Bulletin of the Department of 
Secondary-School Px vo 


NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSO ATIONS : 







CONTENTS 



















































































History of the Department: CALVIN O. Davis. | 
National Honor Societies: M. R, MCDANIEL 11 J 
Research Programs for State Associations: JOHN H: TYSON........:..: 15 — 
Education for Safety: SIDNEY J. WILLIAMS 18 
Factore. Associated with Non-Attendance: JAMES F. BURSCH.............. 26 
Need of Knowledge and Faith: carpe ayes 82 
Second Session.. ; ... 87. 
Third Session. ’ 68 
Vitalizing the Program: Earu T. PLATT... 70- - 
Motion Pictures in Guidance Program: Howagp M. LESOURD........... . 82— 
Educating for Vocational Competence: F, T. SPAULDING. he nendiae en a, O85 
Luncheon Session: 98 * 
Enjoyment of Humor: ©. W. BUTTERFIELD. 102 
National Council of National Honor Society Meeting.. 109 
Auditor's Report 111 
een Whe essional Periodicals: “How to Judge a Radio Pro. 

gram; Why tive ond Inevtable; Roope Federal Aid for Edu-: 

cation Imperative and Inevitable; for @ Warlike Nation; 

Adult Education and Human 120 

ests from Publications: kan ap sae Fey Germs Carried” 

i pealf oe A Poa Eyesinin het Covees It and How to 

Avoid It; Children at the Cinema. 129° | 
Constitution ..... reiette one hnsshi 136 






January, March, April, May, and December j 


. Published: by 
Department of Secondary-School Principals of the 
National. Education Association . . 
5835 Kimbark Avenue, Chicago 
as aa fea ok ms ctelneas 


ib, 1984, 


$2.00 a Year 





























BULLETIN OF THE 
DEPARTMENT OF 
SECON DARY-SCHOOL 

PRINCIPALS 


OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 





Issued Five Times a Year 
January, March, April, May, and December 


MARCH, 1936 
Serial Number 60 


BULLETIN NUMBER 60 


Proceedings of the 
Twentieth Annual Meeting of the 


Department of 
Secondary-School Principals 


of the National Education Association 


ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI 
February 24, 25, and 26, 1936 


Published by 
THE DEPARTMENT OF 
SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 
OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 
5835 Kimbark Avenue, Chicago 


Entered as second-class matter November 15, 1934, at the post office 

at Danville, [llinois, under the Act of August 12, 1912. Acceptance for 

mailing at special rate of postage, provided for in Section 1103, Act of 
February 28, 1925, authorized November 15, 1934. 


$2.00 $2.00 a Year 








Proceedings of the 
Twentieth Annual Meeting of the 
Department of 
Secondary-School Principals 
of the 


National Education Association 
at PY 


ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI 


on 


February 24, 25, and 26, 1936 


+ 


Edited by 


H. V. CHURCH 
Secretary of the Association 


Published by the Department, 1956 








THE OFFICERS OF THE DEPARTMENT 


President: WILLARD N. VAN SLYCK 
Principal High School, 
Topeka, Kansas 


First Vice President: M. G. JONES 
Principal High School, 
Huntington Beach, California 


Second Vice President: PAUL E. ELICKER 
Principal Newton High School, 
Newtonville, Massachusetts 


EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 


HARRISON C, LYSETH 
State Supervisor, Secondary Education, 
Augusta, Maine 


K. J. CLARK 
Principal Murphy High School, 
Mobile, Ala. 


OSCAR GRANGER 
Principal Haverford Township High School, 
Upper Darby, Pa. 


JOHN E. WELLWOOD 
Principal High School, 
Flint, Michigan 





TWENTIETH ANNUAL CONVENTION 


of the 


Department of 
Secondary-School Principals 
of the 


NATIONAL 
EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 
The twentieth annual meeting of the Department of Sec- 
ondary-School Principals met in St. Louis on Monday, Tuesday 
and Wednesday, February 24, 25, and 26, 1936. 


THE FIRST GENERAL SESSION 


The first session of the twentieth annual meeting of the 
Department of Secondary-School Principals was called to 
order by President Harrison C. Lyseth, Supervisor of Sec- 


ondary Education of Maine, and President of the Department 
of Secondary-School Principals at 2:10 P. M. in Assembly 
Hall No. 3, of the Municipal Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri. 
After a few announcements the President introduced Herbert 
P. Stellwagen, Principal of Soldan High School, St. Louis, 
Missouri, the chairman of local arrangements for this Depart- 
ment, who gave a short address of welcome. 


President Lyseth then introduced George E. Carrothers, 
who in the absence of Mr. C. O. Davis, read the paper entitled 
High Lights in the Department’s History. 


HIGHLIGHTS IN THE DEPARTMENT’S HISTORY 


By CALVIN O. DAVIS 
University of Michigan 
Associations or societies for the promotion of public edu- 
cation in America are nearly as old as our Federal Union. The 
earliest ones were not, however, professional organizations. 
Perhaps the earliest of all these associations was the Pennsyl- 


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6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louris, Mo. MEETING 


vania Society for the Promotion of Public Schools, founded in 
1817. Fifteen years later, in 1832, the Western Literary Insti- 
tute and College of Professional Teachers came into existence 
at Cincinnati. This was the first society of importance to in- 
clude teachers as well as political and social leaders in its mem- 
bership. With this organization the real beginnings of a class 
and craft consciousness among educators may perhaps be said 
to have begun in America. Still, another thirteen years had 
to pass before the first state teachers’ association, as such, 
came into existence (in Rhode Island in 1845) and another 
twelve years before a national organization of teachers was 
effected. For the National Education Association really dates 
from 1857, although the official action which created it as a 
result of a merger of several independent educational societies 
did not take place until 1870. 


During all this time and down to 1916, America’s high- 
school principals had no organization of their own. Instead 
they cast their lot and their influence with other departments 
of the National Education Association; in particular they were 
generally found flocking with the superintendents. 


Then under the leadership of a group of Illinois princi- 
pals, the new organization was promulgated. This was in 1916 
—at the time of the mid-winter gathering in Detroit. Among 
the sponsoring stalwarts were C. P. Briggs, L. W. Smith, K. D. 
Waldo, W. L. Goble, H. V. Church, H. E. Brown, Jesse B. 
Davis, Milo H. Stuart, W. D. Lewis, Thomas H. Briggs, C. H. 
Johnston, and C. H. Judd. 


The purposes of the Association, as reported by its tem- 
porary secretary, were to be (quoting) “To develop and fur- 
ther a feeling of class consciousness among high-school prin- 
cipals; to develop a professional spirit on their part; to study 
curriculum problems of administration; and to be looking for- 
ward to certain standards and tests of efficiency for high- 
school subjects as a basis for survey work.” 


In April, 1916, seventy-eight principals representing 
seven states in the middle west met in Chicago and effected a 
permanent organization, under the name, National Association 
of Secondary-School Principals. For its officers it chose Prin- 
cipal B. F. Brown of the Lake View High School, Chicago, 
president; Principal M. R. McDaniel of the Oak Park High 


























DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 7 


School, Oak Park, Illinois, vice-president ; and Superintendent 
F. M. Hammitt of Mason City, Iowa, secretary-treasurer. 

In 1927, the new organization was duly admitted as a de- 
partment of the National Education Association, under the 
name it bears to-day. 


It started its career aggressively and has continued to ad- 
here to the principle of energetic effort ever since. Many of 
its original ideals have been realized in whole or in part. 


In order that we may appreciate just how far secondary 
education has advanced in thought and practice in the last 
twenty years may I quote from Mr. Brown’s presidential ad- 
dress delivered in 1917. Recall that this was given at the time 
of the first annual meeting of the new association in Kansas 
City, Missouri—just when its objectives were being formulated 
and its purposes were being declared. Said Mr. Brown, “No 
longer should men and women interested in the administration 
of secondary schools be content to accept ideas and direction 
from those who are not in a position to understand their needs, 
or from those who are actuated by ulterior motives. 


“The old theory of education, in which the pupil has been 
judged by his ability to remember, is bound to be displaced by 
the demand that our schools shall be so organized that there 
shall be a development of power, that we shall turn out a 
product with the ability to think and the power to do the job 
the world has for it to do in a creditable manner. The former 
idea was imposed from above and is still holding on like grim 
death, but the signs of the times show that its days are num- 
bered. Relief must come largely through the efforts of sec- 
ondary-school men, and this new spirit of union and coépera- 
tion will furnish the moral backbone to enable us to make the 
public high school conform more nearly to the needs of one 
hundred per cent of our pupils than to five or ten per cent of 
them.” 

Mr. Brown then pointed out the need for experimentation 
and listed specifically eight subjects which he felt should be 
dealt with at once. These eight, as stated by him, are as fol- 
lows: 

a. “To devise a satisfactory method of bringing subject 
matter in history into the realm of the pupil’s experience so 
that it may become real, and may not be a matter of memory. 























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PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 





b. “To devise a type of examination that will show devel- 
opment of power in the subject during the course. 


ce. “To work out a system of credits that will be fair both 
to the pupil who does excellent work and to the pupil who does 
only fair work. 

d. “To work out also a system of credits that will dis- 
courage seniors and juniors from electing studies of the first 
and second year in order more easily to obtain the necessary 
credits for graduation. 

e. “To discuss the changing conceptions of schooling and 
education with reference to the demands for the development 
of the power to meet the problems of life successfully. 

f. “To emphasize the social side of high-school life and 
give it a proper place in the school program. 

g. “To find best ways of presenting instruction concern- 
ing the advantages and disadvantages of various vocations. 

h. “To find an answer to the question of credit for work 
done independent of public school supervision.” 


During the next few years each of the problems suggested 
by Mr. Brown was attacked vigorously by the Association and 
gratifying improvements in school procedures have been noted 
in respect to them. In particular has this organization sought 
to put into effect Mr. Brown’s recommendation concerning edu- 
cational experimentation. Everywhere within the circle of 
its influence, undertakings that seek to discover new ways and 
means of school organization and administration are being 
carried forward by its members. Research is the slogan of the 
times. 


In this first presidential address Mr. Brown also took oc- 
casion to contrast what he regarded as the status of the high- 
school principal at the time with the status he would merit and 
attain as a result of the newly formed organization. Said he, 
“Our place in the educational world will be greatly improved 
by organization, because of the simple fact that we shall from 
now on act intelligently and unitedly. We shall no longer be 
the tail of the dog, to be wagged at the pleasure of influences 
that have dominated our secondary schools. .... Instead of 
having it handed down to us where to get off, we shall now be 
in a position of at least discussing the advisability of getting 
















DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 9 


OM, ess From now on we shall take our place among the or- 
ganizations that are dictating the educational policy of our 
schools to-day.” 


How true Mr. Brown’s prophecy was respecting the pres- 
tige and power of this organization can be judged by each for 
himself. Certainly no one who is at all conversant with its 
work would call it a weak and puny Department. Leadership 
in matters pertaining to secondary education most assuredly 
has been the Department’s watchword. 


At the close of the meeting in 1917 new officers were 
chosen for the succeeding year. These were as follows: 


President, Jesse B. Davis, Principal of the Central High 
School, Grand Rapids, Michigan; 

Vice-President: V. K. Froula, Principal of the Lincoln High 
School, Seattle, Washington ; 

Secretary-Treasurer: H. V. Church, Principal of the J. Ster- 
ling Morton High School, Cicero, Illinois. 


During the first nine years of the Department’s history it 
proceeded much after the fashion of other educational societies 
of the period. That is, its members met in annual convention, 
listened to a program of set addresses, exchanged greetings 
and notes with fellow principals, and went home. Some time 
later in the season, the annual Yearbook made its appearance 
and probably some few individuals perused its pages. 


But in 1926, new policies were introduced. In place of a 
Yearbook a series of bimonthly Bulletins were issued. The 
Yearbooks had contained little more than the papers read be- 
fore the convention, together with certain business items. The 
Bulletins, on the other hand, have dealt with a great variety 
of topics in addition to these matters, including: abstracts of 
books and magazines, reports of educational committees of one 
kind and another, lists of unpublished master’s theses in the 
field of secondary education, scientific studies of many sorts, 
and discussions of many problems pertinent to the administra- 
tion of the secondary schools. The nine Yearbooks published 
between 1917 and 1926 contained a total of 1218 pages of 
printed matter; the forty-nine Bulletins published since that 
date have contained a total of 5471 pages of printed matter, 























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PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


The Department, through its Secretary-Treasurer, also 
handles a number of matters of especial concern to the princi- 
pal as an individual and as a manager of his school. Among 
these services are the furnishing of (1) Uniform certificates 
of recommendation to colleges; (2) Standard High-School Per 
sonnel Record Blanks; (3) Group Life Insurance; (4) Auto- 
mobile, Fire, Accident, Sickness and other forms of insurance; 
(5) Directory of Members; (6) Membership cards, seals, em- 
blems, certificates, plaques, and official stationery both for the 
National Honor Society and the National Junior Honor So- 
ciety. 

Besides being responsible for the various activities men- 
tioned above, the Department has been conspicuously influen- 
tial in educational undertakings outside the circle of its own 
organization. It has done this to some extent as a unit but 
more especially as unofficially represented by its individual 
members. For example, the committee which prepared the 
booklet Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education was com- 
posed in considerable part of persons also attached to this or- 
ganization. The National Committee on Research in Secon- 
dary Education is a child of this Association; the Department 
of High-School Inspectors and Supervisors also stemmed from 
this group. As for the Secondary Commissions of the great 
regional standardizing agencies—the North Central Associa- 
tion, the Southern Association, and the others—much of the 
leadership found therein is furnished by men and women who 
are likewise connected with the Department of Secondary- 
School Principles. And of the two great national committees 
which to-day are busily at work endeavoring to effect what 
may prove to be almost revolutionary changes in secondary- 
school organization and procedures—the Committee on Orien- 
tation of Secondary Education, seeking to develop a philosophy 
of education upon which all schoolmen can unite, and the Com- 
mittee for Codperative Study of Secondary-School Standards 
and Accrediting Procedures, trying to fashion principles for 
judging the work of schools in truly valid ways—of these two 
great Committees all members, I think, are, at the same time, 
of this organization. And finally, through the force of the 
Department’s numerous sets of official resolutions and recom- 
mendations, sweeping reforms in education other than strictly 
secondary, have been instituted or fostered. Surely the story 














11 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


of the organization’s codperative adventures has been inter- 


esting and noble. 

In the Department’s annual meetings held since 1917 the 
topics discussed have been both numerous and varied. Merely 
for the sake of curiosity I checked through the titles of the 
addresses and papers delivered before the conventions held 
during the past nineteen years. These total 760. A few top- 
ics, of course, have been discussed frequently; others only oc- 
casionally. Those recurring most often, with the number of 
times each has been considered, are as follows: The curriculum, 
33 times; guidance, 18; articulation, or the relation of the high 
school to other divisions of the system, 16; student activities 
and social life, 16; finance, 13; supervision, 13; the junior high 
school, 13; administration, 10; philosophy of education, 9; 
problems relating to teachers, 8; methods, 8; deans of girls, 8; 
marks or records, 7; international relationships, 7; the small 
high school, 7; and from one to six discussions each on ath- 
letics, dramatics, class size, scholarship, character education, 
homogeneous grouping, measurements, study habits, libraries, 
school reorganization, cardinal principles, and others dealing 
particularly with specialized subject-matter fields. 


In 1917 the roster of the organization listed 245 mem- 
bers ; to-day it contains the names of more than 5000 individ- 


uals. 

If, therefore, the old adage still holds true that “Ye shall 
know them by their fruits” the organization that was started 
in 1916 may truly be said to be a fortunate and successful one. 


In the absence of Mr. McDaniel, Mr. Church read his 
paper entitled The National Honor Society an Essential. 


THE NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY 
AN ESSENTIAL 


M. R. McCDANIEL, 
Superintendent, Oak Park and River Forest Township High 
School, Oak Park, Illinois, and President 
of the National Honor Society 


The word essential is a strong word, but from the first 
organization of the National Honor Society I have been a 
firm and enthusiastic believer in its value. 


After thirteen 


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12 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


years of experience with the organization in our own school 
and after being in close touch with many chapters in other 
schools, I have come to the conclusion that it is an essential, 
if we consider the highest interests of our boys and girls, for 
whom the schools exist. During the late depression the schools 
were targets for much criticism. They seemed to be the scape- 
goat for most of our troubles. Our critics, some of them 
among our own number, accused us of wasting the people’s 
money and the pupil’s time on fads and frills. Our curriculum 
was described as a “rope of sand.” We were criticised for not 
fitting our pupils for some job, and then we were criticised 
for fitting them for jobs that did not exist. In fact, many of 
our efforts in the schools were, in the words of our critics, 
mere “boondoggling’”’. No critic, however, ever accused us 
of placing too much emphasis on scholarship, leadership, serv- 
ice and character. The development and emphasis of these 
qualities, especially the last three, do not require extensive 
library and laboratory equipment. Neither do they take much 
time from our daily schedule. They will fit into any plan of 
organization, whether 8-4, 6-3-3, or 6-4-4. 

There are some who really find objections to the National 
Honor Society. They contend that in choosing members we 
cannot always do a good job, that the qualities of leadership 
and character are so intangible they are hard to measure. 
They are really no harder to measure than scholarship. It 
would be hard to find two teachers who would agree upon the 
mark to be given for an English theme, for instance. Others 
would avoid trouble such as might arise if the son of a prom- 
inent taxpayer were not chosen. It is also objected that we 
sometimes choose unworthy people because it is hard to be a 
real judge of character. The Great Teacher in the parable 
did not refuse to sow because some of the seed fell by the way 
side, or on stony; ground, or among thorns, but continued to 
sow because other seed fell on good ground and did yield some 
thirty, some sixty, and some an hundredfold. To my mind 
none of these objections justifies a school in depriving its 
boys and girls of the great value of the National Honor Society. 
If we want evidence of need in leadership and service, look 
about us, in our state legislatures, in our national congress. 
If evidence of need for character, at our crime record. Warden 
Lawes of Sing Sing has said that the public schools have done 
nothing to prevent crime. Wickersham, however, in his fam- 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 13 


ous report says, “The greatest possibilities in checking crime 
lie in right education.” 


In the last few years there has been a very great change 
of emphasis on values in our school system, on what is right 
education. In the National Survey of Secondary Education it 
was found in the group of schools studied, that nonathletic 
extracurriculum activities had increased since 1910 eight times 
as much as athletic activities, and that from 1913 to 1930, 
civic, moral, and honorary activities had increased 560%. The 
same study found that the greatest carry-over value to the 
community was in the service activities. This changing em- 
phasis in values is illustrated also by the Phi Beta Kappa 
organization. Membership in this organization was originally 
based on scholarship. President Moore of Skidmore College, 
writing recently in the American Scholar, the Phi Beta Kappa 
magazine, says: “The business of scholarship becomes much 
more than a mere matter of the intellect. It is something that 
touches our whole way of living and involves our feeling and 
acting as well as our thinking . . . Surely the time is ripe 
for a radical change in the basis of our estimate of the worth 
of student accomplishment and in our official recognition of 
the real distinguished members of every student body.” Our 
National Association, early in its history, even long before 
it became a department, recognized in a practical way this 
change of emphasis and organized the National Honor Society, 
a society which should recognize leadership, service, and char- 
acter, as well as scholarship. The Society has had a marvelous 
growth. There are now 1,712 chapters of the Senior Honor 
Society and 216 chapters of the Junior Society which was 
recently organized, a total of 1,928 chapters with a member- 
ship of over 200,000 boys and girls. 


These two hundred thousand boys and girls have been 
chosen not only for their school days but for life. Whether 
they go to college or not, they will continue with a better per- 
spective as to values. They have learned to appreciate that 
leadership and service do not consist only in making touch- 
downs and holding office, but may be shown in the classroom, 
the corridors, on the street, or in the home. These qualities 
which they have developed will continue as practical values 
in their lives. They were elected to membership not because 
they had read and recited something about service and char- 

















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14 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


acter, but because they had already made these qualities a 
way of living. We all know that the worst little rascals in 
our schools often get the highest mark in civics and then act 
the most uncivil. Knowledge is power for evil as well as for 
good. I once heard a prominent educator say that he had 
taught a boy arithmetic so well that he defrauded the Standard 
Oil Company for ten years. The fact that these qualities of 
leadership, service, and character have really “taken” in the 
lives of our young people is proved by the attitude of the col- 
leges toward them. The colleges have learned to recognize 
members of the National Honor Society as a picked group. 
Many colleges are writing to high schools and asking for their 
lists of members and then are doing all they can to enroll these 
members in their own institutions. It is not only in the col- 
leges that they are making good. Within the last few weeks 
I have had at least five calls from business men to send them 
Honor Society boys and girls. 


The National Honor Society is a great incentive to the 
younger pupils. I have known many boys and girls on enter- 
ing high school, yes, even while they are in the eighth grade, 
to decide that they are going to be worthy of election to the 
National Honor Society. Most of them succeed. Having such 
a goal before them prevents pupils from becoming lost in the 
maze of athletics, debates, and dances. Young people really 
want something to tie to, to trust, and to follow as well as to 
read about. We give monograms and much publicity for ath- 
letic achievement. We give marks, congratulations, and cred- 
its, publish honor rolls, and have honor days for scholarship. 
In other words, we act as if athletics and scholarship are really 
important, and our pupils soon agree with us. They will 
agree with us also, if we will really make leadership, service, 
and character important. 


A chapter of the National Honor Society has a whole- 
some effect upon the faculty. Choosing pupils to membership 
on the basis of leadership, service, and character as well as 
scholarship, helps teachers recognize that vitamins L, S, and 
C are essential to the well-balanced development of every boy 
and girl. It helps them to recognize that they should teach 
boys and girls and not subjects. It gives them more of that 
quality that made Mr. Chips a great teacher—the quality of 
an understanding heart. 








DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 15 


Fellow principals, our institutions must be appraised not 
by our football records or even our scholastic records, but by 
our development of human personalities. No other nation 
has provided so much opportunity for education as ours. We 
must make good. Our product must show not only the high 
polish of scholarship but also the alloys of service and char- 
acter which are so necessary to enable one to stand the stress 
of modern life. Whether or not our boys and girls have an 
Honor Society, they are going to grow into adults. Let us do 
all we can in the words of Mr. Chips “to influence for good 
those who are going to grow up and matter in the world.” 
Let us do all we can to make men—gentlemen. Let us firmly 
believe that “The heavens” still “declare the glory of God and 
the firmament showeth His handiwork.” 

The following men were chosen in accordance with Arti- 
cle V of the Constitution: 

New England: Milton D. Proctor, and Harold A. Swaffield. 

Middle States: Curtis H. Threlkeld, Lyndon H. Strough, H. A. 
Smith, and J. H. Tyson. 

Southern States: William J. Baird. 

North Central: F. L. Kinley, Charles Green, Charles W. Board- 
man, A. J. Gibson, Charles D. Lutz, R. V. Lindsey, E. S. 
Lehmann, R. H. Bechtold, and Grover C. Dotzour. 
Following Section 2 of the above article the nominations 

from the floor were: J. B. Davis, Paul D. West, Stephen H. 

Rider, M. P. Moe, and Louis B. Plummer. 


Mr. John H. Tyson, Principal of Senior High School, 
Upper Darby, Pennsylvania presented his paper, entitled, A 
Research Program for a State Association of Secondary-School 
Principals. 


A RESEARCH PROGRAM FOR A STATE 
ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY- 
SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


JOHN H. TYSON, 
Principal Senior High School, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania 


The development of our Pennsylvania program began 
with a banquet meeting of one hundred ten principals and 
college teachers of secondary education. At this meeting an 











SOR tee ges eats Geren ise 











16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 








earnest desire was expressed for more opportunities at which 
principals could meet, discuss their problems, and formulate 
educational programs in the interest of youth. 


A very important set of resolutions was adopted, of which 
the following were outstanding: 
1. That an annual meeting of the secondary-school prin- 
cipals be held to: 
a. Receive reports of the work accomplished in the pro- 
fessional principals’ organizations. 
b. To disseminate the results of research of local groups 
through the codperation of the State Department. 
c. To discuss current problems in the field of secondary 
education with the aim of effecting a solution. 
d. To disseminate the results of investigations in the 
field of secondary education conducted by National 
Committees. 


2. That to promote and insure continuity to a system- 
atic study of the problems of secondary education a planning 
committee be appointed. This committee shall plan research 
over a period of years. In selecting the three people on this 
committee an effort was made to secure: (1) A satisfactory 
geographical distribution in the membership of the commit- 
tee, and (2) Adequate repeenennelnte of all types of high 
schools. 
In an ideal situation we find the following characteristics 
of an effective organization of high-school principals: 

a. Frequent (monthly) meetings at a fixed time and 

place. 

b. Coérdinated, group effort on a topic of common inter- 

est in advance of the meeting. 

c. The distribution of carefully prepared reports in 

mimeographed form at the meeting. 


d. The influence of capable leadership connected with 
schools of education in our great universities. 





































The Davis Club of Boston during the past year has cen- 
tered its discussion around the “Briggs Report.” This year 
it is considering the checklists submitted by the American 












DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 17 


Council Committee on Secondary-School Standards of which 
Dr. Walter C. Eells is codrdinator. This group carries on the 
seminar type of discussion and on a few occasions criticizes 
the papers of research students in the University. Similar 
reports can be made for the Stanford group, the Columbia 
group, the Milwaukee Suburban group, and other associations 
which have done outstanding work in the country. 


The economic problems of the past five years have cen- 
tered attention upon school finance and community support. 
A research program such as that described will attempt to 
distribute attention among other pressing problems in second- 
ary education. The high-school principal has had a fine pro- 
fessional record in this country and should respond quite 
favorably to a program of this type. But leadership and 
coordination of effort is desirable. For this reason, our State 
Planning Committee has appointed as Codrdinator the head of 
the department of education at Bucknell University. His 
functions are as follows: 


1. To study the activities of local associations. 


2. To encourage local associations to adopt certain prob- 
lems for study and research. 


3. To codrdinate the efforts of local groups in the devel- 
opment of a continuing state program of research. 
This will require the appointment of committees 
which shall define the scope of the problem to be 
studied, the nature and time of various reports that 
shall be submitted, and other necessary details. 


4. To give desirable publicity to those reports as they 
are completed. 


The response from schoolmen and’ from our State Depart- 
ment to this research program has been most encouraging. 
Our faith in the professional zeal of secondary-school prin- 
cipals has been justified. If we can lift the spirit and horizon 
of our leadership just a little, and thereby render to society a 
richer and better service, the expenditures for public educa- 
tion will become a real investment in our richest heritage, the 


youth of the land. 

























































PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


Mr. Sidney J. Williams, Director of Public Safety Divi- 
sion of the National Safety Council, Chicago, presented his 
subject, Education for Safety in America’s Secondary Schools. 


EDUCATION FOR SAFETY IN AMERICA’S 
SECONDARY SCHOOLS 


SIDNEY J. WILLIAMS 
Director Public Safety Division, National 
Safety Council, Chicago 


In talking recently with a police expert I ventured the 
suggestion that teaching safety to school children is, after 
all, the job of the schools rather than of the police. He replied, 
“Yes, if the school people would ever wake up and adjust 
their curricula to the needs of modern life.” I suggested that 
some “school people” if they heard his remark, might assert 
that the schools are handling their part of the traffic safety 
job quite as well as the police are handling theirs. 


Adjusting ourselves to modern life has proved to be a 
tough job for a great many of us, including police, schools, 
statesmen, employers, parents, and others. You leaders of 
education seem to be thinking and talking about this problem, 
most of the time. This is a great comfort to all of us who 
believe that education offers the only final answer to any social 
problem, including the problem of safety on the highways and 
elsewhere. 


When I went te high school, “manual training” was just 
beginning to be accepted. Even then it attracted more stu- 
dents than Latin and Greek. Parenthetically may I express 
the conviction that Latin and Greek, mathematics and litera- 
ture are still just as important and just as “practical” in fit- 
ting an intelligent boy or girl to live in this or any other 
decade, as commercial bookeeping, airplane design, and the 
manual arts. However, the manual arts are important too. 
Some boys still become carpenters and some girls still become 
cooks, but all of them become automobile drivers. Driving a 
motor vehicle is the most widely practiced and the most im- 
portant manual art to-day. But before talking about the 
teaching of automobile driving let us first consider the nature 
of this idea we call Safety—then, what have the schools to 
do with it? 



















19 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


Safety is not a thing, or a subject like history or botany. 
It is a quality, which has meaning only in relation to the par- 
ticular things we are doing. As Mr. A. W. Whitney pointed 
out years ago, safety is both negative and positive; we want 
to be safe from something, for something else. In driving a 
car we want to be safe from collision, in order to preserve 
our physical comfort and our property and reach our destina- 
tion on time. In another sense, which I am not discussing 
to-day, we desire as a nation to be safe from war to enjoy the 
advantages of peace. Mussolini, of course, would not agree 
with the latter statement. Safety thus involves a choice, a 
preference, and may lead us into a deep philosophic inquiry as 
to the ultimate purpose of life. 

We can avoid this quagmire by getting back to the prac- 
tical problem before us. The practical problem is that acci- 
dents in this country kill about 100,000 people and injure 
about nine million every year, with a direct economic cost of 
over three billion dollars. The deaths now exceed those from 
tuberculosis. We all agree, I am sure, that this terrific loss 
of life and limb is a bad thing, especially when it is common 
knowledge that most of these accidents are preventable. There 
is no reason why we should keep falling off of rocking chairs, 
or down stairs, why we should burn up ourselves and our 
property, why we should kill and cripple ourselves and others 
on the highway, or at work, or at play. The Safety Movement 
has already gone far enough to prove over and over again not 
only that these accidents are preventable in the individual 
case but that in the aggregate they can be greatly reduced by 
simple, practical measures; furthermore, that in industry for 
example the measures that stop accidents also have the effect 
of improving efficiency and increasing production. 


So we don’t want to suffer accidents, either individually 
or as a nation. Why then do we? Practically all accident 
causes come back finally to some individual, either someone 
immediately involved or someone who set the stage for the 
casualty. The individual traits which cause accidents, or 
permit them to happen, fall in three groups; first, defects of 
mind or body which make the person unfit to do what he is 
trying to do; second, lack of skill or experience; third, a wrong 
attitude, which we call carelessness or recklessness and which 
really means egotism or lack of forethought or of social re- 








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20 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 

sponsibility. Of these three factors, the second and third— 
lack of skill, and wrong attitude—are about equally important 
as accident causes, and more important than the first, physical 


and mental defects. 

