Cornell University Library LA 333.E13 Report of the examination of the school 3 1924 013 063 916 Report of the Examination of the School System of East Orange, New Jersey Usued by The Board of Education 19 12 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013063916 ERRATA, 17, Table B and Page 18, Table C. Some of the amounts quoted include purchases of lots, erection of buildings, and payment of bonds. Others do not. Omitting these the figures for East Orange become |6.12 and $35.87. Page 45, last line. Average. Change the first 92 to. 94j the second 92 to 98. The Stockton School was accidentally- omitted from this table. Page 62, No. 9, second line. Change "mere" to "more". New Haven, Conn., Dec. 12, 191 1. Mr. F. W. Wilson, Chairman of the Special Committee to Investigate the Educational Efficiency of the Schools. East Orange, N. J. Dear Sir: — I beg to submit herewith the report which in accordance with the action of your Board of Education at its meeting on June 12th, 191 1, I have made, at your request. Very sincerely yours, E. C. MOORE. To the Members of the Board of Education, East Orange, N. J. The Special Committee appointed, pursuant to a resolution adopted by the Board March 27 to examine and report on the effi- ciency of the present school system, report as follows: The Committee met immediately after their appointment and were of the unanimous opinion that such an examination as the Board desired could best be made by some disinterested person not in any way connected with the school system. A careful inquiry was made by members of the Committee as to the most available person to engage for the work required and an invitation was sent to Prof. Ernest Carroll Moore, Head of the Bureau of Education of Yale University, to make the examination. Our invitation was accepted by Prof. Moore, but at his sug- gestion the work was deferred till after the beginning of the Fall term. Prof. Moore came to East Orange about October first and since that time has been occupied in making a thorough exam- ination of all the schools and compiling the results. The Committee requested Prof. Moore to make the examina- tion in any manner he deemed best and to prepare his report without consultation with the committee. These instructions have been complied with and the report is herewith submitted for your acceptance. Respectfully, Frank W. Wilson, Chairman Frederick W. Garvin, President Robert M. Crater Charles P. Titus Vernon L. Davey, Superintendent Special Committee on Investigation. Foreword The educational efficiency of a system of schools is not easily determined. There is no single test by which it may be known. Like John Stuart Mills' well-known description of causation, a school system is the sum total of the conditions which produce it. — ^The attitude of the community toward education in the past, its attitude in the present, the assistance plus or minus which its homes render, its economic status, occupations and government, the character and efficiency of its school boards both now and in time past ; the devo- tion and training and skill of the superintendent of schools, the principals, and teachers; the type of school system which they are developing, the course of study followed, the text books used, school buildings, playgrounds, health, discipline, etc., etc., all enter as con- tributing factors which in combination for good or ill determine the effectiveness of the work of educating the young. It is impos- sible to do more than select a few of these conditions for examina- tion. I have chosen from among them all : I, An Historical Sketch of the School System; II, The Community and the Efficiency of the Schools; III, The Board of Education and the Efficiency of the Schools; IV, Cost as Related to the Efficiency of the Schools; V, A General Survey of the Schools and Their Efficiency; VI, The Teachers and Their Work ; VII, A New Course of Study ; VIII, The High School; IX, Summary of Recommendations. The improvements which we have to suggest are not inconsider- able in importance. They are supported not alone by theory, but also as we believe, by the best educational practice of the day. The outline history of the school system has been supplied by the Superintendent and the Principal of the High School. Par- ticular attention has been given to the actual work of the schools. All of the class-rooms in both elementary and high schools have been visited, some of them more than once, and for a considerable time in many instances. We have talked with most of the teachers and supervising officers about their work and about the conditions under which they labor. Through the kind assistance of the Superinten- dent's office we have examined all the pupils in the 5 th, 6th, 7th, and / 8th grades in the four fundamental processes of arithmetic, in Eng-'''^ lish composition, in writing and in spelling. In addition some of the citizens of the town have been consulted concerning the work of the schools, school records have been examined, statistics have been gathered, and the course of study and the rules of the Board of Edu- cation have been studied. Most careful attention has been given to the work of the High School, not because it is believed to be more important than the elementary schools — it is not — but because what- ever shortcomings there may be in the system are apt to appear very clearly under the strain of the transition which pupils must undergo in passing from the elementary grades into the care of secondary teachers. Comparisons have been made with other school systems, wherever it was felt that such comparisons would be of value. They have not always been made with other cities of the same size ; indeed, it is not necessary that they should be. What is wanted, is evidence concerning the best school practice in the land. That does not vary materially with the size of the community, but is much the same for all. Indeed, whatever advantages there are should accrue to the small city, rather than to the large one, for changes in it do not involve sums of money so large as to terrify even the progressive men who champion them. Moreover, it is a more man- ageable unit in school organization, dissatisfaction quickly makes itself known, mistakes can easily be remedied, and improvements are not difiScult to introduce. School systems that minister to great masses of people are much more unwieldy. The schools of smaller cities must not, therefore, be content to take a place behind the larger cities but ought, themselves, to lead the very van of educa- tional progress. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the thoroughly courteous treat- ment I have received from everyone with whom I have had to do during the course of this examination. I take this opportunity to thank the Superintendent, and every teacher and principal in your department for the kindly way in which I was received and helped. On my part I have tried to make what must have been a trying ordeal for many whom I visited as light an infliction as I could. There is always grave danger that such an examination as I have been making may disturb and disorganize instruction unduly. I have tried to keep it from producing any such result in this case. I have tried to make a constructive program for the develop- ment of a public school system such as I believe a prosperous and progressive community like East Orange should have. Much has been done already, but much still remains to be done to bring the schools to the highest pitch of efficiency. What is most needed is thorough co-operation of all concerned. I urge particularly the paramount necessity for the greatest frankness in all their relations on the part of the Board of Education, the Superintendent, the prin- cipals, the teachers and the patrons of the schools. The policy of the Board of Education must be known. The Superintendent should state his convictions upon all educational matters, and his reasons for them quite fearlessly. Teachers and principals must bring their difficulties to the Superintendent without any feeling of con- straint. They are all parts, one of another, in the greatest of un- dertakings. I realize quite clearly that I have not dwelt upon the very great merits of what has been wrought patiently and persist- ently and conscientiously through the years, and I freely testify that what has already been done is of much greater moment than all that I have suggested for attention in the future. But the goodly educational structure which has been reared should be repaired here and there, and must be enlarged to meet new conditions and to house the growing conception of education. I. — Historical Sketch The schools of East Orange were legally consolidated in 1889 and a Township Board of Education was elected. During the next year, however, the four schools of the township were allowed to continue as formerly in nearly all respects, and only a slight effort was made to establish uniformity or to bring them into an or- ganic system. At the end of the first year a superintendent — th^ present incumbent — was appointed and a systematic effort was begun, looking to the complete unification of the schools into a well- graded system. At the time of consolidation there were four school buildings as follows: Seating Estimated Value Ashland 672 $SS,ooo Eastern 504 50,000 Franklin 336 38,000 Elmwood • • i68 17,000 The list, including lots, buildings and equipment — all at present value, with full allowances for depreciation — now stands: Seating Value ♦High • 800 $428,041 00 Ashland 714 156,137 07 Eastern 672 ii5,35i 55 Franklin ■ ■ 714 94,732 58 Elmwood 588 92,365 09 Columbian 504 83,375 85 Nassau 652 86,795 68 Stockton 588 86,569 03 Lincoln - 462 117,869 04 Washington 462 107,000 00 Two portable school-houses 82 2,310 42 Playgrounds 23,898 07 $1,394,445 38 *This includes the Board Rooms and equipment of same. In 1890 it was decided to raise the standard of promotion from the schools and establish a well-equipped High School. Three pu- pils were graduated at the end of the first year. The high school building erected in 1890 was designed to accommodate five hundred pupils. The field of high school work has expanded greatly since that time, and the building could not properly accommodate more than three hundred and fifty or four hundred pupils, if proper laboratories were provided. This* building was comfortably filled ten years after its erection. Since that time conditions became continually less favorable to satisfactory work as the number of pupils increased. A new High School building was completed and taken posses- sion of in September of the present year. The total number of pu- pils that can now be accommodated is about eight hundred, but the finishing of some uncompleted space will provide satisfactory ac- commodation for from ten to twelve hundred. 8 table: The growth of the High School is shown by the following Year iSpo-'pi . i89i-'92. i892-'93. i893-'94. i894-'95. 1895-96. 1896-97. i897-'98. i898-'99. i899-'oo . igoo-'oi . Enrolled 159 154 182 237 20s 230 330 374 449 486 470 Graduates Full 4-year Courses 3 8 10 23 14 23 53 20 32 64 S9 Year I90I-'02. i902-'03 . I903-'o4. i904-'oS- i90S-'o6. I9o6-'o7. I907-'o8. i9C^-'09. igog-'io. igio-'ii- Graduates Full 4-year Enrolled Courses 480 464 479 470 482 554 601 627 712 716 51 33 55 47 45 72 84 64 79 87 In 1890 the teaching force numbered forty-nine, with a salary roll of about $37,000. There are now one hundred and eighty-seven teachers on the list, and the salary list, exclusive of clerks, janitors and others not engaged in teaching or supervising, is $184,300. The old Ashland School was sold and replaced by a new build- ing. The Eastern, Franklin and Elmwood have been more than doubled in size and have been modernized in all essentials. Every building is equipped with apparatus for forced ventilation and with sanitary systems connected with the sewers. In each build- ing there is an assembly hall seated with opera chairs, and a fully equipped manual training room. Every pupil has a separate desk and a separate compartment or locker in the cloak room. The yearly growth of the system, as shown by the total enroll- ment and the average belonging, is as follows: i889-'9o i890-'9i i89i-'92 i^2-'93 i893-'94 i894-'95 i895-'96 i896-'97 i897-'98 i8g8-'99 i899-'oo igoo-'oi 1 901 -'02 i902-'o3 I903-'o4 igo4-'oS i90S-'o6 i9o6-'o7 . i907-'o8 igo8-'o9 ipop-'io ipio-'ii Total Avera Enrollment Belongi 2117 I49S 2173 1706 23S0 1791 2482 1866 2645 2097 2732 2202 2929 2358 3192 2545 3280 2707 3499 2812 3744 3079 4051 3284 4214 3369 4375 3539 4414 3631 4623 :^6s 4851 4999 5340 3896 4145 4372 5649 4762 5870 S069 5903 SioB The first office of the Board of Education and District Qerk was a small back room in a building facing the Brick Church sta- tion. At the end of a year a small, unoccupied grocery store on Main street was secured and its one room served for nearly two years as Board Room, store room, and offices for District Clerk and Superintendent. In December, 1891, the High School was opened and two small rooms were reserved for the use of the Board and its officers. These offices were needed as recitation rooms, and in September, 1900, the Board moved into offices in the City Hall. In October of 191 1 they went into a fine suite of offices in the old High School building. II. — The Community and the Elfiiciency of the Schools East Orange