desirable forms of conscious experiences. The artist's behavior in pro- ducing a picture, for example, is socially valuable chiefly because of the aesthetic satisfaction which it brings to others. Hence the primary purpose of public education is the determination of socially valuable individual behavior. An individual's knowledge and other organized forms of mental life resulting from education are, of course, socially valuable, because they are important means of determining behavior. Unless they actually or conceivably influence the individual's behavior they have no social value, and if they result in behavior that is detrimental to the general well-being they are, of course, socially undesirable. The principles therefore which should control the organization and direction of public education must be derived from the study of human behavior and of the means of determining and controlling it. For my present purpose, I shall resolve the problem into two sub- ordinate ones and deal with these in the order mentioned, (i) What kinds of behavior are socially as well as individually valuable ? (2) How shall the means of producing such behavior be selected and apphed ? I have shown that society is primarily interested in the behavior aspect of education, and that behavior can have only instrumental value and that it has this only in so far as it serves to promote directly or indirectly, in the individual himself and in other individuals, the realization of intrinsic values. The essence of behavior, therefore, from an educational point of view, is individual and social service; to serve anyone is to assist him by means of one's behavior to realize intrinsic values for himself either 242 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond directly or indirectly. This is, in fact, the only way in which service can be rendered. Now an individual can by means of his behavior serve him- self and others in two and only two general ways: (i) by what he produces for the use of himself and others and by his manner of producing it; (2) by what he himself uses and the way in which he uses it. For both these kinds of behavior education is not only possible but necessary under modern conditions. The realization of the general aim of education is impossible without it. An individual cannot realize him- self and promote the well-being of society unless there is developed in him the capacity and the disposition, not only to produce well himself, but to use wisely the products of others. The individual who is merely a user, who does not produce anything for the inspiration and use of others, is a parasite on the social organism and therefore an undesirable citizen whether he be a millionaire or a tramp. On the other hand, one who produces skilfully and well much that society needs, but himself uses comparatively little of the products of others, is, of course, not wholly undesirable, but he is certainly not the most desirable member of the community. This is easily seen to be true when we multiply the number of such men in any conmaunity. To the extent that such a man does not spend his means in securing and using the products of the toil and inspiration of others, he pre- vents them from satisfying their own proper physical and spiritual wants by the use of products which they in turn might secure. The one who best realizes himself, and at the same time promotes as fully as possible the well- being of others, is the one who is best equipped and most disposed, not only to produce, but to use, the good things of life. In fact, these two types of activity, producing and using, constitute the fundamental game of all civilized human life; and education in all its forms — science, philosophy, training for citizenship, aesthetic, ethical, and religious instruction — all are intended to develop the capacity, produce the disposition, and provide the rules for the playing of this game and for the realization of those values of life which come from playing it properly. General public education, therefore, whether accomplished in the schools or by other educative agencies, naturally takes the two forms, education for production and education for use. The sense in which the terms "production" and "use" are employed is this. Man is a producer whenever he makes environmental changes of any sort, temporary or permanent, that may be used for the satisfaction of any human want, physical or spiritual. He is a user whenever he appro- priates any such change, whether made by himself or by others, for the satisfaction of his own wants. If we define general or fundamental education as that which is designed for, and supposed to be needed by, all, and also accept the proposition that this education, so far as it goes, must be both liberalizing and vocational, that is, education for use and production, we must distinguish two grades Superintendence] HOW COURSE OF STUDY SHOULD BE DETERMINED 243 of vocational and liberal education. Specialized vocational education, which later on in the child's life seeks to develop specialized knowledge, skill, and efficiency in some form of productive activity accepted as the child's life-work, must be based upon, and grow out of, a more general and fundamental kind of vocational education which seeks to give the child those forms of experience, ideals, attitudes, and habits that will help to determine for him his appropriate place in the world of producers. Special- ized liberal education which in secondary school or college seeks to develop a refined taste and appreciative use of any products of the labor and inspi- ration of others, past and present, must also be based upon an elementary education in the right appreciation and use of the simpler and more common things of life. The public elementary school should not attempt to provide specialized vocational education or specialized liberal education, but a general or fundamental education that is the best possible preparation for both, that provides for marked individual differences, makes for adaptability, and is in general well suited to the nature and capacity of children. Therefore in making the curriculum for the public elementary school we should answer as well as we can the following questions: (i) Are there any experiences, forms of knowledge, types of behavior, mental attitudes, and dispositions that are fundamental to those vocations, at least, upon which the majority of the children of a given school system are likely to enter? If so, these should be provided for in the elementary course of study. (2) What are those values, knowledges, forms of behavior, and qualities of mind which are fundamental in enabling an individual to make the most of his opportunities to live a rich, sanely balanced, happy, whole- some, and socially valuable life as a user of the increasing wealth of things which the labor and inspiration of all men of all time have made possible for his comfort and for the enrichment of his life ? So far as possible, these values must also be provided for in the elementary curriculum. (3) What, from the standpoint of the elementary school, for the period of the child's life which it covers, is the relative importance of these two aspects of life; and how shall these two types of material be rightly woven together and administered so as to develop in the child a unified, rightly disposed per- sonality, and at the same time assist in finding for him that vocation and that type of culture for which he is by nature best fitted ? 244 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond RURAL-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY, PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION, LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY, STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CAL., AND EDWARD C. ELLIOTT', DIRECTOR OF THE COURSE FOR THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON, WIS. For one who has given but little attention to the subject, it is hard to appreciate the great revolution in rural life which has taken place during the past three-quarters of a century. The changes which have been accom- plished have been of far-reaching importance, and they have touched every phase of rural life. Almost nothing now is as it used to be; almost nothing is done now as it was done three-quarters of a century ago. We of today live in a new world — a world of which our grandfathers scarcely dreamed. Life everywhere today is far more complex, intricate, difficult, and fruit- ful of both pleasure and profit than was that of which our grandfathers formed a part. The great changes which have taken place in living and industry have affected all of our people, rural and urban, but perhaps nowhere has the revolution been of more far-reaching importance than to those of our people who live on the farms and in the little villages of our nation. This social and industrial revolution has profoundly changed the whole nature of rural life and created entirely new rural problems. Some rural communities have naturally experienced a greater change than others, but no community has wholly escaped. The revolution, too, has been so rapid, so extensive, and so far-reaching in its consequences that both rural people and rural institutions have not changed anywhere rapidly enough to keep pace with the demands of the new civilization. The result has been the development of a rural-life problem of great social, educational, and economic consequences, and one which involves most of the cherished institutions of rural society. It has become particularly acute as it relates to the character and elements of the rural population itself, to the conditions of land ownership and farm tenancy, rural home life, rural society, the rural church, and the rural school. Taken altogether and as a whole we call this collection of problems the rural-life problem. Of this rural-life problem the rural-school problem forms only a part, but if the rural-school problem is to have any satisfactory solution it must be approached with some under- standing of the rural-life problem which surrounds it. Perhaps more than any other rural institutions, the rural and the small- village church and the rural school have felt the effect of these profound social changes. Everywhere we read of the decline in influence and the dying-out of the rural church; and everywhere thoughtful men look almost hopelessly at the problem, wondering what the future will be. The decline in influence of the rural and village churches serves to modify the whole nature of rural education and, in consequence, to throw Superintendence] RURAL-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 245 a much greater burden upon the rural and small-village schools. In pro- portion as the church declines in social, moral, and religious influence, other community forces must take its place and do its work. Chief among these must be the school, tho it, too, has been hard pressed by the great social and economic changes which have marked our agricultural development. The result of the many changes in rural-life conditions, brought about by the changing economic and social conditions in our national life, is that the rural school has lost its earlier importance and finds itself today in a sorry plight. It is no longer, generally speaking, the important com- munity institution it was forty or fifty years ago. It has largely ceased to minister, as it once did, to community needs; its teacher no longer plays the important part in neighborhood affairs that he used to play; it has lost most of its earlier importance as a community center; its attendance has shrunk to a fraction of what it once was; it finds itself in a serious financial condition; and it has been left far behind, educationally, by the progress which the cities have made. The rural-school problem as we now find it, tied up as it is with the whole rural-life problem, has become too com- plex to be solved by local effort, and little short of a fundamental reorgan- ization of rural education will meet the needs of the present and of the future. The problem is not a simple or a single one, but is in reality com- posed of a number of related problems in educational organization and administration. We now propose to indicate briefly the reorganizations which must be effected if any rearsolution is to be had. In the first place, the district system of school organization should be abandoned in favor of a unit of larger jurisdiction, preferably the county. So clearly have the defects and limitations of the district system been revealed that a number of states already have entirely abolished the system, while almost all the others have limited the powers of the district authori- ties in many ways. As a system of school organization, it has done its work and should be abandoned in favor of a system better calculated to serve the needs of rural life. As a system of school administration, it is expensive, shortsighted, inefficient, inconsistent, and unprogressive; it leads to great and unnecessary inequalities in schools, terms, educational advantages, and to an unwise multiplication of schools; the trustees, because they hold the purse strings, frequently assume authority over matters which they are not competent to handle; and most of the progress in rural-school improvement has been made without the support and often against the opposition of the trustees and the people they represent. The unit, too, is too small for taxing purposes, and the substitution of some larger taxing unit than the school district is necessary if any sub- stantial progress in rural-school administration is to be made. Adequate financing, state and county taxation for education, and a wise system for the apportionment of the money lie at the basis of any marked improvement in the educational conditions surrounding the rural schools in nearly all 246 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond of our states. More money for the schools is an absolute essential, and until this can be obtained no very satisfactory progress in rural education is possible. It cannot well come from an increase in district taxation, and hence must come from increased general taxation, or from a reorganization of rural education, or from both. Another fundamental need is a rational scheme for the reorganization and consolidation of the districts, so as to form a unified school system of the best possible type for all of the people of the counties. In the days of cheap schoolhouses, cheap teachers, cheap education, and local taxation, it was thought wise to encourage the process of multiplying districts, and pride was taken in the abundant school facilities thus provided. The result is cheap and poorly equipped schoolhouses, four times as numerous as there is any real need for. This unwise multiplication of school districts should be stopped; consolidated schools, which will afford the kind of education needed by rural children, should be provided, whenever possible; and a rearrangement of expenditures should be made which will provide sufficient funds to maintain the necessary number of good schools and attract good teachers to them. This is feasible only thru a reorganization of the edu- cational resources of our counties along good business and educational lines. Such a reorganization proposes nothing more nor less than the creation for country children of as good schools for their needs as city children now enjoy. It contemplates the abandonment of dozens of the small and inefficient one-teacher schools which dot the surface of almost every county, and the creation, instead, of a much smaller number of centrally-located consolidated schools, with partial or complete high-school facilities attached. It will require two generations to accomplish this, under the present conditions in educational organization. Here and there in some states, a county superintendent of larger insight and energy from time to time suc- ceeds in doing some rather brilliant piece of work and, by the force of a strong personality, or the exercise of an abiding patience and persistence, suc- ceeds in creating a few reorganized schools, which are effective and which really minister to the community life; but the large interest among school men, which such accomplishments create, only serves to cause to stand out in contrast the antiquated, inadequate, and practically unchangeable condi- tions which on all sides surround their one or two accomplishments. The work seems wonderful only because so few such successes can be made. Whereas what now is so rare ought to be universal. The Kingsville School, in Ohio, a pioneer in the consolidation movement, has been heard of every- where, but, after more than twenty years of successful work, the county in which it is located has townships in which no change has been effected. The work of Kern, in Winnebago County, Illinois, has, deservedly, received much attention, yet the accomplishments there after more than a decade and a half of effort, and considering the county as a whole, were really very small for the energy expended. The county has today as a result a few excel- Superintendence] RURAL-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 247 lent consolidated schools, while Kern's work, successful as it was, has affected the conditions in surrounding counties and in the state of Illinois but little. Under the county unit of organization, the needs of the county as a whole may be planned for at one time, and stranded districts or ill-advised unions, common in all states where voluntary district consolidation has been accomplished, may be prevented. The Minnesota plan of county-unit planning, where the county is carefully surveyed and a plan of reorgan- ization for the whole county is adopted, is of particular merit in this respect. If our rural schools are to be properly reorganized, however, and con- ducted on a plane as efficient and intelligent as our city schools are con- ducted, provision must be made both for securing and for retaining real leadership at the top. This demands the elimination of the county super- intendency from the political column. Never before in the history of our educational systems has there been such urgent need for men and women of adequate professional preparation, deep social and professional insight, and large executive skill and personal power for the supervision of our rural schools; and such men, once selected and appointed, need to be given the same tenure, compensation, and free hand which a superintendent of schools in a well-organized city-school system has today. Long ago our cities abolished their districts, stopped choosing their superintendents by popular election, and began to manage their schools as a unit, and not until our counties introduce something of the same unit-system into their edu- cational management, and begin to compete in the educational markets for real leadership, will rural education ever be made very effective or be put on a competitive basis with city education. For the pleasure of retain- ing an antiquated and worn-out administrative system, electing a horde of unnecessary school trustees, and voting for another county officer, our rural people have, as a consequence, an unnecessary number of small, costly, and inefficient rural schools, poorer teachers than is necessary, inadequate and often unsuitable instruction, and supervision, in most of our states, which is little more than a name. Say what we may for the present system, the stubborn fact remains that the office of county superintendent today, outside of a few southern states and the states of New York, New Jersey, and parts of Utah, is but a poorly paid job, offering but temporary employment, no career for anyone, and no incentive to anyone to prepare for the work except in the school of politics. Once take the office out of politics, make it appointive instead of elective, abolish the local residence requirement, throw it open to competi- tion as city superintendencies and high-school principalships now are, and base salary, tenure, and promotion on efficiency in the service, and the office of county superintendent would offer a career for which a man or woman would be warranted in making long and careful professional preparation. 248 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond Not until this has been done can our rural schools ever hope to enjoy a supervision which is as close and as effective as our cities today enjoy or that intelligent guidance and direction of which they stand so greatly in need. To one who stands off and looks at the rural-life situation as affecting the school and compares it with the city-life situation as affecting the school, another striking difference as to leadership at once appears. This difference, which means so much to the welfare and development of the rural public school, represents the second item of supreme importance in the solution of the rural-education problem and consists of the almost total absence of civic leadership in rural communities. Whatever else may be said by way of criticism of the life in American cities, rarely is one able to find a city without some evidence of a deep-seated civic pride and civic spirit. Voluntary organizations such as civic leagues, philanthropic organ- izations, commercial societies, women's clubs undertake to do that which individuals and municipal government neglect to do, or are unable to do. To the leaders of such organizations is due the largest share of credit for what our cities have recently accomplished in the way of civic progress and reform. These leaders have been, in the majority of cases, men and women who have been possessed of a desire to give something, to do some- thing, for the general betterment of the community in which they lived. It may be said, in contrast to this, that rural communities in which there is fostered anything akin to the civic spirit of the city are few and far between. The generally isolated conditions of life in the country contribute to the development of an individuality which masquerades under a variety of names— such as self-reliance or independence— but which from the stand- point of the conmion welfare is nothing but a more or less virulent form of selfishness. One hears frequent charges nowadays concerning the material- ism and commercialism of modem life, and by general consent these are thought to apply exclusively to the life of the city. One hears also many sighs from old-fashioned people, or from people who think they would like to be old fashioned, for the good old times when we did not live so much in cities, when we did more plain living and high thinking. We venture to remark there is no class of people who so uniformly measure every action in life by its possible value in dollars and cents as do the people of the better agricultural sections of this country; no class which has a more highly developed spirit of selfishness. Now the personal virtues of excessive industry, frugality, and economy, however valuable and desirable they may be in individuals, are likely to lead to certain undesirable characteristics in the community life, among which may be mentioned the distinctive tendency to permit community affairs to take care of themselves. The school is the most important com- munity affair that any rural territory possesses; and it is because every- Superintendence] RURAL-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 249 body's business has been nobody's business that the school has suffered from neglect and parsimony. Such things have happened and are happening in cities; but the difference between the country and the city is that whereas the country seems generally unable to produce from its own citizenship those who are willing to lead the way toward better things, the city is able to do so. This difference is not due to the city's having more ability or more energy than the country has, but rather to the fact that the country is not yet in the habit of using its own strength for its own betterment. The real reform of the rural-school situation must come not from without but from within. County-life commissions and educational investigators may serve a valuable purpose; but each community must be led out into the high road of progress by one of its own members. There is also need of a new type of teacher, one with a deep insight and interest in rural service and having a new conception of the curriculum as a living thing adapted to the present and future needs of rural children, rather than to the needs of a period which has passed by forever. Not only must our system for the selection and preparation be so altered and improved as to give a better grade of men and women as country school-teachers, but the system of compensating the teacher must be modi- fied in such a way as to reduce to a minimum the prevalent methods of com- petition and private barter whereby the local school authorities buy in the cheapest and the teachers sell in the dearest markets. One need not hesi- tate to say that in nine out of ten cases today the country school-teacher is regarded in the light of a private employee of the district school officers. The status of the teacher must be changed from that of a private servant to that of a public officer, whose qualifications and whose training are pre- scribed to fit the demands of the service to be performed. And as a state officer, compensation will be fixed and paid directly by the state, and not by the local school community. Present and past experiences fully justify the conclusion that, until the standard of compensation is raised and main- tained at a level far above that now existing, the country school will be without trained and efficient teachers, and the rural-school problem will remain a permanent one. On this point, tho, we have not time to dwell. Our main theme is that the really fundamental need today is that rural and small-village education should be reorganized along efficient administrative lines, to enable such to meet the needs of our rapidly changing rural civilization, and that the edu- cational reorganizations made necessary by the great and far-reaching changes in our rural life and rural needs are essentially those which we have just outlined. These involve a county unit of organization, administration, and finance; the election of a lay county board of education, analogous to a city board of