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VotumME 23 January, 1939 Numser 79 





The Bulletin 


of the 
Department of Secondary- 
School Principals 


of the 
National Education Association 


The Articles in This Bulletin Are Listed in Education Index 





Service OrcAN FoR AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



































The Bulletin 














Votume 23 January, 1939 Numser 79 
Contents 
Awards for School Journalism, CHartes WEDEMEYER.. 27 
Book Notes ” ee a ....42 
Calendar of Professional Meetings 48 
Convention (February) Program in Cleveland. ~s 
ladustrial Arts, C. E. Vancs...--____-__-____ 18 
Junior College of the Future, The, Aaron J. BrumBAUGH 
Nonacademic High-School Student, The, Tuo. W. H. Trion... .. _.35 
Principles of Guidance, H. D. Rictarpson 12 
Treatment of Failures in High School, R. J. Lanois... a 
Ways Out, J. Murray Leg 40 
$2.00 a Year ee ere Fifty Cents 


Monthly, October to May inclusive 








Published at Berrien Springs, Michigan, by the Department of Scc- 
ondary-School Principals of the National Education Association 


5835 Kimbark Avenue, Chicago 


Entered as second-class matter, November 8, 1938, at the post office at Berrien 
Springs, Michigan, under the Act of August 12, 1912. Acceptance for mailing at 
special rate of postage, provided for in Section 1103, Act of February 28, 1925, 


authorized November 8, 1938. 











9 








THE FEBRUARY CONVENTION 
of the 
DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 
Cleveland, Ohio 
Headquarters: Hore. CLEVELAND 
February 25- March 1, 1939 
CONVENTION THEME: Tue Mopern Ssconpary ScHoot at Work 


LOCAL COMMITTEE 


Honorary Chairman: Cuarves H. Lake 
Superintendent of Schools 
Cleveland, Ohio 


General Chairman: Epcar A. MILLER 
Principal of West High School 
Cleveland, Ohio 


SPECIAL COMMITTEES: 


Housing: E. E. Smevtz 
Principal of Lincoln High School 
Cleveland, Ohio 


Special Functions: B. R. EccMan 
Principal of John Marshall High School 
Cleveland, Ohio 


Publicity: C. R. Wisk 
Principal of Glenville High School 
Cleveland, Ohio 


THE PROGRAM 
FIRST GENERAL SESSION 


SATURDAY Dinner Session. 
February 25 Presiding: Paul E. Elicker, Principal of New- 


6:00 P. M. ton High School, Newtonville, Massachu- 
Ball Room setts, and President of the Department ot 
Hotel Cleveland Secondary-School Principals. 


Music: Cleveland Schools. 

Address of Welcome: Harry H. Burton, Mayor 
of Cleveland. 

Address: “Education for Democracy,” Lord 
Bertrand Russell. 


3 



































4 DeparTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ January 


MONDAY 
February 27 
2:15 P. M. 
Ball Room 
Hotel Cleveland 


TUESDAY 
February 28 
2:15 P. M. 
Club Room B 
Public Auditorium 
Hotel Cleveland 





SECOND GENERAL SESSION 


THEME: Pupw Activities oF THE Mopern SEc- 
ONDARY SCHOOL. 


Presiding: John E. Wellwood, Principal of 
Central High School, Flint, Michigan, and 
Member of the Executive Committee of the 
Department of Secondary-School Principals. 

Tue PuitosopHy aNp Purpose oF AN ACTIVITY 


PROGRAM. 


Address: “The Aim and Object of an Activity 
Program,” Edgar G. Johnston, Principal of 
the University High School, Ann Arbor, 
Michigan. 

Discussion: A panel of students from East 
Technical High School of Cleveland. 


Summary: By the leader of the panel, Elbert K. 
Fretwell, Professor of Education, Teachers 
College, Columbia University, New York 
City. 


THIRD GENERAL SESSION 


THEME: Tue Department at Work. 

Presiding: K. J. Clark, Principal of Murphy 
High School, Mobile, Alabama, and First 
Vice President of the Department of Sec- 
ondary-School Principals. 

Address: “The Purposes and Policies ot the 
Planning Committee,” Francis L. Bacon, 
Chairman of the Planning Committee, and 
Principal of Evanston Township High 
School, Evanston, Illinois. 

Address: “Educational Problems Causing Ad- 
ministrators Most Concern During the Past 
Two Years,” Francis T. Spaulding, Depart- 
ment of Education, Harvard University, 
Cambridge, Massachusetts. 


Demonstration Discussion: Subject — “The 
Guidance Function,” a faculty group, led by 


C. R. Wise, Principal of Glenville High 


















WEDNESDAY 
March 1 
2:15 P. M. 
Club Room A 
Public Auditorium 
Hotel Cleveland 





WEDNESDAY 
March 1 
2:15 P. M. 
Club Room B 
Public Auditorium 
Hotel Cleveland 











Tue Fesruary CoNnvENTION 


School, Cleveland. Chairman, Walter E. 

Myer, Director of the Discussion Group 

Project, Washington, D. C. 

Business Session: Report of committees. Elec- 
tion of officers. 


FOURTH GENERAL SESSION 


THEME: SicniricANtT CONTRIBUTIONS TO SECOND- 
ARY-SCHOOL IMPROVEMENTS. 


Junior High-School Division 


Presiding: Virgil M. Hardin, Principal of Pip- 
kin and Reed Junior High Schools, Spring- 
field, Missouri, and Member of the Execu- 
tive Committee of the Department of Sec- 
ondary-School Principals. 

Address: “Marking Procedures in Springfield 
High Schools,” J. D. Hull, Principal of 
Springfield Senior High School, Springfield, 
Missouri. 

Address: “Administering an Integrated Pro- 
gram of Education in the Junior High 
School,” C. Benton Manley, Principal of 
Horace Mann Junior High School, Tulsa, 
Oklahoma. 

Discussion: Paul Leonard, Associate Professor 
of Education, Leland Stanford University, 
Stanford University, California. 


Senior High-School Division 


Presiding: Oscar Granger, Principal of Haver- 
ford Township High School, Upper Darby, 
Pennsylvania, and Second Vice President of 
the Department of Secondary-School Prin- 
cipals. 

Address: “Significant Contributions from the 
New York State Regents’ Inquiry,” Luther 
Gulick, Columbia University, New York 
City, New York. 

Address: “Significant Contributions from the 


5 




















WEDNESDAY 
March 1 
2:15 P. M. 
Ball Room Annex 
Public Auditorium 
Hotel Cleveland 









6 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ January 


Modern High School at Work,” William C. 

Reavis, Professor of Education, University 
of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. 

Address: “Outcomes of the Cooperative Study 
of Secondary-School Standards,” Walter C. 

Eells, Coordinator, Washington, D. C. 


Discussion. 


Junior-College Division 


Presiding: McClellan G. Jones, Principal of 
Union . High School, Huntington Beach, 
California, and Member of the Executive 
Committee of the Department of Secondary- 
School Principals. 

THe Junior Coirece Servinc Its SEcTIONAL 
Nees. 


Address: “Problems in Evolving a Junior- 
College Curriculum to Meet Community 
Needs,” J. L. McCaskill, Principal of Senior 
High School and Junior College, Meridian, 
Mississippi. 

Address: “How One Junior College Serves Its 
Community,” Byron S. Hollinshead, Presi- 
dent of Scranton-Keystone Junior College, 
LaPlume, Pennsylvania. 


Address: “Meeting the Junior College Students’ 
Needs,” Louis E. Plummer, Superintendent 
of Fullerton Union High School and Junior 
College, Fullerton, California. 


Evaluators: Chairman, Truman G. Reed, Prin- 
cipal of Lewis and Clark High School, Spo- 
kane, Washington, and Member of the Ex- 
ecutive Committee of the Department of 
Secondary-School Principals; L. W. Brooks, 
Principal of Wichita High School East, 
Wichita, Kansas; Harrison C. Lyseth, State 
Supervisor of Secondary Education, Au- 
gusta, Maine; Galen Jones, Principal of 

Plainfield High School, Plainfield, New 

Jersey. 

















































The Bulletin 


of the 


DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL 
PRINCIPALS 


National Education Association 





VotuME 23 January, 1939 Numser 79 








THE JUNIOR COLLEGE OF THE FUTURE’ 


Aaron J. BRuMBAUGH 
Professor of Education, University of Chicago 


The subject on which I have been asked to speak, “The Junior Col- 
lege of the Future,” is an expression both of a faith in, and a hope for, 
this type of institution. It implies that there will be a junior college in the 
future, and that it is likely to change in some of its fundamental aspects. 
I accept both of these implications as sound premises for this discussion. 

It must be obvious that it is impossible to portray in any precise way 
the nature of the junior college of the future. Any educational institution, 
to justify its existence, must in some important respects serve the needs of 
our future democracy; consequently, we must not venture to fix the pattern 
of education in anticipation of an unforeseen future. The difficulty experi- 
enced in changing an educational pattern, once it is established, is illus- 
trated well by our common schools. The eight-grade elementary school 
became a part of our system of public education more or less by accident. 
There is no evidence in the psychology of learning, nor is the nature of 
the subject matter taught such as to justify an eight-year period of ele- 
mentary education. But how extremely difficult it became to change this 
pattern of organization after it had become entrenched in our educational 
tradition. 

We have, within a single generation, increased the span of human 
life and decreased the torture of human toil; we have all but eliminated 
the limitations of time and space in communication and travel; we have 
increased our periods of leisure and have expanded our activities for rec- 
reation; in a word, our technological developments have set the stage for 
a new social order. The junior college has arisen in response to the educa- 
tional needs that are concomitant with the social change. The certainty 
of further unforeseen developments leaves us in doubt both as to the nature 
of the social changes that are still to come and as to the accompanying 
educational needs. 





1Address delivered at the fall meeting of the Illinois Association of Junior Colleges, Chicago, 
November 18, 1938. 
7 








DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | January 


Notwithstanding these elements of uncertainty concerning social 
change and new educational needs, it is possible to project into the future 
the lines along which the junior college is moving and to forecast some- 
thing of its future, provided the direction in which it continues to move 


remains somewhat constant. 


The junior college will become increasingly the agency for raising the 
general cultural level of society. The very name junior college bears an 
implication that it shall assume in program and function the nature of a 
college; that its membership shall be restricted to those of superior scho- 
lastic promise and that its program shall be directed toward specialization 
in academic and professional fields. This role of preparing students for 
later specialized study is not to be ignored but it represents only one phase 
of the service of the junior college. The growing complexity of our social 
affairs demands that all who as citizens are to participate in them must 
have the benefits afforded by a higher level of general education; further- 
more, the lack of opportunities for employment of high-school graduates 
provides both an opportunity and a necessity for continuing their educa- 
tion. Many of these are not candidates for specialized study, but they can 
profit by education beyond the high-school level. In fact, the number of 
youth who will not advance beyond the level of the junior college is greater 
than the number who will enter the junior college as an avenue to more 
advanced education. The responsibility on the part of the junior college 
to provide appropriate terminal education is quite as important, therefore, 
as the responsibility to provide a pre-university program. 


Lest it appear that I have set up these two types of education as mu- 
tually exclusive, let me explain that the educational needs of the potential 
citizen and those of the potential scholar are in most respects identical. 
A few illustrations of what I mean will serve to make this point clearer. 
When our population was predominantly rural, most of the issues con- 
fronting the citizen were local in nature; even those that were national in 
scope were relatively simple when compared with the problems of our 
days. The citizen of to-day must be intelligent concerning the effect of the 
TVA on private business enterprises; the old-age security measures; the 
organization of labor; the governmental control and possible ownership of 
railroads; the control of agricultural production; reciprocal trade agree- 
ments, and many other projects that are matters of common concern. To 
think clearly concerning these issues the citizen must know something 
of the development of scientific knowledge and of its relationship to tech- 
nological development; he must have some knowledge of the principles 
of economics, sociology, and government; he must distinguish between pure 
propaganda and statements of fact. The concepts, data, and principles 
that the citizen should employ in thinking through current social and 





1939} Tue Junior CoLLece OF THE FuTuRE 


political issues are essentially the same as those that are prerequisite to 
more advanced study in these fields. 

There is likewise no essential difference between the appreciation of 
literature and the fine arts by the student whose education is to be termi- 
nated upon completing the junior college and by the student who intends 
to continue his education. Both must be conversant with the contributions 
made by the great masters. Through such an appreciation the cultured 
citizen takes an active interest in the establishment and maintenance of 
libraries, museums, and conservatories, in the support of symphonic or- 
chestras, book clubs, and art societies. The potential scholar builds upon 
the same basis his recreational pursuits or his more technical study of 
aesthetics. 

It would be unfortunate were I to leave this phase of my discussion 
without reference to the importance of certain values basic to all social 
organization. The philosophies and religions in all periods of man’s his- 
tory represent an attempt to define these values. Each individual must 
develop his own ethical and religious orientation, but he may be greatly 
aided by the thought and experience of those who have preceded him. 
One need only observe general practices in business and politics to be im- 
pressed with the need for ethical values that will really function in our 
society. The junior college can neither create nor transmit these values 
but it can and should guide students in their philosophical, ethical, and 
religious explorations. 

I have endeavored by these illustrations, which are in no sense exhaus- 
tive, to establish the point that there are certain basic elements of educa- 
tion common to students whose formal education may end at the junior- 
college level and to those who may proceed to more advanced work. 

