Our schools, their administration and supervision

Front matter

Class ^/j^ Book ^^ y^'

Copyright }J°

COPYRIGHT DEPOSm

Preface

With the growth of our schools in size and in number and with their development in resources and in methods, their organization tends constantly to grow more complex. Recently there has been differentiated from the teachers a class of school directors, administrators, and supervisors, whose function is management rather than instruction. These school managers see the schools from a point of view different from that of the instructors. So recent has been their appearance in the world of education that not only the general public, but even many instructors, do not yet understand the nature and value of their work. To present the subject of American education from the new point of view of the administrator and supervisor is the purpose of this book.

In this treatment of school management, the subject is defined, not as the instruction and control of individual pupils and of classes and grades of pupils, but as the organization, maintenance, administration, direction, and supervision of schools, and the planning of schoolhouses. The book is designed for all persons interested in the control of schools and of school systems, including superintendents, principals, supervisors, proprietors, members of boards of education, trustees, legislators, parents, taxpayers, and teachers or students preparing for the duties of school administration. Drawn upon these broad lines, the work is meant to promote teaching as a profession and to extend the knowledge of the principles upon which the professional movement is proceeding. The treatment concerns the

VI PREFACE

smaller schools and school systems rather than the school affairs of the few great cities. The future of the educational development of our people depends upon the development of the schools of villages, towns, and small cities whose total school population is, and let us hope always will be, far larger than that of the great cities. The superintendents, supervisors, principals, and board members of the great cities are so few in proportion to the population that the smaller communities may be said to include ninety-nine out of every hundred of school officers. The great cities are under the direction of relatively few such officers. Many a school principal in New York or Chicago controls a school attendance equal to that of several towns combined. This volume is intended to be a thorough presentation of the subject of school administration with reference to the smaller communities, while it is meant to be merely suggestive to those few experts who, usually after a successful experience in smaller systems, have been chosen to guide the policies of school administration in metropolitan communities.

The book has been prepared for the school and for the private library, for teachers' reading circles, and as a text for class use in colleges and normal schools. Without presenting the ideal, it is meant to present standards by which the schools of a community may fairly be judged. The various matters set forth in the Appendix are meant to be suggestive and helpful, rather than prescriptive.

Upon so many different subjects, no one man should try to present an authoritative opinion. The various chapters have been read in manuscript by gentlemen whose reputations are familiar to the educational profession. The book has also been read critically in proof, and I have freely availed myself of the criticisms and suggestions offered. In such a list as that which follows, an author hesitates to speak particularly of the assistance of individuals ; yet justice seems to require it, for in this instance the author was very doubtful of the course to pursue in deahng with the encyclopedia of so vast a subject, and needed

PREFACE VU

encouragement and help to persist in an enterprise heavier than might be inferred from the size of the volume.

In planning this work upon " Our Schools, their Administration and Supervision," I was greatly assisted by Dr. Leonard and Dr. Poland. For inspiration to undertake and encouragement to pursue the task, I am indebted to the generous enthusiasm of Dr. Thwing, author of " College Administration." To Mr. Lang I owe especial acknowledgment for profitable counsel upon many occasions ; and to Dr. Spaulding I owe constant help. To these gentlemen and to all the others who have so freely given to me their best counsel, leaving to me many a delightful memory of conferences and many a treasured letter of correspondence, I shall owe, in large measure, whatever success this book in a new field may meet. The names of these educators follow : —

Mr. J. D. Allen, Principal, De Lancey School, Philadelphia, Pa.

Dr. Thomas M. Balliet, Dean, New York University, New York.

Hon. Charles J. Baxter, Superintendent, New Jersey.

Mr. James R. Campbell, Headmaster, Kingsley School, Essex Fells, N.J.

Mr. Frank B. Cooper, Superintendent, Seattle, Wash.

Mr. Vernon L. Davey, Superintendent, East Orange, N.J.

Mr. Edward H. Dutcher, Principal, Eastern District School, East Orange, N. J.

Dr. Samuel T. Dutton, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City.

Mr. Benjamin C. Gregory, Superintendent, Chelsea, Mass.

Miss Ada Van Stone Harris, Supervisor, Rochester, N.Y.

Mr. H. E. Harris, Principal, No. i School, Bayonne, N.J.

Dr. William T. Harris, formerly United States Commissioner of Education, Washington, D.C.

Mr. Ossian Lang, Editor, School Journal, New York.

Dr. Albert Leonard, Superintendent, New Rochelle, N.Y.

