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to see the results. Let him have an end in view, a complete plan, an aim, and if he be wise and enthusiastic, the community gathers momentum like water down hill.

One great purpose of the superintendent is to steer the schools clear of the rocks of county politics. I am reliably informed that in some places the politicians mark the schools as political spoils.

It is the duty of the public to let the schools alone, especially in the matter of selecting teachers. The most baleful influence upon the school systems of the country is the political influence of powerful men who seek to make the schools the source of support for indigent gentlewomen. They may be needy, they may be worthy, but it is a crime to support them at the expense of the public and of the children, if they are not good teachers—and this latter the superintendent alone should decide. How many weary battles have been fought for the schools, for the children, and for the public itself, by the superintendents of the land, who have bared their breasts to the storm and said they would have none of it, that the schools were for the teachers, and not for the kinfolk, or political allies, and friends!

So long as teachers are employed upon any other basis than that of schoolroom ability, the system is doomed to inefficiency. Everybody will recognize the truth of the statement, in his calmer moments, that school teachers should not be selected upon a basis of sympathy or political reward. Even the board members recognize that. Therefore, when there is no election pending, when the waters are calm and no instance is up, and nobody to be made an example of, then is the time to get the board to bind itself by formal resolution to do the right thing when the next time comes. Then when the crisis arises and a few wish to override the schools, there is a rule against it which the superintendent and the board may fall back upon to protect the schools.

The superintendent should have the power to prepare an eligible list of candidates from which the board agrees to elect the teachers. This power being granted, the superintendent should make it his earnest duty to find good teachers by all means in his power.

By all these means we see the duty of a superintendent toward the public may be stated in these propositions:

1. To inform them of what is going on in the school system, to conceal nothing, to have everything open to their view and comment.

2. To enlighten them regarding the nature of public schools, their mission and purpose, and the means by which any one community can be kept in line with the best community.

3. To hedge the schools about with every safeguard against the unworthy influence of the politician who wishes to use them for his own benefit, and to protect them against sympathetic men who wish to make them a refuge for indigents.

4. To create that spirit among the people that will make them willing to vote large sums of money for the improvement of the schools, and to put their best men in charge of the school affairs.

This may be hard but it is not impossible. By wisdom and tact, and, above all, by patience, a superintendent, recognizing his limitations and his powers, can lead the people year by year to build better, tho it be little at a time, until he can at least leave the schools better than he found them and his successor can take up the good work where he left off.

V. BY WHOM SHALL TEACHERS BE SELECTED?

FRANCIS G. BLAIR, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, SPRINGFIELD, ILL A free common-school system maintained by public taxation is justified on the ground that the welfare and safety of a democratic state demand an educated citizenship. In the management of a system thus conceived and thus supported there are at least three large interests which demand attention in the solution of every large question which arises. These three interests are the interests of the state, the interests of the taxpayer and the interests of the children. In the practical operation of the common-school system it is the general practice to have a board of men or women appointed or elected who shall be responsible for the successful conduct of the school and who are supposed to be

somewhat familiar with the large interests involved and able to treat them all justly. When a board of education meets to consider the building of a schoolhouse they are supposed to understand the interest which the state has in the proposition, the attitude of the taxpayer, and the needs of the children who are to live and work in the building. It is well-nigh impossible for any board thus constituted to do equal justice to all of these interests. The taxpayer is usually present to insist that the appropriation shall be kept within limits. The board of education will constantly be reminded of his interests. They will have their window open toward the broad acres of ground that must be assessed and taxed; toward the herds of cattle and horses, the flocks of sheep; toward the town lots, stocks and bonds, and bank balances. They are, as a usual thing, not given to neglecting the interests of the taxpayer. The law will constantly call their attention to the requirements of the state in the matter, but the interests of the children, though ever present, may sometimes not make as strong an appeal as do the interests of the taxpayer. I believe that any board of education or any body responsible for the management of the public-school system will come more nearly to serving all of the interests justly when they seek earnestly to serve the largest and best interests of the boys and girls who are to attend the school.

But the purchasing of a lot or the building of a schoolhouse is not the paramount function of a board of directors or a board of education. They perform their greatest work when they meet together to select a teacher. While I am not given over much to religious forms, I believe that a board of education might do well to have at least a period of silence in which they should try to think of the children whose interests that teacher is to serve. If any discussion comes up as to whether the taxpayer will be willing to pay such and such a salary or not, or whether it would be wise to take on local talent rather than to go outside, or whether it would not be wise to take the graduates of their own high school in preference to better-trained teachers, I say, when such questions come to the front, I should like to have someone touch a button and have the children whose teacher they are trying to select come into the room, and to have someone say:

Gentlemen, these interests which you have been considering are all worth while and you should seek to do justice by them, but here are the children whose interests you have been elected to conserve. These children are to sit at the feet of this teacher for five days out of the week and nine months out of the year. They also have rights in this matter. A trustee who robs the minor heir of his lawful portion is no more guilty than that school director or trustee who deprives a child of his district of the very best teacher that can be had.