The nature of a curriculum that will serve the purpose of general 
education of the type I have just described is at present a subject of much 
discussion and experimentation. It is becoming increasingly clear that a 
patchwork of courses in departmentalized fields of subject matter does 
not serve this purpose. Far more effective are general courses cutting across 
departmental lines or wholly ignoring such lines. The interrelationships 
of the fields of knowledge are quite as important as is the delimitation of 
these fields, but we have spent so much time in definition and delimitation 
that we have lost sight of these interrelationships. I envision in the junior 
college of the future a program of study that deals with the important facts 
and basic principles of human experience without concern as to whether 
they fit into a particular pigeonhole such as sociology, economics, physics, 
zoology, psychology, or philosophy. 

I have already said that one of the fundamental qualifications of a 
citizen in a democracy is the power to think independently. The power to 
think is based on the ability to form generalizations, to arrive at general 











10 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [January 


conclusions. This power will never be developed to any high level by 
limiting the students’ educational experience to facts and details in artifi- 
cially segmented fields of knowledge. General courses centered around the 
great problems of human life and thought without reference to depart- 
mentalization of subjects undoubtedly afford the type of educational exp» 
rience that is basic to independent thought. 

I have stressed up to this point the fundamental nature of general 
education. There are, however, differentiated needs of students that the 
junior college of the future must recognize. Some of these are vocational 
in nature. Students who terminate their education at this level will seck 
employment. In numbers this group will far exceed those who go on to 
specialized work. Their education will have to be a major concern of the 
junior college. Provision will be made to aid students in determining voca- 
tional aptitudes and interests; information will be made available concern- 
ing the opportunities in various vocations and the qualifications requisite 
to employment; the way will be opened for exploratory courses and for try- 
outs in various vocations; and in some fields specific vocational training 
will be offered. Placement services will be provided to aid students to 
enter the vocations for which they are best fitted. 

There seems to be little doubt in the minds of those who have studied 
the question most carefully that the vocational aspects of the junior college 
program will be greatly expanded. The introduction of courses in secre- 
tarial work, in commerce, in laboratory technique, mark the beginning of 
what is likely to become a wide offering of courses in the vocational field. 
Moreover, we are coming to realize more and more that there is no ade- 
quate substitute for firsthand experience in real work. The codperative 
programs already in effect in a few junior colleges point the way for ex- 
tending the opportunities for experience in the vocational field. 

Outside the field of vocations, the junior college will offer many oppor- 
tunities for students to pursue special interests. Some of these opportunities 
will be quite informal in nature to remove them from an association with 
school or education, an association that unfortunately has stood in the way 
of the education of some youth. Art groups, music groups, groups inter- 
ested in photography, diamatics, radio, gymnastics, forensics, al] these and 
many others will be recognized as having a legitimate claim upon the 
facilities of the college. Perhaps through these avenues, we may be able 
to cultivate a genuine love for the arts as an offset to the deadening in- 
struction that has been killing spontaneous interest in them. 

In order to achieve the purposes both of general and of differentiated 
education the junior colleges, particularly those that are a part of a public 
school system, will undoubtedly develop a new pattern of organization. 
The two-year junior college as an isolated educational unit has many limi- 
tations. A lack of time prevents my discussing these in any detail. Suffice 














by 


fi- 








1939] Tue Junior CoLLEcE oF THE FuTURE 11 
it to say, at this point, that the public junior college will become a much 
more intimate part of secondary education probably combining the junior 
and senior years of the high school with the two years now given to the 
junior college. This new type of organization will provide for a continuity 
of education through a unified curriculum and unified physica! facilities 
that will eliminate many of the disadvantages arising from the artificial 
break that now exists between the high school and the junior college. The 
private junior college is in a less advantageous position to develop such a 
program. It is difficult to foresee just what the effect of this reorganization 
may be on its future. 

Before I close, may I indicate one other aspect of the junior college 
of the future that will assume larger significance than it does at present. 
I refer to what is commonly called student personnel service or guidance. 
If the student and his needs are to be the focus of interest in the program 
of this institution, administrative officers and instructors must know much 
more about him. They will use indices of scholastic aptitude, of vocational 
aptitude, and of personality adjustment in determining the loads that a 
student may take, in aiding him to discover educational and vocational 
objectives, and in overcoming limitations in his personality, study habits, 
and reading skills so that he may work at a maximum level of achieve- 
ment. Testing bureaus and advisory services will become an integrated 
part of the process of education. The emphasis will be placed not upon 
failure as an evidence of high standards or as a means of eliminating the 
inferior scholar, but upon discovering individual capacities as a basis for 
adapting programs and instruction to individual abilities. Academic salva- 
tion will be substituted for academic damnation. 

Again may I stress the fact that this brief sketch is merely a projection 
into the future of present trends. Unforeseen socio-economic developments 
may give the trends an entirely new direction. It seems safe to predict, 
however, that in any event the junior college is an established institution 
that will grow in usefulness as it meets the educational needs of those 
who leave it to take their part in social affairs or to enter fields of special- 


ized study. 










































PRINCIPLES OF GUIDANCE 


H. D. Ricuarpson 


Director of Research, Deerfield-Shields Township High Schools, 
Highland Park and Lake Forest, Illinois 


Guidance is now a widely accepted function of secondary-school edu- 
cation, both in theory and practice. It promises to become an increasingly 
significant function with the expansion of the secondary-school offering to 
meet the needs and interests of American youth. 

At the present time, considerable confusion exists with reference to 
principles, meaning, and scope of the guidance function. Any attempt to 
provide an organized program of guidance for secondary-school pupils 
requires that this apparent confusion be reduced to reasonable order. An 
examination of the literature on the subject leads to the conclusion that 
the apparent discrepancies result from differences in emphasis on certain 
phases of the program rather than from fundamental disagreement as to 
the need and purpose of guidance. This point of view has been clearly 


expressed by Trabue as follows: 

As a matter of fact, educational guidance, social guidance, emo- 
tional guidance, vocational guidance, and all other desirable types 
of guidance are merely different phases of a single program whose 
purpose is to build the happiest and most fully integrated personality 
possible upon the foundation with which nature and previous experi- 
ence have provided the individual. The principles of guidance are the 
same in all fields. 


In spite, therefore, of the diversity found in statements of the func- 
tions and purposes of guidance by writers on the subject, it is generally 
held that interest in, attention to, and concern for the individual student 
and his problems of planning and adjustment are at once the common 
cause and center of emphasis of all the various kinds of guidance and per- 
sonnel services. Consequently there exists, either as a result of direct ex- 
pression or reasonable inference, a substantial body of common working 
principles which serve to delineate a concept of guidance and to suggest 
a reasonably valid orientation and guide to practice. 

A statement of these commonly accepted working principles follows: 

1. Guidance contributes to the realization of the objectives of sec- 
ondary education—The relation of the guidance function to the objectives 
of secondary education, and the contribution it makes to their realization 


may be seen in the following statement of aims by Kefauver and Hand. 


(a) It aims to give students an understanding of the social, rec- 
reational, health, and vocational activities in which they at present 
participate, and in which they continue to participate after leaving 
school, and the need of education preparatory for such participation. 
(b) It aims to help students to discover interests and to form accu- 
rate judgments relative to the extent of their abilities in different 
types of activities. (c) It aims to acquaint students with the schools, 
courses, and other educational provisions which best prepare them 

















1Trabue, M. R. “Recent Developments in Testing for Guidance," Review of Educational Research, 
Ill (February, 1933), 45- 
12 















- 


1939] PrincipLes OF GUIDANCE 13 


for such activities. (d) It aims to help students select the activities 
of life in which they will participate and in which there is a large 
promise of success and happiness for them. (e) It aims to help stu- 
dents in planning an educational program which will best prepare 
them for their chosen activities, giving appropriate recognition to the 
need of education for social, recreational, health, and vocational 
activities. (f) It sims to facilitate adjustment of students in their 
activities in and out of school so that they will attain maximum 
achievement and happiness and not be disturbed b; social and per- 
sonal maladjustments. (g) It should make some contribution to the 
general improvement of education by defining the educational needs 
of individuals.” 


To the extent that guidance succeeds in realizing these aims, to that 
degree will it contribute to the realization of the general objectives of sec- 
ondary education. 

2. Guidance studies the individual—Guidance recognizes the fact 
that individuals differ widely in capacities, abilities, interests, and needs, 
and is concerned with ihe implications that these differences have for maxi- 
inum development and optimal adjustment. “This recognition of complex 
differences among students is the first psychological principle of guid- 
ance.” From the point of view of the guidance worker or counselor, a 
study and analysis of the individual will involve information about such 
factors as intelligence, previous achievement, special abilities and clisabili- 
tics, interests, health and physical condition, home and family background, 
socio-economic status, and educational and vocational plans. In short, a 
study of the whole individual in terms of a case history or a comprehensive 
cumulative record is basic to good guidance practices. This continuous 
and cumulative study of the individual with the aid of a series of com- 
parable objective test results has been characterized as the “major strategy 
of guidance.” The intelligent use of the results of such cumulative meas- 
ures together with case record materials has led Dean McConn to declare 
that “educational guidance is now possible.” 

From the point of view of the individual, this study and analysis is 
intended to reveal to him his interests, abilities, capacities, znd needs, to the 
end that he may be better able to find a place in the world where he will 
be successful and happy, and where his work will be of profit to himself 
and to society. It is the results of such individual analysis, discovery, and 
exploration, that furnish the only secure foundation structure upon which 
a sound and substantial program of guidance can be safely erected. 

3. Guidance studies educational and vocational requirements and 
opportunities.—Facts concerning the nature and requirements of the en- 
vironmental situations with which the individual must make adjustment, 


*Kefauver, Grayson N., and Hand, Harold C. “Objectives of Guidance in Secondary Schoois,"’ 
Teachers College Record, XXXIV (February, 1933), 385. 
3Strang, Ruth. The Role of the Teacher in Personnel Work (New York: Bureau of Publications, 


Teachers College, Columbia University, 1935), p. 17. 
*Wood, Ben D. ‘The Major Strategy of Guidance," Educational Record, XV (October, 1934), 





419-44. 
®SMcConn, Max. “Educational Guidance Is Now Possible," Educational Record, XIV (October. 


1933), 3°27. 








14 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | January 


in the school, in the community, and in the world of work, are to be made 
available and used. This aspect of guidance is sometimes referred to as 
the informative phase of the guidance program. Information of varied and 
diverse kinds must be made available to the student if wise choices and 
satisfying adjustments are to be made. The diversity of the means and 
methods of acquainting students with educational and vocational opportu- 
nities has been presented in detailed outline by Koos and Kefauver.’ A 
word of caution may be injected to the effect that the informative or reve- 
latory phase of guidance is not to be narrowly conceived, nor is it to be 
reserved entirely for counselors. A more inclusive statement of the revela 
tory function as well as its purpose has been expressed by Briggs in the 
following words: 
To reveal higher activities of an increasingly specialized type 

in the major fields of the racial heritage of experience and culture, 

their significant values for living, the problems in them of contempo- 

rary life, the privileges and duties of each person as an individual 

and as a member of social groups; to make these fields satisfying and 

desired by those naturally gifted for success in them, and to give 

information as to requirements for success in their fields and infor- 

mation as to where further training may be secured.’ 

This broad interpretation of the informatory and revelatory phases of 
guidance is to be preferred to one in which the aim is restricted merely to 


furnishing vocational information. 


4. Guidance attempts to relate effectively the facts regarding the indi- 
vidual and the facts regarding educational and vocational requirements 
and opportunities-—The crux of the guidance function is to be found in 
the effectiveness with which differences in capacities, interests, and needs, 
revealed through the study of the individual, and the opportunities, re- 
quirements, and limitations imposed by the social and physical environ- 
ment, can be related with resultant satisfaction and profit to the individual 
and to society. No simple formula to the effect that an individual is cut 
out at birth to succeed in a certain vocational calling can be relied upon. 
Such a notion has been termed “the fallacy of the perfect niche.” Neither 
can it be assumed that an individual can succeed equally well in all occu- 
pations. That an individual can succeed in a number of educational and 
vocational pursuits is very probably true. Kitson is of the opinion that, 
“So variable are human capacities that it is probable that fifty per cent 
of the population could succeed, with fifty per cent degree of success, in 
fifty per cent of the occupations.” The problem is to discover which occu- 


pational pursuits afford maximum expression and development for each 


"Koos, Leonard V., and Kefauver, Grayson N. Guidance in Secondary Schools (New York: Mac- 
millan Company, 1932), pp. 31-187. 

TBriggs, Thomas H Secondary Education (New York: Macmillan Company, 1933), pp. 109-37. 

‘Crawford, Albert B., and Clement, Stuart H. The Choice of an Occupation (New Haven: Yale 


University Press, 1932), p. 1. 
*Kitson, Harry D. ‘‘Aptitude Testing: Its Contribution to Vocational Guidance,"’ Occupations, 


XII (April, 1934), 63. 





1939] PrincipLes OF GUIDANCE 15 


individual. Effective distribution and adjustment of individuals to the 
educational and vocational opportunities in the complex modern world 
is a matter of too great social concern to be left unorganized and unguided; 
hence, the necessity for organized agencies for guidance. Such agencies 
must be primarily concerned with the relation between, and the interpre- 
tation of, the two sets of facts disclosed from careful and systematic study 
of individuals and of the world’s requirements and opportunities together 
with their implications for improved individual and social living. The de- 
vising of methods and techniques for the discovery and interpretation of 
the relationships between these facts and of means and methods for bring- 
ing these interpretations to bear upon problems pertaining to the effective 
distribution and adjustment of individuals is a phase of guidance no less 
significant than the discovery of the facts themselves. 


