DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY
SECONDARY EDUCATION

SECRETARY'S MINUTES

FIRST SESSION.-TUESDAY, JULY 4, 1905

The Department of Secondary Education met in the First Presbyterian Church, Asbury Park, on Tuesday, July 4, 1905, at 9:30 A. M. The meeting was called to order by the president, William Schuyler, assistant principal of the William McKinley High School, St. Louis, Mo., who, after the preliminary announcements, delivered an address on "The Schoolmaster."

Dr. E. W. Lyttle, Albany, N. Y., state inspector of high schools for the state of New York, read a paper on the subject, "Should the Twelve-Year Course of Study be Equally Divided Between the Elementary School and the Secondary School?" The discussion of the subject was led by Frank H. Robson, headmaster, Bancroft School, Worcester, Mass.; Christopher Gregory, principal of Chattle High School, Long Branch, N. J.; Charles L. Mosher, superintendent of schools, Canton, N. Y.; and Walter M. Kern, superintendent of schools, Columbus, Nebr.

Reuben Post Halleck, principal of Boys' High School, Louisville, Ky., read a paper on the topic, "Why Do So Many Pupils Leave the High School in the First Year? How Can They Be Induced to Remain ?" The discussion was led by J. Stanley Brown, principal of Township High School, Joliet, Ill.; Clarence F. Carroll, superintendent of schools, Rochester, N. Y.; Isaac Thomas, principal of High School, Burlington, Vt.; J. W. Searson, superintendent of public schools, Wahoo, Neb.; and Charles Allen Marple, department of physics and Chemistry, South High School, Cleveland, O.

The president appointed the following

COMMITTEE ON NOMINATIONS

Reuben Post Halleck, Louisville, Ky.

Charles L. Mosher. Canton, N. Y.
Ernest Clapp Noyes, Cincinnati, Ohio.

On motion of Dr. C. A. Herrick, the following was adopted:

Resolved, That a standing committee of five members of the Department of Secondary Education be appointed by the president elected in 1905 to consider the question of dividing the twelve years given to elementary and secondary education equally between elementary and secondary schools.

On motion of Dr. E. W. Lyttle, the following was adopted:

Resolved, That a committee be appointed by the president elected in 1905 to consider the subject of securing proper professional preparation for high-school teachers. The department then adjourned.

SECOND SESSION.-THURSDAY, JULY 6

The meeting was called to order by President Schuyler at 9:30 A. M.

The report of the special committee on "Secret Societies in Secondary Schools," by Gilbert B. Morrison, chairman, was read by the secretary. After an animated discussion, the report and the resolution accompanying were adopted as the expression of the department.

The Committee on Nominations reported the following:

For President-Eugene W. Lyttle, Albany, N. Y.

For First Vice-President-Wilson Farrand, Newark, N. J.

For Second Vice-President-Edwin Twitmyer, Bellingham, Wash.

For Secretary-Philo M. Buck, St. Louis, Mo.

The report of the committee was adopted, and the gentlemen named were declared elected as officers of the department for the ensuing year.

The meeting then adjourned to attend the different conferences as follows:

A. Principals Conference. Topic: "Should the Time and Energy of High-School Principals Be Taken up with Administrative Work to the Exclusion of Instruction?" Leader, Walter B. Gunnison, principal of Erasmus Hall High School, Brooklyn, N. Y. B. English Conference. Topic: "Aims of English Teaching: (a) Composition; (b) Rhetoric; (c) Advanced Grammar; (d) Literary Criticism and Appreciation." Leader, Philo M. Buck, department of English, William McKinley High School, St. Louis, Mo.

C. History Conference. Topic: "What Facts of History Should be Taught Pupils in Secondary Schools That They May Better Understand the World They Live In ?" Leader, James Sullivan, head teacher of history, High School of Commerce, New York city. D. Mathematics Conference. Topic: "Individual Instruction in Algebra and Geometry." Leader, Franklin T. Jones, science and mathematics, University School, Cleveland, Ohio.

E. Classics Conference. Topic: "The College Requirments and the SecondarySchool Work." Leader, J. C. Kirtland, Jr., professor of Latin, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, N. H.

