Necessary Basis of the Teach- 
 er's Tenure 
 
 BY 
 
 ANDREW SLOAN DRAPER, LL. D. 
 
 Commissioner of Education, State of New York 
 
 SYRACUSE, N. Y. 
 
 C. W. BARDEEN, PUBLISHER 
 1912 
 

 BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 Adaptation of the School to Industrial Ends, 
 50 cts. 
 
 Agriculture and Its Educational Needs, 50 cts. 
 
 American Education, $2.00. 
 
 Desirable Uniformity and Diversity in Ameri- 
 can Education, 50 cts. 
 
 History of the Common School System of New 
 York, 50 cts. 
 
 Industry and Efficiency in Schools, 50 cts. 
 
 What is Expected of District Superintend- 
 ents, 50 cts. 
 
 No Mummified History in New York Schools, 
 50 cts. 
 
 Supervision of Country Schools, 50 cts. 
 
 Trade Schools, Our School, Our Children, and 
 Our Industries, 50 cts. 
 
 Weaknesses in American Universities, 50 cts. 
 
This address was delivered November 28, 
 1911, before the Rural education section 
 of the New York State Teachers Associa- 
 tion, Albany, N. Y., and is reprinted with 
 the speaker's permission from copy fur- 
 nished by him. 
 
The Necessary Basis of the Teach- 
 er's Tenure 
 
 Much has been said for many years, 
 in our educational conventions, about 
 the desirability of a permanent tenure 
 of position for all of the teachers in the 
 State. It has seemed to me a trouble- 
 some subject, but I am glad to say that 
 as I have thought of it more carefully 
 with a view to the preparation of this 
 paper, some of the difficulties have dis- 
 appeared. My conclusion is that the 
 State might very safely, and probably 
 with advantage to its schools, establish 
 the principle that whenever a teacher is 
 once employed the employment shall be 
 5 
 
6 Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 
 
 permanent, thereby meaning that the 
 teacher shall be entitled to the position 
 until he or she resigns or is removed by 
 the trustees for a cause recognized by the 
 law. But this principle can not safely 
 be made universal in this State unless the 
 right of removal for cause is to be strongly 
 upheld and freely exercised, and unless 
 the causes for removal are held to include 
 all things which are not consistent with 
 the complete and proper managenemt 
 of the school and all things which do not 
 make for the vital and efficient instruc- 
 tion of pupils. 
 
 No one must imagine that this is a 
 mere matter of protecting teachers. Real 
 teachers need little protection. If they 
 are abused in one place, they ordinarily 
 get a better place. Doubtless they do 
 need to have their rights denned by law 
 
Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 7 
 
 and recognized by practice, so that the 
 small number of contemptible men who 
 get upon the boards of education may 
 have notice and govern themselves ac- 
 cordingly. But this is a matter which 
 must turn not more not even so much 
 upon the interests of the teachers as upon 
 the good of the schools. And it may as 
 well be said that I have no patience what- 
 ever with teachers who agitate for their 
 imaginary rights regardless of their draw- 
 backs and misdoings Then our task is 
 to distinguish the just rights from the 
 selfish interests of the teacher, and to 
 reconcile the just rights of the teacher 
 with the best good of the schools. Per- 
 haps it would be clearer if we turn it 
 around and say that the problem is to 
 determine what are the just rights of the 
 teacher on the basis of the most good to 
 
8 Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 
 
 the schools. No one can, with an honest 
 face, whether teacher or not, ask more or 
 accept less than that. 
 
 A protected tenure for teachers is no 
 new thing with us. We have 43,017 
 teachers in the public schools of the State. 
 Of these, 25,722 are in cities where the 
 tenure is permanent, and 16,653 are in 
 the union districts where the employment 
 is from year to year and it is practically 
 permanent if the teacher is reasonably 
 satisfactory. So there are only 10,643 
 teachers outside of the cities and tinion 
 districts whose employment is only from 
 year to year and in the common thought 
 of the district is wholly subject to the 
 election of trustees. These country 
 teachers are protected by law much more 
 than they were. They have definite if 
 not perpetual terms of employment; they 
 
Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 9 
 
 can not be dismissed within the term 
 without cause; they have the contract in 
 writing and they get their pay as often 
 as every month. 
 
