Supervisors Discuss Supervision in its Distinction thought his situation through, analyzed from Administration and Inspection it, and selected for attention weak spots or new needs tends to displace mere routine visitation and inspection, vague and general supervision. Dr. O. G. Brim First Sectional Conference for Southeastern States Held at Nashville. Practical Examples discussed the intelligent use of textbooks. of Rural Supervision. Careful Program of Work with Definite Budget of Time is P Absolutely Essential ROBLEMS of supervision as distinct from those of administration and inspection were discussed by the first sectional conference for supervisors of the southeastern States, called by the Commissioner of Education of the Interior Department, which met at George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tenn., December 14 and 15. Each of the 10 southeastern States inIcluded in the conference area was represented by both State and county supervisors. In addition to the States in the immediate group represented, a few were registered from Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, New York, and the District of Columbia. The president and faculty of George Peabody College extended the most courteous hospitality to the conference and to the individual delegates. In addition to social features, three full sessions were held each day. Favor Regular Annual Conferences At the close of the last session the as sembled delegates unanimously adopted the report of a committee on future plans and considerations, embodying a resolution that a similar conference for the Southeastern States be held annually in December and that a committee be appointed to cooperate with the United States Bureau of Education to that end. J. Virgil Chapman, State rural-school supervisor of Kentucky, presided over the first session of the conference. He read a letter from Dr. John J. Tigert, United States Commissioner of Education, expressing regret at his inability to be present and conduct the conference. It was therefore necessary for him to delegate general responsibility for the conference to Mrs. Katherine M. Cook, chief of the division of rural education, to whom he had entrusted also the reading of his address setting forth his purposes in calling the conference. Portions of the address are presented in another column of this issue. Dr. Fannie W. Dunn, professor of rural education, Teachers College, Columbia University, followed, setting forth what supervision is and showing by practical examples and suggestions what school supervision should do for the education of rural children. Doctor Dunn was followed by Miss Hattie Parrott, State supervisor of North Carolina, who made prac tical applications of the principles enunciated by Doctor Dunn in terms of a supervisor's duty from the viewpoint of a State supervisor, and by Miss Cora Pearson, of Alabama, who made applications from the viewpoint of the county supervisor. The afternoon session of the conference was devoted to the discussion of problems directly concerned with classroom work, analysis of the recitation, application of remedial work, use of demonstration lessons, and of tests as a means of diagnosing instruction. The main topic concerning the analysis of the recitation was presented by Dr. W. H. Burton, professor of The education, University of Cincinnati. supervisor must distinguish between "analytical and atmospheric supervision," he said. The outline furnished the supervisors by the speaker as an aid in activity analysis indicated that a careful study of the teaching procedure must be made to insure systematic improvement on the part of teachers. Miss Spencer, State supervisor of Alabama, speaking on demonstration teaching, said that lessons for a group of teacher observers are more valuable than those taught by a supervisor for an individual teacher. Details of methods and management which might seem too personal if mentioned during the classroom visit may be thus discussed, and the indifferent teacher is more likely to be reached. Standard Tests Determine Relative Efficiency He said that intelligence means knowing what you are doing, why you are doing it, and having a definite way of accomplishing your purpose. High lights of Tuesday's proceedings were the discussion of courses of study in the morning program by Doctor Dunn and Doctor Brim, and the presentation by Miss Annie Reynolds, of the Bureau of Education, of the results of a study of State courses of study made in the Bureau of Education, and of a partially completed study made by a committee on research at Teachers College, Columbia University, of more than 200 State and county courses. Reports of several studies of time allotment of supervisors were presented by Miss Ora Devers, of North Carolina, Miss Anne Holdford, of North Carolina. Miss Olivia Lawson, of Alabama, and Miss Annie several Reynolds. The studies of time allotment presented showed considerable similarity in the allotment of time practiced by supervisors. The program resulted in a lively discussion concerning guiding principles in time allotment. The supervisors went on record as indorsing the plan of definitely budgeting the time of supervisors, adopt ing as a tentative standard the median allotment in the several studies reported on the afternoon program. This allotment proposed that classroom visits occupy 50 per cent of total working time, the remainder to be divided among professional study, travel, teachers' meetings, community activities, office and clerical work. Doctor Frost, professor of rural education, Peabody College for Teachers, showed how standard tests can be used Satisfactory Luncheons for San Diego to determine the relative efficiency of two or more schools within a system, the strong and weak pupils, and which subjects require additional drill. Tuesday evening President Bruce Payne, of Peabody College, spoke of the importance and difficulty of supervising instruction, of early efforts on the part of superintendents to give practical help to teachers in the conduct of their schools, and of the importance of the work of supervisors. Doctor Burton said that a careful program of the work to be attempted during a term or year is an absolute essential