Mr. William McAndrew, Principal, Washington Irving High School, New York City.

Mr. Clarence E. Morse, Principal, Ashland School, East Orange, N.J.

Dr. Addison B. Poland, Superintendent, Newark, N.J.

Dr. Elmer C. Sherman, Superintendent, Englewood, N.J.

viii PREFACE

Dr. V/alter H. Small, Superintendent, Providence, R.I. Dr. Frank E. Spaulding, Superintendent, Newton, Mass. Mr. Randall Spaulding, Superintendent, Montclair, N.J. Dr. George W. Twitmyer, Superintendent, Wilmington, Del.

Every chapter of this volume has appeared (especially copyrighted) in one or more of the following publications, namely:—

(6) The School Journal^ New York.

(2) Educational Foundations^ New York.

(i) Teachers' Federation Bulletin^ Chicago.

(i) Journal of Pedagogy^ Syracuse.

(2) Education, Boston.

(i) Intelligence, Chicago.

(i) American Education, Albany.

(i) School Board Jotirnal,M.\\-^2.vik&Q.

(i) Daily Eagle, Brooklyn.

(i) Daily Advertiser, Newark.

The chapters were, however, not prepared for such serial publication, but as component parts of this work.

One who writes of his own profession may be permitted a personal remark. This work is not autobiographic. I have used many illustrations, of which perhaps a tenth were drawn from my own professional experience. Most of them have come to me in conversation with others. A few were stored in memory when reading educational periodicals. I have used no illustration that I do not believe founded on fact ; but to avoid the identification of incidents, in several instances I have modified immaterial features of the story.

The omission of certain topics that might properly be treated under this title may be explained by the fact that, in case this work proves acceptable and useful to the profession, I hope to prepare, at some time in the future, a work with the title, Our Schools : Their Courses of Stiidy and Methods. In that work, such topics may be considered as : text-books, subjects, programs, order of topics, elimination, combination, unification, and addition of courses, constants, electives, education of

, PREFACE IX

teachers, working power of children and youth, methods in the various subjects, requirements of civilized society (desirable and undesirable), selection of teachers, childhood and early adolescence, equipment of schools, architectural notes. The present work discusses what seems to me the fundamental matter. It may not be fundamental in sound philosophy, but it certainly is fundamental in practical American educational polity.

If this text seems to avoid the unpleasant facts, — the crimes against childhood and against society itself, perpetrated in the name of education by dogmatic, unsympathetic, and incompetent school superintendents, principals, and teachers, and by board members unwilling to take or unable to understand professional advice, the corruption, the sordidness, the stolidity, the traditionalism, so often in evidence, — the avoidance has been intentional. I plead not ignorance, but the healthfulness of optimism. To all the discerning, a sad feature of this unpleasantness is the sense of being without honor as a teacher that attaches to so many men and women. The young lady prides herself upon the fact that during the summer vacation "no one dreamed that she was a teacher!" The young man says that he is " teaching to get money," to study law or medicine or for a little start in business. There are various causes for this shamefacedness, but there is only one remedy, — better salaries, that is, far more money for education.

At the present time, education is like a great steamship, or fleet of steamships, laboring hard in the trough of the world's sea for want of proper machinery and of sufficient coal to produce power and to utilize it properly for speed. The passengers are all humanity of the future. Unfortunately, the strongest and best men and women of to-day are not yet generally busied with the tasks of education. The activit}^ of a few such leaders shows our common need of them. Those who do not believe that educational improvement can be effected anywhere and almost continuously (with but few reactions), and those who believe that educational progress in their own particular com-

5 PREFACE

munity is impossible, all the discouraged, whether superintendents or board members, should consider the history of the past ten wonderful years in New York city. The importance of that demonstration in the concrete of so considerable a part of the principles and purposes of the new education cannot be overstated. In all our history, nothing greater has been done for the cause of American education. If one man, marshaling others worthy of such leadership, can do so thorough a work on so vast a scale against apparently indestructible traditions and irresistible forces, others can do heroic service elsewhere ; and so they are doing it, as many a school system in smaller cities testifies. North, South, East, and West. The need everywhere is for men of scholarship, of power, and of faith, men who know how to secure the things hoped for, but unseen.

