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 The school and its life: 
 
 ■A 1924 031 763 083 
 
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Cornell University 
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THE 
 
 SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 
 
 A BRIEF DISCUSSION OF 
 
 The Principles of School Management 
 and Organization 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES B. GILBERT 
 
 Lecturer on Educatiottf Western Reserve University 
 Formerly Superintendent of Schools, St. Paul, Minn,, Newark, N. J., 
 and Rochester, N. T. A 
 
 
 SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO 
 
I\l.\0'2-^L> 
 
 Copyright, igo6 
 By Silveb, Burdetx and Company 
 
Co 
 
 PRESIDENT CHARLES F. THWING 
 THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
 
 " Friend/ gracious word I the heart to tell is ill able 
 Whence came to men this jewel of a syllable." 
 
 Sanscrit Book of Good Counsels. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This book contains a brief discussion of a few of the vital 
 problems that arise in schools and school systems. It does 
 not claim to be a philosophy of school management, yet it 
 endeavors to show the relations of these problems, as to both 
 their sources and their solutions, to that comprehensive view 
 of life which we call philosophy. 
 
 Its treatment is based upon the creed that life is one, 
 especially that the single human life is simple in the midst 
 of its complexity, that its thread is continuous and easily 
 traced. No portion of it can justly be treated apart from 
 the whole. The principles that determine its character at 
 one time determine it at all times. Hence school life is to be 
 judged and its office regulated not as apart from the wider 
 life but as a part of it. During the school period and the 
 subsequent period the laws of growth, which is education, 
 are the same. There are no fimdamental differences in 
 principle. The differences are merely those of condition 
 and environment. 
 
 In directing the life of the school, we need not to seek for 
 new bases of conduct or new stimuli to activity, but merely 
 to apply to the necessary conditions of the school those uni- 
 versal laws of life and growth that may be known and read 
 of all men. 
 
 Much of the wastefulness of school life is due to attempts 
 to do something extraordinary and unlike what is done in 
 
vi Preface 
 
 the other affairs of life, to create a peculiar institution founded 
 upon some mysterious peculiar principle. Hence our work 
 has been so largely artificial and correspondingly futile. 
 
 It is life that educates, life in its totality, and school 
 offers a life to the pupil. The character of this life deter- 
 mines the education. 
 
 Hence the aim of school should be to place the children 
 in the midst of a natural, sane, and wholesome life, free from 
 all false, ephemeral, and artificial standards and stimuU. 
 
 To show how this may be done in a few of the many pos- 
 sible instances is the aim of this book. It is hoped that it 
 may at least stimulate thought, and suggest to some teachers 
 and school officers, burdened with the responsibility of their 
 work, a practical solution of some of their problems. 
 
 The foundations for this book were laid in a series of 
 articles by the author, originally published in Educational 
 Foundations. 
 
 C. B. Gilbert. 
 
 New York, March, 1906. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Some Problems i 
 
 ,11. The School and School Life 7 
 
 III. The Morale of the School 23 
 
 IV. The Morale of the School (Continued) . . . 33 
 V. The Individual Child 41 
 
 VI. Departmental Teaching 51 
 
 VII. Gradation and Promotion of Pupils ... 66 
 
 VIII. The Place of the Teacher 80 
 
 IX. The Freedom of the Teacher 88 
 
 X. The Development of the Teacher .... 96 
 
 XI. The Course of Study 100 
 
 XII. Teachers' Meetings 106 
 
 XIII. The Visitation of the School 122 
 
 XIV. The Private Conference 126 
 
 XV. Judging Results of Teaching 131 
 
 XVI. The School Superintendent 146 
 
 XVII. The School Superintendent (Continued) . . . 159 
 
 XVIII. The Superintendent and the Teachers . . . 170' 
 
 XIX. Social Functions of the Superintendent . . 181 
 
 XX. The Supervisor and the Special Teacher . . 190 
 
 XXI. The School Principal 201 
 
 XXII. Home and School 309 
 
 XXIII. Some Social Functions of the School . . . 226 
 
 XXIV. School Laws 236 
 
 vii 
 
THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Some Problems 
 
 The literature of the psychological and philosophical 
 
 phases of education is vast and reasonably sufficient; that of 
 
 its practical aspects is meager and unsatisfactory. 
 
 The aim of this book is to discuss a few of ~, . •„ , 
 
 This Book 
 
 the practical problems of school administration to Discuss 
 with the hope that further discussion by other Practical 
 writers engaged in school work may be stimulated. ^'^°''^^™^- 
 
 These practical problems are many, difficult, and 
 apparently far from solution. Our philosophies of edu- 
 cation and our practices are sadly out of harmony. We have 
 yet to find the point of contact between them. 
 
 The problems of education are both psychological and 
 sociological. If it were possible to consider separately the 
 two classes and weigh them, it would undoubtedly appear 
 that the latter is the more important, but stress has been 
 laid chiefly on the psychological. 
 
 The late Dr. Arnold Tompkins in his admirable treatise 
 on the Philosophy of Teaching states that a school primarily 
 consists of a self-educating pupil. If education is purely 
 a psychical process, this is true; if it is largely a social pro- 
 cess, the statement is only partially true. Indeed, the single 
 pupil is not a school at all. 
 
2 The School and Its Life 
 
 If we view education in its entirety, the first article in our 
 creed must be, "We believe that the function of the schooL 
 Th s h ol ^^ ^° ^^'^ youth into social efficiency." Hence it 
 to Train follows inevitably that the training must be social; 
 for Social the school must be a social institution, and the 
 
 ciency. ^j^j^j practical problems of school administration 
 are social problems. They deal with people in relation to one 
 another. 
 
 Necessarily in all discussion of educational questions the 
 individual child must be the center, yet considered not 
 chiefly as a psychical unit, but rather as a part of a larger 
 social unity. 
 
 It is true that we cannot in theory draw a sharp distinction 
 between psychology and sociology as the basis for teaching. 
 Sharo ^ child cannot receive the best psychical training 
 
 Distinc- without a recognition of his social needs. The 
 tions highest type of individual is developed not in iso- 
 
 mpossi e. ig^jJQQ^ ^jy). in society. Rasselas, solitary with his 
 solitary teacher, represents a very poor school indeed. 
 
 Nor can we train a child for society without considering 
 his psychical needs. Indeed these needs constitute the neces- 
 sary groundwork of all teaching, and the only true criterion 
 of a school is the extent to which it satisfies them. But these 
 needs include fitness to mingle with others effectively. 
 
 Hence the practical problems which we are to discuss in 
 these pages are mainly sociological problems. Within the 
 . limit prescribed, it will be possible to discuss but a 
 
 Problems ^^^' selected from the countless number facing 
 Chiefly every one who is concerned with the administra- 
 Soclolog- (-ion of school affairs, and these will mainly be taken 
 from the field of the elementary school. They 
 include questions arising in the single school with its one 
 
Some Problems 3 
 
 teacher and one class, and those arismg in the school system, 
 ■whether that system be housed under one roof and directed, 
 by a principal, or include the many houses and many schools 
 of a great city or a state and be governed by many officials 
 with an extensive and elaborate machinery. 
 
 In the former class the problems are simpler and fewer 
 but fundamental in character. Here the children are 
 trained. Here the real work of school education is carried 
 on. The problems arising in the system of schools are many 
 and large. But they all have one common factor, the school, 
 and their solution must always include the answer to one 
 question, viz. : How can the system be made to aid the teacher 
 in his work in the individual school ? For here is the root of 
 the matter. In the individual school each child is to be 
 trained to serviceable life in society, and the excellence of a 
 system, large or small, is measured, not by the impressive- 
 ness of its mechanism nor the brilliancy of the educational 
 theories exploited, but by its efficiency in furthering the 
 work of the single teacher with the single class. 
 
 The first questions to consider then are those which con- 
 cern the individual school. Some of them are these : What 
 are the proper personal relations between teacher problems of 
 and pupils and how are they to be secured ? AVhat the Single 
 attitude toward the work and the children should School, 
 the teacher professionally assume? What kind and degree 
 of Hberty should be conceded to the pupils ? How can their 
 aims and endeavors for the conduct of the school be brought 
 into harmony with those of the teacher? To what degree 
 and in what way may the school be made a democratic 
 institution ? 
 
 How may intelligent self-direction for altruistic ends be 
 cultivated in the children? What should be the relations 
 
4 The School and Its Life 
 
 of the children to one another and how should these be brought 
 about ? 
 
 How may the highest degree of intellectual vigor be se- 
 cured m the pupils and how shall it be employed so as best 
 to equip them for successful living ? 
 
 How shall the teacher reconcile the claims of the individual 
 children, in particular the exceptional ones, with the de- 
 mands of the school as a whole ? 
 
 These and many more questions are involved in the one 
 great and elemental question: How may the school be so 
 organized and administered as best to attain its true purpose, 
 that of educating children into social efficiency ? 
 
 But the smallest single school in the smallest and most 
 remote rural schoolhouse has other problems to meet than 
 these. Although it is in itself a social whole, it is yet a part 
 of a larger society with which it has many points of contact 
 and to which it is accountable. Indeed it is to these relations 
 that its very existence is due. Hence in its administration 
 they must be considered. The school is after all but a small 
 part of that hfe which is education, and it is only as it per- 
 forms its ftmctions in proper relation to the influences making 
 the larger part, that it is most efficient. 
 
 So it becomes necessary to consider the relations of the 
 teacher and the school to the homes from which the children 
 come, and this necessity frequently raises questions both deli- 
 cate and diffi6ult. What are the respective limits of authority 
 of the home and the school? How may both be brought 
 to recognize their own limitations? How may the best in 
 the home be made to strengthen the school, and how may 
 the school stimulate and aid the higher Uf e of the home ? 
 
 Further, we are coming to recognize the fact that the 
 school with its equipment has social functions of a high 
 
Some Problems 5 
 
 order in the general community life. These too must be 
 taken account of in the administration of the school. How 
 may the school be made to stimulate the intellectual and 
 moral activities of the community? What use should be 
 made of its building, its library and other equipment, for 
 higher social purposes? 
 
 These are some of the practical questions arising in con- 
 nection with the administration of the individual school. 
 
 When we advance from the single school to the school 
 system we find the problems increasing rapidly in number 
 and complexity. The teacher then becomes one 
 of many. His functions become specialized. He Problems 
 must do certain things in harmony with others, and g + ^ f 
 we are brought to the consideration of such ques- Schools, 
 tions as the relations of the teachers to one another, 
 both those who are doing the work of the same grade and 
 those working in different grades; the relations between 
 teachers and the various supervising officers; the relations 
 of these officials to one another; the relations of all to the 
 people's representatives in authority over them, as school 
 boards, school committees, and the like. How may the nec- 
 essary machinery of a system accomplish its purpose and yet 
 not hinder the work of the individual teacher with the indi- 
 vidual children but rather reinforce it? What relations 
 should local systems bear to state and national systems? 
 What relations should school organization bear to the gen- 
 eral government, local, state, and national? 
 
 With the development of school systems in large com- 
 munities, too, come increasingly difficult problems concerning 
 the relations of the schools to the community life. How 
 may bureaucracy be avoided and the schools remain in close 
 touch with the people, responsive to their felt needs? How 
 
6 The School and Its Life 
 
 may the extensive and expensive plants of the school sys- 
 tems be used to stimulate the higher community life ? 
 
 These are some of the questions of practical school admin- 
 istration which need careful consideration and more abun- 
 dant discussion than they have received. As stated at the 
 outset, in this book I shall endeavor to state more fully some 
 of them, not to settle them, — with the hope that others may 
 follow with the results of their experience. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 The School and School Life 
 
 A SCHOOL is a social institution. Reduced to its lowest' 
 terms the society consists of two — a teacher and a learner. 
 As ordinarily found it consists of a teacher and school a 
 several learners. It is a unity in variety. There Social 
 is severalty in its composition, unity in its aim. Institution. 
 Yet this unity of aim is different from that in an industrial 
 institution. The school aims not to put forth a single, com- 
 mon product as does a factory. The product is as multi- 
 farious as the component parts of the community. It is 
 individual, not common. But the life is common in its aim, 
 its method, and its spirit. There are community of interest, 
 community of purpose, community of means and activities, 
 but not uniformity of product. 
 
 To keep this balance, so that" the common life shall be 
 preserved and at the same time the individual need and the 
 individual aspiration satisfied, so that each shall contribute 
 to the general welfare and at the same time derive the utmost 
 individual good from the common life — this is the great 
 problem of school administration. 
 
 The bond which makes the school a community is spiritual, 
 not material. It is not the one room in which its mem- 
 bers work, nor the one course of study which they pursue, 
 nor the uniform text-books which they use, but rather the 
 community of aim, the unity of spirit which actuates them. 
 
 7 
 
8 The School and Its Life 
 
 Dr. Arnold Tompkins has said that a school is a spiritual 
 union of teacher and pupil. This is true of the school in its 
 School a lowest terms. It is equally true that an ideal 
 Spiritual school of larger size is a spiritual union of teacher 
 Union. ^j^j pupils. It is not merely a union of the teacher 
 with each pupil, nor with the school as a whole. It is rather 
 a union of all with all. The union of pupil with pupil, of 
 each pupil with all the others, is quite as essential as that of 
 the teacher with the pupils. The teacher is the active, con- 
 scious, unifying force. Only such a school can serve the 
 real end of education, which is social efficiency in each indi- 
 vidual member of the community. 
 
 A school, then, is a community, consisting of teacher and ' 
 pupils, who are Uving together a conscious, purposeful life; 
 whose aim is the growth of its members in knowledge, wis- 
 dom, righteousness, and social efhciency. 
 
 This school community has as its unifying agencies, its 
 common ideals, its morale, its conventions, its occupa- 
 tions. 
 
 These four elements constitute a single life; they cannot 
 be separated. Even if those who direct the school adminis- 
 Fojy. tration are unconscious or regardless of some of 
 
 Elements of them, they are all present. School life, Uke all 
 School Life, spiritual and community life, is composed of these 
 elements, and here, as everywhere, all conscious or uncon- 
 scious ignoring of any of them brings disaster. 
 
 Many a hard-working, conscientious teacher struggles so 
 earnestly to secure certain results in the more manifest 
 Higher phases of school life, as learning and the observ- 
 Ends often ance of school conventionalities, that the com- 
 Obscured. mon ideals and the true morale are lost sight of, 
 with the result that the life as a whole is on a low plane 
 
The School and School Life 9 
 
 and the training for social efSciency is either negative or 
 positively evil. This is especially apt to be the case when 
 marks, prizes, and examinations are the stimuli and criteria 
 employed. When secondary ends rather than primary are 
 placed as the objects of effort, the life as a whole is low, 
 and hence the training as a whole is toward evil habits of 
 thought and is distinctly degrading. 
 
 Therefore in planning and conducting the administration 
 of a school, immediate and patent " results" must often be 
 subordinated to more remote and less obvious ends. In 
 the education of souls, material and manifest criteria are 
 dangerous and need to be employed with great discretion. 
 The individual who can answer the most deftly Danger of 
 the greatest number of questions is by no means Formal 
 always the most successful or useful member of Standards, 
 society, and the school whose pupils can secure the highest 
 marks in examination is by no means always the best 
 school. It does not necessarily even impart the most 
 knowledge. It is the school hfe in its entirety that counts 
 in preparation for the larger life of the larger society of 
 after years. 
 
 For the sake of clearness, however, it will be necessary 
 to deal somewhat separately with the various elements of 
 school hfe, ideals, morale, conventions, and occupations, and 
 it will be simpler to treat of the last first, since the spirit, 
 method, and subject-matter of school occupation constitute 
 the principal factor, next to the teacher himself, in deter- 
 mining the character of the school hfe. 
 
 SCHOOL OCCUPATION 
 
 The popular statement of the purpose for which children 
 go to school is "to learn." The accumulation of knowledge 
 
10 The School and Its Life 
 
 is the conspicuous motive of the occupations which employ 
 „. ., . their time while there. This is inevitable. The 
 
 Goto possession of knowledge is unquestionably one 
 
 School to of the absolutely essential conditions of suc- 
 ^*^™" cessful living and, besides, it is one of the most 
 easily tested results of effort. Hence in the average school 
 all effort centers in this one aim. Children do go to school 
 to learn, and if they learn, especially if they learn those things 
 which have become the conventional requirements of school, 
 parents and teachers are usually satisfied. 
 
 Knowledge, however, important as it is, is but one of the 
 desirable results of school activities. Indeed, unless it is 
 Knowledge accompanied by other results, knowledge itself is 
 but One nearly valueless. Acuteness of perception, judg- 
 of the ment, reasoning power, alertness, breadth, and 
 
 ^^" *■ elevation of interest are among the intellectual 
 attainments which should accompany knowledge, grow out 
 of it, and make it practically available, and these should 
 all be secured through the occupations of the school hfe. 
 
 Moreover, much of the moral and social training essential 
 to worthy living is the product of properly organized work. 
 Indeed the occupations of people, both in school 
 th '^k'* '°° ^^^ ^ '•^^ larger hfe, are largely responsible for 
 their ideals. In a well-ordered life the moral and 
 industrial elements are well-nigh indistinguishable. Life 
 is one, and what we do is almost of necessity in harmony with 
 what we believe and what we aspire to. 
 
 COURSE OF STUDY 
 
 The occupations of the school are usually laid down with 
 more or less definiteness in a course oj study. 
 It is not my purpose at this point to treat the course of 
 
The School and School Life ii 
 
 study in any detail. But it seems proper to state a few 
 principles underlying all good courses in order that the rela- 
 tions of occupation to school life in its totality may appear 
 and the unity of it all may be more manifest. 
 
 A course of study should be both mandatory and sugges- 
 tive; mandatory as to broad plan and purpose, and suggestive 
 as to details, methods, and material. It should 
 be such as will stimulate intellectual activity and study both 
 develop initiative in both teacher and pupils. It Mandatory 
 should recognize the differences in minds and the a°<i Sug- 
 fact that to compel one mind to follow exactly the 
 routine laid down by another is weakening, not strengthen- 
 ing. The great danger of organized education is the ten- 
 dency to produce that similarity of product which indicates 
 machine make. Hence the suggestiveness and the stimulat- 
 ing quality of a course of study are more important than even 
 the mandatory general plan. 
 
 The latter, however, is necessary for the avoidance of 
 vagueness and desultoriness of work. A course of study 
 must require that certain results be accomplished at certain 
 stages, and it must encourage and stimulate teachers to 
 find the best way of accompUshing these results. 
 
 A course of study must indicate a body of knowledge to 
 be acquired and a range of activities to be engaged in. The 
 former should be broad, so as to estabhsh many uuaiuy of 
 points of contact with the world. The latter Course of 
 should be wide, so as to exercise and develop all Study.- 
 the potentialities of nascent minds. The relations between 
 the two should be very close. 
 
 The activities required should be upon objects evidently 
 worth while, in the main those connected with the body of 
 knowledge presented. There is a tendency among the 
 
12 The School and Its Life 
 
 makers of text-books, and among teachers as well, to devise 
 work which exercises but a few of the natural activities of 
 the mind, and to ding-dong upon these with wearisome itera- 
 tion, while pursumg that will-o'-the-wisp of elementary 
 education, thoroughness. Drill for drill's sake is a positive 
 fetich with many, especially in mathematics and the lan- 
 guages, including the mother tongue. Such drill is worse 
 than waste. It deadens interest and defeats its ovra ends 
 by limiting and, in some cases, actually arresting growth. 
 
 Every exercise should have an evident motive beyond 
 itself. If the subject is reading, the golden end should be 
 Every appreciation of the matter read; if language, the 
 
 Exercise forceful and artistic expression of worthy thought; 
 Must Have jf mathematics, the comprehension of those won- 
 a Motive, (jgj-fyi relations of which mathematics is the mode 
 of expression. These higher and remoter ends should be 
 evident to the children. This ennobles drill and makes it 
 seem worth while. It supplies the motive, which alone makes 
 drudgery possible to active minds. 
 
 Abundant drill in all departments can always be secured 
 upon problems that are vital. Life is full of such real prob- 
 lems even for children, and their mastery constitutes the 
 truest education, it even furnishes the best drill. A boy 
 making a boot-blacking box in the manual training shop, 
 doing his own computing, measuring, drawing, and fitting, 
 is getting better mathematical drill within the range of his 
 work than any mere memorizing and repetition of the words 
 of a table of measurements can possibly give him. 
 
 This suggests another fundamental principle of a good 
 Correlation course of study, a close observance of the nat- 
 Kecessary. ural relations among the various subjects studied 
 and the various activities engaged in. In life nothing 
 
The School and School Life 13 
 
 stands alone, all is related; so in the true school, which is a 
 microcosm, an epitome of life. 
 
 The purpose of a course of study for elementary schools 
 may be summarized as follows : 
 
 A course of study for elementary schools should supply 
 the teachers with working material which they may employ 
 in the training of the children. Its business is not 
 to state in definite terms just what the teacher is to study Must 
 do each day, but rather to map out in a broad way Supply 
 those activities, exercises, and fields of knowledge Working 
 which experience has shown to be most suitable ^**^"**- 
 for the elementary school, and to suggest to the teachers 
 methods of enlarging this work and of preparing themselves 
 to perform it. It should take into consideration such facts 
 concerning children as the study of child life has made clear, 
 the character of the civiHzation in which the child is to be a 
 factor, and the means necessary to make him a most effec- 
 tive voluntary factor for good in his community. It must 
 supply such activities as will best stimulate growth, such 
 discipline as will produce the finest culture and make it 
 possible for him to express himself adequately for the bene- 
 fit of others; it must suggest such knowledge as will help 
 him to take hold of nature effectively and comprehend what 
 others have done and expressed. It must involve also such 
 a vital acquaintance with social, economic, and ethical con- 
 ditions as is required for good citizenship. 
 
 The principles outlined above for the occupations of 
 the schoolroom being accepted, the teacher has a working 
 basis for the organization of the school. His first pj^gj gg^ 
 business is to get the pupils at work in rational the Pupils 
 and educative employment adapted to their needs. ** Work. 
 If the school be one of a graded system the work for the 
 
14 The School and Its Life 
 
 different pupils will be similar, if not uniform; there will 
 still be need for the study of individual conditions, but the 
 general plan will be predetermined, and the material at 
 hand. 
 
 If the school be a rural or ungraded one the task of initial 
 organization will be much more difficult. Here the work 
 Graded and ^^^ ^^ largely individual and the consideration of 
 Ungraded the needs of single pupils will force itself at 
 Schools once upon the teacher's attention. Here, too, 
 ompare . j^ j^ especially difficult to preserve the social unity 
 of the school community. Diversity of age, attainment, 
 and work tend to undue accentuation of the individual and 
 to unfortunate loss of social motive; while in the graded 
 school the danger is that the individual will be so merged 
 in the social whole as to lose his distinct personal claim to 
 attention and the recognition of his right to individual develop- 
 ment. In the rural school common activities must be de- 
 vised and encouraged and common interests aroused. In 
 the graded school, individual activities, work for individual 
 ends, must be planned, and the tastes, needs, and aptitudes 
 of individual children must be noted and provided for. For 
 in both, the end, social efficiency, must be kept in mind, and 
 this requires the fullest development of individual power 
 and the fullest comprehension of social relations and obli- 
 gations. Each is necessary to the other. The individual 
 is fully developed only in society, and society prospers only 
 when its individual members are full-grown. 
 
 Hence, the school, whether graded or ungraded, must be 
 so organized as properly to balance the individual and social 
 demands of true education. 
 
 The administration of the school must also provide that 
 both divisions of the course of study receive due attention — 
 
The School and School Life 15 
 
 the body of knowledge and the range of activities. The 
 process of education may be described as growth through 
 nutrition and exercise, or, as more commonly put. Education 
 through learning and expression. Hence these is Growth 
 two kinds of effort must be duly provided for. Through 
 not only in the course of study, but also in the '^'»*"*i°°- 
 administration of the school. Indeed, they cannot be sepa- 
 rated. There is no learning without corresponding expres- 
 sion. Memorizing is not, necessarily, learning at all in 
 
 the true sense. Unless the whole mind is em- - 
 
 Expression 
 
 ployed there is no nutrition. Consequently, there Necessary 
 is enormous waste in our educational processes, to Leam- 
 Where expression is ignored the learning is "^^' 
 bogus; it does not enter into the make-up of the mind. In 
 such schools, only when acquisition in the school is supple- 
 mented by the activities of the life out of school is there 
 true learning at all, and, as this supplementing is casual 
 and unreliable, it is evident that much of the effort of the 
 schoolroom is wasted. 
 
 So the school must provide an abundance of activities 
 which shall utilize and make vital, through expression, the 
 matter presented for learning. 
 
 The greatest lack of our schools to-day seems to me to * 
 be that of suitable provision for just this serious productive 
 work by the pupils. Studying is still too largely ^ack of 
 mere committing to memory rather than such an Productive 
 application of the mind to vital problems as shall Work, 
 employ all its powers and produce real, as distinguished 
 from verbal, knowledge. Pupils in the average school do 
 not do enough of real work. They spend hours enough, 
 use up nervous energy enough, get tired enough, but they 
 do not work enough. Provision must be made in the school 
 
1 6 The School and Its Life 
 
 for a sufficient amount of independent, strength-producing 
 work. This means that the school must be so organized 
 that each pupil may have the opportunity and be compelled 
 to work alone and unaided upon problems that bring into 
 use all his energies, producing results that appeal to him 
 as worth producing. 
 
 THE GRADED SCHOOL 
 
 Let us consider first the graded school. As has been 
 Danger of pointed out, one of the principal dangers of this 
 Loss in the school is that the child may be swallowed up by 
 Machine, (-j^g machine; that the social whole may so absorb 
 the individual that his effort for individual ends may be 
 discouraged. 
 
 MASS TEACHING 
 
 Another grave danger of the graded school is that the 
 teacher may do the work for the children. Where mass 
 Teacher teaching prevails the teacher is likely to be so 
 Doing anxious to push along the required work, to keep 
 
 Work for the class moving together, that the single child 
 "^* ^' has no opportunity to labor with the feeling that 
 he must, himself, work out his own salvation. The teacher 
 is always there, ready to supply the deficiencies of the weak, 
 himself supplementing the child's effort, that the beautiful 
 uniformity of the class gradation may not be broken. 
 
 The most pernicious form of mass teaching is found in 
 those schools in which the entire roomful of children does the 
 same things at the same time — recites together, studies to- 
 gether, with the teacher always present, helping, suggesting, 
 telling. These schools represent the complete absorption 
 of the individual. They do not stand for even good social 
 
The School and School Life 17 
 
 training, which develops the individual as fully as possible 
 for social efficiency; for social efficiency requires completely 
 educated, self -directing individuals able to use all the strength 
 of individuahty for social ends. 
 
 Mass teaching so completely subordinates the individual 
 that his efforts become mechanical. He cannot move alone; 
 he moves with the mass. He is not self -directing; he has 
 no power of initiative; he follows a leader, if there is one; 
 if not, he follows the crowd. 
 
 THE GROUP SYSTEM 
 
 The Group System of organization in large graded schools 
 is almost necessary to this development of personal power. 
 It is impossible and undesirable to have each Advantage 
 pupil work altogether independently. That of Groups, 
 would be the other extreme. But it is both possible and 
 desirable to have the school so organized into groups that 
 both the social and the individual training necessary shall 
 be secured. 
 
 The number of groups will depend, naturally, upon the 
 size of the school, its grade, and the character of the work to be 
 done. In primary grades there should be more groups than 
 in the grammar grades. A primary grade of forty or fifty 
 pupils may profitably be divided into three or four groups. 
 The grouping, to a considerable degree, should be accord- 
 ing to abihty to do the work. This facilitates frequent 
 promotion and gives the individual a chance. The differ- 
 ences will be slight and children can be moved from one 
 group to another, according to their particular needs, with- 
 out causing undue elation or a sense of degradation. 
 
 More important still, it makes possible such work, both 
 social and individual, as a wise education requires. 
 
1 8 The School and Its Life 
 
 These groups should be employed in different occupations. 
 The teacher should be busy with one, in what is commonly 
 called the recitation, an exercise wherein that which has 
 been accomplished by the children working alone is tested, 
 instruction given, suggestion offered, employment outlined for 
 the future, and, in general, that directive and .inspirational 
 work done which is the teacher's commonly recognized 
 function. 
 
 This is the test period, which, perhaps more than any 
 other, shows to the teacher, and to the children themselves, 
 jljg the value and meaning of the work of the school. 
 
 Recitation It is the time for interchanging thought, for clari- 
 the Test, fying ideas, for informing minds. But this reci- 
 tation period can attain its highest effectiveness only when 
 the other work has been skilfully directed and well done. 
 
 A group as small as ten or fifteen can be in very close 
 relations with the teacher during the recitation period. 
 Each individual child can receive considerable attention 
 and can become really knoAAm by the teacher. A teacher 
 with forty-five primary pupils, in forty-five minutes, can 
 do very much more for each child if she spends fifteen 
 minutes with each of three groups than if she has them all 
 for forty-five minutes together, and, besides this, each child 
 can have had thirty minutes of quiet individual work, 
 undisturbed by the iteration of the teacher. 
 
 The groups not engaged in recitation should be at work 
 Work by ^y themselves. This work should, of course, be 
 Groups not planned and directed by the teacher, but he 
 Reciting, should, while they are busy upon it, be absent 
 from the children's minds, as completely as possible. They 
 should be absorbed in the work. 
 
 With the lower primary grades this work should be largely 
 
The School and School Life in 
 
 that which brings into play motor activities, some form of 
 
 expression work — writing, drawing, painting, modeling in 
 
 sand or clay, construction, blackboard work — some form 
 
 of activity in which the children develop and -^ . 
 
 • 1 , . , , Employ- 
 
 express ideas connected with and suggested by ment of 
 
 the course of study and the recitation exercises Motor 
 of the day. The changes should be of sufficient A'=*'^ities. 
 frequency to avoid undue fatigue, and the problems 
 should be "real" and educative. This occupation should 
 not be play, but should be serious work, tending toward 
 the end of the school, growth through nutrition and exer- 
 cise. 
 
 Children so organized and directed will work with genuine 
 joy and earnestness, realizing that they are accomplishing 
 something worth while. Such an arrangement also solves 
 the question of the so-called "discipline" of the school; but 
 I will speak of that later. 
 
 A roomful of children thus occupied, one group eagerly 
 busy with the teacher in the recitation, while the others 
 are working by themselves — one group at a blackboard solving 
 problems in arithmetic, another at their desks writing a 
 language exercise, or standing about a large table, painting, 
 or, perhaps, gathered about a "sand table," working out 
 together, with the sand and cardboard and other construc- 
 tive material, the story of the Trojan war, all eager and 
 absorbed in the work in hand, while the teacher, gently 
 and almost unobserved, guides it all — such a school forms 
 a beautiful and inspiring spectacle. And the best of it is, 
 children so engaged are receiving real education. They 
 are exercising their minds independently and yet in society. 
 They are gaining strength and the power of self-direc- 
 tion through self-direction. They, are developing thought 
 
20 The School and Its Life 
 
 and are expressing it, thus making the facts they learn 
 nutritive. 
 
 In higher grades two groups are enough. The pupils 
 here are capable of longer continued exertion. There is, 
 Number of necessarily and properly, more conning of books. 
 Groups. There is less need of frequent motor activity. 
 There is more of what we commonly call study, and this 
 can be continued for longer periods of time. Nor is there 
 quite the same need for the close, individual attention of 
 the teacher possible in the smaller groups. 
 
 In grammar grades of forty pupils, two classes of twenty 
 each, with half-hour recitation periods, secure excellent 
 results. There is here abundant opportunity for unaided 
 study, a prerequisite of mental strength, and there is time 
 in plenty for recitation purposes. 
 
 Naturally, many of the exercises of the schoolroom are 
 better carried on by the whole school together. Such are 
 music, formal drawing lessons — all exercises which do not 
 require individual recitations, but in which all pupils neces- 
 sarily take part during the whole time. Such general exer- 
 cises are valuable, also, for social training and should on no 
 account be neglected. But most of the school work can 
 be more successfully carried on in groups. In particular 
 this plan makes possible that imaided, individual work 
 which is absolutely necessary for the development of power. 
 
 Such an arrangement as has been outlined necessitates 
 careful preparation on the part of the teacher; it requires 
 Keed of organization to prevent waste. Material for the 
 Careful work of the different groups must be at hand. 
 Prepara- Plans for its distribution at the proper times must 
 be made. The teacher must be alert and ready. 
 But the care is compensated for in the interest produced, 
 
The School and School Life 21 
 
 the power of self-direction developed, and the superior 
 order resulting. 
 
 THE UNGRADED SCHOOL 
 
 In the ungraded school a different sort of organization 
 is required. Combination, rather than segregation, is needed 
 here. Children should be grouped upon such 
 common problems as are possible. They may tiveExer- 
 be problems of nature study, for which abundant cises in 
 material is at hand. They may be problems of Ungraded 
 construction, the making of simple pieces of ap- 
 paratus for the use of the school, or the maintaining of school 
 gardens for the study of simple agricultural or horticultural 
 questions. Or the common work may be the making and 
 solving of arithmetical problems relating to the school or the 
 community life, such as measurements and computations 
 for the construction of buildings for rural use, or the laying 
 out of land for gardens or farms. It may be the study of 
 geography or history or literature, to which each child con- 
 tributes what he has been able to learn through his personal 
 investigation or research. 
 
 In the ungraded school especial care should be taken 
 with the general exercises in which the whole school is en- 
 gaged — singing, drawing, debates, speUing-matches, special 
 oratorical and declamatory exercises of various kinds. The 
 children should be led to do co-operatively as many things 
 as possible, each contributing his share. 
 
 For social training, in all schools, much use may properly 
 be made of special days — such days as the birthdays of 
 authors and statesmen and other prominent persons. The 
 decoration of school rooms and school grounds, too, offers 
 fine opportunities for community work of an altruistic sort. 
 
22 The School and Its Life 
 
 Children should be led to see that social betterment comes 
 through the combined efiforts of many, each contributing 
 his share. I cannot refrain from repeating, education is to 
 develop social efficiency in individuals, and this comes through 
 the developing oj individual power by means oj work in co-op- 
 eration. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 The Morale of the School 
 
 In the preceding chapter the occupations of the school 
 were discussed as being the key to the entire school life, 
 the first thing which the teacher must consider and the 
 one thing which must be rightly conducted, if the school 
 is to fulfil its function. We will now consider in particular 
 the conduct of children in school, its kind, the motives which 
 should underlie it, and the observance of proper conven- 
 tionalities. 
 
 There are many erroneous notions and there is much false 
 preaching on the subject of what is called " school discipline," 
 meaning the preservation of order. The great 
 struggle with the majority of teachers is to keep "Disci- 
 order; more teachers fail in this respect than in pline"some- 
 
 any other, and many of them fail largely because t™es 
 
 r 1 • , . T , Overrated, 
 
 of their strenuous attempts to succeed m tms one 
 
 line as if, order being Heaven's first law, it were the one 
 
 thing for which children come to school. The "discipline" 
 
 of the school is in a manner separated from the work of the 
 
 school and made a particular feature, and some teachers 
 
 boast with more pride of their success in keeping order 
 
 than of their success in teaching. 
 
 There are a few fundamental principles underlying this 
 
 whole question of school "discipUne" which it is well to 
 
 study, although they are not new. Conduct rests upon 
 
 23 
 
24 The School and Its Life 
 
 two classes of motives which in most of us are so 
 „ _ inextricably mixed that we cannot distinguish 
 tions and one from the other. One is convention and 
 Law of the other the inner law of right based upon 
 ^SW. reason. 
 
 CONVENTION 
 
 Convention is necessary to the smooth running of the 
 Value of social machine. People who must Uve together, 
 Conven- of necessity must have certain conventions; 
 tions. there must be agreement, at least as to the 
 
 externals of Ufe, but these conventions, to be really 
 valuable, must be founded upon rational motive. 
 
 It is sometimes said that there are two motives which 
 prompt the keeping of order in school. One is to secure 
 conditions suitable for doing the work of the school, and the 
 other is to insure a training in morals. The distinction is 
 unwise. If the conventions of the school are essential to 
 good work, obedience to them constitutes a training in good 
 morals; if they are not essential to good work in the school, 
 insistence upon obedience to them means training in bad 
 morals. Much evil arises from the fact that the conventions 
 upon which stress is laid are frequently not essential to the 
 well-being of the school, but are purely or partially arbitrary. 
 
 The conventions of the school most commonly named 
 are silence, punctuality, attention, and prompt obedience. 
 These are all, directly or indirectly, connected with morals 
 according to the circumstances. Silence, for instance, may 
 be a virtue or it may not. In those instances in which noise 
 would interfere with the study of the pupils or with the reci- 
 tation, silence is necessary, and to enforce it is to train in good 
 morals; but teachers are quite too apt to love it for its own 
 
The Morale of the School 25 
 
 sake and to insist upon it when it has no bearing upon the 
 well-being of the school. Silence suggests death, and among 
 the deadest schools I have ever seen have been those in which 
 arbitrarily, without cause, silence was always enforced. 
 
 This is hardly the place to discuss the foundations of 
 moraUty in detail since this would involve more time and 
 more far-reaching controversy than is the purpose Morality a 
 of this book. But in general it may be said that Relative 
 the term morality is a purely relative term; it has T^erm. 
 to do with the relations of men with men. A soUtary being, 
 if such a being could be imagined, would be without morals. 
 If we accept the very simplest definition of moraUty, namely 
 right conduct, we must admit that conduct is right or wrong 
 solely with reference to its end and the relations involved. 
 What is right at one time and place may be wholly wrong 
 at another. 
 
 Every phase of hfe, every social institution, must of neces- 
 sity have its own rules of conduct. These rules are usually 
 crystallized into conventions. People who are 
 associated in any definite enterprise, or for. any tionsfor 
 purpose, for a length of time, naturally discover Special 
 what kind of conduct best makes for the ends of Piloses 
 the association, and out of this recognition ulti- 
 mately grows a set of rules or conventions, sometimes for- 
 mulated and sometimes not formulated, which govern the 
 members of the association. In a sense .they enforce them- 
 selves. Those who violate them interfere with the success 
 of the organization and are compelled either to leave it or 
 to conform to its regulations. 
 
 In a business house for instance, there are conventions 
 which make it possible to carry on business successfully, — 
 regulations as to the hours of service, as to the recognition 
 
26 The School and Its Life 
 
 of the authority of those who are in responsible positions, 
 and as to what each one is to do and at what times and 
 in what ways. These rules are local in bearing and limited 
 in their significance. They would not apply to a church 
 or a theater. The church, too, has its conventions which 
 grow out of the conditions involved. People who meet to 
 worship together, reahzing the need of such conditions as 
 tend to secure a worshipful mind, insist that all who come 
 must conduct themselves accordingly. There must be a 
 quiet, reverential attitude, certain participation in the exer- 
 cises, and a general co-operation in securing the purpose 
 of the assemblage. In a theater or in a public lecture- 
 room where we go to listen to what one or more people 
 are saying, there is required a different sort of conduct, 
 but one which fits the occasion. So in a school certain 
 conventions are necessary. Teachers must be able to teach 
 and children to study and recite without being disturbed by 
 others. There are, moreover, conventions of a wider reach, 
 those that belong to the business world as a whole or to 
 the religious world as a whole. 
 
 Now, these conventions are not the mere fabrications of 
 ingenious people foisted upon the members of the or- 
 ganization or association, nor are they artificial, 
 Conven- , , , ^ , ^ -^ . 
 
 tions Rest though they may seem so. In the first mstance 
 
 upon Fun- they rest upon certain fundamental principles 
 damental which are the basis of sound moraUty; these are 
 the right of all people to perform any legitimate 
 act without being interfered with unduly by others, and the 
 obligation resting upon all to respect that right in others. 
 Such conventions not only rest upon sound principles, but 
 they are absolutely necessary to the smooth running of the 
 world's machinery. 
 
The Morale of the School 27 
 
 Primarily the word morals means manners. Good morals 
 are good manners or good methods of conduct in relation 
 to other people, and are based upon the obligation Manners 
 of all people to help all others, to facilitate all and Morals, 
 useful activity, and to make the world, in so far as possible, 
 a desirable and pleasant place to live in. Good table man- 
 ners, for instance, are distinctly good morals, and bad table 
 manners are bad morals as distinctly as are the grosser 
 violations of what are commonly recognized as moral laws. 
 Good manners make the world a happier and better place 
 to Uve in, facihtate profitable and agreeable intercourse 
 among people and render easier the accompUshment of the 
 world's work. 
 
 The man who steals does wrong, of course. He interferes 
 with his neighbor's rights; but the man who, by bad manners, 
 disturbs an audience in a church or lecture-room or theater, 
 or passengers in a street car, or pedestrians upon a side- 
 walk, or students in a school, also does wrong. He inter- 
 feres with the right of others to the pursuit of happiness and 
 to that peace of mind which is necessary to the accompUsh- 
 ment of the best work. This is the moral basis for moral 
 conventions and for all those regulations which, whether 
 written or unwritten — more commonly the latter — are uni- 
 versally recognized as guides in the intercourse of human 
 beings. In all cases their value is tested by their fitness. 
 
 It is true that in school and in other places conventions 
 sometimes become fetiches, the mere form of good conduct 
 takes the place of the spirit of it, artificial Chester- g^nven 
 fieldian manners are substituted for kindly interest tions 
 in the well-being of others, and for such conduct Sometimes 
 as makes it possible for others to do their work ^ "^ ^*' 
 best, which constitute really good manners. When so 
 
28 The School and Its Life 
 
 substituted the moral element is lost. Such manners, while 
 sometimes desirable, have no deep foundation, and it is to 
 be borne in mind that all rules of conduct are valuable only 
 in so much as they further some worthy end. Consequently 
 in school it is impossible to separate the conventions which 
 make for the well-being and successful administration of 
 the school from those rules of conduct which are supposed 
 to make for character. These two are one, and in deter- 
 mining what kind of conduct should be required in school 
 we need to go no further than to ascertain the purpose of the 
 school. 
 
 CHARACTER THE PRODUCT OF LIFE 
 
 If the purpose of the school is worthy and high the con- 
 duct that furthers it will make for good character. If the 
 Character Purpose of the school is not high and worthy, and 
 is Conduct if conduct therein is supported merely by artificial 
 Crystal- conventions, it is impossible to add any system of 
 '^^ * rules that will contribute to the building of good 
 
 character. Character is the result of the life lived, and 
 the Ufe lived is one. There is altogether too great a ten- 
 dency, especially in the fields of ethics and religion, to seek 
 to separate that conduct which has to do with the common 
 affairs of life from that which has to do with what is some- 
 times called the higher morality. 
 
 The life we live in pursuing the common necessary ends 
 is both determined by and determines our characters. As 
 was pointed out in the preceding chapter, it is impossible 
 to separate character from occupation. It is what we do 
 daily and continually when pursuing our vocations, when 
 not thinking of moral questions, that shows what we are and 
 crystallizes conduct into character. 
 
The Morale of the School 29 
 
 I have said that the school is a social organization; its end 
 
 is social efficiency, and whatever of moral training there 
 
 is in a school must be in the Hfe of the school and „ , 
 
 Moral 
 
 not m some extraneous system of instruction Training 
 tacked on to its other employments. Hence in Product 
 order to secure to children in school the proper °* ^'*®- 
 moral training, the school itself must be a proper institu- 
 tion. Its ends must be high and its occupation must be 
 both noble and ennobling; they must so exercise the whole 
 child that inevitably he is led into high living. The term 
 "discipline," much misused in relation to school life, is a 
 bogy, because teachers too commonly seek to separate con- 
 duct in the school from occupation. 
 
 THE SOURCES OF DISORDER 
 
 In schools that are really disorderly the trouble is usually 
 to be found in one or more of three common conditions: 
 the character of the teacher, which may be sources of 
 positively bad, merely weak and unimpressive. Disorder 
 or ultra-sentimental; the character of the work in School, 
 required, which may be either upon a low plane or so pre- 
 sented to the children that they fail to see the good in it and 
 to reaUze its worth; the enforcement of conventions resting 
 upon no sound moral principle. The last mentioned has 
 already been sufficiently considered. 
 
