(Sem ate pA On em Ce ci oneal ct CE EIT I LN CLE ELLE OTE TE 7 a were aa =e ° ites intl ‘Bi ' 1" } { i a) BULLETIN.G oF THE DEPARTMENT ¢ or. ‘SECONDARY.SCHOOL PRINCIPALS OF re “NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION i so < Nuwien 40 > s ae 3 A ; et eg “im i Address. all ccmncssentions to. H. ¥. ‘oHURCH, secutive Seereary, - — Wencnsh deere, aera, 2 “Tan. OFFICERS: oF THE. DEFARTMENT - ao ms ae ee soni he eS * pe sages Surmnied bg << Wichita, Kansas” ioe Red: New Jeteey | = ean : at ce ata ~ ascurin| penaes ky eee ey eee . ‘ saiastn neabidns rae ay ee iy eae Mig Ve ce ea, ee ee ee ae Re ee Foreword The testing time for American democracy has come. In the midst of the present period of trial for our basic institutions, the schools could not escape unscathed. Their activities have been seriously curtailed at a time when they are most needed. This fact is as much the concern of the citizen and the states- man as of the teaching profession. In view of the gravity of the situation the National Educa- tion Association and the Department of Superintendence ap- pointed, early in 1933, the Joint Commission on the Emergency in Education. This Commission was charged with the task of collecting the facts concerning the crisis in education, of taking these facts to the public, and of giving advice and assistance to school people. In its activities the Comm''ssion has the co-opera- tion of local and state education associatt»ns and other agencies, many of which have already taken vigorc'is and effective steps to protect the educational rights of childrezi. Desirous of making a contribution {» the work of the Joint Emergency Commission, the Departme™t of Secondary-School Principals offered to devote this issue of the Bulletin to the emer- gency in education and to supply copies to the members of the Departments of Superintendence and Elementary-School Prin- cipals. This Bulletin will serve as a handbook for educational inter- pretation in the present emergency. It is designed (1) to pre- sent concisely the situation confronting public education in America; (2) to indicate briefly what the organized profession is doing through its Joint Commission on the Emergency in Edu- cation; (3) to present suggestions for educational interpreta- tion in the emergency in the form of concentrated content ma- terial and outlines of methods and devices. DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS How to Use This Bulletin Herewith are a few suggestions on using this Bulletin: Make it the basis for group study and faculty meetings. Place it in the hands of the members of your committee on educational interpretation. ts Devote at least one meeting of teachers to a report and discussion of the activities of the Emergency Commission. Make clear that such work is made possible only by memberships in professional organizations— local, state, national. Mimeograph such sections as “What Can Teachers Do in this Emer- gency?” and “Knowing Your School” so that each teacher may have a copy. Ask teachers to go carefully through the two sections mentioned in item 4 for suggestions as to what they can do and to find out whether they are up to the minute on facts about their own schools, equipped to an- swer all the questions intelligent patrons may ask as well as the un- founded statements of the carping critic. Have teachers develop further parts of the section “Answering Some Current Criticisms and Proposals” for use as newspaper stories or messages to parents. Note the methods and devices of educational interpretation which other schools are using. Appoint committees to consider plans and projects which might be used profitably in your school. REMEMBER— (1) That the every-day work of the school in its manifold services to the child and to the community is its best means of educational interpreta- tion, (2) That the classroom teacher is the key person in educational in- terpretation. (3) That the pupils interpret the school for good or ill every time they return home; that if they do not come to understand and appreciate the significance of the schools to themselves and society while they are pupils their misunderstanding will be likely to show when they become citi- zens and taxpayers. (4) That non-professional employees of the school are an important factor in the development of good will. MEETING THE EMERGENCY IN EDUCATION The Present Situation in Education (This section is from a statement prepared for the Joint Commission on the Limergency in liducation by the Research Division, National Liducation Association.) A careful survey of public education in the United States for the current school year reveals three distinct trends: Increasing demands are made on the public schools. Decreasing financial support is accorded the public schools. Curtailment of educational service is growing. In all estimates employed in