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THE BULLETIN OF THE 
DEPARTMENT OF 
SECONDARY-SCHOOL 
PRINCIPALS 


OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 


Issued Eight Times a Year 
Monthly October to May Inclusive 


MARCH, 1939 


Serial Number 81 








BULLETIN NUMBER 81 


Proceedings of the 


Twenty-third Annual Meeting of the 
Department of 
Secondary-School Principals 


of the National Education Association 


CLEVELAND, OHIO 
February 25 to March 1, 1939 








THE CONTENTS OF THIS BULLETIN ARE LISTED IN EDUCATIONAL INDEX 


Published by 


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


H. V. CHURCH, Executive Secretary 
5835 Kimbark Avenue, Chicago 





Proceedings of the 
Twenty-third Annual Meeting of the 


DEPARTMENT OF 
SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


of the 


National (Education) Association of second? 


at or 


CLEVELAND, OHIO 
on 


February 25 to March 1, 1939 


. 


Edited by 
H. V. CHURCH 


Executive Secretary of the Association 


Published by the Department, 1939 











TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONVENTION 


of the 


DEPARTMENT OF 
SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 
of the 


National Education Association 


The twenty-third annual meeting of the Department of Secondary- 
School Principals met in Cleveland, Ohio, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, 
and Wednesday, February 25, 27, 28, and March 1, 1939. 


FIRST GENERAL SESSION 

The first general session of the twenty-third annual convention of the 
Department of Secondary-School Principals was a dinner meeting. At 
6:30 p. M. 327 guests sat down in the Ball Room of Hotel Cleveland, 
Cleveland, Ohio. The success of the dinner meeting was due largely 
to the supervision of Edgar A. Miller, the local chairman of this conven- 
tion, who is also the Principal of West High School of Cleveland. 

With the dinner put away The West High School Choral Club, 


(Glenn R. Montgomery, Director), sang: 


Tantum Ergo (Humming)............................Gluck 
Ave Maria ‘ sooo seese sees eeelRachmaninoft 
Hear My Prayer _.......Arkhangelsky 
A soprano solo followed: 
Caro Nome from Rigoletto satiaemans ee 
Mary Rocco 
The Choral Club then sang: 
The Echo Song (Double Choir). ... Di Lasso 


The Bells of Saint Michael’s Tower_....Knyvett-Stewart 
President Paul E. Elicker, Principal of Newton High School, New- 
tonville, Massachusetts, introduced Mayor Harold H. Burton, who gave-us 
a bit of the history of Cleveland together with a listing of the celebrated 
gardens of the city in his address of welcome. 
The musical program continued: 
The West High School Madrigal Singers 





My Bonnie Lass She Smileth German 
In Pride of May ae) West 
All Creatures Now Are Merry Minded - _...... Bennet 

The West High School Choral Club 
Let All My Life Be Music... Noble Cain 
Jones 


Holy Spirit. ; 
- The speaker of the evening, Lord ‘Banvend Russell, ‘eae’ by Presi- 


dent Elicker gave the address: 


5 








EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY 


BERTRAND RussELL 


The subject upon which I am to speak is “Education for Democracy,” 
and I shall take it for granted that democracy is a desirable thing, 
assuming that it can be worked, though I should be quite willing on 
another occasion to argue that at length. I shall assume that we should 
like to preserve democratic government, that we think it is a good thing, 
and that we want to know how it is to be made workable. 

It is subject to a challenge in our day which is surprising in view of 
the way that during the nineteenth century it seemed to be carrying 
everything before it, and therefore we have to reconsider the foundations 
of it and how it is to be defended. 

It is quite clear that education has a very large part to play in 
making democracy a workable system. To start at the extreme point, 
you certainly cannot work a democracy when your population is illiterate; 
if they cannot read or write, all the machinery which is required for 
democracy does not work. You need a fair amount of education before 
democracy becomes at all possible. 

But I am not concerned with this elementary portion of the matter. 
I am concerned rather with what kind of education is necessary if one is to 
avoid the pitfalls into which many democracies have fallen and which have 
led in many parts of the world to dictatorships. 

There is a curiously difficult line psychologically to be drawn if 
democracy is to succeed, because it needs two things that tend in different 
directions. On the one hand, every man needs to have a certain degree 
of self-reliance, and self-confidence, a certain willingness to back his own 
judgment and to set forth his own point of view, to defend it, to do propa- 
ganda for it, to organize the propaganda if necessary, and so on; all the 
ordinary business of democratic politics implies confidence in your own 
judgment. 

But then, on the other hand, if democracy is to be workable, a man 
must be willing to submit to the authority of the majority when that 
authority goes against him. 

You find that one or the other of those two things is very apt to fail. 
Either men become too subservient and follow some vigorous leader into 
dictatorship; or they are too self-assertive, they do not submit to the 
majority, and lead their country into anarchy. One or the other of those 
opposite dangers faces democracy, and the business of education in rela- 
tion to democracy is to try to produce the type of character which is willing 
to advocate its own opinion as vigorously as may be, but also willing to 
submit to the majority when it finds the majority going against it. 


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1939] PRocEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 7 


There are two different parts of what education has to do in this 
matter as in most other things. There is on the one hand the relation to 
character and the emotions, and on the other hand the intellectual part. 
The part that has to do with character and the emotions I should like to say 
something about, although it is in the main not a matter for schools; 
it is much more a matter that is determined in the home. To some 
extent schools can deal with it, but to a much greater extent it is 
determined by the home. It is so important that one cannot pass it over, 
but in this respect schools for parents are as much needed as schools 
for children. 

If democracy is to be workable, the population must be as far as 
possible free from the fiercer emotions of hatred and destructiveness and 
also from the emotions of fear and subservience. Now, those are emotions 
which are inculcated in very early childhood. A parent of average 
ferocity begins with his or her child by the attempt to teach him complete 
obedience, and makes him either a slave or a rebel, and neither a slave nor 
a rebel is what is wanted in a democracy. A citizen is a different sort 
of person from either a slave or a rebel, but you cannot get the proper 
emotions for a citizen out of an autocratic and rather cruel type of parent, 
nor, or course, out of an autocratic and cruel type of school. 

In this, by the way, I find that all the dictators of Europe agree with 
me. After the war, almost all the countries of Europe, for a time, had 
a good many free schools, with not very much discipline, not very much 
respect for the teacher, and so on; and one by one, all the military autoc- 
racies, including Russia, have suppressed all that freedom that there was 
in those schools and have gone back to a strict military regime, in which 
everybody stands up when the teacher comes in and the teacher is treated 
with the utmost reverence and all the old-fashioned paraphernalia. So 
that, evidently, the dictators of the military dictatorships on the Continent 
all agree with me about the connection of freedom in school with demo- 
cracy, and one should always be willing to learn from one’s enemies. 

It is clear that too much discipline is not a good thing if you want to 
produce a population capable of democracy. If you want to get people 
into the habit of initiative, of thinking for themselves and not taking over 
their opinions from others, you must get them into the attitude of neither 
subservience nor rebellion against authority which is natural in the man 
who feels that he is part of what makes authority. 

Everybody in a democracy ought to have in a greater or less degree 
a portion of the governmental mentality. The governmental mentality, 
where you do not have a democracy, is that of masters toward dependents, 
which is out of place in a democracy. In a democracy what is needed 
ig equal codperation, which involves assertion of your opinion up to a 
point but not further. 








DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


This brings us to a source of trouble to a great many democrats, 
namely what is called “principle.” It is wise to scan rather skeptically 
most talk about principle, about self-sacrifice, heroic devotion to a cause, 
and so on. There is always more of what appears like heroic, unselfish 
devotion where the cause is bad; and if you apply a little psychoanalysis 
to it, you find it is not what it appears to be. It is really people’s pride, 
or hatred, or desire for revenge, that has got itself idealized and collecti- 
vised and personified in the nation as a noble form of idealism. That is 
extremely dangerous. You always should apply psychoanalysis before you 
settle whether an emotion is good or bad, and when you find a man 
patriotically devoted to his country, ask yourself, “Now what is it that he 
is willing to do for his country?” It appears that what the Nazi is 
willing to do is to kill people. That is the reality of the “unselfish devo- 
tion” that he shows for his country. Killing people, if you do not say you 
are doing it for your country, is not considered admirable, and it does 
not seem to me to be any better because a lot of people do it all together. 
If this activity, which they all believe to be noble, is really one that does 
harm to mankind, you may be pretty sure that the passion which inspires 
it is really not a good one. If you had a kindly population, a population 
who in their childhood had been well-treated and happy, who had grown 
up imagining the world a friendly place, they would not have had that 
particular sort of idealism which consists in joining together to kill 
people in large numbers and is called patriotism. I do not admire that 
sort myself, and I do not think it is a sort that you would find in a 
people who had had a kindly upbringing. It belongs with a certain type 
of cruelty, of unhappiness, of unsatisfied needs, and would tend to dis- 


appear if early education were emotionally what it ought to be. 


I do not want to go on too long about this part of the business, which 
really does not have to do so much with schools, I want as far as I can 
to get on to the things that are the special business of schools. The 
temper of intelligence that is needed to work a democracy is exactly 
analogous in practical life to what the scientific temper is in the intellectuai 
life. The man of science lives in a sort of halfway house between complete 
skepticism and complete dogmatism. He, neither like the skeptic, says, 
“All knowledge is impossible,” nor does he say, like the dogmatist, “I know 
the truth already.” He is always just between these two, saying, “The 
truth is difficult to ascertain, in fact impossible to ascertain completely, 
but up to a point, to a certain degree, some of it can be found out by 
hard work.” That is the scientific attitude of mind: Truth is ascertainable 
to a certain degree, but not wholly, and that only with difficulty. 

You will observe that in all countries which nave autocratic govern- 
ment, there is combined with that a creed. The followers of Hitler 
have one creed, the followers of Mussolini another, the followers of Stalin 





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1939 | ProceeDINGs oF TWENTyY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 9 


another, and so on. When I say a creed, I mean a set of beliefs which 
are to be instilled into the minds of the young while they are too young 
to think, which are to be taught so constantly and persistently that 
pupils shall never afterwards be able to get away from the hypnotic influ- 
ence of that early teaching. And the beliefs are instilled, not by giving 
you this, that, or the other reason to suppose that they are true; that 1s 
not the mechanism. The mechanism is purely one of parrot-like repe- 
tition, insistence, mass hysteria, mass suggestion. I say that it is not the 
sort of thing to be aimed at in a democracy. For by this method you 
teach people to believe a thing, not because there is any evidence for it, 
but merely because they have been taught it in a hypnotic fashion, and 
they cannot get away from it. When two opposite kinds of tcaching 
of this sort coexist, they produce two crowds of people who clash, and 
there is no means by which you can mitigate that clash. Each hypnotized 
automaton feels. everything that is most sacred bound up with the victory 
of his side, everything that is most horrible exemplified by the other side. 
Such fanatical factions are quite incapable of meeting together in Congress 
and saying, “Let us see which has the majority.” That would scem 
altogether too pedestrian and terrestrial, because each of them stands for 
a sacred cause. 

I do not mean to say that there are no sacred causes, but I do say 
you want to be very careful before you claim that your particular nostrum 
is a sacred cause and the other man’s is something devilish and horrible. 
We have to have a kind of tolerance one towards another, and that kind of 
tolerance is much more easy to have if you think, “Well, I may after all 
be mistaken. This is how it seems to me, but people have been mistaken 
in the past. Human beings are fallible, and I am a human being. It is 
just conceivable that I may be wrong.” 

That attitude of mind is one which, of course, is not tolerated in 
dictatorships. Supposing you are a German, for instance, you are expected 
to agree that Hitler is not wrong, for that is impossible; and if you are 
quite certain that you are right, you will infer that you have a right to 
stick a bayonet into anybody who does not agree with you, and even 
to asphyxiate his children with poison gas. That sort of dogmatic cer- 
tainty which you can get out of having a great man at the top, whom all 
worship, is extraordinarily dangerous. I do not think we ought to allow 
ourselves to have that sort of attitude; indeed it is an essential part of 
democracy that you should not have too much respect for anybody. I do 
not mean, of course, that you should despise him; but the kind of rever- 
ence that makes you think, “So-and-so says it, and therefore it must be 
true,” is not an attitude to be commended. If we value democracy, we 
should wish to see a person thinking for himself, listening to the argu- 
ments, and coming to his own conclusion. 














10 DepaRTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


I should like to see people exposed in schools to the most vehement 
and terrific argumentation on all sides of every question. I should like 
to see this organization, the Department of Secondary-School Principals, 
get the most eloquent advocates of every imaginable point of view to 
broadcast to all the schools in the country, opposing each other, putting 
their rival points of view. I should like the teachers then afterward to say 
to the children, “Well, now, you have heard what so-and-so said. I think 
the time has come when you should analyze his arguments, put them down 
on paper and see what they come to.” The children would very soon find 
out that the orators who had the most effect at the moment were those 
who had the fewest arguments when you put them on paper. If you had 
opposite points of view put on every kind of thing, the opposite propa- 
gandists would neutralize each other, and in the end you would get people 
who might be capable of listening to eloquence without being carried 
away by it. That is one of the most important things—to learn to be 
immune to eloquence. You will not be that by never hearing eloquence: 
you have to hear a lot. I should have all the schools listening to all the 
sorts of eloquence, only I should take care that it was of opposite sorts. 

The whole modern technique of government in all its worst elements 
is derived from advertising. Advertisers are the practical psychologists of 
our day. They were long before Freud and the rest of the psychologists 
of the unconscious. They discovered that what makes you believe a 
proposition is not the fact that there is some reason to think it true. 
Someone puts up a simple statement beside a railway line, mentioning 
somebody’s soap or pills, and the mere fact that that name is there in the 
long run causes you to think that it is a very good soap or that those are 
very good pills. 

The same thing applies exactly in government. We have long known 
it in regard to presidents. You see a president’s head on the coins and 
stamps, and presidents have always realized that it was very desirable to 
make themselves known. The modern dictators do the same thing. You 
see their pictures everywhere, hear their names everywhere, and it has 
much the same effect on you as the advertisements of the pills and soap. 
You begin to think, “He is a very good dictator because I hear his name 
so often.” 

As I said, the advertisers led the way: they discovered the technique 
of producing irrational belief. What the person who cares about demo- 
cracy has got to do, I think, is deliberately to construct an education de- 
signed to counteract the natural credulity and the natural incredulity of 
the uneducated man; because the uneducated man has these two opposite 
defects: he believes a statement when no reasons are given for it, and 
equally he disbelieves it when reasons are given. So that you have two 
opposite tasks: to cause people not to believe when there is no reason, and 








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1939] ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 11 


also to cause them to believe when there is reason. The credulity and the 
incredulity are exactly wrong in the natural man. I think if there is any 
department for original sin, it is perhaps in this direction, in the ways 
in which we come to believe and to disbelieve things. 

I should start very young. If I had to run an infant school, I should 
have two sorts of sweets, if I were the teacher—one very, very nice and 
the other very, very nasty. The very nasty ones should be advertised with 
all the skill of the most able advertisers in the world. On the other hand, 
the nice ones should have a coldly scientific statement, setting forth their 
ingredients and consequent excellence. I should let the children choose 
which they would have. I should, of course, vary the assortment from 
day to day, but after a week or two they would probably choose the ones 
with the coldly scientific statement. That would be one up. I should go 
on in the same way all through. 

Suppose there was a question of an excursion to some place in the 
country. I should have on the one hand marvelous advertisements with 
colored posters about some place that was very unpleasant, and about 
another place I should have just maps and contour lines and statements 
as to the amount of timber in the neighborhood, but put in the driest 
language conceivable. Of course, the place advertised in dry language 
should be nice, and the other nasty. 

I should do the same in teaching history. I should take them through 
great controversies of the past. I should let them read the most eloquent 
statements in favor of positions that nobody now holds. For example, 
before the American Civil War, the Southern orators—who were magnifi- 
cent orators—made the most moving speeches in defense of slavery. If 
you read those speeches now, you almost begin to think it must have been 
a good thing. I should read them all kinds of very, very cloquent de- 
fenses of views that nobody now holds at all, such as the importance of 
burning witches. 

When they had grown a little impervious in that way, I should give 
them rhetoric in the present, similar speeches in favor of current contro- 
versial opinions. I should give it to them always on opposite sides. I 
should read to them every day, as a sort of bonne bouche to their history, 
what is said about a labor dispute first by The New York American and 
then by the Daily Worker so long as the labor dispute lasts, or whatever 
question is on. I should say, “What do you suppose has happened?” In 
time, perhaps, they would learn to infer the truth from these opposite 
statements. 

The art of finding out from the newspapers what it was that happened, 
is a very difficult one indeed, and one that every democrat should be 
taught. It is very instructive to read newspaper accounts when you have 
been an eye-witness of an occurrence. I should try as much as possible 











DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS {| March 


to get pupils to have the experience of seeing first of all what did happen, 
and then what was said to happen by the opposite sides, and so to learn 
that the truth is usually about in the middle. 

There is a great deal to be done in this direction if people are to be 
capable of understanding how to judge a political question. I do not 
want to teach people one opinion or another opinion; it is not the business 
of education to do that. The business of education is to teach pupils to 
form opinions for themselves, and they need for that purpose to be rather 
impervious to eloquence and propaganda, to be on the lookout for the 
things that are intended to mislead, and to be able to pick out what 
really is an argument and base themselves on that. 

I should go through, for instance, the history of past wars and let 
them read the propaganda on both sides and see how extraordinary far 
from the mark it really was, how completely unreal. [ should let them 
occasionally have a newspaper of some period during the Great War. I 
do not know whether any of you in recent years have had occasion to 
look up any newspaper of any day during the Great War. If you had, you 
would be astonished. You would think, those of you who are old enough 
to have lived through that time, “Dear me, did I really read that at the 
time and think it quite sensible?” Because as you read it a sort of hot 


blast of insanity comes out of the page at you. You cannot believe that 
we were really all collectively in a state of excitement in which one cannot 
see things right. Part of the business of education for democracy is to 
try to prevent people from getting too much excited; but it is a difficult 
art, because you do not want, on the other hand, that people should be 


without emotion. 

I want to safeguard myself at this point. You cannot get any kind 
of improvement in the world, or any kind of good life, without a basis 
in the emotions. But you have to be sure that that basis is the right one. 
I think that the only sort of emotional basis is what I should call kindly 
feeling, that is to say a wish, not only in regard to your friends and the 
people you know, but in regard to mankind at large, that as far as possible 
they should be happy, enlightened, able to live a decent sort of life. When 
you find other ideals, as you very often do, strongly recommended in 
terms that sound like lofty morality, such ideals as national greatness, the 
victory of this or that cause, or any kind of thing that involves the 
suffering, the destruction, the misery of some large group of mankind, 
then say, “That is not an ideal that I care for or that any democrat can 
care for, because it is of the essence of democracy that we think every 
human being counts alike.” 

We are not content with a purpose that suits one group at the expense 
of other groups. Therefore, any narrow patriotism, however necessary 
it may be at the moment in practice, is not a thing that you can accept as 





1939 | ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 13 


an ideal. The emotion that must inspire our purposes is an emotion of 
pain in the suffering of others, and happiness in their happiness. That 
is the only emotional basis that is any good. 

Given that, you then want a belief that it is possible to make human 
life happier. Many people are so pessimistic and so miserable that they 
feel as if that were impossible, as if it was no use to struggle; the world, 
they think, is just dreadful, and we cannot do anything about it. 

I cannot and do not take that view. Whatever the immediate future 
may be, and I think it may be very nasty, I do not feel any doubt that 
human beings will emerge into a world very much happier than any that 
we have known in the past, a world in which ordinary men, women, 
and children will be finer than they were before, freer, healthier, less 
destructive, and more kindly. 

If we had any sense, we could now with our existing knowledge have 
a world in which practically everybody would be happy. It is only the 
hatreds between groups that prevent that, and those hatreds between 
groups are the sort of thing that I think our education for democracy 
ought to undermine both emotionally and intellectually. We ought both 
to get people into that kindly frame of mind where they will not feel 
violent hatred of another group, and also into the intellectual state where 
viey will see how absurd the arguments are in favor of acting against 
cther groups. 

I think that our education has in some respects been a good deal 
to blame; more in other countries than this, but in this country too, in 
the fact that there are certain beliefs which are very convenient to the 
Government, very convenient to the powers that be, but not perhaps 
rationally defensible. Those beliefs have been encouraged in schools: the 
whole set of beliefs that make up patriotism, respect for the flag, and 
I don’t know what all. The flag may be all right in its place, but consider 
what it means as an emotional stimulus in education. 


There have been many great Americans, and one is very glad there 
should have been. But it is just as good a thing that there should be 
great Frenchmen, Germans, or Russians. The fact that they have been 
Americans is nothing to the purpose, but when you get them collected 
under the flag, it is this irrelevant characteristic that is emphasized. More- 
over, it is not quite the same American that the flag suggests whom you 
would admire otherwise. You might admire Edison and Burbank, but 
when you see the flag they do not come into your head; it is Sherman 
and Grant. The flag is essentially concerned with the militant aspect of 
one’s country. 

In the world we live in, perhaps countries may have to have a 
militant aspect, but for my part I think Edison and Burbank and Emerson 
and Thoreau are something more to be proud of than Sherman and 








14 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


Grant, and therefore I do not think that the collecting of children’s minds 
around the flag is a good thing. 

To take another point: we naturally, all of us who have classes to 
teach, find it much more convenient if we are respected. It is much 
easier to keep discipline, and also, since we are there to teach, we want 
to be believed when we speak. There is a certain inconvenience in a 
class of children who all think for themselves and who regard you as no 
better than anybody else. 

Therefore we are all, in so far as we are engaged in teaching, much 
tempted to set ourselves up as little gods. It is much more convenient if 
we do, but it does not really help to educate the child except in so far as 
it is necessary in order that the business of education should be carried on. 

I remember reading a description of Tolstoy's schools. When any- 
body except Tolstoy taught in them, there was pandemonium, but when 
Tolstoy taught them there was absolute silence, absolute respect. This 
seemed rather astonishing until it was found that if any noise was made, 
he got into such a fury and rage that every child cowered with terror. 

So that you do have to have enough respect for the teacher to enable 
the business of teaching to be carried on. But that is a comparatively 
small amount, and I do not think you want to set up to be certainly right 
or to discourage any kind of intellectual independence in the children. 
That has to do not only, of course, with the teacher. It has to do with 
the whole of the existing structure of society, with all the powers that be. 
We should take care not to inculcate unthinking respect. Respect should 
be thinking respect. It should be based upon some kind of recognition 
that so-and-so really has some merits, and not simply upon tradition or 
pomp or a hypnotic effect. You in this country suffer much less in that 
respect than most countries do; but still you cannot very well help it where 
you have a long tradition. You tend inevitably to have more respect 
given to certain things than those things deserve. 

Children are willing enough to give respect. Those who seem not 
to be willing to are those who have seen through demands to enlist their 
respect for things that did not deserve it, and have thus acquired a sort 
of debunking attitude—not believing anything. But if you do not try to 
impose upon the young, if you do not try to deceive them, but let them 
find out for themselves what they respect, put things before them that 
are worthy of their respect and let them choose, my own experience is 
that they are quite as willing to respect things as they ought to be, and 
that it is not necessary to inculcate an artificially respectful attitude, which, 
when it goes beyond a point, is inimical to thinking. 

One knows how different it is at the university from what it was 
before. A university teacher who has to teach clever people never 
expects from them the very faintest respect. He takes it for granted that 








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1939] ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 15 


they will occasionally catch him out as being wrong, and that he will 
have to admit it. We should try to have as much approach to that 
attitude in earlier teaching as is compatible with the actual business. You 
want to encourage independence, initiative, thinking for themselves, and 
the realization that anybody may be mistaken. You do not want to have 
them think what you say, just because you say it, must be right. After all, 
it probably isn’t. Of course, if you state a mere fact, it will be right; but 
if you state an opinion, you should realize that, if you take the opinions 
held by people three hundred years ago, you will find very, very few that 
you would think right now, and in the same way there must be very few 
of our opinions now that are right. 


I have said very little about the non-intellectual aspects of the matter, 
but I should like to end with a few words about that, because while I 
have said that what I want is as far as possible something like the scien- 
tific attitude, I do want also besides that some capacity to feel what are 
the ends of life and what makes life important to human beings. 


That is a matter for the cultural side of education. I do not think 
that is to be obtained merely by knowing facts. It is to be obtained in 
different ways by different people. Many get it from music or poetry. 
Some people get a great deal from astronomy. I sometimes think that if 
people would reflect upon the size and antiquity of the stellar universe, 
they would perhaps feel that some of the controversies upon this rather 
insignificant planet are not so important as they seem to some of us, and 
perhaps that might take a little of the acerbity out of our disputes. We 
need negatively the realization that our disputes are not so important as 
they seem, and positively, through art, through music, through poetry, 
and so on, the feeling that there are things really valuable that human 
beings can enjoy and achieve, and that these are different things from the 
ones that come in the clash of politics, not the sort of things that happen 
on a battlefield, but individual things, things that happen in your own 
mind, important feelings, emotions, and insights. All these things are 
to be kept alive, things not to be sacrificed to the collective, organized life 
of the community. That life is necessary, it has to go on, but it is not the 
highest part of our life. The highest part of our life is more analogous to 
what the religious teachers have always spoken of. It is something more 
individual. I think perhaps that is the deepest quarrel I have with the 
people who believe in the corporate state and all the rest of it, that they 
seem to think that our highest life is in collective activities, and I do not 
believe that at all. I think our highest life is something more personal, 
and that where we coéperate in large groups, although codperation is im- 
‘mensely important and necessary, it is not as a rule with the very highest 
part of our nature, because we all of us reach our best in somewhat differ- 








16 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ March 


ent things, so that where we all work together it is hardly possible that we 
can each of us reach quite the best that our nature is capable of. 

I think all education ought to bear that in mind and ought to be very 
conscious of the possibility of individual excellence in the future. For that 
reason much the most important of all qualifications in a teacher is the 
feeling of spontaneous affection toward those whom he teaches, the feel- 
ing with each one of them, “This is a person with certain capacities, a 
person who can do certain things, who has a right to his place in the 
world,” and not “This is a soldier in the army,” or “This is material for 
propaganda,” or “This is one of the persons out of whom I can make a 
great power which can do this, that, or the other.” That is not the way 
to use the material which you teach. The right way is one much more 
analogous to the religious way, which realizes that each human being has 
in himself certain excellencies and certain possibilities, and that the busi- 


ness of education is to bring those out. 











at we 


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usi- 





SECOND GENERAL SESSION 
Monday, February 27, 1939 


The second session of the convention met in the Ball Room of Hotel 
Cleveland. At 2:05 p. M. presiding officer John E. Wellwood, Principal of 
Central High School, Flint, Michigan, and member of the Executive Com- 
mittee of the Department of Secondary-School Principals, introduced Dr. 


Edgar G. Johnston as follows: 


CuamrMan We ttwoop: If the young people of to-day are to lead a 
good life to-day and to-morrow, it means that they must establish sone- 
thing in the way of a philosophy of life. That philosophy of life doesn’t 
necessarily need to be a stated or written one, but at least it must be an 
attitude toward the problems which they are facing, and which they are 
likely to face in the future. 

If a philosophy or an attitude is to be established it means that those 
young people must have certain experiences, out of which to build a phil- 
osophy. 

If we are going to have experiences, it means action, because only 
through action does experience come. 


If we are going to have action, and if that action is going to lead to an 
adequate philosophy of life, that action must be the right kind of action. 


Action and experience may be educative, they may be miseducative, 
but they are never non-educative. And it is with that general thought in 
mind that this Department two years ago appointed a Committee on Stu- 
dent Activities. The chairman of that Committee was Dr. Edgar G. John- 
ston, the Principal of the University School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at 
the present time on leave of absence, wandering about the country-—I can 
assure you not aimlessly—in the interests of the codperative study of sec- 
ondary-school standards. 

Dr. Johnston is going to speak to us for a time this afternoon and 
while he is speaking I hope that you will keep in mind that there is a 
group of young people sitting here on the front row who will probably 


be taking notes and be ready to make comments. 


I do not know whether they are going to tear his address to pieces 
or whether they are going to add to it, illustrate it, illuminate it, or what 
they will do to it, but I think we should all keep in mind that these young 
people are thinking while Dr. Johnston is talking. 


Now I shall present Dr. Johnston, who will present “The Aim and 
Object of an Activity Program.” Dr. Johnston. [Applause] 
17 








THE AIM AND OBJECT OF AN ACTIVITY PROGRAM 


Dr. Epcar G. JoHNsTon 
Professor of Secondary Education and Principa! of University High Shcool, 
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 

Mr. Chairman, fellow-members of the Department of Secondary-School 
Principals, and distinguished guests. In the event that any of you in the 
back of the room cannot hear me I shall appreciate it if you will raise 
your hands, and I shall raise my voice. 

The extra-curriculum activity movement as an organized considera- 
tion of the program in the school has reached its majority; it has come of 
age, for it is just about twenty-one years ago that the Chairman of the 
panel which you are to hear later this afternoon, and the acknowledged 
dean of the extra-curriculum movement in America, Dr. Fretwell, organ- 
ized the first course in extra-curriculum activity. 

If, in the discussion that follows, I seem to dwell especially on faults 
or shortcomings, it is not without recognition of the distinct values which 
the extra-curriculum program has brought to our schools. May I rather 
hope to play the role of a friend of the family who is interested in the 
growth of this young Mr. Extra-Curriculum Activity, but who is open- 
minded to see those factors which may hinder his most effective develop- 


ment. 

In the attitude of teachers, administrators, the public, to extra-curricu- 
lum activities—well perhaps mainly just of teachers and administrators, 
for I think the public has in general been more alert than we to possibili- 
ties—in the attitude of teachers and administrators, I think we can discern 
three observable attitudes. The first was one of opposition, that extra- 
curriculum activities was something that interfered with the real business 
of the school—learning lessons. That attitude was represented by a com- 
ment I heard in the course of an address by a distinguished scholar and 
gentleman of the old school, who had occasion to refer to what we speak of 
as extra-curriculum activity. His comment was, “Extra-curriculum activi- 
ties. A new-fangled term for what in my day was known as dissipation.” 
I think fortunately the point of view he represents would be found by very 
few in our schools to-day. However, if activities have become respectable 
they have still been tolerated rather than encouraged by some teachers, 
some schools, some administrators. 

That attitude I think can be found on the part of those who rigidly 
insist that pupils must pass in their regular school work if they are to be 
permitted any experience in the extra-curriculum program. To them extra- 
curriculum activities are a sort of scholastic ice-cream that is to be given 
only to those who have eaten their carrots and spinach, even though some 
of them may be allergic to spinach. 

You are all familiar with Dr. Fretwell’s famous two theses, I shall 
not repeat them to you, but certainly the hope of the extra-curriculum pro- 

18 











1939] PRrocEEDINGS OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 19 


gram has been that it would develop citizens of a democracy, who would 
be better able to perform their duties, personalities richer in creative ac- 
tivity, individuals who are more sensitive to social values and who have 
more developed ability. 

I believe that failure to achieve what we might reasonably expect the 
extra-curriculum program to do in our schools may be assigned to certain 
administrative weaknesses, and that to us particularly who are the admin- 
istrators of schools there are some very definite considerations we need to 
give our most earnest attention. I shall point out some of these weaknesses 
as they seem to me, in the administration of the program. 

The first of these is that many schools have adopted the forms of an 
activity program without any real understanding by teachers and pupils 
of the function it should perform. We have had hastily introduced ex- 
amples of student councils which very frequently have been as hastily re- 
moved when without consideration of what they were to do they failed to 
achieve any real educational purpose. 

We have had top-heavy club programs, started in schools which then 
have fallen by their own weight. 

We have had home rooms which were home rooms in name only 
and were mainly an administrative routine. 

Too frequently we have had the copying, in rather slavish imitation 
of something that was being done some place else, and has seemed to be 
effective there, without asking what the purpose was it was expected to 
serve, and consequently how it could be made to perform that function. 


Several years ago I had occasion to participate in a state survey in 
another state. We visited forty-two high schools in that state. In all of them 
we found home rooms, but we found only one activity common to the 
home rooms and that was taking attendance. Actually at one of these 
schools they herded the pupils together in what they called home rooms, 
for five minutes in the morning, for a roll call; at twelve o’clock they 
brought them back for three minutes to see that they hadn’t escaped; at 
one o'clock they came to the home rooms again, and again were checked 
in for five minutes, and again at four o’clock there was another three- 
minute round-up to be sure that all survivors might be checked up and 
sent home for the night. Certainly that was no home room in any real 


sense. : 
The second point I should like to make is that we have really been 
afraid of democracy; we have lacked faith in the ability of pupils to plan 
intelligently, to work coéperatively, to make decisions and to accept re- 
sponsibilities, and that in my judgment is the most crucial problem and 
‘the most critical failure of activities programs as they have been carried 


out in our schools of to-day. 











20 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 






We are living in an age when democracy is on the retreat throughout 
the world, when whole nations are regimented into servile obedience to a 
self-appointed leader. We need to develop the ability to choose leaders 
wisely, and one chooses leaders wisely only by having experience in choos- 
ing them and by having the opportunity to make mistakes and to learn by 
those mistakes. 

We have been so afraid that pupils would make mistakes in judg- 
ment that we have not allowed them to make judgments, so afraid that 
they would choose the wrong leaders to represent themselves that we have 
picked their leaders for them, and I have observed this year, I have had 
an opportunity of visiting a good many schools throughout the country, 
I have seen some excellent things in the activities program, but repeatedly 
it has seemed to me the thing that stood out was the failure to realize how 
much responsibility pupils really are able to take, and the examples which 
have shown that recognition and that confidence may have been the high 
lights in the activity program in the American school. 

I was interested in the question which was presented by a newly 
elected student council president to his principal. His question was: “Well 
now as student council president just how much authority have I?” 

The answer of the principal, and I think a sound one, was, “Just as 
much as you want, and are willing to take responsibility for.” 

It seems to me we need to recognize that it is not a case of student 
or faculty domination of a school, but of student and faculty participation 
in administering this very complex, dynamic organization which is the 
modern secondary school, and that means a willingness on our part to 
give just as much responsibility as pupils are ready to take, and that means, 
more often than we are ready to recognize in them. 


The third point I should like to make is that participation in the extra- 
curriculum program has been limited to too few pupils. Sometimes by 
this scholastic limitation I mentioned earlier, by insisting that the pupil 
who has not passed in algebra, or in English or in Latin may not be a 
member of a club or run for an office or participate otherwise in the school. 


To my mind if we really believe the values we have claimed for the 
extra-curriculum program, if we really think that this is preparation for 
citizenship, in learning to do by doing, it would be just as illogical for us 
to say to John Smith, “You may not take English, you failed in algebra 
last semester.” If we think of these as complementary parts of a total edu- 
cational program of the school we need to think of them in terms of what 
may be most significant for each individual pupil, and for many pupils in 
many schools to-day I believe the most significant educational experience 
they are receiving is that found in what we call the extra-curriculum activi- 
ties of the school. 








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1939 | ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 21 


And then we have failed to provide for distribution of experience, we 
have allowed too frequently a small number of the more capable to assume 
the greater part of the extra-curriculum opportunity the school provides. 
Let me illustrate: in a school I visited once there was an excellent use of 
the public address system. A student news broadcast was given, it was a 
semi-weekly event, I believe. The student who presented this in very well- 
chosen words, gave the news first of the school, then of the local commu- 
nity, then national news, and then international news, with appropriate 
comment. It would have done credit to many of the commentators of 


our national networks. 


The next day there was an assembly. The assembly contained among 
other phases it had a presentation of a newly designed school seal, very 
effectively done, in a brief and fitting series of remarks, by a student, with 
acceptance of the seal on the part of the student body; the student who 
made the acceptance speech was the same one who had done the broad- 
casting the day before. 

Then there followed a play, an excellent play, well presented, one 
which demanded a good deal in the way of dramatic ability, particularly 
by the leading male part, and that leading part was played by the same 
boy who had made the student broadcast the day before, and had accepted 
the seal a few minutes before the play. 


A few years ago I had occasion to analyze the participation of pupils 
in activities as represented after their names in the senior annual. In one 
school which had a very extensive activity program of which it was 
proud, one pupil had been, as indicated in this list of honors following his 
name, the president of the student council; the president of the senior 
class; the colonel R. O. T. C.; captain of the football team, lead in the 
senior play, et cetera, et cetera. Actually there were for the four years he 
had been in the school, forty-two designations after his name, of something 
of enough importance that he wanted to have it included in his history. 


However, in that same school, in that same senior class there were 
nineteen per cent of the student body of the seniors for whom nothing 
was presented, they had had no experience of the extra-curriculum type 
of sufficient importance to put it after their names. 


Too frequently a school doesn’t even know how widely this extra- 
curriculum experience is being distributed in the school. 


The next point I would like to emphasize is that the competitive as- 
pects of the program have been over-emphasized. The winning of con- 
tests has long been a major consideration in athletics, and we have had 
“sometimes the contrast, the division of the student body into gladiators 


and bench-warmers. 








DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


There is certainly a very definite degree in which this over-emphasis 
on winning of contests vitiates the very purpose that the athletic program 
is intended to carry out, and has results which are undesirable both for 
the spot-lighted participant—small number of participants—and for those 
who may obtain a distorted sense of values through over-emphasis on win- 
ning as being the thing that counts on the part of the student body. 


I have been very glad to see the efforts which have been made espe- 
cially by some of our state principals association groups to make an intelli- 
gent study of contests in the various fields, not only in athletics but in the 
field of music, in the various other fields into which this competitive idea 
has developed, make a study of those and to attempt to restrict those in 
such a way as to get the legitimate values which competition may present. 


Certainly in addition to the limitation which comes in limiting the 
activity in speech, in dramatics, in music activities to those who are compe- 
tent to appear and to win for a school, it may deprive those who most 
need the kind of experience that that activity presents, and may also even 
conflict with the purpose of the activity itself. Beating somebody else has 
nothing to do with the appreciation of a symphony or with an understand- 
ing of socialized medicine, and the sooner we recognize that fact and focus 
our attention on the real functions to be performed by the activities, the 
sooner will we provide the distribution of activities which is to be desired. 
Particularly, as Bertrand Russell brought out so clearly in his address of 
Saturday evening, it is critically important for us in democracy to develop 
the ability to codperate, to focus our attention on those points we have in 
common and not upon those points in which we are attempting to be su- 
perior to someone else. 


Then the activity program has too frequently been extra—unrelated 
to the curriculum program of the school. A recognition of the common 
aims and relationships which both of these phases of the program have as 
part of the total educational program of the school, will result in improved 
contribution from each. 


I believe it was L. P. Jacks, the English writer on educational topics 
and a former headmaster of a well-known English school, who said ap- 
propos of education and recreation, “To the wise individual there is no 
dividing line between his education and his recreation, his work and his 
leisure, his vocation and his avocation; many times if you ask him whether 
he is working or playing he could not tell you which. To himself he seems 
to be doing both; enough if he does it well.” Something of that spirit has 
carried over into the curriculum where there has been developed a vital 
relationship between the extra-curriculum activities and the curricular 
activities, and where the two have been viewed as common parts of a 
larger educational program to which both have a contribution to make. 








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1939] ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 23 


And then, there has been no consistent effort to evaluate activity in 
terms of the fundamental objective we have set up for them. We have been 
content too often in a rather aimless way to continue activities because we 
had them. Well, we have always had a Latin Club, for instance, we have 
always had an assembly program; we have always done this or that, and 
without measuring what the real returns are in terms of the things that 
we say the activity program should present to the school. 


I remember on the old farm where I grew up, that we had a rasp- 
berry patch which was tended rather carefully for some years. One of the 
chief jobs was cutting out the canes. Each fall you would cut out the old, 
dead canes, and that made room for the new shoots to come up, and if 
you failed to do that, as eventually when this was allowed to lapse, we did, 
it developed from a well-cultivated and well-tended patch into a bramble 
patch in which it was almost impossible to get in, and to get the fruits 
that were there. I think sometimes our activity programs have been pretty 
much like that, where dead wood has been allowed to continue without 
any real consideration as to whether it was performing functions or what 
the values that might be performed were. 


Certainly the improved personnel records and functional consideration 
of the curriculum in terms of the experiences that pupils have under the 
auspices of the school has done much to focus our attention upon the ob- 
jectives. I believe that one of the major developments to be achieved in 
extra-curriculum activities is that of devising and utilizing effective means 
of measuring improvement. 


If I raay mention, then, two more major weaknesses, it seems to me 
the teacher training institutions have failed to provide appropriate expert- 
ences for prospective teachers to prepare them for responsibilities in this 
field. 

We have seen that there was adequate preparation in mathematics, 
we have outlined what the major should be in Latin or in English; we 
have seen to it that there was practical teaching provided in each of these 
lines. 

Fortunately, as a beginning of this development we have seen extra- 
curriculum courses coming in, particularly in our summer school sessions. 
Usually they have been a matter of teachers who have been out teaching 
coming back to find out something about the activity into which they have 
been thrown as they went into the schools. But if we believe that we learn 
to do by doing, what our whole extra-curriculum philosophy has told us, 
it certainly applies to teachers who are being prepared for participation 
in teaching. You do not learn to swim until you get into the water, and 
the extra-curriculum experience of the teacher does need some opportunity 
for controlled supervised effective participation. 








DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


At a recent meeting of a state principals’ association in the committee 
report on teacher training, I thought the most significant point that was 
made by the chairman for that committee was that our teachers come to us 
well trained in their subject fields, but they do not know how to run a 
home room, they know nothing about sponsoring a club, they are not pre- 
pared to take over the responsibility for the various activities, and we have 
to train them for that after we get them in the schools. I believe that all 
the way through this training has to be a codperative thing, and some type 
of interneship in the whole of the program is the method that will provide 


for the most effective preparation. 


And then, finally, duties in relation to activity program have not re- 


ceived adequate recognition in considering the teacher’s load, either by 


administrators or by the community. 

I am not suggesting that for every club sponsorship a class should be 
withdrawn from the teacher’s load; I am suggesting that we do the same 
thing for the teacher that we do for the pupil in an intelligence guiding 
program, that we think of his total contribution to the school and that we 
come to get the public to recognize what this total program of the school 
is, and to set up what is a reasonable standard for that in terms of its 
effectiveness. 

Well, now to get back to this young adult, Mr. Extra-Curriculum, 
who has just reached his majority. I may seem to have been very critical 
here and not to have had a very optimistic view; I think that would be a 
mistake. | do not want to give the impression that I think that his weak- 
nesses are constitutional, that he has developed hardening of the arteries, 
that there is no hope. I do think that there is need for intelligent attention 
to a reasoned regimen, to an intelligent diet, and particularly that we need 
to focus attention on those schools, on those types of organizations and 
there are many of them, that are doing in some phase of this program an 
effective and a stimulating, and an active job, and particularly we want 
constantly to be asking the question: what is this activity for? And: Are 
we achieving that? Are we developing self-reliance, the ability to make 
decisions as independent members of a democracy, living in a democracy 
to develop creative ability on the part of youth? 

The best answers to this are to be given by the youth themselves who 
are after all the ones who provide the real dynamics of the activity pro- 
gram, and who are the real evaluators of that program. 

So I think it is fortunate for the program here this afternoon that it 
does include as its major phase, the discussion of activities by pupils them- 
selves. 

We have long known of the Cleveland high schools as representing 


outstanding development in the publications, in the student participation 








March 


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Its 





1939} ProceeDINGs OF TWENTy-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 25 


in school control, and in other phases of the activity program. Those of us 
who heard their musical organization Saturday night were certainly 
thrilled by the performance they presented there. I have a feeling you are 
going to be equally thrilled in hearing them discuss this topic to which I 


have provided just the curtain raiser. [ Applause ] 
DISCUSSION 


Cuairman WELLwoop: We have just listened to an appraisal by an 
appraiser; we are now to listen to an appraisal by a group of participants. 

It is not my job to present these young people to you, but to present 
the leader. Personally I am hoping to get just a little bit of personal satis- 
faction out of it. Sixteen or seventeen years ago I enrolled in a course in 
Extra-Curriculum Activities in Teachers College in Columbia. The second 
day the class met, the teacher in charge of the class called upon me to 
stand up and introduce all the people who sat in the same row with me, 
and tell where they had come from. My face was considerably red. I am 
hoping to-day that Dr. Fretwell will have to take his paper out and look 
at it when he is introducing this group of young people to you. [Laughter ] 

Dr. Ecnert K. Frerwevt (Professor of Education, Teachers College, 
Columbia University, New York City): 

Ladies and gentlemen, since we believe in the plan of participation of 
these pupils, I shall get around Mr. Wellwood. Instead of doing the work 
for my classes, I insist that they do their own work; therefore each indi- 
vidual is going to introduce himself or herself. [Laughter and applause] 

We had not planned on such a large audience, although we had ex- 
pected one almost as goodlooking; as a result we had not paid any atten- 
tion to this public address system, for which we have just three outlets. 
Just how we shall manage these we do not know. This affair is not entirely 
new to this dozen young people that we have here, but before we go any 
further I will ask each of you to introduce yourselves, give your name, and 
the school from which you come. 