 As to the first, nothing need be said here, except for the 
 sake of the ultra-sentimentalists who fail to recognize the 
 necessity of any control in a school if the work is interesting. 
 I have seen teachers with high ideals and really noble views 
 of education fail utterly because of their lack of will or be- 
 cause they have not sought to impress themselves upon the 
 school. An organization must have a head, and in all 
 
30 The School and Its Life 
 
 associations of people for a common end there must be 
 some directing force, and as practically all associations con- 
 tain some unfortunates with diseased wills, due frequently to 
 bad training in early Ufe, authority is needed either to con- 
 trol or to expel these makers of mischief. Even in the freest 
 schools there must be felt the pervasive presence of the 
 teacher. Such presence does not interfere with the develop- 
 ment of the individual or the cultivation of self-control. It 
 is simply necessary to secure social harmony. A teacher 
 does not need to be a boss. Bossism is fatal to the higher 
 ends of the school. But a teacher must have will and be 
 able to exercise it vigorously though wisely for the common 
 good. 
 
 OBEDIENCE 
 
 It may be well to say here something upon the subject of 
 obedience, in order that what I may say later may not 
 Obedience a ^^ misunderstood. Obedience is not in itself a 
 Temporary virtue, it may be a weak vice, but it is in almost 
 Necessity. q][ societies an occasional and often a continual 
 necessity. In the school where the teacher is dealing with 
 young and growing minds, obedience must be maintained; 
 in order that the essential conditions of a good school may 
 be secured it is a preliminary necessity, a crutch to aid the 
 weak until able to walk alone, but it should be used spar- 
 ingly. The teacher should not require it for its own sake, 
 but merely to secure necessary conditions and to make the 
 children ready to control themselves. It should always lead 
 to self-control and should gradually be dr9pped out of 
 sight as the power of self-direction is secured, but it must 
 still be potentially present and ready for use in emergencies. 
 Pupils must obey when it is necessary, even unquestioningly. 
 
The Morale of the School 31 
 
 but they should never be called upon to obey unquestioningly 
 unless it is necessary, and such obedience should, in so far 
 as possible, rest upon faith in the superior wisdom of the 
 teacher. The business of the teacher is to secure not merely 
 temporary conditions, but permanent conditions, and. so 
 to train the children to work from motive that they can and 
 will do this when the teacher's directing and controlling 
 power is removed. In short, children must mind. It is 
 natural to rebel against authority when it is not exercised 
 for any evident good motive, and children are eminently 
 natural. In the school in which there are an abundance 
 of red tape, innumerable petty rules of order and rigid en- 
 forcement of compliance thereto, there are always rebellion, 
 at least potential, and actual deceit and hypocrisy. 
 
 The natural tendency above mentioned prompts chil- 
 dren to seek to subvert the will of the martinet disciplinarian, 
 openly if they dare, by deception if they do not. g^^ 
 Rigidly enforced rules without an evident, worthy Effects of 
 reason behind them are fatal to character in those Martinet 
 who are subject to them. A teacher should be very ^^^^ '°*' 
 slow in making rules and should always ask, before promul- 
 gating one, " Is it absolutely necessary to the well-being of 
 this society? Could not the end aimed at be secured in 
 some other way and can it be secured in this way ? " For we 
 must not forget that children should live in school a sane 
 life for ends which appeal to them, that they may lead such 
 lives after they leave school. 
 
 I recall in a western city a school which was famous for 
 its " discipline." The pupils always moved with machine- 
 like uniformity; everything was done beautifully so far as 
 the eye could see; silence was rigidly maintained; all the 
 petty conventions that ingenuity could devise were enforced 
 
32 The School and Its Life 
 
 with the method of the martinet and, as with Katisha's / 
 shoulder, people came from miles around to see it. A^' 
 change of administration brought to light the inner con- 
 dition of the school. The moral sense of the pupils had 
 been impaired; lying and whispering, having been treated 
 with equal severity, had come to be regarded by them as 
 equally heinous or venial crimes, and you may be sure the 
 children leaned toward veniality. It took some years of 
 comparatively bad order to bring about a rational moral 
 sense in that school. 
 
 As to the third point, it is not enough that the work of 
 the school be on the whole wise and well planned. It must 
 
 be so presented to the children that it will appeal 
 Children , ^ , , ., , . , ■„, 
 
 must t° them as worth while; otherwise they will lose 
 
 Realize the best kind of moral training, which comes from 
 
 Value working for worthy ends. Children who are 
 
 simply doing what they are told to do, even if that 
 
 is conventionally right, are not acquiring moral power. They 
 
 must understand the motive, and if it is worthy must be 
 
 ready to make effort, to drudge, to sacrifice for it, if they 
 
 are to receive sound moral training. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 The Morale of the School (Continued) 
 
 The conduct required in school must grow out of the 
 life of the school and must evidently further the ends of the 
 school, if such conduct is to result in sound character. This 
 means that the school itself should be upon a high plane, 
 that the life lived should be worthy, and that the employ- 
 ments, which are the key to the whole life, should be such as 
 appeal to children as worth their while. 
 
 Children go to school to leam. This is the common 
 statement and in the main it is sufficiently accurate for our 
 purpose. That is, they go to school to be nour- . 
 ished by truth, strengthened by exercise. Go- school Wot 
 ing to school should be no more unpleasant to Necessarily 
 children than going to any other place where ^^sagree- 
 choice leads them. Learning, that is, mental 
 growth, is no more unnatural than bodily growth, and the act 
 of taking mental nourishment and of engaging in mental 
 exercise is as natural and should be as agreeable as taking 
 bodily nourishment or engaging in bodily exercise. And it 
 will be so to sane children if it is adapted to them, if it fills 
 their lives. One trouble with the school life is that it is 
 only partially filled by the school occupation and for much 
 of the time the mind is vagrant. Much of the work forced 
 upon children fails to interest them because it fails to 
 supply any felt need. 
 
 33 
 
34 The School and Its Life 
 
 Let it not be thought that this book advocates making 
 work interesting by artificial devices or amusing children 
 iiterest a to persuade them to study. By the term interest 
 Vital I mean that vital earnestness in accomplishing 
 
 Matter. ^^^ ^^^ which the successful man has in his busi- 
 ness or which the child has when playing a game. Chil- 
 dren are as desirous of doing things as their elders. School 
 too often fails in that there is nothing given them to do that 
 seems to them to lead to any definite end or to "amount to 
 anything." We are told that children must of necessity learn 
 the expressive arts, reading, writing, and the rest, and so 
 they must and readily will, if these lead to an apparent 
 end, but young children must have a motive, and a motive 
 immediate and apparent. It is hard enough for adults to 
 work in the dark for remote ends; it is too much to expect 
 of children. The teacher must have the remote end in 
 mind, but to the child the immediate end appeals. If he 
 feels that through studying a lesson he is gaining some 
 desirable result, either in power among his fellows or in per- 
 sonal enlargement, if he sees, for example, that by reading 
 he is placed in possession of means to reach some desired 
 end, it is not difficult to interest him in learning his lesson; 
 but until he has some interest in what can be secured 
 through reading, learning to read does not appeal strongly 
 to him. The same principle applies to all the arts. 
 
 School life then must be based upon occupation which 
 has a meaning to the children. Courses of study must be 
 Courses of "^'^ '^ substance. It is not enough to have the 
 Study school occupation consist wholly in the exercise 
 
 Rich in ^f memory, "learning things" in the common 
 Substance. „ i i i. ^^.• i • 
 
 sense. Supplementary to this are domg, express- 
 ing, putting into definite form or into actual use that 
 
The Morale of the School (Continued) 35 
 
 which is learned. The child who is learning the prin- 
 ciples of language must first have something to express and 
 be filled with the desire to express it well. 
 
 The place of manual training and drawing and painting 
 is found when we consider them as expressive arts, new 
 means by which the child makes tangible and effec- 
 tive his ideas, for growth depends as much upon Depends 
 exercise as upon food, and the two are co-ordinate upon 
 and essential in the occupation of the true school, ^^^'cise. 
 All the various forms of work fit into their proper places. 
 Ideas are stimulated and then expressed, desires created and 
 then satisfied. Children are employed in that which holds 
 their attention, because through it they may hope to attain 
 some worthy purpose. 
 
 The excellence of the school is too often measured by 
 the success with which the children sit still rather than by 
 the success with which they do things. This recalls the 
 experience of Dr. John Dewey when looking for school 
 desks for his experimental school. After visiting many 
 dealers and failing to find what he wanted, he was asked 
 by one to explain his need. He did so. The dealer said 
 at once, "Why, you want a desk for children to work at; 
 these are all for listening." And listening has been alto- 
 gether too much the business of the school from the children's 
 side. 
 
 In a previous chapter reference was made to the dangers 
 of mass teaching, and group work was advocated. What 
 was there said has a direct bearing upon moral power to 
 training. In a school conducted on this plan Work 
 the individual not only loses his individuality Alone, 
 for the time, but he loses the best opportunity for a certain 
 most valuable moral training. The power to do solitary, 
 
36 The School and Its Life 
 
 unaided, persistent work for a worthy end is absolutely nec- 
 essary, not only to business success, but to sound character. 
 This power is not required in such schools. Every child, 
 if he is to be strong morally, that is, able to stand alone 
 and meet and overcome moral obstacles, should, during his 
 period of school training, do much work alone, metaphysi- 
 cally removed an infinite distance from the helping teacher. 
 It should be a part of the morale of the school to encourage 
 this independent, sohtary work, just as in society the busy 
 world must provide room for the individual worker and 
 must keep out of his way. For although moraUty has to 
 do with society and nothing else, this does not mean that 
 the individual is never to be alone, or, if alone, cannot do 
 right. 
 
 SOCIAL FREEDOM 
 
 Social freedom requires self-restraint. The members of 
 society are not free unless they put checks upon themselves, 
 for anarchy is the worst foe of freedom. In a 
 Freedom ^*-^^^ °^ anarchy everybody is in everybody else's 
 Requires way and no one finds himself free to do anything. 
 ^^'*' . So a busy school, while not necessarily or ordi- 
 narily an especially quiet school, is as far removed 
 from anarchy as the heavens from the earth. 
 
 But still further, pupils in school should not only keep 
 out of one another's way, but at times should positively 
 Pupils ^^^P °^^ another. That is a function which in a 
 
 should school of rigid "discipUne" is not deemed pos- 
 Help One sible. It is true that children must work out their 
 ^° ^'' own salvation, and yet co-operation in which one 
 mind stimulates the others and supplements the others is a 
 necessary condition of society, and there is no reason why 
 
The Morale of the School (Continued) 37 
 
 it should not exist in school. In the recitation, naturally 
 there is friction of minds and the supplementing of each by- 
 all the others. But there is no reason why in the working 
 out of problems in different subjects there should not be 
 like co-operation. Such co-operation is a most useful exer- 
 cise in training for social life. It is very easy to secure it in 
 such subjects as manual training. I remember some boys 
 in a manual training high school making a roll-top desk 
 for the superintendent of schools. I do not remember just 
 how many boys were engaged upon this piece of work, but 
 perhaps twenty, each one making some one part of the desk, 
 upon some of the more difficult parts two or three working 
 together. Those parts had to be made so that they would 
 fit. There was necessarily constant consultation and com- 
 parison and suggestion of one to another. It was a fine 
 instance of team work and the result was not merely a beau- 
 tiful desk but an abundance of the best sort of training for 
 social life. It was highly moral training. A football team 
 has much the same training. Great enterprises require the 
 exercise of many brains, and practice in co-operation is 
 most valuable. 
 
 Mr. Carnegie said recently that to make millionaires it 
 was absolutely essential to take into partnership competent 
 heads of departments. That means, as I uiider- importance 
 stand it, that a great business is developed not by of Co-oper- 
 the brain of one man alone, but rather by the co- ^t'op- 
 operation of many. Certainly the social life of a community 
 is successful only when many members work together in 
 harmonious co-operation. And training for this can be 
 given in the schools and should be given. Not only in the 
 manipulation of the shop is it possible, but in innumerable 
 exercises. Investigations can be carried on in geography 
 
38 The School and Its Life 
 
 or history or the natural sciences, one pupil investigating 
 one field and another another, all bringing in the results of 
 their investigations and compiling them into a single product. 
 The essential feature is that each one shall feel his personal 
 responsibility for the whole and shall meet it by doing his 
 part. If all the members of a community felt a personal 
 responsibility for the well-being of the community we should 
 at once have an ideal condition. 
 
 All pupils of a school should come to feel a personal 
 responsibility for the well-being of the school. They should 
 Responsi- ^^^' ^^^^ ^* '^^ ^^^^'^ institution, that it exists for 
 bjlity for them all and not for the teacher alone. And they 
 Common should be led to restrain themselves from inter- 
 ference with one another and to contribute with 
 their best to the common good, and this condition should 
 grow out of the occupation of the school, which should have 
 a definite meaning to the children. Matthew Arnold's oft- 
 quoted remark, "Conduct is three fourths of life," might 
 be supplemented by another, that occupation is the key to 
 conduct. It may be necessary for the teacher, on assuming 
 control of a new school, for a very brief time to control the 
 school by absolute will, but if it is done for more than a very 
 brief time the result will be distinctly bad. Common interest 
 must take the place of personal domination if the children 
 are to be trained for society. 
 
 The morale of the school must grow out of what the chil- 
 dren do. Indeed, it does grow out of it. If the children do not 
 do things worthy and have not enough work set by the 
 teacher to employ their minds, they will do other things un- 
 worthy, in violation of the teacher's will or in ignorance of 
 it, which will give a distinctly lower morale than is desirable. 
 
 It is impossible to escape the truth that occupation largely 
 
The Morale of the School (Continued) 39 
 
 determines conduct, and conduct both grows out of and 
 produces character. 
 
 I desire to call attention to one corollary of what has 
 already been said regarding moral training. The use of 
 secondary ends as motives to conduct is always Dangers of 
 to be restricted to an immediate and pressing Secondary 
 emergency. It should never be a continuous En^s. 
 part of the school discipline. By secondary ends in school 
 I mean prizes, marks, and punishments. The reasons are 
 not far to seek. They concern, however, the whole field 
 of ideals. The trouble with the world in so far as it is wrong 
 is, of course, that people are pursuing wrong ends, commonly 
 minor or secondary ends, luider the mistaken notion that 
 they are primary. People chase wealth, social position, and 
 political power for themselves and so enter upon an endless 
 pursuit and are never happy. These objects pursued are 
 elusive because they are not real; they are means to ends 
 and are not properly ends at all, or are merely secondary 
 ends. Do we do right to wonder at the perversity of hu- 
 manity in thus following unworthy ends when we see that 
 in most schools secondary ends are held before the chil- 
 dren until their pursuit becomes habitual? How can we 
 expect children who have been taught to study for marks 
 or prizes or to avoid punishment, instead of pursuing, with 
 a live interest, knowledge itself, to acquire a love for truth ? 
 How can we expect such children, when they grow up, to 
 pursue social service through the use of available means, 
 instead of pursuing these means as if they were the ends 
 themselves ? 
 
 By holding up prizes and marks before children as the 
 ends of study, we substitute an inferior pleasure for the true 
 joy of genuine attainment, and worse than all create the 
 
40 The School and Its Life 
 
 habit of such pursuit. There are natural defectives, or 
 Marks and those in whom the moral sense and any deep 
 Prizes. interest are simply inchoate, who must be treated 
 as invaUds, and for such, a secondary end as an induce- 
 ment may be necessary; but it is absurd to say that a school 
 of normally healthy children must be induced to study by 
 the offer of a prize or the fear of punishment. That is a 
 part of the silly nonsense that is taught by those who have 
 spoiled their schools through excess of conventionality. 
 Normal children are more readily attracted to what is 
 worthy than to what is unworthy, and it is quite as easy for 
 a good teacher to arouse interest in the real ends of school 
 life as in the secondary ends, and the result is much more 
 desirable. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 The iNDivrouAL Child 
 
 The test of the efficiency of a school system, or a school, 
 is the excellence of the training given the individual chil- 
 dren. While there is a certain wasteful method Mass 
 of instruction which we call "mass teaching," Teaching. 
 mass learning is inconceivable. In mass teaching the class 
 is reduced nearly to a company of children in a listening 
 attitude. Much of the teacher's effort is necessarily wasted. 
 It is like shooting at a flock of birds with an old-fashioned 
 smooth-bore, "scattering" shot-gun. There is not suffi- 
 cient opportunity for individual response to make it sure 
 that even the listening is actual and effective. A quiet body 
 with the eyes directed toward the teacher often conceals a 
 vacant mind. There is almost no possibiUty of that vigor- 
 ous reaction which is the essential of all Learnine 
 learning. If the minds of the pupils do not Requires 
 actively respond, and, stimulated by the teach- aReac- 
 ing, put out some effort in grasping the thing 
 taught and relating it to its proper apperceiving center, or, 
 better yet, in some expressive or productive effort, then 
 there is no learning, and if the mind of any individual pupil 
 does not so respond, the teaching in so far fails of effective- 
 ness. 
 
 Some teachers are more successful than others in stimu- 
 lating individual minds to activity, though giving " mass " 
 
 41 
 
4.2 The School and Its Life 
 
 instruction. But even the strongest teachers cannot accom- 
 pUsh the impossible, which is, in this instance, to secure the 
 reaction necessary to learning when conditions forbid such 
 reaction. 
 
 The mind of each child must move vigorously to^ome 
 end, if it is truly to learn. This would seem to look toward 
 S litarv ^^^ teacher with the single pupil as the ideal 
 Learning school. But this again ignores the other great 
 Also essential of education, life in society. As has 
 
 " ' ^' been repeatedly said, if social efficiency is the end 
 of education, and if the hfe lived is the one educative force, 
 social education can come only through social living, and 
 the school must be a society of many members. The best 
 results cannot be produced in soUtude. There must be 
 reaction against the social environment as well as the intel- 
 lectual, to produce the socially efficient. 
 
 How then can the two demands be reconciled? I have 
 no specific to offer, but some suggestions. Much will 
 The naturally depend upon the wisdom and vigilance 
 
 Teacher pf ^}jg teacher. He must see that in so far as 
 Reconcile possible, even under bad conditions, individual 
 the Two attention is real and individual reaction stimu- 
 Demands. lated and allowed scope. He must have an eye 
 for the pupils who are slow of comprehension or mentally 
 somnolent, and must give special attention to rousing them. 
 Sometiijies it will require a patient and long siege, some- 
 times a mental shock, such as may be produced by the bomb 
 of a question accurately aimed, or a startling statement, or 
 a personal reference full of explosive. The vigilant teacher 
 can certainly do much even under unfavorable condi- 
 tions. 
 
 But the bad conditions may themselves sometimes be 
 
The Individual Child 43 
 
 removed by the teacher. I have already spoken of the 
 " group method " of classification as a partial solu- jj^g 
 tion of the problem. It offers the best plan within Group 
 the control of the teacher for training the Individ- Method, 
 ual in society. Indeed it suppUes very well two essential 
 conditions. 
 
 Of course the first essential is not within the control of 
 the individual teacher, but must be cared for by the boards 
 of education. I mean the reduction of the number of 
 pupils assigned to any teacher to • a reasonable maximum. 
 
 But no matter what the number of children, they should 
 be divided into groups for work. These groups should 
 be so small that the teacher may be aware of the Reactions 
 sort of attention given by each child, and may Inevitable 
 secure from each responses sufficiently frequent in Groups, 
 and full to make plain what sort of reactions are produced. 
 With small groups of children in close touch with one another 
 and the teacher, some reactions are inevitable; for efforts 
 at expression are constant and made by all. Each has 
 something to do all the time. The difference between 
 forty children in a first-year class all sitting in their seats, 
 holding readers, while one at a time rises and performs, 
 and a group of ten or fifteen gathered about the teacher, each 
 one reading frequently, while all are intent on the exercise, 
 is the difference between soHtude and society, because the 
 pupils sitting in their seats are really isolated and not en- 
 gaged in co-operative activity, while the group is a society 
 working together. The difference is also the difference be- 
 tween idleness and profitable work. In the large class there 
 are inevitably many vagrant minds, in the small group there 
 need be none. 
 
 But possibly of even greater consequence to the develop- 
 
44 The School and Its Life 
 
 ment of individual training is the work of the children in 
 groups not " reciting." The great lack of most of our 
 , schools is a lack of productive activity. Such 
 Produc- activity is the chief essential to learning. The 
 tive Ac- reactions possible while merely listening are in- 
 tivity. significant compared with those manifested in 
 
 doing. The education of children during the first five or 
 six years of life, before they come to school, is so much more 
 economical and effective than that in school largely because 
 it is mainly through doing. 
 
 Ideas received find expression at once. The games of 
 childhood are in the main merely the giving of adequate 
 expression to ideas received, so making knowledge real. 
 There is no fake learning on the playground; there is much 
 of it in school. 
 
 The children in groups not reciting, if the school is well 
 organized, are aU doing something. It may be memorizing, 
 which is commonly called studying. It may be really grasp- 
 ing the thought from a book, but more commonly it will be 
 expression or production, writing or drawing or painting 
 to make clear a thought, constructing in plastic or solid 
 material some object to illustrate an idea. In any case it 
 is individual mental work, whose results are sure to show 
 later in the recitation. 
 
 Some form of productive work, whether with pen, pencil, 
 brush, scissors and paper, or carpenter's tools, is the indi- 
 Pj. . . vidual's chance. It compels mental activity; it as- 
 Work the sures at least some learning. It also discloses to the 
 Individual's teacher the pupil's mental state. The thing por- 
 Chance. trayed or made often speaks much more plainly of 
 the state of mind than the spoken words; though of course all 
 these forms of reaction must be stimulated and utilized. 
 
The Individual Child 45 
 
 The motive of all such plans as the one outlined is to 
 make sure that all the children's minds are working, and 
 not merely that of the teacher or of the single child who 
 chances to be "reciting," and this can be assured only when 
 there is work that each necessarily does. 
 
 In certain exercises, such as singing and writing, each 
 child of necessity does his own work, whether there are 
 two or two hundred, but in the greater number of school 
 exercises this is not true. Hence the wise teacher will use 
 every means to secure this individual activity. 
 
 Such activity is necessary for the growth of individual 
 minds even if they are all normal and evenly developed. 
 But no school is composed of normal and evenly what to Do 
 developed minds. The variation is as great as with the 
 the number of the individuals. Should the Abnormal, 
 school take account of all these irregularities and treat each 
 child independently, basing the course upon his state and 
 his consequent needs? Is the school to be a pathological 
 institution, each room a ward and each desk an invalid's 
 cot? No, of course not; common sense is as important in 
 school as elsewhere, and the golden mean is always found 
 between the extremes, even in pedagogics. 
 
 Most children are so nearly normal that no wide departure 
 from regular standards is needed to meet the requirements 
 of their growth. Taste will usually display apti- ,^^ 
 tude or its lack, and in any fair and broad course Majority 
 of study there is abundant opportunity to give Nearly 
 individual taste considerable scope without dis- °™^* ' 
 turbing the regular order of things. This is particularly 
 true if the children are grouped according to ability and 
 attainment, and if there is much expressive and productive 
 work. Every new expressive art added to the curriculum 
 
Missing Page 
 
Missing Page 
 
48 The School and Its Life 
 
 lines, for those who through irregular training fit nowhere, 
 and often for the troublesome and recalcitrant. For in- 
 The Recal- ability or unwillingness to fit into the existing 
 citrant. order of things, which usually constitutes bad 
 conduct in school, is often in childhood merely an excessive 
 development of certain interests and aptitudes and a re- 
 tarded development of certain perceptions and adjustments. 
 Truancy is usually due to an excess of interest over vo- 
 Htional development or self-inhibition. 
 
 The cure for many school vices is not punishment but 
 the estabHshment of new interests, new relations, and new 
 tendencies. The ungraded or individual school is often, 
 under a strong and wise teacher, very successful in reaching 
 such cases. Of course it is essential that the children should 
 not regard it as a penal institution, and that is one reason for 
 putting together the morally and the intellectually incapable. 
 
 There still remain the few in every class who are not 
 
 defective enough to be forcibly removed, but who are not 
 
 _. ^ .. able to do successfully the minimum of the work 
 The Dull. . , ^ , , , , , , , 
 
 required. It would doubtless be better for these 
 
 unfortunates if they could be taken from the over-full class- 
 room of the pubhc school, where they are subjected to 
 embarrassing comparisons with other children, and placed 
 in small private schools with teachers who have more time 
 to devote to them than the hard- worked public school teacher 
 can possibly give. But with many this is impossible and the 
 teacher must accept the burden and do his best. 
 
 He must be patient and observant. The children must 
 not be made unhappy because of natural defects. Almost 
 all that can be done is to watch for evidences of interest and 
 make the most of these. It may be necessary for these 
 children to go over the work again, but not infrequently a 
 
The Individual Child 49 
 
 new value may be put into their lives if they can find them- 
 selves in some single line of activity or study. 
 
 I recall an instance told of one such child, who from his 
 love for nature, first manifested in an interest in frogs, was 
 led on until he became a fair student in other branches. 
 
 Often some emplo)anent about the school can be given to 
 such pupils, which will increase their sense of personal dig- 
 nity and stimulate a certain amount of brain activity. 
 
 Help them to self-possession and activity in every possible 
 way, and then accept patiently the meager results, if pos- 
 sible, without rendering the children unhappy over their 
 meagemess. 
 
 With the morally defective, not bad enough to be excluded, 
 a similar course is necessary. The first thing to estabhsh 
 is an interest in something worth while; usually xhe 
 they need moral perspective and a sense of respon- Morally 
 sibihty. Proper and interesting employment will " • 
 commonly cover the case. Often social duties for the school 
 will impose the necessary sense of responsibility. I recall 
 a principal who cured a bully by appointing him a sort of 
 poUceman to keep the big boys from bullying the httle ones. 
 
 Occupation is the key to life. Those well employed in 
 things that interest them have comparatively Uttle tempta- 
 tion to mischief. "Satan finds some mischief still for idle 
 hands to do." Hands forcibly employed in work that does 
 not appeal to their owner as worth while are equally ready 
 for his Satanic majesty. 
 
 I have not referred specifically to the exceptionally bright 
 pupil because his case is sunpler. If he is given, xhe Ex- 
 in addition to the minimum of requirement, abun- ceptionally 
 dance of opportunity to go on in the lines of his "^ *• 
 strongest interests, he will do very well. There is so much 
 
50 The School and Its Life 
 
 in each subject beyond the possible requirements of school, 
 that there is surely enough employment for the most pre- 
 cocious mind. 
 
 Add to this the privilege of promotion to a higher grade 
 whenever he is ready for it, and the bright pupil will not 
 suffer, and will be in less danger of either one-sided de- 
 velopment or priggishness than if taken out and coached 
 as a genius. 
 
 To summarize, each pupil should be given the best that 
 his peculiar individuahty requires. Teaching should always 
 result in a reaction in each mind taught. School should 
 be so organized as to make this inevitable. But the good 
 of the individual requires for his education not solitude, but 
 society. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Departmental Teaching 
 
 The phrase "departmental teaching" has come to have a 
 technical meaning as applied to elementary schools, so that 
 most teachers readily understand it without further definition. 
 It means the abandonment of a plan which has generally 
 prevailed in the elementary schools of this country, under 
 which the class-room teacher has given instruction to his 
 class in all subjects required by the curriculum for the grade, 
 and the substitution therefor of a system of special teachers 
 who give instruction in their particular subjects to the pupils 
 of several classes or grades. This is nothing less than the 
 extension of the plan of the coUege down through the sec- 
 ondary school, where it already largely prevails, into the 
 elementary school. 
 
 As to the limits of this extension in the elementary school, 
 there is no unanimity of opinion among the advocates of 
 the plan. Some would include within its sweep jjigerences 
 aU of the grades above the very lowest primary, of Depart- 
 Probably the greater number would stop with mental 
 what are known generally as the higher grammar ^*"^ ^' 
 grades, that is, the highest two or three grades of the gram- 
 mar school. In many private schools practically all of the 
 instruction above the kindergarten grade is special, and a 
 certain amount of specialization in public schools as far 
 down as the fourth year of the school course is not unknown. 
 
 SI 
 
52 The School and Its Life 
 
 There is a wide difference of opinion among the advo- 
 cates of departmental teaching as to the extent of this special- 
 ization. Some would include all subjects; that is, would have 
 special teachers of reading, special teachers of arithmetic, 
 of geography, and so on through the entire curriculum. 
 Others would have speciaUzation only in those subjects that 
 are supposed to be very difi&cult and to require higher tech- 
 nical knowledge, such as geography and history, and others 
 still would group the subjects according to some real or 
 imaginary correlation. 
 
 The machinery, too, by which the various plans are carried 
 out differs in various places. In some a very highly de- 
 A Variety veloped and fully organized scheme has been 
 of Methods, worked out, and in others the very crudest arrange- 
 ments exist. Sometimes the teachers move from class to 
 class to teach their subjects to the pupils. Sometimes the 
 pupils move from room to room where the teachers of the 
 different subjects are located. In a number of places build- 
 ings have been constructed especially for departmental work. 
 The plan of these generally has been the grouping of small 
 recitation rooms about large study rooms. But while there 
 are all these differences in administration, the various advo- 
 cates of departmental teaching agree in the main as to their 
 reasons for favoring some plcUi of specialization in elemen- 
 tary teaching. 
 
 On the other hand, there are many teachers, and among 
 Many them many of the most thoughtful, who are not 
 
 Teachers greatly impressed with the advantages claimed for 
 Opposed, departmental teaching, and insist that the time- 
 honored and prevalent plan of the single class-room teacher 
 is better. 
 
 It is my aim here to state the principal arguments both 
 
Departmental Teaching 53 
 
 for and against departmental teaching, and to give my own 
 
 conclusions and the reasons for them. The chief argument 
 
 advanced by all friends of specialization is that 
 
 ■"thereby better teaching is secured; that the teacher g^i^oja' tin 
 
 who teaches a single subject is able to master it among 
 
 and become really, or approximately, a scholar in Teachers 
 
 his own particular field, which is practically im- °" 
 
 ' >■ ■> couraged. 
 
 possible for the teacher who has to prepare daily 
 
 for a great variety of subjects. ' A teacher of history, for 
 instance, may become a thorough and exact student of his- 
 tory, and may bring to the class an enthusiasm for the subject 
 and a knowledge of its details which no class-room teacher, 
 obliged to teach a dozen different subjects a day, can pos- 
 sibly attain, and as a result the children are likely to have 
 a wider and better view of the subject and a greater interest 
 in it, and are more likely to become readers and students of 
 history themselves afterward, because of their contact with 
 an enthusiast and a scholar in the subject. This argument 
 is apphed to all of the different subjects of the curriculum, 
 and with much apparent force. 
 
 ' It is undoubtedly true that the teacher who teaches one 
 subject only will secure, at least for a time, a greater interest 
 in the subject, and will quite likely know more jeachers 
 about it than the one who teaches several subjects, may 
 As a sort of corollary to this, it is claimed that the Become 
 subjects will be pursued with greater thoroughness. ^^"* ^ ^' 
 It is also claimed that this plan furnishes an opportunity to the 
 teachers to become specialists, — that is, to assume a higher 
 professional position, and also to follow and develop their 
 own aptitudes. It, is taken for granted that in dividing up 
 the corps of teachers of a school according to subjects, per- 
 sonal tastes and personal ability will be considered, — that is, 
 
54 The School and Its Life 
 
 the teacher who is most fond of history and can teach it best 
 will be likely to be given history rather than mathematics, 
 and that this arrangement will encourage the teacher to 
 become still further a specialist in his subject. 
 
 It is also argued that the different subjects pursued 
 . from year to year under the same teachers will be 
 
 will be Pur- taught more systematically and that the frequent 
 sued more change of teachers, destroying continuity of effort, 
 Systemati- ^jij^-ij jg undoubtedly one of the greatest evils of 
 our graded school system, will thus be avoided. 
 The argument is just, and is one of the strongest in favor of 
 a departmental system in the grades. 
 
 A further argument is that departmental teaching brings 
 the children into contact with a variety of minds at the same 
 
 . time, which is broadening; that if a child is sub- 
 
 Brought ject to the influence of only one teacher for a 
 into Contact length of time, his mind becomes unduly influ- 
 with Many ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^f ^j^g teacher, if the teacher is a 
 Mmds. , .f , , , , 
 
 strong one; and if the teacher happens to be a 
 
 weak one there is no reUef whatever from his bad influence. 
 Doubtless this is a strong argument. The child who happens 
 to be placed for a year in the class-room under an inferior 
 teacher who teaches badly all the subjects is undoubtedly 
 a sufferer, whereas it is scarcely to be supposed that all of 
 the teachers of the different subjects in one year will be bad, 
 and so the pupil under departmental teaching is sure to come 
 under the influence of one or more good minds and to have 
 any tendencies to one-sidedness removed by coming into 
 contact with many men of many minds. 
 
 As evidence of the force of all these arguments, their 
 advocates point to the teachers of the college and high 
 school, who are practically all speciahsts, where often great 
 
Departmental Teaching 55 
 
 enthusiasm is aroused in the individual subjects that they 
 teach. This side of the question scarcely needs further 
 elaboration, and may be summed up in a very few phrases: 
 more highly specialized teachers, hence better teaching, 
 greater thoroughness, and the broadening of the minds of 
 the children by contact with the minds of various teachers. 
 
 On the other hand, the advocates of the prevailing system 
 of class-room instruction deny most of the claims of the 
 friends of specialization, and while they admit some of the 
 advantages, they claim that they are more than overbal- 
 anced by the disadvantages. One of the most serious indict- 
 ments of the departmental system is that it is destructive 
 of the best qualities in teachers. This at first glance seems 
 unreasonable, and it is certainly a direct contradiction of the 
 claims of the advocates of the system. 
 
 But let us consider it. The best teacher is not necessarily 
 the one who knows the most about his subject, though of 
 course a thorough knowledge is desirable. In jgn^gto 
 particular, the best teacher is not the one whose Make 
 view of life is limited by his subject. A true Teachers 
 knowledge of any subject involves all of its rela- 
 tions. It cannot be denied by thoughtful observers that 
 the continual teaching of one subject, and especially of one 
 phase of one subject, for a series of years, is destructive 
 of the best mental power. Even in colleges, where the 
 higher and broader phases of the different subjects are taught, 
 it is proverbial that the professor becomes in time narrow 
 and out of touch with the world- If he is a real teacher he 
 must consider his subject in its relations to the class. This 
 of itself limits him to certain elementary phases. If this is 
 true of the college teacher, it is emphatically true of the 
 elementary teacher, who is dealing constantly with inferior 
 
56 The School and Its Life 
 
 minds, and who must modify the subject-matter of his 
 department so as to adapt it to infant digestion. He inevi- 
 tably in time takes a small and narrow view of what he is 
 teaching. There is nothing in his work to broaden him, 
 nothing even to broaden his interest in his subject. He 
 has to gather a certain limited amount of knowledge of a 
 single subject into condensed and palatable form and pre- 
 sent this to children. This almost unavoidable effect of 
 teaching a subject has never been more beautifully or piti- 
 fully described than in Charles Lamb's Schoolmaster. 
 
 In a previous chapter emphasis has been placed upon the 
 superiority of the man to his shop, and attention has been 
 
 called to the fact that it is only by constant effort 
 Deadenmg , , , ,. . , •■,■,-, , ■ r, 
 
 Effects of ^^°^ °y dealmg with contmually broader mflu- 
 
 Teaching ences that the individual can avoid being absorbed 
 One Sub- ]jy jjjg shop. Now the smaller the shop and the 
 littler the thing on which one works, the more 
 difficult is it to keep aUve the spirit of true manhood and the 
 right kind of interest in Ufe. I can conceive of few things 
 more deadening to the higher intellectual Ufe than the teaching 
 of some one subject year after year and day after day to chil- 
 dren. For the first year or two after the introduction of depart- 
 mental teaching into schools there may be evidences of brighter 
 work, but wait a few years until the deadening effect of the 
 limited field has become evident in the teachers. First is 
 sure to come a loss of interest in the subject-matter as taught, 
 then a loss of interest in teaching. The same subject is 
 gone over year by year, vastly more knowledge has been 
 arrived at by the teacher than can possibly be used in 
 teaching in elementary schools, and so he becomes a mere 
 routine teacher, having nothing in his work to stimulate 
 ambition. 
 
Departmental Teaching 57 
 
 The corollary to this is a lack of breadth in the teaching. 
 There may be a certain sort of narrow thoroughness, that 
 is, certain details may be pursued to considerable lengths, 
 but that kind of breadth which comes from relating the sub- 
 ject continually to every phase of life is gradually dropped 
 out as the teacher becomes more and more absorbed in the 
 special phases of his limited field. There is nothing so 
 precious in all our school systems as the spirit of professional 
 zeal and pride in the teachers resulting in their constant 
 growth, and consequently nothing can be more serious 
 than such an arrangement as will of itself in time unavoid- 
 ably kill this. 
 
 We must not forget that proverbially the teacher of all 
 grades is looked upon as ignorant of the world and is held 
 in a sort of toleration and admiring contempt by 
 the practical man of affairs. And we teachers of Subjects 
 must admit that this view is not altogether de- rather than 
 void of iustice. I have referred to the occasional Teachers 
 
 , ,r . r • r 1 1 Of YoUth. 
 
 Ignorance and self-satisfaction of the average col- 
 lege professor, and his frequent unfitness to deal with the 
 problems of life. The complaint is quite general that the 
 modem tendency toward specialization in colleges is making 
 teachers of subjects rather than teachers of youth, and that 
 the old-time college professor who was found here and 
 there in all of the older colleges, — a man of broad culture, 
 of many interests, able by the greatness of his personaUty to 
 influence youth, is disappearing before the man who knows 
 his Greek enclitic or his theory of curves perfectly. 
 
 We must admit sadly that these strictures upon the 
 teaching profession are more or less true, and that the most 
 dangerous feature is the entire unconsciousness of this on 
 the part of teachers themselves, — their complete and smug 
 
c8 The School and Its Life 
 
 ♦ 
 
 satisfaction with themselves and their limited field of 
 
 knowledge. 
 
 If this is so true of college professors as to be generally 
 noticed, how sadly and emphatically true it would be of 
 our elementary school teachers if they were to be limited 
 in their work to the instruction of youth in the simplest rudi- 
 ments of some one subject. Who would not rather have 
 teachers teaching children, with many interests and a wide 
 outlook, even if their knowledge of this or that subject is 
 limited, than men or women who know their subjects, at 
 least so much of them as it is necessary to know in order 
 to teach young children thoroughly, but who lack the wide 
 outlook which general culture gives? This argument is 
 a plea for culture as opposed to special knowledge for gen- 
 eral educative purposes even in college, but infinitely more 
 in elementary schools. 
 
 Another serious objection to departmental teaching is its 
 interference with that correlation of school subjects which 
 Interferes ^^ ^°^ ^^^^ proper but necessary in elementary edu- 
 witha cation. Not only theory, but experience, shows 
 
 Proper that the teachers of special subjects are apt to be 
 Correlation. ^^ impressed with the importance of their own 
 subjects that they overlook the value of all-around develop- 
 ment for the children. Each one pulls his own way and the 
 strongest teacher gets the most work from the children, while 
 they are likely to get an altogether one-sided and false view 
 of the field of knowledge as it is presented to them. 
 
 Take what view we may of the various schemes of correla- 
 tion which have prevailed at different times in our school 
 systems, all thoughtful teachers admit the importance of 
 the recognition of the unity of Ufe and the unity of knowledge 
 in elementary teaching. The only reahty is found in relation, 
 
Departmental Teaching 59 
 
 and this needs to be impressed upon children from the start. 
 Especially such subjects as the language subjects need to 
 be taught in connection with those which furnish the raw 
 material. This becomes especially difiScult under the depart- 
 mental system. The teacher of language is likely to teach 
 with sole regard to the formalities of speech, the rules of gram- 
 mar, and that dead and deadening technique which has been 
 fatal in our elementary schools. Instead of teaching language 
 by its use for the expression of thought, stimulated by the 
 other subjects of the curriculum, it is taught as a thing 
 apart, with neither posterity nor ofepring. The same objec- 
 tion applies to those other subjects which are naturally re- 
 lated in school as in life. Proper correlation in elementary 
 schools is almost impossible under departmental teaching. 
 
 There is a further argument against departmental teach- 
 ing which relates to the pupils solely. The unity and the 
 saneness of school life are in danger of being students 
 destroyed by it. We must not forget Dr. John Need Per- 
 Dewey's often quoted dictum, "School is life," sonal Care, 
 and it is much more important that its unity of interest, its 
 unity of purpose, be kept before the children than that sub- 
 jects be taught with extreme thoroughness. Each child in 
 school needs to be personally conducted. Personal obser- 
 vation of the children while studying, careful consideration 
 of their various lines of ability, the adaptation of the curric- 
 ulum to the needs of each individual, are the most impor- 
 tant duties of the teacher. Now if each child is moved 
 about from one teacher to another, or is made the recipient 
 of calls by teacher after teacher, this care is lost. No one 
 looks after the child, — each one looks after his subject. 
 Miss Jones values Johnny according to the show he makes 
 in history, which is her subject. Miss Brown bases her 
 
6o The School and Its Life 
 
 estimate of Johnny and her treatment of him upon the 
 brilliancy of his recitation in her subject, which is geog- 
 „ , - raphy, and so on through the hst of teachers and 
 Harmon- the Kst of subjects. There is no well-rounded 
 ious Treat- scheme for his development. The whole plan ■, 
 ment. places too much emphasis upon disconnected 
 
 knowledge, and tends to substitute it for that growth of the 
 spirit which is education, and for which during their earUer 
 years children need not force-pumps of knowledge, but the 
 careful nurture, the considerate and wise guidance, of a 
 single, helpful teacher. 
 
 The departmental system in other ways tends to remove 
 to too great an extent the personal element from the relation 
 Depart- °^ ^^^ teacher and the pupil. It would be much 
 mental wiser to place certain limitations on departmental 
 Work in work in the earUer high school years than to in- 
 g '^ , troduce the high school method of speciaUzation 
 Needs and disintegration into the grammar schools. 
 
 Limita- The years during which the pupil is in the higher/ 
 *^°^' grammar grades and first years of the high school 
 
 are the most critical time in his Kfe — the time of the 
 beginning of adolescence; and he needs at that time, if 
 ever, the counsel and guidance of a firm, strong, wise friend, 
 and not the pulling and tugging of a number of people 
 anxious to get him through as many pages of their respective 
 subjects as possible. 
 
 The complaint that children are overworked in the 
 grammar grades often has force, considering the physical 
 condition of the pupils at that time, but it gains more force 
 if the work is departmental and the careful consideration 
 of the class teacher is removed. 
 
 There is also the confusion which comes from bringing 
 
Departmental Teaching 6i 
 
 pupils under the care of teachers having different standards. 
 The good work of one teacher is often more than offset by 
 the poor work of another, who happens to secure popularity 
 because he makes his work easy. 
 
 School life, like all life, is a unity, and in order to be 
 most effective with children the unity needs to be kept 
 constantly before their minds. Education is Education 
 much more than knowledge, and children need More than 
 to be interested in their school life more, possibly, Knowledgfe. 
 than in the acquisition of facts in the different subjects; 
 for how small a part of life facts such as may be taught in 
 school are, and how great a part of life the ideals and tend- 
 encies, the motives and aspirations, that may be planted 
 in the upper grammar grades by the wise class teacher are ! 
 
 In view of the conflicting arguments for and against the 
 departmental system of teaching, it may be well to consider 
 whether a plan can be devised which shall retain 
 the advantages of both the regular class-room combine 
 organization and the departmental system with- Both 
 out the disadvantages of either. Some attempts Methods 
 have been made which have met with reasonable °ation*°'' 
 success — enough to give hope that there is a way 
 out. It must be borne in mind that any such compromise 
 must respect certain principles. 
 
 First. A regular class-room teacher must have charge of 
 the pupils of a room; must be famiUar with all of Regular 
 their work, and must teach them in a sufficient Class- 
 number of correlated subjects to be able to follow ^°°^gj. 
 their progress, to see whether they are studying MustHave 
 vnsely and well, and to guide and direct them in Charge of 
 matters of both spiritual and physical hygiene Pwp'ls. 
 during this important period of life. If such care cannot be 
 
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CHAPTER VII 
 Gradation and Promotion of Pupils 
 
 In every school system it is necessary to have some 
 definite plan by which pupils may be properly classified 
 and may be advanced from grade to grade according to 
 their needs; it is necessary both on educational and on 
 economic grounds. For economy's sake the pupils must 
 be distributed so that each teacher shall have a suitable 
 number — that is, so that the classes shall be kept reason- 
 ably fuU. On educational grounds the pupils must move 
 along as rapidly as their growth demands, and must be 
 associated with those of similar attainments. 
 