The quality of safety thus breaks down into these three 
basic qualities—fitness, skill, and attitude or character; all 
interpreted in terms of what we are doing—cooking a meal, 
driving a car, playing football, canoeing, running a punch 
press, or a circular saw. Are not these basic qualities the very 
aim of all education? Stated otherwise, every accident at 
home, in the factory, on the highway, is a symptom of mal- 
adjustment and means that we, as an individual or as a group, 
have either not learned or not heeded the first law of life, the 
law of self preservation. 

Thus, while the immediate import of safety is often nega- 
tive—don’t drive too fast, don’t go swimming on a full stom- 
ach. Safety itself is the most positive of all ideas: learn how 
to live successfully; put first things first; be both your own 
and your brothers’ keeper. 

This concept, so easily stated, is just about equivalent to 
the millennium. As a practical matter, what should the sec- 
ondary school attempt in safety education, with due regard 
to its many other burdens? To answer, we must ask—in 
what ways are our students most likely to suffer or cause 
accidental death or injury, both now and in later life? How 
and to what extent can you reasonably impart the skills and 
the attitudes that will avert these tragedies? 


Many persons of all ages are hurt in traffic while on 
foot. The elementary schools have done a splendid job in 
teaching safe pedestrianism, so all you need do about that is 
an occasional reminder. 

The beginning driver is usually in high school. To see 
that he gets started right is obviously your opportunity and 
in part, I believe, your responsibility. 

Many people are hurt while at work. If you train for 
any manual vocation, industrial or domestic, surely safety 
must be a part of that training. Vocational training is es- 
sentially training in skill. The boy or girl who learns to run 


a saw or a cook stove skillfully has learned to run it safely. 





21 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


But sometimes you need a little more emphasis on attitude. 
The instructor should know, and the boy should know, that 
if he runs a circular saw in a modern industrial plant, with 
the guard off, he is likely to lose his job as well as his fingers. 

Many people are hurt in sports and recreations. What 
I have said about the close relationship of safety and skill has 
no better example than the record of accidents in football and 
other athletics—these are far more common in the sandlot 
games than in those under high-school or college coaching. 
Again however attitude is important—venturesome youth 
must be reminded that it is not really sporting to take foolish 
chances with one’s own life or another’s. 

Finally, many people are hurt at home. Most of the 
things we do at home are not very hazardous but in the ag- 
gregate we do spend more time at home, awake and asleep, 
than anywhere else; so the total number of deaths from home 
accidents is almost as great as in traffic and much greater 
than in industry, and the number of injuries at home is 
greater than in traffic and industry combined. Common sense 
precautions against these home accidents therefore cannot be 
overlooked in any high-school safety program. 


I hesitate to suggest exactly how this work should be or- 
ganized in your high schools because that is something which 
you know much more about than any layman and to which 
many of you already have given much thought. A few ob- 
servations may perhaps be offered. 

1. Because safety includes skill, learning to do specific 
things in the right way, it obviously should be recognized in 
all the vocational or manual arts courses, including physical 
education. The instruction of the students in these courses 
should probably be in terms of skill rather than in terms of 
safety as such, but the instructors should be given definite, 
up to date information on the accident record and the specific 
accident causes and remedies in those occupations. 

2. Because safety is also a matter of attitude and of 
character, it should be considered in those courses that deal 
with character and with social relationships, including the 
courses in citizenship or government. 

3. While skill in running a circular saw has little to do 
with skill in driving a car, the safety attitude—the feeling of 











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22 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


personal and social responsibility—is common to everything 
we do. Therefore on the side of attitude the whole safety 
program should be integrated. That is the reason for organ- 
izing a high-school safety council, or a safety committee of 
the general student council; also for an occasional assembly 
lecture, or a dramatic presentation of the safety idea. 


4. We do not advocate state laws requiring you to teach 
safety. 


5. An effective safety program in a school, as in a fac- 
tory or anywhere else, is not to be accomplished through a 
pious wish. The principal cannot say “Sure, we'll have a 
safety program” and expect it to blossom forth in full perfec- 
tion. There must be definite specific information; there must 
be hard work. Perhaps you know other and better ways, 
but I don’t see how you can have a generally effective safety 
program in a school without making it the definite responsi- 
bility of some one faculty member who not only has the 
requisite ability but can contribute some time and energy. 
In this connection may I quote from the address of your own 
President of the National Education Association, Miss Agnes 
Samuelson, at our Annual Safety Congress in Louisville last 
fall. Miss Samuelson asked these very pertinent questions: 


“Are teachers given opportunity to familiarize them- 
selves with the new developments in the accident problem and 
improved technics in safety education to an extent equal with 
the opportunities offered them to keep up to date in their pres- 
entation of more traditional subjects? Are safety materials 
provided for the use of teachers? Are those materials held to 
the same high standards applied to materials in other fields? 
Has a testing program been developed that is comparable to 
others or is the child accidental death rate considered an 
adequate measure of the success of the program? Has the 
school assumed responsibility for safety education, and ar- 
ranged for the direction of a continuous program, or is the 
subject sponsored largely by outside groups which are allowed 
in the classrooms because of the importance of the subject, 
the influence of the groups, or the fact that local school ad- 
ministrators and teachers are already carrying a heavy load?” 


6. The seriousness of the traffic accident problem to- 
day, and the almost hysterical public interest in that subject, 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 23 


should not blind us to the equal importance of training our 
young people against the other hazards, occupational, recrea- 
tional, etc., to which they are or will be subject. I beg of you 
to think of safety in terms of a well rounded program rather 
than as merely teaching how to drive a motor car. 


This last statement is extremely important and I wish 
to emphasize it. Having done so, I still must devote a couple 
of minutes to the specific item of traffic safety and driver 
training because that is probably the most difficult single item 
for you to handle. It is difficult because automobile driv- 
ing is a new art, about which none of us knows very much, 
and also because it does not fit easily into present curricula. 


Does the statement that we know very little about the 
art of automobile driving surprise you? Do you say—“‘Why, 
don’t we have lots of expert drivers? Aren’t you and other 
people all the time putting out rules about safe driving?” 


It is true that many drivers have made remarkable no- 
accident records but most of them don’t really know how they 
did it, any more than our grandmothers knew exactly how 
they produced such admirable apple pies, or a football star 
knows how he gets down the field. It is true also that mil- 
lions of words have been printed on safe driving, but most 
of them are common sense precautions, very helpful in creat- 
ing in the driver an attitude of forethought and caution, but 
quite inadequate as a course of instruction for the beginner. 


Many of you have instructors in auto mechanics who 
know and can teach the inner workings of the carburetor 
and all that, but some of these very instructors are bad driv- 
ers, meaning that they have bad driving habits; or, if not, 
at least they have little idea of the elements of good driving 
habits and how to impart them to a class. To assume that a 
first class automotive engineer, or a first class driver, will 
necessarily make a good instructor is the same as assuming 
that a manufacturer of adding machines or an expert account- 
ant would make a good teacher of mathematics. 


That, I think, is one of the reasons most of our so- 
called driver training courses have been so superficial. We 
have called the students together, in or out of regular school 
time, and have talked to them about safe driving—I have done 
it myself—and no doubt these lectures have done some good 











24 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


in arousing a feeling of interest and responsibility, but they 
do not constitute driver training. Driver training means put- 
ting the boy or girl into an automobile, showing him how it 
stops and starts and turns and backs up, and then having 
him practice doing these things, one after another, becoming 
perfect in each several manipulation before he goes on to the 
next. We can’t teach driving without a car any more than 
we can teach arithmetic or spelling without pencil and paper. 


But it is hard to get cars, and it is hard to get competent 
instructors. As for the cars, the automobile industry has 
become so much interested in this problem of traffic safety 
that it would, I think, be quite generous in helping any high 
schoo] that was ready to put in a real driving course. Some 
of the students also could contribute the use of their own cars 
in return for receiving the authoritative instruction which, in 
a growing number of cases, their parents realize they need. 
We spend school funds for batteries of cook stoves, chemical 
laboratory tables, carpenters’ benches and the like and it is 
quite as proper to spend some of this money on a few inex- 
pensive cars. 


As for instructors, you probably know of Professor Amos 
Neyhart of Pennsylvania State College who for several years 
has used his own car and his own gasoline to teach groups 
of high-school students and some older people how to drive, 
until he has worked out a definite technique. What we need 
is a hundred Amos Neyharts all over this country, testing this 
technique, perhaps improving it and crystallizing it into man- 
uals of instruction. The task of driver training cannot be 
given as a five per cent overtime job to someone employed to 
teach English, history, or football. Men from the motor vehicle 
or police department can give valuable help, but if I were a 
high-school principal I should not like to turn over any teach- 
ing function permanently to any outsider. 


I am not criticizing the schools which are now using the 
cooperation of these public officials, or which are starting to 
teach safety, including safety in driving, through English 
classes or any other medium; this is pioneer work which de- 
serves all possible commendation and encouragement. I am 
merely pointing out that this sort of instruction is an enter- 
ing wedge and not a final solution. If the teaching of driving 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 25 


is really as important as the teaching of cooking, then we 
need a special instructor for the one as for the other. 


This of course runs into the rock of over-burdened budgets 
and over-crowded curricula but we may as well face the facts. 
I for one believe that we must blast our way through the rock 
if we cannot find a detour. I do not say at all that we should 
teach driving at the expense of the basic or the cultural sub- 
jects but I do say as a taxpayer, a voter, and a parent that 
automobile driving is one of the most important of the applied 
sciences and the most important of the manual arts, and must 
be so recognized. 


Please don’t interpret this as an ultimatum that every 
high school must start driver training next fall. I kow that 
is quite impossible. I believe that day must come, but until 
it comes there are many things worth doing. I suggest this 
specific program or its equivalent: 

1. Create a student safety council or committee. 


2. Assign to it, as faculty adviser, one of your most 
competent and upstanding teachers. 


3. Encourage all your teachers to use safety material 
in their courses, wherever applicable. 

4. Let your safety council and adviser develop a reason- 
able program of home room and assembly exercises, bulletin 
boards, items in the student paper, an occasional contest and 
so on, 


5. If you can’t start.real driver training, try out some 
lecture courses on traffic safety and driving rules by the best 
men you can get from your faculty, police department, motor 
vehicle industry, local safety council, motor club and the like 
—all in codéperation with your state driver’s license admin- 
istration if you are so fortunate as to have one. 

6. Read again Miss Samuelson’s searching questions and 
make sure you are giving your people adequate material and 
support. 

The Safety Movement does not want to come in and run 
your schools or tell you how to run them. We don’t even want 
to sell you a specific program. We want to sell you an idea, 
or rather, to help you interpret an idea which I think you have 
already accepted. 














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PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louts, Mo. MEETING 










Finally, we need your advice on other difficult questions 
such as adult education. School men should be active and 
influential in the general safety organization in every state 
and city as well as in our national body. We want you to be 
full partners in this campaign whose purpose is not only to 
save lives but to help work out the whole vital problem of 
cooperative living. 









(Mr. Bursch’s paper was not presented in his absence) 


FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH NON-ATTEND- 
ANCE OF PUPILS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 


By JAMES F. BURSCH 
Director of Research and Student Personnel 
Sacramento, California 


Introduction. The problem of this paper will be to sum- 
marize the factors found associated with the non-attendance 
of pupils in junior and senior high schools in the eity of Sac- 
ramento. 


It is recognized that when a group of truants is identified 
for purposes of study and analysis that they are much more 
than a group of truants. Truancy is merely one fairly reliable 
symptom of more serious maladjustment. This paper might, 
therefore, have been entitled “Factors Associated with Pupil 
Maladjustment in High Schools.” The truancy findings were 
used only as a starting point. 


Description of the Group Studied. The study concerns 
itself with 1703 truants drawn from five junior high schools 
totaling 4029 enrollment and a senior high-school enrollment 
of 4768. The table below shows the number of truants per 
thousand at the two levels represented. 


The students are by no means all serious behavior prob- 
lems, however. The 1703 cases described here include the en- 
tire range from mild truancy (one offense of three or more 
days of unexplained absence) to incurable cases out most of 
the time referred by junior and senior high schools to the cen- 
tral Student Personnel Office for investigation. 


A more intensive study was made of the 159 cases of ex- 











































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DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 27 


aggerated behavior maladjustment, all involving chronic tru- 
ancy. 


Summary of Attendance Cases per Thousand of Junior High- 
School and Senior High-School Enrollment 





Truants per 
Enrollment Truants Thousand 
Junior High Schools..................-- 4029 361 89.58 
Senior High Schools...................- 4768 1342 281.34 
8797 1703 1938.52 


When Does Truancy Begin? An analysis of the ages of 
first reporting of truant cases to the central Student Personnel 
Office makes it difficult to make an accurate generalization as 
to the beginning age of truancy. Of the 361 junior high-school 
truants studied, slightly more than 50% had been reported as 
truant one or more times before their twelfth birthday. This 
group continues its truancy throughout its school career. A 
significant increase in truancy appears to occur at age 14 or, 
roughly, at the beginning of the senior high-school period. The 
following table shows the distribution of ages of the truants in- 
cluded in this study. It appears to be a gradual pyramiding 
from the age at which children are received into junior high 
school up to and including the last year in which they are re- 
quired to attend under the compulsory school laws (age 17). 


Distribution of Ages of Truants in Sacramento 





City High Schools 
Boys Girls Total 
FF NI vccsnicicicssitesiincetteilailataes 318 286 604 
Tm sti teneonnedisiiate enced 203 185 388 
EE gan ane SokeeRRN Eee Nhs a 151 156 307 
Te: :* .. sceinsathaiadalineineiiodenaaal 130 91 221 
Te: \: Sucisdicteiiiteeiiaedaeineiad 99 8L 180 
901 802 1703 


Living Conditions Associated With Irregular School At- 
tendance. To get a better understanding of how the physical 
environment of the home might have some bearing on the prob- 
lem of unstable school citizenship, an analysis was made of the’ 
city, dividing it into sections according to predominating types 
of dwellings, and the number of truant children coming from 





28 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 









the areas where certain types of dwellings predominated. The 
following is a brief summary of the findings of this part of the 
| study: i 

fk 1. In the approximately 1800 square city blocks devoted to 

i 4% residences of the single family dwelling type, 86 tru- 
ants were found per thousand of secondary-school en- 





rollment. 


In the approximately 750 square city blocks of the 
multiple family type of dwelling’ such as rooming 
houses, apartments, residence hotels, 183 truants were 
found per thousand of school enrollment. 





bo 







q 
on It is not necessary to be hasty in drawing conclusions as 
3 to which is cause and which is effect. The critical reader will 
readily recognize the possibility that certain types of dwellings 






| 

: may select the types of families that produce truant children 
. rather than the type of dwelling alone contributing to the 
1 truancy of the children. The facts, nevertheless, point clearly 





to a significant relationship between crowded living and tru- 
ancy at school. 








t Low Mentality Alone Not Significantly Related to Truancy. 
f A study of 1703 cases of truancy as to the levels of ability as 
measured by group mental tests shows that 15% of the group 
are above average in mental ability as measured by such tests; 
40% are average; 27% dull; 9% very dull; 9% feeble-minded. 
This suggests that environment, to a much greater extent than 
lack of ability, is associated with truancy. 










What of the Occupational, Economic Status of the Fami- 
lies from Which Truants Come? Possibly the occupations of 
the fathers of truant children would throw some light on the 
problem indirectly. The records of the Student Personnel Of- 
fice of the Sacramento City Schools show that of the cases re- 
ferred for various kinds of school maladjustment, 67% of the 
fathers are unskilled laborers; 6% semi-skilled laborers; 16% 
skilled laborers; 8% clerical and semi-professional; and 3% 
professional. Whether this distribution of the occupational 
status of the fathers of truant children is related in a causal 
way to their truancy is not indicated. Possibly it has a bear- 
ing only from the standpoint of insufficient income. 

















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DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 29 


Following this idea up further, it was found that 90% of 
the families in which truant children are living had inadequate 
or irregular incomes, i.e. less than $800 per year for two or 
more persons. 


Do Maladjustment Children Come from Large or Small 
Families? An analysis of the registration of minor files of the 
Student Personnel Office reveals that there is 1.8 school chil- 
dren per average Sacramento family whereas the maladjusted 
children come from families averaging 2.5 pupils enrolled per 
family. 


Group Memberships of Maladjusted Children. Whereas 
the typical high-school child in Sacramento is found to belong 
to one or more juvenile organizations such as Sunday School 
class, supervised playground groups, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 
Camp Fire Girls, Rangers, or others of similar character, it is 
a rarity to find any memberships in any known juvenile groups 
among the maladjusted school children. Out of the 159 cases 
referred to, we have learned that there was only one Boy Scout 
and he was not in good standing. Even at school, apparently 
little was done to develop group membership pride among the 
truant group with the exception of three senior high-school 
boys on athletic teams. These truants represent school citizens 
who do not belong. For example, they do not represent the 
school in athletics, publications, dramatics, music, or any of 
the socially approved groups of the school having an official 
relation to the school life. 

The sense of being worthy of respect, belonging to some- 
thing important, or being a part of an important movement 
seems almost totally lacking’ in the lives of these children. 


Mobility of .Families Producing Truant Children. Inter- 
views with truant children reveal a noticeable lack of the typ- 
ical sentimental attachment for home, either as a place or an 
institution to which they belong. There are, of course, many 
factors which contribute to the lack of this normal sentiment. 
The fact that they move three times as often from place to 
place within the city as does the average Sacramento school 
child throws considerable light on their attitude toward home. 
Almost 5% of the 159 most seriously maladjusted children 
move more than seven times within a single year. 











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30 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


Irregular Home Environment. The reports from attend- 
ance workers, welfare workers, and counselors visiting the 
homes on behalf of the school reveals an almost total lack of 
any regular family life. There is no schedule for meals. There 
is no set time for being in off the street, for going to bed, for 
getting up, for going to school, for playing, or for helping with 
the household duties. Sixty-six per cent of the homes were 
rated by these workers as being poor or very poor both from 
the standpoint of physical environment and organized living. 


What of the Marital Status of the Homes from Which 
Truant Children Come? It was found that 15% of the truant 
school children were living with neither of their own parents. 
Twenty per cent were living with one of their parents who had 
been divorced and remarried. Three per cent have neither of 
their own parents living. Sixty-two per cent were living with 
their mother alone. That unstable and disorganized family 
life has a bearing on school adjustment is quite evident from 
these facts. The opinion of welfare workers, attendance super- 
visors, and others visiting these homes on behalf of the schools 
further supports this point of view. They found that evening 
supervision of the activities of the group studied was lacking 
in 95% of the cases. 


The Nativity of Parents of Truants. It is interesting to 
note that the truants are not, as is frequently asserted, from 
the homes of foreign-born parents in undue proportion. Sixty- 
eight per cent of unselected parents in Sacramento are native- 
born; 60% of the parents of truants are native-born. Thirty- 
two per cent of the unselected parents in Sacramento are for- 
eign-born; 40% of the parents of truants are foreign-born. 
Mexican, Portuguese, and Italian are the largest contributors 
to truancy among. the foreign-born group. 

An interesting related fact is that among the Oriental 
population of 800 secondary-school pupils, there was during 
the year studied only five cases of truancy and only two of 
these were exaggerated cases. Most of these Orientals were 
native-born, second generation Japanese. 


A Summary of Related Specific Causes. The judgment of 
attendance supervisors and visiting teachers whose daily work 
brings them into contact with these maladjusted children who 
express part of their maladjustment in truancy from school is 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 31 


worthy of important consideration. The following are the 
principal factors found by these persons to have been most 
closely associated with irregular school attendance in Sacra- 
mento. These are arranged in descending order according to 
their frequency of occurrence in relation to all cases reported 


in this study. 
Specific Causes Found Associated with Truancy 


Lack of home control or supervision. 

Lack of interest in school work. 

Lack of individual recognition at school. 

Mental or emotional instability. 

Influence of street gangs or bad companions. 

Poor economic conditions in the home. 

A craving for excitement and adventure. 

Insufficient ability for a given level or kind of school work. 
Parents defiant or non-coéperative concerning school laws. 
Marital difficulties in the home. 

Problems of sex and love. 

Poor social adjustment at school. 

Desire for spending money. 

Too much spending’ money. 

Emotional conflict with parents. 

Dislike for a particular school subject or teacher. 


Suggested Implications. The modern school is interested 
in seeing the child as a whole and attempting to educate him 
wholly. The outworn compartmentalized thinking and com- 
partmentalized administration which divided educational ac- 
tivities into facile categories such as fundamental processes, 
activities program, social adjustment, physical hygiene, men- 
tal hygiene, leisure time activities, etc. are now ready for a 
decent burial. Twenty-four hour schools may be in bad repute 
but twenty-four hour education is an inescapable reality. 


An appreciation of the significance of the above state- 
ment leads to the inescapable conclusion that the modern 
teacher must be vividly aware of factors outside of the school- 
room touching the child’s growing life and must be prepared 
to act upon them and make school adjustments in the light of 
them. 

The writer, in dealing with individual children and social 
workers having’ daily contact with the homes of truant chil- 








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ene are e. a oS i oe 
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32 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


dren, has a growing conviction that the difficulties of these 
children have grown out of the fact that they are normal in 
many respects. In seeking normal human satisfactions to nor- 
mal human wants and being unable to satisfy these wants be- 
cause of the underprivileged social, moral, physical and eco- 
nomic conditions under which he lives, the child becomes a 
rebel against society. He sincerely believes that organized so- 
ciety is deliberately fighting against him. 

These children who are in difficulty with the schools are 
seeking to satisfy one or more of the following human wants 
and are having difficulty in doing so: Food, clothing, shelter, 
protection, affection, attention, recognition, appreciation, buoy- 
ant health, and security. May it not be that the conditions and 
not the children are in need of adjustment? Is it not possible 
that it would be abnormal and unethical for children to be hap- 
pily adjusted to such circumstances as are indicated by the 
statistics quoted above? 


What Can the High Schools Do? If these factors are so 
vitally related to the wholesome growth and development of 
the whole child, it appears that school people generally must 
in part forsake the cloistered atmosphere of the schoolroom 
and’ through effective organization and integration of their 
organization with other constructive community organizations 
work intelligently and aggressively for the amelioration of 
the negative and destructive environmental factors found as- 
sociated with truancy. 


Mr. Charles F. Allen, Supervisor of Secondary Education 
of Little Rock, Arkansas read his paper, The Need of KnowIl- 
edge and Faith in the Secondary School. 


THE NEED OF KNOWLEDGE AND FAITH 
IN OUR SECONDARY SCHOOL 


CHAS F. ALLEN 
Supervisor of Secondary Education, Little Rock, Ark. 


We are passing through a period filled with turbulent 
social problems. Probably no one can state clearly and com- 
pletely the many causes affecting our social status. Some 
would lay the cause to the failure of the educational program. 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 33 


Others would shield the schools and blame other agencies for 
the inefficiencies of the social program. Some would be so 
radical as to discard all present school curricula and reorgan- 
ize on a new and theoretical but untried course. Others be- 
lieve that the knowledge and experiences accumulated for ages 
should not be lightly discarded, because such information 
and experience represent the best that time and effort have 
produced throughout the centuries. 


Whether we follow one path or the other depends largely 
upon our own training, experience, and original thinking. 
Regardless of which course we may follow, probably all will 
agree that determining a curriculum for the division of sec- 
ondary education is a momentous question. It is a matter 
too big and too important to be left to the judgment of any 
one person or to any one group of persons. Not only the 
efficiency of our public school system is at stake, but the life 
of a nation itself seems threatened. If our democratic ideals 
are to survive, secondary education must succeed. 


Probably all authorities competent to speak will agree 
that there have been many failures, many errors, committed 
in the name of secondary education; but not all will agree 
that secondary education has failed. As evidence that it has 
not failed, one needs only to recall the local expenditures in 
the cause of higher education. Witness the magnificent struc- 
tures erected for secondary schools; recount the tremendous 
growth in enrollment in secondary schools; note the demand 
for at least a high-school education of those applying for posi- 
tions. Such interest in secondary education and such training 
of high-school graduates, give material and conclusive evi- 
dence of expressed faith in secondary education. 


Faultfinding is a favorite pastime for all classes of critics ; 
and it seems particularly convenient for certain classes of 
financial interests and of particular types of educational agi- 
tators to employ unethical innuendoes and popular sarcasm to 
purported educational inefficiencies. How easy it is to tear 
down; how difficult to build! Who of us will not admit of a 
multitude of present inefficiencies of the secondary-school pro- 
gram, but who is ready to guarantee an effective solution ? 


Has not business proved its inefficiencies; have not poli- 
tics disgraced our electorate; have not a multitude of other 








~ i 


re ee A Mines o- . 9 


4 tt 











34 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


civic and financial structures failed during the stress of post- 
war and depression days? Surely the schools are not to blame 
for all our ills and inefficiencies. Our schools have been and 
are to-day the very foundation blocks on which our govern- 
mental and other civic structures are built. Although we 
admit many inefficiencies, nevertheless we may justly claim 
many advantages which our secondary schools have contrib- 
uted to our civilization. 


I know not what system of schools others would propose, 
I know not what governments others would choose, but as 
for me I prefer the Stars and Stripes and our American gov- 
ernment to any and all the flags and political forces, civic and 
educational, that dominate the peoples of Japan, of Russia, 
of Italy, of Germany, or of any other nation on the globe. 
Progress always means a change, but not all change is prog- 
ress. Let us determine by sane and sound procedure both the 
efficient and the inefficient principles and procedures of our 
secondary-school system and then govern our reorganizations 
accordingly. 


Secondary education has probably suffered more from 
within than from without. We have been too content for 
others to determine our policies, to sing our praises, and to 
condemn our practices. We should actively sponsor such 
studies as that being made by Dr. Briggs and his committee 
on The Issues of Secondary Education, and that being made 
by the National Committee for Coédperative Study of Second- 
ary-School Standards, and we should also seek to profit by 
any and all criticisms. We should constantly revise our pro- 
gram of Secondary education—curricula and procedures—in 
the light of scientific discovery, and then let the public know 
what we are doing. I fear we have suffered too much by 
condoning a type of publicity based upon the glamour of 
quantity and the spectacular instead of seeking quality. We 
have built stadia and paid fabulous sums to attract crowds 
and to fill space on the sports page while the school page has 
been neglected. I have no panacea to propose, but I do plead 
for codperative, qualified committees to study our needs and 
to propose remedies. 


As an initial effort in determining proposed work for our 
organization, I sent to eighty-seven representative schoolmen 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 35 


and women in forty-five states a questionnaire which listed ten 
items proposed for intensive study, and provided space for 
listing other suggestions. The results of the 80 per cent 
of the questionnaires returned are shown below on a copy 
of the questionnaire sheet on which are also tabulated the 
total replies. 


Some Proposed Activities for Our Department 
Yes No 
To sponsor some form of safety education for sec- 
ondary students 


To sponsor some scheme for correlating and ar- 
ticulating research work in secondary education 
SO as: 
a. to avoid unnecessary research 41 
b. to stimulate needed research 43 
c. to summarize research already done 38 
d. to make available for distribution work 
done and work needing to be done 43 


To sponsor some systematic scheme of caring for 
the youth problem 43 


To sponsor or to codperate in sponsoring a reor- 
ganization of the various departments of the N. 
E. A, to the end of clarifying and delimiting re- 
spective titles, personnel, and activities of these 
departments 34 


To provide for continuous representation of our 
department at Washington, D. C 37 


To encourage state organizations to form local 
study groups o 45 





To sponsor more systematically the National 
Honor Societies 

To sponsor a more definite program for adult edu- 
cation 

To sponsor an active and continuous revision of 


the secondary curriculum to meet present and fu- 
ture needs 


. To cooperate and help formulate the proposed new 
standards for accrediting high schools 








LOS SE ES ET Oe 
ry 





36 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louts, Mo. MEETING 


It is evident that our organization could not at any one 
time successfully sponsor all of the proposed studies listed. 
The total replies indicate where first emphasis should be 
placed. Many returns emphasized the need for centering on 
a few studies at a time and for doing them well. The two 
proposed activities receiving greatest emphasis are: 1. A 
follow-up study of the report of the Committee on Orienta- 
tion of Secondary Education, and 2. A more active participa- 
tion in The Coéperative Study of Secondary-School Standards. 


For purposes of determining a more aggressive course 
for our organization to pursue, I suggest that a long term 
planning committee, or council, be appointed whose duty it 
shall be to study these and other suggestions and propose to 
our executive committee definite plans and policies which the 
executive committee shall be authorized to accept, reject, or 
revise, and to put into effect as the judgment of the executive 
committee may determine. I suggest also that specific atten- 
tion be given to a publicity campaign for the purpose of 
properly informing the public concerning the values of the 
secondary-school program, and particularly of the services 
that this organization is attempting to render. 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


SECOND SESSION 


TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1936 


Preliminary Statement 


At the third general session of the Department of Super- 
intendence, held in the Convention Hall of the Municipal Au- 
ditorium in St. Louis, on Monday, February 24, 1936, 9:15 A. 
M., A. J. Stoddard, the President of the Department of Super- 
intendence, presided. After an invocation by the Reverend 
Robert S. Johnston, S. J., President of St. Louis University; 
an introductory address by President Stoddard; an extended 
address of welcome by Mr. Bernard F. Dickman, Mayor of St. 
Louis; a tribute to William T. Harris by Dean John W. With- 
ers of the School of Education of New York University ; greet- 
ings to the convention from Franklin D. Roosevelt, President 
of the United States (read by the next speaker) ; and an ad- 
dress on Education for Democracy, by Commissioner of Edu- 
cation J. W. Studebaker; Thomas H. Briggs, Teachers College, 
Columbia University, read his second introduction to the Re- 
port of the Committee on Orientation of Secondary Education. 
[One introduction is enough; if you need an introduction, 
read that in Bulletin No. 59, Department of Secondary-School 
Principals. ] 


The second session of the Department convened at 9:35 
A. M., Tuesday, February 25, in Assembly Hall No. 3, of the 
Municipal Auditorium. The presiding officer, Willard N. Van 
Slyck, the First Vice-President of the Department, and Prin- 
cipal of High School, Topeka, Kansas, with a brief address in- 
troduced the chairman of the session, who is also Chairman of 
the Committee on the Orientation of Secondary Education, 
Thomas H. Briggs, Teachers College, Columbia University. 


Mr. Briggs at once presented Professor W. F. Dyde of the 
University of Colorado, who discussed Issue I, in part as fol- 
lows: 

I agree with the general conclusion of the Committee 
“that society not only should, but also eventually must provide 
for the continued education of all adolescents.” (p. 13.) 








Came, Shes nagmae: K A. 