this presentation, an attempt was made to be conservative and to picture the situation as ac- curately as scattered data available would warrant. Basic data on enrollments, teaching staffs, and expenditures are presented in Table I. The increasing demands made on public education are on two scores: the increase in pupil enrolment, and the de- crease in teaching staff. Since 1926 a uniform rate of increase in enrolment of one percent a year is shown. Each year there are about 200,000 more children in the public schools than in the previous year. But it is in the upper levels that the great in- creases in enrolment appear. That the high-school enrolment has moved upward at a rapid rate is clearly seen in the increase from (in round numbers) 3,750,000 in 1926 to 5,400,000 in 1933. The severity of the increasing demands made on the public schools is still more clearly seen in noting that, while the depres- sion has accelerated the enrolment of pupils, it has reduced the number of teachers. In 1933 there are about as many on the rolls of the public-school staff as there were in 1930, yet there are to-day almost one million more pupils on the rolls of these teachers. The effect of the depression on public-school expenditures was slow in appearing and was only slightly apparent in 1931. But in 1932 and 1933 the rate of decrease gathered momentum until at present the total annual expenditure for public educa- tion in elementary and secondary-schools is under $2,000,000,000 4 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS —an amount less than that spent in 1926. The cost per child enrolled showed slight annual increases from 1926 through 1930. In 1931 a downward trend began, which in 1933 has reached approximately an annual cost of $74 per child enrolled as compared with $90 in 1930 and $82 in 1928. Expenditures for capital outlays are presented separately because they show a strikingly different trend from total ex- penditures. In the period between 1927 and 1930, annual ex- penditures for buildings, sites, and equipment seemed to be sta- bilizing at slightly less than $400,000,000 per year. Beginning in 1930, however, a rapid decline in these expenditures began, so that by 1933 expenditures for capital outlays have reached the low figure of $154,000,000. The data presented in Table 1 are converted into index num- bers in Table 2, using 926 as the basal year. By reading the in- dex numbers for 1933 for each of the items, it is possible to se- cure a rapid review of changes since 1926. These changes may be summarized as follows: number of teachers, principals, and supervisers—up 6 per cent; high-school enrolments—up 43 per cent; total enrolments—up 7 per cent; expenditures—down 3 per cent; cost per child enrolled—down 10 per cent; and ex- penditures for capital outlays—down 63 per cent. The index numbers from Table 2 have been used as a basis for constructing Chart I. This chart clearly reveals the down- ward trend of expenditures, cost per child enrolled, and capital outlay, and the opposing upward swing in enrollments, particu- larly at the high-school level. Evidently, these trends could be maintained only at the ex- pense of severe economies and retrenchments in many school systems. The type of adjustment made varies greatly in differ- ent communities and states, but a few preliminary figures for 1932-33! will indicate some of the more common types of re- trenchment now being followed. Building Program. School building construction has been largely sus- pended. Asa result, it is estimated that approximately 250,000 children are attending school on a part-time basis and approximately 150,000 children are housed in temporary or portable shacks. Probably not more than one city in twenty has any classrooms under construction this year. There has 1Unless otherwise noted, figures are from: U. S. Office of Education, and Research Division, National Education Association. The Current Situation in Education. Washing- ton, D. C.: American Council on Education, 1933. CERTAIN PUBLIC SCHOOL STATISTICS, 1926-331 TABLE 1. MEETING THE EMERGENCY IN EDUCATION y Number of High- a Nl ‘ ears eachers, School Total Total ost per) xpenditures ance, — enrolment, | a. . a . . excl | cakes cae supervisors | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1926 831,078 3,757,466 |24,741,468 $2,026,308,190 | $81.90 | $411,037,774 1927 842,654 3,834,372 |24,960,582) 2,105,322,414| 84.35) 397,016,965 1928 | 854,230 3,911,279 |25,179,696 2,184,336,638 | 86.75| 382,996,156 1929 867,297 4,155,350 |25,428,856 2,250,563,511; 88.50) 376,937,062 1930 880,365 4,399,422 |25,678,015 2,316,790,384| 90.22/ 370,877,969 1931 892,466 4,729,000 (26,062,749 2,316,613,523 | 88.89| 320,240,159 1932 897,018 5,058,000 |26,294,700 2,188,273,000 | 83.22 237,120,080 1933 882,018 5,387,000 |26,526,700, 1,961,900,000 | 73.96 | 154,000,000 = 1Sources: Data