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The Bulletin 


of the 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL 
PRINCIPALS 


National Education Association 


VOLU ME 22 


DEVELOPING A FACULTY COMMITTEE ON PUPIL 
ADJUSTMENT 


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


The purpose of this article is to explain the development 
of “A Faculty Committee on Student Adjustments” as clearly 
and completely as possible. The philosophy behind the idea, 
the arrangement of the plan, the changes that have been made 
in these as the committee has worked upon them during the 
past two years, and the nature of the problems that have been 
handled by the Committee will be considered. 

Not long ago, the writer was visiting one of the largest 
high schools in the South. While I was there, the principal of 
that school was asked how he dealt with his problem cases and 
what he considered the greatest weakness of his method. To 
this he replied that he had found nothing which took the place 
of the personal conference, and that he recognized that he 
often failed to get the desired results with problem cases be- 
cause of the lack of sufficient time to deal properly with the 
individual, or the need of an organization which would pro- 
vide persons who could give such problems the necessary con- 
sideration. 

For some time after that discussion, the writer’s atten- 
tion was centered on this problem—one that every high-school 
principal must face: What shall be done with and for the prob- 
lem cases? Often teachers complain that too much time and 
attention are given to the least promising pupils. Every prin- 
cipal knows that these problems will demand more than their 
share of time and attention. The best method of dealing with 
these cases, however, is that which gets the most advantageous 
results with the individuals concerned and which the most pro- 
gressively decreases the time each of them demands. 

About two years ago the writer was asked to lead a dis- 
cussion on the problem of guidance at a state conference of 

















[April, 


2 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


high-school principals. In preparation for this discussion, 
some of the teachers of our local high school were requested 
to write an answer to this question: “What should a pupil en- 
tering high school expect from the administration in the way 
of guidance?” In response to this question, one teacher gave 


the following written reply. 

(1) A student should expect the school to do him no harm, in any 

way. 

This throws a great responsibility on the administration. Much of 
our education has been, and still is, not education, but malpractice. Re- 
quired gymnastics may injure some bodies; courses pitched too high or 
too low in requirements may smother or warp a capacity; social contacts 
permitted may invite bad habits or vice; clashes of personalities in the 
classroom may breed sullenness or a sense of injustice; the organizations 
setup in a large school may so bewilder a student as to cheat him out of 
their benefits. All of these factors of school life, if not worked out to 
the benefit of the student, will positively result in harming him. If an 
elaborate, expensive provision is not possible, a simple, carefully thought- 
out plan will work and is an obligation on the part of the administration. 
There follows then that... 

(2) A student should expect his physical make-up to be understood. 

This is a tremendous challenge in itself, opening vistas of service 
without end. If any records have been kept for individual students in the 
elementary schools, they should be filed with the high school when the 
student enters as a freshman. If not, some records should be begun by 
the high school. If the aid of regular school physicians is financially 
impossible, records should be undertaken on a simpler scale by the faculty 
setup appointed by the office. The study of these record cards should be 
an obligation on class-room teachers especially if they are referred to 
them. A child’s physical requirements should take precedence over all 
official routine. Some guidance setup should centralize a watchfulness 


with authority. 

(3) A student should expect a school to understand his capacities 

better than he understands them himself. 

His I. Q. should be on record and should be used in mapping his 
course. Too difficult courses and too easy courses are equally harmful; 
yet there should be enough latitude and scope on a horizontal plane to 
allow considerable freedom of choice along vocational lines possible to 
that level of ability. A forward look to a choice of vocation has its place 
here, involving endless detail. 

(4) A student cannot have a bird’s-eye-view of all the detailed 
offerings of a school. Even a classroom teacher has no such concept. A 
student has the right to expect to be aided expertly as to the best choices 
for himself. That is, every student’s program should be an individual 
study made by a centralized authority which is well versed in the offer- 
ings of the school and the community, in the outlook of the child’s home, 
in his health, in his I.Q., and in his disposition. The student should even 
expect to be relieved of the confusion, embarrassment, and the loneliness 
of a crowd of personalities and of mechanical details. 


(5) <A student has a right to expect to be guided into contacts that 

are socially and morally inspirational. 

We have been afraid to appropriate a student’s personal life as a 
field of effort. We have been too busy with little scholastic details, too 
indifferent to big individualisms. It has been everybody’s, nobody’s busi- 
ness; it should be somebody’s business. A knowledge of the student’s life 
in the school itself is one phase of this challenge, but another phase is a 
knowledge of his home. 

(6) The student has a right to be understood as a product of his 


home. 








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1938] DEVELOPING A FACULTY COMMITTEE ON PuPIL ADJUSTMENT 








It is impossible to understand him otherwise. Some systematized, 
centralized records should be kept about his home, contacts to be made by 
an organization arranged by the administration. His social needs should 
be noted. 


(7) A student has a right to have his character and disposition pat- 

terns receive consideration. 

Some guidance authority, who has well in mind all the faculty faults 
and merits, all the faculty patterns of discipline, the classroom manage- 
ment, and the manner of contacting students should place the student 
where he will work to advantage as far as social adjustment, character 
development, and scholarship are concerned. He should be rescued and 
transferred from a misfit to a student who is properly adjusted to his 
environment. 

(8) A student has the right to expect some definite guiding effort 

to lead him to higher character levels. 

This should not be a casual by-product of a traditional regime. It 
should be a separate program, conscious of its own purpose. It may con- 
sist of group discussions, projects, and private conferences. As a re- 
verse to predication 8, a student’s mistakes, blunders, and vices should be 
dealt with sympathetically, with an educational goal in mind. In other 
words, a school must recognize that a student’s character is not fully 
developed. 

(9) The student has a right to claim one faculty member as his 

special friend. 

He should belong to some guiding spirit. If this cannot be a cen- 
tralized counselor, it can be an assigned teacher, interested and willing. 
This teacher differs from a home-room teacher. Sections are, for the 
most part, mechanical. This guiding teacher, whether a centralized 
counselor or not, should study all the student’s record cards and add to 
them, and she should concern herself in his successes, his failures, and 
his problems—making it a personal matter to do so. 

A student does not consciously realize what he has a right to ex- 
pect, but he has a right to expect it, nevertheless.* 


This reply began a series of discussions between this 
teacher and the principal which led to a definite attack on the 
guidance program as it applied to problem cases. Certain spe- 
cific needs of our school have been recognized for some time: 
(1) The need for enlisting more specific faculty service in the 
cause of character training; and (2) The need of provision for 
the guidance over a long period of time of an individual prob- 
lem pupil by an individual personality (teacher). 

It was agreed that this called for a new organization in 
our faculty. Personal work in conduct-guidance by individual 
members of the faculty was seen as necessary. One teacher 
can, of necessity, keep up with only a few cases in addition to 
her classroom work. To begin with, it was agreed that this 
service should enlist a group of picked teachers; picked because 
of their willingness and interest, and in their ability in this 
field. After numerous discussions, the following plan of at- 


tack to begin with was set down: 


1. A faculty committee of five shall be selected by the principal. 
2. These five teachers shall meet daily during a school period, say 
the fifth or sixth period. The nature of their work shall be com- 








*Mrs. Marie Foote, teacher, Murphy High School, Mobile, Alabama, 





















4 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 


pletely divorced from the idea of detention or punishment, with 
both teacher and student. 

3. Cases shall be referred to this committee from the office only. 
All other sources, such as teachers or monitors, who have cases 
they desire to refer to the committee, will first refer them to the 
office. 

4. Each case shall be delegated to or chosen by one of the five fac- 
ulty members for personal attention, after a group consideration 
of it. The group shall decide whether the case shall be closed with 
a single treatment or shall be indefinitely adopted. Group dis- 
cussions of the case shall be renewed, and recommendations shall 
be changed by the request of any member of the committee. Re- 
ports of progress shall be made to the group periodically. 

5. Detention shall be barred as a task assigned. During the year, 
detention rooms if kept, shall be kept by non-committee teachers. 
However, conferences after the end of the school day are not to 
be construed as detention. 

6. The teacher handling the case shall keep (in triplicate) a con- 

tinuing record of it. Copies of both an initial and a final report 

shall be filed with the principal. 

Once an official report recommends adoption, all new offences 

developing in the case or by the offender elsewhere shall be re- 

ferred to the committee. 

8. An adoption shall call for a regularly scheduled interview be- 
tween the offender and the teacher-guide. This interview may 
take place at any time of day convenient to both parties. It shall 
be for the purpose of checking on tasks assigned, continuing dis- 
cussions of points involved, and the consideration of new offences, 
encouragement, and reports of “everything all right.” 

9. Any member of this faculty committee shall have authority to in- 
terview any offender during the period of the committee meeting. 

10. An offender may be considered for release from this “adoption” 
at any time he requests. In such case, he is to be returned to the 
office for attention. However, great care should be observed in 
giving the offender the teacher of his choice, if possible and if 
desirable. 

11. This leads to the possibility of paroling an offender to a teacher 
who is not a member of the committee. In this case, the guiding 
teacher shall give periodic, written reports to the committee. Such 
a case would be indirectly under the charge of a committee mem- 
ber. This brings into service more faculty members which would 
in itself be good. 

12. It is not desirable to have any rigid organization for this com- 
mittee. Its work should be left as elastic as possible. 


All the provisions in this arrangement were not found to 
be wise when put into practice and some modifications, there- 
fore, were made as experience justified. This proposed plan 
or arrangement was explained to the entire faculty for discus- 
sion, suggestions, and approval. The faculty approval gave 
strength to the movement that it could not otherwise have se- 
cured. 

(Statements made here and on the following pages are 
based on reports made to the principal on the work of the com- 
mittee by the chairman of the committee for sessions 1935-36, 
1936-37.) 

In accordance with this plan, a committee of five spe- 
cially selected teachers was appointed. This committee met 


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1938} DEVELOPING A FACULTY COMMITTEE ON PuPIL ADJUSTMENT 5 





for the first time on November 4, 1935, with no set program 
and no work to do, awaiting assignments from the office. 

The teacher appointed as chairman of this faculty com- 
mittee was one who has been adviser to the Honor Committee 
for several years, which committee is connected with the Stu- 
dent Codperative Government Association. She had had a 
wealth of experience with cases brought before that commit- 
tee. The fact that some cases brought before the student com- 
mittee needed more attention and service than the Student 
Government group could give was an influence that partly 
caused the establishment of the Faculty Committee on Student 
Adjustments. The first few days were spent, therefore, in dis- 
cussing the work of the Honor Committee, setting up an or- 
ganization, and adopting methods of procedure. 

The work of the committee up to the present has been 
largely experimental. They have gone exploring to find a place 
of service for themselves in Murphy High School. At the be- 
ginning, their intention was to limit their efforts to pupils who 
had conduct difficulties. This very intention carried them over 
into other fields. From the beginning, it was planned that 
nothing of intentions, procedures, or policies should be fixed, 
but, that all should be free to develop with any changing con- 
ditions or situations. Service throughout was voluntary, 
friendly, and motivated by personal] faith and convictions. 

The tasks assigned to the committee fall into two groups: 
(1) Cases of problem pupils with conduct difficulties, and; 
(2) Surveys which may lead to new fields of effort for the 
years ahead. 

The committee has divided the problem-pupil assignments 
into three classes: long cases, short cases, and single-offence 
cases. A long case is the assignment of a problem pupil for an 
indefinite period of time. The aim is to change the student’s 
point of view, encourage the discouraged, or adjust the malad- 
justed. A short case is the assignment of a problem-pupil for 
a definite period of time; that is, until a definite goal has been 
reached. A single-offence case is the assignment of a situa- 
tion or of a particular difficulty involving one or many pupils, 
to be terminated at the close of its settlement. 

Surveys have been of two kinds: (1) Of those pupils 
Whose report on conduct was excessively low, and; (2) Of 
those pupils who failed a majority of their classes the previ- 
ous semester. 

During the first year this committee handled nine long 




















DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 
cases and numerous short cases and single-offence cases. Sur- 
veys were made of all the pupils in our school who had received 
abnormally low conduct grades and of all the pupils who failed 
in three or more subjects. Detailed reports of the results ob- 
tained are on file in the principal’s office. These reports con- 
tain material enough for several articles, and space cannot be 
given here for the statement of specific results. The purpose 
in this article is to explain the development of the organization. 


In the course of the year’s work, certain general points 
had to receive consideration. Such as those presented in deal- 
ing with long cases will illustrate the spirit, the purpose, and 
the method of the committee’s work. 

It was necessary that the steps involved in getting as- 
signments to the committee be worked out. At first, the com- 
mittee recommended taking a problem case concerning a stu- 
dent who was at the moment in serious trouble. This, the 
group thought, would give them a grave problem to solve at 
once, would place the pupil in readiness to receive guidance, 
and would demonstrate to him effectively their methods. In 
one case, a boy was given a choice between suspension and be- 
ing assigned to the committee as a long time case. In every 
case the purpose of the teacher group was carefully explained 
to the pupil, because it was a new agency in the school organi- 
zation. At no time was a pupil forced to accept the assign- 
ment of the committe, but was told of its purpose and elected 
to go. In most cases the principal conferred with the pupil in 
the presence of a member of the committee. Details of the 
case were thus explained to the committee, and the assignment 
was made definitely official and accepted by the pupil. Later, 
after having had experience with a few cases, and after the 
work of the committee had become known, assignments on gen- 
eral charges were accepted without office conferences, and the 
pupil was called before the committee and told of the report 
they had concerning him. 

In the beginning, no student was called before the entire 
committee. The idea was to have the student deal at all times 
with only one teacher, his sponsor. This policy was modified 
for two reasons: 


1. When a member of our committee explained, in a private inter- 
view with the student to be assigned, our purposes and practices, 
much of the give-and-take of the interview was lost to the other 
members. We also decided later that it was desirable to have the 
student feel that he belonged to the whole committee, even though 
he was assigned to a single teacher. We, therefore, found it 
more satisfactory to have the student appear before our five mem- 



























1938] DEVELOPING A FACULTY COMMITTEE ON PUPIL ADJUSTMENT 


bers. This interview concluded with asking the student to name 
the teacher he preferred as a guiding friend. 

2. It became desirable in two cases, after a month or more of work, 
to recall a student before our five members. This was to inform 
him that we expected greater codperation if he stayed with us. 
In both cases, the boys elected to remain with us and try harder. 
This recall was always at the request of the sponsor.”* 


The choice of a guiding teacher by a pupil was a new thing 
in our school. Some faculty members doubted that it would 
work satisfactorily. It must be remembered that the assign- 
ment in all cases was voluntary on the part of both student and 
teacher. The teacher, though asked for by a student, did not 
need to accept the charge. Experience so far has been that no 
teacher has refused an assignment. This element of choice 
has possibly been the most successful phase of the cases. Most 
of the pupils were found to have decided preferences, and very 
decided aversions. To have assigned one arbitrarily to the 
wrong faculty personality would have wrecked a case at the 
beginning. It is a growing conviction here that the element 
of choice is excellent. 

In a number of cases, the teacher guide visited the home 
of the student assigned, explained our purpose to the parents, 
and observed conditions. Without exception, every parent in- 
terviewed has expressed appreciation. Messages of apprecia- 
tion have also been received. However, if for any specific 1ea- 
son, a sponsor felt that a visit to the home would be unwise, 
she was free to omit the visit. 

There was no definite procedure for turning a student 
back to the administration. This was done by conference with 
the principal. The details were left indefinite to suit changing 
phases of different situations. No two personalities, no two 
cases, no two situations are precisely alike; therefore, we have 
kept methods and treatment flexible in all the work of the com- 
mittee. 

Three of the nine charges received from the office in the 
first session were returned to the office for general routine 
treatment. Two of these boys were so incorrigible that to re- 
tain them would have been bad for the boys as well as for the 
committee. It was desired that the committee should at no 
time seem to be an easy haven for anyone. There were, how- 

ever, even with these two boys, certain encouraging develop- 
ments present, at least temporarily. The third boy was re- 
tained by his sponsor unofficially. This means that she con- 


*From report of Faculty Committee on Student Adjustments, June. 
1936. 



























DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 





[April, 





tinued her interest in him. She wished to turn the case back 
officially in order to be relieved of responsiblity, since the boy 
was not responding as he should have. 

In the course of the year, our policy in another detail was 
changed. It was first thought wise for all the complaints re- 
garding an assigned student to be handled by the committee. 
This was changed. Complaints and offenses are still reported 
to the committee, but if a student is in line for a penalty or a 
reprimand, it seems best to let him receive it, and to then take 
the matter up with his sponsor also. The committee is to be 
no refuge for an offending student. 

As numbers of cases came to the committee for considera- 
tion, it became necessary to increase the number of teachers 
who would be willing to be used in the capacity of sponsor. 
Therefore, a call was made for teachers to volunteer for this 
service. To this call a great majority of the faculty responded. 
Thus, the work of the committee was shared by the whole fac- 
ulty group. 

Each sponsor has always been free to handle situations in 
her own case as she has thought wise. However, the entire 
committee has had frequent discussions relating to each case 
in the course of the regular weekly reports made to it. The 
sponsors have very often brought individual problems to the 
entire committee for advice. It has been found effective for an 
assigned student to feel that every member of the committee 
is personally interested in him. Frequent conferences with 
the principal, of course, were also held. Thus, the school unites 
in attacking the problem of maladjusted pupils. 

In the committee’s report to the principal on results with 
long cases, the chairman makes this statement: 

1. We have done no apparent harm. This is, in itself, no idle state- 

ment. We have had no clashes anywhere. 

2. We have held to friendly efforts throughout. This is recognized 
alike by all students and faculty members. 

3. The unofficial continuance in school of a teacher’s guiding interest 
is a very satisfactory development. 

4. Better school adjustments have been apparent in a number of 
cases. 


5. The sponsors are unanimous in the feeling that the personal tie 
with an assigned student will endure beyond school years.* 


The committee is working at present on a survey of the 
school relative to excessive absences and tardinesses. The aim 
is to find out the causes and to discover how they may be justi- 
fied or removed. 





*From report of Faculty Committee on Student Adjustments, June, 
1936. 












eee ee 























1938] DEVELOPING A FACULTY COMMITTEE ON PuPIL ADJUSTMENT 9 

The object is not to analyze conditions in order that the 
school may make a rule that will improve its record, but to 
make a study of the individuals concerned so that they may be 
helped by means of a changed attitude, and may enjoy suc- 
cessful relations with the school. The individual’s record, not 
the school’s record, is in the forefront. Satisfactory results 
may be expected as work progresses next semester. This 
seems to the writer to be an example of vitalized research 
work. 


