Slike strani
PDF
ePub

University of Southern California, Oral and Dramatic Expression. International Young Men's Christian Association College, Springfield, Mass., Physical Culture.

Pomona College, Music and Art.
Mills College, Art.

Chico State Normal School, Physical Culture.

Santa Barbara State Normal School, Art.
King Conservatory of Music, Music.
University of Redlands, Music.

Retirement Salary Business Retirement salaries of $500 per annum were granted to the following persons: Mrs. Avis E. Ashby, Redlands; Charles Burckhalter, Oakland; Clara B. Churchill, Paso Robles; Rose A. Everett, Santa Barbara; Henry C. Fall, Pasadena; Annie Louise Frazier, Watsonville; Clara Ellis Heald, Los Angeles; James M. Keran, Mendocino; Anna E. Lemon, Pasadena; Thomas Hall McCarthy, San Francisco; William Malcom, Puente; John Manzer, San Jose; Sabina H. Marett, Newcastle; Harriet E. Matchin, Nestor; Mrs. Mary E. C. Mills, Danville; Marion C. Pryne, Orange; Alexander Sifford, Susanville; Carrie I. Swope, Riverside; Mrs. Clara A. Tyler, Merced; Mrs. Emily F. White, Los Angeles; Charles Henry Woods, Tulare.

Retirement salaries under Section 14 of the law were granted to the following applicants:

Mrs. Juanita S. Babson, Berkeley....$433.33 Mrs. Caroline L. Heacock, Oakland 266.66 Emma Butler Jennings,

Barbara

Santa

350.00 .... 400.00

Ella B. Shaw, Los Angeles.......
The Board authorized the purchase of
Liberty Bonds in the amount of $50,000
from money in the Teachers' Permanent
Fund.

The action of the secretary in removing from the retirement record the name of a teacher who had been retired for disability and had resumed teaching without informing the Retirement Board, was ratified by the Board.

The Board adjourned to meet again on July 16th.

*

The greatly increased demand for stenographers and typewriters in the government service at Washington, owing to the present emergency, calls for frequent examinations. Appointments in large numbers are to be made as soon as eligibles

[blocks in formation]

California School of Fine Arts

Formerly Mark Hopkins Institute

Affiliated College of the University of California California and Mason Streets

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA LEE RANDOLPH, Director of the School Fall Term Opens August 13, 1917 Courses in LIFE, PORTRAIT, ANTIQUE, STILL-LIFE, COMPOSITION, SCULPTURE, ANATOMY, SKETCH, ILLUSTRATION, ETCHING INTERIOR DECORATION, DESIGN, COSTUME DESIGN, ARTS AND CRAFTS, MECHANICAL DRAWING, COPPER WORK, COMMERCIAL AND PROCESS WORK, NORMAL ART

Large and varied night classes.

SUMMER SESSION
JUNE 25 TO AUG. 4, 1917

Chancellor Hotel

POWELL STREET
Adjoining Union Square
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.

SUMMER RATES

All outside rooms. First-class Cafe in conjunction with Hotel. American and European plans.

Special Rates to Teachers.

MISS D. G. MAHON

Manager

BEACON NEWS COLUMN Every publisher who has some primary reading books to sell ought to be out in full force boosting for The Beacon Method because the child who starts with The Beacon Method learns to read more quickly than with any other method, and reads so readily that he needs at least a dozen primers and first readers during his first year in school.

The publishers of The Beacon Method have hundreds of letters from primary teachers and superintendents to prove this. In last month's Beacon News Column one such letter was given. Here is another:

page.

"After using The Beacon Method of Teaching Reading for two years, I am more firmly convinced than ever before that we are using 'the simplest possible key' for the mastery of word forms, and because we are using this key, we are more quickly and easily getting the thought from the printed Visitors from different places who have heard our children read reecntly have been loud in their praises of the splendid expression and ease in thought getting and giving which they show in their reading. The children who have learned word mastery as these children have, would never think of going to the teacher with fingers on words, with the time-worn question, 'What's that word, teacher?' because they have gained independent power in mastery of forms to such a degree that such a silly unpedagogical habit is no longer thought of. The little boy who said: 'Aw, shoot! if it wasn't for the words I could read it all right,' certainly spoke truly of the necessity of the power of word mastery first. "The proof of the pudding'-you know the rest. I have repeatedly tested these children in various ways and have heard them tested by others, and they know what they are reading. It is not mere word calling. If you doubt it, come and see!"