Edgar Becker, representing the Student Council of John Marshall 
Senior High School. 

Mildred Guilfoyle, representing the Student Council of John Hay 
High School. 

Joe Boydos, representing John Adams High School. 

Roy Unger, from Cleveland Heights High School. 

Russol Myers, representing Patrick Henry Junior High School. 
Evelyn Lawry, Garfield Heights High School, Junior and Senior. 
Richard Little, of Empire Junior High School. 

Ray Dottore, Audobon Junior High School. 

Lois Hainley, West High School, Junior and Senior. 

















26 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


Tim Gunn, Lakewood High School. 
Nina Panariisi, representing Collinwood High School, both Junior 
and Senior High School. 

Ray Willson, of East Technical High School. 


Dr. Fretwe tt: For fifteen years here in Cleveland they have had the 
Student Leaders’ Conference. This Conference has been carried on by the 
lady to whom we are greatly indebted for bringing to us this afternoon, 
some members of this Conference—Miss Ethel Parmenter of East Tech- 
nical High School—stand up and take your bow, Miss Parmenter—she has 
done all the work. [ Applause ] 

Now we will do our best with the limited facilities of the public ad- 
dress system. Naturally, we cannot talk back and forth quite as much as 
we would if we could panelize with a relatively small group. 


To give you the back-stage side of this: I had the privilege of meeting 
with most of these young people yesterday afternoon. We did not at any 
time rehearse anything we are going to say. I do not know what they are 
going to say. You don’t know what they are going to say. But this we 
know, we emphasized the fact that we'd tell the truth as we saw it, fearing 
God but little, and man not at all, and that we would be courteous about 
it, but saying the kind of things they have to say. 

May I, in their behalf, say one other thing? 

Dr. Johnston of course could generalize from a wide experience. You 
know, you really have to become a college professor of education, to gen- 
eralize widely from a minimum of material. [Laughter] We will begin 
with home rooms, then progress to student councils, clubs, et cetera, et 
cetera, in that fashion adjourning by four o’clock. We hope, if we can, 
at the end of the time to give opportunity for questions from the floor 
which the pupils will have the privilege, if they care to, of answering, and 
saying what they think about. 


We are not going to have set speeches at all. I am going to ask ‘ques- 
tions and we will take them up here and there, and get at the matter of 
the answering of those particular questions. You came here of your own 
accord. [Laughter] You recognize the conditions under which we work; 
the size of the hall, and all who have conducted or been members of panel 
discussions have a lively appreciation of this particular problem. We would 
like to work without the public address system; we know that we cannot 
make you hear, therefore with only three of these little microphones we 
are going to go at it in this particular fashion. 

Now we shall present a good deal of concrete material, undoubtedly, 


but (how do we do it in this school, how do we do it in that,) to the end 
that we may generalize a bit and say what we think of it in the end. 











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1939] ProcEEDINGs oF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 27 


I learned to call cattle in a neighboring state, and I can usually make 
them hear if they are long-horned enough. [Laughter] 


We shall begin with home room. 
I shall talk without the “mike,” so that they may have them freer to 


use; if I seem to holler don’t think I am just doing it to enjoy myself—I 
am, but don’t think that. [Laughter] 

We have twelve schools here, not just East Technical High School, - 
but twelve of them. 

Which ones of you come from Junior High Schools? 

. . . three raised their hands. .. . 

All boys as it happens in that case. 

How many of you come from six-year schools? 

. . . four raised their hands. . . . 

How many come from three-year schools? 

. . . four raised their hands. . . 

How many of you come from schools that have home rooms? 

. . all raised their hands. . . . 

One hundred per cent. Isn’t it lucky we are meeting in Cleveland and 
in this general neighborhood? 

I am going to begin with Ray Dottore; he is from a Junior High 
School. Tell us, Raymond, a little about the Junior High Schools—what 
time of day you have your meeting, how long you have it; what goes on 
in a home-room period—take two or three minutes if you want to. 


RaymMonp Dortore: Our home room meeting starts at nine-forty-five 
and ends at ten-fifteen. Between that time we have a broadcast from our 
principal, and he tells us of lost books and all such things. [Laughter and 
applause ] 

We are organized upon a homogeneous basis; we have a strong com- 
petitive spirit; we have attendance, and inter-room games, and ticket sales, 
contributing to community fund, and subscribing to our school paper. 


Dr. Fretwewi: Well, let’s take the other Junior High Schools—this 
fellow was sick yesterday, he is just out to-day for the first time. Tell us a 
little about yours. 

Ricuarp Litrte: Our home room starts at eight-ten and lasts until 
ten minutes to nine in the morning, and during this time on Monday the 
bulletin and any other special notices are read, announcing club meetings 
and student council meetings. During home-room periods the rest of the 
week, home-room programs are held, and there is a special bulletin that 

comes out at the beginning of the term, which tells the different home 
rooms what programs they are supposed to have. 








DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


In the bulletin there are also other notices for dances. We also sell 
tickets for dances, and that is about all. 

Russo. Myers: Our home-room program starts at nine-thirty usually 
lasting fifteen minutes exceping on Friday, we then have a_ half-hour 
period. Every day of the week except Friday we just read bulletins put 
out by the office and take the attendance; on Friday we have our choice 
of anything that we might like to do. 

Most home rooms in my school—Patrick Henry—have home-room 
organizations, that is, they have a president, a vice president, a secretary, 
and a treasurer. The president usually appoints a committee to take care 
of entertainment on Friday. What they usually do is to get talent from the 
school; a boy might play a harmonica, a saxophone, and they are pretty 
well in use every Friday because the various rooms bid for them. 

There are no orders sent out by the office as to how the time must be 
used in the home room, but the usual procedure is as I have outlined every 
day in the week. 

Dr. Fretwev: Suppose we hear a little about home rooms in senior 
high schools. 


Nina Panarust: In this period the chief function is guidance. This 


guidance consists of social, moral, educational, and vocational, and each 


guidance is carried out when the occasion arises. 


Our home-room organization consists of a student councilor, a stu- 
dent council alternate, a business manager, and a secretary. They all have 
their various duties, some of which are councilor—our student councilor 
is president of the home room; he attends the student council meetings and 
takes charge of the class in the absence of the home-room teacher. The stu- 
dent council alternate takes over the various duties of the councilor if he 
happens to be absent. 

The business manager is in charge of all tickets. Since we have a 
rather good athletic program at our school, we have many athletic contest 
ticket sales, and we have a special person to take care of these tickets. 

Then our secretary has charge of attendance, and various other duties 
throughout the home room, which the other officers do not take care of. 

We have special programs that we have during the home-room period; 
we have a social room at our school and sometimes we go there to spend 
a home-room period. Our home-room period is passed in various ways but 
it is routine usually. 

Dr. Fretwett: Now I think it would meet with your approval if 
these people would tell us—and they have no idea I am going to propose 
the next question—whether they think these schools that they come from, 


ought to have home-room periods or not. 





1939] ProceEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 29 


The question probably is biased because of the fact that they are in 
home-room periods of one kind or another and they can say in connection 
with that (if they care to) how they think they could be improved. 

Let me ask a few of them whether they think we ought to have— 
because | am going to challenge everything we have this afternoon— 
whether they think we ought to have home-room periods or not. 


Epcar Becker: I think we should have home rooms, definitely. I 
think the student participation in home rooms should be greater than is 
allowed in some schools. I feel in some schools the teacher regulations 
are too strict. Such students as the president, the vice president, and other 
officers of the home room should be given a freer hand, and the teacher 
should act as a guide rather than a pedagogue on a pedestal who looks 
down to see that you do the right thing during that period. | Applause | 

I find students will be more free in their opinions of how they think 
a school should be run. They won’t want to take a teacher's job, of course, 
but they like to give their opinions as to how the program should be ar- 
ranged so they can have time for extra-curriculum activities, and how they 
would like their study halls arranged in such manner that they could par- 
ticipate in those activities. 

Mitprep Guitroyte: I particularly like the home-room organization, 
especially the way we have it in our school. 

We have our home rooms organized on a permanent basis; we enter 
in 10-B and remain until 12-A and in this way we have a chance to become 
acquainted with the home-room teacher, and there is a real guidance by 
the teacher and our home-room advisors. I feel that particularly in John 
Hay our home-room organization is set up quite well and I do approve 
of it. 

Joe Boypos: I also voice the same opinion as Edgar, that the teachers 
sometimes are a bit too strict. Naturally I see some smiles in the crowd. 
Sometimes the teacher does this unwillfully, perhaps he means well some- 
times [laughter] however, I suppose we are the younger blood and we 
like something fast and furious. 

The home rooms at our school are split up on the general basis of 
male and female, and we get together in the home rooms and we generally 
talk over the problems of the world in our home rooms, and we have a 
chance to know everybody, and in this way we increase attendance, by 
the fact that sometimes we go out and challenge a girls’ home room to an 
attendance contest—that is for the month—the loser foots the bill for a 
party. 

On the other hand, as Edgar said, home rooms aren’t run by the presi- 
dents and vice presidents and officers in the home room, and they really 


should be given a freer hand. 








DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


Dr. Fretwevi: We will take one more. 


Roy Uncer: I believe they are an absolute necessity. We are handi- 
capped by a too short home-room period. We have public address an- 
nouncements too and even some of the teachers complain at not having 
enough time. As one teacher put it, when we have a long home room the 
good ones get better and the poor ones get worse. 

I believe Miss Parmenter had the answer to that question when she 
said that if home-room teachers were trained to take home rooms and paid 
for it as a separate class, home rooms could really be improved. 

I feel that if they were on that basis a great deal could be gotten out of 
them. I feel even though we have short home-room periods at our school 
and cannot do a great deal, we get a good deal out of them. 

. . . (a request from the floor was made to ask questions). . . 


Dr. Fretwevt: In the matter of questions, if you are willing to let 
me drive straight through and then we can take all comers—one for in- 
stance wants to know what kind of sponsors these people like. Well, I am 
not turning that question loose just yet. 


If you are willing in that fashion, let me be arbitrary in this because 
you know after you take the bit in your teeth I don’t know whether I will 


ever get it back or not. But we want the questions from the floor later. 


I understand that all of us come from schools that have student coun- 
cils. I want particularly to hear about how they are organized, first briefly, 
and then what do the student councils do. 

Russol, I am going to ask you to talk about this: how is your student 
council organized; is your home-room representative chosen by the prin- 
cipal as one so-called student council I know of is, or how is that done? 


Russo. Myers: Our representatives are chosen by the home-room 
group, that is one of the functions of the home-room group organizations, 
they choose representatives for the student council and the safety council. 


The representatives of the student council are sixty-two in number. 
We have provision in our Constitution which allows councilors-at-large 
to become members of the student council, so with that we have about 
seventy in all, in our student council. 

The representatives of the different home rooms give their name and 
home-room numbers as they arise; in that way we can take attendance. 
Our student council accomplishes many things, one of them we are very 
proud of was accomplished Tuesday of last week. We had a portrait of 
Patrick Henry presented to our school. We have been working for that 
for the past four years and we are very proud to have finally obtained it. 


Some terms the representatives in the student council choose the presi- 





1939] ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTy-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 31 


dent, the vice president, and other members of the executive committee 
by themselves, and some terms we let the entire school participate in the 
election. But what we usually do, so far as electing nominees for the differ- 
ent offices is concerned, is to let the representatives of the council do that 
and then put the vote to the school as to who will be president. 

I think one thing very few schools have tried, and which our school 
has tried and found very interesting is the fact that we send representatives 
of our student council to the elementary schools and we find that we get 
a large response from this and it is very satisfactory. What we do is to get 
six A’s interested in the work we do at Patrick Henry, and some 7B’s 
and 7-A’s and 8-B’s, and interested in the student council and help our 
school along, and that is what we want, people who will work and help 
our school. 


Dr. Fretwett: Mr. Becker—the same question. 


Epcar Becker: Our council representatives are elected in the home 
room; we have a representative and an alternate. The student council con- 
sists of a president, a vice president, a secretary and a treasurer, and they 
are elected at the end of every semester. There are certain qualifications 
which they must measure up to: an average of 85 for the entire year’s 
high-school work is required in order that a person may become a candi- 
date. Election booths are set up at the end of each semester, where a per- 
son must register before he may vote. At this vote it requires a majority 
to elect a candidate to office. In the student council there are various com- 
mittees, Welfare Committee, Civic Improvement Committee, Standards 
Committee, Social Committee. The Social Committee regulates or takes 
care of all school dances. In the council there are various projects which 
we attempt every semester. Some, in the past, have sponsored the Honor 
Society, organizing student government, study halls, a student government 
lunch room—the latter is our newest practical project which was accom- 
plished this semester. In this student-governed lunch room the students 
select tables at the beginning of the semester, each chooses a host or a host- 
ess and they remain the entire semester and we find luncheon has im- 
proved greatly. 

All business which goes from the student council must of course be 
passed by the principal of the high school, and as yet we have not found 
any way of overriding the principal’s veto. [Laughter] 


Other requirements for officers are the president of the student council 
shall be a member of the senior 12-B or 12-A class; the treasurer shall be 
a member of the llth or 12th grade, and the secretary shall have had 
typing and shorthand, so that she can take care of the minutes at every 
meeting. They are distributed to the home room where they are read the 
last five minutes of the home-room period on Tuesday. 











DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


Tim Gunn: At Lakewood we pride ourselves on what we call one 
of the most democratic student council bodies in the city of Cleveland. 
Our student council body is based on the home-room plan, that is, each 
home room has one representative. These representatives meet together 
and four weeks before our final exam week they nominate people for the 
various offices, a president, a secretary, and a treasurer. We have no re- 
strictions upon these nominations. Of course the students that are nomi- 
nated must be members of the student council. On the following week 
we also open the nominations up again, and if there are any further nomi- 
nations we accept them, and close the nominations that week. On the fol- 
lowing week the students are given a chance to draw up their parties and 
present their platforms. 

At Lakewood we are very liberal in our campaign. I don’t know if 


any of you who come from Cleveland saw any of the several articles in 
the Cleveland newspapers about the way our campaign is run at Lake- 
wood. I have here one of our posters which probably if it had been sug- 
gested it be put up in some high schools they would have thrown the stu- 
dent out. I am going to show you one to give you an idea about our cam- 


paign at Lakewood. 
. unrolled printed poster which read as follows. . . 


FOR STUDENT COUNCIL ELECT 
TIM GUNN, President 
JEAN BISHOP, Secretary 
CHAUK PRESSLER, Treasurer 
PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL PARTY 


Dr. Fretwett: You will understand, this is Tim Gunn holding the 
sign up. [Laughter] 


Tim Gunn: I am proud to say that the Progressive Liberal Party was 
victorious; the other party was the Student Progressive Party. 

You are probably wondering why we divide up into parties. We fig- 
ure that if the students get together in parties they can draw up a better 
platform, because they are going to work together. Also we allot a certain 
amount for expenditures, each student is only allowed to spend fifty cents. 
Accordingly, if you get into a party you have that much more to spend for 
advertising. You are probably wondering about a sign like this—it costs 
quite a bit to have one made. We are always ready to accept donations, 
and that was a donation. 

You may also be interested to know that we are given a chance to 
have our brass bands and our speakers in the halls and things like that. 

During the campaign this year we had several speakers hooked up 
throughout the halls. During these programs we give a chance to some of 








| March 


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1939] ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 33 


the outstanding students of the school to speak for the various parties. 

Now that we have taken care of the election, we have our president 
elected; each home room is allowed as many votes as there are people in 
the home room. If a student is absent he loses his chance to vote. There 
are ballots passed around in the home rooms, each student votes for one 
for president, for one for secretary, and for one for treasurer. The student 
receiving the highest number of votes of course is the president; the stu- 
dent receiving the highest number of votes for secretary is recording sec- 
retary, and the girl receiving the second highest number of votes for secre- 
tary is the corresponding secretary; the student receiving the highest num- 
ber of votes for treasurer is treasurer. 

The student council at Lakewood, I believe, has done a great deal. 
The idea about the election is of such a democratic nature, it was brought 
about by a student council president about six years ago. 

We are very proud of our Principal at Lakewood. He lets us do a very 
great deal. He has a lot of faith in the students and we are certainly proud 
of him. 

Last semester one of the things that came up in the campaign was 
about car parades at Lakewood. We realized that many of the school stu- 
dents would like to see some of the out-of-town games. The student coun- 
cil got the idea of holding car parades. The faculty backing was not so 
strong for our first one, but we received permission to go ahead. The day 
of the game came. The game was in Elyria, forty miles from Lakewood, 
quite a distance to expect students to go. They practically floored me. We 
had about seven hundred students go to Elyria to the game. That was the 
largest attendance at an out-of-town game in the history of Lakewood, and 
we have had some good teams there. 

Another thing we have done at the student council at Lakewood is to 
install honor study halls. That was something that came up in the cam- 
paign this semester. In these study halls there is no attendance taken, no 
regular seats are assigned. Students are put in on the basis of whether they 
are a member of the honor society or on the honor or merit roll the past 
semester, a member of the student council for the eleventh or twelfth 
grade, or recommended by the home-room teacher. 

I could go on here for hours and hours talking about what our stu- 
dent council has done, but I am sure you would like to hear from some of 
the other student councils so I will give up. [Applause] 


Dr. Fretwett: To be honest, I believe Tim likes his student coun- 
cil idea. 

We will take one more on that. 

Nina Panarttst: While we are on the idea of student council, I would 
like to say that my school conducts its elections in a different way. We 








34 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


have our elections in the student council only and not the entire school 


participating in it. 

I would like to say that our student council, like Tim’s is composed 
of representatives from home rooms, that is, one representative from each 
home room. In the student council we have members representing various 
systems throughout our school. We have commander of the hall guards, 
commander of the cafeteria guard, and commander of the news movie 
guards. Just recently we have a social room established in our school and 


we have a commander for that. 

We also have chairmen of the various other committees like our stu- 
dent control, study halls, lost and found, ticket committee, library guards, 
safety committee, athletic committee, and assembly committee. These vari- 
ous chairmen all have their duties. Each week, if they have anything to 
report on or if they have any special news that they want to get across to 
the students throughout the school they say it in the council meeting and 
the representative tells the students on the next Monday. 

We have both a senior and a junior student council at our school but 
we have different meetings for each. The junior student council holds its 
meeting on Tuesday, the Senior on Friday. 

Although these meetings are held separately, our executive meetings 
are held together. There is a faculty advisor for each student council, that 
is, both senior and junior. 

In previous years we had all the committee heads I named on our 
executive committee, but starting last year we thought that it would be 
better to reduce our number of executives and in that way get more com- 
pact ideas. You know if you get too many hands in the soup, as the old 
saying goes, you don’t get much good out of it, [laughter] so we ¢hought 
if we had less people we would get better ideas and we would get more 
accomplished. 

Dr. Fretwet: Well, that is a grown-up idea. 


Nina Panarust: We sponsor various projects in our school, one of 
the main ones is assemblies. It is rather hard, getting a good assembly pro- 
gram. The students want something up-to-date; they like speakers but they 
do not seem to care very much for them if you get too many of them, so 
we have quite a problem in our school in getting assemblies that the stu- 
dents really enjoy; each semester we ask the students to hand in sugges- 
tions so that the assembly chairman may get some ideas of what the stu- 
dents really want. She succeeds pretty well. This semester I am in charge 
of that job and I can realize what a chairman has to go through to get an 
assembly program that the students really enjoy. 

The noon movie guards are in charge of noon movies. At our school 
we have noon movies during lunch period. I would like to admit that they 








March 


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1939] ProceEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 35 


do a very good job of it. Our faculty sponsor really deserves credit, and 
the boys deserve credit for the fine work they do. 


Russo. Myers: I would like to ask a question: do you have activities 
tickets for your noon movies and other activities, or do you pay for the 
noon movies, two cents or a nickel or whatever your charge is as you go 


along? 


Nina Panarusi: We do not have activities tickets at Collinwood; but 


we are now trying to get them. 


Dr. Fretwett: We will take up this whole matter of activities tickets 
before we get through. 

I have heard, Miss Guilfoyle, that at John Hay you have a real citizen- 
ship campaign; I heard about it from your Principal, Mr. Moore, years ago. 
I would like to check up on this W. L. Moore, who is an old student of 
mine, and I would like to hear about this citizenship stuff over there. 


Mivprep Guitroyte: Our citizenship program in John Hay has 
grown up from our own needs and conditions. It isn’t anything we have 
followed alorg the line of anything any other schools have done in train- 
ing their students to be good citizens. 


As soon as the students enter John Hay as 10-B’s one of the first 
things we like them to learn is that it is not only pleasant but desirable to 
contribute something to your school in the way of service, and we also feel 
that this invokes the civic spirit in them, that will live on after they are 
through school. 

The first step in doing this is getting them acquainted with something 
that means service, that is our student council. It is the student council 
members that train our new students, teach them the rules and regulations 
and get them acquainted with the student leaders in the school. 


For six weeks the students have various programs. The other day we 
had a Professor Quiz Contest, all of the questions in the Quiz were based 
on the school rules and regulations, the leaders, and various things they 
should know about the school. They have lesson sheets from which they 
study, and by the sixth week of school they are tested on all this informa- 
tion. This is called our Citizenship Test. All of the students who pass the 
citizenship test are permitted to participate in the extra-curriculum activi- 
ties and really be considered a part of our school. We have our citizenship 
day program. At this time we recognize our service workers and accept 
the new students. This ties up the idea that a good citizen and being of 
service to your school just go hand-in-hand. 


We have a very simple but impressive program. The new students 
take the pledge of loyalty, which is administered by our student city man- 











[March 


36 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


ager, at the same time they receive their certificate of citizenship which is 
signed by our Director of Service and our student manager. That day we 
also acknowledge our service workers by giving them these emblems. Each 
year we have a different type of emblem. This [displays emblem] is what 
we will have for our citizens in John Hay. The students like to wear some- 
thing to show they are part of the school. Most of the information that 
students get for the test comes from our student handbook, in addition 
to the lesson sheets that are prepared by the directors of service of the stu- 
dent council, and usually every student passes the test, but it is not so 
much passing the test by itself, but it is really the spirit that we get by 
attempting to put over this citizenship program, and the students really 
do feel that when they know their school they really want to be a part of it, 
and in that way we have worked up our service organization so that the 
students feel no matter how little they do they are doing something. At 
present we have between fifteen hundred and sixteen hundrd students 


working actively in service for the school. 


Dr. Frerwett: When I ask all these people if they were you (imag- 
ining they were principals), and ladies and gentlemen of the panel, most 
of these people are principals, as you see by their grave and reverend looks 
—I am going to ask all of you folks here, if you were principals of high 


schools would you have a council? If so, why, and if you would not have 


a council, why not? 

Epcar Becker: If I were principal of a high school, I would be glad 
to have a council because it takes some of the work and responsibility 
away from a principal that he has to compete with, such as keeping the 
students out of mischief, such as giving them service to do. 


Dr. Fretwevi: My guess is that he is all wrong; I think if you have 
a council you have more trouble and more work than if you make all the 
decisions yourself. I don’t believe you will get out of responsibility 
that way. 

Mitprep GuitFoyte: | think that a student council would be valuable 
for students, if it only did one thing, that is give them a sense of responsi- 
bility, which all real students get when they are graduating from school 
after student council service. 

Joe Boypos: I agree with Edgar again, that a student council is neces- 
sary to the school to promote some of the school projects, such as tickets, 
and the citizenship activities, honor study halls, et cetera, which the prin- 
cipal might not be able to do all by himself, therefore I think the student 
council is absolutely necessary. 


Roy Uncer: Certainly a student council is necessary, as was pointed 
out by Mildred, it develops a feeling of responsibility in the students in the 








March 


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1939] ProceEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 37 


activities they do. I can truthfully say many things in our school were 
started by students who had original and new ideas, and worked them out 
on their own initiative. The student council in our school does a great deal 
of good; I am sure it is the same in every school. 


Russot Myers: I think student councils are fine because a principal 
would certainly appreciate getting the views of the pupils whose job is to 
direct. The students have funny ideas for some things, but they have fine 
ideas on others. I think as a principal he would get a lot of good ideas that 
would be profitable. 

Evetyn Lawry: I too believe that student council is very necessary 
to school work, besides attempting to solve civic and social problems of the 
school and giving the student body a sense of responsibility it also reflects 
the student opinion to the principal. 

Ricuarp Lirtre: I think student council is very necessary because it 
represents the ideas of the student body which the principal might not see 
without the council. 

Ray Dorrore: I believe the student council is very necessary; we do a 
lot of business in our office, and so we relieve the principal of a lot of du- 
ties. [Laughter] 

Lots Haintey: If I were a principal first of all I would have a council 
definitely, and second of all I would recognize the need to have a son or a 
daughter, because through that son or daughter I would feel that my rea- 
soning would be better, I would go home, and say, “Son, what do you 
think?” because he has young ideas, and young ideas are necessary to a 

principal. [Laughter and applause] 


Tim Gunn: Talking about young ideas, I might say that at Lakewood 
we have something different. During one of our home-room programs— 


Dr. Fretwext (Interrupting): Don’t make a speech, Tim; what do 
you think about student council? 


Tim Gunn: I was not going to make a speech, I was going to bring 
out something in connection with young ideas. 

I believe student council is a great aid: It does prepare ‘you for life. 
We all have to go into life, and vote, and take care of our civic problems, 
and our student council is a great aid to us in that preparation. 


Nina Panarusi: I agree with all the other students that the student 
council is a necessity in a school, if you can have it. It not only develops 
esponsibility, as Mildred said, but it develops a feeling of confidence, poise 
and a feeling of coéperation which you would not get in any other way. 








DeparTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


Ray Witson: As Mr. Johnston said, the school is composed of both 
the faculty and the students; there must be a codperation between these 
two important groups, and that codperation is achieved mainly by the stu- 
dent council. A council is a necessary part of every school. 


Dr. Fretweti: Now we are leaving that particular topic and we have 
used up thirty-four minutes, if I count correctly. We will use about twelve 
or fifteen more, then we will throw the meeting open to you, and we will 
talk until about three minutes of four, and I will use three minutes to 


sum up, so you know the road from here on. 


Ray comes from East Technical High School. We won’t talk so much 
about publications, not that they are not so important, but we have got to 
economize time, so you do a little better job, Ray, than if anybody else 
was going to get in; cover your subject in about two or three minutes. 


tay Wittson: Well in most high schools the object of the school 
paper is to acquaint the students, the faculty, and their parents, with the 
news of the school. The school publication is the voice of the school, it is 
the official organ. 

At East Tech. we have a plan which is unique in the city at least, of 
instead of having subscription campaigns for every student, we have each 


home room subscribe as units. 


In this way every pupil in the school gets our school newspaper. This 
is accomplished by having home rooms with an enrollment of say twenty- 
eight or thirty-two pay a certain rate every week; home rooms with a 
higher enrollment will pay a proportionally larger amount. The school 
attempts a coverage of clubs, home rooms, honor societies, the office, and 
other organizations throughout the school to keep the students acquainted 
with what is going on. 


Our student paper has about thirty-five hundred persons subscribing 
to it. This includes all our students, the faculty and some alumni, and most 
of the students take their paper home to their parents, and I think that 
this is perhaps one of the most important things which can be accom- 
plished in any school—to have the parents learn what is going on. 


The school is a factor in the community to better it. If the parents are 
interested in the school through the school newspaper, they can learn of 
what is going on, and in that way help to better any community. 


Besides school newspapers there are various other publications. Al- 
most every school has a handbook, usually published by the student coun- 
cil. This handbook, at least ours is, is distributed to the meetings, it tells 
of our clubs, of our council work, newspaper work, school courses. It con- 
tains a brief review of the school history and other things of a like nature. 
























1939] ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTy-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 39 


Besides that, there may be a literary publication of some type pub- 
lished throughout the school year. This may consist of prize winning sto- 
ries in English classes; in our school we have no junior annual, but I know 
of several high schools represented here that have. Of course the main an- 
nual is the senior edition. 

Our annual is published in both February and June; it costs one dollar 
for every graduating senior; there are about five hundred members of the 
junior graduating class and at the present time we are working on, we 
have started work on, our annual. This is the thirtieth year that East Tech. 
has done work in technical training, and the annual staff has decided to 
dedicate the junior book to the ideals of technical education. 


Dr. Fretwett: Will you bring out the idea as to whether you have 
journalism classes or not, which in any way prepare for these publications 
or are they solely made up of interested teachers and pupils outside of 


curriculum? 


Ray Wixtson: Our school newspaper is composed of about thirty to 
thirty-five members, student members, and five faculty advisors. We have 
two for the editorial staff, one for the business staff, and two for the print- 
ing end of it. 

Our paper is published in our school. All pupils who wish to get on 
the staff are required to take a semester of theory training. They get no 
actual work for the student newspaper until their second semester when 
they become cub members. Students are allowed five points a semester for 
this, a maximum of four semesters credit. 

On the other publications there are no requirements in the prepara- 
tion. We have tried to pass around the posts, as Mr. Johnston has said, by 
not having the editor of the school paper become the editor of the annual, 
as is true in many schools I know of, and so we make the editor of the 
student paper ineligible for major positions on the annual staff. 


The annual is usually composed of interested persons, in that type of 
work. The student council handbook is usually put out by a committee of 
the president of the council, the editor of the Scarab, and various other 
board members with the help of our student council advisor in that. 


Dr. Fretwett: Thank you, Ray. I am particularly interested in that 
myself because of the fact that Cleveland and this part of the country has 
long been known for its achievements in getting the newspaper work 
rooted in the curriculum. It is one of the things done in earlier days here, 
and we are still comparing people like Miss Margaret Sullivan, and Claire 
Ewald, with Edith Penny, pioneers in this field of developing school news- 
“papers that were rooted in the curricular work of the school, and still had 
the extra-curriculum flavor too. I remember when Miss Claire Ewald and 











40 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


Margaret Sullivan got jobs on the Plain Dealer at twenty dollars a week, 
and learned a slice of life that these ladies would otherwise doubtless not 
have learned at all. 


Roy Uncer: May I interrupt a moment? I would like to add that at 
our school we have a novel feature. Latin may be a dead language, but at 
our school we have a Latin newspaper published four times a year by stu- 
dents chosen out of the advanced Latin classes, a four-page edition with 
four columns in it. They get a lot of fun out of printing, publishing it and 
the students of Latin in their classes have a lot of fun in translating it. 
They have certain articles in Latin, some in English, and there are a lot of 
jokes and crossword puzzles, et cetera, and it has proved very interesting 
at our school. 


Dr. Fretwe tt: I heard a definition of an optimist—a man who works 
his crossword puzzles in ink. [Laughter] 

How many of you people here come from schools that have school 
newspapers? 

. all raised hands... . 

Just look! 

How many of your schools have handbooks? 

. . . two or three hands raised... . 

Thank you very much; now we want to travel along. 

You know this party would not be complete, for Harry Church at 
least, if we did not get an idea of whether we have any Honor Societies 
represented in Cleveland—is that right, Mr. Church? I wouldn’t disap- 
point an ambitious young man like Harry Church. 


Mr. Cuvurcn: Thank you, thank you, thank you. 


Dr. Fretwett: You may delete that from the record. [Laughter] 


How many of you senior high-school people come from schools that 
have chapters of the National Honor Societies? 
. seven raised hands. . . . 
How many have some other type of honor society, any of you? 


+ wR 2.06 
Lois, will you take the “mike” and tell us a bit about honor societies 
as you see it, regardless of what anybody else says? 


Lots Haintey: Well at West High School the Honor Society was or- 
ganized in 1930. It was about 1970th on the list. This was all new and in- 
teresting to me, to find out, because until a week ago I did not know some 
of these vital statistics. Naturally the requirements carry good leadership, 
scholarship, and service, and are the same as almost anywhere you find a 
National Honor Society chapter. 





1939} ProcEEDINGs oF T'WENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 41 


The constitution complies with the national constitution but there is 
a difference in method of election. This was news to me, too. I really had 
not thought about it much. Our method of election at West High School 
comes in about three stages. We have first a questionnaire circulated to all 
people who are anywhere near eligible for the Honor Society; secondly, 
after these questionnaires have been turned in, I might say the question- 
naires cover every phase of the student’s life possible; there is a place for 
home-room offices, and all clubs that we belong to, all musical organiza- 
tions you belong to, dramatic organizations, your average thus far in 
school--everything about you. 

Second in this method of election is the general faculty meeting which 
is held; students are then suggested whom the faculty believe worthy to be 
members of the National Honor Society; then as a third and final step, 
when these students have been looked over, and according to their ques- 
tionnaires it has been decided whether or not they are eligible, there is a 
final decision made by an Honor Society committee. I don’t know, but I 
imagine this committee is made up of different faculty members each year; 
I cannot say for sure, and the upper third—or it has been customary that 
the upper third—of the class is eligible; five per cent of the 11-A’s, five 
per cent of the 12-A’s, and five per cent of the 12-B’s fifteen per cent in all, 
eligible to come into the society. This is a maximum, but not a minimum, 


for many times they do not take in the full number because perhaps they 
do not feel the others are worthy of this honor. 


I was rather shocked when I heard that the Honor Society members 
were taken in first by questionnaires, then by general faculty meeting, 
then finally by an Honor Society committee not made up of any students 
of the National Honor Society but of faculty. Many students in the school 
are inclined to believe that many worthy Honor Society students are elimi- 
nated. We have to expect that because it is a limited society, but many feel 
that the Honor Society member of to-day is the stuffed shirt of to-morrow, 
because he is a teacher’s pet. That is not the case at all. There have been 
Honor Society members undoubtedly who have gone so far ahead in schol- 
arship that they have left service way behind somewhere, where they 
kicked it aside because they were so interested in their studies. This is no 
reflection particularly on the student, he is merely very scholarly and in- 
terested in what he is doing, but as I see it, I feel that in any school the 
National Honor Society membership should be elective, with suggestions 
by faculty members; yes, they are in position to know the student defi- 
nitely, but the Honor Society members should have something to say about 
this; the Honor Society student member of to-day is not the stuffed shirt 
of to-morrow; we have a lot of live, human people in our Honor Societies 
to-day, but they can be a lot more alive and a lot more human if faculty 
members recognize the great need that we have to look through the stu- 











42 DeparTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


dent’s viewpoint, and as Dr. Johnston said, have faith in him, because that 
is what we need—faith—so that you know that we may have an idea that 
just by chance may be worth something. 

Now, there is one more thing I wanted to say: we have never expelled 
anyone at West High, but three unexcused absences should automatically 
expel one from the club, and of course failure to live up to the ideals of 
the club. I don’t think that has ever happened. 

About two months ago, I believe, I attended a city-wide meet where 
there was a representative from each school, of their National Honor 
Society; it was agreed at that meeting to have two meetings per semester, 
one a social and one a business meeting. We agreed to hold the place of 
meeting alphabetically. I remember we went to Collinwood. 

So far as: what does National Honor Society at West High do for 
West High? Well in any case where they need good dependable people, 
people they know they can count on, for instance, in guiding, ushering, 
or helping out as at this convention which is here in town this week (I 
know of Honor Society members who are helping out down here); we also 
tutor. We have not gone far with the tutoring this year, but as the occasion 
arises we will tutor students who are having trouble, in our free periods. 
We have eight honor study halls. We generally put two Honor Society 
members in these honor study halls and I imagine we have approximately 
two hundred and forty students enrolled in them. I might say that last 
year the honor study halls were not successful. I am saying this because 
you can improve them. This year our honor studies are much better than 
they were last year. Students somehow recognize their responsibility and 
find it just as easy to be quiet as to shoot paper airplanes around the room 
and make a lot of noise, and believe me they do it in honor studies at times. 
This year we have had such a vast improvement that that kind of thing 
doesn’t exist any more. 

Dr. Frerwett: What seems to be the trouble? Why were they bad a 


year ago compared to now? 


Lois Haintey: That is something I can hardly answer. I was so sur- 
prised this year when I enrolled in honor studies and found them so differ- 
ent from last year. I can’t answer it. I think they are used to it. You put 
something new into a school and maybe the first year it is unsuccessful 
but suddenly they become accustomed to it and for no reason they take it 
for granted and settle down. 

Dr. Frerwett: Would you advise the principals if they try out some- 
thing and get a little discouraged, to keep on hoping? 


Lots Hainrey: Definitely. I think we can say that more at West High 
than they can in a lot of places. We have tried a lot of new ideas in the 








March 


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1939 | ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 43 


past three years and I started in at West High when the student council 
started at West High. We are a very young student council; we have ac- 
complished a lot. I would say: don’t give up, say you will always im- 
prove; there is always room for improvement, and there will be improve- 


ment. [Applause] 


Dr. Fretwett: Thank you. 


One other main topic I want to take up. We have not covered in 
this at all the relations of the school and the community. 


A lot of these people are sending me notes saying that we are skipping 
some of these things. I want to take up one particular idea, and ask Miss 
Lawry to talk about that, to bring out the relation of these student ac- 
tivities to the community. I want her to bear down on that. 


Evetyn Lawry: Through the work of the children in school, the 
people in the community will be more interested and they will help the 
school out a lot. 

I know in Garfield, the community helps by subscribing to the news- 
paper and also by placing ads in the paper, which add to our financial 
part of the paper. 

But possibly the greatest codperation that we have ever had was 
during the last two months of the campaign of last year, August and 
September. It was during those two months that we passed the bond 
issue. In the August primary voting we put up the bond, which had 
to receive a sixty-five per cent majority; however on the first vote it only 
received a fifty-eight per cent, and of course we were greatly discouraged 
when we came back to school, we had three weeks to work on the bond 
issue to make it pass. This bond issue would give us larger school, an 
auditorium from which we could graduate, and we would not have to go 
to another school, it would give us more rooms, and we would have 
better study periods, and also we would have longer study periods. On 
this bond issue we went out and we really made the people vote for it. 
At the first voting we were more or less a handful of people, however, 
during the second vote we had seventy-five per cent of the people of Gar- 
field Heights out to vote. In other words we had not just a handful of 
people who were for it, we had seventy-five per cent of the whole com- 
munity. We had this bond issue passed by an almost eighty per cent 
vote. Due to this we can have our larger school which is to begin next year. 


We had girls go out and where voters could not leave their smail 
children, they would stay in the home and take care of the children. 
[Applause] We also had cars go out and pick up people who would not 
-vote because they had too far to walk. We had one of our faculty ad- 
visors in charge of this, and he arranged it so that these people would be 








[ March 


44 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


picked up, taken to the polls and taken back and in that way they voted— 
whether they voted yes or no. 

It was also during that day that we had girls and boys stationed out- 
side of the booths, who handed out literature concerning the bond issue. 
Many people thought if it was passed they would have more taxes to pay 
and didn’t want to vote for it for that reason, but we told them that this 
wasn’t so. We had many parades, and we had it all worked out, and 
we could prove that the taxes would not increase, but that they would 
more or less decrease. [Laughter] 

We also had parades, as I said, and we would take some of the 
popular songs, for instance, “Stop Beating "Round the Mulberry Bush,” 
which we parodied to, “Stop Beating ‘Round the Bond Issue.” 

We had different items of publicity, and the people thought: we 
may as well vote for it, and get it over with, and give them their larger 
school. [Applause and laughter] 

As a result it was passed by an eighty per cent majority and ou 
school enlargement is now in process and you will see next year that orir 
work was well repaid. [Applause] 


Dr. Fretwett: By my watch it is now three minutes to four; would 


you like to ask questions? If you would, would you like to stay here if I 
will promise to let you out at four-fifteen? We are willing to dismiss you 
whenever you want; we don’t want anybody walking out. How many 
would like to devote fifteen minutes to questions from the floor and dis- 


miss at four-fifteen? 
. . . from a show of hands the large majority desired to remain. . . 


We haven’t covered as many things as we would like to do, as you 
can readily see. 

If you want to stay fifteen minutes more we will be glad to have you 
stay, if you want to go, we will be glad to have you go now rather than 
during the fifteen minutes. It is a perfectly honorable procedure to go 
now, if you want to. I always like to finish things with real distinction, 
and we believe in freedom. 

A few seats down in the front have been vacated, if those of you in 
the back want to come down please come down. I happen to be a 
Southern Baptist and we usually extend the right hand of fellowship to 
those who come down in front but we will pass that up for to-day. 
| Laughter | 

I think we will work it out faster if you will write your questions 
on a piece of paper. Dr. Williams, will you go down and collect the 
questions? 

Now while you are doing that we will go on. 








[ March 
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1939] ProcEEDINGs of TWENTyY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 45 


I have a million questions I want to ask, myself. 

One of the first questions which was asked is: 

What is the main quality that you like in a sponsor of any activity, 
home-room or club or council, or whatever it is? Not all the qualities— 
you need not describe the perfect person, but one or two things you 
particularly like. Is that a fair question? 


QUESTION FROM THE AuDIENCE: What do you mean by sponsor? 


Dr. Fretwett: I mean the adult person, the teacher who acts as 
sponsor. 

Ray Dorrore: If your sponsor has faith in you, that I think is the 
main thing. 

Lois Haney: I think one of the things that a student likes in a 
sponsor, not particularly a liberal one, not that at all, but a definite inter- 
est and a broad-minded attitude that is able to see our viewpoint. 


Tim Gunn: We always like to have a good spirit of codperation 
and if we think a plan can work, we like to have the faculty sponsor 
behind us, and not leery of the whole program. 

Nina Panarust: We like to have one who takes a natural interest 
in the students and in the projects which they are sponsoring. I think 
that is one of the most important factors in being a sponsor for anything. 

Ray Wixtson: I think the students of to-day want not a faculty 
sponsor but more a faculty advisor who advises the students as to what 
they can do. Some sponsors may take a leading part in council affairs 
and they should, but I believe that in the council or in any other organi- 
zation for that matter, the main pushing of any idea should be by the 
students and that the faculty sponsor should advise them with his or her 
wealth of wisdom gained in the time they have been teaching. 

Evetyn Lawry: Besides having an advisor who is codperative and 
who really takes an interest in it, I also think the advisor should also make 
suggestions that she thinks will be worth while to the school but which 
have not been made by the students themselves. 

Russoc Myers: I feel that most advisors are usually pleased to see 
that the meetings go along all right, so I think that most advisors, in 
fact all advisors should be able to understand and appreciate the troubles 
that students might run up against. 

Dr. Fretwevt: You get the tune of the thing—if you don’t mind we 
will go on. Here is the next question: 

- Would you suggest that the sponsors stay away from meetings, acting 
as advisors from a distance? 











DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


Epcar Becker: I would like to say that I don’t see how a person 
can act as an advisor if he doesn’t know what is going on in the meetings? 
He would have to be present at the meetings in order to act in an ad- 


visory capacity. 

Tim Guwwn: I believe that when the student council advisor is not 
there students feel more free to get up and say what they feel, but if they 
figure the assistant principal or somebody is going to check up on them, 


they are not as free. 


Mivprep Guitroyte: I disagree. I think especially in a large school 
where you have a large student council it is sometimes the only oppor- 
tunity the advisor has to speak to the entire council as a body, and they 
should be at the meetings and should work right with the council at all 


times. 

Lois Haincey: What Tim just said, that the students would feel 
more free to get up and speak if the advisor were not present suggests 
the answer and that is: don’t be that kind of an advisor, be the kind of an 
advisor with whom the students could feel free to say what they want 


to say. [Applause] 
Dr. Fretwett: This particular question is yours, Tim, I think: 
How are activities planned? 


Tim Gunn: Well at Lakewood we try to back our activities through 
an activities pass. This project originated in the student council; it came 
in five years ago. I know there are a lot of schools that would like to 
have activities passes. You must keep one thing in mind: get the stu- 
dents behind them, not just the teachers. 

At Lakewood they tried something before, and it had failed; then 
the student council decided to back this plan and it immediately went over. 

We started with the football pass, which just included a ticket that 
sold for one dollar, to eight games. This proved so successful that the 
following year we went ahead and decided to have a regular activities 
pass, and on this activities pass we gave seven football games; seven 
basketball games, seven baseball games, four tennis meets, four track 
meets, four swimming meets, and four wrestling meets—thirty-seven 
events in all, which if you had paid separately would have totaled seven 
dollars and fifty cents, but if the student bought a pass cost him two 
dollars. If a student is a good business man, he knows that is quite a 
saving--five dollars and fifty cents—you can buy a lot of sodas, with that. 


Joe Boypos: At John Adams we have a more simple activities thing, 
it is composed of only three football games, the journal, and the movie 
pass. The movie pass is two cents a day at our school, and there are ninety 








March 


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1939 | ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 47 


days to the semester which is a dollar and eighty cents, and our Journal, 
that is twenty cents per semester—that is two dollars. 