education, to select the experts and to determine the larger questions of policy and procedure; the substitution of an appointed for an 250 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond elected superintendent, and the reorganization of the county administrative ofl5ce along the lines of the best city administrative experience; a redirection of the instruction to meet modern educational needs; and the training of a body of teachers for rural work who can and will render commimity , as well as educational, service. To inaugurate such reorganization will not be especially easy. The precedents of three generations and the selfish interests of individuals and coEomunities will need to be overcome. In not a few states constitutional obstacles exist. Such a fundamental reorganization cannot be expected to come thru the voluntary co-operation of district authorities, upon which we have so far placed our chief hope. District authorities are too short- sighted and know too little as to fundamental rural or educational needs. Neither can we expect much assistance from the average politically-elected county superintendent. The system of which he is a product too often to him seems a sacred system, and, in the district-system states at least, he is too afraid of the enemies he may make in the districts, and the opportuni- ties he may give an opponent to defeat him for re-election, to render much service looking to any fundamental reorganization of rural education. The necessary reorganizations are of such a fundamental character that they will have to be superimposed from above, sweeping away before them the opposition of both county and district-school officials. The state, in the exercise of its inherent right to demand constructive reforms, must demand a reorganization of rural education which will create a system adapted to modern rural educational needs, one under which business can be trans- acted in a modern manner, and one under which rapid progress will be possible. Counties which refuse to reorganize their school systems on a proper educational basis, and to provide properly for the needs of their children, should be penalized by a reduction of the apportionment of state funds to no more than would be demanded, for the same educational facilities now provided, if regrouped under a proper educational reorganization. After a few years of operation under such a county-unit reorganization, each county would have a much smaller number of community-center con- solidated schools, with partial or complete high schools attached, adequate and professional supervision and direction, and a new and an effective t)^e of rural education. What now seems so wonderful and so exceptional, when carried thru by some energetic and persuasive county superintendent, would then become the rule. Superintendence] PROBLEMS OF THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT 2$ I ROUND TABLES ROUND TABLE OF STATE AND COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS PROBLEMS THAT CONFRONT THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT IN HIS RELATION TO THE RURAL SCHOOLS FRANK W. MILLER, STATE COMMISSIONER OF SCHOOLS, COLUMBUS, OHIO When I was elected state commissioner of common schools of Ohio, I had a precon- ceived notion that intelligent people would have at least a vague idea of the duties of the position. You can weU imagine with what amazement I heard the questions of many of my friends : * ' What are you supposed to do ? " " How much of your time wiU it take ? ' ' "Will it interfere with your school work ? " If these questions had come from Hungarians or from the drawers of water and hewers of wood, they would have been passed by and soon would have been forgotten. But coming from professional men, lawyers, doctors, preachers, and shrewd business men, men who know the duties of the constable, the street commissioner, the mayor, the probate judge, the congressman, the secretary of state, the governor; men who could discuss intelligently the measures before Congress and the President's message, and who were conversant with the news of the world, such questions have a deep significance. What is wrong? Have we, as state superintendents, been working in the wrong channels and misdirecting our energies ? Have we been leaders, and, if so, leaders of whom? There may be many here who are not in accord with my views, but I do not believe that it should be the duty of the state superintendent to give most of his time to lecturing at teachers' meetings upon pedagogical subjects, but rather to attend to the business phase of the school system of the state. We have in our teachers' colleges and normal schools men and women who have the opportunity and the time to study existing methods, methods recently developed in other states and in other countries, and to devise new ones of their own; men and women who are thoro students of psychology and the history of education, and who, by processes of reasoning and by experimentation and observation, can determine what courses of study and what subjects are most effective in developing the highest and strongest type of citizenship. We have in our public schools men and women who can develop new ideas, new methods, and new devices which may be of great value in classroom instruction. It is to these people that we must look for instruction along pedagogical lines. The state superintendent may dehver a lecture that may be like music to the ears, developing a beauty and harmony in the teachers' souls, or he may give his auditors practical points in teaching, but all this, as far as the public is concerned, falls upon deaf ears. The school world is stiU a remote and secluded spot. If the state superintendent is to awaken the pubUc conscience, he must address commercial clubs, chambers of com- merce, boards of trade of the cities, and public gatherings of the rural and village people. He should be the connecting link between the school world and the general public and bring them into close touch. He should call the attention of the public to the condition and needs of the schools, get its co-operation in working out some of our school problems, especially the financial problems, and prepare the way to put into operation new ideas in education, which we have good reason to believe are sound. A gathering of business men does not care to hear much about Socrates, Comenius, or Montessori. They want to know what can be done by them to bring results. They are ready to intrust the pedagogical knowledge to the teachers. Whenever the state superintendent addresses business men he should always have a message, definite, succinct, 252 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond direct, and to the point. Business men do not on such an occasion care for pleasantries or platitudes. When he has such an audience, he should feel that his message is worth as much to them as the value of their time is when employed in any other capacity. Residents of the cities should have impressed upon their minds what an intricate institution civilization really is, how impossible it is for civilized man to live alone, how he must live in the midst of, and by the help of, others. A city located in a rich farming country may bum to ashes, but, like the Phoenix of old, she will rise again, a greater city. But if by some transformation or cataclysm of mother earth the surrounding fields should become a desert, the city would soon become a collection of deserted walls of brick and stone. When the business men of the city see that increased wealth in the country stimulates better business conditions in the city, they will become interested in the wel- fare of the people and the schools of the country. This may be a selfish reason, but man is a selfish animal and, in many cases, must be treated as such. We have in Ohio the corn boys, the boys who raise one hundred bushels of corn to the acre while their dads raise thirty. The prize winners have for the last two years been given free trips to Washington. These prizes have been given in many instances by the generosity of business men from the cities — merchants, bankers, newspaper men, and even school-teachers. This is doing much to stimulate interest among the young people of the country in farm life and farm work. The state department of education can interest many men and women from both city and country to such an extent that they may gladly furnish the prize to be won by sonje industrious boy or girl on the farm. In movements of this kind, what is most needed is leadership. The state superintendent should be the leader. The state superintendent should familiarize himself with country life and country conditions. He should mingle with the people of the country, so as to become acquainted with their customs and traditions, their social life, their industrial life, and their religious life. He should be able to see thru their eyes and hear thru their ears. He should be a big man but he should also be humble. When a man gets too big for his job he is in a dangerous position. When a state superintendent gets too big to get thru the door of a little one-room schoolhouse, the value of his service is approaching an end, and he had better hunt another job. Whatever uplift is to come to the country people must grow out from within and not be poured in from without. The state superintendent has the great opportunity of meet- ing the country people on conmion ground. They do not consider whether he be from the city or from the country, but look upon him as the legal head of the school system, whose business it is to advise with them and aid them in any problem that will pertain to their betterment. He has every opportunity to gain their confidence by never hesitat- ing to tell them the truth and plenty of it. But this confidence will never be gained if the state superintendent remains complacently in his ofl&ce, enjoying easy Ufe and occa- sionally addressing a teachers' meeting upon "The Joy of Teaching" or some other kindred subject. He must meet the people. If he has something to tell them they will be interested. They delight to hear of the schools in the other parts of the state. They are interested in centralization and are pleased to hear it discussed. They are interested in the teaching of agriculture, in high-school work, in domestic science, when they are once understood. The state superintendent should have a program. Without it he is headed for nowhere and gets nowhere. People are ready to act if they feel that they can act intel- ligently. They are ready to expend money if they can be assured that they will get value received. The state superintendent should make recommendations to the legisla- ture to give us such laws as are needed to keep our schools abreast with the times. If there are bad conditions, he should not hesitate to make that fact known to the people concerned. By furnishing a good school program, he can in the course of a few years do much to improve the social and industrial conditions of the rural communities without 1 Superintendence] OVERORGANIZATION OF THE RURAL SCHOOLS 253 the people being cognizant of how the change was wrought. He must establish courses of study that will prepare people for complete living; courses of study that are in harmony with what should be the natural life of the community; courses of study which will lead to better farming, better business, and better life on the farm. Boards of education of rural districts are frequently in need of guidance. The state superintendent should make his office a clearing-house or a distributing agency of all good ideas found in the various parts of his state, so that all may receive the benefit. He should educate delinquent boards of education to discharge their duties and give them the right inspiration to look at the school problems in behalf of the boys and girls and not in behalf of dollars and cents, nor of positions for their own sons and daughters or anybody else's sons and daughters. He should teach them to trust their superintendent and teachers to buy the milk-tester and material for testing soils and seeds, rather than to be tricked by the smooth chart agent. He should instil in them an extensive interest in boys and girls rather than in intensive tax saving, an interest which will develop the physical plant of the country school and course of study which will prepare for country life. In most states the distribution of funds derived from taxation is not upon a just basis. The state superintendent can have no higher duty than to advocate that the state should give greater support to the schools and throw less of the financial burden upon the locality. Many localities have the exchequers of their treasuries filled with taxes from public utilities such as railroads, pipe lines, and telegraph lines, while other localities do not receive the benefit of any of these taxes. The money made by these public utilities is not produced alone where the tax is paid, but is a composite result of the business of the entire state. Every boy and girl in the United States should have the God-given right of an opportunity for an education. When the state bears the greater part of the burden, the city schools will no longer be able to take away so many teachers from the country. Wages of the country teachers will then more nearly equal those paid in the city. There will be an inducement to young men and women to make teaching in the rural schools their life-work. Our rural schools will be taught by men and women trained in rural- school work to the benefit of the rural schools and country life. Herein lies the great problem before the state superintendent. DANGERS OF OVERORGANIZATION OF THE RURAL SCHOOLS PAYSON SMITH, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS, AUGUSTA, ME. If a topic is presumed to suggest the exact position of the speaker, then mine should probably be restated. I am not at all clear that any country schools I know are in imminent danger of overorganization. Perhaps the topic ought to read, "The Place of Organization at the Present Stage of Rural-School Progress." Whatever danger exists doubtless lies in the tendency to place confidence in machinery or system as a producer of results. Organization of the kind that seeks to limit, that makes and enforces rules and regulations, that interferes, that fixes inflexible standards — that sort of organization has done harm in city schools but may be necessary there; it would do more harm to rural schools and it is not needed there. The kind of organization, however, that develops and helps to realize a program of advancement is peculiarly needed in rural education just now. In speaking of the effects of organization, its advantages, and its dangers, one must consider some phases of the reconstruction of rural schools. There is apparently not a little confusion in the minds of many as to the ends for which we ought to work and the means that would be hkely to operate to those ends. The country school is having its day, and, like any other phase of education that happens for the time to be prominent, it suffers from the theories of the extremists. After its years of neglect it comes under 254 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond the notice of the expert. It is being investigated, it is being surveyed, and so, we are afraid, it is straightway to be reported and then systematized and then — left alone. Many of these expert friends come from a distance both professional and geographical, and it some- times appears the remedies they suggest are not practical ones. For example, at a recent rural-life conference, the prophecy was made that within a decade our several thousand one- room country schools will have been brought together into consolidated schools. If the seer of this vision would attend the function of the discontinuance of one of these one-room schools down in our northeast corner and note the circumstances that attend its translation, he might state his prophecy in more moderate terms. The fact is that the great majority of a generation of country school children must get their education in one-room country schools, and probably after consolidation has done its best we must still have a place for the one-room school. Our plans for making that school a more efficient institution ought not to wait upon the fulfilment of the prophecy. Again, only last week a gentleman was reported by the press as saying that university instructors ought to be the teachers of our rural elementary schools. We wonder whether he has noted the salary schedules of country schools; or perhaps we wonder whether his is a naive suggestion for the improve- ment of university instruction by elimination and substitution. Still again there is at present a pronoimced emphasis on agricultural aims in rural education. I know it is popular to say just now that the country school and agriculture are inseparably connected and that the welfare of the former depends on the extent to which we are able to introduce the agricultural note as the dominant one in the work of the country school. At the risk of violating this fundamental tenet in the creed of many rural-school reformers, and speaking for rural elementary education, I must say that I believe we are radically wrong where we attempt to make any elementary school, whether in city, village, or country, the sponsor for any special trade or occupational education. I must confess that I have seen few indications that those who are most vitally interested in rural schools desire them to be given over to scientific agriculture. Still less have I seen any indication that elementary country schools are prepared to undertake or to discharge such function. Least of all does it appear that trade education, however important elsewhere in our scheme, has any business in common schools. What the people who live close to the country school most desire and what they have a right to expect is that it shall be a thoroly good common school, teaching in a thoro fashion the subjects which are fundamental to the acquisition of other education. From this aim rural elementary education cannot be diverted without serious danger both to the edu- cational welfare of the himdreds of thousands of children who must look to it for their school privileges and to the welfare of the industry of agriculture itself. To promote the interests of agriculture most effectively, we need not so much to have agricultural teaching as we do to make available to country youth common-school opportunities that will be so good that no farmer will have to remove from his farm home in order to educate his children. This is not to deny the value as incentives of boys' and girls' agricultural clubs, school gardens, and other means of making school life more interesting to country children and of opening their eyes more appreciatively to the surroundings in which they live. Let us not make the mistake, however, of putting the relatively unimportant device in the foreground and making it appear the aim or absorbing motive of the school. One has some difficulty in speaking in moderation of those who are in a measure pre- venting the sane development of rural education by their advocacy of impossible theories. Not a little confusion exists in the minds of many country people as to the steps they ought to take for the betterment of their school facilities. Rural education in each com- munity and state stands in need of an avowed program of progress, a program that will recognize in the first place existing deficiencies and will state attainable standards. The people need to be told the truth of their schools. The country people who have been told so often that by its product the little red schoolhouse has proven its superiority over other schools are the conservative souls who are willing to keep it both little and red — or indeed Superintendence] OVERORGANIZATION OF THE RURAL SCHOOLS 255 to let it go without paint altogether on the theory that its efficiency will increase in the ratio of its humility. The program must indicate in specific terms the needs that must be met if the country school is to become as efficient in its place as other schools in their places. For example, the one outstanding fact in the present rural-school situation is that the funds available for its support are inadequate in much greater degree than in other schools. The remedy for this — or one remedy — lies in the adoption of a more general tax for school support. One does not need to discuss at this late day the justice of the principles underlying this more general levy. It was recognized when, for the sake of a better social state and a higher grade of citizenship, the first tax of any kind was levied for public-school support. Only those who hold that the district, township, or county limit is to mark the bounds of a people's responsibility for the state's welfare should argue for an educational tax assessed and distributed within these respective lines. The educational, and hence the civic, material, and social, welfare of all the people calls for the kind of a school levy which will assess wealth and property where they exist, creating a school fund for the education of children wherever they may live. Again, and this depends on the first point, our program must consider the element of the teaching force. We are told that about a hundred thousand persons began their teaching experience this school year. Of these a httle more than one-fifth had received some special training for their work. Of the remaining nearly eighty thousand practically all went into the schools of the smaller places. At once there is evident a cause of defi- ciency in rural schools. It is as true of country schools as of any other that the school is as good as its teacher. All the rest of our educational paraphernalia exists for the betterment of the teaching or to supplement it. Machinery, system, rules, regulations, courses of study, outHnes, all of these are worse than useless when employed without due sense of proportion as related to the quality of the instructors for whose benefit they are instituted. But our program does not end there. School buildings and equipment in the country lag generally far behind the standards that have been attained in towns and cities. While the teacher is indeed an important element of the school, we very well know that children are educated by the influence of their surroundings. The ill kept, insanitary, badly lighted and ventilated school buildings that are scattered across our land for the use of country children are the most obvious reproach to our American school system today. In my opinion the present condition is not so much due to the parsimony of country people as it is to the fact that those who have administered schools have been so absorbed in other phases of their work that they have not taken the time to formulate a procedure for the correction of these defects. I have known difficulties of this sort to be completely overcome within a very few years by superintendents who have taken the pains to lay before their constituencies the exact details as to the state of their school property, with accurate estimates of the cost of placing it in decent condition. I will not carry farther this analysis of a constructive program for rural education. I have already indicated the extent to which it deals with matters that are regarded as commonplace. They are commonplace and they indicate clearly enough that with respect to the basic conditions of school economy the country school is weak and must be made stronger, that this institution needs just now, not so much the systematizing regulations that go with a completed school system, as the development of some of the rather primary and essential conditions on which a school system must be based. As I see the matter in one of our states, the demand of the hour is not for an excess of machinery to regulate and to enforce but for the cultivation among the people of a stronger sentiment in behalf of rural educa- tion. All the people — residents of both city and country — ^need to be told and often that the present depressed state of rural education is a menace both to country and to city, that there is a more than local responsibility for the betterment of country schools. The problem is a state-wide one. In Maine as well as in other states this wider responsibility is being recognized. In that state last year the support of elementary education was borne to the extent of nearly two-thirds by a state-wide tax, and many poor towns secured 2S6 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond state educational funds very far in excess of their total taxes paid to the state. This indicates the measure in which wealthy centers are contributing to the support of education in the rural sections of the state. The organization needed therefore for the benefit of rural education is the organiza- tion of constructive forces and especially of the force of public opinion upon which, in our country, educational progress must chiefly depend. With regard to its internal affairs, the rural school is not ready — if it ever becomes so — for close organization, espe- cially of the kind that would seek uniformity as an end, or that would superimpose upon all schools and communities requirements adapted only to a part of them. We shall probably agree that there may have been too much of that kind of organization even in city schools. We have had, I repeat, too much faith in system as a yielder of results. There has certainly been in our centers of population, in connection with the fascinating problems connected with rapid urban growth, a strong temptation to engage ourselves with the construction and operation of machinery which would help us to classify, reclassify, subclassify, and superclassify the interesting material at hand. Happily, how- ever, the day appears to have passed when there was in the ascendant the kind of super- intendent who prided himself that his charts would tell what was doing at any stated time, in all his numerous classrooms, and who indulged the proud boast that all his teachers worked under methods prescribed by him and followed minutely in every last detail. The revolt from oversupervision in city schools began none too early and has reached none too far. Yet one cannot successfully contradict those who will say that this close supervision