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most important functions of that office. They are functions which are strictly professional in character, requiring either special training, or long experience, and, in any case, a high degree of skill. Everyone must admit that special skill or professional ability in educational work is not best obtained through a popular election. If it could be so obtained, why should not the teachers in each district be elected by popular vote at the district meeting, instead of being appointed by the district board? If it could be so obtained, why is it that in those cities where the best schools are always to be found the city superintendents are appointed, instead of being elected by popular vote? That it cannot be so obtained is no reflection upon the intelligence of the people. It arises from the fact that the great mass of people are fully occupied with the daily business concerns of their own vocations, and do not give the special attention and study to the needs of their educational system that must be given in order to secure its best development. That this last statement is correct is shown by the fact that not one parent in twenty ever visits the school in which his children are enrolled once during the school year.

3. The County School Superintendent

[Supt. J. H. Ackerman, in Bien. Rept. Supt. Publ. Instr., Oregon, 1911, p. xxi.]

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It cannot be said too often that the county school superintendent is at the strategic center of all school operations; and that as he is so will be his schools. If this be true, and there can be but little doubt of it, the office ought to receive more recognition than it has ever had. In a political way it has amounted to little, and ought to amount to less, for it ought to be an office above the schemes of cliques and beyond the strife of partisans, - but in a sociological way no official position in any county is more powerful either for good or for evil. It reaches with its silent but pervasive influence, whether consciously or not, every home and hearthstone all over the land, and determines, to a greater or a less degree, not merely the moral tone of the home but the practical efficiency as well. It is but a trite statement, then, that these men ought to be the best procurable. By "best" is not meant merely the morally best. Their morals, of course, should be above reproach and unimpeachable. But many may have this qualification and still be utterly incompetent. These men should have, in addition to their perfect moral fitness, professional fitness and competency. They ought to be trained men, not only men who

know but men who know how to do, to lead, to bring things to pass; and in each county there ought to be such a man giving his entire time and thought to the work of organizing schools, directing the course of study, conducting institutes, holding conferences, and developing in the system its tens of thousands of latent possibilities for good, which only a competent man can find.

Such men can be found and kept in the work only by holding up as an attraction for them positions big with promise and bulging with opportunities. Too many superintendents in Oregon have not such positions. There are scarcely half a dozen in the thirtyfour counties that a man may hold and live by. This being true, many are held by men who rely in part upon other work or enterprises for a living, giving the affairs of this office but a portion of their time and thought. To spend money for irregular, perfunctory and desultory supervision is grossest extravagance.

be active, thorough, and skilled if it amounts to anything worth while.

4. The County Superintendent's Powers

[Supt. E. B. Denison, in 51st Mo. State School Rept., 1900, p. 104.]

The legislature has not failed to provide duties for the superintendent, every one of which duties I most earnestly endorse; but it has surely neglected to provide the proper power or authority for carrying some of them into effect. The legislation needed is not so much concerning the duties of the superintendent as it is his powers. The fact is that the superintendent has little or no authority so far as the actual work with the schools is concerned. He has absolutely no authority over the teachers, and nothing in common with the district boards of directors. Whether or not they cooperate with him in the management of the schools depends altogether on their pleasure in the matter. The superintendent may, through his personal influence with some of the teachers and boards of directors, succeed this year in organizing the work in many of the districts, but by the shifting of teachers and the changing of directors, next year will find much of the work undone or greatly retarded. Our city schools are well organized and have a definite course of study, and the work moves forward in proper order year after year. Why this condition in the city schools and not in the rural schools? It is due to the close cooperation between the city superintendent and his board of directors; he meets and consults with them often regarding the management of the schools, has a voice in the selection of teachers, and is vested with the proper authority for conducting the schools. The city teachers, recogniz

ing the authority of their superintendent, are ready to carry out his plans. These relations do not exist between the county superintendent, the rural directors, and their teachers; and until they do exist the rural schools will not reach the proper standard. Furthermore these relations cannot exist under the present laws. We need some legislation that will place the superintendent in closer working relations with his teachers and the boards of directors.

5. County and City Superintendents Compared

[W. K. Tate, State Supervisor of Rural Schools, in 42d An. Rept. State Supt. Educ., S. Carolina, 1911, pp. 105, 113.]