However, we have found out that we could not go into a detailed 
activities ticket because of the insecurity of the sales, so we started out by 
simply having a football pass, graduating upward. At the present time 
we do not believe in enlarging our football pass or any other part of our 
activities ticket because we have done fairly well. Last year we sold in 
the neighborhood of two hundred activities tickets at a dollar and a half, 
and this has gone into a general fund and has supported all our athletic 
activities. 

At the inter-school forum in discussing activities tickets, Miss Par- 
menter, our advisor has commented on the fact that we should not start 
out with a detailed activities ticket because there is liable to be a failure 
due to insufficient backing. 

A lot of other schools have very detailed activities tickets, such as Tim 
has at Lakewood. This fellow from South also has quite a detailed ac- 
tivities ticket. However they must start with the minimum activities 
ticket if they wish success, and the student council must get behind 
everything in an effort to drive and succeed for the various activities 


through the activities ticket. 


Dr. Fretwett: One more on that. 
Miss Guilfoyle, Mr. Moore at your school told me one time if I 
remember correctly they sold activities tickets that had many activities. 


Mivprep GuitFoyLe: That was before my time at John Hay, but it 
was said that you cannot have a lot of activities on an activities ticket, and 
have it succeed. I disagree. We brought our activities in two semesters 
ago, I think we could call it absolutely successful; over one whole school 
year it would be three dollars if you paid it on time payments, it was 
two dollars and fifty cents for a cash payment and in that ticket we include 
football, basketball, wrestling, the Ledger, the paper . . . , our Humors, 
a book made up by the English classes of essays, poetry, short stories, the 
Art work, done in our art classes, the Jamboree, which is a grand show 
we have during the Spring semester, a concert, and a Varsity-Faculty 
basketball game, which we all like so well. We take that in on our ac- 
tivities ticket; it has been quite successful and we have all the activities 
on it, and we have found that it is much better than trying to have sepa- 
rate athletics passes as at Lakewood—it just seems to be athletic activities 
there, but we take in everything on ours, and if they wish to buy it for 
one semester it is one dollar and a half. 


Dr. Fretwett: Here is another question to the panel: 
Would you like for someone to use the power of the veto such as the 








48 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


principal or the superintendent? What do you think of the veto idea on 
the part of the principal or the sperintendent? 


Epcar Becker: For one thing, sometimes legislation is passed which 
the student may deem absolutely necessary and for some reason or other it 
may have succeeded in other schools, but the principal may feel it would 
not be successful in our school. I feel in some cases the student should 
be given a point to prove, the point before the principal or advisor vetoes 
this. We cannot do anything if we have not a chance to show our metal. 


Russo. Myers: In the lunch room at our school there is a very 
crowded condition; also we find that quite a few of the students would 
enjoy having the privilege of ... We brought this up in the student 
council and executive meetings and talked to the principal and he vetoed 
it. He did not even give us a chance to prove that we might make a go 
of it, because of the fact that six years ago or so they had something there 
of the same type and they did not make a go of it. I told the principal 
that we would appreciate it if we could try it; he seems to think we could 
not make a go of it. I wish for that fact, that they didn’t have such 
a great power of veto so we could try it. 


Dr. Fretwett: Here is a question: 

Does the student council meet on school time? 

Evetyn Lawry: We meet at two-thirty every other Tuesday. 

Dr. Frerwetv: Is that the end of the school day? 

Evetyn Lawry: No, Dr. Fretwell, it is not; it is regular school time. 


Jor Boypos: Our student council is elected by the home room; we 
guaranteed nine periods off for student council meetings every other Tues- 
day of the month. 


Mitprep Guitroyte: We have it the same way. We have our tenth 
hour regular class period—every council member has tenth hour free. 


Epcar Becker: Our student council meetings rotate from one period 
to the next. 


Dr. Fretwett: How do you get in the honor study hall? 


Lots Hatntey: The system used in our school—I noticed one of the 
other schools is a little different—the home-room teacher announces in the 
home room, there will be for such-and-such a period room such-and-such 
for honor study hall; if you would like to sign up for that—and students 
who wish to sign up for the honor study hall with the approval of the 
home-room teacher are placed in there. 





1939} ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 49 


Dr. Fretwett: I hope all of you have read the articles by Ethel 
Parmenter on the Honor Study Hall; if you have not—it is assigned. 


How large are your home rooms in senior high school? 


Ray Wittson: Our home rooms consist of about thirty-five members; 
we have about a hundred home rooms, and thirty-five hundred pupils in 
our school. 


Nina Panarust: At Collinwood we have about forty to forty-seven 
in a home room, that is about the average. 


Tim Gunn: Our home rooms consist of about forty and in the 12-A 
year all the seniors are thrown together and we have home rooms of two 


hundred and fifty. 


Lots Hatntey: We have about an average of forty members in a 
home room at West High. 


Dr. Fretwett: Here is a question—I am reading them just as they 
come: 

Ask these young people whether or not they feel the Honor Societies 
are truly democratic organizations and worthy of inclusion among our 
high-school organizations. 

Does anybody want that? 


Ray Wiitson: Most of them, emphatically, the National Honor Soci- 
ety should be a vital part of your school work; at our school we have two 
Honor Societies, one the National Honor Society where students are elected 
or selected by the faculty committees, and our other honorary society the 
members are chosen by the students themselves, and we find that about 
ninety-nine times out of a hundred the same boys get into both honor 
societies, although the students are generally more strict than the teachers 
are in judging. 


Roy Uncer: I believe the Honor Society is a good thing, when the 
school makes it a good thing. I think our school has made Honor Society 
a good thing. At Heights the teachers are the only ones who select candi- 
dates; they go through this process very thoroughly and carefully, and try 
to get the student they really feel deserves membership in the society. The 
society isn’t a dormant and stagnant one, and a person just gets in, but it 
is a live wire organization active at all times. The members in the Honor 
Society at Heights perform services for teachers in the form of tutoring 
and as secretaries. We are required to have fifteen periods of service every 
semester if a person doesn’t get these fifteen periods he is not kicked out 
of the organization, he is asked as a matter of honor to get them, and we 
find that all of the members of the Society live up to this requirement. 








DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


This year we have tried something new, that has proved successful, 
that is an anti-cheating campaign; that is a pretty ticklish subject, but in 
past years there has been a lot of criticism, members of the Society have 
inclined to cheating, we have drawn up a code of what we call cheating 
and not cheating; we have discussed it thoroughly in the Society, and by 
these discussions all the members of the Society have raised their indi- 
vidual standards and we are pretty clean and dry at the present. 


Dr. Fretwett: A very funny thing has happened here. You sec 
that question came in: are they democratic organizations? You may have 
noticed that our young people are not interested in playing with words in 
the abstract, or with abstract ideas; they very definitely got at what was 
the thing. They are not scared about this word democratic, whether it is 
or isn’t, that is left for the calamity howlers mainly; these people are 
working. [Applause] 

Is there any limit as to participation? 

That means are they limited in the number of activities one student 
can go into? 


May we hear these young people discuss this? 


Evetyn Lawry: If a student participates in more than two extra- 
curriculum activities he does not keep up well in his work, we have found. 
By participating in two extra-curriculum activities or clubs he can do 
more and better work in those two than if he participated in five and did 
not devote enough time to cach. 


Lois Haintey: We have considered recently limiting extra-curriculum 
activities. I can frankly say from my own experience that when you try 
to do too much you do not do any of it well and it is hard on your health, 
your mental and physical activities both. I have tried it. I wouldn't 
give up my four years for anything, but I have been so busy that leisure 
is a word I hardly know the meaning of. 


Dr. Fretwett: We have a wonderful notion that youth has leisure. 

Here is this question: 

How many schools represented have courses in Journalism? 

. all of them raised their hands but one. . . 

You will notice the junior highs are up too. 

How many of you publish an annual? 

. .. five hands went up... 

Thank you. 

There was one time when all schools had annuals, they went over into 
getting out a special edition of the newspaper; it seems to have slipped a 
little since then, but it seems to be about fifty-fifty on that question. 








essful, 
but ia 
’ have 
eating 
nd by 


indi- 


ue see 
have 
ds in 
was 
it is 
are 


dent 


tra- 
nd, 

do 
did 


















1939 | ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTyY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 51 






A MEMBER FROM THE FLOOR: I would like to have the answer of 
these young folks to a suggestion Dr. Johnston made. He thought maybe 
only certain folks should be allowed to take action in extra-curriculum 


activities. 


Dr. Fretwett: The question is whether there should be qualification 
in respect to grades in order to be able to participate in extra-curricular 
activities? 


Nina Panarust: I think there should be some limitation as to what 
your grades are supposed to be. After all, as the girl from West High 
said, if you have too many activities that take up your time you don’t do 
anything well. Well, if you have too many activities that take up your 
time how can you give any attention toward your subjects? You have to 
have a pretty good average to keep up the extra work. 


Lois Harney: I want to say one thing in answer to that: I meant 
that belonging to too many extra-curriculum activities rather than this 
grade limitation—I say this: that many students go through high school 
lost because they have one thing they are interested in and do not know 
what it is. Through an extra-curriculum activity this student might find 
something where his energy can be devoted, and because of that will be 
a finer person. We should not limit people in extra-curriculum activities 
with grades of eighty-five or above. I do not approve of that at all. Some 
people have gone through high school whose averages have been seventy 
and above who have been our leaders of to-day, right now in Cleveland, 
or in New York City or in all the big cities. 

I say eight-five or below is all right; some people don’t get the grades 
but they have a certain energy and ability that they can devote to one 
particular thing. 


Mivprep Guitroyte: I think particularly we are in school for an 
education and after all if we cannot get the best of our education, things 
that are offered to us, we cannot do the very best for our school, and 
although everyone becomes a student leader does not have to be an honor 
student at the same time he should attain a fairly good average because 
average intelligence is needed to handle the sort of jobs that the student 
leaders are taking on in high school to-day. 


Dr. Fretwett: I don’t know whether we are going to cover all the 
questions or not. I shall take one more: 

Do you prefer planned home-room programs other than entertainment 
for the longer home-room period? Do you like home-room programs 
planned or what do you want? 


-  Ricuarp Litre: Well in Empire at the beginning of the semester 
there is a bulletin that comes out and it gives the programs that we are 

















52 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


supposed to have the different weeks and every other week we are sup- 
posed to have a program, it says what it is to be during this time and the 
home-room committee that has been appointed goes and gets reference 
material and looks it up and then on a certain day gives the program, 
and we find that this is very successful in Empire, because it takes up most 
of the interesting things, and also it brings out entertainment once in a 
while. 

Russo. Myers: I think planned programs are good but sometimes 
your plans go wrong in school, so you cannot have it too definite. We 
usually find our programs go over very big and that is what counts in 
the home-room period. 


Epcar Becker: I should say that a planned program in advance 
would be the best thing, such as teaching pupils how to study, would be 
a main home-room project during the semester which would be beneficial 


both for the student and for the teacher. 


Dr. Fretwett: To live up to our end of the agreement, in respect to 
time I will make it very brief on the summary. 

There are one or two things briefly that I want to say. First, as I 
see it from the young people’s point of view, and the adults’ point of view, 
we are trying through this means as through other means of the school 
to provide an opportunity for educative experiences on the part of these 
people who are learning. I think it has come out in this afternoon’s 
session that guidance and supervision and teaching are just as necessary 
in learning these arts of citizenship as is teaching in algebra or in Latin 
or something else. 

Probably we recognize that teaching and guidance in these learning 
fields that the young people are talking about namely how to be respon- 
sible, how to assume responsibility, how to lead, how to get along with 
other people, that teaching in those fields, guidance in those fields is harder 
probably than any other kind of guidance, and teaching in the world. 


I call on all parents to back me up on that point, because that is what 
we are trying to do in the family home room. 


Again, it is perfectly plain to me as has come out from our discussion 
here that we are desirous of running well organized, well ordered, efficient 
schools. It seems to me that there are just two dominant ideas in the 
mind of folks like you adults and myself, and I think our young friends 
here: in this field in two things—one through the extra-curriculum ac- 
tivities, which is only a part of the school work in the direction of a well- 
ordered widely participated in society, that is in an efficient school; on the 
other hand to give people an opportunity to contribute to the school—all 
of them—to have not only to contribute, but to have the will to contri- 








[ March 


ire sup- 
and the 
ference 
ogram, 
P most 
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etimes 
We 
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53 


1939 | ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTy-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 


bute, and not only the will, but the developing of ability to contribute, 
and I think that is what this thing is all about. 

These people of increasingly good-will, share in making decisions up 
to the level of their ability or a little beyond, maybe, and it is in this 
field that we are so concerned, and I thank all of you in this group, Miss 
Parmenter, thank you very much, and I thank the principals behind you. 

If I were the Old Lady who Lived in the Shoe, if I had all you child- 
ren I wouldn’t have too many, I would just like a gang like you to live 
with [applause] and I think I might tell the ladies and gentlemen of the 
panel that to those at least of my age and experience—and this is my 
quarter century in attending these meetings—that this has been to me one 
of the most delightful and refreshing experiences that I have had in any 
of these meetings here, and I think, by the way, the ideas flew about as 
rapidly this afternoon as at any time in the meetings, especially in those 
meetings where I read a paper. 


Thank you all very much. 
. . the session adjourned at four-twenty p. m. o'clock. . . . 








THIRD GENERAL SESSION 


Tuesday, February 28, 2:30 P. M. 


The third session was called to order by K. J. Clark, Principal ot 
Murphy High School, Mobile, Alabama, and First Vice President of the 
Department of Secondary-School Principals, who introduced Principal 
F. L. Bacon of Township High School, Evanston, Illinois, the Chairman 
of the Planning Committee and he presented an abridgment of his report, 


printed below: 


THE PURPOSES AND POLICIES OF THE 
PLANNING COMMITTEE 


Francis L. Bacon 
Evanston Township High School, Evanston, Illinois 


A number of factors contributed to the origin of the Committee on 
Planning and the general attitude of uncertainty following the precipita- 
tion in 1929 of the period of economic distress no doubt had some influ- 
ence. However, there had been repeated suggestions over a fairly long 
period which pointed to the need of a central planning body. In 1936, these 
suggestions came to specific proposals and the Executive Committee estab- 
lished a Committee on Planning at the time of the St. Louis Convention, 
February, 1936. 

The first statement of purpose indicated the need for an overview an- 
alysis of the Department in relation to its status, program of work, and 
future development. Hitherto the growth in membership had been pos- 
sibly the outstanding accomplishment. The rise of the roll of members 
from the smallest of beginnings to a total constituting the largest depart- 
ment in the National Education Association had been uniformly steady 
over a period of some twenty years. This gradual growth it seems was 
due to the excellent ability and character of the leadership, as ably reflected 
in many effective ways by the Executive Secretary, the officers and the 
members of the Executive Committee, rather than by a well-defined long 
time view or according to a planned design worked out in advance. 

The department grew up, it would appear, and with maturity it be- 
came concerned with the problems incident to a worthy career. ‘The mere 
process of acquiring a membership was no longer sufficient. Questions to 
be considered; values to be determined; programs of work to be outlined; 
functional operations to be planned, arose as items of major concern and 
thus it was apparent that a special central agency was necessary. The Plan- 


ning Committee was the result. 
54 








cipal of 
t of the 
rincipal 
lairman 
report, 


Pe on 
ipita- 
influ- 
long 
these 
stab- 


tion, 


art- 





55 


1939 | Proceepincs of TWENTy-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 


It was understood, from the first, that the Committee .on Planning 
was created by the Executive Committee as a permanent agency to serve 
as a constant source of planning and long-term consideration of the best 
interests of the Department. In respect to the Executive Committee the 
new body was to act in an advisory and recommending capacity except as 
specific jurisdiction and instruction were indicated by the Executive Com- 
mittee. This initial policy has been carried out. A number of joint meet- 
ings of the Executive and Planning Committees testify to the successful 


coérdinative relationship. 

In the beginning by means of survey, correspondence, and delibera- 
tion the Committee was able to formulate a program including plans both 
for immediate and for future development. These plans and policies 
follow: 

1. The Interpretation and Extension of the Reports of the Committee 
on Orientation. The Committee on Orientation was in the process of com- 
pleting its significant reports at the time of the Planning Committee's ori- 
gin. These reports were far too important to permit mere distribution, per- 
haps cursory reading, and the filing away to be forgotten according to the 
customary routine. The initial work of the Committee was directed to an 
immediate plan to stimulate discussion, evaluation, and study of the Issues 
and Functions of Secondary Education as prepared by the Committee on 
Orientation. The design as worked out was to bring the problems, issues, 
functions and objectives of secondary education to the attention of both the 
educational and lay fields in the hope that educational service everywhere 
might be thereby improved. 

These reports constituted a new set of objectives for secondary educa- 
tion: accompanied by an explanatory background; a resolution of the 
issues; an indication of the problems with directional philosophies; the es- 
sential foundations for the development of a modern program of secondary 
education; a set of criteria for the evaluation of educational theory and 
practice. The Committee believed that here was a program which preemi- 
nently deserved thorough-going follow-up procedure and plans were formu- 
lated accordingly. For the first time a national report in secondary educa- 
tion received a definite and persistent follow-up and a designed machinery 
for extended study and interpretation. The effectiveness of this first plan 
of the committee has been amply exemplified in many ways. 

2. Finding the Most Significant Problems. A second major purpose 
was to ascertain the specific needs and the problems facing principals in 
the field and to relate these, in so far as practicable, with the general de- 
sign of orientation as set forth in the reports. This effect resulted in bring- 
ing into focus certain problems of immediate concern and also of such na- 
tGre as suggested further study and analysis. Study materials were pre- 
pared and distributed for a number of these problems. 











DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ March 


Thus was indicated, to the Committee, what seemed to be the begin- 
ning of the vastly important common attack of the secondary-school ad- 
ministrators upon the problems with which they are most concerned. These 
beginning experiences seemed sufficiently clear to justify the long-time 
planning of a nationally coérdinated scheme for the consideration and ex- 
perimentation of the most significant problems. It appeared that a suc- 
cessful program on this front should produce results sufficiently wide in 
scope and specific in character to give certainty to the factors involved and 
to the best practices indicated. 

It, therefore, became the policy of the Committee to favor the develop- 
ment of a program of codperative discussion and research with the hope 
that the central office might become a clearing house for the discovery of 
the most acute problems, the promotion of projects which promise helpful 
experimentation, and the distribution of best practices. 


3. The Development of Discussion Groups. An early policy of the 
Planning Committee has been to foster the growth of the small discussion 
group. Isolated examples and somewhat meager evidence of the potentiality 
within the discussion group method was apparent but it remained for suit- 
able recognition to vitalize the possibilities. In this the plans of the Com- 
mittee have been amazingly realized. A remarkable impetus has been given 


to the idea with a resulting nation-wide movement not only within the 
plans for the Department but in many manifestations in other organiza- 
tions both lay and educational. The recent programs of national conven- 
tions bear abundant witness to the growth ef the conception of discussion 
by groups. It was this Department which first announced the discussion 
plan on a wide scale and first presented it before a convention of the Na- 
tional Education Association. 


The plan of the Committee in making available a pamphlet on the 
technique of group discussion entitled “Talking It Through” has been of 
considerable service in suggesting ways and means for aiding the discus- 
sion-group movement. The October, 1938, No. 76 Buttetin of the De- 
partment is also especially allotted to Discussion Group reports on pur- 
poses, plans, techniques, references and accomplishments. Further plans 
of the Committee include the preparation of additional material with par- 
ticular design for combined use by educators and laymen. 


The main purpose lying within the plan for developing discussion 
groups is to promote a means whereby the secondary-school principal and 
other members of the Department may make known their problems, dis- 
cuss them, formulate them for further analysis and research, and send 
them to the national office. Here it is hoped materials will be prepared 
and distributed which will be of particular value for use by the discussion 
groups thus affording an opportunity for wide codperative research and 





March; 


egin- 
1 ad- 
These 
time 
1 ex- 
suc- 
e in 
and 


lop- 
ope 
of 


ful 








Py) 











ProcEEDINGs OF T'WENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 





1939| 


interpretation. It is apparent that much significance can result with find- 
ings, interpretations, solutions coming from such a broad and concerted 
attack. To better accomplish this end it has therefore become the plan to 
further the affiliation of local, regional, and state groups with the National 
organization. It is desirable that new groups within regions will be formed 
in order to develop the mutual helpfulness of concentration and that addi- 
tional groups will be created in new areas so that a larger number of prin- 
cipals and schools may profit by the codperative plan. 

4. The Washington Office. It early became apparent that a closer 
affiliation with the National Education Association would be desirable. 
The mutual advantages were obvious. Accordingly the opportunity was 
accepted for the establishment of an office for the Department of Secondary- 
School Principals in the building of the National Education Association in 
Washington, D. C. This development kas proved most successful in the 
carrying out of plans for the discussion-group project. Pleasant relations 
and much aid have come from the general or parental organization; and 
helpful contacts have come from other departments and with other educa- 
tional organizations centering in Washington. 

It would appear that future plans should include the further extension 
of Departmental activities from the Washington office looking toward a 
gradual, if not immediate, centralization of all of the work of the Depart- 
ment in the Washington office. Thus would increasingly significant rela- 
tions with the headquarters of many national departments and organiza- 
tions be made more conveniently and successfully operative. 


























5. Codrdinative Effort with Other National Organizations. In the 
preceding topic indication was given to a desirable trend for wider codrdi- 
native relationships. The Planning Committee believes that not only the 
past but the existing tendency toward isolated efforts, both within hori- 
zontal levels and perpendicular channels, in the various fields of educa- 
tional endeavor is open to serious question. 

The Committee is interested in creating a policy for the mutual con- 
sideration of common problems and of coérdinating attempts for their so- 
lution. It has already taken a number of steps toward a larger realization 
of such a policy. For example, a joint project has been outlined with the 
National Congress of Parent Teachers. An outline of the possibilities for 
joint procedure has been prepared and has received a favorable reaction 
from the executive body of that organization. It is hoped that this project 
will be carried forward so that principals in the field will have a common 
program to work out with their local parent-teacher organizations jointly 
sponsored by the two national organizations. 

Another example of the same intent was a suggestion made to the 
Educational Policies Commission of the American Association of School 





















58 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


Administrators that this Department would welcome an opportunity to be 
a part, even a small one, of what obviously would seem to be a significant 
chance for a wide and meaningful coérdination of the Departments of the 
National Education Association on common problems and projects. The 
tremendous achievement already made by this Department toward the rec- 
ognition and interpretation of the later announced objectives of the Su- 
perintendents’ Association would appear to emphasize desirable codpera- 
tion. With so much talk about democracy in administration, in fact, within 
all educational effort—and with such obvious need for suitable recognition 
and development it is clearly apparent that our departmental policy should 
be manifestly clear and that we should make every reasonable effort toward 
cooperative effort no matter the unfortunate attitudes encountered. 


Another example of our current effort is the happy relationship now 
going forward with the National Committee on Coérdination in Secondary 
Education. It is believed that the mutual advantages may be large. 


The Committee is taking a long-term view of coérdinative effort and 
promises the most careful consideration to such opportunities as may be 
offered to the Department or as may be created by the initiative of the 
Committee. 


6. Codrdinative Relations with State Secondary-School Associations. 
Prior to the work of the Planning Committee a plan of affiliated member- 
ship between state associations and the National Department had been 
worked out with considerable success. However, the plan ended with the 
advantage of a saving in the combined dues and the membership services 
accruing therefrom. With the development of the discussion-group project 
came a plan for a truly significant afhliation of the national and state or- 
ganizations. Certain advantages within a more direct and meaningful rela- 
tionship are obvious enough but the promise appears even greater than 
anticipated. 


A natural development of the Committee Policy for State Codrdinators 
has been the investiture of these officers with a portfolio from the State 
Associations. Another logical step has been the adoption of the discussion 
group idea as an integral part of the State Association work. Interestingly 
enough the local discussion groups and the regional codrdinators have be- 
come increasingly vital parts of the state programs. Thus the national and 
state plans have mutually stimulated and vitalized each other. Not the 
least advantage has been the creation of important positions and activities 
of participation within the several regions and within the states for men 
who deserve such opportunities for wider leadership and service. This, 
too, should provide a most significant realization of a greatly increased 
personnel for positions of national representation and leadership. 





1939} ProceEeDINcs oF TWENTy-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 59 


The Committee wishes to establish a policy devoutly helpful in all 
matters that will enrich the codrdinative efforts thus briefly described. It 
looks forward hopefully to a program of increasing interchange of state 
and national services. 


7. Improvement of Educational Practice. Early in the thinking of 
those who worked out the Orientation Reports and in the planning of the 
new committee appeared the necessity for the putting of the Issues and the 
Functions into operative practice. Undoubtedly this should be a logical 
last step. Implementation was finally agreed upon as the most representa- 
tive word. The Planning Committee, after due consideration, recommended 
the appointment of a Committee on Implementation. In the words of Dr. 
Will French, the chairman, implementation became “an outgrowth of the 
Department’s effort under the guidance of the Planning Committee, to 
give continuity and cohesiveness to its program. It was a logical next step 
in the Department’s program of seeking to improve American secondary 
education through the study of its purposes, problems, and programs.” 


This agency of implementation has now been under way for several 
months and has already outlined a most significant approach to the general 
problem of the practical interpretation of the best theory in terms of the 
actual improvement of practice in the field. To achieve the goal thus an- 
nounced is a major purpose of the Committee on Planning and it ardently 
hopes that all of its policies and plans will conspire to such end. 


The work of this Committee on Implementation may, in the judg- 
ment of the planning body, actually produce the most important accom- 
plishment in the history of the Department. It is the strong purpose of the 
Planning Committee to give this implementation effort all possible support 
and for this endeavor is sought the most favorable reaction and, indeed, 
the personal aid of all members of the Department. 


8. New Committees. In its early work consideration was given by 
the Committee to special phases of the Department’s program which might 
well receive the careful attention of specific committees. It was agreed that 
a desirable policy would be to create a wide opportunity for participation 
by the membership of the Department. Evidence has already been given 
elsewhere of this policy. 


In this particular connection, it was believed that the publications of 
the Department might well be improved. Accordingly a special Committee 
on Publications was recommended. The successful accomplishments of this 
effort has been witnessed in the extent and character of the Service Bulletin 
and in the launching of the new publication “Student Life.” Aid relative to 
publications was also given to the National Honor Society as it is a specific 
project of the Department. 








DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


Another special committee on Student Activities was created designed 
to study and report on policies for the guidance of the Department and 
its individual members relative to the major considerations in this rather 
confused field. The growth of a number of state and national student or- 
ganizations outside of the regular educational agencies; the problem of stu- 
dent convention attendance; the increasing significance of student partici- 
pation in administration; the relationship of our state and national sec- 
ondary-school principals’ organizations to these problems constitute a few 
of the major questions involved. 


The report of this Committee deserves much consideration and in the 
judgment of the planning body this committee should either be authorized 
to continue its work with increased instructions or a new follow-up com- 
mittee should be appointed. It is believed that in this area are problems 
which require long-term consideration and planning. 


It will also be the purpose to recommend other special committees 
from time to time for specific jobs which need to be done. Suggestions 
from the field relative to such work will be most welcome. 


9. Reorganization of the Machinery for Elected Personnel. The Com- 
mittee has submitted to the Executive Body proposals for improvement of 
the methods of selecting officers. Now that the Department membership 
has become truly national, the Departmental projects of great significance, 
and extensive participation by members rapidly developing it seems espe- 
cially desirable that our selection of the most able leaders should be reason- 
ably assured. The Committee also believes that the Department's policy 
should embrace the most democratic procedures consistent with the widest 
possible opportunities for representation, good faith, and suitable efficiency. 


It will be the purpose of the Planning Committee to offer other pro- 
posals from time to time designed to improve the operation of the constitu- 
tional machinery in the light of the program of work and the wishes of 
the membership. 


10. Financial Policy. The national program now going forward re- 
quires large financial support, if it is to be truly effective. The remarkable 
progress already made has been largely due to the beneficent subvention of 
the General Education Board. The Committee hopes that the unusual sig- 
nificance of the program now going forward and the even greater promise 
in the program as planned will bring additional financial aid from outside 
sources. However, there can be no guarantee to this desire and there are 
indications that the foundations are so changing their policies that further 
aid will be out of the question. 


It would appear entirely reasonable that the Department should be 
sufficiently interested in its own place among the great professional organi- 





March 


signed 
it and 
rather 
nt or- 
of stu- 
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1 sec- 
a few 


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com- 
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Yom- 
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ship 


1939] ProcEEDINGS OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING . 61 


zations of education and in the peculiar services which only a national plan 
may give to make reasonable efforts to provide necessary funds. The mem- 
bership dues are low in comparison with other national organizations 
which offer comparable services and the dues alone could never have sup- 
ported the program and services of recent years. The income other than 
dues, chiefly from the National Honor Society, and also from other special 
sources has not only been the means of developing the work of the Depart- 
ment but has permitted the building up of a significant reserve. 

The Committee believes that all these sources of income should be 
continued and developed under the direction of the Department; that a rea- 
sonable reserve should be maintained; that in view of the desirability of 
the more meaningful program of service now going forward and its en- 
larged cost, the membership dues should be classified according to the 
plan proposed to the Executive Committee. 


11. Future Planning. This Committee feels that a mere beginning 
has been made. A look ahead calls for persistently continued planning. In 
the foregoing only a few of the possibilities have been briefly indicated. 
It is hoped that this report will be suggestive of the important services which 
this new Committee may bring to the department. If the needed financial 
assistance can be secured to permit the Committee to continue its program, 
many additional projects could be planned for which there are definite 
needs and demands. In some form or other certain needs in secondary 
education are going to be met. If some organization such as the Depart- 
ment of Secondary-School Principals which can focus on the development 
of a program all the insight, imagination, and experience that the profes- 
sional background of many teachers and school administrators affords, does 
not assume positive leadership by meeting these needs with a real pro- 
gram, haphazard plans are certain to emerge and serious obstacles are sure 
to be placed in the way of the future development of secondary education. 











DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


The chairman then presented Dr. Will French, who introduced Tru- 
man G. Reed, Principal of Lewis and Clark High School, Spokane Wash- 
ington. Mr. Reed read Frances T. Spaulding’s programmed paper, Edu- 
cational Problems Causing Administrators Most Concern During the 
Past Two Years. All regretted that severe illness caused Professor Spauld- 
ing’s absence. 


EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS CAUSING ADMINISTRATORS 
MOST CONCERN DURING THE PAST TWO YEARS 


F, T. SpauLpinc 
Harvard University 


The first part of this report is a report of progress by the Department's 
Committee on Implementation. 

Under the chairmanship of Dr. Will French, of Teachers College, the 
Implementation Committee began active work shortly after the winter 
meeting of the Department at Atlantic City in 1938. At the time of its 
establishment the Committee had been assigned no clearly defined duties. 
Its general responsibility, as the Committee itself interpreted that responsi- 


bility at its first meeting, is to furnish all possible assistance to the mem- 
bers of the Department in putting into effect in their schools the program 
of secondary education which will most directly meet current educational 
needs. The Committee believes that it can be of greatest service, not by 
attempting to assist at the outset with a great variety of problems, but by 
dealing with one major educational function or issue at a time. 


To make sure that from the beginning it is offering as much real help 
as possible, the Committee plans to give first attention to the problems re- 
garded as most pressing by high-school principals in general. Reports from 
two of the Eastern states have offered a clue to what these problems are. 
In 1936 the New York State Regents’ Inquiry asked each high-school prin- 
cipal in New York State to define the two or three educational problems 
which had recently caused him most concern in the administration of his 
school. Replies were received from nearly two-thirds of the 985 New York 
State principals; the replies most often mentioned problems connected with 
the improvement and expansion of the program of studies, the problem of 
meeting the needs of pupils for whom the conventional academic program 
is inappropriate, standing out more prominently than any other. In 1938 
the seven hundred members of the discussion groups organized by the 
Department of Secondary-School Principals in Pennsylvania voted to con- 
centrate their attention on this same problem—the problem occasioned by 
the increasing numbers of high-school boys and girls who are not inter- 
ested in academic studies or not able to meet the usual academic standards. 








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1939 | ProcEEDINGS OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 63 


The Committee has wanted a wider expression of judgment, however, 
than that represented by reports from only two of the forty-eight states. 
Accordingly, it enlisted the aid of the co6rdinators in charge of discussion 
groups in the other forty-six states and the District of Columbia, in sending 
out last November a brief questionnaire similar to that used in the New 
York study. Members of the Department and certain other high-school 
principals were asked a single very general question: “What one or two 
problems in the conduct of your educational program have caused you 
most concern within the last year or two years?” One thousand nine hun- 
dred ninety principals, representing all the states to which the question- 
naire was sent, replied to this question. Their replies furnished the Com- 
mittee with 3863 separate statements of problems. Many of these state- 
ments had been formulated, according to reports from the principals, on 
the basis of faculty discussion in the local schools; so that the replies repre- 
sent a consensus of opinion among many more individuals than the 1990 
principals who responded. The replies have been analyzed for the Com- 
mittee by Mr. Robert Patrick, a graduate student in education at Teachers 
College. Mr. Patrick’s summary, which the Committee may be able later to 
publish in full, provides the major factual basis for this report. 


The replies have made it evident that the problem of meeting the 
needs of non-academic pupils is of paramount concern to high-school prin- 
cipals everywhere. More than half the principals who listed their chief 
problems for the Committee listed problems connected with revision of 
the curriculum; and of the replies which definitely indicated the types of 
pupils for whom the need for curriculum revision was acute, three out of 
every four specified dull pupils, or non-academic pupils, or non-college 
pupils. How widely and how keenly this problem is felt may perhaps be 
suggested by quotations from some of the statements which the Commit- 
tee has received. From California a principal writes: “What provision can 
be made by a high school (without increasing the school budget greatly) 
for students who must attend school until the age of sixteen, but who are 
mentally incapable of handling any high-school work, even in ‘retarded’ 
classes?” Three thousand miles away, in Connecticut, a junior high-school 
principal asks: “How shall we meet the needs of low mentality pupils who 
‘do not like school’ and for whom industry has no place?” An Ohio princi- 
pal states the problem somewhat differently: “The most difficult problem 
this school faces is to find suitable material for the over-age, low I. Q. pupil 
and get the community to accept it.” Again, from Maryland: “How can 
we provide for those who cannot or will not profit by the formal type of 
education but who aré under the compulsory school age?” And, from Mis- 
souri (appropriately enough), perhaps the most troubled plaint of all: 
“Who is the non-academic student and what can the small high school do 


for him?” 








DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


Because the problem of the non-academic pupil comes so clearly to the 
front in the majority of these statements, the Committee intends to deal 
immediately with this problem. Its plan is first to canvass educational lit- 
erature for promising suggestions as to methods of teaching, curriculum 
materials, and forms of school and class organization which will meet the 
needs of young people who properly belong in the secondary school but 
who are not likely to profit by the conventional curriculum. Having 
brought together what seem to be the best suggestions for adapting the 
school program to these young people, the Committee intends to summar- 
ize these suggestions in a special handbook which will be sent to members 
of the Department. Principals who receive this handbook will be asked to 
comment critically on the various plans which it describes, from the stand- 
point of the practicability of these plans and of their effectiveness in individ- 
ual schools which have tried them out. Principals will be asked also to de- 
scribe any plans with which they are familiar, which seem to them more 
promising than the plans outlined in the handbook. 


At the same time that the handbook is being prepared and circulated, 
the Committee hopes to develop a method of evaluating objectively the 
provisions which individual schools may be making for non-academic pu- 
pils. If a sound method of evaluation can be developed, the Committee 


intends to ask the codperation of members of the Department in actually 
testing the effectiveness of various programs. Through all these means the 
Committee hopes eventually to be able to recommend to the members of 
the Department certain plans which have stood the test both of critical 
appraisal by administrators and teachers, and of actual trial under a wide 
variety of circumstances. 

This is an ambitious program. Various factors—lack of funds, the 
difficulty of finding a method of appraising school programs objectively 
and convincingly, the human shortcomings of the members of the Com- 
mittee—may enter in to prevent its complete fulfillment. The program has 
been so devised, however, as to accord with what Professor Briggs calls 
the principle of “so far forth”: the principle that each succeeding part of 
a constructive program should be of value in itself, even though the pro- 


gram may not be completed in its entirety. 


The work that the Committee has already done would seem, in fact, 
to be of some value in itself, beyond the value it has had in suggesting to 
the Committee the problems with which to begin. Mr. Patrick's analysis 
of the whole range of problems suggested by members of the Department 
brings to light a number of significant trends in the thinking of high- 
school principals throughout the United States. It may be appropriate to 
summarize certain of these trends, because they point to matters which 
the Department of Secondary-School Principals, as a professional body, 








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1939] ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTyY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 65 





ought to recognize about itself. The rest of this report will therefore be 
devoted not to an elaboration of the plans of the Implementation Com- 
mittee but to brief comments on some of the replies which the Committee 
received to its request for statements of problems. For these comments the 
speaker, and not the Implementation Committee, is responsible. 

One of the most obvious conclusions to be drawn from the replies in 
general is that high-school principals are by no means of a single mind 
with respect to the problems most needing attack. The problems reported 
in response to the Committee’s questionnaire were classified according to 
the major areas which the problems themselves suggested, rather than ac- 
cording to a fixed and predetermined scheme of grouping. Fifty-five per 
cent of the principals listed problems in connection with the improvement 
of the curriculum, and thirty-six per cent of all the problems described 
fell under this head. But the remaining problems were scattered over four- 
teen major areas: the aims of the secondary school, the development of 
more effective methods of teaching, the provision of an effective extra- 
curriculum program, the maintenance of appropriate educational stand- 
ards, provisions for educational and vocational guidance, the extension of 
the school program to meet the needs of out-of-school groups, the super- 
vision of instruction, provision of an adequate teaching staff, the securing 
of adequate buildings, equipment, and supplies, local financial problems, 
the development of effective relations with the local community, school 
district organization, relationships with the state education department, 
and a host of problems concerned with various aspects of internal organi- 
zation and administration. 

It is not to be denied that problems in any one of these fields may be 
of paramount importance in individual schools. The principal who writes: 
“We have no questions at present that cannot be solved with additional 
financial aid,” may be unduly optimistic in certain respects, but the diffi- 
culties with which he is struggling can be easily imagined by any one who 
is trying to administer a secondary school in these days of pared budgets. 
Nor can one question the probable local importance of the problem which 
lies behind another principal’s laconic statement: “Lack of rooms,” or of 
that which leads a small-town principal to ask: “Just how closely shall I 
endeavor to supervise the social activities of the members of my teaching 
staff?” Probably just as important, in the school in which it arises, is the 
problem which occasions the question: “How much time should student 
activities take during the regular school day?” And few people will fail 
to sympathize with the principal who complains: “We have had a system 
of awarding a block letter with pearls at graduation, for all activities in- 
cluding scholarship, athletics, band, dramatics, attendance, etc. The thing 
grows greater year by year, and we are wondering how to stop its mo- 












































mentum.” 





DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


The chief significance of the great diversity in replies is that it leads 
one to suspect that high-school principals as a group may not yet be sufh- 
ciently like-minded to be ready for a concerted attack on problems of 
fundamental and universal importance. If the heads of our secondary 
schools are to exercise successfully the professional leadership which may 
fairly be expected of them, they ought not necessarily to see eye to eye, 
but they ought certainly to be looking in the same major directions, The 
Department is now trying to build up a degree of professional congruence 
among its members by promoting the widespread discussion of its reports 
on the issues of American secondary education and on the functions of 
the secondary school. There is ample ground, in the statements of prob- 
lems from the schools, to urge that the work of the discussion groups be 
continued and extended. 


A second conclusion to be drawn from the replies to the questionnaire 
is that many high-school principals are seriously exercised over the spread 
of “progressive” education. Their replies suggest various degrees of un- 
certainty and even of alarm: “How progressive is ‘progressive’ education?” 
“Is it possible to be progressive and still be looked on as conservative?” 
“Is progressive education sound or is it a passing fad?” “How ‘progressive’ 
should a school be that is primarily interested in developing a sound educa- 


tional program?” “Are we ready to throw out the idea of formal discipline 
in our schools until we are sure that the proposed substitutes (i. ¢., ‘pro- 
gressive education’) are better?” “How may we best combat the chaos re- 
sulting from the ‘soft’ ideals and methods now so prevalent?” “I believe in 
many of the principles advocated by the right wing leaders of progressive 
education. I think it is high time, however (that) the left wing radicals 
are brought into the open and made to declare their true backing.” 


Most of the statements about progressive education lack any definition 
of what the writers mean by the term. That secondary-school principals 
should be not altogether sure of what progressive education may imply for 
their schools is hardly surprising, in view of the history of the movement. 
Developing at first out of a concern for elementary-school practice, the 
movement for progressive education has only recently become prominent 
in secondary schools. Whatever the explanation of their present uncertainty 
about progressive education, however, and whether the movement may 
eventually be judged good or bad, high-school principals ought to be thor- 
oughly familiar with what it means and with the directions in which it is 
tending. The statements submitted to the Implementation Committee sug- 
gest the great desirability of some closer contact between the Progressive 
Education Association and the Department of Secondary-School Principals, 
in order that each group may better understand the other’s problems and 


policies. 





1939] PRocEEDINGS OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 67 


A third important conclusion is that though secondary-school princi- 
pals are often highly critical of the influence of the non-school agencies 
which are trying to meet the needs of out-of-school young people, the 
secondary schools themselves are at present giving little constructive atten- 
tion to these needs. The feeling appears to be widely prevalent that govern- 
ment efforts to provide for young people who are out of school and out 
of work are having a bad effect on the character of the young people con- 
cerned: “The WPA attitude seems to be permeating all of us.” “What can 
be done to combat the general idea that the school is a place to have a good 
time, and that when one graduates there is always a PWA or a WPA or a 
CCC in which one can find employment?” “What can we do with the 
increasing number of students who are thinking that it is the government’s 
duty to take care of them?” Yet secondary-school principals are for the 
most part continuing to limit their own attention to such educational 
problems as crop up within the school’s four walls. Of the nearly two 
thousand principals who replied to the Committee’s questionnaire, only 
thirty-eight reported that they were concerned with the extension of the 
secondary-school program to meet the needs of out-of-school groups not 
now adequately served; and among the problems listed under this head, 
three out of five dealt merely with high-school postgraduates. 


Three years ago, in its report on Issues in Secondary Education, the 
Department’s Committee on Orientation pointed out that few school offi- 
cers had taken any leading part in the effort to solve the problems with 
which various government agencies—the NYA and the CCC in particu- 
lar—were dealing. The Department has thus far failed to act on the Orien- 
tation Committee’s implied recommendation. So long as school people 
avoid any active concern with the problems of out-of-school young people— 
problems, it should be noted, which are in many respects essentially edu- 
cational—criticisms by school people of the solutions which others have 
proposed and are trying to put into effect have small right to be heard. 
The Department of Secondary-School Principals ought to have a keen in- 
terest in the solution of such problems. If it actually has such an interest, 
the time would seem to be more than ripe for an overt expression of that 
interest through the adoption of some plan by which the Department may 
coéperate positively and constructively in meeting the needs of out-of- 
school boys and girls. 

One final conclusion, somewhat happier than those already reported, 
stands out from the analysis of the secondary schools’ problems. The re- 
plies from the schools place unmistakable emphasis on the schools’ grow- 
ing awareness of the need to teach, act, administer, and indoctrinate for 
democracy. This awareness is variously expressed: “Democratic institutions 
are under fire. What methods (can best be) used to make the high school 
exemplify the democratic way of life?” “How can democracy be taught in 








68 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


school so that it will function in the lives of students?” “What can we do to 
make high-school boys and girls more intelligent about the problems of so- 
ciety, including the problems of city, state, nation, and world?” “How can 
we inspire in our youth to-day a respect for the democratic way of life, and 
make the student ‘evangelistic’ if you please in the cause of the preserva- 
tion and the perpetuation of the democratic way of life?” “Shall we use 
the schools to indoctrinate pupils with the principles of democracy, as the 
dictators (for other purposes) are using their schools?” 

Education for citizenship and character education together—and the 
schools often regard the two as inseparable—are mentioned as phases of 
the curriculum with which the schools are particularly concerned, nearly 
twice as often as any other part of the curriculum. The Department will 
certainly approve this emphasis. Moreover, as occasion permits, the De- 
partment will undoubtedly wish to take advantage of opportunities to co- 
dperate actively with other organizations which are giving systematic study 
to the problem of education for American citizenship. 