(Signed) LILLIAN O. HEILMAN, Primary Supervisor in Eureka, Cal., Schools. Nineteen counties and more than twenty California cities are now using the Beacon Method to a greater or less extent, and wherever used, better results with half the work are obtained.

Last year many thousands of children in this field learned to read with pleasure by the Beacon Method-next year many thousands more will do likewise.

If the Beacon light is not shining in your neighborhood, write the publisher, GINN & CO., 20 Second St., San Francisco, for "A Few Facts About Phonetics," and copies of the miniature Beacon Charts, all of which will be sent to teachers free of charge. BE A BEACON BOOSTER and you'll be happy.

[graphic]
[blocks in formation]

Under Direction of HERBERT F. CLARK Alhambra, Cal.

Editorial

LOGICAL CONCLUSION FOLLOWS STATED PREMISE

Southern California Section

To acknowledge that recent rises in the cost of living has already actually decreased the purchasing power of teachers' wages, and that present economic conditions demand an increase in salaries, and then to submit as an objection to said in crease that to grant it will shorten the school year two months, is merely to argue that under the present condition of decreased salaries, teachers should contribute two months' teaching at their own increased expense. Can you beat it?

*

NO WAR TALK
SLOGAN OF SALOONS

If further evidence were needed to prove the treasonable business in which saloon men are engaged, and the non-patriotic atmosphere that pervades their premises, it can be found in the placard prominently displayed over bars that the proprietors of this establishment absolutely prohibit War Talk.

In the first place it is a demand that the present world crisis shall not affect their business, and in the second place it is a recognition that the stuff they hand out to

customers is such that excites discussion and dissension.

While it is hard to conceive of any large amount of patriotism involved in the business of debauching manhood and undermining homes, it might be taken for granted that they do not demand strict neutrality when their nation is at war.

* **

SELECTIVE CONSCRIPTION
A TEST OF NATIONALITY

The Civil War was fought to determine whether this United States was a United States, or whether it was a mere confederacy of states subject to the whims of the individual states. The issue was pretty clearly defined and the question pretty thoroughly settled. The present world crisis seems to be a test so far as this country internally is concerned as to whether this Nation is a social unit as a whole, capable of acting as a whole, and not subject to the particular whims of the individuals as such, or the whims of particular social units as such. Whatever may be our personal opinions as to the justification of our entering the present conflict, whatever be our conscientious or other scruples against selective conscription, there is no question that our Nation has decided to act as a whole on both these issues, and it remains to be seen whether it possesses the strength within itself to maintain its own. integrity and honor, its own perpetuity in

spite of foes from without and disintegrating forces within. Here is a prophecy, that in spite of the heterogenous elements that comprise its citizenship, in spite of the nonamalgable ingredients within its system, it still shall possess the power to act as a united whole in this the most crucial test of all history.

*

LOS ANGELES ELECTS
A BOARD OF EDUCATION

The charter of the City of Los Angeles requires that her citizens elect a new Board of Education consisting of seven members of Education consisting of seven members every two years. The second election under the present charter took place in that city on June 5. It will be remembered by most school people in the state, and by some in the country at large, that the election two years ago was preceded by a hotly contested campaign with the principal is sue being pro- and anti-Superintendent of Schools. The anti-administration forces elected five out of the seven members to serve for the following two years. That two years has passed; and while much good has been accomplished it would be folly to say that mistakes have not been made and injustice has not been done. During that time there has been a change in superintendents, the disposition of two assistant superintendents, the elimination and intimidation of the more aggressive elements in the teaching force, a tightening of the looser cords permeating the educational and business phases of the institution, the creation of some new departments with the consequent increase in expense and complexity of an already complicated situation.

On the whole, the two years under the present regime have been of such character

that the citizens in their selection of a new

sire for a continuation along the same lines Board of Education have indicated a deof school administration.