is a city of 34,371 people. It has an assessed prop- erty valuation of $49,982,929. Its tax rate for the year is 1.70 per hundred. It is a compact city with a total area of but four square miles. It is. too, a remarkably healthy communit}', for in 1909, the last year for which figures are available, its death rate was but 9.5, the lowest reported by the United States government in the vital statistics for that year. Its population is almost entirely American, and of a well-to-do class ; extremes of poverty and wealth are hardly to be found. There is a relatively small colored population, but it too is of a prosperous, and fairly well-to-do sort. There are only a very few- foreigners who have come to our country' so recently that the schools must perform for them the double duty of teaching their children the English language as well as the fundamental arts which constitute an elementary education. In this respect the educational task of this community is much simpler than in many of its neigh- bors, where great numbers of children of other nations must be taught a new language and many of the ideas which lie behind Am- erican school instruction, as well as the specific subjects of the com- mon school course which both those who know the language and those who do not must learn. In these respects East Orange is singularly fortunate. But certain other features of its life do not make for educa- tional efficiency in the same measure. The city is a suburb of New York. The major part of its citizens are business men. professional men, clerks, salesmen, etc., etc., in the metropolis. The town lacks unity; it is a fragment of a larger whole; is not complete in itself. The interests of its people are elsewhere ; their social life is else- where. People come and go. Many make only a convenience of the place. Houses are rented, but homes are not established. \Miat takes place in East Orange is of much less concern than what goes on in New York. There is bound to be an aloofness from local issues. People do not know each other, and do not work closely together for common ends. Such a condition of things affects the schools vitally. East Orange is not a manufacturing city, nor is it a commercial town. It is a residence suburb, beautiful, healthy, rich. Its citizens leave their homes every morning to go elsewhere to their work. Its chil- dren leave their homes every morning to go to school with the no- tion deeply fixed in their minds (for it is inevitable that it should lO be so), that the really momentous concerns of life are to be found elsewhere. Their minds are divided just as their parents' minds are. New York plays too large a part in their thoughts. This is the pen- alty which the suburban dweller must pay for his immunity from the confusion of city life. It is a very real penalty. The children in the schools; are not less intelligent than they are elsewhere ; they are more so, for they come of good American stock ; but they are less interested in school work, and know less about the necessity which men are under to work for a living upon farms and in factories and shops, than if they were brought up in a community where all the features of a vigorous economic life were playing everywhere about them. For the most part they do not come to school with any very profound sense of the great importance of these things, and in the absence of these major interests of mankind from the foreground of their consciousness, the things which do go on under their eyes assume a disproportionate importance. Complaint was made to me repeatedly by teachers that going to school and doing one's work well there was a thing of less im- portance in the eyes of many of their children than leaving school to attend children's parties held during school hours, or even staying at home in order to be fresh for social events to be held in the even- ing. I have no means of knowing how commonly the most import- ant work of children is made to wait upon their social engagements, but mention was made of this fact so commonly that I am forced to regard it as a serious hindrance to the efficiency of the schools and a condition which the parents of the community should change if the best interests of the children are conserved. From the beginning East Orange has taken pride in her schools and with money her people have supported them generously. But there is another kind of support which they seem to have withheld from them. They have built good school buildings, and paid good salaries to teachers and supervising officers ; but after buildings were built and teachers put in charge, they seem to have thought no more about the schools than if they were factories or department stores. The education of the young is a family concern as well as a state interest. It used to be regarded as a religious duty performed by the parents themselves. When this became impossible, teachers were brought into the household to instruct the children under the eyes of their parents, and when at length the children were sent outside the home to public schools the parents followed them to support and encourage them in getting an education, and to lend such approval and assistance to their teachers as the weighty task of nurturing the little ones seemed to require; and this good old custom of con- cerning themselves deeply over all that happens to their children, or regarding it as a duty as well as a pleasure to be often present at their lessons, to know well the conditions that surround them, and to lend all the support and encouragement which their presence can supply, still moves the mothers, and the fathers too, of many communities to visit the schools which their children attend at fre- quent intervals and for a sufficient time to get acquainted with their teachers, their lessons, and their progress in their work. I have II never before been in schools where parents were so rarely found as visitors. The reply which teachers repeatedly made to my ques- tions, "Do the parents of your children visit your classroom? Do you succeed in getting their support and assistance in the work you are trying to do for their children?" was "When a pupil takes home a poor report at the end of the month, his mother or father usually comes to see about it. They do not visit us much otherwise." But this is not satisfactory and the schools cannot do their best work without a heartier cooperation on the part of the homes than this. It is too much like thrusting the children to one side to make the most of the conditions they find there. Again East Orange does not care sufficiently for its teachers. It pays them fairly good salaries, but beyond that its people concern themselves but slightly as to their welfare. The homes of most of them are in other places ; living is high, and proper accommodations are not easily found. The teacher who comes to the communit}^ a stranger is too apt to remain a stranger. Few go out of their way to meet her and seldom are opportunities provided for making ac- quaintances beyond the circle of her own fellow workers. Only those who have been so situated as to feel the need for acquaint- ances, friends and companions, can know what a hardship it is to be thus shut off from them and thrust back completely upon one's self. Teaching is a work of spiritual radiation; only a contented, happy, and measurably successful person can generate the inex- haustible enthusiasm for knowledge which it requires. Surely the work which the teachers do is of sufficient importance to the com- munity to cause it to be solicitous for their well-being, and to pro- vide every opportunity for its teachers to live as full and rich a social life as is open to any class of its people. I am laying stress upon this point, for every superintendent of schools knows that the efficiency of the school system rises and falls with the condition of the teachers who perform its work of instruction. The community which allows their lot to be less tolerable than it should be will suf- fer automatically for its omission to care duly for the most import- ant of its public servants. Another difficulty is that the communit)'^ has no industries of its own. Shall its schools, then (particularly its High School), train its young people for business, and for the professions by fitting them to go on to college, or shall it provide them as varied opportimi- tiesfortraining in several other lines as the well equipped high schools of industrial communities are offering? This question is not easily answered. But if the community trains its children to follow their fathers" occupations only, it will undoubtedly fail to provide the very opportunities which many of its young people need. Occupa- tions are not hereditary, and no city lives so completely to itself that it can afford to provide a less complete opportunity for the training of its young people than its neighbors do. Even though the economic interests of their parents are along special lines, the education which is offered their children must be along many lines. In this connection I recommend that a systematic effort be made to secure a larger and more active cooperation on the part of 12 parents who send their children to the pubhc schools. This can be done in several ways : ( i ) By holding public meetings for the dis- cussion of educational matters; (2) by organizing school patron's clubs, which meet periodically in the schools for the purpose of get- ting acquainted and becoming informed about school work; (3) by each school preparing an annual exhibit of its work and inviting all parents and citizens of its territory to an "at home" in the school house. This last method is particularly effective, for the children love to have their parents see their work, and seldom fail to secure their attendance at this school fete. Something of this sort is being done already, but it is not a general practice of all teachers and all schools as it should be. Suggestions as to the opportunities for training which the High School should offer will be made in a later section. III. — The Board of Elducation and the Efficiency of the Schools Your Board has been perhaps a bit more anxious to get work done, than to get it done through the agencies which it, itself, main- tains for the doing of it. This may have been necessary to expedite pressing business, but in one respect it is unfortunate, for it has worked a degree of demoralization in the teaching staff of the schools. Now, inasmuch as a school system is a very delicate and sensitive organization, exceedingly hard to keep in adjustment and very easily thrown out of balance, the proper systematization of school work is an exceedingly important element in determining its efficiency. It is a principle of scientific management, that in every properly directed undertaking there shall be a planning department whose duty it shall be to know about all that is being undertaken and done, and to provide plans in accordance with the laws of science. In- stead of the happy-go-lucky method of each man doing what he feels like doing and in the way which seems to him best, scientific management substitutes a thorough organization of work with min- ute subdivisions of labor. First, there must be some one place where the system comes to a head, some one person must know about all that is being under- taken and all that is being done. This one person, who has the general oversight of the entire undertaking must arrange the work of each of his assistants so that the different parts of the under- taking will fit together as nearly perfectly as they can be made to, so that preparatory stages will really prepare and contributory agencies will genuinely contribute. The principles of scientific man- agement apply to public school work just as truly as they apply to any other form of cooperative effort. But who is the one person, or which is the one department that must know about all that is being attempted and done? It cannot be the Board of Education for the Board of Education has not time to keep track of all that is going on ; it is not "on the job" every minute. Neither can any one of its members do this for no one member has any legal authority 13 to do anything save as the corporation in charge — the Board of Edu- cation — sitting as a board in accordance with the estabhshed legal procedure, specifically gives him such authority. Again, if the work of the school department is to be thoroughly planned from be- ginning to end, so that in all its parts, in its buildings, in its financial arrangements, in its system of supplies, in its selection of janitors, physicians, teachers and principals, in its course of study and methods of instruction, etc., it shall be the most effective agency possible for the instruction of the young, there must be a planning department whose duty it shall be to provide plans for the proper functioning of all the diiterents parts of the system. This planning department must be one department in which all the plans will be made to fit together, and it must be a department of experts. Can the Board of Education do this work? It is a board of laymen who sometimes have great difficult}- in keeping from attempting to perform the \\ork of educational experts, though they should have no more difficulty than a bookkeeper in recognizing the expertness of a carpenter, a carpenter that of a bookkeeper, or a client the ad- vantage of the special training of his lawyer, or a patient that of his physician. The one person who is "on the job" all the time, who can know about all that is being undertaken and whether it is being done in such a wav as to serve the one ultimate interest of the undertaking and can make plans for the work of all his assistants, and watcli their work from day to day. to see that it is being performed prop- erly, is the Superintendent of Schools. The Board of Education meets at regular intervals, either as a whole or in committees to listen to reports of what has been done, to formulate rules for the conduct of the business, to pass upon plans that may be presented to it, ratify agreements, authorize expenditures, etc., etc. It per- forms the same function for the citizens tliat the board of directors of a corporation performs for the stockholders of tlie company. Just as tlie actual management of tlie corporation is. and must be. entrusted to a staff of expert assistants whose work is guided and directed by the executive officer, who reports to the directors and transmits their directions to his assistants, so must the work of a board of education be conducted, if the principles of scientific man- agement are to be fono\\ed and tlie highest efficiency of the scliool system is to be secured. Suggested Changes in the Rules I do not find tliat tliese principles have been sufficient!