 True, the Education Law prohibits a 
 board in a union district from employing 
 a teacher for a longer term than one year, 
 and likewise prohibits a sole trustee from 
 employing a teacher for a term extending 
 beyond his own term of office. The 
 reason for this is that these local boards 
 and trustees too often employed favorites 
 and entered into contracts which were 
 not for the good of the schools. It must 
 be obvious enough that no law can be 
 upheld which does not have, for its first 
 object, the good of the schools; and it 
 must be obvious enough that the law has 
 to deal with many school trustees who 
 fail utterly or in very considerable measure 
 
10 Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 
 
 to intelligently promote the interests of 
 the districts they are chosen to represent. 
 But that does not shake the faith of in- 
 telligent people in the decentralized sys- 
 tem of school administration. We must 
 never forget that our schools are the 
 people's schools in a great sense that 
 does not inhere in any other national 
 system of education, and that there are 
 the weightiest reasons why the people 
 shall manage them directly to the fullest 
 extent shown by experience to be com- 
 patible with the good name of the schools 
 and the efficiency of the teaching. 
 
 When a board is mean and weak enough 
 to sacrifice a good teacher in order to ap- 
 point another, with the idea that it will 
 do a favor for a friend or be of advantage 
 to a political party, as sometimes happens, 
 I regret it for two distinct reasons. First, 
 
Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 11 
 
 because of the outrage upon the teacher: 
 one who can do such a thing as that 
 deserves a dose of electricity not of 
 course such a dose as the law prescribes 
 for a man convicted of murder in the first 
 degree, but such a jolt as will make him 
 wonder why he was ever allowed to have 
 anything to do with the management of 
 schools. And second, because it limits 
 and sets back the faith of the people, and 
 particularly of experts, in so large a 
 measure of popular and direct manage- 
 ment of the schools. But we need not 
 be discouraged. Where there is one 
 trustee who abuses the trust, there are 
 nine who execute it conscientiously, ac- 
 cording to their lights, and the thing to 
 do is to turn on the lights for the nine, 
 and turn on enough voltage to kill, official- 
 ly, the one. 
 
12 Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 
 
 But let us get into this a little more 
 deeply. The school organization has 
 checks and balances: it exacts much of 
 teachers, and when it does that it en- 
 ters into compensatory obligations. Teach- 
 ers' certificates are earned by study. 
 by experience, often by sacrifice: they 
 ought to be worth something. They are 
 of two different grades: that should and 
 does mean differing values. Those of 
 higher grade and therefore of larger value 
 stand for more study, more experience, 
 ripened spirit, proved adaptation to par- 
 ticular and exacting duties, and complete 
 devotion to the teacher's calling. The 
 interests of the school system require not 
 only that no school shall be taught except 
 by a certificated teacher, that is by one 
 of some proved capacity, but they also 
 require advancing grades of certificates 
 
Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 13 
 
 representing increasing capacity and ma- 
 turing adaptation and efficiency. This 
 scheme of graded certificates calls for 
 more and more study, sacrifice, and suc- 
 cess. The school system can not exact 
 all this without entering into reciprocal 
 obligations. It must protect the certifi- 
 cates. It must make them of the value 
 to the teacher that they pretend to be. 
 It must throw the strongest safeguards 
 about the certificates that represent the 
 most professional culture, and the longest 
 and most successful service. 
 
 This system of examining and certificat- 
 ing teachers has been in operation in this 
 state from the days of the Dutch West 
 India Company. In all these three hun- 
 dred years it has been growing more and 
 more elaborate and complete. It has 
 made rather rapid progress in the last 
 
14 Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 
 
 twenty-five years. It has in that time 
 been placed upon a really rational and 
 impregnable basis. It is a just system. 
 It is incapable of special favors or resent- 
 ments. Its rewards have to go to those 
 who work for and deserve them: it is 
 compelled to turn back the undeserving. 
 In character, purpose and attainments, 
 the teachers give exceptional support to, 
 and have unusual claims upon, the pro- 
 tection of the state. The state exacts 
 much of them before it allows them to 
 teach at all, and after they have com- 
 menced it expects them to progress in 
 culture and efficiency or leave the service. 
 No business calls for greater expertness, 
 aptness, and patience, than that of in- 
 structing children. No one in the public 
 service is more liable to be involved in 
 misunderstandings with the people and 
 
Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 15 
 
 more subject to mistreatment by public 
 officials, than are the teachers. As a 
 class they are almost incapable of de- 
 fending themselves. They realize that 
 it is against good policy to be involved in 
 controversy. If they have troubles, they 
 are likely to be with people who are 
 coarser than they are, and they would 
 have small chance in a mere war of words 
 or a mere measuring of strength with 
 such. Surely the state which is depen- 
 dent upon and claims all this is bound 
 to protect as well as it can those who 
 render it a really high and true service. 
 The state has developed and it manages 
 the system by which teachers are certifi- 
 cated. All the states in the Union have 
 done it, and New York far more completely 
 than any other. For its own moral life 
 and intellectual progress it says who 
 
16 Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 
 
 may and who shall not teach in the state's 
 system of schools. There is some pro- 
 tection in that if rationally done, and 
 certainly so if it is justly progressive, 
 because it does give merit its opportunity 
 and it does save the competent and worthy 
 from contact and competition with the 
 incapable and the unworthy. 
 
 But that only makes a mere beginning in 
 the process of protection that is vital to 
 the comfort and deserts of the teachers. 
 The larger part of the task is not under the 
 direct management of the state. The 
 menace to the teacher comes not through 
 the licensing system, but through the 
 employment and the treatment by em- 
 ployers. That is in the hands of 49 city 
 boards of education, 623 union district 
 boards, and the trustees in 9942 school 
 districts. These boards and trustees are 
 
Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 17 
 
 changing continually. Thousands of new 
 men and women are chosen every year. 
 Nearly all of these new men and women 
 have absolutely correct intentions, and 
 most of them adjust themselves to the 
 service of the schools in ways that do 
 them credit. But some seek the responsi- 
 bility which better and busier people 
 would avoid in order to gain some end 
 of their own; a few are naturally brutal; 
 some have favorites to aid; some like to 
 show their neighbors that they have 
 power to do things no matter who suffers; 
 some try to make patronage of the schools 
 upon the false idea that it will aid a party ; 
 and some would subordinate common 
 schools to some denominational dogma 
 and to the supposed advantage of some 
 church. All this bears upon promotions, 
 as well as original employment. Besides 
 
18 Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 
 
 thh, and whether new officials come in 
 or not, one teacher in contact with the 
 same families for a long time will gather 
 their affections or their animosities in 
 proportion to the length of service, and 
 these will necessarily be reflected in the 
 official acts of boards and trustees. In 
 indescribable ways these things affect 
 teachers; very often they affect teachers 
 unjustly; and they will continue to do 
 so until there are no trustees who are 
 capable of injustice or until all of their 
 doings are regulated by laws that are 
 thoroughly enforced. 
 
 Now anything that the state does to 
 regulate the official conduct of local school 
 officials is a limitation upon local self- 
 government. That is undesirable where 
 unnecessary. The more local school gov- 
 ernment there is that is wise and just 
 
Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 19 
 
 and strong, the better will be the local 
 schools and the stronger will be the state 
 system of schools. It is not more a 
 question of right than of expediency. 
 The legislature would be entirely within 
 its constitutional power if it were to take 
 the employment and immediate control 
 of teachers wholly away from local officers, 
 but it would be a very un-American and 
 a very unwise thing to do. The best 
 attainable state system of schools will 
 be assured when we discover the point 
 of equipoise between state control and 
 local management. And the longer the 
 arm of that balance that is on the side of 
 local independence, the better it is for 
 the schools, the people, and the state. 
 It is even better that local authority shall 
 do many things which it does not do as 
 well as the state might do them, because 
 