has yielded much of positive benefit to city schools. They often confuse the causes for the greater eflficiency of city schools in comparison with country schools, but, after making deductions for all the other reasons, there is still something that must be said in favor of careful oversight. With these points of advantage in mind, it is natural that these who have become interested in the improvement of the rural school should seek to apply the same forces to it. The tendency is apparent. It is to be noted in the legislature of a state where there appear all kinds of measures whose authors apparently believe that the deficiencies of teachers, of school equipment, and of local sentiment can in some way be overcome by legislation. It appears among the people who not infrequently demand ofl&cial regulations to correct wrongs which it is already in their own power to make right. It is even to be found in the teaching force, usually thought to be resentful of ofl&cial interference. This constant and probably increasing demand for rules, restrictions, requirements, and arbitrary standards is an indication of the faith we have in organization. It would appear to be a general beUef that if someone from the outside could get hold of the situa- tion then affairs on the inside could be at once made quite satisfactory. Yet this theory accords very little with that on which our American educational system has been based and by means of which it has grown. We who believe we know what is best for the people's education may sometimes long for the power of an imperial bureau that we might say what next shall be done and to enforce that thing in action. But we know that the most representative thing about America is her public school. It has progressed with the people. Its mistakes are their mistakes; its virtues are their virtues. Nowhere does a school system in this country keep very far away from the average of public opinion as related to public education. In our educational policy our people have been at once training their children and training themselves. I grant you by a system of bureaucratic or commission control we might make — if it were to be permitted — a striking showing of what would look like very great progress. But would it be real progress ? Has not our necessity of keeping the people close to our school procedure been the means of making the American schools, despite their obvious crudities, the most vitally and soundly and permanently progressive? School reforms in America have never come by edict or dictum. One cannot readily recall any permanent gain in education that did not rest first of all upon the previously won support of the people. Superintendence] STATE AND COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS 257 Our schools have improved by the process of experiment. No matter into what field you may make inquiry you will find that this is true. In the training of teachers, one state first set the example, later followed and perhaps improved by others. In the furnishing of textbooks, one city demonstrates first to itself, then to other cities, and finally to states, the efficiency of its plan. Medical inspection makes a beginning, but a quarter of a century passes before large areas respond to the call for more careful health regulations. Today industrial educatian is a vivid illustration of the way American edu- cation adopts and assimilates any reform. In every instance community support under wise local leadership is the prerequisite for each and every advance. This process of progress by experiment continues. We like to beUeve that experi- ments are attempted more scientifically from year to year, that the pioneers are a little surer of their ground; but however that may be, it is quite true that the things we are to do next year and the year after to improve all our schools are being this year demonstrated by some courageous and enlightened school or community. This, of course, is only another way of saying that educational progress depends on educational freedom. In rural education our country is to make its next great advance. We are conscious of the need, we are confident of the opportunity. In making this advance, there is place for an organization of forces that will arouse public opinion, that will prepare and dignify a teaching corps, that will help house and equip, that will focus and sustain interest. But with this organization must go a spirit of freedom which will permit and encourage pioneering individuals and pioneering communities to set up all the wise experiments they will. INTERRELATION OF THE OFFICE OF STATE SUPERINTENDENT AND THAT OF COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT I. FRANCIS G. BLAIR, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, SPRINGFIELD, ILL. There are two large groups of interrelations existing between these two ofiicers in the administration of public-school systems. The first group may be characterized as the legal interrelation and the second group as the professional interrelation. Legal interrelations. — ^There is a more general condition upon which both of these depend. In some commonwealths the state superintendent and the county superin- tendents may be elected or appointed by the same power or authority. In such states, it is easy to see how the legal and professional relationships existing between state super- intendent and county superintendent will be pecuUarly close and effective. The defini- tions and standards set by the superintendent of public instruction can easily be made effective as these county superintendents are the extension of his legal arms. In other commonwealths, where the state superintendent and county superintendents are elected by the people or where the state superintendent is appointed by one authority and the coimty superintendents by another, we have the maximum of independence and variety, whereas in the former case we would have the maximum of uniformity and the minimum of variety. It is impossible for me to discuss this subject except in the light of the situation with which I am most familiar. In Illinois, the state superintendent of public instruction and the county superintendents are elected by the people. Being elected by the people, they cannot be removed except upon the gravest charges. The fact that they are elected by the people gives a sense of independence and security. In commonwealths where this relationship obtains, it is necessary that many of the interrelations between state superin- tendent and county superintendent shall be defined definitely by law. First: A most important legal relationship which these officers bear to each other is in the collection of statistics. One of the primary reasons for the estabUshment of the offices of county superintendent and state superintendent was the collection of data, and their classification and publication for taxpayers and lawmakers. It is believed that the 258 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond demand for the collection and publication of such data is growing more imperative. It is very essential that the law should specifically state the powers of the state superintendent in calling upon county superintendents and of the county superintendent in calling upon boards of education and school oflScials for the data required by the superintendent of public instruction. The law should set certain su£6cient penalties for neglect or failure to perform this important duty of collecting and furnishing required data. In Illinois, the state superintendent of public instruction is empowered to withhold the salary of the county superintendent; the county superintendent is empowered to withhold the state distributive fund; and, under the new certificating law, teachers are required to make out certain statistical statements and any failure to do so is declared unprofessional conduct which may lead to the forfeiture of the certificate. Every department of public instruc- tion should have a statistical department in which there is at least one person who gives the major portion of his time in preparing the blanks, advising with county superintend- ents and school ofl&cers concerning the gathering of statistics, and in the working-out of definite, attractive forms in which to bring these data before the public and to the members of the legislature. Second: Another interrelationship which should be defined by law is the co-operation of these two officers in the interpretation, construction, and administration of the school laws. The superintendent of public instruction should be made the legal adviser of county superintendents in such questions. Wherever a legal question is of such impor- tance that the superintendent of public instruction desires the opinion of the attorney- general, he should secure such opinion. But in 99 cases out of 100 or in 999 cases out of 1,000, all legal questions can be answered directly by the superintendent of public instruc- tion. Every department of public instruction should have a legal department at the head of which should be a man who is first of all a lawyer, who knows how to read the law and construe it, and who is familiar with court decisions. There should be legal arrangements provided for making an appeal from the county superintendent in certain legal questions to the superintendent of public instruction. Third: The relationship between the state superintendent of pubUc instruction and coimty superintendent with respect to the certification of teachers should be clearly defined by law. Perhaps no other thing has led to greater misunderstanding and greater friction in some of our commonwealths than this interrelation. Just what are the proper relations to establish by law is a matter upon which we could not agree. Different states would demand different sorts of arrangements. In Illinois, after many years of study and consideration, a law has been enacted which seems to remove most of the sources of mis- understanding and annoyance and to establish certain fundamental and necessary rela- tionships between state superintendent and county superintendent in the administration of this important matter. The law gives the state superintendent of public instruction the power to issue all state certificates upon certain conditions. It provides a state examining board to have charge of making all questions and the examining of all papers which relate to county certificates. This board is made up of the superintendent of public instruction, who is chairman, one person appointed by him, and three county superintendents who are nominated by the County Superintendents' Section of the State Teachers Association and appointed by the state superintendent. The kind, character, and validity of county certifi- cates are established by law. It is believed that, under the control of this central board, constituted as it is, there will be a greater degree of uniformity in qualifications of teachers and that some of the confusion and difficulty involved in the previous plan will be avoided. Professional interrelations.— Under this head I would place all those relationships which exist between state and county superintendents m their effort to supervise the schools of the state. First: Thru publications. Every state department should be authorized by law and the funds should be available for publishing freely all sorts of information and sug- gestions to coimty superintendents with regard to supervision and administration of all Superintendence] STATE AND COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS 259 phases of public education. There should be a department of publicity or publication with someone definitely responsible for the mechanical side of the work. It is easy to believe that one of the most helpful relationships which a department of public instruction may maintain with the county superintendents of the state is thru its publications. Perhaps one of the most helpful publications is a periodical which shall carry out each month to county superintendents and state superintendents data and information which, if placed in circulars and in large reports, would reach the persons for whom they are intended too late or, having reached them, will not be in the form to attract immediate attention. A bill is now before Congress which seeks to give all departments of public instruction a second-class postal rate for such periodical publications. Second: Thru conferences. The state superintendent of public instruction has a great opportunity to promote wise supervision and administration by holding annual conferences with the county superintendents. The conferences should be small so that the freest, most informal discussion may be had upon all sorts of questions with which they are mutually concerned. In Illinois it has been the custom for seven years for the superintendent of public instruction to meet all of the county superintendents of the state in an annual conference. As there are 102 county superintendents, it was thought wise to divide them into at least five groups. As there are five state normal schools, these five conferences are held at the five state normal schools. The program extends from one noon until the next noon. The first afternoon is given over to a discussion of certain legal and administrative matters that are of present interest. The evening program is con- cerned with such questions as are of interest to the normal-school faculty, the county superintendent, and the state superintendent. The morning is spent in visiting classes taught in the training department. After these classes have been visited, a time is given over to their discussion. To these conferences go the state superintendent of public in- struction and as many of his ofl&ce force as are related to any point which will come up in the conference. In a state where variety and independence are prominent, it is very essential that the state superintendent of public instruction thru his publications and thru conferences shall effect an organization to carry out certain standards and definitions of education. Third: Thru supervisors who go from the department of public instruction into the various counties and assist in certain specific forms of inspection and supervision. Every department of public instruction should be provided with expert supervisors of secondary and of rural-school education. The elementary schools, especially of the larger cities, having supervisors of their own, do not stand in so great need of assistance from the department of public instruction. This line of interrelationship perhaps can be best illustrated by me by reference to what is being done by the rural-school supervisors. Illinois was the first state in the Union to distinctly recognize this sort of an ofl&cial in the office of public instruction. In December, 1906, a person was appointed as assistant super- intendent of public instruction who was to give his entire time to work with the county superintendents in helping to improve the quality of supervision and especially to improve the standard of the one-room country schools. We have 10,632 such schools in Illinois, and, while there are many people who believe that they must soon give way to the con- solidated school, it is not so apparent to some of us that the disappearance will be within our time. It would seem to us that we should make these one-room schools the very best instruments of public instruction that we can. This supervisor of rural schools prepared certain minimum requirements for a standard one-room country school. These require- ments related to grounds, buildings, and aU the physical equipment, length of term, course of study, library, qualifications of teachers, etc. A diploma was devised and a label provided. After a short time the results of the work showed that the undertaking was of the very greatest value. Another supervisor was appointed. Up to the present time these two supervisors have visited from five to six thousand of these one-room schools. Over sixteen hundred of them have met the standard requirements and have received 26o NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond the diploma and have had the label nailed upon their doors. For every one that has thus met the requirements, at least four or five have met some one of the requirements set forth, but were unable to meet all of the requirements. In very much the same way, the depart- ments of public instruction must thru their supervisors of high schools go out into the various counties to advise with county superintendents with regard to the best methods and plans of tying the high school and the elementary school together in the most fruitful educational way, and of relating the high school to the community as every high school should be related to the people whom it serves. Of course, there are many interrelations between the state superintendent and county superintendent which cannot be enumerated in this brief statement. I have attempted what seemed to me the most important legal and professional relationships which are established between these two important public-school oflBicers which help to promote the cause of public education. n. OLIVER J. MORELOCK, SUPERINTENDENT OF ESSEX COUNTY SCHOOLS, NEWARK, N.J. I shall assume, for the purposes of this discussion, that the typical status, powers, and duties of state superintendent and county superintendent are clear in our minds, and I shall assume also that reason and custom have established each of these offices as really necessary for the effective administration of public education. The discussion then narrows down to the fact and the method of the interrelation between these two offices, and the questions before us are: Should there be close reciprocal relations between these two offices ? And, How can such relations be best assured and most effectively promoted ? In order to give a purposeful answer to the first of these two questions, we should first dispose of a larger and deeper question, a question of which that of the vital interrelation between the offices of state and county superintendent is but a corollary: Namely, Shall the administrative and supervisory power over public education, particularly in rural, village, and small city communities, be strongly centralized ? Shall the state departments of education in the various states go outside of the traditional field of performance of per- functory duties prescribed by statute, and become great dynamic forces of educational activity in their respective states, capable of commanding the respect of the most pro- gressive local communities and ready and able to compel the indifferent and backward communities to conform to prescribed minimum standards ? To anyone who has made a study of the trend of school legislation, the tendency to enlarge the powers of state departments of education must be clearly apparent. To any observer of the changing attitude of the public toward the question of the centralization of authority in civil officials in general, it must be plain that the old distrust of a single executive with large and practi- cally imchecked powers has given way before the realization that such distrust is really groundless under present-day conditions. We realize now that the important thing is not that executive and administrative authorities should be checked by other authorities, but that by some effective device the supreme authority should be held distinctly accountable to the people. The appointive official can always be reached by holding his elective superior accountable for his acts. If, then, in the present stage of our national development and in our present com- plex social organization there is a strong preponderance of reason in favor of centralized authority in the administration of civil matters in general, how much more does the argu- ment hold true when applied to the administration and supervision of public education! Granted that to insure wise and effective administration and supervision of our public- school system, particularly in rural, village, and small city districts, we need large intelli- gence coupled with large power, to whom should that power be delegated if not to the state superintendent ? To be clothed by the legislature with large authority is a neces- sary condition of his success in office; but efficient administrative agents thru whom he may get into close contact with local conditions and local needs and thru whom he may Superintendence] STATE AND COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS 261 give personal attention and exercise personal influence and authority in the various school districts of the state are equally necessary. Now experience reveals to us two well-known types of such administrative agents of an education department — namely, itinerant state inspectors without any local status, and allocated state inspectors who are held responsible for the supervision of particular districts to which they have been assigned and in which they Uve. Each of these types has inherent advantages and disadvantages. In a well-balanced and completely organ- ized state department both are necessary. In most of the states, we have the former type represented to a certain extent in the assistant state superintendents in charge of the various departments of the field of public education and explicitly represented in the so-called state education department inspectors of New York state. The latter type, that of allocated state inspector, is best represented by the oflSce of county superintendent in the state of New Jersey. It is because of the fact that the county superintendency in other states seems to be increasing in importance and seems to be passing thru an impor- tant stage of evolution that the discussion of the interrelation between the office of state superintendent and that of county superintendent is a pertinent one. For, excepting such personal interrelations between the incumbents of these ofl5ces as a capable and enthusi- astic state superintendent may succeed in cultivating by a labor of love, so to speak, the interrelation between these offices in all of the states with the exception of one seems to the writer to be conspicuous by its absence. It is not my purpose to enter into the reasons for the absence of a close relation between these two offices. It is sufficient to call atten- tion to the fact. It is from the standpoint of the county superintendent as an allocated state inspector that I propose to discuss the interrelation of state and county superintendencies. At this point I shall cease to theorize for a time and confine myself to a brief descrip- tion of a state system in which the county superintendent's office has undergone trans- formation to that of allocated state inspector. That is, the transformation is complete so far as legislation can accomplish it, and is well under way so far as the mental attitude of the general public, of the school boards, and of the county superintendents themselves is concerned. I refer to the state of New Jersey. Without attempting to go into the history of its development, I shall point out what appeal to me as the significant charac- teristics of the ofiice of county superintendent in New Jersey. To appreciate the status of the ofl&ce fully, however, it may be necessary to call to your attention the organization of the New Jersey state department. The state commissioner of public instruction is appointed for a five-year term by the governor. The governor also appoints a state board of education — a lay board consisting of eight members appointed consecutively for a term of eight years. This board formulates the necessary regulations for carrying out the provisions of the school law in regard to school buildings and approves the rules and regulations formulated by the state board of examiners in regard to certification of teachers, etc., upon the advice and suggestion of the state commissioner. It also appoints an inspector of school buildings and an inspector of school accounts, confirms the com- missioner's appointments, and administers the state normal schools. The commissioner is given power by law to withhold state aid from school districts that fail to conform to the requirements fixed by law or by regulation of the state board. The commissioner appoints the assistant state commissioners in charge of school law, secondary education, elementary education, and vocational education. The county superintendent is appointed by the state commissioner of education, with the advice and consent of the state board, for a term of three years. He may be selected from any part of the state. His salary is uniform for all the counties of the state, is fixed by statute at $3,000, and is payable by the state controller upon warrant of the state commissioner. He has an expense allowance of $350, the payment of which is mandatory upon the county collector, and he receives a sum not to exceed $600, appro- priated by the county board of freeholders toward the salary of a clerical assistant. New 262 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION (Richmond Jersey has a state system of teacher certification, and a state certificate is a legal sine qtM non of receiving teacher salary in all except a few of the larger city districts. The duty of enforcing the law and of carrying out the necessary administrative regulations of the state board of examiners in connection with teacher certification is laid upon the county superintendent. He is also held responsible for the enforcement of the building code requirements within his county, for the enforcement of the attendance law, and for the provision by boards of education of adequate medical inspection. On the other hand, he still retains the traditional functions of supervisor of instruction in all the rural, village, and small city districts and of apportioner of state and county funds. This latter duty, however, is something more than the usual clerical procedure of the traditional county superintendent. A considerable portion of the state and county funds is apportioned upon condition of the performance of certain acts and of conformity with certain requirements and standards set up by law and by the state department. It is for the county super- intendent to determine whether or not these conditions have been met in given instances. He has the statutory power and duty, with the