 Upon what principle, or principles, should the rules regu- 
 lating the promotion of pupils depend? There has been, 
 and still is, a very wide variance in regard to Promotion 
 this matter in schools. There has been, more- by Exami- 
 over, a great change in general sentiment, and also °^^^^°°- 
 in custom, within the past few years. The plan that came 
 in with the systematizing of schools was promotion by exam- 
 ination alone. At stated times pupils were all submitted 
 to a formal examination on questions prepared by some one 
 in authority, and they stood or fell according to the results 
 of these examinations. 
 
 In a public high school of considerable size that I once 
 took charge of as principal I found this custom prevailing, 
 and continued it until I learned better. The last week of 
 
 66 
 
Gradation and Promotion of Pupils 67 
 
 each school month was given up to review and written 
 examination — that is, one fourth of all the time was so 
 employed. As I remember, two or three days were spent 
 in oral review and the remaining days in written examinations. 
 These were rigid and mechanical in the extreme, and at 
 the end of the year, or upon the completion of a subject, 
 another examination was given and an average was struck, 
 which determined absolutely and without any other con- 
 sideration whether the pupils were to be promoted or not. I 
 have no doubt that the principal who inaugurated this plan 
 in this particular school, and who is now one of the most 
 distinguished educational men in the country, has often 
 laughed at his precision. But customs scarcely less harm- 
 ful prevail now in spots. 
 
 The examination fetich still has its worshipers, but in so 
 far as I know, there are now comparatively few school sys- 
 tems in which reliance is placed wholly upon examination 
 in determining the promotion of pupils. 
 
 THE RATIONALIA OF EXAMINATIONS 
 
 Notwithstanding the general loss of respect for examina- 
 tions as determining promotion, it would be difficult to 
 conduct a scheme of education, whether for an individual 
 or for a million individuals gathered into a system, which 
 did not provide for examinations. 
 
 An examination is a partial test of both knowledge and 
 power. No examination can fully test either knowledge or 
 power. As to the former, at most it can determine Examina- 
 whether certain specific facts have been acquired, tion Partial 
 It cannot determine how much is known or how *• 
 much is not known, so it is necessarily limited to the strictly 
 conventional or to the specific things that are known to have 
 
68 The School and Its Life 
 
 been taught; and yet in those elementary phases of knowl- 
 edge which are represented in all educational institutions 
 there are certain fundamental and characteristic data which 
 all should know who assume to have any knowledge of the 
 subjects whatever, and a knowledge of these can, to a 
 limited degree, be tested by an examination. But it must 
 be borne in mind in all examinations that the examination 
 shows only whether the specific questions asked have been 
 correctly answered, and not whether other questions equally 
 important might or might not have been answered. 
 
 As to power, an examination may determine the abiUty 
 of the student to do certain specific and technical things. 
 But the field of activity is necessarily of the most limited, 
 and very Uttle can be ascertained as to the abiUty of the 
 student to do those things that it is most important in life 
 he should be able to do, and so we have the long line of 
 great men whose college records, as determined by examina- 
 tions, were most unsatisfactory, partly, perhaps, because the 
 tests appUed did not determine their real knowledge or 
 power. 
 
 And yet all schools must have examinations. Their 
 chief value, however, is to the student and not to the teacher. 
 
 Chief Value "^^^^ ^° ^°* ^° ^"^y '^^^ great degree indicate 
 of Exami- to the broad-minded and wise teacher any facts 
 nation to about the students which he has not already in 
 e upil jjjg possession, but they often do open the eyes* 
 of the student to his own state to an extraordinary 
 degree. It is good for us to be put up against ourselves 
 and find out through bitter experience how much or how 
 little we know and can do. So, frequent examinations of 
 various sorts should be given: examinations in which the 
 questions asked cover a wide range; easy examinations to 
 
Gradation and Promotion of Pupils 69 
 
 see how much the student can tell about his specific sub- 
 ject broadly stated; narrow and technical examinations to 
 see how little he knows about certain phases of subjects; 
 examinations moreover so difficult that only the best can 
 pass them. But the promotion of no child should be based 
 upon these examinations; they should be used solely for meta- 
 physical and educational ends. Their only use in determin- 
 ing the right of the student to promotion should be their 
 indirect efEect upon the minds of those who must decide 
 the question of promotion; they are among the lights 
 shed upon the case, not by any means always the most 
 valuable. 
 
 DAILY MARKING 
 
 Another very common method of determining the question 
 of promotion is that of the daily marking of the recitation. < 
 This is sometimes used independently and some- jj^.. 
 times in connection with the examination. Of the Marking 
 two it is by far the more deadly. Much better an Destroys 
 examination coming at times with carefully pre- *^.^.^^"' 
 pared questions than the fatal pencil suspended 
 over the equally fatal note-book while the student is trying 
 to say something that shall secure a good mark. With the 
 daily marking system it is practically impossible for teachers 
 to teach well or for students to recite well, because these 
 both imply freedom, and neither teacher nor pupil can be 
 free under this system. If the student is to be marked upon 
 his answers to questions, of course the questions must be 
 strictly categorical and capable of being answered correctly 
 by him. The teacher may not stimulate thought and appeal 
 to the imagination by asking questions outside the narrow field 
 of the text-book, because if he does the student will be unable 
 
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72 The School and Its Life 
 
 be promoted or not is the appKcation of common-sense' 
 judgment. Formal and mechanical tests are dangerous. 
 Individual The various means employed for educational 
 Needs to be ends, such as oral and written tests or examina- 
 Considered. ^j^j^g ^^^^ reviews, should all be employed as shed- 
 ding light upon the situation, but the final question should 
 be a matter of judgment, as the mind of the teacher has 
 been affected by all these various influences. It should not 
 be even a matter of averages. Numerak, whether taken 
 singly or in averages, are dangerous as appHed to the needs 
 and the laws of growth of the human mind. 
 
 One thing should be borne in mind always, and it needs 
 constant reiteration, — no consideration for the system as 
 such should enter into the question of the promotion of 
 pupils. The system has its claims; but promotion is an 
 individual matter, and a single child whose case is under 
 consideration is entitled to a judgment according to his needs, 
 not according to the needs of his neighbors or of the system 
 as a whole. The system that cannot stand the shock of 
 proper consideration for individuals is an unworthy system. 
 It should make no difference whether the student is ready 
 for promotion at the middle of the term or the beginning of 
 the term; he should be promoted whenever he is ready. It 
 also should make no difference whether he is the only one in 
 the class to be promoted or the only one not to be promoted ; 
 his individual good, should be the only consideration in each 
 case, and every other consideration which interferes with this 
 should be sacrificed to it, even if some classes are unduly 
 large and others unduly small. In such cases the remedy 
 can easily be found in a new division of classes. 
 
 It is better to have regular promotions frequently than 
 to have them infrequently. Through all grades the regular 
 
Gradation and Promotion of Pupils 73 
 
 class promotions should occur not less frequently than semi- 
 annually, and in the primary grades they should occur 
 more often, as three or four times a year. From 
 this it is fair to infer that the regular class pro- prequent 
 motions are perfectly proper and should be main- Promo- 
 tained. While every individual should receive all *'°°f 
 the consideration he needs, the exceptional indi- ^^"^ ^' 
 vidual is the one who most urgently demands special treat- 
 ment. Probably three fourths of the children in every class 
 will move along with sufficient uniformity to justify class 
 promotions at regular intervals; possibly ninety per cent in 
 many classes. It is the remaining tenth that is in danger 
 of being submerged and lost. 
 
 PROMOTION DEVICES 
 
 This subject has been much agitated of late years, and 
 most thinkers upon educational subjects, including the lead- 
 ing superintendents, are opposed to the rigid Danger of 
 classification of pupils, although unfortunately Nostrums, 
 this is found in practice often where it has been discour- 
 aged in theory. As a result of the agitation of the subject 
 many people have come forward with nostrums for remedy- 
 ing the evil, some of which have been widely heralded. 
 Some of these are simply mechanical devices for doing 
 away with the admitted evil. Others are based upon an 
 eccentric philosophy of education and are radical and 
 fundamental attempts to substitute extreme individuahsm 
 for the social school, while still others provide machinery 
 for affording to individual children new crutches in the 
 form of advisory teachers, so that the weak may hmp along 
 faster and keep up with the more active. Most of these 
 nostrums are composed of simples, some good and some 
 
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CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The Place of the Teacher 
 
 We have discussed in the previous chapters the adminis- 
 tration of the internal affairs of the school, the employments in 
 which the children are engaged and the conduct of the pupils, 
 what it should be, its underlying principles and the methods 
 of securing it, all together constituting school life. The 
 teacher has been taken for granted. It is now time to dis- 
 cuss the teacher specifically, to determine just what is his 
 place in the scheme of school organization and administra- 
 tion and how he should conduct himself toward the system 
 as a whole, and in particular toward his own class of pupils. 
 
 THE TEACHER MAKES THE SCHOOL 
 
 A school is a society. Its factors are the children and 
 the teacher. Both are essential, but it is the latter that gives 
 School a the society its peculiar, differentiating quality. 
 Society. The one characteristic which distinguishes the 
 school from other collections of people is the presence of 
 the teacher. In more senses than the popular one it is the 
 teacher who makes the school. 
 
 The world is full of people who are educating themselves 
 consciously or unconsciously, who are utilizing all 
 Teacher ^^^ great agents and forces of life as means of 
 Differen- spiritual growth, but only in a figurative sense is 
 tiates the ^j^g ^orld itself a school. The figure consists in 
 the personification of these various agents and 
 forces, and even of life itself, and the treatment of them as 
 
 80 
 
The Place of the Teacher 8i 
 
 teachers. There is no school without a living teacher enter- 
 ing, to some degree, into the Uves of the pupils, forming 
 some sort of spiritual union with them. It is as true in the 
 practical sense as in the philosophical that the teacher is 
 the school. 
 
 SMOOTHING THE TEACHER's PATH 
 
 Every school administrator knows that his one serious 
 
 business is to secure good teachers. Courses of study are 
 
 important and a good school is more easily se- „ , . 
 
 , . , ? r , , . , The School 
 
 cured with a good course of study than with a system to 
 
 poor one. Proper organization is important; Make It 
 good schoolhouses are important; good text- Easier to 
 books are important and all the appliances which 
 may be used to further education; but none of these 
 alone nor all of them together constitute a school or can 
 make a good school, and the good teacher can make a 
 good school if any or all of these concomitants and aids 
 are lacking. Hence it follows, since good teachers are 
 not limited to any one locality, or produced at any one 
 institution or by any one method of training alone, and 
 good schools are found in all places, even under most un- 
 favorable circumstances and coming from the least promis- 
 ing sources, that it becomes the chief duty of the executive 
 authorities of school systems everywhere, first to secure 
 the best possible teachers, and then to remove, in sb far 
 as possible, all obstructions from their paths, to give them 
 free scope and to aid them in their work in every 
 conceivable way. All the machinery of great school sys- 
 tems, local, state, and national, has for its aim, properly, 
 this one thing, to make it easier for the teacher to teach 
 well. 
 
82 The School and Its Life 
 
 SCOPE OF THE TEACHER'S INDIVIDUALITY 
 
 In the small private school, in the rural school, and in 
 
 most of the schools found in the earlier history of educa- 
 
 , , tion in this country, the teacher was all in all; 
 
 In the 
 
 Rural the teacher made the school; he was expected to 
 
 School the make the school. If the school was good, it was 
 Teacher ^^ j^jg credit; if bad, it was his fault. The best 
 type of school depending wholly upon the teacher 
 is the rural school. Here the interference with his work 
 is very slight indeed; he is compelled to employ his own 
 initiative, make his own plans, organize his institution, and 
 execute his plans. Young teachers, coming from training 
 institutions, are frequently urged to teach in rural schools 
 for a while, in order to develop the power of initiative, of 
 independent action, through their necessary exercise in the 
 professional solitude of the country schoolhouse, — and it is 
 good advice. 
 
 Many of the strongest and best teachers and educational 
 leaders that the country has ever known have received their 
 Systems ^^^ impulse, their versatility and breadth of view, 
 Subordi- and the ability to meet new difl&culties, which 
 nate the have made them great, in the small, unpainted 
 schoolhouse in the remote country district where 
 they began their discouraging work. Here they were re- 
 quired to study their pupils and give them work suitable 
 for them, to devise their own methods, to meet emergencies, 
 often serious, quickly and firmly. In the country school 
 that is good for anything, the teacher is "it." Alas, that 
 in any system of schools he should ever cease to be "it." 
 But there is, unfortunately, in the development of large 
 institutions, a tendency to subordinate the individual, and 
 
The Place of the Teacher 83 
 
 to destroy individuality. This is noticeably trae in great 
 school systems. It seems almost inevitable. The demands 
 of the organization itself are so great, it requires so much 
 executive power to keep the machine running, that the ma- 
 chine itself attracts undue attention, and we are in danger 
 of forgetting that the business of the school is to teach indi- 
 vidual children, and not simply to move without friction as 
 part of a machine. This worship of machines is the most 
 debasing kind of fetich worship. It destroys the power to 
 judge of values and, hke all worship of inferior gods, it sub- 
 ordinates the higher ends to the lower. 
 
 TYRANNY OF MACHINES 
 
 Too often in our great city systems, teachers are judged 
 
 by their ability to run along smoothly in a well-oiled machine 
 
 rather than by their power of inspiration, their Teachers 
 
 abihty to uphft, encourage, strengthen, and really Judged 
 
 teach children. I have known teachers full of the ^J..,.f"^ 
 
 . . Ability 
 love of youth, possessed of extraordmary mspi- ^o Run 
 
 rational power and abihty to make children think, with the 
 work, and learn, driven from the school system Machme. 
 because they did not readily untie red tape. We too often 
 forget that the school system is useful only so far as it makes 
 it easier for the teacher to teach, that every unnecessary bur- 
 den, every extraneous demand upon the teacher's energies, 
 everything which distracts his mind or takes his thought 
 away from the one purpose of his work, which is teaching 
 the children, is a positive injury. 
 
 One of the worst forms of machine domination is that which 
 places undue stress upon statistics and makes of the teacher 
 a compiler of figures. Great marking schemes have been 
 devised which prevent teachers from teaching with their 
 
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CHAPTER IX 
 The Freedom of the Teacher 
 
 The school system is but an assemblage of schools, that 
 is, of classes of children with their teachers so organized as 
 to raise to the maximum the efficiency of each teacher; that 
 at least is the theory. 
 
 The great essential to real efi&ciency is freedom. I do 
 not mean by freedom license or even liberty to do as one 
 pleases, but the abiUty and the possibility to direct one's 
 energies with intelligence and purpose to the highest results. 
 
 Such freedom is primarily internal rather than external, 
 and for the teacher it begins far back of the organization. 
 Freedom i^^ back even of the act of teaching. The first 
 Primarily steps in freedom must be taken by the individual. 
 Internal. rpj^^ teacher must be free from ignorance, from 
 prejudice, from undue pride, from the debasing pressure of 
 false ambition, from unwillingness to learn or to be guided ; 
 that is, the teacher must have a free soul in the Pauline 
 sense. That is primary. Now suppose such a teacher has 
 been elected to a position in a school system; this internal 
 freedom must be preserved, and added to it must be a certain 
 amount of external freedom, freedom to exercise native 
 and acquired powers without undue restraint or perversion. 
 
 THE freedom of CO-OPERATION 
 
 There is a higher freedom than that of the individual 
 in solitude. It is the freedom which comes from association 
 
 88 
 
The Freedom of the Teacher 89 
 
 and co-operation. An individual who has become an intelli- 
 gent and conscious member of society, contributing of his 
 best freely to the common good, is free to draw s„.:gt_ 
 upon the community for a vast increment of offers 
 power. The individual who has become a co- Higher 
 ordinate member of a free community is enor- ^^^ °™' 
 mously magnified, is a vastly larger being than the same 
 individual in solitude. The society becomes his larger self 
 through which he can do greater things than when alone; 
 by its protection and help he has become free from innumer- 
 able trammels and hindrances with which alone he was 
 unable to cope. A true society is a great instrument of 
 freedom through which each one is able to render far 
 greater service than when alone ; but when society arbitrarily 
 checks the exercise of individual power, unduly restrains 
 individual initiative, seeks to turn all the energies of each 
 member into a single channel made by a single directing 
 mind, then there comes a distinct loss of freedom and the 
 individual dwindles. 
 
 POSSIBILITIES OF URBAN SCHOOLS 
 
 It ought to be possible in a school system for each teacher 
 to do much better work than a rural school-teacher can do, 
 because while contributing his part to the gen- ^j^^ urban 
 era! stock of knowledge and skill and inspiration. Teacher 
 he can draw without limit upon that accumulated should be 
 
 Setter 
 
 stock himself. Each teacher can learn from 
 the other teachers, for wisdom is communicable. If the 
 heads of the system are wise and possessed of inspirational 
 force, the teacher can add to his power from their wisdom 
 and inspiration. The system properly conducted substi- 
 tutes co-operation and common interests for isolation and 
 
QO The School and Its Life 
 
 individual interests. The urban teacher should be a very 
 much larger and wiser and better teacher than the rural 
 teacher. In some instances this is the case. Our greatest 
 teachers are not country school-teachers but city school- 
 teachers, because it is possible in an urban system to become 
 greater; there are more aids, more stimuli, more nutriment 
 
 available. But the teacher may avail himself 
 Supervis- 
 ing Officers ^^ these only when the method and plan of organ- 
 
 the Largest ization and supervision make it possible; when 
 Contribu- ^\^q school board and school superintendent and 
 supervisors consider it their part primarily to con- 
 tribute the largest share of inspiration and wisdom to the 
 common stock, and secondarily to act as distributors of this 
 common stock to the teaching forces. 
 
 Let us briefly recapitulate the doctrine of the freedom of 
 the teacher here advocated, lest any infer from what has 
 been said a destructive radicalism subversive of order and 
 proper administration. 
 
 True freedom has its seat within the individual and con- 
 sists in a proper adjustment of personal tastes, abiUties, and 
 aspirations to conditions and obligations, and particularly 
 to social conditions. No one is truly free who is wholly 
 selfish; who is ignorant; who is prejudiced; who is self- 
 sufficient or inconsiderate of the views, the needs, the knowl- 
 edge of others. 
 
 Anarchy is not a phase of freedom; it is its antipode. In 
 many respects submission to absolute authority is nearer free- 
 dom than either complete isolation or anarchy. Life in society 
 necessitates the consideration of all for each and each for all. 
 The general good becomes paramount and must be so recog- 
 nized. Indeed each individual attains his freedom only when 
 he thus recognizes the superior claim of the social whole. 
 
The Freedom of the Teacher 91 
 
 The difference between a benevolent tyranny and free- 
 dom is not in the end, which in both cases is the common 
 good, but in the fact that in the one case submission to the 
 general weal is forced upon the individual; in the other it 
 is voluntarily and with purpose yielded. In order to make 
 the devotion of each individual to the general good effective, 
 there must be co-ordination, centrahzation of authority, 
 and organization. Without these there is enormous waste. 
 The individuals, however well meaning, get in one another's 
 way; some needs are over- supplied ; others are neglected. 
 Thus in an ideal social state — granted even individual 
 perfection ■ — government, central power, recognized by all 
 the individuals and controlling to a degree their conduct, 
 is necessary; how much more in a very imperfect social 
 state, with individuals of all shades and degrees of fitness 
 for society. 
 
 The secret and the value of democracy are found, not in 
 the absence of law or government, but rather in the utiliza- 
 tion for common ends of all the powers of the different indi- 
 viduals freely contributed, which results in the education, 
 that is, in the growth of the individuals. 
 
 Benevolent autocracy with even an absolutely perfect 
 ruler would fail to develop the highest character in its sub- 
 jects because it would fail to share responsibility. 
 
 The evolution of society is the result of individual efforts, 
 
 under stress of circumstances, to ameliorate con- xhe 
 
 ditions. The chief value of such efforts is the Progress of 
 
 growth in power and freedom of those who make Sp'^'^ty 
 , , . , ...,...,, Duetoln- 
 
 them; that is, advancement m civilization is largely dividual 
 
 due to the development of those who assume Improve- 
 
 responsibility for the general good, often with ment. 
 
 little, and sometimes with no visible, present effect. Not 
 
92 The School and Its Life 
 
 immediate external result, but education, is the product of 
 moral and social struggle, and this education is the one 
 sufficient reward for such struggle. 
 
 Apply all this to the school. It is certainly necessary 
 to have school officers with power, and with responsibilities 
 consistent with such power. A school superintendent must 
 have authority, and must have responsibiUty for the work 
 done under him. The same is true of the school principal, 
 but it is also true of the teacher. Unquestionably, unsatis- 
 factory results would be produced if in a city school system 
 there were no central power, and every individual were free 
 to carry out his own law or his own whim. The result of 
 such a condition would be somewhat akin to anarchy. At 
 least there would be enormous waste, and countless children 
 would suffer from crude and ill-digested experimentation. 
 
 Much power should be bestowed upon the school super- 
 intendent and his subordinate officers, such as supervisors 
 Officials ^^^ principals,who should be held responsible 
 MustExer- for results, and there can be no responsibility 
 cise Power without authority. It would be a mistake to 
 
 '^^ ^' organize school systems in such a way as to lessen 
 the power of the superintendent and of the other officials. 
 The great need is not an overturning of government, but 
 the proper exercise of authority by those possessing it. A 
 superintendent without authority would be weak indeed. A 
 superintendent who thinks that knowledge will die with 
 him, or who is afraid that his authority will be lessened if 
 some one else shares responsibiUty with him, is a foolish 
 superintendent. 
 
 The fundamental principle of democracy, that of educa- 
 tion through responsibility, is essential for successful admin- 
 istration in schools. 
 
The Freedom of the Teacher 
 
 93 
 
 The sum of all the knowledge and all the power of all 
 the teaching force is certainly greater than that of the ablest 
 superintendent, and the wise superintendent will so organize 
 his forces as to utilize this cumulative power and this conr- 
 bined wisdom. He will endeavor to stimulate in his teachers 
 that true freedom which is within, and he will bestow the 
 other freedom, which is also necessary, freedom for each 
 teacher to do his best. Of necessity there will be negation. 
 Some things will necessarily be forbidden, but, as in dealing 
 with children, there will be only so much negation as is 
 requisite for success, and there will be every encouragement 
 to free activity. Teachers will be stimulated to study, to 
 visit, to see new things, to devise new plans, and to put them 
 into execution; first, for the sake of testing them, and after- 
 wards, if they are proven worthy, as permanent features of 
 their work. Teachers will be held responsible for results 
 more than for methods, though methods that have already 
 been proven vicious or dangerous will, of course, be forbidden. 
 The teacher of to-day who should advocate the method of 
 Dr. Rainsford's teacher in Ireland fifty years ago, namely, 
 kicking the pupil on the shins for every mistake, would 
 certainly need some negation, as abundant experience has 
 proven such a method not desirable; and when teachers 
 
 persistently refuse to follow the dictates of sound 
 
 , , . 1 -i - £c K should 
 
 judgment, are recalcitrant to authonty or metti- ^^^ ^^ 
 
 cient, naturally they should cease to be teachers. Difficult to 
 Any system of administration which makes it Remove 
 impossible or especially difficult to remove poor j°°^jjgj.g_ 
 teachers, which destroys or lessens that power 
 which all society finds necessary for its perpetuity and well- 
 being, is dangerous and, if carried to extremes, would be 
 absolutely subversive of good schools. 
 
Missing Page 
 
Missing Page 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 The Development of the Teacher 
 
 As has been said, the sole function of a school system is 
 to secure better teaching through improving the individual 
 teachers and making it not only possible but easier for them 
 to do their best work. The system which does not accom- 
 plish these ends, however carefully organized and skilfully 
 managed it may be, fails to justify its existence, and a system 
 which in even a slight degree impairs the quality of the 
 teaching done is a nuisance and a menace. 
 
 FREEDOM — how CONSERVED 
 
 How may the school system reinforce the teacher and 
 System conserve his freedom? Possibly I should first 
 should not answer the negative question : How may a system 
 
 Interfere ^g g^ conducted as not to interfere with the work 
 with the . , , . 
 
 Work of °^ ^"^ teacher? 
 
 the My answer to the question is : First, by reduc- 
 
 Teacher. jjjg ^j^g machinery to the mimimum consistent with 
 a reasonable degree of unity, eliminating all unnecessary red- 
 tape and all demands upon the teacher, in addition to his 
 work of teaching, that it is possible to get along without. 
 
 A certain amount of detail is, of course, necessary; records 
 Unneces- ™ust be kept and some statistics must be gathered, 
 sary Detail for statistics do not always lie and sometimes are 
 Eliminated, useful. Information regarding the attendance of 
 children and conditions prevaiUng in and about the schools, 
 
 96 
 
The Development of the Teacher 97 
 
 which throws light upon the educational problem, is impor- 
 tant and must be secured through the teachers if at all. 
 But there are many kinds of information secured through 
 the compiling of figures which are of no value to any one, 
 or at least not of sufficient value to justify the sacrifice of 
 time and effort required to secure them. 
 
 The passion for statistics which dominates some school 
 superintendents is a dangerous one and easily runs into 
 statistical dissipation. Many of the elaborate systems of 
 keeping records of individual pupils are not only needless, 
 but are a positive injury to both pupils and teachers. (See 
 Chapters VII and VIII.) 
 
 My second answer to the negative question is: Avoid 
 every device or method of organization which tends to lessen 
 the teacher's individuality and sense of personal responsi- 
 bility to the children. 
 
 The teacher in the schoolroom should always feel that 
 his first duty is to ascertain and meet the needs of the indi- 
 vidual children under his care. In the machine u. .-r, ^ 
 
 First Duty 
 
 system the tendency is to center the thought of to Meet the 
 the teacher not upon the children, but upon the Needs of 
 higher authorities, so that, instead of feeling re- ""i^™. 
 sponsible to them and being anxious to serve them, he be- 
 comes over-anxious to "stand in with" the administration 
 and sacrifices his own obligation to the higher law, to the 
 demands of his superior officers for uniformity. This shift- 
 ing of conscience is not only encouraged, but is almost ne- 
 cessitated by some prevalent systems of administration. In 
 particular does the excessive marking of teachers according 
 to arbitrary standards, referred to in Chapter VIII, en- 
 courage this transfer of allegiance. 
 When a teacher is made to feel that he is in school not 
 
98 The School and Its Life 
 
 to serve the children, but to serve some one else, — the school 
 superintendent, the school board, or the local pohtician, — 
 Teachers he ceases then and there to be as good a teacher 
 Must Obey, as he might be. This does not mean that a 
 teacher must not obey the school board and the school super- 
 intendent. The teacher must obey, but if by any action of 
 the authorities undue stress is laid upon the teacher's rela- 
 tions to them, beUttling the importance of his relations to 
 the pupils, evil surely follows. 
 
 The task of correcting this evil rests, of necessity, with 
 the authorities. It is true that a very good teacher, even 
 under a martinet superintendent and a mechanical system, 
 can do much toward bringing about right relations with 
 his pupils and toward keeping the machine in its proper 
 subordinate place. But the average teacher cannot do this 
 and simply falls in with the manifest requirements of the 
 system. If the stress is placed upon the machine side of 
 the work, — the relations of the teacher to the ofScials, — 
 and if the children are not kept prominently to the fore by 
 the powers that be, the teachers will very soon transfer all 
 their allegiance to these same powers. 
 
 It is for the school superintendent primarily to keep con- 
 stantly before the teachers the relative importance of their 
 
 „. relations with the children on the one side, and 
 
 The - ■ 
 
 Authorities *-^^ school authorities on the other. He must con- 
 Must tinually impress upon his subordinates the fact 
 Reduce j-jja^j. g,!! the school machinery, superintendents 
 and teachers included, exists solely for the chil- 
 dren and is profitable only in so far as it serves the children. 
 Hence, the first duty of the school administration is to see to 
 it that demands upon the time and energy of the teacher 
 which lessen the amount of good work that he can do for the 
 
The Development of the Teacher 99 
 
 children, and all methods of treatment which lower his self- 
 respect, weaken his individuality, and transfer his allegiance 
 from the children to the machine, are removed. 
 
 But there is a positive side to this question. A school 
 system, properly organized and conducted, can directly 
 and positively help the teaching and aid in con- system to 
 serving the teacher's freedom. Help the 
 
 How can the system make a poor corps of Teacher. 
 
 teachers good or a good corps better, keep the teachers up 
 
 to the highest standards possible, and secure from them their 
 
 very best work? First, by making them feel that they are 
 
 persons of consequence whose judgments are 
 
 worth considering and who may justly be sup- _, . 
 
 posed to possess reasonably tender consciences, Feel that 
 
 some professional ambition, and at least a fair They are 
 
 degree of devotion to their work. The first ° o^^se- 
 
 ° quence. 
 
 duty of school superintendents and other officials 
 
 is to lead the teachers to respect themselves, to feel that they 
 are trusted, and in return to secure their confidence. This 
 done, it is possible to put into effect definite plans for help- 
 ing the teachers and developing their freedom. 
 
 The plans most commonly and most effectively employed 
 for this end fall into four general classes: The course of 
 study, meetings with teachers, class-room visitation, and 
 private conferences. These we will consider in the follow- 
 ing chapters. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 The Course of Study 
 
 The course of study offers the most definite and the most 
 effective means of helping teachers to efficiency and freedom. 
 
 In a system of schools a course of study is necessary. 
 Course This is beyond question. To allow each teacher 
 of Study to teach what he pleases to the children would 
 Necessary, quickly produce disorganization alike fatal to 
 the teacher's success and disastrous to the children. 
 
 A course of study of the right kind brings unity and co- 
 ordination into the schools and is indeed the chief unifying 
 Minutely f°rce. Of necessity, it prescribes that certain sub- 
 Mandatory jects shall be taught throughout the system, and 
 Course that in each grade certain phases of these sub- 
 
 * ■ jects shall be taught, corresponding to the de- 
 
 velopment of the children. Some courses of study are not 
 a means to the freedom of the teacher, but represent tyranny 
 of thought and method. One kind of bad course of study 
 is the minutely mandatory, which prescribes in detail what 
 is to be taught each month and each week and each day, 
 and imposes a uniform method for teaching each subject, 
 leaving the teacher nothing to do but obey orders. 
 
 Such courses are not uncommon, unfortunately. Where 
 they exist the most serious effect is seen in the teachers, — 
 who soon cease to try to exercise judgment and become 
 inert and helpless. It is said that the squirrels in the 
 
The Course of Study lOi 
 
 parks have become so accustomed to being fed that they 
 have entirely given up the frugal habits of their wood life, 
 and no longer lay up stores of nuts for the winter; Weakens 
 hence, if the winter is hard and the supply from Teachers, 
 visitors insufficient, the park authorities are compelled to 
 feed the lazy little animals. I have more than once seen 
 teachers in school systems as helpless intellectually as these 
 squirrels are physically, and for like reasons. Their work 
 has been prescribed to such a degree that they have ceased 
 to exercise judgment. When given general instructions as 
 to the accomplishment of certain results, but without detail 
 of method, they have been hopelessly and pitifully at sea. 
 I have also seen these same teachers after a season of free- 
 dom, in which they have been compelled to exercise their best 
 abihties for definite, rational ends, grow greatly in strength 
 and effectiveness, throw off the inertia and helplessness inci- 
 dent to machine work, and become strong and serviceable. 
 
 A course of study, then, should be broad in its outlines 
 and suggestive rather than mandatory as to details and 
 methods. It should require results, but these re- should be 
 suits should be stated in large rather than in Broad and 
 small terms. They should be results of growth Suggestive, 
 manifested in power to do new things, rather than abihty to 
 answer a few stereotyped questions. 
 
 The great fault of many systems of examinations is that 
 the work required is so small and petty and minute that 
 it behttles the teachers. Teachers become accustomed to 
 drilling for the pitifully narrow questions asked in the 
 examinations till they actually lose the power to think for 
 themselves and to consider the needs of the children. The 
 last thing that is present in their minds when planning their 
 work is the development of the pupils. The imminent need 
 
102 The School and Its Life 
 
 is to qualify them to answer a few specific questions and 
 get their marks. 
 
 Further, a course of study should stimulate teachers to 
 self-improvement. One of the claims made against teachers 
 as a body, especially in discussions of that utterly 
 Stimulate futile question, "Is teaching a profession?" is 
 Teachers that they are not scholarly. After much observa- 
 to Self-Im- tion I am convinced that the defect, in so far as 
 proveme . .^ grists, is due chiefly to the lack of impulse 
 towards self-improvement in most of our formal school sys- 
 tems. A teacher going over the work of a grade soon ac- 
 quires mastery of the few insignificant facts that must be 
 imparted to the children, and is able each year to do the 
 required work with less effort. Very few of us keep up a 
 high degree of intellectual activity without some stimulus 
 outside of ourselves, so these teachers, finding it possible to 
 do their work, keep a respectatjle position among their asso- 
 ciates, hold their places, and draw their pay, often settle into 
 a condition of intellectual coma. It is always most offensive 
 and saddening to hear flippant talk about old teachers, 
 especially women; but it must be admitted that there are 
 enough of the narrow, unscholarly, and unstudious among 
 them to give some excuse for raillery, and these are the 
 teachers, almost without exception, found in mechanical 
 systems, whose work is exactly laid out for them, who re- 
 ceive from their superiors no stimulus to the exercise of 
 originahty and to broad, thorough investigation. The work 
 in the schoolroom does not require study, except of a very 
 meager sort; the administration does not welcome ideas, and 
 the teacher naturally follows the line of least resistance. 
 
 Hence, a course of study should necessitate much and 
 continuous application on the part of the teacher; it should 
 
The Course of Study 103 
 
 not be too specific; it should allow room for the exercise of 
 imagination and of originality; it should make necessary 
 two definite kinds of study — one technically educational 
 or paideutic; the other cultural. That this may be the effect, 
 a course of study must be based upon educational principles. 
 It must not represent a mere haphazard putting together 
 of detailed instruction regarding the conventional subjects 
 of school curricula, but rather it must be an orderly and 
 philosophical presentation of the body of knowledge and 
 the range of activities necessary for the proper education 
 of the children. 
 
 A course should not be so superficial that it can be under- 
 stood without study. It is good to make it necessary for 
 teachers to study the curriculum and then to study „. , . 
 educational principles in order to understand it. Require 
 This is in itself broadening and strengthening Study for 
 and opens up to the teachers, especially the J*sCompre- 
 more thoughtful and the brighter, wide fields of 
 inquiry and fine stimuli for growth. 
 
 The second line of study which curricula should make 
 necessary for the teachers is cultural. We all know that 
 other things being equal the best teacher is the „. . . 
 one who knows the most, and we also know that Require 
 teachers knowing very little can get along fairly Study for 
 well teaching children what is required by a very ^™^''*' 
 common kind of course of study. So true is this, 
 that school authorities sometimes actually insist that knowl- 
 edge is quite unimportant for teachers of little children ; that 
 ignorant teachers can do about as well as the more 
 scholarly in the lower grades. 
 
 A course of study should require of all teachers consider- 
 able knowledge. It should stimulate them to the acquisition 
 
I04 The School and Its Life 
 
 of knowledge in many lines. One of the arguments some- 
 times advanced against the introduction of nature study 
 and other new branches into the grammar school course 
 is that teachers do not know enough to teach them. One 
 of the chief advantages of the introduction of such studies, 
 the enriching of the curriculum, as President Ehot calls it, is 
 that it makes students of the teachers. The effort which 
 they make to qualify themselves to teach the new subjects 
 is in itself cultivating, and it is fair to say that usually it is 
 reasonably successful; but, better yet, they not only have 
 more specific knowledge upon the subjects to be taught, but 
 the windows of their minds are opened to a larger world. 
 They begin to get the scholarly taste, to love study. I have 
 seen many young teachers possessed of little professional 
 ambition and little real knowledge grow into fine teachers 
 of considerable scholarship and even culture, through the 
 stimulating power of a broad and rich course of study. 
 
 INTERPRETATION OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 
 
 The course of study usually needs interpretation and 
 comment. Left uninterpreted, in its printed fonn, its use- 
 Requires fulness will necessarily be very limited. Some 
 Interpre- teachers will read it and interpret it correctly; 
 tation. some will read it and interpret it ignorantly; some 
 will read only portions of it, those in particular relating to 
 their own grades; and some will scarcely read it at all. 
 
 The various methods resorted to for the fuller interpre- 
 jjjg tation of the course of study, and for instructing 
 
 Syllabus a the teachers as to its administration, are of two 
 Commen- general kinds — written or printed syllabi, and 
 "^' meetings of various sorts. The syllabi are merely 
 
 expansions of the course of study itself. If the course is at 
 
The Course of Study 105 
 
 all elaborate in design, and especially if it is suggestive 
 rather than restrictive, such syllabi are quite necessary. 
 They usually take the form of discussions as to the teach- 
 ing of the different subjects in the curriculum, and if clear 
 and explanatory, are very useful. 
 
 There is the danger, however, in large systems that some 
 of the several supervisors will think that the superintend- 
 ent's course of study is too liberal and will attempt in syllabi 
 to restrict it and to give in minute detail instructions for 
 carrying it out. This is a danger easily avoided, however, 
 if the superintendent is alert. 
 
 Little needs to be said upon the subject of syllabi except 
 that usually they should be in the nature of commentaries 
 rather than positive and definite instruction as to details. 
 This, however, is necessarily a matter of judgment, and in 
 some school systems, particularly after the adoption of a new 
 course of study or after a change of administration, it is wise 
 to make the earUer syllabi quite specific in order to avoid, as 
 far as possible, all floundering and loose, aimless experi- 
 mentation such as one sometimes sees in school. Such 
 syllabi, however, should be followed at the earliest possible 
 moment by others which are expository and deal with 
 principles. 
 
 The general rule might be laid down here that all instruc- 
 tion to teachers, whether given in meetings or , 
 
 . . Instruction 
 
 through syllabi, should deal with educational prm- ^^ Teachers 
 
 ciples. The instruction, however minute, should should 
 be traced back to its philosophical source, so ^^^^ |° 
 that the teachers may continually receive training 
 in the thought that all sound advice rests upon fundamental, 
 indisputable laws. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 Teachers' Meetings 
 
 The most common instrument of the supervising force 
 for training teachers without destroying their freedom is the 
 teachers' meeting. Of these meetings there are many sorts, 
 varying in their degrees of usefubiess. The particular kinds 
 of meetings that should be employed in any locality must 
 be determined by local conditions. No general law can be 
 laid down on this point, but the general principle may be 
 emphasized that all meetings for teachers should be educa- 
 tional, and it is surprising how the educational principles 
 that we insist upon for the training of children apply in the 
 training of teachers, and also how generally they are dis- 
 regarded. The following are the various kinds of meetings 
 in common use: 
 
 General or mass meetings. 
 Grade meetings. 
 
 Meetings of teachers of adjacent grades. 
 . Subject meetings. 
 Round table meetings. 
 Classes for definite instruction. 
 
 These meetings vary as to the constitution of the audience 
 and as to the instructors. Let us discuss in detail a few 
 of the more important ones. 
 
 io6 
 
Teachers' Meetings 107 
 
 THE GENERAL MEETING 
 
 Every school system should have a few general meetings 
 during the year, but only a few. They should be wholly 
 meetings for stimulation and inspiration. Usually, gg^eral 
 they should be addressed by the superintendent or Meetings 
 some of the supervisors, or by some person of forlnspi- 
 ability in a special line, not connected with the '***°°' 
 local school system, who can put the teachers into touch with 
 prevaiUng educational thought, — with the world beyond the 
 local field. 
 
 The interests of teachers and their needs are so various that 
 the general meeting can supply only a very Hmited amount of 
 the help needed, only that which all teachers of all grades need 
 in common. It is of great value for teachers once in a while 
 to be brought into the presence of a vigorous thinker, particu- 
 larly if he belongs to a different school of thought from that 
 dominating the school system. Such meetings tend to make 
 broader and better teachers, but they do not supply the need 
 for specific instruction which is necessarily felt by all good 
 teachers, for it must be borne in mind that the only teachers 
 who do not feel the need of assistance are the poor ones. 
 
 GRADE MEETINGS 
 
 Perhaps the most useful of all the classes of meetings is 
 the grade meeting well conducted. The teachers 
 of a single grade have very specific and common jigg^ijj„. 
 needs, and it is easy for the conductor to meet for Dis- 
 these needs. Meetings may be conducted by the cussion of 
 superintendent or by the supervisors, or by teachers ^^" '' 
 of special subjects. If the meetings are short, as 
 those held after school must be, it is usually well to devote the 
 
io8 The School and Its Life 
 
 time to the consideration of some one subject as taught in a 
 particular grade. Whenever possible, the teachers themselves 
 should take part in the discussion, to make known both their 
 needs and their prevailing views. Talking to teachers is 
 quite frequently talking in the dark. The speaker neces- 
 sarily assumes a state of mind in his audience. If he assumes 
 the wrong state of mind, then his talk is largely wasted. The 
 supervisor and the superintendent talking to teachers in 
 grade meetings should have an advantage over most speakers, 
 in that they are supposed to know the conditions which they 
 must meet; but frequently this is not the case. Meetings 
 so conducted as to encourage free expression on the part of 
 the teachers — especially on the part of those who are sup- 
 posed to be a discordant element, out of harmony with the 
 views of the administration — are apt to be very helpful meet- 
 ings. Any supervisor should be glad of an expression of 
 adverse opinion. If his views are sound he ought to be able 
 to defend them in debate. No one has all the truth, and a 
 comparison of opinions usually results in a nearer approach 
 to it than any individual alone can attain. 
 
 A very helpful plan is to have a class taught in the presence 
 of the teachers at the meeting. This is more easily done 
 Exemplary ^^ ^^^ lower grades than in the higher, because 
 Classes the children are less likely to be conscious, and 
 Helpful. are more likely to act naturally. If possible, 
 such a class should be conducted by a good teacher who is 
 in accord with the educational theories of the superintend- 
 ent, and it should show good work and normal work. The 
 class should not be drilled beforehand so as to make a good 
 appearance, but should do the kind of work that is ordinarily 
 done by it in the school. After the lesson is over and the 
 class dismissed, there should be a very full and free discussion 
 
Teachers' Meetings 109 
 
 of the methods employed. The teacher who conducted 
 the class and the presiding officer should be ready to an- 
 swer all questions, explain all methods, and make clear any 
 reason for anything done that was not made clear by the 
 presentation itself. This is a most excellent plan for explain- 
 ing a course of study, — the concrete is so much more easily 
 comprehended than the abstract. 
 
 Every superintendent must at times wonder if he has 
 lost the power of using the English language. Instructions 
 and explanations, given in what seems to him at the time the 
 simplest and most lucid language, are interpreted in so many 
 ways. We approach almost all subjects with a prejudice. 
 It is practically impossible for a mind to be absolutely open, 
 so that words produce very different effects upon different 
 minds. Language is at best a very imperfect medium for 
 the expression of thought, and we necessarily interpret that 
 which we see and hear according to our own state of mind 
 and our preconceived notions. A failure to recognize this 
 fact is largely responsible for wide differences of opinion, 
 for so-called heresy, for religious persecution, and often 
 for war. Teachers are not exceptional in this respect, 
 and I have often seen the most absurd construction put 
 upon courses of study and have been held responsible for 
 the most foolish educational practice, which had never 
 even occurred to me as possible, because of the false 
 interpretation of the printed course of study. The teachers' 
 meeting in which the class has been presented has often 
 served to clear up these clouds and send the teachers 
 away with a better understanding of the whole scheme of 
 work. 
 