F. Modern Languages Conference. Topic: "The 'Direct Method' of Teaching." Leader, Ernst Wolf, Yeatman High School, St. Louis, Mo.

WILSON FARRAND, Secretary.

PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS

THE SCHOOLMASTER

WILLIAM SCHUYLER, ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL OF WILLIAM MCKINLEY HIGH SCHOOL, ST. LOUIS, MO.

We schoolmasters meet year after year to discuss what we can do for our pupils. We have made great progress in many ways by so doing; but it is well occasionally to remember that "charity begins at home," and to turn our attention to that ancient but important question: "What can we do for ourselves?" What can we do for ourselves, not as schoolmasters, but as men; not as mere sources of knowledge, or as organizers or administrators of educational institutions, but as human beings who have to live in this world; in short, as men of the world-not men of the world in the lower meaning of the term, but men who know the world thoroly, and can get out of it all that is best and highest and noblest? And we should consider this, not only for our own comfort and pleasure in our personal life outside the school, but also

in its ultimate effect on us in our special work as schoolmasters. For he is the best master of his school-other things being equal-who is the most. thoro man of the world.

It is a truism that every school-nay, every schoolroom-is a little world, and the better the schoolmaster is acquainted with the great world outsidewith its heights and its depths, its lights and its shadows, its virtues and its vices, its glory and its woe-the more he can make this little world of his become like the great world, and the better will his pupils be prepared when they go forth to fight the battle of life. Especially is this true of us teachers in secondary schools, the great majority of whose pupils are just about to finish their school life, and already know more of the world than some of us imagine, and who judge us, and judge us severely, according to our knowledge or ignorance of that world they see opening before them.

For ages the schoolmaster has been the butt of satire and caricature, and the honorable name of pedagog has become in the mouths of many a term of reproach-or, what is worse, the theme for cheap wit. And, if we will be honest, we must see that there is good cause for this.

Too great devotion to any profession always tends to narrow a manto lead him to substitute the special aims of his own particular work for the great aims of humanity, to substitute his own special standards for those accepted by the world at large. And of all professions that of teaching is most liable to this danger. In the first place, there is the fascinating absorption in one's special subject, which only too easily degenerates into pedantry— where the means take precedence of the end to be attained; and then there is that constant association with immature minds which, if not counteracted by a broad and varied outlook, ends in making the schoolmaster narrower and pettier in mind than the children he tries to control, for they at least are growing while he is drying up-is fossilizing. The teacher who yields to these deleterious influences soon becomes the pedagog of satire. His little world becomes to him the only world; the little peccadillos and shortcomings of his pupils become in his eyes grievous sins and crimes; he is unutterably shocked by any irregular manifestation of the exuberant vitality he is trying to control, and he does his best to stifle all free life and progress by his petty and annoying rules and requirements. To use an expressive slang phrase, he may be able by constant effort to "keep the lid on" the seething cauldron of his school or class; but his pupils soon learn that his outlook is limited and insufficient; they despise him for his ignorance of what they already know; they hate him for the petty injustice of his regulations and the narrow exactions of his requirements; and the stronger characters among them, the "bad boys" socalled, consider it a meritorious act to beat him, or even cheat him, at every opportunity.

But let the schoolmaster be a true man of the world; let him know all the temptations that not only children, but even grown people, succumb to; let him know and feel the manifold desires that move human beings to noble

and ignoble deeds; let him view the wondrous drama of life in its entiretythen he will see that in the little world of school nothing is fatal; that the little sinner of today becomes the good man of the morrow; that not by horrified repression, but by sympathetic encouragement, he can develop his young barbarians into efficient members of civilized society. He will also see that a youth will need something more than a mere mnemonic knowledge of his text-books, something more than the ability to pass his examinations in order to make his way in the world efficiently and nobly. And that something more can only be developed, not by what the schoolmaster says, but by what he is, by his personality. For children learn, as we all know, most thru imitation, and they can have no better preparation for the world than the unconscious imitation of a true man of the world.