=) Pek 








Per 





38 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


In the second place I agree with the commission’s qualifi- 
cation that, practically, the desirable program is at present un- 
attainable, being blocked by “at least temporary limitations 
on what the secondary school can do for certain types of pu- 
pils”, by the “inadequacy of current methods of financial ad- 
ministration”, and by the district system of school organiza- 
tion. 


At this point I wish to raise a question which has bothered 
me in my thinking about the first issue. When it is said that 
society should provide secondary education for all normal in- 
dividuals, I ask myself what is meant by secondary education, 
and I note also that the statement of Issue I contains the word 
individuals and not the word adolescents. On closer examina- 
tion I find that the concept of secondary education which the 
committee has adopted covers a very wide area. In the first 
place it covers the grade range from grade VII to grade XIV 
inclusive, taking in the first two years of the work mainly done 
by the arts college. In the second place it includes the educa- 
tion of adults as well as that of adolescents, and in the third 
place it is not to be regarded as a special kind of education. 
I still consider that secondary education should include at least 
two characteristics which may be said to describe it as a type 
or as a special kind of education: (1) That its work be organ- 
ized as continuous and cumulative over a period of time; (2) 
That it include as a necessary element general education to 
some amount for some length of time, the amount and dura- 
tion being defined differently for different groups of pupils, 
but present in the programs of all. 


It seems to me further that the inclusion of adults tends 
to confuse the issue somewhat. Certainly much of the educa- 
tion desired by adults falls at the secondary level. An adult 
may desire a particular specialized course in motor mechanics 
or he may desire a course in elementary American History. I 
do not wish to give the impression that I minimize the import- 
ance of adult education, quite the contrary. But the particu- 
lar desires illustrated are for fragments of secondary educa- 
tion not secondary education. 


The proposal to include the first two years of college work 


in the secondary area has wide support. I assume that the 
committee intends to include those years in the period of uni- 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 39 


versal secondary education. Nevertheless I find that in the 
discussion of the first issue, age 18 rather than age 20 or 21 
is considered when the probable incidence of adolescent un- 
employment is under discussion. (p. 41.) 


I wish to affirm my faith in the future of secondary edu- 
cation in this country. The United States has been passing 
through a critical period. Other countries have found it nec- 
essary in the face of a similar emergency to fall back upon 
lower forms of social control based upon dictatorial authority 
exerted through coercion, fear, and propaganda. If the United 
States can achieve a reconstruction of its social life by means 
of the democratic methods of thinking, persuasion, and free 
discussion, the secondary-school men and women of this coun- 
try may well feel that the efforts expended during the past 
generation to educate millions of adolescents has not been in 
vain. Such an event will be the best justification of universal 
secondary education which can be offered. 


Mr. Clyde M. Hill, Professor of Education of Yale Uni- 
versity continued the discussion as follows: 


The proposition that secondary education should be pro- 
vided at public expense for all normal individuals is not only 
generally acceded to but is actively defended by professional 
and lay groups alike. Most people who have thought about the 
matter have seen in universal secondary education in America 
not only the key to the solution of our vital social problems 
but they have usually seen in it the only hope of the survival 
of democracy itself and the preservation of the means through 
which its aspirations can be realized. The traditional concep- 
tiorr of democracy held by the man on the street leads him to 
believe in universal secondary education as an inherent right 
and naively to look upon it as a dependable instrument for 
equalization between classes and among social groups. 


In the very brief time at my disposal I wish to point out 
two things: (1) There are in this country very respectable, 
honest, thoughtful educators and educationists who do not 
believe that the complete universalization of secondary educa- 
tion is feasible; (2) Many educators who give enthusiastic lip 
service to the ideal of universal secondary education have not 
become acutely aware of its real implications and the tremend- 


ous obligations it imposes, 





fi 
ay 4 








40 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


Although the limitation of secondary education is vigor- 
ously and courageously defended by a few school men, huge 
enrolments seem to indicate that we, educator and layman 
alike, far from restricting the high school, are demanding its 
complete universalization. Portentous elements in American 
social life have made thoughtful educators, for the most part, 
distressingly aware of new and far-reaching demands upon 
education and have made them very sensitive to the inadequacy 
of our high schools, as they now exist, to meet these demands. 
If we sincerely believe that all groups and individuals must 
participate intelligently, either as leaders or as codperating 
agents, in the continuous process of social reconstruction then 
we must expect secondary education to become universal not 
only in the sense that wise provision must be made for all 
adolescents, but also in the sense that the resources of our 
schools be made available at all times for adults, individuals 
and groups, who can make socially profitable use of them. 


If secondary education is to be truly universal we must 
face the fact that it must be free. The complete socialization 
of the high school will necessitate that it be made free, not 
only in the sense that tuition will not be imposed but in the 
larger sense that no expense factor, however trifling, will be 
permitted to operate as a_ selective agency. Utopian, 
as it may sound, universal secondary education means that the 
high school must be placed within the reach of every citizen 
who can profit by its program, even though that mean, as in 
England, a contribution to the maintenance of a family de- 
prived of the wage of the student while in school. 


A greatly enlarged secondary-school population will insist 
that the high school be all that it has ever been, all that has 
been claimed for it, and much more than its most optimistic 
prophets have indicated that it should become. It will cer- 
tainly be the responsibility of the universal high school to im- 
part the stores of knowledge accumulated by civilization; but 
it is equally certain that it will also have the greater respon- 
sibility to help all of the people to interpret this knowledge in 
terms of their own living in new and changing social situations 
which ever will be new. 


Even now, to meet the needs of its relatively limited ad- 
olescent population honestly and adequately, secondary school 
programs would have to be completely revolutionized. The 


a ae ee ee ae ee ee 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 41 


word, revolutionized, is used advisedly because there certainly 
would be an educational revolution in our high schools if we 
suddenly recognized in school practice those things which we 
admit as essential to a socially adequate education for even 
70 per cent of our youths. Can you imagine the confusion, the 
turbulence, the turmoil if suddenly our high schools through- 
out the country should relate all of their activities directly 
to the vital and significant problems of present day living, 
controversial though they may be; if suddenly they recog- 
nized in the program and organization and method the type 
of educational experience appropriate to preparation for social 
leadership and for intelligent codperation as well; if suddenly 
they actually provided for a new leisure through the use of 
creative activities for the purpose of developing’ abilities and 
tastes; if suddenly they recognized in the school program the 
dignity of industrial and vocational labor. without usurping 
the apprentice training within industry, itself, or wasting 
energy and resources in meeting temporary need soon to van- 
ish as machines multiply; if suddenly they saw to it that 
mental and physical health was made a habit and its preserva- 
tion compulsory? A revolution, indeed! 


What, interpreted in school practice, could be done im- 
mediately toward the realization of the ideal of complete so- 
cialization of secondary education? In the few remaining 
moments only brief mention can be made of the most obvious 
changes easily within the realm of possibility: 

1. There can be a wiser investment in school plants and 
a more efficient use of them. School buildings must be de- 
signed and reconstructed efficiently to house carefully planned 
programs of study, rather than to serve as monuments of 
short-sighted principals and pompous boards of education or 
merely to take advantage of the availability of Federal funds. 


2. School buildings and equipment can be used through- 
out the year and through more hours of the day. Flexible 
programs can surely be provided so that school privileges will 
not be restricted to students who are free to devote the middle 
of the day to the pursuit of school activities. Once grant the 
necessity for universal secondary education and the high 
schools must be open from seven o’clock in the morning to 
ten o’clock at night six days in the week. We shall not achieve 
universal education until we are just as willing to provide for 





nll tay 








42 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


the student who can come to school for one hour before nine 
o’clock or for two hours after four o’clock, as we are to pro- 
vide for the group who can come for the five or six hours 
between the magic hours of nine and four. In urban com- 
munities the needs of individual students may suggest that 
twenty-four hour schools be provided for the health education 
of physically, mentally and morally sick children and for the 
prevention of juvenile delinquency. 


3. So tremendous an undertaking as really universal 
education will require the most careful organization and the 
most expert administration. Even now, the machinery of 
administration can actually become what it professes to be, 
namely, the simplest means to clearly understood ends. It 
can immediately divest itself of the suspicion of existing for 
its own sake and exemplify in all of its procedures the ideals 
of efficiency which it is intended to serve. 


4. Guidance can immediately extend its service and re- 
fine its techniques. Instead of limiting its work to the school, 
itself, it must assist out-of-school agencies to do their work 
better and see to it that all individuals and groups are brought 
into touch with all educative forces in the community. 


5. In all communities steps can be taken now to break 
the bonds of traditional “subjects” and formal] training. Along 
these lines widespread efforts are desirable because they all 
contribute to a destruction of the golden calf of traditional 
“subjects” and assist in the unification of the entire program 
about the one center of life itself, the complete life of the indi- 
vidual in all its relations to society. 


6. By taking full advantage of the opportunity to secure 
at modest salaries the service of well educated young men and 
women, high schools can now build up their teaching staffs 
to a point of social efficiency and intellectual competency 
hitherto quite impossible. Universal secondary education de- 
mands a generally well-educated teaching personnel. While 
a high degree of specialized knowledge will be essential and 
teaching skill will be imperative, broad general education will 
be indispensable. 

To be sure, we believe in universal secondary education. 
We should never lose sight of the fact, however, that the ideal 
involves much more than merely enrolling in our schools as 











3s 


tic 

















DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 43 


they now exist, 100 per cent of our young people who are 
of high-school age. There probably would be a more pointed 
issue if the question were worded “Can secondary education 
in school and out be provided at public expense appropriate 
to the needs of all normal individuals or must it be restricted 
to schooling for a few individuals?” 


Mr. Lloyd N. Morrissett, Assistant Superintendent of 
Schools, Yonkers, New York, submitted the following in the 
discussion of Issue II: 


The report raises four pertinent questions. These are: 


1. Is it possible to differentiate the school program to 
care for individual differences and capacity and willingness 
to learn without incurring the dominance of mediocrity in 
an over burdened school system? 


2. Is it possible to relieve the secondary school of those 
for whom the best schooling that we know how to give has 
become profitless without casting adrift in an inhospitable 
world many youngsters unprepared to face it? 


3. Is it possible to guide pupils out of school upon the 
theory that the law of diminishing educational returns has 
begun to operate without condemning to exile talented boys 
and girls? 

4. Can the point of diminishing educational returns for 
an individual pupil be determined? 


The arguments presented to state the position of those 
who hold that the school should exercise no initiative in the 
matter of bringing the schooling of any pupil to an end are: 


1. The right of the individual to as much public educa- 
tion in the courses of his choice as he may wish. 


2. That all pupils are capable of profiting in some im- 
portant respect, to some degree, by further schooling in the 
locally established schools. 


3. That school officials are unwilling to accept the re- 
sponsibility, sometimes pleading inability, for making a policy 
of transfer of pupils from secondary .schools to other more 
appropriate activities effective. 


4. That there is a severe scarcity of suitable employ- 
ment for adolescents and almost a total absence of other or 














a 














44 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


more appropriate training institutions for those eligible for 
transfer. 


The Committee report on Issue II, it seems to me, clearly 
states the arguments with sufficient emphasis and amplifica- 
tion. One argument which was perhaps implied, but not def- 
initely stated, is that the secondary school itself has not yet 
exhausted the possibility of adjusting and adapting its meth- 
ods, administration, supervision and curricular offerings so 
as to adequately meet the needs of those adolescents which 
might be transferred from it. I raise the question, Does 
this point deserve more serious consideration? Some of our 
colleagues believe that it is entirely possible for the secondary 
schools to offer a general educational program, which when 
properly adjusted and adapted, will more adequately serve 
those boys and girls who at present are failing to benefit or 
profit from their experiences in the secondary schools. 


The arguments presented which state the point of view 
of those who would have the school itself undertake the re- 
sponsibility for terminating the secondary-school careers of 
certain boys and girls are: 

1. That individual differences in capacity to learn, co- 
incident with unwillingness to learn, make indefinite continued 
schooling for certain individuals inadvisable. 


2. That society should not be forced to carry the finan- 
cial burden imposed by pupils who have neither the capacity 
nor the desire to profit by the opportunities offered in the 
secondary schools. 

3. That some responsible school authorities take the 
position that pupils over sixteen years of age who have failed 
in an excessive amount of school work in any school year, 
unless the failure has been due to illness, should be perma- 
nently dropped from the schools. 


This position is based upon the belief that, “the high 
schools exist to prepare pupils for life, either to take their 
places among the workmen of to-morrow as happy, helpful 
citizens, or to continue their work in callege.” Consequently, 
if reasonable progress is not being made toward realizing the 
purpose for which the secondary school exists, the individual 
pupil should be directed from the school. The implications 
are, first, that the pupil has forfeited his right or privilege, 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 45 


and, secondly, that the state will direct its energy and spend 
its money where there is promise of educational returns. 


4. Another argument, though less frequently presented, 
is that the high schools will contribute more liberally to civ- 
ilization if freed of all but the intellectually gifted and tal- 
ented pupils. 


5. That the secondary school as a single institution can 
not possibly supply the conditions essential to the worthy 
education for all youth of the community. 


6. That some boys and girls might profit more from 
work and the environment surrounding the work than from 
continued school experiences. 


7. That it is reasonable to expect society, in its endeavor 
to protect and perpetuate itself, to devise and operate other 
kinds of educational or training institutions for boys and girls 
whose capacities, abilities, attitudes and interests are not being 
served or developed by the best secondary-school program that 
we are capable of designing and administering. 


Again, it appears that the ISSUE states the argument 
concisely, clearly and adequately. Certainly the arguments 
clash, and after reading ISSUE II one feels the existence of 
a real, vital, pressing issue. 


The treatment of this issue protects the pupil from being 
transferred for light and immediate reasons, i.e., it insures 
his right to remain in the secondary school until every resource 
at the school’s command has been exhausted, without reason- 
able response from the pupil. In other words, it is the pupil’s 
privilege to remain in the secondary school until it is clearly 
demonstrated that he will not or can not profit from the educa- 
tional offerings and environment. The ISSUE states quite 
definitely that, “no pupil should be encouraged, or even per- 
mitted, to leave the secondary school until he has gained rea- 
sonable command of at least the minimum essentials, that is, 
until he has grasped of the tool skills in reading, writing and © 
arithmetic, and his command of the fundamental facts of so- 
cial relationships are sufficient to enable him to ‘get along’ 
outside of school.” And, again, “no pupil should be encouraged 
to leave the secondary school until, in addition to mastering 
the minimum essentials, he has had opportunity for direct trial 














46 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


of every practicable type of instruction which may be reason- 
ably assumed to be adapted to his needs.” 


The safeguards which have been set up seem to be suffi- 
cient to protect the individual as well as the supporting society. 


The treatment of, “the detection of diminishing returns 
from the schooling in the case of individual pupils,” is logical 
and convincing. Surely we as representative secondary-school 
men will admit that we have the educational techniques and 
the professional judgment necessary to detect the point when 
diminishing returns appear serious and permanent. Simply 
put, the question at point is, Do we think it wise, and if so, 
have we the courage to accept the responsibility for trans- 
ferring pupils from the secondary schools to other agencies 
or activities which promise to serve better the pupils’ needs? 


Accepting the alternative, namely, that secondary educa- 
tion shall transfer pupils to other agencies under educational 
supervision, when, in the judgment of the school authorities, 
these agencies promise to serve better the pupils’ immediate 
and probable future needs, the question arises, What will be 
necessary in order that such a program may have proper 
implementation ? 

The issue definitely states that pupils transferred from 
the secondary schools will be transferred to agencies which 
promise to serve better the pupils’ immediate and probable 
future needs. 


With the thought in mind that education is a state func- 
tion and that the State is equally interested in all youth, its 
future citizens, I propose the following as agencies appropri- 
ate to supplement the secondary school as an educational insti- 
tution dedicated to the service of youth: 

1. The codperative part time school. This has been 
toyed with in spots, with gratifying results, but in the main 
its possibilities have never been imaged. School administra- 
tors and society have never seriously attempted the codperative 
part-time school program. 

2. Apprenticeships codperatively arranged by schools and 
industry or business and continued under educational super- 
vision. 

3. Regional vocation schools for the training of boys 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 47 


and girls in specialized and less common vocations such as 
watchmaking, lithography, ex-ray mechanics, typewriting- 
telegraphy, tailoring, certain kinds of electrical work, and 
the printing trades. Regional vocational schools properly 
located might well serve large areas without greatly increas- 
ing the cost of public education locally and at the same time 
offer socially valuable services which local districts can not 
offer because of financial reasons. 

4. Educational camps used for the purpose of training 
certain boys and girls transferred from the secondary schools 
in socially useful work—household arts and maintenance, 
mechanics, citizenship, and making a living. Educational 
camps may be conceived of as regional in the sense of area 
served. Certainly the camps should be large enough to permit 
of such real life activities in real situations as farming, dairy- 
ing, horticulture, gardening, domestic development of water 
power and electric energy, carpentry, and numerous other 
necessary life-serving activities. 

5. Establish in our present secondary schools or codrdi- 
nate with them courses for the training of boys and girls to 
become switchboard operators, telegraphers, moving picture 
operators, maids, waitresses or waiters, reception clerks, beau- 
ticians, oral hygienists, upholsterers, automobile mechanics, 
and for custodial service, etc., etc. 


Mr. McClellan G. Jones, Principal of Union High School, 
Huntington Beach, California, continued this discussion: 


Ten minutes is a short time. And with your permission I 
shall go at once to what I believe is the heart of Issue II. 


“How long is it good for any boy or girl to stay in the sec- 
ondary school? More specifically: does a sound program of 
school work for a particular individual ever reach a level of 
diminishing returns?” This, quoted from page 82 of the Com- 
mittee’s Report, seems to me to be the real issue. Is there such 
a thing as diminishing returns? And if there is do we know 
when the critical point has been reached? 

It is my thesis that from a practical standpoint there is 
no such thing as diminishing returns. There is no clean cut 
line of demarcation that we can draw guiding us when to tell 
youth not to continue to come to the secondary school. Youth 
likes school and wants school. Parents want education for 




















48 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


their children. Communities take pride in their schools. And 
our boards are responding to the demands of society when they 
spend the taxpayers’ dollar for educational purposes. The 
public has a faith in education that almost borders on super- 
stition. We, the teachers, are the vested interests of the whole 
business. And the practical school man, whether he be a prin- 
cipal, superintendent, or some other administrative officer who 
of necessity must deal with the public where attendance or 
non-attendance in the secondary school is the problem, is not 
in a position at any time to say to a normal boy or girl] that 
diminishing returns are such that he can not be continued. A 
school man who sets himself up as a judge of who should be 
allowed to continue in the secondary school and who should 
not, granted, of course, that the boy or girl concerned is nor- 
mal in ability and is not antisocial, soon loses his opportunity 
to serve. 

Now during the depression our problems have been multi- 
plied. More boys and girls came. Young people who ten years 
ago would have gone to work now can find no work. So they 
come to school. Some can do as well as many: of those whom 
we had as students in former years. Others can not. But they 
are here and they ask that we do something for them. Often 
the graduate of the high school comes back as a post graduate 
and again the presumption is that he is with us because he 
thinks he can profit. Work for wages may be more to his lik- 
ing, but he is with us. He hopes to benefit. And it is our job 
so to do our own work that he does benefit. If we do not do 
our job in such a way that all normal people who come have a 
maximum opportunity to profit, we are not true to our trust. 


Furthermore—there is nothing new about the problem. 
The secondary schools have from decade to decade been con- 
fronted with the necessity of adapting themselves to the needs 
of new types of students. It has been necessary in the past 
to change our point of view regarding the specific purposes of 
the secondary school, necessary to change our approach to 
many problems. And always we have had the problem of 
standards, always the problem of diminishing returns, always 
the problem of convincing teachers that they must take boys 
and girls as they are and teach them what they can learn and 
what we hope that they can use. Always this job has been a 
slow process imperfectly accomplished, with practice lagging 















DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 49 


behind the theory, and the principal and superintendent unable 
to move faster than the school personnel could understand and 
communities would accept. Our problems to-day are multiply- 
ing. More people knock at the door. And the needs of those 
who ask admittance are different from the needs of those who 
did the asking even during the first year of the depression. 
But there is nothing new about it. 


In attempting to solve the problem in the past I think it 
is true that we have failed to accomplish what could have been 
accomplished because we have not had an adequate philosophy 
of education, particularly of secondary education. We have 
not always known just what we were to do, have not known 
just how to reach our goals, have failed as principals and su- 
perintendents, often, to merit and inspire the confidence of 
our teachers because they detected that we did not ourselves 
know just what we were trying to do. We did not know what 
changes we really wanted to make in boys and girls, did not 
know what means should be employed to bring about those 
changes, and did not know what things should be observed and 
measured to determine whether or not we were succeeding in 
bringing the changes about. I think that’s true. 


However, the first step toward progress lies in recognizing 
the true situation, calling facts by their right names and look- 
ing for- ways and means of remedying what is wrong. We 
have a crisis to-day. Everybody knocks at the door of the sec- 
ondary school and from a standpoint of personal convenience 
the teachers and the principal are not always pleased when 
they see who the new candidates for admission are. Nor are 
they always pleased when they see who it is that asks to pro- 
long his stay. A new type of student means new objectives, 
new procedures, new measures of evaluation. And this means 
work, study first, then more work. 


But we have a responsibility to see to it that the job is 
done. The schools are not custodial institutions, but they do 
have a responsibility for inculcating in all normal youth who 
come habits and attitudes of social competence. It is the 
function of the secondary school to build on the ground work, 
laid in the elementary school, to exercise a protective function, 
to preserve what has been done and to increase the worth to 
society of the individual who might become antisocial were he 








a 








50 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


merely to drift. And we can do this better if we have an edu- 
cational philosophy based on an adequate social and economic 
philosophy. That’s true. 


However, again we must be practical. Every school man 
struggles with his own problems in his own particular school 
and in his own particular community. If he is autocratic 
about ways and means of asking teachers to carry through 
what may seem like a sound educational program for the type 
of students who now come to the secondary school, he arouses 
antagonism and destroys esprit de corps. His philosophy may 
be sound, but he is not likely to get anywhere. And so the 
usual method is to allow the school personnel to participate in 
formulating a practical philosophy for each particular school 
in each particular school system. The personnel comprising 
the administration become teachers of teachers and motivation 
must of necessity be of a type that teachers will respect and 
still not rebel against. 


No two schools and no two school systems can then solve 
in the same way the problems of diminishing returns or the 
problems of how to handle the work of teaching those who 
come and serving all as best they can in order that they be true 
to their trust. We struggle with mediocrity. But mankind is 
made that way. And again it is no solution to say that a cer- 
tain number of “F’s” on the school record will bar a boy or girl 
from further educational opportunities at public expense. It 
is not practical, aside from the fact that no one knows what 
either an “F” or an “A” school record means. It is no solution 
to announce to the student bodies of either high schools or jun- 
ior colleges that no longer will the board of education provide 
free Town and Country Clubs for indolent youth. To say that 
everybody must now work or leave sounds all right. But it 
won’t work. Inherent in the whole problem is the makeup, 
abilities, interests, and environmental influences of people as 
we find them in our communities. And not only that! In- 
herent in that problem is also all the problems of the school 
curriculum, with all that that means, the whole problem of 
motivation of work, the training and selection of teachers with 
a point of view suited to the teaching of the “mill run” of hu- 
manity, the whole problem of finding the money and convinc- 
ing the public that the money must be spent for the type of 
thing from which the mill run of humanity can profit. We 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 51 


have not yet adequately determined in this country just what 
the activities are from which all types can profit. We do know 
that not all can profit from the academic work. We have but 
imperfectly even attempted to put into the schools other activ- 
ities from which there is greater probability inat all can bene- 
fit, say nothing about knowing how to use properly these new 
materials and new activities. Real educational opportunity 
such that all can find something suitable for their interests and 
needs has not been attempted in this country and it is folly to 
talk about barring those who come so long as we have not pro- 
vided for them all that can possibly be done. 


Then conditions vary from community to community 
within the state. They vary from state to state, both with re- 
spect to financial support and with respect to what the public 
is willing to support when they do have the money. Standards 
applying in one community will not work in a practical way in 
another community or in another state. And so long as this 
is true, especially when viewed in the light of the fact that as 
educators we do not yet know just what can with profit to the 
individual and profit to society be done for some of the medi- 
ocre people with which the schools at present are “water 
logged’’, there is no practical procedure for the administrator 
except to accept the normal youth that come and ask his per- 
sonnel to do what can be done. 


The Report of the Committee is most helpful. It prom- 
ises more for the development of sound procedures in the sec- 
ondary field than anything that we have had in many a year. 
It is, in my opinion, the best analysis of the problem that we 
have. And it will help us to think straight, to face the issues 
as they are, and to formulate policies that will tend to solve 
our problems. With respect to the specific problems of the 
school of the local community the practical school man must of 
necessity find his own way of securing practical solutions suit- 
able to the situation in his own community. But the Report 


can serve him well. 

Mr. Francis T. Spaulding, Associate Professor of Educa- 
tion of Harvard University, presented in his scholarly way a 
summation of Issues I and II. 


Mr. DeWitt Morgan, Principal of Arsenal Technical High 
School, Indianapolis, had, on Issue III, the following comment: 








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52 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


This Issue presents a strong plea for the social point of 
view. There is a question as to whether this chapter is a 
balanced presentation of both sides of the issue. It is more 
nearly an expression of crusaders for what they have decided 
to be a righteous cause. 


The use of the word “only” in the statement of the issue 
imposes limits which, on the one hand, makes the first alter- 
native almost absurd; and the second alternative unworkable 
in practice, if not unacceptable as a philosophy. It would be 
difficult to find anyone who would wish to accept the philoso- 
phy that secondary education be concerned only with the wel- 
fare and progress of the individual. The social objective has 
always had a place in the school, even if at times it was much 
subordinated. This alternative in this form would not be ac- 
cepted or admitted by those whose philosophy is quite thor- 
oughly individualistic. In this form the first alternative may 
well be considered unthinkable; it reduces the issue in this 
direction to a point where it should be accepted by no one. 


Much the same thing has been done by the use of the word 
only in the second alternative, i.e., secondary education shall 
be concerned with the welfare and progress of the individual 
only as they promise to contribute to the welfare and progress 
of society. The committee recognizes the practical difficulties 
of the issue in this form when it says on page 138, “Educators 
are sadly unprepared for the change. Ask any ten of them 
what program of education for John Smith, age fourteen, will 
promote the welfare and progress of society, and you will get 
ten different answers.” One is inclined to believe that the 
committee thinks it has at last caught the gleam as to what 
will promote the welfare and progress of society. What they 
are pleading for—the social viewpoint—is quite acceptable. 
But it is a goal which the institutions of society have held 
throughout the years. We do not forget that the Apostle Paul 
taught the concept to the early churches and the benign insti- 
tutions of society have long held up the concept of contribu- 
tion to social welfare as the most worthy ideal. But all this 
has been done with a sense of balance. It was not the concept 
that the individual should develop only to contribute to the 
welfare and progress of society. The concept which is ex- 
pressed in terms of “only for the welfare and progress of so- 
ciety” has too often led to society’s greatest misfortunes. I 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 53 


doubt if any member of the committee can fully approve either 
alternative if the full import thereof is considered. The old 
Roman Seneca said what we all likely really believe in these 
words: “It is every man’s duty to make himself profitable to 
mankind: if he can to many; if not, to fewer; if not to neither, 
to his neighbor; but however, to himself. There are two re- 
publics, the great one which is human nature and the less 
which is the place where we were born. Some serve both at a 
time; some only the greater; some again only the less. The 
greater may be served in privacy, solitude, contemplation, and 
perchance that way is better than any other. But it was the 
intent of nature, however, that we should serve both.” 


The committee neglected to present the case for the indi- 
vidualistic concept. The paragraphs which were evidently in- 
tended for this purpose were devoted to an explanation of how 
to answer the arguments of those who did not accept the com- 
mittee’s viewpoint. One would not take issue with this had it 
not been the avowed intention to see that both sides were fairly 
presented. Someone very aptly said, “This world would be a 
much worse place than it now is if everyone were more con- 
cerned about another’s business than about his own.” It is 
possible to rear a generation which thinks it knows all about 
social relationships, but which can’t earn a living to support 
the society which it prates about. We have seen too sad exam- 
ples of societies gone “daffy” about the social concept to wish 
this to befall us. Much as we realize the futility of an un- 
bridled individualism, we know equally well the tragedy of un- 
balanced social thinking. The report would have been stronger 
had both aspects of the issue been given equal study, thought, 
and presentation. 

There is only time to say a word about what acceptance of 
the committee’s viewpoint involves. In the first place, it in- 
volves recognition of the fact that this viewpoint already has 
quite common acceptance and that the job from here on is to 
build upon foundations already laid and to profit by experience 
with methods which have proved ineffective. We do not need 
to start from scratch to develop the concepts which the com- 
mittee has in mind. The average man on the street to a sur- 
prising degree recognizes the need for subordinating the indi- 
vidual will to social welfare. Furthermore, he recognizes the 
social significance of the public school. That concept of the 








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54 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


school has long been spoken by our statesmen and expressed 
in many ways and on many occasions by our leaders. Various 
states in their constitutions declare the philosophy that educa- 
tion is essential to free government. And as to subordination 
of private interest to public welfare, the legislation of both 
state and nation since the late eighties is a story of a positive 
and decisive movement toward limitation of individual liberty 
for social benefit. All this is a reflection of a national accept- 
ance of this philosophy. 


For the past two decades our teachers have been at work 
on this task. The history of social teaching of these past years 
is one of getting a social viewpoint emphasized. What we need 
is fullest encouragement and recognition of the capable work 
which our teachers have been doing in this field, the results 
thereof so manifest in producing a citizenship which supports 
practical and truly beneficial social legislation. It would be 
unfortunate to think of this as a new movement in the school. 
It has already gone far, and this committee in its report is 
merely evidence that they are joining a caravan which is well 
on its way. 

Toward achievement of the goal which the committee has 
in mind, the statement of Issue VIII makes a pronounced con- 
tribution. These changes in social thinking will not come 
through reason alone; they must come from change of the 
emotions. Emphasis upon this aspect of social teaching can- 
not be too great; and if this alone could result as a work of the 
committee, their efforts would be of lasting and immeasurable 
worth. 


Mr. Truman G. Reed, Principal of Wichita High School, 
East, vigorously summed the content of Issue III. 