***

LOS ANGELES TEACHERS TO GET SALARY INCREASE, PROVIDED? Something unique in educational procedure is to be carried out, if the plan adopted by the Los Angeles Board of Education providing for an increase in teachers' salaries materializes. The teachers are to be offered their present positions for another year at an increase in salary provided they sign an agreement to accept their present schedule, in case money is not forthcoming to meet the increase. On the face of it this plan seems fair enough, and no doubt the teachers will sign up and take the "chance." They would be poor gamblers if they didn't. At the same time the principle underlying the plan is weak, since it passes the "buck" along the line to the County Board of Supervisors and possibly to the State Board of Authorization, which finally must determine the tion, which finally must determine the amount of money to be expended by any local unit. In other words, it becomes a mere recommendation by the Board of Education to the other authorities to grant an increase when in reality it is clearly their

legal right and moral duty to take final action in the premises themselves. Again it takes out of their own jurisdiction a prerogative which they have always hitherto held, and makes any increase in budget allowance a special cause of recommendation to other authorities. It is true to be sure, that their ensuing expenses must be gauged by their probable and approximate income, but the question arises as to why the matter of an increase in salaries should be singled out and shifted to other shoulders rather than any other item of probable expense. As was pointed out most forcibly at the meeting when the plan was adopted, such a procedure had never been

carried out, it was inconsistent with the clearly defined prerogatives and duties of the present Board, was not sound in principle, was dangerous as a precedent, and was merely an attempt to evade a responsibility which was clearly theirs.

If the teachers sign the provisional contract, it clearly becomes their prerogative to carry their side of the case to the other duly constituted authorities and seek to obtain from them that consideration which

they hitherto have felt should come from

their own Board of Education.

* * *

RISE IN TEACHERS' SALARIES
BASIS FOR HEATED ARGUMENT

It is an extremely interesting experience to sit for an hour and listen to the arguments pro and con by the members of a Board of Education in a heated discussion concerning the raising of teachers' salaries. All must agree that teachers' salaries have been actually reduced 25 to 40 per cent during the past two years through general economic conditions, yet when the plea comes for a 10 or 15 per cent rise, all sorts of excuses are brought up to keep them down. The question as to whether there

will be funds to meet an increase which is the block usually shoved out in the road, is not to the point, since it is clearly the duty of a Board of Education to employ teachers and fix their salaries before the annual budget is determined by the County Board of Supervisors. If the point holds for an increase in salaries, why doesn't it hold for salaries as they are, why doesn't it hold for jaintors' salaries, for the superintendent's salary, for the heads of departments' salaries, indeed for all expenses for the coming year? Why should the teacher be made the "goat" to carry the burden of a national crisis. If the price of supplies has been raised through general economic conditions and the taxpayer must ultimately bear the burden, are teachers less worthy their consideration? If the term of school must be shortened because of economic pressure, are the teachers to be blamed for it? The argument that teachers would as well work ten months as eight months for the same pay is puerile and entirely aside from the point, as though a teacher's time outside the schoolroom were valueless. The teacher whose time is worth anything in school can certainly earn as many dollars outside during these times of tremendous high wages as she can inside, and the as

JOSEPH M. SHAFFER

Liberty Loan Speeches

Reported in

Gregg Shorthand

For the important task of reporting his speeches throughout the country in behalf of the Liberty Loan, Secretary McAdoo chose Joseph M. Shaffer, a young man who learned Gregg Shorthand in the East Boston High School. Where accuracy and speed are required, the big men employ Gregg writers.

Gregg Shorthand Used in 70% of the Cities

70% of the cities of the United States whose High Schools teach shorthand have, after careful tests, adopted Gregg Shorthand. It leads in simplicity, accuracy and speed.

The Gregg Publishing Co.

New York City Chicago San Francisco

sumption that her time means nothing is an insult to her, personally, and to the profession in general.

No, if the conditions demand an increase in salary component wtih the actual increase in living expenses, then the teachers should have it even though the school term be shortened. Whether that shall take place is up to the citizens at large, but it is clearly the duty and the right of a Board of Education to employ teachers and fix their salaries for an ensuing year and then if their policy isn't sustained by the people, the responsibility for the shortening of the term must rest where it belongs, on the shoulders of the parents of the boys and girls for whom the schools exist. Certainly our people aren't willing to penalize their teaching force, nor demand they give two months' service free of charge. The conditions warrant a rise in teachers' salaries. Let's give our taxpayers confidence that they will grant it.

[blocks in formation]

zens.