As the state is served by the lawyers, the church by the ministers, and the family and society itself by the physicians, so the school should be served by the teachers. For the maintenance of every great social institution, a profession able to render it expert service is required. In education, much confusion has arisen from failure to discriminate between the school and the profession that maintains it. Every true profession admits and discharges its own members ; devises and applies its own principles, in its own way ; chooses its own leaders and suffers no authority from without ; fixes its own fees : in short, at the climax of its development, renders its expert service upon its own terms. To promote teaching as a profession is to forward most effectively the interests of the school.

Paterson, N.J., November i, 1904. W. E. C.

Preface To Revised Edition

The publication of Our City Schools : Their Management and Supervision as a complementary volume to Our Schools : Their Administration and Supervision affords an opportunity to present a new and revised edition of this latter work. The changes have not been numerous : they consist of corrections of the few typographical errors in the former edition, of revisions of statistics designed to bring the text to date, of changes here and there in phrases that did not convey my intended meaning, the addition of a few paragraphs at ends of chapters, and a new and extended table of contents to meet the needs of professors using the book in class. The paging of the two editions remains the same so that books bearing the various dates may be used in the same class.

The original manuscript of Our Schools was prepared in Bloomfield, N. J., a town then of about twelve thousand inhabitants, lying between the cities of Newark, Passaic, and Paterson. I was superintendent there for seven years and more. A month or so before the bgok was issued from the press, I became superintendent of schools in Paterson. After an experience of two years there, I became superintendent for the District of Columbia, with charge of all the schools for white and colored youth. In the course of these four years in which I have in a measure controlled public education in cities of one hundred and twenty-five thousand inhabitants and of three hundred and thirty thousand, I have traveled widely, visiting schools in communities as far apart as Boston, Seattle, Denver, St. Louis, and Atlanta. In all, twenty-five weeks have been thus occupied in observation.

xi xii PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION

This experience has but confirmed the major opinions of the text as prepared in 1904. i. It is the community and not the board of education that makes the schools. 2. While the general tendency is progressive, there is reaction in many places.

3. The best schools are in the smaller cities and in towns.

4. To insure school reform and to make it permanent, we must get better fundamental legislation : if possible, we must get amendments to our State Constitutions. 5. We must labor ceaselessly to convert the occupation of teaching into the profession of education, — labor until the end is gained. 6. We need more money, several times as much as we are getting now. 7. We should do all this in the enlightened faith that education is the cure for civilization.

In several regions of our country, it is now being predicted that we are at the beginning of a genuine educational renaissance. There are certainly not a few signs that warrant this hope for the welfare of humanity. W. E. C.

Washington, D. C, January i, 1908.

Preface To Second Revised Edition

An experience in recent years that had led to travel in every State of the Union warns me to urge all educators diligently to inquire in the field of real affairs what is being done. The extremes of good management and of ruinous management or sheer anarchy are wider apart than men of but local information imagine. Often, there is help to be had for one's own schools from educators elsewhere. Especially should teachers of school administration try to get illustrative material from all parts of the country. School superintendents do well to have upon the walls of their offices photographs of fine school buildings. It is the nature of seed to grow. W. E. C.

College of Wooster, December i, 19 15.

Contents

AND SYLLABUS OF THE CHAPTERS

PAGE

Chapter I. The School System . . . . . i

Motives of the great social institutions, i. Outline of typical school system, 3. Methods of financial support, 5. Three coordinate authorities, — board of education, superintendent, and board of examiners, 7 The State makes the School, 7. The superintendent sustains a professional, not a subordinate, relation to the board, 10.

Chapter II. The Board of Education . . . ii

A board member has only his voice and his vote, 11 A better name is " board of school control" since the board is not educational but political and financial in its composition and authority, 11. Qualities of good and bad boards and board members, 12. Election by wards, 18. Appointment by mayor, 22. Election at large, 25. Special school elections, 27. Length of term, 29. Size of the board, 30. Payment of board members undesirable, 36. Taxation for school, 39. Board of school estimate, 41. Number and character of committees, 43. The control of teachers in appointment and continuance should be vested in the superintendent, 48. Unfortunate effects of appointment by laymen, 52. Education is a science and an art, 58. Superintendents are not to be judged before one knows their boards, 59. Struggles of superintendents with various kinds of bad or poor board members, 60. Selection of janitors, 67. Opposition to improper measures of boards, 68. Teachers in the last analysis make the schools, 70. Board of examiners, 70.

