4. That a committee of five be appointed by the President of the Council of which committee our world-honored leader, William T. Harris, shall be chairman and the United States Commissioner of Education and the President of this Council, shall be members, whose duty it shall be to consider and report to this Council what steps may be possible toward securing the co-operation of the various organizations for the promotion of education and the consideration of its proble hich may exist in the various civilized countries of the world. spectfully submitted, CARROLL G. PEARSE. Chairman On motion, the report of the Special Committee on the address of the President was adopted. The Committee on Membership submitted the following report: To the National Council of Education: Your committee on nominations of new members would submit a report as followsthat the following-named members, whose terms of office have expired, are hereby reappointed with terms as follows: 1. Jasper N. Wilkinson, Emporia, Kansas, term to expire 1912. 2. Geo. H. Martin, Boston, Mass., term to expire 1912. 3. J. W. Carr, Dayton, Ohio, term to expire 1912. 4. W. E. Hatch, New Bedford, N. J., term to expire 1913. 5. Bettie A. Dutton, Cleveland, Ohio, term to expire 1913. 6. Charles H. Keyes, Hartford, Conn., term to expire 1913. 7. Andrew S. Draper, Albany, N. Y., term to expire 1913. 8. Nicholas Murray Butler, New York City, term to expire 1909. The following persons are recommended for appointment to fill vacancies for the unexpired terms of the following named persons who have been by the provisions of the constitution transferred to the list of honorary members by reason of their absence from two consecutive annual meetings of the Council. 1. Mrs. Ella F. Young, of Chicago, to fill the place of Miss Lucia Stickney, of Ohio, the term expiring in 1912. 2. W. O. Thompson, of Columbus, Ohio, to fill the place of Aaron Gove, of Colorado, the term expiring in 1912. 3. Clifford W. Barnes, of Lake Forest, Ill., to fill the place of William K. Fowler of Nebraska, the term expiring in 1913. 4. Brown Ayers, of Knoxville, Tenn., to take the place of Newton C. Dougherty, resigned, the term expiring in 1910. Respectfully submitted, J. M. GREENWOOD, Chairman W. T. HARRIS. J. F. MILLSPaugh. I. C. MCNEILL. On motion, the report of the Committee on Membership was adopted and the Secretary of the Council instructed to notify each person mentioned above of his election to membership in the Council. The Committee on Membership acting, as per instructions of the Council, as a Committee on Nominations made the following report: J. H. Phillips, Birmingham, Ala., to succeed Edwin A. Alderman, term expiring in 1910. To the National Council of Education: The Committee would recommend for officers: For President, Joseph Swain, for the term of three years. For Vice-President, James M. Green, for the term of two years, to fill vacancy. To fill vacancies in the Committee on Investigations and Appropriations. J. M. Greenwood, to succeed himself, term expiring in 1909. F. A. Fitzpatrick, to succeed himself, term expiring in 1909. Elmer Ellsworth Brown, to succeed himself, term expiring in 1909. J. H. Phillips, Birmingham, Ala., to succeed Edwin A. Alderman, term expiring in 1910. It is recommended that the vacancies occurring on the committee on membership be filled as follows: W. T. Harris, to succeed himself, term expiring in 1909. Livingston C. Lord, to succeed himself, term expiring in 1910. J. F. Millspaugh, to succeed Albert G. Lane, deceased, term expiring, 1909. I. C. McNeill, to succeed Chas. D. McIver, deceased, term expiring, 1910. To fill vacancies in the Executive Committee. The President, ex officio. Elmer Ellsworth Brown to succeed Anna Tolman Smith, term expiring in 1909. W. T. Harris to succeed Howard J. Rogers, term expiring in 1910. On motion, the report of the Committee on Nominations was adopted and the persons named therein were declared duly elected to fill the respective offices named. After thanking the Council for courtesies shown him during his term of office, the retiring President appointed Carroll G. Pearse, and W. H. Bartholomew to escort Joseph Swain, president elect, to the chair. On motion, the committee on the affairs of the office of United States Commissioner of Education was discontinued. There being no other business, the Council adjourned. J. W. CARR, Secretary. The following special committee has been appointed in accordance with resolution No. 4 (see above), on Co-operation with Educational Organizations in Other Countries: W. T. HARRIS, Washington, D.C. ELMER ELLSWORTH BROWN, Washington, D.C. JOSEPH SWAIN, Swarthmore, Pa. NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, New York, N.Y. J. M. GREENWOOD, Kansas City, Mo. IRWIN SHEPARD, General Secretary. PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER ELMER ELLSWORTH BROWN, PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL The National Council of Education has been constituted as a permanent working committee of the National Educational Association. Permit me at this time to emphasize its character as a working body. It has become clear that the National Educational Association, with its large resources, can make some substantial