5. Guidance is monitory rather than mandatory in character--The 
methods of guidance avoid determinism, prescription, and compulsion. 
Guidance is concerned with helping the individual to become acquainted 
with, to interpret, and to understand the factors involved in a situation, 
met or anticipated, which demands choice, decision, or solution. “The only 
compulsion possible in advice is the coercion of judgment by pertinent 
facts that point the way to proper judgment.” The primary purpose of all 
guidance is to help the individual become progressively self-responsible and 
self-directive. While dogmatism, arbitrary prescription, and authoritative 
compulsion are to be sedulously avoided, honest help and advice must be 
given, for as Williamson points out, “Telling a student that he must diag- 
nose his own aptitudes if he is to make a satisfactory vocational choice is 
much like telling a drowning man that if he will but swim to shore he 
will be saved.’”” The truth of this statement applies to many of the prob- 
lems and choices which the individual is called upon to make, and for 
which guidance is expected to provide some help. 


6. Guidance serves the individual—Guidance services and functions 
extend to the individual student and his problems. To this end the guid- 
ance program provides for individual counseling. “Without effective pro- 
vision for systematic counseling the rest of the program becomes largely 
abortive as a guidance program.”” However, in connection with many 
phases of guidance work the individual can be reached through group 
guidance methods, especially if care is taken in the preparation of mate- 
rials and in the perfection of techniques. 

7. Guidance is comprehensive; it serves all individuals—Guidance 
is not a service that is provided for the selected few—the maladjusted, the 
problem cases, the special disability cases, the gifted, or other exceptional 


Koos, Leonard V., and Kefauver, Grayson N. op. Cit.. p. 17. 

"Occupations XII1 (October, 1935), 89, quoted in a review of 4 Syllabus for the Study of 
Vocations by E. G. Williamson. 

12McConn, Max. op. cit., Pp. 12. 




















16 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [January 


individuals. As Allen points out, “We must provide guidance for every 
child. It should not be necessary for a child to get into difficulty before he 
receives individual consideration.” Its chief emphasis is positive and pre- 
ventive rather than negative and remedial. Constructive planning, distri- 
bution, and adjustment are to be effected for all children. Salvaging the 
few through re-adjustment, re-habilitation, and remedial treatment, while 
necessary and important, is not the primary function of guidance and per- 
sonnel work. 

8. Guidance is a continuous, unitary process—Guidance is not an 
act, to be done once and for ali, but a process, lifelong in extent. It is a 
service to be made available to individuals of all ages and at all times. It 
is a unitary, integrated process, as well as a continuous one. The individual 
must be dealt with as a whole person, an integrated personality. The sev- 
eral areas or categories of experience—vocational, educational, moral, 
health, leisure, etc—may be made distinct for purposes of description and 
emphasis, but the individual cannot be broken up into parts each of which 
is to be viewed by specialists who administer guidance of a particular 
kind. It is the whole individual and not the segmented individual that 
must be guided. The fundamental unity of life must be recognized, re- 
spected, and preserved. 

9. Guidance is a coérdinated community service —Guidance utilizes 
the services of all who can help, both in the school and the community at 
large. The guidance service is not a one-man job; nor is it a job to he done 
entirely within the schools. Neither is it a job to be delegated exclusively 
to specialists or generalists. The real problem is not whether guidance is 
a function of the school or some other community agency t» be realized 
through the services of specialists or generalists, but rather it is a problem 
of how the entire facilities and resources of the home, the school, and the 
community can be coérdinated, codperatively utilized, and brought to bear 
effectively upon the problems of the individual. Many of the individual’s 
problems may be safely handled by the general counselor in the school or 
other agency. Others demand the greater skill and diagnostic insight of 
specialists. Consequently, a twofold responsibility of the general guidance 
worker or counselor is the recognition of his personal limitations through 
an awareness of the contributions of special functionaries and agencies, 
and the provision for the cooperative utilization and codrdination of their 
services with those of his own, if the most effective guidance is to be ren- 
dered to each individual. 

10. Guidance submits to evaluation—In spite of difficulties due to 
the complexity of the process, the often long-delayed results of guidance in 
the lives of individuals, and the inadequacy of existing evaluative instru- 


48Allen, Richard D. Organization and Supervision of Guidance in Public Education (New York: 
Inor Publishing Company, 1934), p- xiv. 




























1939 | PrincipLes oF GUIDANCE 17 


ments and techniques, the critical appraisal of guidance services is exceed- 
ingly important, and it must be undertaken. The significance of the out- 
comes of guidance is too important a matter to be left to general impres- 
sion. Objective, systematic, and controlled evaluation should supplement 
subjective appraisal. The problem of evaluation, though ‘difficult: is not 
impossible. The attempts and the progress already made afford promising 
line for further investigation. 

These working principles provide a substantial undergirding for a 
comprehensive school-community guidance service. Their acceptance in 
practice will materially assist in the planned and orderly development of 
functional programs of guidance geared to the needs of modern youth 
and the problems of planning and adjustment that they face in a rapidly 
changing socio-economic world. 











INDUSTRIAL ARTS 
C. E. Vance 
Superintendent of Schools, Danville, Illinois 


The secondary schools of the United States have accepted the prin- 
ciple that all normal children, irrespective of class or social conditions, 
have a right to attend an institution of learning beyond the grade-school 
level. Although we have accepted this purely American ideal of universal 
secondary education in theory, in practice we have fallen far short of its 
accomplishment. It is true that our doors are open to all normal boys and 
girls, who regularly seek entrance, but many find only disappointment and 
discouragement within. In too many instances, the youth finds the ofier- 
ings unsuited to his abilities, needs, and interests. Although much has 
been done in the progressive school to modify the curriculum to meet the 
needs, interests, and capacities of individual students, the traditional classi- 
cal college preparatory school still predominates. Compartmentalized sub- 
ject-matter fields have not yielded in many schools to larger learning areas, 
and pupil progress is still measured by subject-matter achievement rather 
than by functional outcomes in character, citizenship, initiative, and adapta- 
bility. 

If we accept the principle that all children have the right to four years 
of high-school training above the elementary school, we must abandon the 
idea that we can send them all through the same mill, even though we 
limit our offerings to the academic field. Even there, there must be a dif- 
ference in the mesh of our screen that delivers the product. 


The traditional school fell short of its possibilities because its appeal 
was mainly to the mind. It was an easy philosophy to evolve and admin- 
ister. The duty of the school was to present to each generation that part of 
the accumulation of the learning of the past generations as was thought nec- 
essary. The student was measured by his ability to remember and produce 
a certain percentage of this knowledge. The standards of measurement 
were never in terms of use or growth. The project method, the activity 
school, the progressive school are all protests against this narrow concep- 
tion of education. Emphasis shifted from subject matter as an end in itself 
to subject matter only as a means to an end. We were long aware of the 
psychological fact that there is no impression without expression before 
we understood that the form of expression has much to do with the effect- 
ivenes. and permanency of the impression. 

Pupils have always shown preference for subjects that require physi- 
cal as well as mental adjustment. The laboratory period is the saving 
grace in most physics and chemistry courses. All manual training, sewing, 
cooking, art, physical education, band, orchestra, typing are more popu- 
lar with a greater number of children than are history, Latin, mathematics, 
18 














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1939] INpusTRIAL ARTs 19 


literature, or science. The activity school has utilized this knowledge. It 
is not uncommon in some schools for children to attend because they 
like to. The interest and enthusiasm pupils have for extra-curriculum 
activities reveals a human tendency that the administrator cannot afford 
to ignore if he is to plan wisely. 

What is being done in the academic fields to enliven and vitalize the 
work is what has been done, or always should have been done, in the 
industrial department. Basically, it is the effort to utilize the immediate 
interests of the child or to create interests as the starting point of any lcarn- 
ing activity, whether it be language, mathematics, science, or history; and 
then with this interest as a guide, to select some activity or activities by 
means of which desirable education experiences may be gained through 
purposeful activity. The more codperative the activity, the better it serves 
the end of education, provided, of course, in all situations that the learner 
be afforded an opportunity to suggest, to plan, and to evaluate both the 
procedure and the results. 

There is, by its very nature, no department better fitted to carry out 
this newer concept of education than is the industrial arts department. 
Interest seldom has to be evoked by the instructor, nor is it necessary to 
resort to artificial incentives. The opportunity to think, to plan, to evalu- 
ate, to accept responsibility, to explore, depends largely on the skill of the 
teacher. He must be enthusiastic, have depth of vision, and an adequate 
educational philosophy. Unless he has a comprehensive view of education, 
his field is likely to become as narrowly formalized as has the academic. 
In fact, in many instances the work of the industrial arts department has 
become formalized to the extent that it is not serving the purpose for 
which it was intended. Unrelated mechanical drawing, a rigid set of 
projects to be made by all, may be as stultifying as any academic subject 
which the pupil is required to pursue and for which he feels no need. Al- 
though objectives have long been established for industrial arts, adminis- 
trators and teachers, judging from a survey of what some are doing, have 
not had a clear idea or conviction of the place or purpose of this depart- 
ment in the educational scheme. Manual arts teachers must resist the 
tendency to consider themselves a special department set apart from the 
rest of the school and working for separate ends. They must feel that 
their work is an integral part of the whole program of education set up in 
the light of an adequate educational philosophy. They must feel that 
they have as great a responsibility for the general welfare and progress 
of the individual as teachers in other fields. They must realize that a 
narrow view and overemphasis on any one phase of their work will vitiate 


_ their efforts to secure the broad, general objectives of education. Emphasis 


on skill alone may lessen the mental activities. Standard attainments ig- 
nore the needs and interests of the individual. Sole emphasis on the voca- 

















20 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [January 


tional aspect of his work can easily deprive the individual of educational 
benefits that are desirable and the right of all. 

It is with some hesitancy that I venture an opinion on vocational edu- 
cation in the secondary school. There is difference of opinion among edu- 
cators on this subject. The controversy is between those who favor general 
education with industrial arts as an integral part and those who would 
place industrial-arts on a purely vocational basis. 

No one would question the obligation of the school to assist and direct 
any pupil toward the vocation or profession of his choice. But, as Judd 
points out, the difficulties that confront the administrator, when he at- 
tempts to fit the school to every individual, are almost insurmountable. 
The lack of well-prepared and natively endowed teachers, the difficulty in 
organizing a curriculum or curriculums to give suitable preparation for 
the many lines of human endeavor, and the instability of life in modern 
society, all tend to direct the efforts of the administrator to more easily 
accomplished ends. The first step in importance is to decide what general 
education is necessary for all to enable them to live intelligently in a mod- 
ern world. The next step, and perhaps the more difficult one, is to provide 
training of a more specialized nature. Such a concept of the secondary 
curriculum would remove the conflict between general and vocational 
education. Until these difficulties are removed, it necessarily follows that 
the school must emphasize the importance of cultivating adaptability to the 
highest possible degree. If the individual is able to adjust himself to situa- 
tions in his industrial, professional, and social life, the school will have 
gone a long way in accounting for its stewardship. 

I am not in sympathy with those who put industrial arts in the sec- 
ondary school on a trade-school basis. I prefer to consider industrial arts 
as an educational area, as we do the language arts, natural and social sci- 
ences, and the fine arts. 

If we accept the formula of adaptability, the industrial-arts teacher 
will not make the mistake of extreme specialization in any trade. Com- 
partmentalization is as undesirable within the’ field of industrial arts as 
it is in any other. I am of the opinion, despite the rather convincing argu- 
ments of those who advocate vocational training in the secondary school, 
that emphasis purely on vocational training below the college level may 
deprive the individual of the opportunity to secure the educational benefits 
that a more general course offers. 

There are those who would have us believe that the principal! failure 
of the secondary school is that it does not fit the boy or girl to earn a living 
and that all maladjustment is due to the fact that more occupational courses 
are not offered. I think it is a false assumption that all, or even many, chil- 
dren come to high school only to learn how to earn a living, and that all 
the maladjustment, dissatisfaction, and failure is due to the fact that they 





















nal 











1939} InpusTRIAL ARTs 21 


cannot find the thing for which theyare looking. A revision of the cur- 

riculum or curriculums to provide differentiated levels of achievement ac- 
cording to ability, so organized to provide situations where the learner can 
utilize in some overt way the material he is studying, will do more than 
anything to prevent failure and the dissatisfaction that follows it. In 
other words, part of the solution to the problem is a better organization 
and a better use of the subjects that most high schools are already teaching. 
If the secondary school is to continue as a part of our free, universal sys- 
iem of education, we must abandon the convenient, but harmful, lock-step 
system in all departments for one that is much more difficult to conceive 
and administer, but which will render a greater service to socicty as well 
as the individual. 

It has never been expected of the high school that it turn out finished 
products in any department. The athlete participates for other reasons 
than preparation for his life work. He knows that even should he find 
future uses for his skill after leaving school that his training is little short 
of rudimentary. The boy or girl who enters the band or orchestra may 
or may not have in mind music as an occupation. Neither does the school 
hope to turn out finished musicians. Neither is it the duty of the school 
to turn out finished artisans in any particular field. Rather it is the obli- 
gation of the school to provide experiences that will enable the pupil to 
discover his capabilities, to know what his chances are in many occupa- 
tions, and to give sufficient practice to determine his aptitude and pertna- 
nent interest in his selected field. This, I believe, can be accomplished with- 
out setting up separate schools, or without setting aside a department in 
our present system and labeling it vocational. As stated above, the uncer- 
tainty and instability of the industrial world seems to favor the advisability 
of securing general adaptability to several lines of endeavor rather than 
narrow specialization in any one particular trade or occupation. 

