Volume XIII

THE DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE AT ATLANTIC CITY

If there were any attending the Atlantic City meeting who had forgotten that the so-called "winter meeting" of the National Education Association is, after all, the meeting of the Department of Superintendence, they were promptly and rather dramatically apprised of their error.

COMMISSIONER KENDALL'S MESSAGE

In his bedside message to the convention, read at the opening session, Monday, February 28, President Calvin N. Kendall, after expressing his regret at not being able to preside at the meeting, said:

The time has come, in the judgment of your president, when some reorganization of the winter meeting is absolutely necessary in order that the numbers attending the convention may be reduced.

The readjustment of this matter is of very serious import, and will require earnest study on the part of the persons most deeply interested. The meeting has, in a sense, become so great a success and so many people want to attend it that there are very few cities in the country that can take care of it; and the difficulty is bound to grow greater rather than less.

The president therefore recommends either (1) that a committee be appointed to study the whole question and report at the next meeting of the Department of Superintendence; or (2) that the Department take action at this meeting on the specific question as to whether or not other organizations and allied associations shall be encouraged in the future to hold meetings at the time and place of the annual meeting of the Department of Superintendence.

The president also recommends that since the National Education Association grants to each of the departments the privilege of electing its own officers and transacting its own business, the De

Number 325

partment of Superintendence take action to determaine and define who shall be considered members of the department in the election of officers and in the transaction of other business.

LIMITED TO SUPERINTENDENTS The convention lost no time in acting on President Kendall's recommendations. On Tuesday morning Superintendent R. G. Jones, of Cleveland, presented a reorganization report prepared by a committee which had as its other members A. E. Winship, editor of the Journal of Education, Boston; Superintendent H. S. Weet, Rochester, N. Y.; Superintendent E. C. Hartwell, Buffalo, N. Y., and Superintendent J. W. Sexton, Lansing, Mich. The plan called for: (1) Membership in the department to consist of state, county and city superintendents (in cities of 1,000 population and over), assistant superintendents and state and national administrative officers; (2) financial independence for the Department of Superintendence; (3) a permanent secretary. The committee report was adopted at once practically without discussion, and all persons present who did not fall in any of the categories mentioned were invited to leave the meeting hall.

Just what the real significance of the action is remains to be seen. In his "Convention Daily" for March 1, Mr. C. G. Pearse said:

If the action taken by the City Superintendents to-day shall mean the beginning of a division in spirit of the nation's educational forces; if there is to be a struggle for prestige and for political advantage; if there is to be a scramble for "recognition" and the "premier" position in the

educational affairs of the country; then those who have brought about this action will have a heavy load of responsibility to bear. Every well-wisher of American education will hope and trust that no such results may appear.

And he added:

It is not clear why it was thought necessary by those who advocated the action taken by the department to-day, to push through at a sitting a report that only a few persons had previously seen, most of whose provisions were unknown to the great mass of those presented until they were read for adoption, and, finally, which completely reorganized the department, instead of reporting only a plan for electing the department's officers, which was all that the committee reporting had been authorized to do.

Notwithstanding assurance by Superintendent Jones and others for the committee that no separation from the National Education Association was contemplated, the new plan continued to be the chief topic of discussion between meetings during the week. At the business session on Thursday, accordingly, President Fred M. Hunter, of the National Education Association felt called upon to make the following statement:

The executive committee of the National Education Association has noted with approval the statement made by Superintendent R. G. Jones, in presenting the report on reorganization, that there was no thought on the part of the Department of Superintendence to separate from the parent organization. At the present time, while the National Education Association is arraying all forces in behalf of a national constructive program of education, the unification of all education forces is vital. Any other action would be entirely illegal and consequently null and void.

We recognize that it is entirely within the province of a department to define its own membership, as has been done at this convention. The National Education Association announces that all departments and sections will be amply provided for at the annual convention of the National Education Association in Des Moines, and it has issued an invitation to all departments, sections and affiliated bodies to hold their programs as usual

in connection with the National Education Association meeting.