Chapter III. Administration 72

I. The affairs of the Board. Meetings should be regular, 72. Held at time set, 73. Proceedings should be in fixed order, 74. Records should be complete and absolutely correct, 75. Rules defining powers and duties of officers should be specific, 76. As to executive sessions, 76. Expenditures for emergencies, 77. Delay often worse than actual error, 78. A member should never predict what a board will vote, 79 ; but may explain the general policy that he favors, 80. Pledging his vote is corruption, 80. Explanation after vote is recorded is permissible, 81. The interests of the future are more important than those of the present, 81. Bonds, 83. Text-book lists, 86. Full and transparent annual reports, 87. Parsimony is not economy, 88.

II. The affairs of the superintendent, 89. The relative importance of affairs should be carefully regarded, 89. Other principles, 90, — laying railroad track into the future, 92, — courage and fortitude, 93, — no respecter of persons, 95. Never resign in the face of undeserved defeat : accept a discharge, 99.

III. Affairs of the Principal, 99. His various relations, 100. He is the pillar of the arch of the modem school system, 103. Exceeding one's " authority," 103.

xiv CONTENTS

Chapter IV. Supervision 104

Historical order of educational progress, 104. Supervision is the intermediary between democracy and education, 108. Americanism is a social geometry of the sphere, 109. The locus of the supervisor, 109. Supervision is more important than administration, no. Exceptions, the large city and the small city with unusual difificulties to meet, in. Supervision is overseeing, U2, — "overlooking" 112, — insight, 113, — seeing things mvisible, 113, and foresight, 114. The purposes of supervision, 115. Advantages of supervision to the teacher, 119. The duties of supervisors, 124. Their limitations, 125. Principles to be followed m selecting teachers, 1 27. A proper corps of supervisors for a small community, 129. The locus of the supervisor in civilization, 130. The small community with good schools should look rather for a good supervisor as educational director than for an administrator: few educators are both, 131. The superintendent must have leisure, which is the essential nature of the school, 132.

Chapter V. The Superintendent . . . -133

The central officer of the school system, 133. The duties of a typical day, 134. Relations to other authorities, State and municipal, 135 The si'perintendent lives by public favor, 136. His responsibilities, 137 His perils, 138 A public man, let him resign rather than borrow money or make debts that he cannot pay, 143. Use of his savings, 147. His relations to board, to officers, to teachers, 149. Let the supenntendent be an attorney before ihe board for every one of his subordinates, 153. His relations to pupils, to parents, 154. His relations to taxpayers, to politicians, 157. His own mission requires all of his energies, 160. His relations to newspapers, 162. The whole community is his parish, 114. Other relations, 166. Beware of habitual reformers, 166. Teachers' meetings, 169. The specific duties of the superintendent, 173. Limits of courtesy toward irremovable board members, 175.

Chapter VI. The Principalship .... 176

The most desirable of educational positions, 176. When the school is large enough to require a supervising principal, 178. The argument for such an officer in schools of eight or more rooms, 179. A good supervising principal is a teacher of teachers and can make an entire school good throughout, 180. Such an officer a financial economy as well as an educational desideratum, 180. Every principal should do some teaching daily, 181. Men v, women as principals, 182. A comparison of high and grammar school curricula, 184. The high school principalship, 188. The grammar school principalship, 192. The kindergarten, 193. The principal is not to consult, certainly not to obey, a board member : he is the subordinate of the superintendent, 194. Normal or teachers' training schools, 196. Vacation schools and summer playgrounds, 197. The principalship of an evening school, 197, — of a reform school, 200. The manual training school, 201. The primary school shows how greatly we need the universal school, 202. The normal school principalship, 203. The State normal school, its admission requirements, its course, 204 State assistance to teacher apprentices, 205. Minimum teacher's salary, 205.

Chapter VII. The Supervisorship .... 206

Reasons for creation of office, 206. Specific duties of the supervisor, 208. Salary schedule for supervisors, 209. The educational hierarchy (financial and administrative), 210. Men z/. women as supervisors, 211. Medical supervi-

CONTENTS XV

•ion, 213. The need of the services of the psychologist and of the sociologist in public education grows every year with the increasing complexity of civilization and the consequently increasing difficulty of preparing youth for life, 215.

