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 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 I 
 
 JUL^^'
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 WILLIAM T. HAKRIS, A.M., LL.D. 
 
 VOLUJIE XV.
 
 mTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SERIES. 
 
 Edited by W. T. Harris. 
 
 It is proposed to publish, under the above title, a library for teachers 
 and school managers, and text-books for normal classes. The aim will 
 be to provide works of a useful practical character in the broadest sense. 
 The following conspectus will show the ground to be covered by the series: 
 
 I. — History of Education. (a.) Original systems as ex- 
 pounded by their founders, (b.) Critical histories which set forth the 
 customs of the past and point out their advantages and defects, explain- 
 ing the grounds of their adoption, and also of their final disuse. 
 
 II. — Educational Criticism, (a.) The noteworthy arraign- 
 ments which educational reformers have put forth against existing sys- 
 tems : these compose the classics of pedagogy, (b.) The critical histories 
 above mentioned. 
 
 III.— Systematic Treatises on the Theory of Edu- 
 cation, (a.) Works written from the historical standpoint ; these, 
 for the most part, show a tendency to justify the traditional course of 
 study and to defend the prevailing methods of instruction, (d.) Works 
 written from critical standpoints, and to a greater or less degree revolu- 
 tionary in their tendency. 
 
 IV.— The Art of Education. (a.) Works on instruction 
 and discipline, and the practical details of the school-room, (b.) Works 
 on the organization and supervision of schools. 
 
 Practical insight into the educational methods in vogue can not be 
 attained without a knowledge of the process by which they have come to 
 be established. For this reason it is proposed to give special prominence 
 to the history of the systems that have prevailed. 
 
 Again, since history is incompetent to furnish the ideal of the future, 
 it is necessary to devote large space to works of educational criticism. 
 Criticism is the purifying process by which ideals are rendered clear and 
 potent, so that progress becomes possible. 
 
 History and criticism combined make possible a theory of the whole. 
 For, with an ideal toward which the entire movement tends, and an ac- 
 count of the phases that have appeared in time, the connected develop- 
 ment of the whole can be shown, and all united into one system. 
 
 Lastly, after the science, comes the practice. The art of education is 
 treated in special works devoted to the devices and technical details use- 
 ful in the school-room. 
 
 It is believed that the teacher does not need authority so much as in- 
 sight in matters of education. When he understands the theory of edu- 
 cation and the history of its growth, and has matured his own point 
 of view by careful study of the critical literature of education, then he is 
 competent to select or invent such practical devices as are best adapted 
 to his own wants. 
 
 The series will contain works from European as well as American 
 authors, and will be under the editorship of W. T. IIakris, A. M., LL. D. 
 
 416101V3
 
 Vol. I. The Philosophy of Education. By Jobann Karl 
 
 Frieilrich Kosenkranz. $1.50. 
 
 Vol. II. A History of Education. By Piof. F. V. N. Painter, 
 of Roauoke, Virginia. §1.50. 
 
 Vol. III. The Rise and Early Constitution of Univer- 
 sities. With a Survey of Mediaeval Education. By S. S. Laurie, 
 LL. D., Professor of the Institutes and Ilistory of Education in the 
 University of Edinburgh. $1.50. 
 
 Vol. IV. The Ventilation and Warming of School 
 Buildings. By Gilbert B. Morrison, Teacher of Physics and 
 Chemistry in Kansas City High School. 76 cents. 
 
 Vol. V. The Education of Man. By Friedricli Froebel. 
 Translated from the German and annotated by W. N. Ilailmann, 
 Superintendent of Public Schools at La Porte, Indiana. $1.50. 
 
 Vol. VI. Elementary Psychology and Education. By 
 
 Joseph Baldwin, I'rincipal of the Sam Houston State Normal 
 School, Huntsville, Texas. $1.50. 
 
 Vol. VII. The Senses and the Will. Observations concern, 
 ing the Mental Development of the Human Being in the First Years 
 of Life. By W. Preyer, Professor of Physiology in Jena. Trans- 
 lated from the original German, by H. W. Brown, Teacher in the 
 State Normal School at Worcester, Mass. Part I of The Mind of 
 THK Child. $1.50. 
 
 Vol. VIII. Memory. What it is and how to improve it. By David 
 Kay, F. R. G. S. $1.50. 
 
 Vol. IX. The Development of the Intellect. Observa- 
 tions concerning the Mental Development of the Human Being in 
 the First Years of Life. By W. Preyer, Professor of Physiology in 
 Jena. Translated from the original German, by U. W. Brown, 
 Teacher in the State Normal School at Worcester, Mass. Part II 
 of The Mind of the Child. $1.50. 
 
 Vol. X. How to Study Geography. By Francis W. Parker. 
 Prepared for the Professional Training Class of the Cook County 
 Normal School. $1.50. 
 
 Vol. XI. Education in the United States. Its History 
 from the Earliest Settlements. By Richard G. Boone, A. M., Pro- 
 fessor of Pedagogy in Indiana University. $1.50. 
 
 Vol. XIL European Schools. Or what I Saw in the Schools of 
 Germany, France, Austria, and Switzerland. By L. R. Klemm, 
 Ph. D., Author of " Chips from a Teacher's Workshop " ; and nu- 
 merous school-books. $2.00. 
 
 Vol. XIII. Practical Hints for the Teachers of Public 
 Schools. By George Howland, Superintendent of the Chicago 
 Schools. $1.00. 
 
 Vol. Xiy. Pestalozzi : His Life and Work. By Pvoger De 
 Guimps. Authorized translation from the second French edition, 
 by J. Russell, B. A., Assistant Master in University College School, 
 London. With an Introduction by Rev. R. II. Quick, M. A. 
 
 Vol. XV. School Supervision. By J. L. Pickard, LL. D.
 
 INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SERIES 
 
 SCHOOL SUPERVISION 
 
 BY 
 
 J. L. PICKARD, LL. D. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 1890
 
 Copyright, 1890, 
 By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
 
 U15 
 
 to the friends of the 
 
 "round table" 
 
 this little book is gratefully dedicated,
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 Theee is no other device in our school system that 
 has done so much for the improvement of our schools 
 in organization, and in methods of instruction and disci- 
 pline, as the superintendency. As early as 1839 the city 
 of Providence, Rhode Island, appointed a city superin- 
 tendent. His duties were similar to those that are now 
 devolved upon this class of officers. Boston, twelve 
 years later, established a similar office, and elected the 
 person then supervising the schools of Providence 
 (Nathan Bishop) to fill the place. 
 
 The Jesuits long before others — early in the seven- 
 teenth century — had demonstrated the value of graded 
 supervision to secure efficiency in schools. One may 
 study profitably the history of their education on this 
 point as well as on another important matter — that of 
 emulation as a device for arousing and stimulating the 
 pupil to activity. Educational history shows us the 
 spectacle of ideas put in practice and tested in their 
 entire compass of possibilities. Their limits can not be 
 found except by pushing them to extremes, so as to 
 cause reaction from the side of other principles and de- 
 vices of acknowledged equal validity. The history of
 
 Viii SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 supervision in the Jesuit schools has these lessons. But 
 the supervision of American common schools has for 
 the most part grown up without proiiting bj the study 
 of experiments made elsewhere. Its fifty years of his- 
 tory have sufficed to develop, however, nearly all the 
 extremes and reveal the limits within which it is most 
 efficient. 
 
 While the first noteworthy attempt to establish su- 
 pervision in a city dates from 1839 in Rhode Island, 
 the first establishment of a State supcrintendency worthy 
 of the name was made by Massachusetts two years ear- 
 lier (1837). The ever-renowned Horace Mann entered 
 then on liis career. His work is a perennial example of 
 the value of good supervision. Perhaps it is not too 
 much to say that the schools of his State quadrupled in 
 efficiency within ten years after his inauguration. A 
 comparison of this agency with that of a school fund in 
 promoting tlie cause of education shows its superiority. 
 
 The State of Connecticut had obtained in 1795 a 
 school fund of one million dollars from the sale of its 
 " Western Reserve," Connecticut was thus enabled to 
 provide and did provide from the beginning of this 
 century an elementary common-school education for all 
 classes free of expense. Its backwoods districts held 
 their three months schools and its more populous dis- 
 tricts held schools of six or eight months' duration and 
 supplemented the proceeds of the school fund by rate- 
 bills. Had the law disbursing this fund provided that 
 each district receiving it should raise an equal amount 
 by taxation, there is no question that Connecticut would 
 have retained its supremacy in popular education, for 
 it would have been the first State to invent or adopt
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. Jx 
 
 new devices for the perfection of its system. But its 
 reliance on the school fund for the entire support of its 
 schools proved a bane in the end. 
 
 Before 1837 Connecticut surpassed the other States 
 in the education of its people. But the mighty engine 
 of supervision wielded by a Horace Mann immediately 
 turned the scale in favor of Massachusetts. Municipal 
 taxation proved a far more powerful instrument than a 
 school fund, although the latter had done good service 
 in its day.* 
 
 For the support of schools in sparsely settled rural 
 districts, the State school fund and the quota assigned 
 them from the State school-tax are still the most im])or- 
 tant item. For cities and wealthy communities the 
 local municipal tax is the chief and indeed a sufficient 
 resource, except in those States that have limited the 
 rate of taxation by constitutional provision. 
 
 The editor of this volume remembers many visits of 
 inspection made by him to the principal cities of the 
 country in the decade 1867 to 1870. While many 
 school systems excited admiration for general excellence 
 or for special features, he found no system to compare 
 with that of Cliicago while under the supervision of 
 Mr. Pickard, the author of tlie present volume. To 
 procure for this Education Series a volume embodying 
 the results of an experience so successful has tlierefore 
 seemed very desirable. Before assuming the charge of 
 
 * The editor of this sericB may be pardoned for mentioning the cir- 
 cumstance that his early schooling took place first in a backwoods hcIiodI 
 district in Connecticut entirely supported by the scliool fund ; and, sec- 
 ondly, in the city schools of Providence, then under the supervision of 
 Mr. Bishop.
 
 X SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 the Chicago schools, Mr. Pickard had done important 
 service as State Superintendent of Wisconsin, and since 
 that time he has for nine years presided over the State 
 University of Iowa. 
 
 Inasmuch as the city superintendent is vahiable 
 chiefly for what he accomphshes through his influence 
 on his corps of teachers, with a view to a discovery of 
 the means by which this influence is secured and its re- 
 sults made efficient, I call attention especially to the 
 chapters in the following work that reveal the method 
 and policy of the superintendent's action. 
 
 The discussion of the subject of examinations and 
 promotions in Chapter XI will prove instructive to all 
 who have been disposed to make the graded system a 
 sort of Procrustean bed, which held back talented pupils 
 and unduly forced the dull ones. In this chapter also 
 the legitimate uses of written examinations are admirably 
 presented. 
 
 Chapters XIY and XV, together wnth Appendix A, 
 are devoted to the ever-important theme of moral edu- 
 cation — a question that is now exciting more attention 
 than ever, owing to the active movements in progress 
 tending to secularize the instruction given in the com- 
 mon schools. 
 
 W. T. Habris. 
 
 Washington, D. C, May, 1800.
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 When leaving ttie work of supervision of schools, 
 wliicli bad occupied my thought for more than twenty 
 years in town, State, and city, partial friends expressed 
 the wish that some of the fruits of my experience 
 might be put in permanent form. 
 
 Twelve years have passed — ^years of careful review, 
 years of discovery of error in some directions. 
 
 The author deems it his privilege to acknowledge 
 the errors discovered, and to present the truth as re- 
 vealed to him by means of the clearer light of the 
 twelve years of retrospect. It will not be difficult, for 
 those who have followed the practice of his active 
 supervision, to detect the changes in theory. The 
 chapter on examination and promotion of pupils will 
 reveal a greater change than any other part of the 
 work. 
 
 It has been impossible to treat of supervision with- 
 out constant thought of those whose work is supervised. 
 Teachers may find in this volume help, if they are led 
 to view their work from the standpoint of the super- 
 intendent. 
 
 Those who are in process of training in the Normal
 
 xii SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 School may be helped in some directions by study of 
 these pages. 
 
 One part of the Appendix has a special application 
 to the work of the teacher, while it also furnishes hints 
 to superintendents who are often called on for advice 
 in matters of discipline of troublesome boys. 
 
 The author acknowledges his indebtedness to those 
 from whom he has taken the liberty to make quota- 
 tions, to an extent far beyond the extracts he has made. 
 Their writings and their personal counsels have helped 
 him in his search for the truth. 
 
 No claim to originality is asserted. Readers of the 
 book as well as the author will be indebted to kind and 
 helpful friends who have labored in similar fields, and 
 who kindly permit the binding up of some of the 
 sheaves after their reaping. 
 
 J. L. PiCKAED. 
 
 Iowa City, Iowa, Fehruary, 1890.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PACK 
 
 Editor's Prkface vii 
 
 Author's Preface xi 
 
 I. — Introductory 1 
 
 II. — UiSTORiCAL Sketch of Supervision of Schools in the 
 
 United States 4 
 
 III. — The Character of School Supervision . . . .16 
 (1) Incidental ; (2) partial ; (3) professional. 
 
 IV. — State Supervision 20 
 
 Political influences ; qualiflcations of the Superintendent ; 
 insight into popular education ; al)ility to convert knowledge 
 into force ; tact in controlling ; ability to present his views ; 
 judicial mind ; student of social problems ; patriotic but not 
 partisan ; integrity. 
 
 V. — County Superintendency 28 
 
 Statistics show that three fourths of the States have county 
 superintendents or equivalent officers. 
 
 VI. — City Supervision 38 
 
 VII. — City Superintendent of Schools 39 
 
 His qualifications as examiner ; as inspector ; as supervisor. 
 VIII.— The City Superintendent's Relation to Pupils . . 43 
 Importance of curiosity in the child ; not to be repressed ; 
 encouragement to express his ideas and knowledge. 
 
 IX. — The Superintendent's Relation to Teachers . . .49 
 1, Leadership ; 2, confidence derived from (a) examination, 
 (b) from trial of teacher's ability to teach, (r) from inspec- 
 tion of results of work as seen in the progress of (he jiupils ; 
 3, patience , 1. Juslicf : 5. licljifulness ; 0, apiwintnient, trans- 
 fer, and (Usinissal of teaehirs. 
 
 X. — Gradation and Course of Study ''18 
 
 The Kindergarten ; the manual training sdiool ; tin- hitjh 
 school a legitimate part of common-school education ; it 
 obliterates caste distinctions by elevating the lower chutses ;
 
 Xiv SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 it is economical for the community ; it has been long estab- 
 lished in our system. 
 
 XI. — Promotions and Examinations 91 
 
 There should be frequent reclassification by promotion of 
 the pupils able to do more work, into the class above ; annual 
 promotions not so jjoort as frequent ones ; the objects of ex- 
 aminations, (1) tostinmlate pupils, (2)toenhghten teachers as 
 to the results of their work, (S) to aid in classification and 
 promotion of pupils. 
 
 XII. — Relation of Superintendent to Parents and Patrons . Ill 
 
 XIII. — Relation of Superintendent to the Physical Training 
 
 OF Pupils 114 
 
 XIV. — Relation of Superintendent to Moral Training . . 122 
 
 Religion necessary for the best moral results ; a non-secta- 
 rian religion necessary. 
 
 XV. — Relation of Superintendent to Government and Disci- 
 pline of Pupils 126 
 
 Cruel and unusual punishments to be prevented ; in what 
 sense the expression in loco parentis is to be imderstood ; 
 the object of punishment ; too rigid discipUne develops dis- 
 honesty on the part of pupils ; the disuse of corporal punish- 
 ment ; the excellent eft'eci of placing pupils on probation. 
 
 XVI. — The Relation of Superintendent to the Board cf Edu- 
 cation 136 
 
 The three stages of development in the history of the Super- 
 intendency : (a) the mechanical stage, (6) the pseudo-intel- 
 lectual stage, (c) the stage of scientific method. 
 
 XVII. — The Relation of the Superintendent to Agencies for 
 
 Improvement of Teachers 140 
 
 The large proportion of teachers inexperienced ; the lack of 
 professional spirit results in mt chauical methods ; these 
 difficulties overcome by professional schools and by teachers' 
 associations. 
 
 Appendix A. — Relation of Public Schools to Morality and 
 
 Religion 149 
 
 The home, the Church, and the State : Bible-reading in 
 school a potent means of increasing moral influence. 
 
 Appendix B. — What shall we do with ocr Boys? . . . 157 
 Boys' peculiarities ; bad conduct as a fault ; as a crime ; 
 necessity of discriminating the two ; sympathy with boy- 
 hood ; boys sometimes driven to crime by improper treat- 
 ment of their faults ; the teacher to make use of the pupil's 
 directive power to correct his tendency to mischief and crime.
 
 SCPIOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 In every branch of human industry the importance of 
 supervision grows with the specialization of hibor. The 
 more minute the subdivision of hxbor, the greater the need 
 of supervision. Each laborer is by practice perfected in 
 the work to which he is assigned, and is confined to a 
 narrow field. He knows that his employer expects of him 
 the best results possible for him to attain. His mind is 
 bent upon the special work assigned him. No thought is 
 bestowed upon the relation his work bears to that of his 
 fellow-workman. To him, what he does is complete in 
 itself. He has accepted his place in the plan about which 
 he gives himself no anxiety. But his work is only a part, 
 a small part, in the great plan. In time and in amount of 
 work he stands in close relation to others, but he knows 
 not how to determine either. He might acquire the 
 knowledge, but at the expense of his efficiency in the 
 special work he is expected to perform. Over him and 
 his neighbors in other parts of the divided work stands 
 one whose special work it is to adjust the parts, himself 
 familiar with each, but freed from active work in any 
 part. He is the overseer, the superintendent. I'imo 
 saved, and efficiency of special workmen increased, justify 
 2
 
 2 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 his employment. This is a fact so well established in the 
 industrial world that the omission of a superintendent in 
 any industry of considerable magnitude would be regarded 
 as sheer folly, provoking and deserving failure. 
 
 School-work furnishes no exception to this general 
 rule. It may be said to demand closer supervision than 
 industries more material in their character. For much 
 manual labor there is a rapidly growing substitution of 
 machinery. The more complex machines do the work of 
 many hands. In some instances a single machine brings 
 out the finished product, all its parts properly adjusted. 
 Less supervision and more invention are needed. 
 
 But for the teacher's work there is no possible substi- 
 tution of machinery. With increase of population there 
 is an increased call for divided work. The material 
 wrought upon is not of such character as to insure like 
 results from the treatment proper for wood or iron. 
 Were it so, even then supervision would be essential in 
 order that parts of the work may be properly adjusted. 
 But in school- work the superintendent becomes an adviser 
 as well as a supervisor. He must not content himself 
 with seeing that work is properly done, but he must be 
 prepared to guide the doer. 
 
 It is not to be denied that in special instances as good 
 results are observable in schools without supervision as in 
 those most thoroughly supervised. These are individual 
 cases, however, where the tact and knowledge of the suc- 
 cessful teacher are of a high order. Such a teacher has 
 the elements of a good supervisor, and becomes such to his 
 own work. Such a teacher, combining the qualities of 
 supervisor and teacher, may succeed far better than the 
 average teacher, however thoroughly supervised by a pro- 
 fessional superintendent. 
 
 But special cases can not determine the course best
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 3 
 
 adapted to general work. Nor will the limiting of an ex- 
 ceptional teacher to the walls of a single room be the part 
 of wisdom. Let such a one be placed where his power 
 will be felt and his influence multiplied a hundred-fold, 
 and the uplift of a hundred schools will more than atone 
 for the loss of his service to one. 
 
 It may be argued that the influence of a successful 
 teacher will be felt by other teachers more sensibly than 
 would be the case were he transferred to supervision ; for 
 in his school-room the practical application of his theories 
 can be studied. This would be true were his school-room 
 accessible to all his fellow-teachers, and were they at lib- 
 erty to visit it whenever their needs of counsel were strong- 
 est. These conditions do not and can not obtain in any 
 large system of schools. If the contrary were true, there 
 would result a large number of imitators who would make 
 themselves ridiculous in the attempt. The practical ap- 
 plication of a theory depends upon the individual's con- 
 ception of the theory, and upon the individual's tact in 
 its application. Efforts to copy shut out the inspiration 
 of theorizing, and kill the tact which a personal attempt 
 to make theory into practice would develop. It is more 
 than likely that a majority of teachers would become dis- 
 heartened in witnessing marked success, or at least, feeling 
 their own inability to attain it, would cease from effort 
 and plod on in the old way. Such teachers may be stimu- 
 lated more by hearing than by seeing, and, by being told of 
 a better way, they will make some progress in the right 
 direction. 
 
 For the reason that it is impossible for all teachers to 
 become personally acquainted with the work of any one, 
 however excellent — and for the still furtlier reason that 
 many would become disheartened were they to attcm])t 
 imitation — it is best that special excellence should bo
 
 4 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 placed where it can be made more generally available than 
 within the Avails of a single school-room. 
 
 The results of such special excellence in a teacher's 
 instruction are limited to a few pupils, and to these only 
 for a brief period under present forms of gradation and 
 promotion. Transfer of signal ability to the work of 
 supervision will widen its influence and will extend the 
 time of its application. 
 
 It is not the province of this book to argue the need 
 of supervision, but rather to give such hints as may prove 
 helpful to those who undertake the work of supervision. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SUPERYISIOX OF SCHOOLS IN" 
 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 The American colonies early recognized the impor- 
 tance of education, but, aside fi'om the founding of col- 
 leges, seminaries, and universities, little was done in a 
 general way toward fostering the interests of popular edu- 
 cation. The Church organized a school, built a school- 
 house upon the same lot with the church edifice, collected 
 rate-bills, and provided a course of study preparatory to 
 the college. The Church was dominant in civil affairs. 
 The duty of maintaining schools of a popular character 
 was in some instances urged upon the towns with more or 
 less success. By authority of law, schools of different 
 grades were established as population increased. The 
 courts sometimes took cognizance of neglect of duty on 
 the part of the towns. No system appeared. The schools
 
 mSTORICAL SKETCH OF SUPERVISION. 5 
 
 were wliat the public sentiment of the localities made 
 them. They were good, bad, or indifferent. 
 
 No special effort was made to arouse interest outside 
 the town most awake and best provided Avith school facili- 
 ties. No transfer of excellence apparent in the favored 
 town was* secured to other towns, for want of a proper 
 channel of such transfer. Clergymen were the " school 
 committees," and in many cases also the teachers. With 
 such multiplicity of duties falling into their hands, it is 
 plain that time would fail them for any other service than 
 that of their immediate parishes. They were efficient so 
 far as they undertook the work. Their training had been 
 in the college, and the elements of collegiate studies were 
 foremost in their thoughts. Their occupation colored 
 their instruction, or their control of that given by others. 
 " To read, to write, to cipher," wei'c preparatory to the 
 inevitable Latin, Greek, and mathematics of the college 
 course. The Bible was in large measure the reading- 
 book. The catechism was more important than the arith- 
 metic. The shades of religious instruction were as varied 
 as the tenets of the dominant churchmen. In some of 
 the colonies there was a strong element of opposition to 
 religious domination, but it was for a long time futile in 
 its opposition. More than a century passed before any- 
 thing was accomplished in severance of Church and State 
 in school affairs. More than two centuries rolled by be- 
 fore, by State action, public schools became entirely free 
 schools. During these centuries a gradual process of evo- 
 lution in matters of control had gone forward. Promi- 
 nent in this evolution has been the work of school support 
 and of school supervision. As civil authorities have given 
 more thought to the general support of schools, so have 
 they scon the need of efficient supervision. 
 
 As the colonies were about to enter into the coiiditions
 
 6 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 of Statehood, the Congress of the Confederation in 1785 
 laid the foundation for State support of schools. From 
 the territory of the new States to be organized out of the 
 public domain there was set apart one thirty-sixth part of 
 the area (one section out of each township, according to 
 congressional survey) as a fund whose sale was to be ef- 
 fected by State authority, and the proceeds permanently 
 invested so that the income might be available for the 
 maintenance of public schools. Another portion of pub- 
 lic lands, two townships in each State, was devoted in 
 1787 to the support of higher institutions of learning. 
 The fii'sfc donation was wisely made in small parcels uni- 
 formly distributed, so that every township of six miles 
 square contained within itself one square mile of territory 
 devoted to school purposes. Nor was this small "school 
 section " left to the whim or caprice of the townsliip au- 
 thorities as to its location. It was definitely located by 
 the act which granted it.* The two townships given for 
 " seminary purposes " were left for State authorities to lo- 
 cate wherever public lands were found unsold in the State. 
 The methods of disposal of the common-school grants 
 were left to the control of the several States. This in- 
 volved, of course, supervision of this fund. State officers 
 were made in many cases ex officio " School Land Com- 
 missioners." Conditions were attached to the distribution 
 of the proceeds of the fund thus created which involved 
 supervision by county and by township officers, and still 
 further by school-district officers where the district was the 
 unit of organization. Thus far does the establishmept of a 
 fund for support of schools involve the work of supervision 
 of the material appliances in the matter of public education. 
 
 * The sixteenth section; since 1848 the thirty-sixth section also 
 is granted.
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SUPERVISION. 7 
 
 The machinery of organization and of supply of means 
 has in it little of importance when compared with the ap- 
 plication of means to the education of children. By the 
 Ordinance of 1787 the cause of popular education was spe- 
 cially commended to the watchful care of the States. The 
 stability of free institutions was recognized as resting in 
 the intelligence and virtue of the citizens. These impor- 
 tant foundation-stones require careful shaping under the 
 direction of skilled labor. Unlike the stones quarried for 
 material structures, the substance employed by the intel- 
 lectual and the moral builder is plastic, easily molded if 
 taken at the proper time. That time is childhood. For 
 the children of the community schools were established. 
 
 The towns, especially in the New England colonies, 
 maintained good schools. In other colonies parishes un- 
 dertook school support. Teachers were well qualified. 
 They came from the well-educated classes, often from the 
 ranks of the clergy. School committees were charged 
 with the duty of inspecting the schools. These commit- 
 tees were from the learned men of the towns or the par- 
 ishes. They took commendable pride in seeing that the 
 " master " did his duty and earned his salary. A few days 
 at most sufficed for this purpose. Then the State stepped 
 into direction of school affairs, and made that direction 
 felt through county and town and district officers. The 
 old school committee served as a model for the town super- 
 intendency in the newer States, which were not held to 
 the customs of the older States. The "school committee " 
 still maintained its hold in the older States, and has not 
 yet disappeared there. In the cities the theory of the 
 " school committee " finds its expression in the " lioard of 
 Education." 
 
 With the growth of population, and the increased de- 
 mand upon the time their chief duties required of those
 
 8 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 who had acted in an ex officio capacity as supervisors of 
 school funds and of school instruction, and with the spe- 
 cialization of labor which has grown out of the pressure of 
 this demand, and following the custom which all indus- 
 tries, manual and intellectual, have found essential to their 
 most effective prosecution, a special officer for supervision 
 of schools — town, county, or State — has become a matter 
 of history, and has also within itself become subject to the 
 operation of the principle of division of labor. 
 
 Modifications have resulted from experience. The 
 original supervision by town authority has given place to 
 county supervision. State supervision has had two or 
 three periods of trial, and has found permanence within 
 the last fifty years. 
 
 The original unit of school organization — the school 
 district — has in large measure disappeared except in mat- 
 ters of finance and of school- buildings. Supervision of the 
 work of instruction has been assumed under State direc- 
 tion by town officers where the town is made the unit of 
 organization, or in the newer States and in some of the 
 older States (since the changes after the civil war), by 
 county officers. County superintendents, or county boards 
 for examination of teachers, or secretaries of county boards, 
 ex officio superintendents, are found in thirty-two of the 
 forty-two States of the Union. In Louisiana, " parish 
 superintendents" take the same place as county super- 
 intendents elsewhere. In New York, superintendents of 
 districts composed of parts of counties, or in a few in- 
 stances of an entire county, have duties similar to those 
 of county superintendents in other States. Mississippi 
 and Nevada, after adopting the county system of super- 
 vision, have left it practically void of effect in recent 
 years. Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecti- 
 cut, Rhode Island, and Delaware retain town supervision.
 
 UISTORICAL SKETCH OF SUPERVISION. 9 
 
 Of tlie last-named States, Connecticut and Delaware pro- 
 vide for examination of teachers in part by " State Boards 
 of Examiners." There remain but four States holding 
 exclusively to town supervision.* 
 
 It must not be inferred, from what has been stated, 
 that the States admitted to the Union since the establish- 
 ment of our national Government are to be credited with 
 State organization of school systems. 
 
 From Kiddle and Schem's Cyclopedia of Education, 
 and from various reports of the United States Commis- 
 sioner of Education, the following facts are compiled : 
 
 Massachusetts enacted in 1642 a school law, which in 
 its essential features continues in force to this date. 
 
 Connecticut in like manner in 1650. 
 
 Pennsylvania followed in 1682. 
 
 New Jersey, having provided the basis of a school 
 fund in 1683, passed a school law in 1693. 
 
 New Hampshire followed (till 1680 a part of ]\Iassa- 
 chusetts) in 1693. 
 
 Maryland in 1723. 
 
 Georgia in 1783. 
 
 New York enacted a State law, the first after the or- 
 ganization of the United States Government (an act liad 
 been passed in 1732 to aid a public scliool in the city of 
 New York), in 1795. 
 
 Virginia in 1796. 
 
 Rhode Island in 1800. 
 
 South Carolina (a school fund for tlic poor) in 
 
 1811.- 
 
 *Micliigan, after nine years' trial of county supcrintcndcncy 
 (18G7-1875), abolished it in name, but retains it in fact as to exami- 
 nation of teachers through a county board whoso secretary may be 
 superintendent ax, officio.
 
 10 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 North Carolina (by legislative committee, not perfected 
 till 1825) in 1810. 
 
 Delaware in 1829. 
 
 The thirteen colonies thus recognized the obligations 
 resting upon them, but they were not alone in this recog- 
 nition. The States that were admitted to the Union with- 
 out the favorable provisions by congressional grants, which 
 all the later States have realized, organized State school sys- 
 tems in order and date as follows : 
 
 Vermont in 1782. 
 
 Kentucky in 1805. 
 
 Maine (first organized with Massachusetts) in 1821. 
 
 Tennessee (aided by special grant of six hundred and 
 forty acres in each area of six miles square, made in 180G) 
 in 1823. 
 
 Legislative requirements met with scanty compliance 
 in many of the States above named. In some instances, 
 except in case of higher institutions of learning, the law 
 remained a dead letter upon the statute-book. 
 
 Each of the remaining twenty-five States, except West 
 Virginia and Texas, has felt the moral obligation imjioscd 
 by congressional land grants, and has organized a State 
 system of schools, with the Constitution of the State as its 
 basis. West Virginia, at first organized with Virginia, 
 found the education of her people essential to freedom, 
 on account of which she sought separation from the par- 
 ent State. Texas, by virtue of special terms of admis- 
 sion, retains control of her public lands ; but she has fol- 
 lowed the requirements made of other newer States, and 
 has set apart for school purposes the same territory as 
 provided for in congressional land grants to States or- 
 ganized out of the public domain. 
 
 It by no means follows that State action extended to 
 the supervision of schools as now obtaining. The influ-
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SUPERVISION. H 
 
 ence of Massachusetts and Connecticut has been sensibly 
 felt in all the States of the Northwest in their school su- 
 pervision, and the influence of these newer States has 
 reacted upon many of the original States, notably in the 
 matter of State supervision. At first it was incidental, an 
 added duty demanded of some State officer whose chief 
 service lay in another direction. By degrees the entire 
 time of a State officer was required, and now the distinct 
 department of education is presided over by a " State 
 Superintendent," " State Commissioner," or " State Secre- 
 tary," who devotes his entire time to the administration 
 of school affairs, to the study of school systems of other 
 States and of foreign nations, to advise regarding legisla- 
 tion, to the collection of statistics, to the improvement of 
 both matter and method of instruction, to the awakening 
 of public interest, to the economical use of public funds, 
 to the advice of county and township officers, to the uni- 
 fication of the school-work of his State, to the correction 
 of manifest errors and to the transfer of special excel- 
 lences, to hearing and deciding questions on appeal from 
 decisions of inferior officers. 
 
 As these and other duties press upon him, assistance is 
 provided in deputies, agents, or clerks. Much that origi- 
 nally belonged to the State superintendency of schools is 
 shared with other State officers — notably that part of the 
 work pertaining to management of school funds. Much 
 has been added to his duties as schools have partaken of 
 that spirit of progress which has characterized all depart- 
 ments of our national life. 
 
 The following table will show the title of tlio Stato 
 officer, the mode of election or appointment, the length of 
 term of service where a limit is given, and the year in 
 which the present system of State supervision was crystal- 
 lized into some degree of permanence :
 
 12 
 
 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 Michigan 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Khode Island. 
 
 New Jersey. . . 
 Vermont 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 California 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Ohio 
 
 New York 
 
 Maine 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Minnesota .... 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 Kansas 
 
 Connecticut . . 
 
 Missouri . 
 
 West Virginia . 
 
 Nevada 
 
 N'w Hampshire 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Florida 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Secretary 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Cominissioner 
 
 Agent, 1SW-1K45. 
 
 Superinteiulent 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Secretary of Board, 1856-1874. 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Territorial Superintendent, 1841 
 1843 ; Secretary of Board,1848- 
 1864. 
 
 Sui lerintendent 
 
 Sui)eriiitendent 
 
 Superiuti-iident 
 
 Coinniissioiier 
 
 Superintendent, 1837-1840 : Sec- 
 retarj' of State, ex officio, 
 1840-1853. 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Superintendent, 181.3-1821 ; Sec- 
 retary of State, ex officio, 
 1821-1854. 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Secretary of Board, 1846-1852. 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Siiperiutenilent 
 
 SuiHTiiitendent 
 
 Secretary of Commonwealth, 
 ex officio, 18;35-1857. 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Secretary 
 
 Secretary of Commissioners, 
 1839-1842 ; School Fund Com- 
 missioner, ea;o^cio,184.5-184!); 
 Principal of State Normal 
 School, ex officio, 1849-1865. 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 State officers, ex officio, 1835- 
 1839 ; Secretary of State, ex 
 o#"«o,1841-]851 ; Superintend- 
 ent. 1853-1S61 ; Secretary of 
 State, e.r officio, 1861-1865. 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Commissioner, 1846-18.50; Sec- 
 retary of ('( luiifv Conuinssion- 
 ers, ex officii}, ]k50-lH67. 
 
 Principal State Normal School, 
 ex officio. 
 
 SuiXTintendent, 1864-1868. 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Sui)erintt'ndent,18M-1867 : State 
 
 Comptroller, ex officio,1867-im8. 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 State Auditor, ex officio, 1836- 
 1861. 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Election or 
 appointment. 
 
 By people 
 
 By State Board 
 
 Bj' pef >ple 
 
 By State Board. 
 
 By State Board. 
 By Legislature. 
 
 By people 
 
 By people 
 
 By people 
 
 By people 
 
 By people 
 
 By Legislature. 
 
 By Governor 
 
 By people . . . 
 By G( ivernor 
 By Governor 
 
 By people. .. 
 By Boaid 
 
 By people. 
 
 By people 
 
 By people 
 
 By Governor. 
 
 By people. 
 By people . 
 
 By people . 
 By people. 
 By people . 
 
 2yrs. 
 
 4 yrs. 
 
 1 yr. 
 
 3 yrs. 
 
 2 yrs. 
 
 2 yrs. 
 
 2 yrs. 
 4 yrs. 
 
 2 yrs. 
 
 3 yrs. 
 
 3 yrs. 
 
 3 yrs. 
 
 4 yrs. 
 2 yrs. 
 4 yrs. 
 
 4 yrs. 
 
 4 yrs. 
 4 yrs. 
 2 yrs. 
 
 2 yrs. 
 4 yrs. 
 
 2 yrs. 
 4 yrs. 
 
 3 yrs.
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SUrERVISION. 
 
 13 
 
 Virginia 
 
 North Caroliuft. 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Oregon 
 
 Tennessee . 
 
 Texas 
 
 Delaware . 
 Colorado. . 
 
 North Dakota 
 South Dakota . 
 
 Montana 
 
 Washington . 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Superintendent, 1853-1865. 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Commissioner 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Secretary o£ State, ex officio, 
 
 IXii-lMQ ; Supermtendent, 
 
 1H47-1HC9. 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Governor, ex officio, 1859 -1872. 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 State Treasurer, ex offic>o,lSliO- 
 
 1872. 
 SGcrGt9,rv" 
 
 Superintendent, 1870^1875! 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Territorial Secretary, ex officio, 
 
 to 1870 ; Territorial Superin- 
 tendent, 1870-1876. 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Territorial Superintendent, 1 809- 
 
 1889, for both States as one 
 
 Territory. 
 
 Suiierintendent 
 
 Terr-itorial Superintendent,1872- 
 
 1H89. 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 Territorial Superiutendent,1873- 
 
 1889. 
 
 Election or 
 appoiDtment. 
 
 By Legislature. 
 By people 
 
 By people , 
 
 By Governor . , 
 By people 
 
 By people 
 
 By Governor. 
 
 By Board 
 
 By Governor. 
 By people 
 
 By people . 
 By people . 
 
 By people . 
 By people . 
 
 Orl- 
 gin. 
 
 4yrs. 11870 
 
 3yrs. 1 1870 
 
 4yrs. 1870 
 
 4yrs. ,1870 
 
 4yrs. |1870 
 
 4yrs. 187.3 
 2yrs. 'l873 
 
 4yrs. 
 
 1 yr. 
 
 2 yrs. 
 
 2yrs. 
 2 yrs. 
 
 2 yrs. 
 2 yrs. 
 