}- con- sidered by your Board eitlier in making its rules for conducting the business of the schools, nor in its da\- h>- da\- relations witli tliein. The duties of your executive officer, tlie superintendent of schools, are not sufficiently defined, and the Rules do not give that office the functions it should have if the greatest educational efficiency is to be secured. Rule ,23 declares that "die superintendent of schools shall act under tlie advice and direction of tlie Board and its sev- eral committees." Inasmuch as the acts of the committees must be 14 authorized or ratified by the Board and the committees are ap- pointed merely to expedite business, in order that the committees may not assume a larger authority than they possess, it would be better if the superintendent were directed by the Board itself. He should be required to attend all open meetings of the Board and its committees. Your Committee on Teachers is authorized to recommend the employment of teachers, "after consultation with the superinten- dent." This is not enough; all nominations of teachers and prin- cipals should be made by the superintendent and the rules of the Board of Education should specify that no teacher may be elected who has not been nominated by the superintendent. Rule 13 declares that the course of study committee "shall have charge of the course of study in all schools in conjunction with the superintendent, and recommend such alterations and revisions thereof as it may deem advisable, and recommend such text-books and school accessories as it may believe best adapted to the wants of the different schools." Here again the superintendent should recommend and approve all textbooks, school accessories and all changes in the course of study before the Board should allow itself to consider the adoption of them. That the public business may be sufficiently safeguarded the Board of Education must observe a system of checks and balances in its own procedure. Rule 14 declares that the committee on schools "shall have jur- isdiction over all matters involving school discipline and shall have general oversight over all school matters except such as are referred to other committees." Such jurisdiction over all matters of school discipline is meant, I take it, to be appellate and not original, but I think the rules should recognize the fact that the Superintendent handles all cases of school discipline until appeal is taken over his ruling to the committee of the Board. Rule 15 specifies the duties of the Building Committee, but does not require the written approval of the Superintendent of schools upon all plans for buildings or additions to buildings before con- tracts for the same shall be let; yet the school superintendent is a much safer authority upon the proper arrangement of a school house than an architect, for he has learned what a schoolhouse ought to be by using it, whereas the architect knows it only by building it or visiting it. The relation of the Superintendent to the High School should, I think, be specified by the rules of the Board; this matter has been a fertile source of difficulty in the past, and the bad effects of the lack of a proper adjustment are still hindering the work which the High School is trying to do. Need for Cooperation in School Business I have not found that degree of cooperation between the sev- eral factors concerned with the administration of the schools which should obtain among them. The Board of Education has some- times acted in very serious matters without, as I think, sufficient consultation with the members of its staff, who must carry out its 15 directions without sufficient preparation to do so successfully. The matter of self-government in the study rooms of the High School is a case in point. I do not think that the High School authorities can be blamed for finding it exceedingly difficult to save the day in this matter, for though the plan is a good one and must if possi- ble be made to succeed, as it will be, yet, its accomplishment was made unnecessarily difficult by the haste and lack of preliminary preparation which marked its initiation. Recoinmendations I recommend, therefore, a more thorough systematization of the work of the Board of Education, the Superintendent of Schools, the Principal of the High School, and the other officers of the system, and such changes in the rules of the Board of Education as may be necessary to specify the func- tions and responsibility of each somewhat in detail, in order that there may no longer be any confusion of offices or misunderstanding of responsibility. No other recommendation which I can make will do so much to bring peace and harmony into school work nor to promote the energetic efforts of teachers who feel troubled and insecure because they do not know what the future policy of the Board of Education may be. IV. — Cost as Related to the Elfficiency of the Schools A Comparison of the Cost of Public Education in Montclair and East Orange The State Superintendent of New Jersey has defined the "Cost of Education" in his report for 1909 as follows: This term ("cur- rent expenses") as defined in section 95 of the school law includes principals', teachers', janitors' and medical inspectors' salaries (though not specified in the law, it necessarily includes also salaries of superintendents and supervising officials) ; fuel, textbooks, school supplies, flags ; transportation of pupils ; tuition of pupils attending schools in other districts with tlie consent of the Board of Educa- tion ; school libraries ; compensation of the district clerk, of the custodian of school moneys and of truant officers; truant schools, insurance, and the incidental expenses of the schools. A very careful investigation of the cost of the public schools of Montclair and East Orange made by Mr. Howard Greenman whose report bears date of March 17th, 191 1, supplies the following summary of school expenses for the year ending June 3d, 1909. i6 Table A Current Expenses Amount Expended Per Capita Cost Based Upon Av. Enrollment. Av. Attendance (Excluding Manual Training) Monte lair E. Orange 3098 M. 4725 E. 0. 2839 M. 4520 E. 0. Teachers' salaries. . . Fuel and Janitors' $119,043.26 14,311.87 11,485.00 16,374.4s $138,217.56 22,346. 26 9,870.32 4,964.49 S38.43 4.62 3-71 S.28 $29.25 4.73 i!.09 I. OS $41.93 5.04 4.04 S.78 $30.58 4.95 2.18 1 . 10 Textbooks and apparatus Other school purposes Total current expen- ses or Cost of Education 8161,214.58 $175,394-63 $52.04 $37.12 S56.79 $38.81 Other items must be added which change these totals some- what, — as the cost of manual training which was $8.32 for each pu- pil taking it for Montclair and $4.14 per pupil taking it in East Orange. Mr. Greenman estimates the total excess per capita cost on daily attendance in Montclair over East Orange as $24.45, ^^^ explains this marked difference in cost between the two systems in the following way: "In both places there seems to be a custom to increase salaries year by year, and the average of length of service of teachers in Montclair exceeds that of East Orange by about 12^ per cent. Hence a correspondingly higher average salary might reasonably be expected. A more important item, however, is the fewer average number of pupils assigned to one teacher in Montclair. Indeed this is the most marked point of difference and materially contributes to the increased per capita cost in Montclair both in teachers' salaries and in the expenses incidental to the resulting factors of larger quarters per pupil. "Another significant feature is this : You will observe that the average cost of educational salaries increases with the age of the pupils, being lowest in the kindergarten and highest in the high school. The percentage of total scholars attending the lower grades in East Orange exceeds Montclair's percentage, but as the grades advance, the proportion is reversed, and in the high school Montclair's percentage exceeds that of East Orange. This variation in distribution of pupils in the various grades will have the effect of increasing the per capita cost to Montclair, for evening schools, summer gardens, open air schools, school nurse, truant officer, high school gymnasium, supervisor of manual training and maintenance of three manual training buildings goes to increase the cost of Montclair, for the reason that no corresponding expense is incurred in East Orange as they do not maintain similar branches or positions." Taking the estimated excess per capita cost of Montclair over East Orange as approximately $24.45, the distribution of that ex- cess over various items would be about as follows : 1/ 1. Fewer average number of pupils assigned to each teaclier in Montclair, approximately $9 80 2. Expense incurred in jMontclair for departments, etc., that do not exist in East Orange, summer gardens, open air school, school nurse, truant officer, high school g>-mnasium, supervisor of manual training and mainte- nance of manual training buildings, etc., approximately, . 4 55 3. Larger quarters per pupil in ]\Iontclair, involving larger expense for janitors, heating, etc., approximately. , 2 80 4. Additional expense incurred in Montclair for manual training, where a greater number of subjects are taught and more time is devoted thereto, approximateh- 2 00 5. Additional expense incurred in ]\Iontclair for ad- ministrative salaries, approximately i 40 6. Larger percentage of attendance in Montclair in the higher grades 95 7. Higher a\-erage salaries paid to teachers in IMontclair, approximately 85 8. Additional expense incurred in IMontclair for sup- plies, approximately 65 9. Remaining or miscellaneous expenses coming un- der fifty-one headings and amounting in the aggregate, to approximately i 45 Estimated total excess per capita in ]\Iontclair, based on average attendance S24 45 A Comparison of School Elxpenditures Here eind Ellsewhere General comparisons of tlie cost of school systems are of necessity quite inexact because the same tilings are not compared, yet the}- have a suggesti^•e value, tliough not a final one. The fig- ures of the census of 1910 supply tlie following: Table B Total expenses of schools per capita of population. City. Population. Cost, per capita. East Orange. X. J - - 34-3/"i ?S 04 Xewton. Mass iW.Soo S 39 Hamilton. Ohio - • 3 =;.-^79 5 49 Elmira, X. Y 37.170 3 So Berkeley, Calif 40.434 9 90 Los Angreles, Calif. 3i9>i9S 7 IP Detroit. Midi 40^.706 4 5-2 Chicago. lU ^.iS5.jS3 5 §7 Boston, Mass 670,555 6 43 Xewark, X. J 347,40o 7 So It will be noted tliat the cities of Xe\\ton, Berkeley and East Orange are similar in respect to size and character as each is a suburban city with a population of superior grade, considerable wealtli and anxious to maintain good schools. i8 The per capita of the total expenses of schools, based on en- rollment were as follows : Table C School Per Capita City enrollment expense East Orange, N. J 5,870 $47 28 Newton, Mass 7,212 46 32 Hamilton, Ohio 4,686 41 35 Ehnira, N. Y 5,138 27 54 Berkeley, Calif 6,753 59 29 Los Angeles, Calif 52,058 44 09 Detroit, Mich 56,927 37 19 Chicago, 111 334,564 38 34 Boston, Mass 131,300 32 79 Newark, N. J 57,742 46 94 The number of pupils per teacher on the basis of the total num- ber of pupils enrolled for the year : Table D City. Enrollment East Orange, N. J 5,870 Newton, Mass - . . 7,212 Hamilton, Ohio 4,686 Ehnira, N. Y 5,138 Berkeley, Calif 6,753 Los Angeles, Calif 52,058 Detroit, Mich : 56,927 Chicago, 111 334,564 Boston, Mass 131,300 Newark, N. J • • . . 