Chapter VIII. The Graded Public School . .217

The school is a relation between the one who knows and can do and is willing to impart and to train and the one who does not know and cannot yet do but is willing to be taught, 217- The universal school is for all, of all ages, and teaches all things worth knowing, 218. The argument for the universal school, 221. The learned and the trained are the free, 223. Characteristics of the modem school : a collecting of persons, 225, — the sources of knowledge, 225, — a grading of learners, 225, — publicity, 226, —^ free of expense to the learners,

226, — commonness tending to universality, 226, — extensiveness of curriculum,

227, — instruction by experts, 227, — scientific housing, 227, — education its purpose, 228, — a faculty of both men and women, 228 Criteria for judging a school, 229. Tests, 232. Records of supervisory visits, 234. Reports, 234. Marks of pupils, 235. The modern school a device of philanthropic culture for the prevention of the causes of poverty, 236.

Chapter IX. The State System and the District School 237

The State board of education, 237. State board of examiners, 238. State superintendent, 238 County superintendent, 238. County examiners, 238. State tax and its distribution, 239 Weakness of the executive in America, its historic causes, 240. The district school, 241. The hireling position of its teacher must be remedied for the sake of the teacher and for the sake of the nation, 243. In what respect as to education the county menaces the city, 244. The value of district school experience, 244. Rural transportation and school consolidation, 245. Township and county supervision, 245.

Chapter X. The Private School .... 246

The several kinds of schools in America 246. The advantages of endowed and proprietary schools, 247- Certain principles should govern the proprietor of a private school, 248 Comparison of public and private schools, 251. The economic structure of American society justifies the maintenance of private and endowed schools, 252. Relation of head of an endowed school to the trustees, 254. The private school should expei;imeilt, 255.

Chapter XI. The Teacher as Administrator and Supervisor 257

The teacher instructs, disciplines, supervises, and manages pupils, 257. Plan books and daily programs, 258. The teacher as counselor of parents, 261. The teacher must study education and the sciences and arts of culture or die an intellectual and spiritual death, 262. The need of outdoor exercise, 263. There can be no foresight without insight, 268. The comparative qualities of old and young teachers, 269. Rank of positions in education and in culture, 270. Departmental instruction, 271. Overwork, 272. Develop the free self-activity of the teacher or cease to expect it in the pupil, 273. The poor physical condition of young teachers is significant of great deficiencies in our ediis. cational situation^ 27^

XVI CONTENTS

Chapter XII. The New Education and the Course OF Study 275

The outgoing studies, 275. The modern (standard or essential) studies, 278. The incoming studies, 279. The new education is a universal education, — at once theoretical and practical, liberal and technical, for culture and for work : and it recognizes the marvelous variety of moderu interests, 282.

Chapter XIII. The Educational Policy of the Community 284

Local climate, 284. The superintendent is the soul of the educational policy of a community, 285. The " echo " of a community, 286. Let him as the appointer of the board take the assaults of the unredeemed, 287. The several kinds or grades of communities, 288. The representatives of the various social institutions ; relations of the superintendent to each class, 290. Women teachers as a class seldom have any influence, 294. Per capita costs in various communities, 296. The hope of good schools rests in the educational policy of the general public, 297. To this, the superintendent should steadily and directly appeal, 298. Converting the enemies of school progress is practically impossible : try to inform those who are indifferent because of ignorance of facts, 299. Compulsory attendance, 300. Ungraded schools, 302. No considerable community can be reformed in a period of time less than that of the school curriculum (say) twelve years, 302.

Chapter XIV. Education for Supervision . . 303

Public office incommensurate with power, 303. The social need of a profession of educators, 305. Preparation for directive supervision should be fundamentally economic, 306. Stages in the educational process, — sense-knowledge, bodily facility and control, world-knowledge, self-knowledge, self-control, self -direction, social control, 307. Final stage, faith in the victory of the right, 310. Hindrances to the educational process, 312. The kind of minister-rulers needed, 315. Studies and exercises calculated to produce such men, 316. Personal experience of reality, 319. The waning Home and the waning Church,

321. No good reason to believe that America will solve the problem of how to produce an indestructible civilization, 321 To hope so is our duty, 321.

Chapter XV. Getting the Office . . . .322

A school principalship is not a complete preparation for the superintendency,

322. Presenting one's qualifications, 324. The candidacy of a man in office yet desiring another, 328. Failures, 329. Keep your health, 330. Do not change for less than a notable and genuine improvement in position, 333. What school boards should investigate, 336. Analogy between board of health and board of education, 337. The fundamental biologic law of society, 338. A board of business men a genuine peril to a community, 340. The school works for, business against, the law, 340. The real function of the board is to get money for education, not to save it from education, 340.