Issue IV was first discussed by Mr. Clifford Woody of the 
University of Michigan. Mr. J. E. Stonecipher, Principal of 
Roosevelt High School, Des Moines, Iowa, presented some 
material as follows: 

The phase of the issue which school men face repeatedly 
is that of reducing or of increasing the differentiation of the 
curriculum. The narrow definition has its only justification 
as a statement of the logical limits to which supporters of 
reduced differentiation may be forced in theoretical arguments. 
The verdicts and conclusions of the other nine Issues discussed 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 55 


in the report imply a marked degree of variation to meet indi- 
vidual needs. The fairly consistent viewpoint of educational 
philosophy running through the report as a whole makes it 
imperative that the principle of the differentiated curriculum 
be accepted. 

If we accept the principle of offering a differentiated 
curriculum, we are obligated to consider carefully the prob- 
lems attendant upon the decision. I wish to bring to the fore- 
front two vital problems, inadequately discussed in the report, 
which become more and more acute as our curriculum makes 
possible a wider differentiation to meet pupil needs. These 
two problems are: (1) How can we provide adequate pupil 
guidance; and (2) How can we secure the continuity and 
sequence necessary for consistent growth and masterly 
achievement. 

Pupil guidance is the guard rail that protects us from 
many of the possible evils presented by the differentiated 
curriculum. With adequate guidance, a pupil may select from 
a reasonably broad offering of educational activities a tailor- 
made program which meets many of his individual needs and 
yet does not violate the demands of society for integration 
and attention to common social problems. If this guidance 
goal is removed or relaxed, we must fall back upon our knowl- 
edge of the pupil, the clarity of his own purposes and plans, 
and our ability to show the essential relationships between 
the school offering and his goals. The task is difficult, time 
consuming, and uncertain. If our differentiated curriculum 
persists and grows, as I believe it will, we must give increas- 
ing and earnest attention to the problems of individual and 
group guidance. Guidance must become a focal point of at- 
tack, not a side issue or an appendage. It must enlist the 
efforts of all teachers under expert instruction and planning 
if we are to avoid the damages due to caprice and superficial 
planning. The school must assume a major portion of what 
can be done in guiding the developing educational plans of its 
pupils toward purposeful ends. The increase in differentiation 
brings, in increasing ratio, the need for effective guidance. 


Continuity and sequence loom large as problems when 
the possibility of a broad selection of school experience is 
present. The probability of an increasing degree of scattered, 
fragmentary, unrelated school experiences grow as we decrease 








Aight ty: gail a OS 








56 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


our required curriculum. The report points out the condition 
in many of our schools to-day which permits a pupil to dodge 
about through the maze of the curriculum, selecting beginning 
courses, “easy” teachers, and subjects requiring a minimum 
of mental activity. 

It is the belief of this speaker that the chief points of 
argument for and against the differentiated curriculum have 
been fairly stated in the report. The differentiated curriculum 
is here to stay, if we weight the arguments correctly. The 
criticisms against differentiation seem not to imply the single 
curriculum, but to be protests against unwise differentiation. 
As colleges and accrediting agencies allow greater autonomy 
to local educational authorities, and, at the same time, place 
greater responsibility for direction and decision upon them, 
differentiation may increase, we hope intelligently. Two prob- 
lems, implied in the program of increasing differentiation 
seem to need much more emphasis than given in the printed 
report. Pupil guidance is the critical issue in making a varied 
curriculum workable and valuable. Continuity of pupil exper- 
ience, continuity of pupil teacher relationships, and sustained, 
sequential study and work toward well-defined goals in fairly 
distinct and related areas are essential for achieving the de- 
clared purposes of the secondary schools of America. This 
can be obtained by proper guidance through a differentiated 
curriculum, with all the added advantages of adaption to indi- 
vidual needs. 


Mr. H. H. Ryan, Principal Wisconsin High School of the 
University of Wisconsin, quietly reviewed the discussions on 


Issue IV. 


Mr. Franklin J. Kellar, Director of the National Occupa- 
tional Conference, New York City, discussed Issue V. Mr. 
L. W. Reese, State Supervisor of Secondary Education of Ohio 
added the following to the discussion of this Issue: 


It is the purpose of vocational education to provide the 
maturing individual with wage earning capacity. This clearly 
vocational education comes within the scope of secondary 
education. 

Secondary education means that period of training be- 
tween elementary education which provides for mastery of 
fundamental tools and, at the other extreme, specific technical 




















DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 57 


training and general culture training such as is provided in 
the colleges and universities. 


A study of secondary-school statistics in our common- 
wealth shows that only 55 boys and girls out of each 100 who 
enroll in the freshman year graduate from high school. I 
have interviewed hundreds of youngsters who quit high school 
and they tell me in main that the subjects offered did not 
meet their interests and aptitudes. I even spent a week in 
the world’s largest reformatory at Mansfield, Ohio, interview- 
ing these unfortunate inmates. I have come to this conclusion 
that we have to keep more and more in mind those three 
fundamental aims mentioned in the introductory paragraph 
of my talk; health, wealth, and good citizenship. 


It may be that in the future we shall need to modify the 
type and content of our vocational courses. By vocational 
education I mean the education which tends to contribute im- 
mediately and specifically to wage earning ability. For ex- 
ample we probably should teach typewriting, not only as a 
vocational subject but also as a subject which will have per- 
sonal use. Bookkeeping should contribute budget manage- 
ment in the home and on the farm and so on instead of merely 
to office management in industry. 


A follow-up study of bookkeeping carried out in 1931 at 
the University of Southern California by W. J. Worthington 
under the direction of Dr. M. E. Broom showed clearly the 
fallacy of our present procedure of instructions, only seven 
of almost 600 “A” students who had had two years of book- 
keeping in high school had ever used their bookkeeping train- 
ing for wage earning purposes during the first five years after 
graduation from high school. The implication is plain—we 
need to teach vocational subject matter which will really func- 
tion in the way in which it is intended to function. 


At the meeting yesterday of the State High-School Super- 
visors there was a unanimous agreement that vocational edu- 
cation perhaps in a modified form is essentially a part of the 


‘job of secondary education. 


Walter Pitkin in that inimitable book of his Life Begins 
at Forty states, that the reason life does not begin before 
forty is because we do not teach our students to stand on their 
feet. As a nation, we should not be forced to give people 








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Fest yet Se oe 








58 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


bread. We should so train them while in school that they 
can earn their bread. It is right that we give them general 
education in order to permit them to enjoy sunsets, songs of 
birds, the lift of the stars, and pleasing communion with each 
other but, they must not be harrassed with the terrible fear 
of insecurity. 

A summary of Issue V. was presented by Curtis H. Threl- 
keld, Principal of Columbia High School, South Orange, New 


Jersey. 


THIRD SESSION 


The third session of the Department was opened at 2:00 
P. M. Tuesday, by Mr. McClellan G. Jones, Second Vice-Presi- 
dent of the Department and Principal of Union High School, 
Huntington Beach, California, who, after a short talk, intro- 
duced the Chairman, Thomas H. Briggs, Teachers College, 
Columbia University. 


The Chairman at once announced Mr. Samuel Everett, 
Professor of Education of the University of Illinois, whose dis- 
cussion in part follows: 

The committee might well have laid greater stress upon 
one fundamental—that secondary education should be pri- 
marily concerned with its own courses. 

Liberals on educational and social questions largely rest 
their arguments of the need for change upon the present hard 
facts and conditions of men. If the nature of society is chang- 
ing with the later developments of industrialism and urban 
life, and the appearance of a highly integrated and delicate 
economic system, then educational institutions, and indeed all 
social institutions must change to promote the welfare of the 
great mass of people living in a world dominated by modern 
industrialism. The eyes of this group are on the present and 
the future. They use the past but are not dominated by it. 
They are experimentalists who more greatly fear the perpet- 
uation of traditional practice than they fear experiments to 
improve the world. 

Those who desire major changes in secondary-school prac- 
tice, and who emphasize the need for courses which justify 


ee Oe ee i ee 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 59 


themselves to pupils taking them, point to basic social changes, 
the greatly increased and differentiated high-school population, 
the heavy drop-out in the first two years of the high school 
largely caused by failure to meet academic standards, the lack 
of jobs for those who do drop out of high school, the needs and 
interests of boys and girls who are in our schools, the desires 
of parents, community needs, and the actual fact that the great 
majority of high-school pupils do not, as a matter of fact, go 
on to advanced studies for which the secondary schools have 


been preparing them. 

It is obvious that the Committee on the Orientation of 
Secondary Education does not feel that it has said the last 
word on the matter of the educational issues with which it has 
dealt. Nor do the members of the committee feel that they 
have arrived at any eternal verities. The document does, how- 


ever, represent a sincere and able attempt to think through 
certain major problems which confront American secondary 


education. 
Mr. Paul E. Elicher, Principal of Newton High School, 
Newtonville, Massachusetts, continued the discussion: 


The weight of the argument in this issue clearly points 
out that no institution can remain static in a changing world 
and continue to meet the needs of its members. The free sec- 
ondary school was founded by our pioneer educators under the 
usual pioneering circumstances and difficulties and its pur- 
pose was the establishment of an institution that would most 
assuredly merit the respect of those who supported it and 
thereby gain the confidence of those who were in opposition 
to its establishment. It was a secondary school that educated 
its youth by strictly academic courses having deferred values 
and preparation for higher institutions of learning. 


As new conditions developed, as society was shaped by a 
changed and new social, industrial and economic life, more and 
more pupils entered the secondary school and the college pre- 
paratory curriculum no longer served the needs of the in- 
creased enrollment of adolescence. The conflict then arose be- 
tween the dominating influence of the colleges and universities 
over the secondary school and the actual need of preparation 
for better living and life situations for the many boys and 


girls. 














60 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


The argument that secondary education shall be primarily 
directed toward preparation for advanced studies or education 
with deferred values was carefully analyzed in terms of the 
historical development, the strong weight of tradition, the ob- 
ligation of one generation to maintain and pass on the accumu- 
lated heritage to the next generation through the subjects that 
were always a part of this inheritance, the older subjects are 
the best subjects. In brief, the strength of the presentation for 
the affirmative of this issue was almost wholly the argument 
of tradition. What was, is good and always ought to be. It 
has stood the test of time, therefore it is good for all time. 


Now the alternative, that of education for a realization of 
the values of its own courses was supported by the committee. 
The committee recognized, however, some difficulties for a full 
realization of such a program that would require attention by 
secondary schools. 


The sacred ground of college entrance was invaded, and 
further questioned as to the right of the college to demand 
preparation for advanced studies to the exclusion of the more 
assumed and present needs of pupils. Such preparation was 
merely a hurdle of difficulties and did not serve as a founda- 
tion for continued study, because few colleges insisted upon a 
continuance of all or even a majority of the subjects which 
they demanded for entrance. Schools of engineering could 
somewhat justify this by their use of mathematics. 


Some schools, especially the small schools, are affected di- 
rectly by college insistence upon preparation for advanced 
work. Here is a real issue because of the logical pride and de- 
mand for “a place in the sun” which a few graduates who 
enter college will give to the school. The committee hoped 
that the college might find a new scheme of measuring pupil 
ability without the emphasis on prescribed units, but upon 
courses which would meet the immediate needs of all pupils. 


There was presented also the issue of what would happen 
to secondary schools if colleges removed all restrictions on sub- 
ject matter, and even the desirability for a definition by col- 
leges of their own objectives and purposes. 

This issue clearly defines our present and probable future 
situation. In our secondary schools are many more pupils 
than ever before, of vastly different interests, aptitudes and 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 61 


capacities. A very small percentage will go on to higher in- 
stitutions of learning. They must be prepared to take their 
place in industry and business. Elementary education no 
longer meets their needs because industry and business is de- 
manding and will continue to demand not only specific prepara- 
tion but more general education than ever before. The school 
must be more concerned with the training of the pupil rather 
than the teaching of the subject. It must also take the next 
step and fit the subject matter to the pupil as he is found to be 
and not as the school of yesterday hoped he ought to be. Time 
has actually shown that the traditional subjects served only 
the selected few and that such a curriculum tended to elim- 
inate those that were not endowed by divine source or other- 
wise to benefit thereby. 


In conclusion the committee very wisely pointed out the 
real difficulties facing the secondary school in a full accept- 
ance of the alternative, the development of a curriculum pri- 
marily concerned with its own courses and the realization 
through them of immediate values. These difficulties are the 
strong power of traditionalism and the inertia in the schools 
for change; the inherent fear of the loss of academic standing 
if they can no longer specialize in college preparation even if 
only for the few; the lack of a uniform acceptance of a philos- 
ophy of education; the difficulties in the determination of new 
and modified goals. It was satisfying to learn that the Com- 
mittee was fearless in questioning the right of the college to 
make the demands it has and is making of secondary schools. 
It shows, too, quite conclusively that colleges cannot justify the 
type of preparation they have demanded when the continuity 
of studies in these colleges is critically analyzed. Why do they 
require two or three units of mathematics and then excuse the 
student from further study of the subject? In foreign lan- 
guages the same is true. 


All in all the issue was very well presented with emphasis 
on the necessity for change to meet the new and immediate 
needs of all and methods for the acquisition of such a new 
order. If there was any inadequacy in the issue it was in the 
means for developing the changed secondary school. It means 
a new philosophy and those that must be held responsible for 
such a program must appear in the guise of a prophet and the 














62 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


supporting public may be skeptical of a prophet, even if it 
believes the prophet is right. 


Mr. Francis L. Bacon, Superintendent of Township High 
School, Evanston, Illinois, summed up the discussion of Is- 
sue VI. 


Mr. Paul Hanna, Professor of Education of Stanford 
University opened the discussion of Issue VII and Miss Lou 
LaBrant, Professor of English-Education of Ohio State Uni- 
versity continued the discussion. 


In the absence of Mr. John A. Lester of the Friends’ 
Council of Education of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, the Chair- 
man, Mr. Briggs, set forth a summary of Issue VIII. 


Mr. Carleton Washburne, Superintendent of Schools, 
Winnetka, Illinois, opened the discussion of Issue IX. 


Mr. G. W. Rosenlof, Professor of Secondary Education 
of the University of Nebraska continued the discussion: There 
is and can surely be no quarrel with those who have and who 
do now maintain that society is responsible for the setting of 
the pattern of its own educational system. Our schools are 
after all the instrumentalities of society and as such must 
perforce be responsive to the demands and expressed wishes 
of that society. It is inconceivable that any society will pro- 
vide for an educational program that does not function in the 
interest of the perpetuation, improvement, and extension of 
its basic and fundamental concepts and ideals. Nor should 
this disturb us at all. We believe in the fundamentally sound 
nature of a true democracy. Our form of government in 
America is, we insist, basically right. It has and I am sure 
will guarantee to all those certain inalienable rights set forth 
in its constitution. 


The pursuit of peace, liberty, and happiness has been 
guaranteed tu all. The failure of government to furnish 
these at all times and under all circumstances is not an evi- 
dence of inherent weakness of our plan of democratic gov- 
ernment. It is rather the inability or unwillingness of those 
of us who live under its sway to so conduct our personal affairs 
as to in no wise encroach upon the same rights and privileges 
enjoyed by others. 


As has so frequently been said during this and other 
meetings, we have failed to utilize in any effective degree the 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 63 


very guaranties of our own form of representative democratic 
government. We have to a great degree failed to recognize 
the essential necessity of integrating liberty and responsibility. 
One without the other has in no small degree been responsible 
for the dire straits in which democratic society finds itself. 
The unwillingness of our citizenship to avail itself of and 
make available all of its benefits, be it said to our shame, 
stands in the way of any real forward surge of the spirit and 
idealism of those who at the cost of untold hardship made the 
American form of government possible. 


Nor does this argue for the sancro-sanctness of the or- 
iginal statements of the established law and constitution. If 
there be any virtue in the form of our government it inheres 
in the fact that it is capable of every reasonable modification 
to fit the circumstances and suit the times in which we have 
lived or may live in the days yet to come. 


Change is indeed inevitable. We could not prevent it if 
we would, and we would not if we could. Such evolutionary 
changes as will permit of a more ideal expression of the func- 
tion of government are one thing. The overthrow of govern- 
ment is quite another. We are not here concerned with a 
new type. Neither the Communism of the unfortunate masses, 
nor the Fascism of misguided dictatorship is acceptable to 
enlightened and intelligent men and women who dedicate them- 
selves to the advancement of the social order and its con- 
tinued guarantee to all. 


Society decrees that it is the business of its school to 
espouse the cause of free government, inculcate its every ideal 
into the lives of youth and make them fit to become responsible 
members of society, fully capable of advancing that society’s 
best interests. 

Society rightly speaking does not hold the schools solely 
responsible for this task of education. More than ten years 
ago Glenn Frank, then editor of the Century Magazine, called 
attention in an editorial in that magazine to the fact that food, 
clothing, and shelter were not the fundamental wants of hu- 
mankind. These but ministered to the physical man. More 
important than these, since man does not live by bread alone, 
were a free university, a pacific church, and a realistic state. 
He maintained that the professor, the preacher, and the poli- 
tician (meaning of course the statesman) were engaged in 





ee 











64 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


the same common task—that of building a better state and 
guaranteeing to all its benefits of good government. 


He might have included the parent as a fourth agent and 
he might have said that he was a partner in this business. It 
was very apparent then and I am sure since Dr. Frank’s most 
recent pronouncement in this city on last Sunday that dem- 
ocracy looks to all of its agencies, of whatever nature, to be- 
come dynamic means to the attainment of the same ends, viz: 
the education of each new generation to better assume the 
responsibilities of citizenship and to contribute to the advance- 
ment of all its members. 


Such a position does not argue that now or in the future 
will the schools or any other educational unit become the dic- 
tator of what is to be. Since our schools are the agencies of 
society that sets them up, supports them, and seeks normally 
to advance them as effective agents, they become to all intents 
and purpose the servants of that society. In a democracy this 
certainly ought not to disturb us in the least. 


As such servants our schools must become sensitive to 
the needs of the society which they serve. They must become 
conversant with every failure of society to function in behalf 
of all and to provide those experiences and set up those en- 
vironments which will challenge each successive generation 
of citizens to better meet responsibilities as such and extend 
that aid and assistance which will ensure the attainment of 
more to be desired ends. 


Our task is not that of dictating what the nature of a 
new social order will be. That task remains solely to the 
adult citizenship of to-day and to-morrow. If we in our schools 
bend our efforts to the task of freeing’ the minds of young 
people, of building bodies that can stand up under the rigor- 
ous challenges of modern complex living and of inspiring spir- 
itual powers still unawakened—if we will do all of these, we 
will need have no fear for the outcomes of to-morrow. There 
is an acceptable interpretation of a certain phrase of Biblical 
origin: “sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof”, that is 
applicable to the problem which confronts us to-day. 

Given an intelligent teacher in every classroom, given a 
trained leadership conversant with the needs of a rapidly 
evolving society, given the opportunity to inspire youth to 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 65 


espouse the cause of democratic government, we have the 
best guarantee for our well-ordering of each new successive 
task in life. 

Ours is the task of furnishing an enlightened citizenry— 
a citizenry composed of men and women who are both ben- 
evolent in their responsibilities of leadership and intelligent 
in their responsibilities of followership; a citizenry that will 
remain constantly alert to every impact of change in our 
evolution; a citizenry capable of an intelligent appraisal of 
the true values of life and conduct all about us; a citizenry 
that is quick to adjust itself effectively and to direct all of 
its activities in such a way as to ensure progress to itself, 
both individually and collectively. 

Such a citizenry will then be capable of carrying on the 
reconstruction in harmony with immediate needs as they are 
observed. The wisest and the best path to the evolution or 
reconstruction of society lies in the path that will be trod by 
those whom we train in our schools and who, by reason of 
our tuition, are made fit to adjust themselves each successive 
day to the new challenges that they will face and who will be 
capable of interpreting life in an intelligent and courageous 
manner and lead others to go with them in extending the ideals 
which they espouse to nobler and better ends for more and 
more of their fellow-beings. 

It is our thought, then, that education shall seek always 
to leave its students and devotees free to carry on intelli- 
gently, being in no sense or degree hampered by anything’ 
that smacks of indoctrination or predeterminism, either or 
both of which may serve to deter or hinder society from recon- 
structing itself in an orderly manner and that under the influ- 
ence and power of trained intelligence, controlled emotions, 
and unselfishly directed spiritual powers. 

The schools are our servants and not our masters. As 
such they will not be unmindful of their province nor in any 
sense ignorant of their function of properly fitting each new 
generation of citizens in such a way as to ensure that they 
will readily adjust themselves to society and make that society 
sensitive to its responsibility to each new generation. 

Mr. Rudolph D. Lindquist, Director of the University 
School of Ohio State University concluded the discussion of 
Issue IX. 








EE 
rd e A > 
. 4 a 














66 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


The discussion of Issue X was opened by Howard V. 
Funk, Principal of the Junior High School, Bronxville, New 
York: 


Now if I correctly understand what is being said, there 
is no possibility of secondary education being merely a phase 
of such a unitary process. Whether good education or bad ed- 
ucation, it is a phase of that process which is “gradual, con- 
tinuous, and unitary”. The word merely cannot apply in the 
case. It seems to me that viewed in this light the issue stands 
in need of redefinition, for if we admit the truth of the state- 
ment which is so strongly reiterated then it becomes not a 
question of this or of that, but rather ‘‘how shall it be organ- 
ized as a distinct but closely articulating part of the entire edu- 
cational program with peculiarly emphasized functions of its 
own ?” 

And that apparently is the mind set of the particular per- 
son who wrote the supporting argument for Issue X. In no 
wise do we find him holding forth that secondary education be 
merely a phase of the learning process. Rather we find him 
searching for all possible ways in which it may be articulated 
into a closely knit whole. 


By and large, I am in agreement with the findings and 
with the suggested procedures which have been outlined in the 
conclusions. In places the writer seems to be bothered by 
items which loom large individually but in the aggregate have 
no undue influence upon the desired outcomes. For examples, 
he is quite certain that we never shall be able to have all chil- 
dren attend the same school from kindergarten through high 
school in one building in the same community. The possibili- 
ties of greatly expanded opportunities and facilities which 
such an institution would offer must, therefore, be sacrificed 
to tradition and to parental desire to have school facilities 
fairly close at home. 


Communities of sufficient size can furnish adequate op- 
portunities for children of a given age. The smaller commu- 
nity has a more difficult task. If we group our children as 
best we may upon a basis of social, physical, emotional, and 
mental maturity, instead of upon the number of credits car- 
ried, or years spent in the particular school, or courses taken, 
we shall have a logical and workable foundation. I predict 








— = = a 








DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 67 


that it would be amazingly satisfactory to the pupil, the school, 
and the home so far as achievement and happiness of the indi- 
vidual are concerned. Of course, there would be certain indi- 
viduals whose problems would not be completely solved, but 
such procedure would be an intelligent attempt at their solu- 
tion. 


We see such people in life, too. There is the precocious 
and prematurely mature youth who finds satisfaction only in 
the company and conversation of older and more experienced 
persons, just as there is the perennially young older person 
who seeks to prolong his youthful exuberance, usually to the 
disgust of youth. In the long run, however, the person really 
proves his worth in that group with which he associates, or the 
group rejects him. 


When we forget subject matter and turn to a considera- 
tion of the individual, many of our previous notions of secon- 
dary education begin to fade and we see quite clearly that we 
have been employed in some rather ludicrous business. For 
example, our method of stating credits indicates our real faith 
in the final outcome of our courses. We always testify that 
the pupil has had such and such—never that he now has it. 
Looking some courses full in the face, perhaps it is best that 
way. “Has had” with its interest centered entirely upon the 
subject-time units gives us records like these: 


Jim— English I—Grade B—Credit 4 
James—English II—Grade B—Credit 4 
John— English III—Grade B—Credit 4 


But if we say he “now has” we talk in terms of individual 
power and achievement, and of the ability to use them as artic- 
ulating parts, on the youth’s level, of his day to day living. 


“Now has” would use records like this: 

“Jim has a B in class work because he’s got a good head 
and uses it, but his English in an unsupervised situation is 
atrocious. Habits are much stronger than any logic induced 
by techical grammar”. 

“James has a very interesting and individual way of 
speaking. He can report to the class in clear, concise dis- 
course. His written English is not good, due probably to spell- 
ing difficulties.” 

“John is so shy and retiring that speaking to an individ- 
ual is difficult—to a group, painfully so. His command of lan- 

















68 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


guage in written form is excellent, and if you show sympathy 
and understanding he’ll reward you with writing full of feel- 
ing, and excellent to read”. 

Isn’t all of this just another way of saying that because 
of, or in spite of, all the courses or subjects and time spent, 
this is the point at which the individual has arrived in his 
“gradual, continuous, unitary process” called education. And 
that without reference to the particular organization of which 
he is a member, be it elementary school, secondary school, or 
college. We’re just looking at the child now, and not upon 
what he’s been through. 


With three additions, I believe Issue X to be sufficiently 
implemented by the conclusions beginning on page 362. Car- 
ried out in a logical fashion, they would go far to produce the 
type of education about which we are speaking. 

No. 3 says “We must get rid of the idea of one school pre- 
paring for another and foster the idea of the schools continu- 
ously centering attention on the intellectual and emotional 
needs of the child. This is needed particularly in the high 
school where emphasis on subject-matter fields is prevalent”. 


I should like to see this read: ‘“‘We must get rid of the idea 
of one school preparing for another and foster the idea of the 
schools continuously centering attention on the physical, in- 
tellectual, and emotional needs of the child”. 

Most of us will be living with our present physical plant long 
after both intellect and emotion have worn out. It behooves 
us to build it well while we can. 


On page 366, in the general discussion, the writer hints at 
the fact that education has a sociological background, indefi- 
nite though it may be. I should like to see this considerably 
expanded and an item added to the conclusions stating that 
parental and community education is equally as important as 
the education of youth (and probably more gradual and less 
continuous). Schools which hope to move in the direction to 
which these conclusions point must be ready to consult, edu- 
cate, counsel, and guide the older people to see the newer and 
better way. Without this particular item, a number of moves 
here outlined are doomed to failure. 

And as a last addition I could wish that somewhere in the 
conclusions, perhaps in number 13, there be a decided pro- 
nouncement to the effect that all men may be born free, but 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 69 


that they are born equal is a fallacy under which our schools 
have long labored. Perhaps such idea as that in connection 
with the rather glib statement “to determine what children 
know and what they need to be taught” would enlarge the 
foundation upon which we are to build this new education. 


These conclusions do contain, just as they are, more sane 
ideas concerning education than most of us can comfortably 
put into practice before we meet again. In fact, most of us 
will no longer be in attendance at these meetings when the 
last item is put into effect in even a majority of secondary 


schools. 


They are not perfect in all respects. Not many men are 
capable of bringing forth full-blown a scheme which is com- 
pletely new in its conception. Always there is about the shape 
of the old. Man’s progress has always been so. His first air- 
plane looked like a box kite; his first automobile was a buggy 
with an engine instead of a horse; his first railroad carriage 
was a stage coach on wheels. We hear much about stream- 
lining, but we’ve only to “skin” many a modern locomotive to 
find an old friend. Without those first crude beginnings, our 
present culture would not be. And it’s quite likely that our 
accepted designs of to-day will look as queer to the man of 
1975 as those of 1900 look to us now. Certainly in a world 
which changes so rapidly we must have tradition as a stabiliz- 
ing factor. We must hold on to something solid while we 
reach for the next toe hold. But because things do move so 
rapidly, we need each day to examine our traditions to be sure 
that since we last looked at them they haven’t become simply 
rationalized inertia. 

Mr. Har! R. Douglass, Professor of Education of the Uni- 
versity of Minnesota, continued the discussion, which was 
closed by Mr. Arthur Gould, Deputy Superintendent of 
Schools, Los Angeles, California. 

















70 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1936 


The sessions of Wednesday morning were divided into 
five groups. 


The papers delivered under the leadership of Charles H. 
Judd, Chairman, Department of Education, University of Chi- 
cago, will be published in Bulletin No. 61, issue of April, 1936, 
of the Department of Secondary-School Principals. 


The senior high-school group met in Assembly No. 3, Mu- 
nicipal Auditorium, with Charles F. Allen, Supervisor of Sec- 
ondary Education of Little Rock, Arkansas, as chairman. 


Mr. Ear! Platt, Professor of Education of the University 
of Nebraska, read the paper entitled Vitalizing the Program of 
the Small High School. 


VITALIZING THE PROGRAM OF THE SMALL 
HIGH SCHOOL 


EARL T. PLATT 
University of Nebraska 


Through the leadership of Dr. Frank E. Henzlik, Dean 
of the Teachers College of the University of Nebraska, this 
institution turned its efforts quite definitely toward the solu- 
tion of the numerous problems of the small school. Approxi- 
mately two and a half years ago a definite program for the 
enrichment and vitalization of the small high-school cur- 
riculum was formulated. This program has come to include 
no fewer than ten features, any one of which requires consid- 
erable explanation. Only one feature can be discussed here. 
The one that has been chosen is the feature that has proved to 
be the most farreaching of the various elements of the Neb- 
raska program; namely, the possibilities of using supervised 
correspondence study as an agency for vitalizing the curricu- 
lum of the small high school. 


What Is Supervised Correspondence Study? Supervised 
correspondence study is studying a correspondence course 
under supervision. The pupil who is doing this work usually 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 71 


is a regularly enrolled high-school student, that carries the 
correspondence course as one of his regular high-school sub- 
jects. He does his work in a classroom, during school time, 
under the supervision of a regularly employed high-school 
teacher, and receives for each satisfactorily completed course 
a credit toward graduation. 


How Does Supervised Correspondence Study Operate in 
the Local School? Generally, one of the high-school teachers 
acts as the correspondence supervisor. In some cases there 
are two or more supervisors in one high school, but the gen- 
eral procedure is for the superintendent or high-school prin- 
cipal to designate one teacher as the correspondence super- 
visor. The time that a teacher is expected to spend in super- 
vising is taken into consideration when the teaching assign- 
ments are arranged. It is the supervisor’s duty to see that 
all students who are registered for supervised correspondence 
study have a study schedule and that they work according to 
this schedule. He sees to it that each pupil has a satisfactory 
place to work and that he has the equipment and supplies 
necessary for the successful execution of each correspondence 
course. Sometimes the pupil can work in the study hall or 
assembly—but frequently it is necessary for him to work 
either in a laboratory, in a shop, or in a special classroom. 
When several students are working on the same subject, it 
has proved satisfactory to have them work in one classroom 
under the general supervision of a teacher in an adjoining 
classroom. Glass partitions are useful where this method of 
supervision is employed. In addition to the foregoing, the 
supervisor must administer tests whenever the students are 
ready for them. He must mail all lessons to the correspond- 
ence center and must pass back to the pupils all corrected les- 
sons when they are returned. It is generally his duty to keep 
all local records in regard to student progress as well as to 
assist students over temporary difficulties. This does not 
infer that the supervisor must be prepared to teach all the 
subjects which he is supervising—it only means that he must 
understand and be receptive to what the correspondence in- 
structors are attempting to achieve. 