These various conclusions are by no means all that may properly be 
drawn from the statements of problems which the Implementation Com- 
mittee has received. Yet these particular conclusions seem sufficiently im- 
portant to deserve special mention. It is to be hoped that in its formulation 
of plans for the future the Department may give particular attention to 
the need for pressing on with the work of its regional discussion groups; 
to the desirability of a better understanding of the movement for progres- 
sive education; to the failure of any prominent group of secondary-school 
people thus far to adopt a constructive policy with respect to the needs of 
out-of-school young people; and to the fact that education for citizenship is, 
and deserves to be, a matter for serious concern in connection with the 
general improvement of the secondary-school curriculum. 

Meanwhile the Implementation Committee will undertake to devote 
its own best efforts to assisting in the solution of the problem which is 
most on the minds of a majority of the members of the Department: the 
problem of devising methods of teaching, curriculum materials, and plans 
of school organization to meet the special needs of “non-academic” boys 
and girls of high-school age. 


DISCUSSION 


Chairman Clark introduced Mr. Walter E. Myer, Director of the 
Discussion Group Project, of Washington, D.C., who acted as Chairman in 
the Demonstration and Discussion which followed. 


Mr. Walter E. Myer, Director of the Discussion Group Project, intro- 
duced Principal Frank P. Whitney, who conducted the Demonstration and 
Discussion of the topic The Guidance Function participated in by his 
faculty group from Collinwood High School, Cleveland: 





1939] ProceEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 69 


CHairMAN Myer: I think that most of you are familiar in a general 
way with what is being done in the discussion groups. 


It was the idea, at first, as Mr. Bacon has said, that the Issues and 
Functions would be brought before the principals of the country so that 
they would not merely gather dust on the shelves as so many reports do; 
and it seemed an appropriate thing that the administrators should be 
gathered into groups for the purpose of systematic and sustained discus- 
sion of these Issues and Functions as they have been outlined by a com- 
mittee of eminent educators. 


Machinery was set up, codrdinators were appointed in all the states 
and regional directors, and the principals for the most part were gathered 
into groups for the purpose of discussing these Issues and Functions. 


Then the idea developed of carrying it much farther than that, of 
having permanent machinery whereby the administrators and the teach- 
ers might discuss effectively whatever problem seemed to them at the 
time to be most important, because it was recognized that after a while 
we would be through wth an active discussion of these particular Issues 
and Functions, but it was hoped that the machinery would be permanent, 
so that the educators would be in a position quickly to respond to any 
problem they might have, and give it sustained and close attention. It is 


hoped that this machinery will be permanent, but it was carried farther 
than that. 


The idea developed of carrying it into the faculties themselves so 
that the teachers as well as the administrators might have a part in dis- 
cussing the theories and practices of education, and so, during the last 
two years, between a thousand and two thousand high schools have 
written in to the Washington office telling us that they are prepared to 
carry on professional discussion of this kind in their faculty meetings, 
or a part of their faculty meetings, and then the idea is going still farther, 
and that is that after the administrators and the teachers have practiced 
and learned the art of discussion—again quoting Mr. Bacon—for it is an 
art and a very difficult art—when they have learned that they will carry 
it down into their classrooms and teach the young people how to think 
collectively and by this process not only do something for education, but 
also take steps which will enable the young citizens to meet the difficult 
problems of democracy through the process of codperative thinking. 


But now, as I say, there are a thousand or two thousand faculties 
around over the land under the leadership of their principals, who are 
discussing important problems. Unquestionably one of the problems 1s 
that of guidancce, whatever it may be, and it is a somewhat confused 
matter, and a little vague. But many of the faculties are talking about 
guidance, and so we are going to have a faculty here, or a portion of a 








70 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


faculty of the Collinwood High School of Cleveland, under the direction 
of Mr. Frank P. Whitney, the Principal, carry on a discussion of The 
Guidance Function. 

Mr. Wuitney: This group consists of two or three assistant prin- 
cipals, two or three advisors and two or three or four department chair- 
men and some sponsors; I think someone from every department in the 
school, so that it is a cross section of the faculty of Collinwood High 
School—not particularly cross but a section of the faculty. [Laughter] 

No particular instructions have been given to them except that no 
one is to make a speech, that is going to be pretty difficult, I suppose— 
for me to stop anyone, but no one is to make a long speech, not more 
than two minutes, anyway, please. 

There are a good many questions. I don’t know what this thing is 
going to result in. I enter upon it with much fear and trepidation, and 
I may want to retire quickly at the close because of the reputation of 
the school. 

I thought perhaps we ought to have a little plan, maybe it is this: 
that we may present a little about the function of guidance as it works, 
perhaps distribution. Somebody has a good word now. Instead of selec- 
tive function the high school has a distributive function. 

I think we will start right in here throwing out a question— 

Mr. GranamM [Interrupting]: I do not care to interrupt your speech 
but you are not supposed to talk more than two minutes either as I 
understand it. 

I would like to begin at the beginning of this function. 

We have had life-career conferences at Collinwood. These children 
come to me and they say: We were never told at any time what your cur- 
riculum was in the senior high school; we have no knowledge of what 
to expect; no one has thrown open these doors and given us a peek into 
the future. 

It seems to me that ought to be done, Mr. Whitney, somewhere be- 
fore the senior high school. I would like to raise the question of what 
educational guidance is given these children let us say in the ninth grade. 

Mr. Wuitney: Mr. Graham caught me by surprise. I did not know 
he was ready with that. Is there any one here willing to take up the 
question? 

Mr. Shattuck is one of the advisors, he ought to know the answer. 

Mr. Suatruck: Yes, we accumulate all the evidence we can in the 
ninth grade, especially in the 9A. 

First of all we try to learn all that we can about the pupil’s ability 
as based on tests. We find his intelligence rating, based on the Cleveland 
classification test. We have his scholastic achievement rating as based on 
his 9B grades. We have the grade of his reading ability as based on the 





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1939] ProckEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 71 


Iowa reading test. Then we get all the information we can based on pupil 
experiences: What is his favorite subject? What is his vocational interest? 
What is his special interest? What is his special ability? 

Then we try to learn all that we can about his home environment: 
What are the economic and social conditions of the home and what are 
his educational aims? 

Most of this information is gathered by the home-room teacher from 
records and also from visits to the home and conferences with parents 
and with pupils. 

After that we feel that we can give the pupil a pretty good bit of ad- 
vice as to his senior high school. 

Question: Mr. Shattuck, what do you do when you find someone 
who makes a choice so obviously out of line with his capacities that some- 
thing ought to be done to prevent him from wasting a lot of time? 

Mr. Wuirtney: Suppose a boy wanted to be a lawyer, who wanted 
to take college preparatory mathematics, science, and foreign languages. 

Answer: Of course if the parents insist they may take the course they 
wish to take; however, most parents when you show them what the 
record and achievement has been and talk over the probability of the child 
as based upon records and achievements, you don’t have very much diff- 
culty in persuading them that the child should not take those more diff- 
cult courses. Yet there is nothing in the world to prevent a pupil from 
trying it. However, there may be a semester lost. 

Q. That is fine in the ninth grade, but does that carry over into the 
senior high school? I would like to know about their choices, if they make 
a selection to take a commercial course of study, Mrs. McInnerny? 

Mr. Wuirtney: Mr. Shattuck, will you explain what the elections 
are, what is the distribution, and what the courses? 

Mr. SHatruck: These people may choose academic, technical, com- 
mercial, or general courses. The academic is the college preparatory and 
cultural course. The boys and girls technical course involves majors in 
shop, home economics, art, or even music. The commercial course, to be 
explained later on, they make their choices in the tenth grade, as to what 
direction they are going into the commercial course. 

Then pupils who do not have ability, which tests have shown that 
they do not have, may choose a general course which may be academic, 
technical, commercial also, but which are taught on a different level. 

Mr. Wuitney: These are the non-academic people. 

Now Mr. Goodekunz asks the question: If they get into the com- 
mercial course do they stick? 

- Mrs. McInNerny: Surely, Mr. Goodekunz, you do not expect these 
can be the final choices for all pupils. Do you know that in our present 
10B the median is about one-hundredth, but to make a statement for 








DeparTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


some of these pupils that they are not capable of finding placement for work 
in the business world is neither acceptable nor convincing to some of them. 
So we believe that pupils should be given an opportunity to have a chance 
to try our skilled subjects which we offer, so all our tenth graders take 
typewriting. In addition the 10B’s have a unit in bookkeeping, and an- 
other in shorthand. This really is a sort of proving ground. Toward the 
end of the semester we are in position to have individual conferences with 
these pupils, and by this time we have considerable objective evidence; in 
addition to this the pupil has an experimental background he has not had 
formerly; he is now in position to say to himself: Now was that choice 
I made in the 9A the wisest one for me? Have my successful experiences 
been adequate to meet the requirements of the occupational field or am 
I still interested in this sort of work? Or maybe I might consider recheck- 
ing my original plans, making modifications or changes. 

We feel the plan we are operating now for the 10B’s affords us a 
method of helping pupils make selections of the future study and speciali- 
zation in harmony with their interests and capacities. 

Mr. Wuirtney: Do you feel that the tenth grade course is sort of a 
guidance course distributing pupils? 

Mrs. McINNeERNy: Yes. 

A Memser: That seems to lead back to what I said before. Some 
people go into the commercial work who are not fitted obviously so to 
begin with; doesn’t that mean that they have lost a year? 

Mr. Wuirney: That might go back to the 9A guidance. 

Mr. Suatruck: Yes, there may be a loss of a year if they insist on 
entering into those courses of study which in spite of the advice given 
and in spite of the evidence shown, the parents will want them to take 


those courses. 
Mr. Wuirney: Let’s not ask so many questions about the failure of 


guidance, let’s get on to the successes. 
Mrs. McInnerny is head of the Commercial Department; she knows 
all there is to know about what we do in commercial work. What about 


technical work? 

Q. I was wondering: Does Mrs. McInnerny ever arbitrarily refuse to 
allow people to go into stenography? 

Mrs. McInNerny: Oh no, Mr. Goodekunz; after all, public schools 
operate for children; if parents insist we let them, but we hope by the 
procedures we are following now we are eliminating the adjustments we 
will have to make in the eleventh grade. We will always have pupils who 
will experience repeated failures before they will concede that a modifica- 
tion of plan is necessary. 

Q. To go back to the 9A guidance, what assurance do we have that 
the home-room teachers who administer the distributive feature of guid- 








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1939] PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 73 
ance, have any knowledge of occupational information. That is: What 
abilities, what knowledges are necessary to go into certain occupations? 

A. It seems to me that that is one of the really difficult problems in 
our school, particularly. The information that pupils get about occupa- 
tions is derived mainly from units taught in the various courses, and 
from our career conferences, and it seems to me that that is not enough, 
that we ought to have more teaching about occupations, particularly fields 
of occupations. I don’t know whether that answers your question or not. 


Q. I would like to ask Mrs. McInnerny a question. I am going 
through the process at the present time, of guiding my home-room pupils 
in the 9A into a course of study for the senior high school. Although 
there seems to be a little difficulty in advising them and having them ac- 
cept the advice to take the general course, I would say more than half 
of the girls in my home room want the commercial work. Would you 
say that it would be more advisable for me to guide them or perhaps try 
to steer them out of that commercial work before they get into it? 

Mrs. McInnerny: No, I do not believe you have a clear understand- 
ing of what is in the general course. 

There is a possibility of a year of typewriting and a year of book- 
keeping, but to the general pupil of level accomplishment, irrespective of 
his P. L. R. or I. Q., he cannot take the second year or specialization un- 
less his accomplishment in the first year warrants it, so that your general 
pupil should by no manner of means be steered away from that because 
possibly what he will get there will be just as good as any other place in 
the school curriculum. 

Mr. Wuitney: I wonder, Mr. Dietz, if you ought not explain what 
we are talking about, very briefly. 

Mr. Dietz: A new division, really, of the three courses that we have, 
the commercial, technical, and academic courses, has recently been set up. 
We term this the general course. Here we lessen the requirements in the 
number of skilled subjects, that must be passed in order to graduate, al- 
lowing a much greater latitude, and also segregating these people into 
classes in the required subjects and presenting material in such a way as 
to become more attractive to persons who are not naturally addicted to 
book learning. 

Mr. Wurrtney: I don’t think we left this vocational occupational in- 
formation idea in very satisfactory shape. Is there anyone who wants to 
help us out here? It looks as if we are not doing very much. Maybe we 
are not. 

- Mr. Ladeaux is in the shop department; Do these boys get any infor- 
mation anywhere along the line about occupations? Occupational oppor- 


tunities? 














DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


A. I believe that most all the people in our group understand that 
the objective of our curriculum for our technical boys is to give a broad 
training rather than a highly specific training. During the time—up until 
the eleventh grade, our boys all receive training in different types of 
work, namely: sheet metal work, cabinet work, mechanical drawing, pat- 
tern shop, foundry, machine shop, and automobile mechanics. In each of 
these classes the teacher takes up and discusses the relation of that in- 
dustry to the industries outside; they make a lot of field trips through 
the different types of plants, so that these boys receive a very good idea 
of the types of industries in our location and I think have a very good 
idea of how to make their selection in their twelfth grade which is highly 
specializing work. There they have four periods each day of industrial 
work which may be elected from these which they had training in pre- 
viously. 

Mr. Wuirney: That is all right for the boys who get into courses— 
those who don’t get in, don’t get any information. 

A. Not very much; the boys who have elected this work have dis- 
covered in the junior high school that they have an aptitude for technical 
training and they are the ones who are preparing to go into industry when 
they have gone from the high school. 

Q. What do you do with the boys who do not specialize? 

A. That is one of the problems we have confronting us at the pres- 
ent time. We have a number of the low P. L. R. boys whom we cull into 
the general group, who in my opinion should never go into one of our 
high specializing school classes, but should have a new type of work set 
up for them which is more of a crafts class rather than high specialized. 

Mr. Wuitney: Does anyone have a question about the girls’ work? 
The technical work for girls? 

Q. Mr. Whitney, this question is going to upset Miss Hawkins, but 
with her approval I shall ask it anyway, because I do not think that the 
technical people have a right to throw people out because of their low 
P. L. R.; I don’t know about the boys, but with the girls it is a very im- 
portant thing, and I have an answer, and I am leaving it up to Miss 
Hawkins to settle it. 

Mr. Wuitney: Miss Hawkins is head of the home economics de- 
partment; she is the one who is getting it just now. Miss Hotchkiss just 
teaches French. [Laughter] 

Miss Horcnxiss: I am also a home-room teacher, Mr. Whitney, and 
it is as a home-room teacher I am coming to this setup. I have a girl with 
an I. Q. of below eighty; it is a very low I. Q. She came to my setup in 
the 10B with a very good general plan, and it suited her ability. She is 
in a class where she gets her English and everything she needs. Then she 
has to choose a major, an elective major for three years of high-school 





[ March 


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1939] ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 75 


work, so she chose commercial—she wanted it. She was set up with it 
against the advice of a 9A advisor and in 10B after one month she came 
to me and said, “I cannot do it; I don’t know what they are talking 
about.” So we moved her out immediately and put her into home eco- 
nomics, and at the time I put her in I was quite upset. I had had academic 
people up only to find there was no “general” home economics, but they 
said they would make adjustments and I put her in the 10B in sewing. 
We worked and worked with her this last semester in sewing. She can- 
not sew. She never can learn to sew, so the home economics people say— 
this is perhaps a little off the point, and if you think it is too much off 
stop me—but this question came up this morning; the home economics 
department said they would put her in foods, but she cannot do their very 
difficult technical work in the advanced part of the foods, and what I 
want this girl taught—this girl is going to have to do cleaning by the 
day, I want her taught to clean. She will probably get married or do both, 
and she will have to do plain cooking. She has to have a course for those 
two and the home economics department say they want a highly special- 
ized technical course. I don’t think that is right. 

Mr. Wuitney: Let me butt in here for a minute. I think the theory 
is this general course makes it possible for everybody, no matter how low 
they are in P. L. R., to find his or her own levels and to get something 
that they can do satisfactorily at least to themselves, whether it is cook- 
ing, sewing, French, or anything else. 

I notice we have a French teacher and a Latin teacher—but no Ger- 
man teacher and no Italian teacher. French and Latin are perfectly safe, 
so we brought them. [Laughter] 

Miss Hotchkiss who just talked, teaches French. Now Miss Hawkins, 
you have had time to get up your answer. 

Miss Hawkins: I have thought of so many things to say I don’t know 
where to begin first. 

Mr. Wuitney: You are good if you can answer this. 


Miss Hawkins: We don’t put anybody out. Everyone knows the home 
economics department has always been the dumping ground for every- 
body [laughter] and what is more we are proud of it. We are proud that 
we have work that we can give in some shape or form for every girl, as 
it should be, because of course she is a future homemaker [applause]. 
In Collinwood we do have a lot to do for this girl in the low P. L. R. 
range, taking the general course. 

I think, Miss Hotchkiss you are not in on this, but we are planning 
some special courses in washing and laundry and cleaning and household 
mechanics, in keeping with household service and homemaking which 
will be the future occupation of this girl. 












DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ March 


I was glad to hear you say that we are highly specialized in one line. 
We do select a few people, and we find even in home economics in the 
fields of clothing and foods, that only the good people are wanted, so that 
we do try to select in our eleventh grade the girls who are intensely in- 
terested in foods, and we have a faculty tearoom which acts as a nucleus 
for a project of training our girls in tearoom service and tearoom cookery 
which has been very successful, and we have placed all the gi:ls we have 
so far trained in that line, and as the story goes, “no restaurant in Cleve- 
land is safe to go to without a Collinwood girl right there to watch and 
see what you are doing.” 

Of course I could go on and on; I think I have a very live and very 
worth-while place for the low P. L. R. girl and the high P. L. R. girl. 
| Applause } 

Mr. Wuitney: I think maybe we ought to stop here a moment and 
ask questions: maybe somebody has a question in this group. 

We have been developing these low level courses in the senior high 
school, we enroll two thousand nine hundred pupils; in the junior high 
our six-year school we have two thousand one hundred; we have about 
eight hundred boys and girls in the so-called general course which doesn’t 
have much in the way of academic standards, we will admit. 

Now, in the effort to adjust curriculum and teaching to these lower 
level non-academic people, maybe we have leaned over so far backward— 
we had visitors from Hartford, Connecticut, this past week and they were 
concerned over our salvation; they thought we were going pretty dan- 
gerously near the edge, and all our standards were being wrecked. 

Q. Don’t you think in catering to this we are pampering their 
whims and fancies, and that their minds and bodies are to become soft; 
they should realize they have to take the bitter with the sweet; most 
young people who go out into the world will have to take the first job 
that comes along, whether agreeable or disagreeable; they will have to 
associate with people they like and people they dislike. They should be 
tolerant and have respect for the rights and feelings of others. 

Then there is the element of failure. Will they have the stamina and 
the will power to try, try again, if they don’t succeed at first? Let us pre- 
pare the child for such a future then if she is given something difficult 
in a manual class, a class that will challenge the muscle or mind---some- 
thing hard. 

Mr. Wuitney: Do you feel in this effort to take care of the lower 
levels of the poorer academic mind, that we have neglected the superior 
ones and dropped our standards? Does anybody want to talk to that? 

A. I would like to ask Miss Ritchie one word: we try to adjust our 
work in our industrial classes to meet the ability of the boy, but we try 
to put some challenge ahead of him all the time, to succeed. What we 





1939 | PRrocEEDINGS OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 77 


want to do is teach our boys to succeed, and not meet failure. We want 
to get our people to look for success in life and feel that they are accom- 
plishing something instead of become so many failures; maybe if we did 
that we wouldn’t have so many WPA workers. 

A Memser: We don’t want to forget either that for these low P. L. R. 
groups their ability in learning is so much less than that of the better 
students that when they do have success they have attained something 
within themselves, that I think will enable them to face the world in a 
little better fashion. 

A Memser: The idea is, is it not, to challenge the excellence of per- 
formance, and on any level, regardless of the I. Q. if he is an excellent 
jitterbug he should be accorded some recognition for that. He has to be 
excellent in some one thing. 

Mr. Wuitney: Do you feel, Miss Dietz, in English for example— 
everybody has to take English, maybe they shouldn’t, but they do, they 
don’t all take mathematics, and perhaps there isn’t much use in it, there 
might be a disagreement about that, perhaps there isn’t much use in teach- 
ing mathematics, algebra, plain geometry, solid geometry, trigonometry 
on low levels, I doubt it myself, but—what about this English that every- 
body takes; do you feel in this teaching of English that we have thrown 
standards out of the window in our effort to accommodate our teaching 
to the low group? 

A. I think in arranging our English for the general course we have, 
well I would say, lowered the standards. Maybe I had better say set up 
a new set of standards for the slow pupil, and we find that it is very 
satisfactory. 

We give them work that they can do, which we think that they will 
use most in their life after school. They are very well satisfied with it; they 
are now making passing grades where before they failed in a course two 
or three times, and the fact that they can pass their work as well as the 
brighter pupils gives them satisfaction, makes them happier, and they are 
very eager to do the kind of work we give them; the teachers likewise 
are very much happier in working with these pupils. 

Mr. Wuitney: Have you or any of the English teachers any objec- 
tive illustrations of the kind of material given these low level people? 


Miss Woop: I might put in a word about class of 11B boys, many 
’ of them ranked 58 to 69 in their P. L. R. They enjoyed the Readers Di- 
gest; they said they like it because it is short; they wanted something short 
to read; they were slow readers and said they could not read long novels, 
their interest was shown by the fact that they asked to take the magazine 
home to read. One boy said, “We have had that magazine in our house 
for two years but I didn’t know it was good reading. They want to take 








78 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


it into the study hall. Two boys asked if I could get a summer subscrip. 
tion for them. There was enough variety to appeal to all of them. 

Mr. Wuitney: Is there anyone here who wants to mention any ad- 
justments in other departments? 

A Memser: I would like to ask a question about the general ‘course. 
What about passing pupils who do such poor work? Is that going to have 
an effect upon them, and upon the other pupils who come on? 

Mr. Wuirney: I should say it is going to have an effect upon them; 
they become candidates for graduation and many of them do graduate, 
sad but true. We are graduating these people right along. One of them, 
since we have begun to do it has even applied for college but did not 
get there. 

A Memeer: Mr. Whitney, in the science department there is the ap- 
plied science, the biology, and also the applied senior science. In the applied 
biology they learn the actual care and raising of plants rather than study- 
ing their structure. In the applied senior science they learn to take care 
of various electrical appliances, they learn how to fire a furnace and learn 
actually applied science rather than more abstract scientific principles. 

Mr. Wuirney: I think perhaps we might talk about the adjustive 
phase of guidance. I want to get in these college class words, these terms 
such as distributive guidance and adjustive guidance, they sound well. 

There is a good deal, undoubtedly going on wherever guidance goes 
on in connection with this distribution of pupils in the courses, more or 
less predicated upon their desire for specific occupations, but behind, below, 
around, or above all of this there is a great deal of personality adjustment 
as everybody knows. 

What is the relation, what is going on, what do you have to say about 
that? Does anyone wish to pick this up? The personality adjustment that 
goes on? 

A. We have some children, as I suppose there are in every 
school, as you know, Mr. Whitney, who just cannot adjust to the school’s 
situation. We don’t know at first whether it is due to emotional unbalance 
or whether it is due to some lack of native ability in the child, and so it 
falls to me to make a study of the child when he is referred to me, to make 
a case study, after a fashion and interview the child, and send him to the 
school doctor for examination to see if there is anything wrong with his 
eyes, or his ears, or if the doctor has anything to report to us about the 
physical condition of the child. 

And then I take the doctor’s report, consider it and then I go to the 
home of the child and talk to one or both parents, and see what they 
would like to have us do for their child who for some reason or other is 
making a failure rather than a success. 

















1939] PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 79 


At that point we not only advise the child but we advise the parents 
too, and coming back to school again, seeing the home-room teacher and 
getting all the classroom teachers together, we pool what knowledge we 
have of the child and then we hope out of that that the home-room teacher 
can more successfully advise the child and guide the child. 

We don’t drop it, merely, in the lap of the home-room teacher, but 
the principal himself, the assistant principals and those of us who have 
more time, try to work right along with the child so that we can help him 
to adjust himself in a situation where he had been maladjusted. 

Mr. Wuirney: For your information, Miss Robinson is devoting all 
of her time to case studies and to the testing program. She has no classes. 
Most of our advisors have a part-time teaching program, two-thirds time. 

Mr. S., would you say a word about the relation of discipline to per- 
sonality failure? 

A. I believe that discipline is probably one of the biggest headaches 
any teacher or school person has. There is always some problem case we 
try to eliminate from our classes; we try to get him out of school some 
way, but that is not the cure-all, we feel; at Collinwood we feel that we 
can do something for that youngster, the thing to do is to dig down and 
find it, because maybe it is the lack of interest in the course, because that 
youngster doesn’t want that course; maybe he is not fitted for the course. 

We then go to Miss Robinson and get all the information we can 
about this person and adjust the course to the person, not the person to the 
course. In that way we find that we have eliminated most of our disciplin- 
ary problems; it is not a cure-all—we are not guaranteeing that, but we do 
find that it has cut down a great deal many disciplinary problems in many 
teachers’ classes. 

Mr. Wuitney: Any questions on this matter of adjustment? 

Q. I want to ask Miss Robinson if in her department there is a little 
more time for the peculiar child; he is not a discipline. problem but he is 
poorly adjusted; he is usually a very intelligent and super-sensitive child. 
You meet a great many of them, who are not discipline problems but who 
sometimes need attention. I don’t know that they always get it because 
they are always quiet and don’t make trouble. 

Miss Rosinson: We hear about a good many of those. When Miss 
Riebert has had a chance to consider the peculiar children referred to her 
by their teachers, if in her judgment some special study should be made 
of the child, Miss Riebert gives the high sign and I get busy. 

We have had several of what Miss Connelly calls peculiar children. 
They are extremely unhappy, sometimes very very bright children, and 

“ when we find out, usually it is easy to find out just what is the greatest 

ambition that the child has. 








DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ March 


One boy wanted to be in the limelight. He was a great tall boy with 
a head of hair which was bushy and flew all over his head. The only 
thing that was the matter with him was that he was not getting enough 
attention, and just as quickly as we found out it was not hard, after a 
heart-to-heart talk, just simply let the child see that he had a sympathetic 
sistener, and he laid open his heart to show that he wanted to have more 
attention, he would like to be sergeant-at-arms in a home room, and Miss 
David made him sergeant-at-arms, and all of his peculiarities fell from him 
like water from a duck’s back, and Keith is now one of our very fine, up- 
standing, forward-looking boys of whom we are very proud. 

Mr. Wuitney: I hope you appreciate the fact that Miss Robinson’s 
attention is given to a very small number, necessarily in a school of five 
thousand pupils she only gets selected cases that clear to her through the 
dean of girls, Miss Riebert, and we use them—I hope we use them—as ex- 
amples in the real sense, examples showing all of us, encouraging us all 
that it is possible to find the causes of maladjustment, and we can. 

Now, Miss Riebert, I think it is time for you to say something about 
these major work or enrichment groups; we have been talking about the 
lower-level people. 

Miss Riesert: I got a high sign from the back row; I was also asked 
the same question from the front row: what is this P. L. R. we are talk- 
ing about? 

Mr. Wuitney: Now is the time to clear it up. 

Miss Rresert: The P. L. R. stands for probably learning rate, and is 
about from ten to twenty points higher than the I. Q. We use it for the 
most part in place of the I. Q. in Cleveland. 

In the case of the superior pupils, in senior high particularly, we 
group together those pupils of superior intelligence and group them in 
the same English classes, the same mathematics classes, the same language 
classes, in the hope that they might get the maximum intellectual 
stimulus. 

They seem to enjoy this competition a great deal; there is a great deal 
of rivalry among them. About once a year we expose them to a battery of 
tests, codperative tests that have national norms. They voluntarily take 
these tests, or ask to take these tests, under a course a little bit of pressure 
from some of us, but they seem to enjoy taking these tests. 

Then by the time they get into the eleventh grade, we are able more 
or less to pick out our leaders rather definitely. 

This is the time that selection for the National Honor Society is first 
made, and from then on we have spotted our leaders in the school. We 
think that we have done something in this line for the simple reason that 
although we are a large, cosmopolitan high school, taking last June’s class— 
a survey of it—I was delighted to find out that fourteen per cent of the 








rith 








81 





ProceEDINGs OF TWENTyY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 






1939] 





college preparatory people won scholarships to college. We think this is 
remarkable, because most of our boys and girls are so economically situ- 
ated that they cannot think about college, so that their going to college 
does depend upon the awarding of college scholarships. 

Mr. Wuitney: Does anybody want to say something about problems 
of personnel—personal to boys or personal to girls? 

Mr. Yost: Through our guidance program and visits to the homes we 
find that many of the homes in our highly industrialized section have be- 
come places where boys sleep, and sometimes eat, and as a result they 
have a lot of personal problems that we might expect ordinarily to be 
solved at home. So at a certain age when they become interested in social 
affairs, and the girls, we have gotten them into a course which we call 
Personal Regimen where we attempt to teach them how to better their 
personal appearance; how to behave at a party, and all sorts of questions 
such as that, and from those less personal problems we go into more per- 
sonal and intimate problems of sex hygiene. 

Miss Hawkins: Mr. Yost, it seems that the boys must be having some 
of the same problems that the girls are having. We do have girls’ courses 
in personal regimen too, and have had them for a long time. I have been 
thinking if it would not be a good thing to combine our boys and girls in 
some actual lessons in that fine social room of ours and get them together 
in actual situations where they can act out some of these problems in con- 
duct and social manners and all the rest that they are so interested in. 

Mr. Yost: I believe we are fighting for that in this semester, some of 
the 12-A girls cooking the meals and some of the boys helping to eat them. 
| Laughter } 

Mr. Wuirney: I think our time is nearly up. I think we ought to have 
a few questions from this group up here, perhaps picking out the things 
we ought to be doing and are not now doing. I believe we have a phil- 
osophy—I hope so—at Collinwood—that the school ought to organize its 
whole life, its curriculum, its teaching, all the activities of the school so 
that every boy or girl gets an opportunity to find satisfaction in achieving 
some realization of an objective, find something he can tie to, he or she 
gets an objective, and works for it. 

Now I wonder, are there things we ought to, I think, ask some ques- 
tions up here before we leave as to the things we ought to be doing, and 
are not now doing, are there needs which we are ignoring to-day? Are 
there interests that are not being discovered and developed? 

A Memser From THE FLoor: I wanted very badly to interrupt because 
we had a faculty meeting very much like this, just last Friday, where the 
question of marks came up. 

Now you have these general people, the low ability people; do you 
have any difficulty with respect to marks? Do they get the satisfactory pro- 

















































82 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


portion of A’s and B’s and so on that the other people get or is there an 
adjustment, and if so what? 

Mr. Wuirtney: I pass that on to you, Miss Dietz, or Mr. Goodekunz 
or anybody else who wants to take it. 

Mr. Goopekunz: In the social study department there is the exact 
distribution of A’s, B’s, and C’s as there is in the high P. L. R.’s, although 
of course among the general people there are more D’s, but there are no 
failures in the generals. 

Mr. Wuirney: Maybe you shouldn’t have said that. 

Mr. Goopekunz: That is the situation. [Laughter] 

Mr. Wurtney: You will allow at Collinwood High School in the gen- 
eral course they are segregated in the academic subjects; they are not mixed 
with the others. There are no failures in English, social studies, science 
and mathematics so far as they take the general courses in mathematics. 

It is terrible, isn’t it? That is what these Hartford Connecticut people 
thought; they went back home with a terrible tale of what is happening 
here. What do you think about this, Miss Flowers? 

Miss Flowers teaches Latin—she stands for culture. [Laughter] 

Do you think that these folks out there at Collinwood are getting 
any challenge in the things that you are interested in—the higher life? 

A. I am wondering if in our interest to get these people through this 
world by means of earning their bread if we are not forgetting the other 
side. In this modern age of increased and stepped-up production and 
shorter hours certainly these people have to have something to do in their 
spare time, and as I look around Collinwood and see the interests from a 
great majority of our people, I begin to feel that we are failing this group— 
other than the college preparatory group—in not giving them some of 
these cultural advantages, so-called perhaps—which will teach, them the 
ability at least to read a newspaper intelligently. They cannot possibly do 
this without some definite historical background, it seems to me, and 
some of the’ trings that are offered in our so-called cultural or academic 
subjects. 

And how many of them listen to a good speech on the radio? Not 
many. 

Mr. Yost has often said to me he wished I knew some solution for 
some of the questions he has asked. One is: how to entertain a young lady 
without any money. And I have said that is just the question—because 
these people don’t have any ingenuity, they don’t have the background, 
and I am for giving them some academic cultural background—definitely. 

Mr. Wuitney: That is fine, as for that, if you can teach a boy how to 
entertain a girl without any money. Mr. Clark is burning with something 
to say. [Laughter] 





bilit 
in a 


1939] ProceEDINGs OF TWENTyY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 83 


Mr. Cxark: It seems to me that since one of the most important things 
in life is the ability to get a job and to make a living, to support a family, 
and so forth, that our greatest weakness at Collinwood is in the fact that 
we are not giving our pupils enough information about the world in which 
they are going to earn a living, not enough about occupation. We are 
right in the heart of a very great industrial district and our boys and girls 


don’t know much about it. 
A Memser: Mr. Whitney, isn’t the reason for that because the teach- 


ers don’t know much about the industrial life? 

Mr. Wuitney: Let’s ask Mr. Graham. Mr. Graham ought to say 
something now about extra-curriculum activities. 

Mr. Orson: May I first answer a question about the grading, espe- 
cially the low P. L. R.’s? 

I would like to give my experience with grading these low P. L. R.'s. 


We seggregate the low ones, for instance in my shop class they are 
mostly all generals, then I do have a sprinkling of them in my other 
classes. In five classes I will group them all together. I happen to be a draw- 
ing teacher; when I mark a drawing, I mark it from two points of view; 
I ask myself this question: is the boy working somewhere near his maxi- 
mum ability? Second: is the drawing somewhere near a standard that 
could actually be used in the shop. When I give a general student a mark 
I don’t hold him to as high or rigid standards as I would a technical stu- 
dent. I mark entirely on points system and have a progress chart. I would 
put down the points as I would for a higher P. L. R. or a purely technical 
student. When the marking time comes, I have quite a problem in addi- 
tion, but I prefer to go through it even though it is a rather laborious 


process. 
I find that by doing that I take into consideration not only the quality 
of the work, but the quantity. Now here is a strange thing about some 
who are classed as generals—sometimes their interest is so high that they 
easily surpass those who are classed as technicals and I find that I can get 
along at least without any grumbling about marks by taking and group- 
ing them all as one, by taking five classes for instance, a boy in the 3-A 
class cannot compare notes with his chum in the sixth Class and say: I did 
more work than you and I get a lower grade. 

My experience with that marking system has been good. It is consid- 


erable work, however. 

Q. I would like to return to the 9-A guidance in selecting the courses 
of study for the children we are just about ready for that. Is there a possi- 
bility that some of the teachers might not understand what is being given 
in all these departments and would it not be advisable for the heads of the 








[ March 


84 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


departments to give a little exposition about the content of their courses? 
And it might also be further advantageous to have a bulletin got out giving 
a summary of those things. 

Mr. Wuitney: A word about that—Mr. Shattuck? 

A. That information is passed on to the teachers through a bulletin 
that is put out, when this guidance was started; all the ninety teachers 
also met, and it is explained by a senior advisor and by myself, and the 
senior advisor visits each home room separately, in which he has spent at 
least thirty minutes each time, explaining the courses of study, the majors 
and the minors, and the setup in the senior high school. 

Mr. Wuirtney: Our time, I think, is about up. 

I want to thank the members of my staff for coming in and partici- 
pating apparently with such cheerfulness and good-nature in this discussion 
and for your attention in listening to this faculty group. [ Applause } 

CHAIRMAN Myer: I want to thank Mr. Whitney. I think this was a 
very good discussion. 

We want to thank the members of the staff of Collinwood High 
School; they have given us a good deal to think about, very thoughtful 
suggestions have been made; they have raised a number of very important 
issues. 
We speak about systematic and sustained discussion. This has been a 
systematic approach, I am sure, to the problem of guidance, and one thing 
that we need, it needs to be sustained. 

Discussion can be carried to the point where there are some conclu- 
sions. If it could not be we would have very little reason to discuss and 
conclusions might be reached—there were a number of issues raised here 
each one of which could be used as subject for quite a prolonged discus- 
sion covering several faculty meetings. 

I think the question of guidance is worth it and I hope that very many 
of the principals here will care to go on with the discussion work, and if 
we can be of any assistance in the Washington office in furnishing material, 
we will be very glad to do it. 

One thing, perhaps I should say, I have just been thinking as the dis- 
cussion went on that it might be if they work out this curriculum for the 
non-academic pupil, that one of the greatest benefits perhaps will be that 
we will have some good suggestions then out of the information for our 
curriculum for the academics, but at any rate that in itself would offer a 
subject for discussion, I should suppose, in a number of faculty meetings. 

Vict-PresipENt Ciark: On behalf of the Department I would thank 
Dr. Myer for this arrangement and Mr. Whitney and this group for this 


stimulating presentation. 
I am now asking the President to take charge of the meeting for the 


business session. 





March 


Irses? 
iving 


letin 
hers 

the 
it at 
jors 








- 











ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 






1939} 





BUSINESS MEETING 





President Elicker then called the business meeting to order, and intro- 
duced Francis L. Bacon, who explained the purpose of the proposed change 
of name of this organization. 

Principal M. G. Jones moved that the new name be National Associa- 
tion of Secondary-School Principals, the Department of Secondary Educa- 
tion of the National Education Association. This motion after some dis- 
cussion prevailed. 

President Elicker asked for the report of the Nominating Committee. 
This was presented by Mr. A. E. MacQuarrie, Principal of Washburn High 
Sc'sool, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as follows: 



















February 28, 1939 





Mr. President: 

At the meeting of your Nominating Committee, there were present 
twenty-seven members representing twenty-seven states. Your Committee 
unanimously voted to present the following nominations: 

Member of the Executive Committee for a term of three years, Dr. 
Hugh H. Stewart, Principal Davis High School, Mount Vernon, New 


York. 
Second Vice President, John E. Wellwood, Principal Central High 


School, Flint, Michigan. 
First Vice President, Oscar Granger, Principal Haverford Township 


High School, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. 
President, K. J. Clark, Principal Murphy High School, Mobile, Ala- 
















bama. 





Respectfully submitted, 
A. E. MacQuarrie, 


Secretary of the Nominating Committee, And Twenty-Six Others. 







I move that the Executive Secretary cast the appropriate ballot for the 
election of these nominees. Carried. 

President Elicker at once inducted the President-elect, K. J. Clark, 
who made a brief speech of thanks and appreciation. 

Promptly D. T. Taylor, Principal of Cloverdale Junior High School, 
Montgomery, Alabama, presented Mr. Clark with a bouquet of japonicas 
sent by the Kiwanis Club of Mobile, and added to Mr. Clark's surprise 
and confusion by bestowing a gift from his faculty of a life membership 
in the National Education Association. 

The meeting closed with a motion of thanks to President Elicker by 
John H. Tyson, Principal of Senior High School, Upper Darby, Pennsyl- 
vania for the successful programs of the Convention. Adjournment. 



















FOURTH GENERAL SESSION 
Wednesday, March 1, 1939 
2:00 P. M: 


The fourth general session was divided into three divisions, Junior 
High School, Senior High School, and Junior College groups. 

The general theme for these three divisions is Significant Contributions 
to Secondary-School Improvements. 

The Junior High-School Division, held in Club Room A of the Pub- 
lic Auditorium, was presided over by Virgil M. Hardin, Principal of Pip- 
kin and of Reed Junior High Schools of Springfield, Missouri, and mem- 
ber of the Executive Committee of the Department of Secondary-School 
Principals, who introduced Mr. J. D. Hull, Principal of Senior High 
School, Springfield, Missouri, who read his paper, Making School Marks 
More Meaningful. 


CAN MARKS BE MADE MEANINGFUL? 
J. D. Huir 


Principal of Senior High School, Springfield, Missouri 


Most teachers are quite ready to discuss the rather widespread move- 
ment to modify the traditional marking system. Last March at a meeting 
of the North Central Association in Chicago, two general sessions were 
devoted to proposed changes in regulations for approving secondary 
schools. In one of the proposed regulations was a suggestion for ranking 
high-school graduates, and throughout the two sessions the chairman 
struggled valiantly to restrain the delegates from a discussion of the pros 
and cons of traditional marks. In the regular business meetings he was 
successful in curbing the debate, but at a later evening meeting the 
subject was dragged in by the heels to serve as a vent for many pent-up 
words and much animated discussion. In general, the college representa- 
tives were reluctant to part with traditional marks while the high-school 
principals who did the most talking were eager to throw them all out the 
window. ’ ej 

Not only teachers but parents and pupils as well like to talk about 
teachers’ marks. They have had experience with them usually with an 
emotional effect. They either like or dislike marks. They may be 
indefinite about what marks are supposed to evaluate, but the differentia- 
tion is easily comprehended. Marks are simple little symbols. When 
first mentioned at least, they do not put people to sleep and send them 
woolgathering as do such phrases as civilization of economic abundance 
and curriculum designer for the new education. 


"4 
85 

















87 





PRrocEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 





1939] 


It is no wonder then that many public school workers have embraced 
the seemingly simple task of making marks more meaningful. Most of 
these workers have genuinely desired to effect a general change in 
attitude toward the work of the school. Perhaps a few have merely 
wanted to climb aboard the band wagon and be Progressive with a 
capital P. But whatever the motive, a thoughtful attempt to modify the 
marking system can afford fresh insights into teaching. The purpose of 
this paper is to present some opinions which have grown out of the 
experience of changing marks in four public high schools with typically 
heavy teaching loads. If the paper has a thesis, it is that there is no 
necessary correlation between changing traditional marks and building 
a wholesome attitude toward them. 

For the past seven years children in our elementary schools have 
periodically taken home to their parents report cards which were checked 
satisfactory or unsatisfactory in the traditional school subjects. For each 
reporting period there is a space where the teacher is expected to write 
a paragraph of comment about the child’s social development and growth 
in personal characteristics. 

During the school year 1937-38 in our three junior high schools 
pupils received reports which carried marks of satisfactory or unsatisfac- 
tory in subject matter achievement and a number of social and personal 
characteristics. Each pupil’s card was marked by the pupil himself as 
well as the teacher. During the same school year, senior high-school 
pupils received cards marked either excellent or satisfactory or unsatis- 
factory in subject matter achievement and in a number of personal 
characteristics. 

During the past two years committees of junior and senior high-school 
teachers have been studying such questions as the following: 


1. Is it desirable to separate the reporting and recording systems? 
What purposes should reporting systems serve? 

How precise should marks be? 

Should children participate in marking themselves? 

Is it desirable to have the form of the reporting system different 
in the junior and senior high schools? 

What are the causes for the misuse of marking systems? 

7. How may we promote a common understanding of the terms 

used on report forms? 

There is not time to review here the discussions stimulated by these 
questions. It does seem worth while to point out the great need that 
existed for defining the items measured by a teacher’s mark. Many 
teachers had not thought very precisely about what their marks meant. 
After they had thought about the question, they had great difficulty in 
agreeing upon statements of meanings because the same terms meant 


a Ps 


a) 











88 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


different things to different people. And some had such an aversion to 
the words teacher’s mark that they were unable to substitute reality for 
the symbols. In the light of the confusion among teachers caused by 
varied understandings of identical terms, it is remarkable that teachers 
can communicate with parents at all. 

As a result of this committee work, the three junior high schools and 
the senior high school are using the same reporting forms during the cur- 
rent year. Pupils are marked satisfactory or unsatisfactory as compared 
with their ability on growth in four characteristics: (1) Intelligent self- 
direction, (2) social adjustment, (3) work habits, and (4) knowledge and 
skills. In a special bulletin to parents these terms are analyzed, explained, 
and illustrated in terms specific enough and definite enough for the par- 
ents to understand. Achievement in knowledge and skills means different 
things for different subjects. 

Whether or not a pupil’s growth is satisfactory when compared with 
his ability is, of course, a matter of subjective teacher judgment. Ability 
may be judged by observation, reading test scores, college aptitude test 
scores, etc. 

Since the marks are in terms of growth compared with ability, it som« 
times happens that an able pupil receives unsatisfactory in all four charac- 
teristics marked and still receives his credit toward graduation. It also oc- 
curs occasionally that a pupil receives satisfactory marks and still does not 
receive his unit of credit toward graduation. If a pupil is often in this 
situation, when he arrives at his graduating time, he is granted a certificate 
of attendance instead of a diploma. 

The budget for tests has been increased, and it has been arranged to 
administer to each pupil each year (1) two general achievement tests in 
each subject and (2) either a standardized reading test or a college aptitude 
test or an intelligence test. The decile rank of each pupil on each test is 
recorded on his permanent record and used for guidance purposes. By in- 
quiring a pupil may find out whether his score was below average, average, 
or above average. His parent by inquiring may ascertain his exact rank. 