The work of this committee is still somewhat in the experi- 
mental stage in that its procedure is continually being modi- 
fied and new fields are being attacked, but the result of the 
past two years justifies faith in the place of such a committee 
in our school. Certain specific values have been derived from 
the effort of the group. The thinking of the whole faculty has 
been honey-combed by the many contacts with the teachers. 
This in itself may well be considered a contribution to the wel- 
fare of the school. To induce teachers to feel the need of not 
only discovering and reporting problems but to seek their solu- 
tion in every way possible and with every aid available is 
greatly to be desired. To know why one pupil fails is as im- 
portant to teaching as to know why another one succeeds. 


In conclusion, let me quote from the committee’s report 
again: 


We feel that the committee has been a clearing house for the 
school’s conscience. It has been a final effort to reconstruct. If we 
fail, we do so with fewer regrets and less accountability than would 
otherwise be possible. We believe that in certain types of cases the 
influence of the home, the street, the wrong companionships, the au- 
tomobile, examples of greed and graft in high places, and night life 
are so insidious and blighting that, if we fail, we fail with good 
grace. We have at least tried. What we do accomplish is just so 
much to the good. The school can hope to lift most of these malad- 
justed students to a little higher than the level of our times, but not 
much higher. Some of the cases are beyond adjustment. The work 
we have done has made us more alert to many problems; it has, in 
a sense, been sobering and challenging to us.” 


*From report of Faculty Committee on Student Adjustments, June, 
1936. 

















ADMINISTRATION OF GUIDANCE IN SECONDARY 
SCHOOL 


FRANKLIN R. ZERAN 


Director, Testing and Guidance, Lincoln High School, Manitowoc, Wisconsin 


Guidance has come to be recognized as a desirable and 
necessary part of the educational program. Parents and lay- 
men have become keenly sensitive to the importance of guid- 
ance. Because of these facts, there is need of an inventory on 
the administration of guidance in the public secondary schools. 

The aim of a study which has just been completed by the 
writer was to determine contemporary practices in the admin- 
istration of guidance in American secondary schools. The re- 
sulis of the study should be helpful to administrators who may 
now be in charge of such programs or are at present organiz- 
ing a program of this sort. The use of certain guidance prac- 
tices by the schools studied does not necessarily mean that 
these are the best procedures, nor does the non-usage of a prac- 
tice necessarily mean that it is one which should be less care- 
fully considered. 

The investigation was carried on through the use of a 
printed questionnaire. This questionnaire was nine months in 
the making, and the tenth form was the one finally distributed. 
This form was the result of the combined criticisms of over one 
hundred guidance workers and administrators of the Middle 
West. 

Since the investigation was for the purpose of ascertain- 
ing good and poor practices in the administration of guidance, 
it was decided to send these questionnaires to school systems 
designated as having outstanding guidance programs. John 
Callahan, State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Wis- 
consin, wrote to the other forty-seven state superintendents 
and asked for a list of the schools which they believed had the 
outstanding guidance programs in their states. After the first 
questionnaire was sent out, follow-up letters were written 
wherever necessary. Returns were received from seventy- 

eight per cent of the schools contacted. 

A summary of the data gathered in the study is presented 
under the two following classifications: 

1. Size of schools: Group I, Less than 200; Group II, 
200-499; Group III, 500-999; and Group IV, 1000 and over. 

2. Geographical division used by Fowlkes:* Division A, 


*Fowlkes, J. G. School Bonds. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Bruce Pub- 
lishing Co., 1924. Pp. 155. 


10 
















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ADMINISTRATION OF GUIDANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOL 11 





1938] 


Eastern or Industrial; Division B, Southern; Division C, Great 
Lakes or Manufacturing; Division D, Great Plains or Agricul- 
tural; and Division E, Western. 

The evidence derived from a summarization of the col- 
lected data tends to show that the guidance practices in Amer- 
ican secondary schools are in need of revision. Specifically it 
has been found that: 

1. In every function of guidance, the principal was found 
to be the one outstanding individual in charge. This holds true 
regardless of classification of the schools by enrollment group- 
ings or geographical divisions. In nearly all of the schools the 
principal “heads guidance work in a general way.” Seldom 
does he “personally carry on the guidance work.” In the 
smaller schools the administrator has charge of “attendance” 
and “tardiness,” while in the larger schools this is done by of- 
fice workers. The guidance responsibilities of administrators 
are not peculiar to a given geographical division. There are 
more responsibilities of the administrator which are peculiar 
to enrollment grouping than to geographical divisions. 

2. Few schools, except in the East, have full-time guid- 
ance workers. The classification “part of the afternoon” de- 
voted to guidance work is the most frequently used. Teachers 
of social studies, English, and mathematics are more often 
chosen for guidance work than teachers of other subjects. 
However, teachers of music, French, Latin, physical educa- 
tion, manual arts, and home economics are also assigned to 
counseling work in some of the schools. In very few in- 

stances have workers had any formal training in guidance, 
case studies, tests, and measurements. 

3. The time allotted to registration work varies from one 
hour in one school to six months in another. The administra- 
tor of the school marking one hour as the time allotted to reg- 
istration work felt that one hour of questions and answers was 
all that was needed in planning and arranging the pupil’s pro- 
gram. On the other hand, it is obvious that six months is too 
long. The majority are in favor of from five to six weeks of 
time devoted to arranging and planning the pupil’s program. 

4. The principal is the one individual who is predom- 
inantly in charge of registration and pre-registration. How- 
ever, as the school enrollment increases, the tendency is for 
the principal to relinquish this duty to the home-room teacher, 
advisor, or counselor. 

5. Issuing bulletins to incoming students concerning 
courses offered seems to be a general practice regardless of 

















12 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 


the size of the school. 

6. The practice of having the high-school principal visit 
the elementary schools or of sending students to the high school 
prior to the entrance into high school of these students is a 
common practice in all schools. 

7. Small school principals do not make a practice of meet- 
ing with the parents of pupils coming to the high school for 
the first time. 

8. The method used least by schools, regardless of size, 
is to have teachers visit the pupils at their grade schools prior 
to their entrance into high school. 

9. The schools in the Great Lakes and Southern sections 
usually require several individuals to give their approval be- 
fore allowing a pupil to change his program. These changes 
usually are permitted during the early part of the school year. 

10. The schools of the Eastern, Great Plains, and West- 
ern sections usually require the approval of only one individual 
in allowing changes in a pupil’s program. However, the larger 
the schools, the greater is the tendency to have combinations of 
individuals in charge of program changes. 

11. In most cases where a change in the pupil’s program 
is approved by one individual, that individual is the principal. 

12. In the majority of the schools, pupil conferences are 
used in the treatment of failure cases. There is a general ten- 
dency to take into consideration a child’s capacity when giving 
grades. 

13. Case studies, remedial work, and testing seem to be 
used very little in the treatment of failure cases. 

14. There is agreement among the schools as to a definite 
time to check failures. This period is at the time report cards 
are issued. 

15. Most schools arrange for interviews whenever the 
pupils wish. In most cases interviews are allowed during the 
school day. The interviews in most cases are voluntary and 
not required. 

16. There is a decided difference in the way pupils are 
assigned to home rooms. Schools within the same system do 
not always use the same method of home-room assignment. 
This might be expected since conditions differ among schools 
within the same system many times as much as do schools in 
different systems. The most frequent methods of assignment 
were “by class” and “class and alphabetical.” 

17. There are regular vocational courses taught in one- 


half of the schools investigated. 




























ADMINISTRATION OF GUIDANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOL 13 





1938] 


18. In schools not having a regular vocational course, in- 
formation on vocations is disseminated mainly through classes 
in English, social sciences, commerce, industrial arts, and 
mathematics. 

19. All schools use trips to plants, motion pictures, slides, 
talks, pupil investigations, pamphlets, and the library as part 
of the work in vocational guidance. 

20. Most schools having vocational guidance talks permit 
the attendance of anyone interested. 

21. In the smaller schools, the pupils are permitted to 
stop and question the speaker on vocations at any time. This 
is not the case in the schools enrolling over five hundred pupils. 

22. Few schools provide the speakers with outlines or re- 
quire their use if provided. 

23. Most schools keep the guidance records in the ad- 
ministrative office. All schools, regardless of enrollment or 
geographical location, record the following facts on the final 
record card: (a) Child’s name; (b) Past scholastic record; 
(c) Past attendance record; and (d) Tardiness record. The 
facts which are recorded least often by the schools are: (a) 
State standardized test results; (b) Number of older children 
in the family; (c) Number of younger children in the family ; 
and (d) Employment record. However, none of these facts 
should be deleted from the record card. For example, since 
Wisconsin, during the past few years, has launched a state pro- 

gram of standardized tests, the final record cards should in- 
clude space to record the results. As the use of personality 
tests becomes more prevalent, schools should make provisions 
to include these results on the final record. 

24. Practically all schools use a cumulative record, with 
most of the schools starting these records in the first grade. 

25. There is no conformity as to the grades, or combina- 
tions of grades, in which intelligence and achievement tests 
should be given. Neither is there much agreement as to which 
tests to use. There is agreement, however, in having the prin- 
cipal be the one individual most frequently mentioned as hav- 
ing charge of the testing program. This fact again points to 
the necessity for a strong background of training in guidance, 
educational psychology, tests, and measurements for the prin- 
F cipal. 

26. The standards used to evaluate the possible outcomes 
of guidance practices which rank highest and hence can be said 
to be of major importance are not the same for all enrollment 
groups. There is, however, relative agreement among the 




















14 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 


schools in regard to practices of major and minor values. 
When the rankings of the standards are studied on the geo- 
graphical division basis, it is seen that there is agreement be- 
tween the rankings by enrollment groups and those of the re- 
gional groups. 

The rankings place the following standards at the head of 
the list: (a) Decrease in the number of pupil failures; (b) Bet- 
ter relationship between school and parents; and (c) Better re- 
lationship between pupils and teachers. 

27. Home calls are frequent in all sections except the 
South. Parent counseling at night is not prevalent in any sec- 
tion except the Great Lakes region. 

As a result of this study the following recommendations 
are offered: (a) All administrators should be required to take 
appropriate courses in guidance, psychology, case study, test- 
ing, and measurements; (b) All teachers should be required to 
meet definite certification standards to be set up by the state 
departments of education. These standards should include 
courses in guidance, psychology, case study, testing, and meas- 
urements; (c) The publication of a handbook on registration 
practices and aids is necessary. This would serve as a guide 
to those in charge of administering the registration work and 
would help improve and unify methods of procedure in this 
phase of educational guidance; (d) Failure cases should be 
treated through the use of scientific, objective devices. The 
failing pupil should be tested, the findings diagnosed, and re- 
medial treatment prescribed; (e) The field of vocational guid- 
ance is definitely in need of samples of well-organized pro- 
grams. These could serve as suggested programs, and with 
alterations could be adapted for use in schools not having 
trained guidance workers; (f) There is need for improvement 
in the practice of child accounting. Few schools have ade- 
quate or correlated records. These records should be in trip- 
licate form so one set can be left in the administrative office, 
one set in the home room, and one set in the physical educa- 
tion office; (g) Stress should not be placed on a demand for 
new tests, but on the proper interpretation of the tests which 
are available. This can be accomplished by requiring all 
teachers to take courses in tests and measurements. Teaching 
loads should be reduced in order to allow teachers adequate 
time to interpret the results and apply remedial treatment; 
and (h) Constant evaluation of guidance practices is neces- 
sary in order that time may be devoted to these phases which 
are deemed to be most valuable. 




















CURRICULUM BUILDING IN SECONDARY SCHOOL 


J. PAUL LEONARD 


Associate Professor of Education, Stanford University 


Until the last few years, the conventional method of re- 
organizing the curriculum consisted of a revision of the con- 
tent of the various subject-matter fields, done either at stated 
intervals or whenever the group felt like doing so. The proc- 
ess involved, eliminating, adding, or shifting around certain 
aspects of the content of the existing courses. Frequently new 
courses were added, and occasionally some were removed. The 
organization of the material was logical, and sequence de- 
pended upon the nature of the subject. The objectives of the 
course were stated in terms of the contribution that each of 
the subjects might make to some notion of the general cur- 
riculum pattern. Courses of study were built specifying con- 
tent for each subject. 

But as time went on and conditions changed, dissatisfac- 
tion with “resurfacing” the curriculum arose. Some believed 
that there were too many subjects in the curriculum, and that 
reorganization by addition or deletion of courses was unsound. 
If one adds, one must likewise eliminate; and if one adds 
without relationship to a basic plan, one further confuses. 
Therefore, they argued, it is necessary to reconsider the en- 
tire purpose and underlying philosophy of the school for the 
selection of curriculum content. 

There was, also, a general belief that the curriculum did 
not provide the means for making available to all pupils expe- 
riences which should be common to everybody,—as those that 
have to do with safety, health, recreation, vocations, consump- 
tion, and the more general activities in which all people are 
likely to engage. Such a collection of specialized fields of 
knowledge represented in the secondary schools was not likely 
to produce common understanding of common problems. 

Then there was very definite interest in reorganizing the 
curriculum to give it a more fundamental social orientation. 
In times of economic and social disturbance, as we have been 
experiencing recently, men are prone to think of fundamental 
reorganization. Some of the results of that thinking are be- 
coming evident in the organization of a number of curriculum 
programs for secondary schools to-day. But as is to be ex- 
pected, there is a wide difference of opinion. 

Moving under divergent leadership and lacking any gen- 
erally accepted philosophy clear and definite enough to direct 


15 















16 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 


curriculum organization, the secondary-school programs of 
America to-day represent wide differences in practice. While 
there are emerging certain common patterns, the form of cur- 
riculum development to-day is likely to represent the philos- 
ophy and method of the dominant leader in the program. In 
some areas, local people are supplying the leadership for the 
curriculum revision program; in other places, leadership is 
being furnished by the state department of education or by the 
county offices, through their supervisory staff; and in still 
other places, consultants from outside the local area are sup- 
plying the leadership. Then, too, there are organized groups 
to promote curriculum revision. In eleven southern states, the 
Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools has 
formulated a commission to encourage experimentation in 
certain individual secondary schools. For several years the 
Progressive Education Association, through its Commission on 
the Relation of Secondary Schools and Colleges, has stimulated 
and aided the formulation of experimental curriculum pro- 
grams. Similar attempts to encourage local school experimen- 
tation are under way in Michigan, Ohio, and California. With 
so much experimentation going on under such a wide range 
of leadership, large differences in curriculum organization are 
to be expected and desired. 

These differences, however, are not so great that they can- 
not be classified. For the purpose of this report, suppose we 
consider them under three plans: 


PLAN A. In this plan, provision is made for a core of in- 
structional material. The core is built around a pattern called 
“Scope and Sequence.” The Scope is a classification of the 
social functions of society, and the Sequence is a series of state- 
ments designating the grade level for the study of certain as- 
pects of the social functions. Theoretically the place of these 
aspects is determined by the maturity of the child. Conven- 
tional subject matter lines are disregarded, and materials are 
drawn from many sources. Objectives are formulated in 
terms of the social needs of the pupils at the various age levels. 
In addition to the core material, elective types of subjects in 
various special interest fields are offered. 


PLAN B. Under this plan, curriculum materials are de- 
veloped in large areas or broad fields rather than through sep- 
arate subjects. There is frequently new groupings of old sub- 
jects under such headings as language arts, social studies, and 
sciences. Definite effort is made to fuse the curricular mate- 





1938 ] CURRICULUM BUILDING IN SECONDARY SCHOOL 17 


rial, thereby eliminating some narrow conventional subject- 
matter lines. The organization is more or less logical in na- 
ture. The objectives are generally to be found in the nature of 
the materials themselves. 


PLAN C. In this procedure, the content is organized pri- 
marily in terms of the child’s interests. No definite curriculum 
is set up; broad outlines may be developed centering around 
the interest of the children, but the determination of learning 
activities is considered largely a group matter. New areas 
open up as study goes forward. Teaching is primarily a mat- 
ter of providing a suitable environment for the free expression 
of children, recognizing their interests, and providing ample 
opportunity for their expression. Objectives are realized as 
the child’s creative expression is released. 

A consideration of some of the characteristics of these 
three plans, followed by illustrations from the programs, 
should demonstrate the character of the changes in curriculum 
building. 

Plan A provides for a “core area” and “election areas.” 
Provision for the core area is a recognition of the demand for 
general education providing for the integration of pupils by 
offering them common experiences in dealing with common 
problems. Through this core area, society, desiring to assure 
the continuance of democracy, charges the school with teach- 
ing youth: (a) to understand the nature of our evolving culture 
and the place of the individual in it; (b) to have a knowledge 
of the way things ought to be, by knowing the values that have 
been set up by determining a standard for himself; and (c) to 
develop the power to participate in the evolving culture in 
which the youth finds himself, directing it in the way he thinks 
it ought to go. Paralleling the core course are “election areas,” 
organized to meet the different present and future needs of 
youth. These areas are still largely organized by subjects and 
are pursued by pupils who have previously manifested interest 
or capacity in them. They meet the needs for college entrance, 
avocational purposes, pre-vocational skills, etc. The vocational 
education of youth remains pretty much as it has been the past 
decade, “a boat without a rudder.” 

The desire for a core area has probably led to the search 
for an adequate frame of reference, by reference to which con- 
tent for this area might be chosen. The procedure followed in 
most of the curriculum programs has been to set up first a 
philosophy of the school in terms of two variables: the needs 























18 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 











and maturity of the child, and modern social conditions. This 
philosophy is then followed by a set of more definite aims, in- 
tended to give the teacher guidance in arriving at definite 
growth in understanding, attitudes, appreciations, and skills. 
The problem then arises as to what extent the teacher should 
be free to select her own materials to achieve these aims. Of 
course, she may browse, as it were, in the whole field of human 
culture—historical and contemporary. She may teach in each 
particular grade what appears to her to be essential; or in 
some instances, what appears to be her most dominating in- 
terest. While this may be satisfactory for a single year, it be- 
comes administratively unwieldy and lacks a common pattern 
when accumulated year after year. A child exposed to a num- 
ber of different teachers, each having definite interests which 
may be valuable within themselves but which when added to 
the previous experience of the child may not develop sequential 
growth, comes out of the secondary school without many com- 
mon experiences. Thus, in order to insure a certain amount 
of sequential development in harmony with youth’s growing 
abilities and needs and also in harmony with the purposes of 
society in establishing the schools, definite attempts have been 
made to outline a scope and sequence pattern. 