20 Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 
 
 the only way that people can learn to do 
 them and get in the habit of doing them, 
 is by doing them. But every citizen, 
 every stranger within our gates, every 
 moral and commercial interest of the 
 state, has interests which are involved 
 in the state's system of education; and 
 therefore the state at large can not allow 
 any section to be without sufficient schools 
 to open the door of opportunity to the 
 children of that section, and it can not 
 allow local mismanagement to reconcile 
 any district to schools that grow poorer 
 and weaker rather than better and stronger. 
 If you will show me just how little or 
 how much the state must do to stimulate 
 popular concern about the schools; what 
 it must do or leave undone to lead towns 
 and districts to know that they have very 
 poor schools when their superintendent 
 
Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 21 
 
 and teachers lead them to think they have 
 the best; what act or omission to act on 
 the part of the state will impel the people 
 of a city or district to courses which will 
 force the school to give their children 
 better training, you will not only point 
 out the exact spot to which the state 
 should go in exercising control over the 
 local government of the schools, but also 
 the exact spot at which it should stop. 
 
 But we are not to be abashed by im- 
 practicables who talk about the auto- 
 cratic exercise of the state's power in 
 education. It is the common educational 
 opinion, and it is rapidly coming to be 
 the popular opinion in America, that 
 very few of the states go as far as they 
 will have to go in stimulating local ini- 
 tiative and in regulating and limiting 
 ignorance, conceit, or viciousness in the 
 
22 Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 
 
 management of the schools. Healthy 
 public opinion is everywhere in favor 
 of every legal authority and every civic 
 force, general or local, doing everything 
 possible to energize education. 
 
 And in practice the thing works smoothly 
 enough. Look at the cities, towns, and 
 districts of the state of New York. In the 
 cities and best towns there are so many peo- 
 ple, and so many who really know much 
 about good schools; there is so much 
 money invested in the business of the 
 schools, and there are so many teachers 
 whose rights have to be fixed and regarded, 
 that the whole system ordinarily moves 
 along smoothly enough. If there is a 
 sane and efficient superintendent, the 
 system grows better and better. If there 
 is a poor one, a way comes in the course 
 of time to get rid of him. If a conceited 
 
Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 23 
 
 or a corrupt board of education gets in 
 control, it is regulated and after a while 
 removed. The state exercises control only 
 on the rare occasions when something 
 very bad has developed. Ordinarily it 
 has little or nothing to do in the com- 
 munities where the best educational work 
 is being done ; indeed, it gets support from, 
 and it is glad to feel the control of, such 
 cities and towns more than it supports 
 or controls them. Indeed, its only power 
 comes from them. It is where sentiment 
 is low, rights uncertain, and the procedure 
 unsettled; where there is little wholesome 
 local initiative and no vital educational 
 aggressiveness, that the aid and power 
 of the state, that is the aid and power of 
 the stronger districts, must go if the 
 general excellence of the educational sys- 
 tem is to promote, or even keep up with, 
 
24 Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 
 
 the material growth and the political 
 significance of the state. The state has 
 to legislate for general conditions, but 
 the law is made for and felt most by the 
 conditions that are the worst. The laws 
 are inactive except in conditions that 
 call for them. They must be active when 
 and where necessary, Don't be super- 
 ficial about this important matter. Think 
 about it and you will be impressed with 
 the fact that the men and women with 
 whom education is a love and moral 
 culture a passion never have their feelings 
 outraged by any menace to education in 
 the growing educational power and the 
 quickened educational activity of the 
 Empire state. It is only when something 
 mean or wrong is done, by some misrep- 
 resentative, in the fair name of the state, 
 
Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 25 
 
 that such men and women are heard from 
 as they are bound to be. 
 