57.742 While these figures are unsatisfactory in that the tables from which they are constructed are perhaps not exact, and they are averages based on total enrollment, the most variable of all items in school reports, yet as the total enrollment is used throughout, the trend of averages which is shown has value. It will be seen that the state of affairs in East Orange compares very favorably with the other cities in each of the tables. The comparison of school expenditures with Montclair is greatly in favor of East Orange, and this comparison with the expenditures of other cities shows that she is not spending a smaller amount of money than they are on the education of her children. But while it would not seem to be desirable to expend as much money for instruction as Montclair is spending, the comparison with that city is valuable in that it does call attention to certain items on which East Orange must expend more money if the best results are to be obtained. No evening schools are maintained, and the population is of such a character that perhaps few would attend if one were opened. School gardens are a necessity if the best kind of nature study work is to be done, and they should be provided The need for an open air school should be decided by the Superintendent and the school Pupils per Teachers teacher 166 35 372 19 151 168 189 31 30 35 1,307 1,500 6,383 2,848 39 38 46 1,327 43 19 physicians. A school nurse is hardly necessary there. A truant officer is already eniplo}ed. \erjr satisfactory gymnastic work is being given in tlie High School, tliougii a g3'^rrmasinm must be fitted up there. A supervisor of manual training is now at work. !Man- iial training shops are to be found in each elementary school. The a\-erage number of pupils per teaclier on tlie basis of the average attendance, according to I\Ir. Greenman's figures, was 2/. 8 ; that is not too high a number for effecti\e work. The classification sheets which I have collected do show overcrowding in some rooms, but this condition will be reUeved as soon as teacliers can be found. East Orange had a population of 21.506 in 1900 and 34,371 in 1910, which in part accounts for the larger percentage of primary school children tliere. To me b)' far tlie most serious feature of tliis comparison is tlie fact tliat tlie average period of ser\ace of teachers in East Orange is 125/2% less tlian in ^Slontclair, being 6.1 years there, and 5.4 years in East Orange. Superintendents and principals are all agreed that the schools suiter because teachers cannot be retained. This is a condition which besets every suburban school department If it is wise in consulting for its educational welfare it will not per- mit itself to be made into a training school or a recruiting station for the larger school s\stems which are its neighbors. It has an initial advantage in being a more pleasant place in which to teach tlian the)^ are. ^^"itll tliis beginning it could easily make its salaries so satisfactor)- tliat teachers would rarely or never go elsewhere to teacli. Good teaching is worth just as much to East Orange as it is to !Montclair. Newark or Xew York. The cost of li\'ing, too, is high. The cir\- should not allow its schools to be handicapped in any measure b}' lower salaries than its neighbors pay. V. — A GeneTcJ Suney of the Schools and Their Eficiency School Buildings East Orange has eight elementary schools and one high school. All are housed in commodious and substantial buildings, and some in tlie beautiful and well-arranged new buildings of the most ap- proved tvpe wliich East Orange has been erecting in recent years, tlian whidi better school plants could hardly be found anyMhere. Eacli of tlie schools has a capaaous assembly room and is most fortunate in tlie possession of it. It enables eacli principal to bring his entire sdiool togetlier whenever he finds it desirable to do so; that is a splendid thing; tlie size of the comf>anj' as they sit down togetlier gives each pupil a sense of the importance of the under- taking in whicli tliej' are engaged. The unity of the company is se- cured and school spirit with all its ad^^antages of entliusiasm, pride, mutual helpfulness, seriousness, etc., follows. There is no more profitable lesson of the day than tliat which the pupils get by sitting togetlier in tlie opening exercises. I want to commend, too, in the highest terms the persistent efforts and the good taste which principals and tochers have put 20 forth in ennobling and beautifying their school rooms and school halls with the best available pictures and sculpture. It was the conviction of one of the wisest of teachers that youth should be nurtured in pleasant places in the midst of refining surroundings, in order that the breezes of health and beauty might blow over their souls and gently and unconsciously harmonize their lives, and win them to the true beauty and orderliness which are the object of all our striving. Your teachers and principals are trying to provide such surroundings and to make their school rooms places meet for the dignity of education which will efifectively foster and augment the aspirations of youth. All have succeeded in a marked degree, but some more than others. At the risk even of making an invid- ious comparison, I should like to say that your Columbian school has the best school decoration that I have ever seen. Fire Protection and Repairs to Buildings The buildings are not all as convenient as they should be and the fullest measure of protection against fire has not been provided, though when the work of reconstruction which is now going on at the Eastern school and at the Elmwood school is completed a much greater measure of security will have been attained. It seems too bad that this work of reconstructing school buildings should go on while the schools are in session, for it interferes greatly with school work. It should all be done in the summer time. I am told that the failure of the city authorities to allow money for it in time is the reason why the community must now lose through its disturbing the work of the children. If the authorities concerned will not prevent such unnecessary and easily avoidable waste of the time and energies of children, the laws should be changed to prevent it. Although it is not easily measured in dollars and cents the community is suffering a very real loss, — and it is not a small one, — ^because this work was not done at the right time. But even when it is completed, your schools will not be as free from danger by fire as they should be. The Elmwood school has a hallway too narrow and too obstructed for safety. The appropriation which was asked for to make it a safe place for the children should not have been refused and the Board of Education must not allow the matter to rest until this danger is removed. Again, I find one or two doors which open inward instead of outward in the classrooms of several of the schools. They can easily be changed, and as they stand present a very grave danger to the children. Fire drills are held regularly and principals and teachers are observing such pre- cautions as they can to protect the children. Bad Ventilation Neither the heating nor the ventilating of the elementary school buildings is satisfactory. Perhaps they cannot be made satisfactory, for in spite of the large claims of vendors of heating and ventilating apparatus, science has not yet devised a method for the proper ven- 21 tilation of school houses; but they can be more successfully venti- lated than they now are. It has been calculated that foul air de- stroys 75% of the efficiency of school work. A board of education anxious to increase the efficiency of its schools can wrestle with this problem to advantage. The school physicians which it employs to visit the schools will furnish conclusive evidence that conditions should be materially improved. There are two things that may be done; one is to make the firms wliicli have installed tlie apparatus which is now in the schools live up to their g-uarantee that it will supply pure air in the quantity needed; the other is to get apparatus which will more nearly do the work. Principals and teachers seem to be exercising due dili- gence in reading thermometers and adjusting drafts, but results ore not what thev should be. Playgrounds Each of the elementary school buildings has large basement playrooms, but the school grounds of at least three of them are too small. Land could be purchased to enlarge the grounds of the Columbian school and it is needed there. More space would be an advantage at the Stockton school, and even the Ashland school could use more ground to ad\-antage. The Franklin school has splendid large grounds, the Eastern and the Elmwood schools are well provided ; the Nassau and the Lincoln schools are not badly off. The school grounds of each building should be provided with simple and inexpensive playground apparatus. Only a little of it is required in each place : but those school authorities who are con- vinced that the playground is more important than the school would insist upon having at least some playground equipment on the grounds of each school. East Orange has done well to pro\'ide a playing field for the pupils of her schools, and the Playground Com- mission is doing a commendable work there. But the High School which is almost without any ground space save that on which the building stands must almost monopolize the athletic field, while the cliief value of playgrounds to school chil- dren consists in having them right at hand to be used before and after school and during recesses, while the stimulus of momentary freedom from the necessity to stay indoors and the presence of the whole company of children make every one take part in the games and the exercise that are possible to tliem. Now that we are be- g^ lining to see that physical training is really more important than any form of mental training, we shall make more and better pro- vision for it in every way that we can. The educational efficiency of a scliool system requires ample provision for playgrounds, just as certainly as it requires due attention to the teaching of reading, writing, and spelling. L'nless it is providing these things in their proper measure, it is not as efficient as it can be made to be. East Orange is not behindhand as to playgrounds, but it can do more than it is now doing in respect to them. School gardens also are 22 an essential feature of the best equipped schools. They are not to be found here; yet nature study cannot properly be carried on without them, and they should be provided as soon as they can be. Equipment It is generally conceded that the elements which in their proper combination make a school are, in the order of their importance, the teacher, equipment and building. Of these by far the most im- portant is the teacher, and by far the least important is the build- ing; and while a satisfactory equipment is less important than a good teacher, it is more important than the building. In point of equipment I would rate these elementary schools as fair. Of seats and desks, blackboards and maps, there are perhaps enough. In adjustable seats, well adjusted to the needs of the pupils there is room for improvement. Of books there are not enough. Readers should be supplied in sets made up of different kinds of books, as well as of the same kinds of books. The supplementary reading matter which is supplied to the higher grades is well selected and rich both in quantity and quality. Dictionaries should be much more common and more commonly used. I think it is not extrava- gant to supply an unabridged dictionary and a brief encyclopedia to each 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade room. The school libraries should receive more attention. In some schools there are many more books than in others, and in some much more use is made of books than in others. School libraries should either be built up by the Board of Education or an arrange- ment should be made with the City Library to furnish books to each school, and the principal and teachers should foster and systematize their use by the children. Every elementary school should habitu- ate every grammar school child to the use of dictionaries, encyclo- pedias, and of books other than textbooks, both for the information they supply and for the pleasure they afford. Supplies are furnished with promptness and in reasonable quantity; their quality does not always give satisfaction to those who requisition for them. This difficulty, though not now serious, could be entirely removed if the supervisor who uses the materials should supply standard samples of supplies needed before the goods are bought. Protection of Health Of the High School we shall speak in another section. There are certain other general features of the school system which may be discussed here. The health of the school children is a matter of the gravest concern to all progressive boards of education and to the communities which they represent. Ample provision has been made for the physical examination of each child in the schools. These examinations are conducted by a staff of competent physi- cians. They are made each year, and the results are entered upon a cumulative record card which has spaces for the health record 23 of each child for his entire eight years of school attendance. Con- tagious diseases are carefully watched and the condition of eye- sight, hearing, teeth, lung and heart action, are carefully tested. If conditions are found that require medical attention, the parent is at once notified to take his child to a physician. All this is admirable. There should, we think, be a closer following up of all such cases to see, if possible, that the proper relief from disease is provided in each case. The proper measures will, of course, be taken in most cases, but not in all, and if the