Teaching in America: Forty-third Annual Schoolmen's Week Proceedings [Reprint 2016 ed.] 9781512802115

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Teaching in America

University of Pennsylvania Schoolmen s Week

Schoolmen s Week Meeting April JI-IJ, 1956

Teaching in America Forty-third

Annual

Schoolmen s IVzek Proceedings

edited by

FREDERICK C. GRUBER

Philadelphia UNIVERSITY

OF

PENNSYLVANIA

PRESS

© 1956 by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania Published in Great Britain, India, and Pakistan by the Oxford University Press London, Bombay, and Karachi Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 56-13416 Printed in the United States of America

Editor's Preface

T

Schoolmen's Week was held from April 20-25, 1914, on the University of Pennsylvania campus. The official program states its purpose as follows: HE FIRST

The University of Pennsylvania invites all superintendents and principals of Pennsylvania, representatives of boards of education, normal school principals and teachers of education in normal schools and colleges to a series of lectures, consultations and conferences on school work arranged for the week beginning Monday, April twentieth. From nine to ten each morning opportunity will be afforded to visit University classes with a view to familiarize superintendents and high school graduates who enter college. Speakers during the first two years included W. C. Bagley of the University of Illinois, Lightner Witmer of the University of Pennsylvania, President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University, and Nathan C. Schaeffer, Superintendent of Public Instruction of Pennsylvania. Topics over forty years ago have a familiar ring to modern ears, "More Money for the Public Schools," 'Teaching as a Vocation," "Liberal Education and Vocational Training." Over the years, these and other topics have received careful consideration from an ever increasing group of school personnel. From a beginning of twenty-four meetings attended by two hundred, Schoolmen's Week has grown to a teachers' institute offering over a hundred programs and attracting total attendances of over twenty thousand. Of the effectiveness of Schoolmen's Week, Cheyney in his 1940 History of the University of Pennsylvania remarks: The plan was a great success from the beginning; this group of men and women evidently had much to confer upon and were only awaiting 5

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Editor's

Preface

the opportunity and the leadership the professors in the Department of Education thus gave them. . . . According to good testimony the discussions, although on questions vital to the school superintendents and teachers, have remained free, open and unbiased, a good instance of the kind of help the University from its non-partisan position is able to offer the community. The Proceedings of Schoolmen's Week were first published in 1916 and have continued uninterruptedly ever since. In this way notable statements regarding education have been made available to members of the profession and to the general public. The present volume represents a sampling of the papers delivered at the Fortythird Annual Schoolmen's Week. This year "Schoolmen's Week Proceedings" joins the family of publications of the University of Pennsylvania Press. We hope for a long-continued association and pledge our combined efforts to bring an increasingly valuable and timely volume of discussions on current educational issues before the public from year to year. Frederick C. Gruber Philadelphia July, 1956

Contents Page 5

Editor's Preface

I.

Teaching in America

Our Schools Face the World Today—Helen C. Bailey In Search of Teachers—Pearl S. Buck

Π.

Elementary

Education

A Child"s-Eye View of the Teacher—James L. Hymes, Jr. How Effectively Are We Teaching the Fundamentals?— Harold R. W. Benjamin Moral and Ethical Values in the Education of Children— Harald Flensmark Individualized Reading—Laura Zirbes Summary of Reading in the Content Fields—Guy L. Bond Educational Problems and Their Solutions in a Special Center for Retarded Children—Esther B. Agensky The Physical Education Teacher's Responsibility for the Retarded Child—lohn Η. Jenny Planning for Children in a Half-Day Session—Bernice Baxter

ΙΠ.

11 17

31 33 40 50 53 59 66 70

Secondary Education

Can the Secondary Schools Meet the Needs of Industry?— Charles M. Cooper The Significance of Believing—For Counselors—Ruth E. Smalley Shakespeare in the Senior High School—Mona C. Creer A Geographic Reconnaissance of Greenland—Donn K. Haglund Some German Contributions to Western Literature— Werner P. Friederich Creative Dramatics—Mabel C. Wright Henry

81 89 99 111 122 137

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Contents

Developing an Instructional Program for the Modern High School—Arthur C. Kelley

IV.

Junior

Administration

The Real and the Unreal in School and Community Relations— Arthur H. Rice The Administrator and the School Staff—John H. Fischer Administration and Supervision of the Junior High School— James S. Snoke Human Relations Techniques for School Administrators— Richard Wynn Health Education Facilities in the School Plant Picture— Harry W. Stone Is It Time to Re-evaluate Your Testing Program?— Harold Seashore How Elementary Teachers Can Get the Most from Standardized Test Scores—William E. Coffman Comparison of College Achievement of Public and Private School Graduates, Freshman Year in College—Kenneth F. Schrepfer Evaluating an Educational Program in Terms of the General Objectives—James F. Shankweiler Index

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155 160 169 173 188 196 209 223 229 231

I Teaching in America

Our Schools Face the World Today HELEN C. BAILEY * There is a children's hymn which begins I sing a song of the Saints of God It goes on And one was a soldier, and one was a priest, And one was slain by a fierce wild beast,— And three hundred eighty-four thousand, seven hundred sixty-one are teachers in the secondary schools of America. for the secondary schools and their dedicated and bedeviled forerunners, the elementary schools. The breadth of demands upon our schools today breaks far beyond any known horizons; and the word "mission" grants that this is a thing of the spirit, reaching beyond any right of practical demand or possible achievement. The preparatory school, for tranquil centuries, existed to make ready its students for college. It tolerated only the most able, the most willing. When it became the American high school, it extended its purpose to that of supplying the willing and able who could not afford college with a decent background in the fundamentals of our culture. It also offered a few trades. It was still highly discriminating, for which it received great public approbation. Suddenly, well within the last two decades, a new era broke about us. All youth were to be educated, whether they would or wouldn't, could or couldn't. Moreover, education was to assume responsibility not only for things academic and vocational, but for character-build-

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* Associate Superintendent,

School District of Philadelphia,

11

Pennsylvania.

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ing, citizenship, health, open-mindedness, social adjustment, life adjustment, spiritual values, world-understanding, and a thorough grounding in the principles of industry, labor, and the free enterprise system. It is not recorded that the teachers had much voice in this decision, but they accepted it with varying degrees of docility, each according to the extent of welfare work he saw embodied in the calling of a teacher. It was understood that the ways of democracy and the exigencies of the labor market required this of them. No one knew how the job was to be done. No one knows yet; and I mean no one, for I have searched. A few opportunists there are who are making a tidy profit and gaining considerable prominence by writing articles and making speeches proclaiming that the job is not being done. Even they do not say it can be done. Juvenile delinquency, poor reading, lack of engineers, shortage of scientists, moral collapse, and prevalence of decayed teeth are all attributed to the weaknesses of secondary education. The failure of man to attain perfection is no longer laid so much to the doctrine of Original Sin as to the high school. Through all the tumult, a magnificent though dwindling army of teachers has been quietly, devotedly, feeling and fighting its way. They have discovered how to minister to the handicapped, the deaf, the sightless, the seriously paralyzed and palsied. They are finding ways, but not fast enough, to make school profitable for the slow learner, who, when we have culled from his group all definitely handicapped, or seriously delinquent, still represents 20 per cent of our total high school population. We have found no satisfactory answers for the youth who, restless and rebellious with maturity, wants only to be free to earn money and swagger in man's estate. People tell us brightly, as if we had not thought of it: "They need lots of shop work." No one tells us how to get master electricians, auto mechanics, and carpenters to teach school at a beginning salary of thirty-two hundred dollars. The public is far from ready to pick up the tab for the job it has ordered done. Still and all, the schools are doing remarkable work. The illiteracy rates at the time of World War II were 2.9 per cent as compared with 6 per cent at the time of World War I. Our scientists, our inventors, our engineers are many of them very young men, who have risen to

Our Schools Face the World Today

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their pre-eminence on the foundation of attitudes and skills they received early in life. Our armed forces inveigh against our training, especially against our mathematics; yet they can take our boys and make of them in a few brief months the most superb pilots, navigators, and technicians the world has known. Bestor, in his Educational Wastelands, says: "Seventy-five years ago American schools were poor, but so was American training for medicine, for law, and for research in the sciences and arts. All of these fields have shared in the great American effort for improvement. But how different are the results." I say to Dr. Bestor that the results in medicine, law, science, and the arts are our results, too. Graduates of the professional schools were once our young people; and the eager inquiring minds, the independence of thought, the courage they brought with them from their earlier training are in no small degree responsible for the dramatic character of American progress. And the development of such qualities is no accident—it is a planned objective of our program. Many of you in the audience are from colleges and universities, and you are unhappy because our young people do not come to you so well prepared as they used to. Perhaps they never did. Barzun, in his article discussing the horrors of present-day writing, spelling, and composition, says: "The level is low, but it has not fallen." I am willing to believe that your students are on the whole less able, because some very simple mathematics tells me it must be so. You are dealing with the generation that springs from the low birth rate of the late thirties. At the same time, you are taking into the college and university world at least twice as many students as you did but recently. If we dip twice as deep into half as much milk, we can't come up with cream so rich. No teaching method can compensate for lack of native ability and drive. May I ask you to consider with me for a moment what this shortage of young people really means? At the same time that young people are in short supply, our society is clamoring for more engineers, more scientists, more secretaries, more teachers than ever before. The secondary schools, admonished of the crisis, nay, often sternly blamed for it, have earnestly sought to do what they could. They have gone well below the narrow stratum of the brilliant, down through the quintiles to the very average, to get sufficient numbers. These they

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have coached and encouraged and nursed along until they have passed your entrance examinations, pleased your entrance committees, and found themselves in college. It is disheartening to note how quickly they find themselves dropped out again. One little high school teacher asked dismally: "Do they teach them, or just screen them?" If indeed we are riding any emergency, we should get together on it. Time will correct the dearth of ability, and that right quickly. Within the next ten years, we shall be confronted again by the tragedy of the very able excluded from college and the professions just because there are so many of them. These children are already in our schools and on our hearts. What are they to do? Yet we in the schools are the first to admit that we can vastly improve the job we are doing. We can, and we want to. But we shall need help. We shall need, in the first place, understanding and a few kind words. The facile cries of criticism, which it is easy to raise in an undertaking so vast and so uncharted, are driving young people from the profession. We need, first of all, good teachers, and plenty of them. Teaching is the greatest of the professions, because all professions rest upon it. It need not be presented to young people at a career conference for their consideration. For twelve years of schooling their eyes rest upon their teachers, and they accept or reject teaching as a way of life. Only teachers who are secure in their work, respected, appreciated, and occasionally praised can radiate the kind of allure that will draw youngsters to follow in their footsteps. We shall need the help of the colleges to analyze this so great mission that has been assigned us—to help us find ways of fulfilling it, to lift their powerful voices to interpret to the public what we are trying to do and why. We need more peace in which to deal with our problems. The schools have opened their doors to the community, and now they may have to ask the community to give them back the schools. Every agency, every cause, every drive discovers for itself that if it can get its program in the schools its work is largely accomplished. Days in a central office re-echo to the suggestion of "Now if each child gives only a nickel" or "If each child gives only a dime." The charm of multiplying anything, however small, by a quarter of a million is in-

Our Schools Face the World Today

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fectious. Historical and patriotic associations urge us to send our students, by bus loads, during school hours, to national shrines. Κ we demur because of the disruption of schedules, it is suggested that perhaps our patriotism is not quite what it should be. We are asked to turn children and teachers out, a captive audience, to conferences of intercultural, interracial, or interreligious agencies. When we call a halt, it is regretted that we are, after all, not so open-minded. Lack of scientists is attributed by museums to insufficient visiting of museums during school hours. We deliver children by the bus load to exhibitions of modern art, of classic art, of the first Philadelphia art; to book fairs, to oil exhibits, to coal exhibits; to courtrooms, giant industries, small industries and labor centers. Still it is not enough; some voice of unmistakable authority is always heard to proclaim that we are not awake to the true values in education. If our children do not carry home letters urging mother and father to vote, we are avoiding our obligations in citizenship training. If, at any of the meetings and conferences to which we are urged to send them, that they may deal with future world affairs, they encounter a radical or a parlor pink, we are threatened with loyalty investigations. Were we to yield to the constant and powerful pressures under which we operate, we should never have the youngsters in the schools. We contend with a disturbing overhead of something approaching blackmail in noble causes. The amount of nervous and intellectual energy that is consumed in dealing with these highly competitive agencies in smoothing over situations caused by well-meaning persons who know neither schools nor parents, in defending teachers and administrators from accusations of prejudice, false indoctrination or disloyalty, is a tremendous drain on those who should be dealing constructively with the problems of secondary education today. Do not misunderstand me. The good teacher wishes to use many community resources, but he wishes to use them as they fall in with his planned and logical program. In too many cases the school is supporting the resource. We shall need help in sharing the job. Health and social agencies must take more of the initiative; labor must open up some kind of apprentice or part-time opportunity; cultural and recreational institutions must assume responsibility for motivation. The schools can never again be free of the social burden that has been cast on them,

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but if they are to improve their product this burden must be increasingly shared in order that teachers may teach. And it goes without saying that the schools need money. Nobody has dared to compute the cost if the demands were met, if gifted children, college-bound, were to be taught in classes as small as are prescribed for the backward; if adequate shops were to be provided for the mechanically minded and staffed with master craftsmen; if part-time work were to be provided for the boy who may steal to get some money of his own, and science teachers were paid for afterschool work with young geniuses as football coaches are paid to work with fine athletes. We need money for teachers and we even need money for adequate textbooks. I began by saying that no one knows whether the task can be done. Listening, one gathers that the problems of the twentieth century could be solved by a return to the nineteenth. Life is not turning back, and neither can education. We left our former ways because they did not satisfy us. In the simply told story of Moses he says, "And the Lord spake unto me, saying, 'Ye have compassed this mountain long enough; turn you northward.'" Away from the dear familiar highland, into the direction of harsher and more difficult things. So your schools will continue to seek, they hope with your aid, the new more difficult paths to help all young people. I sing a song of the Saints of God— You can meet them in school . . .

The hymn says so.

In Search of Teachers P E A R L S. BUCK

is WELL, I think, for all of us, in whatever profession we find ourselves, to begin every discussion with a statement of the goal of what we plan and do. In my own field, that of a writer and particularly a novel writer, I dare not, when I sit down to a pile of fresh clean paper, which hopefully is to be made into the manuscript of a new book, consider first the techniques I shall use. I am very conscious of techniques, I know that success depends upon the particular technique I may choose, but I know, more than I know anything, that I must not think first or most about technique. Before I set down a concrete word, black upon the white paper, I must ask myself what is my goal. What do I hope to achieve in this book? Only when the answer is defined and permanent is it sensible to proceed to ask how I can achieve it. This, I think, is the first principle underlying every creative task, and surely teaching is the supreme task of creation. I know none to equal it. Every child is malleable. Whatever material is there—superb, mediocre or pitiable—it is malleable material. This we must never

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forget. Moreover, a child, whatever his inheritance, is shaped more by his schoolroom experience than by any other part of his life. This is a solemn statement for teachers to hear, but I believe it is true. You, teachers, have the best hours of our children's lives. We get our children up in the morning and hurry to dress and feed and send them off to school. Usually we do not see them again all day until they return to us tired and often irritable at four or five in the afternoon. There is little time left for us to teach them anything. We can only soothe and comfort, feed them again, bathe them and get them to bed. In such little time as longer daylight brings it is natural for them to want to play, and that is not time for us, either. We have Saturday and Sunday, days which have their own demands upon the children. Dentists, doctors, church and extras leave parents almost no hours in which to teach their own children. We are the caretakers but not the teachers. Looking back as parent over the years, I find myself very jealous of the thousands of hours teachers have had with my children—and are still having with them in college. I am not one of those women who want to be rid of their children. Such women ought not to have children. Not all women are mothers, I can tell you, or should be mothers. But I enjoyed and do enjoy being with my children. I would like to have taught them myself the joy of learning, the magic of reading, the living with great minds through books. I once planned that I might have that supreme pleasure, but I found that it is all but impossible here, where education is compulsory, for a parent to teach her own children. We must send them to school. Well, I thought for comfort, it is probably better for my children to learn from other minds too—many minds. I am not sure yet whether it was better. I do not forgive certain teachers who made learning dull and thereby often dulled the inquiring minds of my children. Dull teachers produce dull pupils. Heredity of the mind, through communication, is just as certain as heredity of the body, through birth, and more certain, for there is the unexpectedness of the genes in the flesh to bring surprise. But the dull and uninspired teacher can kill the mind at its source, for the beginning of all thinking and education is wonder. When a child's wonder and eagerness to know are discouraged and stifled by stupid routine, by arbitrary unnecessary rules, the techniques of the dull teacher, then a crime is committed against the child. Let me return to the goal. What is the purpose of teaching? It is

In Search of Teachers

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simple and vast. It is no more and no less than this—to create a whole person, a human being whose body, mind and spirit are developed in balance to each other and all to the utmost of the individual capacity. Nothing less than this is fair to the child or to the parent who relinquishes the child for the best hours of the day, five days a week, nine months of the year for eight to twelve of the years in which learning can best be achieved. The true teacher is concerned with these three elements of the child: his body, that his health be maintained and made more perfect by his hours in school; his mind, that it be most carefully and tenderly studied and taught—for the teacher must study his pupil before he can teach him; his spirit, that it be developed into character not by rules and requirements but by personal example. A teacher can only teach insofar as he himself practices. A rude teacher, harsh and sarcastic in word and manner, will assuredly produce pupils of harsh and unkind nature. A teacher who lies cannot teach beyond his own capacity for truth. A lazy malingering teacher, lacking respect for his own work as a teacher, cannot teach his pupils to respect and enjoy learning. You will ask me what all this has to do with the subject of my address, which, paraphrased, is how to attract young people to teaching. What I am saying is basic to the answer of this question. We cannot attract first-rate young men and women to teaching unless we make of teaching a great profession, worthy of great people. Quite apart from salary and working conditions and all those legitimate requirements for a good environment in which to work, the first and basic requirement, if you want first-rate people, is to give them a chance to do a creative job on the highest level, and the highest level is the human being. There is no work so noble, so rewarding, so altogether joyous, as that of seeing a little child grow into a warm, strong, whole adult, able to function as an individual and secure in his preparation for life. And the teacher has more to do with the making of such a human being than any other person—more, much more, than the parent has, under our system of compulsory education. So much for the goal, broadly outlined. What next? I think, freedom. I have talked with many young people about teaching, partly in preparation for this occasion and partly for my own interest. I find that the best of them, the ones who could be good teachers, and there are more of them than you think, have decided against teaching,

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often reluctantly, not because of salary, as we hear, but because of lack of freedom. They dread to train themselves for a permanent work in the field of teaching lest all their training and natural gifts for teaching be hamstrung by a petty principal or superintendent of schools or a local board who, limited by nature, and often untrained, may render naught all the years of preparation that a teaching career requires. These young people could, of course, go into private schools, but the best of them would like to teach in public schools. They want to share in the great experiment of public education and be where most of our nation's children are. I should like to submit, therefore, that we are not going to get really good teachers in sufficient numbers until we reform our principals and superintendents, or let me say, educate them to understand that if teachers have to be controlled and routinized and supervised to the extent that they are now, generally speaking, then such persons are not good enough to be teachers anyway. The conductor of a great orchestra knows that he must leave his best performers free—not to go off on tangents but to perform with their uttermost skill by contributing their best to the whole symphony. His concern is not with the particular techniques the performer uses but with the effect he produces in harmony with the whole. So with the teacher. The wise principal, the sensible superintendent, should observe what sort of person is emerging from the creative effort of a teacher. He must not seek to impose upon that teacher his own notions of techniques. Indeed, he should acknowledge that he is not himself a teacher. A good principal, a wise superintendent, should have his own special training for his office and it should be a very different one from that which teachers must have. When good teachers are found and engaged, then they must have freedom to do their work in the way they think best in the achieving of the common goal. Anything less than freedom implies lack of respect for the teacher, and if administrators of our school system lack respect for their teachers, then respect cannot be found elsewhere. Self-respect is the first necessity for the respect of others. This general lack of respect for the teacher is, I find, a real factor in preventing young people from choosing to become teachers. Teachers are not employees and should not be given the status of employees. They are specialists, invited, as specialists should be, to exert their

In Search of Teachers

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special gifts and skills as educators. Teaching is, and should be, their life work—please note that I say life work rather than profession. As it is, I am told by young men and women that teaching does not carry sufficient respect to make it a self-respecting choice. This is true. It ought not to be true. I happen to have grown up in Asia where the position of teacher is the highest in the land. A title of honor, when addressing a perfect stranger, is to call him Teacher. Here, on the contrary, I observe that even a teacher may speak of himself, or herself, as "only" a teacher, the meaning implied if not expressed. Now a teacher cannot lift himself by his own boot straps. He, and she is always included, can dignify his work to some degree, of course, by what he is, individually, overcoming by sheer force of conviction and personality, the handicaps of his profession. But the dignity of teaching has to be insisted upon from above. I believe that the discourtesy and arbitrary behavior of some administrative officers and above all their absolute authority, so that a teacher's success may depend upon the quality of the person in power over him, has more to do with the hesitancy of first-rate persons to enter the teaching field than any other one cause, granted the acceptance of the great goal of creative human development I have heard such tales from teachers of what they must endure at the hands of small-minded officials that I swear I marvel at the devotion of any teacher to his work when that work must be carried on under such handicap. Men and women administrators seem about equally guilty, the men most inclined to be pig-headed and puffed with petty pride, and the women inclined to untruthfulness and unreliability. Let me hasten to say that where the administrators are good people in themselves, and secondly have learned that good teachers must be allowed freedom, the whole atmosphere of the school is improved thereby, and we have enough of such schools to encourage us. In setting forth the darker aspects, my purpose is simply to say that the best minds and the most idealistic and conscientious persons will not enter a field where the administrators are not enlightened. Were I given the opportunity of improving-our teachers and schools by some magic, I would begin the business of finding good teachers not by searching for them but by first developing enlightened men and women as principals and supervisors and members of the boards of education. Only when these

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know enough to know what a good teacher is and how to keep him shall we be able to win young men and women of high caliber to become teachers. And, I repeat, these administrators must themselves respect teaching, its goal first of all, and then the teachers upon whom the achievement depends. T o the same degree that I stress the need for enlightened administrators, I stress next the quality of teachers in the schools of education. Our schools of education are crowded now with students, young men and women who enter with some purpose at least of becoming teachers. One may question how many of them are serious in this purpose. For some it is undoubtedly a way of getting a cheap education at public expense. For others it is an experiment. They do not know whether they want to be teachers. They don't know what they want to be, perhaps nothing, girls waiting to be married, and so on. How shall weeds be sorted from good grain? Not, I submit, by harshness. I deplore the cheap means of sarcasm and belittling, either of the pupil or of the profession of teaching. The ones most wounded and damaged by such resorts of inferior teachers are the sensitive and the feeling among the pupils, the very persons most likely to be the best and most understanding of teachers. More young people than you would want to think are permanently discouraged from becoming teachers by too low a level of teaching in the schools where they go to learn how to teach. It is a pitiful fact that children and young people are always hungry for mental and spiritual help and encouragement. They are almost extravagantly happy when they find someone who gives them even a minimum of that help and encouragement. They are tragically resigned to the fact that they seldom find such teachers. I should like to state it as a psychological fact that nobody learns anything from sarcasm and belittling. The best and most intelligent minds and spirits are depressed by such means and the more timid and less self-assured may be permanently damaged. A school for teachers should be a place where every effort is made to develop good teachers, by example first and then by high respect for teaching and for everyone who wants and hopes to become a teacher. Only when a pupil proves his lack of ability for teaching or his lack of serious purpose should he be told, still kindly and firmly, for the high qualities of good teaching should always be preserved by the teacher of teachers, that he, the pupil, is not fitted for this great

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calling. The moral and spiritual qualities of the teacher of teachers must be above reproach. It is not enough to know. One must also be. It is not necessary to be a pure intellectual to be either a good teacher or a teacher of teachers. Indeed, I doubt whether the true intellectual is usually a good teacher. An intelligent mind, used with integrity and expressed in a personality always firmly kind and positive in its approach to others, makes a good teacher, and is essential for the teacher of teachers. I pause here to utter a heresy. I do not believe in tenure for teachers or for anybody else. Tenure is too easily a corruptive force. And why should a teacher have tenure when nobody else has it? I myself would hate to have tenure as a writer. I want every book to be at the mercy of those who read it—publisher first, who criticizes and suggests and finally accepts or rejects; critics next on newspaper and magazines who, justly or unjustly according to individual limitations, praise or condemn, and finally the public who read or do not read. An artist, supported as the Communists support their artists and creative persons in Soviet Russia, and I suppose in China too now, soon becomes slavish in mentality and production. Teaching is the noblest and the highest of arts and crafts—an art because the material is a human being, a craft because in teaching there are skills which can be taught and learned. An artist is the most disciplined of persons; self-disciplined, which is the only true discipline, if he is a good artist. So with the teacher. I am against security for the teacher as I disdain it for myself. I am for opportunity, in fullest measure, and opportunity is what teachers must have, the opportunity to benefit by achievement, both in honor and in money. If a teacher has to be dependent on tenure to hold his job, he should not be teaching. He should be laying bricks or sitting at a table in a factory—both perfectly decent jobs but having nothing to do with developing children into the best possible human beings. I will add one more finishing touch to my heresy. I think tenure attracts third- or possibly occasionally second-rate persons but never first-rate ones. If we want to attract the best people to the teaching profession we must offer high opportunity in work and salary but not the dead level of tenure. The psychological effect of tenure is deadening indeed upon the individual who depends upon it and it takes unusual vitality and idealism not to depend upon it. The brain is a

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lazy and insidiously deceiving servant of the will. How difficult it is for the best of us to do our best unless compelled! I am often amused at my own brain of a morning when I must work. How this mischievous brain will devise and persuade and tempt, coaxing me to small easy tasks to be done in house and garden in order to delay the real work of the day which is to put this same brain to hard, thinking work! How easy it is, I surmise, for a teacher to do his less than best when he knows he is paid anyway. Few spirits can stay awake under such circumstances. The soul grows drowsy and sleeps. What about salaries? Everywhere I read that teachers think their salaries should be increased. Let us see what their situation is. It is only sensible to consider what they have before we consider what more they want In the first place, teachers have long vacations, longer than anybody else has who works for a living. The average length of vacation for an office worker is two weeks a year. The worker of long standing may get three weeks. Only top executives are allowed a month and they usually spend part of that in study or something to do with their work. A teacher, therefore, truly gets more vacation than anyone else. He does have to advance himself in study, if he wishes to advance in his status as a teacher. He should, as every professional should, keep up with new techniques and new information in his subject. He does not have to do this. I do not accept the excuse that has been offered me that teachers get worn out by their jobs. Everybody gets worn out by his job, physically, at least, and with less chance to rest than the teacher has with his holidays and two full days off every week. If a teacher gets worn out by children, then he ought not to be a teacher. He should love children enough, and teaching enough, so that he finds constant renewal in and through his job. If he does not, if he is, and she is, exhausted by children, be sure they are also exhausting the children. Children usually come home from school not exhausted by learning but by the teachers. A child who has enjoyed school and learning comes home satisfied and happy. He feels progress in himself and that in itself is an invigorating experience. In the same way a teacher who has taught successfully is renewed in spirit and mind by his success and this success invigorates his body, too. He may need a good night's sleep and some outdoor exercise, but he is not exhausted. Teachers who are exhausted by

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their work should be observed very critically indeed. Perhaps they are round pegs in square holes. Well, you see that teachers have some advantages. They have the most rewarding work that it is possible to imagine, the most inspiring, provided that they know the goal and have the freedom to achieve it, and they have more time off than other workers do. Now, how much money should they be paid? If they have tenure, then I say they are already well paid, in comparison to other workers. Their salaries are above the national average, and they have a security that is worth a great deal of money, and more than the rest of us have. I repeat that you cannot get the best people to be teachers under oppressive and unenlightened administration combined with tenure. The really fine minds will simply not accept such stultifying conditions. But with freedom to do their work, in harmony with others, and without tenure, and with the consequent respect which such conditions would provide, I think teachers should have really good salaries, not automatically and at once, beyond a fair basic, but upon a graduated scale of individual achievement and length of service, such as industry, government and otherfieldsprovide. Salaries in the teaching field should for administrators reach the levels of top jobs in industry and government and for teachers should reach levels of top specialists. What I am saying is that performance in teaching skills and in character achievement should be the test. The person who develops from the child should be the test of the teacher. The attitude which the child has toward learning should be the test. I am not afraid of salaries being so high that unworthy persons would be attracted to the teaching profession. Such persons would and could be easily weeded out early. No one can hide defects in character and ability. Sooner or later, and usually sooner, all is known. In talking with young people about teaching as a life work, I find that there is at least one more obstacle, an early one, a point of early aversion, let us say. It is the dislike they have carried from their own experiences at school. Now it is my observation of children that the more intelligent ones usually love school naturally, especially if they are lonely at home, are only children or children with no playmates of their own age. They are eager to participate even in rather poor routines, certainly for the first years. Then more often than should be the case they tend to lose interest in school, as the less intelligent

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ones have done very soon, and unless these intelligent children make contact with a good teacher, one who restores inspiration by a real love of learning, they tend to shrug off teaching as a possible life work. What I am saying is that only good teachers breed good teachers. An inspired teacher produces inspiring teachers. A teacher who respects and honors the profession by personality and techniques makes teaching attractive to young people. Many a possible teacher is killed off early in the schoolrooms of the young and the murderer is the teacher himself, man or woman, who yields to his own moods and problems by being too stern, too arbitrary, or just plain cranky with the children. The wound which the teacher can and too often does inflict upon innocent children merely because of some private unhappiness carried into the schoolroom and vented there sows dangerous seed. Prejudices of color and creed, too, expressed against children by teachers, consciously by the careless and unconsciously by the conscientious are unfortunate, for a child so discriminated against thinks with aversion of a teacher, which aversion spreads finally to all teachers and so to teaching itself. The belittling technique, which I have already mentioned and which is actually cruelty in its most refined and pernicious form, since the child is helpless before the adult, leaves permanent hatred against teachers. Our teachers should be most carefully and thoroughly trained in the psychology of teaching, a subject in itself and not to be adequately taught by general courses in child psychology. Well, you will see that I have tried to deal in fundamentals, for that, I am convinced, is the place to begin, in the business of attracting young people to the life work of teaching. Salaries, overwork, crowded schoolrooms, all are problems, but they can be solved almost automatically, after or while we face the basic problems of a defined and complete expression of the goal, of an enlightened administration and freedom for the teacher in his schoolroom, of a new respect for teachers by administrators and school board members and the community at large, of teachers who are worthy of respect and love in the schoolroom itself. To be respected the teacher must be worthy of respect, and it is our concern to see that the teacher is worthy of respect, and that working conditions conform to those required for a person of high value. Community-wise, we who are citizens and laymen must see to it

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that if we are to be compelled to compulsory education, as we are, then Federal and State Governments should allow enough money for the job to be adequately done. We must make public all lack of funds or misappropriations of funds. Funds can be misappropriated not only by individuals but also by groups. I was told not long ago by a teacher that twenty million dollars last year was taken from funds which were to have been used for teachers' colleges in a certain state and misappropriated to military use. If this is true, then citizens should set up a clamor. It is the sort of thing that cannot be allowed and only citizens can forbid it. It is their money. But teachers and school administrators must have the courage and the conscience to make such facts known to citizens. This is the sort of work that parent-teachers associations should be concerned with, a fundamental justice which we demand for our children. For how can we have good teachers when colleges for teachers are at the whim of such misappropriation? We who are citizens are responsible for seeing to it that good teachers have the conditions they need for good teaching. We have the right to ask for the very best persons to teach our children, but we must also demand adequate space in schoolhouses and adequate salaries for teachers to live upon. We citizens are very much to blame for not taking an active and burning interest in the welfare of our children, so dependent upon welfare of the teachers. The teachers, I say God bless them. Let us criticize and blame and praise them. Let us insist upon the best and then give them the best. I put teaching as the most valuable and the most honorable of all life works. I am indignant when one unworthy person dares to be a teacher. When I find a good teacher—which is surprisingly often, let me say—I stand in the presence of one I am delighted to honor.

II Elementary

Education

A Child' s-Eye View of the Teacher JAMES L. HYMES, JR.*

R ALL YOUNGSTERS of elementary-school age—from kindergarten Jirough sixth or seventh or even eighth grade—the child's view of the teacher is almost universally in one direction: Up! More than we realize, the elementary school child is, and stays through all his elementary years, a young child. A dependent child. In a sense, a weak child. We who work with this age look to these youngsters as tremendously strong, tremendously big, tremendously important. Our smile, our nod, our approval, our friendliness, our peacefulness, our calmness, our acceptance—all of these take on much more importance than we are inclined to remember. We are never "just another adult." We are never just "teacher." Nor are we ever just teaching, coldly and intellectually involved in being sure that youngsters learn to read or write or add or remember. Running through all we do—more fundamental than the school lessons we work o n — * Professor Tennessee.

of Education,

George

Peabody

31

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for Teachers,

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is our relationship with these younger, smaller, more dependent children. If we can smile, the whole world seems to smile for them. If we frown, the world becomes a chilly place. And when we feel angry, for them it is as if dark storm clouds had enveloped not only the day, but yesterday and tomorrow too. The elementary-school-age child is basically involved in finding out what this world is all about: what he himself is like, what the people around him are like, what expectations are and standards and rules. The youngster who can come through these years with a reasonably good picture of himself, and with a reasonably satisfying picture of people, and with a reasonable confidence in his total surrounding world, is set. He stands a good chance of making out. He stands a good chance of coming through. He stands a good chance of learning, up to his full powers, and of taking life in full stride, giving what he can and being happy and efficient. This reasonably satisfying picture is the picture all youngsters want to build: to know that they are O.K., that people are O.K., that the world is O.K. The relationships between children and teachers are the major means through which this picture is painted. The teacher is the world: big, strong, important. The youngster who looks for and finds support is a lucky youngster. A s he grows and begins to look less up and more evenly at, he will find less need to fight, less need to argue, less need to object, less need to run away in fear or to charge ahead in attack. His child's-eye view of the teacher—the friendly teacher, the interested and patient teacher, the good-humored teacher—will have told him he can get along in this world, that he has something to give, and that people care. Such a teacher is not only a child's best friend; he is decent society's best friend too.

How Effectively Are We Teaching the Fundamentalsf HAROLD R. W. BENJAMIN *

ow WELL are we teaching the fundamentals? This is a perennial question. I have searched for answers to it in my own country for many years, and I have observed schoolmen in many other countries engaged in the same search. Let us look at certain features of that quest. According to Herodotus, the ancient Persian taught his son three fundamentals. He required the boy to learn to ride horses, to shoot with a bow and arrows, and to speak the truth. No doubt Herodotus knew very well that in a society without horses or bows, the boy educated in this fashion would have to use his mastery of the third fundamental to confess that he was two-thirds illiterate for all practical purposes. The Persian fundamentals were for boys who had horses to ride, bows to bend, and true words to express. It must have been obvious to any intelligent observer that the first two fundamentals were ephemeral and that at any time a different

H

* Professor of Education, Tennessee.

George Peabody College for Teachers, 33

Nashville,

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means of transportation or a different weapon would require drastic curriculum changes. The professional horse-raisers and bow-makers of ancient Persia probably never accepted this view. The king's treasurers and tax collectors, the landlords, and most other men of material status were also undoubtedly opposed to the adoption of new fundamentals. The old fundamentals were probably taught without maintaining schools. Why put an extra burden on the taxpayers, then, the conservatives no doubt said, to teach nonessential folderol? It was clear to these critics, furthermore, that the old fundamentals were no longer well taught. Across twenty-three centuries we can hear the plaintive cry, "They don't even learn to tie a cinch strap correctly any more. They don't know how to notch an arrow properly. As for giving a plain statement of unvarnished fact, that is apparently a lost art. What are the boys coming to? Let's get back to the fundamentals!" Herodotus does not say whether any suggestion was made that to imagine boys of the future without horses or bows was to be unPersian, but it is likely that this ancient indictment was already old in the fifth century B.C. Certainly, since that date, anyone suggesting changes in the educational fundamentals in any society has been vulnerable to the three accusations of ignorance, extravagance, and subversion. The Mock Turtle was explaining his schooling. "I only took the regular course," he said. "What was that?" inquired Alice. "Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with," the Mock Turtle replied, "and then the different branches of Arithmetic—Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision." One who knows how to reel and writhe will love those subjects. If he wants new fundamentals taught, he probably does not know the old fundamentals very well. The new ones are likely to cost more, at least at first. To suggest new ones, furthermore, is to indicate that one is not entirely satisfied with the present situation. This is the background against which we always have to answer the question, "How effectively are we teaching the fundamentals?" We have to know what fundamentals, whose fundamentals, and why we teach them in the first place.

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The very fact that we Americans, teachers and laymen alike, commonly say the three R's when we mean the fundamentals is indicative of what one generally considers the fundamentals to be. We regard them as the basic skills, the tools of literacy, reading, writing, and arithmetic. Actually, this notion would have been too narrow twentythree hundred years ago and it is certainly inadequate today. In all societies, the three natural divisions of the fundamentals of learning include skills and attitudes that relate to: 1. Communication-transportation enterprises 2. Tools-instruments-weapons techniques 3. Character-personality traits. In most primitive societies, formal schooling is given only for the third fundamental. In more highly developed societies there is an increasing tendency to emphasize instruction in the first two fundamentals and neglect the third or so formalize it as to make it inept and meaningless. To step up instruction in riding and shooting but leave the teaching of truth-telling to the family, a religious organization, a political group, some of which may be weak, formless, or socially disintegrating in their effects, is the usual tendency in a society that is discarding its horses and bows. That is exactly what is happening to our society now. Throughout the first industrial revolution which is now culminating in the various uses of atomic power, our society has been substituting machines for muscles. It has been discarding old means of communication and transportation, old tools, old weapons, and old techniques of labor for new ones. The development of industrial machinery, assemblyline methods in manufacturing, business, agriculture, medicine, education in all the affairs of mortal men, the utilization of fossil fuels and finally the release of atomic energy, the extension of first the written and then the spoken word and even the gestures of men over wide areas at accelerating speeds have set the stage for the greatest changing of educational fundamentals the world has yet known. How well are these changes being made? So far they have been made poorly. Undeveloped countries are still struggling to teach the barest elements of reading and writing, often in two or more obscure languages written in scripts or in ide-

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ographs which have nothing much except scholastic tradition to recommend them. They are taught in many cases to people who will seldom have even a newspaper to read, who are doomed to death at an early age by starvation or disease from controllable causes practically unmentioned in their fundamental schooling, and who could be taught better agriculture, sanitation, and other measures for conservation of human and material resources by radio, television, or motion pictures within half the time and with twice the effect now obtained by customary illiteracy-eradicating campaigns. Nations with untouched hydroelectric potentials roaring down their mountainsides, with millions of fertile acres uncultivated, with mineral and forest resources wasted or entirely undeveloped, and with diseaseridden and mal-nourished children dying in droves will often be found educating ten doctors of law for each doctor of medicine and a hundred writers of verses, makers of philosophical "systems," and composers of "serious" essays for every trained engineer in the country. A clear measure of such a nation's understanding of educational fundamentals can well be gained by its citizens' usual responses to a statement such as I have just made. "Don't you believe in lawyers?" they will demand scornfully. "Don't you think that we need the joys of poetry, the solace of philosophy, and the dignity of humane letters as much as we do materialists who are devoted to the worship of the dollar?" It is hard to answer those demands in brief, simple terms. It cannot be the either-or response the inquiry poses. It is not a matter of law or medicine, of poetry or the development of natural resources, and of philosophy or irrigation. It is a total problem of how these people are living, what changes they need in their ways of living, whether they want those changes, and what instruments can be found or devised to produce those changes. These are the stuff of which fundamentals are made. These are the bases from which what I have called the three C's are derived: 1. Communication-transportation skills and instruments 2. Craft-construction-combat tools and weapons 3. Character-personality traits. I spoke earlier of the first industrial revolution that is just culminating in the atomic era, the substitution of machines for muscles.

How Effectively Are We Teaching the Fundamentals?

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Let us look for a moment now at the second industrial revolution that is just now getting under way, the substitution of machines for routine thinking. We are all familiar with the truism that each of us in the United States today, man, woman, or child, has at his command the postindustrial equivalent of hundreds of slaves. We can have as many more if we want them. They run the windows up and down in our automobiles as well as dig our ditches. They wash our clothes and dishes. They give us heat and illumination. They carry our words around the world at the speed of light. Of course they also often irritate and sometimes kill us. But we are used to them. We want their services, and we usually want those services extended. We want to get to the place where we can avoid lifting even the finger that we now have occasionally to raise. If exercise is required by considerations of health and sports traditions, let us at all events see to it that we use our muscles only in useless activities. Let us fly to the fishing grounds. Let us ride to the golf course even though it is only a mile away, and when we get there let us at all costs avoid lifting a bag of clubs. The first industrial revolution is thus firmly embedded in our culture. The second industrial revolution has just come upon us, but it too is quickly working its way into our lives. Its beginnings are as ancient as the invention of writing, for that is still probably the greatest single tool for relieving the human mind of routine thinking by lifting the burden of continual rote memorization. The more modern forerunners of this mechanization as a substitute for nervous energy are so familiar as to be unnoticeable. It was only yesterday that every housewife had to time her toast or suffer the humiliation of having to scrape burned crusts over the sink. Today she puts the bread into a machine that not only toasts it for her but thinks for her. She can tell the machine she wants the toast light brown, and then she can turn her intelligence to higher matters, like extracting ready-to-fry chicken legs from their store-bought packages. The householder who in wintertime only yesterday had to read the thermometer in his living room, determine by his own cerebral processes when it was too warm or too cool, and then actually pull wires to adjust the draft in his furnace, now has a clock-thermostat control system which gets information on temperature and feeds back instructions to the furnace

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and releases the householder for the higher thoughts that come while reading the comic strips or observing the television performances of lady wrestlers. By the time present first-graders are entering the labor market, this second industrial revolution will already be causing technological unemployment, primarily among the so-called white-collar workers. More people in the United States right now are paper-workers, paperfilers, paper-shufflers than are industrial workers. Machines are already invented and are being used today which can do many paperwork jobs more efficiently, more accurately, and very much more swiftly than the best-educated human nervous systems. Let us go back now to the question posed by the program committee when they gave me this topic. How well are we teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic? In terms of our yesterdays, we are teaching them very well indeed. The average sophomore, judging by the undergraduate class I have at the George Peabody College for Teachers, can read and write as well as the average member of the United States Senate. I pick that body for comparison because its members were educated in the elementary and secondary schools from about thirty to fifty years ago and because they are on the average very intelligent and cultivated citizens. This same average sophomore can do arithmetic, furthermore, as well as the average member of the Chamber of Commerce in my home town, and I pick that body because its members are well above the average in arithmetic skills. Now let us put the question in revised fashion. How well are we teaching the first two C's, the communication-transportation and the craft-construction skills? In terms of our tomorrows rather than our yesterdays, we are teaching them poorly. "Why not in terms of today?" we might be asked; and the answer is that today is altogether too brief a period, a mere fleeting instant between the long stretches of the past on one side and the future on the other, to use as a basis for fundamentals. It is for the tomorrows that these communication and craft skills have to be taught. Radio and television sets, computing machines, well-equipped workshops and laboratories, and the teachers to go with them are for tomorrow as fundamental as the A-B-C's and the multiplication tables. In the third C, the schools of the United States, as those of other

How Effectively Are We Teaching the Fundamentals?