 It might be said in passing that another excellent way to 
 accomplish this result is to send teachers who do not under- 
 
no The School and Its Life 
 
 stand to visit those who do, that they may see the work 
 going on regularly in the class-room. I recall the horror 
 with which sand tables and the use of manual construc- 
 y J . tion were first viewed in one city. They seemed 
 School to people who did not know how to use them 
 Visits by foolish toys for the wasting of the time of the 
 Teac ers. children, but just as soon as a few of the 
 brighter teachers comprehended the value of such illus- 
 tration, and the practical results of the employment of 
 motor activities, there were centers for the diffusion of 
 knowledge. The tables showing the illustrations of his- 
 torical stories and geographical phenomena were brought 
 before grade meetings and explained. Other teachers were 
 encouraged to visit those who were using these tools 
 intelligently, and in a very short time the entire miscon- 
 ception passed away and the majority of the teachers 
 had a fairly clear notion of the use of constructive 
 work for illustrative purposes. It would have taken years 
 of ordinary talking and writing to accomplish the same 
 result. 
 
 The work of the grade meeting should be specific and 
 clear, one thing at a time being made plain. The teachers 
 should go away feeling helped and stimulated. If the 
 average teacher goes away from a meeting bored, there has 
 been something wrong with the meeting. Superintendents 
 and supervisors conducting meetings need to be especially 
 careful to avoid tedium. It is so easy to become enamored 
 of the sound of our own voices that we hold helpless bodies 
 of teachers in bondage, as the teachers themselves hold help- 
 less bodies of children, while we enjoy ourselves in talking. 
 The talkative superintendent or supervisor is the Mte noire 
 of the profession. 
 
Teachers' Meetings iii 
 
 The teachers should always go away from a meeting feel- 
 ing not discouraged, but stimulated and strength- 
 ened. Scolding a body of teachers for poor work gjjoyjj q^ 
 may make them resentful and blue, but it will not from the 
 secure the best work. We all need positive and Meeting 
 cheering stimulation rather than fault-finding. A aged."" 
 new and alluring idea is worth a dozen destruc- 
 tive criticisms, for securing the best work possible by a body 
 of teachers. 
 
 THE SUBJECT MEETING 
 
 A very valuable kind of meeting is the "subject meet- 
 ing," that is, a meeting for the discussion of some particular 
 subject in the curriculum. This meeting should 
 be for the discussion of the principles under- study Sub- 
 lying the teaching of the subject as a whole, and jects as 
 should not be confined to particular grades. For Pursued in 
 instance, it is a good thing to gather a group of „ . 
 teachers teaching geography in different grades 
 and to discuss the principles of the subject fully as applied 
 to them. One of the dangers of a graded system of schools 
 is the narrowing of teachers. Teachers who give instruc- 
 tion to children of a single grade very' soon learn the rig- 
 marole of the course and usually fall into the routine and 
 cease active intellectual efifort. Their views are likely to 
 be limited to the imparting of a small section of knowledge 
 to children of approximately the same attainments. Now, 
 it stands to reason that no teacher can do the best work in 
 any grade, who does not have a comprehensive view of the 
 scope of the subject. A teacher who is to teach geography 
 to a third-grade class needs to have, not merely a knowledge 
 of what is taught in the third grade, but a broad view of the 
 
112 The School and Its Life 
 
 subject of geography as a whole, its educational and prac- 
 tical value, the principles that underlie instruction in it, and 
 then to apply these to that portion of the subject-matter 
 assigned to this grade. The teacher who knows merely the 
 work of the grade and has no comprehensive view of the 
 subject is like the mechanic who drives rivets and knows 
 nothing of the machine upon which he is working. The 
 difference is that between the artist and the artisan. 
 
 THE MEETING OF ADJACENT GRADES 
 
 Another kind of meeting, with partially the same object, is 
 the meeting of teachers of adjacent grades. The fourth- 
 Meetines of S^^^^ teachers, for instance, should meet occasion- 
 Teachers of ally with the third-grade teachers and occasionally 
 Adjacent with the fifth-grade teachers. They should "look 
 
 ^^ ^^' before and after." They should know the general 
 characteristics of children who are coming to them, and, in 
 particular, the kind of training they are receiving, and they 
 should know, also, what is expected in the next grade, so 
 that their work may fit into the general scheme and be most 
 useful. Such meetings are especially important for teachers 
 of the higher grades. Teachers, in particular, of the highest 
 grammar grades and the lower high school grades should 
 meet at not infrequent intervals for a discussion of their 
 common interests. One of the great troubles that the school 
 superintendent has to meet and adjust is the continual com- 
 plaint of the teachers of the higher grades that the teachers 
 of the grade below have not properly done their work and 
 that the children come from them unprepared. This often is 
 due merely to difference in standard and a failure to com- 
 prehend the preparation that has been given. Such com- 
 plaint is particularly common when pupils pass from one 
 
Teachers' Meetings 113 
 
 institution to another, as from the grammar school to the 
 high school, and from the high school to the college, and it 
 portrays, more than anything else, ignorance on the part of 
 the high school teachers and of the college teachers of what 
 has been done. The emphasis has been put upon what has 
 not been done, and little effort has been made to discover 
 the other. If the teachers could be brought together, a mutual 
 understanding could easily be effected and much friction 
 and much loss to the children be saved. 
 
 At these meetings, sometimes, it is well to discuss par- 
 ticular subjects, as, for instance, English ; at other times, to 
 discuss the general character of the pupils promoted, the 
 teachers of the higher grades telling frankly the defects 
 which they discover in pupils who have come to them, and 
 the teachers in the lower grades telling what they have done 
 for the children who are to come and what may be ex- 
 pected from them. The value of such meetings needs no 
 full discussion, but its recognition is not common enough. 
 
 SPECIAL CLASSES 
 
 It oftens becomes necessary for supervisors and teachers 
 of special subjects to give specific instruction to teachers in 
 these subjects. Sometimes all the instruction that snecial 
 is needed can be given in the grade meeting, classes 
 Sometimes this is insufficient. Some teachers, for the 
 for instance, cannot teach music or cannot teach * "^'^^ ' 
 drawing, and are a constant source of annoyance. What 
 shall be done with them? Shall they be excused from at- 
 tempting to teach these subjects, or shall they go on and 
 teach them badly? Neither seems very desirable. I have 
 found that classes conducted by competent supervisors have 
 been most helpful, and usually all that has been needed has 
 
114 The School and Its Life 
 
 been to offer such classes for voluntary attendance. The 
 teachers have been distressed by their inability to do their 
 work and have gladly availed themselves of the opportunity 
 to improve. Sometimes it has become necessary to insist 
 upon a particularly weak teacher, who was particularly self- 
 satisfied, attending these special meetings. Such meetings, 
 naturally, may be held in the afternoon, sometimes, even, 
 in the evening, because the teachers realize that they are 
 getting, simply for the effort of attending, valuable instruc- 
 tion in some important art. 
 
 MEETINGS OF PRINCIPALS WITH THEIR TEACHERS 
 
 Meetings of this kind should be held regularly, and not 
 infrequently, for various purposes. For instance, that the 
 teachers of the school may become acquainted with one 
 another; that they may know the work of the grades above 
 and below; that there may be unity and harmony in the 
 general scheme of the school; that individual and trouble- 
 some cases may be discussed, and that advice or instruction 
 from the supervising authorities may be expounded. It is 
 also well for principals, if the schools are not too large, to 
 take up some specific study with their teachers, something 
 of either general cultural value or professional cultural value. 
 Circumstances wiU determine which is better. In most 
 cases a book of professional cultural value — some work on 
 psychology or educational principles — makes the best sub- 
 ject for such study. 
 
 MEETINGS WITH ASSISTANTS 
 
 The need for meetings is not limited to the teachers. The 
 superintendent should conduct meetings of his immediate 
 assistants or supervisors. These meetings necessarily are for 
 
Teachers' Meetings 115 
 
 the discussion of general plans of work and to make sure of 
 the existence of harmony in the administrative force. 
 
 MEETINGS OF SUPERINTENDENT AND PRINCIPALS 
 
 Meetings of superintendents and principals, however, are 
 perhaps more than any others the key to the educational 
 situation. They give the superintendent an opportunity 
 to impress himself upon the leading minds engaged in actual 
 school work. The time devoted to these meetings is precious 
 and should not be spent in the idle discussion of minor 
 details. Sometimes it becomes necessary for the superin- 
 tendent to take time in a meeting to explain some admin- 
 istrative regulation, or some matter of comparatively small 
 consequence, but the danger is that all the time will be 
 taken up in this way. It is usually much better to send out 
 written or printed instructions as to these matters of detail, 
 and to devote the time of teachers' meetings to educational 
 discussion. 
 
 It is well to take up with the principals the course of study 
 
 and to discuss its underlying thought, its philosophy, its 
 
 educational aim. If these meetings can be upon Superin- 
 
 the "round-table" plan of general discussion, it tendent 
 
 is very much better. Of all meetings these should 1^°^ 
 
 ■' 1111 Discuss 
 
 be the freest, and the principals should be en- principles 
 
 couraged to tell what they think. The superin- with 
 
 tendent should not attempt to do all of the Principals. 
 
 talking. The topic having been announced in the call or 
 
 earlier, it is well to have some principal lead the discussion 
 
 and others follow. The superintendent presiding should 
 
 put in a word here and there if necessary in order to keep 
 
 the discussion in the right Hne, and he should usually close 
 
 it with a summary. At such meetings all kinds of subjects 
 
ii6 The School and Its Life 
 
 may be discussed which relate to the work of the schools; 
 sometimes a particular topic, such as arithmetic or gram- 
 mar; sometimes a question of method; sometimes a new 
 book, or a new theory in education, such as the value of 
 motor activities; but these meetings should be especially 
 educational and should tend to bring about theoretical and 
 actual harmony in the educational system. I count this one 
 Princinals °^ ^^^ ™°^^ important meetings, for principals will, 
 Dominate necessarily, largely dominate their own schools. 
 Their and if the superintendent can get their sym- 
 
 00 s. pathy and active co-operation for his educational 
 ideas and their administration, he has won the day. And 
 if his ideas will not stand a fair discussion in a body of 
 reasonably intelligent principals, it will probably be well for 
 him to revise them. 
 
 In general, voluntary meetings for study are better than 
 required meetings, but in most systems it is necessary to 
 Oreaniza- ^^^^ many of the meetings with compulsory 
 tion iu attendance. It is to be borne in mind that what 
 Large I have said here as applied to the city system would 
 
 ' '^^' need a slight modification if the system is very 
 large and divided into districts. In such a city as Chicago, 
 Philadelphia, or New York, for instance, the various kinds 
 of meetings which I have described should be conducted in 
 each of the districts, the district superintendent and his 
 assistants taking the place of the general superintendent 
 and his associates. In such systems, however, the general 
 superintendent should try to exert a similar influence upon 
 the body of district superintendents, and should also meet 
 occasionally in mass meeting the principals of the city. No 
 city is too large to admit of this. 
 
Teachers' Meetings 117 
 
 TIME OF MEETING 
 
 Now as to the time of conducting these meetings. Com- 
 monly they are held after school or on Saturdays. After 
 
 school the teachers are physically and intellec- ,. ^. 
 
 ^ •' •' Meetings 
 
 tually fagged and are not in condition to get the after 
 
 best from the teachers' meeting. Doubtless School 
 
 sometimes it is absolutely necessary to hold meet- ^^^ °° 
 
 ... . „ . , . . , Saturdays, 
 
 mgs at this time, especially meetings of prmcipals 
 
 with their teachers and meetings for special instruction. On 
 Saturday the teachers are not so tired, but Saturday is the 
 teachers' holiday. They, especially those of the gentler sex, 
 want to go shopping or have mending to do, and they be- 
 grudge the morning given to teachers' meetings. They are 
 apt to come in not the best frame of mind and to go away 
 without the best results. 
 
 It is a generally accepted principle in most of the states 
 that institutes may be conducted for several days in each 
 year during school time, the schools being closed and the 
 teachers required to attend. This is a perfectly sound prin- 
 ciple, and in all cases where the institutes are well conducted 
 the schools are, in the end, the gainers; but this principle 
 has not been applied generally in cities having their own 
 systems .for the instruction of teachers. The same prin- 
 ciple should apply there. The important teachers' meeting 
 should be held during school hours, when the teachers are 
 fresh and consider themselves on duty, the schools being 
 dismissed for that purpose. 
 
 THE GRADE INSTITUTE 
 
 A very effective and a most useful system of grade meet- 
 ings is as follows: The schools of a single grade, as the first 
 
ii8 The School and Its Life 
 
 or eighth, are dismissed for the day. The teachers assemble 
 in a central place and are given a soUd day's hard work. 
 All-Day '^^^ ^^y ™^y ^^ divided into four periods — two 
 Meetings in the morning and two in the afternoon — varying 
 of Grades, ^jjg work. One period, for instance, may be taken 
 by the superintendent in the discussion of history; one by the 
 supervisor of music for his particular subject; one by the 
 supervisor of drawing for his subject; and the fourth by 
 the superintendent, or a supervisor, upon some other theme. 
 Taking one day a week and one grade at a time, it is 
 possible, easily, to get around the grades of a system four 
 times a year, thus giving four full days of instruction to all 
 teachers. 
 
 More can be accomplished in these four days of instruc- 
 tion than in any number of after-school meetings or Saturday 
 morning meetings. The plan is heartily commended by 
 those who have tried it. It is necessary, of course, to edu- 
 cate boards of education to an appreciation of the value of 
 such meetings so that they will consent to the closing of the 
 schools. It is really but a form of institute, and as such 
 falls regularly under the laws of most states. 
 
 THE INSTITUTE 
 
 It may be well in this connection to add a few words about 
 the Teachers' Institute, conducted under state or county 
 auspices. This institute is quite general throughout the 
 country. In its design and in its possibHities it is most be- 
 neficent. In some states, and in some counties in other 
 states, it fulfils its function well. Unfortunately, however, 
 in too many places institutes are conducted in violation of 
 many of the principles here laid down for the conduct of 
 teachers' meetings. 
 
Teachers' Meetings 119 
 
 The Teachers' Institute is a serious business affair. It 
 is supported by the state in order that the teachers may be 
 made better. It is quite necessary that some such institutes 
 arrangement exist; if for nothing else, to insure Important, 
 normal progress in educational principles and methods. 
 Even if all the teachers of the country were graduates of 
 normal schools, well versed in the principles of their pro- 
 fession before undertaking to teach, it would still be neces- 
 sary to have these institutes for the sake of brightening the 
 teachers up, of presenting to them new thoughts and plans, 
 and of keeping them abreast of the world. 
 
 Hence the institute should be primarily and chiefly pro- 
 fessional. The most common form of institute is that which 
 keeps the teachers of all grades together for the should 
 greater part of the week and offers lectures or be Pro- 
 addresses to them en masse. This is open to *«ssional. 
 serious criticism. The best institute combines in proper 
 proportions the general lecture and specific instruction. 
 The former should be upon a high cultural and professional 
 plane. The latter should be definite and adapted Divided in- 
 to specific needs. In order that this may be the to Classes, 
 case, it is necessary to divide the teachers of the institute 
 into classes according to their grades of work. 
 
 The mass institute has resulted in the development of a 
 peculiar type, — the professional institute lecturer, who has 
 become little more than an entertainer. The Dangers 
 entertainment feature has come to predominate of Mass 
 over the professional, so that in some places it is Institutes, 
 practically impossible to secure attention for an address 
 that is professional. The institute entertainer has learned 
 what is expected of him and goes about with a bag full of 
 quips, destructive as the winds of ^Eolus, and if by any 
 
120 The School and Its Life 
 
 chance a new lecturer has not provided himself with such 
 a bag, he is at once tabooed. 
 
 A simple classification for county institutes is this: The 
 rural teachers from the ungraded schools constitute one 
 class. Their needs are quite uniform and can easily be 
 met by the instructor who is familiar with rural schools. 
 The teachers of the graded schools should be divided accord- 
 ing to grades, into as many classes as their numbers and the 
 number of the instructors admit, and instructors provided 
 who are famiUar with the specific needs of the different 
 grades. Not oftener than once a day during the institute 
 there should be a general meeting addressed by some speaker 
 who is able to talk profitably to large masses of people, but 
 the address should be both professional and cultural and 
 not to any considerable degree for the sake of entertaining. 
 It is true that a certain amount of social gain is received 
 by the teachers from the entertainment features of these 
 institutes, but that is not what they are held for and should 
 be kept in the background. 
 
 The usual county institute occupies the greater part of 
 a week. Commonly the authorites, feeling that they must 
 Not Many put the time all in profitably, arrange for three 
 Meetings sessions a day, and sometimes for extras. Dur- 
 in a Day. jjjg j-j^ggg three sessions in the ordinary institute, 
 the teachers sit and listen, or have the appearance of listen- 
 ing, to speakers. The result is what might be expected. 
 After the first day, and also after the first session of each 
 day, a manifest lethargy settles over the audience so that the 
 speakers who come late find it very difficult indeed to hold 
 their auditors at all. 
 
 This occupying of the time is not a measure of economy but 
 is one of waste. A very much better plan is to have but two 
 
Teachers' Meetings I2i 
 
 formal sessions, — a morning and an evening one — the 
 morning session to be divided into periods, not more than 
 three, of not more than an hour in length each. During 
 these periods the different classes or divisions of teachers can 
 be given technical instruction in three subjects by as many 
 specialists. During the evening it is well to have a general 
 lecture by some one inspiring talker before the teachers as a 
 body. The afternoon may well be given up to excursions 
 and the many social opportunities which mean much in the 
 life of the average teacher, especially from rural districts. 
 
 If county superintendents, who usually have charge of 
 these institutes, would have the courage of their convictions 
 and plan their institutes upon a basis as liberal as this, 
 they would soon find that the increased interest and inten- 
 sity of attention would much more than make up for the 
 apparent loss of time. The many meetings give the institute 
 an element of mental dissipation, which, like all other forms 
 of dissipation, is dangerous. 
 
 Continual listening without that reaction necessary to 
 complete the circle of learning is dissipating for teachers 
 as well as for children. Hence, as many as pos- Reaction 
 sible of the section meetings at least should be Necessary 
 open for discussion by the teachers. In this to Learn- 
 way the instructors would find out the mental and "^^' 
 professional status of their auditors, and their needs, and 
 the teachers themselves roused to voluntary activity would 
 profit vastly more than when they simply sit decorously and 
 listen. In teaching teachers in institutes we should not 
 violate the principles of teaching that we are seeking to 
 inculcate. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 The Visitation or the School 
 
 Visiting schools is a universally recognized function of 
 supervising officers of whatever grade. They all do it, 
 but not all in the same way or the same spirit. Indeed, 
 the quahty of a supervisor may be pretty accurately gauged 
 by the character of his visits to the schoolroom. These 
 visits naturally will vary in character according to their pur- 
 pose, but they should seldom vary in spirit, which should 
 always be one of cheer and helpfulness. 
 
 The two common and manifest motives of visitation are 
 
 to ascertain what is being done and to aid the teacher. The 
 
 „ ^. , former is sure to be prominent in the teacher's 
 Motives of ^ 
 
 Visitation mind, the latter should be in the visitor's ; and 
 to Observe ultimately the teachers should come to welcome 
 ^^ *° the visits of the supervising officials as Hkely to 
 bring help and inspiration. 
 
 Of course the visitor must observe, even critically, and 
 must be able to judge the teacher's work as a result, but 
 this does not need to be made conspicuous. If it is, it is 
 sure to defeat its own ends and bring about an abnormal 
 state in both children and teacher which renders the obser- 
 vation valueless. 
 
 What is this teacher doing? What does he need ? What 
 can I do to help him? These questions should be written 
 in the conscience of every official visiting schools. 
 
The Visitation of the School 123 
 
 THE MANNER OF THE VISIT 
 
 The visitor should be governed by common sense. No 
 definite rules can be laid down. The character of the visit 
 should be governed by its circumstances. But usually the 
 visitor should step in quietly so as not to rouse or 
 disturb the pupils, should greet the teacher cour- on Friendly 
 teously and, if there is opportunity without dis- Terms with 
 turbing an exercise, should engage him in a brief Teacher 
 but bright conversation to put him at his ease, ^ * " 
 and then should become absorbed in what is going 
 on, as an interested and kindly observer, and not a cold and 
 distant critic. Especially he should avoid all appearance 
 of being a spy or looking for occasion to find fault. He 
 should get on friendly terms with both teacher and children 
 and should enter into the spirit of what they are doing so 
 that his interest is manifest to them. This will restore the 
 equilibrium and bring about natural conditions. 
 
 Perhaps the chief thing to observe is the spirit of the 
 school, its atmosphere, that psychological and social con- 
 dition which grows out of the relations existing, observe the 
 the motive and spirit of the work, in short, the Spirit of 
 life of the school, which is its real educative force. **** School. 
 This is, of course, intangible and invisible, but it can be 
 spiritually discerned ; only, however, by one who enters into 
 it sympathetically, not by one who looks on coldly, ready 
 to find fault upon the sUghtest pretext. 
 
 The method of the recitation will necessarily be observed, 
 and this observation will incliide the attitude of the observe the 
 children toward the teacher and toward the work; Method of 
 whether the knowledge is clear and definite or the Recita- 
 vague and misleading; whether the answers are '°°' 
 
124 T^^ School and Its Life 
 
 categorical and bookish, or free and suggestive of enlarged 
 interests; whether the teacher places the greater emphasis 
 upon a few exact statements or upon wider interests; whether 
 the children are the more eager to learn or to tell. These 
 and other well-known tests will be silently applied. 
 
 The observer will also note the children at their seats, 
 Observe the ^°^ ^^^V ^^^ conducting themselves, how they 
 Children at are employed ; whether they are absorbed in their 
 Their Seats, ^^ork or easily diverted by chance occurrences; 
 whether they are pursuing subjects earnestly or merely 
 memorizing. 
 
 But the spirit of the school includes all this. The careful 
 observer will see whether the physical conditions of the 
 school are the best obtainable, whether the temperature is 
 normal, the lighting right, the seats of suitable size and 
 arrangement. 
 
 These and other things are taken in by the visitor while 
 he is apparently wholly occupied with the work presented. 
 That is, he must learn to see without looking; because too 
 conspicuous observation of metaphysical conditions disturbs 
 them. 
 
 HELPING THE TEACHER 
 
 Having seen and }dt the conditions of the school, how is 
 the visitor to help the teacher? 
 
 Little can be done at the time : a word of encouragement, a 
 bit of praise, a suggestive question, an inspiring or stimulat- 
 ing remark, all aptly dropped in such a way as not to disturb 
 the order of things. If there occurs an intermission or a brief 
 interval between classes, a pleasant and helpful little conver- 
 sation may be wedged in. All should be done naturally and 
 easily, so that when the visit is over the teacher is sorry 
 
The Visitation of the School 125 
 
 and will look forward with pleasant anticipation to the 
 next one. 
 
 Of course sometimes it may be well for a supervisor to 
 take a class and give a lesson to illustrate some particular 
 point, but never to show how much better he can do it than 
 the teacher. The teacher should never be humiUated be- 
 fore the class by suggestion, criticism, or even example. 
 
 Noisy and boisterous visitations should be avoided. I 
 have seen visits which reminded me of the Pharisee of old 
 who had a trumpet blown before him, only in this visitor 
 case the visitor blew his own trumpet, as if to say, should 
 "Behold, children, how great a man am I. I *>« Q"»«t- 
 condescend to speak to your teacher. Is it not noble?" 
 
 In many instances nothing further is needed than can be 
 done during the visit. But sometimes much more is required. 
 
 If the teacher is doing badly and needs severe criticism, 
 if he is discouraged and needs brightening, if the work is 
 especially original and suggestive and merits further con- 
 sideration and development — under these and other special 
 conditions the visit should be followed by the private con- 
 ference either at the school or at the ofl5ce of the visitor. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 The Private Conference 
 
 This means of helping teachers and improving the work 
 of the schools is not used enough; we deal too exclusively 
 with teachers in masses. 
 
 Naturally one of the most helpful features of the school 
 organization is some degree of personal acquaintance between 
 Personal ^^^ officials and the teachers. While this is easier 
 Contact to secure in a small system than in a large one, 
 with it is entirely possible in even the biggest system. 
 
 eac ers. jjowever large the system, supervising officials 
 should be so distributed that at least some of them may come 
 into personal contact with all the teachers and know their am- 
 bitions and aims, and their merits as well as their faults and 
 weaknesses, and may give the sort of inspiration and strength 
 which is given only in personal contact. Any system that 
 is so organized as to fail to secure this personal contact 
 between the teachers of the class-rooms and the officials 
 who are to direct them and pass upon them, in so far fails 
 to do its duty, and this applies equally to systems large and 
 small. The personal, sympathetic intercourse of those who 
 know more with those who know less, of the stronger direct- 
 ing minds with the directed minds which need help, is the 
 sine qua non of good school administration. 
 
 All serious criticism of teachers should be in private and, 
 except in cases that are manifestly and absolutely hopeless, 
 
 126 
 
The Private Conference 127 
 
 should be positive and suggestive rather than negative and 
 condemnatory. More teachers can be stimulated to good 
 work by helpful and kindly suggestions than by criticism of 
 merely pointing out faults. Yet faults must be Teachers 
 pointed out, and early. Superintendents are should be 
 often timid about private conferences and allow "* "^* ^' 
 teachers to go on in wrong courses rather than perform the 
 disagreeable task of criticising. This is not kind, and teach- 
 ers who fail ultimately because of these faults may with rea- 
 son say, "Why did you not tell me?" 
 
 The teacher should go away from such a conference en- 
 couraged rather than discouraged. Indeed a conference of 
 the right sort would often remove discourage- jeachers 
 ment. Many a discouraged young teacher whose should be 
 school has become a dreadful burden, and who Encour- 
 goes home tired in body and mind to spend an *^^ 
 anxious and sometimes a tearful night, could be saved all 
 this distress if a sympathetic principal or supervisor were 
 to spend a half hour in private conference with her, bring- 
 ing the results of his experience and his superior wisdom 
 to the reinforcement of her limited skill and experience. 
 It is always a good plan to talk things over sympathetically 
 and frankly with the weak teacher. Of course the private 
 conference may be killing, but it should not be; it is en- 
 tirely possible to point out faults and at the same time to 
 point out remedies in such a way as to give encouragement 
 rather than discouragement, and this is one of the chief 
 functions of the supervising officer. A hint, a simple sugges- 
 tion of some new plan, the stimulating of a new interest, the 
 giving of a new point of view, accompanied by kindly 
 interest and encouragement, will frequently make a good 
 teacher of a poor one. 
 
128 The School and Its Life 
 
 It should never be forgotten that the purpose of class- 
 room visitation and its consequent conference is that of all 
 school organization, to help the teachers teach, not to dis- 
 play the greatness of the official, not merely to inform him of 
 conditions, but to encourage, to upUft, to inspire, in short, to 
 help the teachers teach. 
 
 In all efforts to help the teachers, through meetings, class- 
 room visitation or private conference, our principle applies. 
 Encouragement, praise when possible, evidence of confi- 
 dence, suggestion and inspiration — all positive forces — are 
 worth vastly more than fault-finding criticism, even if astute, 
 scolding, "grinding," evidence of distrust, discouragement — 
 all negative forces. The latter, working through fear, pro- 
 duce at best death-dealing drudgery; the former, acting 
 through buoyancy and ambition, produce that joyous effort 
 which is creative. 
 
 The private conference may also be used with profit in 
 the positive work of developing educational ideas and 
 spreading them throughout a system of schools. Suppose 
 a supervisor has worked out wholly or partially an educa- 
 tional scheme which promises well, what is the best way to 
 Distribu- S^^ ^t ^*° operation? There are the various 
 tion of ways of which I have spoken. Visitation of the 
 Good Ideas, class-rooms and meetings should be employed; 
 but it is very easy, as all superintendents know, for teachers 
 to misunderstand instruction given while there are classes 
 present and also that given in an address before a body of 
 teachers. Some teachers can never be made to see the force 
 or method of a new scheme except by first-hand contact 
 and observation. Others will grasp a new idea much more 
 quickly. 
 
 It is well for the supervisor with an idea to pick out a 
 
The Private Conference 129 
 
 few teachers who quickly grasp ideas, sit down with them 
 and carefully explain what he wants done, give the reasons 
 for it, let them see the philosophy of his plan and its motive, 
 supply them with the necessary material and tell them to 
 go into their class-rooms and work it out. Usually they 
 will feel comphmented by the confidence and wiU take 
 great interest in the development of the plan. This is one 
 use of the private conference. The work goes into the class- 
 room, and is made practical, and any defects in the original 
 scheme are discovered. In later conferences these are 
 talked over and remedies are suggested which in turn are 
 taken back to the schoolroom. When the plan has not 
 only been developed, but has been thus worked out, it is 
 ready to be used as an object lesson to other teachers. 
 Not infrequently the suggestion comes from the teacher to 
 the supervisor directly, or has been derived from work 
 observed in his room. In such cases the teacher becomes 
 the adviser, and the supervisor, first the pupil, then the 
 helper. 
 
 There is a sort of freemasonry among teachers, and others 
 very quickly hear of these experiments and become desirous 
 to see them and imitate them and, without any especial 
 effort, the particularly good work of the strong teachers, 
 resulting from the private conference, becomes the standard 
 for many other teachers. A single good teacher in a large 
 school working out some interesting plan has been known 
 to modify the work of the entire school, and so again society 
 profits by the individual as well as strengthening the indi- 
 vidual, and this is social freedom. This work, which has 
 resulted from the private conference, can also be extended 
 by direct efforts. Teachers may be sent to visit it, model 
 classes may be brought before meetings of teachers showing 
 
130 The School and Its Life 
 
 both how the work is done and its results. This feature 
 has been treated under the head of teachers' meetings. 
 
 So the supervising ofiEicer becomes a kind of distributor 
 of blessings, receiving what teachers can give and giving what 
 is received to those who need it; and he must not, if he would 
 be worthy of his office, let any amount of detail work, any 
 consideration for the mechanical part of the administration, 
 stand in the way of his personal co-operative work with the 
 individual teachers. For let us remember that school is a 
 society in which all share the good or ill; that this is as true 
 of the teachers as it is of the children. 
 
 Recall what was said in a previous chapter, that individual 
 freedom is often impaired by the excessive demands of the 
 social whole and the obUterating of the individual, but that 
 true freedom is to be secured, not by a return to isolation, 
 which is in reahty extreme bondage, but rather by a proper 
 use of society. The individual teacher should be strength- 
 ened, not weakened, by belonging to a system. The strength 
 and the wisdom of the whole are greater than that of the 
 individual, but only when each individual is encouraged to 
 exercise his own strength and also to share with others. 
 So that for teachers as for children a school system should 
 be a co-operative society, having for its motto " each for all 
 and all for each," and the administrative forces fulfil their 
 function when they so distribute the common good that each 
 individual has all of his own and aU that he can receive from 
 the others. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 Judging Results of Teaching 
 
 One of the perennial problems of school administration 
 is that of judging and rating teachers. 
 
 Recorded and defensible judgment of teachers is necessary 
 at times to determine whether they shall be retained in ser- 
 vice. This is the lowest use of rating, and, on the whole, 
 the most easily made. Some definite system of recorded 
 judgment also is needed when teachers are to be selected 
 from a corps for promotion to higher places, as principalships. 
 In some school systems, too, advances in salary are deter- 
 mined by an official rating. For these purposes an accurate, 
 definite, and reliable standard is needed. 
 
 No universally satisfactory system of rating has yet been 
 approximated, and so far as I know, no method has been 
 adopted which is satisfactory even locally. Yet great 
 varieties of tests have been made, ranging all the way from 
 the unrecorded and unchecked individual judgment of a 
 supervising officer to the most elaborate plan of marking 
 by points; and while some of these work fairly well, all are 
 criticised. This may be due partly to the fact that those who 
 are unfavorably affected by such judgments are not to be 
 expected to be satisfied. 
 
 What constitutes excellence in a teacher? Is there any 
 one characteristic, or any one class of characteristics, which 
 can be put down definitely as superior to all others and most 
 
 131 
 
132 The School and Its Life 
 
 to be desired in a teacher ? Theoretically, yes ; otherwise what 
 does the science of teaching mean ? How can there be a 
 science of education unless there are certain classifiable facts 
 relating to its principles ? And if the points of good teaching 
 can be definitely classified, it is not diflEicult to see that the 
 teachers who manifest these are the good teachers, and, yet, so 
 general are our principles, and so varied the characteristics 
 of various successful teachers, that the difiiculties of proper 
 classification and rating are not to be wondered at. 
 
 Teaching, as has often been said in this book, is a spiritual 
 process, and its results are not immediately manifest. If a 
 Teaching man is placed in charge of a gang of workmen, 
 Difficult there are always available standards of com- 
 to Judge, parison so that the employer can quickly deter- 
 mine whether the man is an efi&cient foreman or not. A 
 salesman in a shop with other salesmen very soon makes it 
 evident to the proprietor how he compares with his fellows, 
 but the teacher's work is of so recondite a character, and 
 apparent results are so often fallacious, that it is doubtful 
 if we shall ever arrive at a strictly satisfactory standard. 
 And yet, it does seem that we might have something fuller, 
 more reasonable, and more satisfactory to those marked 
 than anything yet attempted. But when all is said and done, 
 it is so largely a matter of judgment, almost of instinct, that 
 probably the sufferers by any system of rating can never be 
 satisfied. 
 
 If a salesman, to refer to him again, week after week 
 sells only one half as much as a fellow salesman at another 
 counter, he must, if at all fair-minded, be compelled to admit 
 that he is not so good a salesman ; but the inferior teacher is 
 practically never ready to make this admission. He sees 
 excellences in his own work which he is sure his superior 
 
Judging Results of Teaching 133 
 
 officer does not take into consideration in marking him. 
 There may be some defects which are noted, but he is quite 
 confident that they are overbalanced by unnoted merits. 
 
 With regard to the three classes of cases in which the 
 rating of teachers is utilized, as has been already pointed 
 out, the case of the teacher who is so poor as to « p 
 merit discharge, or to be in danger of discharge, Teacher 
 is the most easily judged. In an ordinary system Easily 
 the faults that are serious enough to reach this ^«*^<=t^<*- 
 extremity are usually flagrant, — manifest upon the surface: 
 the order is bad, the teacher's disposition is offensive, the 
 teacher is ignorant, the class does not attain even a rea- 
 sonable degree of proficiency. Scarcely ever are less mani- 
 fest errors than these treated as sufficiently bad to justify 
 discharge, and these can easily be discovered without a sys- 
 tem of marking. 
 
 Inasmuch as it is quite necessary to have some principle 
 of rating to serve as a basis for promotion to higher positions, 
 it is to be taken for granted that such a rating is j)iffi.„u 
 possible. It is undoubtedly more difficult to of Judg- 
 reach a just determination for promotion than ingfor 
 when the only question is whether the teacher is '^°°^° ^°^' 
 to be retained in the system, — many more elements enter 
 in, including those characteristics not manifested by the 
 teacher in the class-room but which are required in the higher 
 field. For example, for a principalship, executive abihty 
 is a -special characteristic, the possession of which it is diffi- 
 cult to determine in the case of teachers who have not had 
 opportunity to display it. Still, the problem is a fair and just 
 one, and we will discuss the principles involved a little later. 
 
 As to the third use of a rating system, — the determination 
 of salaries, — it must be confessed that at present there is no 
 
134 The School and Its Life 
 
 status sufficiently reliable to justify it. Theoretically, the 
 best teachers should get the best salaries. Practically, in 
 large school systems there is so much danger of injustice 
 because of the uncertainty of standards that the attempt 
 cannot safely and successfully be made at present. If re- 
 liance is placed upon marking systems, there are differences 
 among markers, and, further, all the evils incident to mark- 
 ing systems are introduced. If judgment of superior ofl&cers 
 is the basis, poor human nature is the sure preventive of 
 exact justice. Moreover, no supervising officer could long 
 survive the antagonisms created and the charges of par- 
 tiaUty made. So no attempt will here be made to con- 
 sider the use of any system for the purpose of determining 
 salaries, except in so far as they may be determined by the 
 grade of Kcense held or the position occupied. 
 
 It may be said here that one of the chief advantages of a 
 definite system of grading teachers is the protection which 
 it affords the supervising officer who must make decisions. 
 His protection, however, does not require an elaborate, heart- 
 breaking system, but a general record is sufficient, made as 
 the result of observations from time to time, stated in broad 
 terms, supported by the various sorts of written evidence 
 that the principal or supervisor can always collect. 
 
 There are two general bases for the grading of teachers 
 
 for all purposes, both of which are valid and should be treated 
 
 _ ,.^ as elements of all decisions. One is the teacher's 
 
 Personality 
 
 and " Re- personality and general influence over the pupils 
 suits" in stimulating endeavor, arousing interest, and 
 Bases for affecting character. The other is what we com- 
 monly call results, meaning the more definite 
 evidences of good teaching, such as the possession of knowl- 
 edge by the pupil after a period of instruction. For the just 
 
Judging Results of Teaching 135 
 
 balancing of these two elements in an official judgment, no 
 general rule can be laid down. It will vary with the cases, for 
 after all we can never get away from the human element. 
 
 It must be admitted that some teachers who would be 
 rated as poor, according to any accepted technical or exact 
 standard, have many admirable qualities which jheir 
 make them desirable companions for the young. Relative 
 and considering education in the broad sense, these Value, 
 elements are of great importance. There are also many 
 teachers who, according to any plan of rating that could be 
 employed in a large school system, would rank high, with 
 whom we would not care to associate ourselves daily, and 
 consequently with whom we would not care to have our 
 children associated. These fine distinctions cannot be put 
 down in any book under any heading, but they will inevi- 
 tably influence the judgment of the wise and observant 
 supervisor if the exercise of judgment is allowed, — that is, 
 if a determination with regard to the standing of the teacher 
 is not made to depend wholly upon technical and exact 
 ratings, — and they should enter in. Sometimes one is 
 disposed to think that they are even more important than 
 what is known technically as good teaching. I recall once 
 taking a distinguished visitor — a college president who was 
 a member of the board of education — to visit a certain 
 school, and leading him into the kindergarten. The kinder- 
 gartner was a young woman of fine presence, culture, beauty 
 and dignity of character, but failing noticeably in those 
 characteristics which one could mark, and yet it was a 
 happy and wholesome kindergarten. When I spoke of some 
 of the defects of the kindergartner to the learned doctor, he 
 remarked, "Well, the children are in good society anyway." 
 It set me thinking. I am not sure but that those children 
 
136 The School and Its Life 
 
 were more benefited by the good society they were in than 
 they would have been under a strictly orthodox and proper 
 kindergartner who might have carried out established prin- 
 ciples with entire exactness. 
 
 The argument from all this is that in all estimates made 
 of teachers, personality should be included, and by this 
 is meant that vague, indefinite, spiritual quahty which can- 
 not be put down in words, much less indicated in figures or 
 other symbols, such as are used commonly in the formal 
 rating of teachers; and this means that somebody's judg- 
 ment must be exercised. 
 
 There are certain features of what is known as civil ser- 
 vice reform, which, carried to the extreme, are disastrous 
 Dangers ^'^ ^'^y system, and particularly so in the spiritual 
 in Rigid work of the teacher; and if human nature cannot 
 Tests. |3g trusted to judge of personality and to give that 
 
 judgment oSicial valuation, then there is no such thing as 
 estimating good teaching. In trying to get away from pull 
 and favoritism we are in danger of going so far as to do 
 away with human interest and to reduce our school systems 
 to the condition of machines, which is always one of the 
 perils of large systems. 
 
 RESULTS 
 
 The second and more commonly recognized basis for 
 rating is what are ordinarily called results. Now, 
 more than ^'^^^ ^""^ results? No term could be more mis- 
 Fitting leading. As usually interpreted, the least impor- 
 Pupils to tant product of the teacher's art is the only thing 
 ^^.^ ^' included in this term, and the commonplace, 
 iron-clad teacher can get the kind of results which 
 extreme officialism wants. The most simple, direct, and 
 
Judging Results of Teaching 137 
 
 easily ascertained results are those which by some have 
 been exalted into an educational deity, viz. : the ability to 
 answer questions of fact, in other words, examinations. 
 Many teachers Uke to teach for such a standard because 
 it is easy. Their work is cut out for them; they are not 
 compelled to think, except in so far as mental acumen may 
 be employed in inferring what the next examination is going 
 to be from what the preceding have been, and then drilling 
 the children on the supposititious questions to be asked. 
 Of course, this is not teaching, but it is what results from 
 this method of rating either pupils or teachers. If the 
 teacher knows that he is to be rated for any purpose accord- 
 ing to the number of children who "pass," he naturally 
 will bend every effort to have a large number of children 
 pass, and if the promotion is based upon a set examination, 
 furnished from headquarters, the shrewd teacher very quickly 
 learns what sort of an examination is coming and drills his 
 children accordingly. 
 
 Under such a system it very commonly happens that the 
 poorest schools, judged according to a broad standard of 
 education, regularly get the largest number of "certificates," 
 and the poor teachers, judged by spiritual results, are 
 many of them able to drill the few inconsequential facts re- 
 quired for the examination into their children so that they 
 can " pass," while the good teachers, whose influence upon the 
 lives of the children is broadening, sweetening, and stimu- 
 lating, fail to prepare th^ children to meet the required 
 standard because their time has been spent upon better 
 things. Their children know much more than those who 
 can pass the examination, but it is not the same knowledge, 
 and it is not so easily categoried for question and answer; 
 consequently it is of no use. Interest under such a system 
 
138 The School and Its Life 
 
 is disastrous, because interest leads minds afield and asks 
 many questions. 
 
 So it is evident that for a proper basis we must broaden the 
 term "results." Aside from the ability to answer questions, 
 what should be the result of a good teacher's teaching ? 
 
 First, interest in the work itself and in its larger phases. 
 
 If the subject is history, a result of the study should be not 
 
 so much the ability to remember facts and their 
 Interest. , , , . , r . i . 1 1 
 
 dates, as the kmd of mterest wnich prompts the 
 
 student to read much more than is required for the examina- 
 tion, and to continue to be a student of history after the work 
 of the school is ended. 
 
 Second, the kind of knowledge that makes the pursuit 
 of further knowledge possible, which is quite different from 
 Apperceiv- the ability to answer the ordinary examination 
 ing Centers, questions. It means the possession of salient 
 and suggestive points, — those points which furnish apper- 
 ceiving centers for new knowledge, and which are perhaps 
 most noticeably manifested in an inquiring mind and an 
 intelhgent curiosity. 
 
 A third result is the abiUty to pursue a study, not merely 
 when prompted by a secondary end, such as a prize or a 
 AppUca- mark, but for the sake of the study itself, and to 
 tion. pursue it beyond the mere requirements of the 
 
 school with intensity, continuity, and success. The old- 
 fashioned application, in other words, and the power of 
 abstraction from surrounding influences and from secondary 
 impulses, must be added to the kind of interest of which I 
 have spoken. The child acquires the power of intense appli- 
 cation from being intensely interested, and the habit of such 
 application comes from repeated absorption in a valuable 
 occupation. These are typical results. It is not by any 
 
Judging Results of Teaching 139 
 
 means an exhaustive list, but is named simply to illustrate 
 that product of teaching which is higher than the ordinarily 
 valued "result." 
 
 Now the question arises, can these results be definitely 
 ascertained so as to form a basis of rating, and if so, how ? 
 It certainly is not easy to formulate any definite plan ot 
 rating the spiritual and higher intellectual results of teach- 
 ing. Here again we must rely upon the judgment of 
 supervising officials, and get away absolutely, but gradually, 
 from the fetich of the civil service reformer that every- 
 thing can be determined by examination. In the end our 
 schools will be better off. Is it possible, however, to make 
 such rating ? 
 
 First, as to interest: There are several indications which 
 may guide the supervisor. Commonly a visit to the class- 
 room is a fairly reliable, though inadequate, guide, indications 
 The shrewd supervisor notes the quality of interest of interest, 
 shown. It is to be remembered that the interest referred to 
 here is a very different thing from that nervousness which 
 is often manifested during the recitation and which passes 
 for interest — the apparent excitement of children over what 
 is being presented to them that is shown in an undue eager- 
 ness to talk, in the raising and waving of hands. Teachers 
 themselves are often deceived by this fictitious and super- 
 ficial interest. It bears about the same relation to vital 
 interest that the excitation of the muscles of a frog's legs by 
 a galvanic battery does to a good jump, and it is often the 
 product of the professional smile and the professional flutter- 
 ing of the teacher, — the substitution of cutaneous excite- 
 ment for activity of the spirit. Children in this state of 
 unwholesome and deceptive activity bob up and down con- 
 tinually like little jacks-in-the-box with the hope of catching 
 
140 The School and Its Life 
 
 the teacher's eye, and often without a solitary thought be- 
 yond that. Real interest by a class is manifested in the 
 recitation, of course, and the keen observer cannot fail to 
 detect it; the bright eye, the earnest look, the serious and 
 thoughtful question, and attentive listening, are indications; 
 the desire to know, more than the desire to shine; the de- 
 sire to tell when there is something really worth telling, rather 
 than the desire to be heard. But the best criterion of the 
 real power of the teacher to stimulate interest is found in that 
 portion of the class not reciting. 
 
