VOL. XXV

No. 7

AT

The New York City Schools in Danger

T no time in the history of Greater New York has the public school system been so seriously endangered by the deteriorating influence of politics as it is at the present time. Several ominous happenings of the past few months make it clear that the New York City schools, unless the Legislature adopts measures to protect them from the low political ideals that now dominate the municipal administration of the city, will soon be brought down to a standard lower than has ever been known in New York.

The first of these happenings was the election of Mrs. Grace Strachan Forsythe as Associate Superintendent. This appointment was based on political considerations alone. A year or so ago an effort was made to find a place for her in the board of superintendents by refusing to re-elect Dr. Andrew W. Edson and putting her in his place, but the sentiment in favor of Doctor Edson was too strong to be disregarded. But when Doctor Edson was retired a short time ago under the age-limit rule, orders were given to see that Mrs. Forsythe was put into the position for which she has been a candidate for the last fifteen years. During the municipal campaign last fall Mrs. Forsythe was an active worker for Mayor Hylan. In his eyes no better qualification for the duties of

the position she has so long sought was needed.

To bring about Mrs. Forsythe's election it was necessary to lay aside the regulations of the board of education and disregard the long-established rules defining the qualifications of candidates and the manner of their election. These regulations were intended to protect the school system from just such dangers as the election of Mrs. Forsythe implies. But over-riding the rules that govern the deliberations of boards of education that place the good of the schools above political considerations was a simple matter in the eyes of a majority of the existing New York City board of education. cation. With a total disregard of all considerations that would control a highminded citizen, interested in maintaining an orderly and high-minded administration of school affairs, Mrs. Forsythe was made an Associate Superintendent, against the courageously outspoken opposition of the City Superintendent of Schools, Dr. William L. Ettinger.

There is probably not another school board in the United States that would have chosen for an influential position a candidate whose qualifications, in the opinion of the highest administrative officer in the city, did not measure up to the requirements of the place. But the callous indifference shown by the majority of the present New York City

board of education to the protests of Doctor Ettinger leaves no doubt of the purpose to choose for the most desirable positions in the school system candidates whose election is desired by the politicians.

dent that he was ready to protect the New York City schools from any further degredation through political appoint

ments.

disaster to the New York City schools, unless protection is found in legislation, really did not The Legislature happen. It appears that Must Save the it was the wish of the New York City Schools City Hall politicians to prevent the re-election of William McAndrew and Clarence E. Meleney as Associate Superintendents, and plans were going along successfully to carry out this attempt to displace by political favorites two of the most efficient and most highly respected school officials in New York City. The fact that these men had rendered a service of large usefulness to the city for many years was a consideration that weighed not at all with the politicians who look upon the public schools as a means of rewarding political workers rather than as an agency for the city's good.

Fortunately this second design upon the integrity of the New York City schools became known some days before it was to be carried into effect. The opposition to this scheme to deprive the schools of the services of two of the best members of the administrative force was so pronounced that it was given up, and Associate Superintendents McAndrew and Meleney were re-elected. But this re-election was due entirely to the knowledge of the board of education that if this nefarious scheme were carried out, legislation would be immediately enacted at Albany that would put an end to the existing order of things in the board of education. It is to the credit of Governor Miller that he made it evi

While for a time there will likely be no overt attempts to convert the New York City schools into a political machine, there is every reason to fear that who know how full of promise a school system will not be long turned from their purpose to make politics dominant in school affairs. The only safety for the New York City schools lies in legislation that will take from the politicians any control over them. From what has taken place the past few months it has become evident that the selection of school board members must be taken from the Mayor. New York City has had mayors who have been sincerely interested in the schools, but the harm that a mayor who would make the schools an adjunct to a political machine can do in four years is so great that the city must not be allowed to run the risk of having membership in the board of education rest any longer with the Mayor.

The New York Tribune, which has been most forcefully showing the disaster that awaits the New York City schools unless the Legislature comes to their protection, goes to the heart of the matter when it says that "the sooner, therefore, that the state recognizes that guardianship of education is and always has been a state function, and never altogether a local one, the safer it will be for the schools.' There should be no delay in the passage of legislation that will throw around the New York City schools those safeguards that will make it impossible for them to be destroyed by the gross mismanagement that would

soon result from the continuance of the policy now pursued by the majority of the board of education.

No intelligent school man will disparage the worth of present-day efforts to secure the better classification of pupils according to ability, and to find more accurate ways of measuring school progress than have been used in the schools. Every forward-looking teacher or administrator must know the helpful suggestions that are to be found in such publications as the "Journal of Educational Method" or the "Journal of Educational Research," because in journals of this kind are to be had the results of investigations and experiments that will have a vastly beneficial influence upon our educational practice, if intelligently applied to school work.

But insistence upon the use of these newer ideas to the neglect of the personal equation of the teacher will do little to improve the quality of the work of the classroom. More emphasis than is often heard in these times should be placed upon the teacher's personality, upon her sympathetic understanding of childhood, and upon her power to awaken and keep alive the interest of the child in the tasks of the school. In, the hands of teachers who lack those per1 sonal qualities that appeal to children no method, old or new, will be worth much as a means of mind-training or character-formation.