Of course, there have always been both scope and sequence 
in the high-school program. Scope has been in terms of the 
entire range of subjects offered, and sequence has been more or 
less in terms of the development of definite powers within each 
of the subjects. Sequence has then been limited to subject 
development rather than to the total development of the child 
during the length of stay in school. 


The present attempt to define a scope grows out of a 
rather strong feeling that materials organized under the plan 
of offering a large range of subjects does not give the child the 
best opportunity to learn the material in such a way that it will 
carry over with the greatest ease to normal life situations. 
That is, the material itself does not possess the essential unity 
that will enable the child to see easily the essential relation- 
ships that exist. There is a desire to so organize the material 
that the child will increasingly gain an understanding of the 
issues and problems that confront him outside of the school, 
as well as growth in power to handle his personal life as he 
proceeds through school. Curriculum workers, therefore, have 
searched for those major centers of activity of human endeavor 
which are common to all times and all peoples. If these can be 

















1938] CURRICULUM BUILDING IN SECONDARY SCHOOL 19 





- ' discovered, materials can be grouped around them in such a 
- way that the needs of life will be clear to the child, and the 
te possibility for developing power to meet them can be provided. 
Is. If these can be stated in terms of the fundamental activities of 
Id human life, they will likewise enable the curriculum builders 
df to cut across subject-matter lines, providing they can be stated 
- so as not to imply definite subject-matter organization. If this 
*h can be done, one step has been made toward the elimination of 
- our artificial divisions of learning. Much interest has been 
a stimulated, and as a result, many definitions or classifications 
i of scope have been prepared. Let us examine a few classifica- 
” tions of scope to see the difference in the categories that have 
“ been used. 


Virginia, the first state to use this approach in building a 
curriculum, selected the following nine items. They called 
them the “Major functions of social living’: (1) Protection 
of life, property, and natural resources; (2) Production of 
: goods and services, and distribution of the returns of produc- 
E tion; (3) Consumption of goods and services; (4) Communica- 
tion and transportation of goods and people; (5) Recreation; 
(6) Expression of aesthetic impulses; (7) Expression of re- 
ligious impulses; (8) Education; and (9) Extension of 
P freedom. 

With this list as a basis, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, 
and Texas prepared similar lists of major functions, even 
though they changed the name somewhat from that title. 
Texas combined some of those which Virginia had separated, 
left out “Extension of Freedom,” and added “Government.” 
Mississippi kept several of those that Virginia had and gave a 
few of them a little different emphasis. For instance, “Dis- 
tribution,” “Consumption,” “Communication,” and “Extension 
of Freedom” were omitted, and “Making a Home,” “Conserv- 
ing and Improving Material Conditions,” “‘Codperating in So- 
cial and Civic Action,” and “Getting a Living” were added. 

The scope of the one for Georgia, which is in very tentative 
form and not at all to be considered complete or official, is very 
similar to the one used in Mississippi. Arkansas includes the 
same ideas as Virginia, except. the omission-of “Extension of 
Freedom,” and the combination of two that Virginia had 

“separated. 

Examination of some of the recent city programs will 
reveal the same kind of classifications. For instance, the one 
in Birmingham, Alabama, is very similar to the one in Missis- 























20 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 
sippi; the one in Burbank, California, is almost exactly like 
that in Virginia; Riverside, California, uses the same state- 
ment as Virginia, except for the addition of “Integration of 
the Individual,” one which Virginia had in its first chart but 
later discarded. Riverside also adds another section to the 
scope which they call “Areas of Human Experiences.” These 
are five of the seven cardinal principles—citizenship, health, 
home membership, leisure, and vocation. Sacramento, Cali- 
fornia, has a little different classification. The following are 
used there: food, clothing, spiritual and aesthetic life, trans- 
portation and communication, recreation, creative and artistic 
expression, congenial employment, education, and government. 
It is obvious that all of these states and cities are thinking 
similarly about the nature of the scope. They are taking their 


ideas from the major functions of human living, and are sug- 
gesting the development of problems under those various 
functions. 

Before we move on to a consideration of sequence, it is 
interesting to illustrate another idea of scope which has been 
promoted probably by certain leaders of the Progressive 


Education Association. 

Since 1933, the Tulsa, Oklahoma, public school system has 
been participating in the eight-year study being carried on by 
the Progressive Education Association. In 1936 a curriculum 
steering committee was appointed in Tulsa to recommend to 
the secondary-school staff curriculum adjustments that should 
be made, and to codrdinate the work of all the experimental 
teachers. This committee, after considering the problem of 
categories for grouping experiences, selected three areas which 
were later used by the committee in working out definite mate- 
rials at Bronxville, where last summer the Progressive Educa- 
tion Association carried on a workshop. These three major 
areas were as follows: (1) Personal development; (2) De- 
velopment towards mature participation in a democratic so- 
ciety; and (3) Development of the essential skills of communi- 
cation and expression. 

It is apparent, quickly, that this sort of grouping is dif- 
ferent from the kind just described, where the major func- 
tions of social life are used. This kind of a grouping places 
definite emphasis upon certain behavior patterns of the indi- 
vidual and throws into the core statement more the nature of 
behavior and the psychological maturity of the individual. The 
Tulsa committee divided these three statements again. ‘“Per- 














~ unexpressed area of human culture. 








CURRICULUM BUILDING IN SECONDARY SCHOOL 21 






1938] 


sonal Development” was divided into physical, mental, and 
cultural development, and problems were suggested under each 
of these three classifications. The second statement was di- 
vided into four groups, personal-social development, broad 
social problems, social-political relationships, and economic re- 
lationships. The third one was divided into the various kinds 
of skills needed for success. Around these seven centers, prob- 
lems were organized and activities suggested for the successful 
study of a problem. 

In turning now to certain characteristics in Plan B, we 
are struck by some similarities between Plans A and B. Like 
Plan A, Plan B is interested in a core, but such a core is more 
likely to be expressed in an enlarged subject—social science or 
a core course combining social science and English. There are 
some attempts to express sequence differently, but in the main 
there is only logical arrangement of material in terms of the 
avowed function of the subject in achieving the general aims. 
Sequence, therefore, is still pretty largely a series of sequences, 
a different one existing for each subject grouping. Unity of 
subjects is attempted in both plans; but in Plan B, such unity 
is restricted to the grouping of minor divisions—geography, 
civics, history, economics—into major divisions—social studies. 
Election areas and vocational areas are very similar under both 
plans. 
Essentially in Plan B, the core is a course made up largely 
of materials from the social-science field. English is most fre- 
quently combined with it and sometimes science is added. Den- 
ver is an example of this where in the East High School for 
years a number of classes have been running that have been 
called a core course. According to a recent report from that 
city, there is now a very definite movement to expand the core 
course so as to include teachers of other subjects than English 
and the social studies; and so as to provide increased appor- 
tunity for codperative planning on the part of the teachers to 
provide materials which will consume more of the child’s total 
time. 

The scope, however, is not expressed as “Major Functions 
of Living” or a similar frame of reference, but reference is 
made directly to the aims and to a generally understood but 
The more generally used 
subject groupings are: Language arts, social studies, natural 
and physical sciences, the arts humanities, etc. 

It is obvious that these lists do not have in mind the same 











22 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 


kind of thing that the curriculum programs have where scope 
and sequence patterns are being used. The programs where 
curriculum subjects are regrouped have in mind more or less 
bringing about a certain amount of consolidation of the present 
existing subjects, retaining the present subject-matter lines by 
throwing them into larger groups. Such a reorganization is 
not likely to produce two kinds of things which the basic func- 
tion organization will produce; namely, a basis for cutting 
across subject-matter lines, thereby providing more codpera- 
tive teaching and the greater possibility of developing an 
understanding of relationships on the part of the child; and in 
second place, the definite provision for social orientation in 
terms of behavior patterns and the problems of human living. 
It is conceivably more difficult to select problems under the 
subject matter division that will do these things than to select 
them under the categories that have to do with the essential re- 
lationships of human behavior. 

The following courses of study are examples of Plan B: 
Fort Worth, Texas; Jacksonville, Florida; Indianapolis, In- 
diana; Florida State; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Pasadena, Cali- 
fornia; Rock Island, Illinois; South Dakota State; and the 
State of Texas. (Texas used a scope and sequence pattern but 
retained major subjects groupings under it.) 

In Plan C, the scope is determined by the nature of the 
individual to be educated and by his needs more than by the 
nature and needs of the society in which he lives. True, ref- 
erence is made to his immediate environment, but no definite 
attempt is made to acquaint the learner with a previously de- 
termined area of culture. Reference has been made under 
the description of Plan A to the method employed in Tulsa, 
Oklahoma, in determining the scope of experiences desired. 
This illustration will suffice to illustrate the methods employed 
in this plan. 

The Tulsa, Oklahoma, program also represents an inter- 
esting attempt to determine sequence without any definite 
guides, or without any statement of centers of interest or cen- 
ters of attention by grades which can be used to determine the 
problems for those particular levels. General criteria have 
been set up for the selection of problems, based upon such 
things as teacher consideration of the maturity of the child, 
the interests and needs of the child at particular grade levels, 
and his previous experiences. It is obvious that such a criteria 
forces upon each individual teacher the need for securing a 























1938 ] CURRICULUM BUILDING IN SECONDARY SCHOOL 23 


great deal of information which she will have difficulty in find- 
ing. The alternative to this is to do what Tulsa is considering ; 
namely, to set up by committee action, certain problems for cer- 
tain years, this determination to be based upon what the teach- 
ers in general know about children in the past as they have 
taught them at the various levels. This sort of an empirical 
way of determining grade allocations in terms of general no- 
tions abeut pupil growth. While this group points out the pos- 
sibility of formalizing and standardizing problems by years 
when they are set up in terms of definite sequential statement, 
they are open to the charge of planning experiences which will 
contain much overlapping and which may neglect the develop- 
ment of essential common understanding. To leave the selec- 
tion of problems by years entirely to the teacher without any 
guide is to make it difficult for the child to get the kind of 
sequential growth which he has a right to expect from the 
school, if the school works codperatively as it should. 


It is obvious that there is considerable difference about 
the notion of sequence in these three kinds of programs. Some 
consider sequence to be chronological or spatial. Some have 
in mind growth in certain intellectual processes or powers. 
Others consider it to be a matter of understanding casual rela- 
tionships, and still others believe it to be the understanding 
and growth in power to deal with an evolving culture in mod- 
ern society. Very definitely, sequence has to do with arranging 
successive experiences which the individual undergoes, by 
which he achieves power, understanding, and appreciation of 
the experiences of life. Whether it is to be arrived at by the 
development of certain concepts logically in terms of the sub- 
ject or the evolving culture itself, or whether it is to grow out 
of the changes in the various behavior experienced day by day 
by the child is a matter for profound consideration. One is 
conscious in these statements of sequence that some of them 
boast that they have moved away from the subject matter con- 
sideration of logic, chronology, or space, but yet the very state- 
ments they make betray their interest in these kinds of sequen- 
tial growth. There is no psychological justification for most of 
the statements of sequence. The fact that certain kinds of ex- 
periences are suggested for the earlier rather than for the later 
grades is not sufficient to justify the placement psychologically. 
The justification resides chiefly in the desire on the part of the 
curriculum builder to provide the child with a set of experi- 
ences which have some sequential aspects about them. 

















24 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 


On the other hand, there is not enough known about the 
maturation of the child to cause us to know definitely the kind 
of sequential growth which should take place. Therefore, we 
are caught on the one hand by lack of information and on the 
other hand by the accusation that our very action suggests a set 
of logical experiences’ for the child. It is true that we must 
decide something if the curriculum program is to be built, but 
that decision need not necessarily stop our thinking. The 
matter of sequence continues to challenge us. John Dewey 
recently emphasized its importance in saying: 

“Development ... is a continuous process, and continuity signifies 
consecutiveness of action. Here was the strong point of the traditional 
education at its best. The subject-matter of the classics and mathematics 
involved of necessity, for those who mastered it, a consecutive and orderly 
development along definite lines. Here lies, perhaps, the greatest prob- 
lem of the newer efforts in education. It is comparatively easy to im- 
provise, to try a little of this to-day and then something else to-morrow 
and next week. Things are done on the basis of some immediate interest 
and stimulation but without sufficient regard for what it leads to, as to 
whether or not something more difficult, setting new demands for infor- 
mation, need for acquisition of greater adequacy in technique and for new 
modes of skill is led up to and grows naturally out of what is started. .”! 

Truly nothing is settled but changes are being made. The 
curriculum field, which cuts across all other fields in school 
work, offer challenges alike to the intellectual who wishes to 
think about the nature of content and to the administrator who 
wishes to organize his school to meet the needs of children in 
modern life to-day. Our concept of the nature and use of sub- 
ject matter is changing,. and our ideas about the nature of the 
school as a social force are being challenged. Secondary edu- 
cation to-day is needing direction. It can get it only in a more 
adequate study of modern youth and of the needs of the world 
in which they live. Secondary education must be made danger- 
ous—dangerous to the forces that would destroy democratic 
government—f it is to justify its desire for universal support; 
and it must be made to meet the needs of modern youth, if it 
is to merit their respect. 





IDewey, J. “The need of a Philosophy of Education.” The New 
Era. (London), Vol. XV, No. 6, November, 1934, pp. 214F. [Italics 
mine. ] 

2See Leonard, J. Paul. “What Is Happening to Subject Matter?” 
California Journal of Secondary Education, 13:77-83, February, 1938, 




















A SIX-FOUR-FOUR PLAN IN OPERATION 


E. F. FARNER 


Dean, Parsons Junior College, Parsons, Kansas 


There is rather general agreement that all secondary edu- 
cation is within the province of the public school. There is not 
the same agreement as to the point where secondary education 
ends. Professor H. C. Morrison of the University of Chicago 
suggests that a test to define secondary education can “be 
found in the school procedure in which the pupil is capable of 
study but is incapable of systematic intellectual growth except 
under the constant tutorial presence of the teacher.” This test 
might cause us to pause long enough to wonder just where 
secondary education begins. That point, however, is irrelevant 
here. The fact that a large percentage of high-school gradu- 
ates have not yet learned to grow intellectually without the 
aid of a teacher (a condition which cannot be denied) has led 
educators generally to concede that the first two years of the 
orthodox four-year college should be considered as part of the 
secondary-school field. 

The rapid growth of the public junior college is a practical 
result of this theory. It is trite but true to say that the junior 
college has passed the stage of experimentation. In many 
states it has become an integral part of the public schools. 

The development of the junior college has, however, 
brought to the fore the question of public-school organization. 
Since the advent of the junior high school many systems have 
been operated on the six-two-four or the six-three-three basis. 
The addition of the junior college to either of those groupings 
produced a series of rather unsatisfactory units both from the 
view point of administration and of efficiency. The six-four- 
four plan of organization offers a solution for this problem. 
Educators who were particularly interested in the extension of 
the public-junior college perceived the tremendous advantages 
of the new organization. President Robert M. Hutchins and 
Professor Leonard V. Koos of the University of Chicago are 
active exponents of the six-four-four plan. Dr. William H. Kil- 
patrick of Columbia University has this to say about the new 
plan: “Taking the country over, the future of the four-year 
_ college as we now know it seems doubtful. For many reasons 
the six-four-four plan of higher education appears the better.” 
One of the pioneer systems to adopt the new plan was that of 
Pasadena, California. Other California Schools are beginning 


25 




























26 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS {April, 





to follow the example of Pasadena. Moberly, Missouri, has a 
four-year junior coilege but operates on a seven-three-four 
basis as the seventh grade is still retained by the elementary 
school. 

The six-four-four plan in the Parsons, Kansas, schools was 
inaugurated in 1935. Before the step was taken, patrons and 
teachers were asked to discuss freely the proposed change and 
its implications. The junior college had been in operation 
since 1923, and had become a popular and permanent part of 
the local schools. 

The school buildings and equipment are ideal for the new 
type of organization. Two commodious junior high buildings 
with adequate equipment are in operation; one in the east and 
the other, the west side of town. An advantage is the fact 
that no tenth-grade students need go through the business dis- 
trict of the city and through the subway in order to reach 
school if they are part of the junior-high units. The junior 
college makes profitable use of the room that became available 
with the change. On the advice of the superintendent, the 
board of education voted unanimously for the new type of 
secondary-school organization. 

Numerous questions arose in the minds of the school ad- 
ministration and teachers as to the results of this venture. The 
organization of the various units involved many difficult prob- 
lems. Teachers were shifted to care for the tenth-grade classes 
which now had become an integral part of a four-year junior 
high school. Curriculum revision came to the fore when ques- 
tion arose as to the courses to be made required or elective in 
each of the new units. Questions of terminology arose. The 
upper units is now recognized as a four-year junior college but 
it has been found necessary to retain a distinction between 
the former junior college and senior-high years. Accordingly. 
it has become the custom to refer to the eleventh and twelfth 
grades as the lower division and to the thirteenth and four- 
teenth grades as the upper division of the junior college. The 
lower division students are still called juniors and seniors, 
while the upper division students are known as freshmen and 
sophomores—a paradoxical situation which should be remedied 
as soon as possible. Similarly, the middle four-year units are 
usually known as junior high schools. In time they will prob- 
ably be referred to as high schools, with the seventh grade as 
the freshman year and the tenth grade as the senior year. 

The effect of the shift upon the tenth-grade students was 
observed with interest. At the end of the first year and again 

















1S 


d 


n 
yf 











(938 | A S1x-Four-Four PLAN IN OPERATION 27 
during the second year of the new alignment, data were secured 
in order to compare the status of the high-school sophomores 
before and after the change. As the low grade in the former 
junior college-senior high combination, they had been the step- 
children in their building. Now they had become the ranking 
class in each of the junior highs. In number and variety of 
activities they now ranked far above their former record of 
achievement. Their scholastic record was also improved. This 
improvement was not accomplished at the expense of the other 
junior high grades. In fact, the new four-year high school 
seems to have additional life and better morale than was found 
in the three-year school. It is evident that a four-year unit has 
possibilities which are not inherent in a three or a two-year 
unit. 

One of the supreme objectives of the change in organiza- 
tion was to promote integration between the various units. 
Faculty committees from the various departments were as- 
signed the task of correlating the courses in the two upper 
units. The gap which formerly existed between high school 
and college has been eliminated almost completely. That has 
been accomplished through an elevation of the type of work 
done in the eleventh and twelfth grades. A school bulletin 
which outlined proposed courses of study through the four- 
year period has also been useful in bringing together more 
closely the work of the upper and the lower division. No 
change has been noticeable in the high standard of work which 
has always characterized the junior college proper. 