 (Of course it is taken for granted that the class is di- 
 vided into sections.) The kind of zeal which controls the 
 children at their seats in the pursuit of further knowledge 
 is a good test of the teacher's power. If the children are 
 studying in such a way as to get the most out of the subject, 
 not simply committing to memory answers to questions so as 
 to be able to recite and get a mark; if they are inquisitive 
 and are consulting books of reference — are really pursu- 
 ing their subjects — it speaks well for the teacher. And 
 especially if the subject-matter of the class-room becomes 
 the topic of conversation after school and at intermissions, 
 not flippant or slighting, but in earnest inquiry, it speaks 
 well for the teacher. And if the pupils, after promotion, 
 carry into the class above interest in one or more subjects 
 and a superior knowledge of these subjects, with a desire 
 to pursue them further, this, perhaps, best of all, shows that 
 the teacher has been successful in stimulating the right kind 
 of interest. 
 
 If, on the other hand, there is a lack of devotion to the 
 ends of the school, if the children are idle and Ustless and 
 frittering away their time, it is a bad sign. If they are 
 struggling eagerly and fiercely for marks, and holding the 
 
Judging Results of Teaching 141 
 
 teacher to the categorical question and answer, which makes 
 it possible for them to be marked, this is almost as bad a 
 sign as listlessness or inattention. The children who openly 
 manifest their lack of interest in what is going on are pretty 
 sure to find something that does interest them. The chil- 
 dren who are studying for marks are interested, but in that 
 which is a source of evil rather than of good. 
 
 Even with the youngest children there may be developed 
 an interest in hfe itself, in the vital problems which must 
 be met even by them, and if there is a tendency among the 
 children to apply the teaching of the school to the problems 
 out of school — to solve serious questions by means of 
 the help which the school has furnished — that is perhaps 
 the very highest proof of all that the right kind of teach- 
 ing is done, and the right sort of interest created. 
 
 The second result named is the kind of knowledge that 
 is fruitful or that may be used for apperceiving centers. 
 If the pupils, after a recitation, possess a few considera- 
 facts which they regard as final, so that they tions of 
 think they have a thorough knowledge of the Thorough- 
 subject, the teaching has been bad. There is a 
 very popular fetich known as "thoroughness" which means 
 the picking out of a few facts, so unimportant and so Umited 
 that they can be known with approximate thoroughness 
 by the inferior mind, and teaching these to the exclusion 
 of the broader knowledge which reaches out into the world 
 continually for more knowledge. If the pupils go to their 
 seats satisfied with having answered all the questions, with 
 no unanswered questions, with no desire to go on and tie 
 new knowledge to the old, the teaching has been poor. If 
 they go to their seats, not . thinking much about -what 
 kind of a recitation has been made, but full of the subject 
 
142 The School and Its Life 
 
 and eager to know more of it, and disposed to attach all 
 new things that come into the mind to the old as coordinate 
 parts, then the teaching has been good. Good teaching 
 relates all the parts and makes it possible for the children 
 to see new relations between the new and the old. Any 
 teaching which produces a sense of finaUty and complete- 
 ness, or so-called "thoroughness," is hopelessly bad. Much 
 better the teaching which closes up nothing but sets the 
 tentacles of the mind all agog for new possessions, than that 
 which closes up everything, the tentacles themselves in- 
 cluded. 
 
 This sort of knowledge does not necessarily exclude cer- 
 tainty on minor points. It is possible to know the few 
 inconsequential things just as well with good teaching as 
 with poor, but with this difference : the result does not stop 
 with the small attainment but goes on into a wider world 
 and the mind continually enriches itself by the new things 
 that it attaches to itself through their natural affinity for 
 the old. It is only such knowledge that is really worth while, 
 — the knowledge that is never final but is always second- 
 ary; that continually enlarges desire for more knowledge; 
 that places the student in the attitude of Newton upon 
 the seashore. All good teaching gives this, and the degree 
 to which this sort of knowledge is imparted is one of 
 the perfectly fair criteria by which the teacher may be 
 judged. 
 
 The third result of good teaching, that cannot be included 
 in a category, is the abihty to pursue study for its own end 
 Pursuit of ^^^ beyond the limits of school requirements. 
 Subject with intensity, continuity, and success. This has 
 for Itself, ijggj^ treated under other headings. It means 
 the elimination of secondary ends, such as prizes, marks, and 
 
Judging Results of Teaching 143 
 
 punishments, from among the stimulants to study. It means 
 also the reaching out for new knowledge, of which mention 
 has already been made. It means, further, however, the 
 power of concentration upon a subject, making Concen- 
 pursuit for the time being an end in itself, and tration. 
 shutting out all extraneous and disturbing matters. This 
 power of hard study by the pupil alone and unaided, for the 
 sake of the desired primary end, is one of the highest re- 
 sults of good teaching. It can almost never, if ever, be se- 
 cured in a school where there is mass teaching, — that is, 
 where the classes all recite together and all study together 
 with the teacher ever at hand. But the child who can sit 
 down in a schoolroom while a class is reciting an interesting 
 lesson to the teacher, and be deaf and blind to all this and 
 become so absorbed in his study that he pursues it earnestly 
 without regard to anything else, has acquired a power which, 
 under ordinary circumstances, presages success in life, and 
 it can be the result, at least to a degree, of good teaching. 
 Of course there are great differences in minds, and some 
 minds never can concentrate closely, but all can improve 
 under the regime of the school if the teacher is of the tight 
 sort, if the interests are in the right direction, and if the ends 
 pursued are such as appeal to the children as worth while. 
 And this is another high mark of good teaching. 
 
 These three results, while they are more tangible than 
 the higher spiritual results of which I spoke at first, still are 
 to a degree intangible and cannot be exactly re- Best 
 corded. It is not easy to mark teachers on the Results 
 basis of these resuhs by definite symbols, but Intangible, 
 the observant supervisor knows whether any or all of them 
 are obtained by the teachers and, within reasonable limits, 
 to what degree, — that is, he can say with a fair degree of 
 
144 The School and Its Life 
 
 confidence whether, so far as schoolroom achievement is con- 
 cerned, Miss Smith or Miss Jones ought to be appointed 
 to a principalship, both having the proper license. As to 
 estimating the ability of teachers to do work which they 
 have not yet done, as for example, to exercise the func- 
 tions of principal, that again is a matter of judgment and 
 of inference to be drawn from all the various points which 
 have been discussed, and many which have not been 
 mentioned. 
 
 So that in conclusion we come back again to the asser- 
 tion that no code of rules, civil service or other, can, with 
 any exactness or precision, or by any formal 
 
 1 6&Cu6rS 
 
 Cannot be system of markmg whatever, determine those 
 Judged by finer points of excellence in teaching which really 
 a Marking jjj^j^g Q^e teacher more desirable than another. 
 These can be determined only by observation in 
 contact with teachers by critics possessed of sound sense 
 and fairness, and it is necessary that school systems rely 
 'upon the possession of these quaUties by the supervising 
 force, otherwise the whole system becomes mechanical and 
 lifeless. Records of observations should be kept by those 
 observing, as carefully as possible, but no attempt should 
 be made at exact mathematical rating. There is no meas- 
 ure for the spirit nor for spiritual work. The principles of 
 promotion by examination alone as applied to teachers are 
 fraught with error and with evil of all kinds. They have 
 in some places been introduced as a substitute for the po- 
 litical patronage which sometimes creeps into schools, and 
 they have done some good in this respect, but they can 
 never be the final criteria as to the power of the teachers. 
 They can never serve as a proper sole basis for the promo- 
 tion of teachers. While their introduction as such a basis 
 
Judging Results of Teaching 145 
 
 may, in some cases, remove political influence, it brings with 
 it greater evils, because even under a bad poUtical system 
 personal judgment has weight and excellence does to a de- 
 gree tell. Under a mechanical system excellence of the 
 highest sort does not tell; it rather stands in the way, and 
 the mechanical virtues which can be rated are inevitably 
 placed above the spiritual virtues which are beyond compu- 
 tation. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 The School Superintendent 
 
 Thus far the school superintendent has been taken for 
 granted. His various functions and necessary qualifications 
 have been referred to from time to time and opinions have 
 been expressed regarding some of them. It now seems time 
 to treat of the school superintendent fully and connectedly. 
 
 It is to be remembered in all discussions regarding this 
 official and his work that he is a recent comer into the field 
 The Super- of education; that pubhc sentiment regarding 
 intendent a him is yet in a state of flux and that his office is 
 Newcomer, g^jy jj^ ^^^ process of evolution. There is stiU 
 very much of experimentation, with the widest variety of 
 duties, and there are wide differences of opinion and prac- 
 tice regarding him and his place, all of which indicate his 
 newness and his evolutionary state. 
 
 The position of the principal is a comparatively settled 
 one, as is also the position of the school board. Whatever of 
 uncertainty and change is found in relation to their functions 
 grows out of a reciprocal change in regard to the superin- 
 tendent. Gradually, as he evolves, he is modifying the 
 power, the position, and the work of the older functionaries. 
 
 The school superintendent is, in the first instance, the 
 Product of product of a civilization which is rapidly becom- 
 Condensed ing condensed, congested, and urbanized. He 
 Civiliza- jg simply a type of the condensation and unifi- 
 cation and differentiation of function that are 
 going on in the whole business world. 
 
 146 
 
The School Superintendent 147 
 
 As, strictly speaking, we have no national system of edu- 
 cation and no head with authority, and, even in our States, 
 
 for. the most part, heads with very limited au- ^_ ^., 
 T_ . , . Offices Dif- 
 
 thonty, the position of the superintendent of fer Widely 
 
 schools in any community is a local affair and in Differ- 
 due to local conditions, except as these are modi- ^°^ S°™" 
 fied by the diffusion of knowledge and by the 
 influence of the general movement which is sweeping not 
 only the land but the civiUzed world. These general influ- 
 ences, however, are not yet of sufficient potency to produce 
 very close resemblances in the functions of superintendents 
 of schools in cities or rural communities having widely 
 diverse origins and ideals. 
 
 The superintendent of schools of Boston is a very differ- 
 ent official from the one bearing the same name in New 
 York. The former has little more than clerical duties to 
 perform, except a few which are on paper and given him 
 by the board of education. They are not statutory duties. 
 The latter, on the other hand, is a statutory official possessed 
 of very great power. He is in no sense the clerk of the board 
 of education, and only in a very few senses its servant. The 
 superintendent of schools in several cities in Ohio, until the 
 recent upheaval, has been in many respects an autocrat, 
 with functions quite different from those of the board of 
 education, and in few senses subordinate to them. 
 
 These are instances of wide divergence, due to different 
 historical development, and indicate how difficult it is to 
 generalize regarding the ideal characteristics of a school 
 superintendent. It takes a man of one type to be a success- 
 ful subservient clerk and confidential adviser of the board 
 of education, which arrogates to itself, or has inherited, 
 all legislative and executive functions relating to the admin- 
 
148 The School and Its Life 
 
 istration of the schools; it takes a man of a very different 
 type to exercise the authority imposed by law of appointing 
 teachers, determining courses of study, and, in general, direct- 
 ing the school system. In some instances the superintend- 
 ents who have been quite successful in the former capacity 
 have not succeeded very well when by a change in method of 
 administration new powers have been conferred upon them. 
 
 Nor is it desirable to have uniform laws throughout the 
 country, giving superintendents of schools the same powers 
 Uniformity a^^d duties in all places. Local conditions are of 
 Undesir- great importance and no ex cathedra law, that is 
 ^^^^' out of harmony with them, can succeed. To 
 
 attempt to put in force in Boston, for instance, a law such 
 as that which has prevailed in Cleveland would doubtless 
 result in endless bickering and wrangUng, if not in complete 
 failure. Boston people are accustomed to rely upon the 
 school committee to run their schools, and would rather 
 have them do it badly than to have an autocratic superin- 
 tendent do it well. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this there are certain general character- 
 istics that belong almost of necessity to the successful school 
 Certain superintendent in any locahty, and there is a 
 Recognized sufficient agreement upon certain fundamentals to 
 Functions, jn^j^e jt possible to speak of school superintendents 
 generically. Many of the extreme views held in certain 
 places, by certain radical reformers, have been materially 
 modified and are likely to be more so, and, on the other 
 hand, the very conservative views held by some of the older 
 communities will also be modified by the passage of time 
 and by contact with a moving world. But the time will 
 never come, we should confidently hope, when a school 
 superintendent's duties and powers will not vary with the 
 
The School Superintendent 149 
 
 community, and the best superintendent will be the one 
 who fits local conditions and, if he moves from place to 
 place, is able to adapt himself to the circumstances grow- 
 ing out of new environment. 
 
 With this introduction let us consider as well as we 
 may the school superintendent. As has been said, he is the 
 result of very recent development. At first he was not sup- 
 posed to have technical skill. His office was largely clerical. 
 As coromunities grew and schools increased in number it 
 became necessary to have some connecting link which, for 
 clerical and official purposes, should preserve a sort of unity. 
 The schoolmasters were the educational experts who were 
 supposed to run the schools. The school board was the 
 general directing agency, and the additional official came 
 into office simply to represent the board. 
 
 VARIOUS FORMS AND STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT 
 
 In some parts of the country the ofl&ce has not yet ad- 
 vanced beyond this rudimentary stage. In some cities there 
 are still superintendents who are minor function- Examples 
 aries; in some cases appointed by the board of of Van- 
 education, and in some cases elected by the people, **'°°- 
 with no educational function whatever. Twenty years ago, 
 and even much more recently, there were, many such. I re- 
 call an experience years ago in a city where the superin- 
 tendent of schools was a small local poUtician, elected to the 
 office by the people, and paid, if my memory serves me 
 rightly, the munificent sum of two hundred dollars a year. 
 He was supposed to keep the records and distribute report 
 blanks. This particular incumbent magnified his office and 
 occasionally held teachers' meetings at which the report 
 blanks were discussed. The principals were literally the 
 
150 The School and Its Life 
 
 heads of their schools. The high school principal was the 
 chief educational official and performed some of the duties 
 that the school superintendent now performs. If I am not 
 mistaken, this rule still prevails in that city. 
 
 In other cities, as in Philadelphia, the school superintend- 
 ent has been evolved into the educational adviser, prac- 
 tically without executive functions. In still others he is the 
 executive officer of the board with considerable power, which 
 varies according to his executive abiUty, his capacity to hold 
 authority, and the willingness of the board of education to 
 part with some of its legal powers. Even in such an uncer- 
 tain state a strong superintendent will pretty nearly dominate 
 the school system of which he is the head; will select teachers 
 for appointment; will prepare and direct courses of study; 
 and will be reckoned upon by the board of education as a 
 factor in anything that they may do, and this even with a 
 board of strong poUtical tendencies. In the same system 
 a weak superintendent will have no authority in regard to 
 anything. That is, it is a matter of personal force and not 
 of statutory powers and functions. 
 
 In other cities, as has been said, the evolution has gone 
 so far that possibly a reversion of type will be necessary. 
 That is, the superintendent has acquired pretty nearly auto- 
 cratic powers. He is not merely the executive adviser of the 
 board, but is vested with certain legislative functions. This 
 was rather too much the case in the late Ohio law, and the 
 new laws are distinctly reactionary though possibly not too 
 much so. 
 
 VIEWED GENEEICALLY 
 
 But out of all this uncertainty and lack of uniformity, 
 a few truths are beginning to emerge clearly and definitely. 
 
The School Superintendent 151 
 
 The school superintendent is becoming an expert. He is 
 coming to be recognized the country over as a man who 
 has made a thorough study of certain educational sunerm- 
 problems and is more familiar with them than tendent 
 other people are. When a vacancy occurs in the Becoming 
 superintendency of a city, it is becoming yearly *° ^^^' ' 
 more and more common to go outside to find a man who 
 has had training as a superintendent in some other city. 
 Occasionally the cry is still raised that home talent is good 
 enough, and untrained men are put into the ofl&ce and receive 
 their training there, but this is disappearing. Our better 
 and higher professional schools are offering courses of train- 
 ing designed especially for those who intend to undertake the 
 work of supervision, and the normal step is coming to be 
 from the position of school principal to that of school super- 
 visor or superintendent in a small town, where the functions 
 are httle different from those of the principal of a single 
 school, and from that to the superintendency of a larger 
 town, until the very large ones are reached. 
 
 Sometimes the door of approach is from a county super- 
 intendency, but the important point is that the superintend- 
 ent is more and more recognized as an expert. This is 
 not less so in those places in which he is merely the ofi&cial 
 adviser of the board, than in those in which he is the real 
 executive head of the school system. 
 
 There are two general classes of work in which the super- 
 intendent is supposed to excel and in which his power is 
 growing. They are the selection of teachers and j^^ 
 the direction of teaching. There are very few Recognized 
 cities having a school superintendent in which he Functions, 
 has not at least some voice in both of these matters. Some- 
 times the voice is very small and ineffective, but he is 
 
1^2 The School and Its Life 
 
 expected to have something to say about the selection of 
 teachers and something to say about the character of the 
 work done in schools. He is no longer, except in a very 
 few instances, merely a clerical assistant. 
 
 As to the former of these duties — the selection of teachers 
 — his powers vary from the vaguest, most indefinite advice 
 to the board and the endorsement of the board's action, 
 through the grades of licensing and nominating to that of 
 actual undisputed appointment, and opinions differ widely 
 as to where in this scale he should properly stand. 
 
 In regard to the direction of work, there is also a scale, 
 but there is less uncertainty than with regard to the appoint- 
 ment of teachers. There are very few systems in which the 
 superintendent does not prepare the course of study, at least 
 for the approval of the board of education, and, when the 
 course has been adopted, does not supervise its adminis- 
 tration. Sometimes, it is true, this supervision has very 
 little effect because the superintendent is unable to take 
 remedial measures if the teachers do not obey his instruc- 
 tions ; but even this is rapidly passing. 
 
 We must consider what power it is really best to have 
 bestowed upon superintendents of schools under average 
 conditions, with regard to these two general functions. 
 
 ONE-MAN POWER 
 
 First, as to the appointment and disciplining of teachers: 
 Is the one-man power about which we hear so much in these 
 days advisable ? If not, how much power should the super- 
 intendent have? The idea of making the superintendent 
 practically absolute over the body of teachers had at one 
 time very many advocates, especially among superintend- 
 ents themselves and radical reformers. The criticisms 
 
The School Superintendent 153 
 
 upon such laws as those prevailing at that time in Cleveland 
 and other Ohio cities was not that the superintendent was 
 too absolute, but that he was not sufficiently protected in his 
 own office. That is, while he was practically absolute with 
 regard to the appointment of teachers, it was felt that his 
 own position might be endangered through the enmity 
 aroused, and undoubtedly that feature of the laws was 
 inconsistent with the general scheme. 
 
 It is quite evident to students of public opinion that the 
 idea of the one-man power is passing, and I am convinced 
 that in the future in the average city, while the superintend- 
 ent will be an important official with much power, he will 
 be subject to certain checks from the representatives of the 
 people, which will safeguard both him and the schools. 
 
 The advocates of the granting of absolute power to the 
 superintendent point to great business concerns with their 
 authoritative executive officers who can appoint 
 or dismiss employees at pleasure. They forget g^jjooig 
 that while the public school system is a great and Busi- 
 business, it is more — it is a public institution, less 
 part of the governmental machinery, not the /g**^"^*" 
 agent of a few people working for their own ad- 
 vantage, but the representative of ■ all the people. They 
 forget further that the results of the school administration 
 are not so tangible as those of a business organization, as 
 a railroad or factory; that they cannot be adjudged by the 
 examination of a set of books, but that they are metaphysi- 
 cal, remote, and difficult to prove; that often the best judges 
 are the heads of famihes to which the children belong, 
 who are consequently in daily touch with the children. 
 Schools must give pupils the kind of training that the 
 average citizen wants for his children, and not that which 
 
154 The School and Its Life 
 
 an administrative officer, however expert, may think best 
 for them. In the long run, better schools and a wiser edu- 
 cational system will grow out of the demands of the people 
 than can be secured by the ablest educational expert 
 working alone. An emperor is not a good type for a school 
 superintendent. It is not good for any man to have abso- 
 lute power, nor is it good for any institution, small or large, 
 to be under the absolute domination of a single will. Par- 
 ticularly is this true of an institution hke a school system, 
 which depends for its excellence upon the intelligent co- 
 operation and sympathetic work of a large number of people. 
 The teachers in a school system cannot be treated as 
 "hands," without imperiling the work of the schools. The 
 work of the teachers is spiritual work,, and no teacher teach- 
 ing under the absolute domination of another's will can do 
 his best work. Nor is it good for the superintendent himself 
 to be absolute. For the average superintendent it is not 
 safe. He is likely to wreck himself in a very short time. 
 
 OFFICIAL RELATIONSHIPS 
 
 The relation of the superintendent of schools to the appoint- 
 ment of the teaching force should be somewhat Hke that of 
 
 the President of the United States to the appoint- 
 tendent' ^^^^t of postmasters. It should not be possible 
 should for a board of education to appoint a teacher with- 
 have Nomi- out the approval of the superintendent, nor should 
 p* "^^ the superintendent be able to appoint a teacher 
 
 without the approval of the board of educa- 
 tion. This gives the superintendent all the power he needs, 
 because no one individual is essential to a school system, 
 and commonly if there is strong objection on the part of 
 the board to any individual there is good reason for it, and 
 
The School Superintendent 155 
 
 the superintendent is better off as a superintendent with 
 
 some one else in place of the objectionable teacher. 
 
 Moreover, to a very large extent the success of a system 
 
 depends upon public support. The board of education 
 
 represents the people; an appointment made by _ . 
 
 the superintendent and confirmed by the board, should 
 
 to a degree divides the responsibihty. The super- Share 
 
 intendent is primarily responsible, but the board ^^fP"*!- 
 . , ... ., , 1 1 sibihty. 
 
 of education is also responsible to the people. 
 
 Its individual members cannot shirk such responsibihty. 
 If improper teachers are appointed and confirmed by them, 
 the superintendent, of course, will merit the first blame and 
 will get it ; but the members of the board of education can- 
 not join the issue against the superintendent, — they are 
 likewise responsible. This is a source of great strength to 
 the superintendent. 
 
 As to the discipline of teachers, the superintendent should 
 have the power of suspension, but not of final removal. 
 The board of education should again share the responsi- 
 bihty, and the teacher should be allowed to continue unless 
 the board can be brought to approve of the suspension. A 
 wise superintendent wants all the strength, all the support, 
 that he can get, and, in general, it is safe to say that if he 
 is unable to convince an ordinary board of education of 
 the justice of his action he is probably wrong, though of 
 course not necessarily.- Surely, if he cannot convince the 
 board, over whom, if he is the right kind of man, he will 
 almost certainly have an influence, he cannot convince the 
 public. 
 
 The same general principles apply to the adoption of a 
 course of study. It is absolutely necessary that the people 
 through their representatives approve a course of study 
 
156 The School and Its Life 
 
 if it is to accomplish the best resuUs, and if the superin- 
 tendent is unable to persuade a board of education that his 
 course of study is a good one, it probably is not altogether 
 good. At least he can afford' to be patient and to wait, 
 but his time need not be wasted. It may be employed in 
 educating the public and the board up to his own ad- 
 vanced ideas. 
 
 POWER OF INITIATIVE 
 
 A superintendent who has the power of initiative in all 
 important matters, such as the appointment of teachers 
 Power of ^^^ ^^^ making of the course of study, but whose 
 Initiative actions must be confirmed by the board of edu- 
 AU that is cation, has all the power he needs and all that is 
 
 ^^ ^ ■ good for him. If he is the right man for the 
 place he can practically dominate the situation. If he can- 
 not dominate the situation, cannot secure sufficient influ- 
 ence with the board of education to induce them to follow 
 his leadership, he is not the man for the place. In general, 
 a good and strong superintendent will have his way even 
 under a bad system and a bad board, and the weak 
 superintendent will not have his way even if his power 
 is absolute; he will be dominated by somebody, if not 
 by the school board, by commercial influences, social 
 influences, church influences, or piolitical influences. No 
 system can be devised which will make a strong superin- 
 tendent or a successful one out of a weak one, and the 
 good superintendent ought not to ask for more than the 
 opportunity to initiate movements and advocate them 
 before the board of education. With this, if he cannot 
 succeed in persuading the board that he is right, the proba- 
 biUty is that he is wrong. 
 
The School Superintendent 157 
 
 STATUTORY EXECUTIVE POWERS AND DUTIES 
 
 But when all is said it remains that the superintendent 
 of schools, whether in city or country, should be an official 
 wi,th very considerable statutory powers. The cgj-tain 
 character of his office, the duties that devolve Powers 
 upon him, and the responsibility that he is to should be 
 carry, should be fixed by law and not left to the * " °^^' 
 whim or prejudice of changing boards of education, and, 
 as I have said, they should be very considerable indeed. 
 He should be in reality, as in name, the executive officer 
 of the educational system, carrying out the mandates of 
 the board of education, who act as the people's represent- 
 atives and who are the proper legislative officers, and having 
 certain specific powers with which even the board cannot 
 interfere. 
 
 Among these powers should be, first, that of nominating 
 all subordinates in the school system — supervisors, prin- 
 cipals, and all classes of teachers. This should be abso- 
 lute. It should be impossible for a board to appoint any 
 teacher or any one connected with the school system on 
 the educational side unless such person has been nominated 
 by the superintendent. If the board fail to confirm any 
 nomination of the superintendent, then it should be his 
 duty to make another. 
 
 He should also have power to transfer all teachers for 
 the good of the service provided such transfer does not 
 involve degradation as to position or reduction of salary. 
 If a teacher has been suspended, the approval or disapproval 
 of the suspension should rest with the board of education. 
 
 It should be a statutory duty of the superintendent of 
 schools to prepare a course of study and administer it. 
 
158 The School and Its Life 
 
 Such a course, however, should require the approval of the 
 board of .education before final adoption. Once adopted, 
 it should rest with the superintendent to interpret it and 
 to see that it is carried out by the teachers. This should 
 include authority to call teachers together and to give them 
 definite instruction to that end. 
 
 In the matter of licensing teachers, the superintendent 
 should have a voice, but should not be the sole licensing 
 authority. If there is a special Ucensing board he should 
 be a member of it. 
 
 These are the essential statutory powers of the super- 
 intendent of schools everywhere. What more he should 
 make of his ofiice is a matter for further discussion. The 
 strong superintendent exerts a vast influence, not only upon 
 the schools, but upon the community, far beyond the statu- 
 tory definitions of his functions. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 The School Superintendent (Continued) 
 
 Even in the present rudimentary stage of the school 
 superintendent he is much more than a statutory officer, 
 and if there is no change in the trend of the development, 
 he will come to be in his community a social factor of the 
 first importance. 
 
 The people of a municipality elect a comptroller, and 
 every citizen knows, or can know, just what the comptroller's 
 business is and how well he fulfils his various functions, 
 because they are clear and definite and very little affected 
 by his personality. He may be agreeable, or disagreeable; 
 he may be personally influential, or personally insignificant; 
 but if he is a good bookkeeper and honest, and reasonably 
 intelligent, he may be a good comptroller, and no duties 
 calling for the possession of higher qualifications ordinarily 
 rest upon him. That is true of most pubUc functionaries. 
 The question of personality is merely a question which 
 affects their own relations with other people and their own 
 welfare. It is not an important element, except politically, 
 in the performance of their various public duties. This 
 is not quite so true of the mayor of a city as it is of the 
 comptroller, but even in his case personality is of minor 
 importance. In members of boards, such as common 
 council, board of estimate and apportionment, and school 
 board, it is of comparatively Uttle consequence what the men 
 
 IS9 
 
i6o The School and Its Life 
 
 are personally, if they perform honestly, intelligently, and 
 efficiently the prescribed duties. 
 
 With the school superintendent quite the contrary is true. 
 His statutory duties are in many respects the least impor- 
 tant of those that rest upon him. Many a school superin- 
 tendent is honest and reasonably intelligent and able to 
 perform efficiently the duties required of him by statute, 
 and yet is a complete failure as a school superintendent. 
 
 The good school superintendent of necessity enters into 
 somewhat close personal relations with many people — 
 Varied Re- ^^^^ *^^ board of education; with the body of 
 lations of teachers; with some of the children; and with 
 the Super- large numbers of the parents. And these relations 
 m en en . ^^.^ ^£ ^-^^ utmost importance. The manner in 
 which he estabhshes. and maintains them and the character 
 he gives them will determine almost wholly his success as 
 a school superintendent, at least in the higher sense. A 
 superintendent may be able to write valuable reports for the 
 edification of the pubhc; he may be able to make good 
 recommendations, and force them through the board of edu- 
 cation ; he may be able to formulate a good course of study, 
 and excellent rules for the governing of teachers; but unless 
 he can establish the right personal relations with these dif- 
 ferent people he will be surprised at the slight effect of his 
 various activities. 
 
 This point is emphasized to such an extent, because it 
 is too commonly overlooked. Especially in discussions of 
 school reforms, we are disposed to place relatively un- 
 due emphasis upon the right law and the proper statutory 
 conditions. Not that these latter are unimportant; indeed 
 they are of great consequence, as is shown in the preced- 
 ing chapter. But they are mere conditions. The school 
 
The School Superintendent (Continued) i6i 
 
 superintendent's success depends upon other foundations. 
 His functions are vastly higher than can be indicated by any 
 statutes, and his usefulness is determined by the exercise 
 of powers that cannot be indicated in any law or code of 
 regulations. Possibly it is this fact which has led some 
 very astute observers, for example. Dr. J. M. Rice, the 
 editor of The Forum, to the belief that the right pohtical 
 conditions for the government of schools are of compara- 
 tively little consequence, because some school superintend- 
 ents have succeeded in making good schools under the 
 worst political conditions, and the very best political con- 
 ditions do not necessarily bring good schools. In the large 
 city and in the small alike the excellence of the schools will 
 depend chiefly upon the success of the school superintend- 
 ent in obeying the unwritten law, and in meeting those 
 conditions that are personal and that cannot be set down 
 in any ordinance. 
 
 It is difficult to state which of the classes of relations 
 mentioned is of the greatest importance, so without attempt- 
 ing to decide this question let us consider first the relations, 
 personal and otherwise, of the school superintendent with 
 the school board. 
 
 In most cities the superintendent receives his appoint- 
 ment from the school board. This of itself makes it neces- 
 sary, if he desires to retain his place and secure re-election 
 at the expiration of his term, that he maintain harmonious 
 relations with the board ; but this is the least worthy motive 
 for maintaining such relations. 
 
 Theoretically, the superintendent is the employee, and, 
 in many matters, the executive of the board; and as has been 
 pointed out in a preceding chapter, the power conferred 
 upon him varies greatly. But whatever the degree of 
 
i62 The School and Its Life 
 
 responsibility given the superintendent, the character of his 
 relation to the board is reasonably uniform. 
 
 In a few large cities in which the superintendent has great 
 statutory power he can succeed in accompUshing much by 
 a vigorous exercise of his power, if his relations with the 
 board are inharmonious, or even positively antagonistic; 
 but he cannot accomplishras much as he can if the relations 
 are harmonious, even in those cases in which he has the very 
 greatest statutory authority. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that the results which the super- 
 intendent seeks to produce in his work are spiritual results. 
 Results ^t ^^ °^^ thing to have regulations passed, courses 
 Sought of study adopted and printed, and even formally 
 Spiritual, pyt jj^jQ execution. It is quite another thing to se- 
 cure in the schools the spiritual result which only is education. 
 
 A school board, whether large or small, whether wise or 
 unwise, whether honest or corrupt, is composed of citizens 
 Board Rep- representing with more or less accuracy the whole 
 resents the body. Its members are of necessity people of 
 People. consequence and influence among some classes 
 of the community, otherwise they never could have secured 
 the positions accorded them. If they are personally, as 
 well as ofi&cially, in harmony with the school superintendent 
 and beheve heartily in the various things that he is doing, 
 or trying to do, in the schools, the support which they can 
 give extra-officially is very great, greater than most super- 
 intendents are wilUng to admit. Particularly in those cities 
 in which the statutory powers of the superintendent are 
 limited and the school board is the legal seat of all, or 
 nearly all, authority, the harmonious relations of the super- 
 intendent and board are essential to the carrying out of even 
 the smallest wishes of the superintendent. 
 
The School Superintendent (Continued) 163 
 
 I do not know of an instance of a superintendent getting 
 done in the schools the work that he wants done while his 
 relations with the school board are for a consider- j. . .. 
 able time inharmonious. Of course it happens should be 
 to nearly every superintendent to be occasionally Harmo- 
 and for brief periods at outs with his board, °*°"^- 
 but unless he can ultimately bring them to his way of 
 thinking and make them his supporters, he can accomplish 
 little. 
 
 Now, how is a superintendent to maintain harmonious 
 relations with a board, composed partly of cranks, partly 
 of dishonest men, partly of self-seeking politicians, partly 
 of good, well-intentioned obstinate ones, and partly of really 
 good members? 
 
 The question cannot be answered in a sentence. There 
 
 is no specific for the case, but it is safe to say that it is not 
 
 necessary to sacrifice principle in order to secure „, 
 
 such harmony. It is necessary sometimes to wait, patient. 
 
 A superintendent should be patient, and if a good Must Edu- 
 
 thing that he has in mind cannot be secured at *^**^ ^^^ 
 , , , , , , • , Public, 
 
 once, he should not lose his temper or denounce 
 
 the board of education or the unthinking public. His busi- 
 ness is to educate, not merely the children, but the whole 
 public. Indeed, that is his greatest, highest, and noblest 
 function. If his point of view is reasonably spund, and 
 if he is wise and patient, he can almost always bring at least 
 the board of education to support him. 
 
 The trouble with many superintendents is that, like many 
 other good people who desire to see good things done in the 
 world, they are pugnacious and narrow, and unable to take 
 any other point of view than the one which comes to them 
 most easily. Many a good man loses his chance to do good 
 
164 The School and Its Life 
 
 by standing up and declaring too loudly that he is good and 
 implying that other people are bad. 
 
 The superintendent who desires to exert influence in the 
 community does not need to be a compromiser, but he does 
 need to bear in mind that no one is wholly bad; that most 
 of the people with whom he has to deal are reasonably self- 
 respecting and honest people whose motives are possibly as 
 good as his own, and that even if this is not true, they at 
 least have some good motives and are capable of being ap- 
 pealed to through them. 
 
 If the members of the board are ignorant, as a rule they 
 are highly complimented if they are taken into the confi- 
 dence of the superintendent and are put into a position to 
 support a new, broad, and highly intellectual policy. 
 
 The superintendent who desires to maintain the support 
 of his board for progressive work, must take the time and 
 Must pains to talk personally and privately with its 
 
 Consult members; with the leaders, of course, but with 
 Members others as well. Many a good project fails be- 
 ° °*' ■ cause the superintendent has thrown it at his 
 board in a formal report in terms which often its members 
 do not understand and has startled them into opposition; 
 whereas, if he had quietly sat down with a few of the influ- 
 ential men, and sometimes with those not so influential, and 
 explained his project and made them think that they would 
 be responsible for doing a good thing if they supported it, 
 he could have secured his end. 
 
 The superintendent should treat the members of the board 
 of education as men worthy of respect, at least for the position 
 they hold, and should not make them feel too decidedly 
 his own superiority. Yet a superintendent makes a grave 
 mistake who lowers himself, especially morally, in order 
 
The School Superintendent (Continued) 165 
 
 to be in touch with the influential members of his board. 
 The comparatively ignorant and commonplace Must not 
 citizen, who happens to be a school board mem- Lower 
 ber, Hkes to look up to his superintendent. He himself. 
 Ukes to feel that he is on good terms with him, but, at the 
 same time, it is a matter of pride for him to be able to 
 say, "Our superintendent is a superior man"; and the 
 superintendent who lowers himself in moral or intellectual 
 tone for the sake of keeping in sympathy with such men is 
 likely to lose more than he will gain. That is, the members 
 of a school board want to feel that the superintendent is a 
 superior man, but they do not want to feel that he feels him- 
 self a superior. It is a higher compliment for him to seek to 
 treat them as upon his level than for him to lower himself 
 to their level. This is a maxim which might well be fol- 
 lowed by many men who are not school superintendents but 
 who desire to influence others. 
 
 In case members of the board desire the superintendent 
 to make a nomination or recommendation which he cannot 
 conscientiously make, he does not need to assume jjust be 
 that their motives are wrong, and that they are Firm but 
 dishonest people, trying to lead him into iniquity. Cou'^tso^s. 
 He does not need to rise in his might and square off for 
 battle. It is entirely possible in most cases to decline to 
 make an improper recommendation or nomination without 
 antagonizing the one who asks it. This should be done 
 by appealing to the higher nature of the member of the board 
 and putting the responsibility and the onus upon him. 
 Politicians, as a rule, respect men who have convictions and 
 who are ready to stand for them, and yielding to an improper 
 suggestion does not win friends, even when it is done for 
 that purpose. But in refusing to yield it is not necessary 
 
1 66 The School and Its Life 
 
 to knock down the people who have made the suggestions. 
 So much for the personal relations of the superintendent 
 with his board. 
 
 Officially, he should never lose his grip. He should 
 never let the board feel that he is not to be reckoned with 
 Should be in regard to any proposition affecting the educa- 
 Tactful. tion of the children, and yet he should let the 
 members feel that they are people of consequence, and that 
 they are as deeply interested in the cause of education as he 
 is and are doing something for it. A tactful superintendent 
 will frequently make a suggestion to a member of the board 
 in such a way that he himself will propose the very reform 
 that the superintendent seeks. Superintendents often err in 
 their desire to have it evident that all the reforms and all the 
 good movements spring from them. It is sometimes better 
 to have them apparently spring from the board itself. It 
 is often wise for the superintendent to fall in sweetly with 
 the suggestion of a member of the board and say nothing 
 about the fact that the suggestion was his originally. 
 
 The superintendent should treat with respect every sug- 
 gestion from members of the board, and if he cannot agree 
 with them, he should be at infinite pains to make his reasons 
 plain, and to convince them that the suggestions are not 
 feasible. Sometimes it is best to yield in minor matters, 
 even if the measures proposed are contrary to his judgment, 
 in order to hold control in major matters. 
 
 That superintendent has done well in managing his board 
 to whom the members will come for advice and suggestion 
 before bringing a project forward in meeting. That is the 
 ideal relation — that of friend and counsellor, as well as 
 executive of the board. The members should feel that the 
 board, as an official body, is responsible to the people, and 
 
The School Superintendent (Continued) 167 
 
 the superintendent should do all in his power to stimulate 
 that feeling instead of seeking to make them feel that they 
 are responsible for nothing and that he is responsible for 
 everything. 
 
 From this it follows that almost the first duty of every 
 superintendent is to educate his board. He should begin 
 this and persist systematically. The persistence Must 
 is particularly important, inasmuch as the mem- Educate 
 bership of school boards is constantly changing, ^'^^ Board, 
 and the superintendent who has a well-educated board to-day, 
 may find himself with an awkward team to-morrow, and 
 sometimes with a vicious one. He should educate the board, 
 first of all, to faith in himself. It is this faith in him as a 
 man that will make it possible for him to accomplish his 
 ends with the least friction and with the greatest certainty. 
 
 This means that he should always be thoroughly honest. 
 No matter though the members of a board be corrupt, 
 a superintendent cannot afford to be dishonest Must be 
 with them. He must be tactful and diplomatic, Honest, 
 but not crooked. They must come to feel after acquaintance 
 with him that he is wholly sincere in all the measures he 
 brings forward; that he has only the good of the schools at 
 heart; and that when he makes a recommendation they need 
 not look for any ulterior motive. That is the first step. 
 
 The second is to convince them that the recommenda- 
 tions are in the main wise, backed by sound educational 
 doctrine, and likely to result in good. If the superintend- 
 ent can keep his board in such an attitude, he has before 
 him a clear field, but he should not rest contented with this. 
 He should seek to make his board intelligent, at least as to 
 the superficial aspects of educational doctrine. He should 
 keep them constantly informed of what he is about to do 
 
1 68 The School and Its Life 
 
 and his reasons for it ; they will like it, and he will find his 
 strongest support coming from the members of the board 
 that he has thus instructed. 
 
 These points of advice may seem unnecessary, but they are 
 not. More superintendents fail because they have not taken 
 the board of education into their confidence and have not 
 inspired the confidence of its members than from almost any 
 other reason. This is quite true of some of the stronger 
 and abler superintendents who do not get along well with 
 their boards. Sometimes the loss of his position by a really 
 able superintendent may be traced to a lack of tact on his 
 part in failing to educate the board into a condition of con- 
 fidence in him, and many inferior superintendents who have 
 not the confidence of intelligent teachers or of their con- 
 freres, are strong in their positions because they have trained 
 their boards to support them. 
 
 Another suggestion with regard to the ofiicial relations 
 of the superintendent towards his board is this: He should 
 . . . not present to his board new measures or schemes 
 Pave the until he has them very clearly worked out in his 
 Way for own mind, except that it is sometimes well to 
 ^^^ suggest in confidence to an intelligent board mem- 
 
 ber a possibility or a dream of something to be 
 done at some future time. But when a superintendent goes 
 before his board with a statement of what he wants, he 
 should know to the utmost detail what that want is, and 
 he should be able to defend his proposition accurately 
 and minutely against opposition from the board or from 
 other sources. Loose recommendations soon forfeit the 
 superintendent's position of strength. This is equally true 
 whether they relate to financial matters, to the course of 
 study, or to the appointment of teachers. 
 
The School Superintendent (Continued) 169 
 
 While the personality of the superintendent is a matter 
 of such consequence, do not let me be understood as advo- 
 cating reliance upon that alone. If there are no statutes 
 controlling the appointment of teachers, for instance, a wise 
 superintendent will secure from the board of education 
 formal regulations upon these matters at the earliest possi- 
 ble moment. He needs these for his own protection. It is 
 always a source of strength for him to be able to say to his 
 board whenever an improper suggestion is made, "If you 
 do that you will violate your own rules." While the super- 
 intendent should formulate the rules, he should have the 
 board adopt them as their own. I knew a school system to 
 be practically revolutionized by a tactful superintendent, who 
 simply secured the adoption of stringent regulations during 
 the early days of his superintendency. These rules the board 
 could not consistently violate, even though they interfered 
 with the assumed prerogative of its members in securing the 
 appointment of teachers. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 The Superintendent and the Teachers 
 
 In the preceding chapter the extra-official relations of 
 the superintendent with his board were treated at some 
 length. He has other relations not nominated in the boiid, 
 with other people, which are no less important than those 
 with the board. Indeed, I trust that it has been made clear 
 that these extra-oflScial relations are of very great con- 
 sequence, and that their character often determines the 
 success or failure of the superintendent. The school super- 
 intendent who manages his schools from his oflEice, no matter 
 how well organized his of&ce may be, and who expects to 
 secure educational results by giving orders, even though 
 these orders be practically perfect in wisdom and in manner, 
 is doomed to disappointment. 
 
 When we attain the ideal school system, we shall have 
 Doctor Tompkins's definition of a school, viz., "a spiritual 
 relation," expanded to include the whole system. For if we 
 admit that the ultimate purpose of school organization is the 
 spiritual growth of the young, and that it is to be brought 
 about through a personal relation between the teacher 
 and the pupil, we must, in logic, admit that if there are 
 other people directly concerned in the cause of education, 
 as, for instance, in guiding and instructing the teachers 
 themselves, those other persons must enter into similar rela- 
 tions with the teachers. The psychological reasons for such 
 
 170 
 
The Superintendent and the Teachers 171 
 
 relations with members of the board have already been 
 considered, and we shall later consider the sociological rea- 
 sons for such relations with other people. 
 