What I have said heretofore has been more or less concerned with 
the relation of an industrial arts program to the general organization of 
the school. There are other values which have nothing to do with earning 
a living, but which are practical and utilitarian for other reasons. 

The writer has always. had more or less contempt for the individual 
who has no mechanical ability. The man who must call a plumber every 
time a faucet leaks, or a carpenter to adjust a window or hang a screen, 
certainly is undeveloped to say the least. Aside from the self-respect and 
the satisfaction one experiences in being able to do the minor repair work 
around the house, for which no elaborate equipment is required, there is 
a financial saving. Practically every family now has a car; therefore, a 

ourse in auto mechanics is very practical. Aside from making minor 
repairs and adjustments, it is quite to the advantage of the owner to know 
at least what the car needs, if he must take it to a garage for repairs. 




















22 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ January 


Then too, each person is a consumer. In this age of high-pressure 
advertising and salesmanship, a knowledge of materials, design, and con- 
struction should be a part of his equipment as a protection against false 
or extravagant claims. A class in architectural drawing can learn how to 
plan a house without going very far into the matter of what constitutes 
a good structure, unless the teachers take him rather far afield in the study 
of material, construction, design, and other related information. The 
writer knows of many who have been cheated in the purchase of a house 
because they looked no farther than the surface of the walls. 


In addition to the many other values not mentioned and the practical 
side just named, there is one that by reason of its importance must be con- 
sidered; namely, the value to the individual of the skills, interests, and 
knowledge derived from the industrial arts course as leisure-time activities. 
A truly educated person must be as well equipped to play and to occupy 
his leisure time as he is equipped to work and earn a living. The necessity 
for definitely providing the individual with this equipment grows more 
imperative as the ratio between the unemployed and employed hours 
grows greater. Too often the individual has been importuned to develop 
an appreciation of art, music, and literature to fill in the leisure hours. 
These suggestions are excellent, but they do not fill the bill completely. 
Likewise, one cannot resort to sports alone for his recreation. Most games 
require numbers. That perhaps explains the reason for the popularity of 
solitaire and crossword and picture puzzles. The normal individual re- 
quires activity, and this need must be supplied as well as the other. The 
people who are healthiest mentally and physically are those who have hob- 
bies. The industrial arts program is especially fitted to recognize, devclop, 
and strengthen lasting interests that will serve to make leisure time inter- 
esting, safe, and profitable. 

In closing, I urge a closer unity between all those engaged in the field 
of secondary education in whatever capacity. We must present a united 
front if we are to meet and withstand the criticisms that are hurled at our 
schools. It does not matter whether the criticism is just—and some of it is 
—or whether it is made from selfish motives, ignorance of the facts, or for 
personal advertising or self-aggrandizement. At present, the right of in- 
dustrial or vocational education to a place in the secondary school is being 
challenged. Such criticisms and challenges may not change the thinking 
of those who have a well-grounded philosophy of education and who real- 
ize the value and necessity of many kinds of training, even though the 
criticism emanates from an educational Olympus. But it will fall their lot 
to clear the atmosphere and relieve the mental confusion of the general 
public, who accept such criticisims as authoritative because they have come 
froin such high places. 





























THE TREATMENT OF FAILURES IN HIGH SCHOOL 


R. J. Lanois 
Bailey Junior High School, Jackson, Mississippi 


Since secondary education is the process of guidance by which society 
attempts to help the adolescent find himself and his place in the social 
order, it behooves modern educators to be fair in the matter and not neg- 
lect that adolescent who may be having a difficult time in adjusting him- 
self to that social order. 

Too often teachers have been guilty of gross neglect in making any 
effort to assist the maladjusted child. It is easier to teach the gifted-—in 
fact, they teach themselves if left alone; but the real act of teaching 1s 
brought into full play when dealing with the so-called failure. This paper 
will be an effort to outline a treatment for the failing pupil. 

Just as the development of the science of medicine has saved untold 
numbers of lives that otherwise would have been lost had the medical 
practices of yesterday remained in vogue, so must modern education 
extend itself to cut down on the high percentage of failures which all too 
often are considered unavoidable. 

The four great factors in a child’s school situation are the teacher, 
the curriculum, the teaching method, and the school organization. All of 
these exist in order that the child may learn. Any one of these factors may 
be out of adjustment, in which case, the pupil suffers the consequences. 
It is this fact that has led to the statement that “The failure of the pupil 
is the failure of the school.” The better philosophy underlying adjust- 
ment would be that the school should be adjusted to the child. 

“It cannot be maintained, however, that the school, its teachers, teach- 
ing methods, organization, and curriculum have as yet arrived at the point 
of excellence where failures can be eliminated. This point will not be 
reached even though we have a school perfectly organized, perfectly ad- 
ministered, and perfectly taught.” 

“For some inexplicable reason, annual reports of schools and school 
systems are surprisingly silent on the problems of student failures. Data 
which will reflect favorably.on the school abounds, but data on the subject 
of failure is not a strong vindication of success; hence, it is reluctantly 
given out.” 

Three years ago, I was assigned the task of checking up on failures 
in the Central High School in Jackson, Mississippi, and of devising meth- 
ods of reducing them. In an effort to prepare myself for this kind of job, 


1Pugsley, C. A. “Reducing and Handling Student Failures,” The American School Board Journal, 
March, 1933, p. 18. 

2Op. cit., p. 18. 

5Op. cit., p. 18. 


23 

















24 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ january 


I read, among other things, reports of several city school superintendents 
to their boards. Very little information did I obtain from them as to 
whether any efforts were being made to decrease the percentage of failures, 
other than by the shameless lowering of standards. 

Recently, I talked to a schoolman in ‘Mississippi who boasted of the 
fact that his school always had seven per cent failures. Upon inquiring 
how this sort of arrangement was maintained, he informed me that it was 
a simple matter of arithmetic. He merely took the lowest seven per cent 
in each teacher’s scoring as failures and passed the other ninety-three per 
cent no matter how little or how much they had accomplished. I am sure 
that I need not dwell at any length on the inevitable disaster that will fol- 
low such a procedure. 

In his endeavoring to establish an adequate local program to meet the 
needs of individual pupils, the responsible head of a school is likely to 
compare his present procedures with the measures employed in outstanding 
secondary schools. 

Therefore, he will be interested in the fact that all measures to provide 
for individual differences now in use in secondary schools may be classified 
under seven categories, namely: (1) homogeneous grouping, (2) special 
classes, (3) plans characterized by the unit assignment, (4) scientific study 
of problem cases, (5) variation in pupil load, (6) out-of-school projects and 
studies, (7) advisory guidance programs. Apparently, these are the ele- 
ments from which the program may be fashioned which will transform 
education in a community from a monotonous, lock-step, leveling process 
of mass instruction into diversified educational procedure adapted to the 
individual pupil.” 

In the matter of providing for the individual differences of slow stu- 
dents, each school presents specific problems unique in many respects. No 
intelligent school head expects to find a ready-made program of provisions 
to fit his own school. Thoughtful planning and experimentation with his 
local situation will be necessary before he can produce an adapted, inte- 
grated program of measures for individual differences. Suggestions from 
other schools may be helpful but he need not expect to get a complete 
workable program. Schools vary in size, in type of organization, and in 
social and economic groups served. Such differences, too many to men- 
tion, must be given due consideration in developing a program. 

The seven previously mentioned methods of treating individual differ- 
ences might produce better results if it were possible to put all of them 
into practice at one time. But the cost of such a procedure would be pro- 
hibitive. For this reason it would seem advisable to choose the one or 
more that is deemed most applicable. 


‘Provisions for Individual Differences, Marking and Promotion."’ Bulletin No. 17, 1932. Na- 
tional Survey of Secondary Education, p. 415. 

























































1939} TREATMENT OF Faitures 1N HicH ScHooi 25 


“Homogeneous grouping is of most certain value to pupils of less 
than normal abilities. It is better adaptable to junior-high than to high 
school pupils since many of less than normal ability have been eliminated 
before reaching the high school.” 

Special classes begin where homogeneous grouping leaves off. That is, 
special classes for the very slow should be created because, when all other 
provisions for individual differences are functioning efficiently, a certain 
| small percentage of the pupils do not succeed with the regular schoolwork 
unless given additional help or motivation. Pupils are usually assigned 
to, or removed from, these groups as the occasion demands. Such classes, 
meeting within the limits of the school day, present problems of program 
making and increase the cost of operation, though, of course, they repre- 
sent an investment rather than an expenditure. Special instruction at the 
end of a school day is possible, however, no matter what the size of the 
school nor how limited the financial resources.” 

7 To pursue a scientific study of a problem case, the individual student 
must be a known quantity if successful provisions are to be made for his 
particular needs. A record of each pupil’s interests, special aptitudes, aims, 
heredity, home environment, health, school history, and many other signifi- 
cant characteristics and accomplishments should be kept. This record 
should be passed on from year to year to each new teacher for careful 





study.’ 

It is only too common an occurrence to find a student who never has 
his lesson prepared and does not seem to care. There is something in the 
background more than the lack of home study. Quite frequently the stu- 
dent is found who manages to do good work in some subjects but fails in 
others. Close investigation sometimes reveals that the pupil and teacher 
are not suited to each other. This unfortunate situation cannot be ignored. 

The question arises as to the advisability of transferring the pupil to 
another teacher. When should this be done? I suggest the following condi- 
tions to justify such a change: (1) in cases of extreme incompatibility; 
(2) when the teacher develops inferiority feelings or emotional complexes, 
(3) when prejudice on the part of parent, teacher, or pupil has created a 
difficult situation; (4) when a pupil repeats a subject which he has failed 
under one instructor. Problems of this kind must be solved if the school 
is to function properly. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Adams, W. L. “Why Teachers Say They Fail Pupils.” Educational Adminis- 
tration and Supervision, XVIII, 594-600, November, 1932. 

Borgeson, F. C. “Causes of Failure and Poor School Work Given by Pupils.” 
Educational Administration and Supervision, XVI, 542-548, October, 1930. 

5Op. cit. 

*Op. cit., p. 420. 

7Op. cit., p. 421. 








ec 












26 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ January 





Briggs, E. E., and others. “Studies of Failures in the Sioux City Public 
Schools,” Bulletin of the Department of Elementary School Principals, 
VIII, 240-244, April, 1929. 

Clem, Orlie M., and Coon, Leon, “Factors in Pupil Failure in a Typical Junior 
High School.” High School Teacher, X, 114-116, April, 1934. 

Cox, Philip W. L., and Langfitt, Emerson R. High School Administration and 
Supervision. New York: American Book Co., 1934. Chapter XX. 

Dix, Lester H. “Elimination of Repeating.” Bulletin of the Department of Ele- 
mentary School Principals, IX, 115-118, January, 1930. 

Douglass, Har! R., and Boardman, Charles W. Supervision in Secondary 
Schools. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1934. Chapter XVIII. 

Hayes, Eleanor H. “Why Pupils Fail,” Educational Method, XIII, 25-28, Ucto- 
ber, 1933. 

Heck, Arch Oliver. Administration of Pupil Personnel. Boston: Ginn and 
Company, 1929, p. 469. “Problems Involved in School Failure,” pp. 352-384. 

Hooker, Grover C. “Did the Pupils Fail?” Educational Method, XII, 367-368, 
March, 1933. 

Maddocks, Carl W. “The Factor of Intelligence in School Failures.” School 
Review, XXXV, 602-611, October, 1927. 

Miller, Joseph. “Causes of Failure and Success in School.” Educational 
Method, X, 327-333; XII, 364-366, March, 1931, 1933. 

Otto, Henry J. “Administrative Control of Pupil Promotion in Elementary 
Schools.” Education Trends, I1, 28-33, January, 1933. 

Otto, Henry J. “Pupil Failure as an Administrative Device in Elementary 
Education.” The Elementary School Journal, 576-588, April, 1934. 

“Provisions for Individual Differences, Marking, and Promotion,” Bulletin, 
XVII, 1932, National Survey of Secondary Education. 

Pugsley, C. A. “Reducing and Handling Student Failures.” American School 
Board Journal, CXXXVI, 18-20, March, 1933. 

Pulliam, Roscoe. “Treating the Child Who Is Failing in School.” Education, 
XLIX, 465-472, April, 1929. 

Report of the Student Adjustment Program, Jackson Public Schools, Jackson, 
Mississippi, June, 1936. 

Tennenbaum, Samuel. ‘All Children Should Pass,” Survey Graphic, pp. 564- 
567, October, 1936. 

Unger, John C. “High School Failures and How to Reduce Them.” School 

Executive Magazine, XLIX, 297-300, March, 1929. 



















































AWARDS FOR SCHOOL JOURNALISM 


CHarLes WEDEMEYER 
Chairman, Department of English, Pulaski High School, 


Milwaukee, Wisconsin 

I entered my room to find a knot of students discussing what | 
thought were the usual high-school topics—dates, athletics, and homework. 
But no sooner had I reached my desk than it became apparent that today’s 
argument was slightly different. Too late to dodge out of the room again 
and so gain immunity from whatever was so palpably unpleasant, I met 
the first onrush with my most nonchalant, “Well, now what's up?” 

I soon found out. 