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countries, have neglected the careful examination of the social pattern for which character and personality need to be developed. In a welter of preconceived notions often mixed with superstition, talking vaguely and heatedly about morals and juvenile delinquency, the formal educational system has blundered about on this job in much the same fashion as the home, the church, and the community. It has too often attempted to inculcate a reverence for God through catechisms, a veneration for country through flag salutes, and love for fellow man through competitive drills. The third C has to be acquired in practice in the society for which it is designed. The program of activities in a modern elementary or secondary school, activities which for yesterday were often regarded as frillish and peripheral, are seen in terms of our tomorrows to lie at the heart of instruction in the most important of the fundamentals. The three R's for yesterday, we teach them well; the three C's for tomorrow, not so well. Is this a cause for pessimism? Not at all; it is rather a circumstance for celebration, for anticipation of new and big jobs for education. When our vision is good enough to sweep the sky, why, then, obviously, the sky is the limit!

Moral and Ethical Values in the Education of Children HARALD FLENSMARK *

The Small Explorers of the World begins to explore this strange world, first of all its own body, it will inevitably find out that certain things involve pleasurable sensations. And in certain people its conduct will evoke virtuous indignation. Sometimes small children have been punished for such reasons. You know that it may be that the child is bored and that too much interest in such things has to be turned away, because none of the natural bodily functions is destined to occupy any central position or to play an important part in the development of the personality—but all such things should be treated with complete frankness and mild firmness. Of course, no problem whatever concerning their origin should ever be left unexplained to children if they are capable of grasping it. A child should never be frightened by sex and should never be put

W

HEN A SMALL CHILD

* Chairman, World hagen, Denmark.

Organization

for

40

Early

Childhood

Education,

Copen-

Moral Values in the Education of Children

41

off with nervous or ambiguous answers. Virtuous indignation is never moral! True morality is understanding of life. As you know, the curiosity of a child will easily be satisfied. The little ones are not patient enough for complicated explanations. In fact, they only want to have their feeling of confidence and of security strengthened. Without realizing it themselves, they want to have the claim for truth and the commandment of love, which are the basic components of our Western morality, confirmed. They want to have confirmed that there really is some one to whom they may talk trustfully and openly. And this is in fact a fundamental necessity even in the lives of the adults if they are to avoid introversion. On the whole, sex problems in children are often sex problems in adults. The following constructed example will illustrate what I mean. Little John comes rushing in and startles a tea party by shouting at the top of his voice, "Mummy, Mummy, where did I come from?" Prudish old aunts look disapprovingly at each other and some young people giggle. His modernly adjusted father takes him to the next room and launches on a lengthy explanation. But John stops him. "No, Dad, that is not the question. But you see, Peter comes from Pittsburgh, and so I want to know where I came from!" I might also tell you a little story from my own experience. An expectant mother had guests for coffee when her pains began, and two elderly ladies hurried a four-year-old girl into the next room and started, perplexed, to tell her not to be afraid. They nearly had a stroke when the child cheerfully replied, "No, Mummy is only going to have a little brother or sister for me. She will be back in ten days!" I do not undervalue modern scientific research like that of Dr. Kinsey or Havelock Ellis, but data of that kind can never be normative for the way love life could be and can be led. We must repudiate exaggerated exploitations of findings of that kind. Rousseau advocates in his book, Emile, what he calls "the prolonged innocence." Adolescence, he says, affords the best opportunities for adopting the ideals of true humanity. To illustrate this point he first depicts a type of young man, depraved at an early stage, impatient, vindictive, brutal! His imagination is only centered on one thought. He knows neither sympathy nor pity. He does not care a straw for parents, educators, authorities or the rest of the world so long as he can gratify his passions.

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But the first feelings towards the opposite sex in young people who have been brought up in a natural way are not brutish, maintains Rousseau. On the contrary, the first love is happy and charming, an innocent longing for sincere friendship. And just such fair, clean, chaste feelings in the hearts of the youngest ones are not only the source of true love but the foundation of happy homes and the basis of social life, yes, in the eyes of Rousseau, even fundamental for international good will and peace on earth. You may call him romantic! I think he is right. The development of cultural relations between the nations depends on whether primitive instincts are allowed to prevail or are curbed at an early stage. It depends on individual self-control and self-restraint instead of selfabandonment and licentiousness (vid. UNESCO, Montevideo IV, 1.4.421 1954).

Now we are living in an age in which the very existence of ethical values is contested. But most of us feel that there are all-time values. We are confronted with a crucial choice: Whether to allow cynicism and violence to prevail or what we so confidently call "human rights." There can be no question of human rights if the very idea of right and wrong is an illusion. Now, in what sense do ethical values exist? The question is not one of conventions or adopted customs. It is a question of laws that condition human life. No living creatures gave themselves the laws that condition their lives. And we have no reasonable ground to assume that mankind on that point differs from the rest of creation. But man alone must grope his way in the dark to find the laws that condition human life. However, we do not even possess a universally adopted conception of what is to be understood by the very word—human. But we possess a variety of morals and ethics of different cultures, attempts to approach the riddle of life and to solve it, either simply by adjusting children (and adults) to given patterns of conduct or to inexorable rules, oftentimes attributed to divine authority. We possess, as far as I can see, two ways of approach to life: scientific research and intuition. The latter is no less important as mankind has to live and cannot wait for scientific results. And life has been lived in the past with less science and with deeper under-

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standing! It is almost to be feared that the very art of living is fading away in our time. If we really want to unite all men irrespective of race, creed, nationality and even political opinion, we must first of all realize that we cannot unify all kinds of ideologies. The ideology of Lenin is incompatible with that of Gandhi! Ideologies divide man, often into groups that pretend, each of them, to have the definite answer to the need of mankind. Therefore, it seems to be of paramount importance to find out whether human life really tends towards ethical standards. In my opinion it does. I hold it as a reasonable scientific hypothesis, with great probability, supported as it is by the most painful experiences of mankind through innumerable generations. It must be a prime duty for science to improve the understanding of life. No single branch of science can do it. It should be approached from every side through a comprehensive teamwork of well-composed groups in different corners of the world, but in close co-operation. Educators must play an important part in this work. Not, as so often expected in former times, in disseminating blue-print information. Education has been and can be utilized for any purpose. But no purpose is moral if it does not serve a universally adaptable purpose of all mankind. The role of the educator must first of all be a personal fight for true understanding of life. Ethics in education are ethics in educators. Ethics in education are not to be taught but to be caught, but do not forget that in the decisive moments in the life of the individual and in the lives of the pioneers of humanity as well, they had to be fought for, and often as in a mortal fight. It is said that Germany's victories in the battlefields were won by her schoolmasters. This may be true. But a quite different type of educator can win world peace in the field of childhood education. Now, the fundamental need of the child is an atmosphere in which he can breathe, a spiritual climate of security and confidence and love. So what we want in education is not ideologies, or dogmas, but inspired, whole-hearted educators, strict in the demands on themselves and gentle in their relations to others. But this attitude is not only necessary when dealing with children—we need it among ourselves. We have each of us to test seriously our personal beliefs and perhaps

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to revise our convictions. If ever there was an indisputable doctrine of ethics, it is: that different does not mean inferior! The doctrine of tolerance towards every one—except the intolerant. Religion Somehow religion comes into the picture. You cannot abolish religion, or ignore it or fence it in. Perhaps you may purify it and transform its tensions so that it serves its purpose instead of being a threat to life. Religion cannot just be made void. In fact, religion and morals are the genuine distinctive features of mankind. Primitive religions are simply inadequate explanations for natural phenomena. Pure religion is an immediate human attitude, a feeling of absolute dependence—awe towards life, and Christ taught us that it makes no practical difference whether this absolute dependence is based on the feeling of social responsibility towards your fellow man —or on God; because there is no way to God round about your fellow man. There are two kinds of religious attitudes, very similar but nevertheless absolutely incompatible, one wanting to appease divine powers and have gods to do our will, and one wanting to learn the meaning of life in order to realize it, or to do the will of God. But the pure religious attitude is directed towards that which is beyond comprehension and therefore its experiences can never be adequately systematized. To put something in a system presupposes that it is conceivable. Religions when developed into rites and cults and systems run the danger of ceasing to be religious. They become dogmatic! They claim blind submission which, from the ethical point of view, may easily be felt as a disintegration of the individual personality. In many corners of the world there exist harmful tensions, e.g., between religious circles and a secular state, between different religions, and even between different observations of the particular religions, deplorable dilemmas which greatly affect education, and out of which a constructive way must be found. Now, true Christianity is always approach, in the sense of the overwhelming impact of the example. Therefore, if we are Christians we need never protect God or defend His rights, and we need not fear a

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meeting, on speaking terms and on the same level, either with agnostics or with representatives of different religions. But the way out of the dilemma will not be found in a mixture of religions. It is more likely to be found in morals common to all mankind. Christianity—A Culture Christianity is first of all a culture into which we are born—not churches! We might even admit that it exists even as much in spite of churches as because of them! However, we possess a precious heritage from the early days of our Western culture—the vision of Peace on Earth, the idea that all nations are made of one blood; the abolishment of discrimination for reasons of race, class or sex; the demand of being of the Truth; the experience that we can do nothing against the truth; the commandment of love, a perfect love which is tolerant and casts out every fear; absolute social obligation; the impressive example of self-sacrifice, true unto death; and, what should never be ignored by educators, the unique importance of the child. The list is by no means meant to be exhaustive but it presents the essentials of our contribution to a world-wide common understanding of what ought to be meant by human. I think all of you agree on the freedom of belief and of thought and of speech and will maintain the spirit of tolerance. We owe that to the so-called "Golden Rule" from the Sermon on the Mount (or perhaps to the Chinese philosopher Confucius): "Whatsoever you would that men should do to you, you even do so to them!" This is the command of unbiased, confident love towards fellow beings, and even towards enemies or potential enemies. It has been practiced in an unprecedented way and on a global scale since immediately after the last war. I am deeply impressed by the work of UNO, UNESCO, UNICEF, ECOSOC and the rest. And when someone scornfully asked, "Is that Christian?" I reminded him of the old parable about a man on the highroad from Jerusalem to Jericho and a priest and a Levite that passed by. A Samaritan did the job and Christ said, "Do you likewise." But the job cannot be done by techniques alone—we are suffocated

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by techniques. It is evident that this is a question of ethics, common to all men. May I, in that connection, compliment you in this huge continent on what has been accomplished up to now, in a particular of paramount importance for all mankind. We admire the USA for the struggle you are fighting here against race-discrimination, and we smile acknowledgingly at a little story about a Negro woman who was a highly gifted headmistress and one of the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt's intimate friends and advisers. We are told that one day she came to the White House and was called back by a young secretary who snapped at her, "Hi, Granny, where do you think you are going?" She kindly replied, "I am going to the President, but tell me, my boy, which of my children are you the son of?" The decline of morality has ever meant the fall of civilizations and the obliteration of cultures. Let me define civilization as a certain development of techniques: culture, as a standard of ethical values. Culture is the growth, the realization of the latent potential human life as it is in itself, inherent in our nature. Science and Social Welfare Modern science and social welfare are the two most priceless accomplishments of our culture, corresponding to the two constituent components of our ethics: truth and love. We employ the word, truth, in two different ways. It means things as they actually are. But it also means fearless uprightness—to be of the truth. In education it is indispensable to initiate children at as early a stage as possible in the true spirit of research. They start their lives as explorers! And, if we want to strengthen their belief in life, we should never curb their possibly clumsy but nevertheless realistic and, at their level, logical approach to the problems of this life. This is the way of training children to a fearless uprightness and personal honesty. It is a means of overcoming superstitions and religious fanaticism and it does not prevent you from surrounding your children, at the same time, with a climate of religious worship! From these points of view you may deduce that, in my opinion,

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religious instruction of our children in the home, schools and Sunday schools should be planned in co-operation with psychologists. It is preferable, e.g., to tell small children of a Man Who loved the little ones and took them in His arms, and leave to the adults the story of a Man Who walked on the sea. It may be difficult to be of the truth. There may occur situations where it collides with love, but the noblest art in life is to be faithful to the truth in love! A Danish philosopher raises the following question: "How is anyone to decide who speaks the truth, Nietzsche or Jesus?" Nietzsche maintained that ruthlessness was necessary and right, and that Christian compassion was evil. In fact, Hitler's war which was a practical result of this philosophy ought to be a sufficient answer. But the very way of setting up the problem is false. It is not at all a question of truth—it is a question of love. At all costs children must live in an atmosphere of honesty and love, but there are emergency casesl A Danish laborer, religiously indifferent, was sitting at the deathbed of his little girl and she spoke about heaven and angels. Just before she died, she asked with fear in her eyes, "Dad, will you be there?" And he said, "Sure, I'm coming!" He knew not what he said, poor man. But what else should he have said? A psychologist found his little daughter frightened in her bedroom. Someone had said to her that after death there is nothing! "But why are you afraid of death?" he asked. "Because I will have no playmates!" she said. "Well, darling, you have the angels!"—and a few minutes later the girl slept. It was to him only a makeshift, but I think he was right because I believe in a reality behind that beautiful and elevated symbolism. Rules, Protection and the Art of Helping Most educators maintain that there must be rules. All of us need authority to protect us from ourselves. Children become insecure if authority is entirely withdrawn and that holds true even of adults! Everywhere we find given patterns of conduct that are imposed on children and sometimes almost by drill. Straight from the cradle, in

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school, during apprenticeship, in the army and further on, often as a vicious circle, an unhealthy mentality inherited from generation to generation. We should not confuse such drill with ethics. It is difficult to protect children against crude impressions. But not least against the particular behavior of certain individuals—"the mental pace of the individual" as a German psychologist, Künkel, calls it—which may be harmful, and the more so the smaller the children are. Some people want to protect the little ones against even the impression of a crucifix. That seems to be an exaggeration; you cannot even protect them against rude pictures in newspapers, periodicals, films or television. But of course all strains and tensions should be avoided when possible. Particularly what might perhaps be called premature tensions. In Denmark a censor bans certain films for small children—but then it happens that just the most exciting scenes are shown as a trailer in the cinemas on occasions when small children are present! A little boy saw a cruel scene where lions attacked Christians and afterwards he said, "Dad, there was one little lion that didn't get a Christian at all." All of you know how realistic and rational small children are. And how they often just concentrate upon a single fact that stirs their interest. A colleague of mine who was loved by the little ones had unfortunately a tumor just between his eyes. One day in the Sunday school a little newcomer suddenly asked, "Why has that man two noses?" He was immediately silenced by a hand over his mouth. But no sooner was the hand taken away than he stubbornly repeated, "But why has that man two noses?" Children react in their own very often much more healthy way than we adults venture to expect, and in any case we have to meet them just where they are. They should never be treated as objects. You may injure even the smallest baby in treating it that way, e.g., when bathing and dressing or bedding or feeding it. Instead of building up its feelings of self-confidence and of trust in life and in you, you make it insecure and impersonal and you create in it a reaction that may later turn out aggressively or submissively, in either case adverse to the development of an ethical personality. We often speak about the wholeness of human personality. The

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children of today can hardly assimilate mentally the rate of evolution in their allotted lifetime. So it is no wonder if we find more confusion or disintegration than wholeness of personalities. And what is the remedy? An inspired, deep feeling of fellowship among all men, so that groups that need to co-operate, men and women of science and of letters, educators and parents must leave their isolation and rally for common action, however difficult the art of mutual helping may seem. Our Danish philosopher, S0ren Kierkegaard, has a passage on the art of helping: "To be truly able to help another person I must understand more than he understands. But first of all I must understand what he understands. If I do not, my superior understanding is in vain. It does not help him a bit. If all the same I want to maintain my better understanding, it is because I am vain or proud, so that instead of helping I really want to be admired. All true help begins with personal humbleness. The helper must humble himself to the person he wants to help. And he must realize that helping is not being domineering but being patient, even being willing to put up with wrong and to being unable for the present to understand what the other person understands." That holds true at the round-table conferences of the statesmen. It holds true in the classroom, and it even holds true of the mother when singing a hymn for her baby. Maybe she has a better chance of being understood than anyone else if her own heart really rejoices in that divine feeling of love and peace and security. You know, we influence children not through our opinions or through what we know or say, but through what we really are.

Individualized

Reading

LAURA ZIRBES *

lead to increasing emphasis on individualized reading in today's schools, notwithstanding the fact that reactionary critics bemoan the passing of the round-the-class reading recitation in which the whole class was expected to keep the place in a required text to be covered by all pupils in the grade for which it was designated. It does not require much insight to see why other procedures are so much more productive that they are supplanting the stereotyped routines of the "good old days" which were after all not so good as gilded memories would have us assume. Evidence in tests of rate and comprehension indicates that mass methods sacrifice the ablest and the least able for those between. Instead of concern for ground-covering, grade norms, place-keeping, and mechanics, there should be concern for meanings and for the optimal development of individuals at whatever point in the grade distribution they may be. Provision for materials of various levels of difficulty in every class-

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* Professor of Education, Ohio State University, Columbus,

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room is essential, for each child has the need to read more easy material to develop the rhythmic fluency of perception and grasp of meaning characteristic of good readers. This base line of fluent rate and comprehension is what the modern teacher uses in judging readiness for forward adjustment, for guidance, and for instruction in tackling more difficult materials with increasing self-reliance. There are bound to be individual differences in readiness and capacity for challenge; in rates of growth and rates of reading; in types of errors or difficulty; in drive and motivation; in background and interest; in age and maturity; in visual acuity and perceptual span, to which individualized reading alone can give properly co-ordinated consideration. When all children read the same selection from a prescribed text the intrinsic purposes for reading are crowded out by stereotyped conformity to patterns of response which didactic texts or teachers expect and demand. There is small chance of developing the selfdirective concern for continuities of action, plot and circumstance to which intelligent readers key their responses. There is small chance of developing abiding attitudes toward reading where reading is joyless and mechanical, or where teacher approval is substituted for selfsatisfaction in getting ideas from self-selected material, chosen because of individual interests or commitments. The teacher who struggles to keep a class together in reading assigned materials is wasting energy in trying to achieve a futile unnatural aspiration. She might better face the realities of individual differences and abandon the hope for lock-step progress and uniform development. She might better convert formal instruction into individualized guidance. With opportunities for choice of materials, and with her pacing of progress across the board according to evidences of needs, the growth will not be even. In fact, the differences may widen as each has far better chances for his own optimal growth toward reading maturity, as each reads more at the level of his own grasp and competence and thus develops more than he could or would without such personalized guidance and experience. The class median is after all only an index of a central tendency in a more or less arbitrary collection of individuals who may or may not go on together through school or into life outside the school. Instead of striving to move, to match, or to exceed any measure of central tendency by mass approaches or pressures at some segment of the distribution,

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whether it be the lower end, the upper end, or the middle or each in turn by subgroupings according to reading scores, we can do better by individualizing reading and reading guidance, by paying less attention to mass measures and more to the cultivation of each child's potentialities in terms of his needs, his interests, his powers, his purposes as they may be served by reading, his personality as it may be enhanced and developed through reading. When we do these things any measure reflects the increments of values which we project.

Summary of Reading in the Content Fields G U Y L. BOND *

s THE CHILD GROWS in reading, he is gaining proficiency in at least ι. four interrelated attributes. He is gaining in reading stature, that is, the ability to understand, with increasing independence, more mature and complex reading problems. He is growing in his attitudes, interests, and tastes, that is, he is increasing his desire to share the ideas, experiences and imaginations of authors and he is becoming increasingly more demanding of the quality of those authors. He is gaining in his reading fluency, that is, he has gained a familiarity with print so that his rate of reading can be adjusted to the outcomes he desires from reading. He is also gaining in his ability to differentiate his reading to meet the unique demands of increasingly specialized materials. It is with this latter phase of the child's reading growth that I wish to attend today.

A

The materials of every field the child meets in the curriculum place their own specific and unique demands upon his general reading capabilities. Each field has its special reading problems. A fourth-grade child, for example, who has read story material for most of his three * Professor

of Education,

University

of Minnesota,

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Minneapolis,

Minnesota.

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years of reading experience is suddenly confronted with a geography book for the first time. Such a child will find many new reading problems. He has always read a story from the top of the first page on through several pages of the story uninterrupted. In the geography book, he starts at the top of the page in the customary manner, he reads about ten lines and then is told to look at Fig. 1 on page 12. He looks at Fig. 1 on page 12 and returning to the page he had just left, he starts at the top of the page again. He has always done this. He reads ten lines that seem familiar, and is asked to look at Fig. 1 on page 12. He says to himself that he has already looked at Fig. 1, so he goes on reading down the page. It says later, "You noticed on Fig. 1 that . . ." He had noticed no such things. No one had told him to and he was unfamiliar with the ways of the geographer. These are, of course, minor misunderstandings but many reading-disability cases are caused by an accumulation of such minor misunderstandings or faulty learnings. How much easier and how much more profitable the experience would have been had these problems of organization been anticipated and a readiness for reading geographies been developed in the basic reading program. While it is true that there is much that is common in reading the materials of the various curricular fields, there is also much that is specific to each field. Shores, Tinker, Fay, and Bond, for example, have found that reading proficiency is to a considerable extent specific to the content field in which the reading is done. Studies have shown that the correlation between general reading comprehension and comprehension of scientific material was a mere 35 per cent and that the correlation between general comprehension and comprehending materials of other content fields ranged from about 30 per cent to 50 per cent. A glance at the reading material used in the various curricular fields will attest to the accuracy of these studies. There are vast differences in the demands placed upon the reader. We do not have time to discuss them but the five which follow are crucial: (1) The desirable rate of reading differs between the fields and the purposes within each field. (2) Each field has its unique problems of vocabulary. (3) Each field has its own problems of organization of the concepts covered and therefore the presentation of those concepts in print vary.

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(4) Each field has its own symbolism and abbreviations. (5) Each field has its own purposes and therefore emphasizes different comprehension abilities.

The rate of reading that is desirable and effective for reading most narrative material is in no way suitable for reading arithmetic problems. The rate suitable for most science material would be inefficient in reading a humorous tale. A total day of reading in arithmetic is likely to be only one page, while a child may, in an equal amount of time, be expected to read a twenty-page story; in science, the child may be expected to read only four or five pages in the same length of time. It is no wonder that studies have shown that children who read science or mathematics rapidly are more apt to be poor students in those subjects than do their intellectual counterparts who read these materials more slowly. Children must learn and, therefore, they need to be taught when to read slowly and carefully, when to re-read, when to pause and reflect, when to take notes as they read, and when to read rapidly. Such training must be given in content that demands such reading. It is also true that these learnings should not be left to chance or even to opportunistic learning, but should be taught in the basic reading program. Vocabulary problems are immediately apparent in each of the content fields. In social studies, for example, many words must be introduced to convey social-studies concepts. Some of these words, such as: armada, plebeian, or legislature, are specific to the field, while other words have altered meanings to suit the needs of social studies, such as: settlement, ford, mouth, head, and range. Many words are abstract with no clearly defined meaning, such as: democracy, toleration, or civilization. Each field has its own specific or altered vocabulary. What, for example, did the improper fraction do, that is unacceptable? The vocabulary load of new or specialized meanings the child must know becomes terrifically large. There is no doubt that much of the technical vocabulary is necessary. There is necessity for exactness and clarity of expression. It is also necessary to have compactness. Frequently a technical term such as photosynthesis, for example, represents many pages of discussion for which the term becomes the

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symbol. It would be unfortunate indeed if the child had to re-read all the discussion of photosynthesis every time the generalizations inherent in the discussion of photosynthesis are needed. Instead, the term symbolizes the whole presentation. The avoidance of specialized vocabulary is not only unwise, but is impossible. We should, however, question ourselves rather carefully about how much specialized vocabulary the child at each level of advancement can reasonably be expected to assimilate. Likely, there should be no more technical or specialized words introduced than the number that can become permanent learnings and no fewer words than are needed to identify all the basic concepts with exactness. Only the concepts that are of sufficient importance to warrant careful study should be identified with a technical term. Frequently we believe that just because material is stated in exact terms it will be understood with clarity. It should be remembered that the word conveys exactness only to the degree that it has full and precise meaning to the reader. If the child does not have exact understanding of the word, the word itself gives no clarity or precision. It is the reader, and not the writer, who usually determines the exactness of what he reads. For the most part, the writer has a clearer understanding of the specialized vocabulary than does the immature reader. It is, therefore, essential that the teacher inspect the material and develop for the children clarity of understanding of unusual words. One cautionary remark should be made, however. If the author of the book is aware that the new word is one that the reader is unlikely to know, it is his responsibility to define that word in the content of the printed page. Such words, which are defined, should be left for the student to interpret. He may, thereby, gain a valuable means of vocabulary development. Organization problems are among the most difficult the child meets in reading the content materials. If his reading program has not anticipated these problems and systematically built readiness for the complex situation, the child may well find himself in reading confusion. The geographer must carry many threads of reasoning through his material. He must present regional geography, industrial geography, climatic geography, physical geography, economic geography and human geography, to name a few of the threads he must maintain. It is, therefore, small wonder that he wishes to refer the child

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to some remote page to see a map, a figure, or a chart from time to time. He cannot do otherwise. The writer of history has problems of organization also, and if time sequence is neglected, the child will find it difficult to maintain precise understanding. I, for example, cannot rid myself of the notion that Mary Chilton pressed hard on the heels of Columbus, yet I know that there was almost as much time elapsed between Columbus and Mary Chilton as there is between Washington and the present time. Why do we have such feelings? Perhaps it is because our history books took only ten or so pages to treat the time between Columbus and the Mayflower and several hundred pages for treating the time from George Washington to the present time. All the other fields have their special problems of organization and the child must be given systematic instruction in sensing the organization of the material. He must also be taught the study skills of the fields so that he may become an effective reader within each field. This instruction is too important to be developed opportunistically. It needs systematic treatment. Symbols and abbreviations specific to a curricular field constitute other hazards to the child's success in reading. Among the more important basic study skills found in science, for example, is the ability to interpret the symbolic language and the scientific abbreviations. The symbol Zn is more than an abbreviation for zinc. It implies that the child knows the atomic weight, the valence, and so forth; that he is able to use the symbol effectively in chemical formulae. Another basic study skill is the reading of a formula. And if an arrow points one way, it means that the reaction will go in one way; if the arrow points in two directions, it means that the reaction is reversible, and the like. It is not only in the field of chemistry that we have scientific formulae and symbolic expressions. The writings in the fields of biology, physics, and mathematics are also heavily laden with their symbolic language and expressions in formulae. All the other fields have symbols that must be learned if confusions are to be avoided. The basic reading program can well take some responsibility in building a readiness for these learnings. It should build an understanding of the importance of noting symbols and abbreviations and of learning their meanings. The greatest part of the learning will come from careful guidance in the curricular field.

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Comprehension abilities needed to meet the differing purposes inherent in each field constitute a problem to the child. The purposes for reading factual material are often quite different than are those for reading narrative. The purposes for reading an arithmetic problem are to find out what is to be done and to isolate the pertinent facts. The reader is not expected to remember the facts. Indeed, it would be impossible for him to do so, even if he made the attempt. In social studies, he is expected to read to isolate the pertinent facts and to retain them. Maybe one hundred pages later, the social-studies author will say, "You remember . . ." The child may not remember because he was reading as if he were reading arithmetic at the time. These and the other adjustments to the needs of the curricular fields are so vital to the reading growth of the child in today's world that they must be taught in a systematic sequence. They cannot be left to chance nor treated incidentally, as the teacher is really centering his attention on developing the understanding of subject. I am firmly convinced that in the elementary grades the basic reading program must assume the responsibility of showing the child how to read the material he is actually expected to read throughout his school day and it must build readinesses for the new reading problems he will soon meet. Then, through careful guidance in the content areas, he will get experience in using these specific reading abilities in material suited to his reading levels for each field.

Educational Problems and Their Solutions in a Special Center for Retarded Children ESTHER B. AGENSKY ·

great by the variety of people who make it up. Different peoples have contributed to its development and power. Contributions to society have been made by individuals of varying aptitudes and abilities. Since society needs all types of abilities and since individuals vary in their abilities, the first responsibility of any teacher is to know his or her pupils, so that plans may be made to help the child to develop to his maximum. The needs of our specialclass children are not too different from the needs of all children. The difference lies basically in their capacity to learn intellectual things. This handicap in learning intellectual things does not necessarily mean a corresponding slowness in other kinds of activities. It is at this point that we may do the retarded child an injustice. If we permit this handicap to influence all our planning we will fail to develop the talents of our youngsters. Since our youngsters have been born short in intellectual ability, VIERICA HAS BECOME

* Principal, James Madison Public Elementary School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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we must find other areas in which each child can be successful. We firmly believe that each child has some talent. It is up to us as teachers to find out what that talent is, even though it may mean that one youngster's unique ability simply consists in keeping a closet wellorganized and tidy, or that another has a green thumb. It will be relatively easy to find the youngsters who have marked abilities in cooking, in sewing, in the arts and crafts, in music, in dancing, in dramatic presentations, in sports. The traditional school has overemphasized the importance of learning intellectual things. This put a great burden on our children and stigmatized them. The teacher must develop a balanced point of view. She must accept the child as he is, treat him always in a manner that proves to him that he is an important person in the group, and that he has a unique contribution to make to the group. This will help the youngster rid himself of feelings of frustration, of rejection, of inadequacy. The teacher's attitude can help him build pride in himself, faith in himself, so that he is eager to fulfill the role of a worthy individual who makes the group richer by his co-operation and his help. These youngsters are worthy of our respect and our love. We must beware of feeling superior. Children are strangely psychic. They can sense our feelings even before we recognize the fact that we've permitted our feelings to gel, to take form. A feeling of superiority on our part forms a barrier between the children and us. We can't reach them and they don't want to reach us. There is no room for pity in our relationship with these youngsters. They resent our feeling sorry for them. They become suspicious of us, and they lose faith in us. We must be willing to accept them as fellow humans. We must want to study them, to try to understand them, so that we can help them to achieve some success and find their place in this chaotic world of ours. We feel that the Madison School Program is not a preparation for life; it is a Way of Life. Who Are Our Children? They vary in age from ten to seventeen. Their I.Q.'s range between fifty and eighty. We have some youngsters with grave emotional disturbances. The I.Q.'s of a few of these are over 100, but so serious is the block that in spite of every help that program, counselor, psy-

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chologist, clinic have given, they can make little progress in adjustment or in acquiring intellectual skills. Most of these youngsters have little or no home life. The economically underprivileged are on their own most of the time. The parent, or guardian, is weary of trying to meet life's problems and permits the child utmost freedom or license to live his life as he wishes. Those also who come from the better income groups have often found themselves rejected by their parents and family. Therefore, when these youngsters come to us they are afraid, suspicious, insecure. They have experienced nothing but failure and life is bleak and desolate for them. They are often resentful, aggressive, defiant. These traits are symptoms. We try to treat the symptoms rather than punish the child. The one who is least likable is the one who needs our love most, so we make a superhuman effort to lure him into the warmth of the group. What is our goal? To develop self-disciplined, contributing members in a society where the dignity of each individual is recognized and respected. To make this possible we have developed a curriculum that centers around Social Living Experiences. Our program emphasizes these areas: I Health Education II Home and Family Living III Citizenship A Student Council Β Safety Patrol C Student Aids IV Job Training V The Arts A Music Β Arts and Crafts

Health Education includes physical fitness, safety, nutrition, mental health, recreation, personal grooming. To improve the physical status: a. We try to stimulate interest in the correction of defects. b. Children plan and prepare wholesome foods. c. We have a breakfast club for those who eat no breakfast at home. The youngsters help to plan the menu, prepare breakfast, and clean up. They go on shopping tours for food. In this way, they

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feel they've earned the breakfast. It does not become an act of charity. d. We use lunch period as an experience in group living. Each lunch period becomes a pleasant social interlude. Places are set. Food is served. A Blessing is said or sung. The children now get down to the joy of eating with congenial friends. The clean-up afterwards provides another opportunity for helping our youngsters acquire standards of gracious living. e. We have a health room supplied with cots for adequate rest periods. These cots provide a dual function for those who need a period of quiet; and for those who just need to sleep. f. We have a varied Sports Program: swimming, volley ball, baseball, basket ball, soft ball, etc. Twice we've won plaques for winning the Relay Race at Franklin Field. g. Personal grooming is emphasized because we feel that to look attractive helps the morale. It helps self-confidence grow. "Look attractive outside and you feel attractive inside" is the way the youngsters put it. This means showers, shampoos, hair styling, manicures. There are facilities for girls and boys to launder clothes and do repair jobs on their clothes. Girls make new clothes and remodel old clothes. h. Social Dancing provides opportunity for girls to discuss appropriate dress, appropriate manners, appropriate types of dancing, appropriate dancing positions. Birthday luncheons are planned by each group. Parent teas are planned by children and arranged by children under teacher guidance. These co-operatively planned activities bring about a very close relationship between teacher and youngster. The curriculum is very elastic and flexible. More and more opportunities are given to youngsters to plan, execute, and evaluate activities. They grow in maturity, in initiative, in acceptance of responsibility. These traits when fully established become basic to the habits and attitudes necessary to get and to hold jobs. For total child development we believe in having fun together. These are our Red Letter Days: Valentine Dance and Party Easter Parade School Picnic in Hunting Park

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Halloween Celebration Neighborhood Parade Decoration of Neighborhood Windows Parties for Younger Children Dances for Older Children Christmas Party, when the building becomes a veritable fairyland

These parties are not only fun, but they provide exciting pegs on which to hang the skills. How could any of these experiences materialize without reading, writing, and arithmetic? They give purpose to the Art Program, the Music Program, the Grooming Program, the Home Economics Program, the Conventional Skills Program. They are the media through which acceptable social behavior is developed. They lay the foundation of the skills, habits, attitudes necessary for job-training. Teachers and children co-operatively plan for these events. Together they do all the work necessary to make these happy experiences in Community Living. We are learning to live together, to work together, to play together in wholesome fashion. The program for the young child stresses the Home, School, and Community. He gets an awareness of the kind of community in which he lives and the facilities and services it offers. Through many trips, the child learns to get around in his neighborhood to satisfy the needs of his daily living. The program of the child from ten to thirteen stresses relationships. He must become aware of his own relationship to his family and community life, the relationship between family and community welfare. He must learn to develop a concept of the interrelationship among groups of workers, ethnic and social groups, and the interdependence of man. For the adolescent, the educational emphasis must be upon responsibility. Responsibility includes that of the adult individual to his family, his social and community groups, his coworkers, his employers, and to society in general. It includes a respect for authority and conformity to law and order. Employability is the most logical point of departure, as the center of interest for the adolescent child. A study may be made of workers in the foods trades, including the personal characteristics necessary for jobs of different types. This study should include a consideration of wages, opportunities for advancement,

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hours of work, employment security, working conditions, union activities, stability of employment. The child should be led to measure himself against the requirements of any given job. A similar study might be made of the following occupations: Retail selling (neighborhood stores) Service jobs City emloyees (street and paving workers, trash collectors, etc.) Automobile maintenance Building maintenance Hospital service Manual labor Domestic service

These experiences are followed by a Unit on Occupational Information and Training, where the following areas are stressed: 1. Attitudes toward work, toward job and employer, toward coworkers, toward "authority" in any situation—family, school, government 2. Preparation for application interview 3. Job problems a. Part-time and full-time jobs b. Where to get them c. How to get them d. How to keep them e. Employment restrictions as to age, hours, type of employment f. Employees' responsibilities g. Unions, insurance, other benefits 4. Field trips Purpose a. to acquaint pupils with wide variety of opportunities in different job areas b. to broaden pupil's view of the working world c. to see workers in action d. to recognize jobs for which pupils are now qualified

Along with these experiences, it would be very desirable for youngsters to have actual opportunities to develop skills in a Vocational School. In Philadelphia, of course, Vocational Schools are not open to the mentally retarded. However, in our district we are fortunate

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that a few of our youngsters have the privilege of being admitted to the Vestibule Class of the Bok Vocational School. There are many problems in the area of Program that face us: 1. Pressures from parents who insist that the program conform to the traditional concept of education 2. Lack of opportunity for vocational training 3. Lack of a placement plan 4. Lack of counseling and guidance service after the youngster gets his job and leaves school 5. Lack of close relationship between the school and State Employment office that might help the youngster to bridge the gap between the school world and the workaday world 6. Lack of any plan to serve as a follow-up of former pupils enrolled in special classes so that adjustment to the job situation might be evaluated 7. No provision to check whether the school curriculum has been realistic, and whether it has served the needs of those now employed 8. No way of keeping school administration informed of needed curriculum changes so that the educational program might keep abreast of industry's demands. In spite of these obstacles, the picture is an encouraging one. The mentally retarded child has just begun to capture the imagination of the community. In the years to come, he will not be the child who walked alone. He will not be the forgotten one. He will be an integral part of the community. He will be able to pay for his place on earth with wholesome service.

The Physical Education Teacher s Responsibility for the Retarded Child J O H N H. J E N N Y *

does the physical education teacher have a responsibility for the education of the retarded child, but he has a most unique contribution to make to that education. Most of you are well aware of the characteristics of the retarded child. It is in his physical self that the child is nearest the so-called normal child. All retarded children have, in some proportion and to some degree, all the innate aptitudes and capacities of the normal child. These so-called motor capacities can be definitely measured, and to the specialist in health, physical education, and recreation can be reviewed as a motor quotient or M.Q. The capacities which are used to make up this composite M.Q. are reaction time, co-ordination, leg speed, muscle viscosity, and classification index (which includes age, height, and weight). If the retarded child is extremely limited in the innate capacity of intelligence quotient, or I.Q., he is more nearly normal in M.Q. since (unless he possesses an orthopedic limitation) he pos-

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* Professor of Physical Education, State Teachers College, West Chester, Pennsylvania.

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sesses arms and legs and the wherewithal for motor learning. It is in this ability to learn through motor activities that physical education can make its major contribution to the education of the retarded child, and it has a distinct and definite responsibility to do so. All children and youth need sound foundations, physically, mentally, and socially, to enjoy life as fully and as wholesomely as their capacities will permit. The retarded child is no exception. Learning need not be confined to the secrets of the printed page. There are many learnings which come from motor activities. All graduates of fully recognized schools, departments, and colleges of physical education understand the unique contribution of motor activities to overall learning. I am not talking of the so-called physical educator who envisions his profession as one of perfecting highly complicated sports skills for spectator enjoyment; I am alluding to the tireless and dedicated health and physical educator who knows and can prove that all learning has a physical basis. In our complex society with all its mechanization there is still the need for physical activity. Muscles do not develop by riding in busses, streetcars, station wagons, or elevators. Muscles must be exercised and used to develop physical fitness. The physical educator can and does know what types of activities should be used at various developmental levels for this muscle building to give the retarded child the visceral vitality for normal body functions and over-all joie de vivre. This prehensile development, locomotion, and the more complex combination of locomotion and prehensile development may be seen at its highest development when a Big Leaguer climbs high on the wall to rob the League's leading hitter of a hit; and this moving about and catching objects is within the reach of many retarded children even though it need not be for the enjoyment of spectators. The recent publicity over the Kraus-Weber tests and the condemning of the American system for permitting its children to be less physically fit than the European children has implications for the physical education of the retarded. These six simple tests which have to do with upper body, lower body, leg strength, and leg flexibility are all within the grasp of the retarded child. If Kraus and Weber are correct and if these tests do show a lack of and a need for physical fitness, then the simple exercises which make for this body efficiency can be taught to the retarded by the physical educator. Thus one contribu-

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tion which the physical educator can make to the retarded child is that of over-all physical fitness. Since the retarded child is denied much of the social life of the normal child it is important for us to look at the contributions which can be made to this area through physical activities. The need for companionship and for developing a sense of belonging are given through the games, dances, and other activities which are a delight to the retarded child. Here the child comes in contact with others. Through such contacts he is able to develop companionships and to benefit from social learnings. The give and take of social activities provides for learnings other than body training. Here the physical educator helps to develop status and companionship. Here the child begins to grow as a social being. The leisure time of the normal individual has more than trebled in recent years, and the retarded child has even more leisure. The physical educator and the recreation personnel therefore have a definite responsibility for providing the child with skills which will assist him in the proper use of this leisure. Dance activities, music, some limited crafts, collecting hobbies, and dramatic activities of a limited nature have all been used to advantage in developing activities for recreation. The recreative principle of physical education is a reminder to the physical educator that his responsibility does not stop with the developing of organic vigor. Motor mechanics may be used by the physical educator in teaching the retarded the rudiments of swimming. In aquatics the retarded child learns not only to keep his body healthy and clean, but to participate in an activity enjoyed by the entire family. Swimming is another form of locomotion and the mentally retarded do not generally build up the fears and mental blocks concerning the water that many normal children do. The mentally retarded learn much from the out-of-doors. Many have learned the secrets and mysteries of the earth from observation as they could not have learned them from a printed page. The outof-doors provides a great laboratory of learning which is available for the mentally retarded as well as for the normal. Many times the retarded are adjusted vocationally through the mysteries of the land. I know of one young man who is a successful farmer. It is true that his boss does the marketing of the products, but the yield of the land

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comes from his understanding of mysteries of growth not to be found in books on scientific farming. It is not my intention to enumerate the vocational aspects of the out-of-doors, but to point out the joy of life and living that comes from communing with nature under the guidance of a physical educator and recreation specialist who knows the value of outdoor living, the feeling of belonging that comes from the doing of chores in co-operative camp living, and the nature of life in a more primitive society. The physical educator has a responsibility for developing physical fitness and muscular strength in the retarded child. He must train muscles for locomotion, prehensile movement, visceral fitness, and the normal body functions. The area of recreation includes activities which satisfy the individual's leisure and recreation. Many activities such as music, dance, crafts, and drama are possible to some degree to the retarded. The retarded child's need for acceptance and companionship are gained through the use of games and other social activities. The success of the physical educator is not to be measured in goals scored, games won, or crowd attendances, but in the joy of life and the recreation of the retarded in their partially veiled existence.