I wish once more to emphasize the value of proper supervision in the training of teachers. The city superintendent usually finds a new recruit in his school awkward and inefficient. He must continually assist her in the management of her class and in the improvement of her methods. She progresses rapidly under the right kind of supervision. The country teacher has almost none of this assistance. The sole supervising officer is the county superintendent, employed at a salary which assumes that he is to devote only a portion of his time to this work and responsible for a territory which makes it impossible for him to visit the schools more than once a year. There are counties in South Carolina in which the salary of the county superintendent with 300 teachers in his charge is less than one-half the salary of the city superintendent in the county seat with one-tenth the number of teachers. This is not giving the country children a square deal, and no one who would continue the condition is a true friend of the country school. In my opinion no county can afford a county superintendent who can be secured for less than $1,200 a year, and the county should demand all his time for the schools. ***

The county superintendent of education is the most important officer in the county. He should be able to plan wisely the educational program of the county, and with some assurance of opportunity to execute his plans. Should we not hedge this office with some qualifications? Is the direct primary every two or four years the best way to select an expert? Should we not have the privilege of hunting our man occasionally, instead of limiting ourselves in our choice to those who seek the position? Should not the county superintendent be the executive officer of the county board, just as the city superintendent is the executive officer of the city board? Can we afford, too, to have the county superintendent the poorest paid officer in the county?

6. The County Superintendency and Politics

[From Editorial in New England Journal of Education, 1910.]

The county superintendency must be taken out of politics. I said this in an Indiana county the past summer, and an exceedingly bright young man said to me: 'Wait till I get in, and then preach that gospel to the limit."

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This records the real trouble. It would be a simple matter to eliminate politics if we could eliminate the aspiration of bright young men who have been laying their plans for some time.

Wherever one party is continuously in power the politicalization of the county superintendency is not noticed. In Pennsylvania a man often stays in office from ten to twenty-five years, despite the fact that the office is political. But when there is a political overturn in the county the viciousness of the situation becomes as apparent, as at present in Indiana. There the county superintendent is elected by the township trustees, one from each township; usually fewer than ten compose the county board.

These trustees are elected on a purely partisan ticket. There is no thought of the professional educational aspect of the situation. A man gets on his party ticket, and if the ticket is elected he goes along with it.

Here is a sample county: From time immemorial the county has been going Republican. There are nine townships, which means nine voters for the superintendent. The present superintendent is universally appreciated and admired by the teachers and by all educational interests in the county. Every principal and township superintendent would sign a petition for his retention in office. It is the universal judgment that he is the best superintendent the county has ever had, but, at the election in 1909, the state went Democratic. The governor, the congressmen, the legislature went Democratic, and that carried this county in common with others, and five of the nine directors are Democrats, and the chance of his re-election is a negative quantity. The five Democrats say emphatically that he is the best man for the place, that they would like to vote for him, but they were elected on a party ticket, and the party expects them to do their political duty. How long will this thing be allowed to continue?

III. NEED OF A LARGER ADMINISTRATIVE UNIT

1. A Larger Administrative Unit Needed

[State Supt. J. H. Ackerman, in Bien. Rept. Supt. of Publ. Instr., Oregon, 1911, p. xxii.]

From the beginning of the organization of the public school system the school district has been the smallest administrative unit. It met the needs of a people who were working under comparatively primitive conditions and probably accomplished its purpose as effectively as could be reasonably expected. The question is now being seriously considered as to the advisability of enlarging the present administrative unit to meet the needs of our present civilization. It is a matter of common knowledge that in other lines of human effort the tendency is strongly toward combination and centralization, to the end that more effective work may be more adequately dealt with and the details may be more definitely planned and executed.

The question of supervision is a vital one. In the county superintendency we have the beginnings of a complete and effective system of supervision. We must perforce use the county unit to secure the desired results. We must adopt the system now in vogue in our cities to all parts of the county, excluding only the cities of the first class. The problem can best be solved by making the county the major unit in so far as there shall be one head, and then have a sufficient number of subdivisions of this major unit, with an assistant superintendent in charge of each subdivision working under the advice and direction of the county superintendents. There should be a sufficient number of such subdivisions, so as to secure as efficient supervision as is secured in city systems. The county superintendent should have a voice in the selection of all teachers, to the extent of having a vote in the selection or dismissal of a teacher. He should also have a voice in the making and executing of all rules and regulations for the government of the school. This would make the county supervision effective. To the extent of the selection of teachers and the supervision of instruction we are introducing the principle of the county unit without running the risk of introducing partisan politics into the schools, the gravest objection that can be urged against the plan of placing the full control of all the schools of a county under one board.

The smaller unit, the district, can safely be entrusted with

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