LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Gl FT OF 
 
 Class 
 
SHALL WE HAVE SCHOOL SUPERVISION 
 IN THE RURAL DISTRICTS? 
 
 Address t>y 
 
 ANDREW S. DRAPER LL.B. LL.D. 
 Commissioner of Education of the State of New York 
 
 AT THE 
 
 State Association of School Commissioners 
 and Superintendents 
 
 Syracuse, N. Y. 
 Wednesday evening, November 6, 1907 
 
 - 10,000 (7-6338) 
 
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 >7 
 
I *5v 
 
 OF THE " \ 
 
 UNIVERSITY } 
 
 OF 
 
 SHALL WE HAVE SCHOOL SUPERVISION IN THE 
 RURAL DISTRICTS? 
 
 Difficult as it is for me to come to make this address, it was 
 quite impossible to resist the wishes of the president of your asso- 
 ciation and the members of your committee on legislation, who 
 have been so much interested in the subject which I am desired 
 to discuss. It is not possible for me to attend all State educational 
 meetings, to say nothing of local meetings, but if my coming 
 will indicate my special respect for this association because of its 
 consistent and persistent attitude concerning the better supervision 
 of the rural schools, I shall be very glad that I came and attempted 
 to render the requested service. 
 
 The excellence of schools depends upon the supervision 
 
 All who have any understanding of our schools see that their 
 excellence depends upon the quality and the closeness of the 
 " supervision " ; and all who are familiar with the schools of New 
 York know that there is no school supervision, in the rural dis- 
 tricts of the State, in the sense in which the really capable men 
 and women of the schools now use that term. 
 
 What is school supervision? 
 
 School supervision brings the knowledge, the experience, and 
 the spirit of a first class teacher to the everyday operations of 
 the schools. A school superintendent does not make it unneces- 
 sary to have the best teachers ; he can not make up for the short- 
 comings of weak teachers; but he helps to prepare teachers, he 
 helps to adapt teachers to particular places, and he helps to 
 develop in the teachers the best teaching of which they are capable. 
 He lays out the work of each school ; he equalizes advantages to 
 all the schools under his supervision. He advises trustees. He 
 adjusts any difficulties which may arise between the teacher and 
 child, or the teacher and parent. He must visit the school often 
 in order to keep himself fresh and progressive in his work. He 
 must have all the teachers together occasionally in order to effect 
 
 162891 
 
oneness of purpose and inspire alertness and enthusiasm in all 
 of the schools. He must quicken pupils as well as teachers, and 
 to do this he must be a clean, attractive, and forceful character, 
 who appeals to the buoyancy and ambition of youth. He must 
 be a worker. He must be an intelligent friend of true sport. He 
 must be a scholar; he must know the literature of the schools; he 
 must be specially proficient in educational history, and pedagogi- 
 cal theory and method; and he must keep up with progress in 
 the organization and work of schools in other districts, in other 
 states, and in other countries. He must have a share in educa- 
 tional meetings in the State and nation to the end that he may 
 possibly contribute to their potential strength, and certainly to 
 the end that he may get from them the aids which will help him to 
 do the most for his own schools. Withal, he must be a sane and 
 balanced character, who is familiar with affairs, who is neither 
 an eccentric nor a bombast, who can move among the people on 
 at least equal terms, to whom teachers may be naturally disposed 
 to look for guidance, and to whose judgment and influence parents 
 may be glad to submit the future of their children. One can not 
 be all this, nor any appreciable part of it, unless he is a balanced 
 character and is a student of it ; nor unless he has had experience 
 at it. He must have judgment and discrimination. He must be 
 able to resist, as well as to do. He can not fill this place and 
 divide his time and thought with any other business. He can have 
 no other interest which will take his time, or his thought, or which 
 will warp his judgment, for the place demands all the thought, and 
 all the force, of an all-around man or woman who has become an 
 expert in the organization and administration of schools. What 
 such an one can do for the schools can not be fully described; 
 indeed, it can hardly be appreciated by one not familiar with the 
 complex educational activities of the country. But that is what we 
 mean by school supervision. 
 
 No such supervision in the farming districts 
 Such supervision has developed very rapidly in the cities of the 
 State in the last forty or fifty years. It is this that has made 
 for the quite uniform excellence of the city schools. It is this, at 
 least, that has made the schools notably good in the cities where 
 the best superintendents have been long continued. Other ex- 
 
planations are often given for it; the true explanation is in the 
 qualities and opportunities of a real superintendent, and of actual 
 and expert supervision long continued. 
 