In much of the current writing on education the predominant part that the

teacher must ever hold in the school training of children seems to be lost sight of. It is a question whether it is not worth while to bring to the fore more than is being done the qualities that are essential to success in teaching. The general public hears so much about the newer things in educational practice and so little of the qualifications that the teacher must have to insure success in the training of children in school, that it would not be strange if the notion is accepted that in these present-day discoveries we have found a remedy for all of the shortcomings of public school education.

Over-confidence in the virtue of these newer plans for making the school life. of our children more worth while is sure to do harm, unless at the same time the doctrine is emphasized that in the right education of children there will never be a substitute for the personality, intelligence, and character of the teacher. In view of the existing tendency to lay more stress upon the mechanics of the teaching-process than upon the quality of the mental life resulting from the school training it is not surprising to have Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler say in his annual report for the past year that statistics are displacing scholarship. It is not uncommon to find teachers spending far more time over methods of rating pupils than in trying to find better ways of arousing, directing, and invigorating the mental and moral lives.of the children.

In the enthusiasm that goes with the discovery of new things, it is only natural that older values are lost sight of. The worth of any course of study is measured by the teacher. The teaching is worth just what the teacher is worth in personality, scholarship, enthusiasm, and in power to foster the growth of those mental and moral traits that give to human life its highest value.

This subject is not of my own choice; it was assigned me. It is of such a leading nature as to suggest being a variant of the example given in the old text-books on formal logic,-"How long is it since you left off beating your wife?" Why should we imply that the funds necessary for educating adults should be subtracted from those intended for training children? If it is imperative that adults should be educated, why should not the financial support for this be forthcoming, irrespective of what we devote to other good educational purposes? The query also reminds me of the economic adjustment offered the schools by some city boards of estimate and control, or the solution frequently suggested by legislative committees on finance: "Yes, we will let you increase this man's salary or make that necessary extension of your work, if you will agree to cut some one else's salary or give up some other feature you believe to be important." It assumes that nothing worth while can be accomplished in education without sacrificing something else of equal value. This is a curious but current conception of compensation.

But against any such assumption I must protest with all the vigor I possess. Such an attitude is utterly unAmerican; it is entirely out of keeping with the spirit of our educational ideals. In this country we have embarked on a policy that is absolutely unique in the

history of civilization, and have determined to give to each and every one all the training of whatever kind he can possibly utilize. We have done this deliberately, despite the gloomy predictions of all other nations, in the firm belief that it will not only produce the most nearly perfect development of the individual, but will best promote the welfare of society by enabling it to secure the benefit of all its human resources. Accordingly, we have come to hold that every one should be offered the training that will best suit his educational needs.

Acting on this principle, we have for some time been providing in our school system for all varieties of intelligence. Not only have we arranged for all types of defectives, delinquents, and dependents, but are now slowly coming to afford opportunities for gifted and supernormal children, who have hitherto been most sinned against, but are bound to furnish our democracy with its leadership. But there are striking gaps in our American theory when we come to deal with those past the compulsory age, whom, in contrast to the others, as implied in the title of this discussion. we may consider as "adults." There are a large number of young people who leave the school as soon as the law permits, and a tremendous mass of older people whom the law seems never to have reached.

Statutes of the various states have,

in general, been aiming to bring it to pass that all children shall be required to attend school until they are fourteen years of age and have finished the elementary grades. They have apparently succeeded better with the age limit then with the grade qualification, for, while approximately seventy percent remain until fourteen, less than forty percent complete the eight grades. And when the legal barrier is passed, the proportion of those dropping out increases rapidly in both instances, until by the end of the high school, there are but eight percent remaining and about the same percent of the young people of eighteen are still in school. To put it in a slightly different way, out of twenty-five pupils of school age, only ten complete the eight grades, and but two finish high school, while less than three-quarters of our pupils have the benefit of schooling up to fourteen, and much less than one-half of the young people between fourteen and twenty are in schools of any kind.

The proportion of illiterates and of aliens among our adults, as estimated from the statistics taken during the War, is still more disturbing. To judge from the examinations given in our army camps, approximately one-quarter of our people are unable to read an English newspaper or write an intelligent letter, and from tweleve to fourteen millions, more than one-eighth of the population, are foreign born. And that these two facts are somewhat re

lated, no one can for a moment doubt, for, while there are many remote and isolated places where our compulsory laws have not reached the native inhabitants, illiteracy in English has received its greatest accumulations through the influx from southern and eastern Europe and Asia.

Even more serious are the revela

tions concerning the intelligence of our people. If we can trust the estimates made by Dr. Robert M. Yerkes in the report of the Psychological Examining Board in the United States Army almost one-half (47.3 percent) of the white men in the draft, native and foreign born, proved, through intelligence tests, to be "morons"; that is, while adults, to have a mental age of seven to twelve years. This is appalling but we pile Pelion upon Ossa in our problems, when we turn to the statistics of foreign born. Here we find that, while persons of inferior intelligence among the native Americans form twenty-two percent of the group, there are forty-six percent in the case of the foreign element as a whole, and sixty, sixty-three, and seventy percent with the natives of Russia, Italy, and Poland respectively.

Truly the load that Uncle Sam is carrying in his endeavor to educate all is prodigious! What can we do to assist him and to carry out our American