Who Prepares the Supervised Correspondence Study 
Courses? Supervised correspondence study courses are pre- 
pared by people who are trained in the secondary field; they 














—s oe 








72 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


are specialists in their subject fields as well as specialists in 
the teaching methods employed in their respective courses. 
Although the editorial setup at Nebraska is not typical in all 
respects, a brief description of it may show how carefully 
this type of course is prepared. Course builders at the Uni- 
versity of Nebraska work under the direction of an editorial 
staff, which is composed of specialists in secondary education. 
It has members that have had considerable training and exper- 
ience in the field of correspondence instruction, especially in 
the particular field of supervised correspondence study. Var- 
ious subordinate members of the editorial staff are assigned 
to do the particular phases of the editorial work which they 
can do best. Members act as subject matter or content critics, 
as motivation and presentation critics, as test critics, and as 
English critics. No course can be cataloged until it has been 
approved by these specialists and has been given final approval 
by an editor-in-chief. 


Who Takes Care of the Papers that are Sent to the Cor- 
respondence Center for Evaluation? At all correspondence 
centers capable teachers are employed to handle all papers. 
At the Extension Division of the University of Nebraska each 
correspondence instructor must be certified by the state as 
professionally qualified to teach the subject or subjects of in- 
struction. 


In passing, it might be mentioned that teaching through 
correspondence is just as much a science as teaching in the 
classroom. Much of the present difficulty lies in the fact that 
there has been very little research in the field and that there 
is virtually no literature on the subject. However, the prob- 
lem is being attacked from several angles and adequate lit- 
erature will soon become available. 


In What Ways is Supervised Correspondence Study Vital- 
izing the Curriculum of the Small High School? In the litera- 
ture of this field some eighteen to twenty specific uses have 
been listed for supervised correspondence study. From this 
list have been selected those services that materially assist 
in the vitalization of the curriculum of the small high school. 
It is pertinent to mention at this point, however, that the 
services that will be given here can be applied, in most cases, 
equally well to large and small high schools. 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 13 


1. Supervised correspondence study is being used to in- 
crease the number of subjects available. This year hundreds 
of small high schools are adding to their curriculums from the 
many scores of well prepared supervised correspondence study 
courses that are now available. Every small high school could 
be doing the same. If we look forward to the time when this 
new method of instruction has reached the apex of service, 
we can see the administrator of the very smallest high school 
securing for each pupil the courses best suited to his needs. 
In order not to become too visionary in this respect, it appears 
advisable to tell how one small Nebraska high school has 
greatly increased the number of subjects in its curriculum 
through the use of supervised correspondence study. 


In considering this school, your attention is called not 
alone to the subjects added through supervised correspondence 
study, but is called as well, to the whole new curriculum of . 
the high school that has been made possible because super- 
vised correspondence study has been used to care for the 
small academic classes. In this way teachers have been freed 
for special fields of service that the school has long needed but 
which it could not afford without discontinuing several well 
established subjects. 


This six-year high school of approximately one hundred 
pupils has been using supervised correspondence courses for 
the past five years. The superintendent, the high-school prin- 
cipal, and the teachers are well acquainted with the general 
administration of this type of work and are able to make use 
of its possibilities to a marked degree. The board of educa- 
tion and the community are enthusiastic over the results. The 
local high-school staff is composed of five full time teachers, 
the high-school principal, and the superintendent. Of the 
regular teachers, one is a specialist in music; another a special- 
ist in art. A third has specialized in girls’ physical education 
and home economics, and is qualified to act as school nurse. 
A fourth is qualified for boys’ physical education and general 
shop, while the superintendent has prepared himself for educa- 
tional and vocational guidance. The teachers being qualified 
in these fields, the school is able to operate a well-rounded 
program which includes an adequate amount of student par- 
ticipation in all of them. In addition, the faculty handles the 
regular courses in English and social science as well as the 








wins 


+ 


be as atari 








74 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


elementary courses in science and mathematics. In the ad- 
vanced classes of science and mathematics, where there are 
very small groups, the work is carried through supervised 
correspondence study. Also, the school makes available var- 
ious languages through the same medium. At the present 
time French, Latin, and Spanish are being studied by groups 
of from two to five students. Some advanced work in art is 
also taken by correspondence. A complete commercial course, 
including junior business training, bookkeeping, typewriting, 
shorthand, salesmanship, and office practice is offered entirely 
through supervised correspondence study. In addition, there 
are other courses such as journalism, psychology, woodwork- 


‘ing, and agriculture; in all, a total of twenty different courses. 


Over sixty students are registered in these twenty courses. 


In mentioning what this school has been able to do 
through supervised correspondence study, it would be well to 
point out that there is very little which is experimental in the 
high-school program. Its health features, home economics 
classes, general shop work, elaborate program of physical 
education for both boys and girls, art classes, music groups 
of various kinds including private piano lessons, and guidance 
program are not unusual to many of our large high schools. 
In fact, it is not unusual to find a small high school that has 
been able to introduce and to carry successfully one, or pos- 
sibly two, of these features in addition to the regular aca- 
demic subjects offered in the school. The uniqueness lies in 
the fact that here is a small high school offering a well-rounded 
and enriched program that is equal, in most respects, to sim- 
ilar programs of our city high schools. Such a program is 
being offered without limiting or restricting the number of 
academic subjects that a student may take. In fact, the school 
is now offering more academic work than was thought possible 
a few years ago. 


2. Supervised Correspondence Study is being used to 
care for the gifted pupil. One of the most serious charges 
that has been made against the small high school in the past 
has been that it has given the gifted pupil little or no oppor- 
tunity to do work along the lines of his talents. Supervised 
correspondence study is lifting this stigma from the small 
high school. A number of courses have already been con- 
structed with this type of student in mind. The number that 


ed eet el 


Tr o_o. hr CrweF Ww 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 15 


can be prepared is limited only by the vision of our educa- 
tional leaders and by the demands of the students in this 
group. 

Many examples might be given to illustrate the care of 
the gifted child in academic fields. One of the most common 
situations is the one where a gifted pupil in mathematics has 
completed the traditional two- or three-year high-school math- 
ematics course one or two years before graduation. This 
pupil finds it possible to continue with mathematics during 
his last years in high school by registering for some higher 
mathematics course through supervised correspondence study. 


Many striking examples could be given to show how 
supervised correspondence study has been employed to help 
the student with unusual talents. As an example, less than 
four years ago, when surveying a community in anticipation 
of reorganizing the high-school curriculum, a freshman boy 
was discovered who was particularly adept at whittling. Ex- 
hibits of his skill were to be found not only at his home and 
at school but also in some of the local stores. As no super- 
vised correspondence study course in whittling was available, 
a course in wood-pattern making was suggested. As the boy 
progressed with the course his interest grew. As his skill 
increased, his father, also, became very much interested in 
his son’s work. The result was, that a complete shop was 
outfitted in one room of the father’s garage, where the boy 
has been working for almost three years. He is permitted 
to go to the shop one period each school day to do woodwork. 
Today this boy is doing excellent wood-inlay work, is making 
chairs, tables, and other pieces of fine furniture. By the close 
of school this spring he will have earned, through supervised 
correspondence study, three units of credit in woodwork. 


8. Vocational training is being provided in small high 
schools through supervised correspondence study. The ex- 
ample just given also illustrates how vocational training has 
been provided in numerous small high schools. Many addi- 
tional illustrations might be drawn from situations where boys 
and girls not planning to go beyond the twelfth grade have 
specialized in various vocational fields. Many girls have taken 
shorthand and typewriting in order to become stenographers 
and secretaries; other girls have completed courses in cookery 
and clothing construction in order to prepare to be better 











76 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


home makers; many boys have specialized in bookkeeping and 
accounting in order to enter the field of business; other boys 
have carried work in auto mechanics, in radio, and in various 
types of farming in order to enter a trade or in order to im- 
prove their opportunities for advancement and thereby in- 
crease their economic value to themselves and to society. 


The list of possibilities for vocational training in the 
small high school through supervised correspondence study is 
limited only by two qualifications: first, the inate ability and 
interest of the student; second, the amount of time that can 
be spared from the other important phases of a secondary 
education for vocational training. 

4. Supervised correspondence study is making the school 
and its curriculum more vital to the community it serves by 
offering courses to graduates and adults and to out-of-school 
students in general. 


Help for the Graduate and Adult. With the exception of 
those few students who are fortunate enough to be able to 
leave the rural community for a college education, formal 
educational training for the members of such a community 
invariably stops with the completion of the twelfth grade. 
Small communities do not offer night classes for those who 
wish to change their occupations or increase their vocational 
efficiency. They do not offer adult homemaking classes for 
the young mother or for the middle-aged housewife. Ambi- 
tious homemakers are seldom given the opportunity to study 
such things as home decoration, clothing construction, or 
foods. Yet, under the direction of a wide awake superintend- 
ent, many such courses can be handled as an integral part of 
the local school program. Through an intelligent use of super- 
vised correspondence study, a superintendent can soon estab- 
lish himself as the true educational leader of the community 
and his school as the center of all educational activities. 


If one or more nights a week cannot be set apart for the 
various adult classes, they can meet during regular school 
hours. Since supervised correspondence work is completely 
individual and since no one in the local school need have a 
technical understanding of the subjects taught, a group study- 
ing various subjects can meet at one time under the direction 
of one supervisor. Similar arrangements have been made in 





Ss = we @ CD 








77 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


many Nebraska communities through the codperation of the 
University and the local school authorities. During the past 
three years, study centers have been operated in scores of 
high schools throughout the state. 

Should it appear impossible for a small high school to 
carry as extensive a supervised correspondence study pro- 
gram as when a formal study center is established, a fine 
service can still be rendered to graduates and adults by allow- 
ing them to work regularly every school day in the school 
laboratories, in the shop, in a special classroom, or in the 
assembly. They should work during periods when they can 
be properly supervised and when they will not interfere with 
the progress of the regular pupils. It is not an unknown 
situation for a bank clerk who is a high-school graduate to 
return to the local high school for an hour each day to study, 
through correspondence, a course in advanced accounting; or, 
for a local merchant to encourage his son to study retailing 
and salesmanship, through supervised correspondence study, 
by returning to the high school for a full period each school 
day, or for a young mother to study a correspondence course 
in foods in her home kitchen, all the while working under the 
supervision of a local instructor. 


Help for the Incapacitated Pupil. In rural communities, 
it has been virtually impossible in the past for invalids and 
otherwise physically incapacitated pupils, to secure a second- 
ary education. With properly prepared supervised corre- 
spondence study materials, there has been found no reason 
why parents cannot serve as supervisors for pupils of this 
type. The local school] should insist upon approving the super- 
visor and the courses for which the pupil registers, since this 
school will be expected to issue credit and to pay the cost of 
tuition, textbooks, supplies, and postage. 

Supervised correspondence study can become one of the 
finest contributions of education to the lives and happiness 
of incapacitated young people. A student that is unable to 
spend a single day in a secondary school can become a high- 
school graduate. A pupil that is forced through accident or 
illness to remain out of school for a semester or longer can 
keep up with his classmates through the instructional advan- 
tages of supervised correspondence study. Two illustrations 
will clearly show the application of this service. 



















a 





gatas 





78 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


David, a youth of nineteen, lives on a farm nine miles 
from the nearest high school. When a boy, he had infantile 
paralysis and since that time has been unable to walk. He is 
now beginning his sixth semester of supervised correspond- 
ence study. By arrangement with the superintendent of 
schools in a nearby town, he will receive a high-school diploma 
when he has sufficient credits. 

For several years, Mary’s lungs have been bothering her. 
A few weeks ago her doctor prescribed the Colorado climate 
for the remainder of the winter. Mary is a senior in high 
school and had hoped to complete the courses necessary for 
graduation and to secure a diploma next May. Before she 
went to Colorado, her superintendent registered her for suf- 
ficient supervised correspondence study courses to insure grad- 
uation with her class next spring. 


Help for Other Out-of-School Pupils. There are hundreds 
of boys and girls in almost every state that do not have the 
opportunity of attending a secondary school because of the 
expense of tuition, of board and room, or of both. Impassable 
roads, distance, severe and hazardous weather, and the need 
for assisting the family to make a livelihood are other reasons 
for non-attendance. In Nebraska this year, approximately 
sixty students of this type have been returning to the rural 
eight-grade schools in their neighborhoods to carry, under the 
supervision of the rural teacher, high-school subjects through 
supervised correspondence study. In cases where the situa- 
tion justifies, this type of out-of-school student has been al- 
lowed to work at home under the supervision of his parents. 
Mr. R. C. Haight, Superintendent of Schools at Grass Range, 
Montana, reports that approximately seventy-five per cent of 
the total of one hundred or more correspondence registrations 
in his school are of this out-of-school type carrying their work 
in a nearby rural school or at home. The Grass Range High 
School, under the leadership of Mr. Haight, is certainly show- 
ing what can be done for students in sparsely settled areas 
in the United States through the medium of supervised cor- 
respondence study. 

5. Supervised correspondence study is reducing the lag 
between need for curriculum revision and its actual accomp- 
lishment. From time to time educational leaders in the high- 
school field have been condemned because of the static condi- 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 719 


tion of the general offerings on the secondary level. Probably 
at no time has this criticism been more open and persistent 
than at the present. Possibly there has been no time in the 
history of secondary education when the general offerings in 
this field have been so far out-moded and so ineffective. City 
school systems, with their elaborate plans for curriculum re- 
vision, are for the most part unable to keep apace. Can it be 
expected then, that the small rural high-school curriculum 
will contain much that is not traditional and that, in the main, 
is not college preparatory? 


The cycle of the introduction of new courses into the high- 
school curriculum has generally been as follows: first, an in- 
sistent demand has arisen from the public or an insistent 
urging has come from one or more educational prophets; 
second, these demands or protestations have usually been 
followed by the establishment in teacher-training institutions 
of a program for the preparation of teachers in the new sub- 
ject or field. Finally, after anywhere from four to ten or more 
years, a small corps of teachers is available to give instruction 


in the subject. 


And, on the other hand, there is resistance. As soon as 
a subject has remained in the high-school curriculum for a 
decade or two, the vested interests of the teachers who are 
prepared to instruct in the field, of the publishers who have 
textbooks in the subject, of the teacher-training institutions 
that have elaborate laboratory facilities and adequate staffs, 
and of the colleges and college professors that give the pros- 
pective teachers the subject matter backgrounds, have such a 
foothold that it is frequently not years, but generations, before 
an outworn subject can be removed or displaced. 


The large high school has not suffered as has the small 
one from the straight-jacket curriculum offerings that have 
been outlined as filling college entrance requirements, for this 
size school has had a sufficiently large staff to offer all of the 
college preparatory subjects and many more as well. Also, 
the large high school has found it possible to add new and 
desirable subjects to its curriculum without having to displace 
some of the already established courses. In the small high 
school, displacement has been necessary in the past because 


of limited teaching personnel. 








ee = a 


wat Ee ag J 











80 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


With the present slowly revolving cycle of curriculum 
innovation, especially in the smaller high schools, and with 
vested interests defending valiantly the status quo, giving 
ground grudgingly and fighting bitterly where retreat is 
forced, is there no method of quickly introducing, of ade- 
quately testing, and if found satisfactory, of immediately 
establishing a new subject in the secondary curriculum? Is 
there no way of speeding the funeral arrangements for a sub- 
ject that is already dead but whose friends refuse its burial? 
There may be several satisfactory solutions but not one has 
been developed to the place where it is functioning. 


Given earlier in this paper was a description of how su- 
pervised correspondence study courses are prepared at the 
University of Nebraska. Let me add to this description an 
explanation with a few illustrations of some uses that are 
made of these courses, not so much as correspondence courses 
but more as individualized instruction materials that are han- 
dled by the classroom teacher. You may then judge for your- 
self to what extent that which is being accomplished is vital- 
izing the curriculum of the small high school. 


During the past few years one subject, because of its 
unusual timeliness has been introduced into over one half of 
the high schools of Nebraska. This was accomplished before 
any teacher-training agency was sufficiently moved to begin 
the training of teachers for that particular subject. Because 
of this situation, superintendents and principals carried on 
an unusual amount of in-service training. What supervised 
correspondence study had to contribute to this situation was 
a well worked out course, highly individualized, well moti- 
vated, with an adequate bibliography, pre-formulated assign- 
ments, worksheets, tests, and keys for all exercises and tests. 
Such complete teaching material made in-service training 
relatively simple and assured a high degree of educational 
efficiency. Except during the first year or two few pupils 
were registered for this subject through supervised corre- 
spondence study because the subject was generally introduced 
as a basic subject in the high school, therefore in most cases 
relatively large classes resulted. 


To a less marked degree, has the presence of highly indi- 
vidualized and frequently revised supervised correspondence 
study courses brought about other transformations in the 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 38 


curriculum offerings of the small high schools of Nebraska. 
The fact is that there is now operating in Nebraska a vehicle 
for quick curriculum reform. A satisfactory course that in- 
corporates the latest professional methods can be prepared 
upon any subject that appears feasible, in a relatively short 
time at nominal expense. As rapidly as any school finds a 
need for such a course it is available—first through supervised 
correspondence study and later, if the demand should be suf- 
ficient, through regular classroom instruction using the super- 
vised correspondence course materials as the basis of instruc- 
tion. If the course proves popular, teachers colleges and nor- 
mal schools can begin to train teachers. If it proves unsuc- 
cessful, little will have been lost. If the new subject displaces 
an old one—one less necessary and less popular—the smaller 
class can be cared for through regular supervised correspond- 
ence study registrations. As gradually as the local school 
authorities feel it advisable, yet as quickly as pupil needs re- 
quire, any subject can be taken from the high-school cur- 
riculum. 


Not only has supervised correspondence study been adding 
materially in the introduction of new courses into the high 
schools of Nebraska, not only has this same medium been 
assisting to a marked degree in the elimination of old courses 
that have outlived their usefulness, but it has also been help- 
ing to improve instruction in the state. Courses that are con- 
stantly under revision—that incorporate the best instructional 
techniques—are available to all of the teachers of the state. 
Many teachers that must carry too heavy instructional loads 
can secure a degree of relief from the use of such courses. 
Teachers in small high schools are frequently asked to teach 
subjects for which they are not specifically prepared. To this 
group of teachers such courses as those available for super- 
vised correspondence study can be of much help. Also, well 
prepared teachers working under ideal teaching conditions 
can frequently find in such courses suggestions that will help 
to vitalize their teaching. 


In conclusion let me say, that when properly prepared 
supervised correspondence study courses are intelligently han- 
dled in the local school, and when adequate instruction service 
is furnished at a correspondence center, there no longer exists 
any reasons why educational leaders should hesitate to recom- 











82 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


mend and to utilize the services of supervised correspondence 
study as a vitalizing agency for the curriculum of the small 
high school. From the evidence that is already established, 
it would appear that the large high school could employ the 
same agency with almost equally satisfactory results. Finally, 
each state would do well to establish supervised correspond- 
ence study as a state function thereby making the advantages 
of this new vitalizing agency available to all the schools and 
pupils of the state. 


Mr. Howard LeSourd, Dean of the Graduate School of 
Boston University, explained, with the showing of two talking 
pictures, the use of Motion Pictures in a Guidance Program. 


MOTION PICTURES IN A GUIDANCE PROGRAM 


HOWARD M. LESouRD 
Dean of Boston University Graduate School 


I appreciate this opportunity of telling you of a novel ex- 
periment in the use of motion pictures, speaking as the repre- 
sentative of a small committee that is attempting to evolve 
ways and means of using the screen’s vivid power in the de- 
velopment of social attitudes and conduct. 


My associates on this committee, all of whom have given 
generously of their time and experience, are Dr. Mark A. May, 
Director of the Institute of Human Relations at Yale Univer- 
sity, Dr. Florence Hale, Editor of The Grade Teacher and for- 
mer president of the National Education Association, and Dr. 
Frank N. Freeman, Professor of Education, University of Chi- 
cago, and Dr. Miriam Van Waters, noted penologist and mem- 
ber of the Harvard Crime Survey Commission. 


This work is the continuation of a study of motion pic- 
tures that began in 1929, when a group of distinguished re- 
ligious leaders codperated in a survey of the use of motion pic- 
tures for character and religious education. The committee is 
indebted to a large number of people who have through these 
recent years codperated in the formulation of this program. 


Skipping the account of months of trial and experimenta- 
tion, omitting the careful summaries we have made of scores 
of studies on the fundamentals of character-building, I report 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 88 


here briefly on what the Committee on Social Values in Mo- 
tion Pictures has actually done. 


We have painstakingly examined the finest pictures of re- 
cent years, and have by careful editing and cutting produced 
interesting one reelers, centering on dramatic conflicts and so 
selected that there shall be definite behavior patterns as stim- 
uli for thought and discussion. This particular solution to the 
problem of presenting through motion pictures vivid and real- 
istic situations resulted from an experiment after we had be- 
come convinced of the present impracticability of the produc- 
tion of pictures specifically for this purpose. Two obstacles 
seemed insurmountable—first, the cost of producing pictures 
comparable to those shown in the theatres was prohibitive 
without very large subsidies. Cheap productions would surely 
fail to attain the objectives of the program. Second, the diffi- 
culty of eliminating from the pictures an obvious intent to 
improve the audience seemed equally serious. To use existing 
photoplays prepared for entertainment has proved a practical 
and an apparently ideal solution. 


A manual for Discussion Leaders gives full information 
about the project as a whole. For each of these one-reel pic- 
tures, containing the dramatic climax of productions costing 
millions of dollars in the aggregate, we have prepared a def- 
inite discussion guide, which will enable the teacher through 
well-directed questions to stimulate the groups—whether they 
are children, young people, or adults—to think constructively 
on the problems of life presented in or suggested by the pic- 
ture. 


For instance, why did the children jeer at Huckleberry 
Finn after school? Did their attitude help him? In Tom 
Sawyer what made whitewashing play to the boys, but work to 
Tom? Do you think Sooky should have attempted to keep a 
dog, when he could not afford to buy a license? After seeing 
Sign of the Cross do you think that personal sacrifice for one’s 
faith, even to the point of death, stupid, or inherent in the 
Christian’s commitment? One naturally faces in Broken Lul- 
laby the question, Is war the only answer to international dis- 
agreements, and should the people who fight have a voice in 
the declaration of war? In Gentlemen Are Born does Smudge 
use intelligent methods of job-hunting when jobs are scarce? 





ERD AO: 























84 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


In Tom Brown of Culver do you think that respect for the war 
heroes is out of proportion to the reverence due those who, for 
instance, have made equal sacrifices in ridding the world of its 
dread diseases? Such questions as these start a discussion 
which at times is rather difficult to terminate, but out of the 
discussions invariably, have come a clearer understanding of 
the values of life upon the basis of which decisions must be 
made. 

In addition to the discussion outlines, we have prepared 
classroom posters containing scenes from the pictures, and 
provocative questions under each scene depicted. 


Thus far, we have completed and put into circulation 
twenty of these pictures, and the enthusiastic response from 
religious leaders, from educators, from psychologists, and also 
from the thousands of children who have already seen these 
pictures, greatly encourages the committee. If these pictures 
continue to prove useful in schools, colleges, churches, and so- 
cial agencies, an almost unlimited supply of subjects is avail- 
able for this program. 

The pictures, for want of a better title, are known as The 
Secrets of Success series. Youngsters like secrets. They are 
interested in success. What we are trying to do is to reinter- 
pret success in terms of social values. In this whole project 
there is no thought of profit either now or later. During the 
present demonstration period no charge is made for the use 
of these pictures, but if the project continues, a small rental 
will be asked to cover the actual cost of editing and distribu- 
tion. 

A well defined philosophy underlies this program. We use 
the photoplay which is drama. Drama necessarily comprises 
a depiction of the struggle between good and evil. How are 
we going to train the child mind to select for imitation and 
self-guidance the good action and spurn the bad example? It 
cannot be done merely by punishing the villain at the end of 
the picture or by rewarding the hero. Character springs from 
deeper roots than these. 

Character is developed in the process of living. Our idea 
of character education is not something added to an over- 
crowded curriculum of the school, or a family conference at 
the close of a busy day, but guidance that includes all phases 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 85 


and kinds of education, for all good education is character ed- 
ucation. What we are attempting to do is to relate the educa- 
tion which individuals will receive from this series of pictures 
to life and its daily problems. It is our expectation, not with- 
out reason as a result of our experience, that through this se- 
ries we can effect what is commonly called personality training 
and personal adjustment, and that we can teach boys and girls 
confronted with a problem to react wisely to it, that is, to se- 
lect the behavior that is best for them, their families and the 
society in which they live. In short, we believe a social pic- 
ture is the best available means of presenting real life situa- 
tions for discussion and consideration. 

Three problems in the use of these pictures have been en- 
countered: first, the training of children and young people to 
participate in a socialized recitation. This involves a more or 
less widespread change in educational procedure. Pupils in a 
large percentage of the schools of the country are taught to 
listen and to answer questions but not to think. We are trying 
to teach individuals through this particular method how to 
think and to arrive at their own conclusions, and how to ex- 
press themselves and their own ideas intelligently and clearly. 
Thus to attempt to reconstruct educational procedures may 
seem presumptuous but nevertheless this program will help to 
do that very thing. Second, it involves the training of teach- 
ers, for a socialized recitation and discussion is a new tech- 
nique with which too many of them are unfamiliar. Third,— 
and this is the most practical difficulty—schools, churches, and 
social agencies are not equipped to use 35 mm. sound pictures. 
Until this equipment problem is solved, the use of this pro- 
gram will be limited. 

One of these pictures, after an appropriate introduction, 
is shown toa group. At the close the members start a discus- 
sion, sometimes without even waiting for a stimulating ques- 
tion by the teacher. As the discussion proceeds, the teacher 
unobtrusively sees to it that the problem is clear, that scales 
of values are formulated by the group as a basis for the solu- 
tion, and that the individuals have an opportunity to add some- 
thing vital to their philosophy of life in terms of social atti- 
tudes. 

In the discussion outline, which the teacher has in advance 
of the discussion, there are not only thought-provoking ques- 











86 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


tions, but also suggestions of follow-up enterprises which will 
carry over into everyday life the results of their social think- 


ing. 

The discussion method is not new. The case-conference, 
used so successfully in Providence under the direction of Dr. 
Richard Allen, is an approved technique in the guidance pro- 
grams of the best schools of the country. The only difference 
is that our Committee feels it has demonstrated already that 
a problem-picture is the best available means of presenting 
rea] life situations or cases for discussion and consideration. 
The situations so presented have a reality and vividness that 
is second only to life itself. 


These pictures are scheduled in regular programs from 
coast to coast in groups totaling considerably over 25,000 pu- 
pils in forty-nine different centers. For instance, these pic- 
tures have been shown to seventy-three groups of public school 
children in New York City; to over two hundred and fifty 
classes in Atlanta, Georgia; in twenty-one schools in New Ha- 
ven; in ten schools of Sunbury, Pennsylvania; in ten schools 
of Dearborn, Michigan; and in other school systems such as 
Lynchburg, Va.; Dayton, and Toledo, in Ohio; Pittsburgh, Pa. ; 
Dayton, Indiana; Duluth, Minnesota; and to some extent in 
Oakland, California. Churches and social agencies have used 
them in Boston, Springfield, Mass.; Albany, N. Y.; Newark, 
N. J.; St. Louis; St. Paul; Miami, Florida; Chicago; Los An- 
geles, and even in Porto Rico. 

The pictures are not used for entertainment, but strictly 
for educational purposes. The fact that they are entertaining, 
however, makes them valuable for education. Only a few 
prints are now available; therefore, the Committee cannot 
meet all requests for them. 

But isn’t there, I have been asked, a definite relation be- 
tween developing character with the use of short subjects in 
the class-room and the photoplays children are seeing in the 
theatres? There is, of course, and we are trying to meet the 
responsibility inferred by pointing out character values to be 
found in current pictures. In order to stimulate thought along 


this line and provide a pattern for the discussion of current 
pictures, reviews of these photoplays are being presented in a 
monthly bulletin, The Motion Picture and the Family, pub- 


—_— =e FH wei. i 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 87 


lished by the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of 
America, under the caption Lessons from the Movies. No at- 
tempt is made through these preview appraisals to deal with 
all the pictures that have value from this point of view, nor to 
exhaust the lessons in any one picture. For a year and a half 
I have been writing these Lessons from the Movies, pointing 
out, in short reviews, how outstanding pictures can be used by 
character-developing agencies of all types as a basis for dis- 
cussion. Letters of interest and appreciation have come from 
readers in various parts of the country in such numbers that 
I welcomed recently an opportunity to present a series of these 
reviews on the air. 

In closing I wish to express the thanks of the Committee 
on Social Values for the splendid coéperation that has been af- 
forded us by the producing companies. Mr. Hayes, President 
of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, 
caused the informational resources and the film libraries of 
the industry to be placed freely at our disposal, and we thus 
have been working with material that cost the industry many 
millions of dollars to create. We are also indebted to the Mo- 
tion Picture Producers and Distributors for paying the manu- 
facturing costs of the series and the expense of printing and 
multigraphing the materials. We cannot expect Hollywood 
to do more than to produce entertainment pictures that are 
wholesome. That is Hollywood’s job. But the teachers and 
the religious leaders of the country have a definite obligation 
in finding ways and means of seeing that the motion picture 
shall serve its maximum usefulness in stimulating thought and 
the development of a keen sense of social values that shall 
prove to be of service in the development of our citizenship. 


Mr. Francis T. Spaulding, Professor of Education of Har- 
vard University, read his paper, entitled Educating for Voca- 


tional Competence. 








88 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


EDUCATING FOR VOCATIONAL COMPETENCE 


F. T. SPAULDING 
Associate Professor of Education, 
Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, 
Cambridge, Massachusetts 


In 1935 the Connecticut State Employment Service re- 
ported that of 43,000 young persons seeking jobs over 73 per 
cent were untrained for any skilled occupation. Over 40 per 
cent were untrained to do any kind of work. 


The significance of these facts hardly needs elaboration. 
Of hundreds of thousands of boys and girls unemployed during 
the depression, an alarming proportion have turned out to be 
in a sense incapable of useful work. Undoubtedly certain of 
these young people were more or less permanently unemploy- 
able because of physical, mental, or emotional defects. But 
many thousands of them seem to have been unemployable for 
the simple reason that they had never learned how to work. 
Whatever their schooling might have done for them by way of 
education in citizenship or ethical character or worthy use of 
leisure time, it had certainly left unfinished—perhaps it had 
not even seriously undertaken—their preparation for the prac- 
tical business of getting and keeping a job. 