 This thing has grown in the cities with their own growth. 
 It has grown out of the ready facilities for intercommunication, 
 out of the great resources, and out of the obvious needs. But 
 there has been no substantial advance in supervisory plans in the 
 rural districts in all the history of New York schools. It is true 
 that we have had supervisory school officers in all parts of the 
 State from the very beginning; but progressive ideals in super- 
 vision have forged ahead in the cities and not at all in the country. 
 
 When the State first began to develop systematically and aid 
 schools, in 1795, town commissioners, with trustees in subdistricts, 
 were provided for. When we began to bind the disconnected 
 schools together in a State system it was done through super- 
 visory officers. The act of 1812, which provided for the first 
 State Superintendent of Common Schools in the country, also 
 provided for the election in each town, at town meeting, of three 
 commissioners to manage the affairs of the schools of the town. 
 Two years later this act was amended so as to provide that there 
 should also be elected, at each town meeting, not to exceed six in- 
 spectors of town schools, who should in some indefinite way act 
 with the three town commissioners. 
 
 The beginning of the county or district commissioner system 
 appears in chapter 260 of the laws of 1841, which provided that 
 the board of supervisors in each county should appoint a deputy 
 superintendent of common schools for the county, and where there 
 were more than two hundred schools in the county they should 
 appoint two deputies. The idea prevailed that the State Superin- 
 tendent should superintend the school interests of the State 
 through these county deputies. 
 
 In 1843 the offices of town commissioners and inspectors were 
 abolished, and provision was made for the election in each town 
 of a "Town Superintendent of Common Schools." 
 
 In 1847 tne office of county deputy superintendent, or county 
 superintendent, as it had come to be called, was abolished. 
 
 In 1854 the State Department of Public Instruction was organ- 
 ized and the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction 
 was created. 
 
6 
 
 In 1856 the office of town superintendent was abolished and that 
 of county or district school commissioner was created. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that we have had legal supervision of 
 schools by town officers from 1795 to 1856, by county or district 
 officers from 1841 to 1847 and from 1856 to the present time, and 
 by a State officer from 1812 until now. 
 
 The town officers were not compensated and there was no as- 
 sumption that they should be professional school men. Indeed, 
 in their days there was no thought that the schools called for any 
 other oversight than that which any layman could give them. 
 
 The same thought persisted when the county or district com- 
 missioners were provided for. They were compensated, but the 
 statutes and the records will be searched in vain for any educa- 
 tional or official requirements of eligibility or for any indication 
 that they were to give their undivided time to the service of the 
 schools. There was then no divorce between the management of 
 the schools and the management of party politics, and party ser- 
 vice was often rewarded with the office of school commissioner. 
 It was a particularly progressive district that recognized the need 
 of an experienced teacher in the office of commissioner, and there 
 was an exceptionally aggressive educational sentiment where the 
 men who controlled the dominant party organization felt con- 
 strained to bend their course to that need. 
 
 The main function of the school commissioner was to issue 
 licenses to teach, and that he did with notable alacrity to voters, 
 and to daughters of families where there were voters. Once in a 
 while it is said that the State has taken away from the school 
 commissioner the main function of his office. It is not so said 
 where the commissioner is a real superintendent of schools. So 
 long as the commissioner is not a professional school man and 
 can not superintend schools, so long as his main interest is to get 
 delegates enough to be renominated and votes enough to be re- 
 elected, so long as he can not and does not care to discriminate 
 about who shall teach the schools, so long as he would put a 
 good teacher at the disadvantage of competition with an endless 
 number of people who can not teach at all, the irresponsible certifi- 
 cating of teachers can not be left to him. And the gratifying fact 
 is that no good school man wants it left to any one who can not 
 discriminate, and that the man who can discriminate wants his 
 discretion limited and guided by all practicable standards and 
 safeguards. 
 
The school commissioners and better rural supervision 
 In the last twenty years there have been no teachers certificates 
 issued except pursuant to credits gained in State uniform teachers 
 examinations or in the State academic examinations. In the 
 meantime the training of teachers has gone steadily forward. The 
 result is a teaching force that is reasonably well prepared in sub- 
 ject-matter. There are not many teachers in the State who are 
 without a reasonable grasp of their work. Indeed, I am glad to 
 believe that the average of proficiency, as evinced by the ability 
 to pass examinations, is unequaled in the country. Nor am I dis- 
 posed to doubt that the average of strictly professional proficiency 
 is quite as high, and very likely higher, than that of any other 
 equal number of teachers in the country. This fact of itself makes 
 a professional leadership imperative. The time was when a school 
 commissioner who was a fair man was acceptable even though he 
 knew nothing of the philosophical side or the history of educa- 
 tion, because no one else, not even the teachers, knew much of 
 it; but the time has come when a commissioner who knows little 
 or nothing of those things is conspicuously unfit, because the pro- 
 fessional men, and the successful merchants and manufacturers, 
 and the newspapers, and the women's clubs, and the labor organiza- 
 tions, and most certainly the teachers, know a great deal about them. 
 It is exceedingly gratifying that the movement for reform has 
 been led by the majority of the school commissioners themselves. 
 In several annual meetings of your association you have spoken 
 decisively for the reform. You have drafted bills and done what 
 you could to secure favorable action by the Legislature. The 
 officers of the Education Department would hardly have had the 
 courage to push a proposition which seemed aimed at you, but 
 for the definite and decisive attitudes of your association 
 and its committees. 
 
