educational life of the race. He considers such subjects as A Modern School, (from which chapter he takes his title); The Academy and the Public High School; Two Contemporary Problems in Education; A Six Year High School Program: The School and the Home; Our Faith in Education; Obstacles to Educational Progress; Education as a Universal Study; and Graduate Testimony on the Elective System. These are subjects upon which all students of education will wish to know the opinions of this "Master in Israel." The volume is a most able and suggestive one. For a further discussion of a single point made in one of the chapters we refer the reader to one of the editorial paragraphs in this number of this magazine. The Macmillan Company. Present College Questions. Six papers read before the National Educational Association, at the session held in Boston, July 6 and 7, 1903, by Presidents Eliot, Harper, and Butler, of Harvard, Chicago University, and Columbia University, respectively, and Dean West of the Graduate School, Princeton University. Although dealing with college problems, these papers are full of inspiring thought, as the words of the true educator always are. President Eliot gives "A New Definition of the Cultivated Man" in the liberal terms of a broad mind. "The best fruits of real culture," he says, are an open mind, broad sympathies, and respect for all the diverse achievements of the human intellect at whatever stage of development they may actually be." Dean West sees "The Present Peril to Liberal Education" in the growing commercialism and its companion, ignorance of what the best literature offers, and in college in the confusion as to the aim to be achieved. The four papers on the length of the college course, one by each of the four speakers, are full of interest. The volume will be inspiring to every educator who reads it, from the college president to the kindergartner. Fundamentals of Child Study. By Edwin A. Kirkpatrick, B.S., M.Ph. Macmillan Company, 66 Fifth Avenue, New York. Price, $1.25. This "Discussion of instincts and other factors in Human Development" is a study of the child growth in its various phases and stages, in an exceedingly pleasant style adapted to the general reader. In its treatment of these it allows the full value of the natural instincts and shows how the child may be led to develop from them the higher ones. The chapter on Sex points out the wholesome protection which should be given to both boys and girls in this most sacred instinct, involving the careful instruction they should receive about them from the father and mother. The sections on "The Development of Individualistic Instincts," 'Heredity," "Individuality," "Abnormailties" and others, are full of wisdom stated and suggested. Any man or woman, whether father, mother, teacher, or only a member of the social body generally, who has an intelligent interest in human nature, will find here most valuable information, most valuable suggestion, and be the wiser and better individual of society for having mastered its thought. 46 Minna von Barnhelm. Edited by Charles Bundy Wilson. The introduction is a most critical study of the play and its historical background; the notes are comprehensive, and a complete vocabulary makes the study of the play a comfortable matter. A full dozen illustrations embellish the text. D. Appleton & Co. We have received the following books for review in EDUCATION: D. C. Heath & Co.: Eastward Hoe and The Alchemist. The Good Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer. The Belle Lettres Series: General Editor, George Pierce Baker, A.B.: Modern Language Series: Feuillets Jeune Edited with introduction, notes and vocabulary, by James D. Homme Pauvre. Bruner, Ph.D. A. S. Barnes & Co.: Napoleon, A Short Biography. By R. M. Johnston. The Citizen, A Study of the Individual and the Government. By Nathaniel Southgate Shaler. Running The River. By George Cary Eggleston. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.: With the Birds in Maine. By Olive Thorne Miller. Price, $1.10 net. Riverside Literature Series: No. 157, The Song of Roland. Translated into English Prose by Isabel Butler. The Book of Merlin, The Book of Sir Balin, from Malory's King Arthur, with Caxton's Preface. Edited with an Introductory Sketch and Glossary by Clarence Griffin Child. No. 158. Funk & Wagnalls Co.: Standard Reader Series: Standard Second Reader. Edited by Isaac K. Funk, LL.D., and Montrose J. Moses, B.S. Teachers' Manual for Second Reader. The Macmillan Company: The Philosophy of Education. rell Horne, Ph. D. By Herman Har T. Y. Crowell & Co.: Minute Marvels of Nature. By John J. Ward. Price, $1.60, net. Postage, 15 cents. The Morse Company: A Text-Book of American History. By William E. Chancellor. University Publishing Company: Standard Literature Series. Stories and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe. With an introduction and notes by Edward Everett Hale, Jr., Ph. D. Paul Elder & Co.: Psychological Year Book. Quotations for every day in the year. Gathered by Janet Young. Price, 50 cents, net. The John M. Rogers Press: Annual Report of the Public Schools of the City of Wilmington. Fredericks-Glunz Printing Company: Thirty-Second Annual Report of the Board of Education of the Kansas City Public Schools. Government Printing Office: Twentieth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. By J. W. Powell. Periodical Notes "Protozoa and Disease" is the title of a useful and interesting article by Cary N. Calkins, Ph.D., in the April Century. The Designer for April is brimful of seasonable stories, poems and articles of general interest.— Scribner's Magazine for April gives a very effective and artistic presentation of the beauties of the World's Fair at St. Louis in a series of drawings by Jules Guerin, four of them reproduced in colors.-In his discussion of the use of the so-called split infinitive," in Harper's Magazine for April, Professor Lounsbury brings to light the fact that the use of the preposition "to" with the infinitive is itself a corruption.-The gospel of good cheer brightens every page of The Youth's Companion. Although the paper is nearly seventy-seven years of age, it does not look back on the past as a better period than the present.-The April Delineator is an uncommonly interesting magazine, from the standpoint of both fashion and literary features. Almost as good as a trip around the world, educationally, promises to be the pictorial series Around the World in Eighty Pictures, the first installment of which appears in this number.— Talcott Williams contributes a masterly statement of the real meaning of the Russo-Japanese war to the April number of The Booklovers' Magazine. Devoted to the Science, Art, Philosophy and Literature VOL. XXIV of Education MAY, 1904 The Supervisorship W. E. CHANCELLOR, BLOOMFIELD, N. J. No. 9 UPERVISORSHIPS have been established in many comparatively small towns, and in nearly all cities, for four distinctly different reasons : I. Because supervision has been recognized as an extremely valuable help in the establishment This is a general reason. of good schools. II. Because in the cases of the installation of new subjects in the course of study, it has often been found that many old teachers were unfamiliar with them. In these cases the supervisors have been employed as specialists either to teach the children, directly, or to teach the class teachers how to teach the children. All the subjects of the so-called "new education" have been introduced only by means of experts in them: that is, artists, musicians, woodworkers, physical trainers, etc. In actual practice in all communities the supervisors or assistant supervisors teach both the children and the teachers, often at the same time, by means of illustrative lessons. Supervision involves illustration as well as criticism by blame and praise. III. Because in actual fact the superintendent is often unable to give that detailed supervision which the schools actually need. His administrative duties grow with the growth of the community; and as they grow the time available for supervision decreases. IV. Because in a large school system there can be no uniformity without comparison of schools. This can be made constantly only when the supervisory force is adequate. V. Because the average grade of work in certain lines has fallen so low as to require special attention. In consequence, various supervisorships have been added, all of them being in the nature of outgrowths of the superintendency, its branches as it were. All supervisorships represent the central office and all supervisors are the direct agents of the superintendent. The fact that many supervisors know more about their subject does not in the least affect the relationship. Reason I. has supported the creation of every kind of supervisorship. Reason II. has led to the creation of supervisorships in art, manual training, music, physical training, kindergarten, domestic science and art, nature-study, reading by phonic methods, German, French, Spanish, medical inspection of health. Reason III. has led to the creation of associate and assistant supervisorships. Reason IV. has led to the creation of grammar grade, primary grade, and kindergarten supervisorships and to various forms of inspectorship. Reason V. has led to the creation of supervisorships in any and all of the standard school studies and exercises, penmanship and reading supervisorships being very common. Many supervisorships indicate not that most of the teachers do their work poorly, but that the educational standard of the community is high, and that the course of study is broad. The superintendent who advocates supervisorships does not create the impression that he himself is inexpert and idle, but that he means to have good schools and feels competent to manage specialists. Since most boards of education contain members who are willing to magnify the importance of their office, it is seldom as difficult to secure the new supervisorships as it is to raise the salaries and the general quality of old supervisorships. The drift in American education to-day is fast becoming a current that bears many supervisorships into the school systems. For the protection of the school children, educators in office must see that adequate standards and salaries are provided and adequate qualifications are demanded to secure good supervisors. The duties of the supervisor are these, namely: (1) To represent worthily the department in which he serves, and fairly the policy of the superintendent whom he represents. For a principal to oppose the policy of the school superintendent is unfortunate for both; it is disloyalty to the best interests of the schools unless the opposition is open warfare, public and continuous, and designed to secure the removal of the superintendent. But for a supervisor to oppose the policy of the superintendent is a kind of school treason, and is essentially unforgivable. This is equally true whether the treason is secret or open, and whether the supervisor was appointed before or after the superintendent. This principle ought to be recognized by all teachers and ought to be enforced by all boards of education. (2) To hold regular meetings for the instruction of the teachers; to furnish them with outlines and programs; to counsel with them. (3) To exemplify his own art; to understand its inherent method; and to be able to correlate it with other school subjects. (4) To organize exhibits (or entertainments) by which the school children's proficiency in the supervised department may be shown to all persons interested. (5) To supervise the work of all teachers who give any instruction in his art and to report thereon to the superintendent. (6) To give in the classes lessons in the art for the instruction of the children or of the class teacher or of both. (7) To grow in knowledge and in skill; that is, in both general and technical knowledge, and in skill both as an artist and as a teacher of the art. The supervisorships are the weak spot in most small school systems, being relatively poorer in the persons occupying them than the principalships and the teacherships. The reasons are two: I. The supervisorships are a recent development. II. They are hard to fill at the salaries these new positions are considered worth by the boards of education. To illustrate a typical condition: Superintendent, $3,000; high school principal, $2,000; elementary principals, $800 to $1,200;† supervisors, $600 to $1,000; high school teachers, $600 to $1,400; elementary teachers, $450 to $675. *These are the actual figures of a certain small city in the East, 1903-4. † Paid to principal of a school of eight hundred children. Paid to general primary supervisor. |