for 1926, 1928, and 1930 from U. S. Office of Education, Biennial Surveys of Education. Data for 1927 and 1929 by direct interpolation. Data for 1931 are based chiefly on returns from forty states and the District of Columbia as reported in National Education Association, Re- search Service Circular No. 11, 1932. Enrolment is estimated by adding 1930 figures for the remaining eight states and then increasing the total by 1.498 per cent to allow for 1930-31 increases in these eight states. Expend- itures, capital outlays, and number of teachers, principals, and supervisors are the 1931 figures for forty states and the District of Columbia plus 1930 figures for the remaining eight states. High-school enrolment is estimated by direct interpolation between 1930 and 1932. Data for 1932 are chiefly estimates based on reports from ten states and the District of Columbia. The proportionate change between 1931 and 1932 in these states has been applied to 1931 national figures, to derive total en- rolment, total expenditures, and the number of teachers, principals, and su- pervisors. High-school enrolment is an increase of 15 per cent over 1930 fig- ures, this increase being the rate reported for 202 city school systems in The Current Situation in Education, prepared by the U. S. Office of Educa- tion and the Research Division of the National Education Association (American Council on Education, 1933, p. 6). Capital outlay is directly interpolated between 1931 and 1933. Data for 1933 are derived from various sources. Total expenditures and capital outlay are the estimates of the U. S. Office of Education as re- ported in The Current Situation in Education, p. 15. Number of teachers, principals, and supervisors is obtained by reducing the 1932 figure by 15,- 000; in accordance with an estimate from the U. S. Office of Education, op. cit., p. 22. Total enrolments and high-school enrolments are straight- line projections based on the 1931-32 trend. Cost per child enrolled is calculated for each year from columns 4 and 5. "Includes current expenses, capital outlays, and interest. Excludes payments for bonds, short-term loans, and sinking funds. 6 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS been delay in the construction of approximately 4,000 needed rural-school buildings, and about 18,000 rural-schsol districts are not at this time making the necessary minor repairs to keep their buildings and equipment from de- teriorating. Salaries. Expenditures for teachers’ salaries in city-school systems de- creased 5 per cent between 1932 and 1933. For cities over 100,000 the de- crease between 1931 and 1933 was 8 per cent for teachers in elementar schools and 9 per cent for teachers in high-schools.' The decrease for rural- school teachers from 1931 to 1933 was 10 per cent. Salaries have been re- duced in perhaps 80 to 90 per cent of all city-school systems. Teacher Load. The decreasing number of teachers and the increasing number of pupils mean a higher pupil-teacher ratio and in most school sys- tems an increased size of class. The general tendency to increase class size in city-school systems, however, antedates the depression. Term Length. Approximately 100 city-school systems have reduced their terms by twenty days or more in 1933, and a large number of rural- schools have reduced their terms by thirty or more days. Actual closing of schools has not yet become widespread. In December, 1932, so far as could be learned, only thirty-eight small rural-schools had closed without making other provisions for the education of the pupils involved, twenty-six of these being reported from a single state. It is anticipated that about 4,500 rural- schools will close very early during the current school year. Supplies. The sale of textbooks has dropped over 30 per cent since 1930. Obviously, worn-out books are not being replaced and new textbooks are not being purchased. Approximately 17,000 rural schools are operating with an abnormal lack of instructional equipment. 1National Education Association, Research Division. Special Salary Tabulations, I-A. Washington, D. C.: the Association, January, 1933. TABLE 2. INDEX NUMBERS FOR CERTAIN PUBLIC SCHOOL STATISTICS, 1926-33 (1926—100) Expend- Number of itures for Years teachers, ending principals, June 30 and supervisors High- T 1 Cc School Total ote oat expend- per child capital enrolment, enrolment teres enrolled outlays, only only 2 3 4 5 6 7 100 101 103 104 106 107 108 107 100 102 104 111 117 126 135 143 100 97 93 92 90 78 58 37 MEETING THE EMERGENCY IN EDUCATION 7 Curtailment of Services. The elimination or curtailment of educational activities and services presents a complicated and varied picture. The elim- ination of one or more types of educational service has probably occurred in approximately 50 per cent of the city-school systems of the country. Cer- tain schools and