 This was creditable to you but it was not to be unexpected. 
 The majority of any such body of officers will inevitably be upon 
 the right side ; men who are conscientious will stand for whatever 
 may seem to be for the good of the people ; and the clearer heads 
 will not be unable to see that whatever is of advantage to the 
 people will be of more advantage to themselves. Of course there 
 are school commissioners who can not see this very clearly, and 
 there are some who are foolish enough to think they can pretend 
 
8 
 
 one thing and do another without the world knowing it. But I am 
 glad to say that the overwhelming number of school commis- 
 sioners have, conscientiously and uppn their own initiative, led in 
 the movement for a more professional and more complete super- 
 vision of the rural schools. 
 
 Possibly I should say that I do not think the present situation 
 is the fault of any one. It is one of the things that has continued 
 out of the past because of the obvious difficulties in the way of 
 remedying it. It is difficult for sentiment to concentrate in the 
 farming regions. It was to have been expected that the country 
 would be behind the cities in such a movement as this. Much less 
 am I disposed to censure school commissioners. They have fol- 
 lowed a system. Many of them have done better than the system. 
 And the very best of them could not apply the methods of modern 
 supervision to their work because the number and remoteness of 
 the schools under their charge, and the indifference of the people, 
 made it altogether impossible. But the time has come when the 
 telephone, rural free delivery, the trolley car, and good roads 
 ought to pretty nearly eliminate the difficulties about the " country 
 school problem." When nothing but reasonable legislation is 
 necessary, we should have it. 
 
 The State Grange and better country schools, 
 
 All that has been done by the Education Department has been 
 in accord with the State Grange as well as with the school com- 
 missioners. The Grange is the strongest and most intelligent rep- 
 resentative of agricultural sentiment in the State. I should not 
 be disposed to push any movement having special reference to the 
 rural schools which did not commend itself to that great organiza- 
 tion. The late master of the State Grange, Mr George A. Fuller, 
 whose lamentable and almost tragic death cut short a career of 
 unusual usefulness, frequently solicited the activities of the Educa- 
 tion Department in this behalf, and the present officers of the 
 Grange seem no less interested than their late and lamented chief. 
 
 What is proposed 
 
 The reform proposed is embodied in what came to be called the 
 " Page Bill," because offered in the last Senate by Senator Alfred 
 
R. Page, Chairman of the Committee on Public Education. Its 
 essential propositions are: 
 
 (a) That the supervisory districts be made much smaller. 
 
 (b) That the office of school commissioner be abolished and that 
 
 of school superintendent for each of the smaller districts be 
 created. 
 
 (c) That definite professional qualifications for the office of district 
 
 superintendent be fixed. 
 
 (d) That the district superintendent be chosen for five year terms 
 
 by a district board created for the purpose. 
 
 (e) That the salary of the district superintendent be $1500, of 
 
 which $1200 shall be paid by the State and $300 by the 
 supervisory district, and that his expenses, up to a maxi- 
 mum of $300, be audited and paid by the State. 
 
 (f) That the superintendent shall not be involved in the manage- 
 
 ment of any other business, and shall give his time unre- 
 servedly to the duties of his office. 
 
 (g) That the functions and duties of the office of school commis- 
 
 sioner, now provided by law, be transferred to the office of 
 district superintendent and in addition thereto that the re- 
 sponsibilities of a real school superintendent be imposed 
 upon him. 
 There is nothing in the measure beyond these propositions and 
 
 what is subordinate and necessarily incidental thereto, but I must 
 
 go into greater detail. 
 
 Supervisory districts 
 
 There are 113 school commissioner districts in the State. It is 
 proposed to make about 210 supervisory districts, so that each 
 district will have from 40 to 60 schools instead of twice or thrice 
 that number, as now. The districts are to be laid out by the board 
 of supervisors of the county and the present school commissioners. 
 Towns are not to be divided. There would be from two to five 
 towns in a district, according to size of towns. A specific number 
 of supervisory districts is allotted to each county. Of course this 
 number could be changed and the districts in a county readjusted, 
 but it would have to be done by legislation. 
 