in any scheme of supervision. A survey of programs of supervision recently made shows that the best ones come from rural sources. A program made by a supervisor who has Pupils Cafeteria service is available to all pupils in San Diego (Calif.) high schools and in practically all elementary schools. This is a development of the past five years. In earlier days parent-teacher organizations rendered helpful service, and many women donated their time in order that school children might have wellprepared and nourishing food at a nominal price. The service is now operated independently on a self-supporting basis. Though a manager is usually in charge of the cafeteria, the work is under the supervision of the principal of the building, who has authority to see that a guaranteed standard of service and food is maintained. Can the Rural High School Be Made An Small Rural High Schools Commonly Offer Either Narrow Academic Curriculum or TH By EUSTACE E. WINDES Associate Specialist in Rural Education, Bureau of Education HE SECONDARY SCHOOL has become the chief agency through which knowledge of problems concerned with social organization is imparted, attitudes toward government are created, habits of participation in social and civic enterprises are fixed, and training that permits entry into a variety of occupations which fix one's social status is obtained. our We have succeeded in making our secondary schools in large population centers real instruments for democracy. We have broken down the idea that the secondary school should serve a select few who aim at professional-service occupations for which they must have collegiate training. We are drawing into secondary schools in such centers a constantly increasing representation from occupational groups of the lower orders, and we are providing, in large population centers, training suited to the needs of children of varying ability and diverse interests. Where secondary schools succeed in serving children of all social groups rather than those of a particular social status and for a variety of life purposes rather than solely for the creation of a social élite, the tendency is toward numbers of pupils who can not master academic abstractions. Particularly it fails to attract children whose parents can not undertake to keep their children in school over the extended period necessary for training prerequisite to occupations of professional grade, and it eliminates most of those who are not endowed with the quality or type of intelligence that is necessary to success in a profession. We thus have the situation wherein an agency, set up by a democratic social state in the interests of self-perpetuation, tends toward segregation of hereditary social and occupational groups and offers the anomaly of a social order taxing the lower occupational groups for a system of public education that reaches few of their members but many of the higher occupational groups. Statistical evidence from a variety of sources shows that this situation exists. The small rural high school is much more highly selective than the comprehensive high school characteristic of our large population centers. Tends to Create a Farm Caste An agency which without intent works cases through centralization of high schools, so that sufficiently large numbers of pupils can be assembled in a single school that several curricula can be offered from which pupils may choose, and yet maintain reasonably large recitation sections. Centralization enables the rural high school to conform to the comprehensive high-school pattern at reasonable cost per pupil for instruction. A reasonably comprehensive high school, however, can not be operated at bearable cost under common plans of organization for fewer than approximately 300 pupils. In many rural areas such centralization is impossible; consequently other solutions of the problem of broadening the program of studies must be found. There are undoubted possibilities in the tendency to generalize such fields as mathematics, science, and the social studies. There are undoubted possibilities, too, in abandoning group instruction and organization of the school day into fixed periods in favor of individualized instruction and free work periods. There are further possibilities in reorganizing teacher-training curricula, so that teachers reasonably trained for broader fields may be produced for service in small high schools. Educators who know the size, complexity, and seriousness of the small highschool problem are attacking the problems involved, and we anticipate constructive suggestions from time to time. There is, however, decided need for a more general and intensive attack upon those problems. the maintenance of a democratic social in practice to defeat the very ends for Board of Pennsylvania Normal order. Where secondary schools serve those of a particular social and occupational group in the interest of preparing the pupil for service in the field where the parent before him served, the tendency is toward the creation of a caste system of society. Often Leads Away from Democracy The small rural high school yet tends to lead away from democracy rather than toward democracy, not always in purpose but often in practice. This is true because the small high school now offers either an academic curriculum designed solely to prepare for professional-service occupations through articulation with colleges of liberal arts, or it offers only a curriculum designed to send the son into the occupation of the father. Where only an academic curriculum is offered, the high school is highly selective both because it fails to appeal to large numbers and because it eliminates large which it was created is to be deplored, and an agency created by a democratic social state which consciously attempts to create a caste system is vicious. Such an agency is the rural high school, which through its curriculum and through the pronouncements of its officers attempts to make of every farmer's son a farmer and to deny him opportunity of free choice of a vocation both through limiting his training to the narrow field of vocational agriculture and through attempting to create in him the spirit of the missionary toward agriculture. Such program if