Planning jor Children in a Half-Day Session BERNICE BAXTER *

H

for children should always be considered as an emergency measure in education. Unless we are willing to acknowledge that we need only one-half the time that we have been taking to educate children, we must guard against the erroneous idea that half-day sessions are satisfactory for more than an emergency period. This means that administrators have a responsibility to parents to keep before them the fact that a shortened school session has certain limitations. While encouraging teachers to the highest performance possible and while assuring parents that losses will be as limited as possible, our public must realize always that any curtailment in the total education of a child will have some negative results. At a recent meeting called by the U.S. Office of Education for the purpose of discussing problems in early childhood education, the first and most immediate problem facing the nation was stated to be that ALF-DAY SESSIONS

* Director of Education land, California.

in Human

Relations,

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in a Half-Day

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of emergency measures in elementary education. Since in most communities the curtailment of time affects children in the early primary grades and consequently the teachers of these classes, it was considered that the impact of the shortened day would be felt most by young children, their teachers and their parents. The Roles Played by the Administrator, Parent and Teacher It seems obvious that there should be an awareness of administrators, teachers and parents of the roles which each must fill in meeting the emergency situation caused by curtailed schooling. For the administrator there is the opportunity and necessity of setting up the administrative organization in a way that will mean cleaner and unencumbered administration of the school program. The administrator's responsibility also includes acquainting both teachers and parents with proposed plans and in giving both an opportunity to discuss and participate in possible modifications of these plans. One of the requisites of smooth administration is the satisfaction, as far as that is possible, of both parents and teachers. Upon the parent falls the responsibility for guiding and enriching the child's out-of-school time. Since the common plan for a half-day session is attendance in the morning for some children and attendance in the afternoon for others, it means that during the duration of the emergency period young children will be out of school either all morning or all afternoon. This imposes a need for home supervision of children if undue fatigue is to be avoided. Strenuous activities in the morning and school in the afternoon will mean tired children in the afternoon. School in the morning with unsupervised play in the afternoon may also result in children's overexertion and weariness by the end of the day. One of the results of the half-day session is that of pressure upon teachers. Lack of room space restricts pre-class planning and also after-class gathering up of the results of the day's activities. When two teachers use the same classroom, each seems to be always hurrying to avoid interference with the other. If teachers become tired and anxious because of time pressures there is a tendency for the results of this weariness to react upon children. Preventing this feeling of pressure is a problem of administration.

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In all situations contacted and in the literature, there is a reiteration of the negative influences of the shortened day upon children and teachers. While teaching results in some cases have been affected positively through better planning and classroom teaching, the strain upon both teachers and children seems to be a factor for which there is no compensation. Together the administrator, parent and teacher must work cooperatively in the interest of making certain that children have enough rest. Since fatigue seems to accompany all double and triple session arrangements for classroom instruction, the adults who are in contact with children can minimize the effect of the over-use of classrooms by keeping themselves physically and emotionally well. The health of children demands this. General Planning for Half-Day

Sessions

The first step in orienting parents to half-day sessions is the administrator's task. Most school administrators agree that parents should realize that there will be some concessions to be made by every home. If some children are scheduled for morning attendance for one year or for one semester, those children will probably be scheduled for afternoon session the next year or the next semester. While parents frequently become adjusted to a pattern of morning or afternoon school attendance, it seems better to alternate time of day for each child so that every family has the same consideration. However, this is a matter upon which parents and administrators may decide after the convenience of all has been given attention. All administrative details that can be anticipated and discussed with parents should be brought before them as the half-day session schedule is inaugurated. Complete understanding of rules, regulations and procedures will eliminate questions and misunderstandings later. Teachers will need opportunity for more detailed planning when two are using a room than will be required when a teacher has a classroom to herself. When two teachers use the same classroom, the room decoration, the establishment of which will avoid conflict, and the co-operative handling of equipment and materials will need to be studied. It may even be wise for two desks to be placed in a classroom so that teachers may keep their own possessions separate.

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It falls to the principal of the school to maintain a very regular scrutiny of classroom conditions when two classes are using the same classroom. The housekeeping of the teacher or of children in a given class may be a handicap to the other teacher and the other children. Cupboards and containers for books and children's working equipment need to be provided and maintained in such a way that children may feel responsible for their own materials. If two completely different faculties are using the same building and classrooms, principals may have to plan for the separate or parallel use of school equipment, including play space and play equipment. Carefully worked-out auditorium schedules, with both teachers and Parent Teacher Associations, will avoid conflicts and disappointments. Posted schedules will help to keep all concerned acquainted with the accepted plan of action. Teaching in the Half Day In the half-day session there is usually an hour or more of teacher time that is over and above the teacher's immediate classroom responsibility. Under some arrangements this additional teaching time is used for the instruction of individual children, for excursions, or for special assignment in the school. Since half-day sessions usually are planned for the younger children in the school, there is a shorter school day than if older children were involved. Many schools have found that since certain aspects of education are sacrificed in the half-day session, supplementary activities may restore some of the loss. Through this additional instructional time some children who are unable to maintain the pace of the class may be given individual assistance. Occasionally children who are not ready to read have the benefit of excursions and related language activities. Immature children thus have more of the direct attention of a teacher. Some schools report that with time for children to be taken on excursions into the neighborhood there is built up a closer relation between school and homes. The children become acquainted with the interests of the neighborhood and are stimulated by their observations. Parents have an opportunity of seeing children in groups and the teacher has a means of becoming acquainted with parents in their own home situations. For little children, this personal kind of ex-

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cursion into the community has potentialities for language development which is an asset in reading. Improvement in certain of the skills has been reported by several schools on half-day session. Close, careful grouping seems to be one factor in the successful teaching of the skill subjects. More immediately aware of results, teachers make a special effort to help children achieve the maximum under the limited time available. For some children, there seems to be no resulting strain in this procedure. Other children are fatigued by the stepped-up pace. Teachers working under the limitations of time are more inclined to evaluate outcomes regularly and more frequently than when the time pressure is less. The close attention of the teacher to results serves as a stimulus to more dynamic teaching. The close follow-up of children's weaknesses may prevent some of the losses that accrues when the check-up is less regular. It seems unfortunate that lack of time should be the incentive to more effective teaching. However, this seems to be the case in some school districts if reports from the literature are accepted as valid. Along with this closer evaluation has come greater attention to the research in teaching methods. With a shortened day, administrators and teachers have tried to eliminate inefficient methods. Those procedures which do not lead immediately to good results are dropped. Through the employment of only those methods that give promise of satisfaction, children's growth in certain skills has been assured. Thus it must be said to the credit of those who have tried to make a success of the half-day session that there have been some appreciable gains. Contrasted with these gains there have been losses which are less easily measured. The double sessions held in a single classroom have made it virtually impossible for the maintenance of a classroom environment which includes children's construction. In the classroom used for two classes, all results of the day's work must be cleared away at the end of the class period so that the next class may begin its work. This means that the symbols of the children's co-operative experience are removed. The relation of one day's activities to those of the next day is less vivid. There are no reminders in the classroom of what had been accomplished in the previous work period. It may be said, without fear of contradiction, that the social learn-

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ings in a classroom that is used by two classes are seriously curtailed. The natural social environment can be of a day's duration only. If children try to carry on the work begun on the previous day there is loss in reassembling the previously constructed objects. Usually, facilities are so limited when two sessions of children are using a school that the auditorium, library and other special rooms are either out of use or must be used by each session in a limited way. This means that the stimulation normally provided by these facilities is lost. A building that has been erected to house a given number of children for a full school day cannot be used with full social results for two student body groups. An impersonalized atmosphere must prevail so that one group does not impose its program upon the other group. The strict delimitation of time periods with their abrupt opening and closing does not make for ease and flow of one type of school experience into another. Unless careful provision is made there is likely to be aroused in children a feeling of non-belonging and non-possession of school materials. This may result in an attitude of detachment and a consequent lack of security. There are few studies of the results upon children's attitudes of double sessions. Little has been done to evaluate the social learning under conditions required by double use of the classroom and school. The implications for minimizing the effects upon children of double sessions are worth considering. In guiding children's growth and development the teacher who is teaching in the half-day session should keep some anecdotal records of children's behavior. Since it is far easier to use standardized tests in the measurement of skills, there is a tendency for this type of evaluation to prevail over any attempted evaluation of other outcomes. For children who are in half-day sessions for a two- or three-year period, losses in social development may be marked. It is the obligation of the school to assess total development and not to permit some aspects of growth to be neglected because of the difficulty of measurement. If supplementary classrooms and enriching resources outside the classrooms are not available, balance and a variety of activities can not be assured. Auditorium, play space, nature-study facilities, music rooms, library and other space opportunities contribute to children's interests and relieve the strain. If these can be provided, there will

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be a reduction in the tension of the shortened day. The release of children's energy is made possible by these facilities. Moving about and using large muscles thereby help children and incidentally teachers to relax. Some Suggestions

from the

Literature

There seems to be general agreement among educators that the streamlined education required in part-time sessions is not a substitute for full-time schooling. One writer says of this: In conclusion, it must be said that the half-day session is a practical if not satisfactory solution to the problem of over-crowding in our schools. The differences in mean gains as compared with time allotments by fullday and half-day sessions indicate that the concentration on the "academic" subjects by half-day classes does not provide a satisfactory substitute for the enriched program of full-day classes.1 Another study offers several suggestions for making half-day sessions as effective as possible. Responsibilities of teachers need to be planned carefully in advance. She (the teacher on double sessions) should have the same teaching hours as other teachers. Children and teachers often change sessions at mid-year. Studies which evaluate the social and emotional growth of children on double sessions are needed. There are few of these. Revamping of the curriculum will probably be needed—may need to be streamlined. Irrelevant and unessential materials should be eliminated. Methods of instruction should be examined for possible faster methods of learning. A recent study showed that less visual aids were used—probably more should be used as time may be saved. Music, art and physical education can be taught as parts of large areas of study and need not be eliminated as they have been. Frequently subjects may be correlated or integrated to save time and to help insure mastery and understanding. Teachers should be encouraged to experiment with different ways of grouping children for more effective ways of grouping children. 1

Louise L. Smith and Thomas D. Horn, Is the Half-Day pp. 373-374.

Session Full

Measure,

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Children tend to lose 20 per cent of their schooling when in double sessions. Flexibility of curriculum and improved methods may offset loss.2 Experience with part-day sessions leads to many helpful suggestions. In fact harmful results will be avoided by following the warnings of those who know the shortcomings. Here are some words of wisdom: Cubby-holes for children's materials prevent loss and disputes. These can be used while other classes use desks. (Reversed at end of each semester. ) An inexperienced and an experienced teacher can share a room with profit to the former. Twenty-five children seem an ideal number for part-day sessions.3 This same author comments as follows on differing types of organization, commenting on the superiority of one over another. Straight Type. 8:15 A.M.—12:15 P.M.; 12:15 P.M.—4:15 P.M. Staggered Type. 8:00 A.M.—10:00 A.M.; Class A—Children go home for two hours, returning at 12:00 noon and remain until 2 P.M. Class Β —10:00 A.M.—12 noon; 2:00 P.M.—4:00 P.M. Three for Two. Three classes share two classrooms and spaces such as the auditorium and gymnasium. The straight type is best when many children are transported. The staggered type is possible when children live within walking distance of school. In Summary As a concluding commentary it must be said that a faculty needs a philosophy regarding half-day sessions if decisions are to be made with consistency and with general acceptance. Only as teachers and parents work together with a commonly held idea of what constitutes balanced living will serious losses for children be averted. Teachers and parents both should be ready to evaluate and re-evaluate constantly the quality of each child's experience, making changes when necessary. There is continuing need for flexibility in curriculum and in instruction. 2

George Isaiah Thomas, "Getting the Most out of Double Session Schooling," The American School Board Journal, pp. 21-22, August, 1952. 3 Carleton Μ. Saunders, "Double Sessions — Good? Bad? Indifferent?" The American School Board Journal, pp. 48-49, October, 1951.

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The best that can be said about the half-day session is that it can be made to work if all persons are alert and aware of what is happening to children. The double session requires more careful planning and greater realism regarding possible achievements. Omissions must be recognized and reasonable expectations and outcomes sought. If there is assured agreement as to outcomes and how these are to be reached, the half-day organization need not have too many negative results. However, there should be a termination date set. Half-day sessions should not be permitted to drag on indefinitely. Only as school administrators and teachers keep themselves completely cognizant of what is happening to children can there be justification for trying a plan of double sessions. It is too much to hope that this "alert" can be maintained indefinitely. Without it there is certain to be a dropping of standards and an irreparable loss in the educational life of children. The watchword for double sessions seems to be this: Double sessions can operate with a degree of success for a given period only. Beyond that time there is reason to doubt the right of a school district to accept inferior education for its children. There is enough experience with half-day sessions now to know that losses occur and become cumulative. Make half-day sessions work but also concentrate on bringing them to an end!

III Secondary

Education

Can the Secondary Schools Meet the Needs of Industry f CHARLES M. COOPER *

M

here today are to state a problem and to ask some questions. Please understand that I am concerned in this matter not as an educator but first as a man in industry, looking at industry's needs and wondering whether our schools could do more toward turning out effective men and women, people who will effectively employ all the knowledge they possess. (I might say also "people who will be more effective in private life and more useful as citizens.") Two years ago I was asked to prepare a paper for a meeting of the Institute of Chemical Engineers on the subject, "Needs of Industry and Their Impact on Curriculum." Well, what are "Industry's Needs"? This looked like a difficult problem to get hold of. Finally, almost in desperation, I turned to a check list we use at the Engineering Research Laboratory in routine annual appraisals of the progress of our people. Although I had helped prepare the list and had worked Y FUNCTIONS

• Engineering Research Laboratory, Ε. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc., Wilmington, Delaware. 81

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with it for years, I was startled—perhaps shocked—to look at it from a different point of view. Here is the list: Knowledge Creativeness Analytical Ability Initiative and Resourcefulness Quantity of Production Quality of Work Ability to Speak Clearly Ability to Write Clearly Judgment and Common Sense Co-operation Open-M indedness Reliability Leadership Thirteen items, each calling attention to some facet or personal aspect or characteristic! When considered as a group they give a reasonably well-rounded picture of the usefulness of the individual in question. Note, however, that unless the individual exhibits an acceptable level in each attribute, his usefulness will be severely limited. Hence, each of these attributes is important to industry because it measures part of the contribution the individual is making in his job; each is important to the individual because it plays its part in determining his rate of progress and his pay. This is probably not the best list that could be devised, but it has been helpful to us. No doubt by now you see what startled me. Only three items on this list are directly affected by curricular decisions—knowledge, ability to speak clearly, and ability to write clearly. The latter two, as we are all aware, frequently receive little curricular attention. Curricula, as we know them, are planned to give the student access to knowledge. But knowledge, unless it be effectively employed, is useless. Twelve of the thirteen items are concerned with the effective employment of knowledge. It was startling to realize that the bulk of the attributes which we seek in our men are picked up by them almost incidentally in their educational and living experiences. Granting that the check list covers the principal items that determine the usefulness of an engineer to industry, one can conclude that industry needs people who will effectively employ whatever

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knowledge they possess, and who will recognize and obtain specific knowledge required but not originally possessed. Please observe I did not say "people trained in . . ." or "people with ability to do so and so." I said "people who will effectively apply the knowledge they possess." You might conclude at this point that I discount the value of knowledge. Far from it. It is true that the effective man will go farther with a little knowledge than will the ineffective man with all the learning of the land. But what we need is both knowledge and the effective employment of knowledge. Hence, I am not, at least here and today, looking critically at any curriculum as far as it concerns the usual business of cramming knowledge into more or less receptive craniums. I am just wondering—out loud—whether our educational system as a whole recognizes a responsibility to develop in students these attributes so essential to effective application of knowledge; and if so, does it make the same kind of effort in this area that it does in teaching facts? My own memory of experiences as a teacher would say "no"—but those years are some distance back, and times, perhaps, have changed. However, just in case there is still room for some improvement, I would like to make a few comments on the non-curricular items of this list—leaving out for the moment "Creativity." In the first place most of these can be, without too much stretching, considered as working habits—those tools which make easier all tasks. The power lawn mower doesn't begin to save energy when compared to the habit of—automatically—analyzing each situation as it arises, or the habit of always being on time and with the desired answer. I wonder how many here really appreciate the part habits play in our lives—and I don't refer to smoking, drinking, or playing golf. Just focus for a moment on that difficult part of your daily life —the period between the ring of the alarm clock and time for breakfast. First, you have to decide whether to let the darn thing ring or get up and turn it off. If you turn it off, there's still the problem of a last-minute snooze. (Some people struggle with these decisions every morning.) Next, how will you get out of your pajamas? With two legs and two arms and perhaps several buttons all clamoring for attention, which will come first? And so on and on and on for maybe forty easily recognized decisions before you reach the point of decid-

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ing whether to butter the toast, pour the coffee, take a drink of orange juice, salt the egg, or what should come first anyway. Life sure is complicated! If we had to make, consciously, all these decisions every morning, who would have the stamina ever to get up? You may well say that habits—mental habits—make life possible. Mostly we get our habits quite unconsciously, and it is seldom we start out with determination to acquire one (more often we attempt with more or less success to break a habit). Indeed, for many of us even the word habit has an unpleasant connotation, since in childhood it was usually coupled with "bad." Isn't it really surprising how little effort was made (or if made, with what little success) to make each of us conscious of the usefulness of good habits—useful not because they are "good," but useful because they make it easy to accomplish things we want to do. When I first became conscious of the potential usefulness of habits, I considered it a discovery worth telling the world about. Fortunately—or unfortunately—about that time I happened to re-read Franklin's autobiography. Do you recall that he, at the age of twenty, had not only appreciated the usefulness of habits, but had determined on a list for development, and even scheduled his development effort? Somewhat sheepishly I decided that if he had failed to get the point across, I had little chance. But I still use my opportunities. A habit, like the art of riding a bicycle, is acquired by repeated use. And like the old conundrum, "Why is kissing a girl like opening a bottle of olives?" After the first the rest come easier. There seems to be no course other than repetitive use to establish the facile use of our mental tools—our habits. Hence, each of these is not likely to be acquired unless the student repeatedly meets situations which require him to practice the habit. Moreover, if some situations require a habit to be practiced while in other similar cases the requirement is absent, there is less probability that a useful tool will develop. Thus, if one teacher sets a high standard for promptness and quality of work but the majority are content with less, what kind of student habits can be expected? I would now like to talk more specifically about the second item, Creativeness, although you will see connections between these remarks and several items on the list. First, let me suggest that curiosity

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and creativity bear somewhat the same relation to each other as do knowledge and the effective use of knowledge. You can be very curious and as a result pick up a large collection of potentially useful information. If you put your collection to effective use, we say you are creative. (Sometimes, of course, the information may be employed effectively but in undesirable ways, in which case you may be called "busybody," "snooper," or some higher-powered term.) In any event, curiosity comes first; so, if we wish to help people develop creativeness, we might start by working on their bump of curiosity. We frequently hear that small children are all very curious, but that curiosity dwindles as they grow older. I can't vouch for the correctness of the observation but it seems not unlikely. Curiosity, I think, can be said to feed on satisfaction. No satisfaction—no curiosity. The very young have to satisfy their curiosity by looking, feeling, putting things into their mouths, and by studying the effect of their behavior upon local adults. In all of these ways they become surprisingly adept. I suppose no conscious reasoning process is involved. At a later stage when the language barrier has been partly removed, the flow of questions begins. For a while the questions will very likely get an answer, not necessarily correct but satisfactory to the asker. Eventually, however, comes the day when the home authorities get beyond their depths and curiosity begins to wane. By this time, however, the child has acquired enough information to answer many of his own questions—if he would try, and I suppose most parents do their best to get the offspring to do the necessary thinking. I suppose it is the general experience at this point—sometimes to parents' dismay, sometimes to their relief—that Johnny doesn't want to know the answer badly enough to work it out for himself. He gives up his parents as a bad job, and his curiosity sags because he can no longer get answers on his own terms. Thinking, you see, is hard work, perhaps the hardest work most of us do. If so, then this is the area above all others where the best mental tools are needed. It has been my privilege to know a number of creative people. All have been proficient in what I have come to call "quantitative thinking," because whenever faced by a question having a quantitative answer they mentally estimate the size of the answer using only readily available data, usually facts already stored in their mind. The practice of "quantitative thinking" was habitual with these people.

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It was their way to satisfy omnivorous curiosities. Remember—curiosity feeds upon satisfaction. Now a surprisingly large fraction of such estimates provides entirely adequate answers, and only a few require further data and study. For example: Suppose you are sitting lazily in the hammock thinking about possible vacation plans, and you wonder idly how much it would cost to visit the Philippine Islands by plane. Let's see. The earth is about 24,000 miles in circumference so two places cannot be more than 12,000 miles apart. The Philippines are pretty well on the other side, say 10,000 miles. You remember that first-class railroad fare with meals and tax runs around six cents per mile, and you know that in the United States plane fares are competitive with trains. However, much of the trip will be over water where there is no competition from trains. The fare certainly won't be less than six cents per mile and hardly twice as much. Say, nine cents a mile. One way, $900. "No need for more exact figures," you say. "It will be a long time before I take that trip." (After making this estimate, I called the air line for information— 10,380 miles, $960.) One of the classics is the story of Fermi and the watch. Enrico Fermi and Arthur Compton, both Nobel prize winners in physics, were on their way by train from Chicago to the Hanford Plant on the Columbia River. Compton said to Fermi, "Enrico, for three days we will be traveling at an elevation perhaps four thousand feet above Chicago. Will the change in elevation have any effect on the timekeeping of our watches?" Fermi thought a moment, pulled out his six-inch slide rule for a few passes and said, "Yes—fast—not more than ten seconds." Pure magic, what? But then you would expect a famous physicist to know things you and I wouldn't be expected to remember. Actually, that's not the answer in this case. Fermi had said to himself something like this: "If the timekeeping changes, it will be because the effective mass of the balance wheel changes. I suppose some air moves back and forth with the balance wheel and thereby increases its effective mass. At higher altitudes less air will be involved, the effective mass of the wheel will be less, and it can go faster. Of course, I have no idea how much air will be associated with the wheel, but certainly less than one volume of air per volume of balance wheel. To get an idea of the size of things, what would one volume per volume amount to? As any of you who teach chemistry

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or physics can readily figure, one volume of air would weigh only 1/8000 as much as a volume of brass. A change in the effective mass of this amount, if the effect is linear, would have corresponding effect on time. There are thirty-six hundred seconds in an hour. Hence, speed-up in the order of one-half second per hour, or thirty-six seconds for the three days would result. However, an altitude change of four thousand feet would change the atmospheric pressure only a small fraction. Hence, it's safe to say that the speed-up will amount to less than ten seconds." That locates the effect as small enough to forget for ordinary purposes, but if an error of no greater than a second per day or less is required for some purpose, we had better take a closer look. Most of us, I suspect, had we analyzed the problem in the first place, would have thrown up our hands saying, "The effect will be small and it would take a very careful experimental study to define it." We would remember that a watch will run fast. Fermi remembers it will run fast, but certainly less than three seconds per day from this cause alone. Is it too much to suggest that somewhere herein may lie the reason that Fermi was a top-ranking physicist? In my experience, Fermi was tops in quantitative thinking. Since every question got similar treatment, he continually used information already in his mind to build up further facts. This process of self-education was almost automatic—and very effective. Another Fermi story, for which I cannot vouch in the same detail, concerns the first atomic-bomb test. A few of the leading scientists were stationed some miles from the bomb waiting in the calm of the early morning for the test. Fermi, standing somewhat apart from the rest, was tearing a piece of paper into bits and letting them fall one by one to the ground through the still air. Someone remarked that Fermi must be excited. Came the flash of brilliant light and many seconds later the report. During this interim the paper tearing continued. As the shock wave passed, the vertical fall of papers was sharply displaced, and Fermi looking at the displacement announced the approximate energy liberated by the bomb! From these examples and others it was gradually borne in on me that Fermi by habit always sized up quantitatively every situation he encountered, using whatever data were available in his mind. To satisfy curiosity and thus feed its flames, I would recommend

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for your attention—quantitative thinking. But I should warn you that quantitative thinking itself needs a tool, and that is facility with simple mental mathematics. Unless a person is adept in mental mathematics by way of much practice, he will not make the efforts involved in quantitative thinking. How many scientific or technical courses recognize mental mathematics as an essential? How many require such facility for graduation? I am now prepared to state the problem and to ask my questions. The problem: "Industry needs people who will effectively employ whatever knowledge they possess. Effective employment of knowledge is at least as important as knowledge itself. Effectiveness depends most upon the working habits —the tools of action—which the individual has acquired." The questions: 1. Should the development of good working habits be a major objective of our schools, at least as important as imparting of knowledge? 2. Can further emphasis be given? How? 3. Can "quantitative thinking" as a developer of curiosity and of the thinking habit be effectively used in teaching? How?

The Significance of Believing— For Counselors R U T H E. SMALLEY *

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you are doing, belief in its significance for the young people you are helping, and for the schools you are serving, belief in it as a day-by-day demonstration that children and young men and women have it within themselves to make use of an important American institution for their growth and development, and that that American institution, the public school, the college, has it within itself to grow and change, the better to serve the students for whom it was established. This is not a rationally arrived-at belief, though I can easily substantiate it rationally, but one that comes from the inside of me as a result of my identification with a field of work which marked my own beginning as a social worker, and which constitutes the area of a most significant period in my own practice. I know school counseling works, in one small spot I helped it work, and I know for the best interest of us all it must work now at this hour, in this city, and in this country. ELIEF IN WHAT

* Professor of Social Case Work, Pennsylvania School of Social Work, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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I have been long away from the field of actual practice as a school counselor. Certainly it has occurred to me that someone right on the firing line could bring the word in a way that spoke more authentically and immediately to co-soldiers than was possible for me. Yet I know surely and solidly that I have something to say that I really want to say, and that may have some present and useful meaning, just because so much that I have learned and come to in the experiences I have had since I left the school counseling field, I have tested out by thinking, What is the meaning of this for the place where I began—school counseling? Perhaps what the poet has said is as true for the professional self as for the personal one: "We've only one virginity to lose. And where we lose it, there our hearts must be." Now what I want to say to you today is my own answer, as of 1956, to the question: "What does it take to be an effective school counselor?" That may sound presumptuous. I don't want or intend it to be. I am not going to speak of technical aspects of practice, though I shall consider with you how they can be come by. I want to emphasize something that must underlie the "techniques" in any helping process to make it work. I refer to what brings me here today—belief. And specifically to three beliefs essential for a school counselor, each of which I shall develop in the time I have: 1) belief in the life process itself, in growth that is synonymous with life as I understand it; 2) belief in the possibility and efficacy of relationship — I mean belief that one person can mean something to another, belief in the significance of the meeting not only of mind and mind, but much more importantly, of feeling and feeling, spirit and spirit; and finally, 3) belief in the job. That means belief in the social institution, the school you are engaged in "making work" for the individual student for whom it is not presently working, to their or its full satisfaction. I have suggested three beliefs for the book of the school counselor. First, belief in the life process itself. What is it to be alive and to trust life, as a process? For me there must always be the feeling of wonder—appreciation, gratitude, and deep respect for the principle, the fact of life—for the living quality. I am going to risk the trivial and obvious to make a point that is so very much neither. In the spring at the time of early planting you hold a seed in your hand. It is so small as to be hard to hang on to or to distinguish from the other

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hard black spheres of which it is just one. Yet in itself it holds the capacity for becoming something other than what it now is—though always in accordance with the laws of its own nature. It has what it takes to change in time, to use the conditions that surround it—of soil and water, and later sun, to respond to nurture with increased abundance, to withstand neglect, to alter itself to deal with adverse circumstances and still thrive, faithful to the life principle which moves within it. The flower grows crooked to find the sun before it abandons growth. Something of this is true for all living matter. And the greatest potential for creativity in growth rests with the human being. The students who come to you—defiant, apathetic, evasive, troubled, sullen, compliant—are, first of all, alive. Your most powerful ally in all you do with them is life itself—their life, the life in them, which each of them has at his disposal for his own individual use. Each student you see has survived a good deal when he meets you. And he has not only survived but he has used vital experiences, good and bad, favorable and unfavorable, for the creation of the unique self he brings to you. He is unique first because he is the creature of his parents, the carrier of an inheritance which is specific for him. And he is unique because he has had an environment specific for him since first he lodged in his mother's womb. How greedily and how creatively even then he used that environment, made the best of an unfavorable position, or profited from a favorable one, found a way to deal with toxic conditions, and live, or thrived on their absence and on the presence of satisfactory blood nourishment. Every one of the students you meet survived birth, liberated himself with pain and usually with tremendous effort from an environment no longer permitting the growth he was bound through his very nature to realize. All of the experiences that preceded his arrival at your door, a student in trouble at school: the family life uniquely his, the mother and father, brothers and sisters, the nature and degree of the love that was there for him, the limits that were imposed, the way they were imposed in his feeding, and weaning, and training, the gratifications, the deprivations—all of these experiences affected the kind of person he has become. But even more significantly he has effected the person he has become. Central in the drama that has attended every moment since his conception is the individual himself, using this

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experience in this way, that one in that way, seeking out what he needs, turning from what hurts or impedes. Hero of many battles, traveler in pleasant places, survivor of psychological disasters, experienced and wise in living, physiologically and emotionally, he comes to you. No matter how he may seem to deny it, or to place the responsibility for his life on his parents, on the school, or on other students ("they made me do it"), something in him deeply claims his life as his own, and no one's else. In that sense, he is the master of his fate, the captain of his soul. Your task is to help him acknowledge and act on that truth in the immediate experience of being a student in school. Where and how is he denying responsibility for himself and placing the blame elsewhere? Out of what discouragement, fear, or lack of nourishment, is he failing to be true to the life and purpose within him? Conditions in school, at home, or elsewhere may press too heavily on him for him to realize or even approximate his own potential. You may have an important part in easing those conditions, making them more favorable for his growth. But you can never grow for him—you can never substitute your courage, your wisdom, your will, your life for his. You can help him use what he has and increase what he has in the using. Two points already made about this first belief I would like to emphasize before I leave it. In believing in the life process, trusting the student to master his difficulties through the use of the power that is in him, it is important to know that it takes time to grow, to learn a new way of using one's self. You can't watch the seed become the flower. Yet it does happen, in time. It is so hard to wait and let it happen in a student, help it to happen—such a temptation to try to compel it at a tempo that may be right for you and the school but that is neither right nor possible for the student himself. And it is important to know not only that growth occurs only in time, but also that it has a character that is different for each individual. Everyone does his growing in his own time and in his own way because of the unique inheritance of each of us to which I have referred, the unique life experience, and the unique character of the life quality itself as it is manifest in every individual. Can you let a student be different from you and from other students so long as his difference falls within the framework of what is acceptable to the school? This one may always be shy, that one

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aggressive. Can each change enough, with your help, to be more true to himself, his whole self, in the course of becoming, at the very least, an admissible member of the school community? Nowhere more than in the public school is there opportunity to be aware of life as a force. The passing of classes, the pep rallies make the head ache with it. It is not the problem or the province of the school counselor to create what is so abundantly and obviously present in the students she serves. It is her province to help the student use the life that is in him productively, and in a way that is appropriate for school. Do you believe, then, in the life process, in your own to sustaia you through the day, in that of the student you serve, to sustain him and to enable him to find his own way? Can you trust him to do that, with your help or, out of your concern for him, perhaps out of your desperation or frustration, are you trying to do it for him or to get the school or his parents or his friends to do for him what is properly and rightly his to do? Then—how to help a student use the power in himself right here in school in the direction of his own growth and development, instead of against it, and against the school, and against his classmates? This brings me to the second belief, that can work such magic: belief in relationship. What do you believe is possible through relationship? I have said that every individual has within him what it takes to grow and develop. And that is true. But growth for a human being is not a matter of simple unfolding and the bud becomes the rose. He does have maturing and changing neurological and physical equipment to work with, but he, unlike the flower, uses not only conditions—food, water, sunshine—for his physical growth, but other people for his psychological growth. From the time he is a tiny baby and first apprehends that there is such a thing as another person who can satisfy or thwart him, he finds his own way of relating to that other person. He learns to make use of others and to let himself be used by them. He discovers a means of incorporating others, psychologically, into the person he becomes, and puts out on them the part of himself he wants to be rid of because it is too much at the moment to contain. So in the very creation of his own self he uses people, in two ways—to take into himself, as ideals he wants to be like; like whom he becomes; and as recipients of what he has to put out in

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feeling, whether of rage or love. People are necessary to him in both capacities. Again, by the time your troubled student meets you, he is an old hand at relationships and he brings his unique way of relating—to you. How has he used other people? How has he let himself be used by them? What has worked for him? To fight the other person, to seem to comply while really going his own way, to wheedle, to threaten, to remain aloof and indifferent? What is his own capacity for relationship? How can you help him use it, increase it, modify what he does with it through what he does with you? Do you believe one person can matter to another, can use another person for his own growth and change, can take help from another person? Can you let yourself experience using another person—your supervisor, for instance, if you have one, acknowledging the liking and trust you feel for her, as well as the fear of her encroachment, the anger at her knowing what you don't. If you truly believe in relationship and can be human and real in your relationships, including those most important ones in which you yourself take help, you can believe in what a student can do with you. With you, he has a chance to know himself in a new way, to know himself in the very act of experiencing what he is like through what he is doing with you. If he is impudent, or lazy, or aggressive with his teachers, they must, to discharge their responsibility, correct and limit him, hold him to the standard of behavior and accomplishment the school has to represent in order that we may have a civilized and literate population. But yours is a different task. It is to help him understand the self he is—more deeply perhaps than ever before—to "catch himself in the act," so to speak, of being angry, defiant, evasive, lazy, loving, friendly with you. This he will let himself do only if you neither condone nor condemn him. Both trap him into being either what you want him to be or what you don't want him to be, irrespective of his own choosing. And self-change which is not self-chosen will not endure. Your task is to give him back to himself. As he takes possession of the self he is he takes also the responsibility which you have left with him for becoming the kind of person he wants to be. Young people use their heroes, in fiction and in life, their teachers, parents, club leaders or counselors to construct the kind of person they want to become. They will choose as ego-ideal someone who goes out to them with warmth and who feels like them, has their aspirations and their hopes.

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I have referred to the kind of relationship a student needs from you as one that neither condones nor condemns. That can sound neutral and inhuman, and if it is, or becomes that, it is meaningless. A student can trust himself to be himself with you, to share his shortcomings and fears and hates as well as his loves and longings only ii he feels your genuine concern for him as a person, your valuing of him as an individual no matter how far he has strayed from his own or your or anyone else's ideal of behavior. He has to know you do not intend to take his life out of his hands even though he tries to give it to you—as when he raises the familiar question: "What would you do?" When he is truly convinced that you are there for him, in his corner, wanting to help him find a way he can do something different and better in school, able to tolerate what he puts out to you of his bad as well as his good self, he can let you have it. He can let you have the kind of self he truly is, and in hearing himself say it and in living it out with you, come into possession of himself in a new way. Then it is no longer a mean teacher or the bad school that the student sees as causing the problem. It becomes possible for him to acknowledge and take responsibility for his part in what is happening to him in school. As he feels you well-disposed to him, and not critical of the bad self he puts out for you and himself to look at, he is freed to decide how he wants to manage his badness as well as his goodness. That magical process occurs through which he takes into himself, forever his, some of your belief in him, your courage to face hard things, your greater strength and maturity. You can't give it to him. But he can take it. We know how, in a crisis, we call up the face of a loved person or the sound of a voice and are strengthened, as though the strength of the other person entered into us and became our own. For the counselor-student relationship to have this much meaning, the counselor must give generously of herself, not in the sense of the mutual giving found in love and friendship, but in the sense of caring about the other person, with a sharing of her thoughts and feelings about what the student is doing with her and saying to her. That calls for something in the way of an investment of yourself and may well leave you tired and drained at the end of an interview, and of a day. So the second belief takes its place by the first: belief in the possibility of relationship, in the use of relationship for growth, belief in

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the kind of relationship appropriate for the counseling situation, and in the unique way it can make growth possible. What of the third belief, belief in the job? You can believe in your job—helping a student make use of the experience of being in school toward his own growth and development—only if you believe in the school as an institution. It is obvious that if you thought school was a bad place to be, bad for anyone and everyone, you could put little or nothing into helping a student do something with it. Nor could you work effectively as one member of the school faculty seeking to help the school itself grow and change with changing knowledge and understanding. Sometimes it is a turning away from, even a turning against, the school and all its requirements and procedures which leads a teacher to say, "I don't want to be a teacher any more. I want to be a counselor." Without being fully aware of it, such a one may find herself on the side of the student against the school, taking up the cudgels for oppressed students against what is felt as an unfriendly and unreasonable force. This attitude is rightly resented by teachers and administration and is not helpful to the student. A feeling for the child is right, is necessary to help at all, but it cannot, to be effective, carry the "versus" spirit with it. This does not mean the counselor has to be blind to the shortcomings of individual teachers or school administrators. It is safe to assume that when human frailties were being dispensed, teachers and school administrators were not overlooked. Nor does it mean that the counselor has to "make everything right" in her own mind about the school as well as its personnel if she is to serve in it. As a matter of fact, the counselor needs to see with a clear eye what is bad as well as what is good in the total school situation in which the student is placed. But she must find enough in school in general, and in the school or schools where she is working, in particular, for her to have conviction that, with all its lacks and rough spots, this is a good place to be. She must believe that a good experience is possible here, not totally good but good enough for the student to grow and learn in if he will use it so. If she cannot feel this, if she cannot be truly identified with the school as a social institution and with a particular school as providing a real and valuable living-learning experience for the student, she might better leave a field where she cannot hope to be either comfortable or effective.

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The other side of the picture is a blind and uncritical belief in school that minimizes or ignores what is bad in it for students or harmful to their growth. Such an unreal attitude will interfere with the counselor's capacity to help students be realistic about what they have to deal with. It will also make it impossible for her to participate responsibly in the school's change. The counselor who believes in school will have her days of discouragement over what in school cannot be changed or what is slow to change—her irritations at personalities and procedures; but by and large, something will feel right and good to her when she sees the flag flying over the campus or the school yard, hears the thundering herd of classes passing, welcomes the hush that follows the bell signaling that classes have "taken up." She will value the advances schools have made in the last several decades in being responsive to the needs of students. She will deplore the lags and lacks, but she will be unable to envision our free country without our fine schools and colleges and she will be unable to envision herself not a part of those schools, helping them mean something good to students, to all students, to students who need individual counseling help if they are to use their own creative potential in a valued school experience. So these are the beliefs that profit the school counselor—belief in the life process, in the will to live and find his own way, so abundantly present in the most recalcitrant and apathetic student if only it can be released; belief in the power of relationship—in one person's ability to use another person for help in releasing his own capacity for living and growing; belief in the school as a good place to test and develop both creatively and socially the potential which can be released. Believing, you can find the way to counsel with students, drawing on your experience, using the relationship with your supervisor, if you are fortunate enough to have one, to learn technical aspects of practice and to find the nourishment and support which enables you to give, in turn, to students, undertaking study of a kind which has been designed and tested to provide situations in which skill in counseling can be developed. Belief is not enough. But without it, nothing is enough—no skills, techniques or wanting to do it right. And how shall you believe? Here I leave you, to discover for yourselves, in yourselves—where alone it can be found—whether you

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believe, what you believe, and whether your belief can grow through a relationship with someone who does believe, as I do, so earnestly that it is a privilege, as well as a heavy responsibility, to be working at this time, in the twentieth century, with some of America's young people, as a counselor in the schools and colleges of Pennsylvania.

Shakespeare in the Senior High School M O N A C. C R E E R *

begins his delightful essay, On Reading J Shakespeare, with a chapter, "On Not Reading Shakespeare." He assembles impressive reasons why, for the modem reader, it is not worth while to read Shakespeare. Some of these seem to apply with double force to the reading (or not reading) of Shakespeare in high schools today. First, he says, the fact that Shakespeare has been made into an institution makes us "hostile and suspicious." The works of a Master demand from us more attention and effort than we are willing to give. Then, if we do make this effort and give this Master our serious attention, we find the "sad stuff" of which George III complained— "crude horseplay, mirthless puns, bawdy jokes, swollen rhetoric, bloody melodrama." The plots of the plays, old stories reworked by Shakespeare, are silly and improbable, and the ways in which he uses them to produce some of his stage effects convict him of lacking artistic conscience.

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OGAN PEARSALL S M I T H

* Teacher vania.

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With the passing of time, other objections have arisen. The vocabulary of Shakespeare "is full of obsolete words and idioms"; his writing is sometimes "involved and obscure." Stopping continually to consult a glossary or notes is tiresome and distracting. Worse, "when we think we are reading Shakespeare we may not be reading him at all. His authorship of several plays assigned to him is doubtful; we possess no authentic text of any play, and can not be sure of the accuracy of a single line." Another barrier has been set up by critics who tell us that the plays were written not to be read but to be acted. "They are performances, designed for the eyes and ears of spectators; the texts are like operatic scores." And even if we stage them, we distort them, for our stage is totally different from the stage for which the plays were written. To understand them we must "reconstruct for ourselves the Elizabethan stage and master the art of stagecraft as it was practised in Shakespeare's time." Smith compares these difficulties and others to sphinxes threatening to devour those who can not solve their riddles. He asks, "How shall I face these Theban monsters, how answer their dark riddles? I have found it. Ο happy answer! Why read Shakespeare at all? There is nothing about it in the Ten Commandments; could I not justifiably say that it is impossible in the present state of things?" He concludes that he will keep away from the lair of these monsters, that region full of "dark pitfalls," "tangled thickets," and "mazes of thought." As Henry James made a thrilling adventure of not traveling, he will make his adventure of not reading Shakespeare. Shall we teachers follow his example and retreat from the threat of these Theban monsters, and another even more fearful one that gapes for teachers only? This is the accusation, so often made that it has become accepted as a truism, that the study of Shakespeare's works in school "kills" Shakespeare. No motion picture of a Shakespeare play can be advertised without the assertion that it "takes Shakespeare out of the dusty schoolroom and brings him to life." No book about Shakespeare intended for the popular market can be published without some such assurance to the reader. Sadly but with a certain resignation I read in Margaret Webster's admirable Shakespeare Without Tears: "At school I fell in love with Richard II and Macbeth. I do not remem-

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ber that it was due to particularly imaginative teaching. Perhaps the soil of my mind had been prepared by generations of theatrical ancestors, most of whom had had a bout with Shakespeare. But it is a matter of gravest regret that most children learn to regard Shakespeare as an undesired task to be mastered . . . superficially. . . . Little is done to feed their sense of the beauty and power of their own language, and their minds are crammed with a mass of irrelevant detail, which they thankfully reject as soon as possible. If, in later years, they are lured into a theater where Shakespeare is being played, they are astonished to find that there is nothing really difficult about him and that he can even supply very reasonable entertainment." There it is. Even though Mrs. Webster fell in love with Shakespeare at school, the reason could not have been the teaching; it must have been the influence of her ancestors. The belief that in school "most children learn to regard Shakespeare as an undesired task to be mastered superficially" is so generally accepted and continually repeated that we poor teachers have come almost to accept it ourselves, or at least to wince in silence when we hear it, without daring to contest it. Surely we should be justified in fleeing from this most formidable of Theban monsters? If we do not try to teach Shakespeare, we cannot be condemned for his murder. But first we might, as Mr. Smith does with another one of his monsters, try putting a riddle of our own. If Shakespeare has been killed in all the classrooms, why isn't he dead? He should be "lying in a ditch with twenty trenched gashes in his head, the least a death to nature." Why is he, in Mrs. Webster's own words, "still one of Broadway's most successful playwrights"? Who are the people in his audiences—on Broadway; at the Old Vic in London; at Stratford, England; Stratford, Ontario; Stratford, Connecticut; and everywhere else in the world? Didn't they go to school, where they learned to regard his plays as an undesired task to be rejected as soon as possible? Is it possible that many of the adults who go to the theater to see Shakespeare's plays do so because they first became acquainted with them in school? That, far from killing Shakespeare, classroom study has even helped to keep him alive? It seems very likely. Yes, this most terrible of Theban monsters is a fraud. "Hence, horrible shadow! Unreal mockery, hence!"

