Outlines of school administration

Front matter

OUTLINES OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION

NEW YORK • BOSTON ■ CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited

Preface

This volume is offered with the thought that it may be found acceptable as a textbook in the study of School Administration. Having this use in mind, I have followed a spiral plan involving repeated review of the systems of the various nations treated, instead of one which would dispose of the schools country by country. Even where such a textbook is not needed, I trust that the volume may yet be found of value for reference. I also venture to hope that it will be of interest to the general reader who desires to acquaint himself with the salient features of the schools of our own and other leading nations.

For both general reader and special student, I have endeavored to lighten the subject by judicious handling of the statistical matter. Thus I have not hesitated to translate the exact figures of official reports into " round numbers " or even generalized statements whenever such changes involved no loss of substantial accuracy.

VI PREFACE

My indebtedness to those who have written at length on the many specific topics which this book groups together and aims to unify is readily seen from the liberal use of the quotation mark. I have quoted, not only in order to place the particular citations before the reader, but also to direct his attention to the bibliography of the subject and to tempt him to further study.

In this connection I must express my appreciation of the services of those who, in the libraries of this city, have patiently aided me in my own quest for material. More particularly am I indebted to Dr. C. C. Williamson, in charge of the economics collection of the New York Public Library, and to Miss Mary J. Thackray and her corps of gracious associates at the Saratoga Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. Finally, for wise counsel and effective assistance, generously given, I desire to thank Dr. Gustave Straubenmuller, Associate Superintendent of Schools, New York, and Miss Mabel W. Haines and Miss Mabel F. Jones, both of Public School Eighty-five, Brooklyn.

ARTHUR C. PERRY, JR.

Brooklyn, New York, November, 191 1.

PART I. SCHOOL ORGANIZATION a. The Organic Structure b. The Curriculum General View . Infant Education

Elementary Education Secondary Education Higher Education .

Vocational Education

175 185 194 214 236 261

Vlll

CONTENTS c. The Norm of Public Education

CHAPTER PAGE

XVII. General View 303

XVIII. The United States 312

XIX. Other Countries 329

Introduction

" As music is not a matter of strings or keys or instruments, and as true oratory does not depend upon the language or color of the orator, so administration is not a matter of forms or method. In its higher sense, it is an atmosphere, an enfolding and life-giving power, which, consciously and unconsciously, acts upon and sways every one within its field of action, and nerves him to do the best that is in him for the common cause." — Birdseye, "The Reorganization of our Colleges," p. 165.

Professor Horne, in his valuable " Philosophy of Education," 1 shows that " there are four points of view from which the study of education, in the narrow sense of the term, may be profitably undertaken. Education has a history, an ideal, a practice, and a philosophy." For him the " practice of education " presents three practical problems: (1) how to organize a school or a school system; (2) how to manage, in which the question of discipline is uppermost; and (3) how

1 Macmillan, 1904, pp. 7 et seq.

to supervise. Without giving unqualified assent to this threefold subdivision, it may be said, in general, that it is this practice of education, as distinguished from the other three phases, that constitutes the scope of this volume. Although there is a certain interdependence of the four phases, shown for instance by the fact that the character of the practice of education depends very largely upon the educational ideal, the general term School Administration is here used to encompass all the formal and official relationships which the pupil sustains toward those interested in his education.

In America, the trend toward centralization in the various departments of human progress has been particularly accentuated and accelerated in recent years. Population has drifted into great centers, so that a bird's-eye view of our country must remind one of our experiment in physics which shows the congregation of iron filings about magnetic poles, the fact being that to-day about one third of our population is urban. 1 We

1 To be exact, in 1900, for the United States, 32.4 per cent, varying greatly by states, from 91.6, Rhode Island; 86.9, Massachusetts; 71.2, New York; 67.5, New Jersey, to 5.3, Mississippi; 5.0, Oklahoma.

INTRODUCTION 3

may not overlook the fact that there are potent influences already urging the tide of migration countryward, — or at least suburbanward, — and it is possible that a century hence school organization, like all other political organizations, will, on this account, take on quite a different form. This, however, is but speculation, and we concern ourselves with the present facts. Politically, centralization has steadily progressed since the Civil War, with federal powers strengthened, executive departments successfully assertive, and the principle of concentration of authority advanced all along the line. Industrially, also, we note that the compact corporation or "trust" is the prevailing form of organization. It is not surprising therefore to see that, educationally, our schools are fast giving place to our school systems, and School Administration has emerged as one of our educational problems.