I believe that the common-school system must be kept close to the people. They are a part of it and it is a part of them. Therefore, the officers who administer it must be elected by the people to represent them. In administering most of the affairs of the school, a board thus constituted and thus elected is the most satisfactory method which can be devised. One of the finest exhibitions of unselfish service for the common good is this vast army of men who give their time and services free to this great institution of the common school. It is doing them no discredit, however, to say that there are certain matters which come before them upon which they may not be competent judges. I am inclined to think that this is the case when it comes to selecting a teacher. There are certain elements in the make-up of a teacher which a board of education may be competent to judge. The looks of a teacher, her language and manner, all that complexity of things which we usually call personality, may be as well discerned by a board of business men as by an expert in education. I have been greatly surprised several times to see how a member of a board of education will detect a flaw in the personal make-up of a teacher which has escaped entirely the eye of the expert schoolman. The personal appeal which the candidate makes to the board will, in the main, be the same sort of an appeal that his personality makes to the children. But there are at least two other large elements in the make-up of a teacher, neither of which is a matter which can be easily judged by a board of directors. The teacher must know the subject which he is to teach. There is

no substitute for this. In most cases the board of education assumes that the possession of a certificate is a guarantee on this matter, but certificates are sometimes so general in their character as to give little information concerning special knowledge of special subjects. Here is clearly a demand for the judgment of an expert to ascertain the fitness of the candidate in this particular respect. I have found boards of country school directors employing individuals who had certain superficial manifestations of learning, but who were so shallow-minded and ignorant that they could not hold the respect of the children for a week. The teacher must not only know the subject, but he must know something of the mind of the learner and the ways in which he acquires knowledge. He must also know how to take the subject-matter and the child's mind and bring them into that economic educative relationship out of which grows, buds, and blossoms the child's education. This skill is not a matter which an ordinary board of education can discover. It demands the educational expert.

It seems to me that in the selection of a teacher for the country schools the county superintendent is the proper person to select and nominate the teacher, the board having the power to confirm or reject the nomination. In this way boards of directors in a county, where the director plan is used, could hold the county superintendent responsible for the kind of teacher placed in their schools. And the county superintendent would have this decided advantage: he could place teachers in the various schools who had the fitness to do the quantity and quality of work which he wished to have done in his county. He would have an opportunity to carry his ideas and plans throughout the system of schools. I hear the testimony every once in a while from perfectly competent supervisors that their plans have failed in many instances where boards of directors have persisted in employing teachers who were either incompetent or unfit to do the work, or who in some instances were antagonistic to the general plan.

In cities, the city superintendent is the person who should select and nominate the teachers. The board of education ought to act as trustees of a business concern, selecting a man in whom they have confidence for the head of their system, letting him have the power to nominate the teachers who are to serve under him in order that his ideas may receive the right sort of treatment throughout the system of schools. The board could hold the superintendent responsible for the success or failure of the schools.

This suggestion has nothing new about it. The plan, in some form or other, is being used in various parts of the country. I believe that when our facilities for preparing teachers have greatly increased and when their selection and nomination is placed in the hands of educational experts that our school system will be greatly strengthened and the rights of the children will be much better served.

VI. THE RELATION OF THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT TO THE

SCHOOL BOARD

A. C. NELSON, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH In the short time allotted to me to discuss the relation of the county superintendent to the school board, it will not be possible to enter into details in the treatment of this important subject. Yet, if the few observations that I shall endeavor to make will be appropriate and contribute in the least measure to the merit of the program which has been outlined for this department, I shall be gratified. The work to be done by the county superintendent and the school board is of such importance in the administration of our educational system that it would be difficult to emphasize too strongly the necessity of exercising great care and judgment in selecting these officers. And still, frequently but little thought is given to this vital question. But, perhaps, under present conditions, we may not expect the average member of the school board in the country districts to possess any great degree of special training or fitness for the work he has undertaken. This makes it all the more evident and imperative that the county superintendent must be a person of culture, char

acter, training, and education. His teaching ability and his leadership must be such as to give him recognition in his community.

Diogenes, when taken a prisoner and sold as a slave by the pirates of the Mediterranean, was asked his trade or occupation. The sage replied: "I govern men." The county superintendent, to establish and maintain a relationship with his school boards that will be conducive to educational interest and growth, must be able, if not to govern men completely, to influence them to concerted and harmonious action. In a school system good courses of study, good schoolhouses, good textbooks and appliances are all important, but none of these alone nor all of them combined will accomplish much without proper school organization. In order to obtain this result the work and experience of a well-trained, efficient educational leader is required.