 Now as to the superintendent and the teachers: It is 
 evident that the character of the superintendent's relations 
 with his teachers must vary largely with the com- 
 munity, especially with its size. In a small city, ^m vary 
 with only a few schools, the superintendent can with Size 
 know personally every teacher and can establish °* Com- 
 relations with them all, resembling the proper 
 relations between the teacher and his pupils, such as shall 
 bring about the kind of teaching that he wants in the true 
 way, which is the way of sympathy and harmony. 
 
 In cities of larger size the relations must necessarily be 
 different. In a city of the intermediate class, from 100,000 
 to 300,000 in population, the superintendent can know most, 
 or all, of his teachers by name and face,, and a few of them 
 personally quite well, and that is practically the limit of 
 possibility. In the larger cities, those of more than 300,000, 
 the superintendent cannot know many of his teachers at 
 all personally, and in the very largest cities, such as New 
 York, Chicago, Philadelphia, he cannot know in any satis- 
 factory way even all of his principals. And yet I am con- 
 vinced that the sort of personal relations of which I have 
 spoken, and which I deem essential to the best administra- 
 tion of schools, may be maintained by the supervising force 
 in any city, no matter how many millions of people its in- 
 habitants are. 
 
 So let us consider first the character of these relations, 
 and let it be assumed that if the city is too large for the 
 superintendent himself to maintain them, they will be main- 
 tained by some other representative of the Department of 
 
172 The School and Its Life 
 
 Supervision, and that although the superintendent's personal 
 relations are with an increasingly hmited number of teachers, 
 they will be in every case with those who themselves must 
 influence others. 
 
 It must be evident to all readers that we now are con- 
 sidering the subtler, more spiritual and higher functions 
 of the supervising force, and not especially the judicial and 
 executive functions, though there is no necessary conflict 
 between the two. If the superintendent holds himself 
 aloof from his body pohtic, particularly from that portion 
 with which it is possible for him to be in immediate, personal 
 contact, in order that he may be an unfeeling and unbiased 
 judge, he will fail of the very end he has in mind, and he 
 will have exalted into a position of supreme importance 
 that function which is not properly supreme. 
 
 It is true that the superintendent must perform in an 
 absolutely impartial way his judicial and executive duties, 
 but these, important as they are, are not his chief duties. 
 I am aware that some superintendents will not agree with 
 me at this point, but my primary contention must be kept 
 in mind — that teaching is a spiritual process; that only 
 those teach well who are in spiritual rapport with the taught, 
 and are employing both material and method which they 
 believe will be spiritually effective. 
 
 A forced and driven corps of teachers, whether yielding 
 mechanically, or whether cherishing in their hearts rebellion, 
 g will make a failure of the most philosophical, com- 
 
 thetic Re- plete, and wise course of study. It is said of the 
 lationswith teachers of one of our greatest cities that they em- 
 Teachers J ^jjgjj. ^jjjjg chiefly in efforts to evade the 
 necessary. . r ■, r 1 , , 
 
 requirements of the course of study, and yet the 
 
 administration of this city is strong, vigorous, and relentless. 
 
The Superintendent and the Teachers 173 
 
 wholly, and it almost appears of intention, unsympathetic. 
 The evil of such a state of things is evident. Teachers, not 
 only not believing heartily in what they are doing and not 
 understanding the underlying principles and purpose of it 
 all, but actually antagonistic and seeking how best not to do 
 it and at the same time keep out of trouble, cannot teach 
 well. The work is sure to be badly done, and the course of 
 study will fail to justify itself in the minds of those who are 
 observing it, not because it is bad, but because it is badly 
 administered, and this in spite of the fact that the adminis- 
 trative department is wonderfully strong and able. 
 
 What is needed in that and in other cities where Uke 
 conditions prevail? Two things. The first is official and 
 includes careful, persistent, and patient instruction in the 
 educational principles underlying the course of study, in the 
 course itself as exemplifying these principles, and in the 
 methods of carrying it out so as to produce the best results. 
 The second is extra-ofiicial and personal. 
 
 Teachers, like other people, are controlled by their feel- 
 ings more than by their judgment. It would certainly be 
 ungracious to say that this may be partly due to the fact 
 that the great majority of them are women, and I am not 
 sure that that has anything to do with the case. If it 
 has, it is more than offset by the fact that women, as a 
 rule, are more open-minded and more willing to accept 
 new ideas than men are. And when their faith is aroused 
 and they begin to work con amore, nothing is too diffi- 
 cult for them, neither effort of preparation, nor effort of 
 execution. 
 
 More sincere approval of the course of study and of the 
 efforts of the administration to improve the schools in any 
 city will be brought about if the superintendent will enter 
 
174 The School and Its Life 
 
 into agreeable personal relations with the leading spirits, and 
 
 _. ^ create in their minds personal faith in himself 
 
 T1I6 Im- 
 portance and a fair degree of personal liking, than by all 
 
 of Pleasant the lectures and classes for instruction that can 
 
 Personal possibly be conducted; and as a result of this, 
 
 vastly better work will be done everywhere. 
 
 It is to be borne in mind, too, as has been said repeatedly, 
 that the wisdom is not all with the superintendent; that 
 Aloofness teachers are at least reasonable beings; that many 
 not a Proof of them know quite as much of the principles of 
 of Dignity, education as the superintendent, and some of 
 them probably more; and in any case that often the super- 
 intendent is himself a mere accident, selected from his fellows 
 for causes that are not apparent except to the initiated. 
 But even if he is superior intellectually and professionally 
 to the body of teachers, that fact will not be made manifest 
 by any degree of aloofness, but rather by close personal 
 relations. If he is not so superior, his aloofness will simply 
 bring him into dislike and possible ridicule. I have known of 
 more than one instance of teachers and principals who were 
 not convinced of the wisdom of the plans of the superintend- 
 ent, but were willing to undertake to carry them out sincerely 
 and open-mindedly, simply because of their personal re- 
 spect and liking for him and their desire to please, and in 
 all of these cases they were ultimately converted to his way 
 of thinking, because they had worked with open minds. 
 Whereas, if their personal attitude toward the superintend- 
 ent had been other than it was, their attitude of mind toward 
 the work they were doing would have been so totally different 
 as to make it impossible for them to see the new light. 
 
 Doubtless there is need of caution, and in instances there 
 is danger in close personal relations between the superintend- 
 
The Superintendent and the Teachers 175 
 
 ent and his subordinates, but that is ahnost invariably due 
 to some weakness on his part — either weakness of judg- 
 ment or weakness of character. Familiarity breeds contempt 
 only with the contemptible; it breeds respect with those 
 worthy of it. The real leader is manifest in a throng, and 
 he does not need a dais, a throne, and a robe to make his 
 leadership manifest. But let us consider some of the cau- 
 tions that are evidently needed. 
 
 The personal relations never should become a weak lean- 
 ing of the higher upon the lower. The official should always 
 maintain such an attitude that he can discipline -j^ 
 when necessary. In other words, the harmony oflBcial 
 should not rest upon favors sought from or be- Superior 
 stowed by subordinates. The superintendent ^ ?^ j 
 who at election time has sought the aid of his debted to 
 subordinates to secure his own election, or who has His Sub- 
 called them in to help him out of some tight poUti- o^dmates. 
 cal place, has weakened his power to discipline those whom 
 he has thus called upon, and it is quite Ukely that they will 
 take advantage of the hold they thus have gained. The 
 superintendent should be the recipient of whatever gratitude 
 arises from favors done, as well as of the abuse which too 
 commonly follows favors. Yet, in so far as is possible, the 
 relation should be human and not ofl&cial. 
 
 The superintendent should be careful also not to have 
 particular intimates among his subordinates to the g-gciai 
 exclusion of others. Naturally his personal rela- intimacies 
 tions will vary for personal reasons — that can- should be 
 not be avoided; but no subordinate should feel ^°* ^ ' 
 that others have the superintendent's ear to his exclusion. 
 All should feel that they can come to him and find a 
 sympathetic listener, whether they wish to seek help, to 
 
176 The School and Its Life 
 
 narrate incidents, or to give encouragement, or even advice. 
 Above all things, the superintendent should avoid a "kitchen 
 cabinet" and every form of clique. He must not enter 
 into such relations with any small fraction of his subordinate 
 force as to lead the others to think that they are discrimi- 
 nated against or regarded less highly, and he must be espe- 
 cially careful not to make more warmly welcome than others 
 those who come to him with flattery and adulation. If the 
 superintendent can enter into such personal relations with 
 his subordinates that they can talk over a situation or a new 
 plan with him frankly and fully, stating objections and diffi- 
 culties as plainLy as if the scheme were their own, he has 
 accomplished much, and is in a position to accomplish much 
 more. 
 
 It is surprising how much of red tape, even, will be ren- 
 dered unnecessary if people feel aright. Suppose every 
 Power of teacher in a city system should go into his school 
 Harmony, with the heartiest intellectual and spiritual belief 
 in a broad and uphfting course of study, and carry it out 
 with the utmost zeal and faith — the schools of that system 
 would bound to the front with a speed unparalleled and 
 undreamed of. Now such a state of things, of course, is 
 not wholly possible, but it may be reaUzed approximately, 
 in small systems quite readily, and to a considerable degree 
 even in the very largest, by extension of personal influence; 
 by the recognition of the fact that teachers are, first of 
 all, human beings of a good sort, who are, however, con- 
 trolled more largely by their sympathies and their feelings 
 than by their intellects; and by the further recognition of 
 the fact that the best way to the control of the intellect is 
 commonly through the emotions. With all this, the super- 
 intendent must appear even, strong, impartial, with ready 
 
The Superintendent and the Teachers 177 
 
 sympathy alike for all, having many likes, but very few or 
 no apparent dislikes. 
 
 The lower reasons for this sort of thing are the same 
 as apply in deaHng with the school board. Material 
 success is better secured through human sympathy than 
 through force, but this lower motive is not the main motive. 
 Teachers are worthy of this personal recognition; they are 
 not "hands"; they are not parts of a machine; they are men 
 and women of culture and character, for the most part, and 
 should be treated with the warm, sympathetic confidence 
 which will bring out the best that is in them. 
 
 This argument takes for granted that there is some one 
 in the administrative force whose duty it is to help make 
 teachers better. This involves not merely in- 
 struction, but inspiration and personal counsel. citjesfl,e 
 In a large system this important function falls to influence 
 a variety of people whose duties are differentiated, should be 
 The superintendent should be the personal m- . . 
 spiration, counselor, and guide of as large a group 
 of people as it is possible for him to come into personal contact 
 with; in very large cities, possibly no more than the associate 
 and subordinate superintendents and supervisors. In most 
 cities it is possible for him to hold such relations, at least with 
 school principals. In the smaller cities, he can hold them 
 with the school principals and some of the teachers, and in 
 the quite small cities with all. But even in the larger cities 
 the inspiration received from the superintendent should be 
 extended downward. 
 
 An inspirational force is absolutely necessary for the cul- 
 tivation of esprit de corps and for the securing of the best 
 kind of spiritual work in the schools. In the large cities the 
 associate superintendents, district superintendents, or super- 
 
178 The School and Its Life 
 
 visors — that is, the immediate subordinates of the super- 
 intendent of schools, by whatever name they may be called 
 — should constitute such an inspirational force, and should 
 exert their influence upon those within their field, ordinarily 
 both teachers and principals — certainly upon principals. 
 This function should be exercised before that of judge or 
 disciplinarian. 
 
 We must never lose sight of the fact that the great busi- 
 ness of the supervising force is to help the teachers teach, 
 and not simply to pass upon them; that unless the super- 
 vising force makes it easier for the teachers to teach well, 
 helps them, guides them, stimulates them, inspires them, it 
 fails of its highest function. The young teacher, the dis- 
 couraged teacher, the teacher who does not understand 
 what the methods or the meanings of the course of study 
 are, should have some one belonging to the administration 
 in sympathy with its purpose and spirit to whom he can go 
 and expose his difficulties with full confidence of friendly 
 consideration and kindly help. 
 
 The superintendent who puts himself upon a pedestal, 
 and allows the teachers to speak to him only with difficulty 
 ^. g and at a respectful distance, loses his best chance 
 
 intendent of getting good work. If a teacher goes to the 
 who does superintendent or the supervisor with anxious 
 not Help heart, but with hope, and comes away with a 
 chilled spine and hopeless, the superintendent 
 or supervisor, however much he may have impressed his 
 visitor and himself with his own dignity and importance, 
 has failed egregiously and disgracefully. It is not just 
 praise to say of a superintendent that he has no friends 
 among the teachers; it is the strongest condemnation. But 
 if, on the other hand, the teacher has visited the supervisor 
 
The Superintendent and the Teachers 179 
 
 perhaps with trembling, and has gone away helped and 
 
 encouraged, and feeling better able to undertake the work 
 
 of the schoolroom than before, the supervisor has been so 
 
 far wholly successful. 
 
 These relations do not need to be entirely professional; 
 
 it should be possible for the teacher to converse with the 
 
 superintendent without talking shop all the time „ 
 
 ^ Of Supervising 
 
 — but they should be chiefly professional. The officer 
 aim of the superintendent should be to make should 
 it possible to bring about through thein a better J;^^^' 
 pr6fessional condition. Above all things, the 
 supervisor should never enter into the relation of gossip 
 with his subordinates. Supervisors sometimes cause serious 
 harm by going about from school to school and carrying 
 bits of personal information which better had been forgotten. 
 The supervisor or superintendent who is an itinerant pur- 
 veyor of gossip is at least a nuisance, and should be sum- 
 marily suppressed. 
 
 The visit of the superintendent or the supervisor should 
 always be welcomed by the good teacher and by visits 
 the ambitious teacher. It should be dreaded should be 
 only by the teacher who has consciously done Welcome, 
 wrong, or neglected to do right. 
 
 " The children of this world are wiser in their generation . 
 than the children of the kingdom." The pohtical superin- 
 tendent — the one who gets along without doing p^j^^i^gi 
 the best work — understands the value of this strength in 
 personal contact. Some of the very worst super- Personal 
 intendents in the country have maintained their ■''™^ ^' 
 positions for a long time, and have been popular, because 
 they have known how to make use of the personal equation. 
 As Wesley said of music, "There is no reason why the devil 
 
i8o The School and Its Life 
 
 should have all the good," so we might say of methods of 
 school administration. Those elements of strength which 
 are recognized and employed with success by the bad should 
 be considered, and, if not in themselves evil, employed by the 
 good. Let no superintendent think that he will gain power 
 by assuming superiority and holding aloof. He should be 
 strong with his teachers and not apart from them, and if he 
 is the right kind of man his influence will be greater and the 
 good that he does will be vastly increased if he seeks to find 
 the best in his associates, and puts himself into close and 
 sympathetic personal relations with them. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 Social Functions of the Superintendent 
 
 Before passing from the school superintendent, it 
 seems worth while to consider briefly his social functions. 
 This does not mean attendance upon afternoon teas, pro- 
 gressive euchre parties, or evening receptions, although 
 these may be proper and even important gatherings for 
 him to attend. But it refers to the superintendent as a 
 factor in the community life — a prominent figure in 
 all public movements and public gatherings which are 
 influential in furthering the aims for which society is 
 organized. 
 
 Theoretically, no man is in a better position to serve the 
 
 public in such capacity than the school superintendent. He 
 
 is the schoolmaster of his town epitomized. He „ , . 
 
 represents in his own person, or should represent, master 
 
 the educational forces and the intellectual ideals Represents 
 
 of the community. The old trinity of intellectual Intellectual 
 
 Forces, 
 influence in the community — the minister, the 
 
 squire, and the doctor — was long ago enlarged by the ad- 
 dition of the schoolmaster, and he has been for years a grow- 
 ing figure, somewhat eclipsing the others. 
 
 The squire is but a ghost, and the lawyer, who has taken 
 his place, is not because of his profession necessarily an 
 influential figure. The doctor has in most cases ceased to 
 try to be a public character. The minister still occasionally 
 
 i8i 
 
1 82 The School and Its Life 
 
 tries to be, sometimes with disastrous effect to himself and 
 his sacred cause. 
 
 Their places have been taken by the professional reformer, 
 the man who is at the head of the Chamber of Commerce, 
 the Board of Trade, or other semi-public body, and, in a 
 way, the politician, especially as represented by the mayor. 
 But no one of these can fill the place as well as can the school- 
 master. He is really, as represented by the superintendent, 
 sole heir to the old intellectual forces which were such per se. 
 If he uses his opportunity, if he makes even a feeble attempt 
 to use it, he is sure to be awarded a chance to exert a wiser 
 and more wholesome influence than any other single man 
 in the community. His counsel will be sought, and when 
 obtained will be valued, unless, by some foolish course, he 
 lowers his own standard. The general tendency of the 
 better element in every community is to look up to the super- 
 intendent of schools and to put him forward to the full 
 measure of his ability, and often beyond it. 
 
 Now, in view of this change in attitude, and of the vast 
 opportunity which it has given the school superintendent, 
 what ought he to be as a public man aside from his work 
 of superintending education ? 
 
 He should educate the pubhc in education. This does 
 
 not mean simply that he should be a lecturer upon paideutics, 
 
 though that is doubtless one of his proper and 
 
 tendent necessary offices, but it means that he should 
 
 should take within his sympathies and comprehension 
 
 Educate gj^ organizations and plans that make for the in- 
 the Public. , „ ° , , , , 
 
 tellectual and moral betterment of the community. 
 
 That is, he should take a large view of education. 
 
 Technically, the superintendent's duties are limited to 
 
 the management of the public schools, but we have not yet 
 
Social Functions of the Superintendent 183 
 
 arrived at a very clear notion of the limits of this manage- 
 ment, or of what should be included within the purview 
 and control of the public school authorities; but if we accept 
 the common, limited view of their ofl&ce, we must not accept 
 this as defining the superintendent's field of activities. He 
 should be the active coordinating force to bring into harmony 
 and to unify, in so far as unity is desirable, all those agencies 
 which are operated under the auspices of philanthropic and 
 ecclesiastical bodies for the common education. 
 
 There is much waste in all communities, and, in general, 
 a lack of coordination among well-meaning people who are 
 working for the same ends, but not together. 
 
 What, then, should the school superintendent do beyond 
 the actual supervision of schools ? 
 
 First, what should he not do? He should not engage in 
 any political strife, and that means more than partisan 
 politics. He should not take sides upon questions g^oyi^ 
 that do not directly concern his educational work. Avoid 
 even though he may be greatly interested in the Partisan- 
 outcome. There are many interests in which it ^ '^' 
 is possible for the superintendent to mingle without stirring up 
 strife, and all others he should eschew. It is true, a superin- 
 tendent is a citizen and should exercise his rights as a citizen; 
 should vote and do what else he can for the political cause in 
 which he believes, but without taking an active or an offen- 
 sive part. Let it be borne in mind that if he is to be a har- 
 monizer and organiser of educational forces in the community, 
 he must win the confidence of all parties and be on good 
 terms with all. Most social, and very many political, con- 
 troversies are wholly unnecessary, and are due to the inability 
 of people to understand one another's views and to the un- 
 conscious belief that they have in their own inerrancy. 
 
184 The School and Its Life 
 
 These controversies unfortunately often occur in attempts 
 to bring about moral and political reforms. These the school 
 superintendent should keep out of. He should also keep out 
 of reUgious controversies. Of course it is his privilege, as it 
 is that of every man, to go to the church of his own faith and 
 to work in it, but not to take part in controversies with people 
 of other faiths or of no faith. He should never be partisan 
 excepting on behalf of the best things in his own immediate, 
 technical field, but he should be active, in so far as possible, in 
 philanthropic, Uterary, and scientific organizations, and also 
 in important social bodies, such as clubs of the best sort. 
 
 A prominent school man said recently, regarding another 
 who had lately gone as superintendent to one of our large 
 He should cities, that he feared for him chiefly because of his 
 be a Good inability to mix with men; he was not, in the lan- 
 ' guage of the politician, a good "mixer." He 
 said : " I suppose he has never belonged to a social club and 
 would hardly know what to do in one." He did not over- 
 state it. Such a superintendent is always in danger because 
 of his lack of ability to assimilate and his failure to recog- 
 nize the importance of other things than his own school- 
 masterly duties. It is said of him that he is a mere school- 
 master, and it is said in reproach by people who would like 
 to have him something more. 
 
 No man can afford to be limited to his shop. The man 
 who is a mere lawyer, a mere merchant, a mere manufacturer, 
 Sh Id b ^^^* ^^' ^'^"^^ whole horizon is bounded by his 
 Connected business, is a small man, of necessity, and of little 
 with Good weight in the community. Particularly is this 
 Organiza- ^j^g ^j j.j^g schoolmaster, whose very position 
 makes it important for him to be of considerable 
 weight. Hence the duty of all superintendents to belong to 
 
Social Functions of the Superintendent 185 
 
 social bodies, membership in which is not inconsistent with 
 professional dignity or with good standing in the community; 
 to be active in organizations for educating the sjj(,„jj g^. 
 public in art, in literature, in music; for securing brace All 
 and maintaining courses of lectures, libraries, Educational 
 and concerts; to be especially active in broad 
 philanthropic organizations, whether upon a religious or a 
 secular basis, provided they are not controversial; to seek 
 to bring the various organizations into proper relations with 
 one another, and to magnify their usefulness in every way 
 possible, particularly by bringing them into harmony with 
 his own important work of public education. 
 
 The superintendent who does this accomplishes much 
 by it. He makes life more worth living for himself; he be- 
 comes a larger man because of his broadened interests. It 
 makes him a better superintendent; he better understands 
 public needs and what he really ought to do for the schools. 
 Too many school superintendents are limited to the purely 
 professional view of their work, and often they go far astray 
 in gauging public need. School people sometimes seem 
 unwilling to admit that the parent has any special rights 
 in regard to the education of his children by the public, or 
 that he knows anything about it. The superintendent who 
 comes in contact with many classes of people is not so likely 
 to make this mistake. He not only magnifies himself as a 
 man, he makes himself vastly more useful. He brings to 
 the help of various good organizations his own technical 
 skill and his wisdom as an administrator of education, and 
 most philanthropic and social institutions need just such 
 help and welcome it. The average eleemosynary institution 
 is badly managed because there is no one connected with it 
 who knows how. This is true also of a great many literary, 
 
1 86 The School and Its Life 
 
 scientific, and social organizations of the better sort. The 
 superintendent's help is most valuable, it is always welcome, 
 and the rendering of it makes him a more useful man. 
 
 But above and beyond all this, the superintendent of 
 schools who recognizes the whole field of education as his, 
 „. and attempts to till it, strengthens his own specific 
 
 Position work enormously. He brings to his support the 
 Strength- best forces in the community, and in time of stress, 
 *°^ ■ when, for example, his educational theories are 
 
 attacked, he finds it of the very greatest value to have 
 such support. In no department of society have we got 
 beyond the recognition of the personal equation — the man 
 counts for more than his doctrine, always. The school 
 superintendent who is, as he should be, in advance of his 
 community, and who is, as he should be, continually bring- 
 ing new things into the schools, endeavoring to improve 
 them in the light of modem thought and discovery, is sure 
 to be set upon by those parents and citizens who are satisfied 
 with the old, and who measure the kind of training their 
 children are receiving by the kind they themselves received 
 when children. It is astonishing how many people are so 
 well satisfied with themselves and their own training that 
 they gauge all progress in matters of education and religion 
 by themselves. This is perhaps the greatest obstacle the 
 school superintendent meets in his attempts at progress. 
 
 Now, if he is a mere schoolmaster, Umiting his field of 
 activities to his oflice and the schoolroom, comparatively 
 unknown in the community, even if he has formulated many 
 admirable reports, proving incontrovertibly that his inno- 
 vations are wise, the pubUc is likely to reject them; but if 
 the people know him, know his spirit and know him to be 
 a wise and sensible man, when he says that some new 
 
Social Functions of the Superintendent 187 
 
 measure is good, they believe him. A few minutes' personal 
 talk with a few of the " best people," the most influential 
 citizens, by the superintendent who has their confidence, will 
 do more to pave the way for possible reforms than all of the 
 articles that he may write and publish. Because, after all, 
 the public will stand by a person rather than a theory, and 
 the superintendent owes it to himself, owes it to his schools, 
 and owes it to his school board, to put himself in such a 
 position in the community that the citizens will be ready to 
 stand by him, even when they do not fully understand what 
 he is driving at. 
 
 There are other means than those mentioned by which 
 the superintendent of schools may make himself an important 
 factor in the community and may strengthen his should Use 
 own hands as school superintendent. One is the ^^^ Press, 
 proper use of the press. The editors of the leading news- 
 papers in all of our towns are usually men of more than 
 ordinary intelligence and anxious for the public welfare. If 
 they can be made to see that the school superintendent is the 
 right man for his place, and that what he is doing is best 
 for his schools, they will usually be willing to support him. 
 
 The superintendent of schools should make it a point to 
 know personally, not merely the reporters, but the editors 
 of papers, and first of all, the editors-in-chief, because no 
 department of business, so far as I know, has its whole poUcy 
 so entirely controlled by one man as the newspaper. He 
 should also know the city editor and be on pleasant terms 
 with him, and if he has a new scheme that is likely to be 
 misunderstood, he should be at pains to explain it personally 
 to these men before it goes to the public. In all my experi- 
 ence as a school superintendent I have never yet known an 
 editor who was not willing, and even eager, to listen to all 
 
1 88 The School and Its Life 
 
 I had to say to him upon educational subjects, and if he 
 was convinced of its propriety, perfectly willing to support 
 my scheme to the extent of his ability. I have always found 
 it safe to let the editor-in-chief know what I had in mind, 
 even before I published it, so that he might be armed when 
 the time came, and never in but one instance have I known 
 this trust to be taken advantage of and premature pubUca- 
 tion to ensue. 
 
 Newspaper editorial support is a very desirable thmg. In 
 general, if the superintendent cannot convince the editors 
 of important papers that he is, in the main, right, a fair con- 
 clusion is that he is at least partially wrong. Further, in 
 discussing with men who have as many possible points of 
 view as a newspaper editor, the school superintendent himself 
 is likely to get much light, if he keeps the windows open. 
 
 Another possible, and wholly proper, means of influ- 
 encing the pubUc is through public addresses. It is true 
 Should Use ^^^^ ^°™^ school men are not happy in making 
 the Public addresses, but most men who believe in anything 
 Platform, earnestly, and are sufficiently intelligent to be 
 school superintendents, can express their views in an effec- 
 tive, if not attractive way. I recall now one school super- 
 intendent of mature years, who, like Demosthenes, overcame 
 the greatest difficulties in order that he might be a good 
 public speaker, and thus fulfil one of his proper functions 
 in the community, and he succeeded remarkably well. 
 
 There are many occasions upon which the school super- 
 intendent, if he will and if he has the talent, can address the 
 pubUc upon educational topics. He is sure to be invited 
 to make addresses before bodies of various sorts, and usually 
 is expected to give an educational trend to his talk. Par- 
 ents' organizations in connection with the schools offer per- 
 
Social Functions of the Superintendent 189 
 
 haps his richest field, but his opportunities are not limited 
 to such organizations. Church functions, banquets of all 
 kinds, and gatherings of various organizations, give him 
 audiences, and he is an unwise superintendent who does not 
 attempt to improve such occasions. It is a mistake to claim 
 pressure of professional duties. 1 hese are professional duties 
 of the highest order to one who takes the proper view of his 
 profession. 
 
 Education is the whole of life. Naturally, the super- 
 intendent cannot control the whole of Ufe, but he can aid 
 its development. There are very many organized educative 
 forces in the community besides schools, and the proper 
 view is that they should all work together with the schools. 
 Much of the very best work is done under philanthropic 
 impulse, and the tendency to turn such beneficent institu- 
 tions over to the control of the state is to be regretted. 
 
 The superintendent of schools who insists that other 
 educational institutions, to receive aid from him, must come 
 under his control and that of the school system, is likely 
 to destroy sympathy and weaken the philanthropic impulse 
 in the community, and while he may make an apparently 
 more perfect machine, he really fails to accomplish the ends 
 of such organizations as well as if he were to encourage 
 independence. 
 
 The superintendent, then, should regard all education as 
 his field, and should be ready not so much to absorb all 
 educational institutions, as to extend himself to them with 
 a helpful spirit. He should be the most prominent as weU 
 as the most useful man in the community in all matters 
 which are, within the broadest possible scope of the term, 
 educational. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 The Supervisor and Teacher of "Special" Subjects 
 
 There is one phase of supervision that presents diffi- 
 culties so far unsolved. I know of no satisfactory literature 
 upon the subject, which is doubtless due to the fact that the 
 problem has nowhere, so far as I know, been satisfactorily 
 adjusted. I refer to the problem of those who are assigned 
 to what are known as " special " subjects, in the capacity 
 of supervisor or special teacher. 
 
 With the rapid expansion of the curriculum, many sub- 
 jects have come into the schools which at first the regular 
 Diflaculties class teachers were not able to teach properly, 
 of the and some of which they doubtless cannot now 
 
 "Special." ^Q^^\y properly. At least, the custom has be- 
 come quite general of putting instruction in manual training 
 exercises of all sorts, and drawing, music, and nature study, 
 into the hands of specialists; that is, those who are supposed 
 to have thorough acquaintance with these subjects, and who, 
 theoretically at least, have received training in the art of 
 teaching them. These specialists have come in by the side 
 door, as it were. They are not class teachers; their authority 
 is not clearly defined, and their work is not closely coordi- 
 nated with the work of the schools, so that in most school 
 systems much confusion has arisen in these departments. 
 In some cases serious friction has occurred between the 
 speciaUsts and the regular teachers. 
 
 190 
 
The Supervisor and the Special Teacher igi 
 
 Two radical remedies might be suggested : One, to do away 
 with the special teachers altogether and require the class- 
 room teachers to teach all the special subjects; and the other, 
 to organize the schools on a departmental basis, with all 
 teachers practically special teachers, moving about and 
 teaching their subjects to different classes. The depart- 
 mental system has been discussed fully in Chapter VI. 
 
 As to the first suggested remedy, it is doubtless true that 
 if the class-room teachers are reasonably well prepared to 
 teach the special subjects, it is much better to class- 
 have them do it than to have special teachers Room 
 
 come into the schoolroom, but it is also true Teachers 
 
 , should 
 
 that many teachers cannot teach some of the xeach 
 
 special subjects which a modem course of study "Special" 
 
 demands. The number of teachers, however. Subjects. 
 
 who can teach all the subjects is steadily increasing, and the 
 
 number of subjects that most of the teachers can teach is 
 
 also increasing. 
 
 It is now seldom necessary to have special teachers for 
 either music or drawing. The Normal Schools and Teachers' 
 Training Schools of all sorts supply such adequate training 
 that their graduates can usually teach these subjects under 
 expert and proper supervision reasonably well. It is true 
 there are still some who cannot teach one or both of them, 
 but a wise distribution of the teachers will make it easy to 
 care for the few special cases. 
 
 It is to be remembered that since these subjects were 
 introduced a steady course of training has gone on not merely 
 in the special schools, but in teachers' meetings and. classes 
 conducted by supervisors and specially trained teachers, in 
 all or nearly all of our school systems. There are still, 
 however, some subjects which are coming more and more 
 
1 92 The School and Its Life 
 
 into the schools, that the average teacher cannot teach well. 
 Perhaps the most conspicuous of these just now is manual 
 training in its various forms. " Nature study " is in a 
 transitional state; more teachers can teach it well than for- 
 merly, but there are still many who feel very weak and whose 
 instruction is not highly edifying. " Nature study," how- 
 ever, is one of the special subjects that more than any other 
 should be taught by the regular class teacher and carefully 
 coordinated with the other subjects. 
 
 In none of the special subjects — not even music or draw- 
 ing — is it possible to get along without expert supervision; 
 Expert that is, teachers are not as well grounded in music 
 Supervision and drawing as they are in arithmetic and gram- 
 Necessary, j^^j. Qj. Qtjjgj. subjects of the curriculum, nor are 
 the general supervisory officers as competent to give super- 
 vision; so that we must confess that for a long time to come 
 there will of necessity be subjects in our course of study, 
 that may be called "special," requiring teachers who must 
 also be called "special," to give some or all of the instruction 
 in these subjects. And it is quite certain that for an in- 
 definite time it vnll be necessary to have at least expert 
 supervision in these special subjects, so that neither of the 
 plans suggested can be counted upon to solve the difiiculty 
 of the specialist. He cannot be obhterated; he must be 
 coordinated with the system. 
 
 The present arrangement prevailing in most places is 
 wretchedly bad. The specialists are viewed with distrust, 
 and often with dislike, by the regular teacher. They upset 
 programmes and disturb the order of the school, and often 
 greatly add to the disciplinary troubles of the teacher. Some- 
 times, too, they seriously embarrass the situation, if they are 
 good teachers of their special subjects, by leaving the class 
 
The Supervisor and the Special Teacher 193 
 
 teacher, who must be constantly with the children, in a very 
 unfavorable light. These difi&culties are not universal. In 
 a few cases wise supervision and common sense on the part 
 of the special teacher, or supervisor, or both, has partially 
 solved them. 
 
 THE SPECIAL TEACHER 
 
 First let us consider the special teacher, the teacher who 
 goes regularly to the class-rooms and gives instruction to 
 the pupils in some one or more of these special subjects. 
 His problem is really much simpler than that of the super- 
 visor. His business is to go and teach, and not to supervise 
 nor direct the regular teacher. If the instruction is given 
 in the regular class-room with the pupils all present, the 
 teacher should also be present in order to aid the special 
 teacher, particularly in dealing with individual pupils, and 
 if necessary, in keeping order, and also that he may learn 
 as much as possible of the subject himself, for the ideal to be 
 looked forward to by all is the teaching of these subjects by 
 the class-room teachers. 
 
 The special teacher needs simply ordinary tact and com- 
 mon sense. Assumption of superiority to the class-room 
 teacher and all indifference to the other work jj^g^ ^q^ 
 should be absolutely banished. The special Assume Su- 
 teacher should seek to help the class teacher in periority. 
 coordinating all phases of the work; should study the pos- 
 sibilities of correlation, and should in every way try to be 
 helpful though not in any sense ofiftcious. Some special 
 teachers are always welcomed, both by the class teacher and 
 by the children, while some are not, and it is simply a ques- 
 tion of tact and personality. 
 
ig4 The School and Its Life 
 
 THE SCrPERVISOR 
 
 Second, the supervisor: This problem is very different 
 indeed from that of the special teacher}- because the super- 
 visor of special subjects is a supervisory officer, usually 
 with undefined power. He is not a supenntfendent and 
 he is not a general supervisor. He is responsible to the 
 superintendent for the instruction in his subject as it is 
 given in the schools, but the question whether he is 
 superior to the principal is a mooted one and always 
 rising. 
 
 Is he to give his instinaction to the teachers directly, disre- 
 garding the principal ? If so, how can the principal be held 
 responsible for the conduct of his school ? Is he to give his 
 instruction to the principal and let the principal give it to 
 his teachers? If so, in the case of a technical subject, how 
 can the supervisor be sure that it is correctly given to the 
 teachers ? If he gives the orders to the teachers, how can he 
 be sure that he is not violating some order that has already 
 been given by the principal ? If the principal is the respon- 
 sible head of the school, is the supervisor responsible to him 
 for the instruction in his department in the school, or to some 
 one outside of the school ? And if to some one outside, how 
 is the principal the responsible head of the school? What 
 is the teacher to do after receiving contradictory or inhar- 
 monious orders from the supervisor and the principal? Is 
 it to be understood in all cases that the instruction of the 
 supervisor is the instruction of the superintendent? If so, 
 can any subordinate official dispute it? If not, how can 
 the superintendent enforce it? Is the supervisor to serve 
 as a "buffer" between the superintendent and the public 
 so that if the work is complained of in any department, 
 
The Supervisor and the Special Teacher 195 
 
 particularly if "fads" are denounced, he can hide himself 
 behind the skirts of the supervisor? , 
 
 These are some of the v§ry practical questions which 
 every one connected 'with a schbpl, system that has' special 
 teachers aiyj supervisors will >r4c6gniae,' and -(^hile^ they can- 
 not be answered nrialLyhere, a few suggestions may help" 
 the superintendents themselves towards* a solution. Of 
 course an easy answer, and a pretty rehable one, is that' 
 common sense will solve the difficulty in each ^ecific case, 
 but not all people have common sense, and a certain amount 
 of organization is made necessary by this very lack. 
 
 A supervisor's instruction in a special subject should 
 always be recognized as that of the superintendent of schools. 
 If this is done it will greatly simplify the problem, sunervisor 
 but that this may be done some conditions need Represents 
 to be met. theSuper- 
 
 The superintendent must keep in the very ™ ^° ^"^ • 
 closest touch with the supervisors. He must know what 
 the supervisor's plans are and what sort of instruction he is 
 giving to the teachers; and the supervisor should under- 
 stand that no instructions involving changes in plan or 
 important considerations of policy may be given by him 
 TA^thout first having received the approval of the superin- 
 tendent. If it is understood by the teaching corps, the prin- 
 cipal included, that every supervisor on visiting the school 
 is an authoritatively recognized representative of the superin- 
 tendent, the attitude of the teachers and principal toward the 
 supervisor is easily determined. But if the supervisor gives 
 instruction about which the superintendent does not know — 
 hoes his own row independently of the rest of the force — 
 constant confusion will arise and the superintendent will 
 be called upon to support that about which he does not 
 
196 The School and Its Life 
 
 know, or will be compelled to withdraw his support, which 
 will be disastrous to the supervisor. 
 
 Not only must the supervisor be in close and sympathetic 
 touch with the superintendent so that he can positively and 
 with confidence represent him, but he must also recognize 
 the position of the principal in the school. The supervisor, 
 or superintendent for that matter, who comes ruthlessly 
 into the school and gives general or specific instructions to 
 teachers without the knowledge or approval of the school prin- 
 cipal, is sowing the seeds of dissension and dissatisfaction. 
 
 It should be the business of the supervisor, as of the 
 superintendent, when visiting a school to talk very plainly 
 Suoervisor ^^^^ ^^^ principal about the situation, and if any 
 should new instruction of consequence is to be given, any 
 Recognize new poUcy outlined, it should be made plain to 
 rincipa . ^j^^ principal, and if possible, the principal's 
 hearty and willing co-operation should be secured. If this 
 attitude is taken, and the supervisor recognizes the prin- 
 cipal as the head of his school and gives his orders, if he 
 gives orders, or advice, if he gives advice, first to the prin- 
 cipal and then to the teachers in so far as necessary, the 
 principal can be held responsible for the work, and also for 
 his attitude toward the supervisor. 
 
 Naturally, much instruction of a technical and detailed 
 sort must be given by the supervisor in visiting schoolrooms, 
 which does not need to be filtered through the principal, 
 but such instruction should be fully in harmony with general 
 principles already laid down, either by the supervisor in 
 conference with the principal, or by the supervisor or super- 
 intendent, in a meeting, or by syllabi. Much time can be 
 saved by making proper use of the various meetings of the 
 supervisory officers with the teachers. 
 
The Supervisor and the Special Teacher 197 
 
 One serious difficulty in this connection often is the un- 
 willingness of the principals to put themselves into the proper 
 
 attitude toward special work. Principals should „ . . , 
 ^ '^ Principals 
 
 be invited and urged to attend meetings in which should At- 
 
 important instruction is given to the teachers, tend Meet- 
 
 and should in so far as possible avail themselves If^® , 
 
 . . Teachers, 
 
 of the opportunity. If this is done they are more 
 
 likely to be in touch with the work and to be able to direct 
 it intelligently in their own schools. Principals rely too much 
 upon the reports that teachers bring them of meetings held 
 with the various members of the supervisory force. It is 
 difficult to be a good reporter, and very few people achieve 
 it. Teachers are no exception, and so principals should at- 
 tend these meetings themselves and get the same instruction 
 that the teachers do, and then they can understand the 
 special instruction given by the supervisor when visiting the 
 school. 
 
 The principal is necessarily, as has been said, the respon- 
 sible head of the school, and should be so recognized by all 
 the supervisory officers, and yet the principal should be 
 responsible for something definite. The general policy of 
 the school system, the course of study and the broader phases 
 of method, are of necessity laid down by the supervising 
 force, and it is the business of the principal to master these, 
 and to endeavor to make his school as good as possible along 
 these specific lines. 
 
 While it is the duty of the supervising force in every way to 
 strengthen the hands of the principal and increase his conse- 
 quence, it is equally important for the principal not to set up 
 a little machine of his own, but to work in harmony with the 
 entire administrative force in bringing about results such as 
 are approved in general. 
 
198 The School and Its Life 
 
 If the principal of a school finds that the supervisor is 
 
 giving instruction in his particular subject which does not 
 
 , seem to be in harmony with the general policy of 
 
 Difierence the school administration or with the instruction 
 
 Appeal to received from the superintendent or supervisors 
 
 Superin- ^^ meetings, he should frankly discuss these ques- 
 tendent. . . ° ', . ,. , -r , , 
 
 tions with the supervisor first, and if unable to 
 
 secure what appears to him harmony, he should take the 
 
 matter to the superintendent, whose business it is to see that 
 
 harmony prevail throughout the system. 
 
 If the supervisor finds that the principal is not carrying 
 out instructions given, provided these instructions are such 
 as the superintendent himself approves, but is working 
 against the supervisor or against the system, giving instruc- 
 tions to teachers contrary to the general policy of the school 
 administration, thereby creating discomfort, unrest, and dis- 
 sension, it is the duty of the superintendent to come to the 
 rescue and by either diplomatic or forceful measures to 
 bring about harmony, or by radical measures of discipline 
 to do away with the troubles. Of course the children are 
 the ultimate sufferers from a lack of harmony in the admin- 
 istrative system, and next to the children the teachers are 
 the sufferers if the supervisor and principal, and the various 
 other "bosses," do not work together and do not recognize 
 the teacher as an important factor. 
 
 Now what is -the teacher to do to whom the principal gives 
 one kind of instruction and the supervisor another? That 
 will depend much upon the relations that exist between the 
 teacher and the various supervisory officers. The occasion 
 calls for tact, but if the relations are as they should be, 
 the first duty of such a teacher is to talk plainly with the 
 principal and to point out the discrepancies in instruction. 
 
The Supervisor and the Special Teacher 199 
 
 and if the principal insists that he is right and that his instruc- 
 tion must be followed regardless of what the supervisor says, 
 as sometimes happens, upon the next visit of the supervisor, 
 if the work is not done according to his instructions, the 
 teacher should frankly tell the supervisor that he is acting 
 under instructions from the principal. But this state of 
 things should never occur. 
 
 If the principal takes this stand he should not take it 
 with the teacher, which is cowardly, but should take it with 
 the supervisor or superintendent and have it out. If the 
 teacher finds the friction continuing, his only means of 
 self-protection is to go to the superintendent himself and 
 tell his troubles, and the superintendent should have such 
 sympathetic relations with the teachers that this can be done 
 in entire confidence, without danger to the teacher of falling 
 from grace either with the principal or the supervisor, and 
 if the superintendent is a wise, tactful, and strong head of 
 the system, he can, either by tact or force, straighten out 
 the difficulty. 
 
 These difficulties of which I have spoken arise chiefly 
 because the supervisor of instruction in the special subjects 
 has not been properly coordinated with the system. His 
 place has not been made plain either to himself or to the 
 principals, and the first duty of the superintendent should 
 be to make absolutely plain to the supervisors, to the prin- 
 cipals, and to the teachers, just what the office of the super- 
 visor is, just what his authority is, just what he is expected 
 to do, and just what the attitude of the other factors in the 
 school system toward the supervisor should be. This should 
 be made so plain that nobody can misunderstand. 
 
 Of course in dealing with human nature difficulties will 
 arise. Jealousies, personal disUke on the part of teachers. 
 