A few parents consider our separate reporting and recording systems 
an admirable arrangement. Many have no criticism except that the school 
is causing them to go to some trouble and effort in order to find out how 
their children are progressing. However, most parents think of the school 
as a place where lessons are learned. They see no differences between 
extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. These parents smile and say our mark- 
ing system seems senseless but they are not inclined to be troublesome 
about the matter. 


For all the high-school teachers the project has been an excellent 
stimulus for studying what they are doing and why they are doing it. 
In order to compensate for the abandoning of marks indicating different 















1939] ProceeDINGs oF TWENTy-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 89 






levels of achievement, they were forced to define in definite, concrete, and 
understandable terms their objectives for the school and for all learning 
areas. Having defined their objectives they were in a situation where they 
were forced to think rather precisely about (1) the systematic organization 
of materials in order to attain these objectives and (2) the systematic 
evaluation of the extent to which the objectives had been attained. Of 
course there is nothing in these procedures which skillful teachers should 
not be doing continuously under all circumstances, but heavily loaded 
school workers too often do only the things they have to do because they 
are in some kind of a predicament which requires thought and action. 

When the budget for tests was originally increased, it was assumed 
that at least half the funds would be spent on standardized tests. However, 
it soon became apparent to teachers that standardized tests often failed to 
measure the things which they needed to measure in their particular 
courses and that using such instruments would be allowing the makers of 
such tests to set the objectives for their courses. Hence committees of 
teachers are increasingly devising their own general achievement tests. 
Substitutes have been provided for them so that for a week at a time they 
may be freed from periods of teaching in ordegs to analyze their objectives, 
procedures, and measurements to make sure that they are all of one piece. 
For them doing away with traditional marks has been a kind of back 
door into a systematic course of studying revision. 

Teachers are carrying on this work with the full knowledge that 
many test experts say the typical high-school teacher does more harm than 
good by building his own objective tests. They have the hope that their 
own growth will compensate for their test items which discriminate in a 
negative fashion. 

As yet no systematic inquiry has been made to find out the effects on 
pupils but there have been difficulties. Undoubtedly some pupils had 
grown accustomed to being motivated by marks alone, and in some of their 
classes where marks have not been replaced by intrinsic challenges, they 
have suffered a lowering of interest and activity. In other words, for these 
pupils, marks as motives have been done away with but nothing else has 
been put in their place. 

On the other hand many pupils have been as much motivated and 
emotionally disturbed by the achievement examinations as they were by 
the teachers’ marks. Those who abhor teachers’ marks see in this an evi- 
dence that both pupils and teachers are taking toward the examinations 
attitudes which are carried over from those formerly taken toward marks. 
The examinations are made rather formal by the fact that all English ex- 
- aminations are administered at one hour, all social studies examinations at 
another hour, etc. A few teachers are urging a return to the traditional 
marking system because they feel that the examination has all the weak- 


















































90 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ March 


nesses of a mark as a motivating force. They are agreed that for guidance 
purposes they must have on the office record either a more discriminating 
teacher’s mark than “Satisfactory” and “Unsatisfactory” or some kind of 
a percentile rank on achievement tests. 

By using only the two marks “satisfacory” and “unsatisfactory” we 
are neglecting to give parents discriminating information about their chil- 
dren but we are setting a situation where competition is discouraged. How- 
ever, in marking a child according to his background and ability we 
are still using marks as motivating instruments. By implication we are 
saying, “If you work up to the limit of your ability you will be rewarded 
with a satisfactory mark. If you do anything less than your best you will 
suffer an unsatisfactory mark.” 

It was hoped that teachers and pupils would find a new rapport since 
the chief marking device, the examination, had been made external to 
both groups. However, at present it cannot be said that pupils are espe- 
cially grateful for stimulating and skillful instruction. Rather do they feel 
resentment against the teacher when they make a poor showing on an 
examination. Aldous Huxley makes a character in one of his novels say, 
“Men don’t spend their time. thanking God for cars; they only curse when 
the carburetor is choked.” 

Those who insist that pages of written comment from the teacher can 
replace all marks and ranks on the permanent record have surely never 
worked in a school where the heavy teaching load was continually strain- 
ing the patience of North Central Association examining authorities. In 
such a school limitations of time make impossible the preparation of ade- 
quate unabridged reports. 

In the matter of the emotional effects of teachers’ marks, the crux 
of the problem seems to be this: As motivating instruments marks are bad. 
As evidences for guidance, marks, or something else substituted for them, 
are essential. It seems almost impossible to use them as guiding instru- 
ments without having someone use them as motives. But the school's task 
is to achieve this seeming contradiction. This means building an under- 
standing of differences in pupils and an attitude of objectivity toward in- 
dividual strengths and weaknesses. Intelligent parents and teachers can 
teach a child to look at a low mark or test score and say “Well, there’s my 
worst foot forward and it’s nothing to fret about, but it’s part of the 
picture.” 

In the New High School in the Making, William L. Wrinkle has an 
interesting chapter on marking and reporting. After presenting vigorously 
the current arguments against marks, namely, they promote competition, 
are extrinsic motives, etc., he lists in rapid succession the many different 
marking systems tried out and abandoned since 1932 in the Secondary 
School of Colorado State College of Education. The particular system in 









ill 











1939] ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTyY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 9] 


vogue at the time of writing had three characteristics. First, the outcomes 
on which pupils were marked were analyzed and stated in such a fashion 
that they were capable of being improved by all pupils. Second, the five 
indexes used in reporting indicated “distinctly superior, satisfactory, needs 
to make improvement, unsatisfactory, and no evaluation.” Third, instead 
of being compared with other pupils or judged by his background and 
ability, each pupil was compared with normal pupils at his age and school 
level. Mr. Wrinkle insists that this arrangement is very different from the 
ordinary competitive, mark motivated situation. He says, “It should also 
be recognized that these evaluations are entirely unlike the single composite 
evaluations—A, B, C, etc., given in conventional school subjects.” How- 
ever, it is difficult to see anything fundamentally distinctive about the 
evaluations except that they are made on a large number of carefully ex- 
plained, specific items. 

The weakest point in the system and one which Mr. Wrinkle himself 
concedes may be an inconsistency is the use of a hypothetical normal pupil 
as the basis for evaluation. Perhaps there is no danger that high-school 
pupils will compete with an imaginary normal pupil. However, to the 
uninitiated it is difficult to see how one would restrain a pupil with sub- 
normal abilities from competing with normal pupils who received higher 
marks. And in spite of his subnormal abilities, if he received a sufficient 
number of “Unsatisfactories” and “needs to make improvements” he prob- 
ably would eventually learn that the cards were stacked against him. It is 
extremely difficult to keep evaluations secret and use them to inform par- 
ents and pupils at the same time. 

A few weeks ago there was broadcast over a national hookup an effec- 
tive program dealing with report cards in a “Wings for the Martins” 
episode prepared by the Federal Office of Education. The skit dealt with 
two neighboring families. A healthy, wholesome, intelligent relationship 
prevailed in one family, and a warped, perverted, stupid relationship pre- 
vailed in the other. School experiences of the children precipitated a bitter 
family quarrel. The quarrel rushed to a swift climax and reconciliation, 
after which both mothers hurried over to the school to demand a new type 
report card and thus eliminate all their difficulties. Probably listeners were 
not meant to reflect that one family seemed to get along very well with the 
old type report card and that perhaps the attitude of the stupid family 
needed to be changed more than did the report card. 

Most of those who do any speaking or writing about this marking 
problem appear to be doctrinaires. All the ballyhoo is directed toward 
doing away with traditional marks as a means of improving personalities 
of pupils and better informing parents. Little or nothing is usually men- 
tioned about the effects on teachers. In our particular situation, modifying 
traditional marks as yet seems to have had doubtful results with pupils 








92 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ March 


and parents. With teachers it has undoubtedly been a stimulus for their 
studying what they are doing and why. 

The changing of traditional marks is often presented as a simple mat- 
ter to be accepted or rejected on the basis of an “either or” philosophy. At 
best it is a complicated problem affecting almost every aspect of the school. 
As such it serves as a handle for studying the school. But to one who 
does not approach the task with a foregone conclusion it presents inherent 
inconsistencies and contradictions. 

Although it meant riding a horse in at least two different directions at 
the same time, we have continued to encourage the National Honor So- 
ciety. Membership in that organization can and should be functional just 
as membership in a student council or a cheer-leading yroup. It should be 
considered an instrument of social approval rather than a material reward 
for achievement. High-school pupils know that they differ among them- 
selves and they should learn to accept as their own functional differences 
recognized by teachers. Left alone, pupil distinctions are likely to be spuri- 
ous ones, based upon social and economic status of parents. By trying to 
ignore public recognition of other kinds of differences, the school will em- 
phasize these invidious distinctions. The left wing educators so vigorously 
attacking all honors and awards believe that they are attacking the profit 
motive in our society. As a matter of fact they are probably attacking the 
only thing which could ever be a substitute for it. 


ADMINISTERING AN INTEGRATED PROGRAM OF 
EDUCATION IN THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 


C. Benton MANLEy 
Principal of Horace Mann Junior High School, Tulsa, Oklahoma 


An increasing number of secondary schools are attempting to develop 
educational programs which those in charge believe will promote the in- 
dividual and social integration of their pupils. Such programs usually are 
characterized by efforts to provide an offering of educational experiences 
which are in themselves integrated to some degree. These offerings have 
been designated by a variety of names such as correlated curriculums, broad- 
fields curriculums, core curriculums, general education programs, experi- 
ence curriculums, and by other terms depending on the form taken and 
other factors. Whatever the name given to them may be, within limits of 
great variation they refer to programs of education required of all or nearly 
all pupils that deal with rather broad problems or topics and that tend to 
cut across subject matter lines. The evils of compartmentalized subject 
matter are avoided by dealing with all aspects or implications of problems 
as a unified whole. Cooperative planning and teaching, the use of larger 





1938 


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proj 
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of i 





their 


mat- 











93 





1939 | ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 






blocks of time than is alloted to the usual class period, and the extensive 
utilization of community resources for education are common features of 
programs of this type. A strong tendency to bring guidance and instruc- 
tion together as integral parts of the curriculum is also a significant char- 
acteristic. While either a part or all of these features may be present in 
any given program, the literature of secondary education within recent 
years indicates that a growing throng of schools is joining the procession 
of integration. 

Four of the junior high schcols of Tulsa have been experimenting for 
the past five and one-half years with educational programs that attempt to 
promote integration. A large senior high school has been engaged in a 
similar program for three years. Previous to the current school year, only 
a portion of each school was involved in the new type of program. Last 
September one junior high school was completely reorganized on the basis 
of experience and information gained from the experimental work. An- 
other, which has had a reorganization program under way for two years, 
operates two of its three grades according to the new plan. The remain- 
ing five junior high schools have one third or more of their respective en- 
rollments working in it. Plans are under way which will eventually have 
the entire student body of each of the junior high schools following a core 
program of general education that it is believed will provide richer and 
better integrated educational experiences better adapted to the individual 
and collective needs of students than has been possible through the medium 
of departmentalized offerings used heretofore. 


With respect to enrollment, class size, teacher load, plant facilities, and 
other administrative features, these schools are probably fairly typical of 
those found in city systems. Class sizes in the junior high schools average 
somewhat under forty pupils each. Teachers teach for the equivalent of 
five or six class periods per day plus an activity period in some schools. 
With a few exceptions, buildings and their equipment have been in use 
for a number of years and were planned to provide a reasonably good pro- 
gram of departmentalized education. On the whole, staffs have better 
training than is found in the average city school system. With exception 
of the latter factor and a limited amount of expert service from the outside, 
no unusual facilities have been provided in the secondary schools of Tulsa 
which favor development of an integrated educationat program. 


The term core-curriculum was first used to designate the new type of 
educational program being used in Tulsa. Because it is a broader and 
more inclusive term and because it seems to fit the situation better as it 
gxists, the name general education program is now being used. In this 
discussion these two terms, i. e., core-curriculum and _ general-education 


program, will be used synonymously. 











DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


The individual school that undertakes to develop a program that pro- 
motes individual and social integration is faced with a series of difficult 
and perplexing problems. Curriculum reorganization, the selection, assign- 
ment, and training of teachers, adaptation of plant and equipment, reor- 
ganization of the daily schedule, securing the codperation of patrons, utiliz- 
ing the educational resources of the community and many others demand 
attention. 

Curriculum reorganization and revision is likely to be the first con- 
cern because, as a rule, a beginning can hardly be made without a rather 
thorough-going revision of instructional offerings, particularly if the school 
has been following more or less traditional courses of study. However, 
this discussion deals primarily with administrative procedures, and while 
curriculum building offers problems of critical importance in developing a 
program of integrated education, it will be considered here only as it 
affects administration of the individual school. 


A wealth of information is available relative to the organization and 
administration of curriculum construction programs of many kinds. Per- 
haps it is sufficient to reemphasize here that administrative provisions must 
be made for all staff members who are to participate in an educational 
program of the integrating type to also take part in the curriculum de- 
velopment program that of necessity accompanies it. This participation 
must be real and not nominal. It must make teachers, administrators, and 
supervisors sensitive to the need for educational improvement, and must 
give them a thorough understanding of the proposed program and its 
implications for instructional and administrative procedures. Extra time 
for meetings, committee work and editorial duties must be provided for 
those who are to carry the burden of writing and compiling materials. 
Directors and administrators must be fully cognizant that curriculum revi- 
sion is almost a never-ending process and that expert assistance of many 
kinds is required. 

Concurrent with the problem of curriculum revision, that of teacher 
selection and training is certain to arise. In the Tulsa schools, as in most 
city school systems under present conditions, this is largely a matter of 
training rather than one of selection. Staff members already in service must 
be prepared to undertake operation of the new program. However, where 
a choice can be made, certain personality characteristics that are unusually 
desirable should be sought for in teachers. Alertness, power of adaptability, 
and ingenuity are particularly useful to the teacher who engages in this 
type of work. Since teachers must work together intimately and codrdi- 
nate their activities to a high degree in an integrated program, the ability 
to get along with co-workers is almost an essential trait. 


Few teachers have the requisite background of philosophy and experi- 
ence needed to develop an integrated program of education in the junic: 





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1939] ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTyY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 95 


high school. For most teachers, who have been accustomed to the conven- 
tional program of secondary education, a considerable period of training 
in the techniques of working together coéperatively is necessary. Appar- 
ently, some teachers find it almost impossible to master them. A teacher 
who is highly successful when working by herself in her chosen field may 
not be able to make the adjustments and compromises necessary to func- 
tion effectively as a member of a codperating group of teachers who are 
developing an integrated program. 

Properly managed, the program of curriculum revision may be relied 
on to provide much valuable training. But other measures and devices 
will have to be used. Staff meetings, committee meetings, departmental 
meetings, lectures, demonstrations, experimentation, participation in sum- 
mer workshops sponsored by the Progressive Education Association, and 
individual conferences are a few of the activities used to train Tulsa teach- 
ers for the new program of education. While some of these are necessary 
preliminaries, none of them seem to be as effective as placing the teacher 
in a group that is to work under the general education plan, giving her as 
much help as possible, and allowing her to work out her own salvation. 
The daily conference period which will be discussed later is a most valu- 
able aid for training teachers in the techniques of general education. 

When teacher training and curriculum revision have progressed to 
the point where an integrated type program actually may be started, the 
principal is likely to find that changes in the school plant are desirable and 
that teaching materials and equipment require additions. While it is not 
an absolute requirement, a flexible school plant that can readily be altered 
and adapted to changes in the school program offers decided advantages. 
Laboratory type classrooms greatly aid integrated instructional activities. 
Rooms large enough to permit three or more class groups to assemble at 
one time are extremely useful. It is often desirable for two class groups 
to meet together and suitable rooms should be provided for this purpose 
if possible. Library facilities should be much more extensive than are gen- 
erally provided for the conventional educational program, both for the 
library proper and for the classrooms. A variety of visual aids and suit- 
able crafts materials make valuable contributions to the success of the 
program. Accessibility to a public library, to parks, zoos, and other educa- 
tional facilities of the community is very helpful. On the other hand, too 
much emphasis probably should not be placed on plant and equipment 
requirements. One of the best programs of general education developed to 
date in the junior high schools of Tulsa is housed in a school plant that 
is far from ideal for any kind of educational activity. 

- A reasonably adequate plan of curriculum revision and a considerable 
amount of preliminary teacher training seem to be minimum essentials for 
making a satisfactory start in a program of integrated education on the 











96 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


junior high-school level. But as the general education program got under 
way in Tulsa, it was soon discovered by those in charge that the conven- 
tional administrative machinery of the secondary school was poorly 
adapted to it. As a matter of fact, many of the usual administrative proce- 
dures of the secondary school proved to be a positive hindrance to the de- 
velopment of a program of integrated education. 

In the first place, it was found to be highly desirable if not essential 
that guidance, or at least most of guidance, should become an integral part 
of the curriculum. When this is not the case, teachers are unlikely to 
know pupils well enough to be sufficiently aware of their needs, interests, 
abilities, experiential backgrounds, maturity levels, etc., properly to de- 
velop a program of general education that will reasonably assure their 
personal and social integration. Furthermore, there is likely to be much 
duplication of effort and uncodrdinated activity that results in wasted time 
and inefficiency, or, on the other hand, valuable guidance may be provided 
for some pupils that is neglected for others who need it just as much. Con- 
siderable modification and improvement of the administrative machinery 
has been necessary to bring about the desired relation between guidance 
and the curriculum. 

Secondly, the conventional daily schedule was entirely inadequate for 
the demands placed upon it and became one of the most serious limitations 
to the development of the new program. A number of factors operate to 
make this true. Among the most important are the following: 

1. In the integrated program, it is frequently desirable that pupils shall 
be able to work for comparatively long periods without interrup- 
tion during school hours on problems, projects, dramatic produc- 
tions, library assignments and other activities of this nature. 

2. Pupils should have access to teachers and teachers to pupils at ir- 
regular intervals for purposes of guidance and mutual assistance 
in educational activities more readily than is possible when a con- 
ventional schedule is used. 

3. Pupils and teachers should be able to take field trips and to engage 
in educational activities in the community without undue inter- 
ference with schoo] affairs. 

4. Because of the nature of the integrated curriculum, and because of 
the present limitations of teacher preparation, teachers need to 
meet together frequently and regularly for the purpose of planning 
and coérdinating their work, locating and organizing materials, 
and carrying on many other kinds of professional activities. Expe- 
rience in Tulsa seems to indicate that a conference and planning 


period should be a part of a teacher’s regular schedule, and that 
it should be included in the school day if possible. 


Thus it seems evident that not only a new plan of scheduling was nec- 
essary but that other new administrative devices and techniques were re- 
quired. In general, three types of organization have been developed. All 
have certain elements in common. Each has its values and shortcomings. 
Neither is considered perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but experi- 
ence in the Tulsa secondary schools indicates that they are far superior to 
conventional practices as devices for administering an integrated program 





1939] PRocEEDINGS OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 97 


of education. While there are variations from school to school and, in 
some cases, combinations of the plans given here, they may be described 
briefly as follows: 

1. The Unified Period Plan: 

In this plan, a group of class sections is scheduled for the core sub- 
jects with codperating teachers some of whom direct the learning activi- 
ties of at least two subject matter areas in periods double the usual length. 
For example, two or three class groups are scheduled with three teachers. 
One handles social studies and English, another mathematics and science, 
and the third art. Pupils go to the first two teachers for double periods 
and to the art teacher for a single period each day. In the remaining period 
of the schedule, they have physical education anl music on alternate days. 
While the music and physical education teachers attempt to codrdinate 
their work with that of the other teachers, they are not considered a part 
of the codperating group. It will be seen that under this plan the art 
teacher must be a part of and divide her time between two core groups. 
Practical arts are alternated with art by semesters or quarters in some 
schools and by days in others. Teachers of these subjects participate in the 
core-program. Periods are usually rotated in a manner that permits core 
teachers to exchange class groups or to take pupils from one class to an- 
other without serious disturbance of activities in either. 

2. The Core Group Plan: 

Groups of pupils that include three regular class sections are sched- 
uled for the core activities in two or three consecutive periods with three 
teachers who work in their respective subject fields. The time at the dis- 
posal of the pupils and teachers is utilized as the needs of the groups and 
the development of learning activities under way seem to require. One or 
all teachers may meet with the entire group of pupils at a given time, or 
individual teachers may take class sections or other sub-groups for instruc- 
tion in certain aspects of the problem, project, or unit under consideration. 
The consecutive arrangement of the two or three periods permits a mini- 
mum of conflict between the core areas and the special subjects. 

3. The Synchronized Block Plan: 

A third plan of organization has many features similar to the second 
described above but involves more teachers, more class sections, and more 
periods. It may be called the synchronized block plan because it utilizes 
a scheduling procedure described by Richardson many years ago as the 
block method to which has been added a scheme of synchronization that 
permits class groups to rotate in regular order from one to another of a 
given set of teachers. The resulting organization becomes a closely knit 
anit that functions within itself somewhat independent of the remainder 
of the school, and which permits a high degree of flexibility in the use of 
time and facilities. In Tulsa, this plan has been called the “school within a 








98 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ March 


school” type of organization. However, while this expresses the idea in- 
volved, it is a misleading name because the class sections that comprise 
each of these core groups are all drawn from the same grade. For example, 
five class sections of pupils and five or more teachers constitute an eighth 
grade core group under this plan. The staff members are one teacher each 
of English, social studies, mathematics, science, and art or practical arts. 
Teachers of music and physical education also contribute to core activities 
but are not necessarily a part of the core group. 

Each of these groups of core teachers has its own chairman and exer- 
cises a considerable degree of freedom in planning codperatively the activi- 
ties to be undertaken, and in arranging the use of the time at their dis- 
posal. Pupils also participate in this planning to a large extent. While core 
group pupils are scheduled for six periods each day, their teachers, with 
exception of physical education and music, are scheduled for only five. The 
remaining period is utilized by the teachers as a planning and conference 
period. Because the class sections that make up a core group are scheduled 
with a given group of teachers at the same periods for a major portion 
of the school day, it is possible to make many variations of time and place 
of meeting, to go on field trips and excursions without disturbing the 
work of teachers and pupils outside the group, and to engage in other 
types of educational activities that require a flexibility of schedule not pos- 
sible under conventional plans of organization. 

Careful consideration readily discloses that each of these three plans 
has the common characteristic of scheduling given class sections and teach- 
ers together to form core groups. In the first, some of the teachers work 
in more than one subject matter area. In the other two, each teacher deals 
largely with her own field of specialization. Present conditions of teacher 
training make this latter feature a distinct advantage for most schools. Each 
of the plans permits pupils to move from teacher to teacher as in a conven- 
tional schedule or to remain with one or more of a group of coéperating 
teachers for two or more consecutive periods during the day or a series of 
days as the teachers may decide. Obviously, this requires considerable ma- 
nipulation of the schedule for a given core group by its teachers. Through 
this procedure, the desired flexibility of schedule is obtained. It would not 
be possible in the average school using a conventional plan of organization 
because manipulation of the schedule for any given class section or group 
of sections usually disrupts or hinders the activities of several others. Either 
of the three plans described here permits a variety of schedule alterations 
within a core group without interference with the remainder of the school 
organization. 

It is sometimes necessary to use a combination of plans in a school 
or even within a grade. One Tulsa school uses a combination of the first 
and the third plans of organization to schedule a seventh grade of nine 











1939] 









ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 99 


sections. Five sections are organized according to the third and three on 
the first, while the remaining section is handled separately as a remedial 
group. An arrangement of this kind permits more effective use of teacher 
time and makes it unnecessary to schedule core groups of teachers in two 
different grades. 

The second plan can be used effectively in grades where pupils have 
a choice of one or more electives. It is being used with core-groups in 
Tulsa Central High School, a senior high school, for the third year. The 
junior high schools of Tulsa permit ninth grade pupils to choose two elec- 
tive subjects in addition to the general education program. The second 
plan is particularly useful in a situation of this kind because it permits 
electives to be placed in the schedule more easily. Where large numbers 
of pupils elect a given subject such as, for example, algebra, this subject and 
the teacher of it can be included in the core organization, sometimes with 
considerable value to the pupils. 

The first plan or some modification of it seems to be more practical 
than the others for small schools that have less than five class sections en- 
rolled in each grade. While it requires teachers to handle more than one 
subject matter area, this is frequently true also when a conventional plan 
of organization is used in small schools. It offers the distinct advantage of 
permitting core groups to be organized with a few teachers in each. 

Because of the unique significance and importance of the daily con- 
ference period in the general education program that is being developed 
in Tulsa, each of the seven junior high schools has included it in the daily 
schedule. In some cases, it has been possible to do this only by providing 
a period at the beginning of the day when all teachers are free to meet. 
Other schools provide free periods for groups of core teachers during the 
school day in which these conferences are held. The larger schools find it 
possible to do this more readily than the smaller schools. Whatever plan 
is used, the conference period is considered an essential part of the teach- 
ers’ daily schedule. 

Guidance activities are greatly facilitated by either of the three plans 
of organization described above. Teachers and pupils work together in 
closely knit groups. Naturally they come to know each other well. The 
daily conference period is often used for case conferences by the teachers. 
Core groups, both teachers and pupils, in a large measure continue intact 
throughout the three years the pupils are in the junior high schools. In 
most schools, teachers serve as advisers of the pupils in their core groups, 
and an effort is made to have each teacher understand the problems of 
guidance and to assume considerable responsibility for it. All of these fac- 
tors operate to make the core group plans discussed here as valuable for 
the development of guidance as for the other phases of an integrated edu- 


cational program. 








100 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ March 


In conclusion, it should be re-emphasized that the plans of organiza- 
tion described here are far from perfect, but they present a distinct advance 
in overcoming some of the administrative difficulties that tend to hinder 
educational programs that promote integration. Each school offers unique 
problems that must be solved. Many modifications, adaptations, and com- 
binations of the plans as outlined have to be made. Within core groups, it 
is possible for teachers to manipulate the schedule and the class sections in 
a manner that provides a much greater degree of flexibility than can be ob- 
tained when conventional schedules are used. The conference period 
greatly facilitates curriculum development of the integrated type, improves 
guidance programs, and offers a useful vehicle for training teachers in the 
new techniques required. Experience in Tulsa indicates that under present 
conditions a program of education that seeks to promote integration of pu- 
pils can hardly be successful unless frequent conference periods are pro- 
vided in some manner for the teachers involved. 


Administrative procedure must keep pace with other phases of sec- 
ondary education if the secondary school is to meet the challenge that 
faces it. There is a decided danger that conventional administrative prac- 
tices will throttle programs that promote integration in their infancy. The 
departure from the usual procedures presented in this discussion should at 
least stimulate constructive efforts on the part of others who face similar 


problems. 


READING AND REMEDIAL READING IN A JUNIOR 
HIGH SCHOOL 


C. Erwoop Drake 
Director of Research and Guidance, Newton Public Schools, 
Newton, Massachusetts 
This paper is concerned with the problem of teaching junior high 
school pupils how to read. I presume that the majority of you will 
agree with me that there is abundant evidence to show that many of our 
junior high school boys and girls need instruction in the reading skills. 
The fact that pupils have been promoted from the sixth grades into our 
junior high schools has not in any way guaranteed to us that these 
pupils have acquired the reading skills necessary te successful accomplish- 
ment in seventh grade work. If your schools are like our schools, you 
are having many pupils sent on to your seventh grade who are very 
capable seventh graders from the point of view of physiological develop- 
ment, chronological age, social maturity, proficiency in arithmetic or hand- 
writing—but who are only fourth or fifth graders as far as their reading 
abilities are concerned. 





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1939] ProceEeDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 101 


And we, as junior high people, are not wholly without guilt in this 
matter of promoting pupils to higher grades before they have attained 
that higher grade level of achievement in all skills, for we have promoted 
pupils into our eighth and ninth grades and even senior high schools who 
have not acquired the reading skills consistent with their grade placement. 
Of course, we have hastened to justify these promotions from other points 
of view than achievement in reading power. Our increasing respect for 
the whole child—that is, his social, emotional, and physiological develop- 
ment—our increasing concern for his mental health and stability, have 
caused us to justify our promotion of these pupils to higher grades even 
though we knew they could not handle effectively many of the reading 
assignments given to average pupils on those grade ievels. 

Reading surveys in our public schools in recent years have made us 
increasingly conscious of these reading problems in our junior high-school 
grades. These surveys have emphasized the wide range of achievement, 
the large percentage of pupils with serious retardation, and the large 
number of pupils whose reading ages are not equivalent to their mental 
ages. Take our own City of Newton for example. In September, 1935, 
we surveyed the reading abilities of nearly one thousand seventh grade 
pupils. The median grade level of reading achievement in that grade was 
at the seventh year, first month level, just where it should have been 
with a normal group. Yet the fact that our median was only at the 
seventh year, first month level indicated that approximately 50% of the 
pupils in the lower half of that class were not reading up to the level of 
the grade which they were beginning. The range of abilities of indi- 
vidual pupils in the total group ranged from the fourth year, first month, 
to the eleventh year, tenth month. 

Twenty-six per cent (26%) of those pupils were one or more years 
retarded in reading ability—that is, they read only at a grade level of 
6-1 or below. At the same time, 23% were a year or more accelerated— 
that is, they read at the eighth grade, first month level or above. Those 
great differences in reading abilities, those large numbers of pupils retarded 
or accelerated in terms of their actual grade placement, were not the 
result of any unusual or extraordinary factors. Similar studies of our 
eighth and ninth grades would have shown similar pictures. 

And a check on the intelligence of those junior high pupils revealed 
that reading retardation was not necessarily associated with pupils of low 
academic ability. A check on the intelligence of that total seventh grade 
showed a median I. Q. of 104; yet the median I. Q. of the 243 pupils 
who were a year or more retarded was 99, with a range from 71 to 129. 
ht was evident to us, therefore, that there were many pupils in that re 
tarded group who had the potential ability to read well. There were also 
many pupils in the average and accelerated groups who apparently should 








102 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ March 


have read better than they were doing provided we could hope that their 
reading ages should be equivalent to their mental ages. 


We made a check on the reading ages of pupils as compared with 
their mental ages in one of our large junior high schools. Among that 
group who were one or more years accelerated in reading we found 12% 
of the pupils whose reading ages were not up to their mental ages. 
Among the so-called average group, that is, pupils who were neither one 
year accelerated nor one year retarded in reading ability, we found 35% 
whose reading ages were not equivalent with their mental ages. In that 
group of pupils who were one or more years retarded in reading we 
found 76% whose reading ages were not up to their mental ages. There- 
fore, if we conclude that pupils whose reading ages are not up to their 
mental ages are retarded in reading power, then we may say that there 
is much retardation in reading skill in our so-called accelerated and 
average groups as well as in our slower divisions. 


You will note that I have not discussed this problem in terms of a 
remedial reading problem. When we first started our surveys of reading 
achievement in the junior high grades, we were very apt to speak of all 
cases of reading retardation as remedial reading problems. Perhaps we 
were still assuming that the pupils who were being sent on to us from the 


sixth grade should have mastered the fundamental skills of reading, and 
that in case they had not done so, the elementary schools had not done 
the quality of job they should have done. Therefore, we were obliged 
to set up a remedy for the situation. However, after working with this 
problem during the past three years, we have increasingly come to feel 
that in terms of present-day educational psychology and philosophy we 
are not so much justified in speaking of our program as one of remedial 
reading as we are of speaking of it as a straight reading program. To 
put it in another way, we have increasingly come to feel that the teaching 
of reading on the junior high-school level is a natural part of our regular 
instructional program and not a special activity which we are obliged 
to add to our normal junior high-school load because the elementary 
schools have not done a satisfactory job of teaching the reading skills. 
Throughout the remainder of this paper, therefore, you will note that 
in reference to present-day activities we speak of our reading program in 
the junior high school, not of our remedial reading program. But re- 
gardless of whether or not you prefer to speak of reading instruction on 
the junior high-school level as straight reading or remedial reading does 
not alter the main problem—namely, that there are large groups of pupils 
needing some reading instruction in order that they may successfully 
handle the other instructional material given to them in their regular 


junior high-school subjects. 








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ProcEEDINGS OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 103 






1939] 


Of course, in many junior high schools we have tried to meet the 
great range in reading abilities by placing pupils in some sort of homo- 
geneous groups and we have modified or enriched our regular curriculum 
materials to fit the abilities of these groups. Modification or enrichment 
of curriculum materials has helped to adjust our instructional program to 
the wide range of reading abilities on a grade level, but this modification 
or adjustment has only partially solved the problem—it has recognized 
reading differences but it may not definitely have provided for improve- 
ment of reading abilities so that each pupil’s reading age has become 
equivalent to his mental age. Our problem in Newton, therefore, was 
to bring about such improvement if possible. This paper will outline 
what has been done in our city during the past three years. Some of you 
who are faced with similar problems may find suggestions for procedures 
in your own school systems. Those of you who have already established 
a reading program in your junior high schools may see opportunities to 
help us in our next steps. 

As a result of our reading surveys we classified our pupils with 
reading problems into three groups: 
Those pupils who were one or more years retarded in reading 

ability and whose [. Q.’s were under 90. 
Those pupils who were one or more years retarded in reading 
ability but who had I. Q.’s of 90 or above. 


troup 3. Those pupils who were not one or more years retarded in read- 
P on ee - : - : 
ing ability but whose reading ages were not as high as their 


mental ages. 

A beginning was made by the appointment of a full-time remedial 
reading teacher for the junior high level. How could we use her services 
most advantageously. Keep in mind that Newton is a city of nearly 
70,000 people, with a school population of 12,000, a junior high population 
of nearly 3,000. We decided to work first with that second group of 
pupils I have just mentioned—that is, those pupils who were below their 
actual grade placement in reading ability but who had good potential 
mental abilities. To limit the size of our first instructional groups we 
selected for our special reading classes those pupils who had I. Q.’s of 90 
or above, but who were in the majority of cases two or more years 
retarded in their reading achievement. To 113 pupils we gave the Iowa 
Elementary Reading Test, a test somewhat diagnostic in nature which 
checks on six specific reading skills. From the results obtained, we 
selected 103 pupils for further intensive reading work. Each of these 
pupils was checked as to any physical deficiency he might have, including 
eyesight and hearing. This involved checks with the Betts Telebinocular 
Machine and with the 4-A Audiometer. On their Cumulative Medical 
Record Cards we found that some of the pupils had notations concerning 
heart trouble, gland trouble, poor teeth, and poor nutrition. As to how 
much influence these defects had on their reading ability we could not be 


Group 1. 


Group 2. 











104 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


sure for there were many other pupils with these same defects who were 
reading quite well. 

As a result of these tests and checks these 103 pupils were divided 
into 10 instructional groups. They were given two periods of special 
reading instruction per week from February to June. Periods were from 
forty-five minutes to fifty minutes in length. The greatest problem which 
we encountered with these first reading groups was the selection of reading 
materials which fitted their needs. We wanted to find reading materials 
of only fourth or fifth grade difficulty but of seventh grade interest level. 
Pupils in these special reading groups shied away from books which they 
recognized as fourth or fifth grade readers. They had a fear of reading 
something they had seen before or had attempted to read in the elementary 
grades. A check of publishing houses and our public libraries disclosed 
only a few publications which actually met our needs. Therefore, the 
special reading teacher was obliged to take small selections from many 
sources, to build her own work sheets, and to duplicate for her groups 
great numbers of practice exercises on the specific reading skills, such as 
the selection of a central idea of a paragraph, word meaning, location of 
facts, and use of dictionary. I shall not take time to review the published 
materials which we found helpful, but if you would like to know what 
they were we shall be glad to send you that information. 

That this special reading work with small groups of pupils with 
fairly good mental capacities was beneficial may be judged from the 
results of retests given to these pupils at the end of the school year, after 
four months of special instruction. Seventy per cent of these pupils 
showed gains of from five to thirty months in reading ability. The 
median gain of the total group was eleven months, or an average of seven 
months more per pupil than we could have anticipated even at a normal 
rate of growth. Even the thirty per cent who showed little or no gain in 
reading power appeared to exhibit better work habits and greater compre- 
hension on their weekly objective tests in reading at the end of their 
four months of instruction than at the beginning. Personal observation 
by the special reading teacher, comments by the pupils themselves, and 
comments by their other classroom teachers indicated that with few ex- 
ceptions these pupils gained noticeable power in the following traits: 


1. Ability to attack new assignments through written directions with- 
out further questioning of the teacher. 

2. Ability to work independently with books and newspapers. 

3. Ability to distinguish correct answers to a problem even though these 
answers might be given in a number of different forms. 

4. Ability to use a dictionary effectively. 

5. Ability to select the portions of assignments in which they needed 
special help. 

Successful as this special reading work might have been it was solving 

only one part of our problem. In our initial groups we had taken only 

















105 





ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 





1939] 


those pupils who were two or more years retarded in reading and who 
had I. Q.’s above 90. We had done very little for pupils whose I. Q.’s 
were under 90, or for those pupils of higher mental ability whose reading 
ages were not equivalent to their mental ages. Furthermore, we had 
worked only with the seventh grade. Our one special reading teacher had 
carried a full load; yet we felt that we had only scratched the surface of 
our total reading problem. Special reading classes were a good beginning, 
but they were not enough. It became more and more clear that the 
teaching of reading must become the problem of all teachers of academic 
subjects in our junior high-school grades—particularly of those teachers 
who used reading materials in their classroom instruction. 

Therefore, as a second step in attacking our reading problem a com- 
mittee of teachers and reading specialists developed a mimeographed 
bulletin entitled “The Specific Skills to be Developed in a Reading Pro- 
gram.” In this bulletin were sections on: 

1, The major objectives in a reading program. 

2. The specific skills in reading. 

3. Suggestions for developing these skills. 

Copies of this bulletin were placed in the hands of all junior high-school 
teachers in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. This bulletin was 
used as a basis for faculty discussions in the teaching of reading, and also 
served as a source of suggestions and devices for use in instructing pupils 
who were experiencing reading difficulties in any classroom. This bulletin 
emphasized the belief that every teacher in junior high school must ‘con- 
sider herself a teacher of reading as well as a teacher of a special subject 
field. It particularly stressed the belief that little of value could be gained 
by placing instructional materials involving reading ability into the hands 
of pupils who were not able to comprehend their meaning. 

Our research in connection with the establishment of the special 
reading groups on the seventh grade level led us to the conclusion that 
reading ability might well be used as one of the important criteria in 
placing pupils in homogeneous groups for regular instructional purposes. 
Up to this time we had formed our seventh grade ability groups on the 
basis of sixth grade I. Q.’s and the sixth grade teacher’s judgment. There- 
fore, as a third step we introduced the Partial Battery of the Metropolitan 
Achievement Test at the close of the sixth grade. This gave us objective 
evidence as to the grade level and percentile rank of achievement in six 
subject fields, among which was one on reading comprehension. This 
objective rating of a pupil’s ability in reading comprehension, when tied 
up with his sixth grade I. Q., his other percentile ratings on his sixth grade 
“achievement tests, and the teacher’s judgment, gave us a better basis of 
seventh grade ability grouping. We could now put into ability groups 
pupils who had approximately the same levels of reading achievement. 















106 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


Reading became the primary criterion in group placement rather than 
intelligence. 

Furthermore, in order to make these sixth grade data more useful 
and available for the new seventh grade teachers of a child, these data 
concerning the pupil’s intelligence and achievement as he finished the 
sixth grade were recorded on his Cumulative Test Record Card, and were 
mimeographed for the teachers of each division at the beginning of the 
seventh grade. Therefore, each seventh grade teacher, on the first day of 
school, knew how every pupil stood in relation to every other pupil in the 
seventh grade in mental ability and academic achievement. 


The reading comprehension test which had been given to pupils near 
the end of their sixth grade gave us only a general picture of a child’s 
reading ability as compared to other pupils. It enabled us to place pupils 
into fast, average, or slow divisions. In order that we might work more 
advantageously with the reading problems of pupils it became necessary 
that we have much more information as to their specific reading weak- 
nesses. We needed a diagnostic reading test. Because of the size of the 
problem, however, it was decided to work only with those divisions in the 
lower half of the class, that is, with those pupils whom the survey test 
showed to have some amount of retardation in reading ability. Therefore, 
as the fourth step in our attack on the reading problem, the diagnostic 
Iowa Reading Test was given to all pupils in the seventh grade who were 
approximately in the lower half of the total class. As I have already 
indicated, this test attempts to diagnose the pupil’s reading ability in terms 
of six specific skills. The results of this diagnostic test were then mimeo- 
graphed by divisions and given to all teachers of these slower divisions. 
Each division was analyzed in terms of its weaknesses and strengths. 
Therefore, teachers of a given slow division knew the strengths and weak- 
nesses of each division and of each individual in each division on at least 
six reading skills. 

Having all these objective data from the Metropolitan survey test, the 
Kuhlmann-Anderson intelligence test, and the Iowa Reading test in the 
first few weeks of school, the special reading teacher was able to detect 
quickly those pupils who apparently could profit most from special small 
group reading instruction. After consultation with the principals of the 
school these groups were formed quickly and were able to begin special 
reading work by October 1. Therefore, by running the reading survey 
test and intelligence test near the end of the sixth grade and the Iowa 
diagnostic reading test in the slow divisions near the very beginning of the 
seventh grade, we were able to start our special reading instruction for 
small groups four months earlier than we had done in the previous year. 
In our second year with the special reading groups we took those pupils 
with I. Q.’s of 90 or above, but who were one or more years retarded in 





1939 | PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 107 


reading achievement. Former guidance and test records of these pupils 
seemed to indicate that there was a likelihood of speedy improvement 
in reading abilities for these pupils if special small group instruction were 
given to them. 

Therefore, at the beginning of our second year special reading in- 
struction was being provided for small groups of junior high-school pupils 
who had good mental ability but poor reading power. The results of 
survey tests of reading had been placed in the hands of all seventh grade 
teachers. The results of the diagnostic reading test had been placed in 
the hands of all teachers of the slow divisions. Therefore, we next 
focused our attention on that group of pupils who had relatively low 
intelligence quotients, that is 90 or below, and who had definite retarda- 
tions in reading ability. In an experimental way we undertook to see 
what regular classroom teachers could do about improving the reading 
abilities of those slow pupils in as much as special reading teachers could 
not be provided for them. At first we worked with five slow divisions 
in one junior high school. 

We had already prepared the way for this experiment by making 
all of the teachers of these slow divisions conscious of the reading status 
of each pupil in their divisions. You will recall that these teachers had 
been given mimeographed materials listing the I. Q.’s and the reading 
achievement of each pupil on the six skills tested by the Iowa reading 
test. Each of these teachers had been given a copy of the bulletin en- 
titled “The Specific Skills to be Developed in a Reading Program.” The 
teachers of these five slow divisions, therefore, were now called together 
to discuss ways and means of improving the reading skills of the pupils 
in their charge. Representative teachers from each subject field suggested 
methods for improving skills and study habits in that subject field. Each 
department listed the skills which it felt it could develop most readily in 
coérdination with its own classroom materials. 

As the next step, special books and supplementary materials were 
purchased for these five slow divisions. Class sets of books were bought 
that could be used with several divisions. Special books were bought 
for the English, social studies, and science classes, but not for the mathe 
matics classes. 

In this experiment the instruction in reading skills was in most cases 
correlated with regular classroom instruction of a specific subject. 

In English, special attention was given to vocabulary building and 
vocabulary drill. The new books presented simple reading materials on 
an interest level suitable for seventh graders. Single copies of reading 
books were bought for the classroom libraries. Use of the central school 
library was encouraged and classes were taken to it for instruction in locat- 
ing materials. Indexing was also emphasized. 








108 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


In social studies, a book entitled “Builders of our Nation” had been 
selected as being admirably suited to the needs and abilities of slow divi- 
sions. A Miss Hall of Boston, developed work sheets for use with this 
book. These work sheets were definitely aimed at the improvement of 
reading skills as well as at finding factual information in this book. 
Vocabulary work was stressed. Classes were referred to the school library 


for simple research projects. 

In science, vocabulary building was stressed, as well as the power of 
locating specific information in the Science portions of reading. 

In arithmetic, the problems involving arithmetical computation pre- 
sented reading difficulties. Emphasis was placed on building a simple 
mathematics vocabulary. By gaining word mastery before problems were 
to be solved, problems involving the use of fundamental arithmetical 
computation became more meaningful. Difficult new arithmetical terms 
were stressed each day as they presented themselves in connection with 
new problems. 

In general, none of these subject teachers impressed their pupils with 
the fact that they were teaching or improving reading skills. Kather, 
these skills were expected to be an outgrowth of regular class work which 
had been adapted to the abilities and interests of these pupils. 

What were the results of this work with slow divisions? 