An attempt has been made to minimize high-school gradu- 
ation. Where the high-school senior had formerly been given 
prominence and prestige, that attention has been shifted to the 
prospective junior-college graduate. Evidence that this policy 
has been at least tolerably effective is found in the gradually 
increasing per cent of students who go directly from the 
twelfth to the thirteenth grade. Approximately seventy per 
cent of the high-school class of 1937 were enrolled in the upper 
division of the junior college last September. It is expected 
that that percentage will be still further increased. High- 
school diplomas are still presented and ‘will be so long as they 
are desired by the students concerned. However, the average 

_student in the Parsons schools is now aiming towards gradua- 
tion from junior college rather than from high school only. 

The inter-school activity program has made it necessary 
to retain two groups of contestants particularly in athletics. 

Because other schools are not organized on this basis, both 




















28 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 















high-school and junior-college teams are maintained. When 
suitable competition is available, a school team representing 
the four-year institution in each sport will be organized. The 
same problem exists in debate and other fields of inter-school 
competition. This difficulty is the only real disadvantage ap- 
parent at this time in the new organization. It should be 
noted, however, that it is a problem only because other schools 
have not yet taken the advanced step; the problem is not in- 
herent in the type of organization. 

Inspired by the more efficient type of organization and the 
resulting improvement in administration, a comprehensive 
program of guidance and activities has been inaugurated. 
Faculty and students have joined hands in a fine spirit of 
mutual codperation to make this new program function satis- 
factorily in the two upper units of the six-four-four organiza- 
tion. It does seem, however, that the greater simplicity of the 
new organization has made possible a more efficient operation 
of these extra-curriculum endeavors. 

As may well be assumed, there still remains much to do to 
amalgamate and integrate the work of the two divisions of the 
junior college. Certain rights and privileges which high- 
school students previously possessed have been withdrawn 
from lower division students, but in turn, they have been given 
far greater freedom than is ordinarily permitted high-school 
juniors and seniors. Halls for supervised study are still main- 
tained for lower-division students, but those who average “B” 
or better during any six-week period are excused from report- 
ing to such study halls during the succeeding six weeks. 
Whereas the building was formerly closed to high-school stu- 
dents until certain hours on school days, all students are now 
permitted to enter at will. In general, a much greater free- 
dom is allowed than is characteristic of the modern high 

school; but this freedom is permitted, not so much to achieve 
the “college atmosphere,” as to instill in each student the need 
for individual judgment and responsibility. In general, too, 
students have shown their appreciation of this freedom. 

Three years may not be time enough to evaluate a new 
type of school organization. If, however, the administration 
and faculty of the Parsons schools were asked now to give their 
opinion of the new plan, there is no doubt that a large ma- 
jority would heartily endorse the change. There is no reason 
to suspect that any other verdict would be rendered by the 
students and the patrons of the school. 











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SAFETY EDUCATION IN OUR HIGH SCHOOLS 








































HERBERT J. STACK 


Director, Education Division, National Conservation Bureau 


Why this wave of popular interest in safety education in 
our high schools? Why add safety instruction to our already 
overcrowded high-school curriculum? Can it not be taught by 
the parents, by the police, by motor vehicle authorities, or by 
someone else? Why take perfectly good school time to teach 
students to be better drivers, safer swimmers, more careful 
workmen, or more intelligent housekeepers? The schools are 
already overburdened; they have too much to do as it is. Is 
not this safety instruction just a flash in the pan, another fad 
that has captured the imagination of the public and the 
schools? These are just a few of the questions that school men 
have been asking. They deserve thoughtful consideration, for 
undoubtedly a strong wave of popular interest in safety is 
sweeping over the country, and the schools are being called 
upon to help. State and city courses of study are being pub- 
lished. Conferences are being held. Teacher-training courses 
are being set up. Textbooks are flooding the market. Motion 
pictures are being distributed throughout the country; and 
laws requiring the teaching of safety are being enacted. Why 
all this sudden flare of interest? Is it just a transient move- 
ment, or is it something that has come to stay? 

Undoubtedly the most important reason is that the Ameri- 
can people are for the first time thoroughly alarmed about the 
growing tide of accidents. As a people we are comparatively 
slow to act, but once under way we move fast. A yearly sacri- 
fice of over 105,000 lives as a result of accidents, together with 
over ten million injuries seems too great a price to pay for the 
progress of the machine age. The American people have de- 
termined that accidents must be reduced. They are calling 
upon the police, safety councils, industries, schools, and all 
other agencies to help. The strong movement for safety in- 
struction in the high schools is a reflection of the popular de- 
mand that something intelligent and constructive must be 

done about it. 

Something intelligent and constructive is being done about 
it! The growth in high-school safety instruction has been re- 

“markable. Ten years ago relatively little was being done in 
an organized way to teach traffic safety. To-day over 8,000 
schools have organized instruction in traffic safety, with an 


29 











DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 


30 


even larger number including other phases of safety as a part 
of various subjects in the curriculum. In 1931 there was one 
state course of study; to-day there are twenty-two published 
courses. In four other states, while there are no official man- 
uals, there are well organized programs. Some of the pioneer 
work in developing state courses was done by Iowa, New 
Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The first courses 
prepared by these states may look a little crude in comparison 
to the more recent products such as the Ohio, Indiana, Califor- 
nia, and Vermont publications; but they served a useful pur- 
pose in getting the work started. According to our records, 
New Hampshire now has eighty-five per cent of its schools 
giving instruction; closely followed by Delaware, Indiana, and 
New Jersey; with Illinois, Vermont, and North Carolina not 
far behind. 

Paralleling this unusual interest on the part of state de- 
partments of education, a corresponding impetus has been 
given to the work in many of our larger cities, such as Detroit, 
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Omaha, Pittsburgh, and Birmingham. 
Quite appropriately, our great automobile center, Detroit, has 
over 35,000 students in traffic-safety classes this year. An- 
other interesting example is in Bergen County, New Jersey, 
where all of the twenty-eight secondary schools had safety 
classes during the last year, with over 4,200 students enrolled. 
3ut the best response to the needs of safety does not come nec- 
essarily from the large city high schools, for Illinois has over 
three hundred fifty schools, many in rural communities, offer- 
ing traffic safety; Indiana almost as many, with Ohio not far 
behind. North Dakota and South Carolina are also moving 
ahead rapidly, a further demonstration of the facility in which 
this work can be introduced into states in which there is a pre- 
dominance of smaller schools. 

What should a good traffic-safety program consist of? 
Where should it be taught? How much time should be devoted 
to it? These are difficult questions to answer briefly, for prac- 
tice differs widely, and no one knows the final answer. Let us 
examine some of the recommendations that merit attention: 

1. Instruction should be given to all students before grad- 


uation. 

2.” It should be divided into two parts: the first, prelim- 
inary safety instruction, to be given in the eighth or ninth 
year; and the second, consisting of advanced training, in the 
eleventh or twelfth year. In Detroit, it is spread over three 




















31 








SAFETY EDUCATION IN OuR HIGH SCHOOLS 





1938] 






































years. Obviously, this will depend on the driver’s age limit 
of the state and the subjects in which safety is taught. 

3. A minimum of sixteen class hours should be available 
for the earlier instruction and at least the same amount for ad- 
vanced work. If driver training is given, this will require ad- 
ditional time. With one period a week for the year, a school 
can put on a creditable program. 

4. Many states include this work in the social sciences. 
Others provide that time be taken in health and hygiene classes. 
A few suggest that it be given in science or vocational subjects. 
There is a danger of having instruction given in too many dif- 
ferent subjects in one school. 

5. Traffic safety instruction can be divided into two 

parts; driver education, and driver practice. The first involves 
classroom and laboratory work; the second, actual road in- 
struction. The latter is being given in a relatively small per- 
centage of the schools. 
6. Classes as a rule are being taught by regular teachers 
and in several cases by principals. Some schools have lectures 
given by outside experts, sometimes to very large classes. 
While it may be advantageous to have a few outside speakers, 
there is danger that this will be overdone. 

7. Safety is something that has to be lived rather than 
memorized. For this reason, students profit most when they 
can raise questions and take part in discussions. Moreover, 
they gain much from demonstrations, motion pictures, charts, 
and actual work on the car itself. The more we can introduce 
practical exercises and activities that can be carried on during 
the week, the more they will profit from classroom work. The 
automobile is very much a part of the every-day life of our stu- 
dents, so that instruction must be given in a vitalized wavy 
rather than out of the book. 

8. Road instruction is being given in comparatively few 
schools. While it is easy to get classroom work going, there 
are many difficulties that must be overcome before starting 
road practice. This is especially true in the small school. Cars 
must be secured, liability insurance provided, and a driving in- 
structor must be trained. Moreover, in a large high school 

-where many students wish to take road instruction, it will 
often be necessary to add another teacher. Since not more 
than thirty students can be given road lessons in a day, it is 
obvious that the number that can be taught in a year is lim- 


ited. 








32 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 


Automobile clubs and safety councils have been doing 
some interesting experimental work in this direction, but we 
are still far from an ideal solution. In Bergen County, New 
Jersey, it was found that one instructor could give lessons to 
over four hundred students in a school year, working in as 
many as fifteen different schools. Supt. Grant Morse of Sau- 
gerties, New York, found that he could train one hundred stu- 
dents at an average cost of $4.50 per student, not including the 
salary of the teacher. 

Some educators feel that road instruction is not a respon- 
sibility of the high school; they feel that it should be given by 
some other agency. Could this same thing not be said, how- 
ever, about machine shop practice, woodworking, and other 
manual-training activities? If the schools do not undertake 
this work, who will? Who will train this great army of mil- 
lions of young people who are to be the drivers of to-morrow? 
We know that from sixty to seventy per cent will be driving 
cars within two years after graduation. Some educators be- 
lieve that highway patrolmen or police should give some of this 
road instruction, especially in rural areas. Others feel that it 
should be the responsibility of the school and that it should be 
given under experienced teachers. This is a question to be an- 
swered finally by experience. 

Lest one get an impression that the driver-education pro- 
gram is of little use without road instruction, let us emphasize 
several points. Even without driving lessons, the classroom 
and laboratory work, properly taught, is most valuable. It 
teaches our students the basic facts about the automobile, traf- 
fic regulations, and safe driving requirements. It helps to im- 
prove the attitudes of our young people toward highway safety. 
And this is extremely important. While knowledge and infor- 
mation is of value, and manipulative skills are useful, the most 
important thing to do is to encourage good attitudes, such as 
courtesy, good sportsmanship, and fair play. Let us get the 
classroom work going in all schools, and then let road prac- 
tice come as more satisfactory procedures are worked out. 

Is traffic-safety instruction worth-while? There can be 
no argument on this point. The value of safety education has 
been clearly demonstrated in the elementary schools. While 
adult fatalities have increased three-fold, child fatalities have 
actually shown a decrease. Statisticians tell us that the annual 
saving of lives of children is about 8,000; that is, 8,000 children 
are now living who would have been killed last year if the 





























1938] SAFETY EDUCATION IN OuR HIGH SCHOOLS 33 


trend of child fatalities was the same as that of adults. Most 
of this saving is due to safety education. Our high-school 
youngsters up to the present time have not had a good record; 
they have had altogether too many accidents. State and city 
traffic authorities say that they take too many chances; they 
tend to speed too much; their attitudes are bad. The school 
can do much to improve these conditions, for where schools 
have been carrying on instruction for several years, there has 
been a noticeable improvement in the accident records of 
younger operators. 

There are many things we must stress. We much teach 
scientific facts about the effects of alcohol on drivers. We must 
teach the physical and mental requirements of the good driver. 
We must show what some of the handicaps to good driving are, 
and how they can be compensated for. We must stress bicycle 
safety, for there has been a striking increase in bicycle acci- 
dents in recent years. We must include pedestrian safety, as 
almost fifty per cent of the fatal accidents involve this group. 
The writer has gone over thirty of the various courses that are 
now available. Most of these cover the subject quite ade- 
quately. When used with one of the many textbooks and other 
supplementary materials now available, the good teacher will 
find little difficulty in planning effective instruction. 


There is one serious criticism that should be made of the 
present tendency in high schools. In most of the courses of 
study traffic safety alone is included. This is unfortunate. The 
complete high-school program should include all phases of 
safety—swimming and water safety, fire prevention, home ac- 
cidents, the school shops, athletics, recreation, and others. This 
is shown clearly by the chart indicating the high accident rec- 
ords at the high-school age level. Let us not be satisfied with 
traffic safety alone. This is just one phase of the total acci- 
dent picture. Let us find time to include all kinds of safety 
instruction in our high schools. 

Adolescence is the period of life for new adventures— 
swimming, competitive sports, school shops, camping, and driv- 
ing cars. In these new adventures there will be an element of 
danger. It becomes the responsibility of the school to give 
wise counsel and guidance, so that these adventures may be 
reasonably safe, “leading on,” and give happiness and satis- 
faction. 

















IS YOUR BUILDING SAFE FROM FIRE? 


T. ALFRED FLEMING 


Director of Conservation, National Board of Fire Underwriters 


Fire burning for five minutes may generate superheated 
air up to four hundred or five hundred degrees, increasing the 
temperature as long as the fire continues unmolested. The 
larger percentage of school fires have their origin in the base- 
ment of the building. In such instances the superheated air 
passes through open stairways into hallways of the different 
stories of the building, cutting off the possibility for the pupils 
to escape through regular avenues. As the heated air in- 
creases to about one thousand degrees and concentrates in the 
upper hallways everything burnable is set on fire spontane- 
ously, making all interior means of escape impossible without 
greatest danger. The antiquated ventilation system in many 
buildings supplies another avenue for the same superheated air 
to travel into the classrooms, as well as wall and attic spaces, 
where it soon concentrates with similar results. 

Athough in recent years a great improvement has been 
made in school construction from the standpoint of human 
safety, we are still faced with the fact that a large part of the 
nation’s school population is housed in structures which, to say 
the least, are dangerous from the peril of fire. Architects in 
past years seem to have forgotten the one fundamental feature 
of fire spread or we would not have so many buildings to-day 
with the same glaring faults. 

It is of interest to note that comparatively few of the peo- 
ple who lost their lives by fire are actually burned. In nearly 
every case, investigation shows the inhalation of heated gases 
was the direct cause of death. Many older schools have a large 
central open stairway extending through hallways from the 
basement to the top floor. The need of enclosing or otherwise 
protecting all floor openings and stairways to confine the dan- 
gerous gases to their place of origin is imperative. Control 
the spread of fire and its dangerous elements and you apply 
common sense to school safety. 

It will readily be seen that all the potential fire hazards 
such as the heating system, fuel room, custodian’s quarters, 
and storage spaces where fires are prevalent should be cut off 
in such a manner as to make the distribution of superheated 
air, fumes, and other dangerous results of combustion through- 
out the building impossible. Suppose we go over your building 


34 











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1938 ] Is Your BUILDING SAFE FROM FIRE? 35 





and find, as we will in so many cases, exactly such hazardous 
conditions? What should be done? First, cut off all chances 
for dangerous gases to reach hallways, class rooms, or other 
parts of the building for no human being can live breathing 
hot air of four hundred degrees or over. Second, if possible, 
build the heating plant and other dangerous basement sections 
into a fireproof structure with opening only to the outside, 
placing a fire alarm inside to give immediate notice of any fire 
emergency. Third, if the foregoing is not feasible, place a 
standard sprinkler system at least in the basement and danger- 
ous areas. 

While we are discussing the danger of fire from base- 
ments, look under your fire escapes. See if you do not find 
underneath these exits basement windows of ordinary glass. 
While the fire is spreading upward through the center of the 
structure it is also attacking windows to the outside. Ordi- 
nary glass breaks with the flash of flame and the fire envelopes 
the lower part of the fire escapes so that they are rendered use- 
less in an emergency. Every window underneath fire escapes 
or ten feet on either side should be supplied with wired glass 
set in metal frames and arranged so they cannot be left open, 
which would defeat the purpose of the protection desired. 

Effective evacuation of the building is, of course, a matter 
only possible through careful planning of fire drill procedure 
and continuous practice under any and all conditions which 
might prevail. After the first or second fire drill in the fall 
when new class arrangements have been necessary, no notice 
should ever be given to teachers or others of a contemplated 
fire drill. It should be called on any or all occasions, when stu- 
dents are in assembly, changing classes, or with certain exits 
barred, so that the general fire drill plan can operate efficiently 
under any fire or panic emergency. 

This brings up the question of sufficient and available exit 
doors from the building, as well as adequate and easy exit to 
fire escapes, if there are any. Many older structures have an 
insufficient number of exit doors or they are located where 
they would be of little value. All exit doors should open out- 
ward and be equipped with panic bolts which should be tested 
daily. All obstructions in hallways should be removed and all 
inside doors made to open with the line of exit travel. 

Some special hazards in addition to those already named 
are the manual training, physics and chemical laboratory, cafe- 
teria, domestic science, and such departments, and these in- 

















36 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 


volve the human element. For this reason, all students as well 
as teachers should be taught the possible hazards in each divi- 
sion. After all, no school can maintain safe surroundings with- 
out a full consciousness of the hazards involved and the entire 
cooperation of the student body. The danger of fire and shock 
from electricity depends very largely on the human element. 
If the system is installed and maintained under the regulations 
of the National Electrical Code, it is ninety-nine per cent safe. 
Where custodians, teachers, or students are permitted to make 
adjustments or extensions to the installation it may be one hun- 
dred per cent dangerous both to life and property. Overloaded 
circuits, use of substandard cords and appliances, and in- 
creased or plugged fuses are but a few of the many electrical 
danger signals. A careful check of the entire electric system 
should be made periodically by an expert. 

Concealed spaces under stairs, auditorium platform, clos- 
ets, and blind attics are almost always a source of danger. 
These are usually inaccessible and entirely without means of 
ventilation. Accumulation of unburned gases in these obscure 
spaces frequently results in an explosion or back-fire. Storage 
of old furniture, stage scenery, old records, etc., in these areas 
is but to invite disaster. 

In order to assist the school authorities in the mainte- 
nance of safe conditions, the National Board of Fire Under- 
writers has developed and distributes without charge the “Self- 
Inspection Blank for Schools.” This inspection guide is so de- 
signed and worded that the salient features which should be 
checked are readily interpreted and unfavorable conditions are 
made apparent to the responsible school officials. This form 
has been adopted and approved by the National Association of 
Public School Business Officials and carries the endorsement of 
the International Association of Fire Chiefs. Over fourteen 
hundred cities are at present using this blank and as a result 
of expert periodic inspection and reinspection, innumerable fire 
hazards are removed and general maintenance improved. A 
pamphlet entitled “Fire Prevention and Protection as Applied 
to the Public and Parochial Schools,” explanatory of the ques- 
tions developed through the use of the inspection blank, is 
available; also a booklet entitled “Construction of School 
Buildings and Improvement of Existing Structures” may be 
secured on request. 