 1875 
 
 1875 
 1870 
 
 1889 
 1889 
 
 1889 
 1889 
 
 Each of the Territories, except New Mexico and Ahiska, 
 has a Territorial Superintendent of Schools. 
 
 The evolution of the present system of supervision of 
 schools has left town supervision of less relative impor- 
 tance, while it has increased the amount and improved the 
 character of county supervision. State supervision lias 
 become universal, and, except in Maryland and Texas, it 
 holds an independent place in the State government. In 
 Texas it may become such by the Avill of the State lioard 
 of Education. 
 
 The popular character of State supervision is shown in 
 the fact that in twenty-seven States the ollice is an elective 
 office ; in five States it is within the province of the 
 Board of Education to appoint; in six States tlie (iov-
 
 14 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 ernor appoints ; in three States the Legislature elects ; and 
 in the remaining State the President of the State Normal 
 School acts' ex officio. 
 
 Popular election also prevails in twenty of the thirty 
 States having a system of county supervision. 
 
 County superintendents are appointed in Florida by 
 the Governor ; in Alabama, by the State Superintendent ; 
 in New Jersey, by the freeholders; in Arkansas and 
 Georgia, by the County Board of Examiners ; in Indiana, 
 by town trustees ; in Maryland, Tennessee, and Texas, by 
 courts or judges ; in Pennsylvania, by school directors. 
 
 Of the twelve States having no county superintendent 
 in name, Arkansas has a County Board of Examiners ; 
 Louisiana has a " Parish Board " ; New York a " District 
 Commissioner," the district embracing part of a county 
 or an entire county in some instances ; Ohio has a " Board 
 of Examiners " ; Vermont has a " Board of Examiners." 
 
 Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, and 
 Rhode Island, are without county supervision in any form. 
 Mississippi and Nevada have it in name only. An im- 
 portant step has been taken in a few States, in requiring 
 certain literary and moral qualifications on the part of 
 candidates for office to be passed upon by competent au- 
 thority. 
 
 Popular election has in some instances brought county 
 supervision into disfavor, as by political manoeuvring un- 
 worthy men or incompetent men have been chosen to the 
 position. There has been, however, a gradual improve- 
 ment, popular election proving a good educative agency, 
 to which failures have given a stimulus. Women have 
 proved excellent county superintendents in some States. 
 
 State supervision has done more for the elevation of 
 the county superintendency than any other agency. 
 
 The wider and more generally intelligent constituency
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SUPERVISION. 15 
 
 of a State has secured worthy representation of the educa- 
 tional interests in the State superintendency. 
 
 Examination of teachers has assumed an important 
 phase in the work of supervision. Twenty-one States * 
 have State Boards for the examination of teachers. Five 
 others f authorize the State Superintendent to issue cer- 
 tificates upon examination. All States having county su- 
 pervision authorize the issue of certificates, limited as to 
 time. In some cases the examination of candidates is in 
 the hands of the county superintendent alone — in others 
 he must call to his aid assistance of teachers holding the 
 highest grade of certificate within the county. Some 
 State Boards also call to their aid teachers holding State 
 certificates or life diplomas. The tendency is toward bet- 
 ter qualifications of teachers, through a more thorough 
 examination of a professional character. 
 
 Normal schools, and colleges introducing into their 
 curricula a course in "pedagogics," are in many cases 
 favored with the acceptance of their diplomas as a suffi- 
 cient warrant for the issue of certificates without exami- 
 nation. This provision has done much to induce better 
 preparation on the part of teachers. 
 
 Another element in the evolution of an efficient super- 
 vision is found in the influence of specialization of labor 
 in all industrial enterprises and in other departments of 
 professional work. Men in control of educational affairs 
 have been exceedingly conservative. They have followed 
 rather than led public opinion. Efficient State supervision 
 has done much to create leaders. State Superintendents 
 
 * California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, 
 Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, 
 North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, West 
 Virginia, Wisconsin, and Washington. 
 
 f Florida, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and New York.
 
 16 SCUOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 have done much toward organizing educational forces in 
 " State Associations." County and town associations have 
 followed. Associations of State Superintendents have 
 within the past twenty-five years awakened a general in- 
 terest in the cause of popular education, which needs only 
 national recognition in the form of a " Department of 
 Education " to secure the highest degree of efficiency. 
 National recognition does not imply national control, but 
 the unifying of systems and of the standards set in public 
 education. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CHARACTER OF SCHOOL SUPERVISION". 
 
 The preceding chapter has presented school supervis- 
 ion in three distinct forms — Incidental^ Partial^ and Pro- 
 fessional. 
 
 1. Incidental Supervision. — Where boards of edu- 
 cation, or school committees, or school trustees assume 
 the work of supervision, it becomes to them a matter in- 
 cident to their principal duties. Tlie same is true of all 
 State or county officers who by reason of their office are 
 charged with the oversight of school funds, school man- 
 agement, or even of school instruction. An ex officio duty 
 bears very lightly upon the thought of such officers. Su- 
 pervision is extremely incidental. In a majority of cases 
 it is purely accidental if any good results. Such officers 
 are generally selected from the busy men of a State or 
 municipality. Their province is legislative or judicial 
 rather than executive. 
 
 They are concerned with the machinery, and pay little
 
 CITARACTER OF SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 17 
 
 heed to the qualifications of those who manage the ma- 
 chines. They determine salaries, but know very little 
 about the worth of the service which the salaries secure. 
 They listen to complaints and decide upon questions sub- 
 mitted to them. If the study of matters adjudicated gives 
 them any insight into the fitness of one of the parties 
 against whom complaint is most generally lodged — the 
 teacher — the decision may prove extremely unjust, since 
 the facts upon which judgment is rendered may be excep- 
 tional. Of the general character of the teacher, or of the 
 peculiar circumstances of the case in question, they can 
 have little knowledge. Except in very rare instances 
 members of the board know nothing of the every-day work 
 of the schools under their charge. An occasional visit 
 upon parade days gives but slight indication of the value 
 of service rendered. Some good results from incidental 
 supervision are possible rather than probable. 'A step in 
 the right direction is taken when some school is assigned 
 to an individual committeeman, or when the secretary of 
 the board is made superintendent of schools by virtue of 
 his office. He gives his time to school supervision when 
 not otherwise employed. His supervision is partial. 
 
 2. Partial Supervision. — A more common form of 
 partial supervision is found as the gradation of schools 
 progresses, in requiring of the principal some oversight in 
 the work of his assistants. To this end he is allowed a 
 little respite from teaching, if he can find the opportu- 
 nity. As an executive oflEicer he is clothed with authority 
 for a small jiortion of his time, and for the remainder ho 
 is but an ordinary teacher of like position and responsi- 
 bility with each of his assistants. He is selected rather 
 on account of his ability in tlie class-room. His teaching 
 is within a narrow range of studies. His preparation for 
 that work is more intensive than extensive, and by so 
 3
 
 18 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 much unfits him for the work of general supervision. 
 The only hope of favorable results rests upon the selection 
 of a principal who has come up through the various 
 grades of school- work and whose experience fits him to 
 supervise all grades of work. Progress in gradation, and 
 the increasing tendency toward specialized labor, stand in 
 the way of such a selection. A faint hope arises that the 
 principal will make a study of the general work, and be- 
 come theoretically if not practically fitted for oversight. 
 The hope must be faint indeed unless his special work be 
 neglected. Such neglect would soon cost him his place 
 as teacher. No faithful teacher will find time for proper 
 study of the entire range of school-work if the demands 
 of his special work be fully met. So long as supervision 
 is mainly incidental, it can be of little value. It is better 
 than that which is purehj incidental, and improves as less 
 is required of the teacher and more of the superintendent 
 in this dual relation. When the teaching becomes inci- 
 dental, supervision is improved. Gradually in schools * of 
 sufficient size the principal or master is released from 
 teaching and becomes to his school a superintendent, de- 
 voting his entire time to the supervision of the work of 
 his teachers ; to the admission and assignment of pupils ; 
 to the general discipline of all pupils ; to investigation of 
 complaints against teachers by parents ; to the oiling of 
 bearings that friction may be reduced to its minimum ; to 
 the oversight of the sanitary conditions of his building as 
 a whole or of separate rooms in the same ; to the thorough 
 comprehension of the parts of a school system with special 
 
 * The word " school," throughout this work is to be understood 
 to mean the entire collection of teachers and pupils representing such 
 grades in a school system as are within the walls of a single building 
 or of several buildings upon tlie same lot, with one responsible head 
 called " Principal " or " Master."
 
 CHARACTER OF SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 19 
 
 reference to their adaptation to the environment of his 
 school ; in short, to all the details of management and in- 
 struction, whereby the strictest economy and the highest 
 degree of efficiency may be secured. Such a principal or 
 master is virtually a superintendent under certain limita- 
 tions essential to the unity of the schools of a munici- 
 pality. With him partial supervision passes into " profes- 
 sional supervision." 
 
 3. Professional Supervision. — This is possible 
 only in States, counties, and the more populous munici- 
 palities, since it implies the devotion of one's entire time 
 to the work. It implies also special fitness in the super- 
 intendent, to be obtained only by the closest study and 
 persistent devotion. 
 
 This subject of professional supervision is worthy a 
 more exhaustive treatment than the limits of a single 
 book will allow. One or two general statements, appli- 
 cable alike to all kinds of professional supervision, may 
 be made before considering the natural divisions of the 
 subject. One very important feature in the office of the 
 superintendent is that of gathering up excellent methods 
 as he observes them, and of transferring them to soil in 
 which they are quite sure to grow. lie must know the 
 seed and the soil. Here, one seed may be dropped to the 
 germination of which the soil is specially adapted ; there, 
 another. By a slower process the soil may be changed, 
 new methods of cultivation, more thorough working of 
 the soil, new processes of fertilization are to be studied 
 and applied, by one whose professional attainments insure 
 success.
 
 20 SCUOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 STATE SUPERVISION". 
 
 In" the State, the more general interests of education, 
 of school funds, of school laws, of school statistics, are con- 
 sidered. 
 
 The work of the State Superintendent, or Commis- 
 sioner, or Secretary of the Board of Education (or by what- 
 ever other name he may be called), is largely advisory. He 
 must be prejjared to advise legislators and school officers 
 of inferior grade as to best methods of administration. 
 His knowledge of these methods is to be obtained from 
 the comparative study of the school systems of other 
 States and of other countries. The best for his own State 
 is that which is most readily adaptable to the peculiar 
 conditions obtaining in his own State. In no case can 
 he transfer bodily what has proved eminently successful 
 in another State, unless similar conditions prevail. Even 
 then his personal fitness to administer the system trans- 
 ferred is an important factor. By frequent personal in- 
 terviews with men interested in school management and 
 school instruction he can best acquaint himself with con- 
 ditions. 
 
 During sessions of the Legislature his place is in his 
 office, where, by counsel, he can promote favorable legisla- 
 tion, and, by watchfulness, he can prevent the passage of 
 acts born of personal caprice, and generally harmful even 
 if locally advantageous. Through State associations of 
 teachers and county organizations he can make his influ- 
 ence felt upon the public. The greatest bar to successful 
 State supervision in the United States is found in the 
 political character of the office, where the superintendent 
 or commissioner is elected by the people. It involves
 
 STATE SUPERVISION. 21 
 
 party nomination and party support. Availability as a 
 candidate is considered as more important than ability as 
 an officer. The nomination is generally the last upon the 
 list, and will quite naturally go to appease some disap- 
 pointed locality, or to heal some wound inflicted in previ- 
 ous nominations. The office is made the foot-ball between 
 contending factions, and is at last permitted to go over 
 the goal where the larger debts have accumulated. This 
 view may, after all, be too highly colored to suit the act- 
 ual condition of things where popular election prevails. 
 The sober common sense of the people of all parties does 
 appear to soften the tint. Well-fitted men are generally 
 nominated ; but availability has still much to do with the 
 nomination. The success of the officer during his first 
 term may secure his renomination, but it is often because 
 such an act is supposed to " strengthen the ticket " — at 
 all events, the term is limited. In a few years, after a 
 faithful officer who has acquired a knowledge of his duties, 
 and who is thereby better fitted to continue them, finds it 
 necessary to yield to popular clamor for a change, a new 
 man steps in to experiment after a new plan. Permanence 
 in good plans is sacrificed ; but the plan of the new offi- 
 cer may be an improvement upon that of his predecessor. 
 This is the bright side of the election system. The dark 
 side may be relieved, too, by considering that a change 
 for the worse makes the responsibility for that change 
 press home upon those who have wrought it, and the evil 
 will correct itself. Popular election certainly educates 
 the people up to a better understanding of what the of- 
 fice is ; and if the officer has the good sense to divest him- 
 self of partisanship in the administration of the office, 
 good service will result. The officer who feels himself 
 called upon to account to the people and not to the 
 party for the trust reposed in liim will do better work
 
 22 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 under popular election than under appointment, either 
 mediate^ as in the case of a secretary of a board of educa- 
 tion, or immediate, when appointed by the Goyernor or 
 Legislature of the State. Men fitted for the great work 
 will do equally well under either system — election or ap- 
 pointment. The length of time their service is to con- 
 tinue will have little to do with the character of the work 
 attempted. A limited term will stand in the way of suc- 
 cess when work attempted requires long time for its devel- 
 opment. The officer has it in his power to remove all 
 suspicion of partisanship. It is certain that the superin- 
 tendent of public instruction acts unwisely when he en- 
 ters upon a political canvass for partisan ends. He should 
 never appear " upon the stump." As a citizen, it is his 
 duty to express his preference by his ballot, but there his 
 privilege ends. 
 
 This by no means forbids his active efforts for the edu- 
 cational and moral elevation of the community in which 
 he resides ; nor does it prevent his participation in dis- 
 cussion of all topics upon which the intelligent and vir- 
 tuous elements in a community are agreed without refer- 
 ence to party affiliations. Indifference upon such topics 
 would mark him as unfit for the office he seeks. He 
 should be known by his acts and his words as a man of 
 probity of character, of sincere convictions upon gi'eat 
 moral questions which concern the welfare of the State. 
 To the people whose interests he serves he must be known 
 as an exemplar in " whatsoever things are true, whatsoever 
 things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever 
 things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever 
 things are of good report." If the fountain be corrupt, 
 what assurance can there be that the stream will escape 
 pollution ? 
 
 The chief danger in our State superintendency of
 
 STATE SUPERVISION. 23 
 
 schools lies in a lack of competent counsel from above 
 itself. The " Bureau of Education " for the United States 
 presents in embryo an opportunity of grand possibilities. 
 It may become a power for unifying and inspiring State 
 systems, as the State system, when properly administered, 
 finds its best work done through the county or city or 
 town officers, whereby it reaches the people and the teach- 
 ers. The Bureau of Education for the United States has 
 not had such full recognition of its possibilities as it de- 
 serves. It has collected many valuable statistics ; but it 
 has confined its commissioner to clerical work instead of 
 placing him in the field where, by personal conference 
 with State officers, by public addresses at State associa- 
 tions, the life-blood which digested statistics furnish shall 
 be set to flowing through all parts of our national body. 
 By reason of financial disabilities our educational food, 
 both of foreign and of home production, has been sup- 
 plied in crude form — not fresh from the fields — and too 
 often cast aside as unpalatable. A people professedly re- 
 lying upon popular education for its perpetuity should not 
 longer be without a fountain from which wisdom may be 
 drawn for the guidance of State officers. It is not too 
 much to expect a liberal recognition of an office which 
 may be made of such great value to the States. 
 
 The control of educational affairs has been very wisely 
 left to the States ; but national life has been endangered 
 through lack of unity in the acceptance of the trust. 
 There is needed a moral influence which shall bring to 
 the execution of the trust the best thought and the purest 
 devotion of the several States. Such a moral influence 
 lies within the liureau of Education, and, if its channels 
 be opened, it will be felt. 
 
 AVhat are the elements prominent in a successful State 
 Superintendent ?
 
 24 SCHOOL suPERVisrox. 
 
 1. A tliorongli comprehension of what is embraced in 
 the term " popular education." This can be obtained only 
 from the study of popular movements in the direction of 
 public education, and of their practical results in the 
 quickening of intellectual life, in the development of in- 
 dustries, in the improvement of social manners, and in 
 the elevation of the moral tone of the community. 
 
 2. The ability to convert his knowledge into force. 
 What he has learned by study he must be able to sift — 
 casting aside all that is not available under the conditions 
 surrounding his work. He must know his environment 
 and what it will bear. He must comprehend clearly the 
 fact that even the best for his State may not be imme- 
 diately applicable, and can only be secured through a slow 
 process of change in public sentiment. Seeing the end 
 from the beginning, he will make no false step, nor any 
 step which is not toward the end sought. If he can not 
 go as far as he would in a day, he will go toward the end 
 of his journey. Hence — 
 
 3. He must possess tact in the control of men, through 
 whom he can secure the passage of desired measures. To 
 this end he should be a natural leader whose ability to 
 lead shall be recognized, while his method of leadership is 
 concealed, and he seems to be doing the will of others, 
 though that will is in fact the reflex of his own will fash- 
 ioned after frequent conferences. He will give advice in 
 no dogmatic style, but in such simplicity as to carry con- 
 viction. No legislator likes to be directed as to his course, 
 but there are few whom the superintendent may not 
 win by a straightforward presentation of his views, sus- 
 tained by arguments which he leaves the legislator time 
 to consider, without apparent anxiety as to the time he 
 may take for such consideration. 
 
 This exercise of tact in no wise conflicts with organ-
 
 STATE SUPERVISION. 25 
 
 izing victory throngli those who are ah-eady in accord with 
 the superintendent's views. With a well-organized force 
 in hand he displays tact in winning recruits. The super- 
 intendent should not appear too prominent in legislative 
 lialls, but may be constant in his attendance upon com- 
 mittee meetings, when he will further his purposes by let- 
 ting alone small matters which can have no effect upon 
 the general cause. Too much intermeddling in indifferent 
 matters will weaken his influence upon essentials. 
 
 With a clear view of what he wishes to accomplish, he 
 will support all measures bearing favorably upon it, and 
 he will oppose all measures directly antagonistic to it. 
 Such measures he may be sure will be presented for legis- 
 lative action, for upon no other subject does the average 
 legislator feel so competent to act as upon his local school 
 interests. It must be admitted that in such matters his 
 opinions are entitled to weight, but local interests are 
 often prejudicial to general interests, and the wise super- 
 intendent will know what to oppose as well as what to 
 favor. His knowledge and his tact will be needed in full- 
 est exercise during the sessions of the Legislature, and at 
 other times in so informing the people through public ad- 
 dresses or through the mouths of county or town school 
 officers as to prevent the presentation of improper bills 
 for legislative action. Through the press, also, he should 
 often be heard upon the proper administration of the law 
 as it exists, as well as upon needed modifications. To this 
 end — 
 
 4. lie should be a man capable of presenting clearly 
 and convincingly his views both by voice and by pen. 
 Learned addresses are not needed so much as plain talks 
 face to face with the people. Such opportunities are 
 given in most States through county or district conven- 
 tions.
 
 26 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 5. He should possess a judicial mind. Much of his 
 work is judicial in character. He comes in contact with 
 the litigious elements of the population, which find free 
 field for their exercise in the school district. Questions 
 of taxation — of school-house location — arouse strong con- 
 troversy. Division of districts or union of districts is 
 not always settled without bitter contests. In many States 
 causes are tried before county superintendents, and in all 
 these States appeal may be taken to the State Superin- 
 tendent. Much of his time is taken up in hearing and 
 weighing evidence. In matters affecting the rights of 
 teachers, who have been denied certificates of qualifica- 
 tion, or whose certificates, once given, have been canceled, 
 the State Superintendent becomes the court of last resort. 
 
 All other conditions being favorable, one who has sat 
 uj)on the bench will make a good State officer. The 
 chances are that, in preparation for the legal profession, 
 he has had experience as a teacher, so that he is suffi- 
 ciently familiar with the practical operations of the school 
 law ; and his knowledge of law in general, and of methods 
 of interpretation, as well as his familiarity with decisions 
 upon matters presented to him for adjudication, will make 
 him a ready and a safe judge in school contests. Such an 
 officer comprehends readily the status of the school law, 
 which is often amended, and with its contradictory pro- 
 visions puzzles the best of school officers. Such an officer 
 is the best adviser to the legislative authority. 
 
 6. He should be a thorough student of all social prob- 
 lems, especially those that joertain to the industrial life 
 which embraces the great majority of those for whose 
 benefit schools are organized. 
 
 Sitting at the fountain, he is expected to direct the 
 channels to " the greatest good of the greatest number." 
 He has a clearer insight into general needs, can detect
 
 STATE SUPERVISION. 97 
 
 shams, provide agaiust excess of conservatism, and check 
 excessive radicalism. 
 
 7. He must be patriotic but not partisan. Schools exist 
 because the country demands intelligent and virtuous citi- 
 zens. The development of such citizens begins with the 
 child. The child looks to the teacher ; the teacher to the 
 superintendent, by favor of whose judgment he holds a 
 teacher's place ; the superintendent to his superior officer. 
 Place-seeking may prevail through the chain of influences 
 until the child seeks favor rather than reward of merit. A 
 partisan State officer may disgust his subordinates, but he 
 is more likely to lead them into crooked ways and obtain 
 their too zealous support of his measures, or, on the other 
 hand, their firm opposition upon mere partisan grounds. 
 Teachers adopt the methods of their superiors in place- 
 hunting. The subtle virus finds a lodgment, and the 
 whole school system is corrupt to the core. These last 
 conditions may obtain in cities and counties, even where 
 the State officer is as pure and patriotic and as non-par- 
 tisan as it is possible for him to be. But if the head be 
 right, well-balanced, and strong, the members are less 
 liable to go astray. 
 
 8. He must be a man of high moral worth, of incor- 
 ruptible integrity. The Christian Church has much to do 
 with shaping the school policy of this country. It has 
 ever been its fast friend, even after losing control. The 
 clergy have had many representatives in school superin- 
 tendencies. They have maintained the necessity of moral 
 and religious instruction in schools, but sectarianism has 
 no more place than partisanship in their administration. 
 Any State Superintendent is recreant to his trust who 
 does not encourage the inculcation of religious precei)ts, 
 such as reverence for God, filial piety, respect for law and 
 for the rights of others, personal chastity in word and act,
 
 28 SCHOOL SUrERVISION. 
 
 justice, temperance, and all kindred virtues. Personal 
 example wanting will make him Avorse than recreant to 
 trust — a positive evil force which can not be too deeply 
 deprecated nor too speedily removed. 
 
 Danger of too great church influence in school matters 
 is not so much to be feared as too little positive religious 
 influence. 
 
 In closing this chapter, no fitter words can be uttered 
 than the following : 
 
 " For the wisdom and strength which shall combine 
 permanence with progress, guard our school organizations 
 from crude conceits, infuse heart and vitality into me- 
 chanical methods of teaching, and secure a steady unfold- 
 ing of well-matured plans, we must look principally to 
 the superintendent. If he is himself weak in character 
 and variable in judgment, no constituted power or author- 
 ity can protect the schools from the inundation of shams 
 which threaten them."* 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 COUNTY SUPERINTEXDENCY. 
 
 County superintendents are quite generally elected 
 by the people. They are more susceptible to the bad effect 
 of political management than are State officers. The qual- 
 ity of those selected to fill the office of county superin- 
 tendent is often inferior to that of those selected for State 
 office. Two prominent causes for a less careful selection 
 
 * City Superintendent John E. Bradley, Minneapolis.
 
 COUXTY SUPERINTENDENCY. 29 
 
 may be cited : 1. In many counties the duties of the office 
 employ only part of the time of the officer. 2. The con- 
 trol of the salary is in the hands of county boards anxious 
 to make a good financial record for themselves, and who 
 have less knowledge of what is essential to good schools 
 than to good roads and bridges. Partisan methods of 
 selection are more likely to prevail, because of the low esti- 
 mate put upon the office. Through political intrigue lin- 
 worthy men are sometimes foisted into the office. For 
 many years after the introduction of the system, it was on 
 trial, often by men who had known only the town system 
 of the older States, and many of whom looked with dis- 
 favor upon the innovation. But in the newer States the 
 county assumed more of political importance, became the 
 unit of legislative, judicial, and congressional districts. 
 Roads and bridges came under county supervision. Taxes 
 were levied and collected by county officers. Towns be- 
 came but subdivisions of counties. Though at first the 
 control and supervision of schools was retained by the 
 towns or districts after the older pattern, the tendency 
 toward county management of other affairs had its in- 
 fluence upon school matters as Avell. A large and intelli- 
 gent minority were quite unwilling to surrender their cher- 
 ished methods of school control. County supervision had 
 therefore to win its way into favor against strong opposi- 
 tion. It has been attacked in many States, but successfully 
 only in three States. Michigan tried the system for eight 
 years and then changed its policy, but has virtually re- 
 turned to it in the establishment of a County Board of 
 Examiners, made up from township boards. Mississippi 
 has permitted the county superintendency to become a 
 nullity. So also has Nevada. 
 
 Of the twenty-four States formed from the public do- 
 main, eighteen now maintain the county superintendency.
 
 30 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 Three, as above, have allowed it to pass into disuse. Of the 
 three remaining States, Arkansas and Ohio have county 
 examiners and Louisiana a parish organization. It may, 
 therefore, be said that the county system in the newer 
 States is practically universal. Of the thirteen original 
 States — Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, 
 Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia maintain a 
 county system in some form; New York has a district 
 system (each district embracing part of a county or an 
 entire county). 
 
 Of the five States admitted to the Union without a 
 period of territorial tutelage, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ver- 
 mont, and West Virginia have the county superintendency 
 or its equivalent. 
 
 Thus it appears that of the forty-two States, old and 
 new, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, and 
 Ehode Island rely upon the town system. Mississippi has 
 neither county nor town organization, and Michigan a 
 union of the two. 
 
 The county superintendency of schools may, therefore, 
 be considered as a settled feature in the policy of school 
 management in the United States. Since the period of 
 trial is passed, measures have been taken for its improve- 
 ment. Popular approval has led to a wiser selection and 
 to better support of those elected. In no department of 
 school administration has there been a more marked ad- 
 vance within the last iwenty-five years. State Superin- 
 tendents have found the county superintendency a most 
 efficient channel in reaching the people of the States — es- 
 pecially in reaching minor officers who are charged with 
 the detailed management of school affairs. A State con- 
 vention of county superintendents gives the State Superin- 
 tendent a fine opportunity for learning the needs of various 
 parts of the State, and for timely counsel and personal aid
 
 COUNTY SUrERINTENDENCY. 31 
 
 to tliose who struggle under embarrassment in their work- 
 District conventions of the superintendents of several 
 counties enable the State Superintendent to concentrate 
 his thought and effort upon needs of a particular portion 
 of the State affected by like conditions. To these district 
 conventions school trustees and directors are welcomed. 
 Following the larger plan, the county superintendent feel- 
 ing the inspiration of State and district conventions, or- 
 ganizes a county convention for conference with teachers 
 and school officers, and then comes nearer to the public in 
 conventions for subdivisions of his county, larger or smaller, 
 as his time and the convenience of the people may dictate. 
 
 Out of this feature of the work of the county superin- 
 tendent has grown up in many States a system of " County 
 Institutes" for teachers, developing into brief normal 
 schools for instruction of teachers and for the dissemina- 
 tion of the latest and best educational thought. Through 
 these " Normal Institutes " the State Superintendent is 
 able to reach a majority of the teachers of the State in the 
 course of a year. 
 
 The county superintendency is like the State supcrin- 
 tendency in its advisory character. Much that has been 
 said of the elements essential to a good State Superintend- 
 ent is fully applicable to the county superintendent. 
 
 But a new feature appears in the work of the county 
 superintendent which gives to him a most vital connection 
 with the schools of the State. He passes upon the quali- 
 fications of teachers, and thus determines what influences 
 shall prevail in the school-room. He has an indirect con- 
 trol of the influences which are to shape the intellectual, 
 moral, and physical lives of thousands of children. Kot 
 only does he guard the entrance to the school-room, but 
 by constant supervision he is enabled to correct his earlier 
 judgments if they need correction.
 
 32 SCHOOL SUrERVISIOX. 
 
 It is very desirable, if not essential to his highest suc- 
 cess, that the county superintendent shall have been a suc- 
 cessful teacher. Some States require county superintend- 
 ents to be possessors of high-grade teachers' certificates. 
 Other States demand the organization of a County Board 
 of Examiners, composed of one or more teachers of high 
 grade who act with the superintendent. Some States 
 authorize the State Superintendent to prepare questions to 
 be submitted to candidates for examination. 
 
 But by none of these devices is the need of practical 
 acquaintance with the details of school- work on the part 
 of the county superintendent one whit abated. 
 
 Through close observation and careful study, one Avho 
 has never been a teacher may become an excellent superin- 
 tendent ; but how much greater would have been his effi- 
 ciency if, from the beginning of his work, he had possessed 
 the knowledge which he has acquired in the service ! A 
 second term of serWce shows the benefit of practical knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 The county superintendent collects and transmits sta- 
 tistics to the State officer. He also acts in a judicial ca- 
 pacity when disputes arise within his jurisdiction as to 
 organization of districts, to location of school-houses, to 
 refusal of certificates to unqualified or unworthy candidates 
 for the teacher's office, and to the annulment of certificates 
 already granted. His decisions are subject to appeal to the 
 State Superintendent. 
 
 In some of the more populous counties the supervision 
 of schools by the county superintendent is iiurely profes- 
 sional, the entire time of the officer being required in the 
 performance of his duties. In many counties it loses its 
 professional character so far as the work of instruction is 
 concerned, and becomes largely a clerical office, all that 
 remains of a professional character being the examination
 
 COUNTY SUPERINTENDENCY. 33 
 
 of teachers. In this duty, however, if well performed, the 
 cause of popular education finds advancement. 
 
 In some States, the work of examination of teachers, 
 who are candidates for a higher grade of certificate than 
 the ordinary county or town certificate, is committed to a 
 State Board of Examiners, of which board the State Su- 
 perintendent of Public Instruction is, ex officio^ a member. 
 As this higher certificate is considered to be more nearly 
 professional in its character and weight, it is inferred that 
 the certificates granted by county officers are not evidence 
 of professional standing of the teachers who hold them. 
 
 While in populous counties there is sometimes more 
 than one superintendent, the need of such a division will 
 lessen as the office becomes of such importance as to em- 
 ploy the entire time of the officer. 
 
 At the same time it will appear to sparsely settled 
 counties impossible to employ the full time of a superin- 
 tendent. Such counties might be united, and thus secure 
 better service ; or a thinly populated county may, for a 
 time, be attached to a more populous neighbor. But 
 either of these devices should be only temporary in char- 
 acter, awaiting such a population as will be able to secure 
 the service of a man competent to act in a professional 
 capacity. 
 
 As a county superintendent comes nearer to the peo- 
 ple tlian the State Superintendent, so is he better able to 
 consider the details of school management, and in con- 
 ference with school officers to bring about such changes 
 as will make schools more effective. 
 
 In one direction there is a decidedly advanced move- 
 ment. It is toward a change in the unit of school organi- 
 zation in States where the district system obtains. This 
 movement is most pronounced in States having the county 
 superintendency. The best county superintendents rec-
 
 34 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 ognize the need of some system of gradation of schools 
 as essential to their economical administration. Under 
 the district system this gradation is difficult of attainment 
 through lack of numbers. Under a township system the 
 possibility of gradation is well-nigh universal. For the 
 younger pupils more convenient and suitable buildings may 
 be constructed, to a portion of which may be assigned the 
 older pupils in numbers sufficient to form classes of re- 
 spectable size. For " high school " purposes a building 
 centrally located may contain additional rooms. Failing 
 enough pupils to make a high-school department effective 
 for a town, a " county high school " may be organized 
 which shall serve also the additional purpose of normal 
 instruction to those preparing for the work of teaching. 
 
 In the county high school the county superintendent 
 will find an excellent opportunity for giving instruction 
 during part of his time. His knowledge of the needs of 
 his county schools will render his instruction most effect- 
 ive. A brief term, in which " didactics " shall occupy 
 the chief place, will take the place of the county institute. 
 
 Through examination of teachers the county superin- 
 tendent will do his best work. " Graded certificates " are 
 provided for by law. The desire for the lowest grade 
 which will open the way to appointment will prevail in 
 the minds of the majority of applicants. This desire 
 should be curbed by affixing to the number of such certifi- 
 cates a limit agreeing with the necessities of the schools. 
 If there are teachers enough holding the highest grade of 
 certificate to supply the schools of the county, wisdom would 
 dictate either the withholding of lower-grade certificates 
 or the raising of the standard of qualifications. No two 
 counties are precisely alike in conditions. A high-grade 
 certificate in one county may be equivalent to a low-grade 
 certificate in another, under circumstances which time
 
 COUNTY SUrERINTENDENCY. 35 
 
 and careful supervision alone can change. There can be 
 nothing like absolute uniformity throughout any State in 
 grades of certificates ; but there may be a uniform pur- 
 pose to raise the standard of qualifications in every county. 
 Conferences of county superintendents may lead to agree- 
 ment as to the minimum requirements, with a wide-open 
 path for advance as circumstances warrant. The advance 
 will depend very largely upon the tact and the spirit of 
 the county superintendent. The question of indorsing 
 each other's certificates in lieu of an examination must 
 meet with a decided negative except in rare instances of 
 exactly similar conditions, and in cases of perfect mutual 
 understanding between officers. Even in these latter 
 cases it is better for the candidate to present papers 
 written for another county for the inspection of the super- 
 intendent of the county, in which application for indorse- 
 ment of certificate is made. 
 
 As schools improve under efficient supervision, the 
 majority of schools will be able to secure teachers holding 
 " first-grade certificates." For character of examination 
 in this class of applicants the suggestions made under 
 the head of examination of teachers in the chapters upon 
 city supervision are applicable. 
 
 "There is, as has been suggested, a profession of 
 teaching, but it contains very few members relatively to 
 the great body of those who teach. What shall be the 
 plan of examination by which these members receive 
 their final papers admitting them to membership is of 
 small consequence. They have earned their membership, 
 and are probably recognized as members without regard 
 to State examinations. But there is an immensely large 
 class who are in different stages of preparation for the 
 teaching profession. AVhat can the superintendents and 
 examiners do through their examinations to urge this
 
 36 SCHOOL SUPERVISIOX. 
 
 class to a better preparation for their work ? I think 
 there is a slowly increasing recognition from year to year 
 that something important can be done. The superin- 
 tendent first employs the examination to elevate the 
 scholarship of the teacher. A majority of those Avho 
 begin to teach are disgi'acefully ignorant of the subjects 
 in which they are employed to give instruction. And yet 
 every community, within certain limits, must furnish its 
 own teachers of its schools. No other arrangement would 
 satisfy the people. After the teacher has reached a cer- 
 tain grade of scholarship, then the suj)erintendent can cease 
 to urge this point, and can place a series of inducements 
 before these teachers to make a more thorough study of 
 professional subjects. The plan usually adopted is to ex- 
 cuse the teacher from further scholastic tests, provided he 
 passes satisfactory examinations in certain lines of pro- 
 fessional reading. By some such mode as this the exami- 
 nation may become the means of elevating the standard of 
 acquirements of those teachers who stay in the work long 
 enough to be influenced by it." * 
 
 In visiting the schools of a county the superintendent 
 should be guided more by the needs of the schools than 
 by his own pleasure. To this end he will visit most fre- 
 quently those schools whose teachers need the most advice, 
 and, if time fails, neglect those which are most efficiently 
 managed and taught. 
 
 The inefficient school sometimes needs less supervision 
 than do the officers of the district. Conference with 
 officers, and securing the company of one or more as he 
 visits the school, will open the way for improvement 
 where the teacher is not so much at fault as the officers. 
 
 * George P. Brown, National Council of Education, Proceedings, 
 1889, p. 27.
 
 COUNTY SUPERINTENDENCY. 37 
 
 Frequent evening meetings, to which parents are invited, 
 will furnish an excellent channel through which the in- 
 fluence of the superintendent may flow. 
 
 The most efficient aid will be found in the weekly- 
 press of the county. It reaches many homes and has a 
 healthful influence. By a judicious use of the superin- 
 tendent's column, officers may become acquainted with 
 their duties and responsibilities under the school law ; 
 they may learn what is done elsewhere under conditions 
 even less favorable than their own ; better school-houses 
 will be planned, better seating furnished, better lighting, 
 heating, and ventilation secured, and all without increased 
 expense to the people ; the needed qualifications of teach- 
 ers will be better understood ; their own excellences may 
 properly be known to others, and a laudable ambition be 
 stimulated ; their own failings may be portrayed in the 
 better state of things existing in some neighboring dis- 
 trict, and their pride be touched witliout offense, as their 
 own short-comings are not published abroad ; the merits 
 of special illustrative apparatus or of text-books may be 
 judiciously presented. This last item needs very wise 
 handling, but the duty of purchase rests upon school 
 officers, and should never be delegated to teachers. The 
 duty presses with greater force when free text-books arc 
 furnished pupils at public cost. In all these channels the 
 superintendent should be a wise pilot. Accepting his re- 
 sponsibility, and using the press and public address and 
 private conference, as the means of discharging his duty, 
 he will find a rich reward in the progress of the schools 
 supervised.
 
 38 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CITY SUPERVISIOlJr. 
 
 In a few States without county supervision methods of 
 supervision are so closely allied to those of city supervision 
 that no separate treatment is deemed necessary. 
 