I was informed that athletic awards (the natty looking blue P’s the 
school gives to the huskies who contribute to its athletic fame) were soon 
to be presented to our championship soccer team. “Good,” said I, “and 
the boys deserve them, too, don’t they?” A chorus of “sures” and “of 
courses” met me, while the editor of the paper explained that no one was 
complaining about the boys’ getting the emblems they deserved, but that 
it had suddenly occurred to the staff that no recognition, from one year's 
end to the next, was ever accorded the newspaper and annual workers. 
So that was the problem—a case of wanting a school emblem without earn- 
ing it in the regular way. I said as much. 

“No, Mr. Wedemeyer. That isn’t it,” said the associate editor. 

“You see,” she went on, “most of the staff works entirely without rec- 
ognition at all. The qualified worker, of course, is elected to Quill and 
Scroll, but the standards are so high that the majority never make it. And 
besides, Quill and Scroll isn’t a school award: it’s an award from out of 
school. So you see, we really aren’t recognized by the school at all.” 


I tried to point out that in ‘passing on the qualification of candidates 
for election to Quill and Scroll, the school advisory committee made the 
little gold pin of outside recognition a school award as well. It was no use, 
and the feature editor, going back to an earlier assumption I had made, 
remarked pointedly: “It’s not that we want athletic emblems; it’s just that 
we feel entitled to some appreciation for all the work we do. Nobody 
cheers for us when we work, nobody gives pep talks to help us along, but 
everybody feels as though he can criticize. What do we get out of it?” 

This was the opportunity for which I had been waiting. “What do 
you get out of it? Why, the joy of working at a worth-while task, the 
thrill of pitting skill and brains against deadlines, the satisfaction of ac- 
complishment seen in a job well done, the rewards of an activity that is in 
_ itself a reward.” I would have gone on with more such ready reasons, but 
I could see that my listeners were not convinced. The editor turned to 
look at me. His voice had a note of stifled scorn. 


27 








DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | January 


“Do you mean that it’s generally believed that football, baseball, track, 
and the other athletic events aren’t worth anything in themselves, and 
therefore that an emblem is given to students for, say, ‘wasting time’ on 
them? That’s the implication if you say we don’t get rewarded because our 
work is a reward in itself.” A delighted chuckle spread around the roony 
at this telling saity. 

Before I could answer, one of the reporters had chimed in: “Yeh, why 
don’t they slap the football boys on the back and say, ‘Football makes men. 
Now you're it. That’s your reward!’ Huh! There wouldn’t be many play- 
ers next time.” 

But the associate editor pointed out that most of the boys might play 
anyway, that athletics were all right, that nobody grudged their awards, 
and that “we just want equal consideration, that’s all. If athletes deserve 
school recognition, so do we. We work longer and harder than most ath- 
letes do. Our work isn’t seasonal, the way theirs is. Why,” she went on,: 
“a good athlete can earn a letter in football, basketball, and track, ali in the 
same year that we’re slaving unnoticed on our one job, simply because it 
isn’t sensational. We want equal recognition, that’s all.” 

The blatant approval of this sentiment was somewhat overwhelming. 
My question, “Well, then, but what do you want in the line of recogni- 
tion?” didn’t exactly calm matters, but finally the sports editor, himself 
a several-letter man, spoke up: 

“You see, coach” (a master stroke of irony) “what they’re saying is 
true. While I’ve been sports editor these last three months, I’ve earned a 
major letter in soccer outside, but nothing tangible in here. I feel that 
my work on the paper is a reward in itself-——-we all do—but the present 
system gives all the glory to the athlete. So the staff wants emblems, too: 
not regular athletic emblems, but a regulation P with a quill worked 
through it, or something else to signify the service or honor of school news- 
paper work.” He sketched the letter on the board. 

My next question cut the enthusiasm like a knife. “And we’re to give 
a flock of these emblems each year, are we? In a couple of years they'll 
be so thick around here that it will be a distinction not to wear one. The 
whole idea of school awards will be cheapened. Is that what you want?” 

To my surprise a chorus of no’s thundered at me. Out of the silence 
that followed, several students explained that we could make a high stand- 
ard, one based on perhaps two years of participation in the activity, as well 
as a minimum number of published inches. They had it all worked out, 
it seemed, even to Quill and Scroll. “From the group of emblem winners, 
who would have to be juniors or seniors because of the time necessary for 
winning awards, the best qualified could be elected to Quill and Scroll. 
And that would provide a group especially equipped for staff leadership as 





1939 | Awarbs FOR SCHOOL JOURNALISM 


well—a group from which the future editors could come. What about it?” 

What about it, indeed! The questions raised were not exactly new, 
but the clarity of the problem presented, the vehemence of the student 
leaders, and, above all, the touching faith with which they were willing to 
leave the problem to me after that last “What about it?” made me consider 
and reconsider every argument and point of view. It would be easy to 
claim that, in our city, lack of precedence outlawed the suggestion. It would 
be easy to pass the buck to the school authorities and to let them say the no 
that lack of precedence would very likely dictate. It would be casy to 
table the matter and dispose of the situation by pointing out the advantages 
of waiting for a more propitious time in which to seek recognition. 

But I was soon convinced that the claim advanced by the staff was 
just. School newspaper workers are expected to provide constant, loyal 
service, of a not-very-glamorous nature, for every month of the school year. 
In return they are often required to submit to the heckling and criticism 
both of the faculty and the student body. They deserve recognition; every- 
one should be able to see that. Still, certain objections to the idea of award- 
recognition for student journalists must be answered, and often more 
detailed information on the policies and practices of other schools over a 
far-flung area must be observed before official approval may be won and 
definite action taken. 

One question which burns in the minds of maay to whom the appeal 
for awards may go is: Doesn’t this scheme of awards for journalism negate 
the feeling that journalism, as an activity, is a reward in itself? It is not 
easy to convince these persons that to advocate a policy of awards for 
school journalism does not mean running counter to the conviction that 
journalism is its own reward. On the contrary, school awards of a more 
tangible kind will serve to emphasize to the student body and the teachers 
that journalism is a going activity, one worthy of the finest kind of codp- 
eration and recognition. In these days of utilitarian philosophy and mate- 
rialistic outlook, we educators can succeed far more in presenting our ideals 
and intangibles if we follow the examples of business and industry and 
dramatize merit and worth-whileness. The journalism award will do 
just that. 

But if the person to whom this argument is addressed still sees an 
inconsistency in the service ideals of the staff and its desire for tangible 
awards for that service, point out to him that the inconsistency which he 
sees exists in the policy of the school as a whole, where one type of school 
service is seen as deserving school awards and another type is not. 

Opposition to awards, however, is likely to develop to a greater degree 
over the matter of precedence than anything else. Generally, educators 
are conservative people. Lack of precedence may be a large factor in pre- 
venting the establishment of awards for journalists in any school. And 

















30 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ January 


tied up with that is this question, “Do other journalism advisers in other 
schools, systems, and cities, feel as you do about awards?” Can you show, 
in other words, that the need for recognition of journalists is widespread, 
not just within your own school? Can you, in addition, show where 
award systems for journalists have been approved and are in operation? 

Frankly, I did not know at first what the attitude of other advisers 
was on the subject of awards. I did not know to what extent the problem 
of awards had ever been met successfully. I did not know where systems 
for awards were in operation, nor how those systems operated. To find 
answers to these questions, a letter and questionnaire were prepared and 
sent to high schools in over one hundred Wisconsin cities. Careful record 
was kept of the sizes of the schools responding to the questionnaire so 
that the effect of enrollment factors could be determined; and in order 
that the original question of school awards be answered fully therein, a 
careful distinction in regard to awards had to be made. School awards 
were designated as those presented by the school itself, awards which rep- 
resent the school alone: emblems, medals, cash prizes, academic credit, 
extra-curriculum points, etc. Out-of-school awards were designated as those 
which come from groups or individuals who are in no way connected with 
the school except through the award given: membership in honorary fra- 
ternities (such as Quill and Scroll), medals, cash prizes, scholarships, etc. 
In the out-of-school classification, it is of course possible that, through the 
principal or a special committee, the school acts as the awarding agent 
for the outside body or individual, but the award is still an out-of-school 
award because it does not represent the school, but rather its outside source. 

When the questionnaires were returned and the information was 
tabulated, the following facts threw light upon the problems mentioned 
above and revealed, at the same time, a widespread interest in the entire 
problem of journalism awards. 

A. Frequency of Award-giving in Journalism 
Fact 1. 46 per cent of the schools polled give no awards in 
journalism at all. 
Fact 2. 54 per cent give awards, divided as follows: 
(a) School awards, 38 per cent. 
(4) Out-of-school awards, 16 per cent. 
(c) 7 per cent of (a) and (4) combine school 
and out-of-school awards. 

In other words, approximately half of the schools questioned give no 
awards whatsoever; somewhat more than one-third give school awards; 
and less than one-fifth give out-of-school awards. It can be seen why in- 
terest in journalism awards ran high in the schools contacted. Two-thirds 
of the journalism staffs were receiving no recognition at all from their 
































1939] Awarps FoR SCHOOL JOURNALISM 31 






schools, and only half of the schools (putting all forms of awards together) 
gave any recognition whatsoever to journalists. 


B. Attitudes of advisers toward Journalism Awards 
Fact 3. 75 per cent of all advisers (including those whose 
schools give awards and those whose schools do not) 
approve awards. 
Fact 4. 14 per cent of all advisers disapprove awards. The 
remaining 13 per cent indicated no opinion either 


way. 


This majority approval of awards is indicative of the belief of ad- 
visers in the fairness of a system of awards for journalists and of the un- 
fairness of school policies which prohibit them. Still more enlightening, 
however, is the examination, separately, of the opinions of advisers in 
schools where awards are and are not given: 


Fact 5. Advisers in schools where awards are given approve 
awards-giving 100 per cent. 
Fact 6. In schools where awards are not given: 
(a) 57 per cent of the advisers approve awards 
and would like to give them. 
(6) 30 per cent of the advisers disapprove 
awards. The remaining 13 per cent did 
not indicate favor or disfavor. 


It was interesting to note that most of the disapproval of awards, 
whether of school or out-of-school type, was registered by advisers teaching 
in high schools with fewer than one thousand pupils, but only in the case 
of schools with fewer than three hundred pupils did the number of advisers 
disapproving outnumber the advisers approving. One apparent reason for 
the disapproval of advisers from small schools is seen in the fact that pub- 
lications in those schools are not usually carried on so extensively as are 
those in large schools; consequently, the advisers may feel there is no need 
for student journalist recognition. Similarly, it is noticed that most of the 
schools which make awards for journalistic service are schools well over 
the five hundred mark in pupil enrollment, where, in all probability, jour- 
nalism is rather a large and exacting activity. Advisers who registered no 
opinion either way were patently from schools where the need for awards 
was not felt because journalism is not a major activity. 

The data presented herein indicates that in schools where a definite 
need was felt for the recognition of school journalists, advisers were in 
favor of awards, and, in seeking the establishment of systems to meet this 
need, were successful in about seventy-five per cent of the cases. 

















32 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | January 


This picture, however, is more optimistic than conditions really are, 
lor the survey revealed that every school which gave out-of-school awards 
desired to give school awards as well. Therefore, only sixty-four per cent 
of the efforts made by advisers to obtain school recognition can be called 
successful, and thirty-six per cent (despite the fact that the need exists, 
and the advisers enthusiastically approve) must be seen as unsuccessful. 


The reader by now is probably to the point of saying, “Well, what 
about it?” In answer to that question, certain conclusions may now be 
made, conclusions which, in my opinion, argue eloquently the case for 
awards in high-school journalism. The conclusions are: 

I. The responses made by journalism advisers show that there is a 
real and widespread need for better recognition of student journal- 
ists, preferably through the medium of school awards, so as to put 
school newspaper work on an equal basis with other school activi- 
ties. ; 

II. The great majority of journalism advisers approve, enthusiasti- 

cally, the giving of school awards to journalists. 


III. In schools where award systems for this purpose exist, there is no 
unanimity in methods and standards used as the basis for making 
the awards. 


IV. Many advisers, convinced themselves of the need for awards in their 
schools, feel helpless and hopeless in any movement which would 
attempt to gain them, and they look forward to outside help in 
securing the approval necessary for achieving that end. (Letters to 
me from many advisers show the eagerness with which they antici- 
pate the establishment of adequate awards programs. They testify, 
also, very often, to the feeling of hopelessness with which some 
regard the attempt to secure recognition for their staffs. The in- 
ertia of precedence in many schools is a great force and is hard to 
overcome. ) 

Making an investigation, tabulating results, citing evidences, and 
drawing conclusions carry inferences of a decidedly troublesome nature. 
There is always the momentary hush after the reading of the evidence 
and the summing of the conclusion, the hush during which the audience 
is waiting to see whether the investigator is going to fold his hands piously 
over the results of his investigation or roll up his sleeves, bare his knuckles, 
and say: “Away with the investigation; we have done with that. Now, my 
friends, let us do something on the basis of that. What shall it be?” 

How to act, what to do on the basis of this investigation may trouble 
advisers reading this essay. Take the matter of precedence. As has been 
pointed out before, the need for fair recognition of school newspaper work- 
ers is admitted by many schools, but lack of favorable precedence precludes 
a very sympathetic attitude from the individuals or groups in control of 
school policies. To advisers in that situation, the knowledge that thirty- 
eight per cent of the schools in this survey have succeeded in initiating 
award programs provides some sort of precedent on their own side, a slight 
wedge that may be used to pry loose a sizable chunk of local inertia in 


regard to this problem. 