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Now, having disposed of the worst one, we can take courage to deal with the others. We meet next the two-headed fellow which snarls from one mouth that the plays were written not to be read but to be acted, and barks from the other that for a proper understanding of them we must have a knowledge of the Elizabethan stage and stagecraft. The first head can be silenced fairly easily. After all, Shakespeare's fellow actors believed his plays to be worth reading enough to publish them after his death. We have other respectable authority for the belief that reading his plays can be as rich an experience as seeing and hearing them on the stage—Hazlitt, Coleridge, Lamb (who insisted that they should not be acted at all), and their many successors. But the best argument is in the plays themselves. To a thoughtful reader it seems impossible that the most attentive audience could grasp all that is contained in the lines. A theatergoer who reads a play of another author after seeing it on the stage may find points he missed and food for further thought. But in no other plays written for and successful as popular entertainment is there anything to compare with the "thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls" stimulated by the reading of Shakespeare's. Of course students should see the plays performed. It is the greatest pity that this is not oftener possible. There should be some sort of Shakespeare repertory theater where young people could see his plays at a price they can afford. As Margaret Webster says, "It is shameful that the English-speaking nations, alone in the world, do not . . . consider the theater an art worthy of national or even civic endowment." Television, it is true, is bringing some of Shakespeare's plays to many who would not see them in the theater, but these performances are often extensively cut and altered (some of my pupils who saw Welles's King Lear on television said they could not have followed the story if they had not read the play), and, to my oldfashioned way of thinking, no photographed play takes the place of a performance on the boards. West Philadelphia High School had for twenty years a Shakespeare Club under the direction of Mr. George Montgomery, then a member of the English department, now principal, which gave annually a complete Shakespearean play, usually three performances. Thus every student had the opportunity, in his three years of senior

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high school, to see three plays of Shakespeare on the stage—possibly the only ones in his life. The productions were highly successful; I think I can say that one performance of Romeo and Juliet was the most satisfying I have ever seen. But the institution was unique. Mr. Montgomery was an inspired dramatic coach as well as a Shakespearean scholar and a gifted teacher, and no one has been found to take his place. The other mouth of this double-headed monster is still barking that appreciation of Shakespeare's plays requires expert knowledge of the stage and acting of his time. I think we can disconcert this head by agreeing, up to a point, and then demonstrating that it is not too difficult for a student to acquire enough of this knowledge for his purpose; moreover, that the very process of acquiring it helps him to keep in mind the fact that what he is studying is a play, meant to be acted on a stage. There are a number of handbooks which help the student to a fair understanding of Shakespeare's times, his theater, his actors, and his audiences. I have used Introducing Shakespeare by G. B. Harrison, Know Your Shakespeare by John Calvin Metcalf, Introduction to Shakespeare by Marchette Chute, and a much older book, An Introduction to Shakespeare by Black and Freeman. Of these, Miss Chute's has proved to be the easiest and most appealing to the pupils. Occasionally one of them will be led by it to read her Shakespeare of London, or some other fulllength study. A class can get a fair idea of the Elizabethan playhouse and the multiple stage without a detailed study of a subject about which information is by no means complete. Photographs of Professor Adams's model of the Globe, reproductions of contemporary drawings of playhouses, illustrations of costume and so forth, are easily available. Shakespearean Stage, Production by Cecile de Banke is excellent for reference. (It may be as well not to go into Dr. Hotson's theory of the arena stage as yet!) Students can easily be shown how the text of a Shakespeare play contains not only the scenery but all the information supplied by a theater program—weather; time of day or night; names, rank, and relationships of characters; and any explanation of situation that is necessary. The first speeches in Hamlet tell the audience that the time is midnight; that it is dark; it is cold; Francisco and Bernardo

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are guards; they are nervous about something that has happened on other nights recently when they were on guard. A few words of Romeo's surround the lovers with the romantic beauty of the "great rich Capulet's" magnificent gardens in moonlight; Lear's mad speeches create the storm that is unsettling his wits. Once students understand this characteristic of an Elizabethan play, they enjoy discovering that some of Shakespeare's most beautiful lines were written because of the necessity for giving information to the audience, and they begin to appreciate the paradox that the restrictions of a medium can be a source of inspiration to the artist. It is important for them to understand, too, that the drama of Shakespeare's time was a form of poetry. It does not take long to make sure that they recognize blank verse and have a little notion of how Shakespeare uses verse and prose in a play. They should know that his audiences went to the theater to hear beautiful language beautifully spoken as well as to see exciting action; that the long poetic speeches which have been compared to arias in opera were an important part of the entertainment provided by a play, and must have been listpned to with as much enjoyment as the songs that abound in Shakespeare's plays; that, when characters use, in emotional speeches, language that would not naturally be used in real life, it is not because Shakespeare did not know how to make them talk realistically but because dramatic poetry expresses heightened emotion in elevated speech. It is true that for full appreciation of any work of art it is necessary to have some understanding of what the artist intended to do and the materials with which he worked; but it is not at all impossible for high school students to get a fairly adequate idea of Shakespeare's aims and medium. Having routed this monster, which meant to appall us with the contention that Shakespeare's plays can be read by none but scholars of the Elizabethan drama and stage, we can dispose of the next one briefly—the one that confronts us with uncertain authenticity of text, that says we do not know whether we are really reading Shakespeare. We need only to say firmly: "The probability is very great that William Shakespeare wrote the bulk of the plays attributed to him by the men who were his close associates in the theater for nearly twenty years. His works are not the only classics for which

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we have no original manuscripts and in which there are doubtful and difficult passages. The work of disintegrators is no concern of high school study. We respect the labors of scholars; we accept eagerly any improvement in texts, any light on obscurities they can give us. We shall make sure that our pupils know, at least, what Quarto and Folio mean, and why different editions of the plays they read vary in some particulars. Our business is with the immortal beauty of the plays as we have them; to refrain from reading them because of some acknowledged uncertainties would be a supreme example of throwing out the baby with the bath." So much for this monster. The creature that we must face next is a more troublesome one, posing the difficulties of Shakespeare's vocabulary and style. We shall have to admit that these are real difficulties and demand real work from teacher and student. Some years ago, in a class reading Macaulay's essay on Samuel Johnson, a pupil made the statement that Johnson had "translated Shakespeare." "Into what language?" I asked. "Into English, of course," was the answer—not at all intended to be witty. As movies, television, and books for young people (not to mention the unspeakable "comics") continue to supplement or replace language with pictures, we shall have more of this idea that Shakespeare needs translation into English. In every school we have had, for some time now, adaptations of other classics of English literature; it was inevitable that simplified texts of Shakespeare should appear. I believe they are undesirable and, if the teacher will work hard enough, unnecessary. The task is not easy. We must explain enough for comprehension but be able to sense when too much explanation would weaken interest. It seems to me, though, that there is too much fear of the latter. If pupils are encouraged to ask for explanation and assured by experience that no question will incur reproach of ignorance or foolishness, the teacher may be astonished and touched by some of the misconceptions revealed. However, it is not the differences between Elizabethan and modern usage that give the greatest amount of trouble. The number of words and idioms that require translation is relatively small. A list

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of the important ones occurring in a particular play (especially terms which are familiar to the students in other meanings, such as abuse, fancy, conceit, ecstasy, humour, complexion) given to the class to be learned before the reading begins, is quite practical. A list of about thirty-five serves reasonably well for Hamlet, the longest play. Although the notes in school editions explain most of these, we can not depend entirely on the students' being "edified by the margent." They often neglect to consult the notes or glossary (it is tiresome and distracting to do so) or they forget the explanation by the time they meet the word on another page. Less common expressions and other matters needing elucidation can be explained as the reading proceeds. The greatest obstacles to full comprehension and appreciation are found elsewhere, in the pupils' limited vocabularies and their unfamiliarity with figurative language, unusual sentence structure, and concentrated thought—the same that are encountered in the reading of all great poetry. If Shakespeare is to be discarded because he sometimes demands effort to be understood, most other writers whose works are worth understanding will have to follow him or (perish the thought!) be "translated into English." The labor required to read Shakespeare rewardingly is not necessarily unpleasant. To deprive boys and girls of the joy of using their mental powers to the utmost is to do them no kindness. Now having (we hope) convinced this particularly tough monster that with the will and the necessary work Shakespeare can be read in high school in spite of real difficulties of language and style, we are ready for the two remaining monsters in our way. They are but puny ones. The last but one, you remember, asks what we shall do about all the "sad stuff" in Shakespeare's plays—the "crude horseplay, swollen rhetoric, mirthless puns, bawdy jokes, bloody melodrama," and improbable plots. Well, from the point of view of most boys and girls, the crude horseplay and bloody melodrama are enjoyable (so are the bawdy jokes when they are understood; the obvious ones are expurgated in most school texts) and the improbable stories are interesting. The teacher, who does not read Shakespeare for his plots, which have long been familiar to him, is likely to underrate their attraction for his pupils. They have some of the eternal appeal of the fairy tale, with the advantage of characters that are vividly real. Some of the stories,

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indeed, compare not unfavorably with those of the "comics." The mirthless puns are another matter. They can not be made amusing, and it seems best to pass over them with the brief comment that fashions in wit change, that apparently this kind of joke was funny in Shakespeare's time but is not now. As for the undeniable dullness of some passages, we are not obliged to pretend that Shakespeare never wrote hastily, carelessly, or obscurely, or that the poet did not sometimes get the better of the dramatist and write speeches too high-flown for the matter. We may tell this monster that the "sad stuff' is there, to be sure, but some of it will be enjoyed by high school readers and all of it is negligible in comparison with the greatness of the rest. The sole remaining monster is already turning to flee. Its threat was that Shakespeare, having become an institution, is regarded with hostility and suspicion, which result in unwillingness to give his works the attention and effort they demand; and it is true that there are always a few pupils who take the position, "Why do we have to read Shakespeare?" The question is worth answering, whether asked verbally or expressed only in a "hostile and suspicious" attitude. We can say something like this: "We are reading this play because it is a great work of art, a part of the heritage of all cultivated English-speaking people. One important reason for studying anything is not to be ignorant of what an educated person knows. It is not necessary that you like this play, though if you do as you are asked you probably will like it. What you are asked to do is to read it with the idea that it is something that the most intelligent and thoughtful people have found worthy of study, and with the intention of doing your best to see what is good in it. If you will do this honestly, you will surely receive some benefit from it." A student who will co-operate so far can not fail to realize some satisfaction from his effort. It is important, of course, that the teacher's admiration of Shakespeare be genuine. It is not the fashion to accord much open deference to teachers' opinions, but nevertheless pupils rely on them in forming their own values more than we perhaps realize. If they can be sure that we believe what we say, they will be likely to trust us when we assure them that the works of this Master will reward the attention and effort they deserve.

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Now we have faced down all the Theban monsters. We have solved their riddles; that is, answered their objections to the study of Shakespeare in high school. They have not eaten us, and we are free to teach Shakespeare. How shall we do it? Something has been said about this in the course of disposing of the monsters, but in general it depends so largely on the individual class and teacher that no rules can be laid down. It is often said that teaching is not a science, but an art. One of the perennial mysteries of this art is the inexplicable way in which classes differ in attitude and atmosphere, whether or not they are graded by ability. Even groups of low ability can read Shakespeare after a fashion if they will contribute their willing attention and effort. There are few teachers of such transcendent power that they can make a donkey drink as well as lead him to water. It must be admitted that there are some classes who can very nearly kill Shakespeare. There is no virtue in casting him before donkeys. Let them murder some other writer, about whom the suffering teacher cares less. But, granted the co-operation of the class, the success with which Shakespeare is read depends most upon the teacher. He must know and love his subject. There is no question that a teacher who knows far more about physics than he has occasion to teach is a better instructor than one who is keeping a jump ahead of the class. It is equally true that a teacher who is familiar with all of Shakespeare's works, who has some acquaintance with the great body of comment, past and present, and with the current developments of scholarship is better than one who knows no more than the class can be expected to cover. The other requirement can not be too much stressed. It may be possible to learn bookkeeping well from someone who does not love the subject; I doubt it. But appreciation of literature can not be caught from an indifferent teacher. Beyond these two essentials, every teacher's instruction is part of his whole personality—his temperament, imagination, experiences, interests, enthusiasms, prejudices. Each one has peculiar advantages or talents which will guide him to the way in which he can best handle the study of Shakespeare in the classes that fall to his lot. The plays should certainly be read aloud in class. Ideally every teacher of Shakespeare should have a beautiful voice and some dramatic training. But everyone who cares to take the trouble can learn

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to read clearly and with due regard for the thought and emotion expressed in the lines. Intelligent reading by the teacher can go far to overcome difficulties of comprehension. If, in addition, he is willing to make a bit of a fool of himself for Shakespeare's sake and do a little acting, so much the better. If someone stops after class to say, "You made it seem as though it were really happening," he is repaid. It is desirable to have the class read, too, with proper preparation —parts assigned, explained, studied at home, and read with spirit. If ever Shakespeare is killed in the classroom, it is when pupils stumble drearily over his lines. To expect boys and girls to read at sight an unfamiliar play is unfair to them and to Shakespeare, and usually results in boredom. Sometimes an uninterested but self-assertive pupil clamors to read from the apparent conviction that he is sure to be bored but will be less so if allowed to make a noise. The reading proves to be intolerable, but the teacher may feel a little guilty about suppressing enterprise. He will gain firmness if he remembers Margaret Webster's accusation that schools do nothing to quicken a sense of the power and beauty of our language. That sort of reading deserves the charge. The class had far better listen to a recording of the play by actors. (By the way, there is a very interesting long-playing Columbia record of readings from Shakespeare by Professor Kökeritz of Yale, based on his recent work, Shakespeare's Pronunciation, which most classes enjoy.) In secondary school study, the plays should not be analyzed too much, I think. But the students should get some idea of dramatic structure—at least the conflict implicit in all drama and how it is developed in complication, crisis, and resolution, whether or not we wish to use technical terms. Some study of characters is valuable. It is often easier for boys and girls to appreciate Shakespeare's genius in his power of creating people than in his poetry. Indeed, pupils may need to be reminded that these people are only characters in a play; for, as critics have noted, they have a way of assuming independent existence in our minds. There is not much that can not be learned about human nature from the men and women that live in Shakespeare's plays. What about the great speeches? Shall they be paraphrased? Memorized? Paraphrasing helps comprehension, especially in the interpreta-

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tion of figurative language, which seems to give most trouble; the young are rather literal-minded. Keen students enjoy this work, but if it proves too hard for others they need not be required to do it, though they should be encouraged to try. Memorizing is desirable but, I think, should not be compulsory. The lure of extra credit is usually sufficient bait, but, whether or no, as "the quality of mercy is not strained," neither should be the memorizing of that immortal speech. And the teacher should be able to repeat from memory every passage recommended to the pupils! Class discussion of ideas suggested by the reading of the plays usually arises spontaneously and can be carried on as long as time permits. Human rights and wrongs, joys and sorrows, heroism and villainy; ethical and social problems; philosophical questions—there is no end to the rich material for thought afforded by Shakespeare's plays. Topics for written composition derived from such discussion are numberless. I do not know of any trick devices for making the teaching of Shakespeare easy. However it is done, there will be times when it is such pure pleasure that the delighted teacher feels that he should hardly be paid for it, and there will be others when the discouraged teacher is sure that the time has come when Shakespeare must be given up, that it is idiotic to continue trying to put the ocean into a tin cup. Then all that keeps him trying is a sense of his obligation, as one who has been in some sort a voyager on that sea and has had a glimpse of its greatness, to give his charges some conception of it. Logan Smith applies to Shakespeare Bagehot's saying, "The man who has never read Homer is like a man who has never seen the ocean. There is a great object of which he has no idea." In her talk at the annual convention of the National Council of Teachers of English in New York in November, 1955, Marchette Chute used the same figure. She believes, she said, that if boys and girls in school do no more than pick up sea shells along Shakespeare's shore, they gain something of permanent value. I believe that she spoke for all of us who love and try to teach Shakespeare.

A Geographic Reconnaissance of Greenlana ( With Particular Emphasis on its Bilingual School System) DONN K. HAGLUND *

Introduction from the continents, is the world's largest island. G In area it isasideroughly equal to the sum of the areas of all of the REENLAND,

states east of the Mississippi River, excluding Florida. From north to south Greenland measures 1,600 miles, or the approximate airline distance between Montreal and Havana, and from east to west at its greatest width Greenland exceeds 650 miles. Located nearly 2,000 miles northeast of Philadelphia, Greenland is considered to be a part of the North American continent by most geographers, although the Danish Government whose flag flies over Greenland, prefers to consider the island as a part of Europe. As Greenland lies entirely north of the 50° F. (10° C.) warmest month isotherm, it is classified as "Polar" climatically, according to the Koeppen and other climatic classification systems. The island is, for all intents and purposes, treeless. Almost seven-eighths of Greenland's area is permanently covered by ice, in places perhaps as much as a mile thick. The only ice-free areas are along its coasts. * University

of Pennsylvania,

Philadelphia,

Ill

Pennsylvania.

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History Greenland was discovered, about the year 900 A.D., by the Norseman Gunnbjorn, who saw but did not land upon the East Greenland coast. Existence of land to the west of Iceland was common knowledge at the time of Erik the Red, who was born in Norway but settled with his family in Iceland at an early age, sometime after 960 A.D. Due to an adverse decision by one of the early Icelandic courts, Erik was exiled from Iceland in the year 982. Erik used his period of exile to visit and explore the land which Gunnbjorn had seen. By the time his three-year exile was served Erik had well explored both Greenland's largely uninhabitable east coast and penetrated deeply into the more suitable fjords of the southwest coast. He returned to Iceland and in 986 brought the first European colonists to the North American continent. The Norsemen settled in two general areas on the west Greenland coast—in the Julianehaab area of the far south and in the Godthaab area farther north. The principal settlement was that in the Julianehaab area and was called "The Eastern Settlement." The less favored Godthaab area was known as "The Western Settlement," although "Northern" and "Southern" would appear to today's observer as more appropiate names for the settlements. The Norse colonies in Greenland endured up until the fifteenth century, with sheep and cattle farming as the major economic activity of the people. The exact fate of the Norse colonists is not known, but a generally accepted theory is that a steadily worsening climate, coupled with loss of contact with Iceland and Europe, led to a general debilitation of the colonies, and the last survivors were either killed by or intermarried with the Eskimo natives. These aborigines were living farther north in Greenland when the Norse colonies were prospering, but the same climatic changes which caused difficulty to the Norsemen also caused the Eskimos to move southward, following the animals upon which they depended for survival. The Norsemen may have died out from other causes, or there is a remote possibility that the last of them migrated southwestward to the North American mainland, never to be heard of again. The Norse settlers of Greenland knew well that there was land to the south and west. Eric the Red's son, Leif Ericsson, and others

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made voyages as far south, probably, as Cape Cod. The Norsemen regularly sailed to Labrador, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia for much needed wood. Several sixteenth and seventeenth-century explorers saw Greenland; but the real modem era in Greenland began in 1721, when the Danish missionary, Hans Egede, landed at present-day Godthaab to re-establish contact between Scandinavia and Greenland. Since Egede's time Greenland has been a Danish possession, and the island has been closely, conscientiously, and in general admirably administered by Denmark. Up until World War II Denmark allowed virtually no contact between Greenland and the outside world, with the avowed purpose of preserving the native economy and of preventing the exploitation of the Greenlandic people.

Population The total population is now approximately 25,000, including about 1,000 Danes. The population is found exclusively, of course, along the coastal strips, and except for about 1,500 people on the east coast (most of them at Angmagssalik, the remainder at Scorsbysund) and about 300 people in the far northwest or Thüle District, the population is concentrated along the west coast from near Cape Farewell to Upernavik. Only the Thüle people today are really pure Eskimos racially; the others with few exceptions have some Scandinavian ancestry. These people refer to themselves as "Greenlanders" and although loyal Danish subjects now exercise some justifiable racial pride. One of the major problems facing the present-day Greenland administration is the scattered nature of the population distribution. In fact the 25,000 people live in nearly 200 different settlements and outposts, ranging in population from one family to 2,300 at Godthaab, the capital and largest city.

Political Status and Administration Since 1953 Greenland has been constitutionally an integral part of the Danish Kingdom, and has the same status as any "county" in Denmark proper. Greenland elects two members to the Danish Parlia-

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ment in Copenhagen. The Island has a Provincial Council, with representatives from all over West Greenland meeting at Godthaab every August. As yet the distant East Greenland and the sparsely populated Thüle District are not represented in the Council and do not participate in the Parliamentary elections, but are essentially administered direct from Copenhagen, although exercising a good degree of selfgovernment. The Chief Executive in Greenland is a civil service appointee, responsible to the Greenland Department in the Danish Prime Minister's Office. Climate and

Vegetation

The climate of Greenland, as mentioned previously, is classified as "tundra" or "arctic"—the summers are short and cool, with the warmest months in the most populated areas averaging in the high forties; with winter averages of 20°F. above zero to below zero. At Godthaab the averages are 47°F. for July and 18°F. for January. The length of winter, as much as ten months, is the real limiting factor in the climate, coupled with the coolness of the short summers. The warmest temperature ever recorded in Godthaab in July was 69°F., but, remarkably, the warmest temperature recorded in January was not much less—61°F., to be exact. Of course, the inland ice temperatures are much lower, with summer averages below the freezing mark and winter temperatures dropping below minus 50°F. The vegetation cover is the typical moss tundra, with an abundance of flowers in the summer, but no real trees—shoulder-high dwarf willows found only in the most sheltered places being the nearest approach to a tree to be found. The ground in the summer is continually soggy in most places, due to the permafrost condition. Topography

The topography almost everywhere is extremely rugged. Mountainous fields rise right out of the sea, and flat areas are very rare indeed. Many of the settlements are located on islands or peninsulas. The coast is deeply fjorded and there are countless offshore islets or skerries. Mount Forel, 11,024 feet, in East Greenland is the highest point in all the arctic.

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Economic Activities MINING

Greenland differs from Alaska and western Canadian Arctic in that it is not, at least as far as is currently known, a rich source of mineral wealth. There are only three mineral deposits worth mentioning in all of Greenland. Coal is mined on Disko Island, but it is not even sufficient to provide for the needs of the 25,000 Greenlanders, let alone an exportable surplus. On the northeast coast lead is being mined at Mesters Veg, a new development by a Scandinavian company. The most important mineral resource, by far, is cryolite, mined at Ivigtut in southwest Greenland. This is the only important cryolite mine in the free world. Cryolite, vital to the prodution of aluminum as a flux in the electrolytic process, is shipped in about equal quantities to the United States and to Europe. The American quota is purchased exclusively by the Penn Salt International Corporation of Philadelphia. The Ivigtut cryolite will be exhausted in about twenty years. No other deposits have been found in Greenland. Fortunately for industry synthetic cryolite can be used, or the world's aluminum industry would have a very serious problem on its hands. Minor deposits of other minerals have been found in Greenland but not of such quantity and purity as to be commercially exploited in this remote corner of the commercial world. AGRICULTURE AND ANIMAL INDUSTRY

There is virtually no agriculture, as we normally define the word, to be found in Greenland. Many individuals raise small quantities of vegetables such as radishes, lettuce and parsley in hothouse frames, to add some fresh vegetables to their diets. In a very few spots, such as Ivigtut, a few vegetables are grown out of doors, and hay is raised at the sheep experimental stations and at some of the sheep farms. Sheep farming is becoming locally important in the far south of West Greenland—approximately 20,000 head graze old Norse farm sites in the Julianehaab area. There are the two sheep experimental stations in Greenland, one at Julianehaab and one at Qorqut in the

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Godthaab District. These government-controlled stations have as function research, betterment of breeding stock and solution of the feeding problems present in the harsh Greenland environment. At Itivnera, in the Godthaab District, an interesting experiment is on the road to modest success. In 1952 a herd of 264 reindeer was imported from Lapland and two Lapps and a Greenlander who had studied reindeer herding practices in Lapland were placed in charge of the new activity. At present the herd exceeds 1,000 in number and reindeer meat is now being sold for the first time in Greenland. Experiments with fur farming have been tried, but have not produced promising results, at least for the present time. Another interesting experiment now being made is the planting of several thousand coniferous tree seedlings in favored areas of the Julianehaab District, in the hope that a modest forest may mature. It is too early to expect any indication as to whether trees may be grown under supervision; but a local wood supply would be of the greatest value to Greenland. Now all wood must be brought in from overseas. Wood is almost the only construction material used in Greenland, there being no building stone of local origin. HUNTING AND FISHING

The days of the hunting-subsistence economy are over in Greenland, except for the far northern Thüle District, where it still remains as the economic base. To be sure seals and other animals are still hunted in West Greenland, but the Greenlander of today depends overwhelmingly upon fishing—especially of cod—for his livelihood. The warming tendency of the climate of Greenland since about 1915 has caused a northward migration of commercial fish in the western Atlantic, bringing such fish into Greenland waters for the first time in modern history. This same warming trend has been a cause of the general northward movement of the seal and other animals in Greenland, further de-emphasizing the old economy, wherein the seal supplied the Greenlander with nearly all his wants. Extensive canning, salting and freezing plants are being built in Greenland and there is a ready market for the export fish products in Mediterranean Europe and elsewhere. Greenland shrimp, of very high quality, are being exported as well as cod and other fish products. Unquestionably the shift to a money economy based on fishing com-

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mercially has been the most drastic and dynamic development in Greenland in many years. Problems, Prospects and Significance One of the most serious problems in Greenland today is health. Seven per cent of the Greenland population suffer from tuberculosis. Epidemics of measles have caused serious trouble in most of the larger settlements. The Danish Government is moving as rapidly as possible toward the improvement of health conditions. A 210-bed tuberculosis sanitarium was recently opened at Godthaab and every settlement has a hospital, except at the smallest outposts. Even there, regular visits are paid by a doctor and an attempt is being made to have a trained midwife or nurse resident in places not warranting the full-time services of a doctor or the construction of a hospital. Housing, one of Greenland's serious problems of the past, has seen many improvements. Generous government loans, almost gifts in many cases, are being made to Greenland families in great numbers. The Administration is keenly aware of the problems present in the scattered population distribution. A long-range program of population consolidation based on the predominantly fishing economy is under way. The dangers of a one-activity (fishing) economy are likewise realized. Such projects as the reindeer, sheep and tree experiments reflect the Administration's concern in this respect. One topic not previously discussed is "transportation and communication." These subjects may very well be classified under the heading "problems" as there is so much room for improvement in these respects. The only regularly scheduled passenger service to Greenland from the outside world is via the ships of the Royal Greenland Trading Company, from Copenhagen. Although two transatlantic air lines now stop at a Greenland air base no Greenland passengers are carried from either the European or North American sides of the ocean. In only very exceptional cases may a person disembark at the Sondrestrom Air Base. Occasional charter flights for important Danish officials are made to Greenland, but the regular traveler has no such facility available. All supplies for the American air bases are either flown in or shipped by U. S. Government-chartered freighters and

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tankers. All military personnel are flown in and out of their duty stations at the Greenland bases by the Military Air Transport Service. There is, ordinarily, no air-mail service available to or from Greenland, except for the personnel at the air bases, which bases are not connected by any transportation whatsoever with the civilian areas of Greenland. A letter or package from the United States, for example, is sent first to Denmark and then transshipped to Greenland; consuming as much as three months during the winter season and four to six weeks in the summer, when Greenland Trading Company ships are more frequent. There are no roads, railroads or air services connecting points within Greenland. The only transportation between Greenland settlements is by boat. Greenland has an extensive network of radio-telegraph stations along both west and east coasts and regular telegraphic contact is maintained with Copenhagen, and via Copenhagen with the rest of the world. However, there is no telephone service between settlements or between Greenland and outside points. Only one settlement, Godthaab, has a local telephone system. There are state-owned radio stations at Godthaab and Angmagssalik, both of which have expanded their facilities in recent years. However, neither of these stations encompasses its respective coast with its normal range at this time. The radio-telegraph stations at the various larger west coast settlements broadcast regular weather forecasts for the benefit of ships at sea, but except for occasional news bulletins do not carry regular radio broadcasts, which are carried only by the stations at Godthaab and Angmagssalik. All hope is not yet exhausted for the finding of mineral wealth in Greenland; results of mineral exploration have been disappointing thus far, but intensive studies are yet to be made. There is considerable speculation as to whether radioactive ores may not be present. Greenland is a storehouse of scientific research materials. The great work of Paul Emile-Victor on ice-cap studies continues; 195758, designated as the International Geophysical Year, will see Greenland as one of the important research locales. What meteorological, geomagnetic, cosmic and other data compiled at this time may reveal is eagerly anticipated by the scientific world. With transportation constantly "shrinking" our world, the day of

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a significant tourist industry in Greenland may eventuate. There are, to be sure, as of now no facilities for accommodating tourists in Greenland, but there is no doubt that its magnificent scenery may yet become a major world attraction. The polar projection map, which has now become one of the most popular in any map library, will reveal the present and future significance of Greenland in civil air travel and military air defense. The United States, under NATO arrangements, maintains air bases at Narsarssuak and Sondrestrom on the west coast, and the great new air base at Thüle in the far northwest of Greenland. The strategic importance of these bases is readily apparent. Any enemy air attack on American cities from eastern Europe would certainly come over the pole. The shortest air route between western United States and Europe passes over Greenland, and two air lines refuel there on their flights from the West Coast to Europe and return. The shortest air route from central and eastern United States to Monsoon Asia lies close to the Greenland air bases, and air routes over this course would seem inevitable. The Greenland Bilingual School System "Denmark has ever considered it one of her most important objects in Greenland to impart to the population such cultural and technical knowledge as to enable it to participate to an increasing extent in the economic and technical development of the country." This quotation, taken from "Report on Greenland, 1954," submitted to the United Nations by the Danish Government, succinctly states the primary mission of education in Greenland. To achieve this goal, it is necessary for the population to learn a language in which an adequate range of technical and vocational literature is available; this is not the case with the Greenlandic language, which is an Eskimo dialect. Bilingual education is now provided in the larger schools, with the aim of giving pupils enough knowledge of both Danish and Greenlandic to serve as a natural means of expression. Until 1950 the Dean of the Danish State Church in Greenland was in charge of the school service. Since 1950 a Greenland School Board consisting of the Governor of Greenland, the Dean, and a Director

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of Schools who is appointed by the King and has a professional background in education, has governed. West Greenland is divided into eleven school districts, with an inspector in charge of each. The inspectors and teachers and all other officials are appointed by the Greenland School Board. Various forms of schools are to be found in Greenland. The Children's School (ages 7-14). Where conditions warrant, the institution is bi-lingual from the third year on. In the smaller places, instruction is still wholly in Greenlandic. The number of school days in the school year varies from 200 to 230. The curriculum contains reading, writing, religion, arithmetic, hygiene, history, geography and natural history. In larger places additional subjects are available, including some vocational and home-economics training. Attendance is compulsory for all children in this age group. Post-Primary Schools (ages 14-16). There are three such schools functioning in larger Greenland settlements. Their prime function is to give the students advanced work in preparation for the high school. The High School (ages 16-20). There is a high school at Godthaab giving training which is equivalent to the secondary schools of the rest of Denmark. As this is the only high school in Greenland, many of the pupils are boarded, having come from all over Greenland for their advanced work. The Seminary (or teachers college) (ages 20-22). This institution is also located at Godthaab. Currently this is a two-year course, but it will be extended to a three-year course in the near future. Graduation qualifies the student in both the church and school services of the Island, and such graduates are called "catechists." Technical Schools. These are located at four settlements, training worthy graduates of the children's schools in such fields as office work, shipbuilding and commerce. Here again, as at the post-primary, high and seminary schools, many of the students come from outlying settlements and board in the towns where the schools are located. No universities or other higher educational institutions exist in Greenland, and students desiring this advanced training generally go on to schools in Denmark, as do persons desiring training in those trades not taught at the technical schools of Greenland. Most instruction beyond the children's school level is in Danish. There is a great deal of interest in education among the adult

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population of Greenland. Approximately 1,000 adults take evening courses in such subjects as Danish, English, geography, typing, singing and motor tending. These courses are supplied free of charge by the State. Study circle groups exist in many of the settlements also. During the school year 1952-53, 120 school premises with a total of 175 classrooms were in use. In addition, schooling took place in the teachers' homes at about forty settlements where the number of school children was so small that there were no separate school buildings. Almost one-third of all school buildings have been erected since 1948. About four-fifths of the total number of school children are taught by seminary-trained teachers and the balance, only in the smallest settlements, by so-called "readers" who have no actual training as teachers. In 1953 a total of 275 persons were teaching in Greenland, and there were about 4,400 children of school age.

Some German Contributions to Wzstern

Literature

WERNER P. FRIEDERICH *

t is one of the many great beauties and rich fulfillments of Comparative Literature that its wide grasp of international currents and developments indicates clearly and irrefutably the unique and leading importance, at one given moment, of every one of the great national literatures of the Western World. With tolerant impartiality and a rigorously observed sense of justice the comparatist is able to weigh the credits and the debits of every national literature and to demonstrate that during every great age and ism in the history of Western culture one nation was more or less the leader, giving expression to the eternal values residing in its national mentality. A l l the other nations were followers, taking their cue from the one leading nation that entered upon the stage of human events, spoke its words, fulfilled its mission, lived its great moment of inspiring its fellow Europeans, and then left the stage again, making room for some other nation to do the same.

I

* Professor, German and General Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Literature,

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For the Renaissance, Italy was without any doubt the leader, and all the rest, no matter how great in themselves, were followers—and this Italian greatness, in art, in literature, as well as in all other aspects of human culture, lasted from the Trecento of Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio to the early Cinquecento of Ariosto, Castiglione, and Machiavelli, and it began to decline only after 1525, after the Sack of Rome, the Fall of Florence, and the coming of the Inquisition and the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Later, for the period from 1550 to 1650, for the Baroque or the Counter Renaissance or the Counter Reformation, as you may choose to call it, it was indubitably and predominantly Spain that set the tone and attempted to guide the destinies of the Western World—not only Loyola with his Jesuits or Philip II with his Armada, but also the greatness of the Siglo de Oro of Spanish literature, the mysticism of Luis de Leon, San Juan de la Cruz, and Santa Teresa, the power of Spanish moralists like Quevedo and Graciän, the age of Cervantes and of Lope de Vega, the earthiness of the picaresque novel, the Catholic intensity of Calderon's religious plays. For the century from 1650 to 1750, it was, of course, France that assumed supreme leadership, silencing the voices of all other nations as they had never been silenced before—not only during the age of Classicism proper, in the days of Boileau and Racine, but also during the subsequent age of eighteenth-century Enlightenment in the days of Montesquieu and Voltaire; and the French overlordship over Europe indeed signified not only that the neoclassical pattern of writing was foisted upon the unwilling literatures of neighboring countries, but that these near or distant neighbors, extending from the Russia of Catherine the Great in the East to the Canada of LaSalle and Frontenac in the West, were urged to bow to the new way of life and the new pattern of etiquette that emanated from the Versailles of Louis XIV and Louis XV. During the Age of Pre-Romanticism, from Defoe's Robinson Crusoe in 1719 to Wordsworth's Ballads in 1798, it was England which took the lead among the disheartened nonconformists of Europe, for it was English literature which challenged and destroyed the gods of French Classicism: the belated appreciation of Shakespeare and Milton, the new bourgeois trends in the novel and the drama, the moral weeklies of Addison, the new lyricism of nature and churchyard poets, the deep significance of Ossian and of Bishop

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Percy. And, with English Pre-Romanticism finally victorious and Voltaire, the last enraged defender of the French classical empire, finally eliminated, it was then the Germans who assumed leadership over Romanticism proper and who, from above 1790 to about 1840, gave expression to their innermost beliefs and to the music and the philosophy in their literature, and who thus enriched the rest of the Western World. Thus we have five different national leaderships during five great literary movements—and this beautiful and symbolical pattern of every nation's innate importance was destroyed only in the last hundred years. It is quite typical of the chaos of the modern age that there has been no single ism to dominate literature since 1850; instead, there are about a dozen, which might be reduced to two, perhaps best expressed by the dichotomy of Realism versus Symbolism. Furthermore, there surely is not one single nation that can claim to be the leader of modern literature; instead, we have at least four aspirants at one time or another, three newcomers, Russia, Scandinavia, and America, and a former leader reborn, France—with all the other literatures, English, German, Italian, Spanish, only followers, interesting followers perhaps, like Germany, that eternal and decisive battleground of Europe, but only followers, nevertheless. It is within this broader framework of European literature that I should like to allude to a few basic German contributions. Some of these contributions, it is true, were already noticeable in the Middle Ages of the heroic epic, or of Waither von der Vogelweide or of Wolfram von Eschenbach, and then again in the sixteenth century of the Reformation and of the Faust legend—but it was only around 1800, during the Age of Romanticism, that German culture, best embodied by the three names of Goethe, Kant, and Beethoven, assumed leadership not only in Europe, but also in America. I believe that at one time or another we have all been angry with stupidly and nationalistically written histories of individual literatures which would make us believe that all nations are living in perfect isolation, not at all exposed to international cross-currents and ever-present crossfertilizations, and which present great national poets as totally selfsufficient, completely divine in their unfathomable creativeness and never, never indebted to any suggestion, theme, or genre which some humble neighboring country might have supplied to them. Such national self-adulations are not only a serious distortion of truth:

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they are dangerous in their jingoistic implications—and in my most recent book, An Outline of Comparative Literature (Chapel Hill, 1954), I have tried to set the record straight with regard to Western Europe in general, just as in this talk I should like to set the record straight with regard to Germany in particular. Hundreds of books have been written about what Germany owes to Greece and Rome, to Italy, Spain, France, and England—and here we might briefly sketch what she gave back to these neighbors and how, after being a receiver of foreign values for a seemingly interminable period, she became an emitter of values of her own. Germany's literary self-assertion was painfully slow during the eighteenth century, for after having dared to throw off the yoke of French Classicism, she needed the help of England and of Switzerland before she finally found herself. In his notorious essay, De la litterature allemande, the completely gallicized Frederick the Great had asserted as late as 1780 that German literature was no good unless it was French-inspired, like the theories of Gottsched or the Fables of Geliert, and that a certain young character by the name of Goethe in his horrible Goetz von Berlichingen showed particularly strikingly the aberrations of German literature if it was not restrained by good (read: classical French) taste. Bodmer from Zürich in 1740 had been the first to attack and to lay low Gottsched and the false gods of France behind Gottsched—and other Swiss authors like Albrecht von Haller with his epoch-making poem, Die Alpen, and Salomon Gessner with his amazingly popular Idyllen were actually the first writers in German-speaking lands to become translated and hailed and imitated abroad, and to prove to an incredulous world that there actually was and could be such a thing as German literature. And from then on the dike was breached, and German authors and works poured through it and became famous abroad on their own great merits and impetus—though it should be emphasized that in the second phase of this gradual Germanization of Western literature in the first decades of the nineteenth century, it was again a Swiss whose personality and country estate at Coppet on Lake Geneva became the clearing house for all German productivities and influences abroad. This was Mme. de Stael, whose friendship with A. W. Schlegel made Coppet the unchallenged headquarters for European German-inspired Romanticism, and whose own book,

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De l'Allemagne, of 1813, became a most significant work in the field of Comparative Literature and perhaps the greatest piece of proGerman cultural propaganda ever written. It was then, with Mme. de Stael and the Swiss and French Germanophiles that were to follow her—Benjamin Constant, Gerard de Nerval, and others—that there began those many beautiful conceptions and misconceptions of an essentially peaceful, philosophical, musical, and romantic Germany which my French friend and fellow comparatist at the Sorbonne, Jean-Marie Carre, in a recent book of his wistfully called Le mirage allemand dans la litterature frangaise. Having reached this moment of Germany's supreme literary importance from before 1800 till after 1840, I realize full well that it cannot be my task here to go into details, and to quote chapter and verse of the immense influence of German poets and thinkers upon the literature of England, America, France, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, or Russia. Instead, I shall restrict myself to a few minutes of bibliographical information to indicate the vastness of the scope of this German impact—and then I shall go on to other remarks of a more general nature concerning the quintessence of the German mind and therefore of the fundamental German contributions to Western Literature. Leaving out all authors before Goethe—e.g., how the message of Herder appealed to the dormant nationalism and racial mysticism of Slavic Europe, of Poles and Czechs no less than of Russians—we have the basic books of Baldensperger on Goethe en France and of Carreon, Goethe en Angleterre, and dozens of minor works on Goethe in America to underscore the essential international greatness of the sage of Weimar. Miss Mazzuchetti wrote about Schiller in Italia and Peterson on Schiller in Russland. Among the philosophers, Wellek studied Kant in England and Pochmann, Hegel in America. The uncontested leadership of the Schlegels in European Romanticism was most recently reaffirmed in Wellek's history of literary criticism, who devoted priority-space to these two men—while others, like la Comtesse de Pange, dwell on special relationships, e.g., the connection between A. W. Schlegel and Mme. de Stael. Brewer from Berkeley investigated Jean Paul in America, and Liptzin from New York City College The Legend oj Heine in England. Minor and forgotten authors, as Kotzebue, who had an amazing

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popularity from Russia to Spain, are no less important to the modern comparatists than really significant influences, such as Novalis or Wagner, upon French Symbolism. Apart from the tracing of the impact of individual Germans—Cobb's book on Hoffmann and Edgar Allan Poe, Passage's book on Hoffmann and Dostoevski, etc.—there are literally hundreds of monographs devoted to the general German influence upon English Germanophiles, as Sir Walter Scott, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Taylor of Norwich, and Thomas Carlyle; upon Frenchmen from Quinet and Renan to Michelet; upon Italians, as Foscolo and Carducci; Spaniards, as Hartzenbusch and Böhl de Faber; Rumanians, as Eminescu; Poles, as Mickiewicz; Scandinavians, as Oehlenschlaeger and Tegner. Especially Americans are richly represented among those indebted to Germany: Ticknor, Margaret Fuller, Emerson, Lowell, Whitman, Bayard Taylor; and we have studies by Pochmann on Washington Irving, by Hatfield on Longfellow, by Orie Long on Frederick Henry Hedge, and by Wesley Thomas on James Freeman Clarke. To this overflowing evidence of German cultural influences should be added scores of minor translators and travelers in Germany, and especially also collections and periodicals which devoted themselves to the task of being literary intermediaries, of familiarizing Europeans and Americans with the wealth of the Golden Age of German letters: from the Bibliothique germanique in France in 1720 to the Revue germanique in 1859, and from the Edinburgh Review in Scotland to the Transcendentalist journal, The Dial, in Massachusetts. But to return to general considerations after these altogether too brief allusions to specific influences: what exactly was it that made Germany so supremely important, so universally followed and respected, at this particular moment? We get somewhat closer to the truth if we declare Germany to be the leader of the Germanic world, the Germania, just as France was the leader of the Romance nations, the Romania. The pendulum of Europe's mentality swings constantly between Romania and Germania, between the essentially classical message of dignity, restraint, rules, and decorum of France and the essentially romantic message of lyricism, ardor, and boundlessness of Germany. With Voltaire's death in 1778, the age of France and of her Classicism had come to an end and, with the pendulum swinging in the other direction, it was the moment for the leader of