The superintendent must possess a strong and pleasing personality. He must know men. Many a superintendent who is honest, active, reasonably intelligent, and able to perform the duties prescribed by law, falls far short of accomplishing what he otherwise might because he is not a leader among men, because he cannot gain their good-will and confidence. Frequently he may fail to gain their confidence because he does not take them into his confidence. He may overestimate and put too high a premium upon what he may term his prerogatives, and look with an eye of jealous suspicion upon a suggestion which might be offered by his co-laborers-for such should the school board be. While it is essential for him to lead and to have the power of initiative developed to a high degree, yet he must be willing to recognize and act upon any commendable suggestion offered by the school board or a school patron in advocating measures for the betterment of educational conditions. It is an indication of skill and leadership in the superintendent, not only to accept suggestions properly given, but occasionally, if not frequently, to have others urge and stand sponsor for measures which are distinctively his own. How often do we find in legislative bodies men, not only defending, but earnestly urging, the passage of a bill which they had no influence or interest in framing, but to which they now give their untiring efforts because they have been requested to introduce it. So the superintendent, to succeed to the greatest limit, must be diplomatic. He must organize and marshal the forces which are within his reach and command them to subserve the legitimate purposes he may desire to have accomplished. To establish this harmonious action the superintendent must have the school board's willing support. He will find it to his advantage to consult and counsel at frequent intervals with the different members privately, and especially should he do this with the more influential members. In doing this it is not at all necessary for him to compromise his honor or his dignity. Nor will such a course in the least impress the board with an idea that the superintendent is weak and inefficient and must come to them for professional aid. The assistance he seeks from them is largely of an administrative nature. As a rule men feel complimented when they are consulted on matters of importance and it is a vicious man, indeed, who does not put aside his prejudices and bias under such circumstances and honestly give his best judgment under an appeal that has a tendency to place responsibility on him.

When the county superintendent has succeeded in establishing the relation of friend and co-laborer with the respective school boards under his jurisdiction, he has brought about a condition that will, in most instances, enable him to bring about a high standard of educational growth. Many a superintendent fails in bringing about this standard because the importance of this co-operation is overlooked. He devotes his time almost entirely in making plans for his teachers and reports for his patrons. I would not give out the impression that it is unnecessary to give attention to this part of his work, but it must not be emphasized to the exclusion of all else. While it is eminently necessary for the superintendent to meet frequently with his teachers in institute, it is quite as important for him to have frequent meetings of the school boards. The day has passed when a superintendent may be a mere passive official. He must be a positive force in every field that has a just claim to his attention

In my own state, the school boards, in all the larger counties, meet several times a year to discuss matters of educational interest and importance. These meetings are attended with commendable regularity and it would be difficult to place too high a value upon the results that have come from them. It is not unusual for our school boards to attend the regular county teachers' institutes each month. In our State Teachers' Association they have a section which is always attended by a large representation from all parts of the state. This, together with subscribing for and reading some valuable school journal, has resulted in creating a strong and continually increasing educational sentiment. In most of the states, county school boards have the right by law to employ teachers. This is an important duty, a duty that is almost sacred, and it should be performed with great care and judgment. Thru the co-operation which has resulted from the conditions that I have briefly indicated, in Utah county superintendents are consulted in this important work and in many instances boards have delegated to them the authority to select the teachers who are to train her future citizens. The ideal relation of the county superintendent to the school board is that of teacher, leader, organizer, and educational inspirer; and that of the board to the superintendent of friends, assistants, and supporters.

VII. THE RELATION OF THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT TO THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT

W. W. STETSON, AUBURN, ME.

Authority that wins its own recognition has its basis in service. Those who are most interested in the welfare of the schools are ambitious to see the head of the national department of education a member of the president's cabinet. This promotion will not come until a portion of the expense of maintaining the public schools is paid from the national treasury. If the officers having the matter in charge should neglect to make repairs on a few of our battleships, ample funds would be available for this purpose. When the national government contributes its portion toward the support of the public schools the department will be authorized to prescribe minimum courses of study, minimum conditions of licensing teachers, and a minimum school year, all of which will be of such modest standards as not to be embarrassing to any state.

Many state educational departments are not rendering the service of which they are easily capable, to the local communities. When each commonwealth provides one-half the amount necessary for the support of the public schools, then the state superintendent will be given the power to prescribe a minimum course of study, minimum conditions for licensing teachers, minimum salaries in the common schools, minimum grounds and buildings, and a minimum school year. These minima will be somewhat in advance of those established by the national department.

The local taxing unit will be held responsible for raising the remainder of the funds (1) necessary for the proper administration of the local schools. It will be authorized to establish maximum courses of study, maximum conditions of licensing teachers, a maximum school year, and maximum salaries. National and state aid will be paid to those communities only which comply with the conditions enumerated above.

When the nation has done its duty and the state has assumed its responsibility in the matter of providing better school privileges for all the children, then there will exist an intimate and responsible relation between the county and state superintendent. This relation will be personal, professional, and official. The county superintendent will be courteous in the most distinctive sense of that term, and as cordial as his limitations will permit. Professionally he will hold himself responsible for having a thoro knowledge of the aims, methods, and means approved and recommended by his official superior. Officially he will be inspired by that kind of loyalty which defends without asking questions and devotes itself to crowning the contest with victory. This position has no place for one

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