Chapter XVI. Salary, Tenure and Certificate . 341

We work for children, who have no money, and do not report upon us correctly, 341. Most parents know far less than teachers and cannot comprehend them, 342. Most teachers are women, most board members are men : any

CONTENTS xvii money paid seems a charitable gratuity, 344. The economic law of salary, 346. Eaucational teaching compared with other kinds of teaching, 347. Education compared with law, theology, and medicine, 348. Education is not a business, 349. The final goal of all wealth is useful consumption, 351. The average teacher's salary measures the culture and the philanthropy of a community, 353. Economic grades in American society, 355. The educator is not benefiting relatively by our increasing prosperity, 358. What the minimum salary of the teacher of experience should be, 359. Statistics of American wealth, 360. The American gospel is the gospel of salvation by' education ', 361. Teachers save every generation from barbarism and all that is good m the world from wreck, 363. The obstacle is the place-holding superintendent, 364. A reasonable and practical salary schedule for a small community, 365. Tenure of teachers, 367. Certificates, 368. More money and higher professional standards are the two essentials to school-progress ; and such progress is absolutely essential to liberty in this democracy, 369.

Appendixes :

I. Ages in Grades

II. Wealth

I. The Facts

II. The Application ....

III. Libraries

A. School Reference ....

B. For Teachers and Principals .

IV. Parliamentary Rules

V. Yearly Allowances for Books, Supplies, etc.

VI. High School Electives ....

VII. Specimen Programs .....

VIII. Time Assignment, Elementary Schools IX. Daily Programs .

A. Grade Programs ....

B. Departmental Programs .

X. Conspectus of Manual Training Department

XL Taxation

XII. Resignations

XIII. Monthly Report of Finances

XIV. Conduct — Attendance — Studies XV. Rank of Pupils

XVI. Daily Attendance Record ....

XVII. Teachers' Monthly Reports

XVIIL Principals' Monthly Reports

XIX. Annual Report of Principal to Superintendent

XX. Rules and Regulations . . .

XXI. Report of Suspension of a Pupil to Board of Education

XXII. Duties of Secretary or Clerk

373 373 374 376 376

377 380

383 384 386

405 405 406

XVlll

CONTENTS

XXIII. Form for Notice of Meeting of Board of Education

XXIV. Teacher's Contract

XXV. Affidavit to Bill presented to a Board of Education

XXVI. Contract for Building a Schoolhouse

XXVII. Record of Attendance ....

XXVIII. Form of Inquiry regarding Candidate

XXIX. Teacher's Daily Plan ....

XXX. Postal Card Pupils Absence Form Notice

XXXI. Parent's Certificate of Excuse for Pupil's Absence

XXXII. Eye and Ear Records ....

XXXIII. Transfer Card

XXXIV. Requisition for Supplies ....

XXXV. Application Form for Candidate

XXXVI. Monthly Lesson and Attendance Reports of Teachers

XXXVII. Semiannual Rating Form of Teachers

XXXVIII. Order for Teachers' Salaries

XXXIX. Form of Note for Money borrowed .

XL. Certificate that Child has attended School

XLI. Registration Cards

XLII. Pupil's Record

XLIIL Record of Books

XLIV. Teacher's Record Form . . . .

XLV. Pupil's Misconduct and Special Report Form

XLVI. Order Forms

XLVII. Substitute Teacher's Attendance and Service

XLVIII. The Long Vacation

XLIX. Relation with the Parochial School .

L. Listing and Purchase of Text-books and Supplies

Form

413 414 414

417 418

418 419 419

420 420 421 421 422

423 424

425 425

OUR SCHOOLS: THEIR ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION

Chapter I

The important feature of modern life as contrasted with earlier ages is the extensive development of schools. General education is the unique characteristic of recent decades.

The great social institutions are : Property, Family, Church, State, Occupation, School, Culture, and Charity. To these we may add the antisocial institutions of War and Business. The motive of Property is self-enlargement. That of family life in the Home is self-abnegation. The motive of the Church is self-effacement, rising in true religion to absolute self-sacrifice. The motive of the democratic State is self-assertion. That of Occupation is self-support. The School exists for self-culture. The motive of Culture in its arts and sciences is self-expression. That of Charity is self-enrichment through sympathy. The motive of War is self-aggrandizement, while that of Business is self-interest.^ Because of these distinctions in motive^ we cannot ask one social institution to perform the functions of another. In the modern age, there have been developing new definitions of the functions of these great social institutions. The school no longer exists to prepare men for a clerical life. Its present purpose is to become universal, — to prepare children, youth, and adults for more efficient service in each of the other great institutions.