approval of the state commissioner, of withholding state and county funds for certain violations of the school law or for viola- tions of regulations of the state board. I think that you will see from this description of the New Jersey county superintendency that the office is substantially what I have styled it, namely, that of an allocated state inspector. You will doubtless have noted that the most significant fact of all is that the county superintendent in New Jersey is appointed by the state department and not as in other states elected by the voters of the county, elected by the school board members of the county, or appointed by a county board. It is this fact more than any other that gives a unique status to the New Jersey county superintendent. On the one hand, it distinctly identifies him with the state department, and, on the other, it frees him from the hamper- ing influences of local prejudices, local factional feuds, and local petty politics. Granted that the county superintendent is a man of at least ordinary tact and granted also that he understands his business, he can feel free to tell boards of education the exact truth and the whole truth in regard to conditions for which they are responsible. Not merely can he feel free to do this, but he can do so with a confidence that if he has right on his side his course of action will have the approbation of his superiors in office, who are in a position to size up the situation in the large, and with a confidence also that he has the power ultimately to accomplish the thing that ought to be accomplished. I do not wish to intimate that he should ignore local sentiment and local public opinion, but I do wish to emphasize the fact that he is in a position to weigh calmly the importance and value of such sentiment and such opinion and to make only such concessions as the good of the service seems to dictate. In a word, we have here a state-appointed, administrative school official of safe tenure bent upon the duty of adapting a state- wide policy to a particular county, and of reflecting the needs of education as he sees them in his county back upon the state policy, in contrast with the traditional locally elected county super- visor and examiner of short-term tenure attempting to work out the educational salva- tion of his county in splendid isolation — and necessarily with one ear to the ground lest he make a wreck of his own professional career. But to return to the specific topic under discussion. Real interrelation between the offices of state superintendent and county superintendent in New Jersey is made evident in a number of ways. First, there are the frequent communications that are exchanged between the two offices in regard to the furtherance of the school building program which has been inaugurated and which has for its object the strict enforcement of the state building code in all new buildings and the elimination of all insanitary and imsafe con- ditions in all old buildings. The state department and the county superintendent work together upon these problems, the state department relying upon the county superin- tendent for information as to where action is necessary and to what extent and when it is feasible, and the county superintendent relying upon the department for expert inspection Superintendence] STATE AND COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS 263 service and for authority to enforce the action that has been decided upon. Second, there is a constant exchange of communications in regard to the certification of new teachers, the renewal and the conversion of the certificates of teachers in the service, and in regard to any modification of the rules and regulations governing certificates that further experience or changing conditions may seem to require. In the third place, there are conferences between the individual county superintendents and the state commissioner or his representative in regard to special problems of the county superintendent, in con- nection with school consolidation, with pupil transportation, with the establishment of vocational departments or schools, and in connection with the creation of supervising principalships in the rural districts. In the fourth place, are the circular letters from the state commissioner calling attention to particular matters which the state department has under consideration at the time, for definite information bearing on these matters and for suggestions as to how they may be most wisely handled. In the fifth place, during the present year each county superintendent has been sending an informal monthly report giving, in terse form, the significant things he has done or attempted to do during the month. Last, and most important of aU, are the Trenton conferences of county super- intendents and state department ofl&cials presided over by the state commissioner. These meetings are held three or four times a year and the sessions usually occupy the better part of two days, including the evening of the first day. The program of the meeting has been sent to each county superintendent and includes for the most part only matters that pertain to the live administrative problems that confront the state department and the county superintendents. The method of conducting these conferences is somewhat after the manner of the "experience meeting" and they are in fact what the commissioner himself has called them — clearing-houses of ideas and opinions from all sources, relative to the good of the service. I believe that my somewhat varied experience in four different states and in various parts of the public-school work, as well as the comparatively limited time during which I have been identified with the New Jersey system, little more than a year, gives some value to my personal reaction to these conferences. I am free to say that these meetings are far more helpful to me in every way than any I have ever attended. I made some small study of the school inspection service of Germany and of England, and, as a result of that study, I have been profoundly impressed with the high character of the inspection service of these countries and the obvious benefits from it that accrue to the state schools, especially to the smaller and more isolated schools. Now all of us who have had experience with the ofl&ce of county superintendent know how much of his time is necessarily consumed with administrative work and how little actual supervision he can give to any particular school. Nevertheless, we know too how necessary is super- vision. In the rural schools the county superintendent will always have to be held respon- sible for the supervision, in the last analysis. To do it adequately he will have to have under his supervision supervising principals in charge of a number of schools. But super- vision alone cannot make schools eflScient. SuflScient salary must be paid by the local board to secure intelligent and trained teachers. Conditions must be such as to make it possible to retain high-grade teachers. To accomplish such tasks effectively, a county superintendent must have authority. I do not see from what source he can obtain the necessary authority that will leave him free from the dangers of petty retaliation unless he obtain it from the state. It is for this reason mainly that I look forward to increased authority and increased dignity for the ofl&ce of county superintendent, and to its evo- lution into what, for want of a more American term, I have called the office of allocated state inspector. When that time shall have come, the county superintendent will receive his appointment from the state department, will derive his authority from the state department, will be responsible in the last analysis to the state department alone, and the interrelation between these two ofl&ces will be complete. 264 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond ROUND TABLE OF SUPERINTENDENTS IN CITIES WITH A POPULATION OF OVER 300,000 TOPIC: THE FUNCTION OF THE SCHOOL TO THE COMMUNITY IT SERVES A. ITS SCHOLASTIC FUNCTION J. M. GWINN, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, NEW ORLEANS, LA. One is in danger of being considered at least a bit old-fashioned, if not antiquated, if he holds that scholarship should be a leading function of the school today. Scholar- ship, except possibly in the inaugural address of some college president, seems to have fallen into disrepute. Why this seeming indifference to, and neglect of, scholarship? In the first place, it is due to the reaction against the useless, impractical, and dearly purchased scholarship of the past. The value of knowledge for scholarship, in the past, seemed to vary inversely with its value in practical living, and directly with its difficulty of acquirement. The pedantic coUege professor in his threadbare coat and with his visionary and bookish notions, which he thanks God nobody can use, has become the symbol of scholarship, while the college and high-school graduate, floundering and failing in practical affairs, is compared unfavorably with the self-made young man who has learned the way of success in the hard school of experience. Secondly, we are, today, living in a practical, money-making age. Pragmatism, with its emphasis on results, seems to be the dominant philosophy, which philosophy, inter- preted by the modern business man, means sales and contracts, dollars and cents. The big thing today is the reward, the dollar, and it is paid for practice, and not for the theory and training behind the practice. This emphasis on, and the rewarding of, results has deceived the less thoughtful into believing that practice is all-important and that theory and scholarship are useless. Again, our abounding egotism and self-complacency, bolstered up by the knowledge of the marvelous material development made possible thru the no less wonderful inventions and discoveries of today, have almost caused us to believe that we are self-made and self- sufficient. Our egotism seems to have made some forget that our splendid triumphs are but the flowering of the toil-achieved experiences of other days. In the fourth place, the development of democracy seems to have decreased the love of scholarship. The scholarship of the past has always flourished as a child of the court and aristocracy. Scholarship and pride of ancestry go hand in hand. In a democracy, the man is esteemed for what he is and not for his ancestry. Aristocracy and all its kin are despised. So, scholarship, in a democracy, may fall into disrepute. Finally, we are in a great hurry today. We must arrive and that quickly. This demand for speedy, even for instantaneous, results, coupled with our American delight in being buncoed, has made us easy victims to all get-education-quick schemes. For these, and for other reasons which time forbids to mention, scholarship as a function of the school has become, for many, discredited and neglected and a half- forgotten tradition. A careful examination of the facts, however, clearly shows that scholarship as a function of the school is in no danger of being abandoned. This examina- tion, nevertheless, reveals the fact that the conception of what scholarship is and how it is acquired is undergoing serious modifications. The old divorced-from-practical-life, narrow in content, and disciphnary conception of scholarship has passed. The fine gentleman of leisure as an ideal has made way for the toil-marked captain of industry or master of finance. With this changed ideal, the old notion that the work of the world could be done by the untrained and ignorant has gone and now the work of the world demands knowledge, superior skill, and training. In this way, has come the demand that the school and scholarship join themselves to vocation and practical living. The field of Superintendence] SCHOLASTIC FUNCTION OF THE SCHOOL 265 human experience has widened tremendously during the past century. With the coming of the sciences, Spencer raised the question concerning the relative worth of knowledge. Much more do we need to raise that question today. The widening of the fields of human experience has produced multiplicity of courses of study and wide election of subjects. Scholarship is no longer bound to Latin, Greek, and mathematics, nor yet to any one or to all of the newer subjects. Scholarship has lost its definiteness in content till now it is more appropriate to speak of scholarships rather than of scholarship, for the scholarship of one scholar will be quite different from that of another. With President Eliot, we must agree that scholarship cannot now imply a knowledge of everything, nor even a little knowledge of everything, but, rather, a general knowledge of some things and a real mastery of a small portion of the field of human experience. In the last place, the changed attitude toward, if not the complete breakdown of, the dogma of formal discipline has contributed largely to the spread of scholarship to other than the traditional subjects. It is difficult, therefore, to define scholarship in any very definite way. There are, however, certain ways of looking at scholarship which may aid in reading meaning into the term. It may be viewed as dynamic and as static. Scholarship, dynamic, works out toward others in social ways, yes, as vocation even into the economic field. Scholar- ship, viewed as static, implies the possession of certain knowledge which varies with the position and nature of the individual and the surrounding social needs. It also implies certain attitudes of mind and ways of reacting due to the training in the school. The more homogeneous a country is, the greater the core of knowledge in common, the more diversified, the smaller the core of common knowledge and the greater the marginal differences. . Whatever aim is set as the principal function of the school, all concede that school education at first must devote much time and energy to the technique of human experi- ence. The child must be trained in the use of the processes thru which experience is acquired and be given possession of, and skill in using, the forms which society has invented for the preservation and communication of its experience. The technique of reading, writing, mathematics, grammar, literature, geography, history, science, art, and industry must be taught. The emphasis on form quite naturally caused a neglect of content and often inappropriate and useless and even silly subject-matter formed the basis for lessons on forms. Modern pedagogy has greatly improved the method of teaching this technique, and social demands have forced a practically useful content as the basis of form studies. It has also been found that much of the technique can be acquired incidentally when the aim, for the child at least, is content. The insistent demand today is for both useful and interesting subject-matter. The extent to which the demand for useful content has gone is well represented in the suggestion recently made by a prominent psychologist that the first sentence in the first reader should be "This is a toothbrush." Practically the same causes which dethroned Latin, Greek, and mathematics as the only bearers of scholarship have robbed the three R's of some of their prestige as instru- ments of education and have brought rival subjects into the elementary curriculum. A great contest is going on here. The complexity of modern life has brought the advantage to the broader elementary course. The demand for useful content has powerfully tended to localize subject-matter, for what is useful in Boston may be of little use in San Francisco, and the most valuable experiences in Chicago may be positively hurtful in New Orleans. The makers of ele- mentary textbooks can no longer hope to produce books that will find sale thruout the country. The elementary textbooks of the future either will be locally produced, or more general texts will be used with local supplements. The community which a school serves is demanding that the elementary school should lead the child into its local heritage. After the school has given the child control of the elementary tools of human experi- ence, its second great scholastic function is that of scholarship. As stated before, there is a strong movement in some quarters to decrease greatly, if not to eliminate, this function 266 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond of the school and to plant vocational education immediately upon that of the grammar school, if not upon the primary school. We are now urged to have vocational education begin at the early age of three, when the child should receive training in the vocation of caring for its personal needs. This is doubtless sound education, but vocational educa- tion in the sense of education directly aimed at preparing one for the occupation thru which he wiU earn his living should certainly be postponed to a much later age, for voca- tion tends to fix habits and produce immobility. The capacities of the child, the economic and social position of the family, and the kind of work the community needs to have done wiU determine the beginning-point of vocational education. All attempts to eliminate scholarship as a function of the school are doomed to fail. No matter how broad one's personal experience may be the requirements of modern society demand knowledge far greater. A genius might succeed without the assistance of the past and help of others, but the great host of common mortals would fail and find themselves no better off than their primitive ancestors guided by instincts. Each indi- vidual must be given that portion of human experience which wiU be of most service to him in making a life and in earning a living. The school must transmit this heritage to the child if it serves the purpose for which it was created. This heritage must be transmitted for the following, briefly stated reasons: 1. It is the great interpreter of the present and prophet of the future. All right adjustments of the individual to his environment are conditioned on his having possession of it. 2. It is the great conserving force in social progress. Without it, the advances of the radical element of society would be lost and future progress would become impossible. 3. It saves the individual from being overthrown by temporary storms. It is like ballast to the ship that holds it steady when surface waves toss in fury. The tango is not going to wreck society. 4. It is the foundation of all truly practical education. The material conquests of the age took their rise in the fountains of science and higher mathematics. President Wilson is a great living example of the value of scholarship in practical affairs. 5. It prepares one to rightly use his hours of leisure and saves him from the dangers of his non-vocational hours. Emphasis on vocation has made some forget the shortened hours of labor and the need for education for man's non-working hours. The migration toward the devil comes when man is not at work. 6. It saves one from repeating the mistakes of others and enables him to profit by their successes. It frees the individual immeasurably. 7. It makes one at home in the world and teaches the kinship of the race. One can work most effectively and live most happily when he is at home. While yielding to the demand for practical education and to the pressure and popu- larity of vocational training, the school must hold aloft the banner of scholarship and culture and stand for the drill necessary to the learning of the technique of experience. Yet not for the monotonous grind on mere form nor for the scholarship represented by the dry bones of the past, but for technique made interesting and profitable by rich content, and for the new scholarship which at once mingles the blue blood of ancestral aristocracy with the red blood of horny-handed democracy. B, ITS SOCIAL FUNCTION JAMES M. GREENWOOD, ADVISORY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, KANSAS CITY, MO. I shall treat this subject under three types of mind for the sake of clearness and differentiation of educational engineering in a community. I. The "rushers" and "can't-waits" — Each pair of lungs of this class is now on a platform in person or by proxy, trying to get his opinions listened to on what public edu- cation, fits, misfits, and unfits should undertake to do for those in school, and also for some seventy-five millions of people out of school. If each one of these would shut his mouth and not open it again until his contriving faculty has devised some scheme worth Superintendence] SOCIAL FUNCTION OF THE SCHOOL 267 listening to, the country at large would be an immense gainer thereby. That would give time for a breathing spell and to cast about and determine what could actually be done that is worth doing. The Americans have before them a terrible task to be disposed of in some fashion; so immense in itself, so swift and needful and impressive is the business, that effective blows must be struck at once to prevent a collapse. We are told that the laws of the universe, of which the schoolhouse as a social center is not an exact tran- script, need amendments immediately and that something must be done to attract the applause of magazine writers and other purveyors of public intelligence. The question is: Shall we be ruled by wisdom and foresight, or by folly and hindsight ? Verily, a new epoch in modern civilization is hurled upon us, out of which we are vainly looking for a new order of stable intelhgence to be developed and placed approvingly on the stage of human affairs. This is a bread-of-life theory on this whirling ball. It is affirmed that this educational mill has a hopper wide enough, high enough, and big enough to take in all the grists, human and otherwise, that can be garnered under the plea of present necessity and just legislation. We hear vocal explosions which are volcanic, sulphuric, oily, insistent, acrobatic, and otherwise, and let us be thankful that the damage is no worse. I dare say many of these promoters are brave men after their sort, made, it must be confessed, mostly out of shoddy brain-stuff of which there is much evidence. Logically, their theory of the "socialized schoolhouse" and the concomitants thereof leads to a brewing and an overflow of poisonous waters that will submerge the ideal, honest, spiritual life of the American nation. Altho it is an evidence of righteous living to affirm that honored age never had any shadow of a noble behef about the world or could have engaged in any profitable activity connected with it prior to about 1914 a.d,, there are yet some solid rules of living, thinking, and acting in some homes; some notions that our fathers and mothers cherished that still pulsate in the blood of their descendants. Some people still believe that the spiritual should originate the practical, and that it is a sad commentary when the practical of a low condition externally dominates the internal soul action — even the body as well as the garment of the spiritual. Beautiful prize oxen, horses, hogs, dogs, mental and moral degenerates — these are the ideals in that Utopia land we must bow down to and worship under this cult or that. The one who would cultivate his soul and think, even on a secondary plane, is reduced to the sad necessity of finding God in a cow barn, a swill tub, or a hencoop, in a cheap novelty performance, or in a round of giddy pleasure that sur- feits and passes away, leaving dross in character as the national sediment to be capitalized. 