 This form of professional supervision is of a different 
 character from that of either of the forms already consid- 
 ered. Its field of operation is narrower. Its chief prov- 
 ince lies in supervision of the work of instruction. The 
 organization of school boards in cities makes it unneces- 
 sary as well as undesirable that the city superintendent 
 should have anything to do with matters pertaining to 
 financial management. He considers the qualification of 
 teachers, examines critically the work they perform ; at- 
 tempts to secure the most eflicient service ; and leaves 
 much of the machinery of school support, and school 
 equipment with material appliances, to the Board of Edu- 
 cation or school directors or trustees. For the instruction 
 and discipline of pupils he assumes responsibility, since in 
 an important sense teachers are his agents acting under 
 his direction and constant supervision. Here is the vital 
 organism. Financial support, buildings, apparatus, and 
 all material appliances are essential as air and light are to 
 the body. " Courses of study " are the necessary food. 
 Methods of instruction are the preparation of that food 
 for proper digestion and assimilation. 
 
 It is important that a city superintendent of schools 
 be well versed in school appliances. As an adviser he can 
 be greatly helpful. His familiarity with the most ap- 
 proved plans in school-house architecture ; with the best 
 style of school seats and desks; with the most effective 
 methods of warming and ventilating school buildings;
 
 CITY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS. 39 
 
 with the most suitable apparatus for illustration of sub- 
 jects taught; with the best text-books for the schools he 
 supervises, will make him the better officer, even though 
 he be free from the necessity of attending to details of 
 construction, of selection, and of purchase. All these 
 items have a direct connection with his chief work, since 
 teachers are more efficient under favorable external condi- 
 tions, and pupils advance more rapidly when their comfort 
 in the school-room is promotive of good health and of con- 
 sequent vigorous mental activity. 
 
 But more and more is he narrowed in his work to the 
 department of school instruction. 
 
 In pursuance of the main purpose of this work, the 
 qualifications of a city superintendent ; the various rela- 
 tions he sustains to pupils, teachers, parents, and the 
 school board ; his responsibilities in physical and moral 
 training of pupils ; his connection with the government 
 and discipline of pupils, and his duty of securing the great- 
 est efficiency and economy in processes of instruction 
 through proper gradation and promotion of pupils, will be 
 treated in separate chapters. 
 
 CHAPTER VIT. 
 
 CITY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS — HIS QUALIFICA- 
 TIONS. 
 
 City superintcndency of schools may be considered as 
 a prism with polygonal bases. One face is turned toward 
 the material appliances used in school-work ; one toward 
 school authorities ; another toward the people at largo ;
 
 40 SCHOOL SUPERVISION, 
 
 another toward the patrons of the schools ; still another 
 toward the teachers ; the last and most important of all 
 toward the pupils. "^ 
 
 Each superintendent will be known by the character 
 of the polygonal base of the prism which he constructs. 
 It may be extremely irregular, and the longer side the one 
 of least vital importance. One superintendent may plume 
 himself upon the architectural beauty of the school build- 
 ings and upon the interior finish, the furniture, the light- 
 ing, warming, and ventilation ; upon the apparatus-cases 
 and library-shelves; upon well-graded and pleasantly 
 shaded grounds. These are important, but it is possible 
 to lengthen this side of the base to such a degree as to 
 make the prism unsightly and unstable. 
 
 Another may devote his time to securing the favor of 
 the men to whom he owes his position. Much time is 
 spent socially, under the pretense of consulting his superi- 
 ors upon matters of minor importance. He becomes an 
 echo of " leading members " of the board, looking more to 
 their favor than to the interests of the schools. As an 
 adviser to the board he but does his duty. As an execu- 
 tive officer of the board it is right that he receive their 
 directions and carry out faithfully their commands. If 
 his advice is not followed, loyalty to the board demands 
 acquiescence, as the responsibility is not his if plans mis- 
 carry. But this acquiescence and obedience are very dif- 
 ferent from a slavish submission to their opinions in the 
 attempt to gain favor. 
 
 Another enlarges the face turned toward the people, 
 and parades the cheapness of his administration as a 
 l')leasant contemplation for tax-payers. It is much to be 
 regretted that the popular pulse, which lies in the pocket, 
 must be under the finger of the superintendent, especially 
 where efiiciency is measured by expense. Extravagance
 
 CITY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS. 41 
 
 in expenditure must be avoided ; but the superintendent 
 wliose chief merit lies in bringing expenditure below that 
 of other municipalities proclaims his failure to secure the 
 best results from the means at his disposal, though his 
 economy may be loudly praised by the people he has 
 served. 
 
 Another studies the whims of parents, listens to com- 
 plaints against teachers, hears ex parte testimony, and too 
 readily seeks to lengthen this line of his base. 
 
 To the opposite extreme moves the man whose sym- 
 pathies are in advance pledged to teachers ; who acts as 
 if he considered schools established for the benefit of 
 teachers. 
 
 If the lengthening of any line of the base is admis- 
 sible, it is that upon which pupils are arranged. The su- 
 perintendent who manages his schools for the benefit of 
 pupils can not go far astray. 
 
 But material appliances — money, financial manage- 
 ment, parental co-operation, the best course of study most 
 faithfully pursued by well-qualified teachers — are all es- 
 sential to the success of the schools as measured by the 
 benefits which pupils receive. For none of these ele- 
 ments is the superintendent solely responsible. For them 
 all is he in a measure responsible. The measure of re- 
 sponsibility culminates in the work of instruction and 
 discipline, teachers and pupils being respectively the sub- 
 jective and objective aids to his success. 
 
 The superintendent, who has the right views of his 
 duties as they are pressed upon him from all sides of his 
 work, will obliterate lateral edges and make of his i)rism a 
 cylinder. It is desirable that it be a hollow cylinder, into 
 which his own life is })Oured all aglow as into a mold. All 
 lines of separation in the parts of his work will disappear. 
 The true superintendent will care less to be scon than to
 
 42 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 be felt. He will give the attention due to each of the re- 
 lations he sustains — to the board, the people, the patrons, 
 the teachers, the pupils — in self-f orgetf ulness. 
 
 Filling his office, he will respond in his life to every 
 part with absolute fidelity. He will display minute ac- 
 quaintance with the best material appliances ; wisdom in 
 guiding authorities by intelligent counsel and in following 
 faithfully the results of their deliberations, even when not 
 in exact accord with counsel given ; an intelligent regard 
 for public opinion and for the public purse ; a thoughtful 
 consideration for the wishes of patrons — not compliant 
 always, but ever complaisant ; a just but kindly criticism 
 of teachers, upon whose qualifications he has passed an 
 impartial judgment, sympathetic and helpful ; a love of 
 child-life, a clear insight into child-nature, a memory of 
 child-experience, a devotion to child-interest, and a deter- 
 mination to make all work center in the good of the pupil. 
 
 "A school superintendent by virtue of his position has 
 the oversight and general management of several schools 
 with the power of direction. He is an examiner, that he 
 may inquire into and determine all matters pertaining to 
 qualifications of teachers and pupils. He is an i7ispector, 
 to ascertain the quality of the teaching, the character of 
 the management, to detect whatever may be wrong in 
 matter or method, and to point out the means for correc- 
 tion. He is a supe?'visor, that he may oversee carefully, 
 advise wisely, and organize and direct intelligently. A 
 real superintendent must be more than a teacher — more 
 even than a merely skilled teacher." * 
 
 The brief summary of a superintendent's duties, as 
 given in this chapter, needs elaboration, i 
 
 * N. A. Calkins, New York, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, 
 Education, vol. ii, p. 500.
 
 SUPERINTENDENT'S RELATION TO PUPILS. 43 
 
 In the evolution of the city superintendency of schools 
 as population has increased, much, that in smaller cities 
 and towns falls under the oversight and direction of the 
 superintendent, is passed over to other officers. In the 
 largest cities there are now superintendents of buildings 
 and repairs; superintendents of engineers and janitors; 
 architects and supply agents ; clerks and paymasters, who 
 attend to the salaries of teachers ; and, where compulsory 
 laws prevail, truant officers or school police. The super- 
 intendent of schools is thus free to devote his time to 
 matters of instruction. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SUPERINTENDEKT'a, RELATIOlSr TO PUPILS. 
 
 For the child the school exists. The need of the child 
 enforces its right to exist. 
 
 The little factors in this problem of education are too 
 often eliminated by substitution, and the values of other 
 factors are first determined. The conditions of the prob- 
 lem ought to be stated so that a single unknown quantity 
 will suffice for its solution. 
 
 The quantities that are known, or that at least may be 
 readily determined, such as buildings, furniture, and other 
 material appliances ; books, systems, methods of instruc- 
 tion, of administration, and other agencies; intelligence, 
 tact, character, and other spiritual forces of parents and 
 teachers — all should be gathered into one meni})or of the 
 equation, that the value of the school to the child may bo 
 determined.
 
 44 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 Blind guessing at this value has been too much the 
 practice in the past. Within a few years a very thorough 
 study of child-life has occupied the thought of some of 
 the leading minds in the Avorld of philosophy. Psychol- 
 ogy is no longer limited to the phenomena of adult life. 
 The child's mind is recognized as worthy of philosophic 
 study. Into this realm, as yet but little explored, the 
 superintendent of schools should be prepared to lead his 
 teachers. The superintendent fails signally in his work 
 unless his clear insight into the nature of the child is daily 
 quickened by close observation; and still greater is his 
 failure unless his observations properly digested are com- 
 municated to those who come into more immediate rela- 
 tion to the pupils. From his less intimate personal rela- 
 tion to the child, the superintendent is presumed to have 
 better opportunities for judging of means and of the 
 method of their use. 
 
 The value of the school to the child depends much 
 upon the efficiency of outer forces in calling into exercise 
 the inner forces of the child. One of these inner forces 
 is commonly called curiosity. It is an instinctive desire 
 to know. This is too often smothered or entirely crushed 
 out, whereas it should be fostered and wisely curbed. To 
 this end the course of study and the methods of instruc- 
 tion should contribute. Through both these the super- 
 intendent guards the interests of the pupil, in counseling 
 the authorities who determine the former and in leading 
 the teachers who pursue the latter. 
 
 The end sought should be the nourishment and build- 
 ing up of the inner life of the child. To this the outer 
 life as apparent in bodily posture and movement will con- 
 form, and in some degree will also render important serv- 
 ice. But that supervision which looks more to outward 
 form than to inward activity makes an e7id of that which
 
 SUPERINTENDENT'S RELATION TO PUPILS. 45 
 
 should be a means. Earnestness, the result of mental ac- 
 tivity, may sometimes overleap all rules of propriety, and 
 the child may forget for the time that he has a foot which 
 should keep the line, or a hand that bears a certain proi)er 
 relation to his book or to his side. The same neglect of 
 proper position may be the result of mental sluggishness 
 or of physical exuberance. The difference should be 
 recognized instantly before the process of correction be- 
 gins. The cause of restlessness or of unusual activity 
 being known, the cure is more properly applied. No 
 attempt at cure should be made until a thorough diagnosis 
 has opened the way for an intelligent application of rem- 
 edies. 
 
 Eager to know, the child will at first naturally be qui- 
 escent. Ilis eagerness is in complete possession of his 
 powers, and holds them in control as best adapted to the 
 receptive stage. A good story-teller can illustrate the 
 truth of this statement. 
 
 Soon after another element in child-life, essential to 
 his inner growth, asserts itself and bi-eaks the spell of si- 
 lence : it is the desire to tell ivhat he knows. Under the 
 sway of this force he is overpowered, his mind is all aglow, 
 and the fire should not be quenched by the cold water 
 from the well of Turveydrop. Little confidences misdi- 
 rected, or unduly encouraged, grow into larger gossip. 
 Properly directed they strengthen mental grasp. A good 
 thought well and clearly expressed is fixed by expression. 
 It is thus securely built into the mental structure. Fre- 
 quent opportunity must be given the child to use his ma- 
 terial as soon as he becomes possessed of it. II is knowl- 
 edge is fragmentary : expression lielps to connect the 
 parts. It is crude : expression gives it form. It is in its 
 entirety of little value : expression retains the wheat and 
 winnows out the chaff. Knowledge is in the beginning
 
 46 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 the result of sense-perception : expression develops internal 
 perception — both are essential to mental growth. 
 
 The child's desire to tell should have as frequent op- 
 portunity for gratification as his desire to know. 
 
 Closely allied to the child's desire to tell what he has 
 learned is his desire to do what others have done. Imita- 
 tion is a prominent faculty in the child. He " learns to 
 do by doing," as in giving utterance to ideas he learns to 
 think by thinking aloud. In the past there has been too 
 much suppression of curiosity, of conversation, of activity. 
 Direction rather than sujipression is the rule of to-day. 
 The injunction " Little children should be seen, not 
 heard," has done much harm. Wise supervision will see 
 that a time for hearing the child finds a place in the pro- 
 gramme of school exercises. The child, too, may be seen 
 at his work in proper time. Curiosity keeps sense-percep- 
 tion awake. Opportunity for communicating the results 
 of observation will quicken mental perception. Success in 
 imitation encourages the child and strengthens his habit 
 of observation. The senses are trained ; the tongue is 
 active, but under control ; the hand acquires deftness and 
 skill. Kindergarten exercises are the incipient steps in 
 right education, which converts seeing into knowing, 
 makes telling a reflex influence upon thinking, and 
 changes imitation by degrees into invention. 
 
 The superintendent must acquaint himself with these 
 incipient steps, and know clearly those that follow. When 
 he enters a school-room of little children, he must observe 
 what may be called the business attitude of teacher and 
 pupils ; converse familiarly with the pupils, and thus learn 
 their habits of expression; inspect their work at their 
 desks or upon the blackboard, correcting faults by passing 
 them by, that he may have time to commend their good 
 work ; call the attention of all to tlie special excellence of
 
 SUrERINTENDENT'S RELATION TO TUPILS. 47 
 
 the work of one, thus stimulating imitation. The most 
 important work of the superintendent is done in the low- 
 est grades of school-work, for there is given direction to 
 the entire student-life. In these grades there must be the 
 best teaching possible. In the interest of the little folks 
 the superintendent will do his best work. His broadest 
 culture, through which he may impress himself upon his 
 teachers, must not suppress in him a sweet, child-like spirit 
 when in the presence of children. Though a man, long 
 since having put away childish things, he must still think 
 as a child, speak as a child, seeing the little ones before 
 him not " as in a glass, darkly, but face to face." 
 
 The fact that he seldom comes into direct communi- 
 cation with the same children gives to his visit a peculiar 
 significance. It is remembered as an inspiration if he 
 reaches their affections ; as an unmitigated wrong if he 
 has awakened their fears ; as a simple waste of time if no 
 impression is left. 
 
 Little children are intensely partisan. They love 
 warmly; they hate bitterly. Earely are they indifferent 
 to their teachers. Hearty approval of the teacher by the 
 superintendent, where it can be given, will quicken the 
 little ones' confidence and will make the teacher's influ- 
 ence over them a molding power for good. On the other 
 hand, he should not betray by look or word any dissatis- 
 faction with the teacher in the presence of the children, 
 lest through their keen eyes and acute hearing they come 
 to distrust one whose life and work are so large factors in 
 the building of their character. The formative i)eriod in 
 the school-life of the embryo citizen is the important pe- 
 riod. If time fails the superintendent to make a com- 
 plete examination of all tlic work he is to sui)ervise, ho 
 Avill consult best the interests of pupils in neglecting the 
 higher grades. lie can not afford to neglect the lowest.
 
 48 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 As lie finds need of and obtains assistance, his selection 
 and assignment of such assistants should have chief refer- 
 ence to the needs of the little ones. If personally compe- 
 tent for the supervision of j^rimary work, he should by all 
 means retain that as his share. 
 
 The special relation of the superintendent to the pupils 
 of the lowest grades is that of intelligent sympathy, of 
 providing skillful gardeners, who shall guard the tender 
 shoots against the chill of neglect, the heat of forceful 
 processes, the flood of theories, and the smothering of 
 noxious weeds. He must be strong enough to resist the 
 prevalent theory that an inexperienced teacher will find 
 primary work the best field in which to gain experience ; 
 and that one who knows comparatively little is best pre- 
 pared to teach little children. Nurserymen are skilled 
 horticulturists. When seeds have developed into plants 
 of sufficient strength to bear transplanting, then less 
 knowledge may suffice for the care of the shrubs or the 
 trees. No nurseryman finds time for the plucking of 
 fruit. As pupils advance in grade, if well rooted and 
 pruned, they may be expected to bear fruit. By examina- 
 tions, the fruit will appear. Upon the supervision of 
 older pupils, reference must be made to chaj)ters upon 
 " Examination and Promotion " of pupils. 
 
 This note is suggested in what has been said. That 
 superintendent is best fitted for the oversight of other 
 people's children who can make a home study of children ; 
 next him, one who has been a teacher of children.
 
 SUPERINTENDENT'S RELATION TO TEACHERS. 49 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SUPERIISTTENDENT's RELATiaJS" TO TEACHERS. 
 
 1. Leadership. — That the superintendent may be an 
 efficient leader, he must be conscious of ability to lead. 
 His fitness to lead must be recognized. These two prin- 
 ciples coexistent will insure a solid foundation for the 
 first and a sound reason for the second. In conscious 
 ability is strength. In recognized ability there is an op- 
 portunity for the exercise of strength. Leadership im- 
 plies better acquaintance with the work required of teach- 
 ers than they themselves possess. This better acquaintance 
 must be everywhere apparent ; it should be the outcome 
 of experience. Hence it is better that the superintendent 
 be chosen from the ranks of professional teachers. Tlieo- 
 rizing the most attractive, the most plausible, even, will 
 not satisfy the demand. Nor will practice in a narrow 
 field prepare the superintendent for his wider duties. A 
 wide and varied experience gives vigor to consciousness of 
 jiower — a i^rime element in successful leadership. Expe- 
 rience in all grades of school-work is desirable — most of 
 all desirable in the instruction of young children. But 
 past experience will avail little unless the results of more 
 recent experience are fully understood — accepted, so far 
 as tliey are improvements, and used as modifications of 
 theories founded upon what has proved best in tlie past. 
 His ability grows only as it roots itself anew in soil freshly 
 prepared by the best thinkers of the present. Each year's 
 service will show change in methods of work, ^lental 
 faculties are essentially the same, but environment changes. 
 New avenues are opened for the mind to traverse. New 
 methods of approach must be learned. New motives to 
 5
 
 50 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 activity take the place of tlic old, or are superinduced, 
 and thus the old are more effective. A superintendent 
 who would lead his teachers in a path the best known a 
 generation ago will be a blind leader of the blind. A 
 child's environment of to-day demands for him a greater 
 variety of mental food. The style of cookery of the staple 
 food is constantly changing. He who leads his teachers 
 year after year over the well-worn paths without deviation 
 proves his unfitness for leadership. Every progressive 
 railway corporation changes its line or grade of track, im- 
 proves its rolling-stock, to meet the demands of greater 
 traffic and increased travel. Its chief engineer constantly 
 studies methods of improvement in road-bed ; its master- 
 builder plans for better structures suited to changed con- 
 ditions. Less wisdom should not characterize school man- 
 agement. Caution may be needed lest change be made 
 for no other reason than desire for change. Experiment- 
 ing is proper if there is a reasonable prospect of a good 
 result. A dreamer is not a safe leader. A wide-awake 
 leader will be progressive. 
 
 But a leader, though familiar with details, can not 
 afford to be burdened with them. He must generalize — 
 grasp principles which underlie the detailed work assigned 
 to his teachers. It is his province to plan the campaign, 
 to assign to each division of his forces its respective j)osi- 
 tion and duty, indicating the results desired, and leaving 
 the minutise to the discretion and loyalty of his subor- 
 dinates. 
 
 2. CoxFiDENCE. — Confidence is a plant of slow growth ; 
 it springs from knowledge of character and ability in the 
 person to whom confidence is extended. This knowledge 
 is derived, first, from examination ; second, from trial ; 
 third, from continued inspection of work done. 
 
 (a.) Examination. — A keen-sighted superintendent
 
 SUPERINTENDENT'S RELATION TO TEACHERS. 51 
 
 will read much of character and of special fitness for the 
 work of teaching in the personal presence and address of 
 the candidate. Manners and dress, language and address, 
 will not escape his attention, and will have their influence 
 upon his final judgment. Letters of commendation will 
 be accorded their due weight — greater or less, as the writ- 
 ers are known and their relations to the candidate are 
 understood. As a rule, such letters are of little value, 
 except as letters of formal introduction. Eeferences are 
 much to be preferred. 
 
 Letters from superintendents should Lave professional 
 weight. For this reason, suj)erintendents should be ex- 
 tremely careful, in giving such letters, to state frankly 
 what they know from personal acquaintance of the quali- 
 fications of those to whom such letters are given. Yield- 
 ing to temptation to equivocate, or to leave the impression 
 that something may be read between the lines, is unworthy 
 the true superintendent. Fear of giving offense may 
 make the temptation irresistible. It is better to deny the 
 favor than to resort to duplicity. Circumstances of an 
 unfavorable character may stand in the way of success in 
 one place, and may be avoided in another. The statement 
 of facts, with modifying circumstances also fairly stated, 
 can do no harm either to the person carrying or to the 
 person receiving such a letter. No recommendation will 
 take the place of a personal examination. 
 
 Examinations, however, convey to most minds the idea 
 of a test of intellectual acquirements by a process of ques- 
 tion and answer. There are two forms of su(!]i exatiiiiia- 
 tions — the oral and the written. The oral may be used in 
 single instances; but, as applicants are quite generally 
 numerous, economy of time favors tlie written form. An- 
 other reason for Avritten examinations lies in tlie fact tliat 
 the candidate leaves a permanent record, to which appeal
 
 52 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 may be made in ease of dispute as to the fairness of judg- 
 ment rendered by the superintendent. Still another rea- 
 son appears in the fact that more time is given to the 
 preparation of questions, and a better opportunity is fur- 
 nished for the revision of answers. The stronger reason 
 for adopting the written form is in the interest of the can- 
 didate. More time is allowed for the study of a question 
 and for deliberating upon the proper answer. 
 
 A self-possessed candidate of natural quickness of 
 thought may show to better advantage under an oral ex- 
 amination. But candidates are generally strangers to 
 each other and to the examiner; their position causes 
 some embarrassment, and a written examination is more 
 favorable under such conditions. 
 
 A combination of the two forms is better than the 
 pursuit of either alone. They supplement each other. 
 One who knows and can not tell, may write ; one who 
 finds the pen a bar to thought, may find relief in speech. 
 Both classes have the favorable opportunity. The trying 
 conditions under which candidates are placed in times 
 of examination will suggest to the superintendent such 
 helps as the following : A familiar conversation, at first, 
 upon school management ; upon different methods of in- 
 struction in some one subject ; approval of methods sug- 
 gested, so far as they merit approval, with silence upon 
 crude suggestions, will put candidates at their ease in a 
 measure. The papers placed before them first will be 
 blanks for registration. They should be as simple as 
 possible, requiring only a brief record, personal and pro- 
 fessional. Care should then be taken to place before 
 candidates the list of questions most easily answered. It 
 gives courage at the outset of a contest to provide for a 
 victory. Other papers may then be presented with refer- 
 ence to the time allotted. There may be throughout an
 
 SUrERINTENDENT'S RELATION TO TEACHERS. 53 
 
 imderstanding that the questions need not be considered 
 seriatim if the answers be phiinly marked to correspond 
 with the numbering of the questions. Any list of ques- 
 tions that can be proposed will be found to vary widely in 
 difficulty. The variation will be by no means uniform 
 when tested by an entire class of candidates. AYhat may 
 prove simple to one will be found difficult by another. If 
 each question is made of equal importance to every other, 
 as determined by the mark affixed to the answer, the right 
 of selection of those most easily answered by the candi- 
 date will prove helpful in the result. 
 
 The better plan is to give different weight to the sev- 
 eral questions answered, so that the result may rest less 
 upon the number of questions answered, than upon the 
 values of those attempted. If correct answer to one ques- 
 tion be valued at five upon a scale of one hundred, an- 
 other at ten or fifteen or twenty, and all be so arranged 
 that the totals of values of all answers shall not exceed 
 one hundred, the least important questions may be omit- 
 ted, and time be gained thereby for the consideration of 
 those to whose answers the greater values are attached. 
 This assumes a time limit upon each set of questions. 
 
 This limit should be generous even to a fault. Here 
 the question arises. What shall be done with the rapid 
 workers, who need not the full time allotted to the sub- 
 ject? If an assistant can bo trusted with the oversight of 
 the room, the superintendent may properly take such 
 persons into another room for oral examination. AVhen 
 this plan is not feasible, a list of questions upon theory 
 and j)ractice may be handed to all candidates at the out- 
 set of the examination. To these the quick workers may 
 address themselves in the time remaining for allotted work. 
 To some a few minutes only remain, but some important 
 thought may arise upon inspection of the questions, even
 
 54 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 if nothing be written. No papers sliould be left in the 
 hands of candidates during intermission except the one 
 upon theory and practice. Conversation upon topics 
 suggested therein can do no harm, and it may be very 
 helpful to those who can write only upon the theory side. 
 
 It is desirable that some blackboard Avork be required 
 of all candidates. It will show clearly the habits of pres- 
 entation, a most important matter. 
 
 For those who have had experience in teaching, the 
 teacher's methods of blackboard illustrations should be 
 tested. This is an important feature in examination. An 
 adequate test of facility in use of language, in capitaliza- 
 tion, in punctuation, in orthography, may be applied in tlie 
 assignment of some topic for impromptu discussion in a 
 paper to which are allowed ten or fifteen minutes for writ- 
 ing and five minutes for revision. 
 
 Determination of final results will depend largely upon 
 the style of questions proposed. They should be clearly 
 stated, with no chance of misinterpretation. They should 
 be distinct, each complete in itself. No question should 
 be made to depend upon another for its conditions. If a 
 question involves more than a single statement, it should 
 be clearly divided, so that answers may not be involved. 
 For convenience of examiners, the paper used should be 
 uniform, with suitable margin indicated. All work should 
 be in ink. 
 
 The only just method of marking the papers submitted 
 is to complete the review of the work of the entire class, 
 question by question, examining all the answers submitted 
 upon one question before proceeding to another. 
 
 The habit of marking jDapers in arithmetic by answers 
 alone is by no means just. Correct principles of solution 
 should receive due credit, if in their application mistakes 
 appear which lead to incorrect results. A slight error at
 
 SUPERINTENDENT'S RELATION TO TEACHERS. 55 
 
 the beginning of a solution will magnify itself as the work 
 progresses, though every subsequent step be absolutely cor- 
 rect. Correct answers may appear even when principles 
 are violated. It is safe to assume that, in a large number 
 of candidates, one may be found unable to resist the temp- 
 tation to copy a neighbor's answers. Candidates should 
 be so seated, when possible, as to reduce the power of temp- 
 tation to its minimum. One other suggestion may not be 
 amiss to the superintendent as he prepares his questions. 
 Upon some subject the oi^inions of candidates should be 
 called for rather than their recital of remembered facts. 
 A mere memorizer seldom makes a successful teacher. 
 History is as good a subject as any for such a test. The 
 paper will be the most difficult of all to mark fairly, since 
 the examiner's own opinions are so easily made the crite- 
 rion. 
 
 Candidates have more at stake in examinations than 
 has the examiner, and they should be given the benefit of 
 any doubt. For this reason, too, the examiner should re- 
 vise his own work before making a final decision upon 
 cases just upon the border-line of failure. 
 
 The suj^erintendent as examiner-in-chief will find the 
 assistance of others valuable to him. This assistance is 
 of greater value when rendered by professional teachers. 
 The work of examinations is so entirely distinct from that 
 of selection and appointment of teachers, with which the 
 Board of Education is charged, that the wisdom of delegat- 
 ing the examination of teachers to a committee of teachers 
 with the superintendent will be apparent. 
 
 This examination into literary qualifications is, after all, 
 but preparing the way for a better and fuller knowledge 
 of the candidate. The chief test of fitness is in the work 
 done. Examinations but carry the forces across the moat. 
 The walls are yet to be scaled. Happy those whoso
 
 56 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 strength avails them at this point ! Unfortunate the city 
 taken through bribery at the gates ! 
 
 (b.) Trial. — This test is apphed only in the school-room. 
 It should be accepted by the candidate as part of an ex- 
 amination. As it is the most important part, the superin- 
 tendent will make it thorough and impartial. lie will not 
 allow his judgment to be Avarped by personal considera- 
 tions. He will yield to solicitation neither from within 
 nor without, but will insist upon a fair trial under the 
 most favorable conditions to success. These conditions he 
 will make his study, and withhold hasty judgment. A first 
 trial may prove a disastrous failure through no fault of 
 the candidate : it may appear to be a marked success, and 
 still furnish no sure criterion to the ability of the candi- 
 date ; conditions may have been extremely favorable in 
 the latter case and as unfavorable in the former. Subse- 
 quent trial in either case may change results. As the ex- 
 amination determines the possible candidates, so does the 
 trial determine the possible appointees. Knowledge is not 
 yet complete and confidence not yet firm. 
 
 A list of candidates for appointment, frequently re- 
 arranged as relative merit shall appear on trial, furnishes 
 an excellent list from which recruits may be drawn to fill 
 vacancies. 
 
 (c.) 1/ispection of work done after appointment will 
 settle the basis of confidence. Promises brought out of 
 trial may fail of realization. Desire to secure a place may 
 have led to spasmodic effort, soon relaxed when the desired 
 end is attained. The teacher on trial is sure of greater 
 support because of the peculiar jDOsition in which he is 
 placed. Every nnfavorable indication is overlooked and 
 the best is made of all that appears. The teacher takes 
 the benefit of every doubt. 
 
 But after appointment the supports are taken away.
 
 SUPERINTENDENT'S RELATION TO TEACHERS. 57 
 
 The teacher is thrown upon his own resources. He will 
 sink if he can not swim. He is left to carve out his own 
 future under conditions of the greatest possible freedom. 
 If a superintendent feels it incumbent upon himself to 
 mark out the steps for individual teachers, two things, 
 equally disastrous, are consequent — the frittering away of 
 his own time, and the purely mechanical work of each part 
 of a vast machine. If he finds in his corps of teachers 
 manifest lack of self-reliance or want of discretion, the 
 best remedy lies not in himself doing the work through a 
 faulty agent, but in changing the agent. If the superin- 
 tendent finds he can not rely upon his teachers who have 
 passed successfully the two previous forms of testing, ho 
 should be able to secure relief through the appointing 
 power. 
 
 At all events, he shoiild so far presume upon the intel- 
 ligence and ability of his teachers as to free them from 
 the feeling that they are set to do another's work in a way 
 marked out by another's will. There are matters of form, 
 mechanical in their very nature, in attention to Avhich 
 teachers may safely follow explicit directions. But one 
 way is the right way and no opportunity for choice can bo 
 given. These matters, however, are the least important of 
 all. In the great work of the teacher — the building up of 
 the character of the pupil and the fashioning of his style 
 of thought — there is ample opportunity for the exercise of 
 diverse gifts ; occasion for the use of individual i)owcr ; 
 ample field for the cultivation of the freedom of tlie 
 teacher. 
 
 No superintendent can afford to sacrifice the frecdoni 
 of the individual teacher. He may counsel but not abso- 
 lutely direct : he must lead, as suggested at the beginning 
 of this chapter, but not control, except in that indirect way 
 which is the outgrowth of a marked and recognized sujjc-
 
 58 SCHOOL SUPERVISIOX. 
 
 riority. He who has the broadest views of the work of 
 supervision will most surely exercise trust in the discre- 
 tion of his teachers. He recognizes the jDOSsibility of dif- 
 ferent routes to the same end. He knows that variety in 
 means best suits varying ability, and that freedom in the 
 line of earnest service secures the best result. Hampering 
 teachers with minute details as to the method of work, 
 frets and hinders rather than heljis them. Manifest sus- 
 picion of indiscretion increases the possibility of its exist- 
 ence. Trust encourages effort, and helps to establish proof 
 of its worthy bestowal. 
 
 It may prove a misplaced trust, but the remedy is 
 simple. A teacher who fails in discretion, after full and 
 fair opportunity for its free exercise, should not be left 
 to trouble the superintendent, and to stand in the way of 
 one capable of better service. 
 
 " By confiding to some extent the selection of teachers 
 to his (superintendent's) judgment, he is made to feel a 
 personal interest in their success, as a failure would be a 
 direct reflection on his sagacity and general ability. Be- 
 sides, where teachers know that their jiositions depend in 
 some measure on his estimate of their fitness, they will ap- 
 ply themselves the more earnestly to the execution of his 
 j)lans." * 
 
 The relation of the superintendent to teachers will de- 
 velop itself on three lines : 1. Administration of work. 
 2. Discipline of pupils. 3. Advice. 
 
 Dependence is mutual. Lack of confidence on either 
 side is harmful. In administration of work the superin- 
 tendent may look over the work, seeing only its external 
 conditions, giving attention to the machinery, its condi- 
 tion and smoothness of running, its need of repair. He 
 
 * W. H. Payne.
 
 SUPERINTENDENT'S RELATION TO TEACHERS. 59 
 
 may also look through tlie work, liis attention fixed npon 
 the product. A brief call will suffice for the first, a visit 
 is needed for the second. It may be well occasionally to 
 attempt but one part of the work at a time, but there is 
 danger that the first will absorb too much time, and tlie 
 machinery be considered more important than its product. 
 Teachers will soon follow the path traversed by the super- 
 intendent, and will keep the machine well cleaned and 
 oiled at the expense of the product. 
 
 Having applied the three tests — of examination, of 
 trial, and of inspection of work — the superintendent's re- 
 lation to teachers changes somewhat. He is not consid- 
 ering possibilities nor probabilities, but is confronted with 
 actualities. He is henceforth to deal with the corps of 
 teachers upon whose fitness he has already passed judg- 
 ment, and in whose work he is to find assurance that his 
 judgment was correct. He now leaves them to the use of 
 their own methods, holding them responsible for results 
 only. They are practically free as to methods of work. 
 
 He will find them often disappointing his expecta- 
 tions. Some grow indifl'erent in the place secured. Some, 
 unrestrained, run wildly after pet theories. Unwilling to 
 become mechanical in their Avork, some will fain break the 
 machine. Others left to themselves — a new experience — 
 become burdened with a sense of their inability, and fail 
 to put forth their best effort. 
 
 Wise supervision, recognizing the importance of tho 
 freedom of the teacher, will not fail to correct license on 
 the one hand, and absolute dependence upon another's will 
 on the other hand. The large mass of the rank and file 
 can be trusted as imbued with the true spirit of freedom ; 
 but some will need restraint, others encouragement. To 
 this end the superintendent Avill have frequent occasion to 
 exercise the grace of patience. This will call him tho
 
 60 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 more frequently to the rooms of those who try his pa- 
 tience — partly for his own good, partly for their good. It 
 is safe to neglect some teachers, for they have in them the 
 grace of continuance in well-doing. When the superin- 
 tendent finds his patience Avell-nigh exhausted, a call upon 
 those who have organized victory will cheer him and lead 
 him to persistence in the right course which he has 
 marked out for himself with the few who, in spite of re- 
 peated failures, may, after all, reward his patience. It is 
 not always possible for the superintendent, however thor- 
 ough his knowledge of teachers, to know at the same time 
 and with equal thoroughness, the conditions in which the 
 teacher is placed. Failure may result from a mistake 
 which can not be corrected as easily in the place where 
 made as in some other place, similar to the first, but to 
 which knowledge of the teacher's indiscretion has not ex- 
 tended, and in which the teacher's experience will prevent 
 a repetition. There are those whose natural strength will 
 carry them through all trials. Others need such assist- 
 ance as favorable surroundings may furnish. Some have 
 consciousness of power, and make it available under all cir- 
 cumstances. Others possess the power but lack the con- 
 sciousness; such come slowly to the knowledge of the 
 power within them ; they need such assistance as favorable 
 conditions will furnish ; they need the encouragement 
 which victory over slight difficulties gives them. 
 
 3. Patience. — It is unwise to condemn after the first 
 failure, which, after all, may have its cause less in the 
 teacher than in his surroundings. The majority of teach- 
 ers in any large system of schools will be found lacking in 
 experience. Their power is a germ, and needs the sun- 
 shine of a smile, the rain of kind advice, for its develop- 
 ment. Often the best teachers grow slowly into efficiency. 
 Their superintendent will need a large stock of patience.
 
 SUPERINTENDENT'S RELATION TO TEACHERS. (51 
 
 But patience may have lier perfect work, and forbear- 
 ance may cease to be a virtue. If his patience has not 
 been simply enduring, but active in correcting faults with 
 which he deals, consciousness of inability on the jiart of 
 the teacher will honor the superintendent's decision, and 
 the teacher will yield to his judgment. Its justice will be 
 recognized, having been tempered with mercy. 
 
 4. Justice. — The justice of the superintendent must 
 appear in dealing with the faults of his teachers as well 
 as in his estimate of their merits. Overpraise, misapplied 
 praise, are as unjust as is unmerited censure. To with- 
 hold friendly criticism at proper times, and then to visit 
 judgment for faults which might have been corrected, is 
 the rankest injustice. Such a course assumes that the 
 teacher is conscious of his fault, and willfully continues its 
 practice. Proper time for the correction of a teacher's 
 fault is when it can least weaken his influence. In this 
 matter the discretion of the superintendent will show it- 
 self. As faults may appear more frequently in matters of 
 discipline than of instruction, the superintendent who is 
 discreet will not reprove in the presence of pu])i]s. 
 
 If to the superintendent's human nature some favor- 
 ites are essential, let them be selected from the list of 
 those who have " organized victory " for themselves ; who 
 have " come uj) out of great tribulation." Such will have 
 the good sense not to be harmed by favoritism. Better 
 still if he can so far overcome human frailty as to be the 
 fast friend to merit wherever found ; the faitlif ul friend to 
 the faulty, whosoever they may be. Justice withholds not 
 merited censure, confers not unmerited praise. 
 