200 The School and Its Life 
 
 undue assumption of authority and superiority on the part 
 of unwise supervisors, and all the other miserable catalogue 
 of human frailties which teachers have in common with the 
 rest of the children of Adam, make trouble, but if there is a 
 perfectly clear and frankly stated relationship, or system 
 of relationships, if the work and degree of authority of every 
 supervisor and teacher is stated in unmistakable terms, then 
 the problem is greatly simpUfied, and the only difl&culties are 
 those that have been mentioned and that may be expected 
 to continue as long as human nature is still unregenerate. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 The School Principal 
 
 Thk principal of the school is the single time-honored 
 official found in a modem school system. The superin- 
 tendent, supervisors, and all the others are recent xhe 
 products of new conditions, but the principal, the Principal 
 master, the head of the school as distinguished historical, 
 from the system, has a venerable history. For a very long 
 time he had no superior officer, nor has he now, excepting 
 in communities with fully developed systems of schools. 
 And even in these the character of a school is largely de- 
 termined by its principal. Even in the poorest systems there 
 are always to be found schools standing out as bright ex- 
 ceptions to the prevailing average because they are presided 
 over by good principals. 
 
 The position and function of the principal are more nearly 
 uniform than those of most officials. It is true that these 
 have been modified somewhat by the develop- „. 
 ment of systems, but these modifications have Functions 
 been on the whole slight, and the principal still Compara- 
 is quite uniformly the responsible head of the *l^^}/ 
 school, with considerable authority granted by 
 both written and unwritten law, and with power enough to 
 make or mar the school in spite of superintendent, super- 
 visors, and school board. 
 
 He is usually quite secure in his office and not easily 
 
202 The School and Its Life 
 
 removable except for really compelling reasons. Even in 
 cities in which all teachers must be annually elected, the 
 changes in principalships are usually few and either due to 
 voluntary retirement or manifestly sufficient cause. This 
 is as it should be and secures to the school a continuity of 
 poUcy even in the midst of changing administrations of the 
 system and changing teachers. 
 
 It enables the principal to become well acquainted with 
 his constituency, to know his people, their domestic and 
 A I r- social conditions, and their especial needs. He 
 tant Factor usually becomes an important factor in his com- 
 in the Com- munity and the trusted adviser of many families, 
 mumty. jjj^ relations with the children and their parents 
 commonly are honorable to himself, useful to them, and 
 productive of that happiness which comes from seeing the 
 results of one's highest endeavors. Indeed, the principal 
 should seek to be of the utmost consequence possible in 
 his community. It is good for him and for the school. 
 He should, however, avoid entangling alliances with organ- 
 izations poUtical, ecclesiastical, or other, which are partisan 
 in character or controversial in activity. His attitude on 
 all questions that divide the community should be either 
 judicial or obUvious. That is, he should put none of his 
 people on the other side of any artificial barrier. 
 
 Important as these larger relations may be, the real duty 
 of the principal is, of course, to be the head of his school 
 in all its various activities. 
 
 I. He is the executive head, and as such he must see to 
 The the running of the machine, even in all its de- 
 
 Executive tails. He must keep the records and make the 
 
 ®* • official reports, even when they are unnecessarily 
 
 elaborate and heart-breaking. He must take care that the 
 
The School Principal 203 
 
 sanitary and other physical conditions of the school are as good 
 as possible. He must meet parents who come with complaints 
 or children. He must see that the teachers are properly as- 
 ■ signed, that the children are classified and distributed most 
 effectively. His directing eye must be everywhere, that the 
 teachers may teach under the best possible conditions. 
 
 There is unfortunately no need to emphasize these duties 
 of the principal. The danger is not that they will be neg- 
 lected, but that they will so absorb his time and thought as 
 to exclude or minimize his higher and more important duties. 
 "Ye pay tithes of mint and anise and cummin and forget 
 the weightier matters of the law." 
 
 The encroachments of petty duties are insidious. The 
 little demands upon the principal's time, calls for books 
 or supphes, cases of "discipline," long visitations xhe 
 with callers, answering the telephone, and re- "Office 
 ports — always reports — are so constant that P'"^<=ipal." 
 unless he is very watchful, more and more time is given to 
 them until be becomes that most ineffectual, that deadest of 
 pedagogues, the "ofjice principal." Every superintendent 
 knows him. He is always there, in his chair at his desk. 
 Seldom can he be surprised away from his customary spot, 
 and if he is, he apologizes. 
 
 As superintendent, visiting schools, I am always glad to 
 have to hunt for the principal and find him in some class- 
 room studying the work or helping the teacher. 
 
 I can fancy an overworked principal saying: "How am 
 I to get time to do all these things if I do not Bjugtnot 
 stay in the ofiice?" It is a fair question. The Sacrifice 
 answer is, first by system. Have certain times for Important 
 being in the ofi&ce to attend to certain duties, such ° ^^^^ ^' 
 as issuing supplies, before school in the morning or after 
 
204 The School and Its Life 
 
 school, or at certain hours during the session. Devise some 
 method by which you can be called if a matter of sufficient 
 consequence arises. Second, by dispatch. Attend quickly 
 to matters of detail and distribute some of the work of pre- 
 paring reports among the teachers in such a way that it will 
 be burdensome to none. Third, cut the Gordian Knot; let 
 some things go, if necessary. Determine what are the im- 
 portant things and do them whether or no. If any needs 
 must sufEer, let them be the less important. But with sys- 
 tem, dispatch, and courage, usually all classes of duties can be 
 properly done. 
 
 2. The principal is the disciplinary head of the school, 
 sometimes the punishing agent, the flogging machine, the 
 The Dis- bogie man, held up before terrified or unterrified 
 ciplinary youngsters by teachers who feel the need of back- 
 Head. jjjg_ iTiese functions, though, alas! not uncom- 
 mon, are, of course, mere perversions and caricatures of the 
 real disciplinary office of the principal. 
 
 It is almost always the principal whose attitude deter- 
 mines the attitude of teachers and children alike toward 
 Determines school, its employments and its code. He gives 
 the Spirit the moral tone. If he is harsh and petty, teachers 
 of the ^u either imitate him or shield the children 
 
 from him, and the children will be rebellious, 
 intimidated, or deceitful. If he places more stress upon con- 
 ventions than upon principles, so will they. If he takes a 
 broad, wholesome, and generous view of school life, treats 
 the school as a democratic community, and relates all ques- 
 tions of conduct to its effect upon the common hfe, his spirit 
 will permeate the school. 
 
 The principal is necessarily in all difficult questions of 
 conduct the final arbiter, and to this end he must be just. 
 
The School Principal 205 
 
 He will often need much tact, especially if an impulsive 
 teacher is in the wrong in dealing with a pupil, when 
 he must on the one side preserve institutional Must 
 integrity and on the other save the pupil from ^^ J"st. 
 injustice. In such a case, if he is wise and has sufficient 
 weight of character, he will persuade the teacher to be just 
 with the pupil. 
 
 But his chief duty as disciplinary head is to be the living 
 source of moral inspiration, lifting the school into his own 
 clear atmosphere and creating a sane and stimulative school 
 life. 
 
 3. The principal is the educational head of the school. It 
 is in this regard that more principals fail of their duty than 
 in any other. The principal does not determine xhe Edu- 
 what the children shall study, that is fixed by the cational 
 course of study, though he must aid the teachers Head, 
 in interpreting the course. But taking any course of study, 
 it is the principal who very largely determines whether in 
 his school the children shall be wisely em- Dgtgrmines 
 ployed, shall get at the heart of the subjects the Spirit 
 pursued, shall really grow into life through "f the 
 nutrition supplied in the school, or shall feed °^ " 
 on the husks of knowledge, the mere forms of things. 
 Naturally, if the work of the school is to be worth while, 
 his own attitude toward it must be right. To him, learn- 
 ing must mean living and growing and not merely memoriz- 
 ing symbols. 
 
 The principal must work primarily with and through the 
 teachers. He will naturally exert some direct Must Work 
 influence on the pupils even with reference to through 
 their studies, but his main work must always be Teachers, 
 with the teachers. He is the one official who can always 
 
2o6 The School and Its Life 
 
 come into close contact with them, can see their needs and 
 really help them by personal friendly counsel. 
 
 He must visit schools a great deal. He should get into 
 the rooms so often and so quietly that the work will go on 
 Must ^s if he were not there. In these visits he should 
 
 Visit see much and say httle, though he should occa- 
 
 Schools. sionally conduct recitations, not, however, taking 
 them from the teacher to show how. 
 
 He should have frequent meetings of his teachers, some- 
 times all together, sometimes in sections. These meetings 
 Teachers' should be for open discussion of the educational 
 Meetings, questions arising in the work, the interpretation 
 of the course of study, the educational doctrine involved, 
 the principles of control, or other fundamental questions, 
 and these questions should always be carried back to their 
 sources in philosophy or history. The time of teachers in 
 meeting should not be wasted in the discussion of trifling 
 questions of interest to only a few. The aims should be al- 
 ways instruction and inspiration. 
 
 But the private conference gives the principal his great 
 opportunity to help and uphft his teachers. He should 
 The Private hold these as frequently as possible with all his 
 Conference, teachers, the old, experienced, and excellent as 
 well as the young, inexperienced, and poor. To the former 
 he can often give just the word of encouragement and 
 Helping advice needed to make a budding notion blos- 
 the Good som, or can rouse a good plodding intellect to 
 Teacher. greater activity. In these conferences his in- 
 terest must always be manifestly in the higher phases of 
 the work. 
 
 A fine teacher said to me one day, rather sadly, that she 
 was not altogether happy in her school. Close inquiry 
 
The School Principal 207 
 
 drew from her the information that the trouble was with 
 the principal. He had no real sympathy with her work. 
 She was ambitious and capable. She wanted to do work 
 above the average. She even had ideas for development. 
 Her heart was in her teaching, in its higher possibihties, but 
 the principal's heart was not there. It was rather in the 
 machinery of the school. He would visit her occasionally, 
 was never unkind, and she had, after repeated efforts, secured 
 a half hour in which she might sit down with him and talk 
 over her ambitions and schemes for finer teaching. The 
 result was a chill and disheartenment, which, unless the 
 fire burned very strongly, would in time impair her 
 efl&ciency. 
 
 This principal was throwing away a golden opportunity. 
 He wanted good work in his school and expected his teachers 
 to teach well, but he was so concerned with the mechanical 
 administration of his domain that he could not get into the 
 hearts of his teachers. The teacher had the freedom of iso- 
 lation, not of society. She could not possibly do her best in 
 such environment. 
 
 But if the private conference is important to the good 
 teacher, it is hfe itself to the young, inexperienced, or weak 
 teacher. Such teachers give the principal his Helping 
 best opportunities. He can save them or doom the Weak 
 them to failure m many cases. After sufficient Teachers, 
 visitation of the class-room to make sure of the cause of 
 the trouble, a kindly, candid, encouraging, stimulating talk 
 in private often sends the discouraged and failing teacher 
 back to his work with courage and a Uttle wisdom, and sub- 
 stitutes success for failure. 
 
 4. The principal of the school is in his highest function the 
 inspirational head of the school, the friend and counselor 
 
2o8 The School and Its Life 
 
 of teachers and pupils. He must see clearly, must live in 
 a good world, must hold and personify high ideals, that 
 The Inspi- his close personal relations with others may in- 
 rational spire them with strength and zeal for the better 
 Head. things. The school principal determines the 
 
 character of the school society, he creates the school life, 
 he is the personification of the school democracy. As the 
 principal is, so is the school. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 Home and School 
 
 The relations of home and school offer to the teacher 
 perennial problems for solution. Most of them fall readily 
 into two classes. 
 
 1. How to reconcile the often conflicting claims of the 
 two institutions upon the time and attention of the children. 
 
 2. How to inculcate in the children ideals and standards 
 of conduct often quite at variance with those prevailing in 
 the home, without either arousing indignant protest from the 
 parents or the children themselves, or creating a lack of 
 respect for the home and the family. 
 
 The problems of the first class are really easier of solution 
 than those of the second. They are quite largely matters of 
 law which the teachers must enforce whether or no. Still, 
 the method of enforcement will have much to do with the 
 teacher's happiness and usefulness. 
 
 Moreover, law itself but represents a social condition, and 
 it may be well to discuss briefly the social conditions in- 
 dicated by existing laws conferring upon school officials 
 authority to compel attendance and dictate compyigory 
 courses of study and modes of control. Attendance 
 
 It is sometimes startling to those who fear the and 
 inroads among us of what we call socialism to °*^'* '®™' 
 think of the strides that have already been made in this 
 direction by our most cherished institutions. 
 
 209 
 
2IO The School and Its Life 
 
 I suppose that no step in civilization has been so directly 
 opposed to individuaUsm and so complete a concession 
 to the principle of state control as the establishment of 
 schools for the education of all people and compulsory 
 attendance upon them. In most states there are found 
 upon the statute books laws which make it possible for 
 public ofi&cials to go into every house and hale the chil- 
 dren to school, putting upon the parents who object the 
 task of proving that they are making sufficient provision 
 for the education of their children. We regard justly the 
 family as the bulwark of moral institutions, and it is a far 
 cry from the stage of civilization, which gives the parent 
 the power of life and death over his children, to that which 
 says he may not even harshly punish a child nor put him to 
 work in gainful occupations, but must rear him humanely 
 and see that he is given a not inconsiderable intellectual 
 training. In comparison with such a stride as this in social- 
 ism the mere assumption of control by the state of a pubhc 
 utility is an infant's step. And yet they are few who find 
 fault with compulsory schooling, and for the most part 
 they are not philosophers, but those whose selfish aims are 
 interfered with. This is not intended in any sense as an 
 argument for state control of utilities or any other movement 
 toward sociaUsm, about which there is much just fear. It 
 is simply a statement of conditions as they are. 
 
 The reason of this great movement is not far to seek. 
 It is not an imitation of autocratic governments, assum- 
 State ing to dictate the Ufe policy of each individual. It 
 
 Education is merely the attempt of democracy to make its 
 Necessary. ^^^^ permanency not only sure, but possible. 
 In cases of extreme and manifest need philosophic discus- 
 sion is forgotten. It was very early evident that if a free, 
 
Home and School 2ii 
 
 self-goveming state is to exist, its people, the rulers, must be 
 intelligent, and more recently we have come to reaUze that 
 not only intelligence on the part of its citizens is essential to 
 the perpetuity of democratic institutions, but that such wider 
 training as shall make for character and social efficiency is 
 equally necessary; and so our schools have gone on enrich- 
 ing their courses, increasing their demands upon the chil- 
 dren, exacting more and more from the home, with Uttle 
 opposition, and the opposition is always only to the more 
 recent additions, which, in a short time, themselves become 
 recognized as necessities by all. 
 
 It is rather interesting as a social study to see how slight 
 is the opposition to a minimum of compulsory school require- 
 ment; how gladly our people struggle, often at great sacrifice, 
 to comply with the exactions of the law. The school laws 
 in most states now require the attendance of children at 
 school for a certain number of months of each year for a 
 specific number of years, the amount varying greatly. These 
 laws are more or less rigidly enforced by supervising officers 
 or officers appointed for this especial duty. And notwith- 
 standing the occasional pathetic cases, it is usually much 
 wiser that these laws, like all laws, be strictly enforced. 
 The teacher or school officer who attempts to mollify the 
 exactions of the law is in error. That is not his function. 
 If laws not good are strictly enforced, they will be repealed. 
 If they are good, they admit of no exceptions. 
 
 But with the compulsory attendance laws the ordinary 
 teacher usually has little to do. His problems are smaller 
 and often more trying. They have to do with the require- 
 ments of the course of study and with the daily attendance. 
 Naturally the course of study is prescribed by the board 
 of education and must be interpreted and enforced by the 
 
212 The School and Its Life 
 
 teachers, but the complamts regarding it usually come 
 directly to the teachers, and that is a wise teacher who 
 can satisfy the complaining parent without being 
 Teacher disloyal to the system. When irmovations have 
 Must been made in the school course many parents are 
 
 Meet Com- g^^g (.^ gjjjj fg^^jj- ^j^jj them, frequently without 
 
 ^ ' justice. If teachers believe that the innovations 
 are wise and that the course is a good one, they can more 
 easily than any one else persuade the parents to that effect. 
 If they do not beUeve in the curriculum and are inclined to 
 make mischief, they can make more than anybody else. 
 
 This condition simply emphasizes what hg,s already been 
 said in discussing the duties of school officials, of the wis- 
 _, . dom of taking the teachers into their confidence, 
 
 should be giving them the reasons for aU requirements, and 
 Taken into educating them to continually higher standards. 
 on ence. -phose officials who thrust a new course of study 
 upon their body of teachers without careful explanation and 
 education leading to conviction are simply dooming their 
 course to failure. 
 
 If the parents believe that the work that the children are 
 doing in the schools is unwise, they are very sure to use 
 stronger adjectives than "unwise" and to send the children 
 to school with a prejudice, more or less strong, against the 
 teachers and the work, which naturally interferes with suc- 
 cess. So the first step in the solution of this particular prob- 
 lem is the education of the teachers to such an extent as 
 to win their sympathetic a^d hearty approval of the work 
 done in the schools. 
 
 The next step is to meet the complaining parents with 
 patience and tact, explaining to them very fully why the 
 work is as it is, inviting them to visit the school both 
 
Home and School 213 
 
 during regular exercises and during special occasions when 
 work is exhibited for their benefit. Most of the Need of 
 difficulties attending the introduction of modern Patience 
 courses of studies into schools could be obviated ^^^ ^*'^*' 
 by patient and continuous efforts to bring the parents to 
 school and let them see the attractive and educative employ- 
 ments in which their children are engaged. In some places 
 it has worked well to have special days in each Secure 
 month, or even in each week, for the visitation Visits of 
 of parents — of course not excluding them at any P""^*"*®- 
 time. For these special days invitations are sent out, care- 
 fully prepared and possibly written by the children; even 
 illustrated invitations prepared by the classes are effec- 
 tive. 
 
 If an afternoon is selected, the first part of the time should 
 be given to the regular work without variation, the parents 
 being urged to visit different classes and see Special 
 what is being done. It is well to follow this up Visiting 
 with special, interesting exercises still growing out ^*y^- 
 of the work and showing the finished product — sometimes 
 a drama prepared by the children, sometimes oral recitations 
 such as the telling of stories and the explanation of sand- 
 table pictures by the pupils, while upon the walls the 
 written work of the children is so displayed that it can easily 
 be seen. Sometimes such gatherings are objected to because 
 they interfere with the work of the school. Possibly they 
 do to a degree, but it must be remembered that the best work 
 of the school requires the s)mipathetic support of the home, 
 and the httle time given to these special days will be much 
 more than compensated for by the increased interest and 
 the strong support of the parents. 
 
 The parents' associations have been spoken of in another 
 
214 The School and Its Life 
 
 chapter. They furnish opportunities for the school author- 
 ities to explain the work done in the schools. 
 
 These suggested devices for securing a desired end are 
 to be regarded merely as such, and often the bright teachei 
 will invent his own, better suited to his particular locality. 
 
 All this takes for granted that we have finally accepted 
 Necessity ^^^ right of the board of education to determine 
 of Fixed what shall be taught in the schools. There are 
 Courses of many parents, some of them among the more in- 
 
 " ^' telligent, who strangely enough think that they 
 
 are quite competent to determine what studies their children 
 shall pursue, but it is one of the necessities of a public 
 school system, caring for many children, that a certain de- 
 gree of uniformity be preserved. This may at times operate 
 even against the proper individualization of the work. To 
 that degree it is unfortunate, and the teacher should be free 
 so to modify the requirements so as to give the individual 
 children what they need. But if we assume, as we do, in 
 establishing a public school system with compulsory attend- 
 ance, that the state is educating the children for citizenship, 
 we must of necessity assume that the state knows what 
 kind of training citizenship requires. There is no other 
 logical conclusion, and while often mistakes are made, un- 
 questionably they are fewer in number than if parents of 
 aU degrees of intelligence and ignorance were to determine 
 what their children should study. As a matter of fact, there 
 is almost nothing upon which the average citizen is less well 
 informed than the principles of education, and while our 
 teachers know none too much about them they do know 
 more than most citizens, even intelligent citizens. The aver- 
 age citizen's judgment has a purely traditional basis. What 
 he had as a boy serves as his criterion, and as in most cases 
 
Home and School 215 
 
 he is reasonably well satisfied with himself, he would give 
 his children a training Hke his own. That is natural, but 
 it is of course a purely personal judgment. So from both a 
 philosophic and a practical point of view we must again 
 admit that the municipality must not only compel children to 
 go to school, but must determine within reasonable Umits 
 what they are to study. 
 
 Possibly a greater difl&culty to be met by the teacher is the 
 securing regular and prompt attendance at school. Many 
 parents who concede the right of the state to pifflcuUy 
 compel attendance of all children at school for ofSecur- 
 a certain number of months in each year, seek ingAt- 
 to reserve to themselves the right to determine ^^ *°*^^' 
 when their children may be temporarily absent. This 
 includes what is technically known as absence, that is, 
 remaining away from school for at least an entire session, 
 tardiness, or remaining away for the first part of a session, 
 and also leaving school before its close. 
 
 The conflict on these grounds is inevitable. The teachers, 
 realizing the importance of regular attendance during entire 
 sessions if the children are to progress regularly. Conflict 
 and especially the delay and loss to the class as a Inevitable, 
 whole caused by irregularity on the part of any of its mem- 
 bers, are naturally strenuous in their efforts to secure prompt 
 and regular attendance. Added to this motive is pride in a 
 good record for the school, stimulated by the knowledge 
 that the records of the various teachers are scanned by the 
 ofiicials and that comparisons are made. So that sometimes 
 promptness and regularity become fetiches and absence and 
 tardiness dreadful black beasts. 
 
 On the other hand, the Great American Citizen, while he 
 may concede in theory the right of state control, inwardly 
 
2i6 The School and Its Life 
 
 and sometimes outwardly rebels against such control when- 
 ever it comes close enough to be felt. He avows his entire 
 willingness, even anxiety, that his children shall attend school 
 regularly, but insists that if he thinks it best to keep them 
 out for a day for family or personal reasons, he is the judge, 
 and he will do so. 
 
 Sometimes he is careful to explain the reason to the 
 teacher, sometimes he absolutely refuses, more often he 
 Variety of gives a perfunctory excuse, veiling his determina- 
 Excuses. tion to do as he pleases. The reasons advanced 
 vary all the way from serious personal illness to social func- 
 tions and include running of errands for the family, tak- 
 ing care of the baby, bad weather, making or receiving 
 visits, and countless other reasons too famiUar to need 
 rehearsing. 
 
 For tardiness the reasons are perhaps even more numer- 
 ous and various. 
 
 Very frequently also word comes to the teacher, either 
 in a polite note or in a brusque oral demand, that "John 
 be excused at three o'clock." The reason is sometimes 
 stated, sometimes not. When stated, it may be to go on 
 an errand, to go driving, or, and more commonly, to take 
 some lesson in music, or dancing, or other "accomplish- 
 ment." 
 
 How is the teacher to meet these constantly occurring 
 demands? Is the parent's claim always to be conceded? 
 Is the teacher always to insist on a detailed explanation 
 and then to exercise his judgment? Either of these solu- 
 tions means trouble for the school and often hard feeling, 
 if not actual war. Is there no middle ground? 
 
 Usually in urban schools the board of education offers 
 some aid to the teacher by estabhshing certain definite rules. 
 
Home and School 217 
 
 presumably within its legal rights. These the teacher must 
 enforce. The commonest of these requires in every case 
 of absence, tardiness, or withdrawal a written „ , 
 excuse, properly signed, and stating the cause. Fixed by 
 Sometimes the rules go further and state certain Board of 
 excuses which alone may be accepted, and require *'""'=**'°'>- 
 suspension of the pupil after a fixed number of unexcused 
 absences. While this is drastic, it certainly lifts the burden 
 from the shoulders of the teachers. Frequently, however, 
 the teacher or principal is allowed a certain amount of lati- 
 tude, the use of which calls for the utmost tact. 
 
 Legally, in most states at least, the power is all with the 
 school authorities and the parent is compelled to yield. 
 But the wise teacher will recognize the ethical 
 claims of the parent and will seek to secure his gm-g in 
 co-operation. The teacher in approaching the Family a 
 subject should always bear in mind that the claim Choice of 
 of the parent is prior, that all interference with it 
 for any cause whatever is unfortunate and is excusable only 
 on the ground of public necessity, and is in all cases at best 
 but the choice of one of two evils. 
 
 Naturally and in the large, the best interests of the state 
 cannot be in conflict with the best interests of the family. 
 If they were, the family would be a deservedly doomed insti- 
 tution and we should revert to Spartan methods. 
 
 Ideally the parent, who is also a citizen, loves his children 
 and loves his country. He knows what is best for both and 
 voluntarily co-operates with the authorities to bring about 
 a state of harmony for the common good which is also the 
 individual good. He determines what is best for his chil- 
 dren, taking into his view, however, his relations and theirs 
 to society. 
 
2i8 The School and Its Life 
 
 The excuse for interference by the state is based upon the 
 notion, true or false, that the parent either cannot or will 
 not do his part properly. It is at best but a bungling inter- 
 ference that we have, sure to make trouble and, because of 
 the rebellious feeUngs aroused, likely in some degree to 
 impair the good it aims to do. 
 
 So the teacher in enforcing laws which invade the family 
 jj . - should be careful to avoid to the utmost bruising 
 Care to feelings. He should be considerate of actual 
 Avoid conditions, and should not probe family secrets 
 
 Mischie . except in cases of manifest violation of the spirit. 
 of the law or of quite evident deception. 
 
 There are countless family woes, family skeletons, family 
 tragedies even, not to mention the many petty, ignoble 
 worries and wants, that keep children temporarily from 
 school, but that the self-respecting parent would not dis- 
 close in an "excuse" under pain of torture. These the 
 wise teacher will respect and cover with the mantle of blind- 
 ness. 
 
 For these difficulties, as for all possible conflicts between 
 the home and the school, the surest remedy is mutual under- 
 Importance standing and co-operation. To secure this the 
 of Co-oper- teacher should be most patient and persistent. 
 ation. jjg should be absolutely above the possibiUty of 
 
 taking offense, but should seek by all honorable means to 
 get into touch with the parents, especially the troublesome 
 and unduly independent ones. 
 
 In most cases it is not difficult. The average parent will 
 appreciate the manifest interest in his children and will wel- 
 come conferences in which the teacher and he exchange 
 confidences as to conditions and needs. Even the obsti- 
 nate parent who stands upon his rights as if defending the 
 
Home and School 219 
 
 constitution, will usually yield to the tactful pressure of 
 the teacher for co-operation. 
 
 The solutions offered for these really serious difi&culties 
 of the teacher may seem inadequate, and they are. Psycho- 
 logical problems cannot be solved by mathematics, nor 
 can you lay down fixed rules for conduct in deahng with 
 others. 
 
 The work of the teacher is spiritual, his difiiculties have 
 to do with minds, and hence they are to be removed only 
 by spiritual means. The right attitude toward the pupil 
 and toward his work is the key to the higher success of the 
 teacher. His work is to help each child under his control 
 to make the most of himself. He must not be blinded to 
 that individual insistent duty by any claims of system or 
 the charm of uniformity. He should take a sensible rather 
 than a technical view of all questions that come before him 
 for settlement. For example, punctuaUty and regularity are 
 important; they are so important indeed that they may al- 
 most be called technical or practical virtues. Yet, 
 like all such formal claims upon the conscience. Emphasis 
 they may easily be over-emphasized. of Punc- 
 
 I have known tardiness to be made such a tuality 
 bogie that children would play truant rather than ^° ^^' 
 go to school late, while others would rush to 
 school improperly clothed and without breakfast. Such em- 
 phasis indicates lack of perspective and shows that the 
 teacher's view of his work is wrong. He is looking at its 
 formal rather than its spiritual phases. If the school is right, 
 children like to go and promptly. 
 
 In the problem here discussed the teacher must regard 
 himself not as in loco parentis, but as the parent's helper. He 
 is not the boss. Indeed the chief responsibility for the 
 
220 The School and Its Life 
 
 child's welfare is not his, but the parent's. He is the 
 parent's helper, and must suggest and use all possible means, 
 not over the parent, but with the parent, for the child's 
 growth. In particular he must not weaken but must 
 strengthen the home in all possible ways. 
 
 Home study of school lessons is one of the minor problems 
 Home ^° ^^ considered in discussing the relations of the 
 
 Study of home and the school. In view of the many evils 
 School growing out of home study, one is tempted to de- 
 essons. ^^ ^^^ whole business and declare there should 
 be no study at home. Indeed in the lower grades in a 
 school organized with the usual two sessions, there should 
 be none. There is time enough in the ordinary dual school 
 session for all the studying that children under twelve years 
 of age should do. If the school is properly organized, that 
 is, divided into groups for recitation and study, the lessons 
 of a suitable programme can all be prepared in school 
 under the eye of the teacher, who directs the study as well 
 as the recitation and sees that the children learn how to 
 study. 
 
 The ordinary parent, however, is quite wilUng that his 
 children should study at home. He likes to see them bring 
 home parcels of books and work over them in the evening. 
 He even hkes to take a hand himself, especially in arithmetic, 
 and show how superior the methods of the past were to 
 those of the present. He seldom realizes how essential to 
 the proper development of his children is play, and likes to see 
 evidences of industry. He does realize that lessons to study 
 give children occupation at home and keep them out of mis- 
 chief for a time at least. In so far he is right and the school 
 can to a large extent direct the home occupation of children 
 without taxing their minds by over-time work. 
 
Home and School 221 
 
 It is often remarked by parents that the children attend- 
 ing the kindergarten and the lower primaiy grades of a 
 good school take care of themselves at home to a g^jj,. 
 surprising extent. The games and exercises of study 
 the modem elementary school involve so many should be 
 elements of interest and cover such a wide range ^°^''* ■ 
 that they run over into the home and furnish children with 
 amusement and occupation for many hours, to their profit, 
 and the reUef of the tired mother. The same general prin- 
 ciple appUes to the higher grades. Without setting children 
 to conning lessons at home, the teacher can largely give 
 direction to their activities, both healthful and educational. 
 
 He can direct their reading. All children, practically, 
 read at home, sometimes to their detriment. The modem 
 curriculum offers so wide a range of interests that it is not 
 difiicult for teachers to give children the best reading by 
 suggestion offered in connection with some subject pursued 
 in school. The co-operation of the public library is especially 
 helpful here and is always easily obtained. 
 
 Nature study offers another field for healthful and profit- 
 able home work. So many delightful and interesting activi- 
 ties and investigations may be suggested which can best be 
 pursued afield. 
 
 Manual training in all its forms offers still another field 
 for profitable activity at home. Children like to make 
 things to bring to school for the general good. 
 
 Through all these and other activities social training may 
 be secured. Looking up topics for the history class or the 
 geography class; searching for specimens for the nature 
 study lessons; making things with tools to illustrate some 
 lesson — all are good training for co-operative Ufe, which is 
 democratic citizenship. 
 
222 The School and Its Life 
 
 In the higher grammar grades a certain amount of specific 
 study at home may be required, but it should be strictly 
 limited and should in so far as possible be of that general 
 sort suggested for the primary grades. 
 
 In high schools, especially those having but one session, 
 home work is necessary. But here, too, it is commonly 
 overdone, often to the physical and intellectual detriment of 
 the children. 
 
 It is too often taken for granted that children cannot study 
 in school, especially when other recitations are going on. 
 Children ^^ '^^ ^ ^^^^^ assumption. They can and do when 
 should the work is of the right sort. Indeed this power 
 Study in of absorption is one of the most valuable of all 
 ^ °° ■ the gifts of the school. The programmes of all 
 schools should be so arranged as to allow the greatest 
 amount of time possible in school to be devoted to study. 
 
 For the work that must be done at home the most careful 
 
 inquiry should be made of the children regarding home 
 
 ^ , conditions for study and the time necessarily and 
 
 Dangers of 
 
 Overwork properly devoted to recreation. The parent should 
 
 during be consulted, and sometimes the family physician. 
 
 Adoles- j\ yga,r of light work even at the cost of class 
 
 C6I1C6 
 
 standing, during the earlier years of adolescence, 
 often means the saving of both health and happiness. 
 
 The second class of problems has to do with the inculcat- 
 ing in the children of ideals and standards of conduct, often 
 Moral quite different from those prevailing in the home. 
 
 Standards a^^d, it must be admitted, usually higher. Teach- 
 Different ing standards of conduct is under all circumstances 
 from Those ^ perilous undertaking. Only the ignorant are 
 
 absolutely sure, and yet we have a right to our 
 judgment, and children must have training. The danger 
 
Home and School 223 
 
 attending instruction in morals in the school is considerable. 
 We are very sure to run up against prejudices in regard to 
 standards, and to find that some of the things taught in 
 school distinctly contravene the doctrine taught in the home. 
 This is particularly true of specific instruction with regard 
 to moral conventionalities. The dangers are twofold ; either 
 the children, having faith in the home, indignantly reject the 
 counsel of the teacher, or, believing in the superiority of 
 the school standard, lose respect for home and parents. 
 
 The so-called temperance instruction required by law in 
 most of our states, while it has undoubtedly accomplished 
 much good in many places, has, by its very inten- Dangers of 
 sity, at times encountered both of these dangers. Condem- 
 Some children, having been taught that what the nation, 
 teachers say in this matter is extreme, go to the other 
 extreme, and are injured not only in mind but in actual 
 habit by the instruction. Others, recognizing the wisdom! of 
 the advice, finding it opposed in the home customs, become 
 nuisances in the family and sometimes treat their parents 
 with less than becoming respect. 
 
 Almost the only advice that can be given on such subjects 
 is that the teacher should exercise great tact and be exceed- 
 ingly careful to say nothing that may be deemed to reflect 
 upon the parents of the children. It is better to advise the 
 children what course to pursue than to criticise courses of 
 conduct; that is, the work should be positive rather than 
 negative; and it should deal with those subjects upon which 
 most right-thinking people are agreed. Manners, of course, 
 must be taught, but the teacher should be very careful not 
 to apply phrases which may be offensive. 
 
 The experience of the superintendent in one of our larger 
 cities who went into a school, and, standing before the 
 
224 The School and Its Life 
 
 children with his hands in his pockets, asked them who hfe 
 was, is perhaps typical. They, not knowing the distinguished 
 gentleman, made no answer, but as he urged them to malce 
 a reply, finally a timid hand was raised and a small lad upon 
 receiving due encouragement remarked, "You're no gentle- 
 man." The superintendent somewhat nonplussed looked 
 at the teacher and the children. The teacher blushed and 
 appeared greatly embarrassed, but the children nodded 
 approval of the answer, "Certainly, you're no gentleman." 
 A little inquiry developed the fact that the teacher had told 
 the children that no gentleman stood with his hands in his 
 pockets. This is a good illustration of un-wise instruction. It 
 was quite right to teach the boys to stand erect with their hands 
 in proper position, but the extreme statement was dangerous. 
 I have known teachers to say, "No gentleman will smoke," 
 or," No gentleman will drink a glass of wine." The teacher 
 may belipve these statements true; but many of the children 
 have fathers who do both these things and who desire to be 
 regarded by their children as gentlemen. Condemnation 
 in general statements is always to be avoided. The teachers 
 should teach good manners and good morals, but, as I have 
 said, usually by suggestion and example rather than by defi- 
 nite dicta. A story of some one performing a good act or 
 showing courtesy is worth more to the average child than 
 many sermons. But, chiefly, the Ufe of the school should con- 
 form to the highest standards that the teacher beheves in, 
 and this without much talking. If the teacher is always 
 courteous, if his conduct in and out of school is above 
 reproach, his courtesy and his conduct are soon reflected 
 in the school life, which the children absorb. By living a 
 high, worthy hfe, they acquire the habit. Life is the result 
 of Ufe. 
 
Home and School 225 
 
 It is wise to have frequent personal, tactful conversations 
 with the parents. Even in the most deUcate matters frank 
 consultation as to the conduct of children, interviews 
 although that conduct may be an imitation of with 
 what they have seen at home, will almost always P*''^"*^- 
 win the support of the parents. The father who swears 
 even in the presence of his family, the father who smokes, 
 the father who drinks even to excess, is bitterly opposed 
 to the same habit in his boys, and the parent who is rude 
 does not want his children to be rude. Indeed, the stand- 
 ard of the home is sometimes raised by the wise teacher, 
 consulting the parent as to conduct in school which has really 
 grown out of the conduct at home. But in all Priority of 
 these matters nothing can take the place of com- Claim of 
 mon sense and tact. Recognize always the superi- ^°™®' 
 ority of the home and its sacredness, and under no circum- 
 stances weaken the authority of the parent. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 Some Social Functions of the School 
 
 In the past the public school with its equipment fulfilled 
 important social functions, especially in rural and village 
 Social communities. It was the neighborhood center 
 
 Functions and the gathering place for various purposes of 
 in the Past, ^j^g comparatively homogeneous people living in 
 the district. The meeting-house and the town hall (if the 
 community boasted such a building) served for the larger 
 gatherings in which all the people were interested, while 
 the schoolhouse supplied the neighborhood need. 
 
 Here gathered young and old for the time-honored spelling 
 match, which not only set the community searching the 
 spelling book and the dictionary in anticipation and in post- 
 mortem review, but which furnished the excuse for other 
 social functions. 
 
 Here the itinerant writing-master used to assemble the 
 youths and maidens of the neighborhood and drill them in 
 marvelous pothooks and flourishes, leaving with each one 
 at the end of the season some delectable bird or scroll with 
 his signature deftly concealed. But the youths and maidens 
 who gathered weekly in the schoolhouse to receive his instruc- 
 tion reaped much larger social results than they or the teacher 
 knew. 
 
 Here the singing teacher, often the schoolmaster himself, 
 at regular intervals gathered his flock and drilled it 
 
 Z26 
 
Some Social Functions of the School 227 
 
 in the singing of the scale and of old-fashioned rounds and 
 psalm tunes, and laid foundations for the village choir. It 
 was in the schoolhouse that Ichabod Crane instructed the 
 youth of Tarrytown in nasal melody. 
 
 Here, too, the debating club of the neighborhood would 
 meet, while the intellectually stalwart swains proved to the 
 satisfaction of their fair admirers and the discomfiture of 
 their opponents, that the pen was mightier than the 
 sword. 
 
 The people of the neighborhood considered the school- 
 house as the center of their intellectual life and there they 
 gathered for varied purposes, but with the one uniform 
 result, that the social harmony of the community was in- 
 creased and its intellectual Hfe was stimulated. 
 
 Of late there has been a revival of interest in the social 
 uses of the school. This revival is in no sense a forced 
 product; it has grown out of manifest needs, both present 
 in the country and in the city. No people in the Need of 
 world stand more in need of democratic social Social 
 centers than do we. There is httle, except our ®° ^"' 
 political life, that we have now in common with our neighbors. 
 This is naturally most notable in cities, but it is true even in 
 the country. Practically nowhere have we any more a 
 community of people who are alike in birth, tastes, religion, 
 moral ideals, or intellectual outlook, excepting in certain 
 regions where foreigners of the same nation and religion 
 have settled and maintain their foreign speech and customs, 
 to the peril of American institutions. 
 
 But people who live together inevitably feel the desire 
 for some common ground of life. There are so many inter- 
 ests in common, even among those who are strangers and 
 widely diverse in character and aim, that it is necessary for 
 
228 The School and Its Life 
 
 them at least to understand one another if even the material 
 interests of life are to be well served. 
 
 Within recent years it has come to the minds of many 
 that the public school, with its expensive equipment, idle 
 g . J more than half the time, could be made to fur- 
 Plant Idle nish the social center for which there is such 
 Much of crying need, and a very wide movement has gone 
 the Traxe. ^^^ apparently almost of itself, in various parts of 
 the country, looking to the utiUzation of the public school 
 plant for very many community purposes. In some places, 
 especially in small communities, there has been a return to 
 something like the conditions of fifty years ago, — people 
 making use of the schoolhouse to meet various social and 
 intellectual needs. But a condition can never repeat itself, 
 and the meetings of the present and of the future in public 
 schools will necessarily be quite different from those spon- 
 taneous gatherings of the past. 
 
 There is not room in this book, nor is it the purpose of 
 the writer, to discuss in extensive detail the various schemes 
 for making social use of the school. That is a large sub- 
 ject in itself, and is likely to receive adequate discussion 
 from speciaUsts. But it seems desirable to point out 
 a few of the possible uses of school property, and some that 
 are especially educational in character. 
 
 TWO MOTIVES FOR GATHERINGS 
 
 It must be borne in mind that there are always two main 
 motives for gathering people together in the schoolhouse. 
 One is {he immediate supplying of some local need. This 
 may be called the "efficient cause." The other, and the 
 more important, is the getting of people together for 
 the influence of the gathering itself upon their minds, — the 
 
Some Social Functions of the School 229 
 
 harmony and community of thought and feeling which may 
 grow out of it. People who gather regularly for any cause 
 get the habit of common thinking and of common effort. 
 It is this democratic aim of the meeting in the schoolhouse 
 which is its "final cause." 
 
 There are, in general, two classes of organizations that 
 are beginning to use the schoolhouse for their meeting-place. 
 One is under the immediate direction and control ^ 
 of the pubUc authorities; the other, voluntary classes of 
 and for needs appealing to the people of a Organiza- 
 neighborhood. The former we find especially "'°^' 
 in very large cities, — roof playgrounds, open gymnasiums, 
 public libraries, popular lectures — all educational and on 
 somewhat the same basis as the public school itself, main- 
 tained and directed wholly by public officials. These serve 
 the purpose of taking youths and adults from unwholesome 
 to wholesome surroundings, and giving them reasonable 
 and valuable employment for their evening hours. They 
 do not serve in the highest degree the harmonizing and 
 democratizing ends so essential to our people. They are 
 an extension of the function of the public school along 
 similar lines, and under the same control. 
 
 Vastly more important than this movement, important 
 as it is, is the voluntary assembhng of people living in the 
 vicinity of a schoolhouse for purposes directly YaJ^g „f 
 or indirectly connected with education, especially Voluntary 
 the perfecting of permanent organizations of these Organiza- 
 people with the schoolhouse as the gathering place *°°*" 
 and the social center. 
 
 The purposes for which such organizations can be formed 
 are various. Any aim which is in itself worthy and dignified, 
 even if not strictly educational, provided it is not in any sense 
 
230 The School and Its Life 
 
 controversial — that is, any aim which tends to stimulate 
 the higher intellectual and social Ufe of the community 
 without arousing antagonisms — is a proper basis for an 
 organization connected with the school. 
 
 The most natural subject, at least for the beginnings of 
 this movement, is education itself. The rapidly spreading 
 St d f popular interest in education is sufficient to form 
 Education the motive of an association in connection with 
 the Best almost any school. There is in many com- 
 Motive. munities a positive thirst for knowledge as to 
 modem educational principles. Parents realize that the 
 schools are very different from the schools of their youth, 
 and while some are dissatisfied, others honestly seek to 
 understand what the changes mean, and nearly all are willing 
 to Usten to explanations of the new things that their children 
 tell them about, some of which they are prone to condemn. 
 
 Naturally the first organization to have its place of 
 meeting in the school is what has come to be known as a 
 First the "Parents' Association," organized at first defi- 
 Mothers' nitely and specifically for the study of educational 
 ^^^^' principles. Sometimes this association takes in 
 
 its earlier days a very modest form, that of a mothers' 
 club. Such clubs have been organized by kindergartners 
 in many parts of the country for the study of some of the 
 simpler problems of the training of Uttle children. The 
 mothers gather at these meetings with the kindergartner 
 as the leader, usually to talk over their children and the 
 work of the home as related to that of the kindergarten. 
 As a result, they get some light on educational questions; 
 they become acquainted with the kindergartner and come to 
 
Some Sopial Functions of the School 231 
 
 understand her spirit, and they begin to be acquainted with 
 one another. The Swede, the Pole, the Russian, the Teu- 
 ton, the English and the Yankee, are brought together under 
 the common sentiment of motherhood, and in these meetings 
 rub off a little of the natural antagonism and take to their 
 homes a little sweeter spirit as a result. They also begin 
 to regard the school as not simply the place to which their 
 children are sent for a few hours each day, but as a directing 
 force in the education of these same children even in the 
 home. 
 
 The parents' association, proper, is an organization of 
 fathers and mothers, and citizens generally who are interested 
 in education. Its meetings are held in the schoolhouse and 
 vary in character according to the community. Usually 
 some address, or addresses, are made by educational experts, 
 either connected with the local system or not, on topics 
 directly related to the education of children and adapted 
 to the immediate local needs. These meetings are held 
 at regular intervals under some definite organization and 
 programme scheme. Occasionally features of entertainment 
 are added and after the formal meeting the time is devoted 
 to social intercourse. 
 