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JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL AS A PREPARATION FOR 
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL 


E. H. FISHBACK 


Principal, Junior High Schools, Anderson, Indiana 


The first person I encountered as I started out to ask 
senior high-school teachers what the junior high school could 
do to prepare pupils better for senior high-school work was a 
teacher of Latin. Without hesitation, she answered, “Better 
preparation in Latin and English.” The head of the mathe- 
matics department indicated no uncertainty at all in suggest- 
ing that better preparation in mathematics and better study 
habits would be welcome. The commercial teacher wanted 
better spellers. So the story continued through all the aca- 
demic and vocational subjects. 

A somewhat different opinion was found when the dean 
of boys and the dean of girls were consulted. Above all they 
should like to have are young people who are well-behaved. 
Regular school attendance, industry, courtesy, social responsi- 
bility, and civic consciousness ranked high in their thinking. 
The principal of a senior high school has an outlook that in- 
cludes all the views just stated and others in addition. Who 
is right? 

The mathematics teacher and the others are right in ask- 
ing that the junior high prepare pupils for doing the work 
given in the senior high school. But, like the six blind men 
who examined parts of the elephant and all came to different 
conclusions, these teachers have but a limited notion as to what 
is involved in preparation for such a school. 

There are a few assumptions that we must accept before 
we begin a definite consideration of what the junior high can 
do to prepare pupils for senior high. We must assume that 
the whole child is to be educated and trained; that education 
and training given in the senior high must be worth-while; 
that pupils vary in interests, abilities, attitudes, and habits; 
and that a senior high must be a socialized school in contrast to 
the old scholastic type of institution that was the forerunner 
of the modern high school. Let us assume then that we have 
a modern high school that is guided largely by such philosophy 
as that advocated in the Functions of Secondary Education. 
The junior high school may prepare pupils for such a school 
in several very definite ways. 

1. The junior high school can maintain a system of school 


37 































38 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 





activities that will be a foundation training for the activities 
of the senior high. Clubs, orchestras, school papers, and stu- 
dent councils in junior high are not mere busywork for stu- 
dents. In many schools these have been incorporated into the 
work of the school day as an activities period. Principals and 
teachers have found that this period contributes much to the 
morale and citizenship of the school. 

2. The junior high trains pupils in supervised and di- 
rected study. Now we approach a topic that practically all 
teachers in high school would agree is important. The junior 
high has been criticized because it has study that has been su- 
pervised too much. In other words, pupils have cultivated the 
habit of too much dependence upon the teacher. The junior 
high schools can correct this weakness by scheduling a pro- 
gram that will call for independent study as well as directed 
or supervised study. 

While the pupils are in the junior high, much can be done 
during these supervised periods to help the child form correct 
habits of study that will aid him not only in high school but 
in college and after life. From the beginning, the junior high 
has advocated the lengthened period and the necessity for 
study with the teacher in charge of the subject. 

3. The junior high emphasizes the education of the whole 
child. It is the last institution of the public schools that does 
this in a large way. The leaders in the junior high movement 
have consistently held to the notion that it is in no sense a vo- 
cational school, because of the age of the children concerned, 
although it does teach some subjects that appear to parents as 
vocational. 

In our population at the present time there are too many 
persons who look to the high school, and the junior high to a 
certain extent, to educate persons in such a way as to enable 
them to acquire money. They have little use for culture, re- 
cut to financial and social success. This doctrine is familiar 
to all who live in industrial centers. It tends to dwarf the 
lives of boys and girls. If the early specialization that this 
view suggests were started in the late elementary grades and 
carried on through the junior high, the pupils would be poorly 
prepared for high school. 

4. Through the use of exploratory and tryout courses 
along with ability grouping, junior high acts as a guidance 
center in acquiring much valuable information about the in- 
terests and abilities of students. This information is used to 
get pupils into the right courses in high school. All infor- 














1936] PREPARATION For SENIOR HiGH SCHOOL 39 





mation of this nature should be sent to the senior high school 

at the time the pupils are transferred to that school. The 
junior high was founded upon the firm belief that there are, 
and should be, great individual differences in adolescent chil- 
dren, and further that these differences should be recognized 
in elective offerings, ability grouping, daily assignments, 
standards for promotion, and differences in method of teach- 
ing and discipline. 

5. What shall we say of this part of the junior high 
school’s responsibility in regard to scholarship? Shall we take 
the extreme position of “freedom for domination of. the senior 
high schools” as our objective? In contrast to this shall we 
consider the junior high school as merely a preparatory school 
for the upper school? It requires a little background of his- 
tory to understand the situation exactly between the two 
schools at the present time. The high school as a whole was 
formerly, of course, a much more selective institution than it 
is now, enrolling a group of pupils with predominately aca- 
demic interests and abilities. Changes in social conditions and 
changes in our educational philosophy have drawn attention to 
the needs of great numbers of boys and girls whose education 
must follow other than academic lines. The senior high has 
bcen only in part responsive to these changes. Its teachers, 
themselves trained in the academic tradition, have openly dis- 
approved other types of education and achievement than those 
of an intellectual nature. 

There are large groups of boys and girls in our junior and 
senior high schools for whom the curriculum offered in most 
places does not make any appeal. A preliminary study of the 
CCC camps, reported by Shorling and McClusky, shows not 
only a low degree of school achievement in the subjects that 
the schools have endeavored to teach, but a deep antipathy on 
the part of many of the men for any and all things pertaining 
to schools. These groups of students are maladjusted while 
they are in the schools and they are troubled and humiliated 
by the fact that they can not keep step with their more able 
classmates. A brief visit in almost any eighth-grade class- 
room will reveal certain types of students who are woefully 
ill-adapted to the work they are trying to do. Why not put 

the problem the other way, and say that the work they are 
trying to do is not adapted to the boys and the girls? This is 
the fact. The recruits for the CCC camps come largely from 


these persons. 
There is also a difference in the teaching methods of the 




















































40 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 


two schools. In general, the senior high has advocated and 
practiced the logical presentation of subject matter. The junior 
high has recognized the advantage of the psychological ap- 
proach. Its work has tended to become organized in terms of 
pupils’ interests and needs as learners. The tendency has been 
for the senior high to judge the junior high in terms of logical 
achievement. Accomplishment in general mathematics, for 
example, it tests in terms of a knowledge of logically arranged 
information and skills; achievement in the social studies it 
interprets on the basis of historical and geographical facts 
acquired. The junior high and the senior high should be parts 
of a codrdinated school system. It becomes necessary for the 
senior high to admit the pupils from the junior high schools. 
The high school is entitled to know what training pupils have 
received in the junior high, and then the high school must take 
these pupils where they find them and continue their education. 

Now, let us who deal with the junior high school make a 
rather frank confession. We have not done all that we could 
do to prepare pupils in certain skills for the senior high school. 
I believe that the complaints of the teachers of the high school 
that many pupils do not know the fundamental processes in 
mathematics, that they read and spell rather poorly, and that 
their knowledge of the elements of grammar is defective, are 
well taken. 

What does it profit a pupil in the junior high school if he 
studies general mathematics and cannot multiply and divide? 
Of what benefit is the study of general science if the child can- 
not read? Ability groupings, supervised study, try-out courses, 
activities, and other desirable features of a junior high school 
are very important, but they can scarcely make up for some 
of the weaknesses in scholarship just mentioned. 

Let us admit readily that we can do much more in the fun- 
damental processes of mathematics, spelling, reading, and the 
simple elements of grammar. Of course, every junior high 
school teaches the subjects just noted, but they are taught in 
such a way that many pupils escape a mastery of them. We 
may call the methods used the shotgun methods as some pupils 
are hit and some missed. Many are missed. 

Here is a suggestion for junior high schools. Elementary 
schools and high schools have made large use of individualized 
unit plans of work known variously as the Winnetka plan, 
Dalton plan, Morrison plan, and other individualized forms of 
instruction. Under these plans the child himself begins a sys- 
tematic mastery of the elements of the tool subjects. He knows 












































PREPARATION For SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL 41 





1988] 


how much he has accomplished and how much he has to do. 
Certainly the fundamental processes of arithmetic, reasonable 
spelling achievement, and reading ability can be given to prac- 
tically all pupils of junior high age, but we shall have to change 
to some unit plan of instruction in these tool subjects and not 
use the wholesale teaching methods that have prevailed. 
Smaller class groups will be a necessity. These unit or indi- 
vidualized plans of instruction need not interfere with any of 
the cherished ideals of the junior high. Indeed, they will serve 
to carry out the need for individual differences in children 
upon which the junior school was founded. 

We have been considering, in more or less abstract man- 
ner, the question of preparation for high school. In terms of 
boys and girls, what kind of young people are we sending into 
the senior high? 

The junior high is sending all kinds of students. Our 
democracy forbids our doing otherwise. They have been 
guided to select the course suitable for them in the senior 
school. They have learned how to study in directed-study 
work in the junior high. They know how to codperate with 
others in clubs, student councils, and other school activities. 
These boys and girls have not been subjected to early speciali- 
zation, although they have had elective subjects and general 
exploratory courses that have appealed to their special inter- 
ests. They have continued the education that appeals to the 
whole child, because they must continue to live as an inte- 
grated personality. 

These boys and girls will differ markedly in scholastic ac- 
complishments as we send them into the senior high school, but 
every one of them should know at least the fundamental proc- 
esses of arithmetic, have reasonable spelling ability, be able to 
read, and know the simple elements of grammar. Above these 
minimum standards will be a large majority of boys and girls 
who are well prepared to do the work of the senior high school. 

As the door of the senior high schools opens to receive 
these young people, the boys and girls, and their parents have 
a right to expect the senior school to provide courses of study 
that will care for the interests and abilities of this hetero- 
geneous group. Future farmers, college students, industrial 
workers, professional groups, homemakers, and the service 
group, and all others have a right to a training for their own 
particular needs. » 

The junior high school is a product of the emphasis on 
-social living, and while it stresses participation, activity, and 
social procedure, it also strives to give a foundation training 
for the specialized courses of the senior high. The junior high 
is not merely a preparatory school for the senior high, but it is 
definitely obligated to prepare students for a high school that 
is organized along modern lines. 



















YOUTH TALKS TO THE SCHOOL EXECUTIVE 


EUGENE YOUNGERT 


Teachers College, Columbia University 


The Legislature of Pennsylvania recently passed an act 
which raises compulsory attendance of schools to the age of 
seventeen in 1938 and to eighteen in 1939. At least 1,000,000 
boys and girls are affected by this legislation. As many young 
persons will be forced to return to school in September, a big 
problem faces the administrators of the state. A few years 
ago the Committee on Orientation of the Department of Sec- 
ondary-School Principals warned administrators that this 
problem must be faced in the not distant future. 

On February 4, 1938, at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the 
state branch of the Department of Secondary-School Princi- 
pals of the National Education Association began the first step 
in trying to solve the problem. A codperative conference of 
vouth and administrators was held on the topic, The Adequacy 
of the Program of Secondary Education to Meet the Needs of 
Youth. The conference used a technique that will be tried in 
similar meetings throughout the state. 

Although all sessions of the conference were interesting, 
the youth meeting was the most stimulating. About seventy 
young people representing a cross section of students of high 
schools in the vicinity of Harrisburg and of pupils who had 
withdrawn from school constituted the youth panel. These 
boys and girls were in no way “conditioned” for the occasion. 
They had not even seen their adult moderator, Dorothy Waldo 
Phillips, Lansdowne, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Phillips quickly put 
the young people at ease and then turned the panel over to Miss 
Marjorie Holly, a high-school student of Harrisburg. After 
that, with the exception of not over two hundred words by Mrs. 
Phillips, the discussion was conducted for eighty minutes en- 
tirely by the students. The capability of Miss Holly as a pre- 
siding officer is a tribute both to her own ability and to the 
training that she has received in her school. 

Asked to consider such questions as: “What do we want in 
high school?”, “What changes would. we like to see?”’, and 
“What is lacking in school?’, the students entered the discus- 
sion with a freedom that is hard to visualize by one who was 
not present. Not once did a speaker take advantage of the op- 
portunity offered for venting personal ill-will toward school 
situations that several had found unpleasant. The real pur- 


42 





1938] 


YoutH TALKS TO THE EXECUTIVE 43 


pose of this paper is to give examples of pupil remarks from 
notes taken during the session. Most of the remarks have been 
cut considerably as the writer preferred to reproduce sen- 
tences accurately, rather than to summarize long statements. 


Girl: 


Boy: 
Boy: 


Boy: 


Our prob’'em now is what to do for those who are forced to 
return to school. Can’t we do something to make them want 
to be back instead of feeling that they are forced back? 
Can’t the school be organized to help us want to do things in- 
stead of making us feel that we are forced to do them? 

Often we do not see the value of our courses, and no one tells 
us. Why don’t schools see the value of getting us to want 
things? 

I wish teachers could get down on our level and see the prob- 
lems from our point of view. We have interests, but school 
doesn’t seem to know it. They ought to see what we really can 
do and help us to do it. 

I think the schools should get a jolt out of the fact that 
extra-curriculum work is more interesting than subjects. 
Why? Because in extra-curriculum things the teacher looks 
for our interests, but in class they teach what they are told 
to teach. Extra-curriculum is for us; school is for subjects. 
Freshmen are all at sea. School is a big maze. Guidance is 
too formal. How can one do something about a thing he 
knows nothing about? 

We have a new guidance program in our school, quite per- 
sonal, and the woman in charge is splendid. It’s doing a lot 
of good. 

We have advisers to help us choose, but the difficulty is that 
often they won’t let us take what we want. 

They won’t let us go outside of set courses. An example of 
what I mean is that you can’t take typing in a general course. 
I’m doing stenography, and I’d like to study art, but I can’t 
take it. Our school doesn’t let us do those cultural things we 
want to do if we are in a commercial course. They think, if 
we are preparing to work, we can’t be interested in culture. 
Our school is organized on lines that divide the students. If 
you are academic, you’re rich and smart; if you’re manual, 
you’re dumb; but I think often the manual is as smart as 
the academic. 

We had no guidance and we had no speech. We had no help 
in talking to people. We are weak in conversation and dis- 
cussion. 

I wish schools could give more individual and personal guid- 
ance. Life is as big a maze when we finish school as it was 
when we started. 

If you fail in school, even though you try, that hurts you with 
employers. 

One reason we leave school is that there is so much stress on 
marks and so much failure. We hate to fail; but after a while 
we get callous, and then we quit. We have classes where 
more fail than pass. 

In our school, college preparatory is the strong part. It’s 
good for those going to college, but for the rest of us it is not. 
Many drop out because school does not fit their needs. We 
want education to prepare us for life; not for a college we’re 
not going to. 

Why do we quit? Because we’re not going to college, and 
that’s what high school prepares for. We want to prepare 
for life. 

Why can’t a college-preparatory course be made that has 
value if you’re not able to go to college when you get through 
high school? 














DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 


Girl: We often know what we want to do, and the school knows, 
but they don’t let us. I’d read all the junior English books 
but two before I became a junior, but I had to take junior Eng- 
lish, and it was a loss. 

Girl: I want to write. I’ve asked for journalism, but the schools 
say that’s not English. Then why can’t I get guided help and 
study journalism down at the newspaper office? 

Boy: If classical students took manual, they’d probably flunk. Then 
why do manual students have to take classical subjects? 
We want school to prepare us for life. 


One cannot peruse these remarks without being impressed 
by the degree to which they strike at targets aimed at by the 
reports on /ssues and Functions of Secondary Education. With- 
out using a professional vocabulary, the students discussed dif- 
ferentiation of offerings, vocational and general education, 
adapting offerings to needs, the worth of cultural subjects in 
the curriculum, methods, recognition of interests, the purpose 
of guidance, preparation for life, and a program valuable to all 
youth of the community. 

In the afternoon, an adult panel discussed the program in 
which they had seen the young people participating earlier in 
the day. To this panel had been invited representatives of such 
state organizations as the Federation of Women’s Clubs, Penn- 
sylvania Congress of Parents and Teachers, Pennsylvania Con- 
ference on Social Work, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Y.M.C.A., 
Y.W.C.A., Pennsylvania Farm Bureau Federation, State 
Grange, American Federation of Labor, Committee for Indus- 
trial Organization, Chamber of Commerce, Pennsylvania Real 
Estate Association, Pennsylvania Retailers Association, and 
the Public Education and Child Labor Association. The adult 
panel agreed that in the main the expressed desires of the 
youth panel were reasonable, promised codperation in the ef- 
forts to create in Pennsylvania a secondary-school system re- 
sponsive to the needs of all normal young people in the state, 
and considered in general terms what contributions each rep- 
resented group might make to the school program. No specific 
commitments were made, as indeed they could not be by the 
uninstructed members of the panel. 

The conference closed with a dinner meeting for repre- 
sentatives of the schools, at which was presented the next step 
in the Pennsylvania program; namely, the study of the prob- 
lems in small discussion groups of principals and faculty mem- 
bers in all parts of the state. This study has already begun 
with the codperation of the Committee on Planning of the De- 
partment of Secondary-Schoo] Principals. Beginning with the 
Issues and Functions, it will attempt to formulate a practical 
program that will be put into operation next fall. 





atl 


i 















MENTAL HYGIENE IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS 


0. R. YODER 


Assistant Medical Superintendent, Ypsilanti State Hospital, Michigan 


One million of the children in the public schools at the 
present time will go to hospitals for mental treatment. This 
is more than the number which will graduate from colleges 
and universities. It is agreed that one-half of the mental cases 
can be prevented by a proper educational program which can 
be brought about by a codperative plan between parents and 
teachers. Prevention is the only solution to the problem of 
crime and mental disease. 


Mental health is nothing more than a state of mind which 
enables an individual to get along with his fellow men and 
solve his problems. A healthy mind and an unhealthy mind 
both have the same origin; and it is not very difficult to edu- 
cate an individual to be insane—to use a mental disorder to 
solve his social problems. 


The secondary schools should have an educational pro- 
gram in which the social development of the student is given 
much significance; a program of social guidance which will aid 
the student in developing social poise and balance. 