 As, in the mind of the superintendent, the teacher can 
 not be separated from his work, the pupils' interests will 
 appeal often for defense against the unjust conduct of tljo 
 teacher. Injustice may exist where the best of motives
 
 62 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 l^revail. Self-interest may sometimes underlie great devo- 
 tion to the interests of pnpils. The habit of grading 
 teachers upon percentages obtained by their pupils in ex- 
 amination leads necessarily to great abuse. Any superin- 
 tendent, who makes such examinations the basis of public 
 award, encourages teachers in cultivating the arts of de- 
 ception ; in finding some means whereby to get rid of 
 those pupils Avhose marks would lower the desired average, 
 and to retain beyond proper time those whose marks will 
 raise the average so much sought for personal ends. 
 
 There are many elements beyond the mathematician's 
 determination which utterly destroy the value of his 
 results. 
 
 No less unjust is the publication of comparative lists 
 of promotions within a specified time, unless it be accom- 
 panied by a complete list of temporary or incidental influ- 
 ences, which have favored or retarded the moving forAvard 
 of pupils in individual cases. Conscientious teachers suffer 
 always in such tabulated estimates of work. Promotions 
 and examinations will be treated more fully hereafter. 
 
 5. Helpfulness. — The larger experience can always 
 be helpful in ways that will not abridge the freedom of 
 the lesser. The work of instruction, specially, is shared by 
 superintendent and teachers. He is the controlling spirit, 
 they the active agents ; he the general in command, they 
 the rank and file ; he plans, they execute. Under such 
 conditions the superintendent's helpfulness will appear in 
 manifold ways, as does that of a great military leader. 
 His strength in leadership inspires confidence in the wis- 
 dom of his plans. His trust in his subordinates gives 
 them confidence in themselves, and brings out the best 
 that is in them. His patience with their inexperience 
 awakens in them desire for improvement, and leads them 
 to watch for suggestions which his riper experience enables
 
 SUPERINTENDENT'S RELATION TO TEACHERS. G3 
 
 him to give. His justice in awarding praise or in con- 
 demning inefficiency and carelessness — even in punishing 
 the willfully negligent or disobedient — will Avin the most 
 loyal support. 
 
 Thus it will appear that the features prominent in a 
 superintendent, who recognizes his relation to teachers, 
 combine in the last. Ilis recognized leadership, his con- 
 fidence, his patience, his justice, together render him ex- 
 ceedingly helpful. ■) . ; , ; ,. 
 
 Whether helpful or not depends upon the cb-o'^eration 
 of the would-be helper and the would-be helped. The 
 receptive teacher must be free to act after his own will, 
 strengthened or modified, it may be, upon advice received. 
 His freedom, however, is within limits prescribed by higher 
 authority. Tools which he has not fashioned are placed 
 in his hands. Materials are furnished without his being 
 consulted. It is his to make the best possible use of the 
 tools, and to fashion the materials after their highest pos- 
 sibilities. 
 
 Smoothness in the running of machinery depends 
 largely upon the intelligence of its maker. lie must 
 know the character of the work expected, and the fitness 
 of the machine for its work. lie must prepare for such 
 changes in adjustment as will meet the need of variety in 
 the material to be wrought. But he can not stand con- 
 stantly beside the laborer in whose hands the machine is 
 placed. He may spend time in explaining its parts and 
 what is expected of each — its adjustments, and how they 
 are to be made ; he may also show varieties in material, 
 how they can be readily detected, and the most economical 
 method of classifying the material with reference to get- 
 ting the most work out of the machine ; he may occasion- 
 ally illustrate his teachings. But the work in its details 
 must be left to the mechanic employed. The suptu-iu-
 
 64 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 tendent provides a course of study properly adjustable to 
 the needs of a variety of pupils ; he explains its general 
 plan, shows where adjustments can be made and when 
 they should be made, gives teachers a general insight into 
 varieties of material which different localities will furnish, 
 and changes which will at some time appear in the prod- 
 uct of the same localities ; he will be ready to advise when- 
 ever unforeseen difficulties appear. Here his responsibility 
 ends. He must feel the assurance that the teacher whose 
 freedom he recognizes is in his absence finishing a product 
 as large as a skillfully handled machine can bring out, and 
 as perfect as the material furnished is capable of, and 
 Avithin a time agreeing to conditions in which the teacher 
 is placed. 
 
 The teacher, in accordance with advice as he interprets 
 it, after his well-studied plans, knowing that results only 
 are sought, without reference to the particular method 
 employed, puts himself, just as he is, into his work ; at- 
 tempting only what he can do in his own way, with con- 
 stant effort to improve as experience shall furnish light. 
 
 The superintendent feels responsibility, a part of which 
 he transfers fully to the teacher. The teacher accepts the 
 transferred responsibility as if original. 
 
 • The superintendent must recognize the authority of 
 the teacher within his province as being as sacred as 
 his own. 
 
 His right to do certain things may be unquestioned ; 
 but, if he exercises that right without regard to the teach- 
 er's right to be consulted upon the matter, he does a wrong, 
 and shows his own unfitness for the best work. 
 
 Neither may enter the peculiar domain of the other 
 without conference and consent. 
 
 An important subject necessarily prominent in the dis- 
 cussion hitherto, especially if the figure of military service
 
 SUPERINTENDENTS RELATION TO TEACHERS. 65 
 
 be at all appropriate, is that of the superintendent's au- 
 thority. What powers should he possess in the 
 
 Appoixtmext, Transfer, and Dismissal of Teach- 
 ers? — If his leadership be onl}^ in name; if his confidence 
 or want of confidence be shorn of all value, since he can 
 have no voice in the appointment or dismissal or change 
 of teachers ; if his ^^atience perfected be barren of good to 
 those who have improved under its exercise, or his patience, 
 tried beyond measure, is only a continued source of suffer- 
 ing to himself; if his justice fail of execution; if his help- 
 fulness be only in advice — the question is a very natural 
 one, Why employ a superintendent at all ? 
 
 Another question may be pertinent, also, if the exact 
 opposite of the conditions stated above prevail. Why have 
 a Board of Education at all ? 
 
 These two questions are briefly answered. The super- 
 intendent should be neither a figure-head nor an autocrat. 
 Between these extremes lies his province. 
 
 The power to appoint and to dismiss teachers resides 
 primarily in the Board of Education. The exercise of this 
 power should rest upon knowledge of a teacher's fitness. 
 This knowledge may be obtained only through a thorough 
 inspection of a teacher's work. Members of a Board of 
 Education are usually men of affairs or professional men, 
 whose business or whose professional duties occui)y a great 
 part of their time. W'ere the appointment and assignment 
 of teachers their only duty, time would fail them. Their 
 work is manifold, and when well organized it rests with 
 committees chiefly. One of these committees is the "Com- 
 mittee on Teachers." The superintendent should be a 
 member of this committee, and through it his jjowcr w ill 
 be exercised. Under certaiix contingcdicies, iii)tal)ly tlie 
 changes of teachers, the power of the committee may bo 
 
 delegated to the superintendent. 
 6
 
 66 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 " The vesting of the selection and appointment of 
 teachers in the sviperintendent is a wise provision in large 
 cities, wherein the members of the board are elected by 
 wards — a wise provision, not for the superintendent, but 
 for the schools. It is believed that in no other way can 
 teachers be so wisely selected ; and a wise selection of 
 teachers is certainly the most important duty in school 
 administration. So far as the superintendent's tenure is 
 concerned, it is undoubtedly better to vest the nomination 
 of teachers in a standing committee of the board. AYhen, 
 however, this duty is imposed upon the superintendent, 
 the law should in some way afford him needed protec- 
 tion." * 
 
 The effect upon the superintendent's position, as stated 
 by Mr. White, is a valid objection to vesting the supreme 
 power in him. If he be conscientious, the disappointed 
 rain upon him their blows, and he stands without defense 
 of those whom he serves. The least thoughtful clamor 
 for his overthrow, and the schools suffer loss. Were his 
 hand hidden in the committee over whose acts he might 
 possess a controlling influence, his services would be 
 retained until the wisdom of his counsel were fully ap- 
 proved. 
 
 The vesting of supreme power in a superintendent 
 might chance to fall upon a time-serving officer Avhose 
 personal interests outweighed all considerations of good to 
 the schools, and thus incalculable injury be done. 
 
 If a place in the Board of Education may become at- 
 tractive because of its possible patronage, what measure 
 can be applied to the strength of temptation when the 
 entire control of the teachers of a city is vested in a super- 
 
 * E. E. White, National Council of Education, Proceedings, 1889, 
 p. 97.
 
 SUPERINTENDENT'S RELATION TO TEACHERS. G7 
 
 intendent? The unworthy applicant wouhl not scruple 
 at any means v\'hereby to secure such an opportunity for 
 personal profit. The risk is too great to be assumed. No 
 capable superintendent would wish to assume it. 
 
 In the conferences of a " Committee on Teachers," the 
 merits of a candidate for appointment are stated by the 
 superintendent. Between two or more candidates there 
 may be in his mind a very slight choice. Members of the 
 committee may know of reasons which would favor the 
 selection of one rather than another in the place to be 
 filled. In counsel of men, no one of whom has absolute 
 power, who have no other purpose than to serve the inter- 
 ests of the schools, each may be the best judge in certain 
 directions — one as to the fitness of candidates, another as 
 to fitness of the place, still another as to the conditions 
 which would favor one of several equally meritorious can- 
 didates. Such counsel can not be other than jirofitable. 
 If appointments are thus carefully considered, dismissals 
 will be rare. It is easier to keep out an incflicient appli- 
 cant than to remove an unsuccessful appointee. In mak- 
 ing appointments the best material is not always at hand. 
 Mistaken views of ability may be entertained. If after 
 trial the superintendent finds he can not rely upon accept- 
 able service, he must have some opportunity for relief. 
 This opportunity appears in one of two forms — change of 
 place or removal. The first will be found a favorable 
 opportunity for the best work of a competent sui)frinten(l- 
 ent. In his rounds of inspection he becomes thoroughly 
 acquainted with the peculiarities of each situation as well 
 as with the characteristic features of each teacher's work- 
 in his study of means of improvement of the schools un- 
 der his supervision, he will have in mind both persons 
 and places. Misfits are remembered. Tliey are onliiuirily 
 few in number, and n)ay be reduced by changes. The
 
 58 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 power to make such changes should reside in the superin- 
 tendent, subject to appeal. Inasmuch as good will result 
 to the place, and a better status to the person, there can 
 be little opportunity for criticism of the superintendent's 
 acts. On the contrary, he may be strengthened in his 
 position by the exercise of such power. When a misfit 
 proves a chronic condition of the person, removal is the 
 only remedy. Then it is well for the superintendent that 
 he have the support of a " Committee on Teachers." 
 
 The relation of a superintendent to his teachers can 
 not be considered fully until the subject of school organi- 
 zation is treated. It will there appear incidentally. 
 
 In the management of the school machinery, superin- 
 tendent and teachers are alike interested. Upon its smooth 
 and efficient working depend the interests of pupils. 
 
 It can not be denied that in all quarters the machine 
 itself has received an undue share of attention. Engineers 
 have been pleased with its beauty, and have thought too 
 little of its product. Organization has been treated too 
 much as an end. Progress implies the turning of thought 
 from the machine now well established to the result of its 
 working — to the product of its manufacture. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 GRADATION" AND COURSES OF STUDY. 
 
 As a leader of teachers, the superintendent needs a 
 well-defined route with which he is perfectly familiar. It 
 must be as direct as possible to the end sought. Its grades 
 and its curves should be established at the outset. Mod-
 
 GRADATION AND COURSES OF STUDY. 69 
 
 ern processes in road-building are applicable to the royal 
 highway to knowledge. There are milestones for the de- 
 termination of the rate of progress. There are stations 
 for the exchange of motive power, with intermediate sta- 
 tions for the convenience of patrons. There are schedule- 
 cards for the minute guidance of conductors. There are 
 blanks for reports to headquarters. Strict obedience to 
 the orders of train-dispatchers is enjoined. Within limi- 
 tations many things are left to the discretion of conduct- 
 ors. Some trains are run for the special accommodation 
 of " through passengers and freight." These have special 
 consideration in right of way. Other trains accommodate 
 " way-passengers," whose routes are short or necessarily 
 broken. 
 
 These modern features in the work of transportation 
 have appeared in school machinery. The route of the 
 pupil is marked off more or less minutely. At certain 
 stations changes are made in teachers. " Through " pu- 
 pils pass on under new conductors. A few pupils have 
 left the train at way-stations where others have entered. 
 The train-load continues about as it began, though passen- 
 gers have changed. Classes live, even if their membership 
 changes. The time-schedules are followed between the 
 terminals, even though circumstances may interfere witli 
 a steady rate of progress. Movements are directed from 
 headquarters, to which reports are made at regular times. 
 
 This railway model for school management has had an 
 evil influence in many directions. First, it permits no 
 pupil to move more rapidly than his particular train is 
 scheduled for. While for tlie majority this rigid observ- 
 ance of time-cards may be suitable, it retards the progress 
 of a minority until they become indifferent, or leave the 
 train in disgust. Secondly, it pulls along some whoso 
 strength fails them because of the weariness of the way.
 
 70. SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 These become a burden to the conductors, and are left at 
 some station till they recover ability to proceed on their 
 journey. 
 
 To change the figure from a roadway to a water-way. 
 Gradation here involves a series of locks, if it be an arti- 
 ficial channel. Freight is floated into a lock, the gates 
 closed behind it, and with a steady letting in of water 
 from above it is raised to a proper level for a forward 
 movement when another process of gradual lifting ensues. 
 This may be a better model than that of the railway, inas- 
 much as the time-schedule is not so rigidly followed. 
 
 Better still the figure of the natural water-way, over 
 which boats may glide from point to point as favoring 
 winds or tides, or their peculiar structure, may determine. 
 All move in one direction. There is no danger of collis- 
 ions, if the opportunity be given for the fleeter boat to 
 move forward unobstructed. Attention will be given to 
 this matter in the next chaj)ter. 
 
 Gradation is often taken in its too literal signification, 
 and there is presented to the thought a series of steps with 
 broad treads and high risers. Ujion each tread the class 
 is kept for a specified time, and upon trial of strength the 
 next riser is reached at a leap by the majority, and the few 
 are allowed to fall back until at some succeeding trial their 
 strength shall prove sufficient for the rise. The rise is too 
 severe a task of strength in many cases. 
 
 If we substitute an inclined plane for the stairway, 
 upon which every step forward is a step upward, and there 
 comes no time when the entire weight of the body is to 
 be lifted at a single effort, there will be less opposition to 
 graded systems. The " course of study " will lie beside 
 this inclined jDlane, with some divisions more or less nat- 
 ural, and over each division the child is led by a helpful 
 teacher — the child's strength growing at each step, and
 
 GRADATION AND COURSES OF STUDY, 71 
 
 his courage brightening as he finds his range of vision en- 
 larged at each forward movement. Under the head of 
 promotions this thoiiglit will be more fully treated. 
 
 In arranging a course of study, one error is likely to 
 arise. It is assumed that the initial point of the course 
 of study is the beginning of a child's education. No more 
 fatal error can be cherished. A child enters school at six 
 years of age. The years of his life already past have been 
 crowded full of lessons. It will be a strange thing indeed 
 if he has not profited by these early lessons, and hence 
 enters school with some measure of mental force. His 
 home influences have determined the measure as well as 
 the direction of this force to a large degree. Any course 
 of study which assumes its entire absence makes a dear 
 mistake. 
 
 The child's earlier months in school are too often 
 frittered away upon matters with which he should have 
 become conversant through jjroper home instruction. In 
 well-regulated homes this work is well begun. But in 
 many it is of necessity neglected ; in many others igno- 
 rance or indifference prevails. Benevolent individuals, 
 with time and means at their disposal, have stepped in at 
 this point of need and have organized and conducted 
 " free Kindergartens." Tlie })ur})ose is sketched admirably 
 by a devotee : " Take the child into the Kindergarten and 
 there begin the work of physical, mental, and moral train- 
 ing. Put the child in possassion of his powers ; develop 
 his faculties; unfold his moral nature; cultivate mechan- 
 ical skill in the use of his hands ; give him a sense of sym- 
 metry and harmony; a quick judgment of numbers, meas- 
 ure, and size ; stimidate his inventive faculties ; make 
 him familiar with the customs and usages of well-ordtTcd 
 lives; teach him to bo kind, courteous, helpful, and un- 
 selfish ; inspire him to love whatsoever things are true
 
 72 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 and pure and right and kind and noble ; and thus 
 equipped physically, mentally, and morally, send him 
 forth to a wider range of study, which should include 
 some sort of industrial training, and still further give the 
 boy or girl a completed trade. Thus will they be prepared 
 to solve the rugged problem of existence by earning their 
 own living through honest, faithful work." * 
 
 The importance of this preliminary work can not be 
 overestimated. Nor should the State depend upon pri- 
 vate contributions for so necessary a work. 
 
 If supervision can not be extended over this work as 
 part of a school curriculum, it should recognize its exist- 
 ence, accept the work done, introduce its methods so far 
 as they may be made applicable to the development of the 
 child's powers in the years ordinarily devoted to common- 
 school work. This will solve the question of manual train- 
 ing, so warmly discussed at the present day. It will secure 
 for the child the habit of self-direction in the exercise of 
 his physical, mental, and moral faculties. Eventually his 
 self-direction will manifest its preferences. Whatever his 
 ultimate choice may be, a sure foundation will have been 
 laid for success. 
 
 The elementary school teaches neither trades nor pro- 
 fessions, but lays the foundation for the acquisition of 
 either as the future purpose of the child may develop 
 itself. 
 
 The Kindergarten reveals to the child his possibilities. 
 The higher institutions furnish to the youth opportuni- 
 ties for a fitting for life-work. The weakness of our 
 school system is in its middle grades. The cultivation of 
 possibilities is checked, so that the youth comes up to his 
 opportunities with little self-directive power. His choice 
 
 * Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper, San Francisco.
 
 GRADATIOX AND COURSES OF STUDY. 73 
 
 is made without knowledge of internal fitness, but under 
 the stress of purely external conditions. The great work 
 of the superintendent for the present is to lie in improv- 
 ing the worn track between the initial and the terminal 
 point. 
 
 At the beginning of the course there should be the 
 greatest possible mobility. Toward the end, greater ri- 
 gidity may prevail ; at the beginning, prescription ; near 
 the end, election. At first sight there may appear to be 
 inconsistency between prescrij^tion and mobility, between 
 election and rigidity. Experience in supervision will soon 
 dispel all appearance of inconsistency. Mobility may be 
 provided for in the arrangement of the programme, 
 though studies be prescribed, and in more minute sub- 
 division of the course, or, continuing the railway illustra- 
 tion, in more frequent stations. So rigidity may be in- 
 creased in the later stages of the course by introducing 
 more studies into the course than can be pursued by any 
 one pupil, and permitting at some convenient point an 
 opportunity for choice, which, once made, must be rigidly 
 followed. In the railway illustration the point of election 
 will be the place where the road divides and different 
 terminals are sought. 
 
 The course of study is generally constructed upon 
 the theory that pupils will complete it, and after a close 
 calculation of average ability it is marked offiby years, is 
 called a " Graded Course," and serves a good purpose for 
 the minority who compass it. But to the interests of the 
 majority the superintendent must look. Shall he discard 
 the course of study because, if pursued too rigidly, the 
 majority suffer? To the greater part of tliis majority 
 the course of study may be made serviceable through a 
 discreet use thereof. It furnishes a natural order of 
 studies; it presents an agreeable variety; it meets, stc])
 
 Y4 SCHOOL SUPERVISION". 
 
 by step, the capacity of the average pupil ; it does not for- 
 bid the more rapid advance of the exceptional piij)il ; it 
 insures regularity of movement in an economical and 
 efficient manner ; it analyzes the work and assigns por- 
 tions to those who are best fitted by nature or acquired 
 ability for the special work allotted to them ; it pro- 
 vides through this division of labor for the use of the 
 highest skill attainable. Its fault lies in its liability to 
 abuse. The superintendent is set to the work of guard- 
 ing against this liability to abuse. If tlie work under 
 the course of study becomes mechanical, the fault lies 
 in administration. For this fault the superintendent, 
 left free in the work of instruction, is responsible. Leav- 
 ing much to the discretion of teachers, he can the more 
 properly criticise their acts. If he undertake to assign 
 teachers at the beginning of each term or each month 
 a task to be accomplished, as is sometimes unwisely done, 
 he becomes responsible for purely mechanical work, and 
 the abuse of the course of study lies at his door. If, 
 bearing in his own mind the results which should in a 
 given time follow a teacher's work, he passes judgment 
 favorable or unfavorable simply by what he observes of 
 results, without considering the circumstances which have 
 affected that teacher's work, abuse of a good system lies 
 at his door. Mechanical supervision has injured more 
 pupils than mechanical teaching. Wise supervision culti- 
 vates freedom of the teacher, makes sure that this freedom 
 is the fullest exercise of personal rights consistent with 
 the rights of others in like manner and in like measure 
 free. If freedom becomes license, the superintendent 
 knows and dares to use the remedy. 
 
 After all care and the wisest possible supervision, there 
 will appear exceptional pupils to whom the course of 
 study is not adaptable. The time of these pupils is not
 
 GRADATION AND COURSES OF STUDY. 75 
 
 at their full command. Attendance upon school ranst be 
 irregular. The early advantages of some may have been 
 limited, and their classification in a course of study upon 
 their lowest attainment or even upon their average attain- 
 ment would be prejudical to their advancement. Others 
 need a closer relation to the teacher than class-work will 
 permit. To all these, individual instruction is best 
 adapted until their irregularities are overcome, and they 
 little by little find themselves able to enter classes suited 
 to their age. For such pupils provision should be made 
 that they may have the benefit of individual instruction 
 without the restriction of a course of study, but with 
 reference to the eventual bringing of all into line with it. 
 In every system of schools provision should be made for 
 such special work in ungraded rooms with fewer pupils 
 and the best teachers. This will not be necessary in rural 
 schools. There a course of study can hardly be adopted 
 which will prove of value. 
 
 From stage to stage in the course of study advaiice is 
 made as the result of some sort of inquiry as to the fitness 
 of the pupil to take up new studies or advanced work in 
 old studies. Such inquiry is called an examination, and 
 the advance is a promotion. Modern gradation of schools 
 furnishes an opportunity at longer or shorter intervals for 
 such inquiry and subsequent advance. 
 
 Theories of gradation have varied widely upon the 
 number of grades and upon the grouping of grades. 
 Primary group, Intermediate group, Grammar group, 
 High School group, represent the nomenclature of one 
 locality. Primary group. Grammar group. High School 
 group, represent another locality. Still another presents 
 Primary, Grammar, Intermediate and High School 
 groups. There is no absolute uniformity as to tlio 
 number of grades in each group. The cities of sev-
 
 76 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 eral of the central States liave adopted a plan of grada- 
 tion agreed upon by city superintendents of the larger 
 cities in these States. Three groups — Primary, Gram- 
 mar, and High School — appear. Each group embraces 
 four grades. Each grade is supposed to furnish work for 
 one year. The division, though somewhat arbitrary, has 
 this basis of reason : Primary work is quite largely oral 
 in character; grammar work is largely text-book work; 
 high-school work introduces a wider range of studies and 
 election between courses which lead to college, or to prac- 
 tical life deprived of the advantages which liberal educa- 
 tion confers. Work below the high school cultivates the 
 possibilities of hand, head, and heart that lie within the 
 child. Manual training, intellectual training, and moral 
 training are carried forward together and harmoniously. 
 As the child approaches the high-school stage, he under- 
 stands better his possibilities : he sees the parting of the 
 ways ; he chooses a line of study which ends in the shop, 
 the counting-house, the farm, or any of the ordinary in- 
 dustries, or the line which stretches on beyond the high 
 school into the college or professional school. If the 
 college be his choice, he sees there another parting of the 
 ways almost at the beginning of his course. Leadership 
 of men, and directive power in measures, are promised him 
 in one line ; leadership of men and directive power in 
 large industrial enterprises are his opportunities in another 
 line. During the high-school course his uplook is a con- 
 stant inspiration, as to the grammar-school pupil is the 
 high school and to the primary pupil the grammar grades. 
 The influence from above is pervasive and healthful. 
 There is danger that tlais healthful influence will be weak- 
 ened by too great rigidity of administration, too arbitrary 
 a severance of the parts of the system. From the primary 
 school through the college or the university a natural and
 
 GRADATION AND COURSES OF STUDY. 77 
 
 easy course is possible. Public-school men and college 
 men are understanding one another better, and the oneness 
 of their work is happily recognized in these latter days. 
 
 In the matter of course of study the superintendent 
 will find his hardest work in resisting the attempt to foist 
 everything upon the schools. 
 
 If some social need in the line of moral reform makes 
 its urgency felt, the press and the public school must be 
 arrayed for its removal. 
 
 " In loco paroitis " is a phrase which is doing incalcu- 
 lable harm in shifting burdens from the parent, now too 
 much relieved, upon the public school, already overbur- 
 dened. 
 
 The superintendent will act wisely who resists the 
 effort to put the whole task of education upon the school. 
 Home, school, and church share the responsibility with 
 the great educator, the public press. 'J'he school needs a 
 defender. The press will take care of itself. The home 
 needs spurring to activity. 
 
 The discussion of the place of " manual training " has 
 awakened a great interest. No person is better prepared 
 to speak upon this subject than he who is the father of 
 what are called " Manual Training Schools " in this coun- 
 try. Upon the course of study in one of these schools he 
 says, "It must evidently give a thorough training in 
 the lower mathematics, arithmetic, algebra, plane and 
 solid geometry. 
 
 " There will bo abundant ojiportunity to use the facts 
 and methods of arithmetic and geometry in the shops and 
 drawing-rooms ; but no familiarity with the facts, no fa- 
 cility in instrumental drawing, should obscure the value 
 of purely geometrical roasouing. As a rule, not one stu- 
 dent in five goes far enough in mathematics, ])ure and 
 applied, to make an intelligent use of his algebra ; never-
 
 78 SCnOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 theless, his knowledge of its elementary methods must be 
 full and clear. The elements of botany, chemistry, and 
 physics, including at least their phenomenal sides, and 
 some of the more obvious generalizations, should be thor- 
 oughly studied during the course at the Manual Training 
 School ; but in every case the laboratory method should be 
 used. Generalizations made by an author, for which no 
 sufHcient evidence is presented to the student, are of no 
 educational value. They are like assertions in history or 
 geography, which are to be taken on faith. Real objects, 
 experiments, and tests — I care not how familiar they may 
 be to the teacher — must give the student his basis for judg- 
 ment and generalization. Above all, I would advise teach- 
 ers to avoid putting their elementary students at really new 
 work, at strictly original research. All the ground should 
 be familiar to the teacher, and, though the pupil ap- 
 proaches it as a learner, as a discoverer of new truth, the 
 teacher should, as a rule, know what he ought to find. I 
 have no patience with premature researches and childish 
 inventions. I am inclined to think that chemistry is 
 easier to teach in a laboratory than physics, on account of 
 the latter's great demand for skill in manipulation and 
 construction in the physical laboratory. One must be 
 somewhat familiar with all work in woods and metals in 
 order to properly study physics. In future we shall put 
 our study of heat, electricity, sound, and light after the 
 study of chemistry, in order to give time for the tool- 
 training needed. 
 
 " In a technical school, students have little time for 
 history and literature, hence both should come systemat- 
 ically into the preliminary or manual training school. 
 The students are old enough to appreciate something of 
 style, and to tell good writing from bad. By conscious 
 imitation of good writers they readily see things clearly,
 
 GRADATION AND COURSES OF STUDY. 79 
 
 use language accurately when they know what the thought 
 is which they are to express, and they can easily master 
 the simple mechanical details of composition. American 
 and English history, and possibly some general European 
 history, should be learned early, and always with a certain 
 amount of geographical study. 
 
 " No technical student should be ignorant of the ele- 
 ments of Latin, and a fair reading command of at least 
 one modern language in addition to his own. 
 
 " Experience has shown that the drawing course can 
 be carried much further in the preparatory schools than 
 was formerly supposed possible. 
 
 " The elements of tool- work in woods and metals I 
 regard as eminently appropriate to the educational work 
 in the manual training school. It is admirably fitted to 
 meet the physical, mental, and moral natures of all healthy 
 boys from the age of thirteen to eighteen. 
 
 " I should say it with greater emphasis in reference to 
 those classical schools which afford so little opportunity 
 for dealing with the concrete and for getting primitive 
 notions of the laws and properties of matter and force."* 
 
 A careful review of the above quotation will disclose 
 the fact that " manual training " accepts with approval a 
 modern course of study, and adds thereto " tool-work in 
 wood and metals," after the elementary school-work lias 
 been completed, and pupils have passed thea(je of thirteen 
 years. 
 
 Mr. Woodward, in his further discussions, cnijdiasizes 
 this added feature, and attributes to it special educative 
 force. Upon this issue is joined. 
 
 The claim of superior educative force in tool-work as 
 
 * C. M. Woodward, National Educational Association, Proceed- 
 ings, 1888, p. 587.
 
 80 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 carried forward more or less prominently in connection 
 with mere scholastic Avork is met by one of the clearest 
 thinkers upon educational subjects of our time in the fol- 
 lowing manner : 
 
 " The ever-present argument of the economical view 
 of education calls attention to the fact that the great 
 majority of children are destined to earn their living by 
 manual labor. Hence, it is argued, the school ouglit to 
 prepare them for their future work. The scientific view, 
 that lays so much stress on the protraction of the period 
 of human infancy, is opposed to this demand for filling the 
 child's mind with premature care for this future drudg- 
 ery. In fact, this scientific doctrine has already been 
 anticipated by the humane Christian sentiment which 
 has founded public schools ; for there is a conviction deep- 
 seated in the minds of the people that all children ought 
 to be educated together in the humane studies that lie at 
 the basis of liberal culture. Just for the very reason that 
 the majority have before them a life of drudgery, the pe- 
 riod of childhood, in which the child has not yet become 
 of much pecuniary value for industry, shall be carefully 
 devoted to spiritual growth, to training the intellect and 
 will, and to building the basis for a larger humanity. 
 Such a provision commends itself as an attempt to com- 
 pensate in a degree for the inequalities of fortune and 
 birth. Society shall see to it that the child who can not 
 choose the family in which he shall be born, shall have 
 given him the best possible heritage fortune could bring 
 him, namely, an education that awakens him to the con- 
 sciousness of the higher self that exists dormant in him. 
 The common school shall teach him how to conquer for- 
 tune by industry and good habits and application of the 
 tools of thought. 
 
 " The education of the muscles of the hand and arm,
 
 GRADATION AND COUESES OF STUDY. 81 
 
 the training of the eye in accuracy, go for something in 
 the way of education, especially if these, too, are of a gen- 
 eral character, and productive of skill in many arts. But 
 it happens in most cases that the training of the muscles 
 for a special operation unfits them more or less for the 
 other special operations. 
 
 " The course of study in manual training, in so far as it 
 concerns the education of the hand, is limited to a narrow 
 circle of trades in the wood and metal ind ustries, and so far 
 as it is auxiliary to trades and occupations directly, it con- 
 cerns only one in twelve of the laborers actually employed 
 in the United States. Indirectly, as dealing especially with 
 the construction of machinery, it has a much wider appli- 
 cation, and all laborers who employ machines or tools of 
 any description will be benefited to a greater or less degree 
 by a course of manual training, and there is something edu- 
 cative in it for all who are to use machines. This is the most 
 important argument that can be urged by the advocates of 
 the manual training school in behalf of its educative value. 
 
 " No justice as yet has been done by the advocates of 
 manual training to the claims of industrial drawing as a 
 training for the hand and eye and the aesthetic sense. If 
 the pupil pursues this study by the analysis of the histori- 
 cal forms of ornament and acquires familiarity with grace- 
 ful outlines and a genuine taste for tlie creation of beauti- 
 ful and tasteful forms, he has done more toward satisfying 
 the economic problem of industry than he could do by 
 much mechanical skill. The great problem in the indus- 
 try of nations has come to be the aesthetic one — how to 
 give attractive and tasteful forms to productions so as to 
 gain and hold the markets of the world." * 
 
 * Report of conimiUoo at Wui Nushvillc meeting of the National 
 Council of Education, Proceedings, for 1889, p. 7(5. 
 7
 
 82 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 One more quotation will suffice : " The connection of 
 academic culture and the practical application of science 
 is advantageous to both in a school where these objects 
 are started together and carried on with harmony in equal 
 prominence. The academy inspires its intelligence into 
 the work of the shop ; and the shop, with eyes open to the 
 imi^rovements of productive industries, prevents the mo- 
 nastic dreams and shortness of vision that sometimes para- 
 lyze the profound learning of a college." * 
 
 The claim sometimes urged that tool-work should find 
 a place in all public schools does not find indorsement in 
 either of the quotations made. In large cities it is pos- 
 sible to establish a department for manual training in 
 tool-work. In every school, manual training should find a 
 place through industrial drawing, which cultivates eye and 
 hand for all purposes, and lays the foundation for success 
 in all kinds of mechanical pursuits to which the older 
 child is introduced in the " Manual Training School," the 
 " School of Technology," or the " Professional School " ; 
 while it is most helpful in every way to the child who fails 
 of opportunity to reach either. 
 
 Cultivation of the child's aesthetic nature through 
 drawing makes him a better citizen as things beautiful 
 attract him, and things naturally unattractive take on 
 beauty under his touch. His simple home is more attract- 
 ive in itself, in its surroundings. His homely duties are 
 performed in a more attractive and less burdensome way. 
 By all means make much of drawing in a course of study. 
 
 Systems of gradation and courses of study are needed 
 servants, but may become tyrannous masters. They are 
 servants to obey rather than to command. Their service 
 is determined by the need of their masters. The form of 
 
 * C. 0. Thompson, Journal of Education, vol. vi, p. 4.
 
 GRADATION AND COURSES OF STUDY. 83 
 
 service must vary with varying conditions. It must change 
 with every change in the work they are set to do. Any 
 course of study so crystallized as to involve its destruction 
 in an attempt to force it into new service is not at any 
 time suited to the want of a progressive community. 
 
 Our school machinery has come into public disfavor at 
 times because that which is well adapted to large cities has 
 been forced into service in smaller cities and towns where 
 very diverse conditions prevail. Because of this attempt to 
 imitate in minute details, failure has resulted. The gen- 
 eral principles of gradation and of a proper course of 
 study to correspond thereto are valuable, and under wise 
 modification in details — a modification which the peculiar 
 circumstances of the community require — are applicable 
 to nearly every community of moderate population. 
 
 Experience will dictate when changes are necessary. 
 The superintendent is the man to gather up the fruits of 
 experience and to advise the changes. Any " Manual of 
 Instruction " needs constant revision ; hence it should be 
 general in character, with wide margin for the discretion 
 of teachers. It should be considered as advisory rather 
 than prescriptive, assuming always that teachers have com- 
 mon sense and will pursue the natural order of studies — 
 will require no impossibilities, and will confine tliemselves 
 to the part of the work specially assigned them. This 
 may in some cases be a violent assum])ti()n. "Where it 
 proves itself such, there the superintendeut must direct 
 until his inexperienced teachers learn to " do by doing." 
 By slow degrees trust develops wisdom. The resignation 
 of the teacher should soon follow his demonstrated inabil- 
 ity to go alone. 
 
 No question regarding tlie course of study will so fre- 
 quently challenge the attention of superintendents as that 
 of its extent. Its elementary domain is thoroughly estab-
 
 84 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 lished ; but wlien an attempt is made to extend that do- 
 main, so that it may inchide other branches beyond those 
 of reading, writing, and arithmetic, in some quarters 
 strong opposition will be encountered. With what argu- 
 ments shall the superintendent fortify himself ? 
 
 1. He must disj^el the notion that high schools are a 
 modern invention. Before the modern gradation of 
 schools there was no line drawn between elementary 
 studies and higher studies. Physiology, astronomy, natu- 
 ral philosophy, and Latin were taught in the earlier pub- 
 lic schools, without a word of complaint from tax-payers. 
 Failure to employ teachers competent to give instruction 
 in higher branches was brought before the courts of Mas- 
 sachusetts in the year 1816. The jury in the lower courts 
 presented the town of Dedham for neglecting " the procur- 
 ing and supporting of a grammar-school master, of good 
 morals, and well instructed in the Latin, Greek, and Eng- 
 lish languages, to instruct children and youth in such 
 languages, which is in subversion of knowledge and in 
 hindrance of that promotion of education which the prin- 
 ciples of a free government require," etc. The Supreme 
 Court of the State sustained the finding of the court be- 
 low. (See Tyng's Massachusetts Reports, vol. xvi, p. 441.) 
 
 At another time, suit was brought to restrain the col- 
 lecting of a tax for the support of a high school in New- 
 buryj)ort, Mass. The court declares that " the schools 
 established by the town of Newburyport, though extend- 
 ing to instruction in branches of knowledge beyond those 
 required by the statutes, were yet town schools within the 
 proper meaning of that term, provided for the benefit of 
 all the inhabitants." (See Metcalf's Massachusetts Re- 
 ports, vol. X, p. 508.) 
 
 An Illinois Supreme Court decision declares that " the 
 General Assembly has invested school directors with the
 
 GRADATION AND COURSES OF STUDY. 85 
 
 power to compel the teaching of otlier and higher branches 
 than those enumerated to those willing to receive instruc- 
 tion therein, but has left it purely optional with parents 
 and guardians whether the children under their charge 
 shall study such branches." (Illinois Reports, vol. Ixxix, 
 p. 567.) 
 
 In 1880 another Illinois decision is to the effect that 
 the study of " German is permitted unless specially inhib- 
 ited." 
 