All at once we find ourselves in the anomalous position of requiring that all those whose motive was wholesome enough to become American citizens, and all our own American-born citizens between the ages of 21 and 31 should lay themselves on the altar of their country to protect this incongruous element of alien population. Despite the fact that we talk so glibly of glory and honor to be won on the battlefield, we place a premium on noncitizenship and a penalty on naturalization and domestic population by exempting from military service those men whose only motive in coming to this country has been to escape military duty at home, and find greater opportunities for earning a livelihood. Not only that, we take out of the ordinary walks of life a million or so of our own flesh and blood and direct their energies along destructive rather than constructive lines, and by virtue of the vacancies created offer greater opportunities to those young men who have not become, nor declared their intentions to become, American citizens.

Certainly this great crisis ought to teach. America to scrutinize more closely all the elements applying for admission at her borders, and to require that every adult foreigner, male and female, that every youth and maiden above fifteen, should declare their intention to become American citizens, and express a willingness to obey its laws, and share its responsibilities and obligations, and be willing if need be to fight for its preservation.

[graphic]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

BROADENING THE TEACHER'S HORIZON By Ruberta Tanquary

After having had a considerable experience in kindergarten work; after having taught in the grammar grades; having had some experience in college teaching, and finally also in high school teaching, I am of opinion that the one thing most needful in the life of American schools is that all classroom teachers, from kindergarten to college, should have the same point of view, and should keep it through thick and thin.

This does not mean that high school teachers should sympathize with the grade classroom teacher. The grade teachers want no sympathy; they want co-operation in those things which are peculiarly the needs of classroom teachers. The burden of education in America rests with grade teachers, for only a small per cent of children who enter the grades ever see high school. The work of the grade teacher requires more skill, more intelligence, more labor, sympathy, patience, than any other teaching. Therefore if high school teachers do not or cannot aid in gaining those things which are imperatively needed by all classroom teachers, the grade classroom teachers of America will go ahead and win them for both the grammar school and high school teaching force.

The teaching profession in America is really a trades-union a union run by the State, but a union nevertheless. It has its minimum wage, its maximum hours, its apprentice system and its union card in the shape of a diploma; and the fact that it is the State that organizes this union makes no difference in the results-the beneficial results of this union.

What would teaching be in California without the above strictures on the teaching profession? We can answer that best by asking what it was in England until recently-in fact, right up to the outbreak of war. The English school dame was looked down upon by all classes of people, including burglars and pickpockets and her own pupils, excepting only the servant girl who polishes the children's shoes. Why was she despised? She was despised because she was poor, because she was illy dressed, because she worked long hours for a pittance and held her job on sufferance. Had she been paid a munificent stipend, had she dressed stylishly and driven around in a pony cart, her work might have been exactly the same, the contempt would not. Why was her position thus? Because anyone who was useless at anything else was a school dame or a schoolmaster. There was no protection from invasion of the hordes of unemployed, and no knowledge, no erudition can save teachers from that disease that has wrought the moral and spiritual devastation of all professionscheap labor.

In France this is quite different. Schools are nationalized and standardized. Teachers are prepared by the government and retain their positions until retiring age-when they receive a pension until death. Upon entering the profession the teacher must agree to remain in it at least ten years. She may marry; she may have a family by taking a leave of absence, and still remain in the profession. It is not a maid's job, a meal ticket until some man may be found to support the teacher. Consequently a teacher in France is the most respected of her citizens, and this respect comes, not from the nature of the work she does, but from the conditions under which she works.

nurse

The French teacher may have no more efficiency or scholarship than the school dame across the channel, but she is simply treated better, and respect accrues to the condition of life and work and not to the work itself.

In the United States the teacher has respect, self-respect, power, influence, and some social standing. How is this? It is largely because she is well-dressed. She is well-dressed because she has money; she has money because she is in a protected profession. Take away that protection, and instantly a thousand country schools in California would offer their teachers thirty dollars a month and get plenty of teachers. But self-respect and decency would be a thing of the past.

In order that this State protection of this protected industry may be maintained and extended classroom teachers must learn to stand together. They must never think anything is too good for them, any conditions too excellent, any salaries too high. The late Henry H. Rogers used to say that if there was one thing that Mr. Rockefeller had taught his lieutenants it was that they must get out of every proposition every dollar there was in it. If this be right for public corporations it is right for public schools; the teaching profession has a right to every dollar there is in it. If five dollars a day is a minimum salary with which to induce a Ford floor sweeper to maximum efficiency, it is minimum enough for a California school

teacher.