 There are 10,626 school districts in the State, and therefore 
 each school commissioner has an average of almost 100 schools to 
 
10 
 
 supervise. Anything like an equal division is impossible. Often 
 a commissioner has from 150 to 180. Under the new plan each 
 superintendent would have an average of 50 schools, and for 
 obvious reasons the division of territory and schools may be much 
 more uniform. 
 
 The reports of the school commissioners to the State Department 
 for the year ending July 31, 1907 show that in that year 7773 
 districts were inspected at least once each. The number is larger 
 than usual for there was some Department urgency about the 
 matter. Even so, there were 2853 districts which received no visit 
 whatever from a supervisory officer. The reports also show that 
 upon the average the visits were made at the rate of four in a day. 
 Now let one remember the distance between schools; contemplate 
 a thirty minute visit to a school once in a year, sometimes by a lay- 
 man in school matters; note that one school in four is not in- 
 spected at all; refresh his recollection of what the law exacts of 
 school commissioners concerning the buildings and grounds, the 
 equipment, the teaching and the teacher ; and then think of the com- 
 plex demands of modern school work and the vital needs of com- 
 petent supervision; and one will not be ignorant of reasons for 
 some shortcomings in the country schools. 
 
 The new plan would make it quite possible actually to superin- 
 tend the work of the schools, whereas that is now quite impossible. 
 The superintendent could visit the schools every month or two, 
 and it would be practicable to hold meetings of teachers say three 
 or four times a year for conference and instruction without their 
 being away from home beyond the day. A very vital part of 
 efficient school supervision is in frequent meetings of teachers, 
 which are not " institutes " or lectures, but gatherings where the 
 actual conditions of the local situation are discussed and where 
 new plans are laid which may be really worked out. 
 
 The district superintendent 
 
 It was arranged in the bill last winter that a superintendent 
 should be of age, a resident of the State but not necessarily of the 
 supervisory district, and that within the year preceding his election 
 he must have been employed as a city or village superintendent, 
 a school commissioner, a principal of a high school, or must possess 
 
11 
 
 such other qualifications as the Commissioner of Education should 
 prescribe, and that no one should be disqualified because of sex. 
 
 The provision relating to the fixing of additional qualifications 
 of eligibility by the Commissioner of Education was understood 
 by all school men, but naturally enough not so well by all others, to 
 relate to the holders of the higher grade of teachers certificates 
 who might not have been teaching in the preceding year. It was 
 inserted against my wish. The arrangement in general was so as 
 not to exclude from the position in the first term any school com- 
 missioner or any prominent teacher now in office. 
 
 This arrangement has been most criticized, it has been particu- 
 larly so criticized by the officers of the State Grange, because school 
 commissioners were made eligible. Some of your number insisted 
 upon this. It was done to give some who were examining teachers 
 and were without certificates themselves five years in which to 
 qualify. The objection to it is not without reason. It illustrates 
 the proposition that when you are going to do a thing which ought 
 to be done you had better do it directly, completely and forthwith. 
 What was thought would gain support for the measure really 
 brought more criticism than support to it. 
 
 It seems to me that the conditions of eligibility may be much 
 simplified and made more effectual by providing that those whom 
 we may justly classify as the professional teachers of the State 
 that is, those who hold life certificates or may obtain them shall 
 be eligible. This would include the graduates of colleges and 
 normal schools, the holders of State certificates, and the holders 
 of first grade uniform certificates which are renewable indefinitely 
 without examination. This would provide a sufficient supply of 
 eligible candidates; at the same time it would reasonably guard 
 the position from unqualified candidates; and it would have the 
 merit of resting upon a logical basis and of being readily under- 
 stood and remembered. 
 
 Tenure and obligations 
 
 It has been assumed that five years is a reasonable term of office 
 of a district superintendent, and that he should give his exclusive 
 attention to the duties of his office; that he should have unques- 
 tioned professional qualifications; that he should have reasonable 
 protection in his tenure ; and that he should give his whole being 
 to the upbuilding of the schools. 
 
12 
 
 It is very far from my wish to say anything that can be dis- 
 agreeable to any one, but the whole subject is opened and the public 
 is bound to know that what is the matter with the country schools 
 is not the mere fact that they are in the country, but the fact that 
 the districts are territorially so large as to preclude real supervision, 
 and that it very often happens that the supervisory officers are not 
 only not as professionally competent as many of the teachers whom 
 they are set to supervise, but also that they often use their official 
 connection with the schools to promote the interests of some other 
 business which they regularly carry on. Last winter members of 
 the Legislature were importuned by school commissioners to op- 
 pose the passage of the Page bill on the ground that it would 
 prevent them from carrying on other businesses. If farmers and 
 legislators are to listen to that they can hardly expect much im- 
 provement in the country schools. 
 