 The Supreme Court of Michigan holds that " neither 
 in our State policy, in our Constitution, nor in our laws, 
 do we find the j)rimary-school district restricted in the 
 branches of knowledge which their officers may cause to 
 be taught, or the grade of instruction that may be given, 
 if their voters consent in regular form to bear the expense 
 and raise the taxes for the purpose." (See Michigan Re- 
 ports, vol. XXX, p. 69.) 
 
 A pretty thorough search of State reports of all the 
 States of the Union has resulted in failure to find other 
 decisions upon this subject. Not one adverse decision ap- 
 pears. It may be noted that nowhere in the citations 
 made, except in the Illinois decision of 1880, does the 
 term " high school " appear. It was so obviously a part 
 of the common-school system as to need no special des- 
 ignation. The name came into use with the modern 
 gradation of schools, accompanying the division of labor 
 in our industrial world. The principle had existed and 
 the work had been done under the name of "common 
 schools " before gradation was established. No new thing 
 is introduced, but a new name. Change of name can not 
 certainly take away the right to exist. 
 
 2. Turning now to another point — tlie relation of our 
 common schools to our social and political systems — the 
 words of some of the most intelliffont of tlie framcrs of
 
 86 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 our republic are cited. Eeferences are made to the fol- 
 lowing : Jefferson's Letter to Colonel Yancey, January 1, 
 1816 ; Jefferson's Letter to Dr. Correa, November 25, 
 1817 ; Jefferson's Letter to Dr. Priestley, January 27, 1800 ; 
 Cadwallader Colden's Letter to Franklin, November, 1749 ; 
 Franklin's Letter to Samuel Johnson, August 23, 1750 ; 
 Washington's Farewell Address. 
 
 M. Buisson, French commissioner at the United States 
 Centennial Exposition of 1876, made a special study of 
 our school systems as they appear in many of the States 
 which he visited, and in an elaborate report made to the 
 French Government, he thus speaks of the American 
 high school : 
 
 " In other countries it is to be feared that the children 
 of different classes of society, although they may be 
 brought together for a time in the public school, will very 
 soon be found separated as widely as are their families in 
 the social scale. In America everything is done to retard 
 and reduce the degree of that separation, by carrying as 
 far and as high as possible that common instruction which 
 effaces all distinction between the rich and the poor. 
 Thus, do the two degrees of the j)ublic school render the 
 State diverse but equally important service. The one 
 gives to it an entire population knowing how to read and 
 write ; the other draws from this mass a select few whom 
 it endows with an intellectual capital sufficient to pay a 
 hundred times its cost. How is this selection made ? By 
 favor of public liberality which is a burden to none, 
 thousands of children — the best prepared for the battle of 
 life both by the example of their parents and by their own 
 struggles — come out of the mass of the poor, perhaps 
 indigent population, where otherwise they would remain 
 undistinguished, and year by year infuse new life into the 
 middle classes. If it be true that the prosperity of a re-
 
 GRADATION AND COURSES OF STUDY. 87 
 
 public is in direct ratio to the renewal of these middle 
 classes, to the abundance and facility of their indefinite 
 recruiting, then the high school of the United States, 
 whatever it may cost, is the best investment which can be 
 made of national capital." 
 
 This intelligent presentation is certainly free from all 
 bias. Upon the benefit to the State, from the elevation 
 of the middle classes ; from the possibilities opened to the 
 poor ; from the removal of all caste distinctions ; from the 
 feeling of independence which accompanies the gift in 
 the mind of the recii^ient; from the claim for service 
 which the State thus insures, rests a strong argument 
 in favor of the high school upon social and political 
 grounds. 
 
 Every child in the lower schools feels the influence of 
 the higher, and in striving after that which may be only 
 a possibility to him, he enlarges and strengthens his actual 
 attainments. 
 
 The right of the high school to exist does not imply 
 the right to complete absorj^tion of public interest, nor to 
 undue jirominence in public regard. 
 
 Local pride may lead to undue exaltation of the high 
 school, and the superintendent needs to be watchful in 
 behalf of the lower schools, the prime feature, but by no 
 means the only feature of pnl)lic instruction. 
 
 3. The economic argument needs enforcing: 
 
 " It is clear to all business men that a larger intelli- 
 gence, a sharper intellect, a better cultivated mind are 
 necessary to transact any kind of business successfully to- 
 day, to meet the intense competition, and to succeed in 
 any calling in life, than were required one, two, or three 
 generations ago. It is also apparent that a still larger in- 
 telligence, a sharper intellect, a better cultivated mind 
 will be necessary to attain equal success a generation
 
 88 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 hence than are found requisite to-day. If the foregoing 
 propositions are admitted, it will appear that the principal 
 aim of education is to discipline the mind and increase its 
 powers not merely as an instrument for an immediate end, 
 but especially as a means for more distant and, perhaps, 
 indirect results to follow : in short, that greater ability 
 and consequently greater success and usefulness may be 
 attained in life. 
 
 "Two things, then, would follow of necessity : 1. That 
 the business interests of the country require a large ad- 
 vance in the quality and completeness of school-work 
 over the past. 2. That to attain this result we must 
 improve the generally accepted curriculum of school 
 studies. 
 
 " From the first of these we infer that the high school 
 is necessary for the successful carrying out of the business 
 projects of the country ; and, from the second, that care- 
 ful attention should be given to arranging the most philo- 
 sophic, the wisest, and the best course of studies for a 
 high school, whose chief function is to prepare young 
 men for a business life." * 
 
 In the line of industrial pursuits, too, the high school 
 seems as great a necessity : 
 
 " In a body of students pursuing technological studies, 
 it is easy to detect the advantage those have who have 
 ' fitted for college,' as shown in power of concentrated at- 
 tention, quickness and accuracy of apprehension, dexterity 
 in speech, and general command of themselves. Now as 
 the high school is specially the boon of the great produc- 
 ing and manufacturing classes, and as technology draws 
 its main support from the same classes, it is reasonable 
 that such a relation should exist between the two as 
 
 * W. A. Mowry, Education, vol. iii, p. 167.
 
 GRADATION AND COURSES OF STUDY. 89 
 
 should enable all boys to attain the greatest possible ad- 
 vantage from both." * 
 
 Mr. C. 0. Thompson discusses the place of manual 
 training as beyond the lower grades, and suggests such a 
 curriculum for the high school as shall provide for tool- 
 work in wood and iron in alternation with studies in 
 algebra, geometry, trigonometry, drawing, science, and 
 English : 
 
 " Lacking the high school, the pupil of the lower 
 schools would lose a chief incentive to exertion. Build in 
 front of him at the very start of his career an impenetrable 
 wall barring all future progress, and the motive to activity 
 is gone. His life at once begins to shape itself to lower 
 aims, and he grows content to be a small creature. . . . 
 The course of study, too, for the lower schools is certain 
 to feel the influence of the high school. ... In forming 
 a curriculum for the lower schools, the liberal spirit be- 
 gotten of the high school is sure to furnish here and there 
 a new element, a germ of growth which shall develop with 
 the advancing civilization and culture of the community, 
 nay, rather shall be the chief cause of this advance in 
 civilization and culture. . . . 
 
 " But, perhaps, the influence of the high school upon 
 the lower schools is exerted most powerfully in providing 
 for them a class of teachers of a higher grade of qualifica- 
 tions than it was possible to secure under the former order 
 of things. . . . The high school can not give us profession- 
 ally trained teachers — the supplementary work of the 
 normal school is required for that — but it does give us 
 teachers whose views have been broadened and whose lovo 
 of knowledge has been deepened by some taste of a liberal 
 culture. . . . And this higher education of teachers, as a 
 
 * C. 0. Thompson, Education, vol. iii, p. 171.
 
 90 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 class, renders possible the successful introduction into the 
 lower schools — especially into the primary department — 
 of those improved methods of instruction which have 
 lifted teaching from something less than an empiric art to 
 the level of a science, and are doing more than any other 
 agency to make knowledge loved by the whole people. . . . 
 It may be stated as an educational axiom that intelligent 
 methods can be applied by intelligent teachers only. 
 Machine methods are necessary wherever machine teachers 
 are employed." *• 
 
 The historic and the economic arguments thus adduced 
 should press home upon every superintendent the convic- 
 tion that no system of instruction is complete when the 
 primary and grammar grades have been provided for. 
 
 The college and the university founded by public ap- 
 preciation of their necessity fail largely of their purpose 
 unless provision be made for the better preparation of 
 students than elementary schools can furnish. The in- 
 termediate stage 7nay be provided for by private enter- 
 prise. But, as the State does establish schools for higher 
 instruction, as well as those for elementary instruction, it 
 would certainly be a mark of the highest unwisdom to 
 erect a structure of two stories in height and then expect 
 private funds to be lavished in erection of a stairway. 
 Nor can the university be burdened with this preparatory 
 work. It is too expensive, and then fails to reach those 
 whose means do not permit them to add the cost of board 
 away from home to the incidental expenses of long travel 
 to and from the college or the State university. Home 
 influences are much needed in character-building at the 
 time of study preparatory for a collegiate course. The 
 
 * John Hancock, School Commissioner of Ohio, Education, vol. 
 iii, p. 164.
 
 PROMOTIONS AND EXAMINATIONS, 91 
 
 high school is a home school of great yahie to those wlio 
 seek a Hberal education in the college and university, but 
 of greater value still to those whose conditions forbid the 
 use of facilities for liberal culture, biit whose ambition 
 should be gratified by a taste of the earlier fruits of such 
 a culture. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PROMOTIOXS AXD EXAMIN-ATIGKS. 
 
 One method of administration places the several grades, 
 as it were, in a series of rooms adjoining, but separated by 
 a wall in Avhich is a closed door. Once a year the door is 
 opened for the passage of those who are provided with 
 cards bearing the requisite percentage mark, and then 
 closed for another year. To obtain these cards is the sole 
 aim of the children, who think only of release from one 
 cell and of admission to another, which they hope may 
 prove more attractive, but of whose attractions they have no 
 knowledge. They are not lured upward and onward. They 
 are goaded by the dread of continuance for another year 
 in the room which has lost all its attractions for them. 
 Wise supervision has succeeded in opening the doors more 
 frequently. Wiser supervision has rested less ui)on cards 
 of admission bearing percentage marks, and more upon 
 cards of merit obtained fi'om watchful and loving teach- 
 ers. Wisest supervision has removed tbe doors entirely, 
 so that constantly a stream of influence flows downward, 
 arousing a healthful ambition, inspiring self-activity, and 
 furnishing a worthy motive for advance, and, in response 
 to this influence, there is a steady movement of jiii])ils
 
 92 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 upward. Another illustration is pertinent. Instead of a 
 succession of terraces, upon each of which the child re- 
 mains until he has acquired sufficient strength to leap at 
 a bound from it to the next above, or, failing, falls back 
 to go over his work of preparation for another trial — the 
 superintendent will provide an inclined plane up which 
 the child will pass as rapidly as his strength will i^ermit, 
 encouraged by each step forward, no matter how short it 
 may be. Teachers stand beside this plane in regular work, 
 seeking the advancement of all, but passing on to the 
 hand of the next above, one by one, the little ones who 
 have profited most by instruction, or who, by reason of 
 natural aptitudes or home help, have developed the greater 
 strength. The current thus started onward will need 
 little special attention from the teacher. Those who are 
 caught in the eddies at the sides are proper subjects for 
 special effort on the part of the teacher until they are 
 pushed into the current, and are thus moved along natu- 
 rally and easily. Supervision of a teacher's work will be 
 directed largely to what is done for those that hug the 
 shore. While it is true that economy demands class or- 
 ganization and instruction, it must be remembered that 
 the class remains though its membership changes. The 
 class moves on from stage to stage in the course of study, 
 deflected here and there into eddies or projecting its more 
 rapid current into the class above, receiving here those 
 delayed in the passage of its predecessor, and there from 
 the more rapidly moving pupils of the class succeeding. 
 The superintendent meanwhile encourages all changes 
 consistent with regulated ambition, and guards against 
 the detention of favorites or the crowding to the side of 
 those whose peculiarities do not win the teacher's regard. 
 The superintendent will see that the utmost mobility pre- 
 vails. With him individual promotions will be of very
 
 PKOMOTIONS AND EXAMINATIONS. 93 
 
 frequent occurrence ; class promotions in accordance with 
 the strength of the current. Along the shore at intervals 
 will be found landmarks which classes will observe by an 
 examination which shall quicken their zeal, inform their 
 judgment, give occasion to detect errors that they may be 
 corrected, determine the result of past correction, and give 
 sensible tokens of progress. 
 
 Motion is universally acceptable to the human race. 
 Motion forward is specially pleasurable, even though land- 
 marks must be studied to make it observable. To the 
 race all days are alike, but to the individual there are days 
 marked by a red line. In the child's calendar the pro- 
 motion days are red-lined days. Promotions, technically 
 so called, should not be discarded. Preparation for them 
 is exhilarating, success is refreshing, and even failure is 
 not without its healthful influence. Their value, how- 
 ever, is impaired when they are made the end of all effort. 
 Nor should promotions occur at certain set times prede- 
 termined. Especially harmful will prove the policy of 
 making promotions synchronous witli the end of a school 
 year. Under such a system indolence prevails at the be- 
 ginning of the year and cramming at the end. Just 
 when, as a result of faithful work, teachers and children 
 alike need lessened rather than increased burdens, the 
 system of annual examinations and promotions at the end 
 of the year will wear out both teachers and children in 
 mind and body. In every large system of schools the rank 
 of classes should be such that the whole fiehl of study is 
 under cultivation at all times. There should be no gaps 
 of a year's length at any stage of the child's progress — 
 least of all in the earlier stages — over whicli none can leap, 
 and which prove discouraging to the pupil lacking in 
 physical strength or in mental grasp. T'hc opportunity 
 for advancement by a series of short steps encourages to
 
 94 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 rapid promotion, and the feeling tliat a little lost time 
 does not put a pupil back out of siglit of his former class- 
 mates gives him a hope of regaining his lost place. The 
 superintendent's ideal should be a stream flowing steadily 
 with its particles mobile, ready to glide forward or to slip 
 backward a little if the force of circumstances so decree. 
 Within the system there should be facilities adapted to 
 the ability of the more forward and to the need of the 
 less gifted. The work of a grade should be fitted to the 
 capacity of the average pupil. Subdivision of the grade 
 into classes is desirable, the number of such classes lessen- 
 ing as the pupil advances in the course of study. This 
 subdivision makes the work of the teacher more effective, 
 as the number in class is smaller. It is beneficial to the 
 pupil, since the time upon any one exercise is shortened, 
 coming within the limit of a child's ability to fix his at- 
 tention, and it provides for frequent changes in the exer- 
 cises of the school-room ; it cultivates also the habit of 
 abstraction in the child, who can engage in one kind of 
 work at his desk while another exercise of a different char- 
 acter is carried on in the same room. This ability is of 
 no small account to the child, and can not be cultivated 
 where the attention of the entire room is engaged con- 
 stantly upon the same work. General exercises suited to 
 all, and best conducted when all pai'ticipate, will relieve 
 monotony and serve as a temporary release from confine- 
 ment to class-work upon the floor, or slate-work at the 
 seats. Four classes in each of the lowest grades furnish 
 an excellent opportunity for a varied programme which 
 will weary neither teacher nor pupil. This will allow ex- 
 ercises of from ten to fifteen minutes each, and will pro- 
 vide for the completion of the work belonging to that 
 grade for the day. As pupils advance in years, and can 
 endure longer exercises without weariness, the number of
 
 PROMOTIONS AND EXAMINATIONS. 95 
 
 classes may be reduced uutil in the high school there 
 need be no subdivision of the grade. Promotions are thus 
 made possible more frequently, where they are most needed 
 as a stimulus. Promotion from class to class in grade is 
 as inspiring to little children as that from grade to grade 
 is to older pupils. 
 
 In no part can the superintendent's work be more 
 sensibly felt than in the ojaportunity furnished him for 
 promotion of pupils. In concert with teachers, who are 
 guarded against the danger of looking to high percentage 
 as evidence of their success, or in the exercise of his own 
 rights whenever he sees it to be for the good of the child, 
 he will make a wise use of the power lodged in the pro- 
 motion of the pupil. He will not judge his teachers, as 
 has been before remarked, by the numbers promoted in 
 any given time, but by the spirit with which those pro- 
 moted pursue their course. 
 
 Machinery may be made to work so smoothly as to 
 hide itself in the excellence of the work done, or it may 
 by its noisy clatter call attention to its own inefficiency. 
 Promotions are part of school machinery, of which the 
 superintendent is in large measure both maker and en- 
 gineer. Promotions must be made after some general 
 plan whose features are well understood. Examinations 
 are a necessary part of a plan of promotions. 
 
 Examination of pupils has a threefold purpose : 1. To 
 stimulate pupils. 3. To enlighten teachers. 3. To aid in 
 classification and promotion of pupils. A brief discussion 
 of these points will indicate the superintendent's relation 
 thereto, as well as the extent of his participation therein, 
 
 1. Healthful stimulus is found in consciousness of 
 progress. This knowledge is attainable in cither of two 
 ways — by comparison of one's present with his past, or 
 by comparison of himself with others. A properly con-
 
 96 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 ducted examinatiou of classes of pupils furnishes oppor- 
 tunity for both comparisons. By one he ascertains the 
 fact of progress ; by the other its rate. This comparison 
 of the present with the past — of the I with the You — is 
 observable in all human experiences. The frequent rec- 
 ords made of the weight and height of the babe ; the ex- 
 act progress of dentition ; the account kept of progress 
 through the range of infantile diseases ; the observance of 
 birthday anniversaries ; the frequent consultations of the 
 clock or the watch ; the study of mile-posts on a journey ; 
 the daily balancing of cash accounts; the yearly accounts 
 of stock — are a few analogues to school examinations. 
 Those which pertain to the work of mature life serve as a 
 stimulus to continued or to modified effort ; to greater 
 care in management ; to a cheerful and hopeful endurance 
 of fatigue inseparable from successful pursuit of a worthy 
 end. The light of a long-sought harbor has a wonderful 
 cheer for the storm-tossed voyager, but before that light 
 can be seen the log of the mariner will give knowledge of 
 progress. The child looks not quite so eagerly for the end 
 of his school life, for the present is to him all-absorbing. 
 If the present shows a change from time to time, and al- 
 ways in one direction, the child takes heart for further 
 effort, until the future shall come to have some attraction 
 for him, and he shall be stimulated to complete what he 
 entered upon with little thought of anything but the ac- 
 complishment of his present task. As he finds himself 
 standing to-day where an older brother or some loved 
 friend stood but a little time since, his desire to do what 
 another has done gives vigor to his efforts. These oppor- 
 tunities for marking progress are within the control of 
 the teacher. They are too often mere arbitrary tests with- 
 out reference to fitness as to time or character. Some one 
 else has used the questions proposed, and, selected in ad-
 
 PROMOTIONS AND EXAMINATIONS. 97 
 
 vance, the teaclier unconsciously bends her efforts at 
 instruction whither these questions lead. The results 
 reached show rather how much cramming can accomplish 
 than how much mental food has been assimilated, or how 
 much strength of a permanent character has been at- 
 tained. At this point supervision can be made effective. 
 The superintendent needs to have the greatest measure of 
 wisdom. His spirit will control examinations even if he 
 be not present. In his rounds of observation he can not 
 fail to suggest to teachers that which will modify their 
 instruction. Even the most independent teacher will con- 
 sult the chart of his wishes. The hobby of the superin- 
 tendent, if he has one, is at once mounted by the teacher. 
 It is possible for the superintendent, by a single examina- 
 tion or by the furnishing of a single list of questions, to 
 direct the whole course of instruction for a year to follow. 
 The direct examination of pupils by a superintendent 
 (unless in cases where the offices of principal and super- 
 intendent are combined) should not be frequent nor at 
 regular intervals. When attempted it should cover the 
 whole range of study, without giving undue prominence 
 to any one branch. It sliould require a knowledge of 
 principles rather than of special illustrative examples. 
 The questions should be so framed as to be easily under- 
 stood by the pupils who have been proi)erly taught, free 
 from all ambiguity, and displaying rather the good sense 
 than the knowledge of the examiner. A superintendent's 
 examination should be directed rather to the judgment 
 than to the memory of the child. Questions can be so 
 framed as to call for opinions rather than facts. The 
 teacher's examination calls for facts more than for opinions ; 
 but proper instruction will also strongtlien the i)upirs 
 judgment, encourage him to think for himself, and to 
 form his own opinions upon subjects contained in his tcxt- 
 8
 
 98 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 books. The frequent examination by teachers will test 
 memory — the rarer examination by the superintendent 
 will measure mental grasp. In marking results, also, dif- 
 ferent courses will be pursued. Where facts alone are 
 called for, there can be but one correct answer to the ques- 
 tion. The possibility of different answers arises with the 
 call for opinions. The opinion expressed may not agree 
 with that of the examiner ; it may be very crude, perhaps 
 without good foundation ; but the effort on the part of the 
 pupil to formulate such an opinion, with some basis upon 
 which it may rest, will not be without a stimulating 
 effect. Facts have been held in the memory. Their rela- 
 tive importance has been weighed. The result of com- 
 parison has been expressed, and a new sensation has been 
 awakened in the mind. The child's effort is not to recall 
 what another has said, so much as to recall what imj)res- 
 sion the statement left upon his own mind. The teach- 
 er's examination reviews a small portion of text-book 
 work. The superintendent's examination covers a wider 
 field, and fastens upon the child's mind the connection 
 between its parts. For illustration : A class in geograj^hy 
 is examined by the teacher upon the soil, productions, 
 etc., of a particular State. The superintendent inquires 
 into the occupations of the people, with special reference 
 to the exchange of products upon the basis of profit to 
 each ; into the best channels for such exchange ; as to 
 what locality one would seek whose tastes were in a cer- 
 tain line of industry, as agriculture or manufactures of 
 various kinds — wood, metal, wool, flax, cotton, etc. ; as to 
 the disposal of surplus products; as to the best market 
 for wheat, for coal, for woolen goods, for sleighs, etc. In 
 history, tlie teacher calls for facts of single discoveries ; 
 the superintendent for results of different discoveries 
 upon our national character: the teacher for results of
 
 PROMOTIONS AND EXAMINATIONS. 99 
 
 single campaigns ; the superintendent for the most impor- 
 tant campaign of a series : the teacher recalls character- 
 istics of individual generals, statesmen, inventors ; the su- 
 perintendent asks for the pupil's opinion as to the most 
 prominent of all. In arithmetic, the teacher asks liow^ 
 the superintendent rather wliy — one calling for solution 
 of examples, the other for statement of principles : the 
 teacher confines himself to illustrative examples ; the su- 
 perintendent more to principles illustrated. Of course, 
 the superintendent's work will be of no avail unless the 
 teacher's instruction has prepared the pupil for it. The 
 efficient teacher will also engage in occasional examina- 
 tions after the pattern adopted by the superintendent ; but 
 the superintendent can not afford to spend his time upon 
 the minute work proper for the teacher, unless in indi- 
 vidual cases he distrusts the teacher's accuracy in details, 
 and desires to learn through the pupils what defects exist. 
 In another direction does the examination stimulate 
 the pupil, when it is made, as it should be, a source of in- 
 struction as well as a testing process. This result appears 
 when the examination becomes a recitation of general 
 character covering ground already passed over, without 
 attempting to make comparison in percentages, but rather 
 for the purpose of ascertaining what have been tlie teach- 
 er's failures in instruction of the class or of individuals in 
 the class. Here it may be said that much work called ex- 
 amination is a mere testing process. It is like attempt- 
 ing to pump water from an empty ^cistern. There is a 
 hope that, while the teacher has consciously neglected to 
 open the supply-pipe, tlio pupil has in some way remedied 
 the neglect. The wisdom of the child who daily dug up 
 his seed, that he might observe its germination and know 
 something of the prospect of fruit, may be questioned, but 
 it will bear a favorable comparison with that of the teacher
 
 100 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 who is constantly conducting " test examinations." The 
 best teachers make of every recitation an examination in 
 its truest sense. Such examine themselves more than 
 their pupils. The questions they put to themselves are : 
 " What end shall I seek in this day's lesson ? " " What 
 means shall I use in attainment of that end ? " " What 
 contributed most to the success or failure of yesterday ? " 
 " What have I reason to expect of my pupils as the result 
 of their known ability ? " 
 
 If the teacher will subject himself to such an examina- 
 tion, and abide by the decision following such a test, the 
 nature and value of examination of pupils need never be 
 discussed. The classes of such a teacher will ever have 
 sufficient stimulus. 
 
 2. The best teachers desire to know their faults in in- 
 struction. Indifferent teachers need to have their faults 
 flashed into their faces. The examination by the teacher 
 will secure the first result — that by the superintendent the 
 last. The theory that " we learn to do by doing " is just 
 as applicable to teachers as to pupils. It is far more im- 
 portant that the theory be realized in the case of the 
 teacher than in that of the pupil. The examination will 
 show how much the teacher has profited by the oppor- 
 tunity of doing. 
 
 Many examinations would become far more effective 
 than they are if the teacher would read between the lines 
 of the pupil's manuscript his own failure in instruction. 
 If he will put a percentage upon his own work and profit 
 by the information thus gained, he will increase the per- 
 centage upon the future work of the pupil. 
 
 But, after all, the teacher is a partial judge of his own 
 work as it appears in his pupil's papers. He may too 
 readily pass his defects over to his pupils, and the super- 
 intendent needs the evidence which such papers afford.
 
 PROMOTIONS AND EXAMINATIONS. IQl 
 
 It is possible tliat disheartened teachers may be encour- 
 aged, as well as careless teachers rebuked, by an examina- 
 tion of pupils. The benefit of such knowledge to the 
 superintendent can not be overestimated. 
 
 3. Examination as an aid to promotion. At this point 
 we meet the greatest difficulty in the administration of 
 school affairs. Examinations appear too frequently as the 
 end of school-work rather than as a means to an end. So 
 prominent has been the error and so ruinous its acceptance 
 that wise men are tending to an opposite extreme — that of 
 doing away with formal examinations for promotion of pu- 
 pils, and relying upon the judgment of their teachers, with 
 the possibility of the return of those once passed, if their 
 promotion shall be found upon trial to have been premature. 
 A danger lies here. No teacher wishes to run the risk of 
 having his judgment proved a failure. His pupils will 
 therefore be retained longer than is wise, so that prepara- 
 tion for the next grade may be assured. Another danger 
 is found in the fact that the human nature prominent in 
 teachers will lead to a hasty judgment of pupils sent up, 
 who, by reason of timidity under new surroundings, fail 
 to do themselves justice upon trial. Becoming objects of 
 distrust, these pupils are at still greater disadvantage. 
 Promotion without some examination should not pre- 
 vail, for both teacher's and pupil's sake. The judgment 
 of the superintendent should accord with that of the 
 teacher. The superintendent's judgment must rest upon 
 some sort of an examination — an examination into the 
 pupil's capacity, into his surroundings, and into the possi- 
 bilities which a change may develop. 
 
 In most of our large systems of schools the principal 
 of each school is responsible for promotion of pupils within 
 the range of his own work. A series of ])romotions tlirougii 
 all the grades of his school will give him the ground upon
 
 102 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 which to base his Judgment when from the highest grade 
 his pujjils pass to the next school above. In this next 
 school, made up of representatives of several lower schools, 
 the comparative merits of the principals below will be 
 tested. Conscious of this, they may err in too great 
 stringency of demand upon their pupils, and withhold 
 promotion from some who are worthy, but of whose ability 
 to maintain the reputation of their school the principal is 
 not quite as sure as he would like to be. For those who 
 are not up to the standard of the principal's judgment 
 the superintendent provides an examination. Fearing 
 that the results of this examination may not sustain his 
 judgment, the principal will ordinarily give the pupil the 
 benefit of any doubt. 
 
 The result will be the almost certain promotion of en- 
 tire classes. But the difficulty is not entirely solved even 
 then ; for the classes appearing as candidates for pro- 
 motion will have been subjected to a weeding process at 
 an earlier stage. The superintendent, with no motive for 
 the greater success of one principal than that of another, 
 needs to look carefully into the possible abuses of any 
 system of promotion. If he adopts the policy of a uni- 
 form examination, he will find the ambition of principals 
 lying in the line of high percentages, and the weeding 
 process will help toward the end of their ambition. In 
 examination of pupils there is danger that markings rest 
 more upon language, which may be repeated from mem- 
 ory, than upon understanding of principles ; more upon 
 words than upon ideas ; more upon words as they are 
 comprehended by the pupil than upon words properly 
 placed. In the author's experience, an examination was 
 once held upon the organs and processes of digestion. 
 One child gave a very clear statement of the organs and 
 the products of digestion, closing with this remarkable
 
 PROMOTIONS AND EXAMINATIONS. 103 
 
 sentence : " Thus the food died yesterday." Any one who 
 will pronounce the last two words hurriedly will note 
 their similarity in sound to " digested it." Not another 
 mistake appeared, but this was enough to show an utter 
 misconception of the subject taught. 
 
 Of an exactly opposite nature was another examina- 
 tion. The question was asked of a lad, " What use does 
 the elej)hant make of his trunk?" His reply was, "He 
 uses it to transfer his food to his mouth." " Transfer ! " 
 says the examiner, " what can that mean ? " " Trans- 
 port," says the lad. The manner of the examiner con- 
 veyed to the mind of the lad the impression that he did 
 not yet understand. After a ' moment's hesitation, and 
 with evident disgust at the examiner's stupidity, he 
 speaks, somewhat sharply, the word " carry," his whole 
 manner saying, what his politeness would have prevented 
 his uttering, " Can you understand that 9 " The lad un- 
 derstood what he had been told, and had more than one 
 form for the expression of his idea. If he were to re- 
 ceive one hundred upon his first answer, what mark 
 had he earned at the close of the conversation? — one 
 which all will agree would lead to his promotion in lan- 
 guage. 
 
 One other illustration. Listening to a class of little 
 ones who had nearly completed the priiuer, the visitor 
 asked the privilege of reading a few selections from the 
 book. Occasionally a word was miscalled, but a glance 
 at the class revealed the fact that it was instantly de- 
 tected. The class had been taught not to laugli at mis- 
 takes. Repression of such a disi)()sition was nuinifest all 
 along the line. After the visitor liud retired, one little 
 miss self-approvingly said to her teachrr, " I did not laugh 
 at that big man when he did not know anything." 'J'lio 
 depth of the visitor's sorrow on heai'ing that such an
 
 104 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 opinion of his reading was held by a child, led him to 
 mark the class perfect. 
 
 " But the great remedy for the particular evil under 
 consideration is intelligent, flexible supervision. Suj^er- 
 vision is of doubtful worth when it exhausts itself on the 
 mere mechanism of a school system. It must, of course, 
 secure uniformity and system ; but these may be attained 
 without grooving the teacher's instruction or sacrificing 
 his professional freedom and progress. To tliis end the 
 superintendent must be qualified to instruct, inspire, and 
 lead teachers in the work of professional improvement, 
 and his supervision must be flexible enough to allow free 
 investigation and experiment." * 
 
 In nothing will the flexibility of the superintendent's 
 plan appear so prominent as in the provision he makes 
 for passing pupils from grade to grade. To the judgment 
 of teachers whose intelligence he has tested under the 
 largest liberty consistent with the execution of a general 
 plan, he may commit the promotion of individual puj^ils, 
 and, in many cases, of entire classes. This is specially 
 applicable to the later grades of a course, for, as classes 
 advance from grade to grade, each step secures a greater 
 degree of imiformity of attainment, due to greater regu- 
 larity in attendance and to the more general influence of 
 motives to advancement. The exceptional cases of brill- 
 iant or of slow-moving minds bear a less proportion to 
 the entire class. Supervision, if it has been effective at 
 all, will have secured a better acquaintance with both 
 teachers and pupils, and will have corrected the tendency 
 to run in grooves. The less frequent calling for results 
 permits the greater freedom to the teacher in the appli- 
 
 * E. E. White, Proceedings of the National Educational Associa- 
 tion, 1876, p. Gl.
 
 PROMOTIONS AND EXAMINATIONS. 105 
 
 cation of methods of instruction. The superintendent's 
 personal knowledge of the capacity of individual pupils 
 increases as he watches their movement forward from year 
 to year. In cases where few teachers are employed, this 
 knowledge may be so full as to render examinations for 
 promotion unnecessary. Where there are many schools 
 in a system, promotions are generally made by the princi- 
 pal of each individual school, who becomes superintendent, 
 for the time being, within his own jurisdiction, and for 
 the single purpose of advancing the pupils pro|)erly 
 through the grades supervised. 
 
 But in such cases it occurs that pupils from different 
 schools are classed together in a higher school. It is de- 
 sirable that they shall possess equal attainments — not in 
 name, but in fact. Various judgments will have been 
 passed upon those promoted — as various as the diverse 
 views of the several principals regarding the completion 
 of a course. Some will have driven their pupils over the 
 course ; their work will have been superficial, their tests 
 technical, their reliance upon percentages indicating the 
 result of cramming rather than of training Others will 
 have trained their pupils throiir/h the course; their tests 
 will have been of strength rather than of knowledge, 
 their reliance upon power of continuance rather than u])ou 
 single bursts of speed. 
 
 It needs no argument to prove that pupils so dilTer- 
 ently taught and judged will not work well together in an 
 advanced class. There is but one remedy for the evil, 
 which is sure : it is the unification of the work of difTcr- 
 ent principals, bringing all to feel that power in tlie })upil 
 is not always represented by figures. Much may bo done 
 toward this unification of effort by means of the sujierin- 
 tendent's frequent conferences with the i)rincii)als. l>ut 
 after all the theorizing before an association, he can
 
 106 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 only determine the practical results by such an inspection 
 of their work as a common examination will afford — an 
 examination of such a character as shall present, in ques- 
 tions prepared, the outcome of his theorizing, A single 
 test may suffice for several years if it may be made to 
 cover the entire ground traversed by the classes presented 
 for promotion. This test will be of incalculable advan- 
 tage as a means of instruction to teachers. 
 
 An important question presents itself at this point for 
 consideration. Shall examinations be written or oral ? 
 
 A written examination can be made more uniform, 
 unless the oral method be conducted as an individual ex- 
 amination. This necessarily involves much more time on 
 the part of the examiner while the questioning process 
 goes on, but releases him from trying labor in looking 
 over manuscripts. The reaction from excessive wi'itten 
 work in our schools of all grades which has characterized 
 the mechanical handling of school-work may lead to an 
 opposite extreme equally harmful. 
 
 School life is preparatory to active life in which the 
 tongue will not be the only instrument for reaching the 
 minds of others whom we would influence. Ability to 
 convey thought to the mind through the eye is of equal 
 importance with that of using the ear as the channel of 
 communication. Practice in writing is as valuable to the 
 cliild as practice in oral expression. As a stimulus to 
 the child, therefore, written recitations should be required. 
 Written examinations follow naturally in the same line. 
 The mental ability of the child is determined by the 
 clearness with which he states the results of his stud}-. 
 The two modes of expression, writing and speech, are of 
 equal value. The mind active should avail itself of both, 
 and the mind recipient is reached through both eye and 
 ear. The child who can easily tell all that he knows must
 
 PROMOTIONS AND EXAMINATIONS. 107 
 
 be reminded that at times those whom he would influence 
 are beyond the reach of his voice. The child who can use 
 the pen of a ready writer, and who finds his fingers more 
 trusty than his tongue, must be reminded that his influ- 
 ence over men will sometimes depend entirely upon his 
 ability " to think upon his feet." As the examination is 
 an agency for the preparation of the child for the pursuits 
 of the man, both modes of address must be cultivated, that 
 more than one channel of influence may be open to him. 
 
 Since much depends in the child's mind upon his suc- 
 cess in examination, especially when promotion is the end, 
 it is proper that the road to success should be made as 
 easy as possible. This can be accomplished by allowing 
 choice of vehicle or change upon the route. 
 
 Thus far examinations are rather influenced by the 
 superintendent than conducted by him. His work is in- 
 direct, but none the less positive. 
 
 The time comes, however, when the superintendent 
 may properly conduct an examination, for promotion of 
 pupils, in person. Every one familiar with school- work is 
 aware that under the most favorable forms of examina- 
 tion some pupils "fail to pass." Failure may be due to 
 excessive anxiety or to indilTerence, or to certain physical 
 conditions at the time prevailing. Such pupils remain as 
 partly burned coal sifted out for replacement in the fur- 
 nace, depending upon the new material about them for 
 their complete conversion. There is greater likelihood of 
 their becoming " clinkers," growing by accretion as they 
 check the draught and prevent complete consumption of 
 the matter about them. No elTort of the teacher can bring 
 them to glow under the heat applied. The size of tiiis 
 element increases with successive sifting processes, and it 
 comes about that an entire class assumes the character of 
 clinkers. The mass must be broken up. The superin-
 
 108 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 tendent may take such a class out of the hands of a dis- 
 couraged teacher, and, without the paraphernalia of an ex- 
 amination which has become such a bugbear in the eyes 
 of those often tried thereby, he can take out the parts 
 which retain still some calorific properties, and placing 
 them under new conditions, amid new surroundings, 
 bring heart into their work and success in future trials. 
 Even those who have not natural capacity for compassing 
 the entire work assigned them may be passed on with a 
 good degree of success in some parts of the work, and, un- 
 der the stimulus of this partial success, they gain some 
 strength and courage to attempt greater tasks. 
 
 The best work of a superintendent will be found in 
 his examinations of drift-wood, which by careful manipu- 
 lation on his part may be pushed into the current and 
 moved along by its force. At least he may help teachers 
 in this direction, and secure the great end — the child's 
 advance. 
 
 The gi'eat danger lies in too much attention to class 
 work, and not enough to the individual. 
 
 Mechanism is essential, but it may become the end of 
 effort rather than a means to an end. 
 