With this development of the problem itself there has been a corresponding development in the study of the problem and in the bibliography which both results from and helps to guide that study. School Administration as a subject of study is an extremely modern one. As late as

1875 we find Professor Payne, in his "Chapters on School Administration," devoting space to the " nature and value of superintendence " and " the art of grading schools." The necessity for school supervision was subject to discussion, the plea for scientific direction of schools was on the defensive, and the graded school was scarcely more than an experiment. Even in 1881, Dr. Baldwin gave but one chapter of the ten in his "Art of School Management " to the graded school. It was not until 1903 that educational bibliography recognized the distinction between school and class, which it did then by the publication of Superintendent Taylor's modest volume entitled "The Art of Class Management." Since then, this distinction has been emphasized by some half-dozen writers, 1 and we may confidently assume that henceforth it will never be forgotten in any discussion of schools and school systems. We had to wait until 1904 for our first published volume recognizing the modern problems of School Administration in the large, when Super-

1 For instance : Bagley, " Classroom Management " ; Perry, " The Management of a City School " ; Arnold, " School and Class Management " ; Chancellor, " Class Teaching and Management."

INTRODUCTION 5

intendent Chancellor gave us his " Our Schools — Their Administration and Supervision."

Even to-day a glance at the courses of instruction in the educational departments of our leading universities shows how loose is the use of terms in the treatment of this subject of the "practice" of education. It is the aim of this book more definitely to fix the content of these terms, and it is the hope of the author that his classification may meet favorable recognition.

Chapter II Education And Schooling

" We are now engaged in the most stupendous educational, social, and economic experiment the world has ever undertaken — the experiment of universal education; and whether in the end universal education shall prove a blessing or a curse to us will depend entirely upon our skill in handling the issues it has raised for our solution." — Davenport, " Education for Efficiency," p. 13.

The word education is an extremely elastic one and may be stretched to the verge of becoming a synonym for change or growth. The earliest modification of the growing biologic cell is in the broadest sense an educational progress. The subsequent and continued modifications which in their total we call evolution constitute an educational process. The constant influence of its environment upon any living organism and the consequent adjustment of that organism to its environment is a process of education. In this sense is the brute educated ; his environment develops in him, through successive generations, a large series of necessary adjustments which

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become his stock of fundamental instincts. When these instincts are operative, the fox, for example, is educated, in the fox sense ; when they are defective, he is uneducated, and fails as a fox. Throughout the whole gamut of subhuman species, this education is unconsciously received and unconsciously given — there is no education in the sense of schooling, unless we speak figuratively and give Dame Nature the title of School Mistress to the Universe.

But when we consider the human species, we note that a change has come over this educational process. Dame Nature is still at work with her adjustment-compelling environment and her curriculum of instincts ; but for Man, education means more than mere submission to the battering of environmental forces. The individual has become a member of a social group ; he is not merely a detached specimen of his species, but he is also a socius, a unit in society. He is subject not only to the laws imposed by Nature directly upon individual man, but also to those which govern the socii in his collective group. Through countless generations humanity has been accumulating for him a stock of knowledge with which he must overlay his primal instincts. Acquisition from this stock is now a necessary part of his education, and his education is now received, not from Nature directly, but at the hands of the very humanity which is responsible for the accumulation of the educational material. Even yet, however, education may not reach the schooling stage. The savage, though in large measure ruled by instincts, is yet the creature of his social environment, and must receive an educational impress which shall carry him beyond his instincts. This education he gains through constant attrition with his fellowsocii, wherein there may be but little of formal schooling. Were he first to come to consciousness alone on a desert island, his life would be but little more than that of the brute, and his education little more than the unwrapping of his bundle of instincts. But among his fellows he is influenced by the accumulated habits, traditions, and wisdom of the tribe, and he must acquire this store of mental equipment or fail of recognition as a member of his social group.

Modern society, with its more complex structure and its more intelligent appreciation of the

EDUCATION AND SCHOOLING g

needs of mankind, has developed the institution of the school. The school is an organization through which the individual is subjected to an artificial environment in order that he may the most economically and expeditiously accomplish adjustment. Instead of leaving him to happen haphazard upon the experiences which shall serve to educate him, the school deliberately creates artificial experiences and systematically trains him to meet them. Thus not only is he saved the immense loss of time which he would sustain in hit-or-miss acquisition, but further he is early qualified to take his turn in rendering social service to his fellows.