 I intend no reflection upon perhaps one half of the school com- 
 missioners who are reasonably well adapted, many of them ex- 
 ceedingly well adapted, to their work, and who pursue it loyally 
 under discouraging conditions, when I say that the other half seem 
 to be incapable of appreciating the fact that their employment is 
 a professional one. The lay character of the office in the early 
 days, before expert school supervision had developed even in the 
 cities, when a country commissioner was only expected to look 
 rather autocratic and grant teachers certificates to the respectable 
 and the needy, is still marching on in the very sections of the State 
 where the percentage of illiteracy is the highest and the need of a 
 more perfect school system is most imperative. It is notoriously 
 the fact that between the size of the commissioner districts, lack 
 of requirements for eligibility, the remoteness of schools, politics, 
 and private businesses, the country schools in large parts of this 
 State will not be adequately organized or supervised before some 
 very decisive steps are taken. And it is no less notorious that the 
 most opposition to the reform comes from the sections of the State 
 which need it most. 
 
 Dilatory reports and correspondence 
 
 It should be pointed out that the size of districts makes it prac- 
 tically impossible for a school commissioner to have the affairs of 
 his district completely in hand, and so to get and transmit in- 
 
13 
 
 formation, or redress grievances and remedy difficulties, in the 
 time expected by the swift activities of our modern life. On the 
 1 5th of September, the day fixed for filing reports for the year 
 ending July 3ist, the reports of 87 commissioners out of 113 had 
 not been received, and in practically every case the excuse made 
 was that reports in correct form could not be procured from the 
 trustees. In a smaller district the supervisory officer could per- 
 sonally see the trustees and instruct and assist them about reports. 
 It would be quite practicable to hold meetings of trustees. That is 
 a very important consideration, standing by itself alone. Every- 
 thing might be done much more speedily and reliably; and when 
 millions of dollars are paid out upon the basis of the reports it is 
 apparent that expedition and accuracy are no less important to the 
 proper transaction of the State's business than to that local effi- 
 ciency which is the right of the people who are interested in partic- 
 ular schools. 
 
 This inevitable dilatoriness affects the renovation of property, 
 the employment of teachers for each new year, and it affects very 
 vitally the enforcement of the compulsory attendance laws. With 
 a larger percentage of illiteracy in the country than in the cities, 
 there is crying need of more superintendents in the country to aid 
 in the work of bringing all the children of school age into the 
 schools. In innumerable ways it prevents the " habit of taking 
 care " and impedes the general efficiency, which are as needful 
 in the work of the schools as in any other work which men and 
 women undertake to do. 
 
 Choosing the superintendent 
 
 We come now to the method of choosing the superintendent in 
 the smaller supervisory district. It may be said at once that it is 
 the most difficult matter in the whole undertaking. But we are 
 not to stop for that reason. It is as important in the country as 
 in the cities that partizanship shall not make patronage of super- 
 visory or teaching positions in the schools. The two leading political 
 parties have agreed to that in State conventions. The principle is 
 now pretty well observed in the cities. School boards look for 
 the best superintendents wherever they may be found; assume that 
 no one whether living in the district or out has any claims upon the 
 office; expect superintendents to attend to their business and re- 
 frain from activity in running party organizations or directing 
 
14 
 
 politics ; then reason that it makes no public difference what their 
 personal political logic or affiliations may be, and assure them 
 protection as long as they show that they can work harmoniously 
 with other people and steadily give added enthusiasm and efficiency 
 to the schools. In what way can superintendents be chosen so as 
 to have it so in the country? If we can in some way professionalize 
 the school superintendent in the country we shall have as good 
 schools there as any where. 
 
 Various plans have been suggested and considered. The one 
 which seemed to have most to commend it was to elect at the 
 annual town meetings or the general election, a supervisory district 
 board, two members in each town, which should contract with a 
 legally qualified superintendent. This would make a district board 
 of perhaps from four to ten persons. It seems as though if they 
 were nominated and elected for the sole purpose of choosing a 
 school superintendent, they would be likely to be responsible men 
 or women and that they would perform their duty with some ap- 
 preciation of its responsibility. It even seems as though there 
 might often be a disposition between party leaders or caucuses to 
 agree upon men of character and avoid party contests over their 
 selection, as is sometimes the case in filling judicial vacancies. In 
 any event, it is intended that these district boards shall have no 
 other function than the selection of a school superintendent, and 
 it is believed that such selection may be left with such a board, as is 
 done in the cities and union school districts, with better promise 
 of desirable results than would be likely to come from choosing 
 the superintendents at popular elections or from any other method 
 which has been proposed. 
 