1939] 


Awarps FoR SCHOOL JOURNALISM 33 





Further to convince persons in charge of the need and fairness of 
awards, the adviser must equip himself with answers to the questions 
most likely to trip him on the home floor. He must study the situation 
closely until he has the local facts as strongly and clearly in his mind as 
my students did in their initial advance on me as described in the begin- 
ning of this essay. 


But even though he does do all these things—points to increasing 
precedence in award-giving, knows all the answers to questions probing 
the local need, knows all the local situations clearly enough to point out 
glaring inconsistencies and unfairnesses—he is still doomed to disappoint- 
ment unless he carries with him to these conferences a plan of awards 
which, by its high standards, its fairness, its obviously idealistic tendencies 
yet practical value, can cap the discussion for him. Every schoolman, no 
matter how bound to tradition, admires a well-planned, practical scheme 
for emphasizing service ideals. 


What is such a scheme? Almost every school will have to work out 
its own. Most attractive, however, and most popular with students and ad- 
visers alike, are the systems which give credits or points each semester to 
staff members according to the service each contributes. The points accu- 
mulate until a certain number is reached, and then the student becomes 
eligible for an award. If other factors (attitude, character, marks, etc.) 
are satisfactory, the award may then be made. It is not uncommon for 
good students to earn two or three awards in the course of four years at 
high school; however, for the average student, one award is all that can 


be earned. 


Opposition to this plan will form immediately on the basis that if 
this plan is granted to the school paper, other school organizations will 
want recognition in the same manner. To this you may agree, for that is 
the finest service school journalism could render to its school: the cham- 
pionship of a general award system under which all school workers, no 
matter what department of service, may gain recognition commensurate 
with that service. 


But what kind of awards are to be given? Most popular with students 
and advisers and most indicative of recognition by the school is the chenille 
emblem. The school emblem is not enfranchised nor owned by the ath- 
letic department. It is the symbol of the entire school. Where a school-wide 
system of awards is set up, each major activity might give as its service 
award a school emblem adapted in some way to convey the idea of the 
branch in which service was rendered. The school newspaper award could 
” be the school letter with a large quill worked through it; the music organi- 
zations could show the letter superimposed on a harp or horn. A sense of 
fairness and justice breeds from awards made in that way; for the ideal 























34 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [January 


of service to the school is fostered rather than just service to a particular 
branch of the school. 

Under such a system of awards, far wider participation in activities 
of all kinds will be stimulated. More school letters, of course, will be secn 
in the school. Some will argue that a cheapening of the letter will result; 
but they may be reminded that the letter is a symbol of service to the 
school and that if standards in each division have been kept high, nothing 
can be cheapened. Instead, the inconsistency and unfairness characterizing 
the old one-sided award system will be exposed. In addition, the school 
letters seen on pupils in the community will serve to spread to the young 
and old alike—those preparing for high school and those who have left it— 
the idea that there is a school where unselfish service to others—school, 
community, and nation, is cultivated and rewarded. 

Well, what about awards for school journalism? Emphatically yes! 
And if, in the conferences centering about such awards, your paper can 
champion a school-wide, intramural, extra-curriculum or whatever-you- 
have award system, applicable to all organizations which promote the in- 
terest and welfare of the student body, then indeed is your paper proving 
itself a bearer of truth and a champion of right—an organ of true democ- 


racy. 




















THE NONACADEMIC HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENT’ 
Tueo. W. H. Irton 


Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Missouri 


There are definite reasons why the problem of the nonacademic stu- 
dent in secondary education should appear greatly emphasized at this 
time. These reasons are known to most students of secondary education 
and require only enumeration without much comment as follows: 


REASONS FOR EMPHASIS 


1. The process of making secondary education universal is, of course, 
still in progress. The estimate ior the United States is, I believe, that about 
sixty-five per cent of students of high-school age do actually attend schools. 
Twenty-five years ago, that percentage was about fifteen or twenty per cent. 
With this spread of high-school education has come a greater inclusiveness 
of students of all types. 

2. Through the medium of educational psychology, there has devel- 
oped a greater desire to make provision for individual differences. If the 
problem of the nonacademic student existed in the earlier American high 
school, it gave little trouble; it was, in fact, ignored, since there was practi- 
cally no effort made to recognize individual differences. 

3. In the face of the fact that the problem of individual differences 
has become ever more impressive, we have still persisted in maintaining 
the traditional American single line administrative educational arrange- 
ment: that of close articulation between elementary grades, upper grades 
(now called junior high school), senior high school, college, university, 
and graduate school. Such a system has made the problem of providing 
for individual differences particularly difficult. Small high schools have 
struggled just to maintain the necessary program for restricted articulation. 
This does not argue against articulation; it argues, rather, against small 
high schools. 

4. Place these factors in a society where the changes in economics 
and in industrial conditions—or shall I say, the changes in the nature of 
the work of the day?—have been so rapid, radical, and numerous as in 
America, and you have the fourth factor emphasizing the problem of the 
nonacademic student. 


When these factors are taken not singly but in combinations of vary- 
ing emphases under the multitude of existing community and individual 
conditions and circumstances, we may readily appreciate that the problem 
of the nonacademic student appears to be staggering. It all but makes the 
processes of secondary education appear to be futile. 


1Talk delivered October 7, 1938, before the Annual Conference of the Missouri Association of 
Secondary-School Principals, Columbia, Missouri. Reprinted from the November, 1938, issue, School 
and Commurity. 


35 














36 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [January 


A DEFINITION OF THE NoNACADEMIC STUDENT 


When we ask for the definition of the nonacademic student, there 
appears usually a divergence of opinions or a vagueness which finds ex- 
pression in the superficial analysis that the nonacademic student is the 
student who lacks academic interests and abilities. That is to say, the non- 
academic student is in fact the nonacademic student. This is one hundred 
per cent logic and as meaningful as all perfect logic. 

In the monograph, Issues of Secondary Education, appears a worth- 
while analysis in the following definition: 


“The group consists, in part, of boys and girls who have appar- 
ently reached a plateau so far as learning of greater difficulty is con- 
cerned, and who have come to a point at which continued teaching 
at the same level means little more than busywork. 

“The group consists in part also of pupils who could learn if 
they would, but who lack any adequate incentive to take advantage 
of the educational opportunities open to them. Such boys and girls 
tend to remain in school chiefly because of the social prestige in- 
volved, or because of the opportunity to be engaged in extra-curricu- 
lum activities, or because their parents want them kept off the 
streets rather than because they are concerned to secure further edu- 
cation.” 

Furthermore, this group includes “boys and girls who have 
reached a point at which they seem to be making no further educa- 
tional progress, and who in the course of their schooling have become 
so used to failure that they have become almost openly scornful of 
the effort to learn.” 


The definition includes the incapable, the insufficiently and improp- 
erly motivated, as also the incompetent and adversely motivated. The defi- 
nition has its value but is somewhat abstract, and—shall I say at the risk of 
punning?—it is entirely too academic. 

Shall we then become nonacademic in our definition, and describe the 
nonacademic student in such a way that you may more readily know what 
to do with and for him? 


AN ANALYSIS OF THE NONACADEMIC STUDENT 


In the first place, we have in this group the physically handicapped 
who may or may not be nonacademic, depending upon the degree of de- 
fectiveness, as well as upon other circumstances. Those who are defective 
in hearing or vision are apt to be nonacademic in their interests. Some of 
these defects cannot be completely compensated for through mechanical 
devices. Not all visual defects can be completely corrected with glasses, 
and we are just now beginning to learn something about hearing aids. 
As teachers, we are still clumsy in managing the sensory defective. There 
is a brutal negligence by which certain teachers come quite naturally. 
When a child with sensory defects is subjected to the instruction of such 
teachers, he is apt to lose all interest in learning. He then deliberately 
turns away from intellectual pursuits. He becomes nonacademic. 

































1939] Tue Nonacapemic HicH-ScHoot StupEnt 37 
Those with marked speech defects are almost invariably nonacademic. 
Schooling is so much a matter of interstimulation and response with speech 
as the functional medium, that those who are noticeably defective in that 
respect usually find themselves completely outclassed by others. The inevi- 
table result is a distressed individual who gives all the evidences of not 
being academically minded. 

The undervitalized individuals usually battle with fatigue and its 
distressing mental corollaries. Such individuals frequently have spurts of 
apparent brilliancy but they cannot usually keep up the consistent and 
sustained effort essential to real school success. These constitute a pitiful 
group. Every high school has some genuine cases of this kind. Modern 
medicine does much to keep them alive and in some cases effects cures, 
often, however, only after the student has formed all possible nonacademic 
reaction habits toward school. 

The adolescent neurotics, though probably not numerous enough to 
warrant discussing them at length in this connection, are particularly 
difficult because they are so unpredictable and queer. They certainly find 
it difficult to develop that intellectually detached attitude so necessary to 
real scholarly achievement. 


THE INFLUENCES OF SoctAL CoNnDITIONS 


So far, we have defined the nonacademic student as one of several 
types who are mentally afflicted or physically defective in some way. Now 
let us see what unfortunate social circumstances can do. 

The children of poverty, the children of isolated and limited social 
environments, from small towns or rural districts, are apt to lack the expe- 
riences which make high-school subjects more than mere artificialities. 
They are apt to have an evaluation of life so different from that of indi- 
viduals of greater affluence and greater social contacts that what, to the 
latter, seems to have great import appears to them to be that which “is not 
of this earth.” King Arthur and the Round Table, quadratic equations, 
the Holy Roman Empire, the laws of falling bodies—all these seem frag- 
ments of things far removed from the chores of the day, from the real 
people you meet, and all those warm and realistic elements of life which 
are aglow with the affections and the hatreds, the fears and the jealousies, 
the hopes and the disappointments, the triumphs and the failures of real 
people all about them. The children of foreigners often suffer, in addition, 
from another isolation, a mental one, that of being different, that of the 
not-belonging variety. Although some of our best high-school students 
come from these social groups, many of them develop a repugnance to 
those abstract intellectual interests upon which their limited, though some- 
times intense, experience of life has placed no value. 























' 


38 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [January 


On the other Hand, the pampered child of wealth who has always had 
all things for the asking, who knows that father can buy anything—even 
power and social position, community acclaim and respectability, grades 
and graduation—may easily look upon the poor, frayed-out servant of the 
people, the teacher, and his academic wares, as being wholly inconse- 
quential. Thus ends his scholarly career. 

There is another group, the occupationally diverted. In this group 
are included those who have planned to go into some work, and know 
just how they are going to do it, and know that what they are studying 
has only a remote and an indirect relation to their occupational interests. 
Here is a boy who knows that he is going into his father’s jewelry busi- 
ness. He knows just how to go about it; he knows just where to get infor- 
mation concerning it; he has helped with the work and therefore knows 
his abilities in that business and respects himself for them. For the lite 
of him, he cannot get much out of second-year Latin, and the subject of 
American problems does not come near the one absorbing problem of 
jewelry. Again, here is a girl who is going to be married. She sees more 
sense in clothing, millinery, social graces and activities than she can see 
in botany, composition, and rhetoric. In summary, these young people are 
so definitely oriented in a, to them, meaningful direction that schoiarly 
pursuits appear as mere pedantry. 

In a dissertation just recently completed, entitled “Development and 
Application of Certain Follow-up Techniques in a Small High-Schooi 
Situation,” Buel Cramer points out that of 456 high-school graduates used 
in his study, who had found occupational connections—14.25 per cent 
were engaged in Grade I, unskilled employment; 7.90 per cent in Grade II, 
semi-skilled occupations; 62.28 per cent in Grade III, skilled manual and 
white-collar jobs; 3.95 per cent Grade IV, subprofessional work; 11.62 per 

cent in Grade V, professional work. The classification is one used in the 
Beckman Scale for gauging occupations. In other words, 84 per cent find 
employment in the average and lower grades of occupations. It would ap- 
pear that the usual academic interests of the high school contribute little 
to their work. 

You see, then, that in dealing with the nonacademic student you are 
dealing again with many different individuals and not with one type. 
Here, too, the problem of individual differences is prominent. Uniformity 


of educational prophylaxis is impossible. 


PossipLE Provistons FoR NoNAcADEMIC STUDENTS 


(1) The inauguration of a genuine health program which actually 
works in the lives of students. Our pitiful building of large gymnasiums 
all over the state—with or without WPA help—for the sole purpose of 
developing championship basketball teams and satisfying local vanity does 


























39 






Tue Nonacapemic Hicu-ScHoo., STUDENT 





1939] 


not constitute a health program. Nor does the ignorant dramatizing of 
epidemics, resulting in disease-fear psychoses, constitute a health program. 
But an intelligently developed health program in which all students par- 
ticipate for their benefit and that of the community can do much to de- 
velop at least a physical basis for school success. 

(2) The displacing of the many so-called high schools which can 
barely function and the offering of a minimum program of narrowly articu- 
lating subject matter by a few large institutions of a true secondary-school 
rank, with all that that implies, does appear to be absolutely necessary. 

(3) We must develop the conception of secondary education as initi- 
ating the preparation for definite activities in industry and society. Educa- 
tion must be truly functional. To think that the average adolescent will 
pursue with interest those abstracted courses which are to give him the 
needed qualities of good citizenship in a democracy is simply to misjudge 
the adolescent. Things must point very concretely to something before 
they can interest him. And that is probably as it should be; for certainly 
the finest and safest quality of a citizen in a democracy is that of having 
something worth while to do with which to earn a living, doing it well, 
and giving in the doing of it all of his contribution to humanity. Let each 
one learn to give well and to enjoy giving what he can best offer to man- 
kind as his excuse for living. After all, in most, even in the dull, there is 
an aspiration. Education must direct the learner to aspire where he can 
achieve and must help him to achieve. 