 If the association is well managed, and the interest main- 
 tained, the organization is Ukely to take on a more definite 
 character and to enlarge its scope. Frequently Deanite 
 there are several committees whose business it Plans of 
 is to look after its various interests, and to co- °^^y- 
 operate with the school people in furthering the interests 
 of the local school. In some cases definite plans of study 
 are outlined and taken up by such members as are sufficiently 
 interested to pursue them. Not infrequently adjunct asso- 
 ciations are formed, such as boys' clubs and girls' dubs for 
 
232 The School and Its Life 
 
 legitimate and proper purposes. Frequently associations 
 of the former pupils of the school are organized, either in 
 connection with the parents' association, or independently. 
 
 All of these bodies center about the local school, from 
 which they derive their motive and impulse. When well 
 Strengthen conducted and persistently maintained they are 
 the School, of inestimable value to the school authorities and 
 to the community. Any school officer who has not enjoyed 
 the advantages of such organizations cannot realize the gain 
 to him in local support from this getting together of the 
 school's patrons for an intelligent discussion of the work of 
 the school. The result is almost invariably enthusiastic 
 devotion, sometimes even more enthusiastic than intelligent, 
 but the gain is real. It manifests itself in political support, 
 but, more important still, in educational support. The 
 undertakings of the school, being understood and having 
 been discussed and approved by the association, are sup- 
 ported in the home, and that direful lack of harmony, that 
 most disastrous criticism of teachers and teachers' methods 
 which are so common and which tend to destroy the respect 
 of the children for the school and to impair the work of the 
 school, disappear under the softening influence of a common 
 understanding. 
 
 Moreover, the community gains immensely in democratic 
 spirit. The fact of the coming together of many citizens 
 Cultivates with a common motive and a common interest, 
 Democracy, and that interest the highest of all that concerns 
 them, tends to create a common consideration and sym- 
 pathy and understanding which are essential in a demo- 
 cratic state. The support and the far-reaching effects to 
 the school, both educational and social, of these gatherings 
 cannot be computed. 
 
Some Social Functions of the School 233 
 
 Now a few practical suggestions as to the organization 
 and support of these associations. Almost of necessity 
 the original mover must be some one connected Principal 
 with the local school, preferably the principal. Usually 
 He and his teachers should by private conference Mover, 
 secure first the influence and interest of a few of the more 
 intelUgent and influential citizens of the district. They 
 should, through written and oral invitations, get as many 
 parents as possible to visit the school and become inter- 
 ested in school work even before the meetings are held. 
 Days of appointed visitation, for which formal cards of 
 invitation written by the children and signed by the teachers 
 are sent out, often facilitate the movement at its beginning. 
 Then as soon as a considerable degree of interest is aroused, 
 a meeting may be called by the principal and the teachers 
 and by several citizens of the district. 
 
 The first meeting is an important one. It should be 
 made interesting. Whatever is done should be adapted 
 to the local intelligence and character. It is First Meet- 
 often well to provide material refreshment and ing Impor- 
 some features of entertainment upon the pro- **"*• 
 gramme, but there should be an educational trend which 
 will catch the attention of the people and lead them to want 
 more of the same sort. 
 
 Usually in perfecting the organization it is better for the 
 school people themselves to keep in the background and let 
 those assembled elect their own officers from officers 
 among the parents. The principal and some should be 
 teachers should be upon important committees ^3™^^- 
 in order to see that the organization does not run away with 
 itself, but they should work rather from behind than con- 
 spicuously. 
 
234 The School and Its Life 
 
 After the organization of the association, its permanent 
 success will depend upon the character of the programmes 
 offered at the meetings. Interest must be maintained and 
 too much repetition avoided. But it must always be borne 
 in mind that the purpose of the association is educational 
 and that all adjunct bodies and all plans of work and 
 entertainment should tend to keep up interest in the schoo? 
 and in education and to strengthen the hands of the 
 teachers. 
 
 Those conducting the associations need to be careful not 
 to be so ambitious as to shoot over the heads of the citizens; 
 also to be careful to interest in active work as many citizens 
 of the community as possible. The committees should in- 
 clude representatives of all classes and an effort should be 
 made to set large numbers of the people at work. 
 
 The political power of such organizations is immense. If 
 we could have in every school district a body of citizens 
 Political reasonably intelhgent upon educational questions, 
 Power and profoundly devoted to the school, it would 
 
 '■^**- be much less easy for the politician and the poUti- 
 cal school board to use the schools for poUtical ends. 
 
 There is no occasion for fear that the organizations will 
 be overactive. Such may be the case now and then, but it 
 will be but temporary, and overactivity is much to be pre- 
 ferred to inactivity. It must be remembered that progress 
 in education will not go very far in advance of its apprecia- 
 tion by the average citizen. The progress which is made 
 without the approval of the community is hkely to be short- 
 Uved and to end in reaction, so that for every reason, social 
 and educational, associations of parents and alhed organiza- 
 tions, making the pubhc school the center of the higher 
 community Kfe, should be encouraged. 
 
Some Social Functions of the School 235 
 
 There are sometimes objections to the meeting of these 
 organizations in the schoolhouse, on the ground that the fur- 
 niture and equipment of the school building are Adaptation 
 pecuUarly adapted to school purposes and to no of Fur- 
 others. It is true that the furniture of the '''t"'*- 
 modem schoolroom is not well adapted to free gatherings. 
 (It may be not out of place to say here that it is not well 
 adapted to school purposes either, and at some time rational 
 furniture will replace that which is now in use.) But there 
 are certain very simple remedies which may be employed 
 with little effort. In the rooms which it is desirable to 
 throw open for evening assemblies, the desks can be placed 
 in rows upon strips of wood so that they may be easily 
 shifted or Ufted to one side, making room for movable fur- 
 niture. Ultimately it is to be hoped that all schools will be 
 equipped with gymnasiums, assembly halls, and other places 
 suitable for such gatherings. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 School Laws 
 
 The laws under which school boards and school systems 
 are organized, while not directly within the province of the 
 average teacher, are still of great consequence to him, inas- 
 much as they affect materially his tenure of ofi&ce, his free- 
 dom, and his chances of success. Certainly all teachers 
 should be intelligent as to the laws relating especially to 
 their profession. Hence it has seemed best to devote a 
 chapter of this book to a brief discussion of the various sys- 
 tems of legal control of schools prevailing in this country. 
 
 We have no national system of education. The Bureau 
 of Education, connected with the Department of the Interior 
 jj^ in Washington, has at its head a Commissioner. 
 
 National His functions, however, are wholly academic. 
 System of He owns no offices; he has no patronage to dis- 
 
 uca ion. ^j.j|3y(.g . jjg jjg^g jjQ control whatever over any school 
 system or any school-teacher in the United States, with the 
 exception of the Indians and other wards of the nation. As 
 the work of the Bureau has thus far evolved, it is confined 
 to the gathering of facts and statistics and the pubUcation 
 of documents of information, separately at times, but chiefly 
 in the form of an annual volume. Practically the sole 
 influence of the Department of Education upon the country 
 is that exerted by the personality of the Commissioner. It 
 is impossible in this book to discuss the wisdom or unwisdom 
 
 236 
 
School Laws 237 
 
 of our present lack of national control of schools, and whether 
 it would be desirable to exalt the Bureau into a Department 
 and place funds at its disposal. 
 
 Our systems are state and local. All the states in the 
 Union assume the prerogative of controlling to a greater 
 or less degree pubhc education within their bor- ^j, . 
 ders. This function has been chiefly exercised toward 
 by the legislatures of the states in passing laws State 
 to give authority to local bodies to control schools °° '° ' 
 and school systems, though there has been of late years an 
 increasing tendency toward the assumption of other powers 
 by the state, and more and more it is becoming customary 
 for states to contribute money from their treasuries to pub- 
 lic education. This money, of necessity, is distributed by 
 a central authority, which gives the state itself some con- 
 trol over local school affairs, but almost universally the funds 
 are distributed among the local bodies to be disbursed by 
 local authorities, the state's control being limited to the 
 estabhshment of conditions which must be met before funds 
 can be received. This statement does not include special 
 state institutions, as normal schools and universities, which 
 are not within the scope of the purpose of this book. 
 
 These conditions vary in different states, but commonly 
 have reference to the length of the school year and the 
 qualifications of the teachers, and sometimes to wjj. 
 conditions hygienic and other of the school build- Variations 
 ings and grounds. In some states the central among 
 authority goes so far as to control the licensing * ^^' 
 of teachers through fixing a minimum standard, but gen- 
 erally the state control is very loose and perfunctory. Very 
 few states have any adequate provision for the supervision 
 of the schools, this being regarded as a local matter, though 
 
238 The School and Its Life 
 
 there is a tendency to increase such supervision under state 
 control in the more progressive states. Minnesota, for 
 instance, has state inspectors for schools of different grades, 
 as one for high schools, one for graded elementary schools, 
 and one for ungraded schools, and the control of certain 
 funds voted by the legislature, to be distributed on the basis 
 of a fixed standard of efi&ciency, makes this supervision 
 effective. 
 
 STATE CONTROL 
 
 In most of the states the head of the Department of Edu- 
 cation is a State Superintendent, whose powers, as I have 
 indicated, vary from the vaguest to those of considerable 
 consequence. In some states the superintendent is the only 
 official bearing relations to all the state educational insti- 
 tutions, though boards exist for the government of special 
 institutions, such as normal schools, state universities, schools 
 for the care of the defectives and the Uke. In some states 
 a single State Board of Education has control of all of 
 these, the State Superintendent meeting with the Board. 
 In Massachusetts and some other states there is no State 
 Superintendent, the secretary of the State Board perform- 
 ing many of the duties which the State Superintendent 
 usually performs, but the State Board itself here exercises 
 considerable authority. 
 
 The control of local schools is in most states assumed 
 either by counties or by municipalities. County control 
 is commonly exercised only over rural and village schools, 
 the municipahties within the counties having independent 
 systems, though in some states, as Georgia, for example, 
 the county superintendent is also the superintendent of all 
 city schools in the county. 
 
School Laws 
 
 RURAL SCHOOLS 
 
 239 
 
 In the rural districts, in most states, each school district 
 has its local school committee, which appoints the teacher 
 and in a general way controls the school affairs of the 
 district, subject to a limited control by the county super- 
 intendent, though in some states a town or township com- 
 mittee has taken the place of the local district committee 
 and appoints' the teachers for all the districts of the town- 
 ship. 
 
 TOWN CENTRALIZATION AND TRANSPORTATION 
 
 A recent movement, which has gained much headway in 
 a few states, tends to do away wholly with the local district 
 school and to gather the pupils of rural townships into 
 central schools, the community furnishing transportation. 
 This system has very much in its favor. It makes it pos- 
 sible for the community to have a more complete and 
 properly ventilated, Ughted, and heated schoolhouse; care- 
 fully selected, trained teachers, working under proper super- 
 vision and properly classified; and pupils properly grouped 
 and graded. In short, it provides the rural school children 
 with many of the advantages of village and city schools. 
 The cost of the transportation of pupils is more than com- 
 pensated for by the reduction of the expense incident to the 
 maintenance of so many small rural schools. A plan so 
 rational, so economical, and so helpful is sure to gain popular 
 approval, and undoubtedly in a few years the isolated 
 schools will have disappeared from the most enhghtened 
 states, and the centrahzed schools will have replaced them. 
 
 In most states the teachers of rural schools, though often 
 appointed by the local committees, must be hcensed by the 
 
240 The School and Its Life 
 
 county superintendent. The county superintendent is in 
 some cases elected by the people, as in Minnesota, and in 
 some cases appointed by the State Board of Education, as 
 in New Jersey. 
 
 MUNICIPALITIES 
 
 As has been mentioned, in most states the municipality, 
 whether village or city, is an independent school district, 
 J . controlling its own educational affairs. The 
 
 Differences controlling body is usually a board of educa- 
 Often tion, and here even this degree of uniformity 
 
 Histonca . (,g3^gg_ There is the greatest diversity of method 
 in regard to practically all other elements of control. These 
 differences are due largely to local history. Our various 
 school systems have not been made upon a single pattern, 
 but have grown up out of purely local conditions. Many 
 of them may be said to have happened. They have been 
 simply the most convenient devices resorted to by people 
 who wished their children to have schooling, but who knew 
 nothing of the best ways. Yet it is often true that because 
 of the long continuance of a system, and the fact that people 
 Radical ^^^ '^^^'^ ^° '^^> ^^ ^^ unwise to substitute another 
 Changes which may be theoretically better. It is fre- 
 Often quently much wiser to improve and make the 
 
 nwise. -jj^gg^ ^£ ^j^g prevailing system than to introduce 
 radical or violent changes which the people do not under- 
 stand and which necessarily arouse antagonism and oppo- 
 sition. In a previous chapter the educational powers of 
 the board have been referred to, and perhaps treated with 
 sufficient fulhiess for the purposes of this book. So I will 
 confine myself here to the methods in vogue for securing 
 boards of education and to their extra-educational functions. 
 
School Laws 241 
 
 Boards of education vary in size from three members to 
 more than one hundred, and commonly the size bears slight 
 relation to the size of the community. For con- Boards 
 venience in discussion, boards may be divided into Vary 
 two classes, large and small, calling boards of "*Size. 
 nine members or fewer small, and boards composed of more 
 than nine large except in the three very large cities. 
 
 One of the mooted questions of the day is as to the rela- 
 tive excellence of large boards as compared with small, 
 the tendency in thought and practice being towards smaller 
 boards, although some very able leaders of educational 
 thought, notably United States Commissioner WilUam T. 
 Harris, beUeve in large boards. 
 
 Another question is whether these boards should be 
 elected at large, all the members representing the entire 
 municipality, or by wards, voting precincts, or other tech- 
 nical divisions of the municipality. Here again the ten- 
 dency of modem thought is toward the election of mem- 
 bers at large for the entire community. 
 
 In some cities there is a dual representation, — some 
 members of the board being elected at large and some 
 representing divisions of the city. 
 
 There is also diversity as to the methods by which mem- 
 bers of school boards obtain office, the two prevailing 
 methods being appointment by some central pjansfor 
 authority, and election by the people. In the case Securing 
 of appointed members, the appointing power is Member- 
 usually the mayor of the city, though not always. ^ '^" 
 In a few cases the appointment is made by the Common 
 Council; in at least one, as Philadelphia, by the judges of 
 the District Courts; in also at least one, as Milwaukee, 
 by a special commission, whose members are themselves 
 
242 The School, and Its Life 
 
 appointed for this sole purpose; and in at least one other by 
 the Governor of the state. In a few cases a committee of 
 the Common Council acts as board of education; this is true 
 in Buffalo. 
 
 Moreover, members of boards are elected or appointed 
 for terms varying from one year in some places to seven 
 Term of in others, so that in some places the whole board, 
 Office. in others half the board, and in still others a 
 varying minority, retires at one. time. 
 
 Again, the extra- educational powers of the board vary 
 greatly. In a number of cities the board is a taxing body, 
 Powers of determines the levy for educational purposes, 
 Boards and collects and disburses the funds without 
 ^^^y- control by any other municipal officials. In others 
 
 the board has no power but to take the money given it by 
 some other authority and to spend it under very strict limi- 
 tations ; and in some cities, as in Boston, it is not even 
 allowed to build school buildings. The purse strings are 
 held in some cases by the Common Council, and in others 
 by a municipal board of finance. 
 
 It is evident from the above that we have no uniform 
 system for the control of pubHc education. All who are 
 No Legal reasonably well acquainted with school con- 
 Panacea, ditions, however, know that there are both good 
 schools and bad schools under practically all conceivable 
 conditions. There is no legal panacea for educational ills. 
 Under whatever system schools are conducted, unless the 
 people are vigilant, the schools will suffer. No method of 
 appointment, left unguarded, will of necessity secure a good 
 school board. An inference to be drawn from these remarks 
 is that, in general, the nearer the board is to the people the 
 easier is it for the people's wishes to be reflected. 
 
School Laws 243 
 
 Manifestly, it is impossible to discuss all the various sys- 
 tems outlined above, but we may discuss briefly a few gen- 
 eral principles which affect most of them. 
 
 LARGE OR SMALL BOARDS 
 
 Is it better to have large boards or small? The main 
 argument for the large board is that the people are better 
 represented; that all classes and all locaUties ^ 
 can have representation in a large board, and as ments for 
 a consequence all interests are more Ukely to be Larger 
 looked after; and that popular interest in educa- °^^ ^' 
 tion is Ukely to be kept at a higher plane if the people have 
 many representatives, as there will be necessarily many 
 centers of influence. Another argument is that it is much 
 more difficult in a large board for chques or small 
 parties to secure control; that there can be noBiing hke a 
 close corporation or a star-chamber proceeding with a large 
 legislative body, while small boards can meet quietly and 
 even secretly, and if corrupt can much more easily escape 
 detection. 
 
 More and more, however; popular sentiment has been 
 tending away from the large school board, and this change 
 of sentiment has grown out of conditions. 
 
 It has been found that small boards are more efficient 
 than large boards; that work is done by them more speedily 
 and more carefully; that it is easier to fix respon- jnefficiencv 
 sibiUty for misdeeds. Large boards are always of Sub- 
 organized on the committee plan; the larger the Committee 
 board the greater the number of committees 
 and the more minute the division of function. Com- 
 mittees are created, not because the work of the school 
 board naturally divides itself into so many parts, but in 
 
244 The School and Its Life 
 
 order that school board members, as many as possible, may 
 have chairmanships. As every one familiar with legislation 
 knows, in the greater number of cases the action of com- 
 mittees is practically decisive — that is, legislative bodies 
 generally pass their reports without much deUberation or 
 consideration. The committee represents the majority and 
 the majority stands by the committee, so that often very 
 important matters are decided, not by the board of edu- 
 cation, but by some small section of the board whose 
 members happen to be assigned for pohtical reasons to a 
 particular committee, for whose work they are frequently 
 wholly unquahfied. 
 
 Moreover, in large boards it is practically impossible to 
 Responsi- ^^ responsibiUty. If there is corruption the 
 bility Hard condition is represented by Nast's famous cartoon 
 to Fix. Qf ^jjg Tweed Ring, each one pointing with his 
 thumb to his neighbor and remarking, "It's him." 
 
 The tendency of the present time is to Umit the powers 
 of boards of education to legislation, and to employ for all 
 Limita- executive functions expert officials, as a super- 
 tion of intendent of schools, a superintendent of build- 
 Powers, jjjgg gj^^ others. This arrangement makes it 
 possible to hold officials responsible, and also diminishes the 
 burden of duties of the members of the board, and makes 
 it less necessary to have many committees. It is in 
 accordance with the modem tendency in municipal govern- 
 ment to centralize authority. 
 
 In most cases large boards are elected by the people and 
 represent sections of the municipality. Comparatively few 
 large boards are appointive. In Philadelphia there is a 
 large board, appointed, as has been said, by the judges, and 
 there have been, until very recently, also sectional boards with 
 
School Laws i^r 
 
 practical control over the schools of the sections, the duties 
 of the central board and its officers being greatly circum- 
 scribed. This system is about the> worst conceivable, and 
 has recently been modified by lessening the authority of 
 the local boards. 
 
 REPRESENTATION 
 
 Shall boards be elected or appointed at large, representing 
 the entire community, or shall the members represent dis- 
 tricts? The argument for the latter, which is , 
 11111- . 1 Large 
 
 the old and disappearmg plan, is that the sec- Board 
 
 tional board represents the people better; that Represents 
 unless each district has a representative in the P«°pJ«' 
 school board, the districts not represented by residents 
 are likely to suffer; and that the small board, whose mem- 
 bers may perhaps all Uve within one part of the city, is 
 likely to overlook the needs of the remaining parts, and to 
 favor especially its own districts. 
 
 Here again the theory does not seem to agree with the 
 common experience. There is no doubt a certain local 
 pride and local jealousy in boards whose members p„tii-t^ 
 represent districts, but instead of this working to of This 
 the interests of the individual districts, it too fre- Argu- 
 quently results in bickering, disagreements, delays, °*^° ' 
 and in bargains, corruption, and all iniquity. I have known 
 the discussion as to the location of a school building, whether 
 in one ward or another, to prevent the erection of any school 
 for years, the children going without proper school facili- 
 ties meanwhile. Each member, feeling that he represents 
 a district and not the municipahty, is hkely to see only the 
 needs of his own district and to ignore other parts of the 
 city equally deserving and needy, or more so. 
 
246 The School and Its Life 
 
 The smaller board, of necessity, takes in the needs of the 
 entire community. Citizens of any particular district may 
 
 ^.j be reUed upon to see that the needs of their dis- 
 
 Board trict are presented to the school board. The 
 Must be school board then assumes a judicial attitude 
 Judicial. ^^^ decides what districts are in the greatest 
 need and where money can be spent to the greatest advan- 
 tage to the city as a whole. The results are almost always 
 better than under a sectional system. To secure the repre- 
 sentation of local interests the school laws of New York 
 City provide for local boards without authority, whose 
 duties are to inspect the schools of their districts and advise 
 the school board regarding them. Theoretically this is a 
 good plan. 
 
 It is much easier to secure good school board members 
 if they represent the whole city than if they represent dis- 
 Easier to tricts. Under the latter system local petty poli- 
 Secure ticians can have "pocket boroughs" and retain 
 Good their positions on the school board to the dis- 
 
 em ers. advantage of the community for years, against 
 the wishes of the better citizens and of the community as a 
 whole. I recall in one city a school board member who was 
 both ignorant and immoral and who commonly came to 
 the school board meetings intoxicated, but who held ofi&ce 
 for years, greatly to the distress of good citizens, until finally 
 the board of education itself was legislated out. He repre- 
 sented a small precinct composed of people so like himself 
 that no one could beat him at its polls. He could not have 
 been elected on even the worst general municipal ticket, and 
 no mayor would have dared to appoint him. 
 
 In case of an elective board, the members nominated 
 by the different parties must stand the scrutiny of the entire 
 
School Laws 
 
 247 
 
 community, and this fact of itself makes it necessary for 
 the parties to put up men of better character and higher 
 standing than would be necessary if they were voted for 
 merely by their neighbors. This is not merely theoretical; 
 experience generally has shown its truth. 
 
 ELECTIVE OR APPOINTIVE BOARDS 
 
 Is it better for boards to be elected by the people or ap- 
 pointed by some central authority? Here there is wider 
 difference of opinion than upon any of the questions already 
 asked, and the answers are not so readily forthcoming. A 
 few years ago there was a very decided turn of public senti- 
 ment in favor of appointive boards. Recently there has 
 been a reaction and the tendency seems to be again toward 
 elective boards. The reason for these changes of sentiment 
 naturally is that under no system are the people sure of secur- 
 ing good boards. Bad boards and bad schools may result 
 under all methods. It is with schools as with other munic- 
 ipal matters in the United States, that good and bad alter- 
 nate and vary with the degree of interest among the people. 
 A bad condition of things arises, school boards are corrupt, 
 schools deteriorate, and people become aroused and insist 
 upon a change in method, — it may be from elective to 
 appointive, or the reverse, — and there is an improvement 
 under the influence of the reform movement. A good 
 board is secured, and perhaps a good superintendent and 
 a good system, and then this particular and typical section 
 of the great American people, having accompUshed its duty, 
 sits down in smug satisfaction. But the very watchful 
 "poKtician," seeing the people easily satisfied, gradually 
 begins to assume control again. Whether a board is elected 
 or appointed, pretty soon the self-seeking poUtician takes 
 
248 The School and Its Life 
 
 the place of the good citizen, who was put in under the 
 influence of the reform movement, and the old evils return. 
 As has been shown in the history of many cities in this 
 country, permanent reform in any branch of municipal 
 government seems to be yet beyond our reach. 
 
 Now as to the question asked, this may be said: If the 
 appointing power, say the mayor, is conscientious and intelli- 
 gent and reasonably free from poKtical control, he will 
 appoint a good school board; if he is not he will appoint a 
 bad school board. Persistent and strong popular senti- 
 ment are important factors. 
 
 If a city has had for a long time a fine school board, a 
 mayor would hesitate to impair its quality by appointing 
 an inferior man. Moreover, in the face of great public 
 interest in education, the mayor also would hesitate to put 
 an unsuitable man on the school board. But in general, 
 the mayors of the country are not men of very high grade. 
 They are local politicians of somewhat more than average 
 intelligence and not more than average principle, who pro- 
 pose to work the city government for every possible advan- 
 tage — business, financial, and political — to themselves. 
 
 This is the average mayor, and an institution so rich in 
 patronage and spending so much money as the public schools. 
 Patronage cannot hope to escape. I recall one mayor who 
 Tempting, appointed a school board for the declared purpose 
 of removing the superintendent, because the superintendent 
 had detected the mayor, who was a paper dealer, in frauds 
 in selling paper to the school children. In this particular 
 case the mayor failed, the board refusing to obey his orders. 
 
 Thus the average board appointed by the mayor is not of 
 very high grade, does not contain the best men, and, in my 
 personal judgment, is a httle below the grade of smaller 
 
School Laws 249 
 
 boards elected by the people. I know one city in which 
 the school board, appointed by the mayor, has been for 
 many years a tool of a corporation doing busi- „ ,, 
 ness with the city. The local political boss is the Boards 
 paid employee of this corporation, and he nomi- Elected 
 nates the mayor, whom the people elect, it is true. •'y^^^P**- 
 The mayor always keeps a majority of the school board 
 friendly to this corporation. The people have at times, 
 in desperation, tried to do something, but without success. 
 The mayor is a pretty good mayor in general, and when 
 election time comes there are so many questions involved 
 besides the appointment by him of a school board that this 
 is overlooked, and so he is elected again and again. 
 
 In my judgment, it is better to bring the election of a 
 school board home to the people. A small board elected 
 at large is, in the long run, likely to average better than any 
 kind of board appointed in any other way. If it is not a 
 good board it is the people's fault; its election is a direct 
 issue and is not confused with other issues. It is often said 
 that if the mayor does not appoint a good board it will count 
 against him, and so it may ; but, as I have said, so many other 
 issues are involved that this is often lost sight of. But if 
 there are one or two or three school-board members to be 
 elected by the whole people they necessarily think of them. 
 There is much more likelihood that the electors will see to 
 it that they get good men than that the mayor will, who has 
 so many other interests to consider. In more than one in- 
 stance I have known the election of school-board members 
 to be the principal feature of a municipal election. I recall 
 one case in which good school-board nominees by one 
 party were able to carry through an otherwise inferior ticket 
 because the school-board nominations of the other party 
 
250 The School and Its Life 
 
 were bad. The schools are the dearest interest the people 
 have, and with proper effort it is easier to arouse them on 
 this issue than on any other. 
 
 LONG OR SHORT TERMS 
 
 Should school-board members hold their office for long or 
 short terms ? Neither very long nor very short. Three or 
 four years is a good length of term. They should remain 
 in office long enough to be able to do good work after they 
 have become acquainted with their duties and to demon- 
 strate to the people what they can accompUsh. 
 
 It is not wise, usually, to have a majority of the board, 
 or even half a board, retire from office at the same time. 
 
 . It is better to have a majority always holding 
 
 should Aot over. In some cities a board of five, elected for 
 Retire five years, one going out each year, has proven 
 
 at One satisfactory. This system has one weakness — 
 that it is too difficult to change the board. If 
 matters are going badly the people cannot get at them soon 
 enough. In other cities a board of nine, three going out 
 each year, works well. This secures a strong majority 
 famihar with the workings of the board, and it takes only 
 two elections to upset a board if it is doing badly. 
 
 In general, it is safe to say that the terms of members of 
 the school board should not be less than three years, or 
 more than five years, and that only a minority, never a 
 majority, should retire at one time. This secures intelli- 
 gence in work and assures a continuous policy. 
 
 CONTROL OF FINANCES 
 
 Should school boards control the school finances? In a 
 number of cities in which they do, it seems to work well. 
 
School Laws 
 
 251 
 
 This should never be the case unless boards are elected by 
 the people, however. A board of education, elected, may 
 as safely be trusted with taxation and with the expenditure 
 of funds as a Common Council or any other board elected. 
 If the city has a central board of finance it may be better 
 to allow this board to make appropriations after proper 
 representation by the school board. 
 
 One thing to be avoided in all cases is the control of school 
 funds in any way by what is known as the Common Council, 
 — the one municipal body that is sure to be always bad. 
 Money for schools should be appropriated by some authority 
 wholly in sympathy with schools and bent on their improve- 
 ment. Naturally, from this point of view, the school board 
 is best quaUfied. 
 
 The chief danger in conferring such power upon it is 
 that the general taxpaying abiUty of the municipality may 
 not be sufficiently considered, nor its other needs. Much 
 is to be said in favor of a central board of taxation, acting 
 within legally prescribed limitations. It is well to have 
 a legal minimum, as a fixed percentage based upon the tax- 
 able property, or a gross amount per pupil enrolled, so 
 that enough to maintain the schools at a fair degree of 
 efl&ciency is made mandatory. 
 
 TENURE OF OFFICE 
 
 There is wide variation in regard to the length of the 
 term for which both superintendents and teachers are ap- 
 pointed. In very many places the term for both is one 
 scholastic year. 
 
 The term of the superintendent is, in different places, 
 two, three, four, five, six, seven, and ten years, while in a 
 few, the term is indefinite, "during good behavior." The 
 
252 The School and Its Life 
 
 term of employment for teachers is rarely more than one 
 year except in those cities where it is indefinite or "during 
 good behavior." 
 
 What plan is best? 
 
 First, as to the superintendent, unquestionably a term of 
 one year is bad. A new superintendent has barely time to 
 One- Year become acquainted with his schools and his board, 
 Term when he must again look after his election. Prac- 
 
 ^*^- tically he must always keep one eye on the coming 
 
 election. It is never far enough ahead to be lost sight of. 
 
 This situation, even with the most independent superin- 
 tendent, is crippling. He is never sure that he will be able to 
 carry out any policy that he may a;dopt, and this uncertainty 
 lessens his initiative. He is apt to think it better to keep 
 things running smoothly as they are than to run the risk of 
 stirring people up with the possible result of losing his place 
 and seeing his policies reversed before they have been tested. 
 It is impossible in a single year to demonstrate the value 
 or even the feasibility of any far-reaching plans, 
 should especially if they are radical. 
 Admit the The term of a superintendent should always be 
 Demon- long enough to enable him to inaugurate large 
 p J. plans for the development of the schools and 
 
 demonstrate their worth. In no term of less 
 than three years can this be done, four are better, and five 
 or six still better. 
 
 Much is to be said in favor of the indefinite term, with 
 
 Indefinite possible removal for cause only. This certainly 
 
 Term gives the superintendent a comfortable sense of 
 
 Gives freedom, for only in extreme cases can legal 
 
 " ^' "cause" for removal be proven. 
 
 The question is whether it does not make the superin- 
 
School Laws 
 
 253 
 
 tendent too comfortable. It is sometimes a good thing 
 to be compelled at intervals to face the people's , 
 verdict in regard to one's efficiency. Give Too 
 
 Doubtless most superintendents may be trusted Great 
 to do their best under the stress of ambition and Security. 
 professional enthusiasm without the additional stimulus of 
 an election at some time in the future. Indeed I believe 
 that to be the case, and while I think an election ^dds 
 after a reasonably long term is unobjectionable Dignity 
 and with some desirable, I have no doubt that a *° Office, 
 certain dignity is added to the office when removed from 
 the necessity of seeking votes. 
 
 TENURE OF TEACHERS 
 
 The arguments as to the tenure of office of teachers are 
 practically the same as for superintendents. The /^„„ „„j . _ 
 annual election gives the authorities a very effec- pointment 
 tive means of discipline, which, in some cities, Simplifies 
 where indefinite tenure prevails, is evidently *^'^'P"*^' 
 greatly needed. 
 
 On the other hand, the teachers who are looking forward 
 to an election each year are frequently rendered Renjgrg 
 unduly nervous by it and are really not able to Teachers 
 do as good work as if they were freed from the Unduly 
 ever present fear of "being dropped." This is «"^°"s. 
 especially true of the good teachers. 
 
 The sense of security that goes with permanent tenure 
 certainly makes for steadiness and strength in Perma- 
 the schools. Its tendency is to give a higher nencyAt- 
 professional value to the teacher's position, and t^ct'^*- 
 to attract and hold a better class of people. It removes, 
 too, much of the temptation to mingle in politics. 
 
254 The School and Its Life 
 
 But it should never be impossible or unduly difficult to 
 „ J remove unfit or incompetent superintendents 
 
 should not or teachers. The tendency of courts to decide 
 be Diffi- that public officials may not be removed except 
 * for glaring malfeasance is unfortunate. Neither 
 
 should permanent appointment be given until after a suit- 
 able season of probation. 
 
 On the whole, my judgment is rather in favor of the 
 Probation- indefinite tenure for both superintendent and 
 aryTerm teachers after a suitable probationary period, 
 Essential. ^^^^ ^^le provision that removal be not made 
 unduly difficult. 
 
 Certainly every measure is desirable that will advance 
 the teachers professionally, dignify the office, and free all 
 their powers for the work of teaching. 
 
 The final test of all questions of administration is its rela- 
 tion to the welfare of the individual children in the schools. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abnormal children, 45. 
 
 treatment of, 47-49. 
 Adolescence, dangers of overwork 
 
 during, 222. 
 Apperceiving centers, a proof of 
 
 good teaching, 138. 
 Application, a result of good 
 
 teaching, 138. 
 Attendance, compulsory, 204-211. 
 difficulty of securing, 215- 
 
 219. 
 
 Boards of Education. See laws 
 and superintendent. 
 
 Bondage through entangling as- 
 sociations, 94. 
 
 Boston, 147, 242. 
 
 Bribery, 94. 
 
 Buffalo, 242. 
 
 Character, product of life, 28. 
 Children, at seats, 124. 
 
 go to school to learn, 10. 
 
 must realize value of work, 
 
 32- 
 Cleveland, 148. 
 
 Compulsory attendance. See at- 
 tendance. 
 Concentration, power of, 143. 
 Conference, private, with teach- 
 ers, 126 et seq. 
 importance of, 126. 
 should encourage teachers, 
 
 127. 
 should distribute ideas, 128. 
 should stimulate original 
 work, 128, 129. 
 
 Conventions, 24. 
 
 for special institutions, 25. 
 rest upon fundamental prin- 
 ciples, 26. 
 sometimes fetiches, 27. 
 Co-operation of pupils, 37. 
 
 of society, 89. 
 Correlation necessary, 12. 
 County superintendent, 240. 
 Course of study, a minimum, 
 46. 
 body of knowledge and range 
 
 of ideas, 11. 
 fixed by authorities, 214. 
 interpretation of, 104, loj. 
 mandatory and suggestive, 
 
 II, 100, 101. 
 rich in substaince, 34. 
 should stimulate to self-im- 
 provement, 102, 103. 
 working material, 13. 
 
 Departmental teaching, 51 ei seq. 
 
 advantages of, 53, 54. 
 
 disadvantages of, 55-60. 
 
 possible system of, 61-65. 
 
 in high school, 63-65. 
 Dewey, Dr. John, 35. 
 Discipline, martinet, 31. 
 
 principles of, 23 et seq. 
 Disorder, sources of, 29. 
 Drill for drill's sake, 12. 
 Dull children, 49. 
 
 Education, growth through nutri- 
 tion, 15 
 through responsibility, 92. 
 
 2SS 
 
256 
 
 Ind 
 
 ex 
 
 Elements of school life, four, 8. 
 Ends of teaching, often obscured, 
 
 8. 
 Examinations, 66-68. 
 Exercise, must have motive, 12. 
 Expression, necessary to learning, 
 
 IS- 
 Expressive arts, value of, 46.'' 
 
 Formal standards, danger of, 9. 
 Freedom of co-operation, 88. 
 recapitulation of principles, 
 
 90 el seq. 
 social, 36. 
 Furniture of schools, not adapted 
 to popular uses, 234. 
 
 Georgia, 238. 
 
 Gradation and promotion of 
 pupils, 67 et seq. 
 
 the motive of, 70. 
 
 means of, 71-73. 
 
 special devices for, 73-75. 
 
 a rational scheme for, 75-77. 
 
 number of marks, 77. 
 Graded school, 16-20. 
 Graded school, compared with 
 
 ungraded, 14. 
 Group system, 17-20, 43. 
 Grovifth, depends on exercise, 35. 
 
 Harris, W. T., 241. 
 
 Home and school, 209 et seq. 
 
 teachers and parents, 212, 213. 
 visits of parents, 213. 
 home study of lessons, 220, 
 
 222. 
 home standards of morals, 
 
 222-224. 
 home, claim of, paramount, 
 
 225. 
 
 Individual child, 41. 
 Institute, grade, 117, 118. 
 
 county, 118, 119. 
 Instiuctions to teachers, 105. 
 
 Interest, indications of, 139-141. 
 result of good teaching, 138. 
 vital, discussion of, 34. 
 
 Judging teaching. See results. 
 
 Laws concerning education, 236 
 et seq. 
 
 state control, 237, 238. 
 
 rural schools, 239. 
 
 rural schools, centralization 
 of, 239. 
 
 rural schools, transportation 
 of pupils, 239. 
 
 rural schools, county super- 
 intendent, 240. 
 
 urban schools, 240, 254. 
 
 boards of education, size, 241, 
 243-246. 
 
 boards of education, repre- 
 sentation, 241, 245, 246. 
 
 sub-committees, 243. 
 
 powers, 244, 250, 251. 
 
 election or appointment, 247, 
 248, 249. 
 
 tenure, 250. 
 
 tenure of office of superintend- 
 ent, 251, 252, 253. 
 
 tenure of office of teachers, 
 
 2Si> 253, 254- 
 Learning, requires reaction, 41. 
 solitary, futile, 42. 
 
 Machine, evils of, 16. 
 
 tyranny of, 83. 
 Marking, daily, 69, 70. 
 Marking teachers, 85. 
 Marks as ends, 39, 84. Also see 
 
 gradation. 
 Martinet disciplinarian, 31. 
 Mass teaching, 16, 17, 41. 
 Massachusetts, 238. 
 Meetings of teachers, 106 et seq. 
 
 general, 107. 
 
 grade, 107, 108. 
 
 class before, 108, 109. 
 
Index 
 
 257 
 
 Meetings, subjects, iii, 112. 
 
 adjacent grades, 112, 113. 
 
 special classes, 113. 
 
 principals and teachers, 114. 
 
 with assistants, 114. 
 
 superintendent and princi- 
 pals, 1 13-1 16. 
 
 in large cities, 116. 
 
 time of, 117. 
 
 grade institute, 117, 118. 
 Milwaukee, 241. 
 Minnesota, 238. 
 Morals of school, 23. 
 Morals, relative term, 25. 
 
 and manners, 27. 
 
 school and home standards, 
 222, 224. 
 Mothers' clubs, 230. 
 
 National system, none, 236. 
 New Jersey, 240. 
 New York, 147, 246. 
 Newspapers, use of by superin- 
 tendent, 187. 
 Normal children, the majority, 45. 
 need no special training, 46. 
 
 Obedience, discussion of, 30. 
 Occupation, the key to life, 10. 
 Officials must exercise power 
 
 wisely, 92. 
 Ohio laws, 150. 
 One man power, 152, 153. 
 Organization necessary, 86. 
 
 Parent and school. See home and 
 
 school. 
 Parent and teacher. See home 
 
 and school. 
 Parents' associations, 230-234. 
 Philadelphia, 150, 241, 244. 
 Principal, the, 201 et seq. 
 
 functions uniform, 201. 
 
 factor in community, 202. 
 
 executive head of school, 202. 
 
 routine work of, 203, 204. 
 
 disciplinary head, 204, 205. 
 
 inspirational head, 208. 
 
 educational head, 215. 
 
 work with teachers, 215-218. 
 Private conference with teachers. 
 
 See conference. 
 Prizes, 29. 
 Problems stated, i, 6. 
 
 of education, psychological 
 and sociological, i, 2. 
 
 of the single school, 3, 4. 
 
 of the system, 5, 6. 
 Productive work, lack of, 15. 
 
 need of, 44. 
 
 the individual's chance, 44. 
 Progress, social, due to individual 
 
 improvement, 91. 
 Promotion of pupils. See grada- 
 tion. 
 Psychological claims, 39. 
 Punctuality, 219. 
 Pupils, help one another, 36. 
 
 Reaction necessary, 121. 
 
 in groups, 43. 
 Recitation, the, 18, 123. 
 Regularity of attendance, 215- 
 
 219. 
 Removal of poor teachers, 93. 
 Responsibility for common good, 
 
 38, 92. 
 Results of teaching, judging, 10, 
 
 131- 
 three reasons for, 131. 
 difficulties of, 312. 
 very poor teacher, 133. 
 for promotion, 133. 
 personality in, 134. 
 different elements, 135. 
 what are results, 136, 137. 
 intangible, T43. 
 not shown by marks, 144. 
 
 School, a social institution, i, 2, 
 
 a spiritual union, 7, 8. 
 
258 
 
 Index 
 
 School, not necessarily disagree- 
 able, 33. 
 plant idle, 228. 
 to train for social efficiency, 
 2. 
 Secondary ends, dangers of, 39, 
 
 78, 84. 
 Socialism and schools, 209-211. 
 Social functions of schools, 226 
 et seq. 
 social centers needed, 227. 
 school plant idle, 228. 
 two motives for gatherings, 
 
 228. 
 two classes of organizations, 
 229, 230. 
 Sociological claims, i, 2, 42. 
 Solitary learning futile, 42. 
 Special subjects, teacher and su- 
 pervisor of, 190 et seq. 
 difficulties of, 190. 
 need of, 191, 192. 
 Special teacher, 193. 
 Special supervisor, 194-200. 
 
 represents the superintendent, 
 
 195- 
 
 should recognize principal, 
 196, 197. 
 State control of schools. See 
 
 laws. 
 Superintendent of schools, 146 
 et seq. 
 
 a newcomer, 146. 
 
 offices vary, 147, 150. 
 
 an expert, 151. 
 
 two special functions, 151. 
 
 powers of, 152-158. 
 
 statutory functions, 157, 158. 
 
 importance of personality, 
 159 et seq. 
 
 varied relations, 160 et seq. 
 
 and board, 162-169. 
 
 and teachers, 170, 179. 
 
 relations vary with commu- 
 nity, 171. 
 
 social functions. 180, 189. 
 
 represents intellectual forces, 
 
 182 
 should educate the public, 
 
 182. 
 must not be partisan, 183. 
 should mingle with men, 184. 
 interested m all educational 
 
 means, 185. 
 should use the press, 187. 
 should use platform, 188. 
 tenure of office. See laws. 
 Supervising officers, contributors, 
 
 90. 
 must exercise power wisely, 
 
 .92; 
 distributors of ideas, 130. 
 Supervisors of special subjects. 
 
 See special supervisor. 
 Supervisors, terrifying, 236. 
 Syllabi, 104, 105. 
 System, aim to help teacher, 81. 
 subordinates individual, 82. 
 should not interfere with 
 
 work, 96. 
 may help teachers, 96 et seq. 
 no national system, 85. 
 
 Teacher, 80. 
 
 makes the school, 80. 
 
 in rural school, 82. 
 
 self-respect of, 86. 
 
 importance of, 87. 
 
 freedom of, 88 et seq. 
 
 and parent, 212, 213. 
 
 poor, removable, 93. 
 
 development of, 96. 
 
 must obey, 98. 
 
 of consequence, 99. 
 
 helping the, 124, 125. 
 
 tenure of office. See laws. 
 
 judgment of. See results. 
 
 of special subject. See spe- 
 cial teacher. 
 Thoroughness, 141. 
 Tompkins, Arnold, i, 8, 170. 
 Transportation of pupils, 239. 
 
Index 
 
 259 
 
 Ungraded (rural) school com- 
 pared with graded (urban), 
 14. 
 need of social training in, 21. 
 
 Ungraded (special) school, 47. 
 
 Urban teachers, opportunities of, 
 89. 
 
 Visitation of schools by supervis- 
 ing officers, 122 et seq. 
 
 motives of, 122. 
 manner of, 123. 
 what to observe, 123, 124. 
 helping the teacher, 124, 125. 
 Visits of teachers, upon one 
 another, no. 
 
 Will, needed by teacher, 29. 
 Work, power to, 35. 
 
IP ! 
 
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