2. The "stand-stillers" — ^The "under-do-its" are never quite so ridiculous as the "over-do-its." They see clearly in a very circumscribed range what is actually occurring, and they stand firmly to the faith of "what has been." They are not altogether a bad element in a community. Their mission is to keep the Pegasuses from slopping over when riding their hobby horses thru the air at public expense. This social life that is flaunted to every breeeze, they fear, is becoming overorganized and getting top-heavy, a sort of windbag bobbing up and down and around in the air. Too many organized functions for the healthy stability of even small communities, and the needless multiplication of entertainments, amusements, compulsory attendance at functions that deplete pocketbooks, bankrupt morals, paralyze intellectual activity, and turn life into a whirligig of silly pleasure, are the specters that the "stand-stillers" view with horror. All these amusements when sifted down to the bottom reveal a pro- moter whose patriotic ambition is to prociure money for some cause in which he is deeply interested. He sugar-coats it as a benevolent enterprise for the amusement, enlightenment, moral and social betterment of tired, overworked, and careworn members of the community. The organization needing assistance may be worthy, and, as this is the easist way of raising the revenue, the public is taxed to support it. The "stand-stillers" see that the patient "public-ox" is being taxed enormously for what is most frequently poor stuff in any market. Beside this there is a heavy and con- 268 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION (Richmond stant drain on the slender resources of those who can ill afiford it, which oftentimes inter- feres with their regular work to such an extent as to create financial embarrassment of a serious nature. The entertainments are projected too often upon the theory of competi- tion with the five- and ten-cent "moving-picture shows." It is the indiscriminate use of schoolhouses for regular "show-business" that the "stand-stillers" object to. They do not object to teachers' and parents' meetings, debates, declamatory contests, spelling matches, and such like public gatherings at the schoolhouses as have always been in vogue in this country since the schoolhouse was first built at the crossroads in the unorganized school district. They favor discussions of big subjects but object to sticking picture diagrams on sex hygiene on every blackboard. The "stand-stillers" look at flashy move- ments in a distrustful way, because they fail to see any strong indication of the develop- ment of either substantial mental or moral habits that will make national fiber. To them it is a spineless and nerveless business that ends in the human scrap-heap, showing no efforts of how to trim either thought or action for definite plans of life. 3. "Both-way lookers." — ^There is perhaps no other nation on the earth whose level of general intelligence is higher than is ours, but the most superficial investigation in the most enlightened communities will convince any patient observer that many gross and absurd notions respecting many common but important subjects connected with human welfare and intellectual and moral advancement are prevalent, and are not understood except by very few persons. It would be an interesting investigation if a competent commission in each center of population in this country would undertake to determine what percentage of the popu- lation is really enlightened — ^how many of our people prosecute rational pursuits for their own sake and from a pure love of knowledge, independent of that specific information requisite for practicing a vocation. After making all legitimate deductions from the mass in the aggregate, the great problem is that of the general diffusion of useful knowledge among all classes of people. The higher and more humanitarian view then is that the intellectual and moral faculties of man should be directed to the pursuit of objects worthy of the dignity of an enhghtened manhood. Here is the great field for uplifting each com- munity. A general uplift can be effected only thru a conviction of the importance of a better understanding of common and higher things. When these notions are deeply impressed on the minds of the most intelligent and influential class of citizens in a com- munity and move to action, then something valuable can be accomplished. Such a diffusion of knowledge among the masses would dissipate many crude notions concerning common things, would foster health and prevent accidents, would prepare many for making proper and correct observations on the facts of the various sciences, would place enjoyments on a high level, would inculcate a tendency to promote the com- fort of society, would give enlarged views of the beautiful in art, literature, music, the drama, and architecture; would make possible the general utility of knowledge in relation to man's moral, physical, and intellectual endowments, and a proper estimate of human life and its possibilities and problems. In addition to all these advantages, the way would be opened for gathering and organizing information on all the larger world problems now occupying the attention of the most thoughtful and benevolent members of the human race in all quarters of the globe. Except in rare cases, the evening work at the schools should not be for the children in attendance at the day schools, but should be serious work for grown people, who seek enlightenment and entertainment rather than amusement in picture shows and vaudeville performances of a low quality. Those who go to such places are among the better informed and cultured people. Lectures on travel, science, Uterature, manufacturing, industries, transportation, and other problems, properly illustrated, are the most beneficial to thought- ful people. Persons who can tell of journeys and experiences in foreign countries, or those who are making, or have made, new contributions to any department of knowledge are Superintendence] SHORTENING THE COURSE IN UPPER GRADES 269 listened to with profound respect. Lectures for the promotion and the advancement and diffusion of knowledge are always most heartily welcomed. 4. Story intellects. — There are one-story intellects, two-story intellects, and three- story intellects with skylights. In the writer's judgment, the plan that has been in operation in New York City for a quarter of a century, projected for the instruction and edification of men and women and young persons not attending the day schools, is based on rational lines of high knowledge of a far-reaching character. In planning these meet- ings, the manager assumed that men and women are interested in getting larger views of matters in general and desirous of taking more comprehensive surveys of the vast fields of nature's work, of inventions and discoveries in the interest of the industries, of becoming acquainted with the highest and best products of human institutions, the mixed and the higher sciences, art, literature, laws, and forms of governmental methods of different nations, the transaction of business affairs, the manners and customs of different peoples, and of learning how communication is conducted between individuals and nations. The writer pleads for these refining quaUties in thought and ethics that comport with the ele- vated ideals that our best men and women reverence. The social function of the school lies in these upper stories of thought and conduct with skylight openings above. The demagog in all ages and in all countries has been a pestiferous trouble-maker, because of his interference in matters that he did not understand or failed to compre- hend. Let great floods of light flow in on educational methods. The nation's children, yea, the nation itseK is involved in the issue. No parent would willingly, intellectually and morally pauperize his child. To avoid plunging the children into mental and moral anarchy is the real issue at stake. This is the dreadful story that history records. Let us not repeat it ! Sober-minded men and women in educational work should face the issue squarely and look at it straight. 5. The worker that the world likes. — The orderly worker possesses an orderly mind. He is capable of planning ahead. He has acquired the qualities of neatness and system. Schools can be safely and sanely administered only thru a vigorous, resourceful, clear- visioned intelligence that knows the best and the right and has the courage to stand for these things that are fundamental in life. The teacher who knows how to get a high cul- tural and specific value out of each exact science is a great teacher, but rare is the teacher who can drag knowledge from the realms of space and cause his pupils to pursue it with a zeal that never falters. There are rock foundations in education that are eternal. Shall we stand by these higher aims of life ? Shall calm judgment give place to noise and clatter? Shall the boards of education conduct the socialized function of the schools, or shall this work be handed over and farmed out to the promoters of the John Law type ? ROUND TABLE OF SUPERINTENDENTS IN CITIES WITH A POPULATION OF FROM 25,000 TO 300,000 TOPIC: DIFFERENTIATION IN COURSE OF STUDY IN THE UPPER GRADES A. SHORTENING THE COURSE HERBERT S. WEET, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, ROCHESTER, N.Y. My experience in superintendency work, extending over a period of about two years, has done little more than enable me to appreciate the significance of the problem under discussion. The investigations of the Committee on Economy of Time in Education have found substantial agreement among the school men of this country on two proposi- tions. The first is that we are doing many things in our elementary-school course that 270 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond might well be omitted and leaving imdone many things that should be done. The second is that thru inadequate methods we are taking far more time than we need to take for accomplishing those things which we are attempting. Those of us who are in the field of administration feel that there are certain needs which must be met by experts in educational theory. In the first place, we feel the need of agreement among these experts as to what may properly be eliminated from the present elementary course of study. In a certain course of study in arithmetic, for example, the proposal was made to eliminate the greater part of commission, taxes and insurance, stocks and bonds, and some other similar topics. This elimination was based on the belief that these subjects had little utility knowledge value for the pupils and that they were in no sense essential to desirable training. But no sooner were these eliminations proposed than reputable authorities declared this to be a shortsighted policy because these very topics were the ones which gave to the child the socializing point of view of arithmetic. In view of the pressure for elimination, we are constrained to ask to what extent our authorities in education are agreed that the socializing value of any division of arithmetic b important enough to warrant its retention in the course of study. This socializing value is not a characteristic contribution of arithmetic. We might as well try to de- fend music on the ground that it affords an opportunity for training in concentration. There are inspirational subjects in the course of study that do have as their character- istic feature this socializing function, while training for concentration is not a contribu- tion of any subject per se but rather one of methods of teaching. Unquestionably the child should get so far as possible the social significance of this phase of arithmetic. To this end, however, it is by no means necessary that these shall be taught as arithmetical processes. This illustration represents a type need in elimination. In the second place, we need guidance in the way of substitutions quite as much as we do in the way of eliminations. The elementary school has established its activities for the mental training of our children. Whatever modifications may be desirable as a result of experience can be made in these activities with comparative ease. But there are other activities that are rapidly coming to be regarded as essential and that are bound to find their place in the elementary school. We have made a good beginning in guarding the physical welfare of our children, but it is only a beginning. This activity is bound to demand more of our time as we increasingly appreciate its importance. In like manner, moral instruction seems destined to become more of a conscious process than it has hitherto been, and sooner or later additional time must be assured for it. There are inherent moral powers which develop as surely and quite as much in accordance with law as do characteristics of body and intellect. Their manifestation in the child must be consciously observed, their retardation diminished, and their development guided in accordance with the laws of moral development. Nothing short of this wiU enable us to minister to the whole child. Here again in the field of substitutions must we look for special help from the expert in educational theory and practice. We need, in the third place, to have these same authorities establish for us mileposts on the journey and mileposts bearing inscriptions stating whither we are going and how far we have gone. It seems almost astonishing to think that subjects of this kind have for a long time been discussed among the best educational bodies of this country and that our public-school systems are still so woefully lacking in real standards of measurement. We are not agreed as to what knowledge we may reasonably expect of the child in any subject in any grade of our elementary-school course, and stiU less are we agreed as to what may be regarded as a satisfactory working power. The man of the laboratory no sooner demon- strates his discovery in science than it is seized upon by every interested activity and appropriated at its full value. And the explanation is not difficult. A scientific prin- ciple in chemical science, for example, is demonstrable. There is no appeal from it and there is consequent agreement upon it. We are aware that the differences between the Superintendence] SHORTENING THE COURSE IN UPPER GRADES 271 physical sciences and the mental sciences are very great, but we feel the need in the field of education of that which carries with it the sanction of science. Underlying this discussion today is the assumption that the elementary course in education can be shortened for practically all the pupils in our elementary schools. It is, in reality, a shortening for the masses. However skeptical any one of us may be as to the possibilities in this direction, there is no doubt in our minds that we have scores of boys and girls in our schools who are gifted enough to do the work in far less than the allotted time. We are too likely to content ourselves with the belief that the holding back of such pupils is an inevitable concomitant of our mass teaching. There is no defense for such an assumption to the extent to which we are likely to defend it. On the quantitative side of our organization, we are gradually coming to realize that there is a limit to the number of pupils that can be assigned to any one teacher if we are to expect efficient service. This quantitative change manifests itself in the decreased size of our classes. But there is a qualitative as well as a quantitative element which vitally concerns the effectiveness of mass teaching. Other things being equal, such effectiveness will be determined by the extent to which the teacher is dealing with common elements. The organizing principle of our grades is too inclined to consider the actual accomplishments of pupils and to ignore to too great an extent the causes which lie back of those accomplishments. As a result, natural ability, home environment, limitations in the physical organism, all of which are forces that determine the kind and rate of accomplishment, have not received their proper consideration in the organization of our city systems. This has frequently led to a group- ing together in a single room of the older pupil and the younger, the bright and the dull, the worldly wise and the innocent, and others presenting similar incongruities. It is to remedy these conditions and thereby enable the school to serve far better all pupils con- cerned that the special classes are being organized so generally in our public-school systems. These are common agreements among school men. At once we face the practical problem of getting sufficient funds to give us adequate building room in which to make these differentiations. A special class of subnormal children should not have more than fifteen pupils and it should have the best teacher available. It thus costs us more than twice as much to educate such a child as it does the normal child, special class work for the public schools being extremely expensive. The development is correspondingly slow, but it is in a direction the validity of which is far more easily appreciated and defended as a means of shortening the time of all pupils in the elementary schools than is the process of eUmination or differentiation in courses. Such special classes of various kinds have, however, a vital contribution to the shortening of courses, or of accomplishing more within the given time. In the last analysis, however, the fundamental essential for all economy is the com- petently trained teacher. More time must be given to this training, especially during the preparatory period. To take the immature young woman from the high school, give her two short years of training, and then expect her to cope successfully with these problems is unreasonable. In my own city we are supplementing this training by the sabbatical year on half-pay, and by granting a double salary increase to any teacher who takes sum- mer-school work in an approved institution. As a result of this latter plan more than sixty of our teachers took such courses during the past summer. Approximately one- half of these studied at Teachers College, Columbia University. This has proved a great stimulus, but our city will not have met its full duty until it provides suitable teacher- training facilities within its own borders and so places the opportunities for constant train- ing easily within the reach of all. In the training of our teachers, therefore, is another factor which vitally affects the problem under discussion. This again must be the imme- diate problem of the administrator. On the one hand the meeting of these fundamental needs challenges the best intelli- gence and the best co-operation of the school men of this country. On the other, they 272 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION (Richmond must be increasingly met if we are to make substantial progress in shortening our time with- out at least impairing our efficiency. Furthermore, I have faith tolaelieve that they will be met and that our public schools, for which we need have no apology, will thereby con- tribute even more to the happiness of the individual and the welfare of the community. DISCUSSION Lloyd E. Wolfe, San Antonio, Tex. — ^The course of study can be effectively shortened : (i) by omitting the nonessential, vitalizing the essential, and by appealing more strongly to the understanding and to the initiative and less strongly to the memory; (2) by organizing city and town superintendents, supervisors, principals, county superintendents, and superior teachers to improve the teaching corps in work vital to schoolroom efficiency, and by the selection and promotion of teachers solely on merit; (3) by lengthening the school day and the school year; (4) by requiring all superintendents and supervising prin- cipals to spend most of their time in critical, sympathetic, and helpful supervision. All the reasons for a twelve months' salary that apply to other workers apply to teach- ers. So few teachers of this country draw a salary for twelve months that one would sup- pose that teachers did not need food, clothing, and shelter for the entire year, and that the powers of pupils for good or evil were dormant for a period ranging from two to six months in each year. The time must come when the pupil will be under the educative direction of the teacher for practically the entire year, pursuing a course of study so skilfully com- bining books, observation, industrial training, and play as not unduly to fatigue either teacher or pupil. On account of the democratic spirit that pervades every department of human endeavor in the United States, and because of the difficulty of early determining the natural aptitudes of pupils, differentiation should be introduced with great caution, especially below the ninth year. I suggest the following line of semi- vocational work, which, if thoroly done, would go far toward obviating the apparent necessity for early vocational differentiation: the systematic use, by girls, for industrial training, of the sewing, cooking, sanitary, and general household appliances of the home; also the use, by boys, for industrial education, of the vacant lots of cities and towns for vegetable garden- ing, fruit and tree culture. There should also be given a training in minor repairing and in sanitation in the home, the school, and the community. B. SUBSTITUTION OF WORK OF VOCATIONAL OR PREVOCATIONAL CHARACTER IN THE UPPER GRADES I. WILLIAM A. GREESON, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. I shall take the liberty of discussing prevocational work first. It is a fact, is it not, that when the word "prevocational" is used in discussions connected with education, most people think of industrial work or of some form of manufacturing ? The truth is that all education, all schooling, all training is prevocational — from the education of the savage American Indian to the education given to young ladies in the most fashionable finishing schools. This is true now, always has been true, and always will be true. In other words, either consciously or unconsciously the supposed future occupation of the young has, to some extent at least, determined the character of the education given to them by their elders. It may not be out of order, however, to discuss some phases of the education of children in the upper grades of fundamental importance to them whatever vocation it may be their destiny to follow; also some differentiation in the course of study may appear Superintendence] VOCATIONAL OR PREVOCATIONAL WORK 273 to be advisable, depending upon the sex, ability, inclination, and home environment of the child. AU girls are potential homemakers. That is a short sentence, easily said, readily believed, and yet seldom used as a fact of fundamental importance in the education of girls of any age. Instinctively every girl expects to become a homemaker, and most of them — 80 per cent probably — will become homemakers and mothers with more or less success. This instinct is a determining factor in the life of every girl and should be con- sciously used in shaping her education. Every girl, therefore, in the upper grades should have courses of study founded on this instinct and adapted in method and content to the age and development of the girl — courses in cooking, sanitation, hygiene, sewing, cutting and fitting of garments, art, design, house decoration, artistic ornamentation, etc. Here is a wealth of subject-matter of vital interest to the girl, truly educational in effect, and not difficult to teach, provided always you have the right organization and administration of the school and competent teachers who have some training and a modicum of common- sense. Not only ought some or all of these things to be taught in the schools but also they must in some vital way be connected up with the home — the actual home in which the girl is living. This may seem, and probably is, more difficult than the teaching of these things in classes in the school. But it must be done if this education is to be effective — and it can be done. The instruction given in the school must function in the home. All boys, unless spoiled by bad training or by bad environment or by both, are ambitious to earn a living. It is not necessary or desirable for them to choose a particular vocation. Let them think they know what they are going to do in life, talk with them about what men do in the world, let them read the lives of great men in different occu- pations. Fire their ambition to do something and to be something when they become men. Boys of this age want to do something. Let them do some of the things that appeal to them and that have great educational value. This instinct for work, for motor-activity, is fundamental in the nature of every unspoiled boy and we should make use of it in his education. Let the boys have an opportunity to work in wood and in metals. Give instruction in carpentry, cabinet- making, wood-turning, forging, foundry work, and in freehand and instrumental drawing as a necessary part of all construction work in wood and in metals. Whatever is done should be done in a workmanlike manner, and the teaching should be done by men who know from actual experience how to use the tools in a workmanlike way. Otherwise, the boy will have only contempt for the subject and for the teacher. Printing is a thing of great educational value, always fascinating to the boy, and may have a truly prevocational outlook if taught by a practical printer who knows how to teach as well as how to do all the things connected with the trade of printing. In the upper grades of every school are found children who have not done well in their academic studies. Often the opportunity to do some of the things mentioned will prove to be a great intellectual awakening. When a boy or a girl finds that he or she excels in some of these activities, self-respect is restored and improvement in all respects is mani- fest. The school is for the child and the child is more sacred than the course of study. The organization of a school should be such that it is possible to let the boy spend one- half of his time in the drawing-room and the shop if he is getting the greatest good for himself there. The girl should be permitted to spend half of her time in the kitchen and sewing-room if she is getting the greatest good for herself there. It goes without saying that things advocated in this paper cannot be done in a school organized on the one-teacher-one-room plan of organization. Departmental organization of the school is imperative and also promotion by subject rather than by grade. There is also implied a school of considerable size, with properly equipped shops and kitchens, rooms for drawing, printing, etc. 274 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond What about substitution of vocational work in the upper grades ? If by that phrase is meant actual trade instruction in the upper grades, in my opinion, that kind of edu- cation belongs in a trade school and not in the upper grades of a public school. Who knows what trade a boy should follow ? What right has anyone to say to a boy in the upper grades, "You ought to choose and to follow this particular trade" ? Who has the knowledge or the wisdom necessary to determine these vital things ? Not the child, nor the parent, and certainly not the teacher. This is a period of development, of growth, of formation of character and ideals, of education. This is not the time for the final decision which fixes the destiny of the child. The effort of all at this stage of the child's develop- ment should be to keep him in school, to prolong the period of growth and development, to form his ideals, and to give him an intelligent outlook on life. The teaching of vocations, trade schools, ought to have a place in a system of public education, and public trade schools will come, slowly perhaps, but they will surely become a part of every well-developed public-school system. But such schools should have a separate teaching faculty and should not admit pupils until they have completed the upper grades or until they are at least fourteen years of age. II. I. I. CAMMACK, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, KANSAS CITY, MO. The papers and discussions of the past two days have indicated that it is unnecessary to devote further time to advocating the desirability of introducing vocational work in the public schools. This being granted it then becomes the duty of the school to provide such vocational, or rather prevocational, activities in the upper grades as will direct and influence development along the lines of greater social efi&ciency and as may assist in giving the future men and women some useful information and help to bring them into a proper' attitude toward the life which they will soon enter. The problem is, then, one of "ways and means" and depends, or should depend, upon the specific conditions that must be met in each individual case. The kind of work and the method of handUng it should be made to fit the local needs. What is desirable in one city or town or rural district may be, and I think often is, wholly inappropriate for another. In fact, a single city of any considerable size