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anti-Classicism, for basically romantic Germany, to take over. Classical Romania and romantic Germania: that means also that France was essentially static and Germany essentially dynamic—that one builds the form, the law, the society, the state, and that the other breaks it. To the Germans the status quo means retrogression, perhaps even death; forever they grope blindly forward, who knows— towards a better future, smashing the semipermanent fixtures the French put in their way, like a Phoenix forever feeling the restless urge to die and to re-arise out of its ashes. Mankind must necessarily consist of these two composite parts best incarnated by the two leading nations of Western Europe: of the one element which strikes out in ever new directions, never satisfied with what is, but always anxious to grope for that which will be—and the other element which is calmer, maturer perhaps, and which consolidates what has been achieved and which is reluctant to embark upon tempestuous new adventures. The death of Classicism and the dawn of Romanticism: that meant a shift in literary genres, too. The classical French had been strong in intellectual and analytical literature, in works composed rationally, painstakingly, almost scientifically in their stylistic perfection—while the romantic Germans distinguished themselves by individualistic, lyrical, emotional outpourings. French Classicism had excelled in tragedy (that most mathematical of all genres), social comedy of manners, satire, the philosophical essay or novel, the epigram, or in any other type of literature that permits a careful analysis of men, manners, and times. Not so the generation after Voltaire's death: for to the Germans, romantic stammerings, emotional outbursts, individual confessions, and fragmentary shreds of intensely felt stanzas, chapters, and scenes seem far more important than calmly detached analyses of society. France is pre-eminently social-minded, as evidenced above all by the Revolution of 1789 which because of the very character and the political maturity of the French people had to be the one great contribution of France to the history of European thought. Not so the new German poet who now took over and who cared little about the structure of the state and his own place in society and who did not, by the very nature of his mystical calling, care for social satires, witty epigrams, dainty madrigals, and courtly festivities. German literature at its best is personal, lyrical, irrational—

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and it is certainly no mere coincidence that this typically German trait showed itself not only in the very great number of its lyrical poets, but also in the outstanding quality of its musical composers. In music and lyrical poetry Germany thus conquered for herself a field which Europe had hardly ever touched upon—for though the France of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had had her Lully, La Fontaine, and Chenier, she had nothing that could compare with the lyrics of Klopstock, Bürger, Goethe, Novalis, Eichendorff, or Heine, nor with the music of Beethoven and Brahms or the songs of Schubert and Schumann. Indeed, German literature is so essentially personal that even German novels manage to obtain a lyrical ring. Any confrontation of a typical novel of the Romania—the Spanish picaresque tales or the novels by Balzac and Zola—with that most typically Germanic of all novelistic types, the apprenticeship novel or Bildungsroman, will make that difference quite clear: for the former novels give us a broad and objective tableau of social conditions in Spain around 1600 or in France around 1850, while the German apprenticeship novels emphasize individual problems alone, dwelling on the soul of just one human being, delineating its development in every minute aspect and its crises in all their lyrical possibilities. Another trait coming to the fore during the Romantic Age was the intensity of religious feeling and of Christian ardor—and this, being a particularly strong preoccupation of the German soul, naturally again contributed to the German cultural leadership of that time. Religion is so deeply embedded in the German frame of thinking that already Mme. de Stael had exclaimed that German northern Protestantism was really much more earnestly and genuinely religious than the resplendent formalism of Southern European Catholicism. This steadfast religious preoccupation can best be seen in the German history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, for whereas the word Renaissance for Italy, France, and even England meant an aesthetic, a literary, a philosophical rebirth, it could mean nothing but a religious rebirth, a spiritual regeneration, for the Germans. Let the Italians or the French bother about such vain things as the smoothness of Petrarca's sonnets or the accomplishments of Castiglione's Courtier; for the Germans there was no problem more important than the road back to God, the re-establishment of the ideals of the earliest Church Fathers, the reformatio and regeneratio of institution and individual

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alike, even though it meant schism, religious wars, death, and ultimately also the destruction of the German Empire. Of the three leading events in the history of modem European thought Italy had her aesthetic Renaissance, and France, three centuries later, had her political Revolution—and Germany, not really appreciating either of these two messages, had her religious Reformation. It could not be otherwise. And after the drought of eighteenth-century French skepticism, cynicism, atheism, and materialism around the Encyclopedic, this religious heritage of Meister Eckhardt and Thomas ä Kempis, of Martin Luther and Jakob Boehme, indeed of Gryphius' martyr-tragedies and Leibniz' religious speculations, now helped to assure Germany of a leading role in the religious reaffirmation of the Romantic Age, not only with Protestants from Klopstock to Schleiermacher, but even more with doubly fervent old and new Catholics like Novalis, Brentano, Eichendorff, Goerres and Friedrich Stolberg, Friedrich Schlegel, Zacharias Werner, and others. (A mere glance at contemporary literature indicates that this religious trait, either Christian or Jewish, has preserved its intensity in Germany; we have only to read the poems of Rilke or Werfel, and the novels, from Stehr's Heiligenhof to Kolbenheyer's Meister Joachim Pausewang, Max Brod's Tycho Brahe's Weg zu Gott, Hauptmann's Der Narr in Christo, Emanuel Quint, Kafka's Das Schloss, or, most beautiful of all, Wassermann's Christian Wahnschaffe.) And in examining the road to God that every man sooner or later is obliged to find for himself, and in comparing the great European masterpieces that dealt with that very problem, it was the German romanticists who first found startling differences between Dante and Goethe, between the Italian Catholic and the German Protestant—differences which they declared to be deeply symbolical of the much greater challenge the German Protestant had to face. For Luther had torn every individual out of the protective hierarchy of the Catholic Church and had made him face his Creator and the problem of his salvation alone. How much better off was Dante, that most typical of all Catholic God-seekers, who on his eventful trip through the three realms of the Beyond had Virgil and Cato and then Beatrice to help him, to explain, to assist and warn him, to prevent him from falling by the wayside, and to urge him on until at long last he reached the sight of God. Not so Parzival (origi-

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nally a foreign tale of glittering Celtic chivalry, to which Germans like Wolfram von Eschenbach alone, so significantly, had given such deep religious meaning)—Parzival who, a Protestant long before Luther, had to stumble and struggle on alone in his quest of the Holy Grail, like his English fellow Protestant, Christian, in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, without a guide to direct and to comfort him. And even much worse off was the greatest of all German seekers of truth, Faust, who, the German romanticists pointed out, not only had no guide to lead him, but had always at his side a Mephistopheles, purposely to mislead him. Yet in spite of this deadly handicap even Faust ended up by finding his God, his philosophy of life—and, as we look at this nation of restless seekers, and remember a statement by Faust that possession makes lazy, and a similar sentiment in Lessing, we suddenly become aware of the fact that for most of these Germans the searching, the progressing, the expanding and groping is far more important than the actual finding and possessing. And we should emphasize, too, that this religious intensity permeated not only Catholic poets like Novalis or Protestant theologians like Schleiermacher, but that it expanded also into the field of philosophy proper, as best seen in Kant's reaffirmation of transcendental concepts against the materialistic incredulity of the French eighteenth-century enlighteners, or again in Schelling's increasing trend towards mysticism in his philosophical speculations. Just as we previously emphasized that because of the lyrical and emotional qualities of German literature it was not a coincidence that also German music achieved such world-famed results around 1800, so now we can emphasize that this searching, speculative, and metaphysical trait of the German character naturally was likewise conducive to placing the Germans among the foremost philosophers of modern Europe. Western romanticists from Coleridge in England to Emerson in America and Renan in France, in absorbing the impact of this German cultural wave, did not emulate only German literature per se, but endeavored to digest and to reflect the whole mood and atmosphere and the philosophical, religious and musical haze that was behind Novalis' Heinrich von Ofterdingen and Tieck's Franz Sternbalds Wanderungen, or, indeed, behind A . W. Schlegel's Berlin and Vienna lectures or Goethe's Wilhelm Meister. Other qualities of German literature can be deduced from the

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broad traits outlined above. Being an individualist, given to dreams, visions, hopes, and passions of his own, the German poet will not usually be a social mixer or a courtier. Other poets and literatures may be deeply rooted in the life of a brilliant court: Castiglione at Urbino, Ariosto at Ferrara, the Elizabethans in London, Calderön in Madrid, the great French classicists in the Paris and Versailles of Louis XIV. Not so the Germans who prefer isolation, who want to go their own ways, who feel clumsy and constrained when forced into a social pattern. Hence the indubitable fact that an all-embracing gathering of poets and critics, such as contained in the famous Academie frangaise, simply was not and is not possible among the preferably nonconformist Germans; hence also the inescapable observation that German literature has never really flourished in a socially or politically compact state. It blossomed forth in the eighteenth century, when the Empire consisted of an exasperating medley of some 300 individual Lilliputian states, one smaller, quainter, and more picturesque than the other; it reached its Golden Age during the twenty-five years from the French Revolution to Waterloo, when the political unity of Germany had completely ceased to exist and when the whole country lay prostrate under the heel of Napoleon; and its abundant regional literature in Mecklenburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Westphalia, Swabia, or Silesia in the later nineteenth century could thrive only because even then Berlin was only the political, and not the cultural, capital of the Reich. Of course, there was the one great exception, the exception to prove the rule, as it were: Goethe—the poet who did become a courtier, a political figure, a social mixer, an actual Prime Minister of Saxony-Weimar. Yet in his Torquato Tasso, perhaps the most autobiographical of his many autobiographical works, he everlastingly told of the tragedy, the incompatibility, the impossibility of being a poet and a courtier at the same time. For Goethe at the court of Weimar and for Tasso at the court of Ferrara to be a gifted and sensitive genius among the smooth conventions, the intrigues, and the materialistic opportunism of courtiers was too much to be borne. No wonder that in the case of Tasso the impossible situation ended in utter tragedy and that he was finally driven to insanity. Goethe's own strong character could avoid a similar catastrophe, but for his fellow German poets the message of this tragedy was none the less clear: do

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not ever become a courtier, nor even a normally sociable human being; instead, remain loyal to your great calling, even though the cost of greatness may be isolation and loneliness. In this connection it is amazing to count the great number of German masterpieces of this period which deal with this problem of men and women born into great leadership—political, military, spiritual, or literary—and who, like Tasso, are not strong enough to endure the concomitant loneliness and who, therefore, seek out the fellowship of ordinary mortals and crack and break under the strain: Schiller's Jungfrau von Orleans, Kleist's Penthesilea, Grillparzer's Sappho, Wagner's Lohengrin. And speaking of Goethe, the courtier who had avoided such a breakdown, we might add that he and Schiller were the two great exceptions with regard also to a second problem—for he and Schiller alone, in the midst of an essentially romantic Germany, all of a sudden became classicists (Greek rather than French classicists, though) and began again to proclaim the validity of those very same classical concepts which the German romanticists around them thought they had killed off long ago. Yet it has frequently been pointed out—and correctly, I think—that Goethe's greatest fame none the less rests upon those works of his which are either completely romantic (the lyricism of his Storm and Stress poems, the emotionalism of his Werther) or which hide a classical message of restraint and self-discipline in a thoroughly romantic form (Faust, Wilhelm Meister, Die Wahlverwandtschaften) . But even so—being as firmly entrenched on the classical side of the fence as I am—I would say that this was one of Goethe's greatest intellectual perceptions: that in his wisdom he recognized the great dangers of too much Romanticism, emotionalism, mysticism, and Germanism, and that his later works advocated a clarity of thought, a sublimation of passions, a straightforward purposefulness and realism of ethical goals which the foot-loose romanticists around him would have done well to heed. But Goethe was the exception, and around him the German romanticists developed and intensified a series of traits which became quickly significant all over Europe as originally German contributions and of which I would like to mention just one more: the Weltschmerz. It was a tragedy, not only to be a poet among courtiers, as Goethe's Tasso had indicated, but to be a poet among materialistic, indifferent, acquisitive, cold-hearted mankind in general. Hence

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now the tremendous number of misfits in German literature up to our own days of Thomas Mann's Tonio Kroger, of poets who suffer from world-grief, who do not fit in anywhere, who do not belong, who feel repelled by the increasing soullessness of an industrialized world. Goethe's own Werther, written way back in 1773, became the ancestor of a whole tribe of gifted and sensitive weaklings at home and abroad, whose increasing despair drove them either into insanity (Hölderlin, Lenau), suicide (Kleist), voluntary exile (Heine, Platen), or who otherwise managed to lead a thoroughly miserable and frustrated life (Grillparzer, Mörike), to embrace the comforting message of the Catholic Church (Stolberg, Schlegel, Werner) or to die a premature death (Novalis, Wackenroder). Hence also the great romantic interest in all types of restless and despairing seekers of happiness like Faust or Ahasuerus, the Wandering Jew—and even Don Juan was thrown in for good measure in a fascinating tragedy on Faust and Don Juan by Christian Grabbe in which the one, the seeker of the spirit, and the other, the seeker of the flesh, are shown together in their heartbreaking journey through life. And again, as so very often in the history of German culture, music and philosophy supported a basic trend found in German literature—I need refer only to Wagner's Fliegender Holländer, who, doomed to sail the Seven Seas in all eternity, despaired of ever finding peace; or to the abysmal pessimism in Schopenhauer's philosophy, as formulated in 1819, in the midst of this romantic convulsion. And abroad, we have an echo if not an actual imitation of all this in England, in the haughty defiance and loneliness of Lord Byron who came to shun and to despise the land of his birth; in France in the pessimism of Chateaubriand's Atala and Rene, in Nodier's Le peintre de Salzbourg, journal des emotions d'un cceur souffrant, in Senancour's Oberman and in Musset's Confessions d'un enfant du siecle; in Switzerland in Benjamin Constant's Werther-imitation Adolphe, and in Italy in another Werther-imila\\on by Ugo Foscolo, Le ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortiz; we have it also in the despairing aspects of the poetry of Vigny, of Leopardi, of Espronceda and of Slowacki in France, Italy, Spain, and Poland, respectively, and, quite unexpectedly for America, in Paul Fleming's attempt to escape from supreme grief and unbridled emotionalism in Longfellow's Hyperion. One last trait should be emphasized in this altogether superficial

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outline of some basic German contributions to Western literature: the German poet's constant preoccupation with one great individual's hunger for God, for happiness, for a valid philosophy of life, has this one great disadvantage, that to most Germans the thought means infinitely more than the form. Perhaps some of the peculiarities of the German language encouraged this trend of presenting significant human thoughts, the result of crisis, despair, and inner sublimation, in an involved, complicated, and laborious fashion. German literature is very rarely elegant; its ponderings as well as its phrases are telescoped into one another, cumbersome, heavy, at times exasperating. Not so French literature: it says whatever it has to say urbanely, fluently, wittily. In fact, we may often wonder whether the cult of form—the sonority of the Alexandrine, the fourteen lines of a sonnet, the polish of an epigram, or the esprit of a novel—has not become so supreme in French literature that the depth of thought underneath it all has begun to suffer because of it. Here is certainly another instance where classical France and romantic Germany can most ideally complement and enrich each other: whenever skilled French stylists need more food for thought than is momentarily available to them, they can turn to, and profit by, the soul-searching, irrational, and mystical qualities of German literature, as Renan, Quinet, Michelet, Rolland, Gide, and Giraudoux did—and whenever German poets, wrestling with the problems and with the devils that contend in them, feel the need of greater fluency, lucidity, beauty, and urbanity, they can turn to, and profit by, the gifts of the genius of France, of Italy, or of ancient Greece. Countless German poets and artists, from Gottfried von Strassburg and Albrecht Dürer through Wieland, Goethe, and Platen and down to Stefan George, Ricarda Huch, and Thomas Mann in our own day, have benefited immensely by adding to that which was their own Germanic inheritance—the thought, the beauty and the exquisiteness of form which can be found in, and learned from, the Mediterranean countries. In fact, we might perhaps add that at least in the case of Germany, a perfect masterpiece of literature or art is not really possible unless somehow, sometime, the artist—Goethe, Nietzsche, the Swiss Conrad, Ferdinand Meyer—has found it possible to amalgamate the Germanic depth of thought and the French lucidity of form, as represented by these two leading cultural blocs of Europe. We come back

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to the picture of the continent of Europe resembling a lung, now inhaling, now exhaling, and thus deriving life and value from both the Romania and the Germania—and in my concluding sentence I should like to imply, in a tolerant and conciliatory fashion, which should ever be the true comparatist's creed, that this talk on basic German traits and contributions to Western literature has in a way also become an elucidation of basic French traits and contributions, for the two countries complement each other most ideally, and their cultures remain and should remain the two basic pillars of Europe's intellectual life, with every virtue of Germany emulated by France and every weakness of Germany corrected by France—and vice versa. That, if it is not a fact, is at least a possibility, a dream, and thus worthy of our greatest endeavors and of our fondest hopes.

Creative

Dramatics

MABEL C. WRIGHT HENRY *

has always been dependent upon two kinds of understanding—an appreciation of the intrinsic values of the material to be taught, and a knowledge of the nature of children. But educational practice has been slow to reconcile these understandings. However, with the rapid advancement in psychological theory in relation to child growth and development, and in the study of the psychological aspects of learning, education has been forced to reevaluate its methods and its aims. The rise of Gestalt psychology, which stresses the organismic development of the "whole" child, and of "field" psychology which recognizes the continuous and multiple nature of experience, has made apparent the importance of the nonrational aspects of man's nature and of their influence upon the rational. Dewey's theories, whether we accept them all, or in part, have had their influence upon both the aims and the methods of education. In 1906, in The Child and the Curriculum, he said, "Subject matter is OOD TEACHING

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* Director

of Dramatics,

Wilmington

High School, Wilmington,

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but spiritual food, possible nutritive material. It cannot digest itself; it cannot of its own accord, turn into bone and muscle and blood." The teacher's job is to discover how his subject can become part of the child's experience—how the subject matter becomes a related factor in a total and growing experience. This does not imply a watering down or a limitation of subject matter. It does imply a change in the method of making that subject matter meaningful to the child. It is trite to say that we live in a technological society that is, by its very nature, producing more leisure time. This same technology is also producing the mechanized amusement to fill this leisure time— the mechanized amusement that engenders the passivity that is a danger to a free society. Increased material inventions and the resultant complexities of modern life have done much to hamper and even to destroy spontaneous creative expression. Educators are turning toward the arts for antidotes to this repression, for the arts may be defined as those activities interpretively portraying life, not by undisciplined self-expression but by formal communication of ideas through the creative process, integrating intellect, imagination, and emotion. It is within this framework of educational thinking, this framework of re-evaluation of method, this framework of a societal pattern, that Creative Dramatics has come into comparatively recent use as classroom method. It is not a panacea for all the social and educational ills, nor is it something new. It is as old as children are old—and children are old as the world. Always children have "played out" their experiences, testing, proving, trying out, relating themselves to their world and their society. Froebel has given us many insights into the significance of child play, which is akin to Creative Dramatics and in which Creative Dramatics finds its base. Long ago, too, children acted out the exciting hero tales that, through the story-teller, became a part of tribal lore. "All their lives, make-believe had been one of their natural kinds of play—but now it had form in story-dramatization." It had plot—and a beginning, a climax, a conclusion. And this, Winifred Ward says, is what differentiates Creative Dramatics from Child Play. It is unique and different from formal drama in that it is always

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improvised and is not designed for an audience. It is "sharing with" rather than "acting to." When a story is put into dramatic form, the play is planned by the group, and then played with spontaneous action and spontaneous dialogue. It is never "fixed" by being written down and memorized, but is different at each playing. Although Ward suggests that the play be "planned by the group," she stresses in her teaching, as do Rita Criste and the members of her department at Northwestern, that this planning should be brief at the outset—or even omitted—and that participation should be practically immediate, lest the spontaneity be lost. Both Peter Slade and Marjorie Hourd, in England, also make this point. In her discussion of the use of the Ballad as material, in Education for the Poetic Spirit, Hourd shows the fallacy of spending o n e or more class periods on the reading and analyzing of the "Sir Patrick Spens" ballad, another in planning how to act it, and still another o n who shall be who. By the time the acting has begun, all the dim ideas, the dawning appreciation, the first associations with the poem are gone, and the child has lost his direct contact with, and the full dramatic impact of, the ballad. She suggests that the poem be first read through with the quiet enthusiasm necessary to the reading of all poetry—by a child if he reads well enough—or by the teacher, if she reads well enough! Then, with no analysis—the immediate dramatization, in mime perhaps, or with dialogue. This best preserves for the child the swift, poignant experience, the dramatic impact, of the ballad. In doing this particular ballad, Hourd says that during the reading of the first two lines— The king sits in Dumferling Toune Drinking the blude-reid wine— for the first playing, hands are raised timidly to the mouth, but during a second and third reading, a regular carousal develops. But at first playing only the main shape is sketched in. One dramatization of a story is not usually sufficient, for the child needs the satisfaction of achievement, of improvement. To determine how they wish to improve, the teacher and the class together can evaluate the playing in these terms, which are Miss Ward's: 1. Characterization—Were the characters true to life? Did the players stay in character?

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2. Story—Was the story clear? How can we make it more so? 3. Action and Grouping—Did the actions help to explain the story? Did the people do the things natural to the characters? 4. Climax—Was the high point made important? How can we make it so? 5. Timing—Did the scene move? 6. Dialogue—Did it keep to the point, or did it wander? Did we speak like the people in the story? 7. Teamwork—Did the people play together? Did they listen to each other? 8. Voice and Diction—Could you hear everyone?

The story itself will determine, often, the length of time to be spent on it. In working with Shakespeare with thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds, more time will be spent than in working on a short story or a poem. Very often it is unnecessary to play out a whole story. Although one would not attempt to dramatize creatively the whole book, Boy Knight of Rheims has a number of parts that lend themselves well to dramatization, and provide well-drawn three-dimensional characters that give scope for building-in: Master Anton—skilled, dishonest, old Jean—young, idealistic, resentful of wrong Colin—a young man who has been able to accept a bad situation and still maintain his integrity Old Basi—sly, shrewd, scheming

It offers situations where there is not only real dramatic action, but where behavior is indicated that is determined by choices made in terms of values and ethics. Both the characters and the situations, although they are placed in another culture in another time, have uniqueness that make them specific, and universality, that relate them to any time, any culture. The story itself has real literary quality. Three things are important in the choice of the material to be used for dramatization: 1. Characters that are three-dimensional and therefore unique within themselves, but universal in quality.

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2. Situations that involve dramatic action, and that can involve ethical values. (This, of course, depends upon the purpose for which the story is being used. Ward contends that while it is not always necessary to use stories that have morals, as such, it is necessary to select material that is not detrimental to moral and ethical thinking.)

3. The material itself should not be trivial or without quality, because dramatization not only involves more time spent on the material than one reading, but it makes a deeper impression on the child.

Whether to tell the story, or to read it, or to have the children share in the reading is usually questioned, and from among people who use the technique, there are those who hold for the superiority of each. Winifred Ward and Rita Criste, however, suggest that whichever way the teacher using the material finds best for her—or whichever lends itself best to the material—is the way. With younger children, the story is better told because the contact between the teacher and the child is more direct. But it must be well told and with enthusiasm. The important thing is to set the mood—and to keep the wonder of the story. If the material for use has particularly beautiful or valuable parts from a literary standpoint, these might be read—interspersed with the telling. There are values, too, in encouraging children to create their own stories not by writing them out but by taking a brief period of time in which the group, starting from an idea or an experience, sketches the outline of a plot, and then elaborates it by acting it out. The "Ideas Game" is a good way to start this. The teacher might begin with: "Tell me one thing you saw on your way to school this morning." She might get answers like this: "A fat boy," "A squirrel," "A market-basket," "A house that was tumbling down." From these, the children can build a story with some nice humor, and perhaps some pathos. Other characters would be introduced, and other ideas. If it doesn't turn into the best story in the world, not much time need be spent on it; but the lid has been lifted, the stage has been set for a flow of creativity, a challenge to the imagination has been

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offered; the opportunity has been provided for the children to realize that the teacher believes that they may have something important to say. It can open the way to creative writing in a way that Hughes Mearns indicates when he writes of the importance of nourishing and guiding, and of guarding against the choking off, the walling up of the power inherent to the creative mind. This keeping the way open for the creative mind to develop, the cherishing of the ability to think independently and creatively, and the guiding of that ability in such ways that the child finds not indiscriminate self-expression, but self-realization—the nourishing of that creativity and imagination, and the providing of material that is sound and of good quality, is the primary role of the teacher in all creative teaching—in all sound education. The teacher herself must be sensitive to the values in her material, with a wide range of her subject matter and a "grasp" of it. Hers should be a curious and an adventuresome nature; hers a quality of mind that is not content with the mediocre, but that has the flexibility to see value and beauty in ideas and standards that are not necessarily her own; hers an empathy with, a deep sensitivity to, the nature and the needs of the children with whom she works; hers a real faith in a democratic way of life. In an atmosphere of intolerance, rigidity, and authoritarianism, creativity cannot flourish. Nor can it flourish in rank disorder; nor can it grow if new ideas, new ways of doing better, an advancement in techniques, if you will, are not supplied. Creative Dramatics, as we have said before, is not a panacea; it is simply one way, one technique among many through which the child can develop an understanding of himself and of others, in which he can practice social co-operation and relate to the world in which he lives, through which he can develop creative and independent thinking and the ability to speak out, without fear or shame, concerning those things in which he believes. It is one way through which he can extend his experiences and gain a controlled emotional release. We need build no case for the importance, at this time, of a legal framework where under guidance, aggressions and tensions can be worked out and other attitudes built in! It is one way to deepen perceptions and appreciations. Verbal analysis of a poem or of prose of great beauty seldom captures the

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powerful emotional reaction that makes the reading of it a meaningful and lasting experience. Bridgeman, a physicist and a mathematician, in The Nature oj Physical Theory says, An essential distinction between language and experience is that language separates out from the living matrix—little bundles—and freezes them; in doing this it produces something totally unlike experience. . . . Too great facility in finding the words to express all one's ideas and experiences involves a particular danger. For success in making a sufficiently good analysis of experience into static bits may easily lead to the belief that experience is actually composed of such static bits (as some institutionist geometers have supposed that a line is composed of points), and this, in turn, may lead to the belief that a satisfactory verbal analysis, when once found, is the unique and complete expression of the whole situation.

Often the complete emotional comprehension of a piece of literature—or of a personality or of a situation—comes at the non-verbal level, aided by what Wordsworth calls the "auxiliar light" of the "creative sensibility," 1 or by what Piaget calls "syncretic understanding." 2 Children show often by their "acting out" that they have understood, grasped total meaning and feeling-tones, when they may have been blocked by the necessity of giving an analytical explanation. Creative Dramatics is one way to provide the healthy balance of "in-flow" and "out-flow" of information and of ideas. It is, with the other and related creative arts, a way of helping the child to develop those distinctly human qualities of character necessary in a human being who is a free man in a free society. It does not aim to discover "incipient muted Miltons," or embryo Bernhardts. As Herbert Read says in Education Through Art, it is the function of any art—"to provide better people and better societies; rather than more works of art." It is to provide a means toward a richer development of personality—toward the integration of the self—which, as Kingsley Davis says is not "something that exists first, and then enters into relationship with others. It is something that develops out of social interaction, and is constantly changing, constantly adjusting, as new situa1 Wordsworth—Book II of "The Prelude" s Piaget—"Language and Thought of the Child"

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tions and conflicts arise." It is a means of growth. Nor is it possible to say where and how this growing takes place, for "Who shall point, as with a wand and say, 'This portion of the river of my mind Came from yon fountain'?"

Hourd reminds us that the influences of creative techniques are beyond our statistical analysis; they are not beyond our understanding. Suggested Readings in the Field of Creative

Dramatics

Lease, Ruth and Geraldine Siks—Creative Dramatics in Home, School, and Community. New York: Harper Brothers, 1952. Slade, Peter—Child Drama. London: University of London Press, Warwick Square, 1954. Ward, Winifred—Creative Dramatics for the Upper Grades and Junior High School. New York: Appleton-Century, 1930. Ward, Winifred—Theatre for Children. New York: Appleton-Century, 1939. Ward, Winifred—Play making with Children. New York: Appleton-Century, 1947. Ward, Winifred—Stories to Dramatize. Anchorage, Ky.: Children's Theatre Press, 1952. Note: From some of the questions and the discussion that followed the session, an important point of clarification seems necessary. Creative Dramatics is not Play Therapy, or Psychodrama, or Sociodrama. It differs from these in purpose, in techniques, and in the training and skills necessary for use. Although it can be helpful as both a diagnostic and a therapeutic technique, with disturbed children, it is not designed toward this end, nor should it be used for this purpose by a teacher not trained in psychiatry unless she is guided in her interpretation and use by either the school psychologist or psychiatrist.

Developing an Instructional Program for the Modern Junior High

School

A R T H U R C. K E L L E Y *

in junior high school instruction indicate that in order to promote the more important functions of early adolescent education, we can no longer limit teaching to the traditional assign-study-recite test formula. In fact, the very inclusiveness of junior high school education implied by the terms integration, guidance, articulation, differentiation, socialization, and exploration demands an instructional program that is comprehensive, varied, and meaningful. According to Carter Good in the Dictionary of Education, instruction means broadly "the act of providing situations, conditions, or activities designed to facilitate learning." In its relationship to the total curriculum, instruction serves as the all-important connecting link between the pupil and those pre-planned learning activities and goals underwritten by the school through its philosophy. The over-all effectiveness of the curriculum rests squarely on the efforts extended in the various learning areas by teachers who understand early adoMERGING TRENDS

E

* Director of Secondary Education, Venn Township School District, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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lescent pupils. In the classroom, even the best pre-planned course of study either becomes alive functionally under the guidance of a teacher wise in the techniques of management, or loses its meaning as a result of dull, uninspired leadership. Therefore, an effective junior high school curriculum depends not only on a continuing program of curriculum development by professional workers outside the classroom, but also on the establishment of favorable teacherpupil relationships within the classroom. The latter calls attention to the importance of a dynamic, forceful program of instruction. In recent years, the instructional program of the junior high school has lost much of the formality and tradition it inherited from the high school and the college. Mandated rigid standards of achievement have given way to evaluation and promotion practices in which the capabilities of the individual pupil are also taken into account. Detailed sequences of learning activities in the program of studies have been supplanted by suggested broad problem areas in which every pupil has an opportunity to be challenged and to succeed. The narrow restrictiveness of the concept that learning demands a rigid schedule of "ground to be covered" in a single textbook has been superseded by the belief that junior high school objectives can best be achieved through many different kinds of learning experiences. Recent concepts about the nature of learning, the needs and problems of early adolescent youth, and the place of the junior high school in the total educational program have given emphasis to the recommendation that the junior high school classroom be construed as a learning laboratory where the various phases of our culture subsumed under general education can be subjected to considerable scrutiny by pupils. It must be understood, however, that these trends have given to junior high school teachers a professional autonomy that up to this time they have never fully enjoyed. In order to translate the curriculum of the modern junior high school into action, teachers at this level must assume a responsibility that can only be resolved effectively through thorough daily preparation, clever manipulation of pupils, and careful selection of specific methods of teaching. Developing a modern program of instruction in the junior high school is a co-operative enterprise that must be shared equally by teachers, supervisors, and administrators. Few staff members, directly entering the profession from teacher-training institutions, are fully

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equipped to handle the many facets of instruction demanded in teaching boys and girls twelve to sixteen years of age. Therefore, it is the dual responsibility of the principal to develop a program of in-service training and to provide the leadership necessary to insure that instruction follows the patterns underwritten by co-operative agreement. In connection with the latter, there are four points of view that must be translated into action before a vital junior high school instructional program can evolve. 1. Instructional methods and techniques should be based upon an understanding of the nature of early adolescence. Characteristic behavior patterns, growth peculiarities, and needs of children between the ages of twelve and sixteen have been wellidentified in educational literature. Of particular importance to the instructional program is the fact that these pupils are gradually passing from one type of life orientation to another. Thus, these youth are in the process of leaving childhood and childhood education with its neighborhood school, self-contained classroom, imposed discipline, supervised study, and general education and are on the way toward early adult education with its emphasis on more independent study, departmentalized teaching, self-discipline, and emerging specialized educational opportunities. The needs of junior high school pupils and the reasons they act as they do find their bases in the insecure "groping" that occurs before these youth find their status as young adults. These value-seeking drives and attention-getting devices require adroit management in the classroom. Instructional methods should provide a wholesome release for these behavior patterns. Pupils should have an opportunity to participate in planning learning activities. The seemingly never-ending source of energy to be found in junior high youth dictates that they be constantly kept busy at learning tasks in which they see some functional meaning. Emphasis should be given not only to the "what?" of instruction but also to the "why?" the "how?" and the "how much?" The goals of early adolescent education should be discernible to the child and fairly close at hand. Classroom learning must be well-planned, well-organized around identifiable purposes, and regularly brought into perspective

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through interesting culminating activities. In order that every pupil in the junior high school have an opportunity to make a contribution to the learning activities of his group, teachers must know their pupils as individuals. This can only be accomplished through the establishment of professional activities that enable a staff to develop teaching methods that are based upon a knowledge of junior high youth. 2. A part of the first point of view, and yet apart from it because of its importance, is the emphasis that should be given in the junior high school class to variety. Because of the wide differences in ability, interest, motivational drive, and maturity existing in the typical junior high school class group, it is important that instruction provide the "spice of life" for the child—variety. No one technique of instruction or single topic of study, regardless of its effectiveness at the moment, will long challenge a typical junior high school class. This does not mean that instruction should shift haphazardly from one activity to another without reason or purpose. Rather, it does mean that learning should be carefully planned to provide for changed points of emphasis, to explore unforeseen facets of a problem, and to set the stage for continuing individual accomplishment. In junior high school classrooms all over the nation, we find a renewed emphasis on many different kinds of learning activities—committee assignments, library study, oral reports, individual projects, group discussion. More and more the word "research" is used to designate the kind of activities pupils are participating in both within and outside of school. The complaint of junior high school youth so often heard in the traditional school that "we do the same thing every day" does not apply in a setting where a dynamic program of teaching is in effect. In addition to broadened teaching procedures, variety is also possible through the utilization of the many different types of excellent materials available today. In the modern junior high school, instruction cannot be confined to the learning activities of a single textbook. Instead, learning must be as broad as those aspects of our culture that are suitable to the maturity level of early adolescent youth. Community resources, classroom libraries, audio-visual aids, and

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supplementary study materials geared to the different abilities and interests of pupils have a part to play in providing enriched sources of information. By keeping informed about the nature of newly available learning resources, and establishing techniques whereby supplementary sources of information can be made readily available, teachers can bring to a junior high school group opportunities and challenges that have considerable potential for the maintenance of a high level of interest in the work of the school. Every technique of instruction and every type of material should be evaluated to determine its efficacy in promoting the goals of junior high school education. The in-service training program should provide the means whereby teachers can evaluate their methods toward the end that their selection of any one specific activity or resource is based upon the fact that it best accomplishes the goals established for a limit of learning. 3. The instructional program of the modern junior high school should further the functional unification of curricular experiences. One criticism frequently directed against the traditional junior high school is that learning experiences are fragmented, departmentalized, and unrelated to the extent that functional application is impossible for the early adolescent. A significant trend in junior high school instruction emerging as a partial solution to this problem is the attempt being made to unify curricular experiences. This unification of content and method is being accomplished in a number of different ways, the most important of which are the following: (1) The Core Curriculum. Although there are many different kinds of core, the essential characteristics usually found in connection with the terms common learnings, unified studies, general education, and broad fields are the same. Because of increasing interest in the core curriculum among junior high schools of Pennsylvania particularly in grades seven and eight, this pattern may emerge as the dominant curricular structure for the junior high school provided that the present problems of teacher supply can be overcome. The core curriculum, based upon a planned integration among various learning areas as they contribute to the study of broad problems of social significance demands an instructional approach that is dependent

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upon a comprehensive understanding of junior high school youth and the problems of our culture. (2) The Coordinator of Instruction. Either within the junior high school itself, or as a part of the superintendent's staff, many districts have included a professional worker whose responsibility it is to develop a unification of teacher effort toward an integrated curriculum. By working directly with teachers, the coordinator, through group activity, makes possible the sharing of successful techniques and correlates the learning under way in the various class groups. (3) The Curriculum Council. Another possibility for unifying instructional effort is organizing a faculty council whose recommendations on policy, philosophy, co-operative effort, and organization of planned learning experiences can exercise considerable influence in establishing a unified curriculum design. (4) The Little School Approach. Often it is possible to schedule a small group of staff members who have teaching responsibilities over the same sections in such a way as to permit these teachers to meet regularly for the purpose of considering the contributions each can make to the learning experiences of their pupils. (5) Faculty Participation in Co-operative Planning. In the interest of developing a unified instructional approach, regular professional meetings of the staff should be held by grade, by department, and by special interests in order that mutual understanding can be developed regarding the goals to be reached, the functions of the school in attempting to achieve these goals, and the methods to be used in evaluation. Every teacher in the junior high school has the obligation to improve his instructional technique through a whole-hearted professional participation in the above arrangements where they are in effect. But beyond this, every junior high school teacher has the responsibility for developing in his subject area a unified point of view by: (1) using a broad problems approach to unit planning in such a way that many types of information, knowledge, and understanding are brought to bear on the topic under study; (2) assigning projects that include learnings acquired elsewhere in the curriculum; (3) promoting enriched supplementary reading experiences; (4) co-operating with the library to provide exploratory and recreational opportunities;

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(5) relating present learnings to those being acquired in other areas, previously or projected in the future; (6) planning future learning experiences in cooperation with other teachers; (7) incorporating in the instructional program varied materials, procedures, and evaluation; and (8) relating learning activities to the needs of early adolescence.

4. Developing a modern instructional program demands an increasing emphasis on the environment in which learning takes place. The physical and emotional climate of the junior high school classroom has a tremendous influence on learning. That classrooms should be clean, well-lighted, and spacious for the varied activities going on within them is self-evident. Furthermore, ample storage space, flexible furniture, and large display areas should be provided. But beyond this, the teacher has the responsibility to insure that physical facilities are utilized in an effective way and to generate an atmosphere conducive to efficient learning activities. Junior high youth base many of the values they acquire on the values they see underwritten by adults. If the junior high school classroom is disorganized, unattractive, chaotic, and unclean, youth themselves will quickly reflect similar attitudes and work habits. Similarly, if the teacher is dictatorial, autocratic, undignified, unprepared, and unfair, these qualities will quickly manifest themselves in the pupils. Boys and girls between the ages of twelve and sixteen enjoy attractive surroundings. They work better in an atmosphere that reveals clearly and definitely that they are in a schoolroom, a schoolroom for them where they are experiencing a particular kind of activity easily identifiable by the projects, reports, and posters on display. Because the climate in which early adolescent pupils learn has such a great influence on the instructional program, teachers should extend every effort to: (a) evaluate their relationships with the youth in their classes; (b) promote an environment filled with materials and samples of pupil work dealing with the learning under way; (c) develop co-operatively reasonable standards of conduct, order, and daily procedure;

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(d) organize pupil committees to maintain an orderliness of physical facilities and materials; and (e) exploit bulletin boards, blank walls, and chalk boards for the display of leading questions, summaries of work, and visual aids. The teacher is the most important entity in the school district for bringing to junior high youth all of the educative forces of our society. In order to provide the leadership necessary in the classrooms of the modern junior high school, teachers must be professionally equipped to study the needs of early adolescent youth, to use varied teaching methods, to integrate the learnings under way, and to create a favorable atmosphere for learning. Developing these characteristics of a modern instructional program is the cooperative responsibility of the teacher himself, his training institution, and his supervisors.

IV Administration

The Real and the Unreal in School and Community Relations ARTHUR H. RICE *

to take a second look at some currently popular notions about school public relations. Of all the cliches tossed about by speakers and writers in this field, none is more erroneously interpreted than the assumption that "the schools belong to the public." They do—and they don't! A typical example of how this clich6 is misinterpreted is found in a recent book by the education editor of a New York newspaper and the public relations specialist of a state education department.1 They write:

I

T'S TIME

The schools belong to the public. It is not the superintendent, the principal, the teachers, or even the board of education members, who, in the final analysis, run the schools. They are the holding agencies, the men and women who do the bidding of the public. Without the financial * Editor, "The Nation's Schools," Chicago. Benjamin Fine and Vivienne Anderson, "The School Administrator and the Press. How to Present School News Which Editors Will Use." Arthur C. Croft Publications, New London, Conn., p. 112. 1

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support of the taxpayers, the parents, and the citizens of the community generally, the administrator is placed in an untenable position. He can propose, but the parents can dispose of his suggestions or recommendations. In other words, these writers are saying that our public education program today is responsible only to the whims of parents or pressure groups. It is true that the schools belong to the public, but only if we mean all of the people, and not just one preferred group or one segment of the public. You will recall that the reporter and the specialist said: "The administrator can propose, but the parents can dispose of his suggestions or recommendations." Here we have an assumption that the primary purpose of the schools is to cater to parents. The preferences and prejudices of doting parents and the whims of the child are considered to be more important than the total good and welfare of society. But, you say, let's be realistic about this. The superintendent has to get along with parents, or else! Parents are the most powerful, the most interested, and the most helpful group supporting public education. They should be, because they're getting a lot for their money. The average parent pays in school taxes approximately one-half to one-third of the full cost that the community and state invests in his child's education. Parents who have children in school do not constitute a simple majority of those who pay the bills. Various surveys show that less than 50 per cent of our voting citizens actually have children in the public schools. None of this is to be interpreted as lack of appreciation for parent organizations. Rather, this is a warning to those who are trying to think intelligently about their public relations program to pay more attention to the layman who has no direct family interest in the school. He needs to understand—much better than he does now— what public education means for his security and his welfare, and, conversely, school boards and school administration need to be aware of what he expects for his school tax dollar. Neither do the schools belong to teachers as an organized group or a vested interest. This is a hard fact for the teaching profession to realize. Whatever teacher organizations seek, whether it's tenure,

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retirement, or higher salaries, the appeal to the public always is made on the basis of the good of the child. Not all the motives of the teacher are as altruistic as the literature would have us believe. If, as teachers, we are going to be honest with ourselves, we need to make some conscientious efforts to see ourselves as others see us. I'm thinking, for example, of situations such as in Saginaw, Michigan, and Los Angeles, California, where organized teacher groups have campaigned directly and vigorously for the election of their candidates to the school board. Undoubtedly, the teachers thought they were doing the right thing, but many laymen would look upon this type of campaigning as an attempt by the teacher to protect his own occupational interests. The teaching profession needs to do some soul searching, especially with regard to its attitude toward two current problems: First, teachers' salaries based upon demonstrated abilities and, second, an openminded attitude toward research dealing with class size. It is a principle generally accepted in business and industry that better work should receive better pay. The layman thinks this principle also applied to teaching. It seems only logical to them that the more competent and effective teacher should be paid more than the poor teacher. I am not using the term "merit rating," because it has too many bad connotations, especially when the rating of a teacher is a means of administrative control. National surveys have shown, however, that school board members and most superintendents believe that the principle of more pay for extra responsibilities should be put into effect just as soon as we can develop reasonable instruments of measurement. Such progress will not come overnight We're being selfish and shortsighted, however, when we resist any efforts to develop such means of measurement. The layman thinks that when we are unwilling to study the problem or to seek solutions, it is because we want to protect the weaker teacher. Another clich6 repeated over and over again, till we believe it is quoted from the Gospel, is the assumption that the preferable teacherpupil ratio for a classroom is 25 to 1. Currently, some experimentation is under way in various school districts in Michigan and in other parts of the country, dealing with how to utilize better the efficiency of the classroom teacher. Some of this experimentation involves the use of a teacher-aide.