The creation of the school by civilized society has resulted from the recognition of the need of the institution, together with the development of the desire to meet this need. We have, then, in passing, to note first the factors which contributed to make the school necessary, and secondly the growth of the sentiment which urged society to create the school.

As to the first, society has formed many institutions, — the State, Business, Property, etc., — and each imposes upon the individual member

IO SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION

of society the necessity of acquiring its own institutional group of knowledge. His brute instincts may serve him well enough for the lowest plane of self-preservation, but he can find no place as a part of the State unless he understands the State, he cannot profit from business unless he is versed in business, he can neither hold property himself nor respect the property of others unless he has learned the rules concerning property. For any satisfactory existence, he must be educated along these new lines, these lines of civilization. Moreover, mankind has invented an oral and written machinery for facilitating intercourse and for the transmission of the racial records from one generation to another. Individual man, if he is to have any material share in the benefits of civilization, must acquire the art of facile manipulation of this machinery. As to the second, while institutions have been developing, there has taken place a remarkable transition in human sentiment. We can in no wise leave out of account the phenomenon of the decline of egoism and the ascent of altruism. Altruism is the great paradox of Nature. Gradually, through the lengthening period of infancy,

EDUCATION AND SCHOOLING II

man found himself under the necessity of devoting more and more of his thought to the protection of others. From realization of his responsibility for the welfare of his dependent offspring it was a natural transition to consideration for the rights of those outside his immediate family. To-day we see men everywhere voluntarily assuming some measure of responsibility for their less fortunate fellow-men. This principle of altruism is clearly recognized in modern thought and action. And herein lies the paradox: in evolving altruism Nature seems to have worked out the destruction of her own method.

In the mists of the past man emerged from the subhuman species by virtue of Nature's method of the survival of the fittest. One result of man's development is the appearance of this sentiment of altruism, which in its very essence tends to interfere with the ancient law of the survival of the fittest. For example, in the jungle, the leopard who breaks his leg drops by the wayside and is trampled on by his fellows. Thus is the breed of leopards improved through the elimination of those who are careless as to their own physical protection. But with humanity, the man who drinks himself into the gutter is lifted up by his altruistic fellows, set upon his feet, and although physically and morally " unfit " is aided to survive and to perpetuate his unfitness in the person of his descendants. Unless we can discern a hope by way of the still youthful science of eugenics, the self-inflicted doom of the race would seem inevitable. This, however, is aside from the main issue, which is to recognize the relation of altruism to education.

Thus we see that one result of the rise of the social institutions and the advance of the sentiment of altruism has been the development of the special institution which we call the school. Moreover, as each social group has developed its institutions along lines peculiar to itself and has developed the altruistic sentiment to a distinctive degree, it follows that the resultant schools assume a characteristic form which is dependent upon these two factors. The form of education provided by the school in any nation is subject to wide variation dependent upon the varying educational ideals in vogue for the given time and place.

Among the many aims which have enlisted ed-

EDUCATION AND SCHOOLING 1 3

ucational thought and controlled educational policies, some may be noted in particular. The idea of Utility, of teaching effectiveness in " making a living," has had persistent hold since before the days of ancient Rome. To acquire Knowledge for the sake of knowledge, for the joy of acquisition and the pride of possession, to amass facts, has appealed to many whose bent is toward classification and science. To achieve Culture, to become the cultivated scholar, to know and to be all that a "perfect gentleman" should know and should be, has been the ambition equally of the ancient Greek and the modern Oxonian. To pursue education for the sake of mental Discipline, regarding the subject matter of small account, provided only that the mind as a whole is being forged into an effective tool, has been the ideal held forth by those committed to the doctrine of formal discipline. The theory of Harmonious Development, based upon the assumption of the existence of mental " faculties " and the desirability of training them all with equal diligence, has captivated the vision of Plato and Rousseau and Froebel and a host of others. The formation of Character, the development of the will, and the subjection of the man to habits of self-control, has been held as the great essential by Aristotle of old and the Herbartians of new. The thought of education as Adjustment to environment has been brought to the front by modern science. Social Efficiency, as an end and aim of education, has followed the awakening of men to their social responsibilities. The vision of Soul Liberalization has appeared to those who see in education " nothing but religion enlightened and energized, but always and essentially the religion of the faith that all are the sons of God, and that as long as he lives, even the worst may be redeemed." 1