Anyone who is disposed to look back dispassionately at 
the schooling which America provided for its boys and girls in 
the 20’s can find ample explanation for the situation exempli- 
fied by the figures from Connecticut. Prior to 1930, almost 
any normal boy or girl who had completed the work of the ele- 
mentary school could expect to get some sort of job as soon as 
he chose to leave school. He was likely to get a better job if he 
had had extended education, and he could obviously get certain 
types of jobs only if he possessed special aptitudes or had mas- 
tered particular skills. But he was practically always employ- 
able in some sort of job, even if not in the work of his individ- 
ual choice. And since he was employable by the time he had 
left the elementary school or the lower grades of the secondary 
school, the senior high school was not forced to concern itself 
overmuch with the vocational outcomes of its work. It could, 
and did, overlook the fact that certain of its curricula had no 
recognizable vocational goals; pupils graduating from these 
curricula got jobs anyway. It could, and did, leave the choice 


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DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 89 


of curricula very largely to the whims of pupils and their par- 
ents, despite the warnings of people interested in vocational 
guidance. The attention that schools paid to giudance and to 
vocational education was a sort of optional attention—some- 
thing that conscience led progressive schools to undertake, but 
that schools in general were not forced to bother with unless 


they felt so inclined. 


No one can honestly argue that the lot of young people in 
the depression would have been any happier if the schools had 
adopted a different policy. Jobs for boys and girls would have 
been no less scarce; the competition for the few openings that 
appeared would have been just as strenuous. There is no 
moral to be drawn from the last five years as to what the sec- 
ondary school can or should do to make future depressions 
more bearable for boys and girls who want to be “on their 
own.” 


But what has happened during the depression raises in- 
escapably the question of whether the educational policy of the 
20’s will do for the non-depression years which, we hope, now 
lie ahead. The proposals which I intend to make in this paper 
grow out of the definite assumption that a different policy is 
imperative. The social and economic changes which produced 
the depression were apparently products of an underlying evo- 
lution that is steadily continuing, in depression and pros- 
perity both. Prosperity will no doubt temporarily lessen the 
immediate pressure on the schools. But a return even to what 
we like to think of as “normal” conditions is not likely to do 
away with one paramount fact—namely, that the world out- 
side the school is increasingly less well suited to provide an in- 
dependent place for any boy or girl who has not acquired af 
least the beginnings of vocational competence. To this fact 
must be added another—that no institution except the school 
can be counted on to offer to boys and girls the initial voca- 
tional education which they will need. On these two facts to- 
gether rests America’s present challenge to the senior high 
school so far as vocational education is concerned. The devel- 
opment of initial vocational competence bids fair to assume an 
importance quite unprecedented thus far in educational his- 
tory. What does the secondary school propose to do to meet 
this new demand? 














—— Ss ——— 











90 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


The first task of any school which seeks to cope intelli- 
gently with this demand must clearly be one of definition. 
What sort of vocational competence is it that the secondary 
school should seek to develop? 


One must recognize at the outset that the vocational com- 
petence that boys and girls now need is not of the kind fore- 
shadowed by the framers of the Smith-Hughes Law. Nor is it 
of the kind which all too many of our present vocational cur- 
ricula—even those not supported by Federal funds—are seek- 
ing to develop. Our existing curricula have for the most part 
been inherited from the 20’s, and are shaped according to the 
vocational goals of that period. Those goals tended to empha- 
size the development of highly specialized vocational skills— 
skills which would make it possible for the graduates of voca- 
tional curricula to step into industrial and commercial jobs at 
points as far above the bottom as the school could manage. 
Courses were developed in radio repairing, in airplane me- 
chanics, in the operation of special types and makes of busi- 
ness machines,.in a hundred and one particularized services 
useful at the moment in specific jobs outside the school. The 
aim of a major part of vocational education was apparently to 
anticipate every specialized need of industry and to train boys 
and girls who could fill that need, on the assumption that the 
need would be more or less permanent and that somehow or 
other the job and the boy or girl who had been trained for it 
could be brought into unfailing connection. 


However justifiable such an aim may have been in the 
20’s—and there is reason to believe that even then it was open 
to valid criticism—it cannot be safely adopted as a guide for 
the years that will follow the depression. The initial voca- 
tional competence which the world outside the school increas- 
ingly demands is seldom of a highly specialized sort. Special- 
ization may, indeed, be a positive disadvantage to the young 
person who is trying to make a vocational beginning. With 
the growing rate of change in vocational techniques, voca- 
tional opportunities are tending to shift almost from year to 
year. Specialization gained at the cost of a broader education 
which might have prepared the boy or girl to adjust himself to 
changing vocational conditions, or specialization which pro- 
duces such fixity of purpose with respect to a particular job 
that the boy or girl closes his eyes to greater opportunities in 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 91 


other fields, is a danger which needs more and more to be reck- 
oned with. To grant this danger is not to deny the importance 
of specialized skills for the established and maturing worker 
in any given field. But the senior high school’s primary con- 
cern is with the beginner, rather than with the established 
worker ; and in the interests of the beginner it seems inevita- 
ble that the development of socialized skills must more and 
more be left to training either on the job or in close connec- 
tion with the job. 

The competence which the world outside the school re- 
quires of the boy or girl who has just left school is not an abil- 
ity to step at once into an involved and intricate job, but such 
capacity as will enable him to make a promising start in some 
recognized field of work. There would seem to be a number of 
components to competence of this sort. Studies of failures in 
industry give an unmistakable clue to one of the characteris- 
tics involved—capacity to get along tactfully and intelligently 
with employers and with other employees. The criteria often 
used by large-scale employers in selecting new workers tend 
to point to a second—adaptability, which includes the ability 
to adjust to new conditions and to learn on the job. A third 
is necessarily implied in even a broad definition of initial vo- 
cational competence—possession of sufficient skill to insure 
employment at whatever the bottom of the beginner’s chosen 
field may be. These three qualities—ability to get along with 
others; ability to learn on the job, enough skill to be able to get 
a job at the bottom of the ladder—would seem to be the stuff 
of which competence is made. What is more, they would seem 
to be indispensable qualities for any boy or girl who hopes to 
get and hold a job at the present time. 


For the senior high school to recognize the need for voca- 
tional competence of this sort on the part of every boy and girl 
who leaves the school is a primary obligation. The school has, 
however, a second obligation which is hardly less important. 
It must recognize that the development of such competence 
cannot be counted on to result merely from three or four years 
of school attendance. Ability to get along with others, ability 
to learn on the job, mastery of a certain minimum of voca- 
tional skill—every one of these qualities demands an educa- 
tion systematically directed to its attainment if it is to be as- 
sured. Hence the second task of the school is to devise an edu- 




















92 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


cational program that will in fact assure initial vocational 
competence to every one of its pupils. 


The development of such a program will be no simple mat- 
ter. If initial competence is not likely to be produced by the 
specialized training offered in most of our present vocational 
schools, neither is it likely to be produced by the vaguely gen- 
eral practical arts and business curricula favored by many 
comprehensive high schools. The vocational education de- 
manded to meet present conditions must clearly be broader 
and more flexible than the one, and more realistic and more 
definitely pointed than the other. Its development will require 
far more exact understanding than we now possess of the com- 
mon elements in many occupations, and of educational methods 
and materials through which vocational adaptability may be 
fostered. Understanding in these matters can be expected to 
come only from intensive, long-continued, and carefully guided 
observation and experiment. 


But though the details of the essential program cannot be 
laid down in advance, certain of its major implications can be 
clearly foreseen. These implications deserve the attention of 
every senior high school which is truly concerned with its own 
responsibility for meeting America’s present challenge to the 
secondary school. 


The senior high school’s responsibility for the develop- 
ment of vocational competence is most obvious in the case of 
pupils whose school work must be ended with their graduation 
from the secondary school. Yet lest they be lost sight of, it 
may be well to consider first the vocational needs of a smaller 
group—the pupils who are going on to higher schools after 
leaving the secondary school. 


Under present conditions most college-preparatory pupils 
are allowed to select their high-school programs in terms of 
the requirements of the colleges of their choice. The high 
school scrutinizes the elections of each pupil to make sure that 
the work he has chosen is within his capacity and will in fact 
eventually prepare him for college. The school may, in some 
instances, offer positive guidance as to the type of college or 
the particular college most appropriate in the case of a given 
boy or girl, but it seems usually to content itself with the 
merely negative task of making sure that the college each pupil 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 98 


has chosen is not beyond his educational grasp. Pupils are 
thus allowed to plan for their higher education merely in terms 
of whether they have a better-than-even chance to gain ad- 
mission to a particular institution; with what is to become of 
them after they once get in, many secondary schools show 
hardly a passing concern. 

Yet the fact is that a large number of the colleges them- 
selves, and particularly the liberal-arts colleges, plan little or 
none of their work with a vocational end in view. A boy may 
go through Harvard or Yale or Princeton, a girl may graduate 
from Wellesley or Smith or Vassar, without having gained the 
slightest taint of any realistic vocational competence. Though 
it is probable that the State universities of the West offer 
fewer hazards in this respect than do the endowed colleges of 
the East, their liberal-arts curricula present similar possibili- 
ties. Thus a boy or girl may sign himself A.B. or S.B. and 
still be obliged either to provide somehow for further study 
which will fit him to make a vocational beginning, or to take 
up with the first job he can find, at a handicap far more serious 
than that which faces his vocationally trained brother or sister 
fresh from the secondary school. 


The conclusion is not that the senior high school should 
provide direct vocational education for its college-preparatory 
pupils. That clearly remains the function of the college or the 
professional school. But the high school faces inescapably a 
responsibility for concerning itself with the vocational out- 
comes of college work for these pupils. It cannot in justice 
allow a boy or girl to elect a particular college merely because 
the chances are good that he can get in. It must at the very 
least assure itself that once in, that boy or girl will be able to 
remain until he has gained a suitable vocational training, 
whether through the work of the college itself or through fur- 
ther study in a professional school. In most cases it ought to 
make certain at the start that each pupil chooses his college 
in the light both of the length of time for which he can fairly 
expect to continue in school and of the type of vocational edu- 
cation which will most adequately meet his individual inter- 
ests and abilities. Furthermore, it ought in every possible 
case to restrict the election of college-preparatory curricula to 
pupils who can be counted on to continue their education be- 
yond the secondary: school. With respect to the guidance that 














94 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


it offers in such matters as these, the senior high school has a 
responsibility for the vocational education of its college-pre- 
paratory pupils no less than for that of the girls and boys who 
complete their formal schooling with high-school graduation. 

For the latter group the senior high school is under the 
most direct possible obligation to insure a definite vocational 
outcome from their education. This can mean only one thing— 
that the senior high school must cease to look with approval on 
terminal programs, whether for individual pupils or for 
groups of pupils, which fail to develop some sort of vocational 
competence. 

That senior high schools now tolerate individual programs 
which have no appropriate vocational outcomes must become 
apparent to anyone who studies with care the elections of sub- 
jects under the constants-and-variables plan in many schools. 
Well adapted though this plan is to the use of a school which 
can and does furnish systematic, intelligent, and conscientious 
guidance to every one of its pupils, such a plan without guid- 
ance may—and does—result for many pupils in a scattering 
of effort which leads practically nowhere. The school which 
maintains an unrestricted constants-and-variables plan in its 
senior high-school grades must furnish a guidance system far 
superior to the average if its policy is to be beyond serious 
criticism. 

That senior high schools now permit large groups of pu- 
pils, as well as random individuals, to elect programs leading 
to no vocational competence whatever is evidenced by the wide- 
spread popularity of the so-called general curriculum. In re- 
cent years the general curriculum has been rejuvenated and 
given greater plausibility by being re-named the Social Arts 
Curriculum. Under one name or the other, however, it often 
presents a comparatively aimless refuge for pupils who have 
not found themselves vocationally, or who have failed to make 
the grade in what they consider the more respectable aca- 
demic curricula. That the general curriculum is frequently of 
value in developing good citizenship, ethical character, and 
habits of making worthy use of leisure time—the outcomes 
emphasized in re-naming it the Social Arts Curriculum—is not 
to be denied. Nor can one deny its potential value as a finding- 
ground for pupils who have not yet discovered their own voca- 
tional bents. But the mastery of social arts alone provides less 














DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 95 


and less adequate assurance of a boy’s or girls’ competence to 
get and hold a job. Moreover, the fact that in many schools 
enrollment in the general curriculum increases steadily from 
grade to grade belies the claim as to its guidance values. If it 
is indeed to serve as a vocational finding-ground, it must be so 
administered that its enrollment will decrease, instead of in- 
creasing, till practically all its pupils have been transferred be- 
fore graduation either into some curriculum definitely pre- 
paratory to a higher school or into a program leading to a 
clearly envisaged vocational outcome. 

The school’s obligation to see that its terminal programs 
have vocational outcomes carries important implications also 
with respect to the means used for gauging pupils’ school suc- 
cess. There is no point in entering here on an argument as to 
the value of traditional school marks. It is important to rec- 
ognize, however, that marks of all kinds as they are now used 
tend to relate to educational means rather than to educational 
ends. This is true whether the marks consist in percentages, 
or letter-symbols, or extended statements concerning pupils’ 
achievements, or scores based on standardized tests. Marks 
such as these may throw significant light on whether the pupil 
has passed a purely arbitrary scholastic test, whether he has 
kept up with the group to which the school has assigned him, 
whether he has done as well as could reasonably be expected of 
him in view of his initial endowment. But they throw very 
little light on the one question which matters fundamentally to 
the pupil’s vocational future. 

That question is whether the pupil has achieved, or is 
likely to achieve, the vocational competence for which he is 
supposedly striving. The answer is one over which the school 
alone has by no means full control. Pupils cannot be made to 
succeed vocationally by the simple expedient of lowering the 
standards of the curricula in which they are enrolled and thus 
of making it possible for them to achieve passing marks, as 
seems recently to have been attempted, for example, in the 
commercial curricula of numerous schools. Pupils’ success in 
vocational courses can be determined only by reference to cer- 
tain impersonal out-of-school standards—by what is going to 
be demanded of them when they actually pit themselves 
against the requirements of the jobs for which they are pre- 
paring. Their success thus cannot be objectively measured 














96 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


but must be guessed at, largely in terms of subjective judg- 
ment. The fact that the standards must be subjectively ap- 
plied, however, neither diminishes the importance of endeav- 
oring to make a sound guess nor lessens the school’s obligation 
to apply such a guess as a check on each pupil’s work. Contin- 
ually the senior high school must evaluate every pupil’s scho- 
lastic success in terms of his progress toward the impersonal 
standards of the vocation which he proposes to enter. 

To see that the educational program of every boy and girl 
provides for the development of necessary vgcational compe- 
tence represents the positive side of the school’s obligation. 
With this obligation there ought to go an important corollary 
—that of seeing that no pupil leaves school, so far as the school 
itself can prevent it, until he has attained a vocational com- 
petence sufficient to allow him to make a beginning in self- 
support, and until he himself knows how and where to make 
that beginning. 

The statement of this corollary is not intended to imply 
the need for more stringent laws with respect to compulsory 
education. There are more effective means that compulsion 
by which the senior high school may achieve its ends. What 
is especially needed is an alertness on the part of the schoo! to 
identify those individual boys and girls who are nearing the 
close of their formal education. 

If it is to do all that needs to be done for each of its pupils, 
the senior high school ought to find out for itself, every year, 
for which of its pupils that year will represent the last year of 
regular schooling. It can obtain this information, in part, by 
merely asking each pupil whether he expects to return the fol- 
lowing year—a simple procedure, yet one which relatively few 
schools now make use of. The answers which the pupils will 
give of course cannot in every case be accepted as final. The 
school will therefore need to check their replies against such 
information as it may have from other sources. Data on re- 
tention and elimination in previous years are likely to be espe- 
cially revealing; intelligently used, they may help the school 
to identify the kinds of pupils who are most likely to drop out 
at particular points in their school careers. From such sources 
as these, every senior high school ought early in each school 
year to “spot” those pupils whose need for immediate voca- 


tional training is crucial. 

















97 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


The school ought then to arrange a program of work for 
every pupil who has no more than a year of schooling left, 
such that his final year may be devoted as directly as may be 
necessary to the building up of initial vocational competence. 
A single year will seldom be sufficient for the development of 
all the abilities of which competence is composed. If the ear- 
lier guidance which the school has given its pupils is sound, 
however, this final year will be needed for the rounding out of 
each pupil’s vocational education, rather than for accomplish- 
ing the whole of it. Even in the case of boys and girls whose 
earlier school work has had no direct vocational bent, the last 
year may serve at least to provide enough elementary voca- 
tional skills to make these pupils employable at jobs not en- 
tirely foreign to their special interests and capacities. 


The school should see to it, also, that this final year of 
school work includes occupational survey courses which will 
give to each pupil a definite and usable knowledge of the voca- 
tional opportunities likely to be open to him when he steps out 
into the world. Few of the present survey courses fulfill any 
such purpose as this. Assuming that every pupil will need to 
be acquainted with all possible occupations, they provide an 
overview so broad and so far removed from local opportunities 
that they must appear to pupils to be a thoroughly romantic 
sort of study—a contemplation of the far away, if not of the 
long ago. What is needed is a highly specific survey, restricted 
to the definite jobs actually open to each boy or girl. For pu- 
pils who have had some training in business this will mean a 
critical investigation of the local want ads for clerical workers 
or salesmen or stenographers, a consideration of whether a 
job in a chain store with which they are acquainted will be 
better than a job for the gas company, a discussion of the ad- 
vantages of this particular job in which a boy or girl may live 
at home compared with that particular job in which he must 
find living quarters in another city. For boys or girls whose 
best chances of success lie in manual work of some sort, the 
survey should provide an equally direct and specific considera- 
tion not of jobs as generalities but of definite chances for em- 
ployment. The school ought to make of this survey just such 
an opportunity for giving personal and individual help and 
advice to every boy and girl as would a wise and intelligent 
friend who had the interests of that boy or girl closely at heart. 












98 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


Doing all these things, the high school should take one 
further step to insure that no pupil leaves school without hav- 
ing attained at least elementary vocational competence. It 
ought to withhold the high-school diploma from any pupil who 
cannot demonstrate either the ability necessary to allow him 
to make a beginning in a recognized vocational field, or readi- 
ness to continue his education in a higher institution. This 
step will necessarily involve a drastic revision of most present 
requirements for high-school graduation. Yet it is entirely in 
keeping with the notion that the high school exists primarily 
to achieve certain desirable educational ends, rather than 
merely to put pupils through certain scholastic paces. If one 
of the desired ends is indeed the development of vocational 
competence, that school is definitely remiss in its obligations 
which does not require the attainment of such competence as 
a condition for securing the school’s final approval. 


WEDNESDAY NOON 


At the luncheon session in the Crystal Room of Hotel Jef- 
ferson at 12:30 P. M. there were 163 in attendance. A Brass 
Quartet furnished the music. 


Mr. O. V. Walters, Principal of East High School, Aurora, 
reported on the state of the finances of the Department. (See 
Auditor’s report, p. 111. The report was accepted. 


Mr. Louis E. Plummer, Principal of Union High School 
and Junior College, Fullerton, California, read the following 
resolution : 

Inasmuch as liquor and tobacco advertisements appearing 
in newspapers and periodicals in common use in our secondary 
schools tend to encourage the use by the youth of our land of 
the products advertised. 

Be it resolved that the Department of Secondary-School 
Principals of the N. E. A. does hereby voice its protest against 
the presence of such advertisements in these publications. 


In furtherance of this protest the Department hereby in- 


structs its President to appoint a committee of three to study 
the problem of objectionable advertising. It shall be the duty 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 99 


of this committee to: (1) Coéperate in study with similar com- 
mittees appointed by other departments of the N. E. A.; (2) 
Communicate its findings from time to time to the President 
of this Department; and (3) Report progress to the annual 
midwinter meeting of this Department in 1937. 

CHARLES F. ALLEN, Chairman 

PAUL E. ELICKER 

Louis E. PLUMMER 


Report approved. 


Mr. Francis L. Bacon, Chairman of the Planning Com- 
mittee, made the following report: 

Your committee, as authorized yesterday by the Execu- 
tive Committee, wishes to report that it has held its first meet- 
ing. It is understood that it shall be the duty of this commit- 
tee to formulate a tentative plan for a long time program 
which plan shall be submitted to the Executive Committee for 
approval. The committee accepts this obligation, realizing to 
some extent the immensity of the job. 

It is the opinion of the committee that its immediate ob- 


jective should be the promotion of the consideration and use 
of the Orientation report. To do this adequately, at least some 
paid part-time help is needed; also funds will be necessary to 
finance the cost of meetings and clerical work. Your commit- 
tee asks for such aid from this organization and its executive 


committee. 


Respectfully submitted, 
FRANCIS L. BACON, Chairman 
THOMAS H. BRIGGS 
W. C. REAVIS 
J. H. TYSON 
R. D. LINDQUIST 
The report was adopted by unanimous vote. 


Mr. Charles D. Lutz, Principal of Horace Mann School, 
Gary, Indiana, presented the following: 
MEETING OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE 
FEBRUARY 26, 1936 


Present: 
J. H. Tyson, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. 
Louis E. Plummer, Fullerton, California, 








100 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


H. A. Swaffield, Fairfield, Connecticut. 

C. H. Threlkeld, South Orange, New Jersey. 
R. H. Bechtold, Flint, Michigan. 

Milton D. Proctor, Maine. 

Grover C. Dotzour, Wichita, Kansas. 
Eugene S. Lehman, Kirkswood, Missouri. 
F. L. Kinley, Findlay, Ohio. 

S. H. Rider, Wichita Falls, Texas. 

Chas. D. Lutz, Gary, Indiana. 


Mr. Lutz was elected chairman. Mr. Plummer was ap- 
pointed secretary. 


After due consideration the following nominations were 
unanimously made: 


President, Willard N. Van Slyck, Principal High School, To- 
peka, Kansas. 


First Vice President, M. G. Jones, Principal High School, 
Huntington Beach, California. 


Second Vice President, Paul E. Elicker, Principal Newton 
High School, Newtonville, Massachusetts. 
Member of Executive Committee, John E. Wellwood, Principal 
High School, Flint, Michigan. 
Respectfully submitted, 


LouIs E. PLUMMER, 
Secretary of Nominating Committee. 


Unanimously approved. 


The ballot below was distributed. 


BALLOT 
Members of the Council of the National Honor Society 
Vote for three; cross off four 


JOHN W. ANTHONY, Principal, 
Gladstone Junior High School, 
Pittsburgh, Pa. 


C. P. BOWDLE, Principal, 
High School, Van Wert, Ohio 


E. R. CROW, Principal, 
High Schqpl, Columbia, S. C. 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


PAUL E. ELICKER, Principal, 
Newton High School, Newtonville, Mass. 


A. E. MacQUARRIE, Principal, 
Washburne High School, Minneapolis, Minn. 


M. R. MecDANIEL, Superintendent of Oak Park 
and River Forest Township High School, 
Oak Park, Illinois 


HERBERT E. WRIGHT, President, 
Drew Seminary, Carmel, N. Y. 


The result of the election: Paul E. Elicker, A. E. Mac- 
Quarrie, and M. R. McDaniel. 


Mr. Oscar Granger, Principal Haverford Township High 
School, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, presented the following: 


The Department of Secondary-School Principals is greatly 
indebted to the Committee on the Orientation of Secondary 
Education headed by Dr. Briggs for the splendid report they 
have produced and presented at this meeting. 


The Department wishes to extend to Dr. Briggs and the 
other members of the Committee, a vote of sincere apprecia- 
tion for this contribution to secondary education, which is so 
obviously the result of many months of hard work. 


The Department feels that while the Committee has so 
ably completed the tasks outlined, the Committee should not be 
dismissed at this time, but should be retained for furthering 
the influence of this report. 


The Department also feels that the best way school men 
can show their appreciation of the work done by the Commit- 
tee is to do something with the report, and so the Department 
will, in every way possible, make the Issues of this report the 
basis for work in state and local principals’ groups throughout 
the nation. 


Approved. 


The President then introduced the guest speaker, Ernest 
W. Butterfield, Commissioner of Education of Connecticut. 














102 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


THE ENJOYMENT OF HUMOR—AN ELEMENT 
IN THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM 


By E. W. BUTTERFIELD 
Commissioner of Education 
Hartford, Connecticut 


Humor, including merriment whose outward manifesta- 
tion is a laugh or a smile, is a part of the daily experience of 
most people. As an element in school life it should be encour- 
aged and cultivated. 

We shall first answer the question, “When do men laugh 
with pleasure?” 


IN LITERATURE 


They laugh at humorous stories which they read and re- 
read, which they tell and retell, or to which they listen repeat- 
edly. In school, children may be trained to enjoy humor in all 
these common forms and to participate to make it an expres- 
sion of the satisfactions of life. 


Long in school we have tolerated humor when found in the 
classic literature of a bygone age. We have held that it be- 
came dignified by the fine English expression of masters of lit- 
erature. Even so, the approved list for four long school years 
is short. Sir Roger de Coverly, Vicar of Wakefield, As You 
Like It, The Sketch Book, David Copperfield, and very hesi- 
tatingly, Alice in Wonderland. All good. Not too rollicking in 
their humor to make reader or teacher lose his dignity, but all 
very remote from the happy twists and turns which make daily 
life enjoyable. 


An able teacher in a notable school came to me recently. 
She had taught David Copperfield to sophomore girls for years. 
Why? She wanted them to appreciate and understand humor. 
Always with some success until now when her changed classes 
were filled with Italian girls from city tenements in which 
were homes but two decades remote from the peasant life of 
Naples and Sicily. Try as hard as she could, the pupils though 
infinitely patient and polite, saw humor only when the teacher 
explained it to them. Were the girls lacking in an acceptance 
of the bizarre, the mirth provoking? No. Their evening 
homes and social gatherings rang with laughter and joyous 
repartee. But David Copperfield! The humor of the trans- 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 103 


gression of English traditions, of the tremors in the strata in 
Victorian society meant nothing to them. The English home 
and the English school were to them as remote as to us is the 
merriment of the Chinese. 

I said to the teacher, “You should lead the pupils in 
humor. Get Butler and Wodehouse. Read with them Pigs Is 
Pigs and Leave It to Smith.”” I am ready to recommend Wode- 
house for regular school use in the room of an understanding 
teacher. The author uses words with clear discrimination 
and this to the class, makes vocabulary building an alluring 
accomplishment. He is a true humorist for his stories have 
the element of reiterated surprise. The incidents are possible 
but unusual. Every boy of fifteen should read Tarkington’s 
Seventeen. One in forty may profitably read Irving’s New 


York. 


ANECDOTES 

They laugh at anecdotes. Everyone tells or hears several 
every day. Certain magazines publish little else and even dig- 
nified periodicals as the Literary Digest devote space each week 
to anecdotes. Humor comes into lives as we train children to 
select, to retell, to listen to anecdotes. To tell well an anecdote 
is an art. 

The American Legion Monthly recently published this: 

“General Smedley D. Butler, always careful of the welfare 
of his men, when in France met two soldiers carrying a large 
soup kettle from the kitchen. ‘Let me taste that,’ he ordered. 
‘But, Gen—’. ‘Don’t give me any buts—give measpoon.’ The 
General took a taste. ‘You don’t call that stuff soup, do you?’ 
he shouted. ‘No, sir!’ replied the soldier. ‘That’s what I was 
trying to tell you— it’s dishwater, sir!’” 

Not a new anecdote, but one that has always been satis- 
factory, whether told of Proxenus, Cromwell, McClellan, or 
Theodore Roosevelt. All that is needed is that the chief actor 
be popular, imperious, and solicitous of the well-being of man. 
This is the background for the anecdote. The action consists 
of the introduction of a new idea which is entirely logical but 
is unexpected. 

Essential are clearly revealed characters and a dramatic 
conclusion. If these be present we must give attention to the 
technique of telling. The anecdote just retold will always 

















104 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


bring a laugh provided that the unities are present. They are 
three: 

1. To foreshadow the point of the impending joke. 

2. Tocut out all unnecessary details. 

3. To stop when through without explanation or com- 

ments. 

We shall go over these unities in order. The narrator 
must keep constantly in mind that his auditor is but half at- 
tentive and is very dull if not a moron. He must conceal his 
knowledge and seem to flatter an intelligence that is non-exist- 
ent. In the anecdote, the joke is the mistaking of dishwater 
for soup. Therefore, the hearer’s mind is filled with the 
thought of soup, not by direct statement but by suggestion. In 
the second line, the two soldiers are carrying not an iron ket- 
tle nor two pails. It is a soup kettle. We, like the General, are 
thinking of soup when suddenly we find as he did, a mistake. 
Soup stressed comes in the second line. Soup emphasized 
comes as the next to the last word. 


The second unity is the elimination of all non-essentials. 
These, when introduced, leave the feeble mind which we are 
addressing to wander from the suggestion by which we have 
foreshadowed the joke. Lord Decimus Barnacle’s joke (see 
Little Dorrit) on Eton pears and Parliamentary pairs was a 
perfectly good one. If only the noble Lord had eliminated 
excrescences, he would have rocked commissions with laughter 
and established himself as a born humorist. 


The third unity is that of stopping. You can smile while 
the crowd laughs but nothing else. If the anecdote falls flat, 
you are not an artist but a word-butcher, or your hearer is not 
a moron but an imbecile. Stop at any rate. Aesopus has gone 
out of public attention because of his éverlasting “Haec fabula 
docet’’. A joke is its own excuse for being. You are not to 
use it, at least apparently, to demonstrate an eternal truth nor 
to teach a moral lesson. 

In telling anecdotes, teachers should become artists. Chil- 
dren should be taught to select anecdotes from the papers and 
from the family grab bag and to tell them skillfully. This 
ability, among other things, will ameliorate the endurable dis- 
comforts of bus travel. 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


RADIO 

They laugh at the wit and humor which daily comes to 
each home over the radio. 

In my youth when my great-uncle Charles—now with God 
these many years—was in good humor, we could by artful 
questions, often get him to tell the marvelous stories of his ex- 
periences. The stories were to him always new, to us old, but 
very delightful. We knew when to laugh even though we paid 
scant attention, and laughter in unison, displaces weariness. 