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Without waiting for the experiment to be completed, organized groups have jumped on this research project with both feet, not realizing that they are acting like any other vested interest does when its methods of operation and its security are questioned. The layman has a big stake in this question of the size of a class, and we are behaving rather selfishly when we place roadblocks in the path of research of this kind. Another weakness in our public relations philosophy today is the emphasis we place upon the importance of the newspaper as a factor in interpreting the schools. It is important that the press have access to facts about the operation of the schools, but it is wishful thinking to assume that the newspaper can be a prime factor in stimulating an appreciation and understanding of public education. The press is more effective in raising suspicions or creating misunderstandings about public education. It is these unfortunate situations that can best be avoided by dealing with the newspapers fairly and squarely. In our relations with the press, we sometimes overlook its function of leadership in the community. Its interest in public education is good business to the extent that the schools are a major factor in the prosperity and growth of the community. We reveal great ignorance of the nature of the newspaper, however, when we assume that its legal responsibility is to take a favorable attitude toward the schools. Its editorial policy is its own prerogative. Its great opportunity, however, is to support public education, because without it there would be little use and practically no need for a free and independent press. A fourth assumption is one that I think is causing us to waste a lot of our efforts toward better school and community relations. It has been taught and preached by the earlier leaders in school public relations that the essence of a good public relations program is to give people the "facts." The assumption is that, if people know the facts, they will act intelligently. This has been reinterpreted to mean that, if people believe the "facts" we hand them, they will in turn support the schools in the manner that we think they should. How many, many times this has been disproved in school bond campaigns! What we should know by now, if we didn't know it before, is that the behavior of individuals is based upon their values, upon their interests, upon their prejudices, upon their likes and dislikes, and not necessarily upon what they know. In other words, emotions deter-

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mine attitudes and behavior. Consequently, facts are not enough. You and I can cite many instances of individuals who know the right thing to do but they don't do it. Essential for public support of the schools is an appreciation of what the school does for the child and how it actually operates today. These things can be learned best by seeing the school itself, by having school activities brought to the layman through pictures and demonstrations, and by establishing personal contacts through teacherparent conferences. Much of the good will toward education will come through the faith the citizens have in the teacher, in the school board and the administrator. In this discussion, I have tried to establish the thesis that our public schools do not belong to parents alone, or to teachers, or to the press, or to those who create and dominate current public opinion. Rather, our system of public education is a social institution belonging to all the people. As a social institution, our schools are linked with the past and projected into the future. This present generation has an obligation to sustain, protect, and improve our system of public education. We must not yield to selfish pressures or to expediencies. To help us in fulfilling this trust, we have laws and courts to protect us even from ourselves in shortsighted moments. The schools belong to all the ideals and purposes that we envision for democracy, and ours is the professional responsibility to guide public education steadily along this course.

The Administrator and the School Staff J O H N H. F I S C H E R

·

said once that despite the best a father may do, a son tends to grow up looking disconcertingly like his male parent. It may be said with some validity that however the school administrator tries to escape the blame, sooner or later, if he stays around long enough, his school will reflect a great deal of his own philosophy. Especially is this true of the administrator's attitude toward his colleagues of the faculty. But, like many other organizations, the school will reflect also the administrator's knowledge and skill, his techniques and art in organization, administration, communication, in the whole complex business of working with people toward the achievement of goals.

A

WISE OBSERVER

T h e recent phenomenal rise of popular interest in schools has focused much attention upon the importance of public relations. This has been a major gain for democratic education. But the school system whose leaders are very actively concerned with community participation may fall into serious difficulty unless equal attention is * Superintendent

of Public

Instruction,

Baltimore,

160

Maryland.

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directed to creating sound working relations within the school staff. In determining how good relationships may be established between the administrator and the school staff it is necessary to consider at the outset the purposes which the school program is to serve. In every community the overriding purpose is, of course, the best possible instruction of the pupils toward goals the community itself has sanctioned. In considering this major purpose both the administrator and the other members of the staff must examine carefully the means by which these goals are to be achieved, for the means employed in any enterprise determine the end that will be reached. And conversely, the end inevitably does much to predetermine the means. All of this is but another way of saying that if our schools are to serve democracy, one of their distinguishing characteristics will be a democratic relationship between the administrator and his colleagues. Discussions of this matter often stress the obligation of the principal or the superintendent to establish such working relations with the staff. This emphasis may serve a useful purpose in some situations, for administrators do have this obligation and we all know that it is not met equally well in all school systems. If we were to assume, however, that a sound working basis will be established if only the head of the school speaks kindly to his colleagues and listens attentively when they speak to him, we should be dangerously naive. The probability is very low that democratic administration will be achieved in a school where either the faculty or the executive believes that democracy means no more than the easy exchange of courtesies. On the contrary, it is not unusual for the most autocratic dictators to be notoriously courtly to their followers. Too often programs labeled as democratic are set up with very undemocratic hidden purposes. Staff members, for example, may be permitted to discuss a question as though they were seeking a solution when in fact they are merely reacting to the boss's predetermined decision which he has no intention of changing. To be sure, discussion may be a useful tool of democratic action, but it takes more than talk to give the members of a group a real voice in its control. To say this is not to condemn either the administrator or the faculty, for it is not easy to perfect a smooth and effective pattern for bringing a large group together in genuine planning or evaluation.

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The quicker way is to let somebody else do it, or to do the whole job oneself. The most important step in any group project, and often the toughest, is the achievement of enough unity and reciprocity to move ahead together. But those who have persevered through to the point where group integrity has been achieved usually agree that the results are well worth the effort. The dilemma inherent in our natural tendency to be "democratic in words but authoritarian in acts" was nicely put by de Huszar in his distinction between "consent-democracy" and "do-democracy." He notes, further, that "The methods of consent-democracy are ineffective when faced with the task of integration and the transformation of authoritarian institutions into truly democratic ones. On the other hand, do-democracy makes not only action but integration and such transformation possible." 1 Staff working arrangements in schools suitable to serve the ends of democracy should utilize fully the strengths of all who are involved. Such arrangements require more than what the title of a new book in public relations calls The Engineering of Consent. I must admit here a personal bias, for I cannot conceive of good administration in terms of human engineering. Engineering means to me the manipulation of objects and I find quite unsatisfactory the suggestion that this has much to do with the respectful leadership of men and women. If fully adequate relationships are to exist in a school staff, careful thought must be given—and by the whole staff, rather than by the administrator alone—to the specific purpose the staff is meant to serve. No school staff exists as an end in itself but rather as a group of professional people deliberately selected for their competence to perform a particular task. In public schools this task is a form of public service. Every school faculty is in a sounder position to plan and appraise its own performance when it recognizes this essential nature of its role. But, if the faculty's view of itself were to stop at this point, the view would be seriously incomplete, for a teacher is not only a public servant but also a member of a profession. Therefore, while the teacher looks to the community and its appropriate representa1 George B. de Huszar, Practical Applications Brothers. New York, 1945, pp. 99-100.

of Democracy,

Harper ant1

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and the School Staff

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tives to determine the ends for which schools exist and toward which teaching should be directed, he must look to professional sources for guidance in the procedures by which the goals are to be attained. This situation need not produce conflict, although it frequently leads to difficulty. The professional expert is clearly necessary in democracy even though both he and the layman still have much to leam about working together. The problem we are dealing with today, however, is not so much that of lay-professional relations. It is rather the question of how we professionals in education may best serve those who have employed us to render a specialized service—a service about which we are presumed to know more than any other group. Despite occasional indications to the contrary, teachers are important people in our society, and one of the chief reasons for their importance is that each of them represents the profession of teaching. The teacher is a valuable servant of the public precisely because he is more than a servant. He brings to his work a trained mind, a dedicated spirit, an enlightened insight, a broadened vision. These characteristics, which give him the competence to serve his community, he has acquired in large part from his own teachers, from the accumulated experience of the profession by which he has been trained, and into which he has been received. If he is a good and honest teacher he recognizes his debt to his profession. If he is wise, he knows that his further growth will depend to a considerable extent upon his professional associations, and upon his ability to keep in touch with the swift and rising stream of new knowledge and skill. And he knows also that in his own school, the quality of education will be better if he works co-operatively with his colleagues, sharing in the common task and contributing his best to the joint enterprise. This readiness of each teacher to participate responsibly both by doing his own job and by joining with his fellows in the total undertaking is as much a prerequisite of good staff relations as is the ability and willingness of the administrator to follow democratic procedures. This description of a productive staff situation would be incomplete without a more specific consideration of the administrator's place in it. Both democracy and co-operative action require leadership as well as organization and administration. The duties of organizing and administering the school system are fixed upon the superintendent by

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legal action. But he should occupy also a position of professional leadership, and this cannot be conferred upon him by his school board. Only through his own competence and personality may he gain this stature and then only if his colleagues accord him the necessary recognition and respect. The dual nature of the school administrator's job subjects him to an endless series of tests and trials. He is, as one of our leading superintendents liked to be identified, the head teacher of his system, but he is also the chief executive of the school board. If he is worth his salt, he strives for the highest standards of educational service but he is also the chief budget officer and must stay within appropriation limits. He knows that some educational techniques are based upon well-established physical laws or psychological principles and will not be affected in the slightest degree by popular vote; yet some expect him to alter instructional procedures in deference to the majority in the last election, or to meet the demands of a pressure group whose information is as weak as its voice is strong. Like the Roman god, Janus, he faces in two directions simultaneously; yet he must not be two-faced. As a consequence it is not surprising that the typical superintendent is often in a whirl. What I have been trying to say is, briefly, this: that the maintenance of the sort of working relations most likely to produce good education must rest upon a decent respect for the popular mandates controlling the schools but also upon the professional competence of the staff through which alone the mandates can be translated into education for pupils. The selection of the procedures to be used by the school staff then becomes an issue. For any procedure to be used most effectively it should be selected or designed with full awareness of the purpose it is to serve. Teachers, accordingly, have the obligation to select professional procedures which will contribute most efficiently to the outcomes that are sought, with particular awareness of the professional reasons that make the procedures desirable. With respect to this whole concept of purpose and procedure, the school administrator has the very great responsibility of seeing that both he and all his colleagues are constantly sensitive to why they are at work and what it is that they have been assembled to accomplish. Of all the obligations of leadership, probably none exceeds in

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importance the responsibility of the leader to help those with whom he works to identify and clarify their goals. Without this as a preliminary and continuing condition, constructive achievement is not likely to occur. A n administrator, or any other sort of leader, can never deal with purposes except in terms of people. In the case of the school administrator this will include the people of the community, the people of his Board, the people who are the pupils of the school, and especially for our purposes today, the very important people of the staff. Human beings cannot exist in a vacuum. The efforts of people individually and collectively toward any goal are inevitably affected by the setting in which the efforts take place. Everyone in a group affects this setting but, by virtue of his special status, the administrator usually contributes more than any other member of the school staff to the creation of the emotional climate in the school. Indeed, a climate of some sort will develop whether or not the administrator wishes it. His choice is limited to determining whether he will deliberately try to create a favorable climate, whether by design or otherwise he will contribute to the creation of a negative atmosphere, or whether by default he will allow an air of uncertainty to enshroud those with whom he works. There are pleasant and well-meaning administrators whose personal relationships with other individuals are warm and friendly and who may, therefore, be said to have contributed much to the establishment of a favorable working climate, but more is required if any enterprise involving a group is to succeed. Organizational patterns must be developed within which each person can find his own r01e, understand it, and perform it; all the while relating his own work with meaning and mutual satisfaction to the work of others. Without dictatorial domination but with insight and skill, the good administrator therefore organizes his staff so that for each person authority and responsibility are in balance. A working organization is not a static network of relationships but rather a dynamic interaction of the intelligence and effort of many persons unified by common motivations. Thus, questions of procedure and technique again enter the picture. The effective administrator is able to select suitable operating techniques and to encourage

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and stimulate all of the members of his staff to contribute to their development. Much of the success of an administrative program depends upon the plan by which the group is organized. School systems, like modern business corporations, have learned that the traditional charts composed of lines, solid and dotted, and rectangles, large and small, are now inadequate to portray how people actually work together. While it is still important to fix both responsibility and authority for action, students of administration learned not too long ago that action is often determined by the interplay of personalities quite outside the old-fashioned diagram. The study and solution of problems, the identification of major issues, the evaluation of performance, the upward passage of reaction and criticism—all these are difficult to diagram neatly in terms of line and staff. In many new charts we find additional geometric figures. Often these are circles, representing committees, whose function is neither to approve policy nor to execute it. Their work chiefly consists, rather, of the time-honored practice of taking counsel together— thinking, planning, evaluating. The once clear separation of planning and execution is now not so clear, for we are learning better ways to bring together those who are affected by decisions to assist in making the decisions. What this method loses in speed it gains in the validity and desirability of its results. Psychologists and sociologists have demonstrated that not all authority comes from status and that what a respected old-timer thinks may have more real force than what the boss orders. As a sensible consequence, we are devising ways to use the wisdom and experience of the old-timer, and the imagination and enthusiasm of the bright young fellow, to help the boss improve his order before he issues it. Such interaction is not to be achieved for the asking or in the absence of skillful leadership. Without a clear head in the superintendent's office, a school system may easily slip into chaos by the committee route. But if we look around we shall probably find that the best education is being offered in those schools which provide systematically for a maximum number of staff members to participate in the study and solution of problems. Where such successful work is being done, chaos is avoided by the thoughtful assignment of tasks and by a recognition of the

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ways in which professional study, policy action, executive implementation complement each other. The mere willingness of the superintendent to allow staff participation in problem-solving is no more a guarantee of success than the readiness of the staff to take part. Here, again, there is no substitute for competence. If the subject under discussion is, let us say, the length of the Christmas holiday, little expert knowledge is required and teachers might be drawn by lot for such a committee. But an analysis of the relationship between failures in reading and the delinquency rate of the town, calls for competence of a different order. This, then, points up two additional elements in the matter. One is that participants should be selected in accordance with the nature of the problem. The second is that if staff members, the superintendent included, are to deal effectively with the questions they tackle, they will need continuously to develop their own ability. Any plan for sound staff interaction presupposes a professionally sound—and growing—staff. We return to where we began—the administrator himself. If he is to work with people in the direction of important purposes, it is necessary that he give early and continuing thought to his own preparation for the role he is to play. The administration of American schools requires competence of a high order. The job is big enough to take the measure of the best who work at it, for the administrator is much more than an organizer and coordinator of the efforts of others. He must constantly serve also as a resource for those with whom he works. He must come to his work with a high level of initial preparation and as long as he remains at it he faces the need continually to reappraise his own status to determine what improvement he needs to undertake in himself. Only in this way can he hope conscientiously to keep abreast of the unending demands of his job. It is essential also that he bring to his work a high degree of resilience and adaptability, for rigidity is the worst enemy of good human relations. Teachers being human are not uniform and completely predictable beings. Nor is the social order within which schools operate a set, unchanging situation. Among the qualities of the wellprepared administrator must, therefore, be included the ability to reject preconceived notions and not only to accept but to welcome new ideas.

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In the establishment of effective staff relations, the wise administrator recognizes that, as in so many other areas of human experience, devices alone have but limited value. He knows that basic philosophy and point of view are usually the determining factors. This is not to say that technique is unimportant, for there is no substitute in any profession for the systematic knowledge that the trained man or woman can bring to a task. But technique undirected by clearly determined values can be meaningless. The balance that we in school administration need to seek involves on the one side the deepest understanding and appreciation of the great moral and ethical concepts which are the goals and sanctions of education; and on the other side the rapidly increasing body of knowledge and skill flowing from the social and behavioral sciences. The school staff in which the best relationships prevail will be the staff in which not only the administrator but the entire group participates in the establishment of this balance. But it is the administrator himself who has the inescapable responsibility of initiating and stimulating the effort to achieve the balance.

Administration "Junior

and Supervision of the High School

JAMES S. SNOKE *

T

HE ADMINISTRATIVE and supervisory areas are covered in two chapters in the new Junior High School Manual of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Instruction: Chapter III, The Staff of the Junior High School, and Chapter VI, Administration and Supervision of the Junior High School.

The Staff The staff of the junior high school is probably the most important criterion in the determination of the educational program. If the staff has an insight into the behavioral problems of the adolescent and adjusts the program to meet the needs and interests of the pupils, the other areas such as plant, program of studies, courses of study, instructional guidance, and public relations all contribute to the smooth functioning of the school. Hence, the junior high school staff must * Assistant Superintendent,

Allegheny

County Schools, Pittsburgh,

169

Pennsylvania.

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have a thorough background in the psychology of learning and the developmental characteristics—mental, physical, social, spiritual—of the adolescent as well as being qualified in the subject field. In addition, the staff member must accept the principles and purposes of the junior high school and the more specialized program of the senior high school. The Manual presents a staff pattern in chart form to provide for schools of different sizes. While the organization and assignment of staff duties will vary according to local conditions, the essential functions of both the professional and non-instructional are suggested so that suitable combinations can be effected to meet differing situations. In addition to the usual principal-teacher pattern, the Manual presents a scaled proposal for a co-ordinator of instruction, a guidance counselor, a librarian, and a co-ordinator of activities. The position of the co-ordinator of instruction is introduced to meet the needs formerly performed in part by the principal and general supervisor. Since the principles and purposes of the junior high school program require both integration and articulation, vertically and horizontally, the internal planning and liaison cannot be left to chance. In practice it has been observed that the principal has so many pressing administrative duties connected with the over-all program that instructional co-ordination is neglected. Likewise the general supervisor's attention is usually directed at the orientation of new teachers and the evaluation of teaching performance so that co-ordination of the instructional activities is again neglected. The co-ordinator of instruction should be trained in supervision, be able to work effectively with others—school and community—and be qualified to provide leadership in all subject areas. With effective organization of the instructional program, the guidance personnel, librarian, and co-ordinator of activities all can function in terms of the over-all pattern. The school nurse, home and school visitor, and the school psychologist all have a necessary part in contributing specialized service to the junior high in relation to the district as a unit. The noninstructional staff—secretarial, custodial, cafeteria—all play an important part in junior high school life. It is important that these staff members understand the policies and philosophy of the school and carry out their duties in a loyal and courteous maimer.

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Administration and Supervision The function of administration and supervision of the junior high school is essentially similar to the elementary school and to the senior high school. However, each administrative and supervisory action must be focused on the unique function of the educational program for the adolescent. Each action must be tested to determine if it will facilitate desirable learning in terms of the behavioral characteristics of this age and grade group. School Organization The planning, developing, directing, and subsequent supervision of the wide variety of activities conducted in a school program in terms of the accepted community philosophy is the chief task of the principal of a school as its administrator. A thorough understanding of the policies of a school is important. This communication must be established and continuously maintained through the school calendar, house organ, and administrative and supervisory bulletins. The daily master schedule is the general plan to provide the component parts of the educational program in terms of the philosophy of the school. This involves the length of the school day and the division into class periods. The home room and the lunch periods have a distinct bearing on the provisions for pupil and staff organization. Problems relating to transportation of pupils are important in many schools as they affect the time schedule and the planning of school activities. The provision of and use of audio-visual aids is exceedingly important administratively if the instructional program is to provide for the broadest experiences. Pupil Personnel This section is devoted to attendance, assignment of pupils, promotion practice, records, and school activities. It is the responsibility of the administrator to determine co-operatively the policies to be followed with respect to pupil personnel. Depending upon the size of

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the school, any of these administrative problems will be delegated either to professional or noninstructional personnel. Consequently, a clear pattern of operation must be established so that the delegated staff will be operating within a clearly established frame of reference. The coordinator of activities has an important administrative assignment to avoid conflicts both in assignment of personnel and building space. Professional

Staff

Personnel

This section is devoted to selection of personnel, staff meetings, staff records, in-service education, supervisory program, and teachers' advisory council. The selection, assignment, consultation with and subsequent supervision of professional staff is without doubt the most important administrative responsibility of a principal. The selection of professional colleagues to develop and promote the educational program must be balanced in terms of age, training, personal characteristics, sex, variety of competencies in many areas. In order that the principal may be aware of the staff potential, complete records on staff backgrounds, education, certification, experience (professional and nonprofessional), employment, seniority, and community activity must be available. Continual consultation, both individual and collective, must be effected through conferences, regular staff meetings, a planned service program, a supervisory program, and an advisory council. The noninstructional personnel—secretarial, custodial, cafeteria, bus drivers—contribute to the smooth functioning of the school. They are important ambassadors of good will in the community. They are in a position not only to meet the public but the results of their work are most frequently observed by visitors and patrons. Careful selection, training, and supervision is essential to help these people operate in an atmosphere of efficiency, loyalty, and dependability.

Human Relations Techniques for School

Administrators

RICHARD WYNN *

administration was looked upon primarily as the management of operations and things. Courses and textN books emphasized busses, budgets, and bonds. These technological OT MANY YEARS AGO,

aspects might be called the "mechanics" of administration. But within the past decade particularly, we have come to recognize that the functions of administration must be realized through people. Just about everything that the school administrator does, he does through people. This has led Douglas McGregor, an authority in the application of human relations to management, to conclude that "the job of management is that of personnel administration exclusively." 1 This human element of administration might be termed the "humanics" of administration. The humanics of administration stress such humanistic aspects as morale, leadership, group dynamics, and the like. * Associate Professor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University. Douglas McGregor, "Changing Patterns in Human Relations" (A talk before the Management Clinic of the Society for the Advancement of Management, Cleveland, Ohio, May 17, 1950.) 1

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Stuart Chase, in his interesting book, Men at Work, published in 1941, predicted at that time that if business were to apply what was then known about human relations, it would "revolutionize" industry. Apparently this was exactly what happened in the following decade, for in 1952, Time magazine was able to report N o w a second Industrial Revolution, quieter but more profound, is sweeping through U. S. industry. Its name: Human Relations. 2

School administration too has become more sensitive to the challenge of this new art. One CPEA study revealed that the modern superintendent spends about 90 per cent of his time dealing with people, the "humanics" of administration, and only 10 per cent of his time with things, the "mechanics" of administration. 3 Another study conducted by the National Institutional Teacher Placement Association found that poor interpersonal relations was by far the most common cause for failure of school administrators on the job. 4 The same discovery, by the way, has been made in various other areas of human endeavor, even in such technical fields as medicine and engineering. All of this had led to a new recognition on the part of the executive of the importance of getting along well with people. Hence our topic for this afternoon, "Human Relations Techniques for School Administrators." The word "techniques" implies that our primary emphasis in this discussion should be upon practices or applications of our knowledge of human relations rather than upon theory or research. This emphasis upon techniques may be quite acceptable to the practicing administrators in this audience but perhaps somewhat less so for the members of the American Educational Research Association who are meeting jointly with us. However this may be, it is important that two very important cautions be emphasized at the outset. First, there are no magic tech2

"Human Relations—A New Art Brings a Revolution to Industry" Time, April 14, 1952, p. 96. 3 Gerhart Rast. The Changing Character of the Superintendent's Job, CPEAMAR, Teachers College, Columbia University. New York, 1951. 4 National Institutional Teacher Placement Association, Some Reasons Why School Administrators Succeed or Fail. Mimeographed report to the National Conference of Professors of Educational Administration. 1952. p. 3.

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niques that once mastered can be applied to all situations. This truth must be made clear beyond any possibility of misunderstanding. There are few if any rules of behavior or techniques that should apply in every situation without limit or without change. But humanity yearns for certainty. For years executives have been beseeching psychologists and sociologists for sets of rules, plans, techniques that can be learned by executives and applied across the board. Unhappily, there are no such pat formulae in human relations. In the first place, for each principle discovered, there is almost certainly a conflicting principle. Second, both individuals and situations differ. A very successful technique in one situation might be catastrophic in another circumstance. Let me illustrate with this homely anecdote. A distinguished orator was invited to address a convention of nudists. He arrived at the colony and was escorted to his room. Finally the hour for his address arrived. With an impulsive burst of courage, he tore his clothes from his body and hurried down the stairway into the banquet hall where he had to make his presentation, quite pleased with this surge of courage that had finally enabled him to adapt his dress, or lack of it, to the standards of the group which he was about to join. Imagine his consternation when he discovered that the nudists, in deference to him, had decided to dress for dinner! Now he had simply applied a generally acceptable standard of leadership behavior. He had adapted himself to the norms of the group. Or, in the vernacular, when in Rome, he tried to do what the Romans did. Ordinarily this is a good standard of behavior but in this situation led to disastrous results. Thus one must look upon each situation as unique unto itself and not assume that a technique that worked in some other context will automatically work every time. Another caution is quite important too. More fundamental than techniques is the spirit in which they are applied. No technique can be good if the motives which initiate it are unsound. Let me illustrate again. Several books that have enjoyed wide acclaim in this area of human relations techniques are, in my judgment, quite unacceptable because of the unsound philosophy behind them. I have in mind Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends and Influence People and Donald Laird's The Technique of Handling People as two specific examples. While many of the actual techniques which they cite are commonly

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acceptable, the motives or philosophy behind them are quite unethical in our democratic culture. Note the very titles themselves: "How to influence people," "Techniques of handling people." They suggest that if the leader is clever, if he but adopt a bag of tricks, he can "influence" or "handle" people in the direction of his preconceived ends. This is autocracy covered with a veneer of hypocrisy. This technique of manipulating people is really power over people rather than power through and with people. Thus we must evaluate any technique in terms of whether it is imbedded in a sound philosophy of management or regarded merely as a fancy trick. In the latter case it may easily become an actual detriment to successful human relations. This difference can be illustrated with the two words, "praise" and "flattery." Praise suggests sincere recognition of worth-while effort. Flattery suggests insincere blandishment for selfish purposes. The former is solid and enduring, the latter is superficial and dangerous, yet at first glance they may both appear to be the same technique. In other words, none of the techniques that I am about to suggest is likely to work for the administrator who lacks a fundamental love, respect, and confidence in people. So the best we can do is to suggest some generalized guides to administrative behavior, guides that more often than not will lead to right action if the philosophy behind them is right and if they are analyzed with reference to the particular situation at hand. Time permits but a hasty survey of a few. Let us look at what we already know about people. Tom Sawyer observed that all we need to do to get along with people is to understand human nature and act accordin'. The disturbing thing is not how little we know about people, but how little most of us "act accordin' " in our daily work. We know, for example, that all of us have certain fundamental needs. We know also that people's behavior is largely directed toward the satisfaction of those needs. In fact, some social psychologists would define leadership in terms of bringing satisfaction to the needs of the group. What are some of these needs? First, we all yearn for participation. We like to play a real part in the organization. One study conducted by the CPEA center at the University of Chicago found that

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teachers who report opportunity to participate regularly and actively in making policies are much more likely to be enthusiastic about their school systems than those who report little opportunity to participate.®

This same has been found true in industry. Some of the industries most frequently plagued by strikes, pay high wages but provide little opportunity for labor to participate in determining policy. Some other industries, not characterized by high salaries, still enjoy good labormanagement relations because they enable workers to help make decisions that affect them. This suggests the technique of placing responsibility and authority as close to the source of action as possible. I recall one teacher who was so happy in her new classroom because she had selected the colors and decor herself. When people share, people care. We need to provide systematically for teachers, parents, and students to play a real part in educational planning. This suggests such techniques as widespread use of student councils, P.T.A. councils, teachers' councils, grievance committees, schoolcommunity councils, administrative cabinets, lay and professional study and advisory groups. If an administrator feels that he cannot trust his staff and his public in this kind of activity, he may do himself and his school system a real service by looking for a new job. Second, we all have a basic urge for recognition and approval. Research in industrial relations points out that many strikes are not really a struggle for economic benefits, although these may be the stated reasons, but really a struggle for recognition on the part of workers who have not been treated humanely. Dostoevsky, in his book, The House of the Dead, observes that "if it were desired to reduce a man to nothing, it would be necessary only to give his work a character of uselessness." The Nazis applied this technique in demoralizing their intellectual prisoners. They commonly had them move a pile of rocks from one site to another and then right back again the next day. Stated positively, this means that school administrators should help teachers find a real sense of accomplishment in their work. Bill Paden, the late superintendent of schools in Alameda, California, recognized this principle when he observed that his name rarely appeared in the local papers but the names of his staff appeared frequently. This technique might be stated this way, treat 5

Midwest Administration Center, "The Teacher and Policy Making," Administrator's Notebook. Vol. 1, No. 1, 1952. p. 1.

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each person as if he had a sign around his neck saying, "I want to feel important." But remember that praise must be sincere and that it should be given to the noninstructional staff as well as to teachers. One of the deepest feelings in human nature is the craving to be appreciated. Third, we all seek a sense of belonging. Everyone should feel that he is an important part of the group. Studies of morale in the armed forces are interesting in this regard. For example, Flanagan conducted studies of morale in bomber crews in the Eighth Air Force during the war. The combat losses of these crews were severe. A flier had one chance in four of finishing his tour of duty. Yet morale was high. Why? Good leadership was one factor. Good equipment was another. But the outstanding reason was a fierce group loyalty and cohesiveness. In education, teachers, parents, pupils, board members, and administrators too should feel a deep personal stake and loyalty in the whole enterprise. Piecemeal vested interests and empire building should be discouraged. Have you known school systems where there is real division between elementary and secondary teachers, or between academic and vocational teachers, or between administrators and teachers, or between parents and teachers? Techniques that bring teachers and parents to work together on the same problems rather than separately on different problems are good. I don't get enthusiastic about lay committees that don't include teachers or board meetings that exclude teacher attendance. Other techniques in this direction would include well-planned programs of orientation and induction for new teachers, new board members, new students, and new parents. Social activities that bring together all of these people on a system-wide basis are helpful in breaking down provincialism. Fourth, we all yearn for jair treatment by our superiors. This factor always rates high on any list of job satisfactions. Teachers, students, parents, and board members sometimes have honest differences with administrators. This is good but it demands certain techniques. Administrators should encourage constructive criticism without fear of reprisal. "Loyal opposition" should be respected and protected. School councils should include representation from this opposition. Larry Derthick likes to tell the story of the school administrator who called an unhappy teacher to his office to inquire if

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she had been complaining about her salary. She confessed that she had, as a matter of fact, had even prayed for more money. "There you go," exclaimed the administrator, "going over my head again." School administration should provide machinery for grievance procedures making it possible for a person who thinks himself unjustly treated to go over the administrator's head through acceptable channels of appeal. Other techniques in this area also come to mind. It's a simple rule that people should not be criticized publicly. As a matter of fact, people should not be criticized at all until they have had a chance to state their own case. People should not be fired until they have been given a hearing as well as help aimed toward their improvement. Fifth, we all like a happy work climate. Teachers need rest periods and rest facilities on the job. I know one administrator who says he never heard of rest periods for teachers and the morale of his school reflects it. One survey of staff morale in a large high school disclosed that the major threat to their morale was the accumulation of many minor annoyances. For example, hall of the bells that rang in any classroom had no meaning for that particular room. Needless interruptions can become a serious problem. I remember an experience I had years ago as a high school teacher. I had set up delicate apparatus for a chemistry demonstration. At the last minute I got a notice from the office that classes would be canceled for the afternoon so that the student body could go to the auditorium and yell themselves hoarse in a pep rally. Picture my morale as I tore down the apparatus I had carefully arranged and set it up again on the following Monday. Another technique is to give as much attention as possible to compliants, both major and minor ones, because many minor distractions can add up to a major annoyance. One helpful technique that we can borrow from industry is the use of "suggestionnaire," eliciting suggestions from folks for the improvement of their schools. It helps if people can have their say even if they can't have their way. Written job descriptions, stating the responsibilities of people in clear but broad terms, help to improve the work climate by clarifying relationships. Sixth, we all search for security in our jobs as well as in all of life. This is the broadest and most basic of all of our needs. It is interesting to note in passing that most studies of job satisfactions reveal

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that salary is not mentioned first as one might suppose. In fact it rarely shows up among the first four. Security involves far more than economic security although that is certainly a part of it. This involves security against unfair criticism, security against arbitrary decisions, security against unfair dismissals, security against unjust promotion policies, security against sudden and unexplained change. Let us turn now to several techniques in human relations that emerge from the enduring values of our culture. Seventh, school administration should be devoted to the processes of rational inquiry. This dictates that people have the right to pursue public problems and examine public data. Kant expressed it this way: All actions relating to the rights of other men are wrong if the maxims from which they follow are inconsistent with publicity. Conversely, all maxims which require publicity, in order that they may not fail to attain their end, are in agreement both with right and politics. Thus Kant makes pitiless publicity the test of fair dealing. Techniques that depend upon secrecy for success would fail this test. How does this apply to the life of the administrator? For one thing, it suggests that he should not file a personal expense account that he would not be willing to have printed on the front page of the local newspaper. It suggests that he should behave and speak in the same way that he would if a reporter were looking over his shoulder. Executive sessions of the board should be infrequent. Teachers, parents, and the press should be welcome at most board meetings. Information on expected vacancies should not be withheld. Administrative policy should be committed to writing and made available for the use of all. The technique of public inspection can work to your advantage too. If someone makes an unfair or dishonest request of you, ask him to put it in writing so that you can present it to the board just as he sees it. There are obviously certain exceptions to this "public inspection" principle. Information about individuals should be treated confidentially. I.Q.s of students should not be published in the local press, as they were in one community I've heard of. Another exception, and this is purely my hunch, is the administrator's wife. When I was a school administrator, my wife was always happy to be able to say honestly to inquiring town gossips that I hadn't discussed the problem

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with her and she had no idea how I felt about it. The transaction of school business at ladies' card parties is deplorable and dangerous. The principle of rational inquiry has several other connotations. It dictates that the lines of communication be kept open in both directions. Administrative techniques should be geared for free trade in both ideas and information. When we lack information, we tend to fill the vacuum with rumor. Studies of soldier morale during the war disclosed that soldiers were better off when they knew the truth, bad as it might be, than when they had no information at all. Administration should also encourage the exploration of controversial issues. Strengthening these processes of rational inquiry in our school systems not only results in better administration but also undergirds both the vehicle and the faith of our democratic system. Eighth, administration should be dedicated to the preservation of our basic freedom. Teachers and students should be free in their pursuit of truth wherever it may lead them. Administration should neither hamper nor coerce teachers in their choice of professional or other associations as long as they are nonsubversive. Administration should leave teachers free to participate in any nonsubversive political activity within the limits of professional ethics. Ninth, our culture encourages a fundamental respect for individuality. America has built its strength upon the diversity rather than conformity of its people. The American struggle for independence as well as our ideal of universal, free, public education were both downright revolutionary in their time. Most of our educational progress, indeed much of our scientific progress, as Henry Thomas points out in his book, The Test of Freedom, began with a challenge to accepted tradition. Student teaching underwent a heated battle in the courts before it became accepted. Free public secondary education was also bitterly contested in the courts and in public before it became widespread practice. The same is true of certain fundamental educational issues of our time. This urges the imperative need for school administration that is courageous in encouraging and protecting experimentation, creativity, and unorthodox thought. Let us look now at some techniques that emerge from the science of group dynamics. Tenth, administrators should maintain their own membership with their faculty and their community, both professionally and socially.

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The military tradition of removing the officer from his men in social relations would seem questionable in educational circles. In one of our surveys, we found teachers saying with some dismay, "He's not a bad superintendent, but we sure wish he'd come down and have coffee with us once in a while." A school administrator should avoid a "possessive" attitude with respect to his school. I am irritated a bit when I hear superintendents speak of "my board" or "my teachers." It's probably just as bad to refer to them as "they" or "you." It seems to me that the first person plural is much more appropriate. Administrators should be active members of the community to the extent that time permits. In fact, some authorities are suggesting that the school administrator of the future will probably spend much more time in the community, probably because he can do more to improve the quality of education by working in the community than in the school. Administrators should maintain contact with the community widely. Research, however, seems to indicate that most administrators get around much better in business and professional circles than they do with labor and underprivileged groups. School administrators would do well to avoid community cliques and should not overplay their membership in lodges, exclusive country clubs, and the like. A school administrator should be responsible and accountable to all of the publics that make up his community. Eleventh, study of group dynamics suggests that the process of engineering change is a critical one. The key technique here is patience—but not neglect. People don't like to be rushed. It took man 600 years to realize that there is another way to take off a shirt than by pulling it over his head. On the other hand we know that there is about a fifty-year lag between good invention and general acceptance of the invention in education. But if a school administrator persists in forcing his ideas, he may create his own resistance. Timing is especially important in human relations. The concept of readiness applies to administrative action just as it does to reading instruction. Several techniques are useful in this connection. New ideas should be introduced for discussion before action is contemplated. Proposed change should be considered experimental rather than final. Information should always be given as to the reason or need for change. Twelfth, there are administrative techniques that are helpful in handling confict situations. The real test of seaworthiness is how well

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a ship performs in foul, not fair weather. The acid test of the administrator is how well he handles conflict. During the war, I served on flying duty with the Eighth Air Force in Europe. After a while I was shot down and spent a long and unhappy year in a German prison camp before escaping and returning to England. One of the first things I did there, upon returning to my old bomb group, was to visit the parachute building where the men cared for the parachutes that our squadron used. I said to the sergeant on duty, "I just want to stop by and tell you that about a year ago when I had occasion to use one of your 'chutes, it worked perfectly, and that this was the source of a good deal of satisfaction to me. So pay my respects to your efficient work." The sergeant looked at me somewhat philosophically and said, "You know, Lieutenant, in this work we never get any complaints." I suppose that this is not true of school administration. At least it was not true during my tenure as a school administrator. Recognizing then the inevitability of conflict in all jobs, except in parachute packing, it is imperative that we deal with conflict at the highest possible level of statesmanship. While it is probably true that much conflict can be anticipated and avoided through the judicious use of good human relations techniques, it is just as true that some conflict is inevitable and perhaps desirable. The important thing is whether everyone can come away from the conflict feeling good. Here lies the need for more techniques on the part of the administrator. He should try to approach the situation with an open mind. If he is all set to force through his own point of view at any cost, everybody is in for trouble. Another good technique is to use questions rather than arbitrary statements in leading discussion. Another technique is to be constantly reviewing the areas of agreement and building from there rather than belaboring the points of controversy which may be somewhat unimportant when viewed in terms of larger areas of substantial agreement. The Quakers, by the way, have developed many fine techniques in this connection which we can borrow. They are never in a hurry for a decision. They take time to let the right decision emerge. Sometimes the best decision is to make no decision at that particular time. When in doubt, wait—is a general good rule. The Quakers also know how to get along when tempers run high. They provide for a "cool-

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ing-off" period. Progress is very difficult when people are angry. Here is a technique that is very useful. Not only should we postpone action when the group is emotionalized, but we should also defer personal action when we are upset. When you have just finished writing a scorching letter to someone, wait for twenty-four hours before you decide to mail it. When you are about to call someone on the carpet, schedule it for tomorrow instead of today and you'll probably be glad you did. Quakers also prefer small groups to large ones when they have a tough problem to solve. Nobody outranks anybody else at a Quaker meeting. No one plays a dominant role. They try to disassociate ideas from personalities. They never say, "John said so and so." They always say, "We have said. . . ." Another technique that the Quakers have pioneered is unanimous decisions. Ramming through a majority vote is a rather primitive level of decision-making. This leaves the minority unhappy. Compromise is not too much better. In this technique we simply balance off concessions to opposing groups. The highest level comes with the kind of total consensus that results in a unanimous agreement. The Quakers have been doing this for centuries. So have juries. Not possible with school boards, you say? I could cite one suburban New York community where, with one exception, all decisions by the board of education have been unanimous during the many years of tenure of its present superintendent. This calls for a lot of patience and understanding, a lot of self-discipline and group loyalty on the part of all, and a lot of patient modification and remodification of possible solutions until one is found that takes into account the values of all the group. Let me try to illustrate the importance of listening and understanding in this process. One superintendent told of a teacher who was disturbed because her desk was too small. The superintendent resisted his temptation to point out that her desk was of standard size. He decided to listen for a while and try to understand. After a while it became apparent that to her the size of her desk was a symbol of her status. You know, the first vice president's desk is a little larger than the second vice president's desk and so on down the line. It was true that another teacher with less seniority than she, had an oversize desk. The superintendent said, "We then got her the biggest desk we could find and it did her more good than a raise in salary." Now this

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may be a trivial event but it illustrates one superintendent's capacity really to listen, not only for what was said, but in this case for some things that were not said directly. Through patient listening and his deep understanding of human nature, he had brought real statesmanship to a minor problem before it became large. The real test of problem-solving then is not, How can we get this solved in a hurry? but How can we solve this so that it will stay solved and leave everybody reasonably happy? Thirteenth, there are techniques that are helpful in co-ordinating group purposes and energies. Our studies in social psychology have demonstrated the greater power of group decisions over individual decisions. Alcoholics Anonymous is an interesting example. One can reinforce a tough decision through the company of kindred souls who are struggling with the same problem. A group decision of this sort is much more enduring than a decision resulting from the appeal of a single person. There is much evidence to support this. The real genius of school administration, it seems to me, lies in helping groups, faculty, board, the means for achieving these goals. The superintendent then will help the board or the faculty to work as a unit, discouraging factions and cliques. He will not participate in the internal or external politics of the board of education, for example. Fourteenth, it is important for the group to study its own human relations and group processes. We usually don't find the courage or the time to think about and talk about our own problems in a group setting. Yet college classes in group dynamics have demonstrated over and over again that deliberate self-study of group processes can result in real growth. There are several excellent books that can help. Another technique that may be capitalized is to call upon the services of an outside consultant who is a specialist in group procedures or human relations. Some school administrators are applying the techniques of group dynamics to their own faculty meetings. Can you imagine a faculty in which 92 per cent of the teachers actually look forward to faculty meetings? This is what we found in one of these instances. Fifteenth and finally, some administrators have recognized the value of deliberate study of themselves as a very useful technique. One superintendent suggested that the crux of good interpersonal relations lay in trying to change oneself rather than trying to change

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other people. We should find more time to introspect ourselves, to re-examine our own idiosyncrasies and shortcomings, to evaluate our own attitudes and motivations. If this is done with frankness and optimism, the administrator may not take himself too seriously, one major road block sometimes in our relations with others. There is considerable evidence to suggest that most school administrators are folks of considerable emotional stability and personal security. One of my colleagues, Professor George S. Counts, recently formulated a statement of techniques which is guaranteed to undermine your personal security and peace of mind. He calls it a "dependable Guide to Coronary Collapse." . . . Go to the office evenings, Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. . . . Take your briefcase home each evening. This provides opportunity to review the troubles of the day. . . . Accept all invitations to meetings, banquets, and committees, and membership on all boards, committees, and commissions. . . . Do not eat a restful, relaxing meal. Always plan a conference for the noon hour. . . . Golf, bowling, hunting, billiards, and gardening are a waste of time and should be avoided. . . . Never take all of the vacation time to which you are entitled. . . . Never delegate responsibility; carry the entire load yourself. . . . Avoid your physician, but, if you do go to him, ignore his advice. . . . Give a lot of thought to the atomic bomb and the world situation. . . . In a word, worry about all the things all the time. You alone are responsible for the future of mankind.