 " As a mechanism, it demands that pupils of the same 
 grade attend school with regularity, and that they possess 
 equal attainments, equal mental capacity, equal home as- 
 sistance and opportunity, and that they be instructed by 
 teachers possessing equal ability and skill. But this uni- 
 formity does not exist. . . . This want of uniformity in 
 conditions makes the mechanical operation of the system 
 imperfect ; and hence its tendency is to force uniformity, 
 thus sacrificing its true function as a means of education 
 to its perfect action as a mechanism. This is the inherent 
 tendency of the system when operated as a machine, and 
 hence the great difficulty in administering it so as to re-
 
 PROMOTIONS AND EXAMINATIONS. 109 
 
 press this Procrustean tendency and secure a necessary 
 degree of uniformity without ignoring or forcibly reducing 
 differences in pupils and teachers." * 
 
 To question well is the best evidence of mastery of the 
 subject. If it is the desire of the examiner to ascertain 
 the pupil's knowledge, it may sometimes be learned better 
 by assigning to the pupil the duty of questioning. As 
 Bacon tersely says, " Prudens qiiaestio, dimidium scien- 
 tiae.''^ The better half, too, it may be said. " It tests 
 knowledge, it teaches method, promptitude, self-reliance. 
 It demands accuracy and fullness of memory, concen- 
 trated attention, and the power to shape and arrange our 
 thoughts." f This quotation is applied to the usual form 
 of an examination, but it is equally applicable to the form 
 of examination proposed. Mutual questionings and an- 
 swerings by pupils may at times serve the best purpose of 
 examination. 
 
 Examinations " fail to test moral qualities. They do 
 not tell whether the action of mind has been rajiid or 
 sluggish, nor how far the pupil has been inlluenccd by a 
 sense of duty or by a strong interest in his work." \ 
 
 An examination conducted by a superintendent must 
 differ essentially from that conducted by a teacher in that 
 he is not familiar with the exact ground covered by the 
 teacher or with the relative thoroughness required in dif- 
 ferent parts of the work, nor with the relative stress laid 
 upon parts of the text studied. No two teachers will agree 
 upon the most important parts of a topic under illustra- 
 tion in their teaching — and as a superintendent's examina- 
 tions extend beyond the walls of a single room and involve 
 
 * E. E. White. Proceedings of the National Educational Asso- 
 ciation, 1874. p. 2r,5. 
 
 f Fitch's Lectures, p. 174. % 1'''<1-' I'- ^'^'7-
 
 110 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 a comparison of the work of different teachers, it is de- 
 sirable that lie meet these conditions in framing his ques- 
 tions. To this end he should present more questions than 
 he requires to be answered, and allow pupils to choose the 
 number that will satisfy his demands. Six out of ten, ten 
 out of fifteen, or some proportion of this sort, will suffice. 
 
 But one caution is needed : the questions should be so 
 framed as to present topics of equal importance in the 
 subject ; and of equal value in results attained, so that the 
 selections made by pupils can not evade important points 
 and yet will suit best their relative ability. No credit 
 should be given for answers beyond the required number, 
 so that thoroughness rather than extent of work shall be 
 the measure of success. 
 
 Another feature possible and desirable is found in one 
 exercise in which the pupil may take all the time he needs 
 to consult authorities. It will test his readiness and skill 
 in using references — a very important element in a proper 
 education. Still another exercise will test the pupil's 
 ready command of knowledge, his facility in expression, 
 his self-control under limitations of subject and of time. 
 It is an impromptu discussion for a half-hour of some 
 theme which has engaged the pupil's thought in the 
 course of his study now under review. This exercise 
 should be brief and exact as to time of beginning and 
 ending. 
 
 By all means avoid ruts in examinations by variety in 
 methods, otherwise ruts will be very deeply worn by ob- 
 servant and minutely following teachers. 
 
 Examinations, as too often conducted by those who 
 make percentages the end, may safely be laid to their final 
 rest. Longer continuance will prove fatally infectious. 
 Such examinations are the Mte iioir of pupils who need 
 encouragement more than terrorizing.
 
 SUrERINTENDENT'S RELATION TO PARENTS. HI 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 RELATION?" OF THE SUPERINTENDENT TO PARENTS AND 
 PATRONS. 
 
 The parent's interest in the school centers in the child. 
 The right education of the child is his chief desire. He 
 sends his child to the school that his character may be 
 properly builded. His own time is so devoted to business 
 and his energies so absorbed therein, that he trusts the 
 teacher properly selected and efficiently supervised to do 
 the work for him. He gives little time or thought to the 
 matter, since he trusts the teacher and the superintendent, 
 much as he would do, when erecting a building ; he trusts 
 his architect for a plan — his superintendent and mechan- 
 ics for its construction. In his own casual inspection he 
 may find fault with the builders, and the superintendent 
 is called to correct the fault. As it appears to him, plans 
 and specifications are not followed, material is not of the 
 quality expected, time is not as agreed upon — the super- 
 intendent becomes the arbiter. 
 
 Frequent opportunities will be given the superintend- 
 ent of scliools for acting the part of a wise and just me- 
 diator between teacher and parent. In no other part of 
 his work will he need greater discretion. To make both 
 parties in a conflict of opinion feel that he is a true friend 
 whose decisions will always be just, demands experimental 
 knowledge of the position held by each. One who has 
 been a teacher and who is a parent is best prepared for 
 such a demand. 
 
 A teacher's vocation inclines liim to self-assertion. 
 Ever in the presence of inferiors, he is apt to become 
 opinionated and dogmatic.
 
 112 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 A parent's love blinds him to faults in his own chil- 
 dren, even if he does not magnify the faults of others. 
 An ojiinionated teacher and a blinded parent being given, 
 the conditions are favorable to a first-class controversy. 
 
 An ex parte hearing of such a case but widens the 
 breach, and a hasty decision, made upon the application 
 of either party, lays the superintendent liable to the charge 
 of injustice. Let both sides be heard in the presence of 
 each other, and of the child over Avhom the controversy 
 has arisen. The issue will then first be divested of all mis- 
 understandings, and the case will settle itself to the satis- 
 faction of both parties. Most controversies properly 
 cleared of misunderstandings, are reduced to a compass so 
 small as to shame those who persist in standing upon 
 them. 
 
 The wisdom of the superintendent will be seen in 
 curbing the teacher's vanity and in curing the parent's 
 blindness. In many cases, after a patient hearing of all 
 parties concerned, there will be little left to the decision of 
 the superintendent. Friendly relations are established. 
 The teacher is strengthened in the opinion of the parent, 
 either by a full acquittal of the charges made, or by a 
 frank acknowledgment of error on the part of the teacher. 
 Some teachers fear that admission of wrong may weaken 
 their authority. Such a result the superintendent may 
 avert, if in his conduct he secures the confidence and co- 
 operation of the parent. Delay in rendering decisions 
 until anger has had time to cool can never be harmful. 
 At all events anger should not rest in the breast of the 
 superintendent. His bearing should show a calm self- 
 control, and an evident purpose to deal justly Avith all. 
 These remarks apply with special pertinence to matters of 
 discipline, yet to be treated. Sometimes, however, meth- 
 ods of instruction are criticised. This is possible when
 
 SUPEPJNTENDENT'S RELATIOX TO TARExXTS. 113 
 
 the parent has occupied the teacher's chair, and the prog- 
 ress of the intervening years in school instruction is not 
 recognized. So much is the teacher in the presence of 
 inferiors that, as has been said, he becomes opinionated 
 and self-assertive. As he leaves the teacher's office, and 
 in the broad world is brought into conflict with his equals, 
 and is compelled to yield at times to the opinions of oth- 
 ers, he finds comfort in the thought that in the field of 
 school instruction he can not be compelled to yield. The 
 habit of mind so firmly established clings to him, and he 
 really takes pleasure in the assertion of his views. To a 
 different conclusion he is not easily brought, and patient 
 endurance is the only cure. To increase the difficulty of 
 harmonizing conflicting views, tlie fact of personal pa- 
 rental interest appears. The quondam teacher's convictions 
 born of the management of other people's children are 
 strengthened when his own children are factors in the 
 problem. 
 
 It would be an excellent thing if the superintendent 
 could plan for meetings with parents where open discus- 
 sion of methods of instruction and discipline should bring 
 the parties to a better understanding of each other's views. 
 The teacher will become less opinionated. The parents 
 will learn of the possibility of advance in the processes 
 of education. 
 
 After all, parental opposition is not so much to be 
 feared as parental indilference. The chief question is 
 how best to awaken interest, not liow most effectively to 
 ward off opposition. The first successfully accom})li.sh('d, 
 the last will disappear. 
 
 It will not be fouiul practicable for teachers to visit 
 parents at their homes, but the visit of parents to the 
 school may be in some degree secured. The superintend- 
 ent may provide for exercises wlii'-li shull occnsioniilly en- 

 
 114 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 list the attention of parents without unduly interfering 
 witli the proper school exercises. 
 
 Days of display of articles made by children at home 
 or at school have an excellent effect upon the public in- 
 terest and appreciation. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 superintendent's relation to the physical 
 training of pupils. 
 
 Time of confinement in the school-room and the con- 
 ditions of the room as to heat, ventilation, and light, are 
 the chief external matters which should challenge the 
 superintendent's attention. 
 
 Tasks assigned pupils and the nature of stimuli em- 
 ployed by teachers must also be carefully observed. The 
 introduction of the Kindergarten as an essential portion 
 of a good school system has rendered the subject of 
 " school hours " a matter of minor importance so far as 
 their number is concerned. 
 
 " The delicate child should be sent to school only as 
 he can be without prejudice to his health; and though 
 all power to regulate school attendance is, and must be, 
 vested in boards of education, and the administration of 
 their rules must be to a greater or less degree left to the 
 discretion of the teacher, the wishes of careful and 
 thoughtful parents ought, in public as well as in private 
 schools, to be respected in this matter. On the other 
 hand, in all our cities and too frequently in our smaller 
 towns and villages, there is a class of children who are 
 neglected at home by idle, improvident, ignorant, and
 
 PHYSICAL TRAINING OF PUPILS. US 
 
 even vicious parents, whose school is the street and whose 
 teachers are of the criminal class. This class of children 
 ought to be kept in school as many days in the year and 
 as many hours per day as possible. Between these two 
 classes — one of which should be kept out of school most 
 of the time, and the other kept in school, if possible, all 
 their waking hours — there is an almost endless variety, 
 for each of wliich provision should be specifically made, 
 were it possible to do so. There is, therefore, nothing 
 left us but to meet as far as we can the average condition 
 of childhood. But we are comj^ellcd to speak not only 
 of the average child, but of the average school-room and 
 the average teacher. There are school-rooms . . . which 
 should lay boards of education liable to indictment for 
 maintaining nuisances. . . . There are teachers too . . . 
 of unhappy temperament themselves (who) seem to have 
 a subtle skill in making everybody about them unhappy. 
 ... On the other hand, we may imagine school-rooms 
 with such surroundings, and under the care of such teach- 
 ers, as would make attendance at school a continual 
 source at once of delight and profit, to be interrupted 
 only that the holy ties of the home might be maintained 
 unimpaired. ... As the muscle, bone, and brain, harden 
 and strengthen by age and exercise, tlie hours of confine- 
 ment in the school-room may be increased but not propor- 
 tionally. It must be remembered that, as self-control 
 assumes its sway, continuity and intensity of application 
 increase in greatly accelerated ratio, and that it is true in 
 the action of the mind, as in the working of ma(;]iinery, 
 that, as you increase the pressure, tlu^ wear and tear in- 
 crease in more than a geometrical ratio." * 
 
 * A. J. Rickoff, Proceedings of the National Educational Asso- 
 ciation, 1873, p. 241.
 
 116 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 Two sessions each day — excejit in liigh schools of large 
 cities where pupils are required to go long distances — are 
 without doubt best. Such a division accords with the 
 habits of workingmen, in great majority the patrons of 
 the schools. The noonday meal is taken at home, and of 
 a character best adapted to the health of the child. Re- 
 lease from school confinement in the brightest hours of 
 the day contributes to health, as it gives opportunity also 
 for the renovation of the air of the school-room at a time 
 best suited to such a purpose. The question of a briefer 
 release into the open air at some time during each daily 
 session has aroused discussion. Advocates of shortened 
 sessions, with no recess, have gained in numbers. It is to 
 be feared that the interests of teachers have been consid- 
 ered rather than those of pupils. The chief arguments 
 rest upon exj)osure of health upon the play-ground, upon 
 exposure of moral character to contamination from associ- 
 ation with the impure. To the fii'st argument it may be 
 objected that exj^osure of health is not greater than that 
 incurred in coming to and going from school ; and that 
 continued confinement in the close air of a school-room 
 for two and a half hours has a worse effect than a brief 
 exposure to fresh air under the active exercise natural to 
 children at seasons of play. It is claimed that the same 
 end may be attained by throwing open the windows of 
 the school-room and engaging the children in some calis- 
 thenic exercises at the same time. But, under the most 
 favorable conditions for such exercises, the impalpable 
 dust of the school-room stirred up by active exercises of 
 moving children can not be avoided ; nor will the exer- 
 cises themselves prove as serviceable as the self-activity 
 which uiitrammeled play develops. 
 
 Contamination from association with children of im- 
 pure lives is far less likely when numbers are upon the
 
 PHYSICAL TRAINING OF PUPILS. HY 
 
 playground together, than when the personal influence is 
 permitted in secret association as will be possible in the 
 case of children who find occasion at irregular times to 
 absent themselves from the school-room. 
 
 Moral evils spread among pupils by written or printed 
 documents or by conversation ; both these forms of evil 
 covet seclusion. Pujoils can spread moral contamination 
 with no great effect during school hours when teachers 
 supervise in person the play-grounds ; but permit two or 
 three at a time to pass from under the eye of the teacher 
 and of their fellows, and needed restraints are removed. 
 It is true that to the play-ground will be traced outbursts 
 of passion, differences of opinion, accidents, and the strong 
 influences of public opinion of the pupils. All these 
 forces are positive among children ; they are the primitive 
 embryonic forms of that society in which adult life moves. 
 A child that would become a man in society must be 
 inured by practice and experience to the forces into 
 which his adult life will throw him. 
 
 Dr. J. S. Jewell, of Chicago, who is an authority upon 
 nervous diseases, says, " I have no doubt that the proposed 
 change of abolishing recesses and of lougtlicning liours of 
 confinement is one every way to be deprecated from the 
 standpoint of the bodily health of the pupils." * 
 
 Prof. W. I). ]\Ii(ldleton, of tlie State University of Iowa, 
 says : " The recess is an opportunity for the dose of de- 
 mocracy, also of fresh air. Of the two evils, I guess tlio 
 democracy is the least, so fancy the recess should stand. 
 . . . Two or two and a half liours is too long to expose 
 little children to the noxious substances found in breathed- 
 over air, for the two reasons that their demands for oxygen 
 are immense compared with the adult standard, and their 
 
 * Report of the Xiitioiiiil Council of Education, 18H|, p. 10,
 
 118 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 capacities for absorption of all noxious substances are 
 correspondingly large." * 
 
 Superintendents and teachers are in the large major- 
 ity of cases responsible for the abolition of recesses. It 
 is fit that those most intimately engaged in the manage- 
 ment of schools should lead in matters of reform. But 
 abolition of the mid-session recess has not shortened the 
 outdoor play of pupils. It has changed its time from 
 10.30 A. M. and 2.30 p. m. to 11.30 a. m. and 3.30 p. m. 
 in most cases. It has changed its jjlace from the school- 
 ground to the street, or, in rare instances, to home play- 
 grounds. It has not increased the number of hours given 
 to study, but, on the other hand, has materially shortened 
 them. It has lengthened the period of confinement to 
 the school-room, with increased vitiation of air inhaled. 
 It has j)rolonged the times of close and continued appli- 
 cation ; the five-minute intermission given to calisthenic 
 exercises is only an extension of close mental application, 
 lacking entirely the quality of relaxation which freedom 
 of voluntary play upon the school -grounds furnishes. 
 
 The questions which will arise in the mind of the 
 superintendent are these : Are conditions favorable to the 
 gathering of large numbers of school-children within the 
 inclosure of the school-yard ? Are out-buildings of suffi- 
 cient size to meet the necessities of many? Is the neigh- 
 borhood one whose street attractions are not harmful? 
 Are the children well cared for at home, so that the in- 
 creased hours of absence from the school-room will be 
 properly spent under parental guidance ? Are the school- 
 rooms well ventilated or capable of renewal of air without 
 exposure of children to draughts from open windows? 
 Can teachers readily supervise the sports of children on 
 
 * Report of the National Council of Education, 1884, p. 10.
 
 PHYSICAL TRAINING OF PUPILS. HO 
 
 the play-grounds? Is release from care and responsibility 
 the chief element in the teacher's desire for shortened ses- 
 sions? Questions like these must arise, and their solution 
 will be found so dependent upon conditions by no means 
 uniform that no fixed rule upon the subject of mid-session 
 recesses can be formulated. In some communities, under 
 most favorable circumstances, school hours may he profit- 
 ably shortened; but, for the large majority of children 
 attending public schools, shorter sessions of the school 
 only furnish the opportunity for longer lessons in the 
 street. 
 
 Periods of close mental application must be determined 
 in length by the age of the child in large degree. No 
 definite rule can be made applicable to all the grades of 
 the same school. 
 
 Great stress is laid by adherents to the time-honored 
 custom of recesses upon the need of pure air. Am])le 
 provision for abundant supply in the school-room should 
 be the rule. Until late years, however, little attention has 
 been given to ventilation of school-houses. It becomes, 
 therefore, a prominent part of a superintendent's work in 
 behalf of children to note carefully tlie condition of the 
 school-rooms which he enters. The teacher enters the 
 room with the pupils, remains with them, and, absorbed 
 in his work, becomes unmindful of changes in temjxira- 
 ture, except as he suffers personal inconvenience ; lie fails 
 to notice the gradual vitiation of the air. His active 
 movements about the school-i-oom keej) him comfortable 
 in a temperature chilling to the cpiiet and ])erhaps too 
 thinly-clad pupil. Ilis personal condition may be such 
 as to enable him to withstand a degree of heat which has 
 flushed the faces of his pupils and has l)n)ught lassitmh! 
 or head-throbbing to many a child. JIc may find himself 
 unduly warm, and order the opening of a window without
 
 120 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 regard to the direction of the wind or to the proximity of 
 delicate children suddenly subjected to a stream of cold 
 air u])on tlie neck — exposed as it never is when the child 
 is in tlie open air. 
 
 The superintendent, entering the room from the outer 
 air, is at once prepared to note the condition of the air as 
 to purity. A brief inspection of the faces of teacher and 
 pupils will give him some idea of the temperature of the 
 room. He will note also the windows or other channels 
 for the admission of fresh air and the position of pupils 
 with reference thereto. A word to the teacher will save 
 the pupil's health, and make him more observant in the 
 future. 
 
 As classes appear, the superintendent will be as quick 
 to detect nervous excitement, the result of undue pressure 
 upon the mind of the child, as to note the listlessness 
 arising from a want of proper pressure. 
 
 Physical health is promoted by a proper degree of 
 mental activity. Sluggish mental life accompanies a 
 physical life weighed down with indolence or with over- 
 indulgence of mere animal appetites. A healthful glow 
 is seen upon the faces of those whose minds are active, 
 and who find pleasure in their activity. The best work 
 of the superintendent, with reference to the physical wellr 
 being of children, will appear in his selection of healthy 
 teachers, who exercise common sense in their vocation, 
 making the thermometer rather than their feelings the 
 test of temperature, and who find in the faces and atti- 
 tudes of pupils indications of the condition of the air of 
 the room. 
 
 Modern appliances, especially the use of the black- 
 board in schools, have rendered it necessary for teachers 
 to study the eye-sight of pupils. Children are not always 
 conscious of defects in vision. They have never been
 
 PHYSICAL TRAINING OF PUPILS. 121 
 
 tested, and, of course, are not seated with reference to 
 their necessities. In their anxiety to do what is required 
 of them as it is presented upon the blackboard, they make 
 an abnormal effort to see, and strain the eyes which at- 
 tempt to accommodate themselves to the circumstances iu 
 which they are placed. Failure to see clearly involves 
 failure in their work, and consequent degradation iu the 
 class. 
 
 Blackboards arc not always kept clean as they should 
 be, and the chalk-covered face reflects light so as to puzzle 
 the clearest sight. The light from the windows is not at 
 all times of day uniform. Teachers should take position 
 in different parts of the school-room Avhile pupils are 
 copying from the board or are reading questions thereon, 
 that they may be sure of the pupil's ability to see clearly 
 from remote parts of the room, with the constant thought 
 that the pupil is at a disadvantage, since to him what is 
 written is new, while the teacher is perfectly familiar 
 with it. 
 
 The eye-sight of ])upils has suffered -much from care- 
 lessness in the use of the bhiokboard as a chart, from which 
 pupils are to read the requirenicuts of the hour. For as- 
 signments of tasks the blackboard should bo used which 
 is upon the side of the room without windows. The writ- 
 ing upon the board should be clear and large enough to 
 be seen readily by the normal eye from any part of the 
 room. Pupils should be seated in the room according to 
 the character of their vision. 
 
 The superintendent can not do better than to familiar- 
 ize himself with some simple tests of vision, so that he 
 can counsel the teacher as to seating pupils. Some 8j)ecial 
 cases should be referred to an oculist for tht; proper ad- 
 justment of needed glasses. 
 
 Older pupils are not timid about asking chango of
 
 122 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 seats when they find it difficult to read what is upon the 
 board ; but little children often suffer irreparable injury 
 through neglect of this feature of physical education. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SUPERINTElvrDENT's RELATION TO MOEAL TRAINING. 
 
 No education is complete which does not take within 
 its scope man in his entire being, which does not recognize 
 and provide for his moral and religious nature. Has man 
 such a nature ? If not, it is idle to discuss the need of 
 its culture. If he has, it is criminal to ignore it. Nor 
 can the State shift the burden of her responsibility upon 
 private citizens, so long as she attempts to educate at all, 
 without herself becoming amenable to the guilt of neglect. 
 State education which leaves untrained any of the forces 
 that go to build character will furnish but a poor apology 
 for worthy citizenship. The possession of a moral nature 
 will not of itself make us better men. Whether we become 
 good or unworthy citizens depends upon the choice made 
 in the directing of our moral nature. Education deter- 
 mines choice. The results of our choice are so far-reach- 
 ing that those who shape and direct educational agencies 
 have great responsibilities. It is coming to be too much 
 the fashion to ignore these responsibilities, and to lay upon 
 the family and the Church the entire burden of directing 
 moral forces. " The school fills so large a part in the seri- 
 ous hours of a child's life that it would be fatal to omit 
 from it the all-essential element in character-molding" 
 (Bishop J. J. Keane).
 
 SUPERINTENDENT'S RELATION TO MORAL TRAINING. 123 
 
 hy should we heed the cry against positive moral 
 and religious instruction in schools supported by the State, 
 where the life of the citizen receives in an important sense 
 its shapiug? The fear of sectarianism in such instruction 
 has induced undue caution and a surrender of rights which 
 were recognized in the earlier days of the republic. (A 
 fuller discussion of this subject may be found in Appen- 
 dix A.) 
 
 If the right to give positive moral instruction be de- 
 nied, and the child be left to the incidental influences 
 which the ordinary routine of a well-ordered scliool pre- 
 sents, still more serious is the responsibility of the super- 
 intendent, since these influences flow entirely from the 
 life and the conduct of the teacher who at his hands has 
 been placed in the position of influence. 
 
 Examination into the character of an applicant for a 
 teacher's certificate is of prime importance. The intro- 
 duction of an unworthy camlidate into the place of influ- 
 ence so great as that filled by the teacher rests with crush- 
 ing weight upon the negligent superintendent. Continu- 
 ance in the place after unworthiness is proved acUls to the 
 weight of responsibility. The best efforts in the tlirection 
 of ascertaining tiie moral character of applicants may be 
 thwarted. Defects in character are at times artfully con- 
 cealed. They will, however, appear at some time. Im- 
 mediate annulment of the certificate should follow the 
 discovery. The line of influence can not be too (piickly 
 severed. 
 
 Open immorality is not more to be dreaded than is tlie 
 lack of a positive character in the teacher. Tiic funucr 
 shocks by its boldness and corrects its <»\vn iiilliicnco 
 through repulsion; the latter creates a lUdral scutiiiiciit 
 of its own character, and leaves children as indillerent to 
 virtue as to vice — characterless.
 
 124 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 In his rounds of inspection tlie superintendent must 
 pay particular attention to tlie teacher's observance of the 
 rules laid down for the government of pupils. The teach- 
 er's punctuality in attendance upon school duties at open- 
 ing and closing school and at recesses, his close observance 
 of a well-prepared and conspicuously posted programme, 
 his scrupulous regard for neatness in person and attire, 
 for the cleanliness of the room, for the orderly appearance 
 of work upon the blackboards, for the proper disposal of 
 outside wraps, for the j)rovision made for the disposal of 
 waste paper — above all, for the appearance of the rostrum 
 and the table upon it — his courtesy in address, his 
 tones of speech, his scru2:)ulous regard for the rights of 
 pupils in their relation to himself and to each other, his 
 firm but just treatment of offenders against the good order 
 of the school, his kindly rebuke, when occasion requires, 
 for offenses against morals, his respect for authority higher 
 than his own, his uniform self-respect, which brings out 
 a gentlemanly deportment on all occasions — these all will 
 be observed by the careful superintendent. Kind criticism 
 at suitable times will follow any notice of lack in the mat- 
 ters suggested. 
 
 The possibility of the teacher thus criticised being 
 able to reply, " Physician, heal thyself," will suggest the 
 superintendent's prime duty in the line so briefly sketched 
 above. 
 
 The most effective moral lessons are given when oc- 
 casions arise for the correction of offenders. Overzealous 
 teachers may at such times infringe upon the rights of 
 the home, of the Church. Overcautious teachers may 
 neglect favorable opportunities of building character. 
 There is a golden mean. It is the superintendent's prov- 
 ince to discover it, and, by restraining the overzealous and 
 inspiring the overcautious, to lead his teachers in the
 
 SUPERINTENDENT'S RELATION TO MORAL TRAINING. 125 
 
 more excellent way. In some instances lie will find the 
 need of consulting with the parent as well as with the 
 teacher, so that a hearty co-ojieration may be secured. 
 
 In no part of the teacher's work is there greater need 
 of allowing freedom of action, the teacher being held re- 
 sponsible for abuse of the freedom. Upon the proper use 
 of the freedom granted there must be frequent confer- 
 ences between suj)erintendent and teacher, the former 
 taking the initiative as soon as the suspicion arises in his 
 mind of hesitancy in the mind of the latter. 
 
 This may appear to require on the part of the superin- 
 tendent an ability to read the thoughts of another — an 
 ability not to be questioned, when tlioughts come to the 
 surface as they will, when timidity appears in the pres- 
 ence of some difficulty, or when undue haste characterizes 
 the means used for meeting the difficulty. 
 
 Sudden resort to force or to suspension of pupils be- 
 trays lack of confidence in ability to control the diso- 
 bedient in any other way. Thought here lies upon the 
 surface. 
 
 " The schools of the State may not neglect to teach 
 public morals. Honesty, reverence, temperance, purity, 
 patriotism, Justice, mercy, obedience, whatever tends to add 
 to the usefulness of the citizen or to the stability of the gov- 
 ernment, come within the legitimate exercise of this duty. 
 . . . The cultivation of the moral sense leads us to teach 
 children obedience to law and reverence for constituted 
 authority. . . . To live in open disregard of the laws of 
 the State is inconsistent with the character of a good 
 citizen. . . . Our American education, if it is to retain 
 the confidence of the people, must be wholly on the side 
 of tliat morality which has truth for its basis; it must 
 stand for law and order and decency; its instructors must 
 first know, and then practice, and then teach those eternal.
 
 126 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 immutable princij^les of right and wrong which are the 
 foundation of a permanent republican liberty. The pub- 
 lic-school system is strong in proportion as it has the con- 
 fidence of the people. When it comes to be regarded 
 only as a machine for teaching enough of certain branches 
 to enable a man to pass muster in the business world ; 
 when it does not claim to have any hold beyond material 
 and transient things ; when it fails to include in its les- 
 sons the binding force of conscience and responsibility, it 
 will perish through its own unguided momentum." * 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 RELATION" OF SUPEKINTENDENT TO GOVERNMENT AND 
 DISCIPLINE OF PUPILS. 
 
 Government and instruction are complementary pro- 
 cesses in school-work. They can not be severed. In a 
 well-ordered school-room they are closely combined. In- 
 struction is successful in the highest degree only when the 
 governing ability of the instructor is apparent in every 
 recitation. Instruction in classes implies a proper control 
 of the members of each class. Government properly ad- 
 ministered is in itself a source of instruction as effective as 
 the conducting of a recitation in mathematics or history. 
 The end of school government is to build up human 
 character, "to furnish with requisite outfit or preparation" 
 for some specific end. This is one of the primal defini- 
 
 * State Superintendent Henry Sabin, Iowa School Report, 1889, 
 p. 119.
 
 GOVERNMEXT AND DISCIPLINE OF PUPILS. 127 
 
 tions of the word instruct. Manners and morals are cer- 
 tainly a worthy end of government as they are of instruc- 
 tion. Manners are morals of the lower plane of external 
 conduct as morals are manners of the interior life. Dr. 
 Philbrick once defined " manners as presenting the spirit 
 of a gentleman, and morals as evincing the spirit of re- 
 ligion" — manners ending in self-respect which secures the 
 respect of others; morals, which in devotion to right 
 show an inner life worthy of respect. 
 
 The opportunity for improving the one or the other 
 or both is to be found in all school exercises. The ma- 
 jority of the studies in a school curriculum furnish mo- 
 tives for their cultivation. 
 
 The superintendent is not engaged directly in either 
 instruction or government of a school, but his responsi- 
 bility is not lessened, since he holds a more important place 
 in the school than does the teacher. To the proper un- 
 derstanding of this statement it may be necessary to con- 
 sider his peculiar relation. 
 
 The parent's right to govern his child is derived from 
 that supreme power which has established the family and 
 has thus provided for the child a protector through the 
 years of his weakness and a director in the years of his 
 ignorance. God's puq^ose in placing children in the 
 family circle is that they may be trained under influences 
 which shall develop in them "the spirit of the gentleman" 
 as well as " the spirit of religion." Kesponsibility can not 
 be ignored. It may be shared. The notion prevalent 
 that the teacher stands in loco jjurentis is not correct 
 except under modifications. 
 
 The parent alone has the divine right to control tho 
 child. A community of parents, studying economy and 
 efficiency in methods of advancing the child on llic road 
 to self-direction and self-support makes u.se of a civil
 
 128 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 organism called the State. Machinery is found in opera- 
 tion for other purposes, which is easily applied to the 
 work of education. Certain rights of the parent, such as 
 the right of controlling the time and movements of the 
 child for a few hours each day, the right of directing his 
 course of study, are surrendered to the civil authorities, 
 not permanently nor irredeemably, but at the pleasure of 
 the parent. The State then assumes to act for the parent, 
 not with the authority which God has conferred upon the 
 parent, but with the authority which the parent has trans- 
 ferred to the State. The State thus appears to be a human 
 institution. It can not assume the responsibility which 
 the Divine Creator has laid upon the parent. In a most 
 important sense the State can not stand in loco pare7itis 
 so long as the parent lives or is competent to control the 
 child. Much less can the State empower any of its ap- 
 pointees to take such a place. But, in the absence of the 
 parent's power to control the movements of the child 
 while the child is under the immediate direction of the 
 State's agent, the teacher has a right to take upon himself 
 authority in the government and discipline of the child. 
 It is a right of human origin, inferior to the parent's 
 right, which is of divine origin. Since the teacher under 
 the lesser sanction undertakes in matters of discipline to 
 do what the parent under the higher sanction may do, it 
 is certainly important that the teacher be possessed of 
 superior judgment. The State, with its manifold duties, 
 can not descend to detailed management in any one class. 
 It, therefore, selects agents specially fitted therefor, and 
 assigns to them special duties of administration. The 
 State's immediate agents in school-work are " Boards of 
 Education," varied in number as well as in name, or in 
 many cases a single agent called " Superintendent of 
 Schools." Boards of education delegate their powers to
 
 GOVERNMENT AND DISCIPLINE OF PUPILS. 129 
 
 one officer called secretary or superintendent. Thus 
 directly or indirectly does the superintendent become the 
 executive officer, under law clothed with all authority 
 which has by will of parents been vested in the State. In 
 this particular part of his work which pertains to govern- 
 ment and discipline of pupils his responsibility is great. 
 In an important sense the superintendent is responsible 
 for the government and discipline of pupils, inasmuch as 
 the direct agents therein, the teachers, are upon his recom- 
 mendation in the first instance appointed to their work, 
 and thereafter continued in it. 
 
 The preliminary examination has already received suf- 
 ficient attention. Young teachers are apt to accept their 
 examination as a measure of their responsibility. The 
 real test of a teacher's ability is applied in the super- 
 visory work of the superintendent rather than in examina- 
 tion of candidates for the teacher's office. The teacher's 
 disciplinary power will appear in three chief directions — 
 correcting disorder which already exists, anticipating and 
 preventing disorder, and inducing voluntary obedience. 
 To these three points should the superintendent direct 
 his attention in his rounds of supervision. In these 
 rounds of supervision the superintendent must bear in 
 mind that the object of discipline is " to train the chil- 
 dren to restrain and direct their own faculties by self- 
 conscious effort under the direction of their moial and 
 intellectual faculties." 
 
 How shall the superintendent determine whether this 
 object of discipline is apprehended by the teacher? His 
 first visit can not give him a sufficient basis for such de- 
 termination unless he understajids fully the general tem- 
 per of the pupils wiio are subjected to a change of teach- 
 ers, as well as the reasons for the change. If both teacher 
 
 and pupils are strangers to the superintendent, he can 
 10
 
 130 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 make his first visit an opportunity for fixing a starting- 
 point. Conditions may be favorable or unfavorable to the 
 teacher. What is observed in this first visit will hardly 
 help the superintendent in determining the character of 
 these conditions. If he makes a record of his observa- 
 tions, a second visit will furnish him some clew to the 
 conditions. Following this clew, he soon determines the 
 fitness of the teacher in matters of discipline. He will 
 soon learn wdiether the movements of pupils are self-di- 
 rected or controlled from without. If satisfied as to the 
 first, he will make no further study, but accept the teacher 
 as worthy of the place. If convinced that the second is 
 true of the school, he will at once set himself to studying 
 the means used by the teacher in control of pupils. Here 
 he must avoid the danger of hasty judgment. Between 
 the extremes of enforced obedience and of disobedience 
 left to correct itself — between brutal force and flabby 
 goodishness — there is a wide field for the exercise of indi- 
 viduality in the teacher. Within this field the teacher 
 requires time to adapt himself to the conditions surround- 
 ing him. The superintendent, with helpful patience, may 
 bring about this adaptation. In his visits he will have 
 his eye upon the pupils as w'ell as upon the teacher. If 
 pupils appear in unnatural j)ositions, immovable in abso- 
 lute uniformity, however admirable the school may ap- 
 pear as a tableau, there is certainly no habit of self-direc- 
 tion cultivated. If upon entering the room there is 
 evident sudden adjustment to a prescribed position, self- 
 direction may be assumed, but without the least moral 
 element. Deception is practiced as it has been taught. 
 If the eyes of pupils appear to be riveted to their books, 
 and no recognition is given the entrance of a guest, " the 
 spirit of a gentleman " is suppressed ; it may be that the 
 ungentlemanly act will crush out " the spirit of religion."
 
 GOVERXMENT AND DISCIPLINE OF PUPILS, 131 
 
 If, in the instances cited, the teacher sits back with an 
 air of supreme satisfaction in the results of his power to 
 discipline pupils, the superintendent will do well to study 
 carefully the methods pursued. He will not wait long for 
 some elucidation of these methods. Results are not con- 
 sonant with the nature of the average child. Nature will 
 assert itself. By directing his attention to the bearing of 
 the pupils toward the teacher outside the school-room or 
 during the partial release from control which the recess 
 furnishes, tlie superintendent will not long remain in 
 doubt as to the lack of voluntary obedience — the highest 
 aim of all discipline. Too great rigidity of muscle in the 
 school-room is sure to result in frigidity of affection for 
 the teacher. The opposite extreme is not less faulty, but, 
 as it has not even the semblance of discipline, it needs no 
 consideration. The fault of the first leans to virtue's 
 side, and, properly tempered, may be very successful in 
 wise discipline. The fault of the other extreme has not 
 in it the first element of success. 
 
 Methods of discipline may be as mechanical as are 
 methods of instruction. Pupils may be arranged in their 
 seats in such order as to please the eye of a spectator. 
 The position of each pupil in his seat may be in form 
 and uniform. Each sits, turns, rises, moves, just as he is 
 required to do. Sometimes even the lock-step used in 
 prison discipline is required, so that no pupil may get out 
 of order in ranks. At study, the eye must be kept at a 
 uniform distance from the book, no matter what the con- 
 dition of the eye. Kegularity of movement is desirable. 
 The tendency of the pui)il to get too near liis book, and 
 thus induce short-siglit, sliould be corrected witli sj)ccial 
 understanding of the condition of the eyes of each itiipil. 
 The necessity for frequent changes of position on the i)art 
 of children should be recognized. Absolute immobility
 
 1^2 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 of the teacher for the length of time it is required of 
 pupils will put a little solid common sense into methods 
 of government. 
 
 The opposite extreme of entire carelessness and indif- 
 ference to the positions and movements of pupils is not 
 less to be deprecated. There are external conditions 
 which may diminish the danger of great rigidity, and, on 
 the other hand, relieve unusual restlessness. Seats and 
 desks are the chief of these external conditions. The cus- 
 tom of seating a room with one pattern of desk and seat 
 would not be objectionable if physical structure were 
 always in exact accordance with the stages of mental 
 progress. 
 