At the end of the year the Iowa Silent Reading Test, Elementary 
Form B, was given to all pupils in these five divisions. A study of the 
results showed that significant progress was made in the reading abilities 
of these pupils over an eight-month period. Whereas, 78 pupils were one 
or more years retarded in reading in September, only 43 pupils were one or 
more years retarded in May. In other words, 55% of these pupils who had 
been one year or more retarded made not only a normal anticipated eight- 
month gain, but an accelerated gain to the point that they could no longer 
be considered as one year or more retarded. In studying the five divisions 
it was significant to note that the greatest gains were made in divisions 
having the higher mental abilities. 

This experiment was so satisfactory the first year that it was carried 
on a second year on the seventh grade level. Again, in the second year, 
slightly over 50% of the pupils were accelerated in their acquisition of 
reading skills to such a degree that they were no longer considered as 
seriously retarded—that is, not more than one year retarded in terms of 
their grade level. It is interesting to note that when we studied the pro- 
gress made by these groups on each of the six specific skills measured by 
the Iowa reading test, we found the greatest gains over a year’s time were 
made on the skills of location of information and paragraph meaning. 
These had been the two greatest weaknesses at the beginning of the school 


vear. 





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ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 





1939} 


We are now in our fourth year of emphasis on our junior high-school 
reading program. Our success with special small group instruction on the 
seventh grade level has enabled us to expand the work to our eighth grades 
throughout the city. This permits a second year of special reading in- 
struction for those pupils who did not reach their capacity or normal 
grade level in reading power during their seventh grade, and allows us 
to bring in new eighth grade pupils who may have encountered serious 
reading difficulties during their seventh grade regular classroom work. 
Pupils selected for these special small groups are generally one or more 
years retarded in reading ability but have I. Q.’s of 90 or above. One 
full-time teacher is carrying this load. At present she has about 160 
pupils on the seventh and eighth grade levels throughout the city. We 
have not yet been able to extend this small group instruction to the ninth 
grades throughout the city as a whole, but a few serious ninth grade 
problems have been permitted to enter the eighth grade groups. Our 
experiences in the past three years with these small groups who were given 
special reading instruction have caused us to come to these conclusions and 


generalizations: 


1. Groups for special] reading instruction may be formed satisfactorily 
after a study of a pupil’s intelligence and reading achievement 
tests, conference with his classroom teachers, and conference with 
principals and guidance counselors. 

2. Pupils selected for special reading groups should have mental abili- 

ties high enough to profit from small group instruction. In general, 

pupils whose reading ages already equal or exceed their mental 
ages should not be in these groups. 

3. Pupils are sensitive about their reading disabilities but are quite 
willing to participate in reading programs which will help them 
to do better school work. At times some of them are concerned 
because they are losing class time in other subjects in which they 
are especially interested or in which they are not doing creditable 
work. So far as possible it seems wise to have these special reading 
classes meet during the study periods of the pupils. Where this 
is not possible a rotating program by which the classes come at 
different periods in successive weeks proves satisfactory. 

4. To conduct a satisfactory special reading program much mimeo- 
graphed material must be developed and presented to these small 
groups. Material based on articles in current newspapers and 
magazines seems:to hold the interest of these pupils best. Work 
books and regular reading books with simple reading concepts and 
easy vocabularies are necessary for quick progress. Books must, 
have an interest level consistent with the natural social and chrono- 
logical maturity of the pupils. The vocabulary difficulty of a book 
cannot be the only criterion on which it can be accepted for groups 
of pupils with reading difficulties. The important thing to keep in 
mind is the difficulty of the concepts which have been built up by 
these vocabularies. 

>. The first essential steps in the improvement of reading are vocabu- 
lary development and knowledge of word meaning. 

6. In the special reading classes, in particular, we find that if there is 

to be improvement in reading skill, first of all there must be much 

emphasis on improvement of study habits, involving settling down 












DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


to work rapidly, increasing ability to focus attention on a problem 
at hand for increased lengths of time, mental health problems in- 
volving emotional stability, sustained drive, calmness of approach 
to problems, and increased confidence in being able to solve prob- 


lems. 

This is our third year of work on the improvement of reading 
abilities in slow seventh grade divisions. The majority of pupils in these 
slow divisions have I. Q.’s of 90 or below and are one or more years re- 
tarded in reading ability. The emphasis on reading instruction in these 
slow seventh grade divisions has brought about substantial improvement 
for many pupils. One junior high school has now extended this emphasis 
on the teaching of reading skills to the slow divisions of the eighth and 


ninth grades as well. 
Results of our work thus far with these slow divisions has led us to 


these conclusions: 


1. Reading skills can be improved in any groups where teachers have 
been made conscious of the reading problems in that group and 
where administrative and instructional resources have been used 
to emphasize the need of teaching necessary reading skills first 
before undertaking to teach subject materials. 

Efficient reading instruction can be carried on with slow divisions of 
pupils by their regular classroom teachers. No specific periods need 
to be set aside in these classrooms for reading instruction. How- 
ever, for certain individuals in these slow divisions additional at- 
tendance in the special small group reading classes may be a great 
help. 

Improvement of reading skills should be a natural outgrowth of regu- 
lar classwork in the subjects which pupils on this grade level are 
taking. Teachers of these divisions should be made conscious of 
the specific reading difficulties of their pupils and should have a 
strong desire to improve their reading power. 

It is probably desirable that these slow pupils be grouped for all 
instructional purposes according to their level of reading achieve- 
ment. When all pupils in the slow divisions are at approximately 
the same level of reading achievement, it becomes a problem of 
teaching reading to those pupils as a class group rather than a 
problem of special reading instruction to individual pupils within 
that group. 

Success in teaching reading skills can be stimulated if proper instruc- 
tional materials with which to work are placed in the hands of 
teachers and pupils. These materials must have a vocabulary 
level simple enough for these pupils to comprehend and an interest 
level mature enough to hold their attention. 

Work books, teacher-made checks and tests, and competitive drills, 
are helpful devices in improving reading skills. Visual materials 
appeal to these pupils and they like to see their work and progress 
recorded in front of them. Constant written checks give pupils a 
greater sense of security and stability and they are enabled to 
know where they stand comparatively in each reading skill at a 
given time. 


Thus, looking back, we feel that progress has been made with two of 
our groups of pupils who may be considered retarded in reading: 
1. Those pupils who are one or more years retarded with I. Q.’s of 90 


or above. 
2. Those pupils retarded to any degree in terms of their grade place- 


i ment but who have I. Q.’s below 90. 





1939 | ProceEDiNcs oF TWENTy-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 11] 


Thus far we have not made an organized attack on the problem ot 
the third group of pupils with reading retardation, namely, those pupils 
who are up to their grade placement but whose reading ages are not equiva- 


lent to their mental ages. 

In conclusion, I would like to point out that reading in our junior 
high schools in Newton, therefore, has now been through about the same 
stages of development as many programs of guidance. Whereas, to-day 
we consider all junior high-school teachers responsible for general elements 
of guidance, so do we now consider all junior high-school teachers to be 
responsible for the teaching of reading. Just as our guidance counselors 
are specialists who work with problems requiring more time than the 
classroom or home-room teacher can give them, so does our full-time 
reading teacher act as a specialist with regard to reading problems. Just 
as guidance could not be separated from the total instructional program 
and placed in a separate compartment, so have we found it to be the case 
with reading. Therefore, a program which started out as Remedial Read- 
ing Program with most of its activities centered in the hands of specialists 
has now expanded to the extent that it is integrated with practically every 


subject in the junior high school. 


ADMINISTERING MODERN CURRICULUM PROGRAMS* 
J. Paut Leonarp 


Associate Protessor of Education, Stanford University, California 


More study has been made of the reorganization of curriculum 
materials than of administrative arrangements to make the reorganiza- 
tions function. If the modern programs are to become school practice, 
it is necessary that high-school principals understand the basis for the 
modern curriculum movement and make every effort to reorganize the 
administration of their schools to make these programs operate properly. 
To one studying the curriculum field it seems that four movements 
through which the curriculum has gone in the past few years are worth 
indicating. 

The first step in reorganization was pretty largely one which has 
been called the cultural epoch stage. Schools using this approach were 
endeavoring to secure an orientation to the culture of particular nations 
by enabling the child to get broad sweeps of major movements. These 
organizations retained their subject matter divisions and dealt with such 
things as the culture of Western Europe, the language and literature of 
America, and the development of American democracy. The next stage 
may be called the broad fields period, during which reorganizations took 


*The discussion herewith presented pertains only to the paper of Mr. Manley 
as the other two papers were not received prior to the meeting. 











112 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


place chiefly in the social studies, the sciences, and the humanities. 


Under these programs subject matter organization was largely retained. 


These courses .were sometimes known as orientation in physical sciences 
or in biological sciences, and orientation in American life, including the 
economic, social and historical aspects of the development of American 
culture. Following these came attempts at fusion, during which teachers 
in two or more fields endeavored to correlate their work. A teacher of 
American Literature, for instancce, would team up with one of American 
History and endeavor to work out the courses so that each contributed 
to the other. Music, literature, graphic and plastic arts, social studies, 
and science were largely included in these programs. 

The most recent attempt at reorganization is one in which the pur- 
pose is to develop what is known as the core curriculum. This core 
curriculum represents a selection of problems which teachers believe to 
be common to all boys and girls. The materials are drawn from an 
analysis of the needs of youth and the needs of society at large. In some 
places subject matter boundaries are disregarded; in others, organizations 
are proposed which pretty largely retain subject matter divisions but 
the essential ideas of each subject matter are related to some major pat- 
tern agreed upon in advance. 

The first three types of organization do not present any material 
difficulties of administration. It is only when one begins to break down 
subject divisions and to group previously taught subject matter under 
larger headings that the problem of administering such an organization 
takes on significant difficulty. Such problems as teacher insecurity, supply 
of materials of instruction, the scheduling of classes, and the granting 
of credit emerge as troublesome administrative issues. Let us look at 
each of these briefly. 

Teachers who have been trained in major and minor subjects in 
college and who have for a period of years been teaching these subjects 
in high school feel somewhat insecure when called upon to discover 
the problems of youth and to administer to youth needs by the selection 
of appropriate content from many fields of learning. The problem is 
even more acute in situations where the teachers have not built the 
major concepts underlying the reorganization of the program. ‘Teachers 
are rightly challenging the ideal of being called upon to reorganize 
completely their pattern of experience, especially.when this pattern has 
been built up over an extended period of time. 

This challenge, however, does not imply that the idea is prepos- 
terous or that the attempt to reorganize learning experiences in this 
fashion should be abandoned. It does, however, force the administrator 
to make ample provision for building power in the teachers to teach 
successfully the new courses. Several attempts are being made to pro- 





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1939] ProceEDINGsS OF TWENTyY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 113 


vide this kind of an in-service program of education of teachers. In 
some situations workshops are developed where teachers get together for 
a summer and collectively work out materials which they consider to be 
valuable for core courses. Another plan is to have teachers during the 
academic year or during summer develop what is sometimes called 
source units. These units represent the selection of desirable learning 
activities, appropriate reference materials, and suggested means of evalu- 
ation for each problem which is to be used in the core class. Other 
places ask committees to work during the school year by having daily 
conference periods where all the core teachers may discuss their problems 
and counsel with one another. Some schools are trying a flexible 
schedule plan whereby core courses are rotated so that each teacher may 
be able to teach the material with which she is most familiar. Some 
of these plans may be considered as transition steps. Certainly, those 
which tend to retain subject divisions and let the teachers teach the 
place where he feels most comfortable are of this type. On the other 
hand, extended work needs to be done in building power in teachers to 
handle core classes themselves, rather than to split the class into two or 
three one-hour divisions, giving each period to a different teacher. 


The problem of securing appropriate materials becomes quite im- 
portant where library funds are low. ‘Teachers seem to feel the need 
for more classroom libraries with core classes and the provision of this 
seems to mean supplying from $100 to $200 per classroom as a general 
rule. Much pamphlet material can be purchased, but there is a very 
definite need for assistance of the library staff and of other competent 
help to aid the teacher in finding appropriate core materials, in mimeo- 
graphing materials, and in arranging the desired settings within a given 
classroom. There is also need for assistance in supplying visual aid and 
in handling smaller groups for excursions. Some school systems are 
making very definite budgetary provisions for substitute teachers to do 
work of this character. Other schools are using cadet teachers from 
teacher training institutions, and others are adding to their libraries and 
secretarial staff. Frequently this plan seems to have merit over the one 
of dividing reasonable sized classes into smaller groups and employing 


additional teachers. 

The problem of scheduling becomes complicated where subject mat- 
ter lines are to be broken down and when classes are to extend over two 
or three successive hours. Many experimental schools believe the most 
satisfactory arrangement from the teaching angle where the problem 
of teacher security has been met is to schedule blocks of pupils with 
“certain teachers for about two hours, thus giving each teacher two dif- 
ferent groups and saving the fifth hour for conferences among all the 
The plan of scheduling teachers by having them rotate 


core teachers. 











114 DeparRTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


offers considerable difficulty, as well as any plan which sets out to re- 
combine certain subjects. 


The problem of granting credit seems to be the easiest to solve. 
Some principals simply specify a certain number of units for each of the 
conventional subjects. Others make arrangements with colleges for 
giving credit for certain fields for each core course pursued. Where the 
pupil is not going to college, the problem of granting credit should be 
worked out directly with parents and the core course should be specified 
on the reports. Where the pupil is going to college, and arbitrary de- 
cision as to the amount of credits should be made by the school, or an 
agreement may be reached with the college to which most of the pupils 
are going. In developing core courses, one cannot overstress the im- 
portance of keeping adequate cumulative records of pupils’ development, 
as well as of the types of experiences each class has met. If I may be 
permitted an aside, it is this, that the cumulative record is not satis- 
factory until it has started with the pupil in the kindergarten, followed 
him through all of his high-school years, and graduated with him at 
the end of his school career. 


Mr. Manley has mentioned some things of which I should like to 
approve most heartily. He has suggested that the development of cur- 
riculum materials is a very valuable experience for all teachers. I should 
like to add that it is likewise a very valuable one for principals. He 
has indicated that he approves the trend of cutting across subject matter 
lines in the building of core courses. If the problems and needs of 
youth are to be dealt with in the secondary schools and if the pupils are 
to be guided as he has suggested, all teachers must study means whereby 
this can be achieved. Subject matter lines need to give way to basic 
principles of reorganization in harmony with the needs of youth, and 
sufficient codperation among teachers must be expected to enable the 
program to succeed. The development of an adequate in-service train- 
ing program is necessary, and time must be granted to the teachers to 
do the deliberation and creative thinking that is necessary to produce 
adequate reorganizations. Our core courses cannot stand the test of 
critical thinking unless they represent the best collective judgment and 
research of our teachers. If society is interested in a reorganized school 
system, it must not throw the entire responsibility for such reorganization 
upon either the leisure time or the personal financial power of the 
teacher. A lack of appropriate time to develop courses adequately con- 
stitutes one of the reasons for the feeling of insecurity which many 
teachers have. I should like also to approve of the emphasis upon ade- 
quate school supplies and the construction of appropriate buildings, as 
well as the emphasis upon the very vital part which school adminis- 
trators have to play. 





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1939] ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 115 


It seems worth while to indicate that the many interpretations of 
terms is somewhat confusing. The term “general education” is usually 
applied to both core work and special interest courses which the pupils 
may pursue in the secondary school. There may be some doubt of the 
wisdom of using the term “general education” and “core courses” synony- 
mously. 

I should like to express some concern over considering the core 
courses as a convenient way of grouping any previously organized sub- 
jects, such as science, English, social studies, or mathematics. While this 
may, as I previously indicated, be for some an intermediate step it should 
be clear in the minds of those who use it that if the ideal of the core 
courses, as it now exists, is to be realized, evidently this notion of com- 
bining subject fields needs to be abolished. Tulsa is experiencing some 
difficulty with this in one of those plans where it takes each unit, breaks 
it up into four parts such as mathematics, science, English and social 
studies, and allows each teacher to take one part for teaching. Movements 
should be away from this as rapidly as possible. 


In a curriculum movement it is necessary first to decide what the 
important problems of youth are which society should serve through the 
school. This needs to be followed by a definite attempt on the part 
of the school to exercise leadership in community reorganization of all 
educational forces having part in the development of youth. When 
these problems are discovered and some general policy is set up regarding 
the relationship of all social institutions within the community, ample 
provision must be made for carrying out this program. Any modern 
curriculum organization requires teachers who are far more competent 
than the average teacher in the past, and requires also more and different 
kinds of school equipment. When these prior decisions are made (and 
all school and community leaders should share in making them), the 
administrator, if he adequately discharges his function, should make it 
possible for the desired organization to succeed. The scheduling of classes 
should take no prior consideration to the needs of the curriculum program. 


SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL DIVISION 


The Senior High-School Group in Club Room B of the Public Audi- 
torium, presided over by Oscar Granger, Principal of Haverford Town- 
ship High School of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, was called to order 
promptly at 2:00 p. M. 

Mr. Herbert G. Espy, Professor of Education in Western Reserve 
University, graciously consented to take Francis T. Spaulding’s place on 
the program, and spoke to the subject, Significant Contributions from the 
New York State Regents’ Inquiry. 








116 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NEW YORK STATE 
REGENTS’ INQUIRY 


Mr. Hexpert Espy: You are very kind. 

I told Mr. Spaulding a little while ago that probably I might be 
through here very early. I suspected that the major part of this audience 
would remove itself from this room and wait until the second speaker is 
on deck. 

Fortunately I have here to-day a rather detailed outline which Dr. 
Spaulding himself prepared for this talk and I shall perforce refer ‘to this 
outline very frequently. 

Mr. Brooks, who is sitting here in the front row, when he saw the 
handwriting on the sheet, immediately identified it as Spaulding’s; he 
looked at the first page and said, “I would like to copy all of that; I wish 
that as you come to these points, point by point you would pause and 
read them slowly so that I can take them down.” I don’t know whether 
I can do that, but I shall have to refer to this outline frequently. That 
may make things a little bit less smooth than they would otherwise be, 
but I want as far as I can to say as faithfully as I can, what I think Spaui- 
ding would wish to say if he were here. 

This outline covers only a small part of what you will find if you will 
read Spaulding’s report on the secondary education investigation carried 
on under the Regents’ Inquiry. The title of that book is “High School 
and Life”; it is a recent publication of McGraw-Hill, although I get no 
cut from them I am glad to urge you to examine that book if you have 
opportunity. There will be a good deal in it which will not appear here 
to-day. 

Now just a brief word about the purposes of the study of secondary 
education, under the Regents’ Inquiry. 

In the first place it was to determine whether or not the secondary 
schools in New York are good or whether they are not good. That seems 
like a very obvious thing to say. There was no desire to find out whether 
the schools were better than the average of secondary schools in the coun- 
try; there was no desire to find out whether they were as good as schools 
might be, or worse than schools might reasonably be expected to be; there 
was the desire to discover whether or not the schools are doing in New 
York State a job which is good for New York State or not good for New 
York State. 

In the second place it was hoped that it would be possible to make 
certain recommendations for the improvement of the schools. We just 
took it for granted that the schools would not be perfect and it seemed 
to be expected that an inquiry ought to have some recommendations to 





1939] ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 117 


make, but I shall not have very much to say here about the recommenda- 
tions, but rather the findings. 

The methods used in conducting this inquiry will perhaps elucidate 
somewhat these purposes. 

The primary approach was to discover if possible the social compe- 
tence of the boys and girls who are leaving in New York State, the second- 
ary schools every year. This was, I think, something of a departure from 
customary survey procedure. Before there was any effort to examine the 
schools themselves by visitation or questionnaire or other resort, it seemed 
desirable to find out what boys and girls like when they leave these schools, 
whether they leave after having been graduated or whether they drop out 
somewhere along the way. In either case their formal education has 
usually been ended and they go out to take their place in the community 
for good or for ill, regardless of whether or not they have received di- 
plomas. 

In getting evidence with respect to the social competence of these boys 
and girls, a variety of approaches was used. In the first place there was 
a pretty extensive survey testing program, covering some fifty-three thou- 
sand boys and girls who were presumably about to leave school, whether 
they happened to be in the tenth grade, the eleventh grade, the twelfth 
grade, or whether they were registered as p. g.’s. When we found in any 
considerable school that there were a considerable number of people leav- 
ing those grades we tested those grades, not so much with a measure of 
some academic procedure but also to consider the kind of understanding, 
the kind of ability which seemed to make for social competence—using 
that term in its broad sense. 

There were also in addition to these test evidences, reports from the 
schools themselves. The schools of the state were invited to submit to the 
inquiry reports on all the individuals who left school during one calendar 
year, over three hundred of the some nine hundred secondary schools in 
the state volunteered to do that, and we had reports on some fifty-three 
thousand boys and girls who had left school, individual reports requiring 
a good deal of time and effort on the part of the teachers who knew these 
youngsters. 

In addition to that information and partly as a check on it, there were 
personal interviews with over two thousand of the boys and girls,—they 
had all been tested; they had been reported on by the schools—personal 
interviews with them, with their employers if any, and with other adults 
who knew them, to find out more about them, and also as I have said to 
serve as a check on the other information got through testing and through 

- reports from the schools. 

Some people said that school people didn’t know the youngsters and 

if they did know them they would not tell the truth. We weren't sure 








118 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


whether that accusation was justified, but we thought we ought to be pre- 
pared to indicate whether or not it was. 

Now what about the findings, with respect to the social competence 
of these youngsters? It seemed to us most important to consider their 
readiness for citizenship, and we went at that from a number of stand- 
points. It can fairly be said that the boys and girls who left these second- 
ary schools probably know more about the facts of American history than 
do most adults in this country. They know for example that it was Her- 
bert Hoover who distinguished himself in the food administration at the 
time of the World War; they can tell us a good deal about the structure 
of the American Government as it is presented in civics, in government 
textbooks. They are familiar with the particular events of American his- 
tory. It can fairly be said, however, that they are much less familiar with 
the governmental and political conditions in their own communities at 


the present time. Most of them are acquainted with the political bias or 


affiliation of the community, but most of them do not know what is the 
political bias of the local newspaper or newspapers. Most of them do not 
know for example how the birth rates in their community compare with 
those in other communities; they do not know whether electrical rates 
are higher or lower than in other communities, and even in those New 


York State communities where social conditions are almost pathologic, 
that is where community life is sadly declining, the youngsters there seem 
quite unaware of any differences that there might exist between their 
towns and other towns. 

By and large we can say that they are almost completely ignorant of 
the political, social, industrial conditions in their own home towns. 


Now with respect to world affairs they are fairly intelligent concern- 
ing the headline characters in the news. They are, by and large, not 
very well acquainted, however with what might be called underlying con- 
ditions. 

For example most of these youngsters leaving school in New York 
State attached no significance to the time when Roosevelt was inaugurated; 
they seemed not to have heard very much about the lame duck amend- 
ment. They know Hitler of course, although we did not ask them about 
Hitler at the time this survey was conducted a couple of years ago. They 
know the headlines, but they seem to be ignorant of what goes on be- 
neath the headlines. 

Their familiarity with the traditional rights of American citizens is 
comforting. They know what is meant by free speech and freedom of 
assembly. I should say they understand those things and they are dis- 
posed to give at least lip service to them. Those who question the princi- 
ples of our young people may take comfort in the fact that these young- 




















1939 | ProceEDINGs oF TWENTyY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 119 


sters at least seem to know what we mean by the democratic way of life 
in America. 

In connection with that matter there were given to these youngsters 
some tests, special tests to see whether they could identify in school con- 
ditions, things that went on right in the school or in local community, con- 
ditions, exemplifications of these democratic principles. For example the 
pupils were asked: suppose that the youngsters in this school were com- 
pletely dissatisfied with the management of their student council affairs, 
what should they do? 

They were given a number of choices and asked to: 

Have the whole thing turned over to the principal. 

Fire all the officers and reprimand them severely. 
and a number of other alternatives. 

They were also asked to suppose that a prominent and successful busi- 
ness man, well qualified for public office were asked to accept the nomina- 
tion for public office at the cost of personal inconvenience, and inconveni- 
ence in his business, what should he do? 

Well, these youngsters by and large recognized what would be the 
American thing to do but they said if he were smart he would decline 
the nomination. These youngsters by and large, and increasingly so as 
they remained longer in school, declined for themselves to take any incon- 
venience or to put forth effort in behalf of the general welfare. 

Now that is a pretty strong statement. 

The junior high school boy or girl in a good many cases, I should say 
about one-half of the junior high school pupils said that they would 
gladly give some of their time to cleaning up the school grounds if neces 
sary; they believed that a citizen should go to some inconvenience to help 
beautify a public square near his own home, but as these youngsters went 
on further through school when they got to be seniors, fewer of them were 
willing to undertake such measures at the cost of their own convenience. 

Those things are illustrative—the things I have mentioned are merely 
illustrations—of what seems to be a decline in the willingness of these 
boys and girls conscientiously to inconvenience themselves for the general 
welfare. 

We don’t know what the sources may be, but somewhere, cither in 
school or out of school, these boys and girls seem to have applied the 
philosophy which as the report has it is, “Let George Do It.” 

After these boys and girls leave school they show no great tendency 
to participate in what might be called civic or social affairs: as a matter 
of fact only a minority of them are members of any organized group; 


“about one-sixth of these boys and girls are usually members of some sort 


of religious or church organization. .Smaller percentages are members of 
boy or girl scout or similar youth ‘organizations. As I remember about 











120 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ March 


one-twentieth, maybe it is a few more, I cannot remember whether it is 
one-sixteenth or one-twentieth of the boys and girls in rural communities 
are members of Future Farmers organizations or 4-H Clubs, and things of 
that type, but by and large these youngsters are without direct affiliation 
with organized groups of any sort. 

In general the youngsters who have left school are without much 
contact with adults, either as individuals or adult agencies, from which 
they might wisely and sensibly get assistance and advice. 

In the personal interviews with these boys and girls there was a rather 
striking fact which appears again and again. The boy who was asked 
what his problems are in many cases said that he hadn’t any, even though 
he was out of a job, loafing, wondering just when his chance would come, 
he would say: “No, I haven’t any problems.” 

“Well, to whom would you go if you did have a serious problem?” 

The typical answer was, “I woudn’t go to anyone, I would stand on 
my own feet, I solve my problems myself.” 

You cannot help but admire that independence of spirit, but when 
you consider the situations that many of these youngsters are in, we might 
be more comfortable if they had the disposition and habit to consult older 
people, perhaps if only to get good advice from them. 

Many of these youngsters seem not to have the idea that there was 
any place where you could go for advice. A good many mentioned the 
school, although they said that the people in school were so busy that 
they would not wish to bother them or the people in school were good 
guys but they wouldn't have time, or they might not know in some cases, 
what these youngsters were up against. In general the youngsters said, 
and they seemed in most cases to be right, that their parents had enough 
on their minds without having to bother too much about the problems 
that their sons and daughters were up against. 

In a good many cases, I should say in the majority of cases of boys 
and girls who were unemployed and out of school, parents reported that 
they didn’t know where the son or daughter could be found, that he would 
be back supper time, and he would be there to sleep, but they did not 
know where he is now. The interviewers found the best time to catch a 
boy was about supper time, but by and large these young people out of 
school seemed somewhat adrift, without personal moorings and without 
very much assistance that they knew how to make use of. 

We considered also their readiness for making suitable use of their 
leisure and leisure was one thing that a good many of them had lots of. 
We tried to find out what their hobbies are and a good many of them 
reported: yes, they had hobbies. I think a typical illustration of the kind 
of hobby most of these people reported was that of the boy who said, 
“Yes I have a war collection; let me show you my war collection.” The 








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ProceEDINGs oF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 121 





1939| 


war collection turned out to be a trench helmet, a shrapnel case, a bayonet. 
He had had them for a good long while. I don’t know where he got 
them, but they were his hobby. In general the individual hobbies that 
these youngsters had were pretty much of that sort. A good many of 
them, however, go in for group hobbies, involving social dancing, music, 
athletics, dramatics. Those things seem to have come pretty directly from 
the schools. We did not find evidence of a single French Club member- 
ship, although French Clubs are the most popular subject-matter clubs in 
New York State. I might go so far as to say that so far as our interviews 
with these two thousand leaving pupils were concerned we did not find a 
single pupil who reported himself as having been reading any French. 
French just was not mentioned in connection with any of that business. 

These youngsters do a good deal of reading, most of their reading is 
in the daily newspapers and in the less expensive magazines. A good 
many of the boys and girls when asked what they were reading would 
say, “I know what I should be reading, but this is what I am reading now,” 
and they would point perhaps to a pulp magazine, Liberty, Saturday 
Evening Post, Colliers. By and large they were not reading magazines 
of liberal opinion, for example about one in three hundred of these boys 
and girls who had left school mentioned having read either the New Re- 
public or The Nation. In general the character of their reading does not 
suggest that they are keeping alive or increasing whatever understanding 
of social problems they had when they left school, that is, they may have 
had considerable interest in what is going on in the world, but once they 
leave their reading is not of the sort to maintain what the school has given 
them, and if they have left without what they should have their further 
reading in most cases is not the sort of thing which would increase their 
understanding of social problems or their competence as citizens. 

These youngsters who have left school listen a great deal of the time to 
the radio, as a matter of fact many of them spend more time at that than 
at any other one thing. The things they listen to chiefly are the variety 
programs, many of them sponsored by the manufacturers of quickly pre- 
pared soups and desserts. 

As I remember Boake Carter who was on the air at that time ranked 
about twenty-fourth; the Town Meeting of the Air, the Farm and Home 
Hour, and Lowell Thomas were tied for eighty-fourth place, that is among 
the programs that these people habitually listened to Jack Benny—by-the- 
way, Charlie McCarthy was not then in the limelight—Jack Benny and his 
confreres were right up at the top. 

By and large the radio listening of these youngsters is not the sort 
of thing which promises to increase their social competence greatly. In 
fact it is chiefly a matter of relaxation and perhaps I should interpolate by 
saying that we see no objection to relaxation as such. 





oo 





122 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


In general these youngsters after they have left school seemed to have 
very little opportunity to carry on any active interests which the school 
may have developed. With respect to their preparation for further learn- 
ing, you may be interested in knowing that these youngsters are thoroughly 
sold on the value of schooling. Some people have thought that a good 
many youngsters are fed up with school, that they want to get away and 
have something different, but if these youngsters are a typical sample, the 
one thing that you can say about most of them, most emphatically is that 
they think that school is fine stuff; they want more of it, and if you ask 
them about their ambitions, many of them, in fact I should say the major- 
ity of them want to go on with their future schooling of some sort. In 
fact they have the idea that if you want to learn anything the way to do it 
is to sign up for a course, the idea of learning something on your own or 
learning something for fun does not appear very often. 

Their chief reason for wishing further schooling, whether they are now 
definitely enrolled or whether they are hoping or planning to attend, is 
personal advantage, usually vocational. 

One of the members of the inquiry in this connection made quite an 
extensive study with the sponsorship and assistance of the Principals Associ- 
ation of New York State, in an attempt to find out what things led pupils 
either to withdraw or to wish to remain in school. Next to the financial 
consideration which we can all understand, a very close second is the 
vocational motive. Youngsters planning to drop out of school say that 
they would return to school if they thought that that would help them to 
get a job or to get a better job, and youngsters planning to remain in school 
ordinarily say that they would drop out if they thought that by dropping 
out they could improve their chances to get a job or better job. The vo- 
cational motive is strong. 

Unfortunately many of these youngsters impelled by this vocational 
motive become the dupes of questionable proprietary schools, so-called 
schools of Diesel Engineering, Air-Conditioning, Engineering, Aviation, 
Beauty Culture, Photography, Dramatics—whatnot. Many of them doubt- 
less well-intentioned and substantial ventures, but many of them chiefly 
commercial, operating without very much consideration for the pupil's 
possibilities, aptitudes, take thousands of dollars from these youngsters who 
have recently left school. A good example is the case of a boy who with- 
drew from school, I think in the tenth grade. He had been in a commer- 
cial curriculum in school. He signed up for a course in electrical engi- 
neering; tuition was a hundred and fifty dollars. He had to give a note 
for the whole thing. After the third week he found that it took a knowl- 
edge of algebra which he had never possessed and he had to drop it. At 
the time our interviewer found the boy some months after, he was just 
about finishing up the payments on that hundred and fifty dollar tuition 





1939 


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1939 | PRocEEDINGS OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 123 
fee. That boy is not an exception at all. We found hundreds of boys 
in that situation, so that these youngsters seemed to have a lack of infor- 
mation about the kind of educational opportunities that are open to them 
and by and large they seemed to be involved in courses pretty much in 
proportion to the availability or existence of those courses nearby. If there 
are organized opportunities available they take them; if there is nothing 
near at hand they do not get them. They take what comes without very 
adequate planning. 

Most of these boys and girls are able satisfactorily to meet the busi- 
nessman’s criticism that boys and girls come out of school without being 
able to do arithmetic, without being able to write acceptable English, and 
without the other essential R’s. There are however a considerable propor- 
tion, we can say roughly about one-fifth of the youngsters in the senior 
classes these youngsters who are about ready to leave school, who seem 
unable to meet ordinary eighth grade standard of performance in the solu- 
tion of simple arithmetic problems, in written English usage. That is not 
a bad showing, and perhaps you say: well why mention it? Most every 
school has people who are below average. This is an illustration of the 
fact though that it seemed to be appropriate to find out how many young- 
sters were leaving the schools without having a fairly decent minimal 
competence, that is regardless of how good some of the youngsters may 
be, and some of these youngsters did beautiful work in their written Eng- 
lish, some of the letters they wrote were the finest letters I have ever seen, 
but what New York State has to concern itself about particularly is the 
fact that in many of the schools as many as twenty per cent of the high- 
school seniors cannot pass an ordinary eighth grade arithmetic problem 
test, at least they couldn’t at the time these tests were given in 1936. 

What about their readiness for jobs? ‘Their employers seemed to be 
much interested in them, fairly well pleased with them and they seem 
to be getting along all right. That is the employer seemed in general to 
have a fairly cheerful attitude toward these youngsters who come for work. 

The youngsters themselves are not so well pleased, not so well satis- 
fied, many of them shift from job to job; many of them of course are loaf- 
ing—have no jobs. A good many of them seem to have no idea about how 
you go at it to get a job. In fact some of the employers said that these boys 
ask some funny questions when they come to apply. Many said the most 
common question these boys ask, and the first question, is “Do you pay 
good wages here?” The employers seemed to think that the boy who asked 
that question first was not a particularly good candidate for a job, yet 
many of them said the boys turned out pretty well even though they had 


-asked the question. 


It appears that there is good reason why a good many of these boys 
and girls do not know very much about job opportunities, how to get a 












124 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


job, and one reason why they don’t, and I hope that not too many people 
from New York State who are here will be displeased at this. One reason 
why they don’t is that many of the secondary schools in New York 
State do nothing systematically about guidance. I want to register some 
exceptions. The junior high schools of the state are notable for the extent 
to which they do something about guidance; the vocational schools of the 
state ordinarily do much more than the academic schools do, and there 
are here and there throughout the state certain school systems which are 
doing notable work, it seems to us, in guidance and placement of young- 
sters. I see down here before me the superintendent of schools in one of 
those communities where we found a guidance office which seemed to be 
doing so realistic, so wise, so efficient a job, that it was an inspiring thing 
to be there in that community and see that job done. It illustrates that it 
can be done, but apparently the reason why a good many of these young- 
sters come out of schools without knowing much about what they are up 
against in the way of jobs is that the schools themselves ordinarily have 
not undertaken to do very much about it. 


I have mentioned particularly certain deficiencies or lacks in the out- 
of-school competence of these young people. I should like merely to men- 
tion now what seemed to be some of the reasons for these deficiencies, 
and I shall point out that perhaps the mere mention of the deficiencies 
themselves will tend to indicate what some remedies might be. 


In the first place the out-of-school influences upon these youngsters 
certainly have very little serious influence upon their attitude. For example 
they listen to the radio, they listen a lot; they read cheap pulp magazines 
to a very considerable extent, and those youngsters who seemed most 
handicapped, particularly those who dropped out of school early, give 
more attention to the movies and to the radio than do the more competent 
youngsters who remain in school longer, and who get along better when 
they leave. It is quite obvious that one of the strong influences on these 
young people is their radio listening habit. I don’t know that we can do 
very much about the radio; it is possible that the schools themselves while 
the boys and girls are there, can give some attention to the radio; perhaps 
help these youngsters to be more discriminating in their selection of radio, 
and movie. Perhaps I should have said that a good many of the young- 
sters who drop out of school early attend the movies about three times a 
week. If you ask them what kind of movies they go to they say they go 
to whatever happens to be on at the nearest movie house. It would seem 
that possibly the schools could do more to help youngsters make wise se- 
lection of these things while they are in school. 


Another explanation is the primary concern of the schools with aca- 
demic achievement, and academic—well, you might almost say motions. 
There are a good many schools where, when the principals were asked 





1939] 


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1939] ProckEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 


which students they could recommend to take their places as responsible 
citizens, recommended everybody who got a diploma, but practically every- 
body who had failed to get a diploma was not recommended for citizen- 
ship. In some cases we went to the principals and asked them: why is it 
that so many of these youngsters could not be recommended for citizen- 
ship? We got the answer immediately, “They haven’t got their diplomas.” 

We said, “What about these boys who were within two or three 
months of graduation when they left school, what is the matter with 
them?” 

“Well, they haven’t got their diplomas.” In the typical New York 
state secondary school there seems to be a great deal of reverence, devotion, 
to this business of accumulating the regents’ marks, the academic credits 
that bring forth regents’ diplomas, and the—I don’t know that I[ should 
say the over-emphasis, but the more or less exclusive concern with prepa- 
ration for the diploma itself seems to be one of the explanations for some 
of these deficiencies. 

Another explanation seems to be the tendency of the schools not to 
recognize the importance of out-of-school agencies, organizations, which 
could be capitalized while these youngsters are in school and after they 
leave. I take it that needs no particular explanation. 

Another apparent explanation is the tendency of the schools not to 
take any responsibility for a youngster once he has discontinued formal 
membership. This is a rather extreme example. In one of the large high 
schools of the state the principal said that he would be very glad to codp- 
erate with us in providing reports on the pupils who had left school and 
everything seemed fine. He wrote to us shortly however, and said, “I am 
sorry there is not anybody in our school who knows these boys and girls, 
who were graduated”—this was in October. 

We said there must be somebody. He said, “No, she is on leave of 
absence in Europe.” 

There happened to be some seven hundred boys and girls in that 
graduating class. He said, “We can give you their grades, we can give you 
their names; in some cases we can give you their street addresses, but that 
is all we can give you.” 

That is an extreme case. There were other instances in which the 
principal or some other school officer seemed to know all about these 
youngsters; as a matter of fact, we got one report that I shall remember 
a long time. The principal in a little village away out in the sticks in New 
York sent in a report. We glanced at it, and the principal had said: this 
boy is working in the cutting room of Warner Brothers. We thought: well 
that is doing pretty well. Later on we wondered whether he was telling 
a fairy story. We got in touch with him. He told us all about the boy and 
how he was coming along in Hollywood. The fact that he was in Holly- 








126 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


wood may have had something to do with his being so well known in his 
home town, but there were some schools that could give us all sorts of in- 
formation about what their youngsters were doing, but the schools didn't 
know nearly so much about what their youngsters did immediately upon 
leaving school as they had known about them while they were in school. 
That seems to be one of the explanations. 

Now what might be said of the general significance of this study of 
secondary education? 

I don’t know whether it has very much. I am disposed to think that 
perhaps there are two fairly important things in it, one certainly. I think 
it tends to illustrate the possibility of a pragmatic assessment of the accom- 
plishments of the secondary school. Many people say education is the 
substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen; it is in- 
tangible, you mustn’t examine us too carefully because these results we are 
working for, we cannot be sure about. Anyhow you will have to take it 
on faith. 

The American people are not now particularly disposed to go on 
taking too many things on faith; in fact, I might say you would suspect 
their ancestors had all come from Missouri; they are beginning to be pretty 
skeptical—they want to be shown with reference to school work. I say 
this because it certainly wasn’t my idea; I think that this attempt to study 
the secondary schools in terms of the pragmatic results, the characteristics 
of their products gives school people a handle to, a way of grappling with 
this problem of convincing the layman of the accomplishments of the 
schools, and demonstrating to the layman the ways in which the schoois 
perhaps need further strengthening and assistance; that certainly is one 
contribution which this inquiry may make. 

Another suggestion is that it demonstrates that the acceptance of an 
average is hardly a satisfactory way in which to assess the achievements of 
the schools. Although we made no attempt to find out specifically, I be- 
lieve these New York state schools are well above the average of the 
country. You say: well, they ought to be, especially if you live in New 
York, but whether or not they are above the average or not perhaps does 
not make so much difference. This study tends to call attention to the fact 
that the students who are perhaps well below the average of competence 
educated by the State are the important ones for us to be considering, 
whether they happen to be very few or very large. 

I hope that I have done at least one thing; I think it is possible I have 
—you may think: well, I understand so little of what was said, or I disagree 
with so much of what was said, that I think I would like to read Brother 
Spaulding himself, in his book, “High School and Life” and see what 
this business is all about. 


Thank you very much. [Applause] 





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1939] ProcEEDINGS OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 127 


Following Professor Espy’s presentation, the chairman introduced 
W. C. Reavis, Professor of Secondary Education of the University of 


Chicago. 


SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE 
MODERN HIGH SCHOOL AT WORK 
WituraM C. Reavis 


Professor of Education, University of Chicago 


Condemning the high school has become almost a pastime with many 
people in the United States. They criticize the high school on the ground 
that it lags behind contemporary social, economic, and political develop- 
ments and imply that it is rapidly becoming an “outmoded” institution. 
‘That some basis for the criticism exists cannot be denied, for there are in 
the United States to-day many high schools that have failed to make the 
adjustments which changing conditions appear to require. On the con- 
trary, it can be easily shown that the criticism is too sweeping in character, 
and that the critics are frequently guilty of mixing figures of speech. ‘To 
pursue the issue for a moment, it should be pointed out that the work of 
our poorest high schools should not be compared with the outstanding 
achievements in social, economic, and political organization and adminis- 
tration to the general disadvantage of all high schools. If mediocre accom- 
plishments in civil affairs and mediocre work in the schools or superior 
achievements in civil affairs and outstanding accomplishments in the 
schools are compared, the disparity implied on the part of the schools 
would largely, if not completely, disappear. It is therefore evident that 
the wholesale condemnation of secondary schools serves no useful purpose 
and that acquiescence in such general criticism by secondary-school lead- 
ers places them in an unfavorable position with respect to making specific 
improvements where needed. 

No one in secondary education looks to the poor or mediocre schools 
for leadership in the solution of current educational problems. The defi- 
ciencies of such schools are already well known. If not, they can soon be 
ascertained by reading the National Survey of Secondary Education. It is 
the remedies to the deficiencies that are at present matters of major con- 
cern, and for assistance in finding remedies we should look to the contri- 
butions being made by superior schools rather than to the implied superior 
achievements in social, economic, and political affairs. 

There are many outstanding high schools in the United States that 
are making significant contributions to educational improvement. Many 
of these schools were studied in the National Survey of Secondary Educa- 
cation in 1930-31 and their contributions appraised. While the influence 
on high schools in general of the appraisal of practices in these superior 











128 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


schools has not been revolutionary, there are good reasons for believing 
that the effects have been salutary and will continue to be beneficial for 
many years. It is therefore important that persons engaged in secondary 
education should look to the superior schools for leadership in solving the 
problems confronting high schools generally to-day. 

That many high schools are active in seeking solutions to their prob- 
lems is revealed in the recent report of the United States Office of Educa- 
tion.’ Of the 23,213 secondary schools reporting to the Office of Education, 
6,639, or 28.6 per cent, have undergone internal reorganization of a fun- 
damental character. By far, the greatest number of these reorganizations— 
3,936, or 59.3 per cent—were of the junior-senior and undivided six-ycar 
types. Obviously, this type of reorganization results in a greatly increased 
enrollment and provides a condition better adapted to the solution of 
secondary-school problems in the small and medium-sized communities 
than that provided by the conventional high-school plan. On the contrary, 
the divided high school, or three-year junior and three-year senior high 
schools, may offer advantages in organization and administration in larger 
communities not provided in school systems having the eight-year elemen- 
tary and four-year secondary plan. Evidently, then, nearly a third of our 
American high schools have, at least, made a gesture toward improvement, 
since it was shown in the National Survey of Secondary Education’ that 
the reorganized schools have attempted internal adjustments advocated by 
leaders in reorganization to a greater extent than the conventionally organ- 
ized schools. These adjustments were found to be especially noteworthy 
(1) in flexibility and comprehensiveness in the program of studies, (2) in 
the improvement of the scheduling of classes, (3) in athletic and non- 
athletic extra-curriculum activities, (4) in provisions for articulation, 
(5) in systematic provisions for educational and vocational guidance, and 
(6) in the increase in the qualifications of teachers in the junior high 
school unit.’ 