No teacher's horizon can be broadened without a broadening envirnoment, and a broadening environment costs money. From the point of view of the State, knowledge, power, selfrespect, a wide and intelligent horizon is cheap; only ignorance is expensive. Unfortunately, this is not the point of view of a good many people in the State, and therefore it becomes the business of the teacher to broaden not only her own horizon but that of others. The teaching force will not have a broad horizon so long as the State pays only for a narrow one; and the State will not pay for broad horizons until someone educates it in the business values of high class (which means highly paid) teachers; and no one can do this educating better than the classroom teachers' organizations when once the classroom teachers are thoroughly awakened to what they want and how to get it.

It is said that Immanuel Kant never left his native town. But we teachers are not all Immanuel Kants; we do not all live in a German university town; and for all we know Kant might have written a "Critique of Pure Hand and Heart" or a "Critique of Labor and Feeling" or a "Critique of Co-operation," instead of reason had he traveled abroad and witnessed the opening of the American West. Maybe he also needed a broader horizon.

If all European teachers had been paid enough to spend a large portion of their time in other countries than their own (and this costs the State nothing; it simply means an exchange of teaching force), the present war might never have taken place. The money spent in this war aggregates a hundred millions a day, without America's coming in. Think of what a hundred millions a day, spent, not on destruction, but on schools, would mean in the way of small classes, equipment, travel, salaries!

And this war is the result of national instead of international horizon; of parochialism; of petty localism; of ignorance; and perhaps most of all, of poverty. If every teacher in America could spend a portion of her time in Europe and every European teacher a portion of hers in America or elsewhere, the greatest of mutual sympathy would immediately result.

Americans educated in Germany were (before America went into the war) pro-German. Those educated in Paris were pro-French. Now if all French pedagogues could have been partly trained in Germany, or America, or England,

and vice versa, they would have been infinitely less rabid nationalists than they were, and the American teachers visiting those countries would have come away, not pro-French or pro-German (the pros of one being anti- the other), but proEuropean and international in horizon. This it is for which all the great teachers of the race from Hermes and Laotze to Christ and Tolstoi have pleaded.

A broad horizon costs money, but is cheap in the end. A narrow horizon may cost nothing today, but everything tomorrow. It never pays dividends. The way to this broad horizon is through a proper understanding of how_our vast public wealth should be expended. This, the teachers must first learn themselves and then by co-operative effort, by the combination of all the women who are doing the classroom work, to force it into the attention of the world and keep it there.

[blocks in formation]

By Miss Lilian Talbert

The greatest movement in modern education today is the organization of the classroom teacher.

The purpose of this paper is:

First-To bring before you the scope and significance of the National League of Grade Teachers that you may become better acquainted with the ideals of that body of loyal workers, and

Second-To set before you some very definite and practical problems the Berkeley Club has undertaken to solve whereby you who are new in the work may take back to your association something that has proven itself very much worth while to others.

The crowning achievement of the year 1912 was the launching of the League of Teachers' Associations. The conviction that times were ripe for a world-wide organization seemed to come simultaneously to the clubs of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Probably the conviction arose from the fact that the teachers in those two cities had accomplished in a very short time several much-needed reforms. They had hindered the expenditure of schools funds in channels where little or no returns would be received and had started investigations which eventually led to the freeing of the schools from politics. There was a further conviction that things could only be accomplished by the united efforts of the teaching body of our whole country.

And so from schoolroom to schoolroom the wireless message flashed, and everywhere it found in teachers' hearts sensitive instruments ready to respond. "God will not have His work done by cowards." Teachers began to realize that to teach the glory of freedom to children they must themselves be free. They must be unhampered in action and speech, self-reliant, earnest, fearless thinkers.

A clubroom in the Art Institute of Chicago was the first memorable meeting place. A clubroom crowded to its doors on a stifling July afternoon; crowded by eager enthusiastic teachers, who forgot heat, forgot aching feet, forgot that six o'clock was dinner time, working each for all and all for each; this was a fitting testimonial that at last the teachers had been aroused -were awake and ready for action.

From all corners of the earth they had come from Boston, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Denver, Portland, Los Angeles, and with one accord they drew up a constitution that has remained unchallenged.

The purpose of this organization is to advance the interest of the schools, to raise the standards of the profession, to cultivate a spirit of fellow

ship, and good will among teachers, to form a representative body to speak with authority for teachers, and to create in the community at large a deeper sense of the dignity of the profession and the importance of classroom work.