 It may have occurred to you that I 
 have been wandering from my theme, 
 but the tenure of the teacher can not be 
 well considered without an appeal to 
 general principles that must of necessity 
 be of state- wide application. The right 
 to teach when employed is always regulat- 
 ed and conferred by the state. In theory 
 and pretence it has always been so, though 
 until recent years it was delegated to 
 local officers who often exercised their 
 powers very ignorantly or abused them 
 most outrageously. But while the power 
 to certify teachers has always been re- 
 served to the state, the power to employ 
 them has always been conceded to the 
 city or school district. And tenure is a 
 matter of employment. Of course all 
 
26 Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 
 
 teachers are employed by public officers 
 and all the doings of public officers are 
 under the control of or within the reach 
 of the law. How far should the state go 
 in restricting the absolute freedom of 
 boards of education and trustees to employ 
 such certificated teachers, for such length of 
 time, such pay, and such other conditions 
 as they please? It has gone some length 
 already: how much further should it go? 
 How domineering and unjust shall the 
 law allow an employing officer to be to a 
 certificated teacher, when he has developed 
 a penchant for parading his brief author- 
 ity or has conceived a fancy for another 
 teacher ? 
 
 The answer is, I think, that we must 
 believe in the people; that we must assume 
 that boards of education and trustees are 
 honest and sincere, as in nearly every 
 
Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 27 
 
 case they are; that the state must lay 
 down the general principles within which 
 they shall confine themselves, and then 
 afford them the free right to use their 
 discretion, within such confines, and ex- 
 pect that they will perform their duties 
 like honest men and women and according 
 to the rule of reason. But while we be- 
 lieve, and assume, and expect all this, 
 we have experience enough to know that 
 there will be many cases in which our 
 benevolent assumptions will not be realized. 
 The schools go on term after term and year 
 after year, but the employing officers 
 change continually. The vagaries are 
 multitudinous and the conditions are 
 kalaidoscopic. The state seems bound 
 to protect its certificates, see that the 
 teacher is protected against vagaries or 
 something worse, and that the schools have 
 
28 Necessary Basis of the Teacher' s Tenure 
 
 steadiness and continuity of procedure. 
 To that end it seems perfectly reasonable 
 to me that a certificated teacher when 
 once employed shall be given a tenure 
 that shall continue until the position is 
 vacated voluntarily or the teacher dis- 
 missed for cause. 
 
 But if the tenure of all teachers is to 
 be permanent except for just cause, it 
 will be necessary to extend the accepted 
 or legal causes for which the services of 
 teachers may be properly discontinued. 
 If you are to make the principle general 
 that a teacher once employed shall be 
 employed as long as he wishes, or until 
 just cause for a change arises, it will be 
 necessary to leave the determination of 
 what is just cause to the discretion of 
 boards and trustees acting perhaps in 
 co-operation with superintendents, until 
 
Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 29 
 
 it appears that such boards or trustees 
 have been moved by bias, or pique, or 
 had some interested motive which was 
 sufficient to disqualify them for the proper 
 execution of their very responsible trust. 
 But there is much for teachers as well 
 as trustees to think of. Any public em- 
 ployee claiming a permanent tenure must 
 maintain an exemplary character, offer 
 particular preparation, accept the con- 
 ditions and discipline incident to the 
 employment, and render a service that 
 steadily grows in value. Very likely the 
 teachers do all of that more completely 
 than any other class of public servants. 
 But the teaching organization is not 
 altogether exempted from the weaknesses 
 of human nature. Permanency of tenure 
 has some disadvantages as well as con- 
 siderable justice in it. The weaker ones 
 
30 Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 
 
 take advantage of it. There is no one 
 here familiar with the administration of 
 schools in a considerable city under per- 
 manent tenure, who does not know that 
 if nothing but the efficiency of the teaching 
 were considered, a considerable number 
 of teachers would have to be removed at 
 once, and then still others would have to 
 be removed next year. A few will break 
 down morally; some will become so 
 slatternly as to make themselves intoler- 
 able; other will become soured at the 
 necessary discipline of the service, or 
 estranged from the families they must 
 serve; still others will stagnate profes- 
 sionally, or actually recede in teaching 
 attainments. 
 
 The cause of half of this will be with 
 the leadership, with the board, or the 
 superintendent. The board may be un- 
 
Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 31 
 
 substantial or unjust, the superintendent 
 may be a shallow pretender or a con- 
 ceited martinet. Teachers know better 
 than others do about the capacity and 
 the moral integrity of an administration. 
 They can not stand everything. There 
 is not a large percentage of them that 
 will not gladly follow a capable leadership, 
 or respond to sane, frank, sincere, sympa- 
 thetic criticism. A general and impera- 
 tive condition to successful permanent 
 tenure is that the administration and the 
 supervision of the system shall not be 
 of a kind which contributes to the causes 
 which justify dismissal. 
 