 The finances of the scheme 
 
 It is not apparent how anybody, unless it be the State, can reason- 
 ably object to the financial part of the proposition, and the State has 
 shown its ability to stand much more than is here proposed. That 
 is that each superintendent shall be paid $1500 per year, of which 
 the State shall pay $1200 and the supervisory district $300, and that 
 he shall also have the expenses which he actually incurs, up to a 
 limit of $300, paid by the State upon approved vouchers. 
 
 It is true that a county which now pays $200 per annum to each 
 school commissioner would be called upon to pay a very few hun- 
 
15 
 
 dred dollars more to a larger number of superintendents at $300 
 each. In no case could it be a matter at all serious. And the 
 increase might be more than offset by the discontinuance of the 
 teachers institutes and the necessity of paying the teachers for a 
 week in which they do not teach. This is not a fanciful, it is a sub- 
 stantial, offset, for it would reduce the annual expense of each 
 school district by the teachers' wages for a week; or, much better, 
 it would put another week of efficiency into the work of a school 
 term, which now averages much shorter than is desirable. Again, 
 the requirements as to the service to be rendered by the superin- 
 tendent, the fact that his actual expenses would be reimbursed, 
 and that financially it would be the same to him if he traveled as 
 if he did not, would make what the county would put into super- 
 vision much more potential than what the county now puts into it. 
 Yet again, the rural counties need not lie awake over what the 
 State puts into school supervision, when they pay so little of the 
 revenues of a State which raises its $3,5,000,000 per year by taxes 
 upon corporations, and inheritances, and liquors, and practically 
 nothing upon real estate and the businesses in which the rural dis-^ 
 tricts are specially concerned. 
 
 The main financial question in this proposition is for the State; 
 but a State which is spending $50,000,000 per year for schools, and 
 which is paying right from its treasury $6,000,000 or $7,000,000 
 each year for the support of its direct educational activities, can 
 well afford to add less than $200,000 more to make certain that 
 the larger sums are wisely expended and to increase the efficiency 
 of the schools which serve such a large portion of its people. 
 
 The objections 
 
 Fair discussion meets objections squarely. If there is any valid 
 reason why this proposition should not be adopted it will be vastly 
 better for you, for the Education Department, and all the other 
 interests concerned, that it be known now, rather than after the 
 measure has become a law. I shall state all the objections that I 
 have heard of, either by correspondence, through the Legislature, 
 or by wireless telegraphy. It may be said at once, however, that 
 the favorable opinions expressed, both in number and in weight, by 
 those who have really looked into the matter, are in as high a pro- 
 portion as ten to one opposed. 
 
16 
 
 From a half dozen school commissioners objections to the qualifi- 
 cations required for eligibility to the proposed superintendencies, 
 to the provision that one may be eligible who does not reside in the 
 district, to the provision of $300 for expenses on the ground that 
 it is too small, to the provision that one must give his whole time 
 to the duties of the office, have been received. I think the allowance 
 for expenses is reasonable, and that the other provisions referred 
 to are of the highest educational necessity. 
 
 From farmers there has come some objection to creating ad- 
 ditional public officers. This is a valid objection unless the reasons 
 for it are strong. Your association and I think they are convinc- 
 ing. 
 
 Some farmers object to choosing the superintendent by a board 
 elected by the people, rather than by the people themselves. A 
 school superintendent must be an expert if efficient. A board can 
 consider the qualities of different available candidates and can go 
 out in search of a candidate and negotiate with the one who seems 
 best adapted to the situation. The people and party conventions, 
 and caucuses, can not. As already observed, this provision is 
 perhaps the most difficult one in the whole scheme. It follows the 
 method in the cities and the union school districts having super- 
 intendents, where it works satisfactorily and seems to be the best 
 method of selection suggested. 
 
 Some criticism of the expense to the supervisory district is made, 
 which I have already referred to. 
 
 One grange objects because the choice of superintendents would 
 be " limited to a certain class prescribed by the State," and insists 
 that that would take the control of the schools away from the 
 people. There is nothing new about limiting the appointment of 
 school superintendents to persons having defined qualifications. If 
 the right to elect unqualified superintendents is to be successfully 
 insisted upon, there is small hope of improving the country schools. 
 
 I am informed that some opposition to the measure has come 
 from the principals of high schools in union school districts having 
 less than 5000 inhabitants, and therefore no separate superintendent 
 of schools. If this is so it is more personal than professional and 
 ought not to count. It would be because it is not desired that 
 such high schools shall be within the jurisdiction of the new super- 
 intendents. They are now within the supervision of the school com- 
 