While it is generally admitted that the typical secondary school that 
has undergone reorganization as a means of effecting internal improve- 
ments still has large problems to solve before it reaches the standards of 
our most outstanding schools, nevertheless, the mere fact that the reorgani- 
zation has been effected creates a favorable attitude for further improve- 
ment on the part of administrative officers, teachers, pupils, and supporting 
community. Each of these reorganized schools may therefore be regarded 
as a potential contributor to secondary-school improvement. 

It is not my intention to imply that the regular high schools that have 
not undergone reorganization may not also be alert to the problems now 


Nessen, Carl A. Trends in Secondary Education, p. 8. United States Office of Education Bulletin 


No. 2, 1937. 
"Monograph No. 1. p. 55. United States Office of Education Bulletin No. 17, 1932. 


SIbid., p. 56. 








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1939 | ProckEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 129 











confronting the secondary schools of the United States and are not con- 
cerned with internal improvements. Some of the most progressive schools 
to be found are of the regular four-year type. Their leaders have been 
sentient to the needs of secondary-school pupils and have instituted im- 
provements of the most advanced type. This generalization is supported 
by the findings of the National Survey of Secondary Education, which 
revealed a considerable number of these regular schools reporting not only 
all the innovative practices of the reorganized schools but also other ad- 
vanced practices as well.' However, when all the high schools studied were 
considered as a whole, the difference in innovative practices between the 
conventional and reorganized schools definitely favored the latter group. 


Since the evidence shows that a considerable proportion of the high 
schools of the United States are engaged in various types of internal im- 
provements, efforts should be put forth to report their outstanding activi- 
ties in order that schools in general may be informed regarding the im- 
portant contributions that are being made. An example of such reporting 
on a small scale has been attempted by the editor of the School Review in 
the section entitled “Here and There Among High Schools” started in 
January, 1936. In twenty-five issues of the Review published since the sec- 
tion was started, one hundred eighty contributions have been voluntarily 
reported from schools distributed over thirty-nine states, the District of 
Columbia, and the Canal Zone. Approximately one-third of these contri- 
butions dealt with curriculum problems; one-fifth, with extra-curriculum 
activities; and the remainder with guidance, public relations, reports to 
parents, provisions for individual differences, internal reorganization, the 
school plant, and management. The attitude of the profession toward these 
contributions is reflected by numerous requests from administrative off- 
cers and teachers for additional information regarding the working of the 
practices reported. 

In the area of the curriculum alone, the phase of secondary education 
now presenting the greatest problems, the United States Office of Educa- 
tion’ reports the receipt of 699 published contributions since 1934. Five 
hundred ten of these contributions came from city school systems, ninety- 
five from county systems, and ninety-four from state departments of edu- 
cation. Each contribution received is listed in a recent bulletin of the Office 
of Education by subject, year of publication, and grade for which it is 
intended, with city, county, or state sponsoring the publication, and with 
special features of the publication indicated. For example, a 255-page cur- 
riculum in music published in mimeographed form in 1936 is reported for 
Long Beach, California, as possessing the following special features: “Of- 











































o ——————EE 
‘Thid., p. 57. 

SLeary, Bernice E. A Survey of Courses of Study and Other Curriculum Materials published 
since 1394. United States Office of Education Bulletin No. 31, 1937. p. 185. 



















130 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | Marci, 


fers a flexible guide for teaching choral classes, music appreciation, theory, 
instrumental music, piano, voice class, applied music, and Christmas con- 
certs. Presents practices and plans with suggested references for each.” 
Although the information presented in the bulletin regarding each con- 
tribution is brief, it is probably sufficient to indicate to the individual who 
is concerned with problems in the area under consideration whether or not 
he desires to secure the publication for examination and study. Thus, it is 
possible for administrative officers and teachers interested in curriculum 
improvement to familiarize themselves with contributions from other high 
schools at work. 

The Office of Education further reports in another bulletin’ that cur- 
riculum laboratories have been established in thirty-five institutions of 
higher learning for the purposes of collecting and assembling curriculum 
materials, for producing such materials, for advising and directing curricu- 
lum work, and for carrying on investigations pertaining to the curriculum. 
These laboratories contain numerous courses of study, special curriculum 
bulletins, textbooks, work books, units of work, tests, professional books, 
periodicals, and miscellaneous curriculum materials. Similar laboratories 
for curriculum study have been established by eleven state departments of 
education and by sixty-one city school systems. Hundreds of teachers, su- 
pervisors, administrators, and curriculum directors are reported as using 
the contributions assembled in these laboratories. 

The Office of Education states that many people from the field come 
to Washington to use the curriculum materials which it has collected, that 
many others correspond with the personnel of the Office regarding devel- 
opments in special phases of the curriculum, and that many more use the 
published list of available courses of study as a source of reference for 
ascertaining curriculum activities of different school systems. Virtually all 
those who consult the Office of Education are seeking guidance in the 
serious problem of curriculum construction and revision.” 

Numerous secondary schools are also represented by staff members 
in the various curriculum workshops held under the auspices of the Com- 
mittee on Evaluation of the Eight-Year Study of the Progressive Educa- 
tion Association and in the seminars on curriculum conducted in summer 
sessions of universities for the benefit of administrative officers and teach- 
ers from the field. While it is impossible to appraise the results of all these 
training activities for the personnel engaged in secondary education, the 
mere fact that so large a proportion of staff members are seeking specific 
training in the organization and use of instructional materials indicates 
that the high schools are attacking the problem of curriculum improve- 


ment on a wide front. 


“Ihid., p. 87 

TLeary, Bernice E. Curriculum Laboratories and Divisions, United States Office of Education 
Bulletin No. 7, 1938. Pp. v+433. 

“Leary, Bernice E., op. cit., p. 1. 





19 


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131 







ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 





1939} 







The specific areas of the high-school curriculum in which contribu- 
tions have been reported and are available for distribution are: social stud- 
ies, 114 contributions; English, 108; science, 60; mathematics, 48; business 
and commercial studies, 40; home economics and child care, 38; foreign 
languages, 34; physical education, 30; industrial arts, 26; health and hy- 
giene, 17; art, 16; music, 7; and agriculture, 3. In addition to the contri- 
butions enumerated, one hundred thirteen bulletins’ reporting general 
revisions of the high-school program of studies and ninety-two bulletins” 
treating special subjects, such as character education, safety, guidance, vo- 
cational education, and the like have been prepared and are available in 
printed or mimeographed form. 

Any detailed discussion of contributions from individual schools is 
impossible in a discussion such as this. Persons interested in specific con- 
tributions should arrange to spend a few days, or better still, a summer 
quarter in some curriculum laboratory or workshop devoted to curriculum 
study. Since most contributions listed in the Bulletin of the Office of Edu- 
cation can be purchased, individuals desiring to secure copies for profes- 
sional libraries in local schools or for personal use can obtain the materials 
desired by writing to the schools responsible for the contributions. 

Critical study of a number of the most significant contributions to 
the high-school curriculum warrants the following general statements: 

1. A considerable number of individual high schools scattered 


throughout the United States have already produced important contribu- 
tions in various curriculum areas and many more are at work on curricu- 


























lum projects. 

2. State and county leaders in secondary education as well as those 
in city school systems are engaged in a systematic attempt to reorganize the 
high-school curriculum. Contributions made through these efforts involve 
participation by many schools and by many administrative officers and 
teachers. It therefore seems fair to state that the large majority of the sec- 
ondary schools of the United States are being directly influenced by the 
contributions that are being made. 

3. Analysis of the forewords and introductions to the published con- 
tributions reveals that the teachers in the schools involved have played a 
major role in the improvement of curriculum materials. 

4. The large proportion of the contributions reflect the current 
point of view, namely, that the improvement of the high-school curriculum 
requires continuous adjustment to the needs of a changing social order. 
Many of the contributions are designated as temporary courses, tentative 


syllabi, and suggestive outlines.” 



















lbid., p. 5. 
bid, p. 8. 
Wbid., p. 15. 








132 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ March 


5. Experimentation and research in the field of the curriculum are 
being carried on in selected secondary schools, such as the group of thirty 
schools engaged in the eight-year experiment of the Progressive Educa- 
tion Association, in laboratory schools of departments of education in 
universities and teachers colleges, and in certain state departments of edu- 
cation and city school systems maintaining bureaus of educational research. 
Contributions emanating from these experimental schools as well as cer- 
tain individual schools under creative leaders will no doubt represent the 
most extreme departures from tradition and custom in curriculum mate- 
rials and in the reorganization of the program of studies. 


6. General objectives are stated in a large percentage of the contri- 
butions listed by the Office of Education. Most of the objectives are ex- 
pressed in terms of teaching purposes, although thirty-one per cent are 
stated in terms of pupil goals. Analysis of the contributions, however, re- 
veals that the large majority involve modifications in the learner’s atti- 
tudes and behavior, irrespective of the way the objectives are stated. Dr. 
Leary found that the acquisition of knowledge and skills in particular sub- 
ject fields is the objective in sixty-eight per cent of the courses, the devel- 
opment of attitudes and appreciations in sixty-six per cent, the development 
of specific habits and abilities in forty-five per cent, the promotion of en- 
riched living and social well-being in twenty-seven per cent, and the de 
velopment of personality in twenty-one per cent.” 


7. The curriculum is conceived as a series of courses, more or less 
isolated, and is organized by single subjects or groups of unrelated sub 
jects in the large majority of the schools that have made curriculum con- 
tributions. However, a considerable number of the schools have correlated 
several subjects or have attempted an integration of all subjects. Some 
schools encourage correlation through the initiative of the teachers. In gen- 
eral, the contributions reveal a distinct trend in the direction of a curricu- 
lum that provides unified experiences. 


8. The examination of a considerable number of the contributions 
to the secondary-school curriculum and the careful reading of the special 
features reported for the entire list prepared by the Office of Education 
should convince the most skeptical that the high schools are at work on 
the problem of improving curriculum materials. In the contributions al- 
ready produced are to be found new materials of instruction, study aids, 
suggestions for creative activities, titles of available references, lists of ap- 
propriate visual materials, and the like to stimulate learning and to vital- 
ize teaching. The conclusion is certainly warranted that many of these 
contributions compare favorably with the best achievements of leaders in 
social, economic, and political affairs. 


2] bid., p. 19 





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1939} PRrocEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 133 


Whether or not these curriculum contributions which have been 
judged to be significant are more effective in preparing pupils for citizen- 
ship and in training them for social competence than the curriculum ma- 
terials which they have displaced presents a task in evaluation that must 
ultimately be undertaken. On qualitative criteria of judgment many of 
the contributions appear to be decidedly superior to the courses supplanted. 

The time at my disposal allows little more than an enumeration of the 
most significant contributions of the modern high school in areas other 
than the curriculum. Since it is generally admitted that the contributions 
have been less significant in the area of the curriculum than in other areas 
of secondary education, this discussion will be concluded with a brief state- 
ment regarding the contributions considered as most important. 

1. It is generally recognized that the American secondary school has 
made a significant contribution in the organization and administration of 
those extra-class activities of pupils usually designated as the extra curricu- 
lum. This conclusion is strongly supported by the findings of the Na- 
tional Survey of Secondary Education, which shows that there are relatively 
few high schools, regardless of the type of organization, which do not 
support programs of intramural and interscholastic athletics” as well as 
numerous non-athletic organizations, activities, and clubs. These various 
activities make a strong appeal to pupils and when properly sponsored 
and articulated with curriculum activities, the vi:«'izing effect is recipro- 
cal. The development of programs of extra-curriculum activities in high 
schools have usually resulted in an increase in holding power for pupils 
and in the enrichment of their social experiences. The evidence available 
warrants the statements that participation in such activities in high school, 
when not dominated by sponsors, is believed by those who have partici- 
pated to develop desirable traits and characteristics in participants; that 
undesirable influences are considered slight as compared with the desirable 
influences; and that the experiences gained through participation in extra- 
curriculum activities are a necessary and normal aspect of young life.” 

2. The management of the student personnel of the American high 
school is an outstanding achievement in educational administration. For- 
merly, discipline was a serious problem in secondary schools, even though 
the schools were small, and the students were highly selected and were 
supposed to be dominated by the life career motive. To-day, with a het- 
erogeneous group of pupils many of whom are in school because of legal 
necessity, the old conditions with respect to discipline have largely dis- 
appeared. The explanation of the change is to be found partly in the pro- 


13Brammell, P. Roy. Intramural and Interscholastic Athletics. National Survey of Secondary Edu- 
cation, Monograph No. 27. United States Office of Education Bulletin, No. 17, 1932. 

MReavis, William C., and Van Dyke, George E. Nonathletic Extra-curriculum Activities. National 

Survey of Secondary Education, Monograph No. 26. United States Office of Education Bulletin, No. 17, 


1932. 
Reavis, W. C., and Van Dyke, G. E., lbid., pp. 149-174. 














134 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


visions for individual guidance and partly in the opportunities offered 
for pupils to bear responsibility in proportion to their ability to exercise 
self-control. 

It is now a most unusual occurrence for high-school pupils to become 
obstreperous and to defy school authority. Perhaps conditions such as 
those revealed in The Regents’ Inquiry in New York State, in which 
test evidence indicated that “boys and girls on the point of leaving school 

. are reluctant to assume responsibility for civic codperation, or to 
commit themselves to action which involves personal effort or sacrifice’™” 
may be common in typical high schools. At least, in high schools under 
efficient leaders, such conditions, if found to exist, cannot be charged to 
lack of democratic practices in school administration. A recent inquiry” 
directed to eighty-one selected high schools in twenty-eight states revealed 
that seventy-two, or approximately ninety per cent, provided for pupil 
government or pupil participation in the administration and control of the 
school. If the recommendation for the improvement of the condition de- 
scribed in the Regents’ Inquiry is correct, namely, that the straightest road 
to social consciousness is by way of pupil participation in school govern- 
ment—student councils, committees, and the like—then secondary schools 
appear to be moving in the right direction. The evidence on this point cer- 
tainly refutes the very recent statement of a prominent columnist who 
ascribed to the soundness of the recommendation of the Regents’ Inquiry, 
but insisted that the road to its realization would be a long one, because 
(quoting), “schools are models of the dictatorial system, and from earliest 
childhood we are conditioned to dictation . . . and in the heart of almost 
every man is a taste of tyranny.”™ 

My contention is that our pace-setting secondary schools, at least, if 
not a very substantial proportion of all high schools, have made a signifi- 
cant contribution in the organization of pupils for self-government and in 
the cultivation of democratic participation in school control. 

3. Closely related to the contribution of the modern secondary 
school in personnel management is that of pupil guidance. In this area 
great progress has been made in recent years. Most schools have some 
kind of guidance program, designed to assist pupils in securing fruitful 
information regarding future education and life pursuits. Furthermore, 
most schools attempt something in the way of advisement and adjustment. 
The quality of guidance services naturally rate from superior to unsatis- 
factory, depending on the character of the school and its leadership. But 
considering schools, by and large, a strong claim can be made in behalf 
of guidance. It has become a familiar word to the classroom teacher as 
well as to administrative officers. The responsibility for the service has 

Spaulding. Francis T. High School and Life, p. 4. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 193° 


17Reavis, William C. Unpublished data, April, 1937. 
180'Brien, Howard Vincent, The Chicago Daily News, February 22, 1939. 





1939] ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 135 


led to the appointment of special guidance officers and the organization 
of the teaching and administrative personnel to codperate effectively in the 
guidance program. 


The result is that to-day comparatively few pupils pass from the last 
grade of the elementary unit to the first grade of the secondary unit with- 
out receiving information regarding high-school offerings and opportuni- 
ties, and without the privilege of advisement when consultation is desired. 
Further information and advisement are generally provided as the pupils 
pass from grade to grade and from high school into college or into life 
pursuits. That the advice varies in quality with the wisdom and insight 
of the persons who provide the service is not a question of argument and 
dispute but rather a matter of disappointment and regret. The mere fact 
that the school undertakes to serve the individual and that the entire teach- 
ing and administrative personnel are rapidly undergoing training in this 
important responsibility is a contribution of significance not only in second- 
ary education, but of importance to the elementary school and college as 
well. 

4. Other areas in which significant contributions have been made by 
a much smaller number of schools than in those areas already discussed 
are: (a) the development of cumulative records and reports for use in 


pupil accounting; (b) the recognition of individual differences and the 
modification of instructional materials and methods to meet individual 
needs; (c) the establishment of closer relations between school and sup- 
porting community; and (d) the raising of the standards of recreation 
in school and community and the improvement of the uses made of 


leisure time. 

Evidence of contributions by numerous individual schools in one or 
more of the areas specified can be supplied to show that the progress of 
individual schools is always greatly in advance of the mass. This fact 
should give the leaders in secondary education great concern, but it need 
not make them despondent. If even the contributions of our pace-setting 
schools could be brought to the attention of the mass of administrative 
officers and teachers, the net result would be a challenge to action that 
would find its expression in a concerted attack on many of the baffling 
problems now retarding the improvement of secondary education. 


After a much-needed intermission for ventilation, the presiding off- 
cer introduced Dr. Edgar G. Johnston, Principal of University High 
School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, who read his paper. 








DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE COOPERATIVE STUDY 
OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL STANDARDS 


Epcar G. JoHNsTON 


University of Michigan; Field Representative, Cooperative Study 


I believe it is the considered conviction of those who have worked 
intimately with secondary schools—or for that matter with any other hu- 
man institution—that improvement comes, not from imposition or regi- 
mentation from without, but rather from increased vision and insight on 
the part of those responsible for the program. The contribution of the 
Coéperative Study of Secondary-School Standards is to be judged largely 
from the extent to which it has furnished stimulus to self-study and enrich- 
ment of pupil experience for those schools which have made use of its 
materials and its technique. Briefly, the procedure of the Study may be 
characterized as an intensive self-survey by a school, supplemented by an 
impartial review by an objective but sympathetic visiting committee. 

I can best illustrate its procedure by showing you with the aid of slides 
some of the materials with which the Study works and the nature of the 
information and the codperating school is enabled to secure about itself. 
I am taking it for granted that through the published information about 
the Study and Dr. Eells’ presentation to this group last year you are fa- 
miliar in a general way with the history and development of the Study 
up to the current year. 

You will remember that the General Committee of the Codperative 
Study set itself the task of securing answers to four fundamental questions: 

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

2. What practicable means and methods may be employed to evalu- 

ate 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? 

The chief instrument for enabling a school to study its own procedures 
is the set of Evaluative Criteria, which, in its 1938 edition, includes eleven 
sections and comprises a total of 152 pages of analytic data. 


EVALUATIVE CRITERIA 
Outline of Contents 
Basic Information 
B. Philosophy and Objectives 
C. Pupil Population and School Community 





















1939| ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 


Educational Program 


D. Curriculum and Courses of Study 
E. Pupil Activity Program 

F. Library Service 

G. Guidance Service 

H. Instruction 

I. Outcomes 


Staff, Plant, Administration 
J. School Staff 
K. School Plant 
L. School Administration 
It will be noted that the first two sections, referred to as Basic Informa- 
tion, involve the philosophy of the school—what it as a school conceives 
to be its function—and the characteristics of the pupils who constitute its 
student body and of the community it serves. These two sections serve 
as a sort of “frame of reference” against which the school’s performance 
in the other areas is to be judged. It is obvious that the problems of a 
small rural high school differ markedly from those of a secondary school 
in a metropolitan community or of a private school with the shadow of 
College Boards hanging over its head. It is the conviction of those in 
charge of the Codperative Study that an instrument designed to assist in 
solution of those problems should be sufficiently flexible to be adapted to 
various conditions and to take into account varying philosophies and com- 
munity situations. 
The other sections provide for a detailed review of the various factors 
which go into the making of a good school. It will be noted that major 


‘emphasis is placed on the different phases of the educational programs. 


Too frequently school excellence has been determined in terms of material 


equipment and administrative efficiency. 
The technique of the Study can best be shown by consideration of a 


sample portion of one of the component sections. 


THE SCHOOL ASSEMBLY 





CHECKLIS¢ ° 

(+) 1. School assembly programs are in large part given by pupils and 
by pupil organizations with pupils presiding. 

(O) 2. Assembly programs are planned so as to secure participation and 
contributions of many, not simply of the few. 

(—) 3. Assembly programs have definite entertainment, instructional, 
cultural, and inspirational values. 

(+) 4. Assembly programs are free from coarse and objectionable ele- 
ments. 

(+) 5. Assembly programs are characterized by a variety of presenta- 
tion, such as music, speaking, dramatization, demonstration, 
and exhibits. 

(—) -6. Assembly programs stimulate the creative ability of pupils by 
encouraging them to write and produce plays or other per- 
formances, design scenery and costumes, devise unusual exhi- 
bitions and entertainments, etc. 


















DeEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ March 


Correct audience habits are developed—no late-comers or early- 
ieavers; reasunapie applause, courteous attention to perform- 
ers; no disturbances, 

( ) 8. 
¢ 3 Be 

Number of school assemblies per year, 15. 

Length of assembly period, 30 minutes. 

EVALUATIONS 
(4) w. How adequate are the provisions for attaining conditions or re- 
sults such as the above? 

How effectively are these conditions or results attained? 

How actively and ertensively do pupils participate in the presen- 
tation of programs? 

Evaluate the quality of four successive assembly programs. 


(3) @. 
(2) y. 
(3) 2. 
Comments : 

12 


Average Evaluation=—=3.0 
4 


Figure I. 


Figure I presents a part of one page of one section—that dealing with 
Pupil Activities. You will observe that there are two distinct features of 
the survey presented here—check list items and evaluations. The items of 
the check list present what are generally accepted as sound principles ap- 
plicable to the conduct of school assemblies. Through use of the symbols, 
“1. “__” and “O,” the school presents its judgment as to the degree of 
attainment of these provisions or conditions in its own situation. It is en- 


couraged under Comments and through presentation of supplementary 
materials to indicate outstanding achievements, peculiar conditions, modi- 
fying factors, points of disagreement with the principles stated—anything 
which may contribute to a more adequate picture of the school’s perform- 
ance in this field. 

The school then presents under Evaluations its estimate of the success 
of its performance in the light of this review. The symbols used here range 
from “5,” representing outstanding achievement, to “1,” which indicates 
little or no success in the phase under consideration. 

Obviously, the intensive self-analysis provided by the study of its as- 
sembly procedures enables the school both to appraise more effectively its 
achievements in this field, and to plan intelligently for improvement. Simi- 
lar analyses are made for the other sections of the. Evaluative Criteréa 
which I described to you earlier. The school is urged to involve all mem- 
bers of its staff in some phase of the evaluation, and the experience of those 
of us who have been working with the Study this year has been that one 
result of participation by a school has been an increased interest of teachers 
in the entire school program. 

If the school does no more than to apply these criteria to its own pro- 
gram as conscientiously and objectively as it can, the results should be ex- 
tremely valuable. The technique of the Codperative Study, however, pro- 
vides two further steps which increase the validity of the analysis. The first 
is the review by a visiting committee. This reviewing board, appointed 





19%9] ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 139 


ordinarily by the state committee of the regional accrediting association, 
includes in its membership active administrators of other secondary schools 
as well as representatives of state departments of education and of higher 
institutions in the area. It spends sufficient time in the school—ordinarily 
from two days to a week, depending on the size of the school—to enable 
it to become thoroughly familiar with the procedures and instruction of 
the school. I shall not go into detail in description of the procedures of 
such a committee. You will find them fully discussed in Chapter VII of 
the monograph, How to Evaluate a Secondary School.* It may be observed 
that this review gives the school the benefit of the judgment of “outsiders” 
and serves the purpose of correcting errors of judgment due to complacency 
o: an inadequate standard of comparison. 

A further advantage comes to the school in the comparison of its 
effectiveness in the various areas included in the Evaluative Criteria with 
typical practice, through computation of scores and their representation 
on Educational Thermometers. I shall not go into the procedures used in 
developing these thermometers, since that has been exhaustively described 
in articles in various publications and in the monograph to which I re- 
ferred earlier.** I do wish to illustrate briefly the type of report which 
comes back to the school and the use which may be made of it for im- 


provement of the program. 

A sample thermometer is shown in Figure II (see p. 42, Butterin 73 
of the Department of Secondary-School Principals), in this case represent- 
ing the number of books in the library. You will observe that it is a per- 
centile scale, the graduations on the left side of the scale showing the level 
reached by the designated proportion of the schools included, while on the 
right are shown the numbers of volumes corresponding to these levels. 
You will also note that norms are indicated, showing the average score for 
schools grouped according to regions and other bases of classification. In 
all, one hundred such thermometers are given, enabling a school to compare 
itself with typical procedure in many details for each section of the Evalua- 
tive Criteria. 

The significance of these thermometers to a school may best be shown 
by presenting sample pages of the reports sent back to an actual school, 
in this case the median school—that one whose performance was excelled 
by as many schools as were inferior to it. 

The important thing in Figure III is the profile—the designation of 
strong and weak points. It should be a matter of concern to this school 
that in curriculum it reached only the 11th percentile, that guidance was 
at the 34th, instruction at the 30th, and outcomes at the 37th. The fact 
that it has an average plant and distinctly superior staff and library sug- 


*Cooperative Study of Secondary School Standards, How to Evaluate a Secondary School. Wash- 


ington, D. C., 1938. Pp. 55-62. 
**/bid., Chapters V, IX, X, XI. 











140 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ March 


gest that it is certainly not getting adequate returns from its “capital.” A 
study of the check list items which were scored as unsatisfactory in the 
evaluation of the school should enable it to direct its energies toward the 


improvement of those areas which rank low. 


SUMMARY 
OF EVALUATIVE CRITERIA 

































































EOUCATIONAL PROGRAM 
‘Cunnicucuw eee LIORARY © GUIDANCE INSTRUCTION OUTCOMES STAFF PLANT ADMINS TRATION ORAND 
ACTIVITIES TOTAL 
(200) (200) (200) (200) (200) (200) (200) (200) (200) (200) 
1. 1enH4 L - 
3 i FT 
"5 ae 4 
7 4A 98 atime co 
Loe 4 
fe tied 
Tr oo ns 
vi. MS. 
rae 
we 
Ce aa 
. 
> aan 
t 
Te Sod 
us. pies. 
tg 
EEA. 
45 tt 
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Iw Ace 
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os sa 











Weigh Weight Weight Weight Weight Weigh Weight = Weight 


gi) 7” 7” ie} = 1s% LA) 26% 0s 19% 
q id 
TOTAL WEIGHT - EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM - SO% 


MEDIAN SCHOOL 
50-Percentile 





Figure JIIe 








1939 


sider 


asa 
asser 





1939 | ProcEEDINGS OF TWENTyY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 141 


The significance of this “profile” is shown more clearly as we con- 
sider the showing in detail in one of the areas, here pupil activities. 

It will be noted from Figure IV that while the showing on the area 
as a whole is above average, certain parts of the program—home rooms, 
assemblies, and administration of finances—are distinctly inferior. The 


PUPIL ACTIVITY PROGRAM 


GENERAL —- SCHOOL SCHOOL = SCHOOL «= SCHOOL «~—s«éPYSICAL 
NATURE GOVERNMENT ASSEmmLY CLUBS. PUBLICATIONS acTiviTies "INANCES «SUMMARY 
(200) (196) (139) (200 (200) 096) 


ff33 “1 1 “f , . - ely 


42 4 4.7 





5 
343 
43 


i 40 i 












































MEDIAN SCHOOL 
50-Percentile 
F igure IVe 








142 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


staff should give serious attention to the improvement of these phases of 
its program, while maintaining its clubs and publications at the high level 
indicated. Time precludes going into further detail in regard to the use 
of these “Educational Temperatures.” It should be evident that they serve 
to provide the school with a series of yardsticks by which its performance 
may be judged. 

The title assigned to me for this afternoon’s session was “Significant 
Contributions to Secondary-School Improvement from the Codperative 
Study of Secondary School Standards.” I trust that the illustrations drawn 
from the materials provided by the Study have served in some measure 
to show what those contributions are. If I may be permitted to summarize 
them briefly, I should say that there seem to me to be three chief contri- 
butions from the Codperative Study materials and technique: 

In the first place it stimulates the school to an intensive study of its 
own program and problems. I can think of no other approach from which 
any intelligent efforts at improvement can take their beginning. 

The second contribution of the Codperative Study is a new relation- 
ship in supervision. Under this plan, the supervising agency—state depart- 
ment, higher institution, or accrediting association—enters the picture not 
as an ex officio judge with authority to hand down an opinion as to what 
is wrong with the school, but as a friendly helper prepared to assist the 
school to a more accurate evaluation of itself. It is significant that while 
the Study was initiated in an effort to provide a more valid basis of ac- 
creditation, the emphasis on the part of those who have made most effec- 
tive use of its methods has shifted from accreditation to stimulation and 
assistance. 

Finally, and a point of no small significance, it places the responsibility 
for improvement of secondary education where, in my judgment, it be- 
longs, on the shoulders of the responsible leaders of our secondary schools. 
The school which has made a careful evaluation of its own program and 
is planning improvements in the light of that study will exert an influence 
for more functional education in its area. The majority of the members of 
reviewing committees are drawn from active administrators of other schools 
in the locality. The day of college domination of the high school has 
passed. Increasingly its course of development will be determined by teach- 
ers and principals of American high schools aware of the problems facing 
the school and grappling at first hand with their solution. “Standards for 
secondary schools” are in the hands of this group. It is in this field that 
the National Department of Secondary-School Principals appropriately as- 
pires to leadership. It cannot afford to overlook the assistance to that effort 
which may be found in intelligent use of the materials and methods pro- 
vided by the Codperative Study of Secondary School Standards. 


Discussion followed. 





1939} 


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1939} ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 
JUNIOR COLLEGE DIVISION 


The Junior-College Division was held in the Ball Room Annex of the 
Public Auditorium with the theme of The Junior College Serving Its 
Sectional Needs. 

Mr. M. G. Jones, Principal of Union High School, Huntington Beach, 
California, and Member of the Executive Committee of the Department 
of Secondary-School Principals, introduced the program by presenting Mr. 
J. L. McCaskill, Principal of Senior High School and Junior College of 
Meridian, Mississippi, who read his paper, Problems in Evolving a Junior- 
College Curriculum to Meet Community Needs. 


JUNIOR COLLEGE DIVISION 
PROBLEMS IN EVOLVING A JUNIOR COLLEGE CURRICULUM 
TO MEET COMMUNITY NEEDS 


J. L. McCaskitt 
Principal of Senior High School and Junior College, Meridian, Mississippi 
The change from the six-three-three to the six-four-four plan of school 
organization in Meridian, Mississippi, is so recent that no measurable re- 


sults that are defensible can be reported. The reasons for the decision to 
change to the six-four-four plan, the procedure that was used in an attempt 
to determine the educational needs of the community, and the first steps 
that were taken in instituting the change may be of value especially to 
those of you who may contemplate a similar change in organization. 


The Meridian school system serves a district that is seventy-two square 
miles in area and has a population of approximately fifty thousand people. 
About sixty-five per cent of the population is American-born white, thirty- 
five per cent negro, and less than one per cent foreign born. The system 
has separate schools for whites and colored, and my discussion will deal 
entirely with the white schools. The community is primarily an indus- 
trial one. The enrollment in the Senior High School division at the 
beginning of the reorganization was approximately eight hundred. 

The decision to change the plan of organization of the school system 
from the six-three-three to the six-four-four was made by the community 
after the presentation of the following facts: 

1. That the geographical location of Meridian with reference to 
higher educational institutions was such that opportunity for education 
beyond high school was naturally limited. The nearest four-year college 
was a hundred miles away. 

2. That changing economic conditions were making employment for 
high-school graduates extremely difficult. 








144 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


3. That an increasing number of high-school graduates were return- 
ing yearly to the Senior High School for “post-graduate” courses. 


4. That the large high-school enrollment prevented curriculum ad- 
justment to meet the needs of these students. 

5. That congestion in the senior high school necessitated expansion 
of facilities to meet adequately community needs. 


6. That the addition of the thirteenth and fourteenth grades to the 
system would be most economical through the change to the six-four-four 
plan of organization. 

7. That the thirteenth and fourteenth grades are a part of secondary 
education and not a two-year unit of the college or university. 


A bond issue to provide funds for the erection of buildings for the 
upper four-year unit was passed by a large majority and simultaneously a 
survey was begun to attempt to determine educational needs in the com- 
munity that were not being met by the school system. The information 
sought through means of the survey was based on the areas of living as 
suggested by the Mississippi Program for the Improvement of Instruction 
and was roughly classified under three headings: 


1. What are the needs for training for the physical welfare of the 
young people of the community? 

2. What are the needs for training for the social welfare of the young 
people of the community? 

3. What are the needs for the cultural training of young people of 
the community? 

Every available means was used to secure information. A social and 
industrial survey by the local Chamber of Commerce provided valuable 
data. By means of questionnaires and personal interview information was 
secured from the following groups: 

1. Members of civic service clubs 

Members of women’s clubs 
Members of labor unions 
Representative groups of school patrons 
All students enrolled in senior high school 
6. Representative groups of junior high-school students. 


A census was taken of all graduates for the previous years who had 
not attended college. Much information was collected and compiled by 
members of English and social-studies classes under the direction of teach- 
ers. Both students and faculty members served on the committees that 
assembled the data. The faculty was already codperating in the Mississippi 
Program for the Improvement of Instruction. This fact aided in the recog- 
nition of implications that would otherwise have been lost. All available 





1939} PRocEEDINGS OF TWENTyY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 145 


literature was examined and apparently every source explored. I might 
mention here that much aid was secured from the literature published by 
the Pasadena, California, school system. 


A summary of the conclusions follows: 


1. That the Senior High School as organized was not meeting the 
educational needs of the community adequately. 


2. That forces which were making changes in the Senior High 
School curriculum necessary were also factors influencing the upward ex- 
tension to include the junior college years. 


3. That the junior college extension should not be an imitation of 
the lower division of the university, but that it must be built upon the 
curriculum implications of the secondary school with emphasis upon the 
fact that it was a part of secondary education. 


4. That existing accreditment requirements would necessitate a slow 
departure from traditional practices. 


5. That popular demand would require opportunity for the educa- 
tion of those students who would wish to transfer to a higher institution, 
after junior college graduation, without loss of college credit. 


6. That the greatest service which the junior college could render to 
the community would be to those students who could not attend any other 
institution after graduation from high school or junior college. 


7. That the aim of the reorganization should be to make the upper 
four-year division a unit with emphasis upon the eradication of the tradi- 
tional division line between high school and college. 


8. That the curriculum should be made as vital and functional as 
possible. 


9. That guidance as it relates to all life activities should begin early 
as an integral part of the curriculum and continue through the junior col- 
lege and into the student’s life in the community. 


10. That the community needed opportunity for education of adults 
not only just through adult courses, but also through activities that would 
provide centers of interest which were lacking in the community. 


11. That objectives of existing activities should be examined and out- 
comes evaluated in terms of these objectives with consequent changes made 
where outcomes and objectives were not compatible. 


12. That additions to the curriculum should be based upon carefully 
- considered objectives. 


13. That the change in organization could not be made through the 
addition of grades and courses but only by the gradual development of a 











146 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


sequential curriculum that would meet the needs of the community more 
adequately. 

14. That the development of the curriculum should be slow and con- 
tinuous and would depend upon a sympathetic understanding of the aims 
and purposes by the entire faculty with a willingness to seek training both 
in and out of service that would assure continuous growth to the project. 


Each conclusion is in itself a problem. Several of these problems are 
no nearer solution than at the beginning of the experiment three years ago. 
Following is a brief description of curriculum organization as it is in prac- 
tice or planned for the future. It must necessarily begin with the junior 
high school because of the conception of the junior college as an upward 
extension of secondary education. 


The junior high-school curriculum is organized with the purpose of 
providing knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of areas of life 
rather than the acquisition of skills. Exploratory experiences are provided 
which aim to determine interests, aptitudes, and needs. 


The senior high-school curriculum is divided roughly into the college 
preparatory curriculum with provision to permit preparation to meet spe- 
cific college entrance requirements on completion of high school, and the 
non-college curriculum. The college preparatory courses must of necessity 
be rather traditional in nature, but all of the curriculum experiences are 
by no means confined to these courses. The aim in the non-college curricu- 
lum is to shift gradually the skill training upward to make general educa- 
tion more complete before the skill training is begun. It is the total devel- 
opment of the child that is sought rather than his specialized training. 
Means through which this aim is to be accomplished are: 


1. Addition of survey and orientation courses. 
2. Increased use of movie, radio, sound recording, and other aids. 
3. The merging of all so-called “extra-curriculum activities” with 
the curriculum. 
Constant in-service training of teachers. 
Provision of opportunity, through committees, for students them- 
selves to have a part in the planning of the curriculum. 


The college preparatory courses in the junior college closely parallel 
the lower division courses in the arts and science division at the State uni- 
versity. No attempt is made to offer college preparatory courses other than 
those of a general educational nature. Since it is not the function of this 
junior college to attempt pre-professional training, no plans have been 
made to extend the college courses to specialized fields. Only those college 
preparatory students who need to prolong home influences or who can 





1939] ProceEDINGs oF TWENTy-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 147 


economize both in time and money are encouraged to enroll in the junior 
college after graduation from high school. 

Terminal courses in the junior college are provided in home-making, 
stenography, salesmanship, bookkeeping, accounting, commercial art, de- 
sign, drafting, vocal and instrumental music, journalism, and recreational 
work, Other terminal courses are being added as rapidly as needs appear 
and facilities permit. Many students are employed part-time in the com- 
munity. Codrdination of their employment with school work is a part of 
the regular school service. 

In both preparatory and terminal education an attempt is made to 
continue the training as a definite part of the upper secondary level. It is 
believed that there must be a continuity between the eleventh, twelfth, 
thirteenth, and fourteenth grades, with as little break between the twelfth 
and thirteenth grades as possible. It is hoped that this will be partially ac- 
complished by: 

1. Orientation of the eleventh grade students to the new situation. 


2. Having all teachers teach courses in both senior high school and 


junior college. 
3. Projecting the college attitude downward into the eleventh and 
twelfth grades, and the high-school attitude upward into the thirteenth and 


fourteenth grades. This necessitates the providing of more freedom for 
high-school students and the increasing of their responsibility together 
with a closer guidance for both high-school and junior-college students. 


4. Elimination of the traditional high-school graduation. 


5. Creating a unity of feeling in the student body through a common 
program of athletic and other activities. This includes a carefully planned 
program of recreational activities in which both boys and girls are encour- 


aged to participate. 


Little has been planned or accomplished in adult education in the 
junior college. Night school classes which were in operation before the 
change in organization have been continued but are not distinctly a part 
of the junior college. Some adults are enrolled in regular courses such as, 
art, design, home-making, music, and business training. Participation in 
the recreational program and use of club rooms, gymnasium, and other 
such facilities is permitted. This year the community lyceum program is 
a joint undertaking of the junior college and the local music association. 
Expansion in adult education will probably come only after the commu- 
nity has become accustomed to the new school organization. 


- 








PO ee ome 








148 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


HOW ONE JUNIOR COLLEGE SERVES ITS COMMUNITY 


Byron S. Ho .iinsHEaD 


President. Scranton-Keystone Junior College, La Plume, Pennsylvania 


It is quite significant, I think, that the most powerful educational or- 
ganization in America, the National Education Association, should be 
devoting part of its program this year to a discussion of the junior college. 
While I do not know precisely what motivated your steering committee 
to decide on a section about the junior college, I believe it was because your 
leaders see the junior college movement as a logical development of the 
American educational system, which is sure to play an increasingly irapor- 
tant role in our community life. 


Since there are a great many different kinds of junior colleges, rang- 
ing from the old type proprietary finishing school for girls to public insti- 
tutions administered as a part of the public high-school system, I wish to 
limit myself in this paper to a discussion of one type, which for lack of a 
better name, I will call the community junior college. 

This type of institution may be described as organized primarily to 
serve one certain geographical area. It may be public or private, but it is 
tax-exempt and non-profit-making, and derives its main support either 
from public or philanthropic sources. Its services are available to all citizens 
who can profit from them and its program is designed to minister to gen- 
eral community needs rather than to the needs of a certain group. 

The institution with which I am associated, Scranton-Keystone Junior 
College, is of this type. Very early in its development, certain objectives 
were set up for it to follow. These objectives were broad in scope and de- 
signed to encompass a variety of services which would be valuable to its 
constituency. 

First, it should provide educational, recreational, and vocational op- 
portunities for the young people of its community. 

Second, it should serve to promote a greater social and civic intelli- 
gence in the community. 

Third, it should provide opportunities for increased adult education. 

Fourth, the cultural facilities of the institution should be placed at the 
disposal of the community. 

Fifth, the work of the institution should be closely integrated with the 
work of the high school and the work of other community institutions. 

Given the objectives just mentioned, the question of how they are to 
be carried out immediately arises. In the first place it is necessary in any 
community program to have a tairly large group of individuals—members 
of the community—who will constitute themselves as willing eyes and ears 


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1939 | PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 149 


to keep the college informed of community developments and community 
needs, and to inform the community, also, of what the college has to offer. 


These individuals may be divided into professional committees serving 
in an advisory capacity. Their functions should be to allow the institution 
to permeate the life of the community with its educational work. Members 
of the community should be brought in to address various groups of the 
student body. Members of the student body should visit community insti- 
tutions. The advisory committees should serve students in a guidance ca- 
pacity in making vocational choices. Many other functions are served by 
these committees, the main object of which is to provide an integration 
between community life and the academic life of the college. 

Next, the college should offer a variety of adult education programs. 
These services may take several forms: individual lectures on educational 
subjects to adult groups; lecture series given in a certain subject field over 
an extensive period of time; lectures and educational presentations at the 
college open to the general public; extension services which may use the 
faculty in an advisory capacity; and home study programs. 

Since the college is interested in ministering to community needs, an 
important part of its work will serve an industrial purpose. It will make 
studies indicating employment and industrial needs, and will try to devise 
curricula to meet these needs. It will offer testing services for its students 
which attempt to indicate student aptitudes for a variety of industrial 
pursuits. This testing may extend down into the secondary schools in order 
to best promote the potentialities of young people of the community. 

A vital part of this service, it seems to me, is to have the college so 
organized that it is equipped to further the education of the brilliant but 
impecunious. By saving these prospective leaders, the community college 
renders one of its most useful community services. Most of you are doubt- 
less familiar with the study made by the American Youth Commission 
which indicated, among other things, that the college selective process did 
not work with any high degree of accuracy. “While 105 out of each 1,000 
high school graduates went on to college and successfully completed the 
first two years, there were 174 out of each 1,000 who did not go to college, 
usually because they were financially unable to do so. The 174 who did 
not go to college were found to have mental abilities that promised as high 
a degree of scholastic success as the 105 who did.”’ 

To serve the bright but needy, the college should have available a 
number of scholarships and work allotments to enable this group to aid 
itself while living at home. The saving made by attending a local institu- 
tion the first two years may enable some students to go on for a baccalau- 
teate degree. For others terminal courses should be devised. Wherever pos- 


‘Howard M. Bell: Youth Tell Their Story, Page 96. Prepared by the American Youth Commission 
of the American Council on Fducation, 1038. 











150 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


sible brilliant students should be urged to go on with their academic work 
and the junior college should assist them in getting aid wherever possible. 


For the many who cannot go on, two-year terminal courses should be 
provided. These courses serve not only the group who cannot afford fur- 
ther training, but also serve the group who do not wish to spend a longer 
time in purely academic work. Courses designed to meet the needs of this 
group are usually referred to as semi-professional. These courses should be 
designed to train for real rather than hoped-for industrial and professional 


needs, 

In devising two-year courses especially designed to meet community 
needs, I do not believe there is any set formula which would apply in every 
case. However, the procedure we have followed is approximately as fol- 
lows: A need for a certain type of curriculum has been expressed by some 
professional group. A committee of this professional group has been ap- 
pointed to assist the college in devising a curriculum to meet the need. The 
qualifications which are necessary for success in the field have been drawn 
up by practitioners in the field. A meeting has been arranged between the 
professional or community group and the teaching faculty. The curricu- 
lum has been drawn up by the educational group in the light of the speci- 
fications outlined by the community committee. The curriculum is then 
tested by practice employment and by checking the work of graduates 
who have been placed. Lastly, the curriculum should be revised constantly 
as changes in the profession occur and as modifications are suggested by 
experience. 

At the present time we are offering five terminal courses: the general 
business course, the secretarial course, the medical secretarial course, the 
industrial course for engineers, and the chemical course for engineers. We 
are expecting to add a two-year course in home economics next year. This 
new terminal course will be designed to train girls for positions in hotels, 
department stores, restaurants, and similar service institutions, as well 
as to train for the career of marriage. 