Plato knew of this force when he spoke of the aspiring nature of all 
things and beings. Even the clod aspires to give sustenance to the living 
flower, and “The stone aspires to be a doorsill.” 















































WAYS OUT’ 


J. Murray Lee 


Assistant Professor of Education, University of Wisconsin 


The last few years have seen a great many criticisms directed against 
the program of secondary education in this country. Its weaknesses have 
been heralded from one end of the country to another. To further discuss 
them seems futile. We need to focus our attention on ways out. In every 
state of the forty-eight, there are valuable experiments in progrss to try to 
find some ways out. A few of the better-known experiments are the Thirty 
Schools Experiment of Progressive Education, the Southern Association 
Experiment, and the Experimental Secondary Schools which have been set 
up in Michigan, Ohio, and California. Colleges and universities have said, 
in the national’and state experiments, that they are willing to keep hands 
off and let the schools concerned try to improve the experiences offered 


to boys and girls. 


Most high schools can point to some effort in their classrooms to make 
the work more vital. Many times it is the work of some one teacher in 
a single course. The point is that constructive thinking is taking place in 
practically all schools. The last three years have seen more real changes 
in our high-school offering than any previous ten. The next ten will see 
many fundamental changes in most secondary schools. These will not 
come over night but will come gradually as one school catches the idea 


from another. 
Wuart Are SomE or THESE CHANGES? 


1. Colleges and universities will have removed their requirements 
of certain subjects for entrance. They will be willing to say that high 
schools can send students to them who are of college caliber. The high 
school can decide on what should go into the program. 


2. Part of the curriculum of the high school will deal with the per- 
sonal problems of boys and girls, relations with their own and the opposite 
sex, their concerns over good taste, problems in achieving successful mar- 
riage, problems in breaking away from family dependence and establishing 
their own independence, and questions relating to normality and to under- 
standing cthers. 


3. High schools will deal with crucial issues in our democracy. Con- 
troversial issues will be an essential part of every social-studies classroom. 
History will disappear as history for most students and be presented in such 
a way as to make present conflicts more understandable. 





1Summary of an address delivered before a meeting of the Minnesota Association of Secondary- 
School Principals. 


















1939 | Ways Out 41 








4. Extra-curriculum activities will not be extra; they will be an essen- 
tial part of the educational program. 


5. Art and music will not be considered “fads and frills”; they will 
constitute a part of the background of every boy and girl. 


6. Our present subjects will gradually disappear and be replaced by 
a different type of material organized around important problems of living. 


Wuat Can THE INpivipuaL ScHoot Do? 


1. The principal must realize that teachers and pupils have a real 
contribution to make to the school program. The program must evolve 
through the democratic process and not be handed down from the prin- 
cipal or superintendent. 

2. An experimental attitude must be developed. Teachers must be 
encouraged to introduce and carefully try out new materials. 

3. All teachers and principals must carefully re-evaluate the function 
of the high scohol. The Educational Policies Commission has said that 
the school should center its efforts in objectives dealing with self-realization 
of the individual, human relationship, civic responsibility, and economic 





efficiency. 
4. Each staff must know the needs of its own students and know 
what other schools are doing. 



































BOOK NOTES 


BOOK NOTICES 


CodreraTIvE Strupy or Srconpary Scuoot STanparps. 1938 Editions: 
(1) Evaluative Criteria, Sixty cents. (2) Educational Temperatures. 
Fifty cents. (3) How to Evaluate a Secondary School. Ninety cents. 
Washington, D. C.: Codperative Study of Secondary Standards, 744 Jack- 
son Place. 

The Evaluative Criteria are available in a single volume and also as 
fourteen separate pamphlets. The volume entitled Evaluative Criteria con- 
tains a section designed to secure information concerning the philosophy of 
education and objectives of the school, a section for reporting the nature of 
the school community and its school population, and eleven other sections con- 
sisting of checklists, evaluations, and other data regarding the various ele- 
ments of the school and its program. Major emphasis is placed upon the 
educational program—curriculum and courses of study, pupil activity pro- 
gram, library service, guidance service, instruction and outcomes. Other sec- 
tions deal with the staff, plant, and administration. 

Educational Temperatures, for showing graphically the relative strengths 
and weaknesses of a school, is based upon the Evaluative Criteria. It enables 
a school to compare itself in a large number of respects with groups of schools 
evaluated by the Coéperative Study in 1936-37. 

How to Evaluate a Secondary School comprises directions for the use of 
Evaluative Criteria and Educational Temperatures and, in addition, gives a 
brief presentation of the historical phases of the Coéperative Study. 

The Coéperative Study, begun in 1933, has involved the endeavors of 
hundreds of educators in all parts of the country. Its financial support was 
provided partly by the codperating regional accrediting associations and 
partly by a national foundation, and its purposes are expressed or implied in 
the following questions: 

1. What are the characteristics of a good secondary school? 

2. What practicable means and methods may be employed to evaluate 
the effectiveness of a school in terms of its objectives? 

3. By what means and processes does a good school develop into a 
better one? 

4. How can regional associations stimulate secondary schools to con- 
tinuous growth? 











Dewey, Joun. Experience and Education. New York: The Macmillan Com- 
pany, 1938. Pp. xii + 116. $1.25. 

Dr. Dewey discusses herein the debatable problems that now divide 
American education into two camps—the advocates of the old or traditional 
education and the advocates of the new or progressive education. In analyz- 
ing their viewpoints and practices he remarks that “neither the old nor the 
new education is adequate. Each is mis-educative because neither applies the 
principles of a carefully developed philosophy of experience.” 

Such a philosophy is defined by Dr. Dewey as being—to paraphrase Lin- 
coln—one of education of, by, and for experience, each word of which offers a 
challenge to educators to discover and put into operation a principle of order 
and organization based upon what educative experience signifies, 

Referring to his idea that “the educative process can be identified with 
growth when that is understood in terms of the active participle growing, 
Dr. Dewey emphasizes the importance of determining the “direction in which 
growth takes place, the end toward which it tends.” 

A positive philosophy of experience and education, as well as many illus- 
trations of the meaning and the relation of the one to the other, is provided 
in the discussions of the following topics: “Traditional vs. Progressive Edu- 
cation,” “The Need of a Theory of Experience,” “Criteria of Experience,” 
“Social Control,” “The Nature of Freedom,” “The Meaning of Purpose,” “Pro- 
gressive Organization of Subject-Matter,” “Experience—the Means and Goal 
of Education.” 


42 





Se o— > ~~ s ~~ 


— a 


1939] Book Nores 43 


EDWARDS, VIOLET. Group Leader’s Guide to Propaganda Analysis. New York: 

anae for Propaganda Analysis, Inc., 130 Morningside Drive, 1938. 

p. 271. 

This revised edition of Experimental Study Materials is for use in junior 
and senior high schools, in college and university classes, and in adult class 
study groups. The Guide suggests specific materials and methods for experi- 
mental study and discussion of propaganda, what it is, why it should be 
studied, its role in the modern world, its role in democracy, interests to which 
propagandists appeal, and how they make their appeals. Further, propaganda 
analysis in several areas of general education is dealt with as follows: propa- 
ganda analysis in English literature, in music and speech, in art and history, 
in journalism and current events, in general science, in social science and 
logic, in mathematics, and in other subjects. 


Parry, Witt1AM L. A Study of Mechanism in Education. New York: Bureau 
of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1938. Pp. v + 
183. $1.85. 

Subtitled “An Examination of the Curriculum-Making Devices of Frank- 
lin Bobbitt, W. W. Charters, and C. C. Peters from the Point of View of 
Relativistic Pragmatism,” the study includes discussions of scientism in edu- 
cation, presuppositions of scientism in education, concepts of experience and 
analysis, concepts of induction and masterlist, concept of integration, and 
scientism and education. 


WINsLow, C.-E. A. The School Health Program. New York: The McGraw-Hill 

Book Co., Inc., 1938. Pp. xiii + 120. $1.50. 

The School Health Program, a publication of The Regents’ Inquiry into 
the character and cost of public education in the State of New York, is de- 
voted to discussions of sanitation in the schools, mental hygiene, health in- 
struction in the schools, physical education and recreation, health services, 
summary of recommendation. 


Pootey, Rosert C.; Watcott, Frep G.; Gray, WILLIAM S. Growth in Read- 

ing. Book One. Illustrated. Chicago: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1938. 

Pp. 574. $1.40. ; 

More than one hundred stories comprise this basic course in reading for 
the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades—junior high school. The stories are 
classified under six units, as follows: Pastimes, Nature Adventures, Seeing 
the World, Modern Wonders, Early Americans, Our America. 


BOOKS RECEIVED 


Lesiigz, Louis A. and ZouseK, Cuartes E. Speed Drills in Gregg Shorthand. 
New York: The Gregg Publishing Company, 1938. Pp. iv + 444. $1.60. 

Grece, Joun Ropert. Gregg Speed Building. New York: The Gregg Publish- 
ing Company, 1938. Pp. v + 314. $1.20. 

Ricuert, G. Henry. Retailing Principles and Practices. New York: The Gregg 
Publishing Company. Pp. xv + 432. $2.00. 

Smitn, Harotp H. Typewriting Technique. (College Course) New York: The 
Gregg Publishing Company, 1938. Pp. 173. 

Ripetey, Douvaias C. and Exsiaw, Srpney E. Problems in Economic Geog- 
raphy. New York: The Gregg Publishing Company, 1938. Pp. xiii + 203. 
$1.00. 

FLANAGAN, GeorGe A. Ornamental Typewriting. New York: The Gregg Pub- 
lishing Company, 1938. Pp. 113. $1.00. 

Pickett, Hate. An Analysis of Proofs and Solutions of Exercises Used in 
Plane Geometry T'ests. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers Col- 
lege, Columbia University, 1938. Pp. 120. $1.60. 

Woopring, Maxie Nave and Sanrorp, VERA. Enriched Teaching of Mathe- 

- matics in the Junior and Senior High School. New York: Bureau of Pub- 
lications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1938. Pp. ix + 132. 
$1.75. 




















NEWS ITEMS 











Is EDUCATION MORE THAN SCHOOLING?—School people should analyze the 
forces and institutions of their community to see how they can be used in the 
educational pattern, Earle U. Rugg advises in his article “Is Education Some- 


’ 


thing More Than Schooling?” in the Social Frontier, December, 1938. 


TEACHERS’ Job GRows.—Since the teaching profession is becoming less 
concerned with the narrow occupation of hearing recitations and checking on 
the learning of facts, and since it is becoming more concerned with guiding 
the growth of the child in attitudes and understanding, professional incompe- 
tence becomes more dangerous. 


A CAMPAIGN TO MAKE PARENTS AWARE OF HEALTH NEEDS. A campaign to 
make parents aware of the health needs of their children is being undertaken 
in the New York City schools. About twenty-five hundred parents will be 
brought into the schools to help the nurses and doctors with the health reg- 
istration. This is the first time that parents will help in the actual work 
of the schools on a city-wide scale. 


TO EXTEND PRACTICE TEACHING.—The schools of New York City will ex- 
tend practice teaching. Hitherto, qualified students were allowed to practice 
in the high schools and to a limited extent in the elementary schools, but 
they were not allowed in the junior high schools. Under the new law they 
will be permitted to practice in every branch of the school system. 


BELIEVES IN DEMOCRATIC PRACTICES.—Harold C. Hunt, superintendent of 
schools, New Rochelle, New York, believes in democratic practices by his fac- 
ulty of teachers. A council of teachers is nominated and elected by the teach- 
ers in system-wide balloting to represent the various teaching levels. The 
members of the council meet monthly to discuss subjects which concern the 
teachers; they also express their opinions on matters of policy confronting 
the Board of Education. 

“STUDY LANGUAGES ALL YOU CAN.”’—Cecilia Peeves, of the British Broad- 
casting Company, is visiting the United States. She advises boys and girls 
to study modern languages, for there is a good deal of question as to what 
the world is coming to, but whatever it is, she believes that the young people 
who can speak the tongue of major nations will be the ones singled out for 
the complicated machinery necessary to keep things going even relatively 
peacefully. 


EDUCATION IN COUNTRIES OTHER THAN THE Unrrep Srates.—Believing 
that the value and progress of any system of schools is best revealed in com- 
parison with like phases of other systems, the Office of Education has included 
in its Biennial Survey for 1934-36 a chapter covering trends of education in 
other countries for the years 1926-36. This chapter has been published in 
pamphlet form under the title “A Survey of a Decennium of Education in 
Countries other than the United States.” The pamphlet is available from the 
Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. Price, fifteen cents. 


MARITIME OCCUPATIONS TAUGHT IN NeW YorRK SCHOOLS.—A complete 
four-year program for young seamen has been established by the New York 
City school system at the Metropolitan Vocational High School, which is 
located only a short distance from the East River and almost within sight of 
the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Here every phase of nautical work is presented. 
Here eager and alert boys attend classes and listen to lectures (of the sea)-— 
and expect to leave as deck hands, engineroom assistants, stewards, or even 
prospective first and second mates. The school serves the dual purpose of 
training sailors and of finding the proper niche in life for unhappy adolescent 
boys. According to Principal Franklin J. Keller, it is the only public high 
school in the country built around maritime courses. 