So I have tried to review some of the techniques that may be useful to the school administrator from the standpoint of human relations. I have no thought that this list is exhaustive. I would hope that you would add more and perhaps modify some of these in the discussion period that follows. I should like to repeat two cautions expressed at the outset, namely, that one technique that may be perfectly good in one situation may be entirely inadequate in another; secondly, that no collection of techniques is likely to work without a sound and sincere philosophy of administration. While the foregoing considerations will not provide an easy answer to all problems,

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it is hoped that their application may lead the administrator to a more balanced judgment than sheer intuition. What does all this mean in a few words? It would seem to me that what we have been saying so far might be summarized rather well in one of our oldest and most universal standards of conduct. I am told that this principle finds expression in one form or another in all of the great religions of the world. It might be thought of as a basic test for any technique that might be advanced, not only in school administration, but in any aspect of life itself. I refer to the Golden Rule.

Health Education Facilities in the School Plant Picture H A R R Y W. S T O N E *

ou ARE I N T E R E S T E D as administrators, school officials, architects, and as directors, nurses, supervisors, and teachers in constructing plant facilities suited to the needs of your peculiar programs and it is my purpose to discuss some of your building problems in the health, physical education, and recreational fields. Yours is part of a program involving more than 921 buildings erected or contracted for from 1950 up to March 14, 1956, at a cost of more than 500 million dollars. Applications are pending for 323 additional projects to participate in the additional 300 million dollars which is to be available by July 1, 1957. Such an extensive building program placed tremendous responsibility on the administrators for it is they who furnish the leadership in the determination of the educational program which establishes the number, size, shape and relative location of the educational areas.

Y

* Chief, School Plant burg, Pennsylvania.

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It is also the administrator who is responsible for establishing the functional relationship of the various components. The responsibility should not be relinquished by default to the architect who has his own responsibilities, which include arriving at a functional arrangement to suit the specific educational program on the site selected. As a background to all this building activity, administrators were working day and night, and I mean that literally, on programs of reorganization involving county plans, administrative units attendance areas, jointures and union districts embracing grades Κ through 12. Usually the local administrators had little personal experiences to guide them due to practically a cessation of building during the depression thirties, and their experiences were at the most limited to one or two relatively simple structures. Suddenly these administrators of educational programs were responsible for building projects costing millions of dollars and involving reorganization, forming joint boards, complex budgets and such problems as bus contracts, transportation, enrollment data, mushrooming suburban developments, school building problems involving drives, walks, parking areas, site selection, cost estimates, and space requirements for greatly enriched offerings. They were all but overwhelmed by the need for establishing the importance, arrangements and details of more than fifty functional areas which constitute a complex modern school building. Principals and department heads were little better informed on the solutions to their special needs since their building experiences also were limited during the depression, the war years from 1940 to 1946, the utter stagnation in building from 1946 to 1950, and the material restrictions imposed by the impact of the Korean War in 1950. I want to emphasize that the policy of the Department has been to encourage as much local initiative and autonomy as possible in the solution of your educational problems within the limitations imposed by legislative enactment, common prudence, and the attainment of recognized educational ends; that the administrators, their staffs, school officials, and architects met this challenge successfully is evidenced by the mighty avalanche of attractive, modern, functional, yet on the whole modest-cost buildings which cover the Commonwealth today; that the program was a success and generally was not abused. Cries of alarm over frills and gadgets were not substan-

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tiated, as is attested by the recent enactment of Act 417 providing for additional expenditures of 500 million dollars extending through the 1958-59 school year. It is you, the local school administrators, who must evaluate the building needs of the special areas of the educational program. Rarely will you be able to give each program specialist all the facilities he requests and keep the building size within bounds. Neither can you as an administrator give each teacher or subject director an office in a preferred position near the front door. You are obliged in many cases to curb the space demands of enthusiastic and well-meaning specialists who naturally press the claims of their special interest. You must balance the demands of the subject specialists if you are to meet the whole program needs and keep within budget limitations. It is the responsibility of the subject specialists to be informed and in a position to impart their program needs to the administrator. The best assurance you will have of securing adequately planned buildings is to draw on the experience of those who will use these special areas. The subject specialists must be informed on the specific requirements, possibilities and limitations of the facilities which they request and be able to present their needs effectively to the administrator. This requires familiarity with the best practices recommended by their professional organizations and by evaluation of the success of structures recently built. Nothing is gained by blindly copying the mistakes of others. A new idea is not necessarily good nor is an old one bad. One important objective is to learn where the newly erected buildings have been successful in meeting modern program needs and where practice has not borne out the developments based on theory. Sometime ago I visited a school building with a pupil enrollment of 900 where on my recommendation they had erected two gymnasium spaces. Inquiry disclosed that local school administrators and officials thought they had grossly overbuilt and that one gymnasium would have adequately served their purpose. Upon investigation I learned that they were running a physical education program with ten classes of ninety pupils each. With classes conducted twice a week, but twenty periods of gymnasium time were required. Of course, under such conditions one gymnasium space was sufficient. Surely ninety in a physical education class has no place in a modern program. Not only is it important to build the facilities to meet the need

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but it is of equal importance to conduct a program which utilizes the facilities properly. The greatest economy that can be effected is not in the use of materials but in the most effective use of spaces arranged to serve their purposes. We should seek to secure the best of the several solutions available. One solution can be better than another. We are too prone to assume a satisfactory solution has been reached when there is an improvement over our previous experience. We should be sufficiently informed that our choice is the best solution to serve the stated program. To provide you with the needs of the health center I asked some forty experienced educators with recent experience in new buildings certain questions regarding eight areas of their health, physical education, and recreational facilities. I asked for a statement of choices and what changes should be made to secure more effective functioning. The areas investigated are grouped under eight headings. Their observations should serve for guidance or investigation. These eight areas affecting the health education program are: 1. Gymnasium playing space 2. Shower and locker rooms 3. Health instruction rooms 4. Health and physical education instructors' offices 5. Health service rooms 6. Communal pupil toilet rooms 7. Storage areas 8. Site recreational areas In making the inquiry on the first area, that of "the gymnasium playing space," I endeavored to get reactions on the gynasium size and shape. My question on size was probably not well phrased for no significant observation was forthcoming. I can only conclude that the size and shape of these areas as presently planned are generally satisfactory although I am sure most of you would want them larger to meet local needs. On questions about sources of natural light in gymnasiums the responses indicated general agreement that lights should be secured on vertical walls perhaps ten feet from the floor. There was a wide diversity of opinion on the use of sloping skylights, monitor skylights,

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plastic bubbles, clear glass, colored glass, heat and retardant glass. A suggestion for the use of wire glass is certainly practical. I want at this point to raise a question concerning the practice in multi-purpose rooms of carrying the glass down to a sill line thirty inches from the floor or even down to the floor line itself. While such a practice has an aesthetic appeal when the space is used as a cafeteria the practical utilization of the room for active games would seem to dictate the location of glass areas at a height of at least six or eight feet. Administrators should be aware that where the secondary pupil enrollment exceeds 500, a second gymnasium teacher station becomes essential. This brings up the consideration of a folding partition. On the problem of gymnasium folding partitions attention is directed to the necessity of closing in the space from the top of the folding door to the roof itself. Complete segregation of the two stations should be obtained. A walk-through door section can be installed to secure communication. The use of acoustical materials in gymnasiums seems academic since the need is so evident. Nets and canvas curtains are not a satisfactory solution to the separation of teacher stations. Lest some of you raise the objection that these partitions are expensive let me point out that the effective use of the two teacher stations by both pupils and teachers is not accomplished without this expenditure. The use of spittoons adjoining drinking fountains in gymnasiums is still considered good practice. Multi-purpose rooms must be provided with proper storage and equipment if the space is to be more than a gymnasium play space or a cafeteria. Items for consideration in connection with gymnasium storage are: mat trucks and storage, storage of movable seats, and piano storage alcoves with double doors opening into gymnasiums making it unnecessary to move the piano for folk dances or rhythmic exercises. The second general area concerned shower and locker rooms and most respondents expressed a desire for these facilities on the level of the gymnasium playing space. The question regarding the kind of floor material acceptable for locker rooms brought out a strong evidence based on experience that concrete with an integral hardener was quite satisfactory. Some

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respondents were in favor of quarry, ceramic tile or terrazzo, but these materials, while desirable, are more costly than concrete. One administrator stated he had found asphalt tile satisfactory as a floor material but I must point out that this is not a recommended use for this material and that repeated wetting will probably affect such a floor in the course of time. Lockers should be installed on a concrete curb and at least two floor drains provided to permit periodic hosing of the area. Locker room ventilation was of concern to some who felt attention should be given to exhausting the air from the locker tiers as well as from the space itself. The desirability of providing a drying space adjacent to the showers is open to consideration of the limited time between classes and the practice of dashing directly from the shower to the dressing locker. It is felt by some educators that a better use of the space would be to distribute it throughout the entire locker area. Full-length mirrors and drinking fountains are suggested as desirable for both the girls' and boys' locker rooms. The questions on health instruction rooms brought out the fact that such rooms were seldom specifically designated for such use. Storage space is an essential for these rooms as well as adaptation to the use of visual-aid materials of all kinds. Some administrators thought this unit should be located near the gymnasium. Health and physical education instructors' offices were generally indicated as satisfactory, with several suggestions that they were too small and should be heated. One recommendation was made that offices for teachers of physical education and for coaches should be separate and both have shower and toilet facilities. Health Service rooms (nurse, doctor, dentist, audiometer, rest rooms) appeared to meet the needs of districts as presently planned with the exception that more adequate provision should be made for privacy of boys and girls who become ill and that audiometer rooms should be located where interfering noises can be eliminated. Communal pupil toilets can be improved by installing book-shelving just inside the toilet rooms. Loafer rails are suggested as desirable. Toilet rooms should be provided with floor drains, which are essential to proper sanitary maintenance. Some administrators recommended the omission of doors to water-

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closet stalls. The use of floor pedals for flushing fixtures was suggested, as was the use of an electronic eye to open toilet-room doors. Well hung urinals are recommended on the basis of research findings. Sanitary booths for the use of pupils in secondary schools have been standard installations in girls' toilet rooms for more than twenty years. A sanitary booth, for want of a better name, is a toilet stall enlarged to house a wash basin, also providing privacy for pupils during periods of periodic physiological need. Since 1950 the Department has insisted on the installation of a sanitary booth in the girls' toilet rooms serving grades five and six, since research indicates that one half of the girls begin menstruation in the elementary schools. Such an installation is not only a convenience but a real contribution to emotional health. The materials suggested for toilet-room floors are ceramic tile, quarry tile, and terrazzo although the latter material while easily maintained is open to the objection that a large surface of cement is exposed. Concrete is not a satisfactory material. The questions on storage areas serving the gymnasiums brought out the need of each instructor for equipment storage and also for separate apparatus and mat storage. Evident also was the need for providing separate storage areas for athletic and field equipment with access thereto from both the building and the exterior play area. The final question, on the planning of site recreational facilities, disclosed that few plant sites were developed for the ultimate use of recreational areas at the time when the building was planned and walks, roadways, and parking determined. For a complete and full use of the plant and in the interests of economy, the full recreational program for which the site is to be used should be determined and planned at the time the building plans are developed. One other problem affecting both health and the educational program is the incorporation of a separate teachers' dining room. Evaluation of effective teaching I am sure recognizes the reaction of pupils to the emotional tone of the instructor. Teachers can be given respite from the constant demand and drain on their energies which daylong contact with pupils entails by the provision of a separate dining room or segregated space adjoining the cafeteria. Free interchange of ideas and information with other adults which a separate dining

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room affords would be a distinct contribution not only to the emotional well being of teachers but to the whole educational program. The responsibility for decisions on building problems affecting the educational program rests with the administrative officer. Because of the complex nature of modern buildings he cannot be informed on all the problems of the various subject fields. He must rely on the department and subject directors, supervisors and instructors to furnish him authoritative information and guidance to the end that his decisions can best serve the educational program for which the building is constructed.

Is It Time to

Re-evaluate

Your Testing

Programf

HAROLD SEASHORE»

and improvement of any operation or function is a con. tinuing need. My task is to develop a reply to the question of R the day which might stimulate us to self-criticism to the end that EVISION

we might sharpen our local practices. I am not going to offer details of what might be right or wrong with current testing programs since these right and wrong things are local and do not apply to all. Nor can I state explicitly, by test title, what your minimum program or optimum program should be. It is my intention to discuss how testing programs can serve the whole of education. Principles and purposes should guide us in making local prescriptions. Respect for each individual pupil as a learner and as a person is an axiom of educators. Amid all our managerial concerns about buildings, equipment, budgets, and public support, we are in the educational business because of our interest in the boys and girls whose growth and development are in our hands. All the children of all the people are in our schools. Understanding and guiding each one in ''Director,

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Corporation.

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this mass of children, though a difficult task, is demanded of us. Any discussion of educational and psychological testing perforce must concern itself with the abilities, achievements, and personality characteristics of individual boys and girls. Those of us who are specialists in measurement believe we can help administrators, teachers, and counselors accomplish the vital goal of not losing the individual in the mass. This concern for recognizing the individuality of each pupil requires that each school have a systematic plan for pupil evaluation. Understanding the Individual Involves Evaluation Evaluation sometimes is used as a loose synonym for testing. Our thinking will be more clear if we use the term testing when we mean objective measurement and the term evaluation when we are talking about comprehensive study of the individual. Testing is concerned with objective and standardized procedures for determining a person's abilities, achievements, interests, personality traits, and attitudes. Evaluation embraces all our procedures for ascertaining and interpreting relevant facts about persons. It includes semi-objective measurement such as teachers' marks. It includes biographic data, the case history, reports of interviews, and recorded appraisals and opinions of others. Evaluation refers to the systematic assembly of this relevant information about a person plus the process of integrating the information for any purpose. The objective test scores are part of the raw data and must be integrated with the rest. Test scores do not diagnose. Diagnosis is a function of the interpreter. For administrative purposes, staff members are the diagnosticians and decision-makers. In counseling, the counselor aids his client in the process of self-evaluation. Evaluation Should Lead to Prediction The term evaluation carries the connotation of description. We evaluate a person to secure a meaningful description, a comprehensive view of a person's status, a view couched partly in past history and partly in the current situation. However, most evaluation will be sterile if we stop with descrip-

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tion. We usually prepare a description because we want to make a decision about a student or to help him make a decision about himself. That is, we want an evaluation which permits us to chart a future course of action. We want to predict the outcomes which are possible, or likely, if such and such a decision is made. In technical terms, we want to make valid predictions from the data available to us. Objectivity, reliability, norms, and validity are features of standardized tests. Of these, validity is crucial since without validity test scores can serve no useful social purpose. The test makers and researchers strive to report validity in terms of coefficients of correlation, expectancy tables, differences in means of criterion groups, and in other ways. We should remind ourselves that evidence of validity is also required of the other components of good pupil evaluation. We can secure objective and reliable evidence that a boy has a large, sturdy body and a strong, square chin. If the evaluator believes that such boys tend to become executives, we can ask him to show us the evidence on which he makes this prediction. Evaluation, then, is a twofold process of gathering relevant facts to make possible a comprehensive description of a person preparatory to the making of some decision, and the process of making the decisions or helping the person make his own decisions. Today we are discussing the role of educational and psychological testing in this over-all process. The Purposes of Testing Guide Our Choices of Tests At this point we could review together the common types of tests which contribute to evaluation. I shall assume that you are acquainted with the major classifications, such as achievement tests, aptitude tests, interest inventories, and personality questionnaires. Our answer to the title question of the day will best be served, I believe, if instead we talk about the major purposes of testing. From this discussion it is my hope that these three conclusions will seem plausible to you: 1.A continuing and planned testing program is needed in every school. 2. Because of the richness of purposes to which objective test data

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can contribute, a school's program of testing should involve a

considerable variety of tests. 3. Tests are economical ways of gathering data for pupil evaluation. Their pay-off comes both from the objectivity and validity of the scores and from the savings of expensive staff time in handling pupil personnel problems.

An understanding of the major purposes of testing will help us answer such specific questions as what test to use, when to test, who should test, and how much we should test. The purposes of testing fall into two broad classes: 1.The administrative uses of tests. How do tests aid administrators to perform their duties? 2. The counseling uses of tests. How do tests aid teachers and specialist counselors to carry on their work?

Administrators Use Tests for Several Purposes You will recognize three broad categories. First, administrators, supervisors, and classroom teachers use achievement tests and general mental ability tests to help them appraise the curriculum and teaching effectiveness. While each pupil's scores should filter back to the classroom teachers for their purposes, the scores of a whole class, of a whole grade, or of the whole school become a basis for thinking about the curriculum and about teaching effectiveness. This common use does not need further elaboration here. I only want to make two points, (a) With all the children of all the people in our schools, the variation of individual differences is greater than in previous generations. (b) The same test scores which serve the administrators also serve the classroom teachers and the specialist counselors in carrying on their functions. Second, administrators use tests for selection and placement of pupils. A common example is at the secondary level when students are selected for college or other post-high school training partly on the basis of tests. But all through the school years administrators use tests in selection and placement. At the very beginning, pupils are placed in reading groups within classes on the basis of readiness tests. At all grades we can use tests administratively to maximize the effectiveness of the teaching we can offer each individual pupil.

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Tests play an administrative role with reference to the handicapped and the retarded. Test scores can be legally definitive with regard to excluding a child from school as being uneducable. The classification of slow learners into special groups for specialized training is not only good sense but also in some states is required by regulation or by law. Even schools which assert that they have given up formal sectioning of pupils into homogeneous groups nevertheless do engage in a certain amount of sectioning on the basis of prior achievement and of objective tests. In the high schools particularly, certain courses are entered only by those who meet certain formal requirements, often test scores. This is becoming more common with the new concern for special sections or programs for the gifted, a topic which could engage us for hours. Years ago, the trade and technical courses were the dumping grounds for less academic students. Now many schools use tests and other data to select students with appropriate aptitudes for such programs. Since schools have greater holding power than ever before, selection and placement are more important than ever and, accordingly, the role of tests should increase. So it is that the administrators use tests to include and to exclude pupils from this course and that program, decisions dictated by the realities of the staffs, facilities, curriculum, and community. The third administrative use of tests can be called disciplinary action. While it is true that the administrator usually tries to cope with disciplinary problems from the counseling point of view, there are times when he himself must make decisions about individual boys and girls which are disciplinary in nature. If he is wise, he tries to understand the dynamics of these pupils. He is helped if the appropriate staff person can hand him a cumulative record which includes up-to-date information about the student, including test scores. Such data can make him a better "judge" within his own school and, in dealing with law-enforcement bodies and social agencies, a better advisor to authorities in the community. Regular survey testing by a school permits him to ask, "What are the facts?" and to get a prompt and meaningful answer. Again, the same facts about achievement, abilities, interests and personal qualities which serve the administrator also serve the counselor. We have seen that current and comprehensive test information

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contributes to three classes of administrative activity: the study of the curriculum and of teaching effectiveness, the selection of pupils for special programs and placement of them at the proper level of work for maximum learning, and the making of decisions in disciplinary situations. Tests as Aids in the Counseling of Students It is not my intention to differentiate sharply the administrative and counseling uses of tests. Sharp separation is impossible. In many small schools, the principal may be both the administrator and the counselor. In many schools, teachers are part-time counselors. The specialized counselor may have certain administrative, even disciplinary, duties. Even where separation of function is intended, the counselor, of course, must work closely with all of the educational team within a total setting. Even when the administrator is clearly administering, he wisely relies upon the pupil counseling staff for advising him with respect to problems at hand. In discussing the utility of tests in counseling, we could bog ourselves down in considering the many problems which the counselor must handle—almost as many unique problems as there are pupils. However, the counselor's activities can be sorted broadly into three types. We shall call these: 1. Crisis counseling 2. Preventive counseling 3. Discovering human resources

What are these and how do modern testing programs aid in the counseling process? Crisis counseling, as the name implies, is what we do when boys and girls are in real trouble and come to us for help. The pupil may come of his own accord because of his concern or even serious unhappiness, or he may be sent to us because others find him in difficulty. The recognized need for professionally trained counselors in crisis situations was the original cause for creating such positions as the school psychologist, counselor, school social worker, consulting school psychiatrist, and others. Since all of us have experienced crises in pupil performance or

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adjustment, we need only remind ourselves by a few examples of the importance of good counseling services. Academic failure by pupils thought to be sufficiently able to succeed is a primary reason for referral or self-referral. Emotionally disturbed pupils, as observed by teachers and principals, may need special counseling. Pupils showing antisocial behavior of various degrees of severity are referred. Pupils who have serious problems relating to their families often seek out the counselor. The feature of crisis counseling is that someone—a staff member, an outsider, or the pupil himself—decides that a serious situation exists which warrants an immediate and thorough diagnosis of the problem and a plan for remedial action. When confronted with a case of crisis, the counselor or psychologist should be able to find in the cumulative record of the school a fairly complete and current objective record of the pupil with respect to his tested abilities and achievement as well as other relevant school data. If the record is not sufficiently complete for his purposes, he may need to undertake supplementary testing to bring the facts up to date or to cast light on some aspect of the problem for which regular survey testing is not adequate. This stress on testing does not mean that in every case test ratings will be the central facts to guide the counselor in his diagnosis and therapy. In some cases, of course, the test data will be minimally helpful to the counselor and the counselee. Consider the not uncommon crisis created by the overly ambitious parent who comes to you all bothered about the achievement and adjustment of her daughter. Let's say that mother is contemplating Jane's entry into a daisy-chain college in three years, but Jane's performance is less than is required for this goal. Let's say, too, that Jane is showing emotional problems, not yet serious, which could well stem from the excessive pressure at home. Let's add that Jane confidentially has told the counselor that she wants to be a medical secretary, a choice which is congruent with her tested abilities. Jane is not yet a crisis problem; mother is. All of us recognize this kind of crisis. As Jane undertakes the specialization of the college preparatory course, her achievement is relatively low for the first time. Algebra and Latin are different from the general fare of the elementary grades. A process of letting down of family ambitions is required,

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and more constructively, a revised educational and career plan should be evolved and be accepted by Jane and her parents. With the Janes and Joes who have these problems, a rich file of test data can be most helpful. We need more than an over-all index of over-all achievement and a global IQ. To be effective we require a differentiated picture of their many achievements and a differentiated profile of a variety of abilities. We can profit from an inventory of interests and, in some cases, from measurement of personality traits. The Dream of the Mental-Hygiene Movement Is Prevention As educators, we are proud to be part of the powerful and dynamic mental-hygiene movement. Through our administration and our teaching we strive to create the social climate and learning situations which are conducive to mental health in all its aspects. Crisis counseling is always an evidence of failure of student adjustment or of family adjustment, whether the cause lies principally within the school environment or outside. We have to cope with or repair personal failure which we wish had not occurred. If our counseling is good, our problem student not only is helped but should be better prepared to cope with further crises. There would be fewer crises if we could do more preventive counseling. How much better would it not be if we could use more of the time of our psychologists, counselors, and social workers to work on problem situations before they become festering psychological sores, the sores of academic failure, of personal and social maladjustment, of lack of purpose, even of mental breakdown and delinquency. Each of us can recall boys and girls who have been helped because someone somehow saw the gathering of the storm of maladjustment early enough so that preventive steps could be taken. It is a tenet of modern psychological counseling that all young people have problems of adjustment of one sort or another. This is not to say that we should go out of our way to make boys and girls problem-conscious; and I am not talking about the ill-trained counselors who see deep psychological conflict in every moment of confusion or lack of mature thinking by pupils. A certain amount of groping for good solutions to their problems is normal. The counselors, whether they be teachers or specialist counselors, can help pupils do

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their groping a little more satisfactorily and with growing skill in problem solving. A common example of this exploration in secondary schools is the matter of career planning. In some schools, no one raises the question of career planning unless the pupil himself ventures to seek counsel. Or, on a routine basis, perfunctory advice is given at the time of registering for a new semester. Yet every pupil needs to think about his long-range, middle-range and immediate career plans. Such students are not in crises, they are not problem cases. Yet, their personal effectiveness and movement toward maturity can be facilitated. Although we know that many students have fairly organized plans, refinement of plans, narrowing of acceptable alternatives, and purposeful next steps are desirable. Others have no plans and do not seem interested beyond the availability of a hot rod next Friday night. Yet these boys and girls, from a preventive mental-hygiene point of view, are potential problems. As schoolmen we know that a considerable percentage of our drop-outs are unhappy or rudderless youths. Many of them have dropped out without ever sharing in a self-evaluation under guidance of a good counselor. Many have a confused notion of their abilities and what they might do. Delinquents commonly show a history of maladaptation to school and, characteristically, are only marginally employable, perhaps due in large part to lack of early help in planning. How do testing programs serve us in preventive counseling? Let us introduce the concept of discrepancy. If a school systematically assembles information about each student from testing and from school records, the teachers and counselors can systematically review the students for evidence of discrepancy. There are the under-achievers. Why? There are the over-achievers. At what cost? There is the boy whose record says he is heading for college and premedical training, but his best grades are in social science and he failed mathematics last semester. What can test scores suggest to us about the boys and girls who see no purpose in their present courses? What might we do about a girl reported as overly shy who, from the test data, seems to be a "brain"? Can we help her to cope with her social environment? Preventive counseling implies that every pupil should be studied specifically by the counselor at least once a term and should be sought

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out for face-to-face counseling if any discrepant information shows up—any "flags" which signal possible difficulty. We have a better chance to note discrepant signs if we have a wide variety of objective test data as well as recorded observations. Another aspect of preventive counseling, of course, is that the climate of the counseling service shall be such that students without serious difficulties feel free to use the services of the teacher-counselors. Interestingly enough, objective discussion of the results of a battery of aptitude tests often becomes the basis from which significant developmental counseling can begin. National Interest Requires Better Discovery of Talent A third category of pupil personnel counseling can be called the discovery of human resources. Each of us has had the satisfaction of seeing some boy or girl we discovered blossom into an outstanding person, into an unusually productive human resource. We look back with pleasure at the talented boys and girls whom we helped to understand themselves better and to channel their energies into more demanding learning situations. Discovery of talent has always been a function of schools; good teachers and good curricula for the optimal development of talent have always been goals. The American philosophy asserts that every boy and girl is a human resource. One distinguished educator expressed it thus: "Keep each child busy at his highest natural level of successful achievement and he will be happy, useful, and good." 1 This quotation has two overtones. First, every child—no matter what his level of ability—is a human resource worthy of optimum development. In our concern about discovering the gifted, let us not forget the pupils with lesser but socially necessary talents. Second, optimal development of each person is both for his own happiness and for the service he can give to society. Two important documents on this matter of human resources should be near the educator's favorite reading chair. These are: Dael Wolfle, America's Resources of Specialized Talent. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1954. From Carl E. Seashore, late Dean of the Graduate School, State University of Iowa. 1

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National Manpower Council. A Policy for Skilled York: Columbia University Press, 1954.

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Manpower.

New

The first is concerned with the problems of discovery of the brilliant pupils in our schools, of motivating them to high educational aspirations and of providing them with the education they need. The second, as the name implies, is concerned with increasing the number of skilled persons, technicians, and middle-level workers who are so sorely needed in an increasingly complex society. Both books are concerned with the matter of utilization of human resources for all of society's needs. If you have been following the reports on Soviet education, you will recognize the urgency of the problem for national survival. We must find our generally bright and our uniquely talented young people and get them into training. In a democracy, career choices are not the function of governments or of school authorities, or even of parents. Our task is not one of spotting the "brain" and telling him what to do. One of our jobs as schoolmen is to increase the quantity and quality of our evaluation and counseling services so we can help boys and girls reach rational decisions about their own life plans. Wolfle reports that only a third of the upper 20 per cent of our children, in terms of ability, are graduating from college. This does not mean that we can or should order or high-pressure the others to enter college and to do better when admitted. It only means that we are obligated to see to it that our higher-level pupils are counseled so they at least know what is open to them. Tests can be particularly useful for screening these youngsters so that they become visible to the staff. Then teaching and counseling are needed so that they may be lured to raise their aspiration levels. As you well know, the problems of financing further education intrude at this point, but, surprisingly, the development of an appropriate self-concept and acceptance of higher goals are the crucial matters. Similarly, improved counseling is needed with respect to the promising candidates for higher skilled and technical training. Each school should rethink its testing activities with regard to this increased concern about discovering human resources. Because of the variety of abilities and the roles of several abilities in complex careers, provision must be made for using a variety of differentiating tests. The components of these batteries should be adequate for the

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various levels of talent which we are seeking to screen and evaluate. Further, and worthy of special comment, the age levels at which talent surveys should be made must be carefully considered. Career planning is not a matter of one conference to communicate the facts and settle the matter. As Ginzberg, Super, and others have so clearly shown, vocational choice is a developmental process. Careers are chosen over many years, with much of the crystallization in the adolescent years. Career counseling, based in part on aptitude and achievement testing, therefore, should start early, certainly by the ninth grade, and should continue throughout the school years and young adulthood. We are fortunate that the same principles of counseling which are the core of crisis counseling and of general preventive counseling apply to career counseling. In fact, the counseling directed toward the discovery and motivation of human resources might well be the prize example of preventive mental hygiene at its best. Larger Purposes Govern Local Testing Programs This time could have been spent by my attempting to prescribe the detailed components of your testing programs. This I could not do because schools differ with respect to staff competence, community readiness, and characteristics of the pupil population. We probably can agree that the administrative and counseling uses of tests which we have discussed constitute the main reasons why we use tests at all. Certainly each of these uses permits us to meet better our obligations never to lose the individual child in the mass of the school population. When we are ready to accept any or all of these purposes as appropriate for our own school, we then enter the psycho-engineering phase of deciding how we shall organize our staff to accomplish these goals and how we shall select the proper tools. Budgetwise the staff is the expensive part. The tests themselves cost little in comparison with the staff hours required for a modern pupil personnel program. Tests are partly justified just because they give the administrator and counselor, in a short time, information which otherwise would not be available or which would be more difficult to collect. Tests pay off in economy of staff time. Many schools have technically trained staff members who can se-

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lect tests which are appropriate and well standardized. Other schools should seek consultation with professionally trained people, mainly in the universities and other school systems. Tests should not be sold to a school like paper and soap; rather tests should be bought by the school on the basis of technical requirements which the chosen test must meet. 2 From this discussion of the purposes of objective measurement, certain main themes regarding testing programs appear evident. 1. Concern for the individual in our schools implies that we should know how to evaluate our pupils comprehensively. Psychological and educational tests are an important part of professional evaluation of pupils. 2. A continuing and planned program of testing is needed because we are responsible for each pupil over a period of time and different purposes become prominent at different age levels. 3. Because the administrative and counseling purposes of testing are so varied, it is clear that a school's testing program should have considerable variety. Testing is concerned with differentiation of achievements, of abilities, of interests, and of other personal qualities. 4. We have many administrative and counseling tasks to perform. Tests are useful only if they yield a pay-off. This pay-off is in the form of objective and systematic information which will facilitate more valid evaluations of pupils. Tests pay off in so far as they improve the efficiency and quality of our administrative decisions and our pupil counseling. 2

Two documents which will help in setting standards for selecting tests for local use are: 1. Technical

Recommendations

for

Psychological

Tests

and

Diagnostic

Techniques. American Psychological Association, 1954. 38 pages, $1.00. 2. Technical

Recommendations

for

Achievement

Tests.

American

Edu-

cational Research Association (National Educational Association). 1955. 36 pages, $1.00.

How Elementary Teachers Can Get the Most from Standardized Test Scores WILLIAM E. COFFMAN *

O

there was a school for making tall men. The curriculum of the school had been uniquely designed to further the objectives of the school, and so far as anybody could tell, the school had never failed in its effort, for whenever one encountered a graduate of the school, he was inevitably a tall man. If you had inquired of either faculty or alumni, you would have been told that the secret of success was in holding fast to the curriculum set up by the founders and to strict maintenance of standards. The crucial element in the maintenance of standards was a series of highly reliable examinations using the well-known English linearmeasurement scale of feet and inches. Careful validity studies had shown that the best predictor of success in the school was obtained when a cutting score of 5 Ί 0 " was used, and any candidate with a measurement below this figure was rejected. By this simple device the failure rate had been reduced from 50 per cent to 15 per cent. NCE UPON A TIME

* Associate Director, Test Development Princeton, New Jersey.

Division, Educational Testing

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The admitted candidates were then set to work on a four-year curriculum of carefully designed graded exercises in breathing, stretching, diet, and high thinking. The final examinations for each year involved a series of parallel forms of the basic measurement scale. The standard for passing from the freshman course to the sophomore course was 5 Ί 1 " ; from the sophomore year to the junior year, 6 Ό " ; from the junior year to the senior year, 6 Ί " , and for graduation, 6'2". It was found that some of the students had to repeat a grade, and some students, who seemed unwilling to apply themselves, or who, perhaps, had been inadequately measured by the entrance test, were unable to meet the standards and had to be dropped from the rolls. By giving careful attention to the curriculum and by strict application of the standards, the school continued to send out into the world graduates who were tall enough to meet the stiff competition of the outside world. From all over the country came young men seeking admission to this outstanding school. The Spartan simplicity of the school for tall men is in striking contrast to the complex world of the present-day elementary school teacher. The comforting devices of selective admission, oversimplified goals, elimination of the untalented along the way, and capitalization on natural growth to eliminate the necessity for critical examination of the curriculum are not available to this dedicated shepherd of all the children of all the people. One who is familiar with the history of education in the United States may detect in the parable of the school for tall men certain uncomplimentary reflections on the elementary school of the past, and a more searching examination may suggest possible remnants from past days which are still around to trouble us. But the stubborn facts of individual differences have been piled high for us to see, and the need for pursuing complex goals for children with widely differing potentials has been accepted, at least in theory. In the modern school, the single standard approach of the school for tall men is completely unacceptable. A whole tool chest of complicated instruments is available to the elementary teacher. And the application of these instruments requires a skill which the teacher in the school for tall men could not even imagine. There is danger, however, that when we come to use the measurement devices of the psychological and educational world, we may

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be misled by the apparent simplicity of the numbers we obtain when we apply them—numbers which are deceptively similar to those obtained from the application of the tape measure to the students in the school for tall men. In the short time available this morning, I would like to discuss briefly a number of characteristics of standardized tests which, it seems to me, should be understood clearly by the elementary teacher who hopes to get the most from a standardized test score. The points I expect to emphasize might be summarized in a series of posters suitable for framing and hanging on the wall as constant reminders to busy teachers. My first poster would read: "Look behind the name!" Tests measuring widely different skills, knowledge, or ability may be offered for sale under exactly the same titles. If you hope to get the most from the standardized test scores you obtain, you will need to know just what the test is measuring. It is not sufficient to know that you have administered a standardized test in English to your fifth-grade class, for English is a title which covers a multitude of things. One test may emphasize the mechanical aspects of the subject and require the student to select correct forms to complete a series of sentences. Another may test factual knowledge of grammatical definitions. Sometimes there are exercises testing the student's ability to organize ideas. In other cases there are questions requiring judgments about the suitability of an expression for communicating with a particular person; for example, for telling Mary that you are sorry you forgot to deliver her message to the teacher. If you consider a major objective of English instruction to be the development of effective communication skills, you may be dissatisfied with a test which tests primarily recognition of common mechanical errors. You may wish to choose a test which measures the complex skills involved in effective communication. But the strong and weak points of a standardized test are not always apparent from a quick examination of its content. Usually the test builder has spent many hours building specifications for his test. He has analyzed the problems in terms of the behavioral objectives he hopes to measure, and he has developed a rationale which has led him to the particular types of items used in the test. In order to construct an instrument which will function efficiently, he may have used a number of indirect approaches which at first glance appear to be less desirable

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than more direct ones. For example, instead of having the student actually write a paper, he may have presented a series of exercises designed to test the several separate skills involved in the complex writing process. Before you reject his effort, be sure to read his rationale. He will probably tell you the reasons for using the particular type of questions contained in the test. But the final decision concerning the suitability of the test for measuring your students is one you must make in relation to the objectives you are trying to achieve. Unless the test which is being used is closely related to the objectives you are trying to achieve, the test score can have little meaning for you. Perhaps one of the best ways of sharpening awareness of the relationship of test questions to objectives of instruction is to go through the process of building an objective test yourself. Last winter I had the interesting experience of working with a group of junior high school teachers who were learning to build objective tests. They had decided that their immediate project would be to build an end-of-unit test to cover their teaching of the Odyssey. I explained to them that the first step in building an objective test was to prepare a set of specifications and proceeded to place on the blackboard a grid with the columns labeled abilities and the rows labeled understandings. They had little difficulty in listing a number of understandings related to the specific content of the story, but when these were referred to the abilities dimension of the grid, it became apparent that the ability involved was the ability to recall information. Further discussion brought out the fact that the group was really expecting the students to increase their understanding of basic human problems and perhaps to increase their appreciation of how the roots of our civilization rest in the Greek culture, but up to that time the expectation had been that the test would consist mainly of factual questions about the story. I noticed that one of the teachers was thinking very deeply as we began to fill in the outline and found ourselves identifying understandings and skills which were far removed from the usual test questions requiring the student to reproduce the story. Finally a light broke on her face and she exclaimed, "Oh! I guess maybe we should have begun with the question of whether we wanted to teach the Odyssey at all in the eighth grade." You see, she had suddenly become aware of the fact that the objectives of basic importance might

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possibly be accomplished more effectively through the use of some different kinds of literary materials with these particular children. This stress on the importance of selecting tests which relate to your own objectives might be carried so far that you would be led to reject all standardized tests. Such an extreme view would prevent you from gaining the peculiar advantage of using standardized tests —the advantage of being able to compare your group with other groups as a basis for making evaluations. You will probably need to supplement the measurement provided by standardized tests in order to collect evidence of growth toward all of your objectives, but, if the tests have been carefully selected, and if you are aware of what they measure and what they do not measure, you will be in a good position to interpret the scores. This leads us to the second poster which might read: "A test score does not interpret itself!" A test score is not an evaluation; it is only the raw material for an evaluation. Johnny has taken a test in arithmetic, and he has answered correctly thirty-five out of fifty questions. There was a time when teachers would have been content to translate the thirty-five into 70 per cent and record the results—Johnny completed correctly 70 per cent of the questions on the examination. With an increasing understanding of the limitations of the test builder, whether he be a specialist in the employ of a test-building organization, or whether he be an individual teacher in the classroom, we have come to understand that 70 per cent may mean anything from highly satisfactory to unusually poor, depending on the particular set of questions which were being answered by the student. And so all sorts of methods have been developed for referring the raw score, in Johnny's case thirty-five, to some meaningful scale. The crucial point is that there are as many scales which might be used as there are people to use them, and that no matter how carefully the scale has been developed the interpretations of a test score involve a professional judgment. The test score is a measurement. The professional judgment is an evaluation. Even when raw scores have been transformed into grade-equivalent scores, the need for professional judgment is still present. I have had an unusual opportunity to observe this need during the past winter as I have worked with a fifthgrade teacher who has an unusually interesting group of youngsters. We administered early in the year a standardized test in reading

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and found for example, that Mary scored thirty-two, John sixty-four, and Harry fifty-one on a test where the grade equivalent is obtained by moving the decimal point one place in the scaled score; thus Mary had a score which represented third grade, second month; John sixth grade, fourth month; and Harry fifth grade, first month. The test was administered during the first month of the fifth grade, and one might conclude that Harry was doing satisfactorily since he was at grade norm, that John was doing unusually well, being one and threetenths months above the norm, and that Mary was quite unsatisfactory, since she was almost two years below norm. But this evaluation is indeed an oversimplification of the problem. One of the difficulties with grade norms is that we are led to think in terms of grade levels which are highly unrealistic. True, Mary's score was 3.2, a score which was equivalent to the average score for third-graders at the end of the second month, but no amount of statistical manipulation can make Mary the equivalent of the average third-grader at the end of the second month. Quite the contrary; Mary is still a low-achieving fifth-grader, no matter how we manipulate the scores, and it is much more revealing to say that she is at the eighth percentile of fifth-graders. Before we are able to make an adequate evaluation of Mary's score, we need to find out a lot more about Mary. What is Mary's mental age? How does Mary get along with the children in her group? What is her ability in listening comprehension? It may be that Mary is making quite satisfactory progress in relation to her abilities and general developmental level. The elementary teacher who hopes to get the most from a standardized test score, then, must be aware of the fact that the test score, whatever the level of sophistication with which it is developed, is simply the raw data of the evaluation. It is the duty of the individual working with the child and knowing much more about the child than anybody in a testconstruction agency, to make the evaluation. Without the professional judgment any test score is as useless as a can of soup without a can opener. A third poster might read: "Test scores are not true scores!" Any educational or psychological test score is only an approximation. Whatever we may think of the use that was made of the measurements in the school for tall men, at least the measurements were quite accurate. True, if at one time the measurements were taken with

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shoes on and at another time with shoes off, there would be introduced into the measurements a certain amount of bias, but any deep concern about errors of measurement in the school for tall men would have seemed out of place. There were much more important problems facing people in that situation. On the other hand, the teacher who deals with standardized test scores must be acutely aware of the fact that they are dealing with measurements which have been made with what might be thought of as a rubber yardstick. Sometimes the yardstick has been stretched before making the measurements on the individual child. Sometimes it has not been stretched. And so we are never completely sure of the true score of Johnny when we measure him with a standardized test. Of course, the extent of the distortion is small for most of the children and all of you who have worked for any length of time with standardized tests know that for most of the youngsters the measurements are quite satisfactory. On the other hand, you have probably been puzzled at the kind of measurement that you get from time to time. For example, you administer a reading test in October and a parallel form in May, and you find that on the average the children have made progress. But here is Harry, who has a score of fifty-three in October and a score of fifty-one in May. Does Harry actually know less now than he did in the fall? Or are these results simply a reflection of the inadequacy of the measuring instrument? The builder of standardized tests reports the extent to which errors are to be expected in terms of two numbers, the reliability coefficient, and the standard error of measurement. Both of these numbers are based on highly sophisticated scientific concepts and the elementary teacher can easily find herself wondering just how much attention should be paid to these numbers as she attempts to get the most out of a standardized test score. Actually, any application of these concepts with a high degree of precision to the scores of pupils in an individual class is likely to be misleading, since they are generalized statistics based on experimentation with a given sample. On the other hand, it is possible to develop a general framework for interpreting the scores we obtain. As an example, let us consider for a moment the 1937 Revision of the Stanford-Binet Scale. We all know that this is a test which is often used as a check on the accuracy of our measurement with other instruments. Yet the standard error of measure-