contributions to the technical and professional literature of education. The ability carries with it the responsibility. But an educational literature of lasting value can be made only on the basis of difficult and laborious investigations. In order that such investigations may be properly conducted, it is necessary that some members of the Association should devote to this undertaking an unusual amount of time, and severe and intelligent attention to the business in hand. Election to the Council is a very high honor, one of the highest honors which the National Educational Association can bestow; but as is the ordinary practice in a democracy and should be the ordinary practice in a democracy, the honor is bestowed not as a decoration but as a call to service and an opportunity for service. The view of membership in the Council which is emphasized here may be expressed in other words as follows: The special duties devolving upon the Council of Education are of so delicate and critical a character that they can be properly performed only by those whose main activity, so far as the National Educational Association is concerned, is concentrated for the time being upon the business of the Council. It is in harmony with the main business of the Council that it should, from year to year, present a general survey of educational progress. Such a survey is a means of getting, from time to time, a new perspective among the large educational needs to which the Council has to minister. What is the field in which special investigations may most profitably be carried on by the National Educational Association? It seems desirable that some special consideration should now be devoted to this question. A large and important part of our standard literature of education is imported from other English-speaking countries and from the continent of Europe. Another large and important part is provided by the contributions of individual writers, put forth in the ordinary course of the publishing trade. These two sources of supply can be depended upon continuously. They will be very uneven in their contributions, but we may leave them out of consideration at this time for the reason that they are beyond any sort of control or influence which we can exercise. For the rest, we have these three large sources of supply: First, the education offices of the national and state governments; secondly, the departments of investigation and publication of our greater universities; thirdly, our state and national educational associations. Without attempting any forced or artificial distribution of function among these three agencies, I think it is worth our while to consider what would be the most natural and useful division of labor among them. Upon such division of labor we can, in this body, exercise a very considerable influence, and if we undertake to do so in view of a comprehensive survey of the educational field, it seems not unlikely that we may, in the course of a few years, bring about arrangements which will greatly economize the efforts which are put forth in the production of an educational literature, and will render those efforts more fruitful. Let us limit the discussion to investigations the results of which are embodied in these for the higher degrees in the graduate schools of our universities, the investigations and publications of the national Bureau of Education, and the investigations and publications of the National Educational Association. The doctor theses in education, prepared in our universities, are generally the work of comparatively young men, who have, however, already seen enough of the actual work of teaching to enable them to give somewhat of the touch of actuality to their productions. Such a thesis must necessarily be of limited extent, and in the nature of a monograph. The range of subject may be very great: The history of education, educational theory, experiments of a psychological character having a bearing upon education, together with the interpretation of such experiments, statistical studies in American education, based either upon published statistics or upon information gathered by use of the questionnaire, and the comparison of American with foreign. educational systems. To some extent first-hand studies of the working of accessible institutions and the results of experiments in educational method can be embodied in such publications. The National Bureau of Education presents as its pièce de résistance an annual report, embodying the statistics of a very wide range of educational institutions in this country, and accounts of educational progress in many fields both American and foreign. It has published also a large number of historical monographs in the form of circulars of information, and is undertaking the issuance of a bulletin embodying timely papers with reference to current educational procedure. The chief publications of the National Educational Association, issued under the general supervision of this Council, have been the two historic reports on secondary education, those of the Committee of Ten, and the Committee on College Entrance Requirements; the comprehensive report of the Committee of Fifteen, relating chiefly to elementary education; a general report on