usually requires several differ- ent kinds of work to fit the diverse social conditions and home life of its people. Perhaps I cannot illustrate my meaning better than to describe what we are trying to do in the schools with which I have the honor to be connected. A little less than two years ago our shifting population permitted us to abandon one of our elementary schools, leaving us an excellent building of thirteen rooms in a central location easily reached from all parts of the city. We equipped this building with shops and asked the principals of all the schools to invite the pupils in the upper grades who desired vocational work sufl&cient in amount to employ halt their time in school to report at this building. Sixty reported the first day and the number reached 150 the first year. We were soon obUged to enlarge the equipment and employ additional teachers. At first both boys and girls were admitted, but the necessity for additional shops for the boys was such that this year the entire building is given to their work, while the girls are taken care of in one of the high-school buildings. There are now more than 250 boys in attendance. These boys are from eleven to seventeen years of age and from the upper elementary grades. Many of them are overage and had lost standing in the classes in the schools from which they came. Many would have dropped out of school had this opportunity not been given to them. Besides cabinet work and wood-turning, most of the building trades are taught. The boys have already become so proficient as to be able to wire their building for electric light to accommodate the evening school and to instal the plumbing. They are con- Superintendence] VOCATIONAL OR PREVOCATIONAL WORK 275 structing much of the apparatus and miscellaneous furniture needed in the schools of our city. They do practically all the printing needed by the board, except that which requires machines we have not yet been able to instal. During the coming summer, we expect to construct four frame school buildings of two rooms each to accommodate the pupils in two districts where the growing population requires the opening of additional schools. This work is possible from the fact that we have as supervisor a teacher, a graduate of a state normal school, who served as superin- tendent in a town employing more than twenty teachers, and who for several years during the summer vacations was a successful architect, contractor, and builder on his own account. He is, therefore, able to conduct the work from the viewpoint of both the edu- cator and the practical builder. In addition to the work above mentioned we are trying to bring vocational oppor- tunity more directly to pupils in different parts of the city by the establishment of pre- vocational work for the students in the sixth and seventh grades in three of the elementary schools. These pupils are given from one-quarter to one-half of their time daily for vocational work. The academic work is modified so that essentials only are provided and these essentials so modified as to take on an industrial character. The design is that these schools shall be centers at which others living in the immediate vicinity may avail themselves of the chances to modify their work while in the elementary grades. In a school located some seventeen miles from the city, to which boys are sent by the juvenile court, we have established shops and machinery which permit, under the instruc- tion provided, the boys from ten to sixteen years old to construct the buildings used for the homes. The cottage plan is adopted, each cottage being large enough to accommodate from twenty to twenty-five boys, together with the man and woman who serve as master and matron, and in which, as far as possible, home life is provided. Vocational education is further given to our children in the elementary grades thru the school gardens. During the past year, thirty-one such gardens were maintained, not only during the period in which the schools were in session, but during the summer vacation, and we were glad to note that 75 per cent of the pupils who did work during the school year reported regularly during vacation time. The chief purpose of this work is not so much the school garden but the home gardens that result from the interest awakened in the school garden. Never before had so many back yards and vacant lots been cultivated as during the past season. Already arrangements have been made by which, during the coming summer, fifty-five schools will have gardens. Perhaps the most far-reaching innovation designed to develop the practical vocational side of child life is the introduction of what has been termed the activities of the "informal hour." Formerly, the daily sessions of our schools lasted from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon. The last hour produced less satisfactory results along the academic lines than any other part of the day. We therefore devoted the hour from three to four to miscellaneous activities, designed to interest and develop children along practical lines. The academic subjects necessary to the promotion of the children were placed earlier in the day, so that, in case parents desired to withdraw their children at three o'clock, they were permitted to do so without endangering regular promotion to higher grades. This "informal hour" is given to a great variety of school activities. The chief purpose is to direct the attention of the teaching body to the necessity of adapting the activities of the school to the demands of child life. It is really the children's hour and to a large extent it is bringing to the children those things which cultivate greater interest and develop in them a desire to participate in the activities presented. During this hour, also, teachers are giving individual instruction to those who in any way fall behind in any particular branch. The encouragement thus given and the personal interest and sympathy of the teacher hold many in school who, otherwise, would lose 276 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond interest and withdraw. During this time, also, opportunity is offered to the more active pupils who wish to proceed independently with various work. In these activities large use is made of the recreational side of child life. The rela- tion and duties of children in their association with each other are emphasized perhaps more fully in their play than in any other school activity. We are devoting consider- able attention to story-telling and are bringing to the children in this way much of the best child literature. We are also encouraging the dramatic talent, and pupils are taking great interest in developing along this line such gifts as enable them to give entertain- ments for each other and for their parents. Music is also emphasized. In the manual- training shops and in domestic science much miscellaneous work is being given. Basket weaving, camp cooking, and other miscellaneous things are proving attractive. The stereopticon is being used for both slides and moving pictures. One of the best features that has thus far been developed is the interest which has been created in the home. There have already been organized in our city more than fifty parent-teacher associations. The mothers' meetings are held in the afternoon and the fathers and mothers meet together in the evening. The result has been that the school and the home have been brought closer together than ever before and a greater co-operation is being manifested than we thought possible. Many of our principals are enthusiastic over the benefits derived from this "informal hour." Some of them believe that it is the most valuable hour of our school day. Teachers are studying child Ufe as never before, and their interest has caused teachers' classes to be organized in the afternoons and in the night schools to prepare especiaUy for this line of work. DISCUSSION David Snedden, commissioner of education for Massachusetts, Boston, Mass. — Certain tendencies in the reorganization of the work of the upper grades of our elementary schools are now evident in all urban communities in this country. It seems to me that when present movements shall have been carried to the point of definite results, we shall have a reorganized school system in urban communities that may roughly be described as follows: 1. All children between six and twelve years of age will be found in relatively small school buildings, located as near to their homes as practicable. The tendency will be to make these school buildings small, rather than large, in the endeavor to have each school located close to the homes of its pupils. These schools wiU be staffed entirely by women teachers. There will be no principal, in the sense of a person who does no teaching. A head teacher, exercising certain responsible functions of principal in administrative and discipUnary matters, will be found. Each school will have a playground, which play- ground will be in use not merely during the time school is in session, but at all other times, since it will be located in close proximity to the homes of the children. 2. For each fifty or sixty teachers in these primary schools, there will be found a pri- mary supervisor, directly responsible to the superintendent of schools. This primary supervisor will in most cases be a woman, who is a pedagogical expert in matters of methods course of study, etc., as these are involved in the education of children under twelve years of age. Thus it will be seen that the education of children of these ages will be turned completely over to women teachers. 3. All children over twelve years of age, whether in the seventh and eighth grades, or retarded, will be brought into large central schools. These schools will embrace not merely classrooms, but workshops, laboratories, and the like. It will be assumed that children can walk at least a mile to schools of this character, and may be transported even farther. Superintendence] VOCATIONAL OR PREVOCATIONAL WORK 277 4. In the large school for children from twelve to fourteen years of age, which may be here called the intermediate school, much of the teaching will be on a departmental basis. Certainly all shop and practical arts teaching, and the commercial subjects, will be departmentalized. At least half the teaching force for the boys will be men, selected partly with reference to their capacity to teach such subjects as arithmetic, history, and shop subjects, and partly with a view to the influence of their personality upon the pupils. The school will be in charge of a principal, giving his entire time to organization, admin- istration, and supervision. 5. In the intermediate school will be found considerable flexibility of courses. Cer- tain subjects, such as English expression, literature, history, hygiene, and the like, will be taken in common by all pupils, special classes being formed for those who are retarded. Other subjects, such as manual training, household arts, elementary commercial subjects, practical science, music, foreign languages, and mathematics, will be elective, it being required only that each pupil shall carry a substantial program of work. 6. In every case, while retarded pupils will have special classes adjusted to their needs in such subjects as arithmetic and English, they will also be permitted to work with advanced pupils in other subjects, such a shop studies, for which they may be qualified. 7. The intermediate school in many cases will be located adjacent to the high school. In some cases it will occupy the same building, altho it is not expected that teachers in the intermediate school will be college graduates, as will be necessarily the case with high- school teachers. An ideal arrangement for many communities would be to have the high school and intermediate school in proximity, so that, to some extent, the same shop equipment and playgrounds could be used. Leonard P. Ayres, director^ Division of Education, Russell Sage Foundation, New York, N.Y. — We need differentiated courses in our schools because our schools are filled with differentiated children. We are just awakening to the significance of this condition. A few years ago educators began to discover the facts concerning the ages of the children in the different grades. This brought to light the astonishing fact that there are children of almost every school age in every grade. In every large school system we found that the oldest children in the first grade were older than the youngest children in the eighth grade. A few years later we began to study the progress of children thru the grades and we found similar extreme variations in every school system. In every city we found slow children in the first grade who had been in school longer than the brightest children in the eighth grade. Indeed it was often found that there were children in the lower grades who had begun attending school before some of their classmates were bom. With the growing mastery of measurements in education, attention now turned to the measurement of classroom products, and here again a similar situation was brought to light. When we began to test children for their arithmetical ability, we found that the best children in the second and third grades made better scores than the poorest ones in the eighth grade. When attention turned to spelling, we found that the best children in the second grade spelled correctly words on which the poorest of the eighth grade children failed. In every branch in which reliable scales for measuring results have been developed the same situation has been brought to light. In handwriting the best children in the lower grades do better work than the poorest in the upper grades. The best drawing in the second and third grades is better than the poorest in the seventh and eighth. The brightest children in the third grade write better English compositions than the least gifted in the seventh and eighth grades. In broad general terms this condition is a constant and universal one. It does not apply merely to the rare and exceptional children. On the contrary, it maintains every- where, among all children, in every subject, and in a relatively constant degree. Every- where and in every subject we find about the same proportion of poor students, medium students, and superior students. The reason why we have not realized this before is that 278 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond it is only recently that we have developed moderately accurate methods of measuring classroom achievements. But now, even with the crude scales and tests that have been developed, these evidences of the universal and inherent natural differentiation among children are becoming ever-increasingly convincing. Nor is this the only or perhaps the most important lesson taught thru the application of scientific methods to educational problems. Whenever we measure the attainments of children in more than one intellectual product and compare the results, we find that children who excel in one sort of ability strongly tend to excel in other sorts of achieve- ment. The abilities which the human race considers desirable abilities generally accom- pany each other in the same individuals. Nature has not decreed any law of human compensation whereby the individuals who are strong in certain attributes are weak in others, while those weak in some are strong in others. Disappointment and disillusionment await those educators who believe that children of marked ability in performing abstract book work will generally prove deficient in con- crete shop work and that those who are deficient in abstract work will excel in shop work. Such a compensatory law does not exist, for, in the long run, nature bestows her intel- lectual endowments upon her chosen favorites instead of scattering them impartially among aU. These conditions mean that we need differentiated courses because we have differ- entiated children. We have them everywhere and in all subjects. Whenever we measure educational products we find three fundamentally significant conditions. The first is that in every school system there is greater difference in classroom ability between different members of the same grade than there is between the abilities of the average children in the lowest and the average children in the highest grades. The second sig- nificant fact is that everywhere in every sort of measurable ability we find fairly constant and definite proportions of bright, medium, and slow children. The third significant fact is that different sorts of intellectual abilities tend to accompany each other in the same individuals. Nature has made no compensatory law of equality but has on the contrary decreed a universal and inherent inequality whereby the well endowed in one sort of abiUty are apt to be well endowed in other sorts also. All this means that if we are to give all the children the best and fullest sort of edu- cational opportunity we must differentiate our courses so as to fit them to the needs and abilities of the differentiated children. We must locate our brightest children in groups with other bright children and give them work of sufl&cient thoroness and scope so that they may develop thru earnest application instead of deteriorating thru easy achievement. For our children of average abilities, we must organize classes and courses that will give them work within their power to accomplish but requiring their best efforts. For the slowest children, we must organize courses composed of essentials so simplified that in their mastery the children may acquire the habit of success instead of being trained in the habit of failure. We must differentiate our courses because our courses are made for our children, and our children are differentiated by nature. W. L. Ettinger, associate city superintendent of schools, New York, N.Y. — In dis- cussing the question of prevocational work, Mr. Ettinger gave as his definition that pre- vocational work is trade preparatory work, plus academic work, plus vocational guidance. He also sounded a note of warning in respect to the assumption that children in the same class or grade are differently endowed because they respond unequally to the same test. In other words, the slow child of the first-year grades may be more liberally endowed in the upper grades, and, again, the pupil who seemed to be slow and backward in the elementary grades may do very good work in the high-school grades. Slowness and so-called dulness may be a condition of the mind at some particular time in a period marked by physiologic and psychologic changes. Superintendence] MEASURE OF SUPERINTENDENrS EFFICIENCY 279 John H. Haaren, associate city superintendent of schools, New York, N.Y. — As this round-table conference is an experience meeting, it will not be out of place to speak of some things in the line of vocational instruction, which the city of New York is doing. Our idea is to organize the prevocational work in the regular elementary schools, with pupils of the seventh and eighth years of the school course. These are to be tried for nine weeks at a time in several industrial courses, in order to ascertain any special aptitude. Three hours daily are to be devoted to industrial work and three hours daily to academic work. The subjects so far introduced in the girls' school are sewing and dressmaking, millinery, embroidery, novelty work, care of invalids, homemaking. The course in the boys' school is to consist of metal work, woodwork, joinery, turning, and electrical work. In the regular vocational schools, practically all of the industries mentioned in the course of this discussion are introduced, with the exception of bricklaying, painting, and plaster- ing; instead, there is work in printing, including linotype and monotype operating. I might state here that there is the warmest interest in prevocational instruction in the city of New York at the present time. It is receiving the heartiest encouragement of the very progressive president of the Board of Education, Thomas W. Churchill. He has concerned himself not alone with this work, but with what may be considered a branch of it, the continuation classes, which are being established in the mornings in department stores. In these classes, the pupils are being taught the things necessary to increase their eflOLciency, and, of course, their salaries, and to make them eligible for promotion to the next higher step in the business. M. H. Stuart, principal. Manual Training High School, Indianapolis, Ind. — ^In the reorganization of the school system whereby we introduce vocational courses into the grammar and high school, it is of the greatest importance that teachers be selected who are masters of their field. Our teachers for this work wiU doubtless be selected in two ways. We can take our good teachers who are of a practical inclination and send them to industrial schools and also to the industries, or we may go to the industries and select tradesmen who possess in our judgment the natural qualifications for teaching but who lack the academic and professional training. These tradesmen may be sent to profes- sional schools and may thereby become vocational teachers. Since our school system is under the control of school men, it seems easier for us to preserve the proper balance and establish vocational courses by the second method. A school man can take a tradesman and train him day by day to the school point of view easier than he can take a school man and push him out into the industrial field to the point where he will command the respect of the men who possess skill. In order that the vocational movement, there- fore, may make its full contribution to our educational problem, I believe we should be willing at the outset to tolerate in our faculty tradesmen with only a moderate degree of academic and professional training. ROUND TABLE OF SUPERINTENDENTS IN CITIES WITH A POPULATION UNDER 25,000 HOW SHALL THE SUPERINTENDENT MEASURE HIS OWN EFFICIENCY WILLIAM MCK. VANCE, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, DELAWARE, OHIO In these days of scales and standards or norms, when there is a burning desire to reduce everything in the pedagogical universe to the fraction of something else, and then to hold it up to public view as a percentage, or a graph, or a segmented line, or a sectored circle, or groups thereof, one device seems to have escaped the inventive diabolism of the 28o NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond experts, namely, a contrivance whereby the superintendent of schools may take his own measure, quickly, accurately, privately. Other people are constantly doing it for him, with no nice scruples of accuracy or privacy, and they write his Mene Tekel Upharsin wholly regardless of the Ayers scale; they compose ''pro bono publico" contributions for the local press, unmindful of Hillegas and Thorndike, and they plot the superintendent's curve of eflSciency with absolutely no reference to its co-ordinates. But how is he to do this himself ? How can he anticipate the inquisitorial methods of some Holy Office of a Survey ? How shall he project himself out of himself so that, from some point of view sufficiently apart to give a proper perspective, he may look upon himself and his work with imclouded vision and study both with the micrometric methods of the laboratory ? You are conversant with the use of the Binet-Simon scale by which the inmates of institutions for the feeble-minded are tested and graded. A pupil of twelve or fourteen may grade only six years of age in average mental capacity. Sometimes the abnormality of a single trait exhibits great maturity; again certain functions may be normal. Now it is not my task nor my purpose to construct a scale of this sort which will reveal to the superintendent his professional status — whether normal, sub-, or supernormal — whether behind, abreast, or ahead of his times. But it is my purpose to state a few fundamental qualities of the successful superintendent and a few features of his work which, all will agree, must characterize the equipment and output of any efficient man, and whose absence indicates partial or total failure. First, he must come into his position with adequate preparation and in the right manner. No man can do effective work who lacks the training of two schools: the school of real scholarship, whether obtained in a fresh-water or a tide-water university, or in no university, and whether he have many, or few, or no degrees; and the school of suc- cessful experience in earlier and more elementary situations. Nor can he do his best work in a field which he has entered in any surreptitious, haphazard, bargaining, or com- promising manner. He deserves not to survive such a handicap. Sometimes a good man, by a combination of circumstances, the nature of which is beyond his ken, is placed in a wrong position. He may be as square as a die, but the hole in which he finds himself is rovmd or rhomboidal or irregularly polygonal, and the friction is dreadful. The only thing to do is to get out and get fitted elsewhere; and such extrication and readjustment may be accomplished with entire dignity and self-respect. The second essential is that the superintendent's heart must be right. The stetho- scope of conscience must show that it beats true to every high ideal and purpose and practice. Only an incomplete success can be hoped for by the man who is careless of even the conventions of life; but he who despises the weightier matters of the law, how- ever scrupulously he may tithe the mint, anise, and cumin of accepted social standards, is doomed to certain failure. Honesty, truthfulness, sobriety, and personal purity are old-fashioned virtues, but they are the corner stones of every man's life who is built four- square. The breaking-down of any one of them throws the superstructure out of plumb and threatens ruin. How supremely absurd it is for any school man to think that he can cheat a little, lie a little, drink a little, and break the seventh commandment a little I "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and instruction." Third, the efficient superintendent is a man of ideals, and these ideals, it goes without saying, should be intrinsically worthy. No enduring work can be modeled on lines that depart from the standards of art and beauty. He has a profound feeling for the best there