Throughout these different ideals we note the conflict between the interest of the individual and that of society. The question whether Man exists for the State or the State for Man has been answered divergently throughout historic time and geographic space. Shall the man educate himself that the State may endure or shall the State educate man that he may prosper? In the history of education we note these two opposing aims dependent in turn upon the opposing conception of

1 William E. Chancellor, " A Theory of Motives, Ideals, and Values," Houghton, Mifflin, 1907, p. III.

EDUCATION AND SCHOOLING 1 5

the State. In Oriental education, typified by the Chinese system, we have seen a definite and formal purpose — instruction in the minutiae of the Confucian portfolio of authoritative social and ethical regulations — result in the development of the State as a collection of individuals in themselves unimportant. By contrast, in the old Greek education, constant throughout the varying theories and practices, from Homeric heroics to the cultural capture of Rome, from Spartan virtue of courage to Athenian worship of beauty, from the idealism of Plato to the practicalism of Aristotle, the emphasis was put upon the development of the individual as a dignified and integral member of the State.

Chapter III

" The State is the organic body of society ; without it society would be hardly more than a mere abstraction. If the name had not been restricted to a single, narrow, extreme, and radically mistaken class of thinkers, we ought all to regard ourselves and to act as Socialists, believers in the wholesomeness and beneficence of the body politic. If the history of society proves anything, it proves the absolute naturalness of government, its rootage in the nature of man, its origin in kinship, and its identification with all that makes man superior to the brute creation." — Woodrow Wilson, "The State," p. 631.

" It is statistically true that enough of knowledge to be of value in increasing the amount and quality of work done, to give character, to some extent at least, to a person's tastes and aspirations, is a better safeguard against the inroads of crime than any code of criminal laws." — Carroll D. Wright.

The modern State assumes much on behalf of the education of the individual. In the United States, in France, in Germany, and in many other nations, a very small proportion of the pupil enrollment is to be found in the private schools.

The introduction of the State as the supporter and regulator of the institution of the school measurably modifies the consideration of educational ideals and aims. The education which the individual may provide for himself and his own may be quite different from that which he may properly demand from the State or that which the State may concede to him. To word it more concretely, I, paying the bills myself, may educate my son in accordance with the most ideal purpose and ambitious program; whereas, to demand that my neighbors, constituting the State, shall provide this education at the common expense, would be ridiculously unreasonable. On the other hand, I may be quite careless and indifferent as to my child's education and fail to make any provision therefor whatever; in which case my neighbors, the State, for reasons of their own may take the matter entirely out of my hands.

At this point it must be made clear that public education is not a right but a privilege. The individual has no inherent right to education at the expense of his fellows. The Declaration of Independence, for instance, cites as the " certain unalienable rights," " life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," but nothing is said of the right to an education. The constitution of the State of New York, typical of the organic law of all the

States, reads, " The Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free, common schools, wherein all the children of this State may be educated." (Article IX, Section i.) This is quite different from what would be implied were the section to read: "The natural rights of the children of this State to an education shall nowhere be violated." Society, through its organized institution, the State, using the governmental machinery of the State, decides what privileges it is wise for the State to grant to its individual members. Among the privileges are included citizenship, the franchise, and this matter of education. Different societies, different States, measure these privileges differently. For example, all the States of the United States grant the franchise to male citizens above the age of 2 1 ; in most of Germany the privilege is granted to the male citizen only after he reaches the age of 25. It is evident that there is no special natural and inherent virtue in either the age 21 or the age 25. There is nothing in the age of 21 which gives the possessor the right to demand franchise. Some societies decide that the interests of their State are best served by permitting their voters to exercise the privilege at that age, others decide that the State interest demands the withholding of that privilege until a more mature age is reached. So it is in the matter of education : one society extends the privilege far in both directions — downward to the kindergarten and upward to the university — while another limits it to much less. Moreover, most States are not content with offering the privilege of education, but find it wise and expedient to compel the acceptance of a certain measure of education.