classes appear to be bearing the major share of these cur- tailments. Health activities and the non-academic subjects of the curricu- lum such as music, art, home economics, manual training, and physical edu- cation are among the subjects suffering most heavily. Night schools, Americanization classes, kindergartens, and schools and classes for handi- capped children are among the activities which appear to be most frequently eliminated or curtailed. CHART I. INDEX OF CHANGE IN CERTAIN SCHOOL STATISTICS, 1926-1933. Cost Per Child Earoled DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS The Emergency Commission in Action School people have heard much about the crisis in educa- tion. What they most want now is leadership to show the way out. One answer of the organized profession to this need was the appointment early in 1933 of the Joint Commission on the Emergency in Education by President Joseph Rosier of the Na- tional Education Association and President Milton C. Potter of the Department of Superintendence. Its membership is repre- sentative of the whole of American public education.! Its primary function is to serve as a center around which every agency interested in protecting the public schools of Amer- ica may rally. The Commission does not propose to set up any new organization or machinery. It does hope (1) to stimulate every agency which can make a contribution to education in this emergency; (2) to codrdinate and unify the efforts of agencies already at work so that maximum results may be obtained from the effort to save the schools. The Commission went into action promptly. It held a meet- ing in Cleveland, Ohio, January 28, at which nineteen projects for immediate action were outlined and work begun at once through the members of the Commission with the assistance of the headquarters staff of the National Education Association. The Commission held numerous sessions at Minneapolis in con- nection with the winter meeting of the Department of Superin- tendence. A report of the Commission’s work up to that time was presented to the convention and enthusiastically accepted. At Minneapolis the Commission laid plans for securing the advice of consultants who can inform the Commission as to the facts about the crisis in education in the respective areas of the nation and serve as mediums through which the projects of the Commission may be made effective and known to the entire pro- fession. The wide scope of the list indicates the broad manner 1JOHN K. NORTON, Chairman, Professor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York. J. B. EDMONDSON, Dean of Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. SIDNEY HALL, State Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion, Richmond, Virginia. MRS. F. BLANCHE PREBLE, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago, Illinois. A. L. THRELKELD, Superintendent of Public Schools, Denver, Colorado. HER- BERT S. WEET, Superintendent of Public Schools, Rochester, New York. DAVID E. WEGLEIN, Superintendent of Public Schools, Baltimore, Maryland. MEETING THE EMERGENCY IN EDUCATION in which the Commission is approaching its work.! A series of regional conferences have been held with the consultants. These were held in Kansas City, March 24; Chi- cago, March 25; Atlanta, April 8; and Cincinnati, April 15. Through these conferences and a variety of other activities, the Commission is securing accurate information concerning the situation throughout the nation. Every two weeks the consult- ants receive a special letter carrying up-to-the-minute materials. They are using this material through the membership and the publications of their organizations. Thus the work of the Com- mission is reaching the entire profession. A few other important activities of the Commission include: (1) An exhibit of outstanding materials being used by school systems throughout the nation to present the case for education to the people was completed in time for display at the Minneapolis convention. A similar ex- hibit will be shown at the Chicago convention of the National Education Association July 1-7. (2) A comprehensive analysis and appraisal of groups and agencies throughout the country which are influential in determining educational pol- icy is being made. (3) The Commission is developing a statement on basic issues con- cerning the scope of educational offerings at public expense which will be useful in presenting the case for education to the people. (4) Articles are being furnished for publication in educational maga- zines, well known household magazines, and daily newspapers. Famous car- toonists have been asked to put the story into pictures. (5) A series of nationwide radio programs for this spring is being planned. By these and other methods the Commission hopes to rally the public and the profession to save the schools and the oppor- tunities