 The superintendent's eye will soon detect the torture- 
 boxes in a room, and provide for their removal or ex- 
 change. The room may not appear as well when empty, 
 but it will certainly be better in every respect for the 
 pupils who fill it. The irregularities in size of desk need 
 be only in height and very few in number where there 
 are many pupils of the same grade. But internal condi- 
 tions have much to do with good order. None is of 
 greater importance than the spirit which animates the 
 teacher. The superintendent who feels disorder, even 
 though its outer manifestation be suppressed, will study 
 the face of the teacher, will note his movements, his tone 
 of voice. He will look also at the eyes of the pupils, 
 which will soon betray the thoughts cherished. He need 
 not be long in doubt as to whether love or will is at the 
 helm, whether brute force or moral force is dominant. 
 
 In his corps of teachers he will find some who sway 
 through fear, others whose control is through a morbid 
 sensitiveness on the part of pupils. The first are obeyed, 
 lest pupils suffer ; the last are obeyed, lest the pupils 
 cause the teacher to suffer. The first cultivate a slavish
 
 GOVERNMENT AND DISCIPLINE OF PUPILS. 133 
 
 dread in pupils ; the last encourage a morbid goodishness. 
 Neither develops in the child the habit of self-activity. 
 The methods of the first strengthen the pre-existent habit 
 and bring out good results for the few, while the many 
 are cowed into submission, and go through the world with 
 broken wills. The methods of the last leave the moral 
 organism flabby and cartilaginous. Severity and good- 
 ness may be combined in a discipline of pupils. To this 
 work of combination the superintendent will find frequent 
 occasion to address himself. No part of his work will 
 prove more troublesome. If he discourages the use of the 
 rod, he will find more objectionable instruments of bodily 
 punishment employed. 
 
 If he permits and advises the use of the rod, it will 
 be wielded too vigorously, and with no beneficial results. 
 
 If he enjoins upon some special teacher the exercise of 
 this right for the whole school, the whipping-post will be 
 firmly planted and frequently used. 
 
 Upon this question of corporal punishment there is set 
 the mark of public disapproval. Legislative action in some 
 cases, resolutions of Boards of Education in others, wliolly 
 prohibiting its use, have been unwisely taken. Teachers 
 should be left discretion in this matter of discipline, and, 
 if they will found their discretionary acts upon a reason- 
 able study of child-nature, the rod will disappear with all 
 its miserable substitutes, which spring into use under pro- 
 hibitory statutes. If the time that is spent in detention 
 of pupils after school were given to earnest study of child- 
 life, the knowledge thus gained would banish the rod from 
 the schools. If the time spent in devising some means of 
 punishment for offenses were devoted to learning the best 
 way of anticipating and then guarding against olTenses, 
 we should hear nothing more of the barbarism of corporal 
 punishment. The superintendent may find here the very
 
 134 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 best field for his labors. Experience has shown that the 
 rod may be laid aside by the teacher, with all its degrading 
 substitutes, and also detentions out of school hours be 
 abandoned, and still the list of suspensions for miscon- 
 duct be diminished, and a better spirit prevail throughout 
 the entire school. 
 
 A middle-aged man once said to the teacher of his 
 younger days, " Do you recall punishing me severely 
 upon one occasion ? " " No," replied the teacher, " you 
 know well that I never inflicted chastisement upon you, for 
 such a course was contrary to my practice." " It is true, 
 nevertheless," was the reply, " for, upon commission of an 
 offense against good order, you told me you would take a 
 week to consider what it were best to do." " And then I 
 punished you ? " " No, for you said at the end of the 
 week, ' I think, from what I have seen of you during the 
 week, that your punishment has been sufficient for all 
 practical purposes, and we will start anew as if nothing 
 had happened.' You were right in your thought, for the 
 week of delay was to me a continued punishment." 
 
 A young man Avas found in the principal's office of a 
 large school awaiting the coming of the principal, under 
 the order of a lady teacher whom he had grossly offended. 
 His offense was such as would most certainly have secured 
 his suspension and reference to the superintendent. The 
 superintendent came into the office, learned the cause of 
 the young man's being found there, met the 2)rincipal, and 
 asked him to say nothing to the pupil. Two or three 
 times during the morning the superintendent looked into 
 the office, expressing his surprise that the young man still 
 sat there. As the school was dismissed at noon, he was 
 told that he might remain there during the intermission, 
 as he would not be disturbed in his meditations. No re- 
 straint was placed upon him. In a half-liour more the
 
 GOVERNMENT AND DISCIPLINE OF PLTILS. 135 
 
 office was found deserted. The young man had gone 
 home to his dinner. But stronger than his appetite was 
 his sense of wrong, and before leaving he had sought his 
 teacher, made confession of his wrong, and had been for- 
 given. No aUusion was ever made to the matter afterward, 
 and his subsequent career proved that he then learned a 
 lesson in self -direction which was worth more to him than 
 the lessons he missed that forenoon. Self-respect grew 
 in him, as what he did was entirely self-directed. 
 
 A lad of unfortunate home influences had reached 
 that stage of incorrigibility which made his expulsion 
 from the school by the Board of Education a necessity. 
 He would submit to no authority. The superintendent of 
 schools, meeting him in the street, in a kindly way in- 
 quired what he was doing and what was his strongest 
 wish. A tear started to his eye as he said, " I wish I were 
 in school again." The superintendent replied : " Go get 
 your books and return. I can not restore you, nor can the 
 principal receive you as a pupil, but perhaps he will let 
 you in as a visitor for a little while until you show that 
 you can control yourself." Before he could reach the 
 school-building the superintendent had seen the principal, 
 secured his consent to the plan, and had asked him to 
 send to the superintendent at night a note by the boy 
 touching his conduct as a visitor. The boy came with a 
 favorable note, was returned for two days, and then his 
 conduct was so commended that his probation was length- 
 ened for a week. At the end of the week the report was 
 so good regarding his deportment that he was told to 
 carry that note witli liim for his ins{)ection whenever ho 
 found himself tempted to disobedience, and to remain in 
 school without further limit. A few years later he was 
 found in the high school, a right manly young man, studi- 
 ous and respected by liis teachers.
 
 136 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 (Appendix B gives a fuller elucidation of the matters 
 which have been presented in the illustrations given 
 above.) 
 
 Self-activity on moral lines should be the aim of all 
 attempts at discipline. Corporal punishment rarely, if 
 ever, cultivates self-activity. The moral nature is reached 
 through moral influences. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 superintendent's relation to the board of edu- 
 cation. 
 
 In an important sense the superintendent and the 
 Board of Education have distinct fields of labor : the one 
 oversees the work of instruction, the other plans for ad- 
 ministration of a school system, and provides for its ma- 
 terial needs ; the one deals with the teachers whom the other 
 has employed ; the one selects and recommends laborers 
 for service in the field which the other has appropriated for 
 special cultivation ; the one spends the entire time in the 
 field, the other sometimes makes brief calls upon the labor- 
 ers individually or in a body when some fruits of labor 
 are disj^layed ; the one chooses the machinery which the 
 other purchases and keeps in repair. The superintendent 
 becomes the executive officer of the board in their part of 
 administration. 
 
 It is often the custom to make the superintendent the 
 secretary of the board as a matter of convenience, but in 
 such cases he acts in a dual capacity. When this is fully 
 recognized, his freedom in the line of his special work
 
 SUPERINTENDENT AND THE BOARD OF EDUCATION. 137 
 
 will also be recognized. Released from mechanical de- 
 tails, he will have less of the machine in the work of 
 instruction. His own freedom from unprofessional re- 
 straint will indicate to him the propriety of granting to 
 teachers a larger measure of freedom. 
 
 By virtue of his special studies and professional train- 
 ing, he is qualified to give advice in all matters concern- 
 ing teachers, courses of study, programmes, and the in- 
 ternal management of the schools. In the process of evo- 
 lution of the superintendency there has come into the 
 superintendent's work more of instruction — less of con- 
 struction of buildings, less of financial management, less 
 of concern about material appliances. 
 
 " The common-school superintendency has Avith us 
 passed through two distinct phases of development and 
 is now on the threshold of the third. The two phases it 
 has passed through were preliminar}' ; that upon which it 
 is now entering will prove final. I would designate the 
 two phases of the past as the first or material, and the 
 second as the intermediate or the pseudo-intellectual 
 phase — the coming phase I shall call the scientific. . . . 
 Naturally, the material was the earliest stage. The crying 
 need of the common school thirty or forty years ago was 
 a material one, and the possibilities of the situation were 
 not appreciated. The school-house, the window, the out- 
 house, the desk, the map, the slate, and the text-1)()()k, 
 stood in pressing need of intelligent reforming. The 
 low, dark, ill-ventilated, dirty room, with its long rows of 
 benches and continuous desks, hacked and di.sfigured by 
 the jackknives of successive generations, had slowly to 
 give place to something better. Oiw thing at a time, and 
 this was the first move of the supcrin tendency. It was a 
 necessary rather than a great work. The office, also, was 
 a new one, and those who filled it were in no way spr-cially
 
 138 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 trained for it. They were looked upon with suspicion by 
 the school committees, and there was a general disposition 
 to make them as nearly as possible mere purchasing 
 agents and superintendents of repairs. 
 
 " Perhaps the two great monuments of this earlier 
 period are the four-square school-house and the separate 
 desk. They are good monuments, too. But it is not 
 necessary to spend much time over this earlier phase. 
 It speaks for itself. Even those solely identified with it 
 will not claim that the work was more than preliminary. 
 . . . Those who introduced cleanliness, light, and order 
 into the beastly old common school, deserved well of their 
 successors. The material requirements of the schools be- 
 ing in a measure provided for, the next work naturally 
 enough related to education proper. I have designated 
 this second period as the pseudo-intellectual, because, in 
 its broad features and general results, ... it would seem 
 to cover a time during which an intellectual subject was 
 mechanically dealt with. ... So far as organization was 
 concerned, the work was most thoroughly done. . . . The 
 importance of this instinctive, organizing faculty can not 
 be overestimated. It also means, however, the constant 
 tendency toward the uniform and the meclianical — to 
 what is known in politics as ' the machine.' . . . There 
 Avas very little that deserved to be called scientific about 
 it. . . . The work of organization being completed, the 
 mechanical in studies was, in short, overdone." * 
 
 Mr. Adams's criticism of the second phase in the evolu- 
 tion of superintendency, though severe, has certainly some 
 foundation. 
 
 The third phase implies more of a professional prepa- 
 
 * Charles Francis Adams, Jr., address before the National Edu- 
 cational Association at Chautauqua, 1880.
 
 SUrERIXTENDENT AND THE BOARD OF EDUCATION. 139 
 
 ration for the work. Universities and colleges recognize 
 the need of such professional training, and they are estab- 
 lishing chairs of pedagogy. This phase implies less devo- 
 tion to purely material appliances. The best superintend- 
 ent is, therefore, less and less prepared for financial man- 
 agement, as his thought is necessarily absorbed in the 
 special work of instruction. It is but another step in 
 specialization of labor. The Board of Education will see 
 the wisdom of leaving instruction entirely to the hands of 
 their chosen suj)erintendent, and to relieve him more and 
 more from business details. Not only has the process of 
 development released the superintendent from the neces- 
 sity of giving attention to the construction of buildings, but 
 the construction of " courses of study " has also reached 
 its limits. All these material appliances have undergone 
 complete transformation within the past thirty years. 
 Their acceptance is only a matter of form for the Board 
 of Education. The advice of superintendents is no longer 
 essential except in the way of simplification. This feature 
 of administration has long enough claimed the place of mas- 
 ter. It is time that it be made the servant : it should be a 
 servant whose work should be closely criticised, and modi- 
 fied as occasion requires. This servant, for a long time pre- 
 suming upon the place which the obsequious su})erintend- 
 ent has encouraged it to claim, must under the new phase 
 accept cheerfully the subordinate j)lace. The superiii- 
 tendent, freed from thnilldom, will have time to devote 
 himself to more important work. The servant will stay, 
 but the general character of its service is so well estab- 
 lished, and so universally accepted, that the course of 
 study need occupy but little time of either board or su])- 
 erintendent. 
 
 Acceptance of these views will sliow that relations of 
 superintendent and board are co-ordinate in very large
 
 140 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 measure. Each has its distinct province, not independent, 
 but complementary. , 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 superintendent's relation TO AGENCIES FOR 
 IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHERS. 
 
 Two serious difficulties stand in the way of the success 
 of public schools of the United States : 
 
 1. The large proportion of inexperienced teachers em- 
 ployed. 
 
 2. The lack of professional spirit, and consequent me- 
 chanical methods in teaching. 
 
 1. Eapid increase in population makes the employ- 
 ment of new teachers a necessity. The still more rapid 
 growth in the use of the public school as an agency in 
 education makes this necessity greater. "Within the last 
 decade population has increased twenty-five per cent, 
 school attendance twenty-six per cent. This increase 
 requires an average addition of nearly six thousand teach- 
 ers annually — two per cent of the entire corps. This in- 
 fusion would hardly be noticed if the main body remained 
 unchanged. Statistics, however, show that twenty jjer 
 cent of the body is removed each year by resignation or 
 otherwise. Twenty-two per cent of new material will 
 give a decided coloring to the mass. It becomes a serious 
 question with superintendents of all grades, " Where can 
 this inexperience be placed with least detriment to the 
 schools ? " To superintendents of rural districts the ques- 
 tion will prove unanswerable.
 
 AGENCIES FOR IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHERS. 141 
 
 To city superintendents there comes the opportunity 
 for a successful answer if they have the wisdom to guide 
 them in preparing the fit place for the new teacher by 
 making such changes as are possible within the corps. 
 This requires much tact and often considerable nerve. 
 Inexperience is sometimes so crass as to leave the super- 
 intendent no choice as to the place upon which it shall 
 fall. Patient helpfulness may bring in the light and 
 change after first assignment may reduce the evil. 
 
 2. The large majority of teachers in the United States 
 being of the sex that honors itself by assuming the posi- 
 tion of wifehood and motherhood when a favorable oppor- 
 tunity is presented, it will be found next to impossible to 
 awaken in the entire corps of teachers a pure professional 
 spirit. Their school-teaching is but a temporary matter. A 
 few years ago an estimate made in one of our most pro- 
 gressive cities proved the average term of service to be but 
 little more than three years, though in a few instances 
 more than a score of years marked the period of service. 
 With woman's determination to make herself independ- 
 ent, and with the better opportunities opened to her for 
 higher positions and for equal pay with men who render 
 similar service, there is a growing purpose to make teach- 
 ing a life-work. This purpose it is within the power 
 of the superintendent to foster. He must meet the old 
 theory that " competition determines wages " with the 
 newer theory that salary is attached to place and not to 
 person, and when places are vacant the most competent 
 persons available should be called to fill them, witliout 
 regard to sex. 
 
 In the two features sketched above the United States 
 are in an unfavorable conditio i for comparison with soiiio 
 European states which are just now held up l)<'ff)rc us to 
 our discredit. When the same stability of jiopi^lation
 
 142 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 shall appear in America as upon the Continent of Europe, 
 we shall find ourselves freed from the constant pressure 
 for more school-houses and more teachers, and shall have 
 time for the improvement of what we have. 
 
 Our political conditions demand of us material but 
 poorly prej)ared for civil service ; our rapidly growing in- 
 dustries can not wait for fully educated laborers. In the 
 rush to supply the demand, more has been thought of 
 apparent than of real preparation. Our school-work has 
 been superficial, unsubstantial, as are all the structures 
 first erected in a new and rapidly growing country. 
 
 In our haste the materials have not been properly 
 scanned. The eager theorist has found a more ready ear 
 than the practical philosopher. In " rotation in office " 
 we have found the opportunity for changing theorists, 
 who serve long enough to see the fallacy of their theories, 
 bnt not loug enough to make the needed correction. 
 
 Superintendents are rej)resentatives of the current 
 thought. If they attempt to lead, they acquire strength 
 to do so just as " rotation in office " invites them to use 
 that strength in some other field. 
 
 But discussion of facts will not change conditions at 
 once — will not lead directly to the cure of errors. 
 
 How can superintendents gradually change the con- 
 ditions, indirectly cure errors ? They can not check rapid 
 growth in population; they can not increase the number 
 of experienced teachers. Their work lies in the direction 
 of substituting for practical experience an inexperience 
 grounded upon some better theories than have yet pre- 
 vailed — an inexperience coupled with better information, 
 with loftier purpose, and with some degree of professional 
 zeal. 
 
 1. Professional schools for teachers are as necessary as 
 for physicians, lawyers, and clergymen. Germany, whose
 
 AGENCIES FOR IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHERS. 143 
 
 schools are held up to us as models of efficiency, makes 
 much of her uormal schools. 
 
 Horace Mann, the leader of educational thought a gen- 
 eration ago in Massachusetts, considered normal schools 
 the fountain-head of educational forces. In the normal 
 schools established as the result of his wise administra- 
 tion the public-school system of Massachusetts is strongly 
 intrenched. They are repositories of educational history, 
 educational philosophy, and of the psychology of child- 
 life. They have gathered from the Old World accepted 
 and approved theories which they adapt to the conditions 
 of the New World. Their teachers have had long and 
 successful practice in their profession. Their students are 
 brought face to face with the probabilities of the school- 
 room, and are taught the methods of meeting probable 
 difficulties in instruction and in discipline. They some- 
 times have brief opportunities for trial in the school-room 
 under the eye of an expert critic. 
 
 The conditions of this trial seldom find their parallel 
 in the school-room to which these " pupil teachers " are 
 introduced after graduation, but conditions are in a meas- 
 ure similar, and the inexperienced ones feel less timidity 
 after the " practice " they have had. The " State Super- 
 intendent" will not fail to urge the establishment and 
 improvement of " State Normal Schools " in number suf- 
 ficient for the training of all who desire to make a pro- 
 fession of teaching. Through no other agency can he so 
 readily infuse life into the schools of his State. Side by 
 side with normal schools he will place those colleges and 
 universities which provide a course in pedagogics as ])art 
 of a liberal education. State recognition of normal-school 
 diplomas, and of college and university certificates of pro- 
 ficiency in pedagogics (especially when accompanied by 
 diplomas of graduation) will induce many teachers to
 
 144: SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 seek such diplomas or certificates. Here may be laid the 
 foundation for teaching as one of "the learned profes- 
 sions." " Normal schools are an organic part of the mod- 
 ern system of popular education for the perfection of all 
 its departments. They are the coadjutors of the district 
 officer, county superintendent, and State Superintendent. 
 They are established as a signal service in every quarter 
 of the educational horizon, to report currents and to give 
 warnings of danger. They are the pledged enemy of 
 every educational heresy in government or instruction, 
 the advocates and friends of honest work. 
 
 "The university professor may have his chair, and 
 from it satisfy a well-established demand ; but the nor- 
 mal-school professor must live in his saddle in the field 
 and on the march. 
 
 " The demand laid upon normal schools is that they 
 comprehend the best scholarship, the most advanced 
 thought upon the philosophy of teaching, with not only 
 the history of pedagogics of the past, but its problems of 
 the present in process of solution, aggressive and loyal to 
 the best interests of the people." * 
 
 The county superintendent may do efficient work in 
 the support of normal schools by recognizing their diplo- 
 mas in his examination of teachers, by encouraging prom- 
 ising youth in their attendance, by availing himself in 
 county institutes of the service of normal-school teachers. 
 In some States, as in Wisconsin, each normal school has 
 one teacher who is specially qualified for the management 
 of county institutes, and whose time is largely devoted to 
 this kind of field-work. The county superintendent may 
 be still more effective if himself a graduate of some nor- 
 
 * D. L. Kiehle, Superintendent of Public Instruction for Minne- 
 sota, Education, vol. iii, p. 433.
 
 AGENCIES FOR IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHERS. 145 
 
 mal school. His work will so commend itself to public 
 approval that electors will come to regard normal training 
 as an essential qualification for a candidate for the office. 
 
 In every State where a normal school is established the 
 county superintendent may, at least, secure a graduate as 
 an assistant in normal institutes. If any State is so un- 
 fortunate as to be without a normal school, there is no tax 
 uj^on importation of good material out of which to make 
 institute conductors, until such time as home manufact- 
 ures are brought into the market. 
 
 The city superintendent has better opportunity to ren- 
 der effective aid to the normal school than the county su- 
 perintendent, since the places at his command are far less 
 numerous than the applicants. Many cities have " train- 
 ing-schools for teachers," and supply their needs largely 
 therefrom. These are normal schools of limited range 
 with one purpose in view — the preparation of those who 
 are considered as of right entitled to vacant places in the 
 ranks of teachers. Right at this point there is danger. 
 The graduates of a city training-school are those who have 
 had their education entirely in the schools they hope to 
 enter as teachers. The peculiar features of the schools of 
 the city are thus perpetuated. Old errors live, with a little 
 polish which gives them the appearance of youth. Blood 
 grows too thin for vigorous life. Transfusion is the rem- 
 edy. Care must be taken that transfusion comes from a 
 body which has been dilFereutly fed, and whose blood con- 
 tains elements not found in that of the patient. The new 
 element need not be proportionally large, but of such 
 prominence in its manifestation tliat the old takes note 
 of and inwardly digests the new ideas. New comers are 
 generally experienced teachers. If to their experience can 
 be added a proper normal training, the city superintend- 
 ent may rely upon improvement in the work done — an 
 11
 
 146 SCHOOL SUrERYISION. 
 
 improvement which will help lift his school machinery 
 out of the well-worn ruts to the greater freedom of a well- 
 kept highway. There are normal schools and normal 
 schools. This fact needs to be recognized, lest cut-and- 
 dried "methods," so called, prove a burden which will only 
 deepen the ruts, or break the machinery when an attempt 
 is made to extricate it. 
 
 2. All superintendents may make use of another agency 
 for improvement of teachers — that of " associations " or 
 "teachers' meetings." Into city and county associations 
 all teachers may be brought. They will profit by discussion 
 of matters which come into their every-day work. Seed- 
 thoughts are sown — in some soil they will germinate — 
 ■ fruit will be abundant or scarce, according to the quality 
 of the soil ; but some fruit everywhere, or at least a little 
 eilort at fruit, though only green stalks and leaves appear. 
 
 These associations projDerly conducted will not make 
 over inefficient teachers at once, but they will make all 
 who attend them less inefficient, as the quickening of a 
 new thought gives them courage to modify their old meth- 
 ods, or to break up the habit of mechanically following 
 the methods used by others. They may be made to in- 
 spire the copyist with the determination to 2)nt more of 
 himself into his work. They will acquaint all with the 
 successes or failures of each, and through known success 
 show the way to overcome failure. To all who take part 
 in these meetings there comes an earnest purpose to 
 prove their theories of practical application. Self-hood 
 is strengthened, not in the line of enlarged idiosyncra- 
 sies, Avhich makes the teacher a " crank," but in the 
 line of pruning until the interior life shall manifest 
 itself equally in all parts of the being in harmony and 
 in strength. 
 
 State associations are usually less generally attended ;
 
 AGEXCIES FOR IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHERS. 147 
 
 but the leaders are there, and their deliberations are made 
 available to all through the agency of the press. 
 
 Superintendents who control the employment of teach- 
 ers should by all means insist upon every teacher subscrib- 
 ing for, paying for, and reading one good periodical de- 
 voted to his calling. There is no better agency for the 
 improvement of teachers than the regular visits of an 
 issue from the press which comes laden with the best 
 thoughts of the best thinkers put into the best form. In 
 no other way can the teacher so easily keep abreast of the 
 times. 
 
 But one who reads only that which savors of the shop, 
 and confines himself solely to educational literature, will 
 find himself abreast of the times, but miserably ignorant 
 of what is in the times worth his knowing, and of that 
 which will reward him for the effort he makes to keep 
 abreast. It is impossible for any one in these days to 
 know all that is in the times, but some one line of study 
 will keep him inside and under their potent influence. 
 
 The superintendent will, therefore, encourage in all 
 w^ays a line of study outside of the routine of school- 
 work. In these latter days organizations for such study 
 are abundant. " Teachers' reading circles " are estab- 
 lished in some States. " Chautauqua Literary and Sci- 
 entific Societies " are found everywhere. " Magazine 
 clul)s," "book clubs," "history clubs," "art clubs," for 
 winter helps, and then the opportunities for vacation 
 study in the " summer schools " in science, in literature, 
 in language, etc., leave no excuse for the cobwebs and 
 dust of the school-room which obscure so many minds. 
 The polish of " vacation trips " abroad is within tlie means 
 of many. 
 
 Example as well as precept will prove a force uplifting 
 till the horizon is extended and the chains are broken
 
 148 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 which have attached the teacher to a machine that grinds 
 out pupils to the requisite " percentage " of fineness. 
 
 The " freedom of the teacher " will be perfect when 
 superintendents shall have persuaded each to some per- 
 sistent use of the various agencies sketched above.
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 RELATION OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO MORALITY 
 AND RELIGION* 
 
 Two facts are in such general accord with human experience 
 and so confront human observation as to challenge denial. They 
 are undisputed because they are indisputable. The first fact is : 
 Man passes judgment upon the voluntary acts of his fellow-man, 
 more or less decided in proportion as lie becomes personally 
 affected by the acts criticised. The estimate he puts upon the 
 character of his neighbor is the average of these judgments. 
 Each man becomes to the mind of the other truthful, generous, 
 upright, honorable, false, parsimonious, tricky, treacherous, just 
 as his outward acts, which are acccjrted as the expression of his 
 inner life, interpret him. A lino is drawn u))on one or the other 
 side of which each man's judgment places all his uc(juaintances. 
 This discriminating faculty argues the existence of the moral 
 sense. It takes cognizance of morals either upon the lower plane 
 of man's conduct toward his fellows or upon the higher plane of 
 man's relation to his God. The first fact restated in another form 
 is : Every man possesses a moral sense, and is sure to exercise it 
 at least in his judgment of others. 
 
 The second fact is : All men are subjects of moral influence. 
 It may reach only the outer act, or it may extend to the inner 
 spring of action. It may affect only manners, or it may extend 
 
 * This essay was prepitred for and published in " Education," May, 
 1888, and is by permL-sion republished here.
 
 150 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 to morals. Both are parts of the same whole : the one the dress, 
 the expression ; the other the life, the thing expressed. 
 
 That man lives not for himself alone is not with him a matter 
 of choice, but of necessity. He is not alone susceptible to influ- 
 ence from others. The unconscious exercise of this power is a 
 fact beyond question. The effort to restrain it only strengthens 
 it. Let a man purposely step aside from the ordinary course of 
 human life, and a peculiar fascination attends him and increases 
 his influence. In a crowded street let one stop absorbed in 
 thought and gaze abstractedly outward or upward. At once 
 many a passer will stop and peer into space. Even he who dis- 
 dains the thought of being under the influence of another hesi- 
 tates or in his resolution nervously quickens his pace. His falt- 
 ering or his hurrying betrays him. No man lives who does not 
 owe his habits of bodily movements, of phrased speech, to a 
 greater or less degree, to those with whom he has been in con- 
 tact. The choice of an occupation is often predetermined by 
 the silent influence of some friend, whose life has spoken, though 
 his tongue has been speechless. 
 
 The character is built of material which has been silently and 
 secretly dropped by the way, as well as of that which has been 
 purchased and delivered. Thus in our manners, which are the 
 morals of the lower plane, and in our characters, which are the 
 morals of the upper plane, we are objective recipients and sub- 
 jective factors. The question is not whether or not we shall 
 have any education in morals, but it is. What shall be its char- 
 acter ? 'We can not destroy our moral influence, but we can de- 
 termine its character. We can not shield our children against 
 either the patent or the latent influence of their associates, but 
 we may determine in some degree, at least, the character of those 
 into whose presence they are brought. 
 
 Turning now from these considerations, which pertain to our 
 personality, let us think of the organization of such individuals as 
 bearing upon the direction of influence, the culture of the moral 
 sense. Three prominent organizations seem to have divine sanc- 
 tion — the home, the Church, the State. These are independent 
 and, at the same time, interdependent. Each has its place, dis- 
 tinct from the others, but allied in such a manner as to render
 
 APPENDIX A. 151 
 
 their severance positively injurious to human interests as pre- 
 sented in God's plans for their advancement. With but one of 
 these organizations is this essay concerned, except in this in- 
 direct way of allied interests. And with the State only in its 
 educational work have I to deal. 
 
 John Stuart Mill defines the province of government "to in- 
 crease to the utmost the pleasures and to diminish to the utmost 
 the pains which men derive from each other. " Horace Mann has 
 well said : "All the powers of the mightiest nation can never 
 prevent bad men from doing wrong. The only way to diminish 
 the amount of wrong in the world is to diminish the number of 
 bad men." 
 
 The State is not organized, as some assert, as an immense 
 police force for the detection and punishment of criminals, but 
 it has the higher mission of prevention. A citizen kept from 
 becoming a bad man is worth far more than a citizen reformed. 
 The demand of the State is for virtuous as well as for intelligent 
 citizens. All occasion for arguing the need of virtue as funda- 
 mental to the State is removed by a glance at legislation from 
 the earliest time to the present day. It takes shape in enact- 
 ments, which foster homes, the best soil out of which springs 
 virtuous living ; which favor cJiurches, designed for the molding 
 and perfecting of character ; which establish schools, having for 
 their object the development of a complete manhood. Under- 
 standing well the necessity of supi)lementing the work of the 
 inefBcient home, of the limited church, of private enterprise 
 beyond the reach of many citizens, the State has undertaken to 
 suj)port at public expense a system of schools suited to her needs, 
 and limited only by the principle underlying her organization. 
 In discussing this sul)ject, it is quite jjopular to say the State 
 has no riglit to provide for the support of any other than secular 
 institutions. There are still such officers of the Church as are 
 styled secular priests. Religious organizations care for temporal 
 interests. They separate them from tlie distinctively sjjiritual 
 concerns of the Church. Accepting this s(i)aration, it by no 
 means follows tiiat all motives to virtuous conduct, to right liv- 
 ing, iu-e to be taken out of the one class of duties and assigned 
 solely to the other. Is not a moral life essential to happiness,
 
 152 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 even though no thought be sent outside the limits of this life, 
 bej'ond the confines of this world ? Let the State concern her- 
 self with the affairs of this life and of this world — the sphere of 
 her actions. She can not do otherwise, so far as positive enact- 
 ments are concerned, without violation of the principle upon 
 which the American State is founded. But without a ' ' State 
 church " she may, as she does, foster Churches within the State, 
 because of their helpfulness in the production of virtuous citizen- 
 ship, which is essential to the State in her secular capacity. Our 
 earliest lawgivers and our wisest statesmen have ever made virtue 
 as prominent as intelligence in the legislation which has looked 
 to the perpetuity of the State. Many filled with sectarian preju- 
 dice or partisan bias will assent to nothing which conflicts with 
 their particular views of ecclesiastical or civil polity. They are 
 right. But is there not for their particular views a common 
 foundation ? Enactments which have stood the test of two cent- 
 uries and more, and which to-day are accepted by all wise men, 
 witness to common ground. 
 
 The peculiar features of the early educational enactments 
 have reappeared as new States have arisen, and to-day not one is 
 found which ignores the necessity of good moral character as a 
 prerequisite to a teacher's license. The law not alone recognizes 
 the right of the State to demand moral qualifications in the 
 teacher, but it enforces the duty of exercising this right most 
 zealously. But, law aside, in determining the qualifications of 
 a teacher of youth there are certain conditions which every man 
 in a civilized community would affix. These may be briefly 
 stated as follows ; There must be no disregard of the religious 
 observances of his patrons, as shown in critical words, disturb- 
 ing acts, sneering allusions, or slighting mockery ; no want of 
 respect for those who had nurtured him in helplessness ; no 
 profane swearing ; no uncontrollable temper endangering the 
 bodily comfort and life of pupils ; no unchaste life, nor even 
 Its outward symbol, unchaste language ; no untruthfulness ; 
 no slanderous tongue ; no covetous spirit shown in stealthy ac- 
 quisition of the property of others. 
 
 Any one of these would, in the estimation of every reasonable 
 man, be a marked di3qualification for the office of teacher. No
 
 APPENDIX A. 153 
 
 man lives who would not brand with infamy the authorities who 
 would knowingly place :n the teacher's chair one thus disqualified. 
 From so corrupt a fountain no healthy influence could flow. 
 Upon this one point at least all can agree. Will any man recall 
 his verdict of condemnation, if upon examination he shall find 
 that all the specifications recited above are but repetition of the 
 "Mosaic law"? Are the vices condemned any the less odious 
 because forbidden in the revelation God makes of himself in the 
 Bible ? Are the opposite virtues less to be desired because the 
 Bible enforces their practice ? Why need we be so particular 
 about the character of our teachers, if that character is to have no 
 weight in the instruction of our children ? No extent of intel- 
 lectual culture, no accomplishment however dazzling, can atone 
 for the lack of a virtuous life. Eecurring to one of the principles 
 stated at the outset, we must admit that it is the real teacher-life 
 which takes hold of the child life. The outer adornment opens 
 the channel to the child's soul. It is quite certain that he, who 
 so persistently urges the possession of a good moral character as 
 requisite to the teacher, will not forbid its silent influence at least 
 upon the taught. But let us consider the particular manifesta- 
 tions of this life in the teacher. He will impress the importance 
 of the work of the school-room by his own devotion to the work. 
 Under the influence of his spirit of whole-hearted devotion, his 
 pupil's Avork assumes vast importance. It can not be neglected 
 nor indifferently done without violence to his moral sense. The 
 spirit of work pervades the place, and the best effort of the teacher 
 insures a corresponding effort on the part of his pupil. Obedi- 
 ence to law is another element of a virtuous life. He is best 
 fitted to command who has learned to obey. The requirements 
 of the schools are as essential to the teacher as to the pupil. A 
 regular programme faithfully followed; scrupulous attention to 
 habits of punctuality, of neatness of person and attire, of care of 
 desk or table; quiet and courteous demeanor; recognition of the 
 rights of others even if they be inferiors; respect for those in 
 authority shown in language and in deportment— these all deter- 
 mine the extent of a teacher's influence and serve as a true index 
 to his character; these far outweigh his words of caution or re- 
 proof.
 
 154 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 Again, it is not within the range of possibility for a teacher, 
 ■who indulges in practices that need concealment or apology or 
 explanation even, to elude the watchful eye of some or of all his 
 pupils. No promise, however trivial it may seem to the teacher, 
 is trivial to the child. A forgotten promise, a hasty word, a wrong 
 judgment, are possible to human error, but known and not con- 
 fessed they leave a scar upon the child's character, or they create 
 distrust which hardens the mind against better impressions. An 
 apology to a child gives the heart of the child to the teacher, and 
 makes certain a more considerate conduct on his part toward his 
 fellows. Not to take up more time with details, devotion to 
 duty, obedience to law, consistency of conduct, and an unselfish 
 seeking of the general good, are certainly essentials of citizenship, 
 and should be prominent in our schools if we would have them 
 appear in the nation's life. 
 
 Thus far in the discussion I have brought forward only what 
 legislation has enforced by its sanctions — legislation which has 
 stood the test of practical experiment under the scrutiny of men 
 of all shades of religious belief and of political preferences. I 
 have adduced but one channel through which compliance with 
 legislative requirements may be obtained, the silent channel of 
 the teacher's influence. Thus far we are permitted to go without 
 a word of dissent. Denied this channel, the public school has no 
 right to exist; for thus it must utterly fail in the development of 
 virtuous character, more essential to American citizenship than 
 mere brain-culture. A mental giant destitute of moral principle 
 becomes the bane of the State. His power to do evil unre- 
 strained by his own convictions of right is exercised to the sub- 
 version of the State, or to its prostitution to the service of his 
 own base ends. The State must for its own preservation see to it 
 that her legislation, designed to secure the influence of a virtuous 
 life in the teacher, fails not of its purpose. No State is so 
 suicidal in its acts as to demand a virtuous teacher, and then 
 forbid the exercise of the influence sought. 
 
 But there are other silent factors in the building of character. 
 They are the books read and the associates sought by the child. 
 The ability to read, cultivated properly in the public school, 
 arouses the thirst for acquisition by reading. To sate this thirst.
 
 APPENDIX A. 155 
 
 resort is had to the nearest springs. These are often poisoned 
 springs. The child may not detect them in his thirst. Shall 
 the teacher be denied the right of caution, of positive advice 
 even, when he knows the danger before the pupil ? 
 
 The State orders the purchase of libraries. Stringent laws 
 are passed and enforced against the publication and the sale of 
 obscene literature. Many books not under the ban of the law are 
 corrupt in tendency, and their general reading is sapping the 
 morals of society and endangering the safety of the State. The 
 right of caution and of advice will be denied by none. As to 
 choice of associates, is there harm in admitting positive precepts 
 in accord with the life required ? 
 
 One step further, upon which there may not be the same 
 unanimity of sentiment. 
 
 The legal requirements as to the qualification of teachers 
 develop the purpose of the State in their enactment. That pur- 
 pose is, that the high character so zealously insisted upon shall 
 have influence over the lives of pupils. To this end there should 
 be no restraints put upon the teacher's use of means which will 
 secure the most successful accomplishment of the purpose of the 
 State. 
 
 With a Christian teacher — and our public schools are to-day 
 largely in the hands of such — the Bible read without commeut 
 serves as a potent means of increasing moral influence. 
 