A CONSPICUOUS PROGRAM

So much for the "reorganization" at Atlantic City and its possible consequences. As for the program of the meeting, there was general agreement that it was one of the very best in recent years.

The department program opened on Monday morning, February 28, with a session on the rural school. State Superintendent Will C. Wood, of California, made a statesmanlike address on the way California is trying to vision the rural-school problem in relation to the commonwealth. He emphasized the principle that wealth everywhere must be taxed to equalize educational opportunities. He told how California last year had closed her smaller schools in some places rather than lower standards of teaching, and how recently the people of the state had voted by a majority of two to one to come to the aid of education with millions of dollars of state aid. Superintendent Wood denounced proposals in some quarters for educational retrenchment. "When we entered the war in 1917," he said, "it was not intended that our children should pay the bill in discounted educational opportunity."

Ralph Decker, superintendent of schools of Sussex County, New Jersey, described New Jersey's progress in rural education in recent years, particularly by means of the "helping teacher," a special New Jersey device.

Former Governor W. L. Harding, of Iowa, made one of those characteristically human appeals for education for which he has been noted all over the country since his appearance at the Citizens' Conference at Washington last year.

The need for making the people as a whole understand that "the rural school,

of all our institutions, is closest to whatever is formative and abiding in our national life" was expressed by Professor W. C. Bagley, of Teachers College, Columbia University, in a paper which warned against exploiting the rural population. We must make people realize, he said, "that the improvement of the rural school is a responsibility which the city folk must share with the country people."

REPORTS FROM SCHOOL SYSTEMS

"Some ideals and accomplishments of the school system I represent" was the topic assigned to H. S. Weet, of Rochester; David B. Corson, of Newark, N. J.; Frank B. Cooper, of Seattle, and Randall J. Condon, of Cincinnati, on Monday afternoon. Superintendent Weet made use of the opportunity to present a remarkably effective statement of achievements in his city in the past ten or a dozen years.

The main address at the Monday evening meeting was by Mrs. Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, of New York, who told boyhood stories of her famous brother and his love for books. Livingston Lord, of the State Normal School at Charleston, Illinois, spoke on "The Teacher's Ideals,' while Fred M. Hunter, of Oakland, and J. W. Studebaker, Des Moines, Iowa, described the plans for the annual meeting of the National Education Association at

THE SUPERINTENDENT'S USE OF HIS TIME Discussion of the best use of the superintendent's time, the subject of the Tuesday morning session, brought out a number of interesting views. Superintendent Charles S. Meek, erstwhile of Boise and San Antonio, but now of Madison, Wisconsin (incidentally, one of the few university men not affected by the exclusion rule, since he is superintendent of schools at Madison as well as a professor in the University of Wisconsin), began by telling how the superintendent should not spend his time. According to Mr. Meek the superintendent must be careful not to think too much about his job; he musn't waste time trying to harmonize "that small percentage of teachers in his own corps. who are conscientious objectors on principle"; and he must not allow any of his time to the political, religious and reform movements which now and again divide communities into warring factions.

In the view of H. B. Wilson, of Berkeley, California, the superintendent should gather information, study and plan ahead for the schools, determine educational programs and procedure, provide physical equipment, provide and develop a staff, help finance the city's educational program, and promote cooperation with forces in and out of the school system. "I believe it may be assumed to be axiomatic,"

The National Education Association has reorganized so that it is now on a representative basis. It has established a journal which enables it to keep in close touch with its membership, which is expected to reach 75,000 or 100,000 before the annual meeting next July. It is already affiliated with 550 local associations and 38 state associations, so that it now represents in a very direct way a great majority of the 700,000 teachers in the United States.

use of the superintendent's time which does not provide amply for working cooperatively with the teaching staff is indefensible.'

FUTURE OF EDUCATION

"The probable future of education in the United States" was the ambitious topic set for Tuesday afternoon, with papers by Superintendent Henry Snyder, of Jersey