Let us examine into the justification for public education. Why should society concern itself with the education of its members? Perhaps the broadest answer to this question is that society recognizes the general obligation which the altruistic philosophy places upon it and realizes that this obligation can best be met by its existing institution, the State. 1 "The State must because the State alone can ; the State has the right be-

1 " It could probably be shown that those nations in which the altruistic tendencies are the strongest and at the same time the most rational are in the most stable condition, and give promise of retaining their vigor the longest." — M. V. O'Shea, " Social Development and Education," Houghton, Mifflin, 1909, p. 240.

cause the State is what it is — the only measure of public judgment, the only standard of reason actually attained and objectified," 1 or as Governor Wilson puts it, " no instrumentality less universal in its power and authority can secure popular education." 2

Secondly, society recognizes the necessity for the conservation of the institutions which it has so laboriously constructed for the preservation of the racial and national traditions which make for political stability. 3 In the words of Professor O'Shea, " a nation of alert minds will discern the forces that threaten degeneration in the national life, and they should be able to control them ; but the majority of the people must be trained so that

2 Woodrow Wilson, "The State," Heath, 1904, p. 638. Cf. William E. Chancellor, " A Theory of Motives, Ideals, and Values in Education, 1 ' Houghton, Mifflin, 1907, Chap. 2, advocating the organization of the educational institution independently of the State.

3 " It would seem safe to say that the more liberally a people is educated and the more generally education is diffused among the whole mass, the more will happiness abound and the more secure and effective will be the governmental organization. It would also seem safe to say that some education, and that generally diffused, is imperatively essential to the life of a well-ordered State, competent to promote the ends for which it exists." — Andrew S. Draper, Educational Review, Vol. I, p. 27.

they can discern these forces and appreciate whither they tend. A nation cannot be saved by the enlightenment of the few; the attitude and appreciation of the majority, after all, determine the fate of a nation." 1

Thirdly and more specifically, we might say more egoistically, society recognizes that the preservation of the State, the control of its members by the State, is more economically and satisfactorily accomplished through education than without it. This last motive is probably the one most clearly recognized by people generally. The average taxpayer, who thinks but little of altruistic philosophy or the conservation of traditions, can well understand that his safety, in the police sense, is enhanced by the spread of education. He pays his tax for the education of his neighbor's children with a degree of cheerfulness because he realizes that it is a form of protective insurance — he much prefers, if he must live in the neighborhood of those children, both now and when they have grown up, that they should be law-abiding and intelligent, and generally agreeable to meet. " Humanity," says

President Thwing, " is learning that it is better economy to devote the larger share of its revenue to the education of children than to expend it for the care of the criminal, the defective, and the pauper through a score of years." 1 Putting it very practically and most brusquely, it is far less expensive to educate a child than it is to jail him.

Society protects itself through Education by developing two distinct phases of its relation to the schools, which may be called the opportunity phase and the compulsory phase. The safety of the State depends on the one hand upon the continued development of capable and specially equipped leaders ; on the other, upon the maintenance of the mass of the people at a satisfactorily high level of intelligence. The former demand results in the extension of the privilege of education ; the latter, in the imposition of the duty of education.

The degree to which this privilege is extended and this duty imposed varies considerably in the different social groups, and it is part of the study

1 Charles F. Thwing, "College Administration," Century, 1900, P. 13.

of School Administration to note this variation. We may term this variable, the Norm of Public Education. This norm is expressed for any community by the degree of public education provided between a maximum of opportunity and a minimum of compulsion. Each of these, the maximum and the minimum, has its upper and lower limits. Concretely, for example, the norm for a given State may lie between a maximum of opportunity extending from free kindergartens to free universities, and a minimum of compulsion of six years of elementary grade schooling. This is to say, that every one of its members must have six years schooling and may have, at public expense, a liberal education extending over many years from infancy to maturity.

To carry out the purpose of society in regard to education, the State is obliged to work through a large number of agencies and agents. President Garfield pictured a liberal education as a student on one end of a log and Mark Hopkins on the other. This may well serve as the type of ideal schooling, but in actual practice it is found that we have altogether too many students and too few Mark Hopkinses to permit of putting this ideal into effect as a system of public education. The modern State has already discovered that only by the organization of its schools into some form of system can its purpose in regard to education approach fulfillment. The result has been the development of a somewhat complicated series of administrative offices with corresponding administrative responsibilities.

The primary unit of administration is the class, the grouping of pupils under the authority of the teacher. Between the teacher and the State there are several agents necessary. The State puts the matter of education into the charge of School Boards, Boards of Education, etc., who direct educational affairs in accordance with the will of the society which they represent. They, in turn, transfer the actual supervision of the schools to the professional superintendents. Between the superintendent and the teacher there is need, in all places where population centers, for an intermediary in the person of the head teacher or principal, as he is usually known in America.

It is not to be forgotten that the center of interest in any system is the child, and that the principle of service is the only one which can justifiably animate any system. The teacher holds his position in the service of the pupil ; the function of the principal is to serve the teacher in his service to pupils; and the function of the superintendent is to serve the principal in his service to teachers. 1