 But the system must progress. If it 
 does not, the causes must be removed, and 
 quite as much when they rest with the 
 teacher as when they rest with the trustee. 
 Can we specify the causes which shall 
 
32 Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 
 
 justly interrupt the employment of the 
 teacher? Unsoundness of moral character 
 is of course sufficient. Rebellion against 
 discipline can have no other result. The 
 management may be unjust and may 
 justify a revolution, and if so there ought 
 to be revolt, but teachers would better 
 not think of it unless there is real cause 
 for it, or without being armed with the 
 facts and equipped with the strength 
 which will make it successful. Finding 
 a new place is sometimes better than 
 revolt. Disagreements with families of 
 the children in the school may justify 
 forcing a change in the teacher; even 
 though the change may not be justified 
 on the ground of moral right, it may be 
 better for the school and even better for 
 the teacher. Conduct in life which, with- 
 out being immoral, impedes efficiency 
 
Necessary Basis of the Teacher s Tenure 33 
 
 or brings discredit upon the schools, may 
 be a sufficient cause for removal of the 
 teacher. In common schools the teachers 
 must regard the circumstances and opin- 
 ions of all the people. Pedagogical reasons, 
 lack of neatness and of control, the waning 
 of the teaching power, may amply justify 
 the termination of the employment. 
 
 Teachers must keep their own agreements, 
 either express or implied, in order to be 
 in position to exact their rights. We 
 can not assume that a teacher must be 
 guilty of something that should send him 
 to jail before he may be required to cease 
 teaching in a particular place or altogether. 
 He must attract good citizens, must grow 
 in the teaching power and the teaching 
 spirit, or they will be justified in wanting 
 a change. All of the circumstances can 
 not be anticipated, nor all of the causes 
 
34 Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 
 
 specified here or in the law. The good 
 of the schools, the esprit de corps of the 
 system, must settle the matter. 
 
 It must be settled by the responsible 
 authorities charged with the management 
 of the particular school, and, if necessary, 
 it must in the last analysis be determined 
 by an authority that is without local bias 
 or prejudice, that is sympathetic with 
 teachers, that is in sympathy with parents 
 also, that is intent upon the progress of 
 schools, and that knows how to build up 
 both the sure foundations and the more 
 ornate superstructure of a school system 
 with educational power in it. It would 
 doubtless be better for the system and 
 no more than just to the teachers if all 
 employment was for an indefinite time, 
 provided dismissal might be made very 
 freely by honest trustees for any cause 
 
Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 35 
 
 recognized by the law or which would 
 be sustained by the state Department. 
 But whatever is done must be done in 
 the open, at least so far as the teachers 
 concerned wish to have it. It is not 
 necessary that everything should be parad- 
 ed before the public, but no teacher should 
 be forced out of a place except upon notice, 
 for a real cause which can be stated in 
 writing. Of course the power of removal 
 should generally be exercised with some 
 reference to the time of year ; for immorality 
 it should be summary; for any cause 
 which menaces the discipline and routine 
 of the school it may properly be speedy; 
 for any reason which is subtantial but 
 not immediately urgent, it should be 
 delayed until the close of the school year. 
 The right of dismissal for cause should 
 apply to the higher officers and principals 
 
36 Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 
 
 even more rigidly than to class teachers. 
 If for any cause whatever the deliberate 
 sentiment of a community wants a change 
 in the office of superintendent of schools 
 or principal of the high school, that senti- 
 ment ought to be respected. Of course 
 it must act decently and without senseless 
 precipitancy. But no self-respecting man 
 worthy of a high place in the schools can 
 wish to remain in a place where the delibe- 
 rate judgment of a respectable board 
 and the settled sentiment of the community 
 are against him. Public sentiment is 
 ordinarily favorable enough to teachers. 
 Often it is too favorable. It is sometimes 
 so considerate, without full knowledge, 
 that demagogues play upon it. When 
 it is adverse it must be accepted. The 
 power of the people and of their representa- 
 tives over the teaching body in their 
 
Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 37 
 
 schools, acting within the limitations of 
 the law and according to the moral prin- 
 ciples which we all ought to understand, 
 must be absolute. 
 