is in the educational world, and he has his antennae out like the wires of a Marconi station to catch all messages that are attuned to this feeling. He instinctively rejects the unworthy in educational theory and practice, or, rather, they never touch him, for, to carry the figure a step farther, his soul, like the coherer of the Marconi instrimient, is Superintendence] MEASURE OF SUPERINTENDENrS EFFICIENCY 281 set to a higher note. He packs his life full of everything big and good and great. And so he reads the best books, hears the best music, sees the best pictures, visits the best schools, studies the best methods and programs, makes close and intimate friendships with the best superintendents, is alert to the best in school architecture, school hygiene, school ethics, school texts and literature — in short, he demands only the best of every- thing for the immortal work committed to his charge. He has his moments of satisfaction when he realizes that a cherished ideal has, thru his efforts, been wrought into the organic structure of his schools, and he is disposed to measure his efi5ciency by the number of such ideals thus incorporated; but, when the issue is otherwise, he has the bitter reflection of those who have loved and lost, and this is indeed "sorrow's crown of sorrow." Nothing contributes more to any department or phase of school work than a fine ideal finely worked out. For example, "order for order's sake" was the slogan of dis- ciplinarians of a certain type, now happily almost extinct, and the means to that end were the rod, the dunce-stool, brutal sarcasm, and expulsion. Repression, fear, lack of initiative, sullen subjection, or its antonym, dogged defiance, were the prominent char- acteristics of such a regime. Now, on the other hand, "order for the sake of the school as a community" is altogether a finer ideal. This sets a powerful motive in the mind of the pupils as citizens of the school republic; it furnishes a consideration of values by the pupils resulting in acts of judgment which almost invariably are on the side of good order; it tends to stimulate children to organize aU of the facts that have to do with conduct in its larger aspects, and thus contributes much to the morale of the child; and, lastly, instead of repression, and sullen subjection, or open defiance, the successful opera- tion of this ideal gives the entire school an abounding life in which the graces of initiative, courage, and every other manly quality find fullest development. The superintendent of ideals has, of course, imagination — the ability to see things in their higher and more subtle relations — and the constructive imagination is, we all know, one of the most practical things in life. The poem hangs in the berry bush Till it catches the poet's eye; And all the street is a masquerade When Shakespeare marches by. Fourth, our self-testing superintendent should be a man of affairs. By this I mean not only that he should know the details of the school plant and equipment, from pens and ink to plumbing fixtures and vacuum cleaners, but that he should be an expert in warming, ventilating, school-seating, decorating, and landscape gardening. It would be well also if he should possess more than a mere amateur's knowledge of the special depart- ments of study over which supervisors and special teachers are usually placed — music, drawing, manual training, domestic science, and physical culture. In cities of less than 25,000, he is frequently the purchasing agent of the board of education, and hence he must be a compendium of school and office supplies. Catalogs, samples, and price-lists com- prehensively filed are at his finger-tips. He familiarizes himself with the quality of the manufactured output of the various houses. He inspects the school grounds, basements, furnace and engine rooms, toilets — the entire realm of which the janitor is king, and even ventures a suggestion or a correction, if need be, to that potentate. Whenever the need of a new school building arises, he sets forth the facts and needs to the board of education in fullest detail, with tentative plans based on a careful preliminary study. To this end, he is a close student of school architecture and has visited and inspected the latest notable examples of this art in a radius of some hundreds of miles. The physical well-being of the children is his constant care. In his relations to the board of education the superintendent will scrupulously main- tain the best traditions and customs of his office. As an educational expert and adviser, and as the executive officer of the board, he commonly receives all the respect that is his 282 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond due. If it is otherwise, he may reasonably conclude that something is wrong — ^possibly with himself — possibly someone has thrown a monkey wrench into the school machinery. It is most desirable that a clear and definite understanding of the superintendent's func- tions be early established and always recognized. Otherwise no constructive program is possible. He must have large Uberty in the initiating of educational measures, and his should be the final word in the nomination and assignment of teachers, the promotion and transfer of pupils, the choice of textbooks, the preparation of the courses of study, and the supervision of the work. If he cannot freely give his attention to the really big things of his calling, either he shrivels up into a perfunctory agent of the strong man or men on his board, or he congeals into a frigid conservatism. A strong and inspiring personality is the best asset that any superintendent can have, and he ought not to tolerate influences or circumstances that tend to thwart its free and symmetrical development. As a man of affairs, the superintendent will get to know the leaders of other commun- ity interests, professional, commercial, industrial, and social, and will use every proper means to enlist them in his propaganda for the schools. He need not "talk shop" to the point of boredom, but he will neglect no opportunity to secure the co-operation of all citizens of whatever class. Hence, he ought to be interested in folks, because he needs their help, if for no other reason. Ideals have only a speculative interest in the abstract. To have real, usable value, they must be crystallized into the actualities of the present day and generation. If the ideals of the superintendent are to be something more than an iridescent dream, he must reduce them to the concrete. In this task he not only needs the help of his board of education and the assistance of his teachers, but, in a special sense, he needs the help of the community. His ability to bring things to pass is one of the tests of his efficiency. The superintendent's recommendations are not worth the cells of gray matter used up in framing them, after he has received his cong6 from a hostile majority. If, then, you accept my analysis and admit that to be efficient a superintendent must be a man of adequate preparation, a man of high ideals, a man of affairs, and a man of winning and masterful personality, the question still remains. How is any specific, indi- vidual superintendent — ^you or I, for instance — to know that he is that kind of a man ? How can he see himself as he really is and as others see him ? Obviously, the sane method is a rigid, impartial, scrutinizing self-examination; even a merciless self-dissection, if that be necessary to the study of his vocational anatomy. With "himself the judge and jury and himself the prisoner at the bar," let him look at himself with the disillusioned perspective of impersonaUty. Let him courageously condemn or acquit himself of every fault which he observes in other superintendents. Then let' him fearlessly apply the measures of the highest standards and heroically note his deficiencies with a determination to correct them. If he finds himself to be a man of earnest and searching thought, definite conviction, and profound feeling; if he has acquired skill from training, character from discipline, intelligence from observation and study, and culture from the assimilation of all these; if his work is free from agitation, restlessness, uncertainty, feverish intensity, and con- suming haste, but full of dignity, resourcefulness, and repose — not the repose of lethargy, but the repose of quiet, calm, effective activity; if he never allows his brain to become entangled with his nerves; if he looks upon his daily program not as drudging toil, but as spontaneous, self-expressing, creative work — fatiguing, to be sure, sometimes to the point of exhaustion, yet however perplexing and annoying, happily free from friction and irritation; if he preserves a just sense of proportion and a wise adjustment of the tasks, opportunities, and pleasures of the school; if he regards his pupils as future citizens of a great, progressive republic, and tries to make life to them sweet and sound and sane and serviceable; if he keeps himself free from an over-self-conscious and dictatorial manner; if he vitalizes with his own refreshing individuality the dull monotony of routine work; if, when political disturbances or other trying conditions arise, he can count upon the staunch, unswerving loyalty of his corps of teachers; if his community looks confidently Superintendence! TESTING GRADE TEACHERS FOR EFFICIENCY 283 to him for co-operating leadership in establishing and maintaining the best things in civic life; if, since "the truest teaching is living," he daily seeks to express in his personal life his noblest ideals of character — if all these foundation facts are firmly beneath his feet when he emerges from the flood of self-accusation, and if the searchlight of cross- examination reveals no dark corners of injustice and self-seeking, uncovers no lurking negligence and insincerity; then let him humbly and thankfully "rejoice with exceeding great joy," for he is indeed a master workman whose labor will require for its adequate testing and measuring a heaven and an eternity. TESTING GRADE TEACHERS FOR EFFICIENCY EDWIN D. PUSEY, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, DURHAM, N.C. Eflicient teaching develops in the pupil seK-reliance, ability to reason, judgment, and the power of initiative. The proper tests of a teacher's efl&ciency, therefore, should be applied to the pupils rather than to the teacher. As it requires considerable time, how- ever, to develop these qualities even in bright pupils, we cannot wait imtil the end of the elementary-school period to apply these tests. Much harm may be done while we wait the necessary time for these qualities to be developed if the pupils happen to be under an inefiicient teacher whose inefficiency is discovered too late. It is necessary for us to have some tests that we can apply, not when the pupil apphes for admission to the high school, but at the end of each year, and frequently during the year, monthly, and perhaps oftener. As many of the elements that are essential to good teaching are intangible and exist only in the resourceful teacher who is allowed great freedom of action, we must not use tests that will, even indirectly, repress the teacher's initiative and personality. In deciding upon the tests that we are to use, we must be very broad in our view and never lose sight of the fact that we are dealing with human minds that in turn train other human minds. If we observe detail too closely our tests will be mechanical, with the result that our teachers will become lifeless in their work. We may overemphasize the smaU things and altogether overlook the large and essential things. The school system that rates its teachers on thirty or more points of merit, running somewhat as follows, punctuality of the teacher, disposition shown in following instructions, dress, tone of the voice, temperature of the room, seating of pupils, preparation of outlines, method in assigning new work, etc., may be able to rate every one of its teachers as "excellent" or "very good" yet not have an efficient teacher in any one of its schools. The proof of a teacher's efficiency is to be found in the pupil whom the teacher advances from her room rather than in the teacher herself. If the pupil has gained the habit of punctuality, is weU behaved, seems to have some definiteness of purpose, knows how to organize his ideas, has developed a power of reason commensurate with his age, is self- reliant, and is not afraid to take the initiative, then his teacher has been efficient, and should be given the highest rating irrespective of the mechanics of the method she has followed. If the pupil is lacking in any of these traits of character, there has been a weak point somewhere in his training, and some one of his teachers has failed in her work. The rating of teachers may become simplified and equitable if every school official charged with their rating is provided in advance with a rating card specifying the com- monly accepted tests that prove a teacher's efficiency. The teacher should know what these tests are, so that she may ever have before her a guide showing what is supposed to constitute good work. The number of tests should be reduced to a minimum and might be as follows: 1. Attendance. 2. Discipline. 3. Tidiness of pupils and room. 4. Interest of pupils. 284 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond 5. Knowledge of pupils and of their environment. 6. Interest in outside activities. 7. Accuracy in keeping records and in making reports. 8. Teaching ability. Without regular attendance on the part of the pupils good school work is impossible. The standard in attendance for each teacher should be a percentage based on enrolment, as high as or higher than the average for all classes in the same grade or department. In a small system that is divided into primary, grammar, and intermediate departments, the department may be made the basis rather than the grade. If the attendance under any teacher for any month falls below the average for that grade or department for that month, the teacher's attention should be called to it at once, and the cause of the poor attendance should be investigated. If the attendance is higher than the average the teacher should be given credit for it. The percentage should be based on the enrolment, from which a pupil's name should be removed only because of death or removal from the school district. If this is done the teacher will be held responsible for all avoidable cases of elimination. It is surprising how few absences a good teacher has, and how few children leave school while imder a good teacher. The teacher who never brings an imruly pupil to the principal and who settles all cases of discipline in her own room is considered to be a good disciplinarian. The proof of this quality in a teacher, however, should be seen in the conduct of the pupils on the playgrounds, on the street, and in other public places. The public is not as much con- cerned with what the pupil attempts to do under the restraining eye of the teacher as it is with how he deports himseK when unrestrained. It is then that he shows his training. The teacher who succeeds in implanting in the child a proper consideration for the rights and feelings of others is a better disciplinarian than the teacher who rules thru force and fear. If pupils are allowed to come to school with imkempt hair and with unwashed faces and hands, if they are permitted to drop bits of waste paper, pencil shavings, bread crumbs or other remains of their lunch on the schoolroom floor or on the school grounds, or to put them in their desks, as grown-up men and women they will not develop much civic pride. The personal appearance of the pupils, the appearance of the schoolrooms and of the school grounds is a fair test of teachers' value to the community. Any visitor to a schoolroom can tell in a very few minutes whether or not the pupils are interested in their work. The principal, however, looks farther, to see if the teacher has so aroused the children that they turn to other sources than their textbooks for information concerning the things about which they are studying, and to see if they are finding practical applications in everyday life for the things they are being taught. The teacher who stirs up such interest in her pupils probably possesses in herself all the elements of good teaching. To get the best results the teacher not only must know something of the principles of child study, but must have made a special study of the nature of each child under her charge, must show a lively sympathy in all that interests him, and must know something about his home life and environment. The teacher must know the child's parents, and must know something of the training or lack of training he has had at home; otherwise she will not know what to expect of him, nor will she know how to deal with him. From the very nature of her work the teacher ought to hold a position of leadership in the community. The confinement of the classroom, however, has a tendency to cause a teacher to lead a life somewhat apart from that of others. To overcome this a teacher ought to take a lively interest in some outside activity. A school system increases its efl5ciency as it lends itself to works of social service. The teacher, if a woman, can find a field for telling work in some one of the departments of the average woman's club; if a man, he can find a place where his services will be much appreciated on some one of the Superintendence! TESTING GRADE TEACHERS FOR EFFICIENCY 285 committees of the average chamber of commerce or business men's club. The teacher who is interested in the things that tend to the improvement of the community can train the children of the community in the duties of good citizenship much more effectively than the teacher who is not so interested. It is great help to the teacher to have access to the detailed record of each one of her pupils for every year he has been in school. Frequently the pupil after leaving school has to refer to his school record. For administrative purposes the principal must be furnished from time to time by the teacher with detailed reports about different phases of her work. Hence, one of the teacher's duties to the school system is to be accurate in keeping records and in making reports. The foregoing tests of a teacher's efficiency are aU easily measurable at frequent inter- vals and should be rated under a broad system of marking, such as excellent, very good, good, fair, and poor. If a teacher's rating is more than "good," she ought to be lold so; encouragement is a great stimulant, even to a teacher. If a teacher's rating falls below "good," her deficiencies ought to be pointed out to her privately by the superintendent so that she may know how to strengthen her work. The last test of a teacher's efficiency has to be measured in a different way. Teach- ing ability is shown in the increase in the mental power of the pupil, and in his ability to put to practical use the things he has been taught. The real measure of teaching ability is shown by the results produced in the pupils by the teacher's year's work, and the prob- lem of the principal and of the superintendent is to find some way of measuring these results. When we can say of a pupil who, at the beginning of his fourth year, can read easy stories at sight with a fair degree of fluency and expression, who can spell correctly a certain percentage of the words he finds in his reading-books, who knows the combinations of figures, and can use some of the multiplication tables — when we can say of this pupil just how much better he should be able to read at the end of the year, how many more words he should be able to spell, how much more thoroly he should know the multiplication tables, and what other processes in arithmetic he should have mastered, then we shall have a definite standard for measuring this last and most important test of a teacher's efficiency. As quickness and accuracy of work are the chief standards by which the world judges the proficiency of those who leave the schools, so should quickness and accuracy of work be the chief standards for measuring the proficiency of pupils in school and, indirectly, the efficiency of their teachers in teaching. Simple tests can be prepared for each depart- ment of work in the school, something similar to the Courtis tests in arithmetic, on which the pupils can be graded on the time required to complete the tests and on the accuracy of their work. When these tests are given at the beginning of the year they will give a fair indication of the pupil's ability when he enters school. If the same tests are repeated at or near the end of the year, they should be completed in less time, and the work should be more accurate than at the beginning of the year. Comparing the final results with those obtained at the beginning of the year we can measure exactly the work done by the teacher during the year. The tests to be effective do not have to be severe, nor do they have to cover all that the pupil has been taught. They are rather to show how quickly and how accurately the pupil can apply what he knows. It is not necessary to have a different set of tests for each grade. The same tests can be given to several grades, provided they are given under the same conditions, and the time element is taken into consideration in marking the papers. An example of the working of these tests may be seen in the following: The same test in arithmetic was given in October, 191 2, to an A section of the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh grades. In May, 1913, the same test was again given the A section of the same grades. The average percentage of the work correctly done by the pupils of the sections 286 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond tested and the average time required to do the work were recorded. The results obtained in May were compared with those obtained in October; they were as follows: October, igi2 May, 1913 Percentage Correct Time Percentage Correct Time Fourth grade ^2 46 SO S3 10 minutes 8 minutes 7 minutes 6 minutes 40 S3 SI 61 9 minutes Fifth grade Sixth grade fi TYlimif'PQ Seventh grade 5 minutes A comparison of these results shows that there was a great difference in the teaching ability of the four teachers of these sections. The fourth-grade section practically stood still, the sixth did but little better, while the fifth and seventh made a marked improve- ment. It is interesting to know that the tests given in the other studies revealed about the same ratio of improvement for the fifth and seventh grades, an additional proof that these two grades had eflScient teachers. It was hardly a coincidence that the rating given these two teachers as a result of these tests was found to differ but little from the average gained by them during the first eight months of the year on the other seven points of merit on which they had been rated. With the Courtis tests in arithmetic and the Hillegas tests in English to serve as models, we can very easily make for ourselves a series of tests for each elementary-school subject. It will require some time and a great deal of care to make out the tests and to give them, but the labor of making them out and giving them is well worth while. The teacher working in the school where such tests are used knows exactly what is expected of her, she has a definite goal to reach, and she has an incentive to do her best work. She knows that the rating she is to receive at the end of the year will be entirely of her own making. The principal or superintendent rates the teacher not on a hastily formed opinion, but upon the actual results of her work. The testing of teachers should be done by the school ofl&cer who comes into the most frequent contact with the teaching staff, the principal, or, in small systems, the super- intendent. An efl&ciency record of the teachers should be kept in every school; it should be as faithfully kept as is the pupils' record, and should show from month to month the rating on those measurable things that are the characteristics of a good school, and should show at the end of the year the result of the year's work measured by the development of the pupils in mental power. From this efficiency record the superintendent can make his recommendations in reference to teachers; according to this record salaries can be regulated and promotions to higher positions can be made. HOW SECURE MORE EFFECTIVE SUPERVISION? REED B. TEITRICK, DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, HARRISBURG, PA. This is a day of experts. In his book on The Principles of Scientific Management, Frederick W. Taylor shows how good methods under expert supervision enabled his men to increase their power to handle thirty-five tons of pig iron a day, per man, more than they were able to handle by the rule-of-thumb method, without supervision. It has long been known in the army that you can train men to take a thirty-inch step at the rate of one hundred and twenty steps to the minute by placing a commissioned oflBcer over every five men to see that instructions are carried out. Superintendence] HOW SECURE MORE EFFECTIVE SUPERVISION? 