The fundamental philosophy back of these semi-professional courscs 
is perhaps best expressed in the Twenty-Ninth Annual Report of the Car- 
negie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching which states: [The 
junior college] “is philosophically more mature than either university or 
specialized college and can have no ambitions in their direction. Funda- 
mentally its impulses are not upward toward some institution thought to 
be ‘higher,’ but outward into the problems and needs of its supporting 
group in so far as education can administer to these needs and help to 


solve these problems.” 


“The Twenty-Ninth Annual Report of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 
1934, Page 34. 





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1939| ProcEEDINGS OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 151 


If we were to state the objectives we were trying to accomplish with 
terminal students, they would probably differ considerably from the ob- 
jectives of a four-year college or university. More than anything clse, I 
believe, we are trying to develop social consciousness and a sense of social 
responsibility. We are trying to make good citizens not only in the narrow 
political sense but in manners, attitudes, habits, and general codperative- 
ness. Second, we try to give students a knowledge of the great in art and 
literature to benefit them vocationally, as well as avocationally. Third, we 
try to give them a sufficient knowledge of the findings of science to inform 
them of the probable directions in which we shall be forced to move eco- 
nomically, politically, and socially because of improved technological meth- 
ods. Fourth, we try to provide students with sufficient vocational knowl- 
edge and information to allow them to re-enter the community and earn 
an honorable living. 


The most important factor in the success of any community college 
program is in attracting the right kind of faculty. Teaching at the junior 
college level is exceedingly difficult. The teacher must not be the kind of 
university specialist who cannot see over the walls of his own special field. 
He must give the student a general view and understanding of the broad 
aspects of his field, for half his students will terminate their formal educa- 
tion in the junior college. 


On the other hand, he must give enough exact knowledge to meet the 
prerequisites of Professor X’s course at the university, or, even worse, of 
different professors’ courses at different universities. This task is a larger 
one than faces the university instructor who is satisfied to make his course 
simply a steppingstone to another which is to follow. The biology in- 
structor, for example, must not only give his students the vocabulary and 
laboratory technique of the first course in biology, but he must also give 
the student a satisfactory understanding of the nature of man. That is, 
the course must be given both as a steppingstone to courses to follow and 
as an end in itself. 


The instructor must also be a superlative guidance officer. He may not 
use the force-discipline of the secondary school; he must not allow the lax- 
ness of the university guidance system. He tries to meet the transitional 
and later adolescent problems of his students by an exercise of personality, 
which means that to succeed he must be an unusual person. 





A part of our difficulty in instruction in higher education is probably 
caused by our own attitude. This attitude goes back to the days of the 
medieval monasteries when learning was regarded as property to be pos- 

- sessed by a small group who had no interest in placing the advantages of 
learning at the disposal of the general public. It is still the fashion in some 
colleges and universities to sneer at attempts to familiarize the general 











152 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


populace with the work of the universities, despite the recognition that we 
must bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and popular prejudice. 


We cannot bridge the gap by formalizing education behind high 
walls. The fact that we have five states in our union which prohibit the 
teaching of biology in a scientific fashion and twenty-six states which re- 
quire teachers to subscribe to loyalty oaths emphasizes the need for higher 
education to make itself not only intelligible but useful to the general 
population. 


We have only to look at what has happened to higher education in 
Germany, Italy, and Japan to see what may happen to our colleges and 
universities if the general public is not in complete sympathy with their 
aims and purposes. 

When, therefore, we consider the famous dictum of Thomas Jefferson 
that democracy will be safe only so long as there is widespread opportu- 
nity for education, we who are in higher education might well consider 
the reverse of Jefferson’s statement, which would be something like this: 
Education is safe in a democracy only as long as it is democratized. 


It would require a dull imagination, indeed, to be unable to see the 
possibilities for the kind of institution I have described. Such an institu- 
tion can lift the whole community culturally, industrially, and socially. It 
can make itself the center for the spiritual and mental activities which give 
purpose to life and zest to existence. Such an institution need not worry 
about community support, for, to the extent that it ministers to the com- 
munity needs I have described, its community will nurture and sustain it. 


MEETING THE JUNIOR COLLEGE STUDENTS’ NEEDS 
Louis E. PLUMMER 


Superintendent of Union High School and Junior College, Fullerton, California 


“The stone which the builders refused has become the head stone of 
the corner.”—Psalms 118:22. 


It has been the experience of many a manufacturer that the waste from 
his factory contained by-products the profits from which meant the differ- 
ence between success and failure for him. So it has been with the junior 
college. Early pronouncements looking to the establishment of such insti- 
tutions indicate the large place the preparatory function assumed, the rela- 
tive insignificance of other functions. President Harper, of Chicago, in 
1900 in speaking of institutions in which lower division work would be 
done said, 





1939 


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1939| PRrocEEDINGS OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 153 


... Another group of these small institutions will come to be 
known as junior colleges. I use the name “junior college,” for lack 
of a better term, to cover the work of the freshman and sophomore 
years... . 

Dr. Edmund J. James, president of the University of Illinois, stated in 
his inaugural address in 1905, 

My own idea is that the university ought not to be engaged in 
secondary work at all, and by secondary work I mean work which is 
necessary as a preliminary preparation for the pursuit of special 
professional, that is, scientific study. Consequently, our secondary 
schools, our high schools, and our colleges will be expected to take 
more and more of the work which is done in the lower classes of the 
different departments of the university as at present constituted... .? 
Dr. Jordon, of Stanford, wrote in 1913 in a letter to Superintendent 

McLane, of Fresno State Teachers College, Fresno, California, 


| am looking forward, as you know, to the time when the large 
high schools of the state, in conjunction with the small colleges, will 
relieve the two great universities from the expense and from the 
necessity of giving instruction of the first two university years. .. .° 


Examples of such thinking might be multiplied without number. 


That legislators had the same conception of the primary function ot 
the junior college is shown by a typical enactment. The first California 
enabling act for junior colleges provided that 


The board of trustees of any .. . high school may prescribe post- 
graduate courses of study for the graduates of such high school .. . 
which courses of study shall approximate the studies prescribed in 
the first two years of university courses.’ 


This conception of the primary function of the junior college was a 
natural outgrowth of university needs. 


In a short time after the establishment of our first public junior col- 
leges interested patrons as well as the universities realized that the prepara- 
tory function was not so important as at first thought; indeed it might not 
be even the primary function of a junior college. The University of Cali- 
fornia in its Junior College Bulletin of 1915 said, 


.[t is coming to be generally understood that the junior college 
cannot serve its complex purpose if it make preparation for the uni- 
versity its primary object. ... The junior college will function ade- 
quately only if its first concern is with those who will go no farther, 
if it meets local needs efliciently, if it turns many away from the 
university into vocations for which training has not hitherto been 
afforded Ly our school system.’ 


Dr. R. J. Leonard, of University of California, and later of Teachers 
College, Columbia, said at a meeting of the American Association of 


IWalter Crosby Eells, The Junior College (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company), p. 60. 
? Ibid., p. 46. 
8William M. Proctor, The Junior College (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1927). 


3. 
‘Fells, op. cit., p. 89. 
Pp 


‘Proctor, op. cit., p. 17. 

















154 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


Junior Colleges in 1925, “And, in so far as junior colleges concern thein- 
selves with occupational education, their efforts will be confined to the 
middle level and, in like manner, this will be their permanent field.” 


From this point we could go on to the vocational enthusiasts who 
would make little place in a junior college for subjects that do not con 
tribute directly to vocational education. 


To-day we find no battle line drawn between those who advocate the 
preparatory function of the junior college and those who support the term:- 
nal function. Both functions are quite generally recognized as legitimate 
fields for junior-college effort. The fight centers rather on the direction 
this terminal function will take. Shall the work be of a general nature in 
order that pupils may more readily transfer from one occupation to another 
or shall it be quite specific? Is there a compromise position that can be 
established by recognizing and preparing for families of occupations or 
should junior-college education be even more specific, a preparation for a 


particular occupation? 


My task is that of telling you what is being done in a particular col- 
lege. In Fullerton we are certain we have not found the ultimate curricula 
or course content we wish to offer. We are feeling our way with the 
thought of modifying administration, offerings, or classroom procedure as 
experience shows us the way. We are also certain we cannot find a solu- 
tion for the college problems of any other community. If what we are 
doing offers a suggestion that helps another reach a solution or stimulates 
thought along another line of effort, the purpose of my talk will have 
been accomplished. 


Having decided to try certain experiments in the Fullerton Junior 
College, it ceases, for the time being, to be a debatable question whether 
vocational education shall be specific or general. The problem is not solved; 
we hope to reach the answer through experience rather than through 


philosophy. 


The Fullerton Junior College has established technical trades curricula 
in aeronautics, Diesel engines, machine shop, mill and cabinet work, print- 
ing, and ornamental iron work. The following outlines, copy of which 
has been furnished to you, show the requirements for each curriculum. 
In each of these curricula laboratory work in the trade itself constitutes 
the core or major. Related subjects complete the curricula and serve to 
reduce the specialization. 


“Ihid., p. 20. 






















PROcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 





1939 | 







AERONAUTICS 


FIRST YEAR SECOND YEAR 









Health Science ........... 2 Aerodynamics 50A ........ 10 

American Institutions 15.. 2 Airplane Structure 51A.... 6 
Mathematics 50A-50B ..... 3 3 Aeronaut. Draft. 55A-55B.. 4 2 
Machine Shop 16A ........ 2 Met. & Navigation 54A.... 6 
Airplane Materials 56A ... 1 Fund. of Business 54...... 2 

Machine Drawing 6 (7 hrs.) 3 Simple Accounting 65...... 2 
Orientation 51 ............ 1 Physical Education ...... yy 





English & Correspondence 51 3 
Aeronautics Lab. 52A-52B.. 2 2 
Machine Draft. Pract. 75... 2 
DE FU cw chs cacszives 3 
Industrial Science 82 ...... 3 
Physical Education ...... 











DIESEL ENGINES 





FIRST YEAR UNITS SECOND YEAR 










American Institutions 15... 2 Machine Shop 16A ........ 2 

Health Science ........... 2 Welding 18A ............. 2 

Diesel Engines 60A-60B; Diesel Engines 60C-60D; 814 4 
SOB-GSE vac vawlic tee ncns 4 4 Machine Draft. Pract. 75... 2 

Industrial Science 82...... 4 Machine Drawing 6....... 3 

Orientation 51 ............ 1 Shop Mathematics 53...... 2 

Engineering Drawing 1D... 2 2 pt eee eee 6 7 

Eng. & Correspond. 51..... 2 Physical Education ...... Wy 

Funds. of Business 54..... 2 

Simple Accounting 65...... 2 

NN cnn it ntn Meeeness 3 2 

Physical Education ...... YY, 









*Preferred elective: Electricity 12AB. 






MACHINE SHOP 

















FIRST YEAR UNITS SECOND YEAR 
American Institutions 15... 2 Machine Draft. Pract. 75.. 2 
Health Science ........... 2 Machine Drawing 6....... 3 
Engineering Drawing 1D... 2 2 Welding 18A ............. 2 
Shop Mathematics 53...... 3 Foundry & Pattern Mkg. 15A 2 
Industrial Science 82...... 3 Eng. & Correspondence 51.. 3 
Orientation 51 ........... 1 Fund. of Business 54...... 3 
Machine Shop 90A-90B..... 7 7 Simple Accounting 65...... 3 
Hlectives ..........cccsee- 1 2 Machine Shop 90C-90D..... 7 7 
Physical Education ...... Ae Physical Education ...... yy 






MILL AND CABINET WORK 









UNITS SECOND YEAR 





FIRST YEAR 















Health Science ........... 2 Mill & Cabinet 65B ....... y tie 
American Institutions 15... 2 Shop Mathematics 53...... 3 
Mill and Cabinet 65A-65B.. 7 7 Eng. & Correspondence 51.. 3 
Arch. Draft. Pract. Funds. of Business 54...... 3 
TORTER ied cevet's 2 2 Simple Accounting 65...... 3 
Orientation 51 ........... 1 Furn. & Fixture Design 
Industrial Science 82 ..... 3 i 2... JPR eieer $3 
ey ere 1 5 rr ere 3 
Physical Education ...... yy, Physical Education ...... yy 





*Preferred elective: Building Construction 











vf 














DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [ March 


PRINTING 


FIRST YEAR UNITS SECOND YEAR 


American Institutions 2 Printing 20C-20D 3 
Health Commercial Design 20C-20D 2 2 
Printing 20A-20B ......... 3 English 60A-60B 3 
Journalism 12A-12B 3 1 Journalism 13A-13B 


Commercial Design 20A-20B : : Electives* 
Electives* j Physical Education 
Physical Education 
*Preferred electives: Retail Problems 60A 
Advertising 61B, English 1AB, Fconomics 
1AB, Investments 58, Psychology 2. 


ORNAMENTAL IRON AND WELDING 


FIRST YEAR UNITS SECOND YEAR UNITS 


American Institutions 15... 2 Machine Shop 16A-16B 
Health Science 2 rw Making & Foundry 
15A 


Engineering Drawing 1D or 
Machine Draft. Pract. 75. 2 Machine Draft. Pract. 75 or 
Shop Mathematics 53...... 3 Ornam’tal Iron Layout 63 


Industrial Science 82 English & Correspond. 51 
Orientation 51 Funds. of Business 54 


Ornamental Iron and Simple Accounting 65 
Welding 91A-91B Ornamental Iron and 
Electives Welding 91C-91D 
i ) Electives 
Physical Education 


You will note that there are certain common requirements, such as 
health science, physical education, American political institutions, and 
English. Other requirements are more closely related to the major or core. 

In the aeronautics curriculum the related requirements constitute most 
of the first year’s work. The second year’s work is nearly all done in the 
laboratory. Such an arrangement has seemed advantageous for training 
students for sustained effort over a period equal to the working day in a 
factory. For the same reason provision is made for students to spend seven 
and one-half hours per day, two days every week, in the machine shop or 
laboratory. In Diesel engines, mill and cabinet work, and ornamental iron 
work, five half days are given to continuous work in shop and the remain- 
ing time to related courses. 

The work done in these shops is as practical as it can be made. In the 
print shop two weekly papers are printed, one for the high school and onc 
for the college. School magazines are printed there. This shop handles 
nearly all the regular school printing. Jobs are given to commercial print- 
ers only when the school shop is too crowded to handle them. In the 
mill and cabinet classes such projects as constructing chairs, drawing tables, 
teachers’ desks, and other furniture are undertaken. These jobs must be 
handled in their entirety, from drawing plans and estimating costs to figur- 
ing the cost of the finished product. For the machine shop a manufac- 
turer of oil industries machines and tools furnishes rough castings and 





Mics 


1939 | ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTy-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 157 


specification for finished work. In the Diesel engines classes actual use and 
repair of many makes and styles of engines furnish practical experience. 


Approximately forty per cent of the registration of the Fullerton 
Junior College is in the commerce department. Here, as in the shops, the 
work, done under laboratory conditions, is a concentrated field experience. 
The following curriculum, one of seven offered, is typical of requirements 


in this department. 
SECRETARIAL 


FIRST YEAR UNITS SECOND YEAR UNITS 
Business English 50A American Institutions 
Business Correspond. 50B.. Health 
Consumer’s Problems 6 Sec. Training 62 
See. Accounting 52-53 ‘ Public Speaking 1A-1B 
Stenography 56-57 Stenography 58 
Typing 51-52 : Typing 53 or 53A 
Transcription 57A Directed Bus. Training 63.. 
Physical Education Mach. Calculation 70A-70B 2 to 6 
Geography 62A-62B 3 
Electives* 
Physical Education 


*Electives to bring total to 16% units a 
semester. 


In meeting the requirements of this curriculum the student, in addi- 
tion to mastering the skill subjects and doing satisfactory work in the 
academic type of subjects included, has to meet and master conditions in 
two business laboratories. In secretarial training she must serve as secre- 
tary to some faculty member or businessman, taking dictation and tran- 
scribing notes. She must learn to cut stencils and to operate a variety of 
duplicators and mimeograph machines. She must learn the care necessary 
to the keeping of confidences as the examination questions of the school 
are duplicated here. During the year 1937-38 this laboratory ran off over 
460,000 pages of copy. In directed business training she is instructed in 
practical bookkeeping and in the operation of several makes of bookkeep- 
ing, posting, and calculating machines. She assists in the operations of a 
functioning bank. Two hundred twenty-five thousands of actual dollars 
crossed its counters last year. 

A feature of the services of the commerce department is the after- 
completion assistance rendered to each student. Through careful class- 
work, a practical type of training, unwillingness to recommend a student 
unless she is certain to succeed in the specific job, and careful follow-up to 
assist employer and employee in adjusting differences, the school has 
earned a reputation that now makes placement comparatively easy. The 
presence, in the vicinity, of several concerns that number secretarial or 
clerical help by the hundreds or thousands makes it unnecessary for the 
man in charge of placement to contact as many firms or personnel directors 




















| March 


158 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 


as he would otherwise have to meet. His task then becomes one of devel 
oping cordial relations with a few large firms and zealously maintaining 
them by quality of service. He secures calls from many smaller concerns, 
it is true, but these calls come because of a name for good service rather 


than from solicitation. 


Certain other features of training in the commerce department are 
worthy of mention. One day each quarter is used to emphasize business 
dress. On this day students in the department are expected to dress as they 
would in seeking or holding a job. Mary may have her lips or nails too 
highly colored. John may not wear a tie and his clothes may need pressing. 
Each becomes a walking advertisement of his or her shortcomings and the 
day will not pass without teachers taking note of it. The faculty through 
individual contacts and group meetings with business executives and per- 
sonnel directors learn what are the most modern business practices and 
demands. All student organization funds are handled through the school 
bank. Student secretaries, bookkeepers, clerks, and telephone operators 
are furnished to faculty and school. So for the shops and for students in 
commerce the school and community become a laboratory and training 
school in which the most practical of experiences may be obtained. 


Following the prepared addresses on: The Junior College Serving Its 
Sectional Needs, the Chairman, McClellan G. Jones, Principal of Union 
High School, Huntington Beach, California, called for general discussion 


from the floor. 
DISCUSSION 


Miss Brossarp (St. Louis Teachers’ College): We have just opened 
our college to a junior college so we are more than feeling our way, we 


are really groping. 
We would like to know—do you have in your college special teachers 
for guidance, to give guidance to students—teachers assigned the particu- 


lar job? 

Mr. Byron S. Hottinsueap (Scranton-Keystone Junior College, La- 
Plume, Pa.): All our guidance is given by the Chairmen of the Divisions. 
For instance the Chairman of the Engineering Courses gives the guidance 
to the Engineering students, and so on; we do not allow all teachers to 
offer guidance, we only allow about six out of the entire faculty. Those six 
are the ones who do it for each of their respective curricular groups. 

Miss Brossarp: We have a problem. Our students in the Junior Col- 
lege are really obliged to take academic courses for the most part; would 


pre 
con 








irch 


vel 

ing 
rns, 
her 





159 






ProcEEDINGs OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 





1939] 








you recommend from your experience that we have one teacher guide 
these teachers in their vocations or professions? 






Mr. Hottinsueap: I don’t think it ought to be one. It seems to me 
that all teachers must be aware, but if you label any one a guidance offi- 
cer—that was our experience—you immediately create a feeling of suspi- 
cion on the part of the students toward that particular person. Students 
have confidence in one or another instructor for no particular reason; if 
that instructor can also be their guidance officer he can get a number of 
things across to them that a person labeled a guidance officer cannot. 










Miss Brossarv: Do you think the respective deans of women or deans 
of men could not take care of that? 







Mr. Ho tinsueap: | think they should be the head of it, but ought 
not to do it all. 






Miss Brossarp: How can we get the Pennsylvania Study? 






Mr. Hottrnsueap: The study to which I referred is published by the 
Public Affairs Committee. I think they are at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New 
York City, 10 cents a copy; 25 copies for two dollars; it is a Carnegie 
Foundation study, and this is a study of the study. 













Mr. Joun Napier (Auburn, California): I would like to direct a 
question to the first speaker; it really is a point that some of us are par- 
ticularly interested in and that is, I understood him to say that you were 
no longer giving diplomas to those people who leave the twelfth grade. I 
would like to say for clarification and perhaps ask one or two questions to 
bring out the point, does he mean that he has abandoned all traditional 
graduation exercises for people graduating, who finish the lower division 
of the four-year junior college? 










Secondly: does he give them any types of certificates or records at 
that time publicly or otherwise, to indicate if they are transferring to four- 
year institutions, that they have finished the traditional high school course 
of study? I would like to have a little more light. 







Mr. McCaskiiu (Principal of Senior High School and Junior Col- 
lege, Meridian, Mississippi): Mr. Napier, I am sorry I did not make my- 
self clear on that point. I did not say that we had eliminated the traditional 
high school graduation. I did say that one of the means through which 
we hoped to develop unity in the new upper division was eventually 
through that elimination of traditional graduation. 














We haven’t made a beginning toward that right now, and that 1s 
probably going to be one of the things that will take the longest to ac- 
complish. 














160 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


Mr. Louis E. PLumMer (Superintendent of Fullerton Union High 
School and Junior College, Fullerton, California): May I comment on the 
question that was just raised? We have with us this afternoon, Dr. Zook, 
who, years ago, was Director of Higher Education of the United States and 
I remember in a Memphis meeting, as long ago as 1922 Dr. Zook’s making 
the statement that no two-year institution could survive. He has been an 
advocate for all these years of the six-four-four development, I believe, and 
Dr. Zook, we will have to admit that many junior colleges have survived, 
but there is the problem of graduation that faces the reorganization into 
the six-four-four plan, that is very difficult. Dr. Zook might be interested 
in commenting on this, Mr. Chairman. 


CHAIRMAN JonEs: We shall be delighted if he will, and we are de- 
lighted to have him with us. 


Dr. Zook: Well, Mr. Chairman, I am certainly sorry that somebody’s 
memory is as good as it is. I have forgotten that particular occasion, but I 
will have to admit that that has been my, shall I say, hope? Possibly it 
doesn’t make so very much difference. We are after all at the beginning 
of a tremendous movement. I am afraid to look myself in the face and 
realize what has happened in this movement in the last twenty years be- 
cause I have been definitely interested in it all of this time, a period where 
we have seen this tremendous development, and I will continue to say as I 
said in the very earliest meetings in those days, that I know of no move- 
ment in the field of education which has greater significance for the trans- 
formation of the whole field of education. 


Well, we have seen that proven to a very considerable extent, and yet 
I think that we all have to admit that even now in somewhat a different 
sense we are only at the beginning of the tremendous possibilities that 
it has. 

My own belief is that as soon as we do have junior colleges in all the 
cities and towns of twenty-five or thirty thousand, we will have more of a 
tendency than has occurred in days gone by, to bring about a close co~-la- 
tion between what we have always thought of as high school on the «ne 
hand and what we have thought of as the first two years of college on 
the other. 

And yet I must say that I will have to admit that the great proportion 
of junior colleges that one sees in operation to-day are of these two-year 
units. 

All that that really means is that fundamental changes in American 
education have to occur over very long periods of time, and I do not think 
that anybody needs to be terribly worried about that; I would be perfectly 
willing to admit that if two-year junior colleges as such can show a clear 
effectiveness, I will take all of it back that I had to say in days gone by. But 





193 
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1939] ProceEDINGs OF TwENTy-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 161 
I am just as much convinced as ever of the fundamental soundness of that 
point of view, but I don’t know whether I am going to worry about it; I 
don’t expect to see it altogether realized in my day and generation. 


I feel that we are really here discussing the two fundamental pur- 
poses that junior colleges exist for, and by-the-way, Mr. Chairman, I really 
would like to compliment you or somebody else, I don’t know who, upon 
these three very very excellent presentations. As I compared them with 
what we had to stand for in our earlier days of realization of what the 
Junior College was for, I think there is a tremendous and marked improve- 
ment on the things that occurred in those earlier days. 


Here we have had presented this afternoon by three men some very 
distinct impressions about what the vocational or pre-professional curricula 
of these junior colleges ought to be. Now that impresses me tremendously. 
Somebody has been doing some work; somebody has been doing some 
thinking here that is quite worth while. 

I mention it in part because as I see the individuals who are con- 
cerned with American educational policy, one still encounters the criti- 
cism quite generally: Oh yes, the junior colleges are here all right enough, 
but they do not at all realize their responsibilities in this vocational or 
if you will, semi-professional field. 

And yet it seems to me that we are gradually identifying that area so 
clearly that in the fairly early future it will not be possible for anyone to 
make that criticism intelligently; at any rate relative to what we find in 
the junior college? 

By-the-way, I would like to parenthetically inquire, you can answer 
this after I get through, what progress has been made in California con- 
cerning the use of vocational funds for the support of these curricula in 
the junior college? 

Now the other thing that I am equally impressed with: we have got 
a wave at the present time of emphasis upon general education, on the 
junior college level. Now personally I am just as grateful as can be tor 
this awakening that is going on at the present time. I think those of us 
who have been interested in junior college work can truthfully say that 
from the very beginning we had in mind that the junior college could 
serve and would serve as the completion work of the high school in this 
area of general education, and perhaps we can say: congratulations, to 
these peope who during the last three or four years have found out that 
there is a problem of general education on the junior college level, and 
are now willing to help advance the cause. But it is entirely possible that 
we have a great deal to learn about what this type of general education 
ought to be on the junior college level, and may I just briefly aliude to the 
fact that one of the enterprises in which I am taking a great deal of in- 














162 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [March 


terest to-day, that the Council has just gotten under way is a cooperative 
study of the problem of general education on the junior college level. 


I succeeded without much difficulty, I am happy to say, in convincing 
the general education board that we ought to have a fairly considerable 
sum of money with which to go forward on this codperative study and 
now twenty-two institutions, beginning as I remember it with Allegheny 
College on the East and ending with Mills College on the extreme West, 
have banded together in this codperative study which in a way is being 
set up somewhat upon the basis of the eight-year study of the Progressive 
Education Association. 


Among the twenty-two institutions are three junior colleges, one of 
them the Pasadena Junior College which I am sure you will recognize as 
being a junior college which is selected because it is of this four-year char- 
acter that has been described here; the second the Little Rock Junior Col- 
lege in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the third, the Stevens Junior College 
at Columbia, Missouri. 


Then there are two of the so-called separate land grant colleges, the 
one in Iowa and the one in Michigan. 


Now before we have concluded this study, I feel sure that we will 
have a far better community of feeling about what general education on 
the junior college level should be than we do at the present time, and | 
am hopeful enough even to feel that a good traditional liberal arts college 
will come to realize what that ought to be as well as a good junior college 
realizes what it ought to be. 


Some of you may think that is a long way for a good traditional lib- 
eral arts college to go [laughter] and I suspect it is, and on the other hand 
it may be thoroughly worth while for Iowa State College of Agriculture 
and Mechanical Arts to realize that the first two years of their four-year 
curricula are largely in the field of general education and should be very 
different from the general education work that may be found in some 
junior college located not very far away, so I am very hopeful that out of 
this study there may be something quite worth while. 


Well, I haven’t any judgment at all, Mr. Chairman, when I get on 
my feet in talking about junior colleges, and I hope you will forgive me 
for talking such a long while. [Applause] 


CuatrMan Jones: Thank you, Dr. Zook. This has been a real contri- 
bution, and I know the junior college men are going to be very glad to 
hear of this coOperative study. 


Would you answer the one question regarding the use of vocational 
funds at the present time, Mr. Plummer? 





193 


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or 





1939] PRocEEDINGS OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 163 


Mr. Pcummer: The conditions under which vocational funds may be 
used are rather severe. It calls for a special type of certification. A teacher 
who is certificated to teach technical trades courses for instance, where 
these funds may be used, must have had from five to ten years practical 
experience in addition to his training academically or professionally. 

The courses of the curricula that I have outlined in the paper you 
were furnished a little while ago—we are getting federal support for the 
course in Diesel engines, machine shop, mill and cabinet work, and orna- 
mental iron work, and welding. 

I cannot speak for the college of California as a whole, many of them 
are doing more or less work for which they are getting federal support. 
The allocation of funds to California I feel is very generous and they are 
being used quite largely. 

Dr. Zoox: I will confess, Mr. Plummer, that my main idea in asking 
the question was to have all of the group realize that California had taken 
the step of designating by law, junior college education as an aspect of 
secondary education, hence it is possible in California to use these voca- 
tional funds in junior colleges whereas in no other state so far as T know 
which has not taken that step legally, is it possible to use the vocational 
fund. 


Personally I am looking ahead another hundred years when the other 
forty-seven states in the Union will by law designate junior college educa- 
tion as secondary education and thus be able to use the funds that are 
designated for vocational education. 


Mr. PiumMer: Wherever fifteen hours of time per week is used by 
students in courses that are definitely and closely related to the core, the 
federal government furnishes seven hundred and fifty dollars toward that 
teacher’s salary; where twenty hours are used in close connection with 
the core curriculum the allowance toward the teacher’s salary by the fed- 
eral government is one thousand dollars. 


_ Mr. Joun Craic (Muskegon, Michigan): We have a junior college 
organized ten or twelve years ago. I want to ask if in these cities that are 
organized under the six-four-four plan, if that organization was brought 
about when the junior college was first organized, whether it originated in 
your town in a six-four-four plan. In my town we are organized on the 
six-three-three-two plan, but a number of us are sold on this six-four-four 
plan. But of course the junior college now has traditions, as the senior 
high school has many traditions, and I am wondering if there are any 
here who have been organized on the six-three-three-two plan and are now 
on the six-four-four plan. 


Mr. Prummer: Mr. Chairman, I think most colleges now operate 
on the six-four-four plan, most schools systems operating on the six-four- 














ees ee 





164 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS { March 


four plan have developed that out of an earlier eight-four-two, or six-six- 
three, or six-three-three-two plan. 


Mr. McCaskill has given us an example of the college organized di- 
rectly on the basis of the six-four-four but in California where we have 
probably half a dozen systems operating on the six-four-four plan, they all 
developed out of other plans of organization. 


Mr. Baucuer (Hershey, Pennsylvania): I would like to ask the gentle- 
men who operate under the six-four-four plan what percentage of the stu- 
dents who finish the twelfth grade continue to return for the thirteenth 
grade work? 


Mr. McCaskit: In my system, of course we are young, we have only 
two classes thus far; last year we had approximately forty per cent of the 
high-school graduates who remained for junior college. 


Mr. J. S. Lanperer (Mississippi): I would like to state that [ was in 
a junior college agricultural high school. We are one of those tax-supported 
in Mississippi; we only have one city, that is in Meridian, Mr. McCaskill 
told us about so well this afternoon. 


Mr. E. R. Henry (Ventura, California): We have the six-four-four 
plan for eight years and in reply to the question which has just been asked, 
we have more than eighty per cent of our students who graduate from the 
twelfth grade who transfer directly to the thirteenth grade. 

I am under the impression, if I remember Dr. Harbison’s statement 
in the matter is that they have a larger percentage than that in Pasadena. 


Mk. C. F. Brncuam (Beaumont, Texas): I guess maybe Texas is back- 
ward, because we have twenty-one public junior colleges in Texas, and I 
think without any exceptions all of them started as a part of the high 
school, administered by the principal, and now nineteen out of the twenty- 
one are administered by separate principals or dean, a separate faculty, and 
a separate student body attends, and almost all have a separate setup en- 
tirely, although maybe under the same superintendent and board of edu- 
cation, so Texas in the development of junior college may not be in the 
trend that most of them are going. 

I was just interested in knowing what the present trend seems to be. 
The trend in four-year institutions in Texas is going backward. 


Mr. Hovtinsneap: | just wanted to say that I had lunch this noon 
with Dr. Grizzell, the Secretary of the Middle States Association. One 
problem that nobody has mentioned about six-four-four plan is that there 


is no way of accrediting a four-year junior college as a unit, at least in the 
Middle States Association. Now I am on the Commission of the Middle 
States Association—Secondary School Commission—and we are having a 















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165 






PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 





1939} 


joint committee now to see whether we can work out a program for ac- 
crediting 2 four-year junior college as a unit, as it stands now it is very 
dificult in the Middle States at least to run a four-year program which has 
any basis; in Pennsylvania, for example, the State Department will not 
accredit a secondary school unless it is operating three years, so it cannot 
accredit a secondary school as part of a junior college; I think though that 
that difficulty will be solved very shortly and probably will work out so 
that four-year junior college can be accredited as a unit in itself. 
















Mr. S. B. Haytuorne (Mississippi): The Southern Association of 
Colleges and Secondary Schools can accredit a four-year unit; they are 
credited as a Junior College, but they do have arrangements whereby a 
four-year unit can be accredited. 








Mrs. Daxon (Bluefield, West Virginia): I teach in a denominational 
school, a denominational junior college; we happen to get about fifty per 
cent of the graduates from the twin cities—I wonder if the gentlemen 
think there is any integration possible between the high schools and the 
junior colleges, or Dr. Zook probably would say we have no business 








existing. 





Mr. Ho uinsHeap: You may be under the delusion that I operate a 
public junior college. Scranton-Keystone Junior College is a private insti- 
tution. All I try to do is keep the deficit as small each year as possible. 







We run a four-year institution; our last two preparatory years, how- 
ever, are very small and the bulk of our work is in the two-year junior 
college. We deliberately cut ours to integrate ourselves with the public 
high schools and I think we have succeeded reasonably well. We cannot fF 
seem to build up the last two years very successfully. I judge a public in- 
stitution could, but we are not. I think you have a legitimate reason for 











existence. 


Mrs. Daxon: We can build up the upper two years, but had to dis- 
continue the first two years because we had so few in the preparatory de- 






partment. 
Mr. Martin (Missouri): I woud like to ask Mr. Plummer: do you 
have more than one person to help with the employment, the place- 
ment end? 
You described the person in commercial education; now do you have 
it for the other departments in the institution? 










Mr. Piummer: It is our feeling that the employment secretary, or the 
one who is in charge of employment should know the work very well; 
she should be acquainted with the preparation, she should be acquainted 
with the conditions a pupil has to meet, and should be a sort of doctor 























166 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


when problems develop between the employer and employee, consequently 
we ask our heads of departments to be the employment agency through 
which these students work. We do not attempt to have one person take 


care of all employment for the school. 


Mr. Sorenson (Minneapolis): In the six-four-four plan do they charge 
tuition for the thirteenth and fourteenth year? Do they classify as a high 
school and do the colleges accept the credits as they did under the six- 
three-two plan? 

Mr. McCaskit: Speaking for my situation—yes, to both questions. 
We do have a tuition charge, even from those who live within our own 
school district, it is very small. The tuition itself is fifteen dollars a semes- 
ter for a full course and certain other fees—the average cost in my junior 
college to those who live within the district is four dollars and a half a 


month for the nine months. 


Mr. Henry (Ventura): I might answer for California, under the Cali- 
fornia School Law we are not permitted to charge tuition; I might say 
while I am on my feet, so far as all charges are concerned, we make no 
distinction at all in our own institution between the various graduates. 


Miss Brossarp: Fifteen dollars covers how much? 


Mr. McCaskiLt: One semester. 


Mk. E. F. Farner (Parsons, Kansas): I would like to ask a little more 
about the Annual Career Forum; I think Mr. Hollinshead spoke of that. 
Tell me about what is done at that Forum. 


Mr. Hottinsueap: This was purely an experiment with us three years 
ago, we started it and using these committees of which I spoke, we set 
aside one day, and declared that a holiday in the high schools. We had, 
I think, sixty speakers of sixty different professions or vocations, meeting 
through a whole class day, say at any particular hour there probably would 
be ten sections going on, talking about each profession, the requirements 
for it, the qualities that the student ought to exhibit and possess if he 
wanted to succeed in it; possibilities of placement; possibilities in our par- 
ticular community. The speakers were instructed not to take more than 
fifteen minutes of the fifty minutes, and then we had our own student 
chairman start questioning, so that students could question back and forth. 
Then we had each year too some outstanding speaker who could pull the 
whole thing together, once in the afternoon for general meeting, and once 


in the evening for a banquet. 


We have found that to be very useful, we think, to the community, 
and very useful to the faculty, students and lay people in general. 











larch 1939 | PRrocEEDINGS OF TWENTyY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 167 
ently It also has awakened a considerable amount of interest in the laymen, 
>ugh in the program that we are presenting which we think is useful, too. 





take 
Mr. Farner: You have both high school and junior college students 


at the Forum? 
arge 
high 


SIX- 


Mr. Hotuinsueap: Yes. Our problem has been to find the room for 1t; 
we are always too jambed. 

Last year we put in one that we hadn’t thought of before, called Ca- 
reers in Marriage, and we finally had to move that to a room holding 
six hundred—they could not even get in there. 


Mr. Stresincer (Texas): May I ask how you finance that program? 


Mr. Hotuinsueap: I judge I am one of the few private junior college 
people here—I have access to the pocketbooks of various individuals, not 
as much access as I would like, but I continually work on that. [Laughter | 
That is the only way that we finance a program of that kind—we charge 
tuition, of course; our students pay a high tuition, three hundred dollars 
for liberal arts courses, and three hundred and fifty dollars for courses 
which involve very much science, per year; that does not meet our run- 
ning expenses but near enough so with the pockets I can touch we balance, 
somewhere near, at the end of the year. 





CuHatrMaN Jones: I might state at Fullerton at least, Mr. Plummer has 
a Family Relations Course and you might speak a word regarding its 
popularity, and the work it is doing, Mr. Plummer, if you care to contrib- 


ute just that. 


Mr. Prummer: Our Family Relations Course was started this last 
year. The head of our biology department was interested in developing a 
course of this kind and has been interested for years. He went to North 
Carolina at the call of Dr. Graves of the University of North Carolina for 
a conference on family Relations work; he came back very enthusiastic. 
He had already been given permission to offer such course upon it; appli- 
cation for admission to that course has been tremendous in the junior col- 
lege. It is a popular course, it is meeting the approval not only of students 
but of parents and of the community. 

We questioned that just a little bit because sometimes there is a feel- 
ing among the parents particularly, that the inhibitions in the home should 
be carried into the school, and this teacher has a feeling that after all there 
are problems in connection with family relations that will not be ade- 

- quately handled elsewhere and are legitimate for a school development. 


Mr. Ho.usHeap: May I second that, Mr. Chairman? 














en ee 














168 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS [| March 


We have an individual this year giving a series of lectures on the same 
subject, financed by an individual who is interested in that and it has been 


very successful. 


CuarrMaN Jones: I think you will find a real need for something of 
that sort as you have expressed here, and if you have among your faculty 
a man or a woman who commands complete confidence of your students, 
and is interested in this type of work, there is much help that can be 
gained from those who are already doing this work and you will find it 
of tremendous interest and value. 

I might simply state this: a year ago when I was traveling east to the 
convention at Atlantic City, I was traveling with Dr. Moore, the Superin- 
tendent of the Los Angeles System. I said, “Dr. Moore, what is the most 
outstanding piece of work that you are doing in the Los Angeles System?” 

He said, “I am afraid I will have to take you back to Framington 
High School,” the high school of which he was formerly principal, and 
he said, “We had a woman there who started a family relations course. 
The demand was so great we started it as a year course; we couldn't begin 
to take in the numbers who wanted it; we reduced it to a one-semester 
course, still there were numbers who could not get in.” He said, “At the 
present time that woman is taking four groups of students for one quarter 
of a year each, and is so inspiring them in this work that they are carrying 
on under her general directions and reading the books and having discus- 
sion groups necessary so that the work is reaching out to the larger 
number.” 

Now, as I told you at the beginning our four o’clock has arrived. I am 
greatly indebted to these men who have come so ably prepared to speak 
to you and I greatly appreciate the contributions and questions from the 


audience. 





National Honor Society 











MEETING OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF 
THE NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY 
Cleveland, Ohio 
February 25, 1939 


The National Council met in Hotel Cleveland. Present: Members 
Allen, Brooks, Elicker, MacQuarrie, McDaniel, and Church; absent mem- 
bers: Comstock, Parker, Peters, and Spencer. 


The terms of members Elicker, MacQuarrie and McDaniel expire at 
this convention. The following ballot was prepared: 


BALLOT 
(Vote for three) 
[J Samuel S. Dickey, Principal of Harding Junior High School, Lake- 
wood, Ohio. 
Paul E. Elicker, Principal of Newton High School, Newtonville, 
Massachusetts. 
A. E. MacQuarrie, Principal of Washburn High School, Minneapolis, 


Minnesota. 


port, California. 
M. R. McDaniel, Superintendent Oak Park and River Forest Town- 
ship High School, Oak Park, Illinois. 


[_] Paul Rehmus, Principal Senior High School, Grosse Point, Michigan. 


[] Martin M. Mansperger, Principal of Junior-Senior High School, Free- 


It was suggested that Honor Societies be encouraged to invite delega- 
tions from neighboring non-chapter schools to attend induction exercises. 


On motion of members MacQuarrie and Allen (second) the Secretary 
was authorized to draw an amendment to the constitution setting up a 
classification of chapter members to be known as working members. 


It was moved by members MacQuarrie and Elicker (second) that loans 
have the additional financial security by having a co-signer on the notes by 
a person of financial standing in the loanee’s community. 


Adjournment was moved by member Brooks. 
169 

















170 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


Tuesday, February 26, Meeting 


The National Council met in Hotel Cleveland at 5:00 p. M. Present: 
Members Allen, Elicker, MacQuarrie, McDaniel, and Church; absent: 
Members Brooks, Comstock, Parker, Peters, and Spencer. 

On motion of Members Elicker and Allen (second) the motion requir- 
ing the loanee to obtain a co-signer of financial standing in the commu- 
nity was rescinded. 

Members MacQuarrie and Allen (second) moved that ten thousand 
dollars ($10,000.00) be the upward limit of total loans for the ensuing 
year. Carried. 

On motion of Members Allen and MacQuarrie (second) an endorser 
be required for loans of more than two hundred dollars ($200.00). 


Moved by Members Elicker and Allen (second) that the members 
of the National Council constitute themselves a committee to ascertain 
opinion on an approved and standardized regalia for initiates. Carried. 

The result of the balloting showed the following elected for a term 
of three years: 

S. S. Dickey, Principal, Harding Junior High School, Lakeweod, Ohio. 

Paul FE. Elicker, Principal, Newton High School, Newtonville, Massa- 
chusetts, 


M. R. McDaniel, Superintendent, Oak Park and River Forest Town- 
ship High School, Oak Park, Illinois. 





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


ArTIcLE I—NaME 


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


ArticLte IIT—Aim 


The aim of this department shall be the advancement of secondary 
education by providing a clearing house of discussion bearing upon the 
problems of administration and supervision, by encouraging research, by 
upholding acceptable standards, by fostering professional ideals, and by 
formulating a working philosophy of secondary education. 


Articce IIIT—MeEMBERSHIP 


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


Section 2—All individuals shall be eligible to active membership who 
are members of the National Education Association and who are engaged 
in administrating supervision, and teaching secondary education, upon pay- 
ment of the annual fee of $2.00 to the executive secretary. 


Section 3—Members of state organizations of secondary-school prin- 
cipals shall be eligible to active membership in the Department of Sec 
ondary-School Prinicipals, by the payment of the annual fee of $1.00. 


Section 4—All other persons interested in secondary education, who 
are members of the National Education Association, shall be eligible to 
associate membership upon payment of the annual fee of $2.00 to the 
executive secretary. 

Section 5—Only active members shall have the privilege of voting or 


holding office. 


Section 6.—All members, both active and associate, shall receive the 


publications of the Department. 


171 











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172 DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS | March 


ArticLte [V—Orricers 


Section 1—The elective officers of the Department shall be a_ presi- 
dent, a first vice president, and a second vice president. 


Section 2—The president and the vice president shall hold office for 


one year. 


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


and junior colleges. 


Section 4—The executive secretary shall be selected by the executive 
committee; his duties and compensation shall be determined by the execu- 


tive committee. 


ArTICLE V 


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


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


Section 3—The nominating committee so constituted shall meet fol- 
lowing its selection and after electing a chairman, shall prepare a list of 
candidates for the several offices, to be submitted to the Department at its 


final business meeting. 


Article VI—FInaNncr 


The president shall appoint, subject to the approval of the executive 
committee, two members who shall, with the executive secretary, consti- 








1939] PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTy-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 


tute a board of finance to act in the capacity of trustees, to have custody 
of the funds of the Department, to have same properly audited, and to 
submit annually a report to the Department. Bills shall be paid by the ex- 
ecutive secretary upon the authorization of the president. 


ArticLe VII—MEETINGS 


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


Section 2—The second meeting of the Department shall be held at 
the time and place of the annual summer meeting of the National Educa- 


tion Association. 


ArticLte VIII—AMENDMENTs 


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


ArtTicLe IX 


Roberts’ Rules of Order shall govern in all meetings of the Depart- 


ment.