17 
 
 missioners, and so there would legally be no change; but actually 
 there might be more oversight. It has been proposed to leave such 
 small union districts out of the new supervisory districts. The 
 law now authorizes superintendents, and the State meets a part of 
 the cost for superintendents, in all cities and in all union districts 
 with more than 5000 inhabitants. All of the rest of the territory 
 of the State including the union districts of less than 5000 people, 
 is within the school commissioner districts. The line must be drawn 
 somewhere. There is no apparent reason why it should be changed. 
 The Legislature has been asked to allow a " partial supervisory 
 quota " to union districts of less than 5000 inhabitants. Doubtless 
 the principal of a small high school is very often inadequately paid. 
 I wish he might be better paid. Doubtless, too, he is required to 
 teach many different subjects nearly or quite every hour in the day, 
 when he should have certain hours for the general duties incident 
 to his position as principal and quHe apart from his teaching. I 
 will do what I can to help him have it so, for I know that that is 
 essential to the efficiency of his school. But it is clear to me that 
 every educational consideration would keep the high schools in the 
 small villages related, just as far as possible, with all of the primary 
 schools in the surrounding neighborhood. The influence of these 
 high schools upon all these little schools is much needed. It is 
 well if the children in the roadside and four-corner district schools 
 can think of their going some day to the village high school. These 
 high schools and primary schools should all articulate together just 
 as much as possible, at least until the village gets so large as to 
 require a superintendent of its own and must act by itself. Even 
 then that high school may, to its own and their advantage, continue 
 to have relations with the surrounding schools, and by that time 
 another village has generally developed a high school which may 
 enter into helpful relations with the neighboring district schools. 
 
 It has been assumed without any reason in some quarters that this 
 movement means a change and consolidation of our system of rural 
 school government. It means nothing of the kind. If it took away 
 from any school district the right to manage its business affairs, 
 choose its own officers, who contract with its teacher and look after 
 the interests of its school, I would oppose it. It seeks to do nothing 
 but make the teaching better and improve the educational value of 
 the school. I do not favor the township or any other consolidated 
 
18 
 
 system of school government. I never expect to be one who will 
 take from any people the right to manage the business affairs of 
 their own school, so long as they have a property valuation equal 
 to the support of a suitable school, and are disposed to maintain 
 such a school. I have never urged the consolidation of little schools 
 in order to make graded schools. I do not believe that a school 
 must be a big one in order to be a good one. So long as the people 
 of towns and districts agree about it they should have schools where 
 they want them. When issues arise among the people over the 
 matter it is our official duty to help settle them. But I will not let 
 any pedagogical theory of mine consolidate districts against the 
 will of the people concerned when neither their motives nor their 
 intelligence can be impeached. I am not saying that consolidations 
 shall not be made but only that the people shall not be forced to do 
 it. Nor have I ever urged that one district contract with another 
 for the education of its children, and that they be carried consid- 
 erable distances every day to be instructed. There are manifest 
 disadvantages and some dangers about it, which more than offset 
 any disadvantages in a system which puts a school within walking 
 distance of every home and encourages a people to manage the busi- 
 ness affairs of their own school. But there is nothing about this 
 which is inconsistent with more efficient professional supervision 
 of all the schools. If the people in the country were to object to 
 that, they would object to a thing which can not in the least in- 
 terfere with their management of their own school affairs, and they 
 would object to the very thing which makes for the quicker effi- 
 ciency of the schools in the cities and larger villages. The people 
 who live in the country must distinguish between the business side 
 and the professional side of school administration or there can be 
 no substantial improvement in their schools. 
 
 It has been said that this proposition enlarges the powers of the 
 Education Department and of the Commissioner of Education. 
 The criticism is wholly without reason. It gives the Department 
 no authority and it imposes upon it no responsibility which is not 
 now conferred or imposed by the statutes, with the bare exception 
 that it empowers the Commissioner to appoint a superintendent 
 where the local authorities fail to do so, and personally I should 
 much prefer that this should be given to the county judge, as is the 
 case when there is a vacancy in the office of school commissioner. 
 
19 
 
 I am bound to add that there is an opposition to this proposition 
 which gives no reasons. That is the opposition of men, not now 
 very large in numbers and certainly not very sagacious in leader- 
 ship, who know more and think more of a little patronage than of 
 the efficiency of the schools, and who reason that school commis- 
 sioners of their own selection, traveling about the country and 
 mixing politics with education, are indispensable adjuncts of a 
 political organization. Open and rational opposition is to be 
 honored and welcomed. I am by no means opposed to political 
 organization on a basis of common decency, but happily I have 
 lived long enough to know that opposition to an educational ad- 
 vance for any such reason as that, must in the end surely defeat 
 its own senseless aims. It is only a matter of time. In the end 
 such opposition will be overcome because it is bad politics, bad 
 sense, and bad morals. 
 
