of the Department of Secondary Education. He gave a short sketch of the history of the English public school, which goes back to the time of Henry VIII and Edward VI. The Fisher Bill, which provides for the reorganization of the English school system, was then discust by the speaker. An interesting point brought out in the discussion was the fact that 75 per cent of the pupils in secondary schools pay fees, tho a number of scholarships are also provided. The speaker said that the free education of all pupils in the secondary schools would be considered impossible in a country so bound by traditions as is England. The changed attitude of Parliament regarding school matters which has been brought about by the war was also alluded to. There is no objection to increast taxation. In one evening several millions for teachers' salaries were secured without protest. The explanation that this amount represented only one-half day's fighting in the war sufficed to overcome all objections. Five years ago this would have been impossible. DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION SECRETARY'S MINUTES OFFICERS . Portland, Ore. .Lexington, Ky. President-WILLIAM T. FOSTER, president, Reed College.. The Department of Higher Education of the National Education Association met in Pittsburgh, July 2 and 3, at the Mellon Institute, President F. L. McVey, vice-president of the department, presiding. The following program was presented: FIRST SESSION-TUESDAY FORENOON, JULY 2, 1918 The program for this meeting was arranged by the Emergency Council on Education. General Topic: Organization for War Purposes "The Bill for a National Department of Education"-John H. MacCracken, president, Lafayette College, Easton, Pa. "Psychological Service in Connection with the Military Organization of the United States"-R. F. Yerkes, major, Sanitary Corps, United States Army, chairman, Psychology Committee, National Research Council, Washington, D.C. Discussion. SECOND SESSION-WEDNESDAY FORENOON, JULY 3, 1918 General Topic: National Preparedness "Universal Government Service"-Miss Sarah L. Arnold, dean of Simmons College, Boston, Mass. "Sex Education and the War"-Norman F. Coleman, professor of English, Reed College, Portland, Ore. "Education after the War"-James P. Munroe, member, Advisory Board, War Department Committee on Education and Special Training, Washington, D.C. "The Problems of Historical Scholarship and Teaching as Affected by the War"E. B. Greene, chairman, National Board for Historical Research, Washington, D.C. Discussion. At the business session held Wednesday forenoon, July 3, the following officer was elected for the ensuing year: President-Frank L. McVey, president of the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky. PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS THE BILL FOR A NATIONAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION JOHN H. MAC CRACKEN, PRESIDENT, LAFAYETTE COLLEGE, EASTON, PA. At the annual meeting of the National Association of School Superintendents, held in Washington, February 7, 1866, E. E. White, then commissioner of common schools of Ohio, read a paper on "A National Bureau of Education." He favored a system of conditional appropriations and a general system of inspection and encouragement thru the agency of a national Bureau of Education to induce each state to maintain an efficient school system. "Such a bureau," he said, "would be the strength and shield of free institutions." This memorial summed up the results of the agitation of twenty years and laid down the principles which gave us our present Bureau of Education. The memorial bore the date of February 10, 1866. On February 14, 1866, Congressman James A. Garfield, to whom Dr. White had presented. the memorial, introduced a bill for the establishment of a national bureau. On April 3 the bill was reported out of committee, with an amendment changing the name from "Bureau" to "Department," and in July, 1866, the bill was past by the House providing for a Department of Education. At the next meeting of the National Association of School Superintendents a committee of five, with E. E. White again as chairman, was appointed to urge the passage of the bill in the Senate, and on March 6, 1867, the bill past the Senate and the next day was signed by President Johnson. The life of the department as a department was a short one. In the appropriation bill of July 20, 1868, a rider reduced the department to a bureau of the Department of the Interior, and it reduced the salary of the Commissioner from $5000 to $3000, the change to take effect June 30, 1869. Thus there was a department in existence for two years and four months. The history of the establishment of the bureau is illuminating and encouraging to us of this generation who are interested in seeing a department replace the bureau. It is encouraging to note that twenty years of agitation were required to accomplish anything. It is also cheering to note that when educational opinion had crystallized it required only four days to get a bill before Congress, and only one year to have it made a law. It is also significant that it was in that case also war which focust the opinion of the country on the importance of education. What now are the principles which we believe to be fundamental? 1. That education is inferior to no other interest of government, and that this fact must receive recognition by the appointment of a national representative of education in the President's cabinet. 2. That the people of the United States have a common national interest in education as well as an interest in education within their own state, and that this national interest of the people should find expression thru a national office. 3. That the national office should not control education in the states, but should represent state education and should be the agent of the states in educational matters of interstate interest. 4. That when any state is obviously failing to do its share in the development of good schools and the training of American citizens and thus creat ing a weak spot in the American lines, it is the function of a national Department of Education, expressing the public opinion of the United States, by publicity, by persuasion, and by subsidy to stimulate and promote better educational conditions in that state. 5. That inasmuch as the conditions of labor in general have been taken under the wardenship of the national government, and the national government has not hesitated to define a normal working day and to pronounce on the adequacy of compensation in various industries, or the conditions under which women and children will be employed, a national Department of Education might properly concern itself with the improvement of the teachers' financial status and might properly aid in raising the standards of training for the profession. 6. The entrance of the United States into the world-war has so radically altered our relationships to foreign countries, wiping out the sharp separation between American, European, and Asiatic affairs, that international educational relations have assumed an importance hitherto unknown. Already there is establisht a Division of Foreign Education in the Committee on Public Information. Already the National Research Council has secured the appointment of scientific attachés at certain foreign embassies. It is clear that education can no longer be regarded as exclusively or appropriately a function of the Department of the Interior. On the contrary, foreign relations in education will constitute one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of the functions of the new Department of Education. If we are to have a better understanding of things after the war and if we are to avoid war in the future, we must be willing to spend not only millions at home but millions abroad interpreting American thought and ideals to the other great nations of the world. Moreover, if we should have some form of universal national service in this country after the war, we shall either have to make our War Department a Department of Education and turn our Navy, as has been suggested, into a university, or we must create a national Department of Education which will take over the educational tasks involved in universal national service. For this reason, if for no other, we want at Washington a department which will represent the aspirations of the American people, not for dominion, nor commerce, nor food, nor dollars, but for the fulness of life as intelligent free men which our forefathers knew and which we, their sons, have not forgotten even in the strain of present circumstances. Two bills have been drafted and placed in the hands of the chairman of the Senate Committee on Education to carry out these purposes: one, a bill drafted by a committee of the National Education Association with Superintendent Chandler, of Richmond, as chairman; the other, a bill drafted by a committee of the Emergency Council on Education, of which the writer is chairman. |