ORGAN OF THE PHOTOPLAY.—Photoplay Studies prepared by Trentwell 
Mason White, president of the Curry School, Boston, Massachusetts, is the 


44 






































































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1939] News Items 45 


organ of the photoplay appreciation movement. Each number discusses and 
evaluates a play. Standards of production, story material, direction, film 
acting, and cinematography are given consideration. 


EpucaTIon FoR Livrnc In A DemMocracy.—The magazine Education for 
Living in a Democracy shows what schools, from the primary through the sec- 
ondary levels, can do to make democracy work better by guiding children in 
those experiences which give them appreciation of, and respect for, truth in 
any social situation. 


TO ACQUAINT PARENTS WITH SCHOOL AFFAIRS.—In order to acquaint the 
parents with important facts concerning the educational progress of the 
school, the Garden City High School issues “News-Letter” describing some 
phase of the school aims pr objectives. The “News-Letter” originates in the 
principal’s office, and each issue is built around pertinent questions asked by 
the parents. 


SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY CLASSES.—In New York special opportunity classes 
were conducted experimentally for six hundred pupils who “hated” school. 
This project proved to be very successful, for now the students enjoy their 
studies and ask for more homework. Movable furniture and work benches 
replace the customary desks and seats. Excursions and park trips supplement 
and, in a large measure, take the place of textbooks. Through all of this the 
teacher stands, as much as possible, in the background. 


AMERICAN GuIDE Serres.—With the idea of giving useful employment to 
unemployed writers, the American Guide Series has developed into one of 
the most ambitious programs ever attempted in America. Completed manu- 
scripts are turned over to qualified sponsors who look after their publication 
in book form. Sponsors consist of state officials, nonprofit organizations, and 
tax-supported groups. Receipts from the sale of the books go only to defray 
expenses of publication. 


SCHOLARSHIP PROBLEM.—John Evans, president of a trans-Mississippi 
College, writes that the greatest concern of his college has been the competi- 
tion which comes from sister colleges outbidding them with scholarship aid 
for students. James Bryant Conant, president of Harvard University, says 
that only needy students of high scholastic attainments should be given schol- 
arship funds for students, and students of high scholastic attainments from 
wealthy or well-to-do homes should be given honors but no money. 


GREAT NEED FOR THE INTERPRETIVE SCHOLAR.—There is great need to-day 
for the interpretive scholar with the widest possible training in several sub- 
jects, educational experts agree. “College teachers,” declares Newton Edwards, 
professor of education at the University of Chicago, “should command a 
wealth of information, not merely in one subject, but in related subjects. But 
far more important than that, they should see meaning in the facts they 
teach, they should be able to discover interrelationships, to organize knowl- 
edge into meaningful configurations.” 


DRASTIC REFORMS IN THE NEw YorK STATE SCHOOLS URGED.—Luther H. 
Gulick, director of the three-year study carried on by the Regents’ Inquiry, 
has investigated the character and cost of education in New York. Dr. Gulick, 
after conducting 117 special inquiries and completing 45,900 interviews with 
parents, employers, college presidents, teachers, pupils, and heads of organ- 
ized groups, proposes the extending of the high-school courses two years to 
take care of the unemployed. He also recommends that tenure be applied to 
twenty thousand teaching positions not now covered by law and that economy 
measures be introduced which would cut considerably the cost of running. 


WHAT TEACHERS EXPECT OF PARENTS.—Educators often feel that parents 
expect the impossible of the school. The facts of the situation, however, de- 
mand a different perspective. What does the school expect of the home? Edu- 
cators assume that parents teach their children during the first six years of 
life the meaning of discipline, work habits, good manners, the meaning and 
‘handling of money, the trait of wholesome curiosity, and self-reliance. Yet 
in order that their children should be well-rounded personalities when they 
start their formal education, parents should take time to play with them. 






























46 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [January 


ARE WE EDUCATING FOR DEMOCRACY?—At the Columbia University sum- 
mer session, one thousand teachers from all sections of the country took part 
in a discussion as to whether American schools are educating for demovracy 
or Fascism and indicated by question and answer that they were fully con- 
vinced of the presence of Fascist influences. “I’d lose my job if I taught labor 
problems or Communism,” one woman said. A man asserted that teachers 
— not exert their full rights as citizens because “they were held down by 
ear.” 

COLLEGE LIBRARY CIRCULATES MUSIC RECORDS.—Skidmore College, Sara- 
toga Springs, New York, has added a new department to its reference library. 
The work of this department is to circulate phonograph records, sheet music, 
and scores in the same manner as loan books, The records consist mainly of 
operas, symphonies, chamber music, and songs representative of the best of 
both classical and modern composers. A survey of borrowers shows that they 
are not confined to students majoring in music but include students from all 
departments in college, members of the faculty, and townspeople as well. 


UTAH STUDENTS FORM BUS PATROL.—Following a recent train-bus collision 
which resulted in twenty-three fatalities near Salt Lake City, Weber County 
schools have adopted a student bus patrol plan to ensure greater watchfulness 
and safety to school bus riders. The plan provides for appointment of two 
children as monitors on each bus line. They sit near the door to aid the 
driver; one gets out at railroad crossings and looks both ways before signal- 
ing the driver to proceed. The plan is recommended by the National Safety 
Council. 

BRITISH EDUCATORS VOICE DISSATISFACTION WITH EXAMINATION OF STU- 
DENTS.—Lately, several educators in Britain have voiced their dissatisfaction 
with the present system of examining students. They feel that it merely en- 
courages “cramming,” which is a momentary feat of concentration and indus- 
try, but no measure of lasting intellectual growth. Philip Ballou, a member 
of the International Institute Examinations Inquiry, suggests that, in any 
test, the candidate’s record of normal work should be taken into account, and 
that failure in a single subject should not mean failure to pass to the next 
grade of school. 


A QUESTIONNAIRE ON AVIATION.—A questionnaire on aviation was spon- 
sored by W. A. Patterson, president of United Airlines, and C. R. Smith, 
president of American Airlines, to find out what educational departments 
want. Some of the questions asked in this survey were: Would you welcome 
a central clearinghouse of aviation information, originating within the in- 
dustry and sponsored by it? What type of material would best suit your 
needs? Would you use the vocational information service? Could you use mo- 
tion pictures showing the work and history of air transportation companies 
and aircraft manufacturers? Do you want information as to government 
activities in aeronautics? 


Is THERE A PLACE FOR THE COMMERCIAL STUDENT?—This is the question 
that educators and business leaders have yet to answer. And an immediate 
answer is necessary to prevent the dumping of a great number of potentially 
valuable citizens on the human junk pile of unemployment, writes a student 
editor in an editorial entitled “Survey Reveals Graduating Stenographers 
Find ‘No Help Wanted’” published in a recent issue of the ios Angeles Col- 
legian. To quote the statistics of the survey: “In twelve years, registrations 
in shorthand increased 108 per cent, while 1930 census repurts showed a six 
per cent decrease in stenographers employed. In 1934, about 196,000 stenog- 
raphers and typists graduated from public high schools and private business 
colleges. Seventy-four thousand found jobs in typing or stenographic positions. 
One-fourth are still unemployed. 


CULVER APPROVES COURSE IN LEADERSHIP.—In evaluating the aims of Cul- 
ver's special course in leadership, and in explaining how it works, Brig. Gen. 
L. R. Gignilliat, superintendent of Culver Military Academy, says that the 
cadet captains and cadet personnel officers of the nine military organizations 
in the corps meet each week with the commandant of cadets to discuss general 
organization problems and to work out means of improving conditions, Also 
the lieutenants, sergeants, and other cadet commissioned and noncommissioned 

















ne SE ee = LS 








4 


1939] News ITems 47 


officers meet regularly with the tactical officers for definite instructions in 
leadership. Instead of devoting the whole time to theoretical discussiuns, ac- 
tual problems are discussed as they are encountered, and definite attempts are 
made to apply principles of sound leadership. It is estimat-d that each school 
year nearly three quarters of the student body have some opportunity to dis- 
charge responsibilities and to gain valuable experience in leadership. 


How TO MAKE A COMMUNITY YOUTH SURVEY.—To fill the demand among 
communities, large and small, for detailed information concerning the pro- 
cedure for making surveys to find the facts about their own youth, the Ameri- 
can Youth Commission has issued a forty-eight-page pamphlet entitled “How 
To Make a Community Youth Survey.” Telling the purposes served by such 
surveys, and what are essential preliminary steps, the pamphlet explains the 
methods of collecting information and of digesting and interpreting the re- 
sults. Attention is also given to publicizing the findings. The pamphlet is 
priced at twenty-five cents; it is obtainable from the American Youth Com- 
mission, 744 Jackson Place, Washington, D. C 


CONSUMER EDUCATION.—A special] course in consumer economics is now 
being developed at Stephens College, Columbia, Missouri, as the result of 
a recent study made there concerning the activities of women. On the basis 
of this study, the decision was reached that consumption is one of the seven 
basic subjects around which the whole program of education should be devel- 
oped. The functions and activities of the program at Stephens fall under 
three main headings: (1) fact-finding, (2) fact-organizing, (3) fact-using. 
Writing on the subject, “Consumer Education at Stephens College,” in the 
December issue of the Curriculum Journal, John M. Cassels says: “To have 
the greatest future usefulness and consequently the greatest practical interest 
for the student, the subject matter must be relevant to the life in prospect 
and must be presented in such a way as to make that apparent. Beginning 
with the simpler individual problems of budgeting and choosing, students 
will be led on to deal with more complicated individual problems and finally 
to the problems of their own relations to the general economic community in 
which they live.” 

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF DEMOCRACY.—Curtis W. Reese, dean of Abra- 
ham Lincoln Center, Chicago, in his article “A Critical Examination of De- 
mocracy” in the Character and Citizenship magazine asks the following ques- 
tions: What precisely is meant by democracy? Can the democratic ideal be 
fulfilled by means of the alleged democratic processes? What accurate, con- 
crete meanings have the current and widespread democratic slogans? What is 
the role of the people in the actual processes of government? How is the will 
of the public really created and controlled? Dean Reese quotes from a book 
written by William Ralph Inge, dean of St. Paul’s, who says: “Democracy 
in America means anything or nothing at all, which makes it an excellent 
slogan.” He further states that “Democracy is in a curious position of having 
no friends, though we all did lip service to it when we wanted to bring 
America into the war,” and finally, “Those who shout Abraham’s Lincoln’s 
‘government of the people, by the people, and for the people’ usually want to 
live on the people, by the people, and for themselves.” 

“WE WANT A NEW FDUCATION.”—From an anonymvus high-school pupil 
comes a plea for a new kind of education. This plea was published in the 
November Progressive Education magazine. It is as follows: “We want to 
know how to care for our bodies, how to rear the children we will soon have to 
bring up, how we can work constructively together, and for what end we shall 
live. We want the facts of life. We get so tired of being ignored and made to 
be quiet. We want to be recognized as individuals who can think, suffer, and 
feel. Cannot you adults understand that we want to build, invent, create, 
think for ourselves—that we have curiosity, want to investigate, and grow 
and learn more of life? Our time in school is squandered on the details of war, 
generals, dead kings and queens, dead and unused languages, mythology, por- 
tions of philosophy, economics, and a literature that is hopelessly out of date 
and inappropriate for the present time. Why can we not be taught a certain 
amount of English, some appropriate literature, science, psychology, how to 
develop personality, how to choose a career (whether it be marriage or busi- 
ness), religion, and how to make the most of our talents.” 















































CALENDAR OF PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS 


National Vocational Guidance Association, Cleveland, Ohio, February 22-25. 

National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls, Cleveland, Ohio, 
February 23-25. 

National Association of School Secretaries, Cleveland, Ohio, February 25-26. 

Department of Secondary-School Principals, Cleveland, Ohio, February 25- 
March 1. 

Department of Rural Education, Cleveland, Ohio, February 25-March 2. 

American Association of School Administrators, Cleveland, Ohio, Febru- 
ary 26-March 2. 

American Association of Technical High Schools and Institutes, Cleveland, 
Ohio, February 27-March 1. 

National Association of State High School Supervisors and Directors 
N. E. A., Cleveland, Ohio, February 28. 

American Association of Junior Colleges, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 
March 3-5, 

Public School Business Officials, Oakland, California, March 15-18. 

Junior High-School Conference of New York University, New York City, 
March 17-18. 

The Harvard Teachers Association, Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 18. 

Convention of the Southern District, American Association of Health, 
Tulsa, Oklahoma, March 27-30. 

American Association for Health, N. E. A. Department, April 3-6. 

New York State Vocational Association, New York, New York, April 11-13. 

American National Red Cross, Washington, D. C., April 24-27. 

Conference of Principals of Junior and Senior High Schools, Boston, Mas- 
sachusetts, April 28-30. 

Manitoba Teachers Federation, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, April, 1939. 

District of Columbia Congress of Parents and Teachers, Washington, 
D. C., May, 1939. 

American Library Association, San Francisco, California, June 18-24. 

National Conference of Visual Education and Film Exchange, Chicago, 
Illinois, June 19-22. 

National Association of Student Officers, San Francisco, California, 
June 28-30. 

National Association of State Libraries, San Francisco, California, June, 
1939. 

National Education Association, San Francisco, California, July 2-6. 

National Amateur Press Association, Oakland, California, July 4. 

World Federation of Education Associations, Rio de Janeiro, South 


America, August 6-11, 1939. 
48