successful will congest agriculture with workers and will surely a create a farm caste. The correction of this situation wherein the small rural high school yet tends in practice away from our avowed aims in secondary education is not an easy task, but many educators feel that it is possible. The solution lies in the discovery of a way to broaden the curriculum of the small high school. It has been done in many School Principals A committee was authorized by the Board of Normal School Principals at its recent meeting to prepare a five-year program for standard intelligence tests to be given to first-year students in the State normal schools of Pennsylvania. This board also authorized a committee to prepare a two-year program for advertising and presenting the worth of teaching as a profession to the youth of the Commonwealth. Regional conferences in the different normal-school service areas were authorized to inform school officials of the professional service that the normal schools are ready to offer them. Action taken by the Board of Normal School Principals when approved by the superintendent of public instruction is binding upon the normal schools of the State. Within recent years the board has increased the number of its meetings from one to five each year.-William McKinley Robinson. plished but are working toward more Differentiation of Function in Rural definitely defined methods and standards Supervision Direction of Classroom Instruction Requires Special Ability, Training, and Experience. P By JNO. J. TIGERT ROBABLY no school officers in our complicated educational system have more important and more varied responsibilities than the superintendents and supervisors of rural schools, most of whom combine administrative and supervisory work. The conception of the work of the rural school superintendent has in the past 10 years undergone fundamental changes. Formerly his duties were conceived to be inspectorial, clerical, and administrative. Supervision was confined largely to an annual visit, inspectorial and inspirational at its best; critical and void of results at its worst. The newer conception is of the superintendent as a trained professional officer whose work is comparable in responsibility, prestige, and scientific technique with that of the best city superintendents. Professional Assistants to Rural Superintendents As a result of this changed conception progressive States have provided for professional assistants to the rural superintendent who can devote their time to matters concerned with improved methods of instruction, training of teachers in service, preparation and adaptation of courses of study, and performance of such other duties as concern supervisory functions as distinguished from administrative function. Where supervision of this type has not been provided by State authority, many progressive counties of their own initiative, and wholly or largely at their own expense, have provided supervisors with like responsibilities. In this particular constructive movement in rural education the southeastern States have made definite and commendable progress. Indeed, it would be difficult to select another group of contiguous States in which so much progress has been made or so much serious thought has been given to supervision as a method for improving school opportunities for rural children. It must be confessed, however that, here, as elsewhere, supervision is in a transitional stage. It is transitional in so far as delimitation of functions is Portions of an address prepared for the Conference of Rural Supervisors of the Southeastern States and read before the conference by Mrs. Katherine M. Cook, in the absence of Doctor Tigert. concerned. Many superintendents still Good Administration Precedes Supervision as to practice and procedure. Supervision is relatively a new field in education. Of the supervision of rural schools is this particularly true. As in all new fields, experience is a necessary but an expensive teacher. Supervisors of rural schools have had to find a way to solve problems not met by supervisors in other fields. They have found it necessary to exercise initiative as well as ability of a high order, and through new ways, in untried fields, to work out the solutions of a variety of problems and overcome a variety of difficulties. The time has come for supervisors to formulate these practices and procedures for their own future guidance, for the assistance of others who have the same or similar problems to meet but have not yet found as successful a method of meeting them and for those entering the field for the first time, many of whom have not the benefit of definite and adequate training. The time has come when it seems possible to reduce the problems of supervisiors to some degree of uniformity, to classify them according to accepted principles, and to set up tentative standards which are acceptable and practical even in trying situations. Rural-school supervisors have an opportunity for service unsurpassed in the field of education, rural or urban. That rural children have not equal opportunities in education with urban children is well known. Short school terms and untrained teachers are the most serious hindrances which militate against the educational welfare of children in rural communities. They are responsible for your most difficult problems. Supervision the Best Immediate Agency The complete and ultimate remedy for the whole situation lies in better admin There is no inclination to minimize the importance of administrative work. Good administration must lay the foundation which makes the erection of a complete and substantial educational structure possible. It must precede supervision. Administration must of necessity begin with material considerations. Often it is only through improvement on the material side that improvement of the classroom instruction under professional direction can be attained. It is also true, however, that one may be carried away by the lure of building up a school system on the material side alone. The immediacy of the demands made of istrative and more generously financed superintendents by school boards and patrons, the thrill of accomplishment which can be measured in