 School possibilities in the country 
 
 All the weak schools are not in the country. All the schools in 
 the country are not poor schools. The rural environment is quite 
 as favorable to schools as the situation in the cities. The rural 
 teachers are not generally incapable. They are commonly from 
 good families, for the most part are well bred, and generally are 
 very well trained. There are quite as many inherent disadvantages 
 in the great graded schools as in the small ungraded ones. The 
 job hunter would haunt the schools in the cities even more than 
 those in the country, if the sentiment of the people would allow it. 
 The cities give much moneyed support to the country schools. The 
 State is quite as much interested in the country as in the city schools. 
 There is no reason known to me why we should not have as uni- 
 formly efficient schools in the country as in the cities, unless it is 
 because the conservatism, which looms large in the farmer, and the 
 disposition to mix schools with politics, are allowed to obstruct the 
 policies which are necessary to the making of the best schools. 
 
 Legislation necessary 
 
 If there is more that can be done by the State Education Depart- 
 ment, without additional legislation, to improve the country schools, 
 it is difficult to see what it is. The resources of administration have 
 been nearly or quite exhausted. What is done has to be done 
 
20 
 
 through school commissioners, and they think the exactions are 
 already too heavy and that the pay is too small. The requirements 
 are necessarily heavy because of the extent of territory. The pay 
 is small for qualified men giving their time to the office, but it is 
 ample for unprofessional or part-time service. The Department 
 has applied educational tests to the teachers until there is often 
 a scarcity of teachers. The very advance in the standing of the 
 teachers, which has been going on for twenty years, emphasizes 
 both the lack and the need of a professional leadership. It is not 
 too much to say that in some districts the situation has become 
 abhorrent. Nothing but legislation will relieve it. 
 
 Legislation to aid the situation, such as bills to prescribe qualifica- 
 tions for school commissioners and exacting their entire time, has 
 been proposed, but has come to no result because of the opposition 
 of personal interests. Last winter a comprehensive measure was 
 defeated in the Senate without being much considered or well 
 understood. 
 
 Something decisive must be done next winter or delayed for 
 three years, because in the event of no action, school commissioners 
 will be elected on the old basis at the next general election. 
 
 The bill of last winter, with some minor modifications, will be 
 presented again. It is a far-reaching measure. But it is logical, 
 practicable, and right. No other State which maintains the district 
 as the unit of school government has gone as far as this bill goes. 
 But that is no reason why New York should not do it. With the 
 support which has heretofore been given it, and with the additional 
 support which is steadily gathering about it, there should be little 
 question about its becoming a law. In any event, it is for us to 
 follow our judgment and let the responsibility fall where it ought. 
 
 Conclusion 
 
 The proposition which your committee formulated a year ago, 
 and which I have discussed with considerable detail tonight, is a 
 drastic one. Something substantial will come of it. It is not yet 
 in hard and fast form. I shall not be wedded, and you should not 
 be, to any particular point in it if any one can bring forward a 
 modification that will be better. The discussion of it' has been in 
 good spirit. The discussion should continue. There is educational 
 value even in the discussion. I have reasoned all along that it would 
 
21 
 
 be better for the Education Department to act with the School Com- 
 missioners Association in regard to this matter, and leave the State 
 Grange to come to its support, before urging it in the Legislature. 
 That came about last winter. Both organizations formally ap- 
 proved of it. The officers of both organizations appeared before the 
 legislative committees and urged its passage. I have recently 
 advised with the officers of the State Grange and am urged by them 
 to go on with the movement, and assured that they will give it 
 whatever aid they can. Unless that support and yours is with- 
 drawn, we will go forward with the measure with every disposition 
 to make it as perfect as possible, but with every purpose to prevent 
 the starch being taken out of it so that it will accomplish nothing 
 when it gets through. If it does go through in substantial form, 
 it will open a new epoch in our rural education. And sooner or 
 later something very substantial in this direction will be done, be- 
 cause when this State is aroused upon an educational proposition 
 it never turns back. 
 
22 
 
 ACTION OF THE ASSOCIATION 
 
 In the course of the two days following the delivery of the fore- 
 going address, the whole matter of rural school supervision was 
 much discussed in the association, and finally the following reso- 
 lutions were unanimously adopted : 
 
 1 Resolved, That the unit of supervision should be smaller, 
 that the supervising officer should devote more time to the duties 
 of his office, that the compensation be so increased that the most 
 efficient service may be secured. 
 
 We request the members of this association and others interested 
 in educational matters to give their best efforts to secure these 
 ends. 
 
 2 Resolved, That this body request the State Commissioner of 
 Education to draft a bill embodying the principles expressed in the 
 resolution just adopted and along the lines of his address of Wed- 
 nesday evening, looking toward improved supervision of the rural 
 schools of the State. 
 
 and 
 
 Be it further resolved, That our supervisory and legislative 
 committees be instructed to render all possible assistance in drafting 
 and securing the passage of such bill. 
 
 * 
 
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