schools are to do their best service for the children they will do all in their power to get good health for them. It is not unreasonable to go a step further than they now go and in addition to notifying parents, to request them to report back to the school that action has been taken in each case and to follow up the report of each child who is in need of care until it is given. Quite properly the school should not do any prescribing. This sug- gested following up does not involve anything of that sort. The system of medical examination is not as complete in the High School as it should be. Reference will be made to it in a later section. Physical Training Physical training of a very satisfactory sort and under the di- rection of an able supervisor is being given in all the schools. Games are being played in the school rooms, and setting-up exer- cises are given. Every child is being taught to breathe, sit, and stand properly. Great interest is being taken in this work and it is certain to be abundantly successful. It would, I think, be im- proved if it were given in all the schools, as it is given in one of them (the Lincoln) where the children, instead of going into the hallways where the air is not likely to be of the best, open all the windows of their classroom and take their exercises practically in the open air. As this lesson is given at the same time in every room of the building, nobody is disturbed by the exercise. Free gym- nastics without apparatus offer the best forms of healthful exer- cise. Gymnasiums and apparatus are not necessary, perhaps not even desirable, in elementary schools. This work should go for- ward with the same enthusiasm with which it is now being con- ducted. A male instructor organizes the athletics of the higher grammar grades, and supervises a system of inter-school games. This is excellent and good results are certain to come from it. The Hours for Little Children But the school system is not conserving the health of its chil- dren in all ways. Some of its requirements are positively harmful to them. The transactions of the Royal Sanitary Institute of Great Bri- tain report a study, tabulated by Mr. Clement Dukes, showing how much work may safely be put upon a growing child. Its results are as follows: 24 Table E Hours of Hours of work sleep Ages of pupils. per day per night From 5 to 6 years i i3'A " 6 " 7 " I'A 13,, " 7 " 8 " 2 12% " 8 " 9 " 2% 12 " 9 " 10 •• 3 "^ " 10 " 12 " 4 II " 12 " 14 " S loj^ " 14 " i6 " 6 ID " i6 " i8 " 7 9% " iB " 19 " 8 9 Pupils under five years of age attend one session of the kinder- garten in East Orange. "Other pupils except those barely five may attend both sessiojis when the numbers will permit" (Course of Study, p. 13). Except in rare cases no child who has reached the sixth birthday is admitted to a kindergarten. The Rules and Regu- lations prescribe that "kindergarten and first year classes may be excused at 11 130 a. m. and 2:45 P- '^■" Seventy-five minutes is the time per week allowed for recesses, according to the time table; hence, four hours of work per day is provided for children from 5 to 6 years of age and the same amount for children of from 6 to 7 years of age; while those from 7 to 8 attend for four and one-half hours. This is too much work for little children, and the hours of confinement under school discipline are too long for them. Sleep and free play are more important to them than so much schooling. The State law, I am told, is in part responsible for this long school- day, but the law does not require full time attendance of little chil- dren ; and if it did, a better distribution of time would enable them to omit the last wearying hour of the day. The researches of Jung and Freud are beginning to show us how overwhelmingly important the nature of infantile experience is. The crises of life, they main- tain, are to be found in its earliest years. All wearing and vexa- tious disturbances must be removed from them if after life is not to be distorted. Again, there is little warrant for assuming that there is any intellectual advantage derived from either early attendance or long hours for little ones. Home Study Required of Grammar School Pupils The same considerations apply in some measure to the length of the periods of required home study in the grammar grades. Reg- ular home study is, in one respect, a desirable thing, but the one hour and one-half required of seventh grade students, and the two hours per day required of eighth grade students, seem to me to pro- long the school day unduly and to make the working hours of chil- dren nearly as long as those of adults, leaving too little time for free, random reading, or for the multiplicity of concerns which youth must initiate and carry on for itself. The day is a split day, too, and the studying required must be done in the late afternoon or evening. 25 The papers which were submitted in the EngHsh test constitute a most interesting and suggestive document on the child life of the city of East Orange. They bring to our consciousness the wide world of action in which the children grow, outside of school walls and hours. An imposing hst of activities is mentioned, from play- ing with dolls and dominoes, to cleaning the cellar and chicken coop, and delivering groceries. Very frequent mention is made of mov- ing picture shows, choir practice, music lessons, housecleaning, and sewing schools. One young sixth grade hero rescued a baby from a burning crib, and with fine presence of mind put flour on its body. Many of the children are already making Christmas presents. No one can read these papers and believe that children are naturally lazy; and the net impression is that overpressure of the American city school child is not an altogether imaginary danger. One feels that the boys and girls ought to have more real leisure and freedom and surely on Saturday. Leisure is a great educator. The children should have time for their own original devices, games and expe- ditions ; and for the undirected, spontaneous library reading which the returns clearly show they enjoy. This leisure time is already too much invaded by piano practice, sewing schools, theatre, shop- ping, etc. The school surely should not further encroach upon this "free time." But it does. In a great many of the returns, the children make records like the following: "Then I did my homework and went to bed." "I did my homework to have Sunday free." This "home- work," which apparently is an accepted part even of the child's Sat- urday is schoolwork, — it is grammar, arithmetic and spelling. Some- times this homework is mentioned in connection with sleepiness. "We had supper and I studied my lessons for one hour and forty minutes. Then my brother asked me some questions and said I had to study some more. Finally I grew tired and went to bed." Here is the way a 5th grade boy started the day: 7:15 — Got up and made his own bed; 8:15 went to choir practice; 10-12 went home and studied school lessons and Sunday School lessons. This sort of thing means pressure, and with nervous children it spells overpressure. There are, of course, a good many children who manage to have a care-free day of healthy play out of Saturday; but the school should not be guilty of adding to the burden of the serious and overconscientious children who suffer both from school study and home study. The whole trend of educational hygiene, not to say legislation, is toward the abolition of home study. The practice in East Orange of expecting ^ of an hour of homestudy from 5th graders, i hour from 6th, lyi hours from 7th, and 2 hours from 8th, can be safely con- demned. First of all, the nervous systems of children are already suf- ficiently endangered by poor ventilation and insufficient sleep. Peda- gogically the practice of assigning home work fosters the undesirable American process or policy of lesson setting and lesson hearing. "The German teacher teaches" it has been said; but the American teacher hears recitations. There are special evils in homestudy; "Tendencies to deception, slovenly work, formation of habits of 26 carelessness, dawdling, error and confusion." Dr. Friedrich Schmidt of Germany made an experimental study of the relative merits of home and of school study in children as old as 12 years. Even at this age he found homework strikingly inferior in results, especially in arithmetic, where there were about 300 errors in home exercises to 200 errors in school work. Dr. W. H. Burnham, a leading American authority in School Hygiene, after a conserva- tive, critical study of the problem concludes "The safe rule would seem to be that no homework should be prescribed, but where this seems desirable, suggestions for spontaneous work may well be given." In California "homework" is forbidden by law. Zurich also forbids it absolutely, and many European cities carefully limit the conditions under which it may be permitted. The International Con- gress of School Hygiene at Nuremburg, favored a resolution ad- vocating its abolition. A decided modification and curtailment or complete abolition of home study requirements in East Orange would undoubtedly be beneficial to the children, not only on Satur- days but on school days too. Most educators would, I think, agree that no child under seven years of age should go to school more than once a day, or for more than three hours a day; and that no child under twelve should be in school more than five hours a day, or take any assigned work home for study in the evenings. After that age a limited amount of home work may be required. It should perhaps never exceed an hour in the case of elementary school pupils. Two Types of Schools There are two kinds of schools following two different con- ceptions of education. According to one kind the great thing is knowledge. It is stored up in books, in courses of study and in the minds of teachers and other learned folks. The purpose of school keeping is to retail it to children; to pass it on from the places where it is to the places where it is not. That it may be passed on easily it must be prepared in little carefully molded cubes or accurately weighed doses. This is the work of textbook makers and of manufacturers of methods. Teaching, according to this view, consists in seeing to it that the young child takes the proper number of pellets of knowledge every day and the object of the recitation is to find out whether or not he has done so. Since what he has taken is knowledge in its essential form, he must retain it in the form in which he took it. To see that he has done this and is continuing to do it, there must be periodical inspections of his stock of knowledge. These are called examinations. They occur at regular intervals, since the amassing of a fixed amount of knowl- edge and the retention of it in its original condition is thought to be necessary before one can safely amass further knowledge. To summarize : The object of education, according to this view, is knowl- edge. The business of teaching is to put it where it is not. Text- books are to provide it. Recitations are to find out whether or not 27 it has been taken. Memory must retain it, and examinations must be given to test the knowledge state of pupils. Since knowledge is the one thing needful, tlie quantity of knowledge which can be compressed into the memory of a school child becomes a matter of vast importance. Courses of study are written chiefly, in many cases, to indicate tlie quantity which e\ery good retailer of knowl- edge must succeed in lodging in tlie memory of each child. To cover tlie prescribed amount of work is the mark toward which the teacher is made to press, and toward which she is usually, in such a system, overpressed. That the superintendent and the principals may know that teacher and pupils are handling the required stint of knowledge, that teachers may know that pupils are stocking them- selves witli it and retaining it in undiminished state, that parents may be assured that their children are amassing the fixed heaps of prescribed facts, that the children themselves "may know how much they know," gfreat reliance is placed upon examinations. They are given witli great regularity, their results are carefully tabulated. As soon as one is over, everybody settles down to preparing for the next one. Children are weighed and measured by them, are en- couraged or discouraged, are promoted or demoted, by tliem. This is called an examination system of schools. All that it does is neces- sary, but by no means as necessary as it conceives it. All that it does is important, but b\- no means so important as it regards it. The other kind of school looks upon knowledge, not as a fixed thing, but as a useful tool which men have shaped because they need it in living. It is not at all finished or final. Men made it by think- ing and men will improve it by thnking, and before anyone can use it or any part of it he must remake it through his own thinking for himself. What Moses thought, or Plato thought, or the maker of the arithmetic thought, will never do me any good, until I think it for myself. The great tiling then for this school is not knowledge, but learning to use one's mind upon matters which men have found to be important by using their minds upon them. Textbooks are important because they suggest to us some things which are im- portant to think about. Courses of study try