tangible terms, the ease with which one can spend all of the 24 hours a day on the improvement of buildings, promoting consolidation, equipping buildings, and the like, sometimes leads the superintendent, and even the supervisor, to neglect the less picturesque phase of his work, the one which is less readily subject to tangible measurements of progress, the thing in which better buildings and equipment have their purpose-i. e., the improvement of the quality of instruction. It has, therefore, seemed to us that the time has come when concentrated the spotlight of thought should be thrown for a time on the improvement of instruction through professional supervision. Rural supervision is in a transitional stage in that we have not yet accom systems. It involves better buildings, more money, more consolidation, better high schools, and the like. These things necessary to the ultimate fulfillment of our purpose require time for their consummation. New laws, new sources of funds, new administrative conditions do not spring up overnight. While we wait for these things to come thousands of children in our rural schools are spending their last years in any school and getting all the education they will ever have. Our far-reaching plans for ultimate improvement of rural-school conditions will not materialize for them; many of them will not even enter the new buildings now in process of erection. Supervision is the best immediate agency of which we know for improving conditions in rural schools, because it is the one agency which here and now, to-day and to-morrow, offers practical, tangible help to these children. Secondary Education The South Making Progress in Output of Teacher-Preparing Institutions Insufficient to Supply Country's Needs Educational progress in the South is evident in the proceedings of the Secondary Commission of the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools at the meeting at Charleston, S. C., December 1-5, 1925. Some facts significant of progress in secondary education which stand out from the various reports and acts of this body are: 1. The commission is rapidly becoming a responsible agency of research through which vital problems of secondary education in the South are encouraged and solved. The major work of the commission now consists of systematic studies of secondary-school problems by expert committees which are the basis of action by the commission in setting up standards of secondary education. 2. The commission saw fit materially to raise standards concerned with length of school term and preparation of teachers at the meeting just held. This means that such progress has been made that it is possible to enforce higher standards. 3. The number of secondary schools able to maintain the high standards for accreditment imposed by the commission is increasing so rapidly that new schools added to the list this year approximately balance the loss of schools caused by the transfer of West Virginia to the North Central Association. High schools generally are better financed, housed, equipped, and staffed with well-trained teachers. 4. An important report by a committee on junior high schools shows a rapid development of this most modern type of secondary school in the South. 5. Comparative statistics of enrollment and number of public and private secondary schools shows phenomenal development of public high schools. The South is whole-heartedly supporting public secondary education. This means gradual extension of secondary education in the South to all children of secondaryschool age rather than to a select few. -E. E. Windes. County Play Day, inaugurated two years ago, is now a regular date on the rural school calendar in Lac qui Parle County, Minn. The purpose of this annual play day is to develop the boys and girls physically, to interest them in clean games and sports which lead to cooperation on the playground, and to solve the problem of discipline on the playground. Schools that take an active part in play day events also rank high in their regular school work and activities. Fewer Than 60,000 Persons Annually Graduate as Qualified in Some Measure for Teaching. Even if All Should Teach They Would Fill Only a Small Proportion of Vacancies Which Occur "W By WILLIAM MCKINLEY ROBINSON ANTED: Teacher for rural ress. What caliber of person would this advertisement attract? And yet it describes the average rural teacher in a State that is above the average in educational progHow many of the teachers in the 168,000 one-teacher schools of the United States are of this type it would be hazardous to guess. Thousands of them we know are no better. In this are we playing fair with the rural child? Undoubtedly marked improvement has taken place if we consider the conditions of a generation or so ago; but that affords little comfort to those who realize that we can not have good schools without good teachers and that the success of our democracy depends upon good schools. Teacher-Training in High Schools To assist rural communities in meeting the challenge of a "well-prepared teacher for every child in the State," normal training courses are given in high schools in a number of States. Five States, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, and Vermont, maintain the work on a postgraduate basis-i. e., high-school graduation or its equivalent is required for entrance to the course. Two other States report that they also have practically reached this standard. The estimate that approximately 18,000 students were graduated from high-school normal training courses in 1923-24 assists one to comprehend more fully the influence such courses are having in the preparation of rural teachers. These courses, however, appear to be considered as but temporary expedients. Four of the 26 States that have thus far tried the plan have discontinued it and 3 others are discouraging the work with a view to its elimination as soon as State normal schools are prepared to supply a sufficient number of better prepared teachers. It is apparent that superintendents in seeking teachers more mature and better prepared must call upon normal schools and teachers' colleges for them. The de mand made upon these institutions for elementary teachers are