 Nothing has been said about pensions 
 or retiring allowances for worn-out teachers. 
 It is a subject by itself, and to me a trouble- 
 some one. I have always held off about 
 this because of my inherent opposition 
 to a state pension system. But some- 
 thing will have to be done, not only in 
 justice to teachers who have worn them- 
 selves out for small pay in the public 
 service, but for the sake of the schools 
 which can not cast these worthy teachers 
 out even though their efficiency is over 
 and they need a little period of rest on 
 earth before the rest everlasting. We 
 have been doing something in this direc- 
 tion in the last year. Much more will 
 
38 Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 
 
 have to be done if there is to be early or 
 substantial result. In the meantime, if 
 some millionaire wants to do a great deal 
 for education in New York, why does he 
 not create a fund for the relief of exhausted 
 teachers of long service in the public 
 schools, and therefore for the uplift of 
 the public schools themselves ? The state 
 has opened the way: why will not some 
 men and women with means walk in it? 
 Is nothing but a college or a university 
 worthy the thought of a man or woman 
 with money? 
 
 Then my conclusions, stated in a para- 
 graph, are that the employment and pro- 
 motion and compensation and discon- 
 tinuance of all teachers should continue 
 to be the functions of officials chosen by 
 the people in the cities and school dis- 
 tricts. We must continue to decentralize 
 
Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 39 
 
 administration to the fullest extent con- 
 sistent with efficiency and progress. But 
 the educational system is the state's 
 system, and the state must regulate it 
 by law so far as experience shows to be 
 necessary for its good, taking it in its 
 entirety. When once employed the ser- 
 vice of all the teachers might well con- 
 tinue until interrupted by death, resigna- 
 tion, or discontinuance by authority for 
 cause. There is no apparent reason why 
 one teacher should go out and another 
 come in merely because boards and trustees 
 change. But with the more permanent 
 tenure the teachers will have to show 
 more preparation, adaptation to particular 
 position, and professional progress. The 
 causes of removal and the procedure will 
 have to be thoroughly regulated by law. 
 
 Everything will have to be done in the 
 open. The trustee who removes a teacher 
 
40 Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 
 
 through malice or to make an opening 
 for a favorite, should be punished for it. 
 The right to appeal from local action to 
 state authority as to the justness of the 
 removal will have to be well recognized. 
 There the quibbles of pettifoggers will 
 have to be brushed aside, and an ultimate 
 decision made as to whether the removal 
 was free from bad motive and unreasonable 
 official conduct, and whether, without 
 injustice to any legal right of 'the teacher 
 and with an eye only to the good of the 
 school, it should be sustained. The pro- 
 gress of the school is the paramount 
 matter; there is no more reason why the 
 state should permit the school to be ar- 
 rested, should permit the whole system 
 to be weakened, in the interests of weak, 
 unprogressive, or worn-out teachers, than 
 why it should permit it to be menaced by 
 
Necessary Basis of the Teacher's Tenure 41 
 
 the meanness or the badness of boards 
 and trustees. Teachers who do not grow 
 in professional culture and teaching spirit 
 have small claims: those who do advance 
 in these things have claims that are 
 irresistible and that are widely recognized. 
 It is to the interest of the state to guard 
 them. All that is necessary is to write 
 down the legal principles that properly 
 apply and set up the administrative 
 practice that ought to prevail. There 
 is no great difficulty about it. The 
 interests of teachers who deserve protec- 
 tion, and the interests of schools that 
 deserve to advance are altogether con- 
 sistent; and the complete reconciliation 
 of these interests in the Education Law 
 is likely to contribute as much as anything 
 else can to uphold the honor and promote 
 the progress of the state. 
 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY, 
 BERKELEY 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 expiration of loan period. 
 
 IMG 1 1921 
 
 
 UL 31 1925 
 
 APR 1 5 200 
 
 20w-ll,'20 
 

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