A period in the school curriculum might be designated as 
“The Principal’s Guidance Hour,” where topics on social be- 
havior of practical importance could be discussed. Manners, 
conversational ability, a sense of humor, relative values, emo- 
tional control, and personal appearance are subjects to be con- 
sidered from the standpoint of their psychologica! significance. 
The importance of such an hour would be the study of char- 
acter traits with the attitude of self-criticism and a desire for 
self-improvement. 

Social committees could be organized which would carry 
into practice the theoretical discussion of conduct. Such com- 
mittees should be composed entirely of students who would 
plan the assembly programs, teas, parties, dances, and holiday 
entertainments. Also, on such special occasions as Thanksgiv- 
ing, a welfare committee might be responsible for the distri- 
bution of gifts or food to the poor in the community. This 

_ would give them the stimulation and joy of working together 
outside of the classroom and would impress upon them the im- 
portance of happenings which are not entirely connected with 
the school. 


45 


















DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 


A faculty-student committee on social relations could serve 
an important function. Membership on such a committee 
should be considered one of the highest honors. This commit- 
tee could be composed of five or six members of the faculty and 
student group respectively. The purpose of the committee 
should be to have closer contact outside the class room. Meet- 
ings could be held each week for the purpose of discussing the 
welfare of the school. 

Each year some social events could be planned to which a 
large group of students would be invited. There is no reason 
why it would not be possible to have a student and faculty 
luncheon occasionally. At such a luncheon students and teach- 
ers could be seated alternately at long tables, and here develop 
a friendly atmosphere, which would go far in socializing the 
shy and indifferent individual. 

An organization to give students a part in the government 
of the school, a student publication, and a school play, all foster 
a feeling of fellowship and good sportsmanship. In all school 
activities, it should be the purpose of the teachers in the sec- 
ondary schools to keep in mind the harmonious development 
of the pupil as a member of the school community. 

Teachers in the secondary schools must not forget that 
their students are dealing constantly with things which are 
strange and unknown to them. Many of these things are not 
only strange but many times they are very frightening, and 
at times the pupil may feel that he is being threatened. All 
of these things must be met by a good physical condition on the 
part of the student, and understanding and love on the part of 
the teacher. Food, clothing, and love are things which parents 
and teachers must give to boys and girls; and they are the tools 
which these boys and girls will use to make for themselves a 
place in social life. As they advance toward maturity, they 
will discard those habits which are a handicap and will replace 
them with better ones. In this way they will adjust themselves 
to society. 

The most important thing a teacher can do in the secon- 
dary-school program is to make an earnest effort to secure a 
sympathetic understanding of the relationship which is present 
between the conduct of students and their environment. If the 
teacher can secure such a better understanding, it will go far 
in helping students become mature, self-reliant, and efficient 
human beings. 





A HIGH-SCHOOL ORIENTATION PROGRAM 


GEORGE C. JENSEN 


Principal, Senior High School, Sacramento, California 


The course in orientation in the Sacramento, California, 
Senior High School is the direct result of codperative plan- 
ning by teachers and students. Two years ago when the sen- 
iors were asked what the high school should offer which was 
not included in the curriculum, there were two answers: (1) 
the incoming students should be given all the information 
about the schools which they need in order to make the most 
of high-school experience, and (2) emphasis should be given 
to the discussion of problems of personality. We had assumed 
that sophomores automatically discovered the schools, and that 
we discovered the students, as they entered the schools! We 
had also assumed that a study of personality was too difficult 
for high-school students. We were mistaken in both instances. 

Following these suggestions from students, a faculty com- 
mittee was set up for developing the kind of course which 
seemed to be needed. This committee constantly conferred 
with students in order to secure their viewpoint. The present 
course in student orientation is the result. Essentially this is 
a course in group counseling whereby the students and the 
school become acquainted. The teachers in charge of the course 
constitute a working committee for modifying the course as 
new needs are discovered. 

The following units indicate the general nature of the 
course. Each unit is worked out in full and each student is 
given a syllabus and each teacher a guidebook. The general 
topics covered by the various units in the course are: 

General information about the school plant. 

Traffic rules and regulations within and outside the school. 

Attendance, absence, tardiness, readmission, etc. 

Use and care of school property—books, lockers, desks, 

etc. 

Organization and administration of the school—officials, 

functions of offices, organizations, etc. 

Differentiation—how students enroll in classes. 

Student activities—student body, classes, programs, etc. 

Parliamentary practice used throughout the school. 

School programs—kinds, purposes, planning, and evalua- 

tion. 

The report card—its nature and purpose. 


47 














48 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 


How to study—why study, conditions favorable, study 
techniques, and budgeting of time. 

Use of library—ten sessions are held in the library. 

Subjects offered by the school—purpose of each, require- 
ments for graduation, planning individual programs, 
ete. 

Continuing education after high school—universities and 
colleges, extension courses, adult education opportuni- 
ties, and travel. 

Vocations—the workaday world, information about jobs, 
job opportunities near Sacramento, etc. 

Student organizations—kinds, purposes, avocations. 

Personality—its meaning, how to modify, personality 
chart, personal traits, etc. 

Apart from instruction in the above units all information 
possible is gathered about new students in order that it may be 
used in providing for their immediate needs. English for poor 
readers, for instance, is that which teaches boys and girls how 
to improve their skill in reading. If a student has not ac- 
quired the elementary principles, there is little use to send him 
into higher mathematics. It is important to know the strong 
and the weak points of a student in order that poor as well as 
outstanding students may be properly adjusted to the school 
environment. 

This orientation course is now in its first year. Many 
changes in it have been made and others are predicted as new 
materials and techniques are discovered. At present it is a 
one-semester course, but there are indications that the imme- 
diate problems of high-school students are so numerous and 
complex that the course should be extended. 





GUIDANCE PRACTICES 

Transition from high school to college is a step often dif- 
ficult for students. Thousands of students have found the ad- 
justment to college requirements too difficult to make. Recog- 
nizing this problem, the Research Division of the NEA has 
undertaken a study of ways and means of bridging the gap be- 
tween high school and college. The report of this study will 
appear as one of the Research Bulletins of 1938. Actual guid- 
ance practices in sixteen hundred high schools and admission 
and guidance practices in four hundred colleges are being sum- 
marized from questionnaire reports. 





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A FUSION COURSE IN SOCIAL STUDIES 


HARRY J. LINTON 


Director, Secondary Edueation, Schenectady, New York 


During the year 1935, plans were laid for a revision of 
the social-studies program in Schenectady, New York. Fre- 
quent discussions were held with groups of teachers, princi- 
pals, the superintendent of schools, and laymen of the commu- 
nity concerning the type of social-studies program Schenec- 
tady should have. The services of Dr. Donnal V. Smith of 
New York State College for Teachers, Albany, New York, were 
secured to aid in preparing the way for the careful study of 
plan and objectives. 

In the fall of 1936, Dr. Smith was asked to offer an exten- 
sion course in curriculum organization in the social studies at 
Schenectady. Nearly all of the teachers of social studies in 
the junior and senior high schools participated in the course on 
one of three bases; namely, for credit, as members of commit- 
tees to revise the program, or as auditors. 

The first semester was spent in studying the newer philos- 
ophies of the social studies. During the second semester the 
teacher divided into groups and began preparing the courses 
of study. The result of the year’s work was that the complete 
program of social studies was reconstructed for grades seven 
to eleven. 

The most important step in reconstructing the program 
was the development of an adequate philosophical basis upon 
which to erect the super-structure of the program. While this 
philosophy is well set forth in Dr. Smith’s book, Social Learn- 
ing, (Scribner’s), it seems desirable to express briefly here a 
few definite points of the philosophy. The first suggests that 
the most important social experiences of the curriculum should 
be had in the social-studies program. Why have a social- 
studies program or call it such, if it does not have as its point 
of emphasis, the social experience of the pupil? If this is to 
be accomplished, the study must be woven around certain 
large areas of a common social experience. This suggests a 
unit organization. Again if social growth and social experi- 
ence, are to be the heart of a program, facts cannot be learned 
for the mere sake of learning them, but must be learned in 

connection with the situation which demands their use. To 
my mind, these two points make useless and impossible the or- 
ganization of subject matter in social studies in any such form 


49 























50 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 


as Hisiury A, B, and C; and as Geography, Economics, and 
Civics. Social problems do not present themselves in such 
categories in life. Why should the pupil attempt to learn them 
in this way? In other words, the aim is to substitute the psy- 
chological organization for the logical. 

The second general consideration has to do with the chron- 
ological approach to the teaching of history. Historians dis- 
agree as to the efficacy of this procedure in teaching secondary- 
school pupils. In the plan adopted in Schenectady, separate 
units are set up along the line of actual social experience which 
arise within or near the experience of the pupils, but without 
respect to chronology between units. Chronology may be de- 
veloped within units. For example, the study of Unit VI of 
Grade VIII entitled, “Our National Community” starts with 
the settlement of the country and leads through to the consid- 
eration of conditions in America to-day. 

The organization of the five-year curriculum in social 
studies is suggested by the unit titles listed below: 


SEVENTH GRADE 
Unit I Through the Day in My New School 


II My Home Group 

III Leisure Time 

IV Mine and Yours 

V My Value to Society 
VI My Social Ideals 
VII My Community 


EIGHTH GRADE 
Our Community 
Community Service 
How Our Community Does Its Work 
How Our Commuinty Forms Its Opinions 
How Our Community Is Connected to Other 
Communities 
Our National Community 


NINTH GRADE 
I American Nationalism 
II The National Communities of Western Europe 
III The National Communities of Northern Europe 
IV The National Communities of Eastern Europe 
V The National Communities of the Far East 
VI Population Problems 
VII Trade in the World Community 
VIII Codéperation in the International Community 
IX Social Control 


TENTH GRADE 
I Culture Origins 
II Communication 
III Religion 
IV Town and Country Life 
V Social Conflict and Coéperation 
VI Golden Ages of Culture 
VII Development of Autocracy 
VIII Autocracy Challenged 





ee eee 


1938] A FusIon Course IN SociAL STUDIES 


ELEVENTH GRADE 
I The Machine Age 
II Changed Living Standards: Town and Country Life 
III Economic Changes of the Machine Age 
IV___ Industrialized Nationalism 
V Industrialized Imperialism 
VI The International Problem 

No attempt was made to reorganize the twelfth year 
where American History continues to be taught as formerly. 
One reason for leaving the twelfth year was that many teach- 
ers wished to preserve the narrative of American history for 
the last year before high-school graduation. 

The units are organized in such a manner as to promote 
pupil interest. The format is as follows: A brief introductory 
note heads each unit for the purpose of establishing a readi- 
ness for the study of the unit. The subject-matter outline ap- 
pears in a column on the right side of the page, while on the 
left side is a list of suggested activities that may be carried on 
by pupils either individually or in groups, and which contrib- 
ute to the study of the unit. At the end of each section of the 
outline, there is a full bibliography of reading references per- 
taining to the section. 

The activities suggested above include field trips, reports 
before the class, art projects, construction projects, and any 
other type of activity which challenges the interests of pupils 
and contributes to the understanding of the unit. 

Needless to say, such a program is different from existing 
programs. Likewise it requires different teaching and learn- 
ing skills. Teachers must plan more carefully and more thor- 
cughly than when using traditional curriculum materials. This 
program demands the teaching of study skills. Pupils must 
be taught how to use reference books rather than basic text- 
books. They must be taught to take notes, to make outlines, to 
organize materials, read, and to give reports before the class. 
All these skills contribute to the general education of the pupil. 

Libraries must accompany the successful use of this pro- 
gram. The single textbook can no longer suffice. The pupil 
should be led to search through all available literature, both 
current and standard, to secure the information needed for the 


successful completion of the work. 














INTEREST IN LEARNING 


F. K. SPAULDING 


Harvard Graduate School of Education 


“Interest in learning” may mean two somewhat different 
kinds of interest. It may mean the interest that a teacher 
tries to develop when he or she wants to get pupils to study 
a particular lesson. We ordinarily think of that kind of inter- 
est as motivation. Or it may mean the interest that pupils 
acquire as a result of studying a particular lesson or series of 
lessons. The latter interest grows out of learning. It is this 
type of interest, rather than the interest that serves chiefly as 
motivation for learning in the first place, that I should like to 
discuss. 

There have been two educational movements in recent 
years which have paid particular attention to the develop- 
ment of pupils’ active interests. One has been the progressive 
education movement, which has sought, among other things, 
to foster “creative expression” on the part of pupils, as a 
means of encouraging boys and girls to develop independently 
whatever special talents they may possess. The other is the 
movement for the development of so-called “leisure-time inter- 
ests’—chiefly hobbies of various sorts. 

The kind of teaching sponsored by both these movements 
has a number of weaknesses. Perhaps the most serious criti- 
cism which can be made of it is that it results in interests 
which are often no more than an escape from thinking, from 
normal social relationships, and from the realities of the every- 
day words. Thus the “creativeness” which progressive schools 
emphasize is almost always creativeness in art, music, or lit- 
erature; the possibility of being creative in science, social rela- 
tionships, mathematics, mechanics, or vocational work is sel- 
dom recognized. And the hobbies which the recreation move- 
ment has developed are mostly physical hobbies—interest in 
sports of various kinds, gardening, and the making of objects 
for use or ornament. Neither movement has recognized the 
whole range of people’s normal activities as possible sources 
of interest, or has set out to make boys and girls interested 
in a wide variety of those activities. 

I shall not take time to defend the thesis that boys and 
girls ought to have varied interests—intellectual, vocational, 
and social, as well as physical and aesthetic. We accept that 
thesis the moment we set up a school which attempts to intro- 
duce its pupils to art and the social studies, to science and 
pupil self-government, to athletics and practical arts. What 
needs more definite consideration at the moment is the ques- 
tion of why we have not succeeded in encouraging those varied 
interests and what we must do if we are ever to encourage 
them. 

We have not interested our pupils; first, because we have 
acted as if knowing about a subject were all that is neces- 
sary to produce interest in it. We have taught facts and more 


52 





1938] INTEREST IN LEARNING 53 


facts chiefly because we thought they were important, without 
much regard for whether our pupils saw any sense to them 
even after they had learned them. 

This is not to say that a person who knows little or nothing 
about a subject is likely to become more interested in that sub- 
ject than a person who knows a lot about it. On the contrary, 
the only lasting interest is based on knowledge and still more 
knowledge, so that the effort to develop pupils’ interest offers 
no excuse for being satisfied with lack of knowledge. But 
unless knowledge strikes home to the learner in ways which 
are appealing to him, the facts lead only to an abortive “so 
what?” 

We have not interested our pupils; second, because we 
have assumed that the only “respectable” interests are the 
kinds of interests the scholar or the artist favors. Thus, when 
we have taught literature we have emphasized who wrote 
what, and whether what he wrote is “great,” instead of dis- 
covering first whether our pupils like what he wrote and lead- 
ing them to want more of it. When we have taught art or 
music we have insisted on making pupils draw or sing or play 
an instrument, instead of giving them a chance to see beau- 
tiful art or hear beautiful music. When we have taught sci- 
ence we have tried to turn boys and girls into laboratory tech- 
nicians instead of into intelligent users of the products of sci- 
ence that lie all about them. The fact is that the value of an 
interest rests not in its being scholarly but in its being stimu- 
lating. The boy who gets really excited about it may learn 
more from a magazine of outdoor sports than the boy who 
reads what he thinks he ought to read will learn from the 
Atlantic Monthly. 

We have not interested our pupils; finally, because we 
have shut our eyes to what they are interested in in spite of 
us. A recent study of the interests of boys and girls of high- 
school age shows that those boys and girls have recognizable 
and well-developed “patterns” of interests, and that the pat- 
terns change gradually as the pupils advance grade by grade 
through school. But the study shows also that the things 
in which boys and girls are normally interested have little 
in common with the things they are taught in school. Per- 
haps, no study was needed to reveal these facts. Every 
teacher who recalls his own school experience will no doubt 
remember occasions when he wanted to know about something 
and asked about it in class, only to be told that there was no 
time to talk about it just then—it wasn’t in the course. 


If these are the principal reasons for our failure to 
awaken pupils’ active interests, what ought teachers to do to 
encourage their pupils’ active interest in learning? 

They ought not to assume that the way to get interest is 
to wait until their pupils show some “spontaneous interest,” 
and then to teach whatever that interest suggests. There is 
no such thing as a truly spontaneous interest. Every interest 
that a boy or girl has comes to him originally from outside— 














54 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 


if not from the school, then from the movies, the radio, the 
funnies, the gang swapping yarns on the corner, and the 
stories that fathers tell of what they used to do when they 
were boys. It is a poor teacher who will let what he teaches 
be dictated by the notions his pupils get from everyone except 
himself. The teacher who is worth his salt starts interests; 
he does not wait for them to be started by some chance inci- 
dent over which he has no control. 

He starts interests most often by making no secret of his 
own interests. There is no getting round the need of his 
having interests of his own if he is to awaken interests in 
others. Granting that he does have such interests, he sets 
out to make his pupils feel them as he does. He recalls how 
he himself first became interested, and he provides for his 
pupils the same experiences—or experiences like them—that 
gave him his original thrill. 

Also, he encourages every promising interest that his pupils 
exhibit, whether or not it is exactly like his own. To do that, 
he is willing to spend time answering his pupils’ honest ques- 
tions, or helping them to find answers, even though the ques- 
tions are outside the range of his own teaching. When ques- 
tions come up that are in the range of his teaching, he seizes 
on them as a gift of the gods and helps his students to find 
answers to them now, even though, in order to do so, he must 
teach about the War of 1812 before, instead of after, he has 
taken up the Ordinance of 1787. 

Finally, he keeps watch on what his pupils do when they 
are not in school. In the games they play, the stories they 
read, the hobbies they take up and perhaps drop again, are his 
best clues to what they want to learn about or to activities 
which he can get them to want to learn more about. He does 
not assume that everything boys and girls do is worth doing 
and should be made forthwith a part of the school curriculum. 
He does recognize that much that individual boys and girls 
are interested in of their own accord may develop, with en- 
couragement and guidance, into talents which any school may 
be proud to have fostered. 

To do all these things will help, rather than hinder, in 
getting pupils to learn in the first place. To do them may 
have the still more important advantage that once pupils have 
begun to learn they will not readily stop. 





THE SUMMER CONVENTION 
New York City 
June 27-30, 1938 
Headquarters of the Department of Secondary-School 
Principals: Hotel New Yorker. 
Local Chairman: Mr. Michael Lucey, Principal, Julia 
Richman High School, New York City. 


June 27, Monday, 2:00 P.M. —Group A, Junior High-School 
Administrators. 

Program in charge of Miss Bertie Backus, Principal of 
Alice Deal Junior High School, Washington, D. C. 