of America’s children. This is your Commission. It is financed jointly by the National Education Association and the Department of Superintendence. It is made possible because you are a member of the organized profession. You can assist the Commission in three specific ways :(1) Send the Commission suggestions and materials; (2) Assist in disseminating the find- ings and materials of the Commission; (3) Urge your friends to join in supporting the organized profession which makes the work of the Commission possible. Use the blank on page 31. rg Naas Joint Commission at 1201 16th Street, Washing- ton, D. C. 1Among those named as consultants are the following: (1) The Presidents and ranking officers of the National Education Association and its departments. (2) State Superintend- ents of Public Instruction. (3) State Directors of the National Education Association. (4) Presidents and Secretaries of State Education Associations. (5) Officers of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers and the state presidents. (6) Editors of state and national! educational periodicals. (7) The Presidents and Secretaries of national education frater- nities. (8) The United States Commissioner of Education. (9) The Presidents and Te- taries of regional and educational organizations. (10) The Director of the Federal Board for Vocational Education. (11) Officers of schoolboard members organizations, 10 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS The Interpretation of Education President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his book Looking For- ward considers teaching the greatest duty of statesmanship. He says, “Government includes the art of formulating policies and using the political technic to attain so much of them as will receive general support; persuading, leading, sacrificing, teach- ing always because perhaps the greatest duty of statesmanship is to educate.” In other words, the President is saying that the statesman must be a teacher and interpreter of government to his people. In the same way the educator must be an inter- preter of learning to his people. He must understand by careful study the American ideal of education. He must interpret that ideal with such constancy and vigor that the smaller and more immediate issues which confront the schools will always be faced against this background of fundamental principles and demo- cratic policy. There has been no better expression of the cornerstone on which American education rests than the principle set forth by George Washington in his farewell message: ‘Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of gov- ernment gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.” The term “educational interpretation” is broader than such terms as “publicity” or “public relations” which have been bor- rowed from industry and business. Educational interpretation includes all efforts to visualize and dramatize the significance of schools and learning. Such interpretation is an essential part of the learning process itself. It begins in earliest childhood. We say to the child over and over again in home, church, and school: “You must learn. You must use your senses and your mind. You must think for yourself. You must have ambition and de- sire to improve yourself. You must master the tools by which men read and write. You must learn the difference between a lie and the truth, between guesses and facts, between misin- formation and reliable information.” This love of learning as a means of life is deeper and broader than schools. It is this deeper purpose which has created the schools. The schools are not something apart. They are the people themselves organ- ized for the purpose of learning and of teaching their children. Ot mw a ae ATTN i? OTT Ee * MEETING THE EMERGENCY IN EDUCATION 11 The child needs to understand the school just as he needs to understand the home as a place of growth and mutual helpful- ness. He will work harder if he understands the sacrifices that have been made through the decades to establish, maintain, and improve our educational institutions. Our schools will be truer to community need if the adult citizens of the community understand their history and funda- mental purpose, and their problems in this new age. To inter- pret education in this broad sense is the privilege of every teacher, principal, and superintendent. Without this kind of in- terpretation the schools will either become detached and de- vitalized or they will be paralyzed by a lack of intelligent public support necessary to make their work genuinely effective. The men who laid the foundations of our educational sys- tem understood these fundamental principles of interpretation. In many cases they themselves were laymen who came to under- stand the importance of schools through their first hand con- tact with economic, political, and