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ment of a Binet IQ is about five points. This means that two out of three IQ's obtained using the scale will be within five points of the true IQ. In general, our measurements of IQ are quite close to the true score. On the other hand, for about one individual in twenty the obtained measure will differ from the true score by as much as ten points. And if we repeat the measurement on 100 cases, we are quite likely to find a difference as high as fifteen points for as many as five of those cases. In other words, for the great majority of the individuals our test scores will be quite accurate, but for a few of them the errors of measurement will result in scores which are not very accurate. One consideration which should always be present when we are interpreting a test score is that the test score may represent an inaccurate measurement of the achievement or ability of the individual. We should be aware of the extent of the error in the case of any score we expect to interpret. There is another aspect of errors of measurement which may lead to misinterpretation. If we measure a group of children, we know that some of the errors will be positive and some of the errors will be negative; for some children the test score will be higher than the true score and for others it will be lower. Now if we find the average score for the class, the errors will tend to cancel each other so that our measurement of the average status of the class is much more accurate than the measurement for any individual. We are quite safe in basing judgments on class averages. It is when we work with individuals scores, particularly with intelligence scores as indications of what a child should score on achievement tests, that we run into dangers. If we study the effect of errors of measurement we find that the average test score for the top half of a group is higher than the average true score and that the average test score for the lower half of the group is lower than the average true score. Now what will happen if we administer to these same people another form of the test? Remembering that the actual test scores range around the true scores rather than around the previous test scores we can expect that on the average the scores on the second administration will be lower for the top half of the group and higher for the low half of the group. And this tendency for the scores on a second administration of a test to move toward the average for the high and the low group is

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responsible for many misinterpretations of test scores. If we remember that on the average, students with high scores on one test are likely to make lower scores on a second test and that the opposite is probable for low-scoring students even though their true scores remain the same, we are likely to be careful setting up rigid achievement goals for our children based on their IQ's. And we are less likely to be disturbed when some measurements of growth are puzzling to us. There is a fourth sign that I would put on the wall if I were an elementary teacher trying to get the most out of a standardized test score. This sign would read, "A norm is not a standard." You will remember that the second sign read, "A test score does not interpret itself," and one of the helps which test publishers supply to the teacher who wishes to make an evaluation is a table of norms. Such a table is simply a tabulation of the scores which have been obtained by a particular group to whom the test has been administered, and typically this group is a representative sample of students at a particular level all over the country. Perhaps the best way to come to an understanding of the nature of norms is to refer again to the type of measurement which was used in the school for making tall men. You will remember that the faculty had set up a set of standards based on the measurement of height and I am sure that you found this use of measurement data somewhat distorted. If there is anything which is evident to all of us it is that children differ in height and that it is unreasonable to expect all children to reach a particular standard of height. The same is true for measurement of weight and yet it has become evident that wide deviations in weight for given heights of children may be an indication of inadequate physical development. We do not expect all children to have the same height or the same weight, but we have found it helpful in evaluating the growth of children to have their measurements referred to norms tables. The typical table of norms indicates the average weight of children of a given height and there was a time when these norms were applied quite rigorously, particularly by people who were not well acquainted with the factors influencing growth. I can remember a time when I was considered underweight because I weighed 105 pounds whereas the norm for my height was 120 pounds. As more measurement data has become available we have begun to realize that factors other

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than height should be considered in evaluating data on the measurement of weight. We have discovered that such factors as basic bone structure and body type are as important as height in relation to weight and we now realize that there is a range of weight which is normal for a given height. The child who is fifteen pounds below the norm for his height may be considered normal because his body structure is generally lean and lank. Similarly, we are coming to recognize that the interpretation of any achievement test score should be made in relation to other factors in addition to IQ and school grade. We know for example that children from a particular socioeconomic background can be expected to obtain higher scores than children from another socio-economic background. We know that there are a number of school characteristics which influence test scores. We know that communities where expenditure for education is high, where children come from homes with many books and with parents whose educational background is rich are likely to achieve more than children from other types of background. In the face of these many factors influencing test scores, it becomes rather an oversimplification to evaluate the scores of a particular group against a single set of norms. As test publishers have become aware of this problem, they have made attempts to supply norms which are more meaningful. One such approach has been the use of the modal age norm. It is well known that school systems differ in the extent to which they pass children along from grade to grade; in some schools as many as 50 per cent of the children may be overage for grade while in other school systems less than 10 per cent are overage. It has been the practice with some test publishers to supply norms which permit you to compare a child with other children who are progressing through the school system at the same rate. Test publishers are also encouraging school systems to develop their own norms. It seems more reasonable to compare a child's score with scores of other children in the same community and to chart progress in terms of scores made the previous year. A third approach is that of developing differential norms based on carefully described samples, and it is our hope at Educational Testing Service that within the next few years we may be able to supply school systems with performance data for samples of children from communities

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with widely differing school characteristics. In this way a teacher may have the satisfaction of comparing her children's performance with that of similar children in like communities. Even with differential norms, however, it is necessary to remember that the most striking characteristic of test scores for groups of children is that they differ, and that whatever the norm, half of the children will be below the norm and half above. It is not sufficient to be concerned with trying to have all of the children reach the norm; rather the concern is to see that all children are making progress in terms of their individual characteristics. This observation leads to a fifth sign which should guide elementary teachers as they attempt to get the most from a standardized test score. This sign might well read, "What about the growth of the individual child?" Children who come to the school differ greatly in their capacities and in the experiences they have had. And evidence has been accumulating for some time that as children progress through school, the better the teaching the greater the differences which develop. This means that our concern in working with children is to develop each individual to his capacity and that if we can focus on the individual rather than on the group we will increase the differences rather than decrease them. It is not sufficient to recognize that Johnny is one and three-tenths grades above the norm and turn our attention to Jimmy, who is one and three-tenths grades below the norm. It may be that a more thorough investigation will indicate that Jimmy is achieving very well in relation to his capacity and that Johnny is actually an under-achiever. What is needed is an accumulation of test data over a period of years which will enable us to chart the growth of individual children and to design a program of activity and study which will lead to further growth. If test scores are to be useful in charting growth, it is necessary that the reference scales have continuity over the period being studied. In this respect, the elementary school has been more fortunate than the school system as a whole. A number of integrated elementary school programs have been offered for sale, and schools which have recognized the importance of continuity and have administered the same tests throughout the elementary school period have been able to accumulate some growth data. But growth in basic skills and understandings is a relatively slow process, and often it is desirable to

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study growth patterns over the full range of educational experience. To provide for integrated measurement over a long period, the Cooperative Test Division of Educational Testing Service is now engaged in a program of test development which will provide measures of ability and achievement over the range from the fourth to the fourteenth grades. With these instruments, it will be possible to study the growth patterns of individuals and to investigate the relationships among the different areas of learning with greater precision than has been possible up to now. This brings us to the sixth in our series of posters. This sixth one might very well read, "So what?" Or, if we wish to avoid a slang expression we might place on our wall a sign which says, "What are the implications of these measurements for my teaching in the future?" One critical observer has said that the typical treatment of test scores in a school might be expressed in four phrases: obtain them, observe them, file them, forget them. If this is the procedure, it might be better if tests had never been administered, at least as far as the experiences of the particular group of students is concerned. And the procedure is followed, if not typically, at least all too often. Perhaps one of the practices which contribute to this tendency is that of having tests scored in a central office and of reporting back to teachers rosters of scores. This practice eliminates an element of drudgery but encourages the separation of test scores from the actual test which has been administered. Recognizing the importance of keeping test scores and test content closely related, test publishers have been making efforts to design techniques for helping teachers relate the two. The Scoreeze system of the California Test Bureau is an example. The device makes scoring a simple counting operation for the teacher, provides a number of copies of the record for filing by the different people concerned with test scores, and enables the teacher to obtain quickly a picture of the class performance on each test question. Just as the scores of individual pupils on the total test can provide significant information, so the "score" of the class on individual questions can provide an additional kind of significant information. By considering the percentage of the class answering a question correctly, one can obtain some evidence of the effectiveness of the teaching of the understanding or skill measured by that question. For

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example, if you have administered a test to your class and you find that 85 per cent have missed a question involving the division of a decimal fraction by a decimal fraction, you have evidence that the skill has not been mastered. Now it is well to remember that item scores are also subject to error just as pupil scores are subject to error, and it would be unwise to draw conclusions about an individual pupil's achievement from his response to a single item. But the performance of a class on a single item constitutes a relatively stable index. Of course, the implication of poor performance on a single question is not that you should proceed at once to drill the class on that question, for the question is just a sample of all of the possible questions which might be asked to test the understanding. Rather, the implication is that you should provide for the class experience with that kind of question, using a variety of approaches which will help them to develop the desired skill and understanding. The study of responses to individual test questions is only one of the possible approaches to follow-up activities. One should realize that this approach focuses on the class as a whole and may encourage you to neglect the peculiar needs of individuals. It also leads you to focus on the particular objectives which are being measured by the test and to neglect the many other objectives which require attention. By this time I imagine you are wondering how one might ever be able to get out of the room with the signs on the wall and into the classroom to do some teaching. Perhaps I have let my enthusiasm for the testing aspects of education give the impression that testing is the most important thing in the educational endeavor. If so, let me now offer a word of caution and strike a blow for learning and teaching. I think the best way to view testing is as an integral part of the teaching-learning process rather than as a separate procedure, applied from the outside. If you think of the total process as one which involves a continuous cycle of setting objectives, selecting learning experiences, organizing experiences in relation to the learners involved, engaging in learning activities, collecting evidence of changes in behavior, evaluating the evidence, modifying objectives and activities in terms of the evidence, and repeating the cycle, then it becomes clear that evaluation is a continuous process and that it is intimately related to everything that goes on in the school. One doesn't really tack his posters on the wall of a study to which he

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retires to consider test results. Rather he mentally tacks them to the wall of the classroom where they are continually available for reference as he works with pupils. For test scores, to be useful, must be available at all times as guides to the continuing decisions which guide the exciting panorama of the educational scene.

Comparison of College Achievement of Public and Private School Graduates, Freshman Year in College KENNETH F. SCHREPFER *

HIS STUDY attempts to answer the question: "Who does better the freshman year in college—the public school graduate or the private school graduate?" In order to do this the freshman college achievement records of public school graduates and private school graduates were studied. The group selected for study was the 19521953 fall freshman class of the College of Liberal Arts of the University of Pennsylvania. The freshmen are divided into three groups for this comparison: public, independent, and religious-affiliated school graduates. For a great many years a popular belief has grown up in the United States to the effect that the best preparation for college is to be found in a private school or academy. It is not within the scope of this study to examine the history or origin of this belief. Rather, the purpose of this study is to find out by studying a class in one particular college whether or not this belief has any basis in fact. College ad-

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* Counselor,

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ministrators and educators along with their secondary school colleagues have long been interested in this educational problem. The place of both the public school and the private school in our democratic society has been established by the Supreme Court in the Kalamazoo and Oregon decisions respectively. However, no one has been able to prove one way or the other which type of preparation, public or private, is superior for college preparation. This problem is especially important today. These are critical times for our public schools. They are overcrowded and understaffed, which makes them subject to attack from various quarters and the cry is going up that the public schools are not adequately preparing our young people for college. It is important to find out whether or not this is true. There has been very little previous research on this problem except for a few scattered colleges, mostly on the Eastern seaboard. This study was undertaken with the hope of shedding further light on this problem, stressing its importance, and adding to the facts and information already known. As early as the second decade of this century college registrars, deans, and other administrators began to concern themselves about this problem of comparative college achievement, although little publicity was given to their work or to their findings. One of the earliest studies on records was made by Potter in 1913. He began by presenting data showing that at both Harvard and Yale the graduates of public high schools were superior in scholarship to the graduates of private schools, and he reported a study made concerning the scholarship of high school and academy graduates who later attended the University of Chicago, from which he concluded that "as an agency preparing for college the high school is far superior to the academy." Beatley at Harvard University investigated "the relative value of the secondary-school record as criteria for judging the probable ability of the candidate to perform work of college grade. . . ." He found in the course of his investigation that students who came from private schools received, on the average, poorer grades in both secondary school and in college than those who came from the public schools, but both groups did equally well on the college entrance examinations as far as attainment was concerned.

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The Committee of Deans' Reports for 1922-1923 for the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools of the Southern States reports: "The superiority of the public high schools in the list of secondary schools accredited by the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools of the Southern States was shown in the fact that graduates of private secondary schools failed in 15.5% of courses taken in the first college year, and graduates of public secondary schools failed in 10.9%. For the school year 1921-22 the corresponding percentages were 17.0 and 11.9." The 1926-1927 reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College show similar results. There was only one study which favored private school preparation. Catherine Sanderson Blakeslee studied women students entering Mount Holyoke College, classifying them as public high school graduates, private school graduates, and those having attended both public and private schools. The fact that Mount Holyoke is a women's college may or may not be significant here. Leonard V. Koos at the University of Minnesota found in comparing college aptitude that although the two groups were very much alike, there was an appreciable superiority in this respect for the private schools group. Despite this tendency, however, the measures of achievement for the same students showed the public groups to be consistently superior to the private groups. Koos also found more deficient records after first-quarter attendance in the private school group. A matching study showed the public school group to be highly superior to the private school group. Dartmouth College made a four-year comparative study of the ability of public and private preparatory school graduates to do good work in higher education, using the graduating class of 1940 as their sample. In every respect, the graduates of public schools were superior. Seltzer at Harvard University studied the academic records of 1871 students in the freshmen classes graduating in 1943 and 1944 who entered during the pre-war academic years of 1930-1940 and 19401941. His study showed: 1. Students admitted from public schools presented markedly superior academic performances in the freshman year than those admitted from private schools. The public school students ranked

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the highest, the private day school intermediate, and the private boarding students the lowest. About twice the proportion of private boarding school students were designated as academic failures than public school students; while about twice the proportion of public school students attained the Dean's List (distinction) than private boarding school students. As an interesting side light, the study of Shekerjean at Stanford University may be cited as an example of a study of this problem in a particular subject field, namely, college French. She found that despite the college preparatory nature of private schools, they do not seem to be doing as effective a job as public schools in preparing their graduates for work in French at Stanford University. A study made at Princeton University with data for the class of 1955 by Junius A. Davis and Norman Frederiksen disclosed that 244 public school graduates earned higher freshman grades on the average than did 398 private school graduates. They were interested also in comparing private and public school graduates of similar ability. The investigators found that the public school graduates earned better freshman grades on the average than did private school graduates of equal ability as measured by the Scholastic Aptitude Test Verbal Section. The advantage amounted to more than a quarter of a "group" on the Princeton grading system. Similar results were found in the sophomore class. A very recent study at Dennison University showed very similar results. The speaker made a study of the scholastic records of 265 men students in the freshman year in the College of Liberal Arts of the University of Pennsylvania during the academic year, 1952-1953. From this study the following facts were obtained: 1. Students who were admitted from public schools showed considerably better scholastic records in their freshman year than did those students who were admitted from private schools. The public school graduates ranked the highest, the religious affiliated school graduates ranked intermediate, while the independent school graduates ranked lowest. Of the public school graduates 25.90 per cent attained an average of Β or better while only 7.07 per cent of the private school graduates attained this average. Of this latter group, only 11.11 per cent of the religious affiliated

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school graduates and 3.70 per cent of the independent school graduates attained an average of Β or better. Conversely, 13.13 per cent of the private school graduates received failing averages, including 16.67 per cent of the independent school graduates and 8.89 per cent of the religious affiliated school graduates, while only 7.83 per cent of the public school graduates received failing averages. This would seem to indicate that the position of the religious affiliated school graduate is about intermediate between the public school graduate and the independent school graduate. 2. A comparison of mean VAT, MAT, and SAT scores showed results similar to scholastic records. Public school graduates obtained higher mean scores than did private school graduates. Religious affiliated school graduates showed a higher mean MAT score than independent school graduates. However, this trend was reversed on the mean VAT and SAT scores. This would seem to indicate that public school students have a better preparation for college than do private school students. 3. In comparing VAT and MAT scores with scholastic records two general trends were observed: (a) those students with the best academic records show the best entrance examinations both verbal and mathematical; and (b) public school graduates, at each letter grade level, show higher mean entrance scores than do private school graduates except in the failure group. A basic assumption in this study is that the SAT scores are relatively valid indices of the students' natural academic ability and potential. 4. The differences between the means of the academic records for the three groups were found to be highly significant by subjecting them to the analysis of variance, single classification. The differences between the means of the academic grades of the three groups, after allowing for differences in scholastic aptitude, decreased, but were still significant at the .001 level, as shown by the analysis of covariance. This means the differences are greater than those which would occur by sampling accidents once in every 1000 trials. 5. Because of the significant differences in the mean academic records and SAT scores for the three groups it was suggested that, for this class at least, there may have been some selectivity in admitting students in favor of private school graduates. That is to say, a certain proportion of private school men were admitted who had entrance examination scores considerably below those of the average public school men.

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In concluding this study two important points must be cited: 1. From a study of the literature relating to this problem it appears that the superior scholastic records in the freshman year of public school graduates over private school graduates is not unique for this class. If other studies were to be made of previous classes it would probably be found that this superiority has existed at Pennsylvania for many years. The literature shows similar results in many similar institutions, especially in the "Ivy League" colleges—Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and Princeton. 2. It has been suggested by practically everyone who has investigated this problem that the actual reasons for the superiority of freshman scholastic records of public school graduates must be searched for in areas other than the strictly intellectual potential or native capacity. It appears evident that there are many other factors which direct or influence academic success or failure in college freshmen who have varying secondary school backgrounds. For a more complete understanding of this subject these other factors should be investigated as carefully as has the factor of academic records and intellectual potentialities. Some suggested factors are: (a) Comparative training and ability of public school teachers and private school teachers. (b) The economic drive which is generally seen as being greater in public school graduates. (c) The fact that only the best of the public school graduates attend college while generally everyone, including the run of the mill student, who graduates from private school goes on to attend college. (d) The effect of small class size in private schools with careful supervision versus the effect of larger class sizes with little supervision in public schools in making the adjustment to the comparative freedom of the college environment. (e) The effect of extracurricular activities on academic records.

Evaluating an Educational Program in Terms of the General Objectives JAMES F. SHANKWEILER *

are generally conceived to be the ends O toward which the processes of education are to be directed. In most instances, these objectives are stated in general terms which BJECTIVES OF EDUCATION

reflect a type of "perfect" individual considered necessary for the ideal society toward which we are striving. Unfortunately, the general objectives, in relation to the practical and down-to-earth activities of the classrooms, are too often indefinite and obscure. In many cases, they are expressed only in terms of broad generalities which have little direct effect upon the direction of the learning-teaching situation. These broad and general objectives can offer very little guidance to classroom teachers in the promotion of their teaching activities unless all the implications can be clearly recognized by all teachers. If they are to serve any real purpose, the objectives must have a very practical meaning to teachers as they conduct their daily work in the classroom. *' Supervising Principal, Conrad Weiser Joint School System, Womelsdorf, sylvania.

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Just as there needs to be clear and definite understanding concerning the general objectives for effective teaching, common sense would also point to clearly defined objectives before any satisfactory evaluation of the educative process could be achieved. That there should exist close relationship between objectives and outcomes cannot be denied. Only by accurate measurement of outcomes in light of the established objectives can the effectiveness of the school be ascertained. Whether evaluation refers to the general appraisal of a school system or whether the term is applied to measurement of learning in a specific subject area, it needs to be based upon the objectives which have implied in their statements, the needs of the youth which the school is to serve. The failure to measure the product of education in terms of the original purposes and aims has been one of the greatest shortcomings in educational evaluation. In spite of the fact that recent statements of objectives, as well as educational philosophy, have stressed the life-needs of all or almost all individuals, much of the evaluation is concerned only with the measurement of certain bodies of subject matter. Habits of conduct, aesthetic values, skills in dealing in human relations, and those attitudes toward life deemed so important by modern society, are so often by-passed in the evaluation of the educational product. This is not necessarily a fault of educators who recognize the importance of the intangibles in education, but it is rather indicative of the inadequacy of measuring instruments for measuring those qualifications and attitudes in people which are implied in the objectives. The problem, then, of the following study was twofold: It involved the defining of educational objectives to a point where the objectives would have a real and practical significance for the evaluative process. An attempt was made to draw from a set of statements of objectives those inferences and meanings which could be used in an instrument of evaluation that would consider the broader and more intangible aspects of pupil development. Secondly, the study involved the construction of a measuring instrument which is believed to respect the scientific method in education, and which, at the same time, gave a greater degree of recognition to those human activities and actions implied in life-needs. An over-all view of the efforts made to develop a workable set of

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educational objectives since the last decade of the nineteenth century has resulted in a realization that the youth to be educated must be the primary concern in any discussion of the function and purpose of the secondary school. The idea of the mental discipline theory, that the traditional school subjects should determine the secondary school organization, has long since passed into obscurity. The attention given to available knowledge or the concern for established patterns of our adult society as primary factors in the establishment of educational objectives have not expired completely. They are losing ground, however, as the pupil himself is ascending to the dominant place in educational theory and practice. Objectives, practice, and methods of evaluation are being united through a growing concern for those significant needs of youth which are dictated by the complex age in which we live. The nature of the pupil, how he lives, his interests, his capabilities, and numerous other aspects of his life provide the foundation stones upon which a modem education program must be built. Each of these fragments of the individual personality must be considered in the form in which they express themselves at the time that education is taking place, and must be treated with a view toward effecting desirable change. The Ten Imperative Needs of Youth as developed by the National Association of Secondary School Principals are, in my opinion, the kind of statements which can serve as functional objectives for a modern secondary school. The Imperative Needs are expressed in terms of the basic needs of all youth of our age. As such, the implication is clear, that the education of a youth must begin where he is and must be directed toward the development of an efficient and worthy citizen. The Ten Imperative Needs of Youth suggest clearly the development of those fundamental skills, habits, and behavior patterns which are recognized as evidences of sound training. They recognize differences in human beings and at the same time recognize those essential requirements of all American youth. The evaluation of an educational system that had as its primary objective the training of individuals for higher institutions of learning was simple indeed. The assignment of units signifying a certain amount of time spent in a given course, or a test of acquired knowledge in a given subject, was ample proof that the main objectives were achieved. The Carnegie Unit which was developed around the

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turn of the century, and which symbolized the completion of courses, became the criterion for college entrance. The counting of units under this system provided an adequate means of determining whether secondary schools were fulfilling their objectives of preparing youth for college. The evaluation of the secondary school in terms of aims directed toward mental discipline was likewise relatively simple. Subject matter was supreme and could be measured with complete assurance then, as it can now, for it requires only a pronouncement of what is to be learned and a test to determine whether or not the specific knowledge is being acquired. Whether education provided any degree of transfer of learning was irrelevant, for transfer under the theory of mental discipline was a basic assumption. With the development of educational objectives, based upon human experience and the needs of youth for life in our modern complex world, the evaluative procedures became more difficult and complex. The needs of youth imply growth in action based on understanding, and the ability to use knowledge functionally. As such, the modern objectives of education are concerned with physical development, habits, attitudes, interests, and those many behavior patterns that combine to produce the integrated personality. Needless to say, much that is implied in objectives such as these is intangible, difficult material to which to apply a scientific method of measurement. Many attempts have been made in recent years to devise instruments of measurement which would produce objective evidence of the development of youth in terms of the broader aims of education. Of particular interest is the Eight-Year Study of the Progressive Education Association: this considered the processes of evaluation in terms of newer and more effective instruments of measurements which could be applied to the intangible outcomes anticipated from a good system of education. A great deal remains to be done, however, to refine instruments of appraisal and reduce the possibility of error that accompany measurements involving judgments. Instruments for the appraisal of attitudes, interests, and such attributes of character and personality deemed necessary for life remain too crude to provide a real and effective means of scientific evaluation. In many instances the best possible attempts have been made to develop pencil-and-paper inventories designed to measure these human characteristics. Even the best, however, remain crude, and place serious

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limitations upon the evaluation of the broad educational objectives. These limitations would point to a need for further experimentation and research designed to provide instruments capable of measuring the more delicate aspects of human growth. In addition to the fact that educational objectives imply intangibles not easily measured, and that measuring instruments developed thus far have been too crude to give adequate treatment to the delicate meanings implied in the objectives, a great many of the difficulties encountered in evaluation are due to the opinions and viewpoints of educators themselves. A lack of understanding of the implications of the objectives, teamed with the fact that objectives have not been clearly defined, have caused wide disagreements as to what the objectives actually mean. To many teachers and administrators, objectives, no matter how they are stated, have meaning only in terms of bodies of subject matter to be learned. Attitudes, habits, appreciations, and those small and seemingly unimportant behavior characteristics of youth are too often considered to be merely by-products of the more important "education for knowledge." Especially in this period of responsibility of a "major" or "minor," it is difficult for them to recognize the responsibilities they have toward the development of the total pupil. These attitudes, which are not in harmony with our modern philosophy of education, have served as obstacles to a scientific method in evaluation. The field of education as a foundation to all human life deserves to be treated as scientifically as possible. It deserves at the very least the same consideration and treatment as that given to the pure sciences and social sciences. While it is recognized that education does not possess the clearly defined concepts that provide the foundation for investigations in the pure sciences, the real purposes of the educative process now, as through all the ages, has found its basis in ultimate actions of individuals in their society. Human reactions and behavior in relation to environment become the most fundamental and important outcome of all education. As the purpose of teaching the primitive youth the rudiments of hunting could be explained in terms of his later success in that field, so do the purposes of modern systems of education have meaning in terms of the behavior of individuals in their society. Such behavior, when reduced to its finest operations, is observable and hence becomes authentic and reliable.

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Behavior that is reduced to clearly defined operations will lend itself to scientific analysis and as such can provide the basis for an objective evaluation of the entire educational process. It is therefore believed that the concepts underlying the statements of educational objectives will have true meaning only when they have been reduced to the operations that are implied. There can be little respect held for general statements as criteria for evaluation. Such general statements can contain only so much meaning as there is in the group of concrete statements to which they refer. Such concrete statements, however, will lend themselves well to analysis, and the observations will be manageable. When basic concepts are reduced to definite observable behaviors in individuals, each will represent one small part of that "perfect" individual which is the goal of education. It is recognized from the outset that the defining of objectives in terms of operations will have very definite and perhaps serious limitations. The approach, however, to the problem of defining the objectives and carrying out the subsequent evaluation is scientific, and carries with it a respect and faith that only exactness and accuracy can yield. The method begins with observed facts instead of with fixed general "truths" that cannot be substantiated or proved. One very fundamental limitation of evaluation, through an analysis of observed behavior, lies in the attitude of the observer toward the basic operations. It is quite possible that doubt might arise in regard to one of the operations, not because of indefiniteness on the part of the operation itself, but rather because of the uncertainty that sometimes accompanies our own thinking. A second, and possibly a more serious limitation to the observational technique of evaluation, lies in the uncertainty of the relevance of the operations. How can we say that the observations are pertinent to the concept involved, or that a relationship exists between the behavior being observed and the type of individual implied by the educational objectives? While it is quite possible to assume that operations are relevant, the fact remains that relevancy cannot be proved by any truly objective procedure. It is quite reasonable to presume that the habit of not slamming doors might be an operation basic to the concept of good citizenship. It would be most difficult to prove, however, that the presumption is correct. It might very well happen that persons who never slam doors might become the most undesir-

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able citizens or that one who has the habit might develop into the exact image of the ideal type. There remains the limitation to the observational technique of evaluation created by the fact that refined operations might be far too trivial to be given much concern. There exists a danger that in reducing the objectives to the operations we have oversimplified the concept implied. It might appear that a single operation when viewed independently would have a very insignificant relationship to the true meaning of the concept. While this danger might be restrictive, in a sense, it does not exclude the possibility for a scientific method. It can be assumed that the interactions involved among the operations will in some degree affect the complex and hard-to-define concepts. The point of view suggests, at least, a line of action which invites further study and experimentation. Defining the Ten Imperative Needs of Youth in terms of definite and observable behavior resulted in a list of 144 items. The list is too lengthy to present here. However, as an illustration of the kind of items included, reference is made to Imperative Need Number 3, dealing with citizenship: "All youth need to understand the rights and duties of the citizen of a democratic society and be diligent and competent in the performance of their obligations as members of the community and citizens of the state and nation and to have an understanding of the nations and peoples of the world." This Imperative Need would suggest such operations as 1. Possessing a knowledge and understanding of the social studies 2. Suggesting ways to improve the school 3. Attending classes regularly and punctually 4. Returning library books when they are due 5. Not destroying school property 6. Not being loud and boisterous in the halls 7. Observing the meaning of school bells This list will provide the basis for a measuring instrument which is believed to fulfill the requirements for a scientific approach to the problem of evaluation. Each item refers to a definite behavior which can be observed in any person. Since the evaluation of the educational product must be carried out while the product is still in school, the items were phrased in such a way as to apply to the behavior of

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students in the final year of the secondary school. Although it is difficult to determine with certainty whether the behavior characteristics listed are relevant to the kind of life the students will be living after graduation, the objectiveness of the items can at least provide a basis for further study. To reduce the danger of unreliability to the greatest extent possible, the items were phrased so as to be representative of those basic skills, attitudes, habits, and values which are generally believed to be the basic requirements of an efficient adult life in our society. In order to produce a measuring instrument which could be administered effectively, it was necessary to rearrange the items in such a way that they could be given to the school personnel who had the best opportunity, at some time or another, to observe the behavior implied. It can readily be recognized that not all teachers meet all the students in similar situations. The type of activity with which teachers are concerned will determine the phases of individual behavior which can be observed. Albeit, there would be many items which could be, or might be, observed by all teachers with whom the students come into contact. The items were therefore reclassified to facilitate the scoring by those persons best qualified to make the observations. I. Evaluations by the teacher most closely associated with the student in special subjects or activities II. Evaluations made best by an interview with students III. Evaluations made best by all staff members IV. Evaluations made best through written tests V. Evaluations made best by home-room adviser and/or guidance counselor.

The classifications of behavior characteristics are then arranged in such a way as to facilitate the scoring of each student to which the instrument is to be applied. In the actual scoring, it will be necessary to recognize certain basic assumptions in the instrument itself which in a sense are limitations. In spite of those limitations, however, it is believed that the approach is sound, and as was stated before, the way is clear for further study and experimentation with the objective data which the instrument will produce. It must be assumed that the qualifications or conditions which are

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implied by the items can be observed in each individual being examined. Scores must indicate either the presence or absence of the qualification. There can be no indecision or uncertainty in checking items, for each item was either observed or not observed and must be scored as the individual possessing or not possessing the qualification. It must also be assumed that one observation must carry the same weight as would repeated observations of the same trait. Or, if a youth was observed to lack the qualification expressed by the item only on one occasion, or by one person, it must be assumed that the qualification was missing. It is not unreasonable to assume that if an individual behaves in a certain way on one occasion he will act in a similar way on another occasion when his behavior is not observed. This is a safer assumption to make than that an observed action never occurred before and will never occur again. A third assumption, and without question a more dangerous one, is that all items are relevant. A great deal has been done in the refinement of the instrument to produce validity. Items were carefully checked and many were discarded because of uncertainty as to whether they applied to the real meaning of the objectives. Refinement also eliminated those items that could not be observed objectively, or those which would permit the judgments of teachers to influence the score. It is felt, however, that the 144 items remaining were the best that can be combined to produce an instrument of evaluation to meet the requirements of the scientific method. The instrument designed to study the behavior characteristics of youth in terms of the Ten Imperative Needs was applied to the Senior Class of 1953 of the Womelsdorf High School, Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania. The class numbered twenty-five students and appeared to be typical for the school, both in respect to number and type of student. It can readily be surmised that the smallness of the school simplified, to a great degree, the problem of administration, as all students were known almost intimately by all teachers, and the problem of observing was relatively easy. It would be far more difficult to apply the instrument to a larger school where the larger number of teachers capable of making the observations would present a problem. Furthermore, it might be that the behavior characteristics would be more difficult to observe in situations where individual students are "lost" in the crowdedness of large schools.

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In scoring individual students on each of the observed behavior characteristics or conditions, a dichotomous system was used. It does not seem reasonable that any halfway behavior characteristic could be observed. As a matter of fact, the excellence of the instrument over other systems of evaluation is claimed because of the objectivity and definiteness of the behavior characteristics implied in each item. Items which in this writer's opinion involved any ambiguity or which could be construed to involve doubt were deleted in refinement. Of the original 203 items, 144 were finally included which are considered observable or nonobservable by any person who is in a position to carry out the function. The results which grew out of the administration of this instrument in this specific situation do not merit any general or significant recommendations. That there was shown a definite relationship between variables in this instance is no proof that other situations would yield similar results. All that can be claimed in this instance is that this instrument which scored observed behavior in individuals, as defined from the Ten Imperative Needs of Youth, tended to be just as good a method of determining ranks as are the methods commonly used by Secondary Schools. Neither can any special merit be claimed for the particular set of items included in the instrument. The approach, however, is basic and will provide the kind of evaluative system which will command faith in a method for determining the effectiveness of education in terms of fundamental objectives. The method can claim superiority over those systems of evaluation that rely upon judgments, often biased, or upon procedures that fail to include basic human behavior. While no important or conclusive results were achieved in the administration of this instrument, it is believed that several significant points are suggested which might be of interest to teachers as they attempt to improve the effectiveness of the learning-teaching situation. A great deal of significance is being attached to that principle of the modern secondary school which asserts that education must be concerned with the total personality. Reference is made to the physical, mental, social, emotional, and moral aspects of child development with which modern schools need to be concerned. While the principle is believed sound, it has been observed over and over again that much lip service has been rendered to this principle with none of the real

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attention being given to behavior in individuals which the principle suggests. It is probably true that no clear-cut relationship is recognized between classroom work and the idea represented in this concept. In other words, it would appear that the main objectives are too far removed from the procedures and techniques that are used in teaching. The application of such an instrument, which has defined basic objectives in terms of human behavior, could therefore provide a tool which could be used to give real meaning to the objectives as teachers work with students in the day-by-day situations. It would call to mind those numerous small actions in students so often deemed trivial or unimportant, but which combine to produce the total personality. Furthermore, the recognition of the real meaning of educational objectives can help teachers recognize, to a larger extent, their responsibilities in providing for all aspects of individual development rather than being concerned only with imparting assigned subject matter. It is also suggested that the emphasis in education be placed upon those behavior characteristics which are evident in students while they are still in school. It has been pointed out that the superiority claimed for the Ten Imperative Needs of Youth over other statements of educational objectives lies in this fact that they recognize the needs and problems of youth while in school. It is not inferred that the preparation of young people for adult life is less important than formerly, but the changed emphasis upon adolescent behavior is a recognition of the importance of developing sound behavior patterns during the formative years. It presupposes a faith that the habits, attitudes, and values developed in school will carry over into later life. This faith, however, can have the support of a scientific method that will yield data worthy of consideration, and will provide a means for testing the hypothesis that sound behavior patterns developed in school will more effectively guarantee for our communities the kind of citizens suggested by the fundamental objectives of the American school.

Index A Acting, superiority to verbal analysis in drama, 142-143 Administration, school "consent-democracy" in, 162 democratic, 161 "do-democracy" in, 162 individuality as responsibility of, 181 organizational patterns in, 165166 reform of, 20, 22 staff participation in, 167-168 techniques, 176-180 inspection, 180 praise, 176, 178 recognition, 177 Administrative relations, 160-168 fairness in, 178 freedom in, 181 Administrators, 20, 22, 71-72, 160 adaptability, need for, 167 role in planning half-day session, 71-72 Agensky, Esther B., 59 Authority, as protection, 47 Β Bailey, Helen C., 11 Baxter, Bernice, 70 Belonging, sense of, as factor in staff morale, 178 Benjamin, Harold, R. W., 33

Bilingualism, in schools of Greenland, 119 Bond, Guy L., 53 Buck, Pearl S., 17 Building needs, evaluation of, 190 C Career counselling, 207 Career planning, 207 Carnegie Unit, 231-232 Child's-Eye View of Teacher, 31 Christianity, 44-46, 129-131 as approach, 44 as culture, 45 in German literature, 129-131, 134 Citizenship training, 15 Classicism, 133 Coffman, William E., 209 College, achievement in, 224-226 Community resources, 15 Cooper, Charles M., 81 Core curriculum, 149 Counseling, 89-98, 197, 201-208 crisis situations, 201-202 life process as factor in, 90 preventive, 201, 203-205 relationship as factor in, 93 Counts, George S., 186 Creative Dramatics, 137-144 Creativeness, 82-86, 142 recognition of in school children, 142 Creativity, in growth, 91

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Creer, Mona C., 99 Culture, German, 124-136 bibliographical information relating to, 126-127 factors effecting, 129-132 political disunity, 132 religious feeling, 129-130 pessimistic vein in, 134 Culture, Western, 122 Curriculum, 146-152 Council, 150 trends in junior high school, 146 D Dancing, for mentally retarded, 68 Dewey, John, 137 Discussion, in study of Shakespeare, 110 Dramatics, creative, 137-144 benefits of, 142 choice of material in, 140-141 evaluation of, 139-140 goal of, 143-144 purposes in education, 138 selection of roles in, 140 spontaneous nature of, 139 Drop-outs, 204 Ε Ego-ideal, 94 Eight-Year Study, 232 Elizabethan play, understanding of, 104 Elizabethan usage, 105 Evaluation, 197-199, 230-239 observation as technique in, 233235, 237-238 of educative process, 230 of individual, 197-198 F Faculty meetings, 185 Fischer, John H., 160

Flensmark, Harold, 40 Freedom, lack of in teaching, 20 Friederich, Werner P., 122 Fundamentals, 33-35 in ancient Persian Education, 3334 in primitive societies, 35 G Gestalt psychology, effect on educational methods, 137 Germanophiles, 126-127 God, attitude toward, 44 Goethe, 124-126, 129-134 Golden Rule, in school administration, 187 Greenland, 111-121 health, 117 housing, 117 schools, 119-121 bilingualism in, 119 types of, 120 Group dynamics, 182 Growth, psychological, 93 Gymnasium space, 191 Η Haglund, Donn Κ., 111 Half-day session, 70-78 Hamlet, 103, 106 Health center, 191 Health Education Facilities, 188195 Henry, Mabel C. Wright. 137 Heredity, 18 Housing, improvement in Greenland, 117 Human Relations, emotion in, 184 techniques of, 183-186 Hymes, James L., Jr., 31

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"Ideas Game," 141-142 Imperative Needs of Youth, 231, 235, 237, 239 In-service training, 147-149 provision for teacher evaluation of, 149 role of principal in, 147 Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 123 Individualism, German, 132 Industrial Revolution, second, 3738 Intelligence quotient of retarded child, 66 Individualized Reading, 50 Instructional method, during early adolescence, 147

Language development through community excursions, 7374 Leadership, 124, 164-165 administrative, 164-165 literary, 124 Learning activities, 148 Learning process, 221 Literature, German, 124-136 cumbersomeness of, 135 French influence on, 125 Lyrical character of, 128-129 "Little School," 150 Lyricism, 127

J Jenny, John H., 66 Junior high school, 145-152, 169172 administrative function in the, 171 educational climate in the, 151 learning activities in the, 148 organization of, 171 program, staff role in determining, 169 staff personnel practices, 172 supervisory function in, 171 teachers, autonomy of, 146 Κ Kalamazoo Case, 224 Kelley, Arthur C., 145 King Lear, 102 Knowledge, 82-83, 108 as factor in teaching, 108 attributes essential to effective application of, 82-83

Μ Memorization, of dramatic lines, 110 Mentally retarded children, dancing as motor activity for, 68 Merit rating, 157 Moral and Ethical Values, 40-50 Motor Quotient, 66 Multi-purpose rooms, 192 Music, German, 131, 134 Mysticism, German, 131 Ν National Council of Teachers of English, 110 Norms, 209-210, 214, 217-219 grade, 214 modal age, 218 Ο Objectives of education, 229-233 Oregon Case, 224 Ρ Paraphrasing, as aid to comprehension, 109

Index

244 Participation, as administrative technique, 176-177 Persia, 33-34 Philosophy, 131, 134-135 of administration, 186 German, 131, 134-135 Physical education program, relation to physical plant needs, 190 Physical fitness of retarded child, 67-68 Poetry, 125, 128-134 as attribute of Shakespearian drama, 104 understanding of, 106 Polar projection map, 119 Praise, as administrative technique, 176, 178 Problem solving, 185 Public inspection, as administrative technique, 180 Public relations, 155-160 press relations as a factor in, 158 Pupil personnel practices, in the junior high school, 171-172 Q Quantitative thinking, 83-88 R Reading, 50-58 abbreviations in, 57 comprehension in, 58 organizational problems in, 56 rate of, 55 teaching, 50-52 individualization in, 50-52 mass methods in, 50 symbols in, 57 vocabulary problems in, 55

Reading disability, misunderstanding as a factor in, 54 Reading readiness, 51 Recognition, as administrative technique, 177 Recreational facilities, site planning, 194 Reliability, coefficient of, 215 Religion, in education of children, 44 Retarded adolescent, 63-65 occupational opportunities, 64 occupational information, 64 vocational education, 64 Retarded children, 59-63 curriculum for, 61 dancing for, 68 intellectual ability of, 59 Rice, Arthur H., 155 Robinson Crusoe, 123 Romania, novels of, 129 Romeo and Juliet, 103 S Salaries, of teachers and administrators, 25 related to achievement and length of service, 25 Sanitary booths in elementary and secondary schools, 194 Schrepfer, Kenneth F., 223 Scholastic Aptitude Test, 226-227 Schools, in Greenland, 120 School plant needs, relation of physical education program to, 190 Science, and social welfare, 46 Scientific method in education, 230, 233 Seashore, Harold, 196 Self-discipline in human relations, 184

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Index Security, need for in administrative relationships, 179-180 Sex problems, 40-41 in adults, 41 in children, 40-41 Shakespeare, 99-110, 123 as entertainment, 101 discussion in the study of, 110 television as a medium for, 99 Shankweiler, James F., 229 Smalley, Ruth E., 89 Snoke, James S., 169 Staff morale, 178 Standard error of measurement, 215-216 Standards, ethical, 43 Stanford-Binet Scale, 214-215 Stone, Harry W., 188 Storage space, gymnasium, 192, 194 Subject specialists, role of in planning school plant, 190 Supplementary activities in halfday instruction, 73, 75-76 Swimming, as motor activity for mentally retarded, 68

Teaching, as an art, 23, 108 in half-day session, 73 sarcasm in, 22, 26 Television, as medium for Shakespeare, 102 Tenure for teachers, 23 Test scores, evaluation of, 213 Testing, 196-222 as part of teaching—learning process, 221 follow-up activities, 221 purposes of, 198-199 Testing program, 198-199 Tests, 198-201, 204, 226-227 in disciplinary situations, 200 in pupil placement, 199 in pupil selection, 199-200 Three C*s, 36, 38-39 Three R's, 35, 39 Toilet rooms, improvement of, 193 V Values, ethical, 42 Ventilation, of locker rooms, 193 Vestibule Class, 65 W

Τ Talent, discovery of as function of schools, 205, 206 Teacher-aide, 157 Teacher stations, gymnasium, relation to enrollment, 192 Teachers, desirable qualities in, 142

Ward, Winifred, 138-140 Wolfle, Dael, 205 Work habits, 83, 84 Wynn, Richard, 173 Ζ Zirbes, Laura, 50