to do the same thing by picking- out certain matters to think about longer and harder tlian others, and giving suggestions as to wa}s of thinking. Teach- ers are important because il\ey stimulate us to think by surroimd- ing us with problems and reasons for solving tliem, and such help in going about the matter in profitable ways as we stand in need of. They help us to look at tilings, and study things, and talk about things, and repeat things and understand things, and memorize things that can best be thought about in these ways. And from time to time as may require, and to make themselves better ac- quainted with the success which we are acliie\'ing in our thinking, they set specific pieces of work for us to perform and examine our success in performing tliem witli somewhat greater care tlian they can give to our day by day tliinking. The number of textbook or course-of-study things that we think about in this kind of education is not so important as is the number of tilings we trj' to get in the 28 other kind; but the kind of thinking that we do is much more important. In the first kind of school everybody is hurried, teachers have to make children learn much more than they can possibly make them learn, while children have much more to study than they can pos- sibly understand, and many more things to do than they can possi- bly do well. Because everybody is hurried, short cuts are taken; things are not talked about that ought to be talked about at length ; words take the place of thoughts ; memory is made to do much that intelligence ought to perform. Habits of divided attention are de- veloped. The use of the mind which ought to be the most pleasant of all occupations becomes wearisome and repellant. The word school means leisure. The men who invented it gave it that name and until pressure is removed from it, it simply cannot perform its work. The Tendency at Elast Orange Neither of these kinds of school ever exists in a pure state ; as we know them they are only tendencies. The question which we must ask in valuing any school system, is, which of these tendencies is uppermost in it. I have no hesitation in saying that more of the first than of the second is to be found at East Orange in the elementary schools. They tend to put results before processes. Neither teachers nor pupils are quite free enough in their work. Carrying out the instructions of the Course of Study, in detail, claims too much of the energy of the teachers. There is not enough time for individual work. Covering a certain amount of ground overtaxes the pupils ; examinations have too large a place in every- body's mind. The reading of examination papers and the making of too frequent reports occupies too much of the time of those who teach, and fixes the minds of children too intently on the book- keeping aspects of school work. To succeed in an examination be- comes more important to them than to comprehend a subject. Re- port cards are sent home so frequently that parents seem to be absolved from the necessity of knowing anything else about the schools. In short, I think the emphasis is put in the wrong place. Ex- aminations play too large a part ; too much written work is given ; the examinable features of a subject get more than their share of attention. Records are kept of failures that ought to be forgotten in the light of subsequent atonement. Standards of marking vary £0 extremely that much injustice can hardly fail to be done. What concerns the Course of Study will be found in another place. Recommendations In this connection I would recommend a shifting of emphasis from an examination system to a system which uses examinations more as incidental features of its work. The regularity of the monthly tests should be broken up. Teachers should be expected to 29 give as frequent reviews as the nature of the subject matter studied demands ; and such written lessons from time to time as the neces- sities of good instruction may require ; but these lessons should not be featured as of more significance than they are, and they should come at irregular times. Formal examinations are serviceable when not too ninnerous, and should perhaps be given at the end of each semester, but as they are valuable chiefly in providing a need for a thorough review of the work of the term and a bringing together of the parts of the study which is being pursued, and for the train- ing which they give in meeting a difficult and not unfamiliar emer- gency ; all should take them, and other methods should be employed to keep the deportment of students at or above 85%. The daily-work mark will serve its purposes best if it is not entered daily but kept in mind until one is quite certain that it is correct. The monthly mark will, I believe, serve best if it is the teacher's estimate on the basis of oral and written lessons and de- portment of the fact that the pupil is among the best in the class, or among the next best, or among the third-class students of the subject. As the daily work is the main thing in a school, a stu- dent with good daih- work and a poor examination is still a good student; whereas one with poor daily work and a good examination is a poor student. The examination from the standpoint of the pu- pil should be just one of tlie significant lessons of the course. It should not count for a half in his rating ; perhaps for not more than 10% in his term's w^ork. Tests which are intended to keep super- intendents, principals and teachers well informed as to the success or failure of their teaching should be given at irregular times, as often as need be, to pro\ide this information ; but since they reveal the success of failure of the teaching and not the present worth of the pupil, the pupil should not be rated by tliem; but the teaching should be corrected and the pupils' work estimated only after the defects of the teaching ha^-e been eliminated. The Duties of Supervisors One fertile source of confusion, worry and overwork to the teachers in a school system is due to the failure on tlie part of the board of education and of the superintendents to fix tlie limits which supervisors of special subjects must observe in their work. This office of super\-isor is a somewhat anomalous one. The ex- ecutive and administrative control of the work of teaching is en- trusted by the board to a superintendent and a corps of principals, but a staff of super\-isors of special subjects, such as primary read- ing, music, drawing, gjrmnastics, primary- manual work, writing, etc. , are constantly going from school room to school room and each presses the teachers to give more attention to his special work than is being given, and to get better results in it, etc., etc. Here is a new administrative authority which is usually rather too independent of superintendent and principal to function successfully in an admin- istrative role. The duties of supervisors must be carefully defined. They are teacliers of teachers in special subjects. They should go 30 about explaining the best methods of teaching their subjects, giving model lessons, stirring up enthusiasm, etc. ; but as they belong to the instructional and not to the superintending staff, it should be clearly understood that they have no authority to give orders as to the amount of work to be done or to rebuke teachers for not doing it, or to rate teachers in their work, or in any way assume these func- tions of superintendents and principals. Whatever suggestions they have to make along these lines should be made to principals and superintendents and by them to the teachers whose work is in ques- tion. What I have said here is not a criticism of the work of the supervisors, but does, I think, point to a regulation which should be introduced to keep their work from interfering with that of other oificers of the system. Tenure of Office Law There is one other feature which does not yet, but will in time, tend to lower the efficiency of the schools. I refer to the State ten- ure of office law. Security in office during good and efficient ser- vice is something which all interested in the public schools pray earnestly for, but lodgment in office for life is quite another matter. It is practically impossible to prove professional incompetency in court; and places where teachers can appeal to the courts for final review of adverse action against them by boards of education and are practically never dismissed, have poor schools. Such tenure of office is good for the clerk, but bad for the work. They should of course have the right to demand a public hearing, but it should be conducted by the board of education, not by a court. The best kind of tenure of office is that which an enhghtened public demands and insists upon for its teachers. Both teachers and people are un- fortunate in having any other kind. How Pupils are Promoted The superintendent's statement of how promotions are made is as follows : "We have annual promotions, but in all rooms up to the seventh grade we have two sections, one of which is capa- ble of moving a little more rapidly than the other in the heavier sub- jects. In all first year rooms there are three sections of different advancement. In all cases pupils are moved from one section to a higher or lower section as their progress merits. These changes are constantly being made. There is no fixed limit for the year's work in first, second, or third year grades. Each section advances as far as possible, consistent with thorough work. After the third year limits are more closely adhered to and a somewhat modified Cambridge plan is followed." One of the Regulations reads: When failures stand against a pupil in studies equivalent to two daily studies extending through a year, he shall be placed in the next lower grade, but no pupil shall be kept in a grade longer than two years. Pupils thus passed to higher grades shall not thus secure entrance to or graduation from the High School. 31 Demotion is such a serious tragedy in the life of a child that the utmost effort possible must be made to prevent it. It is clearly the intention of all the school authorities to make this effort. Even so, I think more could be done than is now being done. The quan- tity of the work done should not be the determining consideration: the ability to profit by the work of tiie next grade should be. There should be more time for individual work with backward pupils. In the more serious cases home conditions should be looked into and the heartier cooperation of parents secured. Special examina- tions by tiie school physicians sometimes locate special physical causes of tiie backward condition. The tests in spelling and arith- metic show scattered cases of marked deficiency. \"ery often this deficiency is in one subject. These children call for special atten- tion and individual instruction. There are usually ascertainable reasons for their lack of success. The fact that arithmetic claims the greatest number of the specialized laggards is significant. The provision for special instruction in ungraded classes is most commendable. The "uneasy class" for pupils who find the rea- sonable orderliness of tiieir classrooms too irksome relieves the busy teacher of the "one bad boy" who in some systems is such an ef- fective agent in reducing the efficiency of all about him. The special class for mentally atypical children in charge of a teacher speciall}- trained for her work at Vineland is a good feature which may be copied with profit elsewhere. The '"backward classes" are doing a good and necessarj' work. Another class (ungraded) for cliildren who do not fit well into tiie groups where they are, in some cases for temperamental reasons, in others because of loss of courage, would be a desirable addition. It would not only make their success more certain, but make tliat of the rooms from which they are taken more possible. Retardation The age and grade classifications submitted by the principals of all the elementar}^ schools give the following results as to the num- ber of pupils in liieir normal classification and the number out of it. Table F t »; > 1 CO 00 1° > > ?1 > t *-* -^ ■*"• 1 ^ K I >a •K, K) ^ NO N. ^ 0^ Ns. ^ -^ ^ '\3 <\5 ? > ^ ■^ N1 03 00 vS :t- 0^ NO (0 CD Co 1 if) ty fo -0 L!_ ^ N» to - ^ -s 10 i$ C3 ^ 00 o ^ 0- k ^ > '\3 '^ c- ^v {^ ? 5 0- ;^ 03 N f ^ ^ 5-. ^ 6- - 3- ■»^ ^ o ^ 5^ t(1 i^ > Ci * i '^ lO •s.* 10 '^ ^ fvj II **" ^ t - S e>- ce 1' 11^ 33 Table G Percentage of Elementary School Pupils Over Age and Under Age in the Public Schools of East Orange Grade Normal Over Normal Age Under Age I Year 2 Years 3 Years 4 Years or more Totals Normal Age K'dgtn. §9 8o 76 68 55 56 49 49 61 63 8% 1% 5% 1% 8% 8% 4% 4% 87% 2% l'-2% 3-6% 6.3% II I "; b 12.7%. II 7% 16.1% 6 0% 8.01% 1-1% 2.5% 4-5% 6.0% 71% 7-1% 1-8% 3-53% oVi% o'.8% 2.7% 3-3% o-7% iVio% 0.2% I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 *i-8 6 9 13 16 17 24 20 22 15 3% s% 6% 7% 6% 9% 7% 4% 30% 8 14 23 35 39 44 43 30 27 3% 2% 2% 0% 6% 4% 9% 2% 95% II 9 8 9 3 6 7 8 8 5% 3% 6% 1% 5% 1% ^'^ 5% 18% *i-8 ^ 2367 567 297 131 41 1036 303 * Note. — Exclusive of kindergarten. Note. — Normal age is taken as 4-6 for kindergarten; 6-8, 7-9, 8-10, 9-11, 10-12, 11-13, 12-14, and 13-15 for grades x, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, respectively. Table H From the U. S. Bureau of Education, Bui. No. 5 — 1911 (Inquiry of December 1908) Elemen- tary Grades. Boys. 54-4% 20.6% 11.8% S-9% 2.1% 40.4% 5 2% Girls. 