2:00 P. M.—Group B, Junior High-School Administrators. 
Program in charge of Dr. Joseph Roemer, Dean of Junior 
College, George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, 
Tennessee. 

June 28, Tuesday, 2:00 P. M.—Joint Meeting with the Depart- 
ment of Classroom Teachers. 

Program in charge of Miss Emily A. Tarbell, President of 
the Department of Classroom Teachers. 

June 29, Wednesday, 2:00 P. M.—Senior High-School Admin- 
istrators. Theme: How Can Public Secondary Education 
Help to Bring About a More Effective Stabilized Society? 

Program in charge of Dr. Gustave A. Feingold, Principal 
of Bulkeley High School, Hartford, Connecticut. 

June 30, Thursday, 12:15 P. M—Luncheon. Plenary Session 
with Five-Minute Reports of Previous Sessions. Guest 
Speaker, Cameron Beck, Director of New York Stock Ex- 
change Institute. 

The Department of Secondary-School Principals 


STATEMENT OF CONDITION 


December 31, 1937 
RESOURCES 
Cash in Bank 
Securities: (All carried at par value) 
Real Estate Loans 
Edgecomb Place Apts. (stock) 
Public Utility Bonds 
U. S. Treas. 3’s of 51/55__--____- 
U. S. Treas. 2%’s of 55/60 
U. S. Treas. 2%4’s of 56/59 
Cons. Fed. Farm of 1955 
H. O. L. C. 3’s 
H. O. L. C. 2%’s of 1949 
Student Loan Fund (Notes) __---- 2,470.00 $ 83,795.00 


INVENTORY: 
1 ee eae eee era $ 28,151.83 


Honor Societies & Shop 13,871.46 
Department Supplies & Printed 
Material _- 
Furniture & Fixtures 1,093.09 43,829.47 


Bills Receivable $ 1,532.60 $134,271.01 


Bills Payable $ 41,148.11 
Net Worth $130,122.90 $134,271.01 

















NEWS ITEMS 


THE PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES GREATLY NEEDS 
IMPROVEMENT. So began a report by the National Advisory Committee 
on Education which President Roosevelt sent to Congress early in March. 
The Committee recommended that financial aid from the federal govern- 
ment to schools be increased to $199,000,000 a year by 1944. This is ap- 
proximately four times the present amount of aid. After 1944, federal 
aid would depend upon whatever need then exists. The total sum rec- 
ommended for allocation beginning in 1939 and ending in 1944 would 
amount to $855,500,000. Salient features of the report are that education 
throughout America is characterized by glaring inequalities; in many 
localities it is below the level necessary to preserve democratic institu- 
tions; and the only manner in which the situation can be remedied is by 
federal aid. ‘Too much federal control is now exercised over the voca- 
tional funds, the committee finds; the states should be authorized to de- 
termine for themselves what educational activities are to be deemed voca- 
tional. Although it costs two billion dollars a year to operate the public 
schools, the committee points out that research facilities at all comparable 
to those of the agricultural experiment stations are lacking in the field of 


education. 

THE HIGH-PRESSURE METHODS employed by colleges and universities 
to recruit students were condemned by Walter A. Jessup, president of the 
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, in the Founda- 
tion’s Thirty-second Annual Report. “Many institutions are operating in 
constant fear of losing students,” the report declares. ‘Not long ago the 
representative of a college dropped in to visit a high school in a small 
mid-Western city. His purpose was to bring the college to the attention 
of pupils of the school. He learned that this was the eighty-third visit of a 
college public-relations officer for that very purpose during that school 
year. We are familiar with the ‘inducements’ offered to promising athletes, 
but we may be astonished by the fact that drum majors and tuba players 
now find themselves possessed of special talents with a remarkable value 
in the college field. Jobs and scholarships are dangled before the eyes of 
impecunious high-school pupils. Fraternities and sororities vie in recruit- 
ing students who can pay their bills and bring glory (in press notices) to 
a chapter. The evil thread which runs through the fabric of recruitment 
devices is the attempt through them to exploit the student.” When col- 
leges adopt the high-pressure methods of business they should remember, 
according to Dr. Jessup, that “cut rates, rebates, extravagant claims, 
unfairness in competition have brought to business its own punishment. 
Just as surely, ‘cutting corners’ will ruin a college.” 

YoutH EpucaTiIon To-pAy is the title of the 1938 yearbook of the 
American Association of School Administrators. According to the com- 
mittee which prepared this book, the biggest problem facing modern youth 
is that of getting a job. Modern youth is also deeply disturbed about 
how to get along with people. The yearbook proposes that youth be in- 
structed in schools on sex problems, not by physicians but by psychologists 
and sociologists. The committee proposes that high-school studies be built 
around five cores of human activity: language arts, social relations, home 
and vocational arts, creative and recreative arts, nature, mathematics, 
and science. 

THE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL of Ohio State University is developing uni- 
fied courses, individualized work in the fine and practical arts, indi- 
vidual reading programs, and comprehensive records for each individual. 
The schedule is so arranged that each student has considerable “free’ time 
which he may devote to individual projects. In one instance a class group 
made the selection of books to be purchased by the school library. 


56 




















1938] News ITEMS 67 


THE CURRICULUM COMMITTEE of the Michigan Secondary-School As- 
sociation has made an inventory of innovative practices in high schools 
of the state. Some of these might be helpful in furnishing suggestions to 
schools in other states where curriculum revision is under way. The 
following practices were reported to the Committee: 

A Course in The Art of Living—Human Relations; Essentials of 
Living; Personal and Social Problems; Developing Personalities; Per- 
sonal Regimen—was found under various titles in Ecorse, Kalamazoo, 
North Muskegon, Grand Haven, Muskegon, and Flint Northern. In gen- 
eral this course covers relationship of students to school, home, family, 
and friends. It involves hygiene—personal, mental, social—and many 
other related topics. Sex instruction is included in some classes. 

A course in the History of Michigan is offered at Saginaw High 
School and covers the period from early exploration up to and including 
Michigan of to-day. 

A course in The American Heritage includes a correlation and inte- 
gration of history, literature, music, and art. The course for the most 
part covers two hours and in some cases was assigned to two teachers. 
This course is offered in East Grand Rapids, Muskegon, Grand Rapids 
Union, Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills, and Kalamazoo. 

A course in Non-College English provides for elimination of more 
difficult literary selections written for adults and substitutes those pre- 
senting adolescent interests. Provision is made for diagnostic testing and 
remedial instruction. Much current literature is included. Caro, Ann 
Arbor, Ferndale, Benton Harbor, Holland, and Muskegon report this 


course. 
Science for non-college preparatory pupils—Senior Science; Descrip- 
tive Physics; Descriptive Chemistry—has been introduced to provide 
science study more appropriate to the non-academic pupil. General aims 
listed are: to develop an appreciation of the importance of science; to 
teach some of the fundamental principles and laws of science; and to 
develop a cultural background to help understand our scientific environ- 
ment. Such courses are reported for St. Johns, Ferndale, and Northwest- 
ern High School, Detroit. 

A course in Retail Selling offered at the Kalamazoo Central High 
Schcol gives a general background of principles of selling and specific 
problems related to the job of part-time workers employed in stores. 

Bank Statement Analysis is the title of a course offered in Ishpem- 
ing High School. This course provides for detailed study of bank state- 
ments. Students are taught first the importance of comparing several 
consecutive statements; second, the meanings of the headings; third, the 
significance of various banking operations. 

A Crafts course for girls offered in Detroit Northwestern High 
School provides instruction in the various techniques employed in metal 
work. Correlation is provided with the art department. 

Occupational courses—Vocational Civics; Vocations; Occupational 
Training; Occupations—were reported from Ferndale, Pontiac, Bay City, 
and North Muskegon. A summary of the outlines submitted shows that 
these vocational courses are used for purposes of orientation and develop- 
ment of appropriate vocational attitudes. 

Apprenticeship Training is provided at Muskegon, Alpena, Dowagiac, 
and Grand Haven. By this plan, sponsored by the State Vocational 
Training Board, boys and girls spend one-half of their day in school and 
the other half in the shop. Excellent opportunities are provided for cor- 
relation of school work and industry. The training lasts from two to 
five years. 

“ General or Individual Problems is provided at North Muskegon and 

at the University of Michigan High School. The course is planned to 
give pupils in the smaller schools a wider range in selection of problems 
to study and attack. In a relatively small school it is an excellent way 
to provide for individual differences and to expand the curriculum. 

TO YOUR CALENDAR OF DATES TO REMEMBER, add the following: Pan 
American Day, April 14; School and College Conference, University of 



























58 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 





Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, April 14-15; National Boys’ and Girls’ 
Week, April 30-May 7; Short Course for School Cafeteria Managers, 
Oklahoma A. & M. College, Stillwater, Oklahoma, June 6-10; Conference 
on Reading Problems for Administrators, Supervisors, and Teachers, 
University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, June 23-25; Conference on Social 
Education, Stanford University, Stanford University, California, July 
6-10; and Conference of Administrative Officers of Public and Private 
Schools, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, July 18-22. 

A SURVEY COURSE embracing the various phases of home management 
is being offered to freshman girls in the Amundsen, Austin, Kelly, and 
Harper high schools of Chicago for the first time this year. The course 
is designed, not as a study of household management, but to give the girls 
an insight into home functions and human relations. Next year the 
course will be extended to all high schools of Chicago, according to Miss 
Frances Swain, director of the household arts department for the Chi- 


cago Board of Education. 

A CORE COURSE ENTITLED, “Living at Castlemont,” has been started 
for tenth-grade students at the Castlemont High School, Oakland, Cali- 
fornia. It includes such units as the following: Getting acquainted with 
the officers and staff; The history, tradition, and rules of the school; 
School activities; Manners and etiquette needed at school; Habits of Liv- 
ing and organization needed at school; and Study of the ability to read. 


PROBLEMS OF PRESENT-DAY LIVING are given major emphasis in the 
new program of McKinley High School, Honolulu, Hawaii. The pro- 
gram is based on the idea that the common needs of students should be 
provided for through core studies, and that individual needs should be 
met through elective courses. The core courses are organized around 
problems arising from home-room or school affairs, community life, 
world relationships, or from personal problems. 

PROGRAMS FOR CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT are under way in over 
seven-tenths of the cities above twenty-five thousand population; in 
slightly less than half of the school systems in communities of from five 
thousand to twenty-five thousand; and in a third of the systems in com- 
munities below five thousand. These figures are quoted from the Febru- 
ary number of The Education Digest. 

THE USE OF VISUAL AIDs in teaching has become very important dur- 
ing the past few years. Professional courses to train high-school teach- 
ers in the use of visual aids are in great demand at the present time as a 
result of unforeseen developments in this field. Pennsylvania has pio- 
neered in both the introduction of visual materials into the school pro- 
gram and in the training of teachers for visual instruction. In 1936 
forty-four of the seventy-two institutions offering courses on visual in- 
struction were in Pennsylvania. A laboratory course on visual in- 
struction is required in Pennsylvania before a teaching certificate will 
be granted. The Department of Public Instruction has issued a handbook 
for teachers entitled “A Summary of the Techniques of Visual-Sensory 
Aids for Teachers in Service and Teachers in Training.” 

IN THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL of the John Burroughs School, Clayton, 
Missouri, there is a unified course, a technical period, a creative period, 
and a physical education period. The four fields are required of every- 
one. An introductory course in psychology with emphasis on genetics and 
mental hygiene is offered to girls in the eleventh grade. 

THE BoarpD OF EDUCATION of the Fort Collins, Colorado, public 
schools has authorized and provided financial backing for a program to 
study and evaluate present courses and to recommend needed changes. A 
curriculum council has been organized which consists of executive and 
advisory committees. The work of the school has been organized into five 
functional areas with two service groups which will work out their pro- 
grams in relation to interest committees. The present courses of study 
are placed in vertical arrangement from the kindergarten through the 
senior high school in the following areas: Language activities, Social ac- 
tivities, Science activities, Practical activities, and Recreational activities. 





~-_ ~~ «too 

















































4 


















1938] NEws ITEMS 





The two service committees are those of guidance and health. Within 
each area, subcommittees are at work on each of the elementary, junior, 
and senior high schools. 

A FINISHING COURSE for seniors is a new innovation at Union High 
School, Chowchille, California. Four types of activity are being stressed: 
(1) Practical mathematics, which cover such topics as a review of the 
fundamental processes, insurance, installment buying, budgeting, farm 
and household problems, and taxes; (2) First aid; (3) The art of getting 
along with people, or human relationships; and (4) Healthful living. 


AS PART OF A PUBLIC RELATIONS PROGRAM, the High School at Garden 
City, New York, is sending a very interesting monthly “News Letter” to 
citizens of the community. The purposes of this publication are: (1) to 
acquaint the parents and patrons with important facts concerning the ed- 
ucational program; (2) to help bring about a more intelligent under- 
standing of the aims and objectives of the school; and (3) to encourage 
closer codperation between home and school. Each issue is descriptive of 
some one important phase of the school program and is arranged to 
answer specific questions raised by citizens of the community. 


THAT HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENTS spend slightly more than two hours 
daily listening to the radio which is twice the time devoted to reading, 
was shown by a survey conducted among parochial schools in Wisconsin 
and Missouri, according to The News Letter. The study also revealed 
that speech, English, and social science are the subjects in which radio 
gives the most help, and that the favorite educational programs are the 
news broadcasts. Friends recommend programs to forty-one per cent 
of the students; teachers guide thirty-five per cent; parents, four per 
cent; and relatives, one per cent. 


A SURVEY OF SCHOOLS IN PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, by M. E. Bennett, 
director of guidance, revealed one hundred sixty cases of boys and girls 
who were, by the unanimous agreement of the principals, teachers, coun- 
selors, parents, and students themselves, totally maladjusted in their 
courses, completely dissatisfied with the school, and fully convinced that, 
in so far as their needs and interests were concerned, the schools were 
wholly ineffective and unconscionable. This was true in a secondary 
school where far more than the average progress in readjustment of the 
school and program had been made. By way of illustration, this school 
enrolled more than ninety-six per cent of all the students of secondary- 
school age, while the average is much lower. 


ITHACA, NEW YORK STUDENTS have originated a unique solution to 
the problem of paying for their lunches. Under a plan which is being 
tried in the cafeterias of the junior and senior high schools, students 
may barter raw vegetables for cooked food. The plan is in operation 
for purchases under two dollars. 


NEW PHASES OF JUNIOR-COLLEG:) EDUCATION were discussed at the an- 
nual meeting of the American Association of Junior Colleges held at Phil- 
adelphia, March 4-5. The significance of the rapid growth of junior col- 
leges was interpreted by a number of prominent educators. The Ameri- 
ean Association of Junior Colleges began eighteen years ago to foster the 
junior-college movement, then in its infancy; and it has seen the move- 
ment gain such proportion that the junior college is now generally rec- 
ognized as a standard unit of secondary education. More than five hun- 
dred junior colleges in all paris of the country were represented at the 
convention. 

LANE TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL, Chicago, was the first school in the 
country to establish classes in air conditioning, classes to study Diesel 
Engines, and laboratory classes in safety driving; states “Our Public 
Schools,” 1937 report of the Chicago superintendent of schools to the 
beard of education. 

THE INTERNATIONAL DRAWING EXCHANGE is observing its tenth an- 
niversary this year. This group was started in 1928 at Roosevelt High 
School, Chicago, to help stimulate interest in art and drawing, and to 




















DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 


Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, April 14-15; National Boys’ and Girls’ 
Week, April 30-May 7; Short Course for School Cafeteria Managers, 
Oklahoma A. & M. College, Stillwater, Oklahoma, June 6-10; Conference 
on Reading Problems for Administrators, Supervisors, and Teachers, 
University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, June 23-25; Conference on Social 
Education, Stanford University, Stanford University, California, July 
6-10; and Conference of Administrative Officers of Public and Private 
Schools, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, July 18-22. 

A SURVEY COURSE embracing the various phases of home management 
is being offered to freshman girls in the Amundsen, Austin, Kelly, and 
Harper high schools of Chicago for the first time this year. The course 
is designed, not as a study of household management, but to give the girls 
an insight into home functions and human relations. Next year the 
course will be extended to all high schools of Chicago, according to Miss 
Frances Swain, director of the household arts department for the Chi- 
cago Board of Education. 


A CORE COURSE ENTITLED, “Living at Castlemont,” has been started 
for tenth-grade students at the Castlemont High School, Oakland, Cali- 
fornia. It includes such units as the following: Getting acquainted with 
the officers and staff; The history, tradition, and rules of the school; 
School activities; Manners and etiquette needed at school; Habits of Liv- 
ing and organization needed at school; and Study of the ability to read. 


PROBLEMS OF PRESENT-DAY LIVING are given major emphasis in the 
new program of McKinley High School, Honolulu, Hawaii. The pro- 
gram is based on the idea that the common needs of students should be 
provided for through core studies, and that individual needs should be 
met through elective courses. The core courses are organized around 
problems arising from home-room or school affairs, community life, 
world relationships, or from personal problems. 

PROGRAMS FOR CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT are under way in over 
seven-tenths of the cities above twenty-five thousand population; in 
slightly less than half of the school systems in communities of from five 
thousand to twenty-five thousand; and in a third of the systems in com- 
munities below five thousand. These figures are quoted from the Febru- 
ary number of The Education Digest. 

THE USE OF VISUAL Alps in teaching has become very important dur- 
ing the past few years. Professional courses to train high-school teach- 
ers in the use of visual aids are in great demand at the present time as a 
result of unforeseen developments in this field. Pennsylvania has pio- 
neered in both the introduction of visual materials into the school pro- 
gram and in the training of teachers for visual instruction. In 1936 
forty-four of the seventy-two institutions offering courses on visual in- 
struction were in Pennsylvania. A laboratory course on visual in- 
struction is required in Pennsylvania before a teaching certificate will 
be granted. The Department of Public Instruction has issued a handbook 
for teachers entitled “A Summary of the Techniques of Visual-Sensory 
Aids for Teachers in Service and Teachers in Training.” 

IN THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL of the John Burroughs School, Clayton, 
Missouri, there is a unified course, a technical period, a creative period, 
and a physical education period. The four fields are required of every- 
one, An introductory course in psychology with emphasis on genetics and 
mental hygiene is offered to girls in the eleventh grade. 