Unfortunately, we could stir up great-uncle Charles only 
occasionally. Now we have the radio and at assigned hours of 
the clock, we can relax as we listen to such humorists as Eddie 
Cantor, or Amos, or Gracie Allen. Also we can shut it off 
quickly if our pastor or the Literary Committee of the Wom- 
an’s Club calls. We laugh at Gracie Allen’s inanity. It is so 
human. We laugh at Cantor’s rollicking humor and up-lifting 
references to home and ideals. We laugh at Amos’ funny but 
robust philosophy. 

In fact in ten years Amos has rendered a national service 
comparable to that which a century and a half ago was ren- 
dered by the humorist who was also a scientist, a statesman, 
and many other desirable things—Benjamin Franklin. The 
Man of Philadelphia molded the American character with 
those adages which have inculcated frugality and common 
sense. “A penny saved is a penny earned.” “Every bag must 
stand on its own bottom.” So many a boy in time of wonder- 
ment has quoted, “I ain’t going to do it” and has walked 
straight. 

My church in three hundred years has never been able to 
find a contemporary whom it could call a saint, but I should 
like to canonize anyone who has made us smile or laugh in 
these six last drab and trying years, even though it be dusky 
Saint Amos. 


MOVIES 


They laugh at the drollery and merriment of theatrical 
entertainment and of moving picture programs. 

The movies now bring to us ready merriment, but we 
teachers fail. We say, “Yes, you may see Midsummer Night’s 
Dream and The Barretts of Wimpole Street. They are from 








a 





106 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


literature and will lead you to love or at least to endure the 
classics. You may see The Tale of Two Cities. It will uplift 
you and make you noble-hearted.” This is all right as far as 
it goes but we are beyond the time when we held that a theat- 
rical exhibition was filled with sin and was to be viewed only 
if we could call it a Sacred Cantata, or make it an attack on 
slavery or on the barroom. Then it must uplift or be avoided. 
Now, it is time to recognize that children should see plays when 
there is no thought of moral improvement nor of decadence. 
We may without apology or embarrassment go to the theatre 
often for pure entertainment. Family rows break down where 
parents and children sit side by side and giggle all the evening. 

Two or three years ago, I heard a publicized college presi- 
dent boast to a Rotary Club of the direct and impulsive method 
which he took to bring a modest college into public attention. 
He treated faculty, trustees, and students as they did not ex- 
pect to be treated. That evening I saw for the first time 
Groucho Marx in Horsefeathers. The ponderous egotist of the 
morning had become the buffoon of the evening but the basal 
technique was the same and I laughed without restraint. 

When Roman Scandals came, Latin teachers said, “We 
will endure its lack of dignity since the introduction of the 
Appian Way will make children love their Latin. This is what 
rhetoricians call hysteron proteron. The purpose of the play 
is not to bring flavor to an ancient study. On the other side, a 
primary purpose of Latin is to enable high-school sophomores 
to enjoy Roman Scandals more. 

Pupils should be encouraged to attend funny pictures just 
because they are funny, and teachers should go too, not that 
they may high-hat the play but that they may try to get from 
it as keen appreciation as do the pupils. 

Most schools give the Mikado once in seven years. The 
music club should have it or some other of Sullivan’s always 
on tap with a half dozen Mikados, Ko-kos, Pooh-Bahs, and 
Nanki-Pus ready at any time to give all singing pupils a 
chance at the gay choruses. 


THE ARTS 
They laugh at the humor of the arts, the gargoyles of 
architecture, the cartoons of the press, and notably at the 


comic strips of the newspapers. 




















DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


We should train an appreciation for the humorous arts 
and for modern gargoyles in architecture. Nor for these need 
we go far afield. A bungalow in a New England village, a 
mansard roof anywhere but in France, any Methodist church 
built between 1880 and 1910 are as funny as the roof decora- 
tions of the medieval humorists. So are school buildings that 
look like shoe factories. So too, is Yale University with its 
motto, Lux, and its students penumbrated in the shades of 
Gothic schoolrooms. So too are blue spruce trees on a lilac- 
fronted lawn. So too is a clerical garb when a profane traffic 
officer attempts to hold up for it the twentieth century vehicu- 
lar traffic. So too are spats and red neck handkerchiefs when- 
ever worn. Teach to make short our journeys by the humor of 
these misplaced expressions of culture. 

The teachers of English and the teachers of art shudder 
at the comic strips in the newspapers. This cannot be helped, 
but all teachers should enjoy them openly, not surreptitiously 
as now. The good strips are competent to be included in the 
reviews of the current events class, for they are at least as ac- 
curate as a majority of the daily events which win headlines. 


The school newspaper also should develop its own comic 
strip. I suggest Sophomore Susan and Jack, the Junior. These 
two should be mildly dull but lovable and very human. They 
should get into all the usual school scraps and perplexities. 
They should not be heroes nor models. They should be dull 
just to the point that each pupil sees himself reflected in them. 
The school should laugh with them, but never at them. The 
strips should not be the vehicles for slams at individuals, pu- 
pils, or teachers but should make the unpretentious humor of 
the school live daily. 

Think over the most beloved comic strip personages, 
Father Jiggs, Andy Gump, Little Annie, Harold Teen, Skeezix, 
and Trixie. These all have good moral habits but no oppres- 
sive ideals. They seldom show a trace of a soul and seldom 
have even moderate mental development. They are so like us 


that we like them. 


CHILDREN 

They laugh at the antics of children; their spirits lighten 
with the companionship of dogs and other pets; their hearts 
grow merry as they see the face of a friend. 


























108 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louts, Mo. MEETING 


Among the true comedians of all ages are children and 
dogs and those friends who lift up the light of their counte- 
nance upon us. For the enjoyment of animal attributes and 
for merry friendship, we will train by school club activities 
and interests. 


SPORTS 


They laugh at the gregarious pleasures of social games 
which are not contests. I fear that we are living in a time 
when there is a tendency to turn all games into sports and con- 
clusive contests as we try to replace social inter-play by vic- 
tories. The pros have taken joy from the golf which the dour 
Highlanders played, and high-brow Contract is inferior to the 
social game of draw poker. The college contests with sopho- 
mores vs. freshmen and an agitated football somewhere be- 
tween was hilarious but not scientific. In school let us encour- 
age games whether or not they are contests. 


ON THE WAY 


Since in all of these ways normal men and women take 
daily pleasure in humor, it is an objective of the school not to 
frown upon merriment but to make more keen the enjoyment 
which humor brings to all. 

This calls for a change in attitude. In a serious and fear- 
ful age humor was avoided or was endured, but as a means to 
a holy end. The fable must have its moral. The humorous 
tale much teach a good lesson. Merriment must be excused by 
an apology. Each idle hour must be accounted for, each friv- 
olous thought atoned. Now we know that laughter has a pro- 
phylactic effect, that merriment has its own defense, that hu- 
mor may be enjoyed as humor with no other excuse for its 
existence. 

We have gone a long way. A century ago among us Puri- 
tans, pleasure was not even tolerated. It was a shame and ab- 
horrent device of the evil one. This is an actual letter written 
in 1823 by a Phillips Andover student, twenty years old, to his 
merry sixteen year old sister at home. 

“And now will you suffer me to give you a word of advice 
as one who loves you with all the tenderness of a brother and 
wishes for yout highest good and happiness. I would advise 
you as one who has had some experience on this subject. Pay 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 109 


strict attention to the cultivation of the mind, that is, to form 
right habits of thinking and studying—form the habit of 
thinking of but one thing at a time. Learn to keep your mind 
steady and calm. This will enable you to make much greater 
advances in your studies, and the improvement of the mind in 
this respect will be a greater benefit to you in after life than 
every other you will derive from your studies. Avoid levity. 
I say avoid it in every form. Avoid also light and trifling con- 
versation. To these, I apprehend you are much exposed situ- 
ated as you are in a family of so many of your own age. But 
I say avoid them altogether. I have experienced the evil of 
them to my sorrow. You know how much I used to be em- 
ployed in such talk when I lived at home. The habits I then 
formed, with my natural cheerfulness, are most inveterate and 
are my besetting sin. There is scarce anything that will so un- 
fit the mind for any employment as this. A person cannot med- 
itate nor study, nor read, nor be happy in such a frame of 
mind. And knowing your natural cheerfulness, and that after 
you have been studying till the mind is wearied you are still 
more exposed to this, I say keep a double watch on this part.” 


We have gone far in recognizing merriment as a normal 
part of life, yet in school, humor is still tolerated, not encour- 
aged. I am advising that you realize that humor will make 
pleasant our walk through this sordid and perplexing world. I 
am advising that with definiteness you plan your school work 
so that it includes humor as an avowed objective. 


MEETING OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL 
OF THE NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY 


SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1936 


The National Council met at Hotel Jefferson at 9:00 A. M. 
Present: Members Brooks, Kepner, MacQuarrie, Plummer, 
and Church. Absent: Members Allen, Mathews, McDaniel, 
McKown, and Roemer. 


The terms of the following members expire: Mathews, 
MacQuarrie, and McKown. On motion of Member Brooks, sec- 
ond by Member Kepner the following nominations were ap- 
proved: C. P. Bowdle, Principal of High School, Van Wert, 
Ohio; E. R. Crow, Principal of High School, Columbia, South 








110 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


Carolina; John W. Anthony, Principal of Gladstone Junior 
High School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; A. E. MacQuarrie, 
Principal of Washburne High School, Minneapolis, Minnesota; 
Herbert E. Wright, President of Drew Seminary, Carmel, New 
York ; Paul E. Elicker, Principal of Newton High School, New- 
tonville, Massachusetts. 


On motion of Member MacQuarrie the Council adjourned 
to 4:30 P. M. Wednesday, February 26, 1936. 


WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, MEETING 


The National Council met at Hotel Jefferson at 4:30 P. M. 
Present: Members Brooks, Kepner, MacQuarrie, McKown, 
Plummer, and Church. 


On motion of Member Kepner, second by Member Brooks, 
M. R. McDaniel was chosen President. Carried. 


Member Brooks moved with second by Member McQuar- 
rie that the following optional sections be set up for small high 
schools: 


ARTICLE II. SECTION 3. Candidates shall have spent at 
least one year in.............--..2--.-0------++- High School, and shall be 
members of the junior or senior class. Candidates eligible to 
election to the chapter shall have a scholarship average of from 
85 to 90 per cent. This scholastic level of achievement shall 
remain fixed, and shall be for this chapter the required scholas- 
tic achievement for admission to candidacy for membership in 
this chapter, and all pupils who can rise in scholarship to or 
above such standard level shall be admitted to candidacy for 
election to membership. Their eligibility shall then be con- 
sidered on their school citizenship, service, leadership and 
character. 


SECTION 4. Members of the sophomore class may be 
chosen as probationary members of the chapter of the Senior 
Honor Society, if they satisfy all corresponding requirements 
placed upon candidates from the junior and senior class. 


SECTION 5. Such probationary members shall have voice 
and vote in the chapter but may not hold office. If they main- 
tain high standards and live up to the requirements of the 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 111 


chapter, they may be chosen to full membership in the chapter 
in their junior or their senior year. 


Carried. 


On motion of Member Kepner and second by Member Mac- 
Quarrie it was resolved that it was the consensus of the Coun- 
cil that the absence of the President because of illness caused 
deep regret to the members of the Council. 


Carried. 


On motion the Council adjourned. 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 
NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 


AUDIT REPORT 
For Year Ended December 31, 1935 
February 14, 1936. 
To the Finance Committee 


Department of Secondary-School Principals 
National Education Association 


Dear Sirs? 

At your request I have audited the records of Mr. H. V. 
Church, Treasurer of the Department of Secondary-School 
Principals of the National Education Association located at 
5835 Kimbark Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, for the year ended 
December 31, 1935, and I hereby submit my report, together 
with the following exhibits and schedules: 


Exhibit A—Condensed statement of receipts and disburse- 
ments for the year ended December 31, 1935. 


Exhibit B—Balance Sheet as of December 31, 1935. 


Exhibit C—Statement of Profit and Loss for the year ended 
December 31, 1935. 

Schedule 1—Schedule of securities owned as of December 31, 
1935. 


Schedule 2—Schedule of profit and loss on sale and purchase of 
securities during the year ended December 31, 1935. 














112 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


Exhibit A 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 
NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 


Condensed Statement of Receipts and Disbursements 
For the year ended December 31, 1935 


Balance of cash on hand January 1, 1935: 


EE SF DETECT $ 2,047.02 
gs RRR ADEE Saker me nrne et 8.16 $ 2,055.18 
Received during year 1935: 
RE IFO EET TS IERIE CE 9,159.48 
I Oe TI cc eiisencssssnccceccatesennstinenetinns 383.48 
ON EES i ated Ree ee 682.07 
I icc tistasieiscnssasiinabebeiceiaieiinie 37,809.24 
Magazines _........... ii a ae ale 401.75 
Consumers Research ..........................---- 8.00 
Carnegie Endowment ..............-......-...--. 3,000.00 
ED EPRI AR ont ARN i LF 4,498.68 
i ad 1,737.44 
Sale of securities ................................---. 13,468.47 
Sales tax ....... eA Oe Sem Tee 8.55 
Total received during year.................. 67,157.16 
$69,212.34 
Disbursed during vear 1935: 
Securities purchased _.........00000000000000-2... $20,403.77 
Furniture and fixtures... 81.60 
Honor societies ...............00000....... incline 34,469.77 
EE LT EIT 395.75 
i i a a eS ee 3,020.74 
Carnegie Endowment .................... eae 4,144.25 
NN a a sella 4,641.82 
RN a 469.13 
ae eyes 71.94 
EER Er Rann eeas EEN re 38.15 
25.65 


ET Te 








DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


Safety deposit box 
Miscellaneous 


Total disbursed during year 


$68,154.59 


Balance of cash on hand December 31, 


1935: 
Cash in bank $ 1,056.91 
Petty cash 84 $ 1,057.75 


Cash on hand January 1, 1935 was verified in connection 
with the audit for the year 1934. Receipts for the year were 
supported by duplicate receipts, numbered consecutively and 
showing from whom received and for what purpose. All 
receipts were accounted for and the total proved. Every re- 
ceipt was traced either into the petty cash fund or to deposits 
in the checking account. 

All disbursements are made by check except for small 
cash disbursements from the petty cash fund, amounting dur- 
ing the year under audit to $196.60. Disbursements from the 
petty cash fund were supported by requisitions and accom- 
panied by receipted bills. Duplicate requisitions for the year 
were sent direct to the auditor by the president of the Depart- 
ment, Mr. Lyseth, and checks issued were checked against 
these requisitions. Every check issued was found to be au- 
thorized by a requisition signed by both the president and the 
treasurer. Checks issued and disbursements from the petty 
cash fund were totalled and the total found to agree with the 
amount shown on Exhibit A as the total disbursements for 
the year 1935. 

The balance of cash on hand in the checking’ account at 
December 31, 1935 was verified by a letter from the University 
State Bank certifying that there was $1202.47 in the account 
of the Department at that date. There were nine checks to- 
taling $145.46 issued and outstanding at December 31, 1935 
and after deducting this total from $1202.47, the balance is 
$1,056.91 as above. 

Petty cash on hand February 5, 1936, the day the audit 
was begun, was counted and worked back to December 31, 1935 
by adding disbursements and deducting receipts between the 
two dates. The result was eighty-four cents as shown on Ex- 


hibit A. 








114 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


Exhibit B 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 
NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 


Balance Sheet—December 31, 1935 


ASSETS 
ON TE TCE SS A: DED $ 1,056.91 
Petty cash _.......... aE TR Oe ee RE 84 
Bills receivable ........... STC wate ee 616.78 
Inventories: 
OTE he CRITE TTT Oe $24,477.93 
Supplies—Honor societies .................... 4,695.71 
Supplies—Department ...................... 787.93 29,961.57 
Securities owned (at par) (Schedule 1).... 61,825.00 
Furniture and fixtures (net of deprecia- 
ERED ae ESR eee st ERT 361.26 
a aN Seer ee $93,822.36 
LIABILITIES AND NET WORTH 
$ 97.68 


I ii ins ciseishlatiicinsinnitlbdialiadinalitid 
Net worth January 1, 1935_.........---........ $72,689.21 


Additional profit for 1934 due to error in 
inventory of bulletins at Dec. 31, 1934, 


corrected in 1985.................-....---.---.--+- 8,658.52 
Add—Profit for year 1935 (Exhibit C).... 12,376.95 93,724.68 





Total liabilities and net worth.._........... $93,822.36 


Referring to Exhibit B, cash in bank and petty cash were 
commented on in connection with the statement of cash re- 
ceipts and disbursements. Bills receivable are for orders re- 
ceived prior to December 31, 1935 but not filed until after the 
books were closed for the year. 

Inventories were taken by actual count and priced at cost. 
The inventory of bulletins this year was so much larger than 
last year that I compared the inventory sheets for the two 
years and found that the cost prices of the same items were 
considerably higher on the 1935 inventory than on the 1934. I 


Le: 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 115 


inquired the reason for this and Mr. Church said the 1935 cost 
prices were correct as they included commissions to authors 
and other labor charges which had been omitted in computing 
cost prices in previous years. These are, of course, proper ele- 
ments of cost so the 1935 inventory was accepted as correct. 
However as the closing inventory of 1934 is the opening inven- 
tory for 1935, it was necessary to recompute the 1934 inven- 
tory in order not to distort the profit for 1935. This is the rea- 
son for the notation in the net worth section of the balance 
sheet and for the addition of $8658.52 to the net worth at the 
beginning of the year under audit. 

Securities totaling at par $61,825.00 and shown in detail 
in Schedule 1 were verified by inspection and actual count at 
the University State Bank in the presence of Mr. Church and 
Mr. Reavis. 

Four desk lamps and a typewriter were added to the furni- 
ture and fixtures account during the year. Furniture and fix- 
tures are depreciated at the rate of 10% with the exception of 
the safe, which is depreciated at the rate of 5% per year. 


Exhibit C 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 
NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 


Statement of Profit and Loss 
For the year ended December 31, 1935 


Loss Profit 


Honor societies....$ $37.809.24 $ $ 


Less—Expense: 
Inv. Jan. 1, ’35 2,990.77 
Expense for year 34,300.44 


37,291.21 


Less—lInv. 
4,695.71 32,595.50 5,213.74 





5,159.48 


Less—Refunds .... 24.00 5,135.48 








116 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 





Magazines ............ 401.75 
Less—Expenses .. 302.00 
Bulletins —............ 383.48 
Less—Refunds .... 1.65 
381.83 
Less—Expense: 
Inv. Jan. 1, ’35...... 23,566.32 
Expense for year 3,020.74 
26,587.06 
Less—lInv. Dec. 
31, ’35................ 24,477.93 2,109.13 
Carnegie Endow- 
ee es 3,000.00 
Less—Paid out.... 4,144,25 
Insurance re- 
| Ee 4,711.08 
Less—Insurance 
paid out —..... 4,690.06 


Miscellaneous income 
I cstvenissntaeetanitetinnn PTR AT 
Consumers Research ............... 
Sales tax collected .......0....... 
Profit on sale and purchase of 
securities (Schedule 2)_....... 
Interest received (Schedule 3) 
Dept. supplies—Inv. Jan. 1, '35 448.33 
Inv. Dee. 31, ’35 787.93 


Miscellaneous expenses 
Conventions —_......... 
I ee iets 
cas ha he 
Safety deposit box.................... 
SR ee CRT 
Miscellaneous ..................---..--.-- 


1,727.30 


1,144.25 


469.13 
28.51 
38.15 

6.60 

125.00 

391.18 





99.75 


21.02 


682.07 
8.00 


8.55 


508.36 
4,362.44 


339.60 


oo. Gh fee ate 


() 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


71.94 


Net profit for year 1935 (to 
Exhibit A) 12,376.95 





$16,379.01 $16,379.01 


An attempt has been made in Exhibit C to show not 
only the profit for the year but the sources of that profit, that 
is, which activities of the Department are profitable and 
which are carried on at a loss. This statement differs from 
Exhibit A which is a statement of cash actually received and 
paid out. In Exhibit C, inventories, bills receivable and pay- 
able at both the beginning and end of the year, depreciation 
and offsets which do not affect cash, are all taken into con- 
sideration. Since inventories and depreciation are more or 
less estimates dependent on the salability of the merchandise 
on hand and the life of the assets depreciated, the profit figure 
cannot be assumed to be exact. But the difference between 
the cash on hand at the end of the year, even after taking 
into consideration bills receivable and payable, and the profit 
figure, shows the fallacy of assuming that the profit can be 
measured by the cash left over after all bills are paid. In- 
ventories are very important in computing profit from oper- 
ations and should be very carefully taken and priced. Items 
of inventory carried over from one year to the next should 
always be carried at the same price as on the previous in- 
ventory unless they have deteriorated or become obsolete, in 
which case they should either be written down or completely 
written off. 

Schedule 2 shows the result of sale and purchase of securi- 
ties. In addition to the profit shown on these transactions 
approximately $6500.00 more was invested during the year. 

The accounting records of the Department which I exam- 
ined are all in excellent condition and show conscientious and 
intelligent handling. In my opinion the statements shown 
herein are correct and give a true picture of the financial 
condition as of December 31, 1935 and of the results of oper- 
ation during the calendar year 1935. 

In closing I wish to thank Mr. Church and the members 
of the office staff for their courtesy and codperation during 
the course of the audit. Very truly yours, 

ANNE M. LORD. 








118 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 
NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 


Schedule 1 
Securities Owned—December 31, 1935 


Description Par Value 
5 shares stock of Edgecomb Apartment Hotel, Inc. 
(Received in exchange for bond on 945 Edgecomb 
Place Bldg., due Aug. 1, 1935)... $ 500.00 
First Mortgage Real Estate Gold Bonds on land and 
building at northeast corner of Austin Ave. and 
Park Ave., Cicero, Illinois. 6% due Aug. 15, 1936. 


PNG ecikistieiaentinicacinccctlsimeitin Eapubideiipuebabialinns 500.00 

Nos. 61, 62, 63, 70 and 79...............-..-...--.--.-ccec-ececeeeees 5,000.00 
Leasehold Estate Gold Bonds 6% due Jan. 15, 1936. 

Nos. 27, 31, 34, 39, 40, 43, 44, 48, 49 and 72............ 1,000.00 

DU ID wiciiscinsnicnsascwsiersiciieistiainctinilicilassiltiaaniabl 1,000.00 


First Mortgage Gold Notes 6% due Aug. 24, 1934 
(extended to August 23, 1939.) Nos. A, B and C.... 15,000.00 
Junior Mortgage for defaulted interest on above........ 2,500.00 
Alamito Dairy Co. 614% due May 1, 1936. No. D-52.. 500.00 
Peoria Service Co. 644% due June 1, 1939. Nos. 
RE ee Le 3,000.00 
Presbyterian Church of Berwyn. 6% due Nov. 1, 
1935 (Interest reduced Nov. 1, 1935 to 4%) Nos. 


EN si cilapcsigtntincsscn sntsntelibicmeesiiicintincectadeiiliiatininins 3,000.00 
H. O. L. C. 234% Series B No. P-208267............ 25.00 
Nos. T-717617, T-717618, T-717619........000022.. 300.00 
DE PD sivcissisiitctiduinciieieampioeeintinpaetaiioasaciiaiiiaizey: 500.00 
Nos. M-436281, M-436282, M-447771, M-447772, 
TT TT icciniciccretinsessescncenctccosornnte 6,000.00 


H. O. L. C. 83% Nos. AM-67811-A, AM-411914-D, 
AM-411915-E, AM-421640-L, AM-421641-A, AM- 


311054-D, AM-311055-E een 7,000.00 
Consolidated Federal Farm Loan 3% Nos. 48489-K, 
48490-L, 48491-A, 54061-A, 54062-B ~ 5,000.00 
U.S. Treasury 3% No. 46629-K ~_.22. eee 10,000.00 
U. S. Treasury 2%%% No. 186508-C _.....---2..-.....-.- 1,000.00 


I oh iinicincisctijasitcaniericstininiiapiiniiamaiiliciadiil $61,825.00 








DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


Schedule 2 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 
NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 


Profit and Loss on Purchase and Sale of Securities 
Year ended December 31, 1935 
Paid or 
Par Received Profit Loss 
Bo’t H.O.L.C. 234,%......$ 4,000.00 $ 3,957.47 $ 42.53 $ 
Bo’t U.S. Treas. 3% 10,000.00 10,327.67 327.67 
Bo’t Fed. Land Bank 
(ex. for Consol. Fed. 
Farm Loan) 3,000.00 3,113.63 113.63 
Bo’t Consolidated Fed- 
eral Farm Loan 2,000.00 2,005.00 5.00 





19,000.00 19,403.77 





Sold 


4th Liberty Loan 3,000.00 3,000.00 
U. S. Treas. 3144%.... 4,000.00 4,192.50 192.50 
U. S. Treas. 314%.... 1,000.00 1,074.63 74.63 
U. S. Treas. 314%... 4,000.00 4,600.00 600.00 
Rec’d for bonds ex- 

changed 45.00 45.00 
Tax warrants 556.34 556.34 





12,556.34 13,468.47 





Excess of bonds bo’t 6,443.66 5,935.30 
Net profit 508.36 508.36 





$ 6,443.66 $ 6,443.66 $954.66 $954.66 


ANNE M. LORD, 
Certified Public Accountant, 
Aurora, Illinois. 














120 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


Digests from Professional Periodicals 


HOW TO JUDGE A RADIO PROGRAM 


By KEITH TYLER 
Bureau of Educational Research, Ohio State University 
Condensed from Scholastic, January 11, 1936, pp. 3, 6 
Published by the Scholastic Corporation 
4600 Diversey Parkway, Chicago, Illinois 

If high-school students everywhere should become crit- 
ical of the programs to which they listen and should voice 
their opinions to their families, station managers, and pro- 
gram sponsors, and if they should express their judgments in 
radio reviews in school newspapers, there would be a notice- 
able improvement in the quality of the broadcasts. But where 
are the students to get their standards? 

Taste in any field comes from sampling a fairly wide 
variety of products and comparing the results. In music you 
have to hear good music and bad music, good singers and 
poor singers, talented musicians and those who butcher the 
masterpieces. In developing tastes you read the works both 
of great writers and those of lesser ability before you feel 
competent to say what you really care for in plays, essays, 
and poetry. And so it is with radio. It is not so important 
whether you like drama, comedy, dance music, or opera; it 
is very important whether you can distinguish the good from 
the bad in each of these fields. 

Certain general] standards which have been suggested by 
high-school students who have been thinking about radio pro- 
grams are as follows: 

1. Technical perfection: Regardless of the kind of pro- 
gram, there is a vast difference between a well-produced and 
a poorly-produced “show”. One that is well-produced has a 
showmanship that is easily noted. There is unity to the pro- 
duction. It seems to be aimed toward the building up of inter- 
est as it goes along. The performers are carefully chosen, the 
music and sound effects are realistic and effective in tying 
the whole program together, and there is evidence of careful 
rehearsing and timing. 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 121 


2. Purpose: Some radio programs are discovered to 
have an obvious cultural, educational, or entertainment motive, 
the salesmanship being brought in in a secondary way, In 
contrast the students find programs whose sole purpose seems 
to be that of dinning their sponsors’ wares into the public ear. 

3. Amount and type of advertising: The students voice 
an objection to some of the prevailing methods of advertis- 
ing. The half-hour program with sometimes as much as 
four or five minutes of straight sales talk comes under this 
ban. It is the consensus of opinion that the public should 
boycott the product which such a program advertised. Men- 
tion of the sponsor’s name is considered sufficient. 

4. Ability of performers: Is the speaker an authority 
upon the subject on which he is speaking, or is he voicing 
mere opinion? Are the musicians appearing on the program 
persons with real musical training and background, or are 
they lacking in reputation and ability? Is the drama written 
by a dramatist of merit, or is it a bit of hokum? 

5. Honesty in representation: One report shows that the 
“kid programs” sometimes give a highly dishonest picture of 
what life is really like. They show villians as black as night, 
and heroes who always come out on top, and fail to reveal that 
life is mostly a puzzling gray in which each person is a mix- 
ture of the good and the bad. 

Many adult radio dramas are equally dishonest in their 
representation of life. Historical dramalogs often over-senti- 
mentalize the achievements of the past and ignore the really 
vital struggles of the present. 

Here is an opportunity for high-school students to take 
a leading place in developing an American public that knows 
and demands the best in radio programs. 


WHY TEACH INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 


By EDGAR J. FISHER 


Condensed from the News Bulletin, January, 1936, pp. 5-6 
Published by the Institute of International Education, Inc. 
2 West Forty-fifth Street, New York City 
To gain an understanding knowledge of the change from 
the Old to the New Order there should be as much definite 
and formal instruction in international affairs as possible. 
In effecting the transfer from the old to the new, hostility 








122 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


and violence will naturally be increased, if we fail to compre- 
hend and to give instruction about this essentially interna- 
tional world of which we are a part. It is imperative that 
there should be understanding of the economic interdepend- 
ence of the separate political areas into which the world is, 
in many respects, too artificially divided. 

There is undoubtedly much fundamental unity of world 
culture. This is much talked about, but it is another thing 
to appreciate it so that it becomes a part of one’s thought and 
life. Travel for pleasure is not apt to help overmuch, for it 
is often superficially done, and too frequently we are not at 
our best when travelling—at least abroad in foreign lands. 
Even “floating universities” leave much to be desired as dis- 
seminators of a proper appreciation of cultural values. There 
is great need that there should be a more general diffusion of 
knowledge about the rest of mankind, a more general realiza- 
tion of the cultural bonds that should unite the western na- 
tions, and form a bridge to the eastern world as well. 


To these ends it is obvious that people should have a fund 
of facts for the interpretation of international problems. It 
is urgent that teaching should aid in the acquisition of inde- 
pendent judgment in the use of these facts. Could this be 
secured in any large measure it would help to develop a more 
scientific atitude toward those economic, political, and social 
changes about which there is so much discussion. It is essen- 
tial that the youth of to-day should have every reasonable 
opportunity to know and understand the fundamentals of the 
Old Order, whether it is passing or not, and of the New Order, 
whether it is coming or not. That is educating for a better 
future, and how else can one more properly prepare for the 
New Day? 

Why teach international relations? To sum up in a single 
sentence: Only through sound education will people and gov- 
ernments ever come to realize that it is wise and statesman- 
like to sacrifice present interest for future good in the con- 
duct of foreign affairs. International relations, as much or 
more than any other social study, spell welfare or woe in 
human affairs. 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 123 


FEDERAL AID FOR EDUCATION IMPERATIVE 
AND INEVITABLE 


By WILLARD W. BEATTY 
Superintendent of Schools,* Bronxville, N. Y., and 
President, Progressive Education Association 


Condensed from School Management, January, 1936, pp. 125, 126 
Published by School Management, Inc. 
9 East Fortieth Street, New York City 


The discrepancy in educational funds used by the poorer 
and by the wealthier states in the Union is unbelievably 
great, according to the findings set forth in State Support for 
Public Education, a volume issued during 1933 by the Na- 
tional Survey of School Finance, and recently supplemented 
by a further study also directed by Dr. Paul R. Mort. 