social conditions. The school began as a response to a need. It must continue to grow as a response to needs. The school can stand on its record. It can take its case to the people with full assurance that they desire the best for their children and for themselves. There will be times and places where the schools will seem to suffer injustice, where sacrifices will be demanded of teachers out of all propor- tion to the sacrifices demanded of others. The very size of the teaching group and of the educational expenditure exposes the salaries of teachers to public attack, but over a period of time the schools may be confident that they will receive justice from a public which is interested in its own future. Without the schools democracy itself would go down. There is much to-day to encourage those who seek to safeguard the schools. Everywhere individuals and organizations of influence are publicly recognizing the relation between schools and the democratic ideal. By wise management and broad civic leader- ship it should be possible to preserve our essential educational services so that when better days come, the schools along with other constructive institutions may move on a higher level of excellence and service, 12 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS The American Ideal of . Education The American ideal of education has grown up along with the American idea of democracy. The best minds and the no- blest spirits of each generation have added their bit to this dream of an education which shall bring out in each individual and in our civilization as a whole, the finest qualities of human- ity. In the interpretation of education it is important that cer- tain fundamental concepts be kept ever in the minds of the peo- ple. In proportion as these major concepts are firmly estab- lished, the lesser issues and the more immediate problems will be less difficult of solution. Herewith are given four groups of such concepts which may well furnish the basis for consideration by faculty meetings and groups of citizens. The first is a series of tentative statements dealing with permanent fundamentals. The second deals with certain principles related particularly to the present emergency. The third is a body of principles adopted by the California Congress of Parents and Teachers in January 1933. The fourth is a series of statements by leading citizens and editors in which our educational ideals have been inter- preted to the public. Some Fundamental Concepts The following is a list of statements of ideas so funda- mental to the whole American system of democracy and educa- tion that they should be fixed in the consciousness of all teachers and students: (1) The democratic ideal demands for every child an education which, through the discovery and development of his individual abilities pre- pares him for life; and through training and vocational guidance pre- pares him for a living which will yield him the maximum of satisfac- tion. (2) Ina democracy where sovereignty resides in the people, universal ed- ucation is fundamental to the safety and security of all social insti- tutions. (3) The free school, like the secret ballot, is one of the great milestones in the upward struggle of humanity. It is the foundation of indi- vidual liberty and of intelligent citizenship. (4) The common school is the institution created, maintained, and con- trolled by the people for the education of themselves and their chil- dren, ORT The We Pret In 2: i rth bom ab eee ee MEETING THE EMERGENCY IN EDUCATION 13 (5) The wealth of the nation wherever located should support the edu- cation of both children and adults wherever they may live. (6) Just and equitable taxes based on ability to pay form the most eco- nomical means of financing public services of whieh education is one of the most important. (7) Taxes are not inherently evil but are simply the price paid for im- portant social services which people wish to maintain in common. (8) In proportion to the magnitude of the services which they perform, schools are relatively inexpensive. School expenditures do not absorb an unwise share of our economic resources. (9) The education of children cannot be postponed without doing per- manent harm. Therefore in times of emergency the welfare of chil- dren should be kept first. (10) All economic and social advance depends upon the purposes, skills, and character which schools exist to develop. Some Concepts for the Emergency The following statements contain certain points of view which may well be emphasized during the emergency. These can be revised to suit the varied needs and conditions which exist in different communities. (1) Children of the depression have a right to an adequate education. (2) Teachers have never been overpaid and it is therefore unfair to make them suffer large reductions in salaries at this time. (3)