THE BoaRD OF EDUCATION of the Fort Collins, Colorado, public 
schools has authorized and provided financial backing for a program to 
study and evaluate present courses and to recommend needed changes. A 
curriculum council has been organized which consists of executive and 
advisory committees. The work of the school has been organized into five 
functional areas with two service groups which will work out their pro- 
grams in relation to interest committees. The present courses of study 
are placed in vertical arrangement from the kindergarten through the 
senior high school in the following areas: Language activities, Social ac- 
tivities, Science activities, Practical activities, and Recreational activities. 





~ 


~~ ™ ww! Ce eee 


1938] NEWS ITEMS 


The two service committees are those of guidance and health. Within 
each area, subcommittees are at work on each of the elementary, junior, 
and senior high schools. 


A FINISHING COURSE for seniors is a new innovation at Union High 
School, Chowchille, California. Four types of activity are being stressed: 
(1) Practical mathematics, which cover such topics as a review of the 
fundamental processes, insurance, installment buying, budgeting, farm 
and household problems, and taxes; (2) First aid; (3) The art of getting 
along with people, or human relationships; and (4) Healthful living. 


AS PART OF A PUBLIC RELATIONS PROGRAM, the High School at Garden 
City, New York, is sending a very interesting monthly “News Letter” to 
citizens of the community. The purposes of this publication are: (1) to 
acquaint the parents and patrons with important facts concerning the ed- 
ucational program; (2) to help bring about a more intelligent under- 
standing of the aims and objectives of the school; and (3) to encourage 
closer codperation between home and school. Each issue is descriptive of 
some one important phase of the school program and is arranged to 
answer specific questions raised by citizens of the community. 


THAT HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENTS spend slightly more than two hours 
daily listening to the radio which is twice the time devoted to reading, 
was shown by a survey conducted among parochial schools in Wisconsin 
and Missouri, according to The News Letter. The study also revealed 
that speech, English, and social science are the subjects in which radio 
gives the most help, and that the favorite educational programs are the 
news broadcasts. Friends recommend programs to forty-one per cent 
of the students; teachers guide thirty-five per cent; parents, four per 
cent; and relatives, one per cent. 


A SURVEY OF SCHOOLS IN PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, by M. E. Bennett, 
director of guidance, revealed one hundred sixty cases of boys and girls 
who were, by the unanimous agreement of the principals, teachers, coun- 
selors, parents, and students themselves, totally maladjusted in their 
courses, completely dissatisfied with the school, and fully convinced that, 
in so far as their needs and interests were concerned, the schools were 
wholly ineffective and unconscionable, This was true in a secondary 
school where far more than the average progress in readjustment of the 
school and program had been made. By way of illustration, this school 
enrolled more than ninety-six per cent of all the students of secondary- 
school age, while the average is much lower. 


ITHACA, NEW YORK STUDENTS have originated a unique solution to 
the problem of paying for their lunches. Under a plan which is being 
tried in the cafeterias of the junior and senior high schools, students 
may barter raw vegetables for cooked food. The plan is in operation 
for purchases under two dollars. 


NEW PHASES OF JUNIOR-COLLEGE EDUCATION were discussed at the an- 
nual meeting of the American Association of Junior Colleges held at Phil- 
adelphia, March 4-5. The significance of the rapid growth of junior col- 
leges was interpreted by a number of prominent educators. The Ameri- 
ean Association of Junior Colleges began eighteen years ago to foster the 
junior-college movement, then in its infancy; and it has seen the move- 
ment gain such proportion that the junior college is now generally rec- 
ognized as a standard unit of secondary education. More than five hun- 
dred junior colleges in all parts of the country were represented at the 
convention. 

LANE TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL, Chicago, was the first school in the 
country to establish classes in air conditioning, classes to study Diesel 
Engines, and laboratory classes in safety driving; states “Our Public 
Schools,” 1937 report of the Chicago superintendent of schools to the 
beard of education. 

THE INTERNATIONAL DRAWING EXCHANGE is observing its tenth an- 
niversary this year. This group was started in 1928 at Roosevelt High 
School, Chicago, to help stimulate interest in art and drawing, and to 














60 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 


promote international good-will. Drawings have been exchanged with 
secondary-school students in almost every nation. Many exhibits showing 
work of students in the different countries have been arranged. Further 
information in regard to the work of the Internatioanl Drawing Ex- 
change may be secued from W. G. Hjertstedt, Roosevelt High School, 
Chicago, Illinois. 


TRAINING FOR CRITICAL READING is an objective of journalism courses 
in New York City high schools, according to a survey made by Jesse 
Grumette of Lincoln High School. Journalism achieved a permanent 
place in the high-school curriculum last year when approved by the State 
Board of Regents. In most New York City high schools the subject is 
now treated either as an elective or as a special course taught in lieu of 
one of the regular terms of English. ‘“ ‘High school journalism,’ how- 
ever, is not, as it might seem from the name, a vocational course for the 
relatively few students who plan to enter journalism as a profession,” 
said Mr. Grumette. “Nor is it a training camp for amateur journalists 
who aspire to positions on the school newspaper. Fundamentaly, it is a 
course in training for citizenship and critical reading. While the work 
covers the elementary phases of journalism, such as the news story, head- 
lines, make-up, editorial, features, and so on, it emphasizes teaching 
students to ‘read between the lines.’ The same news occurrence is stud- 
ied as treated by a number of newspapers. After a discussion of political 
bias versus impartiality in the news, the student emerges a better- 
equipped potential voter. By subjecting the various metropolitan dailies 
to a comparative analysis to determine their varying degrees of accu- 
racy, and by seeing, (by means of a paragraph, for instance) what per- 
centage of the newspaper is devoted to news and what to blather, it be- 
comes a comparatively simple task for the student to select an intelligent 
newspaper for his daily perusal.” 


PHOTOGRAPHY IN HIGH SCHOOLS, both as an activity and as part of 
the curriculum, is becoming more popular every year. In some schools, 
photography is studied as a separate subject. More often it is taken up 
in connection with other sciences or is carried on through a camera club. 
Not only is photography of real interest to students because of its prac- 
tical applications, but it offers many points of contact with other sub- 
jects. It is especially valuable to those who later take up any kind of 
scientific or technical work. Due to the widespread interest in photog- 
raphy, the Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, New York, has estab- 
lished a Camera Club Photographic Service. The following may be se- 
cured upon request: Bulletins on the organization and maintenance of an 
active school club, a series of illustrated photographic lectures, and vari- 
ous booklets that deal with photography. 


TWO SIGNIFICANT STUDIES are included in the 1938 Yearbook of the 
National Society for the Study of Education. Part I of the Yearbook, 
entitled Guidance in Educational Institutions, is a comprehensive over- 
view of guidance practices in the United States. It was prepared by a 
committee of leading authorities on guidance, headed by Grayson N. 
Kefauver of Stanford University. Part II, entitled The Scientific Move- 
ment in Education, gives a broad, descriptive account of the methods and 
results of a systematic study of education. In addition to the members 
of the Committee on Education as a Science, thirty-four other outstand- 
ing educators are associate contributors to this part of the report. Dr. 
Frank N. Freeman of the University of Chicago is Chairman of the 
Committee on Education as a Science. The Yearbook is published by 
The Public School Publishing Company, Bloomington, Illinois. 


A New SociaL Stupy was started this year in the Seattle, Wash- 
ington, schools. The course is called “Pacific Northwest” and deals with 
the resources, industries, and life of the people in that section of America. 
It is being taught in experimental classes in junior and senior high 
schools at the 9A level. Mr. W. A. King, principal of James Monroe 
Junior High School of Seattle, and Elmer D. Fullenwider, a teacher of 
social studies in the same school, are working on a textbook for this 














egerncae ore To 


Alte pen 














ee 


De 


noche Sei a 


1938] News ITEMS 61 












course. Teachers in charge of the new course believe that it should be 
included in the curriculum and should emphasize local appreciation. j 



















































DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION is being emphasized this year in Texas. 
John B. Pope, former principal of Canyon, Texas, High School, has been 
appointed state codrdinator of distributive education in the state depart- 
ment of education. As distributive education is an entirely new field, the 
following short explanation is offered: Distributive occupations are those 
followed by workers directly engaged in, or in direct contact with con- 
sumers when, (a) Distributing to consumers, retailers, jobbers, whole- 
salers, and others the product of farm and industry, and (b) Managing, 
operating, or conducting a commercial service or personal service busi- 
ness, or selling the service of such a business. A vocational distributive 
subject is one involving a discussion or presentation of the specific work- 
ing practices of a distributive occupation for the purpose of increasing 
the skill, technical knowledge, occupational information, or judgment of 
workers engaged in that specific occupation. 


A COURSE IN COOPERATIVE MARKETING in North Dakota high schools 
was provided for by the last legislature. A course of study for this 
one-half unit course has been sent to principals by the.state board of edu- 
cation. Members of the committee which prepared the outline state that 
they have been unable to find any high-school textbooks for this course, 
but that several good bulletins on the topic are available. Next year the 
outline for the course will be revised in the light of experiments which 
will be conducted this year in the various schools. 


CONSERVING OUR NATURAL ReEsouRCEs is the title of a bibliography 
prepared by the American Association for the Advancement of Science 
with the codperation of Enoch Pratt Free Library of Baltimore. This 
consists of a selected list of materials useful to high schools and discus- 
sion clubs on the following topics: What is conservation? Conservation 
and use of land, Save the Forests, Water conservation, Oil and gas con- 
servation, Saving our minerals, Wild life conservation, and Conservation 
material in magazines. 


THE CURRICULUM OF THE ACADEMIC HIGH SCHOOLS in the Philippines 
is being replaced by a general curriculum of two types: type A, and type 
B, according to L. B. Bewley, Director of Education. Like the academic 
curriculum, both are made up of four years superimposed upon a seven- 
year elementary school. In both types, the subjects are approximately 
sixty per cent academic and forty per cent vocational. In the type A gen- 
eral curriculum, the vocational courses, which are offered in the second, 
third, and fourth years, are required of both boys and girls, who may 
take additional academic subjects as optional subjects if they desire. In 
the type B general curriculum, the vocational subjects are optional or 
elective. The results of five years of experimentation with the type A gen- 
eral curriculum in a number of high schools have shown its great superi- 
ority over the academic curriculum. In all likelihood, the former curric- 
ulum will ultimately replace the latter, as it is the most suitable to the 
needs and conditions of the Philippines. 


THE MINNESOTA ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS pub- 
lished a special bulletin recently in honor of Dr. Harl R. Douglass, who 
has resigned as professor of secondary education at the University of 
Minnesota to become Dean of the school of education at the University of 
North Carolina. His relations to the high-school principals is described 
in the introductory statement as follows: “When Dr. Douglass came to 
Minnesota, he breathed new life and vigor into the Minnesota Associa- 
tion of Secondary-School Principals. His interest and his stimulating 
service on its board of directors has been responsible in a large part for 
the increase in membership in the organization, its renewed activity, and 
its service to its members. His efforts to professionalize the position of 
the high-school principal are beginning to bear fruit. The secondary- 
school principals of Minnesota are indebted to Dr. Douglass in no small 
measure,” . 















CALENDAR OF PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS 


Musie Educators National Conference, St. Louis, Missouri, March 27- 
April 1. 

Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Adolphus Hotel, 
Dallas, Texas, March 31-April 1. 

American Academy of Political and Social Science, Bellevue-Stratford 
Hotel, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1-2. 

Northwest Association of Secondary and High Schools, Spokane, Wash- 
ington, April 4-6. 

North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Stevens 
Hotel, Chicago, Illinois, April 6-9. 

Association of California Secondary-School Principals, Hollywood, Cali- 
fornia, April 10-13. 

Minnesota Association of Secondary-School Principals, University of 
Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 12-14. 

Kentucky Association of Secondary-School Principals, Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, April 13-15. 

Colorado Association of Secondary-School Principals, Boulder, Colorado, 
April 14-15. 

Georgia Education Association, Atlanta, Georgia, April 14-16. 

Tennessee Education Association, Nashville, Tennessee, April 14-16. 

Massachusetts Teachers Federation, Boston, Massachusetts, April 16. 

Association for Childhood Education, Netherland-Plaza Hotel, Cincin- 
nati, Ohio, April 19-23. 

National Catholic Education Association, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, April 
20-22. 

American Association for Health and Physical Education, Atlanta, 
Georgia, April 20-23. 

Ohio High-School Principals’ Association, Columbus, Ohio, April 22-23. 

West Virginia Association of Secondary-School Principals, Bluefield, 
West Virginia, April 22-23. 

South Dakota School Executve Association, Vermillion, South Dakota, 
April 29-30. 

Maine Association of Secondary-School Principals, Augusta, Maine, 
May 5-6. 

American Council on Education, Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D. C., 
May 6-7. 

National Congress of Parents and Teachers, Salt Lake City, Utah, May 
15-20. 

American Association of Adult Education, Berkeley Cateret, Asbury 
Park, New Jersey, May 16-18. 

American Library Association, Kansas City, Missouri, June 13-18. 

National Education Association, New York, New York, June 26-30, 1938. 

Department of Secondary-School Principals, New York, New York, June 
26-30. 

National Asscciation of Student Officers, New York, N. Y., June 28- 
29-30. 

Fifth Annual Conference on Business Education, The School of Business, 
University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, June 30-July 1. 

Seventeenth Annual Printing Conference, Washington, D. C., July 1-3. 

Second World Youth Congress, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, 
August 17-25. 

Associated Academic Principals of the State of New York, Colgate Uni- 
versity, Hamilton, New York, August 21-24. 


62 








BOOK NOTES 





Strang, Ruth. Counseling Technics in College and Secondary School. 
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1937. Pp. x+159. $3.00. 


This volume is the third in a series of summaries dealing with per- 
sonel work in educational institutions. It is devoted to techniques of 
work with individuals, including the interview, observation, the rating 
scale, autobiography; and the integration of data from various sources 
in the case study and cumulative record. 


Paterson, D. G., Schneidler, G. G., and Williamson, E. G. Student Guid- 
ance Techniques. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1938. Pp. 
xv+313. $3.00. 


Student Guidance Techniques was prepared as a handbook for coun- 
seiors, teachers, educational administrators, and students in training for 
personel work. The authors believe that one of the chief reasons secon- 
dary schools are not better able to meet the needs of their students is the 
lack of technically-trained workers to provide adequate guidance services. 


Schutte, T. H. Teaching the Social Studies on the Secondary-School 
Level, New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1938. Pp. xiv+583. $3.25. 


The writer has attempted to present guiding principles that an intel- 
ligent teacher, well grounded in subject matter, can apply to classroom 
situations. The author believes that a large portion of social-studies 
teachers are unfamiliar with fundamental principles of education and 
psychology. Therefore, the emphasis in the book is on the philosophical 
aspects of education as related particularly to social studies. 


Chamberlain, Leo. M. The Teacher and School Organization. New York: 
Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1936. Pp. xxviii+656. $2.80. 


With the passing of time, more and more emphasis is being placed 
on teacher participation in school administration. Those at the head of 
the administrative functions of the schools welcome and encourage 
teacher participation in those administrative problems that directly af- 
fect the professional status of teachers, and those that are immediately 
associated with the instructional process. The purpose of this book is to 
provide a background of information to equip teachers to discharge this 
duty effectively. 


Among the books published recently which were written to focus 
attention upon the problems of youth and to facilitate the intelligent con- 
sideration of these problems are: 


Brooks, Wendell S. Youth: Adrift or Alert? Boston: Meador Publish- 
ing Company, 1937. Pp. 92. $1.00. 

George, William R. The Adult Minor. New York: D. Appleton-Century 
Company, 1937. Pp. xxv+192. $2.00. 

Harley, D. L. Surveys of Youth. Washington, D. C.: American Council 
on Education Studies, 1937. Pp. viii+106. $.50. 

Rainey, Homer P. How Fare American Youth? New York: D. Apple- 
ton-Century Company, 1937. Pp. ix+186. $2.00. 

Sellin, Thorsten, and Young, Donald. The Prospect for Youth, The An- 
nals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Phil- 
adelphia: The American Academy of Political and Social Science, 
1937. Pp. ix+233. (November number.) 

Winslow, W. Thacher. Youth, A World Problem. Washington, D. C.: 
U. S. Government Printing Office, 1937. Pp. xv+138. $.25. 


63 














64 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [April, 


Youth Education Today. Washington, D. C.: American Association of 
School Administrators, 1938. Pp. 509. $2.00. 


The following publications on good manners were written especially 
for boys and girls of high-school age: 

Allen, Betty, and Briggs, Mitchell Pirie. Behave Yourself! Etiquette 
for American Youth. New York: Lippincott, 1937. Pp. 163+4x. 
$1.00. 

Head, Gay. Boy Dates Girl. New York: Scholastic Corporation, 1937. 
Pp. 46. $.35. 

Barbour, Ralph Henry. Good Manners for Boys. 
ton-Century Co., 1937. Pp. vi+119. $1.50. 

Irwin, Inez Hayes. Good Manners for Girls. New York: D. Appleton- 
Century Co., 1937. Pp. x+147. $1.00. 

Eldridge, Elizabeth. Co-Ediquette. New York: Dutton Co., 1936. Pp. 
252. $2.00. 

Stephenson, Margaret B. and Millett, Ruth L. As Others Like You. 
Bloomington, Illinois: McKnight and McKnight, 1936. Pp. 40. $.25. 


(Paper). 


New York: D. Apple- 





Talking (t Through 


; The booklet, “Talking It Through; a Manual for Discus- 
sion Groups,” is now off the press, and we are anxious for you 


to see it and call it to the attention of others who are inter- 
ested in the discussion group movement. This booklet ex- 
plains the purposes and progress of the movement, and dis- 
cusses methods of forming groups, maintaining them, and in 
general of furthering the enterprise. Its most important con- 
tribution, however, lies in the consideration it gives to the 
technique of discussion. How can discussion best be carried 
on, whether in the classroom or elsewhere, so as to promote 
cooperative understanding, increase knowledge, and make real 
cooperative thinking possible? These are the questions which 
the booklet undertakes to answer. We believe it will be 
helpful, not only to members of discussion groups, but to class- 
room teachers who wish to make recitation periods more 


meaningful. 

This booklet sells for 15 cents. You may order it from: 
Discussion Group Project, 1201 Sixteenth Street, N.W., Wash- 
ington, D. C.; or Department of Secondary-School Principals, 
5835 Kimbark Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. 

It is the hope of the Department of Secondary-School 
Principals that the booklet may find its way into the hands of 
principals and teachers in every school system. We shall ap- 
preciate the orders which may come from your institution and 
also your recommendation of the booklet to your friends. 


COMMITTEE ON PLANNING 
Department of Secondary-School Principals 
of the Nationa! Education Association