Some of this discrepancy is the result of the failure of 
many states properly to equalize educational opportunity 
through some form of state levy, by which taxes can be col- 
lected from the wealthier areas and distributed to the poorer 
sections. Although such levies would in some degree mitigate 
the situation, the discrepancies would still remain. While 
the poorer districts of New York State have been spending 
seventy-eight dollars per year, per pupil, the poorer districts 
of South Carolina and Arkansas have been spending thirteen 
dollars per year, per pupil, for their white children, and be- 
tween six and seven dollars per year for their Negro children. 


After re-expressing the expenses per elementary pupil 
in dollars of equal purchasing power for districts of average 
wealth within the states studied, Mort shows that these aver- 
age districts in Arkansas and South Carolina can support an 
educational program costing twenty-seven dollars per pupil, 
while New York and New Jersey: can afford to spend one 
hundred dollars or more per pupil in their average districts. 


If our population remained static, and the poorly trained 
products of inadequate Arkansas schools remained in Arkan- 
sas, one might conceivably argue that the matter was nobody’s 
business. However, the American population is not static; 
it is constantly in flux. And in a period of instability like 
that through which we have just been passing, there have been 
times when the rate of flux has been intensified. 


*Recently appointed Director of Indian Education. 





124 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING | 


The equalization of educational opportunity within a 
state will not equalize educational opportunities throughout 
the Nation. The Federal Government alone possesses the 
power to tax the wealth of the Nation where it exists and 
distribute it for the education of children where the children 
are found. 

The bugaboo of Federal control of Federal funds dis- 
tributed to the states is one of recent growth. ‘However, the 
history of more than a century proves: “(1) That Federal 
support can be granted on an objective basis without control, 
or (2) That Federal aid can be granted on an objective basis 
with easily interpreted specific controls, the final interpreta- 
tion of these controls being left to the states. Our experience 
of three-fourths of a century with the Morrill Act indicates 
that even on specific points the Federal Government will not 
encroach on the right of the states”. 

In view of the tremendous inequalities in educational 
opportunity inherent in our present system of state and local 
support, Federal aid for education is inevitable. It is time 
for educational leaders and organizations to get together in 
support of a common program of Federal aid to our public 


schools. 


RECIPE FOR A WARLIKE NATION 


By Dr. WILLIAM G. CARR 
Director, Research Division, National Education Association 
Condensed from School and Society, December 28, 1935, pp. 880-883 
Published by The Science Press 
Lancaster, Pennsylvania 

I shall ask you to suppose that this is not the National 
Council for the Prevention of War, meeting in the United 
States of America, but rather a purely imaginary “National 
Council for the Extension of Militarism”, meeting in any one 
of the several nations which do not cherish as we do the ideals 
of peace, freedom, and democracy. 

In this distant militarists’ Utopia, we must recognize 
first of all that we are much more interested in creating atti- 
tudes than in teaching specific items of information. We 
shall not be greatly interested in how largely wars loom in 
the history curriculum of the schools. We shall be very much 





ee ae 


ch: 
the 
aul 
ing 
the 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 125 


interested indeed to see that all military matters are painted 
in glowing and brilliant colors. We shall summon to our 
assistance all the great poetry, the great drama, the great 
art, and the great music which celebrates the martial spirit. 
And we shall be very careful to exclude all art which takes 


the opposite course. 

We shall see to it that the schools do not become a potent 
factor in the social life of the nation. We shall, therefore, see 
to it that the economic and social conditions affecting the 
occupation of teaching are such as to stunt intellectual growth 
and check social thinking. For this reason, we shall keep 
salaries at a very low ebb so that original and independent 
thinkers will not be attracted into this most delicate and dan- 
gerous of professions. Requiring a special oath of allegiance 
will indicate forcibly to teachers their dependent positions as 
public servants and will assist in removing from the profession 
any who possess liberal or radical ideas. 

We shall have the schools organized in machine-like fash- 
ion with large classes and a highly mechanical routine. These 
large classes will effectively center attention on memorization 
and drill work, and they will mechanize the work of the class- 
room so that the transition from a machine-like school to a 
machine-like army will be easy. They will lower the cost of 
operating the schools, and the saving thus effected may be 
used to reduce income taxes or to construct additional tanks 


and warships. 

It is extremely important to develop in our schools an 
attitude of ruthless competition and of disregard for human 
lives and human personalities, which we shall do by a highly 
competitive system. The emphasis will always rest on grades 
rather than growth, the end rather than the means. Each 
child will succeed only by surpassing some one else; he will 
be permitted to rise only upon the failures of others. 

We shall begin to inculcate the habit of obedience in our 
children at a very early age. It is important that we prevent 
the children from acquiring any disposition to question the 
authority of others. As soon as we begin to tolerate the 
inquisitive mind, we condemn ourselves to failure. We shall, 
therefore, maintain a system of rigid discipline in the schools. 

Above all, we must develop the cult of ardent nationalism. 
We feel abundantly justified in bringing out the glorious epi- 





126 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


sodes in our nation’s military history. Nothing must be given 
in our textbooks which suggests that our nation is less than 
perfect or inferior in any respect to any other nation. 

Your aims as the National Council for the Prevention 
of War are the opposite of those of the imaginary Society 
for the Extension of Militarism. You must do just the op- 
posite to all the things that I have outlined. You must have 
a socially informed and socially effective teaching profession, 
a broad and humane curriculum, an educational philosophy 
pervaded by respect for the personality of each child that 
it touches, and a method of instruction which not only teaches, 
but which actually is democracy in action. 

We shall not save humanity from war by conducting 
model Leagues of Nations in our classrooms or by memoriz- 
ing the Kellogg Pact or by teaching primary, grade children 
about the cunning habits of their little Eskimo, Italian, Rus- 
sian, Japanese or Ethiopian cousins. The attitudes basic to 
a desirable viewpoint on international relations will not be 
created in so simple a manner. If the discipline of the school 
is based on autocracy; if the principal motive power of the 
school is rivalry; if the main objective is personal advance- 
ment; if the atmosphere is heavy with intolerance, fear and 
suspicion, if the curriculum is bowed down with the weight 
of tradition; if the life of the teacher is ignoble, timid and 
shabby; if the organization of the school overwhelms and 
ignores the living individual personality of each child—then 
all our little peace drives and slogans and campaigns will 
melt and run at the first hot touch of reality. 


ADULT EDUCATION AND HUMAN RELATIONS 


By Dr. HARRY A. OVERSTREET 


Condensed from Vital Speeches reprinted in Journal of Education, 
Nova Scotia, December, 1935, pp. 930-931 
Published in Halifax, Nova Scotia 


We now know that no individual can be fully trained for 
his mature life in the days of his childhood. When he is a child 
he must think and feel as a child; if he is to work and feel 
as a man he must be trained to do so in the mature years of 
his life. 

This is the new discovery we are making, that the enter- 
prise of turning an individual into a genuinely competent 





ee” a 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 127 


and wise adult must be carried on in the adult years. Because 
we did not make this discovery in the past our citizenry was 
—and still is—largely made up of individuals in all stages of 
arrested development. Our adults have been chiefly adol- 
escents of mature years. 


To build a wise world we must have wise people. To 
build a world of humane relationships we must have indi- 
viduals sensitized to humaneness. Whatever the political 
and economic reconstruction of the future may be, their 
success will depend upon the kind of adults who are to carry 
on the world. 


Adult education is no panacea. It is a basic necessity. 
It is the foundation upon which the whole structure of our 
social life must rest. The significance of the present is that 
we are at last beginning to realize this. The future will be 
a hopeful one in the degree that we take seriously in hand 
the new enterprise of helping adults to grow into fuller and 
wiser life. 


There are at least four things that adult education should 
do for our civilization. In the first place, it should perform 
the task of building individuals who are live-with-able and 
work-with-able. The coming age will be increasingly one 
which will demand coéperative relationships. 


Much of our difficulty in the world has arisen out of 
sheer provincialism of mind and emotion. Adults have lived 
within their own narrow groups, looking with suspicion upon 
other groups. Nations have looked over their borders at 
other nations, never really understanding them or appreciat- 
ing their problems. Races have regarded other races with 
unfriendliness and distrust. We have been a poor, torn, and 
tattered world, largely because we have had little opportunity 
to see others as they see themselves, or to be seen and known 
by others as we see and know ourselves. One of the chief 
objectives of the adult education movement must be the re- 
leasing of ourselves into wide and generous knowledge of 
our neighbors near and far. 


In the second place, adult education should perform the 
necessary task of discovering the unsatisfied needs and wants 
of adult life. The movement of adult education is essentially 
one of freeing the latent capacities of individuals so that 








128 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


they may function for the happiness of individuals and the 
welfare of society. 


In the third place, adult education will effect a reanimat- 
ing of our whole educational system. Where in the past it 
has been a finished and final whole confined to the immature 
years, it will now open out into a continuous process extend- 
ing through all the years of our life. The effect of this upon 
elementary and secondary education will be profound. Where 
formerly all the education supposedly necessary was crowded 
into a few years, with results often detrimental to the mental 
and emotional life, education will be conceived in more lei- 
surely and more psychologically sound fashion as a continu- 
ous growth from level to level of life. This will make for a 
more genuinely matured mentality and for a more whole- 
somely balanced personality. 


In the fourth place, adult education will be effective in 
opening the minds of individuals to a more soundly conceived 
future. Childhood and adolescence must in the main be con- 
cerned with making secure the rich inheritances of the past. 
Mature life is essentially an enterprise of conducting life 
from past and present into the future. Adult education, there- 
fore, will concern itself essentially with the development of 
the forward-looking mind so that the individuals who com- 
prise our civilization may be enabled to move easily and 
wisely along paths that lead to further enrichment. 





— oo & eo A 


a 
n 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


Digests from Lay Publications 


KINDLY LAUGHTER 


Condensed from The Christian Science Monitor, December 28, 1935, 
pp. 8, published by the Christian Science Publishing Society 
Boston, Massachusetts 

“Tell me what seems funny to you, and I will tell you 
your character,” said a thoughtful teacher. There is noth- 
ing more refreshing than kindly, hearty laughter, but some- 
times it is unkind and cruel to laugh. Children may not 
sense this difference at first, but they will soon imitate an 
adult’s laughter and copy his response to circumstances hold- 
ing elements of humor. 

Occasionally laughter may be used as a corrective in 
training children, but this must be tactfully handled, for a 
parent’s or teacher’s laughter at a child’s efforts or his spon- 
taneous impulses may be devastating in results. Laughter 
must build up, invigorate, and bring a sense of well-being 
to a child. 

The adult who springs to help another person from an 
awkard plight rather than apparently enjoying another’s 
embarrassment is leaving a fine influence on an impression- 
able young mind. The mother or father who laughs off 
irritations and brings the wholesome wind of laughter to 
clear away fogs of discouragement and doubt is expressing 
a high, gay courage that may well set a standard for any 
life. Let children be surrounded with laughter that heals 
and helps that they too may spread fun and humor and kindly 
mirth along the way. 


GERMS CARRIED ON DUST PARTICLES 


Condensed from Heating and Ventilating, December, 1935, 
pp. 25, published by The Industrial Press, 
148 Lafayette Street, New York City 
Germs use invisible dust particles as airplanes in travel- 
ling about a room, is the conclusion of the American Insti- 
tute of Sanitation based upon a series of tests to determine 
the relation of dust to the spread of disease germs. 








130 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


Particles of dust were counted by examining under the 
microscope a moist giass that had been exposed to the air. 
Bacteria were also counted on a glass dish which had been 
covered with a film of agar-agar and exposed to the air for 
two minutes. Colonies of bacteria were developed by the 
standard method of incubation for twenty-four hours at a 
temperature of ninety-eight degrees, at the end of which 
time each germ had developed into a colony large enough to 
be seen with the naked eye. 

The increase of dust particles in a room by sweeping 
with a broom or by swishing the furniture with a feather 
duster brought about a corresponding increase in the num- 
ber of bacteria colonies which developed about the bits of 
dust on the test dishes. “This indicates,” according to the 
Institute, “that although germs are unable to fly they do 
attach themselves to microscopic dust particles and thus are 
able to travel immense distances in relation to their size. A 
germ that hitch-hikes ten feet is equivalent to man flying 
across the Atlantic.” 


EYESTRAIN—WHAT CAUSES IT AND HOW TO 
AVOID IT 


By Dr. LEVERETT D. BRISTOL 
Condensed from the Bell Telephone News, January, 1936, pp. 5 

Published for the Employees of Illinois Bell Telephone Company 

The health of the eyes is dependent in large measure 
upon the health of the body; likewise, the health of the body 
is dependent to a considerable degree upon the health of 
the eyes. 

Eyestrain is a problem of fatigue, and the most com- 
mon symptom is headache. The prevention of eyestrain re- 
quires periodic examination of the eyes by a competent physi- 
cian or oculist, and proper correction of any abnormalities 
found. Reading and working in a dim flickering light or 
glare, or in a recumbent posture are to be avoided. 

All kinds of close work,’ particularly in the presence of 
artificial illumination, should be interrupted by brief periods 
of rest. The habit of directing the vision on distant objects 
during such rest periods relaxes the eye muscles and is con- 
ducive to eye health. After exposure to the irritating effects 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 131 


of cold winds, dust, glare or any undue strain, the eye may 
be washed with a saturated solution of boric acid. The ap- 
plication of either very warm or cold water compresses to 
the closed eyes may be refreshing. Ordinary care and clean- 
liness may prevent the eyes from becoming a portal of entry 
for disease-producing bacteria. 

One important characteristic of all good lighting should 
be to have the light shine on the object of interest and not 
in the eyes of the observer. Shades, globes, reflectors and 
all such lighting equipment should be planned with this in 
mind. Satisfactory illumination can be prescribed in detail 
only when the uses to which the light is to be put are known. 

For those persons whose work or play requires overex- 
posure to the reflection of sunlight from snow or ice, the best 
protection is afforded by special types of smoked or tinted 
glasses. 

Finally, for any abnormal conditions of the eyes, such 
as continual inflammation, discharges or swelling, a physician 
should be consulted without delay. 


CHILDREN AT THE CINEMA 


By C. STANFORD READ, M.D. 
From The Nineteenth Century and After, gre 1935, pp. 750-762 
Published by Constable & Co. 
Orange Street, Leicester pag 
London 
There is much evidence that slowly but surely the interest 
in cinema form of entertainment is reaching a much wider 
social circle. The main point of the thesis here is that any 
harmful mental effects of the sex element in pictures are 
grossly exaggerated. We can go further and say that the 
demand for and liberal supply of pictures which present 
the varied emotions related to the erotic life are natural and 
fulfill what practically amounts to a psychological necessity. 
It is thus that countless members of the audience in imagin- 
ation find a vent for feelings which bring solace and content. 
In the absence of such a simple outlet such feelings might, 
indeed, find unhealthy channels for their discharge. 
The other diatribe which is so often hurled at the cinema 
entertainment is the supposed corruptive and morbid effects 











132 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


of gangster films. It is certainly true that a large percentage 
of pictures depict violence, murder, crime, and sadistic ag- 
gression. Yet are there really any scientific reasons for 
thinking that harm results thereby? In the same way as 
we have deep sex urges that cry out for satisfaction, so 
whether we approve or not, it has to be recognized that all 
of us have deeply seated aggressive instincts which, lying 
fallow in our unconscious minds, need subtle gratification. 
We are only too well aware of the fact that individually, soci- 
ally, and naturally it is so important that the emotions they 
engender should not be destructively aroused, but be led 
into constructive and useful sublimated channels. It is be- 
cause the unconscious mind has such an affinity for what ap- 
pertains to aggression that everyone finds some attraction in 
murder, crime, and the manifestations of brute force in 
general. The picture-goer, therefore, cannot help but be 
interested in the murder mystery, the crook, and the gang- 
ster stories, with their attendant horrors and blood-curdling 
episodes. 

Those ingenuous souls who bewail the licensing of these 
types of films, deplore their exhibition, and suggest their being 
banned, greviously suffer from psychological ignorance. Such 
people wrongly believe that the mere viewing of murder, vio- 
lence, and crime at the cinema will directly or indirectly stim- 
ulate passions to such an extent that onlookers will be liable to 
go and do likewise. It is true, of course, that those who have 
a basic anti-social character, or who, for any reason, possess a 
morbid lack of inhibition, may find in the gangster film an 
added stimulus to wrong-doing, as they may in many other en- 
vironmental circumstances. This, however, is beside the point, 
as we are not examining’ the screen effects on abnormal types, 
but only upon the average picture-goer. 


Our educationalists, quite rightly, in the main leave their 
animadversions directed to the baneful effects of the pictures 
upon children and those of adolescent stage. There can be 
nothing more important than character formation, and all mod- 
ern psychological research points to the fact that it is the mani- 
fold influences during the formative years that really matter. 

It would be idle to deny that children are in some way 


profoundly affected by what they see on the films. Such ef- 
fects may only be very temporary or more permanent, depend- 


2 6 264m ot oe 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 133 


ing upon the individual mental soil and the frequency of the 
cinema visits. It has been a matter of surprise how much the 
details of a picture can be recalled by them six weeks or three 
months afterward, and the slow curve of forgetting is very 
striking. This was especially so where there were scenes of 
conflict, danger, or tragedy. This evidence of the mental im- 
pression made is most marked between the ages of six and 
twelve years, it is decidedly less between the ages of thirteen 
and eighteen, and in adolescents of older growth it is noted 
much less, probably because there is in them some tendency 
to be conscious of the unreality of what is seen. It is instruc- 
tive and interesting to find that when the pictures have mainly 
dealt with romantic and erotic themes, those of the younger 
group are least emotionally affected and the response only be- 
comes prominent when puberty is well established. 


It has been said, and with a large element of truth, that 
children are prone to accept as true and proper what they see 
on the screen, and that in this way good or bad ambitions may 
be powerfully stirred and permanent high or low ideals formed. 
Very frequently cinema attendance would undoubtedly con- 
stitute a potent factor in these directions. Yet it must be 
realized that the attitudes and character building of children 
are products of many influences—temperament, early environ- 
ment, past experiences, family ideals, the school and the com- 
munity—and that one may modify or neutralize the other. 
According to the varying mental soil, the same picture may in- 
fluence different children in directly opposite ways. 


The presumed dangers of youthful picture-going are in 
the main related to unhealthy sex stimulation, the incitement 
to delinquency and anti-social conduct and the more general 
one of setting up of false ideals of life. Though children are 
very suggestible, these apprehensions partly arise from the 
lack of appreciation that children live in a children’s, not an 
adult’s world, and what is seen is not viewed with a matured 
mind. The banning of films dealing with erotic life is more 
or less needless to those under sixteen. The school child is 
frankly bored by them, and the unanimous response of the 
members of a large school to the question as to what pictures 
they disliked was, “I hate love films!” Grown-ups embracing 
and kissing were regarded as “silly”. There is no evidence that 














134 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


there could be any deleterious effects on them by attending 
this type of adult picture. 

With the adolescent over sixteen it is quite a different 
matter. From the theoretical point of view, the budding man 
or woman may be somewhat temporarily excited by frequent 
sex appeal, and adolescence must be recognized as likely to be 
a stage of emotional instability. Nevertheless, this need not 
cause any anxiety in the case of a normally constituted youth; 
and in no way are we taking the unstable or abnormal into con- 


sideration. 

Edgar Dale in his study of motion pictures truly says: 
“In the case of adolescents the pictures seem a logical place in 
which to become acquainted with some of the problems which 
they have to face as adults. If these problems are realistically 
and truthfully presented, they may aid in the solution of life’s 


problems to come.” 

The presentation of the art of love-making upon the screen 
may thus serve a healthy and useful purpose, for it may be 
asked with some reason whether divorce might not be lessened 
if before marriage youth knew more of the love problems they 


would encounter. 

Thus, it is seen that when we discuss the psychological ef- 
fects of erotically tinged films upon the younger generation, 
the reaction upon the immature child and the adolescent must 
be distinctly differentiated. As the films have a very high edu- 
cative value for the young and constitute one source of fixing 
and further establishing their behavior patterns, it is nat- 
urally desirable that a higher cultural level of presentation 
should be aimed at. It is in connection with the possible harm 
that may accrue to the young from witnessing pictures dealing 
with vice and crime that most apprehension has arisen. On 
the surface such an assumption would seem valid and would 
account for the modern increase in juvenile delinquency and 
crime. The gangster type of film, of course, has an enormous 
appeal. What was said in regard to adult interest in such pic- 
tures applies here also. The deep aggressive instincts of the 


mind thus find some satisfaction, but in the average child there 
is only the gratificatory outlet in imagination and not in ac- 
tion or incentive to action. Apart from this, if, from an educa- 
tive point of view, life is to be portrayed, crime must be con- 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 135 
sidered. In fact, it might even be said that if in such pictures 
there was presented a truthful and accurate account of happen- 
ings which showed causes and consequences in a large social 
sense, it might aid the solution of juvenile crime problems. 
On the other hand, if a youth already has a delinquent taint 
through early warping influences, crime pictures may have a 
deleterious effect in aggravating the impulses to minor anti- 
social conduct and in the tendency to adapt the cues to crim- 


inal action. 

There seems little doubt but that from the psychological 
point of view one should adversely criticize the fact that there 
tends to be too great a divorce from reality and an over and an 
under-emphasis of certain elements in the majority of pictures. 
In a large measure the characters, problems, and settings are 
remote from the persons who view them. Stress on wealth 
and luxury is not an ideal, though one can well understand that 
to escape in imagination from the drabness of life, the average 
audience finds compensatory gratification in this atmosphere. 


The cinema of the future has a very definite and serious 
role to play in the political, economic, and artistic education of 
the people. For a large section of the community the pictures 
will always to some extent constitute a refuge into a dream- 
world, but instead of trying to prevent people seeing harmful 
pictures we should employ our energy in trying to help them to 
see better ones. The pictures can render satisfying social 
service as art only when they come to be created for differen- 
tiated audiences. As children’s literature has been provided, 
so the problem of children’s pictures should be faced. At 
present they are made only for adults. 











136 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louris, Mo. MEETING 


CONSTITUTION 
OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL 
PRINCIPALS OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION 
ASSOCIATION 


ARTICLE I—NAME 


The name of this organization shall be the Department of 
Secondary-School Principals of the National Education Asso- 


ciation. 


ARTICLE II—AIM 


The aim of this department shall be the advancement of 
secondary education by providing a clearing house of discus- 
sion bearing upon the problems of administration and super- 
vision, by encouraging research, by upholding acceptable 
standards, by fostering professional ideals, and by formulat- 
ing a working philosophy of secondary education. 


ARTICLE IT[—MEMBERSHIP 


SECTION 1—The membership in the Department of Secon- 
dary-School Principals shall consist of two classes: active and 
associate. 

SECTION 2—All individuals shall be eligible to active mem- 
bership who are members of the National Education Associa- 
tion and who are engaged in administrating supervision, and 
teaching secondary education, upon payment of the annual fee 
of $2.00 to the executive secretary. 

SECTION 3—Members of state organizations of secondary- 
school principals shall be eligible to active membership in the 
Department of Secondary-School Principals, by the payment 
of the annual fee of $1.00 to the executive secretary. 

SECTION 4—All other persons interested in secondary ed- 
ucation, who are members of the National Education Associa- 
tion, shall be eligible to associate membership upon payment 
of the annual fee of $2.00 to the executive secretary. 

SECTION 5—Only active members shall have the privilege 
of voting or holding office. 

SECTION 6—Al!] members, both active and associate, shall 
receive the publications of the Department. 








DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


ARTICLE IV—OFFICERS 


SECTION 1—The elective officers of the Department shall 
be a president, a first vice-president, and a second vice-presi- 


dent. 


SECTION 2—The president and the vice-presidents shall 
hold office for one year. 


SECTION 3—The executive committee shall consist of the 
officers, the retiring president, and three other members each 
elected for a term of three years. At the first election, one 
member shall be elected for only one year and one other for 
two years. The executive committee shall be representative 
of junior high schools, the several types of senior high schools, 
and junior colleges. 


SECTION 4—The executive secretary shall be selected by 
the executive committee; his duties and compensation shall be 
determined by the executive committee. 


ARTICLE V 


SECTION 1—The president shall, sixty days in advance of 
the annual meeting, ask each of the state associations of the 
Department of Secondary-School Principals to name a repre- 
sentative who shall then be appointed by the president as a 
member of the nominating committee. 


SECTION 2—Eighteen members of the nominating com- 
mittee shall constitute a quorum with not fewer than three 
from each of the following regional associations of colleges 
and Secondary Schools: New England Association of Colleges 
and Secondary Schools, the Association of Colleges and Sec- 
ondary Schools of the Middle States, the Association of Col- 
leges and Secondary Schools of the Southern States, the North 
Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, the 
Northwest Association of Secondary and Higher Schools, and 
the Western Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. 
Any lack in the representation herein provided shall be filled 
by nomination from the floor. 

SECTION 3—The nominating committee so constituted 


shall meet following its selection and after electing a chair- 
man, shall prepare a list of candidates for the several offices, 








ead 








136 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


CONSTITUTION 
OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL 
PRINCIPALS OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION 
ASSOCIATION 


ARTICLE I—NAME 


The name of this organization shall be the Department of 
Secondary-School Principals of the National Education Asso- 


ciation. 


ARTICLE II—AIM 


The aim of this department shall be the advancement of 
secondary education by providing a clearing house of discus- 
sion bearing upon the problems of administration and super- 
vision, by encouraging research, by upholding acceptable 
standards, by fostering professional ideals, and by formulat- 
ing a working philosophy of secondary education. 


ARTICLE III—MEMBERSHIP 


SECTION 1—The membership in the Department of Secon- 
dary-School Principals shall consist of two classes: active and 
associate. 

SECTION 2—All individuals shall be eligible to active mem- 
bership who are members of the National Education Associa- 
tion and who are engaged in administrating supervision, and 
teaching secondary education, upon payment of the annual fee 
of $2.00 to the executive secretary. 

SECTION 3—Members of state organizations of secondary- 
school principals shall be eligible to active membership in the 
Department of Secondary-School Principals, by the payment 
of the annual fee of $1.00 to the executive secretary. 

SECTION 4—All other persons interested in secondary ed- 
ucation, who are members of the National Education Associa- 
tion, shall be eligible to associate membership upon payment 
of the annual fee of $2.00 to the executive secretary. 

SECTION 5—Only active members shall have the privilege 
of voting or holding office. 

SECTION 6—AI] members, both active and associate, shall 
receive the publications of the Department. 








DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


ARTICLE IV—OFFICERS 
SECTION 1—The elective officers of the Department shall 
be a president, a first vice-president, and a second vice-presi- 
dent. 


SECTION 2—The president and the vice-presidents shall 
hold office for one year. 


SECTION 3—The executive committee shall consist of the 
officers, the retiring president, and three other members each 
elected for a term of three years. At the first election, one 
member shall be elected for only one year and one other for 
two years. The executive committee shall be representative 
of junior high schools, the several types of senior high schools, 
and junior colleges. 


SECTION 4—The executive secretary shall be selected by 
the executive committee; his duties and compensation shall be 
determined by the executive committee. 


ARTICLE V 


SECTION 1—The president shall, sixty days in advance of 
the annual meeting, ask each of the state associations of the 
Department of Secondary-School Principals to name a repre- 
sentative who shall then be appointed by the president as a 
member of the nominating committee. 


SECTION 2—Eighteen members of the nominating com- 
mittee shall constitute a quorum with not fewer than three 
from each of the following regional associations of colleges 
and Secondary Schools: New England Association of Colleges 
and Secondary Schools, the Association of Colleges and Sec- 
ondary Schools of the Middle States, the Association of Col- 
leges and Secondary Schools of the Southern States, the North 
Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, the 
Northwest Association of Secondary and Higher Schools, and 
the Western Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. 
Any lack in the representation herein provided shall be filled 
by nomination from the floor. 

SECTION 3—The nominating committee so constituted 


shall meet following its selection and after electing a chair- 
man, shall prepare a list of candidates for the several offices, 














138 PROCEEDINGS OF THE St. Louis, Mo. MEETING 


to be submitted to the Department at its final business meet- 
ing. 


ARTICLE VI—FINANCE 


The president shall appoint, subject to the approval of 
the executive committee, two members who shall, with the ex- 
ecutive secretary, constitute a board of finance to act in the 
capacity of trustees, to have custody of the funds of the De- 
partment, to have same properly audited, and to submit an- 
nually a report to the Department. Bills shall be paid by the 
executive secretary upon the authorization of the president. 


ARTICLE VII—MEETINGS 


SECTION 1—The Department of Secondary-School Prin- 
cipals shall hold two meetings yearly. The regular annual 
meeting shall be held at the time and place of the meetings of 
the Department of Superintendence of the National Education 
Association, unless arranged for otherwise by the executive 
committee of the Department. 

SECTION 2—The second meeting of the Department shall 
be held at the time and place of the annual summer meeting 
of the National Education Association. 


ARTICLE VIII—AMENDMENTS 


The Constitution may be amended by a two-thirds major- 
ity vote of those present and voting at the annual mid-winter 
meetings. A proposed amendment must be submitted in writ- 
ing at the preceding annual meeting, or must be submitted in 
printed form to all members of the Department thirty days 
before the annual meeting. In case the latter method is used, 
such amendment must receive the approval of the executive 
committee before it can be printed and sent to the members 


of the Department. 


ARTICLE IX 
Robert’s Rules of Order shall govern in all meetings of the 
Department. 








EXCURSUS 


President Harrison C. Lyseth sent the following informa- 
tion to the printer too late to permit its inclusion in the proper 
order. Mr. Lyseth wrote, “Knowing Mr. Church’s natural in- 
clinations, I am sure he gave no mention of this event in his 
proceedings. This recognition of his faithful service deserves 
a place in the official record.” 


HONOR BREAKFAST FOR H. V. CHURCH 


At the Hotel Jefferson on Tuesday morning the Depart- 
ment met at a surprise breakfast to honor its Executive Secre- 
tary, who fer twenty years, and actually since its formation, 
has done his work efficiently and well. Speakers were Dr. 
Charles H. Judd, University of Chicago, and Dr. Francis 
Bacon, Principal Evanston Township High School, Evanston, 


I}linois.