It is just as easy for the schoolmaster to become a man of the world as it is for anyone. It is mainly the matter of choosing his associates. His associates should be of as many different callings as possible. The true schoolmaster should be, above all things, a social being; he should be at home in the society, of merchants, mechanics, artists, journalists, musicians, lawyers, doctors, politicians, and clergymen. And he can be at home with each of these, if he cultivate an interest in those things which constitute their life-work.

Even where the circumstances of the schoolmaster are such that he cannot associate himself directly with all forms of this varied life of the world, he can always reach them thru great literature and art, wherein the world from age to age records its experience and sets forth its ideals. Outside of the direct contact of actual life, there is nothing more broadening, more humanizing, than a close and loving acquaintance with the great masterpieces of human expression, not only those of our own time and country, but those of other lands and of bygone days. And yet many schoolmasters allow increasing absorption in their daily tasks to cut off from this source of spiritual nutriment which meant so much to them in their youth.

Of course, we cannot expect of one poor schoolmaster that he should be equally interested in every form of human activity; for instance, that, not having an ear for music, he should be the chosen comrade of musicians, or an enthusiastic admirer of Beethoven's symphonies; but that is the ideal; and the nearer one approaches it, the better man of the world will he be—yes, even the better schoolmaster. For if a man try to develop all his capabilities, he will be surprised at possibilities in himself he had never dreamed of; and if he keep a broad outlook, he will find that he can sympathize even where he cannot fully understand and appreciate.

It is this understanding, this appreciation, this sympathy, that distinguishes the true man of the world from the narrow specialist, or the provincial; and it is the same understanding, appreciation, and sympathy which will change the schoolmaster from the absurd pedant of satire and caricature into what he should be a guide, counselor, and friend.

There is an unfortunate tendency in some quarters at the present time to consider the profession of teaching as something apart from the ordinary vocations of mankind, as endowed with a peculiar code of ethics considerably above that of the world at large. But this pharisaical, "holier-than-thou" attitude is fatal to the highest efficiency of the schoolmaster, whose business is to prepare his charges, not for another world-that belongs to the churchbut for this world in which they must live and move and have their being. If he insists upon standards different from those of the world about him, his pupils, who are beginning to know the world, will judge him by those standards, and will consider him an antiquated or unpractical fellow whose admonitions have no real value; and so his influence will amount to little or nothing.

It may be said here that, in spite of the screaming headlines of the yellow journals, in spite of "Frenzied Finance" and boodle exposures, the generally accepted ethical standards are neither dishonest nor debasing, but are as good as can be expected at this time in this finite world of ours. It is also a truism that each era-each race even-has its own ethical standard, evolved by peculiar temperament and circumstances; and it is not the part of the schoolmaster to pose as an exemplar of the ancient Israelitish ethics, of the antique Greek or Roman, of the mediæval ascetic or the modern puritanical, nor of any fossilized code of morals, no matter how excellent and suitable they may have been in their own time and place; nor should he construct or admit a peculiar code applying especially to members of his vocation, as if they were of finer or more fragile clay. But he should be simply a man-a true man of the world of his time, an American gentleman in all which that term implies and his religion, what it may please God.

We all know, or should know, what are the best ethical standards of our time and country; and that, in America at least, they are not mere empty professions is shown by the universal esteem and honor accorded to every man who consistently tries to live up to them. And a man does not need to be a schoolmaster or a clergyman in order to satisfy them.

The schoolmaster then will be most efficient, both for his own and his pupils' good, who has the most knowledge of the world as it is and as it has been. But in obtaining this knowledge he must become the master, not the slave, of the world. He will be like those pilots who know every reef or rock in the channel, but whose barks have never been shipwrecked. He will then be a guide, who can point to the loftiest heights and noblest vistas in the path of life, and at the same time reveal the obstacles and abysses that are on every side. He will be a counselor, whose advice will be heeded, because his charges feel that he knows whereof he speaks. He will be a friend, whose broad charity will bear with failure and even perversity, and whose wise sympathy will draw erring hearts to him for comfort and aid. Like St. Paul, he will be "all things to all men, that he may by all means save some."