enormous. Although there are approximately 600,000 elementary-school teaching positions in the United States, the normal schools and teachers' colleges graduated from their normal courses but 40,484 teachers in 1923-24. Half of these graduates are needed yearly to care adequately for the normal increase in the elementary-school enrollment, which leaves approximately 20,000 teachers trained in normal schools to fill the vacancies caused by those leaving the profession each year. This number would be sufficient to meet the needs if each teacher should remain actively in the profession for 30 years, but not otherwise. Realizing the inadequacy of the supply to meet the need, teacher-preparing institutions are anxiously trying to stimulate their enrollment. In 1923-24, 33.8 per cent of the graduates of the State institutions of Washington entered the teaching profession, as compared with 24.7 per cent two years previously. During the same period the number of students graduated from normal courses in all the normal schools and teachers colleges in the United States increased 50 per cent. Few Normal Graduates in Rural Schools Most normal-school graduates, however, do not teach in rural communities. In fact, Dr. C. E. Benson's study in 1920 showed that but 6 per cent of the graduates in 17 representative normal schools entered rural schools. More encouragement is gleaned from such reports as these: Fifty-seven per cent of the 305 graduates of the Maryland State normal schools entered one and two teacher rural schools last year; 68 per cent of the beginning teachers in the oneroom rural schools in Connecticut last year were normal-school graduates. All seniors in the Connecticut State normal schools are required to take a course in rural education that aims to give them a foundation for an intelligent understanding of the State's rural problems. Realizing that rural schools are in the most serious need of trained teachers, 122 State normal schools and teachers' colleges now give 256 courses in rural education. Seventy-seven colleges and universities now offer 124 courses in rural education. How National Thrift Week Was Observed in sponsored by the Young Men's Christian the Schools of New Haven Remove "Spend" from "Spendthrift," as Applied to Our Nation. No Question More ייד By ADOLPH LEWISOHN HRIFT is a subject of gaining importance to educators the country over. As one prominent writer on this phase of economics has said, "If we are to remove the 'spend' from 'spendthrift' as applied to our Nation, it must be done through education." No question, either economic or social, transcends in importance the question of how personal incomes shall be used. Teaching children how to manage their personal affairs is, at least, of equal value, from the standpoint of the public welfare, to any subject in our course of study. This is the opinion of another experienced student of economics. He goes on to say, "It is the proper function and duty of public education to give young people an appreciation of how to start their lives on a sound economic basis-show them what the primary principles of success are." National Thrift Week, January 17-23 The national thrift committee, through national thrift week, January 17-23, each year since the inception of this movement in 1916, has been forwarding the idea of thrift as the sure road to success and happiness. During recent years special attention has been given to thrift work in the juvenile field with beneficial results. The national thrift committee firmly be lieves that the ideal for our younger generation includes instruction in the right use of money. It contends that the quality of character is vitally affected by the young person's attitude toward material resources. Background of Experience and Accomplishment But theory is one thing and practical application of that theory is another. Happily the juvenile work of national thrift week now has a background which is practical in every sense of the word. It is a background of experience and accomplishment which proves that forward-looking educators should turn toward thrift work feeling certain that in such work they will find a source of stimulating educational material of the highest possible economic value. One of the best practical examples of what juvenile thrift work can accomplish comes from New Haven, Conn. There, through the unstinting efforts of Miss Elizabeth Allen, principal of the Zunder School of that city, a work has been accomplished which is stimulating to a high degree. In order to gain a complete picture of these accomplishments it is necessary first to obtain an idea of the bare mechanics of national thrift week. It is a movement Association and indorsed by 47 national organizations. The endeavor is founded on an easily understood ideal composed of 10 points. Each day of national thrift week, January 17-23, is devoted to some specific thrift purpose. For a picture of the human interest side of the endeavor we turn to the First National Bank of New Haven. It is "thrift day." A squad of kiddies from one of the public schools have visited the bank and now are in one of the vaults. Teddy Rosenthal, one of the students, is allowed to hold a package containing $1,000. More money than there is in the whole world, it seems to Teddy. It is an impression which will last throughout his whole life. And linked with that "high-spot" is the education in money matters which he has received-how money is saved; how interest mounts up; why it is advisable to put money in a savings bank. Think of what a help such a trip would have been to you, years ago when you were a little fellow like Teddy. "Thrift Talks" Written on Blackboard But bank visiting is only one phase of this work. Another most interesting idea is the "thrift talk" system which New Haven has evolved. Each day of Thrift Week a hundred word thrift talk is written on the blackboard. It is copied on specially prepared blanks by each student. Instructions are given that these blanks be taken home to the parents as specimens of penmanship. In this way, new interest is aroused and thrift is impressed upon the minds of both parents and scholars. Essay and poster contests are also a part of the New Haven program. Many |