287 There may be good teachers in a system of schools, and yet the system remain on a low plane. The foundation of good schools is good teaching, strengthened and supported by wise supervision. The entire responsibility of supervision must be assumed by the professional head of the school system, the superintendent, altho he may delegate others to assist. The need for assistant supervisors in the larger cities is occasioned by the large areas and the great number of schools; in the smaller towns, the duties of the superintendent are so manifold that he can spend only a fraction of his time in supervision, and the need for additional supervision becomes imperative. The superintendent must be the executive, as well as the professional head of the school system. While it is possible in larger cities to separate the mechanical work from the purely pedagogical, this procedure is not feasible in smaller school centers. Clearly defined, among the superintendent's duties, other than direct supervision, are: (i) to give expert advice to the school board; (2) to select textbooks; (3) to construct the course of study; (4) to aid in the selection and assignment of teachers; (5) to direct the general educational poUcy of the community; (6) to be the court of last resort in extreme cases of discipline. In addition to these duties, there are many chores, such as making statistical reports, distributing and recording supplies, etc., which should be dele- gated to a clerk. Thus, in the small city, the superintendent has so little time left for direct supervision that he must do his most effective work in directing supervision. This demands broad scholarship, proper professional spirit, a clear vision of his school condi- tions as they are and as they should be, and skill in management. The first step toward more effective supervision in the small city is the conviction that more supervision is needed. It is possible that some large city systems are over- supervised, so that the teachers are bewildered in trying to serve so many masters, and so that their own teaching genius is crushed out by minute and specific requirements laid down and demanded by the ever-present critic. In cities having from thirty-five to one hundred and twenty-five teachers, the super- intendent and the high-school principal often do all the supervising that is done, except that of the special subjects, drawing, music, manual training, physical culture, etc., which is done by the special teachers of these subjects. If, in addition to the superintendent, the high-school principal, and the supervisors of special subjects, a ward principal should be put in charge of every twenty teachers, it would give broader opportunities for unity in the work of the schools and more effective teaching. In most instances two adjacent buildings can be put under one supervising principal. This combination will enable a city to employ one good supervisor at a com- manding salary and yet save money on the cost of supervising two buildings by two principals. In many cities increase in supervision may mean greater expenditure of money, but in education there is nothing more extravagant than poor schools. A system of schools cannot progress far beyond the ideals of the superintendent, and on the other hand a superintendent cannot build teachers and schools into his ideals without competent supervision. More effective supervision not only depends upon having a sufficient number of supervisors, but it is largely dependent upon the quality of supervision. The quahty of supervision will be determined: (i) by the personal fitness of supervisors; (2) by the methods employed in supervising; (3) by the means employed to make supervision most effective. The supervisor must be more than an inspector and greater than a common critic. Supervision in an educational sense is broader than inspection and greater than criticism, for it should be stimulative and constructive. To be successful, he must be trained, not only in theory, but by actual experience in teaching and in dealing with both children and adults. A man may be a natural supervisor, but he must make himself a professional 288 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond one by knowledge of principles, power to teach, and a comprehensive understanding of school work in all of its phases. Altho in some directions his authority must be absolute and his judgments decisive, he should be, at all times, a sympathetic counselor and a co-operative manager. He must be broad enough in his vision to appreciate the general scheme of education and to hold before himself a bird's-eye view of the whole school system, but he must not be so visionary that he cannot be persistent and positive in carry- ing out every detail of daily school work. He must possess the courage to act according to his own convictions and to regard and protect the best interests of all. His work demands good judgment based upon broad knowledge and wise reasoning. He must cultivate that patience bom of experience and service which is always the secret of true success. The quality of supervision depends also upon the methods employed. While the time spent by the supervisor in oflSce work and in collecting material for reports may be useful, yet it is the direct personal contact with teachers and pupils at work which makes super- vision effective. His methods should be such as to command respect, to promote harmony, and to inspire to highest endeavor. The supervisor who visits a schoolroom merely to criticize and to report weaknesses is likely to be looked upon with suspicion and welcomed only as a spy. His methods should produce unity in school work rather than uniformity, for unity promotes growth, while uniformity may mean lack of life. Altho each pupil should have equal educational opportunities, these opportunities may not necessarily be identical. Of the means the supervisor may employ to make his schools more efficient, the great- est is to increase effective teaching. Whatever may be the system, the course of study, and the plan of procedure, success or failure must rest mostly upon the real workman — the teacher. No means for eliminating weak teaching and for providing for intelligent teach- ing, for fixing a responsibility for failure as well as for rewarding merit, should be over- looked. Suggestions and supplementary work, school visiting, institutes, teachers' meetings, study classes, and personal conferences are some of the agencies which help the super- visor to build up his teaching force. Every system of schools should be a teacher- training school. When the teacher cannot command the situation in discipline, teaching, or training, something should be done to stop the waste. The supervisor must share the responsibility, stimulate the highest teaching power, and protect the interests of the chil- dren. It is also important that each teacher be allowed that independence of thought and freedom of initiative necessary to produce effective teaching. The supervisor having a view of the whole can keep in touch with each pupil from grade to grade and thus protect and direct his interests as a teacher has not opportunity to do. The very bright pupils and the very slow pupils are more likely to get a square deal under wise supervision. Skill in grading a school and wisdom in promoting pupils are the electric rails over which safe and rapid progress is made. All qualified pupils in the grades should be promoted twice each year. Promotion by subject or the privilege of an imgraded school will save the time of the pupil, and the money of the taxpayer. A good supervisor will unify the work so that one department shall not rob another. Specialization has a tendency to produce lopsided development. The competent super- visor, therefore, wiU use great tact and skill in correlating and supervising the work of special departments. The same teacher who is barren of results without supervision often becomes a fruit- ful and satisfactory teacher when her course of study is interpreted by an experienced supervisor. In unsupervised schools, there are often at least two courses of study — the one outlined on paper and the teacher's interpretation of the course outlined. Devices and methods cannot take the place of constructive teaching toward positive ends and high ideals. The coiirse of study is not so much matter to be poured into the minds of children. Superintendence] P RE-DELINQUENT BOYS 289 It has to do with experience, interests, and knowledge. A good course of study is the combined work of an expert on the subjects, an expert in supervision, and the teacher. The course of study can be no broader than the teacher. So it is of the utmost impor- tance that teachers be given the feehng of freedom to exercise their own originality and independence on the question of length of lessons, notebook work, home preparation, methods of study, etc. This will tend to produce growing teachers, but the amount of time to be given to a subject, its relation to other subjects, and the general method of interpretation are the work of the supervisor. He must take his full share of respon- sibility for results. Supervision should be effective in establishing wholesome public sentiment. The hope of the future is in the school, but the hope of the school is in the mental attitude of the conmiunity toward the school. When parents are interested in the welfare of the school, children are eager to do well, and home work is done better and there is a spirit of co-operation that spells success. There are those who say excellent things about the school, but who do not embody their convictions in action. Wise supervision not only will enable the school board to know the current details of the work of the schools, but also will enlist the patrons so that, while as individuals they may be weak, collectively they will be strong in sustaining a good school sentiment. To suppose that children in the schools will take a keen interest in their work, while patrons of the schools are indiffer- ent, is to suppose the children to be wiser than the patrons. The classroom teacher who is a beginner is so absorbed in the immediate work of her school that she overlooks or undervalues community activities. On the other hand, an experienced teacher and a teacher of special subjects who plans for children, works with children, and lives among children finally loses contact with community interests. To meet this condition there is but one remedy — the special work of a good supervisor empha- sizing points of contact with community life and preserving sympathetic relations between the home and the school. Briefly stated, supervision may be made more effective: (i) by giving the superin- tendent more time for professional duties; (2) by providing an adequate number of super- visors; and (3) by improving the quahty of supervision. PRE-DELINQUENT BOYS C. E. JOINER, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, MONMOUTH, ILL. Many of us have had the privilege of studying statistics regarding delinquent boys, men, and women in reform schools, and in other penal institutions. These statistics are useful, but not beneficial to the inmates of these institutions. Why not make a study of the so-called "troublesome" or "pre-delinquent" boys, and gather a body of facts for use in preventing these boys and their successors from becoming delinquents, thus keeping them out of reform schools, jails, and penitentiaries ? The writer was appointed by the executive committee of the western section of the Illinois State Teachers Association to make a study and to report at their annual meeting. Blanks were sent to the superin- tendents of about fifteen schools of western Illinois, but only nine schools made a thoro study and a complete report. These reports may be summarized as in Table I. From the pulpit, the local and cosmopolitan press, and even from the magazines a tor- rent of criticism of the pubhc schools annually pours forth, some of it timely, helpful, and wise, and some of it quite otherwise. Now let us direct our attention to the home and to society and ask these institutions whether they are bearing their just portion of the burden of responsibility for the education, especially the moral and rehgious education, of our children. The school has easily succeeded where it has a good entire home behind it, but we must confess that the school is up against an almost impossible condition where 290 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [Richmond it has behind it either indifferent, fractional, or bad homes. The school, however, is expected to succeed where the home has been broken down by divorce, intemperance, immorality, or laxity. The teacher is expected to govern well thirty children from good homes along with ten or fifteen from broken-down or fractional homes, and the awful job is annually causing many conscientious teachers to realize that they must retire from the schoolroom, or be retired by their shattered nervous system. Fathers and mothers unable to properly govern themselves or their three or four children expect a teacher to govern fifty, and if she does not do so without friction they cast the blame wholly on the teacher. I protest it is not only unfair but unjust — it is even wicked and cruel to expect these young teachers to control where men and women working together( ?) have failed, but that is exactly what society expects of the teacher. If these statements are not plain to you, please let me refer you to the figures in Table I: 322 boys, or 13 per cent out of a total of 2,452, reported "troublesome" or "pre-delinquent." A pre-dehnquent is one whose conduct would indicate that he is in danger of becoming a delinquent later on, imless he changes his course. Of these 322 pre-delinquents, 188 have been kept out of school by their parents so much that they are older than the normal age and hence have become idle and troublesome; 24 are without mothers; 48 are without fathers; and 22 of the parents are divorced, hence nearly 100 of them are from fractional homes. Again, 50 of them have intemperate fathers; 75 have mothers who are slovenly house- keepers; and 23 of their parents are immoral; hence nearly 150 of them are from bad homes. Again 103 have homes without religious influence; 191 have homes with loose home government; and 167 are never sent to Sunday school. TABLE I Report of Certain Schools on "Pre-delinquent Boys," That Is, on Boys Who Give Trouble in Discipline Frequently Enough to Be Called "Troublesome" Cities — Monmouth, Canton, Kewanee, Keithsburg, Princeton, Galesburg, Galva, Quincy, and RushviUe Grades ^2 3 1 1 .3 1 ►3 s Si li f2§ ii i CO 1 ^1 Is 2 1 G to •i 3| 4 H ;z; z :? W W f^ M ^ M a z !? ^ ^ H 3 562 61 54 34 8 II 3 6 16 3 22 26 38 12 22 19 16 4 475 80 65 39 6 10 5 8 21 7 25 34 44 II 32 29 4 5 414 86 57 39 3 9 4 14 14 6 20 24 36 12 35 33 8 6 371 56 64 35 4 7 6 10 13 3 lb 27 30 25 32 34 4 7 283 36 43 23 I 6 I 7 8 3 10 22 18 14 20 22 2 8 347 76 39 18 2 5 3 5 3 I 10 22 25 9 22 26 II Total.. 2,452 395 322 188 24 48 22 50 75 23 103 155 191 83 163 163 45 Per- cent. IS 13 58 7i 15 7 IS 23 7 32 48 60 25 50 SO 14 On the boys' personal-habit side, 83 belong to a "gang"; 163 use cigarettes; and 163 are out late of evenings. Whoever reads these figures carefully can come to but one conclusion — wherever there is trouble in managing a boy at school, usually back of this trouble is something wrong in the home. It is clear then that the breaking-down of so % Superintendence! P RE-DELINQUENT BOYS 291 many American homes, and not weakness in school management, is the trouble. Society must attend to delinquent homes, or it will always have more delinquent boys than it can take care of. The state never can be a good mother or a good father but it can help to make good mothers and good fathers. It can prevent the breaking -down of the home by not granting divorces where young children are involved. It can cease breaking up homes by forbidding forever the practice of selling Uquor to fathers and mothers and cigarettes to minors. The home is still the greatest of all influences in education for good or for evil. The school is most wiUing to bear its just burden of responsibility for the conditions of society, but we plead that reformers turn their attention for a Uttle while at least toward the home, in order to make it feel its responsibility, to the end that its products be fit subjects for the school and for school education. The public seems to have practically forgotten that there is such a thing as home education to prepare and supplement school education. If this article shall serve to convince a few parents of the great truth that the home is still, or in truth should be, the greatest of all educational agencies, then the purpose of this investigation and of this paper shall have been accomplished. ^ THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF EDUCATION SECRETARY'S MINUTES RICHMOND MEETING OFFICERS President — Robert J. Aley, president, University of Maine Orono, Me. Vice-President — ^James Y. Joyner, state superintendent of public instruction. . .Raleigh, N.C. Secretary — ^William B. Owen, principal, Chicago Normal School Chicago, 111. FIRST SESSION— Monday Evening, February 23, 1914 The meeting was called to order by President Robert J. Aley at 8: 00 p.m., in the auditorium of the Jefferson Hotel. The general topic of the evening was "Health Problems in the American Public Schools," which was considered under two heads: (i) "Plans for Promoting Improvement in the Sanitation of Rural Schools"; (2) "Supervision and Care of Personal Health of Pupils in Rural Schools." The following persons took part in the discussion: Thomas D. Wood, M.D., professor of physical education, Colimibia University, New York, N.Y.; James Y. Joyner, state superintendent of public instruction, Raleigh, N.C; R. W. Corwin, M.D., chairman, Committee of American Medical Association, Pueblo, Colo.; W. H. Heck, professor of education, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.; W. S. Rankin, secretary, State Board of Health, Raleigh, N.C; Charles H. Keyes, president, Skidmore School of Arts, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; Jacob A. Shawan, superintendent of schools, Columbus, Ohio; D. B. Johnson, president, Winthrop Normal and Industrial College, Rock Hill, S.C; Ella Flagg Young, superintendent of schools, Chicago, 111. SECOND SESSION— Tuesday Forenoon, February 24, 1^14 The session was called to order at 9:30 a.m., in the auditorium of the Jefferson Hotel, with President Aley in the chair. "The Report of the Committee on Tests and Standards of Efficiency in Schools and School Systems — ^A Brief Statement concerning the Purpose, Nature, and Con- duct of School Surveys" was presented by George Drayton Strayer, professor of educational administration, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, N.Y., chairman. A discussion followed the reading of the report in which the following participated: Frank E. Spaulding, superintendent of Newton schools, Newtonville, Mass.; Ben Blewett, superintendent of instruction, public schools, St. Louis, Mo.; E. C Elliott, director, course for the training of teachers, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. ; C H. Judd, director. School of Education, University of Chicago, Chicago, 111.; C N. Kendall, state conunissioner of education, Trenton, N.J.; Adelaide Steele Baylor, assistant state superintendent of public instruction, Indianapolis, Ind.; J. H. Van Sickle, superintendent of schools, Springfield, Mass.; John W. Cook, president, State Normal School, DeKalb, 111.; C E. Chadsey, superintendent of schools, Detroit, Mich.; John W. Withers, presi- dent, Harris Teachers College, St. Louis, Mo.; and L. E. Wolfe, former superintendent of schools, San Antonio, Tex. 293 294 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [National THIRD SESSION— Tuesday Afternoon, February 24, 1914 President Aley called the meeting to order at 2:00 P.M., in the auditorium of the Jefferson Hotel. The following program was presented: "The Public-School Survey" — C. S. Meek, superintendent of schools, Boise, Idaho. "The Method, Scope, and Value of the Survey in Relation to the Course of Study" — A. J. Kinnaman, dean, State Normal School, Bowling Green, Ky. "The Method, Scope, and Value of the Survey in Relation to the Teaching Force" — M. E. Pearson, superintendent of schools, Kansas City, Kans. Discussion: M. G. Brumbaugh, superintendent of schools, Philadelphia, Pa. At this point began a discussion of the topic "Sex Hygiene," under which papers were presented as follows: "Wanted — A Twentieth-Century Ideal" — Grace C. Strachan, district superintend- ent of schools, Brookl)ni, N.Y. "Sex Hygiene — ^What the Schools Can Do" — Carroll G. Pearse, president. State Normal School, Milwaukee, Wis. Discussion: J. W. Carr, superintendent of schools, Bayonne, N.J.; J. Stanley Brown, superintendent, Township High School, Joliet, 111.; and Thomas A. Mott, superintendent of schools, Seymour, Ind. The death of A. C. Nelson, state superintendent of public instruction, Salt Lake City, Utah, was noted and a committee appointed to prepare resolutions relating to the same, which conunittee will report at the St. Paul meeting of the Council. William B. Owen, Secretary PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS TOPIC: HEALTH PROBLEMS IN THE AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS THOMAS D. WOOD, M.D., COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK, N.Y., CHAIR- MAN OF THE COMMITTEE ON HEALTH PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF EDUCATION The Joint Committee on Health Problems in Education of the National Council of Education and of the American Medical Association has made an exhaustive study of the problems of health and sanitation in rural communities. It has already decided at this meeting upon lines of action that will bear early fruit. It will issue in time for publication in the Proceedings a clear-cut statement of the "Minimum Sanitary Requirements for Rural Schools.'' Statistics show that most physical defects are as prevalent, or more prevalent, among pupils in rural schools than among those who go to schools in the city. School buildings and grounds in cities and towns are in general more attractive, more sanitary, and more adequate for the education of children than school buildings and grounds in the country. Many country schools are in schoolhouses and outhouses, not only dangerous to health, but deadening to the finer sensibilities and degrading to the morals of the pupils. Councai SANITARY REQUIREMENTS FOR RURAL SCHOOLS 295 The country school should be as sanitary and as wholesome in all essential particulars as the best private dwelling in the community. The expense of the things which really affect the health of the pupil in school should be estimated in terms of child life and efficiency and only for conven- ience reduced to dollar and cents. The welfare of our country depends upon no factor more indispensable, more vital, than the welfare of rural life. The rural school is the universal, the strategic, the incomparable agency for improving rural life. These influences of the rural school affect not only methods of agriculture, but all phases and standards of the lives of the people — ^physical, mental, social, and moral. If the rural school is to be considered fundamentally and passably efficient, it must be sanitary enough to conserve all health values, and a sure and sufficient supervision of personal health of rural-school children must be instituted and maintained. Medical inspection of pupils has been instituted in about four hundred cities of the country. Not one state in five provides even nominal medical inspection and health care for children in country schools. The Joint Committee on Health Problems in Education of the National Council of Education and of the American Medical Association is committed with conviction and enthusiasm to promoting improvement of sanitation of rural schools and care of health of country children. The committee is considering a plan for stimulating improvement of rural schools thru prizes to be awarded to states and communities which demonstrate the greatest relative improvement in their own schools. MINIMUM SANITARY REQUIREMENTS FOR RURAL SCHOOLS The following are the "Minimum Sanitary Requirements for Rural Schools" proposed by the Joint Committees on Health Problems in Educa- tion of the National Council of Education of the National Education Association and of the American Medical Association: It is the desire and purpose of this committee to help establish a stand- ard of fundamental health essentials in the rural school and its material equipment, so that attainment of this minimum standard may be demanded by educational authorities and by public opinion of every rural school thruout the country. Possession of the minimum sanitary requirements should be absolutely necessary to the pride and self-respect of the community and to the sanc- tion and approval of county, state, and other supervising and interested official or social agencies. Neglect of anything essential for health in construction, equipment, and care of the rural-school plant is at least an educational sin of omission and may reasonably be considered a social and civic crime or misdemeanor. 296 NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION [National The country school should be as sanitary and wholesome in all essential particulars as the best home in the community. Further, it should be pleasing and attractive in appearance, in furnishings, and in surroundings, so that the community as a whole may be proud of it; so that the pupils and teacher may take pleasure in attending school and in caring for and improving it. I. LOCATION AND SURROUNDINGS The school should be located in as healthful a place as exists in the community. Noise and all other objectionable factors should be eliminated from the inmiediate environment of the rural school. Accessibility. — Not more than two miles from the most distant home, if the children walk. Not more than six miles from the most distant home, if school wagons are provided. Drainage. — School ground must be well drained and as dry as possible. If natural drainage is not adequate, artificial subsoil drainage should be provided. Soil. — As every rural-school ground should have trees, shrubs, and a real garden or experimental farm, the soil of the school grounds should be fertile and tillable. Rock and clay soil should always be avoided. If the soil is muddy when wet, a good layer of sand and fine gravel should be used to make the children's playground as useful as possible in all kinds of weather. Size of school grounds. — For the schoolhouse and playground, at least three acres are required.' Playground is not a luxury but a necessity. A school without a play- ground is an educational deformity and presents a gross injustice to child- hood. Arrangement of grounds. — ^The school grounds should have trees, plants, and shrubs grouped with artistic effect but without interfering with the children's playground. n. SCHOOLHOUSE The schoolhouse should be made as nearly fireproof as possible. Doors should always open outward and the main door should have a covered entrance; a separate fuel room should be provided, also separate cloakrooms for boys and for, girls. A basement or cellar, if provided, should be well ventilated and abso- lutely dry. The one-teacher country school should contain, in addition to the class- room: a) A small entrance hall, not less than 6 by 8 feet.