57-7% 20.9% 11-5% 3-7% 1.6% 37-7% 46% This comparison of age and grade conditions in 1908 with condi- tions as they are now shows that much improvement has been made in three years. The over normal age figures are still much too high. They are somewhat due to the fact that the town is adding to its population by people moving there from other places. "We find our- selves badly affected by the fact that we have a large floating popu- lation," writes the superintendent. "Our requirements seem to be higher than most of the newcomers are accustomed to, and this results in repetition of grades and the raising of the age average. This is especially true in second, seventh, and eighth grades, but is serious throughout the grammar grades." It seems to us to be so serious as to require a change in the course of study, more individ- ual work and perhaps new types of schools for certain upper grade pupils. 34 Table I The following table shows the results of the midyear examina- tions 1910-11 in the five grammar schools having graduating classes: Percentage Percentage No. in No. No. No. Failed o£ Failed of Subject Class Excused Examined Failed Whole Class Examined — ^Entire Graduating Class by Schools — School Ashland Arith. 55 14 39 17 31 44 Geog. 55 27 28 3 5 II Gram. 55 12 43 II 20 26 Hist. 55 29 26 2 4 7 Eastern Arith. 70 14 56 6 9 II Geog. 70 28 42 3 4 7 Gram. 70 19 51 6 9 12 Hist. 70 39 31 6 9 30 Franklin Arith. 41 32 9 6 14 67 Geog. 40 29 II 2 5 18 Gram. 41 29 12 I 2 8 Hist. 40 27 13 Colttmbian Arith. 44 20 24 2 5 8 Geog. 45 17 28 4 9 14 Gram. 45 15 30 12 27 40 Hist. 45 19 26 5 II 19 Nassau Arith. 70 19 51 8 II 15 Geog. 70 24 46 10 14 31 Gram. 70 33 37 13 19 35 Hist. 70 42 28 4 S 14 35 Table J The following shows the results of final examinations, gram- mar schools, June, 191 1 : Percentage Percentage No. in No. No. No. Failed of Failed of School Subject Class Excused —EIGHTH Examined GRADE— Failed the Class Examined Ashland Arith. 28 12 16 I 4 6 Arith. 26 IS II I 4 9 Geog. S4 36 18 2 4 II Gram. 54 19 35 Hist. 54 28 26 I 2 4 SpeU. 54 24 30 3 6 10 Eastern Arith. 41 22 19 Geog. 41 3° II I 2 9 Gram. 41 26 15 Hist. 41 29 12 I 2 8 SpeU. 40 27 13 2 5 15 Franklin Arith. 41 36 5 Geog. 41 22 19 2 5 10 Gram. 41 31 10 I 2 10 Hist. 41 34 7 2 5 28 SpeU. 41 18 23 u Columbian Arith. 45 21 24 Geog. 45 23 22 2 4 9 Gram. 45 18 27 2 4 7 Hist. 45 25 20 5 II 25 SpeU. 45 19 26 2 4 8 Nassau Arith. 24 6 18 10 42 56 Arith. 40 26 14 2 5 14 Geog. 24 3 21 3 13 14 Geog. 40 25 IS Gram. 24 6 18 4 17 22 Gram. 40 28 12 Hist. 24 4 20 6 25 30 Hist. 40 27 13 u SpeU. 24 2 22 I 4 5 SpeU. 40 20 20 I 3 5 Table K The following table shows reasons why pupils left school dur- ing the year 1910-11 to June ist, 1911. Totals for all elementary schools : o 3 O^ o o V CO V BO c •§ a V E Hi O -a o o -s to J- Oh to § m Id V f2 Totals so n OO M 3? ^1 3 M • w " 1 pq (5 1 H M M CO >^ O m 1 pq ■3 3 H H C/3 O 1 3 lO lO o> 1 H H M ^ Sent to Special C asses 3 P^ CO « « rO Dropped to Lower Grade 1 IH ^ '^ -+ M H 00 H vO 3 "^ M H •* 00 o 10 fe- ed H ■ M CI 3 C4 00 H 1/1 M 00 00 m 00 H o> O c*3 o'rt 3 v> ■* ei O H 1 ra M H 1^ 3 n ^ M r* « •«» fO n vo \Reason. Grade \ i 5 5 1 1 19 1 H 37 VI. — The Teachers and Their Work The Regulations governing the certification of teachers pre- scribe that candidates for the principalship of primary and gram- mar schools must hold the diploma of an approved college or state normal school and have had a successful experience of at least two years. Candidates for positions as primary and grammar school teachers and special assistants must have had a successful experience of at least one year and must hold the diploma of an approved col- lege, state normal school, or city normal school, a first grade New Jersey county certificate, a New Jersey state certificate — received by examination — or a first grade state certificate received by exam- ination in another state, the certificate system of which has been approved. Candidates for positions in the High School must hold the diploma of an approved college or university, and have had at least one year's successful experience. Candidates for positions as kindergarteners must be high school or normal school graduates and must hold the diploma of an approved kindergarten training school in which the course of study covers at least two years. They must have had at least one year of successful experience. Candi- dates for positions as assistant kindergarteners must be graduates of a kindergarten training school. These are the written qualifica- tions ; the unwritten ones are much higher. The Superintendent of Schools is constantly gathering informa- tion about unusually promising candidates for membership in his corps. He finds out what he can as to their training and success in teaching, then he visits them in their class rooms, sees how they work. When a vacancy occurs he is usually able to nominate a thoroughly trained and competent person to fill it. This important duty could not, I am sure, be more conscientiously and carefully performed. As a result the personnel of the teaching company in East Orange could hardly be improved upon. It is unfortunate that men teachers are not to be found in any of the upper grade class rooms, but unless they were as capable as the women who are now there they would not be an element of strength. The principals of the elementary schools are an exceptionally able group of men. Their attitude toward the children under their care could hardly be better than it is, while their considerate and kindly leadership is a constant source of strength to their teachers. I am of the belief that their duties are too much detailed for them, and that they are not left free enough from the necessity of making reports and of teaching classes a fixed number of hours per week to become as familiar with the instruction which is being given in their schools as they should be. The principal of a twelve-room school is directed to teach regularly not less than 400 minutes, nor more than 500 per week. This is very nearly a third of the entire school time and while this required amount is considerably less in the case of prin- cipals of larger buildings, it is still too large, and rather too defin- itely fixed to allow the best results. The principal is the captain of a ship, the commander of a station, and he should be entirely free within wide limits to use his own discretion in administering his 38 command. He should be accountable for what goes on in his jur- isdiction and to be accountable he must be put largely upon his own resources. General principles must, of course, be laid down, but ways and means must be left almost entirely to the local commander. This is so delicate, a matter that it is never an easy one for a super- ior officer to adjust. One trouble with boards of education almost everywhere is that in their eagerness to perform all the duties of their office they perform many duties which for the ^eal good of the undertaking should be performed by the educators whom they employ. The same excess of zeal makes superintendents perform more than their share of administrative work and leave too little for their principals and teachers to decide and adjust. And principals too are too apt to arrange everything for their teachers and leave too little to their initiative. While the great and besetting sin of teachers, which as yet only very exceptional ones escape, is to teach too much. I have tried in another place in this report to show that this tendency is due to a mistaken notion of what knowledge is and to a conception of education that follows from this mistaken notion. No one person is to blame for it and school systems throughout the whole country suffer from it. It is hard for boards of education and superinten- dents and principals and teachers who are thoroughly in earnest to keep from doing more than their own work, yet a democracy of effort is best and one of the precepts which administrative officers must remember is to let the other fellow do his part. His freedom is essential to his welfare. To over-systematize his affairs for him is quite as bad for his development as not to systematize them enough. This is peculiarly true of educational work; of teaching in which the participation of minds in due measure is the one es- sential thing. I have dwelt upon this point at length for the majority of the teacheis in the elementary schools of East Orange are doing too much teaching, not too little of it. The pupils are doing too little studying and thinking, and too much getting of lessons and reciting. A systematic effort on the part of all concerned should be instituted to correct this tendency. Study classes for teachers should be formed by the Superintendent and the principals. Such excellent books as McMurry's "How to Study and Teaching How to Study ;" Strayer's "A Brief Course in the Teaching Process ;" and Dewey's "How We Think," should be read and discussed by all. These books and others like them contain the best discussions of the teacher's work which we have. Nobody who follows this profession is ex- empt from the need to know what they contain. If objection be made that the teachers already know how to teach and should not be asked to learn more about this subject, we would reply that no- body knows how to teach, — that it is the finest and most difficult of all the arts ; that as yet nothing more than a beginning has been made in the science of education ; that no teacher not even the most suc- cessful can fail to profit by what others have thought and said about his calling; that "nothing is worth doing that is not worth thinking about" all the time, continuously, and education least of all. 39 The discipline of the schools is good. Everybody works hard and very fev*^ seem to be inclined to interfere with the work of their neighbors. In going into the class rooms of all the buildings I did not see one serious act of disorder. This good condition is due to home training, to the seriousness of the work and the personality of the teachers. Repeated admonition is required to get good "posi- tion," but not to get good order. The "uneasy class" helps greatly and is a wise provision. The children are acquiring habits of cour- tesy and consideraton which will serve them well through their lives. Table L The Enrollment by Schools and the Distribution of the Teaching Force School High School Ashland School Eastern School • • Franklin School Elmwood School . . • ■ Columbian School Nassau School Stockton School Lincoln School Total Enrollment Average Belonging 716 670 656 602 574 747 836 666 S97 674 632 5" 595 540 457 394 S903 5 I 19 There are this year 186 in the teaching force, besides the super- intendent : Kindergarten • 16 Primary 57 Grammar 48 Special assistants (one in each primary and grammar school — general helper and substitute and coach) . 8 Special, slow, first year classes 2 Special, backward class, ist to 3d years Special class for slow children of the 3d and 4th years Special "Uneasy class" for boys, 3d to 7th years in- clusive Primary and grammar principals, (male. ) . • High School Principal High school teachers (not including manual training.) Manual Training ( 2 men Woodwork • \ 2 women Arts and Crafts • • 2 " Sewing 2 ^^ Cooking 2 Music supervisor i Drawing Supervisor ■ • • i (These also teach freehand drawing in the High School) j I man Physical trammg \ ^ woman Penmanship (half time) i ,, First year primary supervisor i (This teacher, Miss Herron, acts as a regular teacher of first grade during four days of the week). 