The membership has been limited to grade and high school teachers regularly and exclusively engaged in classroom work.

In the words of one of the first Presidents, Grace Baldwin, "our visions are not a dream, but a reality. We have clasped hands to form a living chain of earnest women workers."

The League, what is it today? An organization that has swept our country, spanned the Atlantic, crossed the old world to the blue waters of the Pacific and back through the Golden Gate has encircled the world. It has become not national but international in its scope.

Why does it exist? Because teachers feel the need of united organized effort. Too long have the classroom teachers by their reticence and timidity stood in the light of the development of their own work.

What does it hope to accomplish?

Tenure of Position.

A Living Wage.

Equal Pay for Equal Work.

Democracy through Advisory Councils.
Exchange of Teachers.

Sabbatical Year.

Retirement Law.

The Abolition of Secret Markings and Gradings of Teachers.

Do you who are newly organized or are hoping to organize need information along these lines? Write to the General Secretary. She is a clearing house for educational ideals.

These things that have been accomplished we can put down in black and white. But the spirit of fellowship, the new joy at being reborn again, that is something of the soul, acknowledged by every member who has entered the work yet untangible—indescribable. This federation is a glorious and enduring fact though it seems but yesterday that there assembled in Chicago the handful of teachers who perfected it.

To you who are planning such an organization I would say, Your strength must come from within. You have too long depended on others. Do your thinking for yourselves.

One of our own teachers in a burst of enthusiasm erclaimed: "I've taken a new lease on life! This is the best thing that has ever entered my teaching life."

And a principal has said, "I have found the efficiency of my school greatly increased since the teachers have organized. A spirit of helpfulness and co-operation is everywhere."

Why not uplift your community? Ten members can unite, enter the League and thus join hands in this great and endless chain.

Caught by the enthusiasm of the N. E. A. nearly two years ago, a handful of teachers from Berkeley heard the story of such an association from the lips of Grace De Graff, then serving as President of the League. We determined to get ten members together and organize. Imagine our surprise when in a few months our membership reached one hundred, which was over 80 per cent of eligible teachers from our city. Having once felt the possibilities we have not only kept up our work locally, but have encouraged other cities in the State to organize and have accepted leadership in committees of the National Council. Today five strong clubs are active in the work-Oakland, Los Angeles, Alameda, San Jose and Berkeley. San Francisco is still working on plans, which we hope will soon be completed. Having once beeen brought together, the teachers of our city found many serious problems confronting them.

In detail, with your permission, I will touch on a few of these.

One relic of the past, the overcrowded classroom, is still with us. It is as old as the horn book and the sampler. The famous New England Primer of early colonial life is modern compared with it. But, you say, there is no money!

My friends, there is money! Do know you how public school moneys are apportioned two and three times each year? Why, at the very first apportionment a class of 40 children brings over one hundred and forty dollars a month. A class of 55 children would bring to the school something like $275 per month.

But you are reminded of over head expenses! Our commissioners have said that the over head

[blocks in formation]

Little children packed together almost as close as they can sit, fifty-five and even sixty in a room that breathes of vitiated air, rooms without one ray of eastern sunlight, with all life literally cooked out of the atmosphere. These children come from homes where many different tongues are spoken, and enter these new surroundings without any knowledge of the English language.

Is it any wonder that we find the holdover and the failure here? Boys ten and twelve years of age are not uncommon in our second and third grades. And do we fail in teaching citizenship? Our classrooms become the breeding places for those ills which later fill our juvenile courts and our reform schools. Yes, the overcrowded classroom is the most expensive department in our educational system, not measured even in dollars and cents.

In despair Boards of Education have tried to make some reparation. Admitting our failure when it is almost too late, they have gone to a vast expense in establishing opportunity schools, vacation schools, night schools, the ungraded classes, probation courts and reform schools. But these, however good, cannot hope to correct a system that is wrong in its very foundation.

And why does the crowded classroom exist today? Because we teachers have tolerated it! Because in our weakness we have not banded together and with united forces thrown our full weight and righteous strength against it. This year it remained for the teachers of Berkeley working with the teachers of San Francisco to interest certain legislators to such an extent that a bill was finally introduced in the Assembly limiting the number of children in a class to 40. This brings me to another point. We need federation among our own clubs. We should be able to keep a representative at Sacramento to watch and work for measures endorsed by us. The Los Angeles City Teachers' Club assessed themselves $1.00 each and sent a representative to work for them. Within the next two years we should see that funds are provided for similar work. Alone we can do little but united much can be accomplished.