normal schools; two reports on the financial aspects of public education, that relating to salaries, etc., of public school teachers, and that on taxation as related to public education; two reports relating to rural schools, that of the Committee of Twelve, and the preliminary report on industrial education; and a report on instruction in library administration in normal schools. It is a notable and influential list of publications, altho far from uniform in character and excellence. While these three classes of publications overlap, and no sharp line of demarcation between them is desirable, I think that a general distinction of a somewhat useful sort may be stated about as follows: The university thesis must concern itself with a subject which can be treated within the limits of a single monograph. Generally speaking, it cannot be expected to embody any ripe or comprehensive judgment. It should, however, show a clear application to a comparatively narrow subject of some thoroly mastered. method in the collection and organization of materials. In some instances, small and well-defined portions of a large inquiry may, to good advantage, be worked out as special investigations by graduate students in a university. Both the Bureau of Education and the National Educational Association should at times undertake investigations of a larger sort, such as must extend over a period of years, involving the bringing together of results of various. special inquiries, and, in some instances, involving also the employment of special agents to make personal observations in various parts of this country and of foreign countries. Such investigations may on occasion even call for the conduct of special educational experiments, extending over considerable periods of time. The Bureau of Education may properly lay especial stress upon statistical inquiries; and upon comparative studies in the field of educational legislation and educational reports in this country and thruout the world, which its great collection of such documentary matter and its well-established system of correspondence should enable it to carry on to good advantage. While it may be able to offer individual contributions to the sum of educational doctrine, its work will mainly deal with those facts relating to educational institutions and processes which can be objectively presented and in large part reduced to some form of measurement. In the long run it should be able to do something worth while in the direction of the standardizing of American systems of education. The National Council of Education is not so favorably situated with reference to the making of comprehensive and accurate comparative studies of educational facts, but it is in a peculiarly favorable situation as regards the gathering up and digestion of current educational opinion. By collating the judgments of the most successful teachers and school administrators it can render that most important service-the determination of widely approved standards of educational practice. It can, moreover, exercise a great influence on the development of educational doctrine, out of which the standards of educational practice are to proceed, by bringing together into direct and suggestive comparison the best formulations of educational doctrine which can be had. By such presentation and comparison it can facilitate that wholesome process in the development of all educational doctrine which is represented by the scriptural saying, "Prove all things, hold fast that which is good." While no field of education is foreign to the interest of the Council, its best work will undoubtedly be done for the most part in those inquiries in which it deals with education as represented by the teaching profession, and with those appliances and processes with which the teaching profession has most directly to do. These suggestions are offered not with any thought of an immediate and complete reorganization of educational research in this country, but rather with a view to promoting a broad consideration of available agencies. Thru such consideration, we may hope, within the next few years, a more effective division of labor and co-operation of agencies may be brought about. There is urgent need of a professional literature of education. In its beginnings it has already appeared. It is for us to take counsel as to the ways in which the development of such a literature may be carried forward, without waste of effort, to substantial results. To make a more scientific literature of education, and particularly a more scientific literature of the teaching profession; and thru such literature to set higher standards of educational practice and make those standards more definite-these are the ends we have in view. Now a few words as to methods and means: The investigation of the Council must be as rigorous as those of the universities or those of the scientific departments of the national government. They cannot otherwise hold their place and justify their cost. When an investigation is carried on by a committee of several members the more scientific portions must needs be conducted by those members who are experts in the matters considered. Or, if the committee does not have such experts in its mem |