40 VII. — ^The Course of Study and the Teaching of the Several Subjects in the Elementary Schools A new course of study is needed and is being prepared. There are certain considerations which I think should be kept in mind in making it. The course of study is not a demand made upon the members of a teaching corps by the school authorities. It is a co- operative formulation in outline of the task which they purpose to undertake. Everyone concerned should have a part in the making of it, — the parents, the teachers, the principals, the superintendents, and finally the board of education. Not only should opportunity be given to each one to express his views upon what should go into it, but each one should be brought to feel that he has a duty to express his views. Not all these views can find a place in it when it is draft- ed, but everyone of them should be taken into account in the making of it. The superintendent and the principals must study what is be- ing done elsewhere and supply most of the course; and they must reduce it to its final form;. but they must use the knowledge of par- ents and teachers in constructing it, else it will not embody the best thought of the community as to what should be attempted in its schools. To make a course of study in this way is a long and hard undertaking. It should be a special order of business for not less than an entire year. In some measure this method has been fol- lowed. Again the course of study should not attempt to tell in detail what is to be taught in each subject nor to give more than an outline of the methods to be used. It should indicate the larger subject- units to be treated and something as to the best methods of handling them. Beyond this it should not be prescriptive, for it is the teacher who must do the teaching, and if teaching is to be an intellectual work it must allow plenty of room for the selection of matter to be considered and the choice of method to be followed. Unless the teacher is an agent with discretion, teaching becomes merely carry- ing out orders — a mechanical and not a stimulating and vivifying work. On the other hand, it is necessary that the undertaking be sufficiently systematized to be a definite one. An outline by subject- units of the minimum amount of work to be done by each grade is required, and in fixing this minimum account should be taken of the fact that children's diseases and other interferences keep pupils from school a certain number of days each year, so that a minimum amount of work should be fixed which can be performed without undue effort in the time which remains after the normal period of inevitable absence is subtracted from the whole number of teaching days in the year. It is the quality of the work which counts, not its quantity. It is not a fact that the course of study contains too many subjects, but it is a fact that it commonly requires too much work in each subject to allow for the degree of thoroughness that should be achieved. Almost with one accord teachers protest that they have not time to perform their work as they would. In the high school it is 41 the requirements of the colleges which keep them from teaching as they would ; in the elementary schools it is the amount of work prescribed by the course of study. This is manifestly wrong and a change should be brought about. There must be a selecting of prin- ciples, ideas, and ideals to be taught. Fundamental matters should have the right of way over subsidiary matters. As much time should be taken as is required to do all that is done well; then what re- mains to be done can well be left to the well-trained person which the pupil has become, to perform if need be in his after school life. This is certain : that the teacher who is under bondage to the course of study, or who leans too heavily upon it, is not performing the full functions of a teacher. There are certain changes in school work which I should like to present for the consideration of the superintendent, principals and teachers of East Orange. The first concerns the kindergarten ; would it not be better not to allow any kindergarten children to attend for more than a half- day, and to eliminate all prescribed primary school work from its course of study? The experience of other communities confirms this view, and the new knowledge which we begin to have as to the importance of freedom from undue constraint in the first years of childhood ratify it. There is no printed timetable which tells exactly how it is sug- gested that the time of teachers and pupils be distributed to the several subjects. Instead the timetable printed in the course of study which bears date of 1908 was handed to me with a supplementary note which reads "Time for manual training increased in all grades. In eighth grade this becomes 90 minutes per week." Arithmetic and geography correspondingly reduced; history and grammar somewhat reduced in the eighth grades; the latter to give more time to composition. I have therefore put down 40 minutes for manual training in the first four grades, and subtracted half of it from arithmetic, 10 minutes from writing and 10 minutes from "poetry and science ;" and have increased the time for manual train- ing in the 5th, 6th, and 7th years to 50 minutes, taking 10 minutes from reading in each grade. In the 8th grade 50 minutes is added to manual training making 90 in all, and 25 minutes of that I have subtracted from arithmetic, and the rest from geography. This does not give the distribution exactly as it is made, but it is near enough for purposes of comparison. The time table thus changed stands as follows : 42 Table M Subject Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year Ylar 6 Year Year 8 Year Total Arithmetic History Enghsh: Spelling Grammar and Composition . Reading Geography Writing i8o 75 75 6o So 5° 6o SO 75 5° 40 230 175 100 350 90 60 95 50 60 50 75 5° 40 230 17s 100 350 100 90 60 95 so 60 50 50 40 230 100 130 300 150 90 60 90 S° 60 50 50 40 250 100 190 190 200 75 80 80 5° 60 75 50 5° 200 160 75 240 no 160 60 80 80 SO 60 75 50 50 200 160 75 240 no 160 60 80 80 SO 60 75 50 50 175 160 7S 240 120 135 60 80 80 50 60 75 5° 90 169s 480 850 131S 1980 90s 590 560 680 400 480 500 ISO 400 400 Drawing Poetry and Science Calisthenics Music Opening Exercises Recess Dismissal Manual Training. . Totals 1320 1425 1450 145° 1450 1450 1450 1450 II.44S Unaccounted for, 15 minutes in the first year and 50 minutes in the fourth. Table N Per Cent, of the Total Instruction Time Given to Each Subject in Rochester, Indianapolis and Kansas City 1907-8, Cleveland 1 908-9, and East Orange Subject City Rochester Indianap- olis Kansas City Cleveland East Grange Reading Spelling Grammar Language, Composition and Supplementary Reading . Writing Arithmetic Geography — History Music Drawing Manual Training Physical Traimng — Physi- ology and Hygiene Elementary School Science. 17.77 S.28 2-39 7.98 S.08 18.60 16.9s 4-79 4.78 7 83 6-57 1.99 17.80 S-33 2 .16 18.03 7.86 11.97 9.66 6.85 9-45 2 .16 8.6s 99 92 14.50 10 .70 1 .00 II .20 9.66 15.10 14 .10 6.60 II .50 3 .00 4 .00 311 104-47 26 5 3 5 16 9 S 4 4 5-31 o .00 99 96 19 8 S 16 13 4 s 3 16 23 72 70 40 40 6S 4' 87 3 87 6.58 99-99 43 An inspection of the table shows that the subjects of instruc- tion in East Orange are much the same and receive much the same attention as in the other cities whose courses are given. This is the conventional American school course. Progressive cities are break- ing away from it. They are beginning to give less time to reading and arithmetic, more to history, geography, and manual training and industrial work. History Going back to the school time table, we note that history is begun in the 6th grade. It should be begun much earlier. Much of the story telling of the second and third grades should be about the begirmings of our country. The children should get their first accounts of the nation's great men and their great deeds from the lips of their teachers ; afterward they may read these stories ; but it is in the nature of things that at first they should hear them. In the people's schools of Germany the instruction in the history of the Fatherland throughout all grades is oral. The course of study should give a suggested list of such stories, some of which may be read as well as told by the teachers. In the fourth year this work should get more attention. Such books as McMurry's American Pioneer History Stories may be put in the hands of pupils to be read in school. Such subjects as "Henry Hudson and what he did," "The Early Dutch Settlers," "Champlain and His Explorations," "The Five Nations," "La Salle and His Hardships" may be looked up and reported by the class. In the fifth grade a well selected introduc- tory history may be used. It should be a story-telling account of men and deeds. I have found it highly profitable to put, a simple course in general history into the sixth grade. Such a book as Niver's "Great Names and Nations" may be read and talked about. So many children leave school at the end of the elementary course, that it seems desirable to make them more acquainted than we now do with the greatest names and events of the world's history. Much reading can be done in connection with this course and it will he found to be useful in many ways. It is to be hoped that the elementary course of study prescribed by state authorities will be liberal enough to permit it to be given. United States History can be studied intensively in the 7th and 8th grades. It should treat large formative movements, social institutions, and national and municipal activities and lead to an elementary understanding of the civic and social life of our country. Arithmetic An intensive study of arithmetic is prescribed for each of the eighth grades. It is generally conceded that the essential part of arithmetic can be taught in three years, though it is contended that it cannot be retained if taught only for a short time as if studied for a longer period (D. E. Smith, The Teaching of Arithmetic, p. •jj?) From the tests made by Dr. Rice, of 6,000 children in the 44 schools of seven cities, he concluded that "there is no direct 1/ relation between time and result" as factors of successful work in arithmetic. Mr. Stone in his Arithmetical Abilities," summarizes his conclusion upon this point in these words : "Insofar as these twenty-six systems are a representative measure, there is very little relation between arithmetical abilities and time expenditure in pres- ent practice. Many systems are wasting time on arithmetic. They not only do not aiford a rich life to the child, but they do not afiford him abilities in arithmetic." The question is still an unsettled one but it would seem that arithmetic is not a necessary study in the first grade and perhaps not even the second. At any rate, some school systems are getting excellent results from five years of the study of arithmetic, and some even from four. The total time given to this subject at East Orange is not excessive as compared with some other schools and excellent results are attained, but the ques- tion remains, is it necessary for the pupil to make such a large out- lay of time upon this subject to obtain a thoroughly satisfactory knowledge of fundamental processes and useful knowledge? It used to be thought that teaching arithmetic made the mind stronger to grapple with any subject. Now it is known that teaching arith- metic teaches arithmetic and little else. Then, too, there is grave danger of making children mentally stale by keeping them repeating a subject after its parts are familiar to them. Would it not be better in place of stretching arithmetic over eight years to compress it into five or at the most six? We recommend that it be begun not earlier thati the middle of the sec- ond year, and that the arithmetic of that year be largely a work of counting and measuring objects, writing figures and making combinations of numbers up to six. Addition, subtraction, multipli- cation and division constitute the fundamental processes of arith- metic. There should be a daily drill upon them in every classroom from the third to the eighth grade. The combinations should be learned and repeated in rapid oral drills such as I have seen given al- most perfectly in one of the schools, until every pupil has attained both speed and something approximating complete accuracy in hand- ling them. The speed and vivacity with which this work is done has much to do with the pupils' mastery of the subject. Beyond skill in fractions, both common and decimal, a good knowledge of percen- tage, familiarity with the tables which are most commonly used, and a practical acquaintance with mensuration, there is but little of first rate importance in arithmetic unless commercial practice is taught. The course of study should furnish a judicious selection of subject matter in this study. There is perhaps no other one with the exception of grammar where selection is so necessary. To test the relative accuracy pupils of in the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades in performing the fundamental operations the Superinten- dent at my request asked that an arithmetic test be given in all the schools. The problems sent out were those given some years ago by the Educational Commission of Cleveland, Ohio. They are as follows : I. Add 45 1.234-567 8,910 23,456 789,101 234 56,789 210,978 3,456 78,123 432,987 65,432 2. Subtract Multiply 4. Divide 9,832,184,567 3,219,383,574 38,798,640,209 76,039 26,544,332 by 394 The children were required to prove their answers before handing their work in. The results of this test are shown for the whole city in the ac- companying tabulation. There is a decided uniformity in percen- tage averages for the different schools, indicating that the children the city over, attain substantially the same standard of accuracy. An analysis of the results by grades proves that there is very Httle in- crease in accuracy in addition and subtraction from the fifth grade up. Improvement is more marked in multiplication and division. The subtraction example (^19383574) ^^Y be considered the fairest test of accuracy. A compilation of the results in one school building (The Franklin) showed that of 218 pupils, there were only 10 pupils who made a mistake in the reckoning. The averages for the whole city in this test were 96%, 97%, 98%, and 99% for the successive grades V, VI, VII, and VIII. This is a creditable rec- ord. The results as marked by the teachers on the basis of column not absolute accuracy are as follows : Results of Arithmetic Test. Averages for All Schools School Grade VIII. Grade VII. Grade VI. Grade V. I 2 3 4 I 2 3 4 I 2 3 4 I 2 3 4 Eastern q6 100 95 97 q8 100 96 lob 97 99 93 qi 88 qq 82 80 Elmwood. . . qs 97 «9 88 94 99 go 93 77 97 77 75 Franklin. . . . 07 100 95 96 q4 99 91 93 90 99 91 8g qi qq 84 84 Columbian... q6 100 97 99 q5 100 96 97 go 97 92 qi 89 g8 7« 87 Nassau 8q qq 91 + 91 Q2 99 88 88 95 99 «7 qi q4 98 81 78 Ashland. . . . q2 qq 92 go q7 99 91 92 76 96 «3 80 80 q7 79 80 Lincoln 91 99 93 96 97 93 88 95 89 94 82 «7 7« «7 67 75 Average. . 92 99 95 98 90 92 8s 96 Stool{ta-ri u IffS mi ?f n fl ^^ -7-r\ i fL-C^ I "Vl pw fc)// rK I v^