The fact that we have been able to work together even in a small way is beginning to tell. By working together we feel assured we have saved the Pension Law, for the next two years. It was not an easy thing to accomplish, Miss Power, Miss Burke and Miss Bray from San Francisco, Miss Vance from Los Angeles, Miss Murray from Oakland and Miss Hunt from Alameda can tell you of the necessity of the work. Within the next two years changes must be made. We should begin at once, carefully and seriously to meet the coming legislation. Can

we not prove ourselves equal to the task? Why should not such necessary changes originate with us and be presented by us so that the law will stand as a permanent thing unchallenged and unchanged?

We believe in the Council of Education. We believe it should be a representative body composed of members chosen from every department of our educational system.

Because we believe this it becomes our duty to do our part toward placing elementary teachers on the council. We need members not only of high scholarship with the best academic training, but also members who live daily very close to the life of the child.

The club in Berkeley justified its existence last year when it put Miss Meyer on the council. This year we have rendered the same great service to the children of our State when we elected Miss Darby of Oakland and Miss Power of San Francisco to further the cause.

During the last few years our public schools have been the target of wild and varied criticisms. One hardly picks up a paper or a magazine without finding headlines and captions reading, "What is the Matter with the Public Schools?" It is only once in a long time, a very long time, one finds a real loyal defense with constructive criticisms offered. A body of workers from the Berkeley organization has resolved to meet the situation in two ways.

We have what is known as the platform committee. On this committee are women who have

is pledged themselves to stand ready to go at call and speak on educational problems touching the life of the child and the work of the school. These speakers have appeared before mothers' clubs, civic organizations and various committees. In all cases we feel that direct good has come to the department in this way, and in some cases real prejudices have been overcome.

The public at large has long enjoyed a little joke of its own at our expense, that the world is made up of males, females and teachers. Το them, no doubt, a teacher is in a class peculiar to its own. With the awakening of the classroom teacher to her responsibilities and especially in those States where suffrage has been granted, the so-called teacher has won for herself the distinction of being a lady, and a leader, a professional business woman, a first-class citizen and a voter not easily manipulated.

Through the press committee the question of "What is the matter with the Public Schools" is beginning to be answered. Articles are appearing from time to time and magazines are soliciting material from us.

I believe our Normal schools should offer such courses that the girls graduating there can have an insight into what the future will demand of them in professional leadership. They should receive some training in public speaking and be equal to the demands for social service.

Universities, colleges an Normal schools have long since felt the benefit of Sabbatical Year.

Enthusiastic reports from Boston, Cambridge, Brookline and other cities of the East show that Boards of Education are beginning to realize that a few dollars spent in the repair and upkeep in the teaching body bring the greatest possible return to the child on the investment.

I have touched at some length a few of the practical problems on which the Berkeley grade teachers have been working, hoping that a suggestion here and there may prove a help to the members of clubs just recently organized.

The subjects of Exchange of Teachers and Advisory Councils are important. .

As an organization we have not touched the question of salaries as other important professional matters have filled our time. However, during the last month or two we have begun an investigation. One thing we have quite definitely decided, that we are opposed to any increase placed on a percentage basis. We believe that already the difference between the salaries of classroom teachers and principals is great enough. One other thing is certain, our teachers are of one mind that no increase should be asked either by principals or teachers that will result in crowding up the classroom and crippling the efficiency of the work.

If we must remember that we are the educators of the American citizen, the thinker of the working classes, then the best becomes none too good for the elementary schools.

It has been most unfortunate indeed that as soon as a teacher has proved her fitness for her work her reward is a promotion which removes her from contact with the children. Those for whom our school system is created are deprived of its best fruits because the salary is in direct ratio to the distance from the child. "Back to the Child" must be our slogan.

Section 1687 of the Political Code is the rock, the educational foundation stone for elementary schools. It has done more than any other one thing to keep good teachers in the lower grades and to raise the salaries of the same, all along the line. When teachers themselves understand the full meaning of the laws under which they live they will see that hasty tampering and unwise legislative meddling upsets the work of

[blocks in formation]
« PrejšnjaNaprej »