 Myself a firm believer in the autliority of the sacred Scriptures, 
 I follow what I believe to be their teachings when I say that they 
 address themselves to the consciences of men, winning, not forc- 
 ing their acceptance. Requirement of their use is hardly in con- 
 sonance with their spirit, and prohibition of their use is in the 
 highest degree illiberal and sectarian. The teacher is imder obli- 
 gations to exert the highest moral influence of which he is capa- 
 ble. State laws enforce this obligation. In meeting it, the 
 teacher should be left free to act within the limits of regard to 
 the rights of others. No book contains better maxims, no code 
 of morals more pertinent precepts, than the Bible, and its use 
 should not be prohibited to any discreet teacher. 
 
 Religion is but the expression of a universal acknowledgment 
 of dependence upon a power outside of, and almost universally
 
 156 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 higher than, ourselves. This idea of dependence enforces certain 
 obligations. These obligations may, nay, must be impressed, or 
 violence is done to our natures. Instruction in duties to our God 
 and to our fellows should never degenerate into the inculcation 
 of opinions as to minor and non-essential points of belief or 
 polity. No one questions the right of the State to enforce the 
 positive inculcation of the duty of patriotism, nor is this duty 
 the less pressing because he who is to enforce it may have certain 
 views upon civil polity which may make him a partisan in his 
 own acts. 
 
 What patriotism is to partisanship religion is to sectarianism. 
 Each is the whole in its spirit and essence universally received, 
 while the form may vary with the varying mood of the indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 The genius of our Government forbids only the spirit of the 
 proselyte, the trade of the partisan. It favors the life of the 
 patriot, the influence of the man who goes forth full of the 
 catholic spirit of that religion which is drawn from the Bible. 
 
 "The worst education which teaches simplicity and self- 
 denial is better than the best which teaches all else but this."
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 WBAT SHALL WE DO WITH THE BOYS?* 
 
 " O, 'tis a parlous boy ; 
 Bold, quick, ingenious, forward, capable." 
 
 — Shakespeare, Richard III. 
 
 Thus sings the poet. But what are boys in prose ? The 
 physiologist will tell you that they belong to the kingdom Ani- 
 malui, subkingdom Vertebrata, class Mammalut, order Bimana, 
 etc., which, being interpreted, is an animal with a backbone, 
 more or less flexible, according to constitution inherited or anger 
 aroused, drawing his sustenance from the mother, sometimes 
 even into the period of manhood ; having two hands fitted to 
 seize whatever attracts the eye, whether it be the bright flame, 
 the gaudy picture, or the irised bul>ble for the child — the pretty 
 toy, the luscious fruit, or the glittering gold for the youth, and 
 often without wise regard to the nice distinction tliat should be 
 observed between wewm and tuum ; hands fitted to hold firmly 
 to a playmate's top or marble, to a cat's tail, to the limb of a 
 tree, or the rungs of a ladder, if by so doing he can tease his 
 friend or alarm his mamma ; hands fitted to store away treasures 
 in a pocket so capacious and so well filled as to suggest his 
 classification amonf^ Marsupial if i ; hands adajjted to skillful use 
 of the knife in carving initials (his own or hers) upon tree, fence- 
 panel, or school-desk, of the crayon and the pencil, through tlie 
 
 * An addres.s delivered before the National Educational Association, at 
 Minneapolis, August 4, 1875.
 
 158 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 use of which he is able to express his admiration or disgust ; 
 hands that can wield a bat, and thus permit him to display the 
 color of his hose upon the field ; that can send a quiver along the 
 fishing-rod giving appearance of life to the alluring bait ; that 
 can guide the fleet pony's course or dip well the oar ; hands 
 whose great value is recognized at meal-times, and wliicli would 
 be missed greatly between meals ; hands which in more compact 
 form may serve the purpose of defending outraged rights or of 
 maintaining the right of superiority of strength ; hands, too, 
 which may be beautifully helpful of mother, sister, or friend in 
 the discharge of those kind offices to which the worst bpy is not 
 at all times a stranger. These distinguishing hands "are re- 
 moved," as has been well said, "from the locomotive system and 
 attached to the cephalic system " that they may serve the head 
 or the heart with readiness. 
 
 We are thus brought to the psychologist who describes the 
 boy as a germ full of possibilities, but needing sunshine and 
 moisture that it may grow to fruitage. 
 
 While revolving in my mind a fit phrase for a suggested 
 thought, I was instantly relieved of embarrassment as my eye fell 
 upon an article by Miss Brackett in The New England Journal 
 of Education, entitled The Teacher in Dreamland. In gratitude 
 I shall quote occasionally, as it may suit the progress of my theme, 
 the key to the whole being found in these words : "Children 
 are in much the same state through all their childhood that we 
 older people are in when we dream. As with us when asleep, 
 so with the child. He has no past nor future, but lives in a con- 
 tinual present. He would choose one bite of an apple to-day 
 rather than a barrelful to-morrow. As he grows from childhood 
 to manhood, he, of course, grows out of the imagination land and 
 into that of comparison and judgment, as we do wlien we wake." 
 
 All the powers needed in the strong man are in existence in 
 the boy. They are immature, not settled each to its proper place ; 
 not yet adjusted each to the other ; now one, now another, com- 
 ing to the surface and challenging particular attention, but, under 
 skillful direction, developing processes which will articulate the 
 parts and make in time a symmetrical wholej a living organism 
 destined for noble uses.
 
 APPENDIX B. 159 
 
 Hence our inquiries are not complete until we have asked the 
 instructor about our boys. The boy in school is an unsolved 
 riddle to most teachers. The wise instructor knows well the 
 value of the restless longing of one, of the quick perception of 
 another ; of the inflammable temper of this one, of the perfect 
 imperturbability of that one ; of John's conceit, of Thomas's self- 
 distrust, of William's impetuosity, and of James's sluggishness. 
 He understands thoroughly the spring of Ben's bubbling mirth, 
 and the deep well of Isaac's gloom. He expects diversity in 
 tendencies, and is not disajipointed when one appears with the 
 nine digits under perfect command in all possible instances, and 
 another enveloped in a cipher. He will not be surprised to find 
 one boy who can marshal the trooping letters in the form de- 
 manded for any English word, while another makes worse work 
 of it than would a raw recruit in directing the movements of dis- 
 ciplined soldiers who, in strict obedience to the orders given, 
 make a laughing- stock of the officer in command. He knows in 
 advance that one boy will as naturally take to arithmetic as does 
 another to fishing or to hunting birds' nests ; that one will read 
 readily and well, while another will never give the sense of the 
 author read, unless by accident ; that written forms come in all 
 their beauty from the finger-ends of one, while another laboring 
 witli both tongue and pen fails to leave intelligible traces of what 
 he thought to do ; that one can tell whether he knows or not, but 
 his seat-mate knows and can not tell. 
 
 He is sure that one boy will be distressingly good, and an- 
 other fearfully mischievous, and yet another willfully vicious. 
 He appreciates the fact that in eacli of these surface ap])earanccs 
 there is something of value which may, with care and by proper 
 affiliation with other forces not so apparent but as real, eject the 
 evil and furnish a home for the good. 
 
 The question comes with force to every instructor, '.' What 
 shall we do with the boys ? " these two-handed torments — these 
 merry mischief-makers — these willful will-o'-the-wisps — these 
 indeterminate intellects — these germs of greatness or seed-buds 
 of sin. 
 
 What shall we do with tliem ? What can we do without 
 them ? The men of the future are in the boys of the present. In
 
 160 SCnOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 the wild, rollicking youngsters of to-day you may see the staid 
 men of affairs of the twentieth centurj\ 
 
 If in the remaining part of this essay I shall confine myself 
 to the troublesome boys, I need offer no apology, for I am sure 
 that you have expected nothing else since your eyes fell upon the 
 title given in the programme. 
 
 Some analysis of the constituent elements of the boy-nature 
 seems essential to our purpose. 
 
 Underlying the whole, and interpreting the peculiarities ob- 
 servable, is the dream-life of the child already alluded to and 
 described as the time when "everything seems indifferent to us," 
 because there is no conscious "continuity of existence." There 
 is no recognized relation between the act of the moment and the 
 effect which the future will make apparent. 
 
 Very little benefit comes from past exiDcriences, since the boy 
 sees not the similarity of tendencies. To him each act which he 
 commits is independent of all other acts, neither modifying nor 
 modified by any other. What appear to older heads as glaring 
 inconsistencies do not disturb him in the least, for his "imagina- 
 tion is evidently awake, " while his ' ' faculties of comparison and 
 judgment are asleep." Duty means but little to him. Inclina- 
 tion, often as fickle as the wind, is his master. His emotional 
 nature runs riot with his reason. He can be good, bad, and in- 
 different all in the same day, and perhaps every hour of the 
 day. Animal spirits abound, and they find vent in a thousand 
 ways. He is frisky as a lamb, if his disposition be lamb-like ; 
 playful as a kitten, if he be on the watch for prey ; mettlesome as 
 a colt, if he feel the stirrings of imprisoned power. His young 
 animal life holds sway, and it is not always under the control of 
 reason nor of will. Fanciful suggestions are as real, for the time, 
 as the most sober truths, and have as much value to his mind. 
 
 This introduces another element, that of implicit trust. Full 
 as he is of rhythm of physical movement, he knows nothing of 
 figures of speech. He can balance his body, but he can not 
 weigh words. All words to him express one thought each, or 
 no thought at all. He believes what he is told. The old nurse's 
 tales of ghosts and of sprites are not yet shaken off my mind. 
 Reason has not yet worn out my credulity.
 
 APPENDIX B. IGl 
 
 This ready assent to all that is told the boy indicates an un- 
 limited capacity for reception, and accounts for an irrepressible 
 curiosity, another important element in boy-nature. He liangs 
 with rapt attention upon the lips of a good story-teller. He de- 
 vours with eager eyes all flaming posters and the street proces- 
 sions which they have heralded. He fears lest his companion 
 shall see more of the antics of the organ-grinder's monkey than 
 have fallen to his lot to witness. The tajj of a drum, the waving 
 of a flag, the alarm of fire, will add wings to his feet, and crowded 
 to the front in all scenes of excitement or of danger will be found 
 the boys of the neighborhood. 
 
 With curiosity comes ambition. Desire to excel in whatever 
 happens to be the pursuit of the moment is far more constant 
 than is the thing pursued. In leaping, running, ball-throwing, 
 climbing, shouting, whistling, he hates to be outdone. He will 
 venture further than the last boy who tried it upon any path of 
 danger that is open to him, and will open new paths if unsuc- 
 cessful in the old ones. Failing to be at the head of boys of his 
 age and size, he will enter a company where he will be lord, even 
 though he descends through several grades before he reaches the 
 place where he can win the coveted honor. 
 
 But, in spite of this last element, there is a keen sense of jus- 
 tice in almost every boy. His own opinion of what is just may 
 be based upon very insufficient evidence — it may be held without 
 much color of right, but what ai)pears to him to be justice must 
 be done though the heavens fall. His opinions, too, may be 
 colored by his interests, and justice to himself may be his sole 
 consideration. He may not recognize at all the rights of others, 
 but he will soon sliow that lie recognizes his own rights, and that 
 he will defend tliera to tlie last extremity. 
 
 The love of approbation gives spur to ambition. The boy 
 loves to do and to dare, not alone for the consciousness of ability 
 to do, but because of the smiles which will reward his effort. 
 
 The boy is intensely partisan. He becomes judicial only as 
 he begins to reason. His hate is as strong as liis love, and lie 
 can assign no ground for eitlier except his always ready "be- 
 cause." He espouses warmly the cause of tlie teacher wliom he 
 respects, and becomes the Ijitter enemy of tlie one who fails to 
 12
 
 162 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 comprehend him. He is loyal to his convictions, be they well- 
 founded or ill-founded. He is always true to his party, whether 
 it be the party in power in the school-room or not. This fact 
 no teacher can slightingly overlook. 
 
 But to the last I have reserved the most important element 
 demanding consideration. It is that incomprehensible vital force 
 which asserts itself in all animal nature. The boy feels it, but 
 he can not understand it. It is the man in the boy pressing for 
 development. Almost incredible stories are told of the growth 
 power of vegetables — the lifting of immense weights by the 
 growing of a pumpkin — the bursting of strong bands by the 
 inherent growth force of a confined potato. These forces are 
 susceptible of measurement, and are tangible because dealing 
 with matter ; but the man-life in the boy-germ is just as real, 
 though not as readily estimated. The presence of this interior 
 force sometimes produces strange freaks. We find premature 
 men as well as immature men. There may be hot-bed forcing in 
 the human as in the vegetable world. The growth of the man- 
 life may be repressed or it may be pushed forward. Proof is 
 adduced in the boys who ape men's manners and dress and habits, 
 as well as in the men who are but boys in action and in fitness 
 for life's work. The boys who need the most skillful training 
 are those who have been carried away by the tide of man-life 
 swelling within them, and who have assumed as the motto of 
 their lives, " What man has done, boys may do." 
 
 Thus having placed briefly before myself these important ele- 
 ments in the boy-nature, namely, a natural tendency to ignore 
 both past and future, seeking present gratification, an implicit 
 trust in what he hears, an insatiable curiosity to hear and see all 
 that is new and strange, an ambition to excel in whatever comes 
 to hand, largely for the sake of the approval it brings, a real de- 
 votion to the party securing his support, an earnest desire to see 
 justice done — to himself, at least — and that hidden life-force 
 which every boy feels, but which no boy comprehends — the ques- 
 tion comes, "How shall we treat the being having such elements 
 in composition ? " 
 
 Briefly I would answer : Make this boy-life a study, recalling 
 experiences if we are men, and, if not, quickening our observa-
 
 APPENDIX B. 163 
 
 tion. Have no panacea. Recognize individuality. Educate, 
 never break, the vpill of the boy. By all means consistent with 
 justice and right, win the boy's support. Have a tender regard 
 for his rights, correcting gently any misapprehension he may 
 entertain as to their extent. Encourage self-reliance. Exercise 
 watchful care in the truest sympathy. In the further elucidation 
 of these topics it is not my purpose to follow the order thus 
 stated, but to give general illustrations with such particular 
 applications as may be suggested. 
 
 Before attempting particular study of individual cases, some 
 simple classification may be made which will admit of general 
 treatment in large measure, and to the discussion of which the 
 principles already enunciated will be found frequently applicable. 
 At the outset, then, troublesome boys will be found as belonging 
 to one of two classes : 
 
 1. Those with whom bad conduct is a fault. 
 
 2. Those whose bad conduct is crime. 
 
 The treatment of a fault should be radically different from 
 the punishment of a crime. It has been too much the practice 
 to ignore this distinction in the correction of offenders. The 
 fault will be found apparent in offenses against convenience, but 
 crime is an offense against right living. The fault concerns 
 mainly exterior behavior ; the crime corrupts the interior life. 
 Crime embraces fault, but fault is by no means a crime. 
 
 In a few well-cliosen words, Mr. Sill, Superintendent of 
 Schools of Detroit, addressed the teachers of Chicago, impressing 
 the importance of this distinction, on the ground that the chissing 
 of sins against convenience or good order with sins against moral 
 purity always belittles the latter in the minds of boys. If rest- 
 lessness, whispering, inattention, and like faults, bad as they 
 may be, are to furnish occasion for stigmatizing the one who 
 commits them as "the worst boy in school," unworthy to associ- 
 ate with his less faulty fellows, wliat greater punisliment can l)e 
 inflicted for profanity, lying, oljsccnily, and like offijnses against 
 good morals ? Such a course, instead of tending to correct a 
 fault, will foster a crime. The child does not reason for himself. 
 He presumes the teacher to have reasoned, and accepts on trust 
 the judgment rendered in the punishment. He goes out believ-
 
 IQ4: SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 ing that it is no worse for him to swear than to whistle, to steal 
 than to be uneasy in his seat, to lie than to wliisper, no worse to 
 be obscene than to be tardy at scliool. Faults need con-ection 
 lest they lead to crime, but the judgment rendered against faults 
 must in no case be that which crime merits. 
 
 But faulty boys are not all in the same class. Here is one 
 who is neglected at home. He has an improvident father, a dis- 
 heartened or a neglected mother, perhaps no mother at all. He 
 is in school, ragged and dirty. Of sheer necessity he has kept 
 down pride, and his ambition, thwarted in the direction of a re- 
 spectable appearance, leads him to brave out the reproaches of 
 his fellows and to assert his independence of rules of decorum. 
 His discipline needs to be that of a wash-bowl, a comb, and a 
 brush ; and a neat suit of clothes upon his back will do more 
 than the rod. Many a boy I have seen tided over the shoals of 
 bad conduct by being encouraged or helped into a tidy habit. 
 Here is another who has a physical infirmity, not apparent to the 
 teacher, the exact nature of which the boy does not realize. 
 Forgetful of the past, careless of the future, he gratifies present 
 imjDulse at the expense of good behavior. He does not feel sick, 
 but he does feel a little ugly, and the least bit of annoyance of 
 his teacher will gratify him beyond measure. A physician's pre- 
 scription is the best corrective. While I do not believe, with a 
 celebrated physician, that a few leeches applied to the nose will 
 change the moral nature, I have had many cases of ill-conduct 
 brought to my notice which are, without the least shadow of 
 doubt, the direct result of a disordered body. This is especially 
 true of those cases of sudden relapse into sullen or willful mis- 
 conduct, so distressing to the teacher because of his inability to 
 account for them. Intentional wrong-doing is the farthest from 
 the boy's thoughts, but an evil spirit seems to have possessed him 
 beyond his power of resistance, and an evil spirit prompts the 
 teacher to make an example of such an unlooked-for infraction 
 of rules lest advantage be taken of this usually good boy's mis- 
 conduct to the overthrow of good order. In such cases of sudden 
 lapses, the wise teacher will look carefully for the incipient stages 
 of disease. 
 
 Such as have inherited a nervous organism are objects of
 
 APPENDIX B. 165 
 
 sympathy. Repression increases the difficulty. These are the 
 mischievous ones, restless, eager to find a channel tlirough which 
 their activity may flow. Mischief is only misdirected energy. 
 Its spring is the source of the greatest blessing if confined within 
 proper limits. Levees may confine it, but it can not be dammed. 
 
 " lie who checks a child in terror, 
 Stops its play or stills its song, 
 Not alone commits an error, 
 But a grievous moral wrong. 
 
 •' Give it play and never fear it; 
 Active life is no defect ; 
 Never, never break its spirit ; 
 Curb it only to direct. 
 
 *' Would you stop the flowing river? 
 Think you it would cease to flow? 
 Onward it must move forever — 
 Better teach it where to go." 
 
 You are all familiar with plant-life. The twig, feeling the 
 push of the life- principle in the seed, hurries upward toward the 
 light. You may place a stone upon it. Obeying the inner im- 
 pulse, it finds its way to the air. The more frequent the effort 
 at repression, the more constant the determination toward free 
 air and unobstructed light. But what distortion results from 
 such treatment, unless, forsooth, a more welcome death comes 
 to the relief of the tortured plant, and too late reveals the un- 
 wisdom of the cultivator I Many a crooked, distorted man of 
 to-day bears the marks of the weighing down of his youthful 
 energy. " OIi, that I might do something!" is the agonizing 
 cry of the nervous boy ; and he is driven to desperation by the 
 cold command, "Keep still !" "I can not, oh, I can not !" 
 cries the boy. "You must 1" is the reply. Thus the conflict 
 goes on, and, under an enforced quiet exterior, there are boilings 
 of hate and piottings of ill which the unwise teacher must realize 
 too late for correction. 
 
 Tlierc are two classes of faulty boys whose presence in the 
 school-room gives occasion for flank movements and indirect ap- 
 proaches. They are the keenly sensitive and the naturally stub-
 
 IQQ SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 born boys. The former watch for slights and provoke them; 
 the latter seem to have been born against their will, and to have 
 grown up with their feet and hands resolutely planted forward. 
 The former are keen-eyed; the latter stiff-backed. Side ap- 
 proaches suit both best. Issues must be avoided. With the 
 former the objective point must be the heart ; the confidence 
 and affection must be secured. With the latter the will stands 
 most in the way ; it needs not removal, but replacing. Instead 
 of lying across the path of progress, it should be brought into 
 line with it. Like the restless spirit, alluded to a moment since, 
 it needs curbing, directing, training — not repression, nor break- 
 ing. A broken will is to me one of the saddest spectacles. It 
 is the broken mainspring of the watch ; the escaped steam ; the 
 wildly rushing but soon spent torrent. There is before me the 
 picture of a boy of many years since, whose will, turbulent and 
 apparently resistless, was broken as the result of a bitterly con- 
 tested conflict. Years wore on, to him years of ill success. He 
 was conscious that he could do nothing. His health was good, 
 his appetite voracious, and his indolence unlimited. To such a 
 degree did the consciousness of his inertia grow upon him, that 
 after being waited upon, even to the carrying of wood and water 
 to his room by a lady of threescore and ten years of age for 
 some months, he found relief in the coward's resort — a bullet, 
 that took away the little that was left of his wasted life. 
 
 As I approach the consideration of the class whose conduct 
 is crime, I can not refrain from expressing the conviction that 
 some are found in this class who are driven thither by the im- 
 proper treatment of their faults, by a lack of good judgment in 
 their earlier management. A boy's ambition leading him in the 
 direction of present gratification, especially when healthful home 
 influences are not surrounding him, is the fruitful source of crime. 
 Anxious to take a man's place, he puts on the habits most easily 
 formed, and which are the prominent habits of the men whose 
 company he can most easily reach — the idlers, the loungers, those 
 who, having nothing to do, busy themselves in recruiting for the 
 haunts of the idle. It is useless to sit down to reason with such 
 boys about the turpitude of their conduct. 
 
 To quote again from the article before alluded to: "While
 
 APPENDIX B. 167 
 
 he is a child and under the domain of imagination, his wrong- 
 doings can hardly be said to be immoral, nor do they ever look to 
 him as they do to us, who compare his present wrong action with 
 our conception of the perfect future man as he exists in our 
 minds. ... If he is sensitive, he thinks perhajjs, as we enlarge 
 upon the sin, that he ought to feel very naughty, but somehow 
 he can't, and in our zeal we are doing him an evil instead of 
 good." 
 
 Our safer course lies in encouraging innocent pastimes where 
 the boy shall find recreation and amusement within suitable limits 
 and amid proper associates. Watchfulness of the sports of boys, 
 and participation in the same on the part of their elders are wise 
 and sure preventives of corrupt practices. 
 
 I can not refrain from urging upon parents, though not perti- 
 nent to my subject, the discouragement of boys who desire to 
 leave quiet country homes for the cities, where idlers abound and 
 seeds of crime are thickly sown. We are growing away from the 
 conviction that " there is no place like home " for the boy, and 
 are making the boy believe that home is no place for him. 
 While this tendency continues, and parents spend so much time 
 in organizing associations for the benefit of the depraved that 
 they have no time left for their own children, they may find re- 
 cruits for their charitable institutions from their own olTspring. 
 It may be well for many parents to contribute largely toward the 
 building of reformatory institutions in our large cities, for it is 
 not Ijcyond the region of possibility that their heirs may thus 
 derive benefit from the investment. 
 
 To return : Let tlie boys be kept as boys until they can wear 
 easily the robes of men. Tlieir wants must be supplied by tliose 
 who, under the guidance of kind judgment, feel the throbbhigs 
 of young hearts and are quick in sympathy. The boys must not 
 1)0 tossed aside with the remark, "Tlicy arc nothing but boys." 
 They have rights which challenge respect, and, while the boy 
 should be content to keep tlie l)oy's ])lace, he must be secured 
 in tlie possession of that ])lacc. Cordial ap])roval of what is 
 riglit or generous or manly in his conduct will ()])en the way for 
 successful reproof of what is wrong or mean or ungentlcmanly. 
 Put yourself in the way of being won to the good part of the
 
 168 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 bad boy, and from that standpoint you may be able to correct 
 much that is bad. The sense of justice is often keenest in the 
 wickedest boy in school, especially when displayed toward himself. 
 
 His independence may serve a good purpose in the correction 
 of offenses by making him feel the burden of responsibility. 
 Experience has taught me that bad boys love to earn their way 
 back to good society and to a forfeited place in their class. I 
 can point with pride to several such manly fellows who have 
 been trusted, by steps made longer as their strength increased, 
 to walk back into favor, and who are proud in the consciousness 
 of having conquered evil propensities. 
 
 Tlie love of achievement furnishes the teacher a ready lever. 
 Let the boy have something to do, and place before him a motive 
 for doing which appeals to present good. Let the thing done be 
 regarded in its most favorable light, as a reward for the effort 
 put forth. This caution only : the act required must be within 
 the ability of the boy, and so conditioned as to make the accom- 
 plishment of the first stage easily attainable — each successive 
 stage recognizing the value of the strength gained by the pre- 
 ceding. Self-reliance is of slow growth, but it is a growth. If 
 but a single line of procedure were to be marked for a troubled 
 teacher's guidance, it should be, " Give the toy something to do — 
 somebody to loveJ'"' 
 
 But as for those who are not reached by better surroundings 
 and quicker sympathies, and who do not feel the weight of 
 responsibility nor the spur of wisely directed ambition, the 
 teacher must secure the removal of the offenders from contact 
 with those who are corrupted by their presence — not to a house 
 of correction, or a reformatory, where punishment is kept in the 
 foreground ; nor yet to the street ; but to the walls of a pleasant 
 school-room, presided over by one selected with special refer- 
 ence to his fitness for such work, where the advantages of good 
 instruction shall be free and wisely adapted to the end sought. 
 Here the bad boy may be free for a time to follow the bent of 
 his own mind as to particular studies until he shall have a new 
 interest born within him, and whence he may return to the com- 
 panionship of his earlier friends so soon as he shall be found 
 upon the highway toward self-control.
 
 APPENDIX B. 169 
 
 A bad boy is not of necessity a fool. The reverse is, in most 
 cases, true. He has elements of strength, and he admires the 
 same in others. He is quick to discover weakness, and ho 
 despises from the bottom of his heart anything that looks like 
 vacillation. Consistent, manly firmness wins his regard. It is 
 vain for a man of weak mind or of weak principles, no matter 
 how sedulously he may attempt to conceal them, to assume the 
 training of a vicious boy. To the keen sight of such a boy the 
 veil of concealment is transparent. The teacher must be as keen- 
 sighted, as quick-witted, and as fertile in expedient as his trouble- 
 some pupil. Holding a superior place, he must show that the 
 place is his of right. Recognized superiority held in ready 
 sympathy will secure cheerful obedience. 
 
 Conscious that I have touched but very lightly upon some of 
 the more important methods of dealing with troublesome boys — 
 for my time has been limited — I am deeply conscious that one 
 channel of influence has not been pomted out; and here, at the 
 last, I call your attention to the channel opened by Divine power 
 and supplied from sources reached only by him who humbly 
 waits and promptly prays for "that wisdom from above, first 
 pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of 
 mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypoc- 
 risy." 
 
 In closing, I would take to myself the injunction, "Keep 
 your lirart young." And may the time never come when you 
 shall feel like eclioing the sad plaint of Coleridge : 
 
 " When I wnH younp;. Ah 1 woful when ! ' 
 Ah I fur the change 'twixt now and then I "
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Adams, Charles F., Jr., quoted, 
 
 137. 
 Alabama, State supervision in, 
 
 12, 14. 
 Appointment of teachers, 65. 
 Arkansas, State supervision in, 
 
 12, 14. 
 Associations of teachers, IG, 14C. 
 
 Bacon, Lord, view of questioning, 
 
 109. 
 Bible, The, its use in schools, 153, 
 
 155. 
 Books, influence of, 154. 
 Boys, as viewed by the pliysiolo- 
 
 gist, 157. 
 as viewed by tho psychologist, 
 
 158. 
 as viewed by the instructor, 
 
 159. 
 bad, how managed, 1G4, IGG. 
 nature of, IGO. 
 Brackett, Anna C, quoted, 158, 
 
 1G7. 
 Bradley, Jolni E., qiuttod, 2ft. 
 Brown, George P., quoted, 35. 
 Buisson, iM., quoted, 86. 
 Bureau of Education, importance 
 
 of, 16, 23. 
 
 California, State supervision in, 
 
 12. 
 Calkins, N. A., quoted, 42. 
 Certificates, graded, 34. 
 
 State, 143, 
 Child's absorption in the present, 
 
 96, 158. 
 Church, The, relation to school af- 
 fairs, 5. 
 moral education through, 150. 
 City superintendent, qualifica- 
 tions of, 39. 
 training-school, 145. 
 Classes, within a grade, 92, 04. 
 diminished in higher grades, 
 94. 
 Colden, Cadwallader, referred to, 
 
 86. 
 Colleges, need of high school, 90. 
 
 chair of Pedagogics in, 139. 
 Colorado, State supervision in, 13. 
 Conduct of bad boys, a crime, 
 
 166; a fault, 163. 
 Confidence in teachers, 50. 
 
 in boys, 166. 
 Connecticut, State supervision in, 
 
 9, 12, 14, 
 Cooper, Mrs. S. B., quoted, 71. 
 County high schools, 34.
 
 172 
 
 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 County superintendent, qualifica- 
 tions of, 28, 32. 
 supervision, 14. 
 Courts, decisions of, upon high 
 
 schools, 84. 
 Course of study, 68. 
 
 servant, not master, 139. 
 Curiosity, child's motive power, 
 161. 
 
 Delaware, State supervision in, 
 
 10, 13, 14. 
 Development of city superintend- 
 
 ency, 137. 
 Diplomas, State, 143. 
 Discipline, teacher's relation to, 
 126, 127. 
 superintendent's inspection of, 
 
 130. 
 methods of, 131. 
 mechanical, 131. 
 controlled by love or fear, 132. 
 by corporal punishment, 133. 
 illustrations of, 134. 
 of bad boys, 157. 
 Dismissal of teachers, 65. 
 
 Examinations of teachers, 15, 34, 
 50. 
 
 into character of teachers, 123, 
 
 of pupils for promotion, 91, 95. 
 101. 
 
 of pupils as a stimulus, 95. 
 
 of pujiils as a testing process, 
 99. 
 
 of pupils, a source of unifica- 
 tion of work, 105. 
 
 of pupils, written or oral, 106. 
 
 superintendent's duty in, 107. 
 
 percentage not an end, 110. 
 
 an aid to teachers, 100. , 
 
 Examinations, an aid to superin- 
 tendents, 100. 
 
 principal's responsibility in, 101. 
 
 into principles rather than lan- 
 guage, 102. 
 
 illustrations of, 103. 
 
 E. E. White upon, 104. 
 
 Fitch, Dr., quoted, 109. 
 Flexibility of administration es- 
 sential. 104. 
 Florida, State supervision in, 12. 
 Franklin, letter referred to, 86. 
 Freedom of teachers, 57, 74, 125. 
 
 Georgia, State supervision in, 9, 
 
 13, 14. 
 Gradation of schools, 68. 
 
 different views of, 91. 
 
 an ideal, 94. 
 
 Hancock, J., quoted, 89. 
 Helpfulness to teachers, 62. 
 High schools, county, 34. 
 views of M. Buisson upon, 86. 
 benefits of, to the State, 87. 
 importance of, in an economical 
 
 view, 87. 
 from an industrial standpoint, 
 
 88. 
 from an educational stand- 
 point, 89. 
 home schools. 91. 
 needed by colleges and univer- 
 sities, 90. 
 Home, The, moral education in, 
 150. 
 
 Illinois, State supervision in, 12. 
 Indiana, State supervision in, 12, 
 14.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 173 
 
 Inspection of teachers' work, 56. 
 
 for study of discipline, 180. 
 Institutes, County Normal, 31. 
 Iowa, State supervision in, 12. 
 
 Jefferson, letters referred to, 86. 
 Jewell, Dr. J. S., quoted, 117. 
 Justice to teachers, 61. 
 to bad boys, 161. 
 
 Kansas, State supervision in, 13. 
 Keane, Bishop J. J., quoted, 122. 
 Kentucky, State supervision in, 
 
 10, 12. 
 Kiehle, D. L., quoted, 144. 
 Kindergarten, 71, 114. 
 
 Leadership, superintendent's, 49, 
 
 Legislation, moral sanctions of, 
 
 152. 
 court decisions, 84. 
 Louisiana, State supervision in, 
 
 13, 14. 
 
 Maine, State supervision in, 10, 
 
 12, 14. 
 Mann, Horace, quoted, 143, 151. 
 Manual training, discussion of, 77, 
 
 80, 82. 
 Marj'land, State supervision in, 9, 
 
 12, 14. 
 
 Massachusetts, State supervision 
 
 in, 9. 12, 14. 
 Michigan, State supervision in. 12. 
 IMiddleton, Dr. W. I)., quoted, 117. 
 Mill, J. S., quoted, 151. 
 Minnesota, State supervision in, 
 
 12. 
 Mississippi, State supervision in, 
 
 13, 14. 
 
 Missouri, State supervision in, 12. 
 Jlontana, State supervision in, 13. 
 Moral and religious instruction, 
 
 122, 149. 
 Moral sense universal, 149. 
 Moral influence universal, 149. 
 Mowry, W. A., quoted, 87. 
 
 National Council of Education 
 
 quoted, 80, 117, 118. 
 Nebraska, State supervision in, 12. 
 Nevada, State supervision in, 12, 
 
 14. 
 New Hampshire, State supervision 
 
 in, 9, 12. 
 New Jersey, State supervision in, 
 
 9, 12, 14. 
 New York, State supervision in, 
 
 9, 12, 14. 
 Normal institutes, county, 31. 
 Normal schools a necessity, 142. 
 North Carolina, State supervision 
 
 in, 10, 13. 
 North Dakota, State supervision 
 
 in, 13. 
 
 Ohio, State supervision in, 12, 14. 
 Oregon, State supervision in, 13. 
 
 Patience with teachers, 60. 
 
 Payne, W. II., quoted, 58. 
 
 Pedagogy in colleges and univer- 
 sities, 139. 
 
 Pennsylvania, State supervision 
 in, 9, 12, 14. 
 
 Philbrick, J, D., quoted, 127. 
 
 Physical education, 114. 
 
 Press, Tlie, as a lielper, 147. 
 
 Princi[)als as superintendents, 17, 
 105.
 
 174 
 
 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 Promotions of pupils : superin- 
 tendents' duty in, 92, 95, 97. 
 
 teachers' opportunity in, 95, 96. 
 
 without examination, 101. 
 Pupils, discipline of, 126, appen- 
 
 ' dix B. 
 
 Questions for examination of pu- 
 pils, 97, 110. 
 of teachers, 52. 
 
 Questioning as a test of knowl- 
 edge, 109. 
 
 Recesses — discussed, 116. 
 
 Rhode Island, State supervision 
 
 in, 9, 12, 14. 
 Rickoff, A. J., quoted, 114. 
 Rotation in office, 142. 
 
 Sabin, H., quoted, 125. 
 
 Salaries of teachers attached to 
 place, 141. 
 
 School defined, 18. 
 
 School hours and recesses, 114, 116. 
 
 Secular education, 151. 
 
 Sectarianism forbidden, 156. 
 
 Sill, J. B. M., quoted, 163. 
 
 South Carolina, State supervision 
 in, 9, 12. 
 
 South Dakota, State supervision 
 in, 13. 
 
 State, The, moral education for 
 and by, 150. 
 
 Superintendent of schools — an ad- 
 viser, 2. 
 an examiner, 15, 34, 50, 91, 95, 
 
 101. 
 an executive officer, 136. 
 a visitor, 129. 
 freedom of, 137. 
 
 Superintendent, city, qualifica- 
 tions of, 39. 
 
 county, qualifications of, 28, 33. 
 
 State, qualifications of, 24. 
 Superintendent, city, relations to 
 Board of Education, 136. 
 
 to course of study, 68. 
 
 to discipline, 126, 129. 
 
 to moral instruction, 122. 
 
 to patrons. 111. 
 
 to physical education, 114. 
 
 to principals, 105. 
 
 to pupils, 43. 
 
 to pupils' promotion, 95. 
 
 to teachers, 49, 140. 
 Superintendents' tenure of office, 
 
 142. 
 Support of schools, provisions by 
 
 United States, 6. 
 Supervision — universal, 1. 
 
 of schools essential, 3, 8. 
 
 incidental, 16. 
 
 partial, 17. 
 
 professional, 19. 
 
 historical sketch of, 4. 
 
 of material appliances, 137. 
 
 table of statistics, 12. 
 
 Teachers, appointment of, 65. 
 examination of, 15, 34, 50. 
 dismissal of, 65. 
 freedom of, 57, 74, 125. 
 inexperienced, placing of, 140, 
 
 141. 
 qualifications of, 152. 
 transfer of, 65. 
 trial of, 56. 
 
 discipline by, 126, 127. 
 educational literature for, 147. 
 general culture of, 147.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 175 
 
 Teachers, professional schools for, 
 
 143. 
 professional spirit needed, 141. 
 supervision of, 129. 
 Tennessee, State supervision in, 
 
 10, 13, 14. 
 Texas, State supervision in, 10, 
 
 13, 14. 
 Thompson, C. 0., quoted, 82, 
 
 88. 
 Town supervision, 14. 
 Training-school, city, 145. 
 
 Unification of school-work, 105, 
 
 109. 
 Unit of organization, county, 8. 
 district, 8. 
 parish, 8. 
 town, 8. 
 United States, unfavorable com- 
 parison with other countries 
 
 because of rapid increase of 
 population, 141. 
 
 Ventilation of school-houses, 119. 
 
 Vermont, State supervision in, 10, 
 12, 14. 
 
 Virginia, State supervision in, 9, 
 13. 
 
 Visiting schools by superintend- 
 ent, 129. 
 
 Washington's Farewell Address 
 
 referred to, 86. 
 Washington, State supervision in, 
 
 13. 
 West Virginia, State supervision 
 
 in, 10, 12. 
 White, E. E., quoted, 66, 104. 108. 
 Wisconsin, State supervision in, 12. 
 
 nornuil scliools, 144. 
 Woodward, C. M., quoted, 78. 
 
 TlIK END.
 
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