education as a profession; but I will only add in passing that the efficient principal or superintendent of schools no more follows routine than does the leader in any other profession. Man is likely to repeat his models, whatever they happen to be; if they happen to have been good, he will go on well enough for a time, until he has beaten out a fairly successful routine; thereafter, he is likely to harden; he makes no more progress unless he is one of those rare persons who is born to his profession. But it is safe to say that principals and superintendents do not evolve by chance any more than classroom teachers, unless we believe in the absurd proposition that we must be satisfied with a very large number of professionally helpless, timid, and subservient principals and superintendents; unless we believe that good principals and superintendents are evolved only by chance, by a process of natural selection,-the fit alone being chosen from among the teachers by the invariably wise and disinterested appointing power; and that experienced teachers who aspire to leadership in their profession can not develop conscious professional resources by prolonged and systematic study, i. e., by acquiring the habit, under guidance, while still fairly young, of thoughtful reflection on the educational and administrative problems they will be called upon to solve.

The duty of the College and the University in the matter of technical training for the hundreds of teachers they send forth every year is plain. Let us hope that they may be more conscious of that duty in the future than many of them have been in the past, and that they may govern themselves accordingly.

What the Schools Need.

BY SUPERINTENDENT RANDALL J. CONDON, PROVIDENCE, R. I.

♣ HERE are many needs of the schools upon which we can all agree. I suppose we should be

T in substantial agreement that the schools need

better buildings,-better seating, light and ventilation; that they need closer medical inspection,— much more attention in general and in particular to the physical welfare of the children; that they need more unity and at the same time more diversity in their courses of study; less formalism, less routine, more reality in all their work; that there is need of more motive in the teaching and in the learning; that there is need of more attention being given to the moral side of a child's education, need of more soul culture; and in many other particulars, I think we could agree as to the needs.

But large as is the list of needs upon which we can agree, there is an even larger one in reference to which we should find in a gathering of this kind, disagreement.

Some of you feel that there is great need of more and better manual training; and in that group we should find disagreement as to the kind and place of this teaching. Some of you would emphasize vocational education, but you would disagree as to how this was to be secured. Some want the shop conditions brought into the school; some, the school taken into the shop; while some of us believe with all our hearts that the school and the shop must both be utilized if the education is to be made most profitable. Some believe that a special type of school must be evolved, distinct from the general scheme of administration; and some believe that the greatest need is to prevent that division.

Some believe that we have more need of the kindergarten spirit and methods through all the grades; others, that we need to get rid of what we already have. Some, that we have need of more play; others, more need of work.

Some feel that in the cause of education there is need of more music and art; others, of more history and science; some, that

more attention should be given to modern languages; others, that the great need is a revival in the study and appreciation of the ancient classics.

One group believes that the colleges should fix the standard for admission; another, the preparatory schools. Some believe that the great need is to have the college recognize all serious study in whatever, direction as a preparation for advance work; others, that we need to hold very closely to the time honored and well established lines of study as the only preparation which the college can utilize or for which it can give credit.

I might continue the enumeration till our disagreements would outnumber our agreements as to "What the Schools Need"; and it would seem that substantial gain could be made only by getting together and deciding upon the great needs,-for the time being, subordinating the disagreements to the agreements.

And so for this morning let us assume that we have agreed to forget our disagreements and all together emphasize what, I think can be accepted by all as the Greatest Need of the Schools,-the one thing which will help most to solve the other needs; to bring order out of disorder; to secure unity with diversity; to make most effective the work of the schools in producing an education, broad, liberal, varied, and fundamentally sound,—an education to meet the needs of the state and the needs of all the children of the state.

And this need, is the need of better teachers and better superintendents-this, is what the schools need most of all.

The subject as originally given to me by your President was a little broader than the wording upon the printed program. It read like this: "The Preparation of Teachers and Superintendents in the Public Schools." It was upon this subject that I began my study of "What the Schools Need," and with your permission, I shall hold to that as the wording of the general topic under which I shall develop what I may have to say, considering briefly, superintendents, and then more fully, the needs in regard to high school teachers-referring only incidentally to teachers of other grades or departments.

Several years ago I made a journey of some three thousand miles largely for the purpose of visiting a town where the schools had been attracting much attention. I had spent a very profitable

morning, inspecting the various features of the work which seemed to be really significant. During the noon intermission, I had wandered about the town and later at lunch, said to the proprietor of the hotel, "What is the chief business of this town?" "Oh! going to school," he replied with a smile.

I wish to lay down as the First Great Need:—a realizing sense on the part of the people that the chief business of any town or city is education; that it is a business that pays; and that it is worth while to invest capital in that business.

The Democratic Party of Arkansas in commending the work of the newly created commission for the study of educational conditions in that state-on June 8, 1910, adopted in one of the planks of its platform this:-"Ignorance is a greater Burden to a State than Taxation."

Once this first fundamental need is realized, other needs will be met, for one of the greatest difficulties standing in the way of securing better superintendents and teachers is the small salary that tends to repel rather than attract the kind of ability which is needed in the teaching profession.

And the Second Need is like unto the first, a more general realization and recognition of the fact that teaching and superintending schools is a profession.

We have talked a good deal about this, and have made some headway; but we are still in practice far from making good our claims in this direction. In most states the fact is recognized that no one should be allowed to practice on the teeth of children unless he has first been examined, found competent and has secured a license to engage in the work. We require physicians and druggists, as well as would-be-lawyers, to appear before a competent state tribunal and show that they are prepared to undertake the work of the profession which they wish to enter. The men who run the engines and boilers in our school buildings are not allowed to begin a work which will endanger the lives and health of children without first showing to boards of examiners-in most states-that they possess the required knowledge and skill.

But in regard to teachers,—especially superintendents and high school teachers—very few states so far seem to have thought it worth while to prescribe any special qualifications, or to attempt to find out under any general state requirement whether they

possess the requisite knowledge for work which demands the highest degree of skill and the broadest culture.

I fully realize that the mere question of examinations and the granting of state certificates will not in itself create a teaching profession, but I do believe that it may be made a powerful means for bringing about that result-by helping to fix a standard, and to so regulate the matter that those who meet that standard shall come to feel themselves as belonging to a profession, and shall be so recognized by the public.

In considering this question of the preparation of superintendents and high school teachers, I wanted to view it not merely from the standpoint of Massachusetts or Rhode Island, or New England even. I wanted to see it in its relation to the entire country as it affects American education. I accordingly addressed a circular letter to the superintendents of the public schools in each of the states, asking:

"1. (a) Whether any legislation has been enacted in your state which prescribes the qualifications necessary for:(1) a city; (2) a town; (3) a county superintendent. (b) If so, what the requirements are in each case. Whether special or professional preparation on the part of the superintendent is required by either the state or the more important cities.

(c)

(d) Whether any opportunity is offered in your state for the special training of those who expect to enter upon the work of school supervision.

2. (a) Whether there has been any legislation prescribing the qualifications for a high school teacher.

(b) If so, what?

(c) What, if any opportunity, is offered for the professional or special training of high school teachers ?"

Forty-two (42) replies were received.

FIRST: IN REGARD TO SUPERINTENDENTS:

A consideration of these replies, first with reference to superintendents, showed that two-thirds of the states prescribe no qualifications whatever for superintendents. A number of the western and southern states require the county superintendent to be a holder of some